Chapter 15: Lucky You, Eye of the Tiger
"Maaaan," he commented, standing in front of the house-turned-mansion. "I never knew the stranger was loaded."
"Yeah, this really is surprising," his scarred partner said, looking at the house as well. "So, are you sure you want to do it like this?"
"Mhm."
"You could kill him, you know?"
"Maybe. He'd understand how dangerous this world he's entering is this way."
"… Very well. He'd be better off if he leaves, after all."
With a grin, a dark green aura emerged from the boy and gave birth to a being that moved into the house, seeking its target.
Issei reached to slam his alarm clock shut but frowned upon feeling soft fabrics under his palm instead of the typical plastic of his alarm clock. Opening his eyes and looking up at the unfamiliar ceiling, he groaned upon remembering the renovation of his house and his sudden migration to a king-sized bed. Feeling annoyed by the constant blaring of his alarm clock, he made to move his body in the direction of the clock when –
"Mm…"
Issei finally felt the resistance reaching across his torso. 'Rias?' he wondered to himself. Looking to the side, he was surprised to see that instead of Rias' signature crimson locks, what was present was sunlight-blonde hair. The form hugging his body was not Rias', but it was Asia's instead.
Issei blinked in shock at the sight of the girl lying on hold of him, not even noticing how Asia's green orbs fluttered open. In mere moments, the two were looking at each other, both not understanding what had led them into the same bed.
"… Issei?" Asia voiced out, her cheeks turning red as she looked up at him.
"Asia… what are you doing here?" With how she adjusted herself, he could look down and confirm that both of them were wearing pyjamas. Nothing extreme had happened the night before, thankfully.
"I…" Asia lightly clenched Issei's shirt. "I wanted to sleep with someone else…"
Issei didn't understand why she had such a desire, but he chalked it up to something about her past. Smiling, he patted her head, making her look up at him. "Don't worry, Asia. You can sleep with me whenever you want."
"… Oh…"
"W-W-Wait, that's not what I meant!" Issei yelped, unconsciously jerking himself away from her. He winced as his palm hit something hard on the way back, but was then grateful to stop hearing the ring of the alarm clock. Looking back, he confirmed that on his way back, he'd shut off the alarm.
"I-It's okay, Issei," she smiled at him, sitting up on the bed. "I'll keep sleeping with you if you're okay with it?"
Issei felt his heart leap into his throat and his cheeks set on fire at how Asia put that statement. Choking his nervousness down, he spoke. "F-Fine. You can… you know."
Mutely nodding, she let out a yawn and stretched her arms out, pulling the thin fabrics of her nightwear past their decent limits. Issei could help but let his eyes drift down as the strings across her shoulders dropped down and cuddled the crook of her elbows, unknowingly lowering the fabric in front of her modest breasts. Issei gulped as the more perverted aspect of his mind worshipped the sight before him.
"I'll be heading down, Issei!" she announced as she finished, resetting the loose strand of her nightwear across her shoulder once again without further thought. Issei caught her eyes once more, seeing her smile at him and hupping out of the large bed they were on. Once standing, Issei watched her stretch her arms up high, lifting up the rim of her nightwear well past the horizon of his bed and showing him a sliver of her smooth thighs. Suddenly, the curvature of her butt became glaringly obvious to the boy.
Asia, on the other hand, had absolutely no idea what she was doing to the boy behind her. With a smile, she skipped out of the room, unknowingly letting her still modest proportions shake about and shake Issei's own self-control.
Once the door closed, Issei hissed out, both scolding himself for looking at Asia in such a way and missing the sight of her and her body. Slapping his cheeks in hopes to reduce the redness upon them, Issei shook himself out of his stupor and the bed by hoisting himself off to a stand. Rubbing his head, he looked back at his bed to dress it up. To his delight, the base of the bed had not been disturbed by their movements and only the top needed making.
'Still… it'll be difficult to make a bed as big as this.'
Sighing at the work he was giving himself, he grabbed the flap of the blanket in front of him and whipped it to the other end, folding his blanket over itself. To his delight, the other end of the blanket followed suit, landing parallel to the base of the bed.
"Nice!" he remarked, surprised that he was able to do it in one swift motion instead of having to move to the other side. With a smile on his face, he went about his day.
