Issei Hyoudou didn't always have a corrupt and perverted mind. Long before that, he was a bright and innocent young boy, full of youth and eager to please. Less so on the bright side, since he was one of those case studies of a so-called 'book dumb', but indeed, he was of a calm and mild nature. Such that his innocence invited the attention of his friend to be, one that influenced much of his childhood and to the present. Irina Shidou, a girl who was apparently so masculine, so tomboyish, that for most of their early friendship Issei Hyoudou had assumed that she was a boy.
The two were close, very close in fact, that the girl had actually developed a crush on the boy as they grew together through thick and thin. Although they may have their occasional argument, they were both of the same temperament, allowing them to nurture their bonds even stronger after every compromise. Such was the nature of childhood innocence.
Not all things were to be, however. Their friendship ended suddenly, but neither were truly at fault. At some point in their lives, Irina's family had to leave for England. Their bond was torn apart, and not much could be done about it unless Irina could come back to Japan to meet him again. As it is, he left his home late at night, feeling crushed and betrayed. The experience was one that would change the course of his history forever.
In the normal world, Issei would put his foot down and move on with his life. He'd attend High School having almost forgotten about the friend that colored most of his childhood, only a footnote smudged by childhood trauma. It was all until a fateful night that would get him almost killed by his psycho ex, revived, and made to serve one of his schoolmates as a bonafide demon. Later on, he would meet her once more, finding out her actual physical sex in a rather violent manner, and the story would go on from there.
This isn't that story, however. To begin with, in what world would a young boy turned girl go out of their way to voyeur on the fairer sex when they themselves have a pair of the important bits of their own? Certainly not without some reluctance, and she'd need to actively make them bigger anyway. It's not easy doing your business when you're a clone of the girl who would sit inside your head for the rest of your life.
One day while walking in the park, Issei stumbled across something that would change his life. If fate were allowed to do their job for once, he would come across an old gentleman sitting on the bench who would be responsible for turning the boy into an excessively pubescent and lecherous young adult. Although what he did encounter there was not a lecherous old man, it was still set up by the mischievous motives of another old man whose intentions derive either hate or amusement from their victims.
It was an intricately made magic circle. An eight pointed star like a compass was fitted in the middle. A language, archaic and seemingly mystical, covered every section like paint to a canvas. Glyphs, circles and various other symbols dotted the rest of the image.
Issei took a little more time to process what he saw, sweat beginning to gather behind his back. He looked around the area surrounding him, seeing if what was before him was truly there or not. And true enough, there didn't seem to be much of anything. There was no real reason to be afraid of what this was, right? Magic wasn't real, the warning signs chanting in his head were just being paranoid. It's just an elaborate painting made by a possibly demented cultist, right? Absolutely nothing wrong at all, unless those crazy cultists were right behind, right!? He looked around again as shivers went up his spine.
The park was simply dead silent, in an almost deafening manner. Not even any sounds of animals, cars, or the whistle of the wind interrupted his mania. Just him, his bated breath, and a glowing, spooky witchcraft circle. The glowing part honestly didn't help things.
He was, after all, in an age where belief in the supernatural and fantastical beings began to wane. Magic wasn't supposed to be real, the circle couldn't be made of maybe blood... He might just be tired. Whatever fantastical story he had brewing in his mind was all fiction. And yet, he still couldn't take his eyes off it.
Indeed, it had come to such a point that the boy simply stared blankly at it, moving ever so slowly and cautiously noting any signs of movement. As he moved forwards, he clutched his beloved Gameboy closer to his chest, seemingly entranced and totally unaware of his surroundings. All it took was a loose pebble on the ground to trip him straight into the ground, face first on the concrete before the circle itself.
If the boy hadn't panicked and covered his face at the last moment, he would have been witness to the dull red of the circle beginning to glow before him. Even then, however, he wouldn't be able to case as Issei somehow fell unconscious before he even hit the ground. As he drifted unconscious, the mental image of an old vampire with an impish look in his face met his mind, and before he knew it, he was somewhere else.
Issei found himself in a large empty room devoid of anything but himself. Panting, he looked around the white void of nothingness where the circle had brought him. Before he could even consider panicking, another voice broke the silence.
"Hey kid," a girl said. Red eyes met his own, and Issei nearly burst into panic. Despite the mass hysteria he had brought to himself, he somehow came up with one rational thought; was it truly a smart idea to scream at the sorceress who brought him here? This same sorceress seemed very capable of cutting him down immediately, sword in hand, mind you, right before him.
The witch held a very intimidating image indeed, if she even was one. Her wide smile beneath the military cap and her blood red eyes emanated charisma and venom. The rest of her outfit didn't give much of a magical feel, however. A military uniform, red cape and yellow boots gave her an image of a general awaiting for battle, and not someone who weaved with sword and sorcery. Even in his fear however, he silently fanboyed at the thought of a modern day magician using revolver and wand hand in hand, an example that was definitely before him.
