7 Welcome Home

Issei shifted uncomfortably upon the spot as he waited in the front room of his house. It didn't matter that his hot stepmom, Ingrid Hyoudou nee Amiyama was wearing a tight-fitting dress. It didn't matter that his hot neighbours Arisa Suzumaru and her two daughters, Megumi and Ayami were here. It didn't matter that the Hayasaki children, Mio, Noemi and Yurine were here.

None of that mattered in his usually perverted mind because at this moment, his brother was going to walk through that door at any moment.

The Hyoudou family had never been the same after that plane crash that took both Miki and Mikoto from them. Gorou had practically withdrawn within himself, focusing purely upon work and hiring the then nanny Ingrid to look after Issei. As a young child himself had endured the abandonment and as he grew older, took to porn and peeping on girls as a means to overcome his grief.

There had been a big rupture in the family as a result of the plane crash. One that could perhaps never be filled, even with Ingrid being as kindhearted as she was.

But it was also hard to believe that his brother, Mikoto had been alive. Amnesia had robbed him of his memories and Mikoto couldn't help but curse his brother for the life he got to live. 'A model?! Where's the fairness in that?!' And perhaps to insight even more envy within him, Mikoto had been involved with a scandal with the CEO of the Gold Pleasure Group, Rino Kurayoshi. 'That lucky bastard!'

Despite his thoughts though, Issei wasn't truly envious, he was just happy to have Mikoto back.

"He's here." Misako eagerly spoke. "And in a limo?"

Issei rushed forwards, looking to see a hot blonde woman who has the secretary look down to an absolute fine art. She gave a once over of the house and for the life of him, Issei couldn't tell whether she approved or not and if she didn't, 'well fuck you, bitch!' Certainly, it wasn't a mansion but Gorou had become quite successful.

After Miki and Mikoto's supposed death, Gorou had thrown himself into work fully as a means to overcome his grief. His hard work and long hours have earned him a great number of promotions. They weren't rolling in stacks like someone like this secretaries boss would be, but they were certainly one of the richer families in their neighbourhood.

That's when the door opened to the limo and outstepped the young man who was just effortlessly good-looking. Issei had already seen the pictures of his brother as a model, everyone had when they learned that he was Mikoto. And yeah, Issei was strong enough in his masculinity to say that Mikoto was good-looking but he'd thought it was due to make-up, good lighting and all that rubbish.

'Damn him!' Issei cursed good-naturedly as he turned to see the light blush upon Mio's and Yurine's cheeks. 'The journey to Harem King has become that much harder, I now have a rival.' But despite those thoughts, Issei couldn't help but smile as the door to the house burst open and Gorou rushed out, Issei following behind quickly.

-X- Line Break -X-

"I'll be acting as your personal liaison between yourself and Rino-sama," Kaede explained from her position beside me. "Officially, your story is that you were a model for Gold Pleasure Group. You are in no capacity to reveal your occupation as a fighter in the Kengan Association."

I nodded my head in response, looking out the window, the houses passing by in a slow crawl as we slowly ground to a halt outside a, particularly large one. There were no reporters unlike those that had been in the airport waiting to ambush them which I was thankful for.

However, my journey had been one conducted in relative silence, Kaede going over some paperwork. But as we had pulled into the neighbourhood she had repeated what Rino had told me before we set off from the airport. She herself had never left the private jet, it no doubt setting off back for Tokyo.

"But unofficially, you'll still be acting as the representative fighter for the Gold Pleasure Group. Under the guise of modelling shoots, you will be getting occasional leave from school to take part in Kengan fights." That made me smile, as much as attending Kuoh school would help me get close to people like Rias and so on, it was also going to be incredibly boring, or at least I imagined it would.

I never enjoyed school in my old life despite having gone onto get a degree in computer science. It hadn't helped me much as I had simply started work in low paying retail jobs that I usually got fired from a few months after working there. I was barely able to scrounge up enough money to pay for my rent every month so I hadn't exactly been doing well for myself in my old life, but at least the education I got would come in handy to breeze through school.

