Life 6 Contracts and Exorcists
[Flashback]
"Ichiro, where is she? Where is that fallen angel?" Amelia asked her knight angrily as she wiped her hair out of her face. Allison and Julie, Amelia's other two servants looked at Ichiro worriedly scared at what Amelia would do.
"She got away" a much younger Ichiro replied as he looked his King in the eyes, a gloom expression on his face. Amelia then punched Ichiro on the right cheek, sending him tumbling to the ground.
"I told you to end her! After that fiasco last week with not being able to use the [Blade Blacksmith] anymore I wanted you to have the powers of a fallen angel but you fuck me over again" Amelia said wiping the blood off of her shoes. "I caught you associating with a fallen angel and you refused to kill her. You will be punished when you returned home" Amelia said walking away with her other two servants.
Maya turned back around and looked at Ichiro one last time before following the other two. Ichiro then wiped the blood out of the corner of his mouth. "She's gone" Ichiro said standing up from the ground.
A much smaller girl with blonde hair styled into twin tails and blue eyes then came from the corner. "That's your master?" she asked a horrified and shocked expression on her face, if she had known her new friend was going to be hurt playing with her, she would've left him alone.
"Yeah and she would've killed you if she found you. You should be more careful if you're going to hide in a town controlled by a devil, the least you could do is not get caught flying" Ichiro said looking at her coldly with a glare.
"I was being chased by those devils and I didn't know where to run…I'm sorry" she said sadly.
"It's fine" Ichiro said as he began to walk away.
"You're going back to the woman that beats you?" the fallen angel girl said angrily trying to stop the boy.
"We both know I have to. It's an unavoidable game" Ichiro said before he started walking again.
"Mittelt…my name is Mittelt…and my dream is to save you from her" she cried with tears coming out of her eyes.
"You're a fallen angel and I'm a devil. Our races have been at war since the beginning of times, you should stop bothering me and this town and go find some fallen angel group to join or else you're going to die in the human world alone."
"But…I don't know any other group, my mother's group kicked me out after she died and they deemed I was too weak."
"Well go find somewhere else!" Ichiro snapped at her, "do you want to live or do you want to die? It all comes down to this, if you want to live then you need to go find some other group to hang around with, but staying with me will only result in your death and then Amelia will want me to store you in this sacred gear, so unless you want to be dragon food, leave."
Some tears began to flow down Mittelt's eyes as she summoned the black raven wings signifying her fall from grace, the wings that belonged to a typical follow angel." Mittelt then began to fly away, leaving Ichiro alone in the alley.
[Present]
Mittelt felt awkward as she followed behind Ichiro into the diner, the two looked like quite the odd couple with Ichiro wearing his Kuoh Academy Uniform while Mittelt wore her gothic Lolita. The two took a seat. Mittelt wouldn't be surprised if the others around them thought they were a couple.
Just the thought of that made Mittelt's heart beat rapidly.
"And what can I get the two-lovely couple tonight." The waitress said, which made Mittelt's face turned bright red.
"I'll just take a hot chocolate" Ichiro said calmly handing the menu to the waitress.
"Umm, I'll have some cake and a hot chocolate as well."
"Would you like chocolate or strawberry?"
"Chocolate" Mittelt said, the waitress wrote this down on a piece of paper before walking away, leaving the two alone.
There was an awkward silence between the two as Ichiro read the words on a newspaper, not out of interest but to cope with the silence while Mittelt just stared at Ichiro expecting him to say something, after about two minutes of Mittelt starring at him Ichiro decided to be the one to say something, "it seems you did well these past years."
Mittelt's eyes widened in shock, "you mean in regard to my power and joining Raynare's group?"
"My aren't you an overconfident one love" Ichiro said rolling his eyes, "I meant in regard to you finding a group of fallen angels to ally with. Sadly, you picked a group that is suicidal and wants to die."
"Suicidal?" Mittelt asked, "but Raynare-Sama plans to take over this town."
"That's exactly my point!" Ichiro said putting the paper down and glaring into her eyes, "you know when I fought the fallen angel known as Dohnaseek and refused to join the Raynare group, I did it because I knew she would cause my death and that's exactly where she's leading you towards. Death. If she attacks this town and try to take it over, it doesn't matter if she had an army of weak stray devils, she's going to get turned into dust by Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri! Don't you know this town is hosting two of the devil heiresses, the siblings of Leviathan, my master by the way, and Lucifer? This is a battle you cannot win. Is attacking this town really worth it or is this some kind of suicide run?"
"Are you talking about those weak servants of hers? Kalawarner fought against the Gremory pawn and she almost killed him, so did Dohnaseek when he thought the idiot was a normal stray devil. Rias isn't that strong and once Raynare gets her new sacred gear we'll be unstoppable and she'll become Azazel's right hand man."
"You're not listening!" Ichiro said with a annoyed tone, "you have the Dantalion, Sitri, and Gremory family taking residence in this town. If you fight you will die, nothing, game over. Do you honestly think Azazel would risk starting a great war over a group of low-class stray exorcists and fallen angels?"
For some reason, those words stung Mittelt harder than anything else she had possible suffered. "Here's your orde-"the waitress paused as Mittelt stood up with an angry expression on her face. The waitress however placed the desert and drinks down and quickly scrambled out of the twos way.
"I came here to repay a debt from long ago. I don't actually care particularly if you take my advice or not but if you stand in Raynare's way I or anyone else of our group won't hesitate to kill you."
{Careful little girl} Kaos growled.
"Kaos, it's fine I got this" Ichiro said, placing some bills on the table, "you have two days"
"Two days for what?" Mittelt said angrily.
"Two days to give me Raynare's base or else I'll hunt and destroy every crow I find hiding in this town" Ichiro threatened, "I don't particularly care for Rias Gremory or Sona Sitri but threats have consequences little girl. Give me her current location and I'll go murder Raynare then the rest of you crows can leave without any harm befalling you. But If you cross me I swear I'll crush you" the cold smile on Ichiro's face shook Mittelt to her core.
"Remember that stray devil Nest you attacked three days ago?" Mittelt asked, a confident smile on her face that confused Ichiro.
"The Stein's Nest? What of it?"
"All those stray devils were killed by Marcus."
