Chapter 2: Return to daily Life (or not)
Issei and the girl he had just met had now left the city-park. Or better said she had been literally dragging him around since he was still in a bad condition.
The problem was she couldn't figure out the reason for that. The reincarnation should have brought him back in perfect physical shape. So the problem had to lie somewhere else.
It was probably that his body just needed time to adjust to the change that happened to it. Yes, that had to be it.
xxx
Now they were both standing together in a hotel room a few miles away where she had brought him. Issei was in the moment sitting at the side of the bed where she had laid him down when they arrived. She was standing right in front of him, trying to make out what was wrong with him.
Issei at the same time, at some level, realized mostly one thing... he was here, alone in a hotel room, with a girl... He was suddenly feeling even more uneasy than before... and it had absolutely nothing to do with his physical health.
"My name is Gaeriel by the way," she introduced herself. "You are Issei, wasn't that what you said?"
"Yes, Issei Hyoudou," he said with a grin. It was a grin that seemed... and was... a bit forced, thanks to him being nervous.
"I am looking out to getting to know you," she told him. "It is not every day that the boss decides to recruit someone right away from death."
This comment only caused him to blush. Obviously misunderstanding her intentions.
"I am glad to... ahm... to meet you too," he replied, stuttering. He was trying to look tough, but admittedly, he failed miserable.
In the moment there was in first line one thought prominent in his head - He was alone with a girl in a hotel-room.
"Good, I am glad that I have found you this quickly for my part," she responded. "Especially since you are not feeling well."
"You can say that," Issei stated. "But I guess I shouldn't complain, I have been dead after all."
"I see," she replied. "Physically you should have been in perfect state though after your reincarnation. So it has to be something else."
Suddenly she had another realization. "Issei, tell me, are you carrying something on your body, something that doesn't belong to you?" she asked him.
"Ah what?" he asked, his brain was still being rattled by his overall miserable state... and by his own lascivious thoughts that were coming to him.
"These Devils were trying to reincarnate you, right?" she questioned. "I just asked myself how they were even intending to find you in time to do that. The park is big and the entire town is even bigger... and they couldn't have followed you that close without the Fallen Angel noticing. Do you have something with you that doesn't belong to you?"
"Ahm, yes," he answered and took out the flyer he had been given earlier, showing it to her. "Someone gave me this before my date with Yuuma."
She took the piece of paper and took a short look at it.
"Interesting, you said they gave you this before your date with the Fallen... directly before?" she questioned.
"Yes," he replied.
"As I thought," she said, "this is a Summoning Card. A nice trick, you have to give that to these Devils. When you had been lying there dyeing and wished to stay alive, you would have activated this. Or if you had been just carrying around and thought of Rias Gremory, for whatever reason, she would have your exact location and could have appeared right next to you. Wherever you currently are."
"You mean, everywhere? Even here or at my home?"
"Yes, even in your own house. Nasty little buggers these Devils are, kind of like doorstep salesmen," she commented. "You just can't get rid of them. Not here though, since my apartment is protected."
Ironically a day ago he would have cheered at the thought that a girl like Rias suddenly showing up at his home. But now, knowing what she was... and that she had plans for him, it was completely different.
Another part of him was actually tempted to laugh about Gaeriel´s snide-remark.
"Okay, let us deal with that first," she stated. "I have an idea about what could be the reason. Can I take a quick look at you?"
"O... of course," he answered, now even more riled up. Once again obviously... or this time maybe rather `willfully´... misinterpreting her intentions.
"Okay, I have some idea what might have caused your current state," she said, taking one step closer to him. "But for that I need to take a closer look at your mental and physical... Hey, are you listening?" she asked him.
Issei was deep red in the face. She suddenly realized that he wasn´t listening to what she was saying at all.
Instead he was starring right at her chest... and that his hands were halfway outstretched in exactly thatdirection.
"Hey, what do you think you are doing?" she yelled at him now.
This seemed to have brought him back to reality.
"So you are that kind of guy," she remarked.
For a moment he thought she would actually punch him. But she got a hold on herself.
"Okay, you were chosen. So there is obviously something to you beside that," she stated seriously, but still visibly annoyed. And obviously slightly frustrated that she had just now realized that the boy in front of her was a pervert.
