Chapter 1
A door.
Normally something as mundane as a door wouldn't be worth noting. Not unless the said door was somehow special or unique. The door in this case was neither as it appeared to be a simple wooden door. What made it worth noting was where the door was located.
The void.
The place where souls ended up in universes without a god overseeing the afterlife. One such soul was just floating in the void, minding its own business and reliving its entire life for the nth time when the door just appeared before it. This was strange because the soul had been left in darkness since its death an unknown amount of time ago. The soul had gone insane, regained sanity, and gone insane any number of times but it had never actually hallucinated before.
Even more curious, the soul found itself moving closer to the door through no action of its own. Not that the soul believed it could actually move. Still, it approached the door and, once near enough, watched the door open and welcomed it inside.
Within the door, which had stood alone with no walls connected to it, the soul found a bar of all things. A bartender with the appearance of a handsome man in his twenties wearing a snazzy outfit complete with a vest and bow tie, stood behind the bar in front of hundreds of bottles with liquids filling them in all colors. Some colors the soul couldn't even begin to name or even comprehend properly.
"Oh? A customer! How delightful."
The bartender smiled an impossible smile that seemed to be wider than his face, yet never appeared to leave its confines. The soul looked back the way it had come, to see the door closed.
Wait.
It took a moment for the soul to realize it had some control of its movement. It had managed to look behind, and now it was looking forward once again at the bartender. It looked down and gasped, then gasped again because it made noise. The soul now had a body, his body, for the soul, was a he once upon a time. It was the exact body the soul had died in, old, fat, weak, and transparent.
Wait.
Ah! It was still just a soul then, more of a ghost now, still, it felt like an improvement! The soul smiled at the bartender, because he could, and walked, because he now had feet, to the bar where he happily took a seat on one of the stools. He could feel the stool as he settled on it and reveled in the feeling of... well feeling.
"Welcome to my bar, aptly named The Afterlife." The bartender spread his arms and gestured around to the building they occupied, "It's rather rare for a soul to find its way here, and when they do I always offer them a drink, on the house."
The soul smiled. How long had it been since it last had a nice drink? At least a decade when he'd been alive and who knows how long since he'd died, "That would be lovely, thank you."
The bartender nodded and started pulling down bottles of various colors at seemingly random, "Then, allow me to explain how it works. You choose whether you want a single, double, or triple shot. I pick the ingredients of the shot." He arranged the bottles in a row and looked at the soul with the same far-too-large smile as previously seen, "Do you know what an Essence is?"
The soul shook its head, "Can't say that I do."
The bartender looked slightly surprised, "Intriguing, almost every soul that comes here has at least some idea. Ah, it's so nice to be able to explain something new! Essence as in the essence of something, for example, the Essence of the Dragon would turn you into a dragon and give you the abilities you would expect a dragon to have. It could also be something more esoteric such as the Essence of the Dream, which would give you powers related to dreams. With me so far?"
The soul nodded, "I am. Though I have to wonder what good any essence would do me back in the void."
The bartender looked almost confused for a moment before his eyes widened, "Ah, yes, of course. Not being familiar with Essence's you are, of course, unfamiliar with what they are related to!"
"Related to?"
"Reincarnation my new friend! After I give you your drink, I will send you off to a new world to live a new life with your new abilities! It's all quite exciting."
The soul perked up a bit, "I will live again?"
"Quite right. I will reincarnate you into a world of my choosing as a strapping young lad. You can do as you wish in your new life, though I suggest you actually live the life and not waste it sitting at home doing nothing."
The soul shook its head, "I wouldn't do something like that. The last decade of my life was spent in a hospital bed, I would enjoy getting out and about once again. Out of curiosity though, why would you not suggest it?"
"Because it would bore me. If you bore me, I'll do things to make it more entertaining."
The soul nodded in comprehension, "I see, so I would be entertainment for you."
The bartender nodded, "Exactly, I take it that isn't a problem?"
"Not at all! I would much rather be your living entertainment than floating around out there," He gestures to the door, "reliving my memories for the rest of eternity."
The bartender smiled a normal smile, "Excellent. So! Here are the rules for taking a shot. You choose whether you want a single, double, or triple. Each has different rules. If you choose a single," he pushed forward a bottle filled with neon blue liquid, "I will pick just one Essence for your shot. After you drink it, I will tell you what the Essence is and you will be given all the knowledge necessary to use it to its full potential."
The bartender opens the bottle and pours a single shot of the liquid into a shot glass and sets it aside, "If you choose a double, I will pick two essences and mix them together. I will tell you the name of the combined shot but not the individual Essences that make it up. You will be given some amount of information on how they work and both will be limited to fifty percent of their regular power. There is also no guarantee that these powers will work together effectively. However, you will be able to grow their power over time as you learn to understand your power better. With me so far?"
The soul nodded, "I am. Still leaning toward the single-shot thus far."
The bartender nodded in understanding while selecting a bottle filled with a liquid that was blood red with specs of black moving around inside of it. He poured some into a second shot glass and set it next to the first neon blue shot, "As for the triple shot," He picked up a bottle with a liquid that looked like pure molten gold and poured it into a shot glass, "Much like a double, I will pick three Essence's to combine into a single theme, which I will tell you the name of. You will gain minimal information on each individual Essence. As for how powerful they are, it will be up to me to decide the percentage of power each one gets. I could choose for one power to be at fifty percent while the other two are at twenty-five percent each. Basically, no matter which shot you choose, you will only have as much power as a single Essence would give, split however I choose. Though, once again, you can work on your understanding of the powers to increase their potency."
