The Preeminence of a Gamer: Speedrun

by 3sper

Waking up with a ridiculous power, Issei Hyoudou tries to wrap his head around all the new supernatural occurrences suddenly in his life. All he wants to do is perv out on some girls, but things might be spiraling out of control faster than he can handle. A Gamer story using Canonical Issei.

Hello and welcome to my new story. After reading a bunch of Gamer stories and not being completely satisfied with what I was reading, I felt obligated to try it out for myself. The concept has intrigued me ever since I've heard of it a few years back and overtime, I became interested in writing one.

The ideas and concepts I use will mostly be my own. The system will follow how I design it and won't be too demanding across the story. You may notice that I won't list the specifics of each stat, such as HP and MP. The reason for this is because I don't wish for each chapter to become bloated with arbitary statistics and I'm sure that isn't what most of you want to read. Regardless, it shouldn't be too complicated to understand and will hopefully be satisfactory.

I may end up referencing and adding items and such from other anime and games, so expect them to appear if they do. However, I do not plan on adding any character from any other series because they don't really have a place in the story. They would just become extras and that isn't something I want to happen. The only characters that will appear will be from DxD and no named OC's will be used. Abilities, items, etc. will be the only things I will use from other media.

Also, I will be using the characterizations the English Dub gives these characters, or at least close to it. I know the Sub and light novels portray the characters different, but I haven't read many DxD fanfictions that try to do the Dub characterizations justice. Hopefully, I will be able to.

For those of you who are coming from my Sword Art Online story, hello. I still plan on updating that story regularly and each story should get equal time. Anything can change, but these are my plans for now. For those who are new, feel free to check out my SAO fanfiction. It has been awhile since it began and the first few chapters are a little rough, but if you like SAO, I think you will like it.

Please enjoy reading.

Pa-atreon: 3sper

---

"Am I crazy?" Issei asked himself as he scrolled through what appeared to be a video game menu. He remembered having some weird dream about a game. When he woke up, the menu screen he had seen was still in front of him. He thought he was still dreaming at first and ignored it, thinking he would really wake up in a few more moments.

After getting dressed and going about his day, eating with his parents and taking a shower, he knew he was no longer dreaming.

"I have to be crazy." Issei muttered, scratching the back of his head.

Did he play so many video games that he'd finally fallen off the deep end? Was that really possible? No, it shouldn't be. He hadn't gotten deeply invested into a game for at least a year. Well, discounting porn games, of course. But even then, he hadn't played one of those in over a week. MMOs were ruled out too because he'd quit playing them the day he logged into them.

Looking up his symptoms on the internet, Issei couldn't really find anything related to his problem and could only figure that he had some sort of mental illness. He wasn't sure of which one, as he got bored of scrolling through numerous of them. Still, that's what he landed on.

"...Am I really, though? I feel pretty sane." Then again, most crazy people probably feel sane, so that wasn't a very good argument. "Well, lets see what I can do with it." If the menu wasn't going to disappear, it wouldn't hurt to see if he could actually interact with it. Today was the weekend, after all. He usually stayed home anyway and it wasn't like he had anywhere to be. Why not try it out?

Using his index finger, Issei found out that he could press and interact with all of the buttons that had appeared before him. His status screen, an item menu, an adventurer's log, quest log, and even an options menu. One button in particular stood out to him; the tutorial.

"Here goes nothing, I guess." Issei shrugged, pressing the button.

---

"Alright, cool it, Issei. Either you're the most crazy person in the world, or this is actually freaking real." Issei said, his head spinning. After several hours of going through an indepth tutorial of how to play the game such as how to level up and get items, it just didn't seem like it was fake anymore. "But that's probably what crazy people think, right?" He said, second guessing himself. He did just go through hours of a tutorial. If the game was really real, then it would have to stand up to a test.

Getting up from his computer chair, he walked out of his room downstairs to see his mother coming home. "Oh, Issei. Help me carry the groceries inside." She asked him at the doorway.

"Sure." Issei said back, grabbing a few of the bags at the door. 'Let's see if it works.' He thought as he looked at his mother. A small shift in his brain clicked as Issei felt and thought the word; Observe.

Just as the tutorial said, using the ability Observe had let him view his mother's status. Just like with him, it listed her name, race, gender, age, and her stats. She was level one and had similar status points he did.

'It worked exactly as it said it would.' Issei thought, putting the groceries on the kitchen countertop.

"Issei, could you be a dear and help me put them away?"

"Okay, mom." He answered back, surprising his mother at his lack of complaining. That test wasn't going to be enough to fully convince him, though. One more test at least before he could definitively believe that this was some sort of real power and he wasn't hallucinating something mad. He had his menu open the whole time and she hadn't noticed it, which again made him think he was just crazy.

Returning to his bedroom, Issei logged back onto the internet and began watching random videos. Even through a video online, he was able to observe people and learn of their statuses. "So that confirms it. This is real." Issei laid back in his chair. He clicked random videos of famous internet personalities who he knew nothing about and the game was able to tell him their real names before he could even try to look them up. Once he had, the names of the ones he could find turned out to be real.

Issei felt his energy leave him. This whole situation was exhausting. He just had a weird dream and suddenly he had this power. It didn't make since, but there was nothing he could do but try to figure it out.

"I guess I could try using it to my advantage. I have it, so I might as well use it." He said, sitting up and clicking on more videos. Out of a few dozen people, the only ones who were level two were professional athletes. It looked like most people were level one, which made him feel better about himself, knowing that he wasn't as sucky as he thought he was. Some people still had more points than him in their stats, despite being level one. A level one could still be faster than another level one if they had more points in agility and another could be stronger if they had points in strength. It all depended on how many points they had and how many in each skill.

You could get points without leveling up by doing certain activities like exercising, but leveling up was the clear way to getting stronger fast. If you got enough experience points, you would level up. To get experience, you had to do quests.

"Which there aren't any." Issei sighed, closing his quest tab. The tutorial said that quests would pop up either randomly, or when a certain type of event happened. Unfortunately, the game didn't tell him what kind of events he would have to wait for. "I guess I just have to wait until I get one." He said, anxiously.

He kept thinking about when it would pop up and what kind of quest would it be. The more he thought about it, the more nervous he got. It wasn't gonna ask him to do something stupid, right?

Until it did, he had some time to kill. It was still in the afternoon, so he thought about what to do. His dad would be getting off work soon and his mom would start preparing dinner. He could try to gain some status points in strength or agility.

'But I really don't want to exercise.' He inwardly whined. His intelligence and wisdom were low, so he could try that. 'But I really don't want to study.' He whined some more. If every person was either level one or two, what difference would it make if he got stronger? Everyone was just a normal person. If he couldn't have any awesome superpowers, then what would even be the point?

"Wait, the tutorial did mention something about powers." Issei said, opening his menu. He didn't remember having one, but he decided to double check. Using Observe on himself, he once again saw his average status. "Oh, come on! There's gotta be something, right?!" If he was some kind of chosen one that had this special power, they better just tell him now instead of make him freaking wait! "Is there anything I can do?" He asked himself. If you had a problem in a game, the first thing you would typically try was going to the options. It was worth a shot.

Pressing on the options button, Issei found a bunch of different things he could do. A lot of the setting were turned on, but a lot of them were also turned off. Apparently, there was an option to turn on the pause button. He didn't really have a reason to, but he decided to turn it on anyway. There were settings that gave him his five senses, all of which were turned on. He turned off hearing and freaked out when he lost his hearing, quicking turning it back on. He wasn't messing with any of those.

However, there were a few that irked him.

Show Hidden Statuses: Off

"What?! So there really is something like that?!" Issei yelled out loud. "What's the point of observing people if they have hidden statuses!?" He asked the game. Obviously not getting any sort of reply, he shook his head and just turned the setting on.

Show High level Entity Statuses: Off

"On."

Mental Menuing: Off

"What does that mean?" Flicking it on, Issei realized that he could now move the menu and press buttons with his mind. "Why wasn't this on in the first place?" Now that he thought about it, he probably looked like a weirdo randomly moving his finger in front of himself like a lunatic. "Good thing no one saw me." He chuckled wryly, a sweatdrop rolling down his head.

Show Menu: Off

"So I really can show it to other people?" That might've been a bad idea. He may have considered doing it before, but he had already confirmed that this game was a real thing. It wasn't a good idea to let other people know he had this kind of power. He shivered at the thought of other people knowing about it.

Autosave: Off

"Oh yeah, I remember now." The tutorial did mention that he should save frequently in case he felt like he messed up. "Probably a good idea to turn it on, in case I forget." He said, turning autosave on.

Assistance Mode: Off

"Assistance? The game hadn't mentioned anything like that before." Looking under the button, Issei saw a small description of the setting.

Allows The Gamer extra help in playing The Game by guiding them through their playthough.

It didn't take him another second turning the setting on. If he could get anything that'd help him figure this stuff out, then by all means he would take it. Once he did, a new window appeared on his main menu screen.

Help:

Helps The Gamer if they are stuck by giving them a hint.

"So there's that, too?" Issei thought. A help option was common in games and would certainly come in handy later. The more help he had, the more comfortable he felt. Finally closing his menu with a thought, Issei felt slightly different than before. "What's that blue aura?" He asked out loud as he saw something moving under him. Issei jumped back in his chair when a menu screen suddenly appeared before him.

Help: Assistance Mode allows The Gamer to detect nearby entities, regardless of obstacles.

"Wait, it answered my question?" Now that he got a better look, the blue aura was in the shape of a human. He saw another aura of the same variety walking around inside his house. "No way, is that dad?" He thought, running out of his room to check. Rushing down the stairwell, Issei saw his father at the door. "Hey dad! What's up?!" He shouted excitedly, a big grin on his face.

"Issei, what's gotten into you?" His dad replied, startled at Issei's sudden appearance. "Oh, let me guess; you found a new porno you like?"

"No, shut up! Nevermind!" Issei yelled back, running back to his room. He couldn't contain himself and started jumping up and down.

'Holy shit! I can see through walls! This is awesome!' He geeked out. It wasn't exactly like x-ray vision, as he could only see silhouettes of people, but it was something. This power really was the real deal.

Issei tried himself by pacing back and forth in his room. Finally feeling all that adrenaline wear off, the boy flopped onto his bed. "Man, this is cool. Can I do anything else?" Not seeing another menu appear, he felt a little disappointed. "Okaaay, do I have a hidden power?" He asked himself. Hidden statuses were turned off before, so it wouldn't hurt to check now.

