Issei Hyoudou
Isabella was fast in the worst possible way.
Not “wow, cool sword girl” fast like Yuuto-san.
Not “small monster with fists” fast like Koneko-chan.
Annoying fast.
The kind that made your eyes hate you because every angle she used looked wrong until it was already trying to break your face.
She fought like a trained boxer, and I had only learned how to throw a punch a week ago.
Her fist passed my cheek so close I felt the air cut before the actual strike came back around in a second line.
“Gah—!”
I got my guard up just in time for the kick that followed and still felt the whole thing jar through my ribs.
Even with Kusari-san’s support it was a tough fight. She was starting to figure out how to deal with the two of us at once.
She grinned behind that half-mask of hers. “You’re still alive? Good. I was starting to worry your ridiculous confidence was unsupported.”
“Why are you praising me when you’re trying to murder me?!” I snapped, because apparently getting punched in the head had not improved my priorities.
Then her fist almost took my mouth off.
Across the sports court, Yuuto-san’s sword struck Carlamaine’s in a hard silver flash that cut through the rest of the noise for one sharp instant.
Their duel had gotten faster since we’d started. Cleaner too. Carlamaine fought like she loved being seen. Yuuto fought like she loved winning more than being seen.
Ravel Phenex stood farther back, watching with all the composed ease of someone who thought the battlefield belonged to her brother before it belonged to anyone currently bleeding on it.
Kusari-san’s voice cut in from my left.
“Down.”
I dropped.
Isabella’s next line cut above me instead of through me, and the second I hit the floor I felt it—the tiny wrongness in the court under my palms.
Another Stillmark.
She’d planted one under Isabella’s follow-up without me noticing.
[Boost!]
The [Rook] crossed it.
Her next step dragged half a beat.
I came up inside that mistake and drove my shoulder into her hard enough to push her sideways.
The extra strength from my boost sent her stumbling.
“Nice!” I shouted.
“Pay attention.”
“R-Right!”
Kusari-san noticed that I had glanced away from our fight for a moment.
Isabella’s eyes snapped toward her instead of me, which was exactly what we wanted.
Kusari-san moved.
Not a dash.
Not a blink.
One ordinary-looking step that made my stomach lurch just from watching it.
One step and she moved much further than she should have.
The visual wrongness of it hit even me, and I was on her side.
For one terrible instant it felt like the world itself had slipped around her and forgotten how far a body should be allowed to move in one step.
Isabella actually faltered, her head tilting the tiniest bit as if vertigo had touched the line between sight and balance.
Kusari-san came out of the shift at Isabella’s blind side and fired a smaller baleful bolt at her side.
Isabella shuddered from the spell and I took the opening.
Boosted Gear flared.
[Boost!]
The power hit my arm, hotter and fuller than before. Buchou’s unsealing still felt half unreal in the middle of a live battle.
The strength inside me was mine now in a different way. Not borrowed from something else.
My strength, finally let off part of its leash.
Isabella recovered before I could capitalize on the opening and she reacted to my swing.
With her fists.
The difference now was that I could stay with her longer than before. The mountain training had made my body stop whining quite so quickly when a fight refused to be fair. I still hurt. I still took hits. But hurting wasn’t the same as losing anymore.
She hammered my guard with a string of flicker jabs that made it feel like six fists were coming from three directions.
I backed.
She pursued.
I blocked high—
The kick hit my stomach again.
“Gah!”
Then came the fists. Face, cheek, jaw, shoulder, too fast to count cleanly. I crossed my arms, took the punishment, and forced myself not to panic.
Breathe.
Guard.
Watch.
Her attack stopped.
Just for a second.
I made the mistake of looking across the court again.
Yuuto-san’s sword flickered and then disappeared.
Carlamaine moved towards her while speaking.
“Unfortunately, your Sacred Gear won’t work on me.”
Yuuto-san’s blade had changed.
No—that wasn’t right.
The sword itself was changing.
