Story 5: Chapter 1: A Skillful Reincarnation (Patreon)

Story 5: Skillful Reincarnation

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Chapter 1:  A Skillful Reincarnation

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- ??? -

I wonder where it went wrong.

Was it late night work?

Was it not upgrading my security?

How did I end up in this situation?

I think back as I choke on my blood.

I remember that I was in my room last night. What is this place?

The pain was making my thoughts weird and the blood loss hazy.

Was I going to die like this? Without even knowing the reason?

I felt pain, helpless and angry…. but more than anything else, I felt regret.

My family. 

I couldn't even see them one last time before dying all of a sudden.

Suddenly I saw red. No, it was darker than red.

I however couldn't open my eyes wide enough to see where the light came from.

"I don't have anything to offer you. Even the life I can offer you will be one of constant chase and high danger. Do you still want such a life?"

I heard a voice near me.

Life?

"Y-ye-ss." I forced myself to whisper out somehow.

And then everything faded to black.

My eyes opened from the weird dream. It was extremely realistic if I do say so myself.

This thought however came crashing soon when I observed the different ceiling in front of my eyes. This was not my room. I quickly looked to the side.

This place was not my room. I scrambled down the bed in a hurry and rushed towards the door which was locked so I went to the window to look outside.

The place was completely unfamiliar. The sign boards that I could spot were mainly written in Japanese and the people walking around were mainly Japanese too.

Am I in Japan?

How did I get here?

That part about me choking on my own blood. Did someone attack me and throw me here? But why would someone throw me all across the globe to this country?

Moreover, how did I survive?

I remember having a gaping hole in my stomach.

What was the red light? I remember the voice of someone talking to me?

Thousands of thoughts assaulted my head in that moment all at once.

I felt a panic attack as I crumbled to my knees, heaving due to shortage of breath and started feeling very faint.

I didn’t notice the sound of the door opening.

The next moment, I had two arms wrapped around me.

"Sshh you are safe now. No one is going to hurt you here." A beautiful voice spoke in my ears as blackness claimed me once more.

- Rias Gremory -

She looked at the boy who had fainted in her arms. She picked him up and laid him on the bed and put a blanket on him.

The Evil Pieces had healed him but he was still weak from the blood loss and transformation.

His breathing was still heavy, so she caressed his hair and soon felt him calm down.

She looked at his sleeping face and another face appeared in her mind, suddenly making her hands tremble.

She never thought she would take another peerage member again… Not after what had happened, but fate liked mocking everyone in the face.

She found another boy in the same position as him, dying and couldn't bring herself to ignore it.

She vowed to give him a good life that he could have had if not…

The door to the room opened again.

"So, this is the guy you picked up this time nyaa. He doesn't look strong."

"I didn't reincarnate him for his strength."

"But he can be a danger to you in such a time. One slip and you would be dragged back to the underworld, demonic power sealed and thrown right back into the hell you ran away from, no pun intended."

"I will take responsibility for him." She replied.

"Whatever you say nyaa. But still… you are too kind for your own good. Some other shitty devil wouldn't have cared what happened to him or even stood there just to watch him die."

"I am not… kind."

Some people would call it her kindness, but she knew it. This was not kindness. It was her selfishness. She was seeking to help this boy just to provide herself a closure of sorts, as a means of her redemption for what had happened. Or, it could be her loneliness. Maybe seeking some form of companionship after almost a month on the run alone.

"I just hope he doesn't drag us down. Vali is very picky about this. Can he even become strong? How many pieces did he take?He seems pretty average looking at his muscles."

"Eight Pawns."

"... huh? Didn't that Red Dragon Emperor take the same number? Does he have a Sacred Gear?" Kuroka walked up to him and pressed her palm on his chest. Senjutsu maybe. "He doesn't have a Sacred Gear nyaa. Moreover, I can see him as a pure devil, so he is not even a hybrid. Was he a magician? Doesn't seem like it. The amount of demonic power he has is only at the level of a Low Class Devil. Then again, the transformation hasn't stabilised yet.  Still he might get to the level of a Mid Class Devil at best even when the pieces stabilise."

"I didn't know he would take this many pieces."

"But you struck the lottery again. Really, your luck at picking pieces is something else, but are you sure that he won't turn on you after finding out about your situation."

"That's a risk I am willing to take."

"Well, whatever you say. Just… don't let your past drag you down. We will be visiting some other countries for some work. I was here to invite you for it but it seems that you are not free for some time. Train yourself and train your new member. Good Luck."

"Thank you for all your help, Kuroka."

"You have done a lot for Shirone, when I failed her. I am just repaying you for that."

The door closed and Rias too got up and picked up the bag of groceries and went towards the kitchen to cook. She was getting to explore life much more than she had known previously.

– ??? –

I woke up again to the scent of fresh food.

I looked to the side to see a black-haired girl working in the kitchen.

I wanted to stand up quickly but my body revolted. The exhaustion was kicking in.

Apparently the girl realised that I was awake and turned towards me. "Good Morning. I know you have a lot of questions in your mind but please wait till you get something to eat first. I will not drug or poison you. I could have done so already if I wanted to, so you can eat in peace." She smiled towards me.

The first thought that came to my mind was – She was beautiful.

