New Family

Jason looked into the mirror and inspected his adolescent body with a hint of pride shining in his grey eyes. It took a lot of work, but he could see the beginnings of abs starting to form on his lower torso and some slight muscle on his arms, almost enough to be considered biceps.

The last six years since his reincarnation in this new world had not been easy. He now knew why the Veil was often considered a gift from God and not something to despair over, no one should have to experience the life of a newborn with a fully mature consciousness.

He was lucky he wasn't claustrophobic or being wrapped up in cloth most of the time might have driven him mad. He may still have if the prodigious rate at which his infantile mind processed new information hadn't distracted him from the constant feeling of being trapped within his own body.

Now, instead of being a blubbering fool, he knew three full languages fluently and was working on the fourth. Though his parents only thought he knew Japanese, the language they most often used when speaking to him, he had picked up enough of the Korean they used around the house and he already knew the English his father often fell into. The neighbors shouting at each other in Chinese every other night had also helped him pick up the beginnings of Mandarin over the years. Hopefully he'd be able to master enough to hold a decent conversation by the time his brain slowed its development in about two years.

It wasn't anywhere close to the Devil's ability to understand all languages, but he wasn't complaining. God had set him up quite nicely with this small grace alone.

Thinking of his new father, he was a half-British, half-Korean man from an old family back in the UK. Despite being an only child and the inheritor of their sizable fortune, for some reason he left the family business behind to go off on his own and somehow ended up as a firefighter in Kuoh, Japan. Yes, unfortunately God found it necessary to ensure Jason was placed in the conflict capital of the DxD world.

A positive of that decision though, was that this was where Issac Hale met Jason's mother Park Kyung-Hye, a Korean immigrant to Kuoh who worked as a nurse. With his mother opting to go by her baptismal name of Joanna following their marriage however, it took Jason a few years to recognize her as the mother of a certain protagonist in another world.

From there, with a few directed questions, he was able to learn that his paternal grandmother formerly held the surname of Sung and that Il-Hwan was her original choice for his father's name. It appeared God hadn't just given him the Shadow Monarch powers, he'd essentially made Jason Hale into DxD's Sung Jin-Woo.

Jason didn't mind though, at least he knew he wouldn't grow up to be unattractive, something that was sure to come in handy in a harem world.

He didn't see his parents as characters in a novel either, this was his new life and they were his real family. They loved him and he returned those feelings as any proper son should. It was a new experience for Jason, as his first family had never offered him the same, and he welcomed it wholeheartedly. He'd have to thank God if they ever met again for gifting him with something he never knew he craved so much before.

"Jason!" Came a yell from his father downstairs. "We need to be leaving!"

"Coming!" He shouted back as he threw on a plain white shirt and ran out the room.

He rushed over towards the door and squatted down to put on his shoes. His father stood by and watched with visible excitement in his eyes, though it was obviously not aimed at his son's actions.

Jason looked up after he finished and upon noticing the happiness radiating off his father, spoke with a growing smile of his own, "Ready."

His father laughed and patted his shoulder as he opened the door. After getting into their car, he pulled out and started down the road before he turned to Jason, "Are you excited to meet your sister, son? I could barely sleep last night after your mother kicked me out of the hospital."

"Yeah, I'm pretty excited Dad," Jason laughed. "Have you and Mom decided on a name yet?"

If it was possible, his father's grin got even wider at that question as he began to answer, "Well, your mother insisted on her having a true Korean name since your grandfather decided to give you a western one. Something about how 'she needs to remember her roots' or something."

He waved his hand dismissively before continuing, "Anyways, that led to an argument between her father and my father over the phone which lasted about an hour until her mother suggested the name Jin-Ah. Father was about to delve into another rant about how 'no business will take a name like that seriously outside of East Asia' when mother cut him off by suggesting they just remove the hyphen and name her Jinah instead."

Jason was briefly surprised at his sister receiving practically the same name as in Solo Leveling, but got over it quickly enough and chalked it up to God just having a laugh. He wondered if he'd meet anymore people from that story living in this world but guessed it was unlikely. He didn't know of plans to move to Korea anytime soon and he'd only been there once to meet his maternal grandparents.

