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[Ddraig talking]

[Ddraig thinking]

Mental Communication

"Regular Dialogue"

Attacks/Spells

Hyoudou Household, Kuoh

"This is boring," Issei said, lying down atop the roof once more. It had been nearly two weeks since he had been to Kyoto and recovered his power. It was alarmingly suspicious that Yasaka had allowed him to see the mana nexus but who was he to complain. He would look into that matter later but for now, he needed to move.

[So, are we finally going to Tarkir?] Ddraig asked, yawning.

"No, not yet," Issei said. "I need to find the others first. There's a chance that they got sent to this world like I did."

[That's like looking for a needle in a haystack. A multiversal haystack…] Ddraig said.

"Yeah, but there is that one in a billion chance that one of them is here. And besides, I heard there were dragons and angels here. What are the chances that we'll be able to meet one and be able to summon them," Issei said. "Imagine being able to summon a Dragon King like… oh, let's say Tiamat!"

[You just had to go there] Ddraig said.

"You'll need to see her and talk one day," he said. "Besides, I need to investigate something. Kiseki… I sensed something from her a few weeks back."

[I sensed it too… could it be that..?] Ddraig said.

"I hope it isn't… but why would she?" Issei said. "Nevermind that. For now, we need to watch and observe."

[Aren't your parents planning to enroll you in the local school?] Ddraig said.

"Like I'm going to go, I don't need school. We were official members of the Izzet League for nearly a year. What could we possibly learn at a regular school that we haven't learned world-hopping?" Issei said.

[This world's history. Making actual friends] Ddraig said.

"I have a friend. Kunou. I've written two letters to her already and sent them via dragon tokens," Issei said.

[I meant friends your age. Meet a girl maybe. You know… find love again.] Ddraig offered.

"...," Issei remained silent. All his mind could think about was her. That wound that was left on his heart when he lost her forever was still fresh and the pain was still raw.

Ddraig noticed his partner's noticeable drop in mood and quickly quieted down. Gisela was still a hot button for him so mentioning even a feather of the Scarlet Angel was completely taboo between him and the other members of the Gatewatch. But still, Ddraig was only looking out for his partner's happiness and he was certain she would want him to be happy too.

[Look, I'm sorry for bringing her up but-] Ddraig said.

"Stop… just stop," Issei said. He sat up and looked at the sky. Channeling red mana into his hand, Issei created a small flame before closing his fist, extinguishing it.

"I need to find something to do," Issei said as he climbed down the roof and into his room. He walked inside and opened the door only to bump into someone. He looked down and saw his younger brother, rubbing his nose.

"Jeez, Nii-san, what are you made of?" Takeru said.

"Flesh," Issei said.

"Sure," he replied, rolling his eyes at Issei's answer.

"Hey, Takeru. Wanna go out somewhere and do something?" Issei asked. "It's a Saturday so you have no classes."

"Yeah!" Takeru said. This was the first time he had spent a weekend alone with Issei. Between school and his club, he barely had any time at home, and Issei was always gone for some reason on the weekends. He couldn't pass up this opportunity not only to get to know his brother better but to find out what happened to him. Arriving in a ball of fire was not normal and his parents seemed to ignore that fact. Hell, even Kiseki brushed it off, stating that it was probably just stress. However, that was not because of stress. He knew what stress-induced illusions were like… or at least illusions from sleep deprivation.

"Let me grab my jacket," Issei said, walking back into his room. A few seconds later, Issei walked out with a black jacket and the two walked out of the house.

"So where do you want to go?" Takeru asked.

"Hmmm, I don't remember this town very well. How about we go to your favorite spots?" Issei asked.

"My favorite spots? Let's go to the arcade then!" Takeru said.

"Yeah," Issei said.

