Chapter 4: The Crimson Ruin Princess

I opened my eyes to discover that I was wrapped in some sort of rescue blanket. I raised a hand but found an IV there and so let my hand drop back onto the seat. The interior lighting took a little adjusting to get used to, but I could slowly make out my rescuer, Motohama.

He was about to speak again, but I interrupted. "No, wait. I have to say this…" Putting on my best, most confused and melodramatic voice, I spoke with a dreamy quality. "Where… Where am I?"

"Not at death's doorstep." He dryly responded, then reached into the glove compartment across for a small metal box. "Though, I'd say you're at the Ass-Kicking World Finals, and you're first in line."

I glanced around at the car's interiors, from the custom leather seats to the overwhelming, foreign control system surrounding the steering wheel. It was a beast that put my parents' Hyundai to shame.

"I certainly feel like it." I awkwardly chuckled. A growing sense of agitation crept up my spine, like a death-row prisoner awaiting his eternal damnation. "For a moment there, I really thought I was gonna die. That I was for sure a goner." I shook off the thought. "So, what are you? A student, writer by trade, and then some sort of 'monster hunter' in your free time?"

"Hmm, don't really have a title." Motohama replied as he opened the small case to reveal a disposable medical syringe and a bottle of clear liquid. "Here, hold still for a sec, this should help." He rolled up my sleeve, continuing to talk as he gave me the shot. "And those weren't monsters at your house." His tone grew frighteningly serious. "They're worse. Powerful, mythical beings known as fallen angels, and chances are that more are on their way."

"Fallen angels?" I shook my head "You're kidding me, right? Like from the Bible?" I practically groaned from disbelief, just as the heavy downpour, outside, suddenly drowned me out.

He frowned and studied me for a moment.

"That just can't be." I gasped, feeling sick. Sakura had wings. Oh, God. She had wings.

My thoughts were interrupted when something shuffled behind my seat. It was a bit cumbersome to turn around, but in doing so, I was greeted by a pair of big, orange eyes. The massive dog whined and wagged his tail. I sighed out of relief and unclipped my seat belt, tossed the ruined cloth onto a large duffle in the cavernous backseat, and scratched behind the massive canine's ear.

"I hope you're not in trouble for helping me out as well, buddy—" I stopped, just short of expressing my gratitude towards the big animal, when I spotted the handgun resting in Motohama's hand.

"Now," his demeanor grew cold, "if life were perfect, I'd be home right now, flying through last year's Christmas stack of Raymond Chandler." He raised the gun up to my chin. "Instead, I'm out here in my newly-fixed Challenger, debating what I should ultimately do with you."

He cocked the hammer and said, "Issei, you are going to tell me everything I don't know, otherwise I'm gonna put that healing factor of yours to the test. You caused quite the stir at school this morning, and now you're involved with the Gremory clan, and fallen angels. So, to keep it short, you're going to need a better answer than just an 'I don't know.'

The dog growled as to make things clear. I glanced at them, more frustrated than scared. Motohama kept the gun pointed at me, but pulled down his shades, revealing a gravely puffed, violet ring around his right eye. "Well?"

I shook my head, surprised. "Woah, who did that to you?"

"I'll give you one guess," he spoke, breaking out into a chilly smile.

…!

"N-no, no, no." I stammered and instinctively raised my hands. "I definitely would have remembered clobbering you."

"You sure?" Motohama responded. "Because I sure do." He leaned back in his seat, gaining some distance between us, then sighed, seemingly thinking things over. "Look, it's really all that idiot, Matusda's, fault."

The dog, for some reason, whined, but Motohama told it to hush.

"It was only supposed to be a joke." He looked back at me. "Not even hazing, really. He offered you a little fake grass, and that should have been it. And it seemed that way, honestly. Then, suddenly, things went south, fast. The next thing we know, you spring on us like an animal; I mean, you really kicked the crap out of us."

He shook his head, almost as if he were in as much disbelief as me. "I was lucky to not get knocked out," he continued his story, "I managed to work through the pain and make a scramble after you."

He motioned with his firearm, then said: "So, imagine my surprise, when I finally catch up to you, only to find you cuddled like a newborn, in the hands of the single, most dangerous girl in this entire town." Just before finishing his sentence, his eyes, dark and wary, suddenly narrowed on me like a prosecutor putting the squeeze onto a defendant.

"Rias Gremory."

I froze, hearing her name, the letters seemingly wiping out the heavy drum of the rain, the short, precise breaths of the dog, and Motohama's own words. It was like suddenly falling through a layer of thin ice and crashing into the murky, dark waters below.

So, that was her, the girl with hair so crimson and vibrant that it was comparable to a dragon's fire. "Rias…" I spoke as my eyes trailed the splashes of water on the windshield. "Gremory…?"

Motohama cleared his throat, his gun still aimed at me, and said: "She's a powerful devil, easily the strongest being I've ever seen."

"An actual devil?" I shivered, remembering the dragon's warning. "Like Satan?"

Motohama seemed to contemplate something, finally lowering his weapon. "Not exactly."

"So, are we good?" I asked, swallowing.

