I don't own High School DxD! Only OC's and all the bullshit I come up with!
====|X|====|X|====
When Flames Rise – Chapter 1
There was a Spark
====|X|====|X|====
Parents.
Most people love their parents.
They raise you into the person you are and help you with every step you take. Supporting you in every way they possibly can.
Sadly this is an image that doesn't fit into all families. While it is the natural thing for a parent to protect and help their child grow, nothing binds a parent to do such a thing. Children are abandoned by their parents at times, other times they are mistreated.
One of those unlucky children was Issei Hyoudou.
His father he had never even seen, but if he was anything like his mother, he didn't want to meet him anyway.
Because his mother hated him.
This situation thankfully only rarely occurs. Some parents might be neglectful or unloving, but it was very uncommon for a parent to hate their child when that child was no more than five years old.
Issei was one of the few unlucky ones who went through this hell at such a young age.
But there was a clear reason for why his mother acted like that towards him. Though it was no justification for what she was doing to the boy.
Like children normally did, Issei resembled his father, and not just that, he also had taken some features from his grandfather.
His goldish hazel eyes were sharp and focused. Every time his eyes met those of his mother she was brought back.
Back into her own father's hands. Into the hands of a tormentor who would sell her body as he valued money far over her. The only reason she had been able to escape his grasp was that he just didn't care enough to spend money on getting her back.
And that combined with Issei's short messy chocolate brown hair brought up just more bad memories.
Memories of a man.
A man who brought her life to a wonderful state.
A man who seemed to care for her.
A man she fell in love with.
A man that would abandon her.
Before Issei's birth, he disappeared.
Left her behind, alone and with no one to hold onto.
Her broken mind was not strong enough to handle the sorrow and anger.
So she started taking medicine. But as she took more and more its effects started disappearing and her need for it just started growing.
A medicine turned drug.
And once Issei started looking like both his and her fathers.
She snapped.
And from that day on Issei turned into her punching back, both literally and emotionally.
On a good day, Issei would only be beaten once. On a bad day, he would lose count.
In between those days of being beat relentlessly something happened. Something that would change Issei's future drastically and redefine the very essence of Issei's being.
Yet compared to its massive implications, the event itself was rather tame.
One day Issei stared out his open window.
Any other person in his position may have been questioning if it wasn't a better idea to drop themselves out of it. But Issei, having nothing else to cling onto, had buried all his will into a single goal.
Survive.
Children form goals at young ages that might not stay for the long term, but those goals do help shape them in different ways. But with Issei, it was a dark corridor. There was a singular desire burning within him, a primal one that every being had within them.
The need to live.
His entire mind was set on that goal, his desires never diverging into different paths as there never was a foundation for them to be built on.
Survival was his drive.
Survival was his need.
Survival was his desire.
He was utterly determined to survive, having devoted himself fully to the primal instinct.
This unwavering and focused determination caught the attention of a being that was on a hunt for such a vessel. A vessel for his master to become full again. And that he found in Issei.
As the young boy's window stood open a white feather was blown towards him.
He kept a watchful eye on it, not identifying it as a thread but unwilling to ignore it. After all, what else should he be focusing on?
As the feather made its way towards him, he took note of the faint glow coming from it.
That glow made the feather seem more mysterious and magical than Issei fully acknowledged it to be. To be fair, he didn't even know of magic at this point, so assuming something to be magical was nothing he was accustomed to.
Without a care in the world, he let the feather softly land in his hair, and soon after decided to close the window to catch some sleep.
Though to his surprise when he reached for it, the feather seemed to have fully vanished. Looking around his small room he could not find the tiniest sign of the glowing white feather but eventually decided that it wasn't worth the effort of searching for it, as he had no particular use for it.
He did not even consider that the feather had been no actual feather.
It had been a physical manifestation of something far more powerful, making its way into his very core without making much of a fuss.
Well, to not make a fuss while entering. Settling down was a process that didn't have to remain unnoticed by Issei.
==[X]==[X]==
He was falling.
Falling through the endless void of utter nothingness.
In fact, he wasn't even sure if he was falling.
There was no up or down, no left or right, no beginning or end.
It was dark, but he could see himself.
His arms hung upward as he fell head-first.
But as he moved them, he realized that they were illuminated from one side only. His head was even projecting a shadow onto his chest.
There was light.
His head flung back so he could see what was illuminating him.
