Twist of Fate

by Nil00

I learned from my life, that a smallest mistake can even bring a whole big change for my life. The thing is my life is filled with a lot of mistake so what the change will it do to the world?

2. A new life

Thanks for all of you who've read my story!

Truthfully I didn't think that I can write a story as long as this with my decent English skills but I'm still trying to learn it anyway. And sorry for the slow update, I can't stop playing Fate/GO because of the valentine event I've to get all of the chocolates for all of the female servants especially Kiyohime.

And now since there's no real event going on except waiting for the collaboration between KNK and Fate/GO (Free 4* Shiki please!). I decided to write the second chapter of my story, and about the question about what the world will it be, I'm thinking about making this world a fusion between the two but still can't came up with the idea to made the two mages, Magician DXD and Magus Nasuverse coexistent in the same world.

And for mysterious woman, she's an OC I made for the purpose of building Issei bit by bit. And first of all Issei won't have a distortion, he will have his own reason, his own ideal, and his own wish. Issei right now is like a blank that can be filled with anything so the purpose of the OC I've made is to give Issei some sort of purpose in his life.

And once again thanks for the one who have leaves this story some reviews for me to read!

Warning: Bad Grammar and writing, I don't know where is the mistake because if I know I will have fix it already. Shield your eyes or don't read this story if you don't want to.

That aside… Story start.

"Uggh"

I rub my eyes as the light entering my eyes when I woke up, I rubbed my eyes a few more before finally stopping when my eyes has accustomed to the bright white light.

I looked around myself to recognize that I was in some unfamiliar room.

…

Wait, unfamiliar?

I racked my brain to search for a definition of a term called "unfamiliar". Unfamiliar is used to define when someone experiencing something different than what they usually do or seeing something unrecognizable and compare it to what they normally see. Based on that, my brain should deem this kind of thing as new because I can't remember in my life I've been in a room before.

Should I consider this room to be unfamiliar? No, in fact I should consider this the first time I've been in a room. Because in the first place according to my memories I should have never been in a room before. But no matter what I can't help but feel that sometime in the past I've been in room different than this one, maybe because of that I unconsciously used the term unfamiliar for this room?

It's like my brain is just decided this kind of thing without my knowledge and whatnot. I feel like in the past I've been in a different room other than this one and my brain deemed this kind of room is unfamiliar. But no matter how hard I search I swear that I should have never been in a room before, much less a house.

Something is missing, my brain is missing something. I can't remember what happened yesterday, not even what my name was! It seems like I can still talk with an unknown language and some proper things that I've gotten still embedded into my brain.

Come to think of it, this is a house right?

A house must have an owner so that means there's another person right here beside me right? Maybe I can ask something about my situation because no matter how hard I think about this kind of thing is unthinkable for me.

I tried to move my body to get up from the futon intent to search for the occupant of this house, I look down at my body and realized that I was wrapped in some sort of white cloth. Ignoring my naked state, I tried to stand up and the moment I do that…

An unrecognizable pain assaulted me.

"Gih!?"

My body falls into the futon because of the unknown feels of pain, it's hurt. I think that it was a bad idea to move my body right now, well at least I can still get up just fine but to stand up on my own two feet is still unachievable for me right now.

I lay down my body in the soft futon and tried hard to remember my memories before.

My train of thoughts is interrupted by the sound of the door sliding before me. I turned my view to the sliding door and met with a blue haired woman. At that instant…

My memories came back.

"Ah…"

Memories are flooding my mind as I remembered what I've gone through before.

The fire,

The burning city,

The death of many people,

A woman that saved me, and…

The hole.

Yeah, my memories came back but the only thing that I remember is just the fire I've gone through before, I don't remember who my parents was, where I live before, when was I born. Everything was erased except me surviving that hell and that one name that keep lingering in my mind.

When I try to remember who I was, a voice call out to me that stopped me from trying to dive further into my mind.

"Finally awake huh?" The woman said with a clear tone but I noticed a tint relief in her voice though it was really well-hidden. My eyes met with her dark yellow eyes, she was observing me as if I'm a previous thing for her and I can see that she's holding a tray filled with various kinds of food, ranging from rice, soup, water, and pair of chopstick was served on the tray.

Unlike when she saved me before, right now she's wearing some more casual clothes. She's currently wearing a loose blue jeans and simple white collar shirt. All in all she's quite a beauty in my preferences if not for her cold and yellow eyes of hers was staring and piercing at me.

She come closer to me, placed the tray beside her and sitting cross legged on the tatami floor.

….

Ummm.

Should I say something right now?

It's already past a minute and both of us spent that time to glare at each other, observing every movement she make, I sweat dropped at her calm and cold expression plastered across her face even though I'm glaring at her.

Then after finally realizing that nothing will came out of this, she sighed and scratched the back of her head before staring at me again.

"You won't even talk to me? And here I thought that I will be showered with all kinds of questions, I guess I shouldn't expect more from a kid like you huh?" She said and for the second time today, she finally speaks at me.

I tried to mutter out word from my mouth to strike down her complaint but before I even get to form a word, a disturbing sound came from my stomach.

"Growl~"

Any word that I want to speak before then now is stuck within my mouth as I realize that my stomach is empty and demand at me to fill it up. I looked back at the blue haired woman and realized that she's smirking at me and I somehow knew that she's finding this kind of things to be funny.

"Well, you know what? I've brought your food in here so the least you can do is to eat on your own alright? I will leave you alone for a bit." She said while picking herself up and reached out to the sliding door before looking back at me.

