Chapter 64: New World

New World Prologue

Upon arrival, Ray felt something weird as he tried to remember what happened to him or rather the memories belong to this body he possessed. He couldn't remember much as the owner of the body is already dying and his soul is deteriorating rapidly as his soul is undergoing the process of reincarnation, his memories are wiped for preparation of next life.

After the world jumps, Ray ends up in a void where he meets the soul of a boy and strikes a deal. The boy said that all he wanted was to atone for the war that he was partially involved with which ruined the world due to the emergence of IS or Infinite Stratos, an exoskeleton created for purposes of space exploration but as an instrument of war.

The patriarchal society collapsed shortly after the women powers raised immensely due to IS because IS can only be piloted by females and each of this exoskeleton is enough to turn half a continent upside down because there is simply no weapon that can oppose it other than another IS. With women's rise in power, men become excluded and unnecessary for society as they cannot pilot IS which is now included in every industry simply due to the usefulness and convenience IS gives.

It would simply be cheaper to hire females to pilot IS than male as a workforce because one IS can work a 100 person worth of task. Soon 90% of the men hit the street as their employment rate skyrocketed. Without a job, they could even feed themselves before they went into hiding away from the female dominated society. They fled to the few remaining places where male population persisted and were able to isolate them from the female society.

(This latter part is inspired(yoinked) by the work of mactan01 from FanFiction.net, the work name is Fate of Humanity.)

Few years later, a lethal virus outbreak happened which decreased the population of Earth down from 8 billions to 2 billion in the span of just one year. The majority of the causality isn't caused by the virus but the incident that was caused by the virus.

The virus was actually an artificial one created by an organisation whose goal is to eliminate male from society. An extremists feminist organisation that for some reason hated men that much, they create the virus to kill the human population then blamed it on male. They pulled their strings to push the blame on men, saying they made this because they are trying to return to their dominant position in the society that was stripped from them by the creation of IS.

The clever thing the organisation did with the virus was it is less contagious to females and causes immediate lethal health problems. However, the virus is very infectious to men but the health problems aren't immediate . This made the accusations on male population more convincing and caused the female to be enraged by this. The clueless men that isolated them from the female society suddenly found themselves at war and struck by surprise when a dozen IS indiscriminately purged their isolated country.

In just a short span of two days, the army of the men was defeated and utterly destroyed. The remaining men, civilians and surviving soldiers fled and went into hiding in very secretive abandoned bunkers from the WW2 era which were only known to few military leaders. The results of the war pushed the population of men to less than a million from a billion.

The boy in question is one of the lucky survivors. The memories Ray can view inside the body is rather vague. The boy had an older sister which the boy forgot her name. His older sister apparently is the strongest IS pilot in the world which is titled the first Brunhilde. Being Brunhilde's brother is very harsh for the young boy.

His childhood is filled with bullying and discrimination. He remembered the most that he was called a curse, a burden and a parasite that should just die because his sister isn't the same as other females around him. She didn't care about gender discrimination and loved him very much that she willing to abandon the second tournament of Mondo Grosso because he was kidnapped.

He instantly became the most hated male in the world because of him their goddess, the First Brunhilde lost her second tournament. When the virus outbreak was happening, his sister was away in Germany for work and he was left with his sister's friend's care.

He remembered that day very vividly until now even after the war made him almost lost his entirety. The day the outbreak happened, he was outside playing with his childhood friend, the younger sister of his current caretaker and also the one he hated with every fiber of his body after he was forced into the war of survival, the very creator of IS, Shinonono Tabane.

He was captured and tortured by the female victim of the virus in the public. They tied him to a cross and paraded him while the female stoned him to near death as they released all their hatred on the male that was blamed for the existence of the virus that killed more than million of females in just short a few hours of its existence. The government also couldn't stop the people in time for them to check the validity that the male population is indeed the cause.

He, being the only few male that lived in the female society due to his sisters, is now in trouble since there is no one to save him. All around him is an angry crowd of females sending curses and profanity at him, forcing him to return their dead family and friends. The boy could only hear and endure the pain of being stoned. He prayed for his sister for help. He prayed desperately that she would save him like the day she saved him from the terrorist that kidnapped him.

