High School DxD: Scattered Cherry Blossoms

Underworld, Gremory Territory, Alaverus Estate.

In the courtyard of a luxurious western style mansion, three children, one boy and two girls who appear to be five or six years old, are running about, playing tag, under the clear purple sky, one of the defining features of the Underworld, one of the many realms, centered around the human world or "Earth" as it is known to many, that makes up the universe.

"*Pant* *pant* let's take a break, I'm really tired." Said one of the girls, a pretty, little girl with fair skin, shoulder length black hair styled in a bob cut and glasses covering her violet eyes, while taking heavy breaths and bending over and supporting herself with her hands on her knees.

"Me too. Plus, I'm getting hungry." The second of the two girls chimed in. She had long crimson red hair flowing down to her thighs, loose bangs that covered her forehead, side bangs that reached her collar bones and framed her pretty face, and bright blue eyes.

"Hungry? Why am I not surprised?" Muttered the black-haired girl.

"Excuse me? Would you mind repeating yourself?" Snapped the redhead in obvious irritation.

"You are always hungry. You eat so much. You're gonna turn into a little fatty." The black-haired girl replied with a teasing tone.

With the game of tag on hold due to the girls' usual bickering and the fatigue from playing around nonstop for almost three hours. The final member of the group, a handsome boy with caramel colored skin, deep brown pupils outlined in a dusky pink, and black hair in individual braids that reached the base of his neck could only smile wryly as he watched his friends' usual antics.

'I should try to stop them, right? But I really don't want that headache.' The boy thought to himself as he made his way to the large tree in the courtyard to take a seat in the shade.

Taking a seat with his back resting on the tree, the boy stretched and began to relax.

After ten or so minutes of listening to the girls argue, the boy thought, 'We've been out here for a while. I guess even I'm starting to get hungry.' With that thought, he stood up and started walking toward his friends.

"Alright, So-Tan, Ri-Tan, let's go I'm hungry, too." the boy said with a big smile on his face.

"See! It's not just me." Said the redhead, Ri-Tan, with a smug smile on her face.

"*Sigh* Okay, if you say so, James-Kun." Said the black-haired girl, So-Tan, while adjusting her glasses, which caused them to flash momentarily.

With that, James, Ri-Tan a.k.a. Rias Gremory, and So-Tan a.k.a. Sona Sitri began making their way back to the mansion.

While walking back to the mansion and making small talk with the two girls, James suddenly stopped in his tracks. His eyes widening to a nearly impossible degree and grabbing his head. He felt a sharp pain in his head. As if something sharp and superheated was being pressed through the spot between his eyebrows. The level of pain unbearable for the average adult, let alone a six-year-old child.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhh!"

Hearing James' screaming behind them, Rias and Sona quickly spun around to see what was wrong.

"James-Kun, what's wrong? Are you alright?" Sona asked frantically as she started moving closer to James.

Rias on the other hand, was frozen in shock. She had never seen James like that. Even when he dislocated his shoulder in the past, he only gritted his teeth.

After screaming for about 5 seconds more, James suddenly stopped. His hands falling limply to his sides and his eyes blank.

And then...

He just fell forward. There were no attempts to break his fall. And if not for Sona's quick reflexes, he would have slammed face-first into the ground.

"James-Kun! James-Kun wake up! Can you hear me? Please, wake up!" Sona screamed in panic while trying to keep James from smashing into the ground.

On the other hand, Rias was still frozen. She then began to tremble seeing James collapse in front of her.

Seeing Rias current state of confusion and fear, Sona shouted at her.

"Rias! What are you doing!? Hurry up and go get someone to help!"

With Sona's shout, Rias snapped out of her stupor and sprinted toward the mansion to get help. She knew that both her elder brother's wife and James' mother should be in the house.

Not even five minutes later, a young woman dressed in a blue French maid apron dress who appears to be in her early twenties showed up in a flash of light.

"Grayfia-San." Sona said with an obvious hint of relief in her voice as she noticed the new arrival.

Crouching down to the ground in order to check James' condition, the young woman, or Grayfia, asked, "Sona-Sama, could you please let me know what happened? Rias-Sama seems to be in shock and is unable to gather her thoughts for an explanation."

"We had just finished playing and were on our way back inside. Then, James began to scream. After screaming for a little while, he stopped... everything... screaming, moving, standing. And before he fell, I rushed to catch him then told Rias to go get help."

"I see. I'll take James-Kun to the medical wing at the Gremory Estate. Please return inside and tell Leona-San where I will be taking James-Kun. And if possible, help settle Rias-Sama." Said Grayfia as she lifted James from the ground.

With James in her arms, a magic circle appeared beneath Grayfia. The magic circle began ascending from her feet as it reached the top of her head, with a flash of light Grayfia, James, and the magic circle disappeared from in front of Sona.

===Three Days Later===

Underworld, Sitri Territory, Sitri Medical Center

Over the last three days, James was moved from the medical wing at Rias' home to a proper medical facility in the Sitri Territory so more extensive testing could be done. The reason being that James' level of brain activity during his unconsciousness was abnormally high and no one knew what to do. After reaching the proper medical facility, which just so happened to be run by Sona's family, The doctor in charge of James was also confused. With James level of brain activity paired with his rapid eye movements, they would suggest that he was simply dreaming.

And that is where the issue began.

