Beta read by n1ch, check out his fic it's amazing!
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-Kuoh-
You know I wondered where I went wrong.
I always took pride in my self-awareness and general understanding of how bad life can be.
'Youth' was a lie, a stage that we all went through at point in our lives.
The mere existence of the word was an illusion; a timeframe in which people who were confused about their own identity and insecurities, developed their own mask. They hid behind it and projected a completely different personality in order to gain attention.
That was one of the reasons I came to despise Hayama; that guy is the best mask user I'd ever met. He founded his clique and became its sole supporter.
He was the glue binding everyone together.
Hayama, of course, was well aware of this fact; the guy lived a lie and enjoyed it. His relationships were nothing but a sham.
And you know what frustrated me the most? The fact that the current me could be grouped together with the likes of him!
I wanted to deny it with every fibre of my being, but I couldn't. Especially after seeing what was happening in front of me.
"Rias..."
"Akeno..."
The two girls faced each other, one completely naked and the other dressed in her regular uniform.
"I'm hoping this isn't what I'm assuming." Akeno's lips curled into a smile, but her eyes said otherwise.
When I saw an angry Akeno, I knew it was never a good news.
"And what if it was?" Rias confronted her queen and stood her ground not the least bit intimidated, her stubborn nature showing itself.
"I know Hachiman-kun didn't do anything to you, but for you to show such intention is… unexpected. I would prefer, however, that you could do it with someone else." A dangerous white aura encircled her, with lightning bolts erupting from every direction.
"He is, after all, mine."
This was wrong. Since when did my life become a budget teen rom-com drama?
"But your relationship was never formalized; you kissed him, yes, but he has yet to call you his girlfriend. So, this is fair play, Akeno!" Rias was surrounded by a similarly intense crimson aura, which caused her hair to hover in every corner.
"What fair play? Rias, I thought you disliked him before, and now you're saying you like him?"
The sparks between her fingers gathered into a small sphere, ready to strike.
"Instead of stealing him from me maybe you should be concerned about your own situation. A certain arrangement in the Underworld comes to mind."
This was not their fault... but mine instead.
"This has nothing to do with it! I want him by my side even if he isn't in my peerage." A similar sphere appeared on Rias' palm but this one glowed red, "When I'm with him, anything feels possible."
They were both moments away from attacking each other.
This could not continue on for any longer, so I decided to put an end to this drama. Forcibly.
"Enough!"
[Delete Field!] [Restrict!]
My Sacred Gear manifested on my chest and shoulder as a pauldron, its violet gem radiating power as I unleashed my strongest ability.
Though my powers were not strong enough to rob them of their powers, it was strong enough to momentarily as stun them and make their small spell unstable and cancelling it.
"Before both of you go off and blow the house up we need to calm down and talk like normal people first!"
This was feeling like the ending of a bad joke that started with 'A devil and a fallen angel walk into a bar'.
"We will talk about this later," I said with finality, "and Gremory-san though I appreciate you healing me, you should apologize to Akeno-chan. You were in the wrong this time."
My words appeared to have jolted them a little. Rias slowly began to look remorseful after she was able to think clearly and apologized to her Queen, genuinely sorry for her actions.
Akeno simply smiled and hugged her as she apologized.
They were like sisters, growing up together for years, and they wouldn't be so close if they didn't know each other's flaws and quirks.
I needed to get this mess sorted out as soon as possible. I didn't want to lead Akeno around by ignoring her feelings and advances, as Hayama had done with Miura. This would only worsen in the future, potentially destroying our relationship.
I was... scared.
Scared of accepting her. Or anyone for that matter.
As small as my desire to go back to my previous world was, it still existed. Deep down I knew if I was presented with the opportunity to go back I couldn't predict the answer I'd choose and that terrified me.
It would be hypocritical of me to start something with Akeno only to be possibly gone the next moment, and at that point I would become a hundred times worse than Hayama.
If that did happen, there'd be no one in the world that I would despise more than myself.
{Break}
I was confused.
Scratch that, I was downright stunned to silence.
Here I was walking to school with both Akeno and Rias and both of them, who had just been at each other's throats not even an hour before, were smiling and giggling with each other!
'Did I overlook something?'
I thought I'd have to be the barrier between you two so that your fights didn't destroy the whole block to ashes! I'm not complaining; in fact, I should be cheering to the skies right now, but the situation has left me with more questions than answers.'
'The female mind is an impossible thing to predict.'
