Chance

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's POV●

"Thanks a lot, young man. Normally, these groceries wouldn't give me much trouble, but my back has been killing me lately..."

It was early in the morning. The sun had just risen over the bustling town of Kuoh.

Among the busybodies going to work or school, a young boy was feeling troubled by a mother who refused to stop thanking him.

"Why don't you come inside and join me and my family for breakfast? It's the least I could do."

"No, no. Like I said, it's nothing."

"Come on... not even for a snack? Are you sure you don't want to eat? Growing kids like you need lots of nutrients to be big and strong when you get older~!"

"No, really..."

"Speaking of, that's a real neat gakuran you're wearing. I don't recall any schools around here that have that as their uniform though... And is that a toy sword? Are you allowed to bring that to school?"

This kind of exchange had been repeating itself for nearly 30 minutes now. They were standing at the front door of the woman's house.

Passerby's spared them curious glances, some even whispering about how "Miki's doing it again".

Needless to say, this boy was Muichiro.

He had noticed this lady struggling to bring her bags of groceries back home from the store and offered to help her out of the kindness of his heart.

The walk itself wasn't eventful. She had served as the sole initiator of their conversations on the way to her abode.

Never would he have expected to be held up by something like this as he tried to leave.

He could cut through magic, slash his enemies apart before they could blink, and fight beings capable of leveling entire buildings.

That same person was currently powerless in front of a person expressing pure gratitude and goodwill to him.

"I really should go..."

"Oh, nonsense! I insist!" Her grasp on his hands tightened.

There was no escape.

"Mom! Who's at the door?" A familiar adolescent boy's voice echoed from the doorway.

"Oh, it's just a nice young man who helped me with the groceries, dear~! Come here, you just have to meet him!"

The thudding of footsteps resounded within until a teenage boy came into view.

"Ah..." A rare note of surprise entered Muichiro's voice upon seeing who it was.

"Eh?" It also came as a great surprise to the brunette young man, albeit a welcome one.

"Issei-kun?"

"Holy hell, it's you! I-I thought the worst after what happened that night!" His arms made their acquaintances with Muichiro's back in a tearful hug. "Wuuu~ *sniffle* It's good that you're okay!"

"Oh? So you know this boy, Issei? Why, that's just perfect then!" Without even asking for his consent, Muichiro is pulled into the doorway. Issei hanging off his front and all. "Let's all talk about it while we eat~! Your father will join us later."

Miki Hyoudou just had a way to make people run at her pace.

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"Oh, my... To think that was the reason you got home so late that night. A bit shaken too..."

A magnificent spread lay across the Hyoudou residence's dining table.

After placing his sword safely in the umbrella rack, Muichiro found a seat and immediately began wolfing down the food as soon as they finished saying grace, much to Miki's delight.

Gone was his reluctance to partake, replaced by great hunger as soon as he took just one look at the food.

In for a penny, in for a pound as they say.

If the woman was grateful to him before, she felt fully indebted to him now. He was her son's life's benefactor after all.

He and Issei sat across from one another while Miki sat on one end, making sure a good helping of rice was always on Muichiro's plate as soon as he finished the last one.

Of course, Issei didn't tell her about his encounter with the Fallen bitch exactly as it went. It ate at him a bit inside how he lied to his mother, but it had to be done. All to keep her and his dad safe.

"Are you sure your hands are okay? Issei said you had to pull both him and yourself up after you caught him before he could fall into that canal, after all."

She delicately patted the soy sauce off his cheek with a napkin.

"I appreciate your concern, ma'am, but I can assure you, I am very much okay. I am very strong after all." As if to prove his point, he pauses eating and raises both arms up.

His deadpan face coupled with his current pose made Miki swoon from the cuteness.

He had long introduced himself to the Hyoudou mother and son, going so far as to give his first name in deference to being given such a hearty meal.

"Well~ if you say so, Mu-chan!" She couldn't resist pinching his cheek.

Issei stared wide-eyed at what was happening in front of him.

His benefactor, someone who fought a fallen at a speed so fast he couldn't see them, was currently being doted on like a delicate child.

'I mean, he does look like a child, but Buchou told me about there being races who look younger than they really are.'

It was only about 25 minutes later that breakfast was finished. Much to their surprise, the younger boy devoured twice as much food as both Issei and his Mother combined.

After which, Miki took it upon herself to clean up the table.

"Phew... Thanks for the meal." Pressing both palms together, he thanked both the gods above and Issei's mother.

"O~kay then! You two boys play nice alright? I'll be in the kitchen if you need me." Her feet stopped right before the kitchen's entrance. "Oh, right. Issei, dear?"

