Sacred Gear: Heavenly Crown

Chapter 8: Almost Too Late (1)

It was now Friday. Katase had taken two days off from school, one due to 'illness,' i.e extreme soreness from Issie's brutality, and then a second for her final Kendo Club match before she officially transferred to the Occult Research Club. She and Issei were now eating lunch together in the courtyard while Issei told her about his meeting Asia after he had left for the evening.

"Hahahahaha!" Katase laughed, almost keeling over. "You! I can't... breathe! You abducted-ahahahahaha~!"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time!" Issei defended, turning away in clear embarrassment.

"How is...abducting someone...ever a good idea!" she forced out, continuing to laugh.

"Oh, sure, laugh it up. You won't be laughing tomorrow..." Issei grumbled.

{Flashback}

"So, Mr. Issei," Asia asked meekly. "Could you explain what's happening?"

"Yeah, I probably should, shouldn't I?" he chuckled sheepishly.

"I wanna know too, Issei~!" Yuuma exclaimed, running into the room and jumping on top of him again. "Why did you abduct somebody?"

"OOF!" he grunted, being tackled onto his bed by Yuuma. "I'll explain once you're not on top of me..."

"Sorry!" she said quickly, climbing off and sitting next to him.

"Anyway, so, depending on how you define abducting someone, I suppose we did sort of abduct you," Issei explained, sitting up. "Though not in the way you'd think of. I'm not explaining this very well, am I?"

"No, not at all. So many sin points right now. All of the sin points. You would not believe how many sin points this gives you..."

"So, first of all, you're 100% completely and without a doubt safe here, Asia," he smiled. That seemed to relax her a little bit, so now her face went from confused and a little nervous, to mostly just confused. 'Man, she believes everyone, doesn't she? Good thing we found her first.'

"So, what am I doing here? I'm supposed to be going to the church," Asia explained.

"Right, so, you have Twilight Healing, right? The Sacred Gear?"

"How did you know that?" she gasped.

"I get updates from Michael all the time," he shrugged. "And I've been very upset with him for the past few years about your situation, by the way. I'll have some more words with him about everything again soon, ok?"

"Um...Mr. Issei? Who is Michael?" she asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Right, right. I should probably start a little bit earlier, shouldn't I? Also, just call me Issei. Mr. Issei makes me feel old..."

"Now you know how I feel," Yahweh pointed out.

'That's different. You are old.'

"...Brat..."

"So! You are a nun and a devout follower of the church. At the age of six, while living as an orphan with the church in Italy, you discovered that you possessed a magical healing power. The church discovered this and told you it was a gift from the Lord himself and proclaimed you as a saint, the legendary Holy Maiden. From then on, they kept you extremely sheltered, limiting all contact with the outside world, and you were frequently required to heal anyone and everyone they brought to you, even if they were begging you not to. Is that all right?"