"Issei," she finally said, "could you please stop thinking about my boobs for five minutes and listen to me?" she told him.
"Okay. I think the reason you are feeling unwell is the change in your body after your resurrection and that the new powers you are developing because of it are not getting along with the ones that come from your Sacred Gear," she explained. "But I think I can help you synchronize both energies. It will be quite quick actually."
"Really?"
"Yes, but..." she answered. "... Issei, I will have to show you something... and you must promise me that you do anything to keep a hold on yourself... to stay calm."
"What! What do you mean?" Issei asked her.
"You should know, I have telepathic abilities," she told him. "Well, you will have probably too now. Since it was Darien who had revived you and he is one of the most powerful telepaths in all known universes.
What I want to try is to transfer information directly into your mind."
"Really?" Isse said stunned. "You can do something like that?... You know, maybe I could use that for school. That could be really useful." He chuckled a bit, trying to be funny, but not quite succeeding given the situation.
"I can. But it is not easy. The process costs a lot of energy... and I think I will only be able to do it when I am in my natural form, but..."
"Natural form? You mean, you are normally not really looking... ahm... like that?" Issei asked, trying not to get his hopes crushed.
"I certainly do look like this," Gaeriel responded, now slightly annoyed. "It is just. My true form might shock you. You have to remember, I am not gonna hurt you, no matter what I look like."
Once again Issei was surprised how easily he seemed to get along with a clearly supernatural being. This one here a hot girl on top of that.
"Oh come on," he said to her, "It can't be that bad, right?" He was laughing once again, this time less forced. "If you are still looking like this."
"Yes, my boobs are the same... a bit bigger actually," she replied, now with a grin on her face herself.
"Now, show me."
"Okay... but don´t say I didn't warn you." With this words she began to transform.
Her casual clothes were replaced with something that looked like a black colored combat dress... and without a warning two pairs of black colored feathered wings were ripping out of her back.
Yes, Issei thought it wouldn't frighten him, whatever she was. Now he realized he had been wrong.
His entire body froze. He could only stare at the girl before him.
Only one sentence was once again halling through his mind.
"Will you die for me?" he heard `Yuuma´ saying.
He saw into Gaeriel´s eyes, trying to ignore the black wings on her back... He should have suspected it sooner, he realized. Her eyes, they were violet, in a similar shade as Yuuma´s.
xxxxxxx
At another part of the town two other high-school students were currently spending some of their own time.
This two were Issei´s two best friends Motohama and Matsuda. Both of them were from a similar mind-set as Issei himself and like he openly admitted it, that gave them under the students the nickname `the perverted trio´.
They had just left the game arcade. Matsuda was just mentioning a new porn dvd he had bought yesterday, not hentai anime for once, but real porn. Then they were suddenly interrupted...
"Hey boys, I have been looking for you," a quite obviously female voice addressed them.
They turned around, with a bit stunned expressions as they saw her. A girl as attractive as her calling to them on the streets or even talking to them wasn't something what happened to them usually. She had long dark hair, a beautiful face and a nice... no, more than nice figure, as they saw and bright, kind of violet colored, eyes. Both of them could literally feel their jaws hanging open.
Then they suddenly recognized her... with some clear disappointment.
"Wait, your Issei´s girlfriend, aren't you?" Motohama stated. "Yuuma, was it?"
"Yes, that´s right. It is nice that you remember me," she told them sweetly. "But sadly you won´t be for much longer."
Before either of them could even ask her what she meant with that... they were both suddenly feeling dizzy by looking in her eyes.
And then, a few moments later they had forgotten that she had ever existed.
xxx
This was it, the Fallen Angel Raynare thought to herself. With erasing the memories of this two perverts, the last ties between her and Issei Hyoudou were cut.
All in all, she was happy that she had it behind her. Now that this obstacle was out of her way, she could continue to follow her real plan.
She remembered a human teenage boy, who had showered her with all kinds of affection... in his own naive way... and nearly instantly angrily suppressed it. Was she really that starved for attention? she asked herself.
