High School DXD: Alternate

Hours later, and everyone had turned in for the night. Vin had enough stuff out that heading straight to bed wasn't going to be a worry,

yet he still felt compelled to stay up and unpack one last box. Opening the flap, there sat rows upon rows of family photos.

With shaking hands, Vin reached into the box and pulled out a random photo. Flipping it over revealed to him that it was a photo taken during his seventh grade science fair in elementary school.

He'd taken home the first place prize that year with some invention that he no doubt disassembled for parts some week or two later. He looked at the photo,

a little version of himself with the widest, brace-filled grin on his face, cradling a gold trophy in his arms like a newborn child. Beside him was a younger and even smaller version of Lisa,

holding a thumbs up for the camera. God, she was so proud of him that day, she all but demanded that their parents get them sundaes for dessert that night.

His father was behind him, a comforting hand messing with his long brown locks. Geez he had it that long even back then? His mother kneeled beside him,

her arm wrapped around his younger self's side in a weird hug of some sort, a smile on her face which showed just how proud she was of her child.

Vin tried to look for the little details in the background of the photo, but he couldn't make anything out due to the frame shaking in his grasp. The feeling of heat behind his eyes crept up on him in a vengeance,

too strong to contain anymore. Vin practically threw the frame back in with the others, and slammed the box underneath his wardrobe.

Throwing himself onto the bed, Vin grabbed a pillow and buried his face into it so he could scream. All the emotions he contained finally boiling over in one simulacrum of a moment: as he wept.

That night, for the first time in twelve years, Vin cried himself to sleep.

I know, I'm sorry for hitting you all with the 'sad chapter' two times in a row. But hey, there was some fun in there!

Now, like before, I want to say thank you to everyone who's been reading, following, favoriting, and especially reviewing these chapters as they've come out! The day that chapter two was released,

I got over four hundred people to come and read my story, which blew my goddamn mind. You all are absolutely incredible, no doubt in my mind!

You know, every time I get a review, it puts the dumbest smile on my face. I'm always thinking, 'Wow, people are really out there enjoying and engaging in the story I've written enough that they're leaving comments talking about how much they love it.'

So, I love interacting with this community, so that got me thinking... Why not answer some of the reviews at the end of these chapters? It gives me a chance to interact with you all a little bit more,

and I'm always down to answer some questions about the story, characters, my writing process, etc., so why the hell not? Now, for the first time in this story, let's get into...

THE REVIEW ROUNDUP

Crestowl Asks:

"Great story so far, and I love that the grammar is actually really good, you would not believe the number of DxD fanfictions with horrible grammar.

Will this be a fanfic focusing on the church, or will he also go to Kuoh? Does Issei exist? So many questions, so few answers"

Great comment Crestowl. Unfortunately, I am… painfully aware of the amount of poorly written DxD fanfics out there. Personally, I still can't decide whether I hate the whole 'I'm going to write my fanfic like it's a script' trope, or the 'Infinite harem' nonsense.

A large portion of the initial motivation for making this script was because I spent months upon months scouring here, Wattpad, and Ao3 looking for a quality DxD fanfic to read.

I found a few little gems in there along the way, but ultimately, nothing much. Eventually, I just decided to try my hand at writing one myself, and here we are!

Now for some, it's time to rip the band aid off. Yes, Issei is in this story. He'll be featured later on, so for now, it's just Vin, Irina, Xenovia, and the others in Italy.

If you guys wanted a rough estimation of where this first story arc would fit on the DxD timeline, I'd say about nine months before the beginning of DxD New/S2/ LN Vol.3.

Truthfully, I don't get Issei hate; but I mainly think that it comes from the fact that people can't seem to write Issei with quite enough vulnerability to him, which leaves him to seem cocky, arrogant, and like a villain.

Really, I think Issei hate is solely perpetuated by people thinking that horribly OOC depictions of Issei are the same as canon Issei. Doubly so for Rias… Rest assured, this fic is firmly pro-Issei! I plan on keeping my boy pure, perverted, and slightly traumatized!

Thanks for the review, Crestowl! You rock!

PaperTucan Says:

"Well that was sad TT. Good chapter hope to see more soon"

Well… You got your wish. I'm also about a third of the way through writing chapter four at the moment. May take me a little bit more time than this one due to some university work I have to do soon (Gotta love midterms…).

In terms of that chapter being sad… Yeah, what can I say, sometimes the best trail foreword is paved in tears. But leaving the edgy musings aside, it's mainly here to show how rough the transition is for people entering the world of the supernatural.

I always kind of thought that things were a bit too lax in canon; like, they really just throw around the fact that they're devils in canon. For me, it always felt more appropriate to be this tight-lipped secret that's guarded with a manic amount of secrecy.

No witnesses, you know? Also, Vin having to leave his family? Yeah, that's not going to get forgotten about or retconned. It's sticking with him, a little chip on his shoulder, you know?