Issei was freezing. He twisted and turned in bed as he felt the breeze on his bare back. He hissed as the scar on his back burnt, clearly not yet healed from yesterday's events. His thighs pressed together as he curled up in a ball, skin contacting against skin. His naked calves cringed and his toes curled in a shiver from the cold.

Wait...naked?

Issei shot up out of bed, and he felt it crease under him. This was not a bed; this was a couch. Issei turned his body in the direction of the floor and brought his legs off the couch, feeling suddenly claustrophobic. His anxiety only increased in intensity as he found someone equally naked sleeping right beside him.

Laid there on the couch right beside him was a young woman with crimson hair curled up in a ball. The remnants of the moon light shone on her skin, illuminating her creamy white complexion even further. Issei sighed. Rias looked so peaceful in her sleep, nothing at all like what normal people would assume devils looked like.

Issei got up and walked over to the window that had claw markings from where he gripped it last night. Looking back at his left arm, Issei found unblemished flesh with no signs of his sacred gear in sight. Massaging his left arm, it felt perfectly normal to him. That was good, he had hoped that his nerves wouldn't have to get used to reverting back to his original form. It was a gauntlet after all, not a transfiguration.

Issei saw the sun start to appear from the east and knew that it had to be approximately 6:00 in the morning. Kuoh didn't really have dark winters and Issei had never seen a snowflake in his life. It did however, have extremely windy weather for practically the entire year and frequent rain showers and thunderstorms.

Issei walked right next to the window, having the sun warm his body but still feeling the breath of the air on his skin. He reached behind the window and patted the left and right sides of the outside panel. Finding a proper grip, he brought them in; securely closing the window.

Stepping away from his finished work, the beam of the sun still pierced through the glass panels; the sun had completely risen. Checking to see if the noise of the window had awoken Rias, Issei turned the other way around to find out if he needed to interrogate her yet.

The sun didn't shine on the couch she was sleeping on, but it did bring light to a table nearby a couch and their couch. It was located directly in the middle, and there was a clear separate couch that Rias could easily have slept on. She better have a good explanation for this.

On the table were two fresh pairs of school uniforms, one Kuoh Academy female and one male. Assuming they were for both the undressed people in the room, Issei grabbed his designated clothes and started putting them on. Seeing white socks and men's shoes underneath the transparent coffee table, Issei bent down to pick them up. It was even his shoe size as well. How long had she been stalking Issei for?

Shaking his head, Issei tied his shoelaces into matching pairs of bunny ears and subsequently heard a yawn from beside him. Rias had awoken, it seemed. Extending her arms into the air, Rias stretched her arms upward and flexed them back down to start rubbing her eyes furiously.

Taking her hands off her eyes, she stared at Issei and blinked twice before saying. "Oh. Hi, Issei. Good morning." She at least had the decency to blush at her embarrassment for what she did.

"Rias." Issei said sternly.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Rias shaked her open palms at Issei hurriedly. "Before you get mad at me, let me explain. To heal you, we both needed to naked so I could bathe you in magic."

Issei didn't suppose there was a backstory to go along with this strange ritual. "Then why do I still feel like shit?" Mental fatigue was one thing. Issei could understand if he had a migraine right now and in desperate need of some Asprin. However, his whole body felt like it was still holding the weight he had lifted up off his chest after last night's talk.

Rias put her hand behind her head and rubbed her neck sheepishly. "I miiiight've forgotten to start the healing process."

Issei deadpanned. This was the person that was supposed to be his master? "You play too much."

Rias took her hand off of her neck and gained back that confidence he so heavily associated with her. She smiled at him with a dazzling smile, not even needing to open her mouth to show her pearly white teeth. "And you play too little."

Issei sighed. He couldn't get mad at this woman. "Bye, Rias." He turned and started to walk away in the direction of the double doors. He still had time before school started, perhaps he could sleep on the bench while waiting for the bell to ring.

"Wait!" He heard Rias cry out and he felt her grasp his hand from behind. He could feel her soft fingertips grazing against his own, but felt a solid surface in the palm of his hand. Something was placed in the middle of them; she was giving him something.

Stopping and turning around to face Rias, he saw her still leaning forward to catch his hand before stopping and leaving whatever she handed to him behind. "I took this off your person on Friday night when I healed you. I didn't want to disintegrate your phone along with your clothes."

Issei opened his palm to see what she had given him. It was a flip phone with no stickers or labels on it, but Issei knew it belonged to him. No other phone looked this ordinary and dull. Issei still remembered buying it from a retail store as a second hand good.

Issei flipped open his phone and saw that he had one new message. Pressing the buttons on the number pad, Issei was able to navigate to his text conversations. An exclamation mark was next to a phone number on the top of the list, sorted by most recent messages. It was Matsuda's number and underneath it, Issei saw Motohama's number who still was greyed out from inactivity.

Breath stuck in his throat, Issei's fingers trembled as he opened up Matsuda's and his conversation for the first time in a long while. Reading the black text on the white background, Issei's eyes shot up to the first line and started straying down the screen.

'Hey, Issei. I know that we don't really talk that much, even though I continue to hope that you will eventually respond to me. I still reach out to you from time to time, but I've given up on that hope a long time ago. Anyways, I'm not going to be talking about our weird and complicated friendship but I was going to ask you to deliver a message for me.'

Matsuda's text had a caption enscribed to the side of it. 4:19 AM. He must've been up all night. How important could the message be?

'See, I know you will see Motohama before I do; you always manage to know what he's doing at all times somehow. Anyways, I would just like to ask if you can tell Motohama I said, "Hope you get better, me and Issei miss you." I was originally planning to ask if you could just say 'me' instead of the both of us, but I know you miss Motohama as much as I do; perhaps even more. You can't fool me.'

The fact that the text was so unimportant hurt more than if it were urgent. Matsuda was still convinced of the normality of the situation. It pained Issei to continue reading, but he persevered onwards.

'Why am I still continuing on writing this message? I don't know, I guessed I just got a little worried and carried away, that's all. I don't know why I'm even freaking out, everything will probably turn out just fine. I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Issei. Hopefully Motohama feels better then and if not, I'll be waiting for him. I'm sure you'll be waiting for him with me as well. Motohama means the world to the both of us. Talk to you later Issei.' Matsuda must've been so tired he forgot 'tomorrow' was today.

Issei felt ready to hurl, and his body felt like it was ready to collapse at any minute. Someone could lightly tap him with the utmost tip of their finger and he would probably fall down. The phone shaked away in Issei's hand, and it nearly fell out of it multiple times.

Feeling the need to respond to Matsuda, Issei composed himself and started pressing the buttons on his phone once more. 'He' was all that Issei managed to get out, before he hit another roadblock. What was he going to tell Matsuda? Was it going to be the truth?

