V.

Misunderstanding

"Why, O my soul, are you disheartened;
why in such turmoil within me?"

—Psalm 42:11

In the infinite spanning Creation, between the equally infinite dimensions occupied by the Heavenly realms, the realms resided by the pantheons of Gods, the nether realm of the Devils, and the material realm of Man, therein lies Abstractions. The Creator was a child of the Will of Freedom, and he—in turn—pushed Creation with freedom in mind. He did not physically morph reality into his making like some deranged lunatic of a God. Instead, the Creator laid Concepts in the dimensional gap to push forward the formerly stagnating abstractum of nonexistence. These Abstractions were the soil while the Concepts became the seeds the Creator planted which resulted in existence.

Time was the concept, yet it was only but an emanation of Fate.

Gravity was the brush and Space was its canvas, yet both was the emanations of the painter called Change.

Emanations themselves have their own emanations, usually taking its role as a God in some pantheon. Love, an emanation of the abstraction of Desire, as an example was patroned by the goddess Milda, the goddess Aphrodite, the god Azrul, and of many others.

He was not an exception.

Observing the realms of Heaven and the material realm of Man in turmoil, an emanation of the abstraction Dream was laughing his head off. The Great Red was flying around the Dimensional Gap, specifically around the two clusters of realms that liked warring against each other laughably too much.

"Hah-hah-hah-hah-hah! At least they look like they're enjoying themselves," Great Red flapped his titanic wings. "Even Ophis is getting in on the action."

But the true reason he was looking from afar was the sheer number of notable beings of immense powers within such a cramped number of dimensions looked like a pain the neck, not to mention it was an irregularity. Ophis aside, the Great Red was counting no less than five of them who're outright showing off how powerful they are. The pressure they were oozing out was also firing him up.

"I'd suck if I just jumped down like an ass in there though…" He lied to himself. "It wouldn't be as cool."

One of these powers might be the Beast from a while ago. It was very familiar.

"But the others…eh, I can't be bothered," Great Red shrugged. "I'll take another peek if one of you losers are actually worth beating up! Laters!"

He flapped his wings again and soared across the Dimensional gap.

Within the Three Factions, there was a group that was mobilized in response to the distress call from a church in Chiyoda city that allegedly said the Seraph Gabriel was thrown out of heaven and into Tokyo. The cause? Heaven was being invaded. Two members of this group were sent along with the Vice Governor of the Fallen Angels to confirm the information. That was over fifteen minutes ago. The rest of Team DxD's members that were set for the mission waited in a room with a large teleportation circle for their findings.

It came as a surprise for Kiba Yuuto and the rest of his teammates when the one who returned was none other than their mission objective, the most beautiful woman in heaven, Gabriel. There was no exaggeration of her beauty, even as her panicked voice echoed around the room, she still made their hearts skip a beat. But there was a blemish in her otherwise perfect form that none of them failed to notice: half of her wings were missing. But before anyone could address the fact, they could only respond one way to what the Seraph said:

"Azazel and Baraqiel are in danger!"

The teleportation room of the church was twice as fancy looking as the one they just came out of, but that was neither here nor there. Kiba and his companions slowly went out and into a stone hallway guided by a woman older than them. She did not look like she had any way of using magic, he noticed. What was she doing in this place?

"Huh—? Oh, I'm the caretaker of this church," She said, the fear in her voice was evident. But it wasn't directed at them.

"Is there a priest here?" If the situation was as dire as Gabriel made it sound, there wasn't any time for formalities. It looked like the woman wasn't too bothered by it too, she looked at the side of the hallway and a man wearing casual clothing was slumped by the side. He gave them a pained smile as Kiba knelt beside the man with their healer, Asia. The others from his peerage kept a tight formation through the hallways.

Suddenly, the entire hallway rumbled!

"Will this place hold?" Their Leader quickly called for the priest. She was Rias Gremory, the crimson haired heiress to one of seventy-two clans of Devils in the Underworld.

"It will," The man let out a breath, utter faith was in his voice. "But with how Lord Azazel and the others were faring against that thing? I'm afraid if you don't hurry, they will give out faster than the church itself."

All of a sudden, everyone present paused.

Memories flooded their minds in a fraction of a second: Azazel, Vali and Baraqiel against a boy with very intricate markings around his body. Despite having the Vanishing Dragon and two of the strongest fallen angels going against him without restraint, they were completely outmatched by the boy who did little to nothing. In the memory, he reflected Baraqiel's magic, some of Vali's punches, and absorbed everything else. Even one of the most fearsome abilities within the balance breakers—Compression Divider—merely caused the boy to take a single step back.

