Chapter 1:

Chapter 1:

Rias Gremory put her pen down as she had finally finished the last of paperwork on her clubroom desk.

As a high-class devil, the heiress of Gremory household, a part of 72 Pillars of the Underworld - she had been given upbringing, education, and responsibilities that would prepare her to inherit her family name, which entailed even more responsibilities in managing the Underworld and its denizens, as well as looking out towards the two opposing Factions; the fallen angels of Grigori, and the angels of the Heaven.

In her teenage years, Rias, using the limited freedom available to her, attended a Japanese high school in a small town called Kuoh in the human world with her friends and peerage from the Underworld. Mingling with humans was enjoyable, among those who simply saw her as a beautiful girl from Finland - simply as Rias, not Rias of the Gremory household.

Though, Rias sometimes hoped that the entire student body would calm down a bit every time she walked by. She was aware, and took pride of her own attractive beauty, but she could think of at least a few women who could surpass her visual appeal.

While attending the school normally, Rias had founded an extracurricular club, The Occult Research Club, as a cover for her to manage her job as a devil in overseeing Kuoh as well as dealing with supernatural matters with the members of her peerage; her Queen, Knight, Rook, and Bishop.

"Thank you for the hard work today, President."

Ah, speak of the devil - no pun intended, her Queen, as well as one of her best and oldest friends Also, one of the few that Rias deemed that was more attractive than her in more ways than one - Akeno Himejima, just dutifully served her favorite cup of tea to help her relax after long work.

"Thanks, Akeno. How are the others doing?" Rias smiled as she enjoyed the scent and the taste of her drink.

"Fine as usual, ufufu" Akeno tittered with her signature voice as she tidied up the papers and tray she used to serve the tea earlier. "...Rather, you seem to be in a pleasant mood yourself, Rias."

Rias only hummed knowingly as her teal eyes glanced at a folder, which contained the investigation on her latest individual of interest - one Issei Hyoudou. A new student who transferred into the second year of high-school in Kuoh Academy around the beginning of the first semester, and he had already caught her attention, as well as the interest of her fellow high-class devil who posed as the Student Council President - Sona Sitri.

His background was curious; he used to stay in Kuoh until he had to move out when he was 10 years old, though, during his stay, the neighbors claimed that they rarely saw the father around, presumably working out of the town or overseas.

His record from his previous school was one of the reasons Rias and Sona wanted to scout him as a prospective new peerage member; his academic scores were average, but his scores on the physical education test were off the charts. While he did not show any interest in joining or focusing on a sports career, Issei had shown an impressive display of strength, speed, and endurance; enough that every sports club around the school wanted to recruit him when everyone saw Issei's performance during their P.E. According to those who saw Issei in the changing room, he was surprisingly muscular underneath his clothes.

Another interesting fact; according to the students who talked to him, Issei claimed that he had some interest in martial arts. Kuoh Academy had some martial-arts clubs; kendo, judo and aikido. However, Issei surprisingly was not interested in joining either for reasons unknown.

However, the real cream on the crop was, according to Koneko Toujou - her Rook, Rias' Rook with particularly gifted senses, Issei had a scent of a dragon. Dragons were creatures who were known to be notoriously powerful; people who possessed the power of dragons were sought after around the world for their strength and growth potential. On those accounts, Issei most likely possessed some kind of dragon-based ability, lineage or perhaps Sacred Gear; the 'what' was something Rias might have to gamble later on.

Socially and characteristically speaking, opinions around Issei were something on the fence. The boy was friendly enough; some girls believed he was a closet pervert when they found him befriending the school's infamous perverted duo - Matsuda and Motohama, although nobody had ever caught Issei joining the former two's misadventures.

On the other hand, both girls and boys were jealous, because apparently, Issei had been acquainted with one cool beauty Tsubasa Yura - a member of the student council and Sona's Rook, prior to his arrival at Kuoh. The two could be seen hanging out during lunch-breaks and even would go home together from time to time.

Sadly, that particular factor became a disadvantage against Rias' favor; not long after Issei had transferred in, Tsubasa recommended Issei to be a new member for Sona's peerage, thus giving the Sitri heiress a head-start to scout him. In other words, Rias was not allowed to make any move towards the boy; though she was still allowed to keep tabs on him as long as Rias would share her findings on a regular basis.

