"Why do I feel so full of energy?" I wondered out loud, heading home after splitting up with Motohama. I felt like I could run a marathon right now. Okay, maybe not, but at least a small foot race, which was a serious step up from my usual capabilities.

My hearing had also seemed to pick up, to the point where I could hear people in houses across the street arguing. I grinned perversely as I strained to see if I could hear any moans this late at night.

Besides that sudden perk, I could see as clearly as if it was day, and the strangest thing was that I swore that I could feel something watching me, the hairs at the back of my neck rising up.

I glanced back behind me just in case I was being followed, picking up my speed to walk faster as I started to grow nervous from the odd sensation. It wasn't too far to my house, just a couple more blocks, but I'd just reached a short length of the road that didn't have houses on either side, just a section of construction on the left side. The sudden absence of witnesses and the continued sense of wariness due to whatever was creeping after me. Like chocolate syrup down a female body. Another perverse grin, before I shook it off. No time for that right now, this could be serious.

And then I slapped myself. Literally. Idiot, there's always time for perversion! The stinging feeling on my cheek cleared my mind though, ironically doing the opposite of what it had been intended.

Suddenly, a street light flickered and went dead in a flash of sparks, fizzling out. I froze as the pattern continued, proceeding down the road and killing the lights one by one until all the street lamps on the entire street were inactive, casting a dark shadow that with my improved sight, actually seemed to make it all seem clearer. There was something else there, almost as if I could feel a tainted air from somewhere. I don't know where I got superpowers, but apparently I got them at the perfect time!

I prepared to bolt, situating my feet squarely on the pavement. I had no idea what was going on, but I was just a high school student! Whatever is happening, someone else can deal with it! This teenager is out, peace!

"Ara, ara, devil-kun. So quick to run? But we haven't gotten to play yet."

A female voice filled my ears, coming from behind me. Hadn't I just checked there? Against my better judgment, (yes I have it, don't give me that look, inner self,) I slowly rotated my head to look behind me. I saw a beautiful woman standing there, with not a scrap of clothing upon her.

Long pink hair flowing over her shoulders, covering her bounteous bosom, as one long leg crossed in front of the other blocked my vision from her secret garden. Stupid leg, go somewhere else! This is important! Any thoughts of strange presences or malfunctioning lamp posts were swept away in a deluge of pink skin and pinker hair.

I refocused (to get a better image, obviously) to realize the image of beauty had been chuckling at my blatant ogling. "See something you like, devil-kun?"

I nodded my head unabashedly, my eyes still roving over her body and memorizing every detail. "Very much, yes." I managed to notice something slightly off this time and jerked my attention up to meet her eyes for a moment. "Why'd you call me a devil, miss...?"

She looked slightly surprised, before laughing openly. "You don't even know? Haha, this is indeed the best! A chance before he even knows! The Maou must be looking out for me tonight!"

I didn't understand a speck of what she said, but only nodded, eyes bouncing up and down as she laughed heavily, chest heaving. And oh how it heaved.

"Hey, lady!" A strange voice spoke up from off to the side, and I turned to see a young man with black hair, dressed in a Kuoh school uniform identical to my own. I didn't recognize him, but there were plenty of people in the school I didn't know.

He continued, uncaring of interrupting my inner monologue. "I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but it's not really legal to expose yourself like that, and I kinda doubt that you want a rotten guy like this looking at your body." And then the new guy actually took off his uniform jacket and attempted to pass it to the woman! It was only then that I realized his head was turned, so he wasn't looking directly at her.

I knew his type! The accursed pretty boy! Only one of them would attempt to cover up such a precious sight! I dashed over and attempted to strangle the newcomer. "What are you doing, idiot! Are you a man or not! How dare you try to cover up something that magnificent. Well take your chivalry somewhere else, you're not wanted here!"

My perfectly reasonable response to the intruder was slightly diverted by the woman laughing again. "Hahahahaha!" This was a full-blown, head back, shoulders shaking, (which again did wonderful things to her chest) laugh. Somehow though, it didn't exactly fill me with warm fuzzy feelings. "So early after my escape, and I not only have a freshly made devil to consume, but a human as well has decided to offer himself to me!"

Okay, I get that I was pretty clueless, but I was pretty sure the word "consume" there didn't mean what I hoped it meant.

