Chapter 22

Rias woke up with a warm feeling between her legs and something buzzing in her crotch.

"Prrrrrrr."

She looked down to see Issei face first in her crotch, separated only by her skirt and underwear.

"Prrrrr."

Issei unconsciously rubbed said face harder into said crotch.

"PRRRRRR."

The warm feeling she had increased in direct proportion to the vibrating Issei's head gave off. So much so that she was starting to feel more than simply warm between her legs.

With more force than she had intended, Rias pushed the teen's head away from her crotch so that he was resting further up her thighs.

"That was close." She had used vibrators to get off before, but for some unknown reason Issei's unconscious instincts did the job far better than any artificial toy ever did. After everything that had happened, she doubted that the boy would react well waking up to find out he had been pleasuring someone he barely trusted still.

She glanced over to her side where she saw Asia still asleep, half resting on top of Issei's body and using him like a body pillow. It would have been cute if it weren't for the fact that she was still sporting the ruined clothes and bloodstains from last nights ev-

"Eeep?!"

"PRRRRRR!"

Rias' eyes shot down to where, somehow, not only had Issei returned his head to its previous positon, but said skull was now under her skirt.

Well, at the very least, she knew for a fact that he was to some level actually attracted and interested in her now.

Regardless, she'd better do something quick before things get any TONGUE! TONGUE! THAT'S DEFINITELY HIS TONGUE! HER UNDERWEAR DOES NOTHING TO LESSEN THE SENSATION THAT IS AN AGGRESSIVE TONGUE!

"PRRRRRR!"

"Anngh!"

"Eeep!"

Thump.

"Gah!"

Issei woke up in the unusual positon with the back of his head on the ground and his knees by his earlobes. It wasn't a new position he found himself in, but still an unusual one.

Instead of getting up, or at least moving out of the odd position he was in, the teen smacked his lips and tongue, as if tasting something odd.

"Why do I taste moist fine silk and baby powder?"

"Owwww." Asia rubbed her head. It had been hit in Issei's flailing as he was launched from the couch.

"I-" for a brief moment, Rias nearly blurted out that Asami had nearly died last night in a blind attempt to distract him from realizing that he had been unconsciously been giving her felatio, but caught herself at the last moment. Last thing they needed was for Issei to have another episode. "Issei. How much of last night do you remember?"

"Last night?" The teen frowned in confusion, still blinking his unconsciousness away in an attempt to return to the waking world.

The moment he stopped blinking was the moment Rias and Asia temporarily stopped breathing.

Rias could firmly say that she was probably one of the only people on the planet that had genuinely feared for her life from someone who was on their back with their knees by their ears. She couldn't recommend the experience to others.

Thankfully, the sudden overwhelming sensation she experienced was brief. It didn't go away, but it did taper off into something more... controlled. Restrained.

Slowly, more for his own sake than anyone else's, he picked himself up, grabbed a chair by his desk, and sat down on it so he was leaning forward on the back. He didn't look at either girl for some time, clearly lost in his thoughts judging from his terse expression.

Finally, after what felt like hours, but was really at best five minutes, he spoke. "… Is there anything that you think I should know right now?"

He was asking for any bad news that he might not have known about in his rampage.

"I… no. Nothing immediate that I know of." Rias started slowly. "Asia and I came in your room shortly after you did. You were, not in a good state. You're better off asking Sona something like that. As far as I know, Asia was kidnapped. Your mother and Raynare were… injured. You and Gasper were attacked. And you… addressed everything, to put it politely. To be frank, I know less about what happened than you do right now. I spent the bulk of last night following your footsteps, save for the church."

Even if it left a bad taste in her mouth, Rias turned to Asia. The nun that had been kidnapped and at the scene where the attacks had occurred.

"Eh?"

"He wants to know what happened." Rias elaborated, knowing that she'd have to translate for Issei. "I would too, for that matter. All any of us know was that you were attacked, and that a group was sent after Issei to stall him so he wouldn't be able to get to you on time."

"O-oh. Right." Judging from the nun's expression, she was understandably not too keen on recalling what had happened.

She moved to pick herself up so she could sit properly… only to collapse on the couch again as her arms failed her.

"Is something wrong?" Rias blinked curiously, not missing the equally surprised look on the girl's face.

"No, it's nothing. My hands are just a bit numb and wha?!" Asia's excuse was interrupted suddenly as Issei of all people approached her quickly, grabbed her hands, and began to look them over seriously.

"Issei? What are you doing?" She couldn't help but sound just as bewildered as Asia looked. The last thing she expected was for the disturbed teen to approach anyone in his current state.

He didn't respond immediately at first, focusing more on the hands in his grasp and looking at something that the others didn't seem to see. After a few seconds of what could easily be misinterpreted as hand fondling, his expression darkened and he clicked his tongue. "Damn it. Can't believe I actually forgot this."

Without waiting he quickly moved to one of the desks in his room, this one littered with various bottles and binders with all sorts of labels with complicated names, before picking out one specifically and returning to his patient. Popping the top, the girls saw that there was some sort of creamy salve in it.

Not bothering to ask any permission, he stopped in front of Asia again, grabbed one of her hands, poured some of the fluid in it, then forced her to rub the concoction on both her hands and a bit past her wrists.

Within seconds, her limbs lit up with inscriptions and kabbalah like magical formations.

"What the?" Rias' eyes widened as she saw patterns that looked remarkably familiar to not only Devil Magic, but Fallen and Angel inscriptions as well.

"It's the formulae that meshes the Sacred Gear to its user. A portion of God's System." Issei elaborated, once more manhandling Asia's hands. "The idiots that kidnapped her were trying to extract Twilight Healing forcefully. I interrupted the ritual, but there was still damage. And then like a bigger idiot I forced her to extensively use her Sacred Gear immediately afterwards. It's no wonder her hands are numb. Fuck, they're almost necrotizing at this point."

The girls could only watch in bewilderment and confusion as he began to trace certain patterns around Asia's fingers and hands, somehow adjusting and even fixing certain chains of golden scriptures that they would never have noticed had he not focused on them in the first place.

"You can, actually interact with the internal mechanisms of God's system?" Rias blinked, astounded at what she was seeing.

"To an extent. This damn thing is more complex than it looks. That useless idiot was a bigger shut in than me. No wonder he barely handed out blessings to the world. Lazy fuck spent most of his time making this overcomplicated mess so he wouldn't have to do anything in the first place. Would it have killed him to make a manual for this thing? It took me weeks just to find out where the on off switch on a Sacred Gear was. Bastard was probably a bigger shut in than I am."

Even though she couldn't understand what he was saying, even Asia could tell that Issei's grumblings were devolving into minor petty complaints as the minutes dragged on. A quick look at Rias seemed to put the girls on the same page, and slowly the tense strain in the room began to relax into something more manageable.

Granted, it probably would have taken longer if Asia knew that Issei was perpetually badmouthing God, but it was still progress.

It was also probably fortunate that Rias didn't catch that he was referring to the OG in the past tense as well. There were only so many major reveals the girl could take at a time.

