"Sitri is a Great Prince of Hell, and reigns over sixty legions of demons. He causes men to love women and vice versa, and can make people bare themselves naked if desired. He is depicted with the face of a leopard and the wings of a griffin, but under the conjurer's request he changes into a very beautiful man." Issei stared at the short girl that sat at the desk opposite him, his gaze hard and discerning. The girl stared back through her glasses, daring Issei to say more about her ancestor through her glare, and sighed.
"Do you have anything else to say, Hyoudou?" She finally muttered, glancing at the raven haired girl that stood next to her human visitor.
"You're not a beautiful man," Issei started, shoving a finger in Sona's direction as he spoke, "nor do you have the face of a leopard or the wings of a griffin. The Ars Goetia…dammit!" Issei turned his head to the side with a huff as he crossed his arms, his words barely audible as he spoke to himself. "I really wanted to see a version of you that had a leopard face…"
"A version of me that has a leopard face?" Sona repeated Issei's words, scrunching her face up in distaste as she could not comprehend what Issei meant when he said he wanted to see another version of her.
"Yeah. You're a Sitri, right? If you don't have the physical properties, you must have the powers, right?" Issei's hands were in the deepest recesses of his pockets as every muscle in his body relaxed at once.
"Not necessarily…and I'm interested in how you know of this information, Hyoudou." Sona folded her hands in front of her face as she stared at the human, her eyes slowly drifting to the Fallen Angel that silently stood by his side. "And I'm interested in why you've brought a Fallen Angel to my school."
"Your school?" Issei quietly exhaled through his nose in amusement, a wry smile spreading across his face, "As far as I know, you're only the Student Council President. Nothing more, nothing less." Sona clicked her tongue in mild annoyance as Issei's statement was true; she was nothing but the Student Council President on paper.
Sona pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose with a slight frown, "And what of this Fallen Angel?" Sona glanced at Raynare and held back a sneer, waiting for Issei to respond. Instead of Issei stepping forward to answer the question, Issei gently pushed Raynare out in front of him. "You are?"
"My name is Raynare. It's nice to make your acquaintance, Sona of the Sitri clan." Raynare bowed at the waist, her body angled at ninety degrees as she briefly stared down at the floor. "I have a request that only you could fulfil," Raynare continued as she lifted her body, a hand brushing a few strands of her off of her face, "and I was hoping you could grant me the opportunities it would present."
"What is this request?" Sona simply asked as she leaned forward, folding her hands against her desk as she leaned on it.
"May I enrol in this school?"
"No." Was Sona's curt response, her hand swiftly and gracefully pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose one more. Raynare glanced back at Issei with a frown as if she was asking him to intervene, but a grin and a wink from her human benefactor forced a sigh of disappointment out of her.
"Is it because I'm a Fallen Angel?" Raynare asked with arms folded under her bust as she stared at the Devil in front of her, an indifferent look on the Sitri's face.
"Why do I have to explain myself to you?" Issei sighed and ran a hand down his face.
"So you're a massive prick in this timeline, huh? First time I've encountered a major difference in an important person…" He muttered to himself, striding over to Sona's desk without a single care in the world. "Listen up, sex fiend, as I'm about to teach you a lesson! And it's not on school wide orgies, either!" Sona scrunched her nose up in distaste as she stared up at Issei.
"Sex fiend? Who are you calling a sex fiend, you deviant? And what do you mean by school orgies, you pervert?" Sona stood up as Issei leaned over her desk, his face inches away from hers as the rage inside of her slowly started to bubble.
"Well, you are a Sitri, after all. Being a sex obsessed leopard thing is in your nature." Sona grinded her teeth together as she quietly growled, her anger spilling over the metaphorical edges as the human in front of her dared to insult her. "Oh, but does being a sex fiend come with a guaranteed arrogance and a short temper? I've forgotten. Or maybe it's because you're the Student Council President and the heir to the Sitri clan?"
