1 Prologue

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After writing DxD: A True Dragon, I feel like I have learned a lot about what I need to improve and avoid, when writing. Yes there are other fanfictions I've uploaded, but I didn't put any effort into them, they were mostly written on a whim.

This time I hope to avoid major flaws in my writing, but like all things I will not be able to produce a flawless piece of writing, but I wont stop from trying.

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"Koen, lunch is going to be ready in five minutes, make sure you call the others, those brats never listen to me" An elderly woman, with grey hair and a wrinkled face, spoke to a young boy standing infront of her.

He had jet-black hair—and pitch-black eyes, almost like an abyss. His skin was extremely pale, although he didn't have any major ailment, it seemed to be an issue with his pigmentation, presumably inherited from his mother, although we can never know for sure.

After all this boy was an orphan, his mother had unfortunately succumbed to Leukemia when he was eight years old, and his father had died shortly after his birth from a road accident—and for the past year he had been living in the "Rosemary Orphanage" although don't let it's name fool you.

The place was decrepit and worn-out, everywhere you looked there was cobwebs, cockroaches and filth in every corner. Although this wasn't necessarily the fault of the caretakers.

First of all, the only person staffed to take care of the place was the elderly woman named Hirano, truthfully she loved all the children in the orphanage, but because of her aging body, she didn't have the strength to clean every nook and cranny of the place, and could you really expect the kids to do it?

Koen was the oldest in the orphanage currently nine-years of age. He was either twice the age or more than every other child staying in the residence—the kids there were rowdy and uncooperative, but you can't really blame them, they had no parental figure and the caretaker was in no-condition to watch over a horde of troublesome kids.

They listened to Koen, not out of respect or admiration, but rather out of fear, each time he spoke to them he would pierce them with his haunting eyes, they saw him as some sort of demon, or bad omen—and would rather not get on his bad side.

Furthermore he had this odd imposing nature, something a child his age shouldn't really have—and as you've probably guessed, he was far older than he seemed.

Koen was a thirty-year old man living a dead-end job working at a classic white-collar office job—one fateful night, he was drinking himself to death as always trying to rid himself of the stress constantly plaguing his mind, when he waddled into the street and got rammed by someones car.

Although with his lifestyle choices, you could say he had it coming.

Being the dead-beat that he was, his only hobbies were reading light-novels and of course, drinking alcohol—he never had enough money to buy himself a computer or something better than a flip-phone because he wasted all his money on drinks, thus he never watched any form of anime. Other than those that he watched during his childhood which he mostly forgot.

One of the light novels he read happened to be High School DxD, which if you haven't already guessed by the title, was where he was.

Eventually he met a ROB who instead of welcoming him with praises and opportunities just stared at him as if he was a cockroach.

He was told that he would be given [Flame Shake] a normal [Sacred Gear] that wasn't really explored much in DxD. The only notable event including it was when it was used against Issei, which he ended up being immune too, so...that was a great start.

It had the ability to use pyrokinetic abilities, conjuring white-colored flames from the users hands. The flames can be shaped into the form of weapons such as swords or shields depending on what the user desires, some of which can change direction in motion to catch opponents off-guard.

One demerit however, was that it was ineffective against people from the Phenex Clan or Dragons, so those were people he had to avoid.

He felt wronged considering normally he should be given a System or some miraculous cheat ability to help him become incredibly strong in a short-span of time, but he was told that he was merely a placeholder. Apparently a small error occurred in the verse causing low-tier [Sacred Gears] to become misplaced.

And simply to keep things "balanced" whatever that's supposed to mean the ROB was picking people at random to become those placeholders.

(Koen's Perspective)

It seems most of us are gathered at the dining area except one—It's probably that chestnut haired fucker who sits in the playground all the time. Well I call it a playground, but really it's just a pit of sand with a rusty swing the middle.

I made my way to the backdoor of the place, the floorboards creaking as I went, and the sound caused roaches to skitter all over the place, at first those guys creeped me out, but I've been in this body for a year now, and they don't bother me so much anymore. However, that requires them to never touch me—ever, they're still gross.

I've been forced to eat this woman's poor excuses of "meals" every single day, the food is mushy, it's bland and she never washes the cutlery properly.

Don't get me wrong I know she means well, but fucking hell, can't the government afford to hire just one more person here? Preferably one that can actually move faster than a snails pace without breaking their back.

