章 2: Green light.

Chapter two.

''Come on, sleepyhead.'' I fumbled, moving my hands in attempt in the direction of the voice in a vain attempt to make the constant poking stop. Even in my dazed state, I knew that Ms Aikawa was the one responsible for it. ''Time to get up!''

Lazily, I forced open my eyes and found myself looking at her, seemingly fixated on poking me in the face until she managed to wake me up.

'Ah.' I realized, no wonder she was waking me up, today was the day after all. 'If someone told me a few months ago I would be feeling nervous about my first day in high school, I would probably kill myself on the spot.'

I couldn't help but release a soft chuckle at that, the sole idea was outright hilarious to me.

Then again, Kuoh Academy was not just any high school, it was a school plagued with dangerous supernatural menaces that, for the most part, I had no interest in getting to know.

Now don't get me wrong, there are two or three people I'm interested in, but for the most part, I wouldn't miss going under the radar for most of the school's most interesting characters.

I wanted to, eventually, get to know Rias. I shouldn't have to elaborate on that but…

''Poke.'' I blinked, annoyed. Looking up towards the person responsible for what had to be the fourth poke in a row. ''Up you go! Or else you are gonna be late!''

'Yikes.' I thought, this just kept happening. I really, really needed to stop thinking about stuff like this when in the middle of a conversation. ''I'm up… I'm up!''

I yielded, knowing fully well that unless I stood up from the bed another vicious poke in the cheek awaited me.

. . . . . . . .

''… Thank god it's over.'' I mumbled, now being a solid two hundred meters away from that damned house. For once, I had to question the decision of locking myself up in my room, if I didn't want to interact with Ms Aikawa then surely the best decision would have been to avoid being in the house altogether?

That also would have come in handy for the problem at hand, which was of course, I had no fucking idea how to even get to school to begin with.

'… I suppose asking should be a nice place to start.' I thought, looking from side to side in search of a person that looked to be wearing a similar uniform. 'Oh.'

It took me now longer than a few minutes and although I hadn't expected much at first to be honest, I was kind of tight on time at the moment so I expected most students would have been somewhat close to the school's surroundings by now, if not already there but…

'Looks like luck is on my side… Well, sort of.' It was not a hot chick, unfortunately, but Yuuto Kiba served the purpose of guiding me to school just as well.

He was a bit shorter than I was, with blonde, bright hair, a small mole underneath his left eye and blue orbs which where his most notable characteristic. I suppose one could say he was good looking, though I don't really swing that way.

'Seems like he noticed me staring.' I thought, since now those same blue orbs where looking back at me, his head tilted just slightly to the side as if wondering what did I want.

Much to my misfortune, I don't really remember much about the dude, at the time I had been too busy… Analyzing other elements of the plot. Though I did remember he wasn't a complete douche, so it shouldn't be too difficult to approach him.

''Sorry about that.'' I apologized for the staring, taking short steps towards him as I closed the distance between us. ''You see, I'm kind of…''

''Lost?'' He offered, a friendly smile now adorning his features. It looked like memory hadn't failed, he wasn't a difficult person to deal with. ''You can follow me then, though we are gonna need to speed things up a bit since we are a bit late.''

I liked this kid already, straight to the point! No questions asked either.

''Thanks a lot, dude.'' I thanked him, reaching him at last and offering a quick handshake, which he took. ''I owe you one, uhm…?''

I left the sentence hanging, waiting for him to introduce himself.

''Yuuto Kiba.'' He offered in response.

''I'm Akemi Aikawa.'' I replied back, and with our introductions finished, we started our walk towards the school. We both knew we were short on time, so there was no need to waste precious time.

''That's a cute name.'' He said, an elegant chuckle escaping his lips.

''You could say that.'' I couldn't help but feel like that was a comment I was gonna hear quite often from now on. Still, I was not going to take a light comment like that as more than it was, both a joke and a compliment. ''Can't say I like it very much, though.''

''You don't?'' He kept the conversation flowing back between us. It was nothing more than meaningless chatter, but, despite the fact I was talking with what I thought not too long ago was nothing more than a character of fiction, I kind of enjoyed it. ''I guess it is a bit over the top, though…!''

''On that we can agree.'' We both chuckled at that. Again, this was a person I could get behind hanging around, and who knows, perhaps he could be the connection I needed to get to know some of the more… Pleasing people in Kuoh.

. . . . . . . .

Well, that was boring. You would expect the first day at school to be an eventful day like it happens in different stories but, other than Kiba whom I had the fortune to meet outside of the school, nothing interesting happened.

