The white cat (part 1)

Notice:

A Demon Lord's Hero isn't mine, it's written by the author Fahad09 and can be found in FF or Ao3. I'm mainly doing this to spread the word that the author Aerle is not the author of Dxd: A New Hero. Do not subscribe to his patreon to read chapters behind a paywall when you can read it for free from the real author on FF net or Ao3.

I'm doing this cuz I thought it looked familiar and realized it was just plagiarism, I went to ff net to see and in one of the comments another use was also stating that Aerle was copying and trying to get people to sub to his P@treon. Looks like it's not his first time doing this too, since that commenter said he also plagiarized a Naruto fic called "With the Eyes of God," by the author cloud9stories

Since in Webnovel Aerle can delete comments and bad reviews, it's quite easy for the dude to scam people and get away with it. 

I'm extremely petty and I liked the original fanfics so Ima just post most of the chapter to fuck this guy over lmao. Also if you see a Patreon link with the title of "Aerle" at the end, it's most likely a scam lol.

======== Chapter 4 (part 1) =========

There are times that you're so much like me that I'm surprised we're not a real father and son

Kiritsugu didn't want to teach me anything to do with magic. Time and time again I asked only to end up rebuffed. After almost two years of trying I only was able to convince him to teach me the very basics. Even then he only seemed to be willing to teach me half-heartedly.

Nothing I said or did seemed to budge him. I had actually begun to resign myself to the little that he was willing to part with.

That was at least until he found out my Origin.

Then everything changed.

A dual origin is a rare thing Shirou.

How rare?

So rare, that you and me are the only ones that I personally know of that have one.

While I still ended up learning nothing of what I then thought as 'real' magic. Nothing to do with fighting or anything that may have been useful in helping me in accomplishing my dream of becoming a hero. Despite his change of heart, Kiritsugu viciously guarded me from any form of magic he deemed dangerous.

Which was almost everything really. Magic, or Magecraft as he called it, was a very dangerous art after all. I did however learn the fundamental theories that make up Magecraft and developed a better understand of how the supernatural world worked but that was pretty much it.

You only have a single element, which is Sword, just like that of your origin.

When an element and origin match, it makes your magic incredibly specialized. Enabling you to cast spells in your field of speciality that no one can match.

Consequently, it will make it almost impossible for you to cast a spell outside of your element, except for the most basic of spells.

Even then it will take you years of practice to do what would take another Magus mere days to learn.

While I knew he said that to discourage me, I didn't mind. I was willing to work as hard and as long as it takes. Besides, at the time I thought having a magic based on swords was really cool. Kiritsugu just laughed when I told him.

However, your element may only be one but your origin is dual-natured. Though it is unlikely to have any real effects on your Thaumaturgy.

Why?

An origin doesn't have anything directly to do with your magecraft; it instead tells more about what kind of person you are and what path in life you'll follow.

It is questionable if you would ever be any to cast any spells relating to your second Origin. With a paired element-origin of Sword and with you lacking any of the 5 Primary elements, it borders on impossible for you to do so.

You just might be able to scrap some of the low levels spells at best but even that is unlikely, and even if you succeed I highly doubt it will be anything impressive.

He was right. Even after all these years, I haven't learned a single thing than can be referred to as a proper spell when it came to my second origin.

I probably never will either.

Do not be mistaken, despite its name your origin has nothing to do with the third magic. While there may appear to be some similarity between the two, in reality they're completely different.

The third magic is the magic of the soul and the power to control it.

Your origin however deals with what's within the soul and the ability to understand it.

I didn't understand what he meant of the time, but I just nodded along anyway.

Honestly, you will probably be never gain anything of use from it in combat. Other than helping you better understand and emphasis with people, I doubt you'll gain anything of worth from it.

But then again, perhaps if I had a bit more empathy back then I wouldn't have…

Kiritsugu does them sometimes, were he just drifts of in a middle of speaking and loses himself in his thoughts. I never thought anything of it back then. To me he was old, and old people did that all the time right? He kept doing it more and more as he got older after all.

Shirou,

I still won't teach you anything but the basics and theories. But I think that second origin of yours can do the world some good.

I didn't understand why Kiritsugu needed to state the obvious. Of course it will be good for the world. I was gonna be a Hero wasn't I? Again, he just laughed at me when I told him.

But really, who ever heard of such an absurd thing?

A dual-origin of

'Spirit and Sword'

===========x===============x==========

The sun broke out from behind the clouds, sending life-giving light pouring down onto the smooth white surface of the rooftop. The muffled shouts and cheers of the playing students made its way up from the courtyard below, giving the place a lively atmosphere despite its current unoccupied state. A soothing gentle breeze flowed through the rooftop, ruffling the bangs of my hair in passing and cooling my warm body.

At this moment, there was perhaps no better location in the entire school. A place of peace and tranquility where any weary student can come to rest their body and soul.

But of course I noticed none of it.

I had no time to waste on such foolishness, oh no. Something far more worthy is currently holding my attention. I leaned back to better take the sigh of it in, to bask in its presence. A more beautiful sight I had never seen.

In front of me was an open lunch-box.

Filled with rice so white and fluffed up it looked to be made from flakes of the purest snow. Shrimp tempura that has been baked to such a perfect shade of brown that it shone like glittering gold in the sunlight. Fresh green vegetables carved into the shapes of flowers lined the edges of the box, paired with slices of brightly colored fruits, giving the entire ensemble an almost aesthetic feel to it. And finally, the very heart of this masterpiece, ten perfectly boiled sausages sliced up to form little octopuses… with tiny little smiles on their faces.

It…it was beautiful, simply beautiful.

Is this what Fuji-nee felt whenever I cooked for her? Is this why she went crazy whenever she didn't get the chance to sample my food? If so, then I understand. I completely one hundred percent understand. My cooking is freaking awesome.

Pride. That was the Sin that had been placed upon me when I had willingly chosen to abandon my human form and replaced it with that of a Devil instead. Once, I had thought of it as nothing more than a burden for me to bear. A Sin no different than what the Bible had claimed it to be.

But I was wrong, so very very wrong.

Not long after my transformation, I had discovered that my Pride had manifested itself in primarily two forms outside of the general feeling of self-pride. The first was in my swords. To me my swords have always been tools, a means to an end. The cause that I would wield them for was something that I could be proud of, never the swords themselves.

As even from the start I knew that they were flawed. Compared to the real thing my blades were defective copies. Even the greatest of my swords would be found lacking when placed side-by-side to its predecessor. The reason for their strength lies not in the skills of my craft but the majesty of the original swords. So what reason was there to take pride in when the swords that I craft with my hands can never match the one that I picture in my mind?

However that was how it was in the past, it no longer holds any truth in the present reality. Since my arrival to this dimension and my reincarnation as a Devil, my skills have grown. With no resistance from Gaia for me to fight when I cast my projections, with no constant deterioration to my swords, I can now create swords of far better quality with significantly less effort than I ever had been able to before.

Add in the boost in quality and power that my circuits have received, and I have finally been able to the bridge the gap. No longer are my swords defects, inferiors. While not quite the level of the original, they can now stand by its side with their predecessor without shame.

I have finally found pride in my swords.

The second manifestation of my Pride appeared in a completely unexpected manner. Although now that I look back on it, it should not have been such a surprise. After all my first form of Pride appeared in my skills in crafting swords, it only stands to reason that my second one would also be linked to another one of skills.

Still, I never would have expected it to be cooking.

That's right people I, Emiya Shirou, have sold my eternal soul and have been transformed into the fiendish and despicable form of a Cooking Devil. Hide your children and run away before I cook you all a demonic dinner…

…The sad part is I really should have seen something like this coming when I decided to sell my soul to a Devil that was dressed up as a Magic girl.

