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Ryu Otsutsuki: Drake already has Yamato, he just has no reason to use it yet.

Disclaimer: I do not own Highschool DxD or Devil May Cry. I only own the OC Drake Redgrave.


Okay, so Drake wasn't going to have a very quiet night obviously. He had just gotten hoe, about to take Rebellion off his back when he had gotten a call about a disturbance in the area. Sighing, knowing he can't exactly just brush it off in case it's an actual demon or something worse, Drake went to investigate it.

Which is why he's currently standing outside a seemingly empty house, not a single light on. Okay, that could mean the owner is asleep, but Drake can smell blood so it has to be something other than that.

Drake walked up to the front door, narrowing his eyes open seeing it wide open. Drake tensed as he walked in and his nose was hit with a stronger smell of blood, nearly making him grimace in disgust but he remained stoic as he walked deeper into the house in search of the source of the blood. Keeping his eyes glancing around him. He stops and looks upwards at the staircase that led to the second floor. No lights. Continuing his trek, he saw himself approaching a corn and puts himself against the wall. He steps side to side to the corn before stopping.

Drake slowly stuck his head around the corner. There was a door at the end of the hall, slightly open, with a faint light coming from behind it. He comes out from behind the corner and walks towards the door silently, reaching up to unsheathe Rebellion.

Slowly, he pushed the door open and slowly enters the rooms. It's a living room with a television, a sofa, a table and such. Nothing out of the ordinary as the television was on, but had static on it, being the only source of light. However, the stench of blood was the strongest in here and he could see why.

Nailed to the wall upside down was the corpse of a man, his body soaked head to toe in his blood. He was cut up terrible, to the point where it was a miracle his body was still being held together, with his guts hanging, dangling down towards his head, out of deep gashes in his stomach. Some of the smaller ones had even fallen to the floor. There was writing – it looked vaguely like Latin – on the wall, written in the client's blood. Drake's eyes narrowed as he easily translated the writing.

"'Punish the wicked,'"

Drake turned at the voice to see someone standing up from the sofa. He was a young man with short white hair and red eyes. He was dressed in what looked like clerical clothing, with a cross dangling around his neck. There was a broad, disturbing (well, disturbing to others, maybe; Drake had seen worse) smile on his face.

The priest looked at Drake with a evil smile and a crazed look. "Words to live by. Wise advice from a holy man."

"Nothing about you screams holy righteous, pal." Drake remarked, not even bothering to ask the guy what he was talking about. "A bit young to be a priest, aren't you? You strike me as more of an altar boy."

The priest-boy laughed. "Yes, I'm a priest, a youthful priest, here to slay this demon beast," he sang. "With a grin and a laugh, I'll tear you in half, and have me a glorious feast!"

Drake sighed. 'This is just one of those nights, isn't it?' He narrowed his eyes at the priest. "I usually don't deal with humans because your more of a pain in the ass than demons. Though I'm afraid you sound more like an exorcist than a priest. You may want to make your job title a bit clearer."

The boy priest laughed again. "I like you," he said. "But don't tell anybody; I have an image to maintain. Freed Sellzen, at your service. I work for a certain devil-purging organisation you may have heard of. Ah, don't feel obliged to introduce yourself just because I did. I don't really care who you are. Fret not, you will perish soon! I will make sure of that. It may be painful at first, but you'll be crying for joy before too long. Now let's get a move on!"

"I've met nuns more intimidating than you."

Freed's expression darkened. "Oh?" he asked. "Aren't you going to turn tail? You're a strange one. Very strange. I mean, a mere demon thinking he's some kinda super, mega badass? That's fucking rich. Don't you understand how shitty an existence you demons have? That's sad. Maybe you should go back to basics and try things over in the next life...? Though I guess reincarnation only applies to humans, so it's useless for me to say this to y—"

Having no particular desire to relive his shitty childhood (not that his adulthood was any better) or continue listening to this asshole speak, Drake darted forward without warning and dropkicked Freed, sending him crashing into a bookshelf, sending books tumbling onto the floor.

Freed laughed as he got to his feet. "You sly dog! You got me monologuing!"

"You villains like to chit chat too much." Drake rolled his eyes and pointed Rebellion at him. "Though a fight every now and then does make life a little more interesting, don't you think?"

