He, The One

~ Narrator POV Begin ~

"Watch yourselves, and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about," Azazel said as he clicked play on a remote. He and his sibling sat around a table, looking at a TV that showed them a rating game. Yes, the rating game Radahn showed himself in.

"Is there a need for this to be a surprise, Azazel? We're all busy," Uriel said.

"Yeah, yeah, just watch," Azazel replied as he fast-forwarded the recording until he reached thirty seconds before Radahn took over Issei's body.

"This Red Dragon Emperor needs training," Raphael said as he watched Issei getting manhandled until something happened that caught everyone's attention.

"Hmm?" Michael hummed as he watched the screen intently.

"Don't do it, Issei!" Ddraig shouted from Issei's hand. Similar to how Azazel reacted the first time he heard this, all of the Angels present raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Sukuna, you there?" Issei said.

"Who's that?" Gabriel said with her head tilted. She knew many people due to her age, but Sukuna was a name she hadn't heard before.

"Sukuna!" Issei shouted again, but this time everyone present could hear the desperation in his voice.

"Don't!" Ddraig shouted once again, making everyone, even Azazel, who had already seen the recording many times, scowl.

"Dammit, Issei!" Ddraig shouted with anger laced in his voice.

"Ah... it hasn't been long, but it's good to be back," Issei, who was actually Radahn, said with a devilish smile as he ran his hands through his hair, which had turned snow white almost immediately.

"That's..." Gabriel said with wide eyes.

"Radahn," Michael said with a scowl.

Everyone present fell silent as they watched Radahn casually kill two High-Class Devils as if squashing an ant. An important thing to note was that, just like Azazel, they couldn't see Radahn attack the Devils, which caused them to understand their father's words even more than before. To them, it hadn't even been a month since he escaped, but he was already so strong.

"I assume you've done some investigation since you uncovered this, right?" Michael said to Azazel.

"As much as I could," Azazel said before continuing.

"As you've seen, Radahn is able to gain control over the body of the Red Dragon Emperor, also known as Issei Hyoudou, a 17-year-old reincarnated devil who is a part of Rias Gremory's peerage, the sister of Sirzechs Lucifer," Azazel said.

"That's all?" Raphael said with a raised brow.

"I couldn't get any more information on such short notice, so yes, that's all I've got for now," Azazel said before continuing.

"Hmm..." Michael hummed, still in deep thought.

"So... what're we gonna do?" Gabriel asked.

"We capture the boy and seal him away along with Radahn," Uriel said.

"Woah, woah, woah, did you forget what I just said, dude?" Azazel said as if he was speaking with an idiot.

"Issei is the pawn of Rias Gremory, the younger sister of Sirzechs. You can forget about doing anything to the kid without his agreement," Azazel said before continuing.

"It also wouldn't make sense to outright seal Issei. We don't know if Radahn lives inside the boy's body or if Radahn simply has the ability to take over the bodies of others if he wants. I said this last time we met, and I'll say it again: don't jump to conclusions and assumptions," Azazel said as he looked at Uriel and Raphael.

"You're right," Uriel said as he released a big sigh. He was tense.

"Before we continue speaking about Radahn, have you spoken to Lucifer?" Azazel said as he looked at Michael seriously. Like Radahn, Lucifer was also their brother that God, their father, outcasted but not nearly as severely as he did with Radahn, whom he sealed immediately after being born.

"He didn't respond to my calls," Michael replied promptly as he rubbed his brows.

"...How childish," Azazel said as he shook his head. Their brother Lucifer was as proud, arrogant, conceited, snobbish, and immature as possible. Azazel honestly felt that, despite his father's words about Radahn being the true evil, Lucifer was worse.

Once again, everyone fell silent as they thought of many things. The relationships between the children of God were complicated. Not even the children who were still Angels liked each other, hence why they almost never gathered as they were now. Well, all except Gabriel; all of the children loved her.

"Ugh... I have something to say," Gabriel said as if she knew she was about to say something that would upset some people here.

"Why don't we just leave Radahn alone for now? He hasn't done anything wrong..." Gabriel said as she progressively became quieter as she spoke because of the scowls that were directed at her from her Angel siblings.

