Aftermath

Disclaimer: I own neither High School DxD nor Demon Slayer. This story is purely fan fiction. Please support the official release.

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●3rd Person POV●

Night had long since passed as the sun shone brightly over Kuoh Town once more.

"Is there anything else you could tell us from last night?"

Within the confines of the Occult Research Club building of Kuoh Academy, a meeting was taking place.

Two couches faced each other, on one side sat the Occult Research Club's President, one of the two Rulers of Kuoh, Rias Gremory. Standing behind her was her queen, Akeno Himejima.

On the other couch sat a nervous Issei. He had his knees joined together and his hands placed on top of them.

His eyes alternately glanced at both Rias' and Akeno's chests, something the two devils noticed but didn't really mind.

He had taken to finding out about the existence of the supernatural rather well. No violent reactions upon finding out that they were devils either.

Well, he was probably too preoccupied with staring at their voluminous chests to care.

Rias, after being summoned, had stumbled upon the scene of the destroyed park the night before, left looking more akin to a battlefield than a place for relaxation. She was left perplexed upon seeing she was alone.

Normally, a devil is summoned in a secluded area like an empty room, with the summoner standing before the summoning circle waiting.

But that didn't happen last night.

Instead, she was treated to the sight of dust all around, and it was only after clearing it that she found the brunette young man approaching her.

"The sounds of fighting stopped all of a sudden, before POW! I heard a loud impact. Like someone smashed a sledgehammer onto a rock. Followed by a body falling hard on the ground, even forming a crater."

With the tone of a child recounting a scene from a superhero movie, he happily recounted the events that transpired on the night he almost died.

"The wind whipped around, even getting some dust in my eye, but after it cleared out, I saw it. That person fell from the sky and started walking toward that bitch after landing. How cool is that?! He looked just like me, a normal human, yet he was able to jump that high and socked the bitch right in the face! Hahaha!"

The two didn't really find it annoying however, if anything they found Issei's excitement rather adorable.

Nonetheless, something caught their attention.

"He looked like a human? As in he wasn't a human?"

Rias cut in before he could continue regaling them with stories of his hero.

"Oh, yeah. Well... I'm not really sure." Scratching his nape before putting his hand to his chin, he ponders. "I mean, he had no special features on him. No feathery or leathery wings, nothing. He did hold a sword though. And man, he knew how to use it."

Both Rias and Akeno's ears perked up noticeably.

"A sword? A normal sword, or did it have magic?"

"What kind? Western or Eastern?"

"How strong was he? Was he skilled?"

He leaned back subconsciously as his mind was left reeling from the barrage of questions from the two best friend devils.

Rias herself leaned forward, showing the heavenly sight of her breasts bouncing slightly.

"A-As far as I could see, it was just a normal sword. It did shine a beautiful light blue-green. Though I don't think that was from magic."

Upon hearing him clear his throat, both Rias and Akeno sported a small blush, embarrassed of losing themselves for a moment.

He carried on.

"It was a katana. As for how skilled he is..."

He paused for a moment to ponder, visions of his savior's moves played in slow motion in his head.

"If there was ever someone who would claim to be a grandmaster of the sword, it would be him. Like, I don't even know how to describe it." Blood pumped fast through his veins just from recalling it. "He slashed light, you know?! I didn't even know you could do that!"

It was exhilarating. The scene of someone, a human like himself, facing a fallen angel, a being mentioned in the fucking Bible, was adrenaline-inducing, to say the least.

Their movements were a blur to his untrained eyes.

"In their first few exchanges, it was he who stood his ground while she went on the offensive." He continued to tell the magical tale. "The bitch held the advantage of her weapon having a longer reach than his. Even used the wings on her back to speed herself up."

He could have gone on the attack himself, he should have yet he didn't. It was obvious as to the reason why.

He couldn't risk the Fallen bitch throwing an attack at Issei behind his back should he have moved away from him to engage her in physical combat.

Issei couldn't help the pang of embarrassment from recalling it. He felt ashamed of just sitting behind him like an idiot. He genuinely thought the least he could have done was vacate the area earlier on and hide to not be a burden to him.

