CHAPTER 9:

ORIENTATION

After Issei had been healed and left in his home, the Occult Research Club and affiliates debated what to do. Although Rias had been considering having Issei out for bait to lure more Fallen, she was persuaded by Harry and Hermione's arguments that they knew that Raynare and her comrades were involved. Not only that, but as Raynare had identified Harry Sitri, the Fallen would probably be more careful about stepping on the toes of the Sitri and Gremory families. Having two prominent Devil families after them might be more than they could handle, so with any luck, they would try to be more discreet.

It also meant Asia would need greater protection. The Fallen might decide to kill her, or worse, extract her Sacred Gear, which would have the same result, only the Fallen would have a Sacred Gear on their side.

The next morning, Harry and Rias came across Issei, who was trying to get Matsuda and Motohama to remember Yuuma, or rather, Raynare. When Issei spotted Harry, he said, "You! You were there, Harry! Along with that Hermione babe! C'mon, help me out here!"

Instead of being helpful (not that it would have done any good, as Motohama and Matsuda had had their memories erased, presumably Raynare covering her tracks), Harry began singing, in a lilting voice, and in English, "Last night I saw upon the stair a pretty girl who wasn't there. She wasn't there again today. Oh how I wish she'd go away…(1)"

Issei blinked, as did the other two. Motohama, who apparently knew more English than his comrades, muttered, "Did you just quote Antigonish, or David Bowie(2)?"

Harry couldn't resist. "Oh no, not me, I never lost control. You're face to face with the man who sold the world," he sang impishly in English. Rias chuckled alongside him.

"Great," Matsuda grumbled sullenly. "The hottest babe in the school, married to this British dork."

As they walked away, Harry cast a silent hair-growing charm on the pervert with the shaved head. It would last only an hour, but the hair on his head would be growing fast enough to need a lawn-mower in the meantime.

However, Issei wouldn't be deterred, and chased Rias and Harry. Thankfully, they had managed to get out of earshot of the student body, because Harry then looked at Issei, freezing the pervert in his tracks. "The Occult Research Club, lunchtime. And come alone."

Harry, having an impish sense of humour, waited under the Invisibility Cloak as Issei approached the building containing the Occult Research Club. He was at the door, peering through a peephole, and as the pervert made to knock, Harry opened the door slowly and ominously. Oh good, there was a creak! Issei looked like he was trying to make sure he didn't have an accident involving his bowels or bladder. As Issei stepped hesitantly inside, Harry slammed the door shut.

Thanks to a charm from Luna, shortly afterwards, an organ rendition of Toccata and Fugue in D Minor began playing. Clichéd, but what can you do? It was too fun to resist. Sirius and Remus were loving how Harry still had a prankster's streak from his father.

As Issei shivered, Harry hissed, "Welcome…to your doom…"

Issei shrieked, rather like a little girl, and Harry, deciding that Issei had been scared enough, whipped off his Cloak. "Your face!" Harry laughed. Cameras began clicking, set up in various corners of the atrium of the Club's building.

Issei blinked, unable to process what happened. "I…uh, wha…?"

"Sorry, I couldn't resist." Trying to be as nice as he could to Issei, he said, "Yuuma, as you know her, never existed. She was someone who wanted to kill you because you were a potential threat, and erased herself from the memories of those who saw her, including your pervert comrades."

Issei looked at him, before saying, "So…it was true? She tried to kill me, and you and Hermione tried to save me, pulling off those weird moves? And you were flying and all!" He gave a brief bow. "Thanks for helping me out! Though…I do remember getting speared…"

"Yeah, well, you did. Look, long story short, Rias revived you. I'll let her explain the details. But before we do so, a few ground rules. The first is, try and keep your perverted thoughts to yourself, especially where Rias is concerned, given that we're married. You're entitled to your opinion, but that doesn't mean we're all entitled to them(3), and if you're not careful, I'll set Hermione and Koneko on you. They're not fans of perverts. Secondly, Rias and I are in charge, though she's more in charge of you than I am. Thirdly, you have to keep quiet about what happens here. For your sake as much as that of others, frankly. Otherwise, you and your parents may be in danger. Understand?"

Issei gulped, somewhat theatrically, and nodded as he was led through into the clubroom proper. Idiotic though he was, you could get him to understand things when you did things right.

Once introductions were made, it was Rias who took the lead in explaining to Issei what had happened to him. Issei was understandably surprised to find that everyone present, barring Hermione, were Devils, and that he had been revived as one. It took some time to further explain his situation, and it was decided to leave some of the more complicated explanations for after school.

