Chapter 14: The difference between a filler villain and a genuine enemy is that an enemy actually notices a fuck up in time to get out of dodge and show up in a later episode.
I don't own Highschool DxD, any of its characters, or any references in this story. If I did, horrible things would happen. Neither do I own any other anime that I reference. I do own all OC's and new abilities in the story as well as every ounce of pure awesome spawned by this.
o. o. o.
It was a nice and peaceful Friday night.
Rias' office door was kicked open.
"Damn it Issei! What is it this time?!" Rias shouted on reflex. It clearly was not the first time her door had been subject to this abuse in the past week, especially if the damage to the wall behind it was any indication.
Surprisingly, the Sekiryuutei wasn't the culprit this time.
Sona stepped into Rias' office like she was possessed. Her normally schooled and impassive façade had been replaced by what some would describe as an Ashura's mask of wrath. The Sitri's body radiated with demonic energy, writhing and barely restrained. "Where. Is. He?"
Unsurprisingly, Issei was still related to the madness.
Rias blinked owlishly as she took in the situation. Sona was enraged to the point that not only did she not care about her own appearance, but she didn't care about Rias' momentary crass outburst either.
"… Before I answer that question, can I at least know why you look like you want to dissect him while he's awake?"
Sona twitched, as though simply remembering the reason for her rage caused her physical harm. Before Rias could retract her request, she stomped to her desk and slammed a form on it.
The paper was upside down from Rias' perspective but she saw enough to know that it was a Devil summoning request and review form. Complete with the client's photo.
It took her a few moments to read the script upside down, but she managed to get the general idea of what happened and why Sona was so unstable.
It took her twice as long to sort her emotions and hide her uncomfortable laughter.
"… I see… well, that does explain why he was both amused and bleeding from the eyes when he returned with Gasper doing contracts a few days ago."
She looked down at the photo of a titanic and muscular man in a familiar magical girl outfit, complete with a massive bulge under the too short skirt.
The man had summoned Gasper three days ago, with Issei overseeing the process. He wanted to be a magical girl, and was clearly a fan of Magical Girl Mil-tan.
They couldn't grant him his wish, obviously, but apparently Issei had thought it would be an amusing idea to give the guy a flier with the Sitri family crest and tell him that it would give him a good chance to meet a "real magical girl".
Unfortunately, the flier interpreted it as "bring me the best suited Devil to introduce the owner to a magical girl" and not "bring me the Devil that is a magical girl". So Sona was personally summoned to the effeminate behemoth's home.
The height between them all but ensured that the first thing Sona saw was a face full of pure innocent white cotton bulge.
Devils on average had pretty low inhibitions. Sona was not one of them.
Rias didn't know what Issei had against her friend, but she couldn't deny the obvious. As far as petty, shallow, and meaningless pranks went, this one was up there.
Her only real critiques were that Issei had done nothing to hide the fact that he was the culprit, and that he had more or less given away one of her own customers to Sona. Not that she was complaining, but it was still a faux pas on his part. She'll probably use that second bit as a reason to not save him from Sona's wrath later, just to make sure he doesn't make messing with her Peerage's contracts a habit.
"I demand vengeance."
Rias tentatively debated the notion of noting that Sona was showing more emotion than at any point since the school year started. In fact, she was pretty sure that nothing save for Serafall could get this much of a reaction from the Student Council President anymore.
… Maybe in a week or so. After the worst blows over. In a direction that was not her own.
"He's out supervising Gasper. Like he has every night this week." She lifted her hands in surrender, looking to the side to see that their Queens Akeno and Tsubaki were watching the conversation from the safety of the hallway. Rias didn't blame them. Sona looked impressively pissed at the moment.
"Call him back."
"They're in the middle of Gasper's contract. You know how poorly it looks if we interrupt a job. Punishing Issei is one thing, but Gasper's still getting the hang of going outside. I can't put him in that kind of position." Rias argued reasonably, though with little effort.
"You're letting him out with Issei. I doubt pulling him back from a contract would be any more stressful than what he's doing now." Sona growled.
"Surprisingly, Issei's been pretty tame when it comes to Gasper so far." It was virtually everything else that set off the human teen like chain reaction of nukes. Idiot summoners. Training. Current contract exchange rates. Literally any attempt to act confident or seductive around him. Porn. Etc.
It was Gasper that tended to rein Issei back when things got out of hand, as opposed to the opposite. The elder teen's near perpetual madness was a surprisingly effective distraction for the younger's insecurities.
Sometimes it was hard telling who was keeping an eye on who.
"Rias. We have been friends for most of our lives. So believe me when I say that we are going to have severe issues if you are convinced for the slightest of moments you can get away with protecting that idiot's behavior."
She allowed herself to roll her eyes. "Protect? Him? Sona, you know as well as I do that Issei would balk at the idea of anyone actually going out of their way for him. At least, for any charitable reasons. He'd harass me more than you would if I attempted that. No, I'm perfectly fine watching things from the sidelines thank you. I just don't want your crusade to harm Gasper in some way."
Preferably with some popcorn. Like Sona said, they were friends. And nothing said friendship more than enjoying one another's shallow misery from a safe distance. It wasn't her fault that Issei was the only person other than Serafall that had no issue or shame in pushing the School Council President's buttons with the ease of breathing.
Granted, he pushed everyone's buttons with the ease of breathing, but it was more impressive and amusing when Sona was the target.
That being said, there had been some positive developments in Issei's behavior over the past few days. Nothing monumental, but he had been less… confrontational. He still exploded on others when something, normally stupid and inconsequential, set him off, but otherwise he had been quieter.
Hell, he had even helped Akeno out a little bit with cooking last night. Albeit, not without almost turning the kitchen into the scene of a murder a couple of times in the process, but it was still monumental progress for the guy that shunned pretty much everything that lived and breathed like the plague.
Raynare had taken to staying back at Issei's home every other day as things developed. She claimed it was to protect Asami and Asia and keep an eye on them. But everyone knew she was skimping off of work so Issei wouldn't hound her to exercise every other hour. Today was one such day.
Sona grit her teeth before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to calm herself down. Rias bit back a remark about how much her friend resembled the source of her ire at the moment. No need to stoke an already volatile situation.
"Rias. Please tell me you've come across something that explains why the Maou, no, why virtually everyone that has a name worth remembering in our world is so obsessed with him. No matter how I try to angle it, I just don't see how he's worth the treatment he's getting. I've gone over his records. Other than what's obviously been redacted, his initial history reads like a normal human's. There's nothing outstanding about his genealogy. Even if he is a Sacred Gear user, I can't imagine that alone being enough. Longinus or not. Even so, the absurd part is that absolutely no one is interested in trying to claim him for their own, or take him out as a potential threat. No, instead, they're all apparently dead set on trying to help him."
Sona did have a good point. The idea that the leaders of the three Biblical factions could gather together and agree on anything was an absolute joke to most of the people in their world. And yet, they were doing just that.
She went on. "Then I thought that maybe everyone was interested in his supposed connection to Ophis, but that wouldn't line up with the treatment he's been getting. He's not the first person to earn her favor over the millennia. The best I can think of is that it has something to do with his relationship with the Dragons in general, but even that doesn't make sense. No one in their right mind would make someone as unstable as that as their ambassador."
"They must have their reasons." Rias placated her friend. "It is clear that at least Raynare knows the truth. Or enough that what we are doing makes sense to her. Even if she doesn't like it. Otherwise, she'd probably have tried to kill Issei for real by now."
"Humph. As far as we know." Sona couldn't argue against that point. It didn't take a genius to see just how bad the Fallen and her charge got along, but even then they still tolerated one another.
She sat down on the couch in the room. "I just don't understand it Rias. I get that Issei's… competent, to an extent, especially for a human, but that isn't enough for this sort of treatment. The security. The ambiguity. The intensity of it all. And yet we're the ones that are supposed to keep an eye on him? I appreciate the trust, but I just don't see what the bottom line is. Let alone the supposed danger of it all. If he was such a high value target, then he wouldn't be here with us. If anything, the way everyone acts you'd assume… that-"
Deep inside a cave.
It was like experiencing a lightning strike in slow motion at close range, only without witnessing it.
Slept something titanic.
First came the hairs lifting on the back of their necks.
Slept something that prized its solitude.
Then came the feeling that something was amiss.
Slept something that treasured and cherished the few things that it could claim as its own.
That feeling grew rapidly and exponentially. A buildup that they could instinctually tell would lead to something that they had no hope to control.
A pair of massive and bloodshot eyes opened from the depths of the cave. With that single action came a wave of unparalleled wrath and rage that submerged the landscape.
Had Rias and Sona not been sitting at that moment, they would have been floored instantly by the sensation. It was all they could do to not openly panic.
Akeno and Tsubaki unfortunately were not as fortunate, and had collapsed to their knees.
Deep inside a cave, dwelled something that was no longer sleeping.
With a desperate gasp, Rias and Sona regained control of their lungs just as the horrifying experience seemed to wash away as quickly as it had appeared.
"R-Rias, what was… you don't think…" Sona fumbled with her words, not at all composed after the experience.
"That, that was Issei." It was complete conjecture, but Rias was all but certain that he had been responsible for the phenomena.
Presence.
She had nearly forgotten about that odd power that Issei supposedly had, and she had only experienced brief glimpses of it before, but there was nothing else she knew of that could explain what they had just felt. Even if she still had no idea what it was supposed to be or do in the first place, there was no mistaking the fact that something was horribly wrong…
"Gasper!" She shouted in alarm, recalling only now that her Bishop was likely at ground zero of this sudden potential cataclysm. Whether he knew anything was irrelevant. Right now, her precious family was without a doubt in some sort of danger.
A flick of her wrists and a spark of magic formed a magic circle that would under normal circumstances open a communication channel to her Bishop. Much to her justified fears though, the spell fizzled out almost instantly, indicating that something was interfering with its completion.
At the very least though, Gasper wasn't dead. She would have been able to tell as much as his King if that was the case.
"Damn it."
"Rias!" Kiba, Koneko, and some of Sona's peerage appeared at the door.
"Something's wrong with Issei-Sempai." Koneko surprised many there by speaking up first.
"You could tell it was him too?" Rias was certain it was him, but having a second opinion helped.
"Yes. That… it was like Ki, but, never mind. It was him. It could only be him." The Nekoshou fumbled with her words, trying to find the right thing to say before giving up and getting to the point.
"What happened to Gasper? They were supposed to be together tonight." Kiba asked.
"I don't know. I can't get in contact with him." Rias got up and sped around her desk while grabbing her copies of the documents that detailed who was supposed to summon Gasper that night. Thankfully, there were only two destinations. "I have the addresses of where he could be. Let's hurry."
That seemed to be enough to snap Sona out of her funk. "If you can't contact Gasper, then you likely won't be able to teleport on site either. It could be dangerous to appear there carelessly."
A red circle appeared under Rias, prompting her Peerage to move within it. "I know. We have no idea what's going on right now. I'll keep you updated on the situation… but if things get bad…"
"I'll go get Asami-san and Asia-san. If it is as bad as we fear, they might be the only ones that might be able to stop him." Sona's mind was going into overdrive, recalling everything she knew about Issei's quirks, along with every tip and trick her sister told her about dealing with him.
Rias nodded and activated her spell. As worried as she was about Issei and the situation at large, she had her priorities. First was Gasper. Then was Kuoh. Then came the disturbed teen.
She just hoped she didn't have to prioritize one over the other tonight.
o. o. o.
(30 Minutes ago)
"And that's why you seriously need some extra weapons hidden on you at all times."
"For the last time I'm not going to hide military grade hardware under my skirt Sempai."
"What's another weapon down there to you? You're already packing one already as a trap."
"Sempaiiiiiii."
"You're missing a real opportunity for yourself."
"I could seriously hurt someone with them! I thought I was supposed to be a support character!"
"You are a support character. In a story where there's multiple Gods, Devils, Dragons, and mountain busting myths that spend more time doing paperwork than actual fighting. We're talking about guns of all things, not holy swords or divine instruments of mass destruction. You actually think that anything you might be able to physically carry would be able to handle even a mid-class Devil?"
Well, maybe a magically enhanced grenade would be able to do some minor damage, but he'd shelve that idea for later. Mixing magic and explosives was a touchy and dangerous subject.
"Gah!" Gasper moaned, grabbing his head in frustration. He hated it whenever Issei made more sense than he should. It made the world a more depressing and horrifying place to live in.
"What? I told you. The shit's supposed to be a stopgap until you figure out a way to actually fight with your own powers." Issei looked down at the Vampire as if what he was saying was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Can I just focus on controlling my powers in the first place?"
"Depends. Do you think asking that will prevent the possibility of some prick attacking you before you manage to learn said powers? As opposed to having a significantly faster and easier fallback on hand in the meantime?"
Gasper dropped his head, crying helplessly. "Why did I ever leave my room?"
"Because I was bribed to make you."
"Please stop talking Sempai. You're not making me feel better."
Issei shrugged casually, not bothering to point out that Gasper wasn't feeling good about going out regardless.
When they first went out to do contracts, Issei genuinely had no idea how to go about observing and dealing with Gasper. Hell, he still had no idea how to deal with people in general, but he was self-aware enough to know that Rias would get pissed if he interfered with Gasper's job and got the poor kid a bad reputation.
So, he pulled a leaf from Ghost's book. He acted like an asshole, but primarily to distract Gasper from his original concerns.
Only he kept his clothes on.
And didn't throw anything at the poor kid.
And didn't slip in any mental images that would scar him for life.
And kept to his hands to himself.
And he didn't practically drown the kid in one of eighty sevenish different forms of power and or psychologically impacting intent for mental conditioning.
And he didn't tie the kid up and hang him from a tree or tree like object.
And…
"… I really do need extensive help, don't I?"
"Yes."Ddraig answered immediately.
"You're only figuring this out now?" Gasper looked at Issei incredulously.
