"Oh Kaito-kun you're finally here" Akeno chirped, clapping her hands and smiling at the spiky haired teen who had just returned from collecting his pay.

"Yeah. Now why did Gremory attempt to teleport me?"

"Buchou wanted to bring all of us in to protect your Big Brother~" she said in a sing-song voice, getting a widening of Kaito's eyes.

"Issei was hurt?"

"Mhm. He took a contract from Koneko to lighten her load a little and it turns out a Stray exorcist had gone after his client, and then little Issei" She gestured off to the side where a naked Issei was being hugged from behind by a similarly naked Rias, both of her hands glowing red as she rubbed them over his torso.

"Fucking hell. Really? In the clubroom?" He grumbled, immediately turning his head to look away.

"Awwww, what's wrong Kaito-kun? Are you embarrassed by a naked bodyyyyy?" Akeno purred, leaning in close to him with a demure look on her face.

"Unlike everyone in here apparently I at least have the ethics to respect people's fucking privacy"

"Ethics and Morals are different for Devils you know?~"

"I think I'll wait to learn that difference honestly"

"Awww but it's so fun~"

"Learn it Kaito! Learn it and tell me what Akeno's gazongas feel like!" Issei chimed in pervertedly, getting a slightly shameful giggle from Rias as she healed him.

"I hate you both and if Issei's fine I'm leaving" He announced, Akeno able to see one of his eyes twitching.

"All done" Rias seemed to chirp at just the right time, for Kaito at least.

"Great. I'll see you at home Issei"

"Wait up Kaito-kun. I'll come with you so that the Fallen Angels don't try anything" Akeno quickly said as Kaito began to spin on the spot to walk out.

Kaito clicked his tongue but waited for her, nonetheless, watching Rias begin to stand up and move over to the shower built into one side of the room.

"Gremory." His call silenced the entire room, every Devil in the room seeming to go dead still at Kaito willingly calling out Rias "Thank you for protecting and healing my brother"

She turned around to answer, respond, even just to give him a smile and a nod. However, by the time she had he was already opening the door to leave, forcing Akeno to hurry up so as not to be left behind.

"You're welcome Kaito.." She said softly, not knowing if he even heard as he turned down the hallway and left with a softly smiling Akeno in tow.

XXXxxxXXX

That night, Dreamscape

Slowly, ever so slowly, brown eyes belonging to the youngest member of the Hyoudou family opened. For the second time, he found himself in the ruined civilization that seemed to be his mindscape, or at least where he could meet Betzalel within his mindscape.

The first thing he did was check his own shadow, and upon finding nothing unusual about it, spread his fledgling senses as far as he could. He couldn't find anything however, much to his annoyance. And so, knowing that if he was here, Betzalel was ready to talk in some capacity, he began to travel.

It was only after a few minutes of walking that he finally realized that his clothing was his 'mercenary outfit' as he'd dubbed it in his head, getting a raising of his eyebrows as he looked down at it. Raising his arms up closer to his eyes and twisting them a bit to see how accurate it was and finding it identical to the actual articles.

His admiring of his clothing, however, was cut off by the pulse of mana that travelled over the land, filling his ears with cotton and sending a wave of goosebumps over his body.

"So that's where you are…" He mumbled to himself, taking a couple steps before jumping up high.

As he rose his wing's burst out of his back without damaging a single item of his clothing, flapping once and causing him to fly forward. In all honesty, he didn't even need to flap them, the levitation-like mechanics of Devil flight meaning that the actual moving of limbs or extremities was entirely unnecessary. However, despite this, Kaito was still very new despite his strides to try and learn and adapt as much as possible. Meaning that the mental image of flapping his wings was the easiest way for him to mentally grasp the idea of quick changes in direction or speed.

As he approached what he could feel was the origin of the mana pulse, he looked around, noticing that the only thing that stood out was that the ruin he was flying into seemed to be some abandoned, half-crumbled colosseum of some kind. Swinging his feet underneath him as he straightened out, his legs swung in a vague-running motion for a moment before straightening out and bending upon impact with the ground, sliding for a couple meters before his momentum finally came to a rest.

"How adorable." Kaito stiffened up at the mocking coo that seemed to echo around him "You still don't know how to land. I believe most Devils never have a problem with something so trivial. Though you are special." Looking around while trying to stay cool and collected, Kaito noticed the singular Draconic eye staring at him, the rumbling that was caused by the last word making him wobble ever-so imperceptibly.

"Somehow, I get the feeling that you meant that as an insult?" He muttered with a raised eyebrow towards the lone eye he could see.

The eye itself was not situated to a body, but rather within a giant shadow cast by the looming walls of the shattered colosseum. Larger than it had previously been when confined to just his own shadow, and yet even staring directly at it he was unable to tell through anything except sight that it was there.

"I mean it in many ways. If you are too slow to understand any way other than that, then the fault lies with no one except you."

"Oh great. Word games. Fun." Kaito muttered dryly, shoving both of his hands in his pockets and staring blankly at the eye.

