After the way Asia dealt with her situation, Rias insisted on staying with Issei partly because she did have an attraction to the perverted idiot, but also to stay close to Asia who even she could tell was going to become a major powerhouse in short order.
Coincidentally Asia was shamelessly using her phone to record Koneko for Kuroka, since the older Devil had explained the full situation and that her sister still hadn't quite forgiven her even if she had become a stray for her sake.
She was fine with stalking her baby sister from afar so long as Asia was willing to help her. And to write down tips on how to make her sister stronger so no one would hurt her like that again. Koneko was a tad suspicious who Asia's "friend" was, but a few training sessions were enough to convince her that doing something stupid like ignoring the book and not taking the tips seriously would be detrimental to her health.
As in Asia would cheerfully cave the girl's head in to prove a point.
Asia had no issue with Rias living with her. She was a nice girl, and she honestly cared about her friends. Plus she had already earned major bonus points with not only Sirzechs, but Serafall after the way she helped Rias out without asking anything in return.
Well, that and how she bent the Phenex family over backwards before she agreed to release their idiot. Nothing commanded respect faster than showing competence and the ability to stare down overpowered morons with immortality without blinking. The fact she had an ability that they couldn't counter even with their fancy abilities made them rather wary of pissing her off.
Reborn would be so proud once he caught up with her.
Even better, she had managed to contact Verde and he was already on his way to Kuoh so he could experiment on Sacred Gears with his Fallen counterpart. The idea of combining the unusual items with Flames successfully had gotten his full interest, and having someone to brainstorm with that wasn't a complete idiot appealed to him.
Besides, Asia already knew she was highly compatible with the Arcobaleno, and while he wasn't as combat oriented as Lambo he was still a damn better Lightning than anything she'd get from the mafia right now.
Stupid flame stereotypes...
Asia was standing in the usual training ground where she generally tried (and succeeded) in kicking Vali's teeth in on a regular basis.
It was well warded and her new familiars were sitting on the side.
"Ready, Asia?" asked Azazel.
Nearby was a new addition to his particular group... the Lightning Arcobaleno Verde. Asia had managed to contact him shortly before Riser showed up, and he had found his new science bro in Azazel who was all too happy to share the research in exchange for help with the programming.
He could handle supernatural energies just fine... but he was always more interested in getting laid than learning computer programming.
Verde was good enough at using flame tech, but the thought of a new avenue of research not policed by the Vindice had him salivating...especially when Azazel sent him a single page of his research into combining a sacred gear with flames.
Finding a sacred gear user that was flame compatible was nearly impossible...the Moonlit World guarded them too closely from the humans, which the mafia qualified. Those few that were part of the mafia were usually too well guarded to bother with, or too weak for his experiments.
So having free access to a Sky of considerable purity and a strong sacred gear user was too tempting for him to resist.
Besides, Asia wanted to make sure her balance breaker was back up to what she considered acceptable standards.
Asia concentrated her dying will. She slipped into Hyper Dying Will easily enough, and with a bit of effort Twilight Burning activated as well.
That was when things got interesting. She channeled her flames into the sacred gear, which caught alight. She kept going and made her flames burn higher. Without slipping into the needed position for the Zero Point Breakthrough, she went up another notch.
Then...it happened. The excess flames needed an outlet and she was burning too high for the sacred gear to fully contain.
A great cry erupted from the sacred gear, as something new clicked into place.
From Asia's back, a pair of great burning wings formed. They looked very similar to that of an angel or fallen's wings, but instead of multiple pairs there was a single pair of large wings.
However only an idiot would miss the amount of power behind them.
"The readings are astounding!" said Verde excitedly.
"Tell me about it! Do you have any idea how rare it is to get a human-phoenix hybrid?" said Azazel.
Verde looked past the top of his glasses.
"Human Phoenix hybrid?"
"Twilight Healing...or rather it's true designation, Twilight Burning...is the result of a phoenix being pissy with Ddraig the day the three factions took down the two blowhards before God sealed their ass into a sacred gear," said Azazel. "Apparently Ddraig pissed off the original incarnation of Suzaku, by trying to one-up the Eastern primordial phoenix by showing him dragons were superior. Suzaku won...barely...but the incident had lingered in his bird brain. So when he heard the three factions were going to deal with the two bickering dragons he wanted in."
Asia had a deadpan look on her face.
"Let me guess...he was wounded enough that God had to seal him away as well, or he got caught up in it while God was dealing with the two dragons," said Asia.
"Got it in one. Suzaku was too weak to prevent himself from being sealed since he was too close to Ddraig. All three of them were sealed into support-type gears. Micheal realized he could use Twilight Burning to bolster the faith considering it could heal a lot of people without any side effects, and simply never corrected them on the name."
Asia felt the strong urge to face-palm at that.
"So why haven't I heard of any phoenix hybrids before now?" asked Asia.
"Simple...the Church claimed first dibs every time it showed up and paraded the users as saints. Considering it takes special circumstances for people to awaken Dying Will Flames, there was no way for the full power of Twilight Burning to kick in," said Azazel shrugging.
Verde kept recording, as the entire thing was fascinating. Vali had agreed to allow him to take samples so long as Asia agreed to stop kicking his ass.
Azazel was examining her new wings. Verde was too busy recording what he could while she was still active.
"Huh...these could almost be mistaken for angel wings," he commented.
