Chapter 11 - One does not simply walk into Kuoh

A/N: Been a while, eh?

Issei found it hard to pay attention to the day's classes. He had gotten off lightly with an easy excuse when he entered class at the start of the second period, but by now everything was a vague blur. With his mind still at the conversation of that morning, it took a while before the start of lunch break registered with him. As he got up to head wherever Matsuda and Motohama would be, Issei felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he came face to face with 'the Prince of Kuoh', Yuuto Kiba.

"If you want, Hyoudou, you could meet with Buchou now?" The blond boy spoke, and it took a while before the words sank in with Issei. And even when they had, they still lacked some sense.

As a result, Issei answered with a very elegant: "Huh?"

"You're clearly out of it today, it isn't hard to tell. Makes sense, I suppose. I doubt I would do a much better job at focusing on classes, were I put in your situation. I am part of the Occult Research Club, led by our president, Rias Gremory. She said she left you a note?"

His mind now finally catching up, Issei was nevertheless surprised by what Kiba said to him. "Wait, hold it one second, you're saying you're part of her… uhm, peerage, was it?

He got a nod and a bright smile in response, before a verbal reply: "Yes, though we tend to avoid using terminology like that while out in public. And since I doubt you'd get much more use out of today's classes, it wouldn't hurt to meet up earlier than the original invitation for after classes." Mistaking Issei's lack of response for hesitation, instead of the forced reboot of the brain that was still ongoing, Kiba added: "We can get out of classes freely, when it involves meetings like this…"

"Ah, yeah, no." Issei shook his head, in another effort to clear his thoughts. "No, it's fine to do it now, no problem."

With that, Yuuto Kiba smiled and gestured for Issei to follow him as he set a steady pace towards the old school building.

"Smile, Rias. Smile and focus. Forget that his mother is an unknown and potentially dangerous individual that has been living in your territory without you knowing for years. Ignore the fact that he wields a potentially God-killing weapon that he possibly doesn't even know about. And don't mind the immense amount of attention this will draw to you and your peerage. Now, go out and prepare to meet your Pawn." The red-haired girl finished her personal pep-talk, succeeding only in filling her body with more dread with every sentence.

With a deep breath, Rias Gremory stepped out of the small bathroom attached to her office slash living room and went to face the dragon.

Issei had been led to what Kiba told him was the old school building of Kuoh High, then to an office on the second floor. For an old building, Issei noticed, it was rather well maintained inside. It made sense for it to be that way, he supposed, if it was still actively used by Rias Gremory and her peerage. Kiba waved vaguely to a couch in the middle of the room, signalling the new Devil to take a seat.

"Buchou should be here shortly, but could I get you anything in the meantime?"

Issei, who focussed back on Kiba from his studying of the room they were occupying, took a moment to reply. "Ah, uhm, no I'm okay." Then, a moment later. "Thanks though."

A silence fell between the two of them, and although it was not necessarily uncomfortable, Issei was about to speak up to break said silence when a door in the back of the office opened up to show in Rias Gremory, president of the Occult Research Club, widely admired within the school, and apparently now his new 'King'.

She was dressed rather smartly, more for business than for a regular school day. Most of her body was framed by her striking red hair, which inherently pushed Issei's vague midnight memories to the forefront of his mind. Still, he had an important meeting to focus on, and clearly his conversation partner was of the same mind, as she took a seat behind the desk that dominated the far wall of the office and waved to the two chairs on the other side of said desk. Obeying the unspoken request and/or command, Issei stood up from the couch and set himself down across Rias Gremory.

"So, Issei, welcome to my office. My name is Rias Gremory, and I lead one of the two peerages in Kuoh. A peerage that, due to yesterday's events, you are now a part of. Before we continue our introductions however, perhaps you could tell me what you already know about what happened. This is in part to prevent me from unnecessarily repeating information you're already aware of."

"Ah, yes of course." Issei replied. "Well, I was walking home late, coming from Motohama's place. And then, I was stabbed. I do not really remember much else until much later. Sorry if that's unhelpful."

Across from him, Rias frowned. "No problem, that's quite understandable, I suppose. In any case, let me then tell you what we know about what happened." Reaching into a drawer on the side of the desk, the red-headed devil pulled out a folder bearing Issei's name. "First off, in the interest of full disclosure, I should say that we have been tracking you for the past few weeks, mostly to scout out if you would fit into our peerage, and in an attempt to figure out the specifics of your Sacred Gear. As such, Akeno was nearby when you were attacked, and called on me to help heal you. We attempted to do this, but your wounds proved to be of such a serious nature, that we- or that I, rather- made the decision to reincarnate you into my peerage. After that, healing you was significantly easier, and we brought you to your home." Rias paused to give Issei a chance to ask questions, but continued when none were forthcoming. "We continued healing you, and then I had a quick conversation with your mother."

