First Person POV – Shintaro Hyoudou

The Devil and the Nun

Not being able to sleep for a large amount of the night was becoming depressingly normal for me. Unfortunately, my body clock still read it as night and as a result I had no urge but to just lie there until the sun came up. I would sleep maybe an hour, two if I was lucky. The display I'd witnessed with the Stray Devil earlier didn't exactly help. At the time, it had been kind of disturbing, sure, but there was an element of humour to it thanks to the sheer ridiculousness of those laser gun titties, and quite a bit of action, too, which just made me think it was awesome. But now that I thought about it, I had just seen a living, sentient creature die …

… and the fact that this wasn't bothering me was bothering me.

I was aware that trying to make myself feel bad over something was unhealthy, but my complete lack of reaction to this couldn't be natural. I kept thinking back on the shaking, burned-up form of Viser asking Buchou to kill her, in too much pain to carry on fighting … and I felt nothing. Not so much as a twinge.

I don't think I'm getting much sleep tonight, I thought, sighing and sitting up in my bed. I didn't get much sleep when I had nothing on my mind, with this running through my head … yeah, there was no chance. I need something to do …

Then I recalled how Ise-nii had been acting after Buchou told us what our pieces are. For my part, I was thrilled. Supernatural strength and durability wasn't a bad deal, all things considered. Having something in common with Koneko-chan was also a good thing. Maybe I could ask her to help me figure it out? The idea was very appealing. Ise-nii, on the other hand, had been told he was a Pawn and had moped all the way home, though he tried to play it off as not bothering him. But I knew my brother and I knew when something was eating away at him.

I decided to see if he was still awake.

I walked out of my room and was grateful for my night vision. Sneaking around the house at night was a lot easier now that I didn't have to blindly feel my way in the dark. Not that I had to walk very far. I went over to Issei's bedroom door and gave it a few knocks.

"What?" he asked through the door.

"Am I safe to come in?" I asked. "You're not jerkin' the gherkin in there, are you?"

"Nope, this is currently an area totally free of banana peeling."

I walked in and immediately saw that despite his words, he was still down in the dumps after the revelation earlier. "I swear I didn't mean to piss in your cornflakes," I joked in an attempt to lift that depressing look on his face. "I thought they were bits of cardboard that were going in the trash, anyway, so I just let loose."

Ise-nii laughed half-heartedly.

I sighed. "Okay, just trying to get you laughing isn't doing it, so let's jump straight to the point. Is being a Pawn really that bad? I mean, at the very least you've gotta get something out of the fact that your RPG class rhymes with the most-searched item on your computer."

"Look, Shin, I appreciate that you're trying, but I don't think you can help over this. I'm the weakest piece on the board. I'm the cannon fodder you throw into the enemy first to give the stronger people time to plan."

"Okay, now that's horseshit. Have you ever played chess?"

"A little, not much. What's the game got to do with this?"

"The Pawn has one of the coolest abilities on the board. Pretty much all the other pieces only move in one way and have one function, besides the Queen, who can move in any direction the other pieces can. But the Pawn can do something even the Queen can't. The second the Pawn hits the opposite side of the board, it can become any of the other pieces on the board with the sole exception of the King. It's usually the first piece on the board to move and is just as capable of taking down the King as any other piece. Do you see what I'm getting at?"

"… I think so, but I'm not sure."

"Ise-nii, I'm a Rook, so I'm super strong and that's it. But you? You're a Pawn. I know Buchou said I have great potential for growth, but now that I'm locked into being a Rook, I feel like that can only go one way. Even if I can learn other stuff, my strength and durability will always be my main go-to as a result of my piece. If these pieces are true to the game, however … you could go on to be anything. Your potential for growth is, in all likelihood, superior to the potential Buchou recruited me for. That is why being a Pawn is a big deal, just in the opposite way to how you're thinking."

Ise-nii went quiet for an uncomfortably long time, but to my happiness, that smile I liked to see on his face grew and grew. "Thanks, Shin," he said, his tone far happier than at the start of the conversation. "I needed that. You're real good at this motivation stuff."

"Well, I have to motivate myself to put up with you every single day," I said cheekily. "So I've got a lot of practice."

He laughed. "Fuck you, Shin."

"Not on your life." I stood up from where I'd settled down on the edge of his bed. "I'm gonna go and see about getting my nightly two hours of sleep. See you in the morning."

"G'night, bro."

I went back to my own room and, surprisingly, sleep came easier than it had been of late. Maybe I was finally getting used to this.

The following night in the clubroom, I was greeted by a surprise.

"Shintaro, could you go with Ise on this next job?" Buchou asked me. "His feedback is fantastic, but his actual performance of his duties has been … lacklustre. I'm hoping that if you go to help him out, he might actually get a contract."

"Sure, no problem," I agreed. I swung an arm around Ise-nii's shoulders. "Hear that, Ise-nii? You're going on a job with ya boy."

"Don't patronise me," he said, pouting.

"Since you're with him, you should both be able to go through the magic circle," said Buchou.

The two of us went over and stood in the magic circle. It amused me to think that this was the first time Ise-nii had done this. "We'll see you guys after the client's done clapping this guy's cheeks," I said, slapping Ise-nii on the back and grinning like a lunatic.

"Wait, what?" he asked, then we teleported.

The first thing I thought of when we arrived was that we were going to be hiding another body like I did with my first contract. This room was covered in lit candles, the only source of light in the whole house at the moment, from the look of it. The part that made me think we were going to be hiding a corpse was all the blood on the floor – someone had gotten fucked up in here. Then, looking around, we found the source.

"Holy shit," Ise-nii whispered.

I grimaced. After my first contract, this wasn't exactly going to send me running off to hurl my guts up, but it was another kind of unpleasant entirely.

This man, whoever he had been, had been mercilessly cut up, as his body was covered in individual, heavily bleeding cuts. He was nailed to the wall upside down in a cross symbol, a bit like the one used to represent the Antichrist in The Omen and stuff like that. He had screws in his palms, his feet, and all over his torso. At least one of his organs was hanging out of a wound near his stomach. This wasn't just a murder. There was no moment of passionate anger, no loss of control – this was violence of a far more cold and calculating nature than anything I had ever seen. This was a man who had been tortured to death.

It was fresh, too. The blood was still running freely. Whoever had done this, they'd done it only a few minutes before our arrival.

Ise-nii doubled over and vomited up his lunch from earlier. I patted him on the back. I looked closer and saw that on the wall, in the victim's blood, there was something written.

