Chapter 38: Side effects
After waking the next day, Alex reported to Venelana for his dancing lessons. She seemed to be pretty annoyed that he missed his lessons the last two days from being injured, but accepted that he would at least learned how to dance before the party. His experience in dance was limited, but with his high specs he was able to get the basic rhythms down quickly.
"One two three, one two three, good very good. You're quite the dancer Alex." Venelana said while acting as his dance partner.
"Thank you." Alex said politely. The party was that night, so he was glad that the lessons would be fresh in his mind. The two continued for a couple hours until Venelana decided that he was good enough to not shame Rias. After the lesson finished Alex was taken away to prepare for the party. When night was falling he was dressed in a black suit and went to a waiting room for the others.
Kiba was the first to arrive, and this was the first time Alex saw him since they split up for training, he hadn't seen Gasper yet either but figured he was with the women changing into a dress. The two started discussing their training, and Alex removed the extra gravity from him so that he was able to adjust himself before the games the next day. He had already removed xenovia's the day before. After they talked for a while, they noticed the girls coming and Alex turned to greet them, but froze out of shock. Standing there with the girls unsurprisingly was Gasper in a dress, the surprising part was that he now stood just short of Alex and was almost as wide with raw muscle, but still had the same girlish face.
"Gasper... What happened?" Alex asked with some hesitation, a theory already on his mind. Gasper started to cry at Alex's question, and the girls started to comfort him. Lauren then spoke up in his head,
'It's possible that your Saiyan blood effected his body to stimulate muscle growth, though I barely detect any power from him so it seems to be mostly bulk. I recall Azazel mentioning a body strengthening training for him, the residual effects of your blood must have manifested themselves then. Saiyan men are typically more masculine, and regardless of his dressing habits Gasper is in fact male.' As Alex listened to Lauren's words he felt a sense of guilt, and started trying to think of a way to return him. Sadly according to Lauren chances were that the effects couldn't be reversed unless he learned how manipulate his appearance the same way most Devils do as they get older. He thought for several minutes, until he recalled part of Lauren's words,
'You said Saiyan men, the women were not as muscular right? Is it possible that he'll return to normal by turning him into a woman?' Alex recalled a short dxd story where Kiba used a ray gun made by Azazel to turn into a girl to appeal to issei once, and wondered if it might work here. He quickly called up Azazel and explained the situation. Azazel was surprised Alex knew about his joke ray gun, but agree to bring it since there was still a bit of time before the party. He then explained his theory to everyone, and they agreed to wait for Azazel. Several minutes later he appeared and called out to them,
"Yo, I have the ray gun. I still want to know your source for all your info Alex, but I'll focus on this first." Azazel then pointed the gun at Gasper, and a moment later he was the normal Gasper, well he was most likely missing something but as normal as he could be in this situation. They then put out a mirror for Gasper,
"I- I'm normal again! But I'm normal as a girl..." Gasper seemed as if he lost more than Alex thought. Alex then turned to Azazel,
"Is there anyway to change him back without being a girl?" Azazel looked thoughtful for a moment before saying,
"I can't say, I'll look into a few things but won't promise anything. Worst case he has to keep using the Ray Gun each time the effect runs out. He'll be able to manipulate his appearance when he gets older, but until then his options are limited." Gasper looked depressed at Azazel's words, but seemed determined to learn how to alter his appearance. Alex couldn't help thinking,
'You already are more of a girl than boy to begin with though...' But didn't say anything, as he also felt guilty due to this being his fault. After the situation settled Azazel decided to travel to the party with them since he was already there. He called someone and told them that he was at a different location, and to pick him up there. Several minutes later, a giant dragon came out of the sky and landed in front of where they gathered. He looked at Alex and said,
"Greetings Ddraig, it's been how long has it been now?" A light appeared on Alex's hand and Ddraig's voice spoke out,
"Tannin, it's been a long time indeed. My host already knows about you so I'll just introduce you, this my current host Alex." Tannin looked at Alex and said,
"It's an honor to meet you current host of Ddraig. I've already heard of your strength, maybe we'll get a chance to spar someday."
"That would be a great honor." Alex said honestly. He then looked at Azazel, wondering how he arranged him to be a ride. Azazel smiled back and said,
"I said I wanted to introduce him to the current wielder of Ddraig, this seemed like the best time to chat in the near future since you'll be returning to the human world right after the games." Alex nodded in understanding. They all climbed up onto tannins back and he took off.