"I'll wait in the outside, call me if you're already finished." And with that the door is closed once again and I turn my head to the side of the bed to find the tray of food is waiting for me to fill myself up. I swallowed my saliva and before realizing it myself, my hand is already reaching out for the food on the tray.

Oh well, the question can wait later. For now like that woman said, I must eat before I can do something.

*Scene Break*

Turn out I can still get up a bit to pick the food and eat by myself, although it was hard but I must quickly regain my senses so that I could know what is happening with me. I gulped down the whole glass of water to satisfy the dryness in my throat and finally reclaiming my calmness, I sighed before turning my head to the door before me.

Before I was thinking that she don't care about my situation when she told me to eat on my own even though one could tell from afar that I was a sick person that's wrapped up in lot of bandages then any person will think that my movement was restricted in some way by looking at my pained expression when I tried to move my body.

Based on that statement one could see this woman as someone who doesn't care about me but if I look at it from different angle, it was clear that that woman is the one who've been taking care of me since I've been rescued.

From that it was easy to conclude that I've been feed by this woman surely once or two if my sense of time doesn't mess up then that fire must've been occurred… Yesterday? A week ago? A month? It seems like while I can still think logically about the time and place around me, I still couldn't remember what day it was when the fire occurred and what day is it now.

I could still feel her presence behind the door and just like she said before, she's waiting. I mutter out some words and it surprised me a bit when I can still talk normally like before. I breathe in some air to preparing myself.

"Come in." I said and again with my lost memories, I feel that my voice is strangely matched to what I had in my mind despite my memory lost state. My thought stopped when I hear the door sliding before me, revealing the very same woman who saved my life.

She sat down in the same position as before and from her expression I can conclude that she was tired and restless though she hides it very well. "I will straight to the point in here, kid what is your name?" She said with serious voice and I searched in my mind and what's left of my memories about myself. The only thing that I can find inside my empty mind is just one name but just from that single name, I strangely feel relieved that I, at least remember something.

"Issei… Hyoudou Issei… I-I don't know somehow my memories about myself disappeared" I'm not entirely sure if that's my name or just strange thought I have, but the only thing that is left in my memories is just that single name. I assumed that it was important name because from all of the things I could remember only that one single name that came up on my mind, and so based on that assumption it was either the name of something important to me or my own name.

She sighed again before continuing "A real tricky situation you're in aren't you? Okay, now then Issei. Do you know anything about yourselves? Or is your name is the only one you could remember? About your parents, family or any relatives?" She asked me which I strangely thought felt like she was interrogating me.

"I don't remember anything…" I said honestly but maybe I can talk to her about the fire? Consider this instinct or not, I really thought that the incident yesterday is the one that causing me all of this problems. Assuming that the only one who survived from that incident is only me, I can't really put it into word how I felt about that.

"Then what do you want? Do you want to stay here with me and being taken by me, the woman you just met? Or you prefer to go out and sent off into an orphanage?" The woman said with serious voice but despite that façade she put outside inside her mind, I could see it… somehow, I know that she want something from me.

But really, the choice is hard. I crossed both my arms on top of my chest and put on a thoughtful expression, one reason is clear though that I really want to know about this woman since this is the one who've saved me. But from her statement something about it is making me felt weird, if she wants me to stay with her, why did she say "the woman you just met"? When she could just say "the woman that saved you" to ensure my agreement to live with her?

It's like she's clearly stating that she won't have any hand in this choice of mine, but somehow I feel that if I turn out leaving this house and go into an orphanage, I somehow feels that she will feels a bit sad about my departure.

"Well, the choice is yours to make and don't be too quick to decided it. This is after all one choice that will change your life." The woman said while preparing to leave the room.

"…I will stay here."

And stopped the moment I said that.

"Is it really wise for you to be taken in by a woman you just met?" She shoots down my answer clearly without turning her head back at me. Why? Why did she try really hard to make me leave this house despite inside her, I can see that she don't want me to leave!? This kind of thing is unthinkable for me! I don't even know who this woman is, what her intent is, and what she wants to do with me once I was within her grasp.

But somehow, a small part of me really want to stay with this woman meanwhile my instinct clearly told me that this woman is dangerous and not to mess with her. Is it wise to choose this answer though? If by wise meaning making the most logical and mature choice, then no. But if by wise meaning that I make a choice where I may not regret myself, then yes.

"…I will stay here." I said clearly stating my seriousness since I spoke a same word with different tone of voice, the woman turned her head back at me and – Did she smile? – turned her whole body to face me entirely. I can see a tint of happiness in her cold and calm expression, huh? Strangely I also felt happy that someone is happy because of me.

"Then I guess introduction is needed for both of us to interact more in future no?" She said finally going to introduce herself to me, she put one hand on her hip and looking down at me while having amused expression plastered on her face. "My name is Elisha Leywin, nice to meet you kid."

I nod my head to her introduction and expecting a great future from hers.

*Scene break*

Alright I want to ask myself about the whole thing of wise choice I've made before.

I want to rebutted myself and reclaim that I say I expect a great future from living with hers. Oh really, I really want to make some sense to the past-me. Oh well who am I to choose? I'm just a kid with memory lost and also there's a saying that a beggars can't choose right?

The thing that I found dissatisfaction with is how I can come to this conclusion. Currently after having dinner I was trying to learn how to clean the whole house, where I and Elisha currently live. The problem is not that I'm complaining about how big this house is for someone who live alone, it's the fact that Elisha don't want to even do any housework.