"Do not fear," the girl had told him, but the boy, already in great panic, thought the exact opposite. He could see it now, this witch cutting him up and throwing his guts into a bubbling cauldron. Right there and then he knew he should've stayed home, should've learned to never touch random objects he didn't know the purpose for. He should've ran home before it could've gotten much, much worse. But it was all for naught, he was already in the worst day of his life. His life was over. The best thing that he could do now was clench his teeth and stare at his would-be murderer with a thinly veiled mask of defiance hiding a scared-shitless little boy wanting his mother.
Unimpressed, the girl leaned forward at the boy who was now kneeling on the cold white floor. He clenched his teeth. This, Issei thought he knew, was the moment where he would die. Memories flashed before him, the lessons drilled into him by his parents, the times they had together, and Shidou's bright smile.
And yet, her facial expression changed, seemingly satisfied by what she saw before her. "We're going to do great things, you and I," she beamed, smiling contently for once in their one sided conversation. Issei didn't know how to process the information, the message sent to him was far too strange to his hear. Was he to be her slave? And that farce of confidence he showed off earlier burned away when he felt her icy cold grip around his neck. He shut his eyes, whimpering murmurs and apologies to his family for being such a bad boy to them, wondering still if the heaven that his best friend talked about would let some annoying brat like him in.
"But we can't do any of that with a body like that, now, can we?" She said with a shrug, although seemingly with apprehension. She put her left hand on the other side of his neck, and Issei could only see red, his vision blurring.
Her hands were colder than the sweet embrace of death. It was so cold in fact that Issei thought that what was surrounding him was in fact the lowest circle of hell. Issei couldn't tell from the pain if it was hot or cold anymore, the distinction not all mattering as the pain went further beyond. His mind was only focused on the pain and the strange, almost euphoric numbness he could feel around his body. He simply didn't know what was happening to him. What was unknown to him, yet very obvious to the beholder.
"Here's to a wonderful partnership, partner!" she cheered. What was once a blindingly white void turned into a burning hellhole. A massive skeletal being appeared before him, still ignored by the feeling on his hand. Smoke and soot flowed out of every hole, making him hack and cough violently.
The pain on his neck was tame compared to his left arm and hand now. Issei rolled on the ground, tears dried up by the ever present flame covering his arm. It was almost like his body was burning from the inside and out. The pain was too much for him, and so he fell into blissful unconsciousness. As the fires died down, the girl stood still as the transformation before her continued.
Issei's body shifted, his hips rearranging, shoulders moving, and hair growing. His body morphed painfully and ever so slowly into a clone of the girl behind him. If anyone were to witness the two in action, one would even think they were twins, if not an elder sister to her younger.
The girl that saw fit to do this to him knew what was happening with a melancholic, almost sadistic smile. Then suddenly, her face became pained, as her smile turned into regret. Where once her eyes seemed manic and dull, they immediately widened in horror, quickly removing her hands from the boy's neck with a quick tug, but the damage was already done. With only a little time before her host would wake up, she used up her last moments inside the empty space to say one last thing to him, knowing yet that it would only be heard by deaf ears.
"I am so, so sorry."
Nuzzling closely to the prone body, she carries the newly made girl's upper body, and hugs it tightly as the once brightly white expanse darkens into an abyss.
At this moment, Issei woke up with a start with his face meeting the ground. He lifted his body slightly off the ground and with an ache in his head. With a yelp, he pushed himself off the ground entirely, his beloved Gameboy falling to the ground by his weakened grip. Issei backed away from the dull red circle, heartbeat accelerating.
By some instinct, Issei reached down to his waist and pulled a gleaming katana from the sheath on his side before the circle that had scarred him for life. He felt safer for a moment, until rational thought had pointed out that he had never touched a sword, much less a katana, in his entire life, nor did he have the martial ability to hold one so efficiently. Yet here he was, holding one with his gloved(?) hands as if it were drilled into him. He also wasn't the type to wear hats as a fashion sense either, yet the feeling of fabric around his forehead was quite clear to him.
With a practiced motion that Issei was sure he never practiced, he turned the flat portion of the blade to face him. It was a mirror image he didn't expect to see.
Reflected before him was a face all too familiar to him by now. It was the witch that had burned him alive. Somewhat younger, yet he could tell that the clothes she wore were an exact match as well.
"Surprise!" her voice echoing in Issei's mind as he almost drops the blade in shock. His body moved, looking around the surrounding area for the source of the voice. Even as he panicked, the sword he held with two hands was already hungered for blood and vengeance.
"W-What do you want?" The voice of the murderer came out of his throat. "What did you do to me?"
It was strange to hear the voice of his tormentor come out worried and falling apart, especially the surreal feeling that it came from his own mouth. The few words they've exchanged came out hardened and sharp enough to cut steel compared to his anxious muttering.