"So after that," his father continued, "father acquiesced to mother while Joanna's mother clamped down any protest from their side and the name was thus decided. Jinah, Jinah Hale!"

His father laughed boisterously and the car lightly shook as he slapped the steering wheel in excitement. Jason joined him as the large man's happiness was just that infectious and he couldn't help getting swept up with it.

They continued to chat about this and that on their way to the hospital all while his father attempted to avoid going over the speed limit, with limited success. Jason looked up at his father and was confused as to how he'd initially missed his connection to the Sung Il-Hwan of Solo Leveling.

He'd seen pictures from his parent's wedding and he looked almost nothing like he did nowadays. Where once was an ordinary well-kept Asian businessman, the person sitting beside him now was the spitting image of how he was depicted right after returning to Earth in the manhwa. Bulky, yet extremely cut, piercing grey eyes, long, shaggy black hair, and a short untamed beard. He was currently wearing baggy black pants with matching boots, a plain white shirt, and his hooded brown fireman's coat. Throw in some hand wrappings plus a pair of daggers and you had a man that looked ready to charge into a Gate to slay some monsters.

He often wondered what had brought on such a drastic transformation, yet he didn't ask. If it was anything important his father would tell him when he needed to know. Jason had his own share of secrets that he didn't plan on telling anyone, the least he could do was respect those held by his family.

As they pulled into the hospital's parking lot and got out to walk inside, Jason thought about one of those secrets and it responded in kind.

_______________________________

[Status]

Name: Jason Hale

Level: 1

Race: Human

[Time Until Full System Unlock: 9 Years]

_______________________________

He sighed at the notice he'd seen hundreds of times by now, earning a glance from his father that he waved off as nothing.

Nine years was a long time, far longer than he wanted to wait. When he first saw it, he immediately searched for an explanation within the system and like the original, there was indeed a mailbox with one unread message. It had said;

_______________________________

"Dear Jason,

I hope you are feeling well when you read this because, like all those who take one of my offers, the next few years are going to be a struggle for you. However, I know you have it in you to persevere so, as they say in your mother's homeland, fighting!

Anyways, you looked for this message because of the lock and countdown timer on your system. Well I placed it there for two reasons, the first being that the system you requested isn't compatible with a child's body. The daily quests and their penalties would've killed you on your first day. The penalties might be different after I changed the way the system works outside a world with Gates and monsters, but they are still incredibly detrimental. Try not to tempt fate with them in the future!

The second reason is to give you time to adjust to your new world. You never had the chance to experience a truly loving family in your first life and I don't want anything to come between that in this one. We both know you would have tried to grind out as many levels as possible from the get go and ignored everyone as you slipped into being a loner again. There's nothing wrong with preferring solitude, but don't forget to take the time to embrace those few who deserve your company and cherish them.

Don't sulk about missing out on grinding levels either, you still have your Slayer Magic and Devil Fruit available to master in the meantime. I know you'll work hard to become strong enough to face the threat when the time comes, so relax.

My last piece of advice is to make connections. I know what you plan to do down the line and you can't achieve it with just your shadow army. You won't seek to befriend any of your young peers for awhile and that's understandable, but be on the look out because sooner than you might expect some 'kids' worthy of your attention will appear.

Take care that you don't forget to enjoy your new life, get a hobby, start a family, live well.

-God"

_______________________________

Even though Jason understood and eventually came to agree with the points made in the letter, it didn't mean he enjoyed the limitation. Only six years and he was already itching to dive into whatever his system had to offer.

As they walked through the halls of the hospital, Jason's attention was drawn towards the peculiarity of his present time period as it often did. In his first life he was born in 1995, a whole five years from now, and the earliest memories he could recall were of around the mid 2000's. There was no need to mention the 2030's either, 1990 Japan was practically the Middle Ages in comparison. The sight of people reading a physical newspaper or engaging in actual conversation wasn't as foreign as it had once been when he was younger, but it still managed to draw in his fascination from time to time.

Considering he was presently in what used to be an anime world to him, he could reasonably assume that at least one of the numerous time travel series he'd come across in the past existed somewhere out there as well. Though not entirely the same experience, Jason wondered if those protagonists felt the same way he often did nowadays.