Anyway back to the problem, I wondered how I can become something akin to… I think the term "housewives" is matching for this kind of situation? Anyway, after I've made a great leap in my recovery I've told that, if you want to live and eat in this house you must work. So I did just that.

At first I'm just cleaning my own room and several unused guest rooms in this house but seeing Elisha's bad work at housework I can't help but do a face-palm. If I was told how bad she is at doing housework then I've to say that she doesn't even have any experience in it.

It also explains how all of the room is dirty-looking as if someone haven't been occupied it for years. The cooking is… I can't even say it as bad because of that incident, I can still remember how I need to clean up the kitchen because of the accidental explosion in the kitchen and the culprit just turned her head away from my glare and not saying anything regarding the obviously-accidental explosion.

I'm volunteered to learn how to cook from our former housekeeper and the result is… well at least it's a bit better than Elisha's and I don't even make an explosion so hurray to that! So with that, that's one thing to add from my job I currently have besides cleaning the rooms which is cooking training because I'm prohibited to use kitchen other than making simple fried eggs and toast. I asked about the rest of the house situation and once again she turned her head away as if saying that she doesn't want to have any relations with the problem.

So I wandered around the house looking for any dirty spot to clean off while at the same time also trying to memorize the structure of the house. From the outside and inside I can see that some of the building is designed in Japanese style and some of the guest room is designed in Western style, maybe to change the scenery?

The house is big enough that it can maybe accommodate 5-8 peoples despite the only people living in here is just me and Elisha. Because of our situation – Neither of us could cook – Elisha go to our former housekeepers and beg her to made us breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She surprisingly agreed to work for free but just to make food, because the cleaning task is on me, Elisha quickly accept it without my consent.

The name of our former housekeepers is Mrs. Takagi, also our neighbor but Elisha seldom talks to her so I just assumed their relationship as just acquaintance. She is the one who cook for our meal, sometime she also gave me some pocket money for me to buy something but I never use it and always give it to Elisha.

That will also explain how my room is clean despite the others is dirty. When I'm still sick she must've told Takagi-san to clean my room when I was asleep and if what she said about our current living finances is true then it's safe to assume that Takagi-san is paid cheap with the condition of cleaning only my room and cooking for both of us. I can't think of other logical explanation since this house is really huge, I imagined that to keep this house clean everyday one must at least have one or two servants.

But now she's not a paid housekeeper anymore so it's not her duty to care about our house – Which the said duty fells to me –, but despite not being paid anymore she still happily cook the food for us. After some time, I begin to learn from watching her cooking and right now still training how to cook.

Back to the cleaning duty…

While it may seems like a waste to clean up the unused room, I just don't like to see something left dirty just because it was unused and Elisha is too busy to care about my opinion so I just took it as she agreed to.

It has dojo that's once again unused even though the place is a nice place to relax and meditate, Elisha seems to not agree with me and prefer to relax on a nice warm bed. I've made some agreement with Elisha that sometime in the future I will spar from time to time with her.

And there's also that old shed outside of the house at the edge of the yard that I was forbidden to come in by Elisha, though I want to see it so badly I can't risk of getting her anger because I know that she is not someone to mess with much less made enemy with. So I avoided the shed for now but if by any chance that I'm offered to come in and take a look, I will take that chance anytime right now.

Ah, I let my thought strayed off again. I can't really focus into one thing at a time when I have so much to think on.

It has already been four months since I live with her in this house, of course I myself has already asked her about the fire which she answered that she doesn't really know about it. I know she's lying, but decided not to ask her further about it. After the incident somehow I can see when someone lying or not and I can feel other people feelings naturally. After realizing the ability I had, I quickly asked Elisha about it and the answer is not what I expect.

She told me that this sort of thing is not what normal person usually haves especially when the one who have it is still a child no less than 10, I asked her of course, is this sort of thing is wrong? She then asked me about how I felt about my life right now which I answered.

I feel empty.

I still remembered how her expression turned grim once I said that and from that time I realized that something is wrong about how I live. Then what came out from her mouth was not what I expected from someone like her. A curse, I remembered when she said that. In exchange of knowing the feeling of other person had, I suffered the lack of something that made me empty.

It was then that I realized what is made me different from other person. I'm devoid of enjoyment and can't have "fun" like other people had.

I can't really put it in a word how I felt about the curse and sometime asking myself about the meaning of life, is living my whole life filled with pleasure and joy is something right? I asked Elisha and she told me about how I lack some common sense and started to teach me about it from the scratch. It feels weird to be told what is right and wrong in my life and what should I do if I'm going to take my first step to the outside world.

But even though I can't have fun or enjoy my life like any other people can, I sometime unconsciously smile when Elisha felt happy about something, when other people was happy because of me I can't help but think that seeing someone smile is something weird. It's like there's something that's urging me to do it more, to make more people happy, even though I'm empty is this… what people called desire? A weird way to life maybe it's because how Elisha always told me to help people in need is a right thing?

Maybe I can found and regain my emotions back? Maybe I can found some sort of purpose in my life? Maybe my life will not be so empty anymore when I can finally have something that can be called "fun"?

Then there's also a problem with my memory lost too, sometime if I'm doing something that I've been doing before I lost my memories then sometime my body muscle will remember it even though I don't remember ever doing that before.

It feels weird but that's the way the thing is with my current state.

I sighed to myself and get back in the house. There again, I let my thought stray and unfocused at the task that I'm currently doing which is trying to memorize the whole house.

