Disclaimer: The following is a fan-based parody. Highschool DxD, Highschool DxD New, and Highschool DxD BorN are owned by Fushimi Shobo, TNK, Funimation, and Ichiei Ishibumi. Please support the official release.

Volume 1 Life 3: Life Is A Battle

"OK, Ria-senpai, tell me again...Why are we standing in front of a big, creepy, obviously-haunted house?"

Ikki looked up at the large, dilapidated building in front of them. Broken walls, shattered windows, creaking structure so bad that you could hear it from outside, it had just about everything needed to make it seem just the right amount of creepy. Ikki had never been afraid of ghost stories, but even he knew there was something more to the building than meets the eye. He could feel a malicious close-by.

"I told you before, Ikki," Rias answered, showing a hint of playful irritation, "I want you to call me "Buchou" during club activities."

"I'm just really surprised "club activities" include coming to an abandoned house in the middle of the woods at..." Ikki let out a heavy yawn, raising his arm to look at his wristwatch. "...12:47 AM in the morning...Damn, Rias. My alarm clock isn't even awake right now..." Ikki let his head fall to the left, his consciousness slowly fading. "How bothers...Zzzzzz...Zzzzzz..." He had fallen asleep standing up.

Yuuto walked up to Ikki and started snapping his fingers in front of his face, only stopping when he saw Ikki's eyes slide open albeit slightly. "Now isn't the best time to fall asleep on us, Ikki." It had taken a bit, but Ikki gradually managed to get everyone in the club to start calling him by his preferred name. In spite of the polite smile, Ikki knew from Yuuto's tone that he was actually being rather serious. Ikki wasn't foolish enough to believe that Devils would have come to a place such as this if not for a serious reason.

"But I'm so tired..." Ikki complained, his body hunching over. "How come Tsu-chan doesn't have to come with us...? She's a Devil toooo..."

"Yes, but as we told you before, Ikki, Tsubaki Shinra belongs to a different Peerage." Akeno reminded him. "Her master, the Student Council President, possesses the duty of keeping the peace over our school during the day while we, the Occult Research Club, protects the school and the town at night by dealing with disturbances and dangers that normal humans would be unable to deal with."

"...You make it sound like you're Batman..." Ikki pointed out. Then he closed his eyes, frowning. "...Batpeople?...Bat-family?" In his mind, he could not help but start thinking about the catchy, old-time music he had listened to once while surfing the internet. "Hmhmhmhmhm...Batmaaan..." The Americans were odd, but they did, in fact, have good cartoons. Ikki didn't have interest in it at first, but his dad had brought home some DVDs and video tapes when he returned from a business trip to America. Ikki had only started watching out of boredom, but now he liked any TV series with superheroes be it English, Japanese, or any other language.

"As to what we are currently doing, it is simply a part of the previously mentioned task for our club." Rias continued, trying to steer the conversation back on topic. "Our objective and reason for entering this filthy place is to hunt down a creature referred to as a Stray Devil."

"Ooh," Ikki called out without much change in tone, raising his hand, "Does this mean we're continuing the tutorial?" His voice was level but his face betrayed the interest and curiosity he felt.

"Yes, Ikki," Akeno confirmed, deciding to continue without raising questions about the boy's terminology, "we are continuing the tutorial. This evening's tutorial will go over what a Stray Devil is, how to confront them, and how to punish them like the disgusting pigs they are." She could not help the pleasant chill that went down her spine at the thought of "punishment", even if their intentions for that place were a different meaning of the word.

"Sounds fun." Ikki said, completely missing how Akeno's tone had changed. "So, let me kick the tutorial off by asking "What is a Stray Devil"?"

It was Rias who answered this time. "As I'm sure you remember, after the Great War between the factions, the Devils developed a tool, known as "Evil Pieces", to turn other races into Devils to help replenish our numbers. While there were some Devils who cared for and treated their servants well, there were others who hadn't, resulting in some of these servant Devils to become Strays." Rias seemed to pause suddenly, considering her words. "Well, to say that a Reincarnated Devil will turn Stray solely because of poor treatment is a bit much. Ultimately, it comes down to their personality and behaviors. Some Devils will betray their masters for no reason other than succumbing to their baser instincts. It isn't uncommon for some of these Strays to even kill their masters."

Ikki closed his eyes. "Hmmm..."

Rias stared curiously at her servant. ""Hmmmmm"?"

Then Ikki's head fell to the side again. "Zzzzzz...Zzzzzz...Zzzzzz..." He had fallen asleep again.

Nobody was quite certain how to respond. Their reactions varied from nothing to surprise to annoyance and back to nothing.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Rias faced the shortest member of their group. "Koneko, if you would."

"Yes, Buchou." Koneko nodded. She walked up to Ikki, looking up at his sleeping face. Without hesitation, she swung her open hand around over to his face, pausing only a mere centimeter away from his left cheek. She pinched her index and middle finger together, aiming at his forehead...and then she flicked him.

Everyone couldn't help but cringe slightly when they heard a sound like a heavy slap, like someone would hear after some fool tried doing a belly-flop into a pool.

Ikki jerked violently, dragging his feet against the ground as the force of the blow send him sliding eight feet back. "...Oww..." He whined, his eyes sliding open again as a result of the sudden pain inflicted upon his forehead. His eyes became teary as he rubbed the big, red welt that had appeared as a result of Koneko's "attack". "...What'd you hit me for...?"

"At least try to stay awake while I'm explaining things, Ikki." Rias scolded him, wagging her finger as if she were school teacher correcting a little boy.

Ikki groaned. "It's not that I'm not trying...It's just that staying focused when I'm so sleepy is so bothersoooome..." It had become harder and harder to believe that this was the young man who had managed to defeat Rias in a negotiation the previous evening.

"Well, what I'm planning to teach you is very important for your progression as a Devil." Rias informed him, trying to stress its importance so he would take it seriously. "It's not even the Stray that is the actual reason that we're here, but rather, to teach you more about the Evil Piece system I mentioned earlier. Even though your body will gradually adapt to its nocturnal nature, tonight is very important, so try to bear with it."

"I don't think that will work." Ikki started rubbing his eyes, another loud yawn telling Rias that he was very close to slipping back into slumber. "I'm usually already a very unmotivated guy, so this is pretty much me in my normal state at Level 0, so it's probably you who should get used to this..."

"That...I...Ugh..." Rias, while normally very collected and calm, could not really deal with Ikki's lackadaisical behavior as she had seen Tsubaki do (albeit barely). She could somewhat understand her classmate's growing frustration. It wasn't that Ikki was inept, but rather, that he only used his ability when it suited him and not when it was called for by those who were around him.

"Senpai..." This time, it was Koneko who addressed Ikki, the brown-haired boy looking down at her without the slightest hint of condescension in his eyes. "...this is taking too long, so if you stay awake and pay attention to Buchou, I promise to share my candy with you when we get back."

There was a long silence.

"Yo, Buchou, are we going to continue this tutorial or what?" Ikki was suddenly standing up straight, his expression ever-alert despite his normal drowsy face.

While Rias wanted to express surprise at how easily Koneko's attempt at bribery had succeeded, she would have preferred to spend that time finishing her explanations before Ikki's interest started to drop again. "OK, as I was saying, some of these Devils become Strays, so "hunts" are declared with the objective being either their capture or their demise. It usually varies depending on the severity of the Stray's crime. If they merely ran away, but don't resist, then they will be returned to their master without any harm coming to them. However, if they committed some sort of serious crime such as killing their master, then the response is either imprisonment or execution."

"I see." Ikki said, taking in the information Rias was explaining. "So this place is home to a Stray Devil then?"

"Yes."

"...I can already smell the stench of blood." Koneko noted, an almost unnoticeable expression of disgust crossing her face as she covered her nose.

"So she hasn't gone out for a meal yet." Rias said, almost to herself. "That's good. No more victims starting tonight..." She turned to give a glance to Ikki. "I think it's about time you see a real fight, between Devils at least."

"OK, but after we enter this house, we should all stay together." Ikki suggested. "I've watched enough horror movies to know that it's always when they split up that the first guy dies...usually the pretty boy." Ikki gestured to Yuuto as if he had drawn the short straw. Yuuto looked at Ikki, smiling with a wounded expression. "Ah. That was a joke."

Without further delays, their party of five entered the domain of the Stray Devil, the tension in the air heightened by the eerie silence that one would usually associate with the presence of Death himself. Even someone who didn't usually like to conflict with others like Ikki could still grasp the intense killing intent that was directed towards all of them. Only a fool wouldn't have expected the Stray Devil to realize they had entered.

"The question is will we find it first or will it find us...?" Ikki mused to himself, walking next to Rias as they started to check all of the door in one of the halls upstairs.

