Chapter 19

It was a nice and peaceful Friday night.

Rias' office door was kicked open.

"Damn it Issei! What is it this time?!" Rias shouted on reflex. It clearly was not the first time her door had been subject to this abuse in the past week, especially if the damage to the wall behind it was any indication.

Surprisingly, the Sekiryuutei wasn't the culprit this time.

Sona stepped into Rias' office like she was possessed. Her normally schooled and impassive façade had been replaced by what some would describe as an Ashura's mask of wrath. The Sitri's body radiated with demonic energy, writhing and barely restrained. "Where. Is. He?"

Unsurprisingly, Issei was still related to the madness.

Rias blinked owlishly as she took in the situation. Sona was enraged to the point that not only did she not care about her own appearance, but she didn't care about Rias' momentary crass outburst either.

"… Before I answer that question, can I at least know why you look like you want to dissect him while he's awake?"

Sona twitched, as though simply remembering the reason for her rage caused her physical harm. Before Rias could retract her request, she stomped to her desk and slammed a form on it.

The paper was upside down from Rias' perspective but she saw enough to know that it was a Devil summoning request and review form. Complete with the client's photo.

It took her a few moments to read the script upside down, but she managed to get the general idea of what happened and why Sona was so unstable.

It took her twice as long to sort her emotions and hide her uncomfortable laughter.

"… I see… well, that does explain why he was both amused and bleeding from the eyes when he returned with Gasper doing contracts a few days ago."

She looked down at the photo of a titanic and muscular man in a familiar magical girl outfit, complete with a massive bulge under the too short skirt.

The man had summoned Gasper three days ago, with Issei overseeing the process. He wanted to be a magical girl, and was clearly a fan of Magical Girl Mil-tan.

They couldn't grant him his wish, obviously, but apparently Issei had thought it would be an amusing idea to give the guy a flier with the Sitri family crest and tell him that it would give him a good chance to meet a "real magical girl".

Unfortunately, the flier interpreted it as "bring me the best suited Devil to introduce the owner to a magical girl" and not "bring me the Devil that is a magical girl". So Sona was personally summoned to the effeminate behemoth's home.

The height between them all but ensured that the first thing Sona saw was a face full of pure innocent white cotton bulge.

Devils on average had pretty low inhibitions. Sona was not one of them.

Rias didn't know what Issei had against her friend, but she couldn't deny the obvious. As far as petty, shallow, and meaningless pranks went, this one was up there.

Her only real critiques were that Issei had done nothing to hide the fact that he was the culprit, and that he had more or less given away one of her own customers to Sona. Not that she was complaining, but it was still a faux pas on his part. She'll probably use that second bit as a reason to not save him from Sona's wrath later, just to make sure he doesn't make messing with her Peerage's contracts a habit.

"I demand vengeance."

Rias tentatively debated the notion of noting that Sona was showing more emotion than at any point since the school year started. In fact, she was pretty sure that nothing save for Serafall could get this much of a reaction from the Student Council President anymore.

… Maybe in a week or so. After the worst blows over. In a direction that was not her own.

"He's out supervising Gasper. Like he has every night this week." She lifted her hands in surrender, looking to the side to see that their Queens Akeno and Tsubaki were watching the conversation from the safety of the hallway. Rias didn't blame them. Sona looked impressively pissed at the moment.

"Call him back."

"They're in the middle of Gasper's contract. You know how poorly it looks if we interrupt a job. Punishing Issei is one thing, but Gasper's still getting the hang of going outside. I can't put him in that kind of position." Rias argued reasonably, though with little effort.

"You're letting him out with Issei. I doubt pulling him back from a contract would be any more stressful than what he's doing now." Sona growled.

"Surprisingly, Issei's been pretty tame when it comes to Gasper so far." It was virtually everything else that set off the human teen like chain reaction of nukes. Idiot summoners. Training. Current contract exchange rates. Literally any attempt to act confident or seductive around him. Porn. Etc.

It was Gasper that tended to rein Issei back when things got out of hand, as opposed to the opposite. The elder teen's near perpetual madness was a surprisingly effective distraction for the younger's insecurities.

Sometimes it was hard telling who was keeping an eye on who.

"Rias. We have been friends for most of our lives. So believe me when I say that we are going to have severe issues if you are convinced for the slightest of moments you can get away with protecting that idiot's behavior."

She allowed herself to roll her eyes. "Protect? Him? Sona, you know as well as I do that Issei would balk at the idea of anyone actually going out of their way for him. At least, for any charitable reasons. He'd harass me more than you would if I attempted that. No, I'm perfectly fine watching things from the sidelines thank you. I just don't want your crusade to harm Gasper in some way."

Preferably with some popcorn. Like Sona said, they were friends. And nothing said friendship more than enjoying one another's shallow misery from a safe distance. It wasn't her fault that Issei was the only person other than Serafall that had no issue or shame in pushing the School Council President's buttons with the ease of breathing.

Granted, he pushed everyone's buttons with the ease of breathing, but it was more impressive and amusing when Sona was the target.

That being said, there had been some positive developments in Issei's behavior over the past few days. Nothing monumental, but he had been less… confrontational. He still exploded on others when something, normally stupid and inconsequential, set him off, but otherwise he had been quieter.

Hell, he had even helped Akeno out a little bit with cooking last night. Albeit, not without almost turning the kitchen into the scene of a murder a couple of times in the process, but it was still monumental progress for the guy that shunned pretty much everything that lived and breathed like the plague.

Raynare had taken to staying back at Issei's home every other day as things developed. She claimed it was to protect Asami and Asia and keep an eye on them. But everyone knew she was skimping off of work so Issei wouldn't hound her to exercise every other hour. Today was one such day.

Sona grit her teeth before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to calm herself down. Rias bit back a remark about how much her friend resembled the source of her ire at the moment. No need to stoke an already volatile situation.

"Rias. Please tell me you've come across something that explains why the Maou, no, why virtually everyone that has a name worth remembering in our world is so obsessed with him. No matter how I try to angle it, I just don't see how he's worth the treatment he's getting. I've gone over his records. Other than what's obviously been redacted, his initial history reads like a normal human's. There's nothing outstanding about his genealogy. Even if he is a Sacred Gear user, I can't imagine that alone being enough. Longinus or not. Even so, the absurd part is that absolutely no one is interested in trying to claim him for their own, or take him out as a potential threat. No, instead, they're all apparently dead set on trying to help him."