And there goes Archer laughing his ass off again.

But really despite the sound of it, it has actually been great. I have never realized how good my cooking was before. Sure I've had many people complement me on my cooking. Fuji-nee would end up shedding tears of anguish if I fail to cook her at least one meal a day and even Saber, a king, loved my cooking.

But it was not until I finally tasted my own cooking as a Devil and realized how amazingly good it was did I finally believed them. Till then I always thought they were exaggerating or simply praised me because they were unwilling or unable to cook for themselves. How did I never notice how good I was before I'll never know.

Pride may still be a sin but it makes my food taste so much better. That alone would have made turning to a Devil totally worth it. Hell, if it meant I can enjoy life even more than as far as I'm concerned more Sin is a great thing. Banzai for sin, Banzai for debauchery.

Speaking of tasting better, it was time for me to finally enjoy my food.

Snapping open a pair of wooden chopsticks, I picked up a nice good chunk of my rice. Closing my eyes to better savor the taste, I opened my mouth and slowly brought the rice up to my lips before snapping my jaws over…nothing apparently.

I opened my eyes and looked down to find my chopsticks empty of rice and without even the slights of signs of where it may have gone. Confused, I glanced around to find out where it had gone when I froze in place as I caught sight of a familiar looking girl.

Ilya!?

Almost instantly, without conscious thought or will, I had begun to look within her soul before my common sense kicked in and I quickly stopped myself before catching anything more than the barest glimpse of what lies within her.

Giving my head a quick shake to clear my mind from the stupid mistake I had almost committed, I shut my eyes and took a moment to collect myself. Once I was done, I deliberately turned back towards my unexpected visitor and this time I made sure to give the girl next to me a proper look before jumping to any conclusion.

No, not Ilya. Though I could not blame myself for mistaking this girl for her. They did look remarkably alike.

She was a little slip of a girl and were she not wearing the Kuoh academy uniform, I would have easily mistaken her for a Middle schooler. The Snow white hair of her bangs cascade down past her shoulders while the hair in the back of her head was cut into a short bob cut. She had a pair of black cat-shaped hair clips attached to the side of her head which held her hair in place. Light golden eyes peered out of a childish looking face, which held an expression so empty of emotion it almost made her look like a doll.

Small grains of rice dotted her checks around the sides of her mouth, which gave a general idea on the fate of my missing rice. Well, that and the way her eyes never stopped focusing on the remainder of the food in my lunch box was all I needed to confirm my suspicion. So intently was she focused on the food that she ignored everything else around her, even me.

Watching her stare at my food with obvious such longing, despite her expressionless face, brought an amused smile to my face. She looked so much like a kid staring yearningly at sweets through the front window of a candy store, it was adorable.

Shaking my head in bewilderment at the whole situation, I picked up my lunch box all the while noticing with concealed amusement as how her eyes tracked it. I paused halfway through my intended action as an amusing, and very Serafall, idea hit me. It was a little cruel but now that I got the idea in my head I couldn't resist.

Keeping a careful eye on the girl I slowly began lifting my lunch till it reached head level, my head that is, which was a full foot above hers. As expected, her eyes rose to keep track of it, all the while her head remained perfectly still. I then lowered the lunch box down to just under chest level and again her eyes continued to follow it.

I just stared at her, before I felt my lips slowly twist into an oh so wicked grin.

I abruptly shifted the box to left and then right, watching as her eyes quickly jumps to the sides in quick succession as she successfully followed it. After that up, right, left, up again and all the way down.

Soon I was moving my hands so fast that it practically blurred as I moved it sideways, diagonally, forwards, backwards, in a circle, flipped it over then twisted it in the air and whatever else I could think of, before finally bringing it to an abrupt halt right in front of my chest.

And her eyes was still locked onto my lunch box, never once having lost track of it or even shifting her head, despite my best efforts.

I was wrong. She didn't resemble a kid in front of a candy store; she was more like a cat eyeing a fish being dangled in front of her. It was absolutely hilarious.

Having hand my share of fun for the moment, and after one quick look to check on the food and reassure myself that my magic did its job at protecting the contents, I handed over my lunch to her. The slight widening of her eyes was the first sign of emotion I'd seen on her face all day, before she finally tore her eyes away from the lunch box and looked up at me questioningly.

"Take it." Giving her a nod, "You clearly want it more than I do."

Her hand twitched from where they sat on her knees before slowly reaching out to my lunch box, all the while never taking her eyes off me. Just as she was about to reach it her hands paused just inches away from the box, then with a blur of motion, she snatched it out of my hands.

She clutch the lunch box to her chest and scooted a few paces backwards, glaring suspiciously all the while as if I would try to take it back the moment she looked away. If she didn't look so much like a cross between a stray cat and a pouting Ilya, I would have been offended. Did she really think I would try to steal food from a little kid? I mean what did I look like a Devil?

Oh, right.

From her point of view a Devil had just offered her, a little girl, a box of free food while in a secluded area where no one can see or hear us.

Putting it that way, I wouldn't trust me either.

Keeping her eyes still locked on me, she picked up the chopstick that I left in the box, picked up a piece of tempura and took a bite of it. I could tell the exact moment the food hit her taste buds, it was when she stopped all movement and her eyes widened in surprise. For some reason I didn't understand, I could easily picture a pair of cat ears appearing from the top of her and jumping straight up in startlement.

Slowly, almost mechanically, she turned her head to look down at the rest of the food in her lap with an expression of wonder painted on her face, before launching towards it and devouring the food as quickly as she can.

After that, considering the almost of attention she spared me, I might as well not have existed as far as she was considered.

Seeing how much she was enjoying my cooking brought a smile to much face. I may now have Pride in my food, but it was still surpassed by my Pride and joy in people enjoying it. And considering that she now resembled a starving grizzly bear rather than a feline as she wolfed the food down, I can safely assume she likes it.

Even though it was supposed to be my lunch, I really didn't mind. I wasn't that hungry anyway and the kid looked like she could use a bit of meat on her bones, she was way too tiny for her age. Besides I packed an extra-large lunch today, more than I could have finished on my own. There is no way a tiny girl not even half my size could finish it all.

I'm sure there would be enough leftovers for me to snack on.

==============x==============x===========

By the root of the world and all of its secrets, what the hell was she?

When I first saw her I compared her to Ilya. I was wrong, by the Maou himself I was wrong. This girl was no Ilya, she was a Saber if anything. If I hadn't seen the King of Knights herself putting away more food that three men double her size I would have sworn that what I was seeing was impossible.

As it was, it still surprised me enough that I was sure if my jaw hung any lower, I would feel the tip of my chin scrap across the concrete floor of the rooftop.

One and a half minutes. In a little under 90 seconds this little sprite of a girl less than a third of my size put away more food than I could have eaten in an hour. And she still looked unsatisfied by the amount, as she continued to dig for bits scraps inside of the now empty lunch.

I knew who she was of course, I learned the name of every Devil in both the school and the entire city, and it didn't take me long to recognize her as I observed her demolish my lunch.

Her name was Toujou Koneko. A former full-blooded Nekomata, possibly the last Nekoshou living in Devil society and currently a Rook to the heir of the Gremory Clan.

I knew all of this, as I was given a file detailing all the essential information I needed to know about the supernatural beings in the city before I arrived, but why did nobody think to inform me about the bloody devourer of worlds that was pretending to be a little girl, I'd never know. Her stomach wasn't even bulging! Where did all the food go?

The clatter of plastic hitting concrete drew me from my thoughts as I realized she had already finished up her search for any scrap of food and had set the now empty lunch box down.

She peered up at me from where she sat, her legs folded beneath her, before she slowly lowered her head in a small bow.

