Disclaimer – I don't own anything from the High School DxD anime/manga/LN

"Taking"

'Thinking or Issei talking with Ddraig'

Ddraig 'thinking or talking with Issei' "talking aloud"

It was almost an hour after Sekiryuutei left until others woke up and come down. Girls, except Koneko who was sitting on the couch eating some of her sweets, were preparing breakfast talking about random meaningless stuff and Kiba was standing next to kitchen doors clearly not knowing what he should do after girls declined his offer to help. Only one missing was Issei who they all assumed was still sleeping.

"Almost done" Rias declared "Yuuto, could you go wake up the sleeping beauty so he could join us for breakfast?" she continues with a smile looking towards the only man in the kitchen.

"At once, buchou" he responded with small bow and left the room

While Kiba was gone girls finished making their meal and started carrying everything to the dining room. It was almost done when Knight came back and walked toward his King.

"Buchou, Issei's room is empty, I couldn't find him anywhere" he reported

Rias raised her eyebrow at that and looked around the room "Has anyone seen Issei?" in response other occupants of the room only shook their heads.

"Do you need me for something, buchou?" everyone turned to the voice to see brunet walking through the door

"Perfect timing Issei, breakfast is ready. But could you explain where were you?" princess asked

"I woke up early and decided to warm up before training leaving making breakfast to someone who can make something delicious" Pawn responded scratching back of his head causing girls to giggle and blush slightly at compliment

"Now that everyone is present, let's eat." Rias said and everyone took their seats at the table and started eating in silence yet Issei for the duration of whole breakfast couldn't shake off the feeling of someone watching him but he ignored it, his mind already occupied with food in front of him.

After breakfast everyone went to their respective places to train: Rias and Akeno went to nearby clearing to practice fighting with magic, Kiba was running around in weird patterns to increase his speed and reduce time to change direction while sprinting, Issei and Koneko was standing opposite to each other getting ready to their spar and Asia was nearby to help if either of them, mostly Issei, got hurt. Sekiryuutei also learned who was watching him: since he was alone with Koneko and Asia who was busy with some exercise given to her by Akeno it left only one possibility.

'I wonder why Koneko-chan is staring at me that way, I don't remember doing anything wrong to her lately' brunet tried to find a reason for such weird behavior of his kouhai but was brought back to reality when she launched at him without any warning. He narrowed his eyes at sight of an incoming attack. Compared to yesterday it seemed much slower, he could clearly see her movements and his instincts screamed to him about danger coming from his left side while she was right in front of him. However, being able to see your opponent and predict their attack means nothing if you are too slow to dodge. That was the lesson from this to the young devil as he felt fist crashing into the left side of his stomach bringing him to his knees. A slight groan of pain escaped his mouth as he waved his hand toward Asia to let her know he is fine.

"...At least you can take a punch." Koneko commented emotionlessly making Issei chuckle

"Yeah, I guess getting beat down by angry Kendo Club members daily has it upsides" as soon as those words left his mouth he realized his mistake and turn pale

'I shouldn't have say that. I should not have said that' he managed to think before Koneko's kick connected with his head and he blacked out.

"Issei-san!" Asia scream rushing toward unconscious boy first time of many that day

"...Pervert" was all little Rook said as she walked away.

After Asia healed Issei he remains laying on the ground, his vision blurry and his head spinning like crazy yet he was smiling, happy that he is still alive.

'It's miracle that I don't have a concussion from that hit… Or I have and simply don't know about it'

As soon as Issei felt that he is ready to fight they continued their sparring session.

After few hours of Issei getting beat down by Koneko, he showed some improvement: he usually manages to dodge for few minutes before he needed Asia's help and sometimes he was even able to land a hit or counter but it seems that they didn't faze his opponent. At some point, he felt confident enough to try to block Rook's kick but it ended with a broken arm, so he has never bothered to try this again.

