Edit:

3/6/20, 11.11pm: Added in an extra section I forgot to put in last time.

Responding to reviews 101: Yeah, I know it's been a while since I responded to reviews, might as well start here.

ulttoanova: You have to know that, whatever Rias says after she confesses will sound like an excuse, so there's no way that Issei would easily accept that at face value, just saying.

Fullmetal11791: Yes, yes it is. But that's how I perceive Akira. He won't budge when it comes to certain things, such as people exercising their authority just because they think they can.

Green223: I do have an idea, but it might take a while before that comes to complete fruition.

Gamelover41592: It's because of what Akira fought for.

SuperSaiyanFever: It is karma, yeah. But just because she did something bad doesn't mean she deserves to be punished so heavily. Like you said, we're talking about the mindset of a devil here, not a human's. Something that's largely accepted in Devil society might be heavily condemned amongst humans. I'll say, this is more of a trial for her than anything because she has never faced any hardship in her life up to now.

Akakiru: Because power dictates everything lol.

Wildlylaughing: Perhaps.

And we stop here for now.

Location and Time

POV

Persona Skills/Speech

[Dragon Speech]

'Mental Speech'

Akira's POV

Shrine, Night

Issei's recovery had gone very smoothly after the usage of Twilight Healing. The pervert, however, still didn't awaken so he decided to leave first, get some dinner and head back to the shrine. But by this time, it was already night. The moon was slowly rising into the night sky. It's one of the nights where the night is serene as if nothing could disturb this peace. The night sky is certainly ripe for viewing. If he had some sort of beverage right now like tea, he wouldn't mind drinking under the moon while gazing at the moon on the porch. Supposedly, that was an activity not to be missed according to several of his Personae but he hasn't had the opportunity to try it yet.

It wasn't long after he reached the shrine that Akeno came back.

"Mind telling me why Rias has locked herself up in the ORC clubroom?" He knows that Akeno has most likely found out by now, there's no way she wouldn't. He knew it would come to this sooner or later, but certainly wasn't expecting it this soon. Something like this can't be hidden forever. Plus, Akeno is certainly sharp enough to pick up some details too, that's for sure.

"Because she deserves it." In hindsight, he does not hold too much regret for the utter mess he left Rias Gremory in when he left. Sure, it wasn't exactly his policy to make someone feel like complete garbage and talk them down to the point where they start getting depressed. It isn't also necessarily the approach he would choose, perhaps he might have done something more subtle like nudging her in a specific direction without her realizing it.

There are times that a hard approach is necessary, but such an approach doesn't see too much use, due to its volatile nature and potential to backfire. But this is one of those times where he would make an exception. He's not exactly some sort of all-merciful or kind person, despite what people think. He's no saint, that's for sure. If anything, he's just a normal human who cares for people.

"Watch your words." The tension is certainly beginning to thicken now, despite the shrine's serene atmosphere. He can almost detect a hint of ozone around the Priestess of Thunder. Even their current level of friendship could be torn apart if he doesn't choose his words correctly. Well, Akeno is someone who's clearly not meant to be messed with. As if she could threaten him. Even if he got caught off guard in a sneak attack, it wasn't guaranteed that Rias' peerage could defeat him. And why should he back down?

He won't back down on this one. "I mean what I say." In other times, he might back down but this is one of those times that he would gladly fight even a God to defend his beliefs.

"Why is she in that state then?" He sits down on the porch, opting to stare at the beautiful full moon that's hanging on the night sky rather than simply facing Akeno. Huh, Mishima is the one who represents the Moon, now that he thinks about it.

"I'm not sure if you know this, but I'm the Leader of the Phantom Thieves of Heart. Or at least I was before it disbanded." He freely admits. If one wants to understand his actions, it would be better to start at the beginning than to give a vague excuse. Since he's already in quite deep and he couldn't proceed any further without raising any suspicions about himself, he might as well speak first.

His face turns into a frown as he remembers those days when he first started out at Shujin Academy. The academy had been far less receiving than Kuoh, but then again he hadn't entered Kuoh with a criminal record. "At first, we stole the heart of a gym teacher because he was abusing his students. One student even got sexually assaulted and attempted to commit suicide. He threatened to expel us. That was the tipping point and what started us off. I was really pissed at that time, but I didn't quite know what I was getting into. I just wanted to make him confess.