The soul contemplated that for a bit, "So basically, easy, medium, and hard mode, eh?" He crossed his arms over his chest, and wasn't that a wonderful thing he could now do? Leaning back he thought over his choices. The single shot was instant maximum power. Tempting, but no real room for growth it seemed. If he was willing to take the double, he might as well take the triple for a higher maximum limit to his growth.
"What the hell, you only live once!"
"..."
"Uh, I mean, you only get one chance at this?" The soul deflated a bit but still smiled, "Triple shot."
The bartender nodded and pulled out a fourth, larger, glass and poured the previous three shots he'd selected. The three colors swirled together, never mixing, in a dizzying display, "I present to you... The Game Master!"
The soul picked up the glass and downed the drink in one go. He shuddered at the taste of fire, blood, and metal coated his ghostly tongue. How did he know what fire tasted like anyway!? As the drink passed his throat, he felt as if his whole being was on fire. While he curled up in agony, the bartender spoke, "You really are a strange one. You barely have a reference for most of the places I like to send people. Well, at least you know a little about the new world you're going to. I wouldn't want you to be completely blind."
The floor beneath the soul suddenly opened up into a gaping void causing the soul to fall into it. The last thing the soul heard was the bartender's cheerful call of, "Have fun!"
A groan of annoyance comes from beneath the covers of a bed as a loud alarm clock incessantly beeps and refuses to stop until someone stops it. A tanned hand comes flying out from under the covers and hammers the top of the clock radio to silence the alarm. The young man the hand is attached to throws off his blanket and sits up while yawning, showing canine teeth ever so slightly longer than normal, and stretching. He runs a hand through blood-red hair and blinks open bright blue eyes.
He looks around with a small frown before huffing, "So, this is my new life eh?"
It wasn't much. He was currently living on his own in a small apartment that just barely had everything he needed to live a normal if slightly cramped, life. The memories of his life in this world were just 'there' in his head. He was now Okane Ryuji, a seventeen-year-old native of Japan whose parents died when he was young.
Apparently, he'd been quite industrious as a student and attracted the attention of someone who decided to give him a scholarship to a top-tier high school. One that, before last year, had been an all-girls school. The ratio of boys to girls was still heavily skewed in favor of the fairer sex so students like him were scouted and invited over. Everything had been included, help moving, living arrangements, transport, and even a bit of supplemental income to cover groceries and a little bit more that he could splurge if he wanted. All normal utilities, plus the internet, were included for free.
All in all, he thought it was a rather nice deal. But! There's more! Aside from memories of his new life up to the point he was at now, he also had a small amount of information related to his new abilities as the Game Master. The supposed bare minimum of information on his new capabilities was still a rather large amount. He couldn't imagine how much a single full Essence would include if he had this much information.
The most information seemed dedicated to his new ability to create 'scenarios' that any gamer might call a dungeon. Though 'dungeon' was not as accurate as 'scenario'. Using mana, which he now had, he could make doorways that lead into pocket dimensions. He could design how these dimensions looked at will, though their size was currently rather limited. The pocket dimensions could be replications of a typical dreary game dungeon, outdoor landscapes, or even completely alien landscapes. His imagination was literally the limit there.
After that, he could populate his scenarios with many kinds of mundane animals as well as a limited selection of various weak monsters. Mostly monsters any geek would expect in a low-level campaign of D&D like skeletons, goblins, and kobolds. There were other monsters, but nothing so strong that someone competent couldn't kill them with a bit of effort. The only way the monsters would win against a competent opponent would be by ganging up on them.
On top of all of that, he could actually 'program' scenarios the 'heroes' would be following. He could make them save the princess, or clear out the goblin nest and save the captured girls. Maybe have them fight in a monster pit to earn points to escape. Or a tournament against NPC's. Because, yes, he could make humans within his scenario. Though they were just regular average humans at the moment. Not even athletes, so likely to lose to anyone with any training whatsoever. The point was, that he could craft the world and the story that people would have to play through.
Now, if people were going to fulfill his scenarios, they needed rewards. Beating his monsters would grant the person who killed it a small boost to their strength. The more evenly matched the person is to the monster, the more substantial the boost. Though, substantial is a misleading word. The weak monsters he had access to currently would give only the tiniest sliver of power to the one that slayed them.
There were other rewards though! Using his mana he could create a limited number of magical items! From what he could tell, the amount of mana an item took to make varied but was never small. He could also only create items with minimal power. Things like weak healing, stamina, and magic potions were available to him. He could also make things called Mana Stones, basically just solidified magical power. He wasn't sure what good they were, but they had to have some value to be listed as a possible reward. There was just one catch, he couldn't use anything he made this way himself. It meant he couldn't make a large number of potions to keep in his inventory and use at will, sadly.
Speaking of rewards, he could now see the value of just about anything and buy it if he desired. This included really random things. For example, he could see the price it would cost to buy the color white out of the paint on his apartment walls. He also knew a lot about contracts and contract law. He could now write magically binding contracts that would let him do just about anything as long as it was willingly signed by both parties. He could see a lot of potential abuse from that ability.
Next, he had the ability to learn to cast spells! Which was awesome! Who didn't want to learn real magic? The problem was, he could learn it, he just didn't know where to get actual books on casting spells so he was kind of stuck at zero with that particular skill. Still, he had magical power and it was supposed to refill pretty fast so when he did get some books, he could learn pretty quick!