"Yeah?"

"Your father will not be getting lunch later. Tell him that okay?" She was smiling, but her eyes weren't.

"Y-You got it, mom!"

The creaking of the kitchen door sounded extra slow and ominous somehow.

In the Hyoudou Household, eating was treated as sacred, as something to be done only with all family members present. Those who missed their meals despite being present at home were severely punished.

With no food for their next meal and sleeping on the couch for Gorou Hyoudou in this case.

Patting his full stomach, Muichiro made his way to their living room and sat on the couch. Issei followed suit beside him.

"Your mother is quite the nice lady, huh?" Small talk brewed between them. "I have never tasted such exquisite food before."

"Yeah. She's great. I am proud to have been born as her son."

The smile on Issei's face as he spoke of his mother caused something to stir in Muichiro's eyes.

Silence followed shortly after. Issei felt a bit suffocated by the awkward air so he started chatting about the first thing that came to mind.

"So Muichiro-san, what's your type?"

"Hmm?"

"You know, your type of woman?"

"You mean my preference?"

"Yeah! I, for one, prefer a woman with huge oppai! Oppai is thr best after all!"

[Dammit, brat. What are you even saying?] Draigg chimed in within his mind. [You finally meet your savior, even share a meal with him and this is the shit you spew in his face?]

"Ah..." He felt he had messed up. "I-I mean at least that's what I think. I don't know about you, but there is just something about-"

"I suppose they are."

"Eh?"

Issei was making a lot of dumb noises today.

"I do find women with bigger breasts easy on the eyes." He was seriously pondering it. "But what do big breasts matter if everything else about the woman is dogshit?"

He turns to his side, to Issei.

"I'm sure you know the answer to that."

"Yes..."

Visions of that night appeared in the brunette's dreams from time to time.

"Ah, right!" He stepped right in front of Muichiro and prostrated himself, putting his forehead and both palms on the floor. His expression hardened. "Muichiro-san, thank you so much for saving me! I wouldn't be alive right now if it weren't for you. I wouldn't be able to hug Mom and Dad anymore if you hadn't stepped in back then."

A solemn atmosphere fell upon the living room.

It was a moving sight even to someone like Muichiro, a person expressing his gratitude in such an earnest manner.

"Stand up. There is no need to thank me, Issei-kun. I only did as any other person would have done had they been in my place that night."

Issei sweat-dropped a bit at that.

'As if just anyone would have been able to fight like he did...'

"Even so..." He kept such thoughts to himself though. "It still feels like I haven't done enough to thank you."

Looking at his figure as he refused to budge from his position, Muichiro concluded one thing.

"Goodness, it seems being excessively grateful is something that runs in your family's bloodline." Muichiro shook his head in defeat. "You have some ways away before you enter the realm of your mother in that regard though. Just helping carry her bags kept me at your door for half an hour."

Feeling the mood lighten up, Issei lifted his head. His face started easing up a little.

"Yeah, my mom's been like that since forever." Now on his feet, a palm makes its way onto his nape. "Oh, yeah! Where have you been after that? You disappeared all of a sudden, so I thought something bad happened."

Remembering the events that transpired after that, Muichiro briefly mulled over what to tell him.

"Issei-kun."

"Yes?"

"You were reborn, right? Into a devil?"

The air went back to sombre.

Issei choked a bit at the sudden question. It was so blunt that it didn't allow any avenue of subversion. The only was option to answer it.

"...Yes."

"What piece?"

"The pawns"

"Pawns? Plural?"

"Ah, yes..."

This brought Muichiro to a pause.

'From what I read, there are times when a person with great potential requires more than one piece to be reincarnated.' Rubbing his chin, he ponders. 'Must be because of Draigg.'

Now for the heart of the matter.

"And who is your King?"

He expected Issei to be the least bit hesitant to give him such important information.

However, he had greatly underestimated how loose the boy's mouth was.

"Her name's Rias. Rias Gremory." He was gushing like he was her biggest fan or something. "You should come meet her sometime! She's got beautiful red hair reaching her thighs, pretty blue eyes, and the biggest oppai I've ever seen!"

To emphasize his point, he makes a cupping gesture with both hands up to his chest as if to give Muichiro the vaguest idea of what he was speaking of.

"Man, just how lucky am I? To be recruited by such a beautiful girl with such big oppai... eh? Did I do it again?"

A second of silence passed between the two, one of them blinking in slight befuddlement and the other slowly turning into a tomato.

While Issei proceeded to blabber on in an attempt to salvage his slip of the tongue, Muichiro tuned him out and went into deep contemplation.