"What?" Ichiro asked, a shocked expression on his face, "how could they possible have all been killed?"
"It's the true, Marcus, the stray devil mutation rook you fought, he wanted to join the Raynare group after realizing how weak the Stein's Nest was."
"He must've been desperate" Ichiro countered, "to join a weak group of crows."
"Say that again and I'll destroy you?"
"Say what? Weak or crow?"
Mittelt was about to summon a light spear and stab Ichiro in the shoulder or leg, a place that would cause him pain but not kill him however realizing her surroundings and the fact that the two already had a couple of individuals staring at their argument she decided to walk out of the booth. "Ask Sona Sitri what happened after you defeated that monster, Havoc. And understand that I won't be able to stop Raynare if you stand in her way. I'm only telling you this to repay a debt for you saving me years ago, she isn't concerned with attacking or waging a war against the Sitri or Gremory households but she will fight them if they stand in her way."
"Just tell me one thing" Ichiro said.
"And what is that?" Mittelt said turning back around to face Ichiro.
"Raynare killed Issei, because she believed him to be a threat due to his sacred gear but after training with him today. He has a minor twice critical and can only double his strength once every ten seconds, he's not even capable of stockpiling the energy due to his low level of stamina plus his use in demonic power is low. What mystical grand power did she believe the boy to possess?"
Mittelt simply shrugged her shoulders, "I guess there was a mix-up with orders or maybe Raynare got the wrong individual. She believed him to be a threat and got orders directly from the Grigori that Issei had a power that was to be feared."
The blonde fallen angel then walked out, while she didn't complete her goal of engaging in an alliance or truce with Ichiro, she hoped that due to some sense of self-preservation he wouldn't mess with Raynare.
Ichiro angrily stormed out of the diner, there was one more person he had to see tonight.
.
.
.
Ichiro knocked on the door like a madman not caring if he woke or disturb her neighbors however judging by the giant manor and the houses being so spread out Ichiro doubt that a normal human being would be able to hear those doors. However, it was getting very annoying for the person inside. Ichiro continued to not, even though he could hear angry footprints from below.
Finally, after about a ten-minute wait, probably due to the size of this particular manor, the figure opened the door and glared at the silver-haired teen.
"Ichiro-San? What could you possibly be doing here so late? We have school tomorrow!" her voice was stern and angry, and this is the exact type of reaction Ichiro expected to hear from the Sitri heiress and student council president but he didn't care about the consequences.
"Why didn't you tell me that Marcus was still in Kuoh Town? And that he killed the rest of the Stein Nest?" Sona blinked in surprise.
"Who told you that?" she asked.
"So, it is true" Ichiro said pointing a finger at the Sitri Princess, "you didn't think that was important information for me to know in case you know, Marcus tries to kill me, I have to hear it from some whiny crow who used it to threaten me."
"You mean a fallen angel?" Sona's eyes became wide, a bit of concern on her face, "are you hurt? Did she attack you?"
"No, she just told me to stay out of her way, she didn't want me to foil her and her evil fallen angel master's plans or whatever but that's beside the point. I thought we were a team here yet you're holding out on me. What happened to that big speech about thanking me after I saved your servants?"
"Ichiro-San, I was going to tell you eventually" Sona said with a sigh, "I was worried if I told you while you were still injured and healing you would act recklessly and risk getting yourself killed. However, with Gray's arrival in town today, I thought that would be enough news for you today so I decided I would tell you during tomorrow's meeting. I already told my peerage and Gray-Sama knows, he put a spell around the Town so if any supernatural creature tries to enter or leave, he would be the first person to know about it"
"Why is Serafall-Sama so trusting of Gray? He's an asshole and his training methods suck. Why is he even here?"
"Ichiro-San, despite how you might feel about Gray, I ask that you hold your tongue. He is the heir to the Dantalion clan and he is helping you in ways me and Rias can't. If you got over your anger about the fact that Belial-Sama being the one who picked him and actually get to know him then maybe you'll see that you two have a lot in common" Sona explained, "it's late Ichiro-San, go back to Rias's manor, if you still want to discuss this we'll talk in the morning."
Sona then closed the door in front of Ichiro's face, a small "tsk" sound escaped Ichiro's lips but he put his hands in his pocket and decided to walk away.
"And what exactly do you think you're doing?" Ichiro could help but groan when the sunlight reached his eyes when Rias pulled the book from his face. Despite having been born a who spent his entire life in the human world, he still felt a bit of irritation from the sun plus his own general dislike for sunny days.
"I was resting but now you ruined that for me" Ichiro stated as he shielded his eyes. It was during the normal school day, after a couple of classes Ichiro decided to skip, and spend his time relaxing outside of the school building. He then snatched his book back from Rias's hands but not before she got a glimpse at the title.
"Hamlet?"
"So, what?" Ichiro shot back defensively, "it's a good story".
Rias didn't know how to argue against that so she simply bent down and took a seat next to Ichiro "You never came home last night; do you mind telling me where you went after you left Sona's home?"
Of course, the two had talked about that, "I spent the night training, then I crashed at some hotel" Ichiro answered casually. It was the truth of course, but it wasn't like Ichiro needed to tell Sona or Rias he was at a diner with a fallen angel, just that he had an encounter with one.
Rias nodded at the information, "did you see any improvements with your use of your sacred gear?" she asked.
"So far, no progress, when Amelia had me abuse this sacred gear and my power of soul she didn't really care about the doubling my strength aspects of the sacred gear, she was more concerned with my stealing powers from others and adding it to my sacred gear. Of course, you know the side effects of this."
Rias nodded as she looked at the front of Kuoh Academy, "yes, Beelzebub-Sama told me and Sona about it, it's what caused your depleting life span, plus your broken soul. You know you have made quite the reputation for yourself because of your singing. Also, your cold personality and you constantly skipping class is making you kind of a mysterious figure around this school."
"I don't care what anyone things of me" Ichiro stated bluntly, "besides it's not like I'm one of the two great ladies of Kuoh, the School's mascot, The Perverted King or the Prince of Kuoh Academy".
"Oh, so I see someone has been doing their research" Rias couldn't help but smile while Ichiro simply shrugged this away. "But I would like you to blend in more with the students around you so I have some things I would like you to do".