"Thank you for the meal."

I cracked a smile at that, "You very welcome." While I never cared if I was ever thanked, I never did what I do for praise after all, it still felt nice. An old habit from taking care of Ilya kicked in and I reflexively stretched my hand out to pat her head-

NO!

-When she jumped back in fright, eyes flashing wide with terrors, her body poised and tensed beneath her as if she was ready to run at a moment noticed.

Though barely noticeable, my eyes were sharp enough to catch the way her body slightly trembled even over her panicked panting breaths.

For a handful of seconds I froze, my mind rushing at the implication of her actions, before I acted quickly and slowly withdrew my hand away from her.

"Ah, sorry about that." I told her with an embarrassed smile as I leaned back and scratched the side of my head. "It's a habit I gotten from my little sister. For the weirdest reason she likes it when I pat her head and gets upset at me if I don't do it often enough. I swear, sometimes I think that girl's part puppy from how she behaves."

The entire time I made sure to talk in calm and controlled tone of voice, all the while being careful not to make any sudden movement or get any closer to her than I already was.

I pretended not to notice the way she watched me as she did so, how her eye would track my every movement, the way she would twitch whenever she saw my hand move. I ignored it all and continued talking on as if nothing was wrong. And it worked.

Gradually, her trembling began to subside before stopping completely, her breathing steadily slowed down till they were clam even breathes, and finally her muscles were released from its tense state as ever so slowly she began to relax.

It felt like it like hours has passed while it probably hadn't even been a minute, but eventually she was able to calm down.

Me on the other hand, I was anything but calm. The farthest thing from it actually, despite my outward appearance to the contractually, I was furious. The way she flinched, her almost reflexive panic at my unexpected touch, I recognized them…

…They were signs of physical abuse.

I could feel my fury rage deep inside of my chest, burning so hot that I'm surprised it didn't scorch my skin, at the mere idea of someone harming this little girl. The thought of someone hurting her, she that looked so much like my Ilya, made me see red. I wanted to scream, to yell. I wanted to demand that she tell me who did this to her, so can I go hunt them and hurt them.

But I did no such thing. I knew I would end up doing more harm than good if I did any of those things. Right now I was a complete stranger to this girl, one that she had no reason to trust. Falling into a self-righteous rage will only frighten her away. If I wanted to help, I needed her to trust me or at least feel comfortable around me to lower her guard.

Still the only reason why I didn't immediately drag her away to somewhere safe, consequence be damned, was because it didn't look like she was still being abused. I didn't notice any signs of bruises from what little of her skin I could see, no flinch of pain whenever she moved either. That she felt safe enough that she was even willing to approach a stranger like me, no matter how cautiously, was a good sign as well.

Plus she was a part of that Gremory's Peerage. No matter my personal dislike for the Gremorys, I knew that they were the least likely family in the entire Underworld to ever abuse their servants, let alone one as young as her. So at least I knew she was safe with them.

Still, safe or not there is no way I'm letting this go. The first chance I get, I was going looked into Toujou Koneko's past. And if those that did this were still out there…

But that was later, for now the best thing I can do for her was pretend nothing happened. No one liked to be reminded of their scars after all, emotional or physical ones, and they like being pitied even less.

"So," I said when the atmosphere finally began to approach normal again, "did you want anything from me? Other than my lunch of course." I added with a smile.

It was unlikely that we ended up meeting by chance. This was a fairly secluded place and away from the more popular lunch spots, which was the reason why I ended up choosing it.

Her nod confirmed my suspicions, "Buchou wanted to speak to you."

'Buchou'? I tilted my head in confusion. Who was that? The way she said it however was familiar. Almost reminded me how Sona's peerage kept referring to her as Kaichou – Oh!

"You mean Rias Gremory?" I asked.

She nodded again. Seems like my guess was right but still, what's with the weird titles those two insist on being called by. Is it a Devil heir thing I'm not aware about?

…Or maybe by choosing their own titles, they get to avoid someone giving them one instead. If so I wish someone told about it early, I would have avoided this whole of 'Queen of Sword' fiasco.

"Sure, I got nothing important planned for the day. When does Gremory wants to meet me?"

"Right awa-" the ringing of the school bells cut her off before she could complete her sentence.

Huh, looks like we've been here longer than either of us thought. The again, I doubted she planned to take a lunch break when she went looking for me.

"Looks like we need to get going if we want to get back to class in time." I stood up and dusted off my pants. "How about I meet up with this Buchou of yours after school instead?"

She thought about it for a moment before nodding in agreement as she rose as well. We both began to make our way down the stairwell and when we reached the first landing I stopped and turned to face her.

"Great, send someone to pick me after classes are done. I'll be waiting in my homeroom." I told her with a wave goodbye as she continued down to floor first floor that was designated to freshmen while I reminded on the third floor that was reserved for the seniors.

Once she was no longer in sight I turned around and began to make my way back to the classroom. The smile that I was carrying slipped off my face now that she could no longer see me.

Really, even when I'm not looking for trouble it seems to find me. Oh well, it could have been worse. I would much rather find out about these things rather than allow them to happen around me while I carried on with my life oblivious to it all. This was my only path after all.

Still, as I made my way back to class I could not help but think back to the small glimpse I caught of the girl's spirit. I could not help but wonder.

What could have possibly happened to make a girl as young as her willingly build a wall around her soul?

============x================x============

I sensed the Bounded Field as soon as I crossed it. It was a simple one, made to keep normal people from wandering in. It wouldn't do anything to stop anyone with even a lick of supernatural power, but I guess it doesn't need to do its job. Still, it's a waste to go through all the effort of setting up a Bounded Field and not equipped with some at least some basic defensive measures. As far as I can sense the thing didn't even act as a warning system.

Devil and Magus Bounded Fields had a lot in common when it came to the end result, at least the basic versions of them did, but the process of how they functioned were completely different.

For one, the Bounded Fields created by Magecraft was far more intricate than their Devil counterpart. Even the simplest of those Bounded Fields is as complicated as an advanced calculus formula, and that's when it's only function is to act as a warning system. For the ones that actually do something truly impressive, such as the one used to hide the Einzbern Castle from the rest of the world, is so far beyond my comprehension that I cannot even begin to describe the basics of its construction. Rin probably could but, well, she's Rin. Enough said.

Devil Bounded Fields, however, are a completely different matter. They are so simple that Pure-Blooded Devils are taught how to begin constructing basic ones at the age of twelve. There were actual classes at the Devil Middles School in the underworld that teach them and are considered to be only an intermediate level magic.

The difference between the two is understandable when you take account that Devils can bend magic to their will. For Magus, they needed to use a complex system sigils and equations to construct a Bounded Field. Devils on the other hand only needed a single magic circle carved into the center of the place they wanted to build the Field. The Magic circle used is one designed to help the user form a Bounded Field. It works by reading the 'intent' of magic that flows through it and creates a field based on the spell casters desires. Through this method a single properly trained Devil can set up a rudimentary Bounded Field in less than an hour. Most teenage Devils are more than capable of doing this.

Designing an original magical circle to help in the construction of a Bounded Field is an incredibly difficult thing to do. That is why Devils tend to simply copy these circles from a premade stock designs rather than make one of their own. Theses magic circles designs are publicly sold and can be found in magical book stores in the underworld, although the ones sold tend to be copies of widely used ones.

…Yes there are magic bookstores in the underworld, I was surprised too.

Most Pureblooded Devil Clans use personally designed magical circles when constructing their Bounded Fields, just like how they have their own personal summoning circles. It often acts like a calling card, allowing Devils to recognize the owner of the Bounded Fields. All territories owned by the large clans have a simple Bounded Filed traced over their borders to allow other Devil to know whose land they were entering.