James has been in this state for the entire three days since he fell unconscious. Because of that, none of the doctors who observed James' condition knew how to diagnose him.

However, if those doctors, or anyone for that matter, could see inside of James' head right now... They would know that James was in fact really only dreaming.

In James' dream, He lived the life of a human. A human who lived a life filled with combat. Having lived his life until the age of fifteen in one of the worst neighborhoods in the U.S.A., He spent most of his time outside of school and away from his single mother involved in street fights. Most of these fights stemmed from insults aimed at his situation. With his father having abandoned his mother during pregnancy and his mother's stunning looks, finding ways to anger the young man did not take much effort.

However, during the winter after he turned fifteen, everything began to change. His mother found a man who changed both of their lives. With his mother now married, their living conditions improved, and the boy was introduced to combat sports. Mixed martial arts to be precise.

And for the next seven years, he trained in Muay Thai Kickboxing and wrestling. With this training as an outlet for his aggression, his aggressive nature was curbed greatly. But did little to lengthen his short fuse.

At the end of those seven years, the young man made the choice to fight professionally. For five years, although his fighting style was polished, the young man seemed more like a beast than a martial artist during his matches.

As previously stated, the martial arts training did suppress his aggression. However, none of that aggression was lost when he was fighting. More than likely, it had intensified, which caused him to, more often than not, forget or ignore the discussed strategies.

After five years of this, his coach had had enough and quit. With his coach quitting, his career was basically on hold until he found a new one.

Finding a new coach was a much taller order than he had expected, though. Rumors of his inability to follow a gameplan got him labeled as uncoachable.

It took a year and a half to find a new coach.

The coach he was able to find was not your traditional MMA coach. This coach did not practice any of the more popular martial arts that were commonly used in MMA. He did not practice unarmed martial arts at all. He was a kenjutsu, or Japanese sword technique, practitioner.

This Japanese Sword fighter, who the young man aptly nicknamed "Old Samurai," had realized, the young man was an absolute monster in terms of absorbing combat techniques. Not just barehanded combat techniques, but all combat techniques, which included cold weapons.

With this discovery, the Old Samurai insisted on teaching the young man his sword style, Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu, which focused on Iaido (the art of drawing the sword and attacking in the same motion) and promoting spiritual harmony.

For the next year, the young man did not accept any matches, opting to train hard. For that year, the young man spent a quarter of his training time sparring with his usual unarmed combat techniques. For the next quarter of his time, he worked on his physical conditioning. Weight training, cardio, flexibility, anything to improve the quality of his body. As for the rest of his time, it was spent training in Muso Jikiden Eishin-ryu.

This practice ended up doing wonders for his overly aggressive nature, both in and out of the ring.

On top of the training regimen, the Old Samurai also ordered him to pick up a hobby that was in no way related to combat. And for some reason, the young man picked up otaku culture. Anime, manga, light novels, and video games. He could never get enough of them. It was to the point that when he returned to the ring, he gained the nickname "Samurai Nerd."

After this year of training, at the age of thirty, the man resumed his career. And for the next seven years, he was unstoppable. With his martial arts proficiency, combat instincts, and new spiritual harmony, he went undefeated for that seven-year period. Until his career was stopped once again, in a much more permanent way.

He was murdered because he refused to throw a fight for a payout.

And with that final memory, James finally exited the three-day dream.

Before opening his eyes, James took some time to review the life of the man he had just experienced. What he realized was this. He could remember every bit of that life down to the smallest detail. Yet, these memories, with a few exceptions, did not leave much of an impression. Friends, family, lovers, fights, matches, none of these things seemed as if they would stick for long. There were only three parts of that life that made James think: "Yup, that's probably here to stay."

Training those combat skills again, the instincts toward combat, and enjoying otaku culture.

*Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*

Interrupting James' thoughts, a brain activity monitor set up to the side of his bed made one of the loudest beeps he had ever heard in his or the life in the memories.

Shortly after the beep ended a man, three women, and two girls about James' age rushed into the room.

The two girls, Rias and Sona, were the first to reach the bedside, and quickly asked their many "pressing" questions.

"James-Kun, are you okay," asked Rias with worry in her tone.

"How are you feeling, James-Kun?" Asked Sona simultaneously.

Before he could respond, the girls continued to pepper him with questions and concerns about his health.

'They're still the same no matter where they are or what's going on.' James thought with a smile watching his friends' usual antics.

Before the girls could take it too far, one of the three women put a stop to it.

"Rias-Chan, Sona-Chan, maybe you should only ask one question at a time." Gently reprimanded a beautiful young woman with flaxen hair flowing down to the middle of her back, facial features that are remarkably similar to Rias, and violet eyes.

With the two girls stopped by Rias' mother, Venelana Gremory, another one of the women, a beautiful woman with light brown skin, long black hair pulled back into a ponytail that reaches her hips, a bang that falls in front of her left eye to her chin [A/N: Reference Ino Yamanaka for the hairstyle.], and deep brown eyes, made her way to the side of James' bed and took a seat then gently grasped his hand.

This woman, Leona Alaverus, is James' mother.

"James, Honey, how do you feel?" She asked with equal parts relief and concern.

Relief because her baby boy has finally awakened. Concern because there could be side effects from his three-day nap.

In response to his mother's question, James managed to leave everyone in the room speechless with his out of character response.

"I really don't like that alarm clock. Bad customer review."