Chapter 1: On the Move

"GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT YOUNG MAN OR THERE WILL BE NO TRAINING FOR TWO WEEKS FOR YOU!" a female voice destroys the peaceful atmosphere of my families' morning.

Yep, that's my mother. In case you don't know yet, it's not even seven in the morning, and mother dearest – the evil incarnate she is – thought it to be a good idea to wake up her seventeen years old son. Sorry to disappoint mom, not really though. I'm not getting up anytime soon!

I hear footsteps not ten minutes later though. The devious woman decided to wake me up by physical means, a bucket of ice cold water perhaps. On contrary to what a member of my age group would think, this is quite normal for me. I don't even mind that much…

A middle-aged man in a police uniform stands at our doorstep, voice solemn "…had an accident."

No, I think anyone who complains about things like these doesn't fully understand that it could get worse. Much, much worse.

"They're in a hospital, right?"

Because no matter how much crazy you have to put up with, you still end up missing it once it is truly gone.

"I'm sorry…" the officer says. Pain.

I smile at the thought, it isn't a happy smile though. With my eyes closed and my mind drowning in memories I don't register presence of my mother until my face, clothes and bed are all soaking wet and cold. Really, really cold. I yelp at the contact and spring from the bed on my feet. Yup. There stands the culprit, with a wide smile on her face and her green eyes twinkling in amusement.

"You did not have to do that…" I deadpan. She cackles evilly.

A guttural growl is his answer "…I know you're just doing your job, but GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

Internally, I smiled with her. Somehow, for whatever reason I got her back. I didn't know how. I didn't even care how or why which I probably should've. My mother gave me a look that suggested I should quit lazing around and start on packing. She made her way to the living room while talking about the place we're moving to.

I, naturally, proceeded to ignore her, put on some clothes, black jeans and a blue shirt with UFC logo, before following after her.

"…and I hear Kuoh is a nice place. There are lots of nice girls, you know. Maybe you will bring one home, too."

"I still don't understand why do we have to move all the way to Japan. I mean, why Japan? Why not somewhere closer, or somewhere we would actually know the language?" I said with more than a trace of sarcasm. As per usual, mother missed it completely.

"We had some relatives there, and now we inherited a nice house there, and I took up the offer to work there as a representative of the company." She says. "These are the last ones. I'm so looking towards to it!"

I can see that mom. At least she was right. The boxes I had to load into the car were the last few, with the majority already sent off to our future home. Luckily for me this take close to no time and soon I was doing my own stuff again. Namely my daily routine of exercise that includes lifting dumbbells, a hundred pushups, hundred sit-ups, hundred squats and a ten kilometer run!

No, not really. Even though I love the One Punch Man franchise I wouldn't go so far as to imitate Saitama's training regime. It is somewhat similar though, and that's for one fucking reason…

Str – D [2/10] …. Str – D [3/10]

…Yes, I got the Gamer, or at least a version of it. It would sound pretty silly to call it 'The Skill and Stat Measurer' so yeah… That's a thing. That's definitely a thing. Another one I won't question since it would lead to nothing except for freakish headaches. Not. Ever.

…

…No, I'm not explaining it, shut up. What, you want to know so badly? Well, I don't, so fuck off!

…

Alright then, I'll tell you some. It isn't a gamer per se. What it does is that it takes a skill, say a martial arts style or a technique, like takedown techniques and measures my skill in said area with a letter. Seeing as I'm quite fit, it should put my strength well above the average human. That makes sense, and yet my strength is that of a 'D' rank…

Above which is four more ranks. I'll only say that I can easily lift a twenty-six pounds in one hand without breaking a sweat and leave the math to you. Now imagine an individual with Strength in S rank.

Freakish, right?

Really though, I had long learned to not question good things. As it is I should be capable of achieving such heights. My new situation mashes well with my dream - becoming a middle-weight champion in UFC.

I wouldn't be allowed to space out much longer. The doorbell rang, and when I rand down to open it I was ambushed. Blond haired blur impacted my midsection with the strength of a truck. Only thanks to my D+ in constitution I was able to survive without harm. "Ow…" Much harm, I had to rephrase. "You are a danger to society. They should put you on a leash Theresa."

"Mou-" said girl pouted. It looked cute on her. No wonder, with her five feet five, slender body, big eyes and a bright smile she was quite the looker. This was Theresa, my childhood friend, an artist and an otaku extraordinaire who also qualifies as a taller loli. Or a flat girl, but I wouldn't tell her that one. She even made me watch some anime with her, which is quite the feat – I'm not one for movies in general. She looks almost angelic, but do not let that fool you. She is quite mischievous. "I didn't think you were into that-" she giggled.

"Theresa."

"Yes darling?"

"Stop it."

"Or?"

"…no headpats."

"Mou-" she pouted again. Poor little girl, I'll have you know I figured you out in the first two months after you started doing this. Theresa and her teasing, she just doesn't stop… unless she is threatened enough. YOU HAVE NO POWER HERE MUHAHAHA – ahem…

I patted the poor girl on her head and she instantly brightened.

"Why are you even here? Didn't I tell you we were flying this morning?" I asked.

"I know, that's why I'm here." She smiled sweetly "I want you to have this."

Theresa produced a photo and handed it to me. I look at it curiously and as soon as I notice what is on the photograph my mood skyrockets. "Thank you. I'll treasure it."