Carlamaine’s flame blade came down with all the swagger of the House of Phenex’s fire and Yuuto-san answered it with a sword of ice that hadn’t existed a heartbeat earlier. The cold in the air jumped hard enough that even Isabella noticed it.
“What—?”
Carlamaine struck the ice sword.
Her flame blade froze.
Then shattered.
I stared.
“What!?”
Yuuto-san didn’t even look at me.
“In front of Flame Delete,” she said, all infuriating composure and clean violence, “all fire disappears.”
“A-Absurd! Are you telling me that you have two Sacred Gears!?”
Carlamaine was shocked but she didn’t stop fighting.
She threw what was left of her sword away and drew a short sword from her hip.
She raised her sword and shouted.
“We are the members of the mighty House of Phoenix that rules over fire and wind! Take this! Whirlwind of fire!”
Wind carrying fire moves around the field with Carlamaine and Yuuto-san in the middle of it.
It begins to form a small storm of flames around them.
“That Carlamaine. Has she forgotten that her allies are here as well?”
Isabella sighs at her teammate and shields her face.
Kusari-sanbacks away from the flames, towards me.
Yuuto-san puts another sword forward and says “Stop.”
The whirlwind is pulled into the blade.
Carlamaine stared.
I stared.
Kusari-san blinked. Which was as close to shock as I had seen her.
Even Isabella stared.
“She has multiple Sacred Gears?” Isabella snapped.
Yuuto-san shook her head once. “No.”
Steel flashed as she waved her blade before her.
“Demonic Sword Creation,” she said. “Sword Birth.”
Multiple blades pierce out of the ground around her.
“I can make any kind of demonic sword that I can imagine.”
Kusari-san brought me back to our fight.
“While our opponent is distracted.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
[Boost!]
Here it goes!
Kusari-san’s palm struck the court.
[Explosion!]
Stillmark flattened under Isabella’s feet.
Cold violet flickered and held.
“Now,” Kusari said.
I formed the demonic power with both hands.
Buchou’s voice from training came back to me—shape it, imagine it, don’t let it become the mountain again.
The easiest shape for me was stupid but iconic all the same.
I brought my hands together and let the mass of power answer the image already in my head.
“Demonic Power Bullet! Dragon Shot!”
The blast left me in a roaring sphere of red demonic force.
Huge.
Fast.
Too much.
It pushed me back after I fired it.
Carlamaine saw it and shouted before Isabella could commit to taking it on.
“Isabella! Don’t take it! Dodge!”
Good call.
Even with Kusari-san’s mark Isabella dove clear.
Barely
My Dragon Shot missed her and went screaming past—
—and the tennis court behind the sports court ceased to exist.
The explosion tore through the replica grounds in a huge red blast, wind and shattered earth blowing back over all of us hard enough to make even Ravel shield her face.
When the smoke cleared, the tennis court was gone.
Just gone.
A crater and broken ground where it had been.
I stared.
Then at my own hands.
Then at the crater again.
“Okay,” I said. “That’s… wow.”
Kusari-san looked at me once.
Not impressed exactly.
Not unimpressed either.
Ravel dropped the protective hand from her face and stared too.
Then she looked at me as if I had gone from inconvenient to obscene.
“That Sacred Gear,” she said quietly, and for the first time her calm sounded strained, “cannot be allowed to promote.”
Isabella answered immediately. “Understood.”
She came at me harder than before.
Not annoyed anymore.
Not contemptuous.
Focused.
I had her attention now, and that meant she stopped holding back. She would probably ignore Kusari-san’s attacks and take them just to take me down.
Kusari-san stepped.
The air went wrong around her again.
Even I felt the disorienting drag of seeing her do that too often in one fight.
She reappeared on Isabella’s left.
Something shimmered over her outline just long enough to make the [Rook] turn a fraction early.
I used it.
Shoulder in.
Gauntlet up.
Hook across the body.
Isabella jumped back to avoid the blow.
