11 CONTRACTS

It was in the afternoon and Reiji was walking through the streets of Kuoh city. A white-haired loli accompanied him.

Both members of the occultism club had one thought on their minds.

'This guy is really a pervert...'

After school, the two met to follow Hyodo Issei as the mission given by Rias indicated.

When they started following him, he went to the city's shopping area and entered 8 stores to buy some Otaku-style things.

Although Reiji and Koneko were relatively far away from Issei to avoid complications, both, with their enhanced senses, managed to observe which things he bought.

In all the stores Issei had been to, he bought figurines, manga, and some hentai anime. The real question ceased to be, How far can Issei go, and became, How does he have so much money to spend on such things?

"Look. There he goes into another store again." Reiji whispered.

Koneko just nodded seeing what was going on.

"Well, we'll just have to wait here..." Reiji said somewhat wearily.

Reiji and Koneko had been on their mission for a while. Reiji had proposed to watch Issei from the sky, to practice his flying a little more and not have to walk back and forth all the time.

Rias said that while it would make some things easier to fly, she rejected the idea since there was still plenty of light in the sky, and they could be seen.

Reiji thought that all magical beings could perform magic to make normal people forget some things, but it turns out that not everyone has that ability.

*GROWL*

Reiji was brought out of his thoughts by the growling of his loli companion's stomach.

"Hmm? Toujo-San, are you hungry?"

Koneko only nodded slightly.

Looking a little above the area they were in, Reiji spotted a street food stall.

"Look, they sell food there, do you have money?"

Koneko immediately seemed to notice something, and quickly began rummaging through the pockets of her school uniform.

"I forgot my money..." She whispers calmly.

'T-This is the first time I've heard her speak.' Reiji was a little surprised, but he didn't get lost in that thought and immediately pulled out his wallet.

"So, I'll buy you lunch this time, and next time you'll pay, does that sound like a fair deal?" asked Reiji innocently.

Giving it some thought, Koneko just nodded slowly.

"Well, then wait here."

Reiji walked to the post, leaving his partner in charge of surveillance.

'Living with these people feels so strange...'

Reiji thought, thinking of his new "coworkers".

'If I had not awakened the power of the system I would probably still be an ordinary person.'

"Excuse me, sir, could I have two orders of Yakitori, please?"

The chef nodded with a smile and began to work.

'But it's not necessarily bad. Rias said she would protect me and my parents, and since I have powers, I feel less useless.'

In a couple of seconds, the food was ready.

"Take." The chef handed his order to Reiji.

"Thank you."

Taking the two Yakitori sticks, the boy started walking to where Koneko was again.

*SNIFF* *SNIFF*

Reiji could see how Koneko began to smell the food he was bringing, although they were not even that close, and seeing this action, Reiji smiled and hurried his pace.

"I guess you're pretty hungry. Here."

Reiji handed Koneko a chicken Yakitori.

*SNIFF*

"It smelled quite delicious when I approached the stand."

"Yes."

'She's of few words... Wait, she could smell it from here?'

*BLINK*

'HUH!?'

Reiji had literally blinked and saw how the meat of Koneko's Yakitori had disappeared.

"Delicious..." Whispered the girl.

'I-Impossible, did she eat it that fast?'

"Don't you want more? You ate it really fast."

"..."

Koneko looked at Reiji for a few seconds, and when she was about to shake her head in refusal, the boy extended his hand, handing her his Yakitori.

'Ha! Nothing escapes my eye. I had that look many times! To be hungry but ashamed to ask for more food was the daily bread for me when I was younger!'

Reiji bragged about it as if it were a trauma he had overcome, although literally, the only reason he learned to cook on his own was that he was embarrassed to ask for more food when his parents left him in the care of his other relatives.

"Take it, I'm not even that hungry." Reiji said with a friendly smile.

"... Thank you." Koneko took the Yakitori without much thought and hungrily devoured it in less than a second.

Laughing a little at his companion's actions, Reiji spoke.

"Well. It's time for us to get going. Hyodo-San was coming out of the tent where he had entered." Reiji said pointing at the boy.

"Yes." Whispered the girl next to him.

But before Reiji could take a step, a strange feeling assaulted his heart.

*BADUMP*

Reiji's face transforms in seconds into a worried expression.

Koneko noticed this and looked at him questioningly.

Reiji began to look in all directions desperately.

'T-This feeling...'

As Reiji searched, his gaze found something frightening.

*GASP*

His gaze sharpened and his expression changed to one of fear.

'W-W-W-WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE!?' Reiji observes Raynare stalking from the shadows at Issei.