"It says 'punishment for those who do bad deeds,'" said a new voice as a strange man entered the room. "I borrowed that from somebody important." He didn't look much older than us despite the priest uniform he was wearing. His hair was white and his eyes were red, giving me the impression that he might have been an albino or something, and he had a sick grin on his face, quite clearly enjoying the spectacle he had created. "Well, well, well, if it isn't a pair of Devils!"

Every single word Buchou had said about getting involved with people of the church flashed through my mind as I looked at him. He was dressed like a priest, but if he could do something like this, was he really a man of God? If this psycho was an Exorcist …

"I'm a priest," he started to say in a sing-song voice. "A boy priest … I cut down the Devil scum … And I laugh … I cut off their dirty heads … And put food on my table …" He stopped singing and grinned at us. "My name is Freed Sellzen. I belong to a certain distinguished group of Exorcists. No, please, don't introduce yourselves on my account, I don't want to remember your names after tonight. It's fine because you'll be dead soon, I'll make sure of that. Don't worry, it might hurt at first, but when it's over you'll feel so good you'll want to weep. Here, let me get the door for you – ZE!"

"Okay, I get that priests are used to talking to large groups of people all at once, but fucking hell, you crazy shit, take it down a notch," I said. With every word that exited my mouth, I could feel death growing nearer – it was a bad habit of mine, cracking jokes when I was nervous. "You look woefully underprepared to do your 'God's work,' anyway. I mean, where's the little Timmy you keep glued to your crotch?"

"I left him inside your mother," Freed retorted.

"Hey, was it you?" Ise-nii asked Freed when he finally managed to keep the corpse within eyeshot without doubling over. He pointed at the aforementioned corpse. "Did you kill him?"

"Yes, yes, I killed him," Freed waved off. "He was just some scumbag who was summoning Devils, of course I had to kill him."

"What were you even doing here?" I asked. "The nearest elementary school is at least ten kilometres away."

"What, are you two shocked?" Freed laughed. "Aren't you gonna run away? You guys are really weird. I mean, humans who make deals with Devils are nothing but scum, pure and simple. Just scum. Don't you understand that? No? Well, obviously – you're scummy Devils, after all."

"Well, that sorts out the issue of your sanity, I guess," I said. "Seriously, you gonna string a sentence that makes sense together anytime soon? Or are we just gonna stand here talking in generalisations until Hell freezes over."

"How can you kill another human being!?" Ise-nii demanded of the psychopathic priest. "Aren't you only supposed to kill Devils!?"

Freed scoffed. "What the fuck is this? Are you lecturing me, Devil?" He laughed. "Oh boy, that's funny. Really funny. And here I thought specs was the comedian. Listen here, you piece of shit: Devils use humans' greed to survive. Making a deal with a Devil proves that you are now subhuman and worth nothing. It's the end of your worth as a human. That's why I killed him. I make a living by killing Devils and those that deal with them. That's my job."

"Even Devils won't go this far!" Ise-nii argued.

"The hell are you talking about? Devils are trash. Don't you know what a shitty existence you have? Isn't it just common sense that Devils are pieces of shit? Seriously, dude, you should restart from infancy or something and actually pay attention to the way things are as you grow up. But wait, it's useless to tell this to a couple Reincarnated Devils like you. So I'm gonna kill you both now."

Freed pulled out what looked like the handle of a sword, and a gun. A strange sound vibrated through the air and the end of the sword handle exploded with light, not unlike a lightsabre from Star Wars, and a blade of pure light appeared. "You kind of irritate me, so I'm gonna cut you," he said, licking the barrel of his gun. "That okay? Okay. So I'll impale your heart with my sword of light and shoot your fucking head off with my awesome gun. Man, I love this job!"

One good thing about seeing Kiba-kun move the other night was that Freed looked practically slow in comparison, so when he came sprinting towards us I had more than enough visual warning to push Ise-nii down and out of the way. I then hunched over myself and held my arms up in a defensive gesture, hoping my Rook strength would save me from the coming blow. I felt something growing on my skin, like it was hardening, and assumed that was my Rook abilities setting in.

Freed's footsteps reached me and he swung his sword upwards. Instinctively, I lunged forward with my arms still in front of me, intending to barge him and knock him off balance. I hit him, all right. I felt the impact.

SMASH!

I hit him a lot harder than I thought, apparently. He went flying backwards and smashed through a wall on the opposite side of the room. Debris fell and dust spread everywhere.

I marvelled at my new strength for a few seconds, then remembered Ise-nii. I rushed over to where I'd pushed him down, only vaguely feeling that hardness I'd felt before fading away, when a sharp and burning pain suddenly seared my leg in one tiny spot. I fell down, yelling out in pain, and looked back to see Freed's gun pointing at me and smoking. I hadn't even heard a gunshot.

"Such a shame you lost your head," he said in that creepy sing-song tone he used before. "The careless Devils who wound up dead … You wore your sin like it was some kind of prize … Too many lies, too many lies …"

This motherfucker crawled straight out of a horror movie, I decided. Watching him approach like a slasher villain unnerved me way more than anything else that had happened in this last week or so. And that manic look on his face … This was killing intent, and it was directed squarely at me. It froze me on the spot.

"Shin!" Ise-nii shouted after he saw me fall. He moved to get up only to take a silent bullet to his own leg and collapse onto the floor with me.

"How does it feel?" Freed asked with relish. "These special bullets are made for Exorcists, these bullets of light. And since it's composed entirely of light, it doesn't make so much as a peep. Better than any silencer. Are you guys as turned on as I am right now?"

"I'm … afraid all the blood … is rushing outta the hole … you just put in me," I gritted out, clutching my leg.

Freed smirked. "Well, that's good in its own way, I guess. After all, a hole's a hole. Die, die, Devil! Die! I'll keep on having plenty of fun with your corpse when I'm done killing you!" Freed laughed madly as he raised his sword, ready to finish us off.

What shitty luck, I thought. The two most inexperienced Devils in town just happened to run into the psychopathic priest. Pretty consistent with our luck so far, come to think of it. Didn't think I'd die again so quickly …

"Please stop!"

The voice made my blood run cold and my heart stand still. I … I know that voice …

Freed paused in his attack and looked at the newcomer.

"Asia …" I said in disbelief. Despite what Buchou had told me, I couldn't look at someone as sweet and innocent as her as my enemy. But if she was here with this lunatic …

"Well if it isn't my lovely assistant Asia-chan," said Freed. "What happened? Did you finish putting up the barrier?"

"N-Noooooooo!" Asia screamed as she laid her eyes on the corpse attached to the fall. I was both horrified and comforted. Horrified that she had to see such violent imagery, but comforted in the knowledge that she didn't know what was going on here. It gave light to the smallest spark of hope within me, but that spark was enough.

