Chapter 2

(Flashback)

"C'mon Vali, you gotta meet this kid." Azazel enthusiastically dragged a young boy likely 11-12 years old across his laboratory. The silver haired boy seemed utterly disinterested but he knew when the vice governor of fallen angels gets like this it's best just to comply.

Eventually Azazel brought Vali into the heart of his high tech research facility where he met Issei for the first time. The Brown haired boy was sitting on the edge of a hospital bed having just finished a round of testing.

"So this is him…." The silver haired boy with the sour disposition muttered, sounding unimpressed after giving Issei a once over. "So what's his deal?..."

"Alright show him…." Azazel giddily prompted Issei to act as the brown haired boy slid of the bed and closed his eyes for a moment. While his eyes were shut a golden, single bladed axe with a lion shaped symbol located on each side of the golden weapon. "Haha! It gets me everytime…."

"So he's got a longinus too?" Vali raised a confused eyebrow. "Is that all? Is that why you dragged me all the way down here?"

"Ok, now show him the other thing…." Azazel pushed again, keeping the same level of enthusiasm.

Issei compiled as the golden axe disappeared, this time Issei activated his Divine Dividing and as the wings formed on his back Vali finally showed a visible reaction. His eyes went wide for a mere moment before he returned to his standard indifferent expression before answering with. "I hate it….." He declared before marching away without so much as another word.

Issei made a perturbed look following the rude interaction he had with the other boy but Azazel was ready to resume his testing so he changed the subject. "Never mind him, he's always like that. Let's get back to work…"

'At first I didn't mind the testing.' Present day Issei's voice narrated over the flashback. 'I knew the reason Azazel took me with him was because of his interest in whatever was causing my condition and to be honest I harbored a bit of curiosity myself. But I didn't expect things would reach the point they did.'

(Years later)

"AAAAAAHHH! HHAAAAAAHHHH!" A now older Issei roared in pain as he desperately held onto his Canis Lykaon sword. Sparks of crimson electricity erupted from the sword's hilt as he desperately held on. "I can't hold it any longer!" Issei cried out as the skin on his palms began sizzle and burn. "GAAAHHHHH!"

"Come on, you're almost at half an hour!" Azazel, now dressed in a lab coat and goggles, cheered Issei on. His excitement at the prospect of a new discovery blinded him to the pain Issei was suffering pushing far past his limits. "Come on, five more seconds!"

"HAAAHHHAAAAAAHHHHH!" Issei tried to grit his teeth and bare through the pain but he couldn't even manage another second and a half before dropping the blade and having it disappear into nothingness.

"Damn it, 29 minutes and 57 seconds." Azazel muttered reluctantly as he clicked a stopwatch he'd been keeping in his pocket. "Still, that's a new record by two minutes. I wonder what would happen if you tried to hold one of the ones that didn't require the Longinus to physically manifest itself. I guess that'll be tomorrow's experiment." Azazel said out loud as Issei flopped down in exhaustion.

'I lived my life as some sort of human guinea pig, a subject for Azazel's never ending science experiments. Despite the numerous tests and the seemingly never ending experiments that pushed me to the limit both physically and mentally every day of my life, we never even got close to uncovering the origin of my strange powers.' Issei's narration continued. 'Eventually I couldn't take it anymore and that's when "it" finally revealed itself to me.'

'Almost all the Longinus have some sort of mind of their own and because of that, while I always end up with one of my sacred gears whenever I call for it, I only ever get the one I call for %60 to %70 of the time with the exception of one. The True Longinus is the most fickle sacred gear I have access, I can only use it when it wants to be used and when it wants to be used its the only Longinus I'll have access to, I can't switch gears unless it wants to be switched and even when I'm fighting with it, it's more like I'm the one being used and the spear is calling the shots.'

'The first time I used it was the day I escaped from Azazel's lab.' Issei narrated as the scene of him first summoning the spear played out in his flashback. It began like any other experiment with Issei sitting on a hospital bed but when he called out for that day's longinus both he and Azazel stood shocked by this development. 'I was just lucky that the spear and I were on the same page that day.'

"Incredible! That's it that makes all thirteen!" Azazel exclaimed, not noticing Issei's grip on the spear tightened and he gritted his teeth. "But still we have no idea why you have all thirteen in your possession but this recent development must mean we're doing something right, if we keep pushing we just might reach some sort of breakth-"

"I'VE HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF YOU!" Issei declared, interrupting Azazel with a powerful blast of holy white light straight to the fallen angels chest at first the beam was reflected off Azazel's chest and began cutting a line across the ceiling but it wouldn't take long for the True Longinus' overwhelming power to get the best of even the governor general of fallen angel. Soon the surging power resulted in a chain of explosions that put Azazel out of commission and provided him with the opportunity to escape.