His eyes were met with a bright ball of light.
He wasn't blinded by it, but as he kept staring, he took note of it spreading out through the void, sinking into the darkness, and seemingly burning it away, leaving behind a bright glow, almost indistinguishable from its core.
It was powerful.
His instincts screamed at him that this was not a threat, this was beyond what his mind could classify in terms of danger.
Whatever it was it could absolutely and completely erase him, turning him into a silent echo of the past that would instantly fade away from one's memory if heard.
He was panicking. While his body remained unmoving, frozen in place from sheer shock, his mind was screaming in utter unfiltered fear.
He wasn't scared for his life.
He was scared for his existence.
Balancing on the fine line of insanity he stare straight at the manifestation of unstoppable doom as it slowly grew into the visibly infinite void.
==[X]==[X]==
Issei's eyes shot open and not a moment later he had sat up in his bed, waves of sweat on his entire body, tears flooding his eyes, his skin feeling like it would jump off by the sheer number of shivers he was experiencing.
Yet.
Even with the concentrated feeling of pure dread still lingering within him, he remained determined.
No matter how impossible it had seemed in the moment, he had not surrendered his sanity to the entity that had invaded his dreams due to his unstoppable will.
A mind that lost its sense would not be reliable for survival, so Issei refused to let go of those sparks of sanity within his head that were keeping him from completely giving up anything and everything.
Having regained his full confidence he lay back down and closed his eyes, not caring if he would come face to face with the light again.
He had survived the encounter once. He would survive another one.
==[X]==[X]==
Thankfully for Issei, the dream within the void would not come back to haunt him. For the next few months, his dreams remained empty, not showing any signs of the burning bright light.
Meanwhile, the days went on as usual.
He would get beat and with every punch that fell, every fist that connected, his care for them started to dwindle more and more.
It had become such an integral part of his life that he slowly started growing used to it.
He just let it happen and would go on with his day as if there was no difference.
This development was much to his advantage, as his mother had always found a reason of beating him within his emotion. And with him not displaying any the beatings became less common, still accruing daily but not as frequently as before.
Then one day something would happen that would turn his entire life upside down.
It was a normal day for Issei, but once the clock hit 8 PM it all stopped.
There was a knock on the door.
Silence was normal in the Hyoudou household as the only two inhabitants didn't talk with one another, but only after the sound had reached Issei, was it that the silence grew deafening, interrupted only by the door of his mother's room being opened and steps approaching the front door, from which the unusual sound had come from.
Issei sat in the living room on the couch, he would have been staring out the window, but the knock had caught his attention.
As the door opened it felt like time itself slowed down.
There stood a man.
A tall man with a rather charming aura that was barely hiding the murderous air around him.
His purplish eyes had a bitter coldness in them that, once Issei directly stared into them, seemingly caught him in a stranglehold, refusing to move away from him.
A sense of dread grew within his chest.
While this wasn't even close to the sheer fear he felt in front of the light, the man still gave off a sense of danger that Issei almost instantly took in.
This feeling of danger increased when a devilish grin split the man's face.
The moment was almost interrupted by his mother speaking with the man, but with the man keeping his eyes pinned on Issei it was like his mother wasn't even there.
Yet even with his entire focus being forced onto the man, he took note of the plastic back that the man handed his mother, though once that small interaction was over his focus was once again completely consumed by the cold eyes.
The man took step after step closer to Issei only stopping when he stood right in front of the young boy looking down at him sitting on the couch.
"You'll get a month's worth supplied weekly for two and a half years straight."
Finally, their eye contact was broken, and the man looked at Issei's mother, who was visibly baffled by the words he had spoken. Though Issei didn't know the meaning behind them.
"R-… Really?"
Her voice shook as a tear rolled down her cheek, something Issei got used to seeing, but not in this kind of tone. Because there was something so foreign in her voice.
"Yes. A month's worth weekly, for one simple price."
"I'd give anything!"
Issei didn't really focus on what was being said, more on how it was being said.
"Even the boy?"
Issei's gaze shot towards the man, and he was met with a side-glanced quickly followed by the grin opening into a full smile.
"Issei?"
Her tone suggested that she hadn't even considered him as a price.
"What a nice name."
But in contrast to many parents, it wasn't because he was priceless to her.
"You can have him. Do whatever you want with him."
It was because, in her mind, he wasn't worth anything.
