A day after the happenings in Russia, 7 months after joining Zero Army.
The Zero army's headquarters were something different. The army was located somewhere in North America, close to Canada's borders.
Deep into the forest, ways from civilization the mercenary army thrived. It was an abandoned airstrip at the beginning, but after getting the documents to the place, it was reinforced and remade. The whole place was large. It was almost like a small village.
The whole airstrip was covered with bleak-colored buildings. Most of them were hangers that reminisced of the previous purpose of the place. And, for Issei, there was a single particular hanger he had taken a liking to.
Yes, the same one in where he had lost his sanity. The same hanger he had spent two weeks, where he failed to withstand the torture and had caved in.
He didn't even know why, he had just found himself pulled to the place where it all began.
He sat against the furthest wall, one his legs outstretched, the other, bent in the knee. His body still held faint bruises and his ankle was wrapped in bandages.
The faint moonlight that shone trough the broken rooftop illuminated his body. His head raised high stared at the moon.
His only companion.
He contemplated life. The Russian boy had given him quite a headache.
[Calm down, partner. You did what you had to.]
The dragon in his mind spoke. Issei simply gruffed at him.
[Not like you had a choice. And besides, who cares? You have killed before, what changed now?]
Issei lowered his head, resting it against his palms
''But what if I had a choice? I could have tried to escape every single mission I had gone out of the base for. I could refuse to kill, fuck it, I could even kill myself if anything. But I don't.'' – Issei went silent for a while, but then he continued his conundrum. –''And the best part of it is, I don't dislike killing. It calms me in a way. I crave for it. I WANT TO KILL!''
The last sentence echoed trough the hanger, and Issei had to listen to his words repeating over and over again.
[..So, what are you saying? That killing is bad? Who cares? It is only now that the killing is held on such a pedestal, and it's said that it is wrong. Back in the time of my glory, the strong who killed were hailed as heroes. The current world is truly dull, partner.]
Issei brought both of his legs close to himself and made himself appear as small as he could. He closed his eyes, trying to get some shut-eye, but he heard wood creak.
He raised his head slightly and looked ahead with one eye open. There, a few feet from him was a chair with a women sitting in it. It took a moment to realize it, but it was the same chair he had been chained to all those months ago.
The wood creaked as the women leaned forwards, her legs were covered by black and white checkered skin-tight short-shorts and black thigh-high socks with red ribbons while her top was a much too large red jumper. Because of the size of the jumper, one of her shoulders was uncovered. It showed her pale skin.
Her hair was straw yellow and held together in ponytail and on her neck was a choker, to cover her scar.
''Yo Issei-chan, how have you been?''- Maria asked, in a cute tone.
Issei roared and was up in a matter of mili-seconds. His fist went where Maria had been just second ago, but she back flipped, taking the chair with her. As she landed a few feet back, Issei's foot was already flashing forward her stomach.
She brought up the chair and used it as a shield. The chair shattered and she moved sideways, letting Issei to be carried further by the force of his own kick. She used a piece of the chair as a makeshift weapon and moved smoothly forwards him to stab him with it.
As her arm passed for Issei's leg, he front flipped and kicked downward at her.
She smirked as she used the same piece of the chair to block.
Issei's leg went trough the wood like a knife trough butter and crashed down at the ground. The force from the kick sent spiderweb like cracks trough the floor.
As they clashed under the moonlight, both of their grins grew wider and wider.
Issei brought out a knife and chucked it at Maria. She lounged forward and dodged it, spinning on her heel and raising her other foot in a arc as an roundhouse kick to Issei's face. He blocked and caught her leg at the same time, although her blow made Issei's arms grow numb.
Issei himself span on his heel and kicked at her knee, so he could get her off balance, but as his foot connected to her knee it went numb.
..And Maria didn't budge. She unleashed aura like out of this world, and simple pulled her leg back, seemingly with no effort.
The grin disappeared from her face as a new-found cold look appeared in her eyes. She simply shrugged. Her tone was cold as ice.
''Weak. I'm disappointed really. I though you would have made something of yourself by this time simply because of Margit, but you really are worthless, aren't you?'' – She chuckled and in a instant that Issei couldn't catch he felt an excruciating pain in his stomach.
And with his pain tolerance, it meant something new. He was thrown against the furthest wall of the hanger and he crashed against it hard.
He started to cough up blood.
