"Conversation"
'Thoughts'
[Ddraig]
(Albion)
"AAAAHHHH! IT HURTS! IT HURTS!" A young boy with scruffy brown hair sat up in his bed shrieking, his parents sat next to him and tried their best to comfort their agonizing son but their wet towels and comforting presence could only do so much. " AAAAAHHHHHAAAAAHHHH!" Tears began to well up in the young man's eyes as the pain only seemed to intensify.
"You're gonna be alright Issei, just bear with it a little longer!..." Issei's mother pleaded as she hugged her son's aching head but her attempts at comfort seemed to be for not as the violent shaking and wailing only continued. "Have you called the ambulance?! What's taking so long!" Issei's mom roared at her husband.
"Of course I called them but they have to drive here! They won't just magically ..." Issei's dad tried to argue back but something made him stop mid sentence. "What's happening to his arm?..." Issei's father pointed out as the skin on his son's left arm seemed to melt away and was replaced by some sort of blood red armored plating made out of a material that seemed to be organic in the way it conformed around the boy's arm, hand and fingers but was very metallic in appearance and texture forming a strange sort of gauntlet.
Soon the boy's fingers had been transformed into dark red metallic claws and a pair of green orb-like gems had formed on the boys new scarlet arm, one near the top of the forearm and the other on top of his hand. "AAAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAHAAHHHA!" Issei shrieked as he extended his arm and gauntlet up and away from him as if it was the source of the agonizing pain. Suddenly gems began to light up with a bright green light and a booming, disembodied voice began to cry out. [BOOST! BOO-BOOST! BOO-BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!]
"Wh-What?!" Issei cried out as a strange pressure began to build and surge around his arm, the strange force was enough to knock his parents back. "WHAT'S GOING ON!?" Issei cried out before it all came to a head. [EXPLOSION!] A green orb of light formed around Issei's crimson palm before expanding outwards into a blast of bright red energy that turned everything around the distressed young man, from his bed, to the all the walls and the ceiling of his own house, to even his own parents into little more than splinters, ribbons and a pair of red stains.
The force of the sudden and powerful blast brought the entire house down around the young boy, though his mind was too preoccupied to notice. Soon, nothing remained of Issei's once happy home except the ground floor and a pair of crimson splotches, the only visible remains of Issei's family. Issei remained silent, his lips quivered slightly but his eyes remained dry. He remained in a state of shock that his brain hadn't been able to process things to the point his brian would let him cry, he simply sat on his knees staring wide eyed and with his jaw dropped at the two blood splatters laid out before him and in the background the sirens of the incoming ambulance blared.
As Issei finally reached a point where tears were beginning to well up in his eyes a couple black feathers slowly began to drift down around him and an unfamiliar presence seemed to invade the area. "Well what do we have here?" A man with black and gold hair dressed in an expensive looking suit suddenly appeared, upon arrival he was sporting a self satisfied smirk but upon taking notice of the two blood stains that had once been Issei's parents his expression became more appropriately stern. His eyes then found themselves locked onto Issei's gauntlet which began to spark with green and red energy. "Awh, I see. Ever since the old man kicked the bucket those things have just been getting worse and worse huh? Serves the greedy bastard right for keeping all the knowledge to himself and now it's biting his favorite creations in the ass…"
As the strange man finished his monologue Issei's gauntlet seemed to vanish, returning his arm to normal as it did. Issei then finally collapsed into a full on sorrowful sob, likely not even noticing the stranger looming above him.
The stranger watched the pitiful scene unfold before his eyes before letting out a soft sigh. "Leave it to me to clean up another one of his messes…." The strange man knelt down and placed his hand on the slumped over boy's shoulder. "In the grand scheme of things it'd probably be kinder of me just to kill you here and hope that wherever your sacred gear ends up next it's not broken but for whatever reason I see to have picked up a bad habit of taking in problem children so if you'd like to come with me then I might be able to find a way to help you out…"
SNIFF! Issei wiped his eyes and nose before answering. "I have NO idea what you're talking about!" The grieving child answered bitterly.
"Of course you don't…" The older man rolled his eyes. "But it's not like you have anywhere else to go and even if you did it wouldn't be the best idea. You want what happened to your parents to happen again?"
Issei finally faced the stranger, looking up at him through his tear soaked eyes as he tried to gage his trust worthiness. After a lengthy exchange of looks Issei, feeling he had no other choice, reached out to take the man's hand but before he could make eye contact his eyes went wide. "AAAAAHHHHHAAAAAHHHH! IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!" He roared as he grabbed the side of his head with both hands and dropped again to his knees.
