Hey fellas! Big author's note down at the bottom, but for now be sure you let me know about any errors or fuckups in the writing so I can fix them quickly! Enjoy the chapter!


"Dispatch, this is Yoshikage. I've got a major traffic accident, vehicles engulfed. Requesting emergency medical and fire. Two DOA. Secondary driver out and responsive, definitely intoxicated."


"Sorry to bother you, little man. Are you Issei Hyoudou? My name is Yoshikage Kenji, and I'm a police officer. Can I come in?"


"I know it's hard, Issei, but the fact is, you can't live in that house by yourself. You're not old enough. Officer Yoshikage will escort you back to your home, and we'll be sending someone to pick you up soon."


"That's quite enough of your yelling, Mr. Yoshikage. You know as well as I do he won't be able to stay in that home. The banks are already climbing over each other trying to claim it as-is. His parents were far from paying it off."


"Hey, little man - I'll tell you what. You promise me you'll keep going to school, and make sure you go to the doctor and dentist when you need to, and I'll see what I can do about this house situation, alright? I won't let 'em snatch up your mommy and daddy's house without a fight, and that's a fact."


"Kenji, baby, are you sure? We've got the money, and I understand your feelings, but you were saving for a new car. We probably won't be able to fit that in, if we do this."


"There you are, Mr. Yoshikage - the keys to your new home! I hope you love it. It's a shame what happened to the previous owners, but the world spins on, right? Business is business!"


"Good morning, little man! You're not packing up, are you? Why would you do that when I've got… these? Mhmm, that's right! These are the keys to your house, Issei. It's yours now - I paid it off and put it in your name. Nobody can take it from you. Remember what you promised me, alright?"


Yoshikage Kenji had just sat down for a nice 'breakfast' when his phone started buzzing like crazy in his pocket. The police officer sighed, hanging his head for a moment before reaching for his cell.

"Hello," he answered, trying his best to keep the annoyance out of his voice as his coffee cooled and his breakfast sandwich slowly got soggier.

"Yoshi! So glad I could catch you - you night-shifters are so hard to reach sometimes! Anyway, when did you want to go over those files for the Oshino case?"

"Can it wait? I literally, and I do mean literally, just sat down for my breakfast," Kenji explained tersely, idly swirling the stirrer in his coffee. "Haven't even sipped my coffee yet."

"Sure, sure, but let's schedule a day, okay? Tentative, y'know? We'll put a pin in it, get it on the map!"

"You're not gonna let me hang up till I agree on a day, are you?"

"No sireé!"

After a very long sigh, Yoshikage stood up, leaving his breakfast for a moment, and stepped outside to chat with his colleague.

However, the words caught in his throat as he saw Issei Hyoudou, bloody and unconscious, splayed across the hood of his patrol car.

"What the hell?! Issei?!" The officer exclaimed, immediately jumping into action, quickly shooting glances around the immediate area as he hurried to the boy and examined him for signs of life. He held two fingers to Issei's carotid artery, searching for a pulse, and breathed a long sigh of relief when he swiftly found it. He was breathing too, if only faintly, but that meant he was probably relatively stable.

Mere moments later, Officer Yoshikage Kenji of Kuoh's finest had his legal godson in the front seat, speeding to a hospital.

He could not see the fallen angel watching them from atop a building high above, cloaked in magic and hidden from view.

Raynare grit her teeth and clenched her fists as she watched them speed away. What an awful evening. She'd dumped the passed-out Hyoudump on the first public authority she could find, but they just so happened to know each other? How much of a bullshit coincidence was that?

It wasn't like it really mattered - her intention was for someone to take him to a hospital, whether the cop knew him or not didn't mean anything as long as they gave half a shit about a dying person. Despite the undisputed irrelevance of it, something about that coincidence pissed her off like crazy. Her fingers clenched into her palms at the sound of the officer yelling Issei's name so concernedly, as if the mere notion that someone cared about that little loser at all got under her skin.

'May as well be the most beautiful woman in heaven…'

Raynare snarled angrily. The dying brat's words echoed in her mind as if taunting her. After all, wasn't that exactly what it is? A taunt? It's not like a human could possibly know about Heaven really existing, or the beauty of the angels, and especially not the most beautiful one or why Raynare loathed her. So, it had to be a taunt or at least a pain-fueled delusion - and she'd spared his life for it, just because she was caught off-guard.

