Six months after meeting Vali and Azazel, Issei was seen in a friendly sparring match with Azazel with Vali watching from nearby.

Not long after meeting the two, Issei had talked with his parents into letting him train with Azazel in his supernatural powers and had come up with the story of Ddraig had a contact that could get him in touch with Azazel for training purposes thanks to a favor that he owed one of the previous hosts of the Boosted Gear, which was an interesting idea to Azazel and he agreed to the plan on getting his parents approval. They didn't mind the idea as long as Issei was allowed to come home at least once a week or on the weekends and so Issei moved out to Grigori for training.

During the last sixth months, Issei had been training to get his strength up once again and had been able to handle his Balance Breaker for up to two days, which was a major shock to Azazel that the boy was showing such an improvement at his age.

He was able to use dragon shot once more and had even been able to get some basic sword training in from Azazel and the Kendo girls that he could put to use in the future. He couldn't help but thank whoever would listen that Azazel didn't try and figure out too hard what sword he had as he still wasn't ready to risk showing Ascalon and alerting Heaven.

With the Kendo girls, he'd been on and off training with them and all three of them had gotten better at sword work than they were before they started since the two girls hadn't gotten into Kendo yet too much by this time in their lives. He also had been teaching them more about the supernatural and what all he had gone through in the previous timeline and they were stunned at what all went on behind the scenes at the school.

Vali still didn't have access to her Balance Breaker but she was well on her way to gaining it and was slowly working her way to winning more fights against Issei though he was mostly able to win any spars they had due to his better knowledge of his powers as well as Albion's.

Right as Issei was fighting Azazel, he also couldn't help but feel in the back of his mind that something was different today but couldn't place what it was until DDraig chimed in letting him know what he was feeling.

'[I'd been looking for a good opportunity to point this out to you partner, but I got a surprise for you that could honestly go either way.]' DDraig commented, getting a confused look from Issei and a pause in the spar, which thankfully Azazel noticed and stopped what he was doing as he wanted to see what might happen next.

'[Even without you having your Pawn pieces back, it seems like we have access to both Triania and Crimson Promotion but for a limited time, just like when we first showed off your Balance Breaker. If I'm being honest I don't know how much time you would have in the forms but I say we give it a try, and who knows, it might trigger one or both of their memories seeing the form.]' He finished, getting a thoughtful nod from Issei at that.

'Screw it, let's go for Crimson Promotion. That one can be more easily explained than the Triania if it comes to it in my opinion as an unknown form that the chant came to my head.' Issei said agreeing with DDraig as he flew down to the ground and prepared to start the chant.

Azazel meanwhile was watching with interest on what Issei was going to do. He'd been astounded at the potential that the boy had at such a young age and was always excited to see what might happen in these spars, as sparse as they were, and what else Issei might conjure up.

He also was silently happy on the fact that Issei seemed to be able to get Vali out of her shell some and away from some of her fascination with battles. What he wasn't expecting was for Issei to start chanting some chant and hoped that it wasn't what he thought it might be.

I who is about to awaken.

Am the Red Dragon Emperor who has discarded the principles of domination.

I shall walk the road of righteousness by having infinite hopes and dreams

I shall become the King of Crimson Dragon

And I promise you all! I shall show you the future which shines in true crimson light!

Cardinal Crimson Full Drive!

Right after the final chant, a bright red flash blinded both Azazel and Vali and as the light dimmed, they were both surprised at the sight of Issei in his Cardinal Crimson armor, the likes of which neither of them had seen before with Azazel taking quite a lot of interest in the form. It looked to him like an upgraded form of the regular Balance Breaker and had a much darker red color than the normal form. He had also never heard of the chant used before but it sounded like a different form of the Juggernaut Drive chant he had read up on when he found Vali as well as his own research.

Vali wasn't too sure what to think about the new armor that Issei had just shown them and couldn't help but be excited over the feeling of the armor but she couldn't tell why it got her that way.

'DDraig, how long do you think I have in this form? I doubt I can hold it long if what has happened in the past is anything to go by.' Issei asked, getting ready to activate the Fang Blast Booster attack against Azazel, pretty sure he'd be able to handle the attack easily. With his untrained body in the Crimson armor, he didn't think he'd be able to put much force into the attack.

