CHAPTER 23
Issei grimaced as soon as he stepped inside the barrier.
The scent of blood was very fresh and equally overwhelming.
Much to his curiousity and worry, though, it was mixed with rosemary. Meaning that there was a high possibility of a priest to be present and, after another sniff, Asia as well.
The latter's presence only made him more worried.
Especially when he noticed that the client's door was slightly ajar.
Unfortunately, the door made a creaking sound when he opened it enough to enter, making him aware that he lost the element of surprise. Yet, when he stepped into the house, he made no sound, as usual.
Also, he noticed that the house's lights were all off. It didn't matter to him, however. After all, with his more than extraordinary eye-sight, he could see perfectly in the dark.
At the floor, he saw a trail of blood, which he dreadfully followed.
The trail led him at the living room, where he stopped and his eyes widened in horror at the sight before him.
A middle-aged man was crossified upside-down, with his own expression of utter horror, mixed with absolute pain. It seemed he had died very recently, but in the most excuciating way possible. The man's belly was cut open and his interstines were spilling out in a very disgusting display. Above the man, there was a written message, seemingly with the victim's blood, which read 'NO REST FOR THE WICKED' in a very messy fashion.
Issei barely managed to force the bile in his throat back to his stomach at what his eyes were seeing. His breathing became a little ragged and his heartbeat rose at dangerous levels. For a normal human, at least.
"Oh~?! You're not a shitty Devil~?! I was expecting a shitty Devil~, not a human brat like you?!"
Issei regained his senses at the sound of a youthful, yet crazy voice coming from his right. Once he turned his utterly furious gaze towards the speaker, he saw why it sounded as such.
On the couch at the end of the room, was sitting a young man, seemingly at his late teens or early twenties, with shoulder-length white hair in a priest's outfit. Yet, the brunet could tell that this priest had a slim, albeit athletic build underneath the clothes. Also, the priest's expression was the embodiment of lunacy, with white-silver eyes, a deranged grin and his tongue hanging limbly at the left corner of his mouth. Lastly, he held what seemed like a pistol in his left hand, while on his right one there was something like a flashlight.
"You're the one who did this." Issei growled angrily as his now narrowed eyes turned to reptilian slits, glaring down dangerously at the seated priest.
The priest's grin somehow widened at that, with the brunet noticing with inner disgust that there was pride in it.
"Yes~! Yeeeesss~! I was the one who did this~! You like it~?! You don't~?! I don't care~! I don't caaaaare~! After all~, I cut down a Devil-scum believer~! Oooooh~! The name's Freed Sellzen~ by the way~!" the now identified Freed Sellzen ranted in a crazy manner, before his expression showed a little curiousity. "What's your name~?! Are you a Devil believer as well~?! If you are, I have to kill you, you know~! Yeeees~! I'll have to kill~ you~!"
"My name is Hyoudou Issei." the brunet introduced himself, growling like a beast ready to pounce on its prey. "And you're killing noone else tonight, you bastard." he added in the same tone as he took a seemingly relaxed stance.
Freed's expression turned gleeful as he spoke. "Oooooh~! So, you're the brat that useless bitch for a Fallen Angel was supposed to kill~, eh~?! And you're another Devil believer~, eh~?! That's not good~! That's not good at all~, you know~! I'll kill you now~! Bye bye~!" he sang excitedly and, at the end of his ranting, he raised his left hand and pulled the trigger thrice, aiming at the brunet's head.
To Issei's curiousity, the bullets he avoided by simply moving his head left and right were a pure white substance.
Freed stared in utter disbelief that the human before him dodged his bullets without any effort to speak of. "Hey hey hey~! That's not possible, you know~! A human dodging holy bullets isn't possible~, you know~!" he ranted, again.
The brunet had enough of the priest's craziness.
Freed didn't blink.
Yet, when Issei moved, he was inside Freed's guard, with his right fist already cocked back and a shiny black substance covering it.
Freed froze in shock at that development, his eyes wide in pure disbelief and just barely managed to voice a surprised sound. "Eh?!"
Then, the brunet's fist came straight at Freed's nose, with enough power to instantly knock him out cold and make him crash onto the wall behind him.
Issei ignored the disgusting crunch Freed's nose made as it broke and his anger didn't lessen in the slightest, even as he watched the priest falling limbly to the floor, staining it with his own blood that came out from his nose. "Fucking bastard." the brunet gritted his teeth in anger.
He hoped that he had caused, at the very least, a concussion with that punch.
His ears twitched as he heard hurried footsteps coming his way and he suddenly remembered that Freed wasn't, in fact, alone.
