YO! So, I was on vacation from july 15th - 23rd. And the 24th was my birthday(25yrs old now! God I'm old), So I was just a tad busy. But lets get back into the swing of things shall we.

I noticed that some of the reviews didn't like the whole Issei marrying Rias thing.

So to answer that question

Neither Sona or Rias at this point in their lives have shown any interest in marrying anyone. They see men as all being the same, only wanting to ravage them for their bodies. And show them off as a trophy, not a loved one. So this marriage will basically be on paper only. It would be a way to bring both of their families higher up in the underworld, as well as bring them closer together should Sona also marry Issei. If I were reading that without having the background knowledge..i'd probably think the same way as some of you have.

"...talking…"

'...Thinking…'

"..Host talking to Sacred gear only.."

[ Sacred gear spirit talking ]

[Sacred gear spirit talking to host only ]

I OWN NOTHING

Chapter 3:

After Issei left the school grounds, he had started walking towards his home, thinking about everything that had happened during his conversation with Sona.

'What do I do? This wasn't exactly the sort of problems I had imagined having the first week of school.' Issei thought to himself, hands held behind his head while walking around the corner that led to his house. Issei would have imagined him having trouble keeping his old self hidden, possibly being whacked by Katase and Murayama for slipping up. He wasn't sure that anything could have prepared him for an introduction into supernatural activities.

Issei reached into the left pocket of his pants, and brought out the white chess piece that Sona had given him, and looked at it curiously.

'And what's with this chess piece? It feels like there's water moving inside of it, but it's completely solid.' Issei stared at the white pawn piece in his hand, feeling the sensation of gently moving water course through it. The piece looked like it was from a very expensive set, bright white with onyx black accents. It somehow reminded Issei of Sona, not because she was the one who gave it to him. Issei figured it was the feeling of moving water, and Sona's display of water magic back at school.

Issei opened the door to his house and stepped inside, taking his shoes off in the entryway.

"Mom, I'm home." He called out to his mother, who was probably in the kitchen, as she usually was by the time he got home from school.

There was silence all throughout the Hyoudou residence, leading Issei to come to the conclusion that he was alone. He quickly took his shoes off, and made his way into the kitchen, where his mother would typically be, only to find a note attached to the fridge.

'Your father and I went out with some friends, we'll be out most of the night. There's food for you in the oven, just heat it up. -Love Mom'

'Well, probably better like this anyway, no need to worry my parents.' Issei thought after reading the note.

Issei put the note down on the table, and walked up to his room, the chess piece rolling between the fingers of his hand. Once he made it into his room, he tossed his school bag on desk, and laid himself on his bed. Issei held the chess piece that Sona had given him up, staring at it like it would tell him what the best option here would be, but Issei doubted this inanimate object held such answers.

'So, according to Sona-Kaichou, I have a sacred gear with the Red Dragon Emperor. I don't understand how something like that could be attached to me without me knowing. I suppose doubting what she said would be counter-productive.' Issei thought. He wouldn't have believed that any part of her story was true, if it weren't for the wings and the magic show she gave him. So that left Issei with figuring out what to do next, because according to the violet eyed girl, he would eventually be targeted because of the power this Red Dragon had.

'If that's true, then I need to get stronger, to keep myself and others safe. But is joining her, and becoming a devil the best way? The story she told me said that there was an uneasy cease-fire between those three factions, so by joining the devils, that makes the angels and fallen angels enemies. I'd think remaining a neutral party in this stalemate would be better...but who knows if that's even possible...ugh, this is exhausting'

Issei laid his hand with the chess piece down onto his chest. When the pawn came in contact with his shirt, it started pulsing, changing between the white color of before and the same blue that Sona had emitted.

"?!"

Issei's hand pulled away from the chess piece, his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, as it seemed to come to life. The pawn continued changing color and seemed to attach itself to Issei's chest as it sat in the center of his chest. Issei would have removed the chess piece off of him, if it weren't for the sense of peace that it gave off. If he were to describe the feeling this seemingly simple pawn piece gave him, it would be that this pawn wanted Issei to accept it into himself. It wanted to help him achieve his goals, his ambitions, his desires...harem included. It held no intentions of leading Issei to harm. It gave Issei a calming feeling, like that of floating down a nearly still river, being carried by the gentle current.