It didn´t matter. In a few days she would have the key to everything she ever wished for and then she could happily forget everything what happened in this town.
xxxxxxx
Issei could still only stare at the girl before him and her black wings.
"You... you are just like... Yuuma," he stammered, still in shock about seeing her like this.
"A bit... yes," she admitted.
"... Another Fallen Angel," he exclaimed.
"Technically I am an Angel... at least in some sense. I didn´t fell in the regular way. And I wasn´t born a Fallen. You know the one physical difference between an Angel and a Fallen Angel is the Divine Protection that they... that we," she corrected herself, "...lack. Normally lost through sinful thoughts or actions," she explained. "I have given it up by myself. It was more practical that way."
He was just coming to terms with the revelation whatshe was... but couldn´t help to still feel warry of her.
"Moment, you mean you have caused yourself to fall?" he asked her. "Why would you do that?"
"I am a secret agent; you know? It is much more easy to infiltrate sinister organizations that are terrorizing the world, if you don´t radiate an aura of peace and love wherever you go," she commented.
Issei looked at her dumbfounded about this crazy sounding, yet completely logical explanation.
"Look," she continued, "I don´t want to scare you Issei. I know the last Fallen Angel you met had stabbed you, but just because I have black wings on my back doesn´t mean I am going to hurt you. Okay?"
"Okay," he just repeated.
"I will begin now," she said and reached out to him with one hand.
Issei could feel something... It was like fingers reaching into his mind. But not painful like you could imagine, just weird.
Then he suddenly felt as if he were in a different place and time. He could see pictures, hear people talk, but his conscious mind didn´t seem to know what to make out of it. It was all muddy... confused.
"Are you feeling better?" he heard her asking a short time later.
If he was honest Issei wasn´t even sure how much time exactly had passed... one minute, two? He had pretty much been out of it.
To his surprise however he realized that he suddenly had a basic understanding of energy manipulation... well, very basic. He knew how supernatural energies worked and was able to sense them.
Issei could feel both sources of energy inside of him... and was able to regulate them just good enough to keep them from hampering each other or from harming his body in the process.
"Yes," he answered, "I do feel better."
"Good," she said. "If that is all I will bring you home now. Then I will now start warding your house, in case your `school-mate´ Rias decides to show up here or maybe that your girlfriend finds out that you are still alive," she told him.
"Okay," he answered. Still feeling a bit weirded out by all of this.
"So you are the supernatural version of James Bond... with boobs," he heard himself saying.
She only stared at him for a few moments as she heard his comment, before she broke out into howling laughter.
"Yes, that is one way to put it," she finally said, between giggles. "You really are something Issei Hyoudou."
There was however something else she had noticed. The energy radiated by his Sacred Gear, it was not only extraordinary high... it was a very specific sort of energy... That of a Dragon.
There were a handful of Sacred Gears that there based on draconic power, as she knew... and only a few with this kind of power.
And for even less of them were the whereabouts unaccounted for, the so called Boosted Gear, the device where the Red Welsh Dragon was sealed into.
But there was only one way to be sure.
"Issei, can you activate your Sacred Gear?" she asked him. "You just need to concentrate. It should be quite easy, nearly like a reflex if you know how exactly to do it. Normally you should be able to figure it out by trying it by trial and error a few times. But it should already be part of the information that I just transferred into your head. So just try concentrating... and not to think of my breasts for a few minutes," she added.
Issei did what she told him. He even ignored her glorious figure right in front of him.
After a few seconds a strange red colored device that he had never seen before manifested itself on his arm.
"That is it?" he asked.
Gaeriel was focusing her mind on the Sacred Gear that had just appeared. On the first glance it had the look and also the readings of a normal Twice Critical. But she knew a few other ways to detect energies than any regular Fallen Angel would. She could see the enormous power hiding behind it.
"Yes, that is it," she said. "Congratulations, you are carrying the Boosted Gear, one of the strongest Sacred Gears in existence."
"Boosted Gear?"
"I will explain it to you. But I think we should leave it for today. You look as if you are already ready to fall asleep... and you have probably heard more than enough about the supernatural for one day."
"Yes, you can say that," he responded.