"Damn right!" Freed said, laughing and grabbing some sort of cylinder from a sheath on his waist. A beam of pure light shot from the cylinder and stopped at about three feet long. From the other side of his waist, Freed drew a gun.

"Wow, a Lightsaber." Drake said sarcastically. "Hey George Lucas called, he wants his prop back."

"You're starting to irritate me, so I'm going to cut you now," Freed declared. "I'm gonna cut out your heart and blow your fucking head off!"

Freed came sprinting towards him, slashing his blade of light. It was a classic feint. Drake dodged out of the way of the sword and, at the same time, reached out with his mind to knock Freed's gun arm off-course. The gun fired, as Drake knew it would, but silently. The bullets were pure light. They impacted a couple of random spots on the wall, leaving smoking holes. Drake rolled away from Freed and jumped to his feet, turning around and brandishing Rebellion.

He wasted no time in charging while Freed was still off-balance. He brought his sword up and swung it in a downward arch, intending to do as much damage as possible. Freed, seeing this, managed to throw himself out of the way just barely in time. Drake's sword still grazed Freed's arm as it shot past, ripping away the fabric of his sleeve and taking off a few inches of skin on the arm.

Freed was able to ignore that. He shot around and glared at Drake. The two stared each other down, Freed's eyes full of deadly intent, Drake's a picture of indifference.

The two would doubtlessly have jumped each other again if they hadn't been interrupted.

"W-What's going on in here?" came the soft, female voice.

Drake and Freed both looked towards their interrupter. It was a nun, a young one, maybe around 16 or 17. She looked harmless, perhaps even innocent, but Drake hadn't been joking when he'd said he'd met nuns more intimidating than Freed, so he kept his guard up. She was a pretty girl with long blonde hair which flowed down her back, with split bangs over her forehead and a single strand sticking out from the top and sloping backwards, and green eyes. She was wearing a dark teal nun's habit with light blue accents, a white veil over her head with bright blue accents, a brown satchel slung on her right hip, and brown boots with black straps in an X-shaped pattern. She also wore a silver cross necklace around her neck.

"Well, if it isn't my assistant, Asia," said Freed. "What are you doing? Have you finished setting up the barrier already?"

"N-Noooooooo!" the nun screamed, her eyes locked on the dead man pinned to the wall.

Drake relaxed a little. He knew genuine shock, fear, and disgust when he saw/smelled it. He could safely focus all of his attention on Freed.

"What an adorable little scream!" Freed thanked her gleefully. "Right, this is your first time seeing a body, isn't it? In that case, then look carefully. This is what the job entails, my dear. We dispose of unfortunate people who have been bewitched by the evil demons."

"… N-No …" she whimpered.

"Girl, I'd get out of here." Drake said, attracting her attention. "This is no place for little girls. So leave."

"Naw, she can stay and watch," Freed disagreed, waving him off. "We can call this a learning experience! She can get a first-hand look at what we do with shitty demons who don't know their place. Now c'mere, shithead! I need to cut you to ribbons!"

Freed raised his gun, using the inner-elbow of his sword arm to keep his aim straight, and started firing. Drake rolled out the way to avoid the bullets. He's half-demon, sure but he still didn't know if holy weaponry would gave a deadly effect on him. He ran, sliding on his knees while leaning back Matrix-style to avoid to bullets, and jumped to kick freed in the face, probably breaking his nose since there was a bit of blood flying from the exorcist and onto the floor.

"Gah! My fucking nose!" Freed growled, grabbing his weapon when two gunshots went off and Freed saw the sword and gun be shot out of his hands before he looked to see Drake with Ebony and Ivory aimed at him. "Hey, no fair! i just brought a sword and a gun to this fight! Two guns? That's just cheating!"

Drake hummed before he holstered his guns and grabbed Rebellion as Freed grabbed his light sword before the two charged at one another and their swords clanged together in a test of strength for dominance.

Freed grinned at him. "So, you like it up close and personal, huh?" he asked, sticking out his tongue in a mockingly lecherous manner.

Not into what Freed was implying, and more than a little accustomed to fighting dirty, Drake's response was to swiftly bring a knee up and slam it into a particular spot between Freed's legs.

Freed immediately stopped putting pressure on Drake's sword and cringed backwards.

"Motherfucker," Freed growled.

