14 He's hacking, right?

On the road parallel to the front of the brick wall encasing Kuoh High, you could see clicks of student chaterring away while entering the school.

The students was in the vast majority female –no, it was more appropriate to say that male students were like oasis in a desert. They were indeed as rare, just not nearly considered as precious.

A disturbance was presently happening a little ahead of the entrance, as three teens were currently gazing around them with lewd expressions and wide nostrils and another was looking at the accademy with a dazed expression on his face.

The first three were Issei, Matsuda and Motohama, and the latter was Julian.

The groups of girl passing around them would first be curious toward the new faces who they assumed were first years.

Then, as it was an even rarer sight for new faces to be boys since their school's intimidation factor of the ratio between men and women and the impeccable grade required, the young women would inquisitively and openly stare at them.

Unfortunately, their curiosity would all but change for something else when they finally see the expression on the the first three face.

Some would scoff, some would chuckle, some would show disdain or a disgusted expression. But their worsening impression of the new students would take a drastic and sudden turn when they set their sight on the fourth boy.

His messy yet stylised blond hair with ruby like tip, his chiseled jawline and soft but boyish facial features, his tall and straight back and the clearly sculpted body showing through the tight fabric of his uniform made the heart of almost all the maidens seeing this sight skip a bit and their expression grow to one of astonishement.

But the trait making all of the female high schoolers without exception feel like a lightning bolt stroke their heart, was his eyes. Two piercing orbs reminding of clear and pure ocean water encercling a pool of fresh and warm blood. It gave an air of contradiction, as the soft blue of his eyes gave people a soothing feeling, but the brillant red around his pupils gave a dangerous and fierce one.

At this moment, they all wanted to approach him and start a conversation. But were too shy and flustered to do it in such an public place.

So instead, they reluctantly but excitedly left gossiping about the new super handsome first year with their friends. This made them realize that they were far from alone in their desire, and that the position for the most handsome boy at Kuoh High almost certainly just changed.

~~~

Back with the gang, Issei snapped out of his lewdness induced distracted state and finally realized they were not walking forward anymore because of Julian previously leading the group and stopping in his track.

Seeing the weird state his best friend was in, Issei shook his shoulder a bit. "You okay dude?"

Julian was brought out of his daze by the contact on his shoulder and Issei voice. "Yeah, I'm just feeling a little dizzy. I'll be fine in a bit, go without me, I'll catch up to you guys later in a bit." Julian smiled reassuringly.

Issei made an odd face, but nodded nonetheless.

Pinching Matsuda and Motohama on the waist, he indicated for them to continue without Julian.

They were confused but still followed Issei after throwing a look a Julian who was walking toward the shade of a tree.

Still occasionally stealing glances at the beauties around him. Matsuda scratched his shaven head and asked Issei. "What's the deal with Julian?"

"He said that he isn't feeling well."

Motohama scoffed while replacing his glasses. "Him, not feeling well? Has the end of days come?" He began sarcastically but gradually gained a puzzled expression on his face.

"Say, do you guys actually remember the last time Julian was ill at all? I think I don't remember."

Matsuda thought really hard. "Wait... I think I got something. Okay, I lied, I got nothing at all. At least not from middle school, I don't remember him ever missing school because of health issue."

He next looked toward Issei questioningly. "What about you? You're the one who knew him for the longest time."

Issei looked thoughtfull for a few moments before shaking his head. "No, I don't remember anything too. In fact, now that I think about it. From as far as I can remember, Julian was never sick, like, at all. I think he never even got a cold."

Both Matsuda and Motohama sighed deeply and in a depressed manner. the first one uttering. "Some people are truly blessed, uh?"

Issei snorted. "It's not some people, it's Julian."

The trio laughed a bit at the half-praise half-insult and continued to drool at the girls around them. Issei the only one with less enthousiam than previously.

~~~

Julian was currently sitting cross legged under a tree for the protection it granted against the sun and the calm atmosphere it provided.

While staring at the tall school building before him, Julian could only think of a single thing while feeling dizzy and light all over.

'This is unreal.'

Overlaying the real sight in front him with the 2d image from the manga and anime of his previous life. It felt unreal, ethereal like a dream. Because the school he had only seen in fiction was currently there, real and before him. Even with his 17 years of life in this world and Issei's presence in his life, he had never felt this sense of being in a fictional world as strong as right now. Than while seeing the iconic structure before him being an identical brick by brick copy of a building he subconsciously tought as not existing.

He knew it wasn't really logical to feel that when he was not even human anymore, but sometime it took you to see certain things to truly have a reaction.

Besides Issei, Irina, Motohama and Matsuda who he had frequented when they were a different, younger version of themselves. He hadn't really encountered a single thing that was the exact copy of highschool DxD in his life yet. Now, when he imagined his three 17 years old friends, his mind would automatically do the same process of overlaying their real self with their 2d counterpart.