More so than any other girl I had seen before. Though it was not her beauty that attracted me to her first. No. It was her voice.

She was the same girl whose voice I had heard the last two times before.

The exhaustion was making me very dull and I couldn't bring myself to even shout properly at the moment. I just nodded at her while thinking about the situation. Was this some kind of kidnapping?

What was that dream about me choking on my blood with a hole in my chest? My chest was fine. Was I drugged somehow? Why would anyone even want to kidnap me?

My family was not even wealthy. My parents and I worked hard to put me through Med College. How would we even pay a ransom? That said, I don't think kidnapped victims ate like this?

This doesn't seem like those organ or human trafficking schemes that I had seen on TV.

She put the plates on the dinner table and went back to the kitchen. I took the opportunity to get down off the bed and take the chair on the other end of the long dining table.

I was feeling too weak to do anything so I took a bite of the food while she returned and sat on the opposite side of the dining table.

“I made something light because I didn’t know if heavy food would be good.” She said before taking a bite of her own food.

“Thank you.” I replied before taking my time to clean the plate. She in the meanwhile watched me eating.

Once I was done, I looked at her.

“Umm, can you please explain what is going on? I just remember myself in my room and then the next thing I remember is a bad dream about me being stabbed and choking on blood. Now I am somehow in Japan out of nowhere. I am a little confused.” I was scared. Maybe the weakness was causing me to be cranky. I was never good at being sick, but still it doesn’t hurt to be nice to someone who just saved my life, or whatever the case might have been.

“The thing about you being stabbed… actually, let’s start by introducing ourselves. My name is Rias Gremory.”

…

…

…

…

“Yes, and I am Naruto Uzumaki. Nice to meet you.” I deadpanned.

“Naruto. You don’t look like you're from Japan. Perhaps one of your parents was Japanese?” She asked quite innocently, still going on with this play of hers.

“Yes. It’s Naruto. See, Black hair, black eyes. Who would I be if not Naruto… Sasuke Uchiha? Look Miss, I know I am acting a bit mean, no scratch that, a complete jerk considering that you might have saved my life from what I remember. But please, I am in an unknown place, completely and utterly confused. I am scared. So if you don’t want to tell me your name, it’s fine. I don’t blame you. I am unknown to you, but the least you can do is not lie to me? I don’t think I can take much more stress at this moment. Also, if you are pretending to be an anime character, especially one of my favourite waifus, at least choose someone who looks like you.”

The girl looked frozen in place for a few moments.

“What?”

I let out a sigh and then took a deep breath, “Let’s start this properly again. My name is Samuel White. Please call me Sam if you want to. I am a freshman at Med. College.”

“I already told you my name though. I know it might not be easy for you to go through all this. The process is stressful, no doubt, I agree. But, the dream you just described was real. You were killed by some cult members who were doing some kind of a summoning and sacrifice ritual when I found you lying in your own blood, dying and reincarnated you.”

…

…

“And let me guess. I am somehow a devil now, involved in a three way war between three biblical factions, corrupted human experimenting church, megalomaniac descendants of the previous Satans in a world where the leaders of Heaven and Hell are dead.”

She had her mouth slightly open and while at any normal time I would have totally hit on her because of how cute she looked, it was annoying me to no end right now.

“H-how do you know of… were you aware of the Supernatural world?” She asked, acting surprised. I will give it to her. The acting is really genuine.

“Oh please stop with it already. Jesus Fucking Christ …….owwwww.” My head felt like I had been smashed with a pebble from behind suddenly.

I rubbed my head to soothe the pain but suddenly froze.

A thought came to my mind and a feeling of dread arose in my heart.

With a quivering voice, I tested out my theory. “God.”

I don’t know what smashed me harder, the pain from calling out the name or the realisation about the situation I might actually be in.

I looked up mechanically at the girl in front of me who was looking at me surprised. “D-o you have… wings?”

She looked a little surprised at my question but nodded and two wings popped behind her back.

I blanked out completely. This is not happening.

This can’t be real.

I was in a different world.

My breathing picked up suddenly. 

She must have sensed my abnormal state as she quickly got up and came to me, hugging me and caressing my back.

It helped a bit. I was , however, lost in my own thoughts.

I was here, so… my family. Mom, Dad, everyone back at home… Did I die? I had taken a glimpse at my face and I looked exactly like I looked earlier or I would have freaked out much earlier. Was I just pulled into this world? The cult. Yes, she said something about the cult. Did they pull me here to this world?

It took me over a while to get some control over myself and she didn’t leave my side. It might be my imagination but I think I saw her actually worried about me.

“Thank you. If it’s not too much, can you please take me to an Internet Cafe. I want to see something for myself.” I requested.

She nodded and within twenty minutes, I was inside an internet cafe near the place where we lived. She asked me nothing except telling me to call her Stella when outside.

I agreed quite easily. She might be my lifeline in this world. I’d rather not piss her off more than I already might have with some of my words.

Over the next one hour, I scoured the entire internet and every source I could but came up with empty results. The White Family, my family didn’t exist in this world.

Although, I had already expected the result. The time that showed on the clock on the computer was May, 2008. It was somehow fourteen years in the past.

It was official now. I was in a different world.

I broke down into tears.

Four days had passed.