He shrugged. "For now. Plus, you're not melting to the bone from any of the Holy Water I gave you."

I blinked. "Is that what you injected me with?!" I shouted. "You shot me up with water?!"

Motohama laughed. "Relax, buddy. You survived multiple, otherwise-fatal stabbings from a spear of light. I'm sure a little bit of blessed juice isn't gonna make you hypotonic anytime soon."

"And you're just assuming that?" I grouchily replied.

"Well," he spoke with a smile as he put his glasses back on, "you look just fine at the moment."

Suddenly, the low growl of the dog caught his attention.

"What?" I asked, glancing back.

Motohama glanced up at the rearview mirror. "We've got company!"

Without warning, he twisted the keys hanging in the ignition and the powerful engine roared to life. I barely had a moment to grab my seatbelt, as he slammed the gear stick forward and simultaneously hit the gas, practically launching the car airborne as we flew down the road.

"Hold tight," he grimaced.

A bright light flashed by the window and the road suddenly exploded. Jagged, hot concrete flew like freshly cooked popcorn; the bright orange tint of the dark rocks scattered across the windshield, sizzling in the rain like a puddle of heated oil in a skillet.

"What the—!" I screamed and instinctively covered my head.

The dog barked as Motohama bolted us for the nearest exit lane. As he drove manically, I spun around in my seat and saw them. They were hard to make out amid the storm, as they flew after us. However, the glow of their weapons was enough to instill me with terror.

"I don't know how they got here so fast, but we're stuck with them! If one of those spears hits anything important, we're fried!"

I thought back to the fight with Sakura. "Wait, I really tanked one of those?!"

He shot me a dirty look, but quickly focused back onto the road. "I'll bait and switch—give these freaks a run for their money; besides, if they catch us, I'm sure you can talk our way out of it."

"Oh, yeah, sure. No, that's just brilliant. And while we're at it, maybe we can politely ask that they don't pick our insides out with light spears!" I yelled, simultaneously yanking out my IV.

He glanced at the speedometer and chuckled. "Maybe before we went past a hundred."

I reached out and clamped a hand on the dash.

Motohama waved in the rearview. "They're still gaining on us." He glanced at me, smiling just enough to tell me that I wasn't going to like what happens next. "They're game."

The Challenger became very light in the tires as we weaved on the road and leveled off, starting down the hill. The dog yelped with disapproval, but that did little to dissuade our over-the-top driver.

The speedometer was now tipping one hundred and thirty as he blithely steered the Dodge into the emergency lane to pass two small cars running in tandem. "How are you holding up?"

I swallowed and tried to work up enough spit to speak. "I'm not."

Rocketing past the startled drivers, he tipped the wheel, and the muscle car leapt back into the open lane like an animal on the hunt. "Hot, damn!"

Slicing down the emergency lane, he decelerated and tripped the wheel just enough to get the rear end of the Challenger to break traction and begin a sickeningly slow slide to the right as the two back wheels attempted to catch up with the front.

I looked straight ahead at the intersection that was rapidly approaching, aware that the light was red and that traffic was streaming by in front of us.

Motohama casually countered the drift just enough to keep the Dodge in play and, slowing his speed, continued turning to the right. "Gotcha."

A late-night truck driver, pulling across the intersection, suddenly looked in time to see us rapidly approaching sideways. He slammed on his breaks as Motohama threw the Dodge across the opposing lanes, beat out a Honda, and put his foot into the more than seven hundred horsepower, slinging us forward as he took the emergency lane again, shooting past more cars, then roaring back onto the road and weaving his way through the lanes of traffic.

I glanced out the side window, the light coming from the streetlights compressed by the speed like the opening credits of a movie not formatted to real life. "Where does this road go?"

"Downtown."

"Anything else?"

"Just some residences and a park."

We leapt across a bridge and made a hard right, following the geometry of a curve not designed for a hundred miles an hour. "What'd we just blow over?" He suddenly asked.

"I don't know—we were going way too fast."

"You know, Issei," he groaned, "I'm really starting to regret tailing you and saving your skin—"

CRACK—!

We hit some bumps, and there was a deafening noise, but it was only when I saw through the massive hole punched in the interior panel of the car that I realized that we'd been hit.

I glanced at the front and could see that his eyes were wide as he looked at the damage to his car.

I swallowed. "Are you hit?"

"No," his lips curled back into a scowl, "and I'd just as soon not be." Keeping his hands on the wheel, Motohama spun around to face the dog and sharply instructed for the mysterious duffle.

Immediately, the great canine meticulously used his jaws to gently unzip the dark bag, revealing what had to have been the scariest looking gun I'd ever seen.

"Issei, grab take control of the car!" Motohama ordered, while handling and sliding a blocky looking clip into the oversized firearm.

"What… what is that?" I asked, gawking at the excessive weapon in his possession.

Motohama savagely grinned as he pulled back the bolt, and excitement blazed in his eyes. "This here is for making Swiss cheese, if you get my drift." He chuckled.

Suddenly, it clicked. "Is that what you shot my parents' house with?!" I screamed, as I latched a hand onto the wheel, hoping to God that I wouldn't accidentally throw us off the road.