"Make sure you do! I'll be coming to visit soon and if I find out you lost it you will pay!" I chuckle nervously. The girl sure knows how to give a good incentive. Not that I needed it. Theresa was with me ever since we were little. She was family at this point. "I'm sure you will. Speaking of…" I turned and went too search my desk, but not really as there was nothing but that…

"Think fast!" I throw it at her. Theresa snatches it out of the air. Her eyes sparkle. "Is it-"

"Yup." I say, smiling proudly. "It's beautiful."

She holds out the pendant in the sunlight to admire it. It is nothing too fancy, I wouldn't be able to afford it if it were. It was a gilded medallion. When opened there was a picture of Me and Theresa with the rest of our friends: my Muay Thai club and her friends from dancing.

-On the Move-

I had an hour to spend with Theresa, and I'd enjoyed it to my heart's content. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and so I found myself sitting in a plane not much later. A plane to Japan. I still couldn't believe it, even as I tried to make at least some progress with the language with help of a dictionary and our allknowing friend, Google-chan. Keyword – tried. It didn't help at all, and not because of lack of trying. No, it was because to properly learn a language one needs to have instruction, or be a genius. I'm neither, but I still could potentially pull it off, if only to a degree where I could at least say "Sorry, I can't speak for shit" in Japanese.

I can gladly say that The Gamer didn't take the challenge out of learning languages. Yes, I am happy about it. No, my eyebrows aren't twitching. No, it isn't my teeth clenched so hard they crack what you hear. Shush, you!

With nothing to do I put on my headphones, took the most hype! music I had on my phone and turned it on, imagining myself as UFC champion…

-On the Move-

The flight… The goddamn flight was way too long for my liking. And my sanity. I might have grabbed a pen and doodled on the sleeping passengers' faces. I might've not. Who knows?

Our first stop was bathroom at the airport. My mother deemed it necessary to wash her face. When she came out she still sported a nice black moustache. Two words. Waterproof. Pen.

Moving on!

We took a bus to the town itself and got off fairly far from our destination. We took the scenic route, admiring – mom – and glaring – me – at our new hometown. What was my problem? Well, the town itself was actually more than good enough at first glance. It had it's own parks, a traditional shrine ("Oh look! Do you see that? Maybe there is a priestess-" "Mom stop. MOM!"), loads upon loads of restaurants, a big company or two, little to no aerial pollution compared to the big American cities. The list goes on. No, Kuoh itself was more than fine. What irked me was the damn language! I still couldn't understand more than a few wor-

Ding! Through listening to enough of the spoken language a skill was created:

[Japanese – Spoken] – lv. MAX

I am so NOT FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW!

Luckily for us, we weren't approached by anyone and made our way to our new home. It was a two story house and by no means it was small. Mother, who were our relatives that they had a house like this, a garden, a garage inside which – is that a fucking Cadillac?

You know what? Don't question it. Don't question it. This became my mantra for the brief time when my life made a one-eighty switch. You know, when I got my mom back, received the watered down version of The Gamer and all that jazz. You know, fun stuff.

Considering all that it isn't even that weird that we have a huge ass, fully equipped house with a new fancy car and god knows what else just like this. Nope.

We made our way inside, mom gave me my own set of keys to the house and promptly excused herself with and excuse of 'making a dinner'. We both know it was so that she didn't have to help me unpack all the thirty-eight meter to meter and half in size of clothes, dishes and other things. "How typical." I sigh in Japanese and start doing it myself…

In case you have wondered how long it could take my mother to make dinner? Two hours. At least she said so. Fancy a guess on how long it took me to unpack by myself? Well don't bother!

An hour in the doorbell chimed. My mother went to open, and there stood a boy with brown, messy hair. He was probably as old as me, but I looked slightly older – no surprise there, regular exercise does that to a person.

"Hello, I'm your new neighbor." He said with a smile "I hope-" and that's how far he got before being grabbed and dragged by me to the boxes, basically enslaved for the duration of unpacking. The Japanese teen was quite energetic and surprisingly efficient. He was helpful enough that I didn't even care he was muttering "..think of tits. Think of tits." the whole time. 'Meh, I've met weirder' was what I thought.

A Fool!

Obviously. I wouldn't find out for some time though. When we finished with the boxes mother came out of kitchen carrying trays of food. We three dined together with me translating between the two. Soon I found out about the Kuoh Academy, heard stories about the teen's friends and their peeping adventures – I swear it sounded like an anime! – and his crush on a girl called Gremory-san. Or Himejima-san. Or Tojou-san. Or Murayama-san, or was it Katase-san? Ugh… too much names…

Speaking of, "What's your name? I don't think you mentioned it."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Hyoudou Issei." Newly named Issei grins while I ignore the clawing feeling that I've heard that name before…

-On the Move- -On the Move- -On the Move- -On the Move-

Hello there!

This is my take on Highschool DXD with a small Gamer installment. The gamer won't be the focus in any way. It will be more akin to progress tracker, maybe even including a bonds system later. Now I know somebody will ask for the Status Page, so here you go.

Imai Karma

Age: 17

Race: Human

Str...D [3/10]]

Dex...C [1/10]

Agi...D [8/10]

Con...D+ [9/10]

Mag...F [0/10]

The letters represent rank of the stat, the numbers in brackets mean level of progress to the next tier.

Now, there's some things that need to be said.

First: This is not a Rias bashing fic. I will not be bashing any character here, and will try to do a decent job with all of them. Including Riser. And Raynare.

Second: There is a chance this ends up with a harem. It is fairly unlikely, but it just might happen.

Third: The pairings will be determined by what you as the readers want. If you don't tell me, I cannot make it reality.

Fourth: There will be character death. I won't be saving a character only to have the plot butchered.

Andlastly, review!

Khai