Impossibility – Chapter 3

Horrible First Impression

Koneko was a very stoic person.

While those who knew her past would assume it was some kind of coping mechanism, that was only a half-truth.

She only rarely used her expressions to show her feelings, keeping it to words that often also didn't quite carry what she was feeling. Making her sound dull and uninterested most of the time, which she really didn't mind as it meant most people wouldn't bother her… well, wouldn't bother her more than they already did.

It also turned out that being perpetually calm and collected was quite advantageous when facing down stray devils. If you never let panic or fear take the wheel, you were in full control of what you were doing. So she told herself.

All of that to say, that right now, she was fighting to remain as stoic as she usually was.

She couldn't quite put her finger on why, but Issei Hyoudou fucking terrified her.

She was used to the fact that, because of her Nekoshou heritage, she was more attuned to sensing certain things about individuals most would fail to grasp. She faintly recalled it being something Ki-related, but frankly, she didn't want to recall further details. What mattered was that, because of it, she had a way to sense things most would simply overlook. She could feel what a person was beyond their surface, far better than any of her fellow devils in the school.

And right now, she wished she didn't.

For all its uses and purposes, it was like the human sense of smell, something that couldn't simply be turned off by force of will. And her sensing also lacked convenient nose-holes. She could stuff that would stop her from sensing anything. Best she could do was pull them back, reel them in, try her very best to suppress them, but with Issei in the same room as her, even that failed to relieve her of the gnawing sense of terror his presence brought.

It was like a maelstrom, chaotic and swirling, a diversity of things mixed in it, each clear in their individuality but too muddled by the constant movement to truly pick out. It threw her off, and it was just… too much. A person shouldn't have, couldn't have that much just stuff contained within, that wasn't possible, that shouldn't be possible, yet here he stood, his body somehow fully staple, not showing even a faint hint of the fact that such a rainbow of energies was condensed into it's core.

Koneko had been around Sirzechs Lucifer before. He was Rias's older brother after all, and even he, that void of destruction, that nothingness of destruction that lay within his core, had not terrified her as much as Issei had. Because of all that power that Sirzechs held, however terrifying it was. It was natural. His body was built around that foundation of himself and didn't just contain the power of destruction, but was one with it.

Issei wasn't like that.

If Sirzechs was a well-built mansion, incredibly crafted from its foundation to its roof. Issei was a tupperware container holding a black hole. How can a tupperware container hold a black hole? That was the thing about it, it shouldn't, there is no way it should be able to withstand the black hole. Yet against all laws of nature, it did.

That… was what made Issei Hyoudou so terrifying.

Why had she led him here? She should have refused Rias' request to do so.

Now that he was here, she didn't know what he would do.

Damn those are some nice boobs.

Issei blinked, his brain catching up to his perversion as he realized just what he did.

Doing his best to act as if nothing had happened, he straightened up and looked at Ria- RIAS GREMORY!? Ah shit, of course, great going, doing that right in front of the hottest girl in school. Staring right at her boobs, great job Issei.

And of course, next to her stood Akeno Himejima. Great, both of them, he had stared at both their boobs. Rias seemed unbothered at his display, well, no, not quite, she seemed like she was bothered by it, but not enough that it threw her off, still she closed her eyes for a moment to collect herself. Akeno, meanwhile, was giggling, which gave him pause.

Did… Akeno like the fact that he had stared at her breasts like that? Was she a pervert?

[She's a devil.]

Thankfully, this time he stopped himself from saying anything out loud, but he did the best to glare inwardly.

For whatever reason, Koneko stopped eating her pastry for a second to give him a side-glance, before quickly resuming her eating. He decided to ignore it.

"Welp… what's happening?" He decided to break the silence that had crept over the group, which got Rias to take a step forward, immediately capturing his attention as she began speaking.

"Hello, Issei Hyoudou, I am Rias Gremory, President of the Occult Research Club, and I have some questions for you." She gave a slight bow in greeting, making her breasts bounce the slightest bit, which naturally made him stare once again. Thankfully, he was able to return to his neutral expression when she looked back up to him.

He didn't even need to acknowledge Akeno's giggle to know that she had seen.

Unwilling to linger, he gave a simple nod. "Okay, sure, go ahead." He contemplated for a moment being more direct and asking about Koneko or their non-human-ness, but decided against it. He didn't have a point other than 'Ha, I know you're not human!' and that wouldn't really do anything for him right now.

