John started studying those books as soon as he went back home from school, accompanied by his girlfriend of course, the first thing to check was what seemed to be a notebook, upon further reading it seemed to be a diary of the eccentric scientist who had given him those books.

"Those absolute two-bit assholes from the convention! Scientists my ass, those guys can't even consider the notion that they're wrong, and now they tried to take away my prizes just because I said something they didn't like, well too bad, I earned them, not like you, Morgan Mc Kinley, your insipid crook that skews result to the highest bidder! In any case, project Elysium is a success, there is a world parallel to ours, or should I say several, though I don't think one of those places' world would be accurate, more like a sea, an abyss? I'll call it the Void for now, there are things in that place, things that have been on Earth before, others haven't, the tablets from Dr Livesey seem to indicate that the ancients found a way to tame or even bond with these things, some of them at least, I need to research even further".

That was one of the paragraphs that he read that shook him, a parallel world? That seemed too fantastical and yet he couldn't discard it entirely, he kept on reading, and he came upon another thing that shook him to his core.

"Okay, at this point I might as well start going to Church, because now I know the Devil is real, and if he is real then God must be real too. These degenerates worship a cadre of devils that answer to one single being that they call the Master or the Liberator, those guys visibly recoiled when looking at a cross, anyways, they were about to sacrifice a kid to something they called The Witcher, some being that gives powers to its adepts, curiously this kid they claimed is not a normal kid, they called him Void-touched, and he is apparently related to the Void I studied some months ago, can't exactly do any analysis now, the kid is in Hokkaido, how on Earth they managed to kidnap a kid from that far north is beyond me, maybe these guys have members in intelligence agencies or something"

John had to reread that paragraph several times to make sure he didn't misread it, another kid that almost got sacrificed to those guys, is this normal for those cultists? And Void-touched, was that what the scientist was detecting in him using that weird contraption? He decided to flip pages, skipping through the diary entries for later reading until he read a page that said, "Final entry".

"So I'm running out of pages in this notebook, from now on I will separate my lab notes and instructions and my diary entries, if you are reading this then congrats, you reached the part where you can cast fireball or testicular torsion to your enemies, the instructions are below, this is the easiest mode of magic that I decided to name as elementary magic, because even an idiot can use it, it's the easiest and least powerful of all stages, then comes the more difficult spells which you need rituals to 'refine' the mana you are using, you don't need to know all the theory I discovered just yet, if you manage to make several spells then you can go ask me for more notes and books, and remember, bring them back whenever you are finished.

John read through the first instructions for spells very carefully to not make a single mistake, from what he read 'magic', at least this one, was a higher order of physics with its own laws, even the more 'esoteric' disciplines had laws, not well-known ones, but laws, nonetheless. It required from the caster first a fuel which can either be external or internal, the internal fuel could be matter like flesh or blood or something less corporeal like the man inside every creature that they capture from the environment, said mana Hoshino notes, is not really created from the body, where does it come from he had no idea, he theorizes it doesn't even come from the world itself but from somewhere else, but the body in this case is like a battery, how fast it recharges and how much you have depends on your body and how healthy you are.

"Well, time to practice" he announced.

He spent most of the afternoon practicing before doing his homework, it was hard work, he had to get a high amount of concentration and go through a series of motions before trying to cast the spell, after a while he decided to reread the notes, mentioning in a footnote in the instructions for the first spells that the spell can be launched from anywhere from a body to a focus point which can be a staff or anything, though Hoshino recommended that someone try first with a focus point since it would apparently be easier for the initiate. Going to the garage he took a metal pole and went to the backyard and after two hours of training and much frustration he finally managed to cast a feeble looking ball of fire no wider than his own pole, itself only half the size of his forearm, this however, made John very happy, then he went into the second thing he wanted to learn before calling it a day, something which doctor Hoshino called "witch sight".