"Hence why I was originally going to call myself Seraphim once I established myself as a hitman. Instead my adopted parents dumped me in a convent," said Asia. Azazel snorted at the irony.
He eyed her thoughtfully for a moment.
"It's a pity you were born in the wrong century. I could imagine the chaos you could have caused if they tried to burn you alive for being a witch."
Asia snorted at that. The mental image was all too obvious to her, and he was clearly thinking of what happened to Jeanne of Arc. The sight of her growing wings while she was supposed to be burning would have been hilarious. For not only demons, but the fallen as well.
Once they were done, Azazel brought out the next thing on the list.
Asia stared.
"Isn't that Yang's weapon from RWBY?"
"Why yes, yes it is. With modified light bullets from the gun you stole," agreed Azazel.
"...Do I get to play with a new toy designed to cause massive amounts of destruction, chaos and all out anarchy?" asked Asia.
"Didn't I promise you something nice after you brought Vali's ego back down to tolerable levels?"
The expression on her face when she threw a punch and an explosion occurred would have terrified any sane person. As it was, Verde was already making some calibrations because he didn't consider the explosion big enough or impressive enough.
Asia was already cackling at the thought of using it soon.
Meanwhile Azazel was thinking of a way to trick his stubborn son into coming to Kuoh long enough to run into his new favorite minion/ward. He knew Asia and Reborn would get along like a house (or several) on fire. Hell, they would probably start them!
Asia saw them on the way to her morning class. She wasn't taking the main entrance, as she had something to do before class, so she missed running into them directly.
The moment she saw them, she knew she was in for a headache.
Which was why the first thing she did was warn Sona and Rias about their uninvited guests via cell phone.
"Wait...there are exorcists in front of the school gates?" said Rias.
"I'd recognize that aura anywhere. Likely die-hard believers, knowing my luck," said Asia sourly.
"What do you want us to do? I'm assuming they're going to give us a head's up about their presence here," said Sona.
Asia thought about it for a moment, then an evil smirk appeared on her face.
"Odds are they expect me to be a Devil at this point, since I claimed sanctuary from Rias' family and her brother. Which means that the more devout of the two will likely attempt to at least make a token effort to take me out, since they consider me a false saintess."
She could feel the wince on the end of the phone from Rias. Sona, however, was a bit more acquainted with Asia's methods. Mostly because she had unofficially become the head of the newly formed Disciplinary Committee.
"...You want us to put a barrier up so no one investigates their screams of mercy?"
"If you wouldn't mind. I have the feeling they'll head to Rias first since it's a little more remote, so set it up around the clubhouse."
"Is it bad I almost feel sorry for these two?" asked Rias to no one in particular.
"No," came the immediate duo responses from Asia and Sona.
A few hours later...
Xenovia took one look at the fallen nun and her eyes narrowed. This was the heretic that had paraded around as a false saint.
She drew her sword, causing everyone to tense.
What she should have been paying attention was the way Issei and the others reacted to her threatening the fallen nun.
Argento looked worried, and slightly timid...she should be, as none of her new devil comrades were willing to stand up for her. Gremory's Knight was to challenge Irina, a poor choice considering her opponent was none other than the fallen nun.
Rias looked between them.
"Are you sure we can't settle this amicably?" she asked.
"Argento doesn't deserve to live," said Xenovia, glaring at her.
Rias sighed.
"Don't say I didn't warn you," said Rias, before snapping her fingers. A barrier was erected, which should have been the exorcist's second clue.
Xenovia charged, thinking Argento an easy mark...she found herself lying flat on her ass after being sent flying from a rather nasty toss.
Irina, startled by this turn of events, almost failed to notice Kiba's attack.
It was all over quickly...and not with the victors the exorcists thought would win.
"Get off me, you heretic devil!" snarled Xenovia.
Asia snorted at that, looking rather calm about the whole thing.
She pulled out a book with a rather colorful dust cover. The second she started reciting the passage of the first page she happened to land on, all the devils were cringing in unanimous pain. The two exorcists recognized it immediately as part of the New Testament.
"How? Devils aren't able to read from that!" said Irina in absolute shock.
"One, next time you plan to challenge someone make sure to get all your facts straight. I am not an ex-nun...I'm an ex-novitate," said Asia irritably. "Two, the rules of sanctuary are considered sacred even among pure blood devils...evil pieces are a relatively new concept and there are no rules that say only someone willing to be turned into a devil can claim sanctuary from someone in power. And three, I never once claimed to be a saint... the same people who threw me out to cover their own ass because they didn't realize Twilight Healing had the power to heal all races are the ones who insisted I must be a holy woman."
"That's impossible... You must be a witch to have the ability to heal devils!" said Xenovia.
Asia glared at her in such a way she shut up.
"Maybe next time the Church should learn an artifact's actual name rather than coming up with a similar one. The true name of my sacred gear is Twilight Burning, not Healing. It has the original Suzaku sealed inside after he got involved with the fight the three factions had trying to stop Ddraig and Albion's pissing contest," she said flatly. "The only reason everyone assumed it only had the power to heal the faithful was because some idiot decided to use it to bolster the faith and Micheal never bothered to correct their name. There are no sacred gears that are race-exclusive...just ones that certain factions have a habit of snatching immediately the second they show up."
Irina had to admit, she did make a plausible counter.
Xenovia wasn't as convinced, but was willing to ignore it in favor of getting her job done.
The thing that amused Asia was the fact no one bothered to ask where she got this information to begin with.