Which tied in nicely to his scenario-making ability. Whenever people were inside one of them, their emotions, magical attacks, and all kinds of little bits of energy were collected and funneled into a separate space he could access. Using the gathered energy allowed him to do all kinds of things, like make his Essence's stronger or gain items he couldn't just summon for his scenarios, things like spell books! He would have to use the energy he gathered wisely to make sure he had a good amount of growth where he needed it.
The last bit of his new power was kind of grim. Anyone who died within his scenarios became his property, body and soul. Anyone who died would have their corpse and soul appear inside of his inventory, the place where he could store all of his items and treasures. From there he could break it up however he wanted and even use them as rewards. Very morbid.
He could see what the bartender had meant by all his abilities coming together to form a theme. They all worked together to become something better but were also now reliant on each other. It would probably take a lot of time and effort for him to get stronger. It would be a whole lot easier if he could just run his scenarios himself and get power that way! Sadly, such an obvious exploit wasn't possible. He knew the general rules of his scenarios and he couldn't gain anything by running them himself, not even the items!
Which was a bit silly since it was his magic that made them!
He didn't dwell on that for very long. Instead, he focused on today being his first day of school, the start of a new year, and his last year of high school. It was uncommon for new students to transfer to a new school so late in their careers, but it wasn't unheard of.
He took a quick shower in his tiny bathroom, lacking even a proper bath, which his new Japanese memories deemed to be a terrible thing. Living in an orphanage might have sucked, but at least they had a proper bath! Though the old American in him didn't mind just the shower at all. It was a bit weird honestly.
Once clean he dressed in his new school uniform, something else his American sensibilities found rather weird. Though not unwelcome. The school uniform was kind of fancy consisting of a black blazer with white accents over a white, long-sleeved dress shirt with a black ribbon on the collar, matching black pants, and brown dress shoes. It sort of reminded him of a professional outfit he might've worn to work, though the ribbon was an odd choice in his opinion. He would have much preferred a simple tie.
Part of him really, really, wanted to blow off his first day of school. He'd already graduated from college once, before colleges around America went to hell, so high school held nothing new for him. Also, MAGIC. He now had the ability to make whole dimensions and he wanted to PLAY. Unfortunately, the adult inside of him won over the child and forced him to go to school. He did make excuses though, like if he didn't show the police might be called or something.
After collecting his school bag he retrieved a map that had been prepared for him. It showed the route he would need to take to get from his apartment building to the main gates of Kuoh Academy. He chalked any familiarity with the oddly familiar name up to his new memories.
"Okane Ryuji-san?"
Hearing his name called from his left as he entered the main gate for Kuoh Academy, Ryuji turned toward the voice and smiled, "Shitori Souna-san?"
Why did that name seem kind of familiar and why did she look familiar? Souna was a bespectacled young woman with a slim figure, black hair styled in a short bob cut, and violet eyes behind oval-shaped glasses. She wore the Kuoh Academy girls' uniform which consisted of a white long-sleeved, button-down shirt with vertical linings, a black ribbon on the collar, a black shoulder cape and matching button-down corset, and a magenta skirt with a white underskirt beneath it.
Also, how come the boys didn't get a cool cape?! That was just plain unfair.
Souna gave Ryuji a polite professional-looking smile that didn't reach her eyes. She seemed a bit young to have such a professional-looking smile. She also spoke in a rather formal tone, "Correct. Welcome to Kuoh Academy." She lifted her hand to gesture to the girl with snow-white hair standing beside her, "This is Hanakai Momo-san, she will give you a quick tour and lead you to your classroom. If you have any questions, please direct them to her. Have a nice day."
With her part said, Souna turned away from Ryuji and paid more attention to students entering the campus. She scanned the students like a raptor would scan for prey from the skies. Ryuji didn't think anyone so young should be so serious. He quickly had his attention drawn back to Momo though as the girl stepped forward and gave a polite bow, which he returned as she spoke, "It's a pleasure to meet you Okane-san. As Shitori-san said, I am Hanakai Momo."
Momo was a young, beautiful girl with white hair and blue-green eyes wearing the same uniform as Souna, the Kuoh girls' uniform. Though there were some very obvious differences in their feminine features. In short, Momo was stacked while Souna was rather flat. It was a noticeable difference but not one that Ryuji focused on. Thankfully, his new body was on the far side of the worst things that puberty hormones would do to his body and mind. That's not to say he was completely in the clear, he was still a teenage male after all, but it was good enough that his more mature mind could handle it.
The tour was short and sweet, Momo showing him the main areas he needed to know such as his classroom's location, the student council offices, the cafeteria, eating areas, and so on. The last place they visited was the place they needed to be, the very large gym which was being used as an auditorium for the school opening ceremony that day.
Momo gave him another polite bow, "If you have any questions or difficulties, please don't hesitate to seek out the student council, Okane-san."
Ryuji returned the polite bow, it was a weird thing to him but something he knew was as polite in Japan as a good firm handshake was in America, "Thank you for the tour, Hanakai-san. I look forward to attending such a prestigious academy."
With that out of the way, she gave him a nice smile and left to join the other members of the student council for the opening ceremony while he entered the gym and found his assigned seat. He had memories of attending similar ceremonies and while the novelty of it entertained him, his memories painted a picture of a very stiff and boring affair.
His memories hadn't been wrong. The opening ceremony had been a very boring and dry affair. On the bright side, with the ceremony over so was the school day. The first day of full classes would actually begin tomorrow. That meant he had the rest of the day to play with his new abilities! So exciting! With a bright smile on his face and a spring in his step, Ryuji left the Kuoh campus and made his way home.