Reexamining himself, Issei's eyes homed in on the new text.

[Legendary] Sacred Gear: Boosted Gear

"Holy shit!" Issei exclaimed. He didn't know what a Boosted Gear was, but it was a hidden power he apparently had. It also had a cool name. "How do I activate it?"

Awaken Boosted Gear?

Yes No

"That was easy..." Quickly picking yes, Issei gasped when a red gauntlet appeared on his left arm. "Oh my God! I have power!" He yelled loudly, standing up on his bed.

"Issei! What are you yelling about?!" He heard his mom yell at him from downstairs.

"Nothing!" He yelled back, forgetting that he wasn't alone in the house.

"Well dinner is ready, so get your butt down here!" She yelled, making him slump.

"Aww man..." Issei grumbled.

He wanted to play with his new toy.

---

A yawn escaped Issei as he made his morning march to school.

"Mondays..." He cursed, one hand carrying his bag on his shoulder and the other in his pocket.

Yesterday evening had been almost entirely uneventful. After he unlocked his Sacred Gear, he'd come to the quick conclusion that he couldn't do jack with it. After fruitlessly messing around with it, Assistance Mode had kicked in and told him how to use it. He could double his power temporarily, which was awesome. However, its drawback was that it made him exhausted. He only had doubled power for a minute before his Boosted Gear had reset and all of his strength left him. He was so tired that he crashed as soon as his head hit the pillow.

"What's the freaking point in having it if it just knocks me out?" Issei groaned. The dream he had wasn't really encouraging, either. It started off great with a bunch of girls having a huge water fight with him being in the middle of it, then all of a sudden there was a big ass red dragon. It called him a pervert and that he was too weak to try to use the Boosted Gear effectively before leaving, snapping him awake. "What a prick." The brown haired boy said to no one but himself. "If I'm really that weak, then how about some freaking help, dude?" He sighed. Even if he asked nicely, he doubted the dragon would help him. That was if it wasn't just apart of his dream. "Who am I kidding..." Issei muttered. He was scared shitless as soon as he laid eyes on that monster.

No way in hell was he asking it for anything.

There was one thing he could be happy about, though. This morning when he had woken up, he had gotten a Daily Quest which had told him to go to school. It wasn't much and it was the lowest ranked quest he could get, but it was better than nothing.

The boy took notice of other students walking next to him as his school came into view: Kuoh Academy. It was an all girls school a few years ago that had turned co-ed, so many of the students who went there were girls. That was the primary reason he had chosen to go to this school. If he managed to play his cards right, he could end up getting lucky several times over. Unfortunately, his plans hadn't worked out the way he'd hoped. He was on his second year here and the most memorable interaction he'd had with a girl was getting jumped by the female kendo club.

"Eww, its Hyoudou-san!"

"What a perv."

"Freak!"

Issei did his best not to grimace, but couldn't help let a frown show on his face. He could deal with guys saying those kinds of things about him no problem, but when it came to girls, it just hit differently.

'Then again, I guess I kind of paved this path for myself.' He thought. Issei and his two friends; Matsuda and Motohama, were known around school as the Perverted Trio and with good reason. They took every chance they had to spy on a girl while she was indecent. They did many depraved acts, such as looking up a girl's skirt as she walked up a staircase, or peep through a hole in a wall while they were changing in a locker room. It was amazing that the three of them had made it this far without getting expelled. The brown haired pervert briefly considered giving up on peeking to try and better himself as a respectable student.

It took him all of two seconds to reach an answer.

'Hell no!' He thought with a fist pump, a lewd grin forming on his face. 'I'm gonna be the harem king!'

"Why is he smiling? He's so disgusting!"

"So gross!"

"Sicko!"

The boy faltered, his smile turning sheepish. 'Come on, I'm not that bad, am I?' Issei asked himself, completely ignorant of how repugnant his actions were. 'Just watch ladies! You'll change your tune once I become harem king!' He thought, his lewd smile returning, once again making the girl's around him squirm in disgust.

Issei was snapped out of his thoughts when an alert went off in his head. He heard a sound que and a red warning box had appeared in front of a girl standing at the school gate.

Warning: High Level Entity.

'What the..?' Issei thought with a look of confusion. The game was warning him of someone strong, but the person he was looking at was just a girl. Walking closer to her, he was able to recognize who it was. 'That's the student council president... But why am I being warned about her?'

The girl in question was Souna Shitori; a beautiful, lithe girl who held a strict aura around her. She wore the female version of the school uniform, as well as purple glasses. As Issei approached her, she gave him a small nod. "Good morning, Hyoudou-san." She said respectfully, despite his awful reputation.

Issei felt himself straighten on instict. "M-Morning, Kaichou." He returned, giving her a small bow.

Souna remained standing with her hands on her hips, staring up at the boy as if she could look into his very soul. "I trust you will behave yourself today, correct?" She asked, although her tone made it sound more like a demand.

"Y-Yes, of course." Issei let out a small laugh. It quickly died when he realized Souna was not amused.

Issei felt himself sweat as the girl continued to stare up at him. Eventually, Souna nodded once more. "Very good. Be on your way, Hyoudou-san."

"R-Right." He replied, walking past her.

'She's scary.' He thought, almost forgetting that the system had warned him about her. 'I guess it wouldn't hurt to check?' Issei turned his head around to look at Souna once more. Observe.

Name: Sona Sitri

Alias: Souna Shitori

Race: Pure-Blooded Devil

Gender: Female

Level: 33

Relationship: Indifference

Issei's eyes had shot up higher than they ever had, his jaw nearly dislocatiing with how far his mouth fell open. Neither his body or his brain knew how to respond. He simply stood there in complete shock as he blankly stared at Souna.

"Is something wrong, Hyoudou-san?" Souna asked, nearly making Issei jump out of his skin. She turned her head around and gave him a stern look. "No time to dawdle. Class is starting soon, so get moving." She ordered.

"Y-Yes ma'am!" He yelled back, scrambling away towards the building. He wanted away from her ASAP.

Souna, secretly known as Sona, raised an eyebrow as she watched him leave. That had been an odd encounter with the pervert, more than the usual tomfoolery she was accustomed to. He had always been an eccentric one, but she had never seen him so befuddled before. For a moment, she thought he had been staring at her backside and she was more than ready to throw him in detention, but he clearly looked surprised rather than aroused. She thought it strange, turning back around to greet the other students who were arriving.

She would keep a closer eye on him.

---

'What the fuck?!' Issei thought behind his desk, bouncing his legs erratically in nervous tension. 'Who or what the hell is Kaichou?! What the fuck did I just read?!'

There was nothing in the world that could have prepared him for that. He had pondered that the game had lied to him or he had misread her stats, but he knew that wasn't true. The strongest person he had seen was a professional athlete at level 2, but Kaichou was level 33.

'This doesn't make any sense!'

"Woah, you good, bro?"

"Gah!" Issei jumped, drawing several pairs of eyes to him. Ignoring all the women muttering how much of a freak he was, he turned to see Motohama giving him a strange look.

"You jack it too hard, or something?" Matsuda spoke up, resulting in a choir of young women voicing their disgust.

Issei sighed and laid his head on his desk. "Nah, I'm good. Just had a bad dream, I guess."

Matsuda nodded his head. "Yeah, me too, bro. Thought my porn collection was GONE!"

Motohama smirked, his glasses shining. "Well then, it's a good thing it was a dream." He said, high-fiving Matsuda.

Issei shrugged and put face in his arms. His friends hadn't really helped calm him down. He knew he always made himself look like a sexual deviant, but he'd be damned if he ever made himself look like a psycho.

Gamer's Mind has been activated.

Suddenly, Issei felt an immense calm enter him and his tense shoulders dropped. He raised his head and took a breath. 'That's right. The game has a calming feature in case I ever get overwhelmed.' Another function of The Game; Gamer's Body. It let him level up like a video game character, and Gamer's Mind would help keep him calm like one. 'Thank God for that.' A little longer and he would have had to leave class.

Now that he was calm, he could at least attempt to process what had just happened. The student council president Souna Shitori was level 33. Her real name was Sona Sitri. She was also a devil.

Issei pondered for a minute, scratching his head as he tried to make sense of this newfound information. He came to a quick and stark conclusion.

He couldn't.

'Well, at least I know who to avoid.' He thought to himself. She was a devil, so that meant she probably wanted his soul or something. He had just gotten this cool power. No way in hell was he gonna get his soul reaped and lose it.

'Would she really rip my soul out?' Her relationship status said she was indifferent to him. She hadn't really known him, but she had been aware of his presence for at least a year. He had been called to her office more than once for his offenses. 'Yeah, no more of that.' No way did he ever want to get on her bad side again. Not when she could body him in a thousand different ways.

He snapped out of his thoughts once the teacher came in and started doing roll call, causing him to sigh. Just because he knew about Kaichou and her little secret didn't mean school would be any different.

Today would be another boring day.

---

"Well, that sucked," Issei said, walking out of the bathroom. After getting through morning classes and going to lunch, Issei realized that he had 1,000 extra yen in his inventory. The incident with Kaichou had made him forget all about the daily quest he had gotten. The rewards consisted of a small amount of xp that didn't even level him up, the one-thousand yen, and a Commom Gacha Token. He couldn't spin to see what he got out in the open, so he went to the bathroom to do it inside a stall.

"I expected at least a sword or something." He said, placing the fountain pen into his pocket so he could discreetly vanish it into his inventory. To be fair, it did seem high quality. It even had its own fancy case and labeling. A pen like it would probably cost him over ten thousand yen at least. Still, he couldn't help being disappointed. "Got my freaking hopes up. Damn it."

He knew he shouldn't have. Common was the lowest ranking out of all gacha tokens. There were nine different ranks in total.

[Common]

[Uncommon]

[Rare]

[Epic]

[Legendary]

[Exalted]

[Divine]

[? ? ?]

Issei had no idea how he was supposed to interpret the question mark rank. If divine items were supposed to be godly, then he couldn't even imagine how powerful they must be. The ninth rank, however, didn't exactly align with the other ranks. It had its own category.

[Random]

This token had its own mechanics. A random token would give the player a random item or ability in any of the eight other categories. It scanned every possible item and power the game had, meaning there was a chance to get anything out of it. The token could give you a common item like a pencil, or a question mark ability that would make you beyond immortal. It all came down to luck. However, the chances of landing on an item or ability with a question mark rating was extremely low. It would be lucky to even receive a rare. The Game had stated that it wasn't uncommon to receive a Random Gacha Token from doing a quest, so he would have plenty of chances to try and get something good.

