If there was anything that Alfred had learned during his short but tumultuous time alive, it was that life had a way of just going on. The world may seem like its ending, and everyone you love may pass away, but that never stopped life from just trucking on. People adapt, they change and rebuild. No pain ever stays the same, and the way people view that pain morphs as time goes on.

For him, a lot had changed in the span of a month. Perhaps it was just a consequence of finally meeting the devils proper, but he felt more connected to the supernatural world for once. It felt like there was just more in it now that he knew more people, rather than him being a part of some fringe community that the plain world just couldn't comprehend.

Of course, not everything changed.

"Are you really just gonna live in this shitty dorm forever, dude? Got any jacks?"

Alfred leaned against the wall of his dorm while Isami sat opposite of him, scanning his cards quickly before shaking his head. "Go fish. And why not? It has everything I could ever need really. A bed, a bathroom, a sink. It even has a desk. Got any tens?"

She grumbled to herself as she picked up a card, swearing as she handed it to him. "Yeah, but like, this place is kinda small. Wouldn't it be nice to have something more?"

He shrugged, taking the ten and putting down the other three he had, completing his book. That made three for him and three for her. "I guess, but I don't really need it. Besides, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to afford it. Got any sevens?"

"Go fish."

The impetus that got the two of them to start hanging out had been purely coincidental really. Most of her fellow peerage members were much too busy most of the time to just hang around, and he was really the only other person she knew that was in on the whole supernatural business. So, she gravitated towards him whenever she wanted to do something. And with her also now being aware of the supernatural, it felt kind of nice to have someone to chat with that was in the know. "How's the rest of your group doing? I know Kiba's been training his heart out nonstop, and Akeno… she does her own thing."

Ever since their last confrontation, Akeno and he hadn't fought much. Well, that was a partial lie. They fought every time they saw one another, but it wasn't as serious as it had been before. She stopped doing her ritual thing, and really the only time they were forced to interact was when Rias had a job for him and decided to pair the two of them up. Which was a bit too often for the good of his well-being.

"They're doing fine. Rias has been talking with some bigshot fallen angel guy about the bitches we locked up, so that's been eating away at her time. Kiba's been helpful with training, though not all the time. Koneko mostly trains me, which I think is just her way of beating me up to vent her frustrations, but it's working so, eh. And Asia…"

Isami visibly wilted as she brought up the ex-nun, biting her lower lip as she continued. "She's been a mess lately. Sometimes I can hear her still trying to pray, crying in her sleep for the big guy to forgive her. She tries to go to church every Sunday, but I think after her incident with the fallen she's been terrified to go near one, which then makes her feel guilty and she starts crying more and-"

She stopped herself, shaking her head as she sighed. "It's not great. At the very least, she's starting to warm up to someone besides me in the peerage though!"

"Kiba?"

"Obviously."

He snorted, knowing full well that if anyone could get that girl to open up and feel better, it'd be Kiba. "Speaking of training, how's that going for you?"

Before she could answer him, a flash of green light appeared as Ddraig interrupted her. "It is the most shameful thing I have ever laid eyes on. The Gremory simply offers to let her taste the devil's boob sweat and she's doing laps around the school! I can never let the White One see what has become of me!"

Isami growled as she tried to muffle her partner, stuffing her hand over the green gem of her gauntlet as she tried to regain control of the conversation. "I-Ignore him! I've been working my ass off training, really! I can boost up to fifteen times without draining myself anymore! A-And I've been doing contracts all on my lonesome and-"

"AND SHE BEGS THE GREMORY TO SIT ON HER EVERY DAY! HOW COULD I HAVE BEEN BOUND TO SUCH A PATHETIC HOST!"

"SHUT UP YOU RED BASTARD!"

Alfred chose not to comment as the two began to shout at one another, simply checking his phone and stopping the timer he had set the moment she walked into his dorm. "Hm, twenty minutes. That's a new record."

In truth, he really didn't mind their arguing. It was entertaining to watch her try and strangle her arm while the dragon complained about it. Besides, he didn't have much else planned for his day off other than training. Plus, it let him think to himself comfortably without feeling like he was a bad host.

"Hmmm, maybe I should get a new place?"