Irina sat in the park, sipping her coffee. Two weeks. Two weeks since she had arrived in Kuoh. She only had enough money for a few more days before she had to go get a job to stay where they were currently. She never regretted her decision, standing up for Asia. It's what any decent person would've done. However, Irina felt disappointed in her fellow Exorcists for not standing up for her. After all, it wasn't Asia's fault. She was deceived by a devil. Something that Irina found ironic considering their present situation. Hiding in a town ruled by a Devil. Two in fact.

"God… is this another test?" Irina mused.

"Irina, you shouldn't question the Heavenly Father like that," a voice said.

"Yeah, my bad," Irina said. Asia sat down next to her, holding a cup of coffee.

"I know it's difficult. I miss my place in the abbey but… what I did was… is considered to be heresy," Asia said. "I've made my peace with that."

"What you did was heal someone who turned out to be lying about who they were and in turn, you suffered due to their deception," Irina said. "You were not in the wrong."

Asia nodded while quietly sipping her drink. She glanced at her… only friend as she watched people walk by and chatting. Irina had been quiet ever since they arrived in this town. She knew what this place meant to her. Irina talked a lot when she slept.

"Hey, Irina. Is it alright if I help with our financial crisis?" Asia asked.

"No, it's fine. I'll go get a job somewhere," Irina said. "Then we can pay for groceries and our apartment."

Asia nodded but kept quiet. She wasn't going to sit around and let the one person who did everything for her suffer the burden of providing for them. She would help too but how?

"You are really bad at this," Takeru said as he watched Issei die for what seemed to be the hundredth time.

"I've never played games before," Issei said as tears flowed comically down his face. Takeru laughed at his brother's expressions.

"Come on, Nii-san! You'll get good at this someday but for now…," Takeru said, mashing a few buttons. Issei wailed as he saw the K.O pop up on the screen. He got down on his hands and knees and dry heaved onto the floor as a dark cloud was cast over him.

"I'll just keep kicking your butt at this game over and over again," he said.

"How about that game?" Issei asked, pointing to a large arcade box. The box had a small platform with four arrows painted on it and a handlebar at the very back of the box away from the screen.

"DDR?" Takeru said, slightly grimacing. He was never good at dancing games. Kiseki would always beat him no matter what he tried or did but then again, he might win this time. He didn't know what Issei's capabilities were with other games considering that they've been playing Mortal Kombat for the past three hours.

"What's DDR?" Issei asked.

"It stands for Dance Dance Revolution. It's a pretty popular arcade game. People here like to play it a lot and Kiseki holds the high score with Rias-senpai being the second-highest," Takeru said.

"It sounds like Kiseki's a really good dancer then," Issei said.

"Want to give it a go?" Takeru asked. "We have a few more coins."

"Yeah," Issei said. Takeru smiled and shook his head, walking over to the coin slot and placing his coins in.

"Remember, this game is about coordination and reflexes," he said.

"Reflexes? Pssshh! I got this," Issei said. The game started and immediately, Issei began hitting all the arrows that appeared on the screen as they appeared on the board. His points started to build up rapidly as he kept hitting Marvelous after Marvelous. Takeru's jaw dropped when he was that Issei's points were slowly increasing and reaching the quintuple digits and eventually reached six digits.

At this rate, he'll beat their scores! Someone will beat Nee-san's score! Takeru thought excitedly as he began to cheer Issei on.

"COME ON!" Takeru said. His yelling began to draw a crowd of customers and employees to their location. When they saw Issei's score, they began to cheer for him as well. No one had ever broken the top scores before. Those scores were deemed to be legendary and people kept playing the game to see if they could knock the top off her place at the top but this guy, a man they had never seen before was well on his way to breaking the score.

Fuck. These people are all cheering and screaming and that makes it very hard to concentrate, Issei thought as his feet moved in a graceful yet fast way.

[Come on… are you really going to try and beat the score at a stupid game?] Ddraig asked.

"Look! I have nothing better to do so why not?" Issei asked.

"Come on, Nii-san!" Takeru cheered. The song came to an end and Issei sighed, barely even winded as he got off the platform. He turned around to see what score he got. Three A's appeared on the screen which shocked the entire crowd.