That seemed to be The Game's main function: do quests and get rewarded with either xp, skill points, money, or gacha tokens. It was possible to get something specific on a quest, but that depended on the quest he did. If he wanted good shit, he had to do harder quests and get rewarded with a higher rated gacha token.

"I guess I'll stop to grab a book before heading to the cafeteria," Issei said with his head bowed. His teacher assigned them a stupid book report, so now he had to read something that wasn't porn. "Maybe I can find a book that's adult rated," He giggled to himself, stepping into the library.

Scanning dozens of shelves, Issei soon learned that he had no idea what he was even looking for. If he had paid more attention to his teachers and learned how to navigate around a library, he would be having a much easier time searching for a book.

"Whatever, I'll just grab one." He sighed, picking a random novel from one of the bookshelves, not even caring if the book was acceptable for the assignment. It was some detective novel about a Peter or whatever.

Absorb the contents of this book?

Yes No

"Huh?" Issei recoiled when the menu appeared before him. He had no clue what it meant by absorb. Telling himself that accepting wouldn't hurt, he mentally accepted the message.

Information learned.

The boy blinked as his brain instantaneously processed the entire novel. One moment he had no idea what the book was about and now, he had completely memorized it. A few seconds had passed before Issei realized what had transpired. The Game had let him learn and understand the book instantaneously just by touching it. The process didn't even hurt his mind. It was like the information was just downloaded into it.

Issei shook with excitement. "I'll never have to study again!" His voice rang throughout the quiet library. He put the novel he'd chosen back, no longer needing it. Instead, he placed his index finger on the book next to it and proceeded to sprint down the walkway between the shelves. His finger touched each and every single book on them and he mentally accepted every message that popped up asking him if he wanted to learn the information they contained.

"This is awesome!" He yelled again, as he turned and did the same to another bookshelf. Dozens and dozens of books were instantly learned and memorized inside of his brain. He felt himself gain a large amount of intelligence points and experience from learning new information. He quickly leveled up once and was headed for an easy second one. He wasn't going to stop until he had learned each and every boo-

"Oof!" He yelped as he ran into someone, knocking them down onto the carpeted floor. He recoiled back, barely managing to keep himself on his feet, though he was in pain. "Ouch..." He mumbled, looking at the person he knocked down.

His heart froze.

"K-K-Kaichou!?" He squeaked. The girl in question had sat up into a sitting position, picking up her glasses that had fallen off. One of the hinges had snapped off and a lens was completely shattered. It didn't take a genius to tell that she was pissed.

Issei gulped and backed away from Sona as she slowly stood up. She was too angry for Issei to admire what she looked like without her glasses. All he could do was stand solid like a rock. If he didn't move, maybe she would think he was invisible.

"I came here to see what all the commotion was about." She spoke, taking a step towards him. "Of course it was you, Hyoudou-san." She looked him in the eye with the meanest glare he ever did see. A single thought passed through Issei's mind.

'I'm dead.'

And with a single word, she had slain him.

"Detention."

---

It was after school and Issei was standing outside of the student council room. This wasn't the first time he had gotten detention, so his parents wouldn't be suprised with him coming home later than usual. What had surprised him was that his relationship with Sona was still at indifference. With how many times she had given him detention, he expected to be on worse terms with her. He wouldn't complain, though. After all, she was a devil and a level 33. She could kill him before he even realized it.

Putting on a brave front, he knocked on the door.

"Enter." A sharp voice said from inside, clearly belonging to Sona. With a gulp, Issei entered the room, his eyes landing on the short-haired girl. "Sit down." She commanded, glancing at the chair in front of her desk. He nodded and did as she asked, not brave enough to disobey.

It did make him want to question her, though. He usually had detention inside a classroom with a teacher, not in the student council room with the student council president herself. He wondered why the sudden change, but again, was too scared to bring it up.

"Sit up straight." She spoke, making him flinch. He typically slouched when he sat and Sona was unnecessarliy strict. Of course she would call him out for that. He sat up as stiff as a board, not wanting to make her any more mad.

The brown haired boy looked everywhere in the room but her. They were the only two inside the council room, which may or may not have been a good thing. More people would make him more stressed, but being alone with her kinda freaked him out now that he knew the truth.

"The others are out on tasks I assigned them," Sona spoke, as if reading his inner thoughts. He took a quick glance at her to see she was writing on some kind of document.

'Are those my expulsion papers?' He hoped they weren't. He loved it here in lady paradise, although he might be safer if they were. 'Hold on. If Kaichou is a devil, does that mean everyone else in the student council is, too?' His heart dropped at the thought.

"Is something wrong, Hyoudou-san?" She asked the same question she had this morning.

"N-No, nothing's wrong."

"That is a lie. You are concerned to be around me."

"N-No! That isn't true!" Issei said back with his hands up in defense.

Sona looked up at him with disbelieving eyes, her glasses no where to be found after he'd smashed them. She set her pen down gently. "What was that commotion about in the library?"

"N-Nothing! Just me being me!" He laughed, trying to play it off, which Sona didn't buy. Her stare bore into him, making him more worried with each passing second. Writhing under her gaze, Issei tried changing the subject. "Hey, look! A chess board!" He said, as his eyes landed on the board that was pushed to the side of her desk.

The girl raised a curious eyebrow. "You're interested in chess, Hyoudou-san?"

Issei gulped. "Y-Yeah, sure! I play it all the time!" He laughed again, hoping she wouldn't notice his attempt to change the subject. The look in her eyes clearly told him that she completely saw through his scheme. Regardless, the president squinted at him with a very rare smirk on her face. His skin began to crawl from her stare.

"Okay then, Hyoudou-san. Let's play a match," She said, pushing her papers aside and pulling the chess board in front of the two. "With how often you play, I'm certain you won't mind."

The brown haired boy reeled back as if he'd been physically slapped.

'Shit!' Was all he could think as Sona set the board up between the two. He hadn't played chess in his entire life, nor did he know any of the rules. He felt himself starting to panic before Gamer's Mind had calmed him down.

The boy gulped and put on a brave face. "That's okay, Kaichou. You're a busy woma-"

"If you win, I'll let you go home early," She stated, placing each of the chess pieces on the board. "You won't owe me anything if you lose, so why not give it a shot?"

"O-Oh, r-really?" Issei stuttered, not trusting her words. He wondered why she was still smirking as she finished setting up the board.

"Of course," Sona began. "If your liking to chess was just a ruse to get on my good side, you'll find yourself facing much more than just detention." Her smirk burgeoned, looking utterly evil in the eyes of the perverted boy.

'S-She knows!' The boy squeezed the sides of the chair to hide his jitters, staring at the chess board in front of him like it had come from hell itself. 'What do I do now?!' Issei's thoughts were scrambling to come up with something to say.

"W-Why don't you take the first move, Kaichou?" He asked with a faux smile. If she went first, then he could just copy her moves. It wasn't much, but at least he wouldn't make a complete ass out of himself.

Sona shook her head. "White pieces go first, Hyoudou-san. As you can clearly see, my pieces are black." She said, gesturing to her side of the board. Issei began sweating hard.

'She did that on purpose!' He thought, realizing he had already made a fool out of himself. Now that his weak strategy had gone out the window, he would have to just hope and pray he could make the right moves. He grabbed one of his front pieces and moved it up one square, looking up for approval as he did. The girl ignored him and moved one of her pieces up.

Before Issei could even think about his next move, a small blue arrow had appeared in front of one of his pieces, pointing at a square that was also lit up in front of it. The boy stared at the arrow, still not used to his powers.

'The Game is helping me!?' A flicker of hope brushed through him. Assistance Mode hadn't kicked in because the game technically hadn't started. It only began after the first move. Once he'd made a move and Sona made hers, Assistance Mode could now help him play.

"Stuck already, Hyoudou-san?" Sona said with a frown, although he could have sworn he'd heard the tiniest slip of a laugh through her voice.

Was she mocking him?!

Rather than acknowledge it, Issei smirked. "No, of course not," He said confidently, surprising the girl.

'Assistance Mode is broken, hell yeah! Take over this chess game!' He commanded, following the assistance of The Game.

Sona wasn't any bit concerned at first. Him going from what appeared to be fear to an overwhelming confidence was jarring, but she knew from the pervert's grades that he wasn't very intelligent or had good observation skills. However, the longer the match had played out, the more she began to sweat.

It only took her a second or two to make a move at the start, but after he began pushing her back, she needed to think for an entire minute for a single move. After meticulously planning her actions and moving a piece, Issei would proceed to respond instantly and make his move the very second she ended hers. She started to become confused. He played so fast and would make such brilliant moves that she had to think even longer for her next one. She considered that he was using all the time she took to think of her moves before she could, but there was no way he was that good.

He was a pervert who spent all his time lusting after girls. There was no way he could out think someone like her, who put knowledge above everything else. She couldn't help but wonder if he was actually a genius in disguise. A diamond in the rough.

Issei Hyoudou, one of, if not the biggest pervert in the entire world, was a genius. The thought perplexed her so much that it had nearly caused her to lose focus on the game. She looked up at the boy with newfound respect. "My apologies, Hyoudou-san. I've clearly underestimated your skills." Her words knocked the boy out of his own internal thoughts, looking at her with surprise. "However, I will not lose." A confidant smile appeared on her lips, spelling how much she was enjoying the game.

The smile was like an arrow that had shot the boy in his heart. It was incredibly captivating and had made him forget his earlier concern. Issei nodded back at her, knowing that if he said something that it would most likely be stupid and would ruin her happy mood.

The game continued to play out, lasting a few more minutes before Issei had claimed Sona's king. The girl looked at the board in shock.

"You beat me..." She muttered out, just barely over a whisper.

"I did?" Issei asked, before quickly catching himself. "I-I mean yeah, I did, hahah!" He laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.

Sona slowly and robotically looked up at him. "You beat me..." She said again, disbelief written all over her face.

"U-Uh, yeah?" He said, as if he were asking a question. "I guess that means I can go home now, right?" Issei stood up.

"O-Oh!" She shot up out of her stupor, a fierce blush on her face. "Y-Yes, you can leave now, H-Hyoudou-san," She replied, her eyes now looking down at the floor, unwilling to look back up at him.