Not too far away from the gate, Ryuji is leaving through, a beautiful young woman with a voluptuous body, white skin, blue eyes, and a buxom figure whose most distinctive feature was her long, beautiful crimson hair that reached down to her thighs with a single hair strand sticking out from the top watched. She stood in an old school building on the second floor watching him from the window.
After he left her sight, she turned to face the other people in the room, though her gaze fell on Souna, better known to the red-headed young woman as Sitri Sona, "So, that's the boy my brother created a brand new scholarship program for. What do you think, Sona?"
Sona pushed the bridge of her glasses up causing them to flash with light. A trick she would never admit to spending hundreds of hours mastering, "Despite the fact that he could be mistaken for your tanned twin brother, he is pure human as far as I can tell. He does have a decent amount of magic, but I don't believe he is aware of it. I also don't believe he is aware of the supernatural, or at the very least he can't sense it. I barely hid my nature from him and there was zero recognition or wariness. Momo reported that he behaved as any new student in an unfamiliar area would. Though she did note that he only ever looked her over once. She never caught him staring at her breasts, unlike some males in this school."
Rias wasn't sure that the last bit was necessary, but she noted it anyway since it indicated a good level of maturity. She thought in silence for a moment before she spoke, "So, as far as you can tell, he's just a boy who happens to look like a Gremory and has a good talent for magic? My brother must have sent him here for a reason." She sighed, "Which is probably for me to recruit him into my peerage."
Sona gave a rather unladylike snort, "He does love to spoil you and is about as happy about your marriage to Riser Phenex as you are."
Rias sighed and looked out the window once again, her gaze drawn to where Ryuji had left, "As nice as that is, it's not very helpful. He might have some natural talent for magic, but I need something much more... significant if I am to gain my freedom. Still, we should keep an eye on him and see if he's worthwhile."
Sona nodded in understanding, "If you decide you don't want him, let me know. I've been thinking I should have at least one male member within my peerage and the pickings are rather slim."
By slim, she meant there was only one known male who might be worth recruiting at the moment, Saji Genshirou. Though nowhere near as blatant as the Perverted Trio, he was still a pervert. While the perversion didn't bother her, that only applied when he was not a member of her peerage. Having to train the perversion out of him would be a task she wasn't looking forward to. If she could have a seemingly less perverted male with a talent for magic, she'd take it over a perverted male that may have a Sacred Gear. Something which they were still uncertain of.
Rias smiled as she toyed with a strand of her hair, "Well if nothing else, this should prove to be an interesting school year."
She had no idea how prophetic those words would be.
Ryuji, back home, contemplated his next course of action. At the moment he could only have a single scenario active as well as a Home Base. The Home Base was a personal dimension from which he could observe and control all of his scenario dimensions. The Home Base already existed and he could enter it from anywhere at any time. It had a basic setup at the moment, but he could change it over time as he got stronger.
His first step, he opened the doorway to his Home Base. It took more willpower than he would ever admit to not squeal with joy as a clearly magical portal opened up in the shape of a doorway right in front of him. He wasted no time stepping through the portal and arriving in his new base.
It really wasn't much to look at, for now. It was a decent-sized room, at least ten feet in every dimension, with soft carpeting on the floor and a desk sitting in the center with a comfortable-looking chair behind it. That was it and, according to the information he had, all he would need. When making scenarios he would have holographic screens to interact with so no computer was necessary at the desk. It was mostly there for familiarity and comfort. But, as his power grew, he could unlock other rooms and features, like alchemy labs, ritual rooms, enchanting tables, and so on.
Unlocking the mentioned rooms would unlock the option to have more kinds of loot within his scenarios. He had access to the most basic potions, but for anything better, the Alchemy Room was a requirement. If he wanted people to be able to earn legendary dragon-slaying blades of epicness, he would need all kinds of facilities to allow for its production.
As much as he would love to skip to the end and have huge sprawling scenarios with epic stories to them, he couldn't deny that the basic beginnings of any adventure also had their own appeal. After all, what good was a world-saving hero if they didn't start with a cliché classic? Giant Rats!
It didn't take him long at all to design a simple small scenario. It wasn't very imaginative, but it was a classic basement infested with large rats that needed to be killed. Within the basement there was a single small chest that would contain one of the three potions he could make, randomly picked. It wasn't much at all and was almost at the limit of what he could do with his current abilities. He would probably focus on increasing his capacity first. Bigger scenarios would mean bigger gains for himself.
Now, the next bit was a bit of a problem. He still hadn't figured out what world he was in, it might not be one he was very familiar with, which would be a problem. Another problem was that his memories of this world didn't indicate any knowledge of supernatural things being real. For all he could tell, he was the only living thing on Earth with access to real magic.
Oh sure, it had all the supernatural lore that his last life had, which was comforting, but there were no signs of it being real. This was a problem because he had no idea how people would react or what would happen if he were to open the portal to his scenario somewhere public, like a local mall. It could cause a mass panic and he didn't want to be responsible for something like that.
He needed to put his scenarios out there if he wanted to get stronger but maybe some more research into his new world should come first. There was still a chance he would recognize it if he saw something to trigger the right memories. He could wait a few days to learn more about his new life, it's not like he was in any huge rush to get super strong or anything.
He stepped out of his base and back into his apartment. That was the only negative to his base, he always exited it at the same point he entered. No knockoff teleportation skill for him.
