A/N: Hello everyone! Before we start with the story just a few things from me:

I know my English isn't perfect, but I hope you still will find story enjoyable. If you find some major mistakes or something doesn't make sense let me know.

I don't have the whole story planned, more like I have ideas about different scenes and the glimpse on where I want to go with it and I'm just gonna try to put it all together. If you have the idea of something to add, change etc. let me know.

I plan on staying in pure DxD universe, no imports from different anime/manga/LN but… I have one OC and OOC planned. Much later. And I don't know if I am able to write others characters properly…

With that said: on with the show!

Disclaimer – I don't own anything from the High School DxD anime/manga/LN

"Taking"

'Thinking or Issei talking with Ddraig'

Ddraig 'thinking or talking with Issei' "talking aloud"

(first two parts are in the first person, but it didn't work for me so the rest is in 3rd person past tense, maybe I'll rewrite it at some point)

-Issei's pov-

After school, I, Asia and Kiba, whom we met on our way, came to the club room. I open the door without any concerns not caring for a troubled look on Kiba's face.

Inside the room are Buchou, Akeno-san, Koneko-chan, and—. The silver-haired maid Grayfia-san! She sure does act calm.

Buchou has a very unpleasant face. Akeno-san is smiling like usual, but she has a cold vibe.

Koneko-chan is sitting on a chair in the corner quietly. It seems like she doesn't want to get involved with others much as possible.

The room has a tense atmosphere where no one is talking.

Asia is also feeling uneasy so she holds onto my sleeve with an uneasy face. I pat on her head to comfort her and to make her feel safe.

Buchou speaks after looking at each of us.

"Looks like everyone is here. Before we start the club, there's something I need to tell all of you."

"Ojou-sama, do you want me to explain the situation?"

Buchou rejects Grayfia-san's offer by waving her hand.

"The truth is—"

It happens exactly when Buchou speaks. The magic circle on the floor glows.

The symbol of the Gremory drawn on the magic-circle changes into an unfamiliar pattern.

—! What is this!? Isn't this the Gremory's magic-circle?

"—Dragan"

That's what Kiba who is close to me says. Dragan? T-Then it isn't a Gremory!

The light shines through the room and a person appears from the magic-circle.

FLAME!

Flames come out from the magic-circle, and the room gets flowed with heat. Hot! Sparks are burning my skin.

There is a silhouette of a man inside the flames. When he swings his arm across to the side, the flames disappear.

"Fuu, it's been a while since I came to the human's world."

The one standing there is a man with brown hair wearing a red jacket with golden spikes on shoulders and black shirt opened till his chest. He has a necklace with some sort of fang laying on his bare skin undershirt but still visible. He wears black pants with an image of a white eastern dragon around his leg and matching black boots. He looks like he's in his early 20's.

The guy looks around the room and then smirks after finding Buchou.

"My lovely Rias. I came to see you."

Buchou is looking at him with her eyes half closed. It doesn't seem like she is welcoming this guy. But the guy doesn't seem to care and approaches Buchou.

"Now then, Rias. Let's go and take a look at the ceremony hall. The date of the ceremony is decided so we need to check it before then."

What a frivolous guy… From which household is this Devil from? Kiba said Dragan earlier…

The guy grabs Buchou's arm. W-What a rude guy!

"…Let go of me, Issei! I told you before, I will not marry you!"

I woke up heavily breathing and sweating and almost jump out of the bed. After a brief look around the room, my brain connected back to reality and I realize something:

"It was a nightmare, just a bad dream…" I whisper to myself trying to calm down "Yeah, that it was… I'm nothing like Riser."

I laid back down on my bed but my thoughts kept going back to that awful dream. As more I thought about it I was less and less able to deny similarities I saw between us but there were still big differences.

'Yeah, I'm nothing like Riser. He is a powerful high-class devil who has harem while I? I am just weak low-class teenager with delusional dream… No, I am not Riser I am just pathetic excuse of him…. No! I refuse to accept it, he is an asshole who treat women like objects, toys and I… I…' memories of my behavior came to me: ogling women, peeping on kendo club, talking about their looks and sizes, screaming about my dream to become Harem King 'I am not better than him… I am same or worse in every possible way. I'm weak lecherous teenager… I'm just pathetic...'

'That you are partner' said a deep voice which I didn't recognize

"What, who is that?" I said looking around room to find no one present

'I am a Heavenly Dragon, the Red Dragon Emperor, although I guess since we are going to be together for at least a bit longer I can tell you that my name is Ddraig. I am spirit inside your Sacred Gear, nice to meet you, partner'

"Uhhh, nice to meet you too? But where are you? I can hear you, but I can't see you"

'*sigh* What part of spirit inside Sacred Gear you didn't understand? I live inside your soul, or more technically inside your left hand' sighed dragon but it was more like hurricane than sigh to me

'Ohhh, so I was talking aloud to no one. Can you show yourself or something, it feels weird talking to you but not seeing you?'

