Guess who's back?
ME!
Once again, I see myself returned to the trences of FFnet, trying to make something good of myself for the general enjoyment of others.
With that being said, this chapter won't have a review response section. As an attempt at a 'return to form', I'd rather try to force myself into putting out better content rather than rely on review responses as padding. When I'm back into shape, and I know the content I'm putting out is back up to par, the responses may return, as they won't be a crutch anymore, rather, a feature.
Regardless, do feel free to express your thoughts for the chapter in the reviews, and, if you feel like it, drop me a PM with any thoughts, ideas or questions you have.
Now, on with the story!
-x-
"Your time has come, foul beast! You shall fall to the bite of my blade, for all of the evil deeds you have committed!" - Tharus, the virtuous knight of Callideran village shouted out from behind his shield, his enchanted sword Stahllied gleaming brightly, conveying that it too was preparing for battle.
"Hoh? What is this that I see wandering into my home? Another one of those pathetic tin men, coming in with self-righteous words and sharpened swords, claiming to be the ones delivering the justice. Tell me, mister knight, what evil deeds of mine would you be referring to?"
"Do not act daft, filthy monster! You have been slaughtering men of the crown and country for centuries! Taking away husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, and so much more from families! You leave families headless and peniless, consigning them to lives of indentured servitude, serfdom, slavery! Others are forced into prostitution just to put bread on the table! And it is all because of you!"
"Foolish words! Never have I forced, nor lured, anyone into my territory! Every single one of those men, Fathers, brothers, and so on and so forth, they came here out of their own volition! They made the choice to come to my home bearing arms. Armed, as you, with little more than steel toothpicks, their self-righteousness, and piss and vinegar! They claim to have come to slay me, and to steal from my hoard, and yet when I fell them, I am the evil one?"
The massive, serpentine-looking dragon, it's scales of a gleaming, reflective black hue, leaned it's long neck down, coming almost snout-to-shield with the knight that had invaded it's home, letting out a small huff that succeeded in rustling the knight's hair, before speaking again.
"Tell me, tin man, what fantasy or delusion can you find to justify the invasion of my home, and the campaigns by your fallen compatriots, as 'righteous'."
"This land that you occupy is part of our kingdom! It is our land, which could be used to house the homeless, and to plant new crops to feed the hungry! Mines can be opened, to better arm our guards and armies that keep the order and fight againts our barbarian invaders, and protect our women and children!"
"So that is what you wish to believe... Tell me, tin man... What right do you have to claiming ownership over my home? What right do any of you hairless apes have to claim any sort of ownership over any sort of land? NONE! THAT'S WHAT RIGHT YOU HAVE! Every single bit of land that you have 'claimed', it has been gained not by right, but by MIGHT! You have stolen it from it's previous owners, be it other hairless apes such as yourselves, the other animals of the land, or even trees and plants!"
The knight's eyes widened at those words, their effect manifesting like an almost physical manner as they caused the knight to take a step back. Ignoring this, the dragon kept speaking.
"You call me evil for defending myself from attackers, when I can clearly smell the blood of others on your blade and armor; you call me evil for choosing this land as my home, when you apes have been doing the exact same thing for ages. You believe yourself to be righteous in fighting against me, when every swing of your sword is done in the defense of the exact same things you claim to be fighting against! So tell me, knight. If I am evil... Then what are you?"
The dragon tilted it's head curiously, but, after a few seconds of silence, it pulled it's head back from the knight, knowing that no response was forthcoming.
"I know you humans. You'll keep denying, and lying to and deluding yourselves up until the last moment, preferring to live in a comfortable illusion of moral superiority, rather than face the ugly truth of your flawed, imperfect nature. SO COME, LITTLE KNIGHT, AND JOIN THE RANKS OF THOSE TO HAVE BEEN FELLED BY ME!"
The dragon's roar caused the knight's resolve to return to him, any doubt or trepidation being pushed away from his mind as his victory and survival became his top priorities.
-x-
"..."
Issei's focus was pulled away from the movie he had been watching when a hand daintily fell onto his shoulder. Taking off his noise-cancelling headphones - purchased from the flight catalogue - Issei turned towards the owner of the hand, a beautiful stewardess whose name plate read 'Mallory'.
Luscious, silky black hair, smooth, creamy skin, long legs covered from the thigh below in only a pair of pantyhose, due to he short uniform skirt, a modest B-cup chest, which was balanced out by a very shapely derrière more on the bigger side, ruby-painted lips in a very enticing smile and a beauty mark on the left side of her chin, just below her mouth, Mallory was a very alluring woman.
It's understandable, then, that most of the other male passengers that occupied the first class seats alongside Issei were absolutely envious of the young man when she seemingly decided to pay him extra attention. In order to explain Mallory's behavior, however, we must first understand how Issei managed to get into first class, when his tickets had been for economy class.
Truth is that a costumer that was supposed to travel first class had not shown up for the boarding process. Protocol would've been to either leave without them and make no changes, or promote someone from executive class to first class, and then a person from economy to executive. This time, however, protocol was not followed, and a person from economy was chosen specifically to occupy the vacant first class seat, likely in contravenence of a myriad of air regulations.