Ryuji stood outside of his new classroom waiting for the homeroom teacher to let him in. He might not have been transferring into the school in the middle of the year, but he was still a new transfer. Most, if not all, of the students in his new class had been together for at least the last two years. Some might have been together all their scholastic lives. So, he was a new stranger and needed to be properly introduced.
When the door to the classroom slid open, he stepped inside and stood in front of the chalkboard at the head of the class. He swept his gaze over the suddenly very quiet class as they stared at him. It didn't take him long to figure out why. Sitting within the students was a young woman who could have been his sister. They both had crimson red hair and blue eyes giving them a very strong family resemblance. The thing was, Ryuji knew who his parents were, he'd gotten his hair from his mother and his eyes from his father. He'd known them for a few years before they had died.
He had no recollection of having a sister at all.
It got worse though. As he looked at her, he remembered. It was something he'd only watched once, only the first season, and only because he'd been dating a weeb at the time and she insisted he watch the stuff she liked before she'd be down for happy naked times. He'd been... in his twenties? Maybe. Either way, he did remember the show, mostly because he liked the lore from the world-building and it had a ton of breasts in it. However, he'd absolutely loathed the main character and fervently wished he would die. He had heard rumors that the guy did die at one point but got better through cheap dues-ex stuff.
The point was that he knew the red-headed girl because she was the female lead, the main crush, and the one most often seen topless in the show. Rias Gremory, a literal devil from the literal underworld. He was stuck in a world just one step above hentai.
Well, at least he now knew the supernatural existed.
The sound of a throat clearing broke him out of his reverie. He glanced at the homeroom teacher who was giving him a look that clearly said, 'Well, get on with it'. He gave a rueful chuckle and bowed politely to the class, "Good morning, my name is Okane Ryuji, please take care of me."
The teacher nodded and looked at the class, "Okane-san is joining us thanks to a scholarship he received. Does anyone have any questions for him?"
Immediately the majority of students had a hand in the air. Looking around he realized he was the only male in the entire room. As the teacher picked one of the students, she asked, "Are you related to Gremory-san? Her long lost brother or something?"
Ryuji smiled and shook his head, "If you'd asked me that a few minutes ago I wouldn't have even known who Gremory-san was. Technically we still haven't been properly introduced but I can deduce who you mean simply by looking. While I cannot be one hundred percent certain, I can say with confidence that if we are related, we are not closely related. Though the similarities are rather striking."
That got the class chatting in excitement at the mystery of it all. Ryuji was pretty certain he had zero relation to Rias though. In fact, he was pretty certain he could hear a particular bartender's laughter echoing in his head. It was obviously not a simple coincidence that he looked like he could be Rias's brother but he highly doubted he was some sort of human descendant of the Gremory clan.
What followed were a couple of more mundane questions, such as if he was dating. Obviously, he was not. After his introduction classes went on as normal. Mostly it was a review of what was covered last year and handing out a syllabus for the coming year. There were some differences between his new education and his previous education, like the teachers coming to the classroom instead of him moving from room to room. Of course, there were the obvious differences in curriculum, like having Japanese history instead of American history.
All in all, nothing really strange or too difficult to parse.
The next big difference was at lunch. He hadn't packed anything, being given a stipend for cafeteria food, so he selected one of the available bentos. The difference in food quality between what he had now and what he remembered was significant. However! Pizza Friday would always be superior!
He got some attention while eating, but no one approached to join him as he ate in silence. However, he did spot a trio that he instantly loathed. Well, maybe that was a bit strong, though hearing the protagonist of the show calling him a handsome bastard trying to hog all the oppai in the school was annoying. Especially when being backed up by the two perverts with him.
The second half of the day was much like the first. When it ended he did get a nice surprise though. After packing his bag he was greeted by Momo, the girl who showed him around the campus, "Good afternoon Okane-san. I was wondering if you would be interested in walking around the campus and seeing a few of the clubs we offer. While you aren't required to join one, we do heavily encourage it."
Ryuji smiled politely. Now that he knew what world he was in, he remembered that all members of the student council were devils. Though he found he didn't have anything in particular against them. As long as they left him alone, he would leave them alone. After a small tilt of his head, he replied, "I would enjoy that Hanakai-san, and please, feel free to call me Ryuji."
She gave a small smile in return and accepted, "As you wish Ryuji-san."
They walked together with her showing off the various clubs, all of which were pretty standard and nothing he hadn't seen before. Ryuji didn't intend to join any of them, he'd never done so before and had no reason to do so now.
As they approached a building partially separated from the rest, Momo gestured to it, "And this is our kendo club. They made it to nationals last year, though they've remained purely female so far."
As they got closer, his ears picked up a sound that he could only describe as perverse male giggling. It was so gross. He picked up the speed of his steps until he reached the door to the club, where he knocked. He could hear female voices on the other side of the door. It quickly opened just a crack so he could see a woman's face and her pink hair. She eyed him suspiciously as she asked, "Can I help you?"
Ryuji maintained a serious look as he replied, "I heard some male voices giggling," he pointed toward the back of the building, "over there. I thought it best to inform you right away."
The cautious look on the woman's face quickly transitioned into righteous fury. She slammed the door shut and quickly began shouting to rally the other women to her righteous cause, the beating of perverts. Not being suicidal, Ryuji quickly moved away from the door and back toward Momo who had been watching him curiously the entire time.
Moments later a veritable stampede of young women charged out of the kendo dojo and around to the back of the building. Moments later the sound of wood hitting flesh and squeals of pain rang out. Justice was being served in the oldest fashion known to man, bodily. The beating went on for a few minutes and when it was over the women returned looking slightly sweaty and disheveled, yet satisfied.
