Hello everyone! I know its been a few days (bite me, I was busy). I get to do a ton of shout outs tho!

death'ssontripo: Good to hear you are doing alright. Of course I could make that happen, but then there would be very little story to tell.

: Magnificent comment, please write more soon.

Soundion: I thought it was pretty brilliant myself too! I know he is, but I need to have a baddie of some sort don't I?

13loop: I'm glad to hear you like it! I hope you like this chapter too. You will see her 'fixed' soon enough... I hope...

paposki: keep hyping that, maybe it will become this communities new motto!

Izaya: Well, the no mistakes part is really thanks to my proof reader Kage no Kenshi. The daily updates are on hold for now, but I was able to do it because I had a bit of a buffer going (still do, but it's decreasing). Just sit down and write for an hour every day. If it comes naturally, you will find that you can make a lot happen in an hour.

Moneymaka: well, your waiting is over, the next update is here!

Issei´s Dream

Darkness. Thumping. He was hurt, bad. Anshara was keeping him alive, mostly. He would get the bitches, kill them, get his revenge. There was a light, someone stopped the machine. How stupid of him. Softly he chuckled in himself.

"Oh my god, someone is in the machine!"

"Well, what are you waiting for Franke?! Open it up goddammit!"

The creaking of a hatch as it opened up. A face peered down, eyes growing wide. His hand shot out, grabbing the man around the throat, pulled him down into the machine. The man screamed in agony as teeth ripped the flesh of his neck apart, opening up the major artery. He drank, gouged on his blood.

Slowly he rose, stepped out of the machine. His nude form was drenched in blood, his clothes having long since been claimed by the machine. "Oh my god…" The other man said, slowly backing off, turning to run. With the flick of his wrist the man froze, then slowly turned and walked towards him. His eyes were wide in fear, the man was unable to control his body.

Michael laughed like a madman before he dove in to his next meal, feasting on the blood. He would not be so easily killed…

Issei gasped and sat up. "Shirone…"

"She's safe. Next door in fact. You gave the church quite a run for their money. They ended up bribing half of Tokyo out of talking." Issei turned to face Rias, who sat in a recliner next to his bed. She licked her fingers and turned the page of her book. "What I find most interesting however," Rias said, "Is that there is no mention of devils being turned angels." She snapped the book shut and held it up for Issei to see. "Not even in the Tome of Rules of Reincarnation."

He made to throw the covers off and get up, but was quickly pushed back into the pillows by Rias. "Not so fast. Your body might have regenerated, but you lost a lot of blood." She told him and handed him a glass of water. Gratefully he took a few sips.

Issei was silent for a while. "I honestly don't know what happened myself. It was like instinct, I didn't think, I just… did." He said, trying to word things correctly. Rias looked at him with a funny expression. "How is the hand?" He asked, gesturing to the appendage Koneko had crushed with her Rook strength.

She raised it and deftly moved her fingers one by one. "It has had a few weeks to regenerate." She stated. "Weeks? How long was I out for?" Issei asked.

"Two weeks, four days." Issei suddenly felt a lot weaker and sank even further into the pillows. "I'm sorry Rias." He eventually stated.

"What for?"

"I pretty much stole one of your servants from you; I made you come all the way to Europe to watch it happen, what's not to apologize for." Issei said, closing his eyes. He felt the mattress give way where Rias sat down on it. Gently she lowered her head onto Issei's chest and embraced him.

"You saved one of my friends. Besides, I got the evil piece back, so I can get a replacement… well, Koneko will never be replaced, but strategically speaking you caused no harm."

"What will you do with her now?" Issei asked.

"She is still my friend, even after what happened. She will always be welcome here." Rias replied. Gently she started to trace patterns over Issei's bare chest.

"What happened to the other evil pieces anyways? I meant to ask, but never got around to it."

"You mean the ones I used on you?" Issei nodded. "The eight pawn pieces shattered, but the remaining knight and rook emerged as mutation pieces." She saw Issei making to speak up again. "And don't you dare apologize for it!" she scolded him. "It was my decision to use those pieces. Had you not won from Riser I would no longer have had a peerage regardless. Eight pawn pieces was a price I was willing to pay to save my savior."

"She loves you, you know." Issei raised an eyebrow at Rias's statement. "If a girl uses her dying breath to inform another girl that a boy is hers, I'd say the signs are pretty obvious." Issei had to admit that statement could have been made by Logic himself.

"What am I going to do, Rias?" Issei asked indecisively.

"Either you love her back or you don't. That is a choice for you to make."

"Rias, how can I love?" She gave him a strange look. "What kind of question is that?" She asked. "You know where I came from; I am the manifestation of anger and revenge. I am an angel, angels don't do 'relationships'. Also I'm not blind. I can tell that Asia, Akeno and even you gravitate towards me."

Rias was silent for a few moments. "Although I appreciate your honesty," She said, sitting up and straddling Issei. "Asia, Akeno and I can deal with that problem on our own. Who knows, maybe we will share you." She said, winking at Issei. "That being said, you are a person Issei; a being made of flesh and blood. That means you are capable of feeling the whole range of emotions, including love. Believe me, I can know, for I saw him with my own eyes. There is a manifestation of it in there." Rias said, pressing a kiss to Issei's forehead.