He first left his room and started to look around for the bathroom. Checking the opposite door, he was glad to find an empty one right there. Entering it, he picked up his toothbrush and smeared some toothpaste atop it. Hardly paying attention to the artful presentation of the toothpaste on the brush, he carried on with his morning routine.
Leaving the house for his morning run, he was glad to find that he didn't feel as winded as he thought he'd be after his short break. In fact, he found he had time to do a few more ground workouts than he'd normally do.
When he finished showering in that obnoxiously large shower room and used the self-heating toilet, he finally went to get ready for the day. He wore his uniform and inspected himself in the mirror. He was glad to see that his pillow was kind to him that day; his hair wasn't bent in any odd ways. Dressing himself up and tying his hair behind him into his signature ponytail pair, he finally left the room.
Upon descending, he found Raynare already scrambling a plate of eggs that morning, still wearing that damned maid outfit. With the morning he had, it was having a much stronger reaction on him, forcing him to keep his eyes away.
"Issei! Good morning!" she called out, tossing up the eggs with the ease of an expert.
"Morning," he greeted her in return, moving past the glass doors of his new vamped-up kitchen and reaching to the fridge to bring out a glass of milk. Sniffing it, he was glad that it still smelt fine despite being past the date. Satisfied, he made it to the glass rack, poured himself a glass and headed to the table.
"Alright, eggs are done!" Raynare cheered out, abruptly turning back and making for the table as well, not noticing that Issei was standing right behind her.
Issei noticed how Raynare turned back to face him and vigorously took a step to the side to avoid her. Unknown to him, Raynare took a step to that very side as well. Yet unknown to both of them, the air conditioning had left a spot of dew on the tiles where they'd stepped.
The sudden step from each of them caused them to stumble ahead, Raynare going back while Issei went ahead. Raynare grunted as she thudded against the ground and then Issei dove into her body, forcing the breath out of her body.
The two of them didn't see it, but the pan of eggs had flipped in midair with Raynare's slip and rested on the table without a single portion lost, while Issei's glass of milk had spilt on the floor before the door. Even then, half of the glass remained and rested atop the table right next to the pan without a crack to be seen.
Issei groaned, slightly grateful for the softness of Raynare's body under him protecting him from the ground, especially the softness right around his head. Looking up, he noticed Raynare's chin and wincing lips right in front of him. Moreover, something was covering his peripherals. Something unusually soft.
"Issei?! Raynare?! Are you alright?!" Asia stormed down the stairs and hastily opened the door. Running up to them, she had not noticed the small pool of milk on the ground and suddenly found herself in the air, moving to the still lying down Issei and Raynare.
"OOF!" Issei groaned out, immediately feeling the weight of Asia's back ramming against his head. Gasping for air, Issei grabbed the things on either side of his head, hoping to push himself out of that trap he caught himself in.
"Ahn! Gentle!" Raynare's voice suddenly called out, making Issei shiver at how sexual her voice sounded.
"Issei, please! Not there!" Asia's voice called out as well. "It tickles!"
Still forcing himself off by moving his hands to the floor on the sides, he finally raised his head to find out exactly what was going on.
The blood rushing through his head made him feel faint almost immediately. He discovered that he was trapped between Raynare's boobs and Asia's ass.
'What… what is this heaven?!' he wondered, unknowingly plopping himself back against Raynare's breasts. 'Is this my lucky day or something?'
"Get that damn grin off your face!"
The comfort of soft boobs and asses was immediately replaced by something rigid striking his forehead, pushing his body to the side and tossing Asia away from him in the process. Issei immediately felt his ears ring and his jaw slacken from the pain as the force carried him through the short corridor, making him collide with the shelf. Unfortunately, the shelf he hit was right below the glass rack and the force was enough to tip over the entire rack.
Issei yelled in agony as shards of glass penetrated his skin and shattered all around him. A little too late, he called out Beetles to offer him some form of resistance.
"A-Ah…" Issei winced, feeling his body grow warmer from the blood escaping through his numerous wounds. Thankfully, nothing was serious.
"Issei!" he heard Asia's panicked cry while seeing Raynare's horrified gaze as his vision left him.
Unseen by any of them, a small dark green wyvern circled Issei's body as he lay asleep.
"It's okay, Raynare! He's waking up already, see?"
Issei blinked the haziness out of his eyes, suddenly feeling a lot better than he'd thought. It didn't take him too long to recall the pain he'd just felt.