"EHHHHH! An AAA! Not even the highest score was able to get that!" one person said.

"Just who is this guy!"

"What did I do?" Issei asked, completely lost as to what was happening. All he did was move his feet according to the rhythm and the sequence in which the arrows on the screen showed up. Why was everyone acting as if he had discovered the cure for every known disease in this plane's existence?

"Nii-san! Do you know what you just did?" Takeru asked.

Issei shook his head.

"You just got a perfect score on this game! No one in town has ever been able to get a perfect score! Not even Nee-san and she has the highest score in town!" Takeru explained.

"Oh," Issei said. The room went silent when a roar akin to that of a wild animal reverberated throughout the entire arcade. Issei began to laugh as he placed his hand behind his head in embarrassment.

"Do you know any good places where we can eat?" he asked.

Takeru blinked, realizing that the noise came from his brother and sighed. This was going to be a long day.

"Wow, this is some good corndog," Issei said, munching on his snack. He leaned back a little, allowing his legs to dangle off the edge of the rooftop. Takeru and Issei were currently atop a parking garage within Kuoh near the mall, sitting on top of one of the concrete rails. A crisp autumn wind blew past them, sending a sweet chill creeping down their spines. Issei bit into his corndog one more time before pausing to admire the scenery.

"Yeah, this is one of the only places in Kuoh that serves them so they're pretty good," Takeru said.

"So, what's your life been like? Forgive me if I sound rude," Issei asked.

"No, it's fine. My life has been… somewhat normal, " Takeru said.

"Somewhat normal?" Issei asked.

"Well, for starters, when I started getting older, I noticed that Tou-san and Kaa-san were always more protective of me and Kiseki-nee, though they were less protective of her to an extent. I never knew why of course. There were days when they were sad and Tou-san would stay in his office for hours on end while Kaa-san would lock herself in a guest room from time to time," he said, remembering the days when his parents looked absolutely miserable.

Issei looked down, feeling partially guilty for making his parents feel that way. Despite being away from them for years, he felt some sort of love and obligation to them back from when he was a child.

"You know, they constantly compared me and Kiseki to you," Takeru said.

"Really? That isn't right," he replied.

"I know but I guess they couldn't help it. You were their eldest son… so me and Nee-san had to live up to their expectations. Expectations that they had of you but never got to meet. Maybe it was one of the ways that they coped that their child disappeared for a good twelve to thirteen years of their life…"

"Yeah but that doesn't make it right. You're you and I'm me. We're completely different people. Besides, you don't want to be me."

"Why not?"

"I've… had to do things in order to survive. Things that would make me look like a monster in your eyes," Issei said, remembering the people he killed over his years as a planeswalker. They were all in self-defense with several dozen, possibly hundreds being mercy kills while he was on Innistrad but that was beside the point. He had a large enough body count to make a serial killer look like a saint.

"You've…?" Takeru left the sentence open-ended on purpose. His brother didn't have to share what he had to do to live. After all, running from the people that murdered an entire camp of children would have forced Issei to take drastic measures in order to preserve his life and that included killing people. However, from what it sounded like, his brother seemed to have done more than just kill his pursuers. Just what kind of life did Issei live after he disappeared? And he still needed to ask about that explosion that he arrived in but decided against it. The mood was much too heavy for such a question.

"I have… and I'm not proud of it but anything to survive," Issei said. "Besides, there were some nice points. Got to go to the beach a lot. Made some friends. I learned a lot while I was away."

"Why didn't you come home after you got away?" he asked.

"Because I didn't know how to," Issei said. "I was already far away from town and didn't know my way back. I was lost and scared and didn't know what to do. You know what I did?"

Takeru shook his head, wondering what his brother could've done in that situation.

"I curled up into a ball and cried for my parents. No one came of course and it was like that for a few days. Me just wandering with no food, money, or water. I thought I was honestly going to die," he reminisced, remembering the pain he felt from not eating. How his throat burned from a lack of water. How his body felt as if it was going to implode into nothing if he kept going any further.