Sona did have a good point. The idea that the leaders of the three Biblical factions could gather together and agree on anything was an absolute joke to most of the people in their world. And yet, they were doing just that.

She went on. "Then I thought that maybe everyone was interested in his supposed connection to Ophis, but that wouldn't line up with the treatment he's been getting. He's not the first person to earn her favor over the millennia. The best I can think of is that it has something to do with his relationship with the Dragons in general, but even that doesn't make sense. No one in their right mind would make someone as unstable as that as their ambassador."

"They must have their reasons." Rias placated her friend. "It is clear that at least Raynare knows the truth. Or enough that what we are doing makes sense to her. Even if she doesn't like it. Otherwise, she'd probably have tried to kill Issei for real by now."

"Humph. As far as we know." Sona couldn't argue against that point. It didn't take a genius to see just how bad the Fallen and her charge got along, but even then they still tolerated one another.

She sat down on the couch in the room. "I just don't understand it Rias. I get that Issei's… competent, to an extent, especially for a human, but that isn't enough for this sort of treatment. The security. The ambiguity. The intensity of it all. And yet we're the ones that are supposed to keep an eye on him? I appreciate the trust, but I just don't see what the bottom line is. Let alone the supposed danger of it all. If he was such a high value target, then he wouldn't be here with us. If anything, the way everyone acts you'd assume… that-"

Deep inside a cave.

It was like experiencing a lightning strike in slow motion at close range, only without witnessing it.

Slept something titanic.

First came the hairs lifting on the back of their necks.

Slept something that prized its solitude.

Then came the feeling that something was amiss.

Slept something that treasured and cherished the few things that it could claim as its own.

That feeling grew rapidly and exponentially. A buildup that they could instinctually tell would lead to something that they had no hope to control.

A pair of massive and bloodshot eyes opened from the depths of the cave. With that single action came a wave of unparalleled wrath and rage that submerged the landscape.

Had Rias and Sona not been sitting at that moment, they would have been floored instantly by the sensation. It was all they could do to not openly panic.

Akeno and Tsubaki unfortunately were not as fortunate, and had collapsed to their knees.

Deep inside a cave, dwelled something that was no longer sleeping.

With a desperate gasp, Rias and Sona regained control of their lungs just as the horrifying experience seemed to wash away as quickly as it had appeared.

"R-Rias, what was… you don't think…" Sona fumbled with her words, not at all composed after the experience.

"That, that was Issei." It was complete conjecture, but Rias was all but certain that he had been responsible for the phenomena.

Presence.

She had nearly forgotten about that odd power that Issei supposedly had, and she had only experienced brief glimpses of it before, but there was nothing else she knew of that could explain what they had just felt. Even if she still had no idea what it was supposed to be or do in the first place, there was no mistaking the fact that something was horribly wrong…

"Gasper!" She shouted in alarm, recalling only now that her Bishop was likely at ground zero of this sudden potential cataclysm. Whether he knew anything was irrelevant. Right now, her precious family was without a doubt in some sort of danger.

A flick of her wrists and a spark of magic formed a magic circle that would under normal circumstances open a communication channel to her Bishop. Much to her justified fears though, the spell fizzled out almost instantly, indicating that something was interfering with its completion.

At the very least though, Gasper wasn't dead. She would have been able to tell as much as his King if that was the case.

"Damn it."

"Rias!" Kiba, Koneko, and some of Sona's peerage appeared at the door.

"Something's wrong with Issei-Sempai." Koneko surprised many there by speaking up first.

"You could tell it was him too?" Rias was certain it was him, but having a second opinion helped.

"Yes. That… it was like Ki, but, never mind. It was him. It could only be him." The Nekoshou fumbled with her words, trying to find the right thing to say before giving up and getting to the point.

"What happened to Gasper? They were supposed to be together tonight." Kiba asked.

"I don't know. I can't get in contact with him." Rias got up and sped around her desk while grabbing her copies of the documents that detailed who was supposed to summon Gasper that night. Thankfully, there were only two destinations. "I have the addresses of where he could be. Let's hurry."

That seemed to be enough to snap Sona out of her funk. "If you can't contact Gasper, then you likely won't be able to teleport on site either. It could be dangerous to appear there carelessly."

A red circle appeared under Rias, prompting her Peerage to move within it. "I know. We have no idea what's going on right now. I'll keep you updated on the situation… but if things get bad…"

"I'll go get Asami-san and Asia-san. If it is as bad as we fear, they might be the only ones that might be able to stop him." Sona's mind was going into overdrive, recalling everything she knew about Issei's quirks, along with every tip and trick her sister told her about dealing with him.

Rias nodded and activated her spell. As worried as she was about Issei and the situation at large, she had her priorities. First was Gasper. Then was Kuoh. Then came the disturbed teen.

She just hoped she didn't have to prioritize one over the other tonight.

o. o. o.

(30 Minutes ago)

"And that's why you seriously need some extra weapons hidden on you at all times."

"For the last time I'm not going to hide military grade hardware under my skirt Sempai."

"What's another weapon down there to you? You're already packing one already as a trap."

"Sempaiiiiiii."

"You're missing a real opportunity for yourself."

"I could seriously hurt someone with them! I thought I was supposed to be a support character!"

"You are a support character. In a story where there's multiple Gods, Devils, Dragons, and mountain busting myths that spend more time doing paperwork than actual fighting. We're talking about guns of all things, not holy swords or divine instruments of mass destruction. You actually think that anything you might be able to physically carry would be able to handle even a mid-class Devil?"

Well, maybe a magically enhanced grenade would be able to do some minor damage, but he'd shelve that idea for later. Mixing magic and explosives was a touchy and dangerous subject.

"Gah!" Gasper moaned, grabbing his head in frustration. He hated it whenever Issei made more sense than he should. It made the world a more depressing and horrifying place to live in.

"What? I told you. The shit's supposed to be a stopgap until you figure out a way to actually fight with your own powers." Issei looked down at the Vampire as if what he was saying was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Can I just focus on controlling my powers in the first place?"

"Depends. Do you think asking that will prevent the possibility of some prick attacking you before you manage to learn said powers? As opposed to having a significantly faster and easier fallback on hand in the meantime?"

Gasper dropped his head, crying helplessly. "Why did I ever leave my room?"

"Because I was bribed to make you."