That would’ve been cooler if I wasn’t busy bleeding.
She came in with the same whipping fists and brutal kicks as before, but the contempt was gone now.
Every strike after that line carried real intent. She wasn’t trying to test me anymore.
She was trying to put me down before I could become a worse problem.
That meant I was doing something right.
It also meant getting hit stopped being educational and started just being painful.
Her next punch skimmed my cheek.
Her follow-up kick slammed into my side hard enough to make the whole sports court lurch.
Then Kusari-san acted.
A baleful bolt hit Isabella’s side.
Stillmark flashed under her foot again.
I didn’t think.
Didn’t hesitate.
Didn’t waste the opening.
My left fist drove in hard.
BANG!
The blow smashed through Isabella’s crossed guard and launched her backward.
Yes!
I felt it the instant my knuckles connected.
I had touched her cleanly.
That was all I needed.
“Burst!” I shouted, power gathering in the exact indecent shape I’d spent so long suffering over. “My special move! Dress Break!”
The spell struck.
Clothes blew apart.
Isabella’s outerwear—and then the rest—vanished in one humiliating instant, leaving her naked and frozen in shock.
For one stupid half-second my brain did exactly what my brain always does.
Huge.
Tight body.
Absolutely amazing.
Saved forever in the sacred archive of Issei Hyoudou.
Then battle caught up to shock.
Isabella shrieked and dropped instantly to cover herself, every line of her body breaking from offense into panic.
“W-What is this!?”
“That,” I said, because I’m a proud pervert and a professional idiot, “is why you should never underestimate a man’s dedication!”
I couldn’t tell if the blood coming from my nose was from a hit I had taken or the view before me.
Kusari-san made the tiniest sound beside me.
Not quite a laugh.
Definitely judgment.
I formed the block of demonic power in my right hand immediately.
No time to waste.
No room to get distracted by the fact that yes, Isabella really was spectacular and yes, I would absolutely remember that until I died.
“Dragon Shot!”
[Reset!]
The wave of demonic power blasted forward and swallowed her before she could recover. The shockwave rolled across the court in a red roar, and when it faded Isabella was on the ground already dissolving into retirement light.
Grayfia’s voice made it official.
“Riser Phenex-sama’s [Rook] retires.”
“Hell yeeeeeeah!”
I punched the air so hard my ribs complained.
I had done it.
I had actually taken out a [Rook].
I could fight.
I could actually fight.
Buchou’s training hadn’t just kept me alive—it had made me dangerous.
The high lasted all of three seconds.
Then Carlamine’s voice cut across the court.
“What an awful attack. No, I should say it’s a scary attack. B-Blowing away a woman’s clothes……”
Yuuto-san scratches her head with a slightly embarrassed look.
“Yeah, I’m truly sorry. I will apologize for him as well. Issei-kun is just… a lecher.”
……Why are you apologising?
Kusari-san chimes in as well.
“None of you are safe from his perversions. Surrender now.”
I understand the idea of threatening our enemies, but why do you make me sound like a criminal?!
Ravel paled and took a step back while covering herself with her hands.
Carlamaine shivers while looking at me.
“I will deal with the pervert next. He is an enemy that must be destroyed.”
“Hey!”
She raises her short sword towards Yuuto-san again.
“But my duel against the knight of Rias Gremory comes first.”
She takes a stance with her sword.
“My fortune must be great to face a demonic sword wielder. I must have a destiny of meeting swordsmen who wield special swords.”
Yuuto-san seems quite interested after hearing that.
“Hmm, so you’ve met someone besides me who uses demonic swords?”
“Not a demonic sword. It was a holy sword.”
Yuuto-san looked shocked. Then her eyes narrow at her.
Instantly killing intent rolled off of her.
Yuuto-san asks in a low voice, staring at the opposing [Knight] with cold eyes.
“Tell me about that holy sword wielder.”
I haven’t seen Yuuto-san like this before.
She’s as scary as Buchou when she’s pissed.