Just as he thought. This brought on a whole slew of problems.

Given what Issei just said, he shouldn't be talking to him right now. He runs the risk of exposing himself and how he was tasked, or rather paid, to watch over the older boy's king. Covertly if he may add.

This could potentially get him fired.

It was his first high-paying job too...

He would never be able to raise his head in front of his mother again should such a thing ever reach her ears.

Realistically speaking, while losing access to the cash cow that is his boss isn't actually all that bad, having a friendly or even just an employee-employer relationship with a person of great influence especially in devil society would surely prove to be a great boon in the future.

So it is currently a "touch and go" situation at the moment.

As he thought, he should have left right after they finished eating...

There was also something else he was more worried about than that though.

"Hey, Issei-kun."

"Y-Yes? What is it?"

"Are you okay?"

A confused look was all he got in response.

"Do you even know why that Raynare bitch tried to kill you that night?" He didn't wait for a reply. "She wanted your sacred gear."

"Eh?! A-Ah, right. Buchou did mention that. She told me it was, like, a weapon bound to my soul or something?"

And so started the explanation.

"You could say that sacred gears are akin to Divine Armaments. The weapons of the gods. Normally, if a human tried to wield such weapons, they would suffer major repercussions or even death due to their lack of divinity. Sacred gears are unique due to the fact that they can be wielded by mortal hands. However, in exchange for this, a limiter is placed on the powers their users can bring out, similar to a lid."

He paused, not to take a breath, but rather to see of Issei was listening closely.

"These things will pop up within certain humans around the world, all of them once being weapons the likes of which to be wielded only by gods and legendary heroes alike. Some obscure to the point of there being no records of them ever existing, while others were so well known that whosoever awakened them was guaranteed to be either recruited by a supernatural faction or thrown in a cage where their very souls will be ripped to shreds either by torture or experimentation until they become nothing but empty husks."

The brunette paid rapt attention to the younger boy's sermon.

He didn't question how he knew these things, nor did he want to.

He was grateful for any kind of input about just what kind of object he possessed and why it was valued so much he almost died because of it.

His King and Queen had already given him an abridged explanation of the nature of sacred gears, but it is always better to get somebody else's perspective on things.

But there was something in his gaze that told Muichiro that he was thinking of something weird again.

"Yours in particular is a very unique case." He raises a pointer finger at Issei. "Can you tell me what your King has told you about it?"

"She said she has a vague idea of what it is, but aside from that, nothing specific."

"It is called the Boosted Gear." There was still no reaction from the brunette, prompting him to sigh. "It houses the soul of Draigg, the Welsh Dragon, the Red Dragon of Domination, one of only two Heavenly Dragons to ever live. It possesses the ability to double the wielder's power until the wielder reaches his limit. We're talking any kind of power you've got: magic, physical parameters, or even demonic energy. Given enough training and time, your attacks could even reach the realm of the divine."

Upon hearing the explanation straight from a shounen manga, bright stars sparkled in the boy's eyes, making Muichiro think that he finally understood the gift and curse that was his sacred gear.

However...

It was always an inescapable flaw of Issei's to interpret already very specific information and twist it in a way to sound like the sweetest nectar in his ears.

"So that means that with this thing, i can get stronger, and if I get stronger, people will notice me, and when that happens women would flock to me. After that, I'll have all the oppai I could ever want! That's it! That's how I'll achieve my dream! I'll be the Harem King!"

The brain of the boy known as Issei Hyoudou had never run so fast before. Lightspeed would be an apt description for it.

This flabbergasted Muichiro.

He had intended to make him feel at least a little bit of the gravity of his situation, but what he got back instead was an even more zealous and clueless pervert.

He had not understood a damn thing from what Muichiro just said. Through one ear and out the other as they say.

Sure, he heard the words as they came out of his mouth, but he had taken to heart not a single one.

Normally, he would have gotten quite upset, but...

"What tremendous fighting spirit..." His eyes widened slightly at the sight of a strong aura coating Issei's body. "And you're telling me he hasn't trained a single day in his life?"

He didn't know how it was possible, but just for that moment, Issei exuded the aura he himself once possessed in his prime.

When he still possessed the mark of the sun...

...

"I've decided."

"Oppai all around... Gahahahaha...! Hahaha... Hm? Oh, I hope you didn't hear all that-"

"I'll train you."

"Eh?"

"And you'll help me out, won't you Draigg?"

Fuck it. Who cares if he gets fired anymore. Money's overrated anyway.

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A/N: What's this? A sudden cliché encounter to move the plot forward?!