Soundless Knight

Chapter 1

Ring Ring!

[Click]

In the single and only room on the second floor after shutting down the alarm clock on the table next to his bed a young, teenager boy with messy brown hair slowly opened his light brown eyes. Taking his hand, which was put on the button on top of the alarm clock back, the young boy put it on the soft mattress and pushed himself up from his bed.

Sixteen years old Hyoudou Issei released a yawn before putting his two feet on the floor, eyes glancing around his room which didn't have much furniture other than a bookcase, a study table, a wardrobe and his bed. Overall, the room lacked most of the common things for teenagers his age, but for Issei Hyoudou, it was enough.

Standing up, the boy slowly made his way to his bathroom, his foot accidentally stepped on a piece of paper but he ignored it in favor of finishing morning activities. That paper was just a result of a checkup Issei took a few years back but he still kept it and took it out every night to look at the piece of paper, to remember the day he lost one of the most important things of his life.

His sense of hearing...

There was an accident, ten years ago when he was still a little boy. Issei didn't remember anything about that accident, but it left some really horrible scars on his right arm and right shoulders and bad enough to cause him mentally damage, taking away his ability to freely interact with others as well as his sense of hearing and soon, a couple of years later he became mute as well. It was only natural that when you weren't able to hear what you say, you would become unsure and soon you would lose the ability to speak to.

Not many deaf people could talk with others and sadly, Issei felt into that category.

The only people that he was more or less comfortable around were his parent while the rest of the world was something unfamiliar to Issei now. Unsociable would be the right word to describe his condition, even if Issei was deaf and everyone at schools was very kind to him, his lack of courage to make friends and interact with others made him a loner all the time.

Putting on his uniform, which consisted of a black blazer with white accents over a white, long-sleeved button-down shirt with vertical linings, a black ribbon on the collar, matching black pants and brown dress shoes, Issei threw his bag onto his right shoulder before looking at himself in the mirror. Today was the first day of his second year at Kuoh Academy and Issei didn't think that he would be able to make most out of it like last year. After everyone, especially the girl found out that he was mute, they tried everything they could to help him and befriend with the poor boy but no matter how much they tried, Issei wasn't mentally strong enough to make friends just yet and tent to avoid any kind of sociable activities.

Leaving his room, Issei headed down to the kitchen where his mother was waiting for him, his father probably finished his own breakfast and went to work.

"Here you go!" His mother said, not that he could hear it but after she put his dishes onto the table, she made some sign language with her hands telling him that he could enjoy his breakfast.

Issei put his hand to his chin before bringing it away, making a sign of 'Thank you' to his mother with a smile on his face. Both of his parent learned sign language about the same time with Issei, in order to interact with their son. They just hoped that Issei could make some friends at school, because they knew that their love alone couldn't help him get through his 'unsociable-sickness'.

"Do you need me to come to school with you today, Ise-chan?" Midori Hyoudou asked while moving her hands in the air. She, along with her husband was professional in sign language now so she could communicate very easy with her son.

I will be fine mom, Issei shook his head and rapidly answered his mother before doing a thank you gesture once again.

"Okay then..." the brown haired woman smiled before dashing away to prepare a cup of fruit juice for her son, as he was slowly eating his dinner.

It didn't take long for him to finish his breakfast and left for Kuoh Academy on his bike. Kuoh Academy used to be an all-girls school but a couple of years ago it became a co-ed school and allowed male students to sign their name in. It was one of the best schools in Japan, located at the downtown of Kuoh Town. The Academy itself, rather than being a school for one certain level of education, it instead housed all grades from 1st-University separated by Elementary, Junior High, Senior High, and College divisions. As long as students was able to maintain a respectful grade average, they would never get themselves in trouble, something that Issei could live with and easily avoid with his more than good mark.

"ISE!" Though he couldn't hear their voice, Issei could see a group of Kuoh's school girls waved their hands while smiling warmly at him from the other side of the street. Issei could only smile nervously at them before increasing his footsteps toward school.

He got used to all those attentions everyone, especially the girls at Kuoh Academy ever since they heard about his condition and the traumatic accident he went through went he was younger. From what he knew about everyone's point of view about him from his parent, the girls viewed him as a poor little thing that needed protection and help while the boys, most of the time considered him a possible threat because of the attention he received from the opposite sex, but after awhile they all came to feel sad for him and tried to help Issei in everything they could.

Issei only hoped that he was brave enough to return their kindness, but after that accident, he no longer yearning for friends.

He always wondered what happened that day, all he knew was that the accident was bad enough to cause him both physically and mentally accident. The lost of his sense of hearing could be shoved by sign language, body language especially with hands but the scars on his right arm and shoulder would forever there and arched painfully every night.

"Oi Hyoudou!" Someone poked him on his shoulder, calling for his attention. The brunette turned around and saw Matsuda, with Motohama standing next to him. These two were the infamous Pervert-Duo with their respective Ero-nicknames at Kuoh Academy and also girls' worst enemies. They were guys who tried to befriend with Issei only because he got unwanted popularity with girls, which disgusted others but Issei paid no mind to it, it wasn't like he could protest when he wasn't able to speak with them anyway.