"Very well, please take a seat. Would you like some tea?" She sat down on the couch next to Koneko, Akeno shadowing her and taking her seat on the other side of Rias. Yuuto, whom Issei had almost forgotten, walked over to fill in the last spot on the couch, leaving Issei the empty couch across from them.

He hesitated for a moment. "No tea, I'd be done with this rather sooner than later." He grumbled before taking his seat.

His words seemed to worsen the tension, to his annoyance. Which, in hindsight, was to be expected.

"I understand, well, to keep it simple, do you believe in the supernatural?" She met his eyes as he didn't react to the question immediately.

Issei considered denying it, but that wouldn't do him any good, would it now? Koneko was here, his eyes drifted to the smaller girl, who seemed to twitch as his gaze landed on her, refusing to look up from her biscuit. He was pretty sure that the white-haired girl knew what was up, or at least she clearly acted as if she knew.

"Yes." He simply said, his eyes drifting back to Rias, who met his gaze coolly. Though she was tenser than before, and he could see Akeno in his peripheral glancing over to Koneko with some worry.

After giving him a second to see if he'd add anything to that statement. "I see. Do you believe in Christianity or anything written within the Bible?"

Issei shrugged, answering almost immediately, "I dunno, maybe, never read the thing, nor cared much for it."

You do know that-

"Shut up." He blurted out, immediately gaining bewildered gazes from everyone else in the room. "Ah, I said that out loud, ignore that." He said with a small nod that seemed more for himself than to reassure them.

Of course, the Occult Research Club was not so keen on simply letting his slip up go. Having barely interacted with him before, they were all rather unfamiliar with him saying stuff like that out of the blue. Grimacing slightly, he waved his hand in front of his head, trying to stop them before any questions would be asked. "Just… ask the next question."

To his surprise, that strategy seemed to have worked, as after a second, Rias gave a small nod before continuing as if nothing had happened. Though he was sure no one in this room was going to forget it any time soon, and with what he knew of them, they may understand his condition to a degree where they wouldn't simply dismiss it as 'he's being crazy'. "Alright… to be a bit broader, what supernatural stuff do you believe?"

Good question. Very good question. And very annoying for him to answer. While he knew that trying to play it off as if he didn't know shit about the supernatural wouldn't net him anything but a reputation among them as a liar. But how much was he willing to admit? How much of himself was he ready to present? He was unsure. But time was also thin. If he sat too long in silence, they'd grow suspicious. "… A lot, but I've not had much in terms of encounters… well exceeeeee-" He paused in the middle of the word, dragging the syllable, realizing what he was about to say, before closing his mouth, not wanting to spill the beans on his what he did with those two… uh? Fallen angels? Yeah, that's what they were called.

"Except us?" Rias said, seriously, the air grew thicker in the room, but Issei was fucking relieved if anything. She had missed by a mile, but hey, she didn't know what she was aiming for, and it benefited him, so he wouldn't be complaining.

"… Yes." He said simply after a short pause, where he had to concentrate to keep his stone-statue expression not to show the relief at her accidentally bailing him out.

"How did you find out?" She narrowed her eyes the slightest bit at him, her expression changing to a barely noticeable degree.

"I dunno, kinda just-" he gesticulated with his hands, trying to find the right words. "… know." He settled on the most bare-bones answer.

"… So you can sense us?" Getting only a shrug as an answer, Rias continued. "How interesting, that means you must be quite powerful to bypass our cloaking."

"I guess." He grunted out noncommittally.

When Rias sighed softly, he snorted. "Ha! First one." His words fetched him another round of incredulous stares, which he seemed happy to ignore.

Reminding herself of who she was dealing with, Rias resisted the urge to get sidetracked by his verbal nonsense, it wouldn't do her any good. "Alright, let's skip to the most important part." Meeting his gaze with a solemn seriousness, she allowed her demonic powers to flash in her eyes for a moment before speaking. "Who and what exactly are you, and what do you want here?"

Issei looked fully unbothered by her stare, clearly not holding that information to the same regard as the devils did. "Well, I'm Issei Hyoudou, I'm a guy, and I don't want to be here, but my parents say I have to get an education, so, might as well go here."