"So fucking pathetic," Raynare growled under her breath before shooting into the sky, unsure if she was talking about Issei or herself.


"You let him get away again?" Kalawarner exclaimed at Raynare's words, truly not believing what she was hearing.

"I don't wanna kill the little knuckle-fucker while he's half dead already! This may come as a shock to you Kalawarner, but some of us don't want anyone else's sloppy seconds," Raynare snarled, defensive yet pissed.

After all, truthfully she too was unable to believe her actions.

Why had she let the little runt live? She could've killed him with a finger flick. And it's not like she actually gave even a single shit about it being an 'honorable victory' or a 'good hunt' or anything like that.

No, she'd killed more valuable people in far less dignified ways, and every single fallen in the ruined church knew it.

Kalawarner and Dohnaseek shot each other concerned glances, clearly not buying Raynare's explanation, but only Mittelt had the wherewithal to actually speak up.

"Sorry queen, but that's so not sigma. Tee bee aytch, it's giving skibidy," Mittelt cleverly pointed out, not even bothering to look away from her ring light as she practiced whatever the newest fad dance on TikTok was. "Did you even try to rizz him with your gyatt, or-"

"Shut the FUCK UP, Mittelt!" Raynare practically shrieked, cutting off Mittelt's inane blithering instantly. "You're so annoying! You're what, a few thousand years old, and you act like you're fourteen?! Go outside you little freak, and drop the slang while you're at it! You sound like a relapsing lobotomy addict!"

After Raynare stopped, partially to mentally tear some hair out and partially to take a breath, there was total silence in the church. Each fallen watched with bated breath, unsure if her outburst was truly over or not. But, as moment after moment passed and nobody spoke up, Raynare glanced around, felt that self-conscious heat rise up her neck, snarled angrily, then stormed off. Down she went, below to her paltry bedchamber, while her bewildered compatriots were left open-mouthed behind her.

"Ugh!" Mittelt exclaimed, beyond frustrated. There were clearly tears in her eyes as her hands clenched into fists, and she struggled not to let herself fully cry. "You think I want to be stuck like this, you total jerk?!"

Kalawarner and Dohnaseek both watched in equal measures of relief and pity as Mittelt sprouted her own black wings, flying up through the window of the church and taking off to who knows where.

"Two formerly heavenly angels, and they both act more like humans than you and I ever could," Dohnaseek lamented, Kalawarner snorting a dry laugh.

"Almost makes you wonder, huh? Our situation isn't all roses, but at least we got to grow up," she replied, sitting down on a pew. "And Raynare… who knows what's gotten into her. Think she has something to do with it?"

"Almost certainly. Maybe if our leader could move past her own issues, we'd actually accomplish something worthwhile. Maybe she'd actually grow a few pairs."

"Ha!"

"Glad you two are getting along."

Both Fallen froze in place as they heard Raynare's low, dangerous growl. It had only been moments since she left - neither expected her to come back so fast. They wrongfully assumed she'd be sulking or raging for hours - not seconds.

"Lady Raynare, I-"

"Can it Dohanseek, you kissass. Where's Mittelt?"

"She took off. No clue where," Kalawarner answered, a standoffish tone evident in her voice.

At that, Raynare sighed frustratedly and closed her eyes, trying in vain to rub away the headache that throbbed behind her temples. Her anger had quickly cooled into a simmering resentment, though she couldn't tell if it was towards her situation or if she was just losing her patience with everyone else.

"Goddamn it," she muttered, annoyed with herself for the tenth time this week. "I'm gonna go find her. Try not to let all this shit-talk go to your heads, mutts. I may only have one pair of wings, but I don't see either of you molting any time soon, and if you wanna fuck around I'm more than happy to remind you why I'm in charge. Outta my way."

Raynare shouldered through the two of them, deliberately checking Kalawarner with an elbow, then took off into the night.


"Yuuma…?"

Issei gasped, his eyes slowly dragging open.

Bright light stung his retinas as they adjusted, but he forced his eyes to stay open as a familiar voice swam into his consciousness.