Anyway back to the topic at hand, I also found that this house is filled with many weird things, for example one of the guest rooms is decorated with many antique-looking things inside the room like a small knife that emitting a strange aura that I can't describe with word or a grotesque-looking statue that made me feels weird every time I came close to. Elisha also forbids me to not play or touch any of them and she also told me not to come in her room without her permission.

Did she will be embarrassed because her room is dirty? But when she's warning me to not come in her room, I didn't detect any kind of embarrassment or strange thought, it's a pure seriousness and her expression is cold and emotionless as always. So I take the warning seriously and didn't do much to her room, I sometime offered to clean her room but she always refused saying that she can do it alone.

And then there's also my own room, since I'm still a child I was given a room near Elisha's was but whereas I can't see Elisha's room which made it more mysterious, my room is nothing but plain and normal for someone like me I feels more relaxed when there's nothing ridiculous like room filled with various poster of artist and similar things like that.

My room is just a plain Japanese tatami-floored room filled with a cushion on the floor to sit when I'm trying to relax and an empty desk waiting to be filled. There's also a clock without alarm on my desk and a wardrobe filled with currently two set of clothes and one jacket.

It's already night so I purposefully go to the living room where the kitchen is also located and found Elisha is already there sitting on one of the cushion while munching on rice cracker and sometime switch to sip the green tea that she have already prepared before – even if she can't cook that doesn't mean she can't even make a simple green tea.

She rested her head on her left hand while the other hand is used to eat the rice cracker, she right now is currently watching the news on the TV, even though her eyes is fixed on the screen, her face right now is a very definition of bored-looking. I sat on the opposite end of the wooden-made table across of her to make my presence known to her.

Noticing my presence she stopped looking at the TV and turned her head at me.

"What's going on Issei? Finally bored looking around the house?" She asked while still eating the snack in her hand.

"Not really, though I really need some rest now that I spent my entire day running around the whole house." I replied while reaching out for the kettle filled with green tea and a cup to drink. I pour down the hot green tea and take a sip from it before listening to what will Elisha said to me.

"I've told you that didn't I? It's your own fault that you ignored my warning." She paused to munch the rice cracker down and continue. "Heck, even I don't really care about this whole house except my own room and yours."

I deadpanned at myself upon listening to her explanation, from what I've learned usually most of the people will always check their house inside to ensure their own safety and the one who will live with them but it seems like this woman in front of me isn't included in most of the people I've mentioned.

"You don't even know what's inside of your own house? Really Elisha?" I replied to her while reaching out for the rice cracker on the table.

"As much as I want to, my business is not so easy as you thought that I can spent the entire day looking around the house just to make sure I memorize the whole house unlike you who doesn't really do anything."

I raised an eyebrow at her long explanation. It's not unusual for her to engage in conversation like this but sometime it always ended short and it never get into this long. Meanwhile the person in question is already turned her attention back to the TV and ignored my whole presence, I felt kind of annoyed at her saying about me so I decided to rebut her statement.

"Said someone who's ordering me around to do the whole housework?" I ask her who still has her gaze fixed at the screen and without even looking at me she replied again.

"Who did you think the one who earn our living expense kid?" And my claim is instantly shoot down at her explanation. I sighed once again at her response but I can't help but feels that sometime I also need this kind of conversation for a breath of fresh air. Unconsciously a small smile crept up on my face.

"Alright I give up, but if I'm not here then who's going to cook and clean?" This time she turned her head at me and gives me her answer to my previous question.

"I can just hire some housekeeper to keep this house clean and cook for me."

"Really? And I thought it was only yesterday that you said "If I keep hiring Takagi to do our housework, our money for living is going to be emptied out sooner or later." Right?"

"It's a truth kid, honestly I can't expect you to know the job of adult like me." She said with a tired sigh.

"If you mean locking yourselves up in a room everyday was a job then yeah you really do a great job at that."

"Gee, thanks."

A smile made a way on her face as her gaze is fixated on the TV once again. "Come to think of it, is Takagi-san already leaving?" Basically the one who do the cleaning is me and sometime Takagi-san if she has some free time but the one who cook lunch, dinner, and sometime breakfast is always Takagi-san. If Takagi-san is not here in the morning I'm the one who's usually made Elisha and me a breakfast.

She tilted her head to the side while looking lazily at the TV. "Just a minute ago, she's blabbering about "Making your own food" and all about "Housewives" but I don't hear it really well so I just ignored her."

"How rude is that for someone who's voluntarily taking care of us."

She stopped looking at the TV and turned her gaze back at me while saying "Oi, oi that's not really my fault isn't it? After all I've already told her that I'm not interested in such a talk like that, that's her own fault for not listening to me."

"Yeah yeah you win this time Elisha, but really tomorrow please apologize to Takagi-san okay?"

"Don't tell me what to do kid, I know what I'm doing and I don't regret it."

"That would be a good line to say if not for the fact that what you're doing is wrong."

Turning back to her TV again without even looking at my eyes she continued talking. "Your enthusiasm aside, how about you go out tomorrow? It's been already four months since you've stayed in this house and I don't want you to become NEET because I've already saved up some money for you to complete your highschool."

"Shouldn't you say that to yourselves though? You yourselves didn't even get out of this house except to buy some groceries."

"Cause if I don't who will buy it? You're still a kid and your arms are still not trained enough to carry some heavy things right?"

"Well sorry but expect it to be done sometimes in the future."

She smile slightly at my response and begin to talk again. "But really Issei, right now you really need a breath of fresh air and although I'm not going to force it, go make some friends with kids at your age."