"Like what?"
"I know you and Koneko have this love-hate relationship going on but do you actually care about her?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" Ichiro shouted bluntly while sitting up and staring at
Rias who giggled taking this reaction as admission, "I admit that Koneko is very beautiful-" the stars that appeared in Rias's eyes almost caused him to shiver, "but I could never love someone so asocial or so self-absorbed".
"Talk about the pot calling the kettle black Ichiro"
"Whatever" Ichiro stated lying back down, "again, what does this have to do with me blending in around here? And give me a reason why I should want to blend in?"
"Ichiro do you know why I wanted to live in Kuoh Town and masquerade as a normal high school student?"
"Because you're a masochist?" Ichiro answered.
"No, not quite, the reason is because I wanted the chance to not be the heiress to the Gremory Clan, the sister of Sirzechs Lucifer, the king of the Underworld, I wanted to be normal. I wanted to be my own person".
"I can understand that you know aside from the stray devil slaying, the fallen angels, and all that" Ichiro stated bluntly, he might've been asocial but he wasn't emotionless.
"And I would like to extend that chance to you, the chance to be a normal high school student, and to build a reputation for yourself and a place to call your own".
Ichiro exhaled before turning to Rias, "alright so what's your plan?" Ichiro asked, he decided that he would play her games to get her off his back and if he didn't like it he would back off.
"First, I want you and Sora to sing at least one song after each school day and to go along with this "band" idea of his, Sona has approved this and Yuuto and Issei are very excited about the idea, you should've seen the three of them, they stayed up the entire night talking about this"
"Sora said the same thing, I refuse to call myself a band but I'll play a song, only when I feel like it, not every day" Ichiro stated, "next".
"Second, when the disciplinary committee is ready, I want you to run it, if you plan to be a high-class devil you should try learning some leadership abilities if you plan to actually take Diehauser on during the Rating Games".
"Alright whatever" Ichiro stated rolling his eyes, "Sona was going to make me do that anyways". Despite never admitting it out loud, Sona had some power over him, since she was the little sister of his master among other things.
"And third-" it was than a wide grin covered Rias's face that confused Ichiro, instead of just getting on with it Rias paused and held up one finger, "I would like for you to go on one date with one girl in this school".
"No"
"But."
"Just no Rias"
"Please, I won't judge, you can choose any girl"
"N-O. No"
Rias pouted while Ichiro simply crossed his arms stubbornly, "I'll agree to sing and to run some dumb club but I refuse to date some girl simply for the sake of dating".
It was then Rias's eyes brighten, "so does that mean you'll date a girl if you actually care about her?"
"That's a big if but sure"
Rias than smiled at Ichiro, "Onii-Sama also had Gray Dantalion hired as a teacher here".
Ichiro paused as he turned towards Rias, "What could he possibly be qualified to teach?"
"Mythology, but he's only a part-time teacher due to his busy schedule and the fact that he only has three classes"
"Then why did you hire him?"
"We don't have a mythology teacher and he was up for it" Rias answered with a sigh, demonstrating she didn't like the situation as much as Ichiro, "I know you dislike him as much as me but you need to at least deal with him and he can help you in regard to training. Also, we have a meeting after class regarding the fallen angel situation and contracts but you should get back to class" Rias stated, she then began.
Ichiro stood up with a groan as he looked at the time on his cell phone, as much as he hated classes, he knew it was important for him to finish high school as quickly as possible, because then maybe he could get to approval to travel abroad for college like Gray Dantalion.
.
.
.
The school day ended in a flash and the typically members of the Occult Research Club including Sora and Ichiro made their way to the clubhouse, Koneko and Ichiro both sharing a seat
"Dude, I'm telling you if we do this band thing, we will have panties as far as the eyes can see. You want to be the harem king and I'm telling you dude, this is the way!"
Koneko sent Sora a dirty look however the blonde didn't even notice it as his eyes were focused on Issei who had an excited smile on his face. "Can you really be that obsessed with tits?" Ichiro asked as he looked over at the two boys.
"You have no idea" Rias answered, with a small smile, recalling all of the past things Issei was known for doing.
"By the way" Sora turned towards Ichiro with a large grin on his face, "how was your lunch date with Yumeko Nakatomi?"
Akeno giggled while Rias's eyes turned to the size of dinner plates, "wow you work fast!" the crimson princess stated excitedly.
"It's not like that" Ichiro said turning towards Rias with a glare, "she brought an extra vegetarian bento to school today and offered to eat with me on the rooftop."
"Vegetarian?" Sora questioned with a disgusted expression, "don't tell me she's one of those anti-meat people. I love my cheeseburgers."
"She says she just doesn't like the way animals in factories are treated. That's all" Ichiro stated casually causing everyone in the room to turn towards him, "what? She talked about it the entire time we ate and it's not like you bothered bring me lunch."
"Ichiro, a girl doesn't just "accidently" bring an extra lunch to school" Rias said.
"Especially not a girl as prissy as that" Sora stated, leaning back against the wall.
"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Ichiro thought, recalling Kaos having said the same thing.
"So, I guess if an antisocial weirdo like that can get a girl, I guess your band idea will work" Issei thought, realizing that in only his third day of school, Ichiro had already far surpassed him, who spent a year trying to get a harem.
"Weirdo?" Ichiro flashed Issei a glare. "Also, there is no band, plus, didn't you already get kicked out of the band, image and all that?"
"Yeah but, he actually knows how to play the drums, he showed me yesterday, so he's in. Also, I showed Kiba some guitar so we're up and running."
"I wonder who's going to sing" Ichiro said.
"You are" Sora responded.
"No, no I'm not" Ichiro responded.
"But you're our cold, bad, boy singer it's an image- "
"If you say image thing one more time I swear I'm going to break this gluttonous midget over your head" Ichiro said, causing Koneko to pause her eating of a giant sub to glare daggers at Ichiro.
"Don't call me midget or you're dead" Koneko shot back.
"Piss of"
"Glad to see it's as lively as ever" Gray said, as he walked through the front door, holding
a stack of papers in his hands.
"And where have you been? You're late" Rias said, as she looked the silver-haired devil up and down.