"I don't usually kill humans..." Drake said as he gripped rebellion and started raising it. "But from the looks of you... you seem to have lost your humanity and act more like some bloodthirsty demon, so I think I can make an exception to my 'no kill human' rule."

Frreed spotted his gun and grabbed it, aiming it at Drake and fired off a shot, getting the half-demon in the shoulder, causing him to grunt and take a step back. Drake looked at where the gunshot struck and saw it was sizzling a little and hurting, his healing factor was... slow to work it's magic.

'Okay, so holy bullets and stuff makes my healing factor slow to heal and it hurts like a serious bitch? Good to know.' Drake thought sourly before he leaped and tackled Freed, now resorting to hand to hand combat as he punched the exorcists across the face repeatedly until Freed punched Drake in the throat, causing him to back off and Freed tackled him into the coffee table, shattering it to pieces. Drake headbutts Freed and kicks him off onto his back.

Drake got to his feet and reached for Rebellion just as Freed came at him with the sword, bloodlust lighting up his eyes.

That was when Asia jumped between them. "Stop it!" she yelled.

Freed was already jamming his sword forward and clearly didn't care that she was in the way. His eyes portrayed his madness. Drake jumped ahead and grabbed the girl by her shoulders, pushing her to the side and down to the floor. He moved enough with her that Freed's blade didn't impale him, and he delivered a swift kick to Freed's ribs hard enough to probably crack one.

"Get out of here, girl." Drake said to Asia as he recalled Rebellion, readying himself for another round of this fight.

Suddenly a red magic circle appeared, one Drake knew.

'Lousy timing.' Drake thought with a headshake as the magic circle lit up the room and, very quickly, the Gremory peerage appeared in the centre of it.

"Drake, we're here to rescue you," Yuuto said, smiling.

"Oh dear, aren't we in a spot of trouble," Akeno commented.

"Priest," Koneko observed.

"Oh?" Freed exclaimed, brandishing his sword with an insane grin on his face. "A whole band of demons!" He leapt forward, slashing his sword.

CLASH!

The sound of metal filled the room as Yuuto jumped in his way and blocked Freed's sword with his own. "Sorry, but he's one of us!" said Yuuto. "I won't let you harm him!"

"Oh, what touching camaraderie for a demon! So what's this, you guys on your way to a game show already? Are you the Devil Rangers? I can feel the heat already! I'm getting turned on! Tell me, what's your deal? He's the pitcher, and you're the catcher?" He stuck his tongue out mockingly.

"... For a priest, that's quite a mouth you've got there ... You must be what they call a 'stray exorcist.'"

"Oh, I'm so sorry! It's not like I asked them to kick me out! Fuck the Vatican! But enough about them! Right now, hunting your kind is my only concern!" He was laughing, really enjoying himself.

"People like you are such a pain. Your only pleasure comes from hunting demons … There's nothing more dangerous to us than your kind."

"Don't you start fucking lecturing me, too! That prick over there tried telling me how to do my job when he first got here, and it fucking irritates me! You pests are in no position to be lecturing me!"

"Even demons live by rules," said Akeno. She was smiling, but her eyes were dangerous.

"Oh, what sultry eyes!" Freed said lecherously. "You're killing me! Is this love? No? Murderous intent? I could eat you up!"

"I think that's about enough," said Rias.

"Seriously, this guy's a fucking psycho," Issei commented, having not moved from where the magic circle was.

Rias looked at Drake. "Are you okay?" She asked, worried as she spotted the signs of a gunshot in his shoulder.

"Never better." Drake waved her off. "How'd you find me?"

"My Familiar was doing a patrol in this area when it heard a commotion in this house, and alerted me so we came to investigate and here we are." Rias explained.

Drake nodded.

Rias turned to Freed and narrowed her eyes. "You've harmed my friend." She growled.

"Oh yes, we've been having quite a time!" Freed chirped. "I was going to carve him into itty-bitty pieces, but now that you're here, that plan has gone up in smoke! Guess I'll have to finish that off in my dreams tonight."

A section of furniture behind Freed was vaporised in dark energy that came from Rias. "I never forgive those who harm my servants," she declared, "and I will never tolerate a lowlife like you damaging my friend!"

"President, a fallen angel is on its way," Akeno warned. "We should hurry."

Rias kept her gaze on Freed, contemplating the situation. "… Akeno, we're leaving. Prepare to jump."