'Why is she blushing!?' He thought as a blush of his own appeared. He thought Sona would maybe get angry or something after she lost, but this was nowhere near what he expected. She was always so tough and strict, but now she looked so feminine and cute. He could stare at her all day and almost wanted to stay and admire her. However, the sudden shift in her personality was kind of creepy. "R-Right. I'll head home then, Kaichou." Issei then picked up his bag and hurridly walked out of the room.

Sona sat slumped in her chair, staring down at the chess board. He had beaten her. Checkmated right after her bold claim of how she wouldn't lose to him. Now she sat all alone in her office, defeated.

In a weird way... she was happy.

"Someone who is smarter than me." Sona blushed thinking about the boy. She respected intelligence and could only ever dream of a man whose smarts were greater than her own. She had once bet her entire future on a chess match, challenging the man she was supposed to marry and defeated him. If they couldn't best her in a chess match, then they weren't worthy of her hand in marriage. She thought it would take decades, or even centuries, to find a suitable partner. In one of the most surprising turns of her life, she had lost a chess match against Issei Hyoudou, the self-proclaimed harem king. She hadn't once ever thought of the boy in any sort of manner outside of school, other than the fact that he was a potential canidate for Rias's peerage. Now when she thought of his name, all she could do was blush.

'What is wrong with me?" She scolded herself. She was NOT going to start crushing on him. She was the student council president and princess to the Sitri family. She had far more interesting prospects to concern herself with. It didn't matter how smart he was, he was still a pervert. Her pride wouldn't allow herself to fall low enough to be together with a pervert.

The door to her office opened and a girl with long black hair and yellow eyes hidden behind blue rectangular glasses walked in. "I'm back, Kaichou." Tsubaki, the vice president of the student council, had spoken. "I see Hyoudou-san has left. I did not want to teleport into the room while he was still here." She walked up beside the desk. "Did you find out what you wanted about him?"

Earlier, Sona had asked her peerage to not show up into the room today and assigned them tasks because she wanted to speak with Issei Hyoudou privately. He was acting even more strange than normal, which made her concerned about his wellbeing. It could have been some normal teenage troubles, but considering his disposition, it was possible that he may have had a run in with the fallen. She wanted to observe him up close to see if he had or not, but the chess game had made her forget all about that. "Not quite," Sona answered back to her queen.

Tsubaki tilted her head sideways. "Why are you blushing, Kaichou?"

"Tsubaki!" Sona barked, making the queen stand up straight. The vice president didn't know what exactly she did, but whatever it was, she was going to get punished for it.

---

Issei looked up at the orange sky in distain. "Well, I got out early because I beat her, but now I'm not sure what I should do."

He threw his bag over his shoulder and grumbled to himself. Issei had originally planned to go out somewhere and experiment with his powers after school. His plans were changed after he'd gotten detention. Although he'd gotten out early, the ordeal had sapped most of his energy for the day.

It hadn't gone as bad as he imagined. Quite the opposite, actually. He still had no idea how to play chess, but he couldn't say he hated playing against the student council president. What he did hate was the apparent fact that she was a devil who could send his pansy ass an early visit to heaven. He really wasn't sure what to think about her anymore. She still treated him the same as always, though she noticed how jumpy he'd been around her.

Issei prayed everything would still be fine and she really wouldn't try to murder him. He wanted to believe she wouldn't. Wanted to believe her indifferent status was genuine. Yet, he couldn't have complete faith. Just like earlier today, the boy vowed not to get on her bad side. Except this time, he wouldn't slam into her like a running back!

His shoulders deflated as he considered reality and tried assessing himself. "Who am I kidding? Me and detention are best buds. Knowing me, it'll happen again in a day or two..."

Saying and doing were two separate things. He'd gotten so many detentions at this point in his life that he'd lost count. With how much he kept getting in trouble, it was a miracle he hadn't gotten expelled yet. Or from any school he went to, in all honesty. Eventually, his luck would run out. He was almost sure this latest incident would have been the final straw.

The memory of barrelling over Sona replayed over and over in his head. He pulled at his brown hair in frustration. "I'm such a dick! I don't even think I apologized!" He cursed himself. "Come on, Issei! Stop being such a dumb ass! The next time you see her, you apologize!" He ballooned up, raising a determined fist... and once again deflated, remembering who exactly he would be apologizing to.

He really didn't know what any of this devil shit was or what they could do. How many more of them were around or what kind of powers they possessed. They were guaranteed to be stronger than him. Shitori, or actually, Sitri's level had been way higher than his own.

If she was going to make a move, why hadn't she? He had attended the school for over a year and she hadn't done anything to him yet. Or at least, he didn't think she did. He didn't know if his power still worked before he was aware of it, so if he was mind controlled in the past, he wasn't sure if Gamer's Mind would have removed it. It should be able to now if he was affected.

Since he didn't feel any different, he assumed he hadn't been. The worst she had ever done to him was berate him and ruin his school record. In other words; the usual.

"Maybe... she's safe?" It was a pleasant thought, but one the back of his mind clawed at him to reject. She was a devil and devils are supposed to be evil. Even if she hadn't done anything evil to him yet, that didn't mean she wouldn't. Issei grabbed at his hair again. "Why does everything have to be so complicated!" He whined.

His feet had carried him to an intersection. Issei could either head home now, or do what he had originally planned and try experimenting with his power. He really, really wanted to go home and jack it, but he knew now wasn't the time. He had to get his shit in gear and fast. If Kaichou or anyone ever decided to attack, he'd be screwed the way he was now.

That needed to change.

Deciding to practice his newfound powers, Issei turned and headed into the city. First, he wanted to use the Observe power to see what all it could tell him. A part of him was also paranoid there were other demons around or stalking him. He wanted some solace knowing that he was still surrounded by normal people and that nothing would jump out to get him. Second, he wanted to try out his Boosted Gear. He knew the dragon had basically called him a pussy and that he couldn't use it, but he still wanted to try. Specifically, he wanted to test how strong he was physically when boosted. He couldn't try it out in his room for obvious reasons. There were large forested areas next to and around the city, so he planned to head there later.

With those thoughts in mind, Issei continued on, crossing a bridge that was overhead a busy road.

"E-Excuse me."

"Gah!" Issei yelped, swiftly turning around. His look of surprise turned into one of lust as he looked at the 10/10 beauty in front of him.

The girl had a different school uniform on; one he didn't recognize. She had black hair and round, glittery pink eyes. She smiled up at him nicely, a blush spread across her face. "Y-You're Issei Hyoudou, right?" She asked him with the most angelic voice he had ever heard.

"Y-Yeah, that's me." He laughed, despite freaking out internally.

"T-That's wonderful!" The girl said, her smile shining brighter. Her blush grew as she swayed on her feet, folding her hands in front of her. "M-My name is Yuuma Amano. I-If you don't mind my asking, do you have a girlfriend?" She asked shyly.

"U-Um... no?" Issei's heart began beating faster in anticipation. He didn't want to get the wrong idea, but was she...

As if answering his thoughts, Yuuma looked as if she were building up courage within herself before looking him in the eyes. "T-Then, would you please be my boyfriend?"

Issei felt as if he were dreaming. If he were, then he never wanted to wake up! He had spoken about being the harem king for years, but he could barely fathom getting a girlfriend! He didn't need to think twice! Of course he'd accept!

Just as Issei was about to speak out, his voice got caught in his throat. There was something small next to the girl's head. A small red menu box that heavily contrasted the blue sky and the street below them. A virtual box that could only be noticed by him. The words spelled out across it made his heart drop.

Warning: High Level Entity.

The boy stood frozen, his eyes widening an unfathomable degree. For a moment, Issei wished the box was just a hallucination. His head was screaming at him that it was all just a prank. The feeling grew after he used Observe on her and read her stats. He wanted to accept her love and say yes, even after learning that she was a level 17 fallen angel. However, there were two pieces of information that killed all of his desires. The first was that her relationship status read indifferent, meaning she didn't have any real love, or even a like to him. The second was another box that had even made a beeping noise to alert him.

Warning: Hostile Intentions Detected.

She was hostile. She wanted to hurt, trick, kill, whatever fallen angels do to their prey. Her whole entire demeanor was a facade. A fake. Though, something was still off about her feelings. She felt indifferent, yet was hostile towards him. Why did she want to do bad things to him, without having bad feelings?

That's when it clicked.

'She's a monster.' The thought rang throughout Issei's head. She didn't have any feelings towards him, yet she was ready to cause harm to him. Her act was a lie to make him drop his guard so she could get close and-

-no, he didn't want to think about what she would do. All Issei knew was that Yuuma, her true name being Raynare, was going to do something bad to him if he didn't get away. He needed to escape now.

"H-Hey, what's wrong?" The fallen angel asked him, taking a step closer. Issei flinched away, slowly stepping backwards. She was getting suspicious of him now. He needed to say something, anything!

Issei swallowed harshly and forced a smile on his face, despite his trembling hands barely being able to hold onto his bag. "S-Sorry, but I gotta go..." He mustered out, turning around and walking away.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Issei's feet picked up their pace. His heart thumped louder and louder in his ears and heavy sweat seeped into his clothing. He was too scared to look back, instead picking up his pace. It was taking everything he had to keep himself from full on sprinting and screaming for help.

As his feet carried him away, Issei could see a blue silhouette of a person hiding behind the side of a wall that guarded someone's house next to the street. There was another person there!

Warning: High Level Entity.

'Oh God, please!' Issei pleaded, his adrenaline racing faster than it ever had. He was trapped. There was one behind him and one in front. He kept walking, not knowing what else to do. Tears welled up in his eyes and he felt as if his legs would give any second. He begged someone would save him. Begged they would spare him. Begged he could see another day. As he finally reached the second person, he turned to look at them...

...and recognized them.

He didn't know what it was that caused him to say it, but when he saw her, Issei couldn't help but weakly call out, "Help..."

He walked past the wall, outside of Raynare's view. His eyes were clenched shut, hoping his cry was heard. When he opened them, he saw the little white haired girl looking at him with shock. She had let go of her blue popsicle and it had fell to the ground, her hazel eyes scanning over him with brief confusion before a resolute look appeared on her face. Slowly, the girl known as Koneko Toujou walked out from behind the wall and stood in front of the fallen angel.

Raynare stopped dead in her tracks, a look of surprise on her face at the small girl's appearance. She stared the devil girl down, anger creeping into her face. Koneko glared back, daring the fallen angel girl to try anything. The two stood there silently, waiting for the other to make a move.