Though his earlier points stood, he was also quite aware that being in a place where normal civilians also lived was a dangerous move. If something decided to attack him at his dorm (again), they might do more than just break his wall. A wall could be fixed, a life not so much. But even then, while he did get paid for doing odd jobs for Rias, he wasn't rolling in cash. Most of her payments came in the form of information or some low-tier artifacts that she could part with. Maybe if he was doing something other than just killing the monstrous stray devils or helping clean up the streets during full and new moons, he'd be getting better payments. But as things were, life was relatively peaceful.

"I WILL STRANGLE YOU IN YOUR SLEEP!"

"I DON'T SLEEP!"

Relatively.

… … …

One of the other perks of doing odd jobs for a devil was their training grounds. Yes, he could probably train almost anywhere else, but their grounds were something special. The magic imbued into them kept stray energy from leaking out, and due to them being dimensional barriers, any damage he did to the area would be reset once the barrier closed down. He could go as far as he wanted and not worry about a single consequence.

So, he often did.

Alfred stood in the center of the empty training field, eyes closed as Threat transformed into what he called his work uniform. It wasn't anything special, just some slacks, shiny leather shoes, a black button up and vest with a red tie. Over the entire thing was a black coat that went down to the back of his shins, an organic looking pattern of tendrils embroidered on the fabric. It was solely for when he was on the job so that he didn't look like some kid off the street or like he was going to rip someone's head off. His "Berserker Form" as Akeno put it was great for when he was in a fight, but not so great anywhere else. A consequence of being too good at what it was designed for.

He cracked his glove covered knuckles, the red fabric stretching to accommodate his every move. That was the benefit of having Threat be his outfit, as he never needed to worry about the clothing not fitting right or tearing because he stretched it too much. That and dry cleaning.

"Let's start small, yeah?"

Letting out a short breath, he held his hands in front of him while facing each other, gathering magic between them as a small ball of energy formed. He then began to spin it in place, weaving it into itself as the condensed magic gained a golden hue. Threads made of the gold energy began to form an outer shell, a solid grid pattern of gold appearing over the spinning red. The outer shell then started to spin the opposite way, stabilizing as he opened his eyes and grabbed it with two fingers.

"That was easier than last time."

After having made Searing Whisper and completing Malice, he realized that his powers tended to really like granting consciousness to magic. So, naturally, he decided to lean into it. He thought long and hard about his spear's design, meditating on the Goetia's form for days on end before eventually getting an idea for its form. From there, he started small. First, he made a 1D magic core, a single point which glowed like a dust-sized star. Then it was 2D cores, which resembled octagonal magic circles and were several times more complex. And now, finally, 3D cores.

It was the limit of his ability, that much he was aware of. After all, while he could perceive his own infinitely complex fourth dimensional core, that was the extent of it. He wasn't dissatisfied with his progress though, seeing as there was a lot he could do with third dimensional cores anyway.

He let the core float away from him, the energy within spilling out as it began to solidify into a mimicry of his own Berserker form. The creature landed on all forms, a mouth forming as its pure red body began to bulk up significantly. It rose to ten feet tall, its arms as wide as he was as it then began to self-replicate.

The core, though powerful, wasn't nearly as strong as he was. As such, it could only make much weaker copies of itself. Each one maintained proportions that matched his own, mouths forming rows of sharp teeth and tongues longer than their heads. The original beast stopped after making twenty copies, its minions crawling around and hissing like snakes.

After much deliberation, he had decided to call the summoned creatures Syniads. His original name had been daimons, but that got too confusing with demons, so he changed it after Ddraig suggested syniad since it apparently meant thought in Welsh and sounded cool. Though he was pretty sure the dragon was just eager to get some Welsh representation in.

"So… meditation time then?"

Alfred lunged into the fray, letting his body work on autopilot while his mind focused itself. It was a very odd strategy for meditation, but one that just worked for him. After all, there was nothing more calming than using one syniad to bash another to the side. It was practically therapeutic.

