If you're interested in supporting the story: go to patréon.com/eternalyujin and go to Collections —> Red Revolution.
Enjoy your reading!
—⧬⧭⧬—
Issei's parents walk in on Rias Gremory and me. His mother gasps. His father blinks. It's by no means a dramatic entrance. I don't even hear them coming; they just open the door, and there we are: me, down to my underwear and damp, with a towel over my shoulder and Rias behind me, still drying her hair.
She's not even pretending to be flustered despite her nudity.
There's a long silence after which Issei's father smiles a small, tight smile that says far too much. Relief, pride, and a faint exhale of long-held worry show on his aged face. Like he's realised his son's corruption is ordinary, forgivable. Not deep enough to keep him alone forever. I suppose it wasn't, but the look is uncomfortable when I'm not his son.
Issei's mother lets out a scandalised little noise that sounds rehearsed. "Issei!" she snaps. "You're—this is—oh my god—" Her eyes dart to Rias, who calmly wraps a strand of her wet crimson hair around one finger and says, with perfect composure:
"Forgive us, ma'am. He and I were... caught up. This is how teenagers sleep these days, you see. I promise, we weren't doing anything lewd."
I don't speak. I should—it's a ridiculous answer—but I don't. I watch Issei's mother's outrage soften at a reply that shouldn't warrant that kind of pause.
Her mouth is still open, but she seems unsure of what to say. "Well... I suppose we're out of touch with the kids of today, I suppose."
The bizarre agreement aside, I know something's wrong in the way her posture eases and how her tone becomes so docile. Both her and her husband's eyes seemed slightly glazed over, and only after Rias spoke.
Issei's father speaks again, but he's already walking away: "Join us for breakfast when you're ready, son. And bring your friend. We'd love to get to know her."
"Of course," Rias replies with a smile.
They shut the door behind them. I don't move for several seconds until I'm sure they're gone and silence settles. I turn on Rias. She doesn't have time to react. One hand slams against the wall beside her head. She steps back more out of shock than fear. Her red hair fans slightly with the sudden force of movement.
Her blue eyes meet mine.
"You did something to them," I say.
"I soothed them," Rias replies. "They weren't harmed. Did you want your mother to panic? To scream and shame you? She would have and was very much going to. I softened the landing. That's all."
"That's not your call to mess with their minds just because you can. They're..." I stop to swallow my guilt. "They're my parents. Do you have no concept of violation? What if I'd done that to your parents?"
A pause. Her composed expression flickers—just once. A hairline crack that allows some guilt to spill through. Claiming Issei's parents as my own isn't something I'll ever be comfortable with—but I have some duty of care for them now that their son's life is mine.
"You're angry," she notes slowly.
I lean in. "This is your one warning: don't do that to them again."
Her lips part like she might argue, but reading something in my eyes, she reconsiders, and bows to me with her hands over her thighs. "I apologise, Hyoudou. It's easy to forget sometimes that what's convenient isn't right."
Her remorse at crossing a line seems genuine, so I drop the matter, but breakfast is tense. Light returns to Issei's parents' eyes along with the tenseness at finding their son naked with a girl who presumably spent the night.
"...Are you my son's girlfriend?" Issei's mother asks as she stirs a cup of coffee without looking at it. Her tone is even, but her eyes betray the struggle to make sense of what she walked in on.
Thankfully, Rias is dressed in her school uniform. I swallow a spoonful of cereal instead of answering the question in her stead.
Rias offers her a pleasant smile. "I suppose you could say that."
Issei's father says little. He keeps giving me these glances and small nods of approval over the edge of his newspaper that remind me I'm wrapped in a second skin.
I eat quietly. I haven't had cereal before. It's got a kind of cathartic crunch to it and a grainy taste that's pleasant enough to distract me from the awkward meal.
Rias insists on walking with me to school.
"People will talk," I say.
She smiles and leans her shoulder into mine. "You heard your mother, Issei. I'm your girlfriend, am I not?"
I lean away from her, making her giggle.
Of course, the school's reaction proves me right. Eyes are already on us before we even pass through the front gate. I keep my head up but don't acknowledge anyone. Issei's reputation precedes me anyway. Whispers trail in our wake, and every stare carries a specific kind of confusion.