Koneko watched the fake high schooler gnash her teeth harshly and begin backing away. They didn't take their eyes off each other as their distance grew, Raynare stepping further and further away. They both understood the laws of the supernatural. Unless they had permission, it was forbidden to fight and reveal themselves in front of humans. The street below the bridge was one of the most active in town. There were plenty of cars driving by. If they fought, it would cause huge problems for both of them.

However, it would cause much more for Raynare, who was intending to harm a human in devil territory. They both knew that and Koneko was more than willing to break that rule right here and now. Raynare, however, wasn't and had no other choice but to retreat.

Eventually, the fallen woman was far enough to where she could turn her back safely and sprint away. She'd likely teleport once out of view of any potential witnesses. Koneko sighed in annoyance. She really wanted to beat some fallen angel ass. She turned around to look back at her Senpai and sighed again.

He bailed. Really, she couldn't blame him. Koneko had seen him cry a few times before after he'd gotten an ass whooping from the girls in the kendo club, but she'd never seen him cry like that. It was kind of sad.

Of course, she wasn't obligated to help him. Buchou had only told her to try and sniff out his Sacred Gear so they could figure out what it was. However, protecting him from ugly crow bitches wasn't against protocol, even if it did blow her cover. Koneko knew Rias would rather have her expose herself and let the fallen know they were aware of their presence than let him get hurt by them. Whether she had to protect him or not, she was itching for a fight.

Koneko didn't really understand why Buchou had them stand by for now. If the fallen were getting this daring, then they couldn't wait much longer. The young devil took out her phone, intentions set on reporting this development immediately. If she knew Buchou, then she was gonna be pissed. With any luck, they'd be having crow meat for dinner tonight.

About time. The sooner those angel failures got the fuck up out her hood, the better.

---

Making the final turn, Issei sprinted towards his home, entering the gate and slamming his front door open and shut behind him. He heard his mother's startled voice from in the kitchen, but he didn't listen to a word she said. Running up the stairs, he finally made it to his room.

Issei frantically looked around, as if he were searching for something. He was hyperventilating and his eyes instinctively searched for something to protect himself. His heart was pounding like it would burst out from his chest. His head was spinning and he felt nauseous. He squeezed his chest tight, trying to get some sort of bearings over himself, taking heavy breaths.

Gamer's Mind had finally kicked back in and after a few moments, Issei's adrenaline was fully calmed down and he could begin thinking more rationally. Once he had, he began berating himself. "Fuck, man! Why did you run home?! What if they followed you?!"

Once he'd called out to his junior for help, his mind had switched into fight or flight mode. Issei wasn't proud of it, but he ran like a little bitch and hadn't thought twice. Now that he was thinking, a feeling of anxiousness and guilt washed over him.

"Is she okay? I left her all alone back there..." Issei's concern grew as he berated himself further. He didn't really know what that whole situation was about. What he knew for sure was that Raynare was definitely bad news and there was a chance that Koneko might have been in trouble.

There were numerous possibilities, too many for him to wrap his head around. Issei's worldview had expanded way beyond a normal person's now. It was so much to take in all at once that it was hard to keep up. He needed to at least figure out what had happened and what he should do next.

His ability had warned him earlier that Koneko was a high level, but he didn't know if she was a devil like Sona or a fallen angel like Raynare because he didn't get the chance to use Observe on her. All he knew was that she wasn't hostile because there wasn't a beeping red box next to her warning him of any hostile intentions like there was with Raynare.

He wasn't sure what kind of relationship devils and fallen angels had with each other. They both were seen as bad things in religion, so they could have been working together to trap him.

"No, wait... she stepped out..." Issei recalled Koneko's actions from when he called out to her. He had basically hidden behind her once he had turned the corner. After he'd asked her for help, she had walked out from behind the wall to stand up against Raynare. If the two of them were colluding with each other, then there was no way Koneko would have allowed him to leave, much less walk out to defend him.

He was only able to get away because of her. Raynare was a hostile person, or hostile angel, or whatever. If she was going to do something bad towards him, she would almost certainly do the same towards Koneko.

Is Raynare a kidnapper? Or worse, is she a killer?

"I'm a piece of shit..." Issei landed in his bed and held his head. He'd left Koneko alone to fend for herself against what was almost certainly an evil monster. Koneko was strong, but he didn't know if she was stronger than Raynare. His panicked state had him completely forget to check what level she was. Raynare is level 17. If she was a similar level to Sona's 33, then she was probably fine. If she wasn't... he didn't want to imagine it.

For a moment, Issei thought about going back. Maybe he could do something to help, or at least see what happened. However, even an idiot like himself knew that it was both stupid and pointless. Even if he'd leveled up once, it was nothing compared to what either of them were. His Sacred Gear would only boost his power a single time and that wouldn't get him anywhere near strong enough. What exactly did he plan to do? Pull his fountain pen out on them?

"Shit... and why did Gamer's Mind take so long, anyway?"

Help: A pivotal story event was progressing.

Issei nearly shat himself when the pop up appeared. Pulling his fleeing soul back, he recalled what the message said, not really understanding it. What did it mean pivotal story moment? Wasn't he living his own life and making his own choices? Was it some kind of decision tree where whatever choice he made would affect his fate?

Quest Alert!

He was more prepared this time, not getting startled. It had only been the second time he'd received a quest, so he was curious as to what it could be.

Quest: A Little Help

Find a person or more to help you protect yourself.

Rewards:

1,000 Experience Points

100,000 Yen

1x Rare Gacha Token

"Find someone? Find who?" Issei grumbled. He had felt elated at first, the prospect of finding people to back him up was exactly what he wanted. However, he didn't want to wrap anyone else in his problems. He couldn't imagine going to the police and have them come, only to get annihilated by some supernatural freaks. Really, who could he even turn to?

Help: Request assistance from the devils.

"Huh? Who? Oh..." Once again, Issei still hadn't gotten used to his powers. Unlike the menu screens, the Help ability would tell him the information directly into his head. It wasn't like a voice or anything. Rather, it was more akin to intuition. Help fed information straight into his mind, then he would know. Simple as that. "Weird, though... Ask the devils?"

The only person Issei believed it were referring to was Sona. Since it was plural, it could even be referring to others. It was possible that there were multiple devils who went to his school and Sona was among them. Issei felt much more at ease knowing he could turn to the devils for help. Since they could be found at school, he knew exactly where to go. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

He no longer had to speculate whether devils were good or not, or whether he could trust them. Issei now knew he could thanks to The Game. His power was all the proof he needed. He would place his faith in the devils.

The quest had also confirmed another thing and it was the fact that he truly did need to protect himself. He knew Raynare was bad, but he still didn't know what exactly her intentions were. Since the quest had told him to protect himself, it was essentially saying she had been trying to hurt or even kill him. It was an undisputable fact now and since there were more devils around, there could also be more fallen angels, too. He would remember to be wary of them. He definitely couldn't trust them.

"Should I go try to find them now?" Issei asked himself, looking outside his window. The sun was getting ready to set and it would be dark out in a couple of hours. School was the only option, as he didn't know where Sona lived, or who any other devils were. Going to school now would be a waste of time because it was getting late. Little to no one would be there if he did. However, deep down, Issei knew he was just telling himself excuses so that he wouldn't have to go back outside.

Thinking about coming face to face with Raynare again scared him shitless. She was an evil woman disguised as a pretty one. If the two of them did cross paths again, he'd likely run away, just as he did before. It was humiliating, but he knew in his heart it was the truth.

Even though he had Gamer's Mind, he was still too scared to leave his house. All Issei could do was pray he hadn't been followed and wait until tomorrow. He hoped Koneko had also made it out okay, cursing himself for being such a pussy.

---

"Okay, Issei. You got this." Issei said, trying to hype himself up. He had just gotten out of the shower and dressed himself for school. He tried all throughout the night, but he couldn't get a wink of sleep.

After walking downstairs, Issei forced himself to eat a little of the breakfast his mom made. He was hungry, but his stomach tightened over the impending encounters he would be having later. It was hard to force down comfortably.

Taking a deep breath, Issei grabbed his bag to leave. Just as he was about to reach his front door, he stopped. The entity detector of Assistance Mode showed him that a person was outside of his house, just beyond the front gate. It appeared as if they were waiting for something.

It didn't take Issei long to realize they were waiting for him.

Sweat began to form on his face. He didn't know whether he should confront whatever it was, or run away out the back door. Despite being able to see an aura that outlined their shape, Issei couldn't make out who it was or use Observe unless he had a direct visual.

If they had hostile intentions, they would have attacked already. Then again, maybe they were just waiting to confirm he was inside the house before making a move. Or maybe they were planning something he couldn't even begin to fathom. When he thought about what could happen to his parents if he chose to run away and the person turned out to be evil, his choice had immediately become clear.

Stepping outside, Issei marched forward with his free hand balled up, ready to call on the Boosted Gear and fight for his life. However, once he saw who it was, his jaw dropped.

"Yo." A very short, petite girl with white hair and yellow eyes stood leaning against the outer wall of his house.

"T-Toujou-san?!" Issei called out in shock. There she was, the girl he believed he'd left for dead yesterday was nonchalantly standing in front of him in perfect health. It looked like she didn't have a care in the world, her pink tongue lightly lapping at the strawberry lollipop in her hand. Rather than say anything, Koneko pointed at an area near his feet. "H-Huh?"

Looking down, Issei could see his school bag laying on the ground. He must have dropped it in his surprise. Unlike Koneko, who carried her bag on her back like a backpack, he opted to carry his own in one of his hands. He quickly moved to pick it up, letting out a laugh in embarrassment.

"Let's go." Her low, monotonous voice rang out as she picked herself off the wall and began walking.

"G-Go? Go where?" Issei asked his junior.

"School."

"O-Oh, yeah. Hahaha..." He weakly laughed, scratching the back of his head. Mentally, he was slamming himself.

'Go where? Am I a fucking moron?! Why would I ask that?!" Issei thought, ashamed of how dumb he sounded. Even as he was internally kicking his own ass, his mind was also scrambling. He had so many questions he wanted to ask, but didn't know how to ask them.

Should he bring up yesterday? Did she know about fallen angels? Why did she protect him? Why was she even here? Issei wanted to just come out and ask, but his nerves, combined with the fact that he didn't wanna look anymore stupid than he had kept him from doing so. Instead, he chose to do something he didn't get the chance to do yesterday.

Observe.