Seeing a flash of barbed tail and a purple-eyed wink from one of the ladies that had been working at the information counter of the airport told Issei that Laveria had something to do with his situation.
While that situation by itself was atypical enough to make Mallory take notice of Issei, what ultimately caused her to pay 'special' attention to Issei was his reaction to her. Unless they were not heterosexual, men tended to react to Mallory in one of two ways:
Either they were completely awed by her looks, which resulted in nervous and clumsy attempts at getting her attention, and some honestly awkward attempts at getting a phone number and a promise to meet again from her, or;
They were the 'smooth' types that tried to awe her instead through charisma, wealth and compliments, something which fed her ego tremendously, and then gave her the satisfaction of watching said 'smooth guys' trying to hide their irritation and annoyance whenever she obliquely warded off their advances, or pursuits.
Seeing that the boy's stated age in the ticket was still that of a young, pubescent teen had Mallory expecting a 'type one', either awkwardly trying to get her attention, or too tongue-tied and enthralled to be able to do anything more than stare at her. When she finally saw this 'Hyoudou Issei' person, her assessment changed altogether.
A noticeably fit physique, a relaxed yet self-assured 'feel' around him, and the complete absence of self-consciousness as he strode between the rich and the famous were what Mallory observed in the young man.
What's more, when she first greeted him as he boarded the plane, rather than blatantly staring, or trying to discreetly eye her up and down, the boy unflinchingly met her gaze, took his time to openly look her up and down, his eyes shamelessly taking their time to trail down her legs. He finished everything by meeting her gaze again, raising his right eyebrow curiously, and then moving onto his seat.
No stuttering. No hesitation. No posturing, nor fake modesty. The boy acted much too calmly for someone in his situation, just disregarding Mallory as if she were another lady on the street when she knew how much he should have been affected by her!
Grown men twice his age, and with 10 times his net worth were all but begging her for just a few minutes of her time, and yet a boy like him was able to so easily dismiss her? That was unnaceptable for Mallory. And so she spent the entirety of the trip to Japan attempting to fluster the young man in whichever way she could.
She had managed to convince the other stewardesses to allow her to attend exclusively to the young man, during which time period she tried every single trick possible to crack his composure. She showed a high level of attentiveness and attention to him, always using her very best smiles, created occasions in which small touches occurred between the two, gave him some obviously appraising looks of her own, and yet they boy didn't crack.
Not a stutter, no traces of awkwardness or indecision, no attempts at chatting her up, clumsy or otherwise, nothing! So, she escalated.
Those small, fleeting touches turned longer, more lingering. Her inviting smiles and looks turned alluring, and predatory. She deliberately allowed her gaze to focus on the boys' lips and bit her own 'contemplatively', hell, she even found a few occasions to place herself in a position wherein her butt - her best trait if she had to choose one - was wiggling pretty much in front of his face, only the thin barrier of her uniform keeping it from being exposed, and yet, the boy did nothing!
And it wasn't even as if he wasn't interested in women. He saw her eyeing up herself and the various other stewardesses whenever one was to move past his seat, however he acted as if it wasn't such a big deal.
So Mallory, her ego bruised by the hours of flirting that the young man would obviously notice and purposefully ignore, decided to go for the nuclear option, as the plane was about half an hour from actually landing.
Asking her friends/coworkers to 'distract' the rest of the passengers in first class by giving them the attention from the 'sexy stewardesses' that most of them desired, and distracting the female ones with small talk which led to long talks about the most inane subjects, Mallory decided to act. Plus, even if the boy complained, what would the outcome be?
Pubescent, hormonal teen gets into some sort of 'improper' mishap with a friendly, professional stewardess with years of flight experience. She could simply claim that everything was a result of the young man reading too much into something that wasn't there, misinterpreting her attempts at making him comfortable during his flight, and in the end she'd come out smelling of roses.
And that's how Mallory's previously platonic, feather-light hand on Issei's shoulder started gliding down, tracing his bicep before reaching for his pectoral and squeezing it, her eyes widening in genuine surprise at the sheer level of tone that the boy's body had, as if she were rubbing smooth marble through a cover of cloth.
She leaned down over him, her interest in him now not wholly related to simply satisfying her ego, her hand taking his and placing it on her thigh, within her skirt, before her lips moved to just a hair's breadth away from his ears, her nostrils flaring as she picked up a not-scent hanging around him, something which spoke of virility, tightly leashed power and danger, and that caused a spike of both thrill and arousal within her. When she spoke, her voice was nothing other than a sexy purr.
"Is there anything you'd wish from me before we land, mister Hyoudou?"
The brunette responded by turning his face to hers, their gazes locked on one another, and their lips and noses almost touching, before he spoke.
"I'd appreciate it if you let me travel in peace, thank you very much."
Having said that, Issei lightly pushed the confused, aroused and annoyed woman away, tightened his seatbelt, turned back to his movie and put his headphones on, allowing Mallory to wander back into the resting area for the stewardesses, an undecipherable jumble of feelings and sensations brewing within her.