Like they're trying to do the mental calculations, only to arrive at the same conclusion: our presence together doesn't add up.
Matsuda and Motohama corner me during the half hour before school proper starts. Their energy is the same—loud and completely unashamed. They talk fast, with too much excitement, asking whether I've finally made it, whether I touched her, whether I've ascended to a plane beyond mortal comprehension.
It's ridiculous, but also kind of funny. I don't stop them, because they're like Lubbock, except alive. A smile tugs at my mouth when Matsuda starts theorising that I've unlocked a divine pervert technique that granted me access to heaven's gates.
Still, I don't egg them on the way Issei would, and the message lands with grumbles that a night with Rias Gremory has changed me—they're not wrong, either.
Classes blur by. I don't pay much attention to the lessons themselves, and when the final bell rings, I rise with the rest of them. When I'm halfway to the door, someone stops the procession by sticking their head into the classroom through it.
His look is distinct; foreign to those of this country, like Rias, with wheat-blond hair.
"Hyoudou," he says after his grey eyes find me. "I've come on Rias Gremory's instructions."
And just like that, the room has returned to its frenzied state from the morning. Only in reverse. This time, it's the boys who gape while the girls whisper ferociously to one another. I sling my bag over one shoulder and walk to the door without a word.
Kiba gives me an apologetic nod. "I'm sorry about the spectacle. My name is Yuuto Kiba. I'm a second year, like you."
Like Rias, he's adored by everyone because of his distinct look: the first and second year girls fawn over him, and the older third-year girls dote on him.
"Nice to meet you, too."
My sigh is tired enough that he laughs. I follow him down the hallway, aware of every stare burning holes into my back. I don't shrink from them.
They're not looking at me anyway.
—⧬⧭⧬—
After taking me out of the school building and past the old gymnasium, Kiba stops in front of the now defunct old school building with a plate that says Occult Research Club. Shrubbery clings to the low roof and walls and crawls in through an open window up above.
It seems carefully maintained, though, with hedges boxing in the paved, if derelict entryway—case in point, to the right of the entryway is a vending machine.
"President, I've brought him," Kiba says after knocking on the front door once.
"All right, come in," is Rias Gremory's response.
I could not have been more ill-prepared for the building's interior. It's almost identical to a regular home, if a lot more spacious. A staircase runs along the right side and up to the other floors, and to the left a hallway.
Only the first door is open, and predictably, Kiba leads me through it. A short, white-haired girl with eyes the colour of toffee is sitting on the sofa facing the door.
"This is Issei Hyoudou," Kiba says to her.
She stops her nibbling on a sweet to bob her head. "Hi. Koneko Toujou. First year."
"Nice to meet you," I say, though I'm distracted by the constant hiss of water nearby until I notice a curtain sectioning off the far end of the room.
"Here you go, President." The voice is decidedly not Rias Gremory's.
Though Rias replies, "Thank you, Akeno." After a few minutes, the curtain snaps open. Rias, having finished showering, smiles at me in her uniform. "My apologies for the wait. I know I showered at your place this morning, but I like to keep clean."
"Oh dear, President. What were you doing with Hyoudou last night?" says the other voice I heard. But now that the curtain is drawn open, I can see that she's a dark-haired girl with a permanent, pleasant smile on her face.
Her eyes, however, are a shade of violet that seems slightly disturbing.
Rias laughs. "Behave, Akeno."
"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Hyoudou. I'm Akeno Himejima," the dark-haired girl says with a polite bow. "Would you like some tea?"
"Tea would be nice, if you're offering."
"I am."
Rias moves past us and sits on the only armchair in the room, placed at the head of the low coffee table. The others do the same, and Himejima moves away from me to presumably make that cup of tea, so I do too.
"Now that everyone's here, Hyoudou," Rias says while looking straight at me. "We, the Occult Research Club, welcome you as a fellow devil."
"That's the second time someone's called me a devil," I say, accepting the tea and accompanying saucer. "Thank you, Himejima."
"Please," she says. "Call me Akeno."
"Are you sure?"
Himejima giggles and sits next to me. "Very."
"To be as blunt as possible, all of us are devils," says Rias. Everyone in the room is staring at me now. "You look like you don't believe me."
I shrug. "It's not that. These past few days have been incredibly strange. Just last night, a guy with dark wings called me a devil, too. But you guys look… well, human."
