Chapter 1

Kuoh:

Raynare hated her mission.

She hated it very, very much.

Being born after the Great War, she had always been unappreciative of the tentative peace that existed between the Angels, Demons, and Fallen. Aggressive in nature and nurtured by the stories of old, she like many others, yearned to prove herself worthy to her kin and especially to her superiors.

Espionage. Sabotage. Assassination. Seduction… especially seduction. She didn't care so long as she moved up.

Anything to get her name noticed by those with ten and twelve wings.

Anything to get even just one more pair of wings herself.

Three years ago, she had thought that she would have opportunities by the boatloads to do just that, when the tentative peace, and the secrecy of the mystic world, nearly shattered into tiny bits… but her held breath was wasted. The balance had been rocked, but still frustratingly held firm.

Then her hopes had gotten up when Azazel, the leader of the Grigori himself, called her for a special mission that he claimed required her special list of skills, dedication, and history…

Her hopes had slowly died a dogs death over the course of the past six months.

Reconnaissance.

She had been given the job of a security camera. For six months. On a single two story building in Japan. Owned by, and occupied by humans.

They weren't even interesting humans either. It was just some boring middle aged woman that was aging fairly well and some dumbass that never, and she meant never, left the damn building. The only reason why she even knew he existed in the first place was due to Azazel informing her in the first place.

… And the occasional shouting matches that she could hear from the other side of the street and thirty meters in the air.

But for some reason that no one ever bothered to inform her about, both people in the building were considered VVIPs.

By everyone.

Angels. Fallen. Demons. All three factions had an invested interest in the people there, and had set up their own protections on the property. She had honestly never even heard of an occasion where all three had come to a unanimous decision on something like that before outside of the current pseudo peace that they had agreed on at the end of the war, let alone for something so insignificant.

Sadly her curiosity could only keep her interested in the place for so long before the long periods of nothing finally defeated her patience.

The building itself was dull and generic, like all the others in the entire area, but magically the place was a bloody hidden fortress that no one would notice or be able to enter unless they knew it was there to begin with.

Even Azazel had warned her that under no circumstances was she to enter the building without explicit permission from those inside.

Six months.

Six months of absolutely nothing.

The mother was fairly active. Food shopping. Yoga. Part time jobs. Neighborhood clubs. What appeared to be the occasional date here and there, but those rarely lasted long. She was clearly single from the lack of a ring on her finger. It was a bit of a shame, as she was fairly attractive in a natural sort of way.

The son, she knew jack about other than he was a shut in that had a good pair of lungs on him if the yelling was any indication. Obnoxious brat was probably some massively overweight slob that rolled better than he walked.

How on earth were these two important to anyone?

It was nine at night and she had had enough for now. Humans rarely if ever went out this late for anything and she doubted that there was a force on the planet that could get past the barriers around the place without anyone magically aware in the city not noticing.

She really needed someone else to split this job with. It would look bad if she switched off from this supposedly incredibly important task, but she couldn't help it if it was confirmed to be incredibly dull and tedious.

o. o. o.

"Issei!"

…

"Issei!"

…

"ISSEI!"

"What!?"

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO GET MILK FROM THE STORE!"

"I told you I'm watching porn!"

"The porn can wait! I promised the club I'd make cake for the meeting tomorrow and I need milk!"

"Then make it tomorrow before you go!"

"It needs to set first before it can be eaten! You know that better than I do! You're the self-proclaimed mega chef!"

"You never said you were going to eat the thing!"

"Don't you dare be an over analytical ass to me young man!"

"You're almost forty! Your digestive system can't process sweets like they used to! Are you trying to give yourself an excuse to get a new wardrobe?!"

"I'm a woman! I don't need an excuse to buy a hundred new wardrobes, and I'd still look great in all of them! Just like I don't need an excuse to cut power off to your side of the house and take out the wireless if you don't get off your ass and get the damn milk!"

The top half of the Hyoudou residence shook as though something large and heavy had been dropped onto the floor. There was a minute or two's respite as the sounds of someone moved across the rooms upstairs before a door was slammed open and closed.

Issei Hyoudou sulked as he stomped down the stairs like a petulant child and shot his mother a dirty look. "Seriously. Why are you cooking something like a cake this late?"

