Taste of Madness

4 | Prevention

[Prevention]

Jebediah awoke from the land of slumber to be greeted by a mostly dark room as minuscule orange rays made their way through the concealing blinds set up on the doors leading to the Christoff Residence's sole balcony. 

The savior slowly made his way to the balcony doors and opened the blinds, allowing the mixture of orange and yellow light to enter his apartment. Jebediah's white coat seemingly blended well with the light, as if it came straight from an esteemed artist's painting.

Jebediah's sigh could be heard, as the savior slid the door to his balcony open as a light breeze made its way throughout his apartment, his coat and hair moving in the direction of the wind.

But as much as he wanted to take all these little details in, the savior still had one problem that he had to deal with.

Rias Gremory's words echoed within the mind of Jebediah.

"Let us just say... this girl you may be thinking about is something other than human."

But only one part of her reveals stuck within his mind.

Other than human.

To a normal person, they would either not believe that statement at all, or be horrified at the implications of such a reveal. To Jebediah Christoff however, it was a mystery that he wanted to uncover. 

He had dealt with various monstrosities during his time in the chaos-driven wastelands of Nevada. From zombified agents and clowns to seemingly all-powerful shadows that lurked within the dark.

But his cross-examinations paid him no good in this case, Yuuma had no striking features that resembled any of the monstrous foes he had faced in the past. No decaying skin like that of a zombified human, or an anomalous presence like that of the shadow he failed to take down. 

There was nothing Jebediah identified, in his eyes, she was an unknown entity.

So what was he going to do?

"This requires some further research." The savior concluded as he tidied himself up.

Before Nevada's downfall to the hands of madness, Jebediah Christoff had once been a scientist working on an unknown project. But even as Nevada fell to the ground, and everything went to chaos, his orderly mind was still there, and so was his habit of research.

And Yuuma just happens to be an unknown subject...

"I guess I'll get my hands dirty once again." 

---
Two Hours Later...
Kuoh Town 
11:49 AM
---

"Hell yeah!" Issei inwardly cheered, "I can't believe it's happening... my time has come!"

The brunette's mood had significantly increased from the past day, comparing the two was like night and day. He was significantly more radiant and seemed to exude an aura of excitement... and perversity. 

The reason?

Today just so happened to be his lucky day, he was going to go on a date with a smoking hot girl.

"My wish had finally come true!" Issei inwardly cried in joy, "I can finally take the first step towards being a harem king!"

He couldn't wait to take those first fateful steps towards his one and only dream. 

"Issei-san!" Yuuma's voice called out towards him, "I'm here!"

If one could describe how Issei was reacting, let's just say he might've passed out...

Meanwhile, with Jebediah...

Jebediah made his way throughout many parts of Kuoh town, from various shops to gas stations, and even examined some alleyways. As a scientist and former combatant, he wanted some form of an informational crutch he can lean on in case things go south. 

And that crutch came extremely handy as a support beam he could lean on, as his former abilities and strength have been crippled. His halo being shattered during his fight with the shadow, along with the infection that slowly drained him of his abilities. Along with the fact that his body had regressed to that of a teenager before his prime.

In short, he had quite a lot of things to do.

All Jebediah could've done was let out a stressful sigh for any challenge that came next.

He had already marked the outskirts of Kuoh, the nearby church building being Jebediah's visual guide of the border he would restrict today's search towards. The savior had already explored one-fourth of the residential area along with the majority of the shopping areas.

Jebediah tried to keep pushing forward but was quickly stopped by his lack of breath.

Realizing that he had to take a break, he quickly redirected himself towards his apartment.

"I guess my little expedition has to be postponed." Jebediah lamented to himself.

---
Six Hours Later...
5:21 PM
Kuoh Plaza
---

Issei made his way towards Kuoh's esteemed central plaza, where more of the high-profile shops were centralized within the area. After a long and admittedly delightful date with his new girlfriend Yuuma, the two teens made their way towards the plaza's fountain.

"Uwah~!" Yuuma exclaimed, "Issei-san, you really are the best!"

That statement fueled the young Hyoudou's ego.

"I guess I am!" Issei grinned, seeing the happy look on Yuuma's face.

The sun could be seen retreating into the horizon once more, the clouds scattering away, revealing the sky's neverending pattern of orange, yellow, and red. If one had paid close attention, they could've seen a few brighter stars reveal themselves.

Yuuma suddenly grabbed the brunette's arm and guided him towards the fountain. The sky finally clearing out, revealing the incoming darkness of the nighttime sky. 

The moon's silver light soon embraced the two teenagers.

Issei looked towards Yuuma, her beauty only being enhanced by the incoming silver light.

"Issei-san?" Yuuma motioned towards the stars above, "Do you see all of those stars above?"

"Uh... yeah!" Issei stammered out as Yuuma had gotten closer to the teen.

"No way... am I finally achieving the true man's dream?" The brunette thought to himself, as a perverted smile suddenly made its way towards his face.