He was broken out of his wallowing by the devil heiress' concerned voice.

"Hey, are you okay? You went all silent all of a sudden."

A look of sympathy etched itself on her face as she gazed into his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. No, I'm good. Just a bit frazzled is all."

He is so lame. How could he ever hope to create the grand harem of his dreams if something like this was enough to shake him?!

He felt like punching himself in the face.

[No need to beat yourself up over it, brat. It was your first battle. The first time you've ever faced a life-and-death situation.] Draigg cut in. It was the first time today that he's heard his voice. [If anything, I would call it your graduation from virginity!]

He thanked Draigg while chuckling in his heart. He felt that the dragon in his soul could have left that last part out.

"Hey, it's alright to feel that way. You almost died after all. And all of this is a lot to take in for you, I'm sure."

Rias let out a little smile, dazzling his senses, and causing a not-so-unnoticeable blush to paint his face red.

Hearing the small laugh of the raven-haired beauty behind Rias, he could only cough into his fist in embarrassment before going back into his train of thought.

"Once the bitch realized that close quarters wasn't working for her, she opted to just snipe him while in the air. It was then that she pulled out the big guns."

A sigh escaped his lips as he leaned back on the couch.

"A big ass blast of light. It would have disintegrated my dumbass if it weren't for him grabbing my collar and pulling me out before dumping me into the bushes. Not to mention that she used a shit ton of more magic and even attacked with her feathers as projectiles."

If the advantage she held before was big, it turned abysmal after she took flight.

While he used a katana with his feet on the earth, she on the other hand had the high ground.

"It continued on like that for a bit. He dodged and weaved through barrages of attacks like it was nothing. Man, the look on her face as she got more and more worked up was satisfying to see."

He rubbed a finger under his nose in reminiscence.

"And then? How did he beat her?" Akeno cut in before he went on a tangent. "Did he use magic? Perhaps even a sacred gear?"

"I don't know about anything like that, but I do know that I didn't see him deploy any kind of magic... Though I don't know how credible my words are given that I haven't seen much of it." He put a hand back to his chin and fell into deep thought. "All I know is that after she blasted another pillar of light down on him, one that moved faster and followed his movements, dust was sent flying all around, obscuring my vision."

"And then? And then?!" Rias herself got a bit excited with stars in her eyes. To her, it was like a scene from D*ag*n B*ll!

"Once the dust cleared, there was no one in the clearing anymore. Not a single sign of life on the scene. Then just as she primed another spell and waited for him to appear, I heard a loud crack!"

It was like thunder.

Feeling the end of the story coming near, a small smile made it onto Issei's face.

"In an instant, the bitch was the one made to lie in a crater on the ground while he flew through the air! He looked just like *tachi with the moon at his back! You should have seen it!" He smacked both his palms onto the coffee table.

"Woah!" Thoroughly impressed, Rias nearly clapped her hands in amazement.

"Ahe-hem!!" The role of rounding up these two children fell onto Akeno's shoulders.

The brunette and the redhead both settled down while blushing. Rias took it upon herself to dispel the awkward air that followed.

"A-Anything else you can tell us?"

"After that, I must have felt so exhausted because I fainted right then." Following her lead, he cleared his throat and spoke. "I woke up after some time only to find that he and the bitch were gone and you stood in the middle of the park."

He felt Draigg react when he finished talking, deciding to ask him about it later.

"So..."

Rias crossed her arms, inadvertently gluing the boy's gaze to her chest once more.

"In summary, he is strong."

"Yes. Yes, he is." He turned back to her beautiful blue eyes hoping she didn't notice.

"He used a sword, as in a normal sword, and utilized no magic right?"

"Yes, from what I could see." Feeling something off, he asked further. "Those details seem important to you guys for some reason. What about them?"

Hearing his inquiry, both King and Queen shared a look before turning back to him.

Rias spoke first.

"Before that, I would like to make you an offer."

At the same time, Akeno pulled out a suitcase from behind the couch and handed it to her.

When Rias opened it so Issei could peek inside, he found a total of 12 chess pieces.

All glowing a dark red.