''Fufufufu, I feel really bad for the Welsh dragon. He is the definition of power, but you, such an talentless hack, are unworthy of wielding him. Weak, weak, weak~'' – she sung it in the syllables.
With every clacking noise her heels made as she moved closer, Issei grew angrier. She jumped towards him, her fist raised high, and then Issei understood.
His eyes turned to green slits as his arm moved faster than ever before. He caught the fist and held it in a vice-grip. Maria opened her eyes wider as she noticed the burning rage in Issei's green eyes.
[DRAGON BOOOSTER]
The voice coming from the gauntlet rebounded off the hanger walls, and it sounded mad. On Issei's arm a red gauntlet appeared with a green jewel. He kicked off the wall and with his new-found power, threw Maria trough the hangers door.
As he jumped outside, two black colored men in uniforms jumped at Issei with swords, but he simple caught both of them by the heads and smashed them in the ground, killing them.
Maria laughed in triumph. Suddenly, the same black shadows as the first time appeared around them.
Issei stopped, looking at them in the moonlight. All of them held different appearances, but they still had two major similarities.
One, was the dark color schemed coats with hoods and the other was the SS bright red letters that were scattered around on their coats. Some of them held them on their chest, some on their leg, and some on their biceps.
Before Issei could speak, a women in said coat walked forward. The only difference from others, her collar held white fur. Her palms hidden by the large sleeves of the coat.
Her hair, red, fluttered in the night's wind.
''M-Margit?'' – Issei stuttered, the green glow disappeared from his eyes. He stepped backwards, but was stopped by the muscular hands that went trough his armpits and held him in place.
''..Issei. You pass. You are ready. You are ready to become a true member of the Suicide Squad.'' – She walked closer to him and Issei simply smiled aloofly.
Margit cringed at the scene of Issei giving up so pathetically. She brought out a knife and cut his sleeveless t-shirt just above his chest. She then pushed the blade into his skin and carved the zero. Issei didn't even wince and simply looked downwards. A moment later, he was released.
He looked back up at Maria. She spoke. –''Don't worry Issei-chan, Margit-chan is still you teacher, just that we have a slight problem~. We are going to war tomorrow, so I had to force the boosted gear. Sorry for the mean words~. – She spoke cutely, showing her tongue at the end of the sentence. She turned around and walked away together with the rest of the Suicide Squad.
He though of himself to be alone, until he felt a coat get thrown on his shoulders.
A second later, he was hugged from behind.
''..Sorry.''
Margit whispered, her voice sounding weak and rueful as she held onto Issei in the moonlight flooded field.
Issei simply chuckled. This was the second time he had seen Maria, and it was the same as the first one. She shook his world to the core. The first, she introduced him to the dragon, and the second – she made him access it.
And Issei understood the though that he had pushed out of his skull for his own good.
Why would Margit would take in a talentless, fucked up kid?
What would be the purpose of such a feat?
It was simple, really. She was ordered to.
Why else?
Issei shrugged her off and spoke, his voice stoic. –''I need some sleep.''
He walked off, putting on dark-red colored coat, not looking back at Margit.
Her eyebrows arched in displesure. There were many reactions she expected from Issei, but this wasn't it.
He had reverted back to the unemotional state he was in right after the torture, and Margit didn't understand why.
And had Margit been any other women, she would have understood it. But she wasn't.
She was a killer, nothing more, nothing less..
Present
Rias was furious. She stepped trough the hallways with her usual school uniform on, and used both of her hands to push the double-doors open. Inside, her brother, the Satan, sat at his desk looking trough documents.
Behind him, a wall of books.
He raised his head and smiled gently at his sister.
''Brother, why didn't you tell me about who Issei trully is?''
Sirzechs raised his eyebrows, but then nodded with a smile. –''So it happened, didn't it?''
She crossed her arms under her breasts and glared at him. –''Yes, it did. He killed Kokabiel, one of the leaders of the fallen angels like it was nothing. I knew he was strong, but I didn't know he was the Welsh Dragon for hell's sake!''
''..So I heard that Kokabiel had gone astray, but he was at your city?'' – Sirzechs scratched his chin. –''Are you unhurt?''
Rias rolled her eyes at overprotectivness of her brother. –''Yes, I'm fine. But that isn't the point. Why did you hide it? And why are so worried about me? I'm not as weak as you think.''