Messy brown hair. Chocolate brown eyes. Red tshirt under a vertically striped black and white unbuttoned collared shirt, tan pants, and white sneakers. He was slightly tall for his age, and appeared to be in decent shape under his clothes. All in all, he appeared to be your standard teenager. Anger, vulgar vocabulary, and all.

The only part of his image that was remotely out of the norm was the thick white cloth with peculiar letterings that was neatly wrapped around his right hand and arm. It was done in a way that many in Japan would assume it was merely his way of making an edgy fashion statement had they not known that he didn't care at all about his appearance in general.

Asami Hyoudou gave her son a dry look from the kitchen. "Well I would have started it earlier if someone had actually listened and gotten me the milk already while I was busy with my part time job. You know. The one that's outside the house?"

"Funny how your tune changes when we aren't comparing checks." He grumbled as he walked past her and out the door.

She looked at her son's back and opened her mouth to say something, but caught herself at the last moment and shook her head. There was no point in escalating the argument when she had opened herself up bringing up her job and outside. "Just, just don't get into any trouble. Please?"

Issei's expression softened slightly, but he didn't turn around. "… It's a late night in mid-March Mom. Cold enough that the only people still outside right now either have something more important to do or are homeless. I'll be fine."

"Says the idiot that forgot where the closest local store to his home was." Her lips twitched in amusement. "You'd have trouble finding your bathroom without your phone's GPS."

"It was a stupid mistake that happened three months ago! It could happen to anyone!" Despite his language, the blush of embarrassment was clear for anyone to see.

She sighed as his image vanished outside. "Five. Four. Three…"

The teen stomped his way back into the house and up the stairs, making an effort to not look or address her at all as he did so.

She smiled smugly as he quickly made his way back down less than a minute later. "Forgot your wallet and cell phone Mr. Genius?"

"Shut up!"

"And pass up this easy win?" She smiled coyly, greatly enjoying the hybrid groan and lamentation of embarrassment as he exited the building the second time that night.

It was brief moments like this that she enjoyed. She knew Issei didn't mean to lash out at her as viciously as he did, but these days her son rarely spoke to her about anything with much enthusiasm unless it had something to do with his… ugh. Hobbies.

She missed him. She missed the little innocent and wide eyed boy that her son had been just a few short years ago. His peculiar desires and aspirations had always left something to be desired, but his drive and heart had seemed to be utterly unstoppable. It was honestly terrifying to see such a small boy accomplish so much. Nothing seemed to be too big for him to figure a way around or dissuade him from his end goals…

… At least, that's what it had looked like at the time. Before the incident.

Now he rarely left the house for any reason without an argument, much less his room. It was only recently that she had managed to get him to do this much without resorting to drastic measures.

At least he managed to keep himself busy and productive, though not in ways that she particularly supported.

She let out a long, tired sigh. Her eyes wandered around the home they had been living in for the past few years after moving back to Japan. It was nice. Cozy even. But rarely did it feel like a home like it should have. It felt more like a place to hide in at times. A place to just shun the outside world.

She leaned back against the counter and brushed a hand on the top of it, shifting the small pile of papers that she had been occupied with for the bulk of the day without Issei's knowledge.

The more she thought about it, the more it appealed to her. Both of them needed a change.

o. o. o.

"Seriously. Why does she need milk this late? This is just flat out sketchy." Issei grumbled to himself as he walked up one of the streets that led to his home. Thankfully, there was a local gas station nearby with an attached shop nearby so he didn't have to walk too far to get what he needed… or risk getting lost.

Again.

He didn't at all seem to be bothered by the chilly night air or his dark surroundings as he continued his trek, uttering curses and meaningless insults at people that weren't there.

Nor did he seem to note the fact that the few insects and animals that were up and about this late at night were suspiciously absent, making the walk home unnaturally quiet compared to the trek he had just made to the store.

"I mean. Just look at the setup. Handsome guy walks into a local store late at night asking for some milk? Just make the place abandoned and the person at the register be Anri Suzuki or Asa Akira and you'd have a quick five dollar gonzo plot right there, not that those two would ever work on anything so low budget. He'd wake her up at the counter from her napping on the job and say, 'Sorry to interrupt. Where do you keep the milk?' and she'd look at him half asleep and half thirsty as hell, and say…"

"Issei Hyoudou. Correct?"

