CHAPTER 21
"Gah!"
"Oh my! I didn't expect Hyoudou-kun to have such a weakness~!"
"Urk!"
"Akeno, this isn't the time for your teasing. Ise, are you alright?"
"Do I... gah... seem alright to you?! Blergh!"
"Right...Sorry...?!"
"Guh!"
"Ise-kun, how much did you eat all day...?!"
"Screw-gah-you, pretty boy...Bleh!"
"Thank you, Ise-kun, but I'm into girls!"
"Geh! Don't joke, you jackass...Gah!"
"Issei-senpai. You're disgusting."
"Blergh! Fuck off, glutton for a midget...Guh!"
"Hold that thought."
"Koneko, leave him alone, for a bit."
"Ufufu~! You do know that you gave her the ok to beat him up afterwards, right~?!"
"Yes. Noone insults my Peerage. And that includes my contracted magician."
"Fuck-ulp-off, all of you..."
"Pervert."
"Grah!"
Let's back up a little bit.
After Rias invited the brunet to join them for the extermination of the Stray Devil, Issei complied, albeit reluctantly.
The redhead decided to go to the Stray Devil's location via teleportation. Which could be done easily, since Issei bared her family crest on his right hand.
Once the brunet joined the rest in the teleportation circle, he felt a little dizzy, for some reason. He didn't have the time to express his problem, though, because, with a flick of her fingers, Rias activated the teleportation spell.
Then, as soon as they arrived a short distance away from the abandoned warehouse the Stray Devil resided in, Issei jumped away from them and immediately started blowing whatever he had in his stomach through his mouth.
Understandably, the Devils were caught off guard by this development.
At first, at least.
Akeno was highly amused by the display, but her eyes showed an equal amount of disgust.
Kiba was the same, but he was fascinated as well. He had never seen anyone vomit so much. Also, he found the perfect opportunity to tease his friend and actually feeling he would get away with it.
Koneko was just disgusted, her eyes expressing the sentiment in waves.
Rias was the only one that showed worry for the brunet. However, when he insulted Koneko, she pouted childishly, her rosy cheeks puffed and her arms were crossed above her chest.
On a side note, it was a one-time opportunity to see the Red Dragon Emperor on his hands and knees, which the Devils might have enjoyed a little too much, if their teasing was any indication. That said, it was equally disgusting that he threw up all the food he had eaten all day, which was surprisingly enough for two people.
Idly, the Devils wondered where all that food went, considering the brunet's more than attractive physique.
"Haah..." Issei sighed in relief that his torture finally ended. He stood up slowly, still feeling a little dizzy, but otherwise fine. Then, he turned to face the clearly amused Devils. Although Koneko was just disgusted and Rias was still pouting like a child, the redhead's eyes showed some amusement at his predicament.
The brunet glared dangerously at each one of them. "Not. A. Word. To anyone. Never." he stressed the words with a warning growl.
Without him knowing, Issei emitted a dark red, malicious aura, which clearly showed his intentions as to what he would do to them if they ever spoke about what happened a few moments ago. That, along with his now reptilian eyes, glaring at them with obvious anger, made the Devils remember that they were talking to an agitated Sekiryuutei.
Thus, they nodded their heads, their expressions being awkwardly serious, hiding the cold sweat running on the back of their necks.
"Good." Issei breathed deeply to calm his nerves and immediately regretted it. "Fuck..." he cursed as a particular scent entered his nostrils, making him glare at the abandoned warehouse.
Noticing his change of focus, Rias spoke. "What is it, Ise?" she asked in slight concern.
"I smelt something disgusting that came from the warehouse. And, now that I think about it, it's a wonder that I hadn't smelt it all this time that this Stray Devil resides in there." the brunet replied seriously, without looking at Rias, with his eyes narrowing even more in suspicion.
"It's probably because the Stray Devil has erected a barrier that prevents outsiders to know what's happening there. Now, however, we're inside of it." Kiba said contemplatively, his posture screaming of his high alert at his friend's words.
"What did you smell." Koneko demanded as she stared intensely at him.
Issei grimaced as he took small sniffs to decifer what he was smelling. Once he did, he turned around and faced them with a horrified realisation. "Humans and...blood...lots of blood...I-I can't even smell the Stray Devil because of how overwhelming the scent of blood is..." he explained.
To his intensified horror, the Devils before him just narrowed their eyes in concentration. "You knew something like this was happening?!" he exclaimed in an accusing tone.
"Yes." Rias responded immediately, much to his still rising horror. "At the very least, we expected as much. You just confirmed our suspicions, Ise. Good work."