That is why I can instantly tell this was a Gremory owned bounded field. When Serafall made me her Queen she gave me a crash course of all the essential things I needed to know. That included the ability to recognize all the different magical signatures of the 72 Pillars, and this one has Gremory written all over it.

Of course, the more sophisticated bounded fields, like the ones used in the Rating Games are a complete different matter. Those are so difficult to make that there are actually Devils who dedicated their lives to mastering that form of magic and they charge a premium for anyone who wanted to make use their skills.

The only downside for the Devils method of creating Bounded fields is the amount of magic needed to set up and maintain them, which is far larger than its magus counterpart. Take the one I just crossed as I was making my way through the small forest that claimed what would have been the backyard of Kuoh Academy.

It was at least a few dozen yards long when measured from the radius, making it only slightly larger than the one that was set up around my old home in Fuyuki City. If this one was made in a similar manner to the one Kiritsugu set up, then it will sustain itself indefinitely requiring only the ambient Mana in the air to sustain itself and only the occasional upkeep to maintain its condition.

This Bounded Field was a Devil based one and will require several times more power to function. It cannot sustain itself on the Mana in the air and will instead need to be fueled by Devils instead. I'm no expert at it, but I'm guessing that the amount of Mana needed to fuel this field for a week would be more than an average Magus back home could produce in an entire day and that was for a basic Bounded Field. The average Devil can easily produce dozens of times more Mana than the average magus, so that is not a really problem for them.

"Sorry about the long walk, Buchou took a real liking to the old school building and insisted on basing our club room there. Something about the old-fashioned feel of the place. Personally I just liked the place simply because it's far away from everything else. It's private, something that's a little hard for me to find at school."

Looking at the boy next to me I could totally understand where he was coming from. I have only been here for a day and I had already seen how badly the girls hounded him.

Kiba Yuuto was a blond haired teenaged boy with a pair of unusual steel-grey eyes. He was tall for his age, just a couple of inches shorter than me, with a slim but muscular build. Even if I hadn't read his file I would have realized he was a Knight right away. The way he walked, how he easily maintained his balance even on the uneven ground of the forest floor, the calluses that formed in the palm of his hand, all hinted in someone that was trained in the art of the sword.

He was also what would was known as a 'pretty boy'. Really, he had a face that could put most models to shame. His skin looked paler and softer than most girls and his hair was such a rich shade of yellow it glittered like gold in the sun light. Hell, the kid even had a beauty mark under his left eye. Known as the 'Prince' of Kuoh Academy, he was greatly adored by the female half of the student population and equally despised by the male half.

Me, I just felt sorry for the guy. While he tried to hide it, I could easily tell how much he hated being relentlessly pursued by the girls all day yet being denied the company of his fellow males. Poor kid, as far as I can tell the guy didn't even have a single male friend. Hell, outside of his Peerage he didn't appear to even have a friend, period.

Yet, just like Koneko he didn't allow any of it to show in his face. He just dealt with everything life threw at him with a smile on his face.

…Really, why do I keep running into these kinds of people today?

"Don't worry about it. I needed a chance to stretch my legs anyway. It's been so long since I've been back inside a classroom I'd forgotten how much sitting it involved." I told him as we made our away around a fallen tree that partially blocked the road.

"So you've been away to school for a while?" He was walking a couple of paces a head of me and a little bit off to the side as he led the way, so he had to look over his shoulder if he wanted to face me as he spoke.

"For about a year now. I had so much stuff to learn since my resurrection that I simply didn't have the time to go and before that, well…" I shrugged, "I had some personal issue to deal with."

"I see." Clearly understanding that I didn't want to talk about it, he changed the subject, "Well, were almost to there. We just have to get around that tree over there and the old school building will be in sight."

Just as he said, the moment we passed the tree, I caught sight of our destination.

It was a beautiful old wooden building with a western feel to its design. Two-floors high, with a small clock tower rising from the middle of the roof over the entrance, it was huge. Easily big enough to hold a hundred people with room to spare. Three large windows lined the wall on either side of great door that served as its entrance, with more windows on the upper floor. Despite its age it's clear that the place has been kept well maintained as the wall had a fresh coat of paint and the roof was properly tiled despite the constant rain that plagued this area.

When I first heard that the Occult Research Club room was located in the old abandon school building, I admit I had expected to see an old broken down wooden building that was one step away from being condemned. I mean it was an Occult club, filled with actual Devils, it's only naturally the place would have been creepy as hell.

I should have known better than to expect Devils to live in anything less than opulence. I gotta admit though, I'm kind a disappointed. I was really hoping for some kind of haunted mansion.

As we made our way to the entrance, I decided now would be a good a time as any to broach the subject, as I doubted I'll get another chance to speak to him alone after we reached the club room.

"So…how are dealing with the Trait?"

He actually stopped in his tracks at my words, one foot hanging in the air half way through his step, while he gapped at me in surprise. Now that I think about it, this was the first time I saw him without that pasted on smile of his.

It only took a moment for him to regain his composer before he carried on walking.

"So you noticed?" Even with his smile back in place, it was clear how uncomfortable the topic was making him feel.

I just gave him a shrug in return, "It's kind of hard not to notice with how those girls keep following you around like little ducklings."

"I, I didn't...I mean, I don't…ahh," Poor kid kept fumbling over his words in his panic.

Feeling kind of bad that I reduced him into such a state, I decided to throw him a bone. "I know." I told him firmly.

"You do?" he actually seemed surprised by that.

"Anyone can tell that you hate being chased by those girls. It doesn't take a genius to tell that there is no way you're going to abuse that Trait of yours. It wouldn't even surprise me if you wanted to get rid of it if you could."

His relief was almost palpable. I couldn't honestly blame him, if our situations were reversed I would have been worried what other people may think of me too.

Poor bastard, I mean what are the odds that he ended up with a Devil's Trait.

Worse, he ended up with the Charm variety. It causes any girl that even glances at his face to become instantly infatuated, even if they were already in a relationship. No wonder all of the guys hated him, they probably thought he was actively trying to steal their girlfriends.

Thankfully Traits only seemed to affect humans, so none of the girls in his Peerage should have any problems with it. The only upside of the situation is that the Trait ended up manifesting in someone like Kiba. I shudder to think about what would have happened if it ended up in the hands of a more unscrupulous Devil.

The slight squeaking of hinges made me realize that we reached the front entrance and that Kiba had already open the doors and was motioning me through.

Again I felt the telltale signs of a Bounded Field wash over me as I stepped through the entrance. These however were much better than the ones that circled the forest; they actually had some defensive capabilities. It acted as a simple warning system that will allow anyone tied into the Field to know whenever someone enters its range, and it also prevents anyone not recognized as part of the Gremory Clan from teleporting in.

It wasn't much but it was better than anything I had expected. For a second there I was worried that neither Sona nor the Gremory had put up any defensive measures what so ever. I knew that Sona's home was well protected but she neglected to do the same for the school.

I planned to talk to them about it and see if I can convince them to set up a few more defenses. If that doesn't work I could always follow Serafall's advice and start pranking them until they start setting up strong enough wards to protect themselves from me.

According to her that how she trained Sona on how to ward her room properly. Apparently it only took stealing Sona's diary three times and reading it out loud during dinar for her to throw herself into studying every warding type of Bounded Fields she could get her hands on to find a way to keep her sister out of her stuff.

In a little over a week she had her room warded up so well that no Middle-class Devil could break into it without her permission. It wasn't enough to stop Serafall of course, if she really wanted to it wouldn't even slow her down, but that was never the point.

"Have you considered simply using some form of compulsion spell to keep the girls away?" I asked, more for something to talk about as we made our way through the building rather than genuine curiosity.