"Right." Akeno started doing something in the magic circle.

"Issei?" Asia spoke up for the first time since Zakaria had knocked her out of Freed's way.

Issei blinked at the girl, his face lighting up in recognition. "Asia?" Then it dropped, concerned. "What are you doing here?" He looked at what Akeno was doing with the circle. "H-Hey, wait a second! We need to wait! Prez! We need to bring her with us!"

"I'm afraid only demons can use magic circles," Rias informed him, "and this one is only compatible with members of my Familia."

Koneko had to physically grab Issei to stop him from jumping out of the magic circle and running to Asia. Drake saw that he was quite desperate to make sure the girl was all right.

The magic circle began to glow …

"You think I'm going to let you escape!?" Freed declared, charging at them only for Drake to dropkick him into the wall again.

"Dra—!" Rias' words were cut short as the magic circle transported her and the others away …

… leaving Drake, who had stepped out of the ring, alone in the room with Freed and Asia. He wasted no time in running over to Asia, grabbing her by the hand, and pulling her with him as he ran out of the building. He didn't even use the door. He charged the window, smashed clean through it, and pulled Asia up and onto his back as he started running away as fast as his legs would carry him. Having her on his back was killing his shoulder, but he would put up with it.

"W-What?" Asia asked, bewildered.

"Ain't no way I'm leaving you with that psycho, plus Issei seems to like you." Drake said, causing Asia to blush at that last bit.

"Y-You really don't need to …"

"Whatever. I'm doing it, anyway."

Very soon, he could hear something behind and above him. It sounded like the flapping of enormous wings. This was only confirmed for him when large black feathers occasionally drifted down in front of him as he went. It was only when the fallen angel dropped to the ground several feet in front of him that he stopped.

"I suppose this is what they call 'irony,'" Drake said sardonically.

"Yes, I suppose it is," Dohnaseek agreed. "Just put down the girl and walk away and we won't have to fight."

"You know I can't do that."

"Shame. I was starting to like you."

"Why does it have to be a shame?" Drake asked. "Why did any of what happened tonight have to go down? That guy in there, the guy your guy murdered, he didn't have to die. Did he? What was the point? Why set that psychopath Freed on him? Why the hell would you send someone like this girl with someone like him in the first place?"

Dohnaseek shuffled his feet, uncomfortably. "… I can't tell you," he said after a few seconds.

"Because you don't know?" Drake guessed.

Dohnaseek growled. "Enough of this chit-chat! Are you going to give me the girl, or am I going to have to get forceful here!?"

"I'll go back," Asia said meekly, trying to get down from Drake's back, careful of the massive sheathed sword he had on his back. "Sir, please, you don't have to—"

"Hush," Drake shushed her. "You know what I think, Dohnaseek? I think the reason you're so frustrated right now is that I'm striking nerves. Random acts of murder don't seem like you. You don't know what's going on, do you? You're just here because you were told to be, is that it? Acting like a good little soldier and not questioning orders?"

"Shut up!" Dohnaseek shouted, bringing a spear of light into his hands …

… and then coughing and sputtering as dirt was flung into his face seemingly from nowhere. He cringed away, trying to rub it out of his eyes. It only took him a few moments, but that was time enough. He opened his eyes, blinking a few times to clear his vision …

… and saw that Drake and Asia were gone.

He reached out his senses, trying to find them … but there was nothing. He looked around. Maybe they had taken off running, and he would be able to see them in the distance.

But no.

There was nobody.

"… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" he yelled in rage.


After getting away from Dohnaseek, Drake had made his way to his apartment and made sure Asia was safe before calling Rias to tell her he was alright, and also had to tell Issei Asia was safe for now. Issei came over ten minutes after the phone call to hang out with the nun, and Drake left them to it, though he warned them that if they were going to have sex, do it anywhere other than his bedroom. His remark left the two blushing madly.

He went to the bar he and Dohnaseek usually met at. He wouldn't go inside since this conversation really couldn't happen around people. Waiting outside was what he planned to do.

As it turned out, he was so right on the money with this plan that no waiting as necessary. Dohnaseek was waiting for him.

"Demon," he greeted irritably as Drake approached him. "I believe you have something of ours."

Drake's eyes narrowed. "The girl is no one's possession. She's her own person, even if she's currently too naive to realise it. Is it her Sacred Gear that has you so desperate to have her back? It's a rather incredible power, I must say."