"Huh? No, I'm talking about something else." Issei waved Gasper off, still distracted by his internal epiphany.
"Letting you come with me alone at night was a horrible mistake."
"Yes. Yes it was Dio. However, we can only deal with one set of problems at a time. Right now our priorities are making sure you appear appealing to the Devil based employment market…" He paused and looked at Gasper, still dressed in Kuoh's female school uniform. "… The legal market at least."
"Aaaaaaaah."
"Quit crying and man up. We're almost at the next job." Issei looked down the address numbers of the houses they were walking past and noted that they were a couple of minutes away now.
It had been an eventful week for the pair, with Gasper starting to do contracts in person and Issei supervising the entire ordeals. Gasper was still clearly having trouble interacting with his clients, but he at least made an attempt to talk to them and complete his contract.
Issei was pretty quiet during most of the jobs unless directly addressed, though that might be because he kept himself occupied by watching porn on his cellphone. Unlike Gasper, he did not appear to be interested at all in what was happening or the clientele to the point that it felt like he had put up a wall around him most of the time.
Well… there was that Magical Girl Mil-tan fan on Wednesday, but Gasper was fairly certain that there was not an emotional wall in existence that could have held strong against that much… intensity.
Yes, intensity was a rather accurate word for that particular person. It had been enough to make Issei cry tears of blood after all…
On a side note, Gasper found out that Issei knew an unusually large amount of Magical Girl Mil-tan trivia that night.
He tried to ask why Issei knew so much to begin with, but that only made the bloody tears come out twice as fast.
Regardless, tonight they were doing two contracts instead of the usual one. The first was rather simple and involved helping out some woman relax after a long day at work. Normally she was Kiba's client, but he was busy "finishing with that damn game", and so the job was given to Gasper.
Issei decided to help out this time, so it was done pretty quick, enabling them to get to the second contract. Since it was located a short distance nearby, the pair decided to walk there for once and forego the flashy teleporting entrance.
Gasper might have enjoyed the experience a bit more if there was less talking, but as far as Issei was concerned it was still worth it. It was a nice warm night out with an open sky. He didn't have night vision like the Devils, but he could still appreciate it.
Peaceful suburban area.
Glowing moon.
… Pure silent background to the point that there weren't any chirping insects…
… And if he took in a deep breath…
"Hey. Dio. About those powers of yours. How in tune with your Vampire side are you?"
"I told you, I can't squirt bodily fluids through my eyeballs like lasers, or regenerate from being cut in half vertically Sempai." Gasper gave Issei a tired look, clearly not interested in repeating himself again.
"I'm talking basics Dio. Bood. Bats. Darkness. Actual nightwalker bullshit." Issei looked around almost casually, not at all paying attention to his companion now.
"I… can do bats. I haven't mastered it, though. But I don't like blood and darkness. They're not cute."
"But you can do them." It was a statement, not a question. "You can drink blood to get stronger, or smell it better than a dog can. And you can actually control darkness."
"I haven't done either of those things in years Sempai. And even then I only did enough to know that I could in the first place. I never practiced using or mastering them. I don't even know how good I can get."
… Well ok then. Issei wasn't surprised about Gasper's lack of training, but he was caught off guard by the admittance of raw darkness manipulation. That ability was not common, even for vampires.
Interesting, but something to discuss later. They had more important things to focus on now.
The pair stopped in front of the client's house.
Gasper instinctively didn't like the feel of it, even if he didn't know why. "S-Sempai? What's going on?"
"… At the very least, you aren't completely blind." Issei only took a few moments to look at the place before walking ahead and entering through the unlocked front door. "Keep behind and don't draw attention to yourself. Your signal to support is "Ball"."
"Ball? Wait. What are you talking about? What's going on? Issei-sempai? I don't like this." The young Dhampir began to shake nervously and look around before hurrying behind him.
He was in such a distracted state that he didn't recognize the smell of blood until he got to the main room itself.
Gasper almost passed out right then and there, but instead settled for throwing up.
Issei instead merely whistled as if impressed at the man that was crucified upside down on the wall to his right. Complete with the inverted cross imposed on a pentagram circle, both written in the victim's blood.
If that wasn't enough, the man's stomach was cut wide open, allowing half of his still bleeding organs to hang out up to his neck.
Judging by the poor man's expression, he did not die quickly.
Judging from the smell, the amount of blood on the floor, and the state of some of the organs that were hanging out of the carcass, he had died less than an hour ago.
Had they not wasted time on the previous contract, they could have saved him.
"Heheheheheheh. Oh my my. How cruel. How cruel can you be? You almost sound impressed to have your filthy summoner killed like that. But what can I expect from a shitty Devil?"
"Not a Devil. Just an asshole human." Issei did not let the situation bother him in the slightest, and pointed to the still paralyzed Gasper. "Dio's the Devil."
"Haaaaah?" From the couch to the side, the culprit turned to look at Issei incredulously and stood up. His silver, neck length hair did nothing to hide the deranged and childish expression on his face. Judging from his robes and coat, he was a Priest. Or at least he was trained as one by the Church. "What blasphemy is this? Even if I'm excommunicated, and people say that I have a twisted sense of humor, accepting that a Devil is named God is nauseating!"
Just to remind the Readers, "Dio" is Italian for "God".
"Dio's not God. Dio's Dio." Issei corrected simply.
"My name's Gasper." "Dio" whimpered before throwing up again.
"Like I said. Dio."
"He's a shitty Devil! Not God!" The Priest shouted.
"Just ignore him. Sempai doesn't do names. He just calls people whatever he feels like."
"Why on earth does he call you God then?!"
"Cause he's Dio." "Don't ask." The pair replied at the same time.
The teenaged priest dropped his arms and stared at Issei with a lost expression. "… Aaaah. Damn it. I had this whole introduction planned, and it got thrown out of whack by a pathetic kid Devil and an idiot non-believer that thinks a Devil's God. You jerks totally ruined the mood. Now I have to work super hard to make your deaths worthwhile. This sucks. Seriously, what does that brat have that God doesn't? You don't look like you're new to this."
"Well, the kid exists for starters." Issei shrugged, getting mixed looks.
"How long were you waiting to use that one?" Ddraig groaned.
"Longer than I probably should have."
"Great. Another atheist that believes in Devils. I swear, you useless hypocrites have been breeding like rabbits lately. Kill one and another three pop up spouting bullshit that even I can't stomach." The Priest spat to the side in disgust, reaching into his robes to pull out a gun in one hand and a light beam sword with the other. "Well. Enough of this. My name's Freed Seltzen, I'm gonna kill you now, blah blah blah, amen."
BANG!
Without any hesitation, Freed aimed his handgun at Issei's head and fired a beam of light.
Just as easily, Issei had lifted a hand up and manifested a circular barrier a meter wide that looked like it was made of a transparent crimson crystal to take the shot, immolating it instantly.
"Dio. Ball." Issei stated casually.
"What?" Gasper looked up in genuine bewilderment and confusion.
"Huh." Freed looked between his gun and the barrier with some curiosity, as if not expecting to be blocked so easily. "A magic user? Shoulda guessed as much."
He then looked at Issei's exposed feet and pointed his gun at them.
BANG!
Issei moved his shield down to take the hit, proving that it was mobile.
"Dio. Ball." Issei repeated himself.
"What you're talking about!" Gasper shouted, finally regaining enough self-control and coherency to realize the gravity of what was happening.
BANG!
A third shot, this time at Gasper. The shield blocked the shot again, but exposed Issei's body, allowing Freed space to slash at his head with his sword.
"Sempai!"
There was no sound of impact, since the blade of light was an energy weapon, however…
"The hell?" Freed frowned in genuine confusion as his expectations were denied again. Instead of cutting through the teen's head like a hot knife through butter, his blade was stopped mid swing.
Not by a tool, but by Issei's free forearm, glowing in a white aura.
The defender in question, didn't seem to be amused, interested, or worried about the situation in the slightest.
"Dio. Ball." His voice had not changed in volume or tone either.
If anything. He sounded bored.
Bang!
Freed jumped back while aiming his gun at Issei's face, but instead of blocking it this time, the teen just tilted his skull to the side just before the shot went off and allowed the beam to pass by.
"Oi. Oi oi oi what the fuck is this? Human my ass. What kind of human blocks swords with his bare hands and dodges gunfire like that?"
"Vasco Strada." Issei deadpanned, recalling the retired previous owner of Durandal and still one of the most powerful humans at the Church's disposal. Retired or not, Issei was able to tell the geezer was a beast just by looking at him from the end of a long hallway the one time he had seen the guy.
"Bullshit! You're not that freak of an old man, and you sure as hell don't have the balls to compare to him!" Judging from his reaction, it was clear that Freed had encountered the geezer before as well. Meaning that it was likely that this guy had been in the Church's exorcism squad at some point, or at the very least been a hopeful.
"Dio. Ball."
"Enough about your retarded ball already!"
Gasper flinched as Freed's gun unloaded itself on Issei's barrier. Things had gotten out of control so quickly that he could barely think straight. It was clear that Issei wanted him to do something, but what? All he said was to support, and that the code word was "Ball". What was that supposed to mean? The only ball he could think of was the one he used for training and oooooooooh.
Bang!
The vampire snapped back to reality with the sight of the couch in the middle of the room being kicked at Issei at high speeds. How Freed, a human, managed the strength to do so was beyond him, but it didn't seem to bother the target one bit as he blocked it with his barrier…
Only for Freed to appear from the side moving around the shield with his gun at the ready.
"Dio. Ball."
"R-Right!" He didn't know if it was from figuring out Issei's instructions or the thrill of the moment, but Gasper's eyes activated several times faster than he should have at just the right moment.
Bang!
Time froze with the light bullet half way to Issei's body.
"Cutting it close, but you managed to figure it out eventually. I'll cut you some slack this time." Despite the danger he had been in, Issei didn't seem bothered at all.
"I-"
"Don't talk." Issei interrupted firmly. "If you think you'll get distracted, don't do it. Prioritize. Think hard about what's most important and make sure that happens above all else. Questions can wait. Bullets don't."
"R-right." He swallowed heavily, trying to keep his shaking body in check. Now wasn't the time to get distracted. His goal now was to keep the enemy in place, maintain control over his powers, and take advantage of the situation.
The Dhampir wanted to look at Issei for guidance, but that would mean taking his eyes off of the mad Priest. Come to think of it…
"S-Sempai. Can you move out of the way a bit? I-It's easier if I'm focusing on just him without the bullet."
Wordlessly, Issei shifted a few steps while keeping out of Gasper's view. A few seconds later, the bullet seemed to fire itself off again without a sound, impaling the body of the man who had once owned the property with a wet sound.
"How much longer can you keep this up?"
"Not much." Gasper admitted, feeling the strain in his eyes. "Ten seconds at best."
"We'll have to work on that." Issei sighed, moving around the madman casually until he was standing at Freed's side, specifically in the direction he was moving in while he was strafing the teen. With a few lazy cracks of his knuckles, he got into a fighting stance. "Ok Dio. Let 'er rip."
With a heavy sigh, Forbidden Balor View disengaged, allowing Freed's time to resume as intended.
Almost instantly his manic smile vanished as he realized that his target was no longer where he was supposed to be. "What the-?"
His muttering was interrupted as the motion of his body and head was met with the motion of Issei's fist into said head with a heavy crunch. The Priest collapsed like a house of cards as he was bodily thrown back against the wall of the room.
"Aaah. Damn it." Issei moaned as he shook his hand lazily before encompassing it in another white light. "Think I might have actually fractured something. Don't tell me I have to work on throwing a decent punch again too. Fuck I'm out of practice."
Before Gasper could say anything, the older teen casually walked up to the downed priest and kicked away the gun and light sword from his reach. "You can stop pretending. I've seen enough Porn to know when someone's faking it."
"Thut. Up. Bathdard." Judging from the slur, it was quite possible that Issei had either knocked out a few teeth or dislocated the guy's jaw with his hit. That or a concussion.
"Hold on." He reached down with glowing white hands and grabbed Freed's skull, making the Priest scream for a good twenty seconds before letting go. "There. Try it again."
"Fuck you you bullshit cuck of a heathen!"
"Much better." Issei then slammed his heel on the man's outstretched right hand, crushing it.
"F-Fuck!" Freed snarled. "You impatient whore! Read your partner you ass! I'm not into that master slave bit unless I'm the master! And I refuse to share with a Devil!"
"You're not my type. I'm not into dudes. Or Bitches."
"Oh you sassy f-uck!" Freed's comeback was interrupted as Issei's heel ground into his shattered hand.
"F-for future reference, I'm a boy." Gasper lifted his hand up tentatively in the background. Whether or not anyone heard him was up for debate.
"Ngh…" Freed glared at Issei and shifted his body to escape, but realized something was wrong in a few seconds. "The hell did you do to me? My body feels like I slept in a contortionist pose."
"White magic bullshit." Issei put more weight on his foot.
"Fuck! Just my luck to come across one of those twisted white mage nuts. And people bitch that I'm a sadist. Aaaah. I fucking knew I was being set up…"
If that wasn't a tell that something was wrong, Issei didn't know what was. "My turn. You're an ex-priest in the middle of Devil Territory. Commonly known Devil territory. Tell me, whose dick did you suck wrong while playing altar boy to get sent here?"
"Oho. Wouldn't you like toooooo will you stop that shit already?!"
Issei's heel twisted. "You can talk or you can talk. I have all night. Would you feel more comfortable if you were on your knees?"
"Your mother."
"You're not even trying now." He crouched down so that he was face to face with Freed, and lifted up his hands so that they were somehow glowing a malicious white. "You've probably been around long enough to know just how nasty things can get if an interrogator with White Magic goes nuts. So I'll make it simple. Talk, or you leave this building with twelve different kinds of magic cancer, three of which will be named after you. And for future reference, the infection on both your testicles will count only as one."
