Before I begin, I have a few things to address.
First of all, this is my "reboot" of dvdryms' High School DxD fanfiction, "High School DxD: Inheritor of Malevolence."
I've followed him ever since his "Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V: The Fifth Factor" came out, and I've come to enjoy his story to its end. So upon picking up his next story, I was admittedly apprehensive on reading a DxD fic (like the cheesecake as much as anyone else back during their middle-high school days), but after reading the fic's first arc, I was hooked, and afterwards, I revisited the franchise ever since, and aside from its metaphorical cheesecake, I enjoyed the overall lore and worldbuilding. And after coming back to the franchise, I thought that his fic tackling that gigantic world would reach its conclusion, all the while, enjoying the ride that I come to unexpectedly love. Admittedly, I'm a little prudish, in fact, I have zero confidence writing lemon scenes and less so with harem stories (the latter being infamous for being both oversaturated, and even easier to mess it up into power fantasies), so this is my foray into the unknown.
Then cancelation and burnout hit dvdryms. We're only human after all, but alas, it was heartbreaking. That said, I've come to love the story so much that I didn't have it in me to simply let it go.
So in a fit of what I can best describe as a sense of "madness" and "discontent," I PMed the original fic author and personally requested to reboot his dead fic. Granted, it is "Open to Adoption"-status means that anyone can do what I'm doing, but even then, I had to make sure, for the sake of transparency (and respect).
Planning for the whole fic began since February of 2024, and reached completion of +100 chapters planned out by April. Now comes the execution.
Second, for those of you not in the know, I started my fanfic career rebooting dead fics that I liked too much, and short story even shorter, I sucked.
I sucked so much, that not only I axed them from existence out of pure shame, due to said shame being so bad that it affected my already-bad mental health.
This is my genuine attempt at sort of redeeming myself. Rather than writing through pure impulse, I'm sticking to the plan that I have carefully curated with genuine care and time put into them. That, combined with the fact that I don't have school or employment encumbering me (the latter is beyond complicated due to my own status in the US), meaning that I have all the time I have in the world to see this through.
And finally, rumors of High School DxD getting a new anime was recently teased, so what the hell, might as well ride this hype train. I tried it with my Shield Hero self-insert, I failed miserably, so I might as well do it right this time!
With all that said, I hope you enjoy this reboot of "High School DxD: Inheritor of Malevolence"...
High School DxD
Re:Incarnation of Malevolence
"... I have to get out of here!"
A desperate proclamation was uttered in a world that was on the verge of its death.
Running across the eternal wasteland that was once known as "Earth," now barren of life save for the corpses of its inhabitants and invaders still rotting about as far as one could see, was one lone survivor of this cataclysm.
It was a figure whose features were completely obscured by a tattered, dark-brown shaded cloak hiding their face and body, save for the armored boots that stamped their sole prints behind its arid trail. kicking up a faint trace of dust with each step taken.
The figure looked up towards the sky, now void of every last cloud and star, as the last light left in this whole universe was burning out in a brilliant crimson, slowly descending into the horizon for one last time before the dying flame went out.
"... Wait for me, everyone," the figure spoke as they then telekinetically brought out an amulet consisting of seven different kinds of fangs hung between two orbs of red and white. "... I'll stop this calamity if it's the last thing I'll ever do!"
The artifact then begins to glow in a blinding light as the last light of this universe falters, ushering in complete and utter darkness as it completes its last rites. The sights of ruin and death all began to disappear into the coming void, sweeping over everything like a coming tide that will never ever recede.
A portal then opens before the figure. Without looking back and their resolve hardened, they jump into it before the black can consume them along with the rest of the dead universe.
They fell. They continued falling deeper and deeper into an endless abyss called Time.
"Have to go back..." the figure muttered as they looked throughout the temporal shaft for their exit. "... Back to the past. Back to where it all began-!"
Then something from behind them tackles them out of their original trajectory, latching itself onto them like a cephalopod clutching onto its prey.