Issei took out a small board and a pen from his bag. Since Motohama and Matsuda never cared to learn the basic gestures in sign language to communicate with him, he couldn't use sign language. Issei's family never had enough money to buy him a cellphone with a speaker, something that could help him speak out his thoughts by typing the words into it so Issei had to do it the more traditional way.

Though the girls said it was really cute of him for doing so.

Hey guys!

He wrote on the board and turned it around to show them.

"Yeah," Motohama snorted before pushing the board out of the way and brought up a DVD box , featured perverts' biggest porno idol Momo Momozono. This wasn't the first time the Pervert Duo showed Issei these kinds of thing, as they claimed stuffs like this would help Issei improved his social skills "Check this out, I got the new episode of Kaben Rider Pinky right here, you want to watch it with us?"

I don't know what you are saying, sorry...but see you later in class.

He gave Motohama the board with a nervous smile before using the sleeve of his blazer to clean it and turned around, about to leave.

"Oi, don't..." Matsuda was about to reach his hand out to grab Issei when suddenly a girl with dark brown hair tied into a ponytail, wielding a bokken in her hands appeared and slashed the wooden sword down to the Pervert-baldy's arm rather violently, making him yelp out in pain and took it back.

"Oi! Get your filthy hand away from Ise!" Murayama, the leader of the Kendo Club said loudly, pointing her bokken at him with the rest of the Kendo Club standing by her side, with Kendo stick in their hands a rather pissed off expression on their face.

Issei, meanwhile completely unaware of the scene behind him continued walking to his classroom.

"Oi! What the hell are you doing Murayama?!" Motohama asked loudly "Can't you see that we're trying to help him with his lack of social skills?"

"With porn?" Katase asked with a dangerous glare "We will never allow some piece of trashes like you two corrupt him, Ise doesn't need friend like you." She then brought her Kendo stick up "Girls, punish them!" The rest of the Kendo Club cried out in unison and charged forward "This is for peeping on us and try to use Ise for your own gain, assholes!" with that, the Pervert-Duo received quite a beating from the girls of Kendo Club.

Hello!

Good morning!

How do you do?

Were the three very familiar lines that Issei wrote on his board whenever someone stopped by to greet him, always with a small smile on his face. Like what was mentioned before, everyone at school was very kind to him, even the teachers and staffs of Kuoh Academy. To him, a simple hand gesture of greeting like waving or a warm and kind smile was enough to make him forget about the arching scars on his shoulders, hidden underneath the uniform of Kuoh Academy.

Some even tried to learn sign language to interact with Issei, but most of the times he would still need to use the board for communication. No matter how much they tried to reach for him, Issei still felt alone and so different from them. That was why he always walked with his head hung low and eyes of sadness, so he wouldn't have to look at friends talking with each other like it was the simplest thing in the world.

Deep in thought, Issei didn't acknowledge much about his surrounding and accidentally bumped into someone when that person was walking down to the stair. As he didn't prepare for it, the board and pen was knocked away from his hands and dropped down to the ground.

Out of instinct, Issei made a sorry gesture by drawing a circle on his chest with his knuckle and kneeled down to pick up his things. But before he could grab his pen that person that he bumped into kneeled down in front of him as well and reached their slender arm out and picked up the small object. From the first glance, Issei was sure that it was a girl.

Issei took the pen from her hand and hurriedly wrote down the 'thank you' words on his board and showed it to her. But as soon as the board was brought out it lowered a little when Issei realized that in front of him, the girl he bumped into was none other than the most beautiful girl of Kuoh Academy, Rias Gremory. She was wearing a gentle smile on her face while looking at him with her big and warm blue-green eyes.

Rias was a young woman who appeared to be in her late teens with light skin, blue-green eyes and a buxom figure. Her most distinctive feature, also Issei's most memorized thing about Rias was her long, crimson red thigh-length hair, with a single hair strand sticking out from the top. Her hair also had loose bangs covering her forehead and side bangs framing her face.

She was wearing the Kuoh Academy girls' school uniform, which consists of a white long-sleeved, button-down shirt, with a black ribbon on her shirt collar worn under a black shoulder cape and a matching button-down corset, a magenta skirt with white accents, and brown dress shoes over white crew-length socks.

His lack of confident immediately kicked in, especially in front of a beautiful girl like Rias. Issei quickly stood up and bowed his head to her before walking away without noticing that Rias was wearing a sympathy smile.

Rias Gremory was a third year student of Kuoh Academy, and secretly she was Issei's biggest crush. His feeling for the crimson haired young woman developed the moment he saw her when he first arrived at Kuoh but it wasn't like he got any chance with a girl like that.

She was beautiful, smart and got a bright future while he was nothing but a deaf boy with mental problem.

Simple and quiet, those were the two words that could describe his life the best.

Even if people always tried to be nice to him Issei still felt so alone, so different from them.

There was nothing special about him.

And after all, not that he could hear anything from the world around him.