Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a common saying amongst the three factions that nothing was more reassuring, and more vexing, than Campione. The god slayers who stood atop the world, reigning upon the unseen and the supernatural with their strange and at times frightening abilities.

To humans, they were unseen guardians who maintained a fragile balance of power in the world.

A necessary evil, as each and every single one of them was a tyrant.

One could not argue in the face of absolute power, after all, only kowtow before it and expect mercy should the whims of the Kings blow in the right direction. The most mercy one could expect from the Campione was a swift death, or perhaps losing whatever valuables they held.

In layman's terms…

'They are a pain in the ass.'

Azazel thought himself an intelligent, reasonable man. He liked to research interesting things, enjoyed discovering new interactions between the known and the unknown. Though his principles were guided by the need to attain results based on the knowledge he gained over the course of his long life.

Everything he did, he did in order to learn something.

Information, weaknesses, whatever it may be.

On the other hand, something as unpredictable as the whims of a human turned godslayer were a headache to figure out. Each human was unique, with a unique perspective and set of circumstances that made them who they were and guided their actions.

'At least there are only six.' Was the type of thought he sometimes found himself going down.

After all, if you had to worry with six issues then it became a simple matter of avoiding them, appeasing them, or should they prove troublesome for the status quo, work to eliminate them.

Fortunately the latter option had never been chosen in over 500 years.

Everyone wanted to keep the peace, after all, and allowing the Godslayers to live and maintain their reigns made it possible for Azazel to figure out their personalities and how to better navigate them.

Duke Voban, the hunter.

Luo Hao, the High Priestess.

Black Prince Alec, the collector.

Madame Aisha, the wanderer.

John Pluto Smith, the hero.

Lord Salvatore Doni, the swordsman.

Yes, ever since the end of the Great War, the world had seen the rise of a great many Campione. But for a time things felt like they were finally calming down and Azazel could put his mind towards solving these puzzles for the sake of the Grigori's continuation.

"Could you repeat that from the top, please?"

So one could forgive his cautiousness at the thought of a seventh one.

"Again?"

"Indulge me, Baraqiel." Azazel let out a sigh.

One could never be too certain about these matters.

"If you say so. The staff downstairs reported at ten thirty in the morning that a great mass of negative energy had formed over the Indian Ocean, causing disturbances to the weather and to our sensors."

So far so good, he followed along.

"We believed this to have been caused by a recently spawned Heretic God and dispatched messengers to the Holy Cult and the Sacrilege Investigation in case this mass moved towards the Americas or Asia."

"And then…" Azazel prompted.

"And then… it disappeared before ever making landfall."

Any other day of the week, that would have been good news for Azazel. A Heretic God being swiftly dispatched before they had to risk an all out battle in a populated area was good news. Only the circumstances before this incident didn't make any sense.

"Are we sure it wasn't Luo Hao? Or a preemptive strike by Smith?"

Those would be the best case scenarios.

Sure, it would be a massive international incident as either Campione leaving their territories to hunt for a god in a neutral zone could drive others to push their luck.

But it was still better than the alternative.

"Aisha?"

"Unaccounted for, last seen wandering a markeT in Morocco by one of our scouts. She could be anywhere… "

Or any-when.

"Azazel?"

"Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts. You were saying?"

"I wanted to know how you wished to proceed."

Cracking his neck, the Fallen considered his options.

"Where was the disturbance last detected?"

Baraqiel leafed through the pages of the report.

"Near the shores of Japan."

The Leader of the Grigori leaned back. How he wished he had gotten around to installing those heated massage seats. The sheer amount of stress he'd accumulated over the past ten minutes would have driven anyone else to a liquor cabinet.

How did he want to proceed?

Frankly, he wanted to bury his head in the sand and ignore this.

As curious as he was about the incident, if the others detected the presence and disappearance of that Heretic God then Japan was about to become a hotspot as the other factions tried to make sense of what happened.

There was nothing the Grigori could learn there that they couldn't by simply watching and then stealing from them.

Between spies and plain old bribes, they could obtain whatever the others learnt.

However… that wasn't his style.

The burning feeling in the pit of his stomach demanded that he get to the bottom of this. Demanded that he be the one to unearth these secrets and hoard them.

Truly, one's nature as a Fallen could be most compelling.

"We'll send a team to investigate. Small, no more than four. We want to keep this discreet, with minimal contact with the other factions. They will doubtlessly be sending people too. But we could be the ones who noticed this first."

Baraqiel smiled wryly.

"Strike while the iron is hot, huh?"

Azazel mirrored it.

"Precisely."

It was unnecessary. It was capricious. It was the sorta thing that he, as the leader of the Grigori, should have scoffed at and deemed unnecessary… however… there were few things that appealed to Azazel as much as an unknown variable.

"I'll put together a team then. Any suggestions?"

He shrugged.

"Not too weak that they would get killed, not too strong that they would attract any attention… get them just right and impress upon them that they should avoid a confrontation at all costs."

The other Fallen nodded resolutely. Though Azazel was pretty sure the man was disappointed he'd forbidden any of the Cadre from going to Japan since they lost Bezaliel to Luo Hao. The man was supremely confident in his power, and more than likely had plans of his own.

Like wanting to see his daughter behind his back.

Not that Azazel blamed the man. Love, even when scorned by another, had a beautiful quality to it.

Timeless.

Much like the beauty of Heaven's most beloved Lady and her-

"She's gonna hit you with lightning again if you don't wipe that look off your face."

Drat.

Foiled yet again.

"Are we absolutely sure it wasn't Doni?"

"He was last seen touring the Mediterranean, Lord Michael, the idea that he might leave for the shores of Japan in such short notice is…"

"Not beyond a Campione's ability. Especially if they are being supported by their organization."

Somedays, Michael found that he enjoyed his work.

Granted, it wasn't out of some sense of pride. One should not puff up their chest at the thought of doing God's work, nor should they allow their sights to be clouded by the feeling of accomplishment that came with succeeding at a task they had been literally built to perform.

That way lies the Fall.

But yes, some days Michael found satisfaction in the daily grind of his work.

Even if it was harsh.

Even if it was thankless at times.

There would always be that feeling that he managed to accomplish something worthwhile with his time. Something that would push the cause of heaven and salvation forward.

"We would have sensed a long distance transportation spell, sir. It would have been reported to us by now." Truly Michael must have looked paranoid before his fellow angels.

But the truth was that you never knew with Campione.

Mortals who obtained power through a peculiar ritual involving the death of a god. Thankfully there was no capital letter in there. There really was no limit to what kind of abilities they developed, and knowing that it was only a matter of time until they got stronger made it dangerous to interact with them.

Duke Voban had been a thorn in the side of the three factions and assorted pantheons for nearly five hundred years now, taking advantage of the vacuum left in the wake of the Great War to build his own power base while the rest of them licked their wounds and rebuilt.

If someone went missing in Europe, it was generally assumed to be Voban's fault one way or another.

Until Doni came around.

From one malicious actor to a, not as malicious, but equally unpredictable another. The italian Campione made waves over two decades ago and ever since then would cause random incidents and collateral damage leading up to his fights with monsters, gods, and everything in between.

The Holy Church had a hard time containing him, with only the top brass being able to give the swordsman a meaningful challenge. Which meant leaving those valuable assets tied down in case they were needed instead of fielding them as effectively as they could.

If he somehow slipped by their watchers and ended up fighting a Heretic all the way at Luo Hao's territory…

It would be a mess, but a more manageable one than Voban would make.

"Now… how to deal with this?"

Should they even do something? Obviously an investigation should be launched, at the very least to understand whether a Campione close to their jurisdiction was the culprit, sending envoys to the territory belonging to the Yokai Faction was just asking for problems.

"We could send the exorcists? They are still human and can move unrestricted."

Michael frowned at the suggestion.

It was the smart move, the pragmatic choice. But it still didn't sit well with him.

Of course, it would be condescending of him to declare only an angel could handle these affairs, Griselda would have respectfully disagreed with him on the matter before making a few suggestions, though Michael would be loath to accept risking priceless lives over a rumor.

There was no need to entertain the thought.

"Do send a note to the Black Copper Cross and the Vatican, we would like to confirm with them that there wasn't any involvement from them at this time."

His assistant bowed, taking notes.

"What about the Royal Arsenal?"

Michael held back a snort.

"They would simply lie. We are better served contacting the Witenagemot for confirmation of Alexander's movements." The man was more of a vulture than a fox, but their contacts at the Vatican constantly complained about the man's attempts to steal relics from their temples and churches.

If something of interest popped up in Japan, there was a chance he might have gotten involved.

"Anything else, sir?"

Was there anything else?

Frankly, there was no method they could use to contact Aisha. John Pluto Smith was also a possible culprit but far away from their jurisdiction. Luo Hao would be within her rights to vanquish any Heretic who spawned near her shores and would have been the preferable outcome… even though that would make the muscle headed girl an even tougher adversary.

"For now, that will be all. If anything new comes up, please report it and…"

"Yes?"

"Please send someone to look for Signore Strada"

Whether it was Doni, Voban, or even something else it always paid to keep one's options open. And it didn't get more open than one of their strongest allies. Someone who could fight off and perhaps contend with the Campione for a time would make for a good show of power.

But that's all they could afford.

A show.

It wasn't time for another great battle. Another war. Though many of them had returned from the aether over the course of five hundred years, many others had lacked the… longevity to make the return trip, and many others wouldn't return until the Campione who held their powers hostage were dealt with.

Yes, they lacked the power.

Above all else, many of them lacked the will to see through another bloodbath.

Arariel. Cassiel. Jehoel.

How long until he could see their faces again?

Would he ever see them?

And what of those who weren't simply strong enough to make the journey back from oblivion? So many names, so many losses. Were they waiting for monsters like Voban to die before they returned? Were they truly lost forever?

The wait was truly the most horrible part.

Even now, their number of angels dwindled every year and Michael found himself tempted further and further to rely on their human allies. To pass onto them the burden of death and sacrifice under the pretense that heaven awaited all who lived righteously.

When even he knew he couldn't promise it.

Michael might have been many things. He might be strong, wise, and kind as a leader should.

But he wasn't Father.

How long would it take for him to return? After that final battle, would He ever return to them? Was it selfish of him to, above all others, the one who knew what to do would return and take these burdens off his shoulders.

Though he would never admit it, times were changing, and Michael couldn't tell whether this incident was a good sign.

"I'm going up there."

"No, you're not."

"Surely you can't expect me NOT to do something?"

"Of course not, but one of the Four Satans appearing in the human world after a Heretic God has surfaced and then gone missing isn't exactly what one would call a measured response. In fact, it would be the furthest thing from 'measured' one can conceive of."

Behind the doors of the Great Satan Lucifer's office, a discussion was currently under way.

A debate, of sorts.

A spat, actually.

Though there would be those who would try and play up whatever was happening behind the sanctity of the magical barriers as troubles in the proverbial paradise, or a hidden thirst, what was actually happening behind closed doors was nothing short of a disagreement between husband and wife.

The outcome of which might decide the fate of the world.

"It won't be for long. Just to make sure."

Sirzechs Lucifer was many things. Powerful, influential, devilishly good looking according to many of his admirers as well as utterly hopeless when it came to anything relating to his loved ones.

Be it his wife.

Their son.

Or his sister.

And unfortunately for one Grayfia Lucifuge, very little could dissuade her husband from simply opening a portal and heading for Japan in the middle of what might be considered a national crisis from the point of view of the local communities.

A Heretic God was just that, a natural disaster that put the Human World into a state of watching and waiting.

How much damage would they cause?

Who would eventually step up to deal with them?

That one of the catastrophes spawned and then headed straight for Japan had sent the current Lucifer into a tizzy, ready to sally forth with the full intent of fighting a Heretic God in land owned by another faction just for the possibility that the spawned disaster could reach his precious sister.

Was it admirable? Yes.

Was it stupid beyond comprehension? Also yes.

"How bad can it be, really? Kuoh is our territory so it shouldn't be any problem if I showed up."

Unfortunately for Grayfia, her husband just so happened to be rather fixated on the idea that he should be his sisters protector, and overreacted to anything and everything that could inconvenience her, even though the young Lady Gremory had moved to the Human World specifically to get away from the overbearing presence of her family in her life.

"And if Luo Hao is there?"

The Satan rolled his eyes.

"What if she's there? I'm not gonna be in any danger?"

She sighed.

"Yes, but if she were to be goaded into a fight, then Japan will be but a faint memory in history books… and Rias will be rather cross with you for it."

And therein lay the crux of the matter.

For all his power, good looks, and charisma… Sirzechs Lucifer was still utterly defenseless against the whims of his little sister, to the point Grayfia often wondered whether the man would actually start a war over some random thing or another relating to the young devil.

"She… wouldn't like that… would she?"

Clearly she had the strongest Devil in the underworld wrapped up around her pinky.

"Should I… send someone then?"

A step in the right direction. Would wonders ever cease?

"Would a message not suffice? Kuoh is secure for the time being, and the Yokai Faction hasn't reported anything yet." She offered instead. Lady Rias would be equally vexed if her brother sent any member of his peerage to the human world to watch over her.

"We have an agreement, but it's not like they told us about this mess either. Who knows what they are keeping secret."

Grayfia nodded.

While the territory of Japan was subject to the authority of its local gods, they were far more isolated than most pantheons, instead allowing the two branches of the Yokai Faction to administer their territories.

It was by negotiating with them that the city of Kuoh came to be gifted to them as territory.

But that didn't mean they were friendly.

If anything they were deeply suspicious of Devils due to the Evil Piece System. The ability to recuperate their numbers by turning others into Devils represented a very real danger to multiple groups, specially those who had dwindled over the course of the Great War and now found themselves threatened with extinction of another type.

"Do you believe they might turn to Luo Hao?"
Her husband leaned against his chair, looking up at the ceiling.

"Who knows at this point. If that girl is there, they might try to approach her. Nobody but us can probably do anything about it, but then they would risk losing the favor of the Shinto Faction."

Campione hunted Heretic Gods, yes… but that didn't mean they couldn't hunt other things.

All sorts of magical beings were a source of strength to them.

Inviting a godslayer to roost at their feet was like declaring they didn't care whether devils, angels, or gods were hunted down so long as they remained safe in the shadow of the tyrant.

If something like that came to pass… would Lady Rias be safe?

Therein lay the problem.

She knew her husband to be a supremely cunning and intelligent man. Whatever his quirks might be, one didn't simply rise to his station coasting on power alone and Sirzechs Lucifer was a difficult man to predict and anticipate precisely because you simply couldn't tell what he was thinking and how much he was telling you.

Very few could have a frank conversation with him where he didn't attempt some form of obfuscation.

"If there are any issues, we could invite her for a short stint home. She is likely to think there isn't anything amiss if we dress it up as a family function."

The Satan groaned.

"That's never gonna work. She's pissed at me and at dad for going through with that arranged marriage. Really, I blame Rizer. If he weren't such an idiot, at the very least she wouldn't be ignoring us out of spite."

Grayfia sighed.

Truly, it must have been a Bael family trait that the family members came out so headstrong, whether for good or for ill.

"I suppose telling her of the danger and being frank about our worries would be the best option then? She should at the very least be aware that one of the Godslayers is nearby."
Not only as the heiress of a prominent clan.

But as a holder of a rare ability that any of the tyrants would love to obtain.

"Yes, I do suppose it would be for the best."

It was only then that Grayfia realized her mistake. The unfortunate wording that had one of the rulers of the Underworld push off his desk with a mischievous smile that promised her and a whole lot of other people a migraine of colossal proportions.

"Sirzechs, no."

She moved, stepping closer to the man as a magic circle appeared behind him with a flash of magic energy.

"Sirzechs, yes."

The Satan jumped at the portal, Grayfia diving right after him with an exasperated growl. She didn't know who was to blame for this latest migraine just yet, but she knew there would be a reckoning for it. She would make sure of it.

Issei dropped to the deck of the ship below, only managing to dodge the incoming attack by slipping on the wet floor as a freakin' chisel flew over his head!

More worryingly, it punched through the outside of his pack, hit the metal of the bulkhead about two meters to his front and, seemingly, kept on going.

For a second he could see clear through the length of the boat and the poor, weak human froze in utter terror.

'Crap, crap, crap!'

Fear did its work and his limbs started moving on their own. Climbing up as quickly as he could, and only slipping once, he bodily threw himself into the hallway, slammed against the inside wall, then took a sudden turn to the right. After all, he was only going to survive if he could continually break line of sight with his pursuer. And the cramped, narrow staircases were much, much easier for him to traverse than… her.

'If that thing is even human.'

Thoughts on the nature of his pursuer lasted all of ten more seconds - because that was exactly how long it took for him to come to a group of statues.

The security personnel were frozen in horror, some with weapons raised. But even guns hadn't saved the men when that monster attacked. And now, well, all six of them were frozen in various states of agony or surprise. Their bodies, their clothing, and even their weapons now turned to cold, unfeeling stone.

"Fu, fu, fu. You're certainly quick on your feet, lover~"

He dropped to his stomach again, carefully crawling beneath the statues, and scrambled across the floor until he put a corner between himself and the monster.

"Using my own art against me? How clever. Are you still sure you don't want your reward?"

Her voice was soothing. Like waves, lapping at the shore.

Even knowing what she would do to him, what she'd already done, part of Issei wanted to go to her. To look up at her with a great, big smile, and peer into her gorgeous, flawless-

Clapping his hand over his mouth, the young man forced himself not to whimper.

To not even breathe hard.

"Oh well. Guess the brat already scurried off." And just like that, every ounce of concern and love and tenderness was gone. Now it was a cold contempt, a mild disgust, even, and a great deal of annoyance.

"Tch. No sense breaking my art, though, he'll show up soon enough."

Her footsteps, the steady "clack, clack, clack" of stiletto heels, told the poor, shivering boy that the monster was leaving. And that he'd bought himself a few more precious minutes of life.

'Can't die yet, can't die yet, can't die yet.'

Issei needed two or three of them to simply calm down, to slow his heart and stop himself from shaking. But, knowing he couldn't stay out in the open for long, double checked his backpack, opening it up and making sure the goods were safe in its plastic box, and unsteadily rose to his feet.

Food, medicine, toys, cellphones.

Whatever he could fit into his bag.
The trips to and from the kitchens were always the worst. She didn't seem to perfectly know where he was coming from, but there were only so many ways to get to the kitchen and all she had to do was wait for him nearby.

How many days had it been now?

Three? Five?

Five days since they boarded this ship.

Three days since that strange woman appeared, stalking the hallways, hunting him down like a game of hide and seek. Three days of people scrambling and trying to escape the ship, only to get caught and turned into garden decorations by that monster.

How long would he last?

'Okay, seems like the coast is clear?'

Pulling out a small makeup mirror from his pocket, Issei squinted at the slightly foggy glass, trying to make out whether the monster had really left or was just waiting for him around the corner.

It wouldn't have been the first time.

But he was lucky.

People who looked at her turned into stone. He'd seen it with his own eyes… well, not really, but he'd seen someone else look at her. Really, he was lucky his eyes had been drawn to her chest rather than her face, or he might have ended up the same way.

'And then people say being a pervert never helped anyone.'

Now he just had to find a way to survive until the ship arrived at the port… or, worse, sunk on the way there.

Then he'd have to figure something out.

Perhaps… it was time to try and load one of the lifeboats? Right under the monster's nose, of course. And they'd need to fill it up properly since Issei had no idea how long it would take for rescue to find them. If it could.

But maybe… maybe he could save someone.

'Sorry, Mom, Dad.' He sighed, gently leaning back against the metal wall.

Anyone, really.

And all Issei had to do was avoid a supernatural monster, not fall and break his neck, and do what hundreds of adults had failed to do. With guns.

Easy, right?

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

'It's gotten quiet out there.'

Issei leaned against the wall, breathing slowly as he tried to still his heart. Not like it was helping a whole lot, what with all the running he had to do with those angry snakes chasing after them. Whoever thought snakes made for good pets had no idea how scary it was to get chased by one.

Getting chased by dozens of the damn things all but made him swear he would never get close to reptiles ever again!

The pain in his foot wasn't getting any better, either.

If anything, the wet feeling started feeling like it was stinging, raw against the inside of his shoe. Issei was probably gonna have to throw it away when he got back home. After all, if people asked why his shoes were bloody, would they believe him if he said he'd kicked a snake to save a bunch of kids?

It would certainly make him popular with cute girls though!

'That's if I make it out of this.'

And wasn't that the question of the hour.

He did everything he could to set up this plan, wracking his brain for every single memory he had of playing Doki Doki Monster Paradise 5. From all the endings to the combat system to the secret exclusive H-Scenes that he got from buying the deluxe copy.

He wasn't sure if the last part would help, but it certainly motivated him.

Because he was going to make it out of this.

He had to.

Someone had to stop Dusa-chan, someone had to save everyone who got turned into statues. And Issei couldn't wait for someone else to come do it. Not when there might not be anyone at all. As soon as the ship reached whatever destination they were headed to, the monster lady would disappear in the crowd and nobody would ever know she caused this.

Who would even believe him if he told them?

He couldn't even believe this was happening until after he woke up the second day, thinking it had been a terrible nightmare only to see everyone was still stuck as statues.

"Is this even real?"

The thoughts were unbidden, but present nonetheless.

"I'm not exactly the most heroic guy." At least not in the game protagonist kinda way.

Sitting down in a first class plush leather chair, Issei took the chance to prop his foot up on a stool and replace the stuffing in his sock. Wincing the whole while.

"Honestly, this is pretty much just some chuuni isekai stuff, right? A random loser gets to save people from a scary monster. It makes more sense this is just my brain putting together a nice daydream while I die from slipping down some stairs."

Morbidity wasn't something he was prone to, but the teenager was struggling to just… grasp what was going on.

"Obviously Dusa-Chan isn't really from Doki Doki, right?" Saying it outloud made it seem even more absurd. "Monsters aren't really real. And monsters from H-games just sound dumb." Grunting, fishing out a fifteen hundred yen bottle of water - and wasn't that an insane thing - he took a swig and two aspirin when he was sure it wasn't more acetaminophen. "She's here."

That was the truth.

Plain and simple.

He was hurting, other people seemed to be scared, and that one weird European who was obsessed with brains in jars aside, the teenager just couldn't conceive of any explanation that justified the world as he knew it was.

"You know what. Screw it. It doesn't matter."

Eyeing a bottle of champagne, before ignoring it entirely, the young man decided the situation was simple.

"If its a fever dream, then it doesn't matter, so I might as well do what's right. If this is all real, then doing the right thing really counts. Either way… there's nothing to do but try."

Part of him was aware, in a somewhat detached way, that he was scared.

No. Terrified.

Every part of Issei was trembling, most of him wanted to go back to the statues of Mom and Dad and beg them to move again.

Deep, deep down, a part of him just wanted everyone to laugh and start moving and say it was a joke. He wouldn't even be upset.

But he wasn't young enough to spend long actually considering that.

"After all, just like Starry Eyes, Starry Knight, Great Detective Sherry Holmes said, 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'"

He still wanted to cry. But he'd leave that for after.

For now, he had a guest at the door.

Knock Knock!

"Who is it?" He tried to sing out, chest tightening at the chorus of hisses coming from the outside, followed by the rattle of something glass like.

"Not going to lie and pretend you aren't home?"

Dusa-chan… he wasn't gonna come up with another name for her now of all times, giggled from the other side.

"You already know I'm here anyway. What's the point?" He leaned back, careful not to jostle the frame resting behind him.

It had taken quite a lot of effort to hang it there.

"Well, aren't you coming out then?" There was a hissing giggle from the other side of the door.

Issei shook his head.

"Nah, you can come in." He wasn't that dumb.

There was a brief sigh from the other side. Clearly him not playing along with her game was ruining whatever enjoyment she was getting out of cornering him. Which was kinda the point. Even if he was driven to a corner, Issei wasn't about to just open that door and get turned into a garden gnome.

"Ever the gentleman, aren't you? Well, don't mind if I come in then."

There was an audible crack as the door knob turned against its will, metal creasing, bending, and then snapping as the lock was pulled apart with freakish strength. Issei cringed at the noise, watching with bated breath as his last line of defense was torn off of its hinges to reveal the dark hallway outside.

It had completely slipped his mind that it was already this late.

Running around the bowels of the ship didn't do a whole lot for his time awareness, and leaving everything in pitch black darkness seemed to favor her more than it did him anyway.

"You know I don't need to see you to find you, right?"

Really, she was gloating now?

"Took you a while the first go around though. Besides. Power's going on and off. No telling if you're losing your touch or not."

A scoff answered his bravado, though the posturing made him feel a little better.

And let Issei live a little longer.

"You aren't the first to run from me. And I had fun. But you're being rude."

There was the sound of a hand fumbling along the wall of the room and, inevitably, she found the lightswitch. Just like Issei grabbed a hold of the frame behind him.

And when she flicked that switch, cracking plastic in the process, he yanked the picture down and revealed his ultimate weapon.

Light, electric, white, generated by a pair of rather harsh LED bulbs filled the room, bouncing off every single reflective surface he had managed to scavenge in the entire time he'd been here.

Mirrors.

Flat screen TVs.

Broken panes of glass.

The suite was filled, every surface covered, and dozens more reflective surfaces hung from the ceiling in the form of clear glass bottles. A veritable prison of mirrors, just like the one used in the game to beat Dusa-chan, who couldn't use her powers in front of a mirror. And since this one kept breaking every single one she found it had to be the same way, right?

Issei, however, wasn't ready for what he saw, either.

Dusa, now that she wasn't pretending to be human, was still pretty. Her skin was white, like unpainted marble, with long rows of blue scales covering her shoulders and arms. Issei didn't dare look at her face, though he glanced at her head instinctively, and saw the short bob of blue hair and pointed, scaled ears, too.

She wasn't merely an inhumanly beautiful human.

She was more.

More than a monster from a game.

More than just some monster chasing people in the darkness.

Because there was shock and vulnerability and weakness in how she stood. Dusa-chan, the horrific thing that had murdered his parents, tried to murder Issei, and seemed to be just as struck in pure surprise at what was before her as he was.

As if she'd never seen herself.

"Beautiful…."

The word hung in the air.

Though he just mumbled it in shock. The silence in the room made it echo in his own ears. Because there was no way that he could ignore something this obvious. Even after everything that happened the past few days… Issei couldn't lie to himself.

She was so pretty it almost stopped his heart.

Unfortunately, that turned out to be the wrong thing to say.

"Beautiful…?" She echoed as if her ears couldn't make sense of the word.

"Beautiful?!" the monster spat taking a threatening step closer.

"What is beautiful about this… half baked form?! I'm not monster, nor human, nor goddess! What is so beautiful in not knowing where you come from?"

By her side, a familiar hammer formed in a cloud of sparkling dust. In her other hand, a small and thin blade appeared much the same way as if to match it.

What was that called again?

A chisel?

"Did you humans think I was beautiful when I rose from the sea as a wicked monster? Did you humans find me beautiful when I was turned into a simple mortal woman? Did you find me beautiful when Poseidon discarded me to suffer at Athena's hand?! Did you think I was beautiful when I devoured my friends and worshippers?!" Her face twisted and contorted, rage and anguish pouring out in equal measure. And both drowned in a smothering of spite.

"You humans could never decide who I was! Goddess! Monster! Human! Now? Now I can't be anything! I'm stuck like this because of you!"

Issei couldn't make sense of what she was saying.

Nor did he have the time to do it as Dusa-chan swung her massive hammer weightlessly, smashing the mirror right behind him… as well as the wall behind that. The impact rattled his body even as he fell to the ground and covered his head.

There was no time to think, he simply scrambled to the side as a sudden breeze blew in through the gaping hole.

The beautiful monster, however, took aim with the chisel and screamed, sending it flying into a TV and shattering it. However, the weapon didn't penetrate, it bounced! Ricocheting into mirror after bottle after tv, every impact sent more and more shards of glass flying.

And yet she could not destroy them all.

On the ground, in the shape of great shards of jagged glass, her broken reflection mocked her.

Hanging limply from frayed strings and belts, her image mocked her.

The monster's face stared out from the scuffed, cracked, scored plastic pieces she crushed underfoot with each step.

And so she screamed.

Holding her hands up to the sky, the immortal thing let out a wail of anguish and confusion and with that wail came a torrent of stone.

Spiraling out from her, the teenager blinked once and lines of grey stone covered everything in the room… save for him. And for her.

That realization saved him.

When he leapt up, panicking, knowing he had failed, the Japanese boy shifted his torso just enough. So when the jagged, branching stone thorns impaled him, he merely felt a freezing-burning force punch through a leg and an arm. Lashing out like the vines of a rosebush, the stone pierced through the side of the ship, others digging deep grooves into the room, leaving hundreds of deep cuts that seemingly reached through the walls, allowing the scent of the sea through.

When he fell to the ground, the stone retracting, he hit with an already wet thump.

Lungs unable to take in air, Issei did not scream. The pain was already gone - merely some vast other, looming over him from beyond a wall of black and white static that shut out an impossibly vast, crushing wave. What little understanding he had of the agony was that he was already feeling cold.

Still, with one arm little more than a flopping broken thing, the other could reach out.

The chisel was right there before.

Not even an inch from his hand.

He had to push with his good leg, feeling glass and debris dig into him, cut fresh scoring lines across his stomach.

His fingers brushed the smooth, warm wood of the handle as the harsh cries of angry seagulls reached him; disturbed by the attack which had torn a hole clean through the top of the ship, they squawked their displeasure.

"Enough!"

Issei stood, knowing his actions had been heard and that there was precious little time left. No time to pray, or think of his parents, or the children, or anyone else. Merely the fraction of a second needed to hope against hope that there was something he might still manage to do.

So he attacked.

Or, rather, tried to.

His left leg was nearly useless, but with one arm and one leg he managed to rise to a knee, bone caught in muscle enough to let his bad leg hold up the good one. Throwing the desperation and strength of a dead man into it, Issei lunged and made his single strike.

And the monster turned on the spot, hearing the motion, already reacting to it.

There was a wet squick and he fell backwards from the impact, but the angle was right. Perfect, even, and the look of shock replaced the earlier look of pain as Dusa slowly moved to grab ahold of that warm, smooth wooden hilt sticking from her side.

For a moment, the world stopped, freezing in place.

…

A single moment dragging itself as a thick red stain erupted from the side of her abdomen.

Before they crashed back into reality.

Issei's leg gave away, his body hitting the torn up carpet with a wet thud. It would have probably hurt a lot more if he wasn't already so busted. Lungs burning with pain with each labored breath, eyes stinging with blood, sweat, and tears as the one lightbulb that somehow avoided being smashed into pieces flickered above him with cool white light.

It wasn't even his kill, not really. Her actions had certainly driven the blade further than his strength ever could.

Not like that mattered much, the room was already getting darker.

'This is it, huh?'

No 'do you wanna retry' window. No way to go back to the start. He should have known this was too terrifying to be just a game.

'I wonder if the others made it?' Without him around, they would probably have to look after each other. But without the snake lady chasing them, that should be easy. They just had to last until someone found the boat.

Issei looked to the side, his actions slow and the air seemingly thick.

The scary lady who'd been chasing him all over the ship was lying right by him. Not as busted as he was. Really, he was lucky she reacted that badly and did half the work for him on that stab. Even now she looked barely hurt, aside from the trickle of blood coming from the corner of her mouth and her closed eyes.

"Did you mean it?"

He would have jerked away if he could.

"Still… alive?"

"I am dying, not dead. Killing someone isn't so clean and easy. Well… this way it isn't. You could have just looked at me." He could hear her rolling her eyes at him.

"No thanks."

Issei's breathing was slow and belabored. His head was fuzzy and he was so, so, so tired.

"Don't feel like… working in gardening… for the rest of my life."

This time she rasped out a giggle. Really, if she weren't that scary, he would have found that almost cute.

"Shame that, you would have made for a nice statue." There was a wet sucked and a small thumb as the chisel was pulled free, Dusa letting it fall to the ground with a soft thump.

Was she… flirting with him? Now? Of all times?

"I thought you would be angrier."

"No, not angry. Just.. surprised. Disappointed, certainly. No point in complaining about it now. Despite everything… I guess it wasn't meant to be. A hero slays the monster in the end."

He frowned, squinting at the darkening light above… maybe it was all the blood he was leaking.

"Again with the monster stuff, huh?"

He just couldn't see it.

Besides him, he felt her shift.

"You said I was beautiful earlier. Can you really say that after everything that happened? Everything I've done? How can I not be a monster?"

The floor felt cold against Issei's back. Everything felt cold, really. But he did his best to answer her. Thinking back to everything. The game of cat and mouse. The teasing and chasing. The games and the anger right at the end when she, whoever Dusa-chan was, couldn't take the compliment.

Craning his neck to the side, he took a good long look at her.

No matter how much he recalled everything that happened the past few days… he just couldn't do it.

Couldn't say it.

Maybe she really was a monster despite everything… but what his gut was telling him was…

"I meant it… you know? You're really pretty. Just… maybe… next time… you should have tried talking first."

There was another giggle. This one clear like tinkling bells. Soft, strong fingers wrapped around his. A grip firm, but tender.

"What a strange human you are… ah, I don't know your name."

Maybe it was how blurry his vision was, but in those final moments, his vision going dark, he took comfort in how she smiled at him.

"Issei."

"One day, maybe,if we ever meet again Issei, I would like to try talking with you."

And there was no more.

Rias didn't think of herself as a complicated person.

She enjoyed many simple pleasures.

A simple life in a country where she could stand on her own two feet without the shadow of the Gremory name looming over her. The few expectations she did have to deal with were tied to her own need to excel and to how others had come to see her as a figure to look up to.

She enjoyed that.

She enjoyed the peace that routine brought her.

School, club activities, her own personal hobbies. Those were irreplaceable pleasures she wouldn't have experienced had she decided to stay at home.

She would have remained Rias Gremory.

Never just 'Rias'.

To finally have the chance to cut loose and build something for herself, whether it be just a reputation, rapport with her classmates, or a human education in a school of merit, those were things she wanted to do the right way, something to look back on and realize she achieved them on her own.

Anything that disrupted this precious reprieve from her dull everyday life in the Underworld was something that greatly annoyed Rias.

For example, surprise visits from one of the most powerful men in the Underworld.

Was it any surprise she was ticked off?

"You can't give me the cold shoulder forever, you know?"

Rias didn't say anything, maintaining her most unamused stare.

"I'm not gonna turn to stone if you glare at me."

She tried again, just to be sure.

Unfortunately, she lacked that power. And it's not like it would have worked even if she did. There was simply too much distance between herself and her older brother, the man who rose to the position of Satan.

It didn't hurt to try, however.

"President, you'll get wrinkles if you keep this up."

Rias scoffed, shooting the dark haired girl beside her an annoyed look of her own. Who merely responded with a dainty smile, completely unaffected by the red head's rotten mood.

Rias dared to say she was enjoying it.

"Yes, well, how else am I supposed to react to a sudden visit in the middle of my vacation? I just came back from home." Her parents would have never allowed her to spend as much time in the human world as they did without concessions. And she often spent part of, if not her entire vacations back in the Underworld.

To come back to Japan, only to have her brother drop in on her unannounced?

That was a bit beyond the pale.

Her big brother, for his part, didn't seem the least bit affected by her displeasure. In fact, he probably was enjoying it in some way, though, thankfully, different to how Akeno did. Although Rias could tell that there was something wrong with the usually unflappable Satan.

He wasn't as relaxed as usual.

If anything, he looked like he was expecting someone to show up, checking his watch every few minutes, leg bumping against the coffee table, stolen glances sent to the maid who dutifully stood beside the door.

She was doing a much better job looking like everything was okay.

'Which means this isn't a house call.' Rias sighed.

As annoyed as she was, even she knew when to take things seriously.

"Well, why the visit then?" She might as well bite the bullet. But she swore if this was about the Phenex trying to push the date of her wedding ahead one more time, she was going to find a way to turn herself into a toad in protest. Good luck explaining why their son had to marry a toad!

"Can't I take time out from my busy schedule just to see you?" He smiled wryly, leaning forward so his chin rested on the palm of his hand.

Rias sighed.

Dealing with her brother could be a chore at times.

"You could, but we just saw each other less than a week ago. Is something the matter?"

The way his left eyebrow twitched gave away the game.

He really was worried about something. And, even more than that, she noticed. So, smiling at her, Lucifer gave up on pretending.

"You're really perceptive for a girl your age. Have I ever said that?" The older devil leaned back, shoulders sagging in relief. Was he… trying to pretend everything was normal?

"I lose track of the many compliments you shower me with, brother."

And it was true. There probably wasn't a single positive thing to be said about someone that Sirzechs hadn't said about her before, in front of others or not. Usually while pinching her cheeks when she was younger.

He better not be thinking of doing that here and now.

Her pride wouldn't be able to take it.

"Well, I'll answer your question with another. Do you remember when we were discussing the details for your stay on Earth? Why we went through the hoops of negotiating with the Bael Clan to allow you to take Kuoh over?"
Rias tried to recall.

Back then she wasn't terribly interested in the political maneuvering and concessions being asked for, or, rather, demanded. In her mind, just about any city in just about any part of the country would have sufficed so long as she got her wish to stay in Japan.

She didn't care about anything else.

"If I recall… there were safety concerns?" She finished the last part questioningly.

Sirzechs smiled thinly.

"Yes, you could say that. When we made arrangements to have you stay here, we made sure to position you in territory that wasn't under the direct influence of human organizations. With the Yokai Faction acting as landlords, we wanted to make sure there wouldn't be any chances that one of those human tyrants would see you or Sona as targets."

Rias pursued her lips.

Human Tyrants.

Otherwise known as Godslayers in japan… but abbroad they were referred to by another name.

"Campione?"

Sirzechs nodded.

"You could call them the natural enemies… or perhaps apex predators of the human world. Unlike those of us who originate from other planes of existence, a Campione is an originally human existence that claims dominion over this world. Do you recall why?"

The younger devil recalled what she knew.

Campione, the god slayers. Beings who through chance, luck, or a combination of factors, achieved an impossible victory over a god and usurped their powers for themselves. The natural enemies of the Heretic Gods. As there were few who had any interest in the human world nowadays beyond private business, it wasn't wrong to consider them the tyrants who ruled the human world from behind the scenes.

As a member of the Gremory family, she was made quite aware of the danger they could pose. Especially if she were away from her proper territory, in a land where her family couldn't immediately come to her aid.
But really, why was this coming up now of all times?

"You think one of these Campione is headed here?" It was the reasonable assumption to make. If he were talking to her about them now.

"We believe they already are."

Rias went silent for a second as her mind caught up to what her brother said.

That… wasn't what she expected.

"Will that be a problem?"

"At present we are unsure. The appearance of a Heretic God is an omen for the arrival of a Campione. Whether the one we discovered was slain by one of the six we know of, or gave birth to a 7th… we cannot know until they show themselves." The one who answered was Grayfia, her sister-in-law speaking for the first time since arriving.

Her brother sighed.

"Laying it on a bit thick, aren't you?"

The maid stared at him impassively.

"You would have sugar coated it. This is a serious concern, and we are here to warn you that until we know more about the situation it would be better to keep a low profile."

A low profile?

That was… doable.

Rias didn't have to like it though.

When she came back from visiting home earlier, it was with the expectation that she would have some time left to enjoy herself before classes started again. A month just wasn't enough for her to do all the things she wanted, especially once Sona got back.