"Thank you for the adorable scream!" said Freed. "I forget, this is your first time seeing a corpse like this, isn't it, Asia-chan? Then take a good look. This is the fate that awaits all humans who are entranced by Devils."

"… N-No …" Asia finally turned to face Freed and everything else that was going on. Her eyes met mine and widened. "Father Freed … that person …"

"'Person?'" Freed said inquisitively. "No, no, you're mistaken, Asia-chan. These shits here are Devils. How ever did you get the two mixed up?"

"Shin-san is a … Devil …?"

I really thought I would be more concerned about my impending second death, but in that moment all I wanted was for Asia to not hate me for what I was. That would crush the hope she herself had just unknowingly ignited in me. I knew letting her know what I was would be a bad idea, but until that moment I didn't realise just how precious our brief moments together had been. I could have gone my entire life and been content with just those few minutes in this angel's presence. But now that look in her eyes … I felt rotten to have had any part in the cause of such a sad look.

Freed took note of the reaction. "What, you guys know each other?" he asked. "Wow. What a twist. Do I detect forbidden love between a Devil and a Sister? Are you being fucking serious right now?" He looked between Asia and me and laughed. "Humans and Devils can never coexist! Especially humans from the church, to whom Devils are the biggest enemies! Even we, heretics who were abandoned by God, can never coexist with the Devils. We can't survive without the support of the Fallen Angels."

I didn't want to think about the implications. I didn't want to think Asia was working with the Fallen Angels.

"This was a fun little distraction," Freed went on, twirling his sword, "but I need to kill this trash now or it'll be bugging me forever. Are you boys ready?"

Freed prepared to swing his sword down upon me yet again.

A sword of light … If that gets me, I'll die, no doubt about it. And then … nothing.

Even as someone who didn't believe in Heaven, Hell, or the like in my human life, now that I was actually facing the reality of eternal nothingness … it scared me.

But such fear was unwarranted.

Because Asia blocked the sword.

She stood between Freed and me with her arms outstretched in a defensive gesture.

"Are you being serious right now?" Freed asked dangerously. "Asia-chan, do you have any idea what you're doing?"

"… I do," Asia said resolutely. "Father Freed, I beg you, please forgive these two. Please let them go."

"Asia … d-don't …" I said, stunned by what she was doing but knowing that if that psycho decided to attack, Asia wouldn't stand a chance. I didn't want to see her hurt, eternal nothingness be damned.

"I can't stay quiet any more," said Asia. "You can't kill people just because they deal with Devils! And you can't just kill Devils! It's wrong!"

Freed's jaw fell so far it was almost comical. "Don't talk shit, bitch!" he growled. "You learned that Devils are trash in the church just as well as I did! Is there something wrong with your God damn brain or something!?"

"There are good people, even among Devils!" Asia reaffirmed.

"No there aren't, idiot!"

"I … I thought so, too, until recently … But Shin-san is a good person. That hasn't changed even if he's a Devil! Killing someone is unforgivable! God does not allow such acts!"

This girl … She had just seen a corpse in one of the worst states she was ever likely to see a dead body in, as well as finding out that boy – in other words, me – she befriended is a Devil, someone she was taught to hate and fear all her life … and yet she isn't backing down from telling Freed what she thinks of him directly to his face. She was so strong-willed that I actually started to feel inadequate.

That was when Freed her her in the face with the barrel of his gun.

"Asia!" I shouted as she fell to the ground. I looked at Freed with absolute venom. "If you hurt her, you son of a bitch, I'll rip your spine out and use it as a stepladder when I'm picking apples in Hell."

"Dohnaseek-sama told me very specifically that I can't kill you," he said as he grabbed Asia and pushed her against the wall. "But hurting you and anything else that comes to mind is okay." He took his sword of light and cut through her clothes, exposing her body to all of us. "You've pissed me off, so it's only right that I should take out my frustrations on you, right, Asia-chan?"

Gritting my teeth, I stood up on shaky legs. The pain in the leg that got shot was unbelievable, but for Asia, I would endure it. "Hey, dickhead!" I shouted at him, getting his attention. "I didn't figure she'd be your type, what with the fact that she's not an eight-year-old boy. Hell, I'm probably closer to what you priests are into than she is! So why don't you get your ass over here and we can finish what we started, huh!?"

"Yeah!" Ise-nii said from beside me. He had his Sacred Gear out. "We've got a score to settle, asshole! Leave that girl alone!"

Freed whistled, impressed, and released his grip on Asia, letting her fall to the floor, where she immediately started covering herself up. "Seriously?" he asked. "You two are gonna fight me? You'll die, you get that, right? And it'll hurt. I have no intention of making this quick and painless. We are long past the threshold of that deal. Now I'm gonna see if I can break the record for the smallest mince meat."

There I was, preparing to fight and die for the sake of my new friend, with Ise-nii backing me up. I had no experience. I wasn't expecting to survive. But as long as Asia was there, I wouldn't stop fighting. Freed would have to rip the life out of me and stab it to death before that ever happened!

Before we could get into it, however, the floor where Ise-nii and I had transported in began to glow blue and white.

And people were appearing.

"Hey guys, we came to rescue you," said Kiba-kun.

"This looks awful," said Akeno-san.

"Priest," observed Koneko-chan. She laid her eyes on my leg and her eyes narrowed slightly, then she looked at Freed and they narrowed even more.

"A few minutes earlier would've been appreciated," I joked. I was very grateful for their appearance.

Freed looked incredibly excited by this development. "Ooh, I've got a bunch of you to play with now!" He started swinging his sword.

His sword clanged against Kiba-kun's. "Sorry, they're with us!" he said. "We can't allow you to lay a finger on either of them!"

"A Devil concerned about a comrade?" Freed seemed to find the idea hilarious. "What are you guys? The Devil Squadron? Devil Rangers? I can feel the heat you guys are giving off between you. I'm getting turned on! So, what's the arrangement? Who sticks it in who, and who bends over? 'Cause I gotta say, specs over there looks like excellent bitch material."

I hated that this fucker had a nickname for me.

"Hard to believe you were ever a priest with a mouth like that," said Kiba-kun. "But that's why you're a Stray Exorcist, right?"

"Well, sorry if I offended you!" Freed said with no sincerity whatsoever. "It's just that I've stopped giving a shit since they kicked me out! Screw the Vatican! I'm more than happy as long as I get to cut down you fucking Devils whenever I feel like it!"

"You're the most troublesome type to deal with," said Kiba-kun. "The kind of Stray Exorcist who only feels alive when they're killing Devils … the kind of Stray Exorcist who causes the most harm to us."

