Heya people, been a while I know but don't worry, I'm not dead. I just happen to be going through a particularly busy part of my life at the moment.

But enough about me. For those of you who have read it, this is my reboot of my first story 'An ancient defender' – a DxD and Dota crossover. Why might I reboot it you may ask? Well that would be because when I went back and re-read it, I nearly vomited blood. Seriously, I've heard that you think differently of what you wrote when you re-read it after a while, but what the actual fuck was I thinking back then? So I decided to try again and do it properly this time.

If you want a full list of reasons as to why I decided to rewrite the story, say so in a review and I'll see about putting one at the start of the next chapter.

This chapter is just the pilot chapter, a means of testing the water if you will. I haven't touched the DxD fandom for a while, so it might not be the best but please leave a review if you can. Being the first chapter, it's very easy for me to make edits if necessary so don't hold back.

Don't expect regular updates, you won't get them.

Hope you enjoy.

Betaed by Left4Assassin

Chapter 1 - A magician?

"Wow, they're so beautiful."

Two doe-brown eyes peered up into the shining cosmos above, delighting in the muted radiance which shone down from the night sky. And what a sky it was, like a great sea of sparks which stretched from horizon to horizon, unmarred by the light smog which lurked above the city below.

A laugh bubbled from the child's throat as he twirled about the grassy crown of the hill. His parents watching on fondly nearby, smiling serenely as their son danced to himself beneath the stars. It had been almost a month since his dear friend had left for England with her family, never to return to Japan.

Almost a month since he had lost his smile.

In an effort to cheer him up, they had decided to take a trip into the countryside, to get away from the town that seemed only all too empty to him now. To their combined relief, it had worked, as evidenced by the spinning silhouette in the dimly lit field.

Even if it had cut into their savings a bit, it was worth it to see their precious son smile again.

"Whoa! Mom, Dad! Which stars are those? The red and blue ones." Issei's voice suddenly cut into their silent musings, his finger pointing at the stars in question.

Looking up themselves, his mother was about to ask him gently to clarify which two of the thousands above them he was referring to when the words died on her lips.

Two small circles, almost the size of a marble each shone above them. One the shade of pure azure, almost so bright that it appeared white. The other wore the colours of a raging inferno, crimson, orange, and yellow seeming to lick about it angrily as it bore down on its observers.

"Dear..." her husband started, equally transfixed by the two orbs. "Is it just me or are those two stars getting bigger."

Squinting in the darkness, she quickly realized, with some shock, that the two dots were indeed getting bigger. In fact, they were both now the size of basketballs, and were gaining size exponentially.

No, she realized with a start, not gaining size, but losing height.

Right towards her son.

"Issei!" she shouted, sprinting towards him with her husband already in tow. "Get away! Run!"

"Wha-?" Issei turned towards them, wondering why his parents looked so worried, unaware of the two vast celestial bodies that were descending unto him.

"ISSEI!" both of his parents reached for him, fingers stretching towards him desperately as the two stars fell.But they were far too late.

"Mom...Dad...?" Issei called out hesitantly.

And then the light consumed him.

"WAKE UP!"

THWACK!

"ITAI!"

Issei gave a start as something hard struck him on the top of his head, jolting him back into consciousness from where he lay on his desk.

"Ugh." he groaned lightly as the remains of his dream swam in front of his blurry eyes. It had been a while since he had relived that particular memory. A while since...

He shook his head. It was all behind him now. Better to focus on the present instead of the past.

Speaking of which.

"Well," he looked up only to see the stern visage of his teacher glaring down at him. "Now that Hyoudou-san has seen fit to rejoin the rest of the class, perhaps he could be so kind as to tell me the answer to the question on the board."

"Ah, err..." he gulped as the glasses hovering over him gleamed sadistically and hurriedly looked over to the board in question only to find it covered in a mess of mathematical equations. "Is it three?" he asked, blindly saying the first number that came to mind.

The glasses flashed once more, but this time in surprise instead of malice.

"Correct." their owner replied, much to not just his but the rest of the classes astonishment. "Perhaps there is hope for you yet."

'Safe!' he gave a mental fist pump even as he blatantly ogled the teachers swaying ass as she walked back to the front of the class.

'Today is already shaping up to be a great day.' he thought happily, pushing the remains of his dream to the back of his mind.

"Any last word, perverts?"

Issei's only response was to whimper, a fitting course of action given the large crowd of shinai wielding sword maidens glaring at him. On either side of him, his partners in crime were exhibiting similar reactions.

It had started out so well too, Matsuda and Motohama, his brothers in perversion, had lead him to a previously undiscovered peeping spot comprising of a hole that connected right into the girls changing rooms. Problem was, not five minutes later, all three of them had given themselves away by getting into a very loud argument as to whose turn it was to peek through said hole.

Thus their current situation.

"Now..."

The girl, Murayama, he believed she was called, raised her shinai causing the others to follow suite.

"DIE!"

He was wrong, today was shaping up to be a very bad day indeed. But then again, he did get quite the eyeful beforehand. So it wasn't a complete washout.

"It was worth it!" he cried out defiantly before the first blow struck, a cry that was echoed by his two compatriots. "For oppai!"

The beating that followed, was legendary.

"Damn those girls hit hard." Issei complained to himself as he made his way home. After a vicious smack-down of around ten minutes, the kendo team had finally, and reluctantly let the three go.

But not before promising worse if they dared to peek again however.

[What did you expect partner? With how often you three peek on them, I'm surprised your still alive.] a voice suddenly piped up, a crimson metal pendant, previously hidden beneath his shirt, suddenly worming it's way to peek from his collar.

"Well yes." he admitted. "But that doesn't mean they have to hit us so hard. I really think they came close to breaking something this time."

He heard a sigh, no doubt of exasperation, from the great dragon which dwelled within the currently shape shifted Boosted Gear.

