Chapter THIRTY-SIX "Ante-Up"

Issei's bathroom door slammed open, revealing a twisted and tall fallen angel. Kalawarner, having that same look she has when accidentally woken up from her slumber. "What's this I hear? Something about a little devil, hurting MY Issei!?", Kalawarner threatens. Sona, Tsubaki and Raynare turn their attention from Ravel Phenix to now Kalawarner. The very pissed off angel, standing at the bathroom door then motions with her hands in the air, "Anyone wanna tell me what is going on?" The very nervous Ravel Phenix, now has everyone's attention on her, (minus Issei's as he is still just standing, looking at the ground).

Ravel then sigh's and repeats herself, "My older brother, Riser Phenix, (without any permission from anyone), decided that he would engage in a fight with Issei over here." Ravel gets interrupted by Raynare, "We already know that, now what the fuck did you guys do to him?" Sona looks at Raynare, then nods in agreement, looking back at the Phenix devil, "If I find out that the house of Phenix did so much as harm a hair on Issei's head, I promise…" Ravel nervously talks over Sona, "No, no, no, nothing happened, if anything, Issei was the one, to actually strike any blows. I swear, I tried to stop him, but I didn't know until it was too late!" Ravel starts to tear up. She then begins to sob, "I promise, I meant no harm, my parents didn't know, it was all Riser, that stupid, stupid idiot!" Ravel is now crying.

Before any other words could be said, we now see a fast walking Tsubaki, making her way over toward Ravel. Ravel notices this, seeing a tall and scary devil, with a look of indifference written all over her face. Now, seeing that the fellow devil is within arms reach, Ravel closes her eyes and prepares to be struck. Then, Ravel feels something she was not expecting. Opening her eyes, she can only see black. Realizing that she was being hugged, Ravel then completely breaks down, tears of waterfall's, ejecting from those bright blue eyes. We now see Tsubaki, embracing the little Phenix. Sona, Raynare and Kalawarner's stern looks all start to soften.

Sona then speaks, "Ravel, Ravel Phenix, I deeply apologize for jumping to conclusions without first hearing your side. It was disgraceful, but you have to understand…" Sona then points at the still frozen Issei, "He is very important to me…" Sona then looks at Tsubaki, (still holding the little devil in a hug), then at the two fallen angels, "He is important to 'us'. We are all concerned about Issei's wellbeing. Eitherway, it was still no excuse to accuse another high class devil family of anything without hearing them out first." Ravel then nods with sparkly-wet eyes. Then, while still pointing at Issei, Sona turns her head toward that direction. The room gets silent, minus the occasional sobbing of Ravel and the more subtle Raynare.

Walking up to Issei, Sona reaches for his hand and takes it, without any struggle. She then leads him to the bed as he simply follows slowly, with the same stature. The entire room stays quiet as all girls slowly get closer to the bed, minus Ravel, who was just released from Tsubaki. Kalawarner steps forward, standing to the other side of Issei, who is looking at Sona,"Let me handle this part, Sona." Looking at the now, very serious fallen angel, Sona then takes one step back and nods. Hoisting a now limp-bodied Issei, quickly but gently, Kalawarner single-handedly lifts and lays the broken husk of a boy onto the now neatly made bed. As the girls start to surround the bed, they see Issei, laying on his back, eyes closed while staring directly at the ceiling.

About 4 minutes later, we see both Raynare, Kalawarner and Sona freaking out as they are unable to create any communication circles at the moment. Attempting to call Azazel and Serrafall, both devil and fallen angel alike, were not having any luck. At this point, the entire group turn toward Ravel, who looks confused, "erm, it's not working for me too!" Then Sona has enough of this and attempts to create a teleportation circle to the Sitri Mansion, no dice. "Of all that is pure and demonic, what is going on? Something must be blocking our attempts at communication outside of this area, question is, what?" Sona then starts to think hard, as she has a hand on Issei's forehead. Then, all of the lights in the room start to flicker. While this is happening, the sound of locking can be heard toward the front bedroom door right as the bathroom door slams shut. Then after said door slams, another locking sound can be heard. We see the four girls of Issei's gang and a little blond devil, all with their hair standing up straight, eyes wide in pure terror. Then, in a cold, unworldly voice, (as if it were coming from all sides), says, "Wrong, little devil, the question is not what, but rather….WHOM."