Can you feel the burn? (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 5 (part 1) =======

I looked at the door to my right wistfully. Three paces, just three quick paces and I'll reach it. Then I'll be out of the house and free from whatever madness that was about to descend upon this place.

Letting out one last sigh of longing I turned my head looked and over to my left. There was Asia. She collapsed soon after flipping God off last night, so it wasn't too surprising to see her up so early even though the sun wasn't even fully out yet.

She was dressed in a long sleeved button up pajamas with matching navy blue pants. The pajamas had pictures of cartoonish little devils with horns and pitchforks printed all over them. Her hair was in a mess, having clearly just gotten out of bed and she had a mug of steaming coffee on the table in front of her.

She was also staring with wide unblinkingly eyes at the open laptop before her. And when I say unblinkingly, I meant that she hadn't blinked once in the last two minutes I was watching her. From the angle I was standing I couldn't see what was on the screen and I was honestly scared of finding out.

I was tempted, so very tempted to just walk out of here and never find out but I couldn't do it. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't just leave Asia like that.

Giving the door one final look, I began to make my way to Asia's side.

I walked around the living room's coffee table that Asia was currently using as a desk. Instead of trying to squeeze myself between the table and the sofa that Asia was sitting on, I walk around the back of the sofa and glanced at the computer screen over Asia's shoulder. I immediately wished I hadn't.

Oh by the body of the dead God, Asia had just discovered porn.

"Shirou." She said as she looked up at me with wide frightened eyes. Her bottom lip quivered as she spoke and her voice sounded so broken and confused, as if the world had stopped making sense and she no longer knew what to believe in anymore "Shirou, what are those two girls doing to that poor cup?"

I turned and ran.

Even if Gilgamesh was waiting outside the door I would have ran to up to him with arms wide open rather than stay and deal with this madness.

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

I took another sip of the surprisingly good cup of tea. I had no idea what kind of brand the leaves were but they tasted fantastic considering I pinched this from the Student Council's personal stock, though I doubted Sona would have minded.

Despite the lights being turned off, the Student Council room was brightly lit thanks to the wide widows that filled the entire face of one wall. Even thought it was barely seven in the morning, it was already a clear and sunny day. I was seated in an out of the way corner as I waited for the rest of the Student Council to arrive.

I spent the last half hour scouting the immediate area around the school. As far as I can tell, except for the ones on their personal property, the only Bounded Fields that existed inside of what was official Devil territory were of the identifying and detecting variety.

There were over two dozen Bounded fields scattered all over the place and most of their effective ranges overlapped one another. It was a surprisingly well thought out design that would allow the owners to track down any unregistered magical presence that entered their territory with a fair degree of accuracy. With a system like that it's no surprise that they were able to track down that Fallen so easily.

It's quite clear though that whoever designed the Bounded Field system here only intended them to work on enemies that were attempting to sneak in. There was practically no defensive Fields other than the ones in their residences and the one at the old school building. Which was fairly reasonable as most defensive Bounded Fields would only been needed if you were expecting to be attacked by more powerful or more numerous enemies and the Fields strong enough to make an actual difference were incredible time consuming to maintain, especially over a large area.

I could not blame them for only setting up the ones they already had, as it would only take a couple of hours a week to maintain them when you split the work between all the Devils here. However that give me much less to work with than I would have liked.

It would take too long for me to set up enough Bounded Fields by myself to make a difference and impossible for me to maintain them all by myself if I could. Instead I'll try to convince Sona and Gremory to strengthen the defenses they already had in place at their homes and set some up over the school, as it was the place they all spent most of their time at.

Which was why I was currently waiting in the Student Council room for Sona to appear. Convincing her to set up some Bounded Fields at school shouldn't be too difficult. All I have to do is mention it as obvious security flaw in the middle of a conversation and Sona's perfectionist streak will take care of the rest. Thinking up a reason for them to strength the ones they have over their homes however a completely different matter is.

Neither Serafall nor Sirzechs wanted them to be aware of the reason I was here. Partially because they feared that Sona and the Gremory's teenage rebellious streak would cause them to fight back against what they would most likely see as their elder sibling's overprotectiveness acting out, and make it that much harder to watch over them

Partly not to worry them over what could be potentialy nothing, they were teenage kids after all. Serafall and Sirzechs had spent most of their childhood years in a time when the possibility of war was constantly looming over their head and they spent the rest of their youths in an actual war.

They wanted their sibling to experience an ordinary childhood that they never received. And if that meant making certain a Queen's life difficult by sending him to not only protect them by dealing with the possible threat but to do so in secret, well it was a price both of them are more than happy.

I would have been more upset over the whole thing if I didn't understand where they were coming from. After all I wanted the same thing for Ilya.

"-are you sure Kaichou?" a voice signaled my time of waiting was finally over, as I heard the steady beat of footsteps approach the door.

"Yes, Tsubaki. I just need a minute to deal with something alone," The door knob turned and the door was cracked open slightly, "please make sure that the repairs are done before the school day begins."

"Understood Kaichou." Tsubaki responded before I heard her turn and walk away.

The Student Council door was opened the rest of the way and in walked Sona. She didn't appear to have noticed me as she immediately shut the door behind her before leaning her back against it and shutting her eyes. The only sound that filled the room was the noise of Tsubaki's steadily receding footsteps, and when it finally faded always the place was plunged into silence.

I was just about call out to Sona and make my presence known when something happened that gave me pause.

Sona, from where she was still leaning against the door, began to snicker. It started out as a low quite thing that could barely be heard but it quickly grew. It soon reached the point where Sona could no longer restrain herself and she just gave in, threw her head back and just laughed.