Sirzechs gave her a ruefull smile. –''Oh but you are weak.''
Rias widened her eyes.
''You have no idea what strong is, Rias. All I want to do is to protect you. And Issei can do that.''
Her eyes glowed crimson. –''And why do you think he can? Why are you so sure about his power, brother? Why are so convicted that he will protect me?''
He smiled back at her with his eye close. –''Simple. I made a deal. He does his side, I do mine.''
Sirzechs got up and touched the giant wall-bookshelf. It disappeared and in it's place appeared at a large map. On it were countless darts with many different colors stuck in many different continents, cities, deserts, etc, etc.
''What is this?''- Rias asked with her eyebrows arched.
Sirzechs nodded for her to come closer. She stopped a meter away from the map. She slowly brought her finger to one of the pins.
As she touched it, a small display appeared with information.
Type: Assassination
Rank: A
Team: Solo.
Description: A small Italian mafia put up a pay of 100 000 dollars for an assassination of a notorious lawyer. The assassin would get payed only if the kill is made to look like an accident.
Status:Completed flawlessly.
She looked back at Sirzechs. He simple nodded. –''Yes, all of these darts are missions Issei took up. Either solo, with his team, with his teacher or with the army.''
''..Army? Why would they need an army?''
''For war.''
''The last war that happened like 70 years ago. What are you talking about?''
''But that's wrong. Humans are foolish creatures. They fight about everything, and because of that small wars break out. Of course, they don't talk about it or write it in the history books, but Issei, along with his team are war veterans.'' – Sirzechs chuckled, but then his eyes turned serious. –''The war broke out over a small feud, and it turned into a massacre. More than 7000 people were killed by the small Zero army. If you don't count the civilians and innocents, then it would most likely would have been a 3000 vs 200. The Zero army slaughtered and burned the villages, bases and forest to the ground. What Issei brought back was a second PTSD, bullet-holes and a new nickname.''
Rias silently listened and greedily caught every bit of information. ''..I see.''
''Now then, if you skip the unpleasantries, would you like to eat with me?'' – Sirzechs smiled in an aloof manner.
Rias smiled, not being able to stay mad at her brother. –''I don't have the time'' –She sighed.-''I'm weak, aren't I? So I'll train.''
As she stormed out of the building, Sirzechs was left with a bittersweet smile on his face.
It was nighttime. The stars had come out in the sky and Koneko had just done her training routine.
Koneko wiped the sweat from her forehead as she drank water while leaning against a tree. She knew Issei had a scent different of a human, but for it to be a scent of dragon, she wouldn't have ever imagined it. And then it was the hint of another scent.
A familiar one to Koneko.
She got up and walked over to Issei who was hanging down from a tree only using his feet to latch onto an branch.
''..Issei.''
He looked at her.
''Every single time you speak of your time in the Zero Army it seems sad, but there is a hint of...happiness.'' – Koneko looked at her feet. –''Can you tell me who were teammates?''
Issei jumped down from the tree, flipping around to his feet mid-air.
''..Are you sure? If we do this, there is no turning back.'' – Issei looked into her hazel eyes.
She simply nodded. She raised her eyebrows at the sight of Issei raising his hand at her.
''C'mon.''
She raised her hand and touched his. Their fingers entangled and Issei touched the carved tattoo on his chest and channeled his small amount of magic to it.
The space and time warped around them and they disappeared.
A second later their feet touch-downed on a soft feeling ground. After the feeling of wanting to puke passed, Koneko rubbed her eyes and looked around.
The first thing she saw was the sun rising over the ocean as she was bathed in the orange glow. She turned around and saw the giant Arc that was most likely used as transporter for the teleport.
Issei was standing with his eyes closed and his eyebrows slightly raised. He inhaled deeply. He lowered his head and opened his eyes to look at Koneko. –''Shall we go?'' – He raised his hand towards the deep side of the island.
She nodded and they began to move.
After climbing the nearest mountain, a serene feeling overtook Koneko. It was a forest of graves and tombstones. She looked around and noticed the small walls built to make borders.
''This is the resting place of the Zero Army. Every fraction of the army is separated.''
Koneko nodded as they walked between the walls. Most of the tombstones had some kind of memorabilia left at them. Some had scarfs, some guns, one had a ring and most of them had dogtags.
Koneko then noted the fact that Issei never wore one. They stopped at a steep stone cliff.
