Some things I wanna talk about before we start.

Hey guys. I've been pretty absent for writing lately and while I know other authors have taken longer breaks than me, I'm not as good as those guys so I always figured posting a little more regularly helped make up for that and for all those who click on this story because you like my other work then I think for continuing to come back and for those who are new here I thank you reading and I hope that if you like it you'll follow this story and let me know in the reviews.

So the reason I've been absent from writing is actually not because I've been lazy like in the past but I've just recently recovered from a two week battle (followed by a two week long quarantine isolation) with Covid-19 the Coronavirus and spoiler alert it sucked. I've never been seriously sick before and let me tell you this thing doesn't quit (I had to be put in the hospital for a night just so they could put me to sleep) but I'm finished now and I'm ready to get back to writing since theres honestly not much else to do and I'm really excited for this new DXD story.

I'm about to say something that may lose me a few fans and I don't mean to stereotype but I speak from experience and it seems that every time I bring this certain topic up in PM's I permanently end the conversation but I can't hold back any longer so please forgive me. I am a humongous professional sports fan…

Now for the 10% of you who not only chose to read this little message from me but are also continuing to read past this point I think for understanding and I know it must've been hard not to immediately click away from this window. Again I don't mean to stereotype but throughout my life I've found that sports fans and anime fans don't seem to coexist (Which is a shame because sports anime is often ridiculous and awesome at the same just like real sports) , I was lucky enough to grow up a sports fan first and an anime fan second which seems to be the only combination i've seen that seems to work. I grew up watching and playing sports throughout middle school and high school and even now in my college years, pre-pandemic I'd go out and play pickup basketball at least twice a week and compared to my competition I suck but it doesn't matter because sports are awesome and I refuse to hear anything otherwise. And now that sports are back and my Rockets have been kicking butt in the NBA bubble (still wouldn't count us to make it past the second round but I'll continue to dream) I've felt a sudden wave of inspiration to write this story.

The reason I came out as a not-so-closeted sprots fan is because this story will have a lot of inspiration from real-life professional sports and I think DXD is the perfect because Rating Games in theory combine two of my favorite forms of entertainment, competitive professional sports and Action-shonen anime where big muscle-y dudes punch each other and stuff explodes. And now you all know that my two favorite forms of entertainment both envolve muscle-y men and sweat so just a little food for thought when it comes to how my brain works and yes I know that DXD rating games often also include attractive women and large breasts but I'll double down on my previous statement by saying Sairaorg is my favorite character in the anime and his fight against Issei is one of the shows highlights in my opinion. Though my excitement from this story doesn't only stem from its many references and connections to sports.

I think that a few of you have guessed by now that the original DXD's Issei Hyoudou is not my favorite fictional character of all time and not because of his perverted nature, in fact Issei from season one (Arguably his most pervy season) had some of my favorite moments for the character but as time went on he seemed to lose the edge he had in the beginning that made him so interesting to me and its not like he was some angsty kid but he also was Mr Perfect nice guy anime protag he had a little darkness to him that I found refreshing. As the season went buy he got softer and softer in my opinion and even though I think he's significantly better in the LN (Tho he still kinda softens up as time goes on, if you ask me at least) I prefer to change his character a bit every time I start a new story and if I manage to go as far as I want in this story this version of Issei may be my favorite that I've written so far.

Thank y'all that read this for putting up with and I hope you enjoy this new story. Please read, rate and review

Chapter 1: Happy endings

"HAH! HAH! HAH! HAH!" A man with short white hair, carrying a silver axe panted heavily as he dashed through a wooded area until he came to a large tree. "This should be far enough… Need to catch my breath." He mumbled before sitting himself against the large tree when he was approached by a looming figure.

"Erik? What the hell do you think you're doing? Sitting on your ass while the rest of us are getting ours handed to us." A man with shaggy dark hair and a gruff voice called out as he offered his axe wielding comrade a hand up.

"Reo?" The silver haired man lifted his head and quickly recognized the other boy and took his hand up. "Sorry this is just a little intense for me. It's my first rating game ya know."