Sona's hands shot towards Issei's collar, however, as she swore she felt the fine fabric of his blazer on her fingertips, her hands were being held behind her back, her head being pinned to her desk in a similar fashion with her eyes staring at the wall, "You…" Sona growled, her arms struggling to squirm under Issei's onehanded grip.
Issei lowered his head, his mouth next to Sona's ear as he smirked, his eyes occasionally glancing up at Raynare, "Does arrogance work for you when you're clearly outmatched?"
"You…! Do you know who I am!?" Sona attempted to lift her head off of the desk, managing to create a few centimetres of space of air between her head and the hard wood before a sharp, splitting pain pierced her skull. Issei had slammed her head back into the desk, face first, forcing the glass of her glasses to shatter from the force. "I'm Sona of the Sitri clan! You're messing with the wrong person, you human scum!"
"Human scum, huh?" Issei pulled Sona's head back and twisted her head at the neck, watching as her spiteful glare bore holes in his body with imaginary daggers. "Are you really in a position to say that?" Sona spat at Issei's face and recoiled as her bodily fluid vanished with a small sizzle, the faint smell of smoke penetrating her senses for a mere moment.
"Let go of me."
"Hmmm, why should I? I'm a powerful person which means I deserve to be arrogant and have a short temper. But I'm not. You wanna know why?" Issei let go of Sona and twisted her around with a flick of his wrist before he gently forced her into her chair, both beings assuming their original positions as if nothing had happened. However, that did not stop Sona's rage in its path. "Because I do things like this." Issei stepped back next to Raynare and held a hand on her head, a sigh escaping her lips as she drooped her shoulders in relief as the seemingly dangerous atmosphere had died down.
"What's so special about her?" Sona asked quickly and quietly, pulling her glasses off of her face with a scowl, staring at the jagged glass that remained in the frame.
"Powerless, less than a Fallen Angel, nothing." Sona glanced up at the Fallen Angel and noticed the gloomy look on her face as Raynare had been reminded of her current situation. Without power, without the wings that made her a Fallen Angel, without the things that made her her, she was truly nothing.
And she had forgotten that, if only for a brief moment in her life.
"So there's nothing special about her?" Sona dropped the frame of her glasses on her desk and stared up at Issei, Sona's distaste making itself known as she furrowed her brow with a frown, "Stop wasting my time."
"Oh, there isn't anything special about her. But what I did to her is." Sona rose an eyebrow in response.
"And what did you do?"
"Oh, I casually tore her wings off with my bare hands and sealed her magic." Sona was indifferent to Issei's words, though, and started to inspect her nails with an even deeper frown. "And it was because of my arrogance. My power, my past…they made me arrogant in a crucial moment that could have been solved in many different ways."
"And? What does this have to do with me? I'm still not letting her," Sona raised her eyes and stared at Raynare, "into my school. No matter what you do, that's not changing." Issei sighed and lowered his head, folding his arms against his chest.
"You just don't get it, do you? You're supposed to be smart, right? You're supposed to be intelligent, yet you're stupid." Sona slammed her hands against her desk, cutting her hands on the many shards of glass that littered it, and jumped to her feet.
"You dare to call me stupid? Who the hell are you?" Issei smirked as he straightened his posture, shoving his hands into the recesses of his pockets.
"Someone who can kill you, obviously."
"Oh, a challenge?"
"If you think this is a challenge, you really are stupid." A tendril of water wrapped around Issei's neck in a flash.
"Would you say more if you're in no position to speak? I can easily snap your neck." Issei chuckled and winked as the water disappeared in an instant, a cloud of steam replacing it as it evaporated.
"What will you snap my neck with, Sona?"
"Water." Issei clapped his hands together with a wide smile.
"Did you know that the composition of water should, in theory, not be able to be snap someone's neck?" This time, it was Sona's turn to have a tendril of water wrapped around her neck, a tight pressure slowly applying itself to her windpipe as the seconds passed by her. "But, because magic exists, I can literally fuck over the laws of the universe and do whatever I want. Now, will you do what I say?" Sona couldn't respond with her words; she nod her head in response while clawing at her throat, her hands passing through the tendril of water as if it was air, face turning red from a lack of oxygen. "Good. Aren't you just a nice, obedient Devil?"
