DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except the plot and some other elements that should become obvious as we go. I make no profit from this, though I dearly wish I could.

Rias Gremory stood at the window of the Occult Research Club's second floor, thinking once again about how to get out of that disgusting arrangement with Riser Phenex. It was really starting to weigh on her mind as the time approached. She sighed as her gaze wandered before coming to rest upon someone resting under the shade of a tree nearby. It didn't take her long at all to recognize one of the great mysteries of the school: Issei Hyoudou.

Rias lightly brushed a few strands of crimson hair from her face as she observed him, distracted from her brooding about Riser to ponder Issei and consider what she knew.

Not long ago, Issei was a, somewhat, normal boy. He was well known around the school for being a member of the infamous Perverted Trio. His obsession with breasts was renowned, along with his lack of shame when it came to it. Rias smiled at the thought. She had actually found the boy's honesty somewhat refreshing. It wasn't as if other boys didn't have the same interests. She knew that well enough, considering how often her own assets were stared at. Issei had simply decided not to bother hiding it.

Her smile changed to a small frown at how that had all changed. One day during the summer holidays, shortly after the school term had ended, Issei had vanished without a trace. His parents had frantically searched for him, but no clue appeared.

Rias and Sona had both investigated the matter, in case it was something supernatural. After all, Kuoh was their territory, so they needed to know if something was snatching teens up. But they didn't find anything either. All they had been able to find out was that the last place he was seen was a shop that specialized in more adult oriented manga and doujinshi.

Months passed without a sign, and it seemed the Hyoudous would be one of those unfortunate families that would have to endure never knowing what happened to their child. Then, out of nowhere, he had reappeared.

A 110 call led to him being found in an alley not far from school grounds. He was a real mess, with massive wounds all over his body, accompanied by older scarring as well, including on his face. In spite of this, however, Issei made a full recovery, much to his parents' joy, and returned home and to class once the new school term began.

He was different though. The usually boisterous and excitable boy was replaced by a rather calm young man. He was still perverted, and spent time with Motohama and Matsuda, but it was much more low key, no longer joining them in peeping, much to the relief of the female portion of the student body.

There were also the physical changes. Besides the extensive scarring that covered his body (which caused him to begin wearing a shirt when he had to go swimming) he was in obviously better shape. Gym uniforms exposed toned arms and legs, corded with lean muscle. His upper body was similarly well built, making his friends rather envious. Aika Kiryuu had actually put it rather well when she compared him to one of those American action stars. Of course, she had said it in more colorful terms at the time.

But none of that was what attracted the most attention of the Devils currently attending Kuoh Academy. The thing that intrigued them was Issei's sheer presence.

Rias bit her lip and shivered slightly. Even from here she could feel it, now that she was looking for it. Power, the likes she had only felt from her brother. The fact that it was comparable to a Maou at rest was incredible. And Issei wasn't even trying to project it.

She remembered approaching him outside the school on the first day of class, wishing to let him know that she was relieved he was alright and that she was willing to help if he needed it. But then she was stopped in her tracks by the feeling of Issei's strength bearing down on her. It had been surprisingly sudden. She had felt some slight stirring of power earlier, but put it out of her mind. However, once she got within a certain distance of him, it practically slammed into her. The impact of it on her senses almost sent her to her knees, in more ways than one.

Devils such as herself were creatures ruled by power. While nothing like it used be, power was still a big factor when it came to devil society. Devils sought strong beings to add to their peerages to increase their own power. Only the strongest, such as Sirzechs or Serafall could lead, because devil society would never follow somebody without the power to back it up. And power was definitely an enormous part when it came to attraction. Rias knew she and several others held strength, or at least the potential for it, as the most attractive part of somebody. It was, of course, not absolute. Riser was without a doubt powerful, and Rias still wanted to rip his balls off and feed them to him more often than not, but it was still a factor.

So when she suddenly felt Issei's power, which so easily outclassed her own, forcing itself on her, she almost kneeled in an instinctive reaction toward one who was so far above her. She managed to avoid it, if barely, though she was acutely aware of a sudden dampness between her legs. This wasn't helped by Akeno, who had been right beside her, panting softly in sudden desire. She was hardly surprised to catch her masturbating in the clubhouse's bathroom later.