The further the memory passed; the more Gabriel was forced to consider calling for more backup. But then the next memory flashed, and every single one of them felt it, the desperation and the helplessness of the memory.

It made the devils shudder.

"Father!" A scream pierced their minds and returned them to the present. The woman who cried ran towards the altar outside. Kiba, Rias and the others were forced to run after her leaving only the caretaker and the priest who was now healed.

It looked like the memory that was given to everyone was not an illusion.

As the group went out of the underground hallways a horrifying sight greeted them: the marble and white stone walls and floor of the otherwise sanctified church was painted with blood. Even them, Devils unfit to tread over holy grounds, felt the holy prowess of the church bastardized by the blood of the three people who went against the monster they saw in the memory. And the last fragment of the memory reflected reality with morbid accuracy. Vali, the Vanishing Dragon, laid on the floor near the steps to the altar with a wide hole over his torso. Azazel, fully clad in his own armor, was sitting by the altar. He was holding his own arm as he slowly bled, looking over the rest of Team DxD who just arrived. He smiled at them and looked towards the center of the church.

"Well, I gotta say…" He coughed out some blood, grinning at their enemy. "I win this time, kid."

"Lord Azazel!" Kiba rushed to his side.

"Hey," He shot them a weak smile. "Took you guys long enough."

"What happened?"

"Just an impromptu memory therapy," He looked into the center of the church, or what's left of it. Kiba could see afternoon sky shining over them even though they were supposed to be by the church's altar. From outside the church, people were already looking over the place from the windows of the buildings around them. But they had more pressing matters than the public noticing their presence.

"Father?" Akeno Himejima's voice was close to breaking.

Standing beside the culprit over this whole ordeal was, Baraqiel, the Vice-Governor of the Fallen Angels. His torso had an entire arm lodged from his chest and out into his back. The arm belonged to the boy who were introduced to all of them through the spell Azazel likely casted—if his comment was any indication. But Baraqiel, unmoving as he was, had been holding a large yellow blade of light with both his hands piercing through the boy's shoulders right through his back. The blade was long enough to scrape the bloodied floor. Along with the blade of light the fallen angel was holding, there were also three others just as big lodged over the boy's chest, right leg, and over his neck. Both of them were unmoving, and while Baraqiel was slumped down only held by the boy's firm arm, the boy himself was looking straight in front, his golden eyes completely clouded.

"I wouldn't suggest getting close, Akeno-chan," Azazel said, his wounds were being tended by Asia.

The woman turned towards the fallen angel. Despite her eyes having every intention on tending to her father, Kiba could tell her experience was winning more than her passion. He smiled softly at that, but Azazel's words struck them like thunder.

"All this blood? None of them are the kid's," He coughed. "Stay the hell back. Not until I know if my gamble had its effect."

"None of—?!" Rias crossed her brow, staring at the sight. The implication of those words did not bode well for any of them.

"What did you do, brother?" Gabriel spoke softly, all of the devils noticed her eyes were locked to the boy since they went up the altar.

"I trusted your gut. The boy you met before he went and did all this? I tried to—" The fallen angel laughed, before clasping his gut in pain. "Shit, that stings!"

"That memory surge…was that you?"

"That was my memory of the past half hour, yeah. I compressed my own memory and made the strongest suggestion spell I could muster so I could shoot the memory over to every single head in the vicinity. It was nothing more than a glorified magic instant replay. But if he really was the boy you think he was, then the memory would separate reality with whatever shell shock he drowned himself into.

He'll wake up sober, for a lack of a better word."

Kiba and the rest of his peerage turned their heads towards the standing bodies of Baraqiel and the boy. They were looking at the boy. He pulled his hand out of the fallen angel; his eyes did not look cloudy anymore. And it did not look like the bloodthirsty looking gaze he showed in their memory, as well. In fact, the boy caught Baraqiel by his arm and let him down into the blood drenched floor as gently as he could.

"Azazel, was it?" The boy finally spoke, his eyes were locked with Baraqiel's unmoving body. "And he is Baraqiel?"

"You got that from my memory? That's good." The fallen angel winced. "So, still planning on fighting? Or was I right in trusting Gabriel?"

The boy let out a breath and carried the heavy looking Baraqiel over his arms as if he weighed nothing. Kiba was looking at him with utter disbelief. The swords of light were still lodged all over his body as he walked, carrying the fallen angel towards them.

