CHAPTER THREE - That damn girl...
[Perspective of: Rias Gremory]
I thought this would be easier. I thought it would just be as quick as swooping in, reincarnating the boy, taking him back to his home and filling him in on what happened later. But when I realised that she was there too, and was dying with him, I felt my heart sink.
"Why is she here too?" I thought to myself, looking at the bespectacled blonde girl bleeding out in front of me, the exact same one which I'd been told to keep an eye on. "Damn it...I make one damn promise, and I can't even keep it!" I panicked a slight bit, trying to figure out what to do in this situation, before dragging her over to where Issei lay, sighing and looking down at them both, my gaze falling to the blonde, who appeared to have her right hand clenched, some kind of strange aura emanating from her, as if she'd just expended a fair bit of magical energy. "... She's...A Sacred Gear user too?" I couldn't help but muse over this for a short moment, temporarily forgetting the urgency of the situation. "...Perhaps...It would be best if I brought them both back at the same time..." I slowly took out two chess pieces, one, a pawn, ornamented with red, with my family's emblem carved on, placing it on Issei's chest, while the other...
"I'll give you this, just in case worst comes to worst while I'm gone." he'd said to me when he gave me the piece, carrying a suitcase and a bag full of school supplies. "...If Lyo's alive by the time I come back, I'll do all I can to help you get out of this mess you're in."
"...I don't think this is allowed..." I said, placing the crowned piece upon the girl's chest, the orange markings on it seemingly glowing slightly. "...But, if it means that he'll fulfil his end of the deal...Then I'll do it." I sighed, looking down at the two, a red circle appearing around them as I focused. "...Here goes nothing."
"Rias?" I snapped out of my thoughts about the previous night, looking up at the black haired girl standing over me with a worried look on her face. "Are you alright?" she continued, tilting her head slightly.
"...I'm fine, Akeno." I stated, waving my hand dismissively. "Just...reflecting on what happened last night."
"You managed to bring Issei back, right? What's wrong?" Akeno responded, her worry changing to curiousity.
"Yes. I did." I replied, folding my arms, putting one of my hands on my chin. "But...I'm more worried about what happened to the girl. Lyonette."
"Lyonette? You mean Lyonette Griffin? That girl who's always hanging around with Issei and those other two?" I nodded in response, sighing slightly.
"I promised that I'd keep and eye on her while he was away, to make sure nothing bad happened to her, then the next thing I know, just as I'm beginning to feel as if nothing can go wrong, she winds up getting killed by one of the Fallen." I explained, standing up and going over to the window, looking out of it thoughtfully. "So, I had to bring her back, too." Akeno's eyes widened as she looked at me, walking to my side.
"...What piece did you bring her back as? Or, did you simply bring her back as a stray?"
I paused for a moment, closing my eyes and sighing. "I'd rather not say."
"...So, what are you going to do about it?" Akeno asked, looking out of the window with me. "Are you going to tell them about what they are now and what you are?"
"Yes." I responded bluntly, opening my eyes, gazing out over the campus of the school. "...I'm going to have to, aren't I?"
[Perspective of: Lyonette Griffin]
"C'mon guys, do you seriously not remember meeting Yuuma?" Issei asked, disbelief clear in his voice as he looked at me, Matsuda and Motohama. This morning had been a strange one. I felt tired and drained, even more so than usual, my mom even considered keeping me off school for the day to try and figure out what was wrong with me, but I could vaguely remember the events of the previous day, or, so I thought.
"It must have been a dream." my mother had said, unsure of what I was talking about when I was on about going to the fountain. "You came home by that time and just went to bed."
"Nope! Name's not ringing any bells." Matsuda responded, his hands behind the back of his head as he leaned against the wall.
"For the last time, you never introduced us to a chick, and it's impossible that you have a girlfriend." Motohama added, sitting on the top of the stair landing near us, his hand on the bottom of his chin.
"I think I remember...Kind of." I responded, sitting on the railing with my hands gripping it. "Either that, or we both had the same dream." all three of them looked at me, Issei's eyes lighting up a bit, before looking at the other two.