"I don't suppose it really matters." Rias answered, amused. "Whether we find it or it finds us, the outcome will be the same either way."

"You speak with a lot of confidence." It was something that was not very hard to notice, but Ikki didn't say that aloud. He thought it would have been rude. Not to mention he had yet to fully examine Rias's personality or behavior, so he wanted to be sure she wasn't a wolf in sheep's clothing. "It would be bothersome if the woman I have to work for most of my near-eternal life was actually a dragon-lady..."

Then he realized Rias was speaking, snapping out of his thoughts. "Would you have expected anything less from someone of my position?" It was not overly-arrogant, but Ikki felt like her level of certainty could be tweaked slightly.

"Just don't forget that pride goeth before the fall."

"What does that mean?"

Ikki crossed his arms behind his head, looking away from Rias to avoid being forced to answer properly. "Nothing. Nothing..." He then decided to change the topic. "So what was that thing you were talking about earlier...something about Evil Pieces, right?"

"Ah, that's right!" Rias realized, remembering one of the main reasons she had brought Ikki along. "Now I should explain to you the power of the Evil Pieces and their traits."

"Well, you told me one of them already. That thing about how they're used to bring people back as Reincarnated Devils."

"Yes," Rias agreed, "that's right." She suddenly stopped walking, turning to face Ikki. "However, there is more to it than just that. There are the traits of the individual Evil Pieces."

"Traits...?"

"Do you know what chess is?"

Ikki tilted his head, staring at Rias in confusion. "Ria-buchou, I don't think now is a good time to play a board game."

"No!" Yet another sigh escaped Rias's lips, her servant's behavior causing more frustration than she ever thought he would have. "What I mean is do you understand the basics of the game?"

"Yes." Ikki answered. "Tou-san taught me a lot about the game, and how it was a lot like Shogi. Every time he came home from work or a trip, we would sit down and play a game together. Even though we were father and son, we didn't hold back. No matter how many times we played, we both ended up with just about the same number of wins and losses. Sometimes, we would play Shogi and Chess at the same time on different boards just to test each others' capacity of mental focus and intellect. It was only then that Tou-san was just a little better than me..." It was only after Ikki had started talking about his story for several minutes that he realized he had been monologuing. "Oh...Oh..." He trailed off, echoing the last word at least two or three more times as he came to terms with his present situation. "Sorry. Got off-track...How bothersome."

But for some reason, something seemed off concerning Ikki's normal behavior. He looked...uneasy. He wasn't indifferent nor was he sad. It was hard to discern what he was thinking.

Taking this opening, Rias went on to explain where she was heading with her previous question. "Well, the Evil Pieces system was actually based quite a lot on that game. The Devils wanted to use the special traits of that game as the concept for the Evil Pieces. It's also something akin to irony as many of the Reincarnated Devils were also former humans. Since we could no longer form legions of Pure-Blood Devils as we could have in the past, they decided to give enormous power to a smaller group of Devils. And with the competitive natures of Devils, this was what ultimately led to the birth of the Rating Games, so High-Class Devils with Peerages could show their and their servants power against one another."

"And of course, like famous players in other sports, the stronger one's servants were, the more status they gained." Ikki assumed. "Despite being nobles, they seem like nothing more than the average racehorse owner..." Ikki looked at Rias. "...No offense."

"None taken." Rias waved off the comment. "I won't lie. There are Devils who view their servants as mere tools to fight in their stead or to improve their already high status unnecessarily, but I promise you that I do not view any of you in such a lowly manner. I treat my servants with the utmost care as my family. Even if your words are tactless, I don't want you to feel as if you have to hold your tongue in excess. If you have any thoughts or questions, don't hesitate to speak them."

Her words didn't seem like lies, so Ikki was willing to take them at face-value for the time-being. Other than stripping his recently-revived corpse after she turned him into a Devil and laying naked next to him in bed, Rias hadn't done anything particularly untoward with him. And, if he were to be honest for a moment, Rias was a fairly pleasant person. Somewhat prideful, but not always overly-so. She kept an air of elegance in every word and never spoke very harshly except in jest.

As usual, Ikki would keep an open-mind and a neutral stance. One could never have been too careful, especially with the strange world he had found himself lost in.

"Now back to what I was saying. While the Evil Pieces gave power to Reincarnated Devils, there were different types." Rias said. "Each of these different types of Evil Piece each possessed a different ability, a trait that defined each servant in a Peerage as different."

"So, as you said before, the Evil Pieces are based on chess." Ikki reiterated, trying to connect the dots. "That means that there are Evil Pieces in the forms of Queens, Bishops, Knights, Rooks, and Pawns, correct?" Rias nodded. "And each peace possesses a different ability from the other."

"Exactly."

"What do each of them do exactly?"

Rias smiled as she pushed open the latest door. "Well, you see-" She trailed off, her previous smile fading into a serious frown. Not just her, but Koneko, Akeno, and Yuuto also seemed to raise their guard, prompting Ikki to do the same. He could full-well understand why they were suddenly alarmed as they entered the room behind Rias, ready to act on a moment's notice.

Ikki could finally smell the scent of rotting flesh, the putrid stench of death and decay.

It was safe to say that they found the Stray Devil.

"I can smell something disgusting." A rumbling, inhuman voice growled.

Subconsciously, Ikki raised his left arm, taking a long whiff underneath it. "I don't smell anything." Ikki looked at Yuuto, raising his arm again. "Yuu-kun, sniff my armpit. Do I stink?"

"First of all, I'm not smelling it." Yuuto refused immediately without looking. "Second, don't you think you should focus more on the task at hand?" Ikki shrugged as everyone ignored his short exchange with Yuuto in favor of focusing on the creature that shared the same room as them.

"But I can also smell something delicious. Is it sweet? Or is it sour?" Ikki compared the unknown voice to the sound of someone gargling mouthwash with the smell of the owner's breath easily compared to minced garlic mixed with all of the unknown liquids that mixed together with the trash in one's garbage can.

Rias stepped forward, standing ahead of the group with an aura befitting a leader. "Stray Devil Viser, we're here to destroy you!"

"Technically 'they' are here to destroy you..." Ikki thought to himself as he looked on, uncertain what his purpose in that room was. That was when something caught his attention in the darkness. "Hm...?" He could see an object of some sort moving...and coming closer incredibly quickly, on a direct course for Ikki. He instinctively ducked, watching as the object flew overhead, but failed to prevent an unknown substance from splashing over his face. Feeling disgusted, he used his hand to wipe the unpleasant ooze from his face, only noticing its crimson-red color when he stared at it in his open hand. It didn't take him long to put 2 and 2 together. "Oh..."

He slowly turned his head, facing the "object" that had been thrown in his direction. A naive part of him thought that it would have been alive.

Not only was the complete opposite true, but the "object", a corpse, was barely recognizable as even having been a human.

"Aaaaand-there goes my lunch." Ikki noted, taking a step back without a single change in expression. "Hmmm...or would it be dinner...breakfast...?" He turned to face his master. "Hey, Ria-buchou, it's technically tomorrow morning now, so, if I hurled, would it be losing my lunch, dinner, or breakfast?"

The crimson-haired girl did not even attempt to face Ikki, uncertain whether to scold him for his behavior or answer seriously just to end the conversation.

Everyone kept their guards up as the torso of a topless woman-looking creature started to come out of the shadows, almost appearing to be floating in the air due to the rest of her body being obscured by the darkness. In both of her hands she held a lance.

The ground beneath their feet shook and rumbled as she approached them, the lower half of her body slowly coming into view, revealing her monstrous form in its entirety, being that of a gigantic and beastly dog-like creature with four legs, each having sharp claws, the monster's tail being that of a sneak. It had a shape like that of a centaur, but that was where the similarities ended.

This creature was an abomination to nature itself.

"Wow, when you said Evil Pieces could reincarnate any species, you weren't kidding, Ria-buchou." So, naturally, Ikki had a smart remark. "Kudos to the woman who managed to squeeze that out of her V-hole."

Viser let out a growl, her glowing-red eyes beginning to turn in Ikki's direction. It was clear from her watering mouth that she was contemplating which of his entrails to eat first.

"Ikki..." Rias warned.

"I mean, what even is she?" Ikki wondered aloud, tapping his chin. "The only explanation I can think of is that inhuman species have a lot more genetic defects from inbreeding...or one of her parents was into bestiality...How bothersome."

"Ikki!" Rias snapped, Ikki's head turning in her direction. "Stop antagonizing the giant, disgusting creature that wants to use your head as a chew toy!"

Ikki pouted but gave no response. He simply faded into the back of the group.

With that matter settled, Ikki turned back to face Viser, her expression becoming serious and noble once more. "Leaving your master's side and rampaging as you please definitely warrants death. In the name of the Duke Gremory, I will gladly eliminate you!"

