Chapter 2:

The sound of rustling sheets besides him was the first thing Hikigaya heard as he arose from his slumber. His hazy mind took in the sight of the sleeping body next to him, probably just his adorable sister sneaking into his bed again. He sighed before pulling the cover tighter around himself in attempt to go back to sleep. He closed his eyes letting the warm embrace of the covers and the gentle breathing beside him slowly lull him back to sleep. A thought came to him while he was on the precipice of sleep, the brief mental image of the person sleeping next to him flashed in his head. Since when did his sister where glasses?

He Forced his eyes back open and turned his body over to get a better look at his sleeping companion. A girl with black short hair and an askew pair of glasses laid beside him above the covers. The gentle rise and fall of her chest were the only signs of movement as she peacefully lay unmoving.

The memories of last night came unbidden back to his mind, a torrent of emotion and memories flashed by too quickly to take in all at once. He bolted up pushing the sheets off, his hands moved over his chest checking for wounds or any signs of external injuries. He became even more confused to find that only a slight scar had remained to provide proof that last night had been more than just a dream and not a figment produced by his imagination.

"... I see that you're finally awake." the girl next to him yawned, dragging her body up into a sitting position. She rearranged her glasses and flattened out her uniform of wrinkles that had been created during her rest.

Finally his brain clicked the person in front of him was Shitori, which only made it all the more awkward when he realized that they had been sleeping next to each other for who knew how long. He pushed the thoughts out of his mind and there were more important matters right now than worrying about how or why they had been sleeping together.

"Where are we, better yet what happened. Last thing I remember was being on the floor in that alley …. Shouldn't I be in a hospital?" he morosely stared down at his chest, shivers plagued his body just at the thought of previous events.

Shitori frowned unhappily, her hands fidgeting at her sides as she searched for words. "I'm sorry Hikigaya it's truly my fault for not better handling the situation. If i had just …. If I had taken more precautions things wouldn't have had to end this way."

"You didn't answer my question, please tell me what's going on." he let out more harshly than he intended causing the girl to tense up.

"You're right my apologies, than I will be as straightforward as possible," she coughed before proceeding. "Last night you were attacked by what we have identified, with the help of a few other individuals, as a fallen angel. As you were dying you made a wish that activated one of our sigils that summoned me. By the time I arrived you were already on the verge of death and there was nothing that could be done to save you. For the rest, well it will be easier to show you rather than try to explain it"

Shitori got off the bed and walked to the front of the room before turning around so that her back was facing him. A few seconds passed where it seemed like nothing would happen before her shirt slowly moved down exposing her bare shoulders. Then without indication or expectation two black wings burst forth from her back.

She sat there for a few moments before continuing where she left off, "So you died … and then I had to make a choice. I chose what I believe to be the lesser of two evils but whether or not you agree with me is…" She trailed off listlessly her face a stoic mask.

He however was not fooled by the deception, he had spent a large majority of the last few years learning to read people. She was worried about something that much was obvious, and as he put the pieces together it didn't take him long to reach a definite conclusion.

"So you brought me back to life and now I'm the same as you." It was a statement more than a question, his heart hammered in his chest as all the implications of his situation hit him. His whole life had been turned upside down in mere moments and he was terrified.

"Correct Hikigaya, the summoning contract in your bag responded to your wish. I arrived and fulfilled it the only way I could and just like me you're now a devil. In hell we have something called evil pieces," she reached into the pocket of her uniform pulling out a pawn, "these allow me, the king, to reincarnate other beings into Devils. After being brought back you'll be considered part of my peerage with everything that it entails."

"So basically I become your property. Whether human or devil it seems the world still stays the same, people only exist to be used by someone else." He was angry, lashing it out with all his pent up fear and frustration at the unknown.

"Don't you dare say such things!" Shitori yelled, her whole body practically shaking, "It maybe true that some people in hell consider it in such a way but I will never treat my peerage like that. I've done everything in my power to keep them happy, I would do anything for them!"

"But you take advantage of random people who step into your life, do you want to be rewarded and complemented. Pretending to be a hero and expecting to receive the praise of others" He yelled back, the hopelessness he felt driving his anger forward.

