Chapter Text
“What… are you?”
Ryuko grimaced, clenching her fist lightly and trying not to look at the damage she’d caused to the old abandoned house that was, as of thirty seconds ago, collapsing into nothing more than a pile of rubble. Apparently she’d put so much force into that one punch that she’d not only turned the so-called Devil into a gory mist, but the force transfer had also rocked the foundations into dust along with creating a wind cannon shaped trail of destruction.
How the f*ck was she supposed to know supernatural creatures were so f*cking fragile? It wasn’t like she was used to being strong enough to topple buildings with her bare hands! With her scissor blade, sure, she knew how to pull off a wicked cool flying slash, but with her bare hands???
Ugh. The last time she’d even really punched someone was when she was dealing with Ragyo, and that bitch just wouldn’t go down.
Ahem.
“... That’s a complicated question, not gonna lie,” Ryuko answered after a moment’s indecision, looking back and forth at the group that she’d found herself in front of. She knew… a few of them by reputation after only a week, but… well. Only the club leader, Gremory Rias, and the pervert. Hyodou Issei. Aaaand maybe the tiny one? Her name was… Toujou…? Or something? She’d heard a few girls squealing about how cute one of the first years was so… yeah. “I mean… I’m human. And I guess I saved the world a couple months ago? I dunno, I guess that hasn’t really gotten into the news much.”
“Wait- you saved the world? When? How? From what?” the blond guy spoke up, stepping forward with his hand held firmly on the hilt of his sword and wearing a strangely… not really hostile, but more mistrusting… expression on his face. Ryuko didn’t really mind, she’d seen that face more than a few times even during the rebellion against Ragyo.
“... From… Kiryuuin Ragyo…? And the Life Fibers…?” Ryuko responded awkwardly, scratching her head and trying to puzzle out why it seemed like the entire group of them except for Issei seemed so confused. “... I dunno what to tell you guys, there was a whole sh*tload of stuff that happened. I was in a coma for two months, a good chunk of Japan got abducted by aliens, the entire world almost got consumed by clothes… I had to go fight Ragyo in space…”
She shrugged, cracking her knuckles on her right hand using her thumb and leaning against a nearby tree. “Really. Not sure what else to say here. I mean, it was all over Twitter and LINE… pretty sure there’s some videos about it on Youtube and NicoNico?”
“... Wait… that was you!?” Issei spoke up, for lack of recognition by anyone else in the group. “I thought I was going crazy- nothing like that happened here, but I was out on a trip with my family and, and….”
He shuddered a little, grimacing. “... That was a weird half hour.”
“Yeeeaaaahhh… sorry about that,” Ryuko winced, looking away and running her hand through her hair. “I did my best to stop Ragyo but… well. It was kinda chaotic. Lotta sh*t happened. Anyway. That’s me. Matoi Ryuko, don’t wear my name out.”
“Don’t apologize, when I woke up there were a bunch of naked girls around me! It was like a dream come true!” Issei paused, then cleared his throat at the awkward looks everyone else was giving him (except for Rias, who was smiling as if she expected that kind of thing). “... Well. I was naked too. It wasn’t fun when they started screaming and trying to beat me up.”
“Yeeaaaahhhh… lotta clothes just kinda exploded. Couldn’t really stop that part,” Ryuko shrugged, then shook her head. “Whatever. What’s up with you guys? Wizards or something? Exorcists? Magical girls… and boys…?”
“We’re Devils,” Rias answered without an ounce of shame or hesitation, stepping forward and bowing slightly. “I am Rias of House Gremory-”
“-and this is my peerage- Himejima Akeno, Kiba Yuuto, Toujou Koneko, and most recently, Hyodou Issei. Thank you for your assistance, Matoi-san. None of us have heard of this so-called apocalypse, but given that Issei-kun seems to corroborate the events, I suppose we’ll take you at your word. Though…”
She paused, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes at Ryuko. “You clearly aren’t human. You do not register as one, nor are you a Devil, an Angel, nor anything in between. I’ve never sensed anything like you before.”
“... Would you believe I’m half alien?” Ryuko deadpanned flatly, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms. “Speaking of not human, the hell do you mean Devils are real? I mean, really? I can understand alien bullsh*t, I lived through all of it, but what do you mean that all this Christian malarkey is real!?”