Her manic laughter echoed off the walls of the Council room while I just stared at her in bemusement, not quite sure what was happening or what to do. After this went on for what felt like a full minute before she finally began mixing up her laughter with words.

"HAHAHAHA, Burn~~~r Rias, BURN! YES! YES! YES! AHAHAHAHA," She said before she began to hip trust. I had to rub my to make sure I wasn't seeing things but yes, Sona Sitri, who was perhaps one of the most uptight person I knew was hip trusting while interjecting between each thrust a yell of "Burn!-Burn!-Burn!"

I looked down at my tea and checked it for drugs with my magic but it came back negative. I checked it again but when the results stayed the same I gave up trying to deny reality and just looked back up and gaped.

"Can you feel it Rias? Can you feel the bur~~n? I-Said-Can-You-Feel-it?" It was at this exact moment, right in the middle of a hip thrust, that Sona spotted me sitting in the corner. She stopped, immobilized in place, as her eyes widened and her face going pale as she stared at me with a perfect 'deer in the headlights' look.

Unfortunately for her she froze in the last position she held, which was in the middle of hip thrust. Which meant that she had her arms behind her with elbows bent and her groin was shoved forward towards a spot on the wall a little bit over to my right.

For what felt like an hour we just stared at each other, neither one of us quite sure what to say, before I felt a large shit-eating grin made it's onto my face.

"Oh don't mind me." I said calmly as I sat back into my chair and crossed my legs before I waved at her to continue, "Carry on, this looks important. I'll wait." I deliberately lifted my cup to my lips and took a long sip as I watched her, doing my very best not to break out laughing.

She just gaped at me, so shocked that her face had turned pale white before her embarrassment kicked in and she began to flush a crimson red.

"I-I-I…this isn't…I mean…don't think that…ah," She began to stammer nonsensically at me as her mind tried and failed to work out something to say.

Deciding to take pity at her I just raised a hand and motioned her to stop. "Don't bother explaining, I'm already used to it. You won't believe the amount of times I caught your sister doing the exact same thing." I told her, "Although with her she keeps telling Gabriel to burn instead of Rias. Oh by the way," I nodded towards her, "You may want to stop holding that pose now."

Sona looked down and her face, that was slowly begin to return to its normal colour, flushed red again when she noticed that she was still in the hip thrust position and quickly straightens herself out.

I gave a few more seconds to collect herself before I asked "So, what happened? It must have been something big for you to act so excited this early in the morning, and what does it have to with Gremory?"

By this time Sona had that strict librarian persona back firmly in place, only the slight dusting of her checks gave away any signs of emotion. But let's be honest, after seeing her behave like that I'm never going to fall for her strict act again.

She gave a single cough into her fist before speaking, "Yes actually, I just received some rather startling news." She made her way towards the table that held coffee and tea supplies. "And it would be more accurate to say 'someone' happened rather than something."

"Oh," feeling my interest peak despite myself, "and who is this someone?"

"Hyoudou Issei."

Just like that my mood plummeted. Ever since I had left that meeting with the Gremory, I've been trying to keep my thoughts off that name as I best I could. It was no use, no matter how much I threw myself into my work or tried distract myself with Asia's antics, that name kept coming back to haunt me. It reached the point where I just gave up trying to sleep and decided to get some extra work done instead. That was actually the reason why I was up so early.

In my head I went over all the different things I could have done, all the possible consequences and scenarios that would result in my actions. And each time I ran the numbers I found that I could have done nothing.

Even if you ignore all outside matters like my mission and Serafall, there was still no good option. Had I ran out of the club room and tried to track Issei down I wouldn't have been able to find him. I wasn't stupid and I knew that the Gremory wasn't either. I do not know for sure if she meant to set up the meeting at that time or if she just got lucky, but I had no doubt that she took advantage of the fact.

Issei was supposed to be having his date with the Fallen at this very day. Considering how early the sun sets at this time of year and the Japanese student curfew laws, it probably meant that they went out on the date right after school. That I couldn't sense a single familiar the entire time I was there just confirmed my suspicions. They were probably sent to scout the two and summon their masters once it was time.

This city may not have been the biggest one around but it still had well over half a million people living in it, not to mention I still was unfamiliar with the area. The odds of me finding him in time were slim to none. Since the date was taking place outside of Devil territory I couldn't even use the Bounded Fields to help me find them, not that I would have even been able to do so as I wasn't registered to use them.

Even if I got to Issei in time, then what?

Tell him that his girlfriend is trying to kill him? What are the odds of him believing me? Fallen Angels are known as the most charming and manipulative of the three races for a reason. All she had to do was shed a few crocodile tears and Issei would think of me as someone that was harassing his girlfriend.

The best I could do it wait for her to try to kill him then save him. Which in the worst case scenarios could have led to a fight between me and the Fallen, plus whatever comrades she may have with her right in the middle of a populated area. Best case scenario I rescues Issei without a serious fight but what should I do with him afterwards?

Rias had already said that she wouldn't take Issei into her Peerage without a better hold over him and his loyalty. That however wasn't entirely true; it would be more accurate to say that she couldn't recruit him without more proof of his obedience. After the Valantime incident Reincarnated Devils who were Longinus users and their masters were banned from entering the underworld unless special permission was given from all the major governing bodies.

While they couldn't prevent a Devil from reincarnating a Longinus user, all Devils have the right to reincarnate whoever they wished, they could keep them out. After what happened when the first and only Longinus user was reincarnated, they had no trouble enacting the law as they had the full support of the entire Underworld. Which is why she went to them for permission for this plan instead of acting it out on her own.