"Yes. Our power."

"I'm sure you'd like to think so. Back to earlier, what was going on with Freed killing that guy? Did you ever find out?"

"This isn't about that."

"I think it is." Drake looked him dead in the eyes. "I think it's very much about that. You had a doubt in your eyes, Dohnaseek. I saw it. That's why I pressed for details. Why did you doubt, Dohnaseek?"

"I didn't dou—"

"Don't try to lie to me. I know a lie when I smell it."

"… Because having an exorcist go after a demon's client made no sense," Dohnaseek finally conceded. "Being in this territory is already pushing our luck. Going further and antagonising the ruler of this territory by killing their servants' clients was just stupid. I don't know what Freed was thinking."

"He acted alone?"

"Of course he did. I was on my way there to retrieve the girl, not help him."

"Interesting … and this goes deeper, doesn't it? This isn't the first doubt you've had."

Dohnaseek gave him a look. "What are you, a fucking telepath as well as telekinetic?"

"Not that I know of. Simply good at reading people."

Dohnaseek sighed. "Yeah … you are, aren't you?" He rubbed the bridge of his nose in irritation. "I'm a good soldier. I follow orders. I do what my leader tells me without question. But this time … I have questions. Did you know that Lord Azazel is fascinated by Sacred Gears? It's common knowledge among the Grigori. He never passes up an opportunity to add another Sacred Gear user to our ranks, especially if it's one he's never studied before. But never like this. Him wanting us to take that girl's Sacred Gear from her … It just doesn't seem like him."

"Why?" Drake asked. "Didn't you just say he wanted Sacred Gears?"

"Taking a Sacred Gear from the user always ends in the user's death," Dohnaseek explained grimly. "Lord Azazel likes people to bring Sacred Gears to our organisation peacefully, which the girl would have. As an exile from the church, she has literally nowhere else to go. Killing her makes absolutely no sense. But I didn't question it; I obeyed. Then you just had to go and bring the doubts I was having to the surface." He clenched his fists at his side.

Drake hummed, thinking of something. "And you're positive these orders came from Azazel?" he asked.

"We rarely get our orders directly from the source, but they do come down from him, yeah," said Dohnaseek.

"But you're sure that these orders came down from him?"

"… What are you implying, demon?"

"That someone tricked you and your friends." Drake said seriously. "Someone higher up in your faction, who was able to know of your mission here, gave you orders that you believed came from Azazel. I'll make a deal with you right here. You go and double-check your orders with the Grigori, but don't contact the one who told them to you. You've surely got more than one contact there, right? If I'm right and you're being deceived, I think we can end this peacefully. If I'm wrong and Azazel really did order this … then I'll let you have the girl."

If it turns out these are Dohnaseek's real orders, then Drake will kill him without hesitation. No innocent suffers while Drake's around.

"What do you say?" Drake asked.

The silence only lasted a few seconds, but it felt like minutes. "… All right," Dohnaseek said at least. "Fine. It only for my own peace of mind, I'll do it. You wait here, and don't you move a fucking muscle." Dohnaseek walked away and, just before he took the air and flew off somewhere, Drake saw him taking a cell phone from his pocket. It still amused him that even supernatural creatures were using human technology to communicate. Least they weren't stuck in the past like thinking this was still the medieval days or something.

Dohnaseek was gone for a while. Drake thumbed his machete in its sheath while he waited, ready to make use of it at a moment's notice if Dohnaseek came back with bad news.

Dohnaseek came back after about twenty minutes. He looked pale. "I need you to wait here a little while longer," he said shakily. He wasn't shaking in nervousness, though. That was rage. Drake was pretty sure he knew which sin Dohnaseek fell for. "I need to go tell the others we've been made to look like fucking idiots."

He didn't even bother getting out of eyeshot of the human establishment to take to the sky this time.


When Dohnaseek returned, there were three other Fallen Angels with him. Two of which Drake recognized as Raynare and Kalawarner. The other one, he didn't know, but she was a younger one.

She was a small girl with blonde hair styled into twin-tails and blue eyes. She wore Gothic Lolita attire, which consisted of a black Lolita dress with white frills, a large black bow on the front, and a green jewel embedded on the collar, white thigh-high socks, and black shoes. She also wore a large black bow on top of her hair.