"Please stop talking Sempai. You're not making me feel better."

Issei shrugged casually, not bothering to point out that Gasper wasn't feeling good about going out regardless.

When they first went out to do contracts, Issei genuinely had no idea how to go about observing and dealing with Gasper. Hell, he still had no idea how to deal with people in general, but he was self-aware enough to know that Rias would get pissed if he interfered with Gasper's job and got the poor kid a bad reputation.

So, he pulled a leaf from Ghost's book. He acted like an asshole, but primarily to distract Gasper from his original concerns.

Only he kept his clothes on.

And didn't throw anything at the poor kid.

And didn't slip in any mental images that would scar him for life.

And kept to his hands to himself.

And he didn't practically drown the kid in one of eighty sevenish different forms of power and or psychologically impacting intent for mental conditioning.

And he didn't tie the kid up and hang him from a tree or tree like object.

And…

"… I really do need extensive help, don't I?"

"Yes."Ddraig answered immediately.

"You're only figuring this out now?" Gasper looked at Issei incredulously.

"Huh? No, I'm talking about something else." Issei waved Gasper off, still distracted by his internal epiphany.

"Letting you come with me alone at night was a horrible mistake."

"Yes. Yes it was Dio. However, we can only deal with one set of problems at a time. Right now our priorities are making sure you appear appealing to the Devil based employment market…" He paused and looked at Gasper, still dressed in Kuoh's female school uniform. "… The legal market at least."

"Aaaaaaaah."

"Quit crying and man up. We're almost at the next job." Issei looked down the address numbers of the houses they were walking past and noted that they were a couple of minutes away now.

It had been an eventful week for the pair, with Gasper starting to do contracts in person and Issei supervising the entire ordeals. Gasper was still clearly having trouble interacting with his clients, but he at least made an attempt to talk to them and complete his contract.

Issei was pretty quiet during most of the jobs unless directly addressed, though that might be because he kept himself occupied by watching porn on his cellphone. Unlike Gasper, he did not appear to be interested at all in what was happening or the clientele to the point that it felt like he had put up a wall around him most of the time.

Well… there was that Magical Girl Mil-tan fan on Wednesday, but Gasper was fairly certain that there was not an emotional wall in existence that could have held strong against that much… intensity.

Yes, intensity was a rather accurate word for that particular person. It had been enough to make Issei cry tears of blood after all…

On a side note, Gasper found out that Issei knew an unusually large amount of Magical Girl Mil-tan trivia that night.

He tried to ask why Issei knew so much to begin with, but that only made the bloody tears come out twice as fast.

Regardless, tonight they were doing two contracts instead of the usual one. The first was rather simple and involved helping out some woman relax after a long day at work. Normally she was Kiba's client, but he was busy "finishing with that damn game", and so the job was given to Gasper.

Issei decided to help out this time, so it was done pretty quick, enabling them to get to the second contract. Since it was located a short distance nearby, the pair decided to walk there for once and forego the flashy teleporting entrance.

Gasper might have enjoyed the experience a bit more if there was less talking, but as far as Issei was concerned it was still worth it. It was a nice warm night out with an open sky. He didn't have night vision like the Devils, but he could still appreciate it.

Peaceful suburban area.

Glowing moon.

… Pure silent background to the point that there weren't any chirping insects…

… And if he took in a deep breath…

"Hey. Dio. About those powers of yours. How in tune with your Vampire side are you?"

"I told you, I can't squirt bodily fluids through my eyeballs like lasers, or regenerate from being cut in half vertically Sempai." Gasper gave Issei a tired look, clearly not interested in repeating himself again.

"I'm talking basics Dio. Bood. Bats. Darkness. Actual nightwalker bullshit." Issei looked around almost casually, not at all paying attention to his companion now.

"I… can do bats. I haven't mastered it, though. But I don't like blood and darkness. They're not cute."

"But you can do them." It was a statement, not a question. "You can drink blood to get stronger, or smell it better than a dog can. And you can actually control darkness."

"I haven't done either of those things in years Sempai. And even then I only did enough to know that I could in the first place. I never practiced using or mastering them. I don't even know how good I can get."

… Well ok then. Issei wasn't surprised about Gasper's lack of training, but he was caught off guard by the admittance of raw darkness manipulation. That ability was not common, even for vampires.

Interesting, but something to discuss later. They had more important things to focus on now.

The pair stopped in front of the client's house.

Gasper instinctively didn't like the feel of it, even if he didn't know why. "S-Sempai? What's going on?"

"… At the very least, you aren't completely blind." Issei only took a few moments to look at the place before walking ahead and entering through the unlocked front door. "Keep behind and don't draw attention to yourself. Your signal to support is "Ball"."

"Ball? Wait. What are you talking about? What's going on? Issei-sempai? I don't like this." The young Dhampir began to shake nervously and look around before hurrying behind him.

He was in such a distracted state that he didn't recognize the smell of blood until he got to the main room itself.

Gasper almost passed out right then and there, but instead settled for throwing up.

Issei instead merely whistled as if impressed at the man that was crucified upside down on the wall to his right. Complete with the inverted cross imposed on a pentagram circle, both written in the victim's blood.

If that wasn't enough, the man's stomach was cut wide open, allowing half of his still bleeding organs to hang out up to his neck.

Judging by the poor man's expression, he did not die quickly.

Judging from the smell, the amount of blood on the floor, and the state of some of the organs that were hanging out of the carcass, he had died less than an hour ago.

Had they not wasted time on the previous contract, they could have saved him.

"Heheheheheheh. Oh my my. How cruel. How cruel can you be? You almost sound impressed to have your filthy summoner killed like that. But what can I expect from a shitty Devil?"

"Not a Devil. Just an asshole human." Issei did not let the situation bother him in the slightest, and pointed to the still paralyzed Gasper. "Dio's the Devil."

"Haaaaah?" From the couch to the side, the culprit turned to look at Issei incredulously and stood up. His silver, neck length hair did nothing to hide the deranged and childish expression on his face. Judging from his robes and coat, he was a Priest. Or at least he was trained as one by the Church. "What blasphemy is this? Even if I'm excommunicated, and people say that I have a twisted sense of humor, accepting that a Devil is named God is nauseating!"

Just to remind the Readers, "Dio" is Italian for "God".

"Dio's not God. Dio's Dio." Issei corrected simply.

"My name's Gasper." "Dio" whimpered before throwing up again.

