Highschool DxD: Dragon's Ascent

Chapter 62: Family Matters

"Takumi-kun. I have something I have to tell you."

Ah, there it was.

I knew Akeno would open up about her traumatic past and I had largely heard about it already from the anime but I was still going to listen to her because this was important to Akeno. Besides I didn't exactly commit her backstory to memory.

"I..." She slid her top down her shoulders and turned away from me and then suddenly a pair of wings emerged. One that belonged to a crow and one that belonged to a bat.

"I have the wings of both a fallen angel and a devil, these filthy wings, I joined Rias because I wanted to be rid of them. But in the end, I just ended up as a horrid mix of the two. I suppose it fits the awful blood within me. No matter how much I wanted, I couldn't bear to keep this secret from you any longer." I stayed silent for a moment letting Akeno get all of her emotions out.

"What do you think about my nature Takumi-kun? In the end, I am kin to those fallen that tried to kill you. My blood is dirty and my wings are unsightly." I understood her feelings, she hated herself because of her shitty father. She thought of herself as dirty because of whose blood she shared.

I related to her.

I related to her too well.

My father left my mother the moment he found out she was pregnant. He gathered all their shared funds and skipped town without hesitation. Leaving my mother alone and pregnant.

She refused to abort me. Maybe she thought that if she raised me well my father might change his mind and would come back to her, she hated and loved my father. Maybe she kept me because I was the only thing left to her by my father.

He never came. He left my mother at her most vulnerable and took advantage of it, taking all of their assets and leaving. He was a piece of shit. I never even heard a peep about him or ever saw him even when my mother died.

According to her, I looked a lot like him. And she made sure to remind me of this, every, day. I reminded her of my father. To her, I was just a shadow of my father, the piece of shit that left me and drove my mother insane.

I looked at the mirror and always saw the only thing I could associate with him, myself. I saw the reason why mom went crazy, I saw the piece of shit that ruined my life before I was born in the mirror. My mother saw the same thing in my face.

I hated myself. Thinking of the blood in my veins belonging to that man made me gag. I was actually relieved when I got my new body here. I got the opportunity to distance myself from who I was.

So I simply wrapped my arms around Akeno and dragged her into a hug, holding her tightly against my body.

"Akeno, you big dummy, of course I knew this from the start what did you expect?" I doubted the hug of somebody like me held much meaning to her but I still hugged her with all my body as she trembled.

"You knew...? But then why...?" I felt nice hugging Akeno.