"Huh?" The man with two colors of hair muttered to himself before his eyes too went wide. "No way…."
Issei's body began to surge with jolts of white electricity and his eyes slowly began to turn blue in color and suddenly a pair of white spikes erupted from his back. "HAAAAHHHH AAAHHHHHH!" The white spikes continued to warp and change their shape until the splayed and projected a set of blue feather-like constructs completing the blue and white set of wings and once they finished Issei's headache subsided without any further side effects. "Haahh… Hah…. It wasn't as bad this time…."
The well dressed stranger knelt down to further examine Issei's new wings and went as far as to feel the light constructs with his hand to confirm their authenticity. "This shouldn't be happening, there's definitely something wrong going on here…."
"Your telling me…" The exhausted child responded dryly.
A smirk of excitement formed on the black and blonde haired man. "Whatever it is, it's definitely interesting. My name is Azazel by the way, I already know your name but it's polite to introduce yourself regardless." He remarked, extending a hand to the young man.
"Issei hyoudou…." The still sceptical boy muttered back as he reluctantly took Azazel's hand, marking the beginning of a relationship that would shape both men and would experience its share of peaks…. And valleys.
(Years later, Fallen Angel Territory: Underworld)
A large, multi-storied building which sat in the center of a well developed, modern-looking city. The scene seemed peaceful for a moment before a massive beam of light seemed to slice the building in half before being followed by a chain of explosions. BOOM! BOOOM! BOOOOM! KAABOOOOOOMMMM!
The once elegant and sophisticated structure hand been all but destroyed as the explosions had left little but rumble as a giant chasm was ripped through the center of the building and on the very base floor Azazel was lying in the rubble of what had once been a high tech laboratory, his shirt was burned off and the exposed area of his chest was smoking.
"Aaaaaahhhhh…." Azazel winced as he found himself unable to move do to the damage he had sustained. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" The fallen angel called out to the silhouette of a teenage boy holding a massive spear with spiraling helix-like accents.
"You brought this on yourself Azazel! I'm done being your test subject!" Issei roared back. "I'm outta here!" The spear disappeared before the glowing blue wings once again appeared on his back and he took off disappearing into the underworld sky, leaving Azazel to fall unconscious in his destroyed lab.
Chapter 1: Hiding in plain sight
(Months later, Kuoh Academy: earth)
DING! DING! DING! School bells rang and the students took their seats as a faceless teacher made his way to a large desk at the front of his class. "Good morning class. Before we begin today's lesson we have a bit of a surprise, a new student is transferring into our class starting today."
The sudden news caused a clamour to erupt amongst the class but the loudest reaction came from a pair of Male students, one with a shaved head and comically large ears and the other with a pair of glasses notable due to their ability to completely and constantly hide the young man's eyes. "A transfer student! I bet she's a total hottie!" They exclaimed together in unified perverted excitement.
Unfortunately the two young men's hopes would be dashed as Issei made his entrance into the classroom. "Awwwhhhh! It's just some plain looking guy….." They muttered together in disappointment but there sudden, rude outburst simply brought a smile to Issei's face.
'Plain looking huh? Sounds good to me…' He thought as he made his way to the chalkboard before quickly scribbling down his name for the class to memorize. "Issei Hyoudou! I look forward to learning with all of you this year…" Issei bowed to the class before making his way to an empty desk.
He got a couple of quick looks from his new classmates and a few bouts of quiet gossip were spawned do to his presence but nothing you wouldn't expect from the sudden arrival of a new student but once the day's lecture began in earnest, Issei's fifteen minutes of intrigue seemed to be up and the brown haired teenager couldn't be happier. 'Seriously? I didn't think it'd actually be this easy to blend in. All I gotta do now is make sure I don't do anything risky that'll blow my cover and I'll have just bought myself almost three years of freedom and relative safety.' Issei monologued as he pretended to pay attention.
