Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.

Arrival Arc – Awake and Alive

Darkness and numbness.

That is what first came to my mind. All my body felt like a hand that's been sat on for far too long and at the same time there was no energy in it, as if I had run to the point of exhaustion… a couple of times. Just trying to open my eyes was like trying to push a car up hill.

The most I managed was to get a tiny little bit of light an-

"-t wake up… loss… stray…" A voice interrupted everything that could be on my mind. Seemed to be male, couldn't distinguish much more than that and a word here and there that didn't connect with anything.

"-wait… attacks… stopping…" Female this time, I tried to get more information, but my hearing seemed to turn on and off on its own. Until everything went black and my ears stopped working altogether.

The next time I was conscious or semi-conscious there were no voices. The only way I know I was awake (or dreaming for all I knew) was because I heard rain and wind against a window. Still couldn't move more than a tiny little shake of my fingers and letting a little light pass through my eyelids.

Don't know how much I was like that, could be a couple of minutes or hours. Difficult to tell when you barely feel anything. I think I felt something pressing on my left side, maybe, who knows. And I passed out again.

I woke up again. I could feel my body, that's good. Tried to open my eyes, almost blinded myself with the sudden light, not as good, but that meant my eyes work somehow. I'm starting to function again, I guess. Bit by bit I started to move my body, just trying to get it used to… well, not lying on the bed all the time. 'Oh, I was in a bed, good to know, don't want to know how I would feel if it was the ground.'

My eyes started to get used to do their job again. Wooden roof, what little I see of wall is a pale gray, almost white. I got to turn to the sides with effort, not being able to move was getting annoying real fast.

I was in a queen size bed. There is a night table on each side with arm lamps pointing at the bed. There seems to be a painting or picture on the wall above the bed, all I get to see from where I am is tones of red. A drawer in front of the bed. A window on my left side and a door on the right corner in front of me.

I let myself fall flat on the bed again.

'Where the hell am I? Last I remember I was in-'

There's where I started to panic. I didn't remember where I came from. No address, no city or town name, no phone number.

'… What's my name?'

My mind went blank after that thought. I didn't remember anything. In a way at least, I remembered a lot of things, just not personal things. I knew what things were, but I didn't remember seen them, how to talk but I didn't remember ever talking or hearing someone talk. I didn't know how old I was, when I was born, or what the date was supposed to be.

The furthest I remember is-

"Looks like someone decided to wake up." That voice, the male one. "I wouldn't try to move too much, your wounds healed but the blood doesn't recover as fast. I'll bring some water." 'Thanks, whoever you are, thanks.' I hadn't even noticed that my throat feels like I tried to drink sand.

After a minute he came back, he's wearing a red suit with a tie. Short black hair combed backwards and round glasses over his eyes. 'Red eyes', I saw when he got close to help me drink from the glass. Oh my, that felt like I was drinking the nectar of the gods. 'I don't think I will say water is too plain anytime soon.'

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions," He says in a polite tone. 'You have no idea.' "But I would suggest resting for the time being until you can at least sit to have a conversation." 'That's… a pretty good point.' "I'll leave you to it, maybe next time you'll be able to eat something, that would help." 'Certainly.'

And with that he left. And I let my eyes close and my mind wander. At first, I tried to remember things. But in the end, I didn't find anything, just information but nothing else, it was like my mind had the colors but didn't have any pictures made with them. But before I could get frustrated or angry, I fell asleep again. Didn't even realize I exhausted myself doing that little bit of activity.

The next time I could move better. I lifted my hand in front of my eyes.

'Pale white skin, probably because of the blood loss' Didn't even know how to feel about not knowing what my natural skin color was.

I managed to sit up with a bit of effort. On the floor there was a cream-colored carpet, I noticed. Another glass of water and a book on the night table. There was a door on the front wall on the left that I hadn't seen before.

'He moved through the other door, so I guess a bathroom?' And I hoped it was because I had to go, and urgently. Couldn't even remember the last time walking to the bathroom was so trying. I didn't even manage to quirk my lips at how accurate that was.

Entering the bathroom, I saw the sink on my right, a bath on my left and a shower further in, a door to a balcony in the middle of both. The toilet was next to the sink. After being done I looked through the glass door that led outside.

I was in the second floor, after a little clearing there was nothing but forest until it ended in a mountain in the horizon. That's were my legs started complaining and trembling. I dragged myself to the bed again.