His prayer fell on deaf ears and his sister never came. However he remembered seeing something that saved him. Definitely not human with how cold and hard the thing felt to touch. He only remembers hearing the voice of Tabane before he fell unconscious.

"I'm sorry Ikkun… if only I never created IS…" That is the words of Tabane the boy heard before falling unconscious and woke up in the last settlement of men.

Then after that, the boy lived and survived for another year until he suddenly drafted to become a soldier. Their bunkers were found and forced to fight a bitter war as their last stand to survive. The IS pilot isn't merciful either as they are fueled by revenge for their dead family and friends caused by the virus. However this one sided war changed one day when the boy suddenly touched the IS of the enemies while sneaking to sabotage them.

The IS reacted to him and then, fueled by his months of stress, anger and frustration caused by the war, the boy turned the tide of the war with just one IS in a single night. Majority of the IS deployed on the frontline are mass produced one and easy to take down. The boy also has special affinity with IS that allow him greater compatibility to IS core and greater control of almost instinctive level.

They dominated the battle and allowed the last male colony a breathing space for them to steal the IS scraps that litter the battlefield and develop makeshift anti-IS weapons using weapons salvage from the IS. The war lasted two years before it finished when the culprit of the virus was finally found and the organisation was hunted down and purged.

A massive conspiracy unfolded to the people like being doused with a bucket of freezing water. The war immediately stopped and the female population tried to reconcile with the remaining men but the few thousand left that experienced the bitter war of extermination would never believe the proposition of peace for various reasons.

The survivors are all teenagers less than 18 years old and the majority is 13-14. They aren't the bunch that would be easily persuaded especially with their mind broken by the war they are forced to fight. A war that drove them to insanity, to oppose the instrument of war that can destroy a country alone. They wouldn't give up or give in to the peace as they thought this is just another trick to lull them into a defenceless state before finishing them in one go.

Tabane then revealed to the Brunhilde that the boy was her brother. The boy who is the sole leader of this resistance army composed of the last males on earth. The boy, as the only male pilot, is selected as the leader of the child soldiers.

The Brunhilde descent on the battlefield herself to stop her brother and to tell them the war is over, the real culprit already been discovered. However, the war already broke much of the 14 years old boy's mind. He couldn't even remember much of his memories and definitely forgot he even had an older sister. His memories of his childhood until now are in pieces and he could remember the majority of them, just a few fragments of it.

Then the boy laughed at Brunhilde, calling her hypocrite, killing the men and suddenly wanting to protect them like endangered animals in cages. They wanted to stop the war and swept it under the rug after all that had happened. After all the death of his people, each and every comrade and friends of his that were slaughtered in the hands of the female IS pilots. The boy was absolutely enraged that she and the other female tried to sweep everything under the rug like it never happened.

The boy screamed and roared in his guttural roar of anger as he hacked at the Brunhilde like an enraged mad berserker. However, true to the title of Brunhilde, the Goddess of War that was given to the strongest IS pilots. None of the attacks phased her. She effortlessly blocked all attacks like she was just looking at a child waving a stick. This only enraged the boy further and overloaded the IS core he is piloting to do an all out attack on her which she welcomed as this is her goal. She tired him out until he passed out from exhaustion and the IS ran out of power then she grabbed him and returned.

To Brunhilde's surprise, the thousands of child soldiers open fire at her, trying to save their leader, the boy but the salvaged mass produced IS weapon isn't even a threat to her and her superior personal IS. They wouldn't accept a surrender even when an army of mass produced IS pilots surrounded them to capture them for the preservation of the male population that numbered less than 6 thousands in the planet. They all suicided when they knew they were outnumbered and outgunned. They rather die and join their fallen comrade than being captured. Only less than hundred survived because the IS pilots manage to subdue them before they could commit suicide.

When Brunhilde dropped her guard for a moment, the boy who she thought was still knocked unconscious suddenly sprung back to life and kicked her away to escape her grasp. The boy prepared his sword which she thought was for another battle but she didn't expect what he would do next.

