2 Memories and First Morning In A New World

The memories were pretty simple, honestly. A cliché story, if I had to classify them.

This body had the same name as me - Ryuji Tatsumoto. Except I wasn't a human in this life. Not a full one, anyway. The overall gist of the situation was similar to my old life - I was born to a warrior clan but that's where the similarities ended, honestly.

This Ryuji was born between the union of an exceptionally strong Exorcist and one of the stronger members of the Tatsumoto Clan. Another difference would be the advantages this Ryuji was born with: he was the perfect Tatsumoto Clan member and was talented beyond compare.

Said Tatsumoto Clan was a Devil Clan of quite high-standing due to the raw physical prowess they naturally have, their regenerative healing factors that make them quite hard to kill and the fact they had a unique brand of Demonic Power called Yoki which boasted immensely high body reinforcement potential. They also had a natural resistance to Light/Holy-based Attacks that other Devils didn't have, so it made them perfect for the vanguard of the Devil Army.

Or least they had high-standing.

'Had' because they'd left the Underworld and came to Earth because Devil politics really didn't suit a Clan of muscle-headed warriors (they also changed their name to a more Japanese-themed one so they fit in on Earth better and so another Devil House could take their old name among the 72 Pillars) but also because they were all dead now. Murdered by a battalion of Fallen Angels led by Kokabiel.

...Poor kid had to watch his entire family get slaughtered in front of him...all from a hiding place he parents forced him into. Even sealed him there so he couldn't try and help them. That's quite fucked up, honestly. I get the sentiment behind it - keeping him alive because from what I remember from the memories I'm getting, this Ryuji used to be a real shounen protagonist and definitely would've ran out to try and help them, only to get killed in the process - but they must've realized that they'd traumatize their son if they did that, right? Part of me thinks they did know but they still did it anyway. Out of love, I guess. 'Being traumatized is better than being dead' is probably what they thought yet sadly they were only partly right.

Kid was sent on a warpath after seeing what he did. Hated Fallen Angels with a passion even I was surprised by. Especially Kokabiel. This Ryuji usually dreamed about killing that sadistic bastard--Oh wow, that hate is really slipping through into me, isn't it? Well, better keep that under control.

Even despite my conscious efforts to control that hatred and anger, it still lingered deep within me, threatening to burst forth like a volcano waiting to explode. Though I guess this is one of the disadvantages of being transmigrated. I'm this person now, after all - I even have their brain chemistry and overall hormones. Physically, I am him. With the memories and the feelings attached to said memories...I guess you could even say I'm at least somewhat mentally like him as well.

Finally, the influx of memories came to an end and I sat up before bringing a hand to my forehead and wiping away the sweat gathered there, "...Truly annoying," I muttered before getting up off the bed I was in and standing to my full height. This Ryuji, or rather I, had lost his entire Clan when he turned 13. Since then he's been surviving on his own and clawing his way up though Human society to get where he is now - what he wants is to prove his worth to Rias Gremory, the heiress to the powerful House Gremory, so that he can further his strength and gain resources to further that strength. The body I'm in is currently 18 and I was currently living in Kuoh Town and my transfer to Kuoh Academy had just been accepted.

How did he/I accomplish this?

Despite belonging to a mainly physical-orientated Clan, I knew how to use my Yoki to manipulate the minds of Humans. Which meant making a school record and all the necessary records for a school transfer was a piece of cake.

Now, I wasn't going to join Rias' Peerage. I don't need it. Not like I'm a human who has a physical limit, is it? I just need to train on my own. But I am quite interested in proposing an alliance to her. Quite a few fights center around her peerage, after all, and I'd be a sucker if I missed out on them, wouldn't I?

Laughing to myself, I made my way through my small apartment until I got to the kitchen where I poured myself some cereal before I sat down at the dining table and ate while I thought about the other types of memories I now had. Memories centered around training methods used by this world's Tatsumoto Clan.

And I've got to say, they really take advantage of their healing factors. Their training is borderline suicidal...but it's pretty damn effective!

If I add my own insights on training to these Devil-orientated training methods...I can't wait to see the results!

Giving a chuckle to myself, I instantly felt the anger and hatred well up inside of me again but I kept it down and under control. Despite this, I still frowned slightly - I couldn't go on with this level of hatred and anger for too long, so I quickly ate my cereal before I just sat on the floor in a meditative position.

I closed my eyes and decided I needed to burn off some of my energy and anger through exercise. It also gave me the opportunity to test out one of the training methods I was most interested to work with.

The destruction and subsequent rebirth (or creation) of muscle fibers is exactly how people get stronger. The same thing can be done with bones via micro-fractures healing over time, causing bones to get thicker and denser meaning they get more durable. This sort of method is used by everyone who's worked out, ever. Period. But each person has varying degrees of effectiveness. Some people develop muscle and a strengthened body much quicker than others - this is usually to do with genetics and can't usually be changed.