Name: Koneko Toujou

True Name: Shirone

Race: Reincarnated Devil, Nekoshou

Gender: Female

Level: 20

Specialty: Strength

Relationship: Indifference

There were more questions in his mind now. Apparently, her name wasn't her true one and that she didn't actually have a true last name. Though unlike Raynare, her name wasn't an alias. She must have been renamed at some point in her life.

Issei felt a bit of relief to know that she was stronger than Raynare, but he still wasn't sure if they had even fought or not. Koneko was unharmed, so either they hadn't, or the petite girl had obliterated Raynare. He doubted that was the case because Koneko was only three levels higher. Stronger, but not by a whole lot.

He had no idea what the hell a nekoshou was, but the fact that Koneko had turned out to be a devil like Sona was a good sign. His quest had told him to find a devil and ask for assistance. Instead, a devil had found him. Though, he was still hesitant to pop the question.

Because she had two races, Koneko was likely a half devil. That meant she didn't exactly fit in the criteria of the quest. Specifically, she didn't fit what Help had told him. Was this a trick and he wasn't supposed to ask her, or was he just overthinking things?

'Hey uh, help thing. I can ask her to help me, right?' Unable to make a decision on his own, Issei asked for another hint.

Help: Request assistance from the devils.

'That's the same hint!' Issei's face scrunched up angrily as the message appeared in his head. Feeling a pair of eyes on him, he turned over to see Koneko's stare bore into him. There was a small look of revulsion on her face as she put an extra foot of distance between the two of them. That's when Issei realized. 'Have I been making faces this whole time?! She thinks I'm a fucking weirdo!'

He felt so pitiful he could cry. A cute junior who went out of her way to check up on his well being was now actively being creeped out by him because he couldn't control himself. He felt like such a loser!

Screw the hint, Issei was asking her for help whether it intended for him to or not. If they continued to walk in silence, he was gonna go crazy. It couldn't get much worse than this, anyway. Besides, if she were bad, she would've dropped him already. However, before that... "Toujou-san, why are you here?"

She had finished her lollipop and frowned, unhappy that it was all gone. "Buchou wants to talk to you after school."

"B-Buchou? Who's that?" Issei asked. He really hated how he couldn't get his stuttering under control.

"Rias Gremory."

'Rias Gremory?! Oh snap!' Issei knew her alright. With the exception of Akeno Himejima who rivaled her, she was the hottest babe in school by far. Luscious long, red hair. Voluptuous, springy large breasts that looked like they'd bounce and snap her uniform open. An ass so round that a handful wouldn't be enough to grab it all, with equally juicy thighs supporting it. Bluish-green eyes that looked like gems and a gorgeous face. He would never forget such a bombshell, which begged the question; why? Had she found out about his power?

Issei swallowed nervously, his anticipation growing. "S-She wants to talk to me? H-How come?"

"You'll find out," Koneko said rather cryptically, tossing the lollipop stick on the ground, carelessly littering. She reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out another, this one flavored green apple.

Her words only made Issei more anxious. The fact that she hadn't brought up the incident yesterday and was still so nonchalant only exacerbated it twofold. He thought about prying further, but he didn't wanna annoy Koneko on top of weirding her out.

Instead, Issei would do what the quest had ordered him. Even if Rias was going to say something like it once they met up to talk, he simply couldn't wait. There was a devil right in front of him. He needed to know if he could rely on them as soon as possible.

With a deep breath, Issei steeled himself and turned towards the small girl. "Can I count on you guys to protect me?"

Koneko placed her second lollipop in her mouth, tossing the wrapper behind her. "Protect you?" She asked, as blankly as ever.

Issei nodded. "Protect me from the fallen angels."

Koneko instantly froze upon hearing him, her eyes widening. Issei was locked in her gaze as her full, undivided attention was given to him. Whatever she had expected him to say, it certainly hadn't been that.

Slowly, her hand reached up and plucked the sucker out of her mouth. "How...?"

It was almost as if she were asking herself that question, rather than him. She didn't seem sure about how she should respond, staring at him in disbelief. Issei was also struggling to figure out how to respond. "U-Um, ah... lucky guess?"

Getting her thoughts in order, Koneko's eyes narrowed, causing him to flinch. He gulped as he watched her reach inside her other skirt pocket, hoping she wasn't about to pull out a gat and pop him in the head. Thankfully, it was just a phone.

"Hold on, Senpai," Koneko spoke as she tapped on the screen a few times before holding it to her ear. Another thought struck Issei and he began panicking again. Was she calling the squad to come pull up?! Sensing his discomfort, Koneko called out. "Don't worry, Senpai. I'm calling Buchou..."

"Ohhh... kay?" Issei replied, still unsettled. She basically confirmed she was in fact calling up the squad. But she also said not to worry, so maybe it wasn't a bad thing? He couldn't sense any hostility from her, so all he could do was hope she meant well. It wasn't like he could fight her, anyway.

They both waited silently as the phone rang before it was eventually picked up. Issei could barely make out the sounds of a woman on the line as Koneko began to speak with them. "He already knows, Buchou."

Issei smiled awkwardly. The way she said that definitely didn't sound ominous. Not at all. He continued to wait as Koneko continued to exchange words with presumably Rias Gremory. From the sounds of it, they knew something about him. He still couldn't conclude whether it was because of his power, or that he was a target of the fallen, both, or even something else.

"Yes, I'll lead him there now. Bye." Koneko hung up the phone and placed it back in her pocket. She looked back up at him with a stern expression. "We're headed to the old school building."

"T-The old building?" Within the past few years, Kuoh Academy had a new school building built on campus to accomodate the new male students that would be attending there. Despite this, the old school building hadn't been demolished and was actually still in good condition. Though, it was mostly unoccupied, only used by a single club. "B-But why?"

Koneko put her lollipop back into her mouth as she once again began walking in the direction of the school. "Buchou is waiting for us there."

"B-But I thought we were gonna talk after school?" Issei asked, surprised by the sudden turn of events.

"Not anymore." Koneko shrugged.

"But what about school?"

"Fuck school."

"Wha- H-Hey, wait up!" Issei called out, running to catch back up with the girl.

---

Issei took a deep breath as he and Koneko stood outside what was apparently the Occult Research Club that was located inside the old school building. He knew he wasn't in danger anymore, but this was all just so much to take in at once. He hadn't even gotten his power a full forty-eight hours ago and he had already experienced all kinds of crazy shit.

"Chill. It's cool," Koneko voiced from next to him. Issei looked over at her and she gave him a small comforting nod. Despite her somewhat cold demeanor, he was glad she was being relatively nice to him, especially after he'd abandoned her yesterday.

"R-Right. You're right." Issei shook his head to clear his thoughts. It wasn't fear, so much as it was the adrenaline constantly rushing through and leaving his body. The influx of various emotions was starting to seriously strain him and that was on top of no sleep. Even now, he still didn't know what exactly to expect behind those doors.

Regardless, Issei reached out and opened them. Just as Koneko had said, Rias Gremory was there waiting for them to arrive. The room was darkly lit and there wasn't anyone else around. There was a shower located in the back corner and two green sofas with a table in between them in the center. Rias was sat behind a desk furthest back of the room which directly faced the doors. As she saw them walk in, she stood up from her seat.

"Hello there, Hyoudou-kun." Rias addressed him with a kind smile. Whatever suspension and concern Issei had melted in the face of the beautiful woman in front of him. She was the most popular girl in school and she knew his name! A pleasurable shiver ran through him and he felt his third leg asking him if he could stand.

Warning: High Level Entity

'Shut it! I'm busy!' Issei ignored his warning screen. 'Hubba, hubba! Look at those milk jugs!' Issei openly and shamelessly stared at Rias's breasts without a care in the world, his face getting red as he giggled perversely. Rias didn't seem to mind, walking in front of her desk and propping herself up against it. She puffed her chest out a bit, her large breasts jiggling slightly. Issei could only cheer her on, doing so inwardly and outwardly.

He was thoroughly snapped out of his stupor as the doors to the room were harshly shut behind him. Issei's head swiveled around to see Koneko glaring at him. As she made her way past him to sit down on one of the two couches, she muttered, "Pervert."

Despite his gut not physically getting punched, it sure felt like it had been. Though his ego was bruised, Issei was thankful for Koneko voicing her opinion. He'd almost forgotten the situation he was in. 'Hold your horses, man. They could be being nice because they want something from you. Focus, Issei!'

Although he knew he could trust them to protect him, that didn't rule out any secondary motives. Issei looked at the busty red head, doing his damnest not to lose focus and stare at her assets. Observe.

Name: Rias Gremory

Race: Pure-Blooded Devil

Gender: Female

Level: 38

Bloodline: Power of Destruction

Relationship: Acquaintance

'So she's even stronger than Sitri?' Issei took notice as he quickly read through her stats. She didn't have a specialization in any specific stat like Koneko did strength, but she did have a bloodline which gave her access to some sort of ability called Power of Destruction. 'That doesn't sound good. Definitely don't wanna be on her bad side.'

At the very least, she already viewed him as an acquaintance. That was more than he could say for every other strong person he'd observed so far.

"You asked Toujou-san to bring me?"

"Koneko is fine," She interrupted plainly from her spot on the couch, opening the chocolate bar in her hands. Wait, where did she get that?

"Yes, and feel free to call me Buchou, or Rias." The older girl said, fully pulling herself up to sit on her desk. "You don't mind if I call you Issei, do you?" Rias asked, her voice laced with sweetness.

"O-Oh, no! O-Of course not!" Issei accepted vehemently. As long as it wasn't something bad, she could call him whatever she wanted. On second thought, she could call him a bad boy! He'd love that!

Rias smirked, slowly crossing one leg over the other, giving Issei a generous view of her red patterned lingerie underneath. His eyes practically bulged out of his head like a cartoon character and she couldn't help giggling a bit. "Thank you, Issei. Please forgive me for not preparing tea. The person who usually does so isn't here."

"D-Don't worry about it." Issei smiled. Honestly, he couldn't care less. The only tea-teas he wanted right now were hers.

"Right, then please sit down. I'm sure we have much to discuss." Rias gestured over to one of the couches.

The one with Koneko on it.

"Uh..." Issei hesitated, inching forward in the direction, but too scared to fully commit.