Then the few of us agreed to continue stealing hearts. We found several other people whose hearts were twisted, that's why we stole it. Some did petty crimes. Others, they were essentially acting within the grey area where the law couldn't reach them.

Then came the artist. We found out through one of the people whose hearts we previously stole. He constantly exploited young and promising artists, stole their works. There was someone under his thumb, who believed in his teacher. But the truth that he found was much uglier. The artist's heart was a reflection of his vanity, completely repulsive. His students, treated as nothing more than pieces that belonged to him and could exploit, tossed away when they couldn't paint for him anymore. That's when I thought. I would protect people and their freedom to choose. I didn't want to see people end up like that anymore, with things out of their control. Kaneshiro just reinforced that notion of mine."

Yes. It sounds like a stupid notion. But he just didn't want to see people like that, ever again. The potrait of Yusuke and his fellow students in the museum had sent shivers down his spine the moment they'd realized what it truly meant. His heart had been shaken multiple times throughout his adventures into various Palaces, each time worse than the last.

Kaneshiro's perception of people... it was perhaps one of the more terrifying perceptions of people, alongside Palaces such as Shido's and Mementos. The sight of all the people in Shibuya as ATMs? Broken, lying on the ground as if they were nothing more than a waste of space? Falling from the sky because they couldn't give Kaneshiro more money? That was something that took him a while to get past.

Kunikaze Okumura. Using his employees as fuel for every single purpose possible he could find, from a normal worker with overworked hours left underpaid, to being fuel for others. Not to mention the rife corruption that was spreading throughout the company.

Masayoshi Shido. His heart could be summed up easily in one sentence, but the implications were terrifying to say the least. He alone shall live, even if the others will sink. He wasn't sure to think which was worse. Being treated as a money machine until you couldn't cough up any more money, being used non-stop, even after you couldn't work anymore, or being disregarded and left to die unless you were of use. He shuddered to think what would happen if Shido actually became President. But nothing could beat the cognition that was Mementos.

"We stole the hearts of several other high profile targets, including the likes of Kunikaze Okumura and Masayoshi Shido. Yet, after stealing the heart of the politician, we realized something. No one seemed to care about the fact that Masayoshi Shido himself had confessed to several crimes on live TV, in fact opting to deny that fact. We realized something. Something was manipulating them to deny that fact. We delved deep into the heart of the public. We found people in a prison. It was called the Prison of Regression. The worse part? People were willingly going into that prison. Then we found a Holy Grail. The worst part? It was using the people within the prison as fuel." The first half is common knowledge. The second half? Not so much.

Mementos itself...while it might have been a cognition of the public's subconsciousness, the thought of it was petrifying, to say the least. Each of the paths represented something. Each of the paths within it represented something being taken away. The deeper it went, the more it took away from the people and replaced it with something else until the unsuspecting masses reached the Prison of Regression. He hadn't thought much when he found out that the paths were named after several Hebrew words through Oracle's scanners until they had snuck into that prison on that fateful day.

"Oh my..." Akeno murmurs.

"Do you know why they willingly went into that prison? Did you know what the Holy Grail promised them? Freedom from having to choose. Free will. One of the aspects that makes us human. Taken away. That was a representation of the public's cognition." He spits it out. "We were nearly erased from existence because of the Holy Grail manipulating the cognition of people to make them think we didn't exist. It was through some means that we managed to get survive that and fight against the Holy Grail. I refused to live in a world where how I lived would be dictated. Every single movement, every single thought. Controlled. Unable to act against. I didn't want that kind of future."

It nearly broke him. He nearly broke from the realization that cognitive Shido gave him. It was only through the timely intervention of the wardens of the prison at that time that allowed him and everyone else some form of temporary but a much-needed reprieve at that time. The adrenaline rush that came through combat was the sole thing that had been distracting him at that time. If his heart hadn't been tempered through various trials in the form of the Palaces and his confidants, he might have immediately fallen into despair.