"Yeah I know but you're supposed to be the Rook right? You're the strong one right." Reo argued back. "Weren't you supposed to be with Haru? Where is she?"

"We took out one of their bishops but then the pawn showed up." Erik explained. "She told me to go regroup with the others. Where is everybody?"

"Well including Haru and Cecilia, we're all that's left." Reo said with a disappointed sigh.

"You're kidding! There's only four of us left!" Erik exclaimed before being interrupted by a booming disembodied voice that echoed throughout the battlefield.

[Lady Cecilia's Queen RETIRED!]

"Make that three of us." Reo pointed out as he grabbed his comrade by the arm. "C'mon! If that pawn beat Haru then he must've been promoted. If that's the case then we don't wanna wait around for him to catch us. We need to regroup with Cecilia."

"R-Right!" The flustered rook swallowed hard before following his scruffy friend through the dark woods; they didn't get far before an imposing presence surged through the forest getting both men to go pale. "Oh no… Can you feel that?"

"What the hell!" Reo roared as a red streak crashed down from above and a large explosion of dirt erupted on the forest floor. FWOOOSSHHH! Sediment flew into the air creating a massive brown cloud and two green lights began to shine through the dust glaring at the two boys. "Erik! Run!"

"Run!?" Erik argued back. "Are you kidding you can't take this guy alone!"

"I said RUN!" Leo reiterated as his eyes flashed yellow. His body suddenly began to grow and his scruffy black hair began to spread all across his skin. "You need to get to Cecilia. I'll be fine. GO!" He soon transformed himself into a ten foot tall massive black wolf with fiery orange eyes. "HOOOWWWOOOOOOOOO!" He howled before charging into the dust cloud.

WHAM! SLASH! SLAM! The sounds of combat echoed through the woods as Erik slowly began to sneak away from the brawl before eventually breaking out into another all out sprint. "HAH! HAH! HAH!" He began to pant once again but his run would be cut short as the booming voice made its return.

[Lady Cecilia Second Knight RETIRED!]

"No… REO!" Erik called out but as soon as his friend's name left his lips, in a flash of red and green the being that had been hunting him all this time suddenly appeared directly in front of him. His foe wore a suit of red armor that had the appearance of a dragon mixed with medieval knight armor, equipped with golden tusks, a long prehensile tail and glowing circular green gems decorated across the armor.

"So you're the last one." The crimson warrior asked. His voice didn't seem to match the imposing armor he wore. He spoke very monotone, almost as if he was bored. "It was my job to round up you stragglers to make sure you couldn't re-group. Not a great strategy if you ask me. By now the rest of my team should've tracked your king down and once I'm done with you if they haven't taken her out yet then I'll regroup with them to get done. What I'm getting at is they put me on clean up duty so I plan to make this quick so I can get back to the action."

'This asshole!' Erik gritted his teeth as his eyes began to turn blue and the grip on his axe tightened. "AS IF I'D GO DOWN THAT EASY!" Erik lifted his axe into the air and his skin turned a bluish white color before he slammed his large weapon down creating a wave of jagged ice that began making its way towards the red warrior.

The armored fighter simply reeled back as a small energy ball formed in front of his fist. [DRAGON SHOT!] He punched the energy ball and it flew forward, shattering the waves of ice before they could even make contact.

The energy ball just barely missed Erik's face as it flew by, eventually knocking down a tree a few meters away. "No… My attack!?... I'm a rook! I'm supposed to be strong!"

"Yeah. You should." The armored man said as he suddenly appeared directly in front of Erik, his arm cocked back. "Guess you need to try harder…" He readied a punch aimed straight for Erik's face but before he could let it fly.

[Lady Cecilia RETIRED! Lord Riser is victorious.]

"Huh? No way…" Erik muttered as his entire body began to glow blue and he disappeared in a flash of light.

"Hmmmm… Lucky…" The armored warrior scoffed as he dispelled his suit with a flash of red light. Once the armor was gone he was revealed to be a young man 16 to 17 years old with messy brown hair who was dressed from head to toe in brand name clothing.

