Impossibility – Chapter 2

Rotten Manners

Sona stared impassively at the black feather that had been set on the desk.

One couldn't blame her for thinking she'd be interested in birds because of how fiercely she was staring down the feather. However, those genuinely interested in the field of ornithology would be wondering what kind of black-feathered bird had such large feathers.

For it was not the feather of a bird.

She hadn't been around them too often, but often enough for her to be familiar with the fallen. Some had been in the Sitri hospitals, others had made deals with her family, and while none were directly with her, even as just a bystander she had picked up on their unique unholy energy. Similar yet distinctly different from the demonic energies of her own kin. Naturally, there was this familiarity to it, all the powers of the biblical faction felt towards each other, as much as they had distanced themselves from each other, all still had the very same routes from Yahweh, the sole god of their faction.

And while Sona was aware that their relationship with the fallen had improved quite a lot, especially over the last few decades, such a find in her territory still was something that raised significant alarm bells. It couldn't be from a stray, nor from Rias queen, Akeno, as both would have much more demonic energy than this feather lacked fully.

After all, Sona wasn't debating if she should do anything about them, but rather who she'd be telling. Rias was obvious, as the joint devil ruler of Kuoh, her best friend deserved to know of their unwelcome guests as much as she did, however beyond that she wasn't sure.

Sona was sure that Rias would refuse to tell her older brother anything. As easy as it would be for the Satan Lucifer to find out what was happening, who was behind it, and what to do about it, Rias had made it rather clear that she wished to resolve any issues herself, calling upon her brother only in the most desperate of situations.

But the Sitri was unsure if she was the same.

On one hand, her sister, Serafall Sitri, was the Satan Leviathan, head of foreign communications. If anyone should be notified about signs of a foreign nation within Sona's territory it should be her sister. Yet even if she was a tad too prideful to admit such. Sona, not unlike Rias, preferred to have her sister as a last resort rather than a panic button. She knew better than anyone that her sister would jump at the mere potential of Sona being in danger, and while the Satan had enough impulse control to not do something incredibly stupid, Sona had no idea how exactly she would react. Serafall could do anything from sending a strongly worded letter to the fallen leaders, to sweeping the entirety of Kuoh on her own to ensure no shred of danger was present, to then even after finding nothing decide that it wouldn't be safe for Sona to stay in Kuoh.

If Sona had to give her sister a compliment it was that she was unpredictable. As annoying as it may be for herself, Sona was sure that this inability to read her sister's next move was more than just a thing she struggled with, but rather an aspect Serafall purposefully employed on everyone.

And because of that Sona wouldn't contact her.

It was too much of an unknown, even with Serafall being her sister, whatever she may do could impact everything else Sona had set up in Kuoh Academy, something the young devil simply couldn't allow.

For now, Sona needed more information.

"Please Rias, I know you don't like it, but… we're running out of options, and at the very least we should know if he is at least a potential candidate for our peerage."

Rias closed her eyes, resting her head on her intertwined fingers. Akeno was right, there was no flaw in her argument, it was logical. Yet still, "Even so I really don't see Issei Hyoudou joining us, you know as well as I how selective I am with who is to join my, our peerage, and from everything I've seen of him, I have yet to find a single point or reason for which I'd want him with us." Her eyes met Akeno, yet the half-fallen was set on this, having no intentions to back down.

Closing her eyes Rias softly shook her head. "Then also, you are right Akeno, we're running out of options. As much as I doubt he's ever going to join us, I have lost the breathing room to be picky like that, I should at least know my options, even those I'd rather avoid." Her eyes much softer than before, Rias looked back to Akeno, seeing her closest friend and queen peerage member smile. She couldn't help her own lips quirking up at that.

"Then I shall inform Koneko to get more info from him and see if Sona has anything more on him." Giving her king a bow, Akeno received a small nod of confirmation from Rias before moving out of the office.

Rias eyes drifted back down to the file she had on Issei.

It wasn't much.

