Disclaimer: I do not own any Type-Moon and Highschool DXD characters. All rights reserved to their respective owners and creators.
ARC ONE: VICTOR OF THE MOON'S AWAKENING
VOLUME ONE: BRAVE NEW WORLD
CHAPTER ONE: ARRIVAL
He finds himself floating in an absolute nothingness. It felt like an eternal dream for him.
All he could see was just pure darkness...
He wondered how in the world did he get himself in this unfamiliar place. Then he remembered, and he could only mentally nod that it was his own doing, to begin with. He didn't regret it rather, he was more satisfied with what he had done. At least in some alternate reality, she will be saved. She will obtain the dream that she wanted to grasp...
To run across the grasslands with a smile on her face.
Yes, there was nothing to regret. He could only hope that his other self from that universe could make Altera's dream a reality, something that he wasn't able to do with his version of Altera. He felt sad but satisfied.
There was nothing to regret.
Still floating in an endless void, he suddenly felt a tug behind. He cocked his head and turned his whole body behind. His eyes were amazed by the apparition that dawned in front of him; a bright white light with a rainbow-colored jewel-like brilliance on its center. It was surreal and beyond human interpretation yet he knows this place from the archives of the Moon Cell.
This place... is supposed to be the "force" that exists outside of time. A theoretically metaphysical location that exists at the top of all theories in every dimension, as well as the source of all events and phenomena in the universe. To put more emphasis, it is more like the bigger and larger version of the Moon Cell.
It was where everything had begun and came from...
Akasha.
The force of the pull becomes more pronounced and he realized where he was heading. He surmised that he will return to where he came from and knowing what that entails, he closed his eyes as if resigning to his fate. He could feel the warmth of the light brushed against his naked figure and the brightness that it brought to his sight despite closing it.
Suddenly he felt the impatient siphoning of his very own being. He felt his body being stretched or "spaghettified" yet he didn't let out a whimper. He couldn't feel any pain or discomfort. Rather, the experience felt bland and plain unlike when he was deleted in the Moon Cell. A moment after that, from his closed eyelids he could feel his surroundings went dark once again. A few minutes passed and for some reason, his eardrums suddenly registered an audible voice...
...No, voices he corrected himself.
He concluded that he was now inside the Spiral of Origin and going outside is impossible since touching it means the erasure of his very existence. Yet he wondered if he was erased as in "ceased to exist" then why he could hear murmurs of people? Such was something very impossible and absurd. He had to reconsider, however, since there was no one ever to describe what it is like to be the Root.
Maybe this is what they call Paradise? Or perhaps Nirvana?
"He's regaining consciousness...!"
The voices that kissed his ears somehow become comprehensible and the words that caught his ears caused him to be curious. From what he can gather from his sense of hearing, it appears to be that a crowd was surrounding him and panicking.
But why?
Without any internal monologue, he decided to open his eyes. The moment he enacts such action, he felt his vision sting as the simple ray of light soothe his rondures. A few seconds and he can see images of people garbed in white but all of it was blur and unrefined.
"Call the doctor!"
XXX
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XXX
It has been a week since Hakuno Kishinami woke up.
He was still very surprised that he was alive, not in a frame composed of Spiritron particles but in real flesh, bones, and blood living on Earth. Breathing and feeling the breeze that touched his skin and hearing the sounds that are composed, for someone like him it was a dream that can't be so real yet it was. He had come to a conclusion that this was an Adjacent World and not the World where he came from, seeing the calendar hanging on his wall with the year 2010 plastered on the white paper.
He has still his memories from the Moon Cell from his world which wasn't surprising but what surprised him was that he had also the memories of the Hakuno Kishinami of this world, the body that he was currently inhabiting. The fate of the this world's Hakuno wasn't very different from his world; both suffering from Amnesia Syndrome, a brain disease that caused memory loss and would eventually lead to death. And like from his reality, the disease was something that the doctors in this reality weren't able to find a cure.
From what he can gather from the memories of this world's Hakuno, his other self, had a tough life and he could only sympathize. He was an orphan, being raised in an orphanage. When he reached legal age, he finds a place of his own, working in the day and schooling himself at night. Got graduated in a vocational school at the early age of 17 and was trying to get a degree in history until the disease struck him and everything after that went downhill for his other self, being in a coma for almost 10 years.
Although he had to wonder how can his other self, had retained some memories of his past despite the effects of the brain disease, Hakuno assumed that such recollection came from the body; experiences that were etched to the frame and transmitted to him as "recollections" or "memories".