Oh, Vritra nice of you to join me-
'Wait what the fuck!'
It's only thanks to one of my 108 skills, the 'no flinching, be the statue' technique kept me grounded and outwardly indifferent. Inwardly was a whole different story.
'The dream was real? How are you talking to me? Are you stalking me?'
'Hahaha of course it was real! How else would your feeble mind be able to perceive my true form?'
Did he just insult me? Probably.
'So why are you talking to me now?'
As much as would like to have a proper conversation with the dragon, this was not the most ideal of places.
'Remain cautious, partner. I sensed a rather familiar power in this region' Vritra voiced ominously.
My heart almost went still, for such a powerful dragon to grow wary all of a sudden was a major red flag.
'Who or what are talking about?' If there was any danger I wanted to know everything about it and avoid it at all cost.
'Aye, it really is him... the white one has been reborn and he passed through here.'
The white one? My brain went overdrive with anything that had any relation to this title.
But then I realised something.
'You called me this era's Black Dragon King. Does this white one mean I have some sort of rival?'
That was the most logical explanation I could come up with and I really hoped to god that I was wrong.
'You've mistaken, partner'
Yes!
'Though not completely wrong'
Shit. Fuck. Just let me be wrong for a change!
'So what is it? And don't be vague or speak in riddles, I need to prepare for the worst just in case.'
My previous fight showed me how far behind and slow I already was, and I did not want to accidentally bump into a dangerous foe without setting up any countermeasures.
'As you might know, we dragons are the ultimate beings," Vritra stated, pride in his voice.
"No gods, living concepts or even Yahweh himself could surpass us. We do have our own hierarchy, which is based on our strengths."At the top, there are two beings that you should pray to never meet in any of your lifetimes. The Ouroboros Dragon, Ophis and the Apocalypse Dragon, Great Red.'
Just their title itself made me sweat from fear. I even felt the fear and awe from Vritra.
'These beings do not live in the mortal plane but rather reside in the Dimensional Gap. They are beyond planetary level, representing the concepts of Infinity and Dreams.'
But don't worry, your chances of encountering one are less than none. Now coming in second are the two Heavenly Emperors, the Welsh Dragon, Y Ddraig Goch and the Vanishing Dragon, Albion.
'Both hold power far superior to any living being, during the Great War between the three factions these two idiots kept battling each other and causing so much destruction that, get this, ALL of the supernatural had to unite just to SEAL them away!
'Their strength lies in absolute domination and absolute supremacy; embodying the clash of different ideals. They are strong, easily strong enough to be considered beyond ultimate-class beings.
'If you ever encounter one, do not underestimate them but as a dragon myself I would prefer you do not cower against them for we are prideful creatures.
'Then the 5 dragon kings of which I am one of them. We hold great power but not to the extent of the others I've mentioned before. But know this partner, what I lack in power I more than make it up in my sheer skill diversity. No other dragons can boast as such besides me.'
I mulled over his words, deep in thought.
'So if we are in a completely different class of strength, why did you say that I'm wrong about me being his rival? I shouldn't even show up on his radar.' I asked impatiently.
And now he had to ruin my mood even more.
'Throughout history, it is not uncommon for hosts of the Heavenly Emperors to battle that era's Black Dragon King, even other alive dragon kings for that matter.'
Great. I was a glorified stepping stone now.
'Do not grow intimidated by this fact, partner. Though I may have been weaker to the emperors in the past this does not mean the future is set in stone.
'In one case Ddraig's host was born with great compatibility with his sacred gear, so much so that he achieved a variant balance breaker.
'The battle was fierce but my host was the most cunning and ruthless strategist I knew of. She did not hesitate to lose a couple of her limbs in exchange for a few critical hits against her opponent.
'In the end she emerged victoriously and stomped on all who opposed her, from armies and even the host of Albion! Truly that was the highest point of my life.
'And surprisingly the only era when the heavenly emperors did not battle each other to death. But instead died to me, HAHAHAHA!'
Vritra went on to lose himself for a bit in his past memories. He showed me a few fragments of their battle and to say that mountains were shattered from the shockwave would be an understatement.
'They freaking sunk an entire archipelago!' From a hentai world to a Dragon Ball world which one was it?
Dragons are indeed a powerful species.
I marvelled at the fact that 3 separate factions had to unite to fight against two of them. And they weren't even the strongest of the bunch.
'So all dragon kings are weaker than the emperors.' I asked him, just to confirm my thoughts.
