Duality (DxD) (Part 1)

Ch 1 - Scared And Naive

Most people have good memories. Even those who are on the brink of taking their own life have good memories. When the brink of death comes near, naturally, early or by their own hand. They see those good memories. Their life flashing before their eyes. Maybe when its a slow death, that flash of those good memories are supposed to keep you awake, spur you to fight for the life you're slowly losing. When it shows bad memories, that's the regret you're supposed to try and correct.

Right now, someone's life was flashing before his eyes. A very short life compared to many. Only a full six years of life was flashing past his eyes. He was thirsty and his body starving to death in an alley. Yet he was all the same in death, as he saw his happy memories and regrets.

He remembered his guardian who he ran away from. Someone who cared for him and loved him. A young woman with a voluptuous figure and very long blonde hair that matched with her golden eyes. He remembered her delicate facial features and noble appearance. How gently she would hold him and how soft her hair was between his fingers.

He remembered how much work she would put into her hair, tying it back in a loose ponytail, reaching all the way down to her legs that ended in a spiral. Taut bandages to keep it in place. Yet when he wanted to, she would let that all down so he could touch it gently, feel how soft and silky it was. Held in her gentle embrace and sweet words whispered to him.

Despite how cultural she was, wearing a traditional shrine maiden attire, with a white coat held closed by a red ribbon. She would let him wear any clothes he wanted.

She was an amazing guardian, that despite him not having real parents, treated him like her own. He knew he wasn't hers despite not being told, but it was nice he felt wanted. But only with her were there any good memories.

She was busy often and so he would be placed in elementary school. But there he was bullied. He knew it was for silly things. He was a smart child. They would bully him for his deep crimson red eyes or his golden blond hair. It was small things but the bullying followed him around everywhere. Verbal and physical. He suffered from it.

Yet he would never tell his guardian. He didn't want her to worry when she was so busy. He explained his tattered clothes saying he was just clumsy and liked playing roughly around on the play set.

But he started to grow tired of the bullying. The constant physical and verbal assaults. It was hurting him. He couldn't find peace anywhere but home, and he would only get a few hours there with the person he cared most about. He couldn't find safety in a park, not at school, not in busy streets and most certainly not in alleys.

But when a certain memory flashed past his eyes. He didn't regret it. He regretted how he dealt with a situation that changed his life. But he didn't regret doing it. He didn't regret being the only one to help a child that was getting bullied by the ones who bullied him the most. Even when the adults ignored that child's pain and cries for help, he didn't. He helped the child run away.

But then, it was his pain that was getting ignored. Beaten like a mistreated dog from his bullies.

That's when it happened. An act he didn't regret, but regretted how he did it.

He stood up for himself. He fought back against his aggressors. Like a hero he saved someone and fought back against bad people. But like a villain, he went too far. He didn't know how, he just fought back. But when he did, he badly injured them, and accidentally killed one. He killed his aggressor, but it was a child.

He didn't know if he regretted it or just regretted what it meant to kill someone. But when he looked at the still body, he had thoughts pass through his mind that he couldn't bare.

He didn't want to see that look on his guardians face. He didn't want to hear the words she could say when she found out what he did. He didn't want to be taken away from her. He didn't want her to view him as a murder or something different from what she previously knew him as.

But no matter how smart a child is, they are naive. His age he was unlikely to be charged with any crimes. But that wasn't what worried him the most. He just didn't want to hear the potential hate and disappointment of someone he cared for most.

So he ran away. Ran and ran. Jumping on busses and trains. He didn't know what he was going. His conflicting emotions for the situation that took him to this moment confused him. But he couldn't see that look. The look of no longer being loved.

That's how a 6 year old boy named Jin ended up in this position. In a place he didn't know of, without a home, food or comfort.

Completely alone.

He hadn't had food for so long. Only able to drink water like a dog. Lucky it even rained.

But he was now dying.

There were no words to describe how much he wanted to feel his guardians soft embrace again. How much he wanted to touch her hair or be hugged. To receive soft gentle kisses and relax together.

But as Jin thought he was on his last breaths. His begs for help ignored by others. Now fading into a darkness of no return. He felt the strong embrace of someone. Lifting him up off the floor in the alley he was about to die in.

But to Jin the strong embrace felt differently. To him these hands weren't of someone who was strong or powerful. These were the same gentle soft hands he knew of.

A final embrace in death.

Time skip

As Jin eyes slowly opened, feeling the warmth of a blanket on him, the comfort of a bed beneath his back. A moisturiser in his mouth he didn't have before and a sensation of satiation. He opened his eyes completely to look at an old wooden roof.

Blinking a few times yet it was all real.

Jin: I'm... I'm still alive?