Issei relaxed on his bed, letting the pawn still rest on his chest, and felt the weight of the situation fade away with his consciousness.

-LineBreak-

10 Minutes after Issei left the student council

Sona was in her office, sorting through the last bit of paperwork she needed to finish for the day, before returning home. Her Queen Tsubaki, was still at her side, helping file the papers. The Sitri Heiress was absentmindedly signing the last of the papers as she thought of the result of her conversation with Issei Hyoudou.

'The majority of our talk went exactly as planned. But where did it go wrong? Everything I know about Issei Hyoudou had led me to believe that he would accept almost immediately.' Sona thought.

Tsubaki took the last papers from her king, and filed them away. Just as the file cabinet was closed, a knock on the door was heard, both occupants looked towards it as it opened. Momo and Reya were revealed entering the student council office. Reya had her usual smile, but the usually bubbly Momo was more reserved, her face set into a neutral expression as if deep in thought.

"Kaichou, we've finished distributing the new club member forms." Reya said to her master. Her face turned to her fellow Bishop and friend, her smile faltering a small amount for a brief moment before returning, and speaking to Sona once again.

"Is there anything else you need from us?"

Sona's eyes went from Momo to Reya, then back to Momo. Being that they had spent the most time with Issei, perhaps they could give some insight about the meeting earlier.

"Momo, I would like to speak to you for a moment."

Sona placed her elbows on the table, lacing her fingers as she rested her chin against them, before turning to Momo.

"Momo, how do you feel the conversation with Issei Hyoudou went?"

Momo set her glacial blue eyes on Sona's violet, her expression not changing. She had been thinking of this very topic as they finished their duties. She stepped forward a bit and addressed the Vice-President.

"Overall, I think it went well. Ise took the reveal well, and was able to keep himself composed for the most part. However, near the end...I believe that my interaction with him only hurt the possibility of him accepting."

Sona had expected the two Bishops to have some idea of where the meeting went astray, but that was not where Sona thought the problem was. Underneath Momo's bubbly and carefree appearance, was a girl with an intuition as sharp as any Sona had ever seen, so her and Reya's input was valuable to bring the situation back into Sona's favor.

"How so?" Sona asked her bishop. Momo started to fidget with her hands, biting her bottom lip before steeling herself, giving her response.

"When we were going through the file on him once we were told he would be in our class, it gave us a look at some of his personality, but not enough of it."

Sona had only had a brief conversation with Issei before their meeting today, but she would have to agree, Issei was more than what the files given to her stated. But she still didn't quite understand what her bishop meant, so Sona waited for her to continue.

"Ise said during the meeting that his two best friends weren't accepted into Kuoh, what he told Reya and I in class, was that they were his only friends...aside from the two he made in the kendo club."

Sona rose an eyebrow at this, and began to put the pieces together. If Issei didn't have many friends, then he might hold that friendship in the same regard as family. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to conclude that Issei may even value friends more than family, as his friends would accept his perverted nature, whereas his family may not.

"I've met people like him before, he'd do anything for his friends, all he would want in return is honesty. We haven't known him very long, but that much is abundantly clear to me."

Momo took a deep breath, the end of the meeting had stung when Ise called her Hanakai, and not Momo as he had since they met. She couldn't explain why she felt such an attachment to the boy, they had only known each other for 2 days. But she felt it nonetheless, so after Ise left the student council, she was stuck in her thoughts of how to fix it. She wanted Ise to know that she actually did want to be his friend.

"When he was told that we didn't approach him from interest in getting to know him, rather that we were instructed to, he must have felt like we were just using him. And with his open personality, I think that must be like losing a family member to him."

Now that Sona had gotten the explanation from Momo, she knew where she went wrong. If Sona had clarified that anything passed the initial interaction was of Momo and Reya's own desire to be around him, perhaps the conversation would have ended better, possibly even accepting her proposal to join her peerage right away. But hindsight is always 20/20, now they just needed to adjust on how to approach Issei. Sona thought that if they explained that fact, it may benefit their cause, but before Sona could say anything about the subject, Reya spoke up.

"Kaichou. I believe Momo and I should talk with Ise, explain that we are his friends, whether he joins your peerage or not. At the very least, we would be an acquaintance of the Red Dragon Emperor, at best it could lead him to accept the reincarnation."