"You are a whining child. If mere words are all that it takes to discourage you from a path, then I might as well kill you now to switch hosts." The eye squinted, its pupil thinning out.

"Don't put words in my fucking mouth. You're the one that said we needed to talk." Kaito exclaimed, his own features morphing with anger as he glared at the eye.

"So, you do remember, brat." If the eye cared about his glare deepening, it didn't show it in the slightest "That's right. I did say we needed to talk. Because if you are to know my name. My exploits. The abilities I have and the knowledge I have coveted. You will not stay as you are. I could care less if you decide to give your entire body to me in return for power or refuse to give even a single hair. If you are to be my partner, then you will be great. Powerful. Feared."

"So, this is all about you?" Kaito scoffed with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course, it is!" Kaito stumbled back a few steps, drawing his hands out of his pockets and folding them in front of his face reflexively at the wall of wind that buffeted him from the yell.

For a moment, narrowed brown eyes stared into a single, slitted, purple eye. Dust beginning to float gently to the ground again as the wind died down into nothingness once more.

"I do not have to partner with you, mortal. I do not have to give you power. I do not even need to speak to you or form any kind of connection. I do so because I wish to. So yes, moron. This is about me. And if you don't want to experience having your soul rent from your body and your bones used as toothpicks, you will remember that."

"Thank you, Betzalel." Kaito groaned, rolling his eyes, "I can really feel the love."

"Then you are a moron who must be going insane because you are entire dimensions away from any such fallacy being true."

"Yeah yeah. Fuck me, I guess. So, what the hell do you want to talk about?" Kaito asked, slipping both of his hands back into his pockets once more.

"Why do you wish to gain power?" Kaito actually blinked in surprise at this, leaning back slightly from the blunt question.

Humming in thought, he let his eyes roam around the extinct civilization around him.

"Well. The main reason is to avoid dying again. I died once and was 'lucky' enough to get reincarnated. I doubt I'll get a Round 3. But beyond that…because I can"

He didn't miss the interested sound that Betzalel made, a distinctly reptilian sound rumbling around him despite the only form of the creature being a singular eye within a shadow. The teen however just shrugged while cocking his head to the side at the same time.

"There isn't much else. I want power because I can actually use it now. Because I know it exists. What can it do? What can it not? What does it let me do? What are my limits? You could probably chalk it up to a bunch of psychological bullshit that'd probably hit the nail on the head. But to me, I just want to live and find the limits of my abilities"

"Hah. HAH! Well said, brat. To think that two humans without even a drop of mana within them can create a son with such strong Draconic instincts. Very well. You have earned a tentative partnership. Though you may not yet gaze upon my form."

"Stingy fucking dragon…"

"Do not get snippy with me, fleshbag."

"I would never dream of it!"

"No. Of course you wouldn't. By the way, the demi-Fallen/Devil has been watching you sleep for 20 minutes by now. Begone."

"Wait wha-!"

XXXxxxXXX

Real World

Kaito groaned as he slowly blinked his eyes open. The first thing that registered in his mind was the feeling of a body pressed against his. The second was a set of purple eyes staring directly into his own.

"Morning Kaito-kun~" Akeno purred demurely, a seductively lazy grin on her lips.

"Morning…" He mumbled, still clearly half asleep as he looked around, confused.

As he looked around for something that didn't seem to be there, he missed the minute widening of Akeno's eyes before they gleamed with victory.

'There's no one else in the room so…..Akeno?' He thought to himself, Betzalel's parting words bouncing around in his head.

"What are you…" He paused to yawn, bringing up a hand to cover his mouth "Doing in my bed?"

"Spending time with you of course~" She replied, snuggling into him even more, like she was trying to mold her body to his own "You were so nice to Buchou yesterday, so I think you've earned it." She teased him with a flirtatious wink.

"Cut the act Himejima." Kaito cut in while rolling his eyes and stifling another yawn "And I gave Gremory respect because she earned it. Something which no one in that go-…deity forsaken school seems to understand"

"Now Kaito-kun," Akeno sat up, luckily not straddling him but he did have to quickly avert his eyes upwards when he noticed she was undoubtedly naked "Haven't we done enough to be respected?~"

"You and Yuuto have, to an extent." Kaito replied in a clipped tone, sitting up while rubbing a hand on his face.

"Only to an extent? What does little old me have to do to get your full respect, Kai-to-kun?~" She wrapped her arms around his torso and whispered into his ear towards the end, making him shiver and begin to react in certain ways.

Not that it changed his answer in any way though.

"Stop treating me like some gullible idiot like the morons at school. I can see through your little seduction act, Himejima" Kaito muttered into her own ear, just as softly yet holding an iron that both made her tense up and shiver from multiple emotions that surged down her spine.

"Kaito! Hey man you gotta get up! Kaa-chan is making-" Issei was suddenly heard, the door to his room flying open without even a moment of hesitation, letting Issei see the naked back of Akeno as she was hugging Kaito.

Before Issei could even make a sound, a pillow impacted his face at breakneck speeds, whipping his head back and forcing him to fall on his ass outside of Kaito's room.