Issei ignored her praise and the matching smile she sent his way. Once her words sank in his head, all the horror turned to blinding rage. Once more, his dark green eyes turned reptilian as he stood in front of Rias, glaring at her now narrowed eyes at his changed demeanor.
None of them said a word, until Kiba came to Issei's side and placed a hand on his shoulder to gain his attention. The blond ignored the chill that ran down his spine when his friend's attention was on him as he spoke with seriousness. "Ise-kun, I understand your anger, but you need to understand as well. Stray Devils feast upon humans to gain more power. It's not our fault. It's their nature and it's our obligation to stop them from continuouing their hideous acts. That's what we do, no matter if it's in the Underworld or the human world."
Issei scowled harshly at the explanation. Though, he did acknowledge his friend's words being genuinely true. "Fine." he huffed as he turned around and started walking towards the warehouse in his usual way.
The Devils noticed that, even though the brunet made no sound with his footsteps, he felt...heavy, for lack of an accurate word.
They wasted no more time as they quickly caught up with him. He even allowed them to take the lead, since they would be the ones to deal with the Stray Devil and he would just watch.
The brunet's mood got even worse from then on. The scent of blood and rotting corpses got heavier the closer the group got. Once they went inside the warehouse, Issei was glad that he had nothing else to blow out from his stomach, even if the afforementioned body part churned due to his own disgust. Yet, his scowl never left his face.
Issei stood at the doorway as the Devils took some cautious steps inside and inspected the immediate area for any sign of the Stray Devil. Despite the heavy scent in the air, he could tell that the Stray Devil was straight ahead of them, hidden in the dark. It was easier to catch its scent from this close proximity.
From then on, the Sekiryuutei tuned out every sound. Well, as much as he could, anyway.
In his opinion, Rias' attempt to have a civil conversation with the Stray Devil, or Viser as the redhead called it, was completely unnecessary.
Speaking of Viser, it was an abomination that disgusted him even more. The upper half was of a slim, blonde woman with an ugly mouth full of sharp fangs, who also wore nothing on her, leaving her huge breasts bare for the world to see. The lower half was that of a huge spider, with the belly being a gigantic, drooling mouth, that also smelt like a vagina.
Trully, it was the most disgusting being the brunet had ever seen, including mutated beasts in horror movies.
Then, the battle began.
Issei wasn't surprised by the display of Kiba's speed. After all, the blond appeared to be a Knight, as far as he remembered how the Evil Pieces went. He was, however, interested that the blond appeared to be the wielder of Sword Birth; a Sacred Gear able to manifest all kinds of demonic swords. At least, that was Rias' explanation as far as Kiba's abilities were concerned.
Koneko was a one trick pony, for a Rook. From his position, Issei could see that the whitenette barely put on any effort to throw Viser around like a ragdoll, making it an easy target for Kiba to dissect with his sword.
The brunet mentally agreed with Rias' statement that Kiba and Koneko were an effective duo as they fought against Viser. However, for the sake of his sanity, he ignored the fact that the abomination before them was able to squirt acidic fluids from her breasts. It was painful for his eyes alone. So, he focused on the effective duo's way of fighting Viser, as they used their dodges to further assault the abomination.
Next was Akeno, who, according to Rias, was the Queen of the Peerage and was known as the Priestess of Thunder. Additionally, the redhead called her the ultimate sadist as well. Something that he somewhat agreed on, judging from how turned on the brunette seemed to be from Viser's painful screams, that turned to pitiful whimpers once Rias stopped her from electrocuting the Stray Devil.
Issei was thankful for that. Viser's scent, after Akeno's assault, was almost enough to make him vomit again. Also, he thought of himself as an even bigger sadist than the brunette, which was something that had to be tested.
There was no way, however, to test himself as the bottom. He wasn't a masochist. Period.
Then, Rias stepped forward. Her entire demeanor screamed equal amounts of pride for her Peerage, elegance and arrogance. Her "Any last words?" was followed by a black and red aura surrounding her body as she looked down on the pitifully whimpering Viser, which, the brunet noticed, destroyed anything around her.
Even her servants kept themselves at a safe distance.
Absently, he heard Akeno explaining that the power he was whitnessing was Rias' Power of Destruction and the redhead was known as the Crimson Ruin Princess in the Underworld.
As he watched Rias making a small pile of ashes out of Viser, Issei finally came to terms with the fact that, yes, there were beings that were beyond salvation; Devils or otherwise.
He hoped that he wouldn't meet any humans with the same traits in the future. Even as something in his gut told him that he just jinxed himself.
"So, what do you think, Ise?"