Sona fixed her glasses, pushing them back into place on her nose, and ran through the possible outcomes in her mind. Just as Reya had stated, there weren't many downsides to having that talk with Issei, but Sona's plan required him to in her peerage. She thought the best option as this point, was to gauge the reaction after they speak with him.

"I agree, speak with him before sch-"

Sona was cut off by a pulling feeling and a magic circle on her hand appearing.

"?!"

Sona knew what was causing this, it was the same feeling when something was happening to one of the evil pieces. There were only three that were not in the student council room, one of which was with the very person that they were discussing.

Sona lifted her right hand where the light was coming from, a magic circle appearing from her palm. Sona summoned some water shaped into a mirror, and used a spell that allowed her to view what was causing the reaction from one of her pieces. The water shimmered and a bedroom came into view, which only Sona could see.

The image started to come more into focus, revealing a boys bedroom, if the posters of scantily clad women on the wall were any indication. Sona saw a bed with a blurry figure coming into view, there were two odd lights coming from this room. One was the same color as her magic circle, and azure blue, the other was a vibrant emerald just beside it. The two colored lights were pulsing in an alternate timing, when the image was fully focused, Sona could see Issei lying on his bed asleep.

The blue light was coming from the pawn piece, pulsing from the white color as was normal for unused evil pieces, to the color of her magic circle. The emerald green light was what confused and concerned Sona. It was coming off of Issei's left hand, the center of the backside of his palm had a circle on it with runes that even Sona couldn't recognize.

Sona looked from the two lights and settled on Issei's face, he was sleeping in absolute peace. He didn't seem to mind the bright lights that were coming off of him, his face was set into a small smile as he slept.

Sona would never admit it to anyone, but Issei had piqued her interest. How could a boy who seemed so caring and honest hold such an intimidating power? Any who held such power in the underworld were usually arrogant beyond measure, claiming that they could just take whatever it was that they wanted. Issei's demeanor was a refreshing change of pace. Even if a sacred gear holder wasn't aware of it, the sacred gear usually had an effect on the personality of its bearer since it was attached to the very soul of the person. Issei's held one of the most powerful dragons to ever exist, and stories circulated the underworld of the arrogant nature of the previous boosted gear wielders. Carnal desires aside, Issei had to be amongst the most pure hearted red dragon emperors to have ever lived, there was only one other that was known to not have been driven mad by the red dragons power..the strongest female wielder, Elsha laevateinn, who was nicknamed the NorseFire Dragon.

Sona was brought out of her thoughts by her Queen, who stepped behind her to see what was on the water mirror.

"Kaichou, is something wrong?"

Sona shook her her in response to Tsubaki's question. As far as she could see, there wasn't any negative reactions happening, but why the piece was reacting this way was unknown.

"No, I don't think so. It almost seems that the evil piece I gave Issei Hyoudou is reacting to the boosted gear-" Sona began, and was abruptly cut off by the pair of bishops.

"Is Ise alright Kaichou?!"

Momo was a bit more enthusiastic in her question the Reya, but that was to be expected, as she was the more outspoken of the two. Sona sighed, she didn't appreciate being interrupted. If they had just let her speak, she would have said that he seemed only to be asleep at the moment. But getting the feeling that they would feel best if they saw it for themselves, Sona took both hands onto the mirror as it started to glow, then expand to the size of a window so all in the room could see it.

The Sitri devils all stood in front of Sona's desk, where the water showing Issei's room floated. Seeing that he was just asleep, and the slight smile on his face, Momo and Reya both calmed down. Watching the alternating lights continue for a few more seconds, Reya asked Sona the question that had first came into her own mind when she saw the lights.

"Kaichou, why are the evil piece and boosted gear reacting to each other?"

Sona could only come up with a theory, she had nothing to prove it. But it was the only conceivable way she could think of to explain what was happening. Adjusting her glasses once more, Sona addressed her brunette Bishop.

"I only have a theory. But I believe that the soul of the boosted gear was partially awoken by the power imbued into the evil piece, this would explain the green glow from Issei Hyoudou's arm."

As Sona finished, the green light changed from pulsing, into a constant shine from the hosts left arm. Sona and her peerage members present stared at it, waiting curiously to see what was happening. The green light shined brighter, blocking Issei from view for a few seconds before settling down.

Sona's eyes widened as she gazed back to where the light had come from, while the rest looked slightly confused by the change. There was now a green gem embedded into the back of Issei's palm, where the glow was coming from. And Issei's eyes were open, but in place of the usual light brown, they were the same emerald as the gem.