Rias had spoken to Sona afterwards to find that she had experienced the same thing. Everything seemed relatively normal and then, suddenly, that feeling of gargantuan power pressing down on her once she got within a certain distance of the boy. Sona had had to return to him later, once she was more prepared, to do what Rias had been intending to do. It was as though his power was extended outwards like a bubble with a definite boundary from which he couldn't be sensed casually.

Rias sighed, wondering what had caused a relatively normal human to become a being that could make multiple high class devils feel so incredibly small in comparison. She frowned once again. There was also the matter of what Koneko had told her happened a few days ago…

Koneko was walking home from a sweet shop she had decided to visit after her last request. It was getting late, and she wanted to get home to enjoy her purchases.

"Well hello there, cutie." A rough voice said from the alley she was passing by. The loli glanced over to see about a dozen punks leering at her. "What is an adorable girl like you doing out here all alone? Maybe we should keep you company." The white haired girl turned away and kept walking, ignoring them. "Wha-Hey! Don't just ignore us like that!" Three of the delinquents moved to block her way, one of them grabbing her. The corners of her mouth turned down in irritation as she was dragged into the alley, not putting up much of a fight yet. "Maybe we aughta teach you some respect." One of them pulled out a switchblade and held it threateningly in front of her face, much to her annoyance.

It was when one of the ones behind her moved to grope her ass that she finally had enough. She was about to teach those idiots some manners when a sudden wave of power made her gasp. The punk with the knife smirked, thinking she did so out of fear. "That's right, be a good girl and maybe you won't get hurt." He laughed before being interrupted by a voice from the entrance to the alley.

"What the hell do you assholes think you're doing to my kouhai?" The voice growled out. Everybody turned to see Issei Hyoudou standing there, glaring. Koneko looked at him, blushing slightly as both her devil and nekoshou instincts reacted to his power. He was standing with his arms crossed, his scarred face intimidating in the fading light, especially with the dark glare he was giving the delinquents holding her.

"Who the hell are you?" The apparent leader said, glaring. "Beat it before something bad happens to you."

Issei seemed to consider it. "You're right. I should probably leave before something bad happens." The gang members smirked while Koneko frowned. "Having to wash your blood off my clothes would be such a pain, after all." Smirks instantly turned into scowls.

Another punk pulled out a switchblade. "Someone needs to teach you a lesson!" He advanced and swung his knife at Issei's face, aiming to add another scar to his collection.

Issei easily reached up and caught his assailant's wrist, stopping him cold. He looked him in the eye and gave a dark smirk. "I'd love to see you try." He suddenly kicked out, catching the delinquent in the knee, which gave out with a loud crack. He instantly dropped, howling in pain.

The other gang members stared at Issei's casual brutality, looking more unsure now. "Next." He announced blandly. The punks looked at each other before 3 moved to attack, one grabbing a large, heavy pipe.

The first came in with a wide punch, which Issei easily dodged and retaliated with a quick uppercut to his opponent's chin. The punk's teeth clacked together loudly as he dropped, unconscious before he hit the ground. The second tried for a side kick, which was caught. Issei used the leg as leverage to swing the delinquent into the alley wall. He then ducked to dodge the swing of the pipe by the third one, who ended up hitting the gasping for breath second one, most likely cracking a rib. He dropped too. Issei quickly stood with his back to his enemy and elbowed him in the solar plexus, causing him to drop the pipe as he tried to get his breath back. He was swiftly knocked out as Issei whirled, hitting the thug's temple with the back of his fist.

He turned back to the rest of the group, eyeing them darkly as they looked back, visibly unsure of themselves now. The one holding Koneko let her go to turn towards Issei fully, allowing her to move back towards the alley wall, getting out of the way. She was observing everything carefully, knowing her King would want to know what happened, especially as it involved the school's mystery powerhouse.

The delinquent leader licked his lips nervously. Issei had after all just taken out four of his men with almost contemptuous ease, and looked more than ready to keep going. The hand holding his switchblade shook slightly. "We can still beat him!" he blustered. "He can't take us all on, after all!" Issei's response was to crack his neck, a bored look on his face.

