Chapter 2: Black

A/N: Note that there are some changes to the previous chapter.

At first, there was nothingness. Then, came the light.

She would eventually learn that this was how the world was created. She would then reflect on this moment, when she was born, and chuckle at how similar they were. As if she was a worldly being herself.

She was one of the last of her kind to be born. Her race wasn't dying out; she was just one of the last from their communal Father.

But she wasn't born alone.

Once she came to, the first face she had witnessed was a soft, pudgy one much like her own. The face of a baby, just like she was. They didn't cry; of course, they didn't. They weren't humans, after all. They were much more aware than that. Their presence as babies was simply a reflection of human nature, one that their Father wanted to see in His own children.

The one before her, the boy, was one that she immediately connected with. She never spoke with him; she couldn't. She didn't truly understand what it meant to speak.

That being said, upon first sight, she knew that she would do absolutely anything for the one before her. For her brother. The worn she was born alongside.

She realized that she was simply one half of who she could be. He, her brother, was her other half. Without him, she was incomplete.

But unfortunately, fate is a cruel mistress.

After fires rained upon their heavens, she watched in disbelief as a part of her heart burned into nothing. Looking up, she watched it towering over them. The one that killed her heart.

The Red Dragon spouting flames, chasing after the White One.

For the first time in her short life, she wailed and cried and sobbed. She realized that because of this creature, she would forever be half of who she truly was. She would never be complete.

Emotions began to fill her, emotions once prohibited by her Father. Rage at the monster that killed her brother. Greed to have him back by her side one more time.

For Rulmare's sake, she realized that she would have done anything. And now, she was nothing. Now that she was alone, she couldn't do anything.

The white behind her faded, drifting into a midnight black.


"I'm home," Issei called out as soon as he opened his front door.

He heard no response, but that was to be expected.

Issei's Aniki had raised him until he was old enough to take care of himself, about 12 years old, before saying that he had to return to a full-time position at his job and left him alone there. He worked overseas somewhere, and he said that he would travel a lot too. That was why he couldn't always call him, due to overseas charges, or even accept his calls due to his ever-changing number. They would message each other occasionally, but there were several nights when he wouldn't even bother to respond because he would be that busy.

Smirking, Issei pulled out his phone as he closed his door behind him. Moving to the couch and throwing his bag on the table, he collapsed onto the cushions.

Issei: back from frst day of skul

Issei: was ok

Typing and sending these two messages, Issei closed his phone and leaned his head back. He would have told him about how he broke his promise, but he couldn't come to it. Not when Aniki could be in the middle of work, and could suddenly get distracted because of his message.

No, whatever the matter was with Alliance High, he would handle it himself. Aniki taught him well, he would certainly do it, no matter what.

Shaking his head, Issei got up from his couch and walked upstairs. Not to go to his own room, but to move into the guest room.

The 'Guest Room' wasn't given the same amenities as one. Instead of an actual bedroom, it was used as a gym room for their personal use. Aniki was the one who originally built and used it, but he'd shown Issei the ropes and left him with the responsibility of taking care of it.

But he would occasionally use it for his own training. For that day, he'd decided he'd start with some simple warm-up by doing some skipping and floor exercises.

After his warm-up was done, he thought back to his fight with Fumihiro Sasaki and realized that it'd been a while since he'd trained his agility. Nodding to himself, he quickly adjusted the room; he moved the mats and the devices to the walls, then unlatched the nets present on the ceiling in front of them right before the equipment. Before himself, he set a single device.

A tennis ball shooter; a modded one. His Aniki had gotten that one specially designed for personal training rather than for tennis.

Most tennis ball shooters had reasonable speed and feed rate limits. Not this one, however.

His brother was absolutely ridiculous with that machine. When he was warmed up, he would easily work with the max settings for both dials and call it a good workout. Both settings were 1000 balls per minute at 100kmph for 10 minutes straight.

Issei always gaped whenever he saw him perform that. Those absolutely unrealistic numbers could only be fulfilled by someone as stupidly superhuman as him. Aniki even said that he had a cheat tactic that would make him go even faster, but he didn't want to use it for training.