And now she had to bury her head in the sand until this supposed Campione wasn't around anymore?

"And are you sure whoever this is… is still around?"

Sirzechs sighed, pinching his brow.

"Really, if they were nearby it wouldn't be that much of a problem. A Campione's presence is, frankly, striking. Anyone would know immediately who they were once they got close enough. Those of non-human origin, even more so."

So they wouldn't be sure who this person was until they were close?

"There is a chance that they have already left, but just to be sure, I'd say you should keep away from the public until school is back."
Rias wanted to argue.

Really, weren't they blowing this out of proportion?

Despite being an island country, there were a lot of people and a lot of places in Japan that could be of more interest than her town. If these godslayers were out and about causing mischief, surely they would have heard something about it by now, right?

It wasn't like any of these human tyrants had any reason to come to Kuoh.

Right?

Chapter Text

Dark.

Cold.

Weightless.

Issei's mind told him he was floating through the vacuum of space.

His body, such as it was, was simply experiencing an overwhelming sense of tiredness keeping him still. So he drifted through the currents without the strength to so much as open his eyes; giving the boy time for his mind to slowly but surely claw its way back to a firmer consciousness.

Ever so slowly providing the answers to what happened.

He was dead.

Well, pretty sure he was dead after what happened.

The chase all over the ship, Dusa-chan's rampage, his last ditch effort that somehow managed to catch her in the best possible spot. And then the conversation they had as both lay bleeding out. If this was something he was reading about and not living through, Issei would have called it a nice death, a good way to send them off and take down the bad guy.

It sounded heroic.

But this wasn't a game. It wasn't a movie, or even a comic.

This was reality.

And the reality of it was that Issei failed. In the end, there was no other way he could describe what happened on that ship. No other way he could describe it than a horrible tragedy that came for them all, killing almost everything and leaving only him and a couple others behind.

Ultimately, he supposed, not even him.

'It was a bad plan, really. I hope Joan and the others are found quickly.'

If that had really been the real Dusa-chan, she'd have turned into stone at the sight of her own face and everyone else would have been freed. It was at least one of the possible endings he recalled.

But it didn't work.

And now he was dead.

'And I can't even see mom and dad.' Talk about disappointment. Issei forced a laugh, but it was weak, warbling, even in his own mind.

One way or another he was hoping he might have been able to be with them again.

That Shidou guy always went on and on about how God watched over and cared about everyone equally, that there was a place for… good people. Mom and Dad were good people. Sure, they yelled at him sometimes, and it hurt when they chewed him out for his desires. But they cared!

'I promise, God, they care. They want what's best for me!'

There was no voice, his mouth, if it even really existed, could make no sound. And yet his heart ached with the need to cry out. To swear that it was all true!

A moment or two later, chest aching - differently to… before - he calmed and stilled.

Deep down, Issei figured that if Shidou was right, He could overlook all the illegal downloads he made for his games.

That would sure be a stupid way to get kicked out of heaven.

Unfortunately the joke failed to make the aching in his chest any better. His body now just felt numb aside from that terrible, bitter sting of failure.

'No.'

A pinprick formed.

'Wait.'

There was something else there.

A feeling of something hot spiraling out from where his heart should be and a strange sense of awareness speaking from… the center of himself. Trying to grasp the confusing sensations, Issei felt himself being pulled, almost dragged out from where he was; like a fish on a hook, a rush of movement bringing him back to the waking world with a start.

He blinked, slowly.

'Light?'

There was light shining onto him from above. It felt warm, strange. His skin tingled, something prickling him through the back of his shirt and pants.

'It smells like grass.' Fingers twitching, the sensation of the ground beneath Issei spread through his body as the numb feeling was driven back and life flowed back into his limbs. Tired as they felt. Painful as they felt. At least he felt like he was alive again.

There was also… something soft?

Like a pillow, something was holding his head above ground, the scent of flowers stirring Issei as he blinked the fuzziness away.

Only to realize it wasn't just a pillow.

But a lap pillow.

"Oh, welcome back sleepyhead. And here I was wondering when you were going to wake up."

Looming over him was… a girl. A really cute girl. With dark pink hair split into long flowing pigtails and with eyes of the most vibrant shade of green Issei had ever seen, sparkling with mirth as she smiled down at him. Her ears were longer than normal, and pointy like an elve's, and she wore what looked like a dress with a similar color to her hair.

Issei couldn't help it.

He gawked.

While the clear lack of oppai left something to be desired, there was just something in the way she looked at him that made his cheeks color and his stomach do flips.

"Aren't you the charmer." He felt slight fingers run through his hair, lightly ruffling it with a giggle.

He said that outloud?!

"No, no. Sorry about that. Really, our thoughts and words can mingle in this place. It's actually pretty hard to hold a conversation when you're hungry or when you're trying to remember the punch line to a joke. Believe me, I tried."

Issei blinked.

He was just so confused.

"Where is this?" From that empty darkness to a fuzzy sunny plain, he was having a hard time adjusting to the whiplash. And more importantly, he couldn't help but wonder if this was the afterlife, and if it was… why did he feel sore all over.

"That's because this isn't the afterlife. It's not the living world, either, but if you're feeling pain then it's proof that you're alive, no?"
Maybe?

He never thought about it like that. But if Issei was alive and this wasn't the afterlife… then… what was happening? Was this some kind of dream?

"After a fashion, yes. Really, It has been a while since I've had a guest like this. The last one must have been… around a decade ago? Wow, that was actually pretty fast. After Annie and Doni, I figured it would have taken longer for the next one to show up."

Annie? Doni?

Were those people?

Well, it wasn't like he recognized those, but there was one part that Issei understood. That this was some kind of dream. Really, being comforted in a dream by a cute girl wasn't that bad. Truthfully, this setup was exactly the same as 'Blessings be Upon this Marvelous World'.

"Are you here to send me to another world?"

With how his luck was turning out, that was a completely logical expectation.

The pink haired girl giggled, as if reading his thoughts.

"Nothing like that. Really, if anything I am here to send you back. To congratulate you on your great achievement too. It's not often that a human can survive a Heretic God for nearly a week, fight back, and somehow come out on top. That's a miracle if I have ever seen one!"

Miracle? Heretic God?

He really was lost.

"Sorry, sorry! Let me start again from the top. My name is Pandora."

Issei frowned.

He heard that name somewhere before. He knew he had, but couldn't for the life of him recall where he had. It was on the tip of his tongue.

"So you're not here to send me to another world?"

"You keep asking that. Do you want to be sent to another world?"

Did he? Yes. An adventure in another world was every teenage boy's dream. But the entire meeting was kinda going against his expectations. Then again, maybe that well was poisoned by all the games and anime he consumed about that kind of story. Really, just the confirmation that he was somehow still alive took a massive weight off his chest.

While crushing him with guilt.

"Are you okay?"

Right, right. His thoughts were leaking.

"Well, I guess? Knowing that I'm alive is nice and all… don't get me wrong! I'm really glad for the help!"

"Buuuut?"

Issei grimaced, turning to look away.

"I was just… thinking about my parents. Everyone on that ship, really." Maybe it hadn't been his responsibility to stop what happened, but the fact that he couldn't find a way to bring them back made an ugly, cold feeling surge through his chest; thoughts whispering all the ways he could have done things differently. All the ways he could have saved them, no matter how impossible that task might be.

Pandora had claimed he'd managed one miracle, after all, why not a second?

"I don't think you need to worry about that, actually."

He blinked, confused, a scared hope surging almost as intensely as the guilt had.

"What?" Thoughts pressed together with the word, not so much an active attempt at communication as a push and wash of desires, fears, and needs.

Pandora smiled warmly, hand pressing softly against his cheek to dry the fresh tracks of tears.

"I don't know exactly what you were saying to each other, but whatever you did certainly left a mark on Medusa. Normally, there wouldn't be a way to bring someone back from being turned to stone by her unless she willingly does it. I only know that before she vanished, she completely withdrew her powers."

T-Then… that meant…

The pink haired girl nodded, as if reading his thoughts.

"Your feelings, your honesty, most certainly found their mark."

Issei didn't know what happened next. One moment, he was laying on the mysterious girl's lap, and on the next he was on his knees, arms thrown around her as the teen pulled her into a hug, the tightest hug he remembered ever giving someone. As if a weight had been pulled off his chest, Issei was embarrassed to admit that he probably left a few tear stains on her shoulder as he tried to process the earth shattering relief.

They were okay?

He hadn't… failed?

Though the girl's words felt too good to be truth, Issei found he couldn't doubt her. As if deep down, part of him realized this girl, whoever she was, would never lie to him.

"There there… let it all out."

He felt her hand draw circles on the middle of his back. The gentle voice soothing him.

"You must have had such a hard time. I might not have seen all of it, but I know enough to tell that you, Issei Hyoudou, are a fool. A courageous, kind hearted fool who somehow brought about an unprecedented miracle. A child worthy of a witch." What should have been harsh words were instead spoken with a fondness and love that made him feel warm inside.

Words he'd never thought he wanted to hear.

Something precious that could only be said once.

"Yes… you will do just fine."

Issei was paying attention, at least a little, and this time her words were heavier. There was more to them. At least, more that he noticed.

"Oh child of the Earth, born again on the seas, and beloved by the Serpent, I take you as my child. Campione, sword and shield and champion of all Mankind. Know that you are the beloved of the Evil Goddess Pandora, bane of all the Heavens."

Issei decided then and there that if he ever got sent to another world, he would ask to take her with him.

There was a soft giggle before a pair of soft lips touched his forehead.

"Silly boy. Don't you know any better than chasing a married lady."

Wait, what did she say?

Before Issei could voice his thoughts, the world grew dim once more and just as he'd been yanked from the darkness, the young boy once again found himself dragged away.

This time… into the light.

Issei woke up confused.

'Another weird dream, huh?' Rubbing the sand out of his eyes, the teenage boy pulled himself upright, yawning as the urge to lay back down for another half an hour made itself known. The covers were warm, and the pillows bundled together just the way he liked.

Even if he'd been having strange dreams lately.

The sort that seemed so vivid that it was almost like he was there, only for him to wake up and completely forget what happened the night before. Though Issei was pretty sure that they involved getting a lap pillow from a cute girl.

'I always make sure to remember the most important details, though I think she was… kind? Well, either way, I certainly wouldn't mind having that dream for another twenty minutes.'

But, unfortunately, he couldn't.

"Because today is the day!"

"No yelling!" His mother called out, a bit of an edge to her tone informing the teenager his parents knew exactly why he was so happy.

After all, today was the day!

The day all his dreams would come true!

The day he started in Kuoh Academy!

How could he not be at his best? To make the best impression possible, and not miss a single second of the experience, Issei was willing to part with an extra hour of sleep to make sure he was showered, dressed, and early to the first class of the year.

Oh, he could hardly wait.

'The girl's uniform… I wonder what they look like now?'

Were the skirts short? Did they still wear those little capes over their shoulders? There was always something magical about the way girls looked when he passed them by the street. And somehow there was always a small change to spice things up from one year to the next.

Maybe this year it would be Sailor Fuku?

To honor the ol' reliable?

"A pity no one wears spats anymore."

He would offer a prayer later for the deceased tradition.

"Oh well!"

His moment of silence truly was momentary. And, ten minutes later, he was applying his deodorant and tugging on his undershirt at the same time - unwilling to waste any energy fooling around with the uniform's buttons.

"My, my, someone's eager and ready for school today."

Nodding, Issei accepted his mother's praise.

"Yes! I showered twice, have all my bags packed, and I'm ready to feast, uh, um, I mean greet my classmates?"

His father, sipping on a warm coffee and reviewing the morning's news on his phone, simply sat his cup down and pinned him in place with a stair.

"Issei. Girls your age care that you are polite and do not harass them. That is the first step to making friends." The teenager felt his cheeks color and he tried not to gripe. "So try to keep your desires to yourself. At least for today?"

"Ah… yes sir."

It really did feel unfair. Even after everything, though it seemed like only he remembered Dusa-chan, he still didn't get much in the way of trust.

'Though, why would I get any trust if they don't know what happened? And someone definitely made everyone just accept what happened. There wasn't even a comment in the papers about all the damage to the ship….' Even though a month had already passed since they had come back to Japan, the incident at the ship was all but forgotten.

A freak gas leak, everyone called it, explaining that a short circuit led to the ship being flooded with gas that knocked out everyone inside. Disaster was only averted due to the quick action of the captain in setting up automatic controls to prevent a collision. In the end, nobody got hurt, so the incident was quickly forgotten. The whole thing stunk of a cover up, the sort that happened in spy movies all the time, and made his fingers itch. But before he could start brooding, his mom gently set a full plate down in front of him.

"Eat up. You've got a big day ahead of you and I know it'll go well. And that you won't peep on anyone."

Issei didn't pout.

Nope, he wasn't pouting at all.

'Really, I save a whole ship and I don't get so much as a medal for it.' Though he did get a handshake from the mayor and the ship's captain for looking after the kids, who told their parents a wild tale about being chased by giant snakes in the hallways while Issei led them to safety.

It was dismissed as hallucinations brought about by the gas, while he was credited with leading the children to safety and ensuring nothing went amiss while their parents were injured.

He didn't really care about not being recognized for what he'd done. Learning that they managed to escape and survive… somehow made it all worth it. Even the older kids had hugged him goodbye and, well, he felt a sense of accomplishment that banished any lingering disappointment.

"Ise?"

He shook his head.

"Sorry, was thinking."

His mother, very much alive and not made of marble, frowned in concern.

"Are you sure you didn't forget anything? Your books? Your lunch money? Your bus pass?"

Issei nodded, pawing at his pockets.

Oh… he'd nearly forgotten his pass.

"Nice catch, I'll be right back!"

Putting a bit of speed into it, the young man jogged back to his room and, pulling open his desk, he hesitated.

On his shelf, there was a small space he'd cleared off.

Only two figurines were standing on it.

One… was the girl he dreamed about.

But the other was Dusa-Chan.

"Ah. Not quite right."

Reaching out a single finger, there was a snap, a pop, a crack - but not from the statuette. Instead, the stone of her ears became liquid, twisting and elongating and adjusting her ears just so. And only once he was satisfied that the curve of her blue scales was… more accurate, not perfect, never perfect, did he actually grab his bus pass.

"At least her smile is a little happier."

That was important. Unfortunately, Issei was still way too inexperienced to completely get her right. No matter how many times he tried, or how often he carved the figurine from scratch, there was always something missing. Something that didn't feel right when he looked at her.

"Ready to go, son?"

"Yes, Dad."

A one armed hug, a quick kiss to the top of his head.

"Ready for your first day?"

"Yes, Mom."

A full hug, this time, and another kiss to the same spot on top of his head. Okay, so maybe Issei was being clingy, whereas before he might have been embarrassed or annoyed at how his parents babied him at times, the past month saw him spend as much time as he could around them.

Trying to convince himself that he wasn't dreaming and wouldn't wake up to a pair of statues one morning.

They were safe. They were okay.

Had he somehow managed to free them when he stabbed Dusa-chan? Or, maybe… she decided to help after they had that conversation? Even now he could barely remember what he said, dying as he was. That he somehow survived, and everyone managed to leave that ship safe… he couldn't help but wonder if she did it because of him.

Really, Issei probably would have considered the entire thing the fruit of his imagination.

'If not for one little thing.'

Sneaking his hand into his back pocket, the very much empty pocket, Issei pulled out a small lump of stone vaguely shaped like a doll. Its edges were rough and he could barely make out where the head was. Really, it was closer to a misshapen pebble than anything.

But it was proof, the definite proof that what happened wasn't just a dream.

'You don't get magic powers from a dream.'

That much he was sure of.

But maybe this was a sign of good things to come. New school. New year. New chances to feast his eyes on the best Oppai the country had to offer.

'Goodbye everyday life, hello Oppai Academia!'

Kuoh turned out to be more boring than Issei hoped.

Oh, don't get him wrong. The school was awesome.

Newly refurbished buildings, top of the line equipment. Not a speck of dust or stain to be seen. It was worth every single moment he spent studying. Even the auditorium didn't smell like baby powder and detergent.

Which made it easier to sit still as the principal droned on and on with the welcome speech.

'Guess we can't escape the boring stuff even here, huh?'

For a supposed top ranked school in the country, there wasn't exactly much to set it apart from the usual outside of the fancy buildings and the stylish uniforms. The morning schedule turned out to be exactly the same as the one back in Issei's middle school.

Opening Ceremony.

Teacher introductions.

A bunch of old dudes telling them how lucky they were to be there and what they weren't supposed to be doing… half of which Issei would probably be ignoring by the end of the week anyway.

But he didn't let that discourage him!

This was the paradise he spent an entire year working towards. The reason why he gave up on so many earthly pleasures for so long. Even if all Issei had to show for it were a few sneaking glances, the young man knew in his heart of hearts that the promised time would come sooner or later.

He just had to be patient.

"Incredible… even their teachers are top notch."

"So this is where the fabled attractive older ladies were hiding all along?!"

And of course, joining him in this crusade were his loyal friends. It had been his, Matsuda and Motohama's plan to study their butts off and get into Kuoh for the sake of paradise.

Even now the bespectacled boy adjusted his glasses, thoroughly scanning the staff members while humming in thought. Motohama offered his opinions regarding the Legendary Scanner's findings. And Issei would decide upon their plan of action. Such had always been the nature of their teamwork.

They were more than friends.

They were brothers.

Allies for the cause of Oppai.

"I spot hotties. At 21 o'clock." Motohama, ever dutiful lookout, reported.

There, sitting besides the staff in what was probably meant to be the honor student seating were… some of the most beautiful girls Issei had ever seen. But what struck him first was the sight of actual red hair and beautiful blue eyes combined with a figure that could put hourglasses to shame. How the hell hadn't they noticed her during the assembly?

She wasn't even the only one.

Besides her was a shorter but equally beautiful girl with short black hair and glasses that gave her a sharp look. The cool girl archetype wasn't exactly one of his favorites, but he'd developed a newfound respect for it after all the work he put into his Dusa-chan figurines.

"What's their stats, Matsuda?"

Their legendary scanner tsked, biting his thumb in frustration.

"We are too far away, I can't get a good read on them." Truly, to climb the highest of highs only to be plunged back into despair. It would appear Kuoh wasn't shy about showing off the best it had to offer, and everyone seemed to be of the same opinion as the two girls lounged besides the staff.

One of them the highest scorer of the previous year, the next apparently the brand new student council president. Issei had played enough dating sims to see where this was going. There would be more chances, and Issei was sure they would be seeing those two often.

There was no need to rush.

Eventually, the long winded welcome ceremony ran its course and the students were allowed to go back to their classrooms. Though, much to Issei's disappointment, he'd been singled out from his friends. He'd been halfway through the board looking for his name when he felt Motohama's hand on his shoulder.

"Hey Issei."

"Yeah?"

"Don't look now, but I think that someone is looking at us."

Wait, what? Where?!

"I said don't look!" His friend hissed in his ear.

"Sorry. You sure she ain't looking at the board? You sure it's at us?"

"Positive! Now, act cool! I think she's coming over."

Oh no! Was someone onto them already?!

Running over what he'd done today, the young man considered the totality of his actions. Had he done anything blatant? Had he done anything criminal!?

But, unwilling to let doom creep up on him unsuspectingly, he turned and faced his fate….

"Issei Hyoudou." The girl was short, petite, and wore her white hair in a medium length bob, and seemed almost totally impassive. She stared up at him for a moment, eyes peering right through him as if trying to find something, causing the young man to sweat cold in anticipation. "Would you be willing to meet me after school?"

His eyes went wide.

"Yes!" Heart pounding, throat dry, his voice was clear, immediate, and he most certainly didn't squeak. "I mean yeah, sure, I would love to." He backtracked slightly, trying to play it cool, if only because he was about to break down into either crying or dancing.

And he didn't know which yet.

"Excellent. I will see you at the front gate after class. We will continue from there."

Nodding dumbly, he watched silently as the girl walked away, utterly silent despite his friends' attempts to interrogate him about where he knew that girl from, or to spill his secrets.

Issei, however, remained unresponsive.

He was on cloud nine! Ecstatic!

'A date on my first day!' He wanted to whoop for joy, but instead opted to look at the girl who invited him out one last time as she turned the corner, brown eyes meeting dark blue as she disappeared amidst the crowd.

'Could this be… my popular phase?!'

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

"Take a right up here."

Complying with Athena's instructions, Issei took the indicated turn, already recognizing that their path led back to Kuoh. The school would likely be empty at this time of the day, hopefully, it was only the first day so most clubs probably wouldn't be there.

"Good… call… nobody… should… be… there."

It would be a safe place to fight. Well, safer than on the sidewalk. And that really was bothering him. Because as much as he felt like it sometimes, Issei knew he wasn't an idiot.

Or, at least, he liked to think he wasn't.

Looking at the current situation he was in, there should have been hundreds of emergency personnel running around, never mind news people, or the army, or well… anyone. But the moment that hooded lady screamed at him, it was like everyone else was sent running for the hills.

'I could really use one of those choppers right about now.' What was the point of having those if they couldn't use it to blow up a single measly giant snake!?

"Stop praying for help too much." Athena tightened her legs and adjusted her grip around his chest. "It makes the poison spread faster."

Unsure how to respond, Issei chose to save his breath. Though he really wouldn't mind if a bit of back up came around. So even if he hadn't really been… anticipating all of today, or the events leading up to it for that matter, there was the benefit that he had a cute girl on his back.

So that was nice.

'Hehe. Oppai!'

Still, one couldn't help but ask why he hadn't seen this kinda thing coming when, just a month earlier, he'd been in a very similar situation: running for his life as a mysterious woman and her oversized pet snake chased after him.

It was almost comical!

Only this time it was an even larger snake than before.

Frankly, it wasn't like Issei was trying to ignore things.

For the first few weeks after coming back from that ship Issei spent most of his time awake looking for signs that what happened, that what he experienced on that ship wasn't some sort of gas induced fever dream and that there were indeed things going bump in the night.

Never mind how much time he'd spent back there, in cramped labyrinths of pipes and dark hallways, laying in his own pool of blood, watching his parent's stone faces be smashed to pieces, or seeing all the horrid, terrible things a monster could do to children.

No, he'd never mention those dreams to anyone.

Ultimately his efforts, both in the waking world and the dreaming, failed to turn up much. No matter how hard he looked, it seemed as if any information or record of such mysterious incidents had been scrubbed clean.

Hell, even researching himself and the ship incident got harder as the days progressed, to the point he only knew how to find stuff on it because he knew enough details to make the search very specific.

'Really, I was half way convinced it had all been in my head.'

Only it wasn't.

Because hallucinations didn't give you magic powers.

And that's what he had. The sole proof that what happened on that ship, what happened to him and to Dusa-chan was real, was that he was different. A strange something nestled deep within him that, if he closed his eyes, he could almost feel pulsing, slithering, and writhing.

Almost like a snake.

The first time he used it had been a surprise. He'd only been trying to keep the memory of the incident alive, trying to get as clear an image of Dusa-chan as he could to make sure he never forgot her smile, that his own nightmares and fever dreams didn't twist her sorrow and her anguish into a tool to drown himself in pity. Because that was genuinely what he was afraid of, of forgetting that she hadn't been a monster at the end.

She had turned his parents back, turned everyone back. Because she let go of her hate. So Issei would too.

'Well, I still didn't plan on breaking the window.' This power, whatever it was, was dangerous and… familiar. The same kind of power Dusa-chan had. The same thing she did back in that room.

[Mineral Garden]

He came up with a name for it, yeah. Because all magic powers should have a cool name in english.

In the end, that power proved that what happened was real and that the world was both a larger and scarier place than he first thought. Of course, finding out more about it… whether there were more people like Dusa-chan, or like him, well, that was an entirely different matter.

"Up ahead."

Athena's hand shot over his shoulder, pointing to the side just as a familiar hooded form shot through a window into a burst of glass with spear in hand, landing right in front of them with a twirl.

Issei stopped dead in his tracks, the side of his chest felt numb, and looking at that wicked gleaming blade, he didn't want to learn what a second dose would be like.

"Leaving so soon? Didn't take you for a coward."

He liked to live, so what?

Besides…

"Two on one isn't fair either."

The blonde sneered, marring what would have been an otherwise beautiful face.

"Funny. I'm counting two of you over there."

"Just because you're a pretty lady, don't think I'll let you pick on my girlfriend."

"Girlfriend? What the Hell are you talking about?"

"Oi! Just because I'm a pretty average guy, doesn't mean I can't get a super cute girl to go out with me! Don't you know it's my popular phase!"

Face twisted in confusion, the blonde snarled and made up her mind.

"You know what… you're insane. Killing you is a mercy."

There was no more talk after that.

She was fast, fast like Dusa had been. But Issei was fast, too, or at least faster than he had been.

Dodging was pretty easy, since the crazy spear lady was just flailing about. Obviously weapon fighting wasn't where she excelled, probably depended on that poison of hers to do the work. So he kept his eyes and ears peeled, waiting for the exact mo-

"There you are!"

Bursting out of the side of an empty looking food shop, the giant snake sent a shower of wood and plastic splinters raining down on him, even as it snapped huge, venom dripping fangs in his direction.

But that was good, too, because the two foes got in each other's way!

And most importantly, the street they were in was empty.

Drawing upon that inner well of power, Issei's mind went back to the ship, back to the confrontation at the mirror room he'd built as a trap. Even though it hadn't worked back then, what he did remember was the way Dusa-chan used her power, the way it formed and lashed out from all around her like wicked vines with lethal, stinging spears.

Having felt those very same thorns in his skin, Issei could perfectly see them in his mind's eye.

'And the clearer the image… the easier it is to make."

That was the nature of [Mineral Garden], a power constrained only by his ability to visualize what he wanted. Though he hadn't quite grasped how to use it effectively after only a month of practice, there were certain objects that he could create reliably because he'd experienced them first hand.

So, as the ground shifted beneath his feet, the only sign that something was amiss were the multitudes of cracks forming on the pavement and dozens of white root-like spikes that surged from the ground.

It was like watching a plant grow on fast forward!

Stone formed into barbed vines and lashed out, tearing and piercing and ripping. However, that was against his enemies. With him, they wrapped around Issei's body with a gentleness and tenderness he couldn't imagine.

With his body shielded, more and more vines began quickly spreading out, though beads of sweat started freely running down Issei's forehead as a massive thorny bush overtook the street. And after only a few more moments, branches and vines, seemingly growing out of the concrete walls and the pavement, nearly blotted out the sun.

He felt Athena shift on his back, looking over his shoulder.

"Impressive."

He thought so too.

Not to toot his own horn… but, well, the results spoke for themselves.

The massive snake that had been just about to swallow them had been lifted off the ground, caught by the stone branches and vines; some of which had pierced clean through its body before growing out of the other side. Somehow she'd avoided a head injury, but the white marble around her seemed to be dripping with a strange golden colored liquid.

The hooded girl didn't get off any easier.

Missing an arm, the blonde was completely wrapped up in a tight bundle of thorny vines. Far from scared or surprised, she insead looked positively furious, eyes gleaming in infuriated recognition.

"Y-You… this is… our power."

She spat out a wad of golden blood, snarling as the branches groaned and buckled, but didn't break. Suspending the two far above ground and away from Issei, who let out a shaky sigh of relief that he wasn't the one on the wrong end of those things.

One time had been enough.

"How strange… you subconsciously avoided a killing blow? Or perhaps it is a lack of experience that allowed them to sense it? Considering their shared origin it is possible that they could foresee the use of the Authority, even if it belongs to you now…"

What was she rambling about now?

He could barely keep up.

"I didn't want to hurt them." Well, maybe he did want to hit them a bit, but Issei knew just how painful this was so he tried to avoid hitting anything lethal. Besides, with them hung like this and tied up it wasn't like they could hurt anyone, right?

"Stheno! Do it!"

"Y-Yes, sister!"

Maybe, just maybe… he should learn to keep his mouth shut.

Before he realized what was happening, the massive snake seemed to bloat in the area around her stomach, the lump of 'something' traveling up its throat before puffing up the monster's jaws.

And a cloud of thick golden mist erupted above them, covering the area above them and obscuring the two from view.

Athena tapped his shoulder.

"It would be expedient to escape while they lick their wounds. Despite its healing qualities, it will be a few moments yet until they are capable of breaking their binds."

Healing?!

Looking up above, Issei rubbed out the golden mist from his eyes as he tried to see through the haze only to see that, yes, somehow the strange blood was gathering up around the injuries, closing up the holes on the massive snake's body, as well as swelling up around the area where the blonde's arm had been.

More importantly, he could hear the impromptu hedge of thorns buckle and crack overhead.

Great, just great!

He hated when bosses could heal up for free while he didn't have a single potion on him. It was so unfair!

"Well, that wasn't all I've got!"

Gripping the vines that had embraced him, Issei sent them spiraling outwards - freely lashing about inside the thorn bush. Sure, it brought the two crazies down sooner, but it meant that they fell into a veritable blender of flying marble shards, lashing vines, and rending spikes.

"Die, mortal!"

And blondie responded by flicking a large glob of something at him, the teenager instinctively dodged, but watched it eat a hole in the pavement while the duo fended off the attacking tendrils.

"Ranged attacks and healing on a double boss… that's too much!"

Taking Athena's advice, he promptly beat a retreat, summoning up several slabs of stone behind him to cover his back as the marble structure cracked and buckled around them.

It wasn't going to last much longer.

Fortunately, the school appeared to be empty when Issei made it past the gates.

Which was strange. He… he knew that.

First day or not there was no way that the teachers and the rest of the staff wouldn't be sticking around. Not when Kuoh was a school that included even advanced education at the college level. If anything, there should have been at least a few people walking around before classes for the upper years started.

But there weren't any.

Neither staff, nor students.

For a moment the thought that they might simply have left early pressed itself forwards. The thought that it was completely normal for the first week of class to be a slower one appeared in the forefront of his mind, even. It was logical, too, but that itself seemed… wrong.

Before he shook it off.

This was Kuoh, there was no way they'd be that wishy washy with their reputation!

"Ah, you appear to have shaken off the compulsion. This Athena commends you."

Confusion dissipated and strengthened at once, but, this time, it was far more understandable. Though it still took an effort of will to set aside worries about mind control.

"Right. That reminds me."

He set the smaller teenager down and just looked at her. Now, however, he noticed a few things. Principally that she wasn't wearing the Kuoh academy uniform but had still slipped onto the campus without issue. That her eyes were… wrong. At least for a kid his age. They were cold and old and not quite human. No normal person would ever mistake her for just some schoolgirl.

No matter how beautiful she might have been.

She was… Athena.

The girl with a weird fake name who didn't seem to be the least bit bothered by the massive snake and hooded maniac chasing them. In fact, before the blondie made glass rain on them Issei was sure he heard her admit she knew they would be there.

Did his date know they were going to attack him?

Was she working for them? But then why would they attack while he was holding her the entire time?

Maybe she was trying to warn him? But if that was the case then why spend most of the afternoon playing games with him instead of trying to tell him about the weird monster women coming after him?

It didn't make any sense!

"Just… who are you?"

"I have already introduced myself. This Athena has not been untruthful in her greeting. To do so would tarnish the good will you've shown as a host." The white haired girl didn't seem to understand what he meant, her impassive features giving way to slight confusion.

That's when a horrific sound reached Issei, the sound causing him to flinch, spine going ramrod straight as the stone rosebush he'd trapped the two monsters inside collapsed with a thunderous crash in the not so far off distance. From where they stood, it looked like a building had collapsed, ground shaking with the weight of collapsing rubble.

"It would appear they've finally escaped."

Issei breathed out shakily, turning towards Athena wary and worried and the smallest bit hopeful.

"You're not a student, are you?" He couldn't help but ask, knowing what he did now, there were way too many coincidences. "And you're the reason no one was around."

She nodded.

"You would be correct. The form you see before you is merely a disguise this Athena has weaved together in order to infiltrate this territory without being discovered. All for the goal of investigating the two distortions set to make landfall in this country."

Alright, so she wasn't a student… that was good to know. But it only left him with more questions. At the very least he hoped she also meant that no innocents were hurt, if only because they weren't around.

"Are you on their side?"

Did she invite him out just to make it easier for the other two to jump him?

"Hardly. While this Athena certainly was interested in seeing whether they were the distortion sensed, the true aim of this expedition was to judge whether you were the nascent Campione this one believed to be born a month ago."

Issei stared.

Campione? Was that another one of her weird words? Certainly didn't sound like japanese or english to him.

His confusion must have shown on his face because the white haired girl frowned, stepping back as if to study him. Looking up and down before resting her chin on the palm of her hand.

"Doubtlessly you appear to be uninformed. Though this one made the assumption that you saw through this disguise and sought to entreat this Athena as a form of ceasefire, it seems that in my eagerness to converse with you an error in judgment was made."

Yeah, talk about it.

It doesn't even explain what she wanted with him. Sure, she probably knew what happened at the ship, and wasn't surprised to see the other two snakes coming after him. But if she wasn't here to help him, or help them…

"Ugh… this is such a headache. I don't get any of what's happening."

The short girl nodded, as if expecting it.

"Yes, that is indeed the case. So while we wait for the Heretics to make their presence known, this Athena shall impart whatever knowledge you wish for as payment for the offerings of today and your gracious hospitality."

Right, right.

She said something about that. Which meant that Issei spent the rest of his allowance on a date that wasn't even a date… because he misunderstood what this weird magical girl was saying.

Honestly, if not for the fact he wanted answers Issei would have asked for a refund instead.

"Well, you called me something earlier. Champignone? Something like that?"

"Campione, yes. Crowned as such for the miraculous deed of slaying a Heretic God. The title denotes a human who achieved the impossible, becoming God Slayers, and were in turn being rewarded with incredible powers and the authority to rule over the human world as tyrants."

And like that he raised his hand.

"Questions?"

"W-What do you mean by Gods? I… you mean that-"

"I am sure you experienced a great ordeal inside that ship. This Athena is certain that across the world, many waited the moment the heretic god inside it would make landfall with baited breath, only to watch in bewilderment as it disappeared overnight. This Athena was particularly interested in its descent, which put her in the perfect spot to witness the aftermath."

He wanted to call her crazy.

To say that there weren't such things as gods in this world. But every word she said had been true thus far. She knew about the ship. She knew about those two from earlier.

"I sense disbelief in you, Issei Hyoudou."

He wanted to pinch himself.

This had to be a dream of some sort, right? Or at the very least a nightmare.

Unfortunately for Issei, even he knew how hollow that wish was. Because he'd come to the conclusion that the supernatural existed on that ship, and had been searching for it only to come up empty. But if there really were gods and monsters out there, then it made sense why it was so hard to find out anything through human means.

But to think that Dusa-chan was actually a goddess?

"Aren't gods supposed to be all powerful, and immortal? How could someone, let alone me, kill one?" That was how they were mostly described, impossibly powerful beings who were above and beyond humans.

"It would take a miracle, yes. Whether it be luck, compatibility, mental state, environment, or the gods' own circumstances, defeating a Heretic God should be all but impossible, and yet it has happened."

Well, if she kept insisting on it then it probably was the truth.

But still… godslayer, huh?

Well, Issei would be lying if he said he hadn't felt any different after the ship incident. Something about him changed. Something that let him walk away unscathed after being showered with glass, something that let him keep running at top speed with a girl on his back from giant monsters.

It was crazy talk.

But crazy talk that made sense.

"Does that mean that those two attacking us were… goddesses?"

Athena's nose wrinkled in distaste, the first full expression he'd seen on her face all day.

"As heretics, they barely qualify. Truly this Athena could see them as subordinate existences to their sister, but given she has already perished normally they should have already disappeared. Yet they remain as autonomous entities. It is a truly puzzling conundrum."

Issei sighed.

So they really were Dusa-chan's sisters, huh?

He'd already suspected it, but having confirmation meant that he really was the one they were after. Not for reasons he didn't understand or didn't feel guilt about. But even then, he couldn't just let those two rampage all over Kuoh just because they were angry at him.

Which was why he was waiting here.

"You probably shouldn't stay here. When they follow us here, it's going to get dangerous again." At the very least he didn't want Athena to get dragged into it more than she already was. Human or not, this was still his mess.

Tilting her head in confusion, the white haired goddess looked at him before nodding to herself.

As if she'd cracked some kind of code.

"Very well, this Athena won't intervene in your battle. As Campione, it is your duty to eliminate distortions such as them. It would be a breach of decorum if this one were to render aid unsolicited."

And just like that, she crouched down and jumped.

Issei, for his part, blinked in confusion, because Athena had not only cleared the distance to the gate, the gate itself, but ended up on the roof of a three story building… at least two hundred meters away.

He was so confused that it took him three whole seconds to realize what he'd seen when she'd jumped and her skirt had flipped up.

"Just gonna save that one to the harddrive. Yeah. Hah. Haha."

A little bit hysterical, a little bit confused, he wasn't sure what to do at this point.

Apparently he was a godslayer now.

'I probably should go find an adult. Well. Not like they could do much….'

Even assuming someone believed him about his magic, convincing them he was being hunted by a pair of goddesses and then getting them to do something about them would be an entirely different matter.

"I wonder, do guns or knives even work on them? Or is it like… you need magic to beat magic? I did use Dusa-Chan's chisel when I… stabbed her."

"So you admit it, murderer!"

The giant serpent, voice still somehow impossibly polite and even soft, smashed through the gates of the school, ringed scales coiling up as the massive serpent looked ready to pounce at him, wicked curved fangs exposed to the air, dripping fat droplets of venom into the ground.

"You stabbed our beloved little sister to death! Just so you could steal her powers!"

"Stheno, you idiot! We were supposed to ambush him!" The hooded blonde came from the direction of the school, brandishing her bident. Her missing arm had been somehow reattached… or regrown. "Still, if you want, you can surrender. I'm sure my sister's fangs will crush you up before she swallows."

And that was that.

Doubt, guilt, and confusion was put away into a little box.

Issei wasn't going to die. He wasn't going to surrender. He was going to go home, brag to his friends about going on a date with a goddess, and then eat dinner with his parents.

"No chance." He took a fighting stance. "There's no way I'm letting you two ruin the school on my first day." He stopped for a moment, trying to find the right words. Trying to spit out the feelings that had been plaguing him ever since these two showed up… no… ever since he came back from that trip.

"I'm sorry about your sister, I didn't want to do that. And it wasn't right, her being so miserable, even if she was in the wrong."

There, he said it.

He admitted it. He wished he'd never had to do it. Because wrong or not… monster or not… she didn't deserve to be torn apart by her own mind like that.

"But that doesn't give you two the right to hurt others! And it doesn't mean Dusa-Chan would want you to hurt others, either! "

That got him a snarl and then a sneer.

"Then I'll take my time spitting you, boy, and roasting you over an open fire. Now die!"

As soon as those words were said, an immense pressure slammed down on all of them and a shimmering, blue-silver wall rose up around the very edge of Kuoh Academy. The ground shook beneath his feet and he could see something translucent cover his view of the city.

Almost like it was hazed over.

Was this something these two planned?

'No… Athena said something about compelling people, and she knew about these two.' Was she planning on locking them here from the start? Or was she planning on locking him here for them to find? Or did she even think she was helping him?

Either way, there would be no interruptions.

Chapter Text

The school was shaking.