Issei knew he wasn't going to tell Matsuda about the mystical world, but was he going to let him know that Motohama died? He deserved to know, right? Before Issei knew it, he was looking at his own sent message. 'He transferred to a different school. He told me he's been thinking about moving to a different city for a while now. I don't know if you'll be able to see him before he leaves, but I'll make sure to give him your regards.'

Fuck. He didn't even see his fingers move or feel his fingertips pressing the buttons. He had to tell Matsuda later on today, he needed to fix his mistake. It was too late now, but Issei knew he would see him at lunch. No, that's not right. They had different lunches today. Afterschool, then.

Issei heard the clasp of a bra being snapped into place. He looked up from the phone to look at Rias, forgetting about her presence in his deliberation. She was currently in the middle of pulling her buttoned corset around her waist. She met his eye and looked a bit worried. "Are you okay, Issei?"

Issei calmed down, trying not to look devastated in front of Rias. Of course he was not okay. "I'm fine, Rias." He sounded a lot more composed than he truly was on the inside. Looking back to his phone, he saw Matsuda's response to his message.

'Oh, that's really disappointing. I don't truly understand his motives but I'm sure you'll explain them to an idiot like me. Afterschool at the Kendo Club building today, right?' It had seemed that this was the way things were going to go. Placing his fingers back on the number pad to type again, Issei responded the only way he knew how.

'Yeah.'

His fingers lingered on the keys even after he had already pressed the enter button. Turning around once more, Issei pushed the double doors open with his hand. Still looking down at the screen of the phone, Issei walked down the stairs that led to the first floor of the old school building.

Pocketing his phone, Issei opened up the door of the first floor and was greeted immediately by the sunlight of the morning. Putting his hand up to shield his eyes, Issei turned around to close the door behind him.

Lowering his hand, Issei turned around and walked to the courtyard, The sun shined on Issei's bangs, the dark pigment of his hair not being remotely helpful in reflecting the sunlight but rather being counterproductive by absorbing it instead. He put his hands in his pockets and started to walk, realizing two things: one, he had forgotten his backpack at Motohama's mom's house and two, he had forgotten to say goodbye to Rias.

Today just wasn't his day it had seemed. Continuing his walk to class, Issei bumped into someone but they were too light to make Issei fall back, instead succumbing under his weight and tripping Issei in the process.

Issei placed his hands on the ground on each side of the other person's head, steading himself in the air so that he wouldn't collide with them. "Owie."' He heard a light feminine voice say as he brought himself up off the ground.

Issei chastised himself as he dusted off his school uniform with his hands. This never really happened to him, he always managed to be aware of his surroundings. Looking back down at the girl, he saw a petite white female with blond hair that fell under a white veil.

She was shorter than Raynare was when she donned the Yuuma physique. She wore a teal tunic that had sleeves, which went all the way to her ends of her wrist, tied over a dark teal dress that went down just above her ankles. The only color besides teal on her outfit were the white tips of her sleeve with golden outlines along the edges and the white collar of her tunic with light blue highlights on it.

The white veil flew away from her head, revealing long straight blonde hair with split curves on her forehead. The girl cried out something unintelligible while throwing her hands up in hopes of catching her veil which was carried by the wind a close few feet away from them.

With her veil gone, Issei could see she had a white blindfold wrapped so tightly around her eyes that Issei could see the indents of her topographic shifts along her face. He turned around to see if the white veil she adorned had flown away once more but it was still laying on the ground next to them.

Going to pick it up, he passed by the girl and felt a spark in his body, which almost halted him in his path. Kneeling on one knee, Issei bent down and retrieved her white veil and as it was in his hands, he realized that there were light blue highlights on it of the same shade as her collar.

Going back to the girl, he saw that she had stood up off the ground and Issei revised his earlier assessment of her. She was shorter than Yuuma, that was for sure, but only by about half an inch or an inch. She was similar to Motohama in the way that he looked taller than he actually was because he was skinny and she looked shorter than she actually was because she was petite. She had a very lithe body to her, but she didn't seem to be underdeveloped as there were clear indications of breasts. They were not big by any means, but they weren't exactly small either. Malnourished then.

Issei handed the white veil in front of her, but felt stupid as she wasn't able to see what was in front of her. Then, she surprised him by reaching out to him and taking the veil from his hands. It wasn't like a blind person walking with their hands in front of them until they made contact, it was clear precise movement that held no extra motions to it.

"Grazie." He heard the girl say, actually being able to understand her this time. She spoke Italian with a very harsh accent that Issei could only attribute to her being a tourist in Kuoh. Issei felt the same spark alighting aflame once more as his proximity to the girl was within reach again.

"You're tired." She said in fluent Italian. "And hurt." She continued. "Let me help you." She put her hands in front of her and green energy started emitting from her hands. Issei's eyes widened as he quickly closed the gap between her and firmly grabbed her hands in an attempt to prevent her from doing whatever she was doing.

Once his palm met her bare wrist, Issei felt a surge of electricity, with a much higher magnitude than the spark, as his vision went blurry and the events of the past week came flying back to him. Sleeping in class, hanging out with Motohama and Matsuda, meeting Raynare as Yuuma, going on a date with her, dying. It shocked him to the core and he let go of her immediately, avoiding her like the plague.

Backing up with tender hands, Issei stuttered out, "W-what was t-that?" Taking a deep breath in, he felt foolish realizing that not only was he stuttering but was also speaking in an entirely different language than the girl.

The girl approached him once more with glowing hands saying "Let me help you."

Issei in a moment of desperation, finally found the means to form words and cried out "Aspetta un momento!" His Italian must've sounded so offensive to her, but it did it's job apparently and she stopped in her tracks.

"You can speak Italian?" She asked him, surprised. Issei could understand it, but speaking it was a lot harder in actuality than in practice or in writing. He was going to tell her 'no', before Ddraig interrupted him, apparently awoke.

'Let me take over, partner.' Ddraig's relaxing voice came, calming Issei down a bit.

'Take over what?' Issei asked in his mind.

'Do you trust me, Issei?' Ddraig asked, not helping out by sharing any details with him.

As the girl got over her confusion and started approaching him again, Issei thought immediately 'Yes! I trust you Ddraig. Do whatever you please.' Ddraig was very high up on the list of Issei's most trusted people in the world, but then again that list can be counted on one hand. He had only met Ddraig yesterday, but he felt a strong connection with the one who shared his soul. He would lean on Ddraig's power as Ddraig trusted Issei to not let him down. Issei relaxed as much as he could in the current situation and surrendered his body to Ddraig.