Sighing, Issei set the machine to his personal settings. 300 balls per minute at 40kmph. Some would say that both numbers were impressive regardless, but with monsters like his brother, he could never feel satisfied by that.

Nodding to himself, Issei triggered the device, wore its tracker, and knowing its 5-second headstart, he ran to the bounding box for this event.

Every second, the device would shoot out another tennis ball. Issei jumped out of the way of the balls as best as he could. The design of this shooter was such that the barrel was concealed and limited, making it so it would span across a person's body and shoot at different locations. It would even trace the position of the tracker Issei wore earlier to identify his location, determining where to shoot as such.

He was doing very well for the whole 5 minutes he'd set it for. Issei couldn't help but grin at that. He couldn't help but wonder if it was time for him to move to the next level.

However, in his excitement, at his very last minute, one of the balls lightly grazed the bottom of his arm.

The balls stopped immediately after as if it knew that Issei wouldn't move anymore. Issei gaped at the underside of his arm, internally groaning at the work he'd have to put in once again.

He could only move up to another level if he'd spent at most an entire week without getting hit once by the current settings. He'd had a streak of 4 days already, and he'd considered himself ready to move on. Knowing that he let himself go in that very last moment made him groan out loud in agony.

However, that was the end of his work. After a few finishing rotations, Issei took his shower, cleaning himself of the stench of sweat. Since he had to take care of literally everything by himself since his brother wasn't home, he had already set out some chicken for marination in the morning.

Yes, Issei handled his own cooking as well. In his years of experience, he would even call himself a better chef than anyone in the restaurants he would go to. It was one of the few talents he was genuinely proud of.

Making a simple dish of grilled marinated chicken and rice, he scarfed down the down with a few additional dashes of soy sauce and chilli oil, his guilty pleasures. As he did so, he sat before his laptop and worked.

Thankfully, he didn't have any homework; it would be awful to get homework on his first day, after all.

As he opened his browser, he closed his eyes and firmed his feet as he gazed at the first shortcut on the screen.

PornTube. The local porn site. One of his regular gotos.

Gazing at it once more, he shook his head. With a heavy heart, he right-clicked the icon instead of left, then selected the 'Delete' option.

He wouldn't ever need it anymore. Not since he now had a girlfriend. He'd even asked Matsuda to save the exclusive porn that he saved for him, telling him that he won't need that anymore.

For he was finally going clean. Completely clean this time. Not like when he decided to stop peeping, he would entirely stop being a pervert, even in the closet.

And it was all for Yuuma-chan's sake.

He had no idea how he was noticed by her in the first place. She was from a completely different school, after all. He'd never seen her before. Was she some kind of stalker before, but later mustered up enough courage to talk to him?

'But still, I can't believe it! I actually got a confession! Oh yeah, I have to tell Aniki about t – '

That thought made him freeze, slowly destroying the wide smile that was on his face.

"Aniki… what would he say to this?" Issei wondered out loud, setting his chopsticks down. "Would he be happy? He's the Eternal Virgin, but would he be happy with something like this?"

His brother had always asked him to trust his own gut over anything else; that would be something that rarely ever failed him.

So, was it actually okay to go out with a girl like Yuuma-chan?

Issei's gut had unexpectedly said no. For at that moment, he knew nothing of Yuuma-chan. She was a complete stranger that suddenly came to him and confessed that she had a crush on him despite not knowing him at all. Sure, she might have found him attractive from a distance, but there was one, simple truth that Issei understood.

He didn't completely trust her.

"What if she's just going out with me as a dare? Or a prank?"

Looking down at his phone, he accessed the girl's contact once more. Seeing the two red hearts near her name made him smile as he remembered her once again. She truly was a cute, adorable girl.

But would someone like her be capable of fooling him?

If so, she would have to be a stellar actor. Her confession seemed incredibly real, after all. After the display she put, Issei would certainly be hard-pressed to believe that she was lying about everything.

"Well, if she rejects me, then no harm done, I guess," Issei spoke out loud. "Ah, I should keep my porn collection for now, then. I'll get rid of it if she's for real."

