#SS 6Issei-chan & Video Games
It was a dark and stormy night… Though technically it wasn't rain, rather it was snow. It was close to midnight, and the snowstorm outside was enough to cut off mobile phone connections but absolutely nothing else. Because no one was outside, it was for all intents and purposes a normal winter evening. Only one person of note was awake in this God forsaken hour, a teenage girl with long hair conspicuously wearing an overtly ornate and awesome commissar's cap, staring straight into the VCR television screen with her hands on a controller. Well, two controllers. It was a long story.
The date was the 27th of December, 2 days after Christmas day and just long enough for young Hyoudou Issei, formerly of the male sex and now acclimated to her current physical appearance, to open the presents she had obtained from her closest of friends. Although, the curious thing was, she technically shouldn't have been given the most of the gifts in the first place, the celebration of the Savior's birth was not at all in the scheduled holidays that a devil should be celebrating. Yes, for most of young Hyoudou Issei's life, the new Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, self-proclaimed chuunibyou who actually has the powers they claim to have mind you, and closeted pervert of the highest level, the grand majority of friends she had made over the years consisted of devils, yokai and even a fallen angel.
She hoped the last part was true, though, considering that said bitchy Fallen Angel went out of her way to kill her after going out of her way to ignore her orders. She hasn't quite made progress in making a close friend from the other end of the morality scale, but she was trying. They kept attacking her unprovoked anyway, so any of those self-proclaimed exorcists that tried to kill her in the name of God despite being abandoned by him long ago because of how brutal and psychotic they were, sorta deserved the punishment of attempted assassination to her and her friends over and over again.
If what her parents' suggestions were of any merit, there was good reason to believe that the extremely high libido that she had to consciously suppress was practically inherited. According to the stories that her father would tell her when she felt particularly curious, her grandfather was a really big pervert. And didn't divulge any further, as if that was all she needed to know, but the judging look on her mother's face while looking at her father while he told her about the story gave her all the information she needed to know.
But I digress, I'm already spoiling most of my future plot points. The point of discussion was that she had obtained quite a few Christmas presents, from people both secular and religious, all of which she appreciated from the deepest corners of her heart. One particular present she received was a game console, a PlayStation 3 fresh out of the box, with a whole bunch of used video game discs that came along inside the box, including some PS1 and PS2 releases. Although in her own honest opinion it wasn't much of a good idea to buy a game console this late in the console generation, she still appreciated the thought behind it. When she asked Serafall about her motivations about giving a whole box full of video games and a game console, she just laughed it off.
Serafall could've given a very long-winded tirade of how the whole spiel about a single decrepit old man could possibly know who was "good" or "bad", or how the instructions to be nice could be (deliberately) misinterpreted by the unscrupulous and wicked, but she didn't feel like telling her and didn't have much time to stay anyway. She didn't need to come by directly this time around, all that made her know that it was Serafall was how she felt the familiar mana signature popping into the house and back. And she also left a(nother!) magical girl wand for her to use for whatever reason.
She took it out, installed it using the instructions on the box to her VCR, then went ahead to set it up. She made a deliberate choice to avoid putting it in the first floor where there would be conflicts on who would be using the TV at the time, top 10 student or not, but that was fine to her. Besides, there wasn't as much furniture cluttering her bedroom compared to the lounge. She fell asleep, ready to end the day and continue setting it up the next day.
Some software updates and game updates, connecting it to the internet and so on. Her parents trusted her enough to have a personal bank account, and thanks to Nobunaga's cunning and business savviness, she had more than enough money to pay for her hobbies. She plopped in disc after disc, downloading updates and DLC, then she was ready to hit the hay once again. She wasn't in a particularly gamey mood at the time, as she was simply ready to go to sleep.
