(Your POV)
"Everyone ready?"

"Yeah, let's do this!"

Sarah pumped her fist into the air while we all stood at the Kyoto train station, not sure why we arrived here but we honestly had no better ideas. Xenovia and Irina were wearing their church outfits, the leather ones, Rossweisse wore her armor, and I wore my military uniform, minus the boots but plus the mask. I was half tempted to track down this Dimension Lost user myself and force them to undo the separate reality or steal their sacred gear for myself, since I can probably use it if I can get my hands on it. My time for waiting was suddenly cut short by a purple mist enveloping all of us. None of us tried to fight it, but suddenly, I heard the voice of someone who shouldn't be here.

"(Y/N), I'm coming with you guys!" Kunou was suddenly seen running towards us wearing her shrine maiden outfit, and I almost had a heart attack upon seeing her running towards us.

"Wait Kunou, that is a terrible idea, go back to the Sirzechs Hotel with Azazel, he can keep you safe!" Irina shouted with worry staining her voice, not that I blame her, I would be worried as well.

"Do you really believe Azazel is capable of keeping anyone safe?" Kunou asked in a matter of fact tone, seemingly unaware of the purple mist enveloping us.

"Um...look, you should just get back to the hotel." Hua pointed in the same direction as the hotel, but it was too late, the purple mist enveloped all of us, blocking my field of view. "I hope these hero faction guys don't involve children in their warfare."

"They probably will." Jiang sighed, and then it was completely silent except for the feeling of someone clinging to my leg.

The mist completely covered my vision, and it stayed like this, with a warm feeling enveloping me, before the mist finally dispersed to reveal I was still at the train station, except it was empty. There was no one in this train station, is it possible that only I was transported here? I suddenly remembered the clinging sensation on my leg, and I looked down to notice an incredibly scared Kunou was hugging me. Looks like Kunou and I were transported together because Kunou and I were in physical contact with one another. "Kunou, you can't just rush in like that." I picked Kunou up and placed her on my shoulder just in case there were traps around. "I wonder if the others are okay."

"I'm sorry..." Kunou apologized, and in response, I merely patted her head to show her it's okay. "I just wanted to help rescue my mother, since I felt bad about making you guys do it on your own."

"It's okay, I'm sure I would have done the same thing if I were in your shoes, but is there anything you can do to protect yourself?" I asked the small yokai. "If you can't protect yourself, that could be troublesome."

"I'm the kyuubi's daughter, so I can use foxfire." Kunou held her palm up, and a blue flame engulfed it. "This is just about all I can use of it though."

"Look at it this way; most races can't do that, so that's a plus." I had my seal skin wrapped around my waist, and I pointed at it. "I'm a selkie of danu, which means I can only use druidry, turn into a seal, and learn quicker. So I developed a bunch of other kinds of techniques to help me not only keep up with my opponents, but surpass them."

"Well well we'll, if it isn't the King of Hope himself."

I suddenly picked up movement from the Earth, the reason I wore no boots or socks was so I could easily sense the movement from the earth. The shadows suddenly surrounded me before turning into blades. In response, I jumped onto the ceiling and used magic strings to stitch my feet into the ceiling, the same way I did at Rias' conference. I grabbed Kunou's shirt to prevent her from falling into the shadow blades. I used my mask's thermal vision to look around the room, instantly noticing a familiar dark haired individual who was wearing sunglasses indoors. ...What was his name?

"What was your name again?" I don't recall knowing the shadow user's name, did he even tell us his name from that time we fought him in the abandoned factory. "Did you even introduce yourself?"

"Why should I tell my name to a dying man?" The shadow user made the shadows appear on the ceiling before turning into blades to stab me, but unfortunately for him, I deactivated the magic stitches and landed on the ground. Allowing me to dodge the strikes all while holding Kunou.

"I don't see a dying man anywhere, just a shadow user, a kitsune, and an immortal." I took off my seal skin and wrapped it around Kunou to act as armor. "Plus it's really rude to not tell someone your name when they ask."

"Oh, I suppose you're right, my name is Connla, descendant of the Hero Connla." Connla finally introduced himself, after gods know how long.

"Are all the hero faction members named after the people who they're descended from?" I asked this because I noticed Cao Cao was descended from the Cao Cao, Siegfried appeared to be related to the original somehow, and Connla is a descendant of Connla

"...Yes, but now that you mention it, it is weird." Connla placed a hand on his chin. "Wait a minute, we're enemies, why am I talking to you?!"

"Where is my mother?" Kunou asked while she hid behind me, and Connla merely looked at her.

"Oh for the love of-, did Georg seriously bring a child into this?" Connla couldn't believe this, and I nodded. "Fine...fine...I'll try not to harm her, but this new power might make things hard...Balance Breaker; Night Reflection Death Cross!"

