Issei's Incinerate Anthem (A DXD Fanfiction)

Chapter 9 (Random Thoughts of Clarity)

The rest of the night went rather uneventful as everyone helped clear the table, washing the dishes and thanking Issei for his hospitality. Issei remembers a bowing Kiba, who promised to purchase him another broom. This situation along with some very forward hugs coming from the rest of the, "what did she call it? Right, they called it a peerage?", well, along with all of that, exhaustion from the long day began to take hold, making our main protagonist very sleepy. As final pleasantries were finished, Issei then shuts his front door while taking a very deep breath. After a moment or two, the silence begins once again. He is alone. This is fine though, because tomorrow, he won't be.

Sadly smiling, Issei makes his way to his bedroom while stretching. "Family huh? Well, I would be the greatest fool of all fools, if I were to refuse an opportunity to be happy…to be…" A single tear drops from Issei's sad but warm face. "To be…loved?" Stopping in his tracks, Issei takes a moment to recollect himself, while wiping his face, now remembering the kiss on his cheek. His attitude completely changed as he had his hand on the place where he was kissed. Blushing and smiling like an idiot, )which was quite a nice turn of events), Issei makes his way toward his bed. Looking at it, he just keeping replaying the memory of Koneko's warmth, her forwardness, her eyes, the feeling of her hair…the feeling of soft and fuzzy…ears?

Plopping onto his bed, he now has an intrigued look plastered along his face as he stretches while on his back. "I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, I mean, I literally had my face in her hair. I am pretty sure I felt something that wasn't there though, just like my late housecat's ears, but larger. Now that I really think about it, I am also very sure that I felt whiskers, softly poking me, here and there. Wait! NO WAY!" Issei now rises from his lying position, proceeding to facepalm himself. "They said they were devils, but they never said anything about what pantheon they belong to. The fact that angels exist suggests biblical, but what if the rest are real too? Can it be, she is a cat girl? Like those nekomata from Japanese culture… Wow, her cuteness level has just reached super-saiyan." Issei now lays back down, having a feeling of accomplishment, closing his eyes and allowing sleep to take hold.

Scene…finally..haha (Dream Scene)

We now see Issei, standing in a large concert hall. He is wearing a full tuxedo and standing near a very beautiful and ornamental grand piano. Aside from Issei, not another soul can be seen or heard in the very large and grandiose concert hall. Looking at the piano, Issei decides to take a seat and study this instrument. All of the keys seem to be in order, more importantly, this piano was recently tuned. We see Issei, fingering the keys of this piano and after some time, he begins to play.

Feeling the notes enveloping his soul, he allows his emotions to do as they please. Issei is playing this piano with absolute feeling, his eyes are looking at the ceiling of this large room, the moment that happens, tears are falling from his chin. He doesn't care because this is for him, this is his place, a place he can come back to whenever he needs. This grand building was not just any building, no, this place was special. It was the concert hall that he and his parents would come to, almost on a weekly basis.

All types of music would be played here, everything from classical to jazz. Still playing, Issei remembers how he never mentioned these visits to anyone, not even his best friends at the time. No, for some reason, he felt ashamed in the back of his head, thinking that he would be called out for being a nerd or a weirdo, something to that effect. He even withheld his ability to play the piano, never revealing it to anyone, thinking similar thoughts as an outcome. Oh, how he wanted to go back in time, to tell everyone how he truly felt, how there was passion behind his façade of wanting a harem, of being perverted. These said perverted actions were nothing more than a security fence, keeping people away from what lies deep within his heart. His two "friends" also helped reinforce such security which kept Issei in his comfort zone.

This all changed however, the moment his parents were taken away from him. He no longer cared about such petty things, about the thoughts of others, hell, he even started to hate those stupid happy fucks, skipping around the hallways as if they had perfect lives. No longer being able to speak, well that brought some challenges of its own, as Matsuta and Motohama wouldn't accept his letter of resignation from the perverted trio. Instead, Issei had to insist by walking to the front of the class and writing his resignation, once again, in white chalk, for everyone to see. That in itself changed Issei's life within Kuoh.

Where once he had enemies, now they were friends, however, some of these new friends took things a bit too far for Issei's taste. For the longest time, Issei assumed that this new attention was nothing more than a way to trick him into letting his guard down, therefore his new friends might get the drop on him for some sweet sweet revenge. The first group of girls to do this were no other than the Kendo club…. Issei shudders.