The silver lining, at least, was that Issei still showed no interest in joining any clubs, including the student council - a cover for Sona's peerage. The president herself, on the other hand, could not get him to join by force either; hence, giving Rias a small hope.

Several days ago, however, both Rias and Sona received a report that Issei had been approached by a fallen angel during his walk home from school. Turned out, according to Koneko who was in charge of keeping tabs on him that day, Issei and the fallen were set out on a date on the coming weekend.

Angels, fallen angels, and devils were supernatural entities that originated from the same Judeo-Christian religion, and the three factions were at war for at least 2,000 years ago. However, certain events caused the war to be halted and the three factions announced a cease-fire which led to a state of cold-war. While managing Kuoh, Rias and Sona would receive reports of angels and fallen angels sightings in their territory, but mostly they were merely passing by without causing trouble. But a fallen angel making a move on a potential contractor, possibly a peerage member? The thought brought frowns on Rias and Sona's faces.

Then, this was where Rias' luck came to play; on the day of Issei's date with the fallen, Rias received a report from her familiar, who was tasked to hand out summoning flyers for potential contractors around the town; the said familiar had stumbled on Issei on pure accident and the latter actually received the offered summoning flyer.

A human bearing traces of draconic power out on a date with a fallen - something was bound to happen, and if not, it was only a matter of time until Issei would summon her. Rias did agree with Sona not to approach him, but if the boy himself asked her to come? What could she say, all she did was do her job as a devil. It was not as if she would directly ask him to join her peerage as soon as they met, but it would be enough for her to appeal on his good side.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience

If Issei ultimately decided to join her peerage instead of Sona's? Well, Sona just had to suck it up.

Hours went by, and Rias was tapping her finger on her desk. The night had fallen, the rest of her peerage had retired to their homes, yet there was no sign of Issei summoning her. According to her familiar, Issei had met the fallen at around noon, and while she never dated anyone, there was still a common-sense where dates that started at noon would usually end at around night unless Issei and the fallen decided to engage in certain 'activities' until morning.

If that were the case, things could go badly for both her and Sona. It was a common tactic used by fallen angels in order to gain human followers, they would approach the humans with the promise of power, wealth and sometimes pleasure, to tempt the humans and induct them into Grigori's services. Or worse, the fallen would conduct something irreparable.

However, before Rias could have concluded a worst-case scenario, a red magic circle bearing the symbol of her clan appeared in the room's mid-center, a summon from a client. When Rias checked the records, her face lit up when she learned the summoner's name, Issei Hyoudou himself.

Wasting no time, Rias hurried to her room before the mirror to scrutinize her appearance, making sure she looked presentable enough for a good first impression. In case things were awry when she met him, she made sure that she had her Evil Pieces with her - tools the Devils use to recruit new members into their peerage by converting them into Devils, impure ones, however.

Once assured, Rias confidently stepped into the glowing circle and vanished in a crimson light.

X

When Rias arrived at Issei's location, she was met with the sight that was completely out of her expectation. The first thing she saw was her client; a young man with spiky brown hair wearing a set of casual clothes - sneakers, jeans, and a jacket over a polo shirt. She then looked around to find that she was at the public park of the town. There was no fallen angel in sight, only Issei and her.

"Um... Gremory-senpai?"

Rias then returned her attention to the boy who just addressed her. "Ah, right. Issei Hyoudou, correct?"

When the man nodded, Rias herself suddenly found herself out of her depth upon realizing the situation before her was far simpler than she thought, defying her expectations and previous knowledge. In any case, she just needed to improvise as she would learn what had transpired, "Yes, I'm the devil you summoned, Rias Gremory at your service. Please, state your wish before me, summoner."

Issei blinked for a couple of times before replying, "Oh, it's nothing too big. I honestly didn't expect I would end up summoning you. Is Is it really okay if I ask help from you?"

Rias smiled - things were unexpected, but still seemed salvageable. "Of course, we devils respond to human desires - granting their wishes in exchange for an appropriate reparation. So what can I help you with?"

Issei scratched his cheek awkwardly, "Well. The thing is I lost my wallet."

Rias blinked once, then twice, before responding, "...I beg your pardon?"

"Yeah, it's silly, I know." Issei rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I was out on a date with this one girl Kind of, then one thing after another later, when I got home, I realized my wallet is not with me anymore. So I've been spending the past one hour tracing back my way around."