"Like I said. Dio."

"He's a shitty Devil! Not God!" The Priest shouted.

"Just ignore him. Sempai doesn't do names. He just calls people whatever he feels like."

"Why on earth does he call you God then?!"

"Cause he's Dio." "Don't ask." The pair replied at the same time.

The teenaged priest dropped his arms and stared at Issei with a lost expression. "… Aaaah. Damn it. I had this whole introduction planned, and it got thrown out of whack by a pathetic kid Devil and an idiot non-believer that thinks a Devil's God. You jerks totally ruined the mood. Now I have to work super hard to make your deaths worthwhile. This sucks. Seriously, what does that brat have that God doesn't? You don't look like you're new to this."

"Well, the kid exists for starters." Issei shrugged, getting mixed looks.

"How long were you waiting to use that one?" Ddraig groaned.

"Longer than I probably should have."

"Great. Another atheist that believes in Devils. I swear, you useless hypocrites have been breeding like rabbits lately. Kill one and another three pop up spouting bullshit that even I can't stomach." The Priest spat to the side in disgust, reaching into his robes to pull out a gun in one hand and a light beam sword with the other. "Well. Enough of this. My name's Freed Seltzen, I'm gonna kill you now, blah blah blah, amen."

BANG!

Without any hesitation, Freed aimed his handgun at Issei's head and fired a beam of light.

Just as easily, Issei had lifted a hand up and manifested a circular barrier a meter wide that looked like it was made of a transparent crimson crystal to take the shot, immolating it instantly.

"Dio. Ball." Issei stated casually.

"What?" Gasper looked up in genuine bewilderment and confusion.

"Huh." Freed looked between his gun and the barrier with some curiosity, as if not expecting to be blocked so easily. "A magic user? Shoulda guessed as much."

He then looked at Issei's exposed feet and pointed his gun at them.

BANG!

Issei moved his shield down to take the hit, proving that it was mobile.

"Dio. Ball." Issei repeated himself.

"What you're talking about!" Gasper shouted, finally regaining enough self-control and coherency to realize the gravity of what was happening.

BANG!

A third shot, this time at Gasper. The shield blocked the shot again, but exposed Issei's body, allowing Freed space to slash at his head with his sword.

"Sempai!"

There was no sound of impact, since the blade of light was an energy weapon, however…

"The hell?" Freed frowned in genuine confusion as his expectations were denied again. Instead of cutting through the teen's head like a hot knife through butter, his blade was stopped mid swing.

Not by a tool, but by Issei's free forearm, glowing in a white aura.

The defender in question, didn't seem to be amused, interested, or worried about the situation in the slightest.

"Dio. Ball." His voice had not changed in volume or tone either.

If anything. He sounded bored.

Bang!

Freed jumped back while aiming his gun at Issei's face, but instead of blocking it this time, the teen just tilted his skull to the side just before the shot went off and allowed the beam to pass by.

"Oi. Oi oi oi what the fuck is this? Human my ass. What kind of human blocks swords with his bare hands and dodges gunfire like that?"

"Vasco Strada." Issei deadpanned, recalling the retired previous owner of Durandal and still one of the most powerful humans at the Church's disposal. Retired or not, Issei was able to tell the geezer was a beast just by looking at him from the end of a long hallway the one time he had seen the guy.

"Bullshit! You're not that freak of an old man, and you sure as hell don't have the balls to compare to him!" Judging from his reaction, it was clear that Freed had encountered the geezer before as well. Meaning that it was likely that this guy had been in the Church's exorcism squad at some point, or at the very least been a hopeful.

"Dio. Ball."

"Enough about your retarded ball already!"

Gasper flinched as Freed's gun unloaded itself on Issei's barrier. Things had gotten out of control so quickly that he could barely think straight. It was clear that Issei wanted him to do something, but what? All he said was to support, and that the code word was "Ball". What was that supposed to mean? The only ball he could think of was the one he used for training and oooooooooh.

Bang!

The vampire snapped back to reality with the sight of the couch in the middle of the room being kicked at Issei at high speeds. How Freed, a human, managed the strength to do so was beyond him, but it didn't seem to bother the target one bit as he blocked it with his barrier…

Only for Freed to appear from the side moving around the shield with his gun at the ready.

"Dio. Ball."

"R-Right!" He didn't know if it was from figuring out Issei's instructions or the thrill of the moment, but Gasper's eyes activated several times faster than he should have at just the right moment.

Bang!

Time froze with the light bullet half way to Issei's body.

"Cutting it close, but you managed to figure it out eventually. I'll cut you some slack this time." Despite the danger he had been in, Issei didn't seem bothered at all.

"I-"

"Don't talk." Issei interrupted firmly. "If you think you'll get distracted, don't do it. Prioritize. Think hard about what's most important and make sure that happens above all else. Questions can wait. Bullets don't."

"R-right." He swallowed heavily, trying to keep his shaking body in check. Now wasn't the time to get distracted. His goal now was to keep the enemy in place, maintain control over his powers, and take advantage of the situation.

The Dhampir wanted to look at Issei for guidance, but that would mean taking his eyes off of the mad Priest. Come to think of it…

"S-Sempai. Can you move out of the way a bit? I-It's easier if I'm focusing on just him without the bullet."

Wordlessly, Issei shifted a few steps while keeping out of Gasper's view. A few seconds later, the bullet seemed to fire itself off again without a sound, impaling the body of the man who had once owned the property with a wet sound.

"How much longer can you keep this up?"

"Not much." Gasper admitted, feeling the strain in his eyes. "Ten seconds at best."

"We'll have to work on that." Issei sighed, moving around the madman casually until he was standing at Freed's side, specifically in the direction he was moving in while he was strafing the teen. With a few lazy cracks of his knuckles, he got into a fighting stance. "Ok Dio. Let 'er rip."

With a heavy sigh, Forbidden Balor View disengaged, allowing Freed's time to resume as intended.

Almost instantly his manic smile vanished as he realized that his target was no longer where he was supposed to be. "What the-?"

His muttering was interrupted as the motion of his body and head was met with the motion of Issei's fist into said head with a heavy crunch. The Priest collapsed like a house of cards as he was bodily thrown back against the wall of the room.

"Aaah. Damn it." Issei moaned as he shook his hand lazily before encompassing it in another white light. "Think I might have actually fractured something. Don't tell me I have to work on throwing a decent punch again too. Fuck I'm out of practice."