Issei felt sleepy as his eyes closed. When he opened them once more, he was seeing through his eyes but the feeling felt faint and fuzzy. His vision was a lot sharper, and Issei swore he could see a couple more colors than he usually could.

The girl saw Issei's eyes go sunken as his irises condensed into slits and changed to a more regent color of green. He blinked his eyes, before steading himself and talked to her with a deeper voice. "Hello there child, what's your name?"

Issei's eyes widened as he heard his voice speak Italian. It didn't sound like there were marbles warbling in his throat and sounded extremely clean except maybe a little archaic. The girl smiled at him and said, "My name is Asia Argento, nice to meet you." Like the continent?

"Asia?" Issei thought aloud, before realizing he actually spoke it into existence. He could still control his mouth even though Ddraig had taken over?

He butchered the pronunciation of her name and her smile fell as her eyes widened. He said it more like 'Ah-zee-ah' than 'Ay-zhe'. Issei was going to apologize, but her face lit up as she asked him "Can you say my name again? I really liked how it sounded." She liked the way it sounded? Issei didn't think it sounded all that special when it came out of his mouth.

"Asia." Ddraig repeated, causing 'Asia' to smile brightly. She gained a dreamy look on her face and while Issei couldn't see her eyes, her tilted head and her beaming smile said enough."You seem lost. How can I help you?" Asia's head snapped back into place, as her smile dropped again and she pushed her index fingers against one other in her hand.

"Uhm, that's because I am. Can you point me in the direction of this town's church, Mr. Dragon?"

Issei was shocked, but his body's eyes didn't widen since Ddraig seemed to be relatively unfazed by her comment. He let out a deep chuckle and said, "I suppose it would be really rude if you gave us your name and we didn't give you ours. My name is Ddraig, and the idiot that inhabits this body, who calls himself my host, is named Issei."

Asia clasped her hands together in sheer excitement and said, "His name is Issei? I've never heard a name like that before. It sounds so wonderful!" She was ecstatic and seemed so happy about Issei's name.

Ddraig started chuckling in Issei's head as Issei audibly let out an 'Eh?' in his mind, to Ddraig's amusement.

Ddraig saved Issei's body the appearance of his confusion and said, "I'm sure Issei would be delighted to hear that, Asia." while smiling fondly at Asia. 'Issei let me access your memories of the church.' Issei didn't know how he could allow Ddraig to do that, but he thought of the the only church he had ever known this town to have and placed his memory in the front of his mind.

"Kuoh only has one church, Asia. Issei used to visit there all the time with an old family friend when he was young." He pointed to a church, located on top of a hill far away from where they were standing. "Sadly, the church has been abandoned for a long time. Sorry if I couldn't help; we don't know of any other churches in this town." Ddraig sounded apologetic as he was truly trying to help Asia out.

Asia's face lit up in recognition and said, "It's okay. That is actually the church I'm looking for, thank you so much. The person I was with teleported us somewhere away from there, but I seemed to have lost him so I didn't know how to get back." Issei suddenly felt very cautious towards Asia, who had been nothing but nice for the entirety of the conversation prior to this moment. She was lying, or at least telling the partial truth.

"Glad we could provide any means of assistance. Well, we'll be on our way while you'll go on yours. Farewell, young nun. I hope you find your way." Ddraig bid farewell, sounding like he meant a lot more than just helping her find the direction of the church.

"Thank you for all your help, Ddraig. And tell Issei I said thank you to him as well when you get the chance. I hope we meet again someday." She turned into the direction of the church and walked away, causing Issei to come to the realization that she was walking with her blindfold still on. She was already gone before Issei could offer to show her the way. Issei didn't quite know what to think about her, so he talked to Ddraig.

'Those aren't nun colors.' Issei said to him. The idea of Asia being a nun didn't pop into his head until he noticed a wooden cross tied into a necklace on her chest. The cross wasn't a crucifix; there was no sign of Jesus being nailed to the cross.

'I know.' Ddraig responded, apparently aware of all Issei's thoughts. Issei knew he could hear all of them, but he still wished to converse with Ddraig regardless.

'Her veil was white.' Issei said, referencing the fact that she had no black habit wrapped on top of her head to secure her veil in place under it.

'I know.' Ddraig repeated. Ddraig himself was also thinking about the girl, wondering what she could be doing in this town.

Wishing to change the mellow tone of the subject, Ddraig said, "Can I be in control for a little while longer, Issei? I'm getting the feeling of wanting to stretch my legs." He put his hands behind his head and started walking in the direction of school.

'Sure.' Issei agreed. He had no qualms about Ddraig finally being allowed fresh air after Issei didn't know how long. It wasn't anything to mind. Issei did have one question though. 'How does my body feel?'

Still walking calmly with his hands behind his head, Ddraig responded, "Uh, it feels a little off. It's a bit different than my dragon form. And to answer your question, this is the first time I've ever been able to have access to a physical body."

Ddraig was still talking outloud in Issei's body, apparently not caring that he wasn't silent at the moment. "Don't worry. I'm not that stupid. I'll talk in your head when necessary but as of right now, nobody's around to hear us; I checked. Let's just enjoy the moment while it lasts, Issei."

That question now gone from his mind, Issei had another one though. 'What are we going to do about my eyes. I can't go to school looking like I'm ready to shoot the whole thing up.'

Ddraig laughed and said, "Don't worry about that. I've got it covered." It did nothing to calm him down, but Issei definitely knew that Ddraig wouldn't tell him that if he didn't already have a backup plan.

Ddraig took his hands off his head and waved his left hand over Issei's face, covering it for a split second. When his hand was gone, Issei's eyes were back to normal and no one would be able to tell the difference that they weren't talking to Issei. "See. All good now. You really gotta learn to put more faith in me, partner." He joked to Issei. He put his hands in his pockets instead of at the back of his head and continued to walk along the pathway.

Ignoring Ddraig's jest, Issei brought up his thoughts again from earlier. 'If you could describe my body in one word, what would it be?' Issei was truly curious about what Ddraig would say. Would he call it 'weak'? 'Fragile'? 'Skinny'? He truly didn't know and Issei couldn't wait to find out.

Ddraig surprised him once more by simply saying, "Limiting." while laughing hysterically. Issei found the humour in it as well, and laughed along with him.

Once they arrived in first period, Issei expected Ddraig to go full troublemaker mode and start flirting with girls or mocking the teachers, but he didn't. He was simply quiet and donned a tired look on his face while sluggish moving across the hallways. He didn't grant teachers more than one word of a response and even was able to mimic Issei's half lidded eyes. Damn. He got Issei's personality down to a 'T'.

When lunch finally came, Ddraig didn't go to any lunch tables but instead headed to a nearby tree and sat down in the shade. He slumped his back against the tree and tilted his head up before closing his eyes. Issei, still looking through his eyes, found that his vision went black as well.