Her head came back down and pink hair drifted across her face, doing nothing to conceal a bloodthirsty grin which I'd seen once before. In a dream, a date; a death. "My my. Lucky me."

And then electricity burst from her body, flickering in vivid arcs of yellow and blue, blasting small divots from the pavement. They burned lines across the wooden fence separating us from the framework of a skyscraper in progress to the left. "All the better for me to eat you with, my dears." The being, no way it was human, proclaimed.

My grip slackened from the pretty boy's neck, hands falling to my sides. I was frozen in what I recognized as fear, the same feeling as the dream stealing over me, robbing me of any movement. Apparently, my fellow victim in whatever this was wasn't nearly as smart.

"If I offended you that much, lady, just say so." Out of all the things to do, out of all the possible dialogue options available, he chooses that one? Stated in a perfectly deadpan voice, still holding the jacket out for her to take, too.

I could almost hear the gears screeching to a halt in both mine and the monster's brains, heads both slowly turning with the appropriate creaking sounds to the member of the party that apparently wasn't affected by any of this.

Even as we watched in shocked silence, the lightning dimming, until it was barely visible above the lady's skin, he moved the outstretched arm back, and with very deliberate movements, still facing just off to the side of the woman, put his school jacket back on.

Once it was properly adjusted, he looked around himself as if just realizing where he was, and I barely noticed that his gaze still seemed to deliberately go around the naked form in front of him. "Hmmm… this doesn't seem like a dream, so maybe it's real." After a moment he shrugged his shoulders. "Meh. I've had better."

At that, the electricity started back up again. The creature stating, very slowly, and very calmly, "I am the stray devil Zillamon, bearer of the mark of lightning, and slayer of a peerage of five of her fellow devils until I could make my escape. I am relatively sure, after all of that, I deserve a bit more than a "meh" from a puny human!" Her voice started to rise again at the end, but the end result was that it left me with more questions than I had to begin with. What the heck was a peerage, and a mark of lightning? "And so," she continued in a thoughtful tone, her voice once again calm, "I think I'm going to kill you in terrible ways now."

Shots fired! And how will the mysterious student respond? Hands placed into pockets, a bored look on his face and actually looking at her for the first time, the other student said in a carefree tone, "Meh."

Wow. Ouch. Sucks to be her right now.

At this point, my survival instincts finally took over, and I began to dash away from my suicidal schoolmate, abandoning him to the fate of his choosing. Whatever happened from now on was totally on him. I may or may not have died previously a virgin, and it sure as oppai wasn't going to happen again!

As I fled in (manly) fear, I thought I heard a "Run for your life, pervert!" from behind me, but I figured I was just flashbacking to other times I had been running from girls attacking me, and did exactly as I had in those circumstances, speeding away.

S~~~S~~~S~~~S~~~S~~~S

Yep. I was doomed. Try and walk home after a successful date and what do I find? A kitten perhaps? Or maybe some lost kid? Nope, instead it had to be some kind of exhibitionist pervert, molesting a student of my school in the middle of a short-range power outage. You know, as they do. And this still isn't the weirdest thing that I've that I've seen.

Except it turned out to be the student who was molesting her with his eyes. I didn't know his name, but I'd seen him chased by members of the kendo club many times, and knew he was a member of the perverted trio. If she'd been noticed by him, she was probably as good as assaulted already.

I knew better than to look myself, since if Kioko heard a whisper of a word of a rumor of me staring at a girl with any less covering than the average mummy, then I was in for at least a week of disappointed looks.

Right. Focus. So I offered my jacket, in hopes that the unfortunate woman was simply lost, or mugged, instead of an actual pervert. I then managed to notice through my losing oxygen and general body functions, some seriously creepy laughter.

I definitely noticed the positively unnatural lightning that was messing up the surroundings. Apologize to the road workers for ruining their hard labor!

Ahem. Right, carrying on. I might not be an otaku, but I'd certainly read my share of books and novels and I knew a few things. First up, okay, there was some kind of secret world that now was being revealed to me in a dramatic fashion. That's exciting. Second, creepy laughter combined with magical powers of some kind was probably pretty bad news for a noob like me. Thirdly? I wasn't the hero. I didn't know who was, if at all, but I knew that I sure wasn't it. I was normal, if a bit sarcastic. (A bit? (Why thank you, inner voice, for proving my point. Now shut up, this is important.))