Not only that, but it also let him train his lesser used skills as well. After barely coming to a draw with Akeno a month ago, he realized that his reliance on brute strength just wasn't going to cut it. Sure, he had a knack for odd tactics and using what he had to its fullest, but that meant little if he barely knew how to use what he had. So, while he meditated by using electricity to blast five syniads away, he would practice with his own magic in his mind.

That was a little trick that Kuroka's book had taught him. While many magics could achieve it, senjutsu was particularly good at mental shenanigans. Mindscapes were the best example of that, literally being metal projections that one could visit for a variety of reasons. For him, it was a place to test ideas. For him to come up with a thing he wanted to do and then work backwards to see how he could feasibly do it in the physical world.

His mindscape at first had been a strange one, a battlefield filled with fallen soldiers and ash in the air. It hadn't been a pleasant thing, so he changed it. Quite easily in fact, as it took little effort to actually warp his mindscape once he was inside. Sort of like lucid dreaming but way stronger.

Sitting on a beach sipping a cold drink, Alfred rested his chin on his fist and glanced back to where a very over the top castle sat on a mountain. It was a fantasy, he'd readily admit, but it was one that made him feel at peace. He snapped his fingers, an array of differently designed magic cores appearing before him as he mused on what to do next.

"Fire seems to be a good start."

He dragged the fire core to him, flattening it into a 2D core. Giving it a spin, he tapped his drink before reaching out to a holy core he had designed based on the holy weapons Threat had eaten. Flattening it as well, he laid the two of them on top of one another and hummed. "Seems like it should work, but maybe a quick test would be smart?"

Letting the cores do their thing, he frowned as a normal light bullet covered in normal flames shot out. Noticing his problem, he swapped the order of the cores and tried again. This time, a ball of pure white fire shot out. Much better, but he could go further.

Standing up from his chair, he pinched the edges of the magic circle and drew it out, making it much bigger. He then activated the circle, watching as a fireball the size of a small house shot out. "Nice, but the time to generate that much magic would be way too long."

He shrank it back down to the size of his head, letting it spin for a moment before a decently sized fireball was shot. "Much more manageable. Right, let's give it a whirl."

Alfred blinked, his mindscape vanishing as he sidestepped a claw. He leapt back, forming the fire and holy cores in one hand each before slamming them together into one magic circle. One of the syniads lunged at him, before getting a hole blown through it as a ball of holy fire shot through the creature. It fell to the ground, evaporating into magic as the damage proved too great to regenerate.

Now, to see what else he could do with it.

Forming another 2D fire core, he added it to the back of the circle and gave it a spin. It began to constantly generate magic, allowing him to duck underneath another wild claw swing and hit the back of the circle. White flames shot out of it once more, but this time it was a continuous stream of fire which burnt half of them away.

Holy flamethrower, a new toy for his collection.

"This is one of the coolest things I've ever done."

There was something to be said about how having a flamethrower spewing holy fire at his enemies made him giddier than a schoolgirl. But then, who wouldn't be? It was a magic flamethrower. That had to be worth some level of excitement.

Taking care of the smaller syniads, Alfred dismissed his core as he gave the bigger one a look. Summoning Searing Whisper to his hand, he created a smaller holy core around the tip of it before pointing it at the behemoth. "I know this is supposed to be a fight, but this feels like it's going to be awesome, so do you mind just staying there?"

The behemoth saluted, standing in place as his spear began to glow with power. Fire blasted out of the tip, turning white as it ran through the magic circle and engulfing the behemoth who took it like a champ. He pulled the spear away, whistling as not even a trace of the creature remained. That, and every single tree behind it as well.

"Ah, no matter how much I try I'll never be able to match the sheer power you can output, Searing Whisper."

The spear hummed in his hand, agreeing with him with a rather prideful flare to it. Letting the weapon return to… wherever it went when he dismissed it, he crossed his arms and exhaled softly. While he could always use the power of his Goetia of Fire, it was a pale thing in comparison to the actual spear itself. Or maybe him using it just acted as a force multiplier of sorts, making his fire magic massively stronger.

Deciding that it didn't matter right this second, he stepped to the side as a bolt of lightning sailed past his face. "Akeno. I thought you were busy?"

The devil in question appeared from behind a tree, pouting at his nonchalance. "Mou, not even excited to see me?"

