"All I'm saying is that someone had to have created it. Or at least tried."
Kousei walked through the park with a king-sized bed — mattress, box spring, and heavy wooden frame all together — balanced effortlessly over his shoulder. Ten combined with In hummed invisibly around his body, making the lifting feat easy.
Aika strolled beside him, animatedly trying to make her case.
It was a bizarre sight, but they were long past caring about odd looks. Kousei got those just for looking the way he did. If anything, a person with his physique carrying something like this was just par for the course.
"Yes, Aika, I'm sure that at some point in human history, someone tried to figure out that brand of magic," Kousei rolled his eyes. "But how exactly are you planning to find it?"
"Whaddya mean? I'll just ask around whenever we have a bunch of magic users in our faction."
"You can't exactly just ask around for something like that…" he said, voice flat. "It'd be a little… explicit, don'tcha think?"
She waved a dismissive hand. "It's like buying condoms. Everyone's nervous but no one really cares in the end. Besides, anyone who's talked to me knows what I'm about."
"Shameless."
"Oh, don't act like you're not interested," she shot back, grin on her face. "You'd be all over me if I found a manual for sex magic. Admit it."
Kousei considered it for a half-step. Then he huffed. "I won't deny that, but… Eh, I feel like the combat applications would be more interesting than anything. Like, if there's a spell to enhance sensitivity, could you use it on someone in battle and make them feel 10x pain?"
Aika deadpanned. "That's what you're interested in…?"
He shrugged, then tilted his head down at her. A slow, toothy smirk spread across his face, his eyes half-lidded and heated. "I don't exactly need magic for that, y'know."
Aika's face flushed a spectacular shade of red. She sputtered, looking away. "Y-you don't need lube either, but it makes things easier!"
"Touche," Kousei chuckled, turning his gaze back to the path.
Then he paused. Aika had suddenly stopped walking.
He looked back. "What's wrong?"
She was staring off to the side, towards a water fountain that marked the park's center. Her finger was raised, pointing. "Am I… seeing things?"
Kousei followed her gaze.
His good mood vanished.
Then he sighed, the sound heavy with exasperation and annoyance. "Is this park cursed or something?"
His free hand came up, gripping both sides of the bed. The invisible Ten around him sharpened, condensed, and flowed up his arms with ease.
"Touki Art: Shu."
-=[DxD]=-
'It's finally happening!'
They were alone in the park by the fountain, a perfect romantic spot. His heart was about to beat out of his chest. He, Issei Hyoudou, of all people, was about to have the perfect climax to his first-ever date!
'A kiss?! Maybe even… more?' His head spun with possibilities, the hormones of a horny high schooler running wild. 'I should've prepared more! Read a how-to guide on doing more naughty things!'
Yuuma-chan had let go of his hand and stood before the fountain, backlit by the sunset. To him, she looked like something from a dream.
"It sure was fun today," she said, her smile brightening up his world.
He smiled back, nodding.
"Hey, Issei-kun."
"Y-yes, Yuuma-chan?"
'Dammit I stuttered! Just keep smiling and don't pay attention to it!'
As Yuuma-chan kept smiling, he felt as if he'd gotten away with it.
"There's something I want. To celebrate our first date. Will you listen to my wish?"
'Oh, this is it! It has to be!' His mental checklist went into a frenzy. 'Breath? Good! Readiness? Ehhh! Heartbeat? Out of control!'
"W-what is your wish?" he stammered again, cursing his traitorous voice.
Yuuma-chan continued to smile. Then she stated her wish clearly.
"Will you die for me?"
… … …
Issei Hyoudou blinked.
Then he blinked again, still not comprehending.
'Huh?'
"W-what? Sorry, could you, uh, repeat that?" Issei said with a nervous chuckle. "I think I didn't quite hear you right."
Her beautiful smile suddenly felt chilling.
"I said… will you die for me?" She repeated… giggling.
The words, they… he understood them individually, but together… They just didn't make sense. It wasn't possible that she could be asking him to–
Black wings erupted from her back.
He watched in stunned confusion as she quickly went through a transformation, a black dominatrix outfit replacing her current one.
An absurd thought occurred.
'Is this… a prank? Or is Yuuma-chan… a magical girl? Or an angel?'
Any thoughts of writing this off as fake stalled as he watched her dark wings flap through the air. It was like a scene from a fairy tale, an image that would be seared into his mind for nights to come.
Her once-kind eyes had transformed as well. Into something cold and sinister.
"It was fun," she admitted, her voice deeper now, more mature. "But orders are orders. If you wish to blame someone, blame God for placing that Sacred Gear within you."
'Sacred what?'
A buzzing sound vibrated in the air as a mass of light materialized in her hand. It quickly coalesced, coming together to form a spear.
She drew her arm back, the corrosive energy of the spear making the air sizzle.
Absolute terror locked Issei's limbs in place.