Before long the forest disappeared and the dark haired boy along with four other women and a tall, smug young man with messy blonde hair and a maroon shirt were standing in the middle of a packed colosseum and were quickly met with the cheers from the crowd. The blonde man began to wave to the crowd before pulling a card out of his pocket and a small magic circle opened below his feet.

"Hey! Riser!" The brown haired boy called out before the magic circle teleported the blonde man away. "Seriously?"

"What'd you expect Issei." A well endowed girl wearing a chinese style dress whose hair was put up in buns addressed the boy. "He's meeting with Lord Gremory this afternoon. You know how desperate he is to move up his engagement. He must really be in a hurry today, he left without even going to check on his beloved little sister. What did you wanna talk to him about."

"Ravel got taken out?" Issei raised an eyebrow. "She needs to spend less time drinking tea and more time training if you ask me but I guess it really doesn't matter anymore."

"Hey while I have you here I wanna tell you that Riser needs you to take point on the media fallout from this game. The rest of us are gonna be busy with this engagement thing." The scantily clad woman explained but Issei responded by summoning a small piece of paper from nowhere.

"No can do." Issei shrugged. "That's twenty games, my contract's up." The small piece of paper began to glow in the girls hand before it transformed into eight yellow pawn pieces "As of today I'm a free pawn." Issei said with a satisfied smirk.

(Next week, Underworld Capital Lilith)

DING! A store bell ring rang as Issei walked into a grocery store wearing sunglasses and a grey hood over his head. He slowly and quietly crept down the numerous isles and placed his desired items into a small shopping bag.

He did his best to keep quiet and out of the way of the other customers but his cover was quickly blow as a small child approached him and tugged on his jacket. "Issei?" The boy muttered as he closely examined Issei's face. "Issei! It is you! Issei hyoudou! MOM! Come look who it is!"

With His cover blown Issei decided to remove his hood and glasses and address the boy along with the small crowd that was forming around him in the store.

"Oh! Wow it's Riser's pawn! He has 65 KO's in the last twenty rating games! That's number one among pawns this season!" Another young boy cried out.

"I heard he's a free piece now! His contract with Riser expired." Another person added.

"No way! If that is true then he's just waiting for the best price! He's going back to Riser without a doubt, HOUSE PHENEX NUMBER ONE!" A boy wearing a phenex brand shirt cried out.

"You should sign with Tannin! His house needs a new pawn!" Another fan cried out.

"Who are you signing with! C'mon tell us!" The crowd grew antsy and Issei noticed a number of them were streaming to the internet and he realized he couldn't afford to say anything damning.

"I can't talk about contracts today my agent and I have a lot to work on when it comes to my next destination. For now who wants a selfie?" Issei smirked as the children, phones in hand and a bead of sweat dribbled down his forehead.

(Later, Issei's apartment)

Issei opened the door to his penthouse suite and quickly dropped the groceries on his kitchen counter and turned on the television. It was an underworld sports network and upon seeing a picture of himself on the broadcast with the sub-text "Where next?" scrolling across the screen, he immediately shut the device off. "Are you kidding me?"

Issei sat down in a large reclining chair and popped open an energy drink for himself before taking part in some reflection. 'My name is Issei hyoudou and I'm a reincarnated devil. Like the name suggests a reincarnated devil is someone who sacrifices there original life to start a new life as a devil. In most instances a person who is reincarnated finds themselves in the service of a master devil or the King and they'll find themselves placed in the roll of one the other five chess pieces but in my case I'm the exception. I'm a pawn but I have no master to serve, at least not a permanent one but being that reincarnated devils start out at the bottom of both the economic and social ladders I did what I hand to do to survive. I've become a "free" pawn and taken to selling myself to different masters in exchange for money and luckily my skills align well with the most profitable avenue a free piece can find themselves in, fighting in the rating games.'

RING! RING! Issei's smart phone went off and when he looked down at it he discovered he had a new message from Riser. "Meet me at the usual spot, 9:30 tomorrow." Issei rolled his eyes at the straight forward and somewhat demanding message from his former master but nevertheless he responded with. "Sure thing."