"This thing is indispensable for anyone learning magic, it allows you to know who is an actual human, a sorcerer, or something else, it's something that will come naturally when someone starts using magic normally, but if you wanna learn it now, first off you probably won't since you're probably lazy, but if you wanna try anyways, meditate for one hour every day for the next four days or so, meditation allows for the mana or whatever energy it is that allows you to do magic to flow more freely and imbue you with it, it's strange, it almost feels like it's alive, anyways, this energy changes how you perceive it, in a way, after you do this training, merely closing your eyes will be enough to summon this "witch sight", this also helps you store more of this mana"

So, he decided to do just that, he sat down on the garden and started to meditate in the best way he knew, he decided to pray for an hour as if he was in front of the Most Holy Sacrament that the Church exposes on some days. He stayed down with his eyes closed, hearing only the sound made by the wind and birds in the neighbourhood, he stayed like this for what he felt was an hour before he heard someone call to him, checking the clock he saw he was meditating for little more than an hour, satisfied for now he called it a day.

From then on until Friday he trained every day for three hours, eventually managing not only to be able to cast a firebolt from his pole, like some wizard waving a wand, but also with different elements, even managing to cast a rock, an ice ball and even a metal sphere. The diary mentions that this type of magic is more "free" in the sense that doesn't require a circle or a ritual to cast, as an example the doctor explains that fireball is not a specific spell, but just a way out of many to shape the mana, he could shape a gust of flame, a bullet or a spear made out of a rock, it's when somatic spells enter the scene when things start to get more complicated but also more powerful. Sure, you are freer with elementary magic in the sense that it doesn't have many rules, but it's also less refined and powerful you can't enchant with it for starters and creature for the Void laugh when you fire those spells against them and so do more powerful sorcerers that use more advanced schools of magic.

But the real discovery for John was the witch-sight, sure enough he managed to unlock it after four days, when he did his world became grey for a moment, looking at his parents he saw them enveloped in a green aura, later on the diary explained that normal humans had a green aura, signifying that they didn't have any connection to the Void, while sorcerers had a blue one, but the man said something else in his diary.

Then there are the things that appear human but aren't, depending on what race they are they can be either yellow, red, black or any type of colour, they are preternatural beings, those that develop the witch sight by using it can even intuit what a person is by simply looking at them with it, for now, dear reader, just be aware of this colour code of the four most numerous beings you will find.

Red= Demons (no, not the ones that possesses people, these ones are a completely different beast, don't ask me why they are called demons without being fallen angels, not even they know)

Yellow= Angels (1)

Black=Fallen Angels (1)

Note 1: I don't know how they dare call themselves angels or fallen angels while still being corporeal beings, I have seen a demonic possession and these guys aren't the same thing, they are apparently a race of preternatural beings that pose as something called the "Abrahamic Factions", again, no, they aren't Heaven or Hell, I dare say they are pretenders, the demon interrogated by Father Nishimura surely seemed very angry when I confused him for one of those guys, a better way to call them are Overworlders and Underworlders respectively for Angels and Fallen Angels and Demons. It's a whole headache and a half so just so you know dear reader, yes Heaven and Hell are real, no, it's not them.

Note 2: If you meet one, don't make them aware that you know who they are, it's almost never good when you do, especially if you are a sorcerer, they recruit from humans and will do anything to get a prospective sorcerer in their hands, or even someone with those Sacred Weapons, but that's another story, point is, if you know one, don't make them aware that you know what they really are unless you know exactly what you're doing.

It was with this knowledge that he found himself with the biggest surprise in the world when he found Akeno in his door like in the previous days, almost immediately he used the witch sight on her, he used all his willpower to supress his surprise when he found her with black, red, and green.

"Are you okay, John?" she asked, purple eyes narrowing in concern.

"Oh, yes, yes" he stuttered.

"Mmmh, are you sure, did you have a hard day yesterday?" asked his girlfriend once again.

"No, no, I just, I simply went to sleep late" he excused himself.

Akeno however was smarter than that, she knew from his mannerism that her John was hiding something, something that he didn't want to tell anyone, he wasn't seeing another girl, that much was obvious, she would smell it otherwise, his mana signature was the same and there was no way he knew of what she really was, so what was bothering her boyfriend so? If it was his faith that was nothing to be worried about, his Church certainly didn't look like the bigwigs back in Rome, Istanbul, or Berlin, she could see that much in her "investigations" to what Church he was going to, what did he see? In any case it seemed like she would have to leave it for later, for now she will play along with his excuse.