As the school day continued Issei would reflect on the circumstances that brought him here and why he chose Kuoh as his hiding spot. 'Ever since I've I busted his lab and ditched the underworld that asshole Azazel has had me on the run, everywhere I'd go a group of his black winged goons wouldn't be far behind but even he's not crazy enough to let his thugs into enemy territory and if what I heard is true not only is Kuoh a city owned by Devils but the ones here are pretty active on earth. With war tensions still ever present I should be safe from any fallen angels here but the resident devils are sure to notice my presence. Still, I doubt they even try to approach me in a territory as small and insignificant as this town, whoever's in charge is probably some loser mid ranking devil just desperate for any bit of power they can get and while Devils can be greedy, prideful and selfish they aren't usually stupid enough to approach humans with sacred gears, not those who can clear defend themselves. Regardless even if they do approach me I'm sure I can convince whoever it is to let me cohabitate without any bloodshed. So with the devils as a deterrent I should be able to live out the next three years simply hiding in plain sight.'
As the school day ended Issei's plan to head home like any ordinary student was impeded as a figure stood waiting for him in front of the school gate. The one who stopped his trek home was a beautiful woman with a buxom figure, long black hair tied in a ponytail and a pair of ruby red eyes. "Would you happen to be Issei Hyoudou?"
'Well… that happened a lot sooner than expected…' Issei thought as he stared down the black haired beauty. "Uh, yeah that's me. Can I help you?" Issei answered, choosing to keep up the false identity he brought with him to Kuoh.
"Yes, if you wouldn't mind please follow me." The dark haired bowed before she began to lead Issei away from the front gate.
"Sure thing…." Issei answered keeping a friendly smile but on the inside he was busy analyzing his escort. 'Considering that she's my greeting party I'm guessing she's been reincarnated, definitely a servant piece that's for sure. She looks pretty young, probably an actual high schooler or at least was whenever she became a devil. That means whoever this high class devil is, he's a creep….' Issei grimaced, picturing a middle aged man in his head.
He continued to follow the dark haired girl past the main school building when a much older looking building, hidden by trees and covered in places by vines, came into view. "So can I get your name?" Issei tried to spark up a conversation to no avail. "Can you at least tell me where we're going or why I was called out?"
"You know." She finally spoke to answer. "Your playing dumb would be cuter if you weren't so bad at it." She hit the nail on the head. "As for where we're going, we've already arrived." She declared as they reached a set of large wooden doors attached to the old school building.
The doors opened on their own and Issei along with his guide entered to find very poor lighting with an overall gothic aesthetic dominating the interior. 'Well I hope this devil has some sort of an ironic sense of humor, because if not this is just a sad level of cliche.'
Issei was brought through the building into a room where he was greeted by two more faces. A young girl with a small body and short white hair as well as a blonde young man with a rather pretty face. These two new devils were sitting across from one another on parallel identical couches with a short coffee table spread out in between them. Meanwhile Issei's mind continued to assume the worst. 'So this guys got the long haired busty beauty, the small and cute loli and the pretty boy to mix things up… To be fair, if I were going to "experiment" I'd want them to look like that too. But one high school kid would be bad enough and this guy has three. Devil is right, this dude belongs in hell…'
"Thank you for bringing him Akeno…." An elegant and refined female voice called out from behind a large revolving chair parked behind a desk at the very back of the room.
'A chick? I don't know if that's better or worse…..' Issei thought, remaining judgemental until the tail spun around revealing a beautiful young woman with greenish-blue eyes and long, flowing, crimson hair. The sudden made Issei's eyes go wide. 'OOOOOOHHHHH! She's a kid, that makes more sense…. I'm sorry for my thoughts…' Issei's face went red as he had embarrassed himself until something dawned on him. "Oh shit!"
"Excuse me?!" The red haired woman answered in an insulted tone following Issei's unprompted outburst.
'Well that just throws this whole plan out the window doesn't it?' Issei face palmed as he began to rant in his head. 'Like some high school girl could actually defend this territory from the grigori and even if she could it wouldn't be right to involve this kid in my problems. Crap… Nine months of running and I'm back to square one.' Issei shook his head and took a deep breath before collecting himself and turning towards the exit. "Nevermind, I'm out."
"Wait what? Excuse me?" The red haired devil scoffed back, ignored her and kept walking. "Hey! Wait a second, I'm not done talking to you."
Before Issei could reach the door a blur wizzed by him and suddenly Kiba had appeared standing between him and the exit. "I'm sorry but you haven't been dismissed yet."
"Haaahhhh…." Issei sighed as he rubbed his temple. "Look buddy, you don't want to do this. None of you do, trust me."
Issei's warning would end up being ignored as the small white haired devil marched up and confronted him as well. "Take a seat…" She muttered softly but with a lot of power.