Which is why a subspecies like my Clan is such a rare and unique lifeform. A healing factor. A variable that could speed up the rebirth process of exercise. If you could find some way to speed up the destruction of your muscles...it's not out of bounds to say that you'd accelerate your training speed by however fast you can destroy and create new and stronger muscle fibers.

And it just so happened that Devils from the Tatsumoto Clan have access to Yoki, a very volatile and destructive energy second only to the Destruction energy from House Bael in terms of destructive potential but far superior in terms of body enhancement potential. Yet this body enhancement potential can only be tapped into when the energy is used correctly. If used incorrectly, it rips flesh apart as easily as blender ripping through wet paper.

This is one of the major weaknesses to Yoki Demonic power. The other major weakness being that it cannot be expelled outside of the body, meaning Devil Magic is practically impossible for anything beyond hypnosis or other minor magicks. At least not without a medium such as a staff.

But if one were to use the right amount of control and let the Yoki have just the right amount of ferociousness to it...you could rip apart your muscles, crack your bones and injure your internal organs at just the right speed that your healing factor could kick and heal all the damage before it starts to pile up, effectively increasing the speed of your destruction/creation of muscle fibers and speeding up the overall strengthening of your body.

This is the Tatsumoto Clan's main way of training. You let Yoki rip up your body and let your healing factor heal it all, making it stronger, all while working out and it'll increase your gains manifold times more than what it'd originally be.

I mean, it's not without it's problems, however. It's incredibly bloody painful, as I'm finding out first hand as I try and find the perfect balance between control and letting the Yoki loose through my body. Said pain isn't too bad for someone like me - I'm used to feeling pain due to my training in my past life and my fighting style - but that pain can cause a slight slip up and that slip up could cause a massive wound that could snowball into something bad happening like a hidden injury or maybe even, in the most extreme case, death.

The second problem is that such a training method is dangerous because of the properties of Yoki. You can only ever use 80% of your Yoki or you run the chance of turning into a mindless monster who kills and eats whatever it finds. This is due to the corrupting properties of Yoki, and while training you need to keep a very close eye on your expenditure of Yoki otherwise you run the risk of Awakening as the Clan called it.

Of course this is the same as what Claymores experience in the anime/manga series 'Claymore'. They're half-Yoma (a species of man-eating super predators) and half-Human and have access to Yoki. They're main goal is to kill Yoma before they kill humans or take down Yoma that have killed before.

It's a pretty decent series, honestly. I read it on my off-time which I used to relax. Which is also time I spent reading Highschool DxD, so I obviously know there was no such thing as the Tatsumoto Clan or House Amon (which was the Clan's old name).

Which means this whole Clan and the tragedy I now felt and could remember...was brought into existence by that Godly being. I couldn't even find myself to be mad at the being, though. Sure, it'd left me with hatred and an insurmountable amount of anger...but it'd also given me a second chance at life in a much more interesting world than my old one. Kinda evened out any anger I could feel towards it.

Plus, feeling anger to such a being was...pretty useless. Not like it'd ever care about my feelings. It sent me here for it's entertainment, after all.

Anyway, the balance I needed for my Yoki finally clicked in my head and I let it loose with a loose lead wrapped around it's figurative head. Whenever it got too out of control, I tugged at the lead and led it somewhere else while that part of my body healed.

This continued for a few minutes before I stopped the flow of Yoki before opening my eyes and lifting a hand to look at it. I clenched and relaxed it in front of my eyes before giving a somewhat sardonic laugh, "I trained my whole past life in the most harsh conditions possible, traveled the world refining my technique and adding to my style of fighting...and yet some greenhorn 18-year-old who's never left Japan is so much physically stronger than the past me it's gone passed embarrassing and now it's just funny," I continued laughing before shaking my head and standing up. The small experiments I'd just employed with the Yoki had strengthened my body a little but more prolonged exposure would be needed for the effects to be as pronounced as I wanted them to be.

Stretching, I let out a yawn before looking to a nearby clock, "6:19 AM, huh? Got an hour before I need to prepare for my first day at Kuoh Academy...so let's go get used to the physical prowess of this new body, shall we?" I spoke to myself with a manic smile, thinking up all the moves I could pull off with ease with the held of these supernaturally strong muscles.

I was a Half-Devil but my physiology was basically based off of the perfect Claymore (Yoma-Human Hybrid) which meant I was the best version any Claymore could ever be. I had the potential to be the strongest, fastest, most durable, vigorous, have the highest Yoki amount and the fastest and most effective regeneration a Claymore could possibly have--I was the full packet. Plus, I had the blessing from that Godly being and he'd even taken away any growth limiter someone with a Claymore physiology had just so it could keep pace with those in Highschool DxD who could grow to incredible power.

There's also the fact they hinted at there being a correct way to Awaken by using 100% of my Yoki. A way that would leave me stronger than before and much more prepared to face the threats I'll someday have to face in this world.

But until then I still needed to know my limits so I could train more effectively and so I could, more importantly, fight effectively. Cause today's the day I show Rias Gremory I'm a worthy ally to have~!