'Well technically. I knew of Tannin, a king like me, who tried challenging Great Red himself.'
What!? Was that dragon seeking death or something?
'Did he die?'
Surely that would be the case, challenging a broken character seemed suicidal to me.
'Hahaha! No, he didn't. Though he got close with how injured he was, but that guy is the most stubborn dragon I've ever met.'
Good to know that dragons are battle junkies, I hoped that Vritra would not encourage me to do stupid things.
{Break}
-Kuoh Academy, forest section-
It was finally lunch break. I took off from class and bought myself some SUPER coffee, the closest thing to MAX Coffee that I could find. During lunch break I preferred eating alone, back in Sobu High I would just hole myself up the roof where there was no one to disturb me.
Now, Kuoh Academy was a very large area and it even had a small forest, which currently turned into my safe haven to run away from all my current problems. No one knew of my safe spot and I wasn't willing to share it with anyone.
'Hehe, no mere mortal is worthy to trespass into my abode-'
What was I doing? This world was seriously making me lose my mind. I almost regressed back to my chuuni phase.
But for some reason the air shifted.
Ominous winds brought ominous tidings
I don't know when, and I don't know how, but something terrible just happened.
"Hey, Hachiman-kun isn't it today that you get to start your club?"
An angelic, or rather a devilish voice, sounded to my right.
If I didn't acknowledge her presence she'd leave right?
"Hachiman-kun?"
Thereby my side, eating her lunch was none other than Akeno.
'Why is Akeno here!' I mentally screamed in frustration.
This was supposed to be my safe haven, how had she found me? I made sure to blend in with the crowd when leaving class and secretly escape through the backdoor of the janitor's room.
I even paid the guy to keep it a secret from the teachers and especially Sona, cause as adorable as I found her to be, she was extremely strict when it came to rules and regulations.
"How did you find it?" I couldn't help but ask her.
"Ara Ara, thought you could escape from me Hachiman-kun? Well too bad I have an inward Hikima compass that tells me where you are, fufufufu." She teased me further by poking me on my cheeks with her chopsticks.
"Now about your club?"
I sighed, resigned to her presence and my no longer existing secret haven.
"Yeah, I have to meet with Sona to fill up a few other application forms and then I'm all set up."
"But I thought you could not form a club unless you had more than 3 people, even Rias was not excluded from that rule at first." Akeno questioned.
Hehehe, well it was not easy but I got her to be guilty enough for giving me faulty information for Bawler and basically guilt-tripped her into doing it.
"Let's just say, I have my ways."
Sorry Sona, nothing personal just plain business.
I still needed to find potential members to recruit and trust me this might be the biggest hurdle I'll ever face. I didn't want for just anyone to join nor did I want my club to be filled with dozens of people who cared more about socialising than helping.
"Could I join?" She offered sounding excited about the idea, "The school allows someone to join multiple clubs as long as the club is willing. So I can become your first member and the vice president just like in the Occult Research Club!"
In a rare case, her childlike personality began to resurface.
'Oh, that is not a bad idea.'
Yeah, I did not have any reasons to refuse and even if I did she would just find another way in. Damn this world and their scarily persistent women.
"Sure, why not. Welcome to the club, I guess?"
That was the best I could do.
From this day on the 'Service Club' was back in business!
{Break}
-Somewhere in Kuoh.-
"So you want me to find who again?"
A handsome young man with light silver hair and hazel eyes could be seen talking on his phone while relaxing on a sofa in an expensive and luxurious looking apartment.
He was wearing a dark green V-neck shirt with a high-collared black leather jacket over it. He also wore burgundy jeans with a silver chain drooping down over them and black leather chaps with three bands encircling his right calf, and black shoes with black buckles.
"C'mon Vali, listen to me seriously for a bit, I already got enough trouble dealing with Penemue and Shemhazai hounding my ass.
"I want you to scout any person with the slightest amount of dragonic energy. We got suspicions that our missing gear's host is somewhere in that city."
The person's voice on the phone sounded almost laid-back and lazy, he sounded like he was probably in his middle ages.
"Humph! If I get to test this 'new host' of Vritra's then I'll happily do it, old man."
"Do not go overboard Vali, he could be an ally." warned the man on the phone.
"Yeah, yeah whatever. I'll call you later, Azazel" Vali did not bother saying goodbye and closing his phone.
"Vritra's host, huh?"
"Should be a bit fun before red shows up." He said with a maniacal smile forming on his face.
He would have fun with his next opponent.
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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.