Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or High School DxD.

Note: This story is written in 1st Person POV. Apologies, but I will not change this.

Et Cetera

Ray

The bladed light felt cold and hot in my hands at the same time, as I spun it around, and in one motion, allowed it to penetrate through the chest of the human that was stupid enough to think I was a weak, feeble teenage girl he could take advantage of.

It was amusing watching as his previous fearful glee and exhilaration rapidly contorted into pain, and I twisted the spear of light, going deeper until I felt the blade puncture the heart of the man. With a wave of the hand, I dissipated it, and watched as he fell to the floor, blood rapidly stretching out from his form.

I let out a brief huff of breath as I swung my hair to the side. Perhaps it was because I was utilizing my 'Yuuma Amano' disguise that made the foolish human men think they could force themselves on me. Still, changing into my other outfit would most likely have had the same effect, if not worse. Of course in this lawless situation, every dried up virgin with slack morals felt that the world was ending, so they needed to lose their virginity before they died.

I shook my head. Humans were concerned over the most trifling of things, and it seemed that when it came down to it, they were no different from animals in their primal nature. As much as I hated to admit it, even devils were better, because at least they did not pretend to be prim and proper one minute, and then descend into chaos and murder the next.

I had skipped around the streets, watching with amusement as the chaos from the invading otherworldly gods had turned the humans into something else entirely. Violence was first, as people felt that they could get away with attacking their hated enemies in a time when the police was too occupied to prevent them. Looting came second, as I saw humans barging into other houses and stores and stealing everything from foods to gadgets.

My eyebrow rose as I spotted one human in particular, scurrying away with a device, before he was pounced upon by another, and the second human proceeded to slam the head of the first into the concrete, again and again and again until it was a bloody mess.

Wait a second… I blinked, realizing that I knew who that second human was. The white hair and priests robe gave it away almost too easily.

He turned his gaze towards me, and his eyes beamed.

"Ray Ray-chan, what brings my favorite fallen angel all the way out to this fucking shitstorm?"

"Selzen. What in the world are you doing?"

"Oh, this?" he gestured to the bleeding and unconscious, if not dead human under him, and I simply rolled my eyes "This little fucker here thought he could mug me. Can you fucking believe it?"

My lips twitched. Mugging Freed Selzen? Some people were just destined for bad luck.

"So Ray-chan, here I was minding my own fucking business and stealing an Xbox when this fucker – "

He slammed the man's head into the ground for emphasis.

"Thought he could fucking grab it from me, and get away. So you know what I did? I let him have it and I gave him sixty fucking seconds to get away, because I'm a nice guy you know?"

I found it hard to take him seriously when he smiled like that, with blood coated all over his jacket.

"Of course, if poor shitface was as fast as he was stupid, he just might have fucking got away."

He twirled his gun in his hand, and then placed it at the back of the man's head.

"A fucking shame."

I ignored the gunshot and the proceeding splatter of blood as I shook my head. Freed Selzen was insane for a reason, and there was a reason he had become a rogue exorcist in the first place.

"Ah! Can you feel the fucking air Ray-chan? I mean, it's fucking great! All these goody two-shoes people running around and stealing and looting and killing cause they're scared shitless! Fuck, it's like I have a million little brothers and sisters in crime now."

He turned his gaze to me.

"So, when the fuck is the big cheese and the brass gonna decide to ruin my fun?"

I rose an eyebrow. "What?"

"You know what I'm fucking talking about. What's Ass-ass-el and Cock-a-bel and the rest of the fucking 'els' doing about the three motherfucking gods that decided to give a middle finger to the secrecy biz and have pissing-fest all over the world?"

I rumpled my nose in distaste. "How am I supposed to know?"

"Well considering how badly Ass-ass-el must want his dick inside of you, I figured it's one of the things you'd ask while fondling his balls."

"Fuck you Selzen."

"Time and place Ray-chan, just fucking name the time and place."

I rolled my eyes. "I regret ever mentioning that Azazel-sama asked me to keep a watch out on that boy."

Hyoudou Issei was his name, but not that it mattered at this point. My plans to ask him out on a date and kill him were thrown out the window the second those three gods started duking it out across the world. Assuming the boy wasn't already dead from collateral damage, and assuming none of his parents or family had died, it would take a serious level of stupid for me to 'ask' someone on a 'date' when the world seemed to be ending.

"But, wait, you seriously don't have a fucking clue?"

"What?"