The next thug, the biggest and most muscled, roared and charged, aiming for a rugby tackle. Issei actually rolled his eyes before side stepping at the last moment and sticking his foot out, tripping the charging ruffian, who fell to the ground like a sack of rocks. Koneko blinked at the action, which was like something out of a cartoon. Quickly and efficiently, Issei knelt down and punched the back of the thug's head in a single motion, knocking him out as well.

Another two approached now. Once held a battered plank of wood in his hands, the other had put on some brass knuckles. Wood Plank approached first, swinging his weapon at Issei's head. Issei swiftly put his arm up to block the blow, stopping it in its tracks. Before he could do anything else, however, Brass Knuckle darted in, aiming to strike Issei's stomach. Before he could land the hit, Issei lashed out with another kick. Knuckle unfortunately tried to dodge. 'Unfortunately' because it caused the kick that would have landed on his upper leg to strike his crotch. Knuckle immediately dropped with a high pitched cry and curled up protectively. Everybody there winced, Issei and Koneko included. "Oh shit, sorry, did not mean to do that." Issei said sheepishly. "I was just going to kick your ass, maybe break a bone or two." He then seemed to realize that he still had a plank of wood against his raised arm, held there by a now rather distracted thug. Issei quickly grabbed the plank, jerking it out of his hands, and slammed it into his assailant's head. The board, not very sturdy in the first place, turned into a cloud of splinters on impact, and Wood Plank dropped, moaning slightly.

"So… How long are you going to keep this up? Cause I kinda have things to do, and I'm sure she does too." Said Issei, gesturing to Koneko to emphasize his point. The gang leader looked from Issei, to his downed men, to the remaining thugs on his side, none of which had a weapon, and began to slowly back away.

"Fine." He said, scowling angrily to hide his fear. "Take the little bitch and leave us alone."

"Cool" Issei smiled before motioning Koneko over to him. She did so, shivering slightly as she felt his power even more now with such close proximity. "We'll be going then." He turned to leave the alley before glancing back, smile gone and a dark look on his face. "Just so you know, if I ever find you harassing her, or anybody else for that matter, ever again, I'll make sure your hospital stays are… extensive." He growled softly. "Got it?" The delinquents nodded fearfully, edging away from him. Issei snorted contemptuously and began leaving the alley, Koneko trailing behind.

They walked for a couple of blocks before Issei stopped and turned to her. "You alright, Toujou-chan?" He said gently, smiling down at her. Koneko nodded, her cheeks still slightly pink. "Good, I'm glad." She was surprised when he brought his hand up and set it gently on top of her head, lightly ruffling her hair. The nekoshou had to keep herself from purring at the sensation. "Try to keep away from assholes like that, okay? I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to my cute little kouhai, after all." He smiled at her and took his hand off of her head, letting it drop to his side, making her want to frown. "I'll see you around." He said, turning to leave.

"Arigatou, senpai." She said softly. He gave her a grin and a wave before heading off. Koneko watched him leave before turning and immediately heading for the ORC clubroom. She needed to tell Rias about this immediately.

Rias was snapped out of her recollection as she saw the object of her thoughts stretch and begin getting up from his place under the tree. He'd obviously had enough relaxation for the moment. As he stood she saw him look around before, to her surprise, turning to look at her. He gave her a smile and a nod, which she returned. It was actually rather interesting, she mused, that it used to be that he was rather flustered around her (when he could pull himself away from staring at her breasts). Now it was as though nothing bothered him. Like he'd seen too much to let things such as one of the most beautiful girls in school looking at him affect him.

Just another thing that mysterious event had changed about him.

As she watched him leave she once again wondered what had actually happened to him. Had he been kidnapped by some malevolent supernatural entity and then manage to escape? She considered it, but that theory had holes. Like the fact that, wounds aside, he was in good shape when he was found. Yes, he had massive scarring that implied extensive and repeated trauma, but he was too well built for it to be remnants of torture.

Perhaps he had been used as some sort of gladiator? That would explain his wounds, scarring, power boost and physical conditioning. But in that case, why him? As far as she was aware, before his disappearance he was a completely average, if perverted, schoolboy. Did he have a Sacred Gear? If so, how could his kidnappers know about it when she and Sona didn't despite actively looking for Sacred Gear users?