If I had saved Issei there was a distinct possibility that Rias may not want him in her Peerage anymore. She said it herself; until she reincarnated him he was just any ordinary human to her, there was no guarantee that she would be willing to stick her neck out for him.

I couldn't reincarnate him either. He was already claimed by Rias and that claim was recognized by both the Elder Council and Sirzechs. I had no idea what would happened if I did try to add him to my peerage but it wouldn't have been pretty. I would have been charged with theft from a Clan Heir and imprisoned at a minimum.

If I couldn't make him a part of my Peerage then there was no way I can protect Issei, not for long anyway. The Fallen Angels have already marked him for dead, they would be forced to leave him be if he was a Devil but as a human he was more or less free game. Not to mention how many other groups will be after him once they realized he was the wielder of the Boosted Gear. By the end of a month he would be just as dead if I had simply left him to the Fallen.

That's not even taking into account Vali finding out about him and hunting him down.

And that was ignoring the political consequences of it. I was the Maou's Queen; if I had attempted to save Issei from Rias it would have appeared that the Leviathan was attempting to steal a Longinus user from the Lucifer's sister. I did not even want to think the mess that would make. Political turmoil would have been putting it lightly.

That's not mentioning the purpose of my mission here. The enemies of the three factions, or at the least enemies of the current ceasefire between them, are beginning to move. The odds of war coming is rising with each passing day and me acting would only make Devil Faction more unstable than it already is, weakening it even more for the upcoming war. There was also the fact that I couldn't protect Sona and Gremory from him if I couldn't work with them. Intervening with Issei would throw any hope of that happening away.

Then there was Ilya.

I'm not sure what would happen to her if I was drawn in to this whole mess. As long as I remind in good standing in the Devil community no one would dare touch her. However if I made myself an enemy of the Gremorys and the Elder Council, then I had no idea what would happen to her. I knew Serafall would do her best to protect her no matter what but there was even a limit even to what she can do. That she needed my help to protect her own sister was proof of that.

I saw Ilya die.

I saw the moment her final breath left her body. I felt her once warm face go cold beneath my hands. I heard her heartbeat slow beat by painful beat until it went silent in her chest. I listened as she said her final goodbye, whisper her final I love you. Then she died.

Even when I had lost Saber, it didn't hurt this much. Not even when Kiritsugu died, I didn't cry so much.

But now she was alive, truly alive. Not like how she used to be. Back then, though I did not realize it, the smiles she used to give me were never carefree ones. It was a smile of someone who knew her time was limited and didn't want to waste a single moment of it. So while the joy they held was no lie, it felt as if she was desperately collecting each and every smile as if they were treasures to be horded. Because if she missed even a single one, she would never find another chance to replace the one she lost.

It wasn't until I saw her give me her first genuine smile did I noticed how different they were.

Her smiles now were carefree ones, a smile of someone who has a lifetime to live and knows it. When she found out that she was going to live, that she no longer had to have the fear of death constants hanging over her, she broken down for the first time since I met her. Somehow sobbing and laughing at the same time.

I saw Ilya die once; I will not let that happen again. Not now, not after she went through so much and only had finally begun to live her life. To protect her life and her happiness I will do almost anything.

To save that smile, I had to sit back and watch a boy die.

Sometimes I really hated myself.

"It's really bothering you, isn't it?" a voice jolted me out of my thoughts.

I looked up to find Sona seated in a chair that she had pulled up next to me. She was watching me with worried eyes over the frames of her glasses.

I gave her wane smile, "Is it that obvious?"

"Yes," she immediately replied, "but that's only because you were lost in thought. You're a trained liar Shirou, not a natural one.

"There is a difference?"

"A trained liar is obviously one who had to learn how to lie. If they were taught well enough, they can lie through their teeth and you wouldn't be able to tell. However if you wait until they think alone, they tend to drop the act and reveal what their thinking in their face. And you Shirou had your feelings written all over yours."

I let out a tired sigh as I felt the stress of the situation catch up with me. I looked up at the ceiling and said, "It's just that…" I drifted off as I couldn't think of what to say.

"If it helps," Sona spoke up after seeing I wasn't going to continue, "I personally thought the entire thing was a stupid idea."

"You do?"

"It's far too risky." She answered to with a nod, "Leaving the question of ethics out of it, the plan is flawed in a fundamental level. There are too many variables, to many forces in play that are beyond Rias's control to justify the risk. Even if everything goes according to plan, which is unlikely, there still leaves the issue of what would happen if Issei ever found out that Rias left him to die. No matter how close he becomes to the rest of the Peerage by that time I doubt it would end up pleasant. If it were me I would have handled the situation in a completely different manner."

"How would you have done it then?"

"Simple, I would have recruited him into the Student Council. It wouldn't have been too hard to convince him seeing most of our members are girls, and I would have forced him to behave by threating to expel him. Considering how many rules he broke over the year by peeping at all the girls," a distasteful frown crossed her face as she said this, though whether it was at the peeping or rule breaking was anyone's guess, "it would have been easy to persuade him it was well within my power to expel him not from this school but every other school in the country. That I actually do have enough genuine reasons to justify expelling just made it easier. Rias is the only reason why he hasn't already been expelled.

"I would have observed him for a period of six months or so while keeping our identity as Devils as a secret. During that time I would judge him to see if he could be safely integrated into my Peerage. It would all depend of course on how well he got along with the rest of the Council and how the strong the bonds between them are.