Before Koneko could say anything, Issei picked her up in a bridal carry and in a single jump he was at the top.
And then she noticed the dark cloaks fluttering in the wind. It was a breathtaking view, if anything.
Issei put her down and moved forward without saying a word. Koneko followed. He stopped at the a grave that didn't have a tombstone.
In its place was a sword that was impaled in the rock. On it was a dark red cloak with white-red fur collar. Koneko gulped as she understood that the red color was blood. The bottom of the cloak was in tatters, but otherwise it was fine.
As a stronger gust of winds shot by them, she noticed a hint of metal glint in between the red cloak.
She stepped forward and gripped the small square metal objects. She exhaled and opened her palm. There were two dogtags. They were scratched and scorched.
Margit
01/20/1990
AB
Suicide Squad
And the second one.
Ddraig
07/31/1997*
O
Suicide Squad
Koneko widened her eyes. Issei smiled at her aloofly.
''Why is your dogtag at her grave, Issei?''
He shrugged. – ''Simple. I died the day she died. Well, at least the me she wanted me to become died. I played right into the hand of Maria and went berserk. I don't deserve to wear the dogtag that was given to me by her.''
Koneko looked at him ruefully. –''Issei, that's..''
''I know, Koneko-chan.'' – He ruffled her hair. –''But that isn't why we are here. Go ahead, ask what you must.''
''..Tell me Issei, did you actually enjoy the service you did in the Zero army?''
He chuckled. –''I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, but if I had a choice between my normal life or the Zero Army, I would choose Zero Army every single time.''
''..But..But why?'' – She pleaded. –''I don't understand you.''
''I don't understand myself, Koneko-chan. But I'll tell you that I met a lot of people. I was hurt, but I hurt others a lot more. I was taught and I myself taught others. I understood a lot of things about life.''
Issei went quit for a while, but then he looked at Koneko and shrugged his shoulders.
''..And I met a girl of a different kind. She was so different from others. She was the most playful and jesting girl I have ever met, but she carried the biggest sin. She was the most loving person I had ever met...and I fell for her.''
Koneko looked at him with wide eyes and shaking.
''When Margit died my world shattered, but had she died, I would have lost the world. So I fought to never loose my sight of her. I took so many bullets to keep her unhurt while she kept me alive.''
Issei looked at the rising sun.
''With her I feel like I could rule the world. That's probably because she is the world for me. But as for her, she has another world. A little sister. She killed to save her little sister. She became a terrorist and fought to survive.
Issei stepped towards her as she stepped backwards.
''Yes, there were many ways she could have done it differently, but she did what she could.''
Koneko stepped backwards once again and Issei smiled at her.
''Yes Shirone..'' – She jerked at the mention of her real name. –''..I'm talking about Kuroka.''
Koneko jumped at Issei her fist raised but Issei simply stood there with his hands in his pockets. As she was about to connect the fist to his jugular, she stopped.
Issei moved forwards and hugged her. He whispered into her ear.
''There are many things you don't know, but if you give us a chance, you will understand everything.''
She nodded and Issei released her. She heard a crackle and turned around.
There stood Kuroka, her black hair fluttering in the wind and on her face in the stead of an aloof smile was a restful poker face.
''..Kuroka-neesan...''
''Shirone...''
Issei sat down near Margit's grave and looked at the sight of the two sisters.
This was a gamble, but it was a gamble he had to take to make up to Kuroka for all the help he had from her.
Yo. Yes, I'm alive.
100 follows and 20 000 views. Quite a thing for me, honestly. Thank you, dear readers.
I'd like to mention that we are entering an arc which I made to develop Issei as a character and reunite Koneko with Kuroka.
I hope with this and the next chapters I'll be able to make people understand the motivation and level of stress Issei went trough.
I didn't mention, but with the last chapter I tried to show it that Issei wasn't always the unbeatable badass he is now.
/but well, he won't stay unbeatable for long.. *whispers innocently.*
And I tried as much as I could at the end, but something feels off.
But well, I'm just an edgy teenager who doesn't know shit about writing, so I'll keep it as it is.
Still looking for a BETA. And btw, if you are a guy with 15 favorited stories and nothing written yourself, don't even message me, because you obviously don't know the rules.
See ya.
Does anyone even read this crap I spout at the end of the chapters?
Anyways, leave a review if you liked it or if you didn't understand something.