The silence was tangible, Issei looking at Rias with a cocked eyebrow, as if asking if that information was enough to sate her curiosity. Allowing herself another sigh, she did her best to ignore him, saying, "Second one."

Meeting his eyes again, annoyance clear in them, she clarified. "I do not care for who you claim to be to the humans here, I am asking about your supernatural aspects."

[Us. She means u-]

"Yeah yeah, I understood that part." He grimaced as he threw his head back, looking up at the ceiling, deciding to just roll with it, he leaned forward, bringing his head back to look her in the eyes. "There's just not more to it. I'm me, I doubt you mean education or job when asking what I am, so yeah, man, guy, male, and the only think I want is for the school year to hurry the fuck up."

Rias lurched forward, her forehead hitting her open palms, the motion made her breast jiggle just enough for Issei's eyes to immediately hyper-focus on them. As such, he completely missed the fact that Akeno had tapped Rias on the shoulder, soliciting a nod from the red-head.

As she stood up, Issei's focus immediately went to her larger breasts, as they bounced at the sudden movement. And judging by Akeno's smirk, she quite enjoyed the attention, savoring it for a second longer than necessary before getting Issei's attention away from her form by speaking. "What Rias is trying to ask of you is what species you are, Issei Hyoudou."

"Homo Sapien."

Even Akeno's smirk faltered a bit at the snarky remark. Issei was being himself, and he really couldn't care for however much that would negatively affect him in the long term. It brought him some sick fraction of joy in the moment, and that was all he could really ask for.

Rias stood up abruptly, making Issei's eyes naturally dart to her bosom. "I don't have time for your games." Her voice was serious enough to snap his attention to her, the annoyance tangible, but she was clearly still trying her best to keep it civil. "I have absolutely no interest in you Issei Hyoudou, in any sense of way, as long as you keep to yourself and don't do anything that obstructs us or forces us to jump in I will" Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she took a moment to find the right word. "… tolerate you on my territory, even if you haven't given me a reason to do so."

Issei took in her words, his expression bored. He hated this. Sure, her anger, annoyance, or whatever it was, he couldn't quite place it, was warranted. But Issei couldn't stand… this. She was talking like she had the authority to just kick him out of his home, his birthplace, and while to a certain degree he acknowledged that she probably did, Issei hated authority.

Her deal really isn't that ba-

"Fuck off." Issei snarled.

If the air had been filled with tension before, it had in that single moment amplified to a degree that made it hard to breath.

Even Issei realized that what he just said was badly timed at the very least.

Sure, he didn't like Rias's last words, but she was clearly at the very edge of her tolerance, and while for most people he wouldn't much care if they were driven over that edge or not by him. He was very much aware that Rias wasn't just some girl. She was apparently some kind of devil who also apparently had authority over Kuoh.

And she was fucking pissed at him.

Koneko had stopped eating, her idle expression gone as she stared at Issei with wide eyes. Kiba, in contrast, had steeled his expression, a dark scowl having formed over the unpleasant conversation, his right hand clutching a sword, low enough that it was somewhat hidden from Issei's sight behind the table, but still in a position from which he could easily swing if worse came to worst. Akeno looked the most taken aback, a hand having moved to cover her mouth in shock as her eyes jumped between Issei and Rias.

Rias… Rias was the only one not looking at him, her gaze angled downward, so her eyes were hidden by her bangs. Her breathing was controlled but slow, the fists her hands had balled into were crackling with some form of energy, black lightning glowing a crimson red.

Issei felt his own face twist from a snarl into a grimace. Noting silently that he had snarled at the voice in his head, he could not for the life of him shut up. "Would it help if I told you that wasn't directed at you?"

He just managed to press back into his chair to avoid the hand grasping for his blazer. Rias' eyes met his, and as if he hadn't been sure enough that she was mad, the fact that they were glowing gave him quite the indication. The energy sparked strongly in her hand, not moving any further. He would have laughed at the fact that she had leaned over the entire table to try and grab him, if it weren't for the fact that that energy made his spine tingle in the worst kind of way.

They were screaming at him from the back of his mind.

"Who."

It wasn't a question. Well, it was, but it wasn't treated like one. Her patience had run dry, for all he knew she would have punched him in the face if he had let her grab his blazer, and Issei did not feel like taking a punch from someone who was fast enough for him to note their speed and had some form of energy that screamed danger in every sense of the word.