(Next day, Phoenix Territory)

"Haaahhh…" Issei let out a sigh as he stood in a dark alleyway, in front of a small black door next to a flashing neon sign there was a line of men standing outside the door and a monster, a beast with a mans body and a bulls head, a Minotaur stood guard at the door. Issei shuffled his way to the front of the line where he came face to face with the doorman. A puff of steam formed in front of the Minotaur's nose as Issei pulled out his wallet and lifted a small white card with the house Phenex symbol drawn on it. The symbol glowed its golden-orange color and the Guard Monster stepped back and opened the door allowing Issei to enter.

Issei was immediately met with a blast of loud, electronic, dance music and a barrage of flashing blue and pink lights immediately upon entering the club.

"Hey there…." Issei was quickly met by a girl dressed in a garter belt with long black leggings and a black thong but other than that she was nude and she made sure to bury Issei's arm into her bare, ample chest. "Just you? Let me take you to your table."

"I'm meeting someone." Issei said bluntly as he pulled away from the hostess and continued deeper into the loud club. It was immediately clear the type of establishment Issei found himself in that evening as You'd struggle to find a woman dressed any less revealing than the topless hostess.

Issei quickly and quietly sat himself at the bar towards the back of the room and the bartender, a large, bald man quickly moved over to strike up a conversation. "Riser ain't here yet…" He said bluntly as he began to polish a glass mug.

Issei's eyes widened for a moment before pulling out his smartphone and checked the time. "9:18" it read and Issei quickly opened his phone and opened up his message app but there were no new messages from his former king. "Are you kidding me!" Issei groaned before he frustratedly stuffed his phone back down into his pocket.

"Good to know it doesn't matter whether you're a Rating Game star or just some old bartender, those high class jerks don't give a shit about the rest of us. Still I can't say I feel all that bad for you, your paycheck's got enough zeroes on it that you shouldn't ever get to mope. What'll it be." The bartender said as he reached down below his counter.

"Crown and cola." Before Isse had even finished Issei's beverage had already been prepared.

"Yeah I figured." The old bartender grunted As Issei took his drink. "Guess you can wait over at Riser's booth till he shows up. I don't need anyone in the media catching you moping at my bar, people at this sort of place are supposed to be too drunk to frown. HEY YOU!" The bartender called over one of the waitresses, a girl with short pink hair and dressed relatively more conservatively as she did in fact have a bra on over her massive chest. "Take this guy over to the Phenex booth got it?"

"Yes sir!" The waitress answered, saluting her boss. She then grabbed Issei by the arm and escorted the frowning devil away.

Issei was brought to a large circular booth with black leather seats, that surrounded a circular stage that was equipped with a long metal pole. The walls around the booth were covered in pictures of Riser in each picture he was embracing a different one of the half nude employees. Issei downed the rest of his drink before taking his seat and pulling out his smartphone.

"Tonight's dancer should be out in a moment. Is there anything else you need in the meantime?" The waitress asked with a smile.

"Yeah." Issei lifted up his empty glass, not even bothering to take his eyes off his screen. "Another one of these, please."

"Uh, sure?..." The waitresses smile turned more forced as Issei refused to even look in her direction but her expression soon lightened up as she suddenly realized something. "Hey, I know you!" A troubled expression formed on Issei's face as his waitress went in for a closer look. "OMG! Yeah! You're that Issei guy, they were talking about you on the news this morning! You're a celebrity or something right?"

"Yeah…." Issei groaned but the pink haired girl didn't seem to notice his lack of enthusiasm as she leaned in closer and pulled out her phone.

"So can I get a picture, pretty please?" She asked, lifting her phone and leaning her face in close to Issei.

"Sure…" The pawn said reluctantly as he forced a smile before the picture was snapped.

"Wow thanks." She said as she marveled at her newly acquired picture. "I'll get your drink order in right away and just so you know. I may not be dancing on stage tonight but if you ever get that feeling, just let me know and there's a very special dance I can do for you." She winked before walking back over to the bar and Issei simply rolled his eyes before returning to his phone.

