DXD: Catalyst of Legends

...metaphorically locked in prison for another five and a half days.

This was perfect fishing weather, dammit!

In his left hand were two flyers; one of which Reya had given him before he left school on Friday. He had forgotten to take it out of his blazer pocket the whole weekend, but remembered its presence after meeting a young woman in a bat-themed red and white maid outfit handing similarly designed flyers out earlier in the day.

It was here that he received the second one. He read the words "Your wish will come true" with a sardonic smirk.

Based on what he knew about wishes, they were never worth it. Be it by a genie, fairy godparents, a monkey's paw or whatever else, wishes always corrupted and twisted themselves back upon the wisher in one way or another.

Reya had tried to excuse the flyer as part of a project that she and a friend of hers were undertaking, but Connor knew what it was really for: it was a dime-a-dozen Devil's contract. The symbols inside the multi-layered circles were unintelligible to him, but the layout of the symbols reminded him of summoning circles he had seen in the past.

Decoding and comparing the two diagrams would make for an interesting case study.

His smile faded as he looked back up to continue admiring his surroundings. He didn't regret taking up the lifestyle that he did, but he could understand what his father meant by treating magecraft with a level of moderation.

Obsessing over it left little time to enjoy life.

As he passed by the park a few blocks away from his apartment, Connor noticed a couple standing by the fountain. One was a girl that he hadn't seen before, but the other was someone he knew almost too well.

Issei Hyōdō, the self-proclaimed 'Harem King of Kuoh. ' The most perplexing thing about the sight was the fact that the girl wasn't recoiling in disgust at the pervert.

In fact, she was… holding his hands?

Those hands?

"Okay… what?" he mumbled. As casually as possible, he strode to within hearing distance then exchanged the flyers for his phone, pretending to receive a text.

Glancing to the couple, he discerned the unknown girl to be the Yuuma Amano that Issei had been bragging about all of Friday afternoon. He didn't buy it at the time, believing that the kid was just screwing with his friends, but there they were, plain as day.

He had to admit, she was attractive in a cutesy way: a pretty face with violet eyes and framed by long black hair, a well-developed figure held in by a pink blouse, black skirt and black shoes, and on her wrist was a pink scrunchy bracelet. The look in her eyes said that she was genuinely enjoying her time with the boy.

Whether or not she knew of his status as the 'Harem King' didn't seem to be a factor. Meanwhile, Issei –sporting a light grey button-down shirt and darker grey pants– looked like he was walking on the moon, simply overjoyed at being so close to a girl without suffering bodily harm.

Connor was actually somewhat happy for his underclassman; a real girl to set him straight was just what he needed.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so Connor pocketed his phone and made to walk away. At least until he heard Yuuma ask, "Could you die for me?" He turned in their direction, wondering if he'd heard her correctly.

It was a bizarre question to ask somebody you barely knew. Issei must have thought that as well, but when he asked for clarification, all he got in response was a mature, malevolent voice uttering the same words, "Could you die for me?"

Yuuma suddenly leapt back and was engulfed in a flash of light. As the light died out, it revealed a now slightly taller woman, but with much darker purple eyes, and a fully mature body that was barely kept covered by leather straps and metallic rings.

She now resembled something one would see in an S&M porn movie. Two feathered wings as black as night jutted from her back, all but confirming her existence as a Fallen Angel.

'What the hell?! What are they doing here?'

"I would say that I'm sorry about this, Issei, but I'm not," she mocked the stunned teen. "While it was nice playing around with you, I'm a busy woman and I have orders to kill you.

If you want someone to blame for this, blame God for putting that Sacred Gear in you. Oh, and my name is Raynare.

" A red spear of light manifested in her hand as she finished.

From his newly-acquired position behind a tree, Connor witnessed everything, wondering why Issei wasn't running for his life.

"Oppai! Honmono no oppai!"

Sadly, it seemed Issei either forgot or was completely ignoring the situation. Connor stared in disbelief that that was actually the first response from Issei.

In that moment of hesitation, Raynare struck.

"Ugh, creepy little…" Raynare wrinkled her nose in disgust before hurling her weapon at her victim.

The spear of light flew true, piercing the boy's chest, then vanished, leaving only a gaping hole where his left pulmonary artery had previously met his heart. It would take mere minutes for him to bleed out; no amount of help would save him.

"Fuck!" Connor silently cursed as Issei collapsed. Fortunately for him, Raynare didn't seem to notice since she continued to watch Issei as he futilely struggled to breathe.

Taking cover behind the tree, his eyes clenched in anger.

'Dammit! Why didn't I-'

"That's just sloppy, Raynare. Did you really expect to cut corners and get away with it?" A deep male voice reprimanded as its origin casually walked out from the tree line.

Peeking from around the tree, Connor saw that it was a middle-aged man, or at least he appeared that way from a distance, with black hair and blue eyes. His attire consisted of pants, shoes and gloves all in black, a white dress shirt, a gray trench coat, and a white ascot and black fedora to finish the hitman look.