DxD: Celeste 4: Interlude: Issei

DxD: Celeste 4: Interlude: Issei

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Commissioned by Althero and Chaosbrain

Wordcount: 2000

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“Would you die for me?”

Raynare’s words echoed in my ears, as I woke up in an unfamiliar room. It was a simple room, but there were machines next to my bed that I didn’t recognize. The walls were painted a pale blue, light music flowed through the room, and the lights were soft. Even though I woke up, even though I remembered the pain I endured from Raynare, I felt myself calming down within the room.

Until I noticed that I wasn’t alone.

“Yo.” A tall woman with a dark tan gave me a wave. She wore a long, blue jacket and hat and some sort of armor beneath that covered her body. Her hair was long, going all the way to her waist, and her eyes reminded me of gold. “You had one hell of a first date, Issei Hyoudou.”

I was about to ask how she knew my name when she raised up my school ID and placed it on my bedside.

‘Went through your things. Had to get your clothes cleaned up, after all.” Something about her Japanese was off. It was like her voice was being layered onto another person’s. The way her lips moved didn’t make the words I knew come out. She noticed me staring and smiled. “Well, you’re more perceptive that I thought you’d be… well… it probably has to do with your near-death experience with Raynare, huh?”

The moment she mentioned Raynare’s name my heart began to race and a memory resurfaced that overcame all my concerns.

Raynare’s boobs… I saw them and lived!

Instinctively, I raised my arm upward before bringing it down to pump it.

My first girlfriend turned out to be a monster, one who wanted me dead for some reason that I didn’t understand, but I lived and I got to see amazing, perky, and real boobies!

Contentment flowed through me as a let loose a sigh of relief.

“…I’m curious as to what that was about, but I have a feeling that I don’t want to know.” The nice, older, and foreign lady who saved me raised an elegant eyebrow and I felt a flush form on my face. I wanted to tell her what I thought, but somehow I had the feeling that she’d see right through me, so I just laughed lightly while she shook her head. Even though I had no problem telling everyone I knew about the amazingness of boobs, for some reason I felt I could tell the person who saved my life the same thing. “Well, anyway, go ahead and ask your questions. I’ll answer all that I can without putting you in any risk.”

She gestured at me with a gloved hand. Since she was so cool and mysterious, I thought that I’d just get sent on my way home without anything else happening, so it took me a while to come up with a question.

But, in the end, I had to ask even though she almost killed me.

“What happened to Raynare?”

“Oh, she’s dead. No need to worry about her inflicting revenge on you and your family or anything.”

The words made me pause. They were casual and without malice. Even though I could tell that she said them to make me feel better, I couldn’t help but feel afraid.

What kind of a world did this woman live in for her to be so calm about killing?

“O-oh. I see.” I struggled to speak and a frown crossed her face as she noticed my hesitation. She didn’t know why I was shaken by her words. It was like I received a favor from her, and she expected gratitude, and didn’t receive it. I struggled with my next question for a moment, before asking what I wanted to ask. “Why? Couldn’t you have locked her up, since you were able to save me?”

My question made the woman blink a few times, until she gave a slow nod.

“Huh, you’re right. I could’ve done that. Damn. I guess I still need to keep a tight lid on my temper.” She sighed and shook her head, before standing. She pulled something from her jacket and shined it over me. Suddenly, I felt like I needed to run a mile or else I’d go crazy. “Well, it looks like you’re still the guy I know, even if you’re from another dimension. Let’s get you up to speed and working hard, so that you can use your moral compass to help me make less mistakes.”

I didn’t know what she was talking about, but as a smile formed on her face, I felt… like I needed to do my best. For some reason, after I questioned her choice of actions, she started treating me like an old friend who she hadn’t seen for a long time.

“I’ll explain in a bit. You call me Celeste by the way.” Celeste-san reached out towards me and when I took her hand, she pulled me out of the bed with surprising force. The door to the room opened and spherical robots floated in with clothes my size, while others started to remove stickers with little bits and bobs on them off me. “You’re going to need to pay a lot of attention to what I’m going to say, since there’s a lot I need to share, but I’m sure that you can do it, so just do your best to keep up, okay?”

She was strong, but there was something else to her grip that I couldn’t place.

A loneliness and a wish that I was barely able to help with.

So, even though I didn’t understand what was going on, I nodded.

I wanted to help her, even though we just met.

…

My brain hurt.

My body hurt.

My everything hurt.

Celeste-san, meanwhile, didn’t even look winded as she frowned at the results of my training.