The next day was Saturday, the day of the date. In the morning, before the afternoon they'd set the date for, Issei headed out to buy some things that he desperately needed. Mainly, a fresh set of clothes to wear on his date.

He didn't go to the mall by himself often. He did occasionally go to the comic store in there with Matsuda and Motohama, but he'd rarely ever gone there by his lonesome. It felt unusual. It felt jarring to look to the side to talk to them, only to find that they weren't there.

Shaking his head, Issei walked to the nearest store. As he turned a corner in the mall, one colour flashed on his face.

Red.

Issei suddenly fell down, yelping as he collided with someone. Lightly rubbing his chest, he looked up at the person he'd collided with.

The girl before him left him stunned. Sitting on the ground with upraised knees while rubbing her head was a clearly foreign girl with crimson red hair and sky blue eyes. Her soft features and nearly deadly curves were having an adverse reaction to Issei's vow to stay faithful to Yuuma-chan.

"A-Ah, s-sorry!" Issei near-yelled at the girl. "I-I wasn't looking where I was going."

"No, don't worry, it's partly my fault too," the girl said, her voice sounding soft and cute, yet holding an exoticness to it. "Here, let me help you up."

"Ah, no, I'll do it myself, thanks," Issei replied, hastily standing up alongside her.

Looking back at the girl, he started to wonder why he looked away in the first place. The girl was an absolute stunner. She was wearing a red and white striped V-neck with faded blue denim short shorts. Her hair was flowing freely behind her, save for the one strand that stuck up above her head.

"Ah, I think I've seen you before!" the woman suddenly said. "You're one of the new boys in Kuoh, right? The new student in the Alliance Class?"

"A-Ah, right!" Issei yelped, for once glad that he entered that wacky class. "Issei Hyoudou, nice to meet you! B-But, wait, you're from Kuoh?!"

"Mhm. I'm in my third year. Rias Gremory, President of the Occult Research Club."

"A-Ah, it's nice to meet you, Gremory-senpai!" Issei said with a quick bow, her foreign name sounding odd on his tongue. "Please take care of me!"

"Of course," Rias replied with a soft grin. "I hope you can manage well. Especially with the reputation behind that class you are in."

"Ahaha, yeah, I'm barely getting by. I'm finding it hard to connect with them, but I'll get through to them! Definitely will!"

"Hm! Good luck! And all the best for your next year!"

"T-Thanks! You, too!"

And with that, Issei walked away from Rias Gremory. The redhead turned back to look at him, then pulled out her phone.

"Koneko, have you found out what it is?"

"It's definitely a Sacred Gear, Kaichou. A Draconic one, even."

"Ah, but that can span from a Twice Critical to a Vritra Gear… Thank you for your work, Koneko."

"I'm always at your service, Kaichou."

Hanging up the phone, Rias looked back at the boy who'd recently caught her interest. Not in a romantic way, her love life was tragic enough, after all.

"Issei Hyoudou," she murmured. "Just what secrets do you hold…?"

The time had finally come. Saturday afternoon, just as she'd suggested.

He messaged his brother about the date, hoping to get his advice, but he was busy enough to not even open the messages. That wasn't anything new to him, though.

Still, he was on the balls of his feet as he stood by the square centre. He'd already had the entire date planned out; he even informed Yuuma-chan about it. He'd also made sure to take some extra change from his student bank account. Sure, his brother would probably say something about it, but all stops are lifted when it comes to a date, of course.

Issei took a deep breath, patting his cheeks.

'You can do this, Issei. You've played enough Visual Novels to do something like this. Use your experience to pick all the right options!'

Looking around, he started to falter a little upon seeing that Yuuma-chan was nowhere to be seen.

'Was she just pranking me all along…?'

Still looking, he watched as several couples walked around the square they were in, aside from the families that pushed baby strollers around and held little children's hands in theirs. Looking back, he watched the motion of the small fountain that graced the square.

"Let us grant your wish!"

Issei blinked as those words reached his ears. Looking back, he saw a super-cute girl – 'No! Bad Issei!'- who was picking out fliers from her red bag and handing them away to passersby. She wore a short one-piece red dress with poofy black sleeves, also holding two bat-like wing designs on her back.

