Issei didn't see his fellow devils very often over the few days leading up to their departure for Rating Game training.

For the most part, this was because Rias wasn't around much, being busy with arranging the training. He had been told that most of her time was taken up by it, and the time that wasn't was taken up by school, contracts, and watching over Kuoh.

Now that he thought about it, she had a ton to do on a daily basis.

Ever since his effect had gone away, Issei had learned how to use a basic transportation circle from Akeno and gotten a few contracts. Since he no longer had to pass out flyers, he didn't have many reasons to go to the club room.

The next time they were all gathered together again was when they were nearing time to leave.

Rias was explaining that it had been decided that the Game would take place a month after it was announced, which was almost a week ago now. Leaving them three to prepare.

Issei was alternating between talking to Asia and marveling at how much Koneko could eat when a knock rang out from the large doors to the club.

A moment later, it was opened, revealing several new people, all of whom Issei didn't recognize. He thought some of them looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place his finger on it.

Once they all entered, Issei was able to count eight of them, all but one female.

"Oh, hello Sona. Was there something you needed?"

The one his King addressed, Sona, gave a bit of a chuckle. Next to her was another girl with similar black hair and glasses, except her hair was much longer. The rest of the group was a few steps behind them.

Ah, that's who she was. The President of the Student Counsel. That didn't explain why she came to the ORC, though.

Speaking of that, he noticed the sole male of the group not so subtly checking out every female member of the Occult Research Club.

"Since I probably won't be seeing you again until after the Rating Game, I wanted to wish you good luck. Plus, I never had the chance to meet your new servants."

She knows about the Game, then? That would mean they're all devils, too.

"Is she also a devil?" Asia asked behind him. An affirmative response from Kiba confirmed Issei's guess.

"Thank you, Sona." Rias continued. "I hope that means you'll cover for all of us here for the few weeks we'll be gone."

"Naturally."

Sona and Tsubaki, her Queen he guessed, continued with chatter that was more formal than friendly, but Issei wasn't listening to their conversation anymore. He noticed that the guy, he was pretty sure Sona had said his name was Saji, had taken the liberty of introducing himself to Asia.

The former nun was laughing, completely oblivious to his obvious flirting and ogling gaze.

He wasn't sure why, but he didn't really like this guy the second he looked at him.

The blonde devil shook her hand, and held on far longer than he needed to.

Eventually, Saji noticed him watching.

Probably understanding what was angering the brown haired devil, the Student Council member only winked at him.

"Ooh, I think you made him angry, Saji."

"I think so too, Ruruko."

Issei was doing his best not to let it bother him. He really was.

But the guy was walking towards him now and Issei felt his annoyance growing with every step.

[Is that you, Vritra?]

What?

[One of the five Dragon Kings. As well as the probable reason for your aversion to the boy.]

"Hyoudou, was it? You're the new pawn, aren't you?" He asked.

"Yeah…"

Saji looked him up and down. And snorted.

"Well, I guess not every pawn can be like me. I took four pieces to reincarnate." He said proudly.

"I took eight."

The grin faltered. "What?"

"Rias reincarnated me with eight pawns." He repeated.

"You took up eight pieces? How is that even possible?"

Issei shrugged. "Don't ask me. You're right, though. I guess not every pawn can be like you."

Saji, unsurprisingly, was sulking over by the rest of Sona's peerage for the rest of the time she was there.

When the Sitri peerage had left, Rias turned to everyone.

"So then, everybody ready to leave?"

Once the familiar red glow from the transportation circle faded, Issei took in his new surroundings.

Instead of the Victorian style design of the club room, they know stood in front of a large mansion.

"I was able to secure a pretty sizeable piece of land for us to use."

Issei looked over to Rias. "Where are we, exactly?"

"The Underworld. I suppose this is your first time here. Welcome to Hell, I guess."

"This is Hell?"

"Yep."

"It doesn't feel like Hell."

He heard Kiba chuckle behind him.

"What did you think Hell would feel like?" Rias asked.

Thinking about it, what generally came to mind when one would think of Hell was pretty unrealistic.

"I don't know, but not this…" He gestured to the beautiful surroundings.

"There is plenty of time to look at the scenery later. We have to unpack now." Rias said. And that was all they needed.

Issei looked around his room.

It was large. Too much so for what he needed. Or cared for, if he was being honest.

The entire mansion, in all honesty, was much larger than it needed to be. It stood four floors tall, and there were only six of them. Because of this, they could spread out a bit when picking their rooms.

Rias and Akeno were on the second floor, Koneko and Kiba on the third, and Asia and himself occupied the fourth.

The breakfast, he was pretty sure it was cooked by Akeno, was delicious.

All of the talk at the table was related to their upcoming training. What they would be doing, what they wanted to improve on, any tips the others could give, etcetera.

Issei, being too busy wolfing down the food to participate much into the conversations, mostly listened to parts of it.

"What about you, Issei?"

