They were a picture-perfect couple. Coming straight out of nowhere to confess to the local village idiot, and yet they turned out a lot better than anticipated. Kissing and chatting together so wholesomely, it was almost smothering. Almost too saccharine.
Of course, that wasn't totally the case. It had to happen to him. Out of all the women he had to start dating, she was the kind of girl who would stab him in the face for the slightest bit of infidelity, what with the glowing yellow spear poking through his cheeks right now. He had not much to say at all, his mutilated body being totally unable to speak, or breath, at this point.
As he lay dying in the ground, his blood soaked the ground in a large pool gathering all around his body, coating every part of him that had yet to be covered in a thick coat of his gore. SPLAT, his intestines sounded as they smacked into the ground, and he shook violently. He imagined multiple things as they went by, even as the girl he had trusted with his life left.
She came into his mind. The one who he was imagining, or thought was imagining, was of that one girl. The beauty with crimson hair.
She who had been called to be contracted, was called in by the boy to be saved. She had other plans to consider her next move at the time, but this time she felt that she had to intervene herself. His destiny would, and should be decided from this moment forwards.
"So you were the one who called me." A whisper tore through the wind. Haru's eyes widened slightly, even as his strength failed him.
Suddenly, someone appeared in front of him, red sparks going through the evening wind. She spoke to him, the girl he had his eyes on this entire time. He had not much to say, however, as he lacked the ability to do so in the first place.
"Looks like you're dying. Your wound... oh my, looks like something interesting was happening here. So you're the one they had targeted... Truly, this is intriguing."
She's laughing as if she found something legitimately interesting. Indeed, she coolly went through his being, and observed him all around. His heartbeat was beating strong still, despite the damage done to him. Was he being healed?
"If you're dying then I'll take it. Your life, that is. From now on, you'll live only for me." Her voice was beautiful to his ears, soothing his broken soul. Whatever bargain she was offering, he would take it. Anything to see his family again. Anything.
However, for a moment it felt as if another person had arrived. She froze, and a cold chill went through her as her eyes bounced back and forth around her upon feeling a great ray of mana beaming through their general area. "Who are you!? What do you want with us!" She immediately went and attempted to set up defensive wards around her as she prepared for impact.
The other magic circle, conveniently painted underneath the tiles, glowed, and bright glow covered the entire park. The girl who had only just arrived had been frozen in time, right in the middle of her defensive position. In her place as negotiator, another girl had arrived in a flash of light, wearing a white cloak and holding in her right hand a long red spear with 6-pronged edges to stick to a person once impaled. On her left she held a bronze katana, looking no less dangerous than the other with her own niche of martial arts.
"Do you yet wish to live?" A distant voice asked. Healing energies pointed towards him, allowing the otherwise completely dead boy to deliriously move his eyes to a bright figure to his side, her figure almost angelic compared to the fetishistic and downright evil appearance of his traitorous girlfriend. She looked at him with a smile, which would be otherwise completely welcoming if not for the total lack of empathy in her face. It was almost robotic.
"Or are you willing to lay down your arms and die in the Buddha's embrace?" Her face froze for a moment, then afterwards she chuckled, realizing something. Taking the time to look to the side, where the girl had been frozen, she continued. "Though I have my doubts that even that would last in this scenario. The girl has her intentions for you, you know, binding you to a contract for nigh aeternum."
"It's your choice at the end of the day, boy. Eternal servitude to a devil, or eternal bindings to the God of War?" She smiled even harder, a tinge of malice going through her entire being. It disturbed him to no end, but... He had to choose.
Normally, his choice would have always been to take his chances with the Crimson haired beauty, forever locking the two together as devil and her servant, but this time he had another option. In the countless number of realities that existed across the universe, another option would almost never be considered. But of course, here she was.
Even in his banged-up shape, his head slowly turned to the strange, hooded figure. He slowly raised his index finger, blinking slowly. His tears slowly fell as he fell unconscious on the spot.
Her facade, covered under her hood, rose to face the finger pointing at her still. She smiled, one part genuine, and another part smug, as she sealed their contract as master and servant. The unique characteristics of their contract are to be skipped over as you would probably already get the idea, so on with the show. "Very well," she began. "I am the Servant Lancer, of the Eightfold Blossom as I have called myself a few times before. But you should know that you could always call me—"
"WAKE UP, WAKE UP! IF YOU DON'T WAKE UP, YOU IDIOT, I'M GOING TO HAVE TO KISS YOU!" It was a Tsundere-voiced alarm clock, but not once did it wake up its owner in the right and proper way. Rather, said owner appeared to have interpreted the events of the previous night as a nightmare induced by the disturbing amounts of hentai and anime merchandise that he uses to get off most of the time. Yes, the alarm counts.
"Hrrmm..." Namikaze Haru hummed as he slowly woke up, unable to totally stave off all forms of sleep still lurking around his mind. He shook his head twice, the second time after smacking the offending noise with a loud bang and fell off his bed just afterwards.