Rias then blinked thrice before she quickly regained her wits. "Err Okay, okay. So you were out on a date with this girl, and. May I ask how it went?"

"Well." Issei looked away for a second before replying, "It's okay, I guess? Things didn't work out in the end, though."

Rias stared at Issei before asking again, "Didn't work out.Right, so did the girl do anything to you?"

Issei seemed to contemplate his answer for a second with pursed lips. "...Nope, nothing really happened to me."

That's it? - Rias narrowed her eyes ever so slightly as she picked the signs of the young man hiding something from her. "Did she say anything, or ask anything about you seeing her again or something?"

"No, no. Things didn't work out between us. I don't think I'll see her again, at least not for anytime soon." Issei replied a tad too quickly.

Rias nodded; for the time being, she could only accept the answer as it was. "Okay So right now you can't find your... wallet?"

Issei blinked once as if he just remembered his current predicament. "...Yeah, yeah. So can you help? I mean, if this request comes off as a pain to you, I understand. I'll just pay you for the trouble and figure something out myself later."

"Oh, no, no. Please, don't misunderstand. It's not that I mind." Rias waved her hands placatingly. "Your request was kind of unexpected, but not that uncommon. Don't worry about that."

In truth, the request was actually uncommon, especially for high-class devils. Devils from different classes had different job requests. For Rias, a high-class devil, the number of requests directed at her were little compared to her servants, but most of her jobs involved purging curses or evil entities that bothered her clients. Issei's request technically did not suit her status by a text-book standard, but considering that Rias had already answered the summoning herself, she had to see it through.

Besides, she actually found this kind of job to be a refreshing change of pace - Rias Gremory, helping a human looking for a lost wallet? The idea made her giggle inwardly; for better or worse, it was close to a once in a life-time experience.

"If you don't mind, then. I will be counting on you." Issei bowed politely.

"That's fine by me." Rias smiled again. "So first of all, can you tell me when was the last time you saw your wallet with you?"

oXo

With Rias' help and insight, it did not take long for her and Issei to narrow the search area. According to Issei, the last time he used his wallet was when he bought a couple of soft-cream for him and one Yuuma Amano - his earlier date. Currently, both of them were looking around near the park entrance; Rias was scanning the ground, beneath the benches and near the vending machines, while Issei was looking through the bushes and the nearby trees.

While searching, Rias decided to strike up the conversation to lighten the atmosphere. "So, tell me, Ise - Is it okay for me to call you Ise?" She glanced at Issei, who sent her a quick nod. "...You seemed to take things well when I showed up in front of you. Is this not your first time summoning a devil?"

"Well. Tsubasa told me about the whole devils inside the school and she's actually the first devil I summoned. Though, that summoning was just me testing the pamphlet out of boredom. I ended up asking her just to play games with me." Issei scowled a bit when he found an old discarded shoe instead of his wallet inside a bush. "...Oh, afterward my mom became her regular."

Rias raised her eyebrows as she nodded - that was one interesting piece of information. "So your mother also knows about devils, then?"

"Yeah, kind of hard not to; especially when she saw a girl just magically came out of nowhere and vanished in a flash of blue light. Not to mention that Tsubasa once showed us her wings." At Issei's tone, Rias found herself giggling in amusement. "...So, Gremory-senpai, you and the Student Council President have known each other?" He took the turn of asking questions.

"You can just call me Rias as well, Ise And yes, Sona and I have been friends since childhood. I don't know if Ms. Yura has told you this, but both of us are in charge of overseeing supernatural activities within Kuoh." Rias replied. "Speaking of her, I heard that you're invited to join her peerage before? I heard from Sona that Ms. Yura spoke quite highly about you."

Issei ended up smiling in small embarrassment at the remark about Tsubasa. "Well, more like she invited me to join the Student Council. I refused, though. No offense, but I don't think Student Council work is for me."

Rias smiled wistfully, "That's basically the same thing. If you were to accept being her servant, then you'd be expected to join the Student Council as well. The same goes for the opposite, if you join the Student Council, Sona would offer you a place within her peerage in the near future."

"I see, so Sitri-senpai uses the Student Council as a cover for her peerage, while you use your Occult Research Club as your base?"

"That's right, you catch on quickly," Rias remarked with a praising tone.