Bless whoever left the water. I sat on the bed and took the book. Didn't feel like going back to sleep and there was nothing else to do so…

I guess you could say it was a history book. The thing is it was the history of a place called Underworld that was inhabited mostly by devils and fallen angels. Yeah, strange. But hey, who am I to critique fiction these days, whenever 'these days' is.

It was interesting I will admit, if a bit odd sometimes. I was somewhere in the middle of the second chapter when the man came to see me again.

"Awake again I see." I just nodded, if I had to guess my throat would have hurt like hell if I tried to talk. "And still a bit early to talk, I guess. Never mind, I'll bring something for you to eat and another glass of water." And as he came, he left. Not that I minded, I was starving.

I continued my reading and after a while he came back with a tray. Soup and a glass of water. 'Anything is good right now.'

"I'm glad you took to read that book; I'll just say that I will be useful in the near future." I just looked at him, he said that like someone says a book about math will be useful. Then I looked at the book, a book about Hell basically. I looked back at him and raised an eyebrow. "You'll understand soon enough."

'Please don't tell me I ended up in a sect or something like that.' I thought once he left the room.

After eating I didn't know what to do

The book didn't seem nearly as good to read now as it did before. But I ended up reading anyway. I didn't want to risk not knowing something when the time to talk with this people came. Reading the book 'could' be useful, and I had nothing better to do.

And that's how I spent the time. Night came after a couple of hours and I was just finishing the fifth chapter. As I said, it was interesting. But what the man had said was still bothering me.

Before I could start the next chapter, he came back with another tray. Soup, again. He just looked at me, at the book, and then left with the tray of the previous meal. But not before I could nod thanks for the food. At least I wanted to be polite, you never know when that can save you. Especially when you don't have any idea about anything that's happening, as was my case.

After eating I read another chapter and went to sleep.

It took me two days more to finish the book, and I was getting an idea of what happened. And let me tell you, it didn't make me feel any better. Not in the least.

I signaled the man, Dovray, he had said his name was, that I had finished it. He came back with another one, this time about Evil Pieces and the Rating Games. Yeah… real subtle. But in my opinion, it was better that way. I could get my head around things better reading than hearing it.

While doing this I was starting a little plan you could say. And it was about keeping my mouth shut. They would come talk to me about these things, they had to sooner or later. And when the time came, I would play the mute. I was guessing that if I didn't talk at all they would have to talk more.

So that's what I had. Lame plan? Well excuse me for being an idiot.

After that book came one that you could call 'introduction to the supernatural'. It had a bit of information about a lot of mythologies and the like. From Angels to Valkyries to some intelligent creatures like the Sphinx.

After finishing that one I went back to the previous ones to read up what I thought was important again. For example, the reincarnating system, the characteristics of each piece, etc. Back in the history bock I read again the parts about sacred gears, family magics of devils, etc.

"I'm guessing you are done reading?"

I glanced up from the books to see Dovray on the door. I just nodded. 'Let's get this over with.'

He nodded back and left. After a few moments he came back with a girl. She had long blonde hair, with a hint of green. Speckles over dark pink eyes, and an emotionless mask on her face. Her gaze felt like it could freeze me anytime. She was wearing the clothes a noblewoman with a short skirt and high boots. Furthermore, her breasts seemed to have a gravity of their own to attract my ey-

Almost hitting myself in the face I decided to keep my eyes on hers, even if I felt like I would freeze any moment.

"I hope I don't have to explain a lot, considering what you have read." She said, with a tone as cold as her gaze. I just kept my eyes on hers without saying anything. Because really, what was I supposed to say to that? "Then I won't waste time, as you might have guessed, you are part of my peerage" 'Yeah, figures' "more specifically, my Queen."

I had to take a second to reboot my brain. Did she just say…

I looked at her incredulously with a raised eyebrow.

"Now I'm guessing you want to know why I would use such an important piece with such an important role on someone I don't know," I just nodded slowly, still trying to process what she said. "Simple, if I wanted to use any other piece to reincarnate you, I would have to reach a value of six."

That means either two knights, two bishops, two rooks or six pawns aside from the queen, so…

"And I would prefer not to lose the number advantage, while having someone so powerful that you would have to use eight pawns for example sounds great, I think it's a waste. True those people would be great from the start, yes, but let's say I get eight people with eight pawns and train hard enough, then it wouldn't be surprising if they could beat the eight-pawn person without much effort would it."

