Light.
When Asia Argento opened her eyes, the first thing she felt was — the light was too bright.
Not the soft light that filtered through stained glass in a church. This was raw, direct sunlight, cutting through the gap in the curtains like a blade.
She instinctively raised her hand to shield her eyes.
Then she realized two things.
First: her hand could move.
Second: it shouldn't be able to.
Memories rushed back in fragments — Raynare's hand pressed against her chest, the tearing sensation of her Sacred Gear being ripped from her body, her consciousness flowing downward like melting ice, Issei Hyoudou's voice calling her name from somewhere very, very far away —
Then darkness.
Complete. Total. Darkness.
And now she was awake.
"— She's up, she's up, she's UP!!"
A voice exploded from beside the bed.
Asia turned her head. Issei Hyoudou's face appeared in her field of vision — eyes red, dark circles so deep they looked painted on, hair a complete disaster. But his expression —
He was smiling.
Smiling so hard tears were streaming down his face.
"You're awake… you're awake, Asia…"
His voice was shaking. Not the usual easygoing tone. This was real — a trembling wrung up from somewhere deep in his chest.
"Issei… Mr. Hyoudou?"
"Don't call me mister! Just call me Issei!" He scrubbed his face with his sleeve. "You were out for two days, do you know that? Two days! I thought… I thought…"
He couldn't finish.
Asia looked at him. This boy — the pervert, the idiot, the one who was always yelling about something — right now, there was nothing on his face but the bare truth. Pure joy. The raw relief of someone who had almost lost everything.
Her eyes grew warm.
"…I'm still alive."
"Yeah."
"I'm still alive."
"Yeah!" Issei nodded hard. "You're alive. Definitely alive. I can feel your hand — it's warm! It's warm!"
He was holding her hand like it was the most important thing in the world.
Asia didn't pull it back.
She just smiled. Softly. Quietly.
The room was the Occult Research Club's clubroom.
Asia slowly sat up. Issei fumbled around helping her get the pillows arranged behind her. The sofa was soft, covered with a deep crimson blanket. The air smelled of black tea and wooden furniture.
The curtains were half-open, warm golden light pooling across the carpet.
"…Where is this?"
"The Occult Research Club's clubroom." Issei explained. "After you were brought back, you've been resting here the whole time. The president and the others took turns looking after you."
"The president… you mean?"
"Rias Gremory." There was something close to reverence in his voice. "She's the one who —"
"The one who reincarnated you."
The voice came from the doorway.
Rias pushed the door open and walked in. Her long red hair swayed gently as she moved, and her green eyes held a warm, easy smile. She was carrying a tray — a teacup and a small plate of cookies.
"You're awake. Half a day earlier than I expected."
She set the tray on the low table and settled onto the sofa across from Asia, legs crossed, perfectly composed.
"How does your body feel? Anything uncomfortable?"
Asia shook her head. Then stopped.
"…A little. The sunlight…"
"Yes. It'll be uncomfortable." Rias nodded. "Your body's sensitivity to light has increased. That's normal."
"Normal…?"
"Because you're no longer human."
Rias's tone was calm. Not cruel, not cold. Simply stating a fact — the way a doctor delivers a diagnosis. No emotional coloring, but no evasion either.
"When Raynare extracted your Sacred Gear, you died. By the time Issei brought you to me, your heart had been stopped for over three minutes."
Asia's fingers tightened against the blanket.
"I used a devil's chess piece — a Bishop piece — to reincarnate you. You're a devil now. You're part of my peerage."
Silence.
Issei watched Asia's face from beside her, tense. He knew the weight of those words — he'd been stunned for a long time himself when he heard them. A nun. A nun who had believed in God her entire life. Being told she had become a devil.
For her, this must be —
"…A devil."
Asia repeated the words in a low voice.
Her hand moved to her chest. The cross — the silver cross she had worn since childhood — was gone.
Of course it was gone. A devil's body rejected sacred objects. The moment she was reincarnated, the chain had burned her skin, and Rias had removed it and set it aside.
Her lips moved. As if to pray. But the words of prayer congealed at the edge of her mouth — not because she had forgotten them, but because her body instinctively recoiled from them.
"…Can I never pray again?"
Her voice was very small.
Rias didn't answer immediately.
Issei spoke.
"Asia."
She looked up at him.
"I'm a devil too." His tone was serious — serious enough that even he seemed surprised by it. "I was reincarnated too. At first I was terrified. Sunlight bothers me, crosses burn when I touch them —"
He paused.