Issei nodded, which allowed Rias to get some measure of what he had been told by his mother. As Issei remained quiet and provided no information of his own, Rias nodded and opened the folder between the two of them. Leaning slightly forward as she opened and then turned the folder around, pushing it to the other side of the large table. The brief glance from her conversation partner caused her to show a small smirk of her own, before she continued with her explanation. "Now, as I said, we had been observing you for a while, and the fact that your family is magical is something that we had completely missed up till now. To be frank, that should have almost been impossible to miss and threw us for a bit of a loop. As such, I'd ask you to forgive me for asking this so frankly, but I must ask: were you aware of your parent's magic?"

"Hah, well…" Issei started, unsure what exactly to answer. "I did not. But, I mean… In hindsight there have been signs, I guess. I did not notice it before, but there have always been hidden switches throughout the house that didn't do anything when I pressed them. And mom did have a… I guess one could call it supernatural, read on anything that I was dealing with. But I don't know if that was actually supernatural, or if she's just a good mother, you know? But if you're asking if I've ever seen them do outright magic or something, then I don't think so?" Issei finished his statement as Rias took in all the information, her mind almost going into overdrive before deciding it would have to be discussed at a later moment.

"I see, well in that case I suppose it falls to me to officially welcome you to the moonlit world. Also to my peerage, I guess. I had hoped on recruiting you without this whole mess with the Fallen Angels and you getting stabbed, but I am glad to have you be a part of my peerage regardless, Issei Hyoudou." Rias took a deep breath, before leaning back in her chair and continuing. "Speaking of, I should introduce you to all of them. You've met Kiba already, and I have set up a meeting in a few minutes with all of us. In the meantime, would you like anything to drink while we wait? And do you have any questions of your own?"

There was no other option, after a long time of mulling it over and thinking about it, contacting her was the only option. With a deep breath and a wave, a small sigil appeared in front of her.

"So-tan! How good to hear from you! How is my favourite sister doing? Come on, tell your nee-san everything! Any boys I need to flash freeze yet?" The excited voice greeted her through the communication spell. It was late at night in the underworld, insofar as that was possible in a world clouded in eternal twilight, yet her sister had answered her call within mere moments of Sona requesting it. Sona sighed, already regretting this, yet having no other option than to involve her sister in this.

"Good evening, Maou Leviathan." She started, hoping against all hope to insert some professionality into the conversation. "I have a matter that requires your attention."

To her surprise, her serious tone, coupled with the request, actually did trigger a switch in her sister's tone as Serafall answered her. "Very well, Observer Sitri, what is it?"

After a brief pause to work through the small shock, Sona answered. "A name passed by my desk recently, in the form of a signatory to a document connected to Kuoh Academy. Now, it might be nothing at all, but in combination with other recent happenings in our fief, me and Observer Gremory thought it worthwhile of your attention."

There was a brief shuffle of noise as her conversation partner moved through the room and settled herself down. "I see, and what name was it then, and why would it be cause for such a commotion, Observer Sitri?"

Sona's answer was only one word, as the name itself was enough to explain the commotion. "Nakiri."

"Oh." It was quiet for a few moments. "Yes, I can understand why you'd bring this to me, Sona. I will be with you shortly." The spell died out before Sona could protest her sister's statement, as simultaneously a teleportation sigil appeared in her office and a girl dressed in pink stepped through. "Hi sis, thank you for bringing this to my attention. Shall we take a look at this document?"

The past few days had gone by in a flash, and had felt to Takumi like a whirlwind had taken a hold of his and his brother's life. Their start at Totsuki would have been overwhelming on its own, but the revelation that there was a whole supernatural world hidden underneath their own had added even more pressure on top of that. In the end though, there had been little need to discuss things amongst each other. Both Isami and himself had felt an enormous amount of excitement at discovering a new world, and they had conveyed this to their now 'King' only hours after they had received the offer to join them. Then followed a few days of introductions and training, and now they were here at the end of the week. Not that it looked like their weekend would bring any respite though, as they had apparently been picked to go on the exchange-program already. They had been briefed that afternoon, which was actually how they had called it: a briefing.