"WHAT THE-?!" they turn their head around to see an amorphous mass of inky-black slither across their cloak. "HOW-?!"
The blob then extends its tendrils towards the figure's head and arms, constricting them in place as it closes in towards them.
As they try to break free from its clutches, they then see their desired window of time slip by them through the gaps of the tentacles, smothering them whole.
"NO!" they cried out from within the creature's tendrils then formed a maw resembling human gums and teeth made.
"Darkness..." it hissed, mocking them, "... is nigh."
The figure then smashes their own head into the mouth, breaking its teeth before throwing off their cloak and tying it up into a bundle, trapping it as they then threw it away from themselves as far as they could.
As they see the trapped amorphous mass of darkness fall further and further down into the depths of history, the figure then reaches their hand towards the closest available window, latching their hand onto its ledge before pulling themselves into the light projecting from it.
"I don't care where I end up at this point!" the figure declared as they slipped in. "There's no turning back!"
Upon successfully sliding over the gap, the figure then found themselves falling from the sky and hurling towards the clouds.
As they fell, their five senses took in the vastness of a world that was full of life.
Clouds. Stars. Oxygen. Wind. Temperature. All of that, just the sky.
"... It's perfect," they wept as they continued falling, they're plummeting now reaching the levels of terminal velocity, as indicated by a cone of heat forming below them during their descent. "... This is what heaven is. I have no need for angels!"
Compared to the sanguine muck and arid earth that they've come from, wherever they landed next was uphill from there.
They then took this moment as a respite even as they crashed onto the earth with the force akin to that of a meteorite.
... It was darkness, but not the kind that they came to know and fear.
Rather, it was like taking a nap. A comforting kind of silence that lulled them into a sense of peace and rest.
When was the last time I slept this well? they wondered as the outside's sensations roused them from their tranquility.
They opened their eyes, and happened upon them being at the bottom of a pit. They then wake up screaming right before spitting dirt out of their mouth.
"... Oh my god, even the dirt tastes heavenly," they then resisted the urge to gorge upon the very ground where they've ended up at. "... No time to muck about."
They then climb out of the hole where they've landed before happening upon their new surroundings.
It was a rural countryside village, albeit in a state of abandoned disrepair. As soon as they laid their feet upon actual solid ground, they then looked back where they've landed, and came to see that they were the one who burrowed themselves deep into the earth and gouged out a sizable crater.
"... Just how fast did I fall?" they remarked right before exploring the deserted village.
So far, there was nothing but neglected rice paddies choked to the brim with grimy muck and thick weeds, decaying huts with their thatch and straw roof and walls falling off of their foundations, and a burned-down minka house, it's charcoal-colored remnants being one stiff breeze away from collapsing into a pile of firewood-
*CRACK!*
*RUMBLE!*
They watch as said minka house collapses into said aforementioned pile after the aforementioned stiff breeze. Then a charcoal scent slightly filled the air, which was almost intoxicating to them after breathing nothing but stagnant air for what it felt like eternity.
"... Don't drink the water," they told themself as they tried to look away from the mucky rice paddies.
Taking a deep breath, they tried to compose themselves before looking back at the fields.
"SCREW IT!" with reckless abandon, they then plunge their head into the muck and weed before slurping on the field's contents.
It was objectively disgusting, tasting nothing but mud, shit, and bits of tapeworm. But to them, it was ambrosia after an eternity of nothingness.
Their five senses were on the verge of frying themselves into malfunction, but they didn't care and kept devouring the paddy before them until nothing was left save for the ditch that the farmers once planted and had left behind to rot.
Thankfully, there wasn't anyone around to see their embarrassing display of ill-manners.
"... Better look around," they then looked around for any current or former signs of life throughout this village.
So far, no bodies were found. No shoes or even belongings. The village looked as if people that once lived here simply left without a struggle.
The minka that was now a pile of burnt-out wood might've been a contradictory piece of evidence, but given that all possible evidence to prove otherwise were all but destroyed, they paid no mind and just worked off the assumption before coming to the following conclusion.