He turned his head to face the entrance to the living room, just in time to confirm his earlier assumption.
Asia was the one that rashed into the room.
'Fuckin' hell...'
And, because of the position of the entrance, the italian nun had a first row view of Freed's victim.
"Father Freed! I heard some gunshots! Is everythin-NOOOOOOOOOOOOO~!" Asia's frantic concern turned into pure, unadulterated horror when her eyes landed on the upside-down crossified man, if her terrified, high-pitch screech was any indication. Tears ran down from her eyes at the sight before her.
For some reason, Issei calmed down considerably at Asia's mere presence. "Asia-chan?" he called out softly.
Asia's head snapped at the direction of his voice and her eyes widened in disbelief at his presence. "Ise-san?! What is Ise-san doing here?! Where is Father Freed?!" her worry equalled her shock over the situation as she fired the questions in a rapid succession.
Issei moved calmly and knelt in front of Asia, keeping the respectable distance of an arm's length as he placed his hands on her shoulders, in order to make her focus on him. "Calm down, Asia-chan." he said in a soothing voice. "Sellzen-san" he grimaced slightly at the mere mention of the priest's name. "was the one who killed this man. I knocked him out and he's behind the couch." he explained with the same soothness, nodding his head at the direction of said couch.
Asia seemed to calm down enough that she wasn't about to have a heart-attack as her green, sad, confused and worried eyes stared at Issei's dark green, calm and soothing ones. "Why did Father Freed kill this man?" she asked in a sad manner.
"Because, apparently, this man was about to have a contract with a Devil." the brunet explained briefly.
"Then, Ise-san is a Devil?!" the nun asked in a mixture of confusion, worry and fear.
"No, Asia-chan." despite the situation, Issei smiled. He would have to talk with his tenants later. Her presence affected him too much, albeit in a good way. Unnaturally so. "I'm just a contracted magician to one of the Devils in this town." he explained, retracting his right hand and showed its back to Asia.
The nun's eyes widened in surprise, wonder and amazement, before she returned her gaze at the brunet. "Ise-san is a magician?! That's amazing!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah." Issei agreed with a nod of his head, his smile widening. "I'll show you some other time, Asia-chan." he promised softly.
Asia's eyes lit up with hope at the declaration, but, then, she suddenly remembered something and her expression fell.
Noticing the change in her demeanor, Issei's gut churned. "What is it, Asia-chan?" he asked softly, his expression showing concern.
Asia flinched at the question, but answered anyway, her voice equally soft and sad. "It's about Raynare-sama..."
"What about her, Asia-chan?" he asked in genuine concern. "You can tell me." he probbed.
"Raynare-sama... she's not the leader anymore, Ise-san..." she muttered sadly as her eyes focused on the ground to hide her tears, indirectly confirming one of the brunet's fears on the entire mess. "Everyone at the church has to obey Dohnaseek-sama's orders and... and Raynare-sama is held chained in a cell... where Kalawarner-sama and Mittlet-sama beat her up continuously... and, then, they make me heal her to start all over again..." she explained in-between her hic-ups as she couldn't control herself and cried, launching herself to the brunet's chest to do so.
Issei wasn't surprised by the revelation, but by no means was he less angry as he hugged the nun in a comforting fashion, rubbing soothing circles on her back. "Is there anything else you can tell me, Asia-chan?" he asked as calmly as he could.
Her crying increased two-fold at his question, but she answered nonetheless. "To-Tomorrow will b-be my last day of fre-freedom, Ise-san... At the end o-of the day, Dohnaseek-sama will per-perform a ritual to-to extract my gift from Go-God..."
[If they extract her Sacred Gear, she'll die, partner. Very painfully, at that.] Ddraig explained to him mentally, having heard the entire conversation through his wielder.
Despite his inner fury reaching a boiling point, Issei held back his emotions and remained as calm as possible. He didn't want to disturb Asia. Speaking of whom. "We'll have a talk later, Ddraig." Issei all but demanded from the Dragon.
His only response to that was the mental equivalment of an affirming grunt, before the link between them was cut off from the brunet himself.
"Listen, Asia-chan." Issei spoke soothingly, not breaking the embrace. "Tomorrow, we'll spend as much time as we can together. Just meet me at the park we first saw each other." he promised.
Instead, Asia was the one to separate from the embrace and her teary eyes looked at him full of hope. "You mean it, Ise-san?!"
Issei smiled down at her. "Of course, Asia-chan." he nodded in affirmation. He refrained from telling her that he would save her and Raynare.