The one with pink hair walked up to him and gave him a smile, "Thank you for the warning... um..."
Ryuji gave a small bow, "Okane Ryuji, at your service."
"Okane-san. I'm Katase, president of the Kendo Club. Thank you, again, for letting us know about those perverts."
He gave another small bow, "My pleasure. I'll be sure to inform you if I ever notice them again. However, I have to admit that I am surprised new students would so quickly risk their scholastic career to dare try and peek on the first day of classes. Especially at a school as prestigious as Kuoh Academy. Would you like me to accompany you to the student council so we can report the incident and the perpetrators?"
Katase grimaced but shook her head, "That won't be necessary." She continued with a mumbled, "Not that it would do any good anyway." She raised her voice back up, "Thank you, again. It was nice to meet you."
She flashed him one more smile and made her way back to the dojo. Ryuji resumed walking with Momo, admitting that acting clueless was a bit of fun. It only made sense for him to believe the Perverted Trio were new students. If Kuoh followed Japanese law at all concerning perverts, then the trio should have been expelled in short order last year. Obviously, Sona didn't give a damn about human law.
The tour of the clubs ended with Momo gesturing to the old school building, "Lastly, this is where the Occult Research Club meets. Do you, perhaps, believe in the occult Ryuji-san?"
Of course he did, now, but instead, he said, "Nah, it's all a bunch of cheap tricks to part people from their hard-earned money. All psychics are just good at skills like cold reading to get a rise out of people."
Momo didn't reply to that as she led him to the gate, "Have a good evening Ryuji-san, and please think about if you would like to join any of the school clubs."
After watching Ryuji leave the campus, Momo turned on her heels and made her way directly to the student council room. Upon entering her King looked up from a pile of paperwork, "Welcome back Momo, how did it go?"
Momo related everything that happened during their walk including the incident at the kendo club and his apparent disbelief in the supernatural. Sona straightened up in her chair as she pondered the new information that had been gathered. She hadn't learned much that was new, though she idly asked, "I wonder why he thought the pervert trio were new students."
None of her peerage answered because it had become very obvious to them that Sona, their King, clearly didn't care about their behavior, and bringing it up was pointless. They'd been so downtrodden by Sona's obliviousness that they couldn't even bring themselves to complain when they learned she planned to invite the closet pervert Saji into the student council, better known as Sona's peerage.
Ryuji smiled to himself as he stepped into his home. He now had a plan. He might dislike Issei the boob dragon, but the loser was the protagonist. Since his scenarios could make people stronger, why not start with the guy who had plot armor? If he remembered right, the guy had one seriously powerful gizmo that made him stronger, yet still got his shit kicked in because he was weak as hell.
What was it called again? His memory of it was vague but something about a red dragon and... Boost? Right! Boost! It let Issei double his power every time it was used. That was a seriously powerful tool to have but was wasted since the guy was so pathetically weak. Well, he didn't have to stay weak! Ryuji could use his scenarios to help the guy buff up while reaping some rewards for himself.
Not only that, but Issei was supposed to join with the devils right? Well, once he did, he could tell the devils about the scenarios and he could sneakily introduce them to his scenarios and get even more 'customers' to run them. It was perfect!
Now, he just needed to find out where Issei lived, which shouldn't be too hard. The monsters he made for his scenarios could be made outside of them, though he had a limit on how many, and were completely loyal to him. More importantly for his plan, he could sense where they were. Oh yes, this was going to be awesome!
He was wrong! So wrong! This was not awesome! Not awesome at all!
His plan had been perfect. He'd made a 'flea monster' and had it hitch a ride on Issei to follow the boy home. Once he knew where Issei's home was he'd gotten to work. He'd fleshed out his scenario some more to tailor it to Issei's known tastes a bit to help entice the idiot into doing what Ryuji wanted him to do.
Once everything was set, he'd waited until the weekend and started the operation. Part of his power allowed him to lure specific individuals toward his scenario entrances. It didn't force them and they could ignore it if they wanted. Of course, stronger people would recognize it for what it was and could make a choice based on that. For his plan, he'd set the lure to Issei and made the entrance to the scenario in the guy's small backyard.
It went great and Issei stepped into the scenario. Shortly after that was when things... didn't go quite to plan.
Issei sighed loudly as he stepped onto his street. The school year had looked to be off to a great start! Motohama had 'found' a hole in the wall for the kendo club's showers. Just as the girls had started to come into the room, the new guy had ruined everything by ratting them out! The handsome bastard! Not only was that bastard unfairly handsome, but he also looked like the male counterpart to Kuoh's greatest lady, Gremory Rias!
How dare he look like a male Rias!
He and his friends had tried to spread negative rumors about the guy, naturally. The problem was they were the source of the rumors and their reputations were trash. On top of which the guy had been nothing but gentlemanly to the girls. Even worse, the Kendo Club stood up for him and countered any rumors they did manage to make stick!
The bastard!
Their hole to paradise was gone and it would be a while before they would successfully 'find' another one. It was all that ikkimen bastard's fault!
As he came to his house, he heard something he couldn't identify coming from his backyard. It was such a soft sound he wasn't honestly sure if he had heard anything at all. Still, he decided to check. He was shocked by what he found waiting for him. Standing there in the middle of his small backyard was a... He didn't know what it was. It looked like a doorway made of blue swirling light.
Staring into the light, he felt it calling to him. It seemed to promise good things and there was only one thing Issei considered good. He stood still in indecision as he debated stepping into the clearly not normal door. Shortly he decided that yes, yes he would go into the weird light door because he could swear it was offering him his greatest desire...
