Leonardo stirred, his body aching as he slowly blinked his eyes open. The last thing he remembered was an unbearable pain splitting his skull apart before everything had gone dark. Now, he was lying on something slightly softer than the hard, blood-soaked ground he had collapsed on earlier.
Wait… blood?
His breath hitched as unfamiliar memories came rushing back. Memories that weren't entirely his. The life of this body… No, it wasn't reincarnation. It was more like transmigration.
LEONARDO.
That was the name of the body he now inhabited—a scrawny, homeless kid.
Leonardo sat up with a start, his head still throbbing but far more manageable than before. His surroundings no longer resembled the grotesque scene from before. The abandoned building was still dilapidated, but the floor was clean—free from blood, gore, and the overwhelming stench of death. Even the air felt different, as if someone had purified it.
"Ah! You're awake!" a cheerful voice chirped.
Leonardo turned his head and saw the same blonde girl from before. She sat nearby, watching him with a relieved expression. Her coat, previously dirtied from her earlier fall, looked freshly cleaned. She had a small smile on her face, but her eyes carried a hint of concern.
"You passed out pretty hard back there," she said, shifting closer. "I wasn't sure if you were going to wake up anytime soon."
Leonardo rubbed his temples, still disoriented. "What… happened?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing!" she huffed, crossing her arms. "I found you covered in blood, then you freaked out when I called you younger than me, and then—bam!—you collapsed like a sack of potatoes."
Leonardo frowned. That much, he remembered. But the pain… that was something else entirely.
"Where am I?" he asked cautiously.
"The same abandoned building," she answered simply. "It was a mess, so I used some magic to clean it up a bit."
Leonardo froze. "…Magic?"
Lavinia blinked at him, tilting her head. "Yeah? You know, magic? Spells? Supernatural stuff?"
His mind stalled for a brief moment.
Magic. Supernatural.
A familiar, creeping sense of unease crawled up his spine. Leonardo's memories—his death—he knew from the memory that demons had attacked him, or at least that was what they looked like with those bat wings. They said he had something he shouldn't have, that he had to die. And just as their attack hit him, Leonardo felt his shadow expanding, and nightmare-inducing creatures emerged from it. Then… darkness. His last thoughts had been filled with confusion, pain… and the bitter realization that his life was being snuffed out for reasons he didn't even understand.
He had been trying to ignore the implications, convincing himself that it was just Leonardo's imagination before death.
But now, hearing it outright from someone else…
"You're serious?" he asked, forcing his expression to remain neutral.
"Of course!" Lavinia nodded enthusiastically. "I'm Lavinia Reni, a magician." She paused, eyeing him with curiosity. "You really didn't know about the supernatural? I thought for sure you were involved, considering… well, everything."
Leonardo maintained his clueless facade, even as his mind raced a mile a minute. Creatures are coming out of his shadow. A magician. The supernatural. Demons with bat wings.
From the information he had, it was becoming painfully obvious.
He was in a very gravity-defying world, literally.
But he couldn't let her know he recognized anything. He needed more information first.
"And I'm Leonardo. A 'kid'" he muttered sarcastically.
"I don't know anything about the supernatural," he lied, feigning confusion. "I just… I woke up here. I don't remember much."
Lavinia frowned, studying him carefully. "That's weird… Then why were devils after you?"
Leonardo stiffened. "Devils?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "I could sense it—traces of their energy were all over you. And when I checked, I noticed something else." She placed a finger to her lips in thought. "You have a Sacred Gear, don't you? That must be why they were after you."
Leonardo felt his stomach drop.
So, it really was the DxD world.
He resisted the urge to groan.
Of all the possible universes, he had to end up in this one—the world where horny devils, battle-hungry fallen angels, and literal gods treated Earth like their personal playground. A world where high schoolers accidentally get dragged into cosmic conflicts and somehow resolve them with the power of friendship… and excessive fanservice.
'Great. Just great. Out of all the places, I land in the one where survival depends on whether or not you're a protagonist… and I sure as hell am not the protagonist.'
Leonardo's heart pounded, but he forced himself to remain calm. Sacred Gear. That meant he had one—no, he definitely had one. And he knew exactly which one it was. If the name Leonardo wasn't enough of a hint, his fragmented memories confirmed it.
It was the biggest 'BUG' of the DxD world.
He looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers. His body was smaller, weaker… But if he really had that Sacred Gear, that meant he had power. He just needed to figure out how to use it.
"Sacred Gear…?" he repeated, acting as if the term was foreign to him.
