Whenever I started reading fanfics about people who kicked the bucket and met some god or got a system that offered to reincarnate them in any world, even ones they knew from anime, manga, movies, or books, I always smirked at the part where they debated which world to choose.
These guys would pick One Piece, DxD, Bleach, Naruto, Fairy Tail, Rosario + Vampire, High School of the Dead, or some other world where things are totally screwed!
And it's not just that they choose SUCH fun worlds, but they also insert themselves as main characters or right next to them, and they absolutely have to dive headfirst into canon!
But whatever, what really got me was their reasoning for why they'd jump into worlds like that—the logic just didn't add up!
Because the main reason, well, or one of the main reasons was—the heroines!
No, I get it, in all these anime the main heroines are just amazing... but excuse me, jumping into a world where crazy crap is going down and the apocalypse is just around the corner all because of some boobs is just ridiculously illogical!
You want boobs and a harem? Pick any hentai!
There you'll have boobs, pussies, asses, and a harem, everything without any struggling or the threat that if you don't overcome some Universal Evil or squash too many butterflies, the freaking apocalypse will happen!
No, I get that it's the hook for a fanfic... but seriously, if you use logic and put yourself in the MC's shoes and REALLY imagine you have THAT choice... can anyone in their right mind and sober memory make that choice?!
If I had a choice, I definitely wouldn't pick anything like that... probably wouldn't even take a hentai world because I'm not that horny to be screwing half the day every day.
I'd choose some slice-of-life romance with emphasis on the slice-of-life part, and no mystical stuff!
Like, for example, "My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU."
You could even insert yourself as the main character there, since he's got tons of options where any person transported there could choose whichever appeals to them most.
And that's just regarding relationships!
Otherwise, the world is quiet and peaceful, no Universal Evil to overcome, no apocalypse or zombie outbreak looming on the horizon, no need to become king of the pirates, and no need to save harem candidates from disasters where you have to overcome brutal enemies.
But I didn't have a choice, I didn't even get a dialogue or monologue with some higher being or system messages!
I was just dragged into all this future crap!
And it wasn't some GOD or similar high-caliber entity that dragged me in, it was a mid-tier fallen angel!
And yeah, that already hints at where I ended up—High School DxD, a world where everything revolves around boobs!
Because they're so huge there that they have their own gravitational field that attracts problems!
And the bigger the boobs, the more problems whoever's chasing after their owner will have!
Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating about the boobs, but not by much.
After all, we all remember the main character there, his harem, and just HOW MANY problems landed on his head because of boobs!
Getting back to my transportation and my place in this messed-up world.
My current name is Ren Gremory, I'm the younger brother of Rias Gremory and Sirzechs Lucifer... half-brother!
Meaning we share the same dad, but different mothers!
And Ren's mother... yeah, I separate myself from him... isn't even Zeoticus Gremory's side piece or part of his harem... by the way, Rias's dad does have a harem, but his wife keeps both the harem and Zeoticus himself on a tight leash... she's just a maid!
The story of Ren's conception is simple and mundane—Zeoticus Gremory learned from his wife that he'd soon be a dad again, and remembering their previous joint effort, he was thrilled and got wasted celebrating!
Well, since his wife cut him off physically—can't risk anything happening to the baby, God forbid—and cut him off from the harem too... apparently following the logic of—if I'm not getting any sex, then you shouldn't get to enjoy life either!
...Zeoticus didn't think long before lifting the skirt of a young maid, one of the reincarnated ones at that.
And that's just Murphy's Law for you—the one time Zeoticus wasn't trying, after firing blanks for a few hundred years since Sirzechs, his luck decided to overcompensate and he'd built up enough "powder in his powder keg" to score twice!
It's not like there weren't other bastards or "younger" children, there were, but those were at least from the officially WIFE-approved harem, whereas this was a clear screw-up they decided to sweep under the rug so it wouldn't irritate the WIFE.
So everything would've been fine, Ren could've lived with his mother in a remote corner of Gremory territory and not known any troubles.
But unluckily for him, the kid turned out to be pretty talented in magic, with a pretty good reserve of demonic-magical power, above average among purebloods his age, plus he had distinct Gremory features.
I don't know what got into Zeoticus's head, but he decided to bring his bastard back to the main house and raise him together with Rias, who was only a month apart from Ren in age.
But apparently this REALLY didn't sit well with his wife, so on the way there, the carriage, which had no guards at all, was attacked by fallen angels!
I'm one hundred percent sure this was a scheme and attempt by Venelana Gremory to get rid of her husband's "bastard"!
The fallen angel talked about it with his accomplices.
No, obviously she didn't personally reach out to them and order a hit on her husband's bastard and his mother, but the fallen angels checked out the client, did some investigating, and traced it back to her.
But they didn't refuse—they were happy to kill some demons, and if they could also profit from demons for it, that's even better.
But they didn't just kill Ren and his mother, and no, no torture or rape, just an experiment!
One of this group considered himself a genius on Azazel's level, maybe even better... quite possibly it wasn't just bragging.
He came up with a power-up ritual, a complex one!
It involved having someone stronger absorb the power and soul of someone weaker and gain not just their power, but a qualitative power boost!
Plus, he wanted to grant the subject a Sacred Gear without diluting their blood or without side effects from transplanting a sacred gear extracted from a human.