No, beyond Kuoh Academy itself, Sona felt as if the city itself was trembling and groaning beneath her feet. The air was thick and soiled, overwhelmed by so much mana that her skin prickled and her eyes burned, palms clammy with sweat as the normally cool headed young lady ran down the street and back towards her school.

When she'd felt something interfere with her wards earlier, Sona had warned Tsubaki and left to check on them herself. Being the one in charge of administering all Devil-related activities during the day, any and all causes for concern were to be handled by her group while Rias was the one in charge of nightly activities.

Splitting responsibilities like this was the only reason they didn't have to work around the clock and instead could devote part of their time to studying.

Something that would have been impossible otherwise.

But it was a fair price for their extended stay in the human world.

Or so she thought.

'What could be happening?'

Part way through the afternoon, a powerful blast of magical energy shook the city, carried by sonic waves that ruined a fourth of all windows in the area as well and sent half the population into a panic-induced stampede. Her peerage was running itself ragged, keeping the startled humans from hurting each other, as well as dispelling the frankly absurd amounts of mana that risked sending them to the hospital.

But that was only the beginning.

When a giant serpent was sighted near the city's center, Sona had left to investigate it immediately and diverted from her original plan. Whether it be some sort of creature left to rampage in her town or some mage's idea of a practical joke, she couldn't allow it to stand. If for no other reason than people were being hurt in the disorder.

What she found, however, was much more concerning.

'Massive constructs of enchanted stone in quantities well in excess of what should be possible to conjure without drawing far more attention. A destroyed street and signs of battle that made Kuoh look like the leftovers of a Rating Game.'

And now, something was happening at the school.

'These aren't coincidences.'

In fact, she would bet her chess set that these happenings were all being propagated by the same individual. And when she got her hands on whoever this was, she was going to make them rue the day they decided this was a good idea.

Of course, complications soon came up.

Namely the fact that whoever it was behind this somehow found a way to take over her barrier from the inside. The barrier she spent her whole first year painstakingly putting together for an eventuality where they needed to contain damage to the school, or as a safe bunker where she and Rias could hide while locking the enemy outside.

Unlike her friend, Sitri was painfully aware that they were targets of some importance and nowhere near capable enough to personally engage the truly dangerous enemies their siblings had.

It was her first task in adequately shoring up their defenses.

And now it was being used against her.

'They've somehow cut me off from the spell itself.' Never mind being unable to turn it off from the outside, the barrier looked like it had been strengthened further, layers upon layers of defensive magic that distorted the air itself and partially obscured what was happening inside.

Even if it was possible to see the school and the figures inside, Sona couldn't make out who they were or what they were doing.

'It looks like… someone is fighting them?'

She couldn't make out details but there were most certainly three figures inside. The giant serpent that had been reported was present, as well as a hooded figure and what looked like another person. Sona could at the very least follow their movements, though, and was tracking the battle as best as possible.

And then the barrier shook.

Or, rather, it rippled and flexed as a blast of the purest crimson slammed against it, a harsh gust of wind nearly blowing Sona off her feet as the skies above rumbled and thundered… before a massive flash of lightning rained down from darkened clouds with a deafening roar.

The barrier, however, stood firm, merely pulsing, millions of threads of light manifesting, shifting, and knitting themselves together once more. All as if to dissipate the damage.

And Sona would recognize those attacks anywhere.

"Rias!"

Taking flight, Sona approached the scorched section of the school. The aftermath of the Ruin Princess and her Queen's attack.

"Gasper's inside there!" The crimson haired Devil's voice was thick with emotions and tears were pricking at her eyes. "We've gotta rescue him!"

It was clear that she was on the verge of panic and, as a mass of energy so potent that Sona felt its raw pressure nearly push her to her knees, the Power of Destruction was unleashed once more. Waves of surging energy eating away at the pavement, turning trees and grass into less than ash, and unmaking light that tried to pierce the raw, manifested power of Un-Creation itself all proved that the immense wave of power was… nothing.

"Rias… stop."

Gasping, chest hurting, Sona called out to her friend - even Akeno had fallen to her knees, angel wings manifesting as her King's immense power agitated the half Fallen's other nature - and fought to reach her fellow.

"You won't… breach it."

Panting, heaving with sweat, the other girl fell on her ass, Akeno rushing to her side, and the flushed and dirty Devil looked like she was barely fighting back tears.

"They're gonna hurt him again. I barely avoided Gasper's family from tracking him. They're gonna hurt him because I screwed up."

"The others?" She questioned Akeno, who had herself landed nearby, hurriedly.

"Helping around town. That horrible sound from earlier is proving hard to dispel."

"Then we need to get through. Combine our powers at one of the keystones and-"

"What is the purpose of this intrusion?"

Death.

A cold feeling gripped her head, a harsh cutting wind blowing past Sona as the world seemed to darken and all light retreated as a small figure emerged from the sudden darkness of the barrier. To the undiscerning eye she might have appeared to be a simple girl with short silver hair, but in her eyes Sona saw nothing but a bottomless abyss that threatened to swallow her whole should she dare stare for a moment longer.

Wrong.

A scar in the world.

A living contradiction which caused natural order to buckle and shudder as the short girl stepped through the barrier as if it hadn't been there. The harsh cold which emanated from her confirmed that this must have been the source of the oppressive feeling Sona had been seeking.

But she never could have expected this.

"Heretic." Her body shivered, the word itself carrying a weight only those who understood it could feel.

How could she not? As a Devil, the faith of humans had always been weaponized against her kind, whether it be by the Holy Church and the Angels, or by pantheons and their religions across the globe. Human belief was a source of endless power for those who understood how to use it.

However, Heretic Gods were another matter entirely.

Beings spawned by unchecked, rampant human imagination. Their belief coalesced and gave shape to beings that warped the natural order and brought disaster wherever they went.

"This one won't repeat herself."

A monster that only the higher echelons of Devilkind could face.

And one was standing right in front of them.

"We should be the ones asking questions! What is the meaning of your intrusion, Heretic. What reason do you have to be in our territory?" Though Sona found herself paralyzed, Rias took point, striding forth fearlessly despite the unnatural cold.

The Heretic paused, looking at Rias as if she had just noticed her.

Those pit-like eyes didn't change. If anything they seemed to look through them.

As if they weren't real.

"I see, this town was under the control of Devils after all. How perplexing."

Sona cut in, working up the courage to speak. No matter how strong she and Rias were. Without the back up of their peerages, this wasn't a fight she was comfortable risking.

"Knowing that you have trespassed on our land, I request that you state your name and-"

"I decline."

Shot down, immediately.

The Heretic didn't seem interested in conversing with them, rather, she turned her back on them. Eyes fixed towards the barrier… no… the fight taking place within the barrier.

It was quite the spectacle.

Large marble vines sprouted from the ground, thorns covering their stems like the roses of a garden, the massive serpent winding and coiling around them even as it bled golden ichor and tore open new injuries along with its glittering scales. The hooded woman was more successful, yet less graceful, crushing the clinging vines with her forked spear, vaulting over the wrecked side of the old building.

There, she could spot it!

A small head of blonde hair, desperately trying to escape as the building collapsed around him, caught in the middle of that battle.

At any other given time, Sona would have suggested falling back, or at the very least trying to appease this Heretic. With the support of their combined servants, she might have risked it, too, but with the town in an uproar and just three of them here, their prospects were less than positive.

Unfortunately, the moment the servant of a Gremory was endangered, there was no other choice.

"One of my peerage is trapped inside. You must allow me to save him."

The redhead stepped closer, the goddess not even twitching at the proximity. Nor did she react to the ominous red light emanating from Rias' eyes. A baleful reminder of her fearsome power.

"You may retrieve them when this test is concluded."

And was immediately shot down.

Again.

"He won't survive if you don't let him out!"

"Irrelevant. All variables have been accounted for. Your servant won't alter the outcome. Allowing more elements past this point threatens the result." It was a heartless, clinical analysis. The sort Sona had listened to in the past when studying the nature of tactics.

Being on the other end of it, however, was something altogether.

"Then get out of my way!"

Rias attacked, quickly and with extraordinary aggression.

Taking two steps forward, the crimson haired master of the Power of Destruction threw a sloppy, wide punch, but the blow delivered an immediate surge of magical energy directly to the girl's chest.

Any human would have had their upper body immediately disintegrated.

Any low class Devil or Angel would have died in a messy but less all consuming manner.

A high class Devil would have had pretty serious burns and likely been knocked back.

This girl simply lost about half of her top - exposing the strap of her bra, but no more.

There wasn't even a scar or a scratch on the Heretic's skin!

Sona immediately began conjuring water elementals, even as Rias began delivering more point blank range attacks. This time, though, the silver haired spirit stepped into the attempted punches and delivered a single, strong palm strike directly to Rias's solar-plexus. Akeno immediately reacted and cast multiple, spiraling bolts of lighting at the goddess, even as she caught her mistress and immediately flew to the cover of Sona's summons.

"The punishment for defiance of this one's will would usually be most severe, however, in consideration of my host's wishes I shall instead entertain you until the test is concluded."

Beneath the girl's feet, her shadow seemingly distorted and warped, rippling and flickering as it stretched and contorted itself before a massive chitinous leg surged from the projected image.

Followed by seven more.

"A taste of the finest of tapestries shall suffice for mere Daemons."

Whoever said fighting monsters looked like a fun exciting thing to do had never actually fought with one.

"Stand still and die, brat!"

And Issei was starting to think that the button mashers he liked playing had actually lied to him about how easy it was to kill one of the damn things.

"I apologize, but die now!"

'Can I sue over this?'

It wasn't like those came with a 'don't try this at home' sign.

Because who would go out to fight actual monsters after playing the game!?

"I'm not gonna just let you two lunatics eat me!"

Well, as it so turned out, an idiot by the name of Issei Hyoudou was one such idiot that, when faced with a psychopath lady with a spear and her giant oversized snake of a sister, decided that, instead of running, he would try his luck at not dying.

Leaping to the side, he rolled when he hit the ground, but instead of picking up half a dozen scrapes and bruises he only damaged his clothes more. Indeed, his school shirt was all but scraps, and his pants were only doing a little better… but he was only sporting a few, thankfully shallow, slash and scratch marks.

Issei was actually doing better than expected.

'I'm not dead yet at least! Woah there!'

Coming to a hard stop, he fell backwards and did everything he could to avoid being impaled, stomped, smashed, or crushed.

"Stand! Still! Brat!" The angry blonde snapped, spear tip slashing at air as Issei ducked and rolled. Still, the monster's attack disrupted enough air that it lashed against the wall of an old building behind him. She even continued thrusting and lunging at the teenager as he rolled from place to place, frantically throwing his hand up and summoning a massive, thorned vine of marble.

Bursting through the ground, nearly skewering the hooded woman as it coiled at thin air, and all too soon growing still.

It was more than enough to give him the time to start putting distance between himself and the two monster… goddesses… thingies.

He was still trying to process that.

Fighting them on open ground wasn't working out for him. Before, when there were buildings and a narrow street, all he had to do was create a bunch of thorn statues because there wasn't room to dodge.

And it wouldn't have worked if the oversized garden snake hadn't given herself and her angry sister a healing potion.

'With more room to move, they are dangerous.'

And it wasn't like he could just catch them. Because as it turned out, after creating one of his marble statues, they just stayed the way they formed. If they were an actual thing he could control there wouldn't be nearly as much trouble for him as there was.

"Catch him, Stheno!"

"On it, sister!"

The massive serpent circled around the building, armored maw wide open as she tried to swallow him - only to squeal in surprise as a chunk of stone grew out of the wall, bashing against the side of her head with just enough time for Issei to slide under it.

Now don't get him wrong!

He loved his powers. They were awesome.

But there was a hell of a difference between controlling stone and creating stone. And unfortunately for Issei, he actually didn't have the ability to move the stuff he made, only choose the shape they took and where they came from.

Overlapping them with the ground or a wall just came with the handy side effect of them being 'pushed out'. After a whole month of learning and experimenting that was the most he could do without physically grabbing one of the statues and taking a swing at them with it.

'I'm fit, not a bodybuilder!"

Another statue, this one vaguely shaped like a fish, popped out of the ground just in time to block one of the blonde's stabs from catching him in the back.

'But I don't have to be.'

Before a second, larger stone fish appeared dropped on top of her from above. As if it had been airdropped, the fact of the matter was that there wasn't anything above her one moment and then on the other, a mass of white stone had appeared before gravity did its thing and pulled it down.

"Euryale, look out!"

Only for the snake to pull her out of the way at the last second; the mass of rock crushing the space the hooded lady had been standing on with an earth-shaking thud.

'Man I didn't sign up to play a handicap match.'

Duck.

Weave.

Run.

Although he'd stated earlier his intention to stop them, Issei was still just one guy fighting against two. Without the handicap of an enclosed space, they could surround him and attack before he could put up a fight. He was just lucky that neither of them seemed to have the ability to attack from afar.

Or else he'd been dead already.

'Come on, come on… there's gotta be a door nearby.'

The windows were too high up and if he tried climbing them the two monsters would for sure stab him from behind. More than that, neither were stupid or blind. He may, slightly, have a better sense of the school than either, but both were just as capable of seeing any options he could.

And there was only one thing he could think to do.

'They better have some insurance.'
Sprinting flat out, Issei charged directly towards the corner of the front of the school. Stumbling, barely able to keep to his feet, he raced towards the one place he thought he might be able to find some cover.

Sure, he'd seen it just like everyone else when they were having orientation. But it wasn't like he'd really anticipated heading into the Old Building like this.

Sneakers pounding against grass, the sounds and snarls of his enemies behind him, heartbeat pounding in his ears, palms sweaty, lungs puffing, arms pumping, the brown haired boy sprinted as hard as he'd ever run.

Just as fast as when he'd been trying to escape Medusa.

Fleeing from her sisters he reached that same level of near frenzied flight and aimed straight at the ornate, wooden door of the European styled out-building.

Apparently it was mostly clubs and study groups who used it, while classes were held in the new building and other activities took place in the gymnasium.

Slamming shoulder first into his target, the young man willed himself through the wood and brass and into the building beyond.

There was a loud crash and a sudden splintering as shards of wood went everywhere. Glad for his powers once again, he felt no pain, perhaps a sudden pressure and tugging at his other injuries, and continued on past… straight into the wall beyond.

Bouncing off of it, he nearly lost his balance, but managed to right himself - a large table and several valuable looking bits and pieces falling to the ground below.

Issei didn't linger to take in the area around him, but turned immediately and began racing down a random hallway. The most important thing was to push deeper into the building and to restrict his opponents! That would let him limit his enemy's ability to maneu-

CRASH!

BOOM!

Black scales smashed down, bisecting the building, bright lights, twisting colors, and even a flash of shimmering darkness swirled around him. And it was in that moment of confusion and overwhelming otherworldliness something clicked. His gut, raw instinct and nothing else, screamed at the boy to jump, so he did. Like that a burst of white-red-black lashed out, tearing through walls, table and chairs, and with that single flick of a tail, the giant serpent ripped out half the building… just as it had bisected the whole place.

Debris fell around him as Issei crashed to the ground, footing utterly lost, and the blonde cackled as she strolled behind her sister.

"Man, you really have some legs on you, a pity you chose to close yourself off in here."

Readying her spear, the woman gave him a cruel smile, but then, as her weapon was raised, Issei unable to find his footing amongst the rubble, a scream rang out.

It was high pitched, girlish, and nothing but all consuming panic. Raw and pure and ugly and from a place of terror undiluted by any sort of strength or pride. For a moment, the two of them stood shocked as a figure burst through the rubble, a feeling of wrongness spreading through the area before bursting like a bubble before it could touch them.

'What was that-'

Then he saw her.

Another student. Younger than him with pale skin, the kind who looked like they had never seen a day of sun in their life, a head of short blonde hair and teary pink, almost red eyes blown wide open in fear. Wearing the Kuoh middle schooler uniform, although torn and dusty in places, the student looked at the group in abject terror.

This…

He didn't expect any of this!

'Athena said the place should have been empty.' He remembered that much when they talked.

The hooded sister shook her head, as if stunned by something. He didn't understand why she looked that freaked out, eyes slit in fury as they zeroed in not on Issei… but on the girl.

He didn't like where this was going.

"Stheno! Squash that thing! Before it does that again!" Blood freezing in his veins, Issei saw the massive snake stiffen for a second before slithering away.

"As for you-"

The world around them exploded, rough spears of stone shooting from the walls, ceiling, the floor, crisscrossing as they locked the hooded woman's arm into the place, one of the spears running through the side of her leg. A screech of pain rattled his bones as the force of it blew Issei out of the building and into the air like a cannonball.

Hitting a broken upper floor sent him ankles over head, flipping and hard stopping by face planting into a waterlogged carpet.

Groaning, body actually aching, the young man forced himself to move.

"That girl is in danger."

Each word came out somewhat strained, a sort of cold weight finally starting to settle into his bones.

Still, there was no time to wait. To hesitate. To fear.

Only act.

The two monsters were rallied, the wounded blonde clinging to her sister's back, as the giant snake zeroed in on the blonde student. Issei was two floors up and at an angle to both - closer to his enemies than the other student. So he simply raised his hands and pushed a wall of marble in front of them.

It wasn't enough to stop their attack, but both of them had rallied, another burst of golden dust obscuring their forms and undoubtedly healing any injuries they might have.

But it also meant he was free to act unobserved, too.

Dropping straight down, advancing on neither friend nor foe, Issei brought himself parallel to the duo and began launching vines, spears, and thorns throughout the building in a wide cone.

Each attack was relatively weak, the hastily conjured stone too fragile to do anything but probe and direct and guide, but, every so often, he'd change the angle for a single volley. A huge dumbbell from above, a marble book snapping closed from behind, a mouse trap whose great block of cheese fractured into a rain of fist sized lumps of stone. It was a barrage of blows and strikes meant to tire, distract, and misdirect.

And it had managed to, finally, draw a shuddering gasp from a sweat drenched Issei.

For the first time all day it hurt to breathe, his ribs sore, his lungs burning, his skin clammy. But his absolute barrage of stone hail had not only ruined the far side of the building, tearing massive holes in its structure, but allowed him to raise a single marble staircase up to where the other student was cowering.

Still frozen with fear.

The blonde girl was confused, eyes screwed shut, shaking and in shock.

So he decided he wasn't done.

Pressing the palm of his hands against the scattered marble pieces that littered the floor. The stone beneath his hand grew malleable and clay-like, spreading over the rest of the other pieces that covered the walls and ceiling as it surged upwards like a geyser of liquid stone.

Issei let go with a groan, reaching for the side of his torso in pain.

He'd… completely forgotten about that with the mad rush to escape them.

But if the surprised gasps and rasped curses were anything to go by, his little trick managed to catch the two by surprise as the mass of now solid stone curled around them, sticking them against the hallway with an ugly lump of unworked marble.

"It's not gonna stop them for long. We gotta go!"

Running up the staircase, Issei felt himself walk through another 'bubble' of something. As if the air itself had frozen around him before it returned to normal. The teenager stumbled over to the girl, taking her hand and dashing down the hallway, the blonde unable to resist.

'That weird feeling again.'

There was no time to wonder what it was, he had to get her away before they.

"L-Look out!"

The blonde shouted the warning but it was too late.

An explosion of pain rocked his side!

The force of the impact almost threw Issei off his feet as a long, sharp tip erupted from the side of his stomach, a second prong barely grazing him. Yet the shock was enough to paralyze the boy, a thin blood splatter spraying his clothes, the floor, and the blonde girl beside him, who looked just as freaked out as he was, grabbed him and tried to push him away from the attacker.

For a moment the world slowed down and he saw his own blood, saw the cruise ship, saw his arm and leg shredded. And then there was his stomach, pierced through on one side, and his own blood.

And yet… it didn't hurt as much as it had with Medusa.

Even as he began to fall to the ground, the taste of blood and poison thick on his tongue.

Chapter Text

Gasper was scared.

Gasper was afraid.

Gasper was terrified.

Beyond the young boy's usual brand of skittish avoidance, the half vampire found himself facing what could only be described as one of his worst nightmares come to life. The kind of scenario he'd envisioned as the one thing he should never allow himself to fall prey to.

Exposed.

Helpless.

Powerless.

From the moment that monster had burst through the wall, Gasper found himself living through a life threatening chase, running as far as his legs could carry him, eyes burning as the world flickered in and out of the familiar red color he'd come to hate and fear all these years.

Forbidden Balor View.

The Sacred Gear that had come to define his life, death, and rebirth… was useless.

'I want to go back!' As the desperate thought echoed in his mind, cheeks damp with sweat and tears as the monsters that so suddenly dragged him out of his safe haven pursued him with everything but good intentions, the prized power of his eyes doing little as they burst through it without so much as stumbling.

Scary.

Scary.

Scary.

He didn't want to be here anymore. He wanted to go back to his room. He wanted Rias to come pick him up and tell him it would be okay. But even that felt hollow as it soon became clear that this wasn't a bad dream he could wake up from, but the harsh reality of his next, inevitable death.

A somber reminder that hit him like a stone.

"Hey… you okay?"

A voice suddenly broke through his thoughts. Dispersing them like mist.

That's right, there was someone else here. An older boy that was also being chased by the terrifying monsters. A boy who was leaning against a nearby chunk of rubble, clutching at the side of his stomach with a grimace, Gasper hadn't actually given much thought about him, too distracted by the overwhelming fright that threatened to overwhelm him.

Only now did he realize how worse off the other boy was.

One of the spokes of the spear had pierced straight through his stomach, the other barely avoiding the side of his torso as a steady trickle of blood dripped down the wound.

Even now the weapon sagged, hooked prong catching on the soft flesh of the other boy's stomach and tattered remnants of his school uniform. It was an ugly weapon and an uglier wound. Gasper's fangs extended and hunger welled up in his stomach, screaming at him to lap up every drop of precious ichor… and then shame overcame that.

Biting his lip so hard it bled, the blonde dhampir took in the appearance of his… fellow victim?

Either way, the stab wound wasn't the only injury.

His body was scraped and bruised in places and there was another cut above his ribs, the skin around it looked pale and sickly, darkened veins clearly visible with the contrast.

That… couldn't be natural.

And it was his fault.

"I-I'm sorry." The words came out with a hiccup.

"No worries." Standing tall, hand wrapping around the spear with a strong grip, the other boy gave him a weak smile. "You might want to look away, though. I can't fight with this thing stabbing into me. And I think it might be poisoned."

He was apologizing?!

This brave, injured, foolish human was apologizing?!

Gasper was so shocked he couldn't react or respond.

Issei felt kinda bad for scaring a girl like he was, and for dragging her into it, but he really did need to get blondie's spear out of him.

"Gah!" He bit back a curse and simply made a wordless snarl when he wrenched the weapon loose - vision dimming momentarily and knees swaying at the sudden, vicious tearing.

"Ah. That… sucks."

He was losing a lot of blood.

Again.

"Are you… can I… how do I help?"

Sniffling, eyes watering, looking scared and helpless, the girl took her jacket off and, apologizing as she did so, pressed it against his wound.

Issei hissed and she apologized again.

"Don't worry, seriously, I can get us out of this. You just need to keep your head down, ok? Find a place back inside or in another building. Those two are more worried about me."

Clattering to the floor, the bident, stained with his blood, seemed to… call out to Issei. Like there was some strange connection between his wound and the weapon.

But that was something for later.

At the moment, he focused on Athena's advice and concentrated on his wound. The throbbing of the torn skin, the deep, deep ache of the skewered organs, and the cold, creeping sensation slowly trickling through his veins. That last sensation was what he was after and, concentrating on it, Issei pushed in a way.

Feeling that freezing sensation leave him, even if he was still unpleasantly cold and clammy, the young man rallied a little.

There was still someone to protect… and he still rather enjoyed living.

Heck, this was the first week of school! If he died now, there would be far, far too many visions of heaven that would be missed!

"Ah, visions of heaven?"

Still sniffling, but now more confused than scared, the cute girl looked at him as she held her jacket to his wound. Issei simply chuckled, winced at the pain in his side from chuckling, and smiled.

"Don't worry, we'll get out of here." He tried to give a thumbs up and strike a pose… but almost passed out from the sudden movement. "Ah… it's gonna be ok, ok."

"Why are you comforting me, you idiot!?" Angry, worried, and guiding him over to a chair, the blonde seemed far from fully reassured. "You almost died saving me and now… now you're bleeding to death!"

"Don't worry. Can't bleed to death, Athena said so. At least I think so. I'm not human anymore according to this very cute, very chuuni goddess I met. You'd like her, she's cute like you, and in middle school too."

"And now you're delirious."

"Only a little!"

He laughed, Issei's voice sounding strange and almost frenetic to his own ears. Still, finding himself a bit hilarious, he managed to get his feet under himself and the godslayer, Campione, whatever the name was … prepared to do his job.

That was when the old building shuddered, the thunderous noise of stone shattering and wood splintering echoing on his ear as a, by now, familiar snake slithered its way out of the ruined pile of bricks and board, scales dusty with white stone powder. The Goddess Snake thingy shook off the last of the debris holding her, slowly crawling through the hole with her sister sitting atop her, an ugly, frustrated sneer marring her face.

She really should lighten up on that.

'It's gonna give her wrinkles.'

He couldn't help but think, even as the duo made their way towards him. There was a… leisurely pace to it, as if they knew they didn't have to put in as much effort to catch him as they did before. And to be fair, they were right. Running away with a hole in his stomach was out of the question.

He didn't have anywhere to go either. Not with Athena's force field keeping them all trapped.

The only thing he could do was stand his ground.

"I-I can h-help!" The younger student offered. Well, it was clear to him that she wanted to help, and probably had some kinda power, because those two wouldn't have bothered otherwise.

"No way, you should get going right now."

The blonde looked halfway between relieved and disappointed. Conflict was clear on her face as she watched the duo of goddesses slither towards them. Issei might not have been the most observant guy in the world, but he knew what someone looked like when they'd rather be anywhere else.

"B-But I…" Shit, now she was crying.

Good going. He tried to save someone's life and made them cry instead. Think of something, dumbass brain.

"You helped plenty already." He reassured the blonde with the first thing that came to mind. "Really, don't you know that a real hero can only show their true powers when people aren't around? So you probably should get some distance if you want me to fight for real."

Unfortunately it turned out to be a cheesy ass monologue from a tokusatsu.

"Is t-that so?!"

Please, please don't look at him with such hopeful eyes. Please don't accept such a half assed derivative pep talk. Issei wanted to take it back; it seemed to get the job done, the blonde no longer looking on the brink of breaking down into tears.

So he had to double down.

"Yes! Whether it be pretty girls or cute kids, I can't stand to let anyone else get hurt. Got it?" This part he actually meant, and fortunately the younger student seemed to accept the reasoning, sparing him a glance and a thank you as she ran towards the gym building.

Issei sighed.

That was that handled. Now all that was left…

"Done running, brat?"

Were the snakes.

The blonde, Euryale, he recalled her name, looked down at him from her perch on the snake's head, eyes gleaming with wicked satisfaction at seeing the bloodied jacket pressed against his stomach.

Issei couldn't help it, he smiled back.

"You have shit aim. Are you actually trying to kill me?"

It was probably the wrong thing to say, the smugness in the hooded woman's face quickly becoming anger.

"Then I will be sure to get your head next time."

Picking the spear from the ground, Issei gave the bloodied tip a wary look as he pointed it at the blonde.

"Gonna be pretty hard without this, don't you think?"

Issei couldn't help but fire back, because despite the craziness of having to run away from them and getting almost crushed and eaten by the big snake only for the blonde to stab him…

Issei wasn't afraid.

He was kinda scared, sure, and he knew there was a real chance they would get him now. But even so… Issei couldn't help but feel a small part whisper to him.

'You've had worse.'

On that ship, in that room, when the only thing he had were his wits, his guts, and a half baked plan that didn't work. When all he had left was the desperate need to live, to survive… that had been the worst, scariest, and most exhilarating moment of his life.

This just… didn't compare to that.

'Guess they can't really measure up to you, huh?' It was mean, but of the three scary snake ladies he had tangled with thus far… he'd rather have met Dusa-chan again than waste time on her bitchy older sister.
Beneath his feet, Issei felt the ground crack and shift, the weight of the duo's presence washing over him like a physical force. The reassuring smile he'd given the other student earlier became sharp and eager as something within him braced against the two monsters' attempt at intimidating him.

Despite the fear, the anger, and the tangled ball of feelings that he was experiencing.

Issei couldn't help but welcome the challenge.

"Your mother is the earth, your father is the sea, your skin is that of a maiden cursed as a serpent… "

The words came easily to him.

An urge to speak… an urge to say something about the goddess whose power he'd taken. Not to brag about his victory… but to acknowledge that her life… that those eyes he gazed at in the end… were indeed real.

"...your home is a temple and prison. The owl is your scourge and your patron. Your eyes both beauty and death, and through them you saw a world of marble!"

The school grounds shook, and Issei's leg buckled, vision growing hazy before snapping back into focus as he felt the power within him boil, overflow and burst forward.

"[Mineral Garden]"

From the ground, many great statues suddenly appeared. Statues of thorny vines, of spears, of chisels, and more. Countless of them surging like a wave of white stone. A feeling of deep exhaustion nearly knocked Issei flat as he turned the entire courtyard into a spiked death trap.

'Hopefully that slowed them down.'

As it turned out, not by much. Because the massive snake, Stheno, turned out to be the most nimble reptile in the world, weaving and twirling between the masses of marble without losing so much as a step.

'Guess it was plan B then.'

Issei used his own body as a weapon. Massive, curling spikes swarmed around him, stabbing at the blonde from a dozen directions, but the main attack was exactly as expected. The moment the duo recoiled, dodging his attacks, he launched himself forward - arm and bident extended. Euryale only grinned.

"Now!"

The giant serpent opened her maw, vomiting up a freaking motorcycle!?

And there, in a cloud of rot-stink, flecks of spittle and vomitus flying at him, spear poised to strike a monster… Issei had to end his attack and jump to the side, the spewing serpent's sudden projectile attack sending hundreds of pounds of twisting metal straight at him!

CRASH!

Above him there was the sound of crumpling plastic and tearing metal and flecks of stone rained down around him, but the teenager, abandoning the girl's jacket, surged forwards.

"I'm not that easy to kill!"

He came up under the duo, ready to strike at the underside of Stheno's jaw.

So, lunging forwards, blood spurting from his wound, the Campione put a final burst of energy into his strike - only to be met by Eurayle falling from above. Her dress surged upwards and fanned out, which she used to her advantage, tangling the lengths of black silk around the head of the bident and sharply jerking it away from Issei.

He resisted for just a moment, grunting in pain, tugging back, and then just as suddenly letting go.

His enemy stumbled backwards, surprised at the childish trick, and Issei rushed forwards. With the giant serpent circling around keeping his distance would get him killed - so he closed. Jumping on top of Euryale, he pinned her spear arm to the ground and began punching her as hard as he could.

Blow after blow after blow.

His arm ached with the force of his strikes and his fist was bloody! But this seemed to have little effect on his opponent who simply bucked her hips and caused him to lift with the action.

And in that elevated position, Stheno flicked him with the tip of her tail, sending him flying once more.

In the end, his flight was rather abrupt and ended up with him blasting through a wall. However his landing was, in all things, a girl's bed. The pink silken sheets somewhat gave that fact away. And while this was Issei's first time in such a rather, ahem, longed for situation, he was unfortunately unable to enjoy it.

After all, there was a blonde woman hunting after him and the teenager wasn't particularly interested in letting her pierce him… again.

That wasn't in his playlist!

Leaping upwards, and bringing the sheets with him, he waited until Euryale rushed forwards and repeated her own trick. This time, though, as the blankets obscured her vision, he sent a trio of his own spears forwards.

Wicked spears, with hooked blades and large, flat flanges swinging out to either side, pierced the blankets and it was only his foes's attentiveness that kept her from dying on the spot. Instead, she was impaled through the meat of her thigh, and the bident wielding goddess screeched in pain as, still touching the haft of the weapons, Issei forced the tips to swell up like the bulb of an onion.

It was a cruel sort of attack, but Eurayle sacrificed her leg to escape and, whimpering, fled behind the shelter of her sister's body once more.

"You will not hurt us anymore!"

A sister that seemed enraged - lunging forwards, jaws open wide, and seemingly happy to use issei's compromised position between his spears to swallow him whole.

And in that moment, massive, scything fangs coming closer, his hands still clasped around his creation… creations that he had forced to grow and spread and slip through every crack in their way, he reached out and connected all of his statutes, all of his constructs, all of his weapons and leftover attacks that he could.

At his touch, stone became clay, and the entirety of the school courtyard was overcome by a massive puddle of milky stone. Stone that rippled for a brief moment before shooting upwards as a nearly solid wave of spikes, wicked tips lashing out, piercing into… and then through the massive serpent's body.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

A hundred times in the end.

Issei grit his teeth, sweat making his eyes sting, falling to his knees and losing his grip on his weapons and struggled to even survey his creation; a row of spikes lifting the massive snake off the ground, her mouth snapped shut by the stone she'd swallowed merged with the makeshift spears of stone.

A twinge of guilt and disgust welled up in him, as her voice slipped out in piteous, miserable whines, whimpering in pain and misery.

"You fucking bastard! I'll kill you!"

Ignoring her mutilated leg, blood streaming from a broken nose, Eurayle rushed at him with every ounce of fury she could muster.

But gone was the vicious, clever, lethal woman unleashing attacks of lightning speed and certain lethality. Now she could barely move, not even quite hobbling forwards at a piteous rate. So slow was that Issei, injured as he was in turn, was fast enough to slap her final thrust aside and send a spear of his own at her.

She dodged, or tried too, but the shredded muscle of her leg gave way and the goddess took a spear to her stomach instead of her heart.

"Gah!"

Bled flew from her lips and after a few, final moments, trying and failing to free herself, Euryale the Gorgon… gave up.

"N-not b-b-bad. Bastard."

A bloody smile and Issei wanted to cry.

Righting himself, injury torn open, body numb and burning from the venom-tainted wounds he'd received and purged as best he could, Issei walked over.

He did it.

He'd survived. Somehow, despite everything… he beat the odds again.

"I'm sorry."

So why did he feel so… dissatisfied about it?
Grabbing her shoulder, the teenager braced himself for the groan of pain he knew his enemy would make, but the sound of marble scraping against bone was still enough to make him shiver.

"G-Going to gloat? Drag it out?"

Putting the lightly squirming Gorgon into a bridal carry, the brown haired Campione cradled the now very weak, limp, and suddenly seemingly much smaller goddess in his arms. Carrying her over to her sister, he had to lean against a stone spike and slowly, carefully, as gently as he could lower the impaled serpent to the ground.

A cough of golden ichor… and her wounds only slowed for a moment.

"S-sorry, sis."

Stomach torn open, scales splintered and smashed, one eye gone, the giant, terrifying, monstrously beautiful serpent was maimed to the point of death. hundreds of small wounds covered every inch of her body and dozens of large ones tore foot long rents in muscle and armor.

"You did good. 'Dusa would be proud." Speaking to both of them, Issei laid Euryale down next to her sister's maw.

"What did you know about her? About… us? You killed her… us." Euryale looked at him for a moment, rage and distaste forgotten in favor of confusion.

Issei sat beside the eldest sister, looking up at the sky as he tried to think of a good way to explain himself.

"At first… I didn't know much. Or well… I mistook her for someone else and caused a big mess. I think I said a few things that made her angry, well… angrier than she already was. But I didn't care back then. She killed my parents, chased me all over the place and made life really difficult for a few days. She was a really angry goddess."

Stheno let out a hissing laugh, pained as it was.

"That… sounds like her."

Euryale was less convinced.

"W-What changed then? Why… don't you hate her? Hate us?"

That was harder to explain.

"I don't like it when girls get sad." The looks of bewilderment they sent him were clear. "Rather, I guess seeing a girl get angry at me is easier than seeing one get sad. Back then, after we were done fighting I didn't want her to look so sad anymore."

He would never forget those eyes.

Beautiful.

She was beautiful in a way Issei wasn't sure he could ever appreciate. More so than anything or anyone else he'd ever seen. But even now, that moment when he saw her for the first time through the mirrors, the way she looked so miserable and angry to exist.

How could he not have felt something?

"That's how it was, huh? Guess she really is still the most popular. Talk about unfair." Euryale huffed, her skin, pale as it had been before, had become pure white, cracks showing on her cheek and down her neck, small bits of white stone flaking away.

As if she was turning into stone.

"You guys-"

The elder sister scoffed.

"Did you think us gods die like humans? To begin with, our bodies come from nothing so is it that surprising that we don't leave anything behind?" As if to prove her point the white cracks seemed to spread over her clothes and down her stomach, pieces falling away to reveal a hollow where before there had been flesh and blood.

Stheno was the same.

Scales whitening and cracking, the holes where she'd been stabbed through falling apart around the pikes. The two goddesses, resigned to their loss, seemed content just talking now. More so than they were earlier today when all they did was snap and curse at him as if possessed by an anger they couldn't shake off.

Issei couldn't help but wonder how sad it was.

"Sorry."

"You keep repeating that. If you didn't wanna kill us, you should have let us win, brat. You won, at least look happy about it." She snapped the last part in annoyance.

"I didn't want to fight you two to begin with! What was I supposed to do? Let you run around destroying the place, attacking people. Do you even know how many people you two probably hurt? Why did you even do this? Attack me all you want, but leave other people out of this." Because he couldn't understand how these two, who sounded so reasonable and even friendly now, could have ever chosen the plan they did.

"You make it sound so simple."

"Is it?"

"No." Stheno interjected, her voice frustrated. "We are heretics. It is all we are. And we only wanted our sister. Medusa might have had more leeway, but the only way humans have ever thought of us were as monsters."

Issei… patted her snout.

"Yeah. I know. She was one of a kind."

"Seems like sister got to him." Stheno tittered, a little sadness and exhaustion lingering under the sound.

Issei's cheeks colored. He really didn't want this to become about his crush on their dead sister.

"Tell you what, Brat." Blondie shifted, her dress falling away. "You need to keep on living." Her body underneath was less than a statue. Skin flaking, bones turned to powder, blood long since made into lye ash. "We're inside of you, part of you, now. So until we can kick your ass… you gotta keep kicking ass. When it's all three of us, you're ours."

Issei, just as he had with Stheno, reached out and touched Euryale's body. Her hand took his, wordlessly, and put it to her chest - over her heart. He felt… something. Perhaps a heartbeat, perhaps not. But something.

"Yeah."

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the figurine of Medusa he'd been working on earlier.

"I promise."

Placing it in the hands of her sister, he picked Euryale up for a final time and brought her to Stheno's head, the two now weeping mingled tears of joy and regret.

"Hey Brat."

"Hmm?"

His voice was stuck in his throat and the teenager didn't trust himself to speak.

"What's your name?"

Stheno's tone, gentle and light, sounded like the girl she seemed to truly be.

"Issei."

"Keep your word, Issei."

Before he realized it, surrounded by a glowing cloud of dust, the bodies of two immortal and ancient goddesses crumbling to dust, Blondie - his enemy, the woman who had been trying so very hard to kill him - pressed a kiss to his lips.

And it was that sensation and the giggles of Stheno the Serpent of Life and Death, the Devouring Healer, that were the last he knew of either.

As the feeling of the bloody, chapped lips of his foe lingered, the impression of her tongue, the taste of her, ashy and sooty and an underlying hint of venom and iron, that remained only for a moment more.

So now his kills numbered three.