She was still wearing her academy uniform, meaning that she had just come out of some meeting with Rias. "You? Never."

Her pout deepened, though he knew her well enough to know she much preferred his derision compared to any manner of politeness. She draped herself over his shoulders, finger touching his cheek as she used some magic to give him a light shock. "How naughty of you, treating me so poorly. And after I just got out of quite the long meeting too."

His instinct to snark back was interrupted by a sharp pain on his backside, forcing him to extract himself from her grasp as he rubbed his ass. "Did you really need to go there?"

Playing clueless, she tilted her hand and placed her finger on her chin. "Go there? Whatever could you be referring to?"

A bolt of lightning then shot out from behind her, which he caught with his fingers and deflected to the side. His control over electrical magic had improved by leaps and bounds, thanks in no small part to Akeno who sought to attack him at every opportunity. "Your tricks are getting stale, Akeno. Bit of a one trick pony, are we?"

That got under her skin, her eyebrow twitched as she gave him a pleasant smile. "You certainly know what to say to make a lady hate you."

"You give me a lot of practice."

Wasn't that the truth. He had never been one to insult people before, especially women (outside of Isami but she was an exception to a lot of rules), but Akeno made sure to drag that part of him out and give it lots of practice. She enjoyed their banter, and no matter how much he would claim otherwise aloud, he did too.

"Then let's try this."

She pointed at him, conjuring a pale blue lightning to her finger rather than yellow. Unsure of what it was but unwilling to give her the satisfaction of being curious, he simply went to absorb it with his hand once more.

That plan didn't quite work out, however, as the moment the lightning hit his hand ice froze the limb solid. "…You're learning new tricks I see."

It was hard not to be impressed by how quickly she improved her magic, putting even his displays to shame. Her natural affinity for spellcasting was leaps and bounds ahead of him, to the point where she had all but mastered her basic lightning after getting particularly motivated because of their battle.

"Well, someone needs to cool your hot head after all."

That was rich coming from her, but he let it slide. Her element mixing was incredible, barely requiring any visible effort from her. The fact she learned it solely because she wanted to keep him on his toes was something he decided not to think about. "Sure. How's Malice doing by the way?"

Fire burned away the ice on his hand as he flexed his fingers, getting rid of the remaining stiffness.

"Couldn't you just ask her yourself?"

"I could, but I'm asking you."

Shaking away the cold, Alfred angled his head to the right as a whip attempted to carve his face off. "Doing good I see."

Malice had taken the form of a purple barbed whip, having been influenced far too much by her host. That seemed to be the way his Goetia preferred to be, staying as weapons rather than the full suit that Threat enjoyed. Maybe that was just Threat's influence on them? While this was just a theory, he had a feeling Threat was his first Goetia and as such had a different makeup than the rest. It would make sense, seeing as it was fully attached to his core rather than his own yet had the same aura as the other Goetia. Though what Threat's element was he had no idea. Something to do with weapons probably.

"Of course, as if I'd let my precious darling be anything but."

Akeno stroked the whip with a coo, having grown very attached to the weapon. Likewise, Malice all but preened under her host's attention. It was a weird dynamic, and not one he and Threat shared, but he wasn't going to judge. Besides, they worked really well together. Even when just a whip and not in Super Sadi-

His eye twitched, and she caught on immediately. "Thought about Super Sadist Mode, did you?"

"It's a dumb name."

She laughed, Malice disappearing in a burst of electricity as the devil placed a hand on her hip. "You'll have to blame Rias. Her love of anime and penchant for the dramatic leads to some silly names, and I'm afraid it's rubbed off on most of us."

"Kiba too?"

Another laugh, though she didn't verbally answer. To be fair to her, it wasn't an inaccurate name. Malice would cover her once more and their power would increase quite a bit, gaining energy from causing others pain. However, rather than the palate swap of her priestess outfit, Akeno decided to go for a dominatrix look instead. Because of course she did.

His instincts kicked in all of a sudden, legs tensing as he dashed backwards just in time to avoid yet another bolt of yellow lightning. Hm, so she could generate lightning away from her now. Good to know. "So, what was the meeting about?"