'A wish, huh?' Issei wondered. 'Well, I guess I'll see what it is. I could use a miracle for this date.'

Walking up to the girl, he gently tapped her on the shoulder. The girl flinched in surprise as she turned around to face him.

"A wish, right?" Issei asked, holding out his hand, showing off a smile that hopefully wasn't too creepy. "I'm going on my first date today, could I get one?"

The girl blinked in surprise at the boy before her, then suddenly turned around and looked for something. In a few moments, she seemed to turn away from him once more.

"Um, excuse me?" Issei asked, tapping her shoulder again. This made her suddenly jump, even though no sound emerged from her mouth.

Peeking back at him, the girl gently reached into her bag and pulled out one of the fliers, handing it to him.

"T-Thank you!" Issei said, gently accepting the flier. Walking back to the front of the fountain, he watched in confusion as the girl suddenly started to return to her routine.

"Hmm… maybe she's just shy with strangers," Issei mused. Looking down at the flier, he blinked in confusion at it. On the sheet of paper was a black magic circle that seemed rather well-drawn for something like this. Beneath it was another "Let us grant your wish!" remark.

"Didn't know there were good luck charms like this as well," Issei murmured as he folded the flier and pocketed it.

"Issei-kun!"

Issei blinked in surprise at the familiar voice. He swiftly turned around to see the familiar girl running up to him.

She was wearing a soft black corset and a black knee-length skirt, with the look completed with the addition of a cute pink frilly crop top that had its button low enough to pop out her cleavage. Her raven hair seemed to be freshly treated, holding a shine to it that enhanced her wide magenta eyes. The light blush on her cheeks even felt unnecessary for a beauty such as her.

'Batgirl-chan… thank you so much for the granted wish!'

"Yuuma-chan!" Issei yelled out, running up to her as well. "I was so afraid you weren't going to show up!"

"Ah, sorry, Issei-kun. A girl had to get ready, after all!"

"You didn't have to, Yuuma-chan. You're beautiful already, you're basically a model now!"

"Oh, t-thank you so much! It really means a lot to hear that from you…"

"W-Well, let's get going, Yuuma-chan! We've got a pretty tight schedule!"

"Mhm! I'll leave it to you, Issei-kun!"

The date went so much better than he could have ever anticipated. The two of them went to so many places. At first, they roamed around the square to go to a good dessert store in there, but Yuuma-chan had pulled him into a clothes store and started to check out different clothes on him. They ended up buying nothing but a cute little scrunchie that Yuuma wore on her hands. After that, they went to the dessert shop that Issei had his eye on, where Yuuma got a chocolate parfait and Issei got a simple cola, for the sake of his wallet.

It was a remarkably short date, but they must have had fun because by the time they left it was sunset. The oranging light of the sky graced them as they walked to the centre of the square once more, to meet at the fountain where they had first met on that day. Surprisingly, everyone had already gone back, because the two of them were the only ones there.

"Thank you so much for today, Issei-kun," Yuuma said, skipping in front of him with another one of her cute smiles. After spending the whole day with her, Issei started to feel some kind of fuzziness in her heart upon seeing her. It was something he'd felt whenever he'd seen any particular character in some eroge that he'd become a simp for nigh immediately.

Issei knew that feeling well. He was falling in love with her. The only girl to ever want to go out with a pervert like him. It may have been their first date, but he knew that he would marry that girl.

"I had so much fun today too, Yuuma-chan," Issei said, his discovery making his smile even brighter, even though he didn't dare say it out loud. "Can we do this again sometime?"

"Of course! I would love to!"

Issei smiled yet again at that, looking at the fountain before him. Slowly, he felt a sensation on top of his hand.

Yuuma-chan was actually holding his hand.

Looking at her, Yuuma revealed a cute smile filled with mirth. One that warmed Issei as he reaffirmed his grip on her hand.

"Issei-kun," she said, finally separating her hand and standing against him, even though she was still very close. "Could you… do me a favour before we finish this date?"

'A favour?!' Issei's mind helplessly raced. 'Don't tell me she's asking me for that?! No way! I'm finally going to do it! I can't believe it! In your face, Matsuda, Motohama! I love you, Yuuma-chan!'