"Whoa, kiddo. Take it easy. Who's Yuuma? I know you didn't go and bag a gal, right?"

"Officer Kenji?" Issei said confusedly, his eyes widening a bit more. "What are you doing here?"

"First of all: nice to see you too. Secondly, you wanna take a look around and tell me where 'here' is?"

With a groan, Issei forced his head up an inch and glanced around.

"A hospital room?" the teenager asked with no small amount of disorientation. All of a sudden, the pain came rushing back. His whole body was sore and ached to high heaven, he could feel an IV in his right hand, and one leg was elevated.

"Bingo," Kenji answered, chewing on the stem of one of the lollipops he kept on him since he quit smoking years ago. A nervous habit, no doubt, but one he acknowledged. "You wanna tell me what happened?"

With no small difficulty, Issei thought back. His memories seemed so far out of reach, but he clawed his way towards them anyway.

"Oh, right," he said nonchalantly after a moment of determined thought. "I got in a fight at school."

"A fight? With what, a mechanical bull? What the hell happened?"

"Close enough," Issei shrugged with a dry grin. "But I got him pretty good. His name is Matsuda. If you go after him, can you say he was resisting and tase him for me?"

"Kid, I'm definitely going after someone. I found you bloody and bruised on the hood of my patrol car," he replied seriously. Yoshikage's voice was grim in a way Issei hadn't really heard before, and it made him a strange kind of apprehensive.

"On your car, really? The last thing I remember was laying on the ground at school. Guess someone did me a solid," Issei laughed again, this time sending himself into a coughing fit which spiked his vital signs. "That'll be a first," the boy continued with a labored smirk when he finally calmed down.

"Well, clearly whatever happened knocked a few screws loose in your head. Either that, or they've got you on stronger meds than I thought. Anyway, kiddo, I've gotta get a move on and get back to work - you've got my number if you need it," Yoshikage offered, putting his hat back on and standing up from his place beside Issei's bed. Turning back, he added: "Have you looked over that school I told you about?"

"Yeah, I looked it over. Too expensive," he waved off dismissively. Issei heard the unspoken words loud and clear: "Can I get you out of that school and into a better one?"

"I told you not to worry about admission cost, dummy," Issei's guardian growled good-naturedly. "Tell me you at least-"

"I scheduled a testing time," Issei relented, sarcastically rolling his eyes. "Next week. Kuoh Academy."

"Atta boy," Yoshikage grinned. "Text me if you need me. I gotta get back to work, and look into this Matsuda kid - schoolyard fight or not, dumping you on a police car bloody and beaten definitely catches some charges if I get my way."

As Yoshikage left the room, a nurse stepped in.

She was short, with blonde hair tied up in two rough side ponytails hidden behind a large black bow, and had mischievous blue eyes.

"Hey, cutie! My name is Mittelt, and I'll totally be your nurse for a little while!"


Raynare growled for the hundredth time as she flew in the air over Kuoh. It was morning now - wherever Mittelt had gone, it had her sister fallen stumped for hours. She'd tried a communication spell, only to be ignored, she'd tried a tracking spell only to be warded against; Mittelt was really pissed.

So, with nowhere else to really go, Raynare decided to see where her brat of a target had ended up. She cast a ridiculously simple tracking spell, clued to Issei's specific signature (no more complicated than strongly imagining him) and began to search. Her wings brought her in mere minutes to Kuoh General Hospital, where the spell indicated he was interred somewhere on the fourth floor.

As she hovered in the air, invisible to all, she pondered to herself.

"Couldn't I just throw a spear through his hospital room and be done with it?"

So, she readied her arm, a savage and jagged spear of dangerous crimson light forming in her hand.

But then, Issei's words rattled around in her head once more.

Raynare snarled in frustration as her spear dissipated. Why did he have to say those words?! Why couldn't he have just quietly died?

Why and how did he accidentally stumble into the one thing she'd wanted to hear her entire life?

The most beautiful woman in heaven wasn't her and it never had been!

It was Gabriel, favored of God, favored archangel, favored of all!

Raynare envied her and her perfection more than anything. She'd wanted that praise for herself, since the very first year of her perpetual existence as a heavenly angel.

And this stupid little cretin was the very first creature who ever gave it to her.