How could humanity choose to be like this? Sitting in jail cells, playing roles that had already been preordained for them. Why? Why were they so content with this? Why did they not choose to break out on their own accord, with the exception of a few?! Why would they choose to stagnate like this instead of further breaking their limits? Why? It was almost as if the entire world was mocking him at that time, even if the people's subconsciousness had been influenced via the Holy Grail. Shido becoming President might even have been the better alternative. If it was the world's idea of playing a cruel joke on him, then it had succeeded.

"And guess what? Turns out, the Holy Grail managed to merge the subconscious with reality, creating a hellish landscape where it could demonstrate its power. And I fought against the Holy Grail once again, with my comrades. We staked our very lives against it. If we lost, we lost our lives. It wouldn't allow us to exist any further, to threaten it. Just when we thought we won, it goes and reveals itself to be Yaldabaoth. It was supposedly a God, its power being on a whole another level, unlike the foes we faced before. Still, we didn't back down. We nearly died, you know? Its last attack damm near killed me, I still have scars on my chest."

After all, Phantom Thief clothing doesn't stop wounds from forming on the body, with it simply being a fancy costume that wouldn't get damaged. It acted more like a mirage than anything, though the sensation of them wearing the outfit was something they could fee, as the clothing represents their "will of rebellion. As long as their will stood firm, it would never be damaged.

The armour he wore underneath didn't help with defending against the devastating attack, however. The Rays of Control had simply shredded through it like paper through a shredder, the scars on his chest from that attack are a reminder of that hot, searing pain that he experienced taking it head on with literally no resistance.

"The people cheered me on and I found a way to kill it. I staked my life against a being with the power of God and slew it just to protect one of the few things I treasured.

Free will.

Then I found out that Rias spat on it. Stepped on it like it was nothing. She set Issei up to die by the hands of the fallen angels, just so that she could have him in her peerage. What kind of choice did Issei have? None at all! He didn't even know he was going to die that night when he went on that date with the fallen angel! I got so angry when I found out about it. She simply disregarded that which I struggled so hard for. Do you know what it's like to have what you fought for, that which you even betted your life for in the process, just be simply disregarded like that?!" He stares directly into Akeno's violet eyes, daring her to challenge him.

Akeno is unable to answer him. It takes a while before she speaks up. "I don't." She admits.

"I... I'm sorry for ranting." He might have been quite out of character for the last few minutes with that tirade of his, in all honesty.

"It's alright. But it still does not excuse what you did to Rias." Akeno is not willing to look at him. But he can tell that she is deeply affected by him. That act of not facing him alone already speaks volumes.

"To you, perhaps. She needs a harsh dose of reality. She needs to understand that her actions have consequences." Yes, it sounds cold and harsh. No, he's not going to budge on it. He might apologize in the future, but he won't budge on it. "And I heard she was angry about losing her freedom to some random person whom she can defeat provided she trained hard enough?!"

He had, of course, asked for specific details on how Rias felt about her arranged marriage during Issei's training. Issei is again, surprisingly perceptive of emotions. His honesty also makes it hard for the pervert to lie as well. Though he had to admit, he wasn't expecting Rias to try and jump the pervert in his bed.

"That's..." Akeno can't deny what he's getting at.

"See my point? She had the opportunity to change her own fate with her own two hands unlike others who aren't so fortunate, but she didn't even try to do so until ten days before the Game. It's not just the fact that she set up Issei to die that I'm angry at her for. It's also the fact that she had the ability to do so but she doesn't act on it but drags an innocent, unrelated person into her problem as well. And now because of that, Issei's in for a world of heartbreak when he finds out."

She has a superb edge in the form of the Power of Destruction, which her brother, the Crimson Satan himself, used to claw up to the highest hierarchy of devil kind and she doesn't try to hone it into a sharp blade that's to her advantage? That's just asking to be beaten. Some people don't even get the opportunity to fight for themselves.

Instead, she simply assumed that the wielder of the Boosted Gear would be able to magically do it for her when in fact, he was nothing more than just a regular human.

"I see your point." Akeno's voice is soft. "But Rias has been my best friend since I was young." She trails off at that point, clearly not willing to reveal more of that matter. He can understand that.

"You can't bear to choose between your friend and morals. That's fine." Given how the two seemed to be attached at the hip most of the time when he saw them in school, that much is painfully obvious.

"Am I that easy to read?"