"Excellent!"
The next moment Issei was picked up by the man and put onto his shoulders. Some would say they looked like father and son, but truly Issei felt more like a hostage.
"Then it's settled, one of my men will come by every week to give you what I promised."
Issei just sat idly on the man's shoulders as he was carried out of his former home.
He could have made it way harder for the man to take him away, but in the end, he was being distant from his mother and while he wasn't sure what was to come with the man as his caretaker, in the moment it felt like taking that risk was easily worth it.
As he finished his small train of thought he was put down from the man's shoulders and put into the passenger seat of a simple-looking red car and the man put on his seatbelt.
The first minutes of driving remained silent as Issei stared around the car and from time to time outside to see the streets with people, houses, and all kinds of things he just wasn't used to seeing.
"Sold for some drugs."
The sudden words from the man caught Issei's attention.
"You're taking it awfully well."
Issei didn't answer, just staring at the man as he was concentrating on driving the car.
"Not the talkative one, are ya?"
No answer.
"Hmm… Well, that's gonna make things easier… I think."
Issei tilted his head in slight interest.
"Oh trust me."
Issei felt the same dreaded sense of danger as the man gave him another side-glance with the same devilish smile caressing his features.
"If you play nice it won't be painful."
A shiver ran down the young boy's spine, and he decided that looking out the window again was way better than having a one-sided conversation with the man.
Thankfully, the man didn't have anything else to say and let Issei stare out the window without any further comments.
After a while, they reached a rundown motel, and the man parked in one of the few free spots. The man got out of the car, went around, and took him out of the passenger seat and back onto his shoulders.
From his elevated point of view, Issei took in the location.
The motel looked old and long abandoned. It was on the very outskirts of Kuoh, the only thing between it and the forest was a hill with a church on top of it that also looked to be run down. There were barely any people around and those that walked the streets looked very shady, kept their heads low, and made sure to have a big distance between themselves and the motel. But even though they didn't dare to step closer, most of them had their eyes on Issei, which made him very uncomfortable.
To Issei's relief, they quickly entered the motel through the only not barricaded entry.
A strong stench of alcohol hit Issei's nose. The place wasn't as rundown from the inside as it looked to be from the outside, but still, it didn't look like it was taken care of properly. They had entered what looked to be a lobby. It was a pretty open room, easily 10 meters in both length and width, with two couches on both walls to the right and left with the left one covering the entire length of the wall, while the right one only went up to like 8 meters so one could enter the half-open door at the far left corner of the room from which Issei could hear some chattering. There was also a smaller counter in the middle of the wall opposite the entrance, with a woman looking to be in her thirties with long sleek almost greyish but rather black hair and purplish eyes similar to those of the man. She gave the man a glance when he entered, quickly shifting her gaze towards Issei, visibly confused at his presence, before resuming her paperwork without as much as a word. There were two other doors on each side of the counter.
Issei, still being on the man's shoulder was brought through the door to the right of the counter, which led into a small room, that was more like a cross path, with only four doors and a lamp inside. Each one on their own wall including the one they had entered from.
Issei barely got a look at that small room before the man opened the one straight ahead into a long hallway that had them take a left turn the moment, they entered it and had no real interesting features, being filled with a bunch of lockers lined up on the wall with none of them being even slightly unique. At the end of this room, they made a 180 turn into a staircase after which they had to turn right to go through another door.
They entered another hallway.
This one was different from the first one. As their point of entry was at a 90-degree turn. Issei had at most a second or two to look at the full hallway after the turn as the man immediately barged into the same direction the stairs had led them.
What Issei caught of the hallway after the turn was no different from the part they were walking along.
One side of the wall was full of barricaded windows and a row of doors on the other wall, with it ending in one last door approximately right above the lobby-like area they had entered the building from.
But before they reached said last door the man turned to the last door before it and entered into a small room that looked to be a rather small bedroom for one person.
There was a simple bed and a closet right next to it, that due to the small width of the room was also touching the wall.
"Rest a bit."
The man put Issei down from his shoulders onto the bed tucking him in, which surprised Issei who wasn't used to the motion.
"You'll be needing the energy tomorrow."
With that, the man left Issei in the small room.
A few seconds later there was an audible click of the lock.
Issei, deciding that following the man's orders was, for now, the best option, went to bed.
==[X]==[X]==
He was falling.
