CHAPTER 17
The rest of the week passed by relatively quickly for Issei.
After school, he made it a habit to go to the ORC (short for Occult Research Club) with his friend, Kiba Yuuto, being the one escorting him there.
During his brief stays there, Rias told him the story of Devils and about their Civil War, which led to the creation of the Evil Pieces system by one of the current Four Great Maou, Ajuka Beezelbub. Not to mention that the Devils were divided to the Old Maou Faction and the current Four Great Maou. She also explained to him, in detail, the Rating Games' system.
Oh. He had also exchanged numbers with the Devil girls as well, should he need anything and he was in the middle of a crowd, or them for that matter. After all, due to his contract with Rias, he could produce a small, red magic circle to communicate directly with her. And, lastly, due to his connection with a Devil, Rias in this particular case, he would be able to speak every known language without a problem as if he had gained the Tongue trait the Devils, as well as all the Supernatural species, had from their birth.
Apart from that, he wasn't needed to go to a contract, which he didn't care much about, for the time being. That said, he needed to talk to Sona, at some point, for his job as the Kendo club's Shishou. He couldn't stand the poorly concealed fear of the girls in the club. He could handle it in class because there he was distracted from the teachings and lectures. So, he wanted to stop his 'job'.
On a side note, only the Perverted Duo seemed to have recovered from their fear of him, albeit somewhat, as they continuously wished for his death, because, in their words, he still stole the attention from all the girls, even if said girls were apprehensive towards him.
Nothing else noteworthy happened during the week. At school, that is.
On Friday, Issei announced at his parents that he would have a date on Sunday.
Correction. His first date.
Yeah. Not his brightest idea, but he didn't have much of a choice since he needed to be out of the house all day, even at dinner, without making his mother worry to death.
Predictably, his father was over the moon, congratulating him over and over again, while crying what Gorou thought as manly tears, when, instead, they were anime waterfalls. That, and the Hyoudou patriarch gave his own advice to his son in a comically animated manner.
Akane, however, demanded that she would get to know her future daughter in-law as soon as possible to get a gauge on how many grandbabies said daughter in-law would be able to give birth to for herself to spoil. And she wouldn't take no for an answer.
While comically eccentric, Issei couldn't have expected another kind of reaction from his parents. That said, he loved them unconditionally.
On a totally different note, his tenants had decided to go even harder on him in their spars. They never gave him an answer as to why they did so, which only added to his continuously rising frustration.
He still needed to vent; the exhibition match against Kiba didn't count.
Issei needed to find a walking, talking punching bag, that could take a serious beating and get up without a scratch for him to release all the accumulated frustration on.
Call it a gut feeling, but, somewhere in the back of his mind, the brunet knew he would acquire said punching bag in the near future.
Anyway.
Issei woke up early on Sunday, in order to get ready for his date with his Fallen Angel stalker, Amano Yuuma, or Raynare as it was her real name.
Thankfully, Gorou had given him plenty of advice already, which only added to his orginal plan to keep the date simple.
On a side note, despite the brunet's refusal, he was given the hefty amount of 20.000 yen from his father to spend on the date.
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In all honesty, Issei didn't expect the date to have gone so well.
He knew that, should he had been uninformed about his date's real identity and her possible motives regarding him, he would have fallen in love with her. Which, in the end, would have completely broken his heart, should the outcome be the worst case scenario.
The brunet had a good time with Raynare in the role of Amano Yuuma. Both were dressed casually, albeit the Fallen in disguise allowed herself to be a little sexy as well. As for Issei, he couldn't find it in himself to not wear his scarf, so he matched his clothing according to the, mostly, white accessory.
They went for an early lunch to a fast food restaurant, which was followed by a romantic movie to the cinema across the afforementioned facility. After that, they went shopping, where Issei, in a moment of momentary epiphany, bought a purple bracelet, which he put on her right wrist himself.
Her reaction to that small gesture seemed genuine to his eyes. He could tell from how soft her "Thank you." was that she meant it from her heart.
Anyway.
Then, the two went to the Arcade, where they played some games. Both sucked at this, by the way, even if they had quickly understood how the games worked.