For the first time, the priest's confidence faltered. Normal cancer was a scary thing, but any magical induced cancer was a guaranteed painful death. Only a few variations were treatable, and it cost a hell of a lot of money to treat. Even Phoenix Tears couldn't heal that mess. "O-oi, don't give me that bullshit. I know the rules. No one trained that far in White Magic is allowed to do that. You have to sign a soul binding contract and everything."
"I got kicked out before I reached that step. Lucky you." The hands inched closer to Freed's head. "I think I'll start with some adenocarcinoma in your inner ears. Can't enjoy the screams if you can't hear them after all. Can't walk straight with no sense of balance either…"
It was always the surprise technical speak just before the deed itself that made them break.
"Fuck! Fine! Fine! I'll tell you! It was some homeless looking Fallen! They wanted me and some others to go nuts in town to distract you idiots!"
Issei's confidence immediately plummeted as his mind quickly worked on a worst case scenario.
"Them, or me?"
"Wh-"
When Issei put his foot down on Freed's hand this time, the sound of breaking bones was clearly heard. "Were you distracting the Devils or ME? Stall for even a second and you're going to piss blood for the rest of your life through your half cock, which will still be the longest appendage you'll still have on your mutilated middle school midterm science project body!"
"YOU! YOU! WHOEVER THE FUCK YOU ARE YOU ANNOYING ASSHOLE! THOSE PUSSIES WERE MORE WORRIED ABOUT YOU THAN WHOEVER CONTROLS THIS SHITHOLE!"
The fact that this guy attacked a client of the Devils to distract Issei meant that they knew he was working with them during the week.
The fact that he blindly attacked the client of the Devils as a distraction in itself meant that the Devils were not the main target in the first place.
The only other viable target that any Fallen in Kuoh would have outside of himself or the Devils were…
"Sempai!"
Gasper's shout came in a moment too late as Freed's other hand lurched wildly from his coat, revealing a flying canister and a pin that had looped around the madman's thumb. It was a wild swing with no finesse, but it got the job done nonetheless.
"Shi-"
The room went white as the literal holy hand grenade went off, blinding and deafening everyone in the instantly demolished room.
Gasper had been caught off guard by the grenade despite being the one that had warned Issei about it in the first place, and was unable to use his eyes or conjure a shield in time to block it. That being the case, he was surprised when he opened his eyes and took his hands off of his head to realize that he was perfectly fine.
"Ah?" He looked around to see that the grenade had indeed done its job, but also that Issei had once more saved his life with a crimson barrier circle that protected them both. "S-Semp-ugh?!"
Freed was gone.
"Come on." He didn't bother wasting any time worrying about the stunned and crippled asshole, grabbing the back of Gasper's shirt and dragging him out of the house and onto the street. His eyes were constantly scanning their surroundings. "We have to leave. Son of a bitch, what did that asshole do, put a holy barrier around the entire block?"
It was a common tactic of the Church. Put up a barrier around a Devil or two to stop all magical communication and teleportation, and then waste them inside it.
Problem was that most of the time the barrier was limited to the boundaries of a building. Anything bigger than that was either excessive, or done in expectation that shit was about to go down.
"Wh-what's going on? Where did that Freed guy go?"
Issei fast walked out of the house. "The altar boy bolted. But we weren't the main targets. We have to... tch! Fucking annoying redshirts!"
Before Gasper could ask what had just happened, Issei breathed in deeply, warped his mouth to reveal a maw of fanged teeth, and breathed a torrent of fire straight down, making a wave of rich crimson fire ripple around the pair and blocking the slew of projectiles that assaulted them from all sides.
Not stopping there, Issei waved his hands as if crafting and molding the fire itself until it swirled around them in a protective dome that immolated anything that attempted to cross its intense membrane. Its tongues so rich and thick that from the outside it appeared to be crafted from literally solid fire. Flesh. Light. Solid. Or Energy. It didn't matter. It all burned the same.
"I-I w-w-w-wha…" Gasper had finally hit his limit and collapsed onto his knees, shivering uncontrollably.
Issei on the other hand had also hit a limit, but this was one for his patience. "Tch. Fuck it. Dio. Stay inside until the Weeb or someone not likely to shoot you gets here. I don't care who."
The terrified boy paled drastically as Issei moved to leave by walking through the fire as if it wasn't even there. "W-wait! Sempai! You're actually going to leave me here?!"
The irritated glare that was shot at Gasper made him clam up and retreat almost instantly.
Issei was angry. Issei was very, VERY angry.
It wasn't his facial expression, marred by his warped and fanged jawline, or the near violent way he spoke that underscored just how dangerous things had gotten.
It was his eyes. A single look into Issei's dilated pupils was enough for any soul to understand that a vital threshold was about to be crossed. A sacrosanct line that prevented the teen from causing countless calamities and grave sins with the ease of breathing.
It was at that point that Gasper knew that Issei had not simply suffered like he had.
Issei Hyoudou, had genuinely gone mad at some point in his life. Completely, and utterly insane. And it had left a mark that would never go away.
"I'm not wasting time to babysit you. Sit. Shut up. And wait."
Without giving the scared kid a chance to say anything, he walked through the flaming barrier as if it didn't even exist.
Gasper wanted to call out after Issei. He didn't know why exactly…
However, before he could figure out that much, he was distracted by the bloodcurdling screams outside the dome.
o. o. o.
The Black and Crimson teleportation seal opened up in Issei's room, allowing its owner to barrel through frantically and open the door to the hallway.
His home had not been intruded on. He'd instinctively know it if that happened. "Mom!? Cougar?! Tell me someone's here!"
No one replied.
"Damn it!" He slammed his hand onto the ground and tapped into the building's security systems. No signs of live on the property other than himself. No signs of tampering, forced entry, or unusual guests.
They had left the house then.
"Shit shit shit…" He rushed to the front door while quickly taking out his cell phone and turned on an app that could locate other phones via GPS. Otherworldly entities were only recently getting used to the tech, so many members tended to overlook the devices as potential liabilities. True, most cells were almost useless when around enough magical energy, but Issei in his perpetual paranoia had made sure that any and every cell that was used around him was modded to handle being around High Class entities without losing reception. His mother's and the Cougar's devices were no exception.
Good, the Cougar's and Asami's signals were nearby.
Really nearby.
And seemingly not moving.
Without wasting time trying to call them, he barreled out the front door, Boosted Gear already manifested, and jumped.
"BOOST!"
He was at least fifty meters in the air.
"BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!"
His eyesight sharpened in the night. He had spun in the air quickly, his gaze taking in and processing everything he could at speeds that far surpassed what a normal human should ever be capable of, with or without magic.
He saw a set of large human shaped bodies with wings flying off in the distance in the direction of the old Church. His first instinct was to go after them, but the second abnormality near his home stayed that decision, and made him pale.
"BOOST!"
He appeared on a side street a few blocks away from his home.
Asami was unconscious and lying in a disturbing position against the wall. A small trail of blood running down her head and a deep cut across her stomach exposed some of her organs to the outside world.
Raynare on the other hand, was bleeding out in the middle of the street with a giant hole in her chest. Not a single possession of hers wasn't soaked by the time she had been found.
His hands shook. His breathing was slightly erratic. His mind grew hazy, yet developing an unearthly edge at the same time.
The slumbering beast's eyes opened.
He was awake.
o. o. o.
Rias' peerage arrived at what could only be described as the aftermath of a massacre.
"Whoa." Koneko blinked, clearly not expecting to see at least two dozen bodies strewn all over the street around a crimson dome of fire. Judging from their clothes, it was safe to assume that the victims had been priests of some sort. "Someone's been busy."
"You can say that again." Kiba held his sword at the ready in case of an ambush. He briefly looked at the bodies strewn all over the place. Some embedded in the walls of nearby buildings. Others looked like their blood had erupted from the inside out. A few even looked like they had gone insane with their eyes rolled up, foam clinging to their mouths, and looks of horror on their faces.
"My my. Whoever did it was quite ruthless." Akeno glanced at a nearby corpse that was stuck into a nearby house. Judging from the expression on the cadaver, the killing blow had caught them by surprise. Her gaze turned to the rest of the bodies that were strewn around them. "It is not easy to take on so many exorcists single handedly. Not without more collateral damage at least."
Kiba had a closer look at some of the cadavers near them and frowned. "There's no impact wound. No bruises or cuts. Even the ones that crashed into the buildings with force show only the damage that came from impact, and nothing of what caused it in the first place. No torn clothes. No grip marks on the arms or legs. No blunt bruising from being hit. Nothing."
"That just means they were attacked with magic or some sort of ability." Rias brushed off the observation. "Come, we need to find Issei and Gasper."
"Hey. I don't know about you guys, but I think that giant dome of fire's a good place to start." Koneko pointed at the aptly named magical structure in the middle of the bloodbath.
"The color does match the flames that he conjured last weekend." Akneo agreed.
"Issei!? Gasper?! Are you in there? Can you hear me?!" Rias approached the dome and shouted loudly. She had to stop roughly five meters away from the dome though. The heat it gave off was so intense that even she had trouble getting any closer to it.
"P-President?" A terrified and faint voice hesitantly called back after a few moments. "I-Is that you?"
"Gasper? Are you in that thing?" Kiba stepped up, a sword to nullify fire materialized in his hands. "Is Issei there?"
"S-Sempai's not out there with you?" Gasper's voice gained strength.
"It's just us and you here." Koneko replied, looking around. "And some holy chum."
"Don't worry, we'll find a way to get you out of there. Can you tell us what happened?" Rias tried to get the situation under control.
"H-He's not here?!" Unfortunately it didn't calm the young devil. "This is bad! This is really bad!"
"We'll find Issei. Judging from how it looks here, it doesn't look like he got hurt…"
"No! That's not it!" Gasper's shouting caught them off guard. "Those priests weren't here for me! For Devils! They said that they were here to distract Sempai for some reason! I don't know why, but he must have figured something out from that! I, you didn't see him! He's super angry right now!"
"Gasper, we figured that out when we literally felt his mood ten minutes ago. Along with half of Kuoh." Akeno tried to placate him before pausing. "Wait, they were here for Issei-kun specifically?"
He didn't seem to hear her, his increasing fear making him rant more. "You don't get it! We always thought that we made him angry when he was yelling and acting out before, but that was just him being annoyed! This was… I didn't think it was physically possible to get that mad! He literally looked like he was about to go insane! N-no! Just by looking at him you could tell that he actually has gone insane before. He might hurt someone if we're not careful!"
"I'm going to go out on a limb and assume he meant the perv would hurt someone that actually matters." Koneko glanced at the bodies all around them.
"Gasper. Gasper I need you to calm down and listen, ok? Can you do that for me please?" Rias stepped up her game. With Issei gone, she was the only one that could get to him. "We can't do anything unless you slow down and work with us. Start at the beginning. You came here to do a contract. And then you were attacked?"
"Y-yeah. We went inside… I think Sempai noticed something was wrong before then. Something about me being a vampire and noticing blood."
"Ok. You went inside. And then?"
"The contractor was dead. His body was… ugh."
"And you were attacked inside? By all these priests?"
"N-No. Just one was in the house. H-he was crazy. Even Sempai looked normal in comparison. They talked a bit. And then they fought. S-Sempai stalled him so I could stop him with my eyes. He used the guy to train me. To practice. He looked bored the entire time. We beat the priest. And S-Sempai started to torture him for information. He thought that it was weird that there would be priests here. A-And then we found out that they were distracting him for some reason. That's when Sempai started to get mad. The Priest got away, and we ran out, but we were attacked by other priests. S-Sempai made this barrier to protect me, but by then I could tell he was barely in control of himself… and then he left and, and th-there was so much screaming…"
"Issei does tend to scream a lot." Akeno mused.
"H-he wasn't the one screaming." Gasper corrected her ominously.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Kiba, get rid of the dome."
"Got it." The knight nodded, vanishing momentarily from sight before appearing on the other side of the red hemisphere, minus half a sword, steaming all over his body, and collapsing to a knee. "Tch."
"Kiba!"
"I'm all right." He eased their worries, showing that he didn't have any burns. "I got in and out fast enough, but that barrier is something else. My sword is supposed to nullify fire based abilities and magic, but it melted like it was nothing. Say what you want about Issei, but at least he made sure that Gasper was protected well."
Rias frowned. Kiba's speed was impressive, even for a Knight class. For him to be almost burned just by being near the dome for an instant while armed against a sword made to mitigate fire… the more she thought about it, the more she felt that brute forcing their way through the protective spell would only cause more harm than good.
"Gasper? Did Issei tell you how to deal with his spell? Or how to get out? It might take too long for us to get you if we try anything from out here."
"No. He just told me to wait for someone that wouldn't hurt me to come before I left. Then he just, walked through the barrier like it was nothing."
"He just walked… wait." Akeno blinked as she came to an epiphany. "Gasper, is it hot at all inside there? Are you having trouble breathing?"
"Hot?" The question made several of them blink in confusion. "Actually, no. Now that you mention it, it doesn't feel off at all in here."
"He could maintain the outside temperature inside, despite the barrier emitting this much heat? While he's away from it no less?" Rias blinked in genuine surprise. For someone that claimed to be terrible at most forms of magic, Issei certainly had a rather diverse array of spells to use.
"Gasper. I believe Issei's barrier is one way. We can barely get close to it due to the heat it's giving off." Akeno reasoned. "I know it sounds scary, but could you try touching the barrier to check? Or analyzing it with magic from the inside? You are a Bishop after all…"
"Just walk through it? But, but that…" Gasper stammered before his thoughts caught up with him. "… Sounds exactly like something Sempai would do and not tell me. Aaaaah. Sempai."
"It does sound like something the jackass would do now that I think about it." Koneko muttered to herself.
"Hold on. I want to try something first."
Everyone waited at Gasper's request, curious as to what he was doing. Roughly half a minute later, a single black bat flew out from the crimson dome and made a beeline straight for Rias, where it collapsed in her hands in a steaming heap.