Falling through the same infinite void that seemingly stretched into nowhere and going far beyond.
It took Issei a bit to recognize it, with the darkness consuming his vision it was at first unclear if he truly was in darkness or if something was hindering his sight.
His doubts were eliminated when he saw it.
The light.
It had grown.
Somehow, in the span of the last few months, the light has taken an infinite part of the void and fused into it.
For it to do something like that the amount of time given was too insignificantly small. Not long enough for anything to grow that much. And even so, it was still visibly growing, expanding beyond anything the rules of reality should allow.
The sensation of nearing doom hit Issei like a bus. The feeling was suffocating.
It was like someone had put their hands around his throat, slowly tightening the hold until Issei could do nothing but agonizingly feel his body scream out for air. But they wouldn't stop there. Still closing in, even after Issei was nothing more than a dangling corpse. Only stopping after there was nothing left between those frightening fingers.
It was unstoppable in that pursuit and Issei could only hope that it would turn away from that idea and forget his infinitely smaller presence to move on to bigger fish.
Yet it didn't.
Its entire focus had been put onto Issei, and he felt it.
If the light would have had eyes there was no doubt in Issei's mind that he would be stared down by it.
As if it was trying to burn him into its memory
Never to be forgotten.
By an immortal.
==[X]==[X]==
Like the last time Issei awoke in a cold sweat, feeling like he had just barely escaped certain death.
Yet.
He stayed determined.
Even after knowing that a being of such power had put its focus upon him, he was willing to fight for his survival like there was nothing that could stop him.
Ironically, it was exactly that attitude that had made this entity so interested in him.
But even if Issei were to find that out, it would not stop him. He would still strive for survival with that unchangeable will of his.
There was a knock on his door.
Of course, this entity wasn't the only thing that seemingly had put its eyes on him.
There was also the man.
There was no time for Issei to do more than look towards it, when the door swung open, revealing the man that had brought him here.
"Good to see you're up."
Issei didn't respond.
"Let's get you something to eat first, then…"
That damned manic smile once more made its way onto the man's features and Issei felt that same sense of danger coming from him.
"Then we'll start."
With those words the man stepped out of the small room, being quickly followed by Issei, who feared what was to occur if he were to anger the man in any kind of way.
As he followed the man through the same path, from which they had entered, Issei became more uneasy. He felt constantly watched, even with the man's back turned towards him. It was like traversing a deep cavern with a clear path but no lights along the way, leaving you in utter darkness as you walked through the darkness, no knowledge of the actual direction you were heading, being pushed forward by only the fear that had been set into you from the moment you had found yourself here.
While in the hallway with all the lockers, the man came to a sudden halt right before the door that led into the small intersection.
"Oh. I forgot to mention."
As his gaze once more met with Issei's, the young boy felt something he hadn't come to feel before when meeting the man's poisonous eyes.
It felt like he was being hugged.
Most people would appreciate such a feeling. But this wasn't the feeling of someone important closing their arms around you to show that they care for you.
It was far from that warm comfort.
It was more like the cold embrace of Death.
One arm slinging around his neck, the hand cupping his cheek, keeping him bound to where he stood, while the other hand was passing through his very skin, into his very being, stroking at his core, making him shudder in fear from the possibility of those soft and seemingly gentle strokes turning into sudden claws at his soul, slowly breaking it apart until his mind couldn't handle it anymore, shattering into millions of pieces, unable to be ever restored.
"Consider yourself my son, you'll be treated as such."
…
What?
Issei took a moment to fully take in what the man had just said.
…
What?
No…
He already had a father…
At least that's what he had gathered from his mother's curses about the man.
But…
Was this his father?
No.
His mother wouldn't have remained so calm around him if that were to be the case.
But then why?
Why would this man take him in as a son?
Why would he declare such a thing?
Why would he want to be a father?
Why…
Why should Issei accept him as such?
Closed off to the outside world, those questions echoed throughout Issei's head. Never finding a satisfying answer.
The next seconds, minutes, perhaps hours, remained but a blur within Issei's memory.
Looking back he could only catch flashes of being introduced to random people as the son of the man he had known for less than a full day. He remembered not speaking, putting off some of those people, but being spared from any repercussions thanks to his false title as 'son'. He didn't even remember their faces. The blank gaps remaining unfilled as he ate a meal of which quality he had never before consumed, due to his mother's desire to only eat the cheapest meals possible. But even those faint recollections of what he could remember were all overshadowed by the ever-repeating questions that dominated his mind the entire time.