Before Gasper could say anything, the older teen casually walked up to the downed priest and kicked away the gun and light sword from his reach. "You can stop pretending. I've seen enough Porn to know when someone's faking it."

"Thut. Up. Bathdard." Judging from the slur, it was quite possible that Issei had either knocked out a few teeth or dislocated the guy's jaw with his hit. That or a concussion.

"Hold on." He reached down with glowing white hands and grabbed Freed's skull, making the Priest scream for a good twenty seconds before letting go. "There. Try it again."

"Fuck you you bullshit cuck of a heathen!"

"Much better." Issei then slammed his heel on the man's outstretched right hand, crushing it.

"F-Fuck!" Freed snarled. "You impatient whore! Read your partner you ass! I'm not into that master slave bit unless I'm the master! And I refuse to share with a Devil!"

"You're not my type. I'm not into dudes. Or Bitches."

"Oh you sassy f-uck!" Freed's comeback was interrupted as Issei's heel ground into his shattered hand.

"F-for future reference, I'm a boy." Gasper lifted his hand up tentatively in the background. Whether or not anyone heard him was up for debate.

"Ngh…" Freed glared at Issei and shifted his body to escape, but realized something was wrong in a few seconds. "The hell did you do to me? My body feels like I slept in a contortionist pose."

"White magic bullshit." Issei put more weight on his foot.

"Fuck! Just my luck to come across one of those twisted white mage nuts. And people bitch that I'm a sadist. Aaaah. I fucking knew I was being set up…"

If that wasn't a tell that something was wrong, Issei didn't know what was. "My turn. You're an ex-priest in the middle of Devil Territory. Commonly known Devil territory. Tell me, whose dick did you suck wrong while playing altar boy to get sent here?"

"Oho. Wouldn't you like toooooo will you stop that shit already?!"

Issei's heel twisted. "You can talk or you can talk. I have all night. Would you feel more comfortable if you were on your knees?"

"Your mother."

"You're not even trying now." He crouched down so that he was face to face with Freed, and lifted up his hands so that they were somehow glowing a malicious white. "You've probably been around long enough to know just how nasty things can get if an interrogator with White Magic goes nuts. So I'll make it simple. Talk, or you leave this building with twelve different kinds of magic cancer, three of which will be named after you. And for future reference, the infection on both your testicles will count only as one."

For the first time, the priest's confidence faltered. Normal cancer was a scary thing, but any magical induced cancer was a guaranteed painful death. Only a few variations were treatable, and it cost a hell of a lot of money to treat. Even Phoenix Tears couldn't heal that mess. "O-oi, don't give me that bullshit. I know the rules. No one trained that far in White Magic is allowed to do that. You have to sign a soul binding contract and everything."

"I got kicked out before I reached that step. Lucky you." The hands inched closer to Freed's head. "I think I'll start with some adenocarcinoma in your inner ears. Can't enjoy the screams if you can't hear them after all. Can't walk straight with no sense of balance either…"

It was always the surprise technical speak just before the deed itself that made them break.

"Fuck! Fine! Fine! I'll tell you! It was some homeless looking Fallen! They wanted me and some others to go nuts in town to distract you idiots!"

Issei's confidence immediately plummeted as his mind quickly worked on a worst case scenario.

"Them, or me?"

"Wh-"

When Issei put his foot down on Freed's hand this time, the sound of breaking bones was clearly heard. "Were you distracting the Devils or ME? Stall for even a second and you're going to piss blood for the rest of your life through your half cock, which will still be the longest appendage you'll still have on your mutilated middle school midterm science project body!"

"YOU! YOU! WHOEVER THE FUCK YOU ARE YOU ANNOYING ASSHOLE! THOSE PUSSIES WERE MORE WORRIED ABOUT YOU THAN WHOEVER CONTROLS THIS SHITHOLE!"

The fact that this guy attacked a client of the Devils to distract Issei meant that they knew he was working with them during the week.

The fact that he blindly attacked the client of the Devils as a distraction in itself meant that the Devils were not the main target in the first place.

The only other viable target that any Fallen in Kuoh would have outside of himself or the Devils were…

"Sempai!"

Gasper's shout came in a moment too late as Freed's other hand lurched wildly from his coat, revealing a flying canister and a pin that had looped around the madman's thumb. It was a wild swing with no finesse, but it got the job done nonetheless.

"Shi-"

The room went white as the literal holy hand grenade went off, blinding and deafening everyone in the instantly demolished room.

Gasper had been caught off guard by the grenade despite being the one that had warned Issei about it in the first place, and was unable to use his eyes or conjure a shield in time to block it. That being the case, he was surprised when he opened his eyes and took his hands off of his head to realize that he was perfectly fine.

"Ah?" He looked around to see that the grenade had indeed done its job, but also that Issei had once more saved his life with a crimson barrier circle that protected them both. "S-Semp-ugh?!"

Freed was gone.

"Come on." He didn't bother wasting any time worrying about the stunned and crippled asshole, grabbing the back of Gasper's shirt and dragging him out of the house and onto the street. His eyes were constantly scanning their surroundings. "We have to leave. Son of a bitch, what did that asshole do, put a holy barrier around the entire block?"

It was a common tactic of the Church. Put up a barrier around a Devil or two to stop all magical communication and teleportation, and then waste them inside it.

Problem was that most of the time the barrier was limited to the boundaries of a building. Anything bigger than that was either excessive, or done in expectation that shit was about to go down.

"Wh-what's going on? Where did that Freed guy go?"

Issei fast walked out of the house. "The altar boy bolted. But we weren't the main targets. We have to... tch! Fucking annoying redshirts!"

Before Gasper could ask what had just happened, Issei breathed in deeply, warped his mouth to reveal a maw of fanged teeth, and breathed a torrent of fire straight down, making a wave of rich crimson fire ripple around the pair and blocking the slew of projectiles that assaulted them from all sides.

Not stopping there, Issei waved his hands as if crafting and molding the fire itself until it swirled around them in a protective dome that immolated anything that attempted to cross its intense membrane. Its tongues so rich and thick that from the outside it appeared to be crafted from literally solid fire. Flesh. Light. Solid. Or Energy. It didn't matter. It all burned the same.

"I-I w-w-w-wha…" Gasper had finally hit his limit and collapsed onto his knees, shivering uncontrollably.

