Highschool DXD : Gacha Life

I stared at the blue screen floating in front of me, the text glowing softly in the afternoon sun. Another gacha ticket—Rank 2 this time for having spar with Koneko. The system had been generous lately, though I still wasn't entirely sure what triggered these rewards. But it was welcomed.

Ticket of Good Luck: Allows user to gain best outcome from any attempted task. Tear this ticket before attempting said task.

I read the description twice, turning the ethereal ticket over in my hands. The material felt strange—not quite solid, but not entirely incorporeal either. Like touching concentrated possibility.

"That's either incredibly useful or completely useless depending on the situation," I muttered, carefully storing it in my inventory. Best outcome could mean a lot of things. Better keep this for when I really need it.

"Akira!" Chysis's voice drifted down from her mansion, interrupting my contemplation. "Could you come up here for a moment?"

I looked up at the third-floor window where her silhouette was visible against the afternoon light. She was waving at me with what looked like urgency.

Wonder what she's worked herself into a frenzy about this time.

The climb up the hill to her mansion was as tedious as always. By the time I reached her study, I was slightly winded and definitely questioning why someone would build a house this high up.

"What's got you so excited that you're shouting from windows?" I asked, pushing open the door to her study.

The sight that greeted me made me pause. Papers were scattered everywhere—covering her desk, the floor, even pinned to the walls. Diagrams, calculations, and what looked like crystalline structures drawn in meticulous detail covered every available surface.

"What's with all this?" I gestured at the chaos.

Chysis looked up from where she was hunched over her desk, her eyes bright with the kind of manic energy that came from not sleeping for at least twenty-four hours. Her usually perfect hair was disheveled, and there were ink stains on her fingers.

"I've done it," she said, holding up a crystal that seemed to pulse with internal light. "I've successfully developed a new type of enhancement crystal."

I stepped closer, careful not to step on any of the papers littering the floor. The crystal was about the size of a marble, but it seemed to contain swirling patterns of energy that hurt to look at directly.

"What's it supposed to do?"

"Mana enhancement," she said proudly. "It can boost whatever magical attempt the user makes. Amplify the power output significantly."

That sounds both incredible and terrifying. "How were you able to forge something like this?" I picked up one of the diagrams, trying to make sense of the complex geometric patterns. "I mean, you gave me that stamina crystal before, but this seems like a completely different level."

Chysis's expression grew more subdued. She sat down heavily in her chair, suddenly looking exhausted.

"I had great interest in finding a cure for the sleep disease that devils are still suffering from to this date," she said quietly. "I thought if I could understand the fundamental nature of magical energy, maybe I could find a way to counteract whatever's causing the affliction."

Sleep disease? That sounds serious. "Any luck?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. Complete defeat on that front. But in my failure, I found myself fascinated by the crystal crafting techniques I learned from my ancestor's journals. These enhancement crystals are apparently an old art that was mostly forgotten."

So she turned research failure into a new skill. That's... actually pretty impressive.

"Would you like to try it?" she asked, holding out the crystal.

I hesitated. "I don't know magic. Like, at all. If I had to learn any magic, it would probably be teleportation so I don't have to climb this damn hill every day."

That got a laugh out of her—the first genuine smile I'd seen since entering the room. "Teleportation, huh? That's actually not a bad choice for a first spell."

Before I could ask what she meant, Chysis stood up and walked over to me. Without warning, she pressed her finger against my forehead.

Suddenly, my head was flooded with information. Mathematical formulas, spatial calculations, energy manipulation techniques—all of it rushing into my consciousness at once. I staggered backward, clutching my head as the knowledge settled into place.

"What the hell was that?" I gasped.

"Basic teleportation theory and practice," she said matter-of-factly. "Should be enough to get you started. Now here—" She pressed the crystal into my palm. "Try it out."

This feels like a terrible idea. But the knowledge was there now, sitting in my mind like it had always belonged. I could feel the spell structure, understand the energy requirements, visualize the spatial displacement needed.

Just a short hop. Maybe to the other side of the room.

I activated the crystal, feeling its power merge with my own energy reserves. The mana enhancement hit me like a lightning bolt, amplifying everything I was putting into the spell. What should have been a gentle spatial displacement became a roaring torrent of magical energy.

"Wait, that's too much—" Chysis started to say.

Too late. The teleportation circle beneath my feet blazed with enough light to blind us both. I felt reality twist around me, space folding in ways that made my stomach lurch violently.

Then everything went black.

. . .

I woke up to the sound of creaking wood and the rhythmic clip-clop of horse hooves. My head was pounding, and there was a metallic taste in my mouth that suggested I'd hit something hard when I landed.

Where the hell am I?

I opened my eyes to find myself staring at rusted iron bars. A cage. I was in a cage that was apparently attached to some kind of horse-drawn carriage, judging by the swaying motion and the sound.

This is not good.

As my vision cleared, I noticed I wasn't alone. There were at least six other people crammed into the cage with me—all human, all looking absolutely terrified. They were huddled together as far from the bars as possible, and most of them looked like they'd been crying recently.

What the hell did I teleport into?

"Hey," I whispered to the man closest to me, a middle-aged guy with torn clothes and wild eyes. "What's going on here? Where are we?"

He stared at me like I'd asked him to explain quantum physics. "You... you don't know?" His voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper.

"I just woke up. Fill me in."

The man's face went pale. "The ones taking us... they're not human. They're monsters."

Before I could ask what he meant, there was a commotion from outside the cage. One of the other prisoners—a younger man who looked like he was barely out of his teens—started banging on the bars.

"Please!" he shouted. "Where are you taking us? I have a family—"

A hand shot through the bars faster than I could track, fingers ending in razor-sharp claws that definitely weren't human. The claws raked across the young man's throat, cutting off his pleas permanently. Blood sprayed across the cage as he collapsed.

But what made my blood run cold wasn't the casual brutality—it was what happened next. The owner of that clawed hand brought his fingers to his mouth and slowly licked the blood clean. In the dim light filtering through the cage, I caught a glimpse of eyes that glowed an unnatural red.

Oh, shit.

"How did I end up in here?" I asked the terrified man beside me, keeping my voice low.

"You were unconscious on the path," he whispered back. "One of them just tossed you in with the rest of us when they found you."

Glowing red eyes, superhuman speed, drinking blood... I connected the dots quickly. Vampires. I teleported myself into the middle of vampire territory.

My hand instinctively moved toward where Incursio would normally be, but I stopped myself. Through gaps in the cage covering, I could see other carriages both ahead and behind us—at least a dozen, all filled with the same cargo we represented. The number of captors had to be substantial.

This isn't a small operation. Acting rashly here could get everyone killed.

More importantly, I realized I knew absolutely nothing about vampires beyond old movies and folklore. Were they actually undead? How strong were they compared to devils? What were their weaknesses? Did any of the traditional methods actually work?

I need information before I make any moves. Figure out who's running this operation and what they're planning.

The carriage lurched as we began moving downhill, and through the gaps in our covering, I could see lights ahead. A lot of lights.

"We're almost there," the man beside me whimpered.

As we rolled into what looked like a town, I got my first clear look at our destination. The streets were filled with figures that matched the description the terrified man had given me—pale, red-eyed beings moving with inhuman grace. They watched our convoy pass with expressions of anticipation that made my skin crawl.

Definitely vampires. And this is definitely their town.

The carriages rolled to a stop in what looked like a town square. Around us, dozens of vampires had gathered, their glowing eyes fixed on the human cargo with unmistakable hunger.

...

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