Another fact that surprised him was the non-existence of the Moon Cell in this World Line. The golden Regalia ring, the symbol of his authority as a Sovereign and the only sole proof of the megastructure's existence was absent on his finger, where it was supposed to be. As much as he wanted to get out from his bed, he couldn't lift even a single finger. The ten-year stasis had left him somewhat in a vegetative state and while the hospital staff was very generous to him by giving him acupressure massages while he was still out cold for the past 10 years, it wasn't enough.
With his body still in a weakened state, Hakuno resigned himself in his hospital bed as he let his scrawny build regain some body mass and strength.
XXX
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XXX
"I must say, your health is improving."
A female doctor smiled as she delivered her diagnosis to him. It has been a month since he woke up in this Adjacent World and since he was still unable to leave his bed, he could only release his boredom by watching some news or entertainment through the television hanging on the room's wall. How he wishes he could get out from his confines and depart from the hospital.
Sadly it wasn't the case.
His reasons for leaving isn't how he was neglected by the medical staff or the bills of his medication. In fact, the doctors and nurses were treating him nicely with their daily visitations, and assessing his well being, and the large sum of hospital bills that he accumulated for the past 10 years was something that he had no worry about since the government will pay half of his medical invoice. The half of it, he could find a job to pay the unpaid debt once he's healthy and fit though there were doctors who offered to pay his balance.
Rather, it was the fact of the unwanted attention that he garnered for himself from all the best neurologists across the globe.
His disease was the first case within the world of medicine that it garners the attention of the world's best neurosurgeons and the news of his miraculous recovery somehow amounted a large number of attention from such doctors. There were others that wished to see him and speak with him, most of them were foreign doctors that came to Japan just in order to observe him.
In all honesty, he was stunned on how assorted the doctors that came to visit him. Some of them were Americans, Canadians, Koreans, and Chinese, with most of the visiting doctors being Europeans.
Most of them would ask him questions relating to his memories, which he honestly answered that he remembered all of it, starting from his childhood down to his days before succumbing to the effects of the disease. Of course, his answers bugged the doctors out of their minds. He could understand them after all, his recovery from what to be an incurable and "new age" disease can be said a miraculous event. Even the media were on his ass, trying to get an interview out of him every day. He was thankful that the tight security of the hospital was there to halt any advances from the press, despite an incident where a sly photojournalist managed to sneak in and got pictures of him by dressing as one of the medical staff.
The current doctor assessing his recovery jotted some notes on her tab before tucking in the pen on her coat's breast pocket. The assisting nurse accompanying the female doctor then slowly wrapped his arm with a strap as the said nurse began to take his blood pressure. It took some couple of minutes before the male nurse unstrapped his left arm.
"So how's my blood pressure?"
"It's normal, Sir. A 120/80 average."
He silently nods as his eyes hovered towards the female doctor who uncovered the window curtains from his room. Ray of sunlight touched the clear glass and window pane, making its way inside his almost white and bland room.
"So how are you feeling?"
"Other than the random headaches, fine I guess...?"
He replied to the female doctor at the same time flexing his muscles and clenching and opening his hands, trying to get his nerves filled with vigor and activity after a long 10-year lethargic monotony. His answer was uncertain and he had the right to be. On occasions, he would be assaulted by headaches. The doctors reassured him however those such things are normal phases experienced by comatose patients like himself.
He looked up at the doctor who was staring at him intently with an analytical gaze, her greenish rondures had a peculiar glint on it. He suspected that the woman somehow discerns that there was something not quite usual with his recovery.
"That's it for today. I'll visit you tomorrow morning and maybe we can move you around the hospital with a wheelchair."
"That would be great, Doc. Have a nice day."
"You too, and please take a rest."
"I will."
Bowing his head in gratitude, the female doctor and her assistant nurse exited from his bland room before closing the wooden door. His mind then drifted to the female doctor who had just visited him.
Among all the influx of doctors that regularly visited him, there was one who stands out to him the most, a female doctor named Penny Moe.
She was a beautiful doctor, he admits. With a long purple hair tied in a bun, yellow rimmed eyeglasses over her green eyes and a voluptuous figure accentuated by her clothes and European overall appearance, surely one could admire such rare beauty. However, it wasn't the awestruck physical appearance that caught his attention but it was the sensations that his body was giving off.
...As if she was someone that needs to be watched carefully.