'Sure, I was going to show myself in your dream anyway but you woke up before I got the chance, thankfully connection was strong enough to contact you now. Just close your eyes.'

I did what I was told being skeptical how closing my eyes will help me see something but as soon as I did I saw inferno of dark red flames and a figure rose from the flames until a large red Western Dragon with red eyes and golden spikes through his body was revealed.

'Wow… I just, wow…' sound of dragon chuckling snap me back to reality

'Hmm, you are a devil? That's the first time my host is one of this Evil Pieces, I wonder how it will affect your growth…'

'Yes, I am a devil, a Pawn more specific. Umm Ddraig? When you agreed I'm pathetic… you really meant it? I am that bad?'

'You are my weakest host in history and it says much as one of my previous host couldn't walk. While you are devil there were humans I met stronger than you, so yeah. You are pathetic. But don't worry, even as my weakest host you have potential to become force whole world needs to reckon with' said dragon sounding rather smug.

'But not in ten, no, nine days left to Rating Game against this burned yakitori, right?' After awakening spirit inside Boosted Gear I got a boost to my morale, pun intended, but after Ddraig words? Not so much happy mood anymore.

'...'

'I'll take that silence as a yes' I started to get depressed.…

'It is simply impossible to get stronger in such short time by training alone. Maybe if you were training under powerful dragon for two weeks you would come close to level required to beat phenex so-called immortality but nine days of regular training won't do the job'

'So we are going to lose and buchou is going to marry that asshole and there is nothing I can do to change that. Is that what are you telling me? Damn, there has to be something I can do, I refuse to give up. Ddraig, please, tell me there is something magic you can do to help… please…' I was almost crying, I felt hopeless and even more pathetic than before. But my answer was just silence

'Ddraig?'

'Yeah, I'm here. There is one thing to make you stronger in such short time, but it comes with a sacrifice that may ch…'

'YES! I'll do it, just tell me what to do' I shouted inside my mind

'Very well, you can sacrifice part of your body to me. I will change it to dragon equivalent in exchange for power. It will obviously make you more dragon than you already are but once it's done, you cannot go reverse it and change it back to human, or devil for that matter.'

'Oh… Sacrifice my bodyyyy… Wait for a second, more dragon than I am? Am I dragon?!' I shouted inside my mind again after I fully processed Ddraig words

'Part dragon, very small part. It comes from possessing Boosted Gear, it makes you vulnerable to dragon-slaying weapons but more resistant to magic. And it would make you stronger and faster than other humans IF you would train your body'

'Geez, I'm weak I get it, no need to say it over and over again. Let's go back to me getting stronger, all right? When you said you can change my body part to dragon you mean like scales, spikes, and claws?'

'Yes' was dragon's simple answer.

'Hmm, I can't go back to the human world with something like that… And what about internal organs? Can you change those instead?' I asked looking for a way to both get stronger and remain as human, or human looking devil, as possible.

'Of course, I can but I suggest against it. It would affect your body quicker and in bigger scale and effects may be unpleasant. It's a coin toss really: either your body would adapt and you become a dragon for the most part in time or your body would reject those organs or simply wouldn't adapt fast enough and you may die, slowly and painfully.'

'I see' was all I said. I was thinking about my options and I saw three: sacrifice my hand and chance to pretend to be a normal human, sacrifice my heart and hope that I live long enough to win or don't sacrifice anything and just keep training… and probably lose. None of those seemed appealing to me, but then it hit me.

'Ddraig, what about my wings? Maybe you can change them? I can hide them and they seem to be more like my arm than heart so it appears it would solve both problems.'

There was moment of silence before dragon responded

'I don't know honestly. I told you, you are my first host to become devil so I don't know much about them. I can't say if changing your wing will be closer to changing your limb or internal organ… or something entirely different.'

'Nah, they just like my arm, except I can't really use them. It will be just fine' I said feeling relieved and optimistic again 'Anything else I should know before we make a deal?'

'*sigh* If you say so, partner… If everything goes according to plan after I change your wings to dragon equivalent you should feel stronger and faster. You will be more affected by dragon-slaying weapons but you will also gain more magic resistance. In time this effect will become stronger as your body reacts to dragon energy flowing through your body. Then again, none of my hosts was devil before so it may affect you differently and none of my previous hosts lived longer than 80 years after such transformation so I don't know long term effects. Other than that you should be same as now. While the times comes I will grant you my power to defeat your opponent. Oh, and you will gain strong affinity with one element, most likely fire as I am fire dragon, but you may be a different type of dragon.'