Yeah, it maybe it was a good idea for me to go out sometime, to make a friend huh? Come to think of it, I don't really interact much with peoples except Elisha. The least that I do is just go outside to take a walk and never talk with kids of my age, based on that I wasn't someone that people usually call "normal" huh?

Even if Elisha said it, that doesn't mean I'm never go out of this house. I sometime go out to walk around this whole town called "Kuoh Town" but never going past the city border because of Elisha's warning, I want to explore the mountain near the town but because I'm still a child now, maybe then in the future.

Back to the topic though, I also go out to talk with our neighbors since Elisha is too lazy to form a relationship with them. The weird things is that people more older than me are attracted strangely because of me and sometime also given pocket money by elderly people around this neighborhood.

It seems like Elisha didn't notice that I attracted older people and casually saying that I don't have any friends, though I befriended several elderly and adult in this town I've never play with any of their kids huh? I guess what she said about making a friend with a kid at my age might be a good things to start with.

"I'm also going out sometime too you know? You just never see me do it."

"Eh really? Well sorry to say but I'm going to ask you this have you talk to at least one kid around your age and made a friend with him/her?"

Guh! She got me good this time.

"Alright, don't worry okay? I will follow your advice this time. Also as you said, it's a good time for me to make some friend."

"Huh? You will really do it?" She said with a fake surprised tone, it was well-hidden that I almost can't hear the difference but with my gift(curse) I able to differentiated the real and fake.

"Mhm." I nodded in agreement at her question. She sighed in relief and from her face I can see that she felt kind of relieved at what I don't know.

"Wait, what did you think I'm going to do?"

"I'm glad that you will go out to make some friend, I thought you will become some kind of shut-in."

"Your worry is misplaced you know." I said while trying to reach for another rice cracker. One thing that I know from living with her is that I always lose at argument with her.

"Heh. You still got a lot to learn if you're worried about me then at least try to reach for my level."

"What kind of level are you talking about?" I sweat dropped at her statement and want to say that I surpassed her in housework but doing so would mean that I've become quite arrogant. I pick up one of the empty cup and filled it with the green tea from the kettle.

I gulped it down a whole and sighed. If I'm really going to make friends then I suppose I should learn some common sense from Elisha huh? Sometime she always said that I lack something that made me the same from other people. One of them is how I lack common sense.

Yeah hate to say it but because of that "incident". I've already thrown away my common sense a long time ago, so to put it in a way I must first learn some common sense from the scratch if I want to make some friends.

A yawn escaped from my mouth as I tried hard to stay awake but the sleepiness is hard to resist. Seeing this Elisha made another smile at me.

"Don't try too hard to stay awakes kid, I know that you want to accompany me tonight but it's already late anyway so why don't you go to sleep?"

I shake my head at her question still trying to stay awake but my view start to become blurry as my eyelids started close but I managed to open it again only to find that it started to close again.

"You're really a stubborn one aren't you?" she said with a hint of annoyance in her voice and I could tell that despite annoyed, she also found this scene entertaining. Meanwhile I still trying to keep my eyelids from closing, managed to get a glimpse of her smile that seems to melt into the bright light. I shake my head and slap myself in the cheeks to keep myself awake.

I stare at the clock that's etched into the wall and found that it's already 09:15. Yeah, normal or not, amnesia or not, a kid usually or should sleep in such a time like this.

"You will go out tomorrow right? So get a good night rest so that tomorrow you can play in the park."

Yeah, using that logic I should've sleep by now. I don't hate this kind of peaceful life and I hope that this peaceful scenery can last forever. I get up from the cushion and started to make my way to my own room, I slide the door but was stopped when Elisha called out to me.

"Sorry but do you think you can warm up the bath for me?"

"You want to take a bath this late?" My voice's volume is low and it sound lazy and kind of sloppy at that moment I realize that I really need to sleep, I let out another yawn as I waited for Elisha's answer.

"Yeah, I really need one right now you know? Business and all of that make my body sore."

"Mhm." I nodded and think that maybe even though she locked herself up in her room, she really doing some kind of job huh? It's unthinkable for me right now to think how Elisha could earn moneys just by doing a job in a room, but I understand enough from her tired face that it's not something that I should ask and know about now.

Yeah, this kind of peaceful life isn't so bad after all.

*Scene Break*

I wake up when the light from the sun is shining through my opened window, opening my tired eyes I rub it a few times before stretching my body to made myself sure that I'm fully awake and prepared to go away from my room.

It's already 05:15 when I looked into the clock on the desk in my room. I folded up the futon that I've used to sleep just a while ago and go to the kitchen to prepare the breakfast for both occupant of this house.

When I go to the living room – That's also connected with the kitchen – I didn't see anyone and deem it as usual scene since Elisha always stayed up late, it's normal that she doesn't like to wake up early in the morning and considering that she once told me that she's not a morning person to begin with, I can't force my opinion of waking up early into her right?

I smiled a little at the experience of doing my first time cooking, and although it didn't ended up in explosion, the egg that I try to fry for the first time was burnt black into crisp and so I practiced for one month to cook with the stove and frying pan before finally cooking my first fried egg.

When I asked Elisha about the caution of using cooking utensils for the children, she just shrugged it off and like usual she casually saying "As long as you're not wounded then it's fine, practice all you want." I want to refute that and say "How about you try to cook?" But since I didn't want to repeat the previous cooking incident, I decided that it would be wise to stay calm and did nothing about it.