"See? Lyo remembers her!" Issei stated, blinking and looking at the other two with an 'I told you so' look on his face.
"Hey, it's possible that it was a really lucid dream we both had." I stated, still not 100% sure on that theory myself.
"But that doesn't make any sense!" he responded, pulling his phone out and opening it up. "Her e-mail address is right here!" he messed around with his phone for a moment, pressing buttons and searching as his eyes widened in shock. "...No way. Yuuma's contact information is not in my phone..."
"Like Lyo said, it was prolly just a really weird dream you both had." Matsuda said, putting his arms down and looking at me.
"It can't have been..." Issei quietly said in disbelief, slowly looking up, his eyes then widening. I looked up to the top of the stairs, to see non-other than little miss red-head herself, looking down at us, specifically me and Issei.
"Big boobies, twelve o'clock!" Matusda whispered, looking up at Rias in conjuction with me, Issei and Motohama. I could hear the sound of many girls, talking amongst themselves as Rias walked down the stairs, slowly guiding herself down with her hand on the railing, moving away from it as she passed me, smiling at Issei, continuing down the stairwell.
"...Filing that image away for later," Matsuda began, seemingly about to speak more, before I interupted him.
"Could you guys give me about five minutes?" I asked suddenly, looking down the stairs at Rias, before looking back at them. "I just need to go do something really quick." I didn't even wait for a response before rushing off, my brain just wanting to follow Rias, as I had a lot of questions. I wasn't like Issei, where he'd just stand around thinking about if she knew something, one thing I remember is that she was there when that thing had happened the previous night, and if it wasn't a dream, and she knew something, I was damn well going to find out.
"Ria-M-Miss Gremory!" I stutter-shouted, running after her, seemingly taking her by surprise as she turned around to look at me.
"Hm? What's up?" she asked, looking at me as I approached, putting her hand on her hip.
"U-um..." I thought for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to casually ask about the situation and not sound like a lunatic. "...W-was that you I saw in town, yesterday evening? Near the park? Or, in it, rather?" I mentally congratulated myself for managing to figure out a way to not sound crazy. Rias seemed to look confused for a moment, but then seemed to think.
"...Probably, since I do tend to go there rather often." she said, looking around at everyone, then suddenly giving me a discrete wink, as if she was telling me that she was trying to keep some kind of secret. My heart lept as a small smile crossed my face.
"So she does know something! Or, at least, she's just playing along."
"...U-uh...Right! That's all I wanted to know." I stated, turning around and running back to the other three on the stairs, where they still were, standing around, talking, I hopped up to them, looking at them all. "Hey, did I miss anything?" Matsuda looked at me, grinning.
"We've arranged that we're going over to my house after school to watch some of my DVD collection." he said with a grin, Motohama seemed to have the same expression, while Issei looked...Troubled, to say the least.
"...That sounds good." I said, feigning a smile and standing next to Issei.
"Maybe watching some stuff will take my mind off all this stuff..." I quietly pondered, my chest raising a bit as I breathed in and sighed.
"Hell yeah! The gang'll all be there!" Matsuda exclaimed, thrusting his fist into the air triumphantly, much to the confusion and slight disgust of the girls around us.
"And maybe we can all get laid..." Motohama said, smiling pervertedly over at me. I glared at him and shook my head.
"Don't even entertain the thought, Motohama."
[Timeskip: After School]
As we left the school grounds, I couldn't help but think about what had happened last night, and how if it was all a dream, it was a really lucid one, even down to me feeling a slight pain in my chest as I woke up.
"Hey, Lyo, you alright?" I heard Issei ask, looking at me worriedly, still walking after the other two. "... Thinking about last night?" I slowly nodded, sighing a little.
"Yes... Surely you remember what happened, right?" I asked, looking back at him, my heart lifting a little as he smiled at me.
"Yeah! I-"
"Hey! Pick it up, you two!" Matsuda shouted over at us impatiently, continuing onward.
"...We can talk about this later..." I said to Issei, smiling at him. "We'll get this figured out, one way or another." Issei sighed and nodded, scratching the back of his head.