We returned to our home and I didn't speak a word since then. I appreciated that she didn't force me to either because I might have lashed out at her, unfairly.

Over the course of the days, I tried many things to verify I was in a different world and the most real proof were the two black wings on my back.

Yes, I was somehow in the world that was just a fictional light novel in my world.

There are differences however.

The girl in front of me is without a doubt Rias Gremory or rather just Rias.

She is on the run for some reason and doesn't have a single peerage member with her.

Or rather, she has… Me.

She brought another plate of food in front of me and broke the silence for what was like forever for us.

"Eat something. You haven't eaten anything since yesterday. The transformation takes around a week to settle down and you need plenty of energy for it. Eight pawns are hard to bind and you don't have a Sacred Gear to assist you, so eat up."

I looked up at her and nodded. The dinner was quiet. I was thinking about what to say.

I mean what did I even want to do? Getting stuck in this situation is far different than what I had read in stories.

Finally with our dinner completed, I spoke, deciding to end the silence.

"I… We need to talk."

"Okay. I will listen."

I took a deep breath and took the biggest decision of my life so far as I said the next few words. "I am not from this world."

"What?"

I sighed. What was I expecting? Of course it won't be so easy.

"Please listen to me. I know things will sound unbelievable to you, almost fantastical or utter bullshit but please… Just listen."

She became quiet for a moment and then nodded.

"I am not from this world. I don't know how I got here, probably something that cult you said about did to summon me here but I am from a world quite similar and yet different from this."

She looked at me a bit unsure but still asked me. "Why do you think so? What makes you think that this is not your world?"

"Several things. I remember clearly that I was in 2022 and it's 2008 here."

"Time travel." She asked.

I shook my head. "My family doesn't exist in this world. I have searched through everything I could and they are not here." I clenched my hands as I said this.

"I'm sorry."

"No. It's not your fault. If anything, you saved my life and I can never repay you enough for that." I stopped her from speaking as I continued. "There are several things different in this world from my previous world's 2008. Starting from TV shows to Presidents of countries. At worst, it's a parallel world." I looked up at her and she was silent, thinking.

She spoke after a moment,  "The ritual could have messed with your memories?"

I shook my head. "It won't add extra memories in my head. I have entire fourteen years of memories in clear detail. I don't think this type of thing can be accidental. That said, even that was not my biggest clue that I am in a different world."

I took a deep breath once more and said.

"The biggest clue to it all was you and well… My devil wings, getting hurt on saying Go… his name. But the very fact that these things exist was a big red signal." Seeing her part offended, part hurt look, I explained. "It's nothing bad. I don't blame you for turning me into a devil. Ten thousand plus years of life, super strength, wings and above all, magic. I am not an idiot or too religious of a person to blame you for it. The thing is… you or rather this world was a story, a Light Novel in my world."

She blanked out completely.

– Rias Gremory –

She was not expecting this.

Sam, her new pawn, started stating things that completely shattered her perception of the world. She wanted to refute the things he was saying but some of the things were something he just couldn't find out no matter how she thought.

So, was her life just that? A story?

No.

It was different.

In the world mentioned by Sam, he was not dead.

Could it have been different if she had given up earlier?

It's something she would never know.

The entire story went to insane degrees where the future was involved and yet, she couldn't reject the idea completely.

His information about the Vali team was also accurate.

So, in around two months, will Kokabiel attack Kuoh?

She will have to ask Kuroka and if possible send this message to her brother.

Still… To think she would one day have an isekai character in her peerage. Normally she would be gushing at it but now, seeing the dead look in his eyes, understanding all the sides of such a scenario, she just couldn't bring herself to be happy.

"Why?" She asked him.

"Hmm?"

"Why are you telling me all this? You understand how many people would kill for this information, kill for you or rather what you represent? Then why would you do this? Why put yourself in such danger?" She asked him curious. She didn't think he trusted her yet. So, why would he do this? Why would he give away his biggest advantage in this unknown and extremely dangerous world?

"I have nothing in this world. No home, no family, no place to go, " He smiled self-deprecatingly, "not even a reason to live. I don't even exist in this world officially. Everything I had worked for in the twenty years of my life is gone. I am a living ghost for all matters and purposes. I don't know what will happen to me tomorrow and at this point I honestly don't care. You on the other hand saved my life, picked me up, fed me, took care of me and even bore my sass and yet remained so caring towards me. If tomorrow, something happens to me and this information helps you out in some way, then I will consider it as repaying a part of my debt."

She wanted to protest that she didn't want any because she knew in her heart that it was not selfless of her to do it but he raised a hand and stopped her. Somehow, his calm and simple words were more painful than Koneko’s silence had been when she was trying to get her back to her feet again.

“Let me finish first. Even if I hid things today, I am not a good liar. This would have come out one day later on and then any trust we had between us would have been forever lost. I have already lost almost everything except my life. Trust of the one person who knows me, is the absolute last thing I want to lose.”

“Why are you talking as if this is the end of the world? You can still do a lot of things in this world? Actually, why even stop at that? If you can be brought here, can’t you be sent back too? This world has a lot of magic. Even if this one doesn’t, the worlds connected to it might have magic that can be used to track your home back. We have a lot of time and you can obviously find a way back to your home and family, but… but nothing like that will happen if you just give up, if you just give up your hope to live.” She shouted at him. The thought of losing another peerage member, made her want to vomit. She didn’t deserve his trust or kindness. She was not a good person. She was doing this for her own selfishness, her own selfish reasons.

