Out in the courtyard behind the Occult Research Club, the members were standing at the place where they had practiced for the ball tournament. Yuuto was standing a bit away from Takeshi, while the exorcists Irina and Xenovia were standing in front of them. Enveloping them and their surroundings was a barrier made from red aura. The other members, along with Sona and Tsubaki, were watching them from outside the barrier.
Xenovia stepped forward, her voice cool and unwavering. "Then let's begin."
Irina and Xenovia took their white robes off and were wearing black battle purpose clothes. They weren't showing much skin but it still looked erotic as one could see the curves of their bodies.
'Damn… even I have to admit they have some curves to them, but not as good as Rias or Akeno or even… Ah, haven't seen her in a while, but I'm sure the Gremory family is treating her well. Getting back on target, it's still too bad that these two exorcists are going to lose, well, at least one of them will if Kiba doesn't get his shit together.' Takeshi smirked as he had an idea that was indirectly given to him, thanks to Yuuto's attitude.
Xenovia pulled the cloth from her weapon, revealing the unmistakable gleam of her Excalibur. Beside her, Irina's blade shifted into the elegant shape of a katana, holy light dancing along its edge.
How they came to this process was while Takeshi was arguing with the two holy-sword wielders, more so Xenovia than Irina, Yuuto came in and it got worse. Rias also seemed troubled about keeping the situation under control because it was them, her servants who had started the fight. That is until Xenovia made a suggestion to resolve said issue.
FLASHBACK - Five Minutes Earlier
"It might be interesting to test the strength of Rias Gremory's servants." Xenovia's tone had been casual. Too casual given her veiled threats towards Asia. "Also, I'm interested in the strength of the so-called senpai."
Xenovia accepted Yuuto's challenge and added that this battle wouldn't be reported to the Church. Apparently they understood Takeshi's and Yuuto's position a little bit, so they made it so that it wouldn't be a problem if it was not a fight for life. The location was the place where they practiced for the ball tournament near the old school building. To avoid unnecessary damage and getting noticed by others, Akeno and Tsubaki had put up a barrier for them. With this, they could fight a bit more recklessly.
Originally, it was supposed to be just Xenovia and Yuuto, but Takeshi couldn't pass up on the opportunity. He was certainly pissed because they were talking shit about Asia. So he wanted to knock them down a bit and show off a little of his power.
FLASHBACK END
Rias called out from behind the barrier. "Even if it's just a match, be cautious of the holy swords!" They could hear the worry in her voice.
Takeshi gave her a thumbs up. "Yeah, I got it!"
He was not going to lie, he was trembling with excitement and a bit of nervousness because he remembered the video "The threat of the holy-swords collection" that they watched before this spar. It seemed like a record of battles between a person wielding a holy-sword and a high-class devil. The devil that was cut by the holy-sword had smoke coming out of the wounds made by the holy-sword. So he now knew that the part where they could get cut would vanish. As a devil would be eliminated if they were cut by a holy-sword. Frankly, Takeshi wasn't really looking forward to that as he didn't like weapons. Yuuto on the other hand had activated his Sacred gear and there were several demonic-swords around him.
Xenovia narrowed her eyes. "Are you… laughing?" She felt that she was being mocked by this devil.
Yuuto was laughing so much that it looked weird, and he had a smile that made the atmosphere cold. There wasn't any trace of the refreshing smile he usually has.
'You really hate Excalibur that much, huh, Kiba?' Takeshi kept his eyes on his opponent, knowing that Yuuto wouldn't strike him, even if he seemed a little crazy.
Yuuto's smile widened, chilling the air. "Yeah. The thing I wanted to defeat and destroy appeared right in front of me. I'm happy. Fufufu, I had even heard that by being close to a devil and a dragon, powers would gather. But for me to encounter it this early."
Ddraig had said something similar to Takeshi as well. Lots of things will gather, being attracted to the power of a dragon.
Takeshi grimaced. 'Ah, shit, So this happened because of me and Ddraig? No, it can't be. Damn it, I don't need all of this heading my way. It's already bad enough that I have to worry about the white dragon.'
Xenovia tilted her head. "Sword Birth, huh? The possessor can create any demonic sword they imagine in their head. It's unique among the Demonic-sword related Sacred Gears. I heard that there was a "subject" that avoided being disposed of by the Holy-sword Project. Was that you?"
She emphasized on the word subject to get more of a rise out of him. It seemed to work as Yuuto didn't answer Xenovia's question. He just directed his killing intent towards her.
Takeshi finally turned towards him in annoyance. "Hey, Kiba, keep your shit together, killing's prohibited, but I don't mind beating them down for what they said about Asia." Keeping his tone level as he tried to contain the situation.
He turned to Irina, who was… staring into space?
"Hmm, I wonder if Ise-kun will like the anime that I found earlier today, maybe he can find some new recipes on there." Irina was talking to herself because frankly, she really didn't care much for this fight.
Takeshi nearly tripped. "What the hell are you talking about!?"
Irina blinked back to reality. "Huh? Oh, sorry, I was just wondering about my friend." She scratched the back of her head.
'Hn, I swear those mannerisms remind me of someone.' Takeshi shook it off. "Look, your friend is going to have her own issues with Kiba."
"But I didn't…" Irina tried to explain, until Takeshi interrupted her.
"Look, your name's Irina, correct? Can I call you Irina?" He asked. "Actually, you know what? Let's just stick with Shidou."
Being on a first name basis meant that he wanted to get close to her, but he really didn't as he had no interest in someone who went after his loved ones.
"Uh." Irina raised an eyebrow as she didn't know how to respond.
"You know what? It doesn't matter, you and your friend talked rudely to Asia back there, so I am going to make you pay for that."
Irina rolled her eyes. "Well, I wasn't talking about Xenovia, I meant Ise-kun."
Takeshi looked at her confused. "Issei? Wait, you know that pervert?"
"Ah, yes, my pitiful Hyoudou Issei-kun, he mentioned his reputation at this school." Irina spoke, expressing her disappointment with a tear going down her cheek, remembering their talk last night before it changed to something more profound. "But he's doing better, thanks to his new friends, so I am happy he is getting the help that he needs."
Takeshi snorted. "His 'friends' are perverts like him. You shouldn't believe anything he says." He had to be reminded about his loss to Issei in the dodgeball tournament and he didn't take kindly to losing.
"What?" Irina's face hardened, if there was something that she knew about Issei, it was that he wasn't a liar.
He expressed himself and mostly, it didn't come across a good way to the majority of people that he had met, but he never lied about himself and who he is, unlike others.
"This makes it easier for me, I don't know why a good looking girl such as yourself would associate with that guy. Unless you're a slut or something." Takeshi smirked, he had already seen what Xenovia was trying to do and decided to reverse that tactic back.
If he got Irina riled up, it would be easier to get under her skin and she would be more predictable in the fight.
Irina's eyes narrowed. "I'm sorry, but just like you, I cannot allow you to speak ill of my childhood friend." She pointed her holy katana at Takeshi.
Akeno murmured from outside the barrier, "So she's the connection between Issei and the Church…"
If she looked to her left, she would have seen Sona and Tsubaki nod in agreement, having met the two earlier and had the meeting scheduled, thanks to Issei, himself. Even if the boy didn't know about the supernatural, he was still of some use to both parties.
Takeshi sighed internally. 'She seems really eager to do this and her eyes seem hardened and they say the man upstairs doesn't like violence. She must be drunk with her beliefs. She's probably enjoying this situation, thinking she can beat me. Add on that she knows Hyoudou, this is a type of girl you should never get involved with, just like Aika. Alright, I got something, so I better milk it to my advantage.' He smirked. "I can say what I want about him, it doesn't matter what he does, he'll always be a pervert. Bastard tried to act cool, saying how everyone's a pervert. Well, maybe he's somewhat right because of those outfits you're wearing. Activate Boosted Gear!"
"Boost!" Ddraig's voice rang out across the field.
It made a red glow and a gauntlet appeared on Takeshi's left arm. It also made a sound at the same time and increased his power. After all, his sacred gear has the ability to double his power every 10 seconds. It's also possible to transfer the boosted power to someone or something. He just has to activate it beforehand. Irina and Xenovia seemed shocked after seeing his sacred gear.
"Longinus…" Irina whispered, seeing that she may have her hands full.
Takeshi grinned. "Yeah, it is, as I said he's a pervert, so I can assume that you're weak like him. It's not my fault that I have good looks and he doesn't, I was gifted this power and he has nothing." He kept his smirk and continued to act arrogant as he watched her reaction. 'Come on, get angry, so you can slip up and I can put you down. Don't think you can talk badly about Asia and get away with it. Even if I did have to lie, Hyoudou is kind of right, what guy wouldn't want a harem. It may be perverted to want one, but who cares.'
Xenovia's eyes sharpened. "Is that a Boosted Gear? I never thought that I would meet the person possessed by the Welsh Dragon in a far eastern country like this."
Yuuto rushed forward, grabbing a sword. "You will hurt yourself if your attention is on Takeshi-kun!"
CLASH!
Yuuto went on slashing towards Xenovia. The holy-sword and demonic-sword made sparks every time they crashed against one another. Xenovia smirked as she was blocking Yuuto's strikes.
"The sacred gears, Sword Rebirth, and Boosted Gear and also the Twilight Healing that Asia Argento has. All of them are sacred gear that are said to be heresy to us. Maybe it was natural for you to turn into a devil."
Yuuto's voice trembled, not with fear, but rage. "My power is also the power made by my comrades' hatred, who were killed while filled with regret! I will beat those with Excalibur with this power, and I will destroy that Excalibur!"
The courtyard trembled as the battle truly began.
Takeshi exhaled slowly as he watched Yuuto clash with Xenovia, sparks flying with every collision of holy and demonic steel.
'So Kiba also vowed the revenge of the test subjects that were killed by that project, no surprise there.' But he didn't have time to dwell on it.
Irina stepped forward, her expression firm. "Now it's your turn!" She dashed in, holy katana slicing through the air with a sharp whistle.
Takeshi's eyes narrowed. 'She seems angry enough, since she came slashing at me, but if I get cut by that, a devil like me would receive a critical damage, wouldn't it? A direct hit is bad. Seriously bad!' He twisted his body, narrowly avoiding the blade.
"I'm not done yet!" he barked, forcing confidence into his voice.
"Boost!" Ddraig called out again.
The power went through his body as it doubled again. But something told him that he seemed to still lack the power to fight her. Primarily because this was his first time fighting a holy sword user, he didn't believe those rogue priests counted.
'How much should I boost? Shit! I don't have much experience, since it's my first time fighting against a holy-sword! I will just keep on evading, and attack after I've boosted my power as much as I can!' He scanned Irina for a weakness in her strikes. 'Eventually, she'll leave me an opening and bam! It's lights out, it's a bonus that she doesn't have armor either, the claws could rip up her outfit, that could embarrass her, making her lose her will to fight, but since she wanted this, I can beat her down, while she's stunned.'
Irina narrowed her eyes. "What a malicious face. What are you thinking?"
Takeshi grinned darkly. "Fufufu… I'll be seeing you begging for forgiveness soon."
From outside the barrier, Koneko spoke in her usual deadpan.
"You better be careful. Takeshi-senpai has the capability of embarrassing his opponents before he beats them down. He did it in our rating game and while some wound up getting their clothes ripped, he didn't care about their nudity. So you don't have the goods that would distract him, he just wants to see you beaten down." She was informing Irina of her fate, when taking on her senpai.
Frankly, she didn't mind seeing the exorcist get beaten up by him for what was said by them about Asia.
Takeshi nearly tripped. "Koneko‑chan!? Why are you revealing my motives to the enemy!?"
"It's somewhat of a perverted motive to humiliate your opponents that way if you were going to tear at her clothes," she replied flatly. "If the girls knew what you did, you would be an enemy of all women. You would be the worst."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Takeshi nodded, plus the audience wasn't big enough for the girl get the highest amount of humiliation that she should receive. "Those are harsh words Koneko-chan, but you must admit that they deserved it for laughing at me and she has it coming for insulting Asia, I cannot let that slide!"
Koneko nodded in agreement as she glared at Irina, kind of hoping to see her humiliation for her words against her club member. She even reached out a hand to squeeze Asia's hand to let her know that it would be alright.
Irina raised her sword toward the sky. "Aaah, God. Please forgive this hypocritical pervert!"
"Hypocritical!?" Takeshi glared at her for calling him that.
"You accuse my friend of his perversion, but you have your own as well!" Irina glared right back, seriously, she could not believe that he had the audacity to act like a saint, when he is no better.
Asia suddenly shouted from behind the barrier, face red. "Takeshi-san! If you were craving for a woman's body, then you could have said it to me! I wouldn't mind sacrificing my body for Takeshi-san."
Takeshi facepalmed. "No need, Asia!" He groaned to her. 'Self sacrifice! Just to be expected from a former Christian, Asia-san! But that was pretty bold of you to say something like that of the blue. I expected it more from Rias, since she is more confident, but then again, you have been speaking with that pervert, Aika, in your class.'
Xenovia scoffed. "I see, I think it's a fitting action for a devil that has such strong greed."
Yuuto muttered, "I'm sorry."
"There's no need for you to apologize, you dipshit!" Takeshi snapped, which Yuuto nodded, remembering that their goals were somewhat aligned.
If he beat Xenovia, he would be proving the church wrong and Takeshi would be doing the same by beating Irina. The humiliation would just be a bonus, so frankly, he didn't care what happened to the twin tailed girl. However, now that he knew that she knew Issei and she was likely the one in the picture with Issei, Yuuto vaguely remembered Issei's threat of what would happen if something happened to her.
Takeshi glared at Irina. 'They laughed at me, so I made them pay, it wasn't perverted. I only meant to humiliate them and I did. And since he's not here, I'll humiliate and beat this chick down, too.'
This was true as Rias had said, some of Riser's peerage had been afraid to leave the Phenex estate because of how others looked at them after they had faced Takeshi. They were either mocked or leered at, it didn't help that Riser was still recovering, so his sister and queen had to take command.
Yuuto created a demonic-sword where he stood and held it. He now had two swords and went towards Xenovia.
"Now back to where we were! Burn! And freeze! Flare Brand and Freeze Mist!"
One of the demonic-swords created a whirl of flames while the other one made a cold air and silver frost. Yuuto was reincarnated with a knight piece and those traits are known for their speed. Yuuto was attacking with Godspeed, however, Xenovia was evading Yuuto's attack, which came from all directions, with the minimum movements, her expression bored.
"The knights' swift move. And flame and ice demonic swords. But you are too naïve!" Xenovia stated in boredom.
KACHING!
A single swing of Xenovia's sword turned Yuuto's two demonic swords to dust. Yuuto became speechless because his demonic-swords were destroyed with a single swing.
Takeshi swallowed hard. 'What destructive power… so that's a holy sword.'
Xenovia twirled her blade. "My sword is a mass of destruction. There's nothing it can't destroy."
She then pointed it upwards then thrust it into the ground. Suddenly the place where they were standing shook and the ground was rumbling as the entire courtyard shook violently. Everyone lost their balance and kneeled on the ground. There were clouds of dust in the surroundings. Takeshi had to cover his eyes as dirt was flying towards him, but he used the chaos to allow him to get some distance from his opponent.
Takeshi gritted his teeth. 'No way… a crater!?' There was a big hole at the place where Xenovia had placed her sword, making him growl in annoyance. 'Don't tell me that it made a crater with one hit!? Just with one slash of the sword!? So this is the power of Excalibur, huh?'
Xenovia proclaimed proudly. "This is my Excalibur. It can destroy anything that comes its way. It's not called "Excalibur" for nothing." Her tone of voice only made the two devils sneer at her.
Yuuto grit his teeth. "Such a destructive power when it isn't a real Excalibur. So destroying all 7 swords will be a difficult path."
Takeshi snorted. 'You want to break all 7 of them! A single sword is that strong you know. Seriously, how many people are stronger than us in this world, it took almost all of us to take down that roasted bird.'
"Boost!" Ddraig continued to power up his power, neither he nor Takeshi cared if Irina became a casualty.
Irina coughed. "Geez! I'm all covered in dirt because you destroyed the ground, Xenovia!" While she wiped dirt from her clothes.
Takeshi smirked. 'Oh, now I got an idea to handle that speed of hers, thank you, Xenovia.'
Irina pointed her sword at him. "It's time to settle this!"
'Yeah… the Church is full of cocky bitches.' Takeshi steeled himself but secretly smiled as she came at him. 'She's fast, but thanks to your partner, I know how to change that. Seriously, her partner is going to be her own demise. Two for two in tactics on how to beat you.'
Irina closed the distance quickly, but Takeshi could tell that while she wasn't as fast as Yuuto, she was definitely faster than him.
"You're doing well!" she said mid‑swing. "You are good at dodging! Seems like your master trained you well!"
"Yeah, well, my master is strict with my training! That's why I can even keep up with those stronger than me!" Takeshi smirked back at her.
"Boost!" Ddraig called out again.
"Yeah, that oughta do it." Takeshi's eyes sharpened. "Time's up. Let's go Boosted Gear!"
"Explosion!"
Takeshi lunged forward. "Now it's my turn to go on the offense!"
Irina blinked. "Huh!?" She was slightly sweating in worry.
"It's not over yet!" Takeshi cried out as she dodged, but he whirled around, throwing a punch toward her head. 'Good, I can keep up with her movements, I'll have to wear her down a little bit, now let's see, how's she going to dodge this, will she go right? No, it's left!'
Reeling back, he faked a hit with his gauntlet, which Irina used her Excalibur to block and shifted to her left. This left her left side open, allowing Takeshi to drill his right fist into her side.
Irina gasped, teeth clenched. "Hngh!" She felt spit come up in her mouth and she leapt back, creating distance between them.
Akeno smiled softly. "Takeshi‑kun is moving much better than usual."
Koneko nodded. "He really wants to humiliate her, probably because she's friends with Ero-senpai and he has sucker punched Takeshi-senpai. Takeshi-senpai felt humiliated by that and Riser's pieces laughed at him for it."
"Let's not forget the dodgeball game." Rias reminded them, she was also a little perplexed that it was Issei that had developed the strategy to mark their targets and beat them.
'Damn right, they had to pay, they had no right to laugh at me, and Hyoudou... I'll make you pay, using your friend's body to show how pissed I am at you for embarrassing me that day, too.'
Irina stared, shocked. "You caught up to me!?" For the first time in the fight, she was nervous. 'Not only did he catch up to my speed, but he was able to deceive me and land a blow as well. This isn't good.'
Takeshi cracked his knuckles. "That's right, and you can go crying to Hyoudou, when I'm done with you. You insulted my friend, so I'm going to hurt his, as repayment for what he did to me."
Irina gulped nervously, she was in trouble and for the time being, she would be on the defense until she could turn the tide back in her favor.
While the spar was going against the exorcists, there was another one that was happening within the MMA dojo. It was between a senpai and her kohai, it was Renka and Issei. She had gone to change out of her school uniform as she knew that Issei was looking for a fight. So she took it upon herself to give him one.
Renka stood in her kung‑fu stance, facing a bruised and panting Issei.
"Agh!" He clutched his chest after taking a palm strike. "Damn it!"
Renka tilted her head. "What's the matter, Ise‑kun? You looked like you wanted a fight."
"But not with you! Something's happening with Irina, I can feel it. You got to let me go, Renka-senpai."
"No." She stepped forward again.
Issei groaned. "Fine then, I don't want to hurt you." He got into his Muay Thai stance.
Renka sighed. "Ise, you won't. Remember you're usually the one that takes the hits in our spars."
Issei grimaced as it was true.
"Maybe, but my friend is in danger, you're also my friend, too, but…" His fists tightened.
The dojo echoed with the soft thud of bare feet on polished wood. Renka stood poised, her purple eyes sharp and unwavering.
"Then don't hold back against me."
Issei blinked. "Huh?"
Renka's expression remained firm. "You can't hold back. Right now, it's me versus you. I'm your enemy, Ise. I'm what's stopping you from getting to your friend."
Issei's breath caught. "Senpai…"
Her lips curved into a teasing smile. "But if you damage me too much, you owe me a good massage."
Issei deadpanned. "You really know how to change a tense moment." It was actually something that he liked about her, it was also something that he liked about Irina, hence why his childhood was never boring.
"I'm just looking out for my kohai," she replied lightly. "Even if he doesn't know it."
"What..."
He didn't get to finish. Renka blurred forward, closing the distance between them in an instant.
It forced Issei on the defense, barely managing to raise his guard from Renka's flurry of palm strikes that were usually aimed at his torso. He decided to throw a left hook, when he thought he saw an opening, but he was wrong. Renka simply smiled as she ducked effortlessly and delivered a sharp kick to Issei's open left side as he could not reload fast enough.
"Gah!" Issei staggered back, clutching his ribs. "Damn it!"
"Come on, Ise," she urged.
"So this is the gap between us…" He looked into Renka's purple eyes, he winced as he straightened up, rubbing his left side to soothe the pain.
Renka smirked. "Good. I'd be ashamed if you wanted to quit now." She slid back into her takusoushou stance, seeing that he was willing to still fight her.
"That makes two of us," Issei muttered, charging in again. His eyes scanned her joints, her posture, her breathing. Just looking for any hint of a counter.
Seeing none at the moment, he knew that he had to make one, so he threw a simple punch with his right hand. Renka raised an eyebrow, wondering if he was mocking her with such a slow punch.
Renka raised an eyebrow. 'He's usually faster than this, what's going on? Oh, I see, he wants to bait me in and give up his right side. Alright, Ise, I'll take the bait, let's see what you do.'
She shifted to her right side to avoid his punch and with her left hand, sent a palm strike towards his open right side.
Issei was slightly confused, but he did his best not to show it. 'I was expecting a kick, but this would help me pull her in to restrain her.'