Knowing that not giving her an answer would most likely do nothing but escalate the situation, he opened his mouth to try and string together something, anything that his mind could come up with.

"So… I-" He stilled in his words when a bright orange light too his attention. And seeing Rias' expression morph from anger to dread to almost something pained, had his curiosity up so quickly that he couldn't help to look at the ring of orange fire that had suddenly emerged in an empty spot of the room.

He was thankful to whatever it was for taking Rias attention away from him, but relief turned into bewilderment as the most flamboyantly arrogant looking guy just arose from the ring of fire, flanked by two rather revealingly clad women.

"What the fuck."

Azazel flexed his fingers, it was a strange sensation, the golden gauntlet moving smoothly, barely weighing down his arm. For doubling the size of his forearm, it surprisingly didn't hinder his fingers' movement in the slightest. Each digit having its full range of movement.

His gaze trailed down his arm, inspecting the armor in its entirety.

He hadn't ever before put much thought towards such minute details, as he had only really used Down Fall Dragon Spear to train with, putting his focus on attacks and movements more than the finer things.

Well, technically, this was still training.

Tiamat had told him after their last spar that he and Fafnir were still lacking in their synchronicity and to adjust they should spend more time in the armor, outside of combat scenarios, trying to do every day stuff without letting it hinder them.

Problem was that Azazel wasn't particularly eager to show off his Down Fall Dragon Spear to anyone, and as such, that meant that he had to take the day off to get enough time to really stay in armor.

"Did you get inspired by anything with this armor or is it purely of your own design?" Azazel murmured in front of himself, knowing that Fafnir would catch his words.

[Hm… I'm not sure. It was more of a subconscious thing. When you first activated it, the armor simply manifested, and while I had no direct influence on shaping it, I knew that it came from my mind.]

Azazel slowly nodded, listening to the voice quietly echoing in his ear. He understood conceptually what Fafnir was saying. Though he wondered on the deeper implications of it. He had started the creation of Down Fall Dragon Spear a few decades if not centuries back. Whenever he could he'd study one of the Heavenly Dragon Sacred Gears or even Vitra pieces to try and understand how the biblical god had made such deeply complex devices.

Unfortunately, he ran very consistently into one of two walls. Either the answers to his curiosities were hidden deep in the System, a place he no longer had access to as a fallen, or he'd have to dissect the soul of whoever was wielding the Sacred Gear, which never really ended well.

It had been a lot of trial and error on his end to try to replicate its workings, and even after his successful result in Down Fall Dragon Spear, he was, to his shame, still incapable of fully grasping why and how the magic functioned.

Hell, he wasn't even sure if he could reliably replicate it.

The biggest difference between his own false Sacred Gear and a real one was that his wasn't bound to him. If he gave it to someone else able to handle the bear the weight of Fafnir's power, they would be able to also go into this armor, if Fafnir cooperated, that was. At least that was how it should work in theory, with how secretive he was being with this entire project, practically no one knew of it.

Sure Tiamat was one of the few that was made aware, but he didn't even dare ask her to try it, she'd rip him another asshole if he'd even suggest her using one of her kin as a weapon.

Letting out a sigh, he abandoned his train of thought and stood up, stretching out his wings, which oddly enough weren't covered in the same armor as the rest of his body. "Now why's that?"

[Why's what?]

He pointed at his wings with a backward thumb. "Those." He wiggled them a bit for extra effect. "Why aren't they encased in armor?"

The huff Fafnir gave him, Azazel recognized as the equivalent of a shrug.

[I don't know… But I'd guess that my subconscious simply didn't factor in your wings when creating the armor.]

Azazel hummed in understanding. Giving a small nod as he went over to the coffee machine.

"Now can we drink liquids while in this armor?" He was truly unsure about this, in the mirror the helmet covered his entire head and when he felt his face, he couldn't find an entry. However he could feel his fingers on his face, and when he stuck out his tongue it didn't touch the helmet. He also didn't see the world as if through a standard helmet, it felt and looked like his normal vision.

He reached for his favorite cup.

It shattered upon contact with his claws.

There was a beat of silence.

"Damn."

[Damn.]

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! God fucking damnit!"