That led to fourth. I was probably doomed. Well, I certainly hoped I wasn't, as I still had a lot to live for, and was pretty sure that since there was magic in this world, if I died, Kioko would learn necromancy just to revive me, and then proceed to rant at my revived body for the next couple years about me abandoning her, and I did not want to deal with that.

I felt myself going into what Kioko called "Analysis Mode," checking my options, escape routes, and surroundings. So, first up, find a way to survive. Okay, I have no magic, and I wouldn't put it past magicians or mutants or whatever this lady was to have some kind of physical boost as well, so straight up fighting was out. What's left? Outwitting them. Second objective? Try and make sure my schoolmate survives. He's a pervert, and in general, a horrible person, but he's still a human. Technically. And besides, if I do make some kind of sacrifice allowing him to get away, those tend to turn out alright in the end for the sacrafice-ee.

Next rule picked up from anime. Any enemy is easier to out-think when they aren't thinking. How to do that? Make them mad. What annoys early-game mooks like nothing else? Being ignored. And so phase one begins.

"If I offended you that much, lady, just say so." I casually pulled my jacket back on slowly, to hide my shivering arms, as I was pretty sure any jerky movements and/or falling down in a heap of man-flesh at this point would probably ruin the tone I was going for. Continuing, I looked around, nice and slow, to build up the tension. I then muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Hmmm… this doesn't seem like a dream, so maybe it's real." A carefully placed pause. "Meh, I've had better" And a shrug of the shoulders for maximum effect!

Yeah, that stumped the enemy. Luckily, this did seem to be one of the types that got upset easily, probably super prideful. I carefully watched both of their reactions, while trying to act like I didn't care. Of course I care, I'm about to die here!

My opponent started up the tesla impersonation again, growling out in a voice that was considerably calmer than I'd hoped, "I am the stray devil Zillamon, bearer of the mark of lightning, and slayer of a peerage of five of her fellow devils until I could make my escape. I am pretty sure, after all of that, I deserve a bit more than a 'meh' from a puny human!"

Oh good, she was upset. That meant it was working. I looked her straight in the eyes, tucked my hands in my pockets to seem bored, carefully curling my fingers around the small knife I kept there for opening letters or packages, and proceeded onto phase two. Another shrug. "Meh."

At that, both pairs of eyes opened wide, and my peer finally recovered his self-preservation instincts enough to start running. I had the enemy's attention now, and he could make his getaway safe. I barely noticed the tensing of muscles in the girl's legs as she crouched lower, and dodged immediately, throwing myself to the side and down. Another lesson from fiction. If someone else is faster or stronger than you, and you don't have some kind of power of your own, if you try to react to something like that after they move, it's too late. Dodge before they even attack, and you've got a chance.

It seemed to pay off in this case, as a vicious swipe with claws that I was reasonably sure hadn't been there a moment ago whistled through the air where my head would have been previously. Huh, I think she was trying to kill me. I had just enough time to yell out, "Run for your life, pervert!" Before performing a backwards somersault just in time to avoid a sparking leg impaling into the asphalt.

I'd done taekwondo for a few years previously, for self-defense and to build muscles, but never really got past the basic stages so I was definitely out of my league against something like this. I pulled my hand out of my pocket, flipping open the blade of the pocketknife with one hand while getting my feet under me.

My opponent took a moment to extricate her foot from two feet deep into the road, while I desperately used the extra time to dash forward and attempt a slashing motion with my only weapon in hopes of dealing some kind of damage. The small blade bounced off the skin of an arm brought up in a block, dealing no damage whatsoever and bringing back a small amount of voltage from the still luminescent body. And by small, I mean my right arm was numb. Not really a good position to be in.

Okay, re-evaluate. I grabbed the knife with my left hand as I thought. Hardened skin, taking no damage from a small weapon. Unknown, possibility of enhanced regeneration as well. Solution? Deal a large amount of damage at one time, enough to overcome natural protection, as well as any increased healing. Method? Brute force, crushing damage. Weapon? Hea-Oh look, I'm being kicked in the chest! Perfect. Also painful. Very.