No prompting, no deceit, no manipulation - he'd said it on his deathbed, with the truthfulness only a delirious mind can conjure.

And it made her furious.

Why did it have to be him?

Even another fallen would be better than -

Raynare's eyes snapped open as she felt a second presence in the hospital with Issei's.

Mittelt!


"Let me just swap your IV bag. You're cool with morphine, right? Those stitches have gotta hurt," Nurse Mittelt said with a smile that expertly hid her dark thoughts as she swapped his bag with a surprisingly accurate and proper one of morphine, a common painkiller. "You're mine now, twerp."

"Issei!"

Issei's head snapped up as a familiar feminine voice called out. In through the door came Yuuma, looking concerned.

"Yuuma?" "Yuuma?!"

Issei and Mittelt exclaimed simultaneously. Issei was pleasantly surprised, while Mittelt was shocked stupid. Here was Raynare, barely in any disguise at all, coming to Issei's defense! What the fuck was she doing?

Meanwhile, Issei could hardly believe the sight before him. Yuuma looked gorgeous - she was wearing the same outfit she'd had on that day on the bridge, but she looked more mature and fierce - a lack of makeup, maybe? He decided it suited her extremely well.

Then, however, the situation really sank in.

"What are you doing here? Wait, Nurse Mittelt, you know Yuuma?"

"Nurse Mittelt?" Yuuma growled, a dangerous smile hiding her anger. "Oh, we go way back. I didn't know you were working at Kuoh General, Mittelt," she said in a mock good-natured surprise, a snarl glaring underneath. "Can I talk to you for a second about my friend's condition, nurse?"

Raynare didn't give Mittelt a chance to reply before grabbing her hair and dragging her out into the hallway. They both turned invisible to humans without anyone noticing, having a conversation in secret despite being in the middle of a bustling hallway.

"What the fuck are you doing, Mittelt?!" Raynare exclaimed, her violet eyes piercing into Miittelt's psyche.

"Getting rid of this little jerkoff so you don't have to, since you obviously have a crush!" MIttelt retorted, hot tears burning her eyes as she remembered Raynare's earlier outburst. "I was going to do you a favor, even after you were a total asshole!"

"A crush?! Are you out of your fucking mind?!" Raynare replied, flabbergasted past the point of even being angry. She laughed incredulously, genuinely unable to believe her ears. "You must be! Look, if you wanna kill him so bad, go ahead. The only reason I haven't yet… he said the same shit they used to say about Gabriel. To me."

"Seriously? That's what this is about?!"

"Yes! He was on his way out, bleeding to death. He looked at me, saw me in my true form, and blurted it out. I literally had my spear above his little loser heart, and I just froze! I couldn't fucking do it! It makes me so mad I can barely think straight, but it seriously screwed with my head!"

"Are you for real right now, sis? Azazel himself said to kill this kid, and you're getting cold feet because he stroked your ego?!"

"It's more than my fucking ego you bitch, you know that!"

"But - ugh! Seriously~?" Mittelt whined, realizing Raynare was right.

That was literally the one thing Raynare had been waiting her entire life to hear. It probably meant more to her than even she realized.

"So what, we're just gonna ignore Azazel? I don't know about you queen, but I don't feel like getting atomized!"

"No! No, fuck! It messed with me, yes, but if signing his death warrant gets us past this bullshit faster, then by all means, overdose him right now and let's get it over with. I'll be fine, especially once the sister finally gets here."

"So then… we're good? For real this time? You're fine to go in there and slit his throat?"

"Why the hell not? Did you really think I'd get a crush? Have you seen him?"

"He's not ugly."

"He's definitely not hot!"

"He's totes your type. We've been besties for, like, a bajillion years. I know you're into medium ugly guys and brunettes."

"I'm not dignifying that with a response. My type isn't 'loser central station,' I like guys who actually know what they want and have enough spine to take it. He barely has enough spine to walk."

"That was a pretty big response for someone who wasn't going to dignify-"

"Look twintails, are we going to murder the little sock-stainer or what?"

"Fine. But you were still a total jerk earlier."

"That's why I was trying to find you. I was going to say… my bad."

"Omg, seriously? Is the sky falling?"