"That's no good, John, I know studying can get hard, but if you overwork yourself, you just make it harder".

"Okay, okay, I'll drop sleeping in late".

"Good, because if it happens again, I might just have to tutor you personally".

John didn't need Akeno to know what he discovered just yet, so he simply nodded, still a bit thrown off because his love wasn't a complete human, her aura was a mismatch between three different colours, was she an experiment, were her parents completely human or was one a different race from the other, a hybrid? Whatever it was he didn't dare try to find out as he was, this revelation, while not dulling his love, did give him a sense of fear, he was now scared of her despite him not wanting to, one part rationalizing that if Akeno wanted him to die or be kidnapped she would have already done so, the other part, representing his fear, saying that he could not depend on her acting on human understanding, that maybe not now but in the future she could get an opportunity to do who knows what to him.

"I'll wait some time before making judgement, Doctor Hoshino did say they aren't exactly what I know as demons".

"Shall we get going?" he asked.

He left the house, conspicuously having his witch sight activated, he noted that most people he saw walking were humans, hence the green aura, but once again he would have a surprise when his friends came, Issei had a green aura with tints of orange, Motohama had a deep blue and green one, same goes for Matsuda, but Yuuma, accompanying Issei once again, had a black aura, completely black, John's heart skipped a beat when he saw that, why would a Fallen Angel go for Issei? He then saw Issei's aura once again, orange? What did that mean, what did any of this mean, was any of his friends even completely normal, was anyone in this damnable city, were his teachers normal?

"John?" called Issei, "is something wrong?"

"Ah, no, I'm okay, nothing's wrong at all" replied John, trying to hide his shock.

"Sure? I know Yuuma-chan looks dashing today but is there something on her?"

"No, no, its fine, I just had my head on the clouds for a moment" he excused himself, trying not to look at the girl hugging his friend's arm that suddenly found him very interesting to look at, suddenly he felt Akeno's grip on his hand tighten.

"She knows, she knows, she knows what Yuuma is!" he thought.

For Akeno it seemed that now she knew what the problem was, John somehow discovered who the Fallen seducing his friend was, and judging by how intently the girl was staring at him she also knew it, she almost didn't notice her grip tighten, too focused on the pest in front of her, looking back at her with an attempt at a cordial smile.

"Is something wrong, Himejima-san?"

"No, Amano-san, nothing at all"

Oh how she wished she could just kill it right then and there, when a human has knowledge of the supernatural, the agreement was that they become fair game for anyone, which means that John would die if he tried to interfere with the Fallen's mission, or if it simply thinks that he could, and from what she gathered John would very much try something, anything to warn his friend, he was too good to tell him outright that he didn't trust the Fallen but he would probably shadow them in their date this Friday, coincidentally the same time she would go on a date with John. She knew the Fallen would try to kill him and Issei for thinking they are a potential threat, its simply in their nature, she would know after all, she was the daughter of one, but that wouldn't happen, she would be there for John, that crow, that sorry sack of blood and feathers would NOT do anything to him, it will not be the reason her possibility for happiness would die, she would not allow that, but first she has to tell this to her master and friend.

"Rias has to know this; I can tell her about how she is with the current Red Dragon." She thought.

The group went to school without much trouble, Issei saying his goodbyes to Yuuma before going inside, and went to classes. John however could not concentrate, because his mind was going to Issei.

"I must do something, I can't let Issei be alone with that… Monster" was a common train of thought he was having, lasting even through lunch where he forgoes going with his friends to think alone in the school's rooftop, a place he knew was usually vacant, while having his lunch he began to think.