"Don't look at her like that," Azazel said as he glared at the three Angels who were trying to intimidate his favorite sibling. Even Michael, who was always passive with a smile, didn't seem pleased with Gabriel's words.

"I recommend we watch Issei for a while. That way, we'll get to know more before we make a decisive action. And as Gabriel said, Radahn hasn't actually done anything wrong yet. Perhaps we don't even need to seal him," Azazel said, causing everyone's eyes to widen. Gabriel said what she did because she was innocent, but Azazel saying the same thing was different.

"Weren't you on board with sealing Radahn again last time?" Michael said with a deep scowl.

"I was, but now I'm not. I've had time to think, and with that time, I came to the conclusion that if Lucifer, The Morning Star, the piece of shit that rapes Lilith and desires to rule the world along with his uncountable amount of sins can roam the world free and without a care or fear of retribution for his actions, then why can't Radahn, who has yet to commit any sin as vile as those Lucifer has committed, be sealed away for all of eternity?" Azazel said, causing everyone's eyes to widen. They had only ever followed their father's command and rarely, if ever, questioned it.

"I'm gonna say this, and we can finish this meeting for now," Azazel said seriously before continuing.

"All of you, including me, panicked when Radahn broke free. But now that some time has passed, I expected all of you to have put some thought into this yourself. Out of all of you, only Gabriel did so. As your brother, let me remind you all of something very important," Azazel said as he made eye contact with each of the people present.

"God is dead. Our father is dead. Stop acting like mindless fucking pigeons and grow a brain and some goddamn balls. You're all thousands of years old, and listen to our father's words like it's some kind of prophecy given by the creator of the universe. It's not," Azazel said before continuing

"Do you know why Father died? It's because he wasn't omnipotent; it's because he wasn't an all-powerful deity that held the power to handle everything or the knowledge of everything. Remember that Father always told us to ask questions; he designed us to be loyal, not mindless. He wanted us to think for ourselves, and none of you have fulfilled that desire he held onto until his last breath," Azazel said as he stood up.

"You all look at Gabriel as the most naive, innocent, and intellectually challenged sibling, but she has the most free thought out of our family who are still Angels under our father's reign. Think about that," Azazel said as he looked at everyone and absorbed the look of pure shock on their faces. This wasn't a nice thing to say, but a necessary one. He thought that once he returned here with his siblings, they might have had different opinions of Radahn, but no, they still mindlessly followed their dead father's lead. He was disappointed.

With that said, Azazel looked at his siblings one more time before leaving. He had no reason to speak with them now. He had plans that involved Issei and possibly Radahn. Although Azazel said that they should watch Radahn, for now, he never said he wouldn't make contingency plans in case Radahn was really as bad as their father said. Azazel believed that one had to commit a crime to be proven as a criminal, and Radahn had yet to commit a crime that was worth Azazel putting in the effort to seal him away.

~ Narrator POV End ~

~ Radahn POV Begin - 2 days later ~

You know what I find amusing? It's the struggle of the pathetic to become a little less pathetic, and that's exactly what I was watching now: Issei Hyoudou, the pathetic Red Dragon Emperor who couldn't.

It had only been two days since I made fun of Issei, and now he was trying to get stronger, a befitting attitude for the protagonist. But there was a problem. Issei was not talented.

In High School DxD, Issei was strong and often had huge boosts in strength when the times called for it. He went from a regular human to one of the strongest beings in the verse with the power of breasts. At the moment, Issei wasn't in a dire situation, and the women who he was all over in the anime weren't like that in this version of HSDXD.

All of this simply meant that Issei wasn't improving as he did in the canon. He was training now but wasn't gaining anything, which was taking a toll on his psyche. Issei was now aware of how he made the women in his peerage feel, which made him sad. He was now aware that although he wanted to protect his peerage members, he couldn't due to being weak. And he was now aware that he wasn't even talented enough to grow in strength naturally. The current Issei felt like shit.

'The fight with Kokabiel should arrive soon,' I said inwardly with a smile as I continued watching Issei's struggle.

I know that in the story, Issei pulled through in the fight with Kokabiel, but things were different now. There was no way to confirm he could pull through now, and with me being here, the thought that I could handle anything if he asked me would plague him until he finally couldn't hold out any more and begged me like he did last time.

To be continued...