The shadows began covering Connla's body, starting with enveloping his hands, then his legs, and the shadows rose up to cover his torso before finally finishing off by covering his head. White slits similiar to eyes were the only visible things about him, for it was like staring at a man made of shadows. In response to this, I merely pulled a flash light out of my pocket.

"Behold, I based my balance breaker off of the red dragon's balance breaker to create Night Reflection Death Cross, there is no way to defeat me in this form because I take on the properties of the shadow!" Connla just told me his weakness, and in response, I shone the flashlight at his arm, making it disappear. "GYAH!"

"Um...I think you might have too high of an opinion when it comes to shadows." I scratched the back of my neck. "Shadows disappear when exposed to light, so in other words, I just need to amplify the power of the light and you'll disappear."

"Impressive, you managed to find out my weakness so soon." Connla honestly sounded genuinely impressed.

"That's how lights work, it's not that impressive when you think about it." I looked at Kunou, who shared my thoughts exactly. "So are we going to end up fighting or can Kunou and I go...?"

"Sorry, but I can't allow you to get in the way of the experiment." Connla suddenly began sinking into the darkness below him, but his voice could be heard all around us.

I had to be careful because of Kunou, but I still used my magic to sense his location. Unfortunately for me, his movement wasn't detected through the earth, meaning I can't sense when he'll appear. As I tried scanning the area, I was suddenly met with a left hook coming from the darkness, and the moment the fist made contact, I tried grabbing his arm, but my hand phased right through his arm. I attempted to stab at his chest with my knife, but the knife phased through him as well. Connla sunk back into the darkness as I jumped to a staircase and set Kunou on the steps.

"Kunou, you wait outside, I'll take care of this fight myself." I promised while replacing my knife with my Lauer. "Connla is a tricky opponent, but one solid blow should be enough to do it, so stay back."

I then stomped on the ground, causing the earth to rise up and cover all the entrances and exits of the station, creating a kind of cage for Connla and I to fight in. Luckily, it didn't get darker because of the lights in the train station, but Connla still sounded confident. "Trapping yourself in here like this, pretty bold of you." Connla appeared behind me in his shadowy form, and in response to this, I pulled a cylinder shaped grenade out from my pocket and pulled the pin before throwing it at Connla. Unsurprisingly, the grenade went right through Connla, but there was no explosion. "Nice try, but physical attacks won't work on me."

"Oh that?" I was crouching in the ground, placing one hand on the ground while the other hand rolled up the pant leg of my right leg. My right leg was suddenly covered in Aztec-style tattoos that depicted jaguars, and the tattoos were also glowing a magenta color. "That was just a distraction."

To my left, a cyan blue toad appeared in a puff of smoke, and the toad was a meter tall to my surprise. The toad looked pretty average, except for the fact it was wearing a dark blue vest with a hot springs logo on it. I wasted no time in using Serpent's Breath, a spell that allows me to shoot a mix of water, mist, ice, steam, and even venom now that I managed to advance the ability more. At the same time, the toad shot out electricity from its mouth, and combined with my Serpent's Breath, it turned the spell into a combination of all the elements I use and powerful electricity. Connla sunk into the darkness as I snapped my fingers, making the toad disappear back to wherever it came from. The combined attack missed it's target entirely, and it was quickly absorbed by the darkness. I completely forgot about Connla's ability, he can distort space through the darkness! My attack from earlier came back at me from behind, and just before it got to me, I tested the powers of my right foot by jumping into the air and kicking the spell. Just like I guessed, the attack was reflected. The original owner of my right leg is Tezcatlipoca, a god of smoke, mirrors, and Jaguars. So it should grant me powers like it.

"Impressive technique, but I can reflect it back at you." Connla's voice could be heard as the shadows rose up to absorb my attack before shooting it back at me, and in response, I decided to test Tyr's left hand. My left hand was covered in runes that glowed a beautiful gold color. I held my palm outwards, and a golden shield appeared in front of me. The shield was gold colored, circular, and ethereal, more like a barrier than anything. To keep up the momentum, I decided to test out the magic of my left eye, which I'm guessing was covered in jade colored glowing, ancient Chinese writing. Connla appeared behind me, and I looked in his general direction. Thanks to the power of my left eye, I outstretched my other palm towards him, and a wave of force passed through Connla, causing a hole to appear in his chest. Unfortunately, the shadows allowed him to heal. I can see this because his arm grew back and I'm watching him heal himself in front of me.

"I have heard you're a quick learner, but a terrifyingly quick learner would be more accurate for you." Connla's voice could be heard all around me, and I officially arrived at my hypothesis for my newly acquired body parts, well, except for my right arm. I wanted to test my theory, but unfortunately, the room was starting to smell like gas.