"Whaaa. You guys weren't kidding when you said it was hot." The boy's voice came from the bat. "I barely made it to the President without burning up!"
"Will you be ok?" Kiba asked. "Do you need help getting out?"
"Getting out isn't a problem. There was no resistance at all going through the dome." The bat cried. "It's the heat that I'm scared of. Hold on. I'm gonna set myself up with as many anti fire and heat protections as possible."
It took almost ten minutes for Gasper to cast every spell he could think of that would mitigate any form of heat and fire damage he could take.
It took less than a quarter of a second for the dome to completely dissipate the second Gasper took a single step outside.
"Am I the only one that feels unusually disappointed that dealing with that fire barrier was actually that easy?" Koneko asked the others.
"All in favor of never mentioning this to Issei?" Kiba suggested.
"Aye." Everyone else agreed unanimously.
"Wait! Sempai!" Gasper jumped, as if only just now remembering the bigger problem at hand. "We have to find him!"
"That's well and good, but we can't exactly leave this area as it is either." Akeno glanced at all the bodies all around them. "Leaving one or two cadavers of priests in the open to rot is fine and all, but two dozen unexplained heavily armed bodies will raise questions regardless of where you are."
"Akeno. Kiba, you two focus on cleanup. Koneko, Gasper and I will try to find Issei. Like it or not, it would be better to talk him out of doing anything rash, and…"
"He still doesn't trust us. The feeling's mutual." Kiba nodded, though he missed Akeno's expression turn slightly unreadable at the declaration. "If anything, meet with Sona-san first, for extra backup if anything."
"Right. I'll contact you if it's important." Rias looked around with a frown. Now that she had a solid grasp of what had happened here, she could plan ahead. Issei's home was their next destination. Sona would be able to fill them in on how things had developed.
Hopefully things had not devolved to the point of no return.
o. o. o.
The second they stepped foot in front of the Hyoudou household, Rias, Gasper, and Koneko knew that something was wrong.
It was almost like stepping on the property of a Church, or the sacred grounds of one of the other major religions of the world. The hairs on the back of their necks stood on end, and every instinct told them that every action they took would be judged by a force that did not care in the slightest what their intent was.
"Something tells me Sempai's been here." Koneko's eyes were wide open, goosebumps rippling over every inch of her skin.
"Hey. Gremory-san. Is that you?" The three's attention was stolen by the approach of Sona's Rook and Knight from the side.
"Tomoe Meguri. Tsubasa Yura." It took a moment for Rias to recall their names and regain composure. "Where's Sona?"
"Inside. Alongside our Bishops, Queen, and Pawns." Tsubasa grimaced. "I'm, not sure it's a good idea to go inside at the moment."
"Was Issei here? What about Asami-san and the others?"
Tomoe shook her head. "That's the problem. They were attacked by someone."
All three Gremory members paled instantly. "What happened?"
The Rook scratched her head. "We don't know. We showed up here with the door opened and no one around. We were about to go look for Hyoudou when he appeared behind us with his mother and the fallen floating in some kind of medical stasis magic. They were in pretty bad shape."
"We would have asked what was going on, but the second he showed up, we almost passed out." The Knight continued, shivering the entire time. "He was completely different. He barely even noticed us, and was radiating with this weird power that was flat out terrifying. It felt like we were standing in front of a genuine full scaled and pissed dragon so titanic we couldn't even tell how outclassed we were. And that wasn't even taking into account of just how absolutely pissed he looked. I half expected him to attack us just because we were there in the first place."
"He just, walked past us like we weren't even there." Tsubasa's hands clenched tightly. "We could feel his steps as if though they were a Dragon's, not a humans. We didn't even notice that we had moved out of his way until he was at his door. Even the Council President couldn't do anything."
"He wasn't acting like he normally did. The moment he got to the door, he just said "King, Queen, Bishops, Pawns." And then went inside. Nothing else. It took a moment for us to realize that he wanted the others to follow him in. A few more for us to get the courage to follow him in. We didn't see or hear anything until a minute or two ago where he just walked outside again and vanished around the corner."
"Is Sona ok? What about Asami and Raynare?" Rias didn't want to admit it, but she was actually starting to sweat just from hearing what had transpired. The more she heard, the more worried she got. There was a good chance she was going to have to contact her brother if it got much worse than it had already.
"I'm here, Rias." Sona opened the front door. It was clear to everyone that she was just as spooked as the rest of her peerage. "We're here. We're fine but, I don't think it would be a good idea to let you in yet. To risk Hyoudou's temperament any more than it already has would be, bad."
"And the others? What happened to Issei's mom and Raynare?" Gasper braced himself for the worst news.
"Alive. In dire condition, but alive." Sona grimaced. "Their wounds were intentionally made to, distract. If they were left alone any longer than they had, they would have died. They needed to be addressed by professional care immediately if they were to have a hope of pulling through. Normally."
"Normally?" Koneko frowned in confusion.
Sona looked back inside momentarily. "Hyoudou's eccentricity and paranoia is vexing, but, I can't for the life of me discredit it given what's transpired. I don't know how on earth he managed it, but his home has enough magical and medical supplies to qualify as a minor hospital, sans the people. His living room is incorporated with so many medical barriers, sterilization spells, and hidden equipment that it could qualify as a professional emergency operating room. It even has a medical grade temporal stasis barrier, Rias. You can't simply order from a catalogue or pull a few strings to get one of these things. They are supposed to be for qualified hospitals and established experimental biological facilities only. It's not an array that someone could get just by calling in a few favors. Or make in their spare time."
"A medical grade temporal stasis barrier?" Koneko frowned in confusion. "What's so special about it?"
Gasper tilted his head to the side. "I think it's a barrier that can freeze time for anything that's inside of it. Really strong and precise high level timespace magic meant to keep the patients alive longer for the doctor or other necessities to arrive on time. It's especially important for patients that are super strong, like ultimate class and above entities, since most normal temporal fields have trouble putting them under. I know that anything that qualifies as medical grade has strict regulations. Especially complex magic outside of the usual healing spells. Sempai's mentioned it once or twice, and about how hard it is to get anything officially qualified under that classification, especially without bribing someone."
"He would." Sona muttered under her breath before shaking her head. "The Fallen, Raynare, was in particularly bad shape when she came in. She had lost a lot of blood and the hole in her had torn apart several organs, impaled her sternum, and chipped her spine. Before he had left, he had spent some time treating her to get her somewhat stable. I didn't even recognize half of the spells and procedures he used. After that, he placed her in the barrier with Asami-san and just left. We didn't even try to ask where he was going. We've been here since, keeping an eye on the two and waiting for you to arrive."
"Sounds like we've all had our hands full… wait." Rias looked over Sona's shoulder to see that Raynare and Asami were in a barrier. Still and unmoving as if they truly were dead. "Where's Asia?"
"We don't know, but it's a good bet that he's looking for her. Twilight Healing would make healing these two far less strenuous." Sona looked back at the injured pair. "I wouldn't be surprised if she was taken by the ones that had done this to the two either. I take it you encountered something peculiar before coming here?"
"Only if you consider a massacre in the middle of a suburban street peculiar." Koneko droned.
"A large number of excommunicated priests ambushed Issei and Gasper while they were doing contracts." Rias translated. "Issei protected Gasper in an unusually strong flame barrier before… well, we all should have an idea of how short his patience is right now."
Sona looked at Gasper, noting how the young boy didn't have a scratch on him. "How many priests are we talking about?"
"Couple dozen-ish. We weren't really interested in exact numbers." Koneko supplied her two cents. "It looked like the perv wasn't too interested in clean kills either. I wasn't joking when I called it a massacre."
"Ugh. Must have been unbearable being there." Sona grimaced. "I can never get used to the smell of charred corpses."
Rias opened her mouth, but paused a moment later. She looked down at Koneko questioningly, only to get a similar look in return.
"That, actually, now that I think about it, none of the Priests suffered any form of burn or fire damage."
"What?"
"The priests were butchered, but not burned." Koneko agreed. "Blood everywhere. Foaming mouths. Embedded into buildings and the ground. The only fire there had been the dome protecting Gasper."
"That is weird." Said protectee tilted his head in confusion. "Sempai was clearly in a rush when he left. The only reason I can think why he didn't use his fire is if… it wasn't fast enough… to get rid of them all."
Every Devil there stood in ominous silence as Gasper's words echoed throughout their being. As much as they didn't want to believe it, that sort of twisted logic was the sort of stuff that Issei was known to run off of instinctively.
"Rias, I don't care what your excuse is, you're the one that's in charge of finding out what's going on. Don't you dare involve me in any part of it, save the report."
"How is this my fault?"
"It's not. I just can't handle this level of madness as easily as you can."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Whatever Sona was about to say was cut off as a sudden spike of power in the distance caught everyone's attention, causing them all to turn in the same direction at once.
A few moments later, something on the other side of town blew up in spectacular crimson fire.
o. o. o.
Fifteen Minutes ago:
Without a sound, Issei appeared instantly in front of the abandoned Church's gates.
He didn't question why Asia had been taken here instead of out of town, or anywhere else for that matter.
He didn't question whether or not there would be traps in the Church.
He didn't care in the slightest if he would get in trouble for what he was doing.
All that was going through his mind and soul was rage, and the best, fastest, and most efficient way to address it.
He lifted his left hand up to touch the closed gate in front of him. Unlike before, it was closed, locked, and enchanted with dozens of barriers to-
"BOOST!"
The ruined scraps of metal fell apart harmlessly in front of him, unable to maintain its shape and the spells that had been supporting it.
He walked forward without so much as a glance at his work.
She was in here. The fact that he could tell meant that he had already subconsciously considered her his. She was dependent on him. She had trusted him. She was his responsibility. From a twisted perspective, one could say that she was his property in a way…
If there was one thing that Dragons loathed, it was when a thief stole from its hoard. A Dragon ALWAYS knew when one of its belongings was stolen, and where it was held.
The front doors to the Church fell down at his slightest touch. Unlike the main gates, these weren't supported by magic or proper foundation.
"Haaah? Well fuck me. You got here fast." Sitting on the stairs in front of the dusty podium, Freed looked up with mixed surprise and glee. Oddly enough, his body was completely fine despite the damage he had sustained barely an hour ago. "Those idiots said that you'd be busy for half the night keeping those other bitches alive. Shows what they know. Ah, at least they got that blonde cunt to heal me up before getting the job started."
Issei didn't say anything as he continued to walk forward as if he didn't even notice Freed's existence. His face was an unreadable mask, save for his possessed looking eyes.
"Oi oi, where did all that sass from before go uh? Demon lover? Where's your cross dressing horny slut slave?" Freed stood up and took out another gun and sword set, pointing the former at the intruder. "I thought we could continue our sweet talking from before. A little dirty talk. A little bending over. I'd make you recite hyms and call me Father while I shove my sword up your-"
Issei finished another step, his foot touched the old carpeted floor.
"BOOST!"
He was right in front of Freed, his left arm encased in a crimson gauntlet, was crossed over his chest, his hand clenched in a fist, and the coiled decoration around the Sacred Gear already pulled back.
"Wait, wha-?"
Freed's question was interrupted as Issei's fist backhanded his face.
The impact was strong for a human's, but not overwhelming. Freed's head had turned a bit, and his body had recoiled somewhat, but it was minor damage at best. He was still on his feet and would barely stumble from the blow. Nothing that he couldn't recover from in the next half-
"BOOST!"
WHAM!
Freed didn't know what had happened. His mind had blanked out from the deep shout that came from hell knows where. All that registered to him was a weird twisting feeling and the impact.
By the time his eyes started working again, he could tell that his body wasn't.
He couldn't move his arms and legs. He couldn't even breathe properly.
Judging from the looks of things, he wasn't even where he had been moments before. Instead he appeared to be embedded into the side walls of the room.
Several meters away from where he had been standing.
And two meters above the ground.
With his body pointing in a different direction than his head.
Scratch that, his torso looked like it had twisted around several times.
… Why didn't anyone ever tell him his ass was so big?
Freed opened his mouth, but even if his airway was open for his lungs to make noise, his diaphragm was incapable of any sort of activity.
Not that Issei had paid him any attention. As far as he was concerned, Freed was already just another pile of rotting meat.
The Sekiryutei's nose flared a couple of times, catching the scents of everyone and everything that had entered the room in the past week, and his gaze immediately turned to the oversized dias at the front of the room and the podium on top of it.
Once more, the Boosted Gear was rested on an obstacle in his way.
"BOOST!"
Said obstacle fell apart into dust right in front of him, revealing a hidden staircase underneath.
He didn't wait a second to walk down the passage, vanishing from Freed's fading view.
Not even twenty seconds later, he entered a large basement room. In it consisted of at least thirty excommunicated priests, all armed to the teeth. Behind them was another dias, this one set up to conduct a ritual.
In the middle of said ritual was a surprised and terrified Asia, crucified to an ominous looking black Christian cross, surrounded by three genuinely stunned Fallen Angels.
"He's here already?" Mittelt blinked owlishly. "What the hell was Freed doing up there? He was supposed to stall in case the brat came early."
"No. He wouldn't be here unless he wasn't distracted." Dohnaseek shot Kalawarner a near murderous glare. "I thought I told you to leave deep wounds on those two to distract the kid. Not kill them outright."
"I did!" The mature woman hissed. "Raynare might be a lost cause by the end of the night since she fought back, and I couldn't be too careful, but I made sure with the human woman!"
"… Oh Father above protect us…" Mittelt paled as she noticed something that shook her to her core. It wasn't often that Fallen prayed to God, but it was rarely a good sign when they did. "Look at his left arm. Please tell me I'm seeing things wrong."
"His left arm?" Kalawarner frowned as Issei reached the bottom of the stairs and turned to look at them. "… Wait. That's impossible. Is that…"
Issei took a small hop forward with one foot.
"BOOST!"
He was standing next to Asia while everyone's attention was where he had once been.