"What happened next?" his younger brother asked.

"Someone found me. He was nice and kind and nursed me back to health. I didn't know who he was or why he was doing this but… I'm grateful. If it weren't for him, I'd be dead," Issei said as he began to remember the day. The day he met the Spirit Dragon. The being that would become his mentor and father-figure for the next several years.

A battered and bloodied Issei limped past a massive rock amidst a desolate land. There was nothing around where Issei was. Just barren land, the remains of dead plants, and massive jagged stone structures. Above him, the sky was gray and stormy, erupting in a flash of lightning and thunder. The lightning bathed the sky and land with its brilliance, and the thunder ruptured the spaces of momentary peace that Issei had. It was a very terrifying place for a young boy such as himself.

On top of that, the skies were filled with monsters. Massive reptilian beasts that were as large as buildings and had wings the size of a small plane. They flew over him occasionally, ignoring him. He felt relieved for once that he was so short. Maybe he wouldn't be a fitting meal for something so large.

As he trudged on, he came to a massive ravine that went on for miles. The depth of the ravine numbered in the hundreds of meters. At the bottom, Issei could see several massive megalithic structures that were a shape that seemed alien to all human perception. Its geometric proportions were all wrong and they all emitted a soft cyan color. As if it knew that he was there, the entire land… no, the world itself shook as the storms grew worse. Several streams of turquoise energy erupted from the ravine and swirled around Issei before traveling and condensing into a single point before him. The singularity fluctuated and shaped itself into a massive being. A dragon. Its entire form was shimmering a mix of turquoise and jade green. Its ethereal feathered wings, which was almost as large as its own body, left behind trails of blue wisps as it moved around, giving off the appearance that the dragon was not completely corporeal.

Pleated scales inscribed with ancient runes jutted from the side of its neck, giving it the appearance of a cobra. Large curved horns that resembled gems adorned its head like a crown, further adding to the dragon's regal and majestic look.

"Oh? How interesting? I don't think I've seen a human like you around here," the dragon said, looking down on Issei. His eyes widened slightly. The boy had the gift. This child before him was born a miracle. He was like him. Perhaps this is what he sensed and what roused him from his millennia long slumber.

The boy trembled in fear, thinking that he would be eaten by it.

"Hmmm, no need to be scared boy," the dragon said, extending its hand. It let out a small pulsating wave of white and blue mist that immediately made Issei feel calm. As if his fear was being taken away. He looked up and saw the dragon had no malice in its eyes but continued to remain silent.

"Tell me, do you know how you ended up here?" it asked.

He shook his head.

"Hmm, how peculiar… it seems that you have a gift… or a curse depending on who you ask," the dragon said, inspecting Issei. "You're a long way from home…"

Issei looked down, feeling sad. He wanted to cry and cry was what he did. He got down on the ground and curled himself into a ball and began to cry. The dragon looked at Issei with slight apprehension. It had never dealt with children before and any children it did have was born an adult.

"Boy, everything will be fine," the dragon said.

"Really?" Issei asked, turning his tear-filled eyes towards it.

"Yes, do you know where you lived?" it asked.

Issei shook his head. His six-year-old brain could not remember where his address was nor where his house was located. All he knew was that he lived in a house in a town with his parents and little sister.

It sighed. This was going to be much harder than he initially expected it to be.

"My name is Ugin," it finally said.

"U-gin?" he asked, tilting his head. The dragon nodded in confirmation.

"Ugin!" Issei said.

"Yes," Ugin said. "Little one, would you like to come with me?"

"With you?" Issei asked.

"Yes, little one. You have taken a step into a very large world. You are one in a million. Where the vast majority of life in all of existence remain forever ignorant, you can freely explore it. Where others see boundaries, you can only see new places to be reached. This is the right you have been granted and I can help you control it if you so choose. Perhaps with this, you might one day find your way back home," he said.

Issei looked at the dragon with curiosity before nodding.

