Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.
France
–Magdaran Bael–
The thought of converting Issue into a Devil and taking the boy in his peerage did come to mind, but he was not going to use his Evil Pieces on people who couldn’t give him informed consent. He was looking to shore up his weakness, not add yet another. Issei, as he was now, would only be yet another person he had to protect.
Sure, that might not be such a bad thing considering his rather lacklustre social circle, but his main concern right now was making sure that his Garden was secured properly. All in all, thrusting a small kid, who already had a family of his own who loved him, into the Underworld and, more importantly, the clusterfuck that was his life, did not sit well with him. He was more than capable of handling that on his own. He was not going to upend someone’s life just because he was a little bit lonely. It would be years, maybe a decade, before Issei could reach a level that would be helpful to him in any way, and by that point, he expected his personal power to reach a level where he would never have to worry about anyone else and what their opinions about him might be.
Shaking his head, he paused in the middle of the street, looking to the side at the cozy corner cafe. Realising that he had been roaming around the city for hours now, he walked in and ordered some Coffee and the sweetest thing they had on the menu. Perks of being a devil, he didn’t need to learn other languages. Most mundane languages were auto translated for him.
Pouring the sugar and stirring the coffee, he looked out of the window, seeing people pass on the street, not aware of the supernatural that lurked just beneath the surface. Hell, humans didn’t even know how most of the supernatural looked at him like a resource to be exploited or culled if grown too far.
Shaking his head, he lifted the cup and took a sip. Before he could take yet another sip, he looked up as someone just sat on the other side of his table. He looked around the cafe and saw many empty tables. Hell, the one right next to him was empty as well. So, why?
He raised an eyebrow as he put the cup down, looking at the man pointedly, who was in the process of taking off his heavy jacket, unaware or unconcerned about his glare.
“Ah,” The man exclaimed after taking his jacket off, “It was getting too stuffy in there.” Then, his gaze fell on the spread in front of him, his eyes lighting up at that, “Ah! A fellow connoisseur of pastries, I see.”
Then, he had the audacity to call for the waitress and order the exact same meal as him, only with more sweets. He waited for the waitress to leave before leaning forward, speaking in a low tone, knowing that most humans felt a subtle sense of fear whenever supernaturals did that, even without any overt use of magic, “Excuse me, I did not invite you to sit with me.”
The man with blond streaks in his hair and his goatee waved him off, leaning with his hands on the table, “Really? You were all there, sitting in your own corner, all brooding, staring out the window as if the window itself owed you a multi generation debt.”
He raised an eyebrow in amusement at that, “And that is considered an invitation, how?”
The man shrugged, and after thanking the waitress for the coffee with a dashing smile that had the woman giggling like a schoolgirl, looked straight at him and spoke with a gravity that was not there before, “Well, I have recently developed a hobby to guide the lost lambs. It is far more rewarding than I expected, actually.”
“Like a Shepherd, you mean?” He said as he took yet another sip of his coffee, now kind of interested to see where this goes. Either the man was delusional or had a delusional sense of optimism that drove his actions, or just plain crazy. Either way, it was not like he had anything else to do on his break. Might as well talk with the local crazy man, who happened to have quite a bit of money on him, judging by the expensive coat, and his demeanour.
The blonde pointed at him with his empty hand, “Exactly! Glad you got that. Sometimes, I have to explain the whole Bible thing, and if you have to explain it, that just takes all the juice out of the lesson.”
“I’d assume so.”
Then, there was silence, with the only sound being the sound of cutlery moving around as both of them descended on the sweets as if they were the last in existence. Even the waitress, who was giving the blonde flirty looks at the start, now only looked at both of them in shock as they continued to scarf down whatever was available in front of them, which only continued to increase as the blonde continued to order for both of them.
Ultimately, he was the one to break the silence as the blonde seemed perfectly content in continuing to eat in silence, “So, care to share about any recent lambs you might have guided?”
The man hummed before wiping cream off his lips, and leaning back with a satisfied sigh, “Sure. Met a lost lamb just a week ago. Was completely feral and totally unwilling to trust anyone but himself. Very small, yet full of life and energy to either defend himself or go die trying. It was….kinda sad, to be honest.” The blonde said, sounding genuinely sad at that, before continuing with a cheery tone, “But! That’s all in the past now. I am sure he will be fine now.”
“Under your guidance?”
“Yup,” The man said, popping the P before continuing, “So, now that we have established my credentials as a professional lamb guider, what ails you, a brooding teenager drinking coffee by himself? I thought this was exactly the age where you people moved in packs. What, did you really lose your way?”
He chuckled, despite the man’s bad attempt at humour, “No, nothing like that. Was tired of walking alone, so I slipped in to get coffee.”
“Well, can’t fault you for that. They do have really good coffee.”