"O-Of course, what is it?"

"Could you…"

'Come on! Say it! I'm completely ready, so please say it!'

"… let me kill you?"

"Of course, I wi – wait, what?"

Issei stood stunned as he watched Yuuma's smile go from cute to cunning.

"I… You said… kiss, right?" Issei asked again. "Was there something in my ears?"

"Issei Hyoudou, I'll ask only one more time," she said, her voice turning a lot more aggressive than her previously innocently cute one. "Will you let me kill you?"

"… What?" Issei asked, stepping back in fear as his smile finally fell off his face.

From his peripherals, he looked at the sky around them. For some reason, he could no longer see it. The sunset sky was now invisible, or rather, covered up by some kind of neon-purple barrier around the two of them.

Looking back at Yuuma, who was now standing straighter before him, Issei felt something he didn't properly understand.

Fear.

'Who is this girl? Why does she want me dead? What did I do?! Was it because I was a pervert? Then why me?! There are so many perverts out there, so why me?!'

"I truly had fun today, Issei-kun, but this is something that I have no choice but to do," she said, as something emerged from her back.

Wings. Black, feathered wings emerged from her back. These were not the cosplay kind that the girl who gave him the flier wore. Right before his eyes, those two wings were flapping. Moreover, Yuuma even lifted off the ground with those wings and started to fly, although she seemed to hover over the ground with her flapping wings instead.

"This is all for my master, Azazel-sama," she said, forming what seemed to be a spear of blue light in her hands. "If you want to blame anyone, blame God for putting that Sacred Gear within you. You just served as too much of a threat to us."

At that moment, Issei was absolutely made of questions. What the hell was a Sacred Gear? What did God have to do with this? What the hell was she? But none of those was at the forefront of his mind.

After all, Issei was his Aniki's little brother. In that incredibly dangerous moment, what he remembered was everything that his Aniki taught him.

That was probably why his mind's eye saw the incoming light spear as a simple green tennis ball.

Emulating his training, Issei jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the light spear. It didn't even touch him, but the heat emanating from it slightly singed the top of his chest.

"… You dodged that? That's surprising. Well, there's certainly more where that came from."

Just as the previous light spear faded into nothingness, Issei watched as Yuuma formed yet another light spear.

"Issei, if you ever find yourself in a completely inexplicable situation, remember to run away. Don't ever engage it. And more importantly, don't bring attention to yourself."

While it certainly was too late to heed the last point, Issei could definitely respect the first command his Aniki gave for such a situation.

Finally regaining motion in his feet, Issei turned around and started to run away. However, he didn't dare keep an eye off Yuuma, for fear of what she might do.

"Oh? You're running? Hah, as if a human could outrun a Fallen Angel."

To follow him, Yuuma thrust down with her wings and shot ahead, zipping before Issei at inhuman speeds.

"Just know that it was I, Raynare, to have killed you."

Yuum – no, Raynare threw one of her spears again, which Issei was able to dodge a lot better now that he wasn't frozen up. Deciding to run away yet again, he turned around once more to keep going.

He was quickly stopped by three consecutive light spears striking the path ahead of him, without enough space in between to squeeze through without getting burned.

Upon turning left, another wall of spears blocked him. The same thing happened with the right.

Issei was caged in. From the heat of those spears, there was no way to free himself from Raynare's striking path.

Turning back to face the Fallen Angel, Issei couldn't help but ask something.

"Why? Why are you doing this?"

"It's as I'd mentioned earlier, Issei-kun," she said. "It's just an order given to me. I normally wouldn't care about humans like you, but since I was given the order, I am going to fulfil it. This is all for Azazel-sama."

As she formed another light spear, Issei couldn't help but grit his teeth in fury. He didn't want to believe it at first, but now he had no other choice. He'd hoped that this was just a bad dream, but he couldn't pinch himself or bite his cheek in a high-risk situation such as that one.

But after that faded, all that remained was the fury.

She stepped on his heart like it was nothing. He was completely willing to submit himself to her. He had actually started to love her. And yet, she had gone ahead and tried to kill him.