"Don't get used to it, pre-tween. The only reason I'm apologizing is because I know you don't want to be the way you are and I know you can't help it. If anyone deserves to get yelled at, it's Him."

"Yeah, no kidding! You think I wanted to be the angel of teenagers?! And yet here I am, always stuck using the new slang and acting like a total… whatever. That was totally a lame apology, but I'm like, way too stunned you actually apologized to even care. Let's go bump this nerd off already."

"Now you're talking."

Both fallen angels walked back into the hospital room, revealing their presences again with minimal effort. A shoddy barrier was hastily erected around the area of the room - nobody would interfere, because anybody who could would just see an empty room and an empty bed until the deed was done and Issei's corpse popped up.

"Hey hey hey, b-e-a-utiful," Issei crooned, grinning a slick grin at Yuuma. "I was hoping you'd come back soon, angel. What took you soooo long? C'mere."

Mittelt and Raynare's jaws dropped in unison. The meek, mild, frankly pathetic Issei Hyoudou was now acting sleazy and confident.

They both realized at once - he was high off his ass.

"Mittelt," Raynare slowly said, blinking incredulously. "Did you actually give him morphine?"

"I mean, maybe a bit? I thought it would be enough to kill him if I just put a full bag on there."

"They make those bags the same size as every other IV bag because that's a proper dose. You didn't kill him, you got him fucking stoned."

"Omigod, wait, that's kind of hilarious!" Mittelt exclaimed, covering her mouth to hide a gleeful giggle. "We could totally fuck with him!"

"We totally could," Raynare purred darkly, her grin turning a bit savage as she spoke up and turned the conversation towards their prey. "Hey, Issei. When was your first kiss?"

"It could be right now if you weren't so far away," he retorted cooly, his head lolling to the side a bit as he met her gaze head-on. It was almost impressive, how he made a somewhat lame admission about not ever having kissed anyone sound like a suave and flirty tease.

"...You cocky shit," she growled as Mittelt snorted a laugh. She was somehow shocked, indignant, and begrudgingly impressed all at once by his reply. "Get a little liquid courage in you and you think you're a superhero, huh? Did you forget how you got in that bed?"

"'Cus I got my ass kicked, obviously," he replied sarcastically. "But you just wait. I'm gonna get ripped, I'm gonna get mean, and then I'm gonna rip that prick a mean new pussy."

"Holy shit, and I thought I was vulgar," Raynare snorted, unable to believe that she was talking to the same meek loser from before. "So that's your plan, huh? Get strong? Stop being a loser? Fat chance. You'll just get beat up again."

"Anyone ever tell you you're kind of a dick, Yuuma?"

At that, Mittelt laughed out loud, and even a glare from Raynare couldn't silence her mirth.

Now sensing the anger rise up her neck, she stalked closer.

"Anyone ever tell you you're a waste of space, Hyoudou?" She purred, a sultry edge to her voice. "Anyone ever tell you you'd be better off dead?"

"Sticks and stones, gorgeous," Issei shrugged in reply, clearly unbothered by her blatant malice or the sinister, murderous aura in the room. "By the way, remember when I said you were the most beautiful woman in heaven? That doesn't even cut it, smokeshow," Issei slurred, grinning and blinking slowly. "You're way fucking prettier than anything heaven could come up with. Black is the new blonde, right? Goddamn, I could look at you all day. Did you still wanna go on that date?"

The room fell totally silent.

Mittelt had long since stopped laughing, now casting worried, apprehensive glances at Raynare while Raynare herself could not even believe what she was hearing.

The most beautiful woman in heaven.

The little bastard said it again.

No, to be accurate, he'd said "that doesn't even cut it," and she was essentially in her true form now minus the choice of outfit - that is to say she was an outfit and two wings away from being in her most genuine appearance, and he loved it.

Plus, he insulted Gabriel without even knowing she existed.

Raynare was stunned and unsure of herself, and Mittelt could see it all over her face. The smaller fallen was worried out of her mind - if Hyoudou kept this up, nobody could guess what might happen. Raynare could form some kind of attachment or crush for real, or she could torture him until whatever his sacred gear was actually awakened. What a messed up situation that would be, especially if it was a strong gear.

