Kapitel 43: Interlude : Change of A Dragon
A/N : Here's the second interlude of the fic! Just like the first one for Rumi, it was edited by my friend Paradox. He transformed my 2000 words average chapter into this incredible piece of +3300 words!
I hope you'll enjoy this one as much as I did and don't forget the stones this time ahah cuz this chap is as amazing as me... ahem...
Here's the pic of the week.
Here's also the fic of a friend :
https://www.webnovel.com/book/reincarnated-life-in-highschool-dxd_21729477005169505
Very original story in DxD, you can expect smut and high quality writing since he's already experienced! ( for the lazys, title: reincarnated: life in highschool dxd)
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In the late hours of the night, the sky above was devoid of any clouds, projecting a pitch-black color as if a testament to the infiniteness of the void beyond its worldly borders.
Meanwhile, the only source of light in this ever-looming darkness, the majestic moon, was shining brilliantly in its ethereal nigh ephemeral glow, illuminating the lands below.
Its gentle light softly fell on the leaves, making way for its shadow being projected on the ceiling of a small room, its infrastructure suggesting it to be made for a female child.
The shadows were slowly swaying— a projection of the rustling state of the leaves— it was as though a mesmerizing dance was being performed under the rhythmic movements of the chilly wind.
In front of such a hypnotic scene the young girl, lying silently on the bed— staring absentmindedly at the trance-inducing display— was lost in her thoughts.
For as long as she could perceive and reminisce her father was akin to an unmovable enormous wall, someone whose sheer height she could never reach or overcome.
Someone fated to always be better and much stronger than her.
A mountain standing tall and proud, capping her full potential, let it be intended to make her overcome it by herself.
Or unintentionally just because he was too proud of being what he was— a dragon.
That was her impression of her dear father…well, at least…until that fateful day.
Still, she didn't hate her father, for all the pain he made her suffer. No, it was far from that.
She loved her father dearly.
He was the one who taught her the ways of the world.
He was also the person who, from an extremely young age, younger than the appropriate age, taught her how to read, write and count.
The one who showed her a glimpse of a martial art called 'Kung-Fu' and later taught her how to fight using said art.
He wasn't only a father, but also a master, a teacher, and finally, a spiritualist who helped her find a peaceful mindset.
It wasn't always easy, that much she was sure of.
Recalling her harsh upbringing, she couldn't help but wince a few times at everything she had to go through to come to the current stage.
The furthest she could recall, her very first memory, was from when she was a little baby.
Around 2 or 3 years old.
During that time, her father was already behind her back teaching and commanding her on how to run when other children her age were still stumbling on flat surfaces, barely even being able to walk
In fact, he was always behind her back trying to make her the very best at anything and everything.
During the same period, while she was discovering the outside world with her own eyes for the first time, her father would often speak in English or Chinese or languages similar to those…she didn't really understand which language it was at that time.
It was just a different language, different from Japanese at the very least.
It sounded absurd to hear, and she was the very first to agree, but it was at that period of time that humans had the ability to learn the most in their minuscule lifespan.
And her father used this opportunity to perfection, implementing the method on her to grow her potential exponentially. That's why she couldn't hold a grudge or resent him for making her childhood far harder than the other kids.
As she was surrounded by only women who were close to her father and didn't really have the kind of strength or presence that was worth mentioning, he stood as the lone and sole role model for her, and she felt the desperate need to respond to his expectations, to earn his approval and affection.
Thanks to him, she was now well versed in 3 languages, at the age where other children would be hard pressed to be proficient in a single language...
'Perfection?' That word stayed rooted in her mind, and it kept on ringing over and over again for a long period of time…until a familiar face appeared.
A humorist with purple hair, and the most beautiful golden eyes she had ever laid her gaze upon and had the fortune of witnessing.
Although her father tried to raise her to be absolute, to make her the perfect priestess, fighter, and student, the only person to ever come close to perfection in her eyes was him.
At least for her, that was an intrinsic truth.
She knew, even without being humble, that she was yet to become perfect. Maybe, she could never reach that state.
'Heh.' A self-mocking laugh escaped her lips and dissolved in the silence surrounding her, in the small room encased in darkness.
All those years, those long, painstakingly long 11 years, her father tried to make her the very best, and she was giving the crown of perfection this easily to someone else.
Truly, she was the very definition of 'pathetic'. But, she also knew that what she felt was absolute.
She also remembered that later in her life, when she was old enough to run and speak without any problems, but before her quirk manifested, her father started telling her stories.
Beautiful, fantastical fairy tales about a Hero saving a Princess, a beautiful damsel in need of help in front of a big bad Dragon.
The Dragon was a gruesome beast, a fearful behemoth, a manifestation of everyone's nightmare terrorizing a town or even a country.
Fortunately, the Hero always managed to overcome each and every trial in his way to finally reach the Dragon and kill it, getting rid of the malice threatening the world.
Thus saving the beautiful Princess, and sometimes becoming the King of a peaceful, prosperous empire in the process.
Though, when her quirk finally appeared, the gist of the stories changed somewhat.