Sekiryuutei's second part of the workout for a day was sword training with Kiba, which he found more enjoyable. While Rias' Knight was much faster and brown haired devil's skill in sword-fighting was even worse than in hand to hand combat, meaning that Issei had harder times trying to dodge his attacks and was unable to hit his sparring partner, pain from Kiba's hits with bokken weren't even close to the one to that from little Rook punches and kicks. Issei wasn't sure if this is because blonde is better in holding back his strength, he is weaker than Koneko or that he is just used to be hit by a wooden sword, but it was warmly welcomed change. Since Rias apparently has much more faith in her Knight to not hurt her Pawn too much Asia went to train on her magic with both Rias and Akeno leaving two men alone as Koneko went to train in the forest. Feeling little tired from constant fighting male devils decided to make a short break and catch their breaths while talking.

"Man, I know I said it already, but your sword technique is amazing, not to mention your speed. If we were fighting for real I would be dead in few seconds" brunet complimented blonde

"Thank you Issei-kun. It comes from Knight piece and I was training since I was a kid." Kiba frown for a fraction of a second on that memory, but Issei didn't notice it looking toward sky "And I had great instructor back in the underworld who taught me much more than just sword fighting. And don't worry too much about being weaker than me, we are training for just two days and you made such progress in that time that it scares me" he smiled "Also, you didn't use promotion, biggest advantage of a Pawn, or Boosted Gear. If you did I'm sure I would be in much worse position and maybe you could even win, if you manage to land one of those powerful swing" he smirked

"Thanks." Issei smiled missing sarcasm in Knight words "Do you mind if I ask something somewhat personal?" Kiba just raises eyebrow confused giving his friend signal to continue

"I mean, about your fighting style. It's just so different from Koneko's-chan, and I'm not talking about you using swords and her fighting with fists, but rather… I'm not sure how to describe it, the way you approach your opponent" he tried to find words to say what was on his mind

"You mean why I fight like some Knight in shining armor from fairy tales and she's more like bloodlust barbarian trying to defeat her opponent by all means necessary?" Kiba responded making Issei look at him in shock "Haha, I heard similar question before. While I wouldn't go as far as calling Koneko-chan barbarian I think it is a fairly good description of the difference between us. I guess it's the matter of mindset, I was taught to respect my opponent and fight fair, while she was always looked down because of her looks and learned to use it to her advantage by eliminating her opponent quickly before they start to treat her seriously."

"Isn't her approach better? From what I understand Rating game is a war, not a duel. Wouldn't it be better if you use your speed to appear behind your enemy and eliminate him before he has a chance to reacted? To be silent assassin looking for its target not knight trying to prove that he is better? After all in the end it won't matter how good or bad you fought in your duels if your team lose the game" Issei said more to himself than his friend who tried to find response to this but couldn't "OK, enough chatting, we are supposed to be training" he continues while standing and he grabbed his bokken "Are you ready?" Knight merely nodded and got ready to fight still digesting Pawn's words.

Last planned part of today training for Issei was demonic-power training with Akeno. In this training he was joined by Asia and they were currently sitting in one of the mansion's room, or more accurately, he was sitting in same room as girls but further to the side. Akeno was helping Asia with her training, which she showed immense progress making him happy but still little jealous, while he was tasked to try to focus and manifest his demonic power. How easy may it sound it was troublesome for Issei as his thoughts kept wandering between his assignment, Akeno's oppai, his nightmare, how much failure of a devil he is, idea of giving up and going back to physical training, Akeno's oppai, dreams of rewards from his senpai if he succeeded, feeling of disappointment of himself, Akeno's oppai and occasionally Rias' oppai.

"Still no progress, Issei-kun?" Akeno's voice broke through his thoughts

"No, unfortunately. I think that magic just isn't for me Akeno-san." Issei's eyes moved quickly to former nun and back to his senpai.