"If he failed I would have simply kicked him out, Boosted gear or no Boosted gear. No matter how great the prize it is not worth recklessly risking the lives of my Peerage over, particularly when it involves something as dangerous as an out of control Dragon. If on the other hand he had passed, then I would have informed him about Devils, bribed him with knowledge that Devils can legally obtain harems, then spent the rest of the year whipping his weak body into shape using the promise of sending him to one of the Underworlds many brothels as a reward.

"All in all it will be a long-term investment with a low-risk and high-return. In other words, my preferred method of operating."

"If it was that easy why hasn't Gremory done the same?" I asked.

She grimaced at that, "You have to understand Shirou, Rias has always been lucky when it comes to her Peerage, and I mean insanely so. I would have understood it if she had done some work and had spent time and effort looking for Peerage but she never had to. It was as if the hand of some god guided them to her.

"Each and every one of her Peerage just seemed to fall onto her lap with her barely having to lift a finger. To make matter even more unbelievable, every one of them either has a powerful Sacred Gears or a powerful bloodline."

She started to count them off, lifting a finger for each example, "Kiba has the Sacred Gear Sword Rebirth, Koneko is a Nekoshou, Akeno has the blood of a powerful Fallen Angel as well as that of the Himejima Clan and then there is Gasper a Dhamphir with rare ability Daywalker and the Sacred Gear that is one step short from being a Longinus, the Forbidden Balor View.

"Rias has never actually had to work at convening any one of them to join her. Half of them were either dead or dying when she found them and the other half had no place to return to and were more or less homeless orphans. So she ended up making them into her peerage the very day she met them.

"The reason why she's so stumped with Issei is because she has no idea how to go about recruiting him. It wouldn't surprise me if she spent the better part of the year waiting for a perfect moment to jump in and rescue him." She shrugged at the way I stared at her, "Now don't give me that look. It may sound foolish to us but to Rias, she simply knows no other way. It probably never even occurred to her to simply approach him and try to become friends first."

"Plus Rias is very much aware of her luck, so she probably expected it to kick in some way and give her some opportunity to rescue then recruit him like she usually does. Then what happens? lo and behold, a Fallen Angel appears threatening Issei and now she has the perfect chance to swoop in and rescue him." She shook her head at disbelief at the situation.

"Then why doesn't she save him just before he dies, she can still become the hero," I didn't even bother hiding my sarcasm as I spoke that word, "that she wants to be that way and still get to recruit Issei."

"You already know the answer to that question Shirou." She was right, I did.

"The Elder Council." I answered which she nodded in agreement.

"Right after the Valantime incident, no one can bring a Longinus user into the Underworld without both their and a Maou's explicit permission. Rias is unwilling to cross them, not when she has been trying to gather as much political support she can muster to get out of marriage with Riser. If she tries to recruit Issei without their permission she will lose whatever influence she has gathered over the last few years. As you can see it's a completely convoluted mess."

"Then what I don't get is why the Council and Sirzechs are even approving the plan to begin with. Don't they realize what would happen if Issei ever figures all this out? There would hell to pay."

Sona let out a sigh and put down her almost untouched mug, "The Elder Council Shirou, as their name implies, are old. Despite not being a part of the Old Devil Faction they were grown and raised under there rule. Consequently they have many outdated views of the world.

"Now as far as I can tell, there are two reasons why they approved the plan. The first is that they do not believe that Issei will ever discover that he's been tricked. That even if Rias or a member of her Peerage slip up in some way he will not be smart enough to put the pieces together."

"That has to be the most ridicules thing I've ever heard!" I exclaimed, "They can't be so stupid as to believe that he will never figure things out."

"No, Shirou the Council may be many things but they aren't stupid by any means. Stubborn and old fashioned yes, but never make the blunder of underestimating them and calling them stupid. That would be a mistake, one they won't let you live long enough to learn from.

"The Elder Council is a viper den and despite the civilized appearance the Council tries to project, is as bloody and deadly as any battlefield. Every member is as vicious as they come and none of them would have survived there for long if they were in anyway stupid. They may not match the Maous in strength but in cunning they are more than equal. Every single one of the Maous are wary when dealing with them…well, except for my sister but that's because they're horrified of her after she somehow, during the course of a single two-hour meeting, was able to convince three among their eldest members to become Magic Girl fanatics.

"From what I heard one of them, an old man with a beard that reaches down to his toes, had begun carrying around a pink wand and now winks whenever he introduces himself or casts a spell."

…That is the women who I had sold my soul to.

"Returning back to the topic of discussion, the reason why they believe Issei will never figure it out is because they think that humans are little more than stupid semi-intelligent animals and I can't blame them for thinking so." Sona quickly raised a hand to forestall my response and continued to speak. "Remember Shirou that these people are old. When they were our age most of Europe was too afraid to take a bath because they believed too much water would make them sick and eventually kill them. They grew up around humans that would bleed themselves out with leaches because they believed having too much blood was unhealthy or they would whip themselves in the back because they thought that it would make them closer to god. And that only applies to the youngest members of the Council, who know how humans behaved when the oldest members were teens.

"That is the kind of humans they grew up with and it is also the image they have of them inside of their minds. While intellectually they know that is no longer the case, emotionally the still believe humans to be little more than intelligent apes. I also discovered that they have received reports on Issei, and well, let's just say it didn't do much to dissuade that impression."

I thought back to my first meeting of the Perverted Trio and the memory of them running away while being chased by the Kendo team…I had to admit put it that way and I couldn't completely blame them for thinking Issei would be an idiot.

"I have talked to Issei before and he's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed so I doubt he'd figure it out at first, but given enough time even he will eventually put it all together.