"Honestly, I've been curious about Corrupt Eternity. I want to figure out exactly what it can do." He heard Rias sigh after he said that.

"Perhaps we should get this out of the way now."

"Get what out of the way?"

"I don't want you using Corrupt Eternity during the Rating Game."

What.

That made no sense.

"What the hell? Why not?"

"Because you don't need to put yourself in danger trying to use it."

"We're already at a huge disadvantage! We're going to need all the help we can get, why wouldn't I use it?"

"This is final, Issei."

Issei was more confused and disappointed than anything, but shook his head and gave a "whatever" in response before heading out.

He'd try to get her to change her mind later, anyway.

Rias had explained the mansion grounds were set up with several individual training stations that catered to the strengths of each.

Issei's was mostly open area, with a few training dummies scattered about.

[BOOST]

His first boost rang out, echoing in the open area. Issei felt the familiar doubling of his power course through his veins.

"What else can this thing do, Ddraig? Apart from the flames?"

He heard what sounded like a chuckle come from the dragon.

[I was wondering when you would ask.]

[As with all Sacred Gears, the Boosted Gear is an extension of the users will.]

Issei always found that reasoning to be stupid. But he had stopped questioning things like that ever since he became a devil. And in the very limited interactions he's had with Ddraig, he had found the dragon to be correct most of the time.

So, without hesitation, Issei closed his eyes and started to focus.

In his gauntlet clad hand, a red ball of energy, starting small but steadily increasing, started pulsing. Issei willed it to fire towards one of the dummies.

[DRAGON SHOT]

Safe to say, there was nothing left of the dummy after that. Or a lot of the ground around it, for that matter. Within a few hours, all of the dummies and most of the surrounding landscape would be charred or blown to bits.

Thankfully, Rias had mentioned the training stations regenerated overnight.

One thing Issei was not prepared for was the utter exhaustion he felt almost every night.

Given how important this was for her nearly eternal lifetime, Rias was taking this seriously, as one would expect, and had spent days planning the weeks of training in order to ensure her peerage didn't waste so much as a second.

Issei looked around the room. He was usually out cold from exhaustion within a few minutes of entering the room, so he had never taken that great of a look at it.

From his spot on the bed, he took in the desk in the corner, the large windows that let in a bit of moonlight.

The shadows that seemed to dance around the room.

Issei could almost hear them calling out to him. Cries that seemed to follow him everywhere where there was darkness.

Let's test this out, shall we?

Even if Rias didn't want him to use it in the Game, he was still curious about this power. He had figured out so much of the Boosted Gear's abilities, it would only make sense to do the same for his other power, right?

He willed the shadows to start moving. They began to move in a circle around the room, picking up speed by the second.

Issei was glad he was relatively secluded from the others. He should be able to test this out in peace.

Come closer…

Immediately, the darkness started moving closer to him. Issei strained, forcing it to come closer and closer until it was within his reach.

More shadows, these ones emerging from somewhere behind him, joined the ones he was already controlling in swirling around, until it had formed a fluctuating, transparent wall of sorts.

He started to reach his hand out.

[Don't.]

Whether he would've listened to the centuries old dragon in his head or not, Issei couldn't say for sure, but it didn't matter, since it was too late for him to stop.

He felt something resembling a tug when his hand made contact with them.

A second later, pain.

Unbelievable pain erupted inside of him, starting where his fingers met them and shooting up through his arm and to his head. Issei immediately pulled his arm back as hard as he could scampered back until his back was up against his bed.

The shadows had retreated back to their original locations, lurking in the corners of his room.

All that could be heard was his ragged breathing.

Issei stood about ten feet apart from Kiba. Rias stood several feet back, facing both of them.

"This duel will end either when one participant gives up or is otherwise defeated. You are both to use only the basics of your abilities. And try not to injure one another. Understand?"

They both nodded.

The second Rias signaled for them to begin, Issei summoned the Boosted Gear.

[BOOST]

"Sword Birth!"

Dozens of swords ripped out of the ground at Kiba's feet.

What the hell?

Issei had always assumed that Kiba had swords in a pocket dimension of something else that went against everything he knew about physics. He wasn't expecting the blonde to be able to summon them out of the ground.

No matter, though.

[BOOST]

Sword clashed with gauntlet as the two teenage devils fought to overpower the other.

[BOOST]

It seemed that Issei was just fast enough to block his attacks, and Kiba was just fast enough to dodge the brunette's counter blows.

Another couple of boosts later, Issei was able to push him back a few feet.

[DRAGON SHOT]

The attack tore through everything in it's path, but missed the intended target, who had gotten out of the way.

Kiba seemingly came out of thin air to his left, and Issei was forced to use his wings for a large jump out of the way.

Issei held back a growl.

A moment later, several whirlwinds of flame were hurled directly at the Knight.

Kiba pulled out two new swords, each identical to the other and seemingly coated in ice.

"Flame Delete."

To the brunette devil's disbelief, Kiba didn't attempt to use his speed to get out of the way of the fire.