It wasn't about the Hero anymore, nor was it about the enchanting princess, no, the story now revolved around the Dragon. Sometimes it was following its side of the story.
At other times it was showing how an old and wise dragon helped a traveler by offering him knowledge, bounties, or combat arts, helpful for his travels and adventures.
The stories showed how the dragons were virtuous yet sinful.
Or how bad they were in their virtuous way of living.
She understood that dragons were beasts that could never be bound by anything, freely flying in the skies, under and above the heavens there was no one to shackle them.
She wanted to be that dragon, to attain said freedom, to perceive the feeling of flying unbounded…the feeling of being above everything.
So when her father showed her their family's quirk heritage, she felt as though she was living the dream, it was the most joyful moment of her life.
Until the sad news hit her; she couldn't fly, at least not yet. The quirk needed time to fully manifest and it would mature with her own growth and even if she could use her wings, she would need long arduous training to be able to attain her dream of flight.
And that was not all, merely the beginning of the drawbacks of her transformation quirk. Her teeth became pointy and inhumanely sharp, akin to that of predators, and even her irises changed shape, turning into slits from their usual circular form.
Her hair became a shade clearer, from hazelnut to a dirty blonde color, she didn't really like that color. She didn't like anything about the changes her body underwent. But there was nothing she could do.
Her strength rose too, being the only saving grace for the quirk she started feeling hatred towards. And if her memory serves her right, she hated her 'transformation', that too for a long time.
Another reason added to the pile, for being thankful to her father, for being there for her when she needed his presence.
Without his presence and his aid, she was sure that she would have fallen to criminal activities and committed atrocities after succumbing to her draconic instincts.
Maybe she would've become wrathful and violent? Or stingy and greedy? Maybe even lustful? Or too prideful and gluttonous? She didn't know for sure.
Every dragon had their own sets of troublesome instincts and inclinations, you'd never know what you may become until those traits manifested in your mind, compelling you to give in to your ugliest desires.
Thankfully she didn't need to think about those hideous possibilities.
She was glad that she was a down-to-earth person all along, someone who could differentiate the good from the bad.
Someone who could act kindly and humbly while still having the strength required to back up their actions.
The road leading to that persona was long, arduous, and unbelievably harsh. Yes, she was strong, maybe one of the strongest in her generation but it could've never happened without the tremendous effort she inputted every single day, all throughout her life.
Without the hellishly hard training, she'd been enduring all her life and would endure, maybe forever.
Without a determination harder than steel.
Or without discipline as straight as Germans.
Maybe it was in her blood, maybe it was thanks to her father, she couldn't tell, but she was sure that she never gave up.
Nor did she ever even think about giving up.
She always gritted her teeth in front of adversity and made her way through it, like how a real dragon would.
It all more or less started when she was around 6 years of age.
Approximately 2 years after her awakening.
She started to get the hang of her powers, while also starting to understand and become fond of her new form.
She started accepting herself for who she was— a dragon.
It could be said that she started to love herself.
Self-love was a great source of confidence, and that transformation was now a permanent part of herself. Even if it looked 'ugly' in her young eyes. That wasn't the case anymore when she came to terms with her quirk.
Still, after she came to enjoy and appreciate herself more, she started to notice the feeling of power and dominance that followed her quirk.
She got the feeling that she could crush anyone with her height and overwhelming might. She started to form the conception that people should bow before her mere presence.
The dangerous misconception of omnipotence was slowly crawling in her conscience.
She was practically sure that this feeling would've overwhelmed her at some point if it were not for her father's teaching that is. That's how she was able to reign over her instincts and overcome the inborn urges that were instinctual to her quirk— The God Complex.
It was also thanks to the many forms and diversity of martial arts that she attained preliminary understanding of. It taught her to find inner peace and tranquility which was a characteristic found in all forms of martial arts.
What helped her most was perhaps Kung-Fu.
The preliminary teachings ingrained in this archaic art allowed her to maintain control over her mind and instincts, which was particularly helpful in keeping herself in check.
From her memories, she remembered her father making her undergo physical training at first.
Though if people were to know what a 6 years old girl had been through they would've surely screamed 'child abuse' from every corner.
At first, it was 'simply' running for kilometers without stopping or even halting to catch one's breath, not a single second's delay was allowed. Then it slowly transformed into a long obstacle course down a mountainous terrain where she had to climb the way up as a recuperatory phase. It was hard to get back to a steady and stable breathing state while climbing the mountain but it was her only time to 'rest'.
After climbing up, she couldn't even pause to admire the picturesque scene of the mountaintop as she had to go down again. She couldn't even dawdle because the steepness of the way down paired with the gravity pushed her forward, so she was nearly sprinting through the entire obstacle course.
That's how she failed a few times when she couldn't dodge a log of wood or two, she would get bruises or splinters, or when she couldn't judge the carefully hidden holes and had to fall, leading to her getting swollen ankles and wrists.
With time, she perfectly memorized the best trajectory to go down, still, even then she would fail every now and then because knowing the best way didn't ensure success.
There were innumerable variables to consider— timing, climate, and physical condition were just some basic variables to consider, there were so many hidden ones that it was hard to list them.