He frowned. "I mean, I know that mass amnesia is out of the fucking question unless they want to start rebuilding monuments and replacing mountains, oh, and fucking bringing back every single shitty person that has died so far. So we aren't fucking covering this up…"

He shook his head. "Hell, the fight's still fucking raging, and people are still dying shitty deaths. So if we aren't covering this up, what the fucking hell are the Fallen Angel brass gonna do?"

I rose an eyebrow at him. I wasn't exactly a powerful being in the Grigori, and I was closer to an infantry soldier who had a small rag-tag group of followers than I was to any one with notable rank and power. I only had two wings after all, and there were those with four wings, and six wings who ranked far higher than me, and likewise were far stronger. The Ten-Winged Fallen Angels were easily considered as Cadre-Class, and the Twelve-Winged ones, were pretty much considered the most powerful.

Amongst this hierarchy, I was a relative nobody. I had not a single clue as to whether the Commanders of the Grigori or Azazel-sama had decided to intervene in the godly battle, because who was going to give that type of information to me?

"I don't know."

"Well what do you know, cause I'm fucking stumped right now."

I sighed. "What I do know is that the Fallen Angels of the Grigori cannot do anything that would break the secrecy, without risking retribution by the Angels and the Devils."

Freed rose an eyebrow. "That only fucking works if you're assuming that the 'els' and fucking devil-scum all agree to put their hands in their pants and rub themselves off instead of stopping the fight."

I blinked. "Well yes. But… now that I think about it... why wouldn't they intervene?"

If the world was being destroyed, why would the Angels and Devils sit back and let it happen without stopping it? Or stopping those responsible for it?

As a matter of fact, the fight had been raging for hours now, yet, not a single sign of any intervention was being made.

Freed snorted. "Why the fuck would they? There are over five thousand shitty factions and shittier gods being worshipped by humanity, and yeah, the Judeo-Christian or Abrahamic Faction or whatever the fuck you want to call it is the largest, but why the fuck do they have to be the one to save all of humanity?"

The Exorcist scoffed, and, for a brief second, behind that insanity, I was slowly reminded that this man had been considered an exceptional genius at age thirteen.

"I'm guessing it's the fucking whole 'who-will-bell-the-cat' shit being played on a fucking worldwide scale. Cause the faction that intervenes first, could either,"

He brought up two fingers.

"A, get their asses mildly kicked by the fighters, and run home fucking screaming with their tails behind their legs."

"Or B, get completely annihilated so bad that their unborn children will still be reeling from the fucking smack down."

I would have claimed that it was impossible, for the factions to be overpowered by just three beings, except it had almost happened before, with just two beings, namely, the Heavenly Dragons. Those two beings had put a halt to their war and caused all three factions to ally together just to beat them, and even then, the battle had been a close one.

However, these three that had appeared seemed far more powerful than the English and Welsh Dragon. I had seen the sheer power these beings possessed first hand. In speed alone they easily trumped any angel in history, from Raphael to Gabriel and to Michael, and in destructive power…

There was almost no contest.

"Wait, so you're saying that the reason no one has interfered yet, is because they're actually scared of being beaten?"

To picture Michael, the Archangel, scared of being beaten? It was a thought that made me somewhat giddy and excited.

"No, it's more than just a fear of a thorough asswhooping, it's prolly cause if they do get taken out, then they'll be caught bent over with their pants down when the other factions come knocking with a raging boner."

Oh.

If the devils or angels fought the intruders and got taken out or even reasonably weakened, they'd be left open to attack from any other faction.

I realized that at the same time, if all of humanity was wiped out, everyone would lose because the factions gained their powers from humanity's reverence.

Every faction losing was better than only you losing, because if you had to choose between everyone in a classroom getting punished for a crime all of you committed, or only you getting punished for the crime, you would choose the latter.

So it was not an issue of a lack of deities or angels willing to stop the fighting beings, it was more of the issue that what they stood to lose by interfering vastly outstripped what they stood to gain.

And because, when it came down to it, no one really cared about the humans. Not the devils, not the gods, and not even the angels.

I sighed and shook my head. "Simply thinking about all of this is making my head hurt."

"It's because you're fucking stupid, and the one time you finally use that dumbass brain of yours, it's getting tired from the strain."

I gave him a glare. "Watch that tongue of yours Selzen –"

"Or what? We'll have our own throw down right here? I say bring it the fuck on! I've been antsy for a good fight ever since I saw that purple titan samurai god slice Mount Fuji in half!"

"How would you have seen that? Mount Fuji isn't for miles!"

He gave me a blank look. "There are things called T – fucking – V, and inter – fucking – net. Fuck woman, get with the times, you're embarrassing me here."

I blinked. "Wait, there are videos showing the battle of the gods?"