However, Renka switched it up, using her left hand, she shifted it to hook under his outstretched arm. She then grabbed his shoulder with her other arm and with a smooth twist, she took his momentum to flip him over her shoulder. There was a brief look of panic on Issei's face, however, it quickly subsided. Rather than land on his back, he shifted his momentum, adjusting in mid-air to quickly land on his feet.
This meant that he was in close proximity to Renka as she was still holding his arm. However, he threw an elbow jab that forced her to let go as she didn't want to get hit. Issei winced as his outstretched arm was released, since it had been held behind his back. It was throbbing, both from pain and being at an awkward angle. He was thankful that he didn't do something that could have dislocated it, if Renka still held on to it.
From the sidelines, the others gave their nods of approval at seeing that he was learning the muay thai and expanding his repertoire.
"Whoa, an elbow strike." Ikki said.
Raichi crossed her arms proudly. "Looks like he's adding to his offense."
"Well, he was in a Muay Thai stance…" Kenichi pointed out to them, since he knew what Apachai had taught Issei in the past couple of days. 'He's picking it up like I did.'
"It'll take more than that, though." Ukita said.
Kisara nodded. "Yeah, Renka's tough."
"But he's getting closer. I think we might witness history here." Mizunuma told them.
Kisara smirked. "Oh? You don't say."
Renka's eyes gleamed. "That's it, Ise. Bring it out. Show that passion you have to protect your friends."
Issei growled and charged in, still with a plan, as he saw Renka go for a kick and he smiled, catching her leg. The others never really watched Renka and Issei spar before, so this was a bit of a surprise to see him catch her kick, which made most of them collectively gasp. In terms of physical strength, Issei was stronger thanks to his workouts, so he didn't need to use her momentum.
He began to lift her up to throw her down to the mat, however, Renka knew of Issei's tactics in using jujustu. So she jumped with the little amount of ground with her plant leg that she still had on the mat to spin her body and striking his jaw with a sharp kick. The kick was enough to cause Issei to let go of her leg and stumbled back.
Renka landed lightly. "Really, Ise? I've trained you, so I know what you would do, when you do catch my kick."
Issei grimaced. 'She's right, she knows everything that I can do in Chinese martial arts because she taught me. It's why I'm not using it, but I always go for the flip over, whenever I catch one of her kicks. I need to do something, wait a minute.'
Renka tilted her head. "Getting quiet over there? I didn't knock a tooth out, did I?" She gave him a catlike grin.
"No," he muttered. "I was just figuring out what to do."
"Well, you better hurry. I'm sure your friend is waiting."
"Perhaps," Issei inhaled deeply. "But for once… I'm going to beat you, senpai."
Renka smiled. "We'll see." She dashed in, palm strike aimed at his stomach but he deflected it.
She tried again with another palm strike, but this time, he grabbed her wrist and tried to knee her in the stomach. However, she was able to block the knee strike and she smiled. She liked that he was utilizing his knees and elbows, not only her, but the others as well.
Kenichi nodded. "Looks like he's getting better at it."
Raichi agreed. "Yeah."
Issei followed up with an elbow strike to Renka's face as she leaned back to dodge it. Seeing that the elbow was dodge, he used the same arm to try and backhand her. This caused her to release his knee and block his fist that he tried to use. She jumped back after that as she avoided the kick that he followed up with after that.
'He's getting closer,' Renka thought. 'If this keeps up, he'll get a hit on me.'
She began to dodge his blows as he pressed forward by throwing fists, forcing her to be on the defense. She was a bit stunned, but she knew that he wanted to go help his friend or any of them, if he felt that they were in danger. She could feel his determination pushing her back, but had to put a stop to it. She stopped his onslaught with a kick to the chest to push him back and sliding on the mat. Now, it was her turn to get back on offense as she advanced.
She began to hit him with palm strikes, and she could see that he was getting worn down as his breathing grew ragged. She decided that she would end it with a kick to his head as it would put him down. However, just like before he caught the kick.
She smirked. "Going for the flip again?" Already expecting the same trick from him, it was his usual go-to in their spars.
Unfortunately, this is what Issei wanted, he knew that if he wanted to land a blow on Renka, he had to keep her close. This way, she couldn't dodge because she was fast at doing that. So he tightened the grip on her leg and pulled her forward in his direction, which made her slightly stumble forward, but it was enough. She quickly regained her balance, moving her head to avoid his right fist. However because of her previous stumble, she didn't focus on all of his body language and missed the shift in his shoulders.
Because of this, she failed to see his left fist slam into her side, making her cry in pain.
"Ah!" Renka gasped. "Whoa!"
Issei seized the moment, that quick second of her stunned pain to flip her over his shoulder. She tried to twist mid‑air and seeing that she would possibly land on her feet, he grabbed her shoulder in the air. He used his body weight to keep her horizontally in the air. This caused her to land on her back with a thud and him right over her.
THUD.
Renka hit the mat and he was breathing a little heavily, but then he realized something. He finally landed a hit and a takedown on Renka. For a moment, neither moved.
"Ugh..." Renka exhaled shakily. "Damn… you really care about your friend, huh?"
"Yeah," Issei said softly. "She was my first friend."
Renka smiled. "That's nice, but Ise?" She nodded downward.
"Huh?" Issei blinked as he heard snickering erupted from the sidelines.
Renka chuckled. "I never expected you to force yourself onto me, I guess you want me bad, huh?" Of course, if the others weren't around, she would be willing to see where this went.
Being the daughter of a super pervert also made develop scenarios similar like this one in her head.
'All he's gotta do is take these clothes off and we get the party started. Well, without the others here.' She was thinking in her mind, while confusion etched on Issei's face.
"Want you bad, I don't…" Issei started to say, until she gave him another head nod, making him look down and he realized that his right hand was not holding something firm like her shoulder.
It was then that the confusion on his face changed to horror because upon further inspection, he saw that he was holding her breast and he just froze with a heavy blush on his face, he didn't squeeze it nor release it. He was simply frozen in fear, but internally, he was freaking out.
'No, no, no, no, no, this isn't what I meant to happen, I thought I got her shoulder, I'm sure of it. Did I miscalculate it? I swear I gripped her shoulder, did the momentum cause my hand to slip?' Issei's mind was racing as he had accidentally groped his senpai.
Because of the state of shock that he was in, his body basically shut down as Renka could tell that despite his hand there, he wasn't squeezing to further cop a feel. Renka could see that he was lost in his train and he didn't notice that her leg shifted between his legs to get into position to plant her foot to his chest.
"Hey, Ise…" she said sweetly.
"Huh?" He snapped out of his panic, just in time to see her grin. "Why are you smil… Whoa!"
Renka kicked him off with a small burst of ki, a foot‑based version of her Tanpa technique. Issei flew backward and he landed hard on his back on the mat, near Shigure, who had remained quiet throughout the whole spar.
THUMP!
"Ah! Hngh!" He winced upon landing.
Renka did a kip-up to get off her back from the mat, she did have a slight blush. However, it wasn't because his hand was on her breast, but what she had felt with her foot, moving it between his legs as she got it into position to kick him off.
She exhaled. "Congratulations, Ise. You finally landed a hit on me… and a takedown."
Mizunuma pumped a fist. "Told ya we'd see history."
Kisara groaned and handed him yen. "Yeah, yeah, yeah…" She was making a mental note to not bet against her 'baby brother' again, since she also trained him.
Raichi beamed. "Good job, bestie!"
Shigure reached over and patted Issei's head. "You did… good." Then she went right back to resting.
Issei groaned. "Ah… thanks… ugh…" His back was aching and his right arm was throbbing again, since the adrenaline wore down.
Kenichi smiled. "You've gotten better, Ise."
Ikki nodded. "Not bad, man."
Ukita blinked. "Damn, I didn't know you'd never landed a hit on Renka before."
Kisara smirked. "Though, you could have done more with using some kicks." Issei knew that was true, but he didn't want the risk of Renka catching him.
Raichi added, "If this were a tournament, you probably would have scored a point on Renka."
Renka waved them off. "Maybe. But I would have won the match. Come on, Ise, I can help you with your back."
Issei stiffened. "How so? Ugh…"
"A massage, of course. You've given me enough, so I think I should return the favor."
"No thanks."
"Relax, besides I learned a thing or two from my dad and Akisame-shishou."
Issei paled. "Wait, that means..."
Before he could finish, Mizunuma, Ukita, and Ikki grabbed him and held him down.
"Don't worry," Renka said cheerfully as they flipped him over onto his stomach. "I'll have your back feeling good as new."
"Shigure‑nee!" Issei cried, when he looked over, he saw she had his headphones on, so she didn't glance his way but then he felt some pressure on his back. "Oh no."
"Just stay still for a little bit." Renka's voice whispered sweetly that it made him shudder.
"It'll be all over soon." Raichi's voice came next and then…
CRACK.
"AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHH—!"
Luckily, for them, the only person near the dojo was Miu as she had left earlier for her own club activities after Issei started his massage train on the others. As a result, she got closer to the dojo doors, feeling their energies inside. When she heard Issei's scream, she could only facepalm, while shaking her head.
"What are they doing to him…" she muttered, opening the door.
Inside was a scene straight out of a comedy manga that Miu had seen Kenichi sometimes read in his spare time. She could see a pinned down Issei, being restrained by his senpai, with Renka straddling his back with a gleeful smile on her face. Raichi and Kisara were laughing at Issei's predicament. Kenichi could only sigh, but he did have a smile on his face. She finally saw Shigure, who seemed to be asleep and had headphones on.
Miu blinked. "So… what did I miss?"
Kenichi waved. "Hey, Miu. To answer your question, Ise finally got a takedown on Renka."
"Oh, wow, really? That's an improvement, after all these months, huh? Impressive." Giving her nod of approval.
Raichi nodded vigorously. "Oh yeah!"
Miu lowered her voice. "You guys also felt that presence earlier, right?"
Kenichi nodded. "Yeah. It had something to do with Ise's friend, he also felt something was off, so we had to stall him. So Renka challenged him to a spar, he kind of was looking for a fight."
Miu sighed. "Well, we can't have him always looking for a fight."
Kisara shrugged. "He'll be fine, this one would have been for his friend."
Kenichi looked toward the ORC building. "Anyway, when he gets out of here, it should be over soon, when he gets there."
Miu followed his gaze. "Let's hope so."
Back in the courtyard, where Takeshi and Yuuto were still dueling with Irina and Xenovia. The duel between Xenovia and Yuuto seemed evenly matched, but the one between Takeshi and Irina had shifted dramatically. As before, Irina had been the one on offense, but now she had to play defense. Doing her best to dodge and block Takeshi's boosted blows, and sometimes his gauntlet would clash against her sword. He was well aware to avoid trying to hit her with his unprotected hand. His kickboxing skills had improved since the rating game as well, so he had landed a few clean hits, which subjugated Irina's speed thanks to that.
Takeshi's voice rang out, fierce and unwavering. "I'm going to continue fighting until I put you down for what you said about Asia!"
Irina glared back, panting. "To fight for such motives… I can understand! Because I'll keep fighting for what you said about Ise‑kun!"
Takeshi scoffed. "Ha! It'll be justice when I make him pay for what he did to me!"
Irina raised her sword. "Amen! God, lend me the strength to cut down this malicious devil!" She tightened the grip of her holy-sword and came rushing towards Takeshi.
Takeshi smirked, lowering his stance as if he was going to rush forward and meet her head, but then thrust his right hand forward.
"Fireball!"
The blast struck the ground in front of Irina, making her lose her footing. She stumbled, barely catching herself.
It was thanks to Xenovia showing off her Excalibur's capability that he thought of destroying the ground. Irina barely nicked the dent that Takeshi created, causing another slight stumble. Her stunned cry also gave away her position in the smoke that she never saw Takeshi coming. He used the smoke and aimed a jab at her with the claws of his Boosted Gear that she barely dodged, but it ripped parts of her uniform and exposed more skin than she would have liked.
"Ah!" Irina gasped, stunned.
She could feel the wind breeze against her bare stomach, but there were also lines of red from the cuts that she had received in that attack. It was clear to her that he was possibly trying to gouge her stomach, which could have put her down. If she didn't sense him in time, it could have been worse.
Takeshi grimaced. 'Damn it, I missed the head. I can't see anything in this smoke…'
The reason for this was because Takeshi could not see in the smoke, he only got lucky that he was able to hit Irina. However, it was not where he had planned, he thought she would be hunched over, recovering her balance, so he could hit her in the head. Seeing that he did not feel the hard impact of her skull, he knew he missed.
So hearing Irina's cry from her uniform and stomach cuts, he aimed a little higher and used his gauntlet to backhand her in the face, out of the smoke that was dissipating before she had a chance to dodge.
"Ah!" Irina rolled across the ground, a cut forming on her left cheek. She pushed herself up, while growling in frustration. "Ow…" she whispered.
After all, it was a boosted blow, even if it was dissipating from Takeshi's body, he was still naturally strong. So a hit to her head, she felt a bit disoriented and she struggled to get up. She was breathing heavily as she looked towards the smoke for Takeshi to come out. She knew that she was in trouble, a few more blows and she could be down for the count. She sensed a dash of speed coming her way as she dodged to her left.
She spun around, only to receive a kick to her stomach that sent her flying into a tree.
"GAAH!" She screamed.
She landed hard against it and slid down the trunk, grunting as she used her sword as a cane to get up by stabbing it into the ground.
'Not good, but it should be no surprise from a Longinus user, I'll have to get a graze on where he's not armored.' She thought as she looked over Takeshi, seeing where the Boosted Gear was and then trying to find a way to get it out of the way.
Takeshi stepped out of the smoke, eyes sharp. "What's the matter? Now that I've caught up to your speed, you can't do anything, can you?"
Rias pumped a fist from outside the barrier. "Good job, Takeshi!"
Asia cupped her hands around her mouth, trying to make her voice louder than her nerves. "Way to go, Takeshi‑san!"
Her cheer echoed faintly inside the fading barrier.
Koneko gave a small nod of approval, though her eyes flicked between Takeshi's fight and Yuuto's. Irina's earlier scream had helped Yuuto as it momentarily distracted Xenovia by causing her to spare a glance at her partner. This caused her to dodge and move away from Kiba's slashes before remaining stationary again to parry Yuuto's slashes. Sparks flew as their blades clashed again.
Akeno giggled softly, proud of her kohai but a sliver of worry tugged at her. 'If Issei realizes his friend is in danger… that could end badly. And I don't know for who. Takeshi is boosted, but Issei doesn't have a Sacred Gear…' Now that she understood that Irina was Issei's childhood friend, his threat to Yuuto that day rung in her mind.
Takeshi pointed at Irina, confidence radiating from him. "Now, you can call it quits and apologize to Asia. Not like you have much of an option."
Irina wiped the blood from her lip and smiled faintly. "I wouldn't be so sure. It might not look like I can win… but I certainly won't lose."
"Tch. You church freaks just have to be so stubborn." Takeshi shook his head.
"Well, Ise‑kun and I were troublemakers. We would never back down."
"Yeah, well... if you keep trying to fight, you'll be sent to him in a body bag and I don't want to kill you, so stand down." Takeshi sighed in annoyance.
Irina tightened her grip. "Yeah, that's not happening." She readied her sword. 'I only get one shot at this…'
She ran forward at Takeshi, who snorted in annoyance and prepared to kick at the ground, when she got in range. Irina noticed it and did a jump to flip over him, however, she saw the smirk on his face. Takeshi had anticipated her jumping because in the air, she had nowhere to dodge.
'In the air, you can't dodge.' He smirked. "You should've just stayed down and apologized like a good church dog!"
He faked the ground kick and launched upward with an uppercut.
SWING!
Irina's breath burst from her lungs. "Hngh!" Blood seeped from her teeth.
Takeshi's uppercut had landed on Irina's stomach, but Irina made sharp eyes and swung her katana downward. It also looked like she was blocking Takeshi's blow, which she partially did as she redirected what she was aiming for. Takeshi's blow did help give her the momentum to flip over. She landed hard on her leg and stabbed her katana into the ground, breathing heavily.
Panting, she forced a smile. "I'm sorry. It looks like I was taking you a bit lightly in the beginning. You have good movements, but I said I wouldn't lose... but frankly, I don't feel like I won. We both said things about each other's friends, which was the meaning of our fight, so we can conclude this to be a draw."
Takeshi's jaw dropped. "What, a draw!? Oh no, I won this! You're the one who's down on a knee, so now you can apologize and..." His voice cut off, his own legs buckled as he dropped to a knee. 'What? What's going on? I can feel my power leaving my body, but I can still move while enduring certain pains, but this is different. What did this bitch do to me!? I seriously have no strength left… Shit…what's happening?'
It was then Takeshi noticed something and looked over his right shoulder, there was smoke emitting from it.
'No way, was this the damage caused by the holy-sword!? When on earth did she…' His eyes widened and he gasped. 'It must have been when she looked like she was blocking my attack, while in the air. Damn it, I was also in the air, so I had no way of dodging either. I was so focused on making sure that my attack landed and getting one over her and Hyoudou that I didn't realize she could cut me!'
Irina steadied her breathing. "It's the damage caused by the holy-sword. Devils and fallen-angels get their power and existence erased by receiving damage from the holy-sword to their body. If it were a bit deeper, then it would have been critical."
"It was just a graze! Damn it… I can't go out like this…" Takeshi pushed himself to his feet.
"Reset!" Ddraig called out.
"No!" Takeshi shouted as the Boosted Gear's time expired. His power vanished completely. "Shit!"
Now he wouldn't be able to combat her speed, unless he could use 'Promotion', but that was Rias' call and they were on her territory, not enemy territory. He was only fortunate that Irina hadn't gotten back up herself.
Irina continued, still kneeling. "If you had another boost, then you could have definitely evaded that attack. I would say we had a proper match, but we both lost because we did not know the power difference between ourselves and our opponent. A simple mistake can become critical in a serious fight."
'Damn, she's right. I underestimated the amount of boosts and only used enough to match her speed, rather than overcome it.' Takeshi growled. "Power difference! All I know is that you're weak just like your boy, Hyoudou. Without that katana, you're nothing."
That made Irina gasp as she looked absentmindedly at her Excalibur and frowned. She knew that she couldn't have taken him on without it. Sure, she had some training in hand-to-hand combat, she was sure that it wouldn't have been enough.
Takeshi remained standing, trembling violently as his feet crunched into the ground. 'Come on, damn it! Get up! I can't lose, I refuse to accept this as a draw, I will not be defeated in front of Rias and Asia like in the rating game.'
Meanwhile, in the match between Yuuto and Xenovia. Yuuto roared, raising his spirit.
"HAAAAAAAAA!" He tried to make something in his hand and it began to turn into the shape of a sword. "The destructive power of your holy sword… or my demonic sword! We'll see which is stronger!"
As what appeared in Yuuto's hand was a gigantic sword, which he held with both hands while releasing an ominous aura. It was way longer than Yuuto's height. It definitely was more than two meters and Yuuto then swung it with force!
Takeshi grinned weakly. 'That's it, Kiba, put her down and we can get another victory!' He refused to consider his match a draw, since he was the one still standing, not Irina.
The slash reached Xenovia, but she made a sigh as if she was really disappointed.
"It's a shame. You made the wrong decision." Xenovia's eyes looked bored.
'What the fuck is she talking about? Kiba's sword looks heavier, there's no way that…' Takeshi was confused.
GACHIN!
A violent sound of metal rang out and a large fragment of the sword went up in the air. That large fragment landed between Takeshi and the clash between Yuuto and Xenovia.
Takeshi's eyes widened. "No way…" His legs were still trying to stabilize his weight from standing as he saw that it was Yuuto's sword that had broke.
Xenovia's Excalibur easily destroyed Yuuto's demonic sword.
Xenovia lowered her Excalibur calmly. "Your weapon is the variety of the sword you can create and your speed. You would need a lot of strength to swing a gigantic sword like that, and you will lose the speed that you are proud of. Are you seeking a destructive power? From your fighting style, it's something unnecessary. Don't you even know that?"
She spun and struck Yuuto's stomach with the pommel.
BANG!
The pommel of the holy-sword hit deep into Yuuto's stomach. It was a simple move like that yet it created a shockwave. It meant that even a single attack with a pommel has destructive power.
"Gaha!" Kiba vomited bile and fell onto the ground.
"Even if it's not a hit with the blade, that hit just now will be enough to stop you from standing for a while," Xenovia said coldly, turning away to head towards Irina.
"Wa-Wait!" Yuuto declared as his hands tried to reach towards her, but everyone knew that the match was over.
Akeno and Tsubaki unsealed the barrier and the red aura that covered the area disappeared. The battle was over with a win for the exorcists and a draw for both sides.
"Senpai, I suggest you fight with coolness the next time we fight." Xenovia told him before she addressed Rias. "Rias Gremory, I trust you with the talk from earlier. Also, you should train your servants a bit more. There's a limit for polishing their battling style."
Yuuto glared at her with pure hatred, but she ignored him and turned to Takeshi.
Takeshi spat at her. "You want a go?" While he was recovering, he was able to get a "Boost" from Ddraig.
Xenovia's eyes narrowed. "I will tell you one thing. "Vanishing dragon" has already awakened."
Takeshi glared back. 'What did she just say? Vanishing dragon? Oh, wait, the white dragon, has she met him?'
"You'll meet him eventually," she continued. "But in your current state, you can never win."
She continued on her way to help Irina, but then stopped as she felt a surge of fury coming towards them and her eyes widened slightly.
Not just hers, but everyone else, minus Yuuto and Takeshi, did as well, but when they located the source, it was too late.
Koneko's eyes widened. "Oh no."
Takeshi sneered. "You don't know that. When we meet, I'll be stronger and…" Stopping as he felt the hatred that was directed at him. "Huh?" He turned around.
BAM!