"What? God no. That's terrible. I don't do pornos and even if I did I'd never use my real name even if someone else was using it. I'm not some pathetic idiot that hoists my delusions onto the actors. That's just career suicide. Plus mom really would murder me if she ever found out. And creepy… wait." The teen paused and rose his head to look for the person that addressed him.

Two people stood in his path about twenty meters away from him.

One of them was massive. Standing at over two meters tall, the giant was made of pure muscle, the man bulged out of the clothes that most people would be swimming in. The brute seemed to be a cocky piece of shit if the smug look on his face was any indication.

The other was a rather short blonde foreign girl. She was exceptionally beautiful with a great figure that was impossible to hide under her peculiar choice of clothing, a mix of everyday clothes underneath a select choice of individual pieces of armor. Enough to hide most of her body and enable her access to nearly all of her physical range, but not enough to protect against heavy or remotely precise strikes.

"… Nope. Wouldn't work. You," Issei pointed to the largest of the pair, "Would just hog all the attention in every scene you're in and you," He shifted to the smaller, "While attractive, have shit for fashion. Unless you're trying to aim for attracting nothing but weebs and nuts with armor fetishes. Kinda a narrow and niche target if you ask me."

"… What." The larger of the two flatly and intelligently responded to Issei's ramblings.

"Sorry to break it to you big guy, but you're better off working independently. Huge guys like you are a niche fetish. If you try to get into the system, the best you'll make is a half assed blowback B lister, and that's after years of likely being nothing but a fluffer behind the scenes. You'd make better money working in fast food joints in some places."

"Looks like the rumors were right. His mind is perpetually in the gutter." The girl giggled as her partner was being torn down for a prospect he'd never consider.

"Remind me again why we don't just beat this idiot half to death first and recruit him afterwards?" He looked down at his partner, clearly not amused.

"Weren't you listening during the meeting at all? This guy's the Sekiryutei. You know, the guy that started that whole mess with the dragons a few years back? He's supposed to be crazy dangerous." The girl pouted and put her hands on her hips as though it would help her argument.

"This wimp? Crazy yes, but I don't see how he's dangerous at all. I mean look at him. His eyes are dead as hell." The loud man pointed accusingly at Issei.

It was true. The teen's brown eyes were particularly dull and glazed, as if he was half asleep and not at all paying attention to the conversation. No life. No energy. No goal. No purpose. They were the eyes of someone just walking through the steps of day to day life on autopilot.

"Hmm. It is true. He does look pretty lifeless." The girl mused, looking at him with the smallest hint of skepticism. "I suppose those rumors are true. Guess that's why some are calling the Sekiryutei the 'Neutered Dragon' now."

"Hmph. How disappointing." The larger of the two crossed his arms and threw Issei a dirty look. "I wanted a worthy beast to beat half to death, not some broken whelp. Why the boss wants him is anyone's guess."

"He's still the wielder of a Longinus. He has some use I think." The girl shrugged, as if writing off her target as a lost cause already. "I guess Boss is just being greedy. Two Dragons is better than one, even if one of them is clearly better than the other."

"Can I go? I have to get this back home or else mom is gonna have another bitch episode. Between you and me, I think she's hitting her midlife crisis, and most of the time I'm the only viable target she has to take it out on so I'd rather not give her an excuse to go off on me again today." If he had heard them, Issei didn't bother at all to react to it, instead lifting the bag holding the liter of milk he had been sent out to get to prove his point.

"And what makes you think that we're going to let you go?" The giant grunted, reaching the end of his patience with the snarky kid.

"Beeeeecause you're not an asshole, and have better things to do than bug people that are trying to do errands late at night?" Issei suggested, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Wow. He's completely clueless." The girl stared at him in genuine awe.