"I don't know if I will be able to defeat something like that when I inevitably confront her, the more complex spells are far beyond my ability and I can't learn them, something about requiring learning the circles and having more mana than what I have now" he thought, he started to pace around and bite into his nails. "dammit, I can't defeat her, not when I don't know anything about her, I would die alongside Issei, so that only leaves two options, I tell Akeno or escape somehow" then he had an idea "wait, the notes mentioned something about a teleporting circle, where if drawn somewhere and infused it would transport the person to another circle that was drawn before, and only the user can use it or someone who can somehow mimic its mana but they have to be linked, what could serve for something like that, a gym mat? No, too big and too inflexible, a blanket? No, we don't have any spares and Mom would ask questions, wait yes, my gym towel! Its big enough to fit two people on it and flexible enough to fit in my bag and Mom won't complain if I wash it, I have to test this, and train as much as can between now and Friday" with that thought in mind he began to write on a notebook all he planned on doing, after classes he started to speedwalk towards his home, only briefly saying his goodbyes to his girlfriend, further confirming her suspicions that John knew about the preternatural.

"There is no way he doesn't know" Akeno thought as she watched John leave the school with hurried pace "and from what it looks like he is about to do something about Issei-kun going with that pest, I'll have to be near".

From then on everyone prepared for Friday, Issei thinking of a good date plan for Yuuma, John training and perfecting everything he knew as much as he could, going as far as to go outside his house with his newly painted gym towel to teleport himself and then himself with swivel chair, while he couldn't test how it would work with people he still considered it a victory when he managed to do it on Wednesday. He also trained with what he knew of what elementary magic for now, namely the basic attacks shaped from the various elements of the world and pure mana, in both practice and theory, discovering that the rituals further refine mana and that such refinement and control was necessary for the upper tiers of magic. Leaving that aside the fated day came fast for him, he packed extra clothes and his metal 'wand', only a small metal rod half the size of his forearm and his gym towel. As always his girlfriend accompanied him to school, classes were had and he spent time with his friend, while he had a plan to shadow Issei while he had his date, even having ample spare money when he had to go into restaurants, Issei certainly helped by saying where they would go, going into the changing room after class he changed into a chequered shirt and grey pants with shades, he also hid his rod inside one of his sleeves, going out of the changing room he began to follow Issei with his witch-sight activated.

Yuuma met Issei at a park, where John prudently watched them from a bench on the other side of the park.

"The game begins now" he thought, trying to quiet down his fears and nervousness, with cold sweat dripping down his forehead he began to follow the pair to the centre of the city, stopping at a café where the two ordered a milkshake offer for couples, sitting inside on a corner of the café John watched them while having a meal, having his witch-sight on he scanned the restaurant and the pair acting like a typical pair of enamoured teenagers, with their cliches and their silliness, like Issei sharing the straw with Yuuma, feeding each other.

"Issei, I love you, but you have enough corn to feed three million people" thought John, just then something caught his eye, in came Akeno wearing a white a red dress and another person he saw with Rias, this one had a red aura intermixed with yellow, it was the white-haired fourth grade girl he saw munching on sweets with the rest of Akeno's friends.

"Koneko? She isn't even human, could Rias also be…?" he thought, but just then he saw Issei paying, quickly he did so as well and waited for the pair to exit before leaving, not sparing a single glance towards his girlfriend and her friend, meanwhile Akeno narrowed her eyes as she watched her boyfriend leave.

"The poor fool, he really will try to stop it from killing Issei-kun, what does he have in mind?" she thought as she paid for her meal and followed John with Koneko on tow.

With that they followed the pair well into the afternoon, watching them go into a cinema, taking some ice-cream plus seeing Issei win some prizes in a game for his 'girlfriend' then they went back to the park, the same park John saw them meet for the day, feeling his dread increase as John saw the park was deserted, he hid behind bushes as he observed the pair, taking his gym towel on one hand and his 'wand' on the other, while he wasn't able to hear the words being said he did see Issei go from happy to confused, but it was the transformation of Yuuma that sealed it, going from a girl a bit shorter than Issei to a tall woman with black wings and outfit that began to summon a yellow spear of light while cackling, his heart began to pump as he saw the thing, cold sweat pouring from his forehead and his legs unable to move from fear, just then he saw Issei's expression, one of fear and desperation, practically calling for help, that was enough for him, sprinting out of the bushes he pointed the wand towards 'Yuuma' while screaming both in fear and anger, the woman was still too distracted to notice him, only turning to him when the firebolt was flying towards her, it exploded upon contact, creating a thick cloud of smoke, quickly John unfurled his towel as he approached Issei and laid it on the ground.