'[That's a good question and one I honestly don't have an answer to right now as I only just recently discovered you could use this form again, though it seems to be some sort of empty form of the normal form since you don't have your Pawns in you yet. Past that I can't give a good explanation until we look into it more. Though to answer your question, I don't think you can handle it for more than five minutes and I'm sure that if you use the cannons, that timer will end instantly afterward.]' Ddraig commented his thoughts and getting a thoughtful hum from Issei as he could understand what Ddraig was talking about. What Issei hadn't noticed as he talked to Ddraig was that Azazel looked like he might shit himself as he felt the power behind the cannons.

Azazel was about to shit himself after he felt the power that could come out of the cannons on the back of Issei's armor as he wasn't sure how much damage they would cause. Even if he were to survive the attack, he thought that it'd for sure to do damage to Grigori and he didn't know how much at that so he prepared to throw his own attack to hopefully cancel out the attack or at least diminish it some. Azazel also noticed a nagging in the back of his mind at something but he pushed it away with the current issue.

The same thing was happening to Vali as Albion was yelling at her that they had to be prepared for whatever was coming and erect as strong a barrier as she could and she did exactly that, having never heard Albion sound so nervous in the small time she had known him.

At this time, Issei had finally come out of his inner thoughts and realized what Azazel was getting ready to do and his fight or flight instincts kicked in automatically and activated the Dividing Wyvern Fairy's in his armor to help survive the attack thinking it was coming for him instead of to take care of his attack.

Right as that happened, Issei's attack released and Azazel did the same while the Wyverns moved in to tank the attack, Issei all of a sudden felt a massive headache hit him once again causing him to lose focus and end his attack right as the same thing happened to Azazel and his attack as the headache hit as well as he could vaguely hear what sounded like a grunt from Vali nearby as she had the same thing happen to her. Thankfully with the loss of Issei and Azazel's concentration, their attacks disappeared and they both were safe from the attacks. As soon as Issei was able to he moved down to the ground level as he realized what must have happened and wasn't sure how it would go this time around since they had been a part of the supernatural in the previous timeline, unlike the Kendo girls who only had learned about the supernatural right before Trihexa broke free.

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Meanwhile

Sona Sitri POV

Sona had been sitting with her parents watching a Rating Game going on when she suddenly felt the pouch she kept with her at all times now with her Pawn pieces start shaking and warming up once again. Standing up to get the pouch out of her pocket, the action immediately catching the attention of her parents who realized something was happening once more to their daughter's pieces.

Finally getting them out of her pocket, she dumped them out onto a nearby table and saw that they seemed to be glowing a bright blue once more and were shaking but there wasn't any lightning this time around. "Now what's going on with them I wonder." She thought out loud as the pieces calmed down once more and went back to their normal color of blue.

"They haven't done anything in over six months so I wonder what caused them to react this time." Her mother agreed watching as Sona put the pieces back in her pouch since it seemed like they were done with whatever they were going to do and her husband called Ajuka with the latest news as he had requested to be notified as soon as possible when something happened.

When Sona picked back up the Pawns, she suddenly felt like a link was opened in her mind, sending new emotions into her brain that she recognized as coming from someone else and wasn't sure what to think about it. Though she did realize this might be something to do with how a link is formed between the King and their peerage members when they join one.

When she held them closer to her heart to see what else she might could feel, she felt happiness, confusion, and a little bit of sadness coming from her unknown Pawn and wondered what it might mean and what was going on in their life.

Meanwhile

Grigori Training Room

As Azazel's headache went away, he came back to the realization that he was one, no longer in the Isolation Barrier, and two, seemed to be back in Grigori, and three, looked like he may be back in time as he could see a younger Vali back before the gender gun incident had happened so he wasn't sure what to think anymore. As that thought hit him, so did the whiplash of what had happened right before he had died in the future timeline. "What the heck is going on here." He said, completely putting aside the fight he'd been in before the memories came back until he heard first Issei try and talk then Vali doing the same thing as her memories came flooding through.

"I agree Azazel. What the hell just happened to us and why are we back in time?" Vali stated suffering the whiplash as well but her mind caught up to the fact Issei was nearby quicker than it did for Azazel. "And what the heck are you doing here Issei? What's going on."

Issei could only sigh at their responses as he knew this would not be a happy chat they were about to have but he was thankful that he didn't have to hide anything anymore from them. "I'm sure you both have a lot of questions and I honestly have a few of my own, but can we go back to your office Azazel so we can talk in a more comfortable environment?"

Azazel had come out of his stunned state enough to realize what Vali had stated was true and couldn't disagree with Issei as he wanted some answers himself so he took the lead back to his office.

Scene Skip

After reaching the office and everyone calming down some, Issei took the reins to get started. "I'm sure you both have a ton of questions but how about I get my part out of the way first then we can get to any questions that it doesn't answer." He said, getting a nod from the two at that.