Why?
Perhaps he would have gotten an answer if he would have allowed his mind to take in what had been happening around him, but that didn't matter anymore.
"Now, son."
His trance-like state of questioning was broken by the man's words. They tore into his mind ripping his attention from all those circling questions.
Issei's gaze slowly elevated from the ground and crawled up the man's body until their eyes met.
"It's time."
The sheer twisted excitement in those words made Issei recoil. As he stepped back, he took note of his surroundings, quickly realizing that he was in the crossroad-like room with the man holding the handle to one of those four doors, but with no orientation, Issei could not decide if it was one, they had already gone through or one he was unfamiliar with.
"Don't be shy."
His silent question was answered when the man opened the door into a dark spiral staircase that was barely illuminated by the cheap lamp hanging from the crossroad-like room's ceiling.
A cent of Death hit Issei's nose. And even though it was unfamiliar to him, his instincts immediately screamed out at the possibility of great danger presented to him.
"Get in."
There was a tiny shift in the man's voice. A tiny shift that made his voice step from barely hiding the darkness behind a mask to not even trying. A tiny shift that allowed the man to plant a fear deep within Issei.
Without a shadow of hesitation, Issei started moving down the stairs, not daring to look back as the door was closed behind him. For a moment he pray that the man had stayed outside and wouldn't even think of following after him, but to his despair, he soon heard footsteps following his own as the both of them were swallowed by the darkness.
It was a miracle that Issei's first steps didn't result in him falling down the staircase face-first, as his eyes took quite a while to adjust to the unilluminated room, and only once they had reached another door was Issei fully trusting of his eyesight.
As Issei stopped before the door the footsteps of the man just came closer, making Issei doubt if it had been the right choice to stop here, but thankfully the man moved passed him, taking something out of his pocket and unlocking the door.
A dim light was enough to make Issei squint his eyes. But thanks to the lights being rather weak, it only took him a bit until he had fully adjusted to them. He was met with the sight of a hallway. But in contrast to the other hallways, he had seen within the building this one had a certain feeling of dread coming from each of the nine doors that were lining the walls.
Though before he could fully take it in his eyes were caught by the ninth door at the very end of the hallway.
[DEATH ROW]
Someone had painted those words on that wall with some red paint. Or was it blood?
Issei refused to think too much about them, yet the fear that was building up in his stomach would not allow him to take his eyes off those words.
While Issei wasn't familiar with the term 'Death row', he knew full well what Death was and recognized it as one thing and one thing only.
Failure.
With his only goal and desire being that of survival, Death was the thing that would mark the failure of reaching those goals, he had to stray away from it, keeping his distance and not allowing himself to fall into its cold embrace.
Yet, he still followed the man as he approached the door.
The door was opened by the man, who quickly stepped aside to present Issei with the insides of the room.
At that very moment, Issei knew that staying with his mother would have been a better option, but he couldn't blame himself for that. After all, it wasn't him who had made the decision to leave that place.
It would have been so much easier if the room would have been empty.
But it wasn't.
A chair was screwed to the middle of the small windowless prison. It was old and worn, but still in good enough shape that it could easily be used without fear of it breaking.
It would have been better if it just ended at that.
But it didn't.
On that chair was a man.
A man whose face was hidden behind a sack that had been pulled over his head, hiding his face from Issei.
A man whose arms were restricted to the chair he was seated on with wires cutting off his blood flow to the point where his arms were a whole different color than the rest of his skin.
A man whose legs were tied to the sturdy legs of the stool, making any movement beyond slight shifting impossible for his legs.
He was sitting motionless, probably unconscious.
Issei would have stared at the man on the chair much longer, paralyzed by the sheer fear of being in the exact same position, barely holding on to life with no way out.
But that trance was interrupted by the man's sudden movement resulting in Issei suddenly having a gun right in front of his face.
Though it was not the barrel that was facing him.
It was the grip.
"Ten."
One word.
One word and Issei knew exactly what was demanded of him. He didn't even have to look at the man to know.
"Nine."
Yet, even so, he did. They met eyes and that creepy smile he had always worn when showing his sadistic glee towards Issei's fear had widened into a manic one.
Those eyes.
They demanded him to act.
"Eight."
And promised pain if their wish were to be denied.