Three sisters, nestled together peacefully, at long last.

'Three for three, huh.' Issei laid back, looking at the ruins of the old building.

Somehow, he couldn't find it in himself to be satisfied with... anything. The ruined date. The chase. The fight.

Campione.

Godslayer.

Before, he didn't know how he felt about it. The way Athena described it, you'd expect him to feel like a hero in the story, slaying monsters and saving girls. Only it seemed that nothing he fought really felt like a monster.

'Next time, it won't come to that.' He promised himself.

Next time, he would be strong enough that nobody would have to die.

Laying down on a soft patch of grass, having limped over to a tree, he leaned back against the warm bark and closed his eyes.

In.

Out.

The pain in his side throbbing.

The feeling of Stheno's warm scales and Euryale's soft lips.

The sun slowly, slowly setting.

He couldn't help it.

Issei closed his eyes.

"What a bewildering turn of events.'

Vexing, yet most enervating.

Watching on from her perch atop the Spider's back, the silver haired goddess' eyes trailed the form of the young godslayer as he moved away from the scattered remains of the gorgons, only for exhaustion to overcome him soon after.

Alone.

Helpless.

Powerless.

But victorious nonetheless.

As she was now, she couldn't properly congratulate him as a goddess of war should. Nor was she possessed of the emotional maturity to ignore the feelings of annoyance that flashed within her chest. Because for what must have felt like the first time in eons, Athena the Wise had been wrong.

Or, rather, she'd miscalculated.

It wasn't often that one as wise as her august self could be proven wrong and yet the young man who'd hosted her for the afternoon somehow had defied the fate she'd foreseen for him once again. Even reduced as she was, the heretic goddess couldn't help the confusion… nay… the curiosity that blossomed with her.

'How did he accomplish this?'

Prodigious mind running through multiple simulations, she'd reviewed the information she'd collected over the course of the afternoon. As well as the knowledge she inherently possessed of the two gorgons.

There hadn't been any deviation from their side.

How could there be? They were her [Serpent], as much a part of her legend as the monster beneath her, the [Spider], was. Both fragments Athena had gone through great lengths to collect. Only this one would need to be retaken at a later time.

She would have to leave.

Reevaluate her understanding of the situation.

Bound as she was by the principles of hospitality, there wasn't much she could do now that wouldn't tarnish her own honor. The devil spawn she'd been entertaining might have earned some of her wrath, but that too would need to be rectified at a later date.

"The experiment has concluded."

She announced, shaking herself free of her reverie, power responding in kind as her authority receded from the barrier; the threads that reinforced it and connected it to her own magical energy snapping as the protections shuddered and then collapsed.

Athena considered the two devils.

She really wished she could finish this.

The two heiresses had put up a… respectable fight against her Avatar. However, few could boast of the power to match the might of a goddess, even one as possessed of mercy and self control as this Athena. The end result being that the three who'd attempted to barge into her test earlier were left restrained by the silver thread of her [Spider].

Athena felt like humiliating them further.

But this was the extent to which her conscience would allow her.

'Perhaps some time hanging from the trees will teach them good manners.' It wouldn't become fatal unless they weren't let down for several weeks, and going by the incoming power signatures she felt, it wouldn't be long until their servants arrived at the scene now that she was permitting their ingress.

Satisfied with the punishment, Athena reincorporated the [Spider] into her shadow, sparing the young man across the courtyard one final glance.

Her intent had been simply to recover the [Serpent] and then be on her way. But to think that the great goddess Athena would find something even more valuable than one of the misplaced portions of herself in these far away shores. Far from an enemy, or the shameless thief she expected.

She found a puzzle.

A challenge to take apart.

'Yes, I shall be watching you with utmost attention. Issei Hyoudou."

After all, with their… sojourn interrupted… he still owed her.

So, for this moment, she touched [Spider] once again and called a needle to her hand.

Red silken thread trailing from the shining, black chitin of her self's fang, she knelt next to the bleeding boy and tore away what little was left of his jacket. Licking the tip of the needle, she began to sew, watching flesh sizzle and pop and rejoin with each dip of her hand, each pinprick of blood, each tightening of the weave.

In the end, she'd sewed up both sides of Issei's stomach, her spit sufficing to heal the flesh within him.

Campione were quite impervious to the power of gods, but only from without.

Content, Athena let her sewing work rest, wondering how she ought to be thanked for all her hard work before flickering away in a momentary burst of silver light.

But she would be back.

Mortals did need guidance after all.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Rias didn't consider herself to be vainglorious, either as a woman or a Devil.

Certainly, there was much she could be, and was, proud of.

She was proud of being the daughter of two doting and at times embarrassing parents. Proud of the happiness that they had always tried their best to shower her in. Proud of the name whose history she would one day carry on her back with dignity.

Without a doubt, she was heiress to a family of loving, powerful, and wealthy nobility, themselves the inheritors of a mantle that stretched back to the origins of Devil-kind itself. Rias Gremory was proud of her ancestry, of their struggles and triumphs, and of all the sacrifices, compromises, and exaltations it had taken to raise their children and their children's children to the status of Pillar.

And her parents, as people who eschewed those very games, who compromised their own potential for the sake of giving their children a future… if in all ways but one. She was still proud of them, too.

Then there were other types of pride.

She was proud of her beauty. Although not something she commented on often, it was something she did put a measure of effort into. She was proud of her abilities, even if she couldn't hold a candle to her older brother, Rias had always reassured herself that time and experience would be her allies.

That she still had the time to be free and experience everything the world had to offer before she was eventually needed back home.

Above all else, however, Rias was proud of her peerage.

Proud of the love and care she held for them. Proud of how they looked towards her for leadership and support. Like any good Gremory, there was clearly no distinction between the family she was born to and the family she had come to build around herself.

More so than anything, that was the thing she was the proudest of.

And that precious peerage, that pride, had been trampled underfoot.

"Is it done?" She asked, tone measured and cool, small flickers of her gifts still flashing into existence for one moment and blinking out in the next.

"I know you're angry, Rias. But I need to focus."

Her friend's response was strained, annoyed, too, but refusing to give in to anger.

So what if it had been only two minutes since Sona started disassembling the barrier? From the moment she'd been released from that… abomination's restraints, Rias had tried to hammer her way through the barrier left behind by the Heretic God. Throwing blasts of power that would have reduced all but the strongest of mortal defenses to ash and decay.

But her friend was smart and her skills with magic far more advanced than the redhead had realized. So, despite her leaving the barrier was still active and surging with raw, divine power, even if it was not reinforced by the Heretic directly. Some small part of her even acknowledged that it was likely a sign of genius on the part of Sona that her magic could handle that much raw, foreign power rushing through it.

That had only stoked the heiress's rage higher, though, and driven her to attack more viciously.

Sona, however, pleaded with her to not destroy her hard work. Having pointed out that any bleed through from the Power of Destruction risked injuring Gasper… or angering the others trapped in there with him. So, in as much hurry as the other Devil could manage, began taking control over the defense mechanisms once again and deactivating them one by one.

'We can always put them back together later.'

Her foot tapped the ground impatiently.

"Rias…"

Head snapping to the side in annoyance, the redhead's temper cooled at the sight of Akeno's concerned frown. The Queen looked just as disheveled as she did, with pieces of her uniform tattered and others stuck to her body by that spider's sticky threads that couldn't be cut off without risking injuring her.

To the side, Kiba and Koneko watched the two of them silently, though she could tell they were probably bothered by her state.

It was… humiliating.

Rias had never thought herself the strongest. How could she when her older brother ruled over the underworld? But there had always been a part of her that thought that only those chosen few were beyond her. That when she chose to make her debut in the arena, there would be none but the best capable or willing to stand in her way.

Only that wasn't the case anymore.

"Sorry, Akena, I'm just…"

"Worried for Gasper. We understand." The raven haired Queen stepped beside her, a reassuring presence in a sea of conflicting emotions that made Rias' eyes burn red.

"How is the situation in town?" She asked, distractedly, letting Sona and Tsubaki continue their work.

Fortunately Kiba was quick on the uptake and provided her a distraction.

"Whatever curse was put on the locals is gone. They seem confused and some are still a bit scared, but outside of a few close calls, the damage has mostly been to cars and a few buildings."

"Close calls?"

Kiba winced.

"Miss Sona's peerage got to the scene before us but… a few of the older folks had heart attacks from the wide area effect. There were a few who got caught by the stampede too, but between the Vice President and the Bishops, no one is dead." He tried to sound reassuring, but even the often cool tempered knight seemed frazzled.

Koneko looked down, less enthused than him.

"Too close. Could have been dangerous."

Great, now she could add guilt to the list of unpleasant feelings that had her wanting to tear the hair out of her scalp in frustration. Never mind her school, the city she was in charge of protecting had been attacked and was still in a state of disarray.

Had it been just the humiliation, she could have swallowed her pride and let it slide.

But to have one of her precious servants, her family, dragged into some sort of warped experiment by that Heretic God was enough to rekindle her anger and fan it to new heights. Not just because they had been completely ignored and then soundly defeated by that incarnation of disaster, but also were forced to watch as whatever scheme she had concocted unfolded before their very eyes.

With Rias' bishop stuck in the middle of it.

Gasper had never been the… most courageous of men, to put it mildly.

Most nights she could barely get him to speak to her, let alone try to get him out of his room. The seal had been a necessary precaution, and she was loath to disobey her brother's orders, but even so… part of her wished she could have been a better friend, a better King to the half-vampire boy.

And then there he was, running for his life, crying his poor heart out as he was chased by whatever creature that goddess had unleashed on their school.

So yes, she was stressed, angry, and impatient.

But above all else, Rias Gremory felt defeated.

"Rias… the barrier is down."

But that would come later. The shame and self loathing could wait until she was back home. The sound of her wings unfurling behind her doing little to deafen the sound of her heartbeat in the red headed devil's ears. The shrill whistling of the wind dead to her ears as she frantically looped around the school property.

"Gasper!" She called.

To her relief a head of familiar blonde hair poked out from a few bushes near the gymnasium, teary red eyes zeroing on her as the half vampire ran out of his hiding place. Dirty and tattered, but otherwise alive.

"Pres-"

She didn't let him finish, swooping down, Rias embraced the young vampire before he could so much as say a word, pressing him against her bosom in a vice grip as a great weight she didn't know she had been carrying slipped away and a sigh of relief escaped her.

She wasn't done fretting, however.

"Are you fine? Were you hurt? I don't see any bleeding. Did you hit your head? How many fingers am I showing?"

A barrage of questions came out with little time in between, the devil content to flash a light at the boy's eye while checking him all over again from head to toe to make sure she didn't miss anything.

She swore, if he was so much as bruised, that Heretic would rue the day-

"Oh my, oh my… Rias, you are smothering him." Flying over to where the King was, Akeno came into view with a giggle. "Its good to see you, Gasper, are you well?"

"Mhmm!" A nod, though the boy did hug Rias back. "There was a really cool guy! He was like a Kamen Rider! He charged at the crazy lady and the giant snake and kept me safe… h-he's also really hurt! We have to help him!" Gasper tried to pry himself off the King's hold to no avail.

Emergency or not, she wasn't letting him out of her sight.

Sona and Tsubaki joined the group, touching down nearby.

"We completed a scan of the area and Tsubaki visually confirmed my results. No one else is present - none of the staff or any other students."

There was a pause and Tsubaki in particular looked worried, speaking up when Sona opened and closed her mouth, unsure of how to speak.

"We did find blood, tainted beyond recovery, and the magical signature attached to the large amount of debris has not been registered before with an extraordinary amount of energy still left in it, too. The amount and quality is far in excess of what should be possible to conjure with a simple spell." A rather pregnant pause. "I ran into a similar scene while in town, and can only guess that whoever was trapped here with Gasper and those Heretics likely came here to lure them away from the city. "

Her long time friend sighed, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

"Given these findings, the nature of the culprit behind this incident. And the likelihood that Gasper was only collateral caused by that Heretic's plan. There is one reasonable conclusion as to what her target might have been. Her natural enemy."

Rias froze.

"Campione?"

It was the only conclusion.

"Ah, dear heiresses, I'm so glad to see everyone is ok!" A slightly frazzled looking salaryman suddenly found a glowing fist, lightning sparking fingers, multiple weapons, and a water dragon aimed at him. "Ah, sorry, sorry, didn't mean to sneak up on you."

Throwing up his hands, the middle aged man backed up a couple steps and began rapidly bowing his head.

"My apologies, sirs and madams, my apologies."

"Who are you?" Kiba, sword drawn, slowly began maneuvering to flank the man while Koneko and Tsubaki both positioned themselves in front of their Kings. Akeno, silently, began to levitate, ready to seize the high ground as thunder began to gather above. "And I would suggest speaking quickly."

"Touma Amakasu, of the History Compilation Committee." A formal bow, dipping down past his knees. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Well now, I didn't expect you back so soon."

Blinking, confused, and with his head in the lap of a very pretty lady he had never seen before-

"Wait… I know… you."

Grunting, feeling a pull in his side, Issei adjusted his position. Though he most definitely didn't actually get up. It was a very, very soft pillow, after all.

"Young man, you're really not supposed to make your elders work this much, you know?"

A manicured finger poked at his cheek softly, the smile on the lady's face seeming more surprised and indulgent than her words sounded. Looking at her, Issei tried to recall where he'd seen her. All of this felt so familiar yet so alien that he couldn't tell whether it was a dream, a memory, or both. Even reality itself seemed to be a bit weak - as if he wasn't really where he was.

There was a field, Issei felt sure of that, and there were grasses and flowers under his back. But the colors weren't real, in fact he wasn't entirely sure there was color.

"Have we… met?"

The pink haired woman blinked owlishly, confused, but in focus, real, solid. He reached up and grasped her hand where she'd been poking his cheek.

"Oh? Now what do we have here? You remember me?"

Kinda? He couldn't exactly place a name, but he knew that this wasn't the first time they'd met.

And if it wouldn't have sounded weird, the teenager would have admitted to recognizing her scent. Mild and gentle as it was, it was like smelling… fresh cooked rice and salty air and the stinging exhilaration of climbing Mt. Fuji when he was a kid. She smelled like Hope, as silly as the thought was.

"Oh my… you actually remember. Well isn't that a welcome surprise. Then again… perhaps the act those three-who-were-one put on has made it possible for you to recall our first meeting? Or perhaps the circumstances of their birth and your own latent potential have filled in the gaps. You certainly don't appear to have any links to the nether realm like Annie."

Annie?

Had he heard that name before? It felt familiar too.

"Sorry, I'm… kinda hurting."

She waved him off with a pleasant smile, helping him scoot up and lean back against her. For some reason, it seemed neither forwards nor inappropriate to be held like a small child by a girl who was undoubtedly smaller than he.

"No, no! Don't worry! You actually got really hurt this time. Not as badly as when I put you back together, but those two definitely pushed the envelope this time. Why, if they hadn't decided to play nice at the end, I'd have shown them my patented Pandora Punch!"

She delivered an upper cut at an imaginary target.

"Those two? Stheno and Euryale?"

Were they here?

"Sorry to say they have already moved on. Not before making a bunch of demands of me, mind you! You'd think they'd show some appreciation but troublemakers like those girls never think before acting. Though… I can't complain."

Oh, so they already left. That was a shame.

"Now now, no frowning. Even if those two barely counted as an individual god they still went through the entire trouble of setting this up. Don't let your brothers and sisters know, but I'm kinda bending the rules here just because those three technically count as the same."

Rules?

Siblings?

Issei didn't get it. And he sure as hell didn't remember having siblings, no matter how much his parents tried.

And they tried. A lot.

"Yes ma'am." He agreed anyway. That seemed the sensible thing. "Will I meet them some day?"

"Your siblings?" Her eyes twinkled and they both sat there silently, as her grin grew into a smirk. "And your girlfriends, too, yes, you will~"

Blushing, the teenager wanted to protest, that was his instinct, but the truth was he didn't… feel lust for them. Just a bit of regret and melancholy. Pity wouldn't be what either Medusa or Euryale wanted, though Stheno seemed like she might have enjoyed being spoiled.

"Well, I suppose I'll wait until then. Thank you, um, Miss?"

"Missus, actually. Mrs. Pandora, though you may simply call me Pandora or Mama! That would be very much appreciated. Formality is a bit pointless and my husband, Epimetheus, would adore you, too."

"Ah. Pandora. Thank you. Can I meet Epimetheus?"

That got a small sigh from her.

"Possibly. I would like that. For you and your brothers and sisters to sit and listen to his stories. It would be nice."

"But that's not going to happen?"

"No. I don't think it will. Not unless a great deal changes."

They sat there, quiet, Issei enjoying the hug. It was nice. And, at the very least, he doubted he'd be able to murder Pandora.

'I shouldn't think like that.'

He knew he'd been acting in defense of himself and others - innocents who needed to be protected. But what little he knew of Heretic Gods told him they were pitiful things, warped by human ideas, changed and mutilated and distorted beyond any and all reason and tormented by their incomplete nature.

Death was probably a mercy.

"But I still feel guilty for making a girl cry."

"Yeah, you do." His sudden outburst was taken in stride and the lilac haired girl squeezed him tighter, a great deal of warmth in her small arms. "But you're young, you'll learn that life isn't fair and some things must be done. As tragic as it is, a Heretic God's very nature will invite disaster. Their existence will cause plague, famine, war, or worse, given enough time. Besides, you Campione, you champions of humanity, defy Gods and Devils alike."

She rubbed his forehead and gently ran her fingers across a few, new scars… and the stitching in his side he just noticed.

"Even the ones that want to love humans torment them by their very existence. No matter how much anyone might wish it was different. So long as there is no All-Mighty, then Faith shall gather and form someone or something to fill that role."

"I see."

It was a lie.

Issei didn't understand what any of that meant, but it was true. Pandora's words were something he understood instinctively to be correct and without disassembly. However, no matter how right they might have been… that didn't mean he believed in them.

Somewhere deep inside, he still couldn't accept them.

"Shh. Rest." A kiss to his forehead. "My son, you have been through a battle and your wounds are not yet healed. So sleep. I will hold you until it is time to wake."

Issei woke up confused, but not upset or even disoriented per se.

A strange sense of dejavu as his consciousness slowly crawled its way back to the forefront of his mind and the world started coming into focus once again. From the side, orange light peered through thin drapes and onto him, a faint breeze rustling the cloth as the teen pulled himself up right, arm scraping against rough sheets and sinking only a little ways into the cot he found himself on.

'What happened?'

He… remembered a lot.

The date, Athena, the chase all over town and into the school, and the fight that ended with him nearly dying again… and killing a goddess again. For some reason the thought had him frowning, the side of his stomach felt tender and painful, like moving too much would pull a muscle.

There was also a migraine.

'I had a weird dream again… didn't I?'

This kind of thing happened last time with Dusa-chan. A weird dream.. something with fluffy clouds and a lap pillow? It was hard to remember, and he couldn't help but feel… sad despite that sounding like one heck of a good dream. Instead Issei found himself sighing, leaning against pillows as he finally noticed that this wasn't his room.

"The infirmary?" Vocalizing his confusion helped him put things in order, but there was no sudden, all consuming flash of inspiration as everything rushed in.

Off, across the way and outside of easy view, he could see the ruins of the old building through the window, and the smell of disinfectant meant someone had dragged him to the nurse's office after he fainted.

Man, talk about looking lame.

'I'm gonna have to thank her later.' Or thank whoever went through the trouble of patching him up and dragging him to a bed. Right after he got around to calling his parents.

He told him he would be running late, but neither accepted his explanation of a date.

They probably thought he was out with his friends.

Adding that to his pile of things to do, there was also the whole thing with being attacked by a pair of goddesses… after he took a third one out on a date. He hadn't seen Athena since they separated but Issei assumed that she had gotten away after the fighting started.

Talk about a terrible first date.

Getting interrupted by killer monsters must have set a new record for bad first impressions.

'I should have asked for her number.' Did goddesses even have cell phones?

Mourning at the lost chance of a second date, the high schooler considered whether he was cursed to be attacked by pretty girls for the rest of his life. Even when he somehow took one of them out, the others still somehow interrupted it.

Knock!

Knock!

A noise at the door drew Issei's attention, the teenager spinning around in place to see an adult, perhaps a bit younger than his parents, standing at the entrance to the school infirmary. Her hair was long, long enough he suspected it took her a rather inordinate amount of time to care for, and she was wearing a pair of sunglasses… indoors.

Normally, he might have made a comment about that, if only in the privacy of his own head. However, more pressing than that was the rather… generous display.

'OPPAI!'

Wearing an almost unassuming, and yet devastating combination of black skirt, blazer, tie, and white blouse, she was a knock down, drag out beauty! With hips that didn't quit, legs that went on for miles, and the top two buttons of her blouse were undone!

'And she's smiling at me!?'

While Issei tried to come up with something to say, she simply brought a latte cup up to her lips, a small, half smile hiding behind the cup, and took a drink.

"My, my. I see you're an early riser, Issei~"

There were so many things he wanted to say!

'There are about three different things I wanna do!'

But, before the young man could absolutely humiliate himself in front of a stupidly attractive woman, way, way outside his league, a very important thought occurred to him.

"Is that girl ok?"

Seemingly confused, for just a moment, the woman almost but did not quite frown.

"Girl?"

"Blonde, ah, a middle schooler, I think? She was crying a lot."

"Oh!" The almost frown turned into a smile quite quickly. "Why yes, Mr. Hero, you did manage to save her… but what kind of champion falls asleep as soon as he beats the boss?"

He swallowed.

The lady had bent over.

He wanted… he wanted to reach out… or at least stare.

"No, no, no." Screwing his eyes shut, he tried to focus. "I didn't get her name. But she was hurt. And, well, the other two, uh, well, they're gone now. Athena too, I suppose."

"Hmm. You know, your profile says you're an irredeemable pervert that likes to peep on girls and harass women."

Tone completely shifted, the wonderfully beautiful woman had stood up, set her coffee down, and buttoned up her top.

"But I have to admit even profiles can be wrong. Both because you're a Campione and because it's a bit silly to peep on girls in this day and age. That's just… so old school in this age of information." Bowing, the black haired woman introduced herself, pulling out a badge attached to a document from her pocket. Which she promptly handed him over.

Agent… 5M17H?

Smith?

"Seriously?"

She smiled impishly.

"Picked it myself. Still, on behalf of the History Compilation Committee, allow me to offer our sincere thanks for your actions. We hope that our tardiness hasn't been an inconvenience."

"I…"

Something turned over in his head.

"Agent… Smith?"

"Yes."

"You knew my name."

"I did."

"You have a profile on me."

"I do."

Issei tilted his head, confused.

"Why does the government have a file on me, other than my insurance stuff and registry, I guess."

"I see someone here is fond of their police dramas. Or maybe you were playing that copy of 'Lady Prisoners Rehab Clinic II' that you and your friends downloaded illegally? Don't you know all sorts of unscrupulous folks can get your information like that?" The older woman's teasing smile curled up further, eyes asking him whether he really wanted those questions answered.

Issei wisely shut up.

This lady was dangerous!

"Choice of entertainment aside, you have been very busy in the past month. Really, first a fight aboard a cruise ship and now a brawl that demolished an entire school building? Did you wait until we breathed a sigh of relief before nearly giving us a heart attack again?"

Sipping from her cup, the dark haired lady breathed out a moan of delight that made his spine crawl.

"I guess you guys know about the ship, huh?"

Handing him the second mug of coffee, Sumi took a seat beside the bed.

"Yes, we do. It's not everyday that a ship goes missing like that. We have a vested interest in trying to keep the public from realizing there are things going bump in the night. So big incidents like this and the ship one month ago are the situations we treat very seriously."

Issei hummed in thought.

So there really was someone covering up all the magic stuff after all.

"Yeah, you guys make it very hard to find anything. I spent a whole week trying to figure out if I was the only one with weird magic powers before I gave up." He grouched, lamenting the hours he lost rummaging through stupid conspiracy theory websites.

The agent smiled indulgently.

"Thank you. We put a lot of effort into scrubbing the web. Really, you wouldn't imagine the amount of time and money the committee had to invest on our cyber-division. With the ease of access these days, it's a miracle people haven't noticed yet."

He nodded, begrudgingly.

If anyone could learn about the secret magic side of things, things would get crazy really fast.

"So, is that what you're here for? To cover up the fight?"

"Good guess! But you get half marks. We're here to help clean up, sure, but the actual reason we're here is actually a covert operation that could land our folks in hot water any other time of the year." Issei blinked, confused at the admission.

"Should you… be saying that?"

"Probably not, it is top secret. In fact, if not for these precise circumstances, my head ought to be put on a platter."

Issei swallowed dry at the admission.

"Then-"

"Why tell you at all? That should be obvious. A ship goes missing as a result of a Heretic God, only for said ship to arrive safely, if damaged. And now, a month later, a town is attacked by two more Heretics only for them to be defeated just as promptly. If the cause for their appearance can't be investigated… then that only leaves investigating the cause for their vanishing, right?"

Where there was smoke, there was fire.

Where there were gods dying… there should be someone killing them.

"Oh." Blinking in realization, Issei felt his stomach drop.

They were here for him.

"I don't suppose I can just confess to a few illegal downloads and pay a fine?" He chuckled. "And I should probably ask you guys not to look at my search history."

A small snort and a pat on his hand from the agent.

"Too late for that, I'm afraid, Issei."

His cheeks burned.

"I… I see."

"If it makes you feel any better, your taste isn't the worst I've ever seen." His cheeks deepened any more. "And, besides, you're a healthy young man. I'm sure our Prime Minister would approve of your… enthusiasm."

Hands balled up in the infirmary blanket, feeling a sense of intense shame, he bowed his head.

"Please don't bring that up anymore."

Smith made a sound of agreement.

"I assume you have been made aware of your station." Sipping from her mug, she leaned back.

"Yeah, yeah. Campione. God slayer. I was in a bit of a rush the first time but I got the jist of it." The look she sent him was searching, as if trying to figure out whether he was trying to keep something out of the story. Which he kinda was. There was no way they were gonna believe him about taking a goddess out on a date.

They would think he was stupid.

"So, what? Do I have to go out and fight angry gods every time they show up?"

Smith smiled thinly.

"We would prefer if you warned us of any impending fights if possible. But yes, there are very few capable of handling those problems in Japan and we would like you to work with us if possible. With due compensation of course. You should know, however, that others do, or soon will, know about you. A Demon King isn't the sort of information that ever stays private."

A few things percolated through Issei's mind and it took him a moment to realize something.

"Do I… have to tell my parents about this? They don't remember anything about the ship so I didn't tell them but… are they gonna be okay?"

Seeming a little sad, the agent nodded as if understanding the hidden question.

"We, of course, will do everything in our power to protect the citizens of Japan. But it's quite possible they will be targeted."

Issei sighed.

So he'd have to break the news to them somehow, huh?

That wasn't a conversation he was looking forward to.

"In the meantime, is there anything you would like to ask? I imagine you have questions."

Lots of them.

But he'd get the important one out of the way first. After all, no matter what, there was still one thing above all others. One thing that stood out, clear as day.

"Do Campione have harems?"

Chapter Text

Date: 20XX-X-XX (Tuesday)

Time: 14:43

Location: Yokota Air Base

Name: [REDACTED]

Most humble greetings Tennoheika-sama, who resides in the Serene Palace in Tokyo, I, your faithful servant and colonel of your armed services, am delivering the report requested by your Majesty.

On the date of XXXX-XX-XX an incident occurred off the coast of Osaka. To the south east, roughly twenty kilometers out, unusual weather patterns were detected by satellite, followed by M-RADAR readings consistent with the descent of a Heretic God [see addendum H]. Initial scans confirmed the presence of a Class 1 entity, however sorties by both JSDAF and USAF surveillance planes failed to locate the entity whatsoever.

It was discovered, approximately twenty minutes later, that a cruise ship's tracking systems had disappeared from all records and a naval vessel attempted to determine if it was in distress [see addendum N]. Upon encountering a thick bank of fog manifested in the middle of the sea, the captain of the ship informed command and attempted to press forwards - correctly surmising that a supernatural event was ongoing and that civilians were at risk.

The vessel, the JS [REDACTED] would reappear three days later, having seemingly only spent about two hours in the fog before appearing approximately four kilometers away from their point of entrance with no records of the intervening time or useful record from within the fog.

Upon disappearance of a JS vessel and the failure to detect the entity, a general alert was issued to both the HCC and the Noble Families of the Lotus, along with the Three Temples of Diligent Striving and the CIA.

All attempts to locate and board the vessel would fail.

However, in a seeming miracle, after much fear and anticipation, the cruise ship, the Akamaru, originally commissioned from STX Europe, was found floating, mostly intact, and brutally mauled. And while casualties were not only anticipated, but believed to be total, we found that no physical injury remained, in any way whatsoever, to any of the crew or passengers except those resulting from misadventure after their restoration to human state.

While there was a general and extreme level of fear amongst both groups, including several individuals that needed to be sedated for their own protection, HCC mages were able to nullify all issues of memory, adjust the impact of psychological trauma, and cover up the entirety of the event in about twelve hours.

That is to say, other than the loss of the ship and the costs to heal those injured during this event, and the subsidies to their long term therapy under the guise of public sector mental health care spending, there were no losses.

It was a miracle. However, the individual who slew the Heretic remained unknown to us. Investigations were conducted but there was no conclusive evidence at the time.

I confess that, upon confirmation of total recovery of all individuals involved in this incident, including a large number of children, that I and many of my officers became unmanned and wept tears of joy. I humbly apologize for this display and accept any rebuke for such inappropriate actions that your Majesty may offer. However, I do ask that leniency be shown to the brave servicemen, of all branches and forces, that had spent more than a week attempting to locate and save even a single life.

Many of them had been without sleep and risked both their health and even their lives to protect the citizens and subject of this land.

This concludes my report on all preliminary factors at this time.

[See addendum I for exit interviews of.]

[See addendum 7 for analysis of the Seventh Demon King's likely identity.]

This humble lamb greets His Holiness with grave news.

I send with this letter the confirmation and intel required to verify my findings and urge His Holiness to peruse at his discretion, but to refrain in doing so before this humble servant may report his findings.

It is as we have feared.

A new Tyrant has indeed been born in Japan. Though confirmation was slow, one of my contacts within the Committee, may the Lord's light shine upon his soul, contacted me with the information. Therefore this one saw fit to send a missive.

We must be ever vigilant as to the crows and serpents that prowl the garden. And thus I hope this letter has arrived at the Vatican unspoiled.

The rise of a Tyrant in Devil territory proves to be as much of a sudden boon as it is a curse for the cause. Without mincing words, the likelihood that Kuoh Town will stay the direct jurisdiction of the Devils is small. Whether they choose to remain under the vassalage of the Tyrant or retreat to the Underworld, we should consider their influence on local affairs to be curbed.

Though that brings us to the nature of the new Godslayer.

I must admit to my shame that I had completely forgotten about the boy until the moment I saw the photo provided by my contact.

Indeed… to think a young boy whose house I often visited would become one of the Demon Kings, I cannot help but see this as a matter of test from the Heavenly Father.

O' God forgive this foolish man's inattentiveness!

Ahem!

Apologies for the indiscretion.

Our brothers in Kyoto have reported that no movement has been made by the Yokai of the West, and the case is much the same about the East outside of a few murmurs of discontent. It is the nature of the Tyrant to prey upon those of supernatural descent, after all.

For them it would be like hearing that a serial killer was spotted after crossing the frontier and is now on the loose.

As a man of the clergy, it is not my place to comment on the affairs of those who worship other gods. However, it appears that the Shinto pantheon which has kept to the shadows in regards to administering Japan's territory has withdrawn further with the revelation of the 7th Campione.

Relying on those working under the Emperor, and the old clans of Onmyoji that claim direct vassalage under the gods, the pantheon probably hopes that by removing themselves from the board all together will keep the Campione from considering them a target.

Laudable as their intentions might be, one can only hope it won't lead to further dissent amongst their followers.

Finally, I would ask for further guidance on this matter.

As biased as my opinions may be, I must speak out on behalf of Issei Hyoudou, who while not being a follower of the Lord's Teachings and while exhibiting an uncharacteristic degree of interest in women's bodies…

Actually on second thought, perhaps he is cause for concern after all.

As a demon king whose freely visits his will upon the earth in search of their desires, could it be that the young man's passions have evolved into an all encompassing inferno wish to lay claim to the purity and minds of our wives and daughters?!

Heavenly Father, is this another one of your tests? Must I bear witness to the tragedy of such a promising youth as he descends into debauchery?!

Ahem.

My apologies, I appear to have gone on another tangent

Dear Sona-chan.

What. The. Hell.

Okay, Serafall, breathe in and out.

I'm calm. I'm peaceful. I'm a bubbling fountain of positive outlooks in the middle of a barren wasteland of lunacy and I am NOT about to grab my staff and charge out of my home into the human world because that would be a bad BAD thing that might cause a war because there's a really dangerous guy living in the same area code as my little sister.

You know what?

Maybe this peace thing was only a temporary gig.

Yes, really, what is the use of peace if it allows a super bad guy to stick around my precious little sister with impunity? If it was fallen angels it would have been bad enough. Did you know those guys brainwash people? Or so I heard! That definitely didn't come from one of my episodes.

No sir!

Still, I would like to make sure that everything is okay over there. As a Satan it is my duty to attend to important matters of diplomacy and make sure that this Campione guy who might be trying to get his oily mitts on my dear sister is blasted all the way to the bottom of the --------

----------------------------------

Greetings Lady Sona Sitri.

This is Grayfia Lucifuge speaking.

I apologize for the abrupt interruption, however, Lady Leviathan found herself pulled away for an emergency meeting with Lord Sirzechs and Lord Ajuka for reasons that I reassure you are in the best interest of maintaining peace in the world of humans.

Having thoroughly reviewed the matter as reported by your message, we have come to the conclusion that in order to retain a semblance of order in Kuoh, that an envoy will be sent to Lady Yasaka in order to discuss the matter of the Campione currently stationed at the city.

Until said talks are concluded, you are to remain on standby and avoid any and all contact with the Campione. Though we understand that he may seek you, in which case the option to return home remains open, as unlikely as you are to accept it.

We would also caution you regarding another element.

Although overtures have been made to contact the Mage Association in charge of supernatural affairs, the envoy sent has been turned away. We can only assume that the Japanese mages might be in a state of disarray as they discuss how to deal with the present state of affairs, much as we ourselves must decide whether to press them for an answer. If they chose to rally around the Campione and dig their feet it could prove difficult for our relations going forward.

As such, please avoid interacting with any other agents that may appear in Kuoh, though we understand it may constitute a breach of our treaty with the Yokai, until circumstances stabilize you may have to deal with intrusions from not only the Committee but also other interested parties.

Keeping individuals of interest out of sight, such as yourself and your queen, would be advisable.

Please report any further incidents and refrain from any… volatile behaviors.

As difficult as it may be.

Lookout #7 reporting.

So, the experiment was a bust.

Though the process through which those three snakes were extracted from the grimoire has been deemed a success, they lacked a form of cohesive connection that allowed them to take advantage of their mutual origin. Distilled from the sealed aspect of the [Serpent] it was believed that once the ritual was fulfilled, that Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale would converge and complete the process leading to the formation of the original Aspect.

However, the rise of the 7th Campione completely derailed the process.

Talk about a shit show, huh?

It isn't known how he was capable of defeating Medusa, who was deemed our greatest success due to her popularity and the higher amounts of faith she is capable of deriving from variations of her myth.

It should be impossible.

Neither of the Gorgons were considered to be at the level of the original Heretic God they were extracted from. Therefore it should come as no surprise that a Campione wouldn't gain anything from them. Nor would they act as the catalyst needed to bring about the birth of new Campione.

Yet they did.

How? Why? Those are questions that plague me even now and put the entirety of the project in jeopardy. One of the main benefits from distilling lesser Heretics from the Aspects of more powerful ones was with the understanding that they would be too weak and incomplete to provide Campione with new powers, or pose enough of a threat to a human that they could be reborn.

Obviously calculations were off.

Or the process itself must be put into question.

For the time being, my advice is that the experiment be put on hiatus until we can determine whether this was a freak accident or a repeatable offense. Artificial Heretics #2 and #3 might have been successes, but we won't know until the 7th Campione displays new Authorities or remains as he is.

As such I will remain undercover in Kuoh for the time being.

Thus far the mission has been to follow up on the initial experiment, however, as it has been deemed a failure, I will instead focus on observing the 7th Campione and his growth in order to determine whether the failure was caused by a flaw in our design or by some inherent quality of the boy himself.

Should it be possible I would like to request that we acquire him as a study subject.

A young, relatively untested Campione shouldn't be a problem for the more experienced members of the cabal and if we are successful this might open up new avenues of research, as well as possibly devise a means through which to track the origin of their birth and powers.

That is to say, a path to Pandora herself.

Rather daring, yes, but nobody ever accomplished anything without aiming for the stars.

Besides, I might even have a plan on how to do it.

Heya Kaoru, Amakasu here.

Err… I mean… greetings Lady Sayanomiya, your loyal servant Touma Amakasu…

Alright, not bothering with that.

So, as expected, it turns out Yuri's Spirit Sight was right on the money. Just got a report from one of my agents at Kuoh that the two very freaky snake gods she had a vision of appeared inside the Devil's territory. A big mess that had our local crew working overtime to explain the whole business away as some sort of terrorist attack or gas leak.

Everyone is fond of a gas leak, you know?

The news eats it up.

Where was I?

Right, right. The Heretic God business.

So, it turns out that there was a Campione in town. And I don't mean one we know about but an actually brand new, out of the factory, model. Like, what are the odds that a new Campione would end up living in the same town as the little sisters of two Satans?

Sometimes the world is small like that.

Still, I'm not really aware of the details but one of the Heretics fled the scene after the first two were defeated. Damage to the city wasn't that bad and the Devils assured us that they would promptly repair it in the coming days with magic so long as we keep the media from sniffing around.

Who knew that having that lot camping out there would be handy.

I would also like to report on another matter.

Our agents reported that in the wake of the battle, a giant shed skin of the snake goddess was left behind. If the Devils knew about its true nature, they didn't comment as we retrieved it.

Maybe there are blindspots in their knowledge when it comes to Heretic Gods?

Whatever it may be, we should consider ourselves lucky they haven't tried to contest it.

Now, onto the most important matter.

Yes, we have a new Campione.

Yes, that Campione appears to be living in Kuoh.

We have also come upon his name, a file is attached with a more in depth analysis but to make a long story short, it is believed that Issei Hyoudou may be the suspected party behind the vanished Heretic God over a month ago. The timing matches and while having a godslayer pop up in the same place as those devils might be a problem, so far things seem to have calmed down.

Therefore this humble salaryman would plead with Lady Sayanomiya to display her great wisdom and treat this incident with all due discretion and care.

In other words, we have to bury our heads in the sand.

Well, that is my personal opinion.

The devils will handle clean up and we will handle the media. I had Sumi-chan park herself at Kuoh and told her to approach him after he wakes up. Given our intel on his personality, she would be more of a match for the boy than I would have been.

Hopefully she remembers to do her job this time!

Chapter Text

Life was stress.

It was stressful, painful, and exhausting.

Despite how pop culture liked to portray it, magic wasn't an effortless act through which mana was weaved and then shot at the target, capable of achieving any objective so long as the user was powerful enough. And despite how many Devils felt about it, their own magic wasn't nearly as effortless as some liked to pretend it was.