"Finishing paperwork for my admittance as Kuoh Academy's new mythology teacher. I didn't know being a teacher had such excellent benefits, if someone told me earlier I probably wouldn't have left."
"Yeah, I can only imagine how tragic that would be" Rias said subtly, "alright now, to get down to business, let's start with the fallen angels that are all over Kuoh Academy."
Ichiro was the first to raise his hand, the cold look on his face making Issei shiver, "don't worry about them, I actually encountered one of the fallens yesterday, I told her if she doesn't give me her master in two days, I plan to eliminate them all one by one."
"You just have this all figured out huh?" Gray said with a smile.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, do you really plan to just kill all the fallen angels?" Sora asked looking at Ichiro.
Everyone turned towards Ichiro expecting him to say, 'no but they don't know that' or something of that variety however he had a sadistic expression on his face.
"Of course, I'll start with that fedora wearing weirdo and work my way up the chain until I take out Reindeer or whatever her name is." Ichiro said confidently, flashing some aura around his right arm for emphasis.
"And what's your reasoning for wanting to kill them all?" Sora asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You mean aside from them being enemies of devils like us? Aside from them killing Issei? Or the fact that they have a stray devil on their side? Or-"
"Ok, I get it" Sora said, "what happened to you? You were never so quick to just take a life like this, I remember when you cried when I stomped on a spider."
"That was the past, this is the present, and in the present the fallen angels plan to take over this town and destroy us. If you think I'm just going to wait around for them to get the jump on me, you're dead wrong." Ichiro stated calmly.
"You're not thinking straight" Gray said.
"You're overthinking" Ichiro said.
"I'll stop overthink when you start thinking" Gray responded, "do you honestly believe you have the power to take on Marcus plus three fallen angels, plus a group of exorcists and whatever other fallen angels they're still hiding all at once? Last time I checked, according to Sona's report you barely were able to join the Havoc battle after fighting Marcus, if it wasn't for all the adrenaline running through your body you would've collapsed."
"And I'll use that same adrenaline, this sacred gear on my right arm, and my power of soul to defeat these crows. Of course, this is assuming they don't turn over Raynare, I played the servant of Serafall Leviathan, and younger sisters of Sirzechs Lucifer and Serafall Leviathan cards of course."
"Those are good cards to play" Akeno said.
"Alright, well, if you think you have this under control, I guess no further action is required for now. However, Serafall Leviathan won't like this plan of yours and I don't know if me or Sona could support this. You are fighting against Grigori fallen angels, on their enemy territory, this situation could get a bit messy for Leviathan-Sama and Onii-Sama if he supports this plan. Unless they bring the fight to us I can't provide support from the House of Gremory and you shouldn't fight as the knight of Leviathan but as the devil Alastor."
"I'm better at working alone" Ichiro responded.
"I don't like this" Sora said, "senseless killing."
"This coming from the guy who will kill any vampire he walks past. So, what do you expect to do when you find the vampire tha- ".
"Don't go there! Please don't go there..." Sora stated as he stood up, everyone turned towards him curious and confused expressions on their face, "I guess I'm out as well, if you want to do something like that be my guest, but don't go expecting me to help you out". Sora then began to walk out of the Occult Research club.
"Running away again? That seems to be what you do best!" Ichiro responded, however Sora ignored this remark as he walked out of the clubroom, closing the door behind him.
Rias and Gray both looked at each other awkwardly with neither of them wanting to press that subject Gray stood up with a smile on his face, "In any way-" he began walking into the other room and grabbed onto a package, "the Demon Council has brought you a gift?"
He laid the package in front of Ichiro's face who stared at it in shock and confusion, "what's it for?"
"They heard about you defeating this false Demon King and based on Sona's report regarding the incident they wanted to give you a thank you gift" Rias said with a smile.
"Do they want me to become a politician or something? Why would the Council of Demons send me a gift?" Ichiro asked as he inspected the package.
"Just open it already" Akeno said, nudging Ichiro forward, her and the other members of the Club were interested in seeing what Ichiro got.
Ichiro let out a sigh but began to rip the packaging with his nails, part-way through he could already tell what it was and after he got it all off he grabbed onto the handle. "A sword?" Ichiro turned towards Rias and Gray with a confused expression on his face.
It was an unnatural looking sword, it was a two handed Great Sword with gold and black lining going down the silver blade and a blue gem at the bottom, the blade of the sword was around three feet in length with wings-like design at the bottom. The sword also has a rather large blue handle, with the handle being almost eight inches long.
Ichiro gripped the sword with both hands and he could see the shocked and interested expression on Yuuto's face, he looked more excited than anyone else in the room, almost like he wanted to see how well the sword would do against his own. He was a fellow knight after all so Ichiro understood the feeling.
"What kind of sword is this?" Yuuto asked, "I've never seen a sword like this before".
"It's called Clarent" Gray said with a smile, "a cursed holy sword".
Ichiro didn't know why but he could see a pained look on Kiba's face after that remark, almost like he had a bad history with holy swords, something else Ichiro could understand.
"It's a sword that belonged to your mother" Gray answered, "The Goblin King later acquired it after it went missing and stored it away, however after learning that she had a son, a son who was a sword-fighter like her, he decided to have it brought to you."
Ichiro gripped the sword more tightly after learning this, Clarent, the sword that belonged to the Original Mordred, the sword that died in his hands after his fight with King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann. After the battle, the sword was thrown out by the Arthur Family, however Ichiro's mother, Camilla Mordred, wielded the sword during the Devil Civil War under the sigil of Serafall Leviathan.
Ichiro could feel a sort of power radiating from the sword, almost like the sword was alive or had a consciousness, a cursed magic sword, so this is what one felt like.
Ichiro turned towards Yuuto once again, the smile on his face, he could tell Kiba wanted to clash blades with this sword. Not just by the determined and interested smile on his face but also the way he was shaking excitedly.
He could also sense that Kiba was hiding something darker, did he really have something against holy swords?
Ichiro decided to place the blade down on the table, away from Ichiro's sigh, "oh by the way, the Demon Council will eventually want to have a sit down with you" Gray said with a grin.
"I knew it Ichiro said rolling his eyes, demons were almost like devils, as if they didn't want something in return.
