Chapter Eighteen - Deal with the Devil

Vin stared down at the offending message in shock, frozen stiff in the crowd like a statue. His eyes glanced over the message once, twice, three times. Yet every single time he did, Vin could still feel the chills run down his spine.

[I heard you're in Kuoh right now… You're really close to where I am…]

Vin could distinctly recall how… odd the old electronics shop owner was, after all, who just gave away a free iPod like that? Vin cursed himself under his breath, of course he was dumb enough to fall for that. But that left the simple question…

Who's crosshairs did Vin just place himself into?

Keeping his phone in his hand, and the message open, Vin took off down the urban streets, attempting to meld into the largest crowds possible, as he occasionally scanned the skyline, and the tops of buildings, Vin's mind began to rattle off options.

For one, it couldn't be Kokabiel. No, that maniac, from everything he's seen so far, was much too straightforward to do something like this. Plus, Vin didn't have a single thing that Kokabiel would want anymore, the Excalibur was already lost, after all. Vin's brain briefly landed on the idea of blackmail, or a hostage, but that also didn't make sense. Kokabiel… Kokabiel wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty, and as much as he loathed to admit it, Vin knew for a fact that even with Rapidly, even at full strength; Xenovia, Irina, and himself could not defeat Kokabiel, even less so when factoring in the help from Freed.

So yeah, that scratched Kokabiel off the list, but who did that leave him with? Vin racked his brain to find a solution, yet his mind drew blanks. The church? That would make no sense. The devils? No, they just met, so again, that makes no sense…

A chime snapped Vin out of his reverie with a start. Looking down, Vin gulped when he realized that 'Al Zael' just sent him another text, this one with the specific location of presumably where he wanted to meet.

Vin sighed, pushing down his anxiety as much as he could. He had time to kill, and if it really wasn't Kokabiel… He had to admit, he did have a bit of morbid curiosity towards the situation, and if they really just wanted him dead, why wouldn't Al have done it when they were alone in that shop?

So, ultimately, Vin made up his mind, and after shooting off a brief update text to Irina, a simple 'Yep, I'm still alive'; Vin swallowed his fears, and began walking towards the location on his phone.


It would take only five brief minutes of speed walking to arrive at the location, a… day bar? Yeah, it had a name that Vin couldn't read, but when looking at the images on google; yep, they lined up.

"Well, it's now or never, right?" Vin gripped the latch on the door, and walked inside.

Immediately, Vin's nostrils wrinkled slightly at the stench of tobacco and cheap whiskey. The interior of the bar was mostly comprised of blacks and dark, velvet blues, and combined with the dull lighting carrying the smoke throughout the air, the entire place looked nearly ethereal, in an odd way.

Although the right side of the room was populated with circular tables and chairs, there wasn't a soul to occupy any of them. As a matter of fact, the only two people who kept the place from being deemed as abandoned were over to the left side, where a long bar counter was situated, the earthy, stained walnut countertop playing against the murky and mysterious colors in the rest of the room.

Without much of an option, Vin walked over to the bar top, and finally was able to gather a more detailed glimpse at the two other occupants of the stylized, yet sparse bar. A single, unassuming bartender, who was polishing a mug in his hands as the television behind him was quietly humming with the sounds of some news broadcast from a channel Vin had never seen before… Huh, D.U.N News, not a station that he recognized, must have been something local.

Disregarding the news, what drew Vin's eyes the most was the second figure in the room. Hunched over a glass at a bar stool, Vin could have recognized the man with his hair alone; it's black strands with a nearly obnoxious blonde tint to his front bangs. It was the kind of hairstyle that stuck with you for no random reason. Seeing no other options, Vin began to cross the bar, heading towards the men.

Soon enough, the sound of Vin's combat boots clicking against the tile of the bar's floor caused Al to turn his head towards the noise. For the first time, Vin was finally able to grasp a proper look at the enigmatic shopkeeper's face, his ruby eyes shining in recognition, before a wily grin spread wide on his black goatee covered visage.

Al, (if that really was his name), raised his hand, "Yo, crystal boy, over here."

Vin froze in place. Already, the advantage was firmly in this man's court. How much could Vin even assume the name knew? Either way, he couldn't afford to show weakness, lest the man only probe more information out of him.

Vin stood in front of the bar stool that was placed to 'Al's' left, "Is there a reason why you called me here?"