"I will bring you home now. There is something else, I think you shouldn´t go to school tomorrow. Not as long as you can't control your power and are vulnerable like this. When the Devils find out that you are alive, they will without a doubt want to interrogate you... and like you are now, they will probably squeeze every bit of information out of you that you have."
"Hey," he called out.
"Sorry, but that's how it is," she replied. "You can't even hide your power or shield your mind... unless you might be able to do it instinctively. Actually this will be under the first things I teach you.
We will spend the next day training and learning. Just tell your parents that you are sick. Given your condition a few minutes ago, that would not even be a lie."
"But if I tell them I am sick, how will we explain being out the entire day?" he questioned.
"Leave that to me," she told him, smiling.
xxxxxxx
Kuoh Academy, the Occult Research Club
All in all, Rias Gremory was not really having a good day. Not that there was any danger or even serious problems for her.
It was simply that things were not going as she had planned... by far. And that made her feel uneasy, at least in this case.
But it was not only that. Something strange was going on here... she knew it.
"Have you found out something?" she asked her Queen Akeno, a.k.a her strongest servant, who had just entered the room.
Officially both of them were 3rd year students of Kuoh Academy, one year higher than Issei... in truth they were both High Class Devils and Rias for her part was a `pure blood´, a born Devil and the heir of one of the most powerful families, the sister of one of the Devil Kings... and one of the two Devils who laid claim to the territory of Kuoh.
"Sorry Rias, we have been searching the entire district for him," Akeno answered. "...Or maybe I should say for his body... fu fu..." she added. The sound of her voice and the grin on her face hinted that she was actually holding back a light laughter at her last comment.
For some reason this callous behavior infuriated Rias.
"Akeno!" she exclaimed angrily, "that is nothing to make fun about. He could be dead."
The plan in question was in this case the recruitment of a Sacred Gear user... none other than Issei Hyoudou, who had now vanished from their sight.
"What I am here... Buchou..." Akeno responded, pronouncing her title, "...is being honest." Her behavior as well made suddenly a 180 degree turn and she was now dead serious. "You knew the risk, but you still insisted that we do it this way. There was never a guaranty that Issei wouldn´t just throw the flyer into the next trash can. It you were worried about his safety; you should have thought about it earlier."
"But that is not what happened, he... the card was clearly being activated... for a moment at least... but then something cut it off..." Rias explained.
"That wasn´t my point," Akeno retorted visible irritated. "There had been a dozen things that could go wrong and he would die for good. And now you suddenly act all worried about him. You could have just asked him; you know?"
"It was easier this way."
"Easier for who exactly?" Akeno questioned.
It was not usual for this two to have a dispute like this. Despite being master and subordinate, they were the best friends. But since Issei Hyoudou had disappeared on them, she had developed a protective streak about their younger fellow student...
... now that it was probably too late to make a difference, a cynical part of Rias thought.
"If I remember right, you went along with it," she told her. "If you had problems with my plan you could have mentioned it a few days ago."
Akeno had to admit, she didn´t have anything to answer to that. Rias was right... at least in this point. If she had any problem with that crazy plan of hers, she should have made her position clear far earlier... before this had happened.
"We will continue to look for him," she stated. "But if we don´t find him, we must go by the idea that the Fallen Angel had probably fulfilled her mission."
"I know," Rias said.
xxxxxxx
The next day
Issei and Gaeriel were standing in front of each other. They were a few miles outside of the town border, outside of the Devil´s or the Fallen Angel´s reach.
Both of them were not keeping an eye off each other... both of them were wearing dark colored combat clothes and holding swords in their hands.
Gaeriel had shown up once again the next this morning and transported them here. His parents thought he was going to school.
Actually he had told his mother at first that he was not feeling well and asked her to write an apology letter for school. A short time later Gaeriel appeared, claiming to be a fellow student... and made her forget that she had ever written the letter.
Then she transported them here and they started their training.
In the beginning she had first let him run a few rounds around the place, while carrying a weighted backpack. To be honest he hadn´t thought that he would be able to carry this even for a hundred meters, but as it looked he had grown stronger through his reincarnation.
"Raising up your stamina is one of the keys to control your Sacred Gear," she had told him. "The stronger you are physically, the longer you will be able to keep it activated."