Akeno sighed at his lack of reaction but gave an answer to his question anyway. "Things regarding the fallen I've had the pleasure of interrogating. I left as soon as I could, though. As if I'd want to be in the presence of a fallen that I couldn't kill."

Wisely choosing not to ask what it was that she was doing to those fallen, he decided to move away from that topic as quickly as he could. "Right. How's Isami fitting in with you guys?"

No matter his initial disappointment in her for becoming a devil, he wasn't really one to hold onto grudges long. What was done was done, and he'd rather have her be happy in her new group than miserable.

"Fufufu, asking me about other women? You truly are despicable."

His eyes rolled as he conjured a small flame into his hand and shot it at her. "So, she's doing well then?"

She flicked a small bit of static discharge at the fire pellet, dissipating it as she answered him properly. "Wonderfully. The girl can't get enough of Rias, such an eager little puppy desperate to please her mistress. She's a wonderful little pet, just the thing our family needed."

He'd feel insulted on Isami's behalf if he wasn't a hundred percent sure that she'd love the verbal abuse. The girl was weird, even by his standards. "Glad to hear it. Was there anything else you wanted to say or…?"

A smile graced her lips as Malice cracked into existence, still sparking with electricity as the devil held her with all the eagerness she could muster. "Or."

Exhaling through his nose, readied himself for a long and drawn-out spar. "It's always 'or' with you, isn't it?"

Akeno said nothing, eyes closed as she gave him a pleasant smile. A smile which never failed to send some shivers down his spine, even now.

This woman was going to be the death of him, that much he swore.

… … …

As much as the others liked to give him shit for it, Alfred couldn't help but enjoy a greasy burger every now and again. It was terrible for his health, and to be honest, it didn't even taste that good. But sometimes, you don't want to eat something tasty. Sometimes, you just want something that you'll feel guilty about eating as soon as you're done.

And he most certainly was beginning to regret it.

He leaned back in his booth, staring down at his hands as he wondered if this was truly the best choice he could have possibly made. Of course, as he pondered this, he took a fry from the greasy cardboard box it came in and munched on it. It tasted like the cardboard it came in had been lightly salted and drenched in oil.

Perfection.

It was then that his pocket began to vibrate, and he idly took his rock comm and slipped it on his ear while poking a straw into his smoothie cup. "Yo."

"Ah, hello scum."

Alfred quickly racked his brain to see what he could have done this time, not finding anything that happened within the last two days as he took a sip of his smoothie. "How much of it is my fault this time?"

"Well, you know those lamiae you decided to roll around with?"

The nectarine flavored smoothie was probably the best thing this terrible burger joint had, second only to the chili fries that were only sometimes in stock. "It was a tradition, Kiyome."

"Don't even. Anyway, you wanna know something just fascinating? I mean just really swell?"

Leaning against the table and using his hand to hide the comm as the restaurant grew more crowded, he lowered his tone so as to not catch any attention. "This sounds like it's going to get me in trouble."

"So, I was counting up all the different denizens of my family's pocket space, organizing a new organization from the ground up is hard work after all. And you wanna know what I noticed when I got to the lamiae?"

"You seem really mad about this."

She ignored his comments, already on a rant and not likely to stop anytime soon. "Every single one of the Garter Tribeswomen have mysteriously started laying eggs. Every single one. At the same time. Oh, and the best part? The lowest number of eggs a single lamia has laid was ten. TEN!"

He almost choked on his smoothie, coughing a bit as smacked his chest with his fist. "W-Well, it seems that the tribe is thriving at least."

"OH YEAH! THEY'RE THRIVING ALL RIGHT!"

A crash came from the other side, making him wince as she screamed. "You seem busy."

"It's your fault! Now I have over a hundred new lamiae to worry about, and I don't have the space to take care of all of them! I can deal with the people living here getting freaky. Sure, it happens all the time and it is really frustrating, but I can deal with that. What I can't deal with is you IMPREGNATING RANDOM DEMONS!"

Now seeing where the problem lie, Alfred dropped his lighthearted attempts to calm her down. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I can think of several things, most of which I can't ethically do to a patient. However, do know that I will be sending you the bill once all the renovations I need to make to accommodate this sudden growth in population are done."