And here I am, a child no more than 6 making a quick breakfast while his guardian is sleeping inside her room.

"Well…"

It's no use to try and talk with her about cooking in the first place so I don't really have any choice in this can't I?

*Scene Break*

""Thank you for the meal""

Both of us said in the same time, our breakfast is nothing special though. It's just two sunny-side-ups eggs and toast for each of us. After finishing the breakfast, I drink some water and put the plate back into the sink to wash it meanwhile Elisha is already has her hand on the remote TV and proceeding her activities as usual to watch the morning news.

Now that I think about it, if she's outside of her room Elisha's always watching TV or if our refrigerator is empty she will actually go out and buy some from the nearest convenient store. Basically her life is just work, watching TV, buying groceries, eat, drink, and sleep. Though she will answer my question if I'm asking something, but if I ask about something vague like how should I life then she will not answer me.

She will also told me if I'm doing something in a wrong way and sometime correct it but if I'm not actually doing anything then she will not even bother to talk to me.

"Hey Elisha, I've been really meaning to ask this…"

Elisha's gaze is still fixed on the screen of the TV where the news is telling about the weather forecast for today, but I will take that as "yes" anyway.

"How come that you're just watching the news channel everyday, it's like you don't even want to watch any other show at all." Yes, what I've stated is true. She's practically just turning the TV on and off, never did she watch any entertainment show all she watch is just news and sometime politics.

"Hmm? Ah, this thing?" She said while pointing to the TV and the remote at the same time. "It's not like I'm lazy to change the channel but considering that I give a little care about the politics of this country, all I focused into is something general like weather predictions, traffic accidents, and other crimes around this world."

"Heee, I never thought you to be the type to care about something like that." I said honest about my current thought at her statement.

"Well, for weather predictions it's just for some trivial things but for crimes…" She paused and closed her eyes to think about how to say the words. "It's a lives we're talking about you know? How do you feel when you know that everyday other people are dying all over the world?"

That… "I'm… not entirely sure how to answer that…"

She blinks for a few times before letting out a tired sigh. "Oh yeah, you're still a kid… don't take the way I said seriously alright? Although you're different than kid at your age usually, that still did not change the fact that your mind is still in developed state."

I know that I shouldn't take what she said seriously because from what I've learned kid usually spent their time with playing and sometime studying, but me? I am empty and devoid of enjoyment, I can't even have a thought about what if I can have fun like any normal people out there.

That aside though, what do I feel when people dying huh? My memories shifted back to the fire who have made my life like this and when I thought about the people around me are dying, I can't help but hating that even though deep inside me, I'm empty. Seems like human emotions are more complex than I thought huh?

I stopped my current activities for a second to ask something that I've been holding for some time. "Then do you think that killing people is wrong Elisha?"

"Based on the reason, I think. If takes for example a people who's already have a messed up mind to begin with begun to kill someone accidentally and take pleasure in killing someone. What do you think of it Issei?"

"Is that evil?"

She snorts a little and her eyes were no longer staring at the screen in front of her but staring into one of the empty space in the house. "Depend, some will take it as evil while some who have the similar mindset like that killer will understand the whole point of killing and sometime will deem it as normal or good. Then again…" She trailed off looking upward as if trying to remember some old memories.

"There's also a type of people who although rare but exist, this person is the one who do killing to save another person life, like someone who will kill the whole village just to protect their family or the opposite where this person will usually kill the one who made the crime and in the end saved more life than the one he killed, usually this type of people will sacrifice few to save many." She finished and putting back the plate to its place I asked.

"If other people think that killing is wrong and evil while they thought that saving life is correct and good then what do they view in someone who kills people to save another?" I said voicing my curiosity, even if I know that she's a bit annoyed at a lot of my question, I can't help but want to ask it anyway maybe it was my instinct as a child to have a lot of curiosity.

"You really like to ask a hard question huh? But well I've got nothing to do anyway so I will answer it." She said while pouring the green tea to drink while explaining.

"The type of people you said is usually someone who upholds justice. They're unwanted people by the view of the world but needed by people regardless of their feeling."

I tilted my head to the side while still washing the dish in the kitchen, still not understanding I asked her about it. "Then if a killer is pleasuring himself by killing people, is it evil?"

"That's… a hard question to answer with…" She said while putting on a thoughtful expression, placing her hand on her chin while trying to come up with the answer to my question.

"What you're basically saying is that, is selfish evil? The thing I know is that not all of selfish people are evil, if take example of someone who wants to protect his loved ones and will do anything to protect them which involves killing.

"It's hard to say whether he's evil or not because even though he's merciless toward the one who threatening his family, he's doing that because he's protecting something close to him which actually quite a noble action if I've to say."

I finished washing all the dishes and turned my attention back to the other occupant of this room. Drying off my hands using the towel that have been prepared in the kitchen beforehand, I sat on one of the cushion while resting my head on the table.

Elisha poured down another cup of green tea and giving it to me while sipping her own. "Here, you seems like you need to take some load off from your mind." She said meanwhile I just lost in my own thought about what she said before.

"Thanks…"

"Hey Elisha…" I begin but stopped abruptly to think about how to say the question in my mind, all this talk about evil and good is making my head and mind confused about the meaning of that but what I'm going to ask Elisha is different. And I never actually think that she will actually answer my question about killing…

"I'm asking if… if there's someone who enjoy and take pleasure in other people suffering, is he evil?"

She sighed and closed her eyes for a second, rubbing her temple before actually replied my question. "If that someone can only enjoy from other people suffering then isn't he basically just a victim? Why do you ask this anyway?"