"You are cunning for a little girrrrrrl!" Viser hissed.

"And your surprisingly verbose for a monstrous freak of nature." Ikki quipped.

"IKKI!"

"What?"

Viser gave another violent hiss-like roar, all of her hatred and killing intent being directed towards the one person who pissed her off worse than any of the others (AKA: Ikki Ushiromiya). "For that, I will kill you firsssst! I will gladly dye your corpse the same color as your master's haaaaaaair!"

"Sounds colorful." Ikki said whimsically, indifferent to her threat/promise.

"IKKI!"

"What?"

"MOVE!" Rias flew at her servant, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him out of the way just as Viser brought one her spears down on the spot where he had been standing only moments before. And Ikki had a feeling that being stuck like that would have been more painful than getting stuck through the chest.

"That was a close one..." Ikki noted. "...How bothersome..." He raised his head, realizing he was being cradled in Rias's arms, his crimson-haired master staring at him with a very sharp look. "...How bothersome."

There were so many things Rias wanted to say to him that she didn't quite know where to start, but she knew that, if she started saying them, she wouldn't be able to finish. So, for the time-being, she bit her tongue, returning to the more pressing matter at hand. "Just...Just stay here, sit, and don't. Say. ANYTHING." She shot Ikki another sharp look. "Do you think you can do that?"

Ikki opened his mouth, but then considered her words, nodding silently.

"Good boy." Rias gave him a playful pat on the head. She stood up straight, leaving Ikki sitting on the floor. "Now then, let's continue from where you and I left off. Yuuto!"

"Yes!" Yuuto said, suddenly vanishing from where he had been standing without a trace.

"Oh my non-existent-God," The brown-haired boy said without much feeling, "Yuu-kun spontaneously vaporized...What a shame."

"Oh, how cold of you, Ikki!" Yuuto's voice called out, completely unworried. Ikki turned his eyes to face Yuuto as he sped towards the Stray Devil with impressive speed. Ikki had seen him move, but it was more entertaining to make believe that he hadn't.

Still, compared to normal humans, he was faster than lightning. So fast that he left afterimages behind as he moved.

"Yuuto's piece is a [Knight]." Rias stated, drawing Ikki's attention back to her. "Those who become a [Knight] have their speed exponentially increased."

"Sounds fun..." It was clear that Yuuto was trying to show off for his newest comrade, likely having started off relatively slow. He was slowly speeding up over time, easily avoiding any and all swings of Viser's spears, no matter how well-timed or fierce they were. It almost looked as though he were playing with them. "However...if he were to be struck while moving or if he were to be hit in his legs, it could prove to be a debilitating blow ..."

"And Yuuto's ultimate weapon is swords." Yuuto stopped for the first moment and, the next moment, he was holding a European sword Ikki hadn't recalled seeing before. Yuuto took the sword out of the scabbard, the drawn blade reflecting the light of the moon. The pause in motion didn't last long because Yuuto suddenly vanished again.

Not too long after that, Viser reeled back, letting out shrieks of agony. Suddenly having your arms cut off would do that to a person...creature...thing.

Blood spewed violently from the stumps that used to be connected to Viser's arms, raining down around the group. Both of her arms that had been carried in them fell to the ground with a sloshy-sounding thud, her spears hitting the ground only seconds after, covered in Viser's own blood.

Ikki looked from Viser, to the spears, to Rias. "...Ria-buchoooou, can I have Viser's spears when you guys are done?"

"What?" The question took Rias by surprise. "Why?"

"I always wanted a spear." Ikki stated bluntly, eyes full of wonder. "And what's better than one spear but two of them? Can I have them?"

"What? No!"

"How bothersome..."

"Pay attention, Ikki!" Rias commanded, forcing his attention back to the battle at hand. "This is Yuuto's power. Speed that you can't follow with your eyes, and sword skills of a professional. By combining these two, he becomes the fastest Knight."

"Uh huh."

Yuuto suddenly stopped in front of Viser his sword at his side. Ikki watched passively as Koneko ran past him, towards the slowly-recovering Stray Devil that was glaring maliciously at the young man who stole her arms from her. A normal person would have questioned the sanity of such a tiny girl going up against a beast that was quite literally a dozen times her size.

Ikki, being an abnormal person, asked a different question. "...Super strength?"

"And defense." Rias added. "Those are the traits of Koneko who is a Rook."

"You damn inseeeeeeeeect!" The Stray screeched as it attempted to stomp on both of Rias's servants with its furry, beast-like foot. With a heavy pressure that cracked the earth underneath the two, Viser smashed her foot downward as hard as she possibly could have.

However, never once did her foot hit the ground. Koneko stood underneath the massive appendage, holding up the beastly paw like Hercules holding up the sky, show little to no effort in doing so.

This caused another thought to come to the front of Ikki's mind. "Hey, Ria-buchou."

Rias sighed. "Yes, Ikki?"

"...If Neko-chan has ultimate defense, does that mean she can defend against anything?"

The legitimate question gave Rias something to think about. "Well, it's not an unbreakable defense, but it should normally defend against most attacks be it being crushed by a giant monster's foot or being shot with a bullet."

"Ah, so Neko-chan's bullet-proof."

"In a nutshell."

"...She's a walking tank." Ikki said almost to himself, looking at both Koneko and Yuuto. "...Still, her weakness is the exact opposite of Yuu-kun. Fast opponents are her antithesis in terms of ability. Strength means nothing if you can't hit your target or avoid their blows..."

"...Fly." Koneko delivered a heavy punch to Viser's heavy lower body, knocking the creature backwards with impressive strength.

The sound of clapping filled the air, Ikki looking on with a monotone expression. "Woohoo...way to go." He meant it, but he wasn't very enthusiastic about it. He paid attention for about five more seconds before quickly growing bored. It wasn't that he didn't care. It was more like he was just bored. "...I get you want to show off your servants' powers, but one-sided fights are so boring..."

"Akeno." Rias called calmly to her other combat-ready servant. "You're up."

"Oh, is it my turn?" Akeno asked with a polite laugh. "I so love this game~" As though there were no hurry, Akeno slowly approached the Stray Devil at her own pace.

"Hm?" Ikki suddenly raised his head. "That's no good." He moved behind Rias and instinctively spun on his right heel, bringing his left leg around in a sideways arc. He watched with disinterested eyes as he struck an inhuman arm which had been flying towards the air at them. "...A sneak attack? How bothersome..." Without further comment, he maneuvered his leg above the seemingly-sentient appendage and brought it down with great force, smashing it against the ground with enough power to create a small crater where the violent, claw-like hand had impacted.

"Ikki?!" Rias turned in surprised to see her servant standing over (or rather on top of) the arm that had been severed from Viser's body, still wriggling and trying to worm its way to freedom from underneath Ikki's foot. "T-Thanks."

Ikki gaved Rias a blank stare. "You should never lower your guard in a fight, even if you have superior numbers."

"Uh...Right." Rias was so surprised that she hadn't been sure what else to say.

"Hmmmm..." Ikki crossed his arms, his usual pensive expression on his face as he looked down at the severed arm. "I wonder...if she can move her arm from there...do you think she can still feel whatever I do to this?" Deciding to experiment, Ikki started pushing down with his foot, putting more pressure on Viser's arm until he heard a light crack like breaking bones.

"Graaaaagh!" Despite being downed by the combined assault of Yuuto and Koneko, Viser still possessed enough vitality to let out a pain-filled growl.

Ikki placed a finger to his chin. "I guess you can...That's pretty neat." Deciding to experiment some more, Ikki raised his foot for a moment before stomping down hard on Viser's severed harm, hearing a series of two or three more cracks as more of her bones broke. More of Viser's screeches could be heard from the center of the room where the creature laid. Wishing to test it further, Ikki started to stomp on her arm again. Once, then twice, then three times, doing it over and over again every time he heard Viser make a scream, breaking a new part of her arm each time. "That's pretty cool." He said it as calmly as he would anything else with a disturbingly soft smile. "I guess even monsters have some interesting tricks like this." Then he realized that everyone, even Akeno (who was blushing a little), was staring at him. He casually waved them off. "Don't stop your fight on my account. Go on. I'm much more entertained with this than your fight."

"DAMN YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!" Viser shrieked from several feet away. Despite being close to Death's door, she lunged forward with what remained of her body, her unsightly mouth open, determined to rip apart Ikki's flesh. "EVEN IF I'M KILLED, I'LL TAKE YOU WITH ME, YOU INSOLENT SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-"

There was a sudden boom like thunder.

Than a flash of lightning ripped through the air, crashing down upon Viser's massive form from the heavens above.

Ikki tilted his head, looking curious. "Ah, but I thought you wanted to deal with my senior's first." He watched as Akeno casually approached Viser at her own leisure.