Freed growled. "I don't wanna be talked down to by a damn Devil! What's the big deal, anyway? I'm just trying to lead a happy life like everyone else! Killing pests like you makes me happy. Pests like you have no right to talk down to me!"

"Even Devils have rules," said Akeno-san. She was smiling, but her eyes held nothing but hostility. She was more than ready to kill this guy at a moment's notice.

"Nice," said Freed. "I like the passion in those eyes. You're the best. I can feel the intensity behind those eyes. Is this love? No, this is pure killing intent, and I love it! This is great! I love the feeling of intending to kill and when someone else intends to kill me!"

"Then disappear," said the final person to step out of the circle, Buchou. "I'm sorry, Ise, Shintaro. I never expected a Stray Exorcist to invade a client's home." She looked down at us and narrowed her eyes when she saw our wounds. "He hurt you?"

"Ah, sorry …" Ise-nii apologised. "I guess we got shot."

"'Tis but a scratch," I jested, trying to play it off.

Buchou didn't say anything, but her eyes landed on Freed and they were cold. "Looks like you've been looking after my cute servants," she said in a low and intense tone.

"Yes, yes, I've been playing around with them," Freed admitted shamelessly. "I was planning on cutting them all up before you guys interrupted."

"As well as fucking my leg wound, apparently," I threw in. "You haven't been watching Human Centipede 3, have you, asshat? 'Cause lemme tell you, that will fuck you in the head."

Freed glared at me, though that smirk remained on his face. "I figured I'd start with his tongue," he said. "Purely for the sake of shutting him the fuck up."

Before Freed could make a move, a section of furniture behind him was reduced to nothing. It was the same power Buchou had used to kill Viser. "I make sure to never forgive those who harm my servants," she said. "Especially not a lowlife like you." The intensity of her tone made it feel like everything was freezing. The killing intent from everyone in this room was palpable. An aura of what I assumed was demonic power surrounded Buchou.

"Buchou, there is a Fallen Angel coming," Akeno-san warned. "And there's … something else, too. I haven't sensed anything like this before, but there are a lot of them. We'll be at a disadvantage if we stay here any longer."

Buchou looked at Freed, likely deciding whether it was worth killing him. "… Akeno, we'll return to headquarters once we've got these two," she said. "Prepare for teleportation."

"Yes." Akeno started working on the magic circle. It looked like we would be running away. After all this, there wasn't any way I could think of to argue against that.

But then I remembered Asia.

"Buchou!" I said, pointing to Asia. "That girl, Asia! We need to take her with us!"

"Not possible," Buchou denied instantly. "Only Devils can use our magic circles for transport, and even then, only members of my household can use this specific one."

"Then leave me here and I'll get her out!" I insisted. "Damn it, I won't leave her!"

"Shin-san." Asia spoke softly, yet it managed to reach me over the chaos of the room. She smiled at me … that damn smile … "Let's meet again."

Those were the last words she said before I was hauled up and into the magic circle. Freed tried to stop us, but Koneko-chan hit him with the sofa, which was quite satisfying to see. But it did nothing to soften the blow. As the light of the magic circle encompassed us and we teleported out of the room and back to base, all that lingered in my head was Asia's smile …

If Ise-nii had told me that Devil healing involved getting to cuddle naked with a beautiful woman, I would have gotten myself hideously injured earlier. The way it works, it seems, is that you get completely naked and touch bodies in order to share demonic power or something, and somehow that heals your wounds. I wasn't complaining, in any case.

Ise-nii was currently getting the treatment from Buchou, whereas I was nakedly cuddling Akeno-san and enjoying every solitary second of it. She hadn't gone easy on the teasing when we were getting ready to do this, either. We were on the sofas in the clubroom. Koneko-chan and Kiba-kun had already been sent home for the night.

"There are two types of Exorcists," Buchou explained. There was some element of privacy between our two pairs, since each cuddling couple was covered by a large towel, so it wasn't too awkward. "The first type is the Exorcist who has received the blessing of God to kill Devils and Fallen Angels on Heaven's behalf. Those Exorcists work under God and the Angels. But then there is the second type: the Stray Exorcists."

"Stray?" asked Ise-nii.

"Exorcism is usually a holy ceremony performed in the name of God," Akeno-san explained, unashamedly rubbing her hands up and down my body underneath the towel and making me feel like my face was on fire. "But sometimes an Exorcist starts to enjoy their job just a little too much. Those who are found to be killing Devils for their own personal pleasure get kicked out of the church, no exceptions. The ones who get caught are killed."

"I t-take it that smug p-prick back there was one of the ones that g-got away," I stuttered out shyly. My hands were occupied with covering my nether regions, lest Akeno-san find out how hard I was. I reasoned that she could probably already tell, but it was still embarrassing.

"Got it in one, my adorable kouhai," Akeno-san said, rubbing her cheek against mine. This woman would be the death of me.

"The ones who escape the wrath of the church usually find work under the Fallen Angels," said Buchou. "Though the Fallen Angels were rejected by Heaven, they still hold the power of light – the power to kill Devils. And like the Devils and the Angels both, they lost a lot of their numbers in the war, so they have been collecting these Stray Exorcists to act as servants."

"So the Fallen Angels and the Stray Exorcists both want the Devils gone, so they team up," Ise-nii surmised.

"Yes," said Buchou. "That's why they're called Stray Exorcists. Dangerous Exorcists with an addiction to killing Devils started going after Devils and those contracted with Devils for their own personal pleasure by borrowing the power of the Fallen Angels. That boy priest from earlier is exactly that, a Stray Exorcist who belongs to a group with the support of the Fallen Angels. They may not be proper Exorcists, but they're far more dangerous to us than the proper ones, who have regulations stopping them from killing us indiscriminately. It's not smart to deal with them. So, the church you took that nun to, Shintaro, does not belong to God but the Fallen Angels."

"… So basically, in going there, I wasn't in serious trouble," I said, "I was in very serious trouble?"

"Afraid so," Akeno-san said directly into my ear. "It's actually really weird that they let you walk away like they did. You got really lucky."

Only a few days ago, the implication would have been terrifying to me. But as of tonight, with the last thing I saw before teleporting out of that house, there was only one thing I felt was right to say. "Buchou, I need to save Asia."

"Not possible," she denied me immediately. "How will you fight them? You are a Devil, she is the servant of a Fallen Angel. You two can never exist alongside one another. Saving her means making the Fallen Angels your enemies … If that happened, we would all have to fight."