As they walked out the elevator, his father snapped him out of his thoughts by ruffling his hair.

"Whatcha thinking about so hard, son?" He asked, unknowingly slipping into English.

Jason had heard enough English at this point that it wouldn't seem strange for him to have picked up some of it by now, so he didn't attempt to feign confusion when he replied, "I was just wondering if I needed a hobby. I heard somewhere that you should have one but I don't know what to choose."

It was true, all of Jason's past hobbies either involved technology that didn't exist yet or were just not up to his standards in this world. Take manga for instance, despite finally knowing Japanese and being able to read them without waiting for a translation, he found that none of them were worth his time. The manga industry in this world was just awful, it was in fact, the greatest tragedy in his second life so far.

"Hmm," his father mused. "Why don't you try learning an instrument? You could play the piano or violin at your sister's birthday when she gets older."

Jason stifled a snort of amusement at both experiencing a stereotype first hand, and his father's presently one track mind. The idea did have merit however, not the piano or violin, but an instrument nonetheless. He'd tried and failed multiple times to pick one up in his last life but if he managed to stick with it, maybe he could become this world's Tim Henson or Ichika Nito. He remembered enough of the style and maybe with supernatural abilities it might be possible in a few years.

'Heh, I could probably do Canon Rock first as well,' he thought to himself.

"I think that sounds good, Dad," Jason said as he smiled up at the man. "Not those instruments, but maybe something else."

"Haha," his father laughed. "We'll talk it over with your mother after we get back home."

The two came to a desk and his father asked some questions to the attendant while Jason thought further on the matter. After a while, his father thanked the woman and led Jason towards a specific door before turning back and crouching down to his level.

"Be quiet now," he whispered into Jason's ear, "they might be asleep and we don't want to wake them."

Jason nodded with faux seriousness but struggled to maintain the expression with his father's over the top antics. Acting like a kid was really hard sometimes.

As his father opened the door and ushered him inside, Jason thought over what a six year old might say after seeing a baby for the first time. It might not seem like it matters, but little things like this added up and prevented him from appearing overly mature for his age. This was a world where reincarnations were a widely known about occurrence to the supernatural side and he had no desire to draw any unwanted attention to himself if it could be avoided.

It just so happened that they were awake and Jason had to hide a grimace at the sight of his mother feeding his new sister. The memories of going through that himself were long ago buried deep within the furthest recesses of his mind, never to see the light of day again.

His mother smiled softly at the two newcomers and beckoned them over as she lifted her shirt. Though her features still lingered with the exhaustion of the previous day's ordeal, underneath the dark circles around her eyes and frazzled mane of black hair was the most beautiful woman in Jason's life.

He might've been a little biased, but she truly could put models to shame. He'd never thought this way about his previous mother though, albeit maybe the years of looking down on everyone had permanently scarred her face with that sneer she always seemed to wear.

His father was beside the bed and reaching for a bundle in the woman's arms with a dopey smile before Jason could blink, he had to stop himself from matching his mother's sigh of exasperation as he followed after him.

"Mom," Jason said as he hugged her with a smile.

"Oof," she over exaggerated while returning the hug and ruffling his hair. "Jason, I hope you've been behaving for your father while I've been gone."

Jason played the part of a flustered child and nodded rapidly within her arms. It wasn't completely acting on his part either, while obviously more mature and self controlled than normal children, getting acquainted with his magical and Devil Fruit abilities had been the cause of more than a few mishaps in the house over the years.

"Good," his mother said as she released the hug and held him at arms length. She matched his smile with a tired one of her own while looking into his eyes and asking, "Do you want to meet your new sister?"

Jason once again nodded and the two glanced over at his father who was cooing and wagging a meaty finger over the baby's face. The man noticed their gaze and chuckled sheepishly before, with reluctance, handed the bundle down to him.

Jason followed his mother's instructions and gently took it into his arms. Looking down into his sisters eye's he had to suppress a smirk as he finally thought of what a six year old would say in this situation. If it gave him teasing material for years to come, that was just a bonus.

"Well," his mother asked as she watched on. "What do you think?"

Not looking up, Jason made his face look confused before answering, in the most innocent voice he could muster, with the first thing that comes to mind when anyone looks at a newborn, "She's ugly."