"At least I know that I'm in Japan," they muttered before heading into one of the abandoned huts. "... Might as well get some shuteye before I continue-"
*BWOOOOO*
Suddenly, their ears perk up upon hearing a faint blare akin to that of a horagai conch.
"... Okay, how far did I go back?!" they asked themselves before breaking off into a sprint towards where the siren had called from.
As they followed where the horn's signal had come from, breaking through layer after layer of foliage and greenery, they then came upon a blinding light upon reaching the clearing.
"... I went too far back."
3rd of June, Keichō Era, Year 20/1615 AD
Before this figure was the Battle of Tennōji, the numerous Tokugawa army besieging Osaka Castle garrisoned by the ever-defiant Sanada Clan. Steel and roars echoed through the plains stretched before Osaka Castle. Arrows and lead filled the air, both sides exchanging them to each other like love letters swapped between a lovesick couple whose longing was tempestuous as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
The entire region of modern-day Chūbu was nothing short of chaos made manifest, with the Summer Siege of Osaka erupting to its crescendo on where they've landed in their temporal escape.
"... Okay, so at least I know where I am for certain," grimaced the figure before they slowly began stepping away from the chaos. "... For now, I'll just slowly walk away... and hope that I don't cause a paradox with my own involvement-"
Before they can break off into a sprint, a choking presence of pure malevolence bursts from the battlefield like a geyser of darkness before their eyes.
"WHAT THE?!"
Then they saw one of the combatants under the Sanada Clan's banner have a chrome-silver belt with a bronze-maroon gem at its center.
"Now?!" they exclaimed. "HERE?!"
"[TERROR RISE]!"
The figure's eyes widened upon hearing a familiar jingle that was then followed up with an eruption of malevolent energy made manifest around that man.
"[STALWART INSOMNIAC AWAKENING]!" after the announcement, it was then followed up with an eruption of screams of pure horror and the sounds of earth ripping itself asunder.
Emerging from the collapsed ashigaru footmen and samurai cavalrymen among both the Sanada and Tokugawa banners, one stood out wearing otherworldly and anachronistic array of metal whose polish and sheen of copper with root-like horns coming out from where its eyes and crown were. Its shoulder plates were two legionnaire-like shields each thick as an industrial-grade steel plate, and detached from its knees, forearms, and chest were five spherical drones resembling mechanical eyes that orbited around him.
"... Oh fuck," the figure sighed with a nervous chuckle. "... You have got to be shitting me!"
The armored figure then bursts out an explosive roar that sent numerous footmen and mounted samurai alike flying, leaving this inheritor of malevolence alone in the clearing of his own making as he was now being surrounded by thousands of Tokugawa's soldiers.
"OF ALL THE TIMES TO END UP, I LANDED DURING ONE OF THEIR HEYDAYS?!" they exclaimed as they pivoted back around towards the armored warrior's direction.
Deep in the battlefield, right as the Tokugawa ranks rallied back into formation, the belt began to speak to its wearer.
"... This is it," a gravely, arid voice spoke from the armored man's waist, coming from the chrome-silver belt with a copper-colored gem at its center, glowing in its hue every time it spoke. "... Our very last hurrah... together."
The man then clenches his hand into a fist before walking towards to face the enemy. "... For Sanada-dono."
The figure then sees the armored man bulldoze through the footmen and samurai alike in what can be described as a veritable rampage. Hundreds of Tokugawa footmen were sent flying into the air upon colliding against his malefic might. Those who weren't caught in his mighty blows were running in fear, allowing the Sanada Clan and their allies to push back.
"THE ENEMY IS ON THE RUN!" one of the Sanada Clan's commanders cried out. "ALL UNITS! RALLY AROUND THE TEN BRAVES AND PREPARE FOR A MULTI-PRONGED FORMATION!"
"FOR THE SANADA!" The footmen and their commanders all then got into formation as the Tokugawa were now put into disarray by this one man in copper armor alone.
