Max woke up in an office.
That alone felt wrong.
The room was quiet—too quiet—and lit by flickering fluorescent lights that hummed softly above him. A simple desk sat in front of him, cluttered with papers he didn't recognize. The carpet beneath his feet was an ugly gray, worn down as if countless people had paced across it over countless years.
He sat up slowly, his head pounding.
"What…?" he muttered.
Standing, Max staggered toward the window. Instead of a city skyline or a cloudy sky, he was met with nothing but a vast, star-filled void. No horizon. No ground. Just endless darkness and distant pinpricks of light, like the universe had been stretched thin and pressed against the glass.
"What the hell?" Max said aloud.
"No, not quite."
The voice came from behind him.
Max spun around just as an office chair swiveled to face him. Sitting in it was a man who looked disturbingly ordinary—messy dark hair, a wrinkled button-up shirt, and a lazy grin on his face. He leaned back, hands folded behind his head as if this were the most normal meeting in the world.
Max stared. "Who are you?"
The man raised an eyebrow. "You'll get there."
Memories began to surface—fragmented and painful. A date. Laughter. Luna's smile. Hana's sarcastic comments. Then heat. Light. Sound. An explosion that swallowed everything.
Max groaned, clutching his head.
"Don't try too hard," the man said calmly, reaching over and sliding a blank sheet of paper onto the desk. "Between the shock and the fact that your brain probably exploded all over the place, those memories are a bit… scrambled."
Max swallowed and sat heavily in the chair across from him.
"What happened to Luna… or Hana?" he asked quietly.
"Oh, right. Your split-personality girlfriend," the man said, nodding as if remembering an appointment. "Kinda lucky, honestly. She's fine. Both of them are. They're with another Admin right now, so relax."
Max's shoulders loosened slightly, but the tension didn't fully leave him.
The man noticed. "Still not helping, huh?"
He leaned forward. "Tell me about her. Must've been a shock the first time you realized she had another personality."
Max hesitated, then exhaled slowly, steadying his breathing.
"From what Luna told me," he began, "she developed Hana when she was a kid. She was abused… badly. Isolated. Hana was created to take the pain, block out the worst memories, and act like a friend when no one else was there."
His hands clenched into fists.
"They left messages for each other, even though Hana didn't need them. At fourteen, Hana set the place on fire so they could escape. Luna only told me recently, but I should've known. The burn scars, the pain meds… it was obvious in hindsight."
The room was silent as Max continued.
"Luna said Hana didn't even like me at first," he let out a small, humorless laugh. "It was strange when Hana started joining our dates. She's aggressive. Bold. Way more confrontational than Luna. But I learned to adapt."
He looked down.
"Damn it… it was her birthday, too."
The man opened his mouth to speak, but several notifications popped up in the air beside him. He glanced at them, then smiled.
"Well," he said, clapping his hands together, "good news."
Max looked up.
"Both Luna and Hana now have separate bodies," the man explained. "They used a wish to stay with you. Funny thing is, their Admin gave each of them three wishes. Must've caught her on a really good day."
Max blinked. "…So this is a reincarnation thing, isn't it?"
"Bingo."
Max's lips twitched upward. "What world do we get?"
"You'll be heading to a modified Percy Jackson universe," the man said. "High School DxD exists in Japan. No Issei. The Occult Club is currently in the States on an exchange program—something about investigating disturbances caused by near world-ending events."
He shrugged. "Ages are adjusted, of course. Percy is sixteen. Luna and Hana are seventeen. You're nineteen."
Max nodded. "A few years younger… but still better than being fourteen."
The man slid the paper closer. "You write your wishes there."
Max picked up the pen. "You're not going to interfere?"
"Nope," the man said cheerfully. "I'm just trying to meet my quota so I can watch the rest of time unfold. Just don't make it boring."
Max smirked and began to write.
---
Wishes:
1. All powers from Hell (High School DxD, Hazbin Hotel, and Helluva Boss)
2. All abilities and Noble Phantasms from the Fate series
3. All powers of Cole McGrath
---
The pen vanished as soon as he finished.
"Alright," the man said, snapping his fingers. "Sleep tight."
Max felt a sudden heaviness wash over him. His vision blurred, his thoughts slowed, and before he could say another word, his eyes closed.
The office faded away.