Lavinia looked at him, her head tilting again. "You really don't know? A Sacred Gear is a special ability given to humans by the Biblical God. There are all kinds, but some are really powerful—powerful enough that devils and other supernatural beings would want to take them for themselves."
Leonardo frowned, pretending to process the information. "And you think I have one?"
"I know you have one," Lavinia corrected. "I can sense it. It's dormant right now, but it's definitely there." She studied him curiously. "You really don't remember anything? Not even what kind of ability it might be?"
He shook his head, maintaining his innocent act. "No… I really don't."
Lavinia pouted slightly. "That's worrying… But don't worry! I'll help you figure it out!"
Leonardo forced a smile, even as his mind spun with endless possibilities. He needed to tread carefully, gather as much information as possible, and figure out his next move.
Because if he was truly in DxD… things were about to get a whole lot more complicated.
Leonardo barely kept his expression in check as his thoughts ran wild.
DxD. The world where supernatural beings went about causing chaos like it was an after-school hobby. A place where teenagers could be casually dragged into divine conflicts, and somehow, the power of boobs and excessive fanservice solved half the universe's problems.
And now he was in it.
And what the fuck did DxD even stand for… Ria's breast size, Double x D's.
Lavinia, meanwhile, seemed blissfully unaware of his existential crisis. She clapped her hands together, her blue eyes sparkling.
"Alright! First things first—we need to figure out what your Sacred Gear does!"
Leonardo blinked. "We?"
"Of course!" She puffed her chest out proudly. "As your first magical friend, it's my duty to help you unlock your hidden potential!"
"…I don't recall agreeing to this arrangement," Leonardo muttered, rubbing his temple.
"Well, obviously, you can't agree if you don't know anything yet," she reasoned as if it were the most logical thing in the world. "So I'll help you, and later, you'll owe me food! That's fair, right?"
Leonardo narrowed his eyes. "Wait, is that your motivation?"
Lavinia gave a dramatic sigh. "You don't understand, Leo—can I call you Leo? I will call you Leo—real food is hard to come by when you're always on the move! Do you know how hard it is to practice magic and keep a balanced diet? It's impossible!"
For a moment, Leonardo was too stunned to respond. Here he was, trying to navigate his reincarnated existence in a booby-trap world, and she was more concerned about food.
He sighed. "Fine."
Lavinia brightened immediately. "Great! Now, back to the Sacred Gear thingy—hmm, let me try something!"
Before he could protest, she suddenly grabbed both of his hands and closed her eyes in concentration.
Leonardo stiffened. "…What are you doing?"
"Shhh," she hushed him, tilting her head like she was listening for something. "I'm trying to sense the flow of your magic! If we figure out what kind of energy you have, we can narrow down what your Sacred Gear does!"
Leonardo wanted to tell her that he already had a pretty good idea what his Sacred Gear was—Annihilation Maker, the biggest bug in the entire DxD universe. But obviously, saying that out loud would lead to way too many questions.
Instead, he simply let her do her thing, watching as her brows furrowed in concentration.
"Wow…" she mumbled. "It's… kinda scary."
Leonardo twitched. "What's scary?"
"It's like staring into a really dark place," she said, eyes still closed. "Like a deep, endless pit, and something inside it is moving…"
Leonardo's lips pressed into a thin line.
Yep. That sounded about right.
After another moment, Lavinia pulled away, blinking rapidly. "That was weird," she admitted, shaking out her hands as if they'd gone numb. Then, to his utter confusion, she suddenly smiled. "But it's also kind of cool!"
Leonardo gave her a blank look. "You just described my energy as a horrifying abyss, and your takeaway is 'cool'?"
Lavinia tilted her head. "Well, yeah! Strong magic is always a little scary! But that just means you have lots of potential!"
Leonardo didn't know if he should be relieved or concerned about how easily she brushed off what should have been a massive red flag.
She was way too trusting.
Then again, considering the fact that she'd apparently found him, a blood-soaked, half-dead kid in an abandoned building, and immediately decided to take care of him instead of leaving him for dead… Maybe it wasn't surprising.
Still, her attitude was a strange contrast to the Lavinia Reni he vaguely remembered from canon. The Lavinia from the original DxD timeline had been calm, composed, and mature. This Lavinia, on the other hand, was…
Well.
A total dork.
Leonardo sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He needed to keep playing dumb and learn more about his situation before making any major moves. But if Lavinia was planning to stick around, things were about to get very exhausting.