"However, even if you refuse their offer, they will still allow you to keep that sword" Gray said, "so if they make you an offer or anything, rest assured you'll be able to hold onto the sword of your mother".
'As if I would give it up without a fight' Ichiro thought to himself.
"With that out of the way, Issei, how did your contract last night go" Rias asked, everyone turned towards Issei who nervously rubbed the back of his hair.
"Oh it went alright, we both played video games with each other and then-"
"You didn't official seal the contract, did you?" Rias asked.
"No" Issei said with his head down.
"How about you Ichiro, do you plan to start collecting contracts?" Rias asked.
Ichiro thought back to the contracts he used to do in the past, "in this town? No."
"Well Sona has been handing out contracts for the devil Alastor but for now she would appreciate it if you joined Saji and Meguri contracts tonight" Rias explained, "however in the meantime, Akeno and Yuuto both have contracts tonight, Issei-Kun I would like for you to follow Akeno-San on her contract and Ichiro-San, I would like for you to follow Kiba-Kun on his".
Issei had no objection while Ichiro just shrugged his shoulder, not caring enough to argue about this. "Alright, then you both should be off".
Akeno and Issei both stepped onto the Gremory sigil on the ground and in a flash the two were gone. "Let's be off as well" Yuuto said with a smile as he stepped on the Gremory sigil.
"Blondie aren't you forgetting something?" Ichiro said as he rubbed his hair looking between the puzzled look on Rias's face and Yuuto's blank expression. It was then what Ichiro was referring to hit the both of them.
.
.
.
"What a dick, making us walk" Ichiro said with a sigh as he put his hands behind Kiba following him outside of the school. The two boys left the clubhouse and had begun to make their way towards the location of Kiba's contract.
Ichiro had heard that because of Issei's low level of demonic energy, he had been unable to use the teleportation rune, however thanks to Akeno Himejima she had enough demonic energy to help both of them make the jump.
This only added to Ichiro's confusion of why the Grigori would want to kill Issei Hyoudou.
"So Ichiro" the white haired boy turned towards the blonde prince, a dark expression on
his face, "do you have some history with holy swords?"
Ichiro didn't particularly know what he meant by that so he simply shrugged his shoulders, "I've heard about the holy sword or heavenly blades from Kaos. But other than that, no, I have nothing to do with them. This Clarent is the first time I had ever see one".
It was a lie. But Ichiro wasn't about to spill the truth.
"Why did Sora get so angry when you mentioned vampires? Does he have some beef with them or something?"
Ichiro let out a sigh, the longer he thought about the incident, the longer he realized he went too far by bring such information up, "his mother was killed by a group of fallen angels belonging to the Tremere Faction. That was how he wound up at the same orphanage as me."
Yuuto nodded, "what orphanage?"
"Why are you so interested?" Ichiro asked.
"Just mild curiosity" Kiba stated with a small smile.
"St. Anne's" Ichiro said, while Kiba tried to hide behind the façade he could see that Yuuto face fell, disinterested after hearing the name of the orphanage. What Yuuto planned to do if Ichiro had said the orphanage he was obviously seeking was a mystery to the Alastor devil.
The two then came to a two-story house, it had a plain disposition and looked like a recently built house. The two boys stepped to the front door. Yuuto turn towards Ichiro with a nod before knocking on the door.
Ichiro could hear a woman groan from inside before footsteps and then the front door opened. The woman looked to be very tired, she appeared to be in her early 30s with black hair styled into a bun and dark brown eyes. She was wearing a business suit.
"Yuuto is that you?" she asked as she rubbed her eyes.
"Hi Hayashi-SAn" Ichiro was almost surprised by Kiba's sudden happy and cheery disposition as he bowed respectfully to the woman.
The woman turned towards Ichiro, "who's that little girl standing next to you".
"He's a devil whose new to this town and is training with me for today" Kiba said with a cheery laugh, if it wasn't for the fact that Kiba stepped in so quickly, Ichiro was sure he would've said something that would've damaged Yuuto's contract.
"I meant no offense by that little devil boy" Hayashi said with a yawn, "come on in" she said walking into the room and falling flatly on the couch.
Kiba however walked into the kitchen with Ichiro standing behind him. Kiba then pulled out some vegetables and seasoning along with a package of pork. "Hayashi-San is a business woman who works at a large corporation, she typically calls me here over the weekends to help with her cooking and cleaning, how about while I get the meat and soup ready, you can start cutting and seasoning the vegetables?" Yuuto then handed Ichiro the kitchen knife and he got to work, cutting the peppers, mushrooms, and other assortment of vegetables.
There was a awkward silence between the two boys until Kiba looked over at Ichiro and decided to break the ice, "so what exactly are you and Sora to each other? Are you family or friends?" Kiba asked.
"More like family" Ichiro answered, "he was the first friend I had when we both were at the St. Anne's orphanage, Sora had this unique talent for sensing the supernatural. He could tell me and a few other children at the orphanage were supernatural creatures however he seemed to become friends easy with me".
"But that stuff you said earlier, about him leaving as usual" Yuuto stated.
Ichiro let out a sigh, "he'll get over it, things will be fine".
The two then finished preparing the meal and cleaned up behind themselves. After they were finished Yuuto brought the bowl of soup to the business woman. "Thanks Yuuto-Chan" she said with a smile taking the bowl from the blonde devil, she took one bite and her face lit up. "Amazing" she said with a bubbly smile as she looked between the two boys.
Kiba smiled while Ichiro simply nodded.
It was nice to see their contract was going well.
[Gray's Classroom]
Gray finished the paperwork before placing it on the opposite end of his deck. He then heard a knock at the door before it opened revealing Sona and Rias. Sona held her usual calm disposition while Rias had a annoyed expression on her face.
"What was so important you couldn't tell me at the clubhouse" Rias asked as she entered the room and closed the door behind her with Sona following suit.
"I'm also curious" Sona said.
"You both still had servants in your club rooms but I wanted to talk to you, as high-class devil to high class devils" Gray stated as he stood up and looked between the two devil girls. "I read over the report, once, twice, and three times but I still feel something is off about it" Gray said.
"What could be off?" Sona said, "we defeated Stein's monster and then Marcus escaped and killed his former teammates, what else is there?"