He drifted off to sleep just afterwards, trying his best to avoid dreaming of crazy women killing him again. He faced down, still doing his best to ignore the ringing sound banging on his ears like a drum, and failing. Loud steps came up the stairs as both his father and mother banged on his door to wake him up.
"Wake up, Haru! Haru!" She shouted, making their displeasure quite clear to both parties. She attempted to pull him up from the floor, but failed to do so as Namikaze Haru attempted to scramble himself up. Father looked to the side, still disappointed at the sound of his alarm's snooze sound.
As Haru sat up, he shook himself awake and looked back at his parents. "I know that ma, I'm up now! Geez..." And yet, he blinked, confusingly so, as he tried to process her parents' expressions.
Blinking even more, he raised a brow. "Uh, is there something wrong with my face?" They froze dead on their tracks, as they both chuckled nervously.
"Y-Yes Haru, just... Take a look at this." The mother said, taking a quick snapshot with her smartphone. She turned it around for Haru to see clearly, and Haru didn't know what to think at first.
Sure, there was his face. It looked a bit chubbier than before, but then again he was eating a lot lately without all too much exercise... Then there was a bit of some sharper facial features, which he could probably blame on puberty and his father's genes; he looked pretty plain either way though. And lastly, his hair was a bit longer with some white signalling that he might be getting stressed out too much.
"What's so bad about that, Ma? It just looks like the closing stages of puberty to me..." Mother shook her head, pointing at something more distressing.
"Not only that, Haru, look! Look up between your eyebrows! And more than that, look at your eyes!"
"Eh?" In closer inspection, it seemed as if his mother was right. There was a little blackish-red tuft of hair poking out right in the middle, but what was so bad about that?He moved his gaze to his eyes, and saw exactly what the problem was now. Circling around the pupil and lining his sclera were circles, concentric from the middle. But more than that,
"EHH!? WHY ARE MY EYES SUCH A CREEPY SHADE OF YELLOW!?" And indeed, the combination of factors meant that despite still being recognizably Namikaze Haru, Namikaze Haru was even less Namikaze Haru for once in his short lifetime. A little more feminine, leaning on a little girlier look
His parents, mind you, had not much to say, and could only sigh in discomfort. His father approached him slowly, and, patting his head, offered a thumbs up. "Ganbatte, Haru-kun." His expression told him, but his expression was blank and he didn't want to do any more of this. So he just told his parents to meet him down the stairs as he tried to process the things on his head now.
Rubbing them down, he felt better after leaving the restroom, but nothing had actually changed to his hair or facial features beyond a bright pink scratch on his face. Sighing in defeat, he picked up his bags and changed to his uniform, heading for school immediately afterwards while saying goodbye to his parents on the dinner table. The trip to school was largely uneventful by comparison.
Even so, he had arrived at school with only a few people staring at him, so he had that much going for him. He went ahead and went his merry way to his classroom until he noticed a girl from a distance stare at him. It was the red haired beauty of the school, Rias Gremory, through and through, but in some way she stared at him in... fear? What?
Even if he tried to call her in, however, he was interrupted immediately by his intrepid comrades Motohama and Matsuda as he walked by. Her silhouette slowly disappeared over the distance, and Haru didn't have much to note at all. Still staring back, Matsuda attempted to call Haru's attention. "Hey man, you feeling alright? You seemed groggy for a while now."
Snapping out of his trance, Haru looked to his side and responded. "Y-Yeah, just... just felt a little dizzy was all. I think something like that's happening at least..." Motohama's turn. "Yeah, more than that, where the hell did this strip of black and white hairs come, man? You feeling stressed lately?"
"Yeah, I guess... Yuuma-chan was scaring me a bit yesterday. Got a really creepy nightmare too." He shivered, thinking of the nightmare he had the night before and of the stuff that happened that morning as well.
"Yuuma-chan... Wait, you have a girlfriend Haru!?" The other two boys yelled, to Haru's confusion.
"Yeah, didn't I tell you about her already?"
The rest of the day had progressed without much fuss afterwards, with much of the same events occurring as they did in the original Hyoudou Issei's timeline. Of course, there would be one major difference in Namikaze Haru case. The servant Haru had summoned, that is. And the fact that Yuuma didn't go out of her way to scrub her being completely from their minds, seeing that they'd still trusted Haru to an extent.
Haru left the movie theater with his friends, and split afterwards, Haru taking the time to say goodbye to both. He looked up to see the time, and sighed. He walks through the park aimlessly, looking side to side with the people walking past him. And as the moment passed, he could feel an eye brush past him from behind, and Haru was on high alert.
"This is rare. To meet someone like you out in the open is a totally new occurrence for me." A masculine voice echoed behind him. Instantly, Haru turned back, seeing a creepy, menacing man in a clean suit approach him slowly.
A dangerous man, that's what he is! Haru nervously noted, taking care to avoid any handguns or knives that might pop out of nowhere. He tries to put some distance to no avail, as the psycho gets ever closer to him.