"Ise's eyes...the green.." Momo whispered, commenting on the change of her friend.

Through the viewing portal, Issei started to stir, before a voice came from his lips that wasn't his own.

"I don't think Ise would appreciate being spied on." it was a mature feminine voice. It was laced with power that would have sent shivers down their spines if they were in the same room. The voice wasn't cold, more a matter of fact tone.

This feminine voice confused Sona greatly, all books and stories had said that the red heavenly dragon was male, so why was this feminine voice coming from Issei?

Issei's body lifted so he was sitting up in his bed, the evil piece still attached to his chest. His face turned to look directly at Sona, the devils of the student council all froze as Ise's face turned into a sly smile.

"A Sitri devil? I haven't met one of you in many many years." The feminine voice came through the portal. It sounded more surprised than anything else. But how did whoever this was know of Sona's family?

Sona cleared her throat to speak to whoever was controlling Issei's body. She didn't want to show any weakness to whoever this was, as they were clearly above her in strength, and angering a superior opponent was never advised.

"Yes, I am Sona Sitri. I am curious, who are you, why do you know my family, and why are you controlling Issei Hyoudou?" Sona asked all of the pressing questions immediately.

The woman controlling Issei held his hand over his mouth as a feminine chuckle came out of his mouth, which was a strange sight, this gesture looked weird coming from Issei's body. Once the woman had calmed herself down, she smiled through the portal towards Sona, not paying any attention to the others in the room.

"The only thing you need to know, is that I mean Issei no harm, we were merely talking before you rudely interrupted. Issei may tell you the rest if he wants to, for now though, I believe he and I should finish our discussion. Bye-Bye"

The voice ended in a sing-song voice while waving. As she waved, the portal began to become unstable, and quickly lost its form, before the water splashed on the floor. Sona and her peerage all stepped back from the water splashing onto the floor. Sona stared at where the water was laying on the floor, she had never come across anyone with the ability to negate a communication spell before, and that had her on edge. The only saving grace was that whoever this was, didn't seem to hold any harmful intentions towards herself, her peerage, or Issei.

"Kaichou, who do you think that was?" Sona's Queen Tsubaki asked.

"I don't know, but I think my sister might know how to find out."

-LineBreak-

Right after Issei fell asleep

After Issei fell asleep on his bed, his eyes shot open, only to find himself in a large open field. The field was filled with rows of trees, flowers, fruits and vegetables. He was standing under what was probably the largest tree Issei had ever seen in his life. It was probably over 200 feet tall, and 12 feet in diameter, branches sprouting out giving shade with its lush greenery.

Issei took in the sight of this beautiful place, breathing in the air, which didn't carry any of the pollution that the modern world had. Issei sat himself against the tree, and stared at the rows of flowers, some of which didn't look like they grew anywhere near japan.

The wind blew passed Issei, rustling his hair along with the plants of this expansive eden like garden. Issei remembered falling asleep, so he figured that this was a dream, and why not just enjoy this peaceful place.

Issei was starting to wonder just why his mind had come up with this place, some of these plants didn't look like anything he'd ever seen before. As Issei was pondering his surroundings, the sound of a stick breaking on the ground took him his thoughts. He looked to his right and saw nothing but the hills in the distance. To the left was where the rows of fauna started, the sound of rustling grass coming from just around the tree to his left and getting closer.

Issei wasn't sure if this was about to turn into some nightmare where the beautiful landscape would turn dark, gloomy and bloody, with some sort of monster chasing him endlessly. But whatever it was, he let it continue to come closer, seeing as this was his dream. A gust of wind blew from behind, and the sight of golden blonde hair swaying in the wind came into view from the side of the tree, just out of Issei's field of vision.

Issei's eyes widened as he saw the long blonde hair flowing, hoping that this dream wouldn't choose the moment he saw whoever it was attached to, to turn this pleasant dream into a nightmare.