"I sure hope so..." he replied, looking over at the other two, then began sprinting after them. I looked down at the ground, continuing to walk, sighing.
"I hope so too..." I thought to myself, beginning to follow the other three at a similar pace. It wasn't long before we reached Matsuda's house, all of us beginning to go up the stairs, the sound of the TV being switched on and a video being played before I entered the room.
The scent of musk and repressed sexual tension was all I could smell as I entered Matsuda's room, with the only sound being the sound of the video on the TV, and the sight I saw being that of Matsuda stood near the TV, adjusting some things on it, Motohama and Issei both being sat down, watching the TV in this small, messy, cramped room. Issei was looking at the floor, looking somewhat out of it and uninterested in what was being put on the TV.
"Yo, Lyo! What took you so long?" Matsuda said, looking at me with a grin on his face.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, sitting down next to Issei and crossing my arms. "I got here at the same time as the rest of you."
"A little later, actually." Motohama corrected me, his gaze not shifting from the TV. I rolled my eyes, looking at the TV, which showed a scantily clad woman, doing various things and getting into compromising positions, the whole thing being done like some kind of magical girl anime. I rolled my eyes once more, slowly letting my mind wander in the topic of other things.
"Sheesh...I have no idea why my dream had Rias in it..." I blinked, pondering over this for a moment. "...I gotta stop thinking about her. I don't care why it is that I'm doing this, it's unhealthy."
"Not to interrupt you guys or anything, but... Lyonette? Why'd you rush after Rias earlier?" Issei asked me, looking over at me curiously. Motohama seemed to grin a bit.
"I don't know why she did it, but I'm going to guess that she has a crush on her or something." he stated, seemingly stopping to think about it for a moment, drooling slightly.
"Yeah? Lyo's a lesbian, ain't she?" Matsuda said, looking away from the TV and diverting his sight to the three of us.
"For the second and last time, I am not a lesbian." I stated sternly, folding my arms and glaring at Matsuda. "I'm not going to say this again, I have a-"
"Yeah, right!" Matsuda interrupted, glaring back with a slightly grin on his face. "You're totally a lesbian! Don't think we haven't noticed the way you've been lookin' at the red-head, not to mention the fact that I saw you walking around with a chick yesterday!"
"Wait, she was on a date yesterday?!" Motohama said, suddenly looking away from the TV and looking at me. "Is that true, Lyo?!" I blinked, straining to think of what actually happened yesterday.
"...No. She was just kind of dragging me with her as we went. It wasn't a date or anything." I corrected them, trying to recover as much as I could, my face red with embarrassment, making me look even more suspicious. "We were just...hanging out? Kind of?"
"So, the shit with Evie wasn't a dream..." I thought to myself, pursing my lips slightly and sighing.
"The look on your face is sayin' otherwise!" Matsuda said, laughing a bit, looking at the other two, looking back at me. "So, who was that chick?"
"...Her name's Evie. She goes to our school." I stated, slightly fearful that now that they knew this information about her, they'd start harassing her about it. Motohama and Matsuda gasped, grinning ear to ear.
"... Aren't we meant to be watching this?" Issei said, looking at all of us, still looking a little tired and out of it. Motohama turned to the TV, where things seemed to be getting lewder on the video, as the girl was being groped by some kind of monster.
"I'm just gonna...Turn the light off.~" Motohama said with a chuckle in his voice. "It's too bright in here, I can't concentrate." this was followed by the click of the light being turned off...But, despite the light being off, I could see just fine, albeit, the light was dim. Even the parts of the room where the light and the TV's light couldn't reach seemed lit to a degree, allowing me to see a fair bit in the room.
"What the hell? The lights are off, right?" I wondered, looking around frantically, trying to figure out what was going on. "...What the fuck? Motohama, you turned the lights off, right?"
"Yeah. I did." Motohama reponded, not looking away from the TV as he spoke.
"You sure? They're still on... Aren't they?" Issei said, looking around, seemingly having just as much of a hard time as me as to figuring out what was happening.
"Wait, what did you just say?" Motohama asked, finally looking away from the TV, Matsuda following suit, both of them with confused looks on their faces. I soon realised something about the 'light', it seemed to be extra bright around areas where light was most visible, such as the TV, which lead me to a revalation.