"Dont worry, she won't bite." Rias laughed, getting up from her desk and sitting in the middle of the other couch. As Issei got closer to Koneko, who was sat on the far left corner, the girl took a loud bite into her chocolate much harder than before. It was an intimidation tactic spurred on by Rias's words. Issei gulped, taking the dive and sitting down in the middle. With her scare tactic ineffective, Koneko turned away with a huff, munching into her chocolate like a mouse.

Issei sighed and looked back at Rias. He saw no point beating around the bush. "I'm guessing this is about the fallen angels?"

"Yes, it is. At least, that's part of it." Rias leaned back and crossed her arms, as well as crossing her legs once again, giving Issei another show of her underwear. His body was really starting to heat up. At this rate, he'd have to cross his own legs to hide his boner.

"Tch." Koneko was unamused by their antics. She was irritated at both Rias who led the perv on and the perv for, well... being a perv.

Rias looked over at the younger girl. "Don't feel obligated to stay, Koneko. You may leave whenever you like," She said to her politely.

"I'll stay." Koneko shot the proposition down instantly. For someone who sounded like they didn't want to be here, she sure was quick refusing to leave.

Issei suddenly remembered what the girl told him earlier. "Fuck school, right?"

"Word," Koneko nodded, finishing her chocolate and pulling out a cream puff. How does she keep doing that?

"Is that what she said?" Rias began giggling, covering her mouth with a hand. It had been unintentional, but Issei was happy he could make her laugh. Her giggle calmed after a few seconds. "Yes, Koneko. You may stay as long as you like."

"Mm." She mumbled, her voice muffled by the cream puff.

The red head turned back towards the boy. "Issei, would you please tell me how you know about fallen angels?"

"Uh, um..." Crap, he didn't think this far! As Issei realized he'd reacted surprised by her question, he tried playing it off, bashfully scratching the back of his head with a chuckle. "I guess I have good intuition..."

"Now now, Issei. I know that isn't the truth." Rias frowned, shaking her head. She looked at him meaningfully, letting her arms fall to her sides. "You don't have to be afraid. I promise, we're not going to hurt you..."

Even though her words felt genuine, Issei still hesitated. He didn't want to tell them about The Gamer, regardless if they were good people or not. It was a secret among secrets, beyond his Sacred Gear, or anything else. It was a power that could quite literally give him more power, although he'd yet to reach that point. He just couldn't tell them about it.

He struggled internally to the point it could be seen on his face. Issei's thoughts were interrupted as he felt a small tap on his shoulder. "If you wanna dip, that's fine. I got your back, Senpai." Koneko told him earnestly. Although she had been ordered to protect him whether he complied or not, she had chosen to protect him on her own accord. She knew from their past encounter that the fallen were after him and in her personal opinion, it was a devil's job to whoop the ever loving shit out of any fallen scum who crossed into their territory unannounced.

It was because of that and also... she'd seen the fear on his face. Koneko knew then and there she couldn't throw him to the wolves and leave him to his fate. She had to protect him. It was the right thing to do.

Rias stayed silent, watching her servant give Issei a way out. She wasn't mad, far from it. If Issei was that unnerved, then forcing him into complying would only hurt her cause. Even if she said that they could only protect him if he became her devil servant, that would probably only freak him out more. At this rate, she wouldn't be able to invite him to join her peerage. That was fine, for now. All she wanted from this conversation was for Issei to understand they were friendly and that he could rely on them. If she could do that, then it was enough.

She would work him slowly. Build a good rapport so he could trust them and then finally invite him to join her peerage. That was her plan. That is, as long as Sona doesn't get in her way like she did yesterday, suddenly changing her mind and requesting that Issei join her peerage rather than her own. Rias didn't know what brought that on, but it angered her greatly. It was possible that Sona didn't even have enough pieces for the boy, anyway.

"Thank you, Touj- Koneko," Issei said gratefully, correcting himself. Her words had reassured him. Still, he wouldn't tell them about The Gamer. That information was just too important to give up. Instead, he chose to compromise and give them pieces. "A couple days ago I got, or uh, awoke to a power that lets me sense them."

That tidbit of information garnered Rias's interest greatly. She leaned forward intently in her seat with a wide smile. "You can sense fallen angels?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I can also sense that your both... devils?" Issei spoke dubiously.

"That's correct." Rias replied without a moment of hesitance. As she did, leathery black wings sprouted from her back and through her clothes, their wingspan reaching across the entire couch.

"Oof!" Issei grunted as he was suddenly smacked in the back of the head. He turned to see another pair of bat-like wings next to him, attached to the young confectionery lover.

"My bad." Koneko apologized half-heartedly. She didn't look very sorry, but at least she was kind enough to say so. Issei rubbed his head as their wings both retracted back inside their bodies. It was strange to see that, considering their clothes were not destroyed or even wrinkled by doing so. Rias appeared to be rather entertained by his confusion.

"How are you able to sense these things, Issei?" She asked, staying on topic.

"My power," Issei said rhetorically.

"Yes, yes, of course it's because of your power," Rias laughed. "What I meant to ask was what your power is, Issei."

'Crap!' This was exactly where Issei didn't want the conversation to go. He wanted to skirt past answering it directly, but now he was put on the spot. In a panic, Issei did the only thing he could think of and summoned his Sacred Gear.

Rias leaned closer to inspect the red gauntlet on his left hand. Her eyes glazed over it curiously. "Is this... a Twice Critical?" She asked, unsure of her conclusion. Her smile had dropped off a bit. Whatever a Twice Critical was, she certainly wasn't impressed with it.

"It's called Boosted Gear," Issei clarified, completely oblivious to her small shift in demeanor.

"Boosted Gear?!" Rias immediately flew up from her spot and slammed her hands on the table, instantly reinvigorated. The girl's body bent entirely across the table, her sudden movement causing her breasts to whip in front of her with a snapping trajectory.

"B-B-B-Boobs!" Issei yelled out, hypnotized by the way they had bounced back and forth like a swingset. The view he had was awesome, though Issei wished he had a second body so that he could see her from behind. From the way she was bent over the table, her underwear had to be showing from underneath that tiny skirt.

"Down, pervert." Koneko's chilling voice made him flinch awake, snapping Issei out of her booby genjutsu.

"R-Right, uh, here's my Boosted Gear." Issei held his arm out for Rias to look at. By this point, she had walked around the table and squeezed herself between him and a disgruntled Koneko to get a better look at it.

"Is it really?" Rias asked, still in disbelief as she cradled the gauntlet like it were an infant. "The Boosted Gear is indeed red, but is this truly it?" She wanted to believe him, but she couldn't help but be skeptical. Boosted Gear was supposed to be a Longinus; Sacred Gears of unrivaled power. The gauntlet on Issei's arm didn't look as impressive as she would imagine a weapon of its calibur would be.

Issei, nearly falling into another trance from the unholy smell and closeness of the redhead sitting hip to hip with him, suddenly remembered something about his Boosted Gear. It was about the dream he had the other day. "Apparently, I'm too weak to use it." He said, making sure to take another large whiff of the beauty as he did.

"Too weak?" Rias tilted her head.

"That's what the dragon said."

"Dragon?!" Rias had gotten close enough to where their noses touched, her breasts smashing up against Issei's arm.

"Ugoughghg-!" Issei's brain melted, unable to form proper words. He could feel her bra through both her dress shirt and his blazer and it fucked him up in all types of ways.

"Issei!" Rias shook him to get his attention.

"Wha-wha-what?!" He sputtered.

"Did the dragon have a name?!"

"U-Um...!" Issei did his best to think back, but his current predicament made it so difficult! He wanted more boobies!

The name... what was the name... he had been so scared shitless that time that it was hard to remember everything, but...

"D-Ddraig, I think!" Issei finally managed to answer. Rias squealed and glomped him, elated by his answer, completely uncaring of how forward she was being. He had said exactly what she wanted to hear. Adding the fact that Koneko had told her that he smelled like a dragon and it was confirmed without question. Issei had the Boosted Gear.

Of course, Issei couldn't care less about that. All he could think of was the bombshell that had exploded on top of him. He had fully submitted himself to being smothered to death by a ravenous devil. He'd risen to full chub and it rubbed against Rias's leg, who was too immersed in her own joyful world to even notice.

Surprisingly, it was Koneko who had separated the two, wrapping her arms around Rias's midsection and pulling her off of him. Once Issei was thrown from heaven back down to Earth, he immediately hid his hard on between his legs. He may have been stupid, but the last thing he needed was his dick burning bridges.

Realizing how foolish she made herself look, Rias took a moment to recollect herself. Issei also took the time to think of awful thoughts and anything he could to get rid of his boner. Rias lightly cleared her throat, a small bit of red dusting her cheeks. "That's very impressive, Issei. Boosted Gear is a powerful Sacred Gear to possess. You're very fortunate."

"I am?" He asked. The Boosted Gear did have a Legendary ranking, but there were three other rankings above that. In the grand scheme of things, he didn't initially believe it was all that strong. Then again, if that dragon was connected to it, then it must be. Issei couldn't even imagine how strong the rankings above Legendary would be.

"You are, but it appears to be in a sealed state. The dragon already told you, but you must become stronger to wield it effectively," Rias nodded, putting distance between them as she sat back down on the other couch.

"Right, so you're telling me I gotta pump some iron, eh?" Issei punched a fist into his hand, determination building up inside him. If getting jacked was all he needed to do to use the Boosted Gear, then he'd get jacked!

"Not so fast. You'll need to do more than that," Rias giggled once again. "Because you're a human, it'll take some time for you to become stronger. Koneko has informed me that the fallen have begun to target you. What do you plan to do?"

Issei swallowed. "I-uh, I was hoping you guys could help me with that."

"Oh?" Rias raised her eyebrow. "Did you want us to fight them for you?"

"If it isn't too much..." Issei began, looking towards his feet. He remembered yesterday and how he'd left Koneko all by her lonesome against Raynare. While it seemed like nothing had happened, that whole situation could've gone a whole lot worse. He shook his head. "...No, I don't. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if you guys got hurt because of me."

A genuine look of surprise crossed Rias's face. His statement impressed her. "That's very brave of you, Issei. However, even with the Boosted Gear, you won't be able to defend yourself on your own."

"...I know." He felt ashamed. Although the quest had told him to ask for help and he was more than willing to do so before, it felt entirely different to actually do so. Maybe it was because they were girls, or maybe it was because of his natural pride as a man, but it was humiliating to look so helpless in front of them.