She turned her eyes back up to Raynare, halfway hoping she'd just kill him and be done with it.

"C'mon, Raynare, just stab him already…! Don't let yourself fall twice!"

"You… you really mean that?" Raynare slowly asked after a moment, uncharacteristically quiet. Her eyes were hidden behind her bangs, and her face was downcast. "Issei, you mean it?"

"Absolutely," he confirmed. "Can I have your phone number-"

"Why the FUCK did you have to say that?!" Raynare suddenly screaming, literally roaring with anger. She stomped up to him, grabbed the IV in the back of his hand, and ripped it clean out. "You annoying little bug," she snarled, grabbing his throat with a hand and squeezing hard. "I'm going to fucking kill you!"

"Then… kill me…." He said, still grinning.

Shocking everyone in the room, Issei reached out, grabbed Raynare's hair, and yanked her head close enough to put his lips against her ear. Her hand released his neck in sheer surprise, and she couldn't really react before he spoke.

"But if you're going to choke me… do it harder," he purred domineeringly, squeezing his hand tightly before letting go of her hair.

Mittelt let out an 'eep,' and covered her tomato-red face with her hands, suddenly feeling the atmosphere in the room change.

"Okay, nope, that's it," Raynare growled, rearing her right arm back. "You're fucking dead. But guess what, casanova?" I'll give you a gift," she said, grabbing his chin with her left hand and leaning in. "Your last kiss."

And yet, even as she began to summon her spear of light behind her back, a blush was rampant on her face.

"Hello, hello, I'll be attending you today! Hissei Iyoudou, right?"

Raynare and Mittelt both jumped out of their skin as a new and unfamiliar voice cut in from behind.

It was an old woman!

The two fallen were both stunned silent for what had to be the tenth time that day as the short, decrepit old doctor hobbled speedily between Raynare and issei, humming as she refastened Issei's IV with expert precision. Even his bleeding stopped - she was clearly a pro.

"You need to keep that where it belongs, young man! No playing with it," the old woman chastised, bopping him on the nose with a finger.

"Yes ma'am," Issei grinned goofily as the morphine flow resumed.

At that point, Mittelt and Raynare were both wildly wary of the woman, hastily stepping back towards the entrance of the room to put some distance between themselves and her as she fussed over Issei. They kept their eyes on the doctor, not looking away for even an instant.

"I thought you put up a barrier," Mittelt whispered urgently.

"I did," Raynare hissed back. "But it's gone now!"

"Did you drop it?! Don't tell me him grabbing your hair turned you on that much! If your subby ass just got us-"

Raynare turned her head to Mittelt slowly enough that the burning rage in her eyes could be clearly appreciated by the smaller fallen.

"Okay, okay! So, what, she took it down? Who the fuck is she?" Mittelt relented, narrowing her eyes at the intruder.

"My name is Maria," the old doctor answered, her hunched back straightening just a bit as she looked up from Issei. "Yuuma, you're the girlfriend, yes? Come here. Nurse Mittelt, can you go fetch me some coffee? I'm terribly worn."

"How did she…?" Mittelt mumbled as Raynare cautiously stepped forward. All of a sudden, she felt very much like the teenager she was pretending to be - confused, unsure, and wildly out of her depth. She felt the same dangerous, tip-toeing-on-ice sensation she felt when around some of the wilder fallen angels, like Kokabiel.

For some reason Raynare couldn't really place, she felt a strange necessity to do as the woman said. More than that, she felt a deep need to not disobey. It wasn't a spell or compulsion or anything tangible - it was as if the woman's mere presence set her on edge enough to make her too wary to step out of line.

And yet, for all intents and purposes, to every sense both magical and mundane, this was a totally normal human woman.

So had she really taken down the barrier? Or, had Raynare truly been so caught off her guard by Issei that she'd allowed herself to be aroused-

"My fucking ass," she thought angrily. She resolved that this woman had to be supernatural - she couldn't have made a mistake like that just because of some dork putting his lame moves on her.

Right?

In any case, the best action here would be caution; perhaps even fleeing immediately.

But 'Yuuma' stepped forward anyway. Mittelt did the same, listening as she was instructed - except, when she left the room, she bolted out the nearest window and flew as fast as she could away from the hospital. Raynare would be okay… probably.