"For starters Yui" Gray said staring into Sona's eyes with the conviction of a prosecutor, "all the stray devils killed by Marcus were killed with light spears, even Stein, however there was blood splatters all over a tree and her entire body was burnt to a crisp, the only piece of her body left being her horns".
"She wasn't killed by Marcus" Sona answered, "Ichiro killed her in one strike".
Rias turned towards Sona with a look of shock, "why wasn't that piece of information in the report?"
"Because...Ichiro-San, after his fight with Marcus suffered a bit of a psychotic break, he cut Yui's head off and my servants could hear him talking to someone...but he wasn't talking to my servants or Stein...".
Rias and Gray both paused, neither knowing how to react to such information.
"Don't you think something like that should be in this report?" Gray finally stated, "if this is true then Ichiro needs to-"
"Ichiro-San is fine" Sona stated, "Make no mistake, while Rias is the head of this town and you Gray, were sent here in running this town, Ichiro-San is my responsibility, he was my Onee-Sama's servant and I was the one appointed by Beelzebub-Sama to watch over him. I didn't mention this in the report because he didn't hurt me or my servants and he, despite being quite injured saved us relatively unscathed. I take full responsibility for his actions so please, just leave this alone".
"That attack, Dragon of Annihilation, it's a nasty attack, it completely vaporized that stray devil's body leaving only her horns behind but even though it can be quite nasty it's not very powerful, at best it's a low level C-Class attack and at worse it's a low level D-Class attack yet it caused his heart to stop and completely burned up his left hand".
"Ichiro isn't exactly a magic fighter so this can be quite understandable" Sona answered.
"And yet, his sacred gear, he can only absorb 7 times in a fight and boosting five pushes him to his utmost limit" Gray mumbled out loud, he turned towards the two girls to see they both were looking at him with looks of confusion.
"It's nothing" Gray said, "just, Sona, Rias, I want you both to keep eyes on Ichiro, hopefully at all times, if you can't then make sure your servants have eyes on him. Just give me peace of mind while I try to look into his past".
"Alright" Sona said, "I'll have some of my servants keep watch on him while we're on school grounds and I'm sure Rias can help me outside of school". The black haired girl turned towards her best friend who finally nodded.
"While I think you're being a bit melodramatic I'll agree to this request" the crimson haired girl said.
Gray nodded with a smile, "alright, now who wants to go get drinks?"
Sora tapped on the piano in front of him, playing a soft and mellow tune. "Girl, you know I want your love, Your love was handmade for somebody like me Come on now, follow my lead, I may be crazy, don't mind me-"
"That's so beautiful" Sora looked up to see the black haired queen of Rias standing in front of him. He took the headphones off his head and stopped playing on the keyboard.
"Oh hey" Sora said with a bright smile.
"What were you playing?" Akeno asked with a playful smile as she rubbed on the piano, "it sounded angelic".
"I don't know if that's a compliment or a insult" Sora joked with a laugh as he stood up and stretched, "just a song I've been working on. I'm having trouble putting it together honestly".
"I thought Ichiro-Kun was the singer out of you two" Akeno said with a smile.
"Yeah he is, but I write songs in my spare time so I've developed a decent voice but as you can tell, his singing voice is much better than mine" Sora said with a smile, "but what are you doing here? I thought you had contracts or something?"
"I finished up, Koneko was overbooked for tonight so Rias decided to send Issei to handle her second contract alone so I decided to come back to Rias's manor for some things before I go home. I didn't know you were living with her."
Sora scratched the back of his neck, "well, it's temporary arrangements, I don't like freeloading but I saved up some money over the years plus the money I made performing at some bars and clubs, I'll be gone by next week, I'm thinking of moving in a three bedroom apartment so I can have a game room and Ichiro can crash there".
Akeno took in the information, "you're dedication to him is admirable. Did he tell you about Amelia Zagan?"
Sora wiped some blonde hair from his face, "yeah, that she was a bit abusive and he killed her and became Serafall's Knight. If I saw that bitch, I swear I would do it myself."
Akeno's face curled into a look of shock.
Sora caught onto the look and his face frowned down, "what's with that look? Is there something Ichiro left out."
Before Akeno or Sora could get another word in Akeno's phone lit up, she looked down to see it was none other than Ichiro, she curiously picked up the phone and stared at the collar I.D. to see Ichiro. She curiously pressed the button and accepted his call. "Well if it isn't my favorite little kohai" she joked with a bright smile.
"Ok first off, when did you have time to put your number in my phone?"
"Oh? Fufu, I dropped by while you were sleeping last night, I was so happy that Rias took my advice to let you and Koneko share room together, I was watching you two and then I saw it lying there so I put in my number".
Ichiro felt a chill run down his spine, "anyways, you need to contact Rias and tell her to get to the location of Issei's contract".
Akeno blinked in surprise, "how come?"
"Because he's in trouble".
Issei began to think back to his contract with Akeno.
*Flashback*
Akeno smiled playfully at Issei as she charged more electricity between her fingertips. "And"
*ZAP*
The man lying below Akeno let out a squeal that sounded like a mixture between pain and pleasure as he seemed to be getting off on Akeno's electrocution "therapy" as she described it. The man below her was her contract, a rich and successful business man who was also a masochist, so he called upon Akeno to help him relieve stress. Allowing her to zap him while she gave him a massage to loosen his muscles.
Of all the things to call a devil for. To Issei, this was the worst.
Akeno delivered another shock and seemed to be deriving pleasure from this masochist's wishes as well.
Another shiver went down Issei's spine. 'Note to self, never, ever, piss her off'
*Flashback Ends*
Ichiro was being asked to pair with Kiba to help him get the ropes of things however Issei knew, him going on contracts with Akeno was simply a attempt to get him up to speed. His failure to seal a contract. It was starting to get noticed by the others. He knew it, even Gray's training confirmed this, he was the weakest link, the omega of the pack.
'If I was born into power like Rias, this devil thing would be easy and I would climb through the ranks easily, but because I'm just another low-born I have to bust my ass' Issei thought as he continued to ride on his bicycle. Even if Ichiro had been demoted a ranking, Issei knew with his skill he could probably get it back. However if Issei didn't step up, he knew he would never get to his level.
