Kiba burst through the doorway as Rias and Akeno finally found their inner peace, both girls panting as they glared at one another. They weren't in the best condition; there were tears in their clothing, they had scratches in their skin and their hair was dishevelled. "Am I interrupting something?" Kiba asked with a small smile, ignoring the blob of white hair and the suspicious human that were lounging on one of the two sofas as if nothing had happened.
"Ah…Kiba…we were…waiting for…you…" Rias managed to say between her rapid and heavy breathing. Rias straightened her back, used her hands to pat her clothes and hair back into place and wandered over to the empty sofa, promptly falling onto her backside with a sigh.
"So, should we resume what we were doing, Gremory?" Issei interjected, placing his cup of tea that, despite the fact that Issei continued to consume the tea inside of it, kept on refilling itself on a saucer that sat on the coffee table in front of him.
"We should, Issei. Now, as I was going to say, I have asked you to come here because of what you did last night. Namely, the fight that you had with Fallen Angel Raynare." Issei, with a leg crossed over one another, sighed and folded his arms across his chest. Despite his efforts to derail the conversation with a little bit of bullying and fun, it would have happened sooner or later. Issei knew it was naïve to think that he could have avoided the entire situation, but it didn't stop him from trying.
"The fight? Oh, you mean the part where I tore her wings off and carried her back home because I went insane and then felt guilty because of what I had done? That fight?" No one said anything. Rias didn't move a muscle, Akeno sighed, Kiba frowned and Koneko continued to nibble on her chocolate.
Rias made the first effort to say anything; something that would dispel the silence and the awkward atmosphere, "Y-yes, that one."
"Well, there's nothing to say about it, other than my desire to look after Raynare as she adjusts to her new life as a pseudo-human. Now, was this all you needed me for?" Issei prepared to jump to his feet but was stopped by an outstretched hand that Rias had suddenly offered.
"That's not all. I wanted to offer you a choice, a choice that may change your life. Whether you accept it is up to you-!" Issei jumped to his feet this time and shoved his hands into his pockets, staring down at Rias' hand.
"No thanks. Becoming a Devil is too tacky for me. Maybe next time, though, which will be never." Issei approached the nearby door, stopped as he held a hand on the handle and craned his neck. "Also, when am I going to meet your brother? I'm sure he's going to be interested in me, especially after this conversation."
"You know about my brother?" Issei groaned and face-palmed.
"Right, next time I should keep quiet. Otherwise, I'll say something I regret." Rias rose an eyebrow and withheld her questions, intending on releasing the otherwise ordinary human boy. Issei turned the handle on the door, slowly opened it and stepped out of the room, glancing out of a nearby window.
The sky was a clear azure.
His hand tightly gripped the handle as he slowly pushed it down. He prepared himself, intending on bursting through the door while acting as normal as he could, but he stepped back with a sigh, running a hand through his hair.
Issei didn't think it would be difficult to check on Raynare.
On one hand, he thought she had ran away, had hoped that she had ran, because he didn't want to deal with the results of his foolish actions, even if he had, hours prior to this moment in time, told himself that he wanted to take responsibility. On the other, he still wanted to look after her, even if she denied his offer.
Issei raised a hand and rapped his knuckles against the door three times, eagerly waiting for a response. He shifted the position of his bag that hung under his right shoulder, dropped his hand back to his side and silently sighed. "Is she even here?" Issei whispered with bated breath.
He didn't know if Raynare was still in the house. Travelling through his house and up to his room was uneventful because the living room was empty, as well as the kitchen and the yard. They were the only places the Fallen Angel could have been on the bottom floor and the lack of presence worried Issei. For all he knew, Raynare could have run away while he was at school. Not that it would matter, though. If Raynare really did run away, he would continue his life as if she had never existed in the first place.
He was bluffing when he said that he'd know if she left the house, though, and that was the only precaution Issei took to keep her in his home. Raynare didn't need to stay at his place. If she wanted to, she could have run to the abandoned church where her friends were located and seek guidance from them, but in Raynare's mind, her friends would shun her – maybe kill her – for having no wings.
There was nowhere for the Fallen Angel to go, no one the Fallen Angel could go to and no one that would help her. And Issei knew this. He had figured it out during his classes. It had taken him a few hours, but he had figured it out with the knowledge he possessed from the many timelines he had watched.
Because, no matter what was different about Issei or Rias Gremory, the Fallen Angel Raynare and her friends would always stay the same in every single timeline.
Issei gripped the door handle again, "I'm coming in, Raynare." Issei swung the door open and observed his room. It mostly remained untouched. Nothing about it was different, except for the multitude of blankets that were curled up on his bed. The curtains hadn't even moved a millimetre from their last known position, the desk was still clean and tidy, the note that Issei had written was still sitting on Raynare's pile of clothes and the wardrobe door was shut tight.
Nothing had changed.
Issei dropped his bag on the floor and sat on the edge of his bed, occasionally glancing at the bundle of fabric. "Hey…" He said, gripping the frame of his bed as tightly as he could, his knuckles turning white. "Are you awake?" There was no response from the bundle of blankets. Issei shakily sighed and unconsciously ran a hand through his thin locks of brown hair.
"I regret what I did, you know." He muttered, his head hanging low. There still wasn't a response. "I wasn't in the right state of mind; I had seen many things similar to what you were trying to do and I…snapped, I guess." Issei didn't know why he had said that.