"Kevin, O'Neil,... I'm sorry that your sacrifice was in vain. But I'm also joining you guys soon… This will be my finale." The boy said before he stabbed the sword through his chest and the sword pierced the core and reactors of the IS, setting it into manual self destruction before he rushed to the crowd of his subdued comrades to free them by causing the IS pilots to flee. He then pulls out the sword from his chest to fight another moment then Brunhilde desperately tries to subdue him and remove him from the IS. But it was too late as it exploded and brought down few IS pilots which his comrades killed before also committed suicide.

"No.. this can't be… Ichika! Ichikaaa!!!" The Brunhilde shouted desperately but the boy's soul who he now identified as Ichika already passed on and entered the void waiting for his reincarnation.

It was only in this void when Ichika was watching the recording of his life that he realised his regret and wished he never did it. However, he was already dead and he would never be able to see his beloved Chifuyu-nee anymore. When he saw someone in the void, he thought the man was a god and offered everything he had left to the man. All he wanted is for the 'god' to stop the war and restore the peace as his atonement for partially leading war on the latter part.

The god assured he will do his best to fulfill his last wish. Then Ichika passed peacefully to his next life.

———

"Hmn, I did assure Ichika I will try my best to preserve the peace but his death has already caused the peace to take place. Sigh, I did asked for a world in peace but... whatever, at least I'm not forced to join another war."

War ended when he, the last leader of the resistance army, died. The few sensible one accepted peace and surrendered while those that didn't either followed the same suicide path either immediately or strap bomb on themselves to take down at least one IS pilot with him.

Then a notification popped up.

[User had taken a contract with individual 'Ichika Orimura 6-3-4' and now will incarnate in his place to fulfill the contract.]

"The fu-" Ray was cutted off before he could finish his curses at the notification.

———

Regaining consciousness and awareness, Ray immediately checked his body and found out nothing lacked as everything that the previous him had he still had like the implant and cybernetics in his body which followed to the new body. When he tried to move, he couldn't and according to his implant, he is currently in a cryostasis chamber?!

Ray suddenly gets new memories when his implant suddenly accesses this new body's memories.

In the memories, it was black nothingness that had nothing for him to see but he could hear sound. This is probably what Ichika heard after he died since human organs didn't die immediately after the person died.

"Tabane! Quick, what can I do?! What should I do?!" Ray heard Chifuyu panicking while asking Tabane with a desperate tone.

From her whimper and sniffles, Ray can imagine that Chifuyu is extremely distraught that the brother he finally found after 5 years now died in her arm because she stupidly let her guard down and let him kill himself.

"I'm sorry Chi-chan, there is nothing that I can do to save him in time. He has multiple organs damaged beyond repair and most importantly his body mangled that even if he is healed, he had a high chance to remain in vegetative state considering his spine literally snapped in half."

"THEN DO SOMETHING! IT'S YOU! YOU NEVER TOLD ME ALL THIS TIME, KEEPING IT A SECRET AND ONLY TELLING ME AT THE VERY LAST MOMENT!" Chifuyu shouted while desperately grasping Tabane by the collar.

"Do something… Just do your magic or something… I can't.. I can't live without him. He is the only one I have in this world." Chifuyu finally lets go of Tabane and slips to the floor as her legs become too weak to even hold her body. She sobbed and begged Tabane desperately with her hoarse voice for her to just do something. At least she would still have hope to cling on than being consumed in despair.

She thought her brother was simply missing and tried to find him but she is monitored by the government constantly because of how volatile she is. The last thing they want is for the first Brunhilde to turn against them because her brother is.

Chifuyu employed Tabane's help to find Ichika which she did but purposely always failed to find him because a male that can pilot IS will definitely be targeted by the organisation. That's why she waited until the organisation was fully removed from the world before saving Ichika but then this happened.

"I will, Chi-chan. Leave this to me. I will put Ikkun into a cryostasis chamber to freeze him until we have proper equipment and materials required for his recovery." Tabane said without her usual cheery and energetic tone.

Then the memory ended. Now he knows he is inside a cryostasis chamber at the very least.