He shook his head as we started to climb up the stairs. "I've never been good with mind magic, I always felt uncomfortable using it except to prevent knowledge about the supernatural from spreading. Besides Buchou would hate it if the girls suddenly started ignoring me. She has some kind of competition going on with Sona on who has the most popular Peerage."

"Really?" I asked, surprised. "They'd compete over something like that?"

"You'd be surprised. According to Akeno they used to compete over everything as children. Now that I think about it they still do." He halted before a large wooden double door. "We're here."

He stretched out a hand towards the door knob but seemed to hesitate for a second before he turned and faced me.

"About Buchou, I'd like to apologies if she acts inappropriate." He seemed to feel really awkward about the topic, "It's just that with you and her brother…"

Ah, so that what it's about. "Don't worry, I understand," I assured him, "If I was her I would probably be a little bit hostile as well."

He flashed me a thankful smile at that before turning back towards the doors again and swinging it wide open.

"Buchou," he called out as we walked in, "I'm back and I brought Emiya-san with me."

The interior of what I presumed to be the Occult Research Club's primary club room was completely different from the rest of the old school's design.

It had rich wooden-paneled walls that would have gleamed in the light if the room hadn't been so poorly lit. As far as I can tell the place had no functional lights and the only source of illumination came from the lit candles that were scatter across the room. Victorian-style coaches and chairs were arranged into on the left side of the room while the right side was cleared of furniture to make room for the large magic circle that was carved into the floor. On one side of the wall across the room from me was covered by a thin silk sheet that concealed a-

-Is that a SHOWER?

"Holy shit, Sona was wrong. You're not a nudist, you're a bloody exhibitionist." I blurted out the words before I even realized what I was doing, as I found myself pointing an accusing finger towards the silhouette of the figure that I could see through the curtain of the still running shower.

"WHAT!" The figure, who I presumed to be Rias, squawked. "What has been Sona telling you? And I'm not an exhibitionist, I just like taking showers."

"Oh don't you dare lie to me, you little pervert." I retorted. "I sensed the Bounded Field that covered the entire building the moment I crossed it. There is no way you didn't know I wasn't coming and you had more than enough time to get out of the shower before I got here. Which means you wanted me to catch you showering!

"By the madness of Zelretch himself, what the hell is wrong is with you Devils? You have a Maou that's a Magic Girl cosplayer, another one that apparently a nudist and now I find his little sister is an exhibitionist. Is every Devil out there a pervert or just the ones that I run into?"

"What –no – I – Argh" she finally just yelled out in frustration, "Just-just wait right there. I'm coming out." I heard a small metal squeak before the sound of the shower tapered off.

While I waited for her to appear I looked around the room and immediately spotted Koneko lounging on one of the couches with her usual blank face in place. I just gave her a deadpanned look and said, "What, don't tell me you're a pervert too?"

I considered it my win when her face flushed and she gave me an angry scowl in response to my comment. Good, children her age shouldn't have such a blank face. Kids should laugh when their happy, yell when their angry and cry when their sad. They shouldn't just sit there expressionless all the time no matter what their feeling. It's just plain wrong.

"Now, now," a voice called out as the final occupant of the room made her presence known, "don't be mean to our little Koneko."

A figure stepped out from where she was standing in one of the corners of the room, one I didn't notice before as she was hidden by the shadows and gloom of the place.

She was a young and rather tall girl, with a shapely figure and long dark cascading hair that she had tied up in a ponytail. Out of all the Devils in the Peerage I've met so far, she was the only one who could have passed as Japanese at first glance. Her violet eyes seemed to sparkle with barely concealed amusement, something that reminded me a little too much of Serafall. The teasing smile she had on her face and her following words didn't do anything to dissuade me of that impression.

This must be Himejima Akeno, the Gremory's Queen.

"Besides, she may not be a pervert but I certainly am." The way her smile turned predatory told me that she wasn't kidding.

…I have no idea what to say to that.

Fortunately I didn't have to because at that very moment the shower curtain was pushed open to reveal another young girl.

The unmistakable crimson of her hair marked her as Gremory. It fell down her back and ended just past her waist and though she had just stepped out of the shower there wasn't even a hint of moister on them. Like Akeno she had a full-figured body but with pale skin and blue eyes that were the exact same shade as Sirzechs. Even without the red hair I would have no trouble believing that they were siblings.

If I had been a normal person I would probably have found her beautiful. If I hadn't been exposed to the supernatural appearance of the female Servants I may have been captivated by her sight. As it stands however I have been exposed to them. I have seen Saber's elegance and grace, Rider's unhuman beauty that was envied even by the very gods and had even caught a small glimpse of Caster's delicate elfin face when she lowered her hood moments before her death.

Compared to them her beautify simple paled in comparison. She was still attractive but only humanly so. So instead of being captivated by her beauty that many had warned me that I most likely would, all I could feel instead was a mild sense of disappointment.

I must confess I was expecting….more.

When I first heard of Sirzechs's sister, I had expected a younger female version of him. I had built up an image in my head of a young girl that would one day become her brother's equal and what I see before simply fell short.

Sirzechs was, simply put, a monster. There is no other way to describe him. Even compared to the Heroic Spirits of the Holy Grail, he would have still been no less of a monster. For all of my distaste of him, even I can't deny his strength. Just standing in his presence had caused my newly discovered Devil ability to sense magic to quickly become overwhelmed.

When I first fought him I thought I had a chance of winning. I thought that when he had made the mistake of allowing me the opportunity to summon my Reality Marble I could win despite the large gulf in raw power. At one point, near the end, I even had him on the ropes. But then he revealed his true form and I was crushed. I barely realised what was happening before he overwhelmed me with nothing but pure power.

Sirzechs was an absolute monster, while Rias….simply wasn't.

Really, this was Sirzechs's sister?

She was literally a little girl compared to him. A part of me pointed out that I was being unfair, that Sona herself was around the same level as Rias but I didn't try to compare her to Serafall. Another part of me countered that Sona at least was a genius…besides I liked Sona, I couldn't say the same for Gremorys.

"You must be Emiya Shirou," Rias Gremory said as her approached me. Halting a couple of paces away, she crossed her arms bellow her breast causing them to jump upwards, while she took a moment to look me over. "While we didn't have a chance to be properly introduced before, this is not the first time we had seen each other. I was member of the audience when you fought my brother."

Now, normally I was never the kind of guy that would stare at a lady's breasts but I was having trouble keeping my eyes off Rias's. Not because I wanted to look at them but because they were so freaking big. I mean maybe it's the way she keeps pushing them up when she crossed her arms, but they looked huge and I mean like beach balls big-

"-OK stop, just stop," I interrupted whatever she was saying when I couldn't take it anymore, I wasn't listening anyway. I pointed towards those overinflated water balloons that she calls breasts. "There is no was those things are real right? I mean they just got to be fake. "

"What!?" her face flushed with a mix of embarrassment and indignation. "My breast are natural! Take it back."

"Nice try missy." I shook a finger at her. "I may be a new Devil but even I know that we can shape shift. You probably used your powers to make them bigger, didn't you? There is no way those things are natural. I mean look at them, they look like you stuffed watermelons in your bra."

Her face turned a shade of red so deep that it matched her hair. Off to the side, I noticed how Akeno was leaning over with her arms wrapped around her stomach in her effort to contain her laughter. Rias just continued to glare at me, too angry to trust herself to speak, before her face underwent a transformation as she just shot me a superior smirk.

"Whatever you say…Queenie." I bolted upright when I heard that accursed nickname – Oh yeah, this bitch was Sirzechs's sister alright. Only that bastard would ever call me that.

"Ok children, that's enough." Akeno clapped her hands twice and walked in between us. "As much as I enjoy watching you two squabble, I believe you had something important you wanted to talk to Emiya-san about."