OPPAI!
He could feel it in his gut, in his very bones, if he walked into that light he would be greeted by glorious oppai! That meant there was no reason to wait, no need to hesitate, forward march! He walked across his yard and right into the light without hesitation. It was bright for but a moment and when the light faded he found himself somewhere new.
The place looked old, like those buildings used in the medieval period pornos he's watched. A tavern of some sort, obviously. And where there's a tavern there's... WENCHES! Standing behind the rough wood counter was a beautiful woman wearing a low-cut dress that showed off more than half of her gloriously large oppai!
His eyes locked on target, he didn't notice the other aspects of the rather well-appointed, if rustic, interior of the building. He moved toward the counter catching the attention of the barmaid. She giggled, doing wonderful things to her chest, and addressed him, "My eyes are up here m'lord."
Ohhhh he liked the sound of that! M'lord! He didn't care where he was or what was happening anymore. Still, he managed to drag his eyes away from the glorious pale expanse of breast meat and level his eyes with her own. She was a beauty, though clearly European. Despite that, she spoke Japanese flawlessly when she talked. Blond hair, blue eyes, a beauty mark next to her luscious lips, and a playful curve to her smile as she eyed him up and down as blatantly as he'd done to her.
"My but you are a cutie aren't you?"
Issei swallowed heavily and tried his best to put on a 'suave' smile to impress the well-endowed wench, "Y-you're not too bad yourself."
Damn his voice for cracking! Still, she giggled so that's a good thing right? Could this be?! Was this his chance to touch such glorious oppai?! He must not ruin this opportunity!
The barmaid leaned forward, showing off even more of her deep cleavage, "I believe you've come just in time, m'lord. You see, I have a small rodent problem in my cellar. If you'd be so kind as to deal with them... Well, I'm certain I can come up with a suitable... reward."
The last word was said in such a sensual tone that it sent a shiver of pleasure down Issei's spine. He had no control over himself as he proudly said, "Bfarsdferd"
He blushed deeply and cleared his throat to try again, "Um, just some rodents?"
The barmaid nodded and crossed her arms under her breasts pushing them together and making her dress fight for its very life to keep them contained, "I promise the reward will be well worth it."
Issei, so focused on wishing for the very strained top button of the dress to catastrophically fail, managed to barely mumble an agreement to deal with the pest problem. The barmaid leaned back, her breasts once more shifting and shaking keeping Issei transfixed. His gaze laser-focused as she clapped her hands together and bounced in place, "Wonderful!" she reached under the bar, pulled out a simple iron sword, and held it out to the boy, "Here, take this and deal with the pests for me."
After he mindlessly accepted the sword, she easily guided the near comatose boy to the door leading down to the cellar, "Hurry up and deal with the rats so I can show my... appreciation."
Issei gripped the sword tightly as his own sword rose at the mere thought of what her appreciation might entail. Determined like never before in his life, not even the time he worked himself to the bone to get into Kuoh Academy, he stepped down into the cellar.
Unlike he expected, the cellar wasn't pitch black, it wasn't bright as day either. However, it was well lit with plenty of torches in sconces putting off enough light for him to clearly see his surroundings. At the bottom of the steps, he entered a hallway lined on either side with barrels marked with alcohol labels such as Ale and Mead. He could see to the end of the passage where it turned a corner.
Between him and said corner was the biggest goddamn rat he'd ever seen in his life. It wasn't monstrously big, but it was the size of a small dog making it rat-zilla as far as he was concerned. No wonder the wonderful oppai gave him a sword!
The rat wasn't paying any attention to him as it gnawed on a section of the rack holding the barrels. Issei decided to try and sneak up on the rat so he could get it in one shot. He'd never killed anything bigger than a cockroach before, but he would do anything for glorious oppai! The rat seemed oblivious to his approach until he got within a few feet of it. With a squeak, the rat spun around to face him and hissed.
That... that didn't seem right to Issei.
He didn't have any time to think about it before the rat lunged at him with its mouth open and its wickedly sharp teeth in plain view. He would deny the yelp he let out to his dying day! Un-manly sounds aside, he managed to bring the sword in his hand around and flail it at the rat to effectively ward it off from biting him. He did not want to be bitten! Who knows what kind of diseases a rat like that could have!
The rat wasn't idle, with another squeak it charged Issei once again. Feeling slightly more comfortable with the weight of the sword in his hands, Issei swung at the charging rat once again. The rat moved to dodge but let out a loud screech as the blade bit into its shoulder and cut it deeply. Issei capitalized on the injury when the rat stumbled by swinging the sword down as hard as he could at the rat. The sword cut through the rat, giving Issei his first victory, and then slammed hard into the solid stone floor of the cellar.
Issei shouted in pain and dropped the sword as the shock of hitting the stone flooring traveled through the sword and into his hands. He jumped up and down and shook his hands vigorously to try and get the pain to go away. As he tried to recover from the pain, he looked at the sword and winced. It was now stained with the blood of the rat and the tip had been damaged from hitting the floor so hard. He worried that damaging the sword would lower his promised reward!
With his hands somewhat recovered, he moved to retrieve the sword hearing a, somehow, deeper squeak just as his fingers curled around the handle. Looking up while bent over, he came face to snout with a significantly larger rat. The one he'd slain was the size of a small dog, this one was at least twice as big, about the size of a medium dog.
And. It. Looked. PISSED.