“Of course it’s real! We’re Devils of the House Gremory, after all!” Rias sort of preened, forming a magic circle in one hand and letting it just sit there in the air as it glowed and hummed, all four of the senior members of the Occult Research club letting their wings out with a flutter that almost sounded like canvas whipping through the air. “But I digress. This seems to be quite the complicated topic- I have no knowledge of Life Fibers, or anything that you’ve stated so far, and you seem to have no knowledge of Devils either. I propose that we return to the club building, Matoi-san. Clear things up, explain some things further?”
“... Yeah, sure. Not like I’ve got anything else to do…” Ryuko paused, patting herself down and checking herself over for her stuff. Which… oh good. Her backpack hadn’t fallen off. Whew. “... Yeah. Lemme just stop by my apartment real quick? I gotta grab something if we’re gonna talk about things that go bump in the night.”
“Of course. Shall we reconvene at the old school building in say… two hours?” Rias asked, smiling as if she was the one in total control, though Ryuko could read just the slightest bit of trembling in the Devil’s hand. What, was taking out a- what had they called it- Stray Devil with a single punch really that impressive? Couldn’t be, that thing gave less resistance than a Two Star Uniform. Probably just the way she’d blown a giant scuff mark into the side of the mountain, honestly.
“Sure. Gonna grab something to eat on the way then. I haven’t had anything since class let out,” Ryuko mumbled, then looked around awkwardly and shrugged as she realized that she really had no idea where they were at the moment. “... You guys know how to get back? We’re pretty deep in the woods.”
“We can teleport, Matoi-san. Will you be alright?”
“Just peachy. Well, if there’s nothing else…” Ryuko hopped into the air with a jaunty little motion, bringing her power to bear and rising with a little wave of sparks and a haze of heat before rocketing off into the night sky with a whoosh of displaced air. A sonic boom followed as she disappeared into the sky, leaving behind a group of incredibly befuddled devils that really seemed to have absolutely no idea what the f*ck just happened.
For a moment, no one said anything. The Occult Research Club simply stared at each other and the visible trail of sparkles and vapor that followed Ryuko’s trail through the air, tracking her progress into the night sky like a crimson red shooting star.
“... I’ve… never seen anyone go that fast before…” Yuuto mumbled, scratching his head in vague confusion as he stared up at the sky. “And… that strength. How monstrous…”
“Stronger than me,” Koneko nodded slowly, her voice quiet and soft as she sat down in the grass and shook her head. “Too strong.”
“Mou, Matoi-san already seems to be on the level of a High-Class Devil…” Akeno hummed, tapping her finger against her cheek and doing her best to sound unaffected. “Possibly even more. That… definitely wasn’t her full strength, was it?”
“Almost certainly not. The way she acted after that punch… she seemed as if she’d been purposefully holding back,” Rias nodded, running her fingers through her hair and letting the long crimson locks swish dramatically behind her as she turned away. “Well. We’ll have plenty of time to get answers in a few hours. Speaking of… Issei-kun?”
“O-oh uh- yeah?” Issei blinked, startling back into focus as he turned to face Rias. “What’s up, Pres?”
“You seem to know more about the situation than I do. What do you know?”
“Well… it’s kinda complicated- even I don’t know much except what the news said…” Issei mumbled, scratching the back of his head awkwardly as he did his best to explain what he knew about their mysterious new transfer student. “Um… there was this whole thing about the Kiryuuin Conglomerate and the REVOCS Corporation about something called life fibers trying to destroy the world, but the lady in the interviews didn’t say much… and I was… uh…”
“Pervert,” Koneko deadpanned, glaring at Issei as she passed by him.
“O-oi! I wasn’t-! Well… okay, I was trying to stare up her skirt the whole time, but that’s-!” Issei sighed, groaning a little. “If Matoi-san’s telling the truth, then she really did save the world, and then there were all those rumors about Honnouji Academy and all of those big name schools that were super eccentric with all their money… um… I dunno anything about it though, just that apparently Matoi-san was at Honnouji once and then the entire island… broke.”
“... It… broke?” Rias asked, raising her eyebrow.
“Yeah, they had an entire artificial island built in the middle of Tokyo Bay and it was like an entire city and then around winter break the entire thing just… sank. I think there were some photos but there’s no way a pair of two kilometer long scissors sliced the thing in half,” Issei shrugged, then paused. “... Then again… there was that big red light that made everything super hard to see. I think a few people heard really loud shouting? And also really loud music for some reason…”
“... I see. Well. It seems we’ll have quite the list of questions for Matoi-san later.”
And with that, the members of the Occult Research Club vanished in a swirl of crimson light, the magic circle in the clearing taking them home in a blink of an eye.