A red flame spiraled in the middle of Issei's vision as it warped into the throne room of Zangai no Metsu. Expecting to see Ddraig lazily lying down on his throne like the first time he talked to Ddraig here, he was surprised once more. Not only had the layout of the throne changed by shifting into a much more smaller throne with actual chair-like properties, but the fact Ddraig wasn't actually in his dragon form.

In front of him, sitting on the throne, was a man dressed in crimson armor with shoulder pauldrons that had a dragon symbol engraved into its metal. A red cape was hugging the seat of the throne as it was tucked in behind the man's legs, getting wrinkled as a result. The man's helmet was an intimidating vermillion piece with horn-like metal coming from the sides of the helmet and bending upwards. His eye slits were shadowed, but Issei saw a green glow emitting from the inside of the helmet.

The man brought his hand up to his head and took off his helmet, revealing a carbon copy of Issei's face with vibrant colored green eyes. "How do I look?" Ddraig asked. Knowing that Ddraig was able to hear his thoughts, Issei tried to form words to articulate his meaning in a better way somehow.

"Ethereal. Royal. Terrifying."

Ddraig started laughing in the same deeper pitch of Issei's voice, before smirking at him and responding. "I decided to attempt to make a form similar to yours, so I can get accustomed to this weird body." That reminded Issei.

"About that...How exactly does that even work?" He was truly curious on how the mechanics of Ddraig being able to take control actually worked.

"Well, I said that this was the first time I was actually able to access a physical body, right? That wasn't a lie. I tried to take control over my first few hosts after I realized I couldn't separate our souls. It turns out that God had foreseen this happening and when he was sealing me away, he thought of all the possibilities of me breaking the seal. He must've come to the same conclusions I did and took precautionary measures to make sure that I couldn't take over. I believe that the only reason I was able to take control was because you permitted me to."

That... was interesting to say the least.

"I'm gonna be honest with you, Issei. I wasn't the nicest of dragons. There's a reason why people feared me and I enjoyed their fear. I've mellowed out throughout the centuries Issei, but I wasn't always this way. The reason why me and the white dragon were fighting to begin with was an extremely petty one. I will share it with you if you so wish to hear it; you deserve the need to know why I had been bestowed upon you."

Issei walked around the red carpet of the throne room with his chin in his hand, deciding on a response. "The reason doesn't matter." Continuing to pace around the room, Issei continued to formulate an explanation.

"Oh?" Ddraig was surprised. Issei didn't want to know?

"I don't care if you murdered millions of people, Ddraig. Even if the reasons are because you wanted them to kneel down to you and they said 'no'. What you did was definitely wrong, but I'm not going to judge you for that. There are countless amounts of serial killers, pedophiles, misogynists, and other inhumane people in the world. Inhumane humans at that. What makes me have the need to judge you on what you did when they are able to get a free pass? Is it because you killed more people than they did that you should be judged and they should be ignored?

"The obvious response would be that everyone is equally guilty. But the solution is so obvious, that a child can reach the same conclusion as well. It's an immature thought, Ddraig. Either everything is ok, or nothing is okay. If you don't judge everyone, including yourself, your approach to the theoretical solution is a double standard; hypocritical even.

"The only ones that should kill are those who are prepared to be killed. I wish to stay humane, Ddraig. But that doesn't mean that I will slaughter everyone that is inhumane with the sharp razor tips of my claws and hack and slash at them until they bleed to death. It doesn't mean I will keep my chin up and look down at everyone else from a moral high ground. It doesn't mean that I won't interact with 'bad people' simply because they don't follow the same rules I hold myself to. If you seek to create a utopia in which there is no more crime, then you must be prepared to end your life right after because you are guilty of crime as well.

"Being prepared to be killed doesn't mean that you will thrust your chest into a blade when it is pointed in your direction, put your mouth over the barrel of a gun when it is in your line of sight. It doesn't mean that you leave your family behind and die the moment that you kill the very last person. It means that if judgement day comes, you will be prepared to go to hell for the things you have done when you were alive. You will be prepared to rot in eternity, forever punished, without any resistance. No questions asked, because you already know all the answers. It's a multiple choice test and the answers are all of the above.

"Answer me this, Ddraig. Do you believe that I should die?"

Ddraig thought for a second, before answering. "No."

"If you truly believe in what you're saying, then there is no reason that you should die as well. At least, not for your crimes. Not everyone deserves a second chance, Ddraig. But because your second chance was given by someone else before I met you, I can only see the Ddraig that's standing in front of me right now. If I had met you before you were sealed, I would've had a different mindset. If you had slaughtered my mother in front of me in cold blood, I would've reaved for vengeance. That doesn't make me hypocritical, Ddraig. I am not ignoring what you did, or saying what you did was right.

"What's the point of me telling you what you did was wrong, when you already know it's wrong. I didn't kill Raynare because she was a killer, I killed her because she killed my friend. I'm not saying what I did was right and what she was doing was wrong. I'm a selfish person, Ddraig. She probably had friends and family that loved her, just like the rest of us. And I took her away from them, just like she took Motohama away from me.

"You chose to do what you did, because you believed it was right at the time. Raynare chose to do it because she was told to, and she agreed. You are able to change your mindset and one could argue that it is only because you had gotten sealed, but the only way she was able to change hers is if the person she was working under had changed theirs or she had a sudden change of heart and decided to leave her post. I didn't kill her because she was doing her job. I killed her because acted on those orders and chose to obey them.

"I'm not saying that Raynare wouldn't have been able to change eventually, I don't know her. I don't know how she grew up, I don't know what she thinks, I don't know what goes through her head. But I didn't want to give her a second chance, and I'm selfish for that. It was a wrong thing to do and it was inhumane, but I will take that in stride because I don't want to see her living ever again. I'm prepared to take any repercussions that might follow, even if it means sacrificing my humanity, but I'm going to try to hold on to it for as long as I can.

"If you choose to stop someone by ending their life before they get a chance to kill other people, then that's a idiotic reason. If you wish to do that, you need to end the life of a baby as soon as it's born. Even before that, actually. You should just end it when they are still in their mother's womb. That way you won't have to worry about it later on. Because everybody has the potential to kill, just as everyone has the potential to do good.

"It's not that I don't think that you should be judged, I just don't think I'm the correct person to judge you. From a legal standpoint, judges are neccessary in order to keep the visage of peace. They spend their entire lives trying to be as fair and as unbiased as possible. I don't even think there is a correct person, but regardless that life isn't for me. The difference is, you have been judged. Your punishment has been for you to live and wallow in your guilt for eternity. But I believe that you've already served your sentence and are long overdue for forgiveness.

