Capítulo 32: DxD : A New Hero : Chapter 32
I raised my left hand into the air, watching with interest as the light bounced off the metallic surface of the deep red gauntlet. I rotated my wrist clockwise then counter-clockwise, observing the way the gauntlet effortlessly followed my movement despite its bulk, before clenching then relaxing my hand.
A perfect replica of the Sacred Gear Twice Critical encased my left hand and forearm. Ever since I first heard of Sacred Gears I have wanted to see if I can trace them. However before now I simply didn't have the chance to try.
At first it was due to time, I had so much to learn about the world when I first arrived and a detailed analysis of Sacred Gears was simply not a priority at the time.
Then it was due to a lack of opportunity, as in the Underworld Sacred Gears were rather rare to find. They did only manifest in humans after all and outside of a young Devil's Peerage, Sacred Gears users were hard to find.
However since arriving in the human world opportunity no longer became an issue. My first attempt of replicating a Sacred Gear came when I had witnessed Kiba training one morning. Sword Birth was a perfect Sacred Gear for me to start experimenting with as it had so much in common with both my Tracing ability and my element.
While my attempt did work, I wouldn't call it a success. As predicted my abilities allowed me to replicate every sword that Kiba created but that just meant I copied the product of the Sacred Gear, not the Gear itself. Sword Birth as it turns out, did not have a physical manifestation which regrettably meant there was nothing for me to trace.
My second opportunity at replicating a Sacred Gear came soon after. Issei was surprisingly ecstatic for a person who had died just a few days ago. Perhaps it had to do with the lacy bra that Gremory had dangling in front of him with a fishing pole while she sat on his shoulders and made him run around the track field.
I have to admit, the Gremory sure knew how to handle the pervert, far better than I would have had I been in her place. While I doubt it would have been as effective, I would never have been willing to use my boxers as bait in order to train him if Issei was part of my Peerage.
What caught my interest however wasn't the training method but the maroon red gauntlet that covered his left arm. Twice Critical, a Sacred Gear capable of doubling an individual's strength for a limited time.
In spite of its reputation as a low-tier Gear its power was nothing to laugh at. To increase my strength by double, no, even a twenty percent increase will give me an incredible boost in my fighting capabilities.
While not a sword, it was one of the more simplest forms a Sacred Gears can take, making it as good a place to start as any. After three days of trial and error, and countless of failed projections I finally made some progress.
I lifted my replicated Twice Critical in front of me. This was the result. With this, my attempts in reproducing Sacred Gears have come to an end. It was in every way a perfect copy that was indistinguishable from the real thing.
It was also a complete failure.
There was nothing wrong with it, no flaw in craftsmanship that prevented it from functioning as it should. It was as I had said a perfect copy. The problem lies not with my replica but with the original Twice Critical, or to be more precise the problem lies with Sacred Gears in general.
In my experimentation with them, I had discovered a fundamental truth about their function.
Sacred Gears where not designed to grant its wielder powerful abilities, it is in fact utterly incapable of doing so. A Sacred Gears true purpose is that of a vessel. They were designed to contain the powers and souls of powerful beings.
From an all-mighty Dragon to a tiny fairy, a Sacred Gear will imprison them inside its shell. The abilities that they are famed to grant are merely a consequence, nothing more than a side-effect of housing these beings.
That is why this my Twice Critical did not work. Without the soul of a Lesser Dragon to fuel its power it will not grant me any boost in power. Right now it was just an empty vessel, little more than a mundane piece of armor.
It was the same with Twilight Healing. The rings were merely a container for a soul that radiated the power of restoration.
While I was uncertain, going off its nickname of "Smile of the Holy Mother", it is possible that its power stems from one of the spirits of the earth, a facet of Gaia herself. That would explain its ability to bypass magical resistance as our bodies are made from the fruits of the earth.
Twinkle Aegis, Tsubasa's Sacred Gear, is famed for housing a fairy with it. And by making a pact with the fairy it is possible to change the effects of the Gear.
That does not mean that it was impossible for me to craft a Sacred Gear, quite the opposite. My Twice Critical is capable of housing a soul just like the original could. It merely needed a soul to fill it.
In other words, all I have to do to make my Twice Critical work is to find a Dragon that is willing to part with its soul…yeah, like that's going to happen anytime soon.
In many ways the Sacred Gears reminded me of the history behind Kanshou and Bakuya. The famed blacksmith Gan Jiang was commissioned to forge an Imperial sword. His wife, Mo Ye, seeing her husband frustrated at his failures to forge such a blade, decided to sacrifice her own life to aid him.