"Please don't feel ashamed, Issei. This isn't your fault." Rias's soothing voice consoled him. Issei's eyes raised up to meet her serious ones as she continued. "You were snapped away from your normal life and forced into the position you're in now. You haven't done anything to warrant that. But you don't have to worry. You are not alone."

"I told you before, Senpai. I got your back." Koneko followed up, a similar look in her eyes

"Yes, it's just as Koneko said. When the fallen angels make their move, we'll help you." Rias suddenly gained a playful tone, cupping her chin. "Normally, we have our clients form a contract with us, but we'll just have to make an exception this time." She winked.

"...You're really going to help me?" Issei mumbled out unsure. It felt like he was dreaming.

"Don't make us repeat ourselves." Koneko deadpanned at him.

"Be nice, Koneko. I'm sure Issei has a lot on his mind," Rias said, standing up. "You're not in any danger anymore, Issei. So please, rest easy."

Quest Complete!

Rewards Received:

1,000 Experience Points

100,000 Yen

1x Rare Gacha Token

Bonus!

1x Random Gacha Token

Level Up!

Level 2 - Level 5

As Issei received the rewards and leveled up three times, the Boosted Gear still on his left arm began to morph, glowing brilliantly. Once the light faded, the gauntlet's color had become a greater shade of red and the green gem enlarged with a brighter shine. The fingers which had been exposed were now armored, looking like dragon talons. In fact, the whole gauntlet looked more draconic than it had been before, the yellow accents sharpening and jutting out like horns.

"Wh-What in the world?" Rias questioned as she watched the sight unfold. It appeared as if the limiter on the Boosted Gear had been released out of nowhere and she had no idea why or how that was even possible. "Issei, how did you do that?"

Even Koneko looked surprised by what had happened, staring at the newly upgraded Sacred Gear. "Wicked."

Issei too had been enraptured by his armored hand. He couldn't tell them that he'd just leveled up, reaching a point where he could use the Boosted Gear in its Dragon Booster stage. Neither Rias nor Koneko could detect anything strange either because Issei's power would obviously increase after the Boosted Gear's evolution. "I-I don't know. I guess it was just ready to do that?"

"You really don't know?" Rias asked him. She didn't think he was hiding anything, but Sacred Gears don't just do that out of nowhere. At least, none that she knew of.

Issei chuckled awkwardly. "I'm still new to all of this. Maybe I crossed some mental barrier, or something?"

"Hmm... You could be right about that," She said pensively, appearing right by his side to examine it once more. This time, the Sacred Gear did look as impressive as its namesake suggested. Rias's hands glossed over it, cupping the draconic fingers in particular. Issei really wished he could feel her hands through the gauntlet. Sadly, he couldn't.

"You better not get anymore funny ideas." Koneko's head suddenly poked out over Rias's shoulder. At first, it looked like she was rebuking Issei. However, her head slowly swiveled to look at Rias directly, her arms snaking around her body. "I'll pull you away again."

"I-I'm not!" Rias shouted, quickly getting flustered. The scene she had made earlier and the embarrassment that came with it was still very fresh in her mind. She released a breath to calm herself. "I'm just checking to see what's changed about it, that's all." She then glared at Koneko with a commanding look. "And I don't believe you have that authority over me, Koneko."

The white haired girl glared back, their faces inches apart. Tension began brewing up between the two, before eventually, Koneko let Rias go, grumbling like an angry troll as she sat back down. Although, at this point, the wind had been taken out of the redhead's sails and she stood back up.

"I'm curious to know how exactly you awakened your Sacred Gear, but that can wait until later. I've taken enough of your time, so you and Koneko can head to class now." Rias walked over towards the shower and began unbuttoning the black corset of her uniform. "Koneko, lead Issei to the student council and explain the situation. You'll both receive late passes to excuse your tardiness."

"W-Wait, hold on. What are you doing?" Rather than hear Rias's words, Issei was instead enraptured by her state of undress.

"Hopping in the shower, of course," She replied, pulling off her ribbon as if her actions were normal. She turned her head back, a flirtatious look in her eyes and a playful grin on her face. "Oh, I'm sorry. Where are my manners? Did you want to join me, Issei?"

"HELL YEA-OOUUGGHH!" Issei tried to answer before a sharp elbow folded him in half like a napkin.

"Jack ass." Koneko retracted her elbow and stood up, grabbing the wheezing boy by the collar and dragging him behind her. "We're heading out. Ciao, Buchou."

Right as it looked like Issei was gonna get a glimpse at the straps of her bra, Koneko had pulled him out of the room. He whined in agony, clutching his stomach in pain from both her attack and his blue balls. "Koneko, why?! I could've seen her tits!"

"Say another word and I'll smack you."

"Mmf!" Issei's hands immediately went up to cover up his mouth. After that elbow, he fully believed she would follow through with her threats. She may have been small, but she packed one hell of a punch.

The two eventually made it out of the old building and Koneko released her grip on his collar, the boy falling down with a thud. A quiet sigh left the girl. "Read the room. She was messing with you."

"She was?" He asked ignorantly. An incredulous and somewhat murderous look from Koneko made the dog in him lie and the cogs start turning. "Y-Yeah I think you're right, hahah..." He laughed weakly, standing up.

Of course she was just fucking with him. How could he even fall for that?

Koneko stared at Issei, making him feel even more stupid. He couldn't tell what in the world she was thinking, but it was probably bad. She contemplated heavily before deciding to speak up. "Girls don't like it when you talk about their tits," She said, walking away.

"Why not?! Tits are awesome!" Issei boldly claimed, following after her. "Large, medium, small, they're all perfect!" He giggled lecherously, picturing breasts of all sizes flopping and wiggling in his face.

"...Small ones?" Koneko questioned, looking down at her own chest in disappointment.

"Of course! Your tits are the tits!" A foot proceeded to slam onto his own as the pervert cried out in pain.

"You really don't know when to quit, do you?" Koneko continued to walk like she hadn't just smashed his foot in.

"G-Got it. I'll try not to talk about them." Issei hobbled after her, a new limp in his step. They reached the intersection of the walkway and instead of turning left towards the main building, Koneko turned right towards the school gate. "Hey, where are you going? School's this way."

"Don't care."

"But didn't Gremory-senpai, er... didn't Rias say we should go inside the school and get late passes from the student council?"

"Fuck school." Koneko swiftly reminded him of her stance on the matter.

"I mean, yeah, but isn't Rias gonna be pissed that you skipped out?"

"Nah, she's usually lenient with that sort of thing." Koneko shrugged her shoulders. "Besides, you're coming with me."

"Seriously? You want me to go with you?" Her words made him feel a bit excited. She wanted to hang out with him?!

"Not really." Two simple words was all it took to kill his enthusiasm. "But I said I had your back, so it's cool," She added, hopping onto the brick wall connected to the school's front gate. She sat kneeling, contemplating whether or not it was worth pulling the pervert up over the wall, doubting he could get up himself. After all, she didn't know where his hands had been. Releasing a low, disgusted sigh, the girl reached her hand out to help pull him up. As she did, her eyebrow raised slightly. "Why are you covering your eyes?"

"I can see your panties!" Issei yelled, hiding his gaze. "I'm sorry!"

"..." Koneko stayed silent, realizing she had placed herself in a compromising position. More often than not, she was the type to forget she was wearing a skirt. In battle, she sometimes had to resort to throwing kicks. It was only natural she'd be forgetful every now and then. "Keep your eyes shut and hold out your hand."

Issei followed her instructions and she pulled him over the wall, tossing him to the other side. It had been light enough to where he was able to land on his feet. He opened his eyes after she landed next to him. "Uh, thanks, Koneko."

"Mn," She nodded, as they took off in the direction of the town. "...Thanks, Hyoudou-senpai."

"For what?"

"...For being kind." She didn't expect a perv like him to hide his eyes.

"No problem." Issei smiled at her. He had just wanted to avoid getting hit again, but he was more than happy to accept her thanks. "And hey, you can call me by my first name, too. I don't mind at all."

"Mn."

"Sooo, where are we going, anyway?" He was more than happy to ditch school with a cutie, but he didn't know where they'd be going. His mom would be pissed if he went home this early and he doubted they were going to her house.

"Arcade. Wanna beat my highscore."

"The arcade, huh? Hell yeah!" Issei grinned. Now this was something he could get behind. He knew every game there like the back of his fapping hand and he was an expert at playing all of them. He pumped one of his fists. "Now I can finally beat that NekoNeko weirdo who keeps hogging all the top spots!"

"That's me."

Issei nearly fell over. "T-That's you?!"

"Yep." Koneko shot him a suspicious glance. "...I'm guessing yours is 80085?"

"H-How'd you know?!"

"Do you really have to ask?" Koneko rolled her eyes. His name spelled boobs, after all.

Issei laughed nervously. Now he was wishing he'd picked a different name. Maybe A$$ would have been better? He shook himself out of his funk and hyped himself back up. "Whatever, I won't let you take the top spot today, Koneko!"

"Try me." She challenged the pervert, a small smirk on her face.

---

That's it for chapter one. I'm not sure how long this story will turn out to be, but it won't go on forever like some Gamer stories do. I have a clear goal in mind where I want it to go and how it will end.

We've all read Gamer stories where the main character, whether it's Issei, a character from DxD or another line of fiction, or an OC, get overpowered very quickly. The idea for this story follows a similar route, but they are in no way the same. You'll understand what separates this story from others after reading future chapters.

I almost never see Issei in fanfiction act how he does canonically, or at least canonically to the anime. I tried my best to write Issei as I believe he would act if he randomly got The Gamer system. The same goes for every other character and I'll do my best to write them as canonically as possible. Eventually, there will need to be some inevitable changes and sacrifices down the line in order to tell the story properly. Feel free to let me know how I've done so far.

There are a lot of set ups in this chapter. There were just as many character interactions as there were Gamer elements, perhaps even more. This is intentional and will be a common theme throughout. After reading dozens of Gamer stories across multiple different fanfictions, I find that the plot of the story itself is always more entertaining than going off and leveling in some dungeon area for five chapters. Most of those Gamer elements feel arbitrary to me and is oftentimes forgetful and irrelevant. The story is always the most important part in any novel and it's the same with fanfiction.

I'm testing a lot of things in this story. I don't think it will follow many other interpretations of The Gamer and should carve a path on its own. The pacing will be weird for sure, so expect that in the future. The story is being written with that in mind, so please don't fret. I'll probably remind you of this in later chapters in case anyone forgets.

Thank you for reading. Have a good day.

Pa-atreon: 3sper