"Oh come on now," The man waved a hand dismissively, "I'm not here for anything crazy. You saw my text, I just wanted to chat a bit."

"Uh huh…"

"Seriously. Here, sit down, and have a drink, it'll be on me."

Vin shook his head as he lowered himself onto the bar stool, "You realize you just offered a minor a drink in broad daylight… Not to mention…"

The man cut him off, "That you're on a mission, right? Geez kiddo, relax; I never said it was going to be anything alcoholic…"

"Just cut to the chase, why did you call me here," Vin's eyes narrowed.

The man shrugged, taking a sip from his drink, "Ah~ That hit the spot…"

"Get on with it," Vin growled.

"Alright, alright," The man chuckled, "... I called you here to have a conversation with the holder of a very interesting Sacred Gear… Consider me something of a researcher for the things."

"How long have you been watching me?"

"Not that long, all things considered. Someone in the church must have leaked your info, because there were small rumors about an odd subspecies of Midas' Rings floating around in the Vatican's possession. I wanted to see if the rumors were true, and it seemed like they were, alright."

"And you set up a shop in Italy as a front? Why do that when you could just stalk me or something?"

"Heh, you're sharper than you look, kid," The man took another sip of his drink, "I needed to stay in Italy for an extended period of time for two reasons; and a shop was the easiest way to do that."

"If observing me to confirm a rumor was only one of the reasons, then what was the other?"

"... Seeing if Kokabiel would go rogue or not," The man smirked, "It's important to keep an eye on your lackeys, after all."

FUCK!

Vin immediately bolted off his stool, his Sacred Gear flashing onto his legs, as he sent a wave of crystals directly at the men at the bar, all while running for the door.

This was bad, this was so, so bad.

Of course, with his luck, he would find the big boss behind the very person they were sent to stop. He had to run, he had to find Irina and Xenovia, tell them what's actually happening.

Vin reached out for the door…

"!"

Vin looked up in shock, as a firm hand gripped his forearm, slamming him roughly against the wall. Despite only being grabbed by his forearm, Vin couldn't move at all. Fear was the most prevalent emotion that crossed Vin's mind, yet unlike with Kokabiel, he couldn't even get himself to act in spite of it.

'Al' looked down at Vin with a soft, understanding smile, "Look, I'm sorry for scaring you like that, kid. I'm not with Kokabiel, alright? How about we sit down, and I can explain things a little better."

Being led back to the bar by the man who still held an impossible grip on his forearm, Vin slowly claimed back down, looking around, Vin noticed that despite sending waves of crystals directly towards the man, there… there weren't any left.

Which means that the man before him must have destroyed them all in a split-second… If that didn't solidify the fact that this man was the real deal, then Vin didn't know what would.

Still without much of a choice, Vin returned to his seat on the barstool, sweat nervously dripping from his brow.

"Alright…" The man began, "Do you… have any questions?"

"'Who are you' comes to mind," Vin spat.

"Heh, yeah, I probably should have led with that," Extending his hand in greeting, the man smiled, "The name's Azazel; I'm the Governor General of the Fallen Angels. Nice to meet'cha."

As he declared his identity, Azazel's back erupted as twelve wings, black as night burst forth, wiggling slightly, before folding back and disappearing as quickly as they came. Well, that was as good a sign as any to Vin that this dude was the genuine article; after all, beings with twelve wings were so incredibly powerful, that it only made sense for them to be leaders.

Vin carefully took his hand, shaking it in greeting, "Vin; exorcist of the church."

"There we go, that wasn't so bad, right kiddo?" Azazel smirked, "Now do you want something to drink?"

"..." Vin thought for a moment, how much did he really trust this guy. Sure, Azazel was being rather upfront with him, revealing his identity in a situation where that could mean… Well, a lot of complications.

"I'll hold off until later," Vin decided, "I want to know more about how you fit into everything going on first."

Azazel shrugged, "Can't really blame you for that, I suppose. Go ahead, ask me anything you want, if it'll make you feel better."

Vin didn't even have to think about what his first question was going to be.

"Why aren't you out there stopping Kokabiel then?"

Sighing, Azazel took another swig of his drink, "I'm sure that you heard about it a lot whenever the church sent you three kids to fight a cadre-class Fallen Angel, but Kokabiel put us all in a very volatile situation…"

"How so? You could beat him, couldn't you?"

"Of course, it wouldn't be a contest."