Rias Gremory nods. "That man was a fallen angel, to be specific. He used to be an angel, but for his sins, he was banished to the underworld, where we devils and the fallen angels vie for dominance. Each of the two factions controls one portion of the underworld. Devils, like us, build our strength by forging contracts with humans and exacting payment. Angels, on the other hand, follow the will of Heaven, indiscriminately targeting us and the fallen angels alike. These three factions have been locked in eternal conflict since the beginning of time."
"And this club?" I ask. "Is it a front for you to recruit other devils?"
"More or less."
I'm quiet for a moment. "Don't take this the wrong way, but while I'm grateful that you healed me last night, I don't understand what you want from me."
"Yuuma Amano," Rias says. "She's a fallen angel, too."
"...That checks out. Why did she stab me?"
"She sought you out according to her mission, which was to confirm whether you possessed a Sacred Gear, weapons gifted to humanity by God." Rias's smile doesn't disappear. "And she didn't just stab you. She killed you. Now, look through your blazer's pockets for me, will you?"
Inside my left pocket, I find a crumpled and slightly bloody piece of paper. The phrase 'Your wishes granted!' is scrawled over it, along with a weird circle on the back. On closer inspection, it's similar in design to the huge one in the centre of the room.
"You summoned me using that. It's one of our flyers that we hand out for those who have desires that cannot be realised in this world. On the brink of death, after having been attacked by the fallen angel, you called out to me. It must have been a truly powerful wish to summon me. Usually, Akeno or one of the others here would have responded instead."
"You stopped me from dying?" I ask.
She shakes her head. "Not quite. Yuuma Amano killed you, but I brought you back to life as a devil. You are no longer a human being."
The wave of information aside, I've at least learned one thing that clears up the mystery surrounding Rias Gremory: she believes that I'm still Issei Hyoudou.
Resurrection… No Imperial Arms could resurrect a dead person—I'd found that out the hard way.
"Issei, you have been reborn as a devil and are a part of my peerage."
In the face of that statement, anyy question I was going to ask about the method behind her bringing me back to life were replaced by one greater question:
"Which means?"
Rias smiles. "That you are my servant, like everyone here." And as if that bit of news wasn't flooring enough, she leans over the coffee table separating my couch and hers until her mouth is right up against my ear. "Serve me and you'll be in for a treat."
A shiver races down my spine, but I'm not so distracted that I can't see this situation for what it is. Had Issei been in my position, he would have leapt at the chance. Serving the most attractive girl in the school, who happens to be some kind of supernatural aristocrat?
It was the stuff of his wet dreams. That said, there was one immediate flaw to this all that I couldn't help but point out.
"What if I don't want to? Hypothetically speaking," I say, hunching over and feigning a little embarrassment. Now that I know she hasn't brought me back on purpose, Rias Gremory is slightly less intimidating than before. "I mean, don't take this the wrong way. I'd love to serve a lady as attractive as yourself."
Akeno giggles.
"But say that I didn't. What would happen? Would you reverse whatever you did to bring me back?"
"You've already died once," Rias says after a long pause. "Usually, you would go to the afterlife, but I brought you back. This time, if you die again, you will cease to exist."
I frown. "As in, I become nothing?"
"Precisely. I resurrected you using my Evil Pieces. Essentially, it's a magical chess set that allows me to turn anyone into a devil under my service to create a peerage. Kiba is my Knight, Koneko is my Rook, and Akeno is my Queen."
Boss used to play chess with Lubbock sometimes, so this, at least, is familiar to me. "Shouldn't that mean you still have another knight, another rook, two bishops, and like eight pawns?"
"...I didn't know you played chess, Hyoudou. It doesn't seem to be the type of thing you'd like."
"Motohama plays it sometimes."
He doesn't, but there's no way she'd know that. Lubbock played chess, though.
"In any case, you're right. My other Bishop piece is occupied, but I have one extra Rook and Knight. However, I brought you back to life with all of my Pawns." She sets her teacup and saucer on the coffee table between us. "You were a part of my peerage from the moment I resurrected you. The only way for you to leave it would be trading you with another's King's Pawns—or death. That is the only way the pawn pieces I used to resurrect you will return to me. If you do choose to leave my peerage, though, you'll become a stray devil."