"FUCKING KNOCK YOU DUMBASS!"

Akeno would never once, till the day she died, deny the whole-body shiver that was caused by Kaito's yell as anything bar the greediest of pleasures.

XXXxxxXXX

Later that day, Kuoh inner-city

Kaito yawned as he walked down the street, dressed in some casual civilian clothes. Currently on his way to the store to pick some things up for his parents before he just spent the rest of the day doing whatever he wanted.

Sadly, despite being a Saturday, Kaito was unable to do any training with Akeno or Kiba due to the former doing something for Rias and the latter having a backlog of fliers to do and complete. He could always do some training by himself, but he wasn't really feeling that today. If anything, he'd prefer to do some reading or studying than solo-training.

Despite all those thoughts though, the teen's feet carried him dutifully through the city on pure habit alone. His mind currently so occupied that he didn't even notice the glares he got from the rare Kuoh student that noticed him. Something which he was usually hyper-aware of.

What he did notice though, as he walked past a local restaurant, was the familiar sight of a small, white-furred creature reminiscent of a polar bear yet it happened to appear oddly like-

'Oh. Great. It's back…' Kaito thought with a deadpan look at the head of the creature peeking over a nearby rooftop towards him.

"Why do I have a magical girl mascot following me? Just- why?" He mumbled, letting his head drop into his palm with a resounding smack.

Deciding to just ignore it for the moment, especially since he couldn't call it out in such a highly-populated area, he just kept walking down the street. Eventually he entered the store and got what his parents had asked for, walking back out and immediately feeling his eye twitch at the sight of the polar-bear staring at him from the shadow of a nearby alley.

'It would be easy. Three Shadow tendrils would be all I need….' Kaito thought, said three beginning to rise out of the shadows around the creature slowly, though sadly it noticed this and immediately moved out of the deep shadows and into the light, though now peeking out from behind a bin.

'Cheeky little shit. It knows I know it's there and it's still just watching me. I'll get you, mascot. I'll get you eventually' With the slightest, tiniest, flare of mana and a dark glare at the creature he began to walk off.

He didn't get very far however, as just a few blocks away he ended up coming across a quaint little food stand. Said stand, however, held the marking that he had been told about by Yamato in passing. And with nothing else to do and far too much curiosity, he decided to check it out.

Walking over to the stand he looked down at the menu, grinning slightly at the yelp from the girl that seemed to be manning the stand when she noticed he was there.

"O-Oh I'm sorry! I didn't realize- H-huh?" He looked up at her surprised noise, immediately noticing the vaguely cat-like features of the girl and humming to himself.

She had purple eye shadow and slitted pupils, once he shrugged off the minor illusion, as well as sharper teeth, though mainly just her canines if the quick look he managed to get was correct. Her hair a glossy black and her eyes a sandy brown. She also seemed young, probably around his age, so 16, if he had to guess.

"Something wrong?" He asked, a single eyebrow raising as a smirk tugged at his lips.

"Y-You're the…." She looked around before leaning forward and continuing with a quieter voice "the new mercenary, right?"

"And if I am?" He asked, looking back down at the menu again.

"Well….Two of the members of the Greek faction had good things to say.." She mumbled shyly.

"In one night?" Kaito asked, equal parts impressed and annoyed.

"They are…eccentric. A-And the rest of us w-wanted to know. P-Please don't be a-angry" She pleaded, clasping her hands together and beginning to tear up.

With a sigh he let his stance loosen up and relax, reaching a hand out to ruffle her hair.

"Relax. I'm not gonna attack you or anything. You guys at the…Egyptian faction, right?" He got a slow nod from the now blushing girl "Yeah, you guys at the Egyptian faction could have some good jobs for me. So really this only works out for me in the long run"

"T-Thank Ra you aren't angry…" She muttered, holding a hand to her chest with a small whimper.

"Hm. So, do you guys have any missions?"

"A-Ah. W-Well I think father had one…"

"Cool. Oh, while I'm here. Can I get 3 Hawawshi, please? 2 with beef and one with lamb"

"O-Oh! Of course! H-How spicy would you like them?"

"Ah shit…Uh, can I get the lamb sorta mild? And the two beef really weak?"

Meanwhile, as Kaito ordered some food for himself and his parents, across the city his brother ran into a familiar ex-nun with blonde hair and just a few meters away, on top of a nearby balcony, a familiar polar bear-type creature watched him. All of its senses being shared with another, with it's master.

XXXxxxXXX

And There's chapter 8 down!

Only two more chapters to go this month, and they're both gonna be on my birthday too! (Nov 30) So you guys should look forward to that. Moving onward, Kaito has finally learnt the name of the Dragon in his Sacred Gear, the first step of many in his growth.

I can't wait to hear what you guys think about this chapter and I'll see you guys on my birthday!

Discord: /ctMzhq3

REVIEW REPLIES:
kpop1392as: Yeah, they can both be themselves around each other. Its sorta wholesome if you ignore what they're saying/acting XD. And yes, its my way of bringing more depth and original characters/powers/arcs into the story xP