"CHARGE!" Sanada Yukimura himself declared as he then rode out on his white steed and clad in his antlered, crimson-red armor, raising his jūmonji-yari spear towards the sky before leading his men from the front.
They now found themselves in the middle of their clash between the two armies, keeping survey on the armored man from a fair distance while evading most of the weapons coming their way.
The sensation of tempered steel and molten lead felt good to them, but not ecstatic enough to deter their attention away from that one man in copper armor, who was ripping the earth apart as he rammed through hundreds upon hundreds of Tokugawa's soldiers, sending every last one of them flying like confetti.
Just who is the one behind that mask?! they asked as they waded their way through the bodies of soldiers and samurai commanders alike. He's already warping history beyond recognition without my help!
As the battle raged on, they continued keeping an eye out on the man with the belt as their clan of measly 15,000 out of 60,000 troops pushed back the Tokugawa's mighty 150,000.
"... Shit, this is already getting out of hand," they realized before making plans to directly intervene. "I have to stop him-!"
But as they were about to make their move, the man in the copper armor suddenly stiffened up.
Even from afar, they can hear what the belt was saying, recognizing the voice even as it was drowned out by the cacophony of war clamoring throughout the air.
"This is... your limit."
As the host was struggling to move further, several thousands of Tokugawa soldiers that were once fearing for their lives before him now took their chances of staking him from all sides with their yari spears, turning this mighty warrior that inspired the fear of God into a humanoid pincushion.
The ones rallied under the Sanada Clan had witnessed this sudden turning of fortunes, seeing their ace in the hole now laid low before their very eyes.
"KIRIGAKURE SAIZŌ-SAMA HAS FALLEN!" one Sanada Clan footman cried out.
"PULL BACK! PULL BACK-!" the samurai commander then took several arrows to his back as the Tokugawa forces recovered and began to resume their siege properly.
All the while, the figure watched as they played dead, even with several arrows sticking into their back as they laid on the dirt with the rest of the corpses.
"... The canon is preserved," they nodded as they let history play out as intended by continuing to play dead.
The Sanada Clan's counteroffensive had failed at its most critical juncture.
The Tokugawa Clan's forces overwhelmed the defenders through their sheer numbers.
The remaining Ten Braves fell in battle one after the other.
Sanada Yukimura makes his last stand at his camp, being the last confirmed kill of this battle.
The Tokugawa Clan leave this battle as the victors.
Once the coast was clear, the figure then got up from the corpses they were buried under, approaching where the residual miasma of malefic energy was wafting from.
"... Guess Number Twenty-Five didn't make the cut," a disdainful voice muttered with pure spite. "Fragile as the rest of mankind."
"He wasn't that bad," a malicious candor echoed from the same spot. "At least he got a few good hundreds kills before he ate it."
"Bah! Who gives a crap about body count?!" a prissy and vain voice huffed. "He died before he could even touch a single woman while I was around! Hello?! Was that sword of his downstairs good for anything besides pissing?!"
"... Don't care," an apathetic, gravely voice grunted. "... Although I admit... he was... more stubborn than the... usual fare..."
The figure then flips the body over before glaring down at the belt around the deceased Kirigakure Saizō's waist.
"Oh hello!" the vain voice greeted in a faux-jubilant manner as the gem turned indigo. "... Definitely the first time someone had sought us out before we could."
"Do you desire our power?" tempted the spiteful voice as the gem turned ashen-gray. "We are power incarnate. If you desire us, then take us."
"Just be prepared for Hell of your own making, human!" the malicious growl remarked as the gem turned dark green. "For our power demands blood as tribute!"
"Where it comes... it matters not," the apathetic drone confirms as the gem turns copper-brown. "... Suffering... is inevitable-"
"Not interested."
The figure then reaches their hand towards the belt before ripping it off of the corpse's waist before walking away with it in hand. The belt tried to escape by exerting its sealed power, but the grip around their vessel was tight for them to be released out into the open world and seek out their next inheritor/victim of their own volition.
"WHAT THE-?!" the spiteful voice exclaimed.