"That winged guy called me that. Is it a bad thing? Sounds like it is."
"The underworld is a rather aristocratic place. Power and prestige are passed down, and there are many noble families, of which the Gremory family is one. To abandon your peerage is to slight your King and the noble house that you fight for—the punishment for that is death. And because you lose the consideration afforded to a member of a peerage, the other factions will kill you without hesitation."
"So what? I'm a slave?"
Rias looks distinctly uncomfortable at the question, and I immediately feel glares from everyone in the room.
"Look, I'm not calling you a bad person," I say, even as I start to understand this strange system for what it is. "But surely you see where I'm coming from, right? If there's no way for me to give you this piece back besides dying for real this time, or be put under someone else's command, then I'll always be a pawn. And if I'm forced to obey you by the underworld's laws, then nothing stops you from abusing your power over me."
"President isn't like that," says Koneko. Despite the monotone delivery, her eyes are burning.
I sigh. "Never said she was. But I guarantee you that there are devils in the underworld right now who are treating their peerage horribly. The issue isn't with Rias Gremory here. You seem like a well-meaning person, by the way, but… I don't know. From the outside looking in, this all seems way too skewed. At least tell me, are there are laws that stop Kings from abusing their servants?"
Rias looks away. "N-Not to my knowledge, no. But if such a situation were to come to light, there Four Satans wouldn't let the issue go. Rest-assured that it would be dealt with."
Though only if it were to come to light.
I can't claim to have as much knowledge of this world's atrocities as I do mine, but across my life, I've picked up a sixth sense for corruption. The idea of noblesse oblige never stopped the aristocracy of my world from kidnapping unwitting peasants off the streets and using them as they saw fit.
But even the worst of those nobles pretended to be benevolent on the surface for a reason. If us common people were to figure out their evil, then of course it wouldn't stand.
But I can see that pushing things further than I have already won't yield results. None of the people here have done anything wrong anyway. No matter how many things I point out, there's nothing they can do about it. Going further will only make it seem like I'm accusing Rias Gremory of these things instead.
"I-If you become a high-class devil, you can become a noble and gain the right to start your own peerage," Rias says suddenly. "You don't have to start one. Many high-class devils don't, but you wouldn't be my servant anymore, if you so wish."
"Is it easy to become a high-class devil?"
She shakes her head. "But because you're not human anymore, you'll live for thousands of years, and will become one eventually. I promise, Hyoudou, I won't treat you badly."
I manage to stop myself from pointing out that I can't refuse her without being hunted. That kind of answer won't get me anywhere. Nor will starting an insurrection like I did as a part of Night Raid do more than earn me a quick death, considering these devils—that we live for thousands of years.
It seems I'll have to take a page out of that winged Jaeger's book and change things from within. The irony nearly makes me smile, but the thought of angel wings reminds me of Yuuma Amano. She's certainly still alive—and likely allied with that Dohnaseek guy.
"You said the fallen angels are our enemies, right?"
Rias composes herself in record time to nod. "They are."
"Will I see Yuuma again?"
"Given that she believes she's completed her mission… it's unlikely, but if she's allied with the fallen angel that attacked you last night, there's a chance. Why? Hyoudou, you have to understand she was lying to you. She doesn't love you—"
"That's not it," I interrupt her. "No matter what, she dies. I've got a long life ahead of me to find a way to do that, right?"
She smiles and sits up. "Then, welcome to the Gremory peerage, Hyoudou. I promise, you'll love it here!"
—⧬⧭⧬—
The night is cold, but not in the way I remember. The flyer in my hand glows faintly to my eyes. Crimson script, a little devilish symbol printed in the corner. It's the same summoning circle as the one in the club room.
And it's the same flyer Issei Hyoudou picked up the day he died. I stare at it for a moment before tucking it into a mailbox.
One down. Several dozen more to go. My first job as a reincarnated devil is simply menial: drop these fliers across the neighbourhood for humans in need to call upon. Most will be ignored. Some will catch the eye of someone desperate enough to call on a devil for help. A member of the peerage will then be summoned to discuss the details of the request, the payment, and the schedule when it'll be carried out.
Rias said we could be summoned at anytime, but also had the ability to resist the summoning, whatever that means. I only worry what'll happen if I'm summoned while sleeping.