The blonde haired figure came around the tree and spoke to Issei as he took in her appearance. It was a women, around Issei's height at 5'7. Her long blonde hair reached down to the top of her thighs, her bangs were braided to the right side, to keep the hair out of her face. Her eyes were a mismatched set, her left being a sky blue, and her right a vibrant emerald green. Her skin was lighter than his own, and not a blemish on it. The sight of her made Issei think she was of European descent. This woman had a figure that was clearly built from training, but hadn't lost its beauty. She was wearing a long white dress that was tight around her curves, and reached to her ankles, leaving her bare feet to be seen on the green grass. The dress had small straps on her shoulders, and was fairly low cut, giving Issei a look at the top of her D-Cup breasts. Her arms were slender, no extra fat. Her legs were long and toned.

'A dream where a beautiful girl is wearing normal clothes, that's a change.' Issei thought as he gazed at the blonde beauty.

As the woman looked onto Issei, she smiled, before speaking the first words between the two of them.

"I have to say Ise, I'm surprised i'm the first one to speak with you. I'm glad that we can finally meet each other."

Issei tilted his head to the side, slightly confused at what she said. 'The first?' What did she mean by that he wondered. But he could ask about it after he greeted the beauty in front of him.

Issei stood from his spot and took a step towards her to shake her hand, as he stuck his hand out he introduced himself.

"Hello, I'm Issei Hyoudou, but you already seem to know that. Heh." Issei chuckled as he realized that she had already called him by his nickname, even though he had no idea who she was.

The blonde womans smile widened as she stepped forward, passed Issei's outstretched hand, and pulled him into a tight hug. Her grip around his neck was close to bone shattering. Issei thought that she was either really excited to see him, or hiding a desire to snap his neck, hopefully the former.

"U-uhm, miss?"

The blonde kept her grip tight, her left hand on the back on Ise's, after a good 10 seconds she finally let go. She stepped back, the wide smile not leaving her face.

"I'm sorry Ise, after all these years, i'm just happy we're finally face to face." She said sweetly, her voice was like that of a woman in her early 20's. It was soft, and held an excited tone. She placed her right hand over her chest as she introduced herself.

"My name is Elsha laevateinn, your predecessor, and welcome to my home."

Issei was confused, he'd never heard that name before. Normally his dreams were of girls he'd met before and fantasized about, this was out of the ordinary, but not unwelcome. But then another part of what she said brought a question into his mind. 'What did she mean my predecessor?' Issei thought. Elsha giggled with her hand over her mouth and eyes closed. Her right hand extended and gently took hold of Ise's left, Ise noticed how soft yet sturdy her hands were, before a green flash emitted from the hand she held.

"What the-?!" Issei yelled out, startled by the sudden flash of light. He covered his eyes with his right hand. Once the light died down, the surprise didn't fade away, as now there was a red metal gauntlet covering his left hand up to his elbow.

It was a crimson red, the metal plates looked like dragon scales, with yellow horn like protrusions coming from the sides near his wrist. It was fingerless on the top, allowing him to use his fingers, and had an emerald green gem on the center. Ise stared at it in awe, as Elsha just looked at Issei's reaction.

Once Issei finished staring at the gauntlet in curious awe, he realised that Elsha was still holding onto his hand, and he still didn't understand what was going on...This wasn't like any dream he'd had before, and this gauntlet seemed awefully close to what Sona had talked about.

"This gauntlet is the boosted gear, the Red Dragon Emperors Gauntlet. I was one of the previous wielders of Ddraig. When one of the wielders die, a part of you is kept inside of it, which is where we are now...Inside the part of your soul where the boosted gear resides." Elsha explained. She tightened her grip on Ise's left hand, making the gauntlet disappear, now holding onto Ise's bare hand once again.

Issei held her hand tighter, enjoying the sense of calming it gave him. Physical contact wasn't something that Issei was particularly used to from a girl, not even his mother after his downfall into perversity in middle school. Momo had been the only girl to actually seek physical contact with him since his first year. This was a welcomed change.

Elsha saw Issei staring at their connected hands, she didn't really mind, but their meeting had a purpose. She released her grip from his, bringing Issei's attention back up to her. Then the gears started turning in his mind of what she had said about their current location.

"So, I really do have that sacred gear, not that Sona-Kaichou gave me a reason to doubt her. But Elsha, how are we inside my soul?" Issei asked, not quite understanding how that was possible. Magic and things of that nature were brand new to him, so it wasn't hard to see why he was confused by this.

"When that chess piece you were given made contact with your chest, enough of its power radiate off of it for me to grab hold, and bring you here. It's sort of like a dream, only much more vivid."