(End of flashback)

"And after that I spent the next nine months trying to keep one step ahead of the Grigori and that is how I ended up here…" Issei explained as he found himself tied to a chair, once again in Rias' clubroom.

"So let me get this straight, you came to MY territory planning to use the presence of me and my servants to keep the grigori off your back. Is that it?" Rias stood cross armed and her expression remained neutral.

"Well yeah that WAS my plan but clearly it's not going to work out." Issei has a bad habit of letting his thoughts out unfiltered and this was one such instance where it would get him into trouble. "I mean you guys are just kids… I mean it wouldn't be right to get a bunch of high school kids caught up in my problems besides a doubt a bunch of teenagers would deter Azazel when he wants something. So we can just part ways here with no worries."

"Excuse me?..." Rias muttered back as she kept her arms crossed but her forehead began to pulse as she tried to repress her building anger. "First you show up in my territory with plans to use my precious servants as well as myself as living shields for your own benefit and then you have the nerve to simply say "never mind" because we're incapable of being adequate fallen angel repellent. You should be made to pay for insulting the heir to the House of Gremory."

"Hold it, I meant no disrespect." Issei forced a smile as a nervous sweat bead began to roll down his forehead. "I spent a lot of my most developmental years as Azazel's personal science project so let's just say I'm not the world's greatest conversationalist, hehehe…. Why don't we just cut ties here, let bygones be bygones and I promise you'll never have to talk to me again." Issei waved his bounded hands as he hoped to persuade his devil captor.

"Hmmm…. You attack my precious servants and expect to just get away with it? Not likely…" The crimson haired devil replied with a glare.

"Hold up! You guys definitely hit first, snowflakes over there got me in the gut with a sucker punch." Issei argued back sending Koneko a death glare as he did but the short white haired devil answered him with a mocking smirk. "I merely defended myself but you guys wouldn't leave me alone so I had increased the level of force I was using to try and deter you."

"Whatever you say…" Rias was quick to dismiss Issei's excuses. "Even if I do decide to let you go, then what? You're just gonna keep running from Azazel until he catches you or you die? Maybe you get lucky and he loses interest but that seems unlikely. Though I might be able to provide a solution to your dilemma. If you were to join my family and become a devil I could-"

"Pffft! HAHAHAHAHAH!" Issei interrupted with an outburst of laughter but Rias couldn't understand what exactly was so funny. "Aaaaahhhh… You devils, how could I tell this question was going to pop up the second the second I walked in here. Look, aside from that being an absolutely terrible offer even if I were dumb enough to accept you couldn't afford me. I know how this whole reincarnated devil thing works and just so you know I have thirteen Longinus' at my fingertips there's no chest piece valuable enough to turn me into a devil. You could literally throw an entire chest board's worth of evil pieces at me and it still wouldn't work even if I can only use one gear at a time. My potential is still too high so unless you're Satan himself I'd give up on that idea."

"Interesting strategy. I've never heard of a captive laughing at their captors to their face and insulting their intelligence while attempting to negotiate for their freedom…" Rias growled back prompting a sigh from Issei.

"Haaahhhh…. Look, I don't know how long you've been on earth "Little Girl" but you've still got a lot to learn about the real world." Issei declared as a purple mist covered his body and he suddenly vanished, leaving the chair and his bindings behind before reappearing about a meter behind it in another puff of purple smoke. "For starters, the whole captive thing was just me playing nice after I roughed up your servants earlier. It's called being courteous but I coulda done this the whole time." Issei's sudden down talk got the crimson haired devil shaking with anger. "Now, while I've got Dimension Lost activated and before you tell your servants to attack I'll just make things easier on all of us." Issei declared and with a snap of his fingers purple fog filled the room engulfing all four devils and whisking them away leaving Issei standing alone in an empty room before something dawned on him. "I mean, if I wanted to escape I guess I coulda just teleported myself away….buuuuutttt this is probably more fun."

(Meanwhile, elsewhere)

Rias and the rest of her devil clubmates suddenly found themselves standing confused, surround long, dry grass and short, isolated trees. "What happened? Where's the clubroom?!" The head devil exclaimed in confusion.

"My my…. Rias, you may want to look at this." Akeno called for the group's attention and pointed out one of the isolated trees where a small herd of giraffes could be seen grazing on it's leaves.

"No way…." Was all Rias managed to mutter as she stared in disbelief.

(Back with Issei)

Issei, now finally alone, walked the empty nighttime streets of Kuoh once again plotting his next move. "It's too bad I'm not really a fallen angel. If I had that universal translator ability I could just go and try to find a new place anywhere in the whole world but I'm limited to japan for the most part and I'm running out of places to hide." Issei muttered to himself, not worrying about anyone hearing him this late at night. "Maybe I should try and hook up with the church. If I can manage to wave True Longinus around for just a second they'd probably name me a top level saint on the spot. Though I'm not psyched about that whole vow of chastity thing not like they don't all break it but I don't wanna hook my wagon to an organization that'd even think of enforcing something like that I doubt they're much fun to hang out with. Plus I'm not really looking to kill devils or anything like that."