[You never learn do you partner?] Issei could already picture the great Welsh shaking her gargantuan head bemusedly. [Now if it's so painful, why don't you hurry up and heal yourself so I don't have to listen to your whining?]

"Hey!" Issei glared down at the pendant petulantly. "I don't whine."

[Of course you don't.] Ddraig replied, as though she were patiently talking to a stubborn child, before allowing the pendant to drop back beneath his clothes once more.

"Stupid dragon." Though despite his words, there was nothing but fondness in his tone. Whining aside, she did bring up a good point.

Quickly making sure that there was nobody around, he raised one of his hands up to his shoulder and allowed a small plume of golden fire to flicker into existence on each finger. Fire which did not burn his clothes despite the close proximity.

"Aahhh..." a groan of relief escaped his lips as the mystical flames of both harming and healing seeped into his bruise, replacing stiff discomfort with relief. "Learning how to do this was the best thing I ever did."

Of all the numerous abilities that his...accident...had left him with, his favourite had to be the ability to channel phoenix fire.

Said fire seemed to flare up briefly, as though in response to his praise.

After a minute or two of applied healing on the rest of his injuries, he dismissed the flames and continued his walk across the bridge, drinking in the sunset happily now that various parts of his anatomy weren't aching with each step.

Not that he was referring to anywhere in particular...Nope not at all.

"E-excuse me."

He had not gone forty yards when a nervous voice suddenly called out to him from where it had been waiting against the edge of the bridge.

"Hmm?"

He turned around absently, only to raise an eyebrow when he saw what appeared to be a raven-haired beauty looking at him nervously, hands clasped above her generous bust.

[Partner...] Ddraig started warningly.

'I know, I know.' he replied mentally.

A quick peek at her rather poorly concealed aura had quickly identified her as one of the Fallen to his senses. Which was odd given that he was pretty sure the devils which controlled Kuoh weren't very fond of her kind. Well, that was his impression from what he'd seen of the rest of the devil race at any rate. Who knew, maybe the ones in Kuoh secretly loved the Fallen, but he doubted it.

"I-I like you," the fallen continued to stutter out shyly. "Please go out with me."

'...Think this is some sort of a joke from Azazel?' Issei asked his tenant mentally. Despite preferring to remain out of the supernatural world, he did keep in rare touch with a few select individuals. Of those individuals, Azazel was the most mischief inclined; and did occasionally send something which he dubbed 'amusing' his way.

Although his definition of 'amusing' was a tad different from his own and could often be re-interpreted as 'amusing for everybody except Issei'.

[Knowing him? Possibly.] the dragon responded dryly. [Although if it is, I'm struggling to see the punch-line.]

He considered his options. On the one hand, there was no way that anyone without an ulterior motive would ask him of all people out; possibility of the entire thing being a joke from Azazel aside.

But on the other... He had been getting a bit bored lately, and if there was one thing he could say about Azazel, it was that his jokes always kept him busy for a while. Plus...

His eyes fell to the pair of curvy C, borderline D-cups.

Well, it couldn't hurt. Might as well grasp the opportunity with both hands.

Hopefully wouldn't be the only thing he got to grasp with both hands either... He giggled pervertedly to himself even as he happily agreed to her offer.

[You're incorrigible.] Was all his companion quipped.

The fallen, in the meantime, had caught his eerily familiar giggle. One quite similar to her boss's when he was up to his perverted antics. Perhaps she should've gone ahead and just killed him instead of waiting to play around with him after all.

If you were to think that a date with any member of the perverted trio was a contradiction in terms, you'd probably be right in most cases. Issei however had managed to prove himself apart from his two fellow compatriots by actually putting together a decent date.

A brief bit of morning shopping, followed by lunch and then an afternoon spent at the arcade. Nothing too extravagant, but for a first date it was more than adequate.

There was also the summoning flier he received from what was quite clearly one of the resident devil's familiars. Truthfully, he had little use for such a thing but stuffed it in his pocket regardless. Maybe he could start a scrapbook of summoning fliers or something.

Eventually though, like all good things, the day finally came to an end. And with it, his first legitimate date with the fallen angel whom he had come to know under the name Yuuma. As a finishing location, he had taken her to the park, a good place, in his opinion, for their date to conclude at.

"Say..." she turned to him suddenly, a radiant smile on her face. "Can you do something for me please?"

"Of course Yuuma-chan." Issei replied excitedly to his girlfriend, dutifully playing the part of an eager teenager, as they stood alone in the park. Her black tresses gilded by the rays of the setting sun behind her.

She closed her eyes and smiled sweetly at him.

"Will you please die for me?"

Her expression twisted, warping into an arrogant grin of malice as a pair of black wings burst from her back and lifted her into the air. The casual clothing that she'd previously been wearing melted away into thin strips of black leather that left very little to the imagination.

So little in fact, that he completely missed what she said next (something about blaming god or whatever) and nearly forgot to tilt his head to avoid the sudden spear of light barrelling towards his head, absorbed as he was with...other priorities.

"I guess it isn't a joke then." Issei sighed to himself, perverted smile dropping slightly as he did so. "Then again, at least I got a date with a bishoujo out of it." he reasoned.

He sidestepped absently as another spear shot past him and carved into the ground, and then bent backwards to avoid the follow up.

"Why...won't...you...die!" An increasingly frustrated voice reached his ears as he continued to haphazardly avoid each spear that the irritated fallen hurled seemingly by the skin of his teeth.

Speaking of which, it was probably time for him to stop dancing around. He had some questions to ask his dear girlfriend, and he had already wasted a good five minutes just dodging.

But how to go about it... Using Ddraig would be gross overkill on a single low-ranked fallen.

Decisions decisions...