"So then why aren't you?" Vin glared, "If it's not a matter of 'can't', then is it a matter of 'won't'?"

"Hah… Kid, I know that it may seem that easy from your perspective, but let's do a little thought experiment, alright?"

Vin titled his head, but Azazel held up a hand to cut him off, "Bear with me here. Imagine, for a moment, that you're the devils in this town; after all, it's their territory here. Now imagine if one day, in a time of unstable peace, two of the most powerful Fallen Angels just decided to duke it out on your soil. Wouldn't that be enough cause for assuming that it's another attack? Or that it's time to prepare for another war, because that fight is a violation of that ceasefire?"

"The point is, kid," Azazel rested a hand on Vin's shoulder, "I can't act freely like that. Despite the fact that I really want to, I can't interfere, out of concern that it spirals into an international incident. That's why you and your two friends are a massive help to me."

"Because we can act, while you can't?"

"Yep, and nothings stopping me from supplying you guys with all the information you could need," Azazel reached into his suit jacket, pulling out a business card for A and V Electronics, and sliding it over to Vin with a smile.

"That's the last business card from that place I still have… But take a look at the back."

Grabbing the card off the table, Vin flipped it over in the palm of his hand, gazing in confusion at two long sequences of numbers scribbled down on the back. That was, until something clicked in Vin's head. These were… longitude and latitude.

"Seems like you figured it out, but those are the coordinates to Kokabiel's little hideout, or at least, one of them. Figured that would help speed up your process quite a bit, huh?" Azazel grinned like a fox, "If you manage to sneak in at a time when the boss is out, I imagine that you could even steal those Excalibur's back right from under Kokabiel's nose. Get them back, and get the hell out of dodge with the swords. That would certainly cripple Kokabiel's plans."

"Yeah… This is… invaluable information…"

"Well there you go. Again, kid, you're doing me a huge favor here, since my hands are essentially tied right now."

Suddenly, Vin's phone buzzed, and looking down, he noticed that it was a text from none other than Irina.

[Come rit now, 2 this diner, devils met wth us.]

Right beneath the text was a link to the restaurant's website… Idly, Azazel peered over his shoulder.

"Yeesh, is this how they teach kids to type in this day and age?"

Vin sucked in a breath through clenched teeth, "It's a work in progress…"

"Well, it's rude to keep a lady waiting, and I've told you everything that's super important right now. I'll keep an eye on the situation, and let you know about anything important, alright?"

Vin nodded as he stood up, grabbing the card and stuffing it deeply into a zip-up pocket on his borrowed track-jacket while he walked to the door of the bar, "Will do."

"Alrighty kiddo, see you; and remember, don't be a stranger, you hear?"

Vin turned his gaze back to the man, and finally, returned Azazel's grin with a small, wily one of his own, "Gotcha."

As the door shut behind him, Azazel turned back to the bar, tipping back his glass as he downed the last of his drink.

"When you come back to the Grigori, I'll have an extra little check waiting for you, alright?" Azazel smirked at the bartender, who simply rolled their eyes, "Now, another round, please!"


All in all, it took Vin way too long to locate the damn restaurant. Turns out, when you send someone who can only understand English and Italian to a Japanese website, it'll be hard for them to figure out exactly where you want them to go. So, after nearly a half hour of aimlessly wandering, trying to match the appearance of the buildings, Vin finally, finally found where he was supposed to go, and without a second thought, headed on in.

The restaurant itself was very homey, warm lighting and the more densely populated interior making it quite the contrast to the bar where Vin had been prior. Walking deeper into the restaurant, Vin gazed over the lanes and lanes of tables, eventually finding a small platform against the far wall that was lined with booths; and from there, it was as easy as scanning them until he was met with the sight of two familiar cloaked heads.

"Irina, Xenovia, I'm back," Vin greeted as he made his way to the table, only to raise a brow when he gazed over the numerous dishes that piled up on the table. The two were ravenous, just absolutely drilling through dish after dish of food like they hadn't eaten in days. It seemed like Vin's words even fell on deaf ears, as the two never even perked up at his voice, content to simply continue eating; any spare breath reserved for gushing endlessly about the food that they were eating.

Right at that moment, a waitress walked over to the table, carrying a plate with a beautiful, mouthwatering steak, "Your Hamburg Steak is ready."

That somehow managed to get the attention of Irina, who finally broke away from her food. Looking up to find both her next dish, and her partner at the same time, Irina smiled.