She reminds him of one of Tamamo's adjutant, Medusa especially the aura that she exudes. Now all alone in his hospital room once again, he decided to consume all day's worth by watching some shows on the television despite it being such an unhealthy lifestyle.
As of now, he can tolerate such activity.
XXX
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XXX
Opening his eyes, Hakuno wandered his orbs as the nostalgic scene welcomed his vision. He knew this place from his memories during the last fight against Twice and his Servant before he won the Holy Grail War. As far as he could remember, he was just sleeping in his bed. But how was this possible? He was very sure of himself that such thing didn't exist in this World Line and yet here he was, standing in front of a familiar place where his odd adventures had begun.
The ripples of clear water that anchored his feet as if it was the ground... The floating azure cube above his head... A miniaturized model of the planet rotating inside the cube... The infinite number of white clouds floating in an endless azure sky...
There was no doubt, he was inside the Moon Cell, at its core nonetheless. However, he felt something unusual. His instincts were telling him that his Spiritron frame was anchored to something... A dawn of realization came to him as he shot his bewildered gaze upon the floating cube.
"You can't be serious..." Hakuno muttered to himself, shock evident across his visage.
Then without warning though, he felt a powerful influx of data flowing inside his head. He had to grip his crown with his right hand as he unconsciously knelt on the floor with one leg, its fingertips digging its way to his scalp as he reined the uncomfortable feeling resonated with his Spiritron core.
"Dammit... so this is what caused my headaches..."
Though still dealing with the minor aching sensation throbbing inside his cranium, Hakuno was, for the lack of better word stupefied by this ordeal. To think that the Moon Cell actually came with him to this World Line and not to mention that it fused itself with his mind and soul! He wondered what the heck was the pseudo-intelligent being thinking, fusing with him and such.
A burning sensation enveloped his right ring-finger as the aching sensation in his head drifted away. A familiar golden ornate with a single jewel embedded on top now rests on his finger. The proof of his kingship...
...The Regalia.
"All this time...you were with me, huh."
Staring at the cube hovering above him, Hakuno Kishinami's countenance portrayed a look as if he was given a revelation. Indeed it was, for the influx of data that razed his consciousness wasn't just any kind of particulars but his memories as a Human back from his homeworld.
"It's all coming back to me now..." The lad shut his eyes as he delved into his rediscovered memories, and slowly opened them up as he looked at his hands. "All of my past... all of the sins that I've committed...and the suffering that I've inflicted on others."
He remembered it all, down to the last detail.
He was born in an era that was filled with strife caused by the cataclysmic pole shift, insinuated by Aylesbury Valesti ritual; a grand ritual that resulted in the world's mana being dried up. Like the Hakuno Kishinami of this World Line, he was an orphan too, but that was the end of all similarities between him and his other self. Unlike Hakuno Kishinami of this world that lived a very mundane life, his was very different.
Sold to an organization by the orphanage in infancy, Hakuno was trained at the very young age how to take one's life. He was trained to be a soldier, an assassin, a killer. Only firearms and daggers were his pen and paper while he was growing up. His field trips were actual live combat in the battlefield and his education came in the form of brainwashing. His apprenticeship came in the form of murder, massacre, and genocide, all for the sake of one twisted ideology being spoon fed to him ever since he was little.
Eventually, though, he had already made peace with his history.
He shook his head. There was no point in holding to that past. Just like how he promised himself to seek redemption for his actions back at home, all he need to do was to move forward and continue living his life.
"First thing's first." With a solemn look on his face, the brown-haired lad raised his hand as he accessed the Regalia on his finger.
The white jewel shone brightly with multitude colors as it was flooded with his Prana.
For someone who was transported to a different world, learning the world's tradition and history would be the best approach for someone like him. As he kept fueling the ornament with his magical energy, his mind was submerged in a sea of data that the spiritual computer system called Automaton have archived ever since their appearance to this World Line. The Automaton's quantum calculations are capable of Retrocognition. In this sense, it can be concluded that it had already discerned the past and past events of this World Line including the birth of the planet and the stars surrounding it.
Such gigantic amount of information is something that a human mind can't handle. However, the Regalia translated such huge influx data into something that his mind can manage.
As the light faded away, Hakuno opened his orbs with an understanding.
"I see...so that is the case of this World."
From the intelligence he received from the Automaton, this World Line wasn't based in the "Affirmation of Human History" let alone the "■■■■■■■■ of Human History" but instead based in the "Affirmation of Divinities".
In other words, a world where Age of Gods didn't die down.