"Ufufu, little jealous of Asia-chan, hm Issei-kun?" Queen giggled "You shouldn't compare yourself to others, it's not fair to you. Rias is pure-blood devil, and my and Asia's evil pieces give us enhanced magical abilities it's no wonder that Asia-chan finds magic more neutral to her than you. Just keep focusing and I'm sure you succeed: you are a devil and have demonic energy, your wings are proof of that power, so don't give up just yet" she continued with smile not giving Pawn time to response

"Thanks, Akeno-san, I'll try my best not to disappoint you" he returned the smile and Akeno went back to her training with Asia leaving Issei alone with his thoughts again.

With new found vigor he returned to his training trying to focus on his demonic power but after few uneventful attempts, he was yet again ready to give up.

'I doubt that I ever gonna be able to use any kind of magic, doesn't matter if I have devil... wings... Ddraig said something about my wings being the manifestation of my demonic powers, so did Akeno-san... Did I fuck up? Maybe I should tell them? No, they would only worry, I'll talk with buchou after Rating Game, that what is important right now. Shit, I really should have listened to what Ddraig said...'

Issei tried to remember what dragon told him but came empty as he only focused on part of him getting stronger.

'What else did he say... That I should be glad to be alive and... That I'm a dragon! What a dragon I am, I can't even use fire' he ended his thoughts with a loud sigh and he immediately jumped back rolling over couch he was sitting on as he saw small fireball leaving his mouth and setting table in front of him on fire. He stood there looking on fire in shock ignoring pain coming from his burned throat.

"Issei-kun!"

"Issei-san!"

Both females in the room rushed towards him, Akeno summoned some water to extinguish flames and Asia tried to gain his attention to see if he was fine, but he stood still, eyes wide open looking at the smoke coming from the table. After putting off the fire Akeno came to Issei but her approach was much more direct than nun's one.

"Issei-kun" silence "Issei-kun! *slap*" that quickly brought Issei back to reality, he tried to say something but he rasped and winced from the pain. Asia screamed and immediately started to heal his throat. After few moments he recovered his ability to speak.

"Thanks, Asia, you saved me again" he smiled weakly and nun blushed

"Issei-kun" Akeno's voice and expression were unnaturally serious for her "Why did you try to breathe fire?"

"I didn't. I just sighed thinking about fire and it happened"

Queen blinked surprised and her usual smile returned to her face "Ufufu, it seems our little dragon is growing up, he just breathed fire for the first time, shame we didn't record it" she teased

"Not doing that again, if it weren't for Asia I would probably never spoke again" said dragon shook his head.

"But the question remains, how exactly were you able to breathe fire Issei-kun? You are not a dragon, you are a human reincarnated devil. Neither humans nor devils can breathe fire"

'Shit' Issei panicked "Maybe it comes from Boosted Gear? Ddraig said th..."

"Ddraig? As in The Red Dragon Emperor, Welsh Dragon Ddraig?" Akeno interrupted

"Hm? Oh, yes. His spirit is sealed in my Sacred Gear and he appeared in my dream to talk" Queen nodded signaling him to continue "Ddraig said that possessing Boosted Gear makes me a tiny part dragon. So maybe me thinking of dragon breathing fire unlocked some of its abilities?" Issei more asked than answered

"That may be right, or you may just have an affinity with fire. Could you try to summon some small flames with your energy instead of breathing it?" Akeno suggested, he just nodded and did as he was told.

Much to his surprise, he was able to summon fire over his palm without any problems though it disappeared almost as fast as it appeared. He felt simultaneously delighted that he managed to conjure fire and disappointed that it was the only thing he could do.

He looked towards the girls only to find them both smiling brightly for him, although Akeno looked more like a proud mother to him.

"You did it Issei-san" Asia stated cheerfully

"Congratulation Issei-kun, it really seems that you have an affinity for fire. But don't get carry away, summoning fire is an easy part, controlling it will take a lot of practice. That being said: no playing with fire inside, now shoo! Go outside before you set something else on fire" added Queen

"Yes mom" responded Issei rolling his eyes but only got a playful angry glare from his senpai

With new found motivation he continued his training outside, but, much to his disappointment, he hasn't managed to do more than just summoning fire for a short moment.