"Yeah, well, someone needed to save your ass by shooting that—!" His retort was interrupted, just as a bolt of light shredded through the roof of the Dodge and speared through the exotic weapon like a hot knife cutting through butter. Worse, the spear bore right through the control station as well.

"Oh shi—!"

The dashboard and windshield exploded, sending shards of glass, sparks, and debris everywhere. The dog yelped and was launched backwards alongside Motohama, while I took the blast head-on. My face and arm singed from the heat, but I managed to hold onto the wheel.

Suddenly, one of the fallen angels descended upon us, another spear in hand; harshly landing onto the hood of the Dodge. Immediately, he glared at me through a messy slosh of dark hair, which did little for his flattened, bloodied expression. Dohnaseek.

"Any last words?" He snarled through an atrocious grin, as he brought back the spear in preparation to run me through.

"How about you just fuck off?"

He spun to face an injured Motohama, who lurched forward as he brought the gun from under the car seat and leveled it at the surprised fallen angel. The spear of light grazed my neck as seven of Motohama's rounds blew into the fallen angel's chest at 835 feet per second, bouncing him off the car hard enough to launch him somewhere into the stormy darkness, leaving nothing behind but a trail of raven feathers.

"Nice shooting!" I triumphantly shouted.

The celebration was short lived, however, when one of the Dodge's front wheels exploded and tore off the vehicle's body. I wasn't sure what exactly had happened, but the car suddenly spun out of control, sending a series of brilliant sparks across the wet concrete road before smashing forcefully through a gate.

With the force of a pro boxer, the airbags deployed, instantly knocking me off the wheel. The seatbelt cut into my shoulder and was all that held me tight as the vehicle continued its destructive journey onward, only coming to a sudden dead-stop when we struck something hard. I gasped for air, the pain all too agonizing, and realized that water was pouring into the car.

At first, I thought it was the rain, but as my vision returned, I realized we had crashed into some sort of fountain. Then, it all clicked. The surrounding evergreen, shrubs, and sparse, man-made pathways. We were in a park. Somehow, through all of that, we ended up in a stinking park.

I tried catching my breath when the car glass shattered, and something grabbed me by the throat with a steel grip. I was thrown from the car, hitting the ground and sliding across the wet grass like an uncontrollable yacht smashing through a wooden dock.

I could barely let out as much as wheeze, when a figure with wings flew over and suddenly lifted me off the ground, high above him.

WHOOMP—!

My body was thrown like a ragdoll. I bounced off the side of the Dodge, tumbling onto the asphalt and stopping just before someone's feet.

"You should've been our obedient sword, Issei." A voice spoke with anger. "Our champion."

Once my most trusted confidant, Doctor Sakura now stared down at me with an expression of pure disgust and contempt. Though her wings were damaged, that didn't stop her from displaying them with what felt like some sort of pride; it didn't stop any of them.

Fallen angels, of all shapes and sizes, continued descending from the sky, some I even recognized. There were the "yellow jackets", the guards at the hospital. Nurses, doctors, and other staff members. The only people I'd known my whole life. All of which, every single one, were monsters.

I glared at Sakura, feeling myself tremble with rage. "Why are you doing this to me?"

She said nothing as one of the fallen angels grabbed me and forced my head down in a bow, making sure to hold my hands tightly behind my back so that I couldn't try anything.

"Get off me!" I roared, but to no avail.

"Quiet." Her command cut me off, as she formed another spear of light. "Look at me."

Her acolyte grabbed my hair, forcing me to face her.

"This world is broken. Helpless to the deceiving nature of the devils, only further perpetuated by the cowardly seraphs who sit atop a throne that rightfully belongs to us. Our greatest leaders fail to act, and only now do we have a real chance at salvation. To destroy our sworn enemies, and to finally make things right!" She proclaimed, suddenly pointing the weapon at me. "For Lord Kokabiel."

Suddenly, a massive explosion rocked the park. A bright, crimson light colored the night sky as a tremendous shockwave threw me to the ground. Half of the fallen angels were suddenly gone, as if suddenly erased from existence, whereas the others, struck with terror, took off for the skies.

"What the…?" I gasped, watching in astonishment as the monsters ran away.

That's when I saw someone slowly descend towards me, outlined by the red glow of a demonic-looking moon. Her hair was darker than the blood running down my cheek and seemed to float midair alongside her body. She smiled as a pair of leathery wings, like a bat, suddenly sprouted from her back. Strange, alien energy seemed to encase her, surrounding her like a forcefield.

She landed before me, and patterned imagery suddenly appeared over the ground, outlining everything in a red, spinning circle.

I immediately recognized her.

How could I not?

She reached out and gently touched my cheek, the feeling sending a chill through me. "I thought you could use a little assistance there." She continued smiling sweetly. "Though, you are proving to be a fascinating boy, aren't you?"

"Please, save them." I gasped, pointing at the Dodge. "My friends. They're in that car. Please!"

She looked at the destroyed vehicle, then turned back around to me, smiling.

"Gladly. But from this moment forward, you will live your life for my sake."

Those were the last words I heard before finally succumbing to my exhaustion.

The words of a devil.

Rias Gremory.