"…." I'm not actually sure how I was going to answer that, I don't know why but I get that strange thought of evil and good from nowhere and just decided to go ask for it. Even though I said that idea come from nowhere, deep down inside me I know why I want to ask that it's because…

"It's just… you know that I'm not like normal person and can't actually have fun in doing anything so..." I stopped, my mouth can't reproduce the word that I want to say, it just seems like the word stuck in my mouth. She turned her whole body and facing me while giving me her emotionless looks that she used when the situation is really serious.

"You're scared."

….

Yeah. What she said is right on the spot.

That may be actually true, yeah it maybe just me scared of going down that path. If that someone who can only enjoy from people suffering is me, then I'm scared that maybe it's better to end my life than to see other people suffering and the one who enjoy and causing that is me.

I know that I shouldn't be like this. I should have finds a better healthy way of life and never ever to have the thought of going down of that path.

"Don't worry about it, I know that you're scared because of how different you're from normal people but inside I know that you're not that sort of person."

"Thanks Elisha, I-I really need that…" I said thanking her honestly from deep down my heart, She smile slightly at me and I know that she will tease me about it later so I will clear the misunderstanding here right now. "I-It's not like that okay? Well you know about the future and all. Because of you, I feel that something that's been weighing me down has been loaded off."

She closed her eyes and shook her head "What are you going to do without me here? Though I think that as a kid you don't need to think about your future yet, there's still some time until you go to school so until then just lives your life to the fullest."

Although you say that what can I do to enjoy my life? What is the purpose of my life? People in the news always said to not let the kid at my ages to be corrupted and follow the evil path, but…

"If what you've said is true… Then what is the whole point of good and evil in the first place?"

"Feels free to think about what is the definition of good and evil, because there's almost no point thinking about it in the first place. For example if you take the life of your enemy then your ally or partner will think that as a normal action meanwhile the enemy will obviously think of you as evil because you've killed one of their ally, there's no point in thinking about good and evil because all humans no matter what have both of the quality in the first place."

I closed my eyes and let the words proceed down into my brain and understanding the meaning behind it. Looking down at my cup of green tea, I met down with the reflection of myself, my brown hair hanging down and blocking my view.

"If it's like that then isn't good and evil is just a side of one coin respectively?"

"Yes, if you put it like that then it will make more sense for someone like you. How about…" She paused for a while before what seems like an idea popped up into her mind. "Think about this, if sometime your life is like a coin, there's good and evil, right and wrong, all of that is just one whole coin for us to think and to choose how we want to live."

"Then what do you consider wrong and right?"

This time she did not answer me and she stay silent until I realized that she will not answer me, I let out a sigh and stared at my reflection again for the second time today.

Swallowing my saliva, I gulped down one whole cup before asking Elisha again. "Have you…" I trailed off a bit, not sure how to interpret it but steeling myself up I decided to ask about it. "Have you killed someone?"

…

…..

…..

And the whole room temperature turned down once I say that, it's only metaphor of course but I can see that Elisha also has a hard time trying to answer my question. Her face is emotionless as always which made it hard to know what she's thinking but when I look closer, I can see that though small there's a hint of sadness in her face. From that I can know that she…

"I have." And my question was answered at the same time in my mind and by her answer. Her face is looking grim and her eye looks a bit sad when I mentioned the whole mention of killing someone. For a minute both of us didn't say anything but after several seconds, finally Elisha spoke up again.

"You're not going to ask what my reason was?" Elisha asked me, and stopped staring into nothingness to turn her gaze at me who still in the kitchen.

"I won't…" I answered truthfully, sure I want to know why's she doing that, why did she kill someone but at least one thing for sure is that I know she have her own reason to do it and I won't pry any further if she don't want me to.

"If what you said about good and evil is true then at least I can rest easy thinking that a person who's kind like you must've a good reason to take another person life."

"And why do you think I'm kind? Even though everyday I've been doing nothing but ordering you around. If you think I'm really a kind person then why do you think I'm not even taking care of you?"

"That's for me to decide whether I'm going to deem you as kind or cruel person no? In some side maybe I can say that you're cruel and cold but beneath that I can see that you're kind enough to at least have a feeling to care about me, even though you didn't show it that much."

For a while none of us say anything and my brown eyes are staring back into her surprised looking yellow eyes. Then after approximately ten seconds, her whole body started to shake a bit and she started to snicker before she let loose a small laugh for the first time I've seen her in my life.

That…

I don't expect that, never did I expect that she will show me her whole hearted fully laugh. The most she does when I'm around was snicker and smiling a bit but she never laugh when I was around, that's what made me surprised.

Eventually her laughs begin to subside and she looks at my eyes again this time, it was accompanied by a small smile. "You really trust me don't you?"

I shrugged off my shoulder while replying. "I've no choice in that matter. It's the least I can do to pay my debt to you, by trusting you with my life."

"That's good and all, but thinks a little about putting your trust in someone ok?"

"Mhm" I nodded, still feeling little uncertainty about her honest laugh, it's the first time I've seen it usually she just give me a small smile but she never laugh. That's why I was surprised, maybe there's more than I see with human emotions.

"I wanted to ask you this, why are you suddenly laugh?"

"Is it wrong to laugh? Laugh or smile is a way to express enjoyment or happiness at something after all."

"I'm surprised, I never thought of you as someone who can say that. I think that you won't care about this kind of thing."