The light returned to his eyes as he heard of the talks of going back home.

“Do you think there is a way back?” He asked and she could sense the hope in his voice. He must be very close to his family.

“It is magic, right? If you came from somewhere, there must be a way for you to go back too. Although Space-Time and Summoning Magic are extremely rare, it does exist. From what little I know, all the things come here via the Dimensional Gap, so your world might be somewhere out there. We just have to figure out where. We can even try to scan and decipher the magic that the cult people were trying to do and maybe find any source from it. I will ask a few of my… friends about it to see if I can find anything. In the meantime, you should try to learn about the Supernatural world too. It is much more than the few Light Novels that you might have read back in your world. Considering the fact that we are here and you are my pawn, already means that things are different so rather than taking the knowledge you have as gospel, we can take them as fair clues and work our way out from there.” She said as she analysed all the information she had gotten just now. Even a fraction of these could be used as extremely useful negotiation tools in the right hands. She could probably use it to provide a backup for her peerage in case things got serious back there.

“Can we Scan…” She looked up at him to see him frozen once more, looking at her in awe. No, he was looking all around her to be exact. “Sam?” She called out to him, breaking him out of his daze.

- Samuel White -

I looked with an open mouth at the scene in front of me.

Around Rias now floated cards of different colours. Each card had different things written on them. I tried to touch them but my hand passed through them without touching.

"Sam?"

"Huh!" I broke out of my daze and looked at the owner of the voice.

“What happened? You just phased out.” She asked, worried.

“I….wait, you can’t see them?” I asked, again taking a look at the cards.

“See what?” She asked, looking around quite confused.

“The cards. The cards floating around you?”

“What cards?”

She can’t see them.

Suddenly an idea struck me. Is this my cheat?

I quickly took a look at the cards and read the contents.

D Ranked Demonic Power

E Ranked Demonic Power Control

E Ranked Gremory Bloodline

D Ranked Bael Bloodline

F Ranked Cooking

D Ranked Mind Magic

E Ranked Barrier Magic

E Ranked Disguise

C Ranked Luck

D Ranked Devil Magic

And several more skills were lined up but were not of much importance. I mean what would I do with Piano, Etiquette, Dance, Politics etc for now. The language skills could be useful. The Devil’s Language ability applied only to the spoken languages and not the written ones. Especially when different languages in different countries have different accents.

But somehow no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t grab any of them.

The keyword was Scan if I remember correctly.

Let’s try some other keywords.

“Status.”

Nothing happened.

So, I raised my hand and repeated. “Scan.”

And sure enough, a menu opened in front of my eyes.

Unfortunately, none of the Skills I had were good enough. The basic language Skills, my knowledge and my basic soccer skills from when I played.

My overall strength was recorded as F Rank and that too was due to the eight Evil Pieces Pawn Cards I could feel. F Ranked Energy Reserves.

I couldn’t touch Rias’ cards.

Maybe I needed to try this ability with others.

“I need to test something and we need to go outside.”

“Test what?”

“I… might have awakened some kind of power.”

“What power?” She asked, curious.

So, I went on to explain the thing to her.

“The Skills you have explained are indeed things that I possess. We still can’t be sure what they are. Let’s test it out on others first.”

It was later decided that we needed to test it on someone whom we wouldn’t miss in case the power was dangerous to use.

Thus, the two of us got into our disguises. I was using a wig because I didn’t know the Disguise Spell.

Finding a few yakuza members was easy for her. She just hypnotised them and I used my skill on them.

Through experimentation, I found out a few things about my powers.

First, I needed to be in a 1 meter range of the target.

Second, I could only use the power on one person at a time.

Most importantly, I could touch their cards. I tried to take their cards and it turned out that I could do so with a thought.

The process however took some time.

The Skills they had were all of F Rank.

The thugs didn’t lose their skills either.

They didn't even realize that something had happened and neither did Rias who was standing beside me.

The last thing was that I could only take 1 skill from each person. The rest of their cards became colourless after that.

Whether there was a cooldown for this, still needed to be checked.

If I went out of range at the time where the card was being copied, the process is stopped and I have to start from the very beginning again.

I copied the Unarmed Combat Skill from one of the thugs and I was also given their experiences with it.

It was, however, a bit disconcerting. The coordination was not perfect. If I had to put it into words, it was like riding a bicycle after a few years. We can still do it, but we need some practice to get familiar with it as we were.

I got the Japanese Language from the other thug. Once verified that the targets didn’t lose their skills, we tried it in several places throughout the day.

Starting from common restaurants to dojos, everything we could find.

Too bad that the people, especially humans, rarely had any useful skills above F Rank.

Even the old Dojo Master only had E Ranked Swordsmanship, which was actually a lot considering he was only a normal human and not a part of the supernatural.

Higher Ranked Skills took more time.

Although I still couldn't touch any of Rias' cards.

"It could be due to the difference in power. We need to check it more."

"I don't think using it on any normal human would help."

"I… know of a bar nearby. It is run by Youkai. We can see if your powers work there."