After school had ended, and he had come back to hear about the different factions, he frowned. "You said that Devils don't get along with Angels, Fallen or not, but you said Hermione there is half-Fallen."

"I am. Many Fallen are more concerned with getting back into the good graces of Heaven or getting on with their lives rather than killing any Devils they see," Hermione said. "My mother is one of the moderates. It's usually better to assume that a Fallen you don't know is dangerous, and for someone like you, it's better to run like hell. Most Fallen wouldn't think once about killing a low-class Devil, especially if they think they're a Stray."

"But…why did Yuuma…I mean, Raynare, try to kill me? I heard you mention something about a Sacred Gear."

"Yes," Rias said, nodding. "We suspected, and Hermione confirmed as she can sense these things, that you're a holder of a Sacred Gear. These are blessed items granted by God to members of the human race or to Nephilim to perform miracles. Many are actually weapons, while others allow for other effects, like healing. They intended to kill you to take your Sacred Gear out of the equation. They either do that, or extract the Sacred Gear in a lethal process. They presumably thought of your Sacred Gear as not useful enough to them, but enough of a threat to get rid of you. Devils normally don't gain access to them, unless they are humans who have been reincarnated through Evil Pieces."

As Issei began to get a lewd look on his face, Harry said, "Slow down there, don't get too excited. It has nothing to do with what you've got downstairs. It just means you have a magical weapon or armour innate to you, or something else."

"Aren't you British? I mean, you act British, like some pent-up stuffed shirt," Issei asked, perhaps rather stupidly. "Aren't you proud of the big-boobed beauty you've managed to snag?"

"Of course I'm proud. I just don't go shouting how much I'm attracted to her, and in such lewd terms," Harry retorted. "Anyway, it's not like you're the norm in Japan. A lot of Japanese act the same way as you think the British do. It's called common decency, though looking at you, I have to wonder how common it is…"

"Sadly, not very," Hermione remarked, raising an eyebrow.

Remus, who saw Sirius open his mouth to voice some objection or opinion or other, nudged him viciously in the ribs with an elbow. "Not a word, Padfoot," he murmured.

"Spoilsport," Sirius growled. "He reminds me of myself when I was his age."

"Padfoot, as perverted as you were, you're nowhere near his level. At least you kept it quiet most of the time," Remus muttered.

"I'm actually curious about something," Issei said, looking at Remus and Sirius. "You guys are way older than Harry, but you're his servants in his Peerage."

"I try not to think of my Peerage as servants," Harry said. "Remus and Sirius were friends of my father, and they knew he was a Devil. Sirius is also my godfather. Luna and Neville were my only friends at school. Well, aside from Hermione. They all joined my Peerage willingly. Hermione didn't want to join my Peerage, and I respect that, especially as we're still friends and comrades. And Rias does treat her Peerage like family. We treat each other's Peerage as family and friends. Of course, other Devils treat their Peerages differently."

"I'm his godfather, Issei, and frankly, this is much better than what I've had to deal with for over a decade. Azkaban is far worse than the Underworld, believe me," Sirius said.

"Azkaban?"

Rias said, "Harry here, along with his Peerage and Hermione, come from England, as you know. Specifically, they were wizards and witches, although Harry and Hermione had heritages outside that. The magical world is hidden from people like you, similarly to how Angels and Devils hide their existence. Wizards and witches, generally, have innate magic inherited. Azkaban was the main prison of Magical Britain, and was staffed by creatures known as Dementors." Rias fixed Issei with a serious stare. "Imagine creatures that would suck the very happiness from you, bringing up your worst memories. Not only that, but they are capable of sucking out the souls of their victims through the Dementor's Kiss."

"…So, as that sounds like a bad thing, I'm guessing they don't look hot at all?"

"Like flying rotting corpses in robes," Remus said. "About a year after Harry left Magical Britain, someone in the Ministry of Magic sent a pair of Dementors after Harry, believing him to be a threat. Even Devils can be killed by them. But Devil magic is more effective against them than the usual countermeasure."

Harry nodded, remembering using his Steam Guillotine for the first time in battle, cutting a Dementor in half. "As it turned out, some bitch by the name of Umbridge had sent them, to curry favour with the British Minister of Magic. I sicced my cousin onto her."

"NO! PLEASE STOP! I DON'T WANT TO PLAY YOUR STUPID MAGICAL GIRL GAMES ANYMORE!"