The prisoner was the first person to notice where he was. "I-Issei-san?"
"Dammi un momento." He spoke in butchered Italian much to her surprise, reaching up to the cross with his Sacred Gear.
"I-Italian?" Asia blinked in surprise, not expecting him to talk to her in her native tongue.
Dohnnaseek was the second to notice where he was now, his eyes wide open and his mouth dry as the Sahara. "… Sekiryuutei."
The title seemed to set a chain reaction of shivers and mutters of disbelief among the priests there.
"BOOST!" The coil around the gauntlet recoiled, discharging its effects into the cross, but surprisingly, it did not suffer the same effects as its previous targets.
Asia screamed in pain and her body started to glow.
Issei frowned. Damn it Azazel. The one time your toys didn't fuck up in one way or another.
"Ddraig. Twenty times the usual."
"Mmm."
The coil pulled back to his elbow.
"Sekiryuutei?" Mittelt took a step back, as did many other people in the room. "You can't mean THAT Sekiryuutei Dohnnasseek?! He's supposed to be dead! What the hell is he doing here in the middle of some random Devil's territory?! No, why is he still alive in the first place?!"
"BOOST!"
The coil recoiled, and this time the mystical artifact that Azazel had manufactured disintegrated, dropping Asia immediately and making her land over Issei's right shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The ordeal she had gone through had sapped her body of most of its strength, preventing her from being able to move much.
"I-Issei-san. Asami-san and Raynare-san…"
"Dormire." His right hand rested on her back, glowed white. Moments later, the kidnapped girl fell unconscious.
"They knew." Dohnnaseek swallowed, putting the pieces together in his mind rapidly and realizing just how badly they were all fucked. "Raynare. Lord Azazel. The Devils. Our employers. They knew he was here the entire time. They knew what would happen. That's why they didn't say anything."
"We were set up." Kalawarner shivered uncontrollably as Issei turned his attention to them.
For the briefest moments, they were not looking at a teen, but a colossal Crimson and Black monster that they had personally angered and insulted in the worst way possible. All three Fallen recognized the insane look in his eyes for what it was.
Issei had not come simply to rescue Asia.
He had not come to play the hero.
He had come to pass judgment on the guilty. His decision on what was going to happen next had already been made.
They were all going to die.
It wasn't a matter of measuring their strength up against Issei's. No, the bottom line was that the boy was without question going to go out of his way to ensure that everyone in that room outside of himself and Asia was going to be a corpse by the end of the night.
"We were set up. We were set up! We didn't know! We wouldn't have done it if we knew! We umgh?!"
Kalawarner's peas were interrupted as the teen seemingly teleported in front of her and grabbed her mouth with his left hand.
"BOOST!"
The unearthly sounds that came from her throat were only matched by the violent spasms and thrashing of her body. Her arms, legs, and wings writhed wildly in directions that should not have been possible for at least fifteen seconds, breaking and twisting themselves dozens of times over, before finally falling limp.
His grip loosened, followed by the sound of her body collapsing to the ground a second later. Her open mouth was full of foamed bile, blood, bodily fluids, and chunks of what could be guessed as internal organs, coughed up in her violent and futile reaction to whatever was done to her.
A shout of alarm came from the other side of the room. Dohnnassek glanced to see that the staircase was now lit aflame with a deep crimson ember. A burning and screaming priest thrashed on the ground in front of it.
"Sorry." Issei apologized in an emotionless tone to everyone in the room. The coil around his left arm cocked itself back. "I ran out of second chances half a decade ago."
There room was filled with an ominous silence, save for the crackling of fire.
Someone screamed and got ready to fight for their life.
His scream was followed by a chorus of desperate and futile battle cries.
It did not take long for those cries to become screams.
It took less time for those screams to become nothing at all.
o. o. o.
Issei stepped out of the Church with Asia on his shoulder. At worst, they had a minor scratch or two on them, if that.
Issei noticed that Freed's body was gone as he left the burning basement. Whether the mad priest had additional aid, or managed something by himself was something to ponder later. It was annoying and frustrating, but not a priority at the moment.
First was to get home. Then heal mom and the Cougar. And then… and then…
He paused on the way to the destroyed front gates. "If you're trying to hide from me, you failed. All of you."
A slow, mocking clapping was heard from the darkness before sixteen individual stepped out of it. A noble looking teen male with blonde hair and fifteen young women in priestess garbs.
They all looked quite confident as they approached him. At least, until he looked at them directly in the eyes.
"Diodora-sama…" The woman that appeared to be his Queen spoke up nervously, immediately realizing that their target was not weak by any stretch of the imagination. No, rather it was quite obvious that was more than willing to render them a meaty paste on the ground and then completely forget about them as he walked past their bodies. His very intent and stare was enough to freeze them in place and question their decision to confront the human.
If her King had heard her, he didn't act like it. "Well now. Isn't this a surprise? I came all this way to rescue a damsel in distress from some vermin crows, and here I see a crude lizard making off with my prize."
Issei maintained the stare off for a few more seconds before seemingly losing interest and continuing to walk off of the Church grounds as if the newcomer didn't exist.
He only stopped again after a bolt of demonic energy impaled the ground a few centimeters in front of him.
"You have something that belongs to me, beast." Diodora's smile turned more sinister. "I have gone through great lengths to ensure that Miss Argento is in my care, and I will not let her go because some backwoods barbarian has developed a sense of taste for the finer things that it should never dream of sampling. Holy Maidens only belong to the highest and most sophisticated of breeds, like myself. Ah, but your bottom feeder eyes probably can't even recognize greatness for what it is. My apologies. I am Diodora Astaroth. Perhaps you know of my brother? The Maou, Beelzebub?"
Issei's eyes narrowed.
"Ah. There it is. The recognition of your bet-"
"You were the Devil she healed." Issei cut him off instantly. While he was speaking, a cell appeared in his free hand, his thumb already going through the options to the desired function. "You planned to get her excommunicated from the Church. You brought her to Kuoh to use the others here as cover for your own movements. If she was found, you'd be able to follow her movements to pick her up later."
"Oho. So it does know how to speak." Diodora mocked sarcastically, not denying the accusation, but his slightly narrowed eyes indicated that he was slightly put off by Issei's accurate deduction. "And here I thoug-"
Unfortunately for Diodora, Issei wasn't one for humoring monologues when pissed. He had heard enough bullshit.
Without so much as a flinch or hint of what he was doing, he lifted his cell phone to eye level to show everyone the device, and pressed the play button.
"BOOST!"
"No one whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off may be admitted into the community of the LORD."
The entire peerage didn't even have time to scream before their brains were assaulted by the enhanced holy sermon from Gabriel. All they could do was grab their heads while their bodies went into shock, and then collapse onto the ground seconds later.
If Devils EVER needed a reason to keep the Boosted Gear out of the other two faction's hands at any cost, this by far was the top reason.
Sixteen Devils. A full peerage. Downed effortlessly in a matter of seconds. By a phone recording of all things.
Even Azazel had been unnerved and taken a few steps away from Issei the first time he had shown how effective it had been.
The only one that hadn't been rendered comatose was Diodora himself, who was still rolling on the ground in pain, clutching his bleeding ears. "Y-You! What have you done?! How dare y-"
Issei wordlessly shut him up with a kick to the head aimed just right to give him a concussion.
Another blur of his thumb shut off the recording and dialed a specific number.
It rung twice before it was answered.
"It must be pretty bad if you are calling me, Issei. Normally you'd call Azazel if you had some sort of major emergency." Ajuka Beelzebub's calm voice answered from the other side.
"You have ten seconds to convince me not to make you an only child."
Three seconds passed, allowing his words to sink in.
"… I don't suppose that me currently wanting the honors is a good enough reason." The Maou's controlled voice was a unique mix of frustration, jovial casual conversation, pure annoyance, and sarcastic hope.
"Four seconds." Issei made sure that the sound of his Boosted Gear's priming was heard through the speaker.
"Fine. Stop. Please listen. It was my fault he was in Kuoh. Don't kill him yet."
Issei's temper spiked maliciously, so much so that Ajuka was temporarily frozen by the overwhelming wave of killing intent that seemed to pass through the phone. Enough so that a porcelain decoration on the Maou's desk shattered instantly. "I thought I told you no more games. Beelzebub. You lied again."
"And I intended to honor that wish Issei. I truly did." The Genius recovered quickly, knowing he was on paper thin ice the instant Issei used his official moniker instead of his nickname. "But even if I did nothing, Diodora would have gone after Miss Asia. Among other things."
The mention of Asia seemed to make the Sekiryuutei pause for a moment before his anger returned once more, like the tide. "They. Hurt. My. Mother."
Ajuka flinched, glad that no one was around to see him do so. If Azazel's warnings wasn't bad enough, his stupid brother's obsession had involved one of the few people that should not have been touched under any circumstances.
His mind momentarily paused as the fact, and the situation finally sunk in.
Asami had been hurt. What was one of the few genuine tethers Issei had to his sanity had been threatened.
If he had been pushed this far to begin with...
If anyone been at the scene, they would have borne witness to a young teen with the expression of a madman, his pupils dilated to the point that no one would question if the organs were damaged.
Most importantly of all though, would be the fact that he was holding and looking at his cell phone as if it, and it alone would dictate how the world would turn out in the next five minutes. The poison, and the cure.
Had Issei gone completely off the rails, they would not be having this conversation. Diodora along with his peerage would have been killed already, and the Devil world would be on his head within days.
Conscious or not, this call was a last, desperate attempt to try and find an alternative outlet to his rage before he completely succumbed to it and did something that could not be taken back.
Ajuka had to be careful, but he couldn't stall either. Trying to talk sense to a raging dragon was suicidal at worst and a marathon length tightrope sprint at best.
"We suspected Diodora was involved in some underground groups, dangerous ones that threaten international security, but never had any evidence. It would explain why he managed to have a peerage consisting of nothing but excommunicated nuns and holy women without using family resources. We managed to find out about his plans for Miss Argento. Not in time to stop it, but early enough to tweak it en route. I looked into the girl's profile and… I won't lie, I thought she would be good for you to be around, and vice versa. We had no idea about her being a Dragon Tamer until Asami told us though. That was a surprise for everyone. Regardless, a few words and coincidences here and there, and my brother had the "bright idea" of picking up his latest interest in Kuoh. You actually came across her earlier than anticipated. I had a whole list of steps planned to arrange your meeting."
Steps that involved people that were unfortunately butchered recently.
Issei's deep growl indicated he was not amused.
Ajuka spoke quickly. Time was of the essence, a race between his tongue and the nonexistent temper of an enraged Dragon. "If it didn't work out between you, it was likely she'd be incorporated into Rias' peerage for protection. Rest assured, she knows nothing about this. Or the others. Whatever reactions they've had towards these events were completely genuine. This was my doing and mine alone Issei. I will no doubt be in trouble with the others once they hear of this, and I will take my punishments without hesitation. After you found her, we were to launch an investigation into what happened. It's ongoing now. Between what I expected to find and what I already had, I would be able to, officially and conspicuously place my brother under investigation under my direct supervision without arousing suspicion."
The Maou sighed. "My mistake was underestimating my brother's obsession. After the alarms were raised, and Miss Argento was under indirect supervision of Rias and Sona, I assumed that all groups involved in her abduction would flee Kuoh. I didn't think my brother would be so foolish as to push things as far as he did. I, owe you an apology Issei. No, I already owe you far more than that. Far more than I am able to repay. It would be an insult to place myself further in debt to you, and I have more or less spat in your face while asking for a favor. Yet I have to humiliate myself by still asking for it regardless. I need my brother alive and capable. You deserve more than your pound of flesh. For now and back then, but I need him regardless."
Issei was quiet. Ominously quiet. It was obvious he was trying to keep his temper in check, but the Maou knew that the teen was not one to roll over and leave things be. If he wanted someone to hurt, he would make them hurt, one way or another.
"… Strip him."
"Come again?"
"Strip him of his rights to be a King. Strip him of his peerage. Strip him of any hope of regaining his collection under the harshest of penalties. And put him on show for the rest of your nobility to see and laugh at like the joke that he is. So every ear in all three factions knows what a failure he, your brother, is."
"Th-That's…" Ajuka blinked, not expecting this ultimatum. Leave it to Issei to come up with a punishment that in several ways was worse than death. At least for the current nobility youth. A Peerage was of the highest priority to the latest generation, save for maintaining their family's heritage and image. To be stripped of it and be publically shamed like that, by his own brother, a Maou no less…
It was a punishment that would indirectly hurt him as well. A reminder that Issei had not forgotten nor forgiven the past in the slightest.
Public humiliation of the highest order. Attack their weaknesses, destroy their strengths, and let the world know about it before they can react so they are too concerned with the fallout and survival to chase after you as you walk away as if it was just another uneventful day. It was a merciless approach to take care of enemies that Ghost had ingrained into Issei for as long as anyone had known the boy. A skill that had been sculpted into an art.
"Swear it, Maou. Swear it on both your names. On your power. This time, you carry the risk, and you will suffer the consequences if you cannot keep your word. Swear it or your next conversation with Sirzechs and Serafall will be why your brother's mutilated corpse is on their territory, and on every underworld tabloid by tomorrow fucking morning."
He wasn't joking. He wasn't stretching the truth or exaggerating fanatically like he normally was.
Issei would kill Diodora. He would mount the Devil's body in a way for everyone to see. He would rope Rias and Sona into it. He would cause tensions between the Maou. He would cause chaos.
He would… do all the things that so many people had accused him of in the past, and more.
Because tonight Issei had almost gone mad again due to his mistake.
Ajuka sighed. The repercussions of what Issei was asking for were near countless and without question deep. He had intended for all of this to be dealt with under the rug. His brother. Asia. The investigation…
No. It was fitting that his mistake would result in just the opposite. He had played too close to the Dragon's Den like a fool and had expected to not incur its wrath.
Just like last time.