I'm determined to get out of this hellhole eventually, I want some god damn cash because I need a fucking drink! I've gone a year without alcohol, because of this new body I've experienced no physical withdrawals, but mentally I'm losing it. Staying sober is fucking hell—I have to constantly endure the pestering of these snot-nosed kids, day in and day out.

Where's Mama? Where's Papa? Non-stop they keep fucking asking me, like how the hell should I know? I'm in the same boat as the rest of you, thankfully these eyes of mine seemed to scare them away when I tell them to piss off, at least I've got that going for me.

My plan to turn my life around is pretty simple, I'm going to get relatively strong, just about enough to get some supernatural group to take me in, acquire a source of income, and be reunited with Beer-chan at last.

Luckily I seem to be in Kuoh Town which means the place will practically be littered with supernatural's eventually, I have no idea when the main events of DxD will begin—because I haven't met a single supernatural as of now, let alone the main cast. I hope I at least have a little time before it begins, this [Flame Shake] is taking forever to progress.

The series never explained it's training process, and it's a non-sentient Sacred Gear so I have no knowledge of any short-cuts or more effective methods to improve it's power.

All I've been doing is sneaking out late at night and going as deep as possible into the nearby woods, and using my flame more constantly. As of now they've gone from the strength of a lighter to that of a Bunsen burner—so I could be doing better...

Unfortunately, my flames are basically a beacon so I have to be extra careful that no one notices, but on the bright side the caretaker is too old, and can never catch me sneaking out, and even if she did what is she going to do? Waddle after me?

I'm not worried about the kids finding out about my Sacred Gear, because first of all they're too isolated and immature to figure out that it's not normal, and would just think that I'm some sort of cool wizard or whatnot.

Furthermore, they have no connection to the supernatural—at least as far as I'm aware, so they can't expose me to some Devil or anything.

Frankly I just want to avoid being pestered to show them my abilities or something constantly so I'll just keep them in the dark.

Another positive about my situation, is if I do end up being recruited into some group no ones going to care about my disappearance. You think the Government will give a shit about some runaway orphan? Hah.

I made my way to the "playground" when I finally found the kid sitting on the swing as always, with this oddly happy expression, does he not understand his situation or something?

"Brat, it's lunchtime already—hurry up" I called out to him.

"I've already told you! My name is Tomura! And quit calling me brat, you're a kid like the rest of us"

"Whatever, whatever—just get in here already, she'll keep nagging me until you do"

He hopped off the swing and walked alongside me as we made our way to the dining table, I looked upon the soggy loafs of bread, with a mess of ingredients crammed inside it, I've become used to having to eat such garbage, but it doesn't make the experience any better.

---

I was once again in the forest where I usually am every night, sometimes I think the brats notice that I've left, but don't seem to care all that much, they probably assumed I was just going for a stroll or something.

I conjured a white colored flame from the tip of my right index finger and just held it for as long as I could—despite it's small size I still knew that I should be careful with it considering I didn't want to start a forest fire. Although I'm pretty confident in my control over it, I have no idea whether I have some talent for it—or [Flame Shake] is just super easy to handle.

The flame seems to be fueled by some form of energy pool within me—and as it depletes I begin to feel myself becoming more and more exhausted. I have no idea what this pool of energy is, because I have no idea what [Flame Shake] feeds off of, but I kinda just roll with it.

Each time I hold the flame, I can feel the temperature increase ever so slightly—well not really, it's more like I have a gut feeling that I'm making progress. I really wish I had a stat sheet or something to help me accurately monitor my progress, but from the very moment I realized the ROB had no intention of making me the main character or anything, I knew I was going to have to live with what I get.

A nice positive is that, using these flames help me forget about my worries as I'm usually quite immersed in keeping the flame active. It's so far the only thing that helps me forget about my longing for a nice taste of beer...or maybe wine—god damn I miss alcohol.

We're never forced to do anything in the orphanage although our caretaker always nags me about studying—it helps because I'm usually extremely tired after a sleepless night of honing my flames and I can just doze away for most of the day.

I also like to pick up nearby leaves every now and then—making my flames actively burn something seems to help me with my progress, again, don't ask me how, it's just a gut feeling. Also I like to twirl the little flame in a spiral shape to help my control grow, right now it's already quite proficient, but it never hurts to make it better.

I haven't bothered much with any physical training, mostly because we don't get much protein in our meals which would make muscle building, unbelievably difficult—then again, I'm a human so physical prowess wouldn't be much of an advantage, if I'm up against beings who are born with seven times my strength.