I wanted to argue against her … but I couldn't. She was right about that last thing. I couldn't do anything without dragging everybody else into my shit. I didn't want to leave Asia with those bastards, but I didn't want to make trouble for Koneko-chan and the others, and with tensions between the Three Factions being what I was told they were, I didn't know whether or not fighting the Fallen Angels over a human would cause an even bigger fight to break out. No matter how I swung it, there was no way I could do this without somebody suffering for it.

And that made me feel pathetic.

Any joy I was taking in the healing left me then, and when we were done, I got dressed and trudged home with Ise-nii beside me. This time he was trying to cheer me up.

I skipped school the next day.

My feelings of inadequacy from the night before had turned into frustration overnight. I kept running the scenario through my head, over and over, and there was no way of doing this without causing serious trouble for somebody. There was one thought – go Stray and do it myself so that nobody from my side had to get involved – but I flung that one aside because it was suicidally stupid on my part and, given my lack of experience, would have been absolutely pointless due to me being outnumbered, outgunned, and up against people who had years of experience on me.

So I went to the park and trained myself for the morning in order to let off some steam. Last time I took up physical activity, at that time being pacing my room, out of frustration, I came to a moment of personal revelation. I didn't think I was lucky enough to have it happen again, but I would try anyway, if only to get rid of some of this stress.

The bullet wounds on my leg left scars. The power of light can hurt us pretty permanently, even after it's healed, so those bullet marks will be there forever. I was also walking with a slight limp, but that would go away with time.

I was interrupted by the rumbling of my stomach. I'd gone all morning without eating, too lost in thought to think about my physical needs.

What I really needed was to get stronger. From the night before, I knew that I had access to my Rook powers, so there was already quite a strong base there. But I needed more. I was newly reincarnated, so even with freakish strength and durable skin (that somehow felt exactly the same as it had before I was a Devil) I was a massive weakling by supernatural standards. If only I was stronger, I could have fought off that fucker Freed last night and gotten Asia out of there without all this fuss.

So get stronger, I urged myself, and that was what I intended to do.

I wasn't like Ise-nii with his Sacred Gear. Even though he didn't know what it did yet, it was a power he had that made him special to the people of the supernatural world. I, on the other hand, was just another Devil master's Rook and would probably be overlooked by everyone if I didn't improve myself significantly. I needed to be prepared for other situations like this in the future.

"Shin-san?" said a voice from a few feet away.

I looked over, and there she was. "Asia?" I said, starting to smile.

We had been in the fast food place for all of about ten minutes when I realised just how sheltered Asia was. Whatever they'd taught her in that church, it sure as hell wasn't any real life skills like how to order herself some food. She was just standing there, making some vaguely confused noises with her mouth, in front of the employee at the register who was just starting to look massively uncomfortable at this point. I'd already offered my help once and been shut down when she said she'd manage it herself, but that was about five minutes ago now.

I had every confidence that she would have gotten there eventually, but I decided to take pity on the poor staff member who was serving us.

"She'll have the same as me," I said.

"Okay," the employee said, throwing me a thankful smile.

"I can't even order a single hamburger by myself …" Asia moped.

"Don't worry about it," I said. "Spend enough time out in the real world and you'll get used to it eventually. It'll just become a normal part of life."

We got our food and went over to an empty table to eat. Asia was getting a lot of looks, though whether it was because she was a nun, because she was cute, or both, I couldn't tell you. I recalled having a similar reaction the first time I saw her. We sat opposite one another and I got to eating immediately, though after a few seconds I noticed that Asia was just staring down at her food with a completely lost look on her face. What the hell do those churches teach people? I wondered. This girl, cute and endearing though she was, didn't appear to have even the most basic pieces of common knowledge and sense that would be required to survive in this world.

"You take the wrapping off the burger," I said. She looked at me quizzically. "Look, turn it over like this, right? Now you see where the paper wrapped around the burger ends there? Grab that and unwrap it. Then you just pick it up and eat it like a regular sandwich."

She did it and the way her face lit up was both adorable and depressing. "Y-You can actually eat like this!?" she said like I'd just explained the meaning of life, the universe, and everything to her, even though what I'd said was less complicated than the number 42. "Amazing!"

"Same with the fries. No need for cutlery or anything, just pick them outta the box and eat them."

She finally picked up her burger and took a bite out of it. "D-Delicious!" she said. "This is delicious!"

"Yeah," I agreed, smiling. "It ain't exactly the finest cuisine, but hell if it isn't tasty." I finished off my own burger, unashamed with the gluttony I was showing. "So you've never eaten anything like this before?" I knew the answer since it was so obvious, but I felt like her talking about it herself might make her feel better.

"No, I haven't," she confirmed. "I've seen this sort of food on television before, but I've never eaten it myself. It's so good!"

"What do you usually eat?"

"Mainly bread and soup. Though I sometimes get vegetables and pasta."

How … How are you not malnourished to shit? I asked internally. "Make sure you savour the taste of that, then," I said. "Sounds like you don't eat the good stuff too often."

She nodded at me and kept on eating.

Why was she in the park? The question had been bugging me since I'd run into her, but upon being asked she said she was on her break. I didn't buy it. She had been pretty freaked out before I brought her in here, so I thought she was running away. She seemed pretty relieved to see me, so it couldn't have been good, whatever it was. I wanted to ask, but she was just starting to enjoy herself, so I didn't want to plunge her back into that shit-show immediately.

Regardless, I was going to help her. I know what Buchou said about this, but that was back when I would have had to go on the attack to help her. Now that she was here, with me? Some naive part of me thought that would be enough, that I could keep her safe now. I may crack a lot of jokes and appear to not take things seriously, but my head is firmly planted in the real world – I knew there was very little I could do, yet that optimistic little bastard of a voice in my head was telling me that I could help her, even now.

As I looked upon her, smiling as she ate food she had never experienced before, lightning struck my brain. I knew what I was going to do. I was going to keep that smile in place for as long as possible.

After all, that's what I like doing, isn't it? I thought. Making people smile.

"Asia," I said.

"Y-Yes?" she responded.

"I'm gonna take you out today," I announced. "When you're finished eating, we're going into town, and we're gonna have fun. We're together already, so let's make a date of it, okay?" I joked lightly.

Her face went red as a lobster. "O-O-Okay," she said happily.

We went to the arcade because I'm a teenager and where the hell else do I go to have fun around here?

So there I was playing House of the Dead 3, shooting zombies' heads off with what was meant to be a shotgun but could be completely reloaded with a single pump, when it occurred to me that Asia's idea of fun might not have quite reached this level of violence. Frankly, the second I get into an arcade on any day, I jump straight into one of the railshooters with so much enthusiasm that I was once tested for incel tendencies.