"Ending somebody else's life does not neccessarily have to mean that you value your life over theirs, it just means that you value your life. Or at least value the life of whatever thing the other person is threatening. Killing is instinct based, Ddraig. If a woman is getting raped and she stabs her rapist in the chest with a knife, that was out of desperation and fear. She wouldn't have killed him if he hadn't touched her. If she saw him walking on the street, she would just think he's a random guy and simply pass by normally. If a soldier sees an enemy on the battlefield, they won't hesitate to pull the trigger. They want to fight for their country, but their wish of coming back home to see their family outweighs their loyalty.

"It's only when it gets personal that you are able to muster up the courage to end another person's life. I didn't kill Raynare to prevent her from killing other people. I killed her because she acted upon those decisions to kill the people that I loved, that I cared about. It's not that my willpower was stronger than hers, it's that both of us wanted to go home and I just ended up being the one on top. If she won, she would've killed me. She did kill me.

"Sometimes killing is a necessity, Ddraig. It's either kill or be killed. If you are getting getting raped, you kill because they might not neccessarily kill you, but they will take your life away. That's why everyone who should kill are those that are prepared to be killed, Ddraig. Not must. Killing in self defense is considered an exception, but I'm not going to stand here and argue that Raynare died because I had no other option.

"I'm not saying that soldiers are idiotic for obeying orders or fighting for the peace that they wish to accomplish. I'm just saying that life isn't for me. A sense of justice is admirable, but you have to become a beacon of justice to exact punishment on other people. It's not a righteous decision or power given to you by a higher force, it is because you have the selfish desire to erase all the wrong from the world. This isn't an 'out of sight, out of mind' perspective, Ddriag. This is me saying that if you choose to judge, then you must commit to your judgements. To be able to selectively choose who you judge in the narrow limits of your vision, while ignoring the rest of the world you aren't able to see, is a true 'out of sight, out of mind' mindset.

"You might think that eliminating all that's wrong makes you selfless, but that 'wrong' was connected to somebody that cared for them; somebody that loved them. When their wife or children are holding their father's bleeding corpse with your sword still stuck in their heart, I don't think you would seem very heroic in their eyes. A true justice system doesn't work because justice isn't an obsolete idea.

"If justice is based off of a system of morality, then everyone has a different idea of what 'justice' truly is. Justice is different from 'retribution'. Retribution would imply that a person is punished for their actions as deemed by a lawful system or a religious one. Justice as a whole cannot be bound by physical names or words on a paper. Death is inevitable, Ddraig. If I am going to live my life, I'm not going to waste it trying to eliminate an unfathomable goal I can't do by myself.

"You most likely were viewed as a menace to everyone. A monster that needed to be stopped. To kill someone, that doesn't necessarily make you a killer. But being a cold-blooded killer might've been the case for you, because I don't know your reasons and neither did the people that were afraid of you apparently. They continued to think that you were a monster, and I can't help but agree with them. The difference is, you were stopped. You are no longer a monster. I do not believe for a second that if you were free right now that you would kill unnecessarily unless it was required.

"Tell me this, Ddraig. When I died as a human, before I reincarnated to a devil. There was a moment where you were drifting in limbo, correct?"

Ddraig's glowing eyes widened. "Yes." He admitted. "Our souls separated once your body died, but when your body and your soul came back, my soul went to yours because it felt an affinity with yours. They had already been acclimated for almost eighteen years at this point."

That would make sense. Issei had guessed that this was the case, but if so... "When were you going to tell me?"

Ddraig was honest. "Never. You didn't need to know."

Issei chuckled, before bursting out in rapturous laughter. Ddraig was confused, and Issei could see why Raynare found so much delight in seeing that expression on his face. "Is something funny, Issei?"

Issei stopped laughing and caught his breath, wheezing out while clutching his sides. "Nothing, nothing. It's just that-" Issei's own eyes gleamed the emerald color of Ddraig's before finishing, "You sound exactly like me. And I fucking hate myself."

"I think you're a fine person, Issei." Ddraig said to him.

"Then how can I hate you if I'm fine and you're just like me? Ddraig, just the fact that you were worried about my reaction proves to me that you are indeed a changed person. " Ddraig's eyes widened before getting up off his throne and walked to Issei and embracing him in a firm hug. It was sorta weird hugging someone who looked like a duplicate of you, but Issei suspended his cynicism just for this moment.

Issei hugged him back, but the moment was ruined when Ddraig whispered into his ear "Somebody seems to be looking for you, Issei."

Issei let Ddraig go as he closed his eyes, saying "I'll talk to you later then, Ddraig."

The world shifted back to normal, and Issei could feel his body give him back full control. It was a weird feeling, he would have to get used to it. Rising his head up from against the tree to look at his surroundings, the first thought Issei had was 'Holy shit. That actually worked.' He didn't expect to be able to travel out of Zangai no Metsu without the assistance of Ddraig.

His second thought was 'Oh, a white boy.' In front of him was a blond hair white young man with blue eyes who was about 5'8. He had a lean frame and was looking down at Issei while smiling at him. Once he noticed Issei had awoken, his eyes squinted as his cheeks widened into a smile, showing off a dimple on each side. The girls at Kuoh Academy would probably find this man really attractive, even for the simplest fact that he was different looking then the rest of the male students.

He outstretched his hand to Issei and said, "Nice to meet you Hyoudou-san. May I call you Issei?" Issei took the outstretched hand and gripped the boy as he pulled Issei up from the ground. Once he was finally upright, he let go of the boy's hand and settled for putting his own at his sides.

"Your Japanese is terrible. And sure, I don't mind."

The boy opened his eyes with an interested look on his face and said a bit creepily, "You're every bit the crude boy Rias-senpai described you as." What a nice way to start a conversation.

"Rias sent you to come look for me? What does she want?" Issei was planning to talk to her later on today, but he didn't expect her to come looking for him.

"Actually, I came by my own decision. I wanted to meet you personally before you were going to be introduced to the house of Gremory." That was nice of him, Issei supposed.

"So what do you want to know about me? My favorite food? Color? Hobbies?" The boy's eyes squinted again as Issei felt a bit weirded out by him.

"How did it feel to kill for your first time?" The boy asked Issei camly. Issei's eyes widened for a split second, before turning back to normal.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Akeno killed Raynare, not me." Issei said back, equally as calm, to the boy who he still didn't know the name of.

His eyes opened once more and said eerily, "We both know that's not true…Issei."

Issei turned serious before relenting. "Yes. I was simply testing you, congratulations you passed." He said dryly. "It was as simple as she wanted to kill me, and I didn't want to die."

The boy remained with a smile on his face while saying, "There's more to the story than that, Issei-san." He still was able to sound cheerful while talking about grave matters. It was quite unpleasant.