"Come hold his hand, would you? I'm going to draw some blood from his upper arm instead of the IV, since I don't want the morphine to stop again. Issei, darling, keep your hand relaxed and don't squeeze."

"You got it, doc," Issei chuckled, his head lolling to the side as Yuuma approached.

Raynare was seething. She'd been humiliated, insulted, taunted, and her emotions had gone through a roller coaster - loathe as she was to even acknowledge it. And now, here was either a supremely odd human or some supernatural being she couldn't even gauge. Was this someone like Azazel or Odin, who loved to masquerade as a human? Or was it literally just some opportune woman who'd shown up when the barrier was at its weakest and happened to slip through? Could she just kill them both?
But then, how could she have known Raynare's 'name'?

"We have been saying it," she thought, trying to rationalize what was happening. "Maybe she just overheard it."

But, her thoughts couldn't save her from reality - she'd arrived at Issei's hospital bed. He looked inquisitively up at her, his earlier sleaziness replaced by something bordering curiosity.

"God, I want to fucking murder this idiot," she mused, even as she extremely begrudgingly did what she was told.

His hand was warm, soft, and trembled gently as she wrapped hers around it.

Raynare ground her teeth in her mouth. She wanted to vomit.

'Maria' gathered several instruments from around the room. Raynare didn't know or care what they were, but she hoped they stung.

"Hi," Issei said, cocking his head to the side.

Raynare's nose twitched as she tried to avoid sneering.

"Hi," she replied, looking away.

"It actually really hurt when you pulled the tube out," Issei admitted, chuckling. "If I wasn't on this stuff already, I think I may have screamed."

"A shame I didn't get to hear that," she growled inwardly, resisting every urge to shatter his hand with her supernatural strength.

"Oops," Raynare said out loud, shrugging. Her meekness had limits, and they had long since been found. She was only still entertaining this bullshit because she had no idea whether or not this old woman was capable of turning her into dust or not.

His hand twitched around hers as the needle went in. He was still feeling pain. That was a small joy to her, at least.

"As far as apologies go, that kind of sucked," Issei snorted. "My turn, though. Sorry for turning you down the other day. I was scared."

"Is he seriously doing this right now? He's literally having blood drawn. Goddamn it, Mittelt, why did you have to get him high?! And why is his personality all over the place?"

"It's fine."

"You still wanna go out?"

"Absolutely n-"

Raynare paused mid-sentence. She couldn't kill him here, now - this old woman was far too unknown of a factor. But if she could get him alone again? In the park, in the evening, without any soul around?

Raynare grinned as Maria pulled the needle out, finished with her withdrawal and holding two vials of blood.

She had more than enough reason and rage to kill him now.

It was about time, she thought, for Issei to see firsthand what a monster the real most beautiful woman in heaven had turned Raynare into.

"You know what? I'd love to."


Tadaaaa! Chapter two! What'd you all think? Other than 'why is this guy taking so fucking long?' The answer to that, btw, is health issues AGAIN.

I ended up basically going totally mental over this summer cus of all the medicines I was on, literal psychosis, and so it's taken me a bit to bounce back from that. Luckily, now I'm only on medicine for narcolepsy, and I'm doing great again FINALLY. And then, of course, I caught Covid cus the universe loathes giving me a break. (Which is really annoying, cus I've had Covid twice before and been vaccinated. Sigh. At least it wasn't bad.) HOWEVER, now I'm finally over Covid, so here you go. I wrote basically four thousand words this week alone, so in a perfectly world I could keep doing that - don't hold your breath. I'm finally on my last semester of college, though, so come December I'll be able to start writing as much as I want.

I've been working a new job, too, which has been taking up quite a bit of my time - however, it's also been inspiring quite a lot of writing since it's inspiring quite a lot of reading: Barnes and Noble! I got hired as a Bookseller there, which means I get a 50% discount on everything in the store. Fellas. Friends. My guys. My gals. Let me tell you: it is SO FUCKING HARD to get out of that store without spending my entire goddamn paycheck. Why do all the hardcover books have to be so sexy? Ugh. Anyways, let's talk about the story now. (I've bought so many fucking books.)