"You're really good at this, Shin-san!" said Asia, who fortunately was intelligent enough to realise this was a game and I wasn't actually killing anything, so my worries were slightly unwarranted.

She wasn't quite into this game, however, though she enjoyed watching me play it. Introducing her to YouTube let's plays would be an easy way to entertain her if I ever needed to, I guess. She was pretty good at the games she did play, though, which was surprising. Maybe the absence of all the information the church didn't give her somehow made her better at picking things up? I didn't know, but we played a racing game I can't remember the name of at one point, and she very nearly beat me a fair few times. It was crazy.

I finished up with my game and turned to ask Asia if there was anything else she wanted to play, only to find that she was gone. Panicking a little, I looked around and saw her standing next to the crane game, the one that was rigged so the claw grips as loosely as physically possible so that it's still technically possible to win, but not likely by any means. As I walked over, I could just feel the money draining from my wallet because I knew I was going to give in to whatever she wanted the second she told me.

"Something in there catch your eye?" I asked.

"N-No!" she denied. "I-It's nothing."

"Uh huh." I didn't believe her, so I followed her line of sight to a Pikachu plushy that was in the machine. "You like Pikachu?"

"N-No, th-that's …" Giving up on the lie, she just nodded shyly with a red face. It was adorable.

"Okay, then I'll win it for you," I declared.

I put a coin in the machine immediately and started playing, then promptly lost. Over and over again, I put money in and lost. Ise-nii liked to think he was good at crane games, but I stand by my opinion that you can't be good at these games because they are rigged to unholy Hell and back. I'd always wanted to get inside one of these and fiddle with it for a joke, make the crane grab tighter or something so that they actually had to restock the damn thing. That sounded like a golden prank to me. But for now, I was going to do this the proper way. Because Asia deserved it.

An obscene amount of lost coins later, I won the Pikachu and handed it to Asia.

Asia hugged the doll to her chest with the prettiest smile on her face. "Thank you very much, Shin-san," she said. "I'll keep it forever."

"If you like it that much, then I'll get you more," I said. "Crane game or not, there are so many Pokémon – that's what Pikachu is, by the way, a Pokémon – that I'll never be able to stop! You'll have a whole room full of these plushies before I'm done."

"That's not what I meant," she said. "This Pikachu represents the wonderful day I met you. Since this represents our time together, I'll never let it go."

It took a lot to make me feel genuinely shy, but those words, those genuine kind-hearted words, had me acting like a schoolboy with a crush … which I guess I technically was, but I'm talking about a much younger schoolboy than myself in this analogy. "We've still got the rest of the day ahead of us, Asia," I said. "So let's go and have more fun."

"Y-Yes!" she said.

I took her by the hand and we continued to enjoy each other's company for hours more.

The sun was actually setting by the time we were done enjoying out day together, something which surprised me since it hadn't felt like we were out very long at all. Time flying was usually rather pleasant, but on this occasion, I actively resented it for doing so. I would have loved to feel those hours I spent with Asia in real time. In a bizarre twist, by about halfway through the day I found myself mimicking Ise-nii's date with that Fallen Angel bitch and took Asia around the different shops in town. I wanted her to see as much as possible since she was so obviously sheltered from the real world.

I'll need to head to the clubroom soon, I thought. Skipping school is one thing, but I think if I skipped out on my job, Buchou will throw a fucking fit.

I stumbled a bit on the limp in my leg as I was lost in thought. It stung, and I hissed a little through my teeth.

"… Shin-san, are you injured?" Asia asked tenderly. Then her face fell. "Is it from yesterday …?"

I immediately felt like a piece of shit for letting the leftovers of the wound get the better of me like that. We were having such a nice day and I just had to go and fuck it up …

Asia bent down to check my leg. "Can you please lift your trouser leg up?" she asked. I did as she said; the mark of the bullet was still clearly defined on my leg. Asia placed her palm on the scar. The bright green light from before appeared, it felt incredibly warm and comforting against my skin. I could feel that it was exactly the kind of Sacred Gear somebody this gentle-hearted should have. I noticed that it matched the colour of her eyes. Then she stopped. "How is it?" she asked.

I wiggled my leg a bit to get a response. I felt no pain. Looking, I noticed that even the scarring was gone. "It feels amazing, Asia," I said in awe. Seeing it was one thing, but feeling it was something else entirely. "You have an amazing power, it really suits you. That's a Sacred Gear, right?"

"Yes, it is," Asia confirmed.

"My brother has one, too, though we don't know what it does yet."

"Your brother … He's the one who was with you last night?" I nodded at her. "He has a Sacred Gear, too? That's nice."

"Yeah, but like I said, we don't know what it does. But your power, Asia, it's amazing. So, you can heal humans, Devils, and what else?"

Her face turned sad. "Just about anything I know of, so far," she said. A single tear fell from her eye. Then a lot more tears, and she was crying.

"Hey, hey, hey," I said, moving over to hug her. "It's okay. Come on over here …" I took her over to a bench, where we both sat down. "What are you crying about? You can tell me, Asia. I want to help you in any way I can."

That was when she told me a story.

Once upon a time, there was a girl with the power to heal, who the church called a Holy Maiden. She was abandoned by her parents as a child and raised to be a nun by the church, along with several other orphans. At the age of 8, she and the others discovered that she had the power to heal when she was found by a member of the church healing a wounded puppy.

From there, her life changed.

She was taken to the Vatican and praised as a Holy Maiden due to her healing powers. Followers of God would come to her, and she would heal them, being told that her power is a form of divine protection. She never asked for any of this, but she didn't hate it because she was a kind soul who liked helping the people who came to her for healing, and those people were so kind to her. But even though she was happy her power was of use, she was lonely.

She didn't have any real friends.

Those who came to her for healing were not her friends, for they saw her power as something that put her above them. They didn't look at her as a human, but rather as a creature with the power to heal humans. And so, she went on being lonely.

But one day, even the small joy of healing the followers of God would be robbed of her.

On this day, the girl came upon a wounded Devil and, being a kind-hearted girl with none of the prejudices the church instilled in its other followers, she healed him. She was seen healing him. Healing that one person, that one Devil, turned everyone in the church against her. A power that can heal Devils! Such a thing was seen as blasphemy of the highest order. And so she was branded not just as a heretic, but as a witch. The girl who had once been hailed as a Holy Maiden was now hated and feared as a witch. Not one person, not one single person from the hundreds she had healed, came to her defence. Nobody cared. She was excommunicated from the church.

With nowhere else to go, she joined the Fallen Angels.