He lifted a hand and reached up to his face. A moment later he pulled out his right eye. A fabrication of the original that he had lost when fighting a rampaging Issei five years ago. The color was different, a haunting blood red ring around the pupil, but that was because he made it that way. A subtle reminder to himself of his mistakes…
His natural eye in his skull stared at the unblinking orb he had manufactured.
He crushed the fake eyeball in disgust.
Clearly, the useless trinket had not served its purpose as intended. He had no use for defective products.
"Consider it done." The Maou spoke firmly. "On the name of Beelzebub. On the name of Ajuka Astaroth. On my very power, I will meet your demands, Sekiryuutei. No. I will provide you with the compensation you are long owed with interest."
"Fuck your useless interest. You know what I want. You know what you have done to me."
"And I have made my vow regardless. I will see it done, one way or another. I despised what we did then, and that sentiment has only grown stronger since. Make no false assumptions Issei Hyoudou. We have not forgotten what you are owed. Just as we have not forgiven the ones that played us all. Our war has not concluded yet." The Super Devil stated with finality, the power in his words traveled through the phone just as easily as Issei's had moments before. "Now please. My brother."
The silence was damning, and for a moment, the Super Devil genuinely believed he would be an only child once more.
"Teleport him yourself. You're not an Astaroth anymore, but you can force him back. I know how the 72 pillars' family spells work." Issei grunted.
The Maou physically stopped himself from sighing in relief. He couldn't risk screwing things up again. "I already tried. Judging from the interference, it's clear that you are on Holy territory. I can't bring him back until he's outside the barrier. One way or another."
Issei glanced at the Church in annoyance. There were signs of the fire under the building already building up steam…
"BOOST!"
In an instant, the flames raged to the sky explosively, sucking up all the oxygen in the immediate vicinity and almost causing a momentary vacuum in the process.
The Church, the anchor for the barrier, and the corpses within were obliterated without a second thought.
Had the culprit not put up a minor shield around himself, Asia might have suffered burns from the close proximity.
The same could not be said for the unconscious Devils around him.
"Ah. There we go." A series of golden magical circles spawned underneath Diodora and his Peerage. Seconds later, they were all gone.
"… My mother nearly died tonight. This is your last warning." Issei growled into the phone.
"You will see the results by morning at the latest." Ajuka replied with a sad smile that no one saw. "Go home and help her. And Issei, we really are trying to fix everything-"
The connection was cut off before the Devil could say anything more.
"… Liar. You know it's too late to say that."
o. o. o.
Keep him calm.
That was what Sirzechs and Serafall had constantly been emphasizing when they had been instructing the girls on how to deal with Issei.
Keep him calm.
After their first introductions, everyone had assumed that it was an impossible task. Issei seemed to get agitated and explode over the most mundane of topics, and then brush past the most serious of subjects as if they didn't exist.
Hell, he had chased after Raynare for hours shouting his head off and dual wielding massive dildos. At that point, pretty much every Devil in Kuoh had given up on taking the task too seriously.
Keep him calm.
Rias felt like smacking herself for her ignorance.
The entire time they had known him, for better or for worse, Issei had been calm. His rantings and ramblings had been his normal, to some extent. Hell, it was his way of distracting himself from the things that would have otherwise set him off in the first place.
She knew this. She had figured all this out weeks ago. But after handling him for all this time, she had completely forgotten just how messed up a sentient being's psyche could get.
"Rias." Akeno and Kiba appeared from the Gremory ritual circle in front of Issei's home.
"I know." She turned to the glowing red light and column of smoke in the distance, perfectly visible to her and the others due to Devils having natural night vision. "We can't wait anymore. Sona's group will stay here while we'll-?!"
Her words stopped.
Her breathing stopped.
It wouldn't be off to say that for a moment, even her heart stopped.
She didn't know how. All she knew was that in the span of an instant, all of the hairs on her body stood on end as something instantly passed her, and stopped just a few meters back. It happened so quickly that her instincts took control before her mind registered that something occurred in the first place.
Judging from the way everyone else seemed to freeze, she wasn't the only one that experienced it.
Turning around slowly, she saw someone that had not been there seconds ago.
Someone that was walking as if they didn't exist, and entered the Hyoudou house without a word.
With every step it took, the world parted.
With every breath it took, the earth trembled.
It would not sleep though. Not yet. There was still much to do...
Not that anyone else had uttered a sound either. Even after the door closed behind him.
"... That… was Hyoudou?" Kiba trembled, unable to trust his grasp on reality at the moment.
"Gasper-kun, I… I think you might have understated just how angry he was." Akeno tried to make light of the situation, but she clearly couldn't even convince herself at the moment.
"I think so too." Gasper didn't even try to defend himself. He was too busy trying to stand.
"You know how we were saying he's insane this entire time?" Koneko swallowed heavily. "Judging from his Ki, he's actually insane now."
"That was…" Rias was very tempted to compare the weight they all experienced to what her brother could emit. She refrained, only because she did not want to possibly make the situation worse than it already was. "... He had Asia with him."
"You're not seriously thinking of going in there, are you?" Kiba looked at his King as if she had grown a second head.
"Sona's already inside. If things truly were beyond help, it wouldn't be so quiet now." Rias sounded far more confident than she was. It wasn't too hard to pull off, being part of Devil aristocracy. "So long as we follow the rules, we should be good…"
She tried to sound confident at the end.
Hopefully, Issei would be too distracted by Asami and Raynare to not get too peeved by what she was about to do.
Ignoring the warnings of her Peerage, and her instincts, Rias walked up to Issei's home and knocked on the door. Knowing that that wouldn't be enough, she opened the entrance just slightly. "I-Issei? Can we come in? I'm sorry to barge in like this but…"
The cave shook as the owner's patience waned.
"I'm busy." Issei almost growled from the living room, just outside of her view.
Rias didn't even try to stop her body from shaking. "W-We just wanted to see if you needed help, Issei. We heard about Asami and Raynare. We care about them too…"
Well, it may have been a stretch to say that about Raynare, but Asami was definitely someone that had grown on them all.
Another metaphysical tremor rocked the building, but Issei didn't say anything.
Instead, Saji rushed into view, pale as could be, and hissed at her frantically. "Shut up shut up you can come in just for the love of our spines shut up and don't distract him!"
"What's going on?" Rias whispered.
"It looks like a medical show in there." The pawn grimaced. "He just showed up with the nun, woke her, told the President to be his translator, and then they started to work healing his mom. It's like he's completely shutting out everything right now, but I swear it looked like he was going to kill us all when you showed up."
"Sorry. Sorry." Not for the first time, Rias lamented that her headstrong nature might get her into more trouble than she could handle. "I was just worried… how are they though?"
"Hyoudou's terrifying. Everyone else is scared shitless or already unconscious. Save for the nun, Asia. But she's more or less been brought out of a coma, so she's still too out of it to be scared right now." Saji shook his head. "Everyone's helping Hyoudou take care of his mom and the Fallen. Supporting the magic or getting him whatever random medical magical trinket he's asking for."
"So they sent you to fill us in?" Akeno approached warily.
"And so you could tell me in kind." Saji frowned. "What the hell happened out there? Outside of the obvious?"
Rias shook her head. "Issei was doing contracts with Gasper when they were attacked by excommunicated priests. They were… they were there for Issei. Not Devils."
"For him? I thought they were after Asia?"
"They knew she was with him." Rias corrected before her mind connected a vital pair of dots. "They knew he was… they knew he was dangerous. More than Sona and I. They prepared for him specifically. Not us. That's why Asami and Raynare aren't dead. They were injured to stall him..."
Saji frowned. "If those guys were butchered, they clearly didn't prepare enough. That or their bosses didn't tell them enough on purpose."
"You think this was all done intentionally? Used the nun as a cover?" Kiba walked carefully into the building. "To drive him to the brink like this? But why? What purpose would it serve? If they wanted to push him over, they would have killed his mother, not injure her. It doesn't make sense."
"Unless, was it to send a message?" Akeno suggested.
"To who? Us? Issei? The Maou?" Rias shook her head.
Sona's other Pawn rushed up to them frantically. "Shh! Quiet! They're still healing in there!"
Realizing that they weren't out of the woods yet, the Gremory Peerage flinched as one before slowly making their way to the living room.
All the furniture had been moved to the side of the room, leaving the center open for everyone to stand without care. A colorless barrier occupied the bulk of the space, which was in turn filled by the patients, Issei, Asia, and Sona. The rest of the Sitri Peerage were busy doing something to the barrier from the outside.
Issei and Asia were hovered over Asami's still body, floating in midair next to Raynare's. Despite the grievous wounds both women had, their blood didn't seem to flow in the slightest, no doubt a product of the barrier.
Both of their hands were glowing with magical energy, but it took no time to see that there was a vast difference between the two. Issei's magic hovered a few centimeters over his skin, like thick gloves, while Asia's Sacred Gear practically generated a second barrier under her palms. There was no comparison between the two in terms of ability.
That being said…
"Here… here… here…"
Despite working on his mortally wounded mother, Issei's tone was cold and calculating as he instructed where Asia should focus her attention.
While the difference in their magic was obvious, the inverse could be said about their skill and experience.
Asia was no stranger to healing grievous wounds, but normally she could take the brute force approach to addressing them with her Sacred Gear. Unfortunately, due to her just being rescued and rendered unstable, she was not naturally as efficient as she normally was, crippling her performance. Even then, Asami's and Raynare's wounds were not light, and it would have been difficult for her to address both patients in time under normal circumstances.
Issei on the other hand, was comparable to a machine. Precise. Quick. Emotionless. His dilated eyes and honed magic near instantly prioritized what injuries required the most attention. He then would immediately set up the damaged flesh, muscles, and blood vessels in such a way so Asia would exert minimal strain when healing them. He cleaned out any excess blood and bodily fluids without so much as a blink, sometimes sticking his whole hand into his mother's chest cavity to do so.
It was a slow, meticulous approach that was probably overkill given Twilight Healing's potent abilities. But it was efficient, effective, and minimized the strain on Asia.
In a matter of ten minutes, Asami's once open stomach was intact once more, albeit red and raw. No torn organs. No internal bleeding. No infections. No torn internal membranes or prolapses.
They spent another fifteen minutes on the woman's head, just to make sure any possible brain damage was minimized if not completely addressed. It was clear that the woman had suffered a concussion of some sort, but ultimately, and thankfully, the damage was not as severe as it could have been.
Issei did not utter a single word or sound that was not related to the treatment. His voice carried not a hint of emotion or energy. Be it out of anger or fear or happiness or relief. Even when they were done with his mother, he did not show a single emotion, and turned his attention to the other injured party next to him.
Every few minutes, Asia looked like her mind was fading elsewhere. Each and every time though, Issei would rest a hand on her shoulder and medically invigorate her, just enough that she'd get a second wind. And a third. And a fourth...
It probably wasn't healthy for the girl, the procedure isn't that much different from doping, and she no doubt would be suffering a harsh backlash from it, but it was necessary. As tense as Asami's treatment was, Raynare's was worse.
The Fallen had a literal five centimeter wide hole going through her sternum and out her back, clipping her spine. Several of her organs were clearly torn apart or burnt in the process. How she was still alive was anyone's guess.
Issei started by rolling her floating body over so that they were looking at her back, and her damaged spine.
And without hesitating, he started giving out instructions once more.
Sona mentioned that Issei worked on Raynare earlier, and it must have been something effective, because the pair of medics spent far less time reconstructing the Fallen's spine than Rias assumed they would need. An additional ten minutes were spent on her nervous system, and then she was rolled over once more so they could address her organs.
Asia spoke up then, worried because she had trouble dealing with magical burn wounds.
Issei apparently didn't. Without bothering to explain, he cast a spell that somehow cleaned out all the charred flesh on the woman's insides without agitating the wounds.
At that point, he must have seen enough because he told Asia to go all out with her Sacred Gear and try and address everything like she normally would.
It went to show just how much she trusted him, as she didn't question his decision and went with it.
Surprisingly, this was the quickest part of the surgery. Raynare's chest closed within a couple of minutes, most of which Issei was monitoring directly with his own magic, taking in just how exactly the patient was being healed, cleaned, and restructured.
It was only when the Fallen was nearly done that he pulled his hands back. Asia wasn't done yet if her focused expression was any indication, but he apparently was.
By that point, everyone had been in the room for almost two hours. The operation had been going on for so long that no one had noticed that he was no longer emitting the overwhelming pressure of a mythological apex predator, their attentions instead had slowly shifted to the patients and their recovery. As a result, it was easy for him to edge away and out sight while the finishing touches were made to Raynare.
While everyone was distracted, the teen moved to the controls of the temporal stasis barrier on the side of the room and input some commands for a slow release so the patients wouldn't go into shock from the sudden change in their health. He had already set both women up with drips that supplied them with the extra blood, nutrients, fluids, and infusions they would need so their bodies would run properly.
Then, quietly, he grabbed a small towel to wipe off the blood that was on his hands, exited the living room, and walked up the stairs without a second glance or word to his guests.
o. o. o.
Asia was the first person to notice Issei was gone. Right after she had finished healing Raynare and nearly collapsed on her own feet had Sona caught her at the last moment.
"Whoa there. Are you all right?"
"Y-yes. I'm just, tired. Thank you. These wounds weren't easy to treat. I would have only been able to heal one of them if it wasn't for Issei-san." She paused and looked around. "Eh? Issei-san? Where did he go?"
"Hyoudou?" Sona's expression matched Asia's as she too examined her surroundings along with everyone else. "Where, did he go?"
"I think he went to his room." Koneko focused her senses to try and find him. "Bit of a dick move, leaving at the end like that."
While most of the Devils there nodded in agreement, Asia shook her head and tried to move. "N-No. That's bad. He shouldn't be alone right now."
"Shouldn't be alone?" Rias got a bad feeling. "What do you mean?"
Asia tried to move to the stairs. "I've seen that look in his eyes before. In other people that were hurt. He's not thinking right. He needs help. He needs someone to talk to, or else, or else..."