"Asia…?" Issei groaned out, rubbing his eyes from the headache he was building up as he turned his head.
"Issei! Please take it slow," Asia knelt down beside him, placing a palm on his shoulder, the shine of Twilight Healing on her fingers. "Let me help you up."
Issei tried to move up by himself but paused upon feeling a spike in his headache. Asia quickly stopped him and gave him a moment to get used to it. With his nod, Asia slowly lifted his body up, while Issei ensured that he didn't move on outside of her pace. With her support, Issei soon found himself returning to a stand.
"Are you feeling better now?" Asia asked, still propping him up.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," he revealed. "What happened?"
"*ahem*"
Looking around, he found that it was Raynare that'd cleared her throat. She was looking away; she wasn't meeting his eyes as she spoke.
"I'm really sorry," she said. "I hadn't meant to hurt you like that. It's just…"
"It's okay, Raynare," Issei said, waving her off. "I'm better now, so it's fine."
"… you really have no right to be this forgiving." Despite her words, Raynare smiled and finally looked back at Issei. "Thank you."
Issei chose not to pry any further than that for fear that she had negative experiences with perverts in her old workplace. He wouldn't blame them, being a pervert himself; he'd absolutely see why someone would sexually harass someone like Raynare in a maid dress. That didn't mean he'd support them for it, though, nor would he dare to do so himself.
'Still, I don't think I'll ever forget that feeling… oh, how soft it was…' Issei let out another grin upon remembering the situation that got him into that place at first.
"Issei. Stop. Please."
"Right! Yes, Ma'am!"
Raynare sighed in exasperation, while Issei shook himself out of his stupor. Regardless of whatever happened, one thing was clear. 'Today probably isn't my lucky day, then.'
"Now, you need to change your clothes quickly," Raynare said. "I'm sorry to say that we only have enough time to eat protein bars for today. I need to get ready as well."
"Huh?" Issei wondered. "What are you getting ready for?"
"My meeting with Rias Gremory, remember?"
Issei blinked as he recalled how Asia mentioned that Rias was expecting her the previous day. He promptly nodded. "Yep. Now, I should get changed before people think I came out of a bloodbath."
Surprisingly, Raynare had worn a black suit with a white undershirt and her hair tied up into a high ponytail before they left. Upon noticing Issei's confused look, Raynare scowled. "I'm not going to wear my maid uniform for a diplomatic meeting. That would just not be proper etiquette."
"Yeah, but… you look a lot better than I thought in a suit."
Raynare chuckled, looking away in amusement. "And you tell me that I should switch out of my maid uniform?"
"I say that because I don't want to be distracted by you every day I'm in my house!"
"Oh? Isn't your porn collection large enough to serve as this distraction instead?"
"Issei… Raynare…" Asia whispered loud enough for both of them and gently held the sleeve of Issei's blazer, making him turn to look at her. "Please don't fight?"
Looking back at Raynare, who'd also looked back at him, they both nodded at each other, both accepting to save their argument for later.
The journey to the school was dotted with little bits of Asia wondering what certain things were and with Issei explaining them. Fortunately for them, they'd found that a grocery store nearby had been setting out bento boxes for the day as they passed by it. With a quick transaction, they were the owners of three freshly made bento boxes and a side of taiyaki on the house, from which they ate the taiyaki on the road. Asia was a bit confused by the red bean filling as she'd never had such a thing before, but she slowly began to enjoy it. Issei swore to himself to make more sweets for her to try later, not noticing Raynare doing the same thing as well.
"Well, I'm headed to this club of yours," Raynare said once they reached Kuoh Academy's grounds. "Want to show me the way?"
Asia eagerly nodded. "Sure! Issei, do you want to come along?"
"Well, we've made good time, so I don't mind," Issei said, smiling at the two of them. As the two of them moved ahead to the Old School Building, Issei noticed some form of movement from the corner of his eye. They were early enough to not expect much company that morning. Thinking that it was another student who'd arrived early, probably a student council member, Issei turned to check who it was unconsciously.
Surprisingly, the black messy hair and dark eyes belonging to Sakuna Hirose beckoned to him. He gently exposed his index finger and pressed it against his lips, shushing him. He nudged his head and turned past a corner of the main school building.
"Hey, um," Issei called out to the two with him. "You guys go ahead. I'll catch up."