"I'm not going to say anything to someone I don't even know." Issei didn't care if he was Rias' son or her brother or anything like that. He wasn't about to share any information about himself, without getting any in return.

"My name is Kiba Yuuto. Nice to meet you." He outstretched his hand once more, this time for a handshake. Issei looked down at the offered hand, before ignoring it and looking back up at Kiba. He narrowed his eyes. Kiba wasn't a white family name. Kiba seemed to notice Issei denying his handshake and brought his hand back to himself.

"Well then, Kiba. Tell me about your first kill. I'm curious about your thoughts on killing in general. Don't worry I won't judge. " He tested Kiba once more, wanting to see if he would rise to take the bait. Both of them lingered in silence for a minute, before Issei continued. "It seems that we both have our own secrets to tell...Kiba." It was extremely satisfying to see Kiba drop his smile and turn serious for once.

Kiba smiled again and proceeded to finally find his voice once more. "You're an interesting man, Issei. I can see why Rias chose you to be part of her peerage. I didn't come here on her orders, but you should probably check on her soon. She seemed a bit worried about you this morning."

Kiba turned around and waved behind him. "Ja ne, Issei." Issei watched him walk away, sighing as he dropped his serious expression. Issei wasn't trying to come off as rude, but that was a horrible way to start off a conversation. He was completely caught off guard with Kiba's bluntness.

Checking his phone, Issei found that it was time to go back to class but didn't feel like it at the time. Instead, Issei chose to skip and walked straight to the old school building where Rias said the Occult Research Club's meetings were held. He had no idea on whether or not she would actually be there at this time, but it was the only place he knew she frequented so it wouldn't hurt to find out.

Opening the front door to the building, Issei walked up the spiral staircase, contemplating on what he would say to Rias. Was he going to apologize for just leaving abruptly this morning? Did she even mind? His questions were left unanswered as he opened up the double doors that led into the main meeting room.

Inside he was greeted by not only Rias and Kiba, but two small girls with short hair and another woman similar to Rias' height with black hair...and purple eyes. On the couch Issei and Rias were sleeping on earlier today, there was a petite girl with short white hair and a black cat-shaped hair clip on the side of her hair.

On the other couch was a girl with short platinum blond hair that covered her forehead. She had pink eyes, but the color was in her irises not her sclera. It seemed that they weren't actually due to an allergic reaction of some sort, even though the girl looked like she was on the verge of crying.

Both of the girls were sitting down, but Issei could tell for a fact that they were shorter than both Raynare as Yuuma and Asia. Asia, Yuuma, and the platinum blonde girl were all similar in height at around five feet tall, but the white haired girl was shorter than the blonde one by a considerable margin.

Rias was standing behind a wooden desk with paperwork on top of it. Kiba was leaning on the edge of the desk with his arms crossed, smiling at Issei with fully open eyes. So, this was the Gremory House, huh? Issei didn't know what he'd expected, but it was certainly not this. They looked extremely unorganized; it seemed as if they were more of a group of rallied teenagers, not anything Issei would associate with a clan or a guild.

"Which one of you is Akeno?" Issei asked out loud to no one in particular.

"That would be me." He heard a feminine voice from his right. Oh, he forgot about the black haired girl. Giving her a one-over, he realized it should've been obvious right from the start. She was extremely beautiful, but had a very unique aesthetic look to her.

She had spiky bangs that went over her forehead while the length of her hair was tied into a ponytail by a ribbon that rested on the back of her head. Her cascade of hair flowed all the way down to the back of her calves, not yet touching the ground but coming very close. 'That can't be effective in battle.' Issei mused.

Unlike Rias, she had an indistinguishably Japanese look to her and looked like a royal princess. The only thing missing was a kimono, and the Kuoh Academy uniform didn't exactly fit the most prim stanfards a princess could be wearing. He supposed he could see where Motohama was coming from. She was the only other girl in the school he saw so far that could compete with Rias if they were talking about raw beauty.

"I would like to thank you for killing Raynare. I was going to finish her off, but Rias decided it would be better to whisk me away." Issei gave her his appreciation.

She put her hand over her mouth and giggled. "Thanking me for murdering a person?" She took her hand off her mouth and locked eyes with Issei with a sultry look on her face. "You sure know how to flatter a lady, Issei-kun."

Issei's eyes narrowed. She was extremely similar to someone he wanted nothing to do with. The only difference between her and Raynare was that Raynare was for the most part, openly aggressive. This Akeno lady irked Issei with her passive aggressiveness. Not in the moment, but Issei could tell that she seemed like the person that would stab him in the back. Her attitude just screamed 'fake', and it was overwhelming.

Not knowing how to respond, Rias saved him the trouble by interrupting his chain of thoughts as she introduced him to everyone. "Everyone, this is Issei. Issei, this is everyone. You already met Akeno, but the cute girl with white hair is Koneko-chan." Issei looked at the girl quietly nibbling on a cookie.

'Cute' Issei repeated to himself in his head. What a condescending adjective.

Rias continued onward, not aware of Issei's distaste for the word she used. "The shy boy dressed in the school girl's uniform is Gasper-kun." It was a boy? Wanting to look a little bit closer, Issei stared at Gasper with a more critical eye but he hid his face behind his hands.

"Don't look at me, Issei-senpai!" A girlish voice cried out loud.

Choosing to abide by the obviously embarrassed boy's request, Issei stared back at Rias. "And this man right next to me is Yuuto-san." Calling Kiba by his birth name?

"Actually, Rias. Me and Kiba already met." Issei corrected her.

Her eyes blinked in surprise before questioning "Oh, is that so? How long have you two known each other?" Rias didn't know if Kiba had known him prior to right now? Their relationship must not be that close if information hadn't been exchanged between master and servant.

"We just met about a half an hour ago during lunch. He came up to me to say 'hi'." Issei elaborated. Rias smiled at Issei, apparently finding this new knowledge to her liking.

"That's great! Don't worry about if you just met him today. I'm sure he and the rest of my peerage will get along with you splendidly." She clasped her hands together, optimistically.

'Yeaahh.' Issei thought, supreme doubt forming in his head as he looked at Kiba's smiling, squinted eyed face. An alarm ticked off on Rias's deck. It was a twin bell clock and was quite loud.

"Oh. It's time for the last period of the day. Bye, Gasper-kun and Koneko-chan." Rias waved at them as they walked outside the double doors and left them open behind them.

Akeno started walking away and said, "I'll leave you alone with the boys, Rias. Talk to you later." She walked out of the double doors.

Issei stared at the last remaining Gremory House member besides Rias, but he seemed to be looking in a different direction. Rias looked towards Kiba and asked him, "Yuuto-san, I don't mean to be rude, but can you leave us please?"