"Hoh? The Nun has good instincts. Or rather, is it more accurate to say she has experience dealing with the unfortunate?"
The inhuman voice that echoed through the building put everyone on guard.
"What the hell was that?" Saji shivered, looking around frantically.
"I would follow the girl's advice if I were you. If any are interested in interacting with Partner in person within the next few months at least."
"Partner, wait, are you by chance a familiar of Issei's?" Rias quickly connected the dots. "Or, are you an entity sealed in his Sacred Gear?"
The house shook. "Hmhmhm. I see that you share some of your brother's insight, Gremory. The latter, if you must know. Who I am, and what I possess, will remain on a need to know basis, however for now you have proven yourself enough to know I exist."
"What about Issei?" Rias got to the point. "Where did he go?"
"Partner… is in his room right now. Due to his current state, he cannot hear me, nor does he know of our conversation. Otherwise he would no doubt have put a stop to it. This dwelling is modified so I am allowed to observe and converse with its occupants while in other rooms if I desire. A convenient perk for times like this."
"He can't hear us?" Gasper frowned in confusion.
"No. Partner's condition has, deteriorated, for lack of a better term. Unless something is done soon, I doubt he will be willing to leave his chamber's confines for quite some time. I will not lie, his mental state was pushed precariously close to no return tonight. We cannot afford to simply let him recover on his own now."
"And how do you recommend we do that?" Sona frowned. "We know the rules of this house. If Hyoudou is in such a state, then even attempting to enter his room will be a guaranteed death sentence."
"And you would be right, if all of you were foolish to barge into Partner's den. He would likely kill you all before realizing something was amiss in the first place. His instincts have always been unusually strong, even compared to that of a true Dragon." The voice droned. "No. The only ones capable of being any use right now are the Nun and the Gremory. The former is a natural born Dragon Tamer. A being whose very existence is in tune with my kind. Our kind have often gone to great lengths to claim tamers as our own. Old stories of us kidnapping princesses of other species and holding them within our dens are often the product of such escapades. They are a prize beyond petty metals and stones. The peace they can bring to our minds and instincts is… euphoric, for lack of a better term."
"Huh. That does make sense in hindsight." Saji frowned in deep thought.
"Gremory on the other hand, has somehow managed to garner the slightest leeway with Partner. It is a respect, and well of mixed emotions, garnered for one that is stubborn enough to not leave him alone. None of the others in this building are capable of being any aid... save for, hmmm, no. It's still too early to explore and uncover that path and the wounds it hides."
"Me?" Rias echoed, surprised that Issei actually had developed a soft spot for her.
"Save for who? Who are you talking about?" Sona probed, more interested in who this third person could be.
"... Some secrets should remain buried for now, Sitri. In time they can be discussed, perhaps, but not now. This is for the sake of both parties. I advise you leave matters be." The voice ominously warned. "It would be prudent to see to Partner soon. He has not been rendered to this poor a state in some time."
Asia didn't seem to need any additional prompting, and staggered to the stairs as quickly as possible. Whether it was out of her innate ability to care for others, or because she was genuinely worried for Issei was anyone's guess, but she had made it halfway up before she was quickly followed by Rias and the others.
"Are you sure it's safe to do this?" Rias asked out loud. "My brother warned me countless times that trying to enter Issei's room without permission was one of the worst things we could do."
"I'm certain, so long as you take it slowly and the Nun enters first to lead you in. Partner… well, you will understand once you see him for yourself. Either way, once you enter the room I will not be able to converse with you without exposing myself. It is best if, how would you put it, Partner sees this progression as natural. Unmotivated by outside parties."
"Well that's not ominous or concerning." Akeno noted cheerfully. "Are you sure about this Rias?"
Looking at how Asia was almost at Issei's door despite being an injured human on the verge of collapsing, Rias couldn't help but puff out her cheeks like a child. "We're already here Akeno. Might as well see where this takes us. It would be ridiculous not to check up on how Issei's doing before we leave regardless."
"That and you want to see the dangerous boy whose heart you're worming into. Hm?" The priestess teased.
"I'm having better luck at it than you at least." Rias wasn't sure if she intended to say that out loud or not, but she couldn't deny that seeing her Queen freeze up like that was satisfying.
The bantering stopped the instant Asia opened Issei's bedroom door, and nearly everyone was froze in their places.
The best comparison that could be made was as if someone had opened the gate to a Tiger's den, with the beast still in it. An animalistic instinct told everyone there that not only was something dangerous was inside, and that it was agitated, but that area in particular was very much off limits. All without a word or sound uttered.
Asia took a fearless step inside almost instantly, leaning on the door for support.
And nothing happened.
The girl looked back at Rias, and it took a moment for the latter to realize that she was also supposed to enter that sacrosanct room.
Second, third, and fourth thoughts screamed in her mind, telling her not to go forward. Her heart pounded as she looked into the room that was realistically not threatening at all. She could see sex toys, papers, and posters of porn stars clearly from where she stood. Breasts, underwear, dresses, makeup, and all sorts of paraphernalia were visible. Not at all enough to distract her from the fear she felt, but enough to allow her to keep on moving forward.
It would be fine. It was just Issei. He wouldn't hurt her. Issei doesn't like hurting anyone.
She tried to reason with herself.
Issei's really kind deep down. He's all bark. He learned medicine. He prefers healing. He's more interested in porn than fighting. Or politics. Or people. He's just really strong. And loud. And tired. And, probably scared. And...
She didn't know when she made it, only that Asia had stopped her as soon as they reached the couch in the middle of the room.
The world seemed to freeze once more as her mind caught up with her eyes.
Issei was sitting on the couch with a laptop and some papers in front of him, and a pair of headphones covering his ears. His bloodshot eyes were honed in on the screen as if his life depended on it, and the pen in his hand was scribbling random gibberish on the medical form he held.
He clearly didn't notice them, and wasn't going to for quite some time.
… But…
The screen was off.
His headphones were unplugged.
The paper he was writing on was marred with random lines.
The pen in his hand was gripped so tightly that it was snapped in half and cutting into his skin.
Issei was beyond being simply stressed. He was in a state of complete psychosis. His mind had shut down to save himself, and to not hurt anyone. At best, he could only pretend to watch porn in a desperate attempt to regain some semblance of normalcy and stability to his soul.
Issei was strong… but he was also completely helpless. He didn't even trust himself.
The others outside couldn't see him from where they were, but they certainly didn't miss Rias' horrified expression.
"Rias? Rias what's wrong?" Sona whispered as loud as she was willing from where she was.
She ignored Sona, as did Asia, as they slowly moved towards him. Whether by instinct of simply experience, they seamlessly sat on the couch, Asia next to him, then Rias.
"Issei-san." The Nun whispered gently, reaching out and resting her small hands on his arm. "Issei-san, can you hear me?"
His whole body flinched upon contact, but didn't do more than that. "G-go away. Watching Porn. Have to finish. Can't stop. Report's due. Stupid stuff. Have to calm down. Not worth your time…"
Rias felt another chill go down her spine. Was Issei's obsession with Porn just a means for him to push everyone away from him? "Issei? Asami and Raynare are resting now. They're healed. You saved them. You saved Asia too."
"Can't. Watching porn. Safe here. Can't hurt here. Have to finish. Watching porn. Calm." It was like listening to a record player that was constantly skipping. He absolutely refused to tear his mind or bloodshot gaze away from the adult entertainment that didn't exist, clinging onto it desperately like a lifeline.
Rias was at a complete loss.
Asia on the other hand seemed to have something in mind.
She hugged him.
Everyone stilled. Even from the doorway, they were able to see some of what happened.
She had hugged Issei.
The unstable teen that was infamous for violently lashing out at anyone or anything that invaded his personal space without warning. The person that had assaulted three teachers on his first day of school for nudging his shoulder to wake him up. The joker that had wiped out at least twenty trained excommunicated exorcists of the Church with seemingly as much effort as an afterthought.
No one dared to breathe.
"...Go."
It was barely a whisper, but Rias managed to hear it.
"Please let go. I have to watch porn." Issei shivered, yet his eyes never moving away from the screen. "I have to… I have to…"
"Issei, you're tired." Asia managed to speak in broken Japanese despite burying half her face into his shoulder. "You want to sleep, don't you?"
"Tired… can't sleep. Haven't slept, in so long… have to watch porn…"
Whether it was due to Issei's mental exhaustion, Asia's sedative like effects on him, or both, it was abundantly clear that the unstable teen was losing consciousness. Even so, he didn't look at the intruders, as if he was terrified of what might happen if he did.
"Issei. It's fine if you take a nap now. No one will get mad if you do." Rias joined in. "Asia's here. Asami and Ranare are healed. No one is in danger anymore."
"There's always… danger…" His eyes were more closed than open now. Energy was leaving his body in droves, to the point that even Asia could tip him over. "Anyone, near me… always gets hurt… always runs… always tired… always me… never stops... need to… calm down… screwed up…"
"Shhh. Shhh. It's ok Issei." Asia cradled his sagging frame like he was a child. "Sleep. You're tired. Sleep. You'll feel better when you wake up."
"It doesn't stop… it doesn't stop…" Issei's body collapsed in slow motion, first over Asia's lap, then towards Rias where she guided his head onto her thighs, splaying him over both girls.
Whether it was intentional or by instinct, Issei immediately latched onto Rias' waist and clung tightly to her as if holding on to dear life. She doubted that he even knew that she was in his room to begin with.
He didn't cry though. He had been too tired to cry for five years.
No one knew if he fell asleep before or after Rias and Asia did. All anyone knew was that the two girls stayed on the couch with him the rest of the night while Sona and the others took turns overseeing Issei's home and try to manage the aftermath of the night's rampage.
o. o. o.
In one of the most expensive hotel suites in Kuoh, a beautiful woman with white hair was masturbating furiously.
Her right hand was clawing her moderate, but perfectly shaped breasts furiously to the point that she would have left deep gouges in them had she been human.
Her left hand was four fingers deep in her folds, pumping in and out up to her knuckles while glistening with her own juices.
Her face was alight with a look of joy and rapture.
"He's here. He's still alive."
Those two facts sent her over the edge time and again over the past hour, and would continue for several more before the night would end.
There was no mistaking the Presence that spiked on the other side of the city. That power was unique to each user. Even if Issei had holed himself up for five years, he was still by far the strongest user among the handful that existed in this universe... outside of that monster in his right arm at least.
It was nowhere near what he had unleashed in the underworld last time. Nowhere near enough to floor an entire city's populace just from the mere exposure to his might and power.
Nowhere near enough to knock her unconscious like it did back then, after she whispered the secret into his ear that pushed him over the edge into true madness, and show the might that he had cultivated into a flawless gem, yet never used to the world.
It was a memory that filled her with more excitement and regret than anything else.
How foolish had she been back then? To mar such a priceless treasure? To completely overlook the true prize for some shallow accolades and resources? Acknowledgement from an old greedy fool that sought to use her as she used him?
She had nearly lost any chance of being truly happy, and untouchable.
Nearly, but not yet. She still had time.
Issei, still had time.
It had been a risk, to push forward with the plan to kidnap the Nun.
Oh she knew that there was a good chance that Issei had been in Kuoh, but not once had she been able to personally investigate the city or claim it as her own to be certain. The security around the territory was another clue that she was on the right track, but still nothing conclusive. She had been close a few years ago, but the Maou had cut her off with the introduction of those blissfully ignorant girls.
It had only been because she had been keeping an eye on the territory through all sorts of resources that she found out about Diodora's ridiculous idea of picking up that Priestess there. It was through those same channels that she found out that the girl had been conveniently picked up and was now protected by some odd and scary human kid…
How could she not take advantage of such a lavish opportunity?
Kokabiel had required a bit of an extra push to go through with it all. A violent relic he might be, but he wasn't the sort that would needlessly sacrifice his underlings and potentially expose his resources in the Mirren without a good reason, and placating that idiot Diodora hardly counted.
Destabilizing the Devil hierarchy, potentially sewing discord among the nobles, and rocking the tentative balance between Devils and the Church though did sweeten the deal to his ears.
Regardless of the outcome of the ensuing chaos, the political madness that would surround that pigheaded boy's fate in the near future may serve as a pleasing distraction to entertain herself with. For the short term.
Not that it could ever sway her eyes from her true prize.
Her only prize.
"Ahhh. Issei." Her body lurched as she climaxed once more, unleashing her juices in a burst that reached the other side of her bed. "Soon Issei. Soon I'll make things right. I'll make you mine, like you should have been."
Now, all she needed was to get rid of a few obstacles.
o. o. o.
Seven years ago:
"And that's all you need to know when dealing with guys that can literally bend reality with their bare hands." Ghost smiled and stood proudly as Issei laid out spread eagle on the floor in front of him, completely exhausted.
"Why? Did you bother to teach me? How to deal with guys? That are rare as hell?" The boy gasped out in broken sentences. Each breath he took caused him nothing but pain.
"Future potential plot relevance that I have no reason knowing about at this time." Ghost smiled without shame. "Not that this info would work if you ever had to deal with my brother Waltz. That guy's the kind of monster when pissed that most people would just say "fuck it" and then hopefully kill themselves fast enough and in such spectacular fashion that he wouldn't be able to revive and kill on his own terms."
"I thought you said that people said the same thing about you."
"Psh. Yeah. But unlike Waltz, I don't need my bare hands to snag someone's recently departed soul."
"Didn't you say he's supposed to be the nice and normal one in your family?"
"He is. And like everyone else in my family, he's a horrible unstoppable cataclysm of multiversal destruction when actually pissed. His literal bare hands were constantly in our top five most dangerous things in our possession for over a millennia. Would have been two if my other brother Scab didn't have a breakdown and go through a bad mad scientist phase one year… those poor magical girls…"
Issei dropped his head to the ground. "I think I'm done for the day."