"Come then, Issei," he said.

"Issei…"

"ISSEI!"

Issei blinked and saw his brother waving his hand in front of him.

"Sorry what?" he said dumbly.

"Jeez, you scared me a bit there. I thought you went catatonic," Takeru said.

"Sorry, I was just remembering something," he said.

"Was it a girl?" Takeru asked.

"No, just stuff," Issei said.

"I bet it was a girl… by the way, did you have a girlfriend while you were away? Between the running from kidnappers and coming back here, you must have met somebody," he asked.

"I did… but, she's gone now," Issei said.

"Oh… sorry. Nii-san, I shouldn't have said anything," Takeru said.

"It's okay. You didn't know," he said. His eyes traveled towards the setting sun and sighed. "We should go home now."

"Yeah," Takeru said. The two hopped off the railing and into the parking lot behind them and began to walk down the ramp.

"You know that I know right?" Issei asked.

"Know what?"

"I know that you remember. I doubt that anyone would forget after they saw," he said.

"Oh," Takeru said. "No one believes me when I said that you literally exploded into reality…"

"Yeah but if I were you, I'd continue to feign ignorance. There are just some things in this world that we were never meant to know," he said. "I want you to keep being normal…"

Takeru looked down at his brother's words. It didn't bring him any comfort, considering Issei basically told him to drop it but it made him happy to know that his older brother believed his claims that there was something.

[Kind of disappointed that you had to be the one to say it] Ddraig said.

"Well, he seemed to want to ask but he thought that me talking about survival and killing must be too much for me. At least I can put this to rest so he won't go digging. He's a good kid and deserves to live a normal life," Issei said.

[You know that won't happen. Now that he knows, it will never end. He will keep digging and he'll discover something that will quite possibly take his life] Ddraig pointed out.

Issei remained silent. He glanced at his younger brother as they walked down the street. Ddraig had a point but there was no turning back now. Issei had no memory spells in his repertoire to erase or edit Takeru's memories of that event. He was no mind mage.

"Takeru, you won't dig into this more right?" Issei asked.

He looked at Issei and nodded.

"Good," Issei said as they crossed the street.

Asia walked down the street with a bag in her hand. Irina had gone out earlier, looking for somewhere to work so that they could stay afloat so that left her in charge of getting the groceries. It was the least she could do after Irina had practically given up everything for her. She needed to pay her back.

As she turned a corner, she felt something following her. Asia began to walk faster in hopes that whatever was following her would lose interest and leave, however, it didn't' work. The presence followed her wherever she went and eventually, Asia reached a dead-end. She turned around to confront whoever it was that stalked her to find… no one.

Asia narrowed her eyes in confusion. She could've sworn she was being followed. The nun shook her head.

"It's just… nerves," Asia said to herself as she began to walk out of the alley. As she did, she felt a hand wrap around her mouth.

"Scream and I gut you," a person behind her said. She nodded fearfully as the person slowly removed their hand. Her assailant walked out from behind her. Asia's eyes widened.

A woman stood before her. The woman was inhumanly beautiful with a voluptuous figure, far sexier than her own. Her hair was raven black and fluttered in the wind while her eyes appeared to be like amethyst that had been cut and polished. Her clothing consisted of black, strap-like objects around and under her breasts, a thong-like piece held around her hips by three thin straps, gloves that ran right up her arms with small lengths of chains hanging from them, shoulder guard-like objects on her shoulders with three large spikes sprouting from her right shoulder, and black thigh-high heel boots. From her back, two black feathered wings sprung forth and spread themselves, casting a shadow over her.

A fallen angel, Asia thought as she began to back away. Irina had warned her about them. Irina had considered them to be just as evil as Devils due to them being cast from Heaven and now one stood before her.

"Hello there," the woman said.

"H- Hi," Asia said.

"What a cute little thing you are," she said, tipping Asia's head.

Asia remained quiet as the woman inspected her.

"Hmmm, well then nun. What brings you here?" the fallen said.

