She ran the ladle in circles for a few moments, then brought it to her lips for a sip.

Perfect.

Issei would be coming back from his first date soon, so she had made his favorite homemade chicken soup to celebrate. She had seen pictures of the girl on his phone, and was honestly surprised that her silly, perverted son had managed to bag such a hottie. She hoped the girl would treat him well. He was a moron and a shameless pervert, but he was still her son.

It had been hard, sometimes. Issei's father had died very suddenly - very, very suddenly - long before he was born, meaning she had to raise him entirely on her own. It hadn't always been easy, and he certainly wasn't perfect, but she loved him anyway. She wanted - wanted dearly - for him to be happy.

A crash echoed through the house as the front door was flung open. The sound was soon followed by a limp thud, a body collapsing in the hallway. The soup was dashed across the floor as she ran to the door. There - a hole in his heart - was Issei.

All she could do was scream. Eventually one of the neighbors heard and came to investigate. They called an ambulance, but were unable to pry the frantic mother from her child. When they reached the hospital the doctor gave her a strong sedative, and she knew no more.

Her son, the doctors found, was a medical miracle. Whatever had pierced his chest had utterly incinerated his right lung, narrowly missing his spine. Excrement, blood and undigested food sat immobile in their designated organs, all of which (even his heart) had stopped working. But his brain persevered, flickering with neural activity that never made it down his spine.

And yet, his body responded anyway. Through sheer habit he continued to breathe, the flow of air causing an odd whistling sound to come from the hole in his chest. When they took a sample of his blood the wound continued to leak; very slowly, as his heart wasn't beating. It was this that was blamed when Issei's neural activity plummeted a few hours later. Their first solution was to give him a blood transfusion. Chaos ensued.

Once the uproar had died down they arranged for blood to be dripped continuously onto his bare skin, where it was immediately assimilated into his body. The places where their needles had penetrated closed up, and his brain returned to equilibrium. There was a certain unsteadiness to his brain waves, however, which they discovered was due to the second hand nature of the donated blood. His skin excreted an odd toxin which lost potency mere nanoseconds after making contact with the air. It converted human cellular tissue into stem cells, absorbed them into his body and used them to repair his constantly deteriorating innards.

This of course was only a theory, of which only two things had been proven true.

Firstly, Issei could process literally any human tissue. Skin, muscle, internal organs, you name it and he ate it. He would probably eat people's clothes if you soaked them in enough blood beforehand.

Secondly was that the fresher the tissue the more easily he digested it, as they found at the expense of a particularly unfortunate hamster named Balthazar.

The point is, all of this made the doctors at this hospital very excited indeed, in a manner which involved everyone shouting over one another and generally trying to assert that their theories and observations were better than anyone else's. They did this in the Doctor Lounge, a fair way down the hall from Issei's room. Apart from him the room was empty, and of course no one had the forethought to ensure he was guarded. This made it very easy for the tall man in the trench coat and fedora hat to slip inside.

"Hello there, Mr Houdou," he smiled politely. "My name is Donnasiege." He sat next to Issei's bed and crossed one leg over the other. The was an empty glass sitting next to a jug of water, so he poured himself a drink.

"So I hear I have to kill you," he observed after a few sips. "Bummer. Those eggheads down the hall seem to think you're the best thing since penicillin, by the way, so maybe that's not such a bummer after all. Better dead than locked up and experimented on, right?" Silence. "Right."

He took another sip.

"I don't know what makes you so special, but trust me when I say Reinare is the only one you need blame. Azazel... ah, our boss, that is... only wanted us to observe you. Reinare killed you because... I don't know, she was jealous, I suppose. Because he was more interested in some kid who won the genetic lottery than in her."

He began to turn the glass contemplatively in his hand.

"Azazel, yes. You may have heard of him, you know, from the bible. Did you ever read the Bible, Mr Hyodou? Did you ever notice how in the bible whenever God needs someone punished, or killed, or made an example of he always sends an angel. Did you ever wonder what a creature like that must be like? A whole existence spent praising God, but with one wing dipped in blood. Would you really ever want to meet an angel?"

Donnasiege finished the last of his drink, then moved to stand over his bed. Black wings spread from his back. Like a crow.