Not that that was unusual. Most students' files were as sparse as his own, some few had a bit of extra. Marks on their record, parents with notable criminal history, unusual living circumstances, and a bunch of rarer cases that needed that extra paperwork on their file for legal reasons. But Issei had none of that. The most notable thing was that his grades were ridiculously good in every subject, but beyond that nothing. Rias recalled that more than once a teacher had sent out a complaint to the Ministry of Education for his in-class behavior, but all of those had been denied, rather quickly at that. At one point Rias had suspected that he had a family member in the ministry, but after Sona had educated how favorable the system would act towards someone with his grades, she had thrown that theory out of the window.

Something deep in her gut told her that there was indeed something supernatural about him, but she had no proof, no points, no nothing. Even on occasion when they crossed paths in school, the only thing noteworthy about him had been how he seemed to actually physically struggle to move his gaze away from her breast.

While at first such gazes had gotten her a tad bit uncomfortable, by now she was used to them, and besides, his goggling was nothing compared to the truly despicable gazes Riser would throw her way.

Riser, she scoffed, that unbearable nightmare of a person was the reason she was even doing this. She'd need an ace up her sleeve to deal with the likes of him and while she wished she could claim that with her current peerage, she could muster anything to attain that, she couldn't lie to herself like that and knew very well that she either had to luck out on a new recruit or find another way to beat him.

She slapped herself on the cheeks. There was no time to think about that right now, fantasizing about finding this solution was one thing, but actually finding it would need some effort.

With that, she pulled the history book of the Phenex clan back to the center of her desk and opened it where she had left her bookmark.

Issei was sitting in the shade of a tree, at the edge of Kuoh Academies grounds, away from any commotion. He was counting the leaves on the tree he was under, trying to distract himself while also trying to get some shut-eye during the lunch break.

[Hey, you're being watched.]

He blinked, annoyance surging in his stomach for just a moment before he noticed it himself. It was like an inexplicable chill down his spine, as he felt someone staring at him, intently. Sure he got a bunch of stares all the time, especially during school times, but most of them were passive.

This… this was as if someone was trying to pierce his soul with their eyes.

What made it much more uncomfortable was the fact that he wasn't sure if that feeling was because the person looking was supernatural or not.

Sure he could just turn and look, but if they were someone he wasn't supposed to notice, someone he wouldn't be able to notice if it weren't for his shitty circumstances-

Please, I would prefer if you refrain from-

"Shut it." He grumbled out loud, his voice having the wished effect and getting him the silence he craved, well at least the silence in the forefront of his mind.

The distraction of the moment dissipated as his awareness turned back fully to the stare he was receiving.

Issei knew it was the smart thing to ignore it, he was fully aware of that fact, yet it nagged at him. Was this what the girls felt whenever he couldn't help himself but stare at them, god it was awful, no wonder they kept far from him.

Well, it probably was one of the reasons.

Unable to contain his curiosity or listen to his more logical side, Issei leaned slightly to the side and looked over, in the direction from which he felt the stare coming.

To his utter surprise, the person who had been watching him wasn't far away watching from the crowds at the entrance to the school building, no, she was standing extremely close by, at the edge of the lone tree's shade.

But that wasn't the most surprising part of this entire thing, it was that the person watching him was Koneko fucking Toujou.

She, not unlike him, had quite the reputation in Kuoh Academy, but, unlike him, hers was really good. She was within the school the equivalent of the school mascot, while not actually being the school mascot. The students simply treated her like she was one, it surprised Issei that she even got to him without being crowded by a bunch of other students.

Wait.

Was Koneko Toujou of magical nature!?

[Yes.]

…

"Huh, really?" He blinked, realizing that he had said that out loud, and thus right at Koneko. Who did little more than blink at his words, her gaze as if made of stone, without even a hint of emotion.

Realizing that he had been basically having a staring contest with the small white-haired girl, Issei turned away, looking back at the leaves, hoping that she'd just… disappear? He wasn't sure, to be honest.

He rather quickly concluded that Koneko had no intention of leaving him alone, her gaze still boring into him even as he did his best to ignore her.

His patience broke after two seconds.