*WOSH*

Reiji's body moved quickly and hid in a nearby alley.

Koneko, surprised by her partner's performance, ran after him.

"What happened to you, Arayoshi-san?" asked the loli who seemed to have a slightly worried expression.

*GLUP*

"T-That girl... She's a fallen angel. Looks like we're not the only ones watching Hyodo-San." Reiji couldn't help but swallow saliva with some fear.

"Did she see us?" the girl asked.

"No. I'm sure she hasn't seen us."

A few seconds passed, and Koneko suddenly looked at Reiji's right hand curiously.

The boy noticed that and also looked down to observe his hand.

The boy's right hand appeared to be in a position to grasp something resembling a glass or can.

"I guess it's muscle memory." Reiji said, as he calmed down and waved his hand slightly.

"You are very strange." Loli whispered.

'I hear that quite often...' Reiji just made a complicated expression to Koneko.

Standing in the alley, with no one in sight, Reiji spread his wings.

*SIGH*

"We have to notify Rias-Sempai about this. There will be no problem if we stop following Hyodo-san, I know Raynare beforehand, and I know what her method is. Let's take advantage of the fact that the sun is setting." Reiji said with confidence in his voice.

Koneko threw the Yakitori sticks on the ground and spread her wings.

The loli knew that Reiji was just making an excuse to fly back, but she didn't want to walk, so she didn't object.

"Then let's go." She whispers.

They both began to levitate and then...

*BOOM*

[DODGE 3/4]

***

"Are you sure about that Arayoshi-Kun?"

"That's right Rias-Sempai. I'll probably look for Hyodo-san tomorrow to ask to be his girlfriend. At most, Hyodo-san has four days left to live."

"I see, but how is tas so sure that she will use the same tactic to trap the boy?"

In one of Reiji's deaths, Raynare admitted that this was her favorite way to trap humans. Raynare was someone capricious and vicious and seeing how much fun she had with Reiji, it was clear she would repeat the experience with Issei.

"She said she liked to attract humans that way. I don't doubt it's different for Hyodo-San."

"All right. I'll believe you..."

Rias stopped talking for a few moments and, taking a breath, continued.

"Now that we know that the fallen angel who killed you when you were still a human is out there, you'd better get some strength." Rias walked slowly to her desk, opened a drawer and a red light came out of it.

Rias reached into the drawer and seemed to be looking for something.

"Ah, here it is!" she held out her hand and in this, she held two daggers.

Both daggers had a black handle and were covered by a sheath, but even Reiji could see that they were a pair of strong weapons.

"Take them. I saw your pocket knives break in your fight against the fallen angel."

Reiji approached and curiously took both daggers.

"These daggers are infused with magic. They can easily withstand a fight against a fallen angel, so you won't have to worry about them breaking."

The boy admired the daggers and looked at them curiously, and a thought came to his mind.

"Do they have any special skills? You know, like doing ranged cuts with air or stuff like that."

Rias laughed at Reiji's thoughts.

"No, those daggers don't have any ability like that. There are few weapons in the world with that kind of quirk. Most of them are Sacred Gears. You have a great imagination."

'So I asked a dumb question.... I'll never trust fighting anime again!' Reiji thought as he stowed the pair of daggers in his backpack.

"But a fresh pair of daggers alone won't give you more strength..."

Rias put his hand on his chin and, thinking a little, spoke.

"There's another thing you don't know about devils, and that is that we can become stronger if we make contracts with humans." Rias said with a smile.

"Do devils really have an ability like that!?"

"That's right, but the strength increase is usually not too much. You usually have to have a lot of people with contracts for it to be significant, but considering you're a beginner devils, you'll benefit from the strength increase."

"I-I see, but how do I sign a contract with a human?"

"First you need to be summoned, after that, you comply with the requests of the human who summoned you and if you have done well, then they will want to make a contract with you."

'Th-That sounds easy enough, doesn't it?'

"To get summoned, you would normally have to hand out booklets with magic summoning circles, but there doesn't seem to be much time to do all those things, so I'll assign you to one of Koneko-Chan's clients to try to form a contract with."

"W-what? But then I'd be stealing a customer from Toujo-san, wouldn't I?"

Koneko, sitting on the club's sofa, simply shook her head.

"Don't worry." I whisper as I eat ice cream.

'Where does she gets the ice cream from!?' Reiji's thoughts were momentarily diverted.

"Did you hear her? No problem, it's time to get going on your first contract!"

Rias' confident voice even made Reiji excited to sign a contract with a human.

"YEAH!" Exclaimed the boy with energy inside him.