"Hey, Vinny!" And then after a moment, in Japanese to the waitress, "Thank you, just leave that right here please."

The waitress placed down the steak at the table, but right before Irina could dig into it, and continue to tune out the world, Vin yanked the plate away, holding it away from the twin-tailed glutton.

"Hey yourself, Irina, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Vin used his free hand to gesture at the table stacked with dishes, "You have any idea how much this costs? We have limited amounts of Yen for this mission, and we still have a hotel to pay for!"

Irina suddenly looked very sheepish, and… guilty? While he may have never seen that expression on Irina before, Vin had been an older brother for long enough that he damn well knew what that look meant.

Vin sucked in a withering breath, "What did you do?"

It seems like Xenovia had finally broken out of her own food-related reverie, as she chimed in without mercy, "Irina got swindled into buying a fake painting which cost us all of our money."

In that moment, Vin swore that he could hear some nerve snap within him, turning to Irina, his face dark, Vin uttered three words from the darkest pit of his soul, "YOU. DID. WHAT?"

Apparently the effect was enough for Irina to shrink as much as possible, nervous sweating breaking out over her face, "I-I-It was a painting of a saint! I couldn't just leave it behind!"

"E-YAH!"

Without mercy, Vin had raised his free hand and delivered a meaty flick right in between her eyebrows, causing the girl to literally fall backward onto Xenovia's shoulder.

Shoving himself next to Irina, Vin set down the plate of steak, and proceeded to bury his face in his palms. Everyone else at the table could hear the faint, muffled sounds of Vin screaming into hands, before finally, he emerged with a levelled expression, and began to dig into the steak.

"Uh…T-That was my-" Irina was about to protest, until she cut herself off with a squeak as the most baleful glare anyone had ever seen Vin produce was shot straight at her.

Closing his eyes as he ate a few more bites, Vin finally collected himself, and began to address the other people sitting across from them, "It's good to see you again, Issei, Koneko, guy I've never met before…"

"It's Saji," The spiky-haired blonde admitted in a tone that sounded very much like defeat.

"Noted," Vin nodded, "Now, I assume there was a reason I was called here?"

"Yeah," Issei said, "We wanted to meet up with you three for a specific request: we want to help you destroy Excalibur."

"Destroy Excalibur?" Xenovia echoed, "Does this have to do with the erratic behavior of your master's knight?"

Issei nodded, "He has a reason to be vengeful of the swords, and while it's not my story to tell, the desire to destroy them has caused him to run away."

"That doesn't sound like our problem," Xenovia countered, "You devils are beings of desire, if desire is the reason why he went stray, then that's no concern of our own."

"Even when we're offering our help to you on your mission?" Issei asked, his eyes holding a steely glint to them as they clashed with Xenovia's, "I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that three exorcists don't have a single hope of taking on a cadre-class fallen angel all on their own. You'd be slaughtered."

The three exorcists flinched back at the reminder. Vin looked to his lap, clenching his fist, and grinding his teeth. Issei… he had a point; and it wasn't like he didn't want their help.

Irina spoke up, "Even then, we can't possibly side with devils-"

"I agree with Issei," Vin cut off.

"Same here, if it meant better odds, I wouldn't mind letting one or two swords be broken," Xenovia joined in.

"Wait, Xenovia?! You can't be serious!" Irina rebuked, until she froze as Xenovia stared down on her, "We have the lord's will guiding us, we don't need the devils to help!"

"Oh?" Xenovia mocked, "I wasn't aware that the lord's guidance was upon us on this mission; I suppose that Ethan and Ezekiel didn't have the lord's guidance, right?"

Irina stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening and shining over, before she stood up, weakly patting Vin's side as if to tell him to let her out of the booth, "...I…I need to use the bathroom real quick…"

Irina darted away, as everyone looked at her retreating figure with concern. Koneko with mild disinterest, Saji with saddened disapproval, and Issei with mounting anger. The brown-haired pawn specifically turned his fierce glare directly at Xenovia.

"What the hell was that for?!" Issei fumed, "I understand she was disagreeing with you, but seriously, what's your problem?"

"Issei," The devil looked over, seeing Vin's deathly serious face, and faltered, "Xenovia has a point. You see…"

Vin paused for a moment, looking at Xenovia, who got up from the table, "I'm going to go check in on Irina, I'll be three minutes; try to have the story done before then."