Thankfully, his choice was made for him when something cold brushed against the back of his mind, like a caressing hand of cold mist silently asking for permission.

"Well if you insist..." he muttered to himself before closing his eyes briefly.

Patches of frost suddenly blossomed along his uniform and on his skin as he allowed the frigid power to permeate through him, chilling his bones and cooling his blood.

Yet contrary to the apparent nature of the element coursing through him, what surged through his mind was a wave of frosty euphoria as opposed to more stereotypically portrayed icy calmness.

He opened his eyes, revealing not his usual doe brown irises but two crystalline blue pools of winter mischief. A jubilant laugh bubbled from his throat despite himself, his lips lifting into a face-splitting white grin that radiated frosty air.

"Now why don't you just chill out." he chuckled, uncaring of the continuous onslaught that he was all but skipping around now, and raised his hand.

A bolt of white hoarfrost burst from his palm towards his rapidly tiring girlfriend (five, going on ten minutes of non-stop spear throwing would do that to you) where it impacted squarely on her stomach and immediately began to spread.

Like the legs of a crystal spider, tendrils of ice grew from where the bolt had landed and quickly curled up her arms, seizing them before she could attempt to form another spear and free herself.

"What the- So you already awakened y-your s-s-sac-cred g-gear?"

The restrained fallen's voice suddenly broke off into a shivering stutter as the ice crawled around her neck and grasped her wings, sending her to the earth. Her already insignificant apparel doing nothing to mitigate the cold, though thankfully the ice seemed content at merely restraining her instead of enveloping her completely.

"Sacred gear? Is that what this is all about?" Issei tilted his head at her, merry grin never leaving his face. "Shouldn't Azazel have told you about it beforehand?"

"Wh-what the h-hell are y-you t-talking about?" Was the stuttering reply as she tried futilely to break from the ice.

"Oh? You didn't know?" his grin widened. "So Azazel didn't send you then. In that case..."

He moved until his face was mere inches from hers and rested his hand on her frosted shoulder.

'Ddraig, if you would be so kind?' he mentally requested and was answered with a flash of crimson light, as the infamous Boosted Gauntlet wrapped itself around his hand.

[BOOST!]

"Just what do you want from this simple little human then?" the Boosted Gear wielder asked, toothy grin never leaving his face.

"L-l-longinus?" The fallen gasped in clear shock. Apparently she recognized Ddraig; which wasn't really surprising given her leader's obsession with sacred gears.

"Yup!" he replied, popping the 'p'. "Now why don't you- Oi oi oi!"

Before he could finish his sentence, her head had dropped in a clear sign of unconsciousness; most likely due to the previous energy expenditure and his ice.

Damn, he hadn't accounted for that. Now what was he supposed to do with her? It wasn't exactly as though he could let her go free; fallen of lower rank rarely traveled alone, so it was likely she had other companions waiting for her somewhere in the city.

[Getting her out of the ice first might be a good start.] Ddraig piped up, causing him to start as he noticed that her skin was indeed turning blue from the cold.

"Quite." Quickly walking over, he willed the ice to shatter, releasing the shivering fallen into his waiting arms. "Forgot lower ranked angels don't have very high elemental resistance." Regular ice would've been no problem, but magically enhanced ice meant to trap and restrain all it touched? Well he didn't blame her for not being able to break out. Luckily for her, he wasn't at full power otherwise she would have had more than frostbite to worry about as well.

He sighed, a small cloud of snowflakes billowing from his mouth as he did so. It would seem that the supernatural world truly wouldn't let him live a normal life. Pity too, he'd been doing so well for the past year or so in Kuoh, longest streak he'd had and one that he was reluctant to break.

Returning his attention back to the now unconscious and shivering girl in his arms, he placed her gently on the ground, taking care to not crush her wings, and let the frosty presence within him withdraw and instead drew upon the familiar golden flames that he was so fond of using.

"Haaaah..." he groaned blissfully as warmth spread through his limbs sending a pleasant shudder through his body as the ice around and within him dissolved.

Relaxed as he was however, he did not neglect the frostbitten little crow in his arms. A shroud of gently flickering golden flames was already working over her from his outstretched hands, healing the bruised areas where the ice had none-too-gently gripped her previously.

It took a few minutes, but after a while, her breathing evened out at which point he deemed it safe to let the flames recede.

"Okay, she's defrosted. Now what do I do with her?"

[Take her home and make her yours?] Ddraig suggested.

"..." Issei looked down dryly at his arm, still covered with the Boosted Gear.

"Seriously though." He continued as though the dragon had not spoken. "What should I do with her? I can't exactly just leave her here."

[Why the hell not? She did just try to skewer you didn't she?]

"Pfft. You know as well as I do that-"

He broke off abruptly, hunching over to the side as a bout of hacking coughs wracked through him; only instead of saliva, sizzling amber sparks shoot from his throat with each cough.

"Crap," he cursed between spark laden coughs. "Of all the times to overload...Ddraig?"

[Already working on it.] A surge of draconian energy spread through his body, beginning to forcibly purge the flames which had started to become a bit too much of a part of him; the red gauntlet vanishing as it did so.

Still coughing sparks, though less frequently now, he quickly bundled the fallen back into his arms and made two steps forwards before falling back to his knees and sending them both sprawling.

"Bollocks." The english curse rolled off his tongue as he took a leaf from Irina's book and slowly picked himself back up.

Irina. Now there was a name he hadn't thought of in a while.

Sometimes he did wonder how his oldest friend was doing over in England. Hopefully the church was treating him and his family alright, and if they weren't...

A grunt of pain escaped his lips, followed by another cascade of sparks as the flaming power within him flared in response to the slight shift in his emotions.

He sighed and shook his head decisively, eyes cast towards the amber wrought sky from where he knelt; the exhausted fallen snoozing just in front of him. Thoughts like that would do no favours for his body at the moment.