From what I could gather with a quick glance to the entire class, I wasn't in the same class as anyone from the series or, at least, anyone relevant to the plot. Nor did I have the chance to meet the likes of Rias, Akeno, Issei and the others, so perhaps it wasn't all that common to meet them given the size of the school.

The ratio of students the class looked to be around one boy for every three girls, which was to be expected from an institution that had been All Girls School not too long ago.

So far, I had not spared even a glance at the teacher, nor had I bothered to talk to my new classmates. The way I see things is, if I don't remember them, then they are not relevant.

But now I was here, stuck in a class that looked to be… Math? I mean I wouldn't know, since I have been staring at the one gift I had been given to face this new world the entire class, that book that still looked like nothing out of the norm.

I just knew it, no, I felt it. This book had some sort of hidden power, ability, some secret behind it that would allow me to be relevant in here.

Otherwise what was the point of bringing an average human like me to such a dangerous environment? No matter how special I thought I was, there's only so much a person can do when facing the threat of angels, fallen angels and devils.

'If it's not the book, then what?' These past few days I had been focusing all the free time I had into finishing the book, and I had done that by now, several times at that. I had expected to at least find some new info after reading it but as luck would have it, I had learned next to nothing about it.

'Man, this sucks.' Resting my cheek on the back of my right hand, I couldn't help but groan in annoyance, drawing the attention from one or two students near me. 'Maybe I'm just coping…? Perhaps I was just sent here to die like an idiot, I mean if the book has nothing special about it then…'

I stopped right there. Now staring at the one thing that I had not bothered to give even a minute of attention ever since picking that book up.

'It couldn't be…?' I had just thought about it as nothing but what it was, a simple bookmark, but perhaps the item I should have been looking for wasn't the book after all, but the bookmark…?

I felt it, the distinctive sound of a 'thump' coming from my chest, my heart beating faster and faster at the prospect of testing this sudden idea out.

I took a quick look at the clock on the wall, clear for all of the students to see. How much time until class was over? I clicked my tongue, displeased at the fact that there was still about one hour until we had a break.

'Still, even if I have a break…' It was clear that even if I had a break, I had to make sure I found a place that was somewhat private. The question is though, where…? A sudden detail that I thought had been long forgotten and dismissed reached me. '… There was a small forest in the school, right?'

I was certain about that, there had to be a small forest, or at least enough trees to separate the main school building from the old one, the same building where the Occult Research Club had their meetings and organized all their activities.

I would use that forest, far enough from the Occult Research Club to avoid being noticed and far enough from the school itself as to not be seen.

Obviously, the risk of being found by the members of the Club was still possible, Rias, Akeno, Kiba and especially Koneko are devils and so must have better senses than I do, but, so what?

I knew them enough to be certain that, as long as left unprovoked, none of them would harm me or threaten me, at most there would be some difficult questions asked. Still, all that this would mean is that our reunion got accelerated, if I get to meet them, then all the better.

The idea to meet them had been part of the plan I had from the first time I realized I was in this world, the problem was that approaching them out of the blue would be nothing more than asking them to be suspicious of me, so, if I baited them into seeking me out instead, wouldn't the problem be avoided?

I felt someone poking me at the sides, taking me out of the careful planning I had been so invested in not too long ago.

''…?'' I glanced at my left side, a questioning look directed at the student responsible for the poking. The student in question had short blonde hair, grey eyes and was directing me a puzzled look, looking both concerned and weirded out by something.

''… You good, bro?'' He whispered at me, and that's when I realized that what he had been weirded out by was in fact, me. I almost felt like laughing now, it was obvious that some student grabbing his chest like I was doing had to look like I was about to suffer a heart attack.

''I'm good dude, thanks.'' I breathed in, and breathed out. It was no biggie if some random person thought I was a bit weird, but I needed to make a point to stop acting like the degenerate I was in public.

''Aight bet.'' He replied, looking relaxed after my response, it looked like for a second he had been genuinely concerned about me. ''I'm Saji by the way.''

''You both at the back!'' The voice of our teacher made us both jump in our seats, it was clear that we had been a bit too loud in our exchange. Both of us turned our glances towards the front, looking apologetic. ''Keep it down a bit, will ya?''

We both nodded at once, making sure to keep quiet for the rest of the class to avoid problems. Somehow though, I had a feeling that Saji was someone I had seen before, though for the life of me I couldn't remember his face.

Was he a relevant character…? At the end, I shrugged. If I was not able to remember him then that meant he was neither:

A: A hot chick, which was obvious.

And also B: Relevant enough to be worth remembering.

. . . . . .

''… Out at last.'' I winced, stretching my legs after suffering the torture of math class, I still swear half of that shit we were being taught would prove to be utterly useless for more than half of the students in there.