Although there were varying levels of confusion at the sudden shift in atmosphere, the devils didn't speak up, as Xenovia also walked off towards the bathrooms, leaving only Vin sitting across from them, picking at his steak, eyes glued to the dish while he spoke.

"Me, Irina, and Xenovia are a part of a bigger organization in the Vatican. Well, we were all training under the same teacher, to be precise; all of us training to become full-fledged warriors for the church one day."

Vin continued, "We were a small group of seven, I had joined only around nine months ago when I awoke my Sacred Gear. We were like a family, going on missions to hunt strays, training day-in and day-out; it was hard work, but all in all, I would dare say it was cozy."

"Everyone on our team used an Excalibur fragment, the only exception being myself. Xenovia had Destruction, Irina had Mimic, Ethan had Rapidly, Vanessa had Transparency, Jafar had Blessing, and Ezekiel had Nightmare. They were all masters of using the things, they wielded them in such a way that you'd think it was a work of art."

"What happened to Ethan and Ezekiel then?" Issei asked.

"I'll get to that," Vin poked his steak before continuing, "There was… a period of time not too long ago, where our teacher left to go to Heaven to pick up an archangel, the context isn't quite important, but all you need to know is that we had to go on a stray hunt for the first time without her."

"It went okay, some cuts and scrapes here or there, but ultimately, no one was worse for wear, but it was what happened when we came back that night," Vin swallowed a shaky breath, squeezing his eyes together, "We were attacked by Kokabiel. He wanted to steal the Excalibur's. There were seven of us, four Excalibur's between us, and we didn't stand a chance. It wasn't a defeat, it was a slaughter."

"Kokabiel stole Transparency, then, in the blink of an eye, he took Nightmare from Ezekiel, and his left hand along with it…"

Vin briefly threw his gaze up to see the various levels of discomfort on the devil's faces.

"I was struck to the ground, and Kokabiel was standing over me, about to do me in… But Ethan tried to go for a fatal strike to the back of Kokabiel's neck…"

Vin had to pause for a moment to take a breath, "I- I saw it happen… Kokabiel… He simply blew Ethan apart. Everything from the torso-up… Just… Blown apart. I've never seen so much blood in my life, and it was all over me…"

Vin gained a distant look in his eyes, "...All over me…"

"...Everywhere…"

"Oi, Vin!" Issei shook Vin's shoulder, as the Italian teen flinched back to awareness. Issei fixed him with a look of concern as he eased himself back down in his seat, "Are you alright? You just started zoning out, shaking, and mumbling."

"Huh? Yeah, yeah I'm fine," Vin waved the concern off, "Anyway, the whole thing is, our survival chance on this mission is… Well…"

"Our estimated survival chance is a mere 8%, and that's being generous."

All three devils turned to see Xenovia return, a dreary-eyed Irina tailing behind him.

"Ah, you're both back already, that's good," Vin stood up, his appetite shot after having to recount the horrors of the not-so-distant past, "If we're all going to work together, then I have something to share with the collective group."

Vin reached into his coat pocket, and pulled out the business card, tossing it onto the table, "I got into contact with… an anonymous, but reputable source, this is the location of Kokabiel's little hideout."

"V-Vin, how did you get this?!" Irina asked, her mouth agape.

Vin shrugged and gave a knowing smile, "Let's just say… A little birdie told me about it. Now, I have an idea for a plan, and if all goes well, we may just be able to make it out of this shit alive…"


Hey everyone, I'm back once again!

I know this is a shorter chapter than usual, but that's because the original plan for this chapter would have easily made it nearly three times larger, and… I have other stuff in my life. Plus, with this arc going really fast, it doesn't hurt to space it out a little more. Plus, a lot of important stuff happened in this chapter that frankly, it can stand on its own pretty well. So think of this chapter as the 'calm before the storm' as it were.

There's a few key details that I want to go over in this chapter, so let's not waste any time, and jump right into the…

Chapter Notes

Vin Finally Meets Azazel

This one was a long time coming, especially after Chapter Nine, where Azazel was teased with a cameo appearance. Like Michael, politically, his hands are tied, like he explains in the chapter, but he's willing to help the people who can act from the shadows. Essentially, in this version of the events of the Holy Sword arc, Azazel will have a more profound effect on the events of the story, aside from sending in Vali, of course.