Then Ray opened another screen that had a small red dot on the corner which meant something new.

——

Contract

-Restore Peace (Pending)

-Stop the War (Completed)

——

While Ray is checking on the system, he suddenly hears a loud hiss and his implant informs him that his body is rapidly being thawed. He waited for a few moments until his body regained its motor function but the cold was still present and it made him shiver. Then he heard a beeping noise and then the sound of someone talking.

"This! His body is almost 30% machine! Too many cybernetics were added into his body. I can't find out their purpose but from the locations of it, I can guess those cybernetics are for enhancing his performance in battle."

The voice Ray guessed came from Tabane but Ray didn't have time to listen. He immediately summoned Lancelot to materialize near his thawed body.

"Who!" Another voice shouted and Ray guessed it belonged to Chifuyu, Ichika's older sister.

Lancelot however makes use of their surprise and snags Ray before blasting his way out of the facility using Arondight.

"Ugh, less shaking please. I feel like hurling out all my stomach acids." Ray said to Lancelot but the shaking didn't reduce.

"Please bear with me a bit, Ray. The black haired lady is chasing us and slowly down will get us captured." Lancelot said as he melted the last massive metal entrance before they ended up in a downtown area hidden behind a seamless brick wall. Then Lancelot cast a simple magic that hid their presence which made normal humans instinctively ignore them while they ran away from the populated area, into a forest somewhere.

———

Two years after Ray escaped from the underground facility belong to Tabane, he is currently in hiding and blended in with the underworld, surprisingly as a criminal-ish organisation consists of mens that survived the war but refused to return to the society ruled by women and forced to follow their whim which disguised as protection to the near extinct species of man.

Basically the man is forced to follow whatever set by the government. It actually start as a protection program for the men but soon devolve into worse when some man being sold to the rich as breeding stud or treated inhumanely as victim of torture from some to vent their anger as they still hold the thought, men are responsible for the virus. One or two missing men are easily covered by the government. The government unsurprisingly still have women that hold the previous feminist ideology in power within the government and that is the cause for such mistreatment happened.

As for why the crime organisation… let's say it happened on the fly and randomly when Ray said he was tired of being part of the government in the DxD world and wanted freedom to act as he wished. Then Mittelt and Ravel suggest Ray to become a mafia godfather which she gained inspiration from certain movies and it looks cool and suitable for Ray since couldn't live normally in society because of his face. His appearance resembles Ichika very much but much older, around age 20 instead of the teenage looking Ichika Orimura.

Due to the suggestion and almost unanimous vote from everyone except Roseweisse, Ray started cosplaying as a mob boss character but slowly becoming actually one after people slowly gathered around him. Mostly survivors of wars that look up to Ichika as their hero and those who escaped the government's harsh treatment.

There also another group that joined later down the road which surprisingly are male sympathizers and women who actually disagree with the government. This group of women disagree with the new ideology that dominated the society and many are married to men and they are treated as rejected by the society which lead them to flee and now also gathered under Ray.

During the two years, Ray amassed subordinates around five thousands that live in the underworld of the society. However, their activities didn't go unnoticed due to their large numbers. It was thanks to Ray's lovers that they manage to stay hidden using mind manipulation magic like memory wiping or mind control to divert attention from them. However, even that isn't enough to stay completely undercover when technology is a thing. The governments soon get suspicious because much information is altered and in a large volume. This was what tipped the governments that someone is messing around with them and led to Ray and his gang currently being busted.

In present time,

"Ray, those IS pilots are surrounding the compound and it's the first Brunhilde who led the operation." Roseweisse reported while constantly fiddling with the tablet-like device on her hand.

"Got it already, Rose. Anyway the evacuation is in order, we are abandoning this place." Ray ordered with a semi serious voice before spinning his swiveling chair and looking out the window of his secret estate to see hundreds of mass produced IS floating menacingly outside of the window.

"But.. those pilots, our people cannot outrun the pilots with just their feet or even with vehicles." Roseweisse replied with a more urgent tone as all they worked for is about to crumble and yet Ray didn't look remotely worried.

Then it's my duty as their so-called "godfather" to delay those pilots and allow our people to escape."