"Whatever. I have better things to do than to waste time with a couple of blowbacks." Issei didn't seem to care in the slightest what the pair intended for him and started to move forward in their direction. "I still have to finish watching Megumi's latest work and then make that article by tonight. Fuck, I hate all nighters. Assholes thought it would be a good idea to spring this shit on me at the last moment. I told them not to try that again, but of course those idiots didn't bother to listen to my advice. Let's see how they like it when I triple the fee…"

"Screw it. We just need him back alive. They never said he had to be in ideal condition. There's no way I dragging this idiot with us back to HQ with the ability to talk." Stepping forward, the big man cracked his knuckles. "Jeanne, you want in on this?"

The woman sighed to herself, taking out the rapier that she had on the side of her waist. "Hah. You're so violent, Heracles. If I leave it to you, you'll probably kill him by accident."

"And they have corny overused stage names. Screw blowbacks, these two are clueless civilians." Issei shook his head in pity, clearly unconcerned or unaware of their intention for him.

The two sides slowly closed in on one another, walking at a casual pace. One side with a clear goal and mission in mind. The other just wanting to get back home and finish watching his quota of porn.

o. o. o.

"Why did you call me?" A handsome, silver haired teen drawled in minor annoyance. His tweaked glare didn't falter from being matched by four pairs that were just as violent or sharp as his. "It's not exactly easy to get time away from Azazel these days. Not with all the extra work he's giving me."

"You knew what you were getting into when you joined the Chaos Brigade." An older and taller male confidently stated, as if talking down to the accuser from a higher position. With black hair, a pretty face, and perfect stature, he was the picture perfect image of a leader that anyone could get behind. "Our timing may admittedly be unreasonable, but that makes the reason even more important. Vali."

The Hakuryuukou, the White Dragon Emperor, rolled his eyes and snorted. "Then get on with it. Unlike you guys, I do have other things to do with my time."

"Cocky bastard." Heracles growled and took an intimidating step forward. "Give me a minute with him alone Cao Cao and he'll watch his mouth around us."

"Oh? The juice junkie wants to throw down? I normally try to avoid picking fights with the impaired, but there are always exceptions." Vali's cocky smirk widened into something that didn't hide the eagerness to cause pain and shed blood.

"Stand down. Both of you. I didn't call this meeting so that you two could brawl like a bunch of back alley thugs." Cao Cao firmly put his foot down. "Vali. We intend to enlist the Sekiryutei into our forces. Since you have a prior history with him, I would appreciate it if you would be generous enough to share what you know about him with the others."

The silver haired half devil blinked. Then he blinked again. Then he snorted and turned away. "And here I thought you needed me for something important. You want that jackass to join the Chaos Brigade? Ha. Good luck with that."

"Hm? Why's that? You don't think he's worth our time?" Jeanne asked curiously.

"If you don't know by now, then I'm not going to bother." Vali brushed her off.

"I don't see what you have against it. It is common knowledge that his second Sacred Gear, Blind Eternity, is sealed off. Without it, he shouldn't be too much issue using force to make him comply if needed. He's supposed to be just a normal human without his powers." Cao Cao probed, apparently succeeding in getting under Vali's skin as the latter stopped in his tracks.

"Seriously? That's all you managed to figure out about him?" He dryly looked back at the four as if they were idiots.

"It's surprisingly difficult to get any information about Issei Hyoudou's past outside of unfounded rumors. Say what you want about them, the Three Factions are quite capable in the art of hiding away others when needed. We could probe deeper, but that would risk exposing ourselves prematurely." Cao Cao shrugged, as though his shortcomings were not his fault.

Vali snorted disbelievingly before shaking his head. "All right then. Just because I pity you guys so much for going through with this, I'll give you a freebie about my rival. If there was one word to sum up Issei Hyoudou's ability with his Sacred Gear and his fighting style, it would be without a doubt, complete, and utter…"

o. o. o.

Thump.

Thump.

"Bullshit."

Issei blandly looked down at the bodies of the pair that had confronted him.

The giant of a man that looked like he could kill an elephant with his bare hands was now a mangled and distorted mess, his body twisted in a way that would make people have to pause and think for a moment before they could call him human. It was a medical miracle that he was still breathing.

The beautiful blonde on the other hand was completely naked, eyes and mouth wide open as if in the middle of a bloodcurdling scream so wild that she was actually foaming at the mouth despite the fact that she didn't have a scratch on her. Less than a meter away, her sword was on the ground, intact and just as unblemished as she was.