But her motivations changed just after arriving in Freeside in her copy of New Vegas, the post-apocalyptic western political thriller RPG piquing both Nobunaga and Issei's minds with intrigue, the former because she was curious about the political climate of such an unstable region, and the latter because she just appreciated the writing. Just as she was ready to take it out of the console, a game disc found it the most convenient time to fall off her shelf, and on the brink of time caught it with her two hands.
Examining it, she realized that it was a fighting game. To be exact, it was an anime fighting game. Not one she was particularly familiar with, but the Rock and Roll theme of the game was what attracted it to Nobunaga. The amazing soundtrack was mostly a plus to people who also loved its deep gameplay and art style, but who was to say that you couldn't appreciate all of them at the same time? Yes, Guilty Gear was a cult classic through and through, and even though she didn't have the newest revision in her PC copy, it was clear as day to her that the version she was holding was exactly what she needed.
Breathing heavily, and cheering on the inside that she didn't have to go out of her way to buy a newer version of the game at the game store, she was just about to put it and New Vegas back into her shelf when she felt numb. Her hands moved to take the copy of the WRPG inside of the case and into the shelf, then they opened up the disc case of Guilty Gear and plopped the bluray into the console. Her hands opened the box for the console, pulled another DualShock controller, and Issei knew exactly what was happening.
Her mind created the image for her. She was standing on one end of an arena, in full garb as the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. On the other, it was Oda Nobunaga herself, appearing far older and truly fitting her title as the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. A true Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, if her title as seen on the conveniently placed scoreboards was any indication. Her hair was a burning red, she was wearing a skintight outfit, and looked much, much more intimidating. She also looked incredibly hot and cool at the same time, so her inner thighs started getting a little itchy. But this isn't that kind of story, and she was more interested in potentially punishing Nobunaga for her antics anyway, so she elected to ignore it.
"Oh? You're challenging me? Instead of making a valiant effort to resist my control, you accept the challenge I had given to you?"
"I can't beat the shit out of you (for once) if I didn't try."
"Oh ho! Then come as close as you like. "
The stage was set. They approached their posts menacingly, one wearing flamboyant attire, and the other wearing a schoo—um, military uniform with a very cool hat. They picked up their tools, and chose their champions. The outer edges of the stadium filled with an overwhelming hellfire, and a holographic screen popped up before them. Nobunaga's history with the game went beyond life and death, as she had played it in the past within her own little section of the Throne of Heroes with Okita Souji and her beloved niece.
Despite the knowledge of such prior experience, Nobunaga didn't scare young Issei. She was battle hardened by her own experience playing with her father, and especially Shidou, who, despite having absolutely no knowledge of deep fighting games, kicked her ass by button mashing Eddie's HS neutrals, and accidentally hitting every single one of her IKs just moments after teaching him about them. These experiences haunted Issei, forcing her to get good. To actually learn how to play one of the hardest video games on the planet. As far as Issei could tell? She could take it, all the way.
On each of their screens, the profile of their chosen heroes flashed a moment after each other. They were the main characters of the series, Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske. How appropriate. They allowed the characters' respective intro animation progress, after which they both began to fight.
With only one hand, they masterfully countered each other's attacks-
With only one hand, each half of the girl's body somehow controlled their respective controllers despite the difficulty in maneuvering it with only one limb.
—with every move calculated and intended in every way possible—She actually felt like she was on the ropes at every moment, every attempt to push forward forced her to go on the defensive because Nobunaga's time void's worth of experience in her room. That she still managed to survive all the way to the reset (arbitrarily added in by a dragon she didn't necessarily imagine…?) was amazing on its own, but her trust in Ky Kiske's ability to have a tool for every situation was probably the primary reason she was able to survive the onslaught of brimstone and cigarette lighter fueled flame.
She was also experiencing some level of PTSD from Shidou's tryhard expedition almost a decade ago, but that part wasn't important. Hopefully.
The question of how the hell she was capable of doing all of that without breaking her arm would go unsaid, but it probably had something to do with her Demon King skill. It was actually starting to hurt.