"Is she going to be okay?" Rias finally spoke up after it appeared that he was done with his corrections.

"She'll recover." He got up and went back to his desk again. Instead of grabbing another bottle, he looked at several binders until he found what he was looking for. Then he flipped through its contents until coming to the topic of his research. "Sacred Gears are linked to the soul, but messing with the connection between them and the user has effects on the body other than death on removal. Especially if the Gears manifest physically."

Having found the information he was looking for, Issei put the binder back before moving to what appeared to be his closet. Before entering it though, he first closed the door, turned a knob on the frame that no one had noticed earlier, and then opened it again.

Instead of a hamper with clothes, the girls bore witness to a modest sized storage room filled with shelves upon shelves of neatly organized and labeled chemicals and ingredients.

Completely ignoring his audience, Issei filtered through the contents of the chamber, grabbing four bottles of substances that each had far too many syllables to bother to pronounce. He then moved to a queer machine the size of a man's torso in the corner of the room, measured out various quantities of each substance, put them into the device along with several other instructions in the keypad, and then pressed a big green button.

Half a minute later, he walked out of the closet with a familiar transparent yellow orange plastic bottle filled with pills and handed them to Asia while glancing at Rias.

"Tell her to take one a day for at least a week. She can't use her Sacred Gear, and she should massage her hands regularly. If she does that she should be back to normal by the end of it all."

The Gremory merely stared at him.

"What?"

"You… really are full of surprises."

"Huh?"

"Issei, you just played the role of doctor and pharmacist in five minutes within your bedroom. Please tell me that even you can see that having a closet full of properly handled medical components and a device that makes pills is a bit out there."

"Oh. That." He blinked, as if realizing what she was talking about. "Yeah. I guess that makes sense."

"Why do you even have that much equipment and material in the first place?" She leaned around him to get a better look at his stock. Rias knew nothing about medicine, but even she could tell that what he had went well beyond fueling a simple hobby.

"Porn."

She looked back at him with an expression that clearly indicated she was trying desperately to give him the benefit of the doubt. "Can I have an answer with more context please?"

Issei rolled his eyes. "I moonlight as an off the books diagnostician and pharmacist for the porn industry. I can't set any bones from here, but I can give a second opinion for minor and medium severity cases so long as I'm given enough information. And I can serve as a source for some medication for prescriptions that either require subtle delivery, are difficult to come by, or haven't been approved yet by the government because not enough bribes have been handed out yet."

He still advised that his clients consult official and legalized doctors whenever possible, but he wasn't an idiot. The world wasn't kind, and sometimes going through the proper channels would kill your life faster than any affliction.

Rias continued to stare at him. "… So you're saying you've been running an illegal clinic from your bedroom for the past five years. On top of your sex toy making business."

"Three years. I didn't have the equipment to make medicine until then."

"But you had the equipment to make sex toys from the beginning."

"Yes. … Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Sona's going to kill you if she ever finds out about this."

"She could try. But that would mean interacting with me more until she manages to pull it off, and I doubt she'll enjoy the public fallout dealing with a student under her watch was doing all this in the first place."

"Was that your backup plan from the start or did you just make that up on the spot?"

"You'd be surprised by the lengths of stupidity people will go through in order to convince the world they've got everything under control." He spoke from the heart. More than she would ever know.

Rias sighed, shaking her head in defeat and moving back to the couch to sit down. Every time she felt like she was making some sort of progress with Issei, she was thrown a curveball that hit her in the head hard enough to start a migraine, but not enough to bless her with the short term memory loss needed to forget what she had learned. Instead of resuming the conversation, she turned to Asia to give her the instructions on her recovery.

Issei, on the other hand, returned to his seat and resumed his position slumped over the back of his chair, and kept quiet. It was fairly obvious that he was distracting himself with whatever he could to keep his temper in check. Half the time his expression was focused on nothing and pensive, while the other half his eyes wandered around the room, frequently falling back to the girls in question but never staying long.

From the windows. To everyone's unclean dirty and to some extent bloody clothing. To his half closed bedroom door. To his clock. To his-wait a second.

"Weeb. What time did I fall asleep?" According to the cheap piece of engineering on the wall, it was a little past noon. Thankfully it was Saturday, so the Enabler had one less thing to bitch to him about when she scrounged up the nerve to talk to him again.

"What time?" Rias looked at him curiously, trying to remember when things had finally started to calm down. "I'm not sure when exactly, but I think you were finishing up with Raynare around three this morning. Half past at the latest."

Even if that was true, and there was a full hour after that point and when the girls came in here…

He had slept for almost a full eight hours?

Was that why his body felt less stiff than normal? He had genuinely forgotten what it felt like to be fully rested these days.

Rias and Asia didn't know what epiphany Issei had come to, but they didn't miss the myriad of mixed emotions on his face when he looked at them at that moment.

"Is something wrong?"

"I… no. It's nothing." He shook his head. There was no point in overthinking things. It was a pleasant fluke that took place in the middle of a titanic trashfire. It probably wasn't going to happen again, so getting his hopes up would just make a mess of things. "Can you ask her what happened now?"

"She said you spoke to her in Italian last night. Can't you ask her?" Rias wasn't being stubborn, only curious.

"A handful of words and phrases a conversation does not make." Issei shook his head. "A first grader has a greater vocabulary than I do. I just know enough to get basic ideas across right now. Not enough to discuss a kidnapping by rogue members of the three factions."

Knowing a lost argument when she saw one, Rias took the role of interpreter for Issei.

"Um. I, it happened quickly, so I really don't remember everything." Asia started slowly, clearly not comfortable with recalling the event. "Asami-san had invited Raynare and I to a place that did nails. She said she wanted a quiet girls' night out. Let us relax and talk a bit."

Issei mentally groaned. Great. Not only had his mom been attacked, but the assholes had interrupted her monthly ritual manni petti. The woman was going to be unbearable when she finally remembered that and bug him to pamper her for at least a week. The place she went to was reservation only, and they were real picky about it too, even if she was familiar with everyone there.

"Nothing seemed weird. Raynare was, like she always was, but she seemed just as interested in the trip as Asami. We left the house at night and were walking to the parlor when Raynare suddenly stopped and looked nervous. She told us to get behind her and looked ready to fight when they appeared."

"They?" Issei frowned.

"The Fallen. There were three of them. Two women and a man." Asia elaborated. "They talked for a bit. It was clear that they wanted me, but they also seemed to know Raynare pretty well as well. They started to argue, and Raynare tried to protect us. She kept on saying how bad of an idea it was to put us in danger and it was best for everyone if they just left us alone."

The girls glanced at Issei tentatively, no doubt figuring out what she had been alluding to. It was commonly known that Raynare was aware of who and what Issei was, so it didn't take much imagination to figure out that she had an idea that this might happen.

"It happened fast." Asia continued. "The man said something about just following orders before throwing a spear of light at Asami-san. Raynare blocked it, but it was a distraction for one other fallen to get behind her and stab her in the back. Before I could heal her properly, Asami-san tried to run away with me, but we were caught almost instantly, and she was cut across the stomach. I tried to heal them, but the last Fallen grabbed me before I could do anything and we were flying to the Church."