"Do you smell that Connla?" I asked the shadow user, and I honestly wasn't sure if he could smell anything or not since he was in the darkness. "You know, I'm curious about how your sacred gear works, does it absorb things into a different space and then release them from that space, or do they absorb them then move them like a portal."

"What does that matter to you?" Connla asked as shadow blades appeared around me, and all of the blades lunged at me in complete sync.

"Because I'm curious as to what will happen if I light this match." I made a match and matchbox appear in my hand before striking the match, igniting it.

You see, that grenade I threw earlier was a gas grenade, and I was continually using my Ult.Magician magic to fill it with more and more gas because no one can see inside it. The reason I sealed off the entrances and exits was to let the gas build up, and I knew I would be fine because I can hold my breath for a very long time. Plus Connla can't hold his breath forever, so he would have had to breathe in the gas eventually, and even if he was capable of holding his breath and distorting space, I wonder how much his distorting ability could withstand. The flames from my match engulfed the entire room, with me as well, luckily, this is not my first time getting my skin burned off. Flames filled the entire station in response to the match mixing with the gas. After a while, I opened one of the entrances to allow the flames to escape, revealing the station was scorched from the attack. The walls were now painted with black soot, and I could see my skin melting off of myself. I clapped my hands together, and a cat-sized, blue slug appeared on my shoulder.

"Pardon me, I heard your slime can heal things, so is there any chance you would be kind enough to lend it to me?" I asked the slug, who didn't give me a response, but it did begin moving around my body, covering it all in slime and healing my injuries. "Thank you."

I then looked around and noticed Connla, who was out of his balance breaker, was sitting with his back against the wall, his body was covered in burns and his sunglasses were broken, allowing me to see that his eyes were closed. Given his appearance and condition, he was unconscious. I made my knife appear in my hand as I walked towards the unconscious Connla. While the slug was still sliding over my body to heal the burn scars. When I reached Connla, I crouched down to his height and grabbed his hair, adjusting his head so I could see his neck. I pressed my blade against his neck, but before I could kill him, I blinked and Connla turned into someone else who shouldn't be here.

"Issei!"

The person before me was a bloodied, beaten, and unconscious Issei. I was holding his hair and pressing a blade against his neck.cI jumped back in shock and rubbed my eyes, and the sight of Connla came back to me. What the hell was that? I shook my head and pressed the tip of my knife at Connla, but for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to kill him.

"Why can't I kill him?"

I suppose that's because I saw my best friend for a moment, but I'm unable to kill Connla. Everyone I kill could be someone's best friend, and like I did with Loki, someone could come after me for revenge. If they kill me, would someone go after them in revenge for me? What if those who avenge me succeed? Will someone go after them? If so, will the cycle continue without end? I looked at Connla and continued thinking about this subject, should I kill him? If I kill him, his friends will become my enemies, and I don't like having enemies. Killing every enemy that comes my way will probably have friends who seek vengeance, and if they kill me, my friends become their enemies. I want to have friends, not enemies. Wait, if I show mercy, then some people will still want to hurt me because we're enemies. But what if they didn't? What if I try to find a common ground with them and resolve the problem without violence? If they become my friend, then their friends become my friends.

"I guess there's nothing wrong with showing mercy." I made my knife disappear before making a sharpie and a stack of sticky notes appear.

I decided to pull what is called a 'prank' on Connla, which is something friends supposedly do with one another. I stuck a bunch of sticky notes on Connla's face before using the combined sticky notes to draw a smiley face. When I finished, I let out a satisfied huff and stood up. I pointed at the rock wall blocking the main entrance, then I pointed down to make the stone wall go down. I was surprised to see Kunou was patiently waiting for me with a worried look on her face on a bench. Kunou noticed I was exiting the train station, and she hugged me the moment I exited the station. "You had me worried you were going to lose!" Kunou pouted. "There was an explosion and I got worried!"

"Why are you worried about me?" I asked the girl, who broke the hug with a slightly saddened expression.

"I guess it's because you're the closest thing to a father I've ever really had." Kunou looked kind of depressed, so in response, I put a hand on her head.

"Say no more, and don't worry about me dying, hope is immortal after all." I decided to try my attempt at humor, which was successful in improving Kunou's mood.

Whether or not Kunou sees me as a father specifically is unclear, but it's clear that she looks up to me, so I have to become someone who would serve as a good role model to Kunou.

(A/N:I know half of you viewers need to go to horni jail, but we aren't doing a lemon chapter. I know, for a DxD fanfic, that's like a prerequisite. But unlike most other MC's, who are just denser than a black holes or permanent members of horni jail, sealboi here is just...well, he's not completely opposed to the idea, but when it comes to relationships, he prefers to take things slow. Not everyone is horny and wants to stick their dick into everything the moment they can, some people like to take it slow, and that's okay.