Issei continued through the barren streets with only his thoughts as company until he noticed a hulking figure hidden by a trench coat and and fedora hat following from about a hundred meters behind him and this figure was exuding a familiar, inhuman aura that Issei was quick to pick up on. 'Shit! A fallen angel, already? I knew that Devil and her army of tenth graders wasn't gonna keep Azazel off my back for long but even I didn't expect one to show up so quickly.' Issei continued to act naturally not to tip off his recently acquired stalker. 'This one got close too, more aggressive than the grigori agents usually operate so if he's that confident he must be strong. Damn, I shouldn't have ditched Dimension Lost so quickly, an easy get away would be nice right now. He's so close that even if I tried to take off with Divine Dividing this would still likely end in conflict but just to make sure, let's see how willing he really is to fight.'

Suddenly, Issei took off sprinting and it took the disguised fallen angel a second but he began to run after him. 'What's he doing? I'm clearly onto, if you wanna fight, spread your wings and come after me or if you're just on recon then head back to your nest. He is chasing me though maybe if I get the right gear I'll be able to catch him and get some info for myself.' Issei slammed his foot down and used the momentum to change direction so now he was sprinting towards the fallen angle. 'Come on! Give me the one I want!' Issei thought as he extended his hand outwards, then a smile formed on his face as his breath became visible.

"Huh?" The fallen angel muttered in response to his target's sudden change of direction. He wouldn't have much of a chance to react before Issei went on the offensive.

With a wave of his arm, Issei whipped up a small whirlwind of freezing cold air and snow which began to construct a massive, three meter tall Ice Doll in the shape of a woman in a dress with four slender arms. Another interesting feature of this Ice Doll was her face, with six eyes on the left side and on the right her face was studded with something resembling the thorns of a rose. Without so much as a command the Ice doll attacked with a blast of freezing cold air that encased the fallen angel in ice from his feet all the way up to his neck, leaving only his head free.

Issei marched up to his newly made ice sculpture and pulled the fedora off his stalkers head so he could no longer hide his gruff and grizzled face. "Absolute Demise has the ability to freeze just about anything. It would take a being of exceptional power to break free of her ice, even the Governor General himself may have trouble getting free in this situation. The ice she generates is also exceptionally cold, so cold that even a fallen angel like you would begin to experience organ failure if I leave you here like this so if you don't wanna freeze to death tell me how you found me so soon? Word of mouth doesn't travel that fast even in the underworld. Does Azazel have someone tailing me? It hasn't even been a full day yet the only way the Grigori would be on to me so fast is if they knew I was coming here, so how did they know…"

"I-I W-Wasn't sent here f-for y-you…" The frozen fallen angel muttered back as his teeth rattled.

"Explain…." He muttered back in disbelief with an eyebrow raised.

(Later)

"So it was all a misunderstanding." Issei reiterated with a sceptical look but his expression quickly softened. "Oh well, my bad then. Guess I jumped to conclusions." Issei's ice doll quickly disappeared as his hand was engulfed in a purple flame. "Let me help you outta there." Issei placed his hand on the ice and slowly cracks began to form due to the heat from his flame but the process wasn't instant and it created a moment of awkward silence. "... Sorry…. I guess after all this time I'm a little sensitive when it comes to Fallen Angels but that's no excuse to freeze you without warning."

"N-No pr-problem, I was acting pretty shady following you and all that. P-Plus, if A-Azazel had it out for me I'd be p-paranoid too…" The shivering fallen angel responded amicably.

Eventually the Ice finally shattered, freeing the fallen angel from his imprisonment. "Alright, that's that…." Issei dusted his hands off as another awkward moment was born from neither party knowing exactly how to end their exchange. "...So….. You said you were working on a project here and just happened to notice I possessed a sacred gear and you wanted to "make sure I couldn't become a problem". I'm not gonna ask you about your project or whatever cause that's your personal business but do me a favor and don't tell any other fallen angels about our little… run in here. Also leave humans with sacred gears alone will ya, if I here about any disappearances in this town I'll hunt you down and destroy you. Ok?"

"Understood…" The fallen angel answered with a nod and following a quick wave the two parties went their separate ways and before long the cloaked man had disappeared from sight.

'Ugh… Way to go Issei, freezing that dude in a block of ice just cause he was a fallen angel? When did I become a racist… I guess he did plan to kill me so I was somewhat justified but its not like he was an actual threat.' Issei let out a sigh as he lowered his head and continued to trudge along. 'I should probably just fly off but I'm so tired of running. Guess this is what I deserve for hitching my wagon to this one plan and not coming up with a solid back up.'