"Alright, so what are you doing?" He turned back at her, his eyes this time much more accusatory as he stared at her, even though he was sitting and she standing, she was barely tall enough for him to really look up at her. "Did I like… piss you off? Cause I'll be honest, I didn't think that'd be possible. Not because I don't think I couldn't piss you off, but rather because I think you'd have gotten pissed off with me sooner than later and-"

"What are you hiding." Issei fucking paused. He blinked, once, twice, a third time just for the sake of it, and then his eyes focused on Koneko, who had her own eyes narrowed just enough to be a noticeable change of expression. Issei had heard her voice before, a few times, but he had, however if memory wasn't failing him, it hadn't been that menacing.

At least it seemed to have also shut them up.

"What?" No that didn't fully encompass his emotions right now. "The fuck!?" That's more like it.

Issei couldn't help but stare at her befuddled. On one hand, because that was the most confusing way to confront him, and secondly because it heavily implied that she knew about his… he glared inwardly for a second… circumstances.

"You're very weird, there is something about you that isn't… normal."

Any confusion dropped from his face, as he narrowed his eyes slightly at her. "Well aren't you a smart one miss-" He stopped, reminded himself that he was talking to someone who was… what? 15-16 years old, and reconsidered his words. "Duh, there wasn't a moment in this school year where I've made an effort to appear normal."

If Koneko had any opinion about him discarding the first sentence she didn't show it. "I'm not talking about that."

Ah well fuck.

"Well, you being non-specific against my non-specificness isn't really helping in finding out what the hell you're talking about." And his mouth had been faster than his mind because of course, it had.

Koneko remained quiet for a few seconds, before nodding. Why she nodded he wasn't sure, and her next words really didn't clear the air. "President wants to see you after school at the Occult Research Club, be there." And with that, she turned and simply walked off.

Weren't he still a bit confused at the bombardment of information he had just endured, he'd be calling out for her to stop and explain further, but at the same time he was pretty sure that unless he'd make a scene, which he rather not, he wouldn't be getting her attention again.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, he leaned back against the tree and then the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch break. Groaning, he stood up, already dreading the meeting he'd have with the Occult Research Club. From what he recalled their club members were rather popular, but he'd have to check who exactly they were again.

Well, at least-

"Shut it."

Japanese rice was much better than she had expected.

Sure, Asia wasn't much of a cultured person, she had lived all of her life in one church in Italy and her world had never expanded much more beyond that. But even so, she had simply not been ready for something that was so rarely served as the side to another dish in the church as something so filling on it's own.

Yet here she was eating a bowl of rice while sitting in a circle with a bunch of excommunicated exorcist who told tales of their adventures.

Asia had been scared, terrified even, when she realized that the church wasn't just in a state of disrepair, but fully abandoned, with the only people inside being excommunicated exorcists and fallen angels.

Two things she was told to fear.

Yet, the exorcists had been surprisingly nice, warming up to her rather quickly, especially when she revealed her healing miracle. Many of them still held beliefs towards their god, dawning the mantle of exorcist in his honor, while holding ideals that simply didn't fully align with those of the church. As such a nun was still a holy individual to them, and thus treated as such.

"-and using that, I managed to reach the flying devil and slam my sword right into their heart, felling them right then and there."

The rest of the exorcists gave soft cheers and applause as the story that one of them told came to a close. Suddenly one of the older ones looked upwards towards the other end of the room, the other exorcists following his gaze to the large black metal cross that stood high in the basement.

"Something up, Daniel?"

Another asked the man who had noticed something first. The older exorcist took a second before shaking his head.

"No, nothing noteworthy… I'm honestly more surprised that the fallen had been so quiet, and if I'm not mistaken two of them have been out since yesterday." The man narrowed his eyes. "I'd have expected them to do something, or at least give us some sort of command, but nothing."

The man who had asked simply shrugged, Asia noticed the large scar on his cheek hidden well under the cloak. "Yeah, fedora-guy is one of the two that hasn't returned, I understand why that unnerves you, but they probably got some notice from their higher-ups or something like that, let's not worry too much about it, there isn't much we can do."

There were murmurs in the crowd now, a bit stirred up by the realization and silent implications. However, Daniel seemed the most bothered by the dismissive words. "While I appreciate them for the shelter and food, we shall not forget that these are fallen. Creatures who have rejected the guidance of god outright, even as some among us may agree with that view, I feel trusting them is not something we should do so simply."