"This light...I can't see it, but I can...Feel it? It feels..." I clutched my head, grunting a little, looking at the other three, who looked a mixture of concerned and confused.
"You okay, Lyo?" Matsuda asked, looking slightly concerned as I stood up, grabbing my bag and sighing.
"I'm fine...My eyes are just being a little funny..." I stated, trying to come up with a good excuse for why I was suddenly standing up with the intention of leaving. "... I'm just... Going to go home, I feel a little sick." I slowly began to move towards the door, opening it, before waving at the three, walking out. I trudged down the stairs and out of the house, walking out into the street, looking around.
"What the hell is going on with me right now? Why do I feel so weird all of a sudden?"
"Lyo?" I heard somebody say my nickname, a voice I immediately recognised as Issei's. I turned to look at him, still holding my head.
"You're leaving too?" I asked, blinking and taking my hand off my head, watching as he approached me.
"...Yeah." he stated simply, looking a bit concerned and worried as he looked at me. "...You were on about what happened last night, right? Earlier, I mean." I tilted my head for a moment, struggling to remember what he was talking about for a moment.
"Yeah...Do you remember?" I asked, nodding and smiling a bit, glad that we could finally try and compare our experiences to see if it was a dream.
"Yeah! I was on my date with Yuuma and things went really well, but then she..." he seemed to think for a moment, looking at his body. "...Killed me. But, I'm alive, somehow." I nodded, remembering about where we were at the time all of a sudden.
"I remember coming out of the tabletop shop after being dragged in there by a girl who comes to our school, finding you and Yuuma at that fountain, then I wound up..." I struggled to remember what happened after that, it all seemed like a blur to me, as if there was a gap in my memory. "...I don't know. The last thing I remember was bleeding out on the ground, before I blacked out..."
"You said the fountain, right?" Issei responded, smiling a bit. "Why don't we go there? Maybe we might find Yuuma there and get some answers out of her..." I winced at the idea, thinking of all the things that were wrong with it.
"She'd probably kill us again..." I folded my arms and thought, sighing slightly. "...But, I suppose it's the only thing we can do."
"We might as well." I agreed, standing up straight and unfolding my arms. "It's our best bet at the moment." Issei rubbed the back of his head nervously.
"Alright! Let's get this show on the road!" he exclaimed, beginning to walk, looking around at his surroundings, seemingly a bit overwhelmed. "...If I don't wind up passing out, that is."
"Yeah...Same." I responded, following him closely, a mixture of excitement and dread causing my heart to beat a little quicker. Issei looked around, looking at his hands and blinking.
"...I don't know what's going on...My eyes are being weird, and I feel like a totally different person." he said, a slight bit of confusion in his voice as he looked around more, seemingly trying to sort out his eyes.
"I know, right? Do you think it's to do with last night?" I asked, folding my arms and looking around myself, taking off my glasses and blinking a bit, before putting them back on.
"Yeah! Definetely!" Issei responded, looking over at me, blinking, trying to focus his vision properly. We continued walking in the direction of the fountain, finally arriving in the area where we wanted to be, the area was dark and fairly gloomy, a menacing energy being present everywhere around us, my legs beginning to tremble a little bit.
"...Something bad is going to happen, isn't it?" I predicted, shifting my gaze to the area behind us, my paranoia not settling at all, even as I bore witness to nothing but an empty path.
"So...It wasn't a dream." Issei said, walking over to the fountain, rubbing his hand on the rim of it, his mouth agape in shock. "...It really happened."
"I know. What gave you the idea that it didn't?" I stated, turning to look at him, folding my arms. "Even when my mom told me that it was just a dream, I didn't believe her." Issei simply stared into the fountain, not speaking another word. I felt a feeling of dread shoot down my spine, and judging by the look on his face, so did Issei.
"I fucking knew it!" I yelled, doing a full turn to look behind us, where a man in a trenchcoat and hat stood, watching us with an unreadable expression.