"It's that the job of your underlings? The boss should be the one protected, not the other way around." Roseweisse sighed in exasperation.

"No no, I'm not mentioning that one. I'm mentioning the other godfather title." Ray replied, still in a calm state and sipping his half finished wine while overlooking the hundreds of IS outside.

"Besides, isn't this a great opportunity to test out your IS and show them what a true Brynhilde is? Those R&D teams are gonna be overjoyed to test their creation on a real battlefield rather than just simulations."

"Whatever you wish then…" Roseweisse grumbled and couldn't help but agree with Ray since she was also itching for some action after abstaining from it for two years.

"Oh, good luck. I will cheer for you over here. Want a good luck kiss before you go, my wife?" Ray asked as if he was watching a tv show rather than watching a real battle about to happen.

Roseweisse blushed a little and nodded before moving closer to Ray for the kiss. Ray chuckled a little at Roseweisse that always try to act serious when unknown people are looking but easily succumbed to affectionate act if offered.

After Ray give Roseweisse a good luck kiss on her lips, Roseweisse stepped out the window and deployed her IS that appearance match a valkyrie. A metallic feather wings, armor that resemble fantasy battle dress, a spear, a sword and a shield as her armament. Though hidden in quantum storage were more weapons that were added to the IS but not favoured by Roseweisse as she preferred to stick to the mentioned equipment than futuristic firearms or cannons.

———

'Ichika! It's Ichika! But he looks older… No, it's definitely Ichika. Older or not I don't care. I finally found my Ichika back!' Chifuyu was monologuing before she saw a platinum haired woman giving Ichika(Ray) a kiss. Chifuyu almost lost her mind but she isn't the Brunhilde for nothing. She is able to reign in her thoughts from embarrassing herself in front of the unit she is leading to arrest an underground mob boss wanted by the government for a multitude of offenses.

Then the woman stepped out of the room to a big open balcony and equipped an IS. Just by looking at it, she can guess this isn't a gen three IS but even further above but she found a doubt because even the gen four IS isn't yet made even by the IS creator herself, Tabane Shinonono and yet here she is, looking at an IS few generations ahead of time by sheer complexity of the mecha.

Regardless, she finally found her beloved brother again, higher generation or not, nothing will stop her from reuniting with her Ichika! Her spirit burning like wildfire doused with gasoline. She is going to kill this thieving cat(dorobouneko) and take back Ichika to her side.

"I am Orimura Chifuyu, the first Brunhilde and pilot of Kuresakura, state your name to introduce yourself." Chifuyu introduced herself first as the custom of normal IS duel.

"Roseweisse Angelo, sixth wife of Ray Angelo and pilot of IS code name Brynhilde." Roseweisse introduced herself as asked before deploying her spear and shield.

"Ray Angelo? …sixth wife!" Chifuyu lost herself. It isn't hard to connect Ray to Ichika since Roseweisse introduced herself as the wife of Ray then previously she kissed Ichika. In her mind, Ichika is probably an alias but what triggered Chifuyu isn't the foreign name but the introduction as the sixth wife. That means Ra- Ichika has five other wives!

"Impossible… my sweet little Ichika… ahhhhh!" Chifuyu charged at Roseweisse with a loud warcry which Roseweisse taken as the signal for the duel starting and also fly to the sky and clashed with Chifuyu.

All the pent up grievance and insanity Chifuyu had over the course of two years after her beloved brother went missing, abducted by an unknown man. She spent almost all the two years using up all connections to find Ichika but not a single clue was found. She went mad with her obsession to find Ichika and her life for the first half of the year is finding Ichika. Only that one drive kept her alive and waking up in the morning until Tabane couldn't bear it anymore and helped her best friend.

Chifuyu became an instructor in the IS academy later in exchange for the governments to help her in her endeavour for finding her missing brother. Then one day she found a clue from a picture of an underground organisation. There she saw the face of a person similar to Ichika but older. Tabane run scans and found it matched Ichika and shrugged his older appearance as after effects of cybernetics that riddled his body.