"C'mon man you called me all the way out here and now you're leaving me waiting at some dirty ass stripclub?! Get the fuck over here!" Issei typed out in his message bubble but rather than sending the text he quickly erased it and replaced it with. "Hey, I just got to the club. Let me know when you get here." He sent it with a small sigh before turning back to his own thoughts.

'Why might you ask, if I'm currently a free pawn, why am I bending over backwards to keep Riser fucking Phenex happy? Two reasons actually. One even though I have absolutely know intention of resigning with Riser, people talk and I don't need him bad mouthing me to other potential employers. Second, that's just how devils work. Devils live in almost a caste-like society where worth and social status is determined by a person's blood and their last names more so than strength, skill, intelligence or even Money in some cases.' Issei thought as his second crown and cola arrived. 'Even though I've made a significant amount of money as a free pawn, I'm still only considered a mid-ranking devil meaning no matter how much money I make or how well I fight in the game I can't form my own peerage or own land in the underworld until I level up once more. Riser on the other hand is a high-ranking devil from a very prestigious family and they own a good piece of property in the underworld. The Phenex family is not a group you'd wanna disrespect. For now I have to hold my tongue but one day when I'm a high ranking devil I'll have the chance to punch that damn blonde, fried chicken right in the face he's so proud of….'

(Later)

Issei went through three more orders of crown and cola before at 10:52 Riser phenex at long last took a seat at the booth in front of Issei, on each shoulder sat one of the topless dancers that worked at the club. "Man is this place great or what. I actually got here a little while ago but I couldn't resist sampling some of the scrumptious treats this place has to offer." Riser smirked as he openly groped the women to his right's bare breast and the girl began to moan out loud as Issei sat awkwardly across from them. "Ok let's get down to business." Riser pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Issei.

Issei thoroughly studied the new contract but when is eyes came to the price his mouth dropped open and his thoughts just spilled out. "It's… so low?..."

"Yeah, this time around things are gonna change. This contract will actually put you under the control of my mother for the most part, my father and I have decided to start implementing Mira and the rest of the girls as my main pawn pieces going forward, we would only be using you for top 10 ranked matches and I figured if you aren't gonna be fighting in half the matches you fought in last year it would make sense that you'd be getting paid half as much. I actually hope to use you as a trade piece going forward but I need you to sign quickly cause there's a very important match coming up soon that I'll need you for so go ahead and sign if you could." Riser's face turned extremely serious all of a sudden as he handed his ex pawn a pen.

"Uhhh…." Issei started Riser in the face with an utterly baffled expression, he could not believe what he had just been offered. 'Is this guy FUCKING KIDDING ME! I'm was a top 10 performing Pawn this year I had more KO's than anyone on the entire peerage and he thinks he can offer me this load of shit and I'd actually sign on for another year with this lunatic. He wants to play second fiddle to his little army of sex stereotypes. I swear the next rating game I see this guy in, I'm gonna fuckin bury this bastard.' Issei took a deep breath before delivering his answer. "Sorry I can't sign this yet I need to run it by my agent first." Issei said with a forced smile.

"Yes of course." Riser's attention had already returned to his female company. "Make sure you get it signed quickly." Riser waved his arm signally that Issei had permission to leave his presence.

Issei collected the contract and as soon as he was outside the club he immediately crumpled up the paper and tossed it into a nearby garbage can before saying aloud. "Yeah right Riser, you can go ahead and go fuck yourself." The minute he finished saying it a camera flash went off and Issei looked up to find himself surrounded by reporters. "Oh shit."

(Kuoh, japan)

In a dark room in an old abandoned school house, a girl with long crimson hair sat at a large brown desk, her eyes glued to a flickering television. A news story was playing with a picture of Issei filled the screen and underneath a small subtext that read "Phenex Down: Star pawn Issei Hyoudou will not be returning to house Phenex."

The ruby-haired girl placed her chin on her hands a small smirk formed on her face. "Issei Hyoudou huh? How interesting."

(End)