The Stray unleashed a wickedly loud shriek of pain as Akeno's lightning rained down on her.

"Akeno is a [Queen]." Rias explained. "She's the one who is the strongest after me. She is the unbeatable Vice-president of our club who has all the traits of Pawn, Knight, Bishop, and Rook."

"Wait wait wait." Ikki said, taking his attention from the dismembered limb he was playing with. "You never said what Bishop or Pawn pieces do. Pawn's pretty obvious, but Bishop..." Ikki thought back to the abilities of the other two pieces, using the thought of those two basic stat enhancements to picture the abilities of a Bishop.

"Magic."

"Ah."

"Ara ara, looks like you still have some energy in you." Akeno teased, licking her lips as a blush colored her cheeks. "Looks like you can take more~"

Another lightning bolt hit the monster, filling her with an ungodly amount of voltage, her continued screams serving to fuel Akeno's sadistic sexual high.

"Akeno specializes in attacking her opponent with magic power." Rias explained. "She can use natural elements like lightning, ice, and fire. And most of all, she's really into S&M."

Ikki found himself staring as Akeno let out taunt after sadistic taunt, subsequently unleashing heavy electrical shocks on Viser's body. "..." He turned to Rias. "...Promise to never leave me alone in a room with her."

Yuuto chuckled lightly at Ikki's reaction. "Don't worry. Akeno's actually pretty gentle with her comrades."

"Oh no, it's not that." Ikki shook his head, disregarding Yuuto's words. "It's just that..." He sighed. "The sensation given by masochism easily bores me."

Nobody quite knew what to say to that.

Akeno may have had a rebuttal, but she was too busy having "fun" with Viser, continuing her merciless electrocutions for several minutes.

"Akeno," Rias finally called out in a confident tone, "I think she's had enough."

"Awwww~ Over already~?" Akeno asked in a playful tone. "I was just starting to enjoy myself~"

Rias approached the all-but-dead Stray Devil, the creature laying pathetically defeated on the ground. "Any last words?" It sounded like more of a taunt than anything even if it was not Rias's intent.

"Kill...me..." The monster croaked out.

"Then disappear." With a cold voice, Rias spoke the last words the Stray Devil Viser would hear in this life. She stretched out her hand and a huge mass of black, demonic energy gathered in her palm. She allowed the power to reach a tremendous pressure before unleashing it all in burst, completely obliterating every last trace of the existence known as Viser.

Not even ashes remained.

"We're done here." Rias turned back to face her servants, a calm expression on her face, like she had just vented a night's worth of frustration. "Let's go home."

[Sounds good to me.]

All but one of her servants spoke in perfect unison.

They all started to walk away, intending to leave the building that had become their battlefield, only for Rias, the last one through the door, to pause. She realized that one of her servants wasn't following. When she turned, the most obvious individual was still in the center of the room, sitting with his legs crossed as he stared at the bloodshed that had ensued from both the battle and the murders committed by Viser. Rias could only see the side of Ikki's face, but she noticed his expression was different than usual, not as laid-back or indifferent as he usually was.

He seemed genuinely deep in thought.

"Ikki?" Rias called out, growing slightly worried over his current state.

"Hm..." Ikki raised his head, turning slightly to face Rias. "Oh. It's nothing. Just thinking..." He crossed his arms over his chest. "It's a little pathetic, you know?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Curious as to why Ikki was having such a strange train of thought, Rias walked towards him, bending over next to him so she could look at his face without looking down on him.

"Viser didn't value her life or freedom as highly as I thought she did." Ikki said. "She submitted rather than fighting to her last breath, proving that she was and had always been a mindless beast with not a single admirable trait."

"Well, it is understandable to think that." Rias agreed. "She injured her master and killed so many innocents. It was probably a death befitting her."

Ikki sighed. "You don't get it." Rias raised an eyebrow. "I can't ever agree with what Viser had done. I would never condone something like this, but, you know, when you first told me about Stray Devils, I thought they were admirable in a way." The words that came from Ikki's mouth came as a huge shock to Rias. She had heard many strange or crazy things in her life, but the words her servant just spoke topped all of them. "Knowing the consequences, Stray Devils like Viser escaped and fought to be free with their own lives, to sate the desires all living creatures possess."

Even though he barely noticed the rest of his comrades gathering around, curious as to the reason behind his hold-up, Ikki continued speaking without pause.

"As I said before, what Viser has done is appalling in every sense of the word and I don't agree with how she killed so many people, but I had thought that her actions were not without reason. That she had valued her life and her freedom enough to risk even death. However, ultimately, she did not fight to the bitter end. Rather than fighting for freedom or to avoid capture, she fought solely with the intention to kill and died a coward's death, proving that she was nothing more than a disgusting animal with not a single trait worth admiring. She lived and died without conviction or purpose." There was a long, heavy silence after Ikki had finished speaking, only broken when Ikki let out another sigh, pushing himself back to his feet. "But enough with that disappointment. Let's get home. I am both tired and hungry."

Ikki started walking ahead of the others, stretching his arm while rotating it in its socket as Rias stared at him from behind.

Somehow, she felt she had come to understand the mysterious boy known as Ikuse Ushiromiya just a little bit better.

It had happened after they returned to the club room following the battle with Viser. Of course, following a successful hunt, they were all needed to fill out some paperwork in order to explain all of the details and the overall result of the confrontation.

It was during that time that the magic circle in the room had started to glow, indicating that a client was trying to make a Contract with a Devil.

The potential contract had been for one of the flyers Ikki had passed out, so Rias decided to send him on ahead while the rest of them finished the paperwork...

And then the magic circle stopped working.

"Huh, that's strange." Rias had said. "The contract seems to be active, but we don't seem to be getting a response from the client...It could be interference with the spell."

Rias explained to Ikki that, while extremely more efficient than drawing normal magic circles, the flyers had the same vulnerabilities such that doing something like spilling coffee on it or accidentally tearing it would cause some disruptions to the summoning process.

And that was why Ikki had to ride there on a bike.

"...Geez...Stupid Devil Magic...Making me work so late on a school night..." Ikki whined as he leaned on the handlebars of his bike. "Isn't it the client's own fault for messing up their circle? Why do I have to go to him...?...How bothersome..."

While he complained about the work, a soft piece of chocolate from Koneko was all it took to motivate him to go ahead and get the job done. Even with a 47% cut of the payments received from his clients, Ikki still hated working when he didn't have to. He preferred to save his energy for other things.

He took a deep breath as he rode alone on that dark, very cool night. He took a deep breath of the air. Perhaps it was because he had become a Devil, but the night air seemed significantly more intoxicating than it used to be. He always loved the dark and night, but now they were definitely his favorites.

He was, of course, still pissed with needing to go so far just to complete one (likely low-ranked) contract with little to no pay, but the night wasn't altogether unpleasant. It was the kind of night he wouldn't mind spending under the night sky, staring at the heavenly gems called stars until the calm air lulled him into slumber.

The trip over was spent in complete and utter silence, filled with admiration towards the peace and quiet that Ikki so enjoyed.

It was only when he came to the client's house itself that every sense in his body started to react.

As he dismounted his bike, he could not help but feel that the ominous atmosphere surrounding the house became stronger the closer he got to it.

Not only that, but when he reached out to knock on the door, he noticed that it was open. Not too wide, but open enough that any burglar with even a quarter of a brain could have broken in easily.

He looked on either side of him, trying to see if he could catch some kind of lens or some sign that he was about to hit with a pie or get a bucket of water dumped on him or some sort of prank.

There was no response.

Curious, he opened the door wider, peeking inside. "Hello?" Still no response. "...I'm coming in now. If you're there, please don't shoot me." Without any resistance, Ikki pushed open the door, walking inside. The further in he went, the worse the chill he felt became. "Hellooooo?" No matter how many times he called out, nobody gave any response. There wasn't a single noise in that house.

Nothing but deadly silence.

As Ikki moved down the hall near the entrance, he could not help but think the obvious. "Big house? Check. Dim light at the end of the hall? Check." He paused, turning his head upward and taking a big, long sniff of the air. "Foul stench that makes me want to vomit? Check. Creepy atmosphere? Check." He threw a fist into the air. "Good time for exploration...I really am the average protagonist, aren't I?"

With that in mind, Ikki continued the ominous trek through the eerily silent hallway. At first, it seemed possible that the client had fallen asleep or could not hear him for some reason.

"...Anyone order a Devil?" Ikki called out, figuring three times the charm.

And that was about when he saw the disfigured corpse hanging on the wall. The stench of death permeated in the air to the point that it was nauseating just to be in the area.