Issei on the other hand had also hit a limit, but this was one for his patience. "Tch. Fuck it. Dio. Stay inside until the Weeb or someone not likely to shoot you gets here. I don't care who."

The terrified boy paled drastically as Issei moved to leave by walking through the fire as if it wasn't even there. "W-wait! Sempai! You're actually going to leave me here?!"

The irritated glare that was shot at Gasper made him clam up and retreat almost instantly.

Issei was angry. Issei was very, VERY angry.

It wasn't his facial expression, marred by his warped and fanged jawline, or the near violent way he spoke that underscored just how dangerous things had gotten.

It was his eyes. A single look into Issei's dilated pupils was enough for any soul to understand that a vital threshold was about to be crossed. A sacrosanct line that prevented the teen from causing countless calamities and grave sins with the ease of breathing.

It was at that point that Gasper knew that Issei had not simply suffered like he had.

Issei Hyoudou, had genuinely gone mad at some point in his life. Completely, and utterly insane. And it had left a mark that would never go away.

"I'm not wasting time to babysit you. Sit. Shut up. And wait."

Without giving the scared kid a chance to say anything, he walked through the flaming barrier as if it didn't even exist.

Gasper wanted to call out after Issei. He didn't know why exactly…

However, before he could figure out that much, he was distracted by the bloodcurdling screams outside the dome.

o. o. o.

The Black and Crimson teleportation seal opened up in Issei's room, allowing its owner to barrel through frantically and open the door to the hallway.

His home had not been intruded on. He'd instinctively know it if that happened. "Mom!? Cougar?! Tell me someone's here!"

No one replied.

"Damn it!" He slammed his hand onto the ground and tapped into the building's security systems. No signs of live on the property other than himself. No signs of tampering, forced entry, or unusual guests.

They had left the house then.

"Shit shit shit…" He rushed to the front door while quickly taking out his cell phone and turned on an app that could locate other phones via GPS. Otherworldly entities were only recently getting used to the tech, so many members tended to overlook the devices as potential liabilities. True, most cells were almost useless when around enough magical energy, but Issei in his perpetual paranoia had made sure that any and every cell that was used around him was modded to handle being around High Class entities without losing reception. His mother's and the Cougar's devices were no exception.

Good, the Cougar's and Asami's signals were nearby.

Really nearby.

And seemingly not moving.

Without wasting time trying to call them, he barreled out the front door, Boosted Gear already manifested, and jumped.

"BOOST!"

He was at least fifty meters in the air.

"BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!"

His eyesight sharpened in the night. He had spun in the air quickly, his gaze taking in and processing everything he could at speeds that far surpassed what a normal human should ever be capable of, with or without magic.

He saw a set of large human shaped bodies with wings flying off in the distance in the direction of the old Church. His first instinct was to go after them, but the second abnormality near his home stayed that decision, and made him pale.

"BOOST!"

He appeared on a side street a few blocks away from his home.

Asami was unconscious and lying in a disturbing position against the wall. A small trail of blood running down her head and a deep cut across her stomach exposed some of her organs to the outside world.

Raynare on the other hand, was bleeding out in the middle of the street with a giant hole in her chest. Not a single possession of hers wasn't soaked by the time she had been found.

His hands shook. His breathing was slightly erratic. His mind grew hazy, yet developing an unearthly edge at the same time.

The slumbering beast's eyes opened.

He was awake.

o. o. o.

Rias' peerage arrived at what could only be described as the aftermath of a massacre.

"Whoa." Koneko blinked, clearly not expecting to see at least two dozen bodies strewn all over the street around a crimson dome of fire. Judging from their clothes, it was safe to assume that the victims had been priests of some sort. "Someone's been busy."

"You can say that again." Kiba held his sword at the ready in case of an ambush. He briefly looked at the bodies strewn all over the place. Some embedded in the walls of nearby buildings. Others looked like their blood had erupted from the inside out. A few even looked like they had gone insane with their eyes rolled up, foam clinging to their mouths, and looks of horror on their faces.

"My my. Whoever did it was quite ruthless." Akeno glanced at a nearby corpse that was stuck into a nearby house. Judging from the expression on the cadaver, the killing blow had caught them by surprise. Her gaze turned to the rest of the bodies that were strewn around them. "It is not easy to take on so many exorcists single handedly. Not without more collateral damage at least."

Kiba had a closer look at some of the cadavers near them and frowned. "There's no impact wound. No bruises or cuts. Even the ones that crashed into the buildings with force show only the damage that came from impact, and nothing of what caused it in the first place. No torn clothes. No grip marks on the arms or legs. No blunt bruising from being hit. Nothing."

"That just means they were attacked with magic or some sort of ability." Rias brushed off the observation. "Come, we need to find Issei and Gasper."

"Hey. I don't know about you guys, but I think that giant dome of fire's a good place to start." Koneko pointed at the aptly named magical structure in the middle of the bloodbath.

"The color does match the flames that he conjured last weekend." Akneo agreed.

"Issei!? Gasper?! Are you in there? Can you hear me?!" Rias approached the dome and shouted loudly. She had to stop roughly five meters away from the dome though. The heat it gave off was so intense that even she had trouble getting any closer to it.

"P-President?" A terrified and faint voice hesitantly called back after a few moments. "I-Is that you?"

"Gasper? Are you in that thing?" Kiba stepped up, a sword to nullify fire materialized in his hands. "Is Issei there?"

"S-Sempai's not out there with you?" Gasper's voice gained strength.

"It's just us and you here." Koneko replied, looking around. "And some holy chum."

"Don't worry, we'll find a way to get you out of there. Can you tell us what happened?" Rias tried to get the situation under control.

"H-He's not here?!" Unfortunately it didn't calm the young devil. "This is bad! This is really bad!"

"We'll find Issei. Judging from how it looks here, it doesn't look like he got hurt…"

"No! That's not it!" Gasper's shouting caught them off guard. "Those priests weren't here for me! For Devils! They said that they were here to distract Sempai for some reason! I don't know why, but he must have figured something out from that! I, you didn't see him! He's super angry right now!"

"Gasper, we figured that out when we literally felt his mood ten minutes ago. Along with half of Kuoh." Akeno tried to placate him before pausing. "Wait, they were here for Issei-kun specifically?"