Kiba noticed Akeno looking at the boy with unparalleled hate. But when the boy stopped in front of her, she couldn't lift a finger. In fact, none of them did. There was a malicious presence washing over them when he was close enough. And every fiber of their being was telling them to run, to get away from that stench of death that was standing before them!

It might be the dash of ignorance on their part, the one their group always carried, that made them stand their ground and face the boy.

He gently set the fallen angel down, letting Akeno hold her father's lifeless body. The boy looked at her directly in the eye. "I heard you call for him."

"He is my father," There was venom in Akeno's voice.

"It was my mistake," The boy let out a breath.

"D-did someone control you?" Asia squeaked, almost a whisper to herself.

"No. I hesitated, and ended up drowning in the past," None of them knew what he meant, but it looked like it was the only answer they were going to get. "But killing them? I am to blame."

"You didn't feel like yourself," Gabriel said, almost a wish for him to tell her what she wanted to hear.

The boy frowned at her words. "That was the closest thing I have been myself in a while."

Akeno almost snarled at the boy when she saw him kneeling beside her, but when she saw his face as he moved closer, it made her pause.

Looking at him closer made her see his expression; it was a look she never expected to see reflected by someone else. It was the very same look she once had whenever she looked at herself in the mirror. A look of utter hatred for herself, one she always carried whenever she is reminded of her lineage as a fallen angel. One that she had finally accepted.

But then she noticed the kneeling boy's tattoos' edges glowing an ominous green, and that sinking feeling she felt when he was still dazed showed itself again; she instinctively shuddered and froze. The other devils took a stance, but their worries eased when all the boy did was materialize a single glowing feather. The feather itself had an unflinchingly holy aura surrounding it, something that caught everyone who felt its light off guard.

The feather fell down daintily and, when it landed over the fallen angel's lifeless body, Baraqiel's eyes shot open!

"Wha—" He summoned a blade of light and instinctively thrusted the blade over the boy's face!

Kiba and the rest could only look at the whole scene dumbfoundedly: not only the fallen angel, which they could all feel just by his lifeforce alone that he was dead not a minute ago, was now revived, he was fully recovered enough for him to launch up and attack the boy! The boy was also completely unfazed from another blade of light cutting through his face; the blade cleaved through his cheeks, his eyes and nose. But not even a single drop of blood left his body.

"What? Where?" Baraqiel paused, finally noticing everyone else. "Akeno?"

The girl in question went from being completely distraught to hugging her father in no time at all. Kiba noticed the boy was looking at them with longing, an expression he was completely familiar with. But when the boy looked directly at Kiba the boy closed his eyes and stood up. Rias and Koneko, another member of their peerage who were between the boy and Azazel, stood their ground as they noticed him walking up to them.

Kiba stood up and went beside his peerage.

"I don't know what you did to the Vice-Governor, but I must ask you to stand down," Rias declared.

"Samarecarm," The boy said a matter of factly, but when all they did was stare at him dumbfoundedly the boy stopped and looked directly at her with slight confusion. "I revived him…? I can heal Azazel too, if you will let me."

"We already have a healer," Kiba answered, fighting the urge to badger him about the seemingly lackluster way he just said he made someone—a fallen angel at that—live again.

The boy looked at Asia. "Can she reattach his limbs too?"

"She can," Rias stood firm.

"That's good," The boy looked at each of them, then looked as if he just remembered something. "Can she also revive the one with the silver armor?"

The three of them looked at each other. Vali was right by the steps of the altar and was guarded by Xenovia Quarta, a blue-haired woman armed with a sword. The boy waited for their answer, but it looked like he could tell the answer quickly enough. He looked at Vali's direction and raised a hand. The boy didn't move an inch, but another glowing feather materialized over the armored young man and daintily fell. When it finally landed the eyes on Vali's armor glowed and the Vanishing Dragon's eyes opened. Not even a breath left his lips when Vali flew away into one side of the room quickly, still clearly distraught from what happened to him. He was looking over to the boy, but Kiba noticed the boy looked indifferent.

"What the hell happened…?" They heard Vali mutter between breaths.

"I killed you and Baraqiel," The boy, again, answered as a matter of factly.

"Naoki…?" Gabriel muttered. "Who…are you?"

The boy turned to the angel, Kiba noticed him trying to answer her. But when the Seraph took a step back as he tried to get closer to the angel, he stopped. He looked at the angel with a wince, but quickly regain his composure. The boy settled to keep away from them instead.

"Who…" He paused. "I am."