Tears were freely falling from her face at this point, "I'm so sorry that I let this happen to you, I promise I'll do everything I can for you. Whatever it takes to make this right so please just, just let me help you."

He wanted to shout, he wanted to blame her for everything that happened rather than rationalize what had occurred. Those tears however, they were born from honest concern for his well being and he could not bring himself to continue to trample over her goodwill. He truly was the worst, the most disgusting of human beings after all he had summed up in the past exactly what he was doing now.

When humans are faced with truly terrifying circumstances, they don't think about other people around them. They're even willing to sacrifice those around themselves. By exposing that unsightly part of them, they can no longer get along.

By all right she should have pushed him away, rebuffed by his childish attitude and heedless insults. Yet here she was standing in front of him, shirt still barely hanger onto her frame, crying her out for a stranger she hardly knew. She surely stood a head above the rest of the world only able to act for themselves and not others.

"I… I'm sorry." was all he could choke out in the face of such overwhelming self disgust, there was after all truly no one else he hated in the world more than himself.

Shitori wiped her eyes with the ends of her sleeve, "No, you have every right to be mad after all nothing you said was incorrect. I selfishly decided to do this to bring you back on my own, just to assuage the guilt I felt over your death."

They both stood facing each other a heavy air hanging between them, the uncomfortable silence stretching into minutes with nothing said. He had to say something but apologizing meant nothing endless platitudes would only serve to make himself better and do nothing for the other party.

In the end she spoke up first while he was busy searching for words.

"I'm sure you have a million questions for me but it's getting late. Please stop by the student council office tomorrow and we can talk more." she gave him a painful smile before making to leave.

"I'll be there." he almost shouted her hand resting on the door, it was the only thing he could think to say.

She turned around and gave him another smile, this time much more warm before finally stepping out of the room.

He was drained, the tumultuous spiral of emotions he had gone through had left him feeling almost empty inside. His future was unclear and uncertain and the thoughts of having to explain his new circumstances to his family hung heavy on his shoulders. No doubt they would think him a quack, even his sister would probably just laugh it off and ask him if he was getting enough sleep.

He sighed dropping back into the bed before taking notice of a piece of paper on the nightstand. He read it over revealing his check in status at the hotel room that had been provided for him as well as information on when checkout and breakfast was. He dropped the paper and fell back onto the bed, closing his eyes. He stayed that way for almost an hour but sleep would not come easy to him, his thoughts tormenting him with worries.

He groaned removing himself from the bed before making his way over to the desk that was off in the corner of the room. If he couldn't sleep he may as well get some work done and he certainly had a lot of pent up emotions to vent onto the essay he began writing.

Hikigaya woke up the next morning to sound of his cell phone vibrating against the desk next to his face. He groggily reached out for it flipping it open revealing a text from his sister. He unintentionally let out a smile as he pored over the message leave it to his cute sister to help him out of his slump. He stretched out back sore from the bad posture that was him sleeping on the desk overnight. Checking the clock on his phone it was almost noon and he had an appointment to uphold. He grabbed his bag and put all of his night's work in it before leaving the apartment. Surprisingly even though he had gotten little sleep he still felt rather refreshed and able all things considered.

The Walk to the school was largely uneventful as he took in the unfamiliar scenery. The roads bustling with young students, enjoying their sundays off. All of these people living their life without a care in the world, largely ignoring the world around them. As he continued his trek to the academy he felt his strength wane rapidly as the sun continued to beat down upon him unabated as it hung high in the cloudless sky. Grumbling he consigned himself to the shade of the nearby trees to reduce the uncomfortable feeling that set in upon him.

After quite the exhausting walk he saw the sight of Kuoh academy just over the hill. Truly it was a magnificent school dwarfing his own by leaps and bounds, though it's majesty was lost on him. The school itself was probably paid for by rich parents or something and while he didn't necessarily harbor any discontent towards them it all seemed rather self serving to him.

As the gates of the school came into view he could see someone leaning against the wall, she was taller than him with long blue hair and bored expression plastered on her face. As he got closer she noticed his appearance and smiled as she looked up at him.

"Ahh Hikigaya you came," she stared him up and down, "not bad though the eyes kinda ruin it. I'm Tsubasa it's a pleasure to meet you you hikigaya."