He saw that he meant as he first tried keeping it activated for a longer time and then nearly collapsed from exhaustion after a few minutes.
What followed afterwards was some basic combat-training. Gaeriel had brought the two blades along since she wanted to teach him at least a few lessons in the use of weapons.
Then followed by basic energy manipulation. One lesson of course how to conceal your presence from others, as she had promised. Then followed by another round of keeping your Sacred Gear activated for as long as possible. This time with getting involved in hand to hand combat at the same time.
Beside that she had also explained the ground principles of telepathy to him.
The more advance stuff in all areas, as she told him, would follow later.
With Gaeriel´s ability to transfer raw information directly into his mind, he was learning incredibly fast. It was however a question of his own mind really understanding and mastering these skills. There was a difference of `knowing´ how to do something and truly knowing it. And there was of course the question of his body needing to keep up with the knowledge.
Gaeriel had however also told him that she would do this only a few time in the best case... something about it being too risky otherwise.
By now it was already getting late afternoon. He had spent the greatest part of the day training.
In between they had taken several long breaks, a few of them of nearly one hour. But Issei was still feeling exhausted like never before in his life.
"I knew it, you are also trying to kill me," he actually said to her as a joke at one point, as he was sweating under another round of endurance workout.
"I actually might if you don´t try harder," she responded. Also obviously making fun.
The breaks, they had used for several verbal lessons. Like the history of his Sacred Gear, the fact that it actually had a Dragon sealed inside... a fucking Dragon... the basic lines how it worked.
Then a more detailed version of the history of the Guardians... along with some information about the universe where their organization was founded. Some facts about the group who seemed to be their main enemy and had their roots in the same universe like them.
Then came more history of the three Factions and the Great War and similar things.
"So you are telling me that this Dragon... Ddraig... is actually living inside me?" he wanted to clarify once again.
"In a sense, through the Boosted Gear, he is at the very least bonded to your soul."
"And he is more powerful than a god?"
"Yes... more powerful than most of them... in this universe at least. But that doesn´t mean that you are Issei. I have explained to you how it works. For now, you can only draw small amounts of power from it... until you learn how to draw more and be strong enough to hold it with your body."
"Yes... for now it just doubles my power every ten seconds," he replied.
"Very soon you will probably be able to draw more boosts at will and maybe even unlock the higher powers of the Gear," she told him.
"Will I then also be able to do such incredible things like creating a dimension out of thin air or conjuring souls from other universes?" he asked.
She grinned.
"Maybe not exactly that, but you will have incredible powers," she stated. "But I will hardly be the one to teach you all that. Despite that you may think of me, I am not a cosmic level powerhouse like our leaders. I am just a regular field agent and just a little bit stronger than a normal Fallen Angel of my level. The Guardians had just showed me a few tricks that I learned. And I am not that long in the organization myself," she explained. "If I am honest, if it had not been for them, I would have probably fallen anyway, in the regular way."
"Would you then also have such a bitch like Yuuma?" The question had slipped through his lips before he noticed the sad look on her face as she said this. In the next moment he wanted to kick himself.
"Believe me, being a Fallen Angel is not easy," she answered. "I might have been worse."
"Then I am truly glad that you met them," he said.
"So am I. You truly want to return to school tomorrow?" she asked him.
"Yes. I guess I just don´t want to miss everything because of this."
"You are deeper than someone would first think... if only you want to," she commented. "Well, I think you can go now. I have thought you just enough that no Devil will take easy advantage of you."
xxxxxxx
Kuoh Academy, the following morning
Issei was standing one again in front of his school. This time however he was visible nervous.
This had to be a first, he thought... actually afraid to go to school. But normally you also wouldn´t have to deal with a bunch of Devils who were trying to `recruit´ you and were now probably going to at the very least ask you a lot of questions. Questions he certainly didn´t want to answer... and that certainly weren´t their business in the first place.
"Hyoudou, are you okay?" he heard someone asking him.
"Ahm, hello Murayama," he greeted her as he recognized one of his classmates. One who was the captain of the kendo-club who he had been caught peeking on two days ago on top of that.
"I have noticed that you were missing yesterday..." she told him, "...and now I have seen you just standing here for nearly a minute. Are you alright? I mean, you weren´t missing yesterday because we... you know... had beaten you up too badly... weren´t you?"