Rias, whether at her Queen's words or her ability to get in the parting shot in, nodded her head in acceptance. She took a moment to compose herself before she waved a hand towards one of the empty chairs. "That right, Emiya if you would please have a seat I'll get to the point of the meeting."

Seeing her trying to pretend out little spat didn't happen, I decided to do the same. I walked to the chair she indicated and sat down while Rias and Akeno walked around the coffee table and occupied the sofa across from me.

Rias cleared her throat for a moment before she began to speak. "I'm not sure if you have noticed, seeing as you just have recently arrived, but there is currently a Fallen Angel on campus."

"And you want me to deal with them?" My voice sounding incredulous even to my own ears. I'm honestly surprised, I never thought she would be willing to allow me to get involved in anyway. I was sure she would have reacted to my presence like Sona did, if not worse, and would want me to stay out of her way, not help her out.

Well, this was good news at least. It will make it easier for me to prepare them if I can work alongside them.

"No, quite the opposite actually." She said, instantly dashing any hope I had of making my job easier. "I want you to stay away from her."

Now this caught me by surprise. "Because you want to deal with her yourself?" Well, that was understandable. This was her territory and for a Fallen to wander into what was the heart of it was nothing short of insult.

While there was no official agreement to the cease fire between the Three Factions, there was an unwritten rule that basically stated that any member caught in territory of an opposing faction are free game and can be dealt with however the owner of the territory wished. That the Fallen would enter at all meant they were either confident that they wouldn't get caught or believed that the owners were too weak to do anything to stop them.

I also wasn't worried about the Fallen being something that they couldn't handle. The guards that patrolled the city's borders would prevent any dangerous strays from entering and would have informed me if any powerful Angels, Fallen or otherwise, were seen entering the city. Though that was also unlikely to happen.

The other two members of the Three Factions are no doubt aware that the sisters of the Maous are in this city and are simply not willing to send anything that may threaten them. Not only would it send the wrong message, but there is always the small chance of a scuffle breaking out. They didn't want to risk sending anyone that may actually have a chance of killing one of them and kick-starting another war.

There is a reason why nothing higher than two-winged Fallen exist within the borders of the city. Their job isn't to fight anyone here, just to keep an eye on things and report back if anything unusual happens.

"No, I do not want that fallen to be harmed in any way. In fact, I don't even want her to know that we are aware of her presence." Rias smirked, "It seems like the little crow tried to sneak in and believes she had gotten away with it."

"Ok, now you lost me." I told them frankly, "Why aren't you doing anything about her and why bother telling me about it?

"The reason why we're informing you about the situation is because we know that the moment you catch so much a whiff of what was going on you'll try to involve yourself if we don't stop you." It was Akeno that answered me this time. "I'm not sure if you're aware of it but despite only recently becoming a Devil you've begun to build quite a reputation for yourself in the underworld. You're renowned as a busy body, sticking your nose into everything and helping out anyone in trouble no matter what kind of mess it will drag you in."

What!? I didn't know that. It wasn't even my fault that I kept finding trouble…or at least not completely.

I mean it's not like I meant to walk into the middle of a Cthulhu Ritual where a bunch of Devils were trying to sacrifice a group of kidnapped children from the Extra family. I was just looking for the bathroom. And after I saw that I couldn't just walk away now could I?

Serafall did warn me about how my luck will change as Devil, I just didn't think she was being serious. When I told her what happened she just congratulated me on my first accident Cthulhu ritual discovery. Apparently it happens often enough that the Maous consider it a rite of passage into becoming a true Ultimate-Class rank. It apparently happened to Serafall three times before while for Sirzechs it was five.

I'm not sure whether I should be more worried about the fact that Cthulhu rituals actually exist in this universe or that it apparently happens often enough that people apparently keep stumbling all over it when their looking for a bathroom.

"Ok, I could see why you'd be worried about that. But I still don't understand why you're allowing a Fallen to roam unopposed right in the middle of your territory."

Instead of answering, Akeno picked up a folder from underneath the table. She opened it and began flipping through the pages before finding the one she wanted. She took out a single sheet of paper and placed it on the table before sliding it over to me.

"Hyoudou Issei," Rias began to speak as I looked over the paper before me. It contained the basic information and a picture of the boy in question. "a sixteen year old boy who's currently enrolled Kuoh Academy. A mediocre student at best, who only just barely made the cut-off point for the entrance exam last year and that was only due to the Academy lowering its standards for male students in an effort to bolster its male population after having recently turned co-ed from an all-girls school.

"While athletically he's average for a student who's not a member of a sports club, without any history of seriously injury or illness. Despite his lack of ability he is renowned across Kuoh Academy as a member of the Perverted Trio, a group of boys who continually attempt to peek on the female population of the school whenever they can."

"Perverts." A voice to my left interjected. I turned to find Koneko sitting on a sofa that she was sharing with Kiba. There was a plate of Yokan, a traditional type of Japanese sweet, before her. Having said her part, she now turned back towards her interrupted meal.

"Now, now, Koneko, you make it sound like that's a bad thing." Akeno covered the smile that was beginning to form behind her hand, "I'll have you know that being a little Perverted can be a good thing. Especially when there is someone there to…discipline you."

Koneko just stared at her for five full seconds saying nothing before deadpanning. "Pervert." Which just caused Akeno to laugh.

"Other than that Issei should have been nothing more than an ordinary if troublesome student." Rias continued after Akeno stopped her laughter. "That was at least until sometime last year, when we were able to discover he had a Sacred Gear. Honestly it was pure luck that we found out about it, the boy's magical presence was so small that he was almost invisible. It was only because Akeno happened to bumped into him when he was being chased by the Kendo club that she was able to notice it."

"While that was enough to catch my interest, I wasn't willing to risk an Evil Piece over him until I had identified what kind of Sacred Gear he possessed. With the abysmal amount of Mana he had in him, it would have had to be a powerful Sacred Gear to make him a worthwhile investment. But unfortunately the very same lack of magical presence that caused us not to notice his him for so long was preventing us from properly identifying the Sacred Gear.

"Honestly, it ended up becoming so troublesome that we decided to simply sit on the matter and hoped the Issei's natural Magical supply would develop in time as he continued to grow and physically mature."

"And that ended up blowing up in our faces" Akeno added.

Rias just nodded in agreement while massaging her forehead, "That boy has the most abysmal magic reserves I have ever heard of. I have seen new born toddler with more magic than him, human toddlers. Even after almost a full year of waiting the amount of Mana within him didn't seem to increase at all, or at least not enough for either me or Akeno to notice. The only upside is that at least I now know not to turn him into a bishop."

"So what changed?" I questioned. "If you still failed to identify his Sacred Gears then why has he suddenly become important?"

"His scent," Rias said with a victorious smile, "While we couldn't identify his Sacred Gear through magic, we got lucky again and discovered that he's Sacred Gear was producing a distinctly unique scent."

"It was all thank to Koneko here." Kiba speaking for the first time since we entered the club room. "After she enrolled as a freshman, she began to notice the scent of a supernatural creature on school grounds that didn't belong to any of the Devils here or their familiars. She traced the scent and found that it leads to Issei."

"What kind of scent are we talking about?" I asked, wondering what the big deal is.

"A Dragon," Rias answer and though she tried to hide it, there was a tone of reverence and wonder in her voice, "Hyoudou Issei has the scent of a Dragon."

Oh! Well, that changes everything.

In my world, Dragons were the pinnacle of all Phantasm Species, the strongest among the strong. Even the weakest of known Dragons had the power to potentially destroy countries. They were literal extensions of the world that was given intelligence and physical form.