So in order to fulfill his dreams of being a harem king, he knew he had to step up.
And actually sealing a contract was the first step. Even if he was a pawn, the perceived lowest ranking piece in chest, he just knew, he had to succeed.
Issei parked his bike and looked at the house where he knew his contract to be taking place. "It looks kind of creepy, but I can't punk out now" Issei said to himself as he walked towards the door. "Hello is anyone here?" he asked knocking on the door multiple times however he received no response in return. "Weird, but they left the door open" Issei said as the door opened.
"Don't be creeped out but I'm coming inside" Issei said as he took the first few steps in. However the second he did he felt a intense pain in his right hand. "I'm getting that weird feeling again" Issei said, recalling this feeling from the time he went near the church with Asia and again the time Kalawarner attacked him.
He began to wonder if he should risk going any further. But Rias's words ringed in his ears once again. He needed to make a pact this time.
Issei walked until he came to the dimly lit living room, "nice of them to set the mood" he joked, feeling a bit creeped out by this contract. "Hey can anyone hear me?" Issei shouted he then hear the sound of liquid and looked down to realize he stepped in something.
"Oh great, what's with this guy?" Issei asked wiping his shoe, however when he looked at his hand, a look of both shock and horror covered his face.
The crimson liquid on his hand.
"Is this blood?" he asked rhetorically.
"Punish the wicked"
Issei felt his whole body freeze as he turned towards the couch to see a man with long white hair sitting calmly on the couch.
"Wise words to live by, from a holy man" the man turned his head around and stuck out his tongue, a crazed expression on his face.
Issei began to look the man up and down. He had the appearance of a bishonen with long white hair and was wearing clothes like he was indeed from a religious organization. "My name is Freed Sellzen. I belong to a certain Exorcism organisation. Ah, just because I introduced myself doesn't mean you have to. I don't want to remember your name in my memory, so please don't. It's okay, since you are going to die soon. I will make sure of it. It might hurt at first, but later you will feel so good that you will cry. Now let's open the new door -ZE!"
Issei was almost frozen in fear by the man's appearance. However he still had the courage to ask one question, "Hey, was it you? The one who killed this person?"
"Yes, yes. I killed him. Because~, he was a regular criminal who has been summoning Devils, so I had to kill him." Freed said with a disturbing laugh.
Issei stared at the man in both fear and disgust, it was hard to believe, a man calling himself a priest, taking a human life and laughing about it.
"Huh? Are you shocked? Aren't you running away? That's weird? Really Weird. I mean humans who make a pact with Devils are scum. Scum indeed. Can't you understand that? No? Is that so? Well you are a scum Devil after all." Freed let out another laugh as he held up not only a sword of light but a gun in his second hand.
Issei began to realize he was going to have to fight for his life.
In the middle of Kiba's contract, Ichiro had left in order to join Meguri and Saji for their own contract however halfway there his sacred gear started to glow as Kaos's voice delivered a message of despair to the silver-haired knight.
{Issei Hyoudou is in trouble}
Ichiro began to run at the speed of a bullet as he raced to where Kaos was guiding him. "So, can you explain to me, how you can tell Issei is in trouble?"
{I have no idea. The Gremory princess should be able to sense this due to their connection as devil master and servant however, while the boy possesses a dragon arm, I sense no dragon spirit inside his sacred gear so this is a mystery to me as well}
"Great, so for all we know this could be a false alarm" Ichiro said as he continued to run.
{I can sense a exorcist is attacking him as we speak. Plus there's a nun with him. If you or Rias don't hurry he will be dead before we arrive}
As Ichiro continued to run through the night sky he couldn't help but feel as if he was being watched by someone. But it was hard to scan his surroundings as he tried to reach Issei. Honestly, Ichiro could help but feel like RIas was a idiot.
Leaving Issei alone to go to a contract by himself, when he couldn't even boost his power more than twice in a row.
What the fuck was she thinking?
"Night, night, devil-chan~"
It was then a spear of light landed right in front of Ichiro's feet.
And his world was surrounded by a bright light.
Issei tried to dodge Freed's sword swipe but only received a cut on the leg as a result. "AHH" he cried out in pain, it wasn't like being cut with a regular knife or sword, it was a sword of glowing light. It was poison to his kind. He was starting to realize just how disadvantaged he was.
He turned back towards the corpse and noticed multiple cut slashes and marks running through it. 'This isn't normal, this wasn't normal' Issei thought.
There was no way a person could kill like this with a normal mind.
"Devil-kun you're going to have to do much better than that~" Freed sang like a child as he held up his gun and sword. Issei was beginning to realize this priest, as he called himself, was actually getting pleasure from this.
Freed went in for another kill shot causing Issei to roll over on the ground but before he had the chance to turn around "KABLAM!" Freed shouted out crazily as he pulled the trigger on his gun, giving Issei a shot in the leg.
"ACK" Issei finally collapsed to the ground as more blood spewed from his legs as he recoiled and held onto his legs in pain.
"These bullets have been blessed by a priest. How is it!? The special bullet made for the Exorcists, the bullet of light! And it doesn't make any sound. Since its bullet of light. This situation turns both of us on, doesn't it?" Freed let out another laugh as Issei forced himself to stand.
"Damn you!"
[Dragon Booster]
"Oooh, is the devil angry?" Freed mocked with a cold laugh, "maybe it's time for me to send you back to the hell you crawled out of."
Issei charged Freed only for Freed to casually move his head to the side, "too slow" and just like that, Issei felt the sword of light pierce his back causing him to scream in pain as he fell on his hands and knees.
Freed stood over Issei, ready to deal the finishing blade, "Devil-Kun, you get a man excited but leave him half-cocked that's no way to treat a man like myself. I guess it's time to turn you into dust RIGGHHTT!"
"AHHHH!"
And before Freed could deal the final blow he paused and turned towards the door, a annoyed look on his face.
Issei's eyes however widened in shock, "wait...I know that voice." he said, recognizing the feminine scream.
Issei could only turn and stare at the beautiful blonde nun in shock, the nun he had met a few days ago. "What the hell? Asia what are you doing here?" Freed asked with an annoyed expression as he glared at the girl, "are you done creating the barrier already?"