By the tenth flyer, I'm bored. By the fifteenth, I'm thinking about the fact that devils, for all their power, still rely on petty contracts to expand their influence. Is there some kind of energy that they gain from fulfilling a wish?
Or is there something more nefarious to gain, like a person's lifespan or their firstborn child?
"That still happens sometimes," Ddraig's baritone voice rumbles between my ears.
I thought you could only talk through the green gemstone on my gauntlet, but apparently not.
"I can do that too, but I'm bonded to your soul, Tatsumi."
I slide another flyer into a postbox. Do you always talk this much?
"Only when my host is worthy of conversation. You are a warrior. I've had many hosts, you know. Some never knew that they carried me within them. But no, to answer your question. Most hosts are not worth my words."
I laugh a little at that until my situation as an unwilling servant of a well-meaning aristocrat sets in again. What do you think of devil society, Ddraig? They seem perfectly content to enslave one another, and sure, my world was like that too, but I fought against evils like that.
"Broken. Arrogant. Soft. The strong rule the weak, as in nature. But strength rots when it rests too long. When bloodlines become excuses and kings forget what it means to fight their own battles. Grow strong, and the devils will fall head over heels to accommodate you. Freedom from their bonds will not be an issue, then."
I nod. That sounds about right, seeing that Rias more or less said the same. I glance up. The stars are clear overhead. This world doesn't feel real yet. Maybe I'll blink and wake up to see Akame with a bowl of beef stew in her lap.
You think Rias is like those nobles?
"You know she is not."
The retort is blunt enough to make me smile. Still, he's right. She seems to want to be a decent person, but wanting alone isn't enough to enact change. Yet, change must begin with desire anyway.
Rias called the underworld aristocratic, so I'm sure there are poor devils in the underworld under the thumb of some stronger, wealthier devil. Maybe there's even a revolutionary faction… but if I go about things the same way as when I was a part of Night Raid, will there be a huge number of civilian casualties?
Probably.
Despite us winning, I can't say that I was satisfied with how things ended up. Sure, Prime Minister Honest manipulated the Emperor into using Shikotauzer in the middle of the capital, but the battle after that had killed too many innocent people.
Ddraig's uncharacteristic quiet is strange to my ears.
"I am not human," he says, as if it's the answer to all my questions. "Domination is in my blood… but there is no honour in trampling over the weak."
So you protect them?
"If they find themselves under my protection. But let me tell you that to rebel against the devils as you are now is tantamount to suicide."
I'll ask you this, then: should I try and change things from within like that white-haired teacher who joined the Jaegers then?
Ddraig chuckles. "There's a key difference between him and you. In the end, his moralising was to cover up his fear. His rage over the deaths of his students was simply overshadowed by his fear of the Empire and their evil if he moved too overtly."
I frown. He seemed willing to fight in his own way, so I can't in good faith say that he was a coward. Besides, I've not seen whether this society is as rotten from the inside as mine was.
The last flyer disappears from my hand and slips into the last mailbox. The magic is done, and my stack of the things is depleted.
I turn toward home. Without Rias befuddling their minds, I'll have to handle Issei's parents myself. The thought only makes the pressure headache behind my eyes throb harder.
"Regardless, stay the course as you have today, Tatsumi. Do not bow where you believe you are right, and these doubts will wane. I've waited a long time for a host like you. That Gremory girl may have to worry about not disturbing the stalemate between the three factions, but you are a Red Dragon Emperor."
And just like that, he's gone again—but not absent.
—⧬⧭⧬—
Sometimes, the only excuse that won't unravel tends to be a version of the truth. So, after my paper run, I gave Issei's parents a rendition of the truth that wouldn't unnecessarily worry them—the whitest of white lies. A new circle of friends and upperclassmen, thanks to my supposed girlfriend in Rias Gremory, wanted to throw me a party to celebrate.
They seemed happy that I wasn't spending my evening with Motohama and Matsuda and watching the pornography stashed in the plastic figurine box Issei hid inside his closet. His mother was very specific about its location, too. It seemed Issei had a streak going this week.
There's a lingering worry in their eyes, though. Maybe they sense the new distance between me and them. It can't be helped; I'm not their son, but I feel bad for it.