Irina gasped. "Ise!"
Issei's fist had just smashed Takeshi in the jaw. From his point of view, Takeshi was standing over Irina, since Takeshi was on his feet and Irina was down and apparently injured. Takeshi staggered, but he felt slightly dizzy and it didn't help that Takeshi was still affected from the graze on his shoulder. Unfortunately, Issei did not give Takeshi time to recover and he tackled him to the ground.
"What did you do to her!?" Issei grabbed Takeshi with his right hand and began to lay into Takeshi with left haymakers.
However, that isn't what stunned everyone, even Koneko, who was heading over to stop Issei. It was Issei's fist that was covered in ki. For the first time, everyone could see this slight amber hue around it. After laying three haymakers, Takeshi was able to shove off Issei a little bit, but this only enraged Issei.
He stood up and grabbed Takeshi from the ground, picking him up to slam him into the tree that he had been using to keep himself up.
"Oh!" Takeshi groaned from the impact of his back hitting the tree.
"Answer me! I know you don't like me, but you had to go after my friends!" Issei roared.
He kneed Takeshi in the stomach to make him keel over, but Issei wasn't having it and grabbed Takeshi by the hair to slam him back into the tree and drill another ki fist into Takeshi.
Takeshi coughed blood. "Argh!"
"That's enough, Hyoudou!"
Genshirou tackled Issei away, summoned by Sona's magic.
Since Issei was so focused on Takeshi, he failed to recognize that Sona had used magic to bring Genshirou to her location. Genshirou used his skill of promotion to promote to knight, beating Koneko to Issei. Takeshi caught his breath and held himself up with the tree, but his own rage fueled him.
Takeshi wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, baring his teeth in a feral grin.
"Keep him… there!" Takeshi snarled, showing bloody teeth, he wasn't going to made a fool by Issei and be humiliated again as he staggered over to where Genshirou and now also Koneko were restraining a furious Issei.
During his struggle, Issei also noticed that Yuuto was on the ground, which caused him to stop momentarily.
"Kiba?"
WHACK.
Issei's head got whipped to the side as Takeshi had kicked him.
Genshirou's eyes widened. "Takeshi, what are you doing!?" He loosened his grip on Issei.
Takeshi grabbed Genshirou by the collar and yanked him off Issei. "He's gonna get what's coming to him!" He took Genshirou's place and began hammering Issei with brutal haymakers. "How do you like it now, Hyoudou!? Fucking pervert!"
Irina, still shaky, cried out as Xenovia helped her stand. "Stop it!" She had already seen enough of her childhood friend getting beaten up and didn't need to see it again.
Of course, she also knew that Issei was in the wrong, but he was only incensed because he was looking out for her. It was a little reminiscent to how they first met, when they were kids.
But Takeshi didn't stop, as he was beating Issei with his own haymakers, but on his fifth one, Koneko had let go of Issei to stop Takeshi.
"Senpai, that's enough." She said as she knew about his hatred and could understand his pain, actually both of their pains.
Takeshi snarled, "No, I'm going to..." He tried to tell her, but Issei's left hook smashed into Takeshi's jaw, knocking him off. "Oh!"
Instead of going after Takeshi, Issei scrambled away, rushing over to Yuuto to help him up.
"You alright?"
Yuuto lightly pushed him back, his glare softened a little. "I'm fine, I'm not the one you should worry about." He jerked his chin toward Irina. "She's your friend, isn't she? But don't worry, I didn't do anything to her…" he muttered under his breath, "Yet."
Issei looked at Yuuto quizzically, but went to Irina to see how she was doing. Luckily for him, Takeshi was now being held down by Koneko and Genshirou.
"You alright?" Issei asked and then he turned to Xenovia. "Is she alright?" He didn't care about his own injuries that he received from the blows dealt to him by Takeshi.
Irina nodded weakly. "I'm fine… but you didn't have to do that."
Issei frowned. "What?" His eyes sharpened and he turned on Rias for answers. "Why did he attack her? She said she was having a meeting with you, what made him attack her?"
Akeno sighed. "Issei‑kun…"
"Don't 'Issei‑kun' me! Why was she on the ground!?" He snarled, which they could see that slight amber hue around his fists as they clenched.
Sona stepped forward, voice firm. "Hyoudou-san, I will not tolerate violence, but what happened was the aftermath of a spar. Your friend and Muzai-san reached a draw." Inwardly, she was nervous that Issei wouldn't see reason and would likely attack them.
Fortunately for them, Issei took a step back, processing what Sona had said.
Issei blinked. "A… spar?" He looked at Irina for confirmation.
Irina nodded. "That's right. That's all it was."
Issei's shoulders slumped. "So I… messed up." His thoughts were jumbling, mad with himself for failing again.
He clenched his fists and teeth, knowing what he had to do and then walked toward Takeshi, who was pinned by Koneko and Genshirou.
Genshirou scowled. "Back off, Hyoudou. You already..."
"Could you… let him up?" Issei asked quietly, head bowed.
Genshirou froze. "What!?"
"Please."
Koneko sensing Issei's emotions could see that Issei was being genuine and moved away from Takeshi.
"Do it." She told the Sitri pawn.
Genshirou clicked his tongue. "Are you insane?"
"He's not going to do anything." She was watching Issei, who just stood there with his head bowed.
"Tch, alright," Genshirou grimaced as he moved away from Takeshi, who staggered to his feet, glaring murderously at Issei.
"I'm gonna mess you up, Hyoudou!" He stalked towards Issei, but to everyone's surprise, Issei dropped to his knees and bowed. "What?" Issei prostrating himself made Takeshi's anger begin to falter and turn to confusion.
Issei's voice was steady. "I'm sorry."
Takeshi stared. "What are you talking about now, Hyoudou?"
"I said I'm sorry, I didn't know that you had a spar. I just saw that she looked injured and you were standing over her, so I believed that you attacked her, so I retaliated. However, I was in the wrong and attacked with malicious intent, so for that, I am sorry."
Takeshi clicked his tongue. "Grr… tch… whatever." However, he gave a subtle nod to show that he respected the gesture from Issei.
Kenichi arrived with Miu and Renka, carrying the strap that contained Issei's new bokken and school briefcase.
"What's going on here?" He called out, considering that Issei was the one bowing, he knew that his junior had instigated something first.
Rias crossed her arms. "One of your members attacked one of mine."
"What?" Kenichi blinked.
Renka facepalmed. "Oh no… Ise, what did you do?" Seeing that Sona was also present and likely this would mean disciplinary action.
Akeno stepped forward. "Perhaps we can come to a resolution?"
Kenichi raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"
Akeno smiled. "If we need assistance, Issei‑kun must help us as punishment."
Rias nodded. "I think that sounds fair." With this solution, she could understand the brunette a little better and they could bring Issei into her peerage, now that she had seen his power.
Sona sighed, knowing exactly what this meant. "I suppose that will suffice." She spoke through gritted teeth, she already knew what Rias was thinking and could only hope that Issei rejected the offer of joining Rias, due to the tension between Takeshi and himself.
"Alright." Kenichi said as he looked warningly at Rias before heading over and knelt beside Issei and handed him his things. "You forgot these when you ran out of the dojo."
Issei lifted his head to see Kenichi. "Thanks, senpai… am I in trouble?"
"Somewhat." Kenichi sighed. "If the ORC needs help with something and they request your assistance, you have to help them out."
Issei looked over at Rias, who had that look of superiority, which made him grimace and then looked back at his club president and nodded.
"I understand." He said, knowing that his actions caused this.
Kenichi patted his shoulder. "You better get her home to heal, alright?" He looked over at Xenovia and Irina and now that he had seen them, he knew who to look out for.
He didn't have to signal to Miu and Renka, who also scanned the exorcists and knew they had faces, but considering Irina's injury, they couldn't talk with them yet. They already had some assumption that Sona would suspect them of knowing about the supernatural because she had to know about Raichi being undercover. It seemed that Yuuto didn't say anything because Rias had not said anything to them, which they know that she likely would because of her pride.
Issei nodded, swallowing his pride as he knew that he had been in the wrong. He had to submit and not continue to escalate the situation more than he already did. He grabbed his bokken and briefcase and then walked over to Irina.
"Can you walk?" He asked.
"Not really… at the moment." she winced.
"Could you hold this?" he asked, holding out his bokken and briefcase to Xenovia.
"What are you going to do?" Xenovia asked him as she took the items from him.
Issei crouched down in front of Irina. "I'll carry her to where we need to go. It's fine, I used to do this when we were kids and she got too lazy to walk." Since he had reunited with Irina again, he was dreaming about his childhood and was getting visions coming back to him.
Irina pouted. "Mou~, Ise‑kun, don't talk about that…" Regardless, she still climbed onto his back.
Issei deadpanned, "Yeah and you two fought in those outfits. Seriously, I don't know what you were thinking." He had already seen them, when he got them from the front gate, so it still surprised him that this was their getup for combat.
Irina puffed her cheeks. "Hey, these are battle purpose outfits that were designed by the Church!"
'Again, and they say I'm the pervert?' Issei wondered what the Church was thinking, first, it was the school outfits and now the Church.
They were only proving his point right, everyone's a pervert in some shape or form. He was just too vocal about his own preferences and desires. But still, he really didn't care for the excuses that Irina was spouting.
He was grateful that Renka was able to get his back right, but it was more painful than when Akisame had broken down his body. As a result, he did give Renka his thanks and immediately rushed out, when he was finished. It's why he ended up leaving his bokken and briefcase behind.
"Come on, I still have to take you to that place."
Xenovia nodded. "Right." She was grateful that he wasn't getting off topic this time, despite Irina's injury.
Issei turned back briefly. "See you later, Renka‑senpai, Miu‑senpai, Kenichi‑senpai… and sorry again, Muzai‑san."
Then he walked away, Irina on his back, Xenovia at his side.
Kenichi could only sigh as he knew that by swallowing his pride, Issei was technically defeated. However, like him, Issei got too hot headed and whatever he saw had sent him into a fury.
"He took another loss today… even if he finally hit Renka. He got too hot‑headed." Kenichi said to his group before turning to Rias. "Let us know when you need him for assistance, okay?"
"Yes, we will. Thank you." Rias told him, nodding for his gratitude.
"Let's go." Kenichi told Miu and Renka as they began to head out.
Miu frowned. "You think he'll be alright?"
Renka looked down. "Maybe…"
Kenichi nodded. "He'll have to be. So we'll give him space. Let's head back to the dojo."
They headed back to the dojo.
Rias had gone to Takeshi, when Kenichi and co. left and knelt beside him, gently stroking his cheek.
"How are you feeling?" She asked.
Takeshi exhaled. "Fine. He got some good hits on me."
Asia hurried over. "Are you okay?" She put her hand on his shoulder and healed his wound with her sacred gear.
The warm green coloured light that was made from her hand surrounded me and healed his wound.
Takeshi looked away, voice low. "I showed you an uncool side of me, Asia…"
Asia's healing light dimmed as she let out a relieved breath.
"I'm glad that your wound was minimal after getting hit by a holy-sword. I was really scared thinking Takeshi-san might have vanished."
Takeshi lowered his head, guilt tugging at him. "I'm sorry for making you worry… and sorry that I didn't get them to apologize to you." He meant it deeply for the former nun.
Irina's words echoed in his mind that he needed one more boost and he would've dodged it. One more boost, and he would've won. Unfortunately, he was arrogant in how many boosts that he needed and underestimated her foolishly, he couldn't let that happen again.
Asia smiled softly. "There was a plan you were thinking about, right, Takeshi‑san?"
"Yeah… but I miscalculated." He sat down with a sigh.
Koneko approached quietly and began massaging his shoulders. "You might have won if you did another boost with the sacred gear."
"Yeah… that girl told me the same thing." Takeshi nodded as he relaxed under Koneko's decently skilled hands. It wasn't the first time that she had done this for him. "The only battle experience I got was against renegade devils, those rogue priests from the church, that rating game, and Raynare. It was my first time against a holy sword wielder. Ahh... Koneko‑chan, you really hit the spot."
"Hold on! Yuuto!" Rias's voice cracked through the courtyard.
Looking over, they could see that Rias's expression was a mix of anger and heartbreak and it seemed that Yuuto was trying to leave. Sona narrowed her eyes before turning to her queen and could see Tsubaki's face fall with quiet worry and concern in her eyes. Genshirou just stood by his mistress as he didn't know what to do.
Sona walked over and placed a hand on her Queen's shoulder. "Tsubaki."
"Yes, Kaichou?"
"We should go. You don't need to see this. Good job, Saji‑san."
Genshirou bowed stiffly. "Uh… thank you, Kaichou."
They began to leave but Rias's voice trembled.
"I won't forgive you if you leave me! You are the knight of the Gremory group. I will also be troubled if you turn into an exiled devil. So wait this instant!"
Yuuto stopped and his voice was low. "I… was able to run away from there, thanks to my comrades. That's why I have to put their regrets into my demonic-swords…" With that said, he disappeared.
Rias's knees weakened. "Yuuto… why…?" Tears slid down her cheeks.
It was not only her, but Tsubaki's face as well, the once serious vice president looked devastated. Sona sighed and continued to gently guide her away back to the student council office and from there, back to her apartment. Akeno looked towards the student council, where Genshirou shook his head and followed silently after his mistress.
Akeno sighed as she knew that Yuuto had mentioned a possible crush on Tsubaki. With his trauma and stubbornness, he could not see that he was hurting her, along with Rias, it's not just the group. She walked over to Rias and placed a hand on her shoulder to take her back inside the club.
"Let's go inside, Rias." Akeno turned to the others. "I think we're done for today, you three can go home, I'll make sure Rias is alright before bringing her over, alright." She said it as a statement, not a question.
"Um, okay." Asia nodded, while Koneko stared at the spot where Yuuto vanished, her shoulders trembling.
Takeshi clenched his fists. 'Damn it, Kiba, you made Rias cry and made Koneko sad, you're going to regret that, I'll drag your ass back here if I have to.' He stood up from the ground and sighed. "Come on, it's been a long day, let's try to cool off and see what we can do next."
Asia nodded again. "Uh, sure…" She turned to Koneko. "What do you think, Koneko?"
Koneko said nothing and simply began walking away with her shoulders slumped, but was stopped as Takeshi placed his hands on her shoulders.
He sighed and turned to Asia. "Let's make sure she gets home."
Asia nodded, as Takeshi began to guide Koneko towards the exit with Asia following behind them.
"I'd be careful with that one." Ddraig spoke to his partner.
Takeshi frowned internally. 'What? You mean Hyoudou?'
"At some point, you need to swallow your pride and have a sit down with him, just like he did when he apologized. You may have something in common, after all, you even admitted that a harem is something most guys would want. So you're no better, but from what I saw, he came at you, defending what was precious to him." Ddraig informed him.
Takeshi clicked his tongue. 'Well, don't forget that I had to deal with the effects of that Excalibur.'
"Which I must commend you for," Ddraig was giving his nod of approval. "However, you felt it, right? Those hits hurt you, he was displaying the power that had your girlfriend interested in him, but not only her, the Sitri was intrigued as well."
Takeshi scoffed. 'It's nothing special, besides my kickboxing can take him.'
"Hmm, remember what that exorcist said, if you don't know your opponent, you will lose." Ddraig reminded Takeshi, who nodded.
Takeshi sighed. 'Yeah… that's something we can agree on.' He would have to be wary of Issei because other than his perversion, he didn't know anything else about him.
Of course, he does know that Issei is taking martial arts because of his involvement with the MMA club, but what else did he know?
Meanwhile Issei was silently walking with Irina on his back and Xenovia walking beside him. They stopped at the school gate.
"Could you put your robes on?" Issei said. "With those outfits showing, it will give people the wrong idea and the wrong impression of the three of us."
Xenovia nodded and helped Irina put her robe back on before she had gotten back on Issei's back. Of course, unknown to him, during his scuffle with Takeshi, Irina had morphed her katana back to a ribbon and Xenovia put her own Excalibur away.
"Ise‑kun… are you alright?" Irina leaned forward, wiping blood from his lip with her gloved hand. "I'm sorry that you got into trouble because of me."
"It wasn't you, Irina." Issei answered. "It was me, my dumbass was at it again. I got reckless and jumped in without thinking. I didn't know it was a spar and I attacked him."
Xenovia nodded. "Still… I never expected you to land a hit on him."
Issei chuckled weakly. "You know… I'm kind of jealous of him, not just because of his looks, he's got skill as a kickboxer. It's kind of funny how boxing was the first style that I learned. However, I'm not looking to surpass him, I want to surpass my senpai and do right by them." He sighed. "I thought I was doing right by you, but that was my mistake and I messed up."
Irina smiled softly. "It's fine but thanks for coming to my defense." As she thought. 'Just like the first time that we met, so the prank was worth it.'
"You're the one that said friends help each other and frankly, I haven't done well in the friend category before I met Kenichi-senpai. Well, at least you did better than me, though." He told her, while giving a nod towards Xenovia.
Irina tilted her head. "What do you mean?"
"I lost my spar."
"To your senpai?"
"Yeah. She beat me after I froze in shock."
Xenovia frowned. "In a battle, that would mean death."
"I'm aware, thank you very much." Issei deadpanned, while sarcasm rolled off his tongue.
It was something that Mitsurugi constantly told him, when they trained and Mitsurugi would make him pay any time that he hesitated. He had the bruises to prove it.
Irina blinked. "How did you freeze?"
Issei answered casually. "I grabbed her breast."
Xenovia sighed. "I should have known."
SMACK.
"OW!" Issei yelped.
Irina scolded him. "I'm aware that you have become more lecherous with peeping on girls, but forcing yourself onto them is very unbecoming of you. Oh God, please help this lecherous soul, amen!"
"It was an accident and Irina, if you hit me one time, I will flip you onto this pavement like I did to her. Of course, that's where I miscalculated." Issei retorted back.
"Mou~! Now you've gotten meaner, too!" she pouted, clinging tighter to him to prevent from enacting his threat.
"Explain yourself." Xenovia ordered as she raised an eyebrow. "How did you miscalculate?"
Issei sighed. "Well, I was able to get my first hit on her, which I guess stunned her, so I took advantage to flip her over my shoulder and put her on the mat. Now, don't think Renka-senpai is a slouch, she's pretty agile, so she could easily flip on her feet. I didn't want that to happen, while she was being flipped, I went to grab for her shoulder and use my body weight to prevent her from landing on her feet."
Xenovia hummed. "Hmm, are you sure that you secured your hold on her shoulder?" She was envisioning the scenario that Issei described.
"Yeah, I'm sure." Issei nodded.
"May I?" Xenovia offered a hand towards Issei.
"Uh… sure? What's up?" Issei asked.
Xenovia stepped in front of him, placing her hand on his shoulder. "Well, let's see… judging from your height…" She slid her hand down to his chest. "…it's possible that the impact to the ground could have dislodged your grip and as a result. You grabbed her chest instead."
"Really…?" He did blush a little from the contact. "Oh man, that means my grip was not as secure, but that doesn't make sense." He turned to continue walking. "When Freed attacked me, I didn't lose my grip on my bokken. Maybe because I went into shock that the grip tightened?"
He was talking to himself, completely forgetting that Irina was still on his back as he had a conversation with himself. She was confused as he mumbled along to himself, while Xenovia had to catch up to them.
"Uh… Ise‑kun?" Irina asked.
"Hmm? Oh, hey, Irina, wait a minute, those are my headphones around your neck." Now realizing that she was there and then he gasped. "If those got damaged, you could've been seriously hurt!"
"Huh?" Irina was confused and looked at the headphones, which did get a little dirty.
"They're around your neck. Can you move your neck okay?"
"Um, yeah." Irina rotated her head. "Not too bad, but slightly stiff."
"That's good, when we get home, we can get some ice for your foot, but I think Setsuka-obasan can help out. She can also stitch up your outfit, I suggest talking to her about how to fight in that, maybe she'll give some advice or make some adjustments, if you are serious about fighting in that." Issei said.
Xenovia crossed her arms as she walked beside Issei. "I thought you were taking us to the place where you were attacked?"
Issei nodded. "I am, it's just after that, we're heading to the shop. I was supposed to do it yesterday, but got caught up in learning a new style."
Irina blinked. "For martial arts?"
"Uh‑huh."
She hated how much it stung… because it was true. In swordsmanship, she could beat Issei easily. But hand‑to‑hand? He definitely had her beat.
She swallowed her pride. "Hey, Ise… do you think I could train with you?"
Issei raised an eyebrow. "Won't that get in the way of your church stuff?"
Xenovia answered for her. "It depends and from the looks of it, Irina's injury may take a few days to heal. I'll have to scout alone for a little bit."
Issei frowned. "Are you sure? I could go with you instead..."
"No," Xenovia cut him off. "It's too dangerous for someone like you."
Issei stiffened. "What do you mean someone like me?"
"I mean you're not aware of the rules of our world."
"Then tell me so I can help."
"And get yourself killed?" Xenovia snapped. "I don't need that blood on my hands."
Issei clenched his jaw. "Well, I don't want yours on my conscience either."
He sped up his walking, not really wanting to walk beside Xenovia because of her condescending tone. If he could help, he could take on Freed and ensure that no one else would get hurt, or worse, killed by that psychopath.
Irina tightened her grip around his shoulders. "Ise‑kun, slow down!"
"I just want to help. Is that so much to ask? Let me guess, you don't want me helping either, do you?"
Irina hesitated. "Well, I…"
"Save it, that hesitant tone in your voice told me all that I needed to know." Issei told her in a sharp tone.
Irina winced and hugged him tighter. "I didn't mean it like that. But Xenovia's right… I wouldn't want you to get hurt. You've already been hurt trying to help someone, remember?" She tapped his right arm gently.
Issei's voice softened. "But still, I..."