"Why?" Raynare asked. "Do you need to do something?"
"W-Well, yeah. I forgot an assignment from a previous day, so I'll just head to my class right now and finish it."
Raynare nodded. "Assignments are important. Go ahead. We'll update you on the situation later."
Nodding, Issei raced away from them and moved into the school entrance. However, he fired out a Beetle from his eye and had it keep an eye on the two. Once the two moved far enough into the grounds to not notice him, Issei stepped out of the entrance.
He then redirected the Beetle back to him and made it go the other way, tracing back to Sakuna's path. He noticed Sakuna waiting past the wall by leaning against it, tapping his foot impatiently.
"I'm a Stand User, Issei Hyoudou," he called out no louder than he normally spoke. "I can see that insect of yours in the air."
Biting his lip, Issei stepped past the wall to face him. He brought the Beetle back, making it enter his eye the way it left.
"Freaky," Sakuna commented, unnerved by the way the insect entered his body.
"What do you want, Hirose-san?" Issei said. He remembered what MC had said the day prior, after all.
"Did you forget what MC said, already?" Sakuna reminded him while unfolding his arms and straightening to face him, not that Issei needed the reminder.
Balling his fists, Issei kept his Beetles at the ready. "Are we going to be fighting, then?"
Sakuna shook his head. "You seem to be misinterpreting something," he said. "After all, you're already subjected to my ability."
Issei slanted his brows at the admission, confused by it. What had happened to him to be affected by a Stand?
"Lucky You, that is my Stand's name," Sakuna said. "It's an ability that revolves around luck, as the name suggests."
"Luck?" Issei recalled that morning and finally noticed the various instances where he'd turned out unexpectedly lucky. "Wait, why are you telling me about this?"
"You'll see. Anyway, Lucky You picks a target of my choosing and clings to them, influencing the luck around them. They automatically grant them infinitely good luck when they are attached."
"How is that a bad thing?"
"However, there is a condition to it," Sakuna rose a finger to the air and leaned ahead, donning a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "The luck racks up. There is a cost.
"When the target discovers that they are lucky, when they start expecting luck to be in their favour, that is when the ability flips. That is when Lucky You counts the cost of the luck given and returns a catastrophe to match it."
Issei winced at it, finally recognising Raynare's punch that morning to be an act of his Stand. "Wait, why are you telling me this?"
Sakuna flashed his teeth with his grin and shook his head, spreading his arms out. "Don't you get it, Hyoudou-san?" he said, his voice turning up its volume. "You are lucky now, as long as my Stand is attached to you."
With those words, Issei noticed it; the green dragon flying around his body. It looked like a miniature version of the dragon from the Dragonball series. A dark-green wyvern with short stubby arms, covered in a coat of green scales and a pale yellow underbelly. Its face was elongated into a snout, with a pair of strands coming out from above its nose like a moustache and a pair of glowing red eyes.
"By Lucky You's condition, now that you know that you are lucky with my Stand, you have invited the catastrophe."
Issei was so focused on the appearance of the dragon that he didn't notice the yellow, furry fist clocking in from beside him. Issei felt the full force of the sucker punch on his shoulder and was sent colliding into the wall, slightly denting it as well.
"GAH!" Issei yelled out, feeling the rough concrete of the wall brushing up and pricking his skin atop the agony of the collision. His hands were hanging limply on his sides from the sudden impact, rendering them numb from pain.
"You should use your Stand more often, you fool," a second person said, cracking his knuckles. Barely managing to turn his head, he noticed Fumihiro Sasaki's scarred face and blonde hair angrily scowling at him. Moreover, standing beside him was a large yellow tiger, large enough to reach Sasaki's full height. The tiger was growling at him as well.
"…" Issei made to speak but found no sound coming out.
"What was that, you fool?" Sasaki called out, his tiger grunting beside him.
"… Beetles… Come Together!"
Sasaki grinned upon seeing the swarm of Beetles emerging from Issei's body. "Eye of the Tiger!" he called out, making the tiger by his side jump into his body and merge with him. A second pair of arms emerged from his shoulders, clearly belonging to the tiger-form Stand. With a charge, Sasaki jumped at Issei by doubling his legs with his Stand's and aiming to punch him once again. He was shocked to find the Beetles stacking up before him and forming a solid wall, blocking Sasaki's punch.