"Now comes the second reason." Sona took a moment to adjust her glasses before carrying on, "They didn't want to give him an opportunity to refuse."

I just stared at her for a second before face palming, "…What?"

"Think about it, Issei is the wielder of the Booster Gear. While they may not like it, it makes him a serious threat to them. Worse, in their mind, he could become a weapon to be used against them if any of the other faction or even other pantheons got a hold of him."

"And seeing as how the Fallen had already discovered him, they were afraid that the others would soon follow." I finished for her. It made sense, the fallen had already gotten hold of Divine Dividing and the Angels had the Zenith Tempest. Now they find out that they all the while had been sitting on hands concerning the Boosted Gear issue the Fallen had come closing in. If the Elder Council was as ruthless as Sona implied it only makes sense that when pushed they'd be willing to do whatever it takes to get absolute control over the Boosted Gear.

"Then what about Sirzechs, why did he agree with this madness?"

"Shirou, Sirzechs a monster." She looked me dead in the eye as she said this. "He's a likeable monster, one with a heart but that doesn't make him any less of one. Don't forget Shirou that Sirzechs is the Maou, not just a Maou, but the only one that really matters. No matter how much you sugarcoat it, when people think about the leader of the Devils they don't think of Ajuka, Falbium or my sister. They think of Sirzechs.

"You don't get that kind of power or recognition by asking nicely. Sirzechs is the one true Lord of Devils because is he the best of us. Not just in power but in charisma, cunning and ruthlessness. He fought his way to the top leaving battlefields full of corpses in his wake and was able to hold his position unopposed for two hundred years.

"And I guarantee you, whatever reasons he appears to have for supporting this plan, they are completely different than his real reason. In many ways he and my sister think alike. They always have plans within plans and you can never tell what they're truly thinking."

"That much at least we agree on," I told her while feeling mildly relived that someone else shared my opinion on Sirzechs, "Still even after hearing all their reason doesn't make me feel any better about the situation."

At my words, a smile began to grow on Sona's face. "Well, if you're still upset about how Rias handled Issei then you'll love this news."

I cocked an eyebrow at that, "Does it have anything to do why you were in such a good mood when you came in and why you wanted Gremory to 'feel the burn'?''

Though she faintly blushed at that her smile didn't diminish at the slightest, "You have to understand that while Rias is one of my dearest friends and that I truly love her, she has been driving me insane over the last week.

"She took every opportunity to rub it in my face that she was about to get a Longinus user in her Peerage. How even though I searched the school from top to bottom for Peerage members three times over, I ended up missing the wielder of the Boosted Gear and how she didn't. Or how wrong I was for wanting to expel the Perverted Trio and how she was right for wanting them to stay." Sona reached out with her hands and held them before her as if was about to throttle something. "It reached the point where I just wanted to strangle that pretty throat of hers." Her smile looked more than a little bit strained as she said that. It was actually starting to get scary to look at.

"But then," her smile did a 180 and became far more genuine, "I heard the most wonderful news before I arrived. I just ran into Kiba on his way to his morning training and I found out what happened to Issei."

"What?" I asked, more than little worried for the kid. "Did something go wrong? They didn't fail to resurrect him did they?

"Oh no no no," Sona's smile grew into a wide Cheshire smile, one that made her remarkably like Serafall moments before a prank, "nothing went wrong. Quite the opposite as a matter of fact. Everything went according to plan down to the letter. The Fallen killed Issei, Rias popped in the last second and successfully resurrected him into a pawn just as she wanted."

"I don't see why you so happy about it." Though I was relieved that Issei was fine at least, I was still didn't like how things played out.

Sona's 'Serafall smile' was still firmly in place though, and she continued, "Ah, but I didn't tell you the best part yet. It seems that the shock and pain of his injuries has caused Issei to waken his Sacred Gear before he died."

"He awakened the Boosted gear?"

"No."

"No?" I repeated dumbly, "What do you mean no? You just said he had awakened his Sacred Gear"

"Yes, he did awaken his Sacred Gear." Her smile, if possible grew even wider as her glasses seemed to flash in the sunlight. "It just happened to be however, that the Sacred Gear he awakened wasn't the Booster Gear." She paused, clearly trying to draw out the moment before she carried on, "It was Twice Critical instead."

I took me the better part of five second to process what she said but when I finally did I dragged my jaw off the floor and murmured out in disbelief, "No way." Then more loudly, "Are you sure it's Twice Critical? It could be an incomplete awakening. While rare it does happen sometimes."

She held up a single finger, "One pawn piece," the vindictive glee in her voice was unmistakable, "Rias suspected the same thing and when she tried to revive him with all of her pawns, she ended up needing only one to make it work."

I gaped. I was so flabbergasted that I couldn't do anything but let my jaw fall open and gap at her.

Sona let out a cackle, an honest to Satan witch's cackle, at my reaction before speaking, "One pawn piece, one measly pawn Shirou. It wasn't even a mutated one, but a completely regular pawn. That's even worse because Twice Critical should automatically double a person's value, which means Issei's base stats isn't even valued at half a pawn – well screw you my rival, now you can finally feel the burn.

"Oh Rias rubbed it in my face that she was getting a Longinus for so long, making me burn with envy and self-rage at how I could have missed it, only for it to turn into Twice Critical. Worse, she ended up with one of the Perverted Trio in her peerage." Sona threw her hands wide open in joy.

"I'm so happy with that boy I'm not expelling the other two. They'll be a reminder of this day, and every time I'm in a bad mood I'll just look at them, think of this moment and laugh." Which she then proceeded to do just that.

I couldn't help it, I broke down laughing and joined her.