Issei simply rolled his eyes. 'Sorry kids but you're not worth it. I'll just pop out Divine Dividing and while they're caught up in shock and awe I'll just fly off, easy peasy.' Issei quickly visualized this strategy in his head but for the second time tonight his plans would fall through. Issei called for Divine Dividing but the sacred that showed up happened to be a long black sword with red kanji written on it's blade. 'Well crap bad draw, I guess I'll just-"
"SWORD!" The blonde devil called out and before Issei could finish the thought he lunged forward to attack, forming a sword of his own as he did so.
"WAIT!" CLANG! The two weapons clashed with each other as Issei just barely managed to block the incoming slash. "Hey! I don't want to- GUUUUUHHHHH!" Issei was stopped mid-sentence as the white haired girl buried her fist into Issei's stomach while he was preoccupied blocking. "GAAAHHAAAAHHH!" Issei stumbled a few steps backwards after the punch before he spit up a mouthful of saliva. 'Did that devil just…. Sucker punch me?!' He thought as wiped his mouth clean before angrily gritting his teeth. 'So these devils wanna fight huh? Fine by me.' Issei thought as red energy began collect at his swords hilt.
The red haired devil stood back and observed the situation play out and that's when she got a glimpse of the sword Issei had dropped. "Wait, is that?... Oh no! Kiba! Koneko! Get back!"
"Sick'em!" Issei called out as he threw the blade forward then in a flash of red light a shadowy wolf with three red eyes appeared, carrying the sword in its mouth.
Issei clicked his tongue and the shadowy canine pounced towards the two devils, slashing at kiba with the sword in his mouth while forming a blade on its tail which it used to attack Koneko, ripping her clothes open in the process. Meanwhile the two busty devils stood back stunned as they watched. "The Canis Lykaon?" Rias muttered. "But isn't that…."
"Impossible…." Akeno finished with a mutter of disbelief of her own. "He can't have that sacred gear, its not possible…." Soon the dark haired girl's shock faded and was replaced with an anxious anger that sought out an answer. "What is this some sort of an illusion! It's not possible for you to have that sacred gear!" She shrieked as she blasted a handful of lightning at Issei. "The Canis Lykaon already has a wielder so this has to be some kind of trick!"
Issei leapt out of the way of the lightning bolt before forming as smirk as he realized this was messing with the dark haired devil's head. "Really, so you're saying my dog is a fake? Well then you should have nothing to worry about." Issei clicked his tongue and the shadowy dog changed targets, aiming its blades for akeno.
Issei meanwhile summoned a pair of black blades for his own use as he made his way to deal with the two devils Canis had worn down a bit for him but before he could attack. ZAAPPP! A bolt of crimson magic was fired at Issei that he required both blades to block as he crossed them like an X across his chest and while the swords protected his body the strange red magic caused the to shatter into shards. "Oh crap…"
"That's enough!" The crimson haired leader devil finally had enough watching and decided to intervene. "Call off your attack dog or I'll turn you into dust!... NOW!" She demanded as red magic surged across her fingertips as a display of power.
Issei finding himself pinned complied, clicking his tongue again and getting the wolves constant slashing to stop. 'Crap, Canis isn't great for fighting multiple targets at once..' Issei thought as he raised his hands in surrender upon finding himself surrounded by angry looking devils. 'Guess I'll have to make a switch….' As this thought went off the black dog disappeared and immediately his eyes turned red and large magic circle formed across the room and soon two dozen mouth-less copies of Issei with red eyes and greyish stone-like skin emerged from the floor and they began to swarm the devils, five to six per person.
"Gah! What the hell is this!" The red haired devil exclaimed as the Issei clones began to swipe at her.
"Look, I never wanted to fight in the first place so I'm not gonna have these guys kill any of, just keep you occupied long enough for me to put some distance between us." Issei left the now wrecked building with a dismissive wave, leaving his legion of doppelgangers to smother the devils.
(Later)
Night had fallen and Issei was well on his way to the Kuoh train station. His mind was currently trying to put together a backup plan. 'So I know I gotta ditch town but where to next. Tokyo's outta the question, maybe Kyoto? Spirits and Yokai are a bit more aggressive towards humans than devils but they should do the trick as far as deterring fallen angels. Maybe…. wait?' Issei pace slowed as he was quick to detect an unusual but familiar presence and a smirk formed across his mouth. "I guess fighting off my little buddies made you guys work up a sweat cause you are ripe!" Issei taunted as the four devils gave up on hiding upon having there cover blown. "I swear I could smell you all from half a block away. Apparently I didn't make myself clear back at school, that was me being nice and letting you live. Last warning get lost or you'll be killed." Issei's eyes became frighteningly serious.