She shifted uncomfortably. "I, think I saw you as we were flying away. Or, rather I felt you looking at us for a little bit. But then you disappeared. I think that's when you found Asami-san and Raynare, cause soon after that…"

She didn't need to go into further detail.

If Issei felt any guilt about it, he didn't show it. "… Did they say or do anything else that you think was off? When you were in the Church?"

"They were rushing to finish the ritual. To take my Sacred Gear." Asia recalled. "What you did had them scared. We almost fell out of the sky actually, but they recovered before we hit the ground. They were arguing about how their boss was trying to get them killed."

"Did they say a name?" He pressed, his eyes meeting hers firmly for once.

"Y-yes. They, were confident I was going to die, so they didn't seem concerned about what I heard. Even so, I was so scared I only remembered bits and pieces of their conversations. They mentioned, Kakabi? Kakao? I don't remember the name, but it reminded me of chocolate…"

"Cocoa Puffs?" Issei blinked.

"Isn't that a cereal in America?" Rias asked before her mind caught up with her. "… Wait, please don't tell me that's another ridiculous nickname you have for someone."

"That's not it, but it sounds really close…" Asia tilted her head to the side in thought.

Rias shook her head. A notable Fallen whose name sounds like Cocopuffs? That was ridiculous. It was… No. No it couldn't be.

She slowly turned to Asia, not wanting to believe that her shot in the dark was true. "Kokabiel?"

"That's it!"

Rias turned to Issei with a flat expression. "… Cocoa Puffs?"

He wasn't looking at her, instead focusing on texting a message on his cell phone. "Given what just happened, do you really want to stick your neck out for that ass' dignity?"

"Cocoa Puffs?" Clearly she wasn't going to let it go.

He rolled his eyes. "I met him when I was eight. I was on a trip in the states, and it was right after breakfast. Zaz thought it was fucking hilarious, and it stuck. Prick never gave me a good reason to change it outside of occasional meaningless death threats. Sue me."

Word is the joke had gotten so popular that for a while the Mirren had used cereal based code names for operatives in the field. Apparently, blood was shed more than once over who'd get to be Cinnamon Toast Crunch for the day. That, and nobody seemed to want to be Count Chocula. Ever. Something about a death curse from the Tepes family…

"Well considering what just transpired, those threats might not have been so meaningless, were they?" Rias pressed.

"Have you ever talked to the guy? He speaks in perpetual ultimatums. Everyone gets bored of his crap by the third time they try and hold a civilized conversation with him." Issei shook his head and took out his cell phone. He ignored all the emails and messages he had gotten from the people that still knew he was alive and no doubt heard he had another episode. Instead he texted Azazel a seemingly random message about cereal and sent it.

Whether or not Kokabiel knew Issei had been alive in the first place was irrelevant now. It was clear that the bastard was the one that had sabotaged the Mirren and motivated last night's events. That said, he doubted the asshole was the one that was responsible for the mess behind the scenes. The guy planned big, and as horrifying as last night was, it wasn't his usual style. There hadn't been enough eyes on Kuoh to trigger anything monumental or ensure that the world fell into chaos. At best, the past ten hours could be considered a message of sorts, which wasn't the Cadre's MO in the slightest.

Plus, the bastard REALLY hated Devils, so the idea of him working with a child like Diodora was flat out. It was a miracle he had tolerated Vali being around Azazel as long as he had.

In short, Diodora enlisted the Khaos Brigade for kidnapping Asia, and some person from there enlisted Kokabiel to manage the grunt work. Kidnapping happens, Beelzebub twists the plan and routes everything through Kuoh.

Kokabiel… should have called off the mission once Asia was found and exposed. He's an ass, but he's not stupid. He is one of the original leaders of the Fallen after all. You don't have that position for so long without dying by being a moron. There's too much attention and presence in this city to move carelessly, but he still did. Meaning that he was pressed to by the contact in the Brigade, even if it would force him to waste resources and expose his hand…

Issei clicked his tongue. They had been played. Diodora was the excuse and Kokabiel was the patsy. They had been pawns in a play specifically tailored to expose him once everything was set in Kuoh. Ajuka, that idiot. The Maou's intentions might have been good, but his impulsive scheme had been turned on all of them.

It would make sense. The Khaos Brigade already knew he was in Kuoh. This might be simply a step up in their recruiting tactics. They're willing to sacrifice such a major resource in the Grigori just to prove a point at this stage.

Which means that they were getting impatient. Something was going to happen soon. Something big.

Fucking chunni power wank assholes just could not take a hint! He didn't want to be a part of their useless circle jerk club!

"Issei?" Rias' voice broke him out of his festering irritation.

"Hm? Wha? Sorry. Zoned out for a sec. You say something?"

"I said, don't you think you should be worried about this? Kokabiel's a ten winged Fallen Angel. A cadre class." Rias sighed. "If he's involved in this, he might seek restitution."

He shook his phone lazily. "Considering I just spread word that he's partially responsible for this fiasco, I think he's going to be busy with other issues for the near future." There was a reason why Azazel was the guy in charge of the Grigori. Kokabiel was going to have to lay low for a while after this.

Plus, even in his current weakened state, Issei was pretty sure he'd be able to tear apart Kokabiel without too much trouble. There likely be some severe collateral damage depending on the location, but meh. There's bound to be damages regardless when dealing with guys on that level.

Then again, he might be overestimating himself considering he can't even throw a proper straight punch anymore.

"Something wrong?" Apparently his inner monologue had made its way to his face.

"Just lamenting recently discovered personal inadequacies."

"Is it going to be a problem?"

"I'll have it fixed in a few days." This was going to suck. He hated basic stance and strike conditioning. It took forever to set in, even with the Boosted Gear speeding things up. Genius his ass. Not his fault he was the only one that figured out the ultimate learning shortcut for the Boosted Gear.

Rias and Asia looked at one another, confused and concerned. "Well, is there anything else you need to know? From the sound of things, not much happened after Asia entered the church outside of what we already covered." That is, so long as they didn't discuss his massacre of the previous inhabitants of the now demolished building.

"No. We pretty much covered all the parts that matter. For now." He sighed. "Unless the puppy has anything else she thinks is important."

The nun looked slightly nervous about being put on the spot again, avoiding eye contact for a few seconds before looking straight at Issei. "Stai bene?"

His Italain was poor at best, but it was enough to know that she was asking about his welfare.

It left a bad taste in his mouth. She had nearly been killed, and he had effortlessly massacred what felt like half a hundred people in a near blind rage, and she was asking if he was okay.

"… Figurati." He muttered, looking away, losing the desire to talk to her any more for the time being.

Rias tried poorly to hide her smile. She found these small moments where Issei allowed himself to open up to be absolutely adorable.

And then, as if on cue, three stomachs rumbled loudly, indicating that they were displeased and malnourished.