"Well guess what. I'm an angel. A fallen angel. One of the ones who became disillusioned and bit the hand that feeds. I kill first-borns while their mothers watch, I turn cities into salt and when the mood takes me I rip the souls from little girls. And now I'm feeling guilty. Not because I'm about to commit murder, or because you're just a kid, or because you mother is in the next room, or because your friends will be sad, or because because because..."

A spear of blue light manifested in his hand, and he held it threateningly over his head. "It's because you'll never know why."

He thrust the spear towards the sleeping man's face, and the blade was caught by a single hand.

"Thank you, Donnasiege." whispered Issei. Wisps of smoke rose from where the spear was burning his palm. "For giving me a name." His eyes opened, and Donnasiege knew true fear. "REINARE!"

The side of the hospital exploded. Lumps of concrete hurtled through air and crashed into the building on the opposite street, accompanied by myriad shards of glass from the windows. The fifty or so goons dressed all in black drew back as one, crouching down on their perch on the rooftops to avoid the shrapnel. Presumably, this meant the target had woken up.

"Everybody scatter," shouted Reinare from where she lead the group. "The target has escaped! Search the area around the hospital before he gets away!"

It was Donnasiege - who had survived the blast - that found him first.

He didn't know what had happened after Issei woke up, but the injured boy had let him live. Hadn't even touched him, as a matter of fact. It had been easy to track him, the deadman having only made a few blocks until he collapsed from the wound in his chest. He was slumped against the wall, seemingly unconscious, his hospital gown dirtied in the mud. As soon as he saw him, Donnasiege shoved a spear into his face.

It carved through his skull like a hot knife through butter, sizzling into the wall behind him. He stood frozen for a moment, caught off guard by the anti-climactic kill. He allowed the spear of light to fizzle out and lingered awkwardly for a moment, somehow expecting more. He turned away.

A pale hand pierced into his back and erupted from his chest. "I let you go once," was the last thing he heard as the area around the wound dissolved into grey bio matter. "You should have got the message."

Moments later, a masked henchman walked into the alley. What he saw was Donnasiege; he stood alone, holding his hands up in front of his face and regarding them contemplatively. "Sir?" said the goon hesitantly. "Did you find the target?"

The fallen angel gave him an odd look, as though he were speaking a foreign language. "What was that?"

"Lord Donnasiege..."

"Ah, I see!" he nodded finally. He began to admire his reflection in a puddle. "So I look just like the fallen angel now, right?"

The thug's eyes widened, and he hefted his gun. "You're not Donnasiege."

"No." agreed Issei; he grabbed him by the throat and slammed him headfirst into the wall. The crushed corpse was immediately assimilated, and Issei's appearance automatically altered itself to that of the man he had just killed. He patted the front of the black coat, but the wound in his chest still hadn't closed up.

"Huh," he grunted. "Weird."

"I agree." said someone behind him. Floating a good distance off the ground were two more fallen angels. One was an attractive woman with an outfit that flaunted her large bust, while the other was a small, blond goth-loli. As soon as he spotted them Issei went hurtling to the end of the alley, jumping clear over the wire fence onto the tarmac road beyond. There was no traffic, leaving him free to run as he pleased down the highway; this turned out to be very fast indeed, as his legs began to flicker with shifting biomass and empower him to speeds no human could hope to match.

Ahead of him a car turned onto the road and began to drive towards him. Before he could change direction a black helicopter swooped in from behind a building, launching a rocket at the oncoming vehicle. The missile hit it in the tail end, sending it flipping and screeching towards him. Unable to slow down at such velocity, Issei instead jumped straight towards the flaming ball of metal. He caught it firmly, but was knocked backwards by the superior weight. He landed on his feet and skidded backwards a few yards, before raising the wreckage clear over his head. The chopper opened fire with its machine guns, but the bullets just caused an annoying itching sensation as they passed straight through him, the injuries they caused closing up within seconds.

With an animal roar, Issei hurled the car through the air. The helicopter simply dropped out of the sky as the blazing lump of steel hit it; it crashed to the ground with a sound like breaking glass, screeching across the ground for several feet before grinding to a halt. Issei briefly wondered if this meant he could take a rest before the chopper exploded, indirectly setting off one of its missiles. It went off against Issei's chest, flash-frying his front and sending him flying through the air. He rolled a bit before coming to rest on his back.