"… I guess I should consider myself lucky you slipped past my defenses and interfered in our business," Raynare grumbled after a few moments once they'd landed. She looked like she wanted to be angrier, to bite his head off for something, but she appeared too dejected to muster up the motivation.

They all did.

"I suppose we should thank you for making us realise we were being deceived," Kalawarner said evenly, though there was anger behind her words, anger at being fooled like this.

The blonde one scoffed bitterly. "Yeah, thanks for making us realise someone was making fools of us," she seethed. She seemed particularly angry for some reason.

"As you can see, none of us are taking the news particularly well," Dohnaseek said, far friendlier than the others were being. "I … I offer my sincerest thanks for making me see sense. I think this experience has taught me the merit of questioning orders I find suspect if nothing else."

"Where's the girl?" Raynare asked.

"Why do you want to know?" Drake asked, suspicious.

"Lord Azazel wants her to come with us, if possible, though only if she wants to. We're supposed to make her the offer and see what she says. I can't imagine how it'll matter at this point, given everything that happened with Freed, but orders are orders even if I already know we'll be leaving empty-handed."

Drake noted how her voice got angrier when she said Freed's name. "Did something happen with Freed?" he asked.

"That jackass ran off the second word got around to the exorcists that we were going home to report on everything that happened here," the blonde one explained. "Prick was probably in on the whole damn thing."

"Which I assume would explain why he ran off to kill someone with dealings with demons?"

"You assume right," Kalawarner confirmed.

"We're wasting time," Raynare growled impatiently. "Just take us to the girl so we can make the offer, she can refuse it, and we can all go home, and everyone can be disappointed in us."

Drake detected some bitterness there but didn't pry. "I'll take you there now," he said. "Just follow me."


"I should probably warn you," Drake said as they reached his floor of the apartment building, "that Issei is also here. So, try not to act too hostile. I'm not sure he has the best opinion of you." If he thought he and Asia walking through town together before had turned a few heads, it had nothing on what walking through town with the Fallen Angels had done to passers-by. Two of these women were wearing close to nothing at all, and one looked startlingly like a child. People had given Drake and Dohnaseek some peculiar looks as they'd passed them by, so Drake just gave them the middle finger and told them to mind their own business.

"Like I give a shit what he thinks of me," Raynare scoffed. "I just want to get this over with."

"Was killing him another one of those orders you followed without questioning?"

She didn't have a response to that. Mittelt (he had learned her name on the way over) sniggered a little.

As they got to the door to his apartment, Drake once again contemplated whether or not it might have been worth it to call ahead and explain the situation to Issei. He came to the same conclusion he did before: calling Issei to inform him that he was bringing four Fallen Angels to the apartment, including his ex-girlfriend, would have probably just freaked him out and made him call Rias down. Issei would still freak out the second this door opened, he realised, but at least if he was in the room with him, he could stop him from calling for help when they were so close to finishing this whole thing off with only minimal hostility between those involved.

He turned his key in the lock and walked in, followed by the Fallen Angels.

Issei glanced over as he entered. "Hey, man. How'd it go wi— What the sweet fuck are THEY doing here!?" It was explicitly noticing Raynare that prompted that response.

"Calm down, isse—"

"Why would you bring the Fallen Angels here!? What are you even doing with them!? What was the point of saving Asia from them if you're just gonna—" Issei suddenly found himself unable to speak, courtesy of Drake bringing a hand up and pinching his thumb and index finger on Issei's lips, pinching Issei's lips together and shutting him up.

"Fucking, zip it." The son of Sparda said. "Now, if you'll just let me explain—"

"Actually, allow me," Raynare said, stepping forward. She swallowed as she looked between Issei and Asia, who had been awkwardly standing off to the side this whole time, and bowed her head. "I'm … sorry." The word "sorry" was spoken through gritted teeth; that swallow had clearly been for her pride. "I apologise. My love and loyalty for my leader blinded me to facts about my orders which I should have picked up on sooner, and I nearly hurt both of you because of that. There was never a need to involve either of you in any of what was to happen. It was my own short-sightedness that caused all of this, for which I am sorry."

"…" Anything else Issei had to say suddenly got stuck in his throat. But make no mistake, he still had things to say. You could see it in his eyes.