Irina cut him off with a bright smile. "Tell you what, how about you and I watch this anime I found? Maybe you'll like it."
Issei blinked. "How did you find this anime?"
"Hmm?" She tilted her head and answered, "I used your laptop."
"How... did you get into my laptop?"
"It's not that hard because I know your favorite Super Sentai." She beamed.
Issei stared. "You… remembered?"
"Mhm, I remember everything about you, it's you that forgot about me," Her voice softened. "But it seems that you have been remembering more and more lately, why's that? You and I did everything together, we went to mass, watched Super Sentai and anime, went to hero shows, we even had sleepovers. What happened?"
Issei opened his mouth. "Well..."
Ring.
A bell chimed in the distance, hearing the sound of that ring had made Issei stop as he slowly turned his head to the right toward a nearby park.
Irina frowned. "Ise‑kun?"
"Sorry… I got distracted. What were you saying?"
"I was asking about what happened to make you forget so much about me? I bet you even forgot your promise to me." Irina answered, which made Issei feel guilty.
Even in the dreams that he had about their childhood, nothing of a promise had come up yet, so he felt disappointed in himself for not fully remembering.
"I'm sorry." Issei swallowed. "Um… can I answer you at a later time, Irina? Please?"
Irina blinked. "Huh? Um… okay. Sure. But only if you watch the anime with me."
"Yeah. Sure." He sighed. "That's fine."
Xenovia cleared her throat loudly. "Ahem. You didn't have to take off like that." She was rather annoyed because she was carrying not just her sword, but Issei's things as well.
"Sorry. Come on, it's over here." He began walking away from the park, but as they walked, Issei's thoughts churned. 'That bell… I've heard it before. And that park… It feels familiar. Brings back memories, but I don't know if they're good ones.'
Xenovia took a quick glance at the park as she had seen Issei look at it, while she was trying to catch up to him.
'I guess he knows something about this place, he looked at it with familiarity.' She thought to herself.
Irina bit her lip. 'I wonder if that park had anything to do with him forgetting about me.' She turned to look back at the park, which she knew that it wasn't the same one that she and Issei used to go to.
After several more minutes of walking, Issei stopped and surveyed the area, assessing the damage that he was surprised was still there.
"We're here." He pointed to the spot where he and Yuuto had been attacked. "His body's gone, it had been right there. Wait a minute, there's no bloodstains, shit, that's right. It had been raining that evening, it would have washed things away."
Xenovia stepped forward. "You and Irina can stay here. I'll look around." She set down Issei's things and began to look around.
Issei pointed to a building. "That building is where Freed got kicked into by Shigure‑nee."
Irina blinked. "The woman that's training you?"
"Uh huh." Issei nodded. "She was a lifesaver, she could keep up with Freed and his speed, so he left." He gently set Irina down and allowed her to lean against the wall.
Xenovia narrowed her eyes. 'She kept up with him in speed, I know Excalibur Rapidly was taken, maybe he wasn't using its ability.' She made a mental note that she had to speak with this woman.
She believed that Shigure could help them counter Freed's speed if what Issei said is true. She was thinking as she walked toward the building.
While she was doing that, Issei walked over as he had spotted something that he knew was his. Irina watched him and wondered what he was doing, only to see him pick up some sort of cloth.
"What's that?" Irina asked.
Issei held up the torn piece of cloth. "It's part of my hood that got cut the night we were attacked, whoever took the body missed it or I guess they thought that it was irrelevant."
"I see…" Irina nodded, she realized that Freed almost cut his head off, but he was evasive enough to prevent that, which allowed her to sigh in relief.
"And another thing." He pulled out a water bottle and cloth, dampened it, and gently wiped her cheek. "You got a cut on your cheek."
Irina blushed at first from the contact but then smiled. "Yeah, but look on the bright side."
"I don't see how that's a bright side." Issei raised an eyebrow, wondering how she could be so optimistic about getting cut.
"Well, because…" Irina reached up and touched the scar on his cheek, which made him blush this time. "We've got matching cuts. The troublesome duo back at it again." She laughed.
"Oh." Issei chuckled, hoping for his blush to diminish. "Yeah… I guess so. Ah, right. I just remembered I still need to build my chair."
"I can help you!" Irina exclaimed.
"You're not going to do anything, not while you're injured, maybe after you ice it, you can take a hot bath. Oh man, if Elize-nee were here, she would know what to do." He sighed in frustration.
Irina tilted her head. "You have another big sister? I thought you were an only child like me."
"No, I am," Issei shook his head. "I just… found people to integrate into my family and help me, kind of like how we found each other, so we wouldn't be alone. I guess it's probably why I clicked with you more than those other kids and we separated from them."
Irina smiled warmly. "And it would be us against the world, the troublesome duo taking on anything and anyone, just like in Super Sentai." But she couldn't help but think, 'Well, you were kind of close, but those kids didn't like the pranks that I pulled and you stood up against them for me after they tried a revenge prank that they planned without you, which I'm thankful that you weren't part of. They were also mocking you, too, because of your perversion like they did to me.'
Issei laughed. "Yeah." His phone buzzed. "One minute."
He quickly walked away from her and opened his phone to see that he had gotten a text from Haruo Niijima. However, it wasn't just a regular text, it was a group text with another unknown number. Before he opened it up, he quickly sent a text to his mother saying how he and the girls were heading to the shop and being safe. He also messaged Setsuka to inform her that he would be coming and asked her if she had something for a foot injury.
Issei: I'll be coming soon. Do you have anything for a foot/ankle injury?
Setsuka: I'll need to know the extent of the injury.
Issei: Well, she's not walking on it, so I have been carrying her.
Setsuka's reply came quickly.
Setsuka: She? I thought it was you. Oh my, this is wonderful but I still need to see the extent of the injury.
Issei: Alright.
He ended the text and immediately called Elize because this was more of her expertise.
The phone rang once.
"Hello?" Elize answered.
"Hi, Elize‑nee. I was wondering if you could help with a foot/ankle injury."
"How bad is it?" Elize asked, which Issei could her the shift in her tone from playful to serious.
"Well, we haven't iced it and she has not been walking on it, so I have been carrying her." Issei answered.
There was a pause before Elize spoke again.
"She?" Elize sounded gobsmacked. "Ah, whatever, you can ice it and then send me a picture to see how it looks. If it's not too swollen and she can put some weight on it, then it shouldn't be too bad. Or better yet, send me a picture now and I can get back to you."
"Uh, okay." He disconnected the call and walked back to Irina and cleared his throat. "Hey, um… you mind taking off your boot, so we can see how swollen it might be?"
Irina's cheeks flushed. "O‑Okay, sure… but you'll have to do it."
Issei stiffened. "If… if it helps."He crouched beside her, heart pounding.
After all, this was kind of his first time feeling intimately close to a female that could insinuate they could be more than friends, but that was if he wasn't counting the massages that he had given to Renka and Akeno. As he would be touching her leg and removing an article of clothing from her body.
"Uh… so how do I take this off?" Issei asked as he pointed at the boot.
He knew that it wasn't connected to her outfit, since he could see the gap of skin on her leg.
Irina looked away, flustered. "Well, it's conformed to my leg, so you, uh, just need to pull it off."
"Right. Um… could you lift your leg?"
She did so and Issei got even more nervous, but eventually, he smacked his cheeks to calm himself down and focus before he reached forward, considering that he had given women back massages before. Irina shivered a little at feeling his hands brushing against her thigh. She suppressed a low moan by biting her lip because he was touching her, she did admit to herself that a part of her had wished for something like this to happen.
'So warm…' She thought as his hands slid down her thigh, then her calf as he pulled her boot off.
She did wince a little, when he got to her ankle and foot, where he stopped and removed his hands.
Issei immediately pulled back. "Sorry."
Irina shook her head. "It's okay. I was just taken by surprise, that's all." As she sighed. '…and I miss the warmth already…'
"Okay." Issei gently removed the boot and slightly winced at the damage. He could see that her ankle was swollen but not severely. "Alright. I'll take a picture and Elize‑nee will tell me what to do."
"Okay." Irina nodded as she balanced on one leg.
He brought out his phone and used its camera to take a picture of just Irina's foot and ankle. He did not show the rest of her leg in the picture and only focused on where the injury was. When that was done, he sent it to Elize, so she could give her expertise.
"All done. You want me to put your boot back on?" He asked, looking up at her.
Irina shook her head. "No, it'll have to come off again, eventually, I don't want to go through the hassle of troubling you."
Issei scratched his cheek. "Okay, I just thought you would want it back on, since you're showing a bit of skin there." He absolutely did not admit he was fascinated by her leg, probably more so than her breasts.
Irina blushed harder. "It's fine, my robe can cover it up."
"But if I have to carry you, then..." Issei was trying to reason that the robe could open up, while he was carrying her.
"I don't mind. Since it's you. I mean it's like you've said, you've done this before, which I'm surprised you remember that."
"Uh… sure. Okay." Issei turned away quickly. "As for remembering, well, I was dreaming of our childhood last night. From the looks of it, I think I lost something, probably one of our competitions and as a result, I had to give you a piggyback ride."
Irina laughed, which diminished her own blush. "Yeah, that's usually what happened."
Xenovia approached the two of them, dusting off her gloves. "Okay, I got what I needed, but since it has been days since your attack, we were a bit too late. However, I can use it as a starting point to see what direction Freed might have run in."
Issei pointed at the alleyway. "Well, he came from this alleyway and used it to escape as well."
"Good, that will help me on my scouting," Xenovia nodded and then paused. "But for now, you said that you were heading somewhere."
She didn't say it aloud, but a part of her hoped Freed would attack again. Of course, she wasn't sure if she could handle him, while trying to defend Issei and Irina.
However, what she didn't know is that if it were to happen, then her job would be done. The reason for this is because she has yet to meet Setsuka and Mitsurugi, who are superior swordsmen compared to Freed. It was the same with the weapon mistress, Shigure, if he had stayed that night, Freed would have fallen. Lucky for him, Freed got involved with their student and a master cannot get involved with their student's conflicts. All they could do is just train Issei for his rematch, if he got the chance for one.
"Yeah," Issei nodded. "We're heading to my workplace, I just informed my boss that we were coming over and see if they could help with Irina's injury. I also sent a picture of it to someone who has expertise in the medical field. From what I can see, it's not too bad, only slightly swollen, but she'll give a better answer after she inspects it."
Xenovia nodded. "I suppose that explains why her boot is off, very well." She gathered their things. "Lead the way."
"Right." Issei crouched again. "Alright, Irina. Hop on."
She climbed onto his back, she felt the warmth of his hand underneath her thigh and she wished that he could just caress her. She did not know that Issei was thinking the same thing. Although he was wishing he could massage her leg and get out all of her troubles, since they seem to work for Renka. She wished he'd just… hold her a little longer.
Issei kept his thoughts to himself. 'Her leg is so smooth… even after sparring… that's pretty impressive…' He began walking toward Shishi‑Oh with Xenovia following behind.
Azazel was sitting in his chair and enjoying himself a glass of wine. He decided to not call Takeshi for a contract tonight. However, he did decide to call someone else, but this was meant to intimidate Kokabiel. He sat there with the phone to his ear, letting it ring until he heard the person on the other end pick up.
"Hello?" A male voice answered on the other line.
"Now, is that any way to talk to your teacher?" Azazel chuckled.
"What do you want, Azazel? And why did you call the phone and not use a communication circle?"
"Meh, I wanted to be old fashioned." Azazel shrugged. "I want you to come to Kuoh and back Vali up."
"For what?" The other voice was intrigued, considering that Vali was only needed.
"To send a message to Kokabiel." Azazel answered.
"Really? Is that it? I'm pretty sure that Vali can handle him, Kokabiel will get arrogant and that will be his downfall." The voice responded.
"Yes, yes, I'm aware. But you're not just backing him up. You're keeping him in check." Azazel informed them.
"Why's that?"
"Well, for one, his rival will be there." Azazel shrugged.
There was a pause before the contact spoke again.
"So the Red Dragon has awakened. How is he?" The other person asked.
"He's alright, he's a close range fighter, his specialty is kickboxing, but I don't think he has unlocked his Balance Breaker."
"How do you know all of that?" Of course, the other voice knew that Azazel had his ways.
Azazel laughed. "Because I'm one of his contracts, but he doesn't know that, the only people that know of my presence are the heiresses and some humans."
"Heiresses? They added more there? You told me that there was an incident there about 12 years ago."
"Yes, but it was between the church and the devils, Sirzechs also knows that I'm around, we have a temporary alliance, but after this stunt by Kokabiel, I think it's time to come together again for a greater threat." Azazel told them.
"The Khaos Brigade?" The other person said with an edge to their tone.
"Yeah," Azazel sighed. "I know why Satanael created this group after we had a 'disagreement', but now I am hearing that the dragon god, Ophis is the leader."
"You think she killed him?"
"I wouldn't call it" a 'she', remember, Ophis is genderless, but I think it fits, since it is in a female form. Before it was an old man."
"I understand, but you also said that there are humans that know of your presence?" The person asked.
"Yeah, and they know Mitsuya, it's his team." Azazel let out a heavy sigh.
"WHAT!?"
"Calm down, calm down, while it's his team, they don't seem to know what he is doing. However, they do have a new recruit, but he is not aware of the supernatural. He's kind of a pervert…"
"Like you." The other voice interrupted and Azazel could also feel them roll their eyes.
"Yeah, sure," Azazel scoffed. "Whatever like me, but he was more vocal and it seems that he is trying for a path of redemption."
"That's good, we all can learn to improve." Giving a nod of approval, even though Azazel could not see that.
"But that's not all, he's also the student of Heishirou Mitsurugi. Of course, the student doesn't know what the master knows."
"…The ronin? He's there in Kuoh!?" The shock was evident.
"Yeah, yeah, he's also part of this temporary alliance, he probably wouldn't mind cutting down Kokabiel, another reason why I need you there, so Vali doesn't get too antsy and try to fight him as well." Azazel warned. "I also want you there to check out his student, he has awakened his ki. He also has a connection with the church through his childhood friend and she's returned. She's one of the two exorcists that had been sent here to retrieve the Excalibur fragments."
"Let's hope that they are the last exorcists that the church sends."
"Hopefully." Azazel took a sip of his wine.
The voice on the other end paused. "Wait a minute, are you implying that Mitsurugi's student is not aware of the supernatural? You think he will get involved?"
Azazel swirled his wine lazily. "Yes. According to Saiga, he already had a run‑in with the rogue priest, Freed Sellzen."
"Freed? That psycho? The one who killed his master, David Cerro. I remember him."
Azazel chuckled. "I wouldn't say he killed him. Since Freed doesn't possess the holy sword that David wielded."
"I suppose that's true. Anything else?"
Azazel smirked. "Quite a bit. It seems Akeno has taken an interest in Mitsurugi's student. Though she might be doing it for her mistress. I hear both heiresses are considering reincarnating him."
"Akeno?" The voice spoke with some surprise. "How is she? I know that Suzaku is in communication with her mistress, but I'm not fully aware."
Azazel raised an eyebrow. "My, oh my, and you're supposed to be family. Suzaku is your fiancée, after all. But I do hear she used her holy lightning to help her mistress in their rating game."
"Shouldn't you be telling Baraqiel that, I'm sure he would be proud, although I thought that the Gremory heiress' engagement wouldn't commence until after she finished high school?"
Azazel snorted. "Jealousy, she was showing a little too much affection to her dear pawn, the Red Dragon Emperor, and the third son of the Phenex clan decided to accelerate the engagement."
"I see, well, I will start making my travel plans and let the team that I'll be heading out." The other voice sighed.
"Appreciate it. See you soon." Azazel hung up the call and then smirked. "Don't you know it's rude to eavesdrop on someone's conversation?"
From the shadows emerged Vali with his hands in his pockets as he smirked at the leader of the fallen angels.
"You don't trust me?" Vali asked.
"Oh, I trust you. I just don't trust you to not overdo it."
Vali laughed. "Everyone deserves to cut loose once in a while."
"Cut loose, maybe. But don't overdo it. Don't kill Kokabiel. Capture him and the rogue priests alive." Azazel told him.
"Why the priests?" Vali snorted.
"To hand them back to the Church." Azazel answered.
Vali shrugged. "Whatever, anyway, tell me when Kokabiel makes his move and I'll strike." A magic circle formed beneath him.
"Yeah, yeah. See you later." Azazel waved to his adopted son, while taking another sip of his drink, while Vali vanished and Azazel sighed. 'Well, he didn't mention anything about Takeshi, so he probably didn't hear how his rival hadn't awakened his Balance Breaker or he didn't care, I guess we'll just have to see what happens on the battlefield.'
Issei and Xenovia had arrived at the entrance to the Shishi-Oh, while Irina had fallen asleep on Issei's back. Xenovia was mostly quiet as she followed Issei to the shop, but she didn't understand why they had stopped and not entered the shop. Of course, she was feeling some strong presence in the shop, especially one that she had been feeling earlier.
Xenovia frowned. "Why did we stop? Shouldn't we enter?"
Issei closed his eyes. "I'm trying to focus." He reached out with his senses, just as Setsuka had taught him.
He sensed Setsuka waiting for him at the counter, but he also sensed that Mitsurugi was in the back. However, he sensed another presence that was familiar to him.
He opened his eyes and nudged his head against Irina's cheek gently. "Iri‑chan. Wake up."
Irina stirred. "Mm… what?" Her eyes fluttered open.
"We're here." He answered her before turning to Xenovia. "Could you get the door?"
"Sure." She nodded, opening it, and following Issei inside.
"Well, well. It's about time." Setsuka spoke as the teenagers entered the shop.
Issei grinned. "Hey, Setsuka‑obasan. I brought your patient." Irina blinked sleepily as she took in her surroundings.
Setsuka's eyes sparkled. "You finally brought a girl to me. Make that two." She eyed Xenovia. "Hmm. You're not Japanese."
Xenovia raised an eyebrow. "Neither are you."
Setsuka smirked. "Oh? You understand Japanese."
"It was thanks to my partner and her family." Xenovia informed the woman.
Setsuka nodded toward Irina, who was being set down by Issei. "Which I assume is her."
Issei adjusted his hold on Irina's waist. "Yeah. This is my childhood friend, Irina."
Setsuka blinked. "Irina? You had another one?"
Issei shook his head. "No, her full name is Shidou Irina. She introduced herself formally to me when we were kids, hence why I thought her name was Shidou." He continued to keep her steady, so that she didn't put weight on her ankle.
"I see and uh…" Setsuka's gaze dropped to Irina's torn outfit. "Was her outfit always like that?"
"No." Issei shook his head. "Do you think that you can stitch that up?"
"It'll take a few days. Here, let me take her, you lock up the store."
"Alright." He turned to Irina to get her attention, while she was aware, she was skeptical. "Hey, hey, she'll take care of you, alright?"
"Okay." Irina nodded as he helped Irina into Setsuka's arms, who wrapped her arm around Irina's waist to help her to the back room.
Setsuka leaned close to Xenovia as Issei moved to the front door. "My husband would like to meet you. We know about your cause. Follow me."
Xenovia was surprised by what she said, but steeled herself and nodded, following after Setsuka.
"Where is he?" Xenovia asked as they entered the backroom.
The energy that she had been feeling was closer and a little stronger than before.
Setsuka sat Irina down on a chair. "He's in the garden. With an ally who knows your mentor." She pointed at another door. "Just go through that door."
"Understood." Xenovia inhaled deeply and stepped through the door.
She was surprised by the vast area that was hidden behind the shop and she could see some training equipment around, deducing that Issei trained back here. She faced forward where she saw two men waiting there.
One black‑haired, radiating quiet danger and the other one was blond, wearing a suit, calm and composed. When she glanced over at the black haired man, he smiled dangerously and she felt his aura and realized that it was what she had been sensing all this time.
"Ah, welcome, it's nice to see you, my name is Saiga Fūrinji, I know of your mentor, Ewald Cristaldi." Saiga introduced himself in English to make things easier for Xenovia to understand.
Xenovia straightened. "Xenovia. So you know Deacon Cristaldi?"
"Yes, I actually spoke with him on the day that you left, I'm an ally."
Xenovia nodded, "Uh huh." She then looked at the black-haired man. "And he is…?"
Saiga gestured. "This is your host's master, Heishirou Mitsurugi."
Xenovia's breath caught. 'He's strong. This aura is almost similar to him, the Vatican's Evil Killer, the one who held Durandal before me and he is training Issei.' She swallowed hard.
Mitsurugi spoke calmly, also addressing her in English. "How is the boy treating you?"
Xenovia cleared her throat. "Uh, fair. We had an incident this morning, but it was just an accident. Nothing noteworthy."
Mitsurugi nodded, already processing on if he needed to hammer any more of Issei's perversion to continue molding him into his soldier.
Saiga continued. "Good. We've been working on him for months. Well, not necessarily me." Saiga pointed at himself. "I mean my daughter and her friends."
Xenovia blinked. "Daughter?"
"Yes. Her name is Miu."
Xenovia remembered the blonde girl from earlier.
"I see…" Xenovia remembered the blonde girl from earlier that came with the other bluenette and the brunette boy that did remind her of both Issei and the woman she had met at his place. "So… why did you want to see me?"
Saiga folded his arms. "We're here to aid you in recovering the fragments, one of my people is currently with Kokabiel and his base of operations, along with another, who we will have to pull out."
Xenovia frowned. "Why's that?"
Saiga's expression darkened. "Because you informed Sona Sitri and Rias Gremory not to interfere. And one of the people on the inside… is a piece belonging to Sona Sitri."
Xenovia's eyes widened. "So that's how she got her information." She hadn't trusted Sona before, but now she knew that Sona was being genuine with her and was planning to get her piece out of Kokabiel's grasp.
Saiga folded his arms behind his back, posture relaxed yet commanding. "Yes. Thanks to our informants on the inside."