They were all going to a different academy for a few weeks, where they would apparently have to function as reinforcements of sorts? Some of it had flown over his head at the briefing itself, but all of them had been assured by Erina that things would become clearer as soon as they were all there. After that, all of them had split up to pick their bags and prepare for the trip. All of his belongings were already on the bed, his clothes packed in a large bag and a suitcase for all the books and cooking utensils he would bring along. He was currently in the process of checking through his drawers and shelves to see if there was anything he missed as there was a quick knock on the door before Soma Yukihira entered the room.

"Hey, you all ready to go, Takumi?" Soma started, looking around the room briefly and noticing the packed bag and suitcase.

As the Italian boy turned, he pointed to said packed belongings and nodded before answering verbally. "Yeah, I am. Do you know when we're leaving?"

"Any moment, you're the last one we're waiting for. Hisako and the princess, together with Ryoko and your brother are waiting at the Academy entrance, so if you're ready we can leave at any time."

"Ah, I see. Then yes, I am ready. Let's go?" Takumi answered, slinging the bag over his shoulder and pulling the suitcase behind him as he followed Soma out of the room towards the elevator in the middle of the hallway. Once both of them had walked into the metal box, Takumi continued the conversation. "You called Erina 'princess', right? I have been meaning to ask you, but is she actual royalty? Or… What's up with that?"

"Yeah, I guess that sounds odd. Eh, it's a bit complicated to explain, but the short answer is 'sort of'?" Soma said with a smirk, knowing full well that the answer did not help in the slightest. As such, he continued unprompted. "The Nakiri family has a long history in the underworld, but their family has always manoeuvred around the highest echelons of power. As such, they were pretty high up in the rankings. Until the civil war, that is. They tried to prevent the outbreak of all the violence at first, but that proved impossible rather quickly. Then, they became one of the first important families to pick the side of the rebels, who are now the current Satans. Because of their stance, they became the major target for most of the then still ruling families." He paused as the elevator reached the ground floor and both of them got out. "Apparently it got pretty bad, with most of the Nakiri-family not surviving the first few years of the war. Assassinations and outright combat took out a lot of them. In the end, there were only a few of them left, but the war was won. That is apparently when the politicking began again, and several later additions to the winning side tried to push the Nakiri to the side. As their attempts increased in violence, the remaining Nakiri family members decided to cut their losses and disappear. Since then they have kept to the background."

In response to the large quantity of new information being suddenly dropped on him, Takumi had nothing intelligent to answer, so he went with the universal "Huh." This prompted a nod from Soma and gave the Italian time to come up with a further answer. "So, are they still in hiding then? Because the Nakiri-name is pretty famous up here, right?"

Soma shrugged his shoulders. "No idea, I mean, the old man has never really hidden his name up here, but I guess most devils do not pay any attention to what is happening on this side? You'd think if they still needed to hide they would use a different name or something."

The two of them left the building and walked towards the nearby entrance to Totsuki's wide terrain, where the others were already waiting for them. Seeing a pile of luggage already arranged, Takumi placed his own things next to it and turned to the group.

"So, how are we going there? Do we need to take a car or plane? Or can we take the train there?" It was his brother who asked the question, as simultaneously a golden glow appeared from underneath where Takumi had just placed his bag and suitcase, before covering all of them as well. At moment later, a flash of light transported all of them away.

It had been a busy week since his life had turned upside down quite suddenly. A week in which Issei had met and worked with all his fellow peerage members and gotten used to being a devil. A process in which he was supported, though separate from each other, by both his King and his mother. Now, he was inside their garden, taking some time off by generally doing very little and browsing on his phone. He was in the middle of this as a sudden yellow glow spread around the width of their garden, and a large stack of bags and suitcases appeared out of nowhere. Now, Issei had gotten used to some supernatural things happening around him in the past few days, but this was new. As such, he was quick to put his phone away, stand up from his chair and shout into the house. "Mom! Something's happening outside, some bags just appeared."

In response there was a brief noise from the kitchen, as his mother walked up to the door to their garden, though not necessarily in a hurry. "Ah, that would be today's guests arriving. Right on time, in fact."

A moment later, Issei was blinking repeatedly to clear the spots from his eyes as the vision slowly returned from being briefly exposed to what was nothing less than the flash-part of a military grade flashbang. As it did, a group of people came into view. There were three guys who were all around his age, with three girls alongside them. As his glance moved over all of them, his mother stepped forward and spoke up.

"Ah, welcome, welcome. It has been a while, little princess." His mother walked forward and extended her arms to the blonde girl, who reciprocated and stepped into the hug. There was something familiar about the girl, but Issei could not pinpoint exactly what that was, nor was there much time to do so as his mother picked that moment to point to him. "This is Issei, my son. He's the reason I called for back-up, but you knew that already. Issei, come say hello."