Issei decided that he couldn't stand for that. With that rage building within himself, he couldn't simply give in anymore. He couldn't allow this traitor's wishes to come true.

So, he would actively do anything possible to retaliate. Even if he was just a human, he was not going to die without doing anything.

Finally roaring out, Issei charged ahead with balled fists. Raynare only offered an amused look as she fired her last light spear.

After running out, Issei found himself jumping to the left to avoid the spear. However, it seemed that Raynare had already prepared for that outcome, for she fired another light spear while Issei was in the air.

Issei knew immediately that there was no way he could dodge something like that. He couldn't navigate midair, so there was no way for him to dodge.

Issei felt the light spear pierce through his chest, right above where his heart rested. A burst of red emerged from his chest.

As Issei collapsed onto the floor, he still felt unsatisfied. He didn't want to die like this! If he was going to go out, he was going to do as much damage to that bitch as well. He resolved himself to push through the pain and stood back up, ignoring the way the spear vanished within his chest.

If he'd been paying more attention, he would have noticed the small globule of black twirling from his wound, then dispersing into the air. What he did notice was the light buzzing they started to form.

"Wait, the spear didn't pierce through?!" Raynare remarked in shock. "That had enough power to saw through human bone! It should have gone straight through!"

He could feel what she was talking about. While the warm wetness covered his chest, he could feel nothing on his back. The spear stopped at his chest without making it all the way through.

'Feel the pain, just as Aniki told you. Focus on the central point. Suppress it.'

Focusing on his heart, however, Issei started to feel something else within him. Something cackling and crawling under his skin, begging to be let out. From what he could feel, this thing was seeking to respond to him alone. Moreover, it felt like it was just a part of himself.

They all wanted to attack Raynare, just as he did.

"Ah!" Raynare yelped, slapping her arm and destroying her own light spear. "Huh? Something bit me, but where is it?"

So, he willed it to come forth.

Suddenly, millions of black insects fired out of Issei's body. His skin was forming blisters which eventually gave way to a new one of those insects. Oddly enough, his skin was still completely fine even after the insects were born. Issei couldn't get a clear look at them, but he still guided them. And in his immense rage, all he wanted was one thing and one thing only.

"Punish her," he commanded the insects. As if forming a single swarm-like blanket, the literal wave of insects washed over Raynare's form.

"What… Ah! Ouch! AH! AAAH!" Raynare kept yelping as the little insects started to bite away at different parts of her.

"GAGH! WHAT IS THIS?! WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?!" Raynare shrieked in fear as shreds of her skin started to flake off her body, forcing some of the blood within her to drip out. Her feathers were also being chewed on by something, making her own feathers fall out and deteriorate.

The oddest thing, however, was that she could only feel the effects. She could see what it was that was attacking her.

Looking at her target past the blanket of insects that were invisible to her, she saw his incredibly determined look.

'Is this his doing?!' she wondered. 'What kind of Sacred Gear does something like this?! No, if I stay here, whatever this is might end up biting into my arteries. I need to run!"

Raynare quickly flapped her wings, dispelling most of Issei's insects from them. Relieved to see that they weren't being affected as much, she finally decided to take flight and soar up high, much farther than what Issei could reach.

"YOU!" she called out, ignoring the agony coursing across her body. "I WILL KILL YOU, HUMAN!"

But she couldn't. Not then, at least.

She took flight, running away from whatever it was that the boy infected her with. Issei watched in awe as the insects kept following the Fallen Angel well beyond anything he could even see. However, even though he willed them to stay on her and keep tormenting her, they seemed to stop going after a certain point.

Gasping out loud, Issei finally fell to his knees.

"I… survived?!"

He had no idea how, but he'd fended that monster off. He was the one to have survived in their fight.

However, he suddenly clenched onto his chest. Looking down, he finally noticed the near extreme amounts of blood flowing through. It was clear that despite not going through all the way, the spear at least managed to pierce his heart.

"No… not now!"

As if to respond to him, the swarm suddenly returned to him, surrounding his body. Some of them did whatever they could to stop the bleeding by entering the wound and clogging it. However, Issei knew that he was going to pass out, and something within him knew that once he did, the insects would disappear too.