Issei only shrugged in return. "Um, actually Tsubasa also told me about how the club works."

Rias chuckled again, "Right, of course she has." She walked around and finally saw a black spot at the other side of the fountain in the middle of the park; it was made out of leather and when Rias picked it up, she smiled. "...Ise, I think I found it."

"Really?" Issei's head poked out from a tree, he quickly made his way towards Rias who showed the wallet containing his student ID. "Oh, thank you very much! I know this might come off as strange to say this to a devil, but you're a life-saver!"

Rias giggled when she handed Issei his wallet - the night had been a truly amusing one. "I'm just happy that I can help. Is all your money still accounted for?"

"Well, it's not the cash I'm worried about. This is what I can't afford to lose." Issei looked inside his wallet to see if anything was amiss. He then took out a small parchment. Rias took a closer look and learned that it was a supermarket coupon with several stamps marked on it. "...I'm only a few steps away from getting whatever promotion they have. It actually took months for both me and my mom to get these points."

"I see" Rias nodded her head in mild interest. "So, I take it you have everything in order now?"

Issei closed and pocketed his wallet, making sure that it would not fall off. "Ah, yes. I'm good now. Again, seriously, thank you. Um, what do you wish for the payment now?"

"Hmm What do I wish, really?" Rias playfully tapped her chin. "My job tonight was a bit unusual Say, what do you usually pay Ms. Yura with?"

Issei looked up in thought. "Well. Aside from the pact, my mom usually pays her with free dinner."

Rias hummed - the number of pacts with humans signified a devil's work and performance, the more pacts a devil could get, the more power and approval they could gain in order to rise in ranks. Sometimes, some devils also receive an additional payment other than contract as tips - Rias herself was not an exception; there were more than one occasion when she would receive furniture and antiques that could be worth a pretty penny.

Seeing the opportunity was still open, Rias decided to seize it. "How about you use the money in your wallet to treat me something next weekend? Now that you caught Sona's attention, I'd like to know more about you."

Issei blinked at the request, "...Treating you, taking you out, like a date?" He found himself sounding hesitant at the idea.

Rias shrugged, "I suppose... Do you accept?" She saw right at Issei's orbs.

A few seconds later, Issei nodded. "...Yeah, sure. This day next week at 12 o'clock?"

"It's a date, then." Rias winked and her body began to glow. "I'll take my leave now. It's nice to meet you, Ise." She waved one last time before she vanished in a similar manner she arrived earlier.

Issei sighed - what a long day it is. He then began to trek back home while his mind trailing back to what had transpired before.

oXo

"Say, Ise. Can I ask something from you?"

Issei could not help but blush at her voice. What could he say? Yuma Amano was an attractive-looking woman, despite the faux joy she had been showcasing during their entire date. Scratch that, she probably did have fun, but Issei had a feeling that the fun she had was akin to playing along with the whims of a child and having fun for the sake of not getting depressed, instead of because it was fun. Then again, he himself found the date alright as well, he had fun too.

He did not move much as the girl bypassed his personal space and placed her forehead against his chest. When she looked up a few seconds later, however, her vibrant purple eyes turned cold as she was smirking at him.

"...Will you die for me?"

Issei did not show any outward reaction, though he could not help but feel disappointed - or at least he thought it was disappointment, at the request. The woman in front of him, however, seemingly did not notice the lack of fear and bewilderment in his eyes as she leaped away...

And revealed her true colors.

A pair of black feathered wings sprout out from her back, and her clothes magically transformed into something that came from an adult sex shop. Yuma Amano - if that was even her real name - confidently flapped her wings and floated to the dusk sky. She was about to say something, most likely about how she had been having him dancing on the palm of her hand, and how she was going to end his mundane boring life, yada, yada, yada.

But to her surprise, in one second, the fallen angel suddenly saw something blurred right in front of her. It took a split second for her to recognize that the boy, Issei Hyoudou, had also jumped high enough that he was slightly above her. The next second, Issei had landed a solid punch right on her cheek.

The impact caused one of her teeth to fall out of her mouth with a spray of blood, as the fallen angel fell unceremoniously to the unforgiving ground. Issei landed and rolled his way easily enough, and saw his assailant was groaning on the ground in pain with her back facing him.