"Furthermore, judging from the blood of the Seraph dripping from Aurora and the screaming anger of Michael, I don't think you have much business with the angels anymore." Alright, she had a good point there. "Now if you are feeling up to it, I can take you to Koneko. She has been asking for you since she woke up two weeks ago."

Rias nudged Issei's arm over her shoulder and pulled him off the mattress. The walk through the hallway felt like a marathon. Koneko was fast asleep, hugging her pillow close to her. Her new found wings, way too large for her body, unfurled behind her back. He looked at Rias and gestured to the chair next to her bed. Rias nodded and gently lowered Issei into the chair.

"I will bring you some food if you think you can keep it down." She mouthed. Issei nodded in thanks. He heard Rias's footsteps retreat out the door. On the nightstand next to Koneko's bed was a note block, a pen next to it. He remembered how he had seen her as a small child. The one he had known and raised so many years ago. Those fleeting days he had spent with her family

He picked up the pen and paper and wrote.

Quarter past seven, Sunday morning I hear a voice softly asking me

Have you awakened yet?

Will you come downstairs with me,

Will you have to work today or are you free?

And will you come play with me then?

The time passes so fast

Yesterday I saw her first,

cradled in my arms

Her beauty is a spell,

She wears her years so well,

I blink my eyes and see the change

But no matter how she grows,

in my eyes she will always be small

Quarter past seven, Sunday morning I see her close the door

I can cease my guard, she is home

I would have rather picked her up

But she asked me not to be there tonight,

She now finds her own way home

And then, when I close my eyes

We walk together again, on the beach

Her hand in mine

And then, she stops time

It's just like then

And it's like she needs me so

I hold her tight

I want to remember her how she was

Issei paused, resting the pen on the paper. He glanced over Koneko's sleeping form, seeing how she had grown. She was no longer a girl who needed a guardian. She had flourished, fallen in love with a man who she shouldn't love, one who'd known her as a baby. Issei promised himself he would always be there for her. He sighed and pressed then pen to the paper, writing the final lines.

Quarter past seven, Sunday morning she hears my voice, gently waking her

Today is your grand day,

I blink my eyes, and see how her hand now forever belongs to another

But no matter where she may be,

In my memory she will always be with me

And no matter how much she grows

In my eyes, she will always be

A tear dropped onto the paper as he wrote the final word with a quivering hand.

Small

"You alright Issei? You look a little upset." Rias asked, who walked in with a tray holding two bowls of soup. He cleared his throat, wiped his eyes and shook the lingering emotion off. "Yes, I'm quite alright. Thank you." He said, gracefully accepting the soup. Rias gestured to the notepad with his sleek, neat handwriting on it. "Can I see?" She gently asked

Issei hesitated, but handed her the paper. He heard Rias gasp. "Issei, this is beautiful." She whispered. "Rias, I'm so confused." Issei whispered putting down the soup and burying his head in his hands.

Unbeknownst to him, Rias gently set down the soup and shook Koneko awake. When she looked up at Rias with large questioning eyes she raised a finger to her lips and wordlessly handed her the notepad, before retreating out the door. Tears welled up in Koneko's eyes as they moved down the paper.

Of course she remembered Issei's memory, but had not grasped its extent. She remembered that beach, a strong but gentle hand holding hers, how she had snuck out of bed early in the morning when daddy's friend had stayed over. How as a five year old girl, she had run out during the night under his guidance to play with the forest animals and returned early in the morning. Issei had been there, interwoven through her life from the day it started. A life she now asked him to share with her. Issei was over three hundred years old. She felt incredibly small as she realized how the child in his arms, a mere blink of the eyes later now wanted him to hold her at night.

In his eyes, underneath all that Koneko, she was still a little Shirone. It was something she would never change within him, as Shirone had meant so much to him.

Carefully she sat up and pulled the covers over her shoulders, draping her wings over them, much like a cape. Gently she edged towards the side of the bed and got to her wobbly feet. Very slowly she sat down on Issei's lap, wrapped the blanket around them and cocooned them in her wings like Issei had done for her.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest, much like a small child would. She could hear the thumping of his heart, felt it soothe her, like it had soothed the small child she had once been. "Koneko…" Issei said weakly.

She shook her head. "No. Right now you need Shirone and that is who I'll be for you. Who I'll be forever, just like I'll always be Koneko for you." Koneko felt Issei's hands wrap around her in a protective embrace. "Even after all these years, you still haven't truly felt, Issei." She softly whispered. She could feel his internal struggle. "I have forgotten how to. For so long I blocked it all out."

She removed one hand from behind his neck and took his hand in hers, then reversed the grip so her hand was in his. "This is where your heart once was." She said, emphasizing the connection of their hands. "Take it from there, bring it here. Bring it to me." Koneko felt his frame shudder under hers. "Do you remember your brother, Koneko? His name? Your father? Your mother?" He asked in a shaky voice.

"No." She whispered. "All I remember was my hand in yours." For the first time in two hundred years Issei mourned, freely and uncontrollably cried over the losses he was forced to endure. The losses he was not able to process because his life had moved ahead full speed. He held her like she was the only thing anchoring him to this existence. Soon Koneko's tears mingled with Issei's and the two merely held each other, consoling in one another's presence.