"For fuck sakes, that's all there are videos of for the past twenty-four hours!"

He reached into his coat pocket, bringing from it a small device that I recognized as a smartphone.

"Ah, here we are… should be able to figure out where the gods are now."

"I – I don't think that's necessary."

I no longer saw the need for that, especially when there was a large, ginormous titan of purple energy falling from high above, directly aiming towards our general location.

As always, Freed had an appropriate quip.

"Eat your fucking heart out Godzilla."

Motohama

"Issei? ISSEI!"

No! No! No! Why did have to pass out now? I groaned as he went limp and heavy in my arm. Within seconds, I was swaying to the side and stumbling over my own two feet as I struggled to keep him upright, but I had never been an athletic person. No, I was Motohama the Ero-Megane, the perverted glasses who could calculate a girl's three sizes at a single glance.

The good that did me now.

I grit my teeth. Maybe if I had spent more time increasing my strength instead of my stamina via method of fleeing from angry hordes of girls, I would have been able to lift Issei up.

Who was I kidding? I could only pull my own bodyweight up enough to do a single push up, and that was a single feat of strength, not the continuous task of lifting and moving with someone.

"Kuso!"

He collapsed to the ground, and I followed suit, swearing as my chin slammed against the hard floor and made my teeth slam against each other with more force than I would like. I could already feel my chest rapidly expanding and contracting as I was out of breath in seconds. At least, I had been able to get us out of the wreckage, unto the street, where the three of us would be able to get some help.

Three… of us?

"Oh."

Matsuda was still in there, buried somewhere amongst the wreckage, and I needed to find him, but at the same time –

I turned my blurry vision over to Issei, noticing how he was slowly losing more and more blood. My hands were completely stained red with his blood, and the sinking feeling in my stomach came as I realized that Issei would die if he kept bleeding out like that.

At the same time, Matsuda could still be there, alive, suffocating slowly from the debris.

If I rushed over to try and unbury Matsuda, Issei would die from blood loss. If I decided to rush Issei to somewhere safe, Matsuda would die from asphyxiation, that was assuming he wasn't already –

No. He could not be dead. He was not dead. He was not dead.

Except, I had no way of knowing that. I wanted to rush over and start checking, to start unburying, but if I was wrong, if I was wrong and he – he was dead, then I'd have sacrificed Issei for nothing.

Even after Issei had struggled to save my life.

I bit my lip, biting it harder and harder. There was no chance of me even successfully finding Matsuda, my glasses had broken when the building had caved in and astigmatic as I was, my odds of successfully spotting him out in the darkness was slim.

So, it was either I saved one of my friends and abandoned the other, or I let one die as blindly scurried through to see if the other was still alive.

"GODDAMN IT!"

How? How did I even go about making a choice like that? Why? Why did I even have to make this choice? Everything was going just fine today, everything was good and happy and we were sitting around playing videogames and watching anime, how did I go from that, to deciding which of my two friends possibly lived or died?

I had to choose between Issei or Matsuda.

Except, it wasn't really a choice at this point.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

My voice cracked as I turned away from Matsuda's house.

I turned away from the wreckage, and moved over to Issei, gritting my teeth as I tore a large portion of my uniform's left sleeve, and made a makeshift bandage as I wrapped the cloth around his bleeding arm. The sound of ripping echoed again as I tore the other sleeve and continued the process, doing everything I could to make sure that Issei did not bleed to death.

I had not been able to stop the bleeding completely, but I was able to do enough to make sure it slowed down considerably. With that, I lifted him up and carried him on my back, and moved, left foot slowly in front of right, all the while making sure that my gaze did not once turn back.

I didn't know if this was really the end of the world, or if Godzilla had suddenly decided to leap out of the movie screen and terrorize us, but I did know that in times like these, the best place to head to was somewhere with shelter and all the necessary things needed to survive. Years and years of playing and reading about a possible apocalypse came in handy, as I thought about the best place to go to in case anything like this ever happened.

Kuoh Academy.

I knew for a fact that the nurse's office was stocked with medical supplies, the cafeteria was stocked with food, and the numerous, numerous clubs meant different, potentially life-saving tools and equipment.

I headed up unto the main streets and roads, noticing how the areas which were usually occupied with life and people and cars was dead silent. There were giant indentions that looked like massive footprints leading out from the tarmac, and the echoes of sirens and fighter jets were the only sounds that could be heard far off in the distance. In my immediate vicinity, there was absolutely no one I could make out with my blurry vision.

Chalking it up to my own sight limitations, I moved further and further until I felt a burning sensation of hope upon coming across a police vehicle.

"Officer! Officer!"