At least, technically so.

To an extent the Power of Imagination, a gift held by Devil's by their nature, could simply do just that. If you had an infinite battery, an infinite capacitor, and infinite output a Devil could, maybe, possibly, do literally anything with pure brute force. But any Devil that could do that wouldn't be a Devil any longer.

An Arch-Devil or Devil-God, things that even the original Satans only spoke of in whispers and existed as little more than folk tales thrust back into prominence by the Super Devils like Ajuka Beelzebub and Sirzechs Lucifer.

For a Devil, magic was the power of imagination, too.

But even imagination needed brainpower in order to work.

No matter how much power they had, their bodies, magical constructs even more than they were flesh and blood, would simply explode or their souls burn out long before that much raw power was unleashed.

Beings like the current Satans weren't dangerous purely because they were strong, but because they could control and guide that power. Ajuka, allegedly, only had about as much power as an elder High Class Devil… but was so precise, so lethal, so absolutely and perfectly in control of it, he was able to contend with even Sirzechs' true form. That was untrue, of course, Sona herself was aware of exactly how insanely, absurdly powerful that man was. But even then he simply couldn't measure up to his sworn brother and fellow ruler.

And no one really thought of Lucifer as a Devil anymore.

'No, that man is a monster… a kind one. That loves his family. But a monster in the shape of a Devil. And one time Rias mentioned that he wasn't actually… mortal anymore. But wouldn't say more.'

In the end, such concerns were beyond one like herself. And Sona knew that.

So putting together a building that had all but collapsed on itself, especially after having to clean up massive quantities of magical materials thrown about by a reckless Campione, was tiring.

"At the very least it was good practice, for both of us."

Eyes closed, towel secured around her chest, the Sitri heiress leaned back against the warm, smooth walls of the sauna. Sighing at her aching muscles when Rias sat down next to her.

"I still think it would have been best to put that off till tomorrow. It took several hours for me to figure out those restoration formulas and poor Tsubaki nearly collapsed."

Another sigh, this one of relaxation.

"And if we put it off till tomorrow, it would have been even worse. Now you get to spend the rest of the evening doting on your peerage."

Rias's snort was derisive and distinctly unladylike.

"Because you aren't going to spoil yours rotten the second I leave."

Sona wisely declined to confirm or deny the allegation.

Of course, unlike Rias who got to laze around in the mornings and had the afternoons to herself, Sona was the one in charge of the city while the sun was up. So this would be a short reprieve until she had to get up and start handling her own share of problems come sunrise.

"So, why did you want to meet in here? Not that I mind the chance to relax, but it's not like you to choose the spa when it's your turn to pick our tea place."

"Because." Sona let a little anger creep into her words. "I just spent two hours serving as a magical battery while you rifled through my notebooks."

"Heh." The redhead had the decency to blush. "Mine did get kind of blown up…?"

"They didn't exist in the first place."

"Mouuuu, Sona, don't pick on me right now. My brain hurts."

The heiress waved her friend off.

"I'll tutor you later. But this place also has some of the best anti-spying spells in the local cluster. All because our siblings were terrified we'd be peeped on. That it is able to resist anything short of a direct magical attack by an Arch-Angel at full power is simply convenient."

"Ah. So the Committee and Agent Amakasu. I'd say the damage is only… moderate."

Turning to face her friend, the water-witch needed a few seconds to follow Rias's train of thought and came up with nothing.

"And how do you figure that? From my perspective, it's a total disaster. We don't have confirmation of the Campione's identity or disposition, they are in the Committee's custody, which now has the advantage of first contact, and already likely have them well in hand. For now, at least, assuming it was a student. Few teenagers have the willpower or forethought to realize what being a Campione means."

That got a snicker.

"Sona, Sona, Sona. It seems I finally got one over you."

The Sona in question, who allegedly had just been overtaken, pinched her friend's cheek.

"Ow, ow, ow, I give, I give! Here!"

Fishing a small orb out of her cleavage, Rias produced a small, red sphere and channeled a bit of power into it.

"Oh. Very well done, little Gasper." Taking it in the heiress immediately recognized the young man the memory orb had captured. A familiar face framed by light hazel hair and eyes that while playful and eager in her portfolio in Gasper's recorded memory looked fierce and protective.

"Issei Hyoudou, huh?"

Rias turned to her in surprise.

"You recognize him?"

"I was scouting him for my peerage and was prepared to approach later this week. He showed promise."

Rubbing her cheek, Sona's friend, who might actually have used her brain for once, had probably given them a greater advantage than even she realized. And yes she was a bit snippish but the Sitri was entitled to that now and then. Especially when it had taken her hours to get spider silk out of her hair.

"I was looking him up, too, you know?"

A giggle.

"You were scouting to see if he had a sacred gear based on a hunch - I was the one who bothered making a profile."

Rias crossed her arms under her chest, making a statement and issuing a challenge.

"And based on what you told me about his perfectly healthy desires, I would have had the best chance at recruiting him~"

Eyes narrowed, Sona considered doing something silly.

Instead, she snapped her finger and doused her friend with a small dragon of ice cold water.

"Kyaaaah!"

Satisfied with her victory, and letting go of the issue with Athena, they had survived with nothing worse than damage to their egos, the heiress finally relaxed.

"I'll assign some of my peerage to double check and update all my records on him. My contact at the prefecture record's office should be able to get me everything from his birth certificate to unredacted medical records. Thankfully, corruption moves much more swiftly than bureaucracy."

Rias, with a new towel and a small glare, sat down.

"Hmph. I still say he was the one with a Sacred Gear."

"All you had was a hope and a dream, Rias. Actual analysis and recruitment work trumps the advice you got from a fortune teller in Kyoto. Don't go recruiting people based on hunches."

Really, friend or not, the redhead could stand to be more level headed.

"I'm telling you, it was good advice! Akeno told me it was a legitimate fortune reading!" Blushing, she continued. "Still, I am sorry about getting you into a fight with a Heretic God of all things. That wasn't my intention."

Sona smiled.

"You were worried about Gasper, rightfully so. Forgiven.Now, what do we actually do about the HCC? I have no desire to face them without a plan. Preferably one
that doesn't involve running to my sister or your brother with our tails between our legs."

"Well… can we reincarnate a Campione?"

Rias's suggestion was absurd, but, well, Sona did bite back her immediate, vehement rebuttal.

"Not us, no. But perhaps one of the Satans?" It wasn't… impossible. Nothing really was if you had enough power and gall. "Though I struggle to imagine what the consequences might be. Instinctively, I would suggest it would be like reincarnating a middling, pure Angel. So deeply unpleasant and potentially resulting in a violent psychosis, due to the conflict between the Faith-Magic-Energy inherent to Campione and a clash with Devil magic. Testing would be required to say more."

And that wasn't considering the fact it might not even stick.

Campione were reputed for their ability to resist and outright reject spells, even if an evil piece capable of safely reincarnating one was developed… the chance that the process could be undone by them wasn't zero.

And if it wasn't zero then it was 'likely'.

"But to think we got tripped up like this. And by civil servants no less?" No, Sona wasn't pouting. She most certainly wasn't upset at the fact she spent an entire hour exchanging pleasantries with an office drone who left before anything of use could be discussed.

"Well, we have another meeting in three days. Probably best we get ready for that." Rias stretched. "Now, I'll go figure out a letter to send to your sister and you can make one for Grayfia. Deal?"

"Deal."

Neither of them was looking forward to that conversation.

"Congratulations, Mr and Mrs Hyoudou… he is a Wizard."

There was a tense pause as the agent's words hung in the air. Followed by the faint sound of Issei's palm meeting his face in embarrassment.

He really should have expected this.

The moment they got home, his parents had been… well… worried sick. They thanked the kind lady for bringing him back and asked if he was in any trouble. By that point Issei wondered how a guy who supposedly killed a god was meant to avoid getting grounded for staying out past curfew.

Fortunately, Smith was there to explain things to his parents.

Well, he said explain, but it was more like lying to them.

Because there was no way Issei was gonna tell them that he'd fought not one, but three goddesses and somehow lived to tell the tale. So instead he and the agent came up with a story that, while not quite all lies, wasn't exactly all truths either.

'But did she have to explain it like that?'

Going by the looks of confusion on their faces, they didn't seem to understand either.

"The reference didn't land? And here I thought everyone read that wizard book. Maybe a more local example then? How familiar are you two with figures like Abe no Seimei anyway? I'm honestly of the opinion that we're way past the time where magical folks should be messing around with politics, but try and tell a bunch of hardliners that."

Issei was gonna get a migraine.

'Actually, I think I already have one.' Going by the pounding on the side of his head.

Fortunately his parents looked just as offput as he was.

"I'm sorry? I think I must have heard you wrong. What do you mean by… wizard? Magic? Like in the performances you see at festivals?"

Poor Dad looked completely lost trying to make sense of it.

"If only it were that simple. Sorry to say that we are past historical fiction and all the way into urban fantasy, Mr. Hyoudou. I'm sure that you two are well aware of the strange incident of a month ago, the one in which the entire crew of a ship, both staff and cruisers, mysteriously lost consciousness."

"I thought that was…"

"A gas leak? Yes, it was a cover up. We could hardly explain to everyone on that ship that what happened was supernatural in nature and expect them not to say anything."

His mother turned to look at him with dawning realization.

'Crap'.

The families of the kids he looked after came up to them to thank him after the mess at the ship and at the time his parents hadn't thought much of it, figuring that he'd only fetched the other kids food or kept them distracted until everyone woke up, no one had actually taken them particularly seriously and Issei had downplayed their thanks in public, while privately encouraging them to not worry about it.

He knew what it was like to not be believed, after all.

Only now his parents realized there had been actual danger involved.

'Just not how much.' In the end, Issei at the very least wanted his parents to be aware that something did happen even if he asked Smith not to tell them about Dusa-chan, or how they'd been petrified along with almost everyone else.

They didn't need to know that.

It would only hurt them.

"And you are saying our son was involved with that?"

Agent Smith shook her head, placating the now defensive parents.

"Nothing of the sort. Rather, at the time our organization, the History Compilation Committee, had been investigating the cause behind the incident and concluded that the real culprit was someone else. A culprit he ended up facing again this afternoon."

"This afternoon, then the gas explosion was-"

"A criminal act targeting your son, no doubt. Fortunately we were on the culprit's tail and after a short skirmish, took them into custody."

In the end, that had been their cover story. About how Issei suddenly got magic powers at the ship, ruined a mysterious culprit's scheme and a month later came face to face with said culprit again.

In a way it was true, even if absurd.

The two incidents were connected. And both times he had to face the culprits. Hell, the only reason it happened was because Issei stopped Dusa-chan. So all the dominoes lined up.

It also just happened to be one massive lie.

"Y-You can't just expect us to take this at face value, ma'am."

His father looked shocked.

"Right! Even if you make such outlandish claims, you can't just expect us to believe it. Especially since you have our son with you and didn't even call us!"

His mother sounded upset.

The agent, however, was completely unphased, instead turning the buck over to him.

"That is what I figured. Obviously, it would be hard to believe something nonsensical like that, even if it's coming from an official. Which is why I believe in this case the best confirmation you can have is one straight from the source. Right, Issei?"

They had planned on a demonstration. Issei felt oddly intimidated, his parents looking at him expectantly as if waiting for the other shoe to drop, for him to deny what Smith was saying, or reveal that it was all a prank he put together to mess with them.

He actually considered it for a second.

But at the end of the day, they needed to know about this. And he needed to make sure they were careful from now on.

"I'm sorry, Mom, Dad."

Holding his hands up he cupped them and breathed in. A rosebud began to appear in his hands. There were no sparkles, no crackling noise, no poof of smoke. Instead, the petals opened up and blossomed, the light showing the veins forming inside of it, as the ultimately fist sized stone flower appeared in his hands.

"Son." Issei's father was the first to recover. "That's beautiful." Gorou reached out and the young man handed the stone flower over. "But, well…"

His mother finished the thought.

"I think you might have gotten the shape from one of your games…"

Coughing, spluttering, defensive, Issei stood up.

"I didn't though! Mom, Dad, why would you say that!?"

Standing up, his father took the flower over to their kitchen while his mother bowed her head.

"My apologies, Agent Smith, I'm sure you understand that young men can be quite healthy, yes? Please don't hold that against him. Still, would you like tea or something else?"

"Coffee, please. It will be a long night at the office."

Issei simply slumped down in his chair, head in his hands.

"I wasn't trying to do something perverse."

Surprisingly, Smith, while Issei's parents were in the kitchen, having an aggressive, whispered conversation, gave him a small pat on the back.

"It's ok. I think they may have just been assuming the worst. Besides, it was something 'normal' for them to grab onto. We did tell them something pretty absurd, no?"

Nodding, the teenager agreed. At least in spirit.

"They probably thought I'd been arrested. So it's probably just that they're glad I'm not… in trouble."

"Well, I don't think they can complain too much, right? You did bring a woman home after all!"

Blushing, again, and remembering how he'd been woken up, Issei groaned into his arms and ignored the heat on his cheeks - while Smith simply tittered, thanking his parents for the cup of coffee and seaweed chips they'd brought her.

"So, Agent Smith, I don't want to sound foolish, but are there… pamphlets or something." Gorou Hyoudou began, clearly nervous, but focused on not showing it too badly. "Of course we'll fully cooperate, but I have no idea what that will entail."

"I'm glad you asked!" Opening up a coat pocket, the government operative withdrew a briefcase… from her coat… and then opened up said briefcase and withdrew several hundred pages of documents. "Why don't we get started?"

Miki Hyoudou, Issei's mother, rallied first.

"I'll make more tea… and order takeout."

They would be there for a while.

Issei had left his parents along with Smith for the night.

There was nothing more he wanted to read or discuss or learn about.

And in fact the only thing he'd put his foot down about was not moving - he had earned his school of choice and he would go to Kuoh.

Surprisingly, it had been the agent who'd sided with him when he'd said that, while both parents had leapt at the idea that moving to Kyoto would be safer. It had taken twenty minutes of carefully non argumentative arguing to defuse that particular landmine.

But now, he was alone and in his room.

Yet….

"Hmm. It's not quite done, is it?"

Looking at the small diorama he had been working on in his spare time, the teenager knelt down and lowered himself to be level with it.

"Yes. I know what was missing, now."

White stone formed wordlessly on his hands, one large chunk and one smaller, it took a bit of concentration to make them malleable and a few minutes to get the overall shapes down, then it was the work of half an hour, painstakingly etching the details by finger, smoothing out the flaws and perfecting the poses.

He could have done it immediately if he wanted to.

Or rather, doing it the other way wouldn't have satisfied him.

Satisfied their memory.

While once there had been only one, now there were three. The smallest of the trio was the one he was most familiar with, the one he had the most practice reproducing. Scaled arms and legs, a small tail poking from behind and two small curled horns growing from the forehead.

The second was taller, but simpler, her body was concealed by a hoodie, too baggy to really tell any more details at first, but he made sure to make sure her eyes stood out just the like first.

The third one was the largest of the three and took the most work. Even if the shape was simple, Issei didn't have as much practice with non-human shapes, so it took a while to get all the details down from memory and to save up on space, he made sure to curl her around the first two almost protectively, lowering her face so the three appeared to be side by side.

The elder sister, Stheno.

The middle sister, Euryale.

The little sister, Medusa.

Before her face was set in a sad look of acceptance, the face he recalled seeing when they first met. But now it had been changed into a look of relief and, dare he say, happiness. His chest tightened at the improved statue. Even if he didn't know how to feel about them yet, Issei couldn't help but offer them a moment of silence.

"I guess they were always meant to be a trio, huh?"

Despite everything, he couldn't help but feel happy for them and hope that… wherever they were they were together.

Chapter Text

Overnight, it felt like the city had moved on.

Oh, don't get him wrong, the streets were still being cleaned and people around Kuoh were still talking about what happened on TV and at school, but just as Smith said, it seemed like someone had passed by and cleaned up the mess he left behind overnight. Not just the old building that had collapsed, but also the wrecked street, the blown out windows, mostly, and the rubble caused by the use of his power.

Cleanup wasn't completely done yet.

Just enough that it felt like the damage hadn't been all that bad to begin with.

Issei wondered if that was on purpose? Letting the clean up crews finish the job so it felt like they had done it that fast because the damage wasn't that much? Already there were a few kids in his class who said the news were blowing it out of proportion and people just got spooked from a minor accident.

In a way, he kinda felt insulted.

Being called a gas explosion wasn't funny after the first half a dozen times.

'At least they fixed the building.'

Magic sure was convenient. Yeah, he could probably make a house out of stone if he felt like it, but that's all it would be, a big block of stone shaped like a house. While whoever fixed things up somehow put the old building back together as if it had never even gotten wrecked.

It sure was a weight off his conscience.

Meaning he could finally go through with the actual reason he studied so much to get into this school!

"Are you sure this is the place, Motohama?"

"Yes, I asked around and one of the seniors said this was the place."

He nodded.

Truly, this wasn't a chance they could ignore.

"And you, Matsuda?"

"Got a new pair of glasses and everything. Word on the grapevine is that this is where most sports clubs hang out after morning practice. It's a little bit past midday so they should be coming down here any second."

Issei nodded.

Operation: Birdview was a go!

Finally, after months of struggling, studying, and slaying gods, Issei and his friends, who weren't aware of the latter part of his suffering, had cooked up the perfect debut for their endeavors. And although Motohama had at first voted to make their first sojourn into the teacher lounges, Matsuda overruled him with the temptation of hot steam and sportsmanship.

Truly, those glasses weren't without reason!

"Just imagine! Any minute now, the most athletic beauties of Kuoh, one of Japan's top ranked schools, will walk through that door. A veritable feast for our sore eyes. The sacrifices we've made have not been in vain for paradise is but a few inches of wood away!"

Issei nodded sagely.

Really, he could do with some fun and relaxation after the last 24 hours. Getting invited on a date, attacked by two goddesses during the same date, and then taken home by a government officer wasn't exactly on Issei's list of things to do. But now that things calmed down, he could focus on actually important things again.

Like oppai!

"This is taking too long, Matsuda. You sure this is the place?"

"Don't rush the process! We might be off by a couple minutes but my sources were adamant this was the place!"

Issei sighed and leaned back.

He could hardly wait!

"And what do we have here?"

A new voice spoke, and suddenly a chill went down Issei's spine. Really, they'd been found out already?!

Indeed, standing by the door was a girl their age with slight unkempt light brown hair braided into twin tails and green eyes that seemed to gleam yellow behind pink framed glasses as she stared down at the trio with a smile that emanated amusement and mischief. Going by the uniform she was wearing, it was clear that the three of them had gotten caught by a classmate.

Motohama and Matsuda were struck in shock, therefore it fell to Issei to get them out of this mess.

"And you are?"

"Aika Kiryuu, at your service."

Kiryuu… Kiryuu….

"Oh, you're in my class."

She flashed him a peace sign in response.

"Bingo! 10 points to Slytherin! But minus 50 for getting caught sneaking around. Don't you guys know it never works? Or maybe you lot were so thirsty for a show you decided to risk it for the biscuit?" Leaning back, Aika adjusted her glasses as if daring them to try and prove her wrong.

'Crap, she really is onto us.'

Quick brain, think of something!

"We got lost."

She blinked at him.

"You got lost?"

"We got lost?" His friends turned to him questioningly, probably wondering if that was the best he could come up with under pressure.

"We're new students, obviously, since this academy just opened up to boys. So our apologies, Kiryu, but we don't actually know where we are, or how to reach Exterior Building 3, office number 4. Since we have a small study period, it was our hope to scout out some of the clubs and ask to join."

It was pure bullshit - half true, technically, but utter bull.

Issei was still proud that he managed the line in an absolute deadpan and that the cold sweat in the small of his back was just that.

"Uh… huh."

"Yes huh."

"Ok."

"Ok?"

"Ok." The girl nodded. "Let's say I buy that. Then why do those two look like they're about to kowtow and beg for forgiveness. Especially since that's a boy's locker room. I was actually hoping to catch a show of my own… but if you three are into BL, well, I'm sure we can work something out~"

There was an intense moment of confusion before all three young men paled. And two of them were routed on the spot.

"Goodluckseeyahlaterpal!"

Issei's two friends simply booked it, sketching short bows and then speed walking fast enough that it might have been the swiftest either of the two had moved in their lives.

"Traitorous bastards."

Grumbling, trying not to panic, though the cold sweat had advanced to full blown nervous twitching in his hands, Issei stood tall, clasped his hands behind his back, and stared at the brunette across from him.

"They're idiots, please forgive their rudeness."

He really was annoyed at them.

"Oh-ho~ So you three believed the rumor about the kendo club changing down here… don't you know girls are more clever than that." Aika winked at him. "That was just a rumor shared with the boys to see who would believe it."

"Ah ha. So, uh, I'm caught, then?"

Rubbing the back of his head, Issei tried not to show exactly how worried he was. Getting kicked out on the second day of school was probably for the worse.

"Well, I suppose that depends. If you were down here with your friends… then the club members might just note your name down. But if you were to be escorting a girl…."

"I see!"

Bowing, the teenager hoped that this girl ended up not getting hurt, she seemed nice, but his recent luck was pretty terrible.

"Would you please allow me to escort you back to class?"

She held out her hand, giggling.

"Sure!"

Relaxing, Issei, swallowing, took his classmate's hand in his… and this was as far as he'd gotten with Athena already! Not counting that glimpse of Paradise, of course.

"And don't worry." Kiryu stepped closer, smirking. "I'll think of a way for you… and maybe your friends to pay me back."

Shivering, feeling a terrible, ominous sense of dread, the young man suddenly feared for his virtue and had to fight off the urge to cover himself. Instead, he firmed his spine, remembered the feeling of Euryale's roar, and drowned this new fear in the old one!

After all, his innocence was nothing compared to the possible death of an innocent, so he should be able to face this obstacle!

That was how to be brave!

Right?

For now Issei thanked his lucky stars as the duo leisurely walked away from the gymnasium, Aika offering a friendly wave to a group of muscly young men as they jumped out of the pool and jogged towards the back… where Issei and his friends had been planning to make their watch.

'She actually wasn't lying.' The godslayer shuddered.

Once they were out of shot, Aika stepped away with a snicker.

"Next time, don't go looking for a show without checking your sources first. And really? The kendo club? Those girls might look nice, but if you're looking for quality rather than quantity then you should look elsewhere."

That perked him right up.

"Like?"

The bespectacled girl smirked, having caught him hook, line and sinker.

"Follow along and I'll illuminate you, young grasshopper, about Kuoh's Two Great Ladies."

Smith liked fast food.

It was greasy, it was tasty, and horrible for your health unless you were careful. As a humble salarywoman, however, there were very few places she could eat at during off hours that served fast, warm food that didn't cost an eye. So in the interest of saving time and money, she had gotten acquaintanced with the best joints in most cities she visited for work.

You never knew if something happened and your rest time got cut into.

And fortunately for her, the one she came here to meet with was of a similar mindset.

"Ah, Sumi-chan! I'm over here."

Sitting by a table on the corner, a nondescript man wearing a suit waved her over. With a scruffy half grown beard, glasses and a lazy gait, the man couldn't look more at ease in the fast food joint if he tried. She was sure that most people here had completely forgotten the man even was there before she walked into the place and he called to her.

Blending in was just his specialty.

"Enjoying yourself, Amakasu?"

She couldn't help needling the man. He already had a small mountain of wrappers sitting folded neatly on top of a box, having gone ahead and eaten his fill before she even arrived.

"Well, you know me. Can't help but splurge when the boss is paying."

She couldn't blame him.

She was about to do the same.

"Long night at the office?" She took her own seat in front of him, letting out a sigh of relief as her sore back rested against the half worn cushion. Because the meeting with the Hyoudous had taken so long last night, she hadn't had the time to book a hotel, and no matter how comfortable they liked to pretend they were, those capsules would never replace an actual bed for her.

"You could say that. A lot of arguing. A lot of back and forth. Your mother was there."

Smith leafed through the menu with a hum of disinterest.

"Did they decide on anything?"

Her fellow salaryman shrugged.

"More of the same. The Committee ain't letting this go and want us to start working on setting up a foothold here. Maybe not an official office, but they'll definitely want to have some agents stationed just in case."

"Kahoutsuka?"

"Pushing for it like crazy."

"Renjou?"

"Want to bury their heads in the sand."

"Sayanomiya?"

"Playing it by ear. The Director wants to see how far we can push before we get pushback. You know how she is. Whether it be the devils or the kid, she wants to know where the limits are." Popping half a couple lukewarm fries into his mouth, the man was oddly cavalier about their immediate superior, even if she probably deserved it.

"Seishuuin?"

"Can't you ask her yourself? I figured she'd have called you with a back up plan by now?"

She hadn't and even if she did Smith might have disobeyed the old woman on principle. It was still good to know that opinions within the Committee's higher echelon were as split as ever. Had they reached a consensus the agent wouldn't have nearly as much freedom as she had now.

Smith definitely wouldn't be forgiving that old hag for offering her up as the Campione's liaison, either.

"She hasn't called me, so I don't think I figured into the plans."

Amakasu hummed, sipping from his cup.

"Well, we've only gotten this far because you managed to snap up the kid before the locals managed to. Good job on that, by the way."

'The kid'.

That's what they had been calling the magical nuke that was sitting in a classroom right now. It almost felt like sacrilege, but it always paid to be overly cautious in concealing information. Especially in public spaces like this in territory they technically shouldn't be in.

But only technically.

Loans and treaties only mattered until they had confirmation that a Campione, a God Slayer, had somehow made its way to mainland Japan without anyone being aware.

A Campione - a God Slayer, was a lord.

It didn't matter what the Yokai, or the devils, or what the gods said. This city right now belonged to a 15 year old who had more power in his hands than most ancient families could put together.

The Yokai's chiefs weren't moving. And Takamagahara was silent.

Why wouldn't they be? The gods were so used to acting through proxies and descendants that they didn't see a need to come personally. Even less so now that a Campione had taken up residence. What few kami remained in the living world likely were huddled up in their shrines, unable to act outside their immediate surroundings.

"We're really kicking the hornet nest on this one." She concluded.

The ninja shrugged.

"It was bound to happen, we are the ones in the best position to take advantage of the chaos right now."

"You mean we NEED to be the ones who take advantage of it."

Government funding and resources were usually great if you wanted to get things done.

But it didn't substitute for raw power.

They didn't have the power of the other factions who called Japan their home. Neither the blessings of shinto, nor the natural aptitude of the Yokai, and they most certainly couldn't call upon the gods for help. The only one who could wasn't gonna do it over something small, so that left the History Compilation Committee as the most expansive yet weakest mage organization in the country.

'Which is why they are so desperate to recruit a powerhouse.'

Recruit was way too nice a word for what they were doing.

Really, it was only because of Issei Hyoudou's age and personality quirks that they were able to establish a relationship that for the time being wasn't one of complete submission. In part because of her quick thinking, but even then it was a stop gap measure at most.

"So, tell me about the kid. Was he as much of a horny oni as the initial report said?"

Smith gave the man an unimpressed stare.

"Not nearly as bad. Sure, he has personality quirks and is stubborn as a mule. I don't think even if I went with the first plan I'd have gotten him to relocate. We could offer him a scholarship anywhere else in the country, and he would still choose to stay here because he actually passed the entrance exams."

It was ridiculous.

Of all things to be stubborn about, it wasn't riches, power, or even the harem that the kid seemed to put the most stock into. He was attached to the things he earned for himself.

"That complicates things, huh?"

"To put it lightly. And it's not like we can throw our weight around with this one. The moment he figured out we can't actually go through with it is the moment he just ignores us and we lose whatever trust we managed to earn."

"If he wants to stay, he wants to stay. All we can do is toady up and make sure we stay on his good side. Shouldn't be even hard if he's as mellow as you said."

Smith was definitely gonna splurge today.

She was gonna get the biggest, greasiest burger she could afford… no… she was gonna double up on it and send the bill to the office because there was no way she was being paid enough for the amount of stress the next few days promised to deliver.

At the very least she could stock up on calories while she could.

Because now she was in the middle of a stand off between her group, the local Devils which normally wouldn't be a problem to work around if not for the fact they included not one but two hotlines to the four satans, and a teenager that had so much hormones pumping through his veins she couldn't help but wonder if he wasn't some sort of mutant.

She'd had samples tested.

And they'd confirmed that he was, in fact, almost perfectly, completely, normal.

Slightly below average, in fact, for magical potential and with zero sign at all of any magical power. So little that he might have been considered a statistical anomaly in that way alone.

…Admittedly, they had been hair and dead skin samples from before he was a Campione, but it was a bit crazy to think that was their only option that didn't involved a polite request to the Emperor to borrow the Kusanagi and see if their new friend would let them shave a bit of his body off to see what changed.

"Well, we still have a couple days ahead of us until we gotta meet with the local honchos."

Smith wasn't impressed.

"Couldn't you give two teenagers a run around? I wanted at least one week to work things in our favor."

If Amakasu was at all impressed by her, he didn't show it.

"Sorry about that. At the end of the day, I couldn't dodge them. So I had to settle for a meeting. They technically still run this town so they want us to give them some sort of explanation."

Right now all they were to the Campione was a bunch of helpful, if overworked civil servants handling clean up and letting him go back to his student life. Smith wanted to at least try and establish a working relationship, give him a bogus position they could have the top brass approve.

It wouldn't be hard either. There was bound to be a meeting by the end of the week amongst the representatives of various interested parties, and their mission was to make sure the Committee had enough cards to play their hand by then.

Both of them looked down when their phones vibrated. And not the normal work one, but the emergency one that they never sat down, had exactly four numbers on it, and could make a call on any network in the world.

Both agents looked at the message immediately.

'HG confirmed at the Mediterranean. US-NATO scrambling jets. Church engaging the Marquis. Running battle from Hungary to Bulgaria.'

Relaxing, if only infinitesimally, Smith forced herself to take a deep breath. Hopefully the Americans would keep an eye on the new threat until the Church mustered the power to Smite it. Hopefully there wouldn't be an Eighth Campione by the end of the day.

Hopefully.

"So. Future problems."

Amakasu had already gone back to eating, seemingly unbothered by any part of that news.

She envied him a little.

"Probably. But I suppose we've got an opportunity, now, especially if we can get our new friend to make an official deal. None of the others have actual national backing outside of China and she's basically prohibited from leaving for more than a day or two at a time."

"Don't tempt fate like that." The ninja frowned. "She still considers Wakoku to be a province."

A hand wave.

"Sure, but she's never even visited us. Even during the Imperial period. We're beneath her notice."

Responding by dipping his fries in his milkshake, Amakasu nodded.

"We are." An indulgent smile. "But not our new friend. And just a friend. Ah, just so you know, since you didn't get close to him, central is sending someone new."

Frowning, the agent said nothing. She knew her co-worker hated that part of the job as much as any. Really, had it been the other way around, Smith was sure Amakasu would have probably gone through with it himself.

And that wasn't a joke.

To protect others, the salaryman would be willing to barter his own body and soul. It was only that knowledge that kept her from taking offense. Because, to her coworker, there was simply no personal sacrifice, no humiliation, no disgraceful act too great, if it meant protecting their home and those who dwelled there.

"I see."

Her gut said the young man had a lot of potential.

As a mage she couldn't help but fear what that potential might do.

As a woman she was half vexed, half amused by the kid's antics.

But… as a fellow citizen of Japan, and as a human being… it was her belief that Issei Hyoudou didn't feel normal. He didn't feel mundane. Though appearances were misleading, there was something special to him, something that could make their world a better place.

So long as no one did anything stupid and set him off.

At least that's what her intuition was saying.

"If the devils want to play… then I say let's play." The committee wasn't about to give up Japan's champion on a silver platter. And besides, at the rate the kid was going he'd probably need someone in his corner to make sure he actually finished high school.

"Do we know who they are sending next?"

Amakasu leaned back, humming.

"If they're really desperate? Either one of the Hime Miko." Because tying a Campione to themselves was enough of a pay off their superiors were willing to risk their biggest trump cards.

Smith sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

That's what she'd been afraid of.

'They really fixed this place overnight.'

It was really impressive. Looking on from the outside, Issei hadn't seen any marks or signs of the chase he went through yesterday, even the door they busted up when they got inside the building looked brand new!

Or, well, brand old.

Because it looked like and felt like it was the exact same door as the one from yesterday. The same one that got shattered into thousands of pieces when two angry goddesses chased him into the building. But nothing he saw implied it happened at all.

'Actually, does that mean the door is still the same door? And if it used all the same pieces, are they in the exact same configuration? And if so, does that mean it is, actually, a recycled old door that has been newly assembled? Hmm. My head hurts.'

Shaking his head, Issei focused on his surrounding and found the place still had that same smell of old wood, the same floorboards squeaked when he stepped on them, and he was pretty sure he'd seen a few cobwebs here and there despite half the building going down the last time he'd checked. Back then the building gave off that feeling of a horror movie setting.

Now?

Now it was even freakier.

Like walking into a ghost house you saw demolished.

"And a single club has this all to themselves?" The occult research club, as he'd heard about from Kiryu, was very exclusive and for two years now hadn't accepted any new members outside of the first few. And that wasn't because they were rejecting people.

Students weren't applying.

For some reason it was like everyone knew about the club, everyone gushed about the pretty second year students who managed it, but somehow nobody said they wanted to join it.

Rias Gremory.

Akeno Himejima.

Issei remembered seeing them back at the opening ceremony, standing in the row of last year's honor students. He would have to be blind not to notice them. A rare European beauty with red hair and striking blue eyes, as well as a body that could make a super model weep. The way she looked at him was like she was challenging him, daring Issei to be bold and to stand up. Observing the sheer confidence she exuded, like she knew how much others desired her and knew that she was worthy of that desire, was almost like a drug.

She was the president of the Occult Research Club and something of an idol for the school as a whole.

He understood why.

The other 'Great Lady' didn't fall short either. A traditional japanese beauty that, to put it lightly, belonged in some fantasy setting. He wasn't sure what Kuoh was feeding their students but he was wondering if it could be mass produced and distributed nationwide.

Because Akeno had a body designed by a god of love.

And not just her Oppai, either!

Her eyes had a… smile to them. Like there was a secret she was sharing with only you and her lips would quirk just so. Even the way she walked, it was more like she was an elegant retainer than a normal girl. To say that Akeno Himejima was the ideal of Japanese beauty was an understatement! So, when standing next to her friend, they seemed like the perfect pair of contrasts, like some grand design by God or, maybe, the Devil to tempt men.

Were those a thing?

He forgot to ask Agent Smith.

And had he not been afraid of the consequences of doing so, Issei might well have made offerings to both Okuninushi-no-Mikoto and Benten to secure an opportunity to speak with the two of them!

But he was still confused about a few things.

Not even Matsuda and Motohama, and he was sure those two would have at least tried if they knew there were pretty girls involved, had even learned when the club would hold interviews and meetings to scout potential recruits.

So either these girls weren't as popular as he thought they were…

'Or something is keeping people from thinking too hard about them?"

When Issei heard the building was fixed, he didn't think much of it. After all, they had to fix both it and the busted street if they wanted to help cover up the fight. So obviously whoever was working for Smith or the locals had to do it. But now Issei was wondering if maybe whoever fixed the place wasn't involved with this mysterious Occult Research Club.

'I mean… it can't be that easy, right?'

Not that he was particularly smart. He knew that magic stuff happened, so he was starting to wise up to coincidences. Hiding in plain sight as a club of occult enthusiasts would be pretty clever.

But right now he didn't have any evidence, just a hunch.

So here he was.

'Only the third day of class… hmm. Maybe I'm being too quick?'

Hesitation warred with the desire to hopefully have answers to questions that had plagued him for more than a month. Some that had eaten at him to the point the teenager had even lost time playing his favorite games.

"No." Muttering to himself, he strode up the central staircase, gathering as much boldness as he could. "No. I need to at least try. And, hey, worst comes to worst, I can always just ask for a membership form."

Walking through the building, and once more being struck by how absurdly huge it was, Issei happily trotted along the least-dusty section, and was somewhat surprised to just come across an open door. It was a bit obvious, but, well, there wasn't exactly any other indication of where he ought to go.

'This isn't a trap, is it?' Maybe he was just looking too deep into it.

They were a club, they were out of class, he could hear voices and steps inside the room, so they probably were getting settled for the afternoon. Really, he might as well go over there and introduce himself.

Nobody liked an unannounced guest.

'Besides, what's the worst that could happen?'

He knocked on the door frame, clearing his throat as he stepped out of the hall and into the room proper. Dimly lit, with closed drapes, there was a slight sweet smell of vanilla and the place looked less like a school club and more like one of those fancy private hangouts.

"Hey, sorry for the intrusion-"

There was a moment of shocked confusion.

Rias, Akeno, a short white haired girl, and a blonde pretty boy all turned around and looked at him.

And then each and everyone of them acted.

The blonde stepped forwards, breaking his line of sight and manifesting a sword longer than the boy was tall, leveling the blade with absolute ease, and then angling his body to block line of sight to the girl.

Lowering herself to all fours, the white haired girl leapt to the side, taking up position in Issei's blindspot before rearing back - almost like a cat about to strike.

All while Akeno had begun to levitate as lightning gathered around her hands!

"Um… ah, is this the Occult Research Club?"

Wincing, and then flinching, Issei felt very dumb. Both at his question and how all three of his classmates looked ready to farm him for loot.

"Should I… come back later?"

"What the heck is happening here!"

The others didn't react.

Rias, the last member of the group, had rushed into the room.

Issei did.

"O-PPAI?!"

Chapter Text

Okay, so maybe just walking into the room had been a mistake. Mind you, Issei didn't actually expect the place to have magical people, he was visiting just to catch a glimpse of the treasures hidden within.

It was just his luck that they all happened to have powers like him.

Powers they almost used on him had the gorgeous redhead in a bathrobe not called them off before lightning and swords started flying. Like, how cool was that? Actual magical swords and lightning. Now don't get him wrong, he still thought Dusa-chan's power was the coolest, but just like with oppai there was nothing Issei had against window shopping magic.

"So, um, sorry for just walking in… again."

Issei rubbed the back of his head, feeling a bit awkward about what happened. Sure, nobody got hurt but he most likely did something very rude coming in like he had.

"It's my fault but uhh… shouldn't you guys lock the door?"

Swallowing, pretending his cheeks weren't still burning, Issei focused on his tea. That, at least, was safe to stare at.

"Thank you." Forcing his spine to straighten, the young man, after a few moments of forcing himself to think about ceiling fans, managed to face the president of the occult research club. "Is it okay if I ask some questions? Like, you all seemed to have special powers so this isn't some kind of secret society kinda thing, right? And as silly as it may sound, well, I have powers too."

Surprisingly, his classmate didn't seem annoyed, confused, or disbelieving. Just like she hadn't gotten angry at him for seeing her like that.

Instead, she was confused.

Opening her mouth then closing it again, it took his upperclassmen two or three tries to actually speak.

"Let me talk with my friends. Ok?"

"Sure!" Issei smiled. "And again, please let them know I'm really, super sorry for just barging in like that. It was rather rude. Eheh…."

"I will." She smiled back, if thinly, and rose with a single, elegant motion. "Just a moment. And enjoy the tea and cakes."

It left Issei a moment to appreciate the upperclassman, though he found she seemed a little different than before. A little less bold, dare he say, and that seemed confusing.