The water's strength disappeared as quickly as it came, drenching Sona's torso as it let gravity control it. "You…what do you want?"
"Let Raynare join this school."
Chiharu glanced down at her phone to check the time.
Two hours.
It had been two hours since Issei had left her standing on the street. The smoke from the building had died down long ago, all was quiet and the police were in the middle of their investigation. All students had been sent home, other than the injured few, and all staff had joined her on the street for questioning.
"Is the school going to close down, sir?" Chiharu asked a male teacher that had decades of experience under his belt. The man glanced at Chiharu, saw the destruction that had taken place and sighed, shaking his head.
"I'm not sure, Chiharu. We'll have to wait and see." Chiharu lowered her head with her mouth in the shape of an 'o'.
"That's not…yes, sir." Chiharu's mutter was almost inaudible, her worry being lost in the hubbub of the small crowd that had gathered. The corners of her senior's lips turned up as he planted a hand on Ciharu's head, slowly massaging her skull in an attempt to console her.
"It'll be alright…I'm sure of it."
But Chiharu didn't think it would be alright.
…
The house was dead silent. There was not a sound, nor was there any movement, despite its inhabitants. I, Raynare, lay still in this bed, staring up at the ceiling as the moon shone onto my body through the gaps in the curtains.
I lay absolutely still, not daring to wake the human that lay next to me.
I quietly rolled over and stared at his face, noticing how peaceful he appeared to be. His lips were slightly agape, his chest visibly rising with each breath he took, his eyelids barely closed, eyelashes fluttering every so often as if he was blinking, brow slightly raised.
He looked absolutely peaceful in his undisturbed slumber.
I, however, could not find it in me to sleep. For the past week, I haven't been able to fall asleep. All of my regrets, all of my horrendous actions, what Issei did to me…they play like an automatic video behind my eyelids as I attempt to sleep.
But it's useless.
No matter what I do to change it, no matter what I think about to change it, these videos do not stop playing. These memories, these accursed images that won't leave me, haunt me with each passing night.
The only way I manage to fall asleep is if I accidentally close my eyes from exhaustion.
But that techniques has its limits. With each night that passes, I fall asleep at a later time than the last. My body clock has been destroyed by this insomnia and it will not be repaired until I conquer these dreadful memories.
Tonight isn't the night to do that, though.
I'm too scared to remove these memories, even though they cause me so much pain.
I couldn't live with myself if I couldn't atone for the past.
So I wish to sleep, hoping that I drown myself in these memories that will forever haunt my mind…
…
The rustling of cloth was heard in the room, snapping me out of my deathly trance. My exhaustion cleared, if only temporarily if the sound was trivial, and my mind was awake. The memories left me as I sat up.
"That sound…" My whisper pierced the silence as I scanned the room in an attempt to find the source of the noise. But the room was black. It was pitch black. A cesspool of darkness that would not let me see anything bar the small slivers of bedding that the moonlight gave me. "It's nothing…?"
I quietly sighed and lowered my body back onto the mattress, closing my eyes once more as a wave of weakness overcame me. My body feeling weak, my mind heavy, I heard the distant muttering of voices as I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep that I wish I wouldn't wake up from.
The memories came back to haunt me.
A deep, dreamless sleep, huh? Kinda…sad, if you ask me. Anyway, I'm back from my very own deep, dreamless sleep. Except in this sleep, it involved not writing and procrastinating. Yeah, sorry for taking five/six weeks to update the story. I mean it. Also, the first major character difference! Finally! After…seven or eight months and thirteen chapters, it's finally been done! How does this affect the relationship between characters? I don't know (I actually do)!
Next chapter involves drama, betrayal and a wish!? Stay tuned for next 'week's' chapter of World's End!
Seriously, though, I do try to find the time to update this story weekly. Everyone knows how that's working out, though…but, to make up for my laziness, a side story chapter should come out in a day or two!
Anyway, thank you for reading and following the production of World's End!