Damn it. He really wished he could just head home and be done with the day, nice as it had been. Up until the stabby part anyway.

Caught up in his musings, he failed to notice a certain flier he'd casually taken flare into life from his back pocket. Nor did he see the magic circle depicted on it inscribe itself into the ground with lines of glowing red light, or the figure that slowly appeared from it.

"Hyoudou-san?" His head bolted round as an unexpected voice cut into his thoughts abruptly.

Red and boobs met his eyes. There was only one person he knew of that rocked that combo.

"Gremory!?"

And indeed it was, one of the two legendary 'great ladies' of Kuoh, her luscious red hair hanging around her as she looked at him and the surroundings in shock.

What he wanted to know was why she was here all of a-

'Wait a minute...'

[...You do realise that you had that flyer in your pocket when you made that wish right?] Ddraig deadpanned having noticed the small fluctuation in magic the moment it started.

"Fuck." So much for staying under the devils' radar. Well, it was nice while it lasted.

"Hyoudou-san what happened here?" Rias in the meantime had just looked down and seen the unconscious fallen at his feet. "Did you do this!? How did you beat the fallen!? Have you already awakened your sacred gear!?"

She seemed to be a mix of confused, shocked and apprehensive at the same time as her mind tried and failed to make sense of the scene before her. Honestly it was kind of cute to see the normally composed beauty appear so flustered.

'The gap-moe is real.' he thought absently to himself before raising his voice to get the red-head's attention.

"Pardon me," he started, slowly standing himself up with some difficulty. "But would you mind giving me and my girlfriend here a lift to the front of my house? We had a...minor dispute and got a bit carried away because of it."

He coughed again, sending out another small hail of sparks much to the buxom devil's continued surprise. Thankfully Ddraig had nearly finished purging the last vestiges of phoenix fire from his system but it the process would still drain him to the point of exhaustion soon enough. There was a reason he hardly went over the proverbial 'cap' of his powers without the appropriate prior preparations after all.

"Quickly, if you don't mind." He wasn't going to last much longer at his rate. As soon as Ddraig finished, odds were he'd collapse where he stood.

The idea of turning slightly so that if he did faint, his face would fall into his girlfriend's boobs crossed his mind, but he decided against it. No need to add oil to the fire... No matter how tempting it was.

"You're injured?" A gleam of concern added itself into the swirl of emotions present in her emerald eyes.

That was quite a rarity for him if he were to be perfectly honest, not just because she was a devil, but because of his status as a social pariah as well. Hell, if anything it should have been worse given where she stood on the opposite end of the social spectrum.

Plus she was a devil. Devils were, by nature, prideful creatures. He was just a lowly human in her eyes, and it honestly surprised him to see some genuine worry from her.

"No, just exhausted." he attempted a smile only to produce a weak grin instead. "I'm willing to discuss a price later, but can you please transport us to my house please." His breathing was starting to come up a bit short. "The address is..."

He rattled off a short street address, to which his red-headed senior nodded and quickly summoned forth a familiar looking transport circle. Evidently she'd taken notice of his swiftly weakening physique and prioritized his wish over the...nationality of his sleeping passenger.

With a flash of crimson light, devil, human and fallen vanished from the eerily silent park. Leaving only several puncture holes in the ground as evidence to their previous existence.

The moment the unlikely trio appeared once more on the doorstep of a nondescript looking house, the inhuman pair shuddered. Something vast and encompassing suddenly brushed on their senses, like a cold mist that threatened to choke the life from their lungs. It was like the claws of an unseen omnipresent predator, curling around their necks, paralyzing them as the air began to grow thick with lethality.

"The Radiant shines upon you. You are welcome here." The voice of the only human present suddenly spoke up from where he stood.

No sooner had the words left his lips did the claws retract, eliciting a sigh and unconscious shiver of relief from the devil and fallen respectively.

"Sorry about that." Rias looked up to the now significantly healthier looking Issei as he rubbed his head sheepishly. "The warding system I've got doesn't like intruders much, supernatural ones less so."

Well that was a small lie, the 'warding system' was actually a constantly self-balancing and re-distributing energy field of Dire and Radiant energy. Granted it did work as a pseudo-ward scheme with some jury-rigged rune work, but its main purpose was to keep the energy balance within his body in check. Even now, the only reason he could stand properly was because it was actively equalizing the energy imbalance in his body caused by the previous purge.

The red-head devil just stared at him blankly for a while, presumably trying to put her thoughts in order as any preconceptions she had of him likely just went out the window.

Just when he was starting to get a bit concerned over how still she was, she shook her head slowly, a smile spreading across her face as she did.

"My my," she started, velvety voice brushing against his ears. "I knew that you had something interesting about you, but this..." she swept her arms around herself. "Far exceeds even my expectations."

That...wasn't what he was expecting.

Though he did applaud her for being able to adapt and regain her composure so quickly.

"Now then," the devil gestured to the doorway. "Shall we discuss the price of your wish inside then." She smiled pleasantly at him, causing him to almost forget what she said.

"Huh? Err... Right"

He shook himself mentally before pulling out his house key and unlocked the door, beckoning her to go first while he followed behind with his still unconscious girlfriend.

"So..." Issei started, glancing over to where his senior sat seated on the opposite side of his kitchen table. "I take it you have questions then?"

"Indeed." the devil replied. "It's not everyday that you find that an unknown magician has been hiding in your territory after all." Despite the easy way in which she said it, Issei could not help but wince at the subtle accusation laced within the sentence.

"Well, I put a lot of effort into not being found." So he was a magician now was he? Well he supposed that was a rational conclusion to come to given the small lie about his 'warding system'.