He didn't seem to hear her, his increasing fear making him rant more. "You don't get it! We always thought that we made him angry when he was yelling and acting out before, but that was just him being annoyed! This was… I didn't think it was physically possible to get that mad! He literally looked like he was about to go insane! N-no! Just by looking at him you could tell that he actually has gone insane before. He might hurt someone if we're not careful!"

"I'm going to go out on a limb and assume he meant the perv would hurt someone that actually matters." Koneko glanced at the bodies all around them.

"Gasper. Gasper I need you to calm down and listen, ok? Can you do that for me please?" Rias stepped up her game. With Issei gone, she was the only one that could get to him. "We can't do anything unless you slow down and work with us. Start at the beginning. You came here to do a contract. And then you were attacked?"

"Y-yeah. We went inside… I think Sempai noticed something was wrong before then. Something about me being a vampire and noticing blood."

"Ok. You went inside. And then?"

"The contractor was dead. His body was… ugh."

"And you were attacked inside? By all these priests?"

"N-No. Just one was in the house. H-he was crazy. Even Sempai looked normal in comparison. They talked a bit. And then they fought. S-Sempai stalled him so I could stop him with my eyes. He used the guy to train me. To practice. He looked bored the entire time. We beat the priest. And S-Sempai started to torture him for information. He thought that it was weird that there would be priests here. A-And then we found out that they were distracting him for some reason. That's when Sempai started to get mad. The Priest got away, and we ran out, but we were attacked by other priests. S-Sempai made this barrier to protect me, but by then I could tell he was barely in control of himself… and then he left and, and th-there was so much screaming…"

"Issei does tend to scream a lot." Akeno mused.

"H-he wasn't the one screaming." Gasper corrected her ominously.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Kiba, get rid of the dome."

"Got it." The knight nodded, vanishing momentarily from sight before appearing on the other side of the red hemisphere, minus half a sword, steaming all over his body, and collapsing to a knee. "Tch."

"Kiba!"

"I'm all right." He eased their worries, showing that he didn't have any burns. "I got in and out fast enough, but that barrier is something else. My sword is supposed to nullify fire based abilities and magic, but it melted like it was nothing. Say what you want about Issei, but at least he made sure that Gasper was protected well."

Rias frowned. Kiba's speed was impressive, even for a Knight class. For him to be almost burned just by being near the dome for an instant while armed against a sword made to mitigate fire… the more she thought about it, the more she felt that brute forcing their way through the protective spell would only cause more harm than good.

"Gasper? Did Issei tell you how to deal with his spell? Or how to get out? It might take too long for us to get you if we try anything from out here."

"No. He just told me to wait for someone that wouldn't hurt me to come before I left. Then he just, walked through the barrier like it was nothing."

"He just walked… wait." Akeno blinked as she came to an epiphany. "Gasper, is it hot at all inside there? Are you having trouble breathing?"

"Hot?" The question made several of them blink in confusion. "Actually, no. Now that you mention it, it doesn't feel off at all in here."

"He could maintain the outside temperature inside, despite the barrier emitting this much heat? While he's away from it no less?" Rias blinked in genuine surprise. For someone that claimed to be terrible at most forms of magic, Issei certainly had a rather diverse array of spells to use.

"Gasper. I believe Issei's barrier is one way. We can barely get close to it due to the heat it's giving off." Akeno reasoned. "I know it sounds scary, but could you try touching the barrier to check? Or analyzing it with magic from the inside? You are a Bishop after all…"

"Just walk through it? But, but that…" Gasper stammered before his thoughts caught up with him. "… Sounds exactly like something Sempai would do and not tell me. Aaaaah. Sempai."

"It does sound like something the jackass would do now that I think about it." Koneko muttered to herself.

"Hold on. I want to try something first."

Everyone waited at Gasper's request, curious as to what he was doing. Roughly half a minute later, a single black bat flew out from the crimson dome and made a beeline straight for Rias, where it collapsed in her hands in a steaming heap.

"Whaaa. You guys weren't kidding when you said it was hot." The boy's voice came from the bat. "I barely made it to the President without burning up!"

"Will you be ok?" Kiba asked. "Do you need help getting out?"

"Getting out isn't a problem. There was no resistance at all going through the dome." The bat cried. "It's the heat that I'm scared of. Hold on. I'm gonna set myself up with as many anti fire and heat protections as possible."

It took almost ten minutes for Gasper to cast every spell he could think of that would mitigate any form of heat and fire damage he could take.

It took less than a quarter of a second for the dome to completely dissipate the second Gasper took a single step outside.

"Am I the only one that feels unusually disappointed that dealing with that fire barrier was actually that easy?" Koneko asked the others.

"All in favor of never mentioning this to Issei?" Kiba suggested.

"Aye." Everyone else agreed unanimously.

"Wait! Sempai!" Gasper jumped, as if only just now remembering the bigger problem at hand. "We have to find him!"

"That's well and good, but we can't exactly leave this area as it is either." Akeno glanced at all the bodies all around them. "Leaving one or two cadavers of priests in the open to rot is fine and all, but two dozen unexplained heavily armed bodies will raise questions regardless of where you are."

"Akeno. Kiba, you two focus on cleanup. Koneko, Gasper and I will try to find Issei. Like it or not, it would be better to talk him out of doing anything rash, and…"

"He still doesn't trust us. The feeling's mutual." Kiba nodded, though he missed Akeno's expression turn slightly unreadable at the declaration. "If anything, meet with Sona-san first, for extra backup if anything."

"Right. I'll contact you if it's important." Rias looked around with a frown. Now that she had a solid grasp of what had happened here, she could plan ahead. Issei's home was their next destination. Sona would be able to fill them in on how things had developed.

Hopefully things had not devolved to the point of no return.

o. o. o.

The second they stepped foot in front of the Hyoudou household, Rias, Gasper, and Koneko knew that something was wrong.

It was almost like stepping on the property of a Church, or the sacred grounds of one of the other major religions of the world. The hairs on the back of their necks stood on end, and every instinct told them that every action they took would be judged by a force that did not care in the slightest what their intent was.

"Something tells me Sempai's been here." Koneko's eyes were wide open, goosebumps rippling over every inch of her skin.

"Hey. Gremory-san. Is that you?" The three's attention was stolen by the approach of Sona's Rook and Knight from the side.

"Tomoe Meguri. Tsubasa Yura." It took a moment for Rias to recall their names and regain composure. "Where's Sona?"

"Inside. Alongside our Bishops, Queen, and Pawns." Tsubasa grimaced. "I'm, not sure it's a good idea to go inside at the moment."