Truth be told, I was planning on finding a way to get back at the Gremory for what she did to poor Issei but it looks like I didn't have to. Issei ended up doing it all by himself. And this is by far worse than anything I could have done to the Gremory. Oh what I would pay to see the look on the Elder Council's faces when she has to go up to them and announce that the Boosted Gear that she claimed to have found ended up being nothing more than Twice Critical. That she wasted the entire Elders Council time on what was nothing but a wild goose chase. She was never going to live this down.

God may be dead, but Divine Justice is alive and kicking after all.

The best part is, she may have actually ended up saving Issei's life after all. If she had approached him in the first place and discovered that Issei didn't have the Boosted Gear but Twice Critical instead, she would never have bothered to recruit him. This meant that if the Fallen Angels made the same mistake of believing he carried the Boosted Gear, there would have been no one there to resurrect him when they killed him. But now that he's part of the Gremory's Peerage he's safe.

To top it off, her Gremory Greed would not allow her to surrender Issei no matter what. Even if she wouldn't have wanted him in the first place when it comes to their Peerage, Gremorys can resemble a Dragon hording its gold. It doesn't matter whether they even want the gold or not or even if they have nothing to spend all they gold on, they will not let so much as a single coin go without a fight. Their Greed would demand nothing less.

After out laughter finally began to taper off, Sona resumed talking.

"Now don't get me wrong Shirou, I love Rias I really do but sometimes it seems like she keeps getting all the luck when it comes to Peerage members. That for once, just once, her luck has forsaken her has finally made things fair.

"This might make me a bad friend but at this moment there is nothing more than I want to do than hire that American fellow, that actor Ashton something. Then I'll fly him all the way here and make him break into the Occult Clubroom and yell 'BURN!' right in her face before just turning around and leaving. The look on her face will make it worth the cost."

Shaking my head in amusement, I said, "I know I keep saying this but despite outwards appearances, you and your sister are exactly alike in every way that matters."

She looked oddly pleased with that before shrugging and adjusting her glasses, "We are sisters after all."

Before I had a chance to response we were interrupted by the Council room's door opening.

"Kaichou, we have a slight problem. The repair man for the-oh", Tsubaki stopped speaking when she caught sight of me, "I'm sorry Kaichou, I didn't know you were entertaining guests."

"Its fine Tsubaki," I waved it off, "we weren't talking about anything important anyway. Besides you're going to probably start seeing me a lot around him from now on, might as well start getting used to me."

Tsubaki looked towards Sona for confirmation and seeing her nod, continued with what she was originally planning to say, "Kaichou, the repairman for the second floor's electric problem is going to arrive here at nine at the earliest. I'm afraid that we won't be able to restore power to that floor in time for morning classes."

"What about the Academy's Handyman?"

"He looked at it but it seems whatever the problem is it's beyond his capability to fix."

Sona let out a frustrated sight before continuing, "Looks like we have no choice then, we'll just have to relocate the classes for the day. We can split them up between the spares classrooms in the first and third floor for the time-"

"Actually," I interrupted her, "if you're having a repair problem, I might just be able to help with that"

I did my best to restrain my eager smile as they both gave me confused looks.

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

I, Sona Sitri, have seen and experienced many strange and unusual things in my short life. Having lived with my sister for most of my childhood has assured that. But even to me, this is new.

"That right there is your problem." Shirou's voice echoed out of large power box that was responsible for the school power supply. He had most of his upper body leaning inside and all that I could see of him were his legs.

At this moment I am in the presence of one of the most powerful existence on the continent, an Ultimate-Class Devil, a Queen of a Maou's Peerage no less, a being capable of tearing down entire mountains ranges and bring ruin to cities, and what do I do with him? I turn him into my school's handy man, what basically amounts to a little more than a Janitor.

"There is a large batch of wires that were completely burned out."

I'm not sure what made it worse; that he liked doing this kind of work or that he was actually good at it.

"If I use my magic, I can make some emergency repairs. It'll only be a patch job but it will last until the electrician fixes it."

When did my life become so messed up? Ah that's right, ever since I became my sister's sister. I was doomed from the very start.

"Is that fine by you Sona?"

"Yes, that will be fine Shirou." I replied while pinching the bridge of my nose.

Then again, Grayfia seemed to love working as a maid so maybe it was the position that just drives people crazy. Or perhaps it was a consequence of becoming powerful, a price that every strong Devil has to pay.

Does that mean that there exists the possibility that I may end up going crazy one day as well?

"Tsubaki." I called out to my Queen.

"Yes Kaichou?"

"If I ever end up regularly wearing a Magical Girl costume and start using a pink wand to cast spells of my own free will, promise me you'll kill me." I told her solemnly, "Trust me, it will be a mercy killing."

She placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and gave me an understanding look, "I promise Kaichou."

I wonder if it was a sign of my coming insanity that I felt reassured by that.

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

The endless droning of the teacher reverberated through the classroom as I stared out the window, not paying any attention to the lesson.

Turns out that Sona had a point when she told me I was ready for graduation, as I already knew most of what was being taught. It was the same for almost all of my classes. Though most of the teachers here were pretty good at their job, much better than my old school, even they can't make listening to facts that I already knew entertaining.

Thankfully I didn't share this class with Sona or any of Peerage members or else I'd probably be getting an earful for slacking off. As I sat there waiting for class to end, my mind came to wonder towards a mystery that had been plaguing me since I had that little chat with Sona. The Boosted Gear.

If Hyoudou Issei doesn't have it than who does?