A holy sword though. Why does it matter in the middle of the match?
“Hmm, seems like that swordsman has some connection to you. But since we are swordsmen, talking would be rude. I will answer you with my sword!”
“Is that right? ……If you can speak, then it won’t be a problem even if you turn into a state where you are on the verge of death.”
Kusari-san cuts in.
“Kiba-san, the three of us can defeat her quickly and then regroup with Buchou and Argento-san.”
“Stay out of this.”
Kusari looks taken aback at Yuuto-san’s blunt dismissal.
Carlamine must have felt it too, because she lowered her stance as if she needed to prepare for Yuuto-san’s attack driven by killing intent.
“So there is a holy-sword wielder who matters to you.”
Yuuto-san’s voice, when it came, was lower than I’d ever heard it.
“Tell me.”
Carlamine lifted her chin. “I’ll answer you with my sword.”
Yuuto-can looked at her like she intended to answer with something much worse.
Then footsteps cut in from the far line of the court.
More enemies.
“So they’re here.”
“Hey, where’s Isabella-neesan?”
“Don’t tell me she lost?”
Two [Pawns].
One [Bishop].
The other [Knight].
Great.
The two new [Pawns] spread out wide.
Ravel stayed near the center rear, too composed for someone whose side had just lost Isabella.
Carlamine’s eyes never really left Yuuto-san.
That meant the duel was not over.
I stepped forward automatically.
Kusari-san moved with me.
We would hold on.
Akeno-san’s lightning was still flashing somewhere far off in the sky.
Buchou and Asia were deeper in the field.
The sports court had become the hinge point of the match now.
If we lost it, everything behind it collapsed.
One of the [Pawns] called out.
“Hey, the [Pawn]-kun over there.”
I looked over to Kusari-san before dumbly pointed to myself and asked. “Me?”
She nodded happily before continuing “Riser-sama said he’s going to fight your princess one-on-one. See there.”
The [Pawn] points towards the school. When I look there is a shadow with flaming wings and another shadow with devil wings above the rooftop of the new school building.
That must be Buchou!
[Ise-san! Kusari! Can you hear me, Ise-san!?]
Asia’s voice comes out from the transceiver.
“Yes!”
“Asia! What happened? What’s going on with Buchou?”
[R-Right now Buchou-san and I are on the school rooftop. Riser-san, challenged Buchou to a duel and Buchou-san accepted it! Because of his challenge we were able to get into the school building without any problem……]
“Everyone and their pride.”
Kusari-san muttered to herself.
Riser’s sister talks with a small grin.
“Seems like Onii-sama made a challenge since Rias-sama was doing better in the match than we anticipated. It would have been our win if we fought normally, so he offered her a duel out of pity. At this rate, she will be defeated before you reach them.”
Kusari-san scoffs.
“Yes, your [King] decided to bait ours into a fight because he saw he was “winning”. Of course.”
Ravel’s gaze flicked from me to Kusari-san to Yuuto-san and back again, evaluating, calculating, almost annoyingly calm.
“Onii-sama will win no matter what.”
I really didn’t like her.
“You’re opponent is the immortal bird. It doesn’t matter what power you have when facing immortality. Rias-sama was doomed to lose from the beginning.”
Kusari-san watched our opponents intently while replying.
“I find that hard to believe, considering your [King] needs a full peerage to defeat someone during their first rating game. And he still is hiding behind his pieces.”
Ravel frowned.
Kusari-san seems to dislike Riser as much as I do.
“Tsk, Carlamaine. I will leave the [Knight] girl to you, but if you lose we won’t fight her one-on-one. So if you want your honorable duel, then win. Or are you trying to tarnish the name of Phoenix?”
Carlamine raised her blade again. “Yes Ravel-sama. Round two, Kiba Yuuto.”
Yuuto-san didn’t answer with words.
She drove herself forward at Carlamine. More aggressive and fierce than before.
Ravel’s voice rang out.