Knowing about several timelines, feeling the pain of death, watching as he suffered…Issei had finally understood why he had gone insane.
Knowing that he could save himself – save the body of the Issei that he was occupying – forced his darkest emotions to surface after centuries of suppression. He had never gone insane, never maimed a being beyond repair and had never found himself feeling…guilty for what he had done.
"If you regret what you have done, then would have killed me already. Why won't you end my suffering?" Raynare's voice was barely audible through the dense wall of fabrics that she was hiding under, her naked body curled into the foetal position.
"Because I…" Raynare poked her head out and glared at the omnipotent human, her teeth bared as she scowled. Issei struggled to find the right words. Was his guilt the only thing was preventing him from murdering the Fallen Angel in cold blood? Or was it his humanity that was preventing him from doing so? "I'm sorry, Raynare. I truly am."
"Sorry!? The only thing you can do is apologise?" Raynare crawled out from under the mound of blankets and stopped short of Issei's side. "Why won't you just kill me?" Issei shuddered as Raynare's whispers echoed through his mind. Should he kill her? It would be the right thing to do, he thought. She didn't want to live anymore, so it's ok if I spill her blood.
Unwanted memories surfaced in Issei's mind.
His original timeline, his own life. Memories from what had occurred in the original universe had suddenly found themselves in the brain of an omnipotent and almost omniscient being. Issei struggled to dispel them. He struggled to get rid of them. He didn't want them. They reminded him of his monstrous actions that he had tried to forget.
The imaginary sound of dripping blood forced Issei's eyes to widen.
No, he thought, I can't kill Raynare. I can't repeat history. I was meant to change the future, right? If I kill her, history will follow the same path that it had once followed. I can't allow it. I can't let fate manipulate me again.
This time, I'll be the one who decides what happens.
"You don't understand, Raynare." Issei finally muttered.
A hand collided with his cheek, forcing his head to snap to the side.
"I don't understand? I don't understand? You are the one who does not understand." Issei held a hand to his cheek, his hair shadowing his eyes. He grit his teeth in an effort to hold back a sob, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes.
All I need to do is kill her. End her life. Everything will be over if I do that. History will run its course and I'll have to repeat all of the things that I have once done before.
Is this the consequence of disturbing a timeline?
"I…I'm sorry." A tear fell from Issei's eye and onto his knee. Raynare's face softened at the sight, her expression slowly relaxing until she looked as if she was exhausted. She sighed, fell onto her bottom and crossed her legs, her hands firmly planted in her lap.
"I…shouldn't have gotten angry at you." She muttered. Issei glanced at her through his blurred vision and faintly smiled.
"You have every right to." Raynare sighed and ran a hand down her face.
"No, I shouldn't have. I was lucky enough to have not been killed and I should be grateful for that."
"Maybe it would have been better if I didn't do anything at all? Maybe I should have let you fool me." Raynare reached a hand out and gripped Issei's shoulder, forcing him to turn and face her. She smiled at the human.
"Thank you." Issei rose an eyebrow.
"For what?"
"For not killing me." Issei's rubbed his eyes and sighed.
"You're…welcome, I guess?" Raynare grinned.
"No problem!" Issei raised his eyebrow again.
"That's a weird expression to say after thanking someone." Raynare pouted and puffed her cheeks out.
"It is not." Issei sighed dejectedly.
"I should be the one who says that, not you."
"You're not any fun." Issei opened his mouth to retort Raynare's statement but quickly closed it. Something was approaching their location at an absurd speed. No…it wasn't a something but was a group of somethings.
"Shit. Raynare, put some clothes on. Something's approaching at an insane speed." Raynare's cheeks flushed as she was reminded of her indecent state and, as she scrambled to grab her pile of clothes on Issei's desk chair, she fell off of Issei' bed and onto her face, a groan of pain coming from her mouth.
Issei face-palmed, pulled her to her feet, ran over to his wardrobe and flung it open, throwing a loose white shirt at her as she rubbed her nose in pain. She grabbed it, gracefully slid her arms through the sleeves and started to button it up. As she finished the top button, something exploded through Issei's window and the thick curtain, skidding across the floor as they landed on their feet.
It was a man.
It wasn't any ordinary man. In fact, it would be an insult to call it ordinary or a man as he was a Fallen Angel. He was one of the strongest in the Grigori, to be precise, so his appearance shocked Issei. His arrival in this town wasn't scheduled for another month at least, so whatever he was doing in this town was without Rias Gremory's permission.
"Kokabiel…the Angel of the Stars. Rather, the Fallen Angel of the Stars. How may I help you?" The tall man glanced at his subordinate before he sharpened his already sharp and intimidating crimson glowing eyes.
"I'll be taking my subordinate back, human. If you try to stop me, I'll kill you."
Hey. This is a semi-late chapter. I get that. Procrastination is my worst enemy, so blame them, not me. I swear it's not my fault! Anyway, now that that's out of the way, let me tell all of you something about this chapter. This version that you just read was the third out of three versions. That's right. There were two versions before this one. I have them archived if you want to read what's different, but you'll have to PM me first. Also, does this chapter seem to be fast paced/rushed?
Regarding Issei's out of place flashback, that has meaning for the main plot of this story. And also his decision to spare Raynare.
I really need criticism! Preferably constructive criticism! I realised I'm not getting any better at writing, so I need all of you readers to help me! If you find that something doesn't make sense or you have any tips to make my writing better, please don't hesitate to tell me in a review or a PM!
See all of you next time!