Elsha's smile became smaller as she moved onto why she brought Ise here to talk with her. Her Blue and Green eyes bore into Ise's light brown.

"Ise, I've been watching you for most of your life, waiting for when we could finally talk. The meeting you had with the Student Council earlier, what the violet eyed one said, is true. People will come looking for you eventually. You were correct in worrying about being strong, people will come for your family, friends, anyone they think that will allow them to use you as they see fit."

Issei's eyes widened as he listened to Elsha. A normal person might just play this encounter off as a strange dream, but Issei wasn't really willing to take that chance. Especially if any part of it could be true, and if the existence of devils is anything to go by, there's too much he didn't know about the world to leave the safety of his loved ones to fate.

As Issei was about to ask Elsha what she thought he should do, her gaze lifted into the sky and narrowed slightly, before turning into a sly smirk. Issei opened his mouth to speak, but Elsha stopped him with a finger on his lips.

"Wait one moment Ise, someone is spying into your room, I'll handle this really quick." She said, her gaze still turned towards the sky. Elsha closed her eyes, and a gust blew passed them that sent Elsha's hair flowing behind her. Then a red glow covered her body as she turned transparent before disappearing.

"Where….did she go?" Ise said. The bright blue sky turned into an evening shade of orange and the wind kept a constant blow now. Issei looked around the field of trees and flowers, thinking back to what she said. 'Who would spy into my room? There's nothing in there that would be important to anyone.'

Elsha's disappearance gave Issei a moment to reflect more on the events of the day, as odd as they had been. Issei took his spot back under the giant tree, enjoying the constant breeze.

'I wonder if I join Sona-Kaichou, if Momo Reya and I could really be friends. I can't really blame them, they were only following orders. I should talk to them tomorrow, let them know I don't hold it against them, maybe try and start fresh. Heh, Matsuda and Motohama would be fuming with jealousy if they saw all the good looking girls i've come across at Kuoh, and it's only been two days.'

Issei shifted down so that his head was at the base of the tree, staring up into the evening sky shining through the leaves of the tree. This weekend he should see what his two buddies were up to, they hadn't hung out in almost a month, and they only had about an hour together before the other two had to go study.

'I wonder what it would be like if they had gotten into Kuoh, maybe Katase and Murayama would warm up to them too...on second thought, probably not. Motohama would get beaten down if he tried to size them up.'

Issei chuckled at the thought of his two new friends beating on his two old friends. That meeting probably wouldn't be pleasant for the two perverts. Then Issei had another thought about his new friends.

'Katase and Murayama have been really helpful these last few months, I wonder if they'd have any advice on what I should do, i'm not sure if I should mention the whole devil thing though...probably not. But I trust their opinions as much as my moms, im sure they'd have some good input.'

As that last thought passed through Issei's mind, the wind picked up again. Falling leaves from the tree started to spin around each other forming a close-knit cyclone, the wind didn't seem to effect anything passed that point. Once the wind died down, Elsha was revealed where the leaves were spinning around each other, the sly smirk still on her face.

"You're back!" Issei said, getting up from his position. Elsha peered over to Ise, her smirk turning back into that wide smile as she nodded.

"Yes Ise, sorry about that, but I believe i can help you with your devil conundrum." Elsha said

Issei was a bit taken back by that, what did she do when she left? And who was it that was spying in his room?

"You can, how? Did you find out who was spying into my room?" Issei said, if she had some input, he would be sure to take it to heart.

Elsha put a finger on her chin as she thought of how to word her response. She wanted to hit all points that had worried him since that meeting, if they had been able to talk to each other earlier, she could have helped him through it.

"Well, lets talk about what happened today, your meeting with the devils."

Issei nodded in response, waiting for what she would say next. Issei wanted help, he wanted to find the best way to keep his family safe, no matter what would happen to him. He felt confident that she had at least some idea of how to help.

"Sona is from a family I met while I was alive. They have always been an honest type, never using tricks to gain reputation or members." Elsha said, her experience with them may not have been very extensive, but the rumors that had been circulating the Sitri family rang true when they honored her decision not to join them as a reincarnated devil.

Hearing this gave Issei a breath of relief, he hadn't doubted anything that she said, but was wary about just how far he could trust her. Issei wanted to get her opinion on Issei becoming a devil under Sona.

"Do you think I should take her offer?" Issei inquired.