Whoever had killed the now-faceless victim hanging on the wall had acted without mercy and likely without a shred of remorse. From the deep cuts and scars in the flesh, it was likely the murderer was not gentle at all. They had nailed the victim to the wall with screws shoved through his arms, legs, and the center of his chest. Ikki noticed that some of the victim's organs hung limply out of a large, open wound in the victim's stomach. It looked like some bizarre, Satanist ritual killing.

"Well..." Ikki said after staring silently for a good ten minutes. "...Did not expect that...How bothersome." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone. "I should probably call Ria-buchou and tell her 'bout this..." Ikki started going through his Contacts, a list that seemed to be far longer than any would have expected of a person like Ikuse Ushiromiya. After ten seconds of searching, a crucial, crippling fact occurred to him. "Oh my non-existent-God..." He closed his eyes, letting out a groan of displeasure. "...I don't have Ria-buchou's number...Ah, but that's alright too, I guess. I can just call Tsu-chan and have her relay the message."

Again, Ikki found himself staring at the corpse hung upside down, possessing the shape of an upside-down cross.

"Hmmm..." Ikki's eyes wandered to the nails that were pinning the victim against the wall, the large, metal heads sticking out obviously. Without thinking much of it, Ikki reached for one of the nails pinning one of the victim's arms. It took a little effort, but he managed to pull it out, a mix of sounds between creaking wood and metal passing through flesh filling his eardrums. Ikki dropped the nail to the ground with an audible clang. Then he reached out for the other arm, pulling out the other nail with just as little effort.

He didn't stop there. One-by-one, the nails caved before the force of Ikki's strength, each one deposited onto the ground with similar noises to the first. When the corpse had once again fallen under gravity's sway, Ikki held out his arms, catching the poor man before he hit the ground. Surprisingly gentle, Ikki laid the man on the ground, once again getting a good look at his disfigured form.

"I don't know who you were..." Ikki pulled off his student jacket, holding it in front of him. "...but I hope it went quickly..." With even more tenderness than before, Ikki placed his jacket over the deceased man's face-less head, preventing any others from ruining their final memories of him with the horrific appearance had been given. "...How bothersome." He turned his gaze back to the place where the victim had been hung only moments before

It was only when he looked very carefully that he noticed something different from the normal blood-spatter.

Ikki moved closer, squinting his eyes so he could get a better idea on what he was looking at and, after careful thinking, he realized it was words. Someone had written something on the wall.

"...Let's see...my foreign languages are a little rusty, but..." Ikki rubbed his chin as he translated the message that had been left behind. "Punishment for those who did bad deeds...Huh." Ikki shoved his half-lidded eyes. "A message written in the victim's own blood..." Ikki let out a loud yawn. "...How cliche."

"Fuck you! I spent a lot of time on this!"

Ikki sighed. "So the murderer hangs around the crime scene, huh...?" Ikki turned to face the person who reacted to his taunt, scratching the back of his head. "I never would have expected this if I hadn't seen any crime show or film ever."

"Well, you're a sarcastic ass, aren't you?" The person, a young man just as old if not a little older than Ikki, responded. He possessed dirty-white hair and wore strangely familiar robes. The young man shrugged, letting out a sigh of disappointment. "Oh well. My name is Freed Sellzen. I belong to a-"

"Yeah? 911? I would like to report a murder at the following address-" Ikki held his cellphone to his ear, turned away from the unfamiliar individual. "Yeah. It's a real mess down here. You should really-"

"HEY!" Freed called out, starting to feel even more pissed off. "Don't ignore me, you shit! I'm trying to introduce myself and you're completely blowing me off! What are you even doing?!"

Ikki stared blankly. "Calling the police. What else?" He tilted his head, listening to the speaker against his ear. "I tried calling Tsu-chan, but she didn't pick up, so the police seemed like the second best people to call."

"...WHAT!?"

"The guys in blue are gonna put you away. You're going to jail, bad man." Ikki paused, again listening to the voice in his ear. After a few seconds, he sighed. "Yeah, I guess I can hold for a little bit..." Ikki sank into a crouch, groaning. "Man...I'm really too tired for this...I wanna go home and take a naaaaaaap..." Staring at his phone, Ikki stared at the number on the screen. "...Maybe I should get a second phone. One to call people with and the other to-"

The sound of a loud bang rang through the air. Ikki instinctively tilted his head to the left as a bullet burst through his phone in front of him, narrowing missed his head, and embedded itself in the wall behind him.

"There! You done now!?" Freed screamed. "You gonna pay attention, you fuckin' prick!?"

Ikki barely blinked at Freed before looking down at the broken half of his cellphone in his hand. The bullet had ripped out a huge chunk of the screen to the point it looked like someone had taken a huge bite out of it. Experimentally, Ikki tried tapping the keys with no response from the obviously broken piece of technology.

"Now that that's taken care of-" Freed was cut off as a broken piece of plastic smacked him right in the nose. "Ow!" Freed covered his face with his hands, letting out a yelp of pain. "What the fuck was that!?"

Ikki let out a hostile growl, like a puppy getting mad at having his toy taken away. "You started it. That phone had all of my contacts on it." Ikki complained. "Non-existent-God dammit, there were a lot of important people I needed to keep in contact with. What the Hell, man? What the actual Hell? I don't go around, hunting you down, wrecking your shit."

"Now that that's taken care of, can I get back to my malicious introduction?" Freed asked, aiming a gun in Ikki's direction. He cleared his throat, as if preparing to do something he had spent a lot of time practicing for. "I'm a priest~ A boy priest~ I cut down devil-like people-Oh fuck it. Just die!" Freed pulled the trigger on his gun several times, firing just as many bullets in Ikki's direction.

"No thanks." Ikki bobbed and weaved in-between the bullets, dodging them with next to no effort. "I don't like dying very much." Ikki narrowed his eyes, focusing on the trajectory of each bullet Freed fired at him as he moved so as to avoid having his momentum halted by the impact of a bullet. "I just need to get within two feet. He fires in a pattern of three bullets in five seconds with the predictable pattern of shooting where I am rather than where I'll be. Once I get close, he'll swing his gun at me in an attempt at melee, but its short length will be to my advantage. I can circle around him and a well-placed blow to the back of his head should knock him out." With this information in mind, Ikki continued dodging each of Freed's bullets as he closed the gap between them. He sighed. "I really hate fighting..."

"Stop running around like a rat and die already!" Freed screamed as he tried over and over again to blow Ikki's brains out.

It all happened in a second.

The scenario initially played as predicted. Ikki got within a few feet of Freed, within arms' length at the very least. Freed swung his gun around as a melee weapon to strike at Ikki, which Ikki easily dodged. Ikki turned on his heel, dodging around Freed's entire body before swinging his fist around. It would only take a single blow to the back of Freed's head to knock him out.

"I know how to deal with scum Devils like you!" It was in that moment where Freed reached into his robes that Ikki's instincts started to flare up, making his body move without his permission as Freed retrieved something else from within his robes, swinging it around at Ikki. Ikki watched as a blade made of pure light passed over his face, managing to cut only a few loose strands of hair from his head.

"That wasn't very nice."

Desiring to counter, Ikki swung up his left leg upward into the air. He had wanted to kick Freed in the chin, but there was just a bit too much distance between them. The best he could do in the face of the unexpected second weapon was kick one of his arms. Deciding that longer range was the bigger threat, Ikki decided to kick the arm that held his gun, the force of the blow knocking Freed's arm upward and Freed's loosening grip causing the gun to be launched into the air, banging violently against the ceiling above them. It likely broke from the force.

"Fine!" Freed continued without caring much for his broken weapon. He readied his sword, preparing to fight Ikki close-range. "Cutting you to pretty, little ribbons to tie in my hair sounds much more fun anyway!"

"You sound like an artist." Ikki quipped as he recovered from his awkwardly-angled kick with a backflip. "I think you would get along just great with the giant beast-lady my club members killed less than an hour ago." A part of him regretted retreating backwards. He had his back against the wall-literally, not figuratively. He was far from a desperate situation by that point in time. Even everything that had happened so far was nothing more than "play time". Still, he didn't like not having any room to retreat. Retreating was his favorite. "Listen, I'm really tired, so can we pick this up at a later date."

Freed's response was to lunge at Ikki, swinging his sword wildly with no real technique. With such sloppy slashes, avoiding them was child's play for Ikki.

"Haha! Who's talking shit now, you shit Devil?!" Freed taunted. "All you can do is dodge now!"

"Roundhouse!" Ikki swung his leg around, kicking Freed in the side of his face with tremendous force, sending him crashing into a nearby bookcase before slumping to the ground, dozens of books raining down around or on him. Freed raised his arms to defend against the literary assault, waiting it out for several seconds except for the one time where he looked up only to get hit in the face by a very large dictionary.