After all, there was a chance that he could be a little too late, in case he would have to convince Rias the hard way. Assuming, of course, that the Devils in his school didn't have the ok to raid the church.
Also, he would make sure that Raynare would be spared from the inevitable bloodshed.
His musings were cut off as his ears twitched at the sound of two pairs of flapping wings in the distance.
Probably the clean-up crew. And, since Raynare was out of the equasion and Dohnassek was the leader, that left the last two; Kalawarner and Mittlet.
"Asia-chan, I need to go." at her saddened expression, he elaborated. "Fallen Angels are coming here, probably to take care of everything here."
Asia was visibly saddened that she would be separated from him, but nodded in understanding.
"See you tomorrow, Asia-chan." Issei bid his farewell as he stood up and left in his usual way, leaving the saddened nun behind.
Said nun went and healed Freed's injury, just before the two Fallen Angels landed outside of the house.
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By the time the two Fallen Angels went to the dead man's house, Issei entered the old school building, heading towards the ORC.
Without knocking, the brunet opened the door, to find all the Devils inside, who were surprised by his early return.
"Ise?!" Rias exclaimed in surprise, before noticing his serious demeanor. "Why are you back so quickly?! What happened with the contract?!" she fired off her questions in rapid succession as she stood up from her chair behind her desk.
Issei didn't answer as he went straight at the redhead's desk, without breaking eye-contact with her. Something that unnerved the Devils. Especially when he placed his hands on Rias' desk to give him laverage to lean a little forward, which put him within Rias' guard.
"A priest by the name of Freed Sellzen was there before me and killed my contract and Asia-chan was the one to erect a barrier around the house." the brunet revealed in a serious voice. Ignoring Rias' shocked expression and the other's hitching breaths, he continued his explanation. "I knocked out the priest easily, but I'm pretty sure Asia-chan healed him after I left. Asia-chan had no idea Sellzen-san was going to kill my contract, by the way. Also, she told me that Raynare isn't their leader anymore. In fact, Raynare is a prisoner of theirs, getting beaten up from her own peers. Lastly, Asia-chan pretty much told me that tomorrow night is when Dohnaseek and the others will make their final move."
He avoided telling them Dohnaseek's entire plan, in case Rias wanted to take advantage of Asia's death. That way, once they raided the church, Rias would be hellbent to kill everyone there, hopefully not including Raynare, before reicarnating Asia into a Devil due to the latter's admittedly invaluable Sacred Gear.
Unsurprisingly, the Devils were shocked at all these revelations, with Rias being the most out of the four.
The redhead shook her head to regain her barings, before levelling Issei with a serious expression of her own. "Ise, even if all what you just said is true,-"
"It is..." the brunet interrupted her through his gritted teeth, hissing as he spoke.
"-we" Rias continued like his interruption never happened in the first place. "don't have permission from the Archduke to raid the church. As of yet, the Grigori haven't sent a word as to what status the group from the church has to them." she explained seriously, yet patiently.
Issei stayed there for a moment, staring at her eyes for any sign of deceit. Finding none, he took his hands from the redhead's desk and he didn't say anything until he reached the door on his way out.
In the meantime, the Devils were watching him in a mixture of worry, suspence and a little bit of dread. Especially because his head was leaned a little forward, hiding his expression from them.
Which was something that the Devils had as a tell-tale that Issei was upset.
Once the brunet grabbed the doorknob, he spoke, his voice dead even and equally serious. "Rias-san, everyone, I don't care about if your status in the Underworld will be affected. Just know that I will go and save Raynare and Asia-chan tomorrow night, with or without your help."
With that, he opened the door and exited the room, closing the door behind him, while also leaving behind a group of speechless Devils staring at the door in pure disbelief.
A couple of moments later, Rias regained her composure and sighed in frustration, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she sat back on her chair, momentarily ignoring the worried looks she got from her servants.
At the same time, as he walked towards his home, Issei revealed his facial expression to noone, showing pure, unadulterated determination to follow through with his promise.
Inside him, Ddraig and Zangetsu smirked in anticipation for the following night.
Finally, their wielder would use some of his skills in action.
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Author's notes.
I was late, again. Though, I have an excuse in the form of having gone back to work full-time.
This mega update is FIVE chapters. Expect the next update somewhere around 6th of August, if I'm not busy... otherwise, I don't know when I'll be able to update next.
A reminder for all of you. I have up until chapter 37 in my laptop and I haven't had the time to write. I'll try to write a chapter tomorrow, though.
Anyhow, I hope all of you are well, healthy and as content as you can be!
Thank you for your support in the form of reviews, favourites and follows!
Until next time!