The still standing teen took in the image of the two before focusing on Jeanne in particular. He didn't seem to be particularly pleased or elated by the sight of a naked and beautiful woman writhing helplessly almost within arm's reach.

Nothing else had changed. The road was undamaged. The lights were still on. The mailboxes on the side of the road were completely intact.

Calmly, he lifted his normal human left hand into a half praise in front of his chest and bowed. "Thank you for the meal."

And with that, he dropped his hand, turned around, and continued to walk back home as if nothing happened.

"… I'm starting to see why people make such a big deal about you."

Issei didn't stop walking. "Just ignore the voyeur Issei. They'll leave you alone if you leave them alone."

To his side, an extremely handsome man with pure white hair leaned against a fence. His clothes were more elaborate than that of his comrades, gold and white silk with ornamentation that belonged to a church. His smile was soft, but his eyes were sharp, as if staring down a strong enemy.

"I've been with them for only a short time, but even I can say that I've never seen someone take down Jeanne and Heracles in less than three seconds with just one hand." The man continued, not taking offence to being brushed off. "True, they didn't take you seriously, but even so I doubt that there are many that could pull it off so easily. They should have taken that guy's warning about your abilities more seriously. I can certainly see why he'd call you bullshit."

Issei finally stopped, sighed deeply, and turned to the newcomer. "You know, they're going to die soon if you leave them like that."

The handsome man chuckled and pushed himself off the fence. "No doubt on purpose so that I would have to bother helping them instead of bothering you. After all that trouble to stay hidden too, and none of us knew that you were aware of us in the first place. I wouldn't be surprised if you planned this whole thing to happen so that the Fallen Angel stalking your home wouldn't notice a thing too. You don't want the extra attention."

Nothing but silence. Not because Issei was stunned by being caught, but because the teen had already turned around and started to walk home again in the middle of the man's dissection of his actions.

"… Eh?" The Christian blinked, completely caught flatfooted by the Sekiryutei's actions. "O-Oi! Are you really just going to walk away like that?!"

"I have more important things to do than waste time with a voyeur that talks too much." Issei lazily shouted back. "Go away and rethink your life if you think this is a good way to pass your time."

The accused voyeur laughed in disbelief. Vali was right. The Sekiryutei was a complete jackass, and recruiting him was more than likely a lost cause. Now, at least. "My name is Siegfried. Issei Hyodou, a fair warning. This is likely not the last time the Chaos Brigade will try to recruit you. We will likely be more aggressive next time now that we know how dangerous you can be. Will you join us now and save everyone the trouble?"

"I don't do mass orgies with strangers. There's no telling what shit you idiots have contracted and spread around." Issei flatly shot him down without hesitation.

"S-Seig." The rasping, inhuman gurgling of Heracles caused Siegfried to grimace. He doubted that he'd be able to snag the Sekiryutei in the time needed to retreat with his comrades to keep them alive. The pair of them were in terrible shape, and he was willing to believe the boy's statement that they would die soon without help.

"Before you go though, I do have something to say to your leader." Surprisingly, Issei broke the silence first.

"Really? What is it?"

Even from that distance, Siegfried could see the brief and small twitch of amusement on the boy's face.

o. o. o.

"Well?" Cao Cao looked down at his underling as the report was made. "What did he say?"

The swordsman shifted uncomfortably, clearly not wanting to relay the message. "He… he said that Confucius is an overrated hack that takes credit for his student's achievements, and that Journey to the West is an overused and over told story that holds no weight and its only purpose these days is to give unimaginative authors inspiration for cheap comic books to earn a quick buck, ultimately summarizing it as the ancient whore of Oriental stories that just won't fade away or die already."

The office was dead quiet for several minutes.

"I'm starting to see why Vali reacted the way he did when we brought up the Sekiryutei."

"I'm of the same opinion."

The two paused for another period of time.

"Seig. Are you certain that my name never came up in conversation with him around?" The leader frowned.

"Absolutely." Siegfried grimaced, knowing exactly what that meant.

"… I see. If that's so, then it's best if we put our plans for him to the side for the time being."

o. o. o.