Xenovia's eyes narrowed. "And are you allied with those devils?"
Saiga gave a small, amused exhale. "To an extent, we wanted to make sure that they were not on the fallen angels' side and know what their plan was and how it involved the church, which we figured out was because of the stolen fragments. I contacted Ewald with a means to aid you, but after Freed's attack, we tried to intercept you, but Ewald did not tell me who would be coming." He smiled faintly. "We only were able to figure out that you were here, thanks to Issei's connection to your partner.
Xenovia sighed. "Yes, she wouldn't forget to talk about him on our missions. From what I can see, she doesn't have the confidence to confess her feelings for him."
Mitsurugi raised an eyebrow. "Feelings?" This slightly troubled him as he really did not need Issei getting distracted, but then also realized that if Issei developed his own feelings, he could use that for Issei's progression.
Xenovia nodded. "Yes, by how she speaks of him, she did not seem fazed about his perversion, she would usually laugh about it. However, from how she talks of him, I can tell that she had fallen for him from her childhood crush. I had to remind her that this is a mission and not a vacation, but due to the spar that we recently had, she got injured."
Saiga nodded thoughtfully. "Then allow us to aid you until she recovers, I have colleagues that took out Kokabiel's forces. So that just leaves you to handle Kokabiel, Freed, and Valper."
Xenovia stiffened. "Valper… the disgraced priest?"
"Yes, he contacted me for assistance under my former alias, but he didn't know that I am two-timing him. For the meantime, Raichi will still remain undercover."
Xenovia blinked. "Raichi?"
Saiga smiled. "Yes, you met her today, when Issei went to get you from the school entrance."
Xenovia's eyes widened. "She's your informant?" She had been wary of the pink haired girl, but Raichi wound up defusing her suspicions real quickly.
After she had met the two, it was Raichi that sneakily took pictures of the two girls and sent it to Saiga, so he was aware of who they were.
"Correct, but don't let her cheerful personality fool you, she was trained as an assassin at a young age."
Xenovia nearly choked. "What!? Does he know about that?"
Saiga chuckled. "You mean Issei? Yes, I believe so. He was the last to learn, since he only recently joined the club."
Xenovia frowned. "But he's not aware of our world, the supernatural world."
Mitsurugi's expression hardened and answered. "No. But he will be." His presence when he spoke, she felt at times that he only did so to intimidate her and it was working.
Xenovia's eyes sharpened. "You're going to endanger him."
Mitsurugi shook his head. "No, he only tends to endanger himself because he can be nosy. Right now, he has failed against the rogue priest. He's going to want to avenge that loss, but he also wants to help that blonde boy and be his friend."
Xenovia blinked. "Blonde boy? You mean the Gremory knight? Why would he want to be friends with a devil?"
Saiga answered calmly. "He doesn't know Kiba is a devil. But he knows of his past. And he wants to help him find closure."
Xenovia exhaled slowly. "I see… that explains why he wanted to help."
Mitsurugi nodded. "If you rejected him, he won't listen. As I said he is going to avenge that loss, but he will need an actual sword."
Xenovia hesitated. "You think he can beat Freed?"
Mitsurugi closed his eyes. "I cannot say. Would you be willing to help him?"
Xenovia frowned. "Why can't you?"
Saiga answered. "Because a master cannot get involved with the fights of their students."
Mitsurugi nodded. "That is correct."
Xenovia crossed her arms. "Hmm, I'm going to need to learn everything that you know." Steeling herself, considering that she was still nervous about being in front of these two powerhouses.
Meanwhile in the backroom, Setsuka had been icing Irina's ankle, gently pressing the ice pack to the swollen area and slowly stretching it to see the girl's pain tolerance. She would stop whenever Irina would wince.
"So it's not too bad, based on what you're feeling. I would suggest a nice soak to relax the muscles and I'll give you some bandages to wrap around it."
Irina sighed in relief. "Thank you."
Setsuka tilted her head. "I see you're wearing Ise's headphones. And that headband on your wrist… it looks familiar."
Irina smiled softly. "Oh yeah, I kind of asked him if I could try them and I forgot to give them back. As for the headband, Ise gave this to me before I left, so I have kept it with the hopes of seeing him again."
Setsuka chuckled. "It looks a bit tattered, I can redesign it for you, along with stitching up your outfit, if you like?"
Irina blinked. "Really? How much would I have to pay you, I don't want to trouble you and take up your time."
Setsuka waved her hand and laughed. "It wouldn't cost me anything, I'm just glad that you came back into his life. Tell me you didn't leave because of his perversion, did you?"
Irina flailed. "No! It's just that something happened that involved my father and it forced us to move!" She lowered her head. "I told Ise-kun the same thing, well, minus that it involved my father, but I didn't leave because of his perversion or his fascination for big breasts, it made me laugh and brought something new, but it was only a part of our friendship. Most of it was going to mass together, sitting back and watching Super Sentai and anime, my mother would sometimes take us to hero shows, and we also had sleepovers."
Setsuka smiled warmly. "That sounds lovely. From how you speak, you care for him."
Irina nodded. "I do, he was my first friend, although I was a little bummed that he forgot about me mostly."
Setsuka sighed. "There's a story behind that." She removed the ice. "I'm not sure who you can ask, but I suggest that you ask your partner or whoever you feel comfortable to massage your foot. I don't know how good your partner is, but Issei does give quite the massage."
Irina blinked. "Really?"
"Yes, he usually gives me one after we look over kimono designs, I kind of got him into it, after he told me about how his grandmother got him into stitching."
Irina's eyes sparkled. "Oh wow…"
Setsuka stood. "You're going to need to take one, since I will have to ask you to remove your outfit."
Irina turned red. "M‑My outfit!?"
"Yes, you think I'm going to stitch it up while it's on you?"
Irina fidgeted. "Well, I mean…"
Setsuka laughed. "Don't worry, I won't let anyone walk in on you. It would probably destroy Issei if anything perverted crossed his mind."
Irina blinked. "Really?"
"Yes, he's trying to reform himself, everyone's always different on the surface. Sadly, everyone only views Issei as a pervert, when on the inside, he's an otaku."
Irina giggled. "Yeah, he definitely loves anime, I even found one that we can watch together."
"That's nice, it'll give him something else to do than train, though I train him mentally."
Irina tilted her head. "Where does he train?"
"In the garden, where I directed your partner to," She gently stretched Irina's foot. "How does it feel?"
Irina winced lightly. "A little better. Thank you."
"That's good and remember to soak it, when you get home or at least wherever you are staying."
Irina nodded. "Will do. May the Lord have mercy on your soul, amen!"
Setsuka laughed. "Thank you, anyway, let me go grab you a kimono, I'll seal this place, so you can change in peace."
"Oh, thank you." Irina watched Setsuka seal the door to the garden and then she headed out to the front to grab a kimono.
"Be right back." Setsuka exited to the front.
Irina bowed her head gratefully and then she stopped and noticed something, looking down at her ankle. When she looked back up, Setsuka was gone and it made Irina begin to wonder what the woman had done.
'Was she slowly using healing magic on it? Huh, I didn't know she could do that.' Irina was in awe of the blonde woman.
When Setsuka stepped out to the front, she saw that Issei was still up front and seemed to be on the phone.
She decided to take this moment to ask him a question, so she walked up to him, but she didn't conceal her presence. This way it allowed Issei to feel her coming towards him without being spooked. When she got close to him, she tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hang on a minute." Issei pulled the phone away. "Do you need something, Setsuka‑obasan?"
"Yes, I was wondering if you could give me some insight on what to design on Irina's headband."
Issei blinked. "Design? Hmm, well, she can be energetic and cheerful like the sun. She usually made my day when we hung out as kids."
Setsuka smiled. "Hmm, that fits, thanks for the input. I'll leave you to your call, I'm just grabbing a kimono for Irina to change into, so please don't come into the back room."
"Understood. If a customer comes, I'll handle it."
"If you do, please put in how long you managed the store in the log book, even if it's for several minutes."
"Yes ma'am." Issei gave her a mock salute.
As she walked away, she heard Issei apologize to whomever he was speaking to on the phone and went to grab the kimono and some leggings. On her way back, she heard Issei speak about Freed and about information. She already expected this from Issei, he wasn't going to take that loss sitting down. Not wanting to eavesdrop, she entered the back room and sealed it, just in case, Issei forgot what she said. Setsuka returned with a folded kimono and soft leggings draped over her arm.
"Alright, I brought the kimono and some leggings, in case you feel uncomfortable."
Irina bowed her head gratefully. "Thank you very much."
Setsuka eyed her thoughtfully. "You know… it'd be easier to fight if you kept your hair in a ponytail. I usually do, but it's shorter than yours."
Irina blinked. "You think so?"
"I know so. Long hair is easy for an enemy to grab. I still prefer my hair long but not that long."
Irina nodded. "That makes sense. My partner had something similar happen to her. That's why she keeps it short."
Setsuka smiled. "Well, don't worry. I can style it a little before you go."
Irina's eyes softened. "Again… thank you. The Lord has blessed me today by guiding me to such a kindred spirit such as yourself." She clasped her hands in prayer.
'Oh, you poor soul,' Setsuka frowned, before covering it up with a smile before Irina noticed. "It's no trouble. Now let's get you changed so you can meet your partner."
"Yes, ma'am!" Irina stood slowly, careful not to put weight on her injured ankle as she went to retrieve the items that Setsuka brought for her.
Meanwhile back in the front of the store, just before Setsuka had entered the back room, Issei was speaking to his contact on the phone.
"Are you sure you have information on Freed?" He asked.
A familiar, smug voice answered. "I'm offended you'd doubt my knowledge. But yes, my sources have been gathering intel since the night of your attack. I figured you'd ask."
Issei sighed. "Just tell me what you know, Niijima."
"Brash, just like Kenichi. He's rubbing off on you. Anyway… Kyōichi, why don't you tell him what was found on Freed."
Another voice chimed in. "Yo. Issei, right?"
"Yes?" Issei responded to the new voice.
"Seems you're fitting in with my former gang." Kyōichi told him with a chuckle.
Issei frowned. "Who's that?"
Haruo answered. "Ah, right. You don't know. Kyōichi was in the same gang as Kisara, Chiaki, Hibiki, Kaname, Ikki, and Ukita. He was designated with the codename: Loki."
Issei deadpanned. "That makes me trust you less."
"Why's that?" Kyōichi asked.
"Because Loki was considered as the god of deception, my big sis taught me that." Issei offered a silent prayer to Yu‑Mi, who had drilled mythology into his head for the sake of his future education.
Kyōichi chuckled. "Smart woman. Anyway, Tōko and I did a lot of digging into the Church. Ready for your eyes to pop out?"
Issei exhaled sharply. "Just what is the Church doing? First with this so-called Holy sword project and now this?"
Kyōichi perked up. "You heard of the Holy sword project? Shit, this makes it easier, well, you know it's based off the holy sword, Excalibur, right?"
Issei nodded. "Something like that. Freed called his sword Excalibur."
"Yeah… well, it is Excalibur. But at the same time, it isn't." Kyōichi told him.
Issei blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Well, Excalibur was split into seven fragments, each with their own special ability. Do you know if Freed did something that seemed out of place?"
"Other than moving fast? No." Issei shook his head.
"Well, since Excalibur Rapidly is missing, let's assume that was what he had."
"Yeah, sure," Issei rubbed his forehead. "Okay… what else do you know?" He wasn't really interested about the sword, but more about Freed himself.
Kyōichi's tone shifted. "Well, Freed wasn't born."
Issei raised an eyebrow. "…Wasn't born?"
"That's right. He was artificially created." Kyōichi replied.
Issei blinked. "So he's like a 'create‑a‑character' that I've seen in video games and online?"
"Yes and no," Kyōichi let out a heavy sigh. "Most of those "create a characters" are spawned from nothing. The ones from the video games, they at least give you a basis of the character like body build, so something of substance. The same could be said about Freed, except he came from quite a significant figure, the warrior known as Sigurd or known as…"
"Siegfried." Issei gulped nervously and his jaw dropped.
Haruo laughed. "I told you that he wasn't so dumb."
Kyōichi chuckled. "I can see that."
"You can thank my big sister for that," Issei nodded. "Otherwise, I'd be clueless."
Kyōichi continued. "Good to know, but yes, Siegfried is the other name for Sigurd, that's the basis of Freed's creation. He was created by Sigurd's DNA at a place that is named after Sigurd. It's called the Sigurd Institution, they're a secret research and warrior institute in the Vatican."
"Vatican? You mean the main part of the Church?" Issei asked.
"That's right," Kyōichi answered. "The Vatican is the main church, but this institute was dedicated to another sword, that sword being the Demonic Emperor Sword, Gram, which was…
Issei's eyes widened. "Siegfried's sword… the one he used to slay a dragon. That's real!?" He grabbed the counter for support.
"Yeah, it is, but they established someone that could wield the sword, but they got greedy, since they had someone that could wield the sword, they decided to go further."
Issei swallowed. "How many tries did they take?"
"One." Kyōichi said.
"One!?" Issei exclaimed.
"That's right, their first creation, which they honorably named Siegfried. Not just after the hero, but also of another of the same name, who's blood they used, a Siegfried Schtauffen…"
"Schtauffen?" Issei asked as he tried to say the last name.
"It's German, coincidentally, he was also named after the legendary hero." Kyōichi answered. "Getting back to the clone that the institution made, he was able to draw out and wield Gram in a single attempt. Since the Sigurd Institution's original goal of seeing if they could create a true descendant of Sigurd to wield Gram was accomplished, they changed it to see how many descendants they could create."
Issei's eyes widened. "Shit, you mean there could be more people like Freed running around? Oh, fuck, but what happened with Siegfried, the clone, I mean."
Kyōichi sighed. "Well, he defected and took Gram with him, according to the reports, as for Freed, he was considered a genius exorcist, however, he was unstable from the start. He just loved to kill monsters for the sake of his own pleasure, he also has no qualms about murdering humans. This falls into the report of him fatally injuring his mentor, he also has reports of sexual assault and sexual harrassment on female members. You see, being from the Vatican, you would have to believe in God, the problem is Freed never believed in God from the start."
Issei lowered his head. "…Oh no."
Kyōichi softened his tone. "Thinking of your past?"
"Yeah," Issei nodded slowly and sighed. "I can understand the sexual harassment, after all, I peeped on girls under the guidance of my former social members. But sexual assault, even I wouldn't force myself on someone. I may have been a pervert, but even I got standards."
Kyōichi gave a nod that Issei couldn't see and continued on. "Well, that's why he became a wanted criminal in the Vatican."
"Fuck." Issei took several deep breaths and asked. "Can I beat him?"
Kyōichi paused. "Hmm, well, being a genius exorcist, he's considered to be an expert combatant, able to master any weapon that's given to him. However, it never says if he was a natural holy sword user, since he claimed to have an Excalibur fragment, so I can only assume that he had a Light Container."
"A light container?" Issei asked, pulling the phone away from his ear to look at it quizzically.
"It's part of the Holy sword project, they were used to create artificial holy sword users for the Church." Kyōichi informed him. "They look like these bizarre diamonds that are a dark shade of blue and indigo on the outside, but inside is a distorted color that contains the holy properties of a person, which can be either pink, purple, yellow, or green."
Issei's eyes widened as he looked in the direction of the back room. 'Wait a minute, then could Irina be an artificial holy sword user? This is just too much, why would she become something artificial? Kiba was right, I don't know shit about what the church is doing.' He began to rub his head from the headache that was coming from all of this information.
"You've gotten quiet, are you still there?" Haruo said, noticing Issei's silence.
Kyōichi shrugged. "This is a lot to take in for him after all."
'This explains what Xenovia said about not knowing the rules of her world.' Issei frowned, remembering what the blue haired girl told him.
Haruo snapped. "Hey, Hyoudou! Answer me!"
"Huh, what? I'm sorry, so can I beat him?" Issei responded, bringing the phone back to his ear to make sure that they could hear him clearly.
Kyōichi chuckled. "Uh, maybe he is dumb, pretty sure I answered that."
"Sorry, I should clarify, I mean can I beat him in hand-to-hand combat? You talked all about his prowess with weapons, but nothing about his hand-to-hand combat capabilities." Issei explained.
"Hmm, you're on to something here," Kyōichi tapped his chin and then some typing was heard on his end before he responded. "There's nothing in the report about his hand-to-hand combat capabilities, so that's unknown, but a possibility."
Issei clenched his fist. "So I won't know unless I'm able to get that damn Excalibur sword out of his hands."
Haruo snorted. "Easier said than done."
Issei nodded. "Yeah, if I may ask, this all seems confidential, how did you get this information, Kyōichi-san?"
Kyōichi laughed. "Well, I had Tōko sent to the Vatican almost immediately, when Niijima informed us of your attack. We were already in Italy for our own investigation."
"That's right." Haruo spoke. "And with the questions you're asking, it's obvious, you want revenge."
"Clearly." Kyōichi added in.
Issei tightened his grip on the phone. "I have to avenge my loss, with a guy like that out there... my friends here aren't safe."
Kyōichi snorted. "Yeah, just like Kenichi. Alright, well, if that's all, I gotta arrange to get Tōko to get back home. I'm sure the Vatican won't be pleased about this information getting out, I don't need her captured."
"I understand. Thanks. If I need anything else…" Issei again at the door to the back room. "I've got two members of the Church I can ask."
Kyōichi sputtered. "What? Why didn't you say so!?"
Issei exhaled. "I kind of want to do this on my own and learn what I can first, I can't continue to be reckless."
Haruo clicked his tongue. "When it comes to thinking, you should leave that to me, Hyoudou. But keep in mind, you owe me for this, be sure to get in touch with the Walkyries as well."
Issei blinked. "What for?"
Haruo scoffed. "You think I don't know that one of those church members is your childhood friend? Learn how to mingle, jeez, you're definitely Kenichi's protégé. Anyway, Kyōichi, I'll be sure to get you compensation for Tōko's return and your payment for the information."
"Much appreciated. Pleasure doing business with you." Kyōichi told him.
"Until then." Haruo informed them before he ended the conference call between the three of them.
Issei sighed as he got the information that he needed but now he had one more hurdle to handle. He went to his briefcase and opened it up to take out the broken bokken handle. His fingers tightened around it as it was a reminder of his failure, a reminder of what he had to overcome. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, but snapped them when he sensed someone approaching. Turning to his left, he saw Setsuka walking towards him.
"Everything alright?" She asked.
Issei forced a smile. "Yeah, I'm just... whoa."
From behind Setsuka, Irina stepped forward.
She wore a pale-yellow kimono that reached mid‑thigh, paired with black leggings. Her hair, that once in twin tails, was now tied into a neat ponytail, styled similarly to Setsuka's, trimmed just enough to be practical. He knew that she had grown to a bishoujo and she was attractive, but somehow this enhanced her beauty, at least to Issei.
She looked… different, but the same in Issei's eyes. It was like she looked more mature and more radiant. As if the injury that she had sustained didn't happen, of course, Issei wasn't focused on that as he looked her over as his breath stalled.
"Uh… hey." Irina gave a shy wave, cheeks tinged pink.
Issei stammered. "I—I mean… you look good. How's your foot, I mean ankle?"
Irina smiled softly. "Thanks. It's better, but I need to soak it."
"Did you ice it? Elize‑nee mentioned that in her message to me." Issei asked as he looked between Setsuka and Irina.
Setsuka smirked. "It's all been handled, you think I don't have some medical expertise?"
Issei raised his hands. "I never doubted you, obasan."
"And you shouldn't." Setsuka reminded him.
Issei cleared his throat. "Is shishou available?"
Setsuka nodded. "Oh, we were just about to head there ourselves."
"May I join you?" He asked.
"Of course. Follow me." Setsuka told him as she turned, grabbing his new bokkens and leading the way.
Issei moved beside Irina, letting her lean on him and act as a crutch for her.
"Everything alright?" she asked quietly.
"Not really, but stay close to me, it'll help you keep some pressure off your ankle, until we get home."
Irina nodded. "Alright, but eventually, I'll have to endure the pain, you know, it won't get better if I don't."
"I know."
While they talked with one another, Setsuka used the distraction to unseal the door and keep Issei oblivious for the time being.
"Let's go, you two."
"Coming." The childhood friends answered.
They walked in a three‑legged rhythm with Irina's injured ankle resting atop Issei's left foot, moving together behind Setsuka. Issei kept facing forward to not blush because this was the closest and longest that he had been with a girl and she wasn't giving him questionable looks.
When they entered, Irina was surprised by the garden and gasped softly. She had never been inside yet, so she was amazed by its tranquility, its beauty, and its quiet strength, taking in the training equipment. It momentarily distracted her from the attention on her ankle that had felt better. Meanwhile, as much as Issei wanted to enjoy her look of awe, he steeled himself as he locked eyes with Mitsurugi. Saiga stood nearby, smiling faintly at the reunited childhood friends, while Xenovia held a slight look of worry for her partner and approached Irina immediately.
"Are you good?" She asked.
"I should be fine in a few days." Irina answered.
Xenovia nodded in relief as that timetable wouldn't be too bad for them and it was just as she predicted that Irina may be inactive.
Issei gently transferred Irina to Xenovia, so that she could support her as Irina's crutch, then bowed his head respectfully toward Saiga. He completely missed the look of disappointment on Irina's face as he let her go. Of course, Saiga saw it, while he returned the gesture and he was bemused by Issei's density, considering that Saiga saw he was also disappointed at letting the girl go.
Mitsurugi, however, remained still as Issei stepped forward, dropped to his knees, and bowed deeply. He placed the broken bokken handle before his master.
Mitsurugi's voice was calm but sharp. "What is this, boy?"
Issei grit his teeth. "This… is the result of my failure, shishou."
"I can see that. The question is, what will you do about it?" Mitsurugi's eyes scanned his student, seeing Issei tense up.