The scarred exorcists, paused and considered his words, but didn't reply, giving just a nod. It wasn't clear to Asia if he was agreeing or merely accepting the older exorcist's words.

Asia herself wasn't sure how to feel about the fallen, the people that had brought her to Kuoh had shown themselves as fallen when they had been over halfway done with the journey, and they had been nice… well somewhat nice, it felt at times like they had treated her like a child who didn't know anything, and had avoided her every question with counter-questions that had just made Asia feel bad for asking.

Mittelt had been friendly, but also in a very simple sense, but Asia wasn't sure if that was because she was only playing a role or if she was distracted by something, as the small fallen had seemed rather distracted the entire time.

A pit opened up in her stomach as she stared down at her rice.

Excommunicated.

Such a cruel punishment.

She had just wanted to help, just wanted to do what she felt was right. But it turned out that in her attempts to do the right things, she had sinned gravely. Calling forth her damnation and being tossed out of her home.

It had been the most horrible week of her life.

And while she had at least found herself in a friendly group.

She missed her old home.

Yuuto Kiba was minding his own business. Well, he was trying to. But with three girls following him and constantly talking at him, he was forced to at least somewhat engage with them.

Sure Yuuto could simply push them aside or dismiss them, hell, with him being part devil, he could even use some magic to make them lose their interest in a heartbeat. But none of that felt quite right. Something about their constant obsessive need to be around him was comforting. He didn't even know their names. The Gremory knight had tried to memorize most of the girls names, but quickly lost track, and he'd rather just not say names than say the wrong one.

Matching faces to names was always a pain for him. He had a much easier time when there were other more prominent features that stood out on the person. Like Rias' hair, Koneko's size, and Gaster's cross-dressing.

Akeno would forever tease him for that one time he had called her Tsubaki.

"Ey!"

Yuuto ignored the shout. For he could pick out voices rather easily. And with how much Issei Hyoudou spoke to himself aloud, he had matched voice to name rather quickly. And he really doubted that Issei wanted his attention of everyone here-

"Ey! Mister pretty face, did you hear me?"

… Nevermind.

Turning to face Issei, he noticed how the girls who had surrounded him, had stepped back to use Yuuto as a buffer between themselves and Issei. Yuuto questioned the behavior for a moment, after all, Issei had a horrid reputation, but not for anything actually horrible, just for being a nightmare to deal with.

However, when he met Issei's eyes, he immediately understood why they had moved back.

One of those fun facts about Issei was that he was much taller than most thought. He slouched all the time, giving his future self horrible back problems from the looks of it. Though when standing fully straight, Issei actually was one of the taller students, and when one looked closely, it was also clear that he was built fairly well. Not an incredibly broad shoulder, but notable enough that Yuuto suspected Issei hit the gym on the regular.

All those thoughts were quickly banished as Yuuto took in Issei's eyes. The guy was pissed. And for some forsaken reason, his ire had brought him towards Yuuto of all people.

"Ah… How can I help you?" He said carefully, unsure what kind of conversation this was going to be.

Issei let out a huff, Yuuto silently thankful that it wasn't towards his face, before shaking his head a bit, looking to the side, avoiding the eye contact he had with Yuuto, his expression morphing into something more annoyed than truly pissed. The knight couldn't help his smile become a bit more genuine at how it made the taller boy look.

"You're part of the Occult Research Club, and for some fucking reason you guys want me to meet you after school, right? Right." Yuuto didn't even have a chance to nod. "Problem is, you guys have taken base in the old school building, and I have no idea what the old building's plan is nor where in the building exactly you are. So…" Issei took a long breath in, slapped his hand against his face, and dragged it down over his face. Yuuto silently watched as Issei let out the breath against his palm, before dropping the hand fully from his face.

"I am asking you for help in getting me to that…" The Gremory knight could hear Issei stopping himself from saying 'stupid.' "club of yours, after school."

Not even a second later murmurs came from everyone else in the crowd. Yuuto hadn't even realized that they had been dead silent this entire time. But with his hearing, he could pick up what they were saying about him and Issei.