Personally, the brunet had fun. Seemingly, Yuuma shared the sentiment.
It was right after they had dinner that Issei got suspicious.
He suggested to escort her home after the afforementioned meal, but she declined his generous offer, albeit in a gentle way.
Instead, she told him to go to the closest park to end their date.
Issei was smart. So, he was very quick to catch onto her motive for going there. Thankfully, he had managed to hide the Gremory emblem on his right hand all day long. A pair of plain black, sleeveless gloves had done the job magnificently as to avoid suspicion from the Fallen Angel.
He didn't show it, but he didn't like that the worst case scenario was about to happen. The fact that he was, mentally, prepared for it, didn't mean it hurt him any less.
Well, it did, but didn't completely erase the pain in his heart.
The brunet suppressed a sigh of resignation at what was about to happen when Yuuma-chan, as he called her throughout the date, giddily, stood up from their bench and skipped towards the fountain, asking him to do something to commemorate their date.
Not because of the action itself, but due to him noticing the sky changing colour to a royal purple color and the moon glowing an ominous dark red color as she stood before the fountain, facing him with a sweet smile on her face.
Unfortunately, Amano Yuuma, or Raynare, had erected a barrier that separated the entire park, including themselves, from the rest of the world.
On a side note, barriers in general were another one of Rias' lessons about the Supernatural world that the brunet was thankful about. Which was how he knew about what was happening to his surroundings in the first place.
Iddly, he noted that his senses of smell and hearing worked the same as always, with the only difference being he could smell and hear everything inside the barrier and not ouside of it. Something which also meant that he couldn't command his sword to come to him.
It was an interesting observation, which would be tested more at a later time.
Issei forced himself to stop thinking, in order to answer her question. Also, to his credit, he did it with a sweet smile of his own. "What is it, Yuuma-chan?"
Despite the suggestive look she had in her eyes, Yuuma's sweet smile turned into a viciously malicious smirk as she spoke in the sweetest tone she had spoken with the entire day.
"Will you die for me?"
It was because Issei noticed all these contradictions that he was visibly very surprised, almost to the point of being shocked. He was increadibly smart, but he wasn't an actor.
Apparently, the Fallen in disguise before him was as viciously cunning as he was smart, because she hadn't given any signs of her acting throughout the day.
Or, more accurately, Issei wasn't able to pick up that she had been acting all day. In the end, he regretably realised that the only true sentiment that she had expressed was when he had given her the bracelet.
Unaware and uncaring of the brunet's thoughts, Yuuma transformed in her Fallen Angel form, becoming Raynare. She seemed to bask in his shocked state as she laughed in a mockingly sweet tone and went on a monologue concerning their date, as she took a seat on top of the fountain, with the glowing moon giving her an eerie glow as well.
Issei didn't hear any of it. He didn't hear her degrading comment of their date being like playing house with him, or her introducing herself in her real name. He didn't hear anything.
She was about to say something else, when Issei regained his composure and, after he lightly shook his head, he spoke in a soft, even tone that managed to silence her. Although, his facial expression was hidden by his front bangs and his eyes were closed underneath the veil of his front hair.
"Was it a lie, Raynare?"
The Fallen Angel narrowed her eyes in suspicion at his odd behaviour. "What do you mean, Ise-kun?"
Raynare was bewildered when he raised his left hand and, without even looking at her, she followed the direction of his pointer finger indicating straight at her purple bracelet.
She felt her heart stop for a moment, before her eyes narrowed dangerously at him. "What about the bracelet." she demanded, her voice turning to steel, hiding her true emotions.
"Were your words and sentiments, at that moment, lies as well?" the brunet softly asked, before he stood up from the bench as well. He let his arms fall limbly at his sides, still hiding his expression from her.
Raynare gritted her teeth in frustration. Of course, they weren't. Actually, it was the first time that one of her 'seduce and kill' targets gave her a gift. Noone, her organization included, had given her even the smallest of tokens. Yet, this boy did, with a smile on his face to boot.
Speaking of whom, her superior had explicitely told her to monitor the boy before her and report back to him, before she was dismissed to start the mission. However, somewhere along the way, without her knowledge as to how or why, her orders changed. Apparently, she was to kill the boy and... the rest didn't matter right now.