Issei's eyes could not stop themselves from traveling back to the man.
"Seven."
He was struggling.
He had woken up and was struggling.
Struggling to free himself from his inescapable position of death.
"Six"
The pressure in those words increased.
The demand for blood heightened.
Issei reached for the gun.
"Five."
The grip was cold as if Death had put its cold hands upon it just before him.
He could feel it.
The power of this weapon in his hand.
With the pull of a trigger.
A life could be taken.
"Four."
Feeling the ever-growing need for the victim's blood slowly leak into his own mind, Issei knew that hesitating was something he could not afford much longer.
Pointing the gun at the victim's head he braced himself.
"Three."
He had to survive.
He had to survive.
He had to survive.
"Two."
==[X]==[X]==
Do you know the saying?
"A wounded beast is at its most dangerous."
Well, there's a problem with it.
The beast does not have to be wounded.
While it still mostly applies to situations where the beast is wounded, it is no particular need for the beast to be wounded.
After all the two conditions that have to be met are very simple.
The beast must be backed into a corner.
And.
The beast must have a strong will.
A will to survive that is.
==[X]==[X]==
Issei could do no more than stare.
Stare at the man.
Stare at his head.
Stare at the hole.
Stare at the blood.
Death.
That is what had occurred here.
By his hand.
"Good work, son."
Issei felt those words at their full impact.
Crashing into his empty head, forcing themselves into his memories.
He wasn't crying.
He wasn't laughing.
He was standing and staring at a corpse unsure how he should react.
A clash had erupted within him.
On one side he wanted to fall on his knees, and beg for forgiveness from the soul that had probably already left them. Weep until he could no longer. Do what he had to, to repay for the life he had taken.
But.
On the other side.
He felt the need to smirk, if not even smile. Smile at the beauty of the art he had produced with the sheer pull of a trigger. Art that was never to be shown to anyone but him and his father. And he wanted more.
Yet even with that massive divide going on within him he still felt one thing remain burning deep inside of him, unchanging and unwilling to be challenged by either of those ideas.
The need to Survive.
He had done what had to be done. If it were not for him taking action, he would have died just like the man in the chair had.
There was no doubt about it.
His action had been for the sake of his survival.
It did not matter how the man had gotten himself on that chair. If he had committed a major crime or if he had been kidnapped for the sick amusement of someone else.
If it weren't for his Death Issei would have had to face his own.
And Issei wouldn't allow that.
With his determination flaring back up, he suppressed the battle within him and walked from the scene.
This was beyond his problems anymore.
He had done what he had to, to survive.
The only thing important was what came next, not what had already happened.
==[X]==[X]==
He wanted to cry.
He wanted to desperately break down in tears and let all the sorrow crash down upon him.
Yet at the same time.
He wanted to break.
He wanted to crush everything in his path, leaving behind nothing but broken skulls and the wonderful smell of fresh blood.
This internal conflict was one that had found its origins in that very first kill. In that bullet that pierced through some guys head. In the blood that had painted the walls.
It never had a chance to come to a conclusion, not once, building itself up in the back of his mind while his uncaring need for survival pushed him forward.
Perhaps it would have faded away already if it weren't for the constant fuel provided to it.
Almost on a daily basis, Issei would pull the trigger, to murder someone.
It was the only requirement he had to fulfill.
As long as he would kill when commanded to do, there were no consequences, no negative side to all the spilled blood that his hands were soaked in.
At least, none outside his mindscape.
Within his head, he had begun tearing himself apart, two sides fighting for what they called right and wrong, trying to win dominance within him while he was driven by his unchanging determination to survive.
At first, it was but two ideas going in different directions with Issei having the possibility to choose either.
And instead of taking one of the crossroads presented to him, he had just stopped, letting those conceptual ideas grow through the questioning of his actions until there was no room for anything else in his head. The only other thought remaining was his drive for survival that both ideas agreed with, leaving it untouched as it remained prominent.
And so it began that after a few years that felt like decades, he had no thoughts within himself.
He didn't ask questions.
He didn't answer any.
He just did what was demanded of him, in exchange for his survival.
This was not a perfect strategy.
After all, that conflict would just grow and grow until the dam holding it back would be shattered.
But for now, it was the only option.
So he did his best holding that dam up.
Almost every day he was brought into that underground area. He would be handed a gun. He would see someone bound to the chair. Sometimes struggling. Sometimes silently accepting. And he would taint the walls in a fresh new layer.