-x-
He had done it. After hours of intense, exhausting and life-threatening combat, Tharus had finally managed to strike a fatal blow on the scaled monstrosity. With a torrent of fire barely held at bay by his melting shield, it's enchantments failing in the face of the magical flames as did the ones on his armor, Tharus acknowledged the fact that if he did not do something drastic very soon, he would fall.
In the end, Tharus' solution was to tighten the grip of is sword hand, shifting his footing so as to gain the best balance for what he intended to do, before harshly pushing his shield to the side, giving himself a tiny interval during which he did not have to deal with the pushing pressure of the torrent of flames.
In said small interval, Tharus' arm blurred as he threw his trusty Stahllied towards the dragon point-first. The rushing flames engulfed him less than an eye's blink later, only to stop abruptly as the dragon let out a titanic shriek, before a massive thump signaled the creature falling over.
Tharus, his gamble succesful due to a mixture of good luck and exceptional armor, rose back to his feet, his gauntlet-clad hand pushing a bang of his now free-flowing brown hair away from his eyes. He slowly ambled towards the twitching body of the downed beast, his eyes noticing the fact that his trusty sword was embedded in the underbelly of the dragon, in a small gap between two scales that he was absolutely sure he would be unable to strike with bow and arround even in his best day.
His victory was nothing more than luck.
Pushing idle thoughts aside, Tharus tightly grabbed the hilt of his sword, ruthlessly pulling it from whence it was wedged, a spurt of draconic blood as hot as boiling water gushing over him, drawing a pained scream from the knight.
His gauntleted hands flew straight to his face, which was the only unnarmored part of him, and when the burning sensation faded he uncovered his face, revealing a new burn mark on the right side of his face, on his cheek and around the orbit of his eye all the way to his right ear, though, luckily, both his ear and eye were left miraculously unarmed, his senses somehow avoiding impairment.
Wiping his blade clean on the tattered remains of his cloak, Tharus slid it home into it's waist-mounted scabbard, turning his back on the massive beast and walking back towards the castle's exit.
"Fucking animal, hurting me even in death out of sheer spite."
"Heh... Heh... Heh..."
Tharus froze at the deep, rumbling chuckle that came as a response to his mumbled comment, his head slowly turning back towards it's source, only to see that the dragon was somehow still alive, though it was obviously not for long. It's whole body still shook weakly, it's chest heaving heavily, and it's voice came out in wet, breathless gasps.
"You... Think... You've... Won...?"
"Shut up! You're dying! I defeated you! You don't get to look at me with such arrogance and smugness as if you had me at your mercy! You have been slain!"
"Heh... It... May... Be... True... That you've... Slain me... I may lie here... Dying... Yet... I did... Not... Lose..."
Tharus' grip on his sword tightened further, his stomach feeling as if an anvil had been forced within it and his body breaking out in gooseflesh. Something within him told him to just leave. Turn his back on the dying monster and, without giving it time to speak, leave. To hear the beasts' words... That way laid little more than heartbreak and madness.
Yet, Sir Tharus fought against every single one of those instincts, his decision fueled by the dangerous curiosity that led men to delve into subjects, arts and knowledge not meant for the minds of mortals, and his knightly honor, that bade him to listen to the final words of an enemy after a battle most well fought.
His teachings and convictions accepted nothing less from him than to listen, no matter how much the viciously gleeful look in his enemy's eyes tested that decision.
"How... Could you... Claim... Victory..."
A final burst of energy filled the dragon, a red glow filling it's eyes as it's voice turned strong once more.
"When you have, in killing me, become the very same monster you've come here to slay!?"
Tharus took a step back as if punched, his gaze still locked onto the dragon's even as the last of it's strength faded and it fell into the eternal slumber, it's mouth still locked in a mocking, sharp-toothed grin.
-x-
Despite the first class treatment, after everything he had gone through in the two months of vacation he took, disembarking from the plane was a very mundane matter, even while taking into account the strained look he got from 'Mallory', and the curious ones from the other stewardesses.
'Well, that was to be expected after what happened between me and that Mallory woman...'
'Yeah, what was that about anyway? I don't understand why you would refuse her advances. Based on what I know about you humans, that female should be considered very much attractive. Other than that whole thing back with the succubus, I wouldn't expect you to just ignore women like this.'
'Yeah, well that's because you couldn't feel her emotions. Up until she got real close and got a whiff of me she wasn't interested in me. She was expecting me to act either like a snivelling brat clamoring for a crumb of pussy, or a horny monkey trying all tricks possible to get into her pants. The fact that I did neither hurt her ego, that's the only reason why she was flirting with me. She wasn't interested in me, she was just interested on nurturing her ego, and like fuck I'll let myself just be used for something like that.'
'...I saw you as the type of person to let yourself be used like that if it got you some head pats from a pretty woman, actually.'
Sweatdropping internally, Issei responded to Ddraig even as he boarded the terminal shuttle.
'Yeah, well... That was before I understood the concept of pride in myself, and my achievements. Things are different now.'
Arrogance slipped into Issei's 'inner-voice' in small amounts, a consequence of his somewhat-draconic nature as he conversed with Ddraig.