"Partner…"

"They were tracking me from my cell phone's GPS. Must have slipped in some malware in one of the emails I actually bother will. It's the only way they could have timed that ambush so perfectly despite the fact I rarely leave the house. Guess they finally figured I categorize all their recruitment emails as spam." Issei absently played on his cell despite it being a liability. "Gonna have to ask 'Zaz to set up a new plan. Might have to use two cells now. One for emails and one for GPS."

"They know where you live. Whether you like it or not, things are bound to pick up again eventually."

"Well good luck with that. They're going to be too busy running counter espionage protocols for at least the next half year to bother with making any more major moves. Throw on the Fallen's espionage and technical resources dedicated to making sure I'm left alone, and all three faction's magics protecting home, and it's clear that it's going to take a long time for anyone off the books can get to me without getting noticed."

"Like tonight?"

"We both know what would happen if I actually didn't want to deal with them. Seriously. 'Chaos Brigade?' What kind of comic book name is that? They might as well call themselves 'Team Rocket'. No professionalism in it at all. Small wonder they couldn't do jack unless I held their hands without their knowing."

"Yes. They would have merely lost patience eventually being subtle and gone after your mother."

Issei stopped momentarily at that statement, but he caught himself and proceeded moments later. "Mmm. They probably would have. And they would have regretted it soon afterwards too."

It was the unnatural coldness to his voice that caused Ddraig to leave the topic alone. It was the sort of biting chill that preceded a never-ending fire from hell that would shatter whatever and whoever was in its way.

It was a vast difference from the seemingly infinite heat and fire that the child used to have.

"You can't keep going on like this, Partner. This isn't you."

"I know I can't do this forever, Ddraig. I don't have to though, do I?"

The Welsh Dragon grunted something incomprehensible under his breath before giving up on the conversation and receding into the Sacred Gear. Moments later, his left hand was back to being just human flesh and blood.

Just in time for Issei to walk in the front door as though nothing had ever happened.

"I'm back."

o. o. o.

Issei, Seven years old:

"Why are we in my room?" Issei asked curiously as he looked at his armored arms. "I thought I was going to start training today."

"We can't train until we know what you can do kid." Ghost reasoned from his right. "There are right and wrong ways to do it depending on what you are capable of doing. Do it right and you could be one of the most unfair things on the planet. Do it wrong and you'll end up as stupid looking as a dog chasing its tail... or Crypt."

"Crypt?" Issei blinked in confusion.

"My brother. He… well, long story short, he's so crazy that he thinks the floor is his rival, perpetually speaks nonsense, and rolls on the ground to get to places more often than he walks."

"That's… pretty crazy." The boy had to agree with him.

"If you don't mind, I'd prefer it if we got back on track." Ddraig cut in. "The sooner you get stronger, the sooner I don't have to worry about you being an easy target for the White guy."

"White guy?" Issei frowned.

"Ddraig's rival." Ghost clarified. "Apparently he's also in a Sacred Gear. His user and Ddraig's tend to fight more often than not whenever they meet up, regardless of time and place."

"Even if one of them is eating dinner?" Issei couldn't imagine someone being rude enough to interrupt the other while they're eating. That's just bad manners.

"Hahaaa. You really are innocent, aren't you kid? Training you is going to take longer than I thought." The dragon in his left arm chuckled with some remorse.

"Heheh. Just means more fun for us." Ghost laughed, clearly more amused than his roommate. "So Ddraig, what can you do? I know the general idea of how these Sacred Gear things work, but considering what my range of powers are, testing the one I'm in here and now might not be the best idea at the moment. We'd need somewhere more wide spread and private for that, just in case."

Issei looked at his right arm skeptically. Was the creepy old guy that jumped into his arm really that powerful?

"It's called the Boosted Gear." Ddraig decided to humor them. "Using my abilities, it can double the user's strength, power, speed, and other skills every ten seconds. So, first you can double your strength, then after ten seconds its times four, then after another ten seconds, by eight, and so on. There's another, weaker Sacred Gear called Twice Critical that does something similar, but only by the minimal double effect."

"So you mean I can be super strong and super fast with you? Cool!" Issei stared in amazement at his left arm.