"A MERE HUMAN IS OVERPOWERING US?!" the malicious voice cried out in disbelief.
"I DON'T THINK 'HUMAN' CAN BE USED TO DESCRIBE WHOEVER THIS ASSHOLE IS!" the vain voice panicked.
"... JUST WHO ARE YOU?!" the apathetic voice was roused into shock.
The figure then disappears into the forest as the sun slowly begins to set upon the battlefield. With the belt clutched in their hand in an iron grip, they begin their machinations to avert the doomed future where they've hailed from.
"From now on," they declared as their grasp tightened around the belt buckle, causing it to crackle with electricity, "... you shits work for me."
... Through whatever means necessary.
YOU CAN COUNT THE MEDALS: ONE, TWO AND THREE!
LIFE GOES ON ANYTHING GOES COMING UP OOO!
The blaring of trumpets then filled the room as one 16-year old Japanese male slipped out of his bedsheets and face-plants onto the floor.
"Ow... too early... in the morning," he groaned as he blindly reached for his phone alarm. "... Too loud."
After a few moments of flailing about, he successfully shuts off the alarm before lifting his head up from the sheets draping over his auburn hair.
"Takeshi!" a woman's voice called out from downstairs. "Get up already! Your breakfast is going to get cold!"
"R-right. Coming-!" the boy's foot then slips onto a DVD case before he faceplants again. "... Ow... two in a row. That cannot be a good sign."
He slowly gets back up, and picks up the "Sanada 10 Braves" DVD that he rented over the weekend.
"... I should probably return this soon," he remarked as he then walked out of his room before heading to the washroom to freshen up.
After which, he then comes down to the first floor, greeted by his parents. His dad, a bespectacled tall-ish man in his mid-to-late thirties in a business-casual polo and suit pants-combo with bright auburn hair not too dissimilar to his own, along with his mom, a modest-looking woman in her thirties with a wool sweater and long skirt with an apron over her, her hair being bleached a bright yellow with a streak of brown running down the middle, were waiting for him.
"Morning kiddo," greeted the man as he put down his newspaper before glancing at the boy's reddened nose. "... Took a nasty tumble up there, huh?"
"Very funny, dad," Takeshi then yawned before sitting down. "... Itadakimasu."
After giving thanks, he then begins stirring up his natto beans from their container before putting them onto his bowl of steaming white rice, the scent of the former snapping him awake.
"... Ah," the boy sighed in relief. "Much better."
"I still don't know how you can handle it, Takeshi," the woman shook her head as she sat next to her husband.
"Now now, Shiori-chan, at least we're not the ones eating it," smirked the man as he picked up his chopsticks. "Who knows. Maybe our son's planning to become a pro wrestler behind our backs in the near future?"
"Sheesh Hiroto!" Shiori then elbowed her husband in his arm. "... Don't encourage him!"
"Don't worry, mom. pro wrestling isn't on my bucket list," Takeshi reassured as the family ate.
Upon finishing, Takeshi goes back upstairs and comes back out with his winter uniform on. Looking at his phone, the clock, currently reading 7:45 AM.
"Got about... half-hour to myself," Takeshi sighs as he then reclines on his couch before leaning back and facing the ceiling. "... Been a whole year, huh?"
Since moving to Kuoh Town about a year prior due to work and personal reasons (both of which he will not disclose openly or get into specifics), Takeshi's life was initially normal. Came from a middle-class family from Ishinomaki, went to school, did his best academically and physically, and lived a life without any enemies of great concern.
... At least, some weird shit began happening to and around him.
"Please don't let it be a constant problem..." he muttered to himself before he scrolled through his phone, glancing over various blog posts about Geiz Revive Form's debut, the hype around the upcoming Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger, and reviews for Ultraman R/B Movie: Select! The Crystal of Bond (reception being mostly positive). "... So far, I made no actual enemies. Or pissed off any punks into graffitiing or throwing rocks into our house."