'Plus, between my Tantric abilities and my last weeks of rest and relaxation in Luxuria, I feel absolutely zero need to peackock myself for some random lady, when I know that I already have my own women. I mean, you can say the right things, put out a bit of aura and get any girl interested in the moment, but how often can you get women that enjoy you for just being you, to the point of willingly giving themselves over to you?'
'...Kid, other than the mushy emotion stuff, you're more and more like a dragon. I can almost feel an infimous iota of pride trying to climb over the mountain of evidences of your hopelessness that you've given me so far in order to try to assert itself.'
The brunette sweatdropped internally once again at that.
'Thanks... I guess?'
By the time their conversation ended, Issei was already exiting the shuttle and walking back into the airport proper, his new, noise-cancelling headphones around his neck, and his phone in one hand as he deactivated airplane mode.
"Issei, over here!"
The brunette's gaze moved to the source of the voice, only for his mouth to split into a massive smile at the sight of both his parents waiting for him, his father raising a small A4 placard with 'Issei' written on it.
He made his way towards his parents, suitcase rolling behind him on it's wheels.
"Welcome back, Ise!" Mama Hyoudou said with a smile, while Papa Hyoudou nodded in agreement, his hand grabbing Issei's shoulder. The two were surprised, however, when their son pulled them into a tight hug, before he spoke in an earnest tone.
"It's good to be back. I missed the two of you, y'know..."
Beaming at her husband, Mama Hyoudou luxuriated in the affection that children were prone to make more and more rare as they grew up and hugging their parents started being 'uncool', while Papa Hyoudou's face held a complicated expression, somewhere between happiness and confusion.
Still, Mama Hyoudou was the one to speak up for the two of them.
"We missed you too, Ise. So, how did you like your vaca-"
She was interrupted by Papa Hyoudou when he, taking hold of both of Issei's shoulders, pushed him away from the two of them. He then procceeded to tightly grip Issei's shoulders, before his hands went down to his biceps and pinched them, then went to his chest and poked it lightly.
After a few seconds of this, he met Issei's gaze before speaking an a grave tone.
"Son... When did you become..."
The combination of the words and the tone had Issei inwardly sweating.
'Holy shit! Did he figure it out? Did he find out about my powers? How? How could he find out? What did I do wron-'
"SO MANLY!"
Issei's panicking thoughts screeched to a halt at those words, a feeling somewhere between exasperation, relief and confusion filling him, while Mama Hyoudou spoke up.
"Whatever do you mean, dear?"
The head of the Hyoudou household turned towards his wife, his hands taking hers as he spoke.
"Did you not notice, dear? Our Issei... He is not the same as he went out!"
Issei flinched at that, flinching further when his father pointed at him and spoke up.
"That confident stance! That straight posture! Those new muscles! The fact that his gaze hasn't strayed to any of the women around us so far, and that no one came to us with any sexual harassment complaints related to him during his trip! Our Issei has grown up!"
Mama Hyoudou's eyes filled with tears at that pronouncement, before she spoke up.
"Y-you're saying that...?"
"Yes" Papa Hyoudou said with a sagely nod, his gaze meeting his wife's as he spoke "Our Issei is no longer a good-for-nothing pervert whose only redeeming feature are his grades!"
Sweatdropping at that, Issei's internal dialogue occurred as he streamed tears internally.
'Oi, words hurt, damnit!'
Mama Hyoudou's response was instant. She pulled her reformed baby boy into a hug between herself and her husband, tears streaming down her face in a rather comical manner as she spoke.
"Finally, my baby boy has any hopes of becoming a proper member of society!"
His internal tears reaching even more comical proportions, Issei could only think:
'Et tu, Mama?'
-x-
From his seat in the back of Hyoudou family car, Issei could do nothing more than try his best to suppress his irritation, though the twitch in his right eye and eyebrow showed this attempt to be at least partially ineffective.
Why was Issei annoyed?
It was due to the fact that his spanking brand new senses, both the enhanced physical ones, of draconic origin, and his empathic 'sixth sense' from eating the Seed told him that the family car reeked of sex.
Every single part of the car, from the floormats and seats, to the plastic flap-like grills of the air conditioning, and the gearshift, all smelled of sex, both to his nose, and to his 'sensory'. And not just old sex, no. It was a mixture of years of sex that had already seeped into the car itself in an immutable, irrevocable manner, and fresher sex, that dated back 12 hours at most.
Issei knew that his parents were... Intimate. They had to be in order for him to have been born, after all, and something in the back of his head told him that he had more reasons to believe in this, yet that he should keep away from said reasons, as they were suppressed for a reason - a very good one - and that his very sanity would be in danger if he attempted to remember.
However, despite the fact that children from a certain age onwards know in the back of their heads, in those untouched and unexplored corners, that their parents still 'do stuff', no child wants that knowledge to be changed from passive to active.
So, one could understand the reason behind Issei's mood.
'Okay, I guess I'll just take off the clothes I'm wearing as soon as I get home, burn them to ash, store the ash in a hermetically sealed vessel, take a shower with bleach, take the sealed vessel to the ocean and release the ashes to be scattered to the four winds, and never again touch the family car. That's a plan!'