The psychotic murderer scrambled back to his feet, glaring unholy fury at Ikki. "Damn you!" He put his sword hand forward, revealing the cracked shell that was his sword's hilt. "That was my favorite sword!...Oh well." Without much care, Freed tossed the broken blade over his shoulder before drawing out another sword. "Say hello to Mr. Stabby #2!" Summoning out the blade of light, Freed continued the little "dance" he had started with Ikki not too long ago.

"Wait, so you had a second sword hidden in your robes...?" Ikki asked, carefully dodging each strike and thrust, the only noticeable wound being a light scratch to his face he sustained while talking (It was hard for him to talk and do other things at once).

"You never know when a second hidden sword's going to come in handy~!" Freed explained. "But what am I doing explaining it to you? You're about to be dead in five seconds~!"

"Here I was thinking I was the weird one..." Ikki muttered.

Freed glared. "Oh I don't need to take that from some shit Devil. Your kind are abominations to this world, leading sinners astray while I am a holy priest who descends to exorcise your cancerous influence!"

Ikki frowned, shoving one open palm forward to push Freed back a sizable distance. "...I have a question for you."

"Huh?" Freed stared with a mix of disgust and boredom on his face as he temporarily ceased his charge. "What? You want to know how many pieces I'm going to cut you into?"

Ikki didn't respond. He simply stared with a passive look on his face. He had a fairly good idea as to what his answer would be, but he had to make sure just in case.

"The question I have is simple and, after you answer it, we can continue where we left off if you wish." Ikki waited for Freed to lunge forward or insult him, but there was a pause which Ikki took to mean as consent. "My question relates to your purpose in being here."

"Huh?" Freed looked on with ever-increasing disinterest.

Ikki gestured to the disfigured deceased man laying on the ground next to him. "Tell me. What was your purpose in killing this man?"

"..." Freed continued staring for several more seconds. Then he broke out into laughter. "Is that it? I would have thought the answer would have been obvious~! Humans who sell their souls away to disgusting Devils must die like this~! That's simply how it is~! So yeah, I killed him and cut him up good just like I'm going to do to you, shitty Devil~!"

The expression on Ikki's face did not change in the slightest. He continued staring with a calm, passive gaze with neither hostility nor friendliness.

"OK, perhaps I should rephrase." Ikki sighed. "Why did you go through with it? What is it that allows you to take a life with so little remorse? A sense of justice? A misguided desire for a peace free from Devils? Or is it some form of revenge against those wronged you?"

"You know, I keep listening to you, but all I hear is "Blah blah blah! Please stab me with your very shiny sword, Freed!"." Freed said, cleaning his ear with his pinky. Then he grinned. "What the fuck are you talking about? I just love the feeling of ripping apart a Devil's flesh piece by piece with a sword and blowing people's brains out with my gun~! That's the type of simple man I am~! I'm supposed to be doing this because I'm supposed to get rid of shit Devils like you, but really, I just love to watch the look of abject terror in pain in a man's eyes while I let bleed them try slowly and painfully~! Humans, Devils, Angels, I don't give a fuck really~! Just as long as I can cut things up and shoot'em dead~!"

Yet another sigh escaped Ikki's lips. "...That's what I suspected." He admitted. "Just like that monster, you are a worthless existence."

"Oho! Rich words coming from some shitty Devil!" Freed taunted. "Now, I wonder, should I-"

It happened in the span of five seconds.

Freed never noticed the nail that Ikki had picked up off the ground earlier.

And that was why he didn't realize having it shoved through his left eye was a plausible scenario.

There was a loud squish-like sound as the nail crushed and blended the fluid in Freed's socket that had once been his eye.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Freed hunched over in pain, reaching towards the nail in his eye with trembling hands, wincing in pain each time he even attempted to touch it. "FUCK! FUCKFUCKFUCK! STUPIDFUCKINGDEVIIIIL! GAH! FUCKMOTHERFUCKER! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Blood oozed from the wound, dripping down onto the ground all around Freed as he screamed in agonizing pain.

And, for the first time since the battle started, Ikki's expression changed. His face became cold and the look in his eyes was absolutely merciless.

"Oh darn...I missed." Ikki then revealed two more giant nails that he had picked up. He twirled one of them in his hand until it was pointy-side-down. Even after the brutal act he had just committed, there was not a shred of fear, disgust, remorse, or anger. It was a passive coldness. There was a series of splashing noises as Ikki strolled across the blood that had pooled over the ground. "Don't worry. I'll get it right this time." Ikki dodged a swift strike from Freed and quickly lifted his right leg into the air above Freed's head.

Freed let out a heavy grunt as he crumpled to the ground, laying flat on his back. "You stupid piece of shi-GRAAAGH!" It was at that time that Ikki stomped his heel into Freed's chest.

"Hmm...Lemme see if I remember this properly..." Ikki held one nail straight in one hand while twirling the other nail in his other hand. Without much care, he straddled Freed, pinning him to the ground. "One was in the left wrist, right?" Without waiting for confirmation, Ikki drove the nail as hard as he could into Freed's wrist, blood spewing from the sudden puncture wound which may have clipped one of his arteries.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Freed writhed in pain on the ground, but that same pained had caused him to involuntarily drop his sword, rendering him weaponless. "I'LL FUCKING KILL YO-IGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" That time, he screamed because Ikki pulled the nail from his eye, some of the blood that spewed from the wound spattering across Ikki's right cheek.

"I'm going to need that one back if I want to do this right..." Ikki sighed as he stared at the bloodied end of the nail. "...It's all covered in your eye guts...How bothersome." A low hum emitted from his mouth. "Let's see...and I think the other nail was in the upper half of the right arm. Not very symmetrical if you ask me, but oh well." Again, Ikki drove a nail in a downward arc, piercing it straight through the flesh close to Freed's right shoulder.

Freed's upper body arced upwards as more pain coursed through his nervous system, another bloodcurdling scream filling up any silence that could have ensued. Freed kicked violently, trying to escape from Ikki's brutality, but, in terms of physical strength, Ikki outclassed him by a large margin.

"Hmmm...I wonder..." Ikki tapped the flat end of one of the last nail he held in his hand against his chin. "...If I stab this one through his chest, he might die before I get the other two off the floor over there...but if I stab it into his leg, he could use his other leg to kick it out...Hmmm..." He pondered the matter with a drowsy expression on his face, completely indifferent to the increasing suffering of the man who tried to kill him. "Oh well..." Ikki raised the last nail he had high into the air, preparing to shove it straight through Freed's chest. "I suppose it'll have to-"

"Please stop!"

In any normal situation, nothing could have stopped Ikki once he had slipped into such a state. He would have gladly (although not outwardly so) have continued to rid the world of a sadistic monster who killed solely for pleasure such as Freed. While not one for killing, Ikki would not hesitate against such an irresponsible and dangerous existence.

The familiar blonde-haired nun standing in the doorway, hands covering her open mouth, deep in shock, was never a part of "any normal situation".

"I-Ikki-san!?" Asia gasped, staring at Ikki in horror and shock.

"Well..." Ikki looked from Asia, to the bloody nail in his hand, to Freed whom he had been about to impale, then back to Asia. "Well fuck me..." He stared at Asia before looking back down at Freed, his mind quickly putting the pieces together. He lowered the nail slowly and without hostile intent, staring at Asia with an expression she wouldn't realize indicated awkwardness. "..." Ikki raised a hand in greeting. "Yo."

And that was when Asia screamed.

And it was around that time that Ikki found out his raised hand was also covered in blood. Whether it belonged to the nameless, face-less victim or Freed, Ikki had no idea.

"W-What are you doing?!" Asia asked, looking faint. Ikki knew the wrong words would only cause the situation to worsen.

"...I'm trying to stab him in the chest." Unfortunately, Ikki did not know the right words. "...Can I start over? I feel like I can do better on a second try."

Asia let out a heart-stopping shriek as she backed away subconsciously from Ikki. "H-How c-could you-" And was when she noticed the pool of blood that had slowly started to flow over the area where her foot was. She looked over to the origin of the blood, finally laying eyes upon the brutally murdered man who had Ikki's jacket laid over his face, the blood of said man already soaking Ikki's jacket. And again, Asia's deafening scream of terror filled the air.

While Ikki pondered how to properly explain or discuss the present situation, he felt Freed groan in pain and frustration, still struggling underneath Ikki's grasp.

"Ssshhtop that...fuckin screaming!" Freed shouted, still finding enough strength to express his anger. "...Get...'ver here and use yer fuckin' Sacrred Gear...!"

Ikki frowned at those words. "Sacred Gear?"

"Ikki-san, please!" Asia begged, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. "I-I don't know why you would do something like this, but please stop! I know you aren't a bad person to do something like this! I-I can still save the Father, so please, find mercy in your heart!"