For the record, no, he wasn't affiliated with any factions back at Ishinomaki, given that every punk in his previous city was after him for no apparent reason (and thus, wouldn't let him join unless he was a raging masochist of a sandbag). At least Takeshi was able to keep most of it under wraps, save for a few surprise home visits from the police, and that one time where their whole house got vandalized during the same day when his dad received his transfer orders from work for "township development" from his company.
Kuoh Town has been quiet. He prefers to keep his life here as such.
"Save for potentially pissing off Destroy High's entire student body through convoluted means, I think I got nothing to worry about," he shrugs before checking his phone's clock, now reading 8:00 AM. "... No reason to linger any longer."
Cracking his neck, he then gets up before heading towards the front door. But before turning the knob, he then inspects his bag to make sure that he had everything in it.
"Yosh, clear for launch," Takeshi nodded to himself as he grabbed the doorknob. "I'm heading out!"
"Have a safe trip!" both of the parents replied as they saw their son out the door before they both left for work.
Another day in the town of Kuoh as Ryuugamine Takeshi lives his normal, if slightly bizarre life.
13th of March, 2019 AD
Ride 0: Re:Start
Hello everyone. Hope you enjoyed this reboot fic's "Chapter 0."
Also, here are my reasons for the setting pseudo-update.
One is from a writing perspective, I'm giving it the "Scarlet Lady" webcomic treatment, in that where in the canon Miraculous Ladybug, Paris was perpetually Spring or Summer, the seasons in the AU webcomic change throughout the course of the story, and each character having a different attire to coincide with the changing seasons. So by the time Takeshi's heading out to school, he and the rest of Kuoh, are in their winter uniforms. Summer uniforms start around April-May to September. That and I need a basis to make the setting more concrete, so I'm implementing a calendar system to keep track of things.
Second, in-universe, the setting shift from ambiguously-Heisei Era/2010s to Reiwa Era is due the mysterious observer's time travel bullshit. Just the fact that our resident time traveler showed up in the past at all already caused a massive butterfly effect to the point where everyone's backgrounds were moved up to coincide with the sudden setting update.
Oops.
And part of the reason why they're being careful with the time travel's paradoxical tripwires (aside from the one they've inadvertently caused) is that their original plan was to go back to the beginning of the original fic's beginning chapters... but now since they're about a few centuries back, the margin for error has increased, no thanks to the time traveler's mysterious stowaway.
At least they got what they wanted in the end.
Also, regarding the MC, Takeshi Ryuugamine, his confirmed birthday is still April 4th (which according to the original Author, dvdryms, plays off the Eastern superstition/belief that the number four is considered unlucky due to it being connected with death), with the year being 2002, which is my addition to this reboot-fic, a reference to the year of Kamen Rider Ryuki's debut (specifically, February 3rd, 2002). Also, him being originally/previously from Ishinomaki, Japan is a reference to the original Kamen Rider statue that remained standing (and untouched) after the 2011 Sendai earthquake.
Also, I'm giving his parents a bit more characterization. Minor glow-ups, but still. Hiroto being based off Natsuki Kenichi from Re:Zero, and Shiori being based off Han Jia from a Korean webcomic Match Made in Heaven By Chance/Maybe Meant to Be.
And I chose Kamen Rider OOO's opening, "Anything Goes!" as his phone alarm, simply because it's the loudest. And it was funny.
And to my own signature (that and I'm not sure if I can take over editing dvdryms' wikia pages, I'll have to ask), at every end of the chapter, I'll include the voice fancast for the OCs:
Kirigakure Saizō: Kenjirō Tsuda (JPN), Yong Yea (ENG)
Sanada Yukimura: Yuki Ono (JPN), Johnny Yong Bosh (ENG)
Ryuugamine Takeshi: Nobunaga Shimazaki (JPN, and transplanted from the original fan-wiki), Bryce Papenbrook (ENG)
Ryuugamine Shiori: Akiko Kimura (JPN), Mikaela Krantz (ENG)
Ryuugamine Hiroto: Anri Katsu (JPN), Kellen Goff (ENG)