Ddraig didn't even attempt to suppress his snickers at Issei's uncomfortable state, and Issei could feel even Aquila expressing amusement over their link, which only made him even more annoyed.
-x-
After five uncomfortable hours of sitting in traffic, trying to answer his parent's questions about his vacation without revealing the fact that he gained superpowers, almost died, gained a girlfriend, almost died, gained a... partner... almost died, had his girlfriend kidnapped, almost died, went to save her, almost died, actually died, got better and then participated in extremely satisfactory sexual acts for two weeks straight, Issei shout out of the Hyoudou family car like greased lightening as soon as it came to a stop in front of their home.
Reaching into his pockets for the house keys, Issei's urgency for purifying himself helped him find the right key easily enough and unlock the front door, allowing him to step into his residence, only for both of his eyebrows to start convulsing violently, a vein pulsing on his forehead.
The entirety of the home's entrance smelled of sex.
Kicking off his shoes and trying to hurry his way into a hot bath, Issei had to stop at the sheer feeling of residual lust his empathic sense picked up in the living room. He forced himself to move past it, going up the stairs - which were also tainted, by their smell - into the first floor, where both Issei and his parents' rooms were, alongside the bathroom at a small distance away from both rooms.
Making his way through his contaminated home, Issei wrenched open his bedroom door, already expecting the worse, only to finally be met with the one division in his home to be free of the unbearable smell, both physical and 'sensory', of his parents'... Activities.
No. The only smells abundant to Issei's room were Issei's own natural smell, from before he became... Whatever the hell he currently is... the smell of cleaning products, and a scent that was a consequence of Issei's various dates with Rosie Palms, which most people would be unable to make out under the cleaning products, yet he was able to pick up due to his Lust-based abilities.
Taking a deep whiff of freedom, Issei rapidly shed his clothes and stowed them in a corner of his room furthest away from his things. He then procceeded to sprint out of his room and into the bathroom completely in the nude, only for his face to start twitching heavily.
SEX.
He should have expected this. Really, he should have! He himself had more than a few bath sex adventures with Laveria, and Lilith, and Xinthia, and Beatrice, and... Well, suffice it to say that Issei baptized every single bathroom in the Luxurian royal castle with his energy and 'scent'. So he should have certainly expected the same to have occured in his home's bathroom.
Issei's response was the nuclear response.
He grabbed quite a few bottles of bleach from under the sink, splashing it all over the entirety of the bathroom's horizontal surfaces, and even quite a bit over the walls that had no power outlets or light switches on them.
His next step was to grab the showerhead and spray down said same surfaces, all the while cackling maniacally, his voice taking a disturbing tone as he started muttering to himself.
"Die... Die... Die! Hahahahaha! DIE!"
Within the Boosted Gear, Ddraig could only sweatdrop at his partner's erratic behavior.
'Oi, Issei... You're starting to scare me...'
"CleanCleanClean..."
-x-
The rest of the day was no more easy for Issei. Despite the fact that he had arrived back home in a saturday, which should have been a day for catching up with his parents and relaxation, he could no more relax than a germophobe in a hoarder's home.
Currently, the Hyoudou family was having their lunch - cooked on a tainted counter, served and consummed at a tainted table - while the Hyoudou parents asked Issei about his vacation, trying to get more than they did during the car ride - which, to be fair, was pretty much nil - which forced Issei to just forcefully grin at his parents, all the while he forced himself to eat his lunch.
Eventually, despite his strong will and mental strength, Issei had to tap out.
"Mom, Dad, I'm going out, okay?"
"Okay~" Mama Hyoudou spoke in a chirping, almost musical tone, while Papa Hyoudou laughed merrily at his wife's good mood.
Taking less than five minutes to wash, dry and store his eating utensils, Issei shot up the stairs into his room, grabbing a black garbage back and a pair of latex gloves on the way. Putting on the latex gloves, Issei grabbed his tainted clothes and shoved them into the garbage bag, tying it up tightly before opening his bedroom window, jumping out of it down into his home's backyard, before making his way towards the nearest dumpster.
'Oi... Aren't you overreacting or anythin?'
'Ddraig...'
'Yes?'
'Being in the presence of the remnants of people's... adventures... gives me... echoes. Echoes of what happened.'
'...My god.'
'Yup.'
'So, being around the remnants of your parents'-'
'Yup.'
'You can sense-'
'Yes.'
'Even if they-'
'Please stop talking.'
'...'
'...'
'...'
'...'
'...How are you holding up?'
'Horribly. Well and truly horribly.'
'Well. My condolences, I guess.'
-x-
After throwing out the tainted clothes, Issei wandered aimlessly around the town of Kuoh, doing his best to delay his return home in order not to be subjected to that hell of... Parental Maritals.
'Aren't you forgetting something, Hyoudou Issei?'
Issei stopped mid-step, blinking owlishly before responding with his own mind.
'Aquila?'
'Indeed.'
'...You've been kinda quiet ever since-'
'I felt you dying, Issei. It was... Disconcerting. To feel your lifeforce slowly diminishing, until your side of our link simply became... Empty. Colorless. It was... Greatly unpleasant.'
