The four students sat on the couch. Jin sat beside Issei, while Sona sat beside Rias.
Tsubaki was preparing tea for them. The atmosphere was a bit tense. Issei looked around nervously, confused by the situation in the room.
No one said anything; Rias glared at Sona while the bespectacled girl sat calmly with her eyes closed, ignoring the redhead.
“So…” Getting enough of the silence, Rias opened her mouth as she surveyed the room, stopping her gaze when her gaze arrived at Jin. “What’s happening here?” She glanced at Jin’s bandaged leg.
Clearly, she was a bit angry for whatever reason that Jin didn’t know of. However, one thing was for sure. Rias Gremory was a Devil; somehow, he got a bad feeling from her.
Whether it was, it felt like she could destroy him if he didn’t use his room, and yes. His Milking Room was still on cooldown, so he must proceed carefully.
Sona opened her eyes slightly as she glared back at Rias.
“Nothing happened. Just a boy from our school got attacked by a Fallen Angel yesterday because someone had deliberately let them roam free even when I told her to just fix the problem immediately. Now a victim has appeared, what would you do?”
‘Woah, that’s savage. So as I had expected. Sona could’ve stopped the Fallen Angel, Raynare, from fleeing but chose not to because she has some agreement with the other Devil. It seems that Rias Gremory has another plan with the Fallen Angel, whatever it is.’
Jin quickly analyzed the situation with just one word. He wasn’t considered one of the smartest students for nothing; he could use his brain.
‘There is another possibility where Sona didn’t stop Raynare because she didn’t want to take a risk because Devil is weak against Holy Magic, according to Kalawarner, but what I expected had turned out to be the truth. Well, well, what should I do next?’
His plan stopped at involving Sona in dealing with the Fallen Angel. But now, another player had joined in. And this player was unpredictable, as Jin didn’t know the redhead’s personality well except that she acted a little bit haughty when he saw her in the cafeteria.
“That’s… You can just erase their memories!” Rias replied with a higher voice, trying to overpower Sona.
“E-Erase our memories?” Issei exclaimed in surprise. He looked at Jin and asked, “What are they talking about, Nii-san?”
“Shh, just listen for now,” Jin answered in a low voice so Sona and Rias couldn’t hear him. “This is information collecting, got it? Before dealing with her, I need to know about Rias Gremory’s personality.”
Issei nodded obediently. “I got it.” He then listened quietly as Jin instructed. For him, Jin’s reasoning made sense. Jin didn’t know anything about Devils outside what Sona told him, while Issei knew nothing at all except what Jin told him.
Who knew that Sona lied to Jin? That was also possible. So collecting information from the conversations between Devils was the best and most trusted way to get some intelligence.
“I can’t do that anymore, Rias. Now that we are all here, let's be honest. You want to get Hyoudou Issei into your peerage, no? That’s why you let that Fallen Angel get close to him. You want him and his Sacred Gear.” Sona exclaimed with a slightly lower tone.
Now everything was connected. Jin put his hand above his mouth to hide his frown.
‘I see. Peerage, High-Class Devil’s subordinates. A reincarnated Devil and a Sacred Gear. So that’s it. As expected, right? My decision of not trusting the Devils is also correct. I should only believe in my own strength, not the others. Maybe I will be able to find some trusted one in the future, but…This world is fucked up. I have no high hope.’ Jin mused.
‘Let’s just hope that I can get a skill to make someone unable to lie to me. Or better yet, bind someone to me so they will be mine. I should be careful around Kalawarner, too, in this case.’
Fortunately, Sona didn’t seem to have a plan to reveal to her friend about Jin being able to hold the ground against a Fallen Angel. It was fortunate for Jin as he would be able to move a little bit freely around Rias in the future as she would underestimate him for being a normal human without power.
Issei glanced at Rias, and Jin noticed a slight smile on his mouth.
“Don’t ever think of joining, Issei. We know nothing. It could be a slave contract or something similar, for you know. From what I heard from Sona, the Reincarnated Devil never got any high position in Hell, or in this case, the Underworld.”
“I-I know. I won’t do anything foolish. But, what is this Sacred Gear that they are talking about? Am I a special human or something?” Issei foolishly asked Jin.
“I will explain it later, but for now…” Jin looked at Rias.
Her face was boiling in anger. Angry at her best friend for accusing her.
“I am not! I am about to deal with the Fallen Angel tomorrow. What about you, Sona? You also want Hyoudou Jin in your peerage, right?”
“I do, but he refused. I can’t force him, and I won’t force him. As I said, since we are all already here, and they know about Supernatural and us, just ask Hyoudou Issei to join your peerage and explain it yourself. It’s better to ask directly instead of planning something that can make him hate you.”
“That…” Rias was at a loss for the word as she looked at Sona. She then glanced at Issei and Sona alternatively before blushing and pretending to cough. She regained her composure as she crossed her arms and looked at Issei.
“That’s true.”
Somehow, a cheeky and smug smile appeared on Rias’ face as she turned her predatory glare at Issei.
“Alright. Hyoudou Issei.”
“Yes!” Issei answered as he straightened his back. He was nervous facing a beautiful girl with a smug smile, opposite to Jin, who shrugged his shoulders, disappointed by what he saw.
Rias smirked. She was satisfied with the answer; then, she put on air to make things more dramatic.
“Will you-“
Unfortunately, there was someone who got enough of this and already knew what Rias would say next. So, before she could finish her sentence, Jin raised his hand and said.
“Ah, we refuse. Becoming a Devil is a no, thank you.”
At that moment, everyone’s face fell.
First time seeing This perspective of Rias, quite a d*ck move to let Issei die just to get him. Never thought like that
yeah it happened in episode 1 she let him die then saved him to earn his loyalty, it was all for gains to her peerage
uh, like this. I wrote that Rias interested in Issei, and that's why she let the Fallen Angel close to him to know what he or the Fallen Angel would to. In this fic, the Fallen attacked Jin instead of Issei, and that's why Rias lost composure a little. She even denied that she let the Fallen get close to Issei.
In the novel series (not the anime) Rias is really concerned about Issei, that's why she gave him the seal. Well, I hope that answer it. I write this using my perspective on how I look at DxD from the novel and anime. It's my personal opinion that Rias sometime answered a bit stupid because she lost composure and cornered (she even surrender in the rating game because she's been cornered)
@MarudameOssan thanks for the info, I only picked up the light novel after season two so I may have missed anything from the beginning
@MarudameOssan Ah yeah, the classic difference in character, is she a devious schemer or just an inexperienced fish making mistakes in a new pond? If I remember right, anime makes her practically despicable on par with Raynare at the start and it seems like she planned to get Issei this way, not giving him a way out or refusing, but... What if Raynare killed Issei more thoroughly and shoved a few extra spears into his head and such? The plan wasn't all that clever.
I like it more thinking that she is just subpar overseer with crappy experience dabbling in the dark about how to solve Fallen poking their head in her territory and trying to find a way to recruit Issei when sh*t happens.