They all fused into a blur.
Person after person.
There was no mercy. No questioning. No hesitation.
Only Death.
And he delivered it.
But after that circle had repeated over and over and over again.
It stopped.
On one very special day.
==[X]==[X]==
"Shit, we really don't have anyone to go as a bodyguard, do we now?"
"Around 75% are on outposts, defending the territory. 20% are directly in the base guarding. And the remaining 5 are resting. There isn't anywhere we can pull forces from without destabilizing our defenses or giving up an entire outpost."
Issei wasn't listening, sitting on one of the tables in the bar area of the motel, eating whatever it was that had been put on his plate. It fed him well enough, so he didn't question what exactly it was.
He didn't take note of how the conversing group had put their eyes on him, all with the same thought.
"You can't do that…"
"Why not?"
"He's a fucking child at best… a deadbeat one at that. The fuck is he gonna serve you as a bodyguard if he can't… like do anything."
A chuckle came from the man.
"Don't you underestimate my son like that."
For a few seconds, that felt like hours for the woman spoken to, there was utter silence, except for Issei's cutlery. He wasn't being spoken to.
"Trust me."
The man's eyes caught those of Issei, immediately catching the boy's attention.
"He knows how to protect someone."
Issei couldn't decipher a command in those words and so decided that doing nothing was the best option.
"You'll be my bodyguard, son."
As soon as those words fell Issei stood up from his seat and walked up, next to the man.
The man's demands were clear, and he would not fail him.
==[X]==[X]==
"Why did you bring the child with you?"
Issei looked the woman that stood in front of the man right in the eye.
It was the same woman who had been at the counter that day he had entered the motel for the first time. Her eyes the exact same shade as those of the man.
Issei didn't remember her.
He was ready to kill her at any given moment.
"Don't worry, he is my son."
The woman's eyes wandered from Issei to the man, who had at least five guns pointed at him, probably waiting, just like Issei, for a signal to kill.
"Why?"
"Let's just say… he is a gem in a mountain of rusting copper."
The woman took another look at Issei before shaking her head and turning her attention back to the man once more.
"If you say so… Anyway, let's get down to business."
Those words brought a tension in the air that made Issei shift position slightly, feeling a predatory aura radiating from both the woman and man, readying himself to do whatever he must to survive.
"As you wish…"
The man extended his arm and without a speck of hesitation, the woman reached for it.
As their skin touched, they shared a sharp inhale before releasing their hold, nodding to one another, and parting ways by walking in opposite directions.
"Kill her."
Before anyone could react, a gunshot echoed through the air and a hole appeared in the woman's head.
Blood flew across the room and accumulated on a puddle under her as she fell face first.
You would expect there to come more after. For the man to be filled with bullets. For the room to turn into a battlefield.
But it did not.
The man left with Issei following, no one even trying to stop them.
==[X]==[X]==
"I know you barely remember anybody you kill."
Issei's immediately shot up to meet those of the man as he spoke those words.
"But did you notice that you killed… her?"
Issei remained silent. He had no answer for the man.
"Kinda funny really."
A small chuckle escaped the man's lips.
"Killing your own mother and not even noticing it."
At that moment something happened.
Issei, upon hearing those words, for the first time in years, fully took in the information laid out to him.
==[X]==[X]==
Those words.
They reached his very core.
The very center of his being.
And they resonated with it.
He had killed.
His mother.
His former tormentor.
All with his own hands.
His fingers were dipped in her blood.
And for the very first time, he felt something bubbly within his chest.
A sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.
A sense of…
Happiness.
At that very moment, Issei, for the first time ever.
Smiled.
But with that sudden rush of happiness, with that change in feelings.
The dam. It cracked.
And in that very moment of vulnerability.
It was broken.
Before him, there were two roads.
One of Redemption.
One of Damnation.
He had no problem choosing.
After all, it was Death that had brought him happiness.
==[X]==[X]==
The man had expected the usual.
A silent response of no meaning, that wasn't even spoken to him.
No hum, no words, no nothing.
He had certainly not expected a bullet to shoot through his head.
"The fu-"
Before he could finish his sentence another one was shot, splitting his jaw in two, making it impossible for him to speak.
Without much more thought, he turned to the boy, in a motion to swing at him.
But what stood before him was no boy he had called 'son'.