It was within that dome of insects that he noticed it.

Black.

It was Black all over. The buzzing filled his ears, despite everything. He could no longer hear the rest of the world, all that existed was this obnoxious buzzing that rang within his own ears.

'Ah, I'm going to die, aren't I?' Issei realised. 'That's… too bad. I wish I could've spoken to Aniki again. I wish… I could have actually squeezed some boobies for once. Haah, maybe I could have done it yesterday…'

As such, he remembered her. Rias Gremory was unusually the second person to enter his thoughts.

'She had some really nice tits. I wish I could have got to fondle those, even if only once.'

Unbeknownst to him, the flier within his pocket started to glow the moment he thought that. Responding to it, a red magic circle appeared out of nowhere nearby.

'Ah, and Aniki. I hope he'll be okay without me. He's always told me that he wouldn't know what to do if I was gone as well. I just wish he'd find someone else to live with. Maybe even someone to love, other than my dead big sister.'

"You… You're clearly going to die."

Blinking in surprise, Issei leaned back to look at the incoming person. All he could see were the black insects, so he mentally willed them to separate.

The one standing before him was Rias Gremory herself, standing atop a red magic circle.

However, not only was she wearing the Kuoh uniform that time, but she was also sporting something that made Issei doubly scared of her. A pair of bat-like wings were on her back, and they were occasionally moving.

"Gre… mory…" Issei mumbled as he turned around, lying down stomach first as he reached out for her. "Help…"

"Unfortunately, I can't – wait, your back is fine?" Rias spoke, then suddenly cut to a remark. Walking up to him, she started to feel his back, confirming that there was no wound there.

"Then… I can save you," she realised. "I can actually save you without reincarnating you."

Issei felt a glimmer of hope fill his heart as she said that.

"But… should I?"

That doubt halted his warm feeling immediately.

He wanted to yell to her to get to work and heal him. To use whatever magic she could use to help him. But unfortunately, he couldn't even speak. The weakness from blood loss was really getting to him.

"If I heal him now, he'll just be human. He won't be a devil. But I need someone like him in my peerage if I have to deal with him. Should I let him die first, then reincarnate him?"

Issei wanted to speak up against that, but the world was slowly turning dark. He was going to pass out soon.

"… Screw it. I'll ask him later."

As he drifted into unconsciousness, he couldn't determine what that had meant.


A/N: Sorry for the few edits in the previous chapter. There were some minor changes I had to make with the underlying story. For starters, I changed Issei's Stand Colour from Red to Black. While Red does fit the DxD theme, this shouldn't be that way. Also, Black fits the theme of Insects much better.

Yes, the insects were Issei's Stand. A colony Stand, if it wasn't obvious already. One thing I will have to say is that unlike MCBA, I will not always be able to provide Stand Cards. There are a ton of Stands for me to create, and I'll have to create them gradually. I started posting this story too early, after all. That's why I'm also going to be slow with my reveal of every member of class 2-E. I'll probably create their cards at the end of their central battles.

Ah yeah, one more change I made to the previous chapter. The date is happening entirely on a Saturday this time, unlike the Sunday from the original. That's because I have new plans for Sunday, which you'll see in the next chapter.

I've already started to implement the changes from the original DxD. Obviously, Issei managed to put up more of a fight against Raynare this time, now that he had combat prowess and managed to unleash his Stand at the very last second. Did he actually die and get revived as a Devil? No, he did not. He survived the battle, enough for Rias to make the decision to leave him human and ask him to turn into a Devil later.

Oh and yeah, I already broke my vow. I rewatched segments from the first episode for the date.

And that's all I have to say about this. Onto the reviews!


monster worm: Thanks for being my first reviewer! And thanks for the support!


Guest: Well, I had the Wiki's help. I would just go back and forth across the Wiki's pages to ensure that my details are accurate.


And that's all. Unfortunate, but I did hope for more reviewers. If you do enjoy this story, please consider leaving a review, even over a favourite or follow. You can just say something simple, like 'good chapter' and call it at that. I'd still read those with a full heart.

I'll see you next chapter!