After school the next day, I head to the club room only to find that there's no one there. There is, however, a note taped to the table from Rias that says she and Akeno have got study hall after school and that Koneko, Kiba, and I can go home and come back in a couple of hours.
And now I've got absolutely nothing to do.
Ddraig speaks up from inside my head. "Perhaps go on a walk. Explore Kuoh. This is a new world that's quite an upgrade from your own. The faint experiences from Issei Hyoudou's memories are one thing, but you might as well familiarise yourself with this world."
Don't suppose you'd like to be my tour guide? I ask him while descending the school's empty staircases.
"It's simply a suggestion on my part."
The streets are warm in the late afternoon light. Kuoh Academy students still in uniform linger around convenience stores and street corners.
Across from me, a group of even younger kids chase each other past a vending machine. To the dismay of none of his friends, one falls and scrapes his knee. It's not bad enough that they feel compelled to stop, so he's left there in the street, crying over his bleeding knee.
A woman in a nun's habit carrying a suitcase crouches down beside him, and once she's sure no one's nearby, she cups her hands over his knee. Pale green light blooms within her hands. The boy's tears stop. She turns and sees me staring. Her eyes widen just slightly before she waves me over.
I'm surprised that she does for a moment, but I walk over to her.
She waves her hands around dramatically. "C-Can you… explain! To him. That he is all better now?"
"The kid?" I ask.
"You understand me? I-I don't speak Japanese—wow, you speak Italian!"
Her sudden enthusiasm takes me off guard a bit. She reminds me of the leader of the Path of Peace, but it's probably because of the necklace she wears on top of her robes. Did she use some kind of magic to heal the boy?
"That's the symbol of the Christian faith," Ddraig supplies. "The faction of Heaven; its soldiers are the angels and exorcists."
"She says you're all better," I say, looking down at the starstruck child. "Go on, now. Your friends are almost long gone, see?"
The trio of the boy's friends stand so far away that they're colourful smudges on the horizon. So, the little boy scrambles to his feet and bows. "T-Thank you, Sister!"
The nun seems to understand and waves back to him with a smile as she stands. Some of her confidence seems to leave with the boy, because she can't make eye contact with me anymore.
Her feet shuffle slightly before she looks up at me. "Are you a local? I-I'm pleased to meet you. My name's Asia Argento, I've been assigned to the local church."
"Issei Hyoudou," I reply. "I'm a high school student."
"U-Um… I seem to be lost. Can you help me find out where this town's church is?" She stares at the ground. "I've had no luck so far. Japanese is a hard language to learn… can you help me?"
I look around for a busy shop—this world doesn't have Imperial Police wandering around the street so frequently, so convenient help seems to be in demand.
"Use your phone," Ddraig says."Do not go to a church as a devil under any circumstances."
I nearly forgot that I even have one. "One moment," I say to Asia as I pull it out. Conveniently, there's a bar at the top that lets me type into it to look for things. "Is it this church? It looks to be the only church in town."
Asia nods.
"Okay, give me your phone. I'll give you the address so you can follow its directions."
With her glowing rectangle held akimbo and her suitcase trailing behind her, she rushes off. Though not before turning back with a bright smile and waving. "Thank you very much, Issei. You've been a blessing!"
The infectious happiness on her face makes me smile.
"You're welcome, Sister Asia."
Ddraig grumbles between my ears. "Look at you, getting chummy with your enemies."
Come on. Asia isn't my enemy.
"You saw her powers, didn't you? She's certainly not come to this town for a missionary purpose."
Ddraig's cynical warning wipes the smile off my face.
Well… I still hope she doesn't become my enemy. Asia seems nice enough.
The dragon doesn't reply.
—⧬⧭⧬—
"Why, Issei," Rias says when I return to the club room. "You're late."
"I didn't even know there was a set time to return, but I come bearing gifts," I reply. "Did you know that there's a place that sells fried chicken on the outskirts of Kuoh, cause I didn't? And you're calling me Issei now?"
"Are you not my boyfriend?"
"Why would you go that far out?" Kiba asks—his question is a welcome distraction from Rias's flirting.
"No reason in particular," I say. "I came up here after school, but thanks to the note, I went on a walk around town."
Akeno smiles and takes the bags of piping hot food out of my hands. "You should be more careful, Issei. Our influence is strongest here and only wanes the further away from Kuoh Academy you go."