Of all the things. Of all the fucking things it could have been, from a flame wielding prick to a guy who stole a dragon's fire, it just had to be a fucking phoenix. Undying, unstopping firestorm of a creature that Issei did not know how to fucking stop.

Well he wasn't facing an actual phoenix, but with how the devil prick had described his powers in a monologue, because of course someone with that ego couldn't help themselves but monologue, it didn't really matter if he was an actual fire bird or not, since his healing factor was still equally bullshit.

"Shit! Shit! Fucking hell! What the fuck!"

For the fifth time, his Shadow creature was eviscerated by the searing flames of the devil. Riser gained a puzzled look at that, as if he hadn't expected it to be so easy himself.

"It seems you really are a fool in every form there is. You do not even know how to wield your own weapons."

(If you'd allow-)

"Shut up!"

This was bad, really fucking bad, since the battle begun the thrumming presence of those forsaken voices inside his mind had gotten louder, and his control over them was slipping steadily as he slid into panic and they pushed forth, his head felt so full, so loud, so uncomfortable to be in, if only he could fucking shut it all up.

The momentary distraction cost him dearly as a bolt of searing hot flames shot at him, a newly manifested shadow creature barely solid enough to take the brunt of the hit, but he wasn't spared. The flames licked at his skin, tearing past his clothes and leaving painful marks on his body. He bit down on his lip hard, stopping himself from screaming, tasting blood as his teeth cut straight through his own flesh.

His hold on them snapped, and they spilled forth into his mind, it was like a wave of sound, noise unconstrained threatened to burst his eardrums with it's sheer volume even though it only existed within his mind.

He grabbed his head with both his arms and threw himself, face-first, into the hard floor, blood seeping from his forehead, as the pain from the collision temporarily silenced his head, only for the noise to continue.

Watching the display of what looked like utter madness, Riser considered the human who had taken him up on a challenge like this once more.

This was the same person who had thrown insults at everyone in the room with such carelessness that it had gotten him into this dry of a situation. Of course, Riser was quite happy to humble the living stain, but something was off.

Riser, like any noble devil wroth their name, knew of the Sacred Gears, especially the Longinus, as their powers were rather threatening even if they most often occurred in, of all beings, pure humans. And the human was clearly wielding Annihilation Maker, one of the most feared Sacred Gears, as it held the power to create basically any monster the wielder could envision.

This meant, as much as he hated to admit it, that the human actually stood a chance against him, by simply creating flame-resistant holy-power wielding monsters that were fast enough to get at Riser, he'd make the battle a living hell for the devil heir.

Yet none of that happened.

Instead Riser watched the human repeatedly form the same monsters over and over again. No variation, no improvements. Just two very simple creatures who did the same things and would fall to Riser's flames as easy as the first time.

It was baffling, insulting even, that someone born with such great power came to misuse it so greatly.

What drove the scene even further into ridiculousness was how overtly panicky the human was being. Whirling around profanities as if that would save him in any sensible manner. Then, when Riser had finally gone on the offensive, the human had crumbled to his knees upon the first strike, which hadn't even properly hit him.

And then he headbutted the floor, with quite some force at that.

Well, at the very least, he'd let the human know of his feelings about all of this. "You know, when I started this, I'd have expected a mutt like you could have been at least a bit entertaining. Yet, you disappoint rather consistently, not even giving me a real fight when-"

"Shut up!"

Riser sneered, there was no sense in talking to this human, he was beyond useless. "Fine, suit yourself." Holding up his hand he started channeling a ball of fire, expanding it's size and potency further and further.

Rias was watching, might as well show off a bit, with any luck, she'd see his power and know better than to continue with that rating game idea of hers.

Of course, Issei, didn't even realize that Riser had been addressing him, the noise that made him feel like his head would explode was overwhelming him again, this had happened before, he was familiar with this shitty sensation, way too fucking familiar.

But he couldn't calm down this time. The burning pain of his fresh wound, the searing heat growing hotter around him by the second, and the power the voices were excreting now, more than ever, it was like they were screaming at him.

Stop.

In a sudden moment, the noise was gone, quiet sunk upon his mind, as they were all silenced. He had never felt this free before, relief crashing down on Issei hard enough to make him sob on the spot. Finally, finally they had fucking shut up.