"Oh?" His interrogator leaned in slightly with her arms drawn under her bust, something that did not escape his keen notice. "And why might you be hiding in my territory hmm?" Her eyes glinted at him, warning him to be very careful with his reply.

"Hiding is a strong word." he hedged. "Trying to get by with my life under low-profile is more accurate. I had an...accident some years ago." Flashes of azure and crimson briefly flickered in his memory before he forced them down once more. "It... Suffice to say that there is a good reason as to why I am perfectly content to remain unnoticed. Well, unnoticed aside from your brother, he does know I'm here."

"Onii-sama does?" At the mention of her brother the hard edge which had been creeping into her voice vanished and transitioned into surprise instead.

Issei raised an eyebrow at her, while internally he was relieved to have been able to divert her attention.

"Well I didn't really want to get involved with any supernatural bureaucracy, so I got one of my contacts to forward my application to your brother directly instead. Plus you really think that I would just sneak into the territory of Sirzechs, the Crimson Satan's, precious little sister without asking him first? The same Sirzechs who still proudly holds the sis-con of the year award and has held it so for sixteen years straight?" He gave a small chuckle that betrayed nothing. "First thing I did before I got here was fill in the right paperwork first." The part about the award was something he'd overheard during a shopping excursion in the underworld. As he remembered it, a magical girl cosplayer had been loudly lamenting how she had lost the award to the increasingly distressed shop keeper, whom she had been buying a wand from.

Said sister stared at him in astonishment; whatever she had been expecting it was clearly not that.

Then, "He won an award for..." The buxom devil buried her face into her hands as her brother's infamous familial obsession was bluntly lain bare before her. "Baka onii-sama."

A somewhat awkward silence descended upon them, broken only by her muted mutterings before she eventually looked back up with a sigh.

"I apologise Hyoudou-san, but can I invite you to continue this conversation with me at the Occult Research Club tomorrow? I have some words to say to my dear older brother." was offset by the faint dusting of pink across her face.

"Please, call me Issei. And no, it's no problem for me." he replied, noting the particular vehemence she placed on the last sentence and the faint dusting of pink across her face that offset it slightly. Far be it for him to get between an annoyed (and slightly embarrassed) younger sister and her brother.

"Thank you." she smiled gratefully at him, something that caused his heart to skip a beat despite himself. Devil she may have been, but he was still a hormonal teenager at heart and she was a beauty even by supernatural standards. "Ah one last thing though, about your...girlfriend. I trust she will not be a problem for anyone will she?"

"I know some people who can take care of her."

"Are you sure? You are aware of the three factions and the current state of affairs between them right?" By that he assumed that she was referring to the delicate state of peace that would be more accurately described as a begrudging cease-fire between the three biblical factions, and that was putting it mildly.

"Very much so." Hoo boy did he know. First time he went to the underworld years ago, he was almost nuked out of existence on the spot due to a minor 'error' with some security scanning equipment registering him as an angel of all things.

"I see. Very well, I shall be expecting you tomorrow then, Issei-kun." And with that, the devil stood, and vanished in the same manner by which she had first appeared.

"Well that's one problem down." he craned his neck round to look at the dozing fallen on his couch. "One more to go." And pulled out his phone.

Slowly, he navigated into his contacts menu until the selector hovered over a number he hadn't called for quite a while, almost a year in fact.

For a few moments, all he did was gaze at the number, slowly mulling over the events that had just transpired and the ramifications they brought.

A bitter grin spread across his face as his heart gradually accepted the conclusion his mind had drawn.

"It was never possible wasn't it Ddraig; having a normal life." There was no anger or judgement in his voice, only melancholy.

There was silence, until his pendant, the current dormant form of his sacred gear, suddenly detached itself from his neck and made its way to float behind where he was seated.

He didn't even need to turn his head to see the burst of red light that flashed behind him, nor was he surprised when two naked and elegantly slender arms extended from it to embrace him tenderly from behind.

[...You're were the host of a heavenly dragon, partner.]A head of long and unruly crimson locks rested itself gently on his shoulder. [You know as well as I do what that means. Even though I am in my current state, and even though you have taken precautions, you can't account for everything. Not to mention your other...tenants.] The great welsh replied gently into his ear, her luscious red lips parting with each word.

He lolled back tiredly on his chair, enjoying the feeling of her shoulder, brown eyes turned towards the ceiling and looking far beyond the white tiles which lined it.

"Yeah."

Brown shifted to crimson and azure, and his free hand went to grasp the dragoness's own where they laid clasped over his heart.

"I do."

He pushed the dial button.

When Raynare finally awakened, it was not the cold ground of the park or the cold embrace of purgatory which greeted her, but the inverted visage of the very person which had been responsible for her state of unconsciousness.

"Good morning, Raynare-san." Issei greeted her calmly from where he stood looming over her face. "Sleep well?"

"You!"

Everything came back in a rush as she tried to summon a spear of light in her hand to stab through his head.

Keyword tried.

Instead of a spear, all she got was a few weak sparks that flickered weakly before dying completely.

"Yeah, that's not going to work here." He pulled up sharply as a punch pierced the space his head had been occupying. "Neither will that."

"Raagh!" Instead of being deterred, his words seemed to only further incense the fallen as she rolled off the couch and attempted to spring a punch right into his jaw. Or at least would have if she'd noticed the blanket that was currently wrapped around her, courtesy to her host who had taken pity on her in the night. The result was a surprisingly cute yelp as, part way through the roll, she managed to get completely tangled within the thick blanket, leaving a mildly bemused Issei as he regarded the wriggling, gift-wrapped ball of cloth and feathers.

"Err..." He crouched down and poked around where he assumed her head was. "Are you alright in there?"

The muffled answers that he got were decidedly not fit for recital in polite company.