"… I forgive you," Asia said quietly. She smiled so pure-heartedly it almost reminded Drake of his mother's own smile. "Even knowing what you were planning on doing, you still gave me somewhere to stay after I was e-exiled. It must have taken you a lot to apologise like this."

"… Asia might be too nice to hold a grudge," Issei said in a low voice, his fists clenched at his sides, "but I'm not. You may not have done what you wanted to with me, but you still hurt me. I worked really hard planning that date, you know? I wanted it to be really special. I wanted you to have a good time."

"Do you expect a 'thank you?'" Raynare asked him. "I said, I'm sorry, and I mean it. I didn't need to drag you into all this the way I did. But every other word I said about you and that date still stands. Hold a grudge if you want. I apologised, so anything you choose to feel from here on out is no concern of mine. Take it someone who gives a shit. If I was ordered to do that all over again, real orders from my beloved Lord Azazel, then I would. I'm just sorry I was stupid enough to let someone trick me into spending the most boring Sunday of my life with you."

"As healthy as it is to get emotions out into the open," Kalawarner interjected before this could escalate too far, "we did come here for a reason, Raynare."

"We have real orders from Lord Azazel this time," Dohnaseek explained. "He would like Asia Argento to return to the Grigori with us, but only if she wishes it. We came here to offer her a place with us. We are to stress that this is an offer, not an order. You are free to take whichever path you wish, and we will not argue."

"But really, what else are you gonna choose?" Mittelt asked with a smug smile. She gestured at herself. "What could be better than this awesomeness?"

Kalawarner bonked her on the head.

"I …" Asia started, then paused. She looked around at everyone, though her gaze lingered longest on Issei. Drake wondered what the two had been talking about while he was out. "… I want to stay here, in this town," Asia decided. "With Issei. He's my f-friend."

"As you wish," Raynare said with a slight huff in her voice. Even pretty much knowing the outcome in advance, the thought of going back to the Grigori empty-handed clearly displeased her.

"Well, now that this is over with," Drake said, "Pervert boy, take your new girlfriend and get out of my house."

"W-What?" Issei spluttered.

"Did I stutter?" Drake asked. "You've gotta have a spare room at your place, don't you?"

"W-Well, yeah, b-but I—"

"Then it shouldn't be a problem. Someone can bring Asia's stuff down in the morning. It's too late for that shit now, and I think we all need to rest."

"Dude, what am I gonna tell my parents?"

Drake gave him a deadpanned look. "Your a raging pervert of sexual desire. I'm sure they'll reach a reasonable conclusion themselves."

"I don't want them to think that!"

"I … can stay with Issei?" Asia asked, hope filling her eyes.

Drake looked at Issei pointedly. "Can you really say no to that face?" he asked.

Issei sighed. "No."

"Then, off you go, kids. Remember to use protection."

Issei gave him a flat look, not even prepared to argue at this point. He just sighed. "Come on, Asia," he said. "I'll take you to my place. You can stay in the spare room."

"O-Okay," Asia said, nervously but with a smile lighting up her face. The two of them walked towards the door, which Issei opened so they could leave. Before stepping out, though, Asia turned back and faced Drake. "Thank you, sir! Thank you so much for helping me!"

Drake smirked and gave her a two finger salute. Then they left, leaving Drake alone in his apartment with four Fallen Angels.

"When do you guys have to leave?" Drake asked them.

"Not until morning," Raynare told him. She growled in her throat. "For fuck's sake, I can't believe this! We were made to look like absolute fools! I'll never gain the respect of the others if this keeps up …"

"Sure, you will," Mittelt said. "You hang out with me! You'll be in with the popular fallen angels in no time!"

"Mittelt, you've been saying that to all of us for about a century," Dohnaseek pointed out in a deadpan voice.

"I-It could still happen!"

"I think we're all a little tense," Kalavana said, stretching her arms out above her head. "I say we all just try to relax for the night and face the music with renewed energy in the morning."

Drake walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, pulling out several bottles of beer. "Well, what do you say we just drink the night away?"

The Fallen Angels all looked at him, looked at each other, then looked at him with renewed smiles...


And that's it for this chapter and the first arc. Yeah, I did something different aside from do the whole 'Asia is captured, Raynare or Dohnaseek take her Sacred Gear, blah, blah, blah'.

Jesus, this chapter is over 6,000 words. But I did that to make up for the not so long chapters 1 and 2.