He shrugged not at all phased by the slant directed at his eyes after all he had come to become used to receiving more vile insults than from a certain ice princess. The fact that his name was known also wasn't much of a surprise since she was most likely sent by shitori.

The girl was wearing the standard Kuoh academy uniform that he'd seen before on the rest of the students. She was quite tall maybe even taller than him with blue shoulder length hair and a face that he dare say bordered on handsome more than pretty.

"Well please follow me, I've been instructed to bring you to the student council room as soon as you arrived." she turned towards the school in a flourish and motioned for him to follow. "You know when I heard we were getting a new member you weren't exactly what I expected, don't get me wrong not that I disapprove or anything I just find it curious."

"I don't know what to say." and he really didn't after all the reality of his situation still felt like a distant dream at this point. What would happen from this point was an unknown and even an optimist like yui would find it hard pressed to feel anything other than dread at this point. The whole thought of being conscripted into some sort of devil group was enough to make a loner such as himself want to turn tail and run for the hills. Still he was forced to stay they had information he needed and while he may have been lazy no one had ever accused hachiman of being stupid, even hiratsuka acknowledged his intelligence if only to downplay his prefered subject matter.

"Then don't," she shrugged tilting her head to the side and over her shoulder to give him a look that he couldn't quite place but have been somewhere between pity and perhaps anger. "I understand I really do, I heard a little bit about what happened to you pretty unfortunate stuff. If it's any Consolation I know Souna will be hard at work to make sure the transformation won't be too hard on you and if you need any advice about anything you can come to me. After all you're not the only one who's gone through this"

The last part was barely above a whisper but he picked it up and mulled it over in his thoughts. It made sense that he wouldn't be the only person who had found himself in this situation, he made sure to store this information away for later in case it was relevant.

The offer of help was one that he needed but didn't want a curious paradox to his way of living and his current situation. He understood that he really had no choice but to look to these people for help but that did not change the fact that he quite enjoyed his solitary existence, even if it had taken a rather bizarre turn when it came to his introduction to the service club. Yuigahama, isshiki, yukinoshita were all people with flaws yes and while none them could technically be considered friends had proven to be at decent people and he couldn't hate where he found himself. Now though, this was something entirely else a total unknown from which there was no escape and he would indeed need all the help he could get which led him to the crux of the matter. Was Hikigaya Hachiman capable of accepting help from others.

It came unbidden, a still of shitori's crying face as she pleaded for his forgiveness but it wasn't the only thing he recalled. The disgust and pain of yukinoshita as he threw himself in the fire to fix a group was falling apart, sadness from yui as he destroyed his social standing even further to help at the cultural festival and even further back the bad reputation he had garnered by helping Rumi.

Truly if past evidence was to be reviewed he did seem to incapable of asking for help but he couldn't help but feel as if there wasn't anything wrong with that, after all on each account he he had succeeded right. At the end of the day each problem was solved, maybe nothing was better nor improved by his machinations but at the end of the day nothing was lost and that's what mattered. The fact that the people around him seemed upset over his solution shouldn't be an issue.

Right?

He was broken out of his thoughts when the girl in front of him stopped, opening the door to the room he been the previous day and pushing him inside.

"Welcome back Hikigaya." said sona shitori.

Or maybe he was wrong, maybe he had made the same mistake too many times now by not relying on others. Perhaps it was finally time to make a change in his habits and this the perfect opportunity

"So, let's discuss your role as a devil."

Or perhaps not.

AN: So I actually wrote this chapter at the same time as I wrote chapter one and withheld posting it till I had a firm grasp of where I actually wanted this story to go which to be honest I never really figured out. I'm posting it now simply because it's done. I am taking another look and I'll try to cobble something together and get a new chapter up since people seemed to enjoy this somewhat.

A Thing I am curious about whether hachiman seems to ooc in the beginning, we know that he is capable of showing some real emotion in certain situations during the show and I felt like the emotional distress of just dying would be enough to trigger a big response but looking back at this chapter after I wrote six months or so later I'm not quite sure, let me know what you think.

I at least promise the next chapter will come out a hell of a lot sooner than the last one.