"I see. Well you can just sit tight there for a while then, and don't bother trying to tear through, that blanket is made to withstand anything short of a mid class devil or angels' attack." When one did their shopping in the supernatural black market, it was hardly surprising that seemingly mundane items would have a few tricks installed with them. Honestly he probably could've gotten the furnishing for his current house a lot easier through official channels, but they never had any of the good stuff like intruder shredding doormats or dragon-apple coffee (something both he and his partner enjoyed), hence his decision to shop in the seedier parts of town. It didn't hurt that he occasionally found some things that weren't available on the usual market as well.

Ding~Dong!

The pair were interrupted abruptly as the doorbell chimed.

"Oh goody, hopefully that's who I think it is. Sit tight for a moment will you?"

He took a careful step over the wriggling bundle, which only caused said bundle to renew its violent cursing as the fallen inside tried fruitlessly to escape her fuzzy confines, and headed over to the door.

A few moments later, he returned to the room, looking down at the letter in his hand with a look of mild surprise on his face. He had expected somebody to come by and pick up the wayward fallen, but what he got instead was an envelope addressed to said fallen left on the doorstep. Sent through express postage no less.

Reaching down, he casually grabbed a random corner of the wriggling bundle that was his errant girlfriend, and gave a sharp yank sending her rolling to the floor.

Before she could stand or get her bearings to attack him again, he quickly thrust the envelope into her face where her name lay handwritten in familiar penmanship.

"It's from your leader." he looked at the name on front of the envelope. "Raynare-san."

"Azazel-sama!?" Nary had he finished speaking then did the envelope get ripped from his hand and into those of the newly christened Raynare as she opened it and began to read with devout zeal.

"Of course I would run into the fanatically devoted type wouldn't I?" Issei muttered upon seeing the obsessive glaze in his guest's eyes.

"...No."

"Hmm?" he turned back to the kneeling fallen. "Did you say something?"

"No. No. No. NO. NO!" With each monosyllabic reply her distress grew as whatever was within the letter clearly disagreed with her. "Not now! Not when I'm so close!"

"What on earth are you going on about?" Issei frowned his guest grew more and more distraught. "Let me see that."

He deftly plucked the letter from where it was clasped between numb fingers and quickly scanned it over.

"So you and your friends are being recalled." he read before looking at her oddly. "Do you really like this place that much or something?" Kuoh was a nice place to be sure, but it was also devil territory so he could hardly see why Raynare, a fallen, would be so upset about leaving. Especially since he was aware, as of last night, that her orders were only to observe for any potential Sacred Gear holders. Killing them was not in fact in any part of those orders.

"This was my chance... My chance to become powerful... I had everything set up... the extractor, the nun... My only chance to become a high-angel and gain the love of Azazel-sama..."

Then as though she had only just realized who was standing beside her, her eyes became terrible with rage, sorrow giving way to anger as her gaze turned murderous.

"You... IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" she screamed, a scream of rage and despair, and leapt towards him with her hands grasping for his throat.

Poke.

But before her hands got anywhere close to the brunette's neck, Issei had already reached out and lain two of his fingers to rest on her forehead.

"Calm down." he intoned. The words were neither loud nor profound, yet they resonated within her body, binding her actions and briefly jarring her from her anger.

"Listen to me very carefully." Issei started, the annoyance at her constant attacks coming to a head as his blazing azure eyes boring deep into her own amethyst ones from where he loomed over her. "From what I can gather from your previous ramblings, you were intending to extract something from a nun, presumably a sacred gear, using some sort of extractor." Seeing her glare furiously at him he decided to take her silence as confirmation. "Then following that, I presume that you were planning to then implant said sacred gear into yourself correct?"

Upon seeing her begrudging nod he let out a sigh of exasperation. Any previous anger he had vanishing as the situation behind her attack became clear.

"Are you an idiot?" he asked. "Firstly, even if you were to succeed with this plan, unless you somehow managed to trap a sacred gear of at least longinus caliber, I fail to see how you intend to become powerful enough to garner a former Seraph's attention."

"Secondly," he forestalled the building ire he could sense and allowed his tone to turn sombre. "Were you truly thinking about Azazel when you decided on this plan? This is the heart of devil territory, the chances of you and your comrades dying is significantly high just by being here without mentioning your little scheme. Do you really think that Azazel would be happy that his subordinates decided to all but kill themselves in some misguided attempt to please him?"

"I..." For the first time since his impromptu rant had started, Raynare spoke; his latest words replacing her rage with uncertainty. Clearly the mentioning of her leader (and person of obsession's) name had managed to get through her rage.

"Azazel values his brethren above all else; you of all people should know how much the fallen mean to him." Issei continued, slowly removing his fingers. The azure in his eyes bled away to brown once more as he released the spell which had held her in place. "Think very carefully about that for a while."

"Now," he turned to the hall. "I have to go to school and sort out some things with the resident devils. There's some takeout in the fridge if your hungry and feel free to help yourself to anything you might need in the meantime. Within reason. Of course you can try to leave, and I won't stop you, but if you do, you will fall completely into the devils' jurisdiction."

Seeing her slow and unresponsive nod, he smiled lightly and made his way out towards the door, a lost gaze following him as he did so. Hardly surprising given that he had just pulled the rug out from her motivation entirely.

When his footsteps had faded, Raynare slowly wandered back to the couch where she had formerly lain; where, after some hesitation (and contemplation as to whether she was in the mood for takeout), she allowed herself to fall down face first onto it.

"Do you really think that Azazel would be happy that his subordinates decided to all but kill themselves in some misguided attempt to please him?" The question repeated itself in her mind one more.

Unbidden, an image suddenly flashed into her mind, an image that she and almost all the other fallen held within their hearts.

At the very end of the great war, not long after a cease-fire had been called, she and many others had helped to gather up their dead to be burned. In great piles they had been gathered. Thousands upon thousands of bodies burned and blackened by devil and light magic alike.