Right now, she had to kill the boy.
All of these thoughts took only a second for Raynare to process.
That said, her pride as a supposedly superior being held her back from being honest to her soon-to-be dead boyfriend.
Or was it ex-boyfriend?
Anyhow, she kept her silence. After all, whatever conclusion he would come to, it wouldn't matter when he would have a hole in his heart via her light spear.
Speaking of which, she conjured one in her right hand and got ready to throw it, but not before telling him the reason she was going to kill him. He deserved this much. "Goodbye, Ise-kun. Blame God for placing a Sacred Gear in you." she announced in a sweetly cruel tone, before she threw it straight at his heart.
She watched as her pinkish light spear travelled at high speed towards her target's heart.
The Fallen Angel was left utterly gobsmacked when the brunet avoided her deadly weapon by leaning to his right, without even looking. "What?! How is that possible?! No normal human should be able to do that?!" she thought in disbelief, before horrifying realisation struck her mind. "Unless... Unless he has already awakened his Sacred Gear and he's powerfull enough to deal with low-ranking Supernatural species, like myself..."
"Since you want to kill me," Issei's calm and soft voice drew her attention, making her shiver in trepidation. "I have to capture and deliver you to Gremory Rias-san. After all, as her contracted magician, I'm obligated to do so."
His words managed to make her heart to stop for a couple of seconds. Yet, her mind ran ten miles a minute. "Say what now?! He's a magician on top of having an awakened Sacred Gear and he's contracted to the Gremory bitch?! Fuck! I'm not just screwed! I'm fucking dead meat! I need to get out of here, asap! The others must know about this as well."
Her rampant thoughts contradicted with her body, as it refused to listen to her mind.
Especially when the brunet started taking soundless steps towards her position.
Something that triggered another train of dreadful thoughts. "Come to think of it, apart from the times he had to make any noise, he was otherwise soundless, as impossible as it sounds. And he was pretty warm too. Way warmer than any normal human should be, especially in this time of year. Maybe it's his Sacred Gear? Or a weird combination of his magic and his Sacred Gear?"
In the time she had to process her thoughts, Issei had reached the base of the fountain, directly beneath her, still not even looking at her.
Raynare, for her part, just looked at him in sheer disbelief.
A sentiment that grew to impossible levels when the brunet teen's left arm stretched all the way above her head, which she followed with her eyes, staring at the clenched fist in a mixture of horrified fascination and bewilderment.
Wait. What's that black, shiny essence covering his fist?
"Gum Gum Pistol." Issei's soft announcement echoed throughout the eerily silent park.
Then, with a resounding snap, it retracted back to its normal length, but not before stricking the Fallen Angel's temple with enough strength to knock her out cold.
Even if she could have known it would happen, Raynare couldn't have reacted in time due to the shock she was experiencing.
Issei projected both his arms for the female Fallen to stop on them, not in the fountain's water.
As he felt her entire weight on his arms, he adjusted her position in a bridal carry.
Fortunately, her large wings had retracted in her body during her free fall, which made his job way easier.
Thanks to his ears and nose, he could tell that the barrier had fallen as soon as he knocked her out.
The brunet was just standing at the base of the fountain, holding the unconscious Raynare, with his expression hidden under his front hair.
He didn't know why, but he felt like crying.
The only thing holding him back from doing so, was the fact that Raynare hadn't answered to his question.
He hoped that her answer would have been a negative one, since her non-reply left him conflicted. Or, at the very least, hopeful as to get an answer out of her when she would wake up.
And, hopefully, he would be able to persuade Rias to leave Raynare alive, after the former's interrogation.
In all honesty, Issei would have preferred to do the interrogation on his own and let the Fallen Angel go afterwards, but that would be a problem to his alliance with the Devils.
With those thoughts replaying over and over again, Issei turned around, very slowly, before he started walking towards Kuoh Academy's direction, trying in vain to calm his rampant mind.
As he walked, as usual, he made no sound whatsoever.
Thus, he wasn't seen by any pairs of eyes as he was lost in the darkness of the night.
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