Azazel's choice to finally reveal himself as well was done because he wanted to get Vin to place trust in him, thus, he dropped any and all acts, and came clean as the Governor General. And if the end of this chapter is any indication, it looks like Vin at least trusts Azazel to a degree.

Irina Crying In The Bathroom

This sequence of events are meant to show a clear dichotomy between each member of the exorcist trio when it comes to their approaches to Issei's offer of cooperation. Vin, who's incredibly pro-devil is immediately on board; Xenovia, who's noted in canon as being less religious as Irina, and a very pragmatic thinker when it comes to missions, is also on board after considering their abysmal odds of survival. Irina however, is not on board; she's extremely devout, and her views have a very hard time agreeing to work together with the devils. If anything, she has to be strong-armed into the agreement without much actual choice in the matter.

Thus, when Xenovia is trying to get her to agree to work with the devils, and specifically throws Irina's words back in her face, alongside mention of Ethan and Ezekiel, she gets really upset. For the future events of the arc, including the ending, I want to make this very clear: Irina is not alright with siding with the devils, but she was essentially peer-pressured into doing so without a choice.

Vin Divulging The Incident

One of the final impactful beats of this chapter is of course, Vin finally sharing the story about Kokabiel's attack to Issei, Koneko, and Saji. I think having it happen now works better, because not only does it inform the devils about the threat, but it also doesn't compete for real estate in the chapter with Kiba divulging his backstory either.

Also, it's pretty obvious, but Vin's reaction at the very end of his own story is very telling as to the true mental state of him. He may try to brush it off, but he's really, really not okay after vividly experiencing all that shit.

REVIEW ROUNDUP!

Dragonsaiyanblue Says:

"Sup like the story so far. To me I think Vin really need a badass moment soon. To me it just a little annoying with vin being a canon fodder lesser then Issei because even though issei have no actual training and with bs going on he still defeated raynare and riser and fought off freed. Vin been trading by professional and actual develop muscles and combat under herself who consider a heavy hitter in the church. But Vin been beaten every single fight he been in. It be better if you make him a pacifist which could make since. He need to grow a pair and start realizing the supernatural is fuck up and it's kill or be killed. But that how I see it no disrespect.

Now to vin and Xenovia, the tension is real. Vin is sick of the 3 way fight. I was kinda of hoping he step in between Xenovia and Asia. I also think Xenovia is jealous of akeno talking to vin.

Hope to hear back . Love the story."

Alrighty, let me walk through this, because I feel like this is a somewhat recurring opinion.

First off, Vin needing a badass moment is… Well, Vin, for all his training, is still green to all of this. He's got a Sacred Gear which he's still figuring out the intricacies of, and above all, he's still yet to develop a proper warrior mindset. He will improve, he has improved, if the fight in Chapter Ten is anything to go off of. I think that there's actually been a lot of improvement from Vin in general. As a matter of fact, let's walk through it:

Chapter Five - Vin gets separated from the group, finds a stray devil, and despite trying, he nearly dies. He needs to get saved by Xenovia, and even then, he still gets poisoned and benched for two weeks afterward.

Chapter Seven - Vin uses his Gear to save an entire mall of people from armed criminals, and also takes down several of said criminals on his own.

Chapter Eight - Vin manages to actually keep up with Xenovia in a spar. Also, Vin holds his own against a stray devil in a group fight, and gets his first kill of the series.

Chapter Ten - Vin faces down a devil rook all on his own, and through his own ingenuity, he manages to kill the thing without needing to be saved.

Chapter Eleven - Vin is the only person to actually hit Kokabiel in the fight.

Chapter Fifteen - Vin holds his own for most of the fight against Freed Sellzen, a famous stray exorcist with a lot of combat experience.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that Vin has had a lot of cool moments of triumph and growth, even in a strictly combat sense. Either way, I take no disrespect, don't worry.

As for the part about Vin not stepping in to stop Xenovia… I mean… He did just that. Sure, he didn't step in front of Asia per say, but why would I do that? That's just writing Vin to be an Issei replacement. Issei still has his role in the story, and Vin will be his own character. No shade to anyone, but I genuinely think that if you write your OC to just do the exact same things that Issei would do in a situation, that's just being a lazy, and frankly, bad writer. It's not too hard to come up with stuff that achieves the same result, but is still definitely different in execution.

Sorry for that mini rant there, but I really do appreciate your in-depth comment! I hope that you enjoy this chapter as well, rock on!