"Ise, quickly, stand in the circle!" he exclaimed.

"Jun?" he cried, but he was grabbed by the other boy as the circle began to glow.

"You!" cried 'Yuuma' with a look of absolute hate and fury, she charged flying against them but just as she was about to reach John the circle finished the teleportation, taking the boys to John's room. Issei looked frantically.

"Jun?" he stuttered, John was also stunned, still recovering from the woman that was about to kill him, it was only when he reached his room that he came into the count that he almost died, quickly he looked out of his window to see if the woman had followed them, then went back to Issei, his adrenaline still pumping high.

"Issei, you're sleeping with me tonight, and we're…" just then he heard a bell on the door, John frowned, "stay here and try to hide, I'll see what it is, do you understand?" Issei nodded quickly and went to John's dresser, meanwhile John went downstairs and called, "I'll get it!" his dad gave a thumbs up from the sofa, John opened the door to the second last person he wanted to see today, his girlfriend, swallowing his fear he greeted the frowning and taller girl.

"Ahaha, Akeno, what's up? It's pretty late" he greeted.

"I want to tell you with you" she simply replied.

"Juan, who is it?" called his father.

"Uh, a friend from school, they want to come into my room" he said.

"Is it Junji again? If his parents are okay with it…" trailed his father, with a nervous look John ushered the girl in, lead her upstairs to her room, they entered the room lit up only by a light on his desk, John sat on his bed and opened his mouth, but Akeno cut him off.

"My club members are outside and they know your magical signature, we also have other ways to track you down, so don't bother teleporting away" she said with seriousness, dread started to overpower John's mind as his heart started to beat in his chest like a drum, then Akeno gave him a sympathetic look with a sigh, "are you hurt, did she manage to do anything to you? The Fallen can be very crafty" she said as she got close to him and started to fuss around him.

"What are you talking…?" Akeno once again cut John off

"You were about to fight a Fallen Angel just to save Issei-kun, I didn't see much of it but I knew you got away but I didn't see you fight" she replied, still checking for injuries in his legs, she sighed in relief as she saw he didn't have any, he sighed, there was no way he could fool her, "John, tell me, how did you know?", asked his girlfriend with a concerned look, he hesitated for a moment debating on how to tell her.

"Please, John" she pleaded.

"Fine, a few days ago, last Friday actually, I was kidnapped by a cult" he replied.

"What?" Akeno breathed, looking straight at his eyes with alarm "who were they, where are they?"

"I don't know, and in an abandoned building in the bad part of town, I was about to be sacrificed to…" he gulped, looking down while his hands started to tremble.

"John, look at me" called his girlfriend, "look at me" she called a second time, this time grabbing his head with her hands and forcing him to look at her, "I know, I know, it was scary I know, sit on the bed, sit on the bed" Akeno held John's right hand and lead him to the bed, where she sat next to him and hugged him close, that made him calm down as he unconsciously leaned on her, "now, take deep breaths and continue when you feel more calm, okay?" John did so and after a few breaths his heart stopped pumping like a drum.

"I was about to be sacrificed to a thing, I think they thought it was a god, they called it the Lover, but then when I was about to be stabbed something happened, I don't know what it was but I felt something cover me like a blanket from toes to head even though I could see everything, the cult started to scream and then dropped dead, literally dropped dead, after that I told this to someone else and they took me to another person who knew of this, they gave me what I needed to learn more and promised me to teach me" he explained

"John…" trailed Akeno.

"No Akeno, I'm not telling you who they are, they don't want anyone to know who they are besides me and our mutual friend".

Akeno thought for a second and sighed, "fine, I won't pry, I suppose he is the one who taught you magic".