"But you're still alive. Right now, you're still alive. You can talk, you can breathe, you can feel me holding your hand."
He tightened his grip.
"So what if you can't pray. You want to help people — to use your Sacred Gear to heal people who are hurt — you don't need prayer for that."
Asia looked at him.
Tears slid from the corners of her eyes. Not tears of sadness. Not tears of joy. Something more complicated — the feeling of having lost everything, and then being told you can still stand up.
"…Twilight Healing." She looked down at her own hands.
A green light flickered in her palms. Faint. Warm.
"It's still here."
Rias smiled. "When the chess piece reincarnated you, the Sacred Gear was set back into your body. It's part of your soul — as long as you're alive, it's there."
Asia closed her eyes.
The green light flowed across her fingertips. Like warm water. Like sunlight. Like the light she remembered from childhood, filtering through the stained glass of a church — but different now.
She opened her eyes.
"…I understand."
She wiped the tears away with the back of her hand.
"I'm not a nun anymore. I'm a devil."
She looked at Rias.
"Then — President Rias. I'm in your care."
She bowed slightly. The gesture still carried traces of her nun's training — respectful, gentle, quietly humble. But her eyes were brighter than before.
Rias reached out and lightly patted her on the head.
"Welcome to the Gremory family."
Meeting the rest of the peerage happened that afternoon.
The first through the door was Akeno Himejima.
Black hair falling to her waist, wearing Kuoh Academy's uniform with an added white ribbon. She carried an elegant tea set as she walked in, every movement calibrated with precision — graceful to the point of performance.
"Hello, Asia. I'm Akeno Himejima, the club's vice president."
Her smile was warm and perfectly measured. When she handed Asia the teacup, her fingertips briefly touched Asia's hand —
"So cold." Asia said quietly.
"Fufu." Akeno smiled. "My affinity is lightning-type. My body temperature runs a little lower than most people's."
She sat down beside Asia, posture impeccable. But in one particular moment — when Issei accidentally spilled tea on his own pants and scrambled around in a panic — something flickered in Akeno's eyes.
Not kindness.
Delight.
Delight at watching someone else's distress.
The expression lasted less than half a second before it was covered again by that gentle smile, but Asia had seen it. She wasn't sure how to read this person — perfect on the surface, like a painting, but something different seemed pressed beneath the frame.
"Akeno is the person the president trusts most," Issei murmured to her. "She's also one of the most popular girls in school, according to the guys."
"The other one being the president?"
"Yeah."
Akeno had heard. Her smile deepened by one degree. "There's also a third — Student Council President Sona. But those rankings are just a human-world game."
She lifted her teacup.
"In the devil's world, what matters isn't popularity." She took a sip. "It's surviving."
The second was Yuuto Kiba.
Short blond hair, a smile like sunlight. He was carrying a paper bag — dorayaki from the shopping district.
"Heard you woke up, so I picked something up." He set the bag on the table. "Welcome to the group, Asia."
His smile was natural. Not the precisely calibrated kind Akeno wore — more like a habitual warmth. As if he'd been taught from birth to smile at everyone.
"Kiba —"
"Just call me Yuuto."
"Yuuto… how long have you been here?"
"A little over a year." He settled into a chair, relaxed. "President Rias saved me. Same as she saved you."
"Were you reincarnated when you were near death too?"
Kiba's smile didn't change. But his eyes — very briefly, less than a second — went dark.
"Yeah. Something like that."
He didn't say more. Asia noticed the pause and didn't push.
"My piece is Knight." He extended his right hand — a flash of light, and a silver longsword appeared from nothing. "Sword Birth. I can create swords of any attribute."
The sword spun once in the air, then dissolved into points of light.
"That's amazing…" Asia's eyes lit up.
"It's nothing." Kiba shook his head with a smile. "In this club, I'm probably the one with the most ordinary attack power."
He lowered his voice and glanced toward the door.
"The truly frightening ones are Akeno and the president. And —"
He paused.
"— and one other person."
Asia tilted her head.
"One other person?"
"You'll find out." Kiba's smile took on a quality that was hard to name — not fear, not reverence. More like the tone someone uses when talking about a storm: acknowledging its power, but uncertain when it will arrive.
The third was Koneko Toujou.
She pushed the door open without knocking.
White short hair, a small frame, an expressionless face. She was holding a plate of cake — not for Asia. For herself.
She sat down beside Asia. No greeting. No introduction. Just quietly eating cake.
"Um… hello?" Asia ventured.
"Koneko Toujou. Rook."
Three words. Then she went back to eating cake.