I think about it for a bit, what she says makes sense. But still, for any other case I wouldn't even be thinking about it. However, this was the Queen piece, the most important aside from the King, the most powerful, most versatile, and the right hand of the King. In a way that person was a second King.

That's why I still-

"And while that is mostly why I did what I did I have other reasons that you may come to know in the future." 'Hmm, so there's more, I guess it's like she says, I'll know when I have to.'

Now, some may be thinking 'What the hell is wrong with you, you are a slave, you are trapped with this cold faced bitch' and blah blah blah. But think about it. What can I do? Become a stray? Nah, no way I am going out there on my own to be hunted.

'I'll take my chances, if it turns out awful then… I'll cross that bridge when I get there.'

Others may think that something must be wrong with me take it so well to not being human anymore. But that's quite an easy thing to do when you don't remember being human in the first place. The only way that I know that I was human is that all this information was not in the things that were already in my head. That or I could be another species that was raised as human, but that's not here nor there.

"You already know my only bishop as of now, Dovray Demiurge" She said pointing at him, "You'll get to know my rook when you are capable of walking by yourself, and I'm your King, Seekvaira Agares."

I half-bowed from where I was in the bed at the introduction. 'Agares, I'll have to look it up in the book later.'

"I'll leave for now, I'm sure you need some time to process everything." And with that she left, Dovray following right behind her.

'I'm more into this shit than I thought, and that is saying something. I almost think I would prefer the sect…'

The next day came soon enough. The sun hadn't even raised yet. I walked to the drawer and got a set of clothes. A dark green shirt with black jeans and black sneakers. With that I went to the bathroom brushed my teeth and showered. While drying myself I looked at the mirror.

I don't have to tell you how strange it was the first time. Looking at yourself like you would a stranger. I had short black hair that I left messy if a bit flattened to not look like I just woke up. I had green eyes and my skin seemed to be almost completely white by default.

Once I was done, I left the bedroom for the first time. And I realized how lazy I sounded but hey, I had to inform myself. It's not that the books were amazing. Not at all. Shut up.

The sun was starting to rise so I got a somewhat clear view of everything, besides the night vision thanks to being a devil. The hall was much the same style as the room. There where a couple more doors on it but with all closed, I wasn't one to go around opening them at random. I wouldn't want to test Seekvaira's proficiency in Ice magic and see if her glare can literally freeze someone.

I reached the stairs at the end of the hall and went down. I found myself in a big sitting room, the walls were almost entirely made of windows, safe a wooden column here and there, so you could see the forest outside in all it's glory. A beige corner sofa sat opposite to the walls with a coffee table in front of it.

Some books were on the table, some about magic that I'm quite sure were out of my league and a couple of sacred gear encyclopedias. The last ones got my attention, one was an introduction with what was known of the sacred gear system and the more known ones, such as the Longinus. The others seemed to be from a series of books that detailed every sacred gear known and what they did.

I guess they had been informing themselves so that they would know what I had. If they didn't know me before. What I would not know considering my lack of memories. But on the other hand, they had introduced themselves without problem or with me asking. So, I guess they didn't know me.

Which brought me to one of the things I couldn't get my head around. I was Seekvaira's Queen. I went over what that entailed and confirmed that a Queen is the second-in-command on the peerage. He or she is always there for the King, always present to help with anything, always taking part on decisions and accompanying the King.

Seekvaira didn't look like the stupid or impulsive type. So, the only guess I have is that she needs a strong peerage, no matter what. For what purpose I don't know, but it's the only thing that made sense. She needed both, quality and quantity for whatever her reasons where. And to get that she made a gamble. She reincarnated me with her queen in order to not lower her numbers using several of her other pieces.

But with that came another thought. My value was six. I did feel powerful but that was most likely due to the Queen piece in and on itself. I may have big reserves for magic, that could be it, it's not like I know how to feel that. Or I could have a really high-tier sacred gear or even a good mid-tier. Or maybe Seekvaira was not that strong so the pieces held less value. That was an option and an explanation as to why she needed a good peerage.

My train of thought was interrupted by Dovray coming in from the hall in the first floor, 'I guess his bedroom is downstairs'. If he was surprised to see me sitting on the sofa with the introductory book on sacred gears in my hands, he didn't show it.

"Good morning." I nodded at him, acknowledging his salute. "I guess you will have breakfast with us today, good to know." And after that he left to where I guess the kitchen is.