RokenDarkly Says:

"Henceforth I Shall Be Know As RockenDarkly!

Glad my reviews are loved as much as I love making 'em lol.

Wasn't too sure about how you would have Vin handle Issei's perviness, glad you went about it the way you did, because as you said OC's are either hating on him for it or they're the same but just cucking him.

Feral you say? No regard for survival you say? Now THAT's going to be fun to read, especially if it's anything similar to Pein vs angy!Naruto (weird animation faces and all).

Also if chaps take a bit longer because the quality needs to be good then take your time, also its December mate you got fam as well."

Oh shit, did I spell your username wrong last time? It was probably because I was writing late at night after a long seven-eight hours of writing, my bad. Anyway, great to see you back once more!

I'm happy to see that you agree with my sentiment about a lot of DxD OC's! I feel like a lot of them do fall into this very cookie-cutter design, and the majority don't really stray very far from that generic archetype. Like I've stated a few times in passing before, Vin is supposed to serve as a subversion of that. Does he still fill in some traits of those OC's, most certainly, but I also have tried to explicitly make him different in a number of ways to keep him refreshing.

Vin's fighting style is going to be a blast to write, frankly. I think that a feral nature, where he doesn't care for honor, only survival, combined with Vin's naturally creative brain is going to make for some crazy shit in fights. Hopefully, it'll keep the battles in the series dynamic, unpredictable, and most importantly, different to watch when compared to your typical DxD fic's Dragon-Ball-esk power clashes.

It's always a treat to read your reviews, so thanks again! I hope to read more in the future, rock on!

Gaming Masters of the Wall Says:

"Well, it was kind of refreshing to see that the MC (Vin) actually defend his new friends(?) from the uncalled bitchy attitude Xenovia was pulling. Like seriously, that crap was totally a dick move from her part, especially in this instance given the fact that she's insulting the very same person who SAVED VIN'S LIFE. And since they were all nice to him (except Koneko and Kiba, I guess?) the Crystal-Creation User would feel irked by that.

Now, about future ideas for Vin's SG, I think it would be interesting to use the JoJo logic when it comes to the several usages of this power like creating crystal dust to slowly poison the enemies with an overdose of mineral in their system, use the very same dust to create crystal construct INSIDE someone else's body and the potential to use a multi-directional, gemstone-firing gatling-gun.

And as for the crystals themselves, I think they could be used with Jewelcraft á la Rin Tohsaka. Heck, perhaps Vin could create specialized crystals to store as much magic energy as possible and use them as grenades or exploding bullets. Maybe even bestow them with specific effects too if he learns Rune Magic. Have you seen Cú Chulainn and other Rune users from Fate? Now THAT is ingenious and pretty damn awesome.

Also, would the pairing be solely Vin x Xenovia exclusively or would the Pseudo-Dragon Gear user gather the attention of other girls too?"

Oh. My. God.

You get it, you absolutely get it. I've been waiting, and I never expected someone to really understand the intricacy of Vin's character like you have. He's a person who's all about that ingenuity in combat, and some of these suggestions are really logical extensions of that idea. While I do think that the crystal dust, or the growing crystals are a bit… fatal, at least for Vin right now, I could totally see that being a possibility in the future.

As for rune magic, I tend to like to avoid using stuff from other series, but I definitely appreciate the suggestions nonetheless.

All in all, thanks so much for the detailed review, I thought it was really wonderful. I hope that I get to hear from you again, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter, rock on!


Well, that's going to do it for this chapter. I wanted to get this chapter out before the weekend considering that I'm going to be spending that time doing some more family-related activities, and possibly only writing a little bit on the side; plus, I have a driving test coming up next week that I have to prepare for. Despite that, I'll chip away at chapter nineteen, and since I do know what I want to have in that chapter, I hope that it'll be smooth sailing when it comes to sitting down and actually writing the damn thing.

Make sure to follow my Instagram (dxd_alternate_official) for any extra updates, memes, and behind the scenes info about this fic; and also make sure to leave a follow, favorite, review, or hell, all of the above if you genuinely are enjoying what you read; it means so much to me, honestly, it does.

I hope that everyone's getting excited, since we're nearing the endgame of this arc now… Next time, on High School DxD: Alternate, get ready for the exorcists and devils to enact a plan to steal back the Excalibur's… And potentially, a cameo appearance from a brand new character who will come to change the story as we know it.

Have a wonderful day, and rock on!