AN: Well here it is, chapter 2. I was quite conflicted about whether or not to make Issei a devil; on the one hand it is as Mad God 42 kindly pointed out overused but by the same arm of logic, people do realise this and have also done the 'Issei doesn't become a devil' song and dance quite often as well. Plus it limits the potential bonding development with the rest of the ORC. So I have decided to compromise, for this fic I will use one option, and my (hopefully) next DxD fic will feature the other option. Maybe.

Also, you will have noticed that the hero abilities are slightly different than the game. Well this is because I think that things were a bit constrained in the game; Phoenix fire for instance could be used as a general offence/defence ability without a skill. So to compensate I will be more following what the lore describes of the heroes instead of just the standard skills meaning more skills and buffs.

Another point is the ramifications of having the ancients in Issei. Yes Issei is basically playing Dota when he sleeps. However unlike the game he is an actual soldier in the field and instead of standard health mechanics and absence of gore, it is a legitimate bloody battle field that holds its own horrors and casualties of war. Stuff like Clinkz's burning arrows actually burning and causing pain for example. Issei is slightly(?) PTSD in this fic for a reason. In regards to his strength and powers, that will be explained in a later chapter.

Aside from all that however, I have added the harem tag to the summary in case there was any confusion at all. Whether or not to include some Dota characters is iffy right now.

Thank you everyone who is supporting this story, you are awesome.

Chapter 2 – Meeting the Holy Maiden

"..."

"..."

Issei stared at the fliers. The fliers stared back mockingly with non-existent eyes. "Fliers." he said slowly "you want me to hand out fliers." he looked up to the amused face of his temporary king almost pleadingly.

"Well there aren't that many humans that are capable of drawing this level of magic circle anymore." she explained holding up a flier and gesturing to the complicated red circle on it 'Your wish will be granted' was written below it. "Therefore we moved onto handing out fliers, and it is your job as a part of this club to hand some out before we allow you to attempt a contract." she finished.

"Contract?" Issei asked.

"Contracts are what we devils use to harvest mortal folks greed, in exchange for a service we gain power from their greed." she said "They are also the primary way to rank up in devil society, the second being to compete in rating games which is essentially a peerage versus peerage battle. Any questions?"

"What does becoming a devil entail physically?" he was curious, aside from knowing about the wings he was mostly ignorant to devil anatomy.

"To start with you have increased parameters to superhuman levels. Devils are beings of darkness so you would also gain enhanced strength and vision at night as well as the ability to speak any language. However," she said seriously, "you also become very weak to anything that is related to god, crosses, holy water and light to name a few. Getting hurt by a holy weapon alone would cause huge damage to you and excess exposure kill you. Anything else?" The last part was stated almost cheerfully like she wasn't just listing the many ways his life could be ended.

Cue the sweatdrop.

"Alright then I have just one final question." he said in a serious voice. The others leaned in to hear.

He took a deep breath.

"Can I really have my own harem?" the question was asked in complete seriousness with a matching expression to boot. It also had the effect of causing a spontaneous facefault throughout the room barring the ever unshakeable Akeno who simply tittered in amusement in the background.

"Perverted idiot." was the deadpan response from Koneko, sending him into depression.

Akeno took pity on him "Fufufu if you rise high enough in rank you can have your own peerage which by proxy could become a harem if you so desired."

That cheered him right up, with a loud whoop of joy he snatched the pile of fliers and was out the door before they could blink, scaring Kiba who was in the hall along the way.

"...With that level of obsession, I'm surprised that none of the other factions have taken advantage already." Rias deadpanned as Kiba walked in looking very confused.


'I should really invest in a motorbike.' gasped Issei as he pedalled frantically around from house to house delivering fliers as he went. What had started off as lust driven vigour had swiftly given in to panting exhaustion as he continued to pump his burning legs. Holder of the Ancients he may be, but at the end of the day, he was still a human with human limits.

That and the 250 houses he'd been to probably didn't help.

Originally, he had been planning to simply use the power of one of the other Dota, however the temporary need for secrecy and his out of shape control said otherwise.

By the time he was on his last round, the sun had already set casting long fingers of darkness across the street.

Suddenly, his phone began to ring.

Flipping it open, he tiredly put it to his ear.

"Hello?" he said.