"Damn, what the hell?!" Sasaki yelled, shaking his hand. "Daichi said your Stand was fragile!"
"Yeah, it was," Issei groaned out, finally gaining enough time to recollect himself after that surprise punch. "You… never told me your Stand ability."
"What's there to say, it's a tiger," he said. "For now, you need to go down."
Issei stood firm behind his shield of Beetles, trusting in its strength. After seeing Sasaki use his tiger arm to punch it once again, he grinned. 'I've got this in the bag!'
With a roar from Lucky You hovering over him, Sasaki's next punch resulted in a crack in the barrier. Issei felt pangs of pain from the bruised Beetles in the shield, not having expected his barrier to crack. He'd held back a falling building with it, how could a Stand's punch threaten it?
That was when he remembered the three rules of Stands. Specifically, the rule stating that Stands are the only things capable of hurting other Stands.
Seeing his opportunity, Sasaki immediately fired off a quick flurry of punches against the crack in the wall, breaking it even further. Issei gasped at the pangs of pain from the hits. While they were not as painful as his collision against the wall, he was concerned that Sasaki would break his barrier very soon.
And so, with the next punch, Issei jumped to the side and dispersed the wall before he could hit it, making Sasaki carry through his attack to the wall of the school instead. Issei kept on jumping back, half-expecting Sasaki to shrug it off immediately. Thankfully, that was what happened, resulting in Sasaki immediately turning to him and leaping at him with his tiger-enhanced legs.
Issei leapt up and called out plates of Beetles on his legs to support him midair as he'd done before with Asia. Sasaki kept up his charge and slashed at his flying form. Issei yelped when the claws of the tiger shattered the plates on his feet and nearly made him stumble if it weren't for the second plate he quickly formed on his back to carry him away faster than his feet would.
"You can see it, can't you?" Sakuna said from behind their brawl. "Everything you do that can be seen as lucky is immediately paired with something unlucky. That is the power of my Stand."
The moment Issei sat up from his bed of Beetles, he was terrified to see a snarling Fumihiro Sasaki right in front of him, standing atop the plate he was resting on. Sasaki slashed; Issei dodged to the left. Sasaki shifted his tiger arm low and planted a punch on his gut below his line of vision, making him wheeze out and knocking him off the plate he made for himself. The plate crumbled while Sasaki easily landed on the ground.
'This is no good!' Issei called out in his mind. 'All I'm doing right now is defending! I need to fight back somehow! Wait, the Boosted Gear!'
Issei looked back up at Sasaki, who was standing in his place and frowning down at him. "What are you waiting for? Aren't you gonna fight back?"
Issei bit his lip as he noticed the yellow aura around Sasaki and the dark green aura around Hirose. '… I can't,' he realised. 'I can't use the Boosted Gear here. I can't keep relying on it. I know that Beetles is a strong Stand, I just need to believe in its power! I can't let myself be overshadowed by the dragon in my arm! Besides… neither of these two have Sacred Gears to fall back on. I'm the only one with a Gear among us. To respect how well they're defeating me despite that… I can't cheat my way through this!'
Issei stood back up and wiped his moistening lip with the back of his hand. He looked down: blood stained his hand. Spitting out the metallic taste, he summoned Beetles a second time.
"Are you going to make more shields? Is that all you can do?" Sasaki chided him. "In that case, you're not worth being in our class! I can't even believe that you defeated Daichi with that pathetic ability!"
Issei thought back to his training regimen, rather specifically, his tennis ball training. He remembered how he'd try and dodge every single one of those fastballs, and groan in pain every time he was hit. That pain… that was what he was targeting.
He called a small swarm of Beetles onto his palm and compressed them into a ball with Come Together. Giving a mental command, he adjusted it as how he'd seen fit.
"A ball? What are you – "
Issei stepped out and launched the ball from his hand, aiming right at Sasaki's torso. Confident in his skills, Sasaki crossed his arms and covered them with his Stand, but he hadn't expected the acceleration of the ball.
The ball rocketed at him at speeds that no human could achieve with a simple throw. The moment it made contact with his arms, the ball shattered into pieces alongside the Stand covering Sasaki's arms.
Sasaki yelled as his body was tossed away from the site of impact, making him stumble and roll on the ground. His arms were extremely sore from that single hit. He made to get up, only to find that his arms were not letting him. With a grunt, he used Eye of the Tiger to push him onto his feet, using its tail to balance him while standing.