He was going to die. Why? He didn't understand. Couldn't understand.
But it didn't matter. Because here and now… he was going to die anyway.
And so would end the life of Issei Hyoudou. A completely helpless, pathetic virgin who couldn't even survive a single date.
'I'm sorry, mom, dad…' he thought, tears blurring his vision. 'I never got to…'
A sound like a freight train ripped through the park's tense silence.
Issei's tear-filled eyes saw it first-hand. A meteor of roaring white fire cutting across from the left. It was huge, moving faster than anything had a right to, trailing with a white furious glow.
Yuuma-chan didn't get to throw the spear.
The flaming comet — and as it hurtled closer, Issei's brain stuttered when he realized it was a fucking king-sized bed — slammed into Yuuma-chan with the force of a truck.
The angel of death didn't dodge. She barely turned at the sound before she was plowed off her feet with a shriek that was brutally cut short. The fucking bed flew through the park, smashing her through a bench and into the trunk of a large tree with a sickening thud.
Now a mangled wreck of splintered wood, shredded fabric, and dissipating white flame, the bed pinned her groaning form beneath it.
Issei stood frozen, staring at the surreal scene before him.
A bed.
He was about to be killed by his first-ever girlfriend's magical girl powers… and someone saved him by throwing a glowing bed at her.
Issei's mouth opened and closed, no sound coming out.
There were truly no thoughts or words to convey the sheer depth of his confusion and fear.
And then his savior arrived.
-=[DxD]=-
Kousei slid up to the smaller teen, positioning himself between the stunned boy and the wreckage. He stared down at the torn mattress and splintered wood.
'So that's a Fallen Angel, huh? She must be on the younger side. There's no way any of the ancient Fallen would fail to dodge that...'
He glanced over at the victim, whose face was a pale mask of shell-shocked terror. "You good?"
"Uh…" The teen's eyes slowly focused on him. He nodded jerkily. "U-uhuh."
"That's good," Kousei replied with a toothy grin. "Glad my throw made it in time. Any sooner and… well, let's not think about that, yeah?"
Aika jogged over after Kousei, but then paused as she looked at the victim, giving him a brief assessing gaze.
"Hyoudou-san?" She blinked. "...Did you try perving on a Fallen Angel?"
"Wha- No! I was-" Hyoudou began, before Kousei interrupted.
"You guys know each other?" he said with a slight tilt of his head. "Never heard you talk about him among your group of friends…"
They both paused, looking at Kousei as if he was a weird creature.
Then Aika facepalmed, groaning.
"He's in our class, babe! Issei Hyoudou? Him and his two pervert friends are infamous for spying on girls in the locker room…? That guy? I know the school year didn't start that long ago, but c'mon…"
Kousei tilted his head further, looking at Issei. "Never heard of him," then he shook his head. "More importantly, I think we're gonna get another paycheck soon enough. Or, at least, Issei might. Rias is not great at her job, is she?"
"R-Rias?" Issei's voice was a weak squeak, then he swallowed and it deepened. "You… you mean Gremory Rias-senpai? One of the two great onee-samas? You know her? What's going on? Who are you guys, really? Is Yuuma… Did you kill Yuuma-chan? Are you-"
"Woah," Kousei interrupted. "Chill. I promise we'll answer your questions in a second. But firstly…"
A low, guttural growl of hatred cut through the air. The wreckage of the bed exploded outward in a burst of splinters and light.
"...She ain't dead." He finished flatly.
The Fallen staggered to her feet. Her beautiful face was smeared with dirt and a trickle of blood from her hairline. Her black wings were ruffled, some parts bent at an odd angle.
She looked around wildly, before her eyes snapped onto Kousei.
"You…!" She began, then grit her teeth as she glared at him. "Who… who the fuck are you supposed to be?"
"A concerned citizen," he replied flatly. Without looking away from the Fallen, he tapped his girlfriend on the shoulder. "Aika."
"Huh?" Aika blinked, then her expression cleared. "Oh. Got it."
She reached up and, with a click, pushed her glasses up like an anime character. The clear lenses shimmered and went completely, utterly black. Then, tiny pinpricks of white light spread across them, scattered like the night sky.
"[Stargazer]," she murmured.
This was her Hatsu.
Unlike himself, who was currently training towards a complex, ideal ability, Aika had opted for immediate utility. Training without a Sacred Gear to boost her talent made it a slow, painful slog.
So instead of waiting around until her training was complete, she built a support-type ability instantly the moment she had a modicum of ability.
With her glasses as the perfect, personal medium.
[Stargazer], essentially, changed how light was filtered through her glasses. All visible light would be consumed, rendering her effectively blind while it was active.
In exchange, all of that light concentrated on points in her lenses, brightening up the stronger the person she was looking at was. Life energy, demonic power, anything – it all coalesced into a brilliant 'star'.