Koneko claimed to have smelled the scent of a Dragon on Issei. No, to be more precise she said that the smell originated from him. Twice Critical, despite being a Dragon type sacred gear, is simply not strong enough to generate a powerful enough scent for her to notice when it's dormant, even when awakened the smell would be too weak to be notice unless she was standing next to it. There is no way it could leave a Dragon's scent all over school grounds.

That raises the question of how was it possible for Issei to have the scent of a Dragon. For that to happen Issei must have held the Boosted Gear at one point but if it had been removed he would be dead. No two ways about it, the process of removing a Sacred Gear removes the tethers the Soul has to the body.

Yet no matter how many ways I cut it, I can't think of anything other than the removal of the Boosted Gear that could explain the scent but Issei is clearly not dead. We'll at least he wasn't dead until the Fallen killed him but he had that scent well before then.

Magic has proven that a soul is attached to the body of an embryo with the first beat of its heart and the Sacred Gear alongside it. This makes the Sacred Gear tied so closely to its wielders life that it becomes impossible for the wielder to survive without it.

Yet somehow Issei shows signs of bearing a Sacred Gear that he clearly does not have.

I would have continued this line of thought if the sound of tapping hadn't caught my attention. Looking down towards my left, I found the source of the noise. There was a small crow standing on the ledge of the window and it was pecking against the glass to catch my attention.

While I didn't remember his name I did recognized the bird. It was familiar, one that belonged to one of the Devils that were assigned to guarding the border of the City. This particular breed of crows was popular among certain groups of Devils.

Though they had very little magic in them, leaving them incapable of transforming or casting proper spells, they were highly intelligent creatures capable of understanding and obeying complexes commands. Most importantly though their lack of magic made them incredibly difficult to detect allowing them to sneak past regular Bounded Fields, those geared towards sensing the presence of supernatural beings, with remarkable ease. It made them ideal scouts and spies.

Acting as inconspicuously as I could, I cracked open the window and slipped my hand through to take the small folded piece of paper it held in its beak. Its job now complete the crow didn't bother to stick around, as after a single flutter of its wings it took off.

After carefully looking around to make sure no one notice, I shut the window and began to read the note. A small voice in my head, one that sounded suspiciously like archer, sarcastically commented about the astonishing amount of effort I was going through for what basically amounts to sneaking around a couple of school girls to make sure they don't discover the existence of their secret guards.

I ignored the voice and focused on the letter instead, even if I did agree with it.

I read it once, read it again to make sure I didn't misunderstand anything then leapt straight out of my seat and made my way out of the classroom as fast as I could.

"Emiya-san what are you-" The rest of the teacher's question was cut off after I shut the door to behind me. There was going to be hell to pay later on but that can wait. Right now I had to hurry.

Something big was happening in Fallen territory.

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

The church was of an old fashion Victorian architectural design, something that felt entirely out of place in a modern Japanese city. It was built from solid grey stone, with large beautify crafted stained windows lining its wall. The small forest of trees that surrounded it gave the impression that church fell out of some Medieval European fairytale.

The impression however was completely ruined by the McDonald and adult video store that was located across the street from it.

The church was built in the early half of the 20th century, soon after the end of Second World War. It was created in hopes of spreading Christianity in Japan. Unfortunately for this particular church, the citizens of this city had very little interest in religion and the church was soon abandoned due exceedingly low attendance.

That was one of the primary reasons why Serafall and Sirzechs had allowed their siblings to attend this city in particular. The lack of any real presence from the Vatican in this city made it an ideal location as it meant that they didn't have to worry about any Priests or Exorcist harming them.

After the church had been abandoned it was soon taken over by the Fallen and had been turned their primary base of operations in this city. That only made the lack of any presence in the place even more disturbing.

I scrutinized the church from where I stood, perched on top of one of the trees that surrounded the building and marked the beginning of Fallen territory. Reinforcing my already Devil enhanced eyes to the limit, I carefully scrutinized every inch of the structure that I could see.

The message I received stated that the Bounded Field that protected the church had fallen. Not due to lack of power or maintenance but was forcefully brought down by someone. One of the many familiars that the guards have spread out across the city had sensed it. And since they couldn't investigate it themselves without risking their cover being blown they asked me to instead.

Which is what I have been doing for the better part of the last half hour. I couldn't just walk into Fallen territory, not without risking an incident. The best I could do was watch them from the border between their land and neutral ground. But what I've seen so far has gotten me worried, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say what I wasn't seeing.

The place looked empty.

I raised out an arm for the familiar to perch on as soon I heard it approached. When I felt the familiar weight of the bird land onto my arm I turned my sights towards it. Just like one that delivered me the message it was a crow but this time it was one I recognized. It was Ingrid, a familiar that belonged to the head of the guards' station here and my primary source of communication with them.

She looked pretty much like any of the other crows, expect of a single blue feather that grew just above her right eye. Whether that was her natural coloring or something that was artificially done, I never bothered asking.

"Did you notice anyone?" I asked her. I had sent her ahead to see if she could spot any signs of life in the church. She may not have been able to enter the place but with Bounded Fields down she can get close enough to listen in.

She gave me a quick shake of her head as an answer. I frowned in thought at that. It made no sense, why would the Fallen leave the church unprotected by either magic or guards. I suspected it to be a trap for a moment before dismissing the thought as ludicrous. Not only do the Fallen here lack the firepower to fight even half the Devils in the city they also have no reason to try to bait us into their territory.

There was something very wrong here. Unfortunately it looked like it was my job to find out what that something is.