"I- I'm here with my friend. We just moved here and I was getting some food for us to eat," she answered.

"Just moved here? Well, you must be pretty tight on money right?"

She looked at the Fallen. How had she known that?

"I know that look on your face. How do I know such a thing? Well, it's fairly simple, Nun-chan! Moving isn't an easy process," the fallen said. "You need to get a job and considering that you aren't even out of high school, I can only guess that it's only a matter of time before you run out isn't it?"

Asia meekly nodded.

"Well, I can help with your financial situation," she said.

"You can?" Asia asked.

"Of course! But, there are strings attached," the fallen said.

Asia gulped. "What do I have to do?"

"All you have to do is help me and my friends with the church in town and help people," the fallen said ever so sweetly. Her words were like sweet poison that wormed its way into Asia's heart. Of course, it took effect. The girl was both a saint and naive.

"T- That's it?" Asia asked.

"Of course!" she said.

"Then yes…," Asia said. Anything to help out! Anything to repay her!

"Then I shall look forward to working with you… er?" the fallen said.

"Asia. Asia Argento," she said.

"Asia… very well, my name is Raynare," she said, doing a small bow.

"Jeez, I'm tired," Takeru said.

"Tired? If I knew that we could've just stayed at home instead of going to the arcade," Issei said.

[It would've been better. We could've plotted our next move but you decided to go out and have some fun] Ddraig said.

"Oh give me a break. I almost fought a super fox lady which by the way could've ended in my death just two weeks ago. I think I deserve a little vacation from this for a bit before we go trouncing around the entire plane looking for our friends," Issei said.

"Well, I wonder what Kaa-san made," his brother said, snapping Issei out of his little conversation with Ddraig.

"I hope it's enough because I'm starving. That corndog did not last me the entire day," Issei said.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, Kaa-san might be making her famous curry rice tonight," he said.

"That makes me hungrier just by thinking about it," Issei said.

The two brothers laughed as they turned down their street. The two conversed about little things with Takeru bringing up some of the things that they had talked about before. Neither brother brought up Issei's arrival. The older Hyoudou's words seemed to have sunk in. The younger Hyoudou seemed to be distancing himself from the whole "Issei arrived in a ball of fire" incident a few weeks back. Aside from that, if one were to look at them, one would be able to tell that the two got along extremely well. Even if one were to know that Issei had been absent for Takeru's entire life, they would never be able to tell from the way they interacted. Issei had fit comfortably into his role as an older brother and treated Takeru in accordance with his role. The boy teased Takeru about girls and the like, much to the younger boy's embarrassment.

As they talked, Issei never noticed the girl walking down the street in front of them. The girl was heading. As the two groups met, Issei and the girl collided with each other as they were about to turn down the street. Issei felt someone run into him as he stumbled back. The girl fell to the ground, wincing in pain.

"Ow… watch where you're going!" she said, rubbing her butt as she got up. Her violet eyes darted to Issei as she fixed him with a stern glare. Her chestnut hair blew gently in the evening breeze as she crossed her arms.

"Um yeah," Issei said, slightly taken back by her beauty. Her stern glare slowly devolved into a slightly creeped-out look the longer Issei kept his eyes on her.

"Hello? Are you alright?" she asked, feeling self-conscious.

"Sorry!" Takeru butted in, pinching his brother's arm. Issei winced and glanced at his younger brother. He only nodded his head towards the woman and that's when Issei realized what was happening.

"Oh! Oh no no no! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to stare… I just…," Issei said.

"Just what?" she asked.

"It's just I think that you're…," Issei said.

"Think that I'm what?"

"Nevermind," Issei said.

"No, no, I want to hear what you were about to say… uh…," the girl said, tapping her chin.

"Issei. Hyoudou Issei," he said. At the mention of the words, she froze. Her eyes widened.

"It can't be…," she whispered.

"Hey, lady… are you okay?" Takeru asked.

"Issei?" she asked, reaching out to him.