"Was Issei here? What about Asami-san and the others?"

Tomoe shook her head. "That's the problem. They were attacked by someone."

All three Gremory members paled instantly. "What happened?"

The Rook scratched her head. "We don't know. We showed up here with the door opened and no one around. We were about to go look for Hyoudou when he appeared behind us with his mother and the fallen floating in some kind of medical stasis magic. They were in pretty bad shape."

"We would have asked what was going on, but the second he showed up, we almost passed out." The Knight continued, shivering the entire time. "He was completely different. He barely even noticed us, and was radiating with this weird power that was flat out terrifying. It felt like we were standing in front of a genuine full scaled and pissed dragon so titanic we couldn't even tell how outclassed we were. And that wasn't even taking into account of just how absolutely pissed he looked. I half expected him to attack us just because we were there in the first place."

"He just, walked past us like we weren't even there." Tsubasa's hands clenched tightly. "We could feel his steps as if though they were a Dragon's, not a humans. We didn't even notice that we had moved out of his way until he was at his door. Even the Council President couldn't do anything."

"He wasn't acting like he normally did. The moment he got to the door, he just said "King, Queen, Bishops, Pawns." And then went inside. Nothing else. It took a moment for us to realize that he wanted the others to follow him in. A few more for us to get the courage to follow him in. We didn't see or hear anything until a minute or two ago where he just walked outside again and vanished around the corner."

"Is Sona ok? What about Asami and Raynare?" Rias didn't want to admit it, but she was actually starting to sweat just from hearing what had transpired. The more she heard, the more worried she got. There was a good chance she was going to have to contact her brother if it got much worse than it had already.

"I'm here, Rias." Sona opened the front door. It was clear to everyone that she was just as spooked as the rest of her peerage. "We're here. We're fine but, I don't think it would be a good idea to let you in yet. To risk Hyoudou's temperament any more than it already has would be, bad."

"And the others? What happened to Issei's mom and Raynare?" Gasper braced himself for the worst news.

"Alive. In dire condition, but alive." Sona grimaced. "Their wounds were intentionally made to, distract. If they were left alone any longer than they had, they would have died. They needed to be addressed by professional care immediately if they were to have a hope of pulling through. Normally."

"Normally?" Koneko frowned in confusion.

Sona looked back inside momentarily. "Hyoudou's eccentricity and paranoia is vexing, but, I can't for the life of me discredit it given what's transpired. I don't know how on earth he managed it, but his home has enough magical and medical supplies to qualify as a minor hospital, sans the people. His living room is incorporated with so many medical barriers, sterilization spells, and hidden equipment that it could qualify as a professional emergency operating room. It even has a medical grade temporal stasis barrier, Rias. You can't simply order from a catalogue or pull a few strings to get one of these things. They are supposed to be for qualified hospitals and established experimental biological facilities only. It's not an array that someone could get just by calling in a few favors. Or make in their spare time."

"A medical grade temporal stasis barrier?" Koneko frowned in confusion. "What's so special about it?"

Gasper tilted his head to the side. "I think it's a barrier that can freeze time for anything that's inside of it. Really strong and precise high level timespace magic meant to keep the patients alive longer for the doctor or other necessities to arrive on time. It's especially important for patients that are super strong, like ultimate class and above entities, since most normal temporal fields have trouble putting them under. I know that anything that qualifies as medical grade has strict regulations. Especially complex magic outside of the usual healing spells. Sempai's mentioned it once or twice, and about how hard it is to get anything officially qualified under that classification, especially without bribing someone."

"He would." Sona muttered under her breath before shaking her head. "The Fallen, Raynare, was in particularly bad shape when she came in. She had lost a lot of blood and the hole in her had torn apart several organs, impaled her sternum, and chipped her spine. Before he had left, he had spent some time treating her to get her somewhat stable. I didn't even recognize half of the spells and procedures he used. After that, he placed her in the barrier with Asami-san and just left. We didn't even try to ask where he was going. We've been here since, keeping an eye on the two and waiting for you to arrive."

"Sounds like we've all had our hands full… wait." Rias looked over Sona's shoulder to see that Raynare and Asami were in a barrier. Still and unmoving as if they truly were dead. "Where's Asia?"

"We don't know, but it's a good bet that he's looking for her. Twilight Healing would make healing these two far less strenuous." Sona looked back at the injured pair. "I wouldn't be surprised if she was taken by the ones that had done this to the two either. I take it you encountered something peculiar before coming here?"

"Only if you consider a massacre in the middle of a suburban street peculiar." Koneko droned.

"A large number of excommunicated priests ambushed Issei and Gasper while they were doing contracts." Rias translated. "Issei protected Gasper in an unusually strong flame barrier before… well, we all should have an idea of how short his patience is right now."

Sona looked at Gasper, noting how the young boy didn't have a scratch on him. "How many priests are we talking about?"

"Couple dozen-ish. We weren't really interested in exact numbers." Koneko supplied her two cents. "It looked like the perv wasn't too interested in clean kills either. I wasn't joking when I called it a massacre."

"Ugh. Must have been unbearable being there." Sona grimaced. "I can never get used to the smell of charred corpses."

Rias opened her mouth, but paused a moment later. She looked down at Koneko questioningly, only to get a similar look in return.

"That, actually, now that I think about it, none of the Priests suffered any form of burn or fire damage."

"What?"

"The priests were butchered, but not burned." Koneko agreed. "Blood everywhere. Foaming mouths. Embedded into buildings and the ground. The only fire there had been the dome protecting Gasper."

"That is weird." Said protectee tilted his head in confusion. "Sempai was clearly in a rush when he left. The only reason I can think why he didn't use his fire is if… it wasn't fast enough… to get rid of them all."

Every Devil there stood in ominous silence as Gasper's words echoed throughout their being. As much as they didn't want to believe it, that sort of twisted logic was the sort of stuff that Issei was known to run off of instinctively.

"Rias, I don't care what your excuse is, you're the one that's in charge of finding out what's going on. Don't you dare involve me in any part of it, save the report."

"How is this my fault?"

"It's not. I just can't handle this level of madness as easily as you can."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Whatever Sona was about to say was cut off as a sudden spike of power in the distance caught everyone's attention, causing them all to turn in the same direction at once.

A few moments later, something on the other side of town blew up in spectacular crimson fire.