Serafall Leviathan pouted at Dolores Umbridge, tied to an elaborate throne in Serafall's magical girl stageshow set in the Underworld. "Well, tough. I'm not done with you, Dolores-chan. You're my new favourite for playing the dried-up old bitch villain in my magical girl roleplaying! You're almost as fun as my Prinny army! Like Bitch here!"

"I'm Lord Voldemort, dood, not Bitch the Prinny! I am the immortal pretty princess of the Land of Chimichangas and Coprolites, dood!"

Dolores Umbridge began sobbing, even as her tormentor sprinted over to the strange penguin-like creature with perpetual concussion and dropkicked it across the theatre, to the applause of the few Devils who were brave enough to watch the show. Pitchforks, burning flames, boiling oil and lava, she could deal with. But being made to fulfil this childish Devil's fantasies as the villain of some strange magical girl pantomime for all eternity while said Devil dropkicked penguin things around the place, one of whom claimed to be Dumbledore? This was truly Hell…

"I don't know about you, but I'm feeling a lot of righteous schadenfreude right now," Remus said. "Does Serafall have the latest tapes? A Prinny-punting and Umbridge screaming for mercy cheers me up no end."

"I'll call her later," Harry said. "The Phenex family enjoy the ones with Dumbledore. They were grateful when Serafall sent them Fawkes, once we got him free from the bindings the old goat put on him."

"I've never seen Riser look so righteously angry before," Rias tittered. "Such vile bindings on one of the oldest phoenixes to ever exist…I think that gift actually worked to get his mind off claiming me, though."

Harry nodded. Riser was admittedly the only one of the Phenex family truly unhappy about Rias being engaged to Harry, as he had been set on wedding her, but Serafall and Sirzechs had put him in his place, and he actually accepted Fawkes as a gift with better grace than Rias thought him capable of.

Fawkes was currently tended by Riser and his sister, Ravel, as both a pet and mascot of their Peerage, and by all accounts, Riser was beginning to act a little better towards his Peerage, mostly due to the influence of Fawkes. Not that much better, frankly, as he was still an arrogant lech and made no secret of his annoyance towards Harry and his lust towards Rias. But Fawkes, along with Sirzechs and Serafall's intervention, had ensured that Riser wasn't intending to challenge Harry or Rias any time soon for Rias' hand. And Harry had gotten a letter of thanks from Riser's Queen, Yubelluna, as Riser was actually beginning to treat her noticeably (if only slightly) better.

After the expositional onslaught with Issei, and managing to get him to activate his Sacred Gear, Harry and Hermione got a call from Emma. Harry decided to accompany Hermione home. At the very least, he wanted to confirm this.

The Grangers were entertaining a cute blonde-haired girl, dressed in the habit of a nun. Although in her mid-teens, there was something of her demeanour that was almost younger, perhaps due to a certain naiveté, not to mention her petite figure. And there was a sense of self-abnegation and tenacity and suffering that made Harry want to give her a hug. When she turned in her seat, having been drinking a cup of tea, she smiled. "So, this is your daughter and her Devil friend, Lady Apollonia?"

Emma Granger nodded. "Yes, Asia. Hermione, Harry, allow me to introduce Asia Argento, bearer of the Sacred Gear Twilight Healing. As of today, she is living in our household."

Hermione and Harry both shook the girl's hand, and Harry was pleased to note there was no actual fear or hatred in the girl's eyes, just curiosity and perhaps slight caution. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Argento. I hope that my friends and I can help keep you safe." And he gave a warm smile that was hesitantly mirrored on Asia's face. He hoped that he truly could keep her safe. What little he saw so far showed her to be a selfless, self-effacing and self-sacrificing sort. And he didn't want her to fall prey to people like Raynare or Diodora Astaroth…

CHAPTER 9 ANNOTATIONS:

And there you have it. Issei's received a briefing on what he's become, Umbridge is getting her just desserts, and Asia's now in the Granger house.

Asia will, as stated before, become a little sister figure to Harry, Hermione, and Rias. I also want her to be able to survive without being turned into a Devil. I'm putting it out there. And yes, I intend to have her heal the Longbottoms.

1. Harry, as Motohama points out, is quoting a modified version of the last part of Antigonish, a rather bizarre poem by Hughes Mearns.

2. In case the lyrics Harry quotes doesn't ring a bell, Motohama is referring to David Bowie's song The Man Who Sold the World, which seemed to be partly inspired by Antigonish.

3. Harry is using another modified quote, this time of a line Kerr Avon says to Vila in Blake's 7: Bounty.