Kiba's attention snapped back to his master and said, "Hai, Rias-sama." before walking out the double doors and closing them behind him.

Issei started at Rias with a blank look on his face. "Rias 'sama'?" The only thing missing from Kiba was a salute to signify his loyalty.

Rias had a stern expression on her face and calmly replied, "I tried to get him to call me 'Rias', but he insisted on adding the suffix. After many failed attempts, I just let him be."

That wasn't like the Rias he had come to know. She was persistent if nothing else, but then again Issei didn't spend a sufficient amount of time with her to properly guage and hold her to any lasting personality traits. Seeing as Rias felt the need to be serious for once, Issei didn't push the issue and instead asked the question that had bugged his mind for the past minute.

"You called the members of the house your 'peerage'." Issei reminded her.

"Sodesu." Rias waved her hand over her desk and the paperwork disappeared. In replacement of it was a crimson board game seemingly made out of energy. She picked up a piece in her hand and asked him "What do you know about chess, Issei?"

"Not much." Issei answered honestly. "I know the basic principles, but the last time I played it was when I was a child. It was just something to pass the time, as the kids played it when their parents were praying in the church.

Rias fondled the small piece in her hand, turning it around with her fingers. It was a pawn. "Devils call chess 'the game of kings'. The chess system is a recent adaptation made by one of the four great Satans, a man by the name of Ajuka Beezlebub. He was impressed by the game created by humans and chose to utilize it's concept. He developed magical objects called 'Evil Pieces' and issued them out to a number of high class devils, including the Gremory house."

The crimson board and the pawn in her hand dissipated and Rias extended her arm to the right, conjuring a crimson engraved circle. She reached her hand into the circle and pulled out two chess pieces. It was a rook, a bishop, and a knight. She held them openly in her palm so Issei could see them.

"These are the only evil pieces I have left. Akeno is my queen, Koneko is my rook, Gasper is my bishop, and Yuuto is my knight." She opened the circle once more and put the evil pieces back into wherever the circle led. She stared at Issei with a smile and finished "You took all eight of my pawn pieces to save, Issei. Your body resisted the evil pieces even when they were up to seven pawns."

"How do the evil pieces work?" Issei asked Rias.

"Beezlebub-sama implemented this system in order to repopulate the Devils after the Great War. He gave these pieces to us so that registered kings could reincarnate humans into devils in order to increase the number of Devils in the Underworld."

That sounded a lot better on paper. "So, subjugation then." Issei said outright.

Rias cringed at his response. "Not exactly." She tried to defend herself.

"What happens to the peerage that decides to resist?" If she could answer that question, then perhaps it wasn't entirely like what Issei described it as.

Silence.

"I guess you could call it that, but I would never force reincarnation on anyone." Issei didn't really give consent when she reincarnated him, did he?

"Don't worry, I don't blame you, Rias. I'm not judging you, I just want to understand." Issei responded. It didn't matter, he had much more things to do in life anyways.

Rias fidgeted behind her desk, but with no chess piece for her hands to twiddle with, she started drumming her fingers on the desk softly. She clearly had something on her mind. Issei was going to ask if she wanted to share it with him, before she abruptly spoke up.

"Isawyouwithagirlearlierthismorning." Rias blurted out. She blushed and took a breath, before repeating herself.

"I saw you with a nun earlier this morning, Issei." She said a lot more clearly.

Issei's eyes widened. 'Ddraig?' He asked in his head. Didn't Ddraig tell him that no one was watching?

Ddraig didn't answer and Rias continued "Well, not exactly 'me', but my familiar. She couldn't hear your conversation, but was able to see you from afar and reported it to me."

Rias snapped and a bat poofed out of thin air, with a cloud of dust around it. It was a rather chubby looking bat that looked relatively negligible. She patted its fur with her hand and the bat smiled toothily at the affection.

'I didn't believe it to be any threat, Issei. I sensed the bat, but I ignored it since it wasn't an enemy.' Ddraig finally talked to Issei in his head.

Issei took in this new information as he responded 'Did you know it belonged to Rias?' He couldn't believe for a second that Ddraig would just let a bat fly around them.

'Yes. Her energy signature is written all over it.'

'Why didn't you tell me?' Issei inquired. Not mad, but just a bit hurt.

'Would it have bothered you enough to switch the topic of the conversation, knowing that you were under surveillance?'

'Yes.' Issei admitted. 'But I would still like to know, Ddraig. Let me make those decisions for myself next time.'

'Noted.'

Rias, not knowing about Issei and Ddraig's mental conversation, warned him. "Anyways, I would just like to let you know that anything that has holy links to it is harmful to us Devils. Whether that be touching a blessed cross, being prayed about, or coming into contact with a holy sword. You should probably stay away from that girl, Issei. She's not a good company to have around."

Issei, no longer worried about Ddraig's slip up, stared directly at Rias. He turned around and plopped down on the couch horizontally, and put his feet up off the soft arms of it. This was going to take some time.

"Rias, do you know why some nuns wear a black and white cloth over their head and some just wear white?" He doubted she actually knew. A devil of any kind shouldn't really be enthusiastically knowledgeable about the opposing religion. He continued on, not allowing Rias to answer his mostly rhetoric question.

"A white veil indicates a nun who hasn't taken her vows of chastity to God yet. They aren't officially devoted to God as far as the church is concerned. The only difference that separates a nun with a white veil from a regular 'sister' in the church's eyes is the fact that the ones with white veils are in training to become a nun.

"Those who haven't taken their vows can back out at any time. It is only when they pray to God, asking for his mercy to allow them to serve him until they die, that they need to ask someone higher up in the hierarchy when they wish to leave. Their superior decides on how they wish to proceed. Every order or diocese has a different approach to allowing the nuns to leave the convent.

"Her name was Asia." Issei told Rias, continuing to use his pronunciation of her name.

He continued, "Since she had a white veil, she knew that she could back out any time without having to ask someone else. I know that she can back out if she truly wished to, Rias. However, when I looked at her, I saw someone that was lost. It seemed that she couldn't comprehend a life away from the convent, but there are no convents in Kuoh.

"She speaks exclusively Italian, and she had to ask me where the nearest church was. She's in a town she has no clue about, where people speak a language she can't understand. I felt compelled to assist her, Rias; I still do. I know you're just looking out for me, but I just wanted to let you know that there is a name behind the face. A personality."

Rias listened quietly to Issei talking, not interrupting him a single time. She finally spoke up after the silence clearly indicated that he was finished. "Are you going to go help her then, Issei?" At the end of the day, she could not control him and Issei could do whatever he pleased. Or at least, Rias couldn't bring herself to control him.