"That won’t put you in any danger, would it?"

"This disguise is done with the help of a magic tool that a friend of mine gave me. Even Ultimate Class beings would find it hard to spot me unless I do something obvious like firing the Power of Destruction all over the place." She replied and led us towards the establishment.

The Supernatural district was a strange place. We were only headed to the outskirts but she explained that the further we go in, the more the crowd. The barriers around the place keeps the surroundings free from those without any supernatural awareness.

Our destination catered to both humans and the supernatural and was on the border of the barrier.

The restaurant cum bar was a small place which was run by a black haired guy who wouldn't look out of place in any Japanese shop.

"Hiroshi-san. We will take two bowls of your chicken ramen." She ordered and led me to sit in front of the counter.

"Ah, Stella-san. So nice to see you again. Your order will be done in just a moment."

I looked at her for an explanation and she just said that she will explain it all later on.

The guy quickly prepared the ramen and served us. I took the opportunity to scan the ones beside me.

The guy next to me was a Bull Youkai who had an E Ranked Physique, E Ranked Enhanced Senses, E Ranked Strength, etc.

I tried to copy the E Ranked Physique skill first and the time taken was a bit longer than before. Thankfully it was done by the time the guy was done eating his bowl of ramen.

The card appeared in front of me and I willed to use it.

I felt a gush of power flowing in me. It was exhilarating. I felt as if I could lift the entire counter in front of me with one hand. In my excitement, I accidentally crushed the chopsticks in my hand.

It attracted some attention but nothing much.

I just got another pair.

Rias looked at me with a questioning gaze and I nodded back at her.

Over the course of the next few hours, I managed to snag a total of five skills.

E Ranked Enhanced Senses, E Ranked Enhanced Speed, F Ranked Touki from one of the guards at the Supernatural District, a lucky find, E Ranked General Human Magic from a magician.

Magic was divided into many parts. The guy had Fire Magic and Lightning Magic both at F Rank. I chose the General Human Magic because it contained the Basic Magic Spells, most importantly, the Teleportation Spell.

The 1 metre range was the biggest obstacle for me at the moment.

We roamed around the place and then returned back home soon enough.

“What do you think?” She asked, getting out of her disguise as I did the same.

“I can copy the abilities of those weaker or slightly stronger than me, even one level stronger. I still need to figure out what these alphabets mean.”

“Power Rankings. They seem like the power rankings of the Skills in a Role Playing Video Games. The level of the skill increases. Or it might be the level of the individuals.”

It’s like the Gamer System in that aspect.

“How strong would you say the strongest person I copied today was?” I asked.

“Low Class, maybe Mid Class. If I remember correctly, I had the D Rank in Demonic Power. So, D Rank is High Class level. As a reference. F or E could be Low and Middle from this estimate.”

“Sounds about right. And how strong would you say I am about now?”

“If you can assimilate the skills properly, you would be a decent Mid Class. Especially with the Swordsmanship and Touki. I guess that they are all skills different beings and you still haven’t experienced them yourself yet so you aren’t E Rank yet.”

“Sounds reasonable.”

“Don’t worry. We will go back to the Supernatural District tomorrow as well as some other places for you to collect skills and then train to get you used to them. Your transformation should be settled in a few days too. I estimate that your Demonic Power will increase to the Mid Class Levels due to the Evil Pieces completely merging with you.”

“Do you think I should copy someone’s bloodline or power reserves? I didn’t try those today.”

She became a bit quiet in thought. “Copy mine. You are already a Devil. I don’t really care if you copy mine but if people find out that you can do such a thing, the entire devil race, no, the entire world will be after your blood, so never… never ever reveal this to anyone. If it works, we will think about the best thing you can do to ensure your survivability. For now, don’t reveal anything about your power to anyone.” I don’t know why but her tone was serious and pleading at the same time.

I still haven’t gotten to know about the changes in this world. The fact that she was here was already a massive change but I had no idea what had caused it. I guess I will have to talk to her about it.

It was late at night and time to sleep. We took turns in the bath.

I was sleeping on a futon on the floor for the last two days but today something changed.

“Sam.”

“Hmm?”

“I don’t want to sleep alone today. Please.”

I somehow didn’t want to sleep alone either. The memories of my home and family were only kept on the back of my mind because I was keeping myself busy for the last few hours.

“Okay.”

We said no words and prepared to go to bed. I was not sure if any of us would get even a blink of sleep tonight.

- Sirzechs Lucifer -

Sirzechs entered the halls of the Gremory House.

Somehow, he had lost the feeling to call it home anymore.

His father was sitting in his study.

He knocked on the door.

"Enter."

"Father." I greeted.

The person in question raised his head slightly but then returned to his paperwork. "If this is about the reward that was issued for her information or bringing her back, I am not taking it back. She left the house on the day of her marriage, shaming both the houses in front of the entire underworld. She is already lucky I didn't disown her right on the spot."

"Yes, it's her luck. I am sure, the fact that if you had done so, you would have lost all rights or say in her life had nothing to do with it." He replied bitingly.

The pen in his father's hand snapped but he didn't care. He was here for something else.

"Are you here to point this out, defend her and argue with me again?"

"No. Not really. I know that running away was wrong on her part. It doesn't matter if that was the only way she thought she had left."