Sona's glasses glinted as she held an imperceptible smile. "Then I believe it would make things easier to go to the point." She then met Issei's gaze with hers. "Tsubasa had told me about what happened between you and a fallen angel with the name Yuma Amano. I would like to hear your side of the story."

Issei glanced at Tsubasa, who simply nodded at him. "Well it's pretty much what I told her during break time earlier"

It took a couple of minutes for Issei to retell his version of what had happened the previous evening. Upon finishing his story, most of the occupants in the Student Council room, safe for Tsubasa, were giving Issei some amused and impressed looks - though Sona, Tsubaki, and Rias were rather subtle with their reactions.

"I see Then I'm glad that you are unharmed." Sona closed her eyes for a second before opening them again.

"...So I'm not in trouble?" Issei asked with raised eyebrows.

"Considering your neutral standing and the fact that no other incidents occurred, you are not in any sort of trouble." Sona nodded before she glanced at Rias who was looking pointedly at her. "...However, considering that you are also acquainted with us and aware of our true nature; in the future, we would highly appreciate it if you're to report to us, either Rias or I, should you have another encounter with them, or other foreign entities trespassing this town. Am I understood?"

"Yeah, sorry for keeping quiet." Issei bowed slightly while rubbing the back of his head, before his eyes trailed to Rias. "Sorry for hiding things from you, Rias-senpai. I have my reasons."

Rias sighed at the apology before she gave him a light smile. "I guess it's fine now. Though, I assume your reason is because of your Sacred Gear?"

Doing the similar feat he pulled on Tsubasa earlier, Issei manifested his Sacred Gear; and dismissed the gauntlet once everyone had a proper look. "Again, sorry. Things tend to get awry whenever people find out."

"That's understandable, Mr. Hyoudou. You need not to apologize." Sona held up her hand placatingly. Some others who knew well about Sacred Gears were giving sympathetic looks; they were aware that throughout history, Sacred Gear wielders tend to get hit by misfortune, especially when the power awakens for the first time. It had become a norm that those with powerful Sacred Gears would keep things close to the chest.

"So is there anything else?" Issei asked.

Sona stared at Issei for a few more seconds before she shook her head lightly. "No, I believe that would be all. Unless you have something else that we should be aware of? Perhaps you have decided to join my peerage, after all?" She lightly joked with a small smirk, while Tsubasa was smiling knowingly at Issei, silently encouraging him to accept.

"No, nothing on that yet, I'm afraid." Issei replied, before he turned to Rias. "Ah, that's right. Rias-senpai, do you still want to keep our agreement as it is or do you want another form of payment for yesterday's contract?"

Rias blinked at the question before she snorted in amusement. "There's no need to go that far, Ise. I'm fine with our previous agreement. Though, since you did lie to me, I expect you to show me some good time, okay?" She finished with a playful wink at Issei, who could only laugh awkwardly in return.

On that note, Rias noticed that Sona was giving her own pointed look, which she returned in kind; as if the two were communicating by eye contact alone. But the message was clear; unless Issei decided otherwise, Rias was not allowed to make any recruitment attempt towards him.

Nevertheless, Rias returned her smile towards Issei. "Since all of us are here, I might as well introduce you to my club. This is Koneko Toujou, my Rook." she gestured at the petite girl who simply nodded at Issei, who nodded back.

"...And this is my Knight, Yuuto Kiba." Rias then turned to the blonde pretty boy.

"Nice to meet you, Ise-kun." Kiba smiled at the introduction.

"...'Sup." Issei returned with an easy smile and wave of his hand.

"...And this is my Queen, Akeno Himejima." Rias then gestured at the raven-haired girl.

"Ufufu, looking forward to getting to know you better, Ise-kun." Akeno greeted him with her signature giggles.

However, Issei's eyes widened at the mention of Akeno's surname, as he put his fist on his palm in epiphany. "I see now, you're Suzaku-san and Tobio-san's relative!"

Akeno froze for a second, her eyes were blinking owlishly at Issei, completely not expecting the boy to mention those names. Kiba, Koneko and the rest of the Student Council could only blink and look in confusion - sans Rias, Sona, and Tsubaki who were sporting a similar reaction like Akeno.

A few seconds later, Akeno finally came up with a reply. "You know my cousins?"