Perhaps, he figured, it had to do with being embarrassed.

But right now she was dressed in the rather extravagant girl's uniform, the only exception being that her hair was wrapped up in a towel to dry, but the outfit seemed to sit a little less… finely. As if the redhead wasn't declaring herself to the world. Almost like she was afraid. But that couldn't be the case, especially if she wasn't bothered by him seeing her body like most women would be.

'No, maybe I'm just overthinking.'

After all, there was nothing about him that could scare anyone… not like the poor girls he'd killed.

"Well, maybe that is scary."

At the very least it was sad.

'And now I'm feeling guilty again.'

And he definitely was gonna have to call Smith after this. Sure, yesterday he asked her to explain things to his parents and get all the paperwork settled so they wouldn't worry about him. But why didn't she tell him that the other magic people in town were going to school with him?

How cool was that?

'And I totally blew my chance at a good first impression.' Wrecking their place and then showing up uninvited the next day. Sighing, the young man wasn't paying attention when the door behind him which had been left slightly ajar opened with a soft squeak and an unknown presence decided that it was time to make itself known.

"Senpai!"

Slender arms threw themselves around his neck and the Campione reacted with a small cry, but surprise turned to amusement and joy when he found the blonde girl from his last fight safe and sound.

"Hey! It's you! Are you ok? I'm glad you made it out. And sorry about not finding you after, I, um, well, I'm ok now! What about you?"

She nodded and then frowned and poked him in the chest.

"You got stabbed! You got really hurt. F-For me!" Small tears formed at the corner of her eyes. "And then I couldn't help you at all. I'm sorry. I really am useless."

Launching forwards, the blonde girl started quietly sniffling and Issei simply began patting her head - feeling more than a little guilty for making her cry. That seemed to be something that was happening more and more often since he got his powers on that ship.

But that was okay.

This one he at least managed to save.

"There, there. You did good."

Leaning into the head pat, the poor kid settled down and Issei pulled her into his lap. It was strange how miserable she seemed, but he supposed that the whole affair was rather terrifying. Doubly so if she was connected with the definitely Occult Research Club.

"Ah, thank you, Senpai. My name's Gasper."

"Gasper-chan, then."

There was a small shift from the blonde.

"...Please don't be disappointed."

He frowned.

"Why would I be disappointed with you?"

She looked down.

"It's… kun. Gasper-kun."

There was a brief pause as Issei's brain rebooted.

"Wait… what?" He blinked once… twice… thrice…

Yup, this day really wasn't turning out the way he expected.

"Buchou what are you-"

Rias ignored the question, raising a finger to her lips as she closed the door to the annex behind her, shooting a meaningful look at her Queen, who nodded, and with a few hand gestures, placed a floating sigil over the door - not only physically locking it but keeping any sound from leaking out.

She breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Akeno."

The dark haired girl nodded, lips flat with worry as opposed to her usual teasing demeanor. Really, the fact she hadn't teased or laughed at all yet meant she probably understood the amount of trouble that just walked through their door and sat on their couch.

Really, they might as well have a bomb ticking away in the club room.

"What… was that?" Koneko asked sullenly, eyes aimed at the door. The girl wasn't the most expressive, but Rias could tell by her wide blown pupils and curled fists that the middle schooler was completely overwhelmed.

She couldn't blame her or Kiba.

The plan had been to explain things to them and formulate a strategy this afternoon about how to deal with their new… neighbor. But now said neighbor completely caught them off guard by walking through the door.

Seriously, how bad could their luck get?!

"Buchou?" Kiba repeated with a worried look.

Rias pinched her brow.

She really wasn't on the ball lately.

"Sorry, I was lost in thought. But really, to think he would show up right after class. Talk about rotten timing." She couldn't help but grouch. How did he even know they were here? Heck, who had even told him about the ORC?

"Who is that student?" Kiba, ever dutiful, was quick to pull her back from going into another rant.

"Issei Hyoudou, a young man with… special status. I'm sure I told you two about this before. Apparently he was the one who saved Gasper yesterday." Of course, she avoided saying that he was also the reason why the incident from yesterday happened in the first place.

That would just complicate things.

"Special status?" Kiba latched on that, taking the conversation in a direction she really didn't want.

But she would roll with it.

"I'm sure you two remember when we just moved here, and I explained to you two the reason why devils work within territories? Why couldn't we just take jobs from across the country without getting into trouble."
Koneko caught onto it.

"Protection. Nobody messes with us. We don't mess with them." Because Japan was famous for having all sorts of incidents and conflicts happening in the shadows. Onmyodo, Yokai, monsters of all shapes and sides, warriors of divine heritage wielding priceless regalia.

To this day the island was stuffed to the brim with all these factions. Thus, any devil trying to find work would need to request permission to set up shop or risk being found out and attacked by whoever was in charge of the land. Be it human, yokai, or anything else.

"Yes, that's right. That's why, normally, anyone looking to move here would need permission from us, Sona, or from the Yokai faction who originally owned the land."

The blonde Knight frowned.

"And that boy? You looked surprised to see him."

Yes, surprise was certainly one way to put it. Spooked also worked.

"He is what we like to call an exception to that rule. Without any regard for established conventions and pacts, marching to the beat of their own drums. Regardless of what we, or the landlords say, that boy is the sort of existence that can't be rejected lightly."

Akeno picked up the explanation, looking as dejected as she felt over the inescapable truth of their situation. Doubtlessly she was thinking of the same fight Rias was.

They'd been left hanging out to dry side by side, after all.

"Having successfully defeated the calamity known as Heretic God, he is a human who usurped their powers, becoming what is called 'Campione'. Known throughout the world as Demon Kings, they are the tyrants who rule over humanity from the shadows."

The two younger devils paled.

"Demon King? That kid…"

"Didn't seem like much."

Rias agreed, but only up to a certain point, giving Koneko a reapproaching look.

"He might appear mundane, but even then the three of you reacted instinctively to his presence. Without knowing who he was or what he was, his presence still drove you to prepare for a fight or to run. It's not something anyone can accomplish. Rather, the fact he could walk through our defenses without being noticed marks him as the type of threat that cannot… should not be ignored." She let the words hang in the air for a few moments. The looks of confusion and fear on her Knight and Rook's faces were like daggers to her stomach. Really, it must have galled them to realize that there were people out there Rias couldn't do anything about.

She was sure they logically understood that the world was a much larger place. That there were strong people no matter the time and the place.

They probably didn't expect something like that to happen here.

Nor did Rias, really.

Which is why she'd been caught flat footed not once but twice in the past week.

"Unfortunately, now that he is here there isn't much we can do to get him to leave. No matter how much Sona thinks she can do it."

The trio absorbed her words in rapt attention.

"Was he… related to yesterday's incident, Buchou?"

"He wasn't the cause behind it. Rather, we believe he might have been the target that the culprits were aiming for. Campione have mortal enemies and rivals, and those don't care whether a whole city of innocents gets dragged into it or not. All things considered, we were lucky the damage was so limited."

An entire street was wrecked.

Their building was ruined.

"And that might be exactly what we need right now."

Smiling, gently, she gathered her two beloved servants in her arms. Kiba was stiff and surprised, like he wanted to bolt, while Koneko buried her face in Rias's chest. A bolt of shame crawled through her gut at both reactions.

"I'm afraid I've been a terrible King and a worse friend. Depending on your borrowed strength, strength I took for granted, might well have consigned you all to a fate that I could have prevented. So, if you three are willing to forgive me, then I'll make one more gamble. And perhaps give us a chance to accomplish something extraordinary."

Because they now had in their hands an opportunity to turn things around.

Here was a Campione, one of the few beings considered to be of the same weight class as the Four Satans and most gods. The ones who despite all odds managed to achieve the impossible feat of slaying a Heretic God.

'And we have a chance to see one live.'

What could be gleaned from this opportunity? Could Rias learn now what was the true gulf between her and that despicable goddess? The one who dared endanger her beloved servants, destroy her city and make a mockery of the Gremory name.

What was necessary to kill a Heretic?

She wanted to know. Rather, she needed to learn. And failing that, she couldn't help the vindictive thrill that ran through her body at the thought of pointing that power towards the abomination and her oversized pet spider when she saw them again.

But good things came to those who waited.

"For now, let's worry about properly welcoming our guest. We wouldn't want the name Gremory to be tarnished by poor hospitality, no wouldn't we?"

Her peerage rallied.

Yes, she was proud of their bravery. Proud that she was still worthy of that loyalty despite the shame she endured the past day. With her determination rekindled, Rias undid the seal on the door, unlocking it with a click and a deep steadying breath.

She was ready to face him, the Demon King of Japan.

"Come on, yell it from the top!"

"PLUS ULTRA!"

"No, not that! The other thing!"

"OPPAI!"

"Again, my disciple!"

"O-PPAI!"

What she wasn't ready for, was to see said Demon King standing by her Bishop, egging him on as the blonde yelled about cleavage.

"What in the Underworld…?"

She blinked, confused. Today just wasn't going the way she expected, at all.

"OPPAI!"

"Heh." Issei patted the boy's head. "Good. You're learning. We'll make you manly in no time, Gasper! As your teacher it'll be my duty and honor!"

"Yes sir!"

The blonde boy looked up at him with such bright red eyes. that shined with so much admiration and hope, that Issei felt… something. Something he assumed was a bad sandwich he felt for lunch and absolutely nothing else.

So he gave the kid a thumbs up.

"Good! Starting tomorrow, I'll bring you along with me for - ah, you're back! I'm sorry, I didn't see you guys there."

Not only did his senior still look a little confused, but the rest of her friends, too, seemed a bit… flabbergasted. Like what they were seeing just did not make the tiniest bit of logical sense.

"Gasper? You are… out of your room?" And just like that, the red head was back in control. She walked over to the now suddenly far more nervous boy and smiled at him. "You are, of course, more than welcome to stay. How are you… feeling?"

"I… um… well…."

Seeing his poor underclassman struggling, Issei clapped him on the shoulder, though carefully not enough to knock Gasper around.

"If you mean the magic eye stuff, he's told me about them! We were trying to get him hyped up and see about getting those under control. Apparently he got in some good practice helping me deal with Dusa-Chan's sisters. I'm immune to that stuff, but he managed to stop those two for half a second or so! Now that he's got a little experience, it's easier. So long as you stay manly, right, Gasper?"

"Yes, senpai! I'll control them in no time flat!" With a nod and a flush of shame, the young boy ended up somehow on Rias's lap with his eyes screwed shut and the heiress looking fondly exasperated.

The younger boy seemed to really like laps, huh?

He could approve of his kouhai's ambition!

"Hey, hey, it's okay. You're not trapped, anymore. I'm proud of you for coming up and meeting your friend." She turned to Issei and smiled, his heart skipping a beat when a single dimple formed, the European girl's eyes seeming to shine with a genuine care when she turned to him. "Still, thank you for protecting Gasper. He's our beloved junior and you saved his life."

"He probably got dragged into trouble because I was there, but everything is alright now. Somehow we managed it." Rubbing the back of his head, Issei felt a bit awkward. Suddenly aware that his own cheeks were heating up.

Getting thanked for stuff… he'd have to get used to stuff like that, huh?

"Gya-kun was in trouble, and you helped. Thank you."

The usually silent white haired girl said, walking over to sit besides the redhead and blonde boy, though she looked exasperated by his crying instead of annoyed. It would seem like Issei had his work cut out for him if he wished to guide him on the road of maturity!

'Although there's nothing wrong with petite, either.'

In all things, one should aim for variety! That was the spice of oppai!

"My, my. It seems our juniors have surpassed us, Kiba."

"Indeed." Bowing, the blonde pretty boy offered up his thanks, too. "You protected Gasper with your life, you have our thanks."

"As the noble knight said. You fought splendidly and your blood was… most wonderful~"

Feeling deeply conflicted, he accepted both thanks. Such as they were. But Rias's friends seemed a bit terrifying. At least now they weren't threatening him.

'Thank you Lord for having her bow so deeply!'

The poor, unfortunate boy had nowhere else to possibly look.

A tragedy, indeed.

Thanks aside, the members settled into their club room. Akeno, the black haired beauty, stepped into a small kitchenette, next to the fully furnished bathroom, and began preparing tea in some of the finest porcelain he'd ever seen. While both the white haired girl, whom he had not met, and Kiba, the pretty boy knight, set to preparing food.

Small cakes and sandwiches respectively.

And it gave him the time to actually just take the place in. Gasper had, understandably, taken his focus, not that he begrudged it, and it struck him that this place was more than old - it was elegant.

The floor and walls were hardwood, the furniture was foreign and, while in a very old style, was brand new, and he was also struck by the fact that the seemingly ancient building also had clear signs of both heating and cooling! This place probably actually wasn't very old at all, at least in hindsight, and definitely not if they had a working gas stove, too.

But… was that all just magic?

"Excuse me… uh… ?"

"Rias is fine, president too if you prefer"

"Right, Buchou then. I was just wondering, but how was this place paid for? If it's okay to ask, that is!"

Pouring a cup of tea for him, it was Akeno who answered.

"The building belongs to the school, who cleans it and maintains it… normally. Yesterday was an exception and we had to spend a great deal of time and effort to put it back together with magic." She gave him a smile. "Now, milk or sugar?"

Swallowing, forcing himself not to glance downwards, Issei managed to respond.

"Milk, please."

And if it came out a little strangled, well, he could hardly be blamed for that.

"Still, you said you had questions?"

Right, right.

That was before he got sidetracked, and really, who could blame him for not focusing when in the presence of so many beauties. Really, Issei might have forgotten his own name if he stared at the club president for too long.

"Yeah, well… I'm kinda new, so… there wasn't a whole lot I could find about the magic stuff by myself."

The redhead nodded.

"Yes, that is not the kind of information anyone would carelessly share even in this day and age."

Yeah, Smith said the same thing.

"So… ahem… I thought I'd come here and see if there were any hints? You guys all seem to have powers so I guess my hunch was right." And while Smith explained a great deal about how the government and her office dealt with magic stuff, she never actually told him where he could learn more about it, or who he could learn from.

"Ah, so you're interested in background information? I'm honestly surprised someone in your position couldn't just make a request."

Issei rubbed his head in embarrassment.

"I did want to, but the past couple days have been a bit busy. I'm only getting my feet back under me now." And he wasn't even sure if what he was doing was magic to begin with. The way Athena explained it, the whole god slayer business was probably rare and since Smith said the locals couldn't handle the sisters that meant they weren't like him.

So what did that make this club?

The gorgeous redhead hummed in thought, resting her chin on her hand with a… amused smile.

"Well, I certainly don't see any problem with answering your questions..."

Score!

"For a price."

Wait a second.

"I have to pay?!"

"Usually we would draw up contracts and reach an agreement depending on what the task is. As far as business pertaining to… magic… are concerned I am usually called to help identify relics or break curses. It's not actually a cheap service, hiring me."

Dammit! He used most of his allowance on that date with Athena. He didn't have anything to pay them with!

"Uh… do you take marble statues?"

He had plenty of those.

"I think we've had enough marble in the past few days." The senior student's face twisted in annoyance.

Yeah, he figured tha would be the case.

"But it shouldn't be that much, in fact I already have the perfect way in mind for you to get your answers and us to get our payment." Leaning back, the redhead had an air of easy confidence and eagerness plus… something else Issei couldn't quite put his finger on.

But if he came all the way here, he might as well ask.

"And that is?"

Leaning forward, the redhead's smile went from soft and indulgent to mischievous with just the right amount of teeth to send a tingle down Issei's spine, along with the realization that he probably should have asked about it first before agreeing.

"How do you feel about helping us with an exercise today?"

Issei didn't expect to come back to the gymnasium this soon.

After getting saved by Kiryuu earlier the very same day, the young man was starting to wonder whether this wasn't fate or the universe trying to get him back for avoiding his totally undeserved eyeful of men in swim gear. With how bad his luck had been the past day, that might actually be the case.

Though fortunately the swim team was nowhere to be found.

Nor was anyone for that matter.

"Isn't it kinda… empty?"

Quiet, too quiet for his taste. The only thing missing was the ambush.

"It's still the first week, so after class activities are being kept short. Most importantly, we are waiting for the high amounts of mana from the fight yesterday to disperse. We want to avoid people becoming sick, so we asked the staff to limit student exposure. Even if the adults and those accustomed to it are less likely to get sick."

Wait, you could get sick from magic?

That… actually made sense, but he didn't know it was so bad that just going to the place where he fought could be dangerous.

"And the people in town?"

The dark haired beauty waved him off with a soft smile.

"They will be fine. The area is cordoned off while the crews work on repairing the damage."

Ah, good. That was a load off his shoulder.

"Still, I think it's about time we got down to business." Standing across from thim, the group stood on the opposite end of one of the game courts, lined up like they were about to ask him to play them.

Issei wasn't at all confident in his basketball skills. But he had a mean kick, so maybe soccer would be fine.

"So, uhh… what am I supposed to do? You mentioned an exercise but… what are we here for?"

The redhead took center, standing between him and the group.

"Well, it's pretty simple. I figured that it's only natural for us to learn more about you if you want to learn more about us. And the best way to do that is to see what you can do just as we show you what we are capable of."

He caught onto it immediately.

"So we're… fighting?"

"Not seriously, of course. Think of this as trying to see where you stand, and showing you where we stand. I wouldn't want to bore you with a drawn out lecture, so this way is more fun!" She clapped, looking like the very picture of innocence.

"Um… like the kendo club?"

"No." Kiba, the blonde pretty boy bastard stepped forwards. "Not at all." Glancing at Rias, the swordsman received a smile and a nod. "We'll be dueling you, one at a time, and while we won't be using lethal attacks, we will be fighting you."

Manifesting a long, narrow handled European sword with a black blade, the knight extended the weapon.

"Please, touch the blade? It won't hurt you, I promise."

Reaching out, the Campione hesitated for only a moment, having to force himself to try and prick his finger on the tip of the sword.

"Huh. It can't hurt me? So it's a practice sword?"

A shake of the head from Rias.

"Hardly. That's one of my Knight's most dangerous weapons."

Kiba, Sir Kiba the Lucky, Issei supposed, took the tip of the sword and slowly pushed into the ground… inch by inch… then foot by foot… until he pressed the hilt against the floor of the gym, flicked his wrist, and slashed a meter long gash in the building.

"Holy crap!"

"Unholy, actually."

"Wait? Like a demon sword?"

"Sort of." The knight smiled. "Still, no matter how hard I attack, I doubt my weapons can pierce your skin. So you don't need to fear injury."

"Ah, well, um, you know… could we start without weapons?"

Looking back at his mistress, the swordsman shrugged.

"Sure, then. Koneko?"

"Ok."

The white haired girl walked forwards, the only addition to her otherwise normal school uniform being a pair of boxing gloves.

"I'll go first."

Okay, so they wouldn't be fighting to the death.

That was… a breath of fresh air considering every other time he had to push his powers, it was because something was trying to kill him and he had to kill it back before it could.

"Alright."

Buchou quirked an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Alright? You see no problems?"

"I mean, we're already here and I kinda still want to ask those questions. So if nobody is getting really hurt… sure, let's go for it." Issei scratched his cheek.

"Though I don't really wanna fight a girl." Not for the third time, at least.

"It's ok. I won't hold back."

"O-ok." Sketching a bow, Issei dipped his head. "Still, nice to meet you! I'm Issei Hyoudou."

"Koneko." She dipped her head. "Rook of Gremory."

'Rook, like in chess?'

Unfortunately for Issei there was no starting signal, no buzzer or bell. Koneko simply rocketed forwards and brought her foot up in an axe kick. Issei, barely, managed to dodge and the vicious blow came down in an almost perfect arc coming down where he'd been just standing.

Dodging, however, wasn't enough to save him.

The heel of her foot came down like a sledgehammer, shattering the ground, sending pieces of debris flying as wood came apart as easily as tissue paper. It was all Issei could do to stay on his feet as the ground became loose and unstable, concrete cracking beneath the floorboards as a whole section of the court was pushed downwards, sinking into the ground.

Barely avoiding the small hole, Issei gawked at the herculean middle schooler.

"The hell?!"

What were they feeding people in this school?!

Chapter Text

Dulio considered himself a blessed man.

Over the course of his life, short as it might be, the young man had been the receiver of countless fortunes. With loving parents and community, a sense of purpose driven by a righteousness that few could match, and the support of countless people wiser and greater than he could ever hope to reach.

Above all else, he had been blessed with power.

A heaven gifted power that allowed him, a simple man born to simple people, to tread where none could, say what needed to be said, and stand his ground when he felt was needed.

That was power.

The power granted to him at birth by God.

'But with power there must be an equal sense of control.' At his fingertips, the sky itself was a weapon which could be used to rain damnation down upon his enemies, turning the bright cerulean that he loved as a child into the dark grey that heralded disaster.

Yes, temperance was important.

As was humility.

Arrogance was unbefitting of a blessed man and Dulio had always strived to maintain a clear image of himself, his weaknesses and his strengths. His flaws and his virtues. No man was perfect, and he endeavored to remind himself of this fact for every triumph and victory.

God laid down trials for all of them.

"And that would be mine, right around the corner."

He could hear it approaching.

The storm.

A crack of thunder in broad daylight with nary a cloud in sight, and yet the heavens roared in warning as the cool winds of the Balkans whistled shrilly, cracking whips against his form as the blonde exorcist floated over the apex of the Musala Peak. The highest mountain of the Balkans named as 'Closest to God' felt like a fitting stage for what was about to happen.

It was also a known route for Dulio's guest.

Heralded by pitch black clouds on the horizon, in the echoes of lightning fangs and howls that shook the mountain beneath him, the exorcist took a deep breath as a stifling pressure grew closer.

In the Vatican this was what was commonly referred to as 'the Demon King's presence'.

As if the atmosphere itself had taken a hold of him, Dulio felt his ears pop as the pressure he normally would be unbothered with made itself known with a vengeance, the wrathful hand of his opponent contesting him for control over the skies as the roiling clouds approached like an army.

Or rather, it was the shadow of a man who lazily approached the peak of Musala, having finally noticed his presence.

"As striking an arrival as always, Marquis."

He greeted the man as was right and proper. Enemy or not, the man before him was first and foremost a human, and as a human was worthy of the pleasantries afforded to a diplomat.

Even if said diplomat arrived with a thunderstorm and an army of wolves snarling and snapping at his heels.

"Gesualdo, was it?"

The man's clear voice wasn't angry, for anger was beneath him. No, the cool acceptance and acknowledgement that came from a being who understood power when he saw it, and simply returned his greeting with one of his own.

Dressed sharply with a suit beneath a long coat and high collar, the older man wouldn't look out of place lecturing at a university. With an air of reserved stoicism refined by a self assuredness granted only through experience and age.

Yes, Marquis Voban, eldest of this generation's Campione, had both to spare.

"Out for a walk, today?"

"I have business to attend to."

"I'm sure that matters are well in hand, Marquis. No need to waste your time on a fruitless trip." Hopefully Doni would defeat whatever spawned in the Mediterranean soon and they could avoid a confrontation between him and the Marquis.

Two Campione meeting was just asking for trouble.

"Move aside, brat."

Unaffected by his attempt at small talk, Dulio felt the man's stare on him for a moment before his aura banished it. The Demon King had just attempted to use his Authority on him, out of habit no doubt, but when one became powerful enough, it became possible to resist and dispel the curse before it took hold.

Many brave exorcists had been returned to them as statues of salt by the Marquis over the years, to the point that only the select few were allowed to enter his territory or entreat with the man.

Master Ewald.

The Legendary Vasco Strada.

Sister Griselda.

'And with me that makes four.' Of course, he was the only one with the needed mobility to keep up with the Marquis. Anyone else would have been too slow or unable to reach him at such heights.

Their powers were just too good of a match.

"Afraid I can't do that. But you already knew that, didn't you?"

"You've gotten clever, brat. Or maybe I've just become old." The older man abandoned his glare, opting instead for a wry smile. The kind one might use when caught in a playful bluff, as if trying to turn someone else into a statue was just an inside joke between them. The Marquis would never waste his time hunting someone weak enough to drop dead at a glance.

This was just another one of the old man's tests.

'Life and death are just a game to him.'

And for that same reason, he couldn't allow this wolf wearing men's clothing to pass through him. To fail here would be to insult the memory of his comrades.

"Very well, then. I shall allow you to entertain me then. Consider it a rare treat, the undivided attention of this Voban is not something most can brag of earning." Lightning flashed in the distance, illuminating the elder Campione as fangs peeked through his lips and eyes glimmered with foul light.

Dulio sighed, gathering his own power with a short prayer.

Zenith Tempest answered, powerful currents whipping at Dulio's back, clashing with the gale force winds summoned by the Marquis with a screech similar to that of two blade edges being dragged over one another, overshadowing the howling wolves in the distance as the Demon King before him dispensed with any semblance of humanity.

A sharp smile, full of teeth, graced his maw.

"I call the wind, subdue the rain, and gather the lightning. Know that both the scorching gust and the freezing squall are mine to command. I shall bring──the fury of storm and raging waves to this land!"

The storm clouds gathering overhead spread over the sky like a welcome mat, darkness overshadowing the azure sky for miles on end as lightning flashed once again in the distance and the air vibrated between them.

[Sturm und Drang]

The Authority gained by Voban after slaying a trio of Chinese weather gods. A rarity even in the world of Campione. Granted it wasn't a name devised by the Marquis himself. The man never named his powers, leaving it to mage associations and historians to put labels to all the terrible ways the Campione could visit devastation upon the land.

It was, perhaps, one of the most powerful authorities on record.

Fortunately, he just happened to be the rare exception when it came to dealing with it. The one reason the Church felt confident in sending a single man to face the Marquis.
'There are few things that can match a longinus." At Dulio's back, a typhoon formed, warping the black clouds above, blowing a whole through the darkness and revealing a window of perfect clean skies above the exorcist.

Their battle had just begun.

Oh! Now he knew what was missing!

Or rather, who was missing.

"Hey there, Andrea. Good morning! Or is it afternoon by now?" The sun should be just about to reach the apex any time now.

"Where. Are. You?"

The voice on the other end ignored his cordial greeting, instead repeating a question Doni had no way of answering. Really, did the guy think Doni actually intended to be stranded at an island like this, or did he just assume he did something to deserve it?

He could never tell.

Doni opted for honesty, the best policy!

"I dunno."

"What do you mean, you don't know?!"

"I dunno. It's an island I guess. There's seagulls, there's palm trees, there are a couple of crabs over there and I think I saw a turtle earlier. Hey, did you know that sailors used to eat Dodos in the past?"

There was a strange garbled sound from the other end of the line.

Was he going through a tunnel or something, like muffled screams in the distance. It was only there for half a minute before the call seemed to connect again and his loyal assistant picked back up from where he left.

"What of the Heretic God, Lord Salvatore?"

Oh, right.

That.

"Oh, he's dead." It was such a good fight too! He'd never fought a giant before and the guy was really strong. Maybe not as skilled as Nuada or as durable as Siegfried, but he definitely was a tougher cookie than Dionysus and that stick in the mud Vulcan had been.

"I explicitly requested that you wait until Mrs. Zola finished divining the identity of the Heretic." The man spoke tightly.

"Well, that got boring. And you guys said he was coming my way, so I decided to see what he wanted. Who was the guy, by the way? I tried talking to him but the storm was kinda loud and I think he might have given me a concussion."

"Melqart, Lord Salvatore. He was Melqart."

Doni whistled.

Man, so that's who that guy was!

No wonder he was such a tough guy, between all the mixing around of legends the guy probably had Heracles or even Beelzebub mixed into his powers. Which might explain the storming, the super strength, the clubs and the kinda plague he was threatening to swallow the world with.

That last part had been a bummer.

Why involve a buncha others into their duel? Some gods just didn't have any manners.

"Guess there shouldn't be any problem now, then. He's gone." Unless the guy had any legends about coming back to life after being cut in half. You never knew what kinda tricks a heretic picked up when they manifested.

"Yes, I supposed we shouldn't look a gift mule in the mouth."

Wasn't it supposed to be a horse?

Then who was the mule?

"And I would like to confirm once again that you indeed have no idea of where you are?"

Doni sighed. Again with the repeat questions.

This was turning out to be a boring conversation.

"Not the foggiest. I just know there was this big explosion after I cut the guy. I hit the water a couple times and when I came to? Here I was! Tropical island vacation with everything paid! There's no room service though. No hotel either, really. Think you could bring some limoncello when you come to pick me up?"

There was a pause on the other side.

"I will make the arrangements. As soon as my aides finish the tracking array. Please remain put and on call."

Sure, not like he had anything else to do.

"Lord Salvatore?"

"Yes, Rivera?"

"Why are you in the caribbean?"

Caribbean? As in the place across the ocean? The one with the pirate movies? Man, Melqart must have hit him hard on that last attack if it sent him flying all the way across the ocean and into another continent, huh? With how things were looking he would have guessed Madagascar but even his sense of direction was probably shot.

"I keep telling you I dunno. That last part of the fight was really confusing and then I passed out. But hey, at least the guy went down fighting. Just my kinda opponent!"

There was a sigh from the other side of the line.

"And you are absolutely sure that he is dead? Because I had to pull some heavy favors to keep Lord Voban from interfering and the Church will be rather cross with me if I put them through that stress over a half finished job."

Doni smiled at the sun.

"Yup. Guy's done for. Ten count. Elimination. Done for."

"That is reassuring to hear. I will be sure to pass along the message to my contacts."

But man, if the Church was trying to stop that old vulture from interrupting his fight… that meant they probably sent one of the big hitters to grab his attention. They could be fighting it out even now, since Rivera said he'd need to warn them about Melqart.

Which meant… he still had a chance to crash the party!

"Rivera, change of plans!"

"What?"

"I'm headed back. No need for a pick up."

"What? How?!"

Ye of little faith. Didn't he know that Salvatore Doni was a man who would never miss a fight? There was no way he was gonna miss a Triple Threat match with the old man and a church big shot. Hell, maybe they even sent Signore Strada! That would be just the best!

"Doni, no!"

And hey, this would give him the perfect opportunity to try out the fancy new toy he got from Melqart. Oh he could hardly wait to see the looks on their faces when he showed up.

"Sorry, Rivera. I think the signal is cutting."

"Don't pull that on me! I had that phone reinforced for this exact reason. Don't you dare." Getting up, Doni ignored the call as he reached for a nearby pile of sand, retrieving a branch of dry wood he'd left half buried in it earlier.

'When will he learn… there's nothing in this world I cannot cut."

For a moment there was nothing and then, with a flash of silver the call cut off.

Café Ahnenerbe was, like many other magical businesses in Los Angeles, a place of ill repute.

First developed as a hangout for runaway mages during the Prohibition Era, the business was turned into a launching point for various unscrupulous fellows who attempted to take advantage of the turmoil in the 1940's to push their own schemes and agendas.

At one point it had become a hiding place for european occultists. Being the 40's one could guess where the majority of those runaways came from.

Jack Milburn understood that as far as investigators like him were concerned, this was enemy ground. The sort of place that bred discontent and stewed in past grudges, nay, indulged in the past like one would indulge in narcotics.

Already, the investigator could feel the gaze of the patrons on his back.

Watching.

No, waiting for a chance to strike at him.

'That guy really has no sense of danger, does he?' To come here, to one of the biggest remnants of the [Old World] loyalists and then ask one of the biggest thorns in their side to join him for a spot of tea was like dangling a juicy piece of steak in front of a ravenous pack of wolves.

Although none of them would dare act now.

Not while that man sat at the corner, nursing a cup of joe while reading the morning papers. The entire atmosphere lended itself to what might appear to be a detective movie, tobacco smoke flitting like mist through the air of the dimly lit establishment.

Of course, the man in question completely ruined the mood, dressed as he was.

Like a stage magician mixed with a superhero from Jack's youth, the one known as John Pluto Smith was an enigmatic fellow whose arrival completely broke the stalemate American wizards had been experiencing for centuries. A powerful individual whose very presence brought sworn enemies to heel and maintained a sense of tense peace.

Of course, this man who wielded the power of slain gods also happened to be a weirdo of the highest order.

"Ah, Detective Milburn. Thank you for coming so promptly."

A jovial tone echoed through the café, at complete odds with the atmosphere.

This man really had very little sense when it came to reading a room.

Dressed up in an expensive suit and a long cape, this masked fellow's head was framed by the comically high collar. If not for the insect-like futuristic helmet he wore, Jack would have thought the man was getting ready to go trick or treating as a cheap vampire imitation.

Of course, said thoughts would go unheard.

Eccentric or not, this man was still a Campione.

"I would have been faster if you had sent your message by spell. Why go through all the trouble of contacting my office through the phone?" Taking a seat across from the man, Jack leafed through the menu. Not that he had any luck, none of it was written in english.

Because of course the owners couldn't make things easy.

The masked man chuckled good naturedly.

"Come now, Jack. You know these things must be done in a certain order. Though there are few who could boast of the ability to eavesdrop on my spells, contacting you through the line also lets me warn your superiors. I'm sure they got in contact with you soon after, correct? That was just to get the… formalities of our meeting out of the way."

Jack grimaced in distaste.

What they referred to as safety measures and protocols, this daredevil called 'formalities'. The calls he got after the Campione's involved multiple association heads as well as a polite call from the White House.

The detective couldn't blame them.

This was John Pluto Smith, the man who in the past decade had slain multiple calamities known as Heretic Gods. From the Goddess of the Hunt, Artemis, to the King of Fairies, Oberon.

And if he was contacting him now…

"What kind of calamity are you headed towards now, Pluto?"

The man tilted his head, mouthpiece opening ever so slightly as the man took a long sip from his coffee. The tense silence was something of a specialty when it came to this superhero wannabe, who delighted in his theatrics.

"What do you know of an association by the name of [King of the Flies], Detective?"

The question brought him up short, before his brain caught onto the name.

"Devil contractors. Very much illegal. Known for participating in outlawed human sacrifice. Very little is known about their current leadership. The group was thought to have disbanded after you…"

He stopped short, grimacing.

"After you eliminated Count Bifrons."

That had been a diplomatic incident of spectacular proportions. To think that a member of the 72 Pillars would be hiding in the human world, leading a cabal of followers for some nefarious purpose? Their liaison with the Underworld was very cross with them for allowing Pluto Smith to kill the ancient devil, as opposed to holding him as a prisoner.

As if they had any choice in the matter.

Bifrons was dead before they ever got to the crime scene.

"Yes, I too expected the organization to fizzle out without his support. However, one of my contacts has informed me of the contrary. Rather, the group appears to be reorganizing itself at a remarkable pace."

Jack leaned forward.

This was… important news. He'd have to report them as soon as he left.

"You believe they might be under new management? Perhaps one of the senior mages?"

The Campione scoffed.

"Those sycophants aren't fit to lead themselves out of a paper bag. Their absolute devotion, no, the depths of their obsession with Devils and their power inspired in them a madness that doesn't make for effective leadership. Rather, they would only accept serving someone of equal status to Bifrons'."

The detective sighed, desperately yearning for something stronger than coffee.

Another devil? Or something strong enough for those cultists to worship as fervently as they did the last one.

"You don't have any other leads? Anything I could send to my own contacts?" While the Underworld and the Government were nominally neutral towards one another, that didn't mean there weren't groups chomping at the bit to satisfy grudges against the devils.

The Holy Church also had many allies he would try and pump for information.

The masked hero shook his head.

"King of Flies has gone to ground, making it difficult to track their movements or obtain more information about their new leader. I imagine that they will be quiet for the next few months while the power vacuum is filled. Unfortunately my network of collaborators doesn't reach all the way to the Underworld so new information will be hard to come by."

As it very well should.

The 72 Pillars weren't fond of John Pluto Smith, or of Campione in general. After losing three families to a massacre around a century ago, losing the last scion of another noble family probably made them even more incensed towards the masked hero.

"If you're having problems, I don't know how I'm supposed to help you."

The godslayer leaned back, crossing his arms with a mischievous chuckle.

"Oh but it's elementary my dear Watson…"

Jack cringed at the reference. He'd walked right into that one and the hero wannabe leapt at the chance to be even more dramatic than before. Like a theater kid on improvisation night.

"While it is indeed impossible for John Pluto Smith to investigate the matter, it would be much easier for a fresh face, one not associated with me to perform the task. As such I would like you to serve as a contact for this new hire of mine."

A new hire?

It made sense to try and improve their odds by bringing in a fresh face and pair of eyes, but to then ask Jack, a known associate of the Campione, to serve as this person's contact?

Wouldn't it cast doubt on them should it be found out? Or perhaps he was creating a weak link in their group? The Campione's strength might keep them at bay, but a supposed chink in the armor would draw their attention.

This was bait. And this guy was entrusting him with making sure this new person was safe.

"I see, that makes sense. King of Flies is likely to act if you appear to be absent. And this other person will instead be the focus. A virtual unknown will gather their curiosity rather than hostility. That's how you plan to find out more about their movements."

John Pluto Smith nodded, seemingly pleased.

"As expected of Sacrilege Investigation's top earner. Your reputation is earned."

'Even his praise feels like it belongs on some fancy trophy.' Jack sighed.

"Still, you never told me who this new is. I can't work without information, Pluto."

Resting his armored face on the palm of his gloved hand, the Campione paused again for dramatic effect, as if arguing with himself about something before coming to a conclusion.

"You'll be working alongside one of Professor West's pupils. The man is a trusted ally of mine, but his student is a new face. I am sure that the two of you will get along swimmingly."

"Their name?"

"She is called Annie Charlton."

Chapter Text

It struck Issei as odd that someone so small could pack that much of a punch.

That wasn't to say he hadn't seen girls that were just as scary. But Euryale had a very sharp spear and Dusa-chan was scary in ways you couldn't even look at her without being in danger.

This was different.

And just as bad.

"Not the face! Watch out for the face!"

Jabs, hooks, straights. The tiny girl lashed out with punch after punch, moving like an experienced pugilist, faster than a human had any business being, with attacks strong enough to blow his hair back with wind alone.

The one time he blocked them, Issei actually felt his forearms go numb and his knees buckle before pushing her back… which had been just about the only win he had managed so far in this fight before the girl, Koneko, launched herself back at him intent on giving his face a permanent makeover.

Using the force of her strike to propel herself upwards, the white haired brawler bounced up and at Issei and it was all he could do to throw up a wall between them.

"Got you."

Grabbing the lip of the slab of marble as it fell, she rotated herself over the edge of Issei's shield and he, well, took advantage of the opening. With a second kick coming down, the extra rotation lending it additional power, but taking more time to land, Issei roughly guessed where Koneko was falling.

So, wincing, hesitating to put much effort into it, and feeling immensely guilty, the teen lined his fist up with his opponent's face and just… let the girl fall into it.

"Sorry!"

Her chin struck his knuckles with a sharp crunch while her second strike did send him flying, the sheer force released on impact being enough to knock Issei back several feet, still landing on his feet even though he felt like he'd had a soccer ball punted at his chest.

Issei ducked under a punch, barely dodging the little girl… who just so happened to be able to shatter steel.

Flailing wildly, he back pedaled as he tried to dodge her strikes, the short, sharp attacks coming in at a heavy pace. Each punch would have pulverized a normal human and Issei still flinched, even if he could take the hits without much trouble. But, after a sudden trio of blows - a simple left, right, left - both of his hands came up out of instinct.

"Bad choice."