They were capable of generating Prana simply by breathing, allowing them to wield an almost unmatched amount of magical energy. I was once told that Saber had some Dragon blood within her and it allowed her to generate so much Prana, that if you compare a Magus's body to a machine that could create magical energy, then her body would be a factory that could magical energy. That was how much of a difference introducing Dragon blood to a human can make.

In this world, I had discovered, Dragons were pretty much the same. Except where in my world the strongest Dragon could bring ruin to the entire world at most, the Dragons here are capable of ruling entire dimensions.

There is a reason why the two most powerful beings in this universe are Dragons. Hyoudou Issei having a Dragon based Sacred Gear had just skyrocketed his importance from 'normal human' to 'potentially dangerous' in the eyes of the world .

"That's not even the best part." Rias Gremory seemed to almost vibrate with excitement. "There is only two known Dragon-based Sacred Gears that are powerful enough to give off such a scent when still in their dormant state."

"The Two Heavenly Dragons." I answered for which she nodded in agreement. "And this generation's White Dragon Emperor has been found and recruited by the Fallen Angel Faction, which means that Issei has-"

"Ddraig, the Red Dragon Emperor." She finished the sentence for me. "That's right, Hyoudou Issei, is this generation's Red Dragon Emperor and the wielder of the Boosted Gear."

"I see." At least now it's making a bit more sense why she went through the trouble of protecting Issei from being expelled. He had a Longinus within him after all. Still, "As interesting as this all is, what does it have anything to do with the Fallen? And considering your enthusiasm to the idea, why haven't you attempted to recruit Issei yet?"

"The answers to both of those questions are actually closely linked." Resting her elbows on her knees, Rias leaned forward while steepling her hands. "Have you ever heard of the Valantime incident?

I shut my eyes as I finally had an idea of what she was trying to imply, and I had a feeling that I really won't like where this was going, "I see."

Valantime was the name of a city in the underworld. It was once a fairly prosperous place despite being one of the smaller cities in the region. It owed its good fortune to being one of the only places that can bridge the underworld to the human world. It had a population of a little under one million but it was expected to surpass that number soon as new people continued to move into the city. It had earned the nicknamed 'The Desert Flower' for it was a city that bloomed in the harsh dry region it called home.

But that over ninety years ago. Today Valantime is completely different place.

Today, that city is a waste land.

Exactly 92 years ago, the City of Valantime was brought to ruin by the rampaging the wielder of the Sacred Gear Divine Dividing, The White Dragon Emperor. The exact details leading up to the incident was never discovered, however what is known is that a Devil, the sole living member of the Gamigin, was able to discover and recruit a human that was the wielder of the Divine Dividing into his Peerage.

Not much was known about the human in question, or at least nothing of any real importance. But what was known was that after being reincarnated he was identified as bearing the Sin of Pride. This came as a surprise to no one. After all, Dragons have always been the most prideful of beings.

The details were lost, but it appeared that an argument broke out between Gamigin and the wielder of the Divine Dividing. When Gamigin lost his patience and tried to force the wielder to submit using his status as his master as leverage, well that was when everything began to go to hell.

A Dragon's Pride will never allow them to willingly bend their knee to anyone, not even other Dragons. That was something Gamigin soon discovered when the wielder attacked him. The fight soon began to grow as the rest of the Peerage jumped and tried to pull the wielder of their master. In response, the wielder activated his Balance Breaker and soon what began as a small fight between Peerage members escalated to an almost city-wide fight as more and more Devils were brought him in order to subdue him.

It reached the point where one of the Maous was summoned to stop him, and that was when the real disaster struck. The wielder already beginning to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies, panicked when he caught sight of the approaching Maou. Feeling trapped and cornered he became desperate and did what was perhaps the most stupidest thing he possibly could have.

He activated the Juggernaut Drive.

And that was that. His rampaged could no longer be stopped, not even by the Maou. Not without destroying everything else in the area along with him. All they could do evacuate as many people as they could from the city. For two full hours the White Dragon Emperor raged and in his rage he brought calamity onto the city. For two full hours all in the vicinity could hear his madden howls of hatred and anguish. When at last he stopped, the wielder was found dead in the middle of what once was a city, the force of his power draining him of his life.

It took weeks before they were able to accurately tally the total losses of the disaster. They found that over the course of a single night over two-hundred thousand Devils were killed, the equivalent of billions of dollars worth of property was lost, the bridge between the Human and underworld was irreparably damaged, and the last surviving member of the Gamigin Clan, one of the 72 Pillars had perished.

Not since the fight between the Two Heavenly Dragons during the Great War had the Devils suffused such a loss by single being. The Devils had forgotten the might of the Dragons. They had forgotten why they should be feared.

Albion reminded them.

The Underworld learned to fear the wrath of a Dragon that day.

"I have a really bad feeling I'm really not going to like where this is going." I muttered.

"I'm sure that you are aware that Dragon based Sacred Gears Wielder are notoriously hard to recruit and even harder to control." Rias, having either not heard my words or simply deciding to ignore them, continued, "What makes them more dangerous than any other type of Sacred Gear Wielders is the amount of damage they can do when they lose control of themselves. This is especially true when concerning the Two Heavenly Dragons, as Albion had shown us. So before I can even consider recruiting him, I need a way to insure his loyalty."

"Fortunately, unlike the case with the Divine Dividing wielder, Issei's Sin will clearly be Lust. This will not only make him far easier to manage but make him far more recipient to becoming a Devil considering our lifestyle." Here Rias paused a moment, taking a moment to collect herself before forging on, "However that will not be enough to secure his loyalty. We cannot allow another incident like Valantime to happen again. I cannot allow such a thing to happen under my watch. I needed another reason for him to become willingly loyal to me.

"For a while I was stumped, I couldn't thing of a single solution to the problem other than catering to his Lust, and that simply wasn't going to be enough. But then," She reached over to the folder that Akeno had placed on the table, pulled out a photo and slid it over to me, "the answer fell right into my lap."

In front of me was a picture of a young Japanese girl. She had long silky black hair with an innocent almost childlike face and dark violet eyes.

"Her name, or at least the name she's currently calling herself by, is Amano Yuma. Her real name is unknown to us but what we do know is that she is the Fallen Angel we sensed on campus and is currently posing as an ordinary school girl. Normally we would have eliminated her by now but when we began to track her we were able to discover the purpose of her appearance here."

I'm starting to connect the dots and I didn't like the picture that was beginning to appear. "Let me guess, she was here for Issei right?"

Rias gave me a firm nod at that, "At first we feared that she was here to try to recruit him into the Fallen Angel Faction like they did with Vali. However it quickly became clear that wasn't the case. Issei's current human body would have made him too weak for him to be of any real use, Boosted Gear or no Boosted Gear. There was also the matter of Albion and Ddraig being sworn enemies and same side or not they'll try to rip each other apart the moment they set eyes on one another.

"But the thing that finally convinced us of her intentions was Koneko. When she was tracking her she was able to sense Yuma's emotions."

Koneko didn't even bother to look up from her half-finished plate of sweets as she spoke, "Blood lust."

"So we have finally come to the conclusion that she's here to prevent us from recruiting him ourselves. That she went as far as to pose as his girlfriend just makes her goal more obvious. We discovered that she plans on taking him on a 'date' this evening all the way on the other side of town, a place that's as far as you can get from the heart of Devil territory while still remaining in the city limits. We think she chose that spot because it bears the least likely chance of Devils interfering."

"So do you plan to do?" Despite my question, a part of me was dreading that I already knew the answer. "Are you going to approach Issei now or interfere with the date itself?"

"'…No," Rias leaned back in her seat with her eyes shut for a moment and took a deep breath. The she opened her eye, which were now hard with resolve, and stared back at me unflinchingly as she spoke,

We're going to let her kill him

I felt my heart go cold at her words.