He slowly pulled every single blade that were stuck in his body. None of them left a wound over him and his body melted back together as if it was nothing. Every single blade of light that he pulled out quickly dissolved into crystalized shards of light, but then their glow reddened and they swirled around the boy as if he was absorbing them. The devils didn't fail to notice it happen, but it looked like he didn't intend to hide it from them neither.

"Naoki…san…" Rias hesitated, slowly stepping between her peerage and the boy. "Do you know Gabriel? It seemed like Lord Azazel and Lord Baraqiel implied as much…"

"It's Kashima Naoki," He answered. "And, well, Gabriel—"

"Gremory!" They all heard Vali scream from afar. "Get away from him!"

The boy in question only turned his head, but he didn't say anything else. Everyone saw the way he looked at Vali, it didn't look like he wanted to disagree. There was a part of Kiba who agreed with the Vanishing Dragon; the way Kashima didn't bother to defend himself was also a red flag. But being between this boy and Gabriel was their mission, and he wasn't one to just bail out on someone. The Seraph, was staring at Kashima with concern, and with the way she instinctively reacted earlier Kiba realized she was worried about why she instinctively stepped away from the boy.

"That dragon…" Kashima said softly. "Are you allies?"

"Some dragons are," Azazel didn't waste a breath as he slowly stood up, muttering a quiet 'thank you' to Asia. "Along with the angels of heaven, devils from the underworld, and us fallen angels."

"I see." He didn't take his gaze away from Vali. "This is also my fault."

"From how you reacted earlier, it looked like you know what was happening to heaven," Kiba saw the fallen angel gauge the boy's reaction, but he looked as impassive as ever.

"I didn't know it was heaven that was attacked," He admitted. "But Gabriel said dragons were the ones who took her wings away."

That got the attention of the Seraph and the rest of Kiba's peerage.

"You thought we were in cahoots with them?" Baraqiel sat up, despite Akeno's protests. "Is that why you attacked us?"

"No," He said rather quickly. "I…felt your killing intent, and let myself loose."

"All of you! Before he does anything—" They all heard Vali scream from the other side of the church. Kiba realized when he finally took a closer look of the young man, he was completely dazed. His eyes were foggy, and his stance was sluggish.

"Dragon," Kashima said as he took a step closer to Vali. "You are panicked."

"Take another step and I'll crush your very being into nonexistence!" The silver haired dragon wailed.

"You already tried that," He said. "You'll die from exhaustion again if you keep this up."

"What happened to Vali-san?" Asia muttered.

It wasn't an exact mirror of such an event. But most of the devils present realized how Vali was acting; he looked exactly like a newly transformed devil. Creatures who were forced to undergo the transformation into a devil often resulted in them going through a frenzy. This usually happened to people who had a violent death before they were resurrected.

"You've never experienced it before, have you?"

"What, being revived?"

"Death." Naoki answered. "But more importantly: Fear."

The dragon didn't answer.

"Don't move," Kashima said flatly, walking closer. "I will cure you."

"No! You stay the hell awa—"

But Kashima was already in front of him! Kiba and the others didn't even have time to process how he had done so. There wasn't any trace of magic being used, nor there was any form of balance breaker being activated—but then they finally felt the ground from where the boy was standing earlier cave in; he kicked off the ground!

"He's fast!" Xenovia exclaimed.

Not a single breath left their lips when they found Kashima grab Vali by the face and, pivoting his foot, slammed the armored dragon into the ground! The resulting wave of explosion wasn't as huge as any of ones they saw in the memory, only the remaining stained-glass windows were destroyed. But they were too addled to even try and put a stop to whatever the boy was doing. He was gripping Vali by his neck, kneeling over one of his arms while tanking every single blow of the vanishing dragon's second arm.

"Stay still," Kashima put his free hand over his pocket and pulled out something Kiba was too far to notice, but it was small and it was shimmering.

"What are you doing—!" Vali slammed harder, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

"Sacred Water, this will calm you down," He said before he hovered the contents of whatever he was holding over Vali's forehead and, without ceremony, let it splatter over his face.

With a final scream, the vanishing dragon finally stopped struggling.

"Hey! What did you do?!" It was Rias who finally took the courage to run over to the two. Kiba and Xenovia followed suit, but when they were close enough, they finally saw Kashima stand and grab Vali's arm. They stopped when they saw Vali grab Kashima's arm and let the boy lift him up.

"You…what was that thing?" Vali coughed; his voice was slightly hoarse.

"Sacred Water," Kashima said again.

"Not going to explain any further?"

All the strange boy did was stare at him blankly.