Suddenly pushing off the ground, the white haired girl landed an elbow to his gut and then stepped into Issei as he doubled over.

"Up!" She grabbed his jacket, slammed her hips into his thighs, and bodily lifted him off the ground. "And over!"

Suddenly losing contact with the ground, the Campione did the only thing he could!

"Oof!" Manifesting a slab of marble mid air, he made a sound of pain more out of habit than actual injury. In fact, even if he'd been slammed face first into the floor, he'd walk it off. But Issei still preferred not to be manhandled like this.

So he did the simple thing!

Liquifying the marble, or, rather, causing it to flow like it was a liquid, he "doused" the younger student in his conjured material and solidified it before she could dodge fully.

"Uh oh."

However, somewhat critically, he had forgotten her hands were still wrapped up in his jacket.

"Bye bye."

Jumping up, their bodies at an odd angle, Issei turned to face his opponent. Whose shoe clad feet were currently rocketing at the conjured marble. And, of course, his body.

'Hello, paradise!'

And yet, something more important was there for him at that moment. A truly valuable trade that made the next ten seconds entirely worthwhile.

Koneko's feet made contact with his chest, right between her arms, and the hastily conjured marble plate shattered. Really, he knew martial artists did the whole thing where they punched through stone slabs. But this was ridiculous!

'I figured it would be like that, but without a chant it was much weaker.' It was only a rush job, too, but he'd never seen his marble just shatter like that. With that kinda strength the blow would have pulped the chest of a normal person, but Issei simply got the wind knocked out of him.

His jacket, however, was instantly ripped to shreds, freeing the brawler's hands and rocketing him at the far wall of the school gym.

Clipping a bleacher, the campione spun wildly up into the air, cartwheeling and flipping as he spun, and only avoided being launched out of the building by conjuring a stone slab to catch him.

Not particularly soft, he was immensely glad that none of these attacks, or his landing, had or would hurt him. But, falling from several meters in the air, he conjured a long sloped block of marble, the curve just enough to catch him and help him slide back down to the floor.

"Oof!"

Even if he didn't land as smoothly as hoped.

However, he was much, much better off than his opponent.

"Let me out, Senpai."

With nothing but her head sticking out of the ground, the white haired brawler couldn't even struggle as she was.

"Ah, sorry." Issei rubbed his head. "But I don't want to be kicked again."

Walking over to his opponent, the Campione inspected his trap in detail.

Mostly relying on the fact that the Rook was happy to smash up the ground, he had allowed his conjured stone to settle into the cracks, smashed up areas, and then he'd just replicated what he'd used to trap her the first time around. So, falling into a massive puddle of liquid marble, connected by a single snaking vine, the very short, very, very strong girl lacked the leverage needed to hit him.

"I will punch you."

"I… see." Looking up at her friends, the teenager got a round of shrugs and a very sadistic smile. "So, do you surrender, or…."

"No."

Her head rocked back and forth a bit, but, other than that single word, there was no further response.

"Please?"

The rocking got a little worse and right now Issei was worried he'd hurt her.

"No."

And just like that she stopped rocking and shrugged the ground itself up an inch.

His eyes went wide as the girl, smaller than him, tiny compared to him, physically lifted up the entire section of the ground he'd trapped her in.

"Pfft." And just like that, his awe and terror were gone. "I-I-I'm sorry." Bent over, laughing, unable to help himself, the poor boy found himself completely and totally overwhelmed. "You're head… it's like a giant flower costume!"

Having seemingly tried to assume a combat stance, Koneko, with a large section of the floor still attached to her body, was left with only her face and hands free.

In other words, Issei was fighting a girl stuck in a wall.

And it wasn't even lewd!

"Don't laugh!"

He tried to stop.

"Don't!"

Truly.

"Fine. I surrender. Just let me go."

Her pout only made the whole thing even more adorable.

"You did your best, Koneko."

The Rook glared at him, but she relaxed when he patted her shoulder, leaning into his touch for only a moment - Buchou soon pulling her away to finish clearing rock powder from her cheeks with a napkin.

But she had appreciated the recognition, even if it was only because he wasn't being condescending. His friend had tried and failed to do more than momentarily disrupt the Campione at all. And that had him feeling a great many things.

Anxiety wasn't a completely unfamiliar feeling to Kiba.

In fact, one could almost call it an old friend. The sort who you went without seeing for a long time, only to bump into at random for a quick catch up. While the metaphor didn't exactly fit his situation, the Knight was sure that the way his stomach clenched and his heart chilled were familiar.

Anxiety.

Uncertainty.

Excitement.

The last one surprised even him.

He knew what Campione were, or rather, despite knowing that such people existed in the world, he'd never found any interest in learning more about them, because he never saw himself facing one.

'Rookie mistake.' He would readily admit.

Kiba trained to fight angels.

He'd trained to fight fallen.

He'd even trained to fight other devils at two different points of his life. Before and after his current situation. Yet never once had he found himself training and studying for the purpose of facing off against one of the elusive, yet frighteningly powerful god killers.

But now here he stood.

Kiba twirled his sword, stretching as the weapon moved around his hand and then back again. It was a coordination exercise, forcing him to pay attention to both the blade and his own limbs, lest he lop something off.

Still, his heart began to slowly speed up as he took in his enemy.

Whatever the first impression he'd had of the alleged pervert was gone.

And he couldn't help but feel the thrill of excitement that shot down his spine.

"Are you sure you don't want a short rest?" He offered common courtesy by habit, but his heart wasn't in it. Because, despite it all, the blonde swordsman found he really wanted to get right into business and figure out just how he stacked up to this unfairly difficult opponent.

"Oh, I'm okay. It stings a bit, but I'm good to go."

And he wasn't lying.

As untrained and raw as the boy appeared to be, he didn't seem the least bit winded from his bout with Koneko. While there might be bruises and scrapes, it really wasn't any worse than one might have if they, for example, fell while on a walk.

And that's all Koneko's bout amounted to.

'A light jog and a bump.'

The feeling was back in force.

His hands shook, not with fear, but an energy that he'd not felt in a long, long time. His inhuman senses extended and took in the roiling mass of divine power freely rampaging just under the once-human-boy's skin. His mind took in the weak stance, sloppy form, almost casual air.

But most of all how even when injuries pulled or chafed against clothing, Issei didn't react at all. Almost like he couldn't feel them.

'Absurd stamina, absurd pain tolerance? Lack of ability to feel pain?'

Kiba smiled, politely, formally, and flourished his sword.

"Then I thank you for allowing me to test myself against you."

"Oh, it's a pleasure."

Issei bowed at him and the swordsman, not having risen, lunged forwards, arm extending in a thrust that was aimed directly at the boy's neck.

"Woah!"

His sharpest blade, black tip seeking blood, didn't so much as bruise his enemy; the point forming a minute dimple before the lack of strength behind the lunge brought the attack up short.

'Impenetrable skin? High defensive abilities?'

Bringing his wrist up and around, the swordsman slashed across his opponent's collarbone, then pushed forwards and down.

Against a stray Devil, it would have opened them up and left their entrails to spill out.

Here?

It ruined the Campione's school uniform.

"Ok then!"

And the idiot simply charged forwards, too slow to close with Kiba, who landed half a dozen death strokes on the boy. But, even channeling his own magic into Sword Birth, he found himself unable to do more than scrape off a few layers of skin at a time.

'The most I can do is leave a pink stripe, this isn't working.'

"I've got you now!"

Throwing a sloppy punch, the Campion tried to slam a haymaker straight into Kiba's gut. Taking a half step back, the Knight brought his weapon up and around, arcing its flat directly into the other boy's ear.

"Fu-fuck!"

Swearing, holding his head, the Japanese schoolboy collapsed to his knees, holding the side of his head.

Confused, unsure of what had happened, there was no blood coming from the strike after all, Kiba stepped closer - hoping to force a quick draw and avenge his King's honor.

And then the other boy promptly vomited.

On Kiba.

"Gross."

"My, my, poor Campione~"

"Poor Kiba, you mean."

The Queen chuckled, agreeing with their leader, and the Knight, torn between humiliation and annoyance, was unsurprised when the black haired sorceress winked at him and snapped her fingers.

There was a tiny bolt of lightning, one that raced over him and across the outside of Issei, and the vomit was gone, before she inclined her head towards Kiba, smirking in approval.

He simply sighed and realized something important.

"Ah, please forgive me, Issei, that was a bit… much. I think I got carried away."

Extending his hand, the Devil found the energy inside of him fading, becoming disappointed. But he did suppose it was only fair. After all, Koneko could survive a great many things he would have to dodge.

"It's… ok!"

Taking his hand, the brown haired teenager gripped Kiba's wrist suddenly and tightly, jerking the swordsman forwards and bringing their heads together with a loud 'crack'.

"Gah!"

And, stumbling back, now it was the Devil who was discombobulated.

"Heh. Now we're even for that surprise attack!" Stepping forwards, Kiba instinctively readying a new sword, Issei took up a poor imitation of the Knight's fighting stance. "But just so you know, I won't be holding back anymore!"

There was a moment of confusion and genuine surprise before, unable to help himself, the blonde grinned. But, more than that, he perhaps realized the weakness of his opponent.

'Not edge, but brute force.' Magical power and cutting ability didn't seem to work on him, but just like with Koneko's punches, raw strength seemed to be the best way to get through the Campione's frankly ludicrous resistance to damage. Even then, the younger boy barely looked phased by the hit, even if he'd reacted earlier.

A normal person would still be laid out on the ground.

Kiba couldn't help it.

He smiled, widely, and assumed his own stance once more.

What were the chances he'd ever find someone so frustrating yet so raw? The purest expression of what a Campione was. Issei Hyoudou was an absolutely horrible fighter. He had no discipline, no elegance, no finesse, no training whatsoever! It was a miracle the idiot didn't put his thumb inside his fist when he punched!

And yet… between this fight and the last… between the moment the two had started dueling, the Japanese schoolboy had become noticeably more competent.

Issei's stance was firmer, his feet planted more evenly, and his arms weren't wavering like they had against Kiba's junior.

In a way, these short clashes were like a whetstone to a blade.

"Let's see how sharp you can get!"

The ground beneath his feet shattered as over a dozen swords manifested around him, Sword Birth answering his call as easily as always, eagerly doing so as the magic swords lodged themselves around him. This was as much a show of intent as it was for intimidation.

Right now he doubted any sword he made could cut the Campione.

Even so… he dearly wanted to try.

"You really like swords, huh?" His fellow student noted drily, but he couldn't hide the way he leaned forward, manifesting a long spear of marble before trying his best to level the point at Kiba's throat.

Kiba didn't answer, hand slowly reaching out to grasp a second blade.

Stalking forwards, the teenager allowed his fingers to brush along each hilt as he moved, Sacred Gear instinctively feeling out the abilities of each in turn.

Swords of fire and ice were ignored, blades of cutting wind and crushing earth were passed over, swords that commanded more esoteric things like life and death would have no effect - not if Kiba only struck his skin, at least. Instead, reaching inside of himself, the warrior focused, pushed, and called up a new weapon.

Grey, with a single, silver crack in its blade, the nameless thing bore an unadorned hilt of brass and copper, and was heavy as its leaf shaped blade seemed dense.

And just like that, he charged the other boy, all around him long shafts of white stone rising seamlessly from the ground, their blunted tips shaping themselves into the unusual shape of two-pronged spears.

Stab. Parry. Slash.

Fighting with two weapons was different from fighting with one.

Slash. Parry. Stab.

Kiba felt himself being pushed, jumping just in time as the weapon in his opponent's hands changed and shifted. Going from a spear, to a rough sword, to a bat, to a weird hunk of curved stone that probably belonged in a game instead of real life… before settling into a smaller, smoother blade.

Each change brought new attacks, new choices, new strikes, but none came close to piercing Kiba's guard. Indeed, black sword in one hand, grey in the other, he slashed or smashed through every single obstruction in his path - aiming to land a double strike to the Campione's ears.

It was the only way he was going to win this, after all.

At least safely.

And Issei seemed to realize that, too, as the Campione was trying to retreat!

'I won't let you!'

Pushing ahead, the swordsman slashed then shoulder charged through a final wall of marble, only to run into something he hadn't quite expected. A statue of his opponent, looking ready to take a swipe at him with its own weapon.

Reacting was Kiba's biggest mistake.

Lunging with his swords, he caught the weapon and beheaded the statue, expecting it to crumble like some sort of familiar… only to realize it wasn't meant to attack him at all and he'd fallen for a bluff.

'Clever guy.'

That was when the blunt end of a spear caught his stomach, punching him into the air.

"Akeno, can you tell me what you see?"

A devil's senses were perhaps one of the most understated yet important aspects of their daily lives. Even the youngest of their kind could see in the dark, and their hearing could pick up conversations across buildings without losing any kind of nuance. And while senses like smell and touch were not as developed as those of, say, a nekomata, it could be said that a devil's senses were all on average superior to those of a mundane species.

Those, however, weren't the most important senses a devil had.

Their kind was one profoundly attached to magic.

"I'm afraid there's not much I'd be able to say you haven't noticed yourself. Had this been a form of magic, perhaps there would be a way to decipher its true nature."

Having elected not to face the younger student in sparring match, the King and Queen watched the bouts intently, eyes scanning every movement and analyzing it for details.

Magic was a complex thing. Connected to desire itself.

And as the better mages of their group, they were capable of sensing fluctuations in magic power in minute detail, something Rias had studied in depth back home as part of her education, and Akeno had picked up as part of her skillset as Queen.

The idea had been to stand back and watch.

Understand how this newcomer's power worked.

"It's divine in essence, I am sure of it. Spontaneous generation of matter isn't a unique ability, we could do what he is doing to a degree if we wanted to. But the results would be… flimsy at best."

Rias sighed, she figured that might have been the case.

Turning demonic power into other forms was the basis for most spells. And while lightning, fire, and even light spells were more popular, it was also possible to turn it into physical components such as ice or steel.

The energy cost and focus needed would be higher, however.

"And he doesn't seem to be the least bit winded by this."

Watching as the Campione dueled her Knight, Rias took in as many details as she could, but soon came to the realization that the Campione just wasn't running out of stamina no matter how many exchanges he had with Koneko and Kiba. And then the gratuitous use of that power… whatever it was… wasn't tiring him out.

"Koneko could break it so I'd hoped it wasn't that useful a power but… Kiba hasn't done much against it." Which hinted that the marble created by his ability was more susceptible to blunt force than to cutting.

Or perhaps it was the divine attribute rejecting the knight's demon swords?

In a way Sword Birth and whatever the other boy's power was were similar.

Both created magically infused objects. Only Kiba was unable to change something he created after the fact, while the junior Campione seemed able to change the state and form of his creations.

"He hasn't released its true power either." Akeno spoke casually, but there was an edge of something, and not just her usual eagerness, to it, too. "I have to say, based on the rough comparisons, I'd put the level of his magical energy not… too far off from President Sona's older sister. But with as wasteful as he's being, ah, he might put even you to shame, Rias."

Pausing for a moment to flick her queen, who quite easily dodged the magically enhanced strike, the red head declined to even acknowledge the quip.

But that was one of the major points that Sona brought up when they'd reviewed the intel they acquired on Campione. The apparent need for some kind of chant to facilitate the activation of their powers.

Only he hadn't said anything out of the ordinary.

Nor had they felt any change in his aura that would hint towards more power being used. In fact, it hadn't changed for a single moment even though he'd been sparring with her peerage for the past few minutes.

Impressive stamina.

Damn near endless magical reserves? And while his constructs were on the simpler side, the amount he could produce and his ability to reshape them at will made for a powerful ability. Definitely the sort she would rank as equal to a high class devil's innate power.

"While I suspect my brother's mastery of our gifts would quite easily shatter any amount of the marble, no matter if it is divinely endowed or not, perhaps it would be smart to try and… focus my own training."

Kiba rushed in, swords swinging, and took a counter strike to the gut.

From the outside it was an obvious attack. But in the thick of combat, without the luxury of distance and careful observation, it was easy to see how her knight could have overextended. Still, he recovered admirably, and followed it up with an attack from a new magic sword she'd never seen before.

"Hmm, Akeno, what does that feel like to you?"

Finishing her sentence just as the grey blade descended, the entire room rippled and the Devil had to fight back a sudden, violent nausea, realizing that her clothes, her hair, her entire body was now being pulled towards the point Kiba's sword met unyielding marble.

"Koneko!"

Grabbing the Rook's hand, Akeno linked her arms with theirs, and all three flared their wings to resist the sudden pull.

"Hey, hey! That's cheating pretty bastard!"

Their new friend was not so lucky.

"Ah, I apologize, I didn't expect… that."

Politely, though perhaps not earnestly, Kiba rubbed the back of his head.

While Issei was now stuck to the remnants of his statue. Upside down. The scraps of his jacket and shirt falling off. As he squirmed, fruitlessly… showing off….

"Ara, ara. Our new friend works out~"

Swallowing, Rias turned to her queen and flicked her again.

"Down girl. I don't recall you being a succubus when we met." Lightly bumping shoulders with her friend, Rias giggled. Not that she wasn't eating the eye candy herself.

She at least tried to have some propriety.

"Wait, you guys have wings? What the heck."

His exclamation drew their attention back to him, Rias, slightly confused, answering.

"Were you not told about those? I suppose it doesn't seem too pressing."

"No! But they're really cool? Can you guys feel them? Do they work? Are they magic or part of your body? And-"

"Finish the fight first." Fighting back a giggle, she waved him off. "I will tell you after."

"Alright! Pretty boy, get ready, because I'm gonna use something new!"

Kiba, tensing up slightly, visibly forced himself to relax and gave his opponent a small smile.

"I'm looking forward to it."

Rias couldn't help but frown.

This seemed… dangerous.

However, she also didn't want to interfere. This information could be vital!

"Your joy rings like chimes. Your sadness echoes like a bell. Your song washes over the sea like foam. Like gathering clouds, swirling in the heavens, only to rumble and darken. Your rage… your grief… roars like thunder!"

In her mind's eye, the boy's aura lit up like a beacon.

From lazy candle light swaying in the breeze to a raging bonfire, the force of it was enough to drive a spike of pain through her senses as the feeling of undiluted divinity exploded out of every pore of the campione's body.

Her call to stop.

Akeno's shout of warning.

It was all drowned out as the Campione opened his mouth… and the world around them exploded.

"[Screech Wail]"

Wincing, Sona felt the connection between her observation spells and the headphones she was wearing shatter.

Even then, inside the student council room, she could feel the roar coming from the gym in her bones.

Whatever it was that the Campione had done had nearly broken through the wards around Kuoh Academy, too!

"Ah, young Sitri, are you alright?"

Shaking off the sudden urge to flee into the night, or call her sister, the schoolgirl straightened her glasses and acknowledged the man speaking to her.

"Yes, Lord Beelzebub. My apologies for the distraction."

He waved her off.

"It's entirely fine. I suspect that the Campione just demonstrated a new authority and the sudden spike of information your magic transmitted is very interesting. Though, thankfully, compared to The Destroyer he seems much weaker."

That news was immensely relieving and she couldn't help but admit so.

"Then my peerage and I are in no danger of being exterminated. At least not at this very moment."

"Indeed. Though I do wish to reiterate your sister's request…."

She smiled.

"Thank you, sir, but no. I love my sister but I do not believe returning home is in my best interests. Additionally, while here, I can gather further intelligence on the Campione and assist you in designing possible countermeasures."

He frowned, ever so slightly.

"I will take great care, then, not to alert Serafall to the task you've taken upon yourself. Or Sirzechs to the fact his little sister has decided to engage with, and reveal her nature as a Devil to, this Issei Hyoudou. Though I will not deceive either, should they ask."

Somewhat disappointed, she bowed her head.

"I understand. Thank you, Lord Ajuka. Have you received all the data from the fight?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, I've already collected it. We will speak on that later. For now, avoid hostilities at all costs and compel Rias and her peerage to wear the emergency retrieval gear I will send. No matter her protests, I have no desire to see any of you harmed."

"Yes sir. And thank you once more."

The call terminated, the magical mirror flickering back to darkness, and the Beelzebub crest flaring into sickly yellow-green light on the floor before her; a small collection of bracelets now manifesting in mid air.

Darting forwards, she caught the precious items before they fell, heaving a sigh of relief now that her duty was done.

'But how to get Rias to actually wear the darn thing? Perhaps… Tsubaki might give one to Kiba? Hmm. Yes. That's a thought.'

Arranging the many pieces of jewelry, the young Devil figured she'd simply spend the night in the council room, sleeping on a cot. It wasn't the first time, nor would it be the last, and she still had much work to do. After all, just because the data she'd collected was most valuable to her superiors didn't mean she couldn't benefit from it either.

And Sona knew she had a long, hard road ahead of herself if she wanted to achieve her dream.

"And I can't fulfill my dreams if Rias gets us killed."

The student council president could already feel a migraine. If not from stress than the sensation of fear that even now made her hair stand on end. Possibly a side effect from whatever that new power was. It had been nothing but a stroke of pure luck, but Rias' little stunt had tripped the new protection spells Sona had put in place, allowing her to surveil whatever that meeting with the Campione had been and report the data collected to her newfound collaborator... boss...? Whatever the case might have been, this proved to be just what she needed to start working on her own plans.

One thing she knew for sure, however...

When Rias recovered, Sona was giving that knucklehead an earful.

Chapter Text

As it turned out, trying a new power in the heat of the moment had been a bit of an oopsie. Even more so when apparently his new power was to yell loud enough that the gym would be needing all of its windows replaced and Issei had to carry the occult research club back to their building.

"I'm really, really sorry about this."

Because apparently he'd yelled loud enough at them that they couldn't move after.

He really, really hoped they weren't mad at him. Not that they could tell, most of them still couldn't speak.

"Senpai, I got the cushions!"

Fortunately, Issei's apprentice and all around best kouhai hadn't been at the building and so wasn't flashbanged by his shiny new power. The crossdresser was more than happy to help him carry the others back to the building after Issei reassured him that, no, they weren't hurt.

Or so he hoped.

The little girl, Koneko, was giving him a look that promised painful retribution for this.

He could already tell.

"It… okay… just… numb."

Laying the blond haired pretty boy against one of the seats, Issei felt particularly bad for him. The swordsman had been right in front of him when [Screech Wail] went off and practically was immobile, while the Two Great Ladies managed to limp back with some help from Gasper, who'd been carrying Koneko!

Apparently she was more sensitive to loud noises than the rest, but hey, that was magic powers for you.

"Well, um, I, it was fun? I had a good time? Sorry for the trouble?"

By now they were back in the ORC's clubroom, the place thankfully undamaged, and it wasn't all bad.

Issei busied himself with a pot of tea, Rias and Akeno slumped against one another on a couch, while Koneko had curled up between them. It was adorable, and the Campione felt a little better when the red haired Devil - and wasn't that a surprise - gave him a small smile. But with the water boiling, he searched the kitchenette's cabinets for tea leaves.

"Thank… you."

Kiba, forcing himself to rally, sat up in a lounge chair. The leather crinkling as he half fell over, the knight pushed himself to sit back up, only for Issei to rush over in turn.

"No, no, no. Stay seated! I'll get something to eat, too. Ah, if that's ok?"

"Yes. Thank you."

Rias interjected before her teammate could refuse and the highschooler was all too happy to let Gasper fret over his comrades; already carrying a small pillow over, the blonde Bishop was all too happy to pull a stool over to his senpai and prop his feet up.

Little was said after that.

Two pots of tea were set out, a tray of sandwiches he'd put together with the mostly European ingredients the Devils seemed to prefer, and a radio piping out soft, low French woman's voice to the plucked strings of a cello finished the rest and recovery set up.

And, soon enough, Issei made his exit. Only stopping when the crimson haired Queen of Kuoh tried to assure him, one last time, that everything would be ok.

"Will you guys really be okay? Shouldn't I stay?"

The redhead shook her head stiffly.

"No, we will… be alright. It was only a shock and it should wear off soon. Besides… I don't think you will want to be here when I call the school about having to clean up all that broken glass."

Issei winced.

Yeah, he figured the school would probably make him clean it up himself if they found out.

"A-Ah… will I need to reimburse you guys?"

Could he ask Smith if he got paid as far as the god slayer business went?

"No, no, with magic it's only a matter of a few minutes. But it's better if there's no one here, the school will be closing soon." And indeed, Issei could see the sun cresting over the horizon, the sky now looking a beautiful shade of orange as it slowly sunk past the tree line.

He was gonna be late if he didn't leave soon.

"Well… I'll see you guys later, okay?"

"F-Feel free to visit, senpai! We'll be happy to have you!" Gasper perked up, running back from the kitchen with a warm pack of water, which he placed on top of Koneko's head, who still looked absolutely miserable.

Yeah, he'd avoid coming by… if only until the middle schooler wouldn't kill him. But maybe he could make an exception for Gasper?

"Sure thing! I'll see about swinging by when I can. You guys still owe me a bunch of explanations!"

And he'd be holding them to their end of the deal!

"Yes, and my word is my bond. Now, run along before it gets too late. Wouldn't want to be caught out in the dark alone, yes?"

Because apparently there were really things going bump on the night.

"Ah… are vampires real?"

She gave him an unimpressed look.

"Ok, see you later!"

Bowing, he turned to leave, only to be stopped when Gasper ran over and hugged Issei around his waist.

"Thank you, again, for saving me. Even if I'm not a girl."

"Hah." Issei smiled, lightly hugging the younger boy back. "I would have saved you either way, buddy. And I'm glad I could."

Really, who didn't want to be a hero?

But it really was getting late and Issei left, feeling quite a bit better about how things ended. Akeno even fixed his clothes with a spell! So things were definitely not ending on a horrible note. Plus, there was the simple fact that, well, the teenager had really, really enjoyed the fight!

'When people aren't trying to rip your head off, working up a sweat is actually pretty fun. Who knew?'

Though the teenager wasn't so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice the tall, dark shadow, looming just behind the ray of light cast by a flickering, dull streetlight.

"Wait, no way, why are you wearing sunglasses at night, Agent Smith? Doesn't that just make it harder to see?"

Can of coffee in hand, the woman simply smiled indulgently at him.

"And who says they're normal sunglasses?"

"Wait, magic sunglasses are real? How does that even work!?"

"They are just normal shades, kiddo. Have you ever seen a secret agent who doesn't use these at all times?" Chuckling, the government agent took a sip from her can.

They did make her look cryptic, yeah.

"Wait, don't tell me you're here to arrest me? I promise I didn't mean to do it." There was no way the school had already told on him to the government? He didn't want to get a black mark on his resume over this! At least let him peep first before that!

Fortunately Smith looked as confused as he'd been panicked.

"Have you done something you need to be arrested for?"

Quickly, engage teenage bullshit deflectors!

"Umm… no? It was most definitely not intentional. And if something did happen, I wasn't there. Um… ok?"

She gave him a look that said how much she didn't believe that before shrugging with another sip of her coffee.

"Well if you didn't, that's that. Still, let me drive you home then… just to make sure you don't get into anymore… ah… incidents." Gesturing to a nondescript black car parked at the end of the street, the secret agent slinked towards the unremarkable Toyota just a little ways off, looking over her shoulder and to the sides.

"Ah… should I be worried about something?"

Smith smiled thinly.

"Nothing you should be worried about. But you know how this secret agent gig is, you never know when someone might be following you… or trying to jump you with a sword."

Well, she was right about that.

He'd already gotten jumped by a guy with a sword today.

But unless there was some kind of God of the Sidewalks waiting just around the block to ambush him, Issei wasn't feeling particularly afraid. He'd actually got a good bit of exercise done and his head was bursting at the seams with new, cool ideas on how to use his powers.

'I really need to apologize to them properly, later.'

Because as it turned out, he wanted to do that again. Without the whole 'knocking them out' thing.

Next time he'd win without amping himself up with a chant!

"Well, you sure look chipper. Met any cute girls today?" Taking her place in the driver's seat, the agent motioned for Issei to get in, coy smile firmly in place as he fought down a light blush.

Seriously, secret agents were scary.

Still, he fastened his seatbelt and the car turned on with a low rumble. The agent didn't say anything, but turned the radio on and indicated Issei could change it to whatever he liked. They even had heated seats and a small fridge in the backseats!

Which was predictably full of coffee.

"So, um, is there any reason you're picking me up?"

Coming to a stop at a red light, the grown woman looked at him in a way he'd never been looked at before. It was like she was unsure, like she was a little confused, and maybe a touch afraid. And it was only after the light turned green - and they were beeped at - that she spoke.

"Well, let's answer that question with another one. Did you know I have a daughter just about your age?"

Confused and a little surprised, Issei shook his head as the car once more began driving.

"No…? I don't think you ever mentioned that. Is everything okay with her?"

"No." She replied immediately, only to backtrack at Issei's panicked face. "Well, yes, she is fine. I just thought I would warn you just in case someone looking like me starts to stalk you."

"S-Stalk me?!"

"Not in the pleasant way you're thinking, either. I'm afraid to say things have gotten quite a bit out of control at the office." Smith nodded gravely.
He blushed and nodded this time, coughing and shifting in his seat.

"Am I really that important?"

A wave of her hand.

"All Campione are. Getting close to and monitoring them is a very important matter. Which is why they assigned me to you. Amakasu would have done the same if you were into salarymen."

Issei couldn't help it. He made a face.

"And that's why we didn't send him, though he would like to meet you."

"I guess that's cool?"

"He's an honest to gods ninja."

"Really!?" Sitting up, turning to face the secret agent, the teenager couldn't help himself. "Like, he's a shinobi or is he just a spy or what?"

"He's the current heir to something like a six hundred year old line of shinobi and samurai who can trace their tutelage back to Hattori Hanzo."

His mouth fell open.

"Still, can you guess why I'm telling you all this?"

Distracted, confused, unsure, but feeling this was some sort of test, it took an effort of will to focus on everything he'd just been told.

"You have a daughter. And she is coming… because of me?"

There was no response, one wasn't needed, and he continued to put his thoughts in order.

"Because you were supposed to… well…"

"Get close to you, yes. But since you turned out to be a nice kid, that wasn't required." Smith finished the sentence, much to his embarassment. Really, how was he supposed to react to the fact the government sent a secret agent to make nice with him.

Like, he was flattered as hell, but that didn't mean he would take any freebies on the road to harem king!

"And your partner is a ninja and wants to meet me."

He needed another three lights to put the pieces together, one ear half listening to the American rock song lowly growling in the background.

"Something happened. Your daughter is being sent to… take up your job. And your partner wants to make sure I won't hurt his daughter?"

That got an actual bark of laughter.

"Amakasu isn't the father - I would have been way smarter if he had been. No, he wants to meet you because of the first point. But well done."

"You want to make sure I don't hurt her?"

There was another pause, a shorter one, but it was a little sad.

"What mother wouldn't do the same? But it's not simple. She is… difficult."

"Please, take your time, Ms. Smith."

"Thank you. No, I'm frustrated, not with you, but still. And yes, I ask that you treat her kindly. She can be a little headstrong and that's something she inherited from me."

Both chuckled a little at that and there was a tension between them. Not a terrible one, but it was there. He knew she didn't trust him, couldn't really, at least not with her own child. But Smith was extending him an olive branch. Giving him a heads up and letting him do with that what he will.

So he decided to extend an olive branch back.

"I'm surprised you didn't tell me about the fact that I'm going to a school with a bunch of Devils."

There was a pause.

Then the car veered off wildly as the agent spit out the coffee she'd been sipping, spraying it everywhere as the vehicle swung side to side and nearly into a light post only to barely avoid it.

Coughing and sputtering, the agent turned to him with glasses tilted in shock.

"You WHAT?!"

The sea was a comforting sight.

The ebb and flow of the tides. The roaring of the waves as they crashed and swallowed the sands, erasing the scant trail of footprints she'd left on her way through the beach. The smell of salt and the soft cawing of seagulls in the distance would be familiar no matter what shore she visited.

Athena loved it.

She also hated it.

The sea was her enemy. Her rival.

The great god who scorned and tested her over the course of the ages and tempted the mortals she'd taken for her own. Shamelessly presenting useless gifts as if to dazzle them.

At one point, the sea had also been her friend.

Her parent.

For while she was Athena, she was also Tritogeneia, the foster daughter of a sea god. Though the connection had waned with time and her legends turned her against the sea, there was comfort in knowing that no matter how the world changed, and how many tales of her were spun, part of her would always remain here.

Just as part of her now resided across the vast ocean, on another shore.

"So Pandora has bequeathed the [War Trumpet] onto him. A worthy power for a newfangled warrior, I do suppose."

Athena had been unsure whether his power would grow from the conflict with the other gorgons.

They were by nature lesser splintered fragments of her own legend, but somehow had found the will power to maintain themselves and follow their path to the one who'd claimed Medusa's life.

As well as her love.

'Perhaps their's too. It is the nature of sisters to seek to be together, in life and now in death. I do not begrudge them this, though it means my final conflict with him will be more difficult.'

"Is that anticipation I sense in your thoughts, little one?"

From the treeline, the one she'd been tracking emerged. Much more mature, with eyes of carved amethyst and a figure in the fullness of womanhood, the new arrival wore a white dress in a style reminiscent of the ancient empire, a knowing smirk etched on pale marble-like skin.

"Only about the battle to come."

The older woman smiled indulgently. There was no need to mince words with this one, more strategist than warrior.

Eliminating her wouldn't pose a challenge.

"I see, Pallas. You were always quick to draw your weapon. Immature, in your own way."

"And you were so haughty you forgot where you came from, Minerva."

There was a flash of light and the goddess appeared next to her, now lounging on a chair, her previous clothes abandoned.

Sisters, perhaps, were now only a few yards apart from one another.

Stretching as she lounged, and now in a mortal bikini, she radiated a quiet arrogance. Even laying like this, unprotected and unguarded, she was proud, the body of a woman, and a goddess, in the full bloom of her beauty. Perhaps about thirty or so, she seemed haughty, proud, with skin a pale shade slowly turning to copper as the sun caressed her.

She was, in every way, the opposite of the younger.

Pallas Athena was petite, slim, in some ways even childlike, at least compared to her older self. She wore the same school uniform she'd appeared to the slayer of her other-other self in and lacked both the presence and the… fullness possessed by the Roman.

"Perhaps. But I learned from my arrogance and made peace with my vows. And my sins. Even if the mortals were always happy to change us and render our life ever more dramatic."

"Perhaps. They are foolish. That is why they need us."

"Many years ago, maybe. Only some of them would even care to listen to the words of their betters anymore. And the ones that would, would be even more treacherous than the most vicious of our kin. After all, that is why we are here and not, say, relishing the battlefields of Libya."

"That is Ares's land. Mine was further to the East."

"But not this far east."

"Aye." Pallas conceded. "Not this far."

There was silence between the goddesses of war as they ruminated, in their own ways, on the nature of mankind and its love of warmaking. For if they did not love it - them - why would they engage in it so eagerly?

"Will we have our battle here?"

Her older self turned over again, sighing, and almost pouting.

Their shared nature as aspects would allow nothing else. As cavalier as they acted now, both of them likely sensed the same gnawing emptiness within them where the other pieces should be. They were all 'Athena', yet had been splintered into fragments of the original goddess.

Seeking out the others and putting together the scattered pieces of the puzzle wasn't only pragmatic, but a matter of survival.

"I was hoping to finally break that vow of ours. But if we must slay one another, then the survivor ought to at least go and visit Mother."

"Metis has formed?"

Metis, the first wife of Zeus.

The Queen of Heaven.

"Yes. I've spoken with Nike and she said she would go and give herself up. Victory, it seems, carried our Aegis and offered it to Wisdom."

"I see. Then there are only three, us and Mother, left."

A smirk from Minerva.

"And our lover."

Athena met her gaze with a dispassionate glare.

"You sense it too, then. The Demon King."

"How could I not? He took part of us… and then you tied part of our power to him."

Pallas frowned.

"I did not do it as some tawdry thing."

Leaning forwards, practically letting her chest spill from her increasingly straining clothes, the other goddess laughed.

"No, no, it's all for some great advantage! It lets you track him and mark him and even, mayhap, allow you an advantage in battle. After all, it was a wound closed by your thread, so to open it up again… would be child's play." Rising to a sitting position, Minerva snapped her fingers again, banishing the beach chair and appearing clothed once again. "Perhaps, though, I ought to go see him. Show him what we can really do as a woman. Then I'll have to end him, of course. It was foolish of you to surrender the [Snake] when you had the chance to claim it."

She frowned at the dishonorable counsel.

"It would have been improper."

"And that is why you will lose here today." Minerva declared with vexing surety.

There was no more talk.

Pallas conjured up her familiars, a great owl screeching from above and a hundred lashing threads of silk, both lunging into being from nothing, even as she herself drew her bow and the sea churned at her back.

A dozen arrows flew and Minerva laughed, danced, and struck out with a sword, from the woman's back sprouted the wings of a raven, carrying her far and away from the Spider's threads even and as the treeline seemingly rustled and warped , a massive form rising from the beach line at the older goddess' call.

A massive olive tree loomed in the distance as goddesses did battle.

The spatha's great, slashing blade deflected each shot with ease and eagerness, even as her free hand conjured a trident, which was used to gather the webbing unleashed upon her and fend off the owl at the same time.

And now there was only blood.

Both knew each other intimately, both knew each other truly. And their attacks had no surprise or disassembly, such would be useless against one's self, and the two beings of Faith and Fear clashed again and again. Any mortals nearby had long since been evacuated and their blows ripped apart the beach of this island.

Great divots and craters, a raging sea that had been stirred to a thunderstorm - Poseidon and Triton alike raging as the two dueled - and they continued to attack.

Suddenly, in the midst of a clash, where Pallas held back her sister's trident only with the barest hint of strength, her bow sorely abused and groaning as it stopped the mortal weapon, was surprised when Minerva stepped closer, into range that she might be stabbed with an arrow.

But even as she reached for a weapon with which to deal a fatal blow, the older of the two spoke.

"Promise me. Whoever wins, goes back for the boy. We cannot allow Mother to have the [Snake], no matter what."

Athena… no… Pallas nodded with grim determination.

No matter the outcome, the two of them were in agreement.

The Queen of Heaven must be stopped.

Of all challenges Issei faced today… this was the most difficult.

From sparring with what was a literal club of devils, to chatting with a secret agent about stuff that mostly flew over his head, perhaps the biggest and most complicated ordeal the Campione found himself being put through was the fact he actually had to explain things to his parents.

"So you were fighting… the devil?" His father blinked owlishly.

"Less of a fight and more of a friendly spar in exchange for answering some of my questions!"

"So there is more than one devil?" Mom turned to the bemused Agent Smith, who was busy massaging her temples and nursing a cup of coffee.

"Yes, an entire civilization worth of them. Don't think too much about it, they barely interact with our neck of the woods unless it's for business or tourism. Not since the last war at least."

"T-There was a war?!"

Issei jumped in before his father could fall down that rabbit hole.

"So after I kinda maybe accidentally knocked them out I helped them get back to their clubroom and looked after them for a bit with Gasper, who's a really good guy by the way, and left because it seemed like I went a bit overboard with my new power."

"New power? What new power?" This time it was his mom who latched onto what he was saying, and not exactly the part he wanted either.

Fortunately Smith was there to cover for him, because Issei was a terrible liar.

"It is normal for magic users to learn different forms as they grow and improve. Issei is quite talented or might have an affinity for the craft, given we haven't even started looking for a proper tutor."