“Sieris.”
“Affirmative.”
The one who steps forward is a woman with a wild look and is carrying a massive sword on her back.
“She is Onii-sama’s other [Knight]. Unlike Carlamaine, she doesn’t have any of that “honour of a knight”. She will simply defeat her opponent.”
The [Knight] drew her blade. It was massive and looked unwieldy.
“But she can do the finishing. Ni and Li.”
“Nya.”
“Nya-nya.”
The ones who respond are the two girls with cat ears.
“The last two [Pawns].”
Kusari-san mutters next to me.
“Ni and Li. They are female beast warriors. Their hand to hand combat is remarkable, you know.”
Ravel waved her arm towards them as she introduced them.
“We are the only ones allowed to have cute ears!”
“Yeah! Plus everyone likes cats better than foxes anyways! Especially Riser-sama!”
The two cat girl [Pawns] shout at Kusari-san.
Kusari-san blankly looked at them before turning to me.
“They seem like idiots, this fight should be quick.”
The two cat girls glared at Kusari-san.
“Hey!”
“We can hear you!”
Kusari gave them another blank look.
“Oh, well that doesn’t change anything.”
They launched themselves at us angrily. I took several blows without being able to block anything.
My left arm pulsed.
[Boost!]
Kusari was engaging the other one and was using her demonic energy to cast fire spells as they clashed.
She was holding her own, but wasn’t meant for a fight like this.
“Ni! Li! His Boosted Gear is a Sacred Gear that doubles the power every ten seconds! You won’t be able to handle him after he gets to his third boost! The fox girl is a spellcaster. Wear her down and don’t give her space to attack. She took out Burent in one spell. Finish the fight within twenty seconds. Due to how his Sacred Gear works, he can’t fight when he increases his power! He will just avoid you! Also don’t touch his hands! That man has a shameless move that blows away clothes!”
After hearing that, the [Pawns] looked at me with fear.
“That’s awful!”
“You beast!”
What's wrong with chasing my dreams?!
I’m surrounded by beautiful devils. Of course I would make a move to strip them!
“It’s vulgar to think with your lower body!”
Kusari-san scoffed while fighting.
“That’s rich coming from a devil in a harem peerage.”
The girl fighting her flushes.
“That’s different! Riser-sama cares for us! Plus I don’t want to hear that from a fox! Everyone knows how lewd your kind is!”
I quickly glanced at Kusari-san.
“Don’t.”
She hadn’t even looked at me.
She simply knew exactly where my mind went.
I received a hit to my stomach for looking away from my opponent.
The two [Pawns] continued their attack.
I was knocked to the ground as the one I fought targeted my legs.
As she went to hit me again, Kusari-san appeared in front of her with her movement ability. The girl was shocked and took a fireball to her chest.
I forgot she could use spells besides her curses. She must be hurting if she has stopped using them.
I quickly got up.
[Boost!]
Kusari-san was trying to look composed, but was lightly bruised and panting.
We weren’t going to win our fight at this rate, and the knight hadn’t even joined yet.
A shockwave from Buchou’s fight against Riser shook the battlefield.
Buchou was still facing him with only Asia backing her up.
We needed to finish this and join them.
If we lost here, Buchou would have to face him alone.
If she lost to him….
I couldn’t allow that!
“Give me strength! Boosted Gear!”
[Dragon Booster!!]
My Sacred Gear glowed with a red light.
It’s not enough. I need more!
“The time before it was Asia! Now it’s Buchou! Answer my feelings! Boosted Gear!”
[Dragon Booster second Liberation!!]
The appearance of the gauntlet changed to gain a second gem on the arm as well.
“What is this?”
Wait.
…I know what I can do now!
Then I moved.
Kusari-san blocked the [Pawns] from following.
“Yuuto-san!”
She glanced toward me.
I was already running to her.
“Release your Sacred Gear!”
Her eyes widened for one second—confusion, then understanding, then immediate trust.