He shakes his head and denies it. "You've been trying to defend Rias. But you're also hesitating at the same time because all I spoke were pretty much all facts that could not be denied." Reading people isn't as easy as people make it out to be. You have to keep track of certain cues, such as their speech pattern, body language, and various behaviors they exhibit under a certain mood. And you also have to know the person intimately for people who are more guarded and distrustful of others to notice such cues in the first place. Right now, he isn't really reading her, but simply keeping track of the conversation.

"You're right about that." Akeno smiles mirthfully. "I just can't turn my back on her, even though I now know she did something like this. She's not inherently a bad person, you know?"

"It proves that you're a loyal friend at the very least." If Akeno wasn't, she wouldn't have bothered to come and confront him in the first place. That's something he can appreciate at the very least. While Akeno might come across to people as a vulgar woman due to her constant flirting, her loyalty is still something that is rather commendable.

He goes back to staring at the moon as Akeno leaves him alone, the tension finally diffused, returning the shrine to its normal serene atmosphere. It was as if the tense conversation had never happened, but it'd managed to deepen the bond between the two.

Now, maybe he should start thinking about how to salvage the situation before he ends up on the shitlist of the Lucifer himself. Maybe channeling his inner Kohryu might help. Within his mind, the ancient Dragon chuckles lightly.

Akeno's POV

School, Morning

She walked to school this morning, as usual. But unlike the norm, Rias was not walking next to her and she is currently deeply lost in her thoughts. Was Rias Gremory still camped up in the clubroom? Perhaps. It had everything. From food leftover in a fridge to a bed to sleep to a shower to clean herself. There wasn't a very high chance of Rias leaving the room today. And possibly for the next few days as well.

Rias, her best friend, a kind-hearted soul who couldn't seem to hurt a fly at times had manipulated Issei's death? The thought itself was unthinkable. She couldn't fully wrap her head around that truth. Yet, the dots had connected themselves last night after a single push from Akira. She almost felt sick to the stomach.

The facts were already present. Issei had been somehow resurrected on the same night when he went on the date with the fallen angel, that much she had confirmed from Rias. Koneko also had been keeping tabs on him since the start of the year.

What Akira had said last night, it'd blindsided her so hard. His tale alone had been nothing short of... just wow. She couldn't even begin to comprehend it. Not only that, but Akira had also been so right on so many levels, she couldn't find a single way to refute him at all. There was no way she could, when he presented each fact that they both knew were proven to be true.

It was the first time that her attempt to retort back had been shut down so easily like this. The argument had been airtight with the help of the facts were already present, leaving not even a hint of an opening for her to counter it. Such as the fact that Issei had somehow been resurrected on the same night that he went on a date with the fallen angel. That alone couldn't be a coincidence. She didn't know that Akira's ability to talk had been so high, but the signs had been there. Such as him not easily getting flustered and even managing to counter her at times during her various flirting attempts with him. She should have paid more attention to him.

Not only that, the way Akira spoke. It'd been so raw, so emotional. He sounded so vulnerable as if whatever he saw was enough to scar him for life. Perhaps it was. The way he spoke, it'd struck her to the core. She'd never expect him to share his story like this, however. At least, it did help in giving her an idea of why he did whatever he did to Rias.

But she's conflicted now. If Akira represents the morality side of the matter, then Rias represents the other end of the spectrum, doing whatever it takes without caring for the consequences but she still has a personal connection to the person. She can't decide which side to take. It's too hard to pick one. Why must Akira do this to her? She sighs. At the very least, he's an understanding person. And quite possibly one of the nicest guys she's ever had the pleasure/misfortune of knowing as well. While he is indeed good company to be around at times, throwing such a dilemma onto a girl just like that is such a dick move. She pouts at that.

Damm it! Why does everything relating to him have to be so hard to deal with? First, his unknown powers and now this? He made it sound as if she could never hope to beat him. He wasn't that powerful, right?

She stops dead in her tracks, seeing the Student Council President herself standing outside the door that leads into the ORC Clubroom. Well shit. Rias is clearly in no state to see anyone right now, if her state from last night is of any indication.