"Ah. I guess we're hungry." Rias blushed. "With all that's happened, it makes sense that we haven't eaten in a while…"

Issei nodded before realizing something. "Crap. The others downstairs probably haven't had much either." Odds are the Devils downstairs didn't even contemplate raiding the kitchen out of fear that he'd take some offense to it and kill them all in an overreaction.

With an annoyed sigh, he picked up his phone and began to dial a number. "I'll have food covered. You two go to the others and tell them, I dunno, I'm not likely to kill them now. You can use the showers too. Eating while covered in day old blood and dust doesn't enhance the experience unless you're coming off of a battle high."

Rias paused halfway in translating to examine everyone and noticed that yes, all three of them were covered in dust, ash, and blood from last night's activities. Mostly because they had all slept on top of Issei who was halfway covered it all.

Surprisingly, Asia took it all fairly well. She only looked slightly ill and uncomfortable.

"Thank you for your hospitality." Rias nodded politely. "But, from the way you spoke, it sounded like you weren't going to talk to everyone yourself."

"I'm not." He flatly stated, his eyes focused on his phone as he input his lunch order. "All my nerves are firing off like haywire. I can barely handle the fact that you two are in my room right now."

If someone even attempted to join in on the conversation right now, he was pretty sure he'd just kick the girls out of his room or just walk into the bathroom and pretend the world didn't exist.

All things considered though, taking into account what just happened, he was far better than he expected. He was still capable of coherent thoughts, complete sentences, and holding a semi decent conversation.

"Do you need any help?" Rias asked.

"I just need time." He breathed out slowly, hitting the send button to place his order. "Pizza should be here in about half an hour. Go talk to the Enabler and get cleaned up."

Rias and Asia looked at one another concerned. "Do you need us to do anything else? We can check up on Asami and Raynare for you."

Issei paused for a moment before sighing. "Mom can come in whenever she wants. She knows me well enough to know when's a good time to talk and when isn't. But… make sure the Cougar comes in here at some point. I need to have a talk with her."

It only took a few moments for Rias to get an idea of what he was talking about. "Issei. You're not actually considering…"

He cut her off before she could go any further. "If you don't mind, I think it would be best if you moved sooner rather than later. We only have so much hot water in the house."

Especially since he took ridiculously long showers himself.

Partially because of his habit of trying to find a proper way to drown himself in said showers over the past few years.

Drowning in a bath was a coward's way out, and jumping in with a toaster was just begging for everyone to rip on you long after you're dead and gone. If he ever managed to off himself in the bathroom, he was going to die standing while in the therapeutic comfort of hot water hammering down on his naked body damn it.

Look, in hindsight, it's surprisingly difficult to actually manage to properly drown in a shower. It totally was not a poor excuse for a depressed teen to take abnormally long showers.

Nor was it simply a personal challenge he took after his mom called his bluff and asked him how he could possibly drown himself in the shower in the first place when he used that particular excuse, prompting him to genuinely try and find a way to prove that it was in fact possible and thus that he was right.

… Don't judge him.

"Fine." Rias sighed. "We'll leave it at that. Come on Asia. Issei might be throwing excuses at us, but he is right. We're all due for some cleaning right now." And some new clothes in general, if the nun's torn and stained garbs were any indication.

The Italian clearly looked like she didn't want to leave just yet, but she could read the room enough to know that it probably wasn't going to happen and allowed herself to be ushered out without too much fuss, leaving Issei alone in his room once more.

The chambers were silent for what felt like an eternity before he allowed himself to breathe in deeply and loudly.

The scents of the two girls permeated his senses, and he had to suppress a shudder that made his body nearly convulse.

"… Damn it."

Fuck drugs. It had taken all of his self-control to keep his mind from whiting out since waking up.

He knew that the scents of any female that wasn't his mother would have an effect on him while he was going through puberty, but holy shit this was something else entirely. His libido was expected to be overactive given his body, his personal interests, and his dragonic nature. Throw in the fact that his entire respiratory system was replaced via Ddraig, and it was near essential that he filter the air he breathed through his nose at all times if he wanted to even contemplate functioning like a sentient being for an extended period of time.

And then he somehow spent eight hours sleeping in the hands of two hormone driven and extremely attractive teenage females after running on an adrenaline fueled murder high, thus shattering nearly all of his mental defenses he had set up over the years when it came to resisting his more base urges.

This was not going end well.

And not simply because sooner or later people would no doubt discover he was apparently an olfactofiliac.

Apparently, spending a decade drowning oneself in porn paraphernalia while shutting oneself from the world at large could help one's body adapt to the sight, sound and thought of sex, but smell was still very much on the board. Especially if one had enhanced dragonic olfactory system mixed with teenage hormones.

Vali was never going to let him live this shit down if he ever found out about this.

And here he thought he was safe so long as he didn't touch anyone without preparing himself ahead of time.

For better or for worse, the severity of the situation and the constant distractions had been enough for him to stay reasonably sane and not sport a perpetual erection for the past twenty minutes. His familiarity with his body, all things sex, and his mental trauma also helped keep himself in check.

Until now.

His hands twitched.

He meant it when he said he didn't masturbate. Having a Dragon capable of killing Gods in one hand and a legitimate embodiment of the absolute end of multiversal existence in the other tended to kill the very idea of pleasuring oneself via standard methods.

… But Yaweh fucking damn it he had never had the urge to crank one out more than he did right now! Fucking teenage testosterone charged pubescent body! Fucking hormone saturated Weeb and Ninja Puppy! Fucking… fuck!

He breathed in deeply again, and cursed as he realized he had forgotten to filter his nose and just more or less given himself another hit of that sweet sweet ambrosia.

As if this shit couldn't get worse…

"Oi. Gremory said you wanted to talk?" Raynare knocked on the door and tentatively peeked inside.

He stood corrected. He really should have jumped in the shower while he had a chance for the briefest moment to clear his skull. And another shot of trying to drown himself.

Oh well. At the very least, he had something to distract himself with, and it wasn't as if he wasn't in a poor mood already.

That, and the back of the chair was doing a marvelous job of hiding his erection from this angle. That would have been awkward.

He sighed deeply, performing the needed mental gymnastics required to put him in the mood for the unpleasant conversation ahead. "Come inside. You can walk?"

Despite the seemingly stupid question, Raynare didn't immediately snark back a reply. Instead she almost slipped into the room and quietly closed the door behind her. "Still feeling some tingling below my waist, but I can walk. Running will take a day or two though."

"Mmm." If he was pleasantly surprised by how little sass she was giving him, he didn't show it. Instead he simply took note of the simple short black dress and white jacket over it, her normal day clothes. "I take it you have an idea why you're here."

"You mean other to rip on me because I failed to prevent that useless doll from being kidnapped, and your mom and I almost killed?" She gave him a dry look, her personality finally starting to rear itself.

Issei sighed.

One of the Beast's eyes opened.

Instead of the entire town of Kuoh, only Raynare felt the effects of his Presence this time.

Well, her and the doorframe behind her if the sudden cracks and splinters were any indication.