"Y- Yes?" Issei asked, now feeling creeped out.

"It's you… It's really you. I can't believe that after all these years… I heard that you were… that you were," she said, tears beginning to slowly stream down her face.

"Ummm, this is awkward," Takeru muttered. "Hey, Nee-chan… do you want to come over to our place and calm down? I don't want the neighbors to make a commotion thinking that my brother here did something to you."

The girl sniffled and nodded, still crying as she gently touched Issei's arm as if he would shatter like glass if she pushed any harder. The two led her down the street and opened the gate, knocking on the door of his house.

Miki Hyoudou was the one who answered them and upon seeing their guest, her eyes grew wide.

"Irina-chan?" she asked.

"Miki-oba," Irina said. She ran forward and hugged her tightly. "It's been so long…"

"Yeah, it has," Miki said, stroking the girl's hair gently.

"Kaa-san… do you know her?" Takeru asked.

"Yeah," Miki said, pulling away. She glanced at her eldest son. She smiled slightly when she saw the faint glint of recognition amidst the sea of confusion in his hazel eyes.

"She used to be our neighbor. This little girl came over a lot when she lived here but back then she looked like a boy. However, she looks so ladylike now. I bet you get a lot of boys' attention with that body of yours," Miki said.

"Oba…," Irina said, feeling extremely embarrassed. Her face turned red at her praise, especially when she did so in front of him.

"Rin," Issei said, recalling a memory of when he first arrived back in his home. She was the girl from the photo that sat on his bedside table. The girl that Issei thought was a boy.

"What?" she said, looking at Issei with wide eyes.

"Rin. You're Rin right?" Issei asked.

"Y- Yes, that was your nickname for me," Irina said.

An awkward silence passed between the two as if they were trying to grasp the air for something to say. Issei's mother and brother stood off to the side, realizing that their presence nor input was not needed in the reunion between these two. Issei's memories of her may have been fuzzy but the connection between them was undeniable. And likewise with Irina, though she may not have recognized him instantly, she wouldn't deny that they still shared that deep bond that they had forged together as children and neither time nor the vastness of the multiverse would ever rob them of that connection. Even if… one of them thought the other was a boy.

"Welcome home," Issei said.

"Huh?" Irina looked at him.

"I said… welcome home," he said.

Irina smiled as a few tears rolled down her face.

"I'm home… Ise-kun."

Okay, before we get started. Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way. My pen name. Yes, I changed it. I decided that I'm no longer going to hide one of my hidden obsessions from you. I am... somewhat obsessed with the When They Cry Series hence my new pen name. I will still answer to CrimsonPyre or Crimson so don't worry. Anyway, let's get started. I would like to thank everyone who reviewed in the last chapter and yes, I did hear you guys. My main problem with the original was that... I... used the ORC too much to move the plot. I won't make that mistake. Rest assured, I do have an ending envisioned and all that's left is to get there. (Don't worry I do have an actual plan.) Furthermore, if any of you Magic Historians noticed that Ugin was awake far earlier than he's supposed to be in Issei's flashback, it was because Issei's first jump to Tarkir triggered his awakening. Another thing is the Planeswalkers. So far, Irina is the only confirmed other Planeswalker. I might add more from Earth but that's entirely up for debate. As to how I plan to trigger her, I'll reveal that in the upcoming chapters.

Now, you might be wondering why I had her and Issei meet so early on and my answer is to build a solid foundation. In the original, I felt that their relationship was far too rushed for two people who hadn't seen each other in twelve years so... I plan to start with a friendship which of course would lead to some smexy fun times. Another thing is allies. I have alluded to that much here that Issei will make allies in this world and you saw it with Yasaka and Kunou. Some of you suggested some great people for Issei to ally with so I'll keep them in mind. Please leave a review. Trust me, it helps a lot for motivation purposes and helps tell me what you guys think of the story. I'd like a better review other than the standard... Good or Nice so... please. It doesn't have to be a paragraph but just something substantial.

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