"A year after we sealed Trihexa, he broke free once more and we couldn't get ahold of anyone from the barrier field so we assumed the worst. I spent two weeks fighting the Beast all over the world and lost all my friends and loved ones in that time frame and in the final fight where I thought I was going to die, I was pulled into the Dimensional Gap by Great Red who gave me an option to get stronger.

"He offered me the chance to be sent back in time to my childhood to train to be stronger and to be ready to face the Beast once more and hopefully defeat it this time around and he would come back in time himself to help me out some from the Dimensional Gap as a voice of reason among other things. I hadn't been back in time long before I ran into you by chance at the park Azazel and we decided to approach you and see what would happen from there."

At this point, Azazel stepped in since it seemed like Issei was done for the most part with his story. "Ok, that explains a lot but why did our memories come back? I've never known there was time travel magic, but I'm not surprised by that or that Great Red would know that magic."

"All I honestly know about that is there is a chance for people close to me, both friends and enemies alike, to regain their memories after a trigger occurs in their lives but past that I can't tell you. You two are only the third and fourth to regain their memories and the other two had it after seeing me fight away some bullies at the park the same day I met you in this timeline Azazel." He said getting looks of interest from both of them as Issei remembered something else. "Though also on that note, right when I woke up in this timeline I had a headache hit which leads me to believe someone else has remembered but I have yet to run into them."

Nodding her head at those words, Vali could see what he was saying while still stunned at everything that had happened, both in the previous timeline as well as this one. "That's true since we all know how many different people you've met in just the supernatural world. Though I would know less than even you Issei or Azazel on the subject, even I find it weird that someone regained their memories without even meeting you in this timeline."

Azazel had to agree with Vali on that, but couldn't help a nagging feeling come into his head he couldn't place yet. "I haven't heard anything in the rumor mill about someone regaining possible memories or flashbacks, though I don't know if I would have heard about it happening since the three factions are still in a détente right now…" He said as that finally triggered his memory that was nagging at the back of his mind, causing him to jump up in shock. "Shit! We got to move now!" He said, catching the attention of Issei and Vali.

Vali, who one could say knew Azazel the best of the two, knew something had to be big for Azazel to be this scared. "What happened?"

"I forgot until just now due to everything going on but I sent Baraqiel on his mission that cost Shuri her life right before the latest spar." He said, generating a magic circle as Vali and Issei's eyes widened.

While Issei had known about the incident, he'd completely forgotten about it since he had come back in time. "Let's go. I just hope we aren't too late." He hoped they weren't too late as he knew how traumatic the event was for Akeno. Though when they arrived at the shrine, it was too late as it was already destroyed. "Damnit, we didn't make it in time."

"You're right and it's my fault once more that this happened," Azazel said, pissed off at himself once more at the events that transpired, though in this case, his memories came back too late to warn him not to send Baraqiel on the mission. Speaking of Baraqiel, right at that time, the man himself popped up in a magic circle nearby. "Baraqiel! There you are!"

Baraqiel had just teleported back to his family's home after the attack from his wife's family on Shuri and his daughter. He'd sensed the attack through the sensors he had put in place around his house when the attack started but he was too late to save Shuri but before he could get his daughter out of there, if she would have listened as mad as she was at him for not being there, he felt more enemies appear and went to deal with them but got caught in a teleportation trap that activated too fast for him to stop.

What he saw when he got back to the shrine was the house completely destroyed with no sign of Akeno, but he did turn when he heard his voice called out by his boss. "Azazel! What are you doing here?!"

Thinking fast as he didn't want to talk about the time travel part right now, he finally recognized what part of the precognition was that he dismissed when talking to Issei. "I had a set of wards down that alerted me to something wrong at your house but we arrived too late to do anything." He said getting a solemn nod from Baraqiel at that as he noticed the other two alongside Azazel.

While he had known Vali for over a year at this point, he hadn't known Issei that long yet though did consider him a good boy that seemed to know what he was doing. While he hadn't had the chance to bring Akeno to meet Issei, he had a feeling that they would have been good friends. But before he could comment anything else, Azazel stepped in first.

"I know you want to grieve Baraqiel and trust me you'll have as much time as you want to, but how about we go back to Grigori to talk over what happened and not risk any more scenes here." He said, getting a resigned nod from the Cadre at that.

While Azazel would normally have possibly taken the scene at a lot more somber mood, he knew they should get away from the area for now and talk about it back in his office. With that, the group teleported back to Grigori HQ.