"What?" He was a bit dumbfounded by this strange apology... He remembered the trashing he got from the entire kendo-club after they got him... and sympathy from Murayama was about the last thing he had expected.
"No... no," he replied, "I was just sick yesterday. You had nothing to do with it. But thanks for your concern," he stated honestly.
"Okay, then I guess I will see you in class Hyoudou," she said and turned to leave.
"Wait!" he told her. "I wanted to say I am sorry for peeking on you this last time... I will try to tone it down in the future." Since I have tons of other things to worry about now, he thought silently. "But I can't promise to leave it out completely... because you are just too pretty." What the hell? Why have I just said this, he thought.
Now it was her turn to look at him with an open mouth. For a short moment she actually seemed to be blushing.
"You know something Hyoudou, maybe you would actually have more luck with the girls if you were a bit more like this more often," she told him, before leaving for class...
... leaving Issei with a few things to think about.
xxxxxxx
The Occult Research Club - a short time later
Koneko came suddenly running into the room. She was actually too late for her first class this day, but this here was more important.
"Issei... Issei Hyoudou," she told them, "he is back. I have just seen him in the corridor on the way to his class."
Rias and Akeno were looking at each other in surprise. They had already been so far to consider him dead, after they hadn´t found him and he had not appeared yesterday. And secretly they had already been waiting for the police to find his body somewhere or for his parents to declare him missing.
What in the world has happened?
"I think we should talk to him as soon as possible," Rias stated.
xxxxxxx
A few hours later
Issei was walking through the streets on his way home. Then he would meet with Gaeriel again a short time afterwards, for some more training.
He was still thinking about the conversation he had with the Devils a few hours before and the one with Murayama before that one... and about all what happened during the last two days.
xxx
As he had seen Matsuda and Motohama at school, he had brought up Yuuma, without telling them that she was his girlfriend however, as Gaeriel suggested. As if she was only a girl he had met. Just as she had predicted, they could not remember her.
Then Kiba Yuuto of all people, probably the most popular male student... at least under the girls, had appeared in Issei´s class and invited him to a meeting with the Occult Research Club, which as he knew now was probably just a cover for Rias Gremory´s Devil peerage.
Kiba was a Devil as well, he could feel it. He was someone Issei, along with his two friends, had hated out of principle alone two days ago, called the `Prince of the school´, swarmed and admired by nearly all girls. Yes, exactly the kind of guy the Issei from two days ago would have despised. Now he wasn´t so sure what to think of him.
He had accepted the invitation. There was hardly a way to avoid them for long. So he could also bring it behind him. What followed was the interrogation session that Rias Gremory called a conversation.
Gaeriel had been right. He would have been screwed if he came here yesterday.
xxx
With such things in mind Issei was walking along the streets. Until he suddenly sensed something.
Another presence was here. It didn´t feel like a Fallen Angel or the Devils, but somehow different. He couldn´t quite place it.
As he looked around he saw the source. It was a young girl, sitting on a bench at the side of the sidewalk. She had long blonde hair... she was really cute actually, he thought... and was wearing a nun outfit. A Nun? he asked himself.
"Oh excuse me," she asked as she saw Issei looking at her, "could you please tell me how I can get to the church?"
Issei didn´t understand the language she was speaking.
xxxxxxx
"Has she arrived yet?" Raynare asked.
"No," the other Fallen Angel, a tall blue haired woman, next to her answered. "Who exactly was this Sacred Gear user again?"
They were both standing at the area surrounding the abandoned church that served them as their local base.
"Asia Argento, an excommunicated Nun... and the wielder of the Twilight Healing," Raynare answered. "Lord Kokabiel had arranged for her to be placed under our care."
"And the other guy we are waiting for?"
"Freed Selzen, Stray Exorcist... a complete lunatic going by his records. But he had been assigned to watch over her. Yet for some reason that idiot had insisted that they travel apart from each other," Raynare cursed, "and now she had gotten lost on us. Go look for her Kalawarner and bring her here."
"Okay Raynare," she answered, while spreading her wings and flying off.
Weekly Power Status
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