DXD: A Shidou Koujiro's

It's been such an amazing experience and we're especially excited to be here as our last destination. "

"I love London," Winter added, making the crowd explode with enthusiasm.

"As some of you may know, London is my and Winter's favorite city," said Karina. "Now unlike our other stages, we encourage everyone to sing along and dance if you know it.

Let's make this a performance you'll never-"

Kouji covered his ears as a loud screech blasted in his ears. It felt like someone had dragged scratched sheets of metal right next to his ears.

"What the hell is that?" asked Kouji.

"Are you okay?" asked King, checking on him. "Do you need your meds?"

"You didn't hear that?" asked Kouji. "It was so loud…"

"Hear what?"

Kouji couldn't believe it. King didn't hear that? What the hell was going on?

Now.

Kouji caught King in his arms as he somehow dropped. It wasn't just King, thousands of fans in the audience began to drop one by one.

It was like they were knocked out. The music cut out as Kouji looked to Aespa with King in his arms.

"W-What…" Kouji's heart began to race. "What's happening?"

"The spell didn't work on him?" asked Winter.

"Well that's not good," Giselle frowned. "What do we do?"

"Interesting…" said Karina.

Kouji swung King's arm over his shoulder as he stood up. "It was you…Holy shit I'm not out of my mind.

Why would you do this?"

Master…The sleep spell didn't work on him.

"Who the hell is this master?" asked Kouji. "I'm standing right here.

"

Karina's eyes narrowed. "You heard me?"

"I've been hearing you since I stepped off the tram," said Kouji. "Was…Was this whole concert just for you to get to me? Who are you guys? You can't be the Aespa I know.

"

"NingNing," said Karina. "No witnesses.

This is our last mission. Finish this and we're free.

"

Kouji was definitely having another episode. It was the only thing that could explain what he saw.

Wings, angelic white wings, sprouted from NingNing's back as she took to the skies and advanced towards him.

"I'm sorry," said NingNing. "I love to meet fans but…we don't have much a choice.

"

He watched as NingNing produced two long spears of light in her hands. It looked somehow sharp despite being light…and they were aimed right at him.

"A-Are you gonna kill me?" asked Kouji. "What the hell!"

Kouji fell back on his seat, narrowling escaping the shot from NingNing's first spear. He felt it clip his hair as it lodged into the ground behind him, inches away from another fan's feet.

It was real. That was a real spear, and it could have killed him.

"Screw this!"

With King on his back, Kouji forced his way through the crowd and leaped from chair to chair to escape. He wasn't dying here…not when he had questions he needed answered.

No way this was Aespa…and now way this was a hallucination. This was too real.

NingNing just gave him a haircut, there's no way this was all in his head.

"Don't run!" cried NingNing. "Don't make this harder then it has to be!"

"Oh you want me to just stay and die!" asked Kouji. "No thanks lady!"

His body felt tingly. His mind didn't have time to catch up to his actions.

Before he knew it, Kouji tossed King ahead, watching him slide across the ground, as Kouji jumped and turned to face the spear. He reached out his hand and braced for impact.

He didn't know why he would block a spear with his hand but his only thought was protecting King.

Kouji fell on his back, his eyes closed and prepared to die. He didn't feel any pain…was he dead?

"He's awakened…" said Winter.

Kouji opened his eyes to see the spear impacting a shield or a force field of some kind. It was purple and looked to resemble a turtle's shell, a honeycomb of glass that blocked the spear of light.

"What…"

Kouji wanted to stop and admire what he had just done. So many questions swam to the front of his mind but he had little to no time to actually wonder what answers could possibly explain this.

Instead, taking the advantage of surprise, Kouji grabbed King and tossed him over his shoulder and made a mad dash into the city.

His heart was racing a million beats a minute and he was shaking. The nerves from running away from his favorite idol group who are on a manhunt to kill him somehow…made him smile.

The relief of knowing that none of this was in his head brought him a sense of peace and comfort he hadn't ever felt. The validation that this was real…it was a relief.

As much as Kouji loved this city, the concert venue made it next to impossible to run away from his hunters. The streetlights and string lights were lit and all of the backways and alleyways were completely closed.

The only thing he could do was head towards the tram station…but there had to be something he can do to flee from NingNing.

"Please stop running!" cried NingNing. "You're making this harder for all of us!"

"Do what she says big guy!" Giselle, scaling up the buildings, cried. "You don't want your friend to get hurt, do you?"

"Is that a threat?" asked Kouji.

"Stop. "

Karina somehow managed to beat Kouji to his destination, walking out from behind a streetlight and blocked Kouji's only escape route. She looked at him with sympathetic eyes as her hands opened, forming swords of light.

"For what it's worth Koujiro," said Karina. "It was great to perform for you.

"

Kouji gritted his teeth. What could he possibly do here? They were…hunters or something.

There's no way he could just outrun the four of them and protect King at the same time. His eyes surveyed the street, cooking up some kind of plan, but there was nothing he could physically do.

"At least tell me why," said Kouji. "Why would you throw this whole concert, sell tickets to thousands of people, just to kill me? What's so special about me?"