Julian wanted to make a complaint, nowhere was it written in fanfiction how mindnumbing the realization that you could truly touch and interact with fictional characters was.

He didn't really know why he was having so strong of a reaction at the start, but his mind quickly came with an answer.

Thinking about something, and seeing it with your own eyes, were concepts world appart.

The saying "Seeing is believing" took a whole other amplitude in Julian mind right then.

His head resting on his palm, Julian's unfocused eyes gradually regained clarity.

Eying his palm for a moment, Julian clenched and unclenched it a couple of time, carefully feeling his muscle tensing to regain a good grasp of reality.

Getting up and taking his bag with him, Julian stretched up a good amount and left the cool shade of the tree to dirige himself toward the interior of the main building.

His usual satisfied and confident little smile regained his place on his face, more pronounced than before.

He would normally grins when being as excited and happy than he was right now, however.

'Not this time.' Julian thought to himself peacefully.

~~~

-In the Occult Research Club house

Two Victorian-style couch with a low wooden table of the same style between them were facing each other in a wood-paneled room.

This room was currently occuped by four people, three girls and one boy.

It was Rias Gremory, Akeno Himejima, Koneko Toujou and Yuuto Kiba.

After serving tea to everyone, Akeno sat herself beside Rias and waited for her king to speak.

Rias materialised a file in her hand and threw it on the table, crossing her legs afterward.

The rest of her peerage besides Akeno cast their gazes on the file in curiosity and confusion. The file in question being the accademics as well as the medical record of a student and other important informations. The document was adorned with a picture of a stunningly handsome young man smiling atop it.

Leaning forward, she tapped her finger on the file and oppened her mouth. "This is the file of Julian Håberjorgen-Marquis. A new first year at our school."

She paused for a moment, everyone waiting for the president of their club to continue.

"He is the top scorer of this year entrance exams, attaining perfect marks in every subject easily. He is also placed first across the entire country for his marks."

She calmly passed her gaze on every persons in the room, subtly allowing them to interject.

As Yuuto and Koneko seemed to be the only one totally in the dark and Koneko wasn't one to talk much, it was the former who raised his confusion to his king.

"Kaichou, It sure is something remarkable to be placed first for the entrance exams country wide, but I don't see why the informations you gave us would be of any relevence. Plenty of such people such as Sona-San exist." Yuuto knew it was only a prefunctary question, but his king like her suspense.

Rias smiled kindly to Yuuto, glad that her cute little servants went along her games. "The relevent informations, as you said, come from his medical record. As he is said to be the carrier of a one-of-a-kind mental disorder, if it could even be called as such, named the prodigy syndrom. This syndrom make the carrier a prodigy in everything, and when I say everything, it is quite literally so. Art, science, language and even sports. He has an extreme ease to excel in everything, to the point that it is almost supernatural."

Yuuto was quite frankly, astonished, even Koneko got curious over the question of he was also a prodigy in cooking cookies.

Yuuto scratched his head a little dumbfounded. "A prodigy in everything? How does it even work, isn't it a hax?"

After thinking for a short while, his eyes widened in realization of why his savior was bringing this subject suddenly. "You want to add him to the peerage and see if this syndrom apply to the supernatural side of things too?"

Rias nodded her head calmly.

This time, Akeno, who was already aware of her best friend intention, couldn't help but spoke about her doubts.

"But, Rias, Isn't it a bit too Risqué? What if his syndrom doesn't work on the supernatural, wouldn't you have wasted a piece then? After all, besides his great intellect, he is only an ordinary human without a sacred gear."

Rias shook her head. "Don't say that Akeno, everyone I use my pieces on become family. Besides, even if his body has a poor compability with the transformation to a supernatural being and even if his demonic power reserve are pitiful. He would still be a great asset for the battlefield as his strategic mind should be way greater than mine, and with his genius in science and mathematic, he have the potential to become a great human magic user."

A little ashamed of thinking of future people in the peerage in term of usefullness.

Akeno lowered her head a little and apologized. "Right, sorry. I was just thinking about next year..."

Rias gained a gloomy expression at that but soon regained a calm one. "It's okay, we still have one year. For now, we'll wait for Sona to become the council president next year before making contact with him."

She looked beside her at Akeno. "I still want you to monitor him and his little friends, the school isn't totally under our control yet and with the increase in stray devils and the suspicious movement of the fallen, everything could happen."

Akeno nodded in understanding and with the dismissing of this morning meeting, everyone left to go to their respective class, only Rias staying behind.

After everyone left, she picked up the picture of Julian and inspected it closely. Even if she didn't care about appearance much, she had to admit finding him way more pleasing to eye than the other men in her life. Maybe it was the familiar red in his eyes and on the tip of his hair.

In curiosity, she brought a lock of her own red hair before her and compared it to the picture. She frowned her well-sculpted brows a little in thought at finding the coloralmost identical, but soon released the tension in her brows and shook her head at what could only be a coincidence.

She got up stretching and decided to take a shower before going to class.