"...Well, isn't this unfortunate." the man said, a hint of mockery in his voice as he slowly approached us, his prescence becoming more and more intimidating the closer he got. "...Running into two of you at once? Quite lucky for me, to be frank." he stopped, glaring at us, a small smirk appearing on his face.
"...W-what do you want, you L.A Noir looking headass?" I stuttered out, stepping back a bit, clentching my fists in an attempt at being intimidating. The clacking of a pair of shoes hitting the floor was heard from behind me, which caught my attention, where I saw Issei had jumped a mile, literally. He was stood on the other side of the park, looking freaked out. The man sighed a bit, drawing my attention back to him, as he scowled at me.
"...It looks like your friend doesn't want anything to do with this..." he said, looking over at Issei, before back at me. "It seems like your master isn't around...It's just the two of you...With neither of you using any magic, or anything."
"Master? Magic? What kind of drugs is this fucker on?"
"Therefore, I'm going to assume that you're both nothing but strays! Am I correct?" he said, a pair of black wings sprouting from his back, putting his arm out to his side, with what appeared to be some kind of spear manifesting in his hand, made entirely out of some kind of light energy, similar to the spear Issei was stabbed with. "Therefore, killing you both won't make any difference!" I slowly began to back away, trying to muster up enough courage to talk trash at him, or try and fight him in some way, but I had nothing, before I knew it, I had turned tail, fleeing towards Issei, who seemed to realise what was going on and began running too. Black feathers fell upon us as the man, or, whatever he was, flew over our heads, landing in front of us, blocking us off from going any further.
"...Such cowardice. As to be expected from lower class beings like yourselves!" he said, yelling as he hurled the spear at Issei, time seemed to slow down as I remembered what had happened the previous night, when Issei was impaled through the heart with the same sort of spear, how Yuuma had done it with such cruelness and disregard. But this guy seemed different, he had no mocking in his voice, nor did he seemed to be enjoying what he was doing, if anything, he looked annoyed, almost as if this was his job, rather than a hobby. I lunged at Issei, knocking him out of the way of the spear as it dug into my flesh, a shriek of pain escaping me as it burned, like a wound that had salt poured into it, I tried to pull the spear out, another shout sounding around the area as my hand began to burn the same, tears rolling down my face. Issei gasped, looking at me, his eyes wide.
"Lyonette!" he shouted as he watched me lay there, my leg a bloody mess and my hand searing in horrible pain.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" the man stated, slowly walking over and tearing the spear from my leg, a feeling of slight relief washing over me as the pain began to subside slightly. "Light is toxic to your kind." he looked at Issei, then back at me. "...Though, I have to give you a little bit of credit, kid. Not many of you would jump into a spear of light just to save somebody." he raised his arm, pointing it at me, ready to strike me down for good. "It's a shame that your self-preservation didn't kick in!" Issei yelled out as he stood up, charging at the man, practically throwing himself at him, only to be pushed onto me, making my pain that little bit worse. "Stop trying to tough this out! You're wasting my time!" he shouted, throwing the spear full force into Issei and I, the weapon going straight through Issei, the blade going into me, all I could hear was the sound of screaming, a glowing red light enveloping the area as I began to fall unconscious.
"Damn...you to hell...!" I choked out at the man, my voice practically a hiss as my vision faded and body shut down...
"...Not again...I don't want to die again...I don't...want..." my thoughts were the last to go, as I fell unconscious.
...I mean, we're nearly at the end of episode one...? Bloody hell.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter...I'm going to respond to the Guest Review now with a simple phrase: "I can't say yet". Mostly because I'm sure you lot would like to wonder about this, rather than know right of the bat.
Either way. as I said, hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter, chapter four will be the end of episode one's events, and that means I can stop putting these 'We still haven't finished episode one? Wack' author's notes at the bottom. Chapter four will be coming rather soon, I'd hope, though, I may be focusing a bit on my Azur Lane story, while still writing chapter four, since that story hasn't had it's first chapter yet. Be sure to let me know if I got anything wrong, I really want to make this story as correct as possible to the lore of DxD, so if I got something wrong, please tell me. Anyway, I'll see you all next time!