"I don't know. She's gone now, but if I ever see her again, I don't know what I'll say to her. I'm not going to force my help onto her if she doesn't wish for assistance. Right now, she seems trapped, but I don't know if I would save her if I were given the chance."

Issei left it at that and got up off the couch, twisting his back and hearing the cracks of his spine.

"Let's not think about that right now, Rias. You looked like you had something more important to tell me earlier." Rias' eyes lit up in recognition as she remembered what she was going to say to him before the topic of Asia had been brought up.

"Oh, that's right. Issei, one of the other ways that devils grow as a society is through devil contracts." Contracts with the devil? If any of the circulating media was even close to being accurate, those didn't really have the best connotation to them.

At Issei's arched eyebrow, Rias continued "Don't worry. Devils had long ago abolished the ways of soul contracts. Nowadays, it's just any equal compensation agreed upon by the contractor and the signee. This could be money, a favor, pretty much anything. I usually don't take contracts, but this man offered a ton of money for a pretty trivial favor of house-sitting for an hour. He must be one of those aristocratic wealthy humans with enough money to throw around."

She opened her hand, and two pieces of paper appeared in her palm. Handing both of them to Issei, he took them graciously and filed through the papers. "The one on the top is the contract, while the other pamphlet is to notify the contractor if something went awry or if they were unsatisfied. Since the contractor is me, they understand that I send my peerage to do the work sometimes, but still ask for me when one of my servants messes up."

The top paper had writings on the top and the bottom, indicating the price and the reward. In the middle of it was a black seal inked on to the paper. On the bottom pamphlet, there weren't any writings but it had the same printed seal, just crimson.

"Additionally, you can use that pamphlet to call me instead. It works for anyone. Since there is your first time fulfilling a contract, I won't be surprised if I ended up having to teleport to your location. You can do them at night time or whenever you wish. Just, do it sometime in the next five hours or so." Rias explained to Issei.

Issei checked his phone and saw that there were still two more hours until school finished. Deciding that talking to Matsuda and Motohama's mom could wait until after he fulfilled the contract, Issei asked Rias. "How do I know where to go?" There was no address listed on the contract paper and checking the other pamphlet Rias gave him, there seemed to be no address there either.

"You just press your hand on it and it teleports you to their assigned location." Rias explained to him.

Placing his hand on the contract seal, Issei found himself being teleported to a new place.

Taking his hand off the paper, Issei looked around to find himself in a room of some sort. He heard a manly cry as he looked in front of him and saw an obese man with glasses having a sword pressed up against his neck from behind him.

Issei's eyes widened as the man's neck was slit and then suddenly shoved in the direction of Issei.

Issei quickly moved to the side to avoid coming into contact with the man's dead corpse and the man fell down on the floor, bleeding all over the floor of the room. Issei turned his attention back to the person that threw him at Issei, but found himself staring at a sword.

It was coming at Issei in a downward slash, ready to slice him into pieces on the spot.


A/N: Wanted to clarify something that might've confused you guys from the last chapter.

Being a sociopath doesn't inheritably make you a good or a bad person. To kill doesn't make you a killer. To do something sociopathic doesn't mean that you are a sociopath. Sociopathy is a personality characteristic, and there are many functioning members of society that are sociopaths.

Sociopathic tendencies is the simply the conscious disregard for other people's feelings exhibited in a similar fashion to sociopaths, hence the name. Even though sociopathy is considered a mental illness and a disorder, they are still held responsible in the legal court because they know what they did was wrong. They chose to break the law, it wasn't due to an impulsive tic or anything like that. Many people exhibit sociopathic tendencies without being considered a sociopath. A sociopathic action is inhumane, but that doesn't mean that the sociopath who did the action is inhumane as well.

Sociopathy isn't a cut dry black and white scale. There are many occupations that require sociopathic tendencies, including ER surgeons and psychiatrists. Because while therapists seek to help out the patients, psychiatrists prescribe the actual medication. Overdosing on pills is something that occurs often, as well as failed transplants.

Doctors usually test high on the sociopathy scale simply for the fact that they can't let the deaths of those they contributed to get to them. When the families come to sue the doctor for their dead child, doctors need to smile sadly and turn the other direction because they can't do anything. The families signed a form stating that death was a possibility, and the doctors tried their damned hardest but ended up falling short. If they broke apart after every death, then the people that they would be able to save in the future would die as a result of their guilt eating them alive.

Sociopathy, or Anti-social Personality Disorder (ASPD) as it is clinically called, is a condition in which those affected show no regard for the minds of others. It's a mental illness that describes people that lack a conscience. However, since ASPD is a spectrum, studies on sociopathy are made off of common characteristics shared by those diagnosed with ASPD.

There is no 'true sociopath', and being diagnosed as a sociopath doesn't mean that they take an x-ray and examine your brain to see if your vmPFC (the part of the brain which controls the majority of social cognition along with the amygdala) is smaller than the average person. The way you get diagnosed with sociopathy is through symptoms exhibited by existing sociopaths tested by a certified psychiatrist. If empathy exists on one side of the spectrum and sociopathy exists on another, if you are a certain place on the spectrum then you are diagnosed with sociopathy. That's it.

Both sociopathy and psychopathy fall under the category of ASPD and share very similar qualities, but psychopathy has a much higher correlation with hereditary genes. There is a higher risk of people being a sociopath if it's common in your family, but nothing substantial enough to build any conclusions. Additionally, you can be born a sociopath and you can also become a sociopath.

Sociopaths usually don't have a decent amount of empathy. but a lack of empathy doesn't mean that they don't understand or are able to comprehend emotions. It means that they don't take into consideration other people's emotions or rather aren't able to, emphasis on 'others' not 'themselves' or emotions in general.

Being manipulative is a common characteristic the majority of sociopaths have, but to be manipulative you must have an understanding of the emotions of the person they are trying to manipulate. Hence, the understanding of emotions.

The feeling of emotions is much different. Sociopaths usually intensely study psychology for whatever reason they have and they observe behaviors. Through this, they are able to understand what's considered socially unacceptable and morally wrong, yet they lack the remorse or regret to value it enough. They have a set value for other people's emotions and whatever they hope to gain out of it is higher.

I don't know why I erased this during one of my edits, but what it means to be humane isn't the same thing as what it means to be a human.

I'm going to mention the distinct difference between empathy and sympathy soon in one of my future chapters.

Additionally, I will just leave this here. Zangai no Metsu (残骸 の 滅) (残骸, Zangai, is the kanji for ruins, の, no, is a preposition, and 滅, metsu, is the kanji for destruction. In other words it's 'ruined ruins', but I call Zangai no Metsu 'ruins of demolition'.)