For a moment I was sure that I mishear her, that there was no way that they were going to just sit back and watch a boy die. But all I had to look at her cold determined eyes, the same eyes that her brother wore when we fought, and I understood that this was no joke, no mistake.

Comprehension hit me with all the subtlety of a speeding truck and I realized that they were serious, that these bunch of high school students were gonna let the boy get killed in front of their eyes.

For his credit at least, Kiba looked clearly uncomfortable with the entire situation. Koneko wore no expression at all on her face but the way she studiously ignored everything around her as she stared blankly ahead was as clear a sign of her feelings as anything. Akeno however just wore that same small smile of hers, the one she had the entire I was here so I had absolutely no idea what she was thinking.

The Gremory however just looked determined.

"I can't let you do that."

I didn't even realize I was speaking until I had finished, but I didn't regret what I said.

"You don't have a choice," Rias countered coolly, "I know for a fact that you were ordered by your King not to interfere. And I already requested approval of the plan from brother, which he gave along with the blessings of the Elder Council. No one is willing to invite another Heavenly Dragon into Devil Society again without taking every precaution, not after Valantime.

"So you see Emiya Shirou, there is quite frankly nothing you can do about it."

I said nothing, unwilling to move or say a thing. Not trusting myself not to lash out, with either words or swords I did not know.

When, after a long long while, I had finally begun to gain some resemblance of control over myself I asked, "Why?" although the word came out garbled from how I had to choke it out of my constructed throat.

Fortunately I didn't need to repeat myself as the Gremory seemed to have understood what I was trying to say.

"Because it needed to be done," The Gremory leaned back on her seat but she never removed her eyes from mine, "this isn't some ordinary human Emiya, this a Longinus wielder, people born with the potential to kill gods inside them. The last time the Underworld had one, he brought ruin and desolation to an entire city, ending thousands of lives in the blink of an eye. If the cost of preventing something like that happening again is a single human life, then it's a price I'm more than willing to pay."

"Besides," this time she leaned forward, "I think you're misunderstanding something. It's not like I'm going to let him stay dead, I do plan on resurrecting him. Not to mention that I will have nothing to with his death. I have no intention of lifting so much as a finger to harm even a hair on his head, let alone try to kill him."

"You may not be the one to do the deed but you're not planning on doing anything to stop it either. I thought you Gremorys are supposed to treat you Peerage like family and yet this is what you intend to do to Issei? Someone who you plan on making a part of your Peerage?"

For the first time in this conversation the Gremory's eye turned cold, not determined or hard but truly cold. "For my Peerage I'll do anything. Give anything. My life, my happiness and even my everything is not too high a price to pay for their safety or happiness."

There was a brand of madness unique to Devils, a type of insanity born from their Sin. It rules them in a way human minds simply cannot comprehend. And the Gremory's cold eyes now shone with that very madness, of the intensity of her Greed for her Peerage possessing her soul.

When she said her everything, she was not lying.

"Issei however is not a member of my Peerage, not yet. He will be but until then he's just an ordinary human to me, no different than any other stranger in this city."

For a long while after that, silence ruled the room, as no one had anything else to say.

I simply sat back in my chair and watched her. Just watched her as I tried to understand the person before. It didn't take me long to put the pieces together and start figuring her out.

The sad thing is, despite all the things she's about to do, she not evil. No, not evil, just selfish. Which might just be something even worse.

She said that she was willing to pay the price of one human life if it meant preventing another Valantime. What she didn't realize was that she wasn't the one paying the price. It was other people. It was Issei who will die, his parents who will mourn him, and his friends that will miss him who will pay it, but from her point of view she was taking on the real burden of being forced to choose.

The scary thing is she doesn't see anything she's doing as wrong. In that sense, she's no different than her brother.

Bloody Gremorys, they're all the same.

No. No that was unfair of me. This isn't a Gremory problem but a Pure-blooded Devil problem. They see themselves so above humans that they find nothing wrong with playing with their lives. You just needed to look at how many of them mistreated the Resurrected Devils to see that. They believe that their power makes them superior to all others. What they don't realize is that their very power was given to them by mere chance, that they have done nothing to earn it or the apparent 'superiority' that comes with it.

Power earned is better than power given. For all of my issues with Sirzechs, and I have a lot of issues, I at least acknowledge that he at least lives by that rule. Even if he was never born with the Power of Destruction I had no doubt that he would have still grown to become powerful, even Maou-Class powerful.

His sister on the other hand doesn't live by that rule. Everything she had was handed to her. Her power of Destruction, her rank of Heiress and even the privilege of starting a Peerage, everything was given to her. Yet she's so proud, so confident as if she had earned all those thing she owns, instead of it all having been given to her on a silver platter.

Yet she believes that she, a not quite 18-year-old girl, has the right to decide the fate of other human beings, to decide if they should live or die.

Typical Pure-Blooded Devil, so full of it.

Still, all of my complaining won't do anything to solve the issue. I can whine all I want later when I have the time. For now, I got to think of a way to fix this mess.

Yet, there has been one thing bothering about the entire issue.

Issei having a Dragon based Sacred Gear. No, I have trouble believing it. Issei doesn't act like a Dragon, not even the slightest. A Dragon's Pride would never allow him to stoop to peeping or even allow him to run away from human girls when they inevitably caught him peeping.

This…this doesn't make sense. What if they were wrong, what if he doesn't have a Sacred Gear? Will she just let him die?

"Promise me," I stated, finally breaking the silence, "promise me that no matter what happens you'll resurrect him. Even if you find out that he doesn't bear the Boosted Gear you'll still make him a part of Peerage. If you do, then I'll give you my word that I'll not involve myself with this entire mess."

The Gremory didn't even hesitate, I'll give her that much. "I, Rias Gremory, the Heir of the Gremory Clan, one of the 72 Pillars, here by swear that I will resurrect Hyoudou Issei into my Peerage, no matter what he's Sacred Gear may or may not be."

…What is it with these Clan heirs and their formality? First Sona and now her. Couldn't they just say a simple 'I promise' and be done with it.

Still, I could feel the tension leaving my body at her words. I may not like how they're going to go about this, but this was the best I could hope for.

If Issei wasn't going to be revived I would interfere nor matter what, orders or no orders. But considering that he was already being targeted by the Fallen Faction, he would need to join a Peerage for his protection if nothing else.

As much as I hate to admit it, no one watches over their Peerage like the Gremory. Not to mention that I can longer act without thinking anymore. I'm a member of a Maou's Peerage and whether I like it or not, everything I do will be have repercussions.

It's not just my life at stake if I screw up. There is no way I wanted to get Serafall in trouble because of me.

Still, I had my fill of this lot for the day. I just wanted to get out of here and go home.

"Well, if that's all you wanted to talk to me about Rias Gremory," I said as I began to stand up, an action that was soon copied by the Gremory, Akeno, and surprisingly Kiba. Koneko was already back to eating another plate of snacks she had gotten from somewhere, "I believe it's time for me to get home."

They all walked me to the door, Kiba actually reaching the door before me and held it open.

I turned around and gave the occupants of the room one short wave. "Well, as much as I'd like to say I had a lovely evening meeting you all but I'm afraid I'd be lying. So instead I'll wish you all a good day. Kiba, Koneko, Akeno, Gremory." After giving each of them a quick nod as I said their name, I turned and left the room.

From behind me, I heard Kiba say, "Ah, Buchou. I'm gonna help Emiya-san get back to the school entrance." Followed by the sound of a door shutting behind me, then footsteps as Kiba quickly caught up to me.

The door shut behind the departing boys, leaving the Club room occupied only by the girls of the Peerage.