He looked dead.

He was.

Reinare, along with the two lackey angels, floated to the ground. "Did we get him?" she snapped impatiently.

"It's hard to say," said the older lackey subserviently. "The target seems to be quite resilient."

"Someone should go over and check." observed the blond.

Silence.

A brief argument ensued over who should go over and finish the job. The dilemma was solved by the arrival of their minions, of whom Reinare chose two at random. The duo approached the corpse, guns at the ready. Though Issei had still been in the form of the grunt he'd killed, the horrifying burns and flame damage rendered him completely unrecognizable. Most of the clothing on his upper body had been incinerated in the blast, leaving the gaping wound next to his heart clear for all to see. The guns the grunts were holding shot bullets made of light in rapid fire, and Issei's body jumped and spasmed as the twin streams peppered his torso. After several minutes they ran out of ammo.

"So that's it?" said the little blond angel nervously. "Is he dead?" The three fallen angels approached their target hesitantly. The older lackey gave him a tentative nudge with her foot, and all of them jumped back. Nothing happened.

With renewed confidence she delivered a full blown kick, the blond stepping up beside her. "See, nothing to worry abo-"

Issei leapt to his feet, arms morphing into claws as he went. He grabbed a fallen angel in each hand and threw the older one to the ground, stomping on her brutally with his left foot. Her body was crushed, then immediately assimilated. The bullet holes closed up and the burns disappeared, but the chest wound stayed where it was. For the first time since she had murdered him, Issei saw his girlfriend's face.

"Reinare," he nodded.

"Issei," she nodded back.

With the terrified blond still clutched in one huge hand, Issei jumped for a nearby building. Channeling biomass to his legs he began to run up the side, digging his feet into the glass and concrete and using sheer ab strength to keep himself from falling. As he flipped himself onto the rooftop two more helicopters rose up to greet him, but it did them little good. Issei grabbed one of the huge ventilation ducts with his free hand and threw it at one of the choppers, then immediately repeated the action for the second. But they had slowed him down, and Reinare was there with her army at her heels. Issei drew back and lifted one long, serrated claw to his hostage's throat.

"Don't move," he warned. "Or she dies."

"Really now," smirked the dark haired woman. "Is that a fact?"

"You think I won't?" snarled Issei, and his claw dug into the blond's neck. She whimpered and screwed her eyes up tight, a single teardrop leaking down her cheek.

"I think you can't!" the other girl laughed. "You were such a gentle boy before, Issei. So caring and thoughtful. It makes one wonder how you could be capable of such violence, such brutality. But then I thought, who isn't?" Her smile became even crueler, if that was possible. "What are the limits of what anyone would do, of who they would hurt in order to survive. So I ask you now... do you need to kill her to survive?"

There was silence on the rooftop. Issei hooked his claw under the blonde's chin and lifted her head. She screwed up her eyes even tighter and her whimpers became even more pathetic. Issei lowered his lips to her ear, and whispered-

"Sorry,"

He kicked her in the back, and she stumbled across the space between them and landed on her knees. She glanced over her shoulder incredulously, unable to believe she had escaped death so easily. "Mitelt," called her superior, and she hurriedly stood up and ran to her side. Reinare smiled down at her, then turned back to her ex. "Well," she smiled. "What now? You killed one of my subordinates after all."

"Not one," said Issei, and his body flickered. He retained his own appearance, but he was wearing Donnasiege's clothes. "Two."

Reinare narrowed her eyes, and likely would have ordered the attack were it not for what happened next.

"What exactly is going on here?" Behind Issei had appeared a group of people his own age. Ridiculously, they were wearing his school uniform. There were eight of them, mostly girls with one boy. Considering who their leader was, they were probably the student council. "What do you think you're doing in my territory!" snarled Sona Sitri. "How many innocent people do you think have been killed already!"

"Oh, relax," laughed Reinare. "We'll just kill this monster here and then we'll be on our way."

"...Hyoudou?" said the only male of the SC. "Is that you?"

Issei gave him a hard look. He'd never met him before. "Yeah, it's me," he said gruffly. "Now I'm going to assume that, like everyone else I've met recently, you want to kill me."

"What?" The boy looked shocked. "Why would you think that?" Sona eyed Issei's claws warily. She had a pretty good idea.