"Yeah. Man, I thought I've seen your face somewhere before, who would have thought that you're actually Suzaku-san's cousin. I just remember when I heard your surname." Issei replied with a grin. "I met both of them once during my time outside Kuoh. They're a bunch of cool people if I'm to say so myself. I also remember they mentioned one or two things about a missing relative, now I think they were talking about you."

"I I see." Akeno gave a small smile. However, it could be his imagination, but Issei thought that one small smile on Akeno's face was far more vibrant than the one she sported when he arrived earlier. "...Do you still keep in touch with them? How are they doing?", she asked.

Issei scratched his cheek awkwardly, "Sorry, I never got to see them a lot after meeting them for the first time, especially Suzaku-san. I never really heard anything about them again once I entered middle school."

"I see That's too bad." Akeno sounded disappointed, but she quickly smiled again at Issei. "In any case, I'm glad to hear you got along with them. Would you mind sending my regards to dear sister Suzaku and big brother Tobio, should you meet them again?"

"Sure, I'll let them know." Issei returned with his own smile.

Sona then softly cleared her throat, garnering the attention back. "If we don't have any more matters to address, I believe we have our own agendas to fulfill today." It was her polite way of saying, 'please get out, you're getting in the way of our work'.

"Ah, right. Sorry." Issei apologized while Akeno looked a tad flustered. "Guess I'll go home." He nodded at everyone in the room. "I'll see you later, Tsubasa; if my mom ends up summoning you again." the aforementioned girl simply smiled and waved her hand in acknowledgment. "Excuse me, then"

Once Issei exited and closed the door, the entire room was silent for a couple of seconds until a young man with sandy-brown hair broke the silence.

"...Well, that was a thing." The speaker was Genshirou Saji, Student Council's newest and Sona Sitri's latest Pawn. Kiba did not voice it, but he silently nodded in agreement, along with several others from the Student Council.

Ignoring her Pawn's remark, Sona then turned to her red-haired classmate. "Now that's out of the way, would you explain about the agreement you've made with my prospective new member?"

X

It was the next morning when the Hyoudou Residence received some unexpected guests. Issei just came home from his usual morning exercise - which involved some light running around the town, when he found three individuals waiting outside of his house with several suitcases behind them.

The first person turned out to be Yuma - unlike her form she took when they fought, the fallen angel had returned to assume her teenage persona, although she flinched when she was the first to notice his arrival, and her face shifted into a grimace.

The second person was unfamiliar - a tall, middle-aged man wearing a suit with a coat, along with a fedora hat on his head. While the third person happened to catch Issei's attention the most.

She looked so out of place compared to the other two; wearing what appeared to be a nun's outfit, her face - framed with golden blonde hair that fell down like a veil down her back, as well as her emerald green orbs, screamed innocence. Not to mention that she was the shortest among the three.

The tall man also noticed his presence, and he took off his hat and placed it over his chest. "Good morning. Mr. Hyoudou, correct?" He greeted with a deep polite tone. "My name is Dohnaseek, and I presume you have already met my colleague here, although her real name is Raynare." Yuuma - Raynare still had her grimace but she also nodded at him. "We apologize for intruding in your morning, but we are here under the orders of Lord Azazel."

Azazel? - Issei blinked before glancing at the blonde girl. "I see What about her?"

The tall fallen angel - Dohnaseek, nodded at the nervous-looking blonde girl. "...Her name is Asia Argento, and... our orders involve her." The girl in question only nodded meekly at him.

Heaving a soft sigh, Issei then jerked his head towards his house. "Come in, then."

"Thank you." Dohnaseek bowed once again. "... Is it alright if we take these inside? We will just leave them by the door." He gestured at the luggage behind him.

Issei glanced at the suitcases - they were not overly bulky, nor that many. "Sure. Do you need help with those?"

"There is no need. We are more than enough to carry them. Come, Raynare, Ms. Argento." Dohnaseek refused Issei's offer before he beckoned Raynare and Asia to help in carrying the bags. The female fallen glared one last time at Issei before she proceeded to pick the bags up together with Dohnaseek, while Issei went ahead to prepare in welcoming them.

"Mom, I'm home!"

"Welcome back!" A mature feminine voice was heard from inside the house, followed by thumping noises coming towards the door.

On cue, after stepping through the door, Issei knelt down to greet the other occupant of the house. "I'm home, buddy! Did you miss me?" Issei grinned as a small black blur leaped to his arms.