Issei clenched his fists. "I intend to find the one who did this."
"As you should, otherwise you would have failed your dream, what was it? To be a strong fighter, one that your friends can depend on?" Mitsurugi seemed to have asked, but it was said as a statement.
"Yes, shishou." Keeping his head to the ground.
Mitsurugi's eyes narrowed. "Tell me this, how do you feel?"
Issei blinked. "Huh?"
"Should you get your rematch, how do you feel?"
"I'm…" Issei swallowed. "…Afraid. Because if I fail, I won't get a third chance."
"Why's that?"
"Because I'll be dead."
Mitsurugi nodded. "And you remember what I said about fear?"
Issei inhaled. "That it's a primal fire within us, we can either use it to fuel us or… allow it to consume us."
"Good." Mitsurugi nodded. "It brings me to the question of if you're afraid to die?"
Issei closed his eyes, processing the question before answering."I am, I've not lived long like you. I know that I've made mistakes with the path that I was on and the people that I was with, which you have told me to look within my inner circle. If I'm not inspired then I don't have a circle, that I'm in a cage." He gritted his teeth again. "I was in a cage with Matsuda and Motohama, I was never going to grow and I needed help. Kenichi-senpai helped me there, he allowed me to surround myself with better people, who did inspire me as I want to surpass them like I also want to surpass Saiga-sama, just like I also want to surpass you, shishou. So yeah, I'm afraid to die because if I do, then I won't be able to surpass any of you and I'll never reach my other dreams."
Mitsurugi's expression softened but barely. "Then you know what you must do."
Issei remained bowed deeply, forehead touching the ground. "Hai, shishou. I do."
"Very well." Mitsurugi nodded.
Xenovia gritted her teeth, knowing that she would have to be smarter in dealing with Issei, but that would be almost impossible as he is being instigated by Mitsurugi himself. She also had to admit that it would make sense why Issei showcased almost little to no perversion with such a person like Mitsurugi in charge of him. Irina, on the other hand, was a little worried that her childhood crush could possibly go down a darker path, rather than his optimistic, albeit perverted one. She would be hoping that he found a balance between the two paths and secretly hoping that she could be his light at the end of the tunnel.
Setsuka stepped forward. "He also received some new bokken." She handed over the bokken to her husband.
Mitsurugi examined them as he pulled out one of them. "Hmm, these are finely made and two? It never occurred to me that you would dual wield, but I did make sure that you were ambidextrous in holding a sword in either hand."
Issei lifted his head. "I just believe that I would have a spare in case one broke like last time."
"That's true." Mitsurugi sighed, but pleased that Issei still had something to practice with. 'Not only that, but he also has some people to practice with.' A plan began to form in the ronin's mind.
Saiga stepped forward. "If I may interject?"
Mitsurugi nodded. "Go ahead."
"Issei?" Saiga said to get the boy's attention. "You claim that you want to surpass us, a tall task, but I hear that you finally landed a blow on Renka and a takedown. It took you months, but you have taken the first step to that dream of yours. Well done."
Mitsurugi stroked his chin. "She's the one teaching you Chinese kenpo, correct?"
"That's right." Issei nodded.
"Soon, you will beat her, but first, you will need to beat the one that defeated you."
Issei nodded firmly. "Yes, shishou."
Mitsurugi looked toward the sky. "You should go home. It's past six. I'm sure your parents will worry."
"Don't worry." Saiga held up his hand as he typed something into his phone. "A car will be here in a few minutes to take you."
Issei blinked. "Really?" He didn't want to take advantage of Saiga's gratitude, but it did perplex him at how rich the man was.
He secretly hoped that he could learn the man's business secrets and possibly use that money for his dream of helping his parents, Elize, Yu-Mi, and his club members with their dreams.
"Of course. Unless you planned to carry her back." Saiga nodded toward Irina, who blushed.
Issei scratched his cheek, but also blushed but only Saiga and Mitsurugi could see it. "She didn't slow me down on the way here… but my parents would worry less if I wasn't walking."
Saiga chuckled. "I thought so."
Mitsurugi nodded. "You may stand, boy."
"Hai, shishou." Issei nodded before rising from the ground and dusting his clothes.
Saiga's phone buzzed and he checked it. "The car is out front for you."
Mitsurugi turned his back towards his student. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Issei bowed, knowing that it would be for his shift.
Setsuka added, "I'll update you on the progress of your friend's outfit."
Xenovia turned to the woman. "How much should we compensate you for these clothes?"
Setsuka waved her hand dismissively, a gentle smile softening her features. "You don't need to do anything."
Xenovia blinked, skeptical. "Really?" She was fully prepared to pay as needed, but grimacing that it would take a chunk of their pay from the church.
So she was very surprised that they wouldn't need to, even Irina was surprised because she was anticipating a scolding from Xenovia about their funds.
"Yes, it's best to get your partner home, she needs to soak her ankle. I'm sure a bath would do her some good, it will help ease off some stress." Setsuka said.
Xenovia nodded, accepting the advice.
Saiga bowed his head slightly. "Thank you for taking the time to speak with us."
"It was worthwhile," Xenovia replied.
She had a look of relief on her face, knowing the number of enemies had been drastically reduced thanks to Saiga's team eased a weight from her shoulders. They were merely waiting to see what Kokabiel would do for reinforcements, if he could find any. They also had the aid of Heishirou Mitsurugi, which Xenovia wondered if she could have the man train her in the spare time that he had.
"Come on, Irina." Xenovia began turning slowly, so Irina could adjust speed.
"Right." Irina nodded, while Xenovia helped her exit the garden and head toward the front of the shop.
Mitsurugi handed Issei his bokken, but his eyes sharpened. "Here are your bokken, Issei, but there's something that I must ask you." He was also making sure that the two exorcists had exited the garden.
Issei straightened. "What's that?"
"Those girls. Are they your friends?"
Issei scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Uh… the injured one, Irina, she's my childhood friend, I think Xenovia just tolerates me and probably less after the incident this morning, where, I, um… I accidentally saw her breasts, when I nearly ran into her, when she was leaving the bathroom."
Setsuka burst into laughter. "Haha, that's it?"
Saiga hummed thoughtfully. "Hmm, in some traditions, she may believe that you have sullied her for a future husband."
Issei paled. "I didn't mean to! Oh man…"
Mitsurugi snorted. "Hmph. She'll get over it."
"I hope so…" Issei slumped, fearing that Xenovia blames him and she could no longer find a husband.
Setsuka folded her arms. "Well, since Irina is sidelined, maybe you can try to reconnect. See what she has been through in the years that you have been apart."
Issei blinked. "Okay… so what do you suggest?"
"Ask her out."
"No." His immediate refusal made Saiga chuckle.
'He still doubts himself because of his reputation.' Saiga thought as he processed the situation and was comparing Issei to Kenichi, noting the similarities between the two.
Setsuka raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"
Issei looked away. "I just… well…"
Mitsurugi's voice cut through him like a blade. "It seems you have already been consumed by fear. I guess all that you said before was a lie."
Issei froze as Mitsurugi said nothing else and decided to head back to his home as Issei slumped his shoulders.
Saiga turned in the direction that Mitsurugi walked in and began to follow, but stopped and turned back to Issei. "He's right, you know, sure you're building confidence as a fighter, but it should be all of you that is building confidence, not just a part of you." He placed a hand behind his back as he followed Mitsurugi.
Issei swallowed hard. 'It's just like what I told Akeno-senpai, now I feel like such a hypocrite. They're both right, I need to be confident in myself all around, not just in certain aspects.'
Setsuka approached him gently. "Based on the expression on your face, you know they're right."
Issei nodded. "Yeah… anyway, I'll see you tomorrow, obasan."
"Enjoy your evening." She hugged him briefly, but he didn't reciprocate. "Be sure to take a shower."
It snapped Issei out of his funk as he sniffed himself. "Good call." He sprinted out of the garden to meet Xenovia and Irina.
Setsuka watched him go, smiling softly. 'I look forward to seeing how he does tomorrow.'
Issei emerged into the front room where Xenovia and Irina waited, both eyeing the car outside with suspicion. He could tell that they were looking skeptically at the vehicle that was outside. He gathered up his things and walked up to them as they turned to him.
"You ready to go?"
Xenovia nodded. "Yes, but…"
"Don't worry." Issei stepped outside and unlocked the car. "It's one of Saiga‑sama's."
The driver stepped out and bowed. "Hyoudou‑san, glad to see you're not severely injured."
"Not me this time. But my friend is." He gestured for the exorcists to come forward.
"Oh dear," the driver murmured, quickly opening the door so Xenovia could help Irina inside. "I'll get you home swiftly."
"Thank you." Issei bowed to the man.
He was about to enter when they were stopped by the blonde swordswoman.
"Wait!" They turned to see Setsuka hurried out with rolls of bandages and tape. "You forgot these." Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
"Thanks, obasan." He took them from her, gave a quick hug and then climbed in the car.
"You're welcome." Setsuka said before turning to the driver, "Get them home safely."
"Right away, ma'am." The driver bowed to the woman before he hurried into the car himself.
Issei and Irina waved as the car pulled away, while Setsuka waved back.
When the car disappeared from her view, Setsuka's cheerful face changed as she became serious and turned in a specific direction. Her eyes narrowed as she waited for the figure that she sensed to make a move. In the distance, a female figure froze, when she saw that Setsuka's gaze was on her.
Setsuka smirked. "Thought so." She returned inside.
'She's not one to be messed with,' The figure thought as she retreated to her own base.
Meanwhile with Issei and the exorcists, the car ride was fairly silent, both Xenovia and Issei were in their own thoughts. Irina took it upon herself to hold Issei's hand, which surprised him as he jumped a little.
"She was nice," Irina murmured.
Issei smiled faintly. "Yeah. She is." His hand was stiff, despite her holding it gently. "In a few days, you'll be back to doing your Church work."
"Right!" Irina cheered, but she made sure that their hands remained intertwined.
After a moment, Issei asked, "Just to be clear, you said that you knew my favorite Super Sentai, how did you know that?"
Irina giggled. "Because you inspired to be like him, even now, you're kind of both similar and when you were acknowledging your failure, however, it was a toss up between two of them, so I got it on the second try."
Issei groaned. "I'll be sure to change my password."
"Eh?! But then how will I be able to find anime for us to watch?" Irina tried to reason, she was already plotting her next move.
"I don't know." Issei shrugged.
Irina puffed her cheeks. "You can try to change it all you want, but it's going to be based on something that you liked, something that you drew inspiration from, and I will figure it out, Ise-kun."
'Why do I get the feeling that she's right about that,' Issei sighed. "I suppose that's true, you know so much about me, but I know nothing about you. I hope that I can change that before you go."
Irina smiled warmly. "That's fine by me."
Xenovia watched the interaction and merely rolled her eyes at how dense Issei could be and also how indirect Irina could be. She couldn't believe that this was Irina's childhood crush, but she was annoyed by how Irina couldn't just say that she likes him and move on. She did hope for both of their sakes that this would all be resolved. She already knew that Issei was part of Irina's reason to keep living on this mission. Maybe something would happen, while Irina healed from her injury.
The driver spoke. "We've arrived at your residence, Hyoudou-san." As the car began to slow down.
"Oh, thank you." Issei said to the driver as he gathered his things and stepped out, helping both girls exit the vehicle.
"Thanks, Ise‑kun," Irina said softly.
"Thank you," Xenovia added, she was not anticipating Issei to help her. 'I guess someone did instill some manners into him.'
"Have a beautiful evening, Hyoudou-san." the driver said.
"You too! Get home safe!" Issei waved as the car pulled away.
When it was out of sight, Issei turned and opened the front door, which they were hit by the smell of his mother's cooking drifting out.
"We're home!" Issei called out.
"Welcome back. Dinner should be ready soon." Miki replied back from the kitchen.
Issei slipped off his shoes and gestured toward the stairs.
"You should take her upstairs to bathe. That'll help her ankle relax."
"Right." Xenovia nodded, removing her own boots and then she supported Irina up the stairs, leaving Issei to head into the kitchen.
Miki didn't turn around as she didn't need to.
"So, how was your day?" She asked, feeling her son enter the kitchen.
Issei sighed. "A bit stressful, I made a couple of mistakes, but I'm making up for them."
"Hmm? How so?"
Issei rubbed the back of his neck. "I, uh… slipped up during my spar with Renka‑senpai."
Miki raised an eyebrow. "What'd you do? Touch her inappropriately?"
Issei groaned. "…Yeah. I messed up when I flipped her over, I was sure that I had her shoulder. But when she landed… my hand was on her, um… breast." His face burned red at the memory.
"Oh dear. And then?"
"Well, she kicked me off, thus winning the spar again. I landed hard on my back, but she helped me get it back in alignment." Issei answered.
"That's nice." Miki sighed as it wasn't something too bad. "And what did you do for her?"
"She asked for a back massage."
Miki nodded knowingly. "I hope you apologized."
"Yeah, I did so throughout the whole massage."
"Well, be sure to do it again, she may seem fine about it now, but tomorrow, her opinion could change." Miki reminded him.
Gorou entered, sitting at the table. "She's right. Listen to your mother."
Miki looked around. "Where are Xenovia and Irina? Did you meet up with them?"
"Yes, I did, they just went up to bathe, speaking of which, may I use your bathroom, since they will be using the other one?" Issei asked, feeling slightly bummed that he was sharing a bathroom now.
Gorou waved a hand. "Go ahead. I don't have a problem."
"Make it quick," Miki added. "I'm sure you're all hungry."
Issei kissed her cheek. "Thanks, kaa‑san." He hurried upstairs to his room.
When he got to his room, he closed the door and quickly stripped off his school uniform, leaving himself naked, but he didn't really worry, since he was in his own room. He was thinking about how some things were looking up for him and reached for his towel, but then stopped. As he looked towards his door, which was now open and saw Xenovia standing there in her battle outfit on, but without the gloves and boots.
Since she wasn't wearing the white cloak over it, Issei got to see it all in detail and he couldn't deny that he was fascinated by her body. The girl had muscles and curves and then he also realized something.
'Wait a minute, isn't this like a porno scenario that I've seen somewhere before… Nah, I doubt that, Xenovia definitely isn't that type of girl. She's all business, which can be… No! Ise, focus!' Issei returned to reality and realized that she hadn't disappeared, so it was clear she was real and not a figment of his imagination."Um…"
Xenovia's cheeks were faintly pink. "I suppose we're even for this morning."
Issei covered himself with both hands. "When did you get in!?"
"When you were stripping. I thought you heard me. Also..." she tilted her head, analyzing him like a specimen, "I can still see an inch or two. If you want to cover it effectively, place your hands vertically, side by side. Not stacked on top of each other."
Issei sputtered as he adjusted his hands. "Well, you could stop looking!" He snatched his towel and wrapped it around himself, knowing that it provided more cover than just his hands.
He prayed she didn't notice the twitch he felt earlier. Her outfit left very little to the imagination and she was quite attractive.
"Seriously, you could've looked away. I had the decency to do that for you." Issei scolded her, but Xenovia was obviously unfazed.
Xenovia shrugged. "Sorry. I just wanted to talk."
"Well, can we do this after, you know when I'm not naked?" Issei gestured to himself.
"Would you feel better if I was naked too?" Xenovia responded back, she was prepared to strip herself if need be, she was confident in her body.
"NO!" Issei exclaimed, 'Wait a minute, why did I say that? A girl was willing to get naked in front of me. I am such a dumbass, but then again, there's no romance between us, otherwise I would so be down and she doesn't like me like that either.'
She blinked. "I'm quite surprised. I thought someone as lecherous as you wouldn't mind."
'There it is,' Issei groaned. "Seriously? I'm trying to reform myself from that. Look, of course, I would love to see you naked, you're an attractive girl. However, you are not my significant other and I am not yours. What happened this morning and now, were accidents."
Xenovia nodded. "Sorry, I just wanted to see for myself, you're mostly what Irina described you to be."
"Uh… thanks?" He felt like that was a backhanded compliment. "How is she?"
"She's in the bath, I made sure that her ankle would stay soaked in the warm water, were you planning on joining her?" Xenovia eyed his state of dress, wondering if the childhood friends actually did plan something. 'Hmm, it would be good for both of them.'
"No, I'm using my parents' bathroom, since I stink, too." Issei explained to her, while blushing at the prospect of joining Irina. 'It was one thing to bathe, when we were kids and wow, even then, I didn't notice she was a girl. I was too busy focusing on what trouble we could cause back then.'
"Right. Then we'll talk after dinner." Xenovia said it was more like an order, which made Issei deadpan.
"Sure, that's fine," Issei sighed and then he remembered something. "I actually wanted to speak with you."
Xenovia paused. "Then your shower will have to wait as I don't think you and I will get the chance."
Issei blinked. "Sure, we will, when we train together?" He added it like a question to gauge her reaction.
"…Train together?" Xenovia's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Yeah. You train in the mornings. And I have two bokken now. So I was hoping..." Issei tried to give his reasons for why they should train together.
"You're hoping to use me to see how you can beat Freed." Xenovia figured out what he was implying.
"…When you put it that way, yeah." Issei nodded. 'Wow, she's smart. I wish she was my friend all those years ago.'
Xenovia sighed. "Hmm, I'll think about it. Frankly, I don't want you involved, but something makes me think that you will find a way, even if I don't want you to."
'She sounds a little bit annoyed, I'm guessing she thinks that I'm like Irina. In terms of energy, yeah, that sounds about right.' Issei nodded. "Thanks, now if you'll excuse me…" slipping past her out of his room and toward his parents' room.
Xenovia could only sigh, before she decided that she would see how Irina was doing and then help her get her ankle bandaged and then take her own shower.
Issei entered his parents' bathroom and started the shower, his thoughts were on what he learned about Freed. He could not believe that Freed was an artificial human and he figured that Xenovia was the best of the two to ask. It's nothing against Irina, but he felt that Xenovia would be real with him and not hold anything back.
This way, he would get an understanding of what he would be getting himself involved in. Finishing his shower, he headed back to his room to dress up, since he knew that he would be chilling for the remainder of the night, he dressed in his sleepwear. When he put on his shirt, he was interrupted by a knock on his door.
"It's open." Issei called out.
"Hey." Irina stepped in, wearing pajamas, hair still damp.
"What's up?" He gasped, seeing her limping into the room and he went to help her sit on the bed. "Why haven't you bandaged your ankle?"
Irina smiled sheepishly. "I was hoping you could help with that."
"Why not Xenovia?" Issei asked, wondering why her partner couldn't have helped her out.
"Well, Setsuka-san suggested that it needed to be massaged first, I don't think that's, um… Xenovia's expertise, but Setsuka-san gave praise to your skills, so I figured that I'd ask you, while Xenovia is showering."
'What's obasan planning here?' Issei blushed. "O‑okay." He kneeled down and gingerly lifted up her foot. "You ready?"
"Yeah." Irina nodded, taking deep breaths.
Issei nodded and began to gingerly massage her foot and work his way to her ankle. He was slow, careful, while being attentive as he felt her tense up. She began to relax into his touch, her breathing softened when he felt her relax, he let out a sigh of relief. She did wince every now and then, but eventually stopped and just laid on the bed, eyes half-lidded and allowed him to massage her foot.
"This is nice…" Irina sighed in content.
"Thanks." Issei continued his massage, he was pleased that it wasn't as bad, when she stopped wincing.
After a moment, she spoke quietly. "You know you never answered my question… about how you forgot me."
'There will never be winning an argument with her, she's got such a good memory,' Issei paused. "I know."
"So… are you going to tell me?"
"Not now. But eventually." He answered, hoping that would please her for the moment.
He just wanted to find a way to beat Freed and get his 'get back' as Raichi would call it, avenging that loss from that night. Just thinking about it made his right arm throb, which he winced slightly. He looked up to see if Irina had heard that because from what he could tell, she showed care for him, even though she was also injured.
Irina sighed contentedly. "I thank the Lord for giving you these abilities. Amen."
Issei chuckled. "You really are into your religion."
"Mhm." She nodded, enjoying the massage.
She was happy that Setsuka applied some healing magic to help with the process and she figured that if the woman healed it completely, then Issei would have gotten suspicious. He may be dense, but he was not fully dumb and knew how injuries worked after all, he's been beaten enough times to know it.
"So what anime did you find for us?" Issei asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"A cooking one!" Irina sat up. "I thought you could learn new recipes."
Issei blinked. "New recipes? I think you're confusing me for my mom or maybe your mom, they're the chefs of our families." He pointed out, he was only learning under his mother, but he wasn't going to deny that some food in anime looked good.
"I guess, but I thought you might like it, maybe you can try them on your friends."
Issei looked up at her. "Does that include you?"
Irina's eyes sparkled. "Really? You'd let me try your cooking?" Unaware to Issei, this is how Irina was controlling how things would go in her favor.
"Why wouldn't I? We're friends, too..." He paused. "Right?"
"Childhood friends." Irina corrected.
"Exactly." He nodded and then reached for the bandages. "Alright. Time to wrap your ankle."
Irina nodded. "But before we watch the anime… we have to build your chair."
Issei snorted. "I have to build my chair."
Irina puffed her cheeks. "Seriously?"
Issei continued to wrap her ankle. "Yeah. You're injured."
"That doesn't mean I can't help! I'll read the instructions." Irina argued.
"But..."
Irina crossed her arms. "Nuh‑uh. No negotiations."
Before Issei could argue further, Xenovia made her presence known.
"Your mother is calling us for dinner." Xenovia spoke up, notifying the childhood friends of her presence.
She stood in the doorway in her sleepwear, expression flat as always.
'Ah ha, the voice of reason!' Issei sighed. "Alright, let's go eat. But this isn't over."
Irina smirked triumphantly. "We'll see about that."
Xenovia blinked. "Did I miss something?"