"Because you're devils?" guessed Reinare sardonically.

"Devils." sighed Issei tiredly. "Perfect."

"Wait," said Mitelt suddenly. "When you say 'everyone I've met recently', do you mean people besides us?"

"And who might that be?" said Sona, worried about more troublemakers on her turf.

"Well," said Issei, subtly shifting into a battle ready position. "Them."

All hell broke loose.

The deformed hellhounds had silently stalked across the surrounding rooftops whilst they were distracted, and by the time the attack came they were surrounded. Dozens of exorcists were slaughtered in the first few seconds, Reinare and Mitelt shamelessly using their underlings as human shields in the melee. Sona had reacted quickly, throwing up a barrier around her servants that pushed back any that attacked it, inflicted with burns far worse than Issei had received. The deathling himself was a whirlwind, his claws leaving arcs of blood in their wake as he systematically took apart the assailants. His grace and skill were incredible, though less impressive if you happened to know it was all second hand experience gained from the hounds he had already consumed.

Issei instinctively flipped away from the point of battle; just in time, as a huge creature unlike any before it jumped out of nowhere, crushing the beasts that he had just been fighting. It possessed the same body structure as the hounds, with large, powerful front legs and smaller hind legs. Its skin was grey, like rock, and its face elongated into a snout rimmed with small, sharp teeth. Completing the look were a set of twisted horns and a long tail ending in a club.

The creature roared towards him, head down so it could gore him with its horns. Issei waited until it was just within reach, then grabbed the natural weapons firmly with his claws. His feet skidded across the rooftop as the monster's superior weight pushed him back, the only thing stopping him being the raised edge. As his heels hit the edge Issei tilted backwards, until he was hanging almost horizontally over the sheer drop; desperately, he hung onto the creature's face even as it started trying to bite him furiously.

Suddenly the monster's head jerked back, indirectly heaving Issei to safety. Just over the thing's shoulder he saw the boy from the SC; a length of glowing black thread extended harmlessly through Sona's barrier, connecting his right hand with the back of the beast's skull. Their eyes met for a brief moment.

Issei drew back his claw and stabbed it mercilessly into the creature's bicep, causing it to crumple onto its chin. Seizing the opportunity Issei pulled himself up, straddling its broad neck even as it regained its bearings and hauled itself to its feet. The monster began to rampage across the rooftop, lashing out wildly as Issei carefully directed it where he wanted it to go. When he finally jumped clear of the monster's back it was just about tear into what remained of Reinare's exorcists.

By this point, all the hellhounds were dead save for the large one Issei had just been grappling. Sona allowed her barrier to fall, just as yet another black chopper rose up behind them. Issei sprinted towards them, allowing his claws to morph back into normal human arms. Just before he reached them he jumped, sailing clear over them and slamming into the chopper with a biomass-charged kick. The helicopter crumpled lengthwise and flew backwards, exploding into flames against the side of the building. Not a moment after Issei landed he jumped, soaring effortlessly over the gap and disappearing into the blaze.

By this point, the fallen angels had managed to kill the alpha beast, its head rolling down to the street below and its body pumping thick blood onto the ground. Reinare began to scream at her surviving underlings to attack, but Sona had already created a massive magic circle under her servants, teleporting them to safety.

In the aftermath of the battle, Reinare and Mitelt stared across the gap at the now flaming building opposite. A man drew up beside them. He was human, with white hair and a white exorcist's coat. His name was Freed Zelzan.

"That," said Freed respectfully. "Was one badass mother of god."

Elsewhere, Issei finally allowed himself to rest. He wasn't sure where he was, just that he was in a dark, cold place, and that he was alone. He curled into a ball, finally allowing the events of the last two days to catch up with him.

"How many innocent people do you think have been killed already!"

That was what Sona had said. People in the hospital, people in that car, people in the building he had kicked a helicopter into, people who died in the multitude of car crashes when this farce had started. He had caused people to die, people to suffer, people who would missed by other people who cared about them as much as his mother cared about him.

But that wasn't the worst part.

The worst part, the absolute worst part, was that he knew he would allow it to happen again.

Because nothing-

Nothing!

-was worse than Death.

Issei buried his head in his knees, and started to cry.