The guests outside then heard the sound akin to a dog's barking, though for fallen angels, the barking sound was strangely mixed with the sound of growling, or perhaps roaring. The point was, the barking noise did not really sound like dogs in general, or in short - unnatural

They finally got to see the black bundle in Issei's arms; a puppy with a peculiar appearance - its fur was black as pitch, appearing more as an exoskeleton rather than hair, and within its elongated snout were fangs that were also as sharp as blades. It had a pair of ruby red eyes, but what truly caught their attention was its maws; its fangs were rather big for a puppy, and the maws also lacked a tongue. Lastly, a black collar with golden markings were wrapped around its neck. The same puppy was simply sniffing and nuzzling its snout happily on Issei's face.

"...Okay, that's one fugly dog you have there." Raynare commented. As if offended by the remark, the puppy leaped off Issei's hold and began growling at the fallen from the floor.

Raynare could not help but snort in amusement, seeing the cur actually dared to challenge her.

"Easy now, Rover, easy" Issei knelt down again and ran his hand through the dog, through Rover's hide to placate him. "Sorry, about that. Rover's not very fond of strangers." Issei apologized while throwing a mild glare at Raynare.

Dohnaseek also lightly elbowed Raynare's side, silently telling her to behave; which she replied with a small scoff, although she said no more afterward.

Asia, on the other hand, knelt down so she could meet her eyes more easily with the still-growling Rover. "Please forgive Lady Raynare, Mr. Rover. She didn't mean anything bad." She said with a kind smile; although in Issei's ears, Asia sounded like she was speaking something Italian Or perhaps Spanish. Overall, he did not understand what she was saying, but he could tell enough it was something nice.

"My name is Asia Argento, it is nice to meet you." Asia introduced herself to the dog as she offered her hand. Issei was ready to intervene should Rover misbehave, but much to his surprise, the dog sniffed the offered hand for a second before it slowly nuzzled and rubbed its face against her palm. Soon, Asia began to caress its head playfully, earning a pleased noise from the dog.

Issei could not help but feel impressed. "Wow, it's rare to see Rover warms up to someone new this fast." Asia blinked at the remark and Issei quickly remembered that she was a foreigner. "...Right, I guess you don't understand what I'm saying, huh?"

"It's alright, I more or less understand what you are saying." Asia replied with accented Japanese. "It is nice to meet you, Mr. Hyoudou. My name is Asia Argento." She stood up as she introduced herself with a polite bow.

"Yes, I kind of heard you earlier. Issei Hyoudou, nice to meet you too." Issei nodded in return. "I gotta say it again, Rover takes quite some time to warm up to someone, I guess you're good with dogs, huh?"

Asia smiled bashfully at the small compliment. "Please, it's nothing much. I simply love animals, that's all."

"You sure do. I mean, no offense; Rover is my friend, but I have to admit that he's not the best-looking dog around." Issei glanced at Rover, who was still looking up at Asia while panting happily as if expecting another patting.

"That's not true, Mr. Hyoudou. All of God's creations are good, no matter the appearance; that also includes Mr. Rover as well." Asia smiled as she patted the dog again, who barked and wiggled its tail happily.

Issei could only stare at Asia in slight bewilderment - her attitude, character and smile simply radiated to the point it was figuratively blinding. He glanced at the fallen pair who had been watching - Dohnaseek only shrugged with a small, knowing smile, while Raynare had an expression that said she wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"Ise, what's the holdup?" The woman's voice from earlier was heard again, as the owner arrived at the entrance. She was about to talk to Issei when her eyes were greeted by the sight of the company. "...Oh, hello there." She was a woman with brown hair - on a lighter shade that Issei's, whose face appeared to be somewhere in her early 30s, she was still wearing an apron on top of her clothes.

"Oh, sorry, mom." Issei greeted his mother. "We have guests They are here sent by Azazel, apparently."

Issei's mother stared at her son for a second before her eyes trailed to the guests, who nodded at her. However, she could not help but raise her eyebrows at the sight of Rover nuzzling itself against Asia's legs.

"...Right. So Mr. Azazel sent you three here? My name is Haruka Hyoudou, how may I help you?" The woman - Haruka, smiled cordially at the guests. "...Though I'm afraid I didn't cook enough breakfast for three more people. I'm sorry about that."