I was pretty sure I heard a couple ribs crack, and I coughed up some blood as I crashed through the wooden fence surrounding the construction site. A white hot pain lanced through my chest, and I struggled to breath for a moment, but managed to regain my senses in time to roll to my right, avoiding a crackling fist which impacted the ground right next to my nose, right before another kick caught me in the ribs, sending me skipping along the ground like a rock on a pond.

Okay, so phase three may or may not be working. Slightly difficult to tell at the moment, what with more blood and internal damages and ohmyisthatbone. As the stars died off, I found myself at the edge of the construction zone of the skyscraper, angled metal spires clawing at the night sky. And the devil was stalking towards me, eyes glittering with madness, intent on my destruction. Or maybe that was just pure fury. Kinda hard to tell at this range. And with being barely able to breathe.

I struggled my way to my feet, leaning onto a nearby metal support in an effort to support myself on the rigid surface while attempting to keep from coughing up any more blood. I know I'd read books and all, but they'd done a pretty poor job describing how badly pain hurt! But I wasn't just going to sit here and let myself be killed. I wasn't the hero, but I'd rather commit suicide myself before being offed like cannon fodder! I was at least a supporting character, dang it!

And that moment was when the creature surged, for lack of a better word, body rippling as barbs of lightning were injected into the ground, as though attempting to anchor or something, and-IthinkIcanseemyskeletonwowthathurtsalot-proceeded to carry the charge through the ground and directly into the support I was leaning upon, sending me to the ground in convulsions, especially in my left hand that had been holding the pocketknife, burning the skin black as the electricity carried into the metal of the pocketknife, attempting to hold it like a battery. And my right arm had just started to feel things again, too.

I attempted to open my blurry eyes while twitching sporadically, muscle spasms jerking my body in different directions. They suddenly opened wide as a piercing hollow feeling entered into my chest, and I looked down to see a hand focused into a sharpened point freshly exiting out of my heart cavity through my back. That probably hurt a lot, but I seemed to be going into shock, and couldn't really notice at the moment.

Well, Kioko was gonna kill me, but hey, might as well finish the job that I started, right? I don't know how I managed it, with blood pouring out of the open wound in my chest, and still wracked with convulsions, sight going dim, but my left arm slowly came up, and made a weak throw with the knife. Not at the being standing behind me, but out in front, while my right arm grasped the impaling arm before it got too far away, keeping it in place with what I had heard termed as a "death grip."

Yeah, that was about where I died. Didn't even get to see how it ended, darn it all. I wanted my heroic moment!

S~~~S~~~S~~~S~~~S~~~S

Zillamon was just retracting her bloody hand from the human that had dared to slight her, when both arms reached up in a last ditch effort, one making a sort of motion before flopping back down, the other grabbing onto her arm. The thing dared to touch her! It didn't deserve the blessing of the occurrence!

With a quick twist, the thing's wrist was broken and her arm free. Then she heard a rumbling sound and turned around to see metal pipes, the width of her entire body, rolling towards her. A flash of metal happened to catch her eye, a glimpse of a small knife and a cleanly severed rope enough to tell the tale of what happened.

With a growl, she simply leapt to the side, avoiding the pipes entirely as they crushed the measly human underneath them, destroying his body beyond all recognition. A sadistic grin split apart her face, viewing the desecration of the corpse.

She stayed a little too long, and was a little too focused, so she missed the sharpened piece of metal until it speared her through the leg, pinning her foot to the ground like a tent stake. She howled, twisting around in anger to discover who had attacked her. The metal pipes had apparently knocked into the structure, and the reverberations had loosened a pile of long pieces of metal just a little too close to the edge of the roof.

She attempted to flare her lightning mark, and while it did give her an increase in speed and strength, after her earlier expenditures, what she'd siphoned from the street lights earlier hadn't been much, and she was running dry after killing the human who had dared to mock her.

Unable to get free, she continued to struggle, unwilling to tear her own foot off quite yet, and so missed the next weapon falling from the sky that ran a long scratch into her side. She had only avoided it piercing her right lung by throwing her pinned body to the side at the last moment.

Long poles of metal were beginning to spear the ground all around, only a few actually nearing her, a couple even spearing the dead body of the boy, damaging it even more, although Zillamon was too distracted to notice and derive pleasure from it.