"Hmmm..." Ikki paused, closing his eyes as a pensive look covered his expression. "On one hand, the guy I'm about to kill is a psychopathic and/or sociopathic murderer and, if I let him go, there is no doubt in my mind that he will try (I emphasize "try") to shoot or stab me...Likely both...at the same time. And, if he by some chance manages to succeed, I have the distinct feeling that he will rape my corpse with his sword just for good measure. If he's feeling creative, he may disembowel me and use my internal organs as decorations come Christmas time..." Ikki felt a distinct love for all of his limbs, blood, and organs being in the specific areas where they were assigned. "Buuuuut, if I kill him oh-so-mercilessly in front of the pleasant nun girl, I will probably make her cry...Hmmmm...Let's see...Hypothetical brutal mutilation or crying nun...Hmmm..."

Asia continued pleading with Ikki with her tear-filled eyes. "Please...?"

"...Well, she DID say "please"..." Ikki considered the pros and cons of either decision before finally opening his eyes, staring at Asia. "...OK." Ikki didn't once glimpse Asia's look of surprise or thankfulness as he stood up, getting up from Freed's immobile body. Perhaps it was intentional due to the way he oh-so-coldly ripped the bloody nails from Freed's flesh without a hint of gentleness. He didn't bother listening to Freed's screams that time. Ikki simply stepped back and leaned against the wall, staring as Asia worriedly ran to the wounded Freed.

Ikki's bangs were covering his face, but he was staring at the pair with an odd amount of curiosity, his arms crossed over his chest.

A light-green aura suddenly started to emanate from Asia's hands, spreading to the areas where Ikki had mercilessly stabbed Freed. He raised an eyebrow as the open wounds slowly began to close, the torn flesh mending as if sewn back together by invisible thread, leaving no trace that a wound had ever been there in the first place. The holes in Freed's arm, his wounded eye, and even the potentially broken ribs Ikki may or may not have given him all started to repair themselves as they came under the effect of the green aura.

"So Freed didn't misspeak..." Ikki thought to himself. "She has a Sacred Gear just like I do with my red...gauntlet thingy...but hers looks so different, so I doubt that their abilities are the same..."

He waited patiently as Asia continued healing the wounds Ikki had inflicted on Freed, the process taking less than a minute, Asia's healing power being in itself a miracle.

After the process was completed and Freed was fully healed, silence ensued in the midst of their odd group. Ikki said nothing and did absolutely nothing, not even acknowledging the confused, fearful, and curious stare Asia had been giving him. Freed, on the other hand, was actually moving, using his newly healed arms to push himself up into a sitting position so he could see the person who had almost killed him. Much to Ikki's surprise, Freed didn't say anything hostile at first despite having the mental clarity and vulgar vocabulary to do so. Instead, he turned to Asia.

"Ah, Father, you are-"

And that was when Freed brought his hand around and backhanded Asia in the face. Asia let out a squeal of pain and fear as her body hit the ground.

"You useless bitch!" Freed screamed at the downed nun. "What took you so long with that barrier!? You know how much it hurts to get stabbed by a fucking Devil!?" Asia's eyes went wide with the realization of what Freed had just said. Freed got to his knees, grabbing a handful of Asia's golden locks and yanked her upright, staring at her teary-eyed face with the utmost hostility and hate.

"Don't do that." Ikki said calmly, looking as though he was trying to look like he didn't care either way.

As if to taunt Ikki, Freed gave Asia's hair an extra harsh yank, causing the nun to whimper from the sudden pain. "And as I'm writhing in agony on the bloody floor, I see you begging pathetically to some dipshit Devil. Are you fucking stupid?" Again, he punished the nun by yanking her hair once again like one would yank on the leash of a dog.

"I told you not to do that."

"Huh?" Freed looked up from Asia with disinterested eyes, turning his gaze on the silence-prone young man leaning against the wall, staring at the sadistic priest. However, anyone with even a remotely trained eye could have been able to tell that something significant had changed from before. How the light in Ikki's eyes had become dull, his gaze becoming sharper, his expression certainly not one of happiness. Surprisingly, Freed was part of that "anyone". A feeling of amusement filling him, he casually dropped Asia onto the ground, another yelp escaping the girl's lips. "Well well well~ Could it be that this rotten Devil has a soft spot for nuns~?" Despite his previous beating, Freed showed no hesitation in getting up close to Ikki to the point their faces were inches apart. "What is it~? Do you have a fetish for girls like her~? You rub one out thinking about all of the parts hidden underneath those annoying robes~? Get your rocks off at the thought of violating nuns with that Devil dick of yours~?!"

For a total of twenty-seven seconds, a deep silence ensued between the two young males, their eyes remaining locked on one another's before Ikki finally answered.

"Could you back up a few more inches?" Ikki asked. "I'm not homophobic or anything, but this is borderline sexual harassment." Despite the casual and flippant comment, there was none of his usual humor in his voice. "And I would really prefer not to get any more blood on my favorite shirt."

Freed raised his sword, placing the tip right underneath Ikki's chin. "You know, I'm suddenly beginning to remember all of the reasons I hate you." He subtly reached into his robes, retrieving a third sword hilt. "As a priest, I should probably return to my holy duties of eliminating shits like you!" Freed brought his sword around, attempting to stab Ikki straight through the center of his face, Ikki tilting his head to the left to avoid the blow, the blade sinking into the wall behind him.

Ikki, again, stared Freed down. "...You missed."

Freed stuck a blade on the other side of Ikki's head before drawing out yet another sword of light, hovering it right in front of Ikki's seemingly surrounded neck. "Think I will miss now?"

A moment was needed for Ikki to consider both Freed's question and his current situation as well as the events leading up to it.

"...No seriously. How many swords do you have in those robes?" He asked. "Do you have like Velcro straps or hidden pockets or something?..."

"Could you please shut up!? It's hard trying to get in a word edge-wise with you as it is!" Freed poked and prodded Ikki's face with the tip of his sword. "However cocky you were before, that's how badly I'm going to hurt you before you finally break!"

"...Do you have so many swords because you're trying to compensate for something?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...I didn't really understand that." Freed admitted freely. "...but it still pisses me off enough that I'm going to take however much I intended to hurt you and triple it." Freed pulled back his sword, ready to strike. Ikki casually readied himself, prepared to enact several courses of action in response to this gesture.

"Don't-Don't do this!"

Neither had the chance to carry out their respective actions due to the sorrowful voice of the room's third (living) occupant.

Both males turned their heads to face Asia, the young nun looking as though she would start crying from either fear, shock, or emotional pain.

Ikki blinked, looking from Asia to Freed, using his index finger to motion between both himself and Freed. "Er...which one of us are you talking to?"

Freed gave an irritated growl before glaring at Ikki. "I figured it would be obvious that she's referring to the one who isn't about to die."

Again, Ikki paused.

"...OK, but which one of us is she talking to?"

"...I hate you." Freed said after taking a deep breath. "...I have never met a Devil I have wanted to kill more than you in my entire life."

"To be fair, you've lived less than two decades. I doubt you had that much time to find Devils you wanted to kill more than m-Guh!" Ikki's smart remark was cut off when Freed decided to punch him in the throat. It stung and almost made him bite his tongue, but it wasn't anything close to a debilitating blow.

"Please stop this, Father Freed!" Asia begged, grabbing the psychotic priest's sleeve. "Please don't! I beg you for mercy! I know he's done horrible things-"

"Wait-what?" Ikki showed a hint of surprise on his face at Asia's words.

"-but can you not forgive this man for his sins, Father?" Asia pleaded, not hesitating to speak to the mentally unhinged man with a seemingly infinite number of swords. "He may have brought you harm and he may be a Devil, but he also willingly spared your life even when he had no reason to do so! I've seen his kindness before as well! I know that, deep down, he is a kind person who does not wish to hurt people!"

"..." Ikki remained silent in response to Asia's words, his changed expression suddenly returning to its previous state.

"...Asia?" Freed slowly pulled his blade away from Ikki, lowering it to his side.

"Y-Yes, Father?" Asia answered meekly, removing her hand from his sleeve.

"You said you've seen this Devil before, correct?"

"U-Uh, yes, Father. I met him the day I arrived in this town. He showed me the way to the Church here."

Freed put on a stern expression, making several "tsk" sounds. "Now, Asia, you know the rules concerning fraternization with Devils." Freed scolded as if he cared about the girl or what she did in the slightest. "You know that the Fallen Angels expressly forbid any contact between our kind and theirs, the filthy monsters they are. Have you forgotten that already? "

"Yes-I mean-N-No, Father." Asia answered, losing some of her nerve but still not backing down around Freed's oppressive presence. "I-I didn't know he was a Devil back then...b-but, he also knew I was part of a group who considered Devils their enemy and still showed kindness to me and to others. If he was really a monster, why would he not have killed me then?"