Seemingly unaffected by the brunette's facial expression, she continues, "Would you like to join them?"

"Huh?" Issei recoiled backward, "Yuuma? I think I might've misheard you a little bit."

Issei's fight or flight sense suddenly flared up throughout his entire body, as if he was in immediate danger, that he needed to run away from this place as fast as humanly possible.

But there was no way that could be correct, there was no one around, besides... Yuuma.

Like magic, his body instinctively flung itself to the right.

Quickly brushing the dust off himself, he looked towards the spot he rolled away from, and in its place was a purple-colored spear that penetrated the ground, and created a form of a mini crater.

Wait... that meant there could be someone dangerous around.

He instinctively called out towards Yuuma.

But what he was greeted with was a seemingly matured version of her, with what seemed to be highly revealing clothing on, along with feathered wings as dark as night.

Another spear made its way toward's the young Hyoudou, but before he could dodge once more, the weapon successfully penetrated into his right arm, blood instantly rushing out.

Issei let out a scream of pain.

"It hurts!" He thought to himself, "It fucking hurts!"

'Yuuma' descended upon the poor Hyoudou.

"It was a pity, really." She approached Issei who had clutched his arm in pain, "I enjoyed playing around with your naive games."

She outstretched her right arm, a light suddenly converging into the palm of her hand.

"You have even purchased me this lovely trinket." A devilish grin appearing on her face, "It was a shame that you were too much of a risk for our plans."

The light quickly formed into a spear which 'Yuuma' grabbed.

"It's a shame you will have to die for something you can't control." She threw the spear at Issei.

The spear was quickly intercepted by a flying sword, which plunged into the ground, before disappearing.

"It's better late than never, right?" Jebediah stood near the two teens, the sword suddenly reappearing in his grasp.

Trying his best to ignore the pain, Issei screamed, "Jeb! Get out of here, it's dangerous!"

"I can see that, Issei." Jebediah deadpanned, "I've come to help."

A volley of light spears quickly made their way towards the savior, who quickly dodged.

"Jebediah, was it?" Yuuma scowled, "It seems that I'll have to kill you too."

Jebediah slid on his shades, the red hue of his eyes increasing, "Try me!"

The savior made a quick dash towards the black-winged woman, who retaliated with a volley of spears. Those spears quickly created a cloud of dust surrounding the savior.

The dust cleared, revealing Jebediah donning his fractured halo, the binary sword in one hand, and a crimson red barrier in the other.

He quickly reflected the incoming volley of spears towards Raynare, who sidestepped.

"That looks like... a halo!" Issei exclaimed before gripping his wound.

There were no firearms in the area that Jebediah could use against the unknown enemy, so he couldn't take advantage of his marksmanship, nor were there any nearby crates or trash cans he could levitate. But there was one common item that happened to be on the battlefield.

Spears.

"Those spears seemingly dissolve into particles when away from a power source." Jebediah thought to himself as another spear was flung his way, before being reflected.

He rushed forward with sword in hand, quickly slashing at Yuuma, as she parried with her light spear.

Jebediah quickly used light telekinesis in order to redirect the spear's swing trajectory in order to score a hit on the black-winged Yuuma before being knocked back next to Issei.

"It seems that I was taking you for granted..." Yuuma grunted, before unleashing a volley of spears.

The savior quickly sprung into action, deflecting the majority of spears as one of them was caught by Jebediah, the spear comfortably being gripped by his right hand which supplied nexus energy in order for the spear to keep form, while he held the binary sword in the other hand.

He quickly responded by throwing the spear at Yuuma, who quickly dodged the projectile.

Jebediah clenched his right hand into a fist, and the spear came back through Yuuma's calf.

"What?!" Yuuma screamed, "You dare... use my own weapon against me?!"

Ignoring the pain in her calf she used her wings to dash towards the savior.

Jebediah rolled to the side as his blade was quickly knocked to the side.

Realizing that the angel was going for a charging attack, he spread the nexus barrier across his body and braced for impact.

Crack!

The barrier created by Jebediah quickly shattered as Yuuma had proceeded to slam him towards the ground, and flew away from the sight of the conflict. By now Issei had gone unconscious, and Jebediah wasn't in the greatest of states. His body was already battered, but he could still stand and fight.

Quickly consulting his halo, it seemed that Yuuma's presence had completely vanished, signifying a retreat.

Realizing the amount of pain his body was currently taking in, he realized that he wasn't as strong as he was during the Nevada Incident. He was easily thrashed by an enemy, and an innocent had already been injured on his watch.

Jebediah mustered all of his strength to get up and walk towards Issei, only to be greeted by a familiar redhead that stood above the downed Hyoudou.

"Gremory?"

"Christoff-san."

End Of Chapter 4

A/N: And after attempting to persuade me to write this due to losing interest, here we are.
Go ahead and post your thoughts, praise, and criticism so I can make this better because this is definitely not my greatest chapter.