"For all of that talk about knowing other people feeling, don't you know why I am laughing?"

Yes, it's true. While I may cannot fully understand the whole mechanics of human emotions, I can at least sense when is the time to ask something or when's the time to stay silent. Human emotion is a complex structure that one can't hope to achieve to understand the mechanics behind it. Fortunately my skill(curse) allow me to sense other people feelings although not perfect, at least now I can sense whether person is sad, angry, happy, etc.

"I can read people's feeling but I can't read their mind alright?"

"Heh such a convenient tool, if you can read other people mind then do you think you don't need school for the time beings?"

"Don't you think the environment where the child growing is important too?"

"Ah right, there's that factor too huh?" She said agreed with the idea while nodding her head several times.

Then after a while none of us say anything and I know that Elisha is already feeling quite tired and decided not to be too insensitive I stay silent. Elisha's attention turned back to the TV and I was too busy watching the scene in front of me.

It showed a man in his 20's wearing a hakama while wielding a Shinai(Practice weapon used in kendo). In front of him is his opponent which has a similar stature as him. The man charge and swing his Shinai at his opponent with a speed that's quite fast for my eyes. Then after the attack connected with his opponent's body, he distanced himself away from his opponent and fixing his stance.

It was an amazing move for me who still did not have the strength to do that move yet. I think it was pretty amazing that human body can do that sort of thing but Elisha who also watching the same thing at me did not even look surprised at all if was her expression did not even change and it remain emotionless as she lazily watch the man beat up his opponent with a move that's fascinating me right now.

Not long after that, the news about the kendo championship is ended and seeing there's nothing else to do I get up and go to the courtyard and enjoying the morning sun.

The morning sun is shining beautifully as I walked around the courtyard with no real purpose at hand. I turned my attention to the dojo and felt my curiosity picked up, I go to the dojo with the intent to do something that I want to experiment a bit.

Sliding the door of the dojo with my small body was quite heavy but I managed to do it, before when I see Elisha sliding the dojo's door easily I believe that I can do it too but it seems like body type is important for all sort of things too.

Stepping into the silent wooden-made floor, I can't help but feels relaxed at the sight of the clean reflection of myself when I was standing on the wooden floor. Yesterday I've made sure to clean every inch of this place when I was feeling bored and I'm relieved that at least the hard work that I've made was being pay off.

The interior is clean and there's also shinai lining up beside the wall. I usually go into this place when I'm trying to relax or train my body, like push-ups, sit-ups, etc. But even though today I don't want to do any of that, I will settle to just sit silently while looking around.

Proceeding to do just that I go to the corner of the room beside the Shinai and think about what I'm going to do today. I closed my eyes and thinking that today I will go to the park to meet with some kids and interact with them and hopefully made some friend to "play" with.

That aside though how I'm going to have "fun" and "play" like other kid do? In the first place I don't even know what is "fun", will making friends regained my emotions back? I don't know about any of that because in this life, I've never had any person that I can call friend.

I opened my eyes again and the sight of the silent dojo greeted me. Nothing is going to change if I don't do something, if I'm just going to sit around do nothing then I won't be able to change. I must find the purpose of my life, my wish, my reason.

Relaxing my body once again I look back to the sun that's shining through the window, from here I could see that it's still not lunch yet since the sun is still not above my head yet that means it still morning or close to lunch time. If lunch is already come then Takagi-san will usually come to here and cook something for us, free of charge of course.

Turning my head to the Shinai beside me, I stand up and picked up one of the Shinai and tried to copy the stance that I sometime seen in the TV. I swing the Shinai and imagined an opponent in front of me, the swing was struck at my imaginary opponent torso.

I practiced the stance that I've mimicked through the TV and swing the Shinai a few more times before my body tires out and I fall to the floor while panting quite heavily.

And done.

In here, Issei think and believe himself to be empty person and don't have emotion at all. But it was shown that Issei can at least smile albeit unconsciously without the person himself noticing it. how can this happen? It will be revealed sometime in the future. Issei will regain his emotion back, and will have his own ideal.

In this chapter, it was just a whole character development for Issei. I can't just made Issei into overpowered protagonist in one chapter without a real reason can't I? I'm sorry if this chapter was boring for all of you who read this but I think it was needed to show Issei's life when he's adopted by Elisha.

And then there's also my OC. Elisha in this story act like a parental figure to Issei so that Issei can at least grow up like a normal child despite his constant feeling of emptiness. In this Issei can be anything because of his empty state, if he was told to become a teacher and study to become one then he will do it, if he's told by a killer to become one then he will do it.

Issei was lucky that Elisha found him and Elisha is not completely irrelevant to the story, she's an OC that I made but she has quite a story with the canon main character. If you look closely about her appearance then any DxD fans will know about the canon character she had relationship with.

And for Issei's house, I'm sure that it was familiar to our certain-red-haired-blacksmith-magus.

In the next chapter Irina will show up and maybe lots of OC's going to show up in this story too because I think DxD world don't have enough human in it because Issei will stay human in this story.

As for Issei's power… It will involve heroic spirit but I'm still reluctant to put Zelretch in all of this mess because the heroic spirit won't be in the card form but…

Oh well I'm still not really sure about the whole Zelretch class card but one thing for sure is that Issei will face a lot of problems with heroic spirit.

And then there's a grail too…

Because I've an exam, I may or may not update the story for a while.

Well, enough to be said. Please give me a lot of reviews and sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes, I'm still new in this writing fanfiction so I apologize for any mistake that I've made and gives a lot of reviews again!