"You know, you really need a pamphlet or something with all that information, Rias," I say.
The red-haired girl clears her throat. "President."
"Pardon?"
"...W-Well, as a member of this club, you must refer to me as 'President', Issei."
I blink a good few times before I think up an answer. "And here I thought I was your boyfriend."
Akeno lets out a full-on laugh that breaks the astonished silence from our faux-club's president.
"How forward of you," Rias says with a coy smile. "I suppose I'll have to simply let my 'boyfriend' do as he pleases. Right, Kiba? Koneko?"
"My parents seem to think we're an item thanks to you, and since I'm using you as the very convenient excuse for my late-night outings, you'll have to take responsibility."
Kiba meets my gaze before he turns to her. "I'm inclined to agree with him, President. One must take responsibility for one's actions."
Rias gasps and clutches her chest at the betrayal. Meanwhile, Koneko happily tears into a chicken drumstick and seems content to not get involved despite Rias's gaze.
"Oh, alright then," says Rias. "But at the very least, you'll refer to me as President if we have to talk in front of the other students."
I shrug. "I don't mind that. Adhering to a command structure that doesn't exist just seemed a bit much to me."
"Does that mean you'll call me 'M'lady' if I ask you to?"
"She's got you there, partner."
I ignore Ddraig's amused laughter rumbling between my ears and reach for a piece of fried chicken. When in doubt, Koneko's method of not engaging seems to do the trick. After poking some more fun at me, Rias, Akeno, and Kiba sit down too.
We eat in a companionable silence despite yesterday's tense greeting. When we're done, Koneko leaves the club room to throw away the paper bags and acquire sweets from the vending machine outside the building. The door barely clicks shut before Rias's phone gives a sharp buzz from the table, and whatever she sees on its surface pulls her pretty features into a frown.
"What is it?" I ask.
Akeno circles the sofa to look at the request before an equally worried look forms on her face. Her gaze flicks between Rias's phone and my face. "It's a mission from Archduke Gremory. There's been a stray devil sighting in the town, and because the offended peerage has waived their right to pursue, that task has fallen to us since Kuoh is our territory."
Rias stares at the phone for a moment longer before locking the screen and setting it down.
"It's not far. North edge of town in an abandoned building that's been scheduled for demolition for years," she says. "We'll handle it."
That last part is pointed. She doesn't look at me when she says it. Akeno shifts beside her. Kiba's mouth tightens, just slightly. It's almost funny. They think I'll argue or preach. Maybe they're even trying to spare me from compromising my morals.
I stretch my legs out as I stand. "What do we know about this so-called stray devil?"
Rias glances at me now. There's a moment of hesitation before she answers. "She escaped her peerage, killed two pawns on her way out. She's not been in Kuoh long—a few weeks at most—but she's been feeding on the local human populace."
I nod slowly. "So she's a killer?"
"Yes," Akeno says.
The silence that follows is loaded.
Rias leans forward. "You don't have to come. Issei."
"I know," I say. "But I want to see what the underworld's so-called monsters look like."
Kiba's the one who finally speaks. "Based on our conversation yesterday, you don't trust that we're good people, do you?"
The lovely evening's atmosphere vanishes like a candle in the wind. There's no small measure of hurt in Rias' eyes. I nearly feel guilty until I remember that they hadn't seemed to think of the cruel eventuality of the peerage system until I pointed it out.
They hadn't even thought of it as slavery when that conclusion was right in front of their eyes. For all their lives, my new peers had been enforcers of a system they hadn't thought to question. Not out of any malevolence, but because they assumed that those issuing the orders were as well-meaning as they were.
Or perhaps they didn't have any choice but to accept things as they are. I've no clue, because I don't know them. But I once made the mistake of thinking everyone was as kind as me, only to find my childhood friends chained and tortured in my benefactor's basement.
"Remember my warning, partner: to rebel as you are now is suicide."
Ddraig's voice only reminds me of a truth I'm already well aware of. But am I the only one who can see the tragedy here? Even if she didn't kill innocent people, Rias's father would have ordered her death simply for the sin of desiring freedom.
No one says a word when we reach the site. The building is rotting. Broken windows give me a glimpse of rusted stairwells.
Darkness blankets the world, and I feel all the stronger for it. Against the night, I feel like I'm wearing Incursio.
