First of all: DISCLAIMER, this chapter has a fair bit of upsetting imagery in it, if you are sensitive to that sort of thing, please either excercise caution while reading, or skip over this entirely.
This chapter takes place during the events of chapter 11, but will not overlap with it.
Side-chapter 1 - Memories of haze
"Flyer duty again..." I groaned, walking my bike down the street, gazing at the pile of papers in the basket at front of it, the sound of bustling city streets and the clicking of my bicycle's chains being all I could hear, the sound beginning to grate on me. "Devil Servant? More like...Just, a servant." It was quite funny, actually. That I, Issei Hyodou, possibly the biggest loser in the history of Kuoh academy, was also the biggest loser in the history of the Devil world, probably. Lyonette gets a cool gauntlet, and what do I get? A tiny red thing which looks cool, but does fuck all. Tylia got catcalled by the president before she was even brought into the club, meanwhile all I've got in mild praise. What part of any of this is fair?
I suppose it's what you get when you spend most of your life acting like a dumb perverted douchenozzle. I don't blame anyone for thinking that of me, if anything, I'm jealous. I wish that was all there was to me, to just be an idiot with a fixation on boobs. Sure, nothing wrong with a rack that bigger than my head, but I wish it was that simple. These things were all I could think about as I turned a corner, arriving at an all too familar crosswalk. I sighed, putting a hand up to my head and pressing onward, my gaze lingering on the road.
"Can't believe it's been 5 years already." I grumbled, remembering details of events long passed and a friendship that fell to shambles.
Ages ago, I had a friend, she was my only friend, and for the short time that I knew her, we got along really well, though, I can never remember her name. She moved away shortly before I started elementary school, and to be honest, when she moved so suddenly, it had took me by surprise and upset me a fuck-ton. A while after, just when we were starting to transition over to middle school and I was starting to give up on the concept of having friends, I met two new kids, who'd just transferred over from different schools, one was a dude, the other was a chick, Copper and Lyonette. You had Copper, pretty intelligent and a tiny bit on the rude side, who moved over from god-knows where, barely saying much about himself, and then you had Lyonette, a pretty dim-witted, but sufficently kind-hearted girl who reeked of 'himedere' for a while. In hindsight, it made a lot of sense that they wound up dating.
We all got along really well, and it only got better when we started middle school. We always hung out at recess and after school, messed with each other, it was all a lot of fun. But around the beginning of our first year of middle school, our new friend group gained a new member: Her name was Sylvia, and she was Lyo's cousin, and...well, damn.
She was a pleasure to have around, always really happy-go-lucky, energetic, sung like a goddess, not to mention that she was just as much of a perv as I was. She had really blue eyes, and weirdly soft looking silver hair, and always seemed to be smiling her worries away, drawing everyone's attention seemingly out of nowhere, always talking about her dreams of becoming a pop idol and always bringing a smile to everyone's faces, whether it was me, Lyo and Copper, or the other students. Overall, if she made it to Kuoh with us, she would've been smokin'. It was kinda from her where I picked up my whole pervy deal and it was actually through her that I met Matsuda and Motohama, since she was the one who kept showing them all the peeping spots she'd found. Her and I got on like two peas in a pod, and it was probably the closest I ever got to having an actual girlfriend, hell, she would've been my first girlfriend...if only I'd let her.
And then, one summer, a few days before Lyo's birthday on the 15th of August, during our summer break, transitioning from our middle school to Kuoh, I was walking home from school with her, chatting to her idily, trying our damnedest to ignore the horrible heat, walking down the road and powering through the haze.
"It'll be really cool to be going to a place full of chicks!" I had excitedly exclaimed, feeling like a kid in a candy shop, looking at Sylvia with a goofy grin on my face.
"Yeah..." she'd mumbled, prefacing her speech with a nervous chuckle, her smile seeming a fair bit more forced that it had before. I took notice, tilting my head slowly, knowing that her behaviour was odd. "...Uh, can I ask you a really strange question?" she said suddenly, after a moment of silence and staring, her voice meek and shaky, uncharacteristic for her.
"Sure? Ask me anything!" I replied, feeling my heart stop as I listened to her clear her throat.
"Do you...happen to have a crush on anyone?" she asked, her voice quiet and less perky than normal. "I-I doubt you do, but, I just wanted to ask, since...My next question kinda..." she went silent for a moment, a small blush making its way onto her already heart-meltingly adorable face. "D-depends on it..." Immedietley, I felt the tension in the air rise, my head beginning to swim with thoughts along the lines of 'What should I say?' or 'What's she gonna ask?'.
"N-no, I don't." I responded, my tone sounding shaky and stuttery, reflecting my now growing panic. "Why?" Sylvia's eyes seemed to spark up, excitement beginning to show itself.
"T-then...!" she suddenly stopped, looking at me, smiling ear to ear, an innocent glitter in her eyes. "D-do you think we could...S-start dating?! Like Lyonette and Copper started doing?!" the words hit me like a truck, her ecstatic voice ringing in my ears as my heart leapt out of my chest. What would be a sane way of responding to this, do you think? 'Yeah, totally!', 'I thought you'd never ask!', or at least a hug or something? Nah, not me. Not my panicky ass.