"Vali? Are you alright?" Rias asked.

The vanishing dragon, nodded slightly. "Whatever he dripped over my face, my head instantly became clearer."

The four looked at the mysterious boy for answers, but he only looked at them impassively, all while stealing a glance over to Gabriel. It looked like he wasn't planning on saying anything else. Instead, he asked them. "If I leave her in your hands, what will you do?"

Rias paused, Kiba and the rest looked at her for an answer.

"The plan was to take her to a secure location in Kuoh," Rias said. "She will be protected there while we gather information about the attack."

"Kuoh?"

"Yes, Kuoh."

"Where…is that?" Kashima asked.

"What do you mean, where is that?"

"What prefecture is it in?"

"It's here, in Tokyo," It seemed it was now the DxD group's turn to look at the boy with confusion.

"It's sandwiched between Itabashi and Suginami," Xenovia supplied.

"That's Nerima," Kashima said flatly.

"Nerima's west of Kuoh—"

"What?" But then the boy's face clenched into a contemplative frown. "No, never mind. That's not important. Can I trust you to keep her safe?"

"From the looks of things, that's what we'd rather ask you," Vali retorted. "And that's coming from someone like me."

Kashima's face relaxed, turning impassive. But their little chat was interrupted when they heard a singsong voice call them. Gabriel was slowly walking towards them, hesitation and confusion plastered all over her face.

"Naoki-kun," She looked at the boy.

Kashima took a step back, and the Seraph made a pained smile. "Please, I…didn't know what came over me earlier."

"I understand," Kashima said, a slightly strained tone left his lips, one that Kiba noticed. "Others have reacted worse…I'm used to it…"

Gabriel didn't know what else to say to his words, but it didn't seem like he wanted her to say anything else.

"They said they are part of this Three Factions you told me earlier," Naoki said.

"They are, I have spent time with them before," The Seraph nodded. "Thank you for leading me to them, and for trying to…protect me."

"Yeah, trying." Kashima looked up, the blue pained sky reflecting the red stained stones of the church, or what was left of it. "You'll do better with these guys. Better than staying with me."

"Where will you go?" Rias finally asked, as if the question was something she had been itching to say since they were thrown into this mess. "You…don't seem to be an angel."

"No, I'm not," Kashima laughed dryly, something they became wide eyed upon seeing. The sudden expression from the impassive boy took them by surprise. "Azazel said you're all demons too?"

"Too, huh," Vali parroted.

Rias didn't say anything, but the others knew she was thinking of how the boy failed to notice her distinct appearance nor bothered to react when Vali called her Gremory earlier. That, or he was completely clueless about it. If he was, it seemed he was not unlike the rogue devils they hunted down. Ones who didn't know about the underworld's hierarchy.

"We are devils," Rias nodded. "We are members of the anti-terrorist group, DxD, under the authority of the Three Factions."

"Right," Kashima answered impassively. "You have something like that here, huh. That's better than nothing."

That was an odd way of phrasing things, Kiba furrowed his brow at Kashima.

"You didn't answer my question, Kashima-san," Rias asked again. "Where will you go now?"

"We're not planning on keeping him at arm's length?" Vali said incredulously. "He just solo'ed me, the old man, and the Vice-Governor for crying out loud!"

Rias didn't answer, and it looked like Kashima himself wasn't too bothered by Vali's outburst. But they didn't want to give any reason to turn the boy hostile; they knew when they were outmatched.

"Naoki-kun…" They heard Gabriel call. "Will you come with me for the time being?"

"I was under the impression you didn't want anything to do with me," Kashima said sarcastically.

"No! I—" But with how the Seraph almost burst into tears from his words, it looked like his attempt at a joke wasn't well received.

"Honestly, I won't hold it against you," He smiled. "You wouldn't be the first—"

"Will you just listen to me!?" Gabriel frowned at him; that surprised Kiba and the others. It was the first they saw her so angry as someone. Not playfully upset like when they saw her at the festival before. It looked like she even surprised herself, given how wide-eyed Gabriel became. She waved her hands as she became flush. "I…sorry—"

"I'll listen," Kashima was holding his arms placatingly.

"I promised your mother I will take care of you," Gabriel finally said. "And I intend to keep my promise."

That got his attention. "Mother?"

Note: I used both 'Devil' and 'Demon' interchangeably since both series use 'Akuma (悪魔)' to describe both entities. This does not mean I outright made them to mean the same thing, it highlights more on how the characters easily misunderstood what they meant because of such a ubiquitous definition.