Did you enjoy brainrot Mittelt? Probably pretty jarring, right? Well, as you may have caught from the story - I sure hope you did, because I was pretty blunt about it - she's the former angel of teenagers. What does that mean? I'm going to elaborate on that, and many more facets of the Angel/Fallen Angel society/species, as the story goes on. This was just the first hint at some lore behind the characters, since I wanted to make them actual characters. Raynare and Mittelt were the actual Fallen Angels, while Kalawarner and Dohnaseek were just half-breeds between true fallen and humans like Akeno was prior to her resurrection as a devil. What does that mean, societally? Well, you're going to find out. Suffice to say there's a world of difference.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed! I've got a lot of things cooking right now, including potential remakes of some of my older stories like His Valkyrie/Red Flames and Silver Roses or maybe even Cat Scratch Fever (probably not that one.) My priority with these stories is going to be keeping the characters in-character, which I UTTERLY failed to do in the originals. But you can read the latest chapter of the original His Angel to hear more than enough of my thoughts on that lmao. My next immediate priority is going to be Dance with the Devil, because I've got a good friend who I've kept waiting WAY too long on that one. Expect a new chapter within a few weeks. No, Splicer, Dance is not Danceled!

Alright, now the pitch: GIVE ME YOUR FUCKING REVIEWS. Listen. Reader. Cmere. We're friends, right? Yeah. You want more writing? Do more reviewing. That shit is literal crack to me, and it was quite literally the random reviews I would occasionally receive on the first chapter of this story that got me writing this week. Give me your thoughts, your ideas, your suggestions, whatever.

Unless, of course, you're the one guest reviewer who was ranting about Raynare being a virgin and having a hymen? Absolutely disgusting and unhinged behavior, that was. Listen, I know DxD is a fandom with a lot of lonely and romantically disinclined dudes, and that's fine - I was one too at one point - but guess what isn't fine, fellas? Objectifying women and acting like they're only worth whatever you think their sexual value is. Women are people too, and their sexual pasts do not define them as a person. A woman is not "pure" because she's a virgin, and that's an insanely gross and frankly fucking weird way of thinking. Plus, guys, let me clue you in - a hymen can tear literally whenever it wants. It's not a magical purity seal or whatever like some of the yuckier members of this fandom seem to think. It can tear during sports, going up the stairs, bending over to put shoes on, you name it. Don't be weird in my reviews, please. Okay, rant over. Sorry, I know most of you aren't like that, but that one bitch was just super fucking disgusting and I wanted to set the record straight. It irritates me to no end that I didn't catch the guest review before it went public. Also, how is he going to say women should be virgins but try to advocate for writing harems? It's cool when a guy fucks around but not girls, huh? Fucking dork. And then he called another reviewer a "beta bitch" and claimed they'd never talked to girls? Like, buddy, look in the mirror. AHEM. Okay, rant over for real now. I do, however, encourage all of you to trash that Raven Knight loser in your reviews. For each roast towards that guy, I'll write 100 words in the next week.

Back to what I was actually saying. Reviews are like literal drugs to me. Write good reviews, you get good writing. And I don't mean "good reviews" as in strictly positive ones - constructive criticism is welcome as always, as long as you are genuinely constructive (ie. not just thinly veiled assholeishness, looking at you, guy who recently beefed with Curse of Whimsy) and you at least a little bit know what you're talking about. For a new story like this, ideas are the most helpful thing.

Also, how did you feel about the OC characters in this? Were they enjoyable? Officer Yoshikage was a character in the original who I felt would be a harmless addition to this story, and I'm sure you all know who Maria is. Except, of course, it's not Teresa this time. Any guesses as to who it actually is? You may be surprised. Additionally, do you feel as though Raynare was in-character? I think so, but I'm always eager to hear thoughts. Btw, I have no idea how hospitals work or what morphine feels like in the real world - don't crucify me.

Alright, that's all I've got for now! Sorry for the gigantic author's note, but I had a lot to say. Hope you enjoyed, and as always, join my discord! Especially if you'd be interested in discussing plot, giving ideas/suggestions, or proofreading my work. I need all the help I can get, and I'm always game for some more friends. You'll find the link in the author's note on the first chapter of this story. That's all I've got for now,

See you next mission!