Asia Argento, the girl from the story, wiped tears from her face as she finished telling it to me. "It's because I didn't pray enough," she said, laughing weakly. "It's because I'm clumsy. I'm so stupid that I can't even eat a burger by myself. This must be a trial from God. Since I'm so clumsy and useless, He must be testing me. I'll have to endure it. I have a dream, you know. I wanna go buy flowers with a friend, buy books, talk …"

… Fuck God, I thought as Asia started crying again. Yeah, you hear that, buddy? FUCK YOU! How dare you call yourself a benevolent creator, a loving father to all, when you let this shit happen to the sweetest girl I've ever met!? What fucking right do you have!? She's been praying to your for help for Satan only knows how long, and you've done nothing! Hypocrites! You, all your fucking followers, just a bunch of fucking HYPOCRITES! Well, you know what? I'm gonna do what you wouldn't … I'm gonna help Asia.

I pulled Asia into my arms and tried my best to let the warmth I felt towards her cover her, to make those tears stop. Such a sweet face with tears streaming down it … it looked wrong. "You don't need to dream of friends, Asia," I said tenderly. "Because I'm already here. I may be a Devil, and you'd have every right not to trust me, but I care about you, that's the simple truth of it. And I'll do anything I can to make you happy. You wanna buy flowers? Sure, we'll go right now. You wanna buy books? I can always use more on my shelf, anyway. Not just today, either. Do you have a phone? You can have my number, call me whenever you want."

"… Why?" she asked, looking me in the eyes.

"Because we're already friends, Asia. We spent the whole day together. We played, we laughed, we went around the stores. We did a bunch of stuff that friends do. We're the dynamic duo, the Devil and the nun, and I don't care what anyone else has to say about it."

"Is … Is this a deal with a Devil?"

"Nope! Real friendship is on the table right now, Asia. Hell, it's not just on the table, it's on your dinner plate, and you'd better start eating right now, young lady. You can stay with me, I'll get you away from those Fallen Angels. I'll treat you right and I'll teach you all sorts of stuff about the world that the church didn't teach you."

Asia put a hand over her mouth and started crying, but the tears didn't seem sad this time. "… Shin-san, I have no common sense," she said.

"Neither does anyone else these days," I waved her off. "With my help, you'll be smarter than ninety percent of the internet in no time, guaranteed!"

"I … I can't speak Japanese."

"Then I'll teach you! I can understand you, so it shouldn't be too hard. Even if it is, I'll buck up and do it anyway. Anything to make you happy, Asia. Anything."

"I don't even know how to talk to a friend …"

"You're talking to me fine, aren't you?"

"Will you … Will you really be my friend …?"

"That one's an already delivered guarantee, beautiful," I said, making her blush up a storm and smile bashfully. "See, there's that smile I like so much."

I was finding it hard not to blush, too. Every single word I just said sounded like something out of a cheesy romance anime. If anyone from school heard me saying that, my reputation would be down the toilet faster than Kiba-kun can reach the end of the field during outdoor P.E. lessons. But it didn't matter. So long as Asia was smiling, nothing mattered. I will never know first-hand how painful it was to do so much good for others only to be rejected when she helped somebody they didn't like, but I would do my best to help her recover from the damage those fucking hypocrites did to her.

Because that's what I do.

I make people smile.

"So adorable yet so stupid." When I looked to where the voice came from, I saw some edgy trenchcoat-wearing motherfucker glaring at us with a smirk. "You two are gonna give me diabetes if I let you carry on, and I do mean in the 'you two are making me terminally ill from disgust' way."

"Who the hell are you?" I asked. I could see he was a Fallen Angel from the wings on his back, but a name or literally any other information would be useful.

"Dohnaseek-sama …" Asia said fearfully.

I snorted. "'Dohnaseek?' Really? Okay, 'Donnie,' now that I've given you a less ridiculous name, I've got something to ask you: The fuck d'you want, asshole?"

"Watch your mouth, boy," he growled at me. "We may need you alive for now, but rest assured, I'm perfectly capable of hurting you. She," he pointed to Asia, "is needed back a the church. I'd thank you if you handed her over, but … I get the feeling this is going to get messy before that happens."

"You're damn right it is," I said, getting ready for a fight I knew I probably wouldn't win. But I wouldn't back down. "I don't know why the hell you need me alive, and frankly, I don't much care. What I do care about is Asia, and if you can't kill me, then you'd better have a damn good plan for getting me out of the way, 'cause I'm gonna kick your fucking teeth in if you go anywhere near her."

He snorted. "Don't get too attached to that life of yours, boy. I said we need to alive now, but believe me, you won't last half as long as that girl or your buddies regardless of whether you win here or not, and your chances of winning here are slim at best. So what's the point of getting all attached? Just walk away and enjoy your life until we come for you."

"Fuck off!" I got ready to charge him.

"Shin-san, don't!" Asia warned, grabbing my arm. "If you fight him, you'll … you'll …"

"Kick his ass," I reassured her. "Asia, I made a promise back there to be your friend and make you happy, and I keep my promises."

Dohnaseek laughed. "What a comedian you are!" he exclaimed in amusement. The flesh of his face I could see was starting to move unnaturally, like there was something beneath the surface trying to get out. "But with the introduction of my little friends here, your slim chance goes right down to none!"

Little friends? I thought in confusion, not seeing anybody else coming.

Just as I thought that, four globs of flesh fell from Dohnaseek's body, three from inside the sleeves of his coat and one from the skin of his face. The flesh writhed around on the floor like living organisms. I took a step back in disgust and felt bile rising in my throat. This … this wasn't normal. I knew from the incident with Viser that the supernatural could be kind of fucked up, but this was a few whole tiers up on the WTF-o-Metre than that. They continued to writhe and grow until I was facing four humanoid creatures composed exclusively from the flesh of that bastard Fallen Angel. They were human in shape, as mentioned, but they had absolutely no distinguishing features between them, and every now and then a piece of flesh would push outwards, almost like there was something inside.

"Neat trick," I said, trying to cover just how shaken up this was making me. "What did they do, get you wet in that fountain over there? Should I not feed them after midnight? Whatever the hell these things are, I'll take them out as well as you if it means protecting Asia!"

"Such foolishness," said Dohnaseek. "I cannot see why the master chose you, but it is not my place to question. Since you won't back down, you leave me no choice – attack!"

The Flesh Golems made their way towards me with jerky, though nonetheless rapid movements that only served to illustrate just how grotesque they were. I saw one or two of them growing from the wrist outwards, with the flesh that grew hardening and taking on a quality not unlike stone, with a point at the end and a fine edge.