"Issei?" came the velvety voice of Akeno "Buchou just received orders from the archduke. We have a stray devil to exterminate and she would like you to attend."

"Stray devil?" he said quizzically.

"A devil that turns on its master and goes rouge." she explained.

His brow crinkled, it would seem that his earlier analogy of a glorified slave system was not far from the mark.

"Does that happen often?" he questioned back.

"It..depends on the piece in question as well as the way the peerage is treated. Abusive masters tend to have a much greater chance of strays occurring in their peerages. But there have been cases where pieces have strayed of their own accord."

Issei blinked, "Okay thanks for that. Shall I meet you guys back at the club room then?"

"That will be fine. See you soon~ Issei-kun." the last part was said in a teasing sultry tone that briefly caused him to forget his earlier line of questioning, not even registering that he was listening to a dial tone.

Snapping out of his short fantasy, he quickly mounted his bike and sped off to the academy.


"An abandoned warehouse." Issei deadpanned as the club teleporting circle faded away and the worn structure loomed above. "The amount of originality that went into this one was staggering." he continued to deadpan.

Before Rias could reply to this however, an oily, greasy voice interrupted her.

"I smell something."

Footsteps began to echo from the warehouse.

"Is it sweet or is it sour?"

Definitely getting closer now.

"No matter they all end up being eaten either way."

Finally, what appeared to be the top half of a black haired female came into view.

"...I take back everything, she has immaculate taste." Issei said perversely as he shamelessly ogled her curves.

A naked female torso to be precise.

But then the rest of it's body came into view to reveal four trunk-like legs and an extra set of arms holding a pair of lances.

Crack

T'was the sound of a breaking dream as Issei gazed upon the stray in all of it's bulking glory. 'It's like Enchantress-Chan gone wrong." he thought.

Rias stepped forth.

"Stray devil Viser, by order of the archduke we are here to eliminate you." she declared one hand outstretched in an authoritative manner.

"Well then little girl allow me to prove you wrong." it growled and lunged on the last word lances poised to pierce and skewer.

"Yuuto." she called.

"Yes Buchou." he replied and leapt into battle with a burst of inhuman speed.

"Issei, now is a good time for me to explain to you about the traits of evil pieces."

"Traits?" he replied quizzically.

"Each Piece has it's own unique traits that get bestowed upon their owners. Kiba is a [Knight] as you can probably guess," she gestured to where the blonde knight was blurring in and out of view, "he gains a vast speed boost from his piece. When coupled with his sacred gear [Sword Birth]," he suddenly noticed the two wicked European broad-swords that just sliced off the stray's extra arms causing it to scream in agony and rampage blindly, "he becomes quite the force to be reckoned with." she finished proudly.

As he digested this, he noticed that the rampaging devil was getting awfully close to Koneko with its pillar-like legs and the short girl didn't seem to notice.

"Koneko is a [Rook]." Rias's timely continuation just managed to stop him from doing something drastic and compromising his abilities. "The [Rook] piece is primarily known for the great defensive ability bestowed upon the user..." as though to punctuate her point, one of the strays flailing stumps choose that moment to come down on the pint-sized devil crushing the ground around her. But to Issei's surprise, giant foot appeared to strain as it was slowly pushed up to reveal the rook pushing back the attempted stomp.

"...fly." she said in her trademark completely neutral, deadpan before she picked up threw poor Viser into the warehouse wall.

His following dual contemplation of a future policy to avoid angering the white haired rook and the amount of laws of physics that were broken just then (centre of gravity and leverage to name a few) caused him to almost miss his potentially future employer's description of the great strength also granted by the [Rook] piece.

"Finally is Akeno," Rias continued causing the tittering beauty to step forth.

"Ara, is it my turn to play now Buchou?" she said, giggling as she walked up to the groaning pile of flesh absent of its previous arrogance.

He watched, as she raised both hands to the sky an orb of yellow electrical energy gathered between them.

CRACK

A luminous bolt of thunder struck the stray, charring it's skin and boiling its body fluids but not killing it.

"Ufufufu, still alive?" she simply continued to giggle before calling down another equally large bolt of thunder eliciting another scream from the stray.

"Akeno is the [Queen] of the peerage. The [Queen] has the combined traits of all the other pieces except for the pawn and king." Rias finally spoke up as she watched. "She is also the ultimate sadist." she continued almost as an after thought.

"Aahhh." moaned the sadist queen in what Issei now realised was open sexual arousal as she extracted scream after scream from the object of her sadistic focus.

"But don't worry, Akeno is very kind to her comr-." she was about to reassure him when she noticed that instead of fear or disturbance, he looked positively bored as he watched Akeno mercilessly electrocute her foe.

Noticing her questioning look he simply told her, "Pfft- I've seen worse and she doesn't even begin to hold a candle to the sadist I know of." his mind briefly went to a certain succubus of torment whom he'd had the...questionable pleasure of meeting during his dreams. The sudden velvety and seductive chuckle that came from the back of his mind did not help at all.

Eventually she stopped, and Rias took this as her que to step into the spotlight.

"Any last words?" she asked.

"Kill me." the stray all but whimpered.

"Then disappear."

Crimson black energy gathered in her palm, with a flick of her hand it grew and devoured the devil leaving no trace.

"Well now," she said turning to Issei, "after seeing all that I think it's fair you show us your sacred gear in return no?." causing the rest of the club to look at him expectantly.

'Clever girl' thought Issei as he realised that the whole point of bring him along was for them to show their skills to him so he would be obliged to do the same. 'But,' he mused smiling evilly inside 'two can play at that.'.

"My sacred gear you say." he started slowly as though he didn't know what she meant.

"The fallen wouldn't have come after you otherwise and you didn't deny it when I asked last time." she rebutted..

"Well.." he started nervously, "It's not that I don't want to show you but it's a bit... embarrassing, especially to females."

She simply raised an elegant eyebrow in response.

"It's called Dress Break. And it strips the clothes off people." he could not wait to see their reaction to this. Puck must've been rubbing off on him a bit, he couldn't remember ever having a particularly strong urge to troll people.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Silence as they all digested the information presented.

"WHAT!?"

He was right, the looks on their faces were worth it. Except Akeno, she just seemed to giggle a bit as she stared in open amusement at Issei.


It had taken a while for them to calm down before they parted ways, Rias in particular seemed adamant to prove that such a sacred gear could not exist and that the fallen wouldn't couldn't possibly go as far as attempted murder to obtain it. It wasn't until he raised his hand at her and offered to demonstrate that she finally relented.

Akeno by contrast had teasingly said that if he wanted to he could practise on her allll he wanted.

Kiba simply smiled awkwardly and scratched his cheek.

Koneko by far had the most distasteful reaction, where before she looked at Issei like he was the scum of the earth now she saw him as something foul she scraped off the bottom of her shoe.

"Stupid shameless pervert." were her exact words.

Nevertheless, they had parted ways shortly afterwards each returning to their respective homes.


'I NEED A MOTORBIKE!' Issei screamed mentally as he was once more pedalling through the twilight lit streets to a contractor. After classes he had headed to the clubroom where to his surprise she had a contract for him.

Flashback

"Ah Issei just in time." Rias greeted him as he came in and sat down.

"Yes Buchou?" he asked as Akeno poured him some tea.

"A contract just came in for Koneko. But because she is away and seeing as it's a relatively simple one, I thought it would be a good first taste for you." she smiled gently. "As you know, there are two ways to rank up in devil society. The first and easiest way is to complete contracts to earn power, while the second is to compete in rating games."

"As for the ranks themselves, they are split into four groups. At the bottom are mainly newly reincarnated devils and commoners which make up Low-class, Mid-class is composed of Barons, Baronesses, Knights and Dames and High-class contains Marquis, Marchioness, Margrave, Count, Countess, Viscount, Viscountess, Baron, and Baroness."

"Buchou is a High-class devil as well because she is the heiress of the Gremory clan." Akeno chimed in helpfully causing Rias to nod in confirmation.

But for one brief second, so quick that he almost missed it, her eyes seemed to darken and he was surprised to feel hate come from her at the mention of her name.

"And then there are the Ultimate class." she continued returning to normal ,"Ultimate's are the cream of the crop and stand at the top of devil food chain. Once a devil reaches Ultimate-class they are granted a title out of Satan, Great King, King, Archduke, Archduchess, Duke, Duchess, Prince, and Princess." she finished proudly.

"So what rank would I be then Buchou?" Although he had already had a pretty good guess.

"You would start off like all the others as a low-class devil." she confirmed. Damn.

"Oh don't look so depressed," Rias noticed his sudden mood swing. "Yuuto is also a low-class devil too." she said trying to cheer him up.

Slump

Only for him to fall further into depression as he realised that even as a low-class devil, the resident pretty boy still had him beat.

'Curse you Kiba, Curse you and your bishounen ways.' he thought heatedly.

"Hey, um I'm sure you'd do fine though, before you know it you'll already be high-class like me and have your own peerage." she said frantically trying to break him out of his stoop.

Luckily it worked.

"Really Buchou?" he said hopefully looking up from his hunched position.

"Yes." she said relieved that it worked.

"What are we waiting for then?" he exclaimed excitedly.

Flashback end

So here he was now, in front of his first contract's apartment door.

Hand raised in anticipation, he rapped smartly on the door with his knuckles.

The door opened after the first rap and the face of a skinny middle aged man appeared. He had long black hair that ended just past his shoulders and bore a pair of matching black glasses.

He also had the energised yet haggard air about him that could only be achieved through copious amounts of sleep deprivation and many large consumptions of caffeine.

SLAM!

And that was all Issei was able to discern before the door smacked him painfully in the face.

"OW FUCK! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" he shouted as he clutched his face in pain.

"GO AWAY YOU STUPID PERVERT!" came an annoyed voice from the other side.

"I'M THE DEVIL YOU ASKED FOR YOU STUPID GIT!" shouted back an equally annoyed Issei.

"BULLSHIT, I WISHED FOR KONEKO-CHAN AND BEESIDES THEY ALWAYS COME OUT OF THE FLIER NOT FROM OUTSIDE!"

"KONEKO IS BUSY SO I'M FILLING IN AS A TEMP DAMMIT. And it's not my fault I can't use the stupid fancy magic circle..." here he started to weep slightly, it wasn't his fault the awesome fancy magic circle was a peerage only feature. Dammit all why couldn't those things be universal.

The voice must have heard his muttering and taken pity on him, as the door began to open once more.

"Fine, come on in then." he spoke with a voice laced with pity.

Issei soon found himself seated in his client's modest apartment room. Said room was stacked floor to ceiling with almost every major anime franchise in existence.

"I take back all my previous insults, you are a magnificent git." he said as he gazed around in awe. So many different things.

"Hoho, so you understand the beauty of the holiness that is Anime unlike the masses." he responded approvingly.

Issei grinned and introduced himself hand extended.

"Issei."

His client grinned and returned the gesture.

"Morisawa."

As soon as their hands clasped an illusionary wave of water rose from the sea, cresting under a rising sun and spreading tiny sparkles of water around them. This was what was know to the world above and below as the 'Otaku Contact Phenomenon' where when two or more otaku of the same calibre meet, a surge of energy is released to form a complex optical illusion that even the most accomplished of youkai have not been able to break.

Introductions over, they quickly got down to business.

"So what is your wish then?"

"Well," he stood and reached between two precariously stacked piles of manga and pulled out...

"I wanted Koneko to wear this." he held up the carefully folded school uniform.

"Is that Nagato Yuki's school uniform from Suzumiya Haruhi." It was a popular anime from the year before and was especially endearing to his lolicon friend Motohama as the main characters were mainly petite girls.

"Oho, are you also a Nagato fan then Issei-san?"

"No I'm more of an Asakura Ryouko fan."

"Reason?"

"Her oppai." he said staring dreamily as he imagined Buchou's bountiful fields of glory. Truly, there were dreams packed within them. He could feel it in his soul.

"A big breast lover eh? I see that you are the exact opposite of my tastes."

"Opposite? Then you are a.."

"Yes, I like small breasted girls." he too began to look into the distance dreamily no doubt in a world of petite girls.

"Ah," Issei started snapping Morisawa out of his daydream, "maybe I could wear it?" he proposed hesitantly.

"Hahaha don't be ridiculous. If you try I will stab you with a sword." he said eyes glinting scarily in contrast to his easy grin as he pointed to strangely familiar looking sword mounted on a plaque behind him. It looked like the silver blade from a computer game that came out a while ago called The Witcher...

'Scary.' was his only thought.

"Oi do you have any special talents at least?" Morisawa asked.

"Hmm." while he did specialise in a great many things, almost all of them were combat related and didn't really fit under the parlour tricks category.

Then his eyes fell upon a pile of Dragon ball manga.

"I can do a kamehameha." he said drawing once more into the shining well of Icarus's power in preparation.

"Die." was his sole audience's serious remark.

He gained a tick mark at that. "What? I answered your question and you tell me to die!? Isn't that a little extreme here?."

"Where Dragon ball is concerned, there is no extreme that I will not hesitate to reach." his glasses glinted dangerously.

"Kamehameha!"

Orange Sunfire coalesced into a laser between his outstretched palms and blasted forth, scorching the apartment walls.

'May have overdone it a bit.' he thought nervously.

He turned to face his client.

"Sorry about the wall..." he stared to say

"Issei, my friend" he interrupted clasping his hand on Issei's shoulder tearfully, "that was beautiful." tears of happiness dripped from his eyes. "Please enlighten me on the greatness of the Kamehameha."

Issei clasped his own shoulder.

"I would love to." he said with equal emotion.


'Well it's nice to see a prospective peerage member doing so well.' Rias thought from her high perch above Issei's house. She had covertly watched over Issei during his contract in case a fallen decided to strike but it would seem that they had been driven off for now.

She giggled to herself as the red glow of a magic circle from beneath her lit up.

"Time to go and get to know my cute little potential-pawn better." she said to herself as she was teleported to the pawn in question's bedroom.


Meanwhile, Issei had just gotten back from his first contract and was pleased to know (according to his client) that he was awesome despite being a newbie.

Pleased as he was though, it did nothing to alleviate the tiredness that pervaded his body from the lengthy discussion on the finer points of the Kamehameha. Not even bothering to change out of his clothes, he was about to flop into his bed when the centre of his floor started glowing.

Snapping to full alert, his eyes widened as he realised it was a teleport circle and that he only had a few seconds before who or what came through.

Use me. Issei.

Dark and oily. The creeping voice that whispered from the darkness, the bringer of nightmares whispered to him numbing his panic and clearing his mind.

Taking a deep breath, the title curled from his lips like dripping oil.

"Bane." he whispered and felt the elemental's vile black power flow through him like ice, chilling his body and mind.

He named him not by his true name but by the title granted to him. To name one of the Ancient's soldiers by their name was to invoke the core of their being into himself. It was to acknowledge their presence within himself and accept them into the core of his own being. While Issei was still the one pulling the levers, the concept of 'We' became 'I' and 'I' became 'We'.

Naming a Dota by their title however also achieved this, but not beyond the extent of allowing a wider use of their abilities than simply drawing in some of their power directly.

He raised his hand towards the circle and grunted in pain as the flesh around his arm tore itself open and began weeping the pitch blood that now flowed through his black veins stark against his skin.

Fingers splayed in preparation, he waited.

Suddenly the circle pulsed and before it's passenger could step out he already had a glowing purple hand loaded with unholy purple light thrusting forth.

Then, he glimpsed just who it was he was about to curse through the fading light and his eyes widened as he just managed to forcibly stop his hand from making contact from the terrified face of his current employer.

"Buchou?" he asked incredulously as he lowered his hand.


Whatever Rias had expected when she teleported into Issei's room, this wasn't it. Her hair stood on end and her strength left her as she gazed at the dripping hand that was inches from her face.

Fear poured from his hand like a caustic miasma, sapping her strength and resolve as it whispered into her heart.

"Buchou?" his sudden question managed to loosen the fear's hold on her for her to quickly take a step back.

"I-Issei what happened to you?" she gasped when she saw the black blood and veins that covered his arms.

Looking down at his arm he winced before closing his eyes and appearing to concentrate. Slowly the gaping holes in his arm closed and the black receded from his arteries leaving a normal but still bloodstained hand.

"It's...one of my abilities." he said at length gazing down at his arm before quickly firing back "What about you Buchou, why are you in my room." his voice gained a shade of curiosity even as he deliberately dodged the question.

"Why, Issei" she said regaining some of her teasing attitude. "I only wished to get to know a potential peerage member better through a bit of what I believe they call 'skinship' here."

"..."

He promptly went bright red as the implications of her statement coupled with the lateness of the hour finally clicked.

He must have looked adorable while he overheated as Rias suddenly glomped him with her sizable bust with low squeal of "Kawaii".

Fortunately for her, the Bane blood had long since disintegrated from his formerly wet hand so she was not immediately flung into the throes of a black nightmare. Unfortunately for Issei, he was either too tired or too embarrassed to enjoy what was probably one of his life's greatest ambitions and blissfully passed out much to Rias's amusement.

"Ooh Issei, sometimes I think you could give Koneko a run for her money." she giggled as she removed their clothes.


'Wha-what happened last night?' Issei wondered blearily as consciousness slowly returned to him as he pressed a hand against his head.

The other hand would have joined in as well if it weren't trapped by something else in his bed.

Turning around, Issei was treated to a sight that would be forever burned into his mind.

Rias Gremory, naked as the day she was born was wrapped intimately around his arm. An arm that she was hugging between her boobs and disappeared beyond the sheets that covered up to her waist line.

Involuntarily, he twitched his fingers.

"Nyah!" she moaned as his fingers scrapped against her inner thigh. "Mmm good morning Issei" she said succulently.

Shoomp!

She had barely just finished her sentence when the object of her interest all but teleported to the other side of the room.

"Wha-what happened last night?" he managed to stutter out. 'Dammit.' he thought mentally 'please tell me nothing happened, it's bad enough that I nearly curse her but to also forget my first time...'

She stretched, seemingly unconcerned of her lack of dress. The action did wonderful things to her bust though, something that Issei noticed.

"Um.. Buchou, not to be rude but could you please put some clothes on?" he requested meekly, for all his obsession he had no idea how to deal with the real thing as evidenced by last night.

She opened her mouth. No doubt to affirm her choice of nudism but was interrupted by loud footsteps thumping up the stairwell.

"ISSEI! WAKE UP OR YOU'LL BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!." a voice that he recognised as his mothers hollered.

He went white.

"...Oh Shit."

She could hear the capitals.


"Was that really necessary?" Issei asked the resident redhead walking beside him, now garbed in the Kuoh uniform. The human hurricane that was his mother had gone into shocked delirium when she lay eyes upon the naked foreigner devil on his bed. One pulse of crimson power later and a few pointed suggestions had the two dismissing it as nothing out of the ordinary much to his begrudging relief.

She raised an eyebrow, "Would you prefer the alternative?"

He sighed in resignation.

"No but please try to refrain from doing that in future." Mind manipulation always rubbed him the wrong way, the potential for abuse was just too great in his opinion.

"I'll try." she placated as they neared the academy gates.

Instantly every eye was riveted to the (in their eyes) blasphemous duo as they walked through the gates.

"The lecherous beast is walking with Onee-sama!?"

"How could this be!?"

"It's a sign of the apocalypse!"

Evidently the effects of his laughing fit the day before had worn off for his classmates had no qualms about making their displeasure known.

He sighed heavily, he really should have seen this coming.

"Well I'll be seeing you later then, Issei-kun." Rias said as they parted ways.

As soon as she turned the corner however...

"Issei you fucking bastard!"

He ate dirt as something hit him on the back of his head. Looking up he was met with the twin snarling visages of his fellow perverts.

"What is the meaning of this!? Walking in with one of the great Onee-samas. I thought we were friends in disgrace."

He blinked once.

He blinked twice.

He grinned.

"I saw real tits."

Critical Strike!

And the two perverts were brought to their knees, as the supreme pervert stood above their defeated forms.


Meanwhile

"What do you know about black blood?"

Sona raised an eyebrow at her fellow devil as she moved her bishop to take a knight. When Rias had come to the student council room and asked her for a game of chess she knew there was more to it than a sudden whim.

"Well off the top of my head there are a lot of creatures that have black blood and maybe certain courts of vampires." she replied studying the board.

"Do any of them have anything to do with fear or have the ability to use fear?" she asked, shuddering slightly as she recalled the terror that seemed to ooze from her mysterious club member's hand that night.

The Sitri heiress's eyes narrowed slightly at that addition.

"Well I do remember a certain obscure goddess being mentioned in a book I read a while ago. Nyctasha I think it was." she said slowly, subtly prompting her opponent to explain why she was interested.

She hesitated as she reached for a pawn.

"It has something to do with the Issei."

"The pervert?" Her eyebrows rose up visibly at that admission, the game all but forgotten between them.

She listened carefully as Rias recounted her terrifying experience.

"...it was horrible like Onii-sama getting serious." She finished with a visible shiver.

"I will look into it." Sona finally said after she digested her almost unbelievable story. Were it not Rias she would have written it off as a mere fib.

After all, the self-proclaimed harem king somehow having dark eldritch powers? Must be some sort of misunderstanding.

Right?


The multi-verse is a vast space, filled equally with both horrifying abominations and beauty beyond words.

"Please make Mil-tan a magical girl -nyou."

There were some things however that didn't fit into either category.

"...Oh god why?"

The abject cry of dismay and horror echoed down the oddly empty street. He had been off to such a good start as well, Rias had given him his second client after reading a glowing review from Morisawa. Raised eyebrows all round given that he didn't actually complete the contract, which was excusable in his opinion given that if he tried he'd probably get bisected or worse.

So he had happily skipped down the road, mind filled with pictures of beautiful Gothic girls posing for him.

The thing standing before Issei promptly made him want to kneel and renounce the existence of god. It was a man but not just any man, muscles bulged like corded steel pylons along his vast arms and torso making him even larger than he seemed.

And worst of all he was in cosplay.

If it was as a character that actually matched his build then it might've actually impressed Issei instead of making him attempt to tear out his eyes. No, what he wore was the epitome of diabolism.

It was... a many sizes too small magical girl outfit which highlighted all the wrong places.

Especially the skirt, oh dear god the skirt.

"..."

He snapped.

Issei Hyoudou, holder of the Ancients was officially mind-blown. Literally.

Mil-tan in the meantime had gotten tired of waiting, the white sparkles that were his eyes growing even larger.

"MAKE MIL-TAN A MAGICAL GIRL!" and yanked his planked body into the doorway and the dark beyond.

Had he had his mental faculties in order he would have wept.


"Issei..." Rias said slowly from behind her desk, a peculiar expression on her face which did nothing to soothe his nerves.

Directly after classes had ended and he walked into the clubroom she had motioned for him to take a seat. Picking up two pieces of paper, she had alternated between looking between them and him causing his concern to grow with each cycle.

So it was with good reason that he all but jumped out of his skin when she finally called his name.

"I just got the feedback for your failed contracts which should normally be pretty bad,"

She looked at him with a strange expression.

"but the feedback you got is spectacular, especially the latest one."

Ah. Mil-tan.

Unintentionally, his mind began to drift back to his second contractor.

Flashback

Despite being mind-blown, he was perfectly capable of perceiving his surroundings. So he was vaguely surprised when he was placed in front of a large flat screen t.v.

"Lets watch Magical Girl Milky Spiral 7 Alternative, that is where the true quest for magic begins." Mil-tan had said as he sat down beside him.

6 Hours later

For a while he had been apprehensive, but as the show went on he slowly got more and more hooked.

Although it didn't help that Mil-tan started to mimic the main heroine's poses.

End Flashback

"Yeah, hahaha." he laughed awkwardly as he rubbed his neck.

"Well keep up the good work I guess but do try to get the contract next time." she place the papers down. "Onto a more important topic, have you given anymore thought about joining my peerage?" she reached into the desk and pulled out a red pawn hopefully.

He sighed.

Once more the offer was presented.

Once more his response was the same.

"Thanks Buchou, but I'm not ready to give my humanity yet."

He looked around the empty room. "Well since everyone else has left I better be off then."

As he left though she couldn't help but notice

That once more, the sentence was accompanied by an oddly melancholic and maybe even sad smile.

In the future, not the near future but the future nonetheless she would find herself doing everything to preserve that smile.


"Haaaaaa"

Issei exhaled as he sat on a park bench. His employer was getting desperate if her increased attempts were anything to go by.

On a more positive note however, his power was slowly beginning to resynchronise with his body. The twin streams of wispy and jagged energy once more flowing through his veins. There were still other things that would take time to fix however and some things that he wasn't sure he could.

Leaning back he closed his eyes and contented himself with simply basking in the gentle sun.

'I wonder if this is what it's like to dream.' he thought. 'Not that I would know.'

"Hawaau!"

The cry snapped him out of his musings and he had just stood up and opened his eyes only to be suddenly assaulted by a white hat. Stumbling to his knees, he wrenched the hat which he found to actually be a head dress from his face...

...and bore witness to one of the most spectacular face plants he had seen to date.

"Hauu why does this keep happening to me?" a muffled voice came from the tangled clump of ...robes? Huh come to think of it she just spoke in Italian and it was only thanks to the ancients that he, like the devils, could speak every language though his went a bit further. That aside taking in the state of dress and language she must be a sister then. Taking pity he decided to help her up and extended his hand.

"A-are you alright down there?" he asked tentatively as she gratefully took his hand and pulled herself up.

"Thank you so much. Oh Lord why do I keep tripping over?"

Hmm? The voice was very young no more than his age at least. That was odd he didn't think that the church recruited so young but then again what did he know?

Finally he caught his first glimpse of the nun's face and felt his eyes widen.

'Beautiful.' Was the automatic thought that went through his mind as he took in her long blonde hair and green eyes.

'I think I'm in love.' he thought dreamily as he drunk in her cute visage.

Was this his lucky break? He was the self-proclaimed harem king. Finding a nun this stunning was something that he would never have expected to happen.

"Umm is something wrong?"

'No, there is absolutely nothing wrong right now.' he thought happily. Only for the question to actually register a second later and he realised he was staring.

"O-oh nothing, nothing at all." he said quickly and held up the veil to her "This is yours?"

"Thank you." she took the veil and placed it back on her head. Dammit that's cute.

"So~" Issei trailed as he struggled to find something to talk about and finally settled on the suitcase beside her. "You travelling somewhere then?"

"Ah actually I was transferred here recently and was looking for the local church but no-one speaks Italian. You must be a local though, do you know where it is?" she looked up hopefully.

Odd, the only church he knew of was currently abandoned and hadn't been used for years on end. Then again the church was weird like that sometimes, he would know having brushed against the holy order a few times due to... certain circumstances.

"Yes I think I can do that." he replied smiling slightly.

"R-really? May the Lord bless you for your kindness." she said hands clasped in front of her rosary and tears of gratitude in her eyes.

And so the unlikely duo set off.

Only to stop after a whole 10 seconds when the nun saw a child clutching his knee on the ground.

"Are you alright Yosh-kun?" the child's mother asked in concern as she hovered over her child.

Almost immediately the blonde nun rushed over and fired a stream of soothing Italian words that made no sense to the child but nonetheless calmed him. Raising her hand to his knee an orb of bright green light formed over the wound and started to erase the graze like a cloth wiping a stain.

Wide eyed the child stood up and smiled at her in childlike wonder.

"Thank you Onee-san" he managed to said before his mother dragged him away as she waved at him.

"Sorry about that, force of habit." she said sheepishly as she returned to her temporary guide.

"That power...A sacred gear I'm guessing?" granted there were a few healing magics around but the church was not one to allow a practitioner of the pagan arts into their ranks.

She smiled brightly "Yes it's a wonderful power that god gifted me with." her tone was bright but there was an undercurrent of bitterness there to. Probably a sensitive topic.

Sensing the proverbial landmine that he was treading around, Issei decided to let sleeping lions lie and continue in silence.

Soon the looming black spire of the church came into view and while it caused the sister to let out a exclamation of joy it only bought a small sense of melancholy to him.

Suddenly he saw a feather lying on the ground next to the doorway, a black feather that made him weary of why the innocent was truly sent to the abandoned church.

"Well I better be off then." he started to turn only to have his hand grabbed.

"Oh would you allow me to make you a cup of tea?" she asked "As thanks for leading me here."

"Sorry but I really need to be going." her face fell and he almost caved. Putting a smile on his face he quickly added "But that doesn't mean I won't see you again, the name's Issei. Issei Hyoudou, call me Ise if you want."

He held out his hand "Till we meet next time."

She smiled back "Asia Argento, please call me Asia." she took the hand and shook it.

Even as he walked away he could feel her eye follow him until he reached a bend. The innocence and purity that he sensed from her was almost extinct in the current world. Something like that was worth protecting in his eyes.

Unknown to Asia, the place where she touched his hand briefly flashed white as a odd symbol of two dots divided by a line appeared.


I know it's a bit shorter than the last one. Hopefully I will be able to put more time into writing as time goes on.

As always, read and review.