“Hmm.”
The blonde chuckled, “Not much for a conversation, are you?”
He only shrugged in reply. That was his nature, and he wasn’t going to defend that, certainly not to a stranger, who was certainly crazy no less.
“What are you doing after this?” The man then asked him out of the blue, leaning forward, his voice coming out in an excited whisper, as if they were discussing something secret.
He looked at the man in confusion but replied, “I have some stuff to do after this.”
“Oh, come on. I am sure it can wait for a few hours.” The man waved him off, instead calling for the cheque, all the while he looked at the man in something closer to amazement. He would never get people like this. Openly extroverted, willing to throw themselves into unfamiliar situations with unfamiliar people just for the sake of it, as if the very act was going to give them energy, as opposed to draining what little they had in terms of social battery.
Then, before he could do anything about it, the man had paid for both of them, put on his very expensive coat, and beckoned him, "Come on, brooding brooder. There are corners at our destination as well. You can brood there. I promise you, you’ll find far more interesting company there.”
He sighed, getting up to follow the man. He could just zap the man with a confusion spell before slipping away. His mind would conjure whatever explanation seemed plausible at the time before forgetting about the entire thing soon enough. The short conversation was refreshing, but he had a job to do. He had to secure his Garden.
After that, he could move around the world freely, engaging in extroverted activities. Ugh. Even the thought of it brought with it a fresh wave of unease in him.
“So, where’re you from? I was born and brought up here, you see.” Yeah, he could see that. The man spoke fluent French, looked French, but certainly did not move about with the clear boundaries and distance that most French people had. They just had this air of polite distance around them as they moved. Or at least, that’s what he felt.
As they turned around a corner, he quickly zapped the man with a spell that simultaneously mentally disoriented them and then forced their mind to come up with something to fill the hole that was formed with the memory eraser spell.
There were entire shelves full of books depicting hundreds of different mental spells that could be used on a multitude of types of minds. The human mind was something that could create something from nothing, so when it was hit by a memory erasure spell, the brain rushed in to fill that void with something. It didn’t have to be perfect. There just had to be something in that empty hole in the memory banks, and once that happens, the brain slowly forgets that as well.
A supernatural mind tampering defense tactic, if you will.
Shaking his head, he walked straight while the man went silent, likely because his mind was stuttering for a moment. He was already under a perception spell anyway, so even if he looked around, the blonde couldn't find anyone who could tickle his brain about the recently lost memory.
Teleporting was an option, but he preferred doing that when he was outside the city and in a remote area. No need to alarm anyone nearby. Even though Europe was a hotspot for supernatural activity, most of it was the Angels and the Fallen. The Devils really hadn’t penetrated these ears because of the existing supernatural presence.
Beyond a couple of properties and hotels, and some businesses in key cities, the Devils didn’t really have anything in most of Europe, unlike the foothold that the Church, the Norse, and even the Fallen had to an extent. Serafall must have noticed that and created the Kuoh project exactly to counter this.
Once Kuoh was proven to be a success, they would probably expand to–
He stopped, turning around as he saw the same blonde man, leaning on the wall, hands crossed, looking at him with a smirk, only this time, this smirk had a different air to it. He felt far more real now, to him. Far more dangerous.
“Now, that wasn’t so nice, was it? I was just taking you to a nice place, and you had to stab me in the back or the mind?” Then, the dangerous atmosphere dissipated immediately as the man pointed an accusing finger at him, as he mimicked his chest hurting and heart breaking.
The act was amusing, but he was not foolish enough to let his guard down. He hadn’t even sensed the man being someone more than human. To his senses, the man seemed only a regular man, if only a little crazy.
The man then paused and looked at him, all coiled and ready to strike and then immediately retreat. Sighing, he muttered under his breath, “Ofcourse, all the anomalies are freaks.”
Before he could even ponder on that, the man snapped his finger, as anti perception wards were cast around them. Then, a golden outline appeared on his body, a spiky armour of sorts, before it shattered into motes of golden light.
His eyes widened as he stiffened, sensing who exactly was in front of him.
A Fallen Angel.
“Now, don’t you run away! We are right here. Come on,” Saying so the man turned on the spot and just…walked into the wall? Leaving him behind, standing in the middle of the sidewalk, watching as humans had to walk on the road as they couldn’t perceive the sidewalk, completely flabbergasted about the turn of events.
He was still tense, ready to just flee when the wall rippled before the same blonde’s head popped out, “Are you coming or not? Come on, the show's about to start soon!”
And then, against his instincts, the same instincts that had kept him alive for so long, he sighed, cycled his Demonic Energy under his skin, ready to unleash his full might, and then walked into the wall.
A/N - Guess the Fallen & the Feral as well. I don’t think the Shepherd and Lambs reference landed that well, but oh well…