I tossed Ingrid back into the air before leaping off the tree and landing on the ground below with a slight crouch. Even now after all these months I marveled at the strength of my body, at my lack of needing to reinforce myself to survive the fall. When I was still human it was improbable for me to make a jump like this and emerged completely unscathed, even if I had reinforced my body to the limit. Now though, it felt like skipping a step when climbing down the stairs.

It was at moments like this I begin to understand why some Pure-Blooded Devils look down on humans. They were born with bodies like this one, bodies capable of shattering stone and bending steel with their bare hands without any training. To them, what must a human look like? A creature that they can shatter by accident simply by shaking their hands too quickly.

I stood out from my crouch and silently made my way towards the church, reinforcing my ears as I did so. As a precaution I traced the married twin swords, Kanshou and Bakuya, into my hands. Unlike Archer, these were not my go to weapon of choice. Archer primarily favored them above all others was due to their fast tracing time and relatively low Prana cost. With my current body neither tracing time nor Prana cost were an issue.

Despite my ability to copy the skills of previous wielders, I still had some trouble dual-wielding weapons compared to simply using a single blade. It doesn't matter if you have the skill but lack the mental awareness of the situation around you. When wielding two weapons you have to constantly be aware where the other blade was, if at any time your concentration slips you're just as likely to end up cutting yourself as you are the enemy. In an actual fight it was worse because you had to pay attention to your enemy and your surroundings in addition to both your blades. And while I was quite good at wielding them, and constantly getting better, I was still more comfortable wielding a single blade then two.

Not to mention Archer's suicidal style of fighting with them was simply insane. If push comes to shove, I will not hesitate to use it especially against a superior opponent that I simply am unable to beat without putting my life on the line. But if I have other options available to me I see no need to recklessly gamble my life. Sometimes when I looked at these blades I can't help but wonder if Archer, for all of his talk of saving people, was simply hoping to die.

In spite of their low ranks Kanshou and Bakuya were incredibly useful blades when they were paired. When I held both of them together they cause my magical resistance and physical resistance to improve. Considering that I was about to enter the heart of enemy territory with no idea what to expect, I wanted all the protection I could muster.

It didn't take me long to make my way out of the forest and into the clearing that lead to the church's entrance. The great wooden doors of the building loomed before me, it had interact patterns carved into the wood and each door had a steel cross hanging on the front.

I slowly approached the door, keeping my guard up and ears reinforced for any approaching danger. Yet nothing came. Even as I stood close enough to the door to touch it, I neither heard nor sensed anything approaching me. I began to concentrate on my still maturing Devil ability to sense magic and when I couldn't find any traces of magic or magical creatures in the area I decided to enter the church.

Careful to avoid touching the crosses, I grabbed onto the door handle and pulled them open. They swung open on surprisingly well-oiled hinges revealing the gloomily interior of the church's sanctuary that hide behind them.

In the first few days I had been reborn into a Devil, I had been repeatedly warned about the dangers of ever entering a church. Even if you disregard all of the crosses and holy water that could be found within them, the interior of a church is exceedingly dangerous for Devil. As a divine place that is recognized by God as his home, any Devils who enters would be weakened by the Holiness of the place as long as they remained within its hallowed halls. How much they are weakened would depend on the 'purity' of the church itself.

Entering something like Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City would significantly weaken even a Maou and completely vaporize Low-Class Devils. A small church will be less potent but will still have a notable effect even on powerful Devils. So when I took my first step past the threshold I braced in myself in anticipation of….nothing apparently? Huh, did the place lose its effect when it was taken over by the Fallen? Doesn't matter I wasn't about to question my good fortune, that was rare enough as it is.

Walking from the bright sunny day outside into the dark and dim interior would have left a human's eyes blinded for several seconds until they adjusted to the lack of light. As a Devil my eyes needed no time to adjust, quite the opposite in fact. The instant I walked into the gloom my nocturnal eyes began to see far more clearly than it did compared to the world under the sun.

I had barely set a single foot into the place before I found the Fallen.

I froze in my tracks the moment I caught sight of them and quickly brought my blades up, quickly scanning the room for any signs of an attack. My eyes began darting from cover to cover, while my ears strained to catch even the slightest noise of a hidden ambusher. However after an entire minute had passed and the end of the second one was quickly approaching, I concluded that no attack was coming.

Giving one final look all around me, I began to carefully make my way deeper into the interior of the church. The place had no source of light except for the small amount of sunlight that streamed through the stained glass windows, coating the floor on either side of me with beautiful colored drawings of saints and angels. They however did little to illuminate the place.

Finally reaching the end of the hall I stood before the altar and looked up at the wall behind it, where the crucified corpses of the Fallen Angels hung from.

Nailed into the church's wall by their wrists and ankles with crude Iron nails, were four Fallen Angels. Three females and one male, which accounts for all the Fallen that were supposed to be station in the city. I even recognized one of the females, Yuma, Issei's supposed girlfriend and murderer.

Their upper body was left bare and they each had a large gaping hole piercing the middle of their chest, easily as wide as a fist. Around the holes, written in what appeared to be their own blood, were the words: BETRAYERS TO GOD'S WILL

There was no need to examine them to make sure if they were dead. Their open eyes were empty, void of any of signs of life and I could actually see the wall that they were hanging from through the hole in their body. And while I could be wrong, going by the lack of blood dripping down the wall, it looked like they were killed well before they were crucified.

I spun in place once again and examined every corner of the room to make sure that there was no one else in the room with me. While I was fairly sure that there was no one left alive in the building other than myself, I wasn't going to take any chances. I'm going have to search this place top to bottom.

I spotted a door behind off to the side on the same wall the fallen were on and approached it. It looked as good a place as any to start.