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●Muichiro's POV●

Sitting on a tree branch and eating this little contraption people call a sandwich, I admire the view high up above the forest floor.

I gotta say, the air in this place is so much cleaner than the outside. Maybe they used some kind of magic?

It turns out that the inside of Kuoh Academy is a lot bigger than it looks on the outside. At least 10 times bigger.

And if I thought the outside looked luxurious, the inside looked damn magical.

Literally.

I could feel it in the wind. Even the sunlight looks like it's been slightly altered so that only a certain amount hits the vegetation, arbitrarily making the surrounding temperature just right for relaxation.

Veritable proof that whosoever donates the money for this academy's upkeep guarantees their money to be well spent.

And that he is associated with the supernatural in some way, shape, or form.

Yep, it's the master of that maid, who I came to know as Grayfia-san.

My ever so mysterious employer. What more proof do I need that whoever he is, he is closely related to one of the two Devil Heiresses?

I laugh in my heart out of amusement every time I think of it.

A being so high up in the food chain, so much so that a devil as strong as Grayfia-san is his servant.

Who would have thought that said being was just an excessively overprotective big brother?

Yes, those two adjectives together sound redundant, but it is the most accurate way I would describe him.

Moving on, though.

I was and still am astonished at how long it's been since I died.

A thousand years.

Just a century is an unfathomable length of time to me, let alone ten times that.

So much happened after I passed.

Empires rose and fell, entire nations expanded and collapsed.

Technology advanced through leaps and bounds as war ravaged not just Yamato, but the whole world.

Ah, right. It is called Japan these days.

I feel thankful for this thing called the devilnet.

I was told that it is based on the internet created by humans and tailored to be of use to supernatural beings.

With it, I could learn all I needed to about the entire world, except the more secretive knowledge kept under wraps by certain groups and factions of course.

I just need this little device called a devil- phone to access it. Just like the devilnet, it is based on another human invention called the cellphone.

I admit, I am a bit baffled by this naming sense.

Grayfia-san told me that it comes from an acquaintance of her master's who specializes in inventions and research.

This device was one of the bonuses that came with accepting the invitation from Grayfia-san's master.

The others included a sizable house on the outskirts of Kuoh with all the documents required as proof of my residency in modern Japan.

I had to figure out how to use those little do-dads like the refrigerator, stove, and washing machine.

The wonders of technology, huh? I considered warm food and clean clothes to be luxuries way back when, and now I could obtain such luxuries with the press of a button.

I was also given a massive amount of money as a starting bonus.

Paper money still feels weird to me. In fact, money as a whole has become something foreign to me. The only kind of money I knew about were those tiny copper coins I used to conduct business with those merchants back then.

There are even these things called Automated Teller Machines that give you any amount of money you desire, as long as you have this tiny rectangle of plastic called a Credit Card.

...I got side-tracked again, huh?

To get all of these, I didn't have to sell my soul or pledge my loyalty or anything like that.

I was also promised that my employer and any of his associates had no intentions to exploit Issei-kun or innocent people in general.

Whether they will uphold such a promise is still up for questioning, though.

In exchange, I am only required to do one thing and one thing only.

I am to help Rias Gremory, one of Kuoh's Devil Heiresses, in her endeavor to become stronger. It isn't limited to the person herself, strengthening her peerage members would achieve the same desired effect.

The reason for this? I do not know. I wasn't told much else besides that.

Oh yeah, I also have to make sure that neither Rias Gremory nor any of her peerage finds out about my mission or identifies me in the performance of my duties.

Sure, it isn't the greatest job description, but the pay is good, and I am not required to trample on any morals to do it.

"Oh? Look who's here..."

I am suddenly taken out of my ruminations by the sounds of small footsteps.

My ears perk up as a small head of white hair catches my eyes.

The reason why I have chosen a branch so high up in the middle of Kuoh Academy's forest as my lunch spot today is simple.

It wouldn't be ideal to just walk up to this person as if I knew her like that. That would make her suspicious of my motives.

Thus I opted to go with the less direct approach.

My current target has a rather remarkable sense of smell and hearing, you see.

Like those of a cat.

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A/N: How is it so far? Please tell me what you think in the comments!