"Hyoudou Issei," the echo came. Issei shuddered, facing back to meet absolutely nothing once again. "Circumstances have brought us together in this fashion," he heard in his left ear. His right hand twitched on the sword that he held, sheathing it despite Issei's best attempts to prevent it. His face unwillingly turned from a grimace of fear to a smile, and then the boy found himself sitting down.
"I'd like to introduce myself first, however," he found himself saying unwillingly. "My name is Nobunaga Oda. I was remembered as the tyrant who united Japan. Remember it well." She tapped her golden boots impatiently, doing her best not to attract anymore people's attention.
"We happen to be sharing a body, now," his mouth said, though Issei noted that her would be more accurate at the moment. Tears began to form, though the hold on her body slowed their production to just one every few seconds.
Issei knew her history well. The name of the most infamous warlord in Japanese history could send shivers down the spines of the people living during her era. If it weren't for the booming voice of the ghost inside of her insisting that she was who she spoke of, she truly wouldn't have guessed her identity.
"Your historians got only part of the story correct. True, there was a period of time that I became a man in order to better lead my soldiers in the field of battle, but that was so long ago," she said with a contemplative tone. "I suggest relaxing a bit. It's barely been an hour since we've been together, after all."
"I'll get this right off the bat, though. I am dead. Best I could describe it, I'm a ghost possessing you right now." She moved her hand to get a rock and began tossing it up and down. "In any normal situation, I would have been summoned to fight in a Holy Grail War as a servant. However, that didn't quite happen."
"Instead of appearing before you as a servant, you were pulled into the circle and met me inside of it. There was something that stopped me from being summoned normally, and I felt… compelled to turn you into me instead," she said sadly, pebble throwing paused for a moment. "This," she pulled her glove down to reveal an intricate red tattoo. "Should have been the sign of our connection together. A command seal." She then pulled it back up.
"I don't know why this all happened, honestly. All I can gather was because you fell into that magic circle," Nobunaga surmised, taking a quick glance at the circle. "I don't know who drew it, or for what reason, or especially not why it coerced me into doing this," she gestured to their shared body. "To you. I believe it called me from…" she considered the situation and her magically ignorant host, "the underworld. Hell."
Issei felt like a prisoner in her own body, barely listening to her monologue. She was only slightly able to control what she felt outside. All she could do at this point was imagine the same demon king beheading her parents in her own body, taking their skulls and drinking sake and wine from their empty shells. If she had any sway over it still, she'd have begun crying again at this point.
"I took a quick look at your memories up to this point," Nobunaga said sadly. Issei heard her, moving her eyelids slowly. "For what it's worth, I really am sorry. Any child having to deal with this much trauma in just a day would just feel devastated at this point. And I think that lesser minds would've dealt with this far worse..." Issei's inner mind couldn't resist releasing a chuckle.
"Just to let you know? We shouldn't be alive at this point. Both of us, to be honest," she said, grinning, though Issei couldn't properly process what she heard. "Your left hand kept us both alive, I think."
And Issei's mind shot into overdrive. The burning from earlier erupted once more, searing her, her family, her home, and everyone close to her. Tears gushed out, only to be silenced once again by her response.
"LISTEN TO ME CLEARLY!" She shouted out loud, to be met by curious faces by passersby. It had cut down Issei's panicked thoughts. She only had to listen. This was the voice that led armies to unite Japan or die trying, after all. It was a voice that could not, and should not be ignored. Anyone who tried were to be shot and hanged.
"I would never do any of that unless your parents became my sworn enemies, and something like that is never going to happen." She countered exasperatedly, rolling her eyes. "We need to lay down some ground rules, kid," she said.
"This was your body, so I think I'd be willing to give us two or three options," she said, raising two fingers and another on the other hand. "The first option is we stay like this as we are, allowing me to take the reins whenever I'd like," she said while emphasizing her ring finger. "This lets you do the most of the oral and nonverbal communication while I handle anything you need me with like giant monsters, evil religious fundamentalists, or the bog standard ninja out to assassinate you." None of them boded well for the child, but it was better for her to be prepared than anything.
"The second option is for us to swap between one another every morning. Although this might seem a bit selfish, I did count this in at least partially so that I could experience modern life to the fullest without having to interrupt you every now and then. I won't interfere with your day to day activities, and you won't in mine." She twitched her middle finger to point out where it was.
"The third and last option would be the unthinkable. We would merge. Our memories, souls and existence in general. Two beings becoming one is becoming very popular nowadays, I think a Shonen series you've watched had that concept as one of the gimmicks?" Nobunaga said, tilting her head as if she was talking to someone. "Though if I were to be honest, I still think I'd come out on top." Knowing how easily she took over her body earlier, Issei felt inclined to agree, and a nervous bead of cold sweat threatened to fall down her neck.
"I was kidding! The first option it is," Nobunaga laughed shortly, having a blank expression on her face. "I like being myself, retainer, and I know you would too. I wouldn't want to deprive you of your own life anymore as it is." She tapped their shared noggin, "So for now, I'll wait until you need me out there, kid."
Letting out a rumble of crazed laughter, her hold vanished.