Instead, he simply pulled out another sword and cut through them. One slice, and the flames were gone.

Out of the corner of his eye, Issei noticed shadows under the trees around them. He could almost hear them again. Maybe it was imagination.

Maybe, if he called out to them…

No. Can't do that. Not again-

Issei felt something hit him in the side. Hard.

Half a second later, he was on the ground and a sword was pressed up against his throat.

Rias called the duel over at the same time Ddraig called him a fool.

In the time he had wasted thinking about the shadows like an idiot, Kiba had appeared to his side and made him pay for getting distracted.

The Knight had the same smile on his face that had gained him the affection of most of the female population at Kuoh.

Issei was pretty sure he didn't do a very good job of hiding the frustration on his face.

Stupid damn grin…

Kiba offered his hand to help him up but Issei refused it. He was barely paying attention to the Asia's words of encouragement or Rias's warnings of getting distracted during battle.

Once he had adjusted to the exhaustion, the roughly twenty days of training had passed quickly.

Before he knew it, the Rating Game was almost upon them.

Over the last couple of weeks, he had seen the strides everyone had taken. Kiba was faster, Koneko was stronger, Asia's healing was more effective, Akeno and Rias's magical attacks were far better.

Even himself. Issei's max amount of boosts were heavily increase, he found it much easier to control the fire.

Yet, he wasn't really sure if it would be enough to defeat their opponents.

The number and experience advantage was heavily in favor of their opponents, which was the main reason they got this long to train. Supposedly some of the Devils found this to be favoritism.

Riser's peerage had to be stronger than them, right? It only made sense.

Rias had mentioned that Riser assembled his peerage based on his fetishes, but there were fourteen of them, and they have to have some amount of combat ability. Riser would not have been able to win multiple Rating Game's without that.

Which meant that Issei had to do more. He had to gain power, by any means necessary.

Just then, Issei heard his door open, and a head of blonde hair peeked in.

"Asia?"

"Hi, Issei."

Was she blushing?

"Do you need anything?"

"No… not really. Just- can I stay here for a bit?"

"Sure."

"You're nervous?"

"Yes, a little." She admitted.

She sat down next to him on the bed.

"Riser's peerage looked really strong. There are so many more of them and I'm not much use in a fight…"

"I'll protect you." He said, almost reflexively.

"What?"

"I'll keep you safe during the Game. You don't have to worry. Just like I saved you back at the Church, remember?"

A small smile played across the former nuns face.

She moved then, and Issei now found her frame pressed up against his.

"Asia...?"

"Now what did Kiryuu say to do next…" She mumbled to herself.

Kiryuu?

In the time since he was no longer hated and feared by the masses, Issei had gotten acquainted with most of the students in his class. Most of them initially talked to him out of pity, but it was nice regardless.

He knew they couldn't comprehend him having a supernatural effect for weeks than suddenly not anymore. He imagined they had tried to rationalize it by thinking they had shunned him for being new or something like that and now felt bad.

He didn't know any of them, save for Asia, well enough that he would be consider them friends, but he knew enough about them.

A few stuck out more than others, namely Matsuda, Motohama, and Aika Kiryuu.

He didn't know what she told Asia, but whatever it was, he was sure it probably wasn't good advice for her to take.

His thoughts about classmates came to a screeching halt when he felt Asia's lips press against his own.

It wasn't much more than a peck. She pulled back out of embarrassment a moment later, Issei was still too frozen to do anything.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't know-" She was cut off when the brunette pulled her into his arms.

"Don't be." He murmured.

On the night before the Rating Game, Issei found himself unable to sleep.

Several things, most prominent one being the Game itself, race through his mind. But that wasn't even what was troubling him the most.

Yet again, he could hear the faint cry of the shadows all around him. It followed him everywhere at this point.

He never heard them like this before. Why was it happening now, of all times, when he needed to focus?

Leaving his room to get a glass of water revealed to him that he wasn't the only one struggling to sleep, as he saw Rias Gremory out on the patio outside of the kitchen.

She turned her head to him when he opened the glass door and stepped outside.

"Can't sleep either?"

He shook his head.

"Come join me, then. I have a new idea for out strategy that I'd like to run by someone."

"So, what do you think?"

"Well, I'm not going to pretend to be much of a strategist. But if you think it will work, then we should go for it." He answered after a moment, getting an absent minded hum in response.

"You've worked really hard on this." He noted.

"Yes… But I worry it won't be enough. They have the edge in numbers, experience, and teamwork, so our only real chance is to out-wit them, and work as a team." The Heiress smiled a bit.

It was probably the saddest smile Issei had seen in his life.

"Don't say things like that." He said, confusing her.

"Huh?"

"Believing is half the battle, right?" If there was one thing anime had taught him, it was that.

Rias chuckled at that.

"You know," She said, a minute later. "Nobody thinks we have a chance tomorrow. All of them just think this is all just a tantrum. Indulging in a child's whining."

"Let's prove them wrong, then."