—and it was almost as if there was no way for either of them to win conclusively, until the very last set, Hyoudou Issei made a comeback, successfully taking all of Nobu's sets and winning their impromptu duel that very evening.
She actually won by doing that extremely cheesy tactic they use to kill the cheap Gold Sol in mission number a hundred. You know, dash-slash to charge fireball, then crouch-dust okizeme when you need them down. Something like that, the author was 10 years old when she had done the deed so she doesn't remember.
Despite the underhanded tactic used in finally winning the game, Nobunaga did not at all feel offended by the strategy used by her protégé. In fact, she was almost flattered, noting that it was much better that they used the most of their advantages instead of avoiding them like a plague because of a misguided attempt at "honour". In her own words, "In a sword versus gun fight, which would you rather choose? That was a trick question; you should always immediately shoot the idiot bringing a sword to a gun fight, especially when they do some bullcrap katas before they start charging at you."
She didn't necessarily understand the relevance of her wisdom in the current situation, but she wouldn't turn down advice just because she didn't agree with its usage within context. The stadium filled in with magma that hardened immediately, turning into an obsidian bridge that allowed her to meet with Nobunaga in person. She left the cubicle that she fought against Nobunaga in, and walked all the way to the center to talk to the taller girl. She dashed into a sprint, running towards her teacher to thank her for the amazing evening.
… Before tripping on a rock, and falling straight into the embrace of Demon King the Older. Her eyes were tightly shut, reeling slightly in pain until the sound of Oda Nobunaga moaning in a pan and a poke to her arse made her open her eyes. Hyoudou Issei very conveniently had her arms stretched forwards when she fell forwards, allowing them to invite themselves to the equally sweet touch of Oda Nobunaga's breasts. Neither of them wanted to say a word. A deafening silence caused by the awkwardness of their current position.
Issei really, really wanted to say sorry to Nobu for her clumsiness, but was left to leave her mouth open when it seemed as if Nobunaga didn't necessarily disapprove of her forwardness. Nobu's face was looking to her side, her face harboring a blush that seemed a much deeper shade of red than the one she was wearing already. Nobunaga was mouthing something important it seemed, to which Issei could only ask.
"What?"
Before either she could respond, however, the world vanished in an instant. She was in her bedroom, sitting dangerously close to the TV and both controllers were on the floor. In her peripheral vision she could see her mother pointing at her, and also shouting her name. Which certainly explained the ringing she was feeling on both of her ears, at least.
She looked down at the part of her body that mother dear was pointing at, and blushed. Finally feeling the tough cloth of her military uniform (that she subconsciously summoned…?), she could see and feel her hands caressing the growing breasts underneath. Swiftly taking her hands away from the offending materials, she slowly turned her gaze to her mother, who actually looked pretty pissed.
The mother palmed her face, then pushed it down her face. In a very disappointed tone, she asked her daughter a very important question. "Why the hell were you playing with yourself, Issei? This late at night, and pretty loudly at that. That was a really loud shout you know, it woke me and your father up." She raised her hand to prevent Issei from responding, continuing her rant.
"I can tell you were doing it both figuratively and literally you know, but why the hell were you playing by yourself, Issei?" Issei had no answer to do that, and the blush still on her face was still not doing her any good. Mother sighed, took a notepad from her back pocket and began writing something on it. She folded it then passed it to Issei, and told her to go to sleep. Still looking at the now vacant space, she looked at the slip with some amount of reluctance. Flipping it open, she exhaled deeply, reading what it had to say.
You can make it easier on yourself if you get and use the stuff I've hidden on a box here. Use these instructions to get to them.
The paper led to somewhere in the backyard, but she wasn't interested in its contents, so she just crumpled it. Swapping back to her pajamas, she locked the door, closed the TV and fell back on her bed. Her eyes twitched even as she attempted to sleep, her satisfaction soured by the experience.
Issei and Nobu didn't speak to each other for a week after that. Except during New Year's Eve, but it was mostly something you had to do anyway.