"H-How much would that be?"

The only answer he got was a wicked laugh before she hung up, leaving him to wince as he imagined the complete murder she would wreck upon his wallet. How the hell was he supposed to make enough money to accommodate that?

"Excuse me, may I sit here? The other seats are full."

Slipping his comm off, he waved the stranger in before he even gave them a look. "Sure, go ahead."

"Thanks."

It was a middle-aged man with black hair and blond bangs, something which definitely struck him as odd but not odd-odd. Dude was probably just going through a midlife crisis, who else would have goatee like that?

Alfred was content with ignoring him, staring out the window as he drank his smoothie. He had bigger fish to fry now, especially since he was basically being wrung dry for child support. Seriously, what were the odds that all of them would end up pregnant? Actually, now that he thought about, did he ever pull out with Kur-

"You seemed stressed, friend."

The midlife crisis man leaned back casually, talking in a very laid-back tone of voice as he eyed a mother of two from across the room. It was kind of awkward, but it would've been even more awkward to ignore the guy. "A little."

"What's eatin' ya?"

He gave the mother a wink, the woman glancing around before realizing he was focused on her. She blushed, somehow, hand moving to take a ring off her finger. The old man apparently had some charm. "Money problems, grades, typical student stuff really."

"Yeah, yeah… right, hang on a second. Don't want to let that MILF think I'm ignoring her."

The old man tapped his finger against the table, and suddenly everyone in the restaurant stopped moving.

"What-"

Alfred's justified confusion was interrupted as the old man snagged a fry from his basket and gave it a taste. "Oh man, these things suck. Wish the chili fries were on the menu again."

"Y-Yeah."

It was at that point that he realized that this was someone clearly much more powerful than him, and decided it was smarter to play along. Though, there was one thing he couldn't let slide. "I'd rather you didn't eat my fries, I like those."

"Sure, they suck anyway."

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as people continued to walk by the burger joint. Every now and again someone would walk up to the door, grab the handle, and then just walk away.

"Hypnosis. That's what I did here by the way. Stopping time is outside my list of expertise."

Well, small mercies. "So… what brings you here?"

His fingers tapped against his leg as he counted up to then in his mind, making awkward small talk solely to keep himself from physically panicking. The man before him was strong, insanely so. Or at the very least, the guy knew how to make himself appear strong. Either way, he'd rather not risk it.

"This and that. But as to what brings me to this seat in particular, well…"

The man pointed a finger at him, an easygoing grin on his face as he laughed. "Geez, you look like you're about to have a heart attack. Loosen up, kid, I'm just here to talk."

"Off to a great start then."

His anxiety fueled jokes made the other guy laugh, which eased his nerves somewhat. Better to make him laugh than to piss him off and watch a massacre. "Okay, okay. I see this small talk isn't making this any easier. Let's get to the point, eh Alfred?"

"How do you-"

"-know your name? Why wouldn't I? I sent the letter inviting you here, after all."

An old question popped up in Alfred's mind, distracting him from any nervousness as his eyes narrowed at the stranger. "Who are you?"

The stranger clapped his hands, seeming excited that he finally asked that question. "Getting to the good part, are we? Well, I'll introduce myself then."

Standing up from the booth, the stranger walked to the center of the restaurant and sat down on the counter where a frozen cashier worked. One leg crossed over the other as six pairs of jet-black angel wings burst out from his back.

"I'm Azazel, kid, leader of the Grigori and your guardian angel."

… … …

Short chapter today. Mostly just a catch up after a timeskip because it's nice to let time pass instead of crunching everything down right after another. Also, I'm humorously calling this the "Child Support Arc" until something better comes up because it makes me laugh.

I have literally nothing else to really say to be honest. This was a very light chapter as far as things go, nothing really of massive note other than some minor stuff. Slow starts work well here, especially since I'm going to have to find something for Alfred to do while the Gremory Gals (and Kiba) are handling the whole Riser thing. I thought about involving Alfred, but decided against it. Better to let the devils handle devil things and not involve an outsider in every little thing.

This has been A Decent Hoonter, and it feels almost weird writing such a short chapter compared to the others.