She sighed as he left. There really was no way to find out short of asking him. The problem was in how to approach him. For all they knew what had been done to him was by a devil's hand, in which case he could entirely justifiably react badly to being approached by more. Their best option at the moment was to wait and see. She already had her familiar following him as often as possible.

As he moved out of sight she went back into the room to make herself some tea, mind once again drifting to her impending engagement.

Issei Hyoudou sighed as he walked into his room after dinner. Ever since his return from his absence his parents had become rather protective, keeping him close whenever they could. It was nice, knowing they cared, but it could get overbearing sometimes. He wasn't exactly a helpless child anymore, after all, no matter what they thought.

"So, how'd today go, boss?" a high pitched, feminine voice asked from his closet, which slowly opened to reveal the speaker. A small woman flew out to hover in front of him, a smile on her lips. She had ice blue hair in upward spikes, blue eyes that gazed at him mischievously, and two sets of insect like wings on her back. She was wearing a purple leotard over tight black leggings, which was itself covered by a form fitting armor plate which covered her stomach and breasts and, oddly enough, had studs where her nipples would be. Purple boots covered her feet, while gloves of the same color came up to her upper arms, almost to her shoulders. Crystal earrings hung from her long, pointed ears and another bit of armor covered her neck and a bit of her upper chest.

"It went alright, Bell-chan. I think that little bat followed me home again, but it should hopefully be gone by now." As he spoke he headed to the window and made it look like he was just glancing around before closing the curtains. "How about you?"

"It's so boring here, boss." The diminutive female said in a whine. "I kept myself entertained by reading some of your manga, but I really need to get out there, maybe show some baddies who's boss." As Issei started removing his clothes, exposing his well-muscled and scarred body, she flew in circles around him. "When am I going to be able to leave, huh? It's been ages!"

"Hopefully soon. We just need to find out what supernatural forces are at play here and if they're friendly or not before I let you or any of the others out." He said as he sat down on his bed, taking his pants and underwear off. "Last thing we need is to accidentally declare war on whoever is in charge here."

Bell sighed. "Oh well…" Then she grinned as she looked down at him, her eyes raking over his body, small pink tongue coming out to lick her lips. "At least there are other ways we can… entertain ourselves…" She giggled before zooming back into the closet. Issei raised an eyebrow after her before she zipped back out, now completely naked, exposing her entire body to his gaze.

Issei chuckled softly. "Eager, aren't you?" She nodded vigorously, a happy smile on her face. She flew over to him and wrapped her small arms around his neck, nuzzling him as he brought his hands up to gently hold her. He lightly ran a finger along her spine, careful with her wings, making her shiver slightly. "Alright, far be it for me to deny a lady what she wants, my Bell-chan." And with a smile, he turned off the light.

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my new Highschool DxD and Shin Megami Tensei crossover. I've been thinking up this little story ever since I read Crimson Lord's excellent Demon Among Devils. Unlike that story though, there are some differences.

For one, Persona is not the focus of this. This is a crossover with the greater MegaTen mythos. However, it does not follow any specific SMT game. I've taken elements of many different SMT games, both main series and not, and created my own setting, though it will take a long while for that to show itself in any way other than demons and spells from it appearing. So while you might see Issei throwing around Mudos against the Fallen, Tokyo, or Kuoh, in this case, will not be getting nuked.

That brings me to another thing: Issei. Unlike in Demon Among Devils, or other stories inspired by it, this will not be an SMT character crossing over into the DXD verse and being the main character. Issei is the main character, but he has been changed by the experiences he had before the story began, as is probably obvious by now. And as is shown by his special friend, those events are SMT related. Speaking of which, I hope everybody can figure out what she is. It's not like I made it difficult.

Issei will also be rather OP, at least at first. I am trying to avoid spoilers, but I will say that he is part of the SMT verse I've cobbled together, and SMT is all about OP. This means that, much like Crimson Lord, I'll be increasing the stakes of the fights to make them more interesting. I will try to keep from copying him, but I will not deny that some things will be inspired by him. No Templars though. Don't think so, at least…

On another note, this is a Mature story. This, I think, is mostly a given, because DxD, but I do plan to have lemon content. I kept from showing it at the end there this time, but don't expect that to always happen.

Next chapter should be the beginning of canon, so look forward to that, and please review. Till next time.