"She's… stronger," Aika reported with a grimace. "Not by much, thankfully, but definitely stronger than your current self. I don't think you'd win in a test of raw power."
"Shit," Kousei cursed, taking a stance. "Alright then, can't hold back."
The Fallen, meanwhile, seemed to finally shake off the confusion and wariness. Now, all he saw on her face was rage combined with humiliation. Instead of a grand outburst like he'd been expecting from someone like her, she simply lifted a hand, arm cocked back.
A glowing spear of magenta light appeared in her hand.
"You know what? I don't care. Just die!"
He was about to move out of the way, confident in his speed, when he remembered exactly where he was standing. Right in front of the teenager who was still standing there, watching.
'Ah, fuck.'
"Aika, get the victim away from here!" He barked, just as Raynare threw her spear at him.
If he turned and tackled Hyoudou to the ground, there was a chance he'd break the boy's back or something at that speed.
He needed to take this head on while Aika pulled the other teen away.
"Hya!" Kousei barked as his Ten exploded into Ren. Instead of dodging, he shot forward, a white blur intercepting the line of fire.
As he moved, he activated his Hatsu.
'[Arcane Cosplay: Mask].'
In the instant the phrase was thought, his dark blue irises shimmered and morphed. Each pupil resolved into the image of a six-sided die, spinning wildly before snapping to a stop.
The left eye was 4.
The right eye was 2.
The images faded, leaving his eyes normal again.
'Duration's okay. Power's crap. I know I based this off of Crazy Slots, but that doesn't mean I need to emulate his shitty luck…'
But it would have to do.
From the swirling energy of his Touki, a mask materialized directly onto his face. It was a plain white circular mask, but etched across its surface were black lines in a certain pattern and a red dot in the middle.
The spear collided at that very moment.
As if it was burned by an invisible energy, the spear's tip suddenly became blunt. The razor's edge vanished, a bit of the energy on the spear erasing into nothing.
Still, despite being blunt, it was still an object flying at high speeds.
Kousei twisted his Ren-sheathed forearm, coming up in a swipe. The defanged spear slammed into his arm. Pain lanced up his shoulder, it felt like blocking a baseball bat being swung at him.
But his bone didn't break. His skin didn't even tear.
"Another Sacred Gear user?!" she squawked as he rushed her.
He didn't correct her. Closing the remaining distance, he threw a fist aimed at her jaw.
She reacted with preternatural speed, a second light snapping into existence to parry his fist. The sound was less like metal on flesh and more like a clash of energies.
The fight descended into a brutal, close-quarters exchange.
He slid into the zone, his Touki-clad body against her spear. Unlike his fight with that Stray Devil, he wasn't fighting like a brawler. He had written down entire martial arts books, detailing each and every style he could get his hands on in short notice.
Some of them, hell, most of them, were useless. There were just too many performative martial arts.
But with [Erudite Scholar] as his guide, each blow felt like a lesson.
Slowly but surely, he was becoming better and better with each exchange.
But the timer of his Hatsu ticked in the back of his mind. Since his left eye was a 4, his mask's ability would run out after four minutes.
During a brief clash where they pushed off each other, they glared silently at each other, panting. Honestly, she wasn't amazing at fighting. The only reason they were clashing at this point was because she had a spear, and thus, had the range advantage.
And she also had the raw stats on her side.
If he was just a little stronger, a little faster, a little more durable… he would've beaten her without his Hatsu.
Alas, it was time to end this.
"This isn't a Sacred Gear," he suddenly spoke up, voice slightly muffled by the white mask. He tapped it with a finger. "It's the Anti-Magic Mask worn by the Chosen Hero Chronoa. It dulls any abilities that could be considered magic, while hiding the user's power from any supernatural senses."
As per his explanation, and thus fulfilling a special clause of his Hatsu, a third die tumbled in his mind.
It landed on a 4.
'Absolutely perfect.'
The mask on his face thrummed with power. The weak dampening field around him tightened and intensified into a palpable void. The very air felt dead.
"Not a Sacred Gear…?" she muttered, and he watched as a glint of avarice appeared in her eyes. "Then I'll take it for myself!"
She summoned another magenta spear, expression contorting into an ugly scowl as she lunged.
This time, he didn't dodge or bring up an arm. He simply stood there and watched her lunge at him, wings flapping for speed.
SHIIIING– CRACK!!
The magenta light shattered upon impact.
With the sound of breaking glass, the spear of light dissolved into harmless motes before they even touched his skin.
The shock on her stunned face was gold.
He looked down at her from behind the mask and placed a hand on her shoulder.
Tightened.
Held her in place…
…as his other hand, wrapped in blazing white Ren, cocked back into a fist.
"You're fucked."
-=[DxD]=-
A/N: I'll explain his Hatsu in full next chapter, maybe. I think it's pretty obvious what it does, though...