"Not really," Irina said. "Hey, Xenovia, you're joining us, right?"
"For what?" Xenovia tilted her head in confusion.
"The anime we're going to watch!" Irina answered as she had Issei as her crutch.
"Anime?" Xenovia echoed as they descended the stairs.
"They're Japanese cartoons to put it bluntly. Irina found a cooking one." Issei explained with a deadpan expression.
He had been planning on using Xenovia to make Irina focus on their church thing and he could build his chair. However, Irina seemed to have seen the look that he was giving Xenovia and took measures to tap into Xenovia's curiosity. That curiosity would make Xenovia lean more to her side, especially since they had reinforcements, along with the benefits of training with a renowned warrior like Mitsurugi, if he accepted.
Irina puffed her cheeks again. "Hey, there's action in it! It'll be fun."
"We'll see." Issei shrugged as they trudged their way to the dinner table.
They reached the table, where Miki and Gorou were already seated.
"So, how were all of your days?" Miki asked as she began to dish food for them.
Irina smiled politely. "It was alright. I got a slight sprain, but I should be fine in a few days."
"That's good." Gorou sighed in relief. "I'd hate to explain to Touji that you got hurt under our watch."
"And what about you, Xenovia?" Miki asked, turning towards the foreigner. "What do you think of Kuoh?"
"For what it's worth… it's calm." Xenovia answered.
"Where did you travel to?" Gorou asked.
"We didn't really go far from the school." Irina answered the question.
"Did your meeting go well?" Miki asked.
"Yes, and then we even got to see Issei's workplace." Xenovia answered, while glancing over at the boy, who wasn't paying attention to her, but he could feel her glance.
Irina nodded. "His bosses were very nice."
"And quite informative." Xenovia said, making him turn towards her and their eyes briefly met and Issei could see that she was sharp and calculating.
Irina nodded in agreement as Xenovia had informed her of what Saiga and Mitsurugi talked with her about Kokabiel.
"That's nice, anyway, I'll begin working again, but it'll be from home, so I'll be with you, girls, unless you plan on going out again." Miki informed the girls.
"It will just be me, so Irina can heal." Xenovia explained to the Hyoudou matriarch.
"Really? Well, do you know how to get to the school or any landmark in Kuoh?" Gorou asked, worried that she could get lost and he didn't want to get in trouble with the girl's guardian.
"Yes, if need be, I'll contact Issei for assistance, if I am too far from the house." Xenovia answered, her eyes never leaving the boy as she ate.
"Huh?" Issei wondered what she was talking about.
Now with how she was looking at him, Issei only hoped that a girl would look at him like Xenovia was doing. Not out of disgust, but looking at him with curiosity and trying to figure out what his next move would be.
"You could also contact me and I can inform Obasan." Irina told her partner.
"That's right." Miki nodded in agreement.
"I'll also keep that in mind." Xenovia said as she maintained eye contact with Issei, as he was still confused by why she would contact him.
'What is up with this girl?' Issei swallowed. 'I can only guess that Mitsurugi-shishou and Saiga-sama must have said something to her, she was back there for a while, or she may be plotting on taking me out. I know she doesn't want me to get in her way, which I have no intentions of doing. I just hope she doesn't get in my way because I'm going to find Freed.'
Dinner went by smoothly, Irina would talk with Miki and would pull Xenovia in, so she wouldn't feel like the odd one out. Issei would speak with father about when his next fishing trip would be and about his office life. As sooner or later, Issei would eventually join the workforce and he wanted to prepare himself, while he was still in high school.
When they finished, Miki stood. "Alright, you kids go do your thing." While she gathered the plates.
"But kaa‑san..."
"Don't worry, son. I'll help your mother." Gorou spoke up, helping take the plates from the table.
Irina bowed. "Thank you for the meal."
"Yes. Japanese cuisine is quite delicious." Xenovia bowed. "Thank you."
"Why thank you," Miki clapped her hands. "I know Mizuki was still making it, since she runs her restaurant, I figured you would enjoy a taste of Japan. Although, I have been trying various Western recipes."
Irina clasped her hands. "Indeed! I quite enjoy the taste of the food of my homeland."
Issei deadpanned. "Yeah, sure you do."
"But it's true, Ise‑kun!" Irina pouted.
"I believe you." Issei shrugged, only making her pout deepen. "Anyway, if you can handle things down here, I better go build that chair."
"I thought you were doing that yesterday." Gorou raised an eyebrow.
"Nah." Issei shook his head. "Got caught up with stuff."
Irina beamed. "He means to say we'll be building the chair! Just like old times!"
Xenovia saw a vein bulge on Issei's forehead and she couldn't help but smirk. 'That's right, welcome to my world. I thought you would enjoy Irina's persistence.'
"How wonderful! A bonding activity for you two!" Miki lit up. 'Ha, Ise has never rejected Irina before, I don't see him doing so now. Good job, Irina-chan!'
"I agree." Gorou nodded with a cheeky smile.
Irina added cheerfully, "Actually, it'll be the three of us. Xenovia's joining too!"
"Eh!?" Issei and Xenovia looked at Irina as she lost her mind.
"Irina, please don't drag me into this." Xenovia facepalmed.
"No way! We're partners!" Irina crossed her arms. "So we stick together!"
"There's no stopping her, when she gets like this." Xenovia mumbled as she sighed in defeat. 'I forgot that persistence could be used on me, too.'
"She can be stubborn." Issei sighed. 'Xenovia, I feel your pain.'
"Gee, I wonder where she gets it from." Xenovia looked pointedly at him.
Both childhood friends gasped dramatically, placing their hands on their chests.
"Xenovia!" Irina told her.
"How could you say such a thing!" Issei also accused her.
'Do they share the same brain cells?' Xenovia shrunk back on the prospect of getting bombarded by the childhood duo, so she retracted her statement. "Forget I said anything."
"Absolutely not! Now come on, this chair isn't going to build itself!" Irina said, grabbing Xenovia's hand and dragged her upstairs to the best of her abilities with a slightly sprained ankle.
Of course, that was hard to be demanding when you're injured, but Xenovia still allowed Irina to have her way and let herself get pulled.
Gorou chuckled. "You better get going, son."
"Why's that?" Issei looked confused about why he needed to hurry.
"You should know, Ise, that you shouldn't leave a lady waiting." Miki scolded her son as she crossed her arms.
"And in this case, you've got two..." Gorou began to say, until he was interrupted by a scream that was familiar to him, except it wasn't directed at him.
"ISE! HURRY UP!" Irina's voice cried out from upstairs, which made the Hyoudou parents burst into laughter.
"See what I mean?" Gorou said through chuckles.
"You best get a move on." Miki laughed as Issei slumped his shoulders, while trudging toward the stairs.
'I thought I would be excited about having a girl in my room, but now I'm not so sure about that.' Issei sighed, making his way upstairs.
"Oh! I made a new batch of apple cinnamon tea. It's in the pitcher!" Miki informed him.
"Thanks…" Issei answered, sounding like a man walking to his execution.
When he was gone, Gorou asked, "Think he'll be alright?"
"He'll be fine," Miki waved her hand dismissively, knowing that this would be good for her son. "Although I have to tell Mizuki that her daughter is taking the reins."
"Relax. She won't be here long. Don't expect sparks to fly yet." Gorou informed his wife, hoping she wouldn't try to play matchmaker.
"I suppose," Miki sighed. "But we have some money saved up to send him over there, right?"
"That's right." Gorou nodded. "Maybe the girls can help him improve on his English while they're here."
"True. Well, let's finish up and head to bed." Miki said.
Gorou raised an eyebrow. "You got some night reading to do?"
"Mhm," Miki perked up. "Saori-san gave me this book earlier today, I figured that I should start reading it."
"Ooh, sounds fun," Gorou said as he wrapped his arms around her waist. "But I was hoping that we could have some time for… other activities."
"Not with teenagers in the house." Miki scolded, lightly whacking him on the shoulder. "And we're trying to keep our perversion in check."
"Yes, but I'm not broadcasting it to anyone else but you." Gorou whispered into her ear and began kissing said ear, which made Miki shiver a little before she pulled away.
"Let's see…" Miki began to say, while pulling away. "How fast we get through these dishes and how many chapters that I can read and we'll see what happens after."
Gorou laughed. "Duly noted." He began to start washing the dishes with his wife, aiming to spend his own quality time with her afterwards.
Meanwhile, in Issei's room, the three teenagers were preparing to open the box, of course, Irina berated Issei for taking up time.
Irina crossed her arms. "Ise-kun, you need to be more urgent! The quicker we get this done, the more time that we have for episodes!"
Issei just sighed as he knew Irina would continue to scold him, he also wasn't sure what was worse. Having to deal with Irina's glare, while she scolded him or Xenovia's glare, who likely had to deal with Irina's erratic babbling before she called for him to hurry up. He knew that it would be easier to appease Irina than Xenovia, so he apologized.
Since he would be facing a new enemy tonight, handling furniture assembly with two stubborn girls. A part of him did wonder about his harem aspirations and if this was what he wanted, initially, he pondered about the perverted things that he could have done. Then he remembered his talk with Kenichi and knew all that perverted stuff was a small thrill and nothing meaningful in the long run.
Issei raised both hands in surrender. "I'm sorry, okay? I was just talking with my parents."
Irina huffed, arms remained crossed. "Understandable. Now open the box so we can start building!"
Meanwhile, Xenovia sat on the bed, flipping through one of Issei's Gundam manga. Her brows furrowed deeper with every page. Of course, Issei misinterpreted her confusion by not reading from the beginning, when she actually had a hard time understanding the katakana.
"Um, Xenovia," Issei said gently, "you'd understand it better if you started from the beginning."
"Is that so? I just… can't really understand the writing." Xenovia admitted.
Issei blinked. "So you can speak Japanese… but you can't read it."
That only caused her to reapply her glare back towards him.
"I'm still learning, alright?" She said.
"I get it." He knelt and sliced open the box with a letter opener.
Xenovia tilted her head. "So what is this chair?" Putting the manga down on the bed.
Irina answered before Issei could. "He said a lot of content creators have them. Are you going to make videos for the internet, Ise‑kun?"
Issei shook his head. "Not really. But I'll need to save up again for new computer parts and build a new PC."
Irina's eyes sparkled. "You can do that?" She was surprised by the new skills that her childhood friend had.
She also may not have known it, but this was a skill that Issei hadn't revealed to his club members yet, so she was one of the first to know about this. Personally, it was her own selfish desire to be the first in many things about his life, but her moving away disrupted that.
"Yeah, despite my perversion, I was fascinated with developing and creating content, but I knew that I needed a powerful PC to do it. My laptop is decent enough, but like the world, you always have to upgrade." He shrugged. "Kind of like how I upgraded my friend group."
Xenovia nodded slowly. "You mentioned something about that, they didn't inspire you."
"No, they did not," Issei sighed. "In fact, now they spread false rumors about me to make themselves feel better."
Irina's expression was horrified. "That's horrible!"
Issei shrugged. "Yeah, but they don't want to better themselves, honestly, they could have been so much better than me and I would have been your average dude." While he began to remove items from the box.
"What do you mean?" Xenovia asked.
"Well, amongst the three of us, Motohama was the smartest. I had faced his cousin, Taichi, in the tournament, and Matsuda was a sports star in middle school. He could have been one of the biggest jocks in the school, if he stuck to his guns. As for me, I'm just your average guy, nothing special, if I didn't have my perversion to make me stand out like it did, I would just disappear in the crowd." Issei answered as he inspected the chair parts that he pulled out.
Xenovia and Irina looked at each other as they had seen him literally knock down a devil. Xenovia swore that she had seen whatever power he had used to bring down the Sekiryuutei and with raw force, even though it was a blindside shot, it still shouldn't have been possible for a human to do that. Irina seemed to be in agreement based on her facial expression.
"Okay, here are the instructions," Issei handed Irina the instruction booklet. "Since you're injured, you get to call out the steps. Xenovia, want to help me with this?"
"Might as well." She sighed, standing up from the bed.
Irina smiled softly as unbeknownst to Xenovia, Irina not only wanted to include Xenovia so she didn't feel left out. She did it, so Xenovia could think of something that wasn't church related and experience something normal. To give Xenovia a little taste of life outside the Church, something that she had before she had to move away from Kuoh.
"Alright, we're going to need to get the base of the chair set up." Irina instructed as she looked at the booklet.
"Looks like we need the wheels." Issei said as he looked through the parts.
"Right." Xenovia nodded as she gathered them with surprising efficiency.
They continued to build from the base upward, adding in the gas canister that would be used to raise the chair. They also found another set of instructions that would help prevent squeaking. They installed the seat cushion and the backrest. They installed the armrests along the way, but after 15 minutes, they completed it.
"It's done!" Irina cheered as she threw her hands up triumphantly.
Issei grinned and held out his hand to Xenovia.
"Thanks for the help." He said.
"Uh, you're welcome." Xenovia hesitated… then shook his hand as a strange warmth bloomed in her chest, feeling a sense of euphoria. 'This… feels different. I usually only feel accomplishment when serving the Church. But this… this gave me a sense of satisfaction, too.'
Irina plopped into the chair. "Ahh, this is amazing!"
Issei frowned. "Hey, I'm the owner of the chair. I should have the first sit!"
Irina tilted her head. "It is a little uneven at the head and neck area." She completely ignored Issei's complaints.
"Because you forgot the magnetic pillow that comes with it," He gently moved Irina's head and snapped the pillow into place. "See?"
"Ooh, that's much better." Irina nodded, relaxing her head back against the pillow.
Xenovia shifted awkwardly. "…May I try it?"
Irina beamed. "Sure!"
However, Xenovia wasn't looking at Irina, she was looking at Issei, waiting for his permission. After all, it was his chair and she wondered if he would reject her because of their previous interactions.
To her surprise, Issei nodded and smiled. "Sure, go ahead, I mean you helped build it, you got more claim on it than she does." He jabbed a thumb in Irina's direction.
"Hey! Without my instructions, you'd be hopeless!" Irina countered.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Issei began picking up the trash to toss it in the box and making sure that there were no other documents in the box. "Anyway, I'm going to toss this out. Irina, since you already know how to break into my laptop, can you set up the anime for us to watch?"
"No problem!" Irina moved to his other chair, so Xenovia could sit in the new one and started up his laptop.
"Kaa‑san said there's apple cinnamon tea in the pitcher," Issei added.
Irina perked up. "Oh, can you bring some cheesecake as well?"
"You're so needy."
"Hey, it will help you in the future." Irina shrugged, making Xenovia facepalm at the bickering between the two childhood friends.
"…I don't know what you mean by that, but yeah, whatever you say." He walked out of the room with the empty box.
Xenovia watched him leave, then turned to Irina.
"Why don't you just tell him?" She sighed, she knew that it was better to be direct.
Irina blinked. "Tell him what?"
"You clearly like him, so just tell him." Xenovia deadpanned.
Irina's face went red. "N‑Not yet! I'll do it when I'm ready! On my own time!"
"If you say so. But right now, he clearly thinks you have a boyfriend."
"But I don't!" Irina protested.
"He'll keep thinking that unless you say something." Xenovia leaned back in the chair and sighed in content. "…This is really comfortable."
"I know," Irina nodded. "It must've cost a lot. It feels so high‑end."
Xenovia hesitated. "You know… he asked me to train with him."
Irina's eyes widened. "Really?"
"Yes, I accidentally intruded on his privacy, but… I would say that he and I are even now." Xenovia closed her eyes.
Irina blinked. "How so?"
Issei's voice came from the doorway, "I think she is referring to where she walked in on me naked while you were bathing."
Irina's soul left her body as she paled. "X‑Xenovia!"
Issei set down three plates of cheesecake. "Relax, Irina. It was an accident. I'm getting the tea." He left again.
Irina's blush deepened as she was infuriated, pondering about what Xenovia had seen and wondered if it applied to guys as it does to girls. If that was true, then Issei could never get married to her or maybe that her partner and childhood friend would wed because they had seen each other in that state.
Xenovia raised an eyebrow. "What are you thinking about?"
"N‑Nothing!" Irina looked away.
"Lying is a sin." Xenovia informed her as she leaned towards her partner.
Irina wilted. "…Fine. I'm sorry, I guess I'm a little jealous that you got to see him… you know."
Xenovia shrugged. "It was an accident. And honestly, I think he only asked me to train because you're injured."
Irina nodded slowly. "Yeah… probably. But do you really think he'll go after Freed?"
Xenovia gave her a look. "He's your childhood friend. You should already know the answer to that."
"I do," Irina sighed. "I just wanted to know if you thought otherwise, I'm worried for him."
Xenovia crossed her arms. "We have less to worry about now. But I don't understand why Saiga won't just tell us where Kokabiel's base is."
"He's probably trying to keep us safe. And secure his forces. You did say that he knew Deacon Cristaldi." Irina reasoned with her partner.
"That's right, but it's Issei's master that frightened me a little…" Xenovia shivered. "His aura felt like Eminence Strada's."
Irina's eyes widened. "Really? Now that you mention it… I felt something similar."
Xenovia leaned back in the chair. "If I may ask… what made you lose it in that spar? Other than the Sekiryuutei insulting your friend?"
Irina lowered her gaze, fingers curling around the fabric of her pajama top.
"It was when he told me that without my katana, I'm nothing." Irina answered as her voice trembled, not from fear, but frustration. "And… I hate to admit but he's right. That's why I asked Ise‑kun if I could train with him. We may have learned some form of hand-to-hand combat, but it's not really our specialty."
Xenovia nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose that we can head to his school and then we should observe him at his club. If we're to improve our hand‑to‑hand combat, learning from martial artists would be ideal. I, too, would need to sharpen my own hand-to-hand combat capabilities."
Irina brightened instantly. "That's a great idea! We can ask Ise‑kun when he gets back..."
"Ask me what?" Issei walked in balancing three cups of steaming tea.
Irina stiffened. "Uh, well, um…"
Xenovia didn't and gave her thoughts. "We are wondering if we can join you at your club tomorrow."
Issei blinked. "I'll have to ask Kenichi‑senpai, but…"
Irina tilted her head. "But what?"
"Why do you want to come?" Issei asked, setting down the cups of tea and pulling out his phone.
Xenovia answered plainly. "To learn, we are not so adept with hand-to-hand combat."
Issei nodded slowly. "Makes sense. But that just means you have to do something for me." He shot a pointed look at Xenovia.
She sighed. "Fine. But only if your senior agrees."
Issei smiled. "On it!" As he typed away on the phone, giddy that he could have another training partner.
His phone buzzed and he looked at the screen to see Kenichi's reply to his message.
Kenichi: What is it, Ise?
Issei: I wanted to know if the girls that are staying at my house could come to the club tomorrow.
Kenichi: Really? You want to bring them here?
Issei: They're the ones that asked to come, I just wanted your permission. They'll only be watching as one is injured, but she should be fine by the weekend.
Kenichi: Well, I have no problem with it and I'm sure we are all looking forward to meeting the childhood friend that you've talked so much about.
The last text message made Issei slump his shoulders and sighed, of course, this was easily picked up by Irina.
Irina leaned forward. "What's wrong?"
"Kenichi‑senpai said everyone's excited to meet you… specifically you, Irina."
"Me? Why?" Irina blinked as she pointed at herself.
Issei rubbed the back of his neck. "Because you're the childhood friend I talked about. Except…"
Irina finished for him. "Let me guess because you thought I was a guy, so you were speaking to them about me being a guy and you have this feeling that they will make fun of you because I'm a girl, right?"
Issei deflated. "…Yeah."
Irina smiled warmly. "Well, don't worry, you're my friend and we stick together."
Issei perked up. "That's right!"
Xenovia cleared her throat. "So we have permission?" Getting the childhood friends back to the topic at hand.
"Yep. It's no problem, I can see if one of my senpai can bring me back, so I can pick you up. However, I do have to work after my club activities, so…"
Xenovia nodded. "That works out well for me, I'd like to spar with your master."
Issei groaned in annoyance. "Ah man, sounds like a fight that I'll have to miss." He never got to see Xenovia fight, which could have helped him find a way to beat Freed.
Irina blinked. "Why?"
Issei crossed his arms. "Seriously? I may have been dumb before, but Yu-Mi-nee has gotten on my ass and smarten me up a bit. I can tell you're both swordswomen, considering that I remember the sword that used to be in your house, when you lived here."
Xenovia deadpanned. 'You're somewhat smart, but not smart enough to see that the girl in front of you likes you. But then again, it's her own fault for not being direct because of how dense you are.'
Both girls stiffened.
Issei pointed at Irina. "Ojisan is literally holding it in a picture with us together, he knew how to use it, since he would entertain us sometimes, so I'm not surprised that he taught you." Then he pointed at Xenovia. "And you got this strict look in your eyes, it makes you look scary, but some scary chicks can be badasses and you put Kiba down and I know that he uses swords, I've seen him use them. So you probably borrowed one from him to beat him. So, it's because of this deduction that I know you're better than me at using a sword, but in time, I'll surpass you, too."
Of course, Issei was unaware of their weapons, but also from his phone call with Haruo and Kyōichi. If he had asked about where the other Excalibur fragments were, he would have known that they had them. Irina seemed to be in shock at his statement and his dedication.
Xenovia's lips curled into a smirk. "Surpass me, you say?"
"Yep. That's the plan." Issei grinned. "Hence why I am bummed I won't get to see you spar with shishou, so I can check your movements, but I will get a glimpse firsthand tomorrow morning."
Irina looked between the two of them. "In the morning?"
"Uh‑huh." Issei nodded. "Oh, I better let Ikki-senpai and Kisara-nee know to not expect me, so they don't need to come over."
Xenovia watched him type away on his phone. "You're quite strict with your training."