Weird fleshy creatures with hardened flesh-swords coming out of their arms, I thought. Fucking hell, my life has taken a turn.

I flexed my muscles to prepare to fight, confident in my Rook strength after I'd briefly used it on Freed the night before. I had to be careful of Dohnaseek, as the spears of light would likely get through my natural defences like Freed's bullet of light had. Irritating Devil weaknesses. I stepped forward a couple of paces to keep the heat off of Asia during the coming fight.

One of the Flesh Golems, which was pretty close by now, took a swing at me, which I managed to dodge. I then punched it and it went flying over to the treeline, but got back up. They didn't seem particularly smart, but being composed entirely of flesh seems to have given them some resilience against damage.

One of the other Flesh Golems, which was also close but off to the side, swung its arm down at me and managed to catch me with that solid fleshy blade. It didn't cut, but I could feel it trying, so I kicked it in the chest and sent it skidding back, then jumped away.

I could really do with a weapon, I decided, looking at the Flesh Golems as they closed in on me. My defences are good and I'm pretty damn strong, but a weapon of some sort would give me a little more reach so their blades aren't really as annoying.

Another one got close and swung at me, and I raised my arm up to meet it in a defensive gesture … only for an incredibly sharp pain to take hold of my wrist as the bone exploded out of my wrist and grew lengthways, sharpening at the tip. I yelled in pain as my bone sword met with the Flesh Golem's flesh blade, but it did the trick. Seeing an opportunity while the Flesh Golem's arms were up, I swung my leg at its legs and tripped it up, then swung down the wrist with the bone sword protruding from it, cutting off the Flesh Golem's head in one swing.

For a moment, I suspected the Flesh Golem would simply reattach its head and keep on attacking, but instead it melted away in a gross parody of what happened to the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, only flesh pink instead of pained green.

It was disgusting, yet gratifying. I killed one!

"Come at me, then, you fleshy bastards!" I exclaimed in an absurd battle-cry, the adrenaline getting the better of me.

One of the remaining three Flesh Golems swung at me with its flesh blade, but I viciously blocked with my own swing, knocking it off balance. I then went down low and stabbed it in the stomach – or where its stomach would be if it had organs – and just wrenched my bone sword upwards, bisecting it and letting its left and right sides hang apart. It melted, signifying its death.

Two to go.

I saw from the shadows on the ground that one was coming up behind me. I felt my flesh doing that hardening thing it had done the night before as it swung and hit my back, but its flesh blade shattered against my back. I turned around to see this fleshy thing writhing in pain, doubled over, probably trying to scream but having no mouth to do so. I stabbed it in the head with my bone sword and put it out of its misery.

One to go, I thought, excited. I just might pull this off!

That's when I turned around and Dohnaseek punched me in the face.

I strongly suspect more experienced Rooks would have been able to take that punch, but as I was at the time, I spun around and fell flat on my face without much of a fuss at all. I tried to stand myself up, but a foot on my back interrupted me. I was about to push up against him, knowing that I was at least strong enough to send him flying off of me, but his other foot came down on my bone sword right where it connected to the bone within my wrist and my bone sword shattered apart from the rest of my body.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" I screeched in pain for all the word to see as the bone was separated from me.

"Pathetic," Dohnaseek said, looking down on me. "I can only hope master made the right choice and you'll get stronger later. But for now …" He summoned two spears of light, one in either hand, and turned to face my bottom half. "… can't take the risk of you getting back up too quickly."

The pain from the bullet of light was outright tame in comparison with the pain I experienced as he jammed those two spears of light into my legs. I could feel the blood in my legs boiling from exposure to the light and travelling through my veins to take that pain to the rest of my body. It was absolute pain, the kind of burning I had only ever imagined would come from being lit on fire, but even fire seemed preferable to this.

"Shin-san!" Asia cried. I couldn't turn around to see her. I was too weak. I could only listen. "Leave him alone! N-No …! Let me go! Shin-san!"

I managed to raise my head just in time to see Dohnaseek flying off into the distance, with Asia struggling in his grip, and a tail of black feathers falling behind him.

Did I include too many references to Hellsing Ultimate Abridged during the Freed scene? Probably, but it was fun to write, so meh.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I think you all know what's coming up in the next one, don't you? The good ol' church invasion. Only this time, Dohnaseek is the big bad, which is, admittedly, somewhat common in DxD fics these days, but oh well. I'll try to get the conclusion of the first arc written up as soon as I can.

Also … HOLY SHIT! This is already my most followed story! I'm so glad so many people are enjoying this when it's only been out for such a short time! Thanks so much, guys!

No new harem members introduced this time.

Shintaro: Koneko Toujou, Akeno Himejima, Kalawarner, Asia Argento,

Issei: Rias Gremory, Raynare, Mittelt,

Now, before we go, review time.

Clarent excalibur: I dunno about moving in immediately, but she'll certainly be hanging around there a lot more often with a love rival present. It'll certainly be something.

Derek 23: Thank you, I shall endeavour to do so.

MentalForge: Thank you, thank you, she is a very luscious lady.

SonikNaoko: It's actually not as complicating an issue as you might think seeing as Rossweisse is only present for a single Rating Game as Rias' Rook, so as long as she's still around she doesn't actually need to be a member of the Peerage. Yeah, Dohnaseek has a bit more to him here than he did in canon, though how that will affect things has yet to be seen, heheheh.

yogaratw607: No. The story is, like, 98% told by Shintaro in the first person, so I'm afraid Issei's sex life will be of the off-screen variety.

ivan meza: There's only one "NTR" that comes immediately to mind, and I can tell you that it won't be happening in this story.

Guest: She might be.

Ryujomaru15: Thank you. Shintaro assisting in the hiding of a body was an idea I had while writing it and I just had to do it for the black comedy value.

Guest: Someone else said the same thing. Like I said before, having her move in might be a bit much right away, but she'll definitely be around the Hyoudou residence more.

kuwashin4590: Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying the relationship between Shintaro and Koneko. You'll be seeing a lot more of it going forward. Yeah, it's all good, I know not everyone is going to enjoy the decisions I make with this story, I'm just grateful you're so cool about it. Huh … that's good to know. Thanks! That sounds like an interesting idea.

Guest: That is a pretty funny idea. As well as being a reference to Dragon Age II, I believe. I'll certainly think about it.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: That's fair, not everyone has the same taste in characters, and Raynare is a colossal bitch in canon. I'm glad to know you're enjoying it.

Reviewer Requiem: Heheh, and I'm looking forward to writing Akeno getting serious about her pursuit of Shintaro.

And that's a wrap, folks!