'Too bad I couldn't stick around.' Issei looked up longingly at the sky. 'It would've been nice to go to high school and act like a regular kid my age, just for a little while you know. Maybe I should try to work something out with whatever that devil's name was….. Nah, this isn't her problem to deal with plus I'm pretty sure I blew my chances of peacefully coexisting when I laughed in her face and sent her on an unwilling safari. Speaking of which, I wonder how long it'll take her to… Ah! There she is.'

Issei stopped his slow march as a crimson magic circle opened up in front of him and out from the ground rose a seething Rias Gremory. "Africa?! Seriously?! I left my teleportation cards in the clubroom, do you have any idea how long it took us to fly back?!"

"Uhhhh…." Issei stalled before checking his wrist watch. "About an hour and a half? You made pretty good time really…" Issei's lack of sympathy only further infuriated the red haired devil to the point where her hand ignited with crimson magic. "Oh! Hey! Enough of this, seriously. I'm done with this crap, I mean it. If I wanted you dead it would've been easy, if I wanted to kill you I coulda used Dimension Lost to send you and your servants to the dimensional gap or the Sun or whatever and that's not even my most powerful sacred gear. Lets just put our swords down cause I'm running out of patience."

"If you really could've killed me as easily as you say then why haven't you done it yet?" Rias argue back as the magic she accumulated in her hand doubled in size. "Either you're unwilling for whatever reason or you're bluffing! I'm betting on the latter!" She declared as she let her destructive magic fly.

"I told you I'm done!" Issei's hand was once again engulfed by purple flames which he used to simply knock Rias' magic out of the air. "The fire produced by the Incinerate Anthem is holy in nature. It can can burn away devils and demonic magic alike, to nothing." Issei explained before snapping his fingers and creating a spiraling tower of fire around Rias. "Last warning, If you touch these flames it'll kill you. So just stop here ok?..." Issei threw his hands up in frustration but before he could turn to leave a red magic circle opened under his tower of fire before a subsequent one opened in front of. 'Shit….' Issei thought as Rias once again emerged from the ground.

Rias smirked as she held up a small playing card with a magic circle insignia. Issei simply shrugged his shoulders and without another word chose to march away, a move which threw off the red haired devil. "Hey, where are you going?" Rias called out but Issei simply ignored her and kept on walking. "I'm not done with you yet….. Hello?... Stop ignoring me!"

"I told you, I'm not playing around anymore." Issei answered without so much as looking back at Rias. "So whatever you wanted to say, better get it out before my powers finish recharging."

"What? How did you?..." She couldn't understand how she'd been found out so Issei explained.

"You devils don't do the 1v1 thing, right. If you wanted to fight you'd have come with the rest of your little devil friends. So the only reason I can think of that you'd come out to meet me would be to talk." Issei explained. "I'm not in the mood to converse with any more devils but if you're not willing to give up then I guess I have no choice. Let me just say that while I may have come off as a jerk before I wasn't lying. Even if I wanted to be your servant, my value is too high for any of your evil pieces to work."

"I'm not here for that, you were very clear about your dissatisfaction regarding that proposal…." Rias replied with a pouty crossing of her arms before getting on with the point. "I just wanted to tell you that if you're sick of running and hiding you should stay. I understand what it feels like to have my life dictated by someone else and be forced to do things against my own wishes. I used Kuoh as a way to escape a situation that I hated and as a chance to buy time in order to come up with a way out so if you need to use it for that same reason I'm clearly in no position to judge."

Issei smiled at the Devil's sudden act of sincerity though he didn't quite buy her generosity. "Hmmmm…. I appreciated it but I'm afraid I'm gonna once again have to decline. Hiding is one thing but I'm afraid I'll be forcing my problems onto others but more importantly I don't trust any offer coming from a devil to come with no strings attached. It's not in your nature is it?"

"That's true but I never said there were no strings attached…" Rias smiled as she extended a hand to Issei. "Devil's make deals with humans all the time so let's make it official, I'll offer you a place in my community and if Azazel does send anyone after you, I'll take responsibility for however you choose to "deal" with them and I can justify it as protecting my territory…."

"In exchange for?..." Issei replied with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not sure how much a soul is worth but I'm not ready to part with mine just yet."

"I don't need your soul, rather I'd prefer a favor. One favor, anything one thing I want collectable by me at any time. What do you say?" Rias smiled back as she bobbed her still outstretched hand up and down to re emphasise it.

Issei responded with a quick roll of his eyes before taking her hand in a firm handshake. "You gotta deal…. Unless I change my mind…."

(Author's notes)

I reworded a bit of chapter 1 so hopefully it flows a little better. Till next time, bye ;)

(End)