"They didn't stand a chance. I can never look at confetti and glitter the same way again… they had to rewrite entire an entire section of the multiversal war crimes convention over the course of three hundred years to cover what happened in that mess. And you have to REALLY fuck up to get any official changes made on that thing."
"Why are you doing this?" The boy groaned helplessly.
"It's an elder's responsibility to bestow entertaining and mind scarring life lessons to their younger charges."
"No, yes, but no. I mean, why have you been so focused on teaching me how to fight recently?" Issei looked at his second tenant. "I don't want to fight. I want a harem. I get that I have to be strong because I'm the Sekiryuutei and have to protect those I care about, but even I can tell that I'm overkill now. I'm training to be a doctor, not some overlord. I don't want people to be afraid of me... I have trouble enough talking to others as it is."
Ghost surprisingly didn't say anything for a while before he let out a tired sigh. "Ah. That."
"I asked something I shouldn't have?"
"No, it's, more like you asked a question that you're not going to like the answer to. An answer that's not likely going to sink in until you experience it firsthand." The normal eccentricity was gone from the immortal's voice, leaving something… tired.
"Is this going to be like when you told me you have a perpetual assassin bloodfeud slash hate boner with Santa?" Issei hadn't forgiven Ghost for more or less ruining Christmas for him forever.
"Fucking Nick just won't… ah, no. This is different. This is actually relevant to your situation."
"So you admit that most of the things you put me through is solely for your own amusement."
"And Ddraig's."
"Don't you dare associate me with your madness!" The dragon shouted from across the mindscape.
"Fine. Only my amusement. Cause I'm an asshole. Which is kind of the lesson I'm about to teach you."
"We already know you're an asshole."
"Not that." The blind man moved in a way that screamed that he was rolling his eyes behind his glasses. "People."
"People?"
"Humans. Dragons. Devils. Angels. Gods. Whatever. If it's sentient, it's bound to be stupid in one way or another. Never under any circumstances underestimate a person's capability to be selfish, ignorant, or just plain retarded in a way that will bring misfortune to you and everyone around you. The stronger, more influential, and more intelligent they are, the bigger their fuck ups will ruin your life. Especially if you catch their attention."
It went without saying that Issei had already caught their attention.
"… Aren't you overstating things? I mean, we already know Zaz and Donatello and Zechs and a lot of other important people that like me. Wouldn't the idea of angering them be enough?"
Ghost let out another tired sigh. "You'd think that, but… kid, you know how I keep on bragging about how I'm some overpowered hot shit monster that no one wants to piss off?"
"Yeah? Kinda hard not to miss it by this point."
"It's not hot air. The vast majority of the hierarchy up there is legitimately scared shitless of me. Not because I am simply strong, or because I have friends, but because I GAVE them a reason to BE afraid of me, and that only came about because they first gave ME a legitimate reason to wipe them from pre-conception."
Issei didn't know what exactly to say to that.
"Ophis' "Grandma"? My boss? She's literally in a classification of her own. Nobody fucks with her. No God, multiversal foundational entity, none of them. Period. Literally untouchable. They're dumb, but they aren't dumb enough to even consider getting on her bad side. It's safer to be a blade of grass on the side of the road than something that's caught her attention. As one of her attendants, I'm about as entitled as you can possibly get by mere association, and trust me, I have accolades of my own that carry weight. And despite all that fluff and political shielding…"
"What happened?"
"My second wife." The immortal smiled dryly. He had mentioned he had been married five times in the past, but rarely brought up details unless it was to scar Issei with details of an immortal's married sex life. "Well, my first wife laid down the groundwork, technically, that twisted bitch… but… bottom line was that some Gods and other major entities got it in their heads that my family and I were overstepping our bounds. Wanted to teach us a "lesson". Remind us of our place, of the hierarchy. Keep in mind that we're talking about actual Gods here. Rape? Murder? Psh. You won't last long if you're squeamish from such petty and base misfortunes like that. Simply killing a mortal isn't that big of a deal. Not exactly hard to resurrect a person if you're a Multiversal superpower. Revival. Reversal of causality. Temporal extraction. Life and soul infusions. Reincarnation. Bringing back the dead and healing physical wounds is child's play once you travel around a bit. No, if you wanted something to really stick, you'd have to go the extra mile to do it."
"What did they do?"
"Well. Like I said, they're Gods, so they had a pretty wide range of bullshit options they could have gone with. Forced reincarnation. Immortality on a planet with no sentient life. Soul splintering. But… instead they settled on something that really couldn't be taken back. Something that no amount of timespace or soul bullshit finesse could fix. It was actually impressive, that they put so much effort just to piss me off, really."
Ghost tried to sound cheerful and whimsical like he usually did, but there was no way he could mask the underlying ocean of pure murder that supported his every word. It was as though every syllable carried with it a savage beast that was just waiting to lash out at whatever unfortunate fool that happened to show weakness at that moment.
"They rewrote her past. Our past."
Issei blinked. "They, what?"
"They turned my wife into a lie. Replaced the truth. Retconned an entire character." Ghost's smile was dry and bitter. "Every smile. Every happy moment we had. Even our children. They replaced the woman I had fallen in love with with a counterpart whose sole purpose was to spy and loathe me. Every misfortune I experienced after meeting her was in some way her machination. She had a miscarriage early in our relationship, which was revealed later to be her own doing. The only reason why our other kids didn't suffer the same fate was because she didn't have the heart do it again to herself, no matter how much she loathed me. My truth had literally become nothing more than a toy to play me with. They didn't simply murder her, or replace her. They made it so she didn't exist in the first place, so that there was no chance of her possibly existing in the first place. Like I said before, Gods, real Gods, have more options available than you can imagine."
The boy swallowed heavily.
"I wiped out a lot of people after I found out, in spectacular fashion I might add. Not killed kid, wiped out. Poof. No traces left for anyone to revive. Gods. Humans. Multiverses. There is literally not a number that exists is able to quantify the damage caused. I told you before. I am The End. That title didn't come from some idiot that thought it sounded cool in his head. It's a legitimate position. A role that must be played and obeyed with the highest form of absolution. All those convoluted eldritch horrors and final bosses you see in fantasy books and video games would shit themselves inside out if they saw me in my full glory. I damn near wiped out the whole system in my rampage. It was only after… well, sacrifices were made to rein me in. Things that couldn't be taken back."
Issei looked at Ghost as if seeing the man for the first time.
"… You really loved her, didn't you?"
"I loved all of them. Enough to literally burn the universe to ashes countless times over personally, regardless of how many innocents got in the way. I don't know if it was dumb luck or a fast one pulled on me by that bitch Fate… again, but I see a lot of myself in you. Enough that I want to make sure you don't get fucked over like I did."
"I'm guessing that's why you don't want people to know who you are then. So the Gods here won't freak out and do something that might hurt me?"
"And then some. If you thought the minor fuckups they try to clean up in ancient mythos is bad, you don't want to see what happens when they have full blown panic attacks and try to cover their asses. Trust me, it's not pretty."
"Didn't half of the Greek Mythos normally start with a God having sex with someone or something that they shouldn't have?"
"You remember that story when good old Yahweh literally flooded the planet and killed pretty much every land based creature on it? Fun fact, they weren't the only ones he killed with that stunt, nor were they his main target."
"Ok. Ok. I get it. Please stop." It always turned out like this. Just when Ghost seemed like he was being genuinely serious, he goes on a factual tangent that makes everyone regret listening to him.
"Heh. Sure. Fine. Suit yourself." The immortal smirked, amused by the boy's reaction.
"You're telling me that everything you're putting me through is so I'm less likely to screw things up?"
"That, and it's fun to mess with young and impressionable minds."
Great. Serious Ghost was already giving way to the normal asshole. "The more I think about it, the more the idea of you reproducing in any way fills me with a horror that's normally designated for dealing with eldritch abominations."
"Oi oi. I'm not that bad." Yet. "Look. Obviously you're overloaded. I'll leave you alone for now. Relax. Get some rest. Molest that Nee-san or that Kuro-chan of yours a bit. Like you said, you're ten. You have time to get things sorted out. No one's after you, and few are able to do anything about it even if they were."
The boy gave him an annoyed glare before letting out a long groan. He had been given a lot to think about. It wasn't going to be easy getting to sleep tonight. "Fine. Whatever. It'll be nice to actually sleep for once. Kuro-chan's visiting tonight too, so we can finally catch up…"
Issei's image faded away from the mindscape…
… Just as Ddraig's came into sight.
"I doubt that was all you wished to tell him." The crimson monster looked down on the insane God. "Power, vigilance, and connections are good, but they are not enough to stay one's enemies from your kin."
"I was gonna go on a tangent about how being a good teacher and making sure that your close ones are a bitch to target on their own is ultimately the best way to cover your bases, but I guess I went a bit too heavy on my backstory." Ghost shrugged nonchalantly, and turned to walk away in a seemingly random direction. "Eh. Whatever. I'll get to it eventually."
"I noticed you never specified whatever happened to your mate once you found out what happened."
"I already said what happened. They turned her into a lie. The only thing that was left was a mad puppet in her image. The woman I had married and entrusted my heart to no longer existed. So I did what was only natural. I torched the useless doll, along with her makers."
It was the way he said it that sent silent chills down Ddraig's spine. Even if it was a fake, the replacement for his mate had without question spent years with him, building a history and memories with him. Even if she loathed it, and the context was different, the events, the memories, the happiness he felt… she had been the one he had built it all up with.
To calmly and casually claim that he murdered her with his own two hands as if it had nothing to do with him...
This individual was one that was perfectly accustomed with murdering. The guilty. The innocent. Strangers… and friends.
It was a necessity at times. The world was not kind. Ddraig was more familiar with the darker side of reality. But, only the worst of mad beasts reveled in actual pointless slaughter, or felt nothing when faced with the corpse of a loved one.
"I assume you are putting in an effort to ensure that Partner will not undergo a similar experience."
"Of course not. Believe it or not, I'm not a total asshole." Ghost waved lazily to Ddraig as he departed. "I actually like the kid. He's fun to watch. If anything that fucked up happened to him, well… let's say that I'd take it as a personal insult."
"Humph. A God's blessing if I've ever heard one."
"Careful. I allow Issei some leeway every now and then, but I don't recall granting you any boons."
"A curse by any other name is still a curse."
"Fuck you too ya overused purse."
The two monsters vanished from the world that never was. Both left to dwell on events recent and long passed.
Half an hour later, Issei was calmly sleeping on Kuroka's lap, fondling her thighs unconsciously in a futile attempt to reach her ass, much to her amusement.
During that summer, he and Jasmine would make a breakthrough with their research that would eventually determine not only their futures, but the potential fate of Devil kind.
A month after that, during the start of the new college year, he would meet the one that would eventually ruin it all for everyone.
o. o. o.
A/N:
Beta'd by CrayZayJay
Sorry for this not being a FFD chapter for those that are waiting for it. But I had to. I have a personal rule to make sure that there's a chapter that comes out where everyone is reminded that Ghost hates Santa whenever Christmas comes around. Don't blame me. Blame Santa's unrivaled assassination sk-ugh?!
*Next to my headless corpse is a note that states that Ghost got to me first.*
Ok. Mega chapter. Covered the entire Asia kidnapping fiasco and fallout in a single installment.
Told you guys that things would pick up fast.
I cucked you on a bit of details, but I hope you enjoyed a taste on how he uses his Sacred Gear to more or less one shot anything he touches.
Yeah. Issei has a very lopsided sense of priorities. Fighting? Kidnapping? Enemies? Homework? Threats on his life? Doesn't matter how strong they are, he'll charge head first through any mess without batting an eyelash.
Not because it's the right thing to do, but because he just wants the shit over and done with. He literally couldn't care less about the fate of the world and would instantly load the job onto someone else if he thought he could get away with it without any repercussions and the results wouldn't affect him in any way.
The second those under his personal care are targeted or actually harmed though? All limiters are off and he goes into a self-destructive rampage that will waste the local landscape.
Had Asami been actually killed instead of grievously harmed, Kuoh would be nothing more than a titanic bonfire come morning. The fact that Issei needed to be calm and think lucidly in order to save her and Raynare was the sole reason why he didn't completely go berserk this chapter. Once he had healed the two and was confident they would survive, he had calmed down enough to reason that he was still a complete mess and was trying everything he could to calm down without hurting anyone.
That being said, I hinted it a few times, but Raynare's injuries were far worse than most of the other characters knew. Enough that certain… extensive measures had to be taken. Measures that will be elaborated on in the next chapter. Measures that will have… side effects.
True DxD themed side effects. This story's rated M for a reason people! We're finally reaching the "plot" heavy good stuff!
I know I skipped out on a few scenes, but the chapter was already long enough as it was. There'll be some parts to fill in the details next chapter, but overall, I couldn't bring myself to break up this monstrosity into parts. It would ruin the pacing. Issei gets mad. Issei goes into church. Issei kills. Issei comes out. And everyone's running around wondering wtf is going on.
On other news, work's picking up for all sorts of reasons. Both good and bad. But most of that's not coming to me till next year cause I only have two days left before vacation! Yaaaaaay!
And the FGO anime is great yaaaaaaay!
And I'm gonna roll for Ereshkigal and use up my saint Quartz before Hokusai comes out so there goes my xmas money yaaaaaaaay!
And my computer had a heart attack so I had to spend two weeks doing all this stuff on a backup rig I had which was uncomfortable but now my laptop is back and no longer sounding like a diesel engine yaaaaaaaay!
… Christmas Yaaaaaaaay!
Uh. Oh! Right! Tshirts! In case you guys don't know yet, I have a new Tshirt out for this series! It's a "For the Harem" shirt! Link is on my profile! I know it's a bit late given the holidays, but please support me by buying one! For the Harem! … Yaaaaaaay!
That's all I got for now. Thanks for being so patient with me.
SO REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! PURE COTTON WHITE BULGE IS GOOD CIVILIZATION! AND REVIEW AGAIN!