It was before this sight, that their great leader, Azazel, had finally allowed himself to fall to his knees for the first time during that war.

Though he did not weep, nor did he utter any sound of sorrow, his grief was palpable, such that even now she could still remember how it saturated the air.

On that day, she and many others had sworn to never allow their beloved leader to enter that state again.

She looked at her hands listlessly.

This was supposed to be her ticket into his heart, her rise to glory and power that would surely make him notice her.

Stealing the sacred gear extractor, luring the former holy maiden to take her sacred gear, consorting with the crazy priest Freed Sellezan and the other rouge exorcists...

Fueled with all of her love and dedication, it was meant to be her greatest achievement.

And yet...

"Do you really think that Azazel would be happy?"

Would what she was doing really make Azazel happy?

The question continued to bounce around her mind, and it would be many hours before mental fatigue sent her into a troubled sleep.

As soon as Issei had arrived at the academy, he decided to forgo his usual practice of praying for the wind to blow up some skirts, and instead made a covert beeline for the club room of the fabled Occult Research Club: the old school building. He could have waited until the lunch break to visit, but unfortunately he was not left with a time for which to arrive. Prior experience in dealing with supernatural beings however, had taught him to err on the side of caution and that being too early was better than being too late. Mostly.

He sighed. Not even a day back into it and he was having a meeting with the younger sister of one of the four ruling powers of the underworld. Truly, his luck did not do things by half.

Raising his hand to the western style wood door, he rapped sharply, no more than twice before lowering it once more. While he was waiting, he took the time to carefully observe the architecture around him. Built of western construction and materials, the building cut an impressive and yet modest structure even when compared to the similarly styled current school building.

It also seemed to lack almost any form of magical protection beyond some moderate reinforcement, he noted from his cursory glance, which was a bit odd given the political value of its inhabitants.

The sound of the door opening broke him away from his musings however and he turned his head back to be faced with...empty air?

"Pervert." A stoic borderline monotonic voice suddenly declared.

Tilting his gaze down a few degrees, he found himself face to face with the unofficial white haired 'mascot' of the academy, one Toujou Koneko.

"Short." he deadpanned back at her. "And now that the pleasantries are out of the way I believe I have an appointment with your king." he continued, causing the short girl to be a bit taken aback by his reply. Clearly she, like many others, had not expected that the self-proclaimed 'harem king' to possess any conversational tact beyond declarations about boobs.

The look changed into a light glare tinted with suspicion however when she processed his comment on her height; much to his amusement.

It did however suddenly cross his mind that Rias had not had time to tell her peerage, the rest of the club, about him given what she left to do last night.

His worries were quickly slain however, for the girl slowly nodded in confirmation.

"This way." she said begrudgingly turning towards the hallway and starting off without bothering to check if he was following. "Pervert."

"Cute." he said dryly, before following her down the carpeted hall.

Eventually after a small bit of walking, the unlikely pair reached the door to what he assumed was where Rias intended to receive him.

Or at least that's what he would have thought were it not for the sound of a shower running he could hear through a crack in the door.

He looked down at his stoic companion oddly.

"Is this the right room...?" Issei asked hesitantly.

Koneko's only response was to open the door fully and step through.

"I'll take that as a yes then." he muttered before stepping through himself.

The room was, unsurprisingly, furnished with distinct Victorian style and décor. From the desk further in the back and the three couches, also Victorian, surrounding a coffee table off to the side, he guessed that the room functioned as a general study/living space.

'And a shower, apparently.' he mentally amended as he noticed the tub and curtains set over in the other side of the room. He would have continued his observations, but his attention was seized quite abruptly by the decidedly buxom silhouette he could see against the curtain.

"The pervert is here, Buchou." his guide announced to the bathing silhouette, and promptly sat herself down on of the aforementioned couches that lined one side of the room.

"Issei-kun?" A familiar voice sounded out as the silhouette bent over to turn off the water. "I wasn't expecting you so early. Are you all right? You seemed quite tired yesterday. Koneko could you pass me my clothes please?"

Quickly dressing herself, the curtain was pushed away to reveal the familiar visage of the infamous president of the Occult Research Club, Rias Gremory.

"Well you never gave me a time so I decided to play it safe. And I'm fine now, thanks." he replied trying not to stare as she brushed her still dripping crimson locks away with her hand.

"...Disgusting face." The sole audience in the room expressed her evaluation of his apparent expression.

It would seem that the girl truly disliked perverts; much like almost 95% of the student populace.

"Hahaha...Moving along..." he smiled awkwardly towards the bemused redhead "I believe you wanted to continue our prior discussion?"

"Indeed." she replied, smiling in return. "I will admit I was hoping to introduce you to the entirety of my peerage, but that can happen later I suppose. In the meantime, allow me to at least formally introduce myself."

With a small 'pa' sound, a pair of black leathery wings popped out from behind her back.

"I am Rias Gremory, heir to the house of Gremory of the 72 pillars and the king of my peerage." She gave a small bow and looked up at him expectantly to return the gesture.

"Hyoudou Issei. Magician." He replied and then hesitated before adding. "And the Current Emperor of the Red Dragon." There were many other things he could have said, but decided to refrain from doing so until he got to know the heiress and her peerage a bit better. Plus he was pretty sure that Rias already knew he had a sacred gear; if her babbled comment from the day before was anything to go by anyway.

"Red Dragon Emperor!?" It was not just Rias, but even Koneko seemed to be surprised, nigh shocked by his admission. He didn't blame them, the Boosted Gauntlet was one of the fabled thirteen Longinus; sacred gears of god-slaying ability. Which was also why one of the first things he'd done after he went into hiding was to find a way of suppressing Ddraig's distinctive aura. Something he did quite well if he did say so himself.

