章 8: A Trip to the Highway
(3rd POV)
Rias and Akeno were walking towards the gates of Kuoh Academy. It was their first day back on Earth since Akeno joined Rias and Grayfia. They were, for a lack of a better term, excited and anxious.
Excited because they would finally be able to see Dylan after years apart. But also scared. What if he had forgotten them? What if he found someone else, or what if he didn't reciprocate their recently developed feelings?
In their years apart from Earth, Akeno and Rias had grown. They had grown a lot. They were more in tune with themselves and their emotions. They were women now. Not little girls anymore.
Behind the contemplative two, there was a 16-year-old girl following them. She had short, black hair and violet eyes hiding behind a pair of glasses. This was Sona Sitri, the princess of the Sitri clan.
She was confused by her contemporaries' pensive stares and mumbling about being a grown-up. For her, coming to Earth and co-governing a city was nothing but a training experience for when she inevitably takes over the clan.
It seemed that her two friends weren't so preoccupied with the more important affairs.
When they got to the academy, they saw a 4 story building with a building mast and decadent arches all over. They also saw two other buildings that were separate from the main building, though similar in scale.
In the middle, there was a circle-drive that surrounded a fountain. And every corner of the premise was filled with trimmed and well-cared for bushes and trees. It looked more like a university than a high school.
After suffering through the freshmen orientation, Akeno, Rias, and Sona were shipped off to their classes. They each had different classes but there were some that they all shared together. One was an art class and the other was English.
You might be wondering why they even needed a foreign language class, and the answer was that they didn't. They just wanted to relax. Cut them some slack; they're only 16. It's normal for them to want to take a blow-off class.
When they finally met up for English that day, they all sat close to each other. They chatted like normal people and laughed accordingly. It seemed that their English teacher was a tardy one. It had been almost 10 minutes. Sona was already primed and ready to administer a complaint.
"I wonder how Koneko is holding up," Rias thought out loud.
Then, the door to the classroom started to jiggle. The teacher was finally here, they all thought.
As the door opened, the class of 16-year-old girls saw a 20-something-year-old man with curly brown hair and light brown eyes smoothly waltz in front of the class.
Rias dropped her pen that she was playing with and Akeno's eyes widened, almost teary. Sona noticed the particularity with her friends. She turned back to the young teacher, her thoughts kept to herself.
"Hello, class," the man said in English. "My name is Dylan Leux," he wrote his name on the board. "And I will be your English teacher for the semester or year. Your choice."
Most of the class nodded along, understanding some if not most of what he said. The only still heads were either not paying attention to Dylan or paying too much attention to him.
Dylan then repeated what he said in Japanese. He looked over to the shocked faces of Rias and Akeno and the confused gaze of Sona. He discreetly waved at them with a smirk.
"Sorry for being a bit late," Dylan placed his notebook that he was scribbling in before he entered on the desk. "I was being chewed out by the principal. The guy can't take a joke."
One kid raised her hand. "What'd you do?"
Dylan chuckled. "Oh, nothing. I just added a few doses of laxative in his coffee. He has got to learn that too much caffeine will kill him at his age. I was just doing him a favor."
A few students politely sniggered along.
"So," he clapped his hands. "Before we get to the boring stuff, let's all try to get to know each other. Just follow along to what I do." He cleared his throat. "Hello, My name is Dylan Leux, but you can call me Dylan. My hobbies include procrastinating, pretending to know how to play instruments, a general dislike of work, and not knowing what I'm saying at any moment."
The class just looked on.
"You, in the front," Dylan pointed to the unlucky kid. "You go first." She minutely trembled when he pointed at her.
After about 10 to 20 minutes of students introducing themselves which felt more like an hour, except for when it was Rias's and Akeno's turn. During their introduction, Dylan just displayed a shit-eating grin.
He wasn't sure if he was to be disappointed that they weren't as nervous, anxious, nor surprised as he hoped that they would've been, or if he was proud that they could hide their emotions so well after growing up.
His evaluation of Sona was that she was adorable. Pure and simple. Her stoic demeanor and non-sense tone of voice mixed with her face still putting on some baby fat; it was cute to see her try to be so serious yet fail to do so--at least in his eyes.
Then, after everyone was done, Dylan clapped his hands and proclaimed. "Class dismissed. Rias and Akeno. May I have a word, please?"
A student raised her hand. "We still have over half an hour before the next period. What are we supposed to do?"
"Whatever you want. Just don't get me involved," he responded. "Oh, and for tomorrow, brush up on chapter 1 in your books. I'm sure you all have one right?"
The class nodded.
"Good." He then wagged his hand for Rias and Akeno to follow.
Outside, Dylan walked in front of Rias and Akeno as the two of them followed him, looking around them to see if anyone was looking. Unluckily for them, some facility members were soliciting in the hallway.
Dylan then opened the door to the principal's office and closed it after the girls had entered. He then lunged at the girls and pulled them into a giant bear hug.
The girls yelped in surprise.
"Oh, my little cute Rias and Akeno!" Dylan squealed as if he was holding onto a pet. The two girls were beet red, mustering the self-control to struggle out of the hug.
"We miss you too. Now put us down!" they said.
He then set them. He snorted as he watched them fumble around with their uniform and hair to make sure they were still perfect. "My, how big you two have grown!"
He tried to pet their heads like he did before. The girls dodged his hands as if the plague, whipping backward into the wall.
"Oh, too big for head-pets now, are we?"
"We're not kids anymore," Rias said, trying to calm her nerves. "Please treat us like you would a woman from now on." Akeno nodded along.
Dylan snorted again. "Fine, fine. Oh, and before I forget," he turned to Grayfia that was sitting in the principal chair, just watching their interacts. "What is this I hear about a marriage contract?"