"Please, there's no need for you to do so; we are imposing without prior notice, after all." Dohnaseek replied while holding up a hand placatingly. "...We are here simply to discuss a few matters on Lord Azazel's behalf, then we will be on our way. I hope you don't mind if we borrow some space in your house to chat."

Haruka nodded in understanding before replying, "In that case, would you mind the living room? I can at least prepare some tea."

"That would be great, thank you." Dohnaseek bowed his head again before Haruka led everyone inside.

X

What in the world was he looking at? This small, pudgy thing that was staring back at him with his googly, brown eyes.

In fact, how did he end up babysitting some brat? As far as he knew, before and after he became a monster, it was either you get strong or you die and get eaten, or either or in the latter. Now that he thought about, he was like this thing once, though his life was shitty. Mocked by fodder, heroes and monsters, and even looked down upon by the pinnacle of justice. He sure showed that samurai what he was made of before giving the rest of the heroes a smackdown they deserve well, another him would've until he showed up and obliterated almost all of his cells. Then he beat the shit out of his golden self like it was nothing.

And then, another guy showed up, someone that looked dumber than he did lay the smackdown on that martial artist and then the Association was over just like that. With him reduced to being so weak even a puppy could kill him afterward, he and his friend, as close as being 'friends' implied, had to live under that guy's roof as his pets for a while.

Then some stupid thing happened, sent them to god knows where, faced a lot of crap along the way, and here he was.

Yes, he had to start over, but so what? He got to see a battle of a lifetime and he could still replenish his cell stock, which he did after months of eating good food alongside the only companion he had left. Besides, his cell stock was even higher than before, but he still stayed with the Baldy since he was sure that the egghead could still beat the shit out of him.

That and there were no such things as monsters here well, his definition of monsters. He was in a land far away from home and some of the people here were tolerant of his kind, so why not go with the flow?

Also, that man was probably his greatest shield now that he thought about it, that cyborg wouldn't touch him even though he tore his arms off before. As for the 'new monsters,' they're weird. Very weird, like that true vampire guy that joined the association - who was most likely dead like almost everyone else back home.

Not only that, but even the strange things here seemed so small. He didn't see much of them, but he did see the strange things from myth and folktales haunting them from time to time. He even had to deal with a fucking chimera thing that snuck into the house, and it was pathetically weak. He fed the remains to his companion. The mutt spat out the meat, though; probably because the taste was as bad as it looked. Perhaps he instinctively knew that it could upset his stomach? But his companion had no trouble swallowing even worse things before Oh well, no use to keep thinking about it.

After living under his roof for more than a year, even after he found himself somewhere even stranger than home, especially with them crows, bats, and doves flying around.

Anyways, years had gone by, one thing led to another before he found himself looking after some toddler inside the crib. Look at it - who would have thought that the guy who utterly overwhelmed him used to look like. This? Small, soft, weak, can't even wipe his own ass now that he thought about it, when was the last time he saw a frickin baby this close in his own crib?

"To think you're that guy's offspring" He, who once an infamous dragon-level threat, muttered to himself. "I wonder if you will grow up like your dad?" He mused as he poked at the baby's cheek.

Then, the baby giggled and laughed as his intention was directed at something. He followed the small eyes and noticed the infant was trying to reach out at the black appendage hanging by his head.

"...What?" He asked while dangling his appendage a bit more, eliciting more reaction from the baby below him. "You want to hold this?" He pointed at his appendage. When the baby squealed in excitement, the creature found himself chuckling in amusement. "Well, come and get it." He lowered his head and dangled his appendage just above the infant in the crib.

The baby giggled happily as he tried to reach towards the dangling appendage with his tiny hands. "Heh You really like it, don't ya? Why don't we have more, then?" He then split himself into four; each identical clone of himself taking one side of the crib. In response, the baby's eyes grew as he cheered in wonder.

The clones blinked at the reaction; they half-expected for the baby to cry out of disgust or something, only to be flabbergasted themselves at the sheer fascination in those innocent brown eyes. Having someone to cheer for him instead of sneering felt pleasantly strange. The creature only watched when one of them lowered his head enough for the child to grab and play with the appendage. He then finally snorted in amusement, his eyes grew a fond glint in them.

"...You're a curious little tyke, you know that?"

Beta-read & Editor by Lord Vader a.k.a i4md347h.