"I do hope that you are smarter than you've shown me so far. Because I will be exceptionally disappointed in Azazel if his idea of a personal watcher for me is simply a walking pair of tits and ass." Issei's tone was cold and without mercy. He did not care in the slightest that the Fallen Angel in front of him looked like she was having trouble breathing and standing.

He glanced at the couch in front of him. "Sit."

As if the word had released her from her temporary paralysis, Raynare stumbled forward, barely making it to the furniture before collapsing on it in a cold sweat.

"In case you were wondering if this is what virtually everyone else in Kuoh experienced while you were unconscious, no." Issei didn't let up on his focus on her in the slightest. "What they went through was vastly worse. So if you have any complaints about your current treatment, I would pick my words very carefully."

She nodded shakily, not daring to say anything that might possibly set off the titanic beast in front of her. Just having its attention weigh on her being was enough to make breathing difficult.

She couldn't bow or look away. Her instincts told her that she would be killed if she even tried such a stupid thing.

"I'll ask you again, spy of the Grigori. Do you know why I asked for you to come here so soon after waking up? Why I am speaking to you instead of tending to those you failed to protect as is your task?"

"I… I, can only make an assumption." Raynare swallowed heavily, realizing that she was in far deeper trouble than she had initially guessed.

"Then assume."

"You wouldn't let the nun out unless you talked to her already. About what happened. You know I spoke to the other Fallen Angels. That I knew they were still in town despite the fact you thought they had left." She shivered. "If… if you just wanted to get rid of me for what happened to Asami, you wouldn't have wanted to simply talk."

"Then you know just how precarious your position is right now." Issei stated factually. "You failed your job. You allowed enemy agents to get close. It will not take much to make assumptions about your loyalties."

Raynare paled.

"Well?"

"N-no! That's not what it was at all!" She shook her head frantically. "I knew they were here for the nun, but I kept telling them to get the hell out of town! I thought that they'd get caught by the Mirren when you told me they were coming! I thought-"

"They knew where I was going to be last night." Issei's cold statement stopped her flat. "They knew I was with Dio. They knew I was helping the Devils. They knew that their best chance to stall me was to wound my mother so I'd be distracted so they could escape."

They knew because she had told them.

"The only reason why we are talking, and why you currently do not resemble one of the half a hundred people I massacred last night, is because you still tried to protect those two." His tone was flat and emotionless. Cold and clinical. "You were stabbed through your sternum that left a two centimeter radius hole. Your T6 through T8 thoracic spinal units were all but obliterated. It's a wound that even Phoenix Tears would not be able to cleanly address without additional proper aid. The measures I took to keep your useless ass alive went beyond extensive, and cost more than you could fathom, and even then your live would have been lost without the help of the girl."

He leaned in slowly, the image of a crimson dragon's skull craned over Raynare until a mouth large enough to tear her apart as an afterthought hovered over her like a death sentence.

"Right now, the one you should be dedicating everything to convince you deserve mercy is not that idiot Azazel, but me. No backtalk. No misdirection. No lies. Or I cash in that debt you owe with my recently blood covered bare hands. One more coating won't make much of a difference at this point."

Raynare swallowed heavily and nodded.

Issei retracted slowly, but did not allow her to fully recover. "They didn't know who I was, but they knew enough. You spoke to them a few days ago at the latest. I only did jobs with Dio this week."

She nodded quickly. "T-Tuesday night. You know I go out drinking. Dohnaseek, he kept tabs on me. Gave me someone to vent to. I kept on telling him to drop the thing with the nun and get out of town, but he wouldn't bite. Didn't think his group would actually last this long without getting caught."

"Did you know who their boss was? The one that sent them after the Ninja Puppy." He asked, testing the waters.

"No. We worked together before, but low ranked groups often move between superiors depending on the job to maintain flexibility. It could have been anyone."

No pausing to think. No dilating of the eyes. Either she didn't know or she had practiced the answer, having expected it beforehand.

"And if that higher up happened to have sway over the Mirren, would you have a better idea of who it was?" Issei frowned.

His question had her stunned. She clearly hadn't expected the conversation to turn this way. "O-over the Mirren? You mean they were compromised?! That's how they were able to stay in town for so long?!"

"Answer my question." He held his ground, clearly testing her.

"There's only a handful of Grigori that are capable of ordering those guys around in the first place. There's no way someone of my rank would know them all. Only those with eight wings and above have a hope of getting any authority over special operations, and even then few ever go through the hurdles needed to obtain such political power. The only person that Dohnaseek's team directly worked under in the past fifty years with that much clout that I know of was…" She froze and looked at Issei terrified. "Kokabiel? Lord Kokabiel was the one that almost got me killed?"

He didn't answer or deny her conclusion. The fact that she came up with the cadre's name was not proof that she was innocent or guilty. Merely that they hadn't reached a topic that she was willing to hide or skirt around. Yet. "Think harder about your position. You're supposed to be a spy."

"What do you mean think harder? I knew that Lord Kokabiel was unhappy with the way things were going and how Lord Azazel was handling things lately, but I didn't think he'd do something as ridiculous as this in the middle of nowhere!" She snapped before trying to calm down. "My position? What are you talking about? All I did was… no. No no no. You think that I'm a traitor that was working for Lord Kokabiel since the start?"

"You fed them information. You knew too much. You were a loose end, and you were cut down like one. You're not just a traitor. You're a liability to both sides."

"Shut up! They wouldn't kill me for this! Fallen don't kill kin unless we absolutely have to! There's too few of us to afford going wild like that! You know that!" She nearly cussed, visibly starting to panic and reason out her circumstances. "Even if we belong to different groups, trading random meaningless information is practically shaking hands in our field. It's our way of ensuring we don't step on eachother's toes when on the job. I've worked with and known Dohna's group for decades. The only reason why they'd go so far to kill me in the first place is if someone of Lord Kokabiel's rank specifically told them to go through with it!"

"Fallen have been known to overstep their bounds on the job before."

"Not when on direct orders from the top brass!" Raynare was borderline hyperventilating now. "Not when all three factions are looming over our damn heads on something! Hell, I haven't even done anything involving Lord Kokabiel since that job I took in Bellerose in the 80's!" Best not to go into further details on that particular mission if she could help it. She was used to messy jobs, but even she had limits on what she could tolerate without contemplating wiping her own memories so she could sleep without nightmares.

"But you still shook hands with the people that nearly killed you and my mother and went after the puppy, after you told them for weeks to get the hell out of town and conveniently assumed they were capable enough to hide from the Mirren." He pointed out factually. "Are you an idiot, or did you really think they were just somehow staying around just for you?"

Raynare grit her teeth and fists. "What do you want me to say? I told you. I thought they were going to get caught sooner or later or grow a brain cell between the three of them and get the hell out of town. Do you know what snitching on them, on fellow Fallen, would have done to me if word had gotten out? To my name in the underground circles? I might as well have put a hit out on myself. Even Lord Azazel wouldn't be able to protect me from that kind of fallout without bending over backwards, which would have drawn even more eyes my way. Until something happened that could excuse my actions, the best I could do was just keep tabs on them and trying to enjoy my time away from you whenever I could. Fuck, I was purposefully running up Dohnna's tab so he'd leave sooner!"