Then here she was, finally found her beloved brother after countless nights of constant thinking about him, worrying about him and only to find out not only he abandoned her for a new life, he also has six wives!

All those nights she blames herself for not being there with Ichika when he was attacked and stoned, all those nights she woke up to a nightmare about her costly mistake. She had become obsessed with repaying her sins to Ichika but the man turned out to have already forgotten about her and moved on in his life, leaving her to be obsessed with nothing. All her effort was unwanted and unneeded by Ichika. Even now she can see Ichika only sees the woman who introduced herself as Roseweisse and not her. Inside her mind is now a convoluted mess that she cannot know what is what anymore. All her thoughts are so messy that she can't even understand anything anymore. Slowly her eyes turned dull and she lost her will to even lift her arms anymore. For what is she trying for? Even herself couldn't answer it anymore.

Well granted Ichika when she finally found him at the end of the war, hated her to the bone and even trying to suicide.

Then a thought came to her mind. Those people who abducted Ichika must have done something to him. It must be those women! They stole his beloved Ichika!

Once again she finds a reason to fight and to struggle. She just needs to take him back by force and Tabane can fix whatever brain washing those people have done to him because there is no way Ichika will willingly love another woman after what he's been through.

———(Note)

(Before anyone raising pitchforks or making my voodoo doll, lemme explain. So, Chifuyu in short explanation is turn into a yandere by situation she was in as she was devastated by her mistake that cost her to lost Ichika when she went to Germany as part of her deal with that government to save Ichika when he was kidnapped during first Mondo Grosso. Then during the end of the war, Ichika said he hated her and sort of 'pushed her knife into her heart' in terms of guilt. Then when she saved Ichika and there Ray arrived and escaped with Lancelot, She blamed herself for losing him the second time that she basically only lived the two year because she had the drive to find Ichika. Without that drive, she probably rot somewhere and dies out of her guilt that crippled her.

Then at present she found Ichika(Ray) but Ichika acted as if he didn't even know her nor wanted to acknowledge her. Then that's the last straw that broke the camel's back.

The for Ray part, he was transmigrated then reincarnated into Ichika's dead body. He made a contract to Ichika to fulfil his wishes but nothing was planned about Chifuyu and to put it bluntly, Ray wanted to simply avoid her and procrastinate as all RAY would to the problem they found is a hassle. He didn't know how to deal with Chifuyu since he can't act as Ichika in Ichika's place since he isn't a good actor to even fake it. Telling Chifuyu Ichika is dead and he is another person is basically opening a Pandora's box with Chifuyu's current state of mind and Ray rather not touch it at all considering Chifuyu's obsession to Ichika.

Conclusion, is the yandere Chifuyu permanent? No. Ray will try to fix shiz up and pull the amnesia card. The most logical choice but How well it would work idk but i like to try since i think this idea is rather original. I think.)

———

For Roseweisse, it was a strange moment. One moment her opponent is losing her will to fight after she introduced herself but now her opponent is regaining her will to fight but more brutally like she is trying to skin Roseweisse alive and cut her to pieces. Even the aura and appearance of her opponent changed. Chifuyu's eyes now look dull and crazed like a yandere and her aura feels creepy from the previous proud and confident woman. Look almost like Raynare sometimes if she went a little crazy when she was dealing with those who oppose Ray.

Chifuyu snarled and rushed at Roseweisse with high speed sword slashes that were blocked skillfully with shields. Chifuyu's moves are easy to read in her berserk state. There were also many gaps in Chifuyu's defences that Roseweisse could take advantage of and ended the fight in a very short amount of time by forcing Chifuyu's IS to activate its Absolute Barrier. Roseweisse then proceeds to beat the living shit off all the mass-produced IS like beating a child with her higher spec IS before fleeing with Ray under the eyes of Chifuyu who is rendered immobilised.

"Farewell for now, dogs of the government. The godfather will return this favor two fold next time." Ray said as he escaped with Roseweisse.

Meanwhile Chifuyu is shouting 'Ichika' frantically like she is possessed that the unit that followed her needs to use sedative on her to calm her down and send her back for mental health medical attention due to her weird behavior.

—————