"Eeeh? An exponential power magnifier conceptual ability? I've never seen a dragon have one of those before." Ghost sounded impressed. "Let me guess, the stamina drain for using the boosts is proportional to how much power you used."

"Mmm. You are correct."

"Uh. Proportional?" Issei was clearly unfamiliar with the word if his attempt at pronouncing it was any indication.

"It means the more you do while charged up, the more exhausted you'll be once it wears off." His right arm surmised. "Overdo it and you can easily end up hurting yourself real badly. Killed at worst."

The boy gulped heavily. He had seen characters in his favorite shows have to train hard and have powers that were dangerous. He was no different it seemed.

"There's a limit to how much you can boost yourself as well. You are but a boy. If you tried to make it so that you were as powerful as the heroes of old, your body would fall apart from the strain. That's why we need you to start to train yourself so that you can use our powers more efficiently."

"That means better, right?" The boy hesitantly asked. "If that's so, then I'll do it."

"For the harem." Ghost threw in. Anyone could tell from his tone that he was incredibly amused just by saying it.

The hesitance and uncertainty was instantly gone. "For the harem!"

"Eeeeeheheheheheheh."

"Mmmmngh." Ddraig clearly had other thoughts on his current partner's logic.

"So what do I do now then? Running? Push ups? Sit ups? I don't know if there are any waterfalls near Kuoh so I don't think I can do meditation." The boy bounced eagerly, the word 'harem' echoing in his skull.

"Wait. Hold on there, kid. I want to check on something first before you go all Rocky five on us." Ghost chuckled. "Ddraig. Level with me. That doubling power of yours. Is it specifically geared towards power in general, or can it be used conceptually? Like, doubling one's sharpness of vision, or doubling the mass of an object, etc, etc."

"Oooh? That vague branch?" Ddraig sounded like he was recalling fond and amusing interesting memories. "Every now and then I'd have a peculiar partner that would use my powers in such a way. Mostly for magic and magnifying their dragon fire abilities for creative uses. Maximum results with minimum effort. Seeing over one hundred kilometers with one's bare eyes. Driving enemies insane with pain by causing the smallest of scratches. One woman was capable of melting entire castles with the smallest embers. Another could bore out tunnels with a cleverly applied yet simple earth spell. It was always amusing to watch my abilities used in such flexible and interesting applications."

Issei shivered. The things that Ddraig was talking about were impressive and all, but he really didn't want to do that. He just wanted to be strong enough to make his harem happy and protect them.

Ghost on the other hand…

"Eheheheheh. Oh. That is interesting. And if the kid wanted to make a rock double its size? Or double its mass? Or double the effect of gravity on it?"

"He'd have to actually be intimately knowledgeable and aware of what the rock was, and the aspects of it that he wanted to change were, but yes it is possible." Ddraig agreed. "Doubling power and other physical performance is simply the easiest and most natural application of my powers. It is admittedly more draining and demanding to double actual physical size. Both on the user and the recipient. But it is possible."

"Iiiinteresting."

Issei was really starting to get creeped out by Ghost. He didn't like it when people used big words around him when he was right there. He was only a kid, and he wasn't super smart like some of the other kids in his class.

"And if we were to do something even vaguer and simpler than that. Say, double the rate that he learned by reading, or double his ability to naturally retain information while he read it…"

He really didn't understand what the guy in his right arm was getting at, but he could instantly tell that Ddraig did as the dragon's emotions spilled out into him.

"Oh? Oho. Hohohohoho. Interesting indeed. Yes, I see where you are going with this. And Partner is still young. He has so much time to grow and develop. An opportunity like this is rare. And while we're at it, he can apply the same process to his body when he physically exercises…"

"Ah, but that's physical. He'd have to limit that or he really might damage himself permanently." Ghost now had the same eager tone that Ddraig did. "But if he read up a bit on how exercising works in general and doubled that process…"

The poor, unfortunate, and terrified child named Issei Hyoudou could barely hold back his tears as his left and right arms began to laugh in a way that he was absolutely certain did not belong to good guys.

"Heheheh. Don't be scared kid. You should be happy." Ghost tried to soothe his host, but failed to remarkably due to the incredibly sketchy and predatory tone he had.

"You might actually end up strong enough to break the system by the time you're ready to get your harem after all…"