Fortunately, humans are a highly adaptable race, so after a few months of going through her personal hell, she could complete the race without being hit, in the end, it had improved her cardio and stamina by an insane margin.
Coincidentally, high stamina and endurance were some of the main conditions to access her transformation and keep it for a while.
Her father then made her go through another more hellish physical training regimen before starting to teach her how to fight. Even though he already introduced her to Kung-Fu, he had told her that she needed to complete some requirements first.
This training improved her overall body shape, it made her more toned and fit, while still retaining her flexibility and agileness inborn to her female form.
They were living in the forest, in a small village, so most of their training was bodyweight exercises.
Let it be during the cold freezing winter, the drenched autumn, or the blazing hot summer, she would be outside; either running, doing push-ups, sit-ups or pull-ups. Doing some form of exercise to further heighten her already monstrous physical parameters.
It was so hard, but every time the thought of giving up tried to drill into her mind, all her journey up until then replayed like a monochrome movie in her mind and crushed those useless thoughts, motivating her to stand up again.
Her hands were no longer their soft feminine self, as they were in her childhood, but she didn't really care, her calloused fingers showed the tremendous effort she had put through.. she was constantly putting through to better herself and she was proud of them because of it.
It wasn't like she didn't want to be more feminine, every girl wanted to be their most beautiful self. But, she had already resolved herself to a life far from that, so she didn't let it bother her, at least not as much as it used to at first.
Finally, after reaching a physical shape and parameter that fulfilled the requirements of her further training, her father formally started teaching her official martial arts.
It was 3 years ago when she was around 8.
Though she was still going through that training because it was yet to be complete.
And it was even harsher than everything she had done up until then.
She quickly grasped the basics of Kung-Fu after only a year of intense training.
Obviously, she didn't do only Kung-Fu lessons all day long, it was generally during the afternoon or the evening after her father already made her go through his 'schooling' and the usual running and calisthenics training/stretches.
His 'schooling' was basically him teaching her maths, literature, history, and geography. Those lessons weren't that advanced, just appropriate enough for her level.
He told her once that only learning Kung-Fu all day long wasn't efficient enough, and that 4-5 hours a day at best should be enough, at least until her body developed further through natural growth.
Still, it didn't stop him from making those 4-5 hours stretch infinitely and feel more than 10 because of the intensity.
The next year, when she was 9, she finally started to truly see her father as the giant she had always portrayed in her mind.
It began with a spar where she wanted to test the outcome of the relentless effort she had put all her life, what all those years of pain and struggles had brought her to, she wanted to test what she was capable of.
In this spar, her opponent was…her father.
She was shocked when he stepped forward but also excited because deep down she wanted to break that gigantic wall herself. Her dignity and pride wanted to hammer down the blockade that her father represented.
One of the reasons why he was the one to challenge her was for something he referred to as 'enlightenment'.
She didn't completely grasp the meaning of that word yet, but she instinctively knew what it represented and was also fortunate enough to see its effect.
Each time she was in a difficult situation, whenever it was unbearable, too intense, or difficult for her, she experienced a single, short moment of time where her brain was working at its full capacity. Time stopped at that moment and everything felt within one's grasp.
And she knew full well that she had to grab that single instance and use it to her advantage to learn and progress. That's how she developed new techniques and styles suitable to herself.
Along with it came a sad truth too. Each time she was enlightened, each time she felt that her strength surged forward by leaps and bounds, she was met with a strong rebuttal in the form of her father.
It felt like the more she improved, the more she became strong, the more she could understand how big the rift between them was.
Later on, she was offered the possibility to learn their family's Dragon arts, another way of using Kung-Fu, she was also given a place in the shrine where she would sometimes deal with customers and travelers.
That's how she came to know that she was a frog in a backyard pond.
Her family arts were even more diverse and complicated than Kung-Fu, and her father even stronger than she could've ever given him credit for.
She tried to fight him with her transformation but it was still for naught.
She wasn't despairing, but his image of an invincible mountain kept reinforcing through the years, so much so that it was difficult for her to imagine a way to surpass it.
Until one day, when she was 11, she met a guy who possessed a pressure she only ever felt when she was training with her father.
The very same guy with the most beautiful golden orbs she had laid her eyes upon.
He was so dashing, so daring, and confident, packed with an otherworldly charm, so much so that he looked and felt like the Prince or Hero she imagined in the fairy tales she heard when she was little.
He even dared to fight the Mighty Dragon— her father.
Call it a joust, a fight, a battle, that time was memorable for her, she wouldn't forget it for anything.
It was the moment where her eyes had been opened for the first time.
When she saw a kid of her age, climbing all alone, with his own capabilities and without his quirk the tall mountain that her father represented.
From that time she only had respect for the boy, her heart was once again set ablaze and new horizons were finally appearing again.
Her last thoughts before closing her eyes laying on her bed were once again of that purple-haired boy she respected so much, she didn't know if there was only respect or something more.
Though one thing she was sure of was that her scheduled fight with him would be another memorable moment for her…
And it would represent her conviction, her growth, and the change she wanted him to witness...
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein