Rias was very uncomfortable with the situation that she finds herself in, not only has it been mere hours since her knight Yuuto died but her betrothed was 'paying her a visit'. She did not know why he would be here hours after announcing their engagement, though it pained her not to show any emotion. The room had a tense atmosphere about it with both sides showing a clear lack of a full roster in terms of peerages with Rias only with Momo, and Koneko at the moment and Riser's side only sporting a pair of twins around middle school age in appearance, his sister Ravel, and a half masked woman in a leather jacket and single-legged jeans who unlike the others showed a bit of fear on what wasn't covered by her mask. "What do I owe this pleasure Riser?" Rias was the first to get to the topic at hand.

Riser, putting on a fake smile, he clearly had something that was bothering him. "Do I need a reason to visit my bride-to-be? But in all seriousness, I have been meaning to visit this beautiful country, though what I have seen so far pales to your company Rias." The compliment aside, he was telling the truth about the experiences he has had so far in this Godforsaken country. His peerage's run-ins with Sona's did not go to plan.

(...)

Issei was on his way to the maid café in his full butler attire, he was not meant to work there at first but the women that frequent the establishment took a liking to him and with some encouragement from Aika before he knew it he was hired by the manager. Sighing he took out his phone sending Mittelt a text to see if she was already there, getting a quick confirmation, he put his phone away looking up to a woman in a half-face mask. 'I don't have the time for this.'

"Hello Red, want to lend an ear for a sec." The woman began. "I am not anyone strange I just want to talk one Devil servant to another."

Issei looked her over, she was just as he remembered the masked rook of one Riser Phenex. "What is this about?" he asked her, clear annoyance on his face

"Well, if you don't mind coming with me for a bit I want to discuss your involvement with the Gremory heir, you are on the roster for her little club after all." She said trying to move past the indifference he was showing her.

Issei put two and two together, and at that moment a black flame started burning on the lower half of his left arm. The fact that she wasn't alone put him on alert but now that she revealed her hand put him on edge. "Sorry, I am late for my shift. If you could please try someone else... Isabella."

Isabella cocked her head and whistled. "You did your homework Red, if you know me then you know what this is right?"

Chuckling Issei retorted. "No hard feelings, too bad I don't have the right parts that our favorite piece of grilled chicken loves in his pieces because I think we would have been great friends."

She was about to come up with something clever to come back with but her words were caught in the back of her throat as the Boosted Gear activated the black flame consumed by it. She had seen the images of the previous dragon emperor and this had nothing on them. The skeletal gauntlet shone in the afternoon sun, emitting an ungodly amount of magical energy all at once. However, that did not catch her eye more than the six black angel wings that accompanied his set of devil wings. She knew of the abilities that she faced in Boosted Gear from the document cases from previous users, but this... this was a case that was out of her realm of understanding. In both the Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing's histories the user had some form of humanity attached to them, even the supernatural had at least some form of human parentage, but this boy had the wings of a Seraphim the strongest of the angels. 'Who is he?' was the thought as Issei charged.

'It's a shame isn't it, taking an eye from the blind will not satisfy us, isn't that right.'

Issei nearly took her head off with an uppercut which she dodged. The quick step back to orient herself was all for not as she realized that a sidekick aimed at her gut was on its way. Not a hundred percent in keeping her balance she pivoted sideways, tripping while trying to keep upright but failed, instead she used her devil wings to stop her momentum twisting her body around to deliver a spinning roundhouse.

Issei had recovered well before the motion of the kick reached its apex, with ample time Issei turned to see the leg coming at his head. To Isabella's surprise, he had jumped as if he would avoid contact altogether but as her leg reached its intended course Issei landed on his tippy toes on the side of her shin. "Bastardo." She muttered that Issei was playing with her in some way.

"Well, that's not very nice." Issei said while standing on her leg. He crouched over and removed the woman's mask while he was gaining his balance. The full image of a pale beautiful foreigner graced his vision, her looking back with an angry expression. "Huh." Issei spouted out in confusion. Her skin held no blemish or scar to speak of, a far cry from the person he would eventually know.

"What is it?" Isabella spat at him angrily.

The boy simply shrugged, hanging on to the mask, getting off of her leg. "Nothing just was taken aback by how pretty you ar-" Before he could finish she slapped him which Issei barely reacted.

"Fottuto moccioso, chi ti credi di essere?"

"Something tells me that I don't want to know what that meant." An amused grin crossed Issei's face.

The boy threw her mask aside as their fight began in earnest. Isabella quickly realized that Issei had the Boosted Gear active but was not getting any stronger. She had read what the main abilities of the Sacred gear were but aside from user preference the fact he was not increasing in power every ten seconds gave her pause. after an Issei missed right Isabella tried to counter with a right of her own only to have the boy grab her by the wrist after parrying her, with his right-hand in midmotion for a back elbow, it connecting with her nose, dropping her to a knee. "Fuck!" She shouted out while Issei maintained a hold on her wrist.

He roughly pulled her up to her feet, rearing back and planting a left on her jar. Her vision blurred her head flying back from the force of the punch, but after letting off a hiss of pain she brought her head forward onto the bridge of Issei's nose. Issei instantly let go checking if he had a broken nose. "Time, time, time." He checked if his nose was broken after the plea for a break in the action. This shouldn't have hurt at all or at least as much as it did, he had a realization of how strong he was with his second sacred gear that now that he didn't have it he was feeling his weakness. 'Shit, it looks like I can't prolong this.' He made a mental note well beginning to feed the Boosted Gear more power.

"What's wrong?... Did I catch you off guard, Red?" Isabella asked with a slight smile, putting a hand on her hip in a motion to taunt the boy.

Issei's green eyes gave off a dimmed glow as he took a deep breath, the gauntlet on his left arm had its gems discharge a glowing gold liquid. "No, not really. " He replied as he brought the Boosted Gear to his face a fist outward, all the while ice began to creep all around them. Issei's eyes turned a pale blue in the meantime.

'Phoenix Tears.'

Before she could react a blast of black flame exploded out from the gems. The entire area around them was reduced to nothing but a crater, but Issei floating above the hole in the earth and clicked his tongue, despite vaporizing several homes he had missed the attack's intended target who was inches from the crater after having dodged it.

Isabella was staring at the hole in shock before reality reverted to what it was before Issei primed his explosion. He landed in front of her not bothering with what just happened. Now she finally understood the terrifying power the boy held, and it was beyond her. In desperation, she took offense with Issei easily parrying and dodging her strikes. Her mood became worse when a thrust kick barely made contact when a little blonde girl appearing out of nowhere using Issei's chest as a perch mid-dodge to perform a drop kick on Isabella, it wasn't powerful enough to hurt her but it did its job in knocking her opponent off balance. Not knowing what was happening Isabella was covered in a cocoon of a spider's web.

Seeing that Issei's enemy was captured for the moment she turned her attention to the boy, coal black eyes meeting dark green. The girl smiled as recognition displayed itself in Issei's eyes. "Hello cousin, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." Not wasting a moment she closed the distance between the pair pulling Issei into a hug. "I have heard so much about you, my name is Le Fay, but please call me Fay."

Issei didn't return the embrace, at a loss. He expected their first meeting to be a friendly one but this was a bit much, he waited for her to be content with the skin ship before addressing her. "It is nice to meet you too, but I don't remember anything about you sorry." Issei rubbed the back of his head nervously

'Of course, you don't, Lucy, our idiot of a cousin erased all of the memories you had with her.' She thought to herself not offering that reply verbally. "That's quite fine, it is our first meeting after all. So it can't be helped. Now then who do we have here?" She asked turning to the cocooned Isabella.

"That there is a Devil servant of one of the great houses, the leaders of our households are getting married."

Le Fay raised an eyebrow at this, looking at Issei like he was missing part of the explanation. "And why were you two fighting?"

Issei now only realizing what she meant looked the spider's silk over and let out a small sigh. "In all honesty, I don't know... Fay."

Le Fay lit up at the use of the shortened name but her face returned to neutral sighing in relief seeing that he was willing to play along with her. "You want me to find out?" She said nonchalantly, pointing at the web cocoon with her thumb.

"Can you?"

"Please, Ise. If you hadn't noticed I am only three years your junior, and I have been through more with the supernatural than you have been in the last month." She closed the distance between them poking at his chest. "Don't underestimate me... I am papa's heir after all."

"Papa?" Issei repeated grinning smugly, chuckling to himself.

Le Fay blushed at that and turned away, finding the ground more interesting than the boy's face. "There is nothing wrong with what I call my father by."

"I never said there was." he shrugged, not that it was noticed. "Oh, if it's possible, go easy on her, she's a friend."

"What about the others?" She said as two more cocoons materialized in front of them.

"Free game, you deal with them how you want." He then took out his phone as it buzzed. His eyes widened when he read the message that popped up on his people and all he could see was red.

'You are still new to this world, so it is only fair that it is cruel to you. But this, this is not something that I would stop us. Tear them limb from limb, display their bodies as trophies, and teach this world not to touch what's yours unless it is to be burned to ash.'

(...)

UNKNOWN: Little lizard, little lizard.

A pretty maid with beautiful black wings,

or a hungry wolf looking for a mate.

UNKNOWN: Tell me little lizard.

Who would win...

Who do you want to win?

UNKNOWN: I like my dolls like I like pets.

So hurry along little lizard, come and play.

You never know when my new toy is going to...

UNKNOWN: Shatter...

UNKNOWN: But something tells me you prefer her that way.

Your own little pet that can't live without you.

Our beautiful little doll.

(...)

With that Issei also received an address from a phone finder in the message thread with Mittelt's contact, this was something he wasn't prepared for. He looked at Le Fay with worried eyes, getting her to mirror him in return. "Is there something wrong?" She asked him.

Issei looked at her before speaking slowly. "I am guessing you only met with one Fallen on your way here."

"Yes, is there something I should know?" She asked as her concern grew.

Issei began to walk away saying one last thing. "It's nothing... It looks like I am late." He answered, peering over his shoulder.

Before Le Fay could enquire more, Issei had shot up into the sky and flew top speed towards the farmers market that she and her father had discovered earlier in the week. 'It appears I would not want to be an enemy of any of your kin, little one, that was a terrifying amount of bloodlust.' A frown crossed her face as an Arachne appeared behind her with pale white skin, silver hair, and six red eyes blessing her human half. The spider woman, her lower half in the shape of a spider's thorax and abdomen supported by eight slender legs, lowered itself to aid the Arachne to embrace the girl nearly a third of her size from behind. 'Not bad, so little master, what from me do you want next?'

Getting the sense that something was wrong she turned her attention to the three captives in her custody. 'How long does your venom take to kill a devil again? I should have some antidotes left. He only said not to kill the older one so we should start with her first.'

Her question was met with audible cackling. 'Your father was right about you and your kin, I would personally like it if you hang around the boy... And girl more.'

(...)

Makoto was sitting in the break room of Issei's workplace waiting for him in his PE uniform as he left her to change into it despite her insistence that he stay. He had gone to explain the situation to his co-worker and get her something to eat after embarrassingly her stomach growled. From what he told her this person Sumire was a Dragonoid with incredible magical abilities, so powerful she was able to bypass the magic that Issei used to hind Makoto.

She did not know what to do with herself in the empty room on her own. Makoto feeling the effects of Mei's powers wasn't as alert as she hoped, it was part of the reason she came after Issei. She needed his help, and out of the two of them, he was the most likely to know the Devil that had taken her friend, the person that had kidnapped her best friend. "Why am I so tired?" She spoke, laying her head on the cool table with heavy eyes. Her mind wandered and she thought of the first time she had met Mei which was the last time she had felt this worn out. 'Why did she have to come back now.' The thought repeated itself as her eyes closed and she fell asleep.

(...)

"Hey yo, earth to Sugiyama. Wake up!" Makoto's eyes fluttered open to find Mei staring at her with dyed blonde and brilliant pink orbs staring right at her. "Finally! I was getting worried for a second. Tell me, Sugiyama, do you want to be friends?"

Her bewilderment was lost on the girl in a white short sleeve button-up under a pair of sky blue suspenders stitched to a matching mini skirt. The outfit she recognized as the school uniform of their previous school. "What?" Was her response.

"You heard me, Sugiyama, I want to be friends with you, you know." She scratched her head blushing.

"But why?" Makoto was confused as to what was going on. Not only was this girl interrupting her break, but she also had the nerve to make fun of her while not even being in the same class as her, how dare she.

"I think you and I will get along just fine. I am kind of strapped for friends and I want us to you know get along and junk." Mei Leaned in using Makoto's desk as support as she whispered in her potential friend's ear. "The two of us aren't so different, I don't know why you are pretending to be weak but I know one thing and that is we should stick together." Mei broke away from Makoto producing a lollipop from her skirt popping in her mouth, all the while showing off some very prominent fangs, as a sweet smell entered Makoto's nose.

Makoto looked into Mei's pink eyes in fear. This girl in front of her had found her out, though she wasn't doing much to hide it. This is the first time she had been called out for her supernatural nature. 'What should I do?' She looked around the classroom. Fear was in her gold eyes as they landed on a group of girls at the back of the class chatting away. 'What if I... I said no and she broadcasted it to the entire school.' As if reading her mind a member of the group of girls looked over to her with anger on her face.

Stomping over she moved Makoto's desk out of the way and picked her up from her collar. "What the fuck are you looking at, do you have a death wish or something, freak?"

A shake in her head as a no later it dropped in fear as Mei stared at the girl, who ha a hold on Makoto's shirt with what many would call a death glare. Before Makoto could answer the question she was released as the girl's arm was captured by Mei as she forcefully stepped between the two, breaking a few buttons. "Do we have a problem here?" Mei sounded almost done with the situation when the question left her mouth.

"Who are you, bitch?"

That was the straw that broke the camel's back, Mei's grip tightened and the other girl let out a gasp of pain. Turning her head around to Makoto, she took the girl's arm and drew her closer staring into her eyes with a sense of longing. "Someone who doesn't like seeing her friends hurt." Now even closer she let go of the other and wrapped her arms around Makoto's waist, with a sadistic smile she kissed Makoto on the cheek before finding her lips.

Makoto red faced did not know what to do so she gave in with her brain not functioning properly. They stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity for all involved, though it was a couple seconds. When Mei Deepened the kiss however Makoto was brought back to reality with a sudden bout of weakness as she felt that knees were about to buckle, and with that Mei parted lips with Makoto's. She helped Makoto back to her seat, moving her desk where it was. "Can you do me a solid?" Mei asked her kissing partner, getting a nod in return. "Close your eyes and hold your breath until I tell you." Another nod came and went Makoto closing her eyes. She felt an intrusion in her mouth as a small and circular object entered her mouth, a sweet taste overloading her senses. "Hang on to that for me." She could hear footsteps leave her. "Now than what would you like me to do with you?" Although she thought of an answer, the question was not directed at her.

It was for some time that Makoto did not know what happened to that girl until much later. By then it was too late to reverse what Mei did, not that she felt sorry for the girl.