"Trying to run away now? It must be someone with either a very low rank or a weird hobby to choose this place as a territory. So, who's your master?"
He tries to run away, but a black feather pops as he realizes that the man out to get him was flying. "Don't even bother, I'll always catch up to you. Now give it up! I'll make it easier on you if you do."
A sense of familiarity sparked through him as he gulped, raising his hands up in surrender. Better to die quickly than slowly and painfully, he thinks, but his mind goes blank as just after a spear threatened to disembowel him, he panicked, and fell unconscious. Just after, a surge of strength pulses through the boy, changing his clothes into a white robe and armor, and holding a spear and sword in hand. The shock of the change was enough to knock the fallen angel into a stupor, just in time for both weapons to be lodged in their body.
A girl had followed him this entire time, it seems. So she raised her weapons to the intruder, and called her. "If you would please stop hiding in that bush over there," she smiled. "I would have no need to execute you if you explained yourself."
Sighing, she walked out of the bush. "You're... You're the same girl I saw three days before. The one that Haru turned into, that's who you are, right?"
"And so what if I am? I've been contracted to protect him to the bitter end, and that means drastic measures such as taking over his body before he could be hurt in any way." She shivers mildly, and clutches at a weak spot on her gut. "Ah... It appears I don't have much time left... If you would, please bring Haru back home and put him to sleep there. Ugh." She keels over, right onto Rias's arms.
She looks back and forth, and sighs when she notices that his clothes went back to normal. Deciding right there, Rias Gremory picks up the boy in a bridal position and lugs him in a bridal position. She could hypnotize his parents into thinking he had arrived already, but what of her? What would be her excuse?
Ah. Of course. She'd strip down naked and sleep next to Haru on his bed, that would work, yeah, that would... Honestly it would be debatable, but it would be better than nothing. Might be funny, too.
Nagao Kagetora—alternatively, Uesugi Kenshin—wandered through the halls of the large complex she had found herself in. She had figured fairly early on that the reason why they had decided to assassinate her master, so she had to act quickly.
Finding the dragon was pretty easy. Dragons practically radiated magical energies by just existing, so she only had to follow the yellow paved road of prana to it. In a world where the influence of the Buddha was as strong as it had ever been, even the Bishamonten solely could not help her on their own, so she had to dig deeper. The dragon had to be coaxed one way another.
Finally, she felt as if she had found the right one. Knocking on a large gate, the doors had been opened immediately afterwards, allowing her to take in the sight before her. A dragon, one of the most iconic of European mythologies, sat before her. On his left arm was, curiously enough, a large cup the size of Kenshin herself with what she could gather to be the smell of an Earl Gray. Curious.
"You have come." The dragon boomed. She had put a sleeve over her face to cover it from the beast's breath, coughing all the while.
"Yes, I have. Ddraig; the great Welsh Dragon, whose image was raised over the banners and flags of the very same King Arthur of Camelot in the distant past." She leaned her neck left in deep thought. "I presume that you already know what I've come here for?" Her smile hadn't left at all still, giving an interesting impression of herself to the dragon.
"Ha! Of course." He sips on the cup. "I've seen that little boy grow to such a virile youth over the years. It would only make sense that I support him, you know. There will be so much to gain with such little loss." He took a strong sip on his cup, depleting a full third from it.
"If anything, this just proves how dangerous the world has and will become over the years. He will eventually need both of our help." The dragon sighs, looking down still. "Of course, he would have to learn the ropes, both of our own, before he would be anywhere close to defending himself."
"So, we have a deal, then? You know the troubles he will face eventually? The supernatural powers that even I cannot handle?" She smiled neutrally as always, looking up still at the beast of legend.
"Provided you have a justifiable situation to require my help. That will come very soon, I can tell." His eyes returned to the question maker. "So yes. We do have a deal." They both smiled, and both shook their hands in agreement, with Kenshin clutching the dragon's ring finger to make it work on both ends.
As Namikaze Haru slept on his bed, a bright red glow flashed through his blanket. On the one hand, were a set of Command Seals, constantly regenerating despite never quite being used yet. On the other, was a red gauntlet, Namikaze Haru's boosted gear and otherwise his sole claim to fame. Both would flash moments after again, with the one on his left disappearing outright, only appearing again whenever needed, and the one on his right only appearing as a scar only noticeable by people with great magical powers.
Namikaze Haru rolled over and over his bed, scratching his head lightly as it grew ever longer and whiter. His skin grew a shade paler, and two nubs started to make themselves known. As you would imagine, of course, Haru had to be dreaming of rolling over the massive mounds of real estate that he imagined hot women to have.
For Kagetora, if this were to be the distinction that set her apart from the Demon King, then so be it. It would have given her the chance for both of them to prepare more for the worst. This was to be expected when she had accepted this role, but she had to make the most out of it anyway.
As the Lancer of Eight Flowers walked away from the gates, she considered something. She smiled a bit more, for once wholly genuine as she set to make her next move. "I should introduce myself to master properly this time around," She thinks, already making her preparations.