Elsha shook her head at Issei, this wasn't her life, she had her time.

"That's for you to decide, this is your life."

Issei slumped his shoulders a bit, seeing this elsha's smile lessened as her eyes softened. As she recalled the meeting Issei had with the student council, specifically with the two girls Ise had befriended. She wanted to clear the air a little about this subject.

"Ise, about those two student council girls in your class." At the mention of the two girls, that was unsure if they were his friends or not, his eyes softened but nodded nonetheless. Elsha saw is reaction, and understanded, so she continued.

"They may have only first talked to you because of Ddraig, but i'm almost certain that they really wanted to be your friend, you should talk to them tomorrow."

Issei perked up when she said this, he wanted to believe that they were really his friends, but the way Sona told him that they talked to him because of what he held was disheartening.

Elsha's smile returned seeing Ise had perked up a bit, this boy is too pure she thought. He was the one to speak up this time, with a subject that Elsha was slightly embarrassed she hadn't mentioned yet.

"Elsha, if you live in my sacred gear, where is Ddraig? He's supposed to be in here too right?"

Elsha had a wry smile, her embarrassment was clear on her face. She nodded.

"He's here. As you are right now, you aren't strong enough to wake him up. I've been awake ever since your friend moved away when you were 6. And like I said earlier, I've only been able to talk to you because of the chess piece Sona Sitri gave you."

Issei nodded throughout her explanation, he tilted his head at the mention of Sona, 'Sitri?' but decided not to bring it up, he'd just ask Sona herself. He instead decided to ask about how to wake Ddraig up.

"How can I get stronger, so that we can talk, and wake up Ddraig?"

As much as Elsha wanted Ise to make his own decisions, she also knew what it would take to wake up the Red Dragon. The normal way would be to gain enormous physical strength, which could take over decade, which he probably didn't even have a year before more supernatural beings found him….or, to become a devil.

"Waking Ddraig isn't easy, you'd need physical strength on par with world ranked bodybuilders. The more common way is a traumatic event, which is how I did it. If you accept Sona Sitri's offer, the increase in strength and stamina would allow Ddraig and myself to speak to you anytime. But, Ise...Don't become a devil just for that."

Issei nodded, the reasons to not become a devil had pretty much narrowed itself down to 2. The fact that he would make the angels and fallen angels automatic enemies. And what his family and friends would say or do should they find out. If Elsha thought that Sona and her family were trustworthy then he could too.

"Don't worry, I haven't made a final decision yet, but I am leaning more towards accepting. I just want to ask her a few more questions."

"Very well. I think that is all the time I can keep you here Ise, I hope we see each other soon." Elsha said with a smile and wave as Issei's vision became blurry.

-LineBreak-

Issei sat up on his bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. As he lowered his hand, it ran across the chess piece that was still attached to his chest. Issei grabbed it, feeling the same sensation of running water, and running it through his fingers as he did earlier.

Issei stood up, looking to his clock on the wall, it was 1030pm. Issei hadn't eaten anything since lunch at school, so he went downstairs to heat up the food his mother had left in the oven.

Issei thought about the next school day as he waited for his dinner to heat up, there was a knock at the door. Ise put down the cup he had filled with water, and walked to the door.

Pulling the door open, Issei was greeted by 4 people, 2 of which he was greatly surprised to see. The first two were Katase and Murayama, them stopping by wasn't unheard of, but it was rather late for it.

The other 2 were Sona and Momo.

" H-hey. So u-uh, what are all of you doing here this late?" Issei stuttered out.

END

Sorry about the delay once again. This story was on my mind a good portion of the 50+ hours i spent driving to and from my vacation, and was really looking forward to getting this done.

About Elsha, as of right now, shes not a harem member...since she's..ya know...dead, technically.

A few people were asking about a harem list.

The only people I can comfortably say that will be in it are

Sona and Momo

Another thing that ive seen a few times, is what about raynare?

Issei will meet Raynare, but it will be different. I think I have it pretty much worked out, i'm just thinking about where in the timeline this will happen.

And Saji. He will be a part of Rias' Peerage...eventually. And Saji will be MALE. There is a reason for this I swear, I'll be using him for a conflict that'll Affect the Rias marriage and Rating Game.

So give me your thoughts. I wrote this over 2 days, so I feel it might not come across the way I wanted...And like the events feel Rushed, even though this is only 1 evening.