"I was doing things for her own good, the good of the family."

"And how is forcing her against her wishes for the good of the family. You gave her till the end of her university years to fight for her engagement, citing that she would have the freedom of choice if she won the game. You didn't help her solve the problems of her peerage members which could have been solved at a very young age, problems that a teenager like her doesn't even have an idea about. You stopped me from helping her, saying it was to make her independent, to make her responsible. I agreed. Then, she finds and recruits the Red Dragon Emperor, someone who within a year could have destroyed the entirety of her opponent's peerage and suddenly her marriage is pushed to less than a month… coincidentally."

He took a deep breath and continued, "Then she had to face someone who was a perfect counter to her powers and had a full and experienced peerage, who had his peerage nearly destroyed and was surviving just because of the Phenex Tears. I am sure, him torturing her peerage member and killinq another one was very good to make her responsible as well as good for the reputation of the Gremory Family. Well, she did become responsible, taking responsibility for her Yuuto's death and becoming independent. Guess your plan had some merit after all."

"The marriage with the Phenex was for the future of the Gremory House. Their children would have increased the number of pure blooded devils and the cooperation between the two houses would have given the Gremory House more say in the council."

"And it could have been done when the two had matured a little more. It's not like we are in danger of going extinct. These reasons are the ones you might use to sleep at nights, but we both know it's not true. Riser spied on Rias and asked you to hurry the marriage because he found out that she had recruited the Red Dragon Emperor. As for how I found out about it, he made it a point to rub it in her face right before the marriage ceremony and Milicas happened to overhear him. For someone who is so very concerned about maturity, you are awfully partial on this case."

*BANG*

"Can we continue on why you have come here? Because if you are here to argue, leave."

"I am not here to argue. I came here because I heard that you are signing Milicas' engagement contract."

"We have to give an answer to the Phenex for the shame that she caused everyone by running away. Engaging Milicas to their daughter Ravel will soothe things back."

"And Rias?"

"When she is found, she will be married into the Phenex House as a concubine. It will be her punishment."

He felt his temper rise but he took a deep breath and calmed himself.

"Please cancel the contract for Milicas. I do not want my son to be involved in any political agendas."

"He is the heir of the Gremory House. This is a part of his responsibility." His father almost shouted back. "You are completely disregarding the position of the house in your childish tantrum. You are the Lucifer. You gave up the right to interfere in the Gremory House matters when you took on the position of a Satan. The matters of the Gremory House don't concern you anymore."

"Is that so? Hmm… No. You are right. I did give up my connection to the Gremory House. This was the reason you used to stop me from interfering last time. But… if I am not a Gremory, how can my son be a Gremory? A Satan cannot recognize or give their name to their children… But, a child has two parents. Currently, Milicas is a Gremory because I allow it. I can just as easily have him take the Lucifuge name because Grayfia is still the Head of the Lucifuge House. If you want to do politics, then so be it."

He saw his father's mouth open wide in shock.

"You would go so far… you would break all relations with us?"

"Yes. I will. Although I don't think it would mean anything, after all, for you, I can be a member of the Gremory House or not when it is convenient for you. I sat back and now I don't know where or how my little sister is. I will not let the same happen to my son."

"You could find her anytime you want by threatening her peerage and yet you pretend."

"They are Grayfia's peerage now. Rias traded them to her legally. Neither I nor anyone else has any rights to do anything to them. I hope you will pay some thoughts to what I said today. I will be taking my leave, Lord Gremory."

He left the room before the other side could say anything.

- Sam -

I woke up to a very unique situation. Well… not exactly unique as it happens to every young guy in the mornings but… I am pretty sure not everyone would have a bombshell like the one currently wrapping her legs around me.

Last night I found out that Rias really did have the habit of sleeping naked and didn't mind the presence of her peerage members during such a time either.

Last night, I was too preoccupied with my own situation to actually focus properly on her but now, after a good night of sleep, my mind is much clearer and now I cannot focus on anything but her wrapped around me.

She was having nightmares last night and I understood why she asked me to accompany her. Someone like her who is always surrounded by people was suddenly all alone.

The entire situation must be weighing on her all this time.

Not that I minded it either. I appreciated any kind of companionship myself.

Apparently she sensed me waking up and opened her eyes too.

"Good Morning." I greeted softly, trying to calm myself down.

"Good Morning." She replied, after taking a moment to realise the situation.

"Did you sleep well?" I asked, trying to attract her attention away from my erection.

"I did." She nodded as she hugged me lightly and that was it. The little me twitched and she paused for a moment, realising the reason why I was still all this time. Her cheeks blushed bright crimson.

"Sorry. It's a normal physiological reaction, not something I can control." I apologised awkwardly.

She shifted a little, freeing my lower body and for once I was thankful for the blanket I was using. Although the tent in the blanket made things awkward, it was much better than what it could have been. She looked at me and suddenly smiled or rather smirked. "Are you sure, this had nothing to do with the fact that you are sharing a bed with 'one of your favourite waifus’?

I froze.

Normally, I was quite open about my otaku habits but this… This was a whole new ball game.

Just how many people would encounter this?

I scratched my cheek awkwardly, "I would be lying if I said it wasn't."