He could only hope that the warmth in his cheeks was purely felt not visible as a blush.

Now with only the goal to get away from Issei as fast as possible, he quickly nodded. "Yes yes, it'd be my pleasure to show you our club." Ah no, the murmurs got worse, that was the wrong choice of words. He quickly said, "Just meet me in front of the main building after classes." And promptly turned to leave.

He heard what seemed to be a grunt of approval from Issei who clearly cared very little for the rudeness of Yuuto simply walking away from the conversation.

For his part, the knight of Gremory simply hoped that the rumors he was hearing wouldn't spread far beyond this hallway.

Yaoi fans fucking terrified him.

"Should we… do something?"

Mittelt looked over at Kalawarna. The blue-haired fallen seemed as bothered as she felt if the frown was any indication.

Taking a moment to consider her words Mittelt simply shrugged. "I dunno, what would you do?" The silence was loud. Mittelt didn't even have it in her to mock Kalawarna for it, after all, they were in the same boat.

Their first and second in command were gone, and neither of them was ever declared third in command nor knew really how to act in a position of leadership to any degree. They were foot soldiers, good at doing exactly what they were told and acting in formation, however with the head of the snake gone, the body did little more than remain limp and unmoving.

The most annoying part was that they had all the pieces they needed for at least one of their missions. The nun with the Sacred Gear and the Sacred Gear extractor, yet neither of the fallen held the knowledge on how to use the damn thing.

At this point, Mittelt was kind of pissed at how much trust Raynare had put into Dohnaseek for running everything when she wouldn't be there only to up and disappear with him.

She paused.

Was that it?

Did the two run off in some sort of love story, leaving Mittelt and Kalawarna behind as a final twisted joke?

As quickly as the thought appeared, Mittelt dismissed it. While the two had a tolerance and respect for each other that could be seen as intimate, anyone who could see beyond the surface knew that the relationship was purely professional and that the two never particularly hung around each other in their free time.

But then where were they?

Mittelt let out a sigh, annoyed and frustrated. "I think I should fly around and see if I can find anything. You stay here for if they do return and to keep an eye out on the humans."

Showing a bit of justified hesitation, Kalawarna nodded, leaving Mittelt to fly over the crowd of exorcists and out of the church, in search of the other two fallen.

Absentmindedly applying a cloaking spell to herself, she wondered.

What would she be finding in Kuoh?

Issei was shaken from his sleep, making him sit up straight in an instant.

Looking to his side he saw a startled Yuuto, who was looking at him. Probably also who had woken him.

Wait. "Why are you here?" He grumbled, shoving a book into his backpack and slinging it over his shoulder as he stood up.

Yuuto, to his credit, quickly collected himself. "I knew that quite a few other students would have heard and spread the word of us meeting in front of the school building, so I thought it better to simply pick you up from the classroom."

{Smart one, this-}

"Yea yea, alright, yea, makes sense." Issei said, interrupting the voice, and gave Yuuto a nod. "Go ahead then, lead the way."

The blonde seemed the hesitate for a moment, before nodding, Issei wasn't sure if it was for him or himself. Without another word, Yuuto started walking through the already very empty halls of the school. Checking the clock, Issei noted that he had probably waited a bit for this so that most of the students would have already left when the two of them were making their way through the building.

They didn't talk during the walk, Yuuto clearly deep in thought and Issei with no interest to communicate. However, in their heads, the two were cautious of one another.

Yuuto knew that Koneko had seen something in Issei, and from whatever she had glanced at, had decided that having him meet the rest of the club would be the best way to proceed. And while he did trust her with his life, he wasn't sure about Issei in the slightest. Not only did the Yaoi fans already get to him and put images in his head with simple questions that he'd rather have never thought about, but Issei in general had this entire vibe to him. It was hard for Yuuto to put into words, but it put him on edge around the taller boy.

Issei, ironically, had very similar thoughts. He was aware that Koneko was magical and that apparently 'the President' wanted to speak with him. Naturally, he had assumed the Occult Research Club President, however, with how vague the short girl had been, it could be the President of the United States for all he knew. But the situation had brought on even more questions that he didn't know how to answer.