'Oh. I dindn't know that it would feel like that.'
'I know.'
'...So, what is it that I was forgetting?'
'You can simply reign in your empathic abilities around your parents, and spare yourself the trip into the madhouse.'
'...Aquila, if you were here with me right now, I would kiss you.'
The Eagle of Victory, caught unaware by Issei's words, and feeling the honest sentiment behind them through the link, flushed intensely, taking a few seconds to recompose itself.
'Erm... Ahem... W-well, You're the Man I chose to give the power of Rome to. I can't just let you keep suffering like this for no reason.'
'I don't care what you say, next time I see you I'm kissing the hell out of you. It's the least that I owe you.'
Aquila's response in the 'face' of Issei's utmost serious words was to temporarily shut down her side of the link.
After that was accomplished, Issei closed his eyes and focused intensely.
'Okay... I may be unable to affect my physical senses, but my 'extra-sensory' abilities...'
The young man focused on his various energies, trying to grasp the factor that related to his sensory abilities, before drawing them tightly within himself. This had various simultaneous effects.
One, it reduced the degree of his empathic abilities, so that rather than knowing exactly what an individual within his sensory range was feeling at any moment, Issei could get only a general 'feeling' from the individual, something that allowed him only to feel simple things such as 'horny', 'hungry' or 'angry'. More complex emotions, such as 'bruised ego', 'nostalgic', 'bittersweet happiness' and such would only register as 'conflicting' or 'complicated';
Two, his ability to feel the results of people's lust diminished greatly. Up until very shortly, Issei could tell exactly when was the last time that each person in the street had some sort of sexual contact, and the energy of their partner/partners. Some people had very disturbing results in the second one, so not having to constantly sense these things would be a godsend;
Third, and an unforseen consequence, was the fact that the energy that he was passively putting out... Vanished almost completely. Before he tried applying Aquila's tip, anyone with any sensory abilities, or relation to the supernatural world would have been able to easily single him out as an empowered individual, a member of the supernatural. Now, Issei's 'magical presence' was almost nil, on the level of a regular human almost. Perhaps a sacred gear user, at best, yet the various different types of energies within him made that murky, and more difficult to make out.
However, despite not wanting to go insane from parental TMI, Issei still wanted to make sure that his powers were on point, so he tried to focus his senses specifically on a single person, without opening himself up universally to all those other emotions. He felt a single, hair-thin strand of power, almost non-existing, connecting him to his target, a random brunette on the other side of the street, before he felt information just hit him like natural.
'Had sex just fifteen minutes ago, and has the smell of two different men on her. Is worried that her boyfriend may be suspicious of her cheating... Wow, what a shitty person.'
Focusing lightly, Issei 'disconnected' this thread from the brunette, pulling it back to himself. Satisfied with his discovery, and noticing the setting sun behind him, Issei decided to head back home.
-x-
"*Giggle* No honey, Issei's home!"
"Well that never stopped us before, and he never noticed it! What would be different now?"
"But... Oh very well, dear."
"Mhm... Don't act like you're not in the mood either, love. Now tell me, who's your mistress?"
"You're my mistress!"
"What are you?"
"I'm mistress' horsey!"
"Neigh for me, horsey!"
Issei could do nothing more than turn around in his bed, his eyes wide open and red-rimmed, and his pillow covering his head in a failed attempt at blocking out external sounds.
Turns out that while he may not be able to 'sense' his parents with his extrasensory abilities, his physical senses were still honed enough that he could hear what was happening a few doors over with a terrifying level of accuity.
A suction noise had Issei cringing, before rivers of tears streamed comically from his eyes.
'Oh god, why must you abandon me to such tortuous hell?'
-x-
4AM. Issei felt himself lethargically rolling off the bed, his body smacking into the wood floor of his bedroom. His parents had only stopped their... Activities... somewhere around 2AM, meaning that between then and his body's Xinthia-imposed awakening time, he got 2 hours max, maybe even less.
With his conscious mind mostly fried, Issei's subconscious mind decided on a partnership with his body and took over, forcing him into a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, before he proceeded to stumble and fall - silently, somehow - down the stairs.
Still having the tiny amount of mindfulness to lock the door behind him after leaving, Issei's body decided to go on a jog around Kuoh, his subconscious plotting a map that would give him about the same amount of distance as his jogs around the training field back at Luxuria.
Issei's body went back home at 7 AM, enough of his brain active by now to try to head back to bed. However, before that he'd have to take a shower, to clean off all the built up sweat.
Unfortunately, he was not awake enough to adjust the water temperature, resulting in a cold water shower that forced Issei into full wakefulness, and a high-pitched shriek that resulted in Issei's parents being woken up.
A knock on the door attracted Issei's attention, forcing a croak of 'Yes?' from him, only for his mother's voice to sound out.
"It's good that you're up, Ise. The start of your new school year is just tomorrow, and we have a few things to do. I already got some things out of the way, so you and Papa just have to go pick up your uniform at the tailor, but that's only in the afternoon. Before that you'll have to shop for your school supplies. Please be dressed and fed by 8."