Issei murmured from beside her: "Koneko's just like this, don't worry about it. She's actually a really good person —"
"Loud." Koneko didn't look up.
Issei went quiet.
Asia watched this small girl. Rook — the same piece as Kyoya Hibari. But completely different. Koneko was quiet, contained, like a cat curled in a corner. Whereas that "one other person" —
She thought of Kiba's expression from a moment ago.
"Koneko… senpai?"
"Underclassman. I'm a first-year."
"Koneko. What's your ability?"
Koneko set down her fork. Looked at Asia once.
"Hitting."
"…Hitting?"
"Hitting people. Very hard."
She picked up her fork again and speared a piece of cake.
"That's all."
Asia blinked. She wasn't sure how to respond, but some instinct told her this girl was far more complicated than she let on.
"Is the cake good?" Asia asked.
Koneko paused.
"…Yeah."
That single word was softer than everything she'd said before it combined.
Evening.
The sunlight had begun to tilt. The light inside the clubroom turned amber-red.
Asia sat on the sofa, a throw pillow hugged to her chest. She had met everyone now — Akeno's surface warmth and the sharpness underneath, Kiba's brightness and the dark corner he wouldn't touch, Koneko's silence and the softness hidden beneath the cake.
And Issei. Always beside her, always checking whether she was uncomfortable, always finding clumsy ways to put her at ease.
She thought —
Maybe being a devil wasn't so bad.
"Asia."
Rias's voice came from across the room.
Asia looked up. Rias was sitting on the sofa opposite her, on her third cup of tea. The clubroom had emptied — Issei had been dragged off by Akeno to file a devil-work report, Kiba had gone to practice, and Koneko had finished her cake and slipped away without a word.
"There's something I think you should know."
Rias set down her teacup.
"That night — at the abandoned church. Do you know who arrived first?"
Asia shook her head. Her memory had cut out the moment her Sacred Gear was taken. Everything after that was darkness.
"It wasn't Issei." Rias said.
"It wasn't… Issei?"
"Issei arrived after your Sacred Gear had already been extracted. Before him —" Rias paused, as if choosing her words carefully.
"Someone went into that abandoned church alone. And took down every fallen angel inside. Including Raynare."
Asia's eyes went wide.
"…Alone?"
"Alone. Bare-handed. With a steel tonfa."
There was something very particular in Rias's tone — not admiration, not fear. More like a chess player discussing a piece that refused to follow orders but placed every move with perfect precision.
"He took down all the fallen angels, but he didn't know how to save you. He had no healing ability. So he just stood there —"
Rias's gaze softened for a moment.
"Stood beside you. And waited."
"Waited…?"
"For Issei to arrive. For someone who could save you to arrive. He would never admit that — if you asked him, he'd say he just happened to be there. But he didn't leave."
Rias picked up her teacup and took a sip.
"Once Issei arrived, he turned and walked away. Clearing out the remaining fallen angels as he went. No looking back. No message left behind."
Asia was quiet for a long time.
"…Who was that?"
Rias smiled.
"Kyoya Hibari. Second year. Disciplinary Committee Chairman."
She set down her teacup.
"Also a member of my peerage. Rook piece."
"The same as Koneko…?"
"Same piece. Completely different person." There was a trace of something wry in Rias's smile. "Koneko is an obedient child. Kyoya Hibari — from the very first day, he held a steel tonfa to my throat and told me he would not answer to anyone."
She paused.
"He doesn't attend club activities. He doesn't respond to summons. He doesn't acknowledge being part of the peerage. He lives by his own rules, patrolling Kuoh Town like it's his personal territory."
"But he went to save me…"
"He wouldn't call it saving you." Rias shook her head. "He would say —"
She adopted a flat, detached tone.
"'The smell of fallen angels was unpleasant. So I cleaned it up.'"
Asia didn't laugh.
She just looked quietly out the window. The sun was going down, and the shadows of the trees across the campus had grown very long. In one of those long shadows — or maybe it was only her imagination — she thought she could see a figure in a black jacket, walking alone down the corridor until he disappeared.
"…Thank you, Hibari."
Her voice was barely a sound. So small that even Rias beside her could hardly hear it.
But she said it.
Rias watched Asia's profile. This gentle girl — once a nun, now a devil — had, in her own way, offered thanks to someone who would never accept them.
She lifted her teacup, and the smile at the corner of her mouth deepened by one degree.
"The Gremory family has gained another interesting child."
Outside, the sky darkened.
The lights of the old school building came on.
Asia Argento — former nun, current devil, Bishop of the Gremory peerage — her first day ended just like that.