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(Rias POV)
He knew.
I didn't want him to know but he did. Of course he did. He is Dylan.
Grayfia explained to him that it was an arranged marriage that was meant to keep the bloodline pure. Something I didn't believe in but I had no say at the time.
She also explained that the marriage wasn't set in stone. If I could beat Riser in a rating game, then I would be free. I didn't want him to hate me. I don't know why he would've hated me since none of it was my fault, but that was the only thing that was on my mind!
"Please don't hate me!" I blurted out loud. My eyes widened as I realized what I had just said.
And without another word, I felt a hand on my head, soothing my soul. I looked up to see him smiling at me with one of his trademarked smiles that made me fall in love with him.
Love. Yes. Yes, that's what it was.
"I'm sorry for petting your head; I know how you hate it," I heard him speak. "I just couldn't help myself."
My eyes started to water. I wasn't sure why. They just did.
He lifted his hands away. Why? I screamed internally. I wanted more of that. I wanted him to care for me more. It felt nice.
"Grayfia," he spoke, his voice completely distorted from his soothing one before. "I want you to call Sirzech." Akeno and I flinched at his change in tone. It wasn't the carefree one we got to know and love.
"Why?" she asked hesitantly. This was a first for her as well, it seemed.
Grayfia-nee-chan had a lot more contact with Dylan than me or Akeno. She was usually the one who coordinated the contact between us. As much as I hate to admit it, she knew him better than I did. And even then, she was still shocked by his tone of voice.
None of us has ever seen him even get remotely serious before. He had shown us his happy side, sad side, silly side, but never this.
"I've been quiet long enough," Dylan stated, brushing his bushy hair back with his hand. I swear I could see it glimmer right then.
Grayfia stared at him quietly. "And what should I tell him?"
I watched as Dylan inhaled a breath and then exhaled it. "Tell him to expect company."
After Grayfia had finished telling Sirzech about the situation, Dylan readied his hands. Then suddenly, the principal door opened as Sona came rushing in.
"Wait," she exclaimed in her typical controlled voice. "If you are going to the Underworld, let me come with you."
I was surprised by her proposal. Not only that, had she been listening in this entire time? "Sona, what are you doing here?" I asked, walking over to her. I wasn't a big fan of her knowing about Dylan, at least not yet anyway.
"I'm sorry, Rias," she told me. "But I need to make sure you two don't get in over your heads."
I guess she was worried about us. It was nice to know that I have friends now, instead of only one. But even then--even if she was just being a good friend, this was a personal matter that I couldn't let her get involved with.
But then we heard Dylan walking over to us. "You must be Sona Sitri." He outreached his hand for her to shake it. "I've heard a lot of things from Rias about you."
"Really?" she asked teasingly, looking over at me.
"Well, if you want to join us, you might as well."
We turned to him to ask why.
"Our little misadventure might end up involving all of the Underworld so having two of the four satans' little sisters isn't such a bad idea."
He then started to muster some of his energy. I couldn't detect it before but, now that he was using it to, what I assumed was his full potential, it was like being glared at by the all-knowing void. It felt like Sirzech-nii-chan's power but almost infinitely stronger.
Then, I heard him say, "Make sure to hold on tight, folks. This is the first time I've done this."
His hands started to vibrate, continuing with such force and precision; it was hypnotizing.
Then, we could see it. I could see it. I don't how I knew what it was but I did. I could feel it. The very fabric of reality was being torn apart.
With his very hands, he was grabbing onto reality itself and ripping a tear through it. The universe was screaming, screaming bloody mary! But with each tug from Dylan, the universe just gave way.
An opening formed up. Made up of celestial stars and exploding nebulas. It was beautiful. And it was horrifying. Like cosmic terror. It was horribly wonderful and wonderfully horrific.
And on the other side, I could see faint images and glimmering of mountains and trees, and then cities.
Wait! I recognized those buildings! It was the Underworld!
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(3rd POV)
Sirzech was sitting on his couch in his office, tapping his foot restlessly.
He had just been contacted by Grayfia, saying that the man that she had told him about years ago was finally making his way to the Underworld.
He knew that the man wasn't a Devil or Fallen Angel or anything. He was just a human. So when his wife told him that he was coming through with his own powers, he was worried about what the human's actual power level was.
Grayfia had told him on multiple accounts that the human was friendly and was not to be of a major threat but he still couldn't help but worry.
The scariest thing for him was that he knew that the man and Rias seemed to have formed some sort of sibling-like relationship. Aside from making him very jealous, it also meant that he must've heard about Rias's arranged marriage.
And unlike Sirzech himself, he was sure the human had no qualms about wreaking havoc onto the Underworld to get Rias out of it.
Then, from the corner of his grand office filled with bookshelves and decorated plating, a hole appeared out of nowhere which then gradually got bigger, swallowing the surroundings to feed itself.
Sirzech thought and rightfully so that a black hole had appeared in his office.
Then, when the black hole was big enough, 5 figures stepped through it. Their features were obscured by the reality-warping tear.
"Ah, you must be Sirzech Gremory. Or is it Sirzech Lucifer?" A male voice echoed within the office.
Sirzech fixed his eyes onto the male figure. "Hello," he spoke, trimming away all signs of nervousness. "What might your name be, sir?"
"Oh, you can call me Dylan," the man replied smiling. "Basically, I'm the man your wife tells you to not worry about."
クリエイターの想い 
TheLastPicked
TheLastPicked Listen to "Human Sadness" by the Voidz and also the Peepo cover.
If you have any comments about my story, then make sure they are only praises. I have very thin skin, and I will cry if any of you are mean.
Also, just to clarify, Dylan cannot manipulate reality just yet. What he did here was dimensional manipulation via his telekinesis manipulation.
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