This was followed by Mama Hyoudou's fading steps. Issei could only groan, his dreams of a soft bed pushed aside for the need to get his scholarly needs in line.
-x-
"I'm really sorry we missed lunch, Issei, but can you believe those prices?"
Papa Hyoudou, sitting behind the wheel of the Hyoudou family car, ranted at Issei about the unfairness of the prices of school supplies.
"I mean, with J-mart trying to rip people off as far as notebooks go, and T-mart charging 25% tax for a box of pens, and Q-mart selling all of your books at that ridiculous bundled price, going around for the best deals was the only real way to get our money's worth, you know? And now we'll have to go to the tailor, and it'll be another hole burned into my wallet. Why, oh why, can't the prices in our country be lower?"
-x-
"WHAT!?"
"You heard me very well the first time, Mr. Hyoudou. You are late. Very, very late. It's so late that we should have already closed the store, yet the fact that your wife is a long time costumer stayed our hard, especially with how she kept speaking so pridefully about her number 1 son who was going to give the freshman speech for Kuoh academy. I just couldn't let him miss his opportunity, or go there underdressed."
"Well... We're somewhat late, but still... 70% extra?"
"Late fees tend to be higher than this, in the excess of 120%, due to the fact that we have to take care of storage and preservation of the outfit, the first one taking space which could be occupied by some other piece being worked on, and the second one being costly in man-power and chemical equipment. All-in-all, we're giving you very good rates, Mr. Hyoudou, but only because your wife was a good college friend."
His eyes widening at the 120% tagline, Papa Hyoudou bowed repeatedly at the owner of 'Thread and Needle' - the only tailor his wife frequented - Yuki Shokkiko, who was Mama Hyoudou's college roommate and best friend.
"Thank you very much for your help and patience, we will be taking our package now."
As soon as the sealed plastic package was handed to Papa Hyoudou, he grabbed the sleep-standing Issei by the elbow and dragged him out of the building. Shokkiko called out after him.
"Hey, aren't you going to let the boy try on his clothes to see if they fit?"
Rather than running the possibility of incurring any extra costs, Papa Hyoudou called out over his shoulder.
"No need, my family trusts your work very much!"
Very soon they were within the car on their way back home.
Issei managed to take a very short 30 minute nap, but it all ended when his father had to break abruptly as some asshole cut them off at a crossing just before their home. Being so close to his house, and to promises of a soft bed, the Hyoudou boy decided that a short, 5-minutes-or-less nap wasn't worth it, so he trudged out of the car, dragging himself into his home like the walking dead.
After having dinner forced down his throat by his mother, Issei finally made his way back to his room, flopping onto his soft, soft bed, his eyes drifting closed...
"OH GOD, DON'T STOP!"
Before his mother's voice rang out from the Hyoudou Parents' bedroom, followed by disturbing sounds of suction and moistness.
Issei curled up and cried.
-x-
4AM. Issei's body, working in tandem with his subconscious mind, had the young man out of the house and running in less than 15 minutes. He arrived back home at 7AM on the dot, only to find his mother panicking in the living room, while his father tried to calm her down. As soon as he caught sight of Issei, Papa Hyoudou spoke.
"See, honey? Our son was just out for a morning run! Nothing less, nothing more!"
Issei's response was to nod off in place, something which was taken as an actual nod of confirmation. Accepting the explanation, Mama Hyoudou pushed the sealed plastic package that had Issei's school uniform, causing him to actually wake up, before pushing him up the stairs.
"Now go take a shower and get dressed, we don't want you to be late on your first day!"
The brunette - with a single purple bang - nodded in a zombie-like fashion, before trudging up the stairs, tossing his uniform onto his bed before going into the bathroom. Knowing that certain sacrifices needed to be made for the greater good, Issei deliberately turned the knob for the cold water, causing the entirety of his nerves to flare simultaneously in an attempt at telling Issei that what he did was very, very stupid, and that he shouldn't ever do it again.
Ignoring that, Issei finished his cold shower in 15 minutes, before going back into his room, opening the package before putting on the clothes that were within it.
10 minutes getting dressed, and Issei was down in the kitchen, filling a paper cup with freshly-brewed, piping-hot black coffee, before moving for the table. Before he could sit down, however, his mother had already shoved his lunchbox into his arms, somehow managing not to dislodge his coffee, before pushing both him and Papa Hyoudou out the door.
"Go, go, go, neither of you can be late!"
And like that, the two Hyoudou men started their week.
-x-
-Kuoh Academy New Building, Auditorium-
Souna Shitori - an alias taken by the heiress of the Sitri clan of the 72 Devil Pillars, Sona - could do nothing more than look down at her watch, before looking at the freshmen arrayed around the various seats of the auditorium.
She then proceeded to look back up at the Podium with a look of irritation, crossing her arms with her right hand clenching around her left sleeve.
"Calm down, Sona" - Rias Gremory, Heiress of the Gremory Clan of the 72 Devil Pillars spoke- "I'm sure that this Hyoudou Issei person will be here soon."
Biting her lip, the usually cool and collected Sona couldn't completely keep the irritation out of her tone as she spoke.