"Rias Gremory doesn't respond to threats and we're not about to let you leave here. Not after what you did to us, not without answering our questions!" The red haired devil declared back prompting Issei to roll his eyes.
"For the record I never asked what your name was, cause I don't care…" Issei's eyes flashed blue for a moment before the blue and white wings erupted from his back and he immediately took off into the sky with the intent of making a permanent getaway but he wouldn't get above the cloud line before dozens of yellow magic circles began to appear in the sky around him. "Damn devils…. JUST GIVE UP ALREADY!" He called out as he began to dodge bolt after bolt of lighting.
From spins to midair stops, from immediate accession to nose dives Issei put on a display of aerial acrobatics and by the time he escaped from the lighting minefield he had to hover midair and catch his breath which presented an opening. "Got him…" A familiar monotone voice announced as the white haired devil pounced from behind the cover of clouds making full use of her bat-like wings as she wrapped Issei up in a vice grip and began bringing the both of them down to the ground.
"Gah! Bad move!" Issei managed spit out as the bear hug had impeded his ability to speak. (DIVIDE!) A booming voice called out as his wings flashed with blue light. (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) Issei began sapping the young girl's power and once he felt her grip losen, he used that stolen power against her.
Issei broke the small girl's grip before grabbing her by the wrist and flinging her downwards before following her at supersonic speeds. Meanwhile the other three devils flew up to aid her. "Kiba! Go catch Koneko!" Rias commanded and the blonde devil answered with a nod.
Kiba flew towards his falling comrade and an extreme speed but wouldn't be enough. "Not so fast!" Issei called out as, right before the petite devil would be caught by handsome young man Issei increased his descending speed and delivered a kick to her side that changed her trajectory and sent her crashing into the tree line below. "I swear you devils, I gave you every chance to save yourselves and you just wouldn't leave me alone! Whatever happens next is on you." Issei threatened before using the power he'd absorbed from Koneko to grab hold of Kiba and began to take him to the earth, stealing more power on their way down. (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) BOOOOOMMMMM!
Kiba was thrown down hard, destroying a good bit of concrete as his impact created a crater. 'Damn, I probably took more energy than needed to there. Time to dump the excess..' Issei figured as particles of light began to drift down of his wings but he wouldn't get to release much before balls of crimson magic began to rain down from above.
Issei began dodging the blasts of crimson energy flying in random zigzags until a surge of blue electricity crackled across his body causing him to land hard again concrete. "GAAAAHHH!" He groaned. 'Damn it, I've hit my limit. I need to start dumping power…' Issei thought as a yellow magic circle opened beneath is feet with corresponding one appearing above his head as well. "Well shit…." He muttered.
"LIGHTNING PRISON!" Akeno called put as powerful blasts of magic lightning began blasting Issei from both above and below.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHAAHAAHHHH!" Issei wailed in pain until he couldn't take it any more and used his wings. (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) (DIVIDE!) The lightning was quickly reduced to nothing but this left Issei immoble as his wings had collected too much power and he was in no position to release any of it so in the end he dispelled his wings to alleviate his body of the stress.
'DAMNIT!' Issei roared in his head while gritting his teeth in frustration. 'I don't give a crap anymore I'm gonna kick everyone of these devils asses to the point they'll be afraid to sleep because I might show up in their nightmares! Give me Zenith Tempest and I'll see if they like playing in Cat 5 hurricane or give me Dimension Lost and I'll send them to the peak of Everest dressed like school girls! Just give me anything so I can teach them what happens when they mess with me!'
Issei extended his arm as he reached out for his next weapon when a rod began to form in his hand until it expanded into a massive spear with a bladed tip more than a foot long and with golden helix surrounding the staff. 'Anything….but this one…' Issei thought as he held the True Longinus. "Well shit, I guess that's it… I surrender….."
(Author's notes)
Well, what did you guys think. This is my spin on those overpowered Issei stories where he has all the Longinus or Ddraig and Albion. I think having an overpowered Issei is fun but I like some way to balance him out and I got a lot of my inspiration for this story from Ben 10 which was a show I loved as a kid. I'll explain how Issei's powers work and give more of his past with azazel in the next chapter. Till then, bye…
(End)