“Man, I forgot how scrawny humans were. Back in my world, you all figured out nutrition and genetics and didn’t stop improving until you couldn’t.” The gym within the large spaceship that Celeste owned was incredibly advanced and I went through every single machine in it alongside her. She didn’t break a sweat, while I was pushed my limits. “Well, it’s nothing we can’t fix within a generation for most humans, and a few weeks for you.”

My brain struggled for a bit, but I mustered the strength to voice my thoughts.

“Is-isn’t it dangerous to go so fast?” I could understand humans being improved over the course of a generation to be incredible, like they were in Celeste’s world. However, the thought of being transformed into those humans in a few weeks made me worry. “Is it really possible?”

“Relax. Most soldiers who fought against the Chimera were enhanced rather than natural superhumans. The tech’s mostly Templar and not CORE, but they really knew their genetics in Europe. They had to so that they could work with Woden’s Blood.” Celeste-san walked over me and brought out the odd, glowing rod again and shined it over me. A robot floated in through the automatic doors with a syringe gun and several vials. “Hey, are superhero movies popular here? Has the First Av*nger come out yet?”

“The what?”

“Ah, figures. You’d be all over this, if that series was popular here.” Celeste gave a hum and I sighed in relief as the soothing, energizing waves washed over my body. I felt like I’d rested for weeks and the energy that returned was greater than I had when I was first hit by the magical technology. “Anyway, to put it simply, these are retroviral enhancements. They’ll make you stronger, tougher, a little smarter, give you more endurance, and a bunch over other stuff. You’ll reach peak, normal human with my help in a few days, but with this you’ll hit where you were before the Preservers back in my world.”

My other self.

Issei Hyoudou , from another time and another place, was a hero. He was a person who stood alongside incredible people, who worked to save the world, and after he did… he became a proud husband with a harem!

How could I refuse following in my other self’s amazing footsteps and follow the same path!?

I could accept being beaten by others, but I won’t be beaten by myself!

“Do it. I want a harem, Celeste-san!”

Celeste-san laughed, but it wasn’t like the laughter of all the other girls who responded to my words. It wasn’t derisive and mocking. Instead it was encouraging and supportive, she wanted to see me walk the same path as the Issei Hyoudou that she knew, because she was that good of a friend to my other self.

I couldn’t fail her too.

“Alright, hold onto your butt, Issei.” Celeste gave a hum and took my arm. As the syringe gun neared, she pressed a trigger, and my eyes widened as it didn’t have one long needle but a circle full if dozens and dozens. She noticed my fear and her smile only widened. “If you don’t stay still, this’ll hurt a lot.”

“I-I understand!”

Celeste-san laughed, the needle-gun neared, and I tensed… only for a hissing sound to resound as a felt nothing.

I stared at her, while she put on another vial full of liquid, and a robot shined the invigorating, healing beam on my arm while a strange sensation started to travel through my entire body.

“The needles are too small to elicit a pain response and they heal on the way out. You can sit on this thing and you wouldn’t feel a thing.” Celeste-san stuck her tongue out at me impishly. It was strange to see cheekiness from a woman by mother’s age, but it looked natural on Celeste-san. I felt relieved that she was having fun and living. When I first saw her, she looked so… stoic and determined… like she was committed to doing everything herself. “These serums will start kicking in pretty soon, so you’re going to have to hit the machines hard, unless you want me to tranquilize you and the best delivery for that is an actual needle.”

She smiled again and I realized that she wasn’t kidding.

“I’ll train hard! Don’t knock me out please!”

“Okay, but if you don’t manage it, I’m bringing out the blowdarts.” Celeste-san laughed and helped me up after administering the last vial. When she looked down at me, placing a hand on my shoulder as she did, I saw something in her eyes that I never saw before. Hope. Real hope… in me. “Work hard, Issei.”

I knew that wasn’t the person she wanted beside her right now, and that she wished to be beside him instead of me, but I could still be the friend that she wanted me to be.

So, I nodded and turned back to the gym, despite the aches and pains still lingering in my mind.

There was a lot of things that I didn’t completely understand. Some of the truths that I just learned made my head hurt. While I wanted to be like my other self, I also felt smaller and weaker against someone who was me… and I didn’t know how to deal with that. Then, there was the fact that the world was more different than I ever imagined, and the fact that I almost died.

But, despite all of that, I latched onto the person who saved me… because even though she was amazing and powerful, she looked at me like a friend.

We just met, but I knew that I would regret failing Celeste-san.