Crippled

Chapter 14

Thinking about it now, Issei wished he just stayed in bed.

Explosions went off just outside the windows of the room Issei, Arianna, and Akeno were staying at.

"Shit." Issei swore, feeling just a tad bit fed up and stressed at just what was going on. Didn't he deserve a moment of peace? A week without anything happening? He should have read the fine print when he was joining this supernatural business. "What's going on?!"

"I-I have no idea." Akeno admitted, eyes narrowed at the outside, Issei just barely making out the hooded figures standing a few feet away from the perimeter of the school's barrier. "Maybe the leaders know what's happening.."

Issei scowled, reaching out with his magic, looking for Ajuka, or Azazel or whoever. The magical equivalent of a flash bomb being detonated in front of him barely even fazed Issei anymore, only making him scowl harder.

He strode towards the room where the meeting was being held, too pissed to care about Ajuka's warning about not using magic to make his leg move normally.

He slammed open the door, uncaring of what Akeno was saying behind him as she followed after him, and was first greeted with the Governor's amused smirk. Somehow, that single expression infuriated him, even more than what the hell was going on around him. "What the hell is going on?" He repeated his question, scanning the room. Ajuka Beelzebub, Serafall Leviathan, Azazel, an angel with ten pure white wings on his back all seated across a table, a teen with silver hair leaning on the wall behind Azazel, and the teenage devils of Kuoh Town all seated nervously near Ajuka and Serafall.

"Issei." Azazel nodded with a small grin, nodding at the one of the only empty chairs remaining that was, Issei noticed, in the only side of the long table that was empty. Even ignorant of politics as he was, he still got the message. He was essentially a neutral party in the current meeting with no official affiliation. "We would've started, but Ajuka insisted that we wait for you. And now everything's gone to hell, what with this lovely firework show right outside." He gestured emphatically at the window right when a fireball the size of a car slammed outside, being stopped cold by the barriers around the room. "Well, with the power of the barrier around us, it's not like they could get in anytime soon. Of course," He hummed. "There really isn't a way out either." He shrugged carelessly. "Ah, but what can we do?"

Issei blinked. First off, why the hell would they do that? It wasn't like he was actually important to the meeting. Hell, he didn't even know why he was here in the first place. He just wanted to sleep or play some video games, not attend something that could influence the very world around them depending on what happens.

Second, he was way too young for this shit, war councils and betrayals and whatever the hell was going to happen next. Hell, he was too young to take on an apprentice now that he thought about it. Could he back out of that one? It wasn't like it was set in stone.

He sighed. He wished Asama was here with him. She could have probably made the attackers buzz off with a glare or those wintry smiles of hers.

"This is Vali," Azazel continued as if everything was perfectly fine, laying a hand on the shoulder of the only one in his side of the table. "the White Dragon Emperor of this generation. That'd make him your rival in fate. I'm sure you'd get along great!"

Vali shot Azazel a glare with no real heat in it. "I don't believe in fate," He said calmly. "only in carving your own future with your own hands."