Not to mention that my time working for Rino had given me quite a bit of money and I could always ask her for more if I needed to. So I doubt I'd need to worry about money for the foreseeable future.

No, my worries we're far, far more dangerous and powerful. Not only did I have the DxD world and its threats, people I had next to no clue as to who or how powerful they really were. By the fact that Kengan and Highschool of the Dead were also a part of this world, it also raised the question of what else was a part of it.

What other threats did I have to worry about?

After conquering the Inside my training with Saechōrō had begun in full and I had learned quite a bit more. But as much as I knew that I was strong, I didn't know how strong I was in context to other threats. Was I on the level of Rias Gremory or below it? Because if that was the case then I was still incredibly weak. But on the other end, if I was stronger than Rias then how much stronger was I?

I needed answers to these questions but first things first, I needed to do was integrate myself back into the society of Kuoh once more. Kaede was already gathering information on what I had missed and so on so I didn't need to worry about that. Right now, I just needed to focus on acting like a teenager who had been reunited with his 'family.'

I had nothing against Gorou or Issei, but they weren't the family I remembered from my old life so it felt strange to call them as such.

Stepping out of the limo after Kaede, I looked around at the house. It was quite large, not the mansion I had been living but in a way, it was much more homely in its appearance. The car parked outside was also quite expensive which told me my 'family' had done quite well for themselves in the time I had begun.

Not that I was surprised, Rino had already gathered what information she could on my 'family' since I had gone. Their reaction to my 'death' and Miki's was another facet that made me question the realism of this world. Not only did people not act in a way similar to anime characters, but their reactions were also incredibly real. It was quite disconcerting and made me ask questions I really didn't want answers to.

It was better to just view them as fictional characters.

Seeing the door open, Gorou rushed out, Issei hot on his tails and suddenly, I found myself embraced in a tight hug. Both father and son crying as they hugged me and I would admit, I was a little uncomfortable and unsure on how to respond. They must have sensed my uncomfortableness and pulled away, Gorou looking to me with a huge smile upon his face, Issei showing a similar amount of joy.

Their reaction was realistic and honestly made me feel guilty for what I had done.

"Welcome home," Gorou said sincerely, tears streaming down his face, so joyous at simply having me, his son returned home.

Well, now I just felt like shit.

-X- Line Break -X-

Pushing open the door to my room, I paused. It was pretty bare but that was to be expected, no one had lived in it. There were of course a few pictures of me when I was younger, our 'family' all posing for family pictures and so on so forth.

Behind me, Gorou stood beside his new wife and my stepmom, Ingrid as I had come to learn as they watched my reaction. They had been like that with everything, everyone had, always watching what they were saying and how I would react. They were walking on eggshells as if something they said or did would cause me to shatter or leave. An understandable reaction, but it was getting a little on my nerves.

"We haven't done anything to it, you're free to personalise it however you want," Gorou said anxiously and I flashed him a smile.

"Thanks…Otousan." That still felt weird to say but the large smile he gave seemed to do the trick. "I think I'm just going to get some sleep, it been a long day and I'm tired." Gorou nodded his head, he and Ingrid heading down the corridor to their room and after closing the door to my room, jumped onto my bed with a groan.

The welcome home party had been nice, the hot women there was a definite bonus to it all. But it had dragged on a little too much for my liking. Social interactions weren't exactly my strong suit, never had been because it was just so much effort.

I knew that would have to change when I went to school but right now, it was just a little much. Luckily for me, the school wouldn't be starting for another week - I'd already been transferred to the newly turned coed school of Kuoh Academy – so I had a bit of time to work on my social skills. Considering the close friendship Misako and my father had with the other parents, I'd probably be seeing more of my neighbours.

The fact that they were hot certainly wasn't the trouble, but they were teenagers and well, teenagers were hard to deal with. However, in my many years away I had faced many hardships and overcome them all, some easier than others.

But I was still here, I'd survived and I'm pretty sure I could survive High School again. I'd already been through it once so it shouldn't be too hard, should it?