Unfortunately for her, Sona seems to have noted her appearance. She turns around to greet her. "Akeno. May I know where is Rias? We were supposed to discuss the latest stray devils that have made their way into Kuoh, but she has failed to respond to any message that I sent." That was yesterday? Throughout her response, her face does not change in the slightest, but she can tell that Sona is irked by Rias not meeting up or even dropping a text to explain her absence as well as with Akeno herself.

Such is the personality of Sona, a characteristic of hers that is well known by the school, to the point where anyone who dares to be tardy in her presence will end up with being glared by Sona until they feel like a piercing, ice-cold glare staring at them, as if ready to deliver punishment. Or so those who have experienced it described. Some have suffered worse fates, having been on the receiving end of one of the offers to play chess that Sona sometimes gives if she's in the mood. The only state that they end up is nothing short of getting completely crushed into smithereens without any hope to recover their pride, ending up having to bend backward for her. No one in the school could ever hope to match up to Sona in a chess match, after all.

If Sona asked you to meet her at a certain time, you best better be present ten minutes before the stipulated time, or you might find yourself in hot water. This is the current situation that both Rias and her face right now. If Rias didn't show up, it was Akeno's responsibility to be there, because the Queen was the one who was supposed to take over the King's responsibilities in times where the King is unable to be present. Sona must have been annoyed when no one bothered to show up last night, which leads to this current situation. "She's... currently indisposed."

"Oh? Please, do explain." She could have sworn that Sona's spectacles had glinted, adding on to the strict president persona that she keeps up all the time.

"I think it's better if you see for yourself." It's not easy to describe the situation with just a few words.

She opens the door easily. As expected, the reason why Sona didn't go in was that Rias had made use of the magic charms that guarded the building and room against potential enemies to only limit access to only her and her fellow peerage members. Rias should still be inside, in any case.

"What happened?" As expected, Sona didn't lose her composure upon seeing the sorry state that Rias is in but the urgency in her tone betrays it. First of all, she stank. It was clear that she didn't shower last night. Her hair had to be washed every day to maintain that glossy sheen, a chore that Rias gladly undertook. Yet, her hair today didn't look anything like it would on a normal day, it wasn't the standard vibrant crimson but more of a dull red. Her eyes were bloodshot, as if she hadn't slept all night and instead spent it on just crying instead. They were a complete blank, totally unfocused as she stared at the wall instead of turning to face them.

"Hey, Sona. Do you think I'm a bad person?" Rias mutters loud enough for both of them to hear. She doesn't wait for an answer. "Maybe Kurusu was right."

As expected, Sona is quick on the uptake, immediately recognizing the name. "What do you mean Kurusu was right? Does he have anything to do with your current state?" Sona looks towards Akeno for an answer.

Akeno can only nod. "What was he thinking?! Is he trying to seek his death?" Sona hisses. For good reason too. It is well known that Sirzechs Lucifer is an overprotective siscon, in fact he's so overprotective that some say that only one other person can contend with him in that area. If the Crimson Satan ever found out that a human reduced Rias Gremory, his little sister into this state...

Suffice to say, there might be no stopping him until the target is down, as one of the strongest beings of the world. If that happened, there was a possibility that Kuoh Town might be erased off the map, due to the volatile nature of his power. Some have already suffered the fate of being erased by the Power of Destruction for daring to even think about harming said sister. The end result had been rather disastrous for those people. There was nothing worse than being erased, not even being able to leave behind some ashes.

"It's not as simple as you think, Sona." Having heard his side of the story, she can only try to defend Akira a bit without making it seem like she's actually on his side.

"Then pray tell me, what is the reason?"

"I let Issei die just so that I could get him into my peerage. Aren't I a terrible person, Sona?" Rias is the one to provide an answer, giving a smile to Sona as if she hadn't said anything that could potentially get her Pillar into trouble.

See, there's always an unspoken rule when it comes to dirty things in the political landscape of Hell. Anything goes. As long as it is not outright admitted, then you can do whatever you want, so as long as it doesn't go beyond a certain point. For example, murder. As long as you didn't kill someone who had a reputation of sorts or a pureblood devil or start a massacre big enough to make people turn their heads, it was fine as long as you could cover it up and never breathe a word of it. Hell, it was even encouraged at times. Devils were meant to sin, after all and preventing themselves from doing that one thing would not end up well at all.