'Great, everything sounds perfect! What should I do now?' I asked dragon, not affected by his skepticism

'Very well, say these words then.' said the voice.

"I Issei Hyoudou, the carrier of the Red Dragon Emperor, pledge my devil wings to the Heavenly Dragon. I who will walk the path of righteousness and protect those close to me and crush those who oppose me. Awaken Boosted Gear!" I chanted aloud. After that, I felt the enormous pain coming from my whole body. I opened my mouth trying to scream but no sound escaped them as I fell unconscious.

It was early in the morning, the sun's first rays just peeked over the horizon brightening the darkness around the mansion when brown haired devil slowly opened his eyes. With confusion clearly painted on his face he looked around looking for an answer to the unspoken question and then memories of last night and his deal with Ddraig hit him like a rushed train. His expression morphed into terrified one and he quickly sat down on the bed and started checking his body for any changes while he screamed inside his thoughts:

'Ddraig! Are you there? What the hell happened?'

'Yes, I'm here partner. I don't want to say I told you so but your wings are, or should I say were, more than just another limb. They seemed to be the manifestation of your demonic powers or embodiment of your devil side and changing them into dragon wings affected you differently to what I saw with any of my previous hosts. I am unable to even describe those effects since I don't fully understand what happened, but what I can say is…'

'Ddraig… am I dying?' Issei interrupted dragon in trembling voice

'No, you are not dying, but as I was saying…' responded dragon clearly irritated

'Great! If I am not dying then we should focus on training for the Rating Game and worry about the details later' all traces of fear disappeared from devil's expression replaced by small smile and determined fire in his eyes

'Details? DETAILS?!' Ddraig shouted furiously making poor boy jump back, the previous expression coming back to his face 'You interfered with the very core of your being! There's no way of saying how badly it may have ended, you might have died, you might have ended up in a coma or you might have lost everything that makes you a person and become nothing but an empty shell! You are lucky that you are alive and well, we still don't know what are consequences of that change and you dare to call it details?!'

'But I am fine, nothing bad happened. I promise, after the game, I'll find someone who may know more about my situation and focus purely on my well-being, but right now I have to focus on getting stronger, strong enough to beat that yakitori and save buchou. I need to train hard, harder than ever in my life and it is only thing important for me at the moment.' Issei tried to calm the dragon but in response, he heard only a vulgar mumbling about his mental health and messed up priorities, yet he somewhat succeeded as after a while dragon stop mumbling and sighed.

'Fine, I won't argue with you about your own health, go train or do whatever else you want while I will try to find more about this situation and its effects. Just a heads up: you may not be able to contact me in near future as I will be deep inside your soul looking for answers. Farewell, partner '

After that, the metaphorical line between them went silent and Issei sighed while standing up from the bed.

'I really, really hope that it all will end up well and we will laugh about that whole ordeal sitting by the fireplace watching over my grandchildren. *sigh* Not the time to be lost in dreams and fantasies, like I told Ddraig I have to train. But first…' he ended with the grin over his face and spread his new wings. Instead of bat-like devil wings, he had previously he saw two, meter long, scaled wings on his back. The wings which had two large spines at the top and were split into three sections were also red in color. While they were bigger and heavier than his devil wings they felt more natural to him like he always had them, just like, ironically considering the topic of the previous conversation, his another limb. He waved his wings few times grinning like a madman and decided to try to actually fly. It kind of worked, as he hovers above the floor for few moments before crashing into the wall, but it didn't stop him from smiling.

'They are beautiful and they work! I can fly!' Issei danced happily around the room 'But, seeing how Ddraig reacted, I shouldn't mention anything about this to anyone. There is no need to worry them…' he immediately stopped as he thought about what dragon said. After few moments he shook his head to clear his thoughts and go to the bathroom to prepare himself for the day. Issei quickly got ready, dressed in his workout clothes and left his room heading towards main room of the mansion only to find it completely empty.

'Huh, it seems everyone still asleep. Should I prepare breakfast for them or…' Issei wondered looking between the kitchen door and one to the outside. 'Nah, I'm sure buchou, Akeno-san, and Asia can make better meal faster than I could, no need to waste time' with that brunet left the house and started to warm up for training.

A/N: And done with first chapter, next one training summary, Rating Game and maybe more. Let me know what you think so far.

Oh, and kudos to SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan whose "Heart of a Dragon" was a big inspiration to me (and I may stole his chant to dragon…). If you somehow didn't read his story you really should: it is great.

Till the next time