The police officer was sitting inside the car and the door was open, yet for some odd reason he couldn't hear me. I growled as I felt my hands burn from carrying Issei all the while, and I forced myself to move forward to the officer's position, staggering as Issei's weight messed up my balance.

I crashed into the floor for the second time that day, Issei's heavy form landing on top of me just as I fell in front of the patrol car's open door.

"Oi! Officer! Officer! Didn't you hear me –"

I turned my gaze up, and I immediately resisted the urge to throw up.

Bile filled my mouth as I noticed the policeman in the car had a jagged piece of glass sticking out from his throat and his left eyeball. The man's mouth was left dryly open, and his other eye stared blankly at nothingness, his form slouched over the steering wheel in a manner that would have made it look like he was sleeping.

I rushed up from the ground, faster than I had ever done before in my entire life, as I looked at the dead policeman, I idly realized that I was wheezing, as every breath felt as though I was inhaling fire into my lungs.

There was a blur of static, that sent my heart leaping to my chest, as the police vehicle's radio went on.

"All units on high alert. The purple titan crashed into the Akashima Penitentiary. I repeat, purple titan crashed into the Akashima Penitentiary. Prison Break in progress, and wanted criminals at large. All units are –"

I could not hear what happened next, as there was the heavy echo of a thunderclap, and a rapid golden blur slammed into the pavement not too far away from where I was, sending gravel and cement airborne.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I grabbed Issei's unconscious body as gingerly as I could, and hid it behind the patrol car, just as I placed my back behind it, taking slow, methodic breaths.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, –

I started counting to a hundred inside of my head to keep myself calm, despite how badly my legs were quivering and despite how I could hear blood pounding in my own ears. I summoned up enough will to peep around the corner of the patrol car, years of experience of peeping coming in handy for the first time in my life.

There was someone on fire.

Except, this wasn't normal fire, and the person did not look uncomfortable in it at all. The fire was a brilliant gold that seemed to surround its entire form and it illuminated the area far more brightly than any of the streetlights could ever have done.

Then, all at once, its gaze turned to my position.

My heart stopped.

This was one of the alien beings that had been fighting around the world… and he had turned to me, to me!

I would have begun laughing hysterically if not that it would have given me away even further, except at this point my death was certain. I could not run, as these creatures had raced from Paris to New York, and from New York to Rio De Janeiro in minutes. Me? My best feat of speed was failing to outrun girls who tried to kill me for gazing at their naked bodies.

I could not fight. The news broadcast had implied that they could rip out giant steel structures and send it airborne, whereas my best feat of physical strength was losing to an old lady using chopsticks.

I had no delusions in my mind of even as much as lasting a single second against it, and I had to silence my choked sobs as I knew that death was imminent.

I had waited for a second. Then another. And another, and as my heart began to detach from my throat, I summoned a bit of willpower to peep beside the patrol car once more.

The figure was gone.

I let out a deep breath of air as the tears had ran freely.

I was going to live to see another day! I was not going to die here! I was not –

"Yo!"

"GAHGLE!"

My heart pounded viciously against my ribcage as my eyes widened and spittle flew out of my mouth on sheer instinct. My lungs were burning and felt as though they were being stretched by talons as my hand grasped my chest, and I rasped out a breath.

My gaze turned up, slowly, until my blurry vision came upon the golden flamed creature in front of me

It looked human.

It was smiling.

It. Was. Smiling.

Smiling at me.

"Are you alr–"

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE! LEAVE ME ALONE! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

I scrambled away as fast as I could, my chest constricting as I did not hesitate to leave Issei to his fate.

"Hey! Wait! I'm not –"

"LEAVE ME ALONE! DON'T KILL ME!"

I ran faster than I had ever done before, feeling my feet hit the pavement hard enough for each strike to send waves of pain down my leg.

Except I knew my fate was sealed. It had appeared in front of me, with seemingly no effort on its part.

Hearing about it on the news was one thing, witnessing it first hand was something else entirely.

At least when I had been running from girls, I knew there was a small chance, however tiny it was, there was that spark of hope that meant I could escape.

With it, there was not even a slimmer of hope. I was a boy staring up at a god, and my entire life from birth till now became useless, as though my entire existence was a joke that people only laughed at out of courtesy.

I was an ant, a small, tiny, insignificant ant that had no business standing before a dragon.

"I-I d-don't w-want to d-die…"

The world around me grew darker, and darker, as the creature's golden flame shone. Why was everything going black?

The creature was saying something… what was it saying…?

Why was my chest feeling colder and colder?

Why was I suddenly gazing into the skies?

Why could I not breathe?