The moment you admitted it, however, it would be turned into a big deal. Mostly because of the reincarnated devils and the low to mid-class devils that happened to make up the majority of the devil population as many a time, those dirty deeds would often involve them as the victim and none of them would willingly to let a chance like that slip away. It was an open secret that a lot of High Class Devils tend to treat them wrongly, so having something like that might allow them to push for more benefits and such and none of the Pillars wanted that. Rias saying those words was akin to starting a scandal, something that could be used as ammo against the Gremory Pillar and the Maou himself.

Thankfully, Sona is the person she's talking to right now. Were it any other devil who bore a grudge against the Gremory, they would have instantly jumped at the chance to exploit it, especially seeing how Rias is in perhaps her most vulnerable state right now. "What? Please tell me that's not true."

"It is, I'm afraid. I have no idea what went down yesterday, but Akira confronted Rias yesterday during lunchtime. Afterward, he left but told us to not enter. I suspected something was wrong after a short while so I asked Koneko and Kiba to go back first and I checked up on Rias." The rest doesn't have to be said, as Sona is intelligent enough to finish the rest of the picture on her own.

"So that's why he requested to leave early yesterday. Are you sure about this?"

"Yes."

"This could be troublesome." Troublesome is simply understating it. Sona knows it as well.

"I wasn't expecting you to bring a companion back." He cannot help but warily eye the second cat that's next to Morgana. He's slightly unnerved by the hazel-gold eyes that are staring at him intensely as if the cat is sizing him up. A moment later, she goes back to licking her paws. Something tells him that the cat is more than it meets the eyes, that he should be wary. But still, it doesn't help that he has developed a soft spot for cats thanks to Morgana over the past year. The cat won't bring him any harm. Hopefully. "Come on, let's head back."

One idle thought lingers in his mind. How the hell did he know that the cat was a female?

When had it all gone so wrong?

The first time she met Akira Kurusu, she didn't think much of him. At best, he was probably just another human whose impression would fade within time. She'd detected him using mana. He could have potentially been a good Bishop. But she hadn't expected him to be the source of the burst of power at the church. For her parents to be so wary of him. What kind of attention did he garner to even cause her parents to be wary? Still, it should have been nothing, right?

She was wrong. She'd been... forced? No, but rather, manipulated into giving him information about the Supernatural. In all honesty, she disliked it when she had to do that. Why did she have to accommodate for a mere human? The only times she did that were when she had been summoned for a contract, and those people had been easy enough to appease, with just some money deposited into their account, favors done for them and such.

Then, in the Familiar Forest, he'd somehow managed to evade Tiamat, the Chaos Karma Dragon. That was a feat that few could claim to have done. Fine. She'll take him more seriously.

Then came the Rating Game. Issei had been trained by Akira himself, then her cute Pawn had managed to win the game for her.

So, was she really in the wrong?

She'd been scolded for doing several things wrong in the past. She'd been scolded several times when her dress appeared sloppy at a formal event. She'd been scolded when she accidentally did something naughty as a kid. But she hadn't been scolded when she treated a human like he wasn't much.

She had not seen a problem when she resurrected Issei that way. After all, he was now her Pawn and of course, she would take good care of him. He even looked happy to have become a devil! She won the Rating Game too. Everyone ended up happy. Except for Akira.

So where did she go wrong?

A/N: Alright, so that's the chapter. Took me a while to get it down, but this is what I kind of wanted to explore while rewriting A Hidden World, a "what if the consequences of setting up Issei's death surfaced in the earlier parts of canon(with a little bit of aid of course)?" This is something I never got to do test out until now.

Rias grew up sheltered, so she doesn't know how to treat people. It's not like she's a bad person, it's just she's inexperienced and she's never experienced having to deal with such things up to now. She has the mindset of a sheltered person. To put it simply, sheltered people don't get exposed to certain stuff and they build some sort of fantasy about how life is like, then when they are forced to face it and that fantasy is shattered, they either break or turn to other stuff, aka what happened to Rias here. This is essentially a trial for her that will make or break her future.

There's also Akira explaining his backstory which is more of extending an olive branch than anything because he knows that he's not going to be able to hide that forever.

Anyways, I hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter and leave a review if you guys think that there's room for improvement that you think is possible! Feel free to PM me if you want. On that note, peace out people!

322n