Her poor, poor liver.

"A convincing story. Saturating it in incompetency makes it very easy to believe." Though it would explain why she was so frequently plastered to such extremes. Even Issei had trouble believing that Raynare was that heavy of an alcoholic. Truth be told, the three factions had stronger concoctions that were easily available to them. Mundane alcohol was, to put it lightly, a bit weak for them to imbibe in heavily and regularly.

"I'm not a traitor!" She stood up in frustration, allowing her black wings to flare out angrily, brushing against his ceiling in the process. "Lord Azazel was the one that gave me this job and I accepted it. You're a right asshole, brat, but that's not nearly enough to make me do what you're insinuating!"

He gave her a bored look. "In the long run it doesn't matter what I think. I don't exist. Even if I let you live, if I even believe you, will everyone else?"

She froze.

"A lone agent of the Grigori, who has been confirmed to be meeting with the opposing party who is linked to a high ranking traitor. One that compromised a black mission, and the Mirren themselves. Cut down no doubt to being a loose end and was saved by the one that she was tasked to protect and keep an eye on in the first place. Would you trust someone like that? Would you put that person on any missions that matter in the future?"

No. She wouldn't.

Even if she was telling the truth, when recent events were relayed to her like this, the fact that she had compromised the mission to this degree was nothing short of nauseating.

She was screwed. Completely and unequivocally screwed. Even if she was cleared of everything, her carelessness would without question be noted on her records in big gold fucking letters. She'd never be put on any decent assignments again. She'd be stuck among the worst of all grunt jobs, which tended to be extremely hazardous to one's health with very few benefits.

Her legs collapsed and she fell back into the couch again. Her wings, once outstretched and defiant, started to curl around her body like a protective blanket.

"What do you want from me? Is this all just some joke to you? To get your fucking kicks and watch me freak out before I'm ruined for life? Is that why you saved me?" Her voice was shaking like the rest of her body. She was slowly losing control over herself as the reality of her situation began to sink in.

"I'm insulted that you would even insinuate I'd have such a petty and base fetish." His tone was blank and unemotional.

"Then why even bother with this in the first place? What do you want?" She gave him a cold glare. "You were with Gremory all morning. She probably knows about my fuck up too, meaning the Maou and Lord Azazel will probably know before night comes. Even if she doesn't say anything, it wouldn't take much for the upper brass to figure out my mistakes. There's no point in offering to spread my legs to buy myself time now."

"I want to know how much you value your life. And your future. I have trouble believing you're interested in either from what I've seen." He stated bluntly, not at all hiding his mild surprise that she had figured out that much in her current distressed state.

"Of course I do. What sort of stupid question is that?" She sneered weakly. "My being miserable because of your insane ass isn't reflective of my will to live."

"Is it?" He frowned. "Because from what I can tell, when you haven't been bemoaning your fate, you're lounging around the house despite touting how you are superior to humans in general. You put no effort into anything you do or bettering yourself. Even the fresh reincarnated Devils here, children that haven't even finished puberty even by human standards, are more productive and are growing faster than you. You haven't put any effort into giving anyone a reason to stick their neck out for you."

"And you have?" She growled.

"I went out of my way to show them ways to get stronger. Without asking for anything in return. And they actually listened to me. I don't have to do anything to know they are sticking to my advice."

Raynare didn't immediately respond to that, knowing that he was right.

Her silence didn't last long though.

"Your ways for them to get stronger didn't involve chasing them with dildos the size of my forearm you ass!"

"Of course not. Because they weren't out of shape. Because they are fresh children that don't know anything other than the basics of genuine combat and a few flashy parlor tricks. Because they are active enough that their bodies have already met the bare minimum standards needed to learn and develop new abilities. Unlike you, who have been neglectful, who actually has decades worth of combat experience, and as such requires to literally rebuild your foundation from the ground up to a significantly higher standard than them before even considering learning anything new. Let alone reach the necessary requirements and tricks to become a proper higher tiered Fallen with the fucking potential to be the first Seraphim in the past three centuries."

She froze. And not because Issei's irritation had been leaking out to the point that several items in the room were shaking.

Did, did she hear him right?

"S-Seraphim?" She echoed, not believing her ears. "Twelve wings? I… I could be a-?"

"Not in this reality, the way things are going." He leveled with her, his temper ebbing away with a heavy sigh. "You want to know why Azazel sent only you of all the endless grunts and dregs of your species to a high value target like me. A simple two winged cunt that is more suited for being pretty than being useful. Correct?"

She didn't respond, knowing that it was a loaded question.

He shook his head. "I don't know how on earth he managed to find you, or pick out your, irregularities. You are a straw colored needle in a haystack. A natural microfracture in the great system itself. More proof that… regardless, you are peculiar and possibly unique specimen, but absolutely useless unless processed properly."

It wasn't hard to realize that Issei had almost talked about something big enough that even he felt it was important enough to keep quiet about. However that didn't matter to her. She was more interested in her supposed hidden potential.

"In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm the only person in the realms that's capable of nurturing that latency you possess, one only found in Angels and Fallen to its full maturation. Azazel has his Sacred Gears. Michael can tap into God's system to some extent. But there is not a single person that can do what I can."

The air in the room got heavy, and Issei's temper clearly began to show.

Raynare wasn't in his room anymore. By all accounts, she was sitting in a cave that stretched out endlessly in every direction, sitting in front of a lazily curled up crimson Dragon so massive that each of its claws dwarfed her in size and power.

The only thing that wasn't lazily curled up was its long neck and head, which was hovering right in front of her, poised to make a snack out of her at her first misstep. No, calling her a snack would mean that she was big enough to be tasted, or satisfy its hunger.

"That, and more, is why the three factions have bent over backwards for me. That is what you risked losing last night. And that is what you may have very well lost for yourself. The fact that I am the Sekiryuutei is a petty supplementary trivia fact compared to the real value I possess to those bickering cowards."

Raynare didn't say anything. She was too busy shivering in terror and abject horror. Her complexion made Gasper's seem almost tan in comparison.

"So I will ask you again. How much do you value your future, and how much of it will you exchange for the hope of being something interesting?"

Some people had to deal with deals with Devils.

Raynare envied those lucky bastards.

o. o. o.

"I still think letting her live was a mistake."

Issei sighed as he stared at the door that Raynare just closed behind her. "We don't have the time to be picky Ddraig. I don't know what's happening soon, but they're not going to wait for me to get better."

"She may not have lied to you yet, but you know it is only a matter of time."

"She's a greedy fool. So long as I can promise her power and growth, she'll stay in line." He shook his head. A skilled liar was a person that knew how to weigh their options and prospects. "Emphasis on fool. I've been steadily weighing her down with my Presence and conditioning her spirit since she's been here. Even the Weeb and the Enabler would have passed out instantly from the treatment I just gave her. It's her body and natural energy that needs conditioning right now, and she can't even tell that much. Stupid Cougar."