"That… was a good one," he grinned. "You won't catch me off guard like that again."
With a yell, Sasaki leapt ahead and resumed his charge. Issei stepped back and willed his Stand to form into balls over him and move into his form altogether. Sasaki, keeping a close eye on the balls, had flipped and somersaulted through the balls along their path and continued on his charge, luckily not being hurt by any of them. Issei immediately put up a shield before him, trying to block his charge. However, Sasaki switched paths by leaping high enough to scale over the entire wall he built and landing atop him.
Wincing, Issei summoned another plate of Beetles on his feet and skidded away from him, hoping that he'd fall flat. Unfortunately, Sasaki landed cleanly due to his tail balancing him and easily carried on the charge.
'Shit, I can't keep doing this!' Issei realised. 'No, it's not Sasaki I need to be worried about, it's Hirose! I've not been able to keep up, but most of this fight was dominated by Lucky You! I need to put a stop to that ability somehow…"
Unluckily, Issei's foot snagged against a stray twig sticking up from the ground, making him stumble to the ground before he could catch himself. Sasaki jumped to cover his body, only to find a shield stopping him just as he dropped. Concentrating, Issei willed one of his ball-shaped Beetles to strike him through the shield, opening a hole within at the last moment.
Sasaki couldn't block that attack and was forced away from him again. Issei kept up the charge, unleashing another volley of balls against him. However, Sasaki was able to use his tail to manoeuvre about mid-air and slapped and kicked the balls away with his Stand. The balls still burst upon contact, resulting in Sasaki's bleeding palms and feet.
"You're not the important one here!" Issei yelled out, immediately restoring the plate beneath his feet and summoning a pair under his hands to balance his upper body as well. With the glide of his Stand, he zipped over to the supposedly spectating member, Sakuna Hirose, and compacted one of the plates in his hand into a ball.
Sakuna smirked upon seeing Issei charge him. "It's good that you found the true victor of this fight. Lucky You."
With a simple step back, Sakuna was able to dodge Issei's attack. Fuelled by his luck, Issei lost control of his glide at the very last moment and unknowingly skid straight into the wall of the school.
"You're not being very lucky today, aren't you – "
Sakuna's words were interrupted by a sudden collision on his back accompanied by the sound of an explosion. One of Issei's balls had followed behind him, striking against Sakuna's back.
Sakuna yelled in agony as the force of the ball sent him off to the side. Issei, as he moved away from the wall, was glad to see the green dragon spinning around him fading away, its aura drifting back into Sakuna.
"No more shifts of luck, then," Issei noted, turning back to Sasaki who was frowning at him. "It's just us now, Sasaki."
The boy grinned, spreading out the nasty scar running through his face. "You did good there, but don't think you've won just yet. As long as I can see those attacks of yours, I can attack you back!"
'I know. That's why I've come up with this.'
Just as he'd somewhat done with Daichi before, he summoned a large swarm of Beetles and had them spin around the two of them, blotting out the sky in the darkness that they enforced.
"Fighting in the dark, then?" Sasaki wondered out loud. "That's not gonna work. Eye of the Tiger!"
Sasaki stormed ahead in hopes to catch Issei before he caught on that tigers have night-vision, but Issei drifted into the inky depths of his own Beetle swarm. Sasaki was forced to stop as he found himself completely surrounded. Knowing that his Stand could still be damaged, he moved forth to chase after the Beetles instead. However, the dome moved around with him, staying just past the reach of his Stand. He no longer had Lucky You to give him a lucky edge, so he couldn't could on luck to help him out of that debacle. Moreover, the constant buzzing of the insects made it so that his enhanced hearing couldn't detect things as well unless they came close enough.
Sasaki yelped and was tossed away as he felt the blow and explosion of one of Issei's balls against him once again. After recovering from his stumble, Sasaki looked up to find another swarm of those balls enveloping the standard Beetle swarm. The next attack could come from anywhere, and he could no longer rely on luck to keep him safe.
"It seems that you haven't learned the full extent of my ability yet, Issei Hyoudou," Sasaki said, grinning despite his odds. "Eye of the Tiger's ability is one to search. Whenever I need to find something, Eye of the Tiger can help me find it. Aside from its ability to have and give me the physical traits of a tiger, it can do this as well. Despite this swarm you've put me in, Issei, I can still see you!"