She drove the sword deeper and shouted again, “Sword Birth!”
The field of blades answered harder.
I hit the center of the glowing court on one knee and slammed my gauntlet down between the rising swords.
“Boosted Gear!” I shouted. “Second ability!”
The power flooded up hot and vicious and real.
Not into my fist.
Not into a blast.
Into the ground.
Into the network of swords.
Into Yuuto-san.
“Gift from the Red Dragon Emperor—Boosted Gear Gift!
[Transfer!]
The whole sports court screamed with the shrieking of metal.
Every sword on the field answered at once, swelling with the power I’d boosted and thrown into them.
Blades rose higher, thicker, sharper.
A forest of demonic swords exploded through the painted lines, the fencing, the ground around the court, the approach paths—everywhere.
The first [Pawn] didn’t even get time to scream properly.
Kusari-san had to quickly move away.
The second tried to dive clear and got caught through the shoulder and side.
Ravel’s calm finally broke.
The other [Bishop] turned to run.
Carlamine’s guard came up too late.
The other [Knight] was already running at us as the blades came up at her.
Then all of them were hit
The sea of swords turned the whole sports court into a killing field.
Grayfia-san’s voice rolled across the battlefield.
“Riser Phenex-sama’s two [Pawns], two [Knight], and one [Bishop] retire.”
The court went still except for the ringing left in my ears.
I stared.
Then down at my arm.
Then at Yuuto-san.
Yuuto-san looked around at the forest of swords glowing with too much power and then at me with an open, startled look.
“That was… something.”
I laughed once, half from relief and half because if I didn’t laugh I might just fall over.
“Yeah. My gauntlet transfers the power I boosted into someone else’s ability.”
Kusari-san came up on my right, breathing harder than she had been earlier, one hand lightly shaking before she flexed it and looked to Yuuto-san and I.
“Figure something like that out sooner next time.”
The fighting had cost her.
Still, she was here.
Still standing.
We had done it.
The sports court was ours.
The defense line was gone.
The route forward had opened.
For one blessed second I thought maybe this was where the tide turned.
“Ise-kun, with your new power we could-“
Then Grayfia’s next announcement came.
“Rias Gremory-sama’s [Queen] retires.”
The world stopped.
“Akeno-san…?”
Beside me, Yuuto-san went white.
Kusari-san didn’t change much visibly, but her ears sat more alert and her tail stilled.
That was impossible.
Akeno-san was our strongest piece after Buchou.
She didn’t just—
The explosion came from behind us.
Too close.
I turned too late.
Smoke burst outward in a hard circle and when it cleared, Yuuto-san was already on the ground.
“Yuuto-san!”
I moved before thought and hit my knees beside her just as blood became visible under the edge of her torn uniform and the retirement light began to wrap around her.
Kusari-san moved to her other side at the same time, too silent. Head on a swivel for danger.
Yuuto-san looked up once through the pain, face tight not with fear but with frustration. Of course. Of course that was how she would look at a time like this.
Kusari-san lowered herself to Yuuto-san’s side
Yuuto-san saw the light around herself.
Saw us.
And I thought, stupidly, that maybe if I grabbed her hard enough the retirement wouldn’t take her too.
Instead she breathed out once and said, incredibly calm, “Win this, for her."
Then the light took her.
Grayfia’s voice made it real.
“Rias Gremory-sama’s [Knight] retires.”
Around us, the swords of Sword Birth began to crack.
One by one at first.
Then all at once.
Without Yuuto, the field couldn’t hold. The blades shuddered, split, and dissolved into silver fragments that drifted through the air like glittering wreckage.
I stared at the empty space where she’d been.
Then at the breaking swords.
Then up.
A shadow moved in the sky.
The Queen.
Of course it was her.
Rage came back so fast it almost felt clean.
Not blind now.
Not the same way it had after Koneko-chan.
Useful, maybe.
I hoped.
Because if it wasn’t, then the next piece to vanish from this field was going to be one of us.