If that whiny bitch had put in the slightest bit of effort into keeping herself in shape since she started living in his house, she would have already gotten a second pair of wings by now.

"It wasn't worth the cost. What you had to sacrifice to keep her alive-"

"Is worth it so long as she takes her job seriously from now on." Issei cut the dragon off. "I can't be everywhere, and soon enough she'll practically be my lackey instead of Zaz's. All I have to do is make her semi competent and I won't have to worry about mom and the Ninja Puppy as much in the future when shit goes down. And afterwards."

"Partner…"

"It's an investment for the future Ddraig. Might as well try and make it worth something. Not like I was using that shit for much in the first place."

It was clear that the dragon did not approve of what his host was saying, but he knew better than to go down that road. Again. Nothing would come from it. "You think there will be side effects?"

"Probably. Dragonic energy acts like nuclear radiation at times. It gets in everything if exposed long enough. Hell, mom looks like she's almost a decade younger than she really is just from living in the same house as me."

"I take it you have considered the repercussions should word get out of you potentially raising a second Samael." The infamous Dragon Eater, a hybrid Fallen and Dragon monstrosity that was responsible for Humanity's fall from Eden with Adam and Eve. Out of the many insane and peculiar requests that Issei had made in his childhood, his desire to see the abomination first hand was one of the few that had been rejected so hard and severely that the boy had not once considered making it again.

"Meh. I'll figure something out." He could be a dick at times, but he wasn't going to leave the Cougar high and dry if anyone found out about her ahead of time.

Plus, he knew enough about Samael's treatment in the underworld to scare the living shit out of her into behaving if she ever got any smart ideas in the future.

"For her sake, I hope you do not take that careless attitude when training her. It is likely she will have to reach a certain level of competency sooner rather than later."

Issei didn't reply, knowing that Ddraig was more than simply correct with that statement.

Instead, he simply settled for sighing deeply, and grimaced as he felt his body protest. He could feel his muscles ache, and his skin itch from being in the dirty and bloody clothes from last night.

Welp. It's just one battle after another today, isn't it?

This time showerhead. This time he would get that fucking angle just right…

Unfortunately for him, by the time he got out of the shower, all the pizza he had ordered had been eaten by his guests.

He swore the damn thing was laughing at him from the bathroom.

He swore so much that he had forgotten about his cell phone resting on the desk in his room, rapidly accumulating messages as the day went on.

o. o. o.

Six and a half years ago:

Sirzechs was relaxing on the veranda of his castle with a glass of wine, enjoying the night sky. It was a rare time where he had managed to finally finish all his paperwork for once and earned himself a respite.

"I've put Milicas to bed." His wife, right hand, and maid Grayfia walked up quietly behind him and rested a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"That quickly?" He asked, half impressed and half relieved. His young and only child was still pretty much an infant, albeit old enough to have started walking recently.

"He's growing up well. Your son is a clever child and learns fast."

"Please. We all know that he gets it from his beautiful and perfect mother. All he got from me was his hair." The Maou chuckled as his wife embraced him from behind.

"I never stated otherwise." Despite technically being on the clock, Grayfia allowed herself to make small talk. They were alone after all.

The husband looked back at his wife with a glint of amusement and significantly more lust. "Just because I say it doesn't mean you are allowed to sass your Lord. I may have to punish you for that, Grafyia."

"I see. I suppose I will have to endure greatly at the hands of my liege tonight." Her voice grew heavy and her head drew close to his. "Whatever shall I do…?"

Bzzt.

Just before they were to explore said distressful scenario, a loud buzzing originating from Sirzech's pocket interrupted them.

Normally, they would ignore the call and get back to the heat of things, but there were only a handful of people that had Sirzech's personal cell number, and they had just as many reasons to call that number instead of his office number.

The pair stared deeply into one another's eyes.

Bzzt.

"Do I have to?" He half asked half begged his wife.

"Might as well see what the matter is." She gave him an apologetic smile before slowly pulling away.

"Damn it." With a heavy sigh, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the device, looking at the caller ID and paused. "It's, Issei?"

"The Sekiryuutei?" She paused, her arousal ebbing away faster now. "I don't think he's ever bothered to call you directly before. Did something perhaps happen to Azazel?"

"Only one way to find out." He pressed the answer button and held it up to his head. "Hel-"

He was cut off by the frantic young voice on the other side. "Zaz! Zaz! Zaz! I can't- it's just- the odds of lucking out like this-!"

"Issei. As much as I'd like to be as excited as you, some context would be appreciated." Sirzechs frowned in confusion. Judging from the half blurted sentences, something outrageously good had happened, but that didn't explain why the kid was contacting him instead of Azazel first.

"Ok! Ok! You know Nee-chan? How she's crazy smart and talented and pretty and her oppai are-"

Crack!

"If you're talking about the current owner of Siren's Harmony that I just heard hitting you upside the head, then yes, I know of her." He held back a chuckle. It was hard not to get a report about Issei these days without her name involved at some point. The boy had practically glued himself to the unfortunate young woman's side for over six months now and he didn't look like he was about to stop anytime soon.

"Yeah well, you know that super secret project we were working on all year? The one that we borrowed that experimental living body from Sera for testing?"

"Under extreme duress I'm told. What did they call it again? A Mary Sue? They are pretty expensive from what I've been told." Expensive was putting it lightly. Those living corpses were a mishmash of necromancy, temporal, and white magic, made for the sole purpose of experimenting new pharmaceuticals and medical test procedures. It didn't matter how badly you butchered, poisoned, or mangled the damn things. Once a proper user cast the right spell, the body would heal or deny causality or whatever and return back to normal. Living. Breathing. Smooth skin. Functioning in all the ways that mattered save for the lack of a soul.

You had to be careful about storing them though. Leave one out for too long and, well, experimental or not, the smell of rotting flesh was a bitch and a half to get rid of once it got stuck in something. Reversing causality to clean things up would do jack about it.

Great for testing, and the occasional violent anger outlet, but according to Serafall, the origins for these things were extremely unsettling to look into, and may or may not have involved a human's desperate bid for immortality in a body that could recover from near anything.

But hey. One man's insane bid for immortality was another man's treasure, or tool to develop benefits for the rest of sentient life, or something. Lord knows that was practically the name of the game after WW2 ended.

"It worked!" The boy shouted excitedly into the phone, forcing the Maou to pull away for a moment. "Well, we think it works, and need more tests, but, we think we're really close with this latest batch!"

"That's good, but why are you calling me and not Azazel about your progress, Issei?" Sirzechs sighed. "While I do enjoy talking to you now and then, mad science is more his and Ajuka's field."

That seemed to finally stall the excited child down a bit and put him in an awkward spot. "Y-yeah. You're right. This is up their alley, but, well, I thought you'd might be more interested in it."

That caught him off guard. "Me? Why's that?"