Sasaki charged in one direction on all fours, using his enhanced senses to barely dodge the incoming balls. To an outsider, it would be as if he was running with no direction in mind, but that wasn't it. Issei, who was standing outside, was bewildered to find that Sasaki was homing on his location precisely. With a grunt, Issei called out a set of plates on his limbs and skidded away. Sasaki immediately turned, still keeping in line with Issei's path despite being unable to see him.
Sasaki eagerly kept on his path, using Eye of the Tiger's vision to keep Issei in sight. He leapt up when he got close enough to him and elongated his claws. He manoeuvred around the still incoming balls and finally slipped past the barrier of Beetles, relishing in Issei's look of fear. Issei immediately put up another shield, this time covering the top as well.
"I've broken that shield before! I can do it again!"
Sasaki reared straight into the shield with his full force, only to be surprised at the moment of contact. The shield easily caved in with his strike. Moreover, Sasaki noticed a second shield past him behind which Issei was bracing himself for some reason.
And then the first shield boomed out, sending Sasaki flying away once again.
Issei stood back up, releasing the shield that was actually protecting him. 'Beetles can trade its properties around, not change abilities based on shape. I was holding myself back by thinking of my combat ability in the shape of balls, but I've used that mistake to my advantage. I can make 'shields' with the same destructive power as those balls, and Sasaki fell for it!'
Sasaki groaned on the ground, unwillingly withdrawing his yellow aura back into himself. "I thought… that was a shield?"
Issei, who was breathing heavily from the fight, could only grin. "I… pulled wool over your eyes…"
Despite himself, Sasaki grinned. "Good… that's a good thing… for a Stand User."
"Loooooks like you've won, Hyoudou-san," Sakuna Hirose appeared from almost nowhere, having been forgotten by the two combatants. "Seriously, you're a lot stronger than I thought."
"Are you alright?" Issei asked, gesturing to his back. "I hope I didn't hit you too hard."
"I'm good," Sakuna waved him off, gently patting his back. "I've aaaaalways had back problems. You just released a kink in there, so I should thank you instead."
Issei sighed, still wiping blood from his lip. "… How are we supposed to attend class like this?"
Sakuna showed him his phone. "I've already called the others. One of Noboru's clones has been watching Argento-san for a bit, so we're getting her to come down here."
Issei sighed in relief, but his breath snagged upon remembering what she was doing that morning. "What did Noboru see?"
"He saw her enter the Old School Building with 'a hot chick in a suit', as he put it. He tried entering but was surprised to find no way in. So, he just waited for them to leave."
Issei sighed in relief, glad to hear that Noboru didn't encroach upon the supernatural in his stead. "Wait, why aren't you doing this with Asia?"
"We actually discussed this with the others after you left," Sakuna grimly nodded. "We're not letting Argento-san join us in this 'mission' of ours."
Issei held Sakuna's glance for a while, then nodded. "I'm glad to hear that as someone who's looking out for her, but can I know why?"
"She can't see Stands, that's why," he admitted. "She may be a good healer, but we can't put her through the same treatment as you with her inability to see the things attacking her."
Issei hung his head low, ashamed that he wasn't able to say what Asia's ability actually was.
"By the way," Sakuna continued. "Daichi said that you could escalate your power? What was all that back there?"
"…" Issei bit his lip. Having used the Boosted Gear against Daichi made it harder to hide the existence of Sacred Gears from the class. "… It's just… it's hard to explain."
"You know," Sakuna nudged at the still-sleeping form of Fumihiro Sasaki. "He'd be pissed if you were hiding your abilities. What is your ability, in the first place?"
"… Recombination," he admitted, still unsure if he should do so due to the upcoming battles. "I can fuse my Beetles together however I like, and I can freely trade its own capabilities with each other. For example, I can make my Stand stronger in exchange for a reduction in its speed, or any other such thing."
"… So that power escalation of yours was one of these trades?"
Issei resisted the urge to slap himself for missing such a simple explanation. "Y-Yeah. I enhanced my Stand's strength when I fought Bushida-san. I traded the distance at which my Stand can move away from me in exchange." 'Actually, that's not a bad idea, maybe I should try something like that next time?'