It looked as though Freed was only half-paying attention, casually cleaning out his left ear with his pinky finger. "Why the fuck should I care about what or why some disgusting Devil does anything?" He asked eloquently. "It doesn't change the fact that our mission is to exterminate scum like him." Freed raised his blade to strike Ikki again. "Not that it matters much for someone like you, but I hope you've said your prayers!"

"Please stop!"

Ikki stared with a variety of emotions (from confusion and surprise to amusement and gratitude) as Asia suddenly stood in-between Ikki and the unstable priest with a sword, her arms outstretched in Ikki's defense.

She was trembling, he noted. It was obvious that she was afraid, but she was still risking her safety for him because she thought it was the right thing to do...

"Even if Ikki-san has brought harm to others, can we not give him a lighter punishment for sparing you?" Asia asked, sounding hopeful for periods of time as she spoke. "I understand he must face punishment for the man he has killed, but I don't think he did something out of mere malice! Can we not-"

"Hey," Ikki suddenly cut in, "I get that you guys are in the middle of a thing, but I would like to point out one crucial fact I think the sister missed: You were the one who killed that guy on the floor over there. Not me. I quite frankly don't care what your group of "holy warriors" or whatever does, but I would like to clear up the misunderstanding and state, for the record, I did not kill anybody..." Freed stared at Ikki with disinterest while Asia's expression was colored by obvious confusion and uncertainty. "...I mean, Tsu-chan would kill me if I killed..."

"...I-Ikki-san, do you mean..." Asia stumbled while lost in her train of thought. "...b-but that man on the ground...you..." She turned to Freed, hoping for some sort of answer to Ikki's accusation. "W-What is he talking about, Father?"

A hint of disdain appeared in Ikki's passive expression as he looked at Freed. "Why don't you go ahead and tell her, Freed?" Ikki asked in a way that was very close to being a taunt. "...You were talking a lot before about just wanting to cut them up and shoot'em dead. I didn't expect you to get stage fright all of a sudden when it came to admitting to what you did-"

"Nope. That was me~!" Freed admitted. "I did it~!"

A small, naive part of Ikki was surprised. "Wow...didn't think he'd actually admit it...I...really don't know where to go from here...kind of took the wind from my sails there."

"It was pretty fun too~ And easy~" Freed gloated. "I stabbed that guy lots and lots, disemboweled him, and even cut off his dick to mount on my wall as a little trophy~!"

"...OK, that last part was more than I'd care to know."

Asia turned to Freed, her entire being having been thrust into abject horror. "B-But why?! W-Why would you do something like that?!"

"Which part specifically?" Freed asked with a neutral tone.

"I'm going to assume she meant all of it." Ikki guessed. "I mean, the part about cutting off his "male pride" was obviously the most shocking bit as well as the last thing you said before asking "Which part specifically?", but I think that the whole confession in general was what horrified her."

"Shut it, you!" Freed grabbed Ikki by his hair and bashed the back of his head against the wall. "As to why I cut up that unfortunate soul on the ground, it is part of our jobs, my dear. It is our duty to dispose of those who have been bewitched by the evil Devils."

"Yeah, that probably would have sounded more believable and dutiful if you hadn't previously been talking about dismemberment and torture." Ikki quipped, casually ducking Freed's elbow that attempted to bust his skull open.

"B-But if he hasn't brought harm to anyone, couldn't we just let him go?!"

Ikki stared at Asia with half-lidded eyes. "You really haven't been paying attention to this situation so far, have you?" In a way, he found her sense of innocence to be an admirable and somewhat cute trait. Like a very slow, dim-witted, but very well-intentioned puppy.

"As much as it makes my skin crawl, I'd have to agree." Freed said, brandishing his sword once more, hoping it would be the last time he had to raise it to deal with the Devil before him. "Now move away so I don't cut you in half along with him!"

"No!" To her credit (although not necessarily to her wisdom), Asia stood her ground, determined not to be pressured into backing down. "There is goodness in him despite being a Devil! I've seen it with my own two eyes! Just like there are good and bad humans, there must also be good Devils along with the bad ones, I know it! No matter what you say, I cannot approve of what you're doing!"

Freed let out a growl of ever-increasing frustration. "I've had it! ENOUGH OF THIS BULLSHIT!" Freed lashed out violently with his sword, no longer caring if his blade ripped through "friend" or foe. In fact, he felt his job would have been easier if he had just killed Asia and blamed it on the Devil, Ikki, whom he had subsequently intended to kill both as part of his mission and because imagining the guts of the person he hated most in the entire world was excellent jerk-off material for a sadist like him. Killing them both and being rid of them for good was like an early birthday present even if killing the nun was against his orders.

Which was why he was thoroughly displeased when his umpteenth attempt at a killing blow was blocked by his least favorite person.

Even more-so when he found said hated person managing to catch the blade between his bare hands.

"Let go of my sword, dammit!" Freed demanded, trying to wrench his blade free of Ikki's grasp.

"...I already told you not to do that." Ikki looked up at Freed, a heavy shadow covering the young Devil's eyes.

"Shut up, already! Lemme cut you and the dumb bitch into little tiny pieces! I'll fuckin' kill you! I'll stab you, find a new gun and shoot you, and, after that's done, I'm gonna rape your fucking corpse with my sword! When all that's done, I'm gonna keep your internal organs and use them as Christmas decorations, you rotten fuck!"

Without so much as a quip, Ikki jerked his hands suddenly, snapping the blade in half. He didn't even make a remark about how snapping a sword made purely out of light (which was deadly to Devils in the first place) in half was so easy.

"Aw, BITCH!" Freed cursed at the sight of his now-broken sword. "That was one of my favorites!"

Still, Ikki made no remark. Without so much as a peep, he reached behind him, gripped the hilts of the light swords stabbed into the wall behind him, ripping them out and letting them drop to the ground.

"...I told you twice to watch yourself, Freed." Ikki jerked his head left and right, drawing out the crack sounds his neck made. A light aura slowly started to cover his body, his expression becoming darker than it had been before, an emotion most would not expect from him appearing on his face. "I warned you not to lay a hand on her."

"Ikki...san?" The nun between the two men looked even more confused than when they started, even more-so when Ikki turned to her, smiling pleasantly in sharp contrast to his previous expression.

"It's fine, Asia." Ikki assured her with his false smile. "But, for just a few minutes, I want you to cover your ears and close your eyes. Don't open them no matter what. I promise that I won't let anything bad happen to you. You won't be hurt. I promise."

Despite her unease, Asia did as requested, convinced by the soft, trustworthy tone in his voice. She now knew the situation...the truth. With that in mind and the actions Ikki had made so far, she could not help but hold some faith in his words.

Then Ikki turned back to Freed, his expression becoming dark once more.

"Now...Where were we?...Ah yes. I was trying to remember exactly the suffering you had inflicted upon my late-client...but maybe that wasn't enough of a punishment for you..." He slowly started to advance towards Freed, not a single sign of wasted movement. Every step he took was towards the broken man in front of him.

"Oh? Am I supposed to be scared of the big bad Devil?" Freed himself failed to realize that his own voice had cracked slightly, a sane part of his mind feeling intimidated by Ikki's slowly-increasing presence. "Last time you got lucky, but do you really think you're going to have me backed into a corner in a mere few minutes?"

Ikki continued approaching the priest who had fallen from grace, one step at a time.

"No. In a few minutes...you're going to be begging for death."

That night, nobody would hear the bloodcurdling screams that came from that home that night.

The barrier Asia had made on Freed's orders made sure of that.

And it is on that chilling note where this chapter is brought to an end. Ikki does, in fact, have a scary side. That is why you don't want to piss him off.

And that is my update for now. I gave a bit of insight into Ikki's true character in many ways this chapter.

Don't worry. The entire series won't be like this though. I intend to have some more lighthearted themes next chapter, having already shown that Ikki isn't the normal protagonist one would expect from stories that replace Issei.

Also, no more English OC submissions. I get you guys are excited, but these guys are Japanese...and Italian...and some of them are Romanian (Gasper)...or Norse (don't remember what region that is). Please try to stop sending English characters. Also, please do not send OP legendary Exorcists and Devils. I know it sounds picky, but that seems to be everyone's first thought and I can't use all of these. I need characters I can use casually. Also, please be more descriptive when writing your characters out. If I use them, I need to know how they act casually or act in response to certain situations.

Now on to a more serious message.

Every person reading this, I want you to, right now, right this second, start writing a High School DxD story. I would say any other story, but High School DxD is so much easier in every sense of the word. So it makes for good practice and a good starting point. Just picture the worst fic you ever read and think to yourself "God, there's no way I could ever be as bad as that guy.". That should give you the confidence you need to complete this objective.

If anyone needs help getting their dream story started, I would be happy to lend my assistance. Just send me a Private Message.

Please R&R.