"Well, duh, things aren't going to be handed to me like plop, here's all the skills of a martial artist and samurai. You only see that type of stuff in movies and stories, where you get a background check of the character. You don't get to follow their growth through their training." Issei gave her a bewildered look.
Xenovia tilted her head. "…Movies? Stories?"
Issei stared at her. "Have you been that closed off while in the Church?" Putting his hand on his hips surprised, while Irina giggled nervously, scratching the back of her head, while Xenovia had the decency to look embarrassed, cheeks pink. 'She kind of looks cute, when she's embarrassed.'
"I'm sorry," Xenovia apologized.
Irina put a hand on her partner's shoulder. "It's alright, Xenovia."
Issei softened. "Yeah, no worries, we were all raised differently. I would say between the three of us, Irina had it the best."
Irina turned towards him. "How so?"
"Well, for one," Issei began to explain to his childhood friend. "You were able to be exposed to what's outside of the Church and also you were able to make new friends, good friends. I was extremely exposed and thus I was going down a path of depravity and wound up picking bad people, although they could have been good as I noted about their prowess in middle school. But like me, their perversions were out of control and I followed along with them. Xenovia was extremely sheltered, so she missed out on the awesome Super Sentai shows that we watched and Dragon Ball, too. Man, I don't know what I would do if I didn't have the Dragon Ball theme to motivate me."
Irina laughed. "You're also a little more adventurous, if that song I heard you sing was anything to go by."
Issei shrugged. "Oh yeah, it's a pain in the neck to find Japanese covers for Western songs, since I don't really speak English as well as my parents, so I'm thankful that you can understand me, Xenovia. Speaking of which," Issei turned to Irina. "We should have English subtitles for Xenovia."
"Right." Irina nodded as she looked through the settings on the anime site that she was on.
Xenovia let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."
Issei looked back at Xenovia. "Since this is your first exposure to anime, I should warn you that anime comes in many varieties. The most popular ones are pretty much known throughout the world like Dragon Ball for example, I heard that some western countries actually incorporate it into their parades."
Xenovia had a look of curiosity. "Really? I didn't know that." Since she had been sheltered, there was still so much that she had to learn.
"But now it brings us to another problem." Issei said.
Irina tilted her head. "What problem?"
"How are we all supposed to sit and watch? We gotta figure this out quickly as our tea is getting cold."
Irina grinned. "I already have that figured out, here take a seat." She moved from his old computer chair and gestured to it.
Issei followed her instructions and sat in his old desk chair and figured that Xenovia and Irina would share his new one. After all, he had gotten the XL version, so it could hold more weight.
"What the…" Issei was confused as Irina shifted in front of him and then she sat in his lap, swinging her legs over to the side, Issei's body just locked up. "W‑What are you doing?!"
He was blushing heavily as he did not understand what her thought process was.
Irina blushed, but she looked away from Issei, so he didn't know. "Well, I used to sit in your lap before, so…"
"But we were kids! This is different!" Issei tried to argue.
"Not really…" Irina pouted.
'Keep calm, don't let your body take over.' Issei reminded himself, sighing. "Irina, we cannot do the same things that we have done as we were kids, for example, you and I cannot take a bath together."
Xenovia raised a hand as if asking a question. "But wouldn't it strengthen your bond, I've heard about this, it's called skinship or hadaka no tsukiai, it also allows for more open and honest conversations."
Issei stared at her. "…We're not lovers."
"From what I read, it's the touching of physical contact between parent and child or between lovers or friends and you're childhood friends, so it works out." Xenovia countered, she didn't fully realize it, but she was acting as Irina's wingwoman.
"No, it doesn't." Issei deadpanned, while he pinched the bridge of his nose, hoping no blood spilled as his mind did begin to think of his childhood friend in that light, but he shook his head, getting back to focus. "Think about it, say you have a boyfriend, you think that he would tolerate you being naked with another man because you're friends with him? The answer is no, it's the same way with a man with a girlfriend, that girlfriend wouldn't like her boyfriend or husband naked with another woman that is not her."
Xenovia paused. "…Oh." She put a hand to her chin, thinking up a reply and then she asked, "So your former harem king dream, how would that apply?"
Issei let go of his nose, inwardly groaning, but he still answered. "You bring up a fair point there, but I'm not really interested in that. It's kind of a perverted thing to think about and I am trying to move away from that stuff and go on a better path."
"I suppose that's fair," Xenovia nodded at the answer, but continued on. "But say that you and I become friends and Irina gives her okay."
'She's not going to let this go. I thought Irina was the persistent one,' Issei pointed at her. "First off, I would need to have a say in this, she would need my opinion on the matter, if we are partners. That's why it's called a partnership."
Xenovia crossed her arms, giving Irina a pointed stare. "I wish we had met you earlier, so Irina could hear your thought process about partnerships."
Irina stiffened, a bead of sweat forming at her temple, but Issei felt her tense up, so he subconsciously rubbed her back to calm her down before he answered Xenovia.
Issei waved a hand dismissively. "Nah. If you'd met me earlier, I'd still be a pervert thinking about seeing you naked. So no…" Issei shook his head. "You definitely shouldn't have met me earlier."
'Hmm, so that's on your mind. I suppose I can take that as a compliment if you find me physically appealing, but I think Irina's the one that wants you looking at her and thinking of her like that.' Xenovia thought to herself.
Irina puffed her cheeks. "As your friend, I would've dragged you off that debaucherous path, Ise‑kun! I told you that!"
"Oh… yeah, you did." He cleared his throat and turned his attention to the girl. "But anyways, are you fine with the… seating arrangement, Irina?" He gestured awkwardly at her sitting in his lap.
Irina nodded without hesitation. "Huh, yeah, it's not a problem, plus your lap is more comfortable than this chair." She shifted a little bit, incidentally grinding her butt into her crotch, which made them both blush.
'Don't get an erection, think of something else, the chair… That's right! The chair!' Issei swallowed. "I'm sure the chair that Xenovia is sitting on is much more comfortable than my lap."
Xenovia raised an eyebrow. 'Does he prefer me in his lap that he wants us to switch? Irina may get jealous about that. Seriously, you have someone that actually likes you, just accept her already, for both of our sakes.'
Irina shrugged. "Well, yeah, but this helps strengthen our bond like Xenovia said after being away from each other for so long." She shifted again to fix her pajama pants from riding up and got comfortable.
Issei sighed and nodded. "I guess…" The last time that he had been this close to a girl was Renka after they talked and she assured him that they were friends. Plus he'd seen his dad lose too many arguments with his mom to think he could win this one, so no point in arguing with Irina. "So what are we watching?"
Irina brightened. "It's called Shokugeki no Soma. Or..." She switched to English for Xenovia. "Food Wars."
Issei raised a brow. "Oh, so it's cooking battles, huh?"
"Yeah," Irina nodded as she began to explain. "The protagonist gets sent to this culinary school by his father to elevate his cooking prowess, however, since he's from a small town, he is kind of looked down upon because of his social status in the culinary world and so he's kind of proving them wrong with his cooking."
'So this is what you've been doing, while in his room.' Xenovia deadpanned as she gave a side glance to her partner.
Issei nodded. "Oh, sounds interesting, well, it's your show, so take it away."
"Right!" Irina hit play to begin the first episode.
The three got settled in and ate their cheesecake and drank their now lukewarm tea. Of course, apple cinnamon tea could also be turned into an iced tea as well. However, the coolness of the cheesecake worked better with the warm tea. Needless to say, Issei was intrigued, he was awed when the main character, Soma, fed his friend fried squid and peanut butter.
He was plotting on feeding Irina something like that and one upping her in their little prank war, now that he had gained some cooking skills thanks to his mother. Unfortunately, he forgot that Irina knew him and she knew him too well for his own liking.
Irina slowly turned toward him, expression blank. "…Ise-kun."
Issei snapped upright. "H‑Huh?!" Fearing to look at her stoic expression.
"What were you thinking about?"
"N‑Nothing! I mean... I was thinking about what he fed her."
Irina narrowed her eyes. "Really? And what were you planning to do with that idea?"
Issei panicked. "Uh, Xenovia?" He reached out desperately.
Xenovia sighed and instead of reaching out for his hand, she went and patted his head. "I'm sorry. I cannot help you."
Irina leaned closer, so close he felt her breath on his cheek. "You were thinking of feeding that to me, weren't you? Just like he did."
"W‑What makes you think I would feed it to you?!" Issei swallowed, sweating from the close proximity that she was in.
"Because she knew him during childhood, but unlike them... we are actually childhood friends. If he could do that to her, I wouldn't be surprised if you took inspiration from him."
Issei wilted. "S‑Sorry…" He did his best to avoid her gaze and not look directly at her, focusing on the screen ahead.
Irina held the stare for a long, terrifying moment. There wasn't much Issei could do, considering that Irina was in his lap. He started sweating as she got even closer, almost like she was peering into his soul.
'Well, at least she is taking some sort of initiative.' Xenovia thought, this being the main reason why she wasn't going to help Issei.
"…Very well. I'll forgive you." Irina said and then whispered in his ear. "For now."
She turned back to the screen and Issei exhaled like he'd escaped death. Issei let out a sigh of relief, but he still felt a sense of dread, as he could not escape her. This became proven true as he stiffened, when he felt Irina's arm casually go around his neck. Now this proved that he could not throw her off his lap so easily.
They continued to watch and Issei got more impressed by Soma making a pork roast, but at the same time, it wasn't a pork roast, since it was made differently.
"Well, I guess that business lady got what she ordered, now she'll have to bug out and leave the shop alone." Issei nodded confidently, believing that Soma had won, but then he couldn't help but wonder. 'Unless these are the bad guys, so he goes to train at the culinary school and win back his home from these business moguls.'
Then the business moguls ate the dish, then Issei's train of thought blanked out for a second as the clothes and their clothes exploded off. He had to pinch his nose to prevent any blood from coming out as the business lady was quite busty, which Issei didn't need her clothes blown off to know that, since she showed cleavage.
Issei choked. "What the...!? Irina, what is this?!"
Irina flailed. "I'm sorry! I didn't know people got naked from eating food!"
Xenovia tapped her chin. "Hmm. It's similar to hadaka no tsukiai."
Issei blinked. "Huh?"
Irina blinked too. "What do you mean?"
The childhood friends looked over at the Italian to get a better explanation of what she meant. Issei didn't realize that he had inadvertently was cuddling Irina. Of course, Irina wasn't going to tell him because she didn't mind that her childhood crush was holding her as she had fantasized about.
"You do know that they are not getting naked willingly, right?" Issei asked.
Xenovia explained calmly. "Well, yes, I'm aware, but eating the food causes them to release all of their inhibitions. Similar to how hadaka no tsukiai allows people to be more open by being naked for social bonding, hence..."
Issei's eyes widened. "Have less inhibitions. Oh, wow... I never thought of it like that, good thinking, Xenovia. You're pretty smart."
Xenovia straightened slightly. "…Thank you."
They continued to watch on as they had finished their cheesecake and tea already and were just binging. However, since Issei was more of an anime veteran than the exorcists, he was more perceptive of things. He started looking in the opening of the anime to find clues about future battles and plot hints. Another thing Issei noted was what Joichiro said, but Soma hung up the phone.
'So you give your all in your cooking to a woman? Or I guess someone that you care about. Wouldn't that apply to fighting as well, I mean I didn't like how Taichi was speaking about my friends, so I'm putting all of my fighting for them. Does that count?' Issei pondered, unaware that the conflict in his mind caused Irina to look at him before turning back to the screen.
Issei also scowled every time Erina Nakiri appeared.
"She can be a bitch." He said, which earned him a light smack to the back of his head from Irina for cursing.
"I agree," Xenovia nodded. "She's too prideful."
Issei narrowed his eyes. "She seems like she's sheltered being surrounded by nothing but luxury, it doesn't help that she has this super power called the God's tongue."
Irina frowned. "I find that insulting."
Issei raised a brow. "You do know that your names are almost similar and you both have purple eyes, maybe you'll turn into her one day."
Irina gasped. "Ise‑kun!"
Xenovia smirked. "He has a point."
Irina puffed her cheeks again. "I will NOT become like her!"
Issei chuckled. "Good. One Irina is enough."
"You got that right!" Irina exclaimed as her palm smacked the top of Issei's head.
"Ow!" Issei rubbed his head. "Anyway… this Erina, she kinda reminds me of a bitchy Rias Gremory."
Both Irina and Xenovia froze as their eyes widened, not even Irina smacked him for cursing.
"…Explain." Xenovia turned towards him, eyes narrowed.
Issei leaned back, arms crossed. "Well, when I first saw her, it seemed like she just makes everyone stop and stare. I thought she was too beautiful to be true and everyone believed that she was the princess. However, I'm not sure but it seemed like she looked at me and it was the look that pissed me off. She looked at me like she was superior, similar to how Erina treats her peers."
Irina raised a brow and frowned. "So what do you think of her now? Is she your type? You did say she was beautiful."
Issei sighed. "Honestly, a part of me thought she was my type, I mean I did have posters of busty red haired women that were like princesses. However, I don't think that I want that…" His mind began to wander to Renka, who wasn't like a princess and she could hold her own in a fight, he believed. "For Gremory-senpai, she kind of seemed self-centered, probably because she knows she's good looking and a lot of people fawn over her. I mean if I had looks like that, I probably would be, too. You met her for your meeting, what was she like to you?"
Xenovia didn't hesitate. "As you said, self‑centered." She remembered their meeting and she wasn't going to lie, she was hoping to instigate a fight.
Irina leaned closer. "Then what kind of girl is your type?"
Issei rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, well, I don't know, I did joke to Akeno-senpai that maybe I could possibly meet a woman with big boobs and long legs that would love me." He completely missed Irina looking down at her own chest as he continued to talk. "But that was just a joke, nothing to take seriously. I mean I just hope that she loves me for me, you know? It's not about looks or money, and she's able to look past me on the surface level and actually sit down and talk with me. So I can speak about my past, what I've done in my perversion, the mistakes that I've made, being a dumb teenager and all, it's bound to happen, I guess that's what I'm looking for."
Since he was looking up at the ceiling, he didn't see Irina turned back to the screen with a soft smile. Xenovia noticed it but said nothing, she knew that Irina appreciated the answer and could gauge her partner's thinking process. If she could look into Irina's mind, she could see that Irina believed that she fit the bill of what Issei described, thanks to her childhood crush on him.
They continued to watch the show, getting about six episodes in. Irina seemed to like the ending song as she was always humming it, since the 3rd episode.
"Alright, I think that's enough for tonight." Issei sighed, stretching his legs.
"But we were just getting to the food war between Ikumi and Soma! Can't we at least watch that episode?" Irina tried to protest.
"It'll be something that we can watch tomorrow. I'm sure Xenovia doesn't mind waiting to see her gyaru counterpart fight?" Issei said, knowing that if he had Xenovia on his side, then Irina would relent.
Xenovia blinked. "She reminds you of me? How so?" Her curiosity had her interested in why Issei would compare her to that character.
She didn't wear bikini tops on the regular, so it made her wonder how Issei saw her in Ikumi, when she felt like they seemed different from one another.
Issei shrugged. "Well, not excluding the short hair, I think you're both bold and you seem like a go-getter, considering that you have approached this church thing. I also can see you with some weapon strapped to your bicep and thigh, since it would make you look even more like a badass."
Xenovia nodded at the answer. "…I wasn't aware of that." She looked away as she couldn't help but like the praise and that Issei respected her as a warrior.
Irina tapped him on the chest. "What about me? Did any character remind you of me?"
"Yuuki." Issei answered.
"Eh?! The animal girl?" Irina was shocked that was who he thought of, when thinking of her.
"You're both cheerful and energetic, but I would say that you have some qualities of Ryouko as well." Issei explained.
While Yuuki was the base because of her personality, he felt that there were traces of Irina in other characters as well. When Irina was thoughtful, she did remind him of Ryouko in the show, but a part of him did compare the chest sizes. Only this time, he kept it to himself, rather than speaking boisterously about it like he had done before.
Irina nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose that's fair."
Issei nudged her. "Come on, you gotta get off. Oh, when you come to the school tomorrow, we can maybe catch Elize-nee and she can really check on your foot."
Irina stood carefully. "Okay, that works for me."
"Do you need us to…" Xenovia gestured towards the plates and cups.
"Nah, you're our guests, I got this." Issei waved her off as he gathered up said plates and cups and began to walk out of the room. "I'll see you guys, have a good night."
He began to head down the stairs but stopped as he felt a chill go down his spine as there was a presence behind him. He could feel like someone was drilling into the back of his head with their gaze.
He turned around and Irina stood at the top of the stairs, arms crossed, eyes narrowed.
"Forgetting something?" She asked.
Issei looked confused and raised an eyebrow.
"Uh, no, I don't… think so?" He answered, trying to process what he was forgetting.
Her eyes narrowed further, showing that she did not approve of his answer. He gulped nervously, slightly sweating, taking that as his cue to leave.
He turned back and continued heading down the stairs towards the kitchen to wash the plate and cups.
"I wonder what I was forgetting?" He mumbled, while he dried his hands after putting away the plates and cups that he washed.
He headed back for the stairs, but stopped, the sense of dread was still around this area. Looking up, he locked eyes with Irina, who remained standing in the same position that he left her in.
'What is with this girl? Did she stand there the whole time?' He gulped. 'Wait …Am I sleeping on the couch tonight?'
He then remembered what Mitsurugi had said about fear, he cannot be afraid of Irina, she wouldn't hurt him, at least he hoped not.
So he took his chances and began walking up the stairs, the problem was Irina was blocking him. So he stood on the second to last step, while Irina was on the top step. Due to their height difference, the steps made it where they could be at the same height. He didn't realize that he would have to do this every time, so with a sigh, he opened up his arms.
She stepped into them without hesitation. "Looks like you remembered." As she reciprocated the hug.
Issei rolled his eyes. "…Do we have to do this every time?" He wasn't going to deny that he didn't enjoy the feeling of the hugs.
It felt nice to be reconnecting with his childhood friend, but this was only going to be temporary, which did feel like a gut punch to him. He didn't want to remember that after they were done here, she would be leaving again. Somehow, detecting his sadness, Irina had tightened her hold on him.
"Of course. It's what friends do." Irina answered his question.
They stayed like that for a moment.
"I see, well, have a good night." Issei sighed.
"You too. Sweet dreams!"
He nodded and said. "Hopefully, all I can think about is beating Freed right now."
Irina's expression dimmed. "You shouldn't. You'll only get hurt."
Issei's jaw tightened and responded. "Maybe, but if I can beat him, I know that my friends will be safe from a psychopath like that."
Irina sighed. "You can be so stubborn sometimes."
"I can say the same to you, isn't that why we were the troublesome duo?" Issei said, tapping her shoulder to lighten the mood.
"I guess," She softened. "Just… be safe, Ise-kun, okay?"
"I'll try." Issei nodded.
"Promise me." Irina reaffirmed, she wanted to know that he wouldn't do anything reckless.
Unfortunately, she knew him too well and he was likely to do something carelessly, hence she needed him to promise her.
Issei shook his head. "I can't promise you that, you have your church thing to handle and I have my fight. If I can get hurt or if I die, then the fault was my own because I made a mistake."
Irina pulled back from the hug, staring into his eyes and she saw his resolve. Something she had seen before when he developed a plan for their troublemaking ways, when they were young. However, she also saw his fear and determination. She could only sigh as she pulled his arms from around her body, so she could leave. However, before she could walk away, he grabbed her hand, holding onto the fingers.
"But I won't die. You'll see." He rubbed her hand to assure her.
Irina squeezed his fingers. "I'll hold you to that."
She walked away, leaving him with a tightness in his throat he couldn't swallow.
Issei heard the door to the guest bedroom shut softly, telling him that Irina had entered her room. Issei made sure that all lights were off and double checked the doors before retreating to his room.
But when he lay down, Irina's sad expression haunted him.
"Does she… not think I can do it?" He mumbled, frowning as he felt that Irina didn't have faith in him and it kind of hurt that she didn't believe in him.
He closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep and remembered that rainy night, however Yuuto wasn't there. He saw Freed giving off his maniacal grin, but now he was looking at Issei. The priest laughed and thrusted his sword down and Issei heard the flesh being pierced. It sickened him, but when he looked down, it wasn't the priest that he saw Freed kill, no, it was his father.
Issei was horrified, as Freed lifted the blade up and stabbed again, the victim turning into his mother this time. This nightmare version of Freed continued to stab into the victim. He watched as the victim changed with each stab from Kenichi to Renka to Ikki, Raichi, Kisara, Miu, Ukita, Mizunuma, Elize, and Yu-Mi. He also saw Chiaki, Hibiki, and Kaname, even Yuuto, Akeno, and Yuuma, along with Xenovia and Irina were victims. His horror only grew upon seeing Shigure, Saiga, Mitsurugi, Setsuka as well as his grandmother, Kenichi's parents, and Honoka. Even his surrogate aunt and uncle, Irina's parents, from what he could remember of them, when he was five years old.
He had to listen to that sound of the stab going through someone's head, someone that he cared about. He had to hear the scream echoing in his mind as each victim had fallen to Freed's blade. The worst part was that there was nothing he could do about it, his body was frozen in fear, just like that night. He couldn't have done anything for that priest and now he couldn't do anything for those that cared about him and were helping him.
He woke up abruptly, seeing that he fell asleep for a little bit and was breathing heavily, while sweating. Looking around, he could see that he was in his room again, not on that rainy street. He tried to get his breathing back to normal before he laid back down in his bed, he didn't care about the sweat. It was helping him cool down a little as he was feeling his heartbeat go back down and not interrupt the silence of the night.
'I need to beat him, but I'll need some help. If I can get that sword out of his hand, Kiba can destroy it and avenge his friends and I will beat you to a pulp, Freed.' He closed his eyes again.
Hoping for a better dream, one where his friends and family were safe and living freely.