Rias' curious question brought him out of his thoughts and observations. The brunet decided to be honest with the redhead as he noticed that all of them looked at him in anticipation. It seemed that his opinion mattered. A strange sensation, but not unwelcome. "Honestly, despite Viser being weak compared to you, you guys were pretty good. Between Koneko-san's and Kiba's teamwork, Akeno-san's thunder and your Power of Destruction, Viser didn't stand a chance."
His analysis caused Rias to beam with pride as she gazed at all of her servants, who looked at her as well, minus the whitenette. Akeno had a faint dust of pink on her cheeks as she tittered behind her delicate hand. Koneko averted her gaze from everyone, making Rias believe that she was shy when praised by others than herself. Kiba just hummed in appreciation, his perpetual kind smile appearing to be a little more genuine at the brunet's words for them.
Rias turned to Issei, having the intention to thank him. However, her eyes widened in disbelief when she couldn't spot him. "Eh?!" she voiced her surprise eloquently, getting the attention of the others as well.
Akeno, Koneko and Kiba blinked twice, sharing their King's disbelief at not seeing the brunet anywhere near them. Koneko couldn't even sense him, which shocked her even more that he had disappeared from her 'radar' in such a small amount of time, when noone's eyes were on him for a couple of seconds to boot.
Even worse, there was the fact that he made no sound whatsoever.
The Devils suppressed several chills down their spines at the realisation that Issei was, indeed, a trully dangerous individual to come across as an enemy.
Internally, Rias' servants thanked their King for making him an ally of theirs.
After all, he seemed to be dangerous enough for their King's personal problem to solve it on his own.
Without them knowing, Rias was of the same mind on the matter.
Those were their last thoughts as they wordlessly teleported back to the ORC.
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Issei groggily opened his eyes, waking up for another day of school, albeit the last one for this week.
He would have prefered to forget last night's events, but, unfortunately for him, selective memory wasn't and would never be one of his abilities.
The fact that both Ddraig and Zangetsu lectured him about individuals similar to, or worse than Viser, before beating the crap out of each other in a very deadly spar, didn't help his sour mood at all.
His only consolation was that he would meet sweet, cute and innocent Asia this day or tomorrow.
The brunet would have prefered to see her every day, but he didn't want to rise more suspicion on Raynare and Asia. So, just meeting the italian nun once would be enough, for the time being.
If only to see for himself that she was safe and unharmed.
Speaking of, he wondered how Raynare was faring. The Fallen Angel hadn't communicated with them through Rias the last couple of days and Issei didn't know how to feel about this silence.
He sighed tiredly as he sat up on his bed. He made the minimum movements possible to stretch his body, while sitting on the bed, the satisfying pops and cracks being music to his ears.
Checking at his clock, he saw that he was up half an hour earlier than usual. And, since he had resigned from being the Kendo club's Shishou, he had plenty of time to prepare for school.
Not to mention that he could eat breakfast with his parents.
Which, now that he thought about it, might not be such a good idea.
After all, Issei knew he would have to lie to them, partially at least.
And Issei hated lying in any form.
First of all, he knew that both his parents would fuss over his date, with his mother demanding to meet her and his father wanting nothing more than to embarrass him in front of said girlfriend. To which he would have to convince them that there was no girlfriend.
Then, it would be the situation with the Kendo club. The excuse he thought about using at his quitting from the club's Shishou was that he would help the ORC with their supposed research on the occult as an outside source and he would be payed by them. Questionable at best, but believable all the same.
All that to assure his parents from his extended absence from the house.
That said, Issei didn't want to lie to his parents. At least, not yet.
So, he took another decision.
He made his own breakfast, as was the norm for the past year, before preparing his lunch as well, leaving him half an hour before his parents woke up.
As usual, the brunet made no noise as he prepared himself for school.
Then, he left earlier than normal, wanting to go to the Kendo club to practise all his skills in swordsmanship and, if he was lucky, some of his hand-to-hand combat skills, before he had a shower and classes started for the day.
He was half-way to Kuoh Academy when he realised that his day would suck even worse.
Because, he felt more than saw that he had entered a barrier that was similar to the one Viser used around the warehouse, albeit stronger and even less noticeable.
Even worse, there was only one scent in the air and Issei recognised it immediately.
"Well well well, what do we have here?! What is a human doing out so early in the morning, when it's still night outside?! Don't you know it's dangerous, boy?!"
The brunet turned his head slightly to the left, where some trees blocked a clear view towards a park. That was where the mocking voice came from.
The person in question appeared from behind one of those trees and revealed themselves to be a middle-aged man in a grey suit, with a matching fedora on his head. His eyes were narrowed in a mixture of amusement, arrogance and pure malice as he looked at Issei.
Also, the man carried the same dinstictive scent as Raynare, which only helped the brunet to come to the conclusion that Dohnaseek had found him.
This was bad.
"Fucking hell..."
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