Rias takes point with her hands on her hips. Behind her are Akeno and Koneko, with Kiba and I to bring up the rear. He holds out his hand and in the same instant, a magic circle different to the one etched into the club room forms at his feet.
A sword floats out of it, hilt first and into Kiba's welcoming grip.
"Can you make me one?" I whisper to him.
Despite the cooling anger I can see in his grey eyes, he summons a perfectly ordinary sword with a brown leather grip into my hand. It's almost pathetic-looking compared to his sword. A metal stick can't compare to a shard of darkness, but I don't complain lest I make him angrier than I have already.
"Once it breaks, it'll disappear," Kiba mutters. "It's no sturdier than a regular sword, so be aware of that. Even if it doesn't break, it'll disappear eventually."
I close my eyes and draw on Ddraig's presence within me—I barely open them when the Boosted Gear materialises in a flash of light against my eyelids.
"BOOST!"
The gemstone within the Boosted Gear flashes a brilliant emerald. I can feel a swell of electrifying energy underneath my skin. Like I can run without stopping for the rest of my life.
Rias marches up to me and takes my armoured left hand in hers, earlier's argument forgotten. "T-That's… the Boosted Gear! It looks completely different to the Twice Critical I saw when Dohnaseek attacked you. See? This gemstone wasn't there before!"
I stare at the gemstone. "...That definitely wasn't there before."
"Of course it wasn't. Why would I grant a pervert like Issei Hyoudou my power without making him prove himself to me first?"
"…I smell blood," Koneko murmurs, covering her nose with the sleeve of her uniform.
Blood? I tilt my head back, but the moment I do, a presence I can only describe as evil descends on the field outside of the building. I might not have been able to smell the blood Koneko pointed out, but the sixth sense I'd honed through years of combat told me that something was approaching.
"What is this stench? Certainly not human—devils?" The hushed voice rises from the field we were wading through.
Rias scoffs. "Stray Devil Viser, you wretch. Your sins are worthy of a thousand deaths. In the name of Archduke Gremory and the peerage that you so callously abandoned, we will purge you from this world!"
The provocation draws a shadow out of the earth, and from it emerges a giggling woman. Her lower half is obscured in a writhing mass of shadow that towers her naked form over us.
She fondles her breasts at the sight of us. "Insolent girl. Would you like me to stain your body to match your crimson hair?"
Ten seconds pass when the green gemstone in my gauntlet flashes bright. "BOOST!"
The shadows part from the rest of her body, revealing a mass of misshapen flesh standing on countless, clawed arms and legs. Dark pustules pulse against the skin of her lower body, and a crimson serpent juts out from the base of her spine to coil around her waist.
"Issei," Rias turns to say. "This is what happens when a devil succumbs to their basest instincts. Their soul and body become as ugly as the evils they commit."
I move past her.
"Viser," my voice catches her gaze. "How many?"
She tilts her head. "How many what, handsome?"
"How many people have you killed?"
"A handful? A dozen? Maybe more. They were all so warm. So loud. Their screams made such beautiful music after I had my way with them."
"And before that—did your King mistreat you?"
Her eyes overflow with rage. "He kept me caged. Treated me like a thing. Let me loose in Rating Games like something to use and then lock away. I deserved freedom."
"You did," I say. That makes her pause her fondling to look at me with curiosity. "But not like this."
Behind me, Rias murmurs, "Issei, don't let her get in your head—"
"She's already made her choice," I reply without turning. "I just wanted to confirm something, Rias."
Ddraig?
"I'm with you, partner," he says. "This maggot will die a swifter death than she deserves."
I look down at my frowning reflection in the Boosted Gear.
"BOOST!"
The Red Dragon's power roars through me for the third time, a brilliant verdant flame. My body tenses, my gaze sharpens, and my senses flare. The stray's eyes widen. She starts to move back, but she's far too slow.
I close the distance in a single step. One clean motion. My sword tears through her from top to bottom. The slash covers me in her blood, and her warped body topples to the ground on either side of my sword.
As it falls, each eye stares at me, asking why I killed her. The swollen pustules burst. Dark fluid seeps into and consumes the surrounding grass with a greedy hiss.
I lower my sword. "Viser… you stopped being a victim the moment you made someone else one."