I continued my reading for a while more until I heard another set of steps, this time coming from the stairs. I looked up to see my King coming down. The only sign that she saw me was a brief nod in my direction and she left to where Dovray went.

Marking the book to continue my reading later I left after them and found myself in the dining room. There wasn't much on it, a big window on the right side and a table big enough to fit maybe two whole peerages, which I guess was the idea maybe.

Sitting on the head of the table was Seekvaira. I walked over in her direction and sat on her right, as a Queen would do. I hoped that would show her that I acknowledged the situation I was in.

With a nod in my direction she started to talk.

"I'm guessing you must have a lot of questions, feel free to ask them." The only thing she got was silence and my eyes on hers. "I see." She probably didn't, but she had two options to talk or not to talk, she chose the first. "Very well, I'll start with informing you that we are in a very secluded place right know. It's positioned right in the middle of the territory my family owns in the US. It covers a couple of towns in each direction but there's not much supernatural activity on neither of them. That's why the territory is big compared to those of other devils that may be as small as a single town, that's because those places have a greater concentration of supernatural activity." I nodded, all made sense so far. Dovray came and set the table.

I looked at the three plates on the table, and then at Seekvaira with a raised eyebrow, 'Didn't she say that she had a rook too?'.

"You'll meet my rook after eating," Was all she said to my unasked question. I shrugged and waited for her to continue. "As you may or may not have guessed I need a strong peerage for the future, hence your position as my Queen. I intend to have a full peerage of sixteen people."

I hummed, that was certainly ambitious, getting said peerage was another story. And I'm not sure how smart she was if my reincarnation was anything to go by.

"Aside for the power that a peerage like that would give me with enough strength in its members there's another reason for my goal." I tilted my head telling her to continue. "With enough accomplishments on my name I'll be able to maintain my freedom."

Now that got my attention, she was from a noble family. How was it that her freedom was at risk?

"As you may know the number of noble families that survived the war was low. To keep said families alive some of them have been forced to arrange marriages between heirs."

'Oh, I get where you are going. And I don't like it at all.'

"The Gremory heiress of my generation is object of one such arrangement. I on the other hand got a chance to have a say, at least for now. In two years, there will be a meeting between important heirs of this generation. After that meeting there will be a competition of sorts between said heirs and their peerages. If me and my peerage do well enough during that I will be able to escape a forced marriage for good."

I looked at my plate. Dovray had come during the explanation and set the food for us while taking the seat in front of me. That made sense. She needed to get a strong peerage for this competition.

Two years.

That's when it struck me. She had two years and a peerage with just a bishop and a rook. Two years sounded like a lot of time. But thinking about it, two years to get a group of 13 people to be loyal, not to mention strong, to participate in a competition that decides if you are free or not.

She was getting desperate. That's why she used her Queen on me. I guess her last resort would probably be starting to reincarnate normal people with her pawns. I didn't like that plan at all. But in her situation, no matter how smart she looked, she could, and probably would, do something rash if she had no other option.

I started eating with looking at them while thinking about what my foreseeable future was. This competition would probably be Rating Games of some sort. We would have to be stronger, I don't know their strength level, but if mine is anything to go by then we really needed training.

Maybe I had Main Character syndrome, because I didn't feel like letting this girl get wrapped up in an arranged marriage that she seemed to hate the sole idea of. If this is a story, I just hope it's one with a happy ending.

And if I was going to be part of this peerage, as the Queen nonetheless, then I needed to communicate. They had given me a lot of information. Hell, Seekvaira had probably told me one of the most important things for her, something that she probably wasn't telling everyone she came across.

No matter that I was her Queen, I was still a stranger for them, for all they knew I could go stray at a moment's notice. But they wanted, no, needed me to trust them. And as far as I could tell, I could give them a chance, not like there was somewhere I could go, that I remembered that is. So, unless I suddenly got my memories back or they proved that they didn't deserve my trust, I could give it to them to some extent.

I had been thinking what I would call myself if my memories didn't come back. I had the information of a book in my head, one about a boy that found himself part of a secret world underground from one day to the other. Seemed fitting.

"Seth." All sound on the table stopped and they turned to face me. "You can call me Seth, nice to meet you."

Author Note: I'm new to this writing thing, so any mistakes you think I made feel free to point them out. Also I'm not even near the point of knowing this story to the smallest detail, so if you think I don't follow cannon point it and I'll change it if it's not an intentional thing.