Had the club figured out that he was unnatural through their research? Was it because Koneko was among them? Is Koneko the only supernatural among their ranks? Is Yuuto Kiba of such nature?

[He i-]

Issei coughed loudly, getting Yuuto's attention for a moment before they met eyes and the blonde faced forward again without a word.

Shaking his head, he tried to free his mind from any of these questions, dwelling on something he'd find out within the span of a few minutes wasn't worth it.

"Don't you feel this is the slightest bit interesting?"

His words got him little more than a dismissive glance.

"Oh come on, don't act like that, we both know that this is exactly what you've been asking for."

This time it was a sigh, as the older man stood up, towering over him. "Please do tell, how this… toy-" he couldn't help but flinch a bit at the tone. "-would be of any use to me or any of my subordinates."

Swallowing he collected himself. He knew that this was not just a chance at greatness, it was his only chance at being deemed worthy to keep around. "Q-Quite simple. With this we take your subordinates and give them powers that let them keep up with opponents that outweigh them in power by large margins." He quickly held up a graph, knowing that his superior didn't care for its details. "As seen here, one enhanced by such means showed a sudden hike in their power far above their expected plateau. If you give me the time to perfect this we'll be able to-"

A fist slammed into the table, making his words get stuck in his throat. "Fool! I don't have more time to give you! Your results have been good, but their prices are unacceptable! I cannot keep feeding you more of my men for your experiments only for my numbers to dwindle even further!"

"Wh-What about yourself sir?"

The silence was oddly comforting, as it meant that his words were actually being considered.

"… If this succeeds how would I hold up to the so-called Super Devils?"

A splitting smile came across his features, the fish had taken the bait, and now he just had to reel.

"You'd surpass them sir, easily even, your power would be equal to that of most of the divine deities. Within your faction, no one person could match you."

The silence stretched on quite a bit.

"You are free to continue what you're trying to accomplish Valper. Once you're at a point where the success rate is at over 80%… you may contact me again."

Valper bowed deeply and quickly left the room, he understood well that with what he was doing he'd unleash hell upon earth if he succeeded in elevating this one. Though would such thoughts truly stop him from making his best creation to date?

He could only smile.

The future was bright, blinding even.

Rias Gremory looked over the room.

She was standing in the middle of the main room of the Occult Research Club, with part of her peerage. Akeno stood to her side, a step behind herself, silently showing that Rias was the head of the club. Meanwhile, Koneko sat on one of the couches, snacking on a rather large sandwich.

Letting out a soft sigh, she went over her head what she wanted to say and how she'd respond to certain behavior. Thanks to Sona and Tsubaki, she knew a few pointers on how to deal with the unruly mess that was Issei Hyoudou.

She highly doubted that she'd gain a peerage member from this meeting, however, she hoped to at least establish a friendly relationship between them. Koneko hadn't been able to pick up a distinctive trait about Issei's supernatural nature, so he was a total wild card even beyond his emotional state.

It made her a bit uneasy, and if she was honest she'd rather have Sona do this, but Rias had no time to let her friend do these things. The day of challenging Riser to a rating game grew closer, and she'd have to find a way to beat him up till then.

The sound of the room's door opening pulled her out of her thoughts.

Forcing herself to smile she watched Yuuto walk in followed by Issei.

Who's eyes almost bugged out as he stared at Rias and then Akeno's breasts.

A/N:

(5342 Words)

And here comes another

This is more so a "setting stuff up" chapter. I need some kind of foundation to build on all the stuff that I have planned for this.

But now, two things:

Firstly WOW, that is way way way more of an enthusiastic response to a first chapter than I expected, I was ready to be at below 10 for Favorites and Followers for the next few chapters, but you guys blew that expectation out of the water, with at the time of writing this 23 Favorites and 28 Followers, thank all of you and any other readers!

Secondly, I need a BETA Reader. I don't really know how to get one and I'm trying to figure that out rn. If one of you is a Beta reader and would like to do it for me, feel free to PM me on here.

Review, tell me what you think.

Till next time!