"I take my responsibilities as the president of the student council very seriously. I made sure to dictate the letter that he recieved, and it explicitly told him the date and time at which he was expected to give the freshman speech! 2 months of preparation, and he's late!"
Rias opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, the gym's double doors were slammed wide open, causing everybody in the room to turn towards them, only for eyes to widen tremendously, and jaws to almost hit the ground at the sight of said figure.
This figure slowly made it's way down the middle corridor between the two rows of seats that the freshmen sat at amidst a sea of whispers and murmurs, slowly walking up the stairs to the center stage of the auditorium, walking right up to the podium and, after clearing his throat, spoke up.
"My name is Hyoudou Issei, and I'm this year's freshman speaker, due to getting the highest grades in the entrance exam."
The entirety of the student body only had one response to Issei's words.
"...EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
In order to understand the reason behind this reaction, we need to take a few steps back, to a little bit earlier.
-x-
-Hyoudou Residence, Issei's room-
Issei had just finished taking a cold shower and towelling himself dry, before he easily broke the seal of the plastic package containing his uniform.
The uniform that his mother comissioned consisted of a pair of slacks, a white, button down shirt with a black tie, and a black blazer, with black Oxford-style dress shoes.
While the slacks fit him mostly properly, being just a tad bit too tight, the shirt proved to be... a problem. When Issei's mother comissioned his tailor friend to make his uniform, she likely had his old build in mind.
This caused problems.
The shirt fit snugly on Issei. While the stomach didn't pose much problem, his chest and shoulders were bigger than the shirt would usually withstand. While most often than not this would just mean a torn shirt, Shokkiko did damn good work, which meant that rather than the shirt ripping apart at the seams, Issei was just unable to close the two topmost buttons, leaving a small portion of his extremely tone chest visible and making it impossible to properly wear his tie, and the size of his shoulders meant that the sleeves of the shirt only reached up to slighly more than half his forearms.
Rather than show up looking completely ridiculous, Issei solved his problems by rolling the sleeves of his shirt up to slightly below his elbows, revealing is toned forearms and the discolored scars on his left forearm, around the wrist area.
He loosely hung the tie around the collar of his shirt, before putting on his blazer, disguising these two 'cheats'.
-x-
-Hyoudou Family Car, just outside the doors to Kuoh Academy-
Coffe in one hand and Bento (lunchbox) in other, Issei did his best to open his door and climb out, however, Papa Hyoudou, impatient and unwilling to get to work late, sped off right as Issei was closing the car door, causing him to lose his balance and spill his hot coffee all over his blazer.
Acting quickly in order not to stain his white shirt, Issei shed his blazer, hanging it off his arm. Looking at his phone, Issei saw that he was right on the edge of lateness for his speech. Putting his bento away within his bag, Issei hurried his way towards the Auditorium, as his letter had mentioned.
He tried pushing the double doors once, twice, three times, and all those times they didn't even budge. Annoyed, hungry, thirsty and lacking sleep, Issei reacted by pushing the doors in hard, causing them to bang into the walls of the auditorium with a loud *BANG*.
-x-
Which leads to the present. Almost every person in attendance could only think the same thing when they saw Issei's looks, from the spiky brown hair with a single purple bang, to the rolled up sleeves of his shirt, to the scars on his arm, and the lidded, red-eyed look he levelled upon the audience.
'HE'S A MASSIVE DELINQUENT!'
Not knowing the general feeling of the room due to not having his sensory abilities active, and not caring to know due to his tiredness, Issei kept speaking in his lethargic tone.
"As said before, I'm Hyoudou Issei. I'm turning 15 in a while I am, as you know, a first year student at Kuoh, just like the rest of you, and my ultimate goal in life is to become the Harem King. I live breasts. Big, small, medium, they're all beautiful to me as long as they're attached to a beautiful woman. I believe that breasts are the ultimate manifestation of god's love for man, as while there are hundres of thousands of mammalian species on this planet, only humans gained to blessing that are breasts.
While being particularly fond of breasts, I do not dislike butts, legs, thighs or waists. In fact, I appreciate all of those, and believe that having a proper balance between all of these elements is best.
I don't want problems with anyone. I'm much too tired, barely got a few hours of sleep, so anyone that annoys me I'll kick their ass.
That's... Pretty much it. Oh, and, work hard and prosper, or something, I don't know. I'm not a professional speaker, I'm just some 1st year freshman. Find your own motivation. If an idiot like me can get good grades, then the lot of you have no excuse not to."
Finishing off in that note, Issei walked out of the stage through the back curtains, leaving behind a mostly empty auditorium, the only sounds within it being enthusiastic clapping from two distinct individuals, one of them bald, the other one wearing glasses.
This was Kuoh Academy's first impression of one Hyoudou Issei.
-CHAPTER, END-
Well, that's a donearoonio for now. Finally got around to updating, and you finally got to see Issei back in Kuoh. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll do my best to bring you even more. Remember to leave a review if you want to, to follow and favorite if you enjoyed and intend to keep reading, and to send me PM's if you feel like it!
Arrivederci!