And that was it. She started giggling and I chuckled awkwardly.

At least the depressing atmosphere from yesterday was lightened significantly.

"So, if I was/am one of your favourite waifus, tell me about someone else, any other waifu from this world that you like."

… 

… 

I wonder how her face would be if I said Grayfia or maybe Venelana.

"Talking about another girl when in bed with one sounds like a sure shot way to get beaten up. A trap I'd rather not test my luck with, thank you very much."

"Heh, nice save there." She rolled her eyes. "And here I thought I could get you to blush 

more."

Making me blush, eh.

"But hey, at least now I truly know that you have crimson hair." I smirked. 

"Hmm, how?" She asked, confused.

"Carpets and drapes don't match." I joked and her blush returned in full force.

"So, you were looking then." She asked, accusingly.

"I would be impotent or gay if I didn't look. I am a healthy heterosexual male however so…"

We talked about random stuff, as if trying to forget the situation we were in.

I don't know how but the two of us decided this without saying a word and I was fine with it.

I needed this to keep my head focused on finding a way to get back home, if there was one. Thinking about home would just get my attention diverted and make me depressed.

We got up and got ready for the day soon and I decided to pull my weight a bit by cooking breakfast. The Skills copied from. The Restaurant Chef was especially helpful in this.

"We will train when we return back home today. There is a training room in the basement which can take my attacks. You can use it safely to try out your new Skills too."

So that's where she was going sometimes and returning back looking all tired.

"So, again in the Supernatural District?"

"Yes. We will see if you can get some more skills today and then train at night to get you accustomed to using those skills. Our main training will start in a couple of days when you get fully accustomed to your Evil Pieces. We can try promotion then to see how much increase you can get with each of the promotions."

"Do you know of any place where I can learn any healing Skills? They would be very useful for our training."

"Healing… Is a rare skill in the Supernatural world. Even we devils can only use our demonic power to increase the rate of recovery for other devils. Other than that, there are Sacred Gears and Senjutsu healing but the last one is exclusive to only strong Senjutsu users whom we cannot approach right now. One of my new friends can use it but if you cannot copy my skills, you won't be able to touch hers either. Today, we will try to find some more skills to enhance your basic strength and potential."

"I will also check if I can copy the same cards and what happens when I do so."

"Okay. By the way, the food was delicious. You are getting a hang of the chef's skills already."

"It's a bit weird. I have all these Skills. I know I can use them but it's still weird using them for the first time. I don't think I can use them together properly."

"You will get used to it in real combat."

With that said, we headed again for the Supernatural district.

__________________________________________________________________________

I stood in the training room under the building. It was warded heavily to contain any damage inside.

We had spent around eight hours in the Supernatural District and especially in the inner areas. I got an E Ranked Touki from a tiger youkai, E Ranked Spearmanship from a Tengu Guard, E Ranked Enhanced Reflexes from a Nekomata, a couple of Elemental Magics from some magicians that I found in the area, two cards of E Ranked Magic Power Reserves. I wanted to test what happened if I took magic other than Demonic Power and I got the answer soon enough too. They just merge with my Demonic Power Reserves Card.

My power finally shot to the E Rank.

Another thing that I verified was that two cards of the same Rank and Skill can be merged.

They just fill up the gaps that others might have left and use the experiences of the two users to refine the card.

A very rough comparison would be two people scoring 50 marks out of 100 in a test. This would not mean they both scored in the same questions. If their correct answers are taken together, the score can increase more than fifty.

For me, the strength of the cards of the same Rank is signified by the colour of the card. The darker the colour, the more complete the card or closer to advancing to the next Rank.

Last but not the least though, I finally managed to snag myself a Senjutsu Skill of F Rank.

Unlike the popular belief, The Senjutsu Skill is not common even among Youkai. This is also the reason why the Nekoshou are so rare. It's because they have an innate affinity to learning both Senjutsu and Yojutsu easily. Thus, it was harder to find this card.

It also pushed my entire Rank to E despite me not being familiar with the Skills, so I guess that raising the base power enough can also increase my rank.

I got several changes as soon as it happened.

First, I got an increase in my range from. 1 to 2 metres.

Second, I could now touch Rias' cards. So, the guesses that I can copy those at least a level above me was true. Not that I had encountered anyone stronger than her yet… . fortunately.

Third, I got a Special Card as a reward for Ranking Up.

It is an Unranked Card which reduces the time of copying any Card to half the required time once.

Nothing too special at the lower ranks but it might come in handy at the higher ranks.

Right now my Skill List looked completely different from yesterday's empty list.

E Ranked Physique

E Ranked Demonic Power Reserves

E Ranked Enhanced Senses

E Ranked Enhanced Speed

E Ranked Enhanced Reflexes

E Ranked Enhanced Strength

E Ranked Swordsmanship

E Ranked Spearmanship

E Ranked Martial Arts

E Ranked Touki

E Ranked General Human Magic

E Ranked Fire Magic (Human Magic)

E Ranked Water Magic (Human Magic)

E Ranked Lightning Magic (Human Magic)

F Ranked Senjutsu

I got the Martial Arts Card when I merged two different kinds of Martial Arts Cards together. After yesterday, we searched through several Dojos in search of experienced Martial Artists and lucked upon some masters whom I copied.