It charged Issei with a long drawn-out squeak that sounded like a roar to him. He barely managed to get the sword up and pointed in the general direction of the rat and then it was upon him. He watched, in horror, as the enraged rat impaled itself on the sword in its enraged charge. He stared, dumbly, as the now dead rat's weight pulled the blade toward the ground.
"What the hell kind of rats are these?! I was expecting Mickey Mouse here!"
SQUEAK!
Another rat, the same size as the second one and looking equally pissed off, let out a bellowing squeak and charged at Issei. Panicking, the boob-obsessed boy tugged at the sword still buried in the corpse of the second rat. His jerking tugs became more desperate as the rat grew closer. His eyes widened in shock as the rat leaped clear over its dead friend and slammed into him. Issei fell back, the sword coming out of the dead rat with a sickening shlorp and then flying out of his hand to skid across the floor and out of sight.
Issei screamed in fear and pain as he scrambled to get away from his attacker. The rat, unwilling to let its fresh meat go, began biting and clawing at its prey. Issei's screams of agony soon transitioned into gurgling attempts at begging for help as the rat finally managed to rip his throat out. The rat let out a screeching victorious cry as Issei's struggles stopped.
Now it was time to feast!
"No, seriously. What the fuck are you doing Issei?! They were goddamn rats! Someone with minimal training could kill them bare-handed! I know you don't have training, that's why I gave you a fucking sword! There were only five rats, FIVE! I know I liked ragging on you, but Jesus Christ dude, way to prove me right!"
Ryuji so wished he had something he could throw at the wall as he watched the remaining three rats from his first scenario feasting on Issei's body. Well, not really. Issei's real body was now inside of his inventory because it now belonged to him. What the rats were eating was just reshaped meat, a trick of the scenario that let him get a corpse as intact as possible while still rewarding the minions that liked eating flesh. The real body had some minor damage from the claws and missing throat, but not much else.
Ryuji covered his face with his hands as he groaned in despair, "How? How did the protagonist himself die to a medium rat? Not even a magical one! Just a normal fucking rat, sized up a bit! You shouldn't have died you sonuvabitch! The quest reward was seeing breasts! I couldn't have made it any more obvious! That should have been all the motivation you needed! You fought Riser nearly to death in the rating game over goddamn boobs! THE FUCK?!"
Yet, no matter how much he ranted, Issei's corpse was still sitting in his inventory, taunting him. But no, this wasn't HIS failure. It was Issei's fault for being completely fucking useless. Yes, that was it. Definitely not his fault for sending a boy, with no training in anything, into a potentially dangerous situation, with just a sword. Definitely Issei's fault, not his own.
Right. Well. Time to check the spoils perhaps? He could feel that some energy had been gathered from Issei attempting the scenario, not much but it was a start. Then there was Issei's corpse... Wait, wasn't his broken-ass Sacred Gear part of his soul? That seemed worth investigating.
With a flick of his hand, an image of his inventory came up. Focusing on Issei, he knew all the different things he could do. He quickly found the option he wanted and separated Issei's body and soul. A new slot in his inventory was instantly filled with a glowing ball of white light that had streaks of red and gold tangled and moving within it. With another thought, the soul split in two. One slot held the bright white ball that was Issei's soul, the other the red and gold of his Sacred Gear.
The red and gold soul quickly condensed down into a red and gold gauntlet sitting pretty in its slot. Ryuji leaned back in his seat and studied the gauntlet of near-unlimited power. He was tempted to take it for himself, though there was a problem with that. He had no idea how to bind it to his own soul so he could use it. There was nothing in his head that indicated the ability to do so anytime soon. He could, in the future, use some scenario options to do so, but soul stuff was super high tier and he was a newbie.
He could also use it as a treasure available in a scenario, again not for a long time. No way was he giving away something that he could remember was capable of killing god without making people work for it. If it was to be a reward, it needed to be for something that earned him a startling amount of energy.
Well, he couldn't do shit with it for now so it was staying inside of his inventory, along with all other proof of his... Was it a crime? Yeah, it was probably a crime. Whatever, he just wanted to go to sleep and pretend this day had never happened.
All that excitement about helping out was ruined because Issei was a chump.
AN
Okay, that's 9.8k words on a new work that wouldn't leave me the hell alone. I hope you guys liked it and yes, I had fun killing Issei with giant rats. If you didn't laugh, I pity you. (Not really, to each their own.) Though I hope this next bit isn't necessary, I would like to point out that early DxD Issei wasn't athletic in the least. To land a single blow on Raynare he Boosted 3-4 times and then used Explosion. He didn't gain any strength for a while, relying almost exclusively on a large number of boosts to even be relevant to a fight. I don't think it was until his training with Tannin that he gained some personal strength. Don't quote me on that, I could be misremembering.
For those curious, Ryuji will NOT be joining any particular faction, including Devils. He is also NOT a human supremacist. He'll mess with the Hero faction as much as he'll mess with the Grigori and Devils. No one is safe! Although, they're more likely to come to him, or at least hunt down his scenario entrances.
Ryuji will be powerful, but it's less about him being able to punch people, and more about him getting them to run his scenarios. He's the DM, they're the players. He wants them to play as much as possible. The more they play, the better it is for him. Which, I think, is a pretty unique way for him to interact with the world. Plus, the more they play, the more powerful they get as well so it's a win-win for everyone.
I originally thought that I probably wouldn't write for this story too often, but I seriously underestimated how much it just flowed. Currently, it's up to Chapter 6 on pat-reon slash thomasdarkrose with each chapter being roughly 10k words.
Let me know what you all think of this premise!