"A-are you crazy?!" was my response, unsure of how to feel or think at the time as I watched her expression change from joy to confusion. "Y-you can't be for real!" by this point, I'd realised that what I said was wrong, and was clearly leading down the opposite way to what I wanted to say. Looking back on it, I hated how I continued, I could've just said something that put my words in the right direction, but once again. Nah, not me. Not my stupid, dumb awkward ass.
"W-what do you mean?"
"I-I can't do that! I can't handle that!" I yelped out, pushing her away, my brain beginning to fall over itself as it tried to think of things to say. "I-I'm leaving!"
"W-what? Take me with you!" she'd persisted, reaching out for my hand with tears in her eyes. In the blink of an eye, I batted her hand away, beginning to turn my back on her, taking a small stride away from her, my legs walking me away as I heard one of my best friends in the whole world, crying her eyes out in utter anguish. I felt sick to my stomach, apalled by my own response and behaviour, knowing full well that I fucked up, and that I had to apologise...and for some ungodly reason, I decided to wait. I waited until Lyo's birthday, waited for a moment where I'd have the chance to say sorry and amend things. The only chance I had was a point where she'd gone out to the park with Lyo, presumably for some one-on-one girl talk. I'd confided in Copper about the whole thing, and soon found myself following his advice to go and follow them, and tell Sylvia how I really felt.
But no. Once again. Nah, not me. Not my unlucky, tardy ass.
I came far too late. I bolted it down the street from Lyo's place, my footsteps clattering against the ground with speed and vigour I've never matched since, my mind swimming with things to say to her, things to rectify everything, things to allow her what she wanted, and for us to become a couple..and then, as I turned a corner, I heard it. The sound of a cry, the horrid scream of a girl, along with the screeching of tires and the snapping of bone. It took a moment for my eyes to figure out what had happened but when I saw it, I felt my stomach churn. On this very same crosswalk, which I was stood in 5 years later, in the middle of the road, was a large truck, its front and windshield splattered with gore, its driver looking out in stunned silence. Lyonette, standing over the road, staring at the ground, her face contorted into a scream, her eyes full of fear and dread. And on the ground, mangled, broken and barely recognisable, was her. Her sea blue eyes, open wide in terror and sadness, her mouth, which she used to sing so much with, open in horror, her silver hair, once soft and luscious looking, now splattered with her own blood, seeping from the horrid wound which now replaced most of her body, viscera sprayed across the sidewalk and asphalt.
My heart took a nose-dive into the dirt, my body beginning to convulse and shake as I processed the traumatic scene before me. I felt ill and faint, tears welling up in my eyes, blurring my vision, finding myself choking. I remembered when we first met her, how happy, healthy and perky she'd been. I remembered how during a sleep over one time, she'd fallen asleep on my lap, resting ever gently. I remembered how she laughed, smiled and sung her heart out with that angelic voice of hers. But no more. No more would we hear her voice, or see her around. She was dead, gone, mangled and desecrated, right in front of us, reduced to naught but bloody remains on the street, taken from us so easily. It was no wonder I fell to my knees, my head falling into my hands, and began crying like a little bitch.
"This is all because of you." I swear I heard her voice say to me, echoing through the haze. "You made me do this, Issei."
I never wanted this! I never wanted her to do this! I fucked up, I wanted to fix it, but me being the complete dipshit that I am, I failed. I failed so, so, so so very badly. I loved her. I'll admit it, I adored her with every inch of my being, her hair, her eyes, her voice, her smile, how she made us all happy, how she helped us all through hard times- I loved it. I loved it all. But now? She was gone, and it was all thanks to me! I wish she was here still, I wish she was still with us, with me. I wish that her and I would've had the chance to be like Copper and Lyo, where our fuck-ups with each other only made our bond stronger. But no, once again:
Nah. Not me. Not my selfish, pervy, constantly failing ass.
All of these memories, all from this one crosswalk. From one mistake five years ago. Suddenly, my previous stress of failing Rias by getting by that exorcist, or having to do flyer duty? It was null and void, now replaced with an unshakable feeling of sadness and rage, a feeling directed soley at myself. My head, and strangely, my left arm, in intense pain. I cried out in frustration, flinging my foot into my bike wheel at full force, a loud clank being heard from it. I began to hyperventilate, breathing in and out deeply, attempting to calm myself.
"...No. She wouldn't want me to act like this." I grumbled, holding my arm and looking towards the sky, my eyes raking over the clouds as I began to ponder to myself. Now that I know that Devils and Angels exist...I guess I have more of a reason to think that she's watching me from heaven. I hope she knows how much I miss her and love her. I don't even feel as strong towards Rias or anyone else as I do towards her, and I don't think that'll be changing at all. And hopefully she isn't too upset that I became a Devil...
I wish you were here, Sylvia. I miss you.
I watch him from my hiding place, as I have done everyday.
Does he know that I hear him? Does he know that I see him?
The haze had laughed, as if it was some kind of sick game,
My heart had had split asunder that day, my body catching up to it's pace,
But it does bring a smile to my face, knowing that he feels the same,
But worry no more my love, I shall soon be back with our friends,
I shall get my wish, my story is far from it's end.
My apologies for the slight change in style, as well as a bit of a break from the main story. I wanted to do a small chapter dedicated to Issei, and do a bit of exposition that'll have a little more relevance later on in the story.
I hope you enjoyed this regardless~ Thank you for reading, please leave a review if you have anything to say, or any questions you'd like answering~