Child…

Of course, they hadn't. He almost hit his head against the pavement again, in a desperate attempt to see if that would stop them again.

Listen to me!

There was a pleading, a desperate sound to it. Something he didn't know of them, they never sounded like that. It made him pause, even his tears dried up as his interest had been caught.

You're in mortal danger.

Issei, for once, listened to the voice. He became more aware of his surroundings, looking up to see the devil forming a massive ball of fire above his hand. It was absolute overkill, and by the smug smirk on his face, the prick knew it.

We can stop him.

Issei blinked, eyes widening at the declaration, he didn't know where to look, wanting to stare at the voice with a stupefied look.

Let me guide you.

Taking a sharp breath, Issei felt something stir deep within his very being. His entire body tingled as a distantly familiar energy washed over it. It was like tentative hands gliding over his body, ones he had slapped away before, many times. But now he was resisting that urge, stopping himself from pushing back against it, as the weight of this unseen touch settled in his right hand.

"You die now." Riser said half-heartily, clearly this fight was already over for him.

As the fireball encroached, Issei felt it. A deep, desperate pulse within the deepest parts of his being that he had shut off. Now wide open, pleading for his attention.

He reached down there, into that depth, much further than thought possible.

And pulled.

Rias Gremory had, for her age, seen quite some things in her life.

After all, each of her peerage member were a story worth telling each on their own. Alone with how she came to know and adopt them into her peerage.

When Riser and Issei had started fighting, and she had watched with her peerage through a spell as the two men settled a grudge that had formed within the first few seconds of meeting each other. She had, for the first time in her life, seen a Longinus.

Annihilation Maker. It immediately made Issei much more viable as a candidate for any peerage, as such a Sacred Gear was sought after in every peerage.

At least hypothetically.

Issei could have been the most powerful man in the world, could have wiped the floor with Riser the second they had started the match, she wouldn't have taken him into her peerage. His attitude was simply too much, she couldn't handle it. Rias knew that snapping at him like that hadn't been warranted, she had almost even sparked him with some of her powers. Her emotions were too high with the entire Riser situation, and Issei had done nothing but add oil to the fire.

When Riser started preparing the killing blow, Rias felt deeply conflicted.

On one hand, she wanted to stop him. Wanted to tell him off for even thinking about killing someone after already having bested them. But on the other… if he actually went through with murdering Issei Hyoudou, she may have something against him, as he would have killed a citizen under her protection.

She cringed a bit, disgusted at herself for even thinking about that.

Was she really this desperate to get Riser out of her life? Desperate enough to let him murder someone so she could put that against him?

She shook her head and stood up. "Yubelluna, please tell him to stop this, I want none of the people under my protection kill-"

"You die now."

Her eyes flicked to the spell as Riser launched the attack.

Oh no.

She had been too slow.

Her eyes widened in fear and shock. Riser was pulling a bluff, he had to, he wouldn't actually kill Issei would he?

Before another thing could be done or said, utter dread washed over her entire body. A fear injected into her very essence as every instinct in her body screamed for her to flee, to run, to hide. To find the darkest corner she could find and just hope, hope that whatever she was feeling would ignore her.

Managing to somewhat contain her instinctual panic, her gaze fixated on what she saw through the spell. The very source of this very dread.

There is Issei Hyoudou's hand. Held out towards Riser, having cut the flames into nothingness, it was terrifying.

The most holy of weapons.

The True Longinus.

(5398 Words)

A/N:

Oh yeah, this shit took me fucking forever.

I rewrote this chapter a bunch, I am still not fully happy with it, but I don't want to keep you guys starved and HOLY SHIT do you guys like this story. Of course, Imma give you more.

So yea big stuff happened here, but damn, so many drafts that just weren't satisfying, so many scenes that were cut or fully rewritten, I'm most likely at some point gonna go through all of these again and clean them up proper or once rewrite them fully, who knows.

Anyway, I wanna thank you guys for reviewing!

From Uday Sra, who dropped a simple "Awesome" when the first chapter came, to FallenSage, who I remember fondly from his reviews on some of my older works. I hope all of you keep enjoying this, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I won't answer everything, naturally, but if I see some good questions, I'll take my time to put them here into future A/Ns

Anyway, thank you again for everything, and best wishes to all of you!

Review, tell me what you think.

Till next time!