To forge a sword that can reach the realm of the Gods, a human's life and essence is needed as a sacrifice.
She threw herself into the furnace in front of her husband out of love, and in his grief he was able to craft the two masterpieces which he named Kanshou and Bakuya, the married twin swords. One to represent his wife and the other himself, the Yin and Yang.
They were masterpieces, unmatched by anything else Gan Jiang had ever forged before. The paired swords had the most remarkable ability to find the other; their attraction to one another will always lead one back to the other even if the other was lost.
Gan Jiang did not live long after he completed the blades. As he only gave up one of the blades but refused to relinquish the second sword, Kanshou, the one that represented himself, perhaps in hopes that it would somehow lead him back to his wife again someday.
Regardless, his refusal to surrender the blade had resulted in him being executed by his king soon afterwards.
Sacred Gears, just like the two blades, require the sacrifice of a life to be forged.
I dismissed the false Twice Critical from my hand, hopped of my bed and made my way to the closet to get dressed for school. It wasn't worth it. The prize is not worth it if the sacrifice of life is the price.
I have seen many Magus walk down that path, willing to sacrifice anything in their quest for power. Sometimes that ended in failure while others times they got the power they were seeking, but I had never once seen them find any happiness for it. At that price, such a life has no meaning.
I picked up on my bag from the side of the door as I shoved my other arm into the sleeve of my jacket before existing my room and making my way down the stairs.
Spotting the large pile of lunch boxes on the dining room table, I made a detour toward it to pick it up while crossing the kitchen entrance on my way there.
*Beep*
I stopped in my tracks and blinked in confusion as I heard a mildly alarming sound coming out of the kitchen.
*Beep**Beep**Beep*
The slight anxiety that I was feeling evolved into complete trepidation as I heard the noise again. With great reluctance I reversed my course and made my way back toward the kitchen entrance. I paused, unwilling to enter the room but knowing that I couldn't just ignore it.
*Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep*
I compromised and decided to stick my head in through the door while keeping most of my body hidden behind the wall and out of harm's way.
"Shirou!" Asia exclaimed as soon as she caught sight of me. "Thank god –Ouch! NOT NOW DAMN IT – Thank that ungrateful prick you're here! I need your help."
"Yes…I can see that" I deadpanned.
The kitchen was, to put it lightly, an utter mess. Cooking tools were scattered all over the counter and floor. Splashes of multicolored liquid stained every conceivable surface in the room including the ceiling and piles of badly chopped fruits and vegetables littered the floor and tables.
Asia didn't fare any better. Her face was covered with food stains and she was wearing what used to be a clean white apron that now looks as it had been vomited on by a drunken rainbow. In one hand she held a butcher knife that she was swinging arou nd in panic every time she spoke.
*Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep*
Was that the microwave?
"Shirou,*Beep* help. I don't *Beep* know what I *Beep* did wrong *Beep* but *Beep* it *Beep*wouldn't *Beep* stop *Beep* beeping-"
*Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep*
BOOM!
It was only that my superhuman reflexes that allowed me to react in time and pull my head back away from the eruption that sent a black billowing cloud exploding out into the kitchen and shooting through the door.
…I did not even know that was possible.
I mean, do microwaves work differently in this universe or is Asia's cooking so bad that the microwave just committed suicide and tried to take us all with it in some kind of Kamikaze attack?
By this point the smoke was beginning to clear so I carefully peered back into the Kitchen.
The kitchen and everything in it was completely covered in soot, it was as if someone had painted everything black. And poor Asia was no exception. She blended into the background of the room so well that the only reason why I could even tell she was there was thanks to the white of her eyes that were wide open with confusion.
"-Never mind Shirou, I fixed it." She croaked out, her snow-white teeth standing out from her soot covered skin as she spoke.
"…Do you need some help?" I reluctantly offered. Normally I'd be more than happy to help but I'm honestly terrified of entering the kitchen while Asia was still in there.
I don't know if it was possible for the rest of the kitchen appliance to follow in the footsteps of the recently deceased microwave but I didn't want to find out. The very idea that my beloved kitchen, the place where I practice my art of cooking, trying to kill me would break my heart.
"No-" A cough interrupted her as a cloud of black smoke erupted from her mouth, "no, I'm fine. You need to get to school anyway. "
I tried not to look relived as I waved her goodbye, picked up the lunch boxes and walked out of the house as fast as I could without actually running. I also mentally added a new item to the list of things to keep Asia away from, at least when I'm in the vicinity.
So far it's alcohol, internet porn and now cooking.
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