Fortunately she was on the ball with an excuse ready because Issei was for sure getting grounded if his parents knew he was getting his 'powers' from fighting and killing gods.

"And it only happened because I was trying to find out more information after… we… talked about… stuff… yesterday!"

Neither of his parents looked particularly impressed, both of them in their work clothes as Issei's small family gathered at the kitchen table.

Agent Smith, with a fresh cup of tea and some leftovers from dinner, was dabbing at the coffee stain on her shirt as she happily received the hospitality of a home cooked meal. The Hyoudou's had turned their TV on, graciously thanked the woman for looking after their son, and then immediately fed her - parental instincts kicking in immediately.

There was no Kyoto speak here tonight, not one bit while Issei was being stared down by his parents.

"So." His father began. "You didn't call home so you could stay out late and get into fights…"

The Campione winced.

Yeah, he was still in trouble.

"I always knew you were gonna be a handful, it runs in the family… but to think you were a delinquent." His mother shook her head. "Next thing we know you'll be dying your hair blonde and bringing strange girls around."

"Mom… Dad! Agent Smith?"

Issei was floundering and more than a little embarrassed! It was one thing to get scolded, but to hear the two of them plot his descent into criminality in front of a pretty lady cop was too much!

The agent suddenly sneezed, loudly, and nearly smacked her head against the coffee table she'd been sitting at, the sound so loud all three jumped a little when the noise came from their living room.

Then a second time.

Then a third, and this time she did manage to thump her forehead against the armrest of the with a groan of utter misery.

"Woah there, are you okay?"

Biting back a curse, the agent looked around as she pocketed her shades.

"It's just an allergy. I didn't know you guys had a cat."

Issei looked around, confused.

"We don't… though."

Only they kinda did now, it seems, because just out of the corner of his eyes Issei managed to catch a glimpse of a small black cat as it rounded the hallway with a lazy meow, tail swinging side to side.

"Since when do we have a cat?"

That was news to him!

"Oh, she's not ours. Some of the neighbors left for a trip, so they asked me to keep an eye on Yoru-chan until they get back. She's really well behaved but likes to come and go. I'm so sorry I forgot to let you two know."

Agent Smith, for her part, sneezed loudly, again.

Issei nodded in acceptance. "It's ok."

But he didn't know what else he could say. Mostly he felt guilty.

His father sighed and stood up.

"Listen, son, your mother and I aren't actually upset. I'd say we've been taking this pretty well all this considered." Walking over, his old man placed a single hand on the teenager's shoulder. "But the truth is… you didn't even call. We both… panicked a little. And if we hadn't called Agent Smith we wouldn't have even known you were still at school. That's not good for you old man's heart, you know?"

Lowering his head, the teenager felt that shame intensify, turning into a caustic roil in his gut.

"But that doesn't mean we aren't proud of you. You are a hero." His mom said, her smile sudden and a little watery. "As much as that thought is scary, we understand this."

"And we're proud of you."

Gorou, his father, squeezed Issei's shoulder and he nodded.

"And we love you, even if you do end up a delinquent, ok?"

Miki, Mom, stood up and walked over, both of his parents bending down to hug him tight.

That proved a little too much in the end. But Smith was more than polite, discretely slipping out so the three could have their moment. A moment that ended with the teenager feeling a little conflicted. But, promising he was just seeing their guest out, he finally managed to extricate himself from their attention.

Surprisingly, he found the agent outside, a cigarette between her lips.

"Hey, kid." Her eyes crinkled. "Sorry about this." She waved the smoke away. "The job can actually get pretty stressful. Thought I'd quit back when I was pregnant." A chuckle. "Maybe I can just say it was to keep the dander away."

Not really knowing how to respond, Issei simply nodded. Somewhat surprised when he saw Yoru, the cat, sitting on their front porch.

Walking over, he knelt down and held his fingers out for the feline to smell, the little creature needing a good twenty seconds before deciding that it would deign to grace him with a sniff or two, before gently bumping his hand with his head.

"It's ok. No one's perfect, right?"

It occurred to him that the two of them were having family issues today. Whether it was Issei worrying his parents, or Smith's daughter worrying her… it felt strange to see it happening from the other side.

Things were changing and getting complicated again, but he couldn't help but feel a strange sense of excitement bubble up from his gut.

Everything was just so new and fun.

There was danger but… Issei couldn't help but wonder what would be happening next.

He had to check something first though.

"Uhh… is your daughter the shoot first and ask questions later type?"

The agent snorted, letting out a small plume of smoke into the chill breeze.

"She doesn't ask questions and if you asked me, it would probably be a sword, not a gun. Good luck with that."

Dammit.

Could he go a single day without a cute girl trying to kill him? Was that too much to ask for?

Chapter Text

"Ugggghhhhh. No more."

Life was pain.

Life was misery.

Life was a migraine, pounding Rias on the side of the head like a hammer driving a nail into a wall, spiking pain echoing in her skull as the redhead tried and failed to shake off the incessant buzz that had yet to fade after two whole days of bed rest and aspirin.

Unfortunately, human medicine could do little to help her when the issue came from getting blasted with a wave of divine power.

The equivalent of being caught by a flashbang to a Devil.

"Your tea." Tsubaki, the ever helpful queen of her friend's peerage, bowed her head as she placed a small cup in front of the redhead.

"Thank you." Rias managed an attempt at politeness and she watched as the schoolgirl walked to the side and stood beside an equally miserable-looking Akeno. Though she was a touch surprised when it was Sona's Queen who leaned to the other girl, whispering something in her ear, and receiving a thankful nod from Akeno in response. Soon after she stepped out, likely heading to wash her face and rest a moment.

Rias made a note to thank the girl personally, later, as she sipped from the cup and tried to forget the consequences of her actions.

"Does that help at all?"

By her side, the bespectacled heiress enquired with a quirked brow.

Rias sighed, setting down the steaming cup of Earl Grey, and braced herself.

"Not much I'm afraid."

The past few days had been… well… horrible. While the consequences of her harebrained suggestion for a training match against the resident Campione had yielded very interesting results and allowed Rias to watch the boy and learn more about him. But as a result of exposure to… whatever that Authority of his was made of, her life had become less than comfortable.

She could move.

She could use her powers and even pretend like everything was okay.

But the fact remained that she'd been experiencing the Devil equivalent of a strong cold. To which there was no cure other than going home and requesting a specialist to help draw out and purge the leftover divinity from her body.

With enough practice and control, it was possible to do by herself with her abilities… but she wasn't about to use the Power of Destruction while sick.

That way lay a lethal embarrassment.

Or, worse, she might well damage her own connection to her peerage, injure part of their souls should she attempt it on them, or any other number of possible complications.

"So." Sona's grace period ended. "I do need to know if you're ready for today, for this." Her eyes held a little judgment. "Because we can't afford to fail."

Went unsaid was the fact their siblings would rush in at the first sign of weakness. And from there they would be subjected to nonstop one sided spoiling and handholding while two of the most powerful Devils babysat them through their troubles.

Not a great look for either of them.

"I don't intend to embarrass myself or the House of Gremory, no. I'm… functional."

Miserable, but functional.

"Well, I certainly hope the humans have no plans to deal with a child's pout. It's a shame, if you were younger we could have tried the teary eyed look. Humans love cute things." Lips pursued, letting a little of the pain she was in show through, the heiress stared down her friend.

"I am not pouting."

"Yes, you are, because you rushed ahead and challenged a Campione to a sparring match."

"It was friendly, Issei was - is - friendly. And it gave me a chance to meet him without interference."

Sona nodded

And then blew up.

"All at the bargain cost of nearly sending you into a coma! I cannot believe you went through with something so… reckless! What was I meant to tell your parents, your brother, if something went wrong? What do you think they would do?!"

Chastened, she looked away, but did not yield to her friend.

"It was a risk… but it's not one those humans weren't willing to take. They would have gladly offered him a thousand victims if it was needed. They aren't any less cunning than we are… isn't that why we love here so much? So how could I hold back just because of danger?"

Sona was dissatisfied by such a textbook answer and her displeasure made itself known when her eyes sharpened to vicious slits, only avoiding a glare by the fact they were almost invisibly parted.

"We are not schoolchildren, Rias. Even if you don't care what it might cost you, at least think of me. How would I feel if I had to wipe the gym clean after that… thing was done smearing you across the building? Tell me, how do you think I would have taken it?"

And now the shame appeared, fresh and sour.

"Well enough. You were always the calmer of the two of us. You would have survived."

Sona's voice dipped in response.

"Perhaps. But I would have been heartbroken."

"... Sorry."

For what she was sorry went unspoken, Rias knew that such a thing would merely drive a wedge between them, but there was truth, too. She was genuinely miserable at the thought of harming her peerage, for leading them to suffer, and for putting her friend in such a situation, too. It was the height of arrogance.

"Rias." Sona reached over, squeezing her hand. " You are a sister to me in all ways that matter, so please… don't make Serafall the least impulsive of my siblings."

Cheeks nearly as red as her hair, the Gremory Heiress nodded, and was a little surprised, thought not terribly so, at the next revelation.

"If you wish to repay me, then the next time you challenge a Godslayer, wear these." Two small artifacts were placed on the table before her. "One is an emergency recall bracelet and the other is equipped with much higher resolution sensor spells."

Indignation, hilarity, and a sorta of sibling annoyance warred with one another.

In the end, the Gremory heiress knew what she wanted.

"Then I want 75% of whatever you got from all the combat data."

"35% and that's fair, because we both know you won't do a lick of work to analyze it."

"60% and I'll help you myself."

"40% because I'll have to teach you how it works for the first two months."

"55% because I'll be the one actually fighting the Godslayer."

"Done. If only because you are bold enough to admit you're already planning to do it again and I want you to survive through whatever harebrained scheme you came up with."

The two girls finished their drinks before they got any cooler and Akeno returned, looking somewhat refreshed, and allowed Tsubaki the same kindness. Though instead of tea she prepared crystal glasses with spring water, cutting and squeezing fresh lemon juice into them before serving several small sandwiches along with the finger food.

"Are they really already late?"

Glancing at a walk clock in the Student Council room, Rias frowned.

"It's fifteen after, I can't believe the humans would be this indiscreet."

Sona made a noise of displeasure.

"When does the Committee ever not play games? Surely they'll play it off as Issei having delayed them or them needing to worship at the altar of some local spirit for permission."

A frown.

"Are they really that desperate to scout him? I know that the House of Belial is pushing for reparations from the Youkai Faction, but I thought there was a clause in the lease agreement that covered Campione."

"Only the intervention of one." Sona corrected. "Not the appearance of a new Campione to whom the territory of Kuoh is apportioned by the human government of Japan."

"So they've double leased the town?"

"Something like that."

"Hmm. Then perhaps they have good reason to be late. That does sound rather difficult to sort out…."

But even so… something about this didn't feel right. There was a strange tension in the air, a sense of anticipation that she couldn't quite place her finger on. Was there something happening they weren't aware of or was this just a negotiation tactic?

Either way… she had a bad feeling about this.

'This drive is unpleasant.'

Normally she quite enjoyed the long ten or fifteen minutes she could get for herself. Kaoru respected the simple fact that, even as young as she was, her position was probably second only to the Prime Minister in influence.

'But does my day have to always end up going like this?'

It didn't help that her plans and the expectations behind them had been shattered in the worst way possible.

And the truth was that expectations were useful tools.

Some were innocuous.

Some were downright necessary.

To expect something was to hold trust that events would proceed as envisioned. Whether it be the sun rising in the morning, or tides rising in the evening. Humans had come to rely on and despise expectations for as long as they existed, precisely because their usefulness was only matched by their unreliability.

Whether it was by playing games of luck.

Or participating in a competition.

Or even when interacting with other humans, expectations were flimsy lifelines that could so easily fail an individual, generating in them a feeling of betrayal at the world which surrounded them, not understanding that it was their own flawed understanding of the world that led to their mistakes.

'It's also funny when it happens.'

Which is why Lady Kaoru enjoyed messing with others' expectations. Call her a prankster of sorts, but there was nothing she enjoyed more than to disseminate her own supposed reputation as a sheltered priestess, only to surprise others by arriving 'in costume'.

The amount of dumbfounded looks she got since taking over as head of the HCC was nothing short of cathartic.

Of course, what had once been something she did in order to gain an advantage in the political arena soon became a hobby she indulged in for her own enjoyment. There was nothing more amusing than leading a stranger or acquaintance into making an error of judgment just so she could correct them and reveal the truth.

Even now there were those amongst her classmates who still believed Kaoru Sayanomiya was a boy, and she wasn't about to correct them when it made the eventual reveal so much more fun.

"Lady Sayanomiya, we've arrived." Stepping out of the car with natural poise born from countless afternoons wasted on etiquette lessons, the director of the History Compilation Committee patiently went through the motions as her security detail did the job she hired them for, making sure nothing was amiss before following her into the building.

For an organization concerned with tracking and concealing the supernatural… there was hardly any sign of it in the building itself, or even amongst the staff. Most could be forgiven for taking a look at them and seeing nothing but another group of bureaucrats and civil servants.

And therein lay the beauty of the Committee.

Because that was in essence what they were, there was no need to betray expectations.
Unfortunately, not even she was immune to the ills of expectation.

When she received a call from the Minister of Security regarding a missing ship, the expectation originally had been that a supernatural phenomenon caused it to disappear into another plane of existence.

Tracking it and dragging it back wouldn't have been difficult.

Tiresome, but simple.

Her expectations, however, were wholly uprooted by the appearance of a Heretic God, and then by the birth of a new Campione. Really, she prayed that the Demon King happened to just be a tourist or a visitor and yet her expectations were thrown out the window yet again when, barely a month later, two other Heretics appeared only to be eliminated soon after.

'This is going to be troublesome.'

She could already tell, even now, outside the Committee's headquarters that there was a nervous energy in the air, as if it had been pulled taut. Tempers were fraying and even the office workers acted as if some great burden had been placed on their shoulders.

Kaoru sighed, understanding the feeling well. It was her job to make sure they would weather the coming storm now that the Campione had revealed himself.

Or, rather, the task had been dumped on her shoulders by upper management.

But she could deal with that. At least now the job was sure to be done well.

"Have the floor sealed once I am inside, nobody in or out." She informed her staff, striding deeper into the building, taking a simple elevator down into the underground levels, leaving behind the public face of their operation and stepping into the secret underneath it.

The sub-levels of the committee building were a simple series of rooms.

One for storage.

One for ceremonies and rituals.

And a third one for secure communications. Which was the one she would be using and Kaoru had a feeling that she wouldn't be coming out any time soon.

"At least we had it refurbished." Before her tenure, the room had been a simple mat placed before a rather complex spell formula meant to allow for simultaneous long distance travel. While nowadays one could reproduce those effects through technology, tradition had weight in the world of magic and the secrecy provided by this room was second only to the Emperor's own.

At least now she had a rather plush chair to sit on and a work desk to write down the directives passed.

Much better than kneeling and writing on a scroll.

"I wonder how many will show up this time."
Of the four families who made up the foundation of the Committee, only Kaoru would be taking place in the interest of presenting a unified front, as contradictory as their desires could be at times.

She might as well get the show on the road.

"Committee Director Sayanomiya, reporting."

There was no need for magic, the array merely reacted to the command and lit up in response to her words, a projection of soft green light overtaking the room itself as silhouettes formed where the other seats at her table would normally be placed.

Only these weren't people, but mere images.

Just as Kaoru appeared before them as an image.

"Warden of Kyoto, Yasaka… reporting."

"Warden of Kanto, Nurarihyon… reporting."

"Elder Himejima… reporting."

"Elder Kushihashi… reporting."

"Elder Doumon… reporting."

"Heir Nakiri… reporting."

"Elder Shinra… reporting."

Kaoru sighed, desperately wishing she'd ordered herself some coffee or perhaps aspirin. Because of course the whole set of five clans would be participating instead of doing the sensible thing and naming a representative.

No… it was because they were the Five Principal Clans that all of them were here.

Unlike the 'public face' that the Committee represented, the Clans were much more… proactive in how they chose to handle problems and in the past had produced many heroes from their ranks in defense of helpless innocents preyed upon by the likes of Oni and rogue sorcerers.

Even today, they still worked to provide safety from the shadows, but opportunities to amass their full might were few and far in-between. It was a bit of an overreaction, but Kaoru would be lying if she didn't say she was the logic in calling them.

A Demon King had come to roost.

Twice had their people been attacked by Heretics.

"The Observer has arrived." And of course, their council wouldn't be complete without the one who would report their decisions to the highest authority of the land… when it came to otherworldly affairs.

"Shall we start then?"

There were so many items on the agenda Kaoru wasn't even sure she'd be back home by dinner.

"Not yet. We are expecting one more to join us today." The observer spoke, clipped and toneless.

Another?

Were they missing someone? The Clans were all present, and she was sure none of the others from her side would be here. Perhaps a representative from the Ministry of Security? They didn't often request to participate in these meetings, and Kaoru was usually the one to pass along any information they needed.

So who did that leave?

Certainly not…

"The Divine Representative has arrived."

That.

"I apologize for the tardiness and hope all have gathered with due promptness." Across from Kaoru, sitting at the head of the table that usually would be reserved for the emperor's proxy now sat an otherworldly presence, one not borne there by magic but who appeared to be there just she was sure she was sitting across the rooms of the other representatives.

This was a mortal.

This was a god.

"The Four Clans of the Emperor's Household bids welcome to the most esteemed visitor."

Unlike the member of the emperor's household proper, the observer that actually reported to both him and the Diet, this being was a rather serious looking man. Middle aged, a little short, with broad shoulders and a long nose.

"Your welcome is received. You may begin now."

And wearing traditional armor, with a daisho belted to his side.

"Very well. Then it behooves me to begin quite plainly - the matter of the Godslayer and the Committee's actions have proven to be less than reassuring on that front."

The one speaking was Suou Himejima, and as expected the meeting started with her being put on the spot.

How very predictable.

"Then allow me to reassure you that according to my agents, we have managed to establish communications with the 7th Demon King, and have been able to confirm his identity."

And she obviously wouldn't be revealing it to these vultures.

Who knew what matter of tomfoolery they would get up. The knowledge she now had was a matter for Takamagahara and the Emperor to learn, not these hardline relics.

"That does not justify your actions, Director. Campione, as a matter of national security, fall within the jurisdiction of this council not of an individual entity." To her side, the blonde fox woman chimed.

The Yokai too had a vested interest in their security, and perhaps she would approach them after the meeting with an olive branch. If only in the interest of maintaining her own group in neutral standing between them and the exorcists.

Kaoru felt she'd done the woman a favor, really.

"At least it wasn't the devils your people gave that territory to that did it. Small mercies we don't need to deal with that mess." Suou bit back, shooting the fox woman a look that said how much his side appreciated that particular deal.

Had either side been the ones to contact the Campione first, the other would have most certainly overreacted when instead they could now just be annoyed at a neutral party they had an excuse not to make demands of.

"It was to prevent that exact outcome that we sent two of our best agents to Kuoh after being forewarned of the heretic gods' attack. We were fortunate one of our priestesses had a vision of the event."

Hime Miko were perhaps the Committee's greatest assets. The only reason they've managed to stay afloat this long. Their ability to channel the power of, as well as foresee the movements of gods were great boons.

Even if her own gift was less impressive than those of Mariya's and Seishuuin's, Kaoru understood the advantages they had and when to press them.

The Divine Overseer coughed politely, interrupting their conversation.

"The matter of the Director's actions will be shelved for now and addressed at a later time. The meeting should proceed to the next item."

And like that, all bickering stopped.

It was hard to argue against a god, after all.

"Even so, this much activity is concerning. Not only has o Campione appeared here in Japan, but two others began moving, one in the Caribbean, another in the Balkans, with the American having uprooted some kind of Devil cult. The fourth is, at this time, in Mecca, and the second remains secluded in China."

"The third has not been located at this time?"

"No, unfortunately, she has been out of contact with any and all agents for at least six years."

"So she could be anywhen."

"Most likely."

"And the Caliphate? How will they deal with the Black Prince in their holy city?"

"We have no stance on that either way, nor are our operatives, or any NATO or PTO operatives, except for the French Muslim Unit, permitted to assist. Still, we have reports of-"

The room suddenly exploded in noise.

Ringtones, hurried whispers, even an antique phone line ringing in the background. From the Yokai representatives, to the clans, to the Emperor's observer. All of them looked to their sides as their attention was demanded.

Including Kaoru.

"The Emergency line?" Looking down at her phone, the hime miko felt her stomach drop and her heart freeze over as she answered it.

"What's the situation?"

From the other side, one of her aids spoke hurriedly.

"Director, we've just received word from border patrol. We have a match from the List."

The list.

The list of 20 names she had compiled and sent to the government as signs of trouble. Any of which could prove to be disastrous at any given time.

"Who is it?"

This was bad, but still could be fixed. So long as it wasn't one of the people she was thinking of.

"Lu Yinghua, a cultivator from Hong Kong…"

And apprentice of Luo Hao, the Tyrant of China.

Life was full of interesting turnabouts.

When you were young, the world felt like such a vast place, full of wonders and mysteries. The call to adventure was intoxicating and most spent their youths chasing after that rush, that call that resonated deep within their spirits and turned children into troublemakers.

Yes, he'd remembered his youth here pretty well despite his age.

No… perhaps it was because he experienced it all that now in his old age he could recall every single detail.

Yes, he knew Mt. Huaguo like the palm of his hand.

It was where he was born. Where he was raised. Where he came to rule, only to be cast down for his hubris, and then redeemed through an epic journey that saw him plant the seeds for lifelong friendships and tales that even now were told all over the world through all sorts of ways by all sorts of people.

'Fame has its perks.'

Not that he cared for them now that he was retired.

Nowadays the world felt small and crusty. Boring like a puzzle one had solved a thousand times. Seldom there was something interesting enough to get the Victorious Fighting Buddha off his hairy butt, and most of those tended to be requests from the Heavenly Bureaucracy to reign in or punish one of his wayward students.

Which is why he'd come here.

'But to think that girl would have the audacity to come around my place.' He didn't know whether to laugh or grumble at the sheer lack of respect. The younger him might have gotten worked up at having someone intrude on his stomping grounds, but that young man was long gone.

Replaced by an older one.

Though not so much more wise. Age had done little to temper his mischievousness.

'Wujing and Bajie said she came in this direction.'

Mt. Huaguo was the same as ever, with the same beaten paths and the same verdant mountains, the same rich smell of fruit wafting from the peach trees Wukong had… ahem… borrowed once upon a time. Mouth watering things back when he'd been a brat.

These days they barely had any kick to them.

No, the actually important stuff was hidden underneath the peaches.

Anyone who came this far into his territory, daring to brave the wilds and the promise of retribution, would normally stop at the peaches, eat their fill and then leave, not knowing those weren't the real fruits of immortality, but a meanspirited practical joke he'd set up so whoever ate them would turn into monkey as payback for trespassing.

But if the culprits were brave enough, smart enough, or stupid enough, they might find the cave hidden just off to the side of the clearing, a small entrance leading to a secret room where the Monkey King kept many of his trinkets, spoils of war, and random knick knacks.

"Now what did you take, brat?"

Bumping the tip of his trusty staff against the side of the cave, the stone sunk into itself at the call of his touki, making way for him as he strode past the entrance, down a set of stairs that formed under his feet as the air solidified under his command.

Otherwise he would have plunged into the pool of magma he'd set up for any would-be thieves.

'A hot bath for a weary traveler.' He chuckled to himself, hopping and skipping to the otherside of the burning chasm.

Usually he'd need to open it like he had the entrance… only someone had punched through the door here.

'Got impatient didn't she? Never could appreciate a good adventure, always straight to the throat.'

Unfortunately that meant his hidden stash was a mess.

Scrolls had been knocked off their shelves, weapons laid strewn about, priceless treasures most cultivators would give their firstborn twice over just for a chance to glimpse, and they lay on the ground like garbage.

First he had to find out what had been taken.

Tapping his staff against the floor, a brief pulse of power washed over the room, objects taking flight as if untethered from the earth itself, floating idly like bubbles as they were moved and placed back on their proper places.

"Mastery of Touki is a path to abilities many would consider to be… unorthodox." He'd never been the type to clean up after himself, but he was sure Triptaka would have given him an earful even now at the waste of power.

He was old and his back hurt.

He wasn't about to bend down and pick up anything.

"Now let's see what we have here."

No elixirs were missing. None of the weapons were gone either. He doubted that musclehead would find any use for the forbidden literature he kept here either. She lacked the good taste for the raunchy novels too.

What she did have a taste for, was power.

Not the cheap, consumable form of power.

Luo Cuilian had been proud when she was young and even now, over a hundred years later, the girl was as muscle headed and stubborn as always. She was not someone who could just change, it wasn't in her nature as a Campione to allow something as flimsy as the world to move her.

No, she sought challenges, crushed them, and then moved onto the next.

'Which means…'

She took the only item in his collection that could challenge a Campione.

"That foolish brat."

He considered calling out to the Heavens, if only to warn their neighbors overseas, but that probably ran a risk of this being some kind of deniable attack. After the last century, relations between the mortals of both lands had been incredibly sour, but right now that wasn't what he was concerned with.

"No… I suppose I'll have to go give her a spanking." He sighed, cracking his old back. "Let's just hope I get there in time."

Chapter Text

"Damnit, damnit, damnit. Pick up, you brat."

Hand shaking, engine roaring, body tense, Smith was cursing her boss, the Campione she was trying to reach, his parents for not buying him a cellphone, and the Devils for not answering her call.

Yes, they missed their meeting.

Yes, that was unbelievably rude.

Yes, they were entirely within their rights to be peeved.

But that stupid girl is in danger!

'Why do I have to deal with children and lunatics? Why can't powerful people just be sane!'

Blowing through a redlight, a police car immediately turned on its lights and pulled out into traffic, clearly intent on stopping such a reckless fool as her. She considered shooting out his tires, but, luckily for them both, his license plate reader informed him that, if she was speeding, the problem was far, far above his pay grade.

"At least some technology actually improves people's lives."

Not like it was doing much else. Since that brat told her not to follow him around, she didn't actually know which path he took to walk to school. She'd been rounding the streets looking for him while Amakasu did his thing and searched on foot, probably going faster than she was by this point.

Even so, of all rotten timing.

"Come on, pick up! Pick up!"

Unfortunately, the phone went to a voicemail, with a polite request for her to leave a message.

Smith hung up and, in the three seconds it took her to swing around a corner, nearly crush her car's pedal into the floor, and redial the Devil's number two things happened.

One, a very pretty young Chinese man appeared directly in front of her vehicle.

Two, he stretched out one finger, touched the hood of her car, and proceeded to lift an automobile off the ground with a single, elegant, flowing movement. Gravity itself gave way as the massive chunk of metal, plastic, and glass floated over the boy who looked younger than her own daughter.

Adrenaline pounding in her veins, seatbelt locked up, the woman released her steering wheel to keep a death grip on the still ringing phone as she was spun around, the vehicle's absolute loss of traction leading her to yank her feet off the brake and gas alike, and, in an almost small motion, watch as the coffee in her vehicle's cup holder lifted up and hung in mid air.

"Bang!"

All four tires burst when she hit the ground, the airbag going off and keeping the agent from smashing her head into the steering wheel, and, even with her sunglasses smashed to pieces, reeling from the impact, suffering whiplash from being shaken about, raised the precious, humming piece of technology to her mouth, trying to shout into the mouthpiece.

"Crack!"

An incredibly tiny sliver of glass was launched from her windshield as the pretty boy flicked it, sending that almost infinitesimal projectile directly into the phone.

"Now, now, Miss." He chided. "Don't you know it's rude to interfere in family reunions?"

She recognized his face immediately.

How could she not? This young boy was on the list every single agent was required to memorize the moment they joined the Committee, as were all other close subordinates of the Campione.

As the common saying went, where there was smoke… there was fire.

Where Lu Yinghua was, his mistress was sure to be close.

Smith cursed and scrambled for her backup phone.

"Ah, such foul words from such a beautiful lady. But I suppose it does make sense for your sort to talk that way… given circumstances. Master makes me wanna curse too."

A single punch to the passenger's side window sent shards of glass exploding inwards, but none so much as scratched the agent.

Getting as far as pressing the 1 key for speeddial, Smith flinched when he ripped her windshield away, casually tossing it aside and then plucking the phone from her hand, crushing it as he did so.

She went for her pager, groping blindly at her ankle, and he responded by flexing an aura, perfectly crushing the piece of plastic into so much scrap.

She drew her side arm, flinching at the bang of the gun when she shot her seat belt, which had jammed, and began climbing out of the car as fast as she could.

Sprinting towards the stopped police car, with its gobsmacked officer, she made it about halfway to the frozen man before Lu Yinghua simply stepped in front of her - catching her as a sudden gust of wind almost knocked her off her feet.

"Please stop being difficult. I do not want to hurt you."

Smith tried to call out to the officer.

"Call in to central, warn them that-"

Forcefully shutting her mouth, the cultivator stopped her from screaming.

So the agent bit him.

"Damn woman! Stop this! I do not want to hit you!"

"Then let me warn the people of this city what's about to happen."

A frown.

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Please. Lives… are definitely at stake here."

The frown turned into a look of resignation.

"No. I'm sorry."

Before she could respond, he simply stepped, disappearing from her view. And, as Smith's consciousness suddenly shut off, she didn't even have time to feel the blow.

"You know… I kinda expected more when I heard you were a bunch of perverts. Your tastes are way too vanilla."

No insult could have cut him deeper.

No transgression would ever burn Issei more than this very moment.

He would carry this memory for years, allow it to fester deep inside his soul, and one day turn to it as the motivation he needed to overthrow the world and make all the thankless infidels who dared cross him in this most sacred of matters. But before engaging in this crusade… he had to seek counsel from his closest aides.

"Matsuda… Motohama… are we… are we truly vanilla!?"

"No!" His glasses wearing friend declared. "We are cultured gentlemen of exquisite taste!"

"Indeed!" Issei's shave-headed comrade cried out. "Ours is a rarified and excellent form of mastery! Not the plebian dabblings of a hag! We are more than mere perverts, after all."

"Ours is a life of struggle and sacrifice for that ultimate shot!"

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!" The Campione declared. "What is more worthy than a life spent in pursuit of ultimate mastery, of perfect artistry!"

"Yeah. But you guys are just **** with **** and like to ****** while ******* and *********."

A passing adult looked at the brown haired schoolgirl in horror and awe, mouth open, before the salaryman turned around on the spot and walked away as if he hadn't witnessed what just happened.

"Y-You can't just say that!" Motohama scrambled back, looking around as if the authorities were about to pounce out of the bushes to arrest them. Which they weren't because Issei asked Agent Smith not to follow him around, though there was the matter of her daughter.

The daughter who apparently liked to stab first and not ask questions, which was half the reason he was avoiding walking to school by himself the last few days.

What he couldn't have foreseen the girl who caught the three of them a few days back to live nearby and follow them to school now

Even now, Aika Kiryu wasn't impressed and constantly voiced her opinions on their tastes.

"Yes, yes. High culture. Really, half of the stuff you guys watch is basically mainstream with boobs and ass. Even I'm embarrassed people would consider you guys perverts."

Issei clutched his heart.

There would be a reckoning for this!

"How can you say that! Harem Collection Omega is a masterpiece!" Motohama shouted, pointing an accusing finger at her.

Who scoffed derisively.

"Really? Harem Collector? You might as well go play Pokémon. At least the combat is as simple as the artwork. Just because the art is good doesn't excuse the fact it's stripped down hormone bait."

"Then how about Synth Builder Life?! I have the limited edition too!" Matsuda rallied, unwilling to surrender the point.

"Synth Builder? That stuff is pure yap and little action, you might as well go read a visual novel instead. At least then the writing would be the point and not the only saving grace."

Only to be brutally shot down.

'Very well, then it's time for the trump card.' It wasn't often that Issei revealed this part of his collection, because the series had been banned, but there was no way he could allow this attack on his taste and that of his friends' to go any further.

"Dark Scripture Genesis."

To the side Matsuda and Motohama froze up, looking at him with horrified surprise, only for their eyes to shoot back towards the sole girl of the group… who rather than mocking looked pensive instead, thoughtful as she mulled over what she just heart.

"Well now… that's an oldie, and you said you got a physical copy?"

Issei nodded resolutely.

Aika smiled.

"Well then… I guess you'll have to let me take a look sometime unless you wanna get in trouble, no?"

The trio surrendered.

Aika was simply too cruel.

Her words were too cutting.

It was like gazing into the sun and feeling its heat burn you to your core. And all that was left was a scorched desert. And yet this woman, sadistic and cruel, simply chuckled, patting Issei's head and looping her arm into his as they continued walking.

For who could stand in the face of such reckless hate?

In the end, the boys gave in to their new friend's poking and prodding, ultimately being enticed with promises of much better, more refined games… and doujins… and bootleg ecchi shows that you couldn't get on the normal market. That last one sounded a bit like something the Devils might actually sell, but, not wanting to stand out anymore than he already did, Issei simply nodded along.

Mostly because Dark Genesis was only banned because of a copyright dispute and it being super hardcore was only kinda true and most of its reputation was just hype.

"Why are you even stalking us? Don't you have any more swimmers to gawk at?" Matsuda harrumphed, adjusting his glass.

"And miss the chance to talk shop? No way! It's not my fault you two turned out so basic. At least he has a bit more taste." Adjusting her braids in textbook tsundere fashion, the bespectacled girl scoffed.
In a way, it was strange how much life could change in a couple days.

After his little… training session with the occult research club, things had fallen into a lull for Issei. Without any attacks or weird supernatural people trying to talk to him, he could almost trick himself into believing life calmed down over the last forty eight hours.

Even Smith hadn't come talk to him or visited his house, something or another about having to prepare for a meeting.

She'd seemed very annoyed and Issei had offered to punch someone if they'd upset her. The adult had actually looked like she wanted to accept before telling him not to worry, but that when she got back, she and her partner were going to explain a few things to him.

He was annoyed, too, over losing the chance to talk with a ninja. All the secret sneaking techniques he could use for peeping should be acquired as swiftly as possible! Issei could already taste paradise even though it seemed so far away now.

'Still, she seemed odd.' Because Smith spoke to him like he was an adult… not just some idiot kid in way over his head and didn't seem to be in the mood to tease him either.

Something happened, but he wasn't sure what.

"Good morning, everyone."

"Ah, Kiba. Good morning."

Greeting the Devil, though his friends didn't know about that little secret, the Godslayer, which his friends also didn't know about, introduced the blonde boy to the group, while doing his best to not worry about how many secrets he was keeping.

"This is Matsuada, Motohama, and this is Aika."

"Nice to meet everyone, I'm Kiba Yuuto."

Officially he was Issei's 'contact' with the Devils. Not that he thought they needed to put a babysitter with him, if Issei needed to talk to them he could always visit them at the club building.

Not that he disliked the guy… much.

He was Issei's natural enemy, a pretty boy through and through. However, having trained with the guy, the young Campione just couldn't bring himself to dislike him. In fact, if he got the chance later today he was gonna ask the swordsman for another match.

"He's a good guy, but, uh, mainstream, if you know what I mean."

"Fu, fu. Poor Ise~ Afraid we'll embarrass you in front of your occult club friend?"

Aika was clearly enjoying herself, but the other two guys seemed to get what Issei was trying to be clever about and quickly adjusted their stated interests to be far less… enthusiastic. Those like them could not survive in a school environment without learning how to camouflage themselves, with Aika having been an unfortunate accident.

Still, as far as first weeks went, this one was turning out to be quite busy.

His first date was crashed by a duo of vengeful goddesses. He was approached by a secret agent and had to come clean to his parents about the magic stuff. And then he ended up meeting and fighting a bunch of other students who turned out to be actual Devils.

All in all, the month he spent after the incident at the ship where nothing happened felt so far away now.

"So, are you considering joining any clubs? I hear that we only have until the end of the month to pick something."

Issei hummed.

"Photography Club." Matsuda grinned mischievously.

"Literature." Motohama agreed, looking away from Ayaka's grin.

"Swimming. Unless the occult research club is looking for some new members, that is?" Aika piped in from the side, eyes discretely roaming up and down the figure of the blonde student. No doubt her head must have been full of wicked lecherous thoughts.

He had to protect Kiba from this one, at all costs!

The pretty boy, unaware of the danger to his purity, chuckled sheepishly.

"I'm afraid our president is very picky when it comes to accepting new members. We don't get a whole lot of interest from most students and she doesn't like the idea of crowding the place with a bunch of hobbyists."

Well, looking from a certain point of view, anyone who didn't already know about magic, gods, or devils probably counted as a hobbyist or plain uninformed, huh?

Issei did think about joining.

After all, they probably still had a whole lot of stuff he could learn about that might make his god slayer gig easier. But at the same time, he felt like it would be imposing too much on them.

Besides, there were other ways he could improve.

"I was thinking about Arts and Crafts."

That earned him a look of confusion from the others.

"What? Did I say something weird?"

Aika hummed, thoughtful.

"Not at all. Just didn't take you for the artsy type. Unlike those two half baked hobbyists."

Kiba, however, seemed to understand what he meant, shooting Issei an approving look.

It was something he picked up to try and learn how to use Dusa-chan's power, back when the only things he could do were half baked clumps of stone. With some effort and practice, he'd gotten pretty good at making a ton of different statues with [Mineral Garden] but he was still far from great at it.

Only being able to make stuff he was familiar with wasn't enough.

He had to learn how to really use it instead of aping Dusa-chan all the time.

You never knew when trouble… would… turn the street…

"The chick squirming in its nests, born with wings soon to soar. The foal struggles to stand, yet born with legs destined to gallop. Though a conqueror may struggle along the path, it is only natural they will soon grow victorious."

A voice, a beautiful voice echoed in his ear.

Down the bustling street, all noise was swallowed by deafening silence, and amidst the void only the poem could be heard. Practiced, flowing words with perfect diction. Though spoken with no music to accompany them, by their nature, they echoed like son.

"Do you guys hear-?"

Issei stopped, nearly stumbling as a strange sensation washed over him. A chill ran down his back as the hair on his arms stood on end, the world seemingly frozen in place. The weight of someone's gaze slamming down on him was palpable; nonphysical that it was, the blow was sudden, hard, and clear.

And the urge to attack, to run, to fight, to do anything was compounded by a sudden pressure that nearly knocked the air out of his lungs.

The others weren't as lucky.

Matsuda, Motohama, and Aika were laid flat against the ground… no… it was as if something was forcing them against it!

Neither of his friends seemed to be able to breathe well, their faces going red as they choked, and Aika was nearly panicking with her eyes bloodshot and wide!

Kiba wasn't doing any better. Driven to his knees, the devil swordsman was sweating bullets as he tried and failed to control his breathing, forcing himself to stand upright as the pressure bearing down on them threatened to crush him on the spot.

Issei's mind spun.

Was this another Heretic?

'No, it feels different.' Unlike the immediate urge to stand his ground and give battle, he was confused, unsure. He wanted to fight - but at least half of that was simple confusion!

"Barely any reaction, impressive. However… refusing to prostrate yourself before a senior is disrespectful. There is a proper order to doing things even amongst us, King of Wakoku."

Wakoku?

A fragrant wind carried the voice of the person across the street, the pressure that even now ground against Issei increased, driving the Devil beside him face first into the pavement.

All as the uneasy sensation of familiarity settled down.