Issei, who was rather shocked to hear that he was apparently the reason these people were here, took a moment to shake himself out of his stupor, before stepping forward and extending his hand to the first boy on the left of the group, as his mother took up conversation with the blonde girl again. "Hey, the name's Issei. What's up?"

The red-haired boy whose hand he was shaking smiled as he let go. "I'm Soma, Queen of the Nakiri, pleased to meet you."

"Ah, Queen, you say? Are you devils too then? Also, you're a guy, right?" Issei asked, his mind still trying to catch up to all that was going on around him.

"Yeah, all of us are part of Erina's peerage. She's the blonde girl talking to your mother. Next to me are Isami and Takumi, they are our Knights. The other two girls are both Bishops. As for me being a guy, the Evil Pieces don't discriminate."

"Hey." "All good?" Both of them spoke up, and Issei had to do a double take as he spotted the blond guy, who looked almost like a doppelganger to Kiba.

"Ah, I see. Sorry, I am still rather new to all of this. I suppose I should introduce myself as a Pawn of the Gremory then? Is that right? My King isn't here at the moment though."

The dark haired boy next to Soma stepped forward. "Ah, me and my brother are all new to this too. We're still somewhat stumped trying to take it all in."

"Ah, I see." Issei replied. "Also, my mom said you were here as back-up? Because of me? What is going on with that, you guys know?"

It was at this moment as the blonde who had been talking to his mother up till this point introduced herself to their conversation. "Issei Hyoudou? My name is Erina Nakiri. As for us being here, it would be expedient to explain this to both you and your king at the same time, as it has to do with official peerage-business. Do you have a way of reaching her from here? Or should we head over to Kuoh academy for a meeting?" Her tone was a lot more formal than the two guys Issei had been talking to up till this point, and Issei responded without much thought.

"Uhm, sure. I can call her right now, if you want? Mom?"

His mother nodded. "Yes, that might be good. You could invite your fellow peerage-members as well, if you want? I'm sure Erina and her peerage wouldn't mind making a good impression on all of them at the same time."

Not quite sure what his mother meant by that, Issei nevertheless stepped back inside to call his club president and request for some back-up of his own.

It was through her familiar that she had observing her Pawn's house that Rias first got the message that something was going on. Something had moved into the area using magical means, and it had not looked like whoever was moving tried to be in any way subtle about it. As such, she had already called Akeno, Kiba and Koneko to prepare to move out, and sent a message to Sona. All of them were in the process of preparing themselves mentally for potential confrontations and combat as her phone went off. Showing Issei's name as the caller, Rias quickly picked up both the phone and the call.

"Issei, are you alright? Do you need help?"

The other side of the line was silent for a moment, before her Pawn answered her. "Ah, yeah I am fine. Could you guys come over though? My mom wants to invite you all for something, I believe. I'm not quite sure what's going on exactly, so I could use the back-up as well, I guess."

Rias nodded once to the three people in the room with her, signalling that everything seemed to be alright with their newest member, before she spoke up. "Of course, we will make our way over there shortly. Did your mother say anything about what we'd be invited for?"

"Uhm, I'm not sure. But there is another peerage here, the Nakumi's or something? They wanted to meet with you, or all of us I suppose."

This threw Rias for a momentary loop, as there were no pillars or High Class devils named Nakumi, before her mind went to a short snippet of conversation she had had with her fellow observer almost a week ago. Somewhat dreading the answer, knowing it would bring a lot of trouble to their territory, she nevertheless had to clarify. "Do you mean 'Nakiri', Issei?"

A moment later, her feelings of dread were confirmed. "Yeah, that was it. Is that important?"

"I-" Rias took a deep breath. "I-, yes, it is. Or rather, it might be. We will be over in a moment, please wait for us."

With that, she hung up on Issei, and looked to see her Rook, Queen and Knight already gathered for teleportation. Still holding her phone, she shot another short message to Sona, then joined her peerage members to face this new challenge that had now suddenly appeared in her territory.

A/N 2: As usual, running away from work to complete for studies, does wonders for improving my creative writing and getting work done of stories like this. Been a while, finished another small degree, and am currently looking for a job. To break that whole bit up a bit, here is a chapter of this story. More to follow, hopefully soon, possibly much later. :)

Let me know what you think of this, as we skip forward a bit to get the story moving. Do you agree, and/or do you miss things so far?

See you in either a few days, or a few months!

~Alsodef

p.s. One teleports instead.