Looking up at the sky in an attempt to see where the next attack was coming from, the stray devil only had enough time to scream before the thick metal beam impaled her through the mouth, nearly splitting her head in half, and dimming the light in her eyes forever.

A small brass bead seemed to work it's way free from her forehead and fell onto the ground, before dissolving into the earth.

S~~~S~~~S~~~S~~~S~~~S

"Quick, this way!" Issei ran in front of the gathered members of the Occult Research Club, showing them the way to where he had abandoned his schoolmate. "I don't know where you guys came from, but you gotta help him!"

A tall woman with crimson red hair nodded to the other boy of the party. "Yuuto, go ahead and scout it out. Step in if the victim's still alive."

With a curt nod, the blonde haired boy raced ahead with incredible speed, appearing as a blur to Issei's eyes. "Woah! How'd he do that!" And then a muttering of "Damned pretty boy."

When the group reached the street where the short battle had taken place a short time later, they found burnt trails in the asphalt, a broken fence, and a shocked knight standing just inside the construction site.

As they reached him, they saw what had him so surprised. There, almost still standing, was a beautiful nude woman, but the beauty was ruined by the appearance of clawed hands, and the fact that the body was impaled by a steel beam that ran through the body, destroying the corpse.

Issei stared for a moment, before stumbling over to the side to empty his stomach of it's contents, unable to connect the bloody mass of bone and muscles in front of him with the perfect specimen of the female body he had been admiring not five minutes before.

Around the body in a large area, multiple other poles were stabbed into the ground, or lay on their sides, making it look like a graveyard, with each tomb marked with a spire of steel. "What could have done this," the president of the club breathed.

Then she snapped back, and began to issue orders. "Akeno, figure out if that's the stray devil or not. Yuuto, check to see if there's anyone else in the area we need to watch out for. Koneko, find our missing schoolmate."

She received two nods in reply, with the last member, a short white-haired girl, simply raising her hand and pointing to a large pile of scrambled metal pipes piled up in an unorganized mess. "No need." she said shortly, before wandering off to go investigate.

Issei had recovered somewhat and staggered up to her, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "Gremory-san," he looked up with wide shaky eyes. "What in the world is going on?"

In the next few minutes, she explained the basics. That it wasn't a dream, he'd really died, she'd brought him back to life, he was attacked by a stray monster, and that he needed to be careful. She was careful to avoid mentioning that they were devils themselves, waiting for a dramatic moment to do that, or that the one that had attacked him was a devil as well, not wanting to dissuade him from his new life.

During that period her knight had returned, reporting that there was nobody else in the immediate area, but it seemed to be due to luck instead of a spell. Akeno followed shortly afterwards with the information that the corpse was Zillamon, a stray devil who they'd been warned about was in the area, but hadn't expected to be here so soon. The last member, Koneko, was standing by the large pile of pipes, covering her nose.

"And that's it for the short version," Rias wrapped up. "Any questions?"

Issei raised his hand, as though he was in school. "Yeah, I didn't understand any of that." Cue sweatdrop by everyone present. "Where's the other guy, though? I'm pretty sure he saved my life by being a massive idiot, and I can't just let that kind of thing go, you know?"

Rias turned questioningly to Koneko, who pointed at the pile of pipes. "Blood."

In a gasp, Issei ran off to the pile and began attempting to shift the massive pieces of metal. Surprisingly, he was actually able to free enough that he could peer down towards the bottom. He turned to the side and began dry heaving again.

The members of the club peered down as well. "Oh my." "Wow. Didn't know that was possible." "Hmmm… His face isn't bad..." "…Gross."

Issei had calmed down somewhat, and turned to the group. "Can you guys do anything? What with your magical powers or whatever? I seriously owe the guy, and don't want to leave him like… that."

The red-haired girl tapped a finger on her chin, looking thoughtful. "Well, I suppose I still have one pawn left, and he did save my cute servant..."

"Your cute what?"

She snapped her fingers. "I suppose I might as well, as a way of thanking him." She quickly rummaged in a pocket of her uniform before producing a single red pawn.

Akeno was still looking into the small hole. "I'm not quite sure how this is going to work..."

Rias shrugged. "Just pick the largest piece, I guess, and I'll try putting it in there."