Now out of the school building and alongside most of the students at the school yard, I looked around in an attempt to try and find just where that forest was.

'… There.' It proved to be rather simple, after all a forest of trees wasn't the easiest place in the world to miss, besides, most –if not all- students where keeping their distance from the place, which reminded me of a little detail I had somehow forgotten about.

'Was it forbidden to go deep into the trees or something?' I remembered it had something to do with some weird vampire that was kept locked inside an abandoned building. '… That sounds so insane I can't believe I'm seriously thinking about it.'

Point was, I needed to be quick about if I wanted to get there unnoticed, so, without further ado, I started moving.

. . . . . .

The path proved to be quite straightforward, and reaching the forest was rather simple, just pretending to be looking for a tree to sit below it and take a read was enough to make most people look elsewhere, and soon enough, I was in.

Tree after tree, I walked through a sea of nothing but green without wasting a second of precious time. The problem was that I wasn't too sure just how big the forest was, so I needed to keep in mind not too walk too deep or else I would end up at the Occult Research Club.

'… Right around here, maybe?' I questioned myself, feeling after a solid minute of walking in silence that I was at a good place to test things out. 'Now… What to do?'

I looked at the book, I had not removed the bookmark ever since having the book with me, so that was the only thing I had in mind.

''It can't be that simple, right?'' I thought out loud, touching with care the bookmark using the tip of my fingers. I took a grab of the tip of it, and pulled from the bookmark just a few centimeters, with the thought in mind of being careful with how I handled it.

However, the moment I did, no matter how careful I was planning to be with it, or how prepared I was for what was about to happen, I couldn't have avoided releasing the hang I had on the bookmark when something that resembled green fire, or rather, a pale green light started flowing from it.

I swallowed, hard. Thank god I had not released the grip I had on the book too or who knows what might have happened to it. Looking at the tip of the fingers that had been touched by the light, I could feel nor see any visible damage, so I had to assume it was not meant to harm me.

'Come on, just one more time.' I told myself, and yet again, I took a grab of the bookmark from the tip and pulled from it, this time meaning to take it completely out of the book.

Much like a few seconds ago, a pale green light started emanating from it, but this time I pushed through, pulling from it until nothing but the lower tip of it was left inside the book, and, with one last nod to reassure myself, I took the bookmark out.

What followed was something I was not sure I would ever be able to understand, something so hard to explain I was better off not even bothering to look for answers, just accepting it as for what it was, a supernatural event.

A flood of memories, no, not memories, it was almost like an entire guide was being forced into my brain, an overflow of information being forced into it with force. It was hard to describe, it almost felt like I was given instructions on how to use what I had been granted, on how to abuse the gift I had been given.

That was not all, though, I also felt the conviction needed to use what I had been given was forced onto me, the mental strength, the resolve needed to make use of it. Someone had deemed that to use this gift, I needed not just the knowledge to use it, but additional mental strength to deal with the consequences of its use.

Make use of what, you ask? Well, the sword I was wielding in my hand, of course.

It was a katana with a bookmark-shaped guard, it was a little thinner than most of the katanas I had seen in pictures but that somehow didn't make it look fragile, not to me at least, it just looked more elegant.

I could still see some small green sparks flowing from the sword but slowly and surely the remaining where disappearing. However, none of that mattered to me, not even knowing if the blade even had an edge.

Because this sword, although I was certain would be able to slash through a person like nothing, had a much deeper purpose than that, a purpose someone might even call wicked.

This sword, this power was called 'Book of the End' had the ability to split the past of whoever it cuts, allowing me to insert my own presence into their past. No, I'm not talking about manipulation of memories, it's nothing so simple.

It quite literally allows me to insert my own presence into the victim's past, changing their past and making me whatever I want to… Be it a friend, a lover, or even a sworn enemy.

'…' I felt the hand I was using to keep a grip on the sword start shaking, and not a second later I noticed something about me too. The whole time, ever since realizing the powers I have been granted, I had been sporting a smirk that I couldn't even attempt to remove.

Because now I had been granted a weapon, and the will to use it. Now all I needed was to experiment with it, because right now I couldn't even care less about the changes in my mental state that the awakening of this powers had been responsible of.

No matter how much I tried to calm down, I just couldn't help but chuckle. Because I both knew that this power suited me like it did no one else, and I also was well aware that this was not all that 'the green light' that had leaked off the sword had to offer for me.

Now I had the power and the will to use it, now there was just one question left for me to find an answer to. A rather important question, if I do say so myself.

''How the fuck do I get this thing back into the book!?''

End of chapter two.