"Yeah, that makes sense," Sakuna wondered out loud. "Anyway, Argento-san will be here soon. Feel free to rest for a bit before that. Fumi-kun will be laying here the whole time anyway."
Nodding, Issei walked up to the wall and collapsed against it, feeling the exhaustion from the fight finally catching up to him. With a heavy sigh, he closed his eyes, mentally congratulating himself for the fight well won.
"Oh, and Issei?" Sakuna called out to him again.
"Yeah?"
"Don't think you'd actually get me with that cheap hit if we were fighting for real." Sakuna grinned at him. "I saw that coming a mile away, you know?"
Stand User: Sakuna Hirose
Stand Name: Lucky You (by Eminem ft. Joyner Lucas)
Ability: Luck of the Draw. Automatic Stand. When it targets a person, it temporarily grants them very high luck. However, as soon as they realize that they're on a lucky streak, a catastrophe occurs. This can keep happening as long as the User wills it, as once the catastrophe is done, the lucky streak will resume until the target recognises themselves as lucky once again.
Power: ?
Speed: ?
Range: ?
Durability: ?
Precision: ?
Development Potential: ?
Stand User: Fumihiro Sasaki
Stand Name: Eye of the Tiger (by Survivor)
Abilities: Search. After looking at any person through his Stand, the User is able to locate them wherever they are. However, he will only acquire the direction to go in order to reach them. This will not work across dimensions, however. If he's looking for someone in Hell, he won't be able to find them unless he enters Hell.
Tiger-form. The Stand is in the shape of a tiger and shares the traits of one. It can share these traits with the user as well.
Power: A
Speed: A
Range: E
Durability: D
Precision: B
Development Potential: D
A/N: It's been too long since I wrote a battle between Stands. Yes, I did the Daichi fight a while back, but Issei was still discovering stuff. This is the first fight in which Issei knows the full potential of Beetles and is able to fight against Stand Users with it. As you can see, I had quite a bit of fun.
As for the start, I kinda let loose there. I was just going off the idea that 'Issei has to be lucky' and I came up with that traditional DxD stuff. Despite everything, Issei's still a pervert, after all.
Those who're reading the JoJo manga, have you started JoJoLands yet? Jodio is super fun as a protag, honestly. It's probably the first time we've had a 'hero' that isn't focused on the greater good in any way; it's really refreshing. I'm starting to think that Araki is coming up with a completely different character style ever since Johnny Joestar and his popularity despite being the most 'evil' of the Joestars so far. Gappy mainly worked for his own interests and anyone close to him like his Part 4 namesake, but Jodio is just a radical shift to the negative, and I'm all for it. And for once, Araki's actually capturing the fact that this guy is 15 years old. After cases like Jotaro being a giant 17 year old acting more adult than his grandad, I'm glad to see those reckless antics of a child in Jodio. Seriously, I could imagine him being a real 15 year old, given that he lived a seriously messed up life and ended up borderline sociopathic. Basically he acts immature and uses his power immaturely, and I'm all for that in a character introduction. In short, I'm in love with JoJoLands so far and I can't wait to see how the events turn out.
Speaking of, let me know what you thought of my Stands. I do think that Sakuna lost a fair bit too easily given the absurd nature of his power. His is a Stand in which giving exposition of it actually helps the user because it sets off a completely different level of the ability. Since it relies so heavily on a person's perception of things, the knowledge of how his Stand works can immediately throw them off whack, rendering them unable to properly keep track of their own good or bad luck. In this one, I wrote it to be alternating. Issei lands a hit or defends: lucky! Lucky You is triggered and the next one hits: oh no! Good luck is back and Issei hits: lucky! - and so on. I still feel like there's some work to be done on the Stand though, something about it feels inconcrete still.
As for Fumi-kun's Stand, there really isn't much. It's a tiger that can find anyone Sasaki wants to find. Sure, tiger's can't actually track scents like dogs, but it's something I threw in, I don't care what you have to say about it.
I don't know if its okay to add a QR code for a DP, honestly. If anyone's curious about it, don't be tense about its security. It only leads to a google search for a phrase I've put in, leading to possibly the easiest ARG in the world. I really didn't want to put much thought into it since I'm not expecting a Game Theory on it ever. Still, good luck to anyone who wants to try it. I'll say it isn't worth the minor amount of effort, though.
No reviews. Sad days.
Anyways, that's all from me! I'll see you next chapter!