"Yes and no, he gave a few resources for it" he replied, now came an uncomfortable silence "I know what she is thinking, she thinks we can't be together anymore because she thinks she is a demon, no, I'm nipping that misunderstanding in the bud now".

"Akeno, I know what you're thinking, and my answer is no, I'm not breaking up with you" he replied, leaving her surprised.

"What? But"

"You are not a demon, if you were I would know immediately, and you would also not be able to come inside my room which I sprinkle with Holy Water every single day, nor would you be able to touch me since I wear a St Benedict's medal, blessed by my priest, and I don't even take it off when it's time to sleep" he said showing off the steel collar he had with two engraved silver medallions and a golden crucifix, gifts from his Confirmation, Akeno instinctively recoiled slightly at their sight

"John, if I touch them…".

"You won't burn".

"John I…"

"Akeno, do you trust me?" I asked, she was stunned once again at the question, but she nodded, "then trust me who trusts God will preserve you, now touch the medals" he ordered, this time with a frown, Akeno swallowed some saliva on her mouth and with a shaking hand she slowly reached out to those medals and with a finger she touched the smallest one, almost taking it away but not doing so when nothing else happened besides feeling the cold metal.

"What, but how? Your Church makes Holy Water the same way they do in Rome, and I know of their medals, so how?" John inwardly thanked the heavens nothing happened.

"Because you aren't a demon and the people back in Rome are wrong, they are right when they say that demons are despicable creatures full of hate for the human race, they just attribute the word demon to the wrong people" replied John, "if you were a demon or possessed by one, we wouldn't be having this conversation at all".

"How are you so sure?"

"I'm not, you're seeing me simply having faith on it" he replied with a smile, 'well that and I trust Doctor Hoshino's judgement' Akeno gave him a small smile after a few seconds.

"Then I'm glad you have that type of faith, John, never lose it".

"That's the plan, now, I believe you can leave, don't wanna have my parents get the wrong idea".

"Aww, and I thought we could share a bed".

"Only if you decide to marry me, you vixen, you're not seeing hide or hair of anything save my face until you're ready to take that step" he replied with his arms crossed and a small blush on his cheeks.

"What if I decide now?" she replied, a flirty look on her face, the boy's blush became bigger.

"Come on, leave before we give my parents are heart attack".

"Okay, okay, you're right, those are your boundaries, and I will respect them" she stood up and a red magical circle appeared on her hands, "though its admirable, the self-control you have, few men have it".

"It's hard, but I'm used to it, it also helps I have divine intervention on that regard, good night, Akeno".

"Good night, love" and with a flash of light she left the room, John's smile then gave way to a frown.

"You can come out now" he called; Issei came out of his dresser.

"So, uh, this doesn't change anything between you and Himejima-san?"

"No, not at all, though the one we do have to be cautious of is whoever her master is, she mentioned club members, so I think her master may be whoever runs the ORC, in short, Rias" John explained, he was scared, he was pretty scared that Rias was Akeno's master, this meant his girlfriend was the slave of that girl, if she wanted him dead, Akeno would have no choice but to kill him.

"A-are we gonna talk to them tomorrow?" asked Issei, he nodded.

"We don't have much choice if I'm being honest, Rias will want to know what the hell happened" John looked at Issei "also, your choice if you decided to talk with Junji and Oda about this" he said, then John grabbed some pyjamas and started to change "now, if you don't have anymore questions, call your parents and tell them you'll spend the night with me"

"W-why?" asked Issei.

"That crow, the woman that tried to kill you, probably knows where you live, but she doesn't know where I live, she won't think to look for you here, just stay here for the night, and don't go home alone".

Issei nodded, John then pulled another bed from under his, it was a simple one, he put a pillow and some blankets, he gave Issei a sheepish smile "sorry, dude, best I can do at this stage".

"O-oh, its okay" Issei said, still with a rather surprised expression.

"Well, don't just stand there, get a shower or something".

Issei went into John's bathroom, leaving him alone with his thoughts "I must talk with Doctor Hoshino after I'm done with school tomorrow, screw it, I'll talk to him and Father Nakamura".