Both Asia and Issei were too stunned to move, as their eyes met for a second time. "D-Don't, please don't do this father" Asia pleaded with tears in her eyes.
Freed however seemed unfazed by her sad expression and let out a laugh, "Oh right, you're new at this, well Asia dear, this is what we do, we slaughter those who have been bewitched by the devils or the evil devils themselves."
After hearing that Asia's face turned into a look of absolute horror as she stared up at Issei, "no, it can't be".
"Asia I" but Issei instead put his head down, unable to process the right words.
"What's going on?" Freed asked curiously looking back and forth between the two, "wait a second, do you two know each other?"
"I-Issei why are you here?" Asia started with tear strained eyes.
"Because I'm a devil" Issei stated with his head down.
"Damn, that hurt like a bitch" Ichiro groaned out as he grabbed his head. Ichiro however looked at his hands and arms and noticed the burn marks, that wasn't a ordinary magic spell, that was light.
"Wow, seems you're not as weak as I thought you were, seeing as you were able to survive a bomb of pure light".
'Not another fallen angel dipshit' Ichiro groaned he turned around to see a blonde haired boy with blue eyes staring back at him. He was wearing some type of school uniform which was white with black accents and had a cape around his shoulder.
Those eyes, Ichiro didn't know why but his eyes looked oddly familiar.
[Chaos Gear] Ichiro summoned his black and purple gauntlet and glared at the boy in front of him with a angry expression. "What is with you crows and sneak attacks?" Ichiro thought rolling his eyes as he charged his opponent.
"Oh what? Implying you devils fight fair?" the boy called back as he swung his leg around crashing it against Ichiro's gauntlet. Before Ichiro could retaliate the boy summoned another orb of light and launched it at Ichiro.
[Absorb] Ichiro smiled as he completed absorbed the orb, not leaving a trace behind. "You're going to have to do better than that if you want to win!"
[Boost] black and purple energy swirled around Ichiro as he charged at the boy and swung his fist and punched the boy in the stomach. However to Ichiro's shock, the boy didn't even seemed fazed as he smiled bitterly.
"I'm a mutation rook remember?" the boy grabbed Ichiro by the neck with one hand and lifted him in the air, Ichiro struggled for breath however the boy in front of him didn't even seem phased, "so a puny ass attack like that won't work on me."
Before Ichiro could wiggle out of his grasp the boy swung Ichiro around his back slammed Ichiro against the cold pavement causing blood to spew from his mouth. "Damn" Ichiro groaned as he walked out of the spider cracks formed by the attack. He jumped back a few feets and stared at the boy with intense confusion.
"Mutation rook?", it was then realization came to Ichiro's mind as he looked forward at the blonde haired boy in front of him, a small smile on his face, "So Marcus, surprised to see you came back for your rematch, after killing your entire nest I assumed you would've skipped town."
"I couldn't skip town without cleaning up some loose ends first" Marcus lunged forward and aimed a punch at Ichiro's face, however Ichiro ducked down and then sent a kick to Marcus's stomach pushing him back a few inches.
[Boost]
Ichiro summoned another orb of magic and tossed it at Marcus.
Marcus smiled as he summoned a magic sigil and multiple black hands poured out of it. Ichiro jumped in the air as the black hands followed behind him. Before the hands could reach him however he pulled a kunai knife out of his pocket and tossed it at Marcus.
"You're going to have to do better than that" Marcus mocked with a laugh as one of the hands wrapped around Ichiro's body, lifting him in the air.
[Break] Before Marcus could react a second Ichiro came swinging at him and kicked him square in the head causing him to go crashing to the ground. The shadowy black hands then disappeared and Ichiro landed back on the ground. His clone then fazed back into his body and Ichiro cracked his knuckles as Marcus forced himself to stand.
"Had enough yet?" Ichiro asked with a arrogant smile.
"You're still a slave" Marcus said as he shot a smile back.
"What'd you say?" Ichiro asked
"I heard about Amelia. You used to be a stray devil, just like me, but you gave it all up and went back to being a devil servant. It's pretty pathetic if you ask me?"
Ichiro let out a laugh, "you've became a grim, you needed a fallen angel to perform a purification ritual on you just so you wouldn't look like a halloween monster. You prattle on about being free, yet you're nothing but a slave, a slave to your own hunger and insatiable need for self destruction. I heard about your former master."
Black and white energy charged around Marcus's body as he summoned multiple light spears around his body, "how about I just get this over with? Now die!"
Before the two boys could react a brush of wind pushed both boys back, causing the energy around Marcus to die as the light spears dissolved into nothing. Ichiro and Marcus both turned towards the air to see a grinning blonde haired boy levitating in mid-air.
"Girls, calm down, you're both pretty" Sora joked as he lowered himself down.
"So tell me again how you found me?" Ichiro asked.
"Because, Issei was attacked by this exorcist, Rias and the others just got him back to the Occult Research Club, so I assumed you must've been in trouble as well since you didn't go there. So I just searched the area around that contract and voila" Sora said. "Mind telling me who this clown is?"
"Oh just some garbage that didn't get thrown away the last time" Ichiro said.
Marcus clenched his fist angrily as he glared at the two boys, "I'm going to kill you Ichiro, Ichiro Alastor, but I'm not stupid, so I guess we'll continue this on another day" Marcus said.
[Soul Breaker] Ichiro launched his attack at Ichiro however it never made contact as Marcus's body started to disappear in a sigil of light.
The sigil of the fallen angels.
"We'll continue this battle at a later date. See you then weakling" Marcus mocked as his body disappeared.
Sora and Ichiro both turned towards one another, calm faces on both boy's faces. "We should go back to the Occult Research Club, I'm sure Rias and Gray will want to know about this" Sora said casually with his hands behind his back.
"Yes, we should do that" Ichiro said back.
Despite neither boy saying it out loud, this was there personal form of a apology.
A/N: So there, I knew people would like to see the Freed action and I thought of putting Ichiro there as well, but my idea was particularly boring going that route. But I think I wrote some decent development for Ichiro and Sora.
If you have any ideas you wish to share, be sure to read a comment or send me a pm with your suggestions/questions. Also I recently started a new project called Dragons of the Apocalypse, if you're a fan of my writing be sure to check it you for reading and see you next time.