He sighed to himself and held up his hand. 'Ddraig.'

[BOOST!]

The distinctive crimson gauntlet materialized around his left arm with a flash of red light, confirming his words to the two devils.

Speaking of which, there was something decidedly odd about the way Rias was looking at him. Koneko had quickly recovered her stoic appearance, but her king had a look about her that seemed quite out of place for the situation.

Of course there was greed, such was the nature of devils after all, but there was also hope.

Desperate hope.

It struck him as odd because as someone with heiress status and the Prince of Lies himself as an older brother, he rather assumed that there was very little she actually needed to hope for. Perhaps it was bias and insensitive of him to assume so, but he didn't really have much of a reference to work from here.

"Anyway..." he dismissed the Boosted Gear drawing the devils' attention back to him. "Now that I've introduced myself; regarding my continued presence in your territory?"

"Ah yes. Well first I would like to know what your continued purpose in my territory is." She replied sitting down behind her desk and gesturing him towards the seat in front of it. After she had had some...words with her dear brother, she had proceeded to ask him about the mysterious magician that had apparently been living in her territory all year. All that she had gotten was a non-too-helpful "Oh Issei-kun? He's an interesting one." Even his application paperwork had revealed nothing that she did not already know as of now; sans that his written reason for moving to Kuoh was in order to continue his education.

"No idea." he said with a suddenly tired sigh as he relaxed into the seat. "Until yesterday, I was perfectly content to merely get by and go on with my life under the radar. But..." Another sigh escaped him. "That all went to hell after my unfortunate scuffle with my girlfriend. Who is also being recalled with the rest of her comrades, in case you were wondering, on account of what I have learned to be an unauthorized movement. Either way, now that I've been thrown back into the thick of the supernatural, I have no idea what to do." he finished honestly.

Admittedly he could have tried to resume his original lifestyle, living one halcyon day after the other, free of the burdens that the supernatural world bought.

But he was getting restless. True he was quite happy with being able to live normally, but even now he could feel the growing itch that was Ddraig's influence trying to find someone to fight and to attract power around himself. It wasn't anything he couldn't bear; but in time it would grow to be quite annoying and possibly out of control.

"Oh?" The redhead's eyes gleamed suddenly, leaning forwards on clasped fingers. "Perhaps I might have an offer for you..."

"You mean peerage?" he looked at her in amused exasperation. Devils would be devils after all. "I'm afraid I will have to decline. And no," he held up a hand to halt the protest he could see forming on her lips. "It's not because I am prejudiced against devils. I am aware of the kindness towards servants which your family is known for, and you have my respect for it. But despite that, I value my humanity far too highly to exchange it." What little he had left anyway.

"I see." The heiress was visibly disappointed, though she tried not to let it show on her face.

"I don't suppose knowing that you can form your own peerage when you get promoted to high-class devil would persuade you otherwise would it?" she offered halfheartedly. Once, she would have believed that the chance of making a harem would have been more than enough to bring the self-proclaimed 'Harem-King' into her peerage. Heck, most of the time all it took was the promise of eternal, or at least very extended, life and most humans would have gladly offered their soul on a platter.

But now, she could not say the same of the Issei which sat before her. There was a look of contentedness and resolve in his eyes, yet it was also tinged by a hint of bitterness and longing. He was genuinely resolved to retain his humanity, and nothing she might say right now would change that.

The thought that he might have been an impostor had crossed her mind, what with how polite he was being. But it was just as quickly put out of it once more when she noticed how his eyes would occasionally drop to her boobs and how they gleamed at the word 'harem'.

"You have no idea how tempting that is, but I stand by my decision." he replied with a good natured and slightly perverted chuckle. "Ah, despite that though, I do still need to pay you back for my wish. And while peerage is not an option, I am willing to offer my services as a magician to you and your peerage."

"Oh?" This did pique her interest; the detail of him being a magician having been briefly forgotten in favour of his sacred gear. "And just what is it that you can offer then?"

"Depends on the request. I'm an accomplished general magician, so as long as it's not too outlandish, I should be able to fulfill whatever you ask of me. That being said though, my grasp on modern magical theory is a bit unorthodox, so I can't help traditionally on that front"

"That's quite a confident claim to your abilities." she looked at him appraisingly. "Perhaps you wouldn't mind giving a demonstration first."

He mulled it over before nodding his consent. "Fair enough. When and where?"

"Come back here at lunch." The Gremory decided. "There's a special area out the back that you can use without any interference. I'll introduce you to the rest of my peerage then as well."

"Sounds good. See you then." he stood and bid the two devils goodbye, taking time to let his gaze linger longer that etiquette demanded, before turning and making his way out.

As soon as she heard the door click, the king turned to her rook and asked. "So what did you make of him then, Koneko-chan?"

"Human." The small girl stated in her usual monosyllabic way. "Too human."

"What do you mean." Her king asked.

"Perfect scent. Too perfect" When she reached out with her sensing ability, Issei had most assuredly registered as a human. So perfectly and utterly human, but something about him seemed...off still. Like a vast painting that was ever so slightly tilted to one side or an image that had been tampered with using the subtlest brush there was. A flaw that you knew existed but could not locate.

"Interesting." Rias pondered. Few could hide from the keen senses of her rook, and fewer still could actively deceive them blatantly. It would seem that her brother's words were not said without thought; likely it was that he himself had found something to be off with the mysterious perverted magician

Resolution be damned though, she was going to keep trying to get him into her peerage. She was a devil dammit, and the Red Dragon Emperor was too tempting a catch for her to let up. That said emperor was also kind of cute in his own shy and skittish way didn't hurt.

She smiled.

Either way, she was looking forwards to unraveling her mysterious underclassman.

Female Ddraig because why the hell not. Next update will be Bell of Sanctuary. Have a happy holiday, and remember to read and review.