The rest were Auxiliary Skills.

"Test out your Magic Spells first. We will check your physique and physical abilities then and finally spar for a bit."

I nodded and tried out water magic first because it was the least dangerous of all my spells. The Magic of the Human system is based on calculations. Each step and the amount of power has to be calculated and arranged properly. It reminded me of the coding that my friend used to do.

A ball of water formed in front of me and shot at my command towards the wooden target in front of me which got a dent on being hit. The wooden target got back to its previous state easily seconds later though.

"The targets are much stronger than they look and are enchanted to fix themselves automatically. You don't have to worry about them. Just let loose."

I nodded in return. "In that case, I will try more dangerous spells." And try I did.

The spells flew quickly one after another. I didn't have the practice of the magician but my base stats were stronger than the Magician I had copied from which made up for the difference in experience. The speed got faster and faster until I collapsed on my knees. My demonic power ran out.

"It was quite good for someone trying magic for their very first time. With a base in Human Magic, you will find the Devil's Magic system even easier. I will get you an untraceable magic circle when Kuroka returns. It will give you a decent boost in your casting abilities. Now rest. We will test your physical abilities after this and then the promotion ability."

Ah yes. There was the promotion left too.

__________________________________________________________________________

"You did very well for someone who was fighting for the first time."

"I still got my butt royally kicked though. I felt like an MMO player who paid for all the gear for their character but couldn't play the game to save their lives." I couldn't even put a dent on her barrier magic.

"The difference in power was too much. That said, once you master your powers, you would be strong even among Mid Class beings and might even touch the boundaries of the High Class on Promotion. No need to feel so down."

We had returned from my first training session. I was sore all over from exertion, both physically and magically.

"So, what's the plan for the future?" I asked, finally breaking it.

She paused for a moment and then looked up. "I want to write the information that you gave me about the future to my brother. It will help us handle the situation much better."

"You will go home?"

"NO! I will send a message to him."

"Your peerage?"

"I… I can't meet them. Not now. I… will think of something."

… she opened up to me a little about the reason she left her home. It turns out that Kiba died in the Rating Game. It was going mostly like what I knew, the only change being Kiba escaping the range of the explosion and sneaking up on Riser who was torturing Issei. It freed Issei but an enraged Riser blasted Kiba before anyone could intervene.

The guy then had the guts to rub the fact that he had spied on Rias and asked her father to drag the date forward so that Issei didn't have a chance to grow.

Knowing how she treated her peerage, it was already impossible that Rias would marry someone who murdered one of them. She traded her pieces to Grayfia because she honestly thought that they would be hurt if they stayed with her. Then finally as a slap to her father and the Phenex house, she ran away on the day of the wedding.

She encountered Kuroka later on who surprisingly gave her a place because she had helped Koneko.

The place we were sitting in was one of the Vali Team's hideouts.

That explained the underground training room and the place in general.

"If you tell me the general location, I can pass the message to one of them." I offered.

She looked at me and I shrugged. "I will not go directly outside your previous school or anything. I will get a flyer and summon one of them, probably Issei because he won't know how to identify a devil if I hide decently. The others are experienced and might figure out that I am a devil too. I mean I could also pass it to Asia if possible. They don't know me and I can leave directly if something happens."

She looked at me and then thought for a while and nodded.

I mean how to better deal with world destruction level threats than to spoil the future plans of the bad guys to some responsible adults and let them deal with it.

I have no delusional thoughts about saving the world by myself or anything. Let those responsible for this, take care of it themselves. I will search for a way to go back home in the meantime. Also, if Rias gets credit for solving this scandal, maybe she can get her name cleared and I can tag along to the three faction side to get enough skills required for me.

I mean Trihexa got most of the people, the strong ones sealed. How would I copy them if they all get sealed. Any one of them could have the thing I need to get back home again.

"We will get you to a High Class level first. I want to prepare for everything. But first, copy any of my Skills you want. We need to raise your overall strength as soon as possible."

Once again I checked her Skills and chose… . 

__________________x____________________________________x__________________

Beta Reader: LuluViBritania(FF.N, SB, WN and QQ)/-LuluViB|99th Britannian Emperor(Discord)

Author's Note:

I was too busy the last two weeks so no updates. I am finally free.

This is a new idea I had during my break.

In normal SI stories, the guy is normally reincarnated or transmigrated or chooses to go to a different world, leaving everything and everyone behind and thus, more or less accepts the situation of their families being left behind. I don’t think I have ever seen a story like Arifureta, where the MC works to get back home and so… . I decided to write one.

What happens when the world of DxD comes face to face with a man with the greatest power known to mankind… . Common Sense?

What happens when the MC just wants to get the fuck out of the world and back to their homes to his family?

This is my take on such a story.

Also, Rias has always been hated for being lazy and I have explained her side in detail earlier why that was the misunderstanding caused by the anime which was very different from the Light Novels. Comparing her to Sairaorg or Vali is unfair because they had to train just to stay alive, while the marriage thing was pulled on her years earlier than was scheduled. So, what happens if Rias gets herself in a situation where she needs to get stronger?

Do remember that after two years of training she fought toe to toe with Grayfia, one of the Strongest Devils.

I am looking forward to writing this story.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.