Before him there stood a blood-soaked beast, hungry for his flesh, ready to tear him into pieces for the tiniest bit of his blood.
It had only two goals.
Survive.
And.
Kill.
He wouldn't let it.
His swing was aimed at the boy's head, with the intention of ending this as early as possible, but before his arm connected another bullet pierced it, slowing its momentum, and changing the direction so that he hit Issei's stomach rather than his head.
But even so, the swing was devastating.
Issei was flung across the street, rocketing through the wall of an abandoned building.
The man immediately started regenerating and quickly took note of three onlookers, watching in horror.
Not wanting his inhuman nature to be revealed he swung his hand in their general direction, fingers of his detaching from his hand and rocketing off at absurd speeds.
Before any of them could as much as comprehend what had just happened, they were all pierced through various parts of the body. Their deaths were no different than if caused by a gunshot.
Thinking the situation was over, the man sighed and started heading back on his own.
There were no remaining onlookers and Issei was-
There was a spark.
Immediately he froze in his steps.
His eyes were wide open.
A fire lit up in the darkness.
He turned around, back to the house, and there.
Right there, where the dust had settled, stood a familiar figure.
The fire spread.
Issei stood there, seemingly immovable by anything that was not his command.
Consuming everything in its path.
"Oh fuck…"
The man took two steps back but couldn't make it much farther as the pressure on his body seized any movement he could make.
Nothing would stop it.
"No, no, NO! YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO AWAKEN THAT YET!"
The panic in his eyes could not be hidden from Issei, but it didn't matter.
Nothing could stop it.
Issei would kill him either way.
Something emerged from the flames.
In a last-ditch effort of survival, the man took all he got to stand against the pressure and went straight for Issei.
He wouldn't let himself get killed that easily.
It stood.
Rushing at the boy he used to call 'son', his arm turns into a ginormous accumulation of flesh, swinging at the still-standing menace that Issei had become from one moment to another.
Watching the flames consume the darkness that once held it in place.
As his massive hand was to hit Issei, it started melting.
The mass of flesh evaporated before it could touch Issei, leaving only a burning stump from which white fire was quickly crawling up onto the shoulder.
In a state of panic, the man ripped off the stump to try and stop the flames from entirely consuming him, but before he could do much more, his eyes met those of Issei.
The creature revealed its wings.
He wasn't standing where he had been before anymore.
He was right in front of the man.
One of his arms made out of pure white flames came at the man in an upper-cut style fashion.
Before it could touch his stomach, the man felt insane pain as anything within 5 centimeters around the fist was completely destroyed.
Burned beyond a crisp.
Evaporated into nothingness.
And it took off.
It didn't stop.
Tunneling through his entire body until reaching his skull.
Before any cell of his body could react to make a new body for his consciousness they were burned by those same white flames, leaving his soul wide open and within moments he already felt the sweet embrace of Death.
And with nothing to hold him to the world beyond its grasp, he was dragged down into the Abyss.
==[X]==[X]==
Issei looked down at where the man had stood.
Not even ashes remained.
No tiny mountain of dust.
No crackling sparks of remaining flesh.
No smoke cloaking the air.
Nothing.
He was gone for good.
"I must say. I am impressed."
Immediately Issei spun around coming face to face with a pale man.
The man's dark blue hair was tied to a ponytail and his warm cyan eye carried a certain fire in them that he had only just witnessed within his own flames.
"Don't worry. I am everything but a danger to you."
Even though Issei had never seen this person before, he felt a certain sense of familiarity from his voice and could not help but feel unthreatened by him.
"You can call me Dante. And if I can help you with one thing, then it's surviving in this world."
Those words caught Issei's attention.
"Now first, let's get away from here."
Without much hesitation, he headed towards the forest surrounding Kuoh.
"After all, a place where demons feist is no place for a Phoenix."
Issei just followed the man.
He didn't know what to expect from him.
But he knew it was better than what he had behind himself.
==[X]==[X]==
A/N:
Thank you so much for your patience.
This was accelerating to write and I'm already writing on the next chapter as you are reading this.
If you are in search of the original, it is archived within a new story that I created called "When Flames Rise – Original Archive".
I am thankful for anyone reading this, anyone leaving a favorite or follow and anyone reviewing.
I hope that my growth as a writer is visible within these texts.
I wish you all the best.
And don't forget!
You matter.