"Well, because you have a kid, and a family." Issei's voice had finally reached normal volume levels, but conversely it never sounded louder to Sirzechs.

"Issei, what exactly are you saying? What were you working on?" The husband, father and ruler licked his lips tentatively.

There was a moment of hesitation before Issei ripped off the bandage. "… We, Nee-san was working on a fertility drug for Devils. Those medical notes that you stole from the remains of the Dantalion Pillar Devil Family helped out a ton. They were sick fucks with their crude experimentation on their prisoners during the war, but they were looking in the right direction. Devils for the most part have similar biological functions as humans. Gestation cycle. Egg count in ovaries. Chemical and physical makeup in the uturus is more or less identical. Male sperm count and ejaculate rate is similar. We narrowed down most of the complications primarily take place during fertilization and development of the fetus, but that's more or less common knowledge in the medical field."

"It is. I'm more than familiar with the complications of pregnancy in our kind." Sirzechs' thoughts went to his son, Milicas. The boy was his and Grayfia's little miracle, and he would do anything for his pride and joy. "Wait, are you saying you've made a development?"

"Yeah, here's the thing. Our hypothesis was that the primary cause for Devil infertility as a whole originates from female Devils and the way your species' magic works on a subconscious level, along with several other factors. Basically, if the mother is even the slightest bit reluctant about getting pregnant, then her body's magic will attack the fetus, or semen in her body. It would explain why, well, there aren't many children born from female rape victims. The increase in hormones during pregnancy doesn't help matters either. One bad stress induced episode and, well, you get the idea."

"There's no need to feel guilty or apologetic Issei. My kind's history does not have the cleanest record, and neither does yours. You are speaking from a purely clinical perspective. There's nothing wrong about that." Sirzechs shook his head. Devils may be more open minded about sex as a whole, but rape was still rape. It was one of the oldest sins out there, and it wasn't going to stop happening anytime soon. "Regardless, your theory does make sense. I doubt that's what you're so excited about though."

"Yes. I mean no. I mean, trying to address the problem from that perspective, we experimented with a Devil Mary Sue and, we just, lucked out with this concoction that we threw together as a joke because there's no way we should have gotten something this fast, especially considering what we threw into this mix, technically we might get a little bit arrested if anyone found out we had-"

CRACK!

The sound of something colliding with the back of a skull and a young woman hissing angrily was heard in the background.

"OW! Damn it Nee-san! I- Okay okay I get it! Zechs, bottom line? I think we actually have something that works."

Sirzechs didn't say anything immediately. Instead he just stared at the phone with wide eyes of disbelief. Glancing at Grayfia, he wasn't surprised that she had the same look of utter disbelief that he probably had.

They must have been like that for at least ten full seconds before he stood up immediately and moved to his office to gather his things.

"You're serious."

"We tried it three times. Set the Sue's magic to be naturally agitated for the tests to simulate anxiety and emotional imbalances, which normally prevented fertilization. We got the green lights from medical spells a week after insemination and everything. Increased biological reactions. Demon chorionic gonadotropin elevation. It's all there."

"You're sure about this?"

"Sure enough to call you about it. We have test reports, documentation and everything. Next step for something big like this is sponsorship to increase quantitative and qualitative testing on the devil population at large to get concrete parameters for this thing. Accuracy. Trueness. Robustness. Reproductability. Analytic sensitivity. Something this big needs to run through the full gambit before being an available product to the masses. That said, it really looks like it has a shot of making it in the first place. Or at least, we're on the path of finding something that does."

"… Stay where you are. We're coming right now. Tell Azazel of my arrival but for everyone's sake don't utter a word of this to anyone else until I arrive."

"R-right!"

Hanging up the phone, Sirzechs walked quickly to get his things in order before teleporting to the college. He could only hope that he got there before Azazel caught wind of what was happening. The heads of the three factions were trying to broker a peace arrangement, but that sure as hell didn't mean that they were done trying to one up one another in the long run.

"Brother?"

He paused just outside his office to see his adorable eleven year old little sister facing him. He could already see her starting to grow up into the radiant woman that she would eventually become. "Rias? What are you doing here?"

The young girl blushed and looked away nervously. "I heard that you had finished your work for the night. You've been so busy lately and I thought…"

"You missed talking to your big brother." Sirzechs sighed, kneeling in front of her with a loving smile. "And here I am rushing out because something happened. Don't be ashamed of yourself Rias. It's not your fault. I would love nothing more than to catch up with you, but this got sprung up on me by surprise as well, and I have to attend to it as soon as I can."

"I figured. It must be bad. You almost never rush like that." The girl pouted.

"Are you jealous?"

"No." Yes.

"I assume that Akeno is keeping an eye on young Milicas?"

"Of course! I would never leave him alone!" Rias looked aghast at the idea of leaving her adorable toddler of a nephew unsupervised. Even when asleep.

"Calm down Rias. I'm just teasing you. I know you're smarter than that." The Maou affectionately rubbed his little sister's head. Ah how blessed he was to have such an adorable and caring sibling.

While he was truly curious to see what it would be like to introduce her to Issei, he knew that it wasn't a smart idea to do so yet. Not because he was afraid of her chastity or Issei being a bad influence, but what the meeting would lead up to.

Akeno was Rias' Queen. Where one went, so did the other. While they were all mature for their ages (conditionally, in Issei's case), they were still children. There was no telling just how badly it could turn out if they were exposed to the truth right now. Maybe in a few years…

"Brother?"

He flinched at his lack of self-control and finally took his hand away from the girl's head. "Ah, sorry. I got lost in my thoughts for a moment. I really have to go now Rias."

"Fine. But you have to make up for it later." He turned to walk away before a thought crossed his mind. "Hey. I know it's been some time since you took Akeno as your Queen, but how is she adapting?"

"Akeno? She's doing fine. She's a lot happier than when we first found her." She tilted her head to the side slightly confused.

"Good. That's good." Sirzechs sighed. One of the recent updated conditions for the peace plans with the Fallen was constant updates to Baraquiel on the status and wellbeing of his daughter. Azazel didn't say it outright, but they all suspected that those reports were the only thing keeping the unfortunate man from going off the deep end at the moment. "I should be back this morning. If you need anything, Okita should be able to help. I've been told you like his stories."

"I know. I just, when you said it was ok for me and Akeno to visit and stay over for once, I thought…"

"That I'd be around for it. I know." He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. "I'll make it up for you. I promise."

"Okay." Rias slumped in dejection. "Be careful brother. Grayfia."

"Don't worry. It's nothing dangerous. Just, unexpected." Sirzechs smiled before turning around.

"Have a good evening Rias. And thank you for your understanding." Grayfia bowed politely before following her husband.

Half an hour later they were with Azazel, Issei, and Jasmine in their rented medical laboratory.

In the middle of the room was a naked living Devil body without a soul. All the medical equipment and spells stated that it was in the beginning stages of Pregnancy.

All thanks to an emerald green concoction that had been thrown together in a frustrated impulse over a month ago, containing trace amounts of several illegal street drugs that were classified as uninhibitors.