After finishing a day of training devils gathered inside for their dinner. In Issei's opinion, it was at least as good as previous one if not better, or maybe it's just his empty stomach speaking. Not thinking too much about it, he quickly emptied his plate with pace rivaling Koneko. He himself was surprised by the amount of food he already ate and still was hungry, but shrugged it off and refill his rice and grabbed some more meat.

Rest of devils already finished their meals and was sitting patiently waiting for Issei and Koneko, their eyes moving between these two with disbelief how they manage to eat that much. Issei, who never noticed the looks he received or that almost everyone else has finished, ate his fifth serving and sat back on his chair with a blissful expression on his face.

"Man, that was delicious. I stand by what I said, you are the best!"

Reactions he got from girls were different, Asia's face became red, Akeno giggled, Rias smiled and Koneko simply grabbed more food ignoring him.

"Now, Ise. Anything new from training?" Rias asked deciding that there is no point in waiting for Koneko as it may take a while.

"No, not really. I'm still the weakest" he replied with a sigh "But I was able to summon fire, that's something, right?"

"It is, but I don't think the fire will be effective against so-called fire bird. Nonetheless, you finally managed to use your demonic powers, so it is a good place to start." seeing that Koneko finished her meal she continued "Great job today everyone, let's take a bath and call it a day"

Hearing that everyone stood up and started to clean the table, except Issei whose mind was occupied with perverted fantasies. 'Sure, Koneko-chan said no yesterday, but who doesn't risk doesn't win, right?' he gathered the courage to speak

"May I..." he started but was interrupted by vision of his nightmare and Rias-like voice in his head 'I will not marry you, Issei'

"Ise?" this time her voice was coming from the real world. Issei looked around the room seeing that everyone attention was on him, he shook his head to clear his thoughts

"May I excuse myself. I still have some energy to burn, so I am going to train some more."

Everyone in the room looked at him with a surprised and doubtful look, after all, he was first up, training before they even woke up, spend the whole day with them almost without any breaks and they all were utterly exhausted while he claimed to be just fine.

"Are you sure? You trained a lot past two days, you should get some rest." Rias said giving him a chance to back up from his bluff

"Yeah, I'm sure. So, can I go?"

"Of course, just promise me that you won't stay too long or overtrain yourself. We start early tomorrow and I expect you to be in your peak condition"

"Roger that buchou" Issei replied making salute gesture "See you guys tomorrow" and with that, he left the room

Just out of tree line of forest near mansion young Sekiryuutei was sitting on big rock absorbed in thoughts. He did not lie when he told his friend that he was going to train more, but the thing was he had no idea what kind of training he should do.

'C'mon Issei, think. You played those RPGs and it is time to prove that they aren't useless. Pretend you are a protagonist in one of them, you have stats and skills.'

With that thought he grabbed a stick lying next to the rock and started writing on the ground in front of him. 'Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma... OK, that's not going to work... Strength is fine, dexterity as speed will work, vitality can be treated as stamina so it's good. Intelligence and wisdom? Let's put Magic instead and erase charisma, no way to train it now and it won't be useful.' he changed symbols to suited his taste better 'Now skills... Yeah, I got nothing, no wait I have Boost!' he wrote that to the side of stats symbols. 'Hmm, fighting styles can be treated as skills, let's add melee and sword fighting. And technically I can breathe fire, not going to unless I don't have a choice but just for formality sake' he added those to the list

"Four stats and four skills. But buchou told me to not use Boosted Gear, I can't train fighting without sparring partner, and breathing fire... just no' he crossed out all elements on skill list. 'So training my stats it is, the question remains which one.'

Issei looked over short list and sighed again

'Magic, huh?' he thought summoning fire over his palm 'Even if I can use fire, what could it do against Phenex? Maybe if it was water or ice it could be useful...' the fire faded, flickered and ultimately disappeared. 'Scratch that, I can't even use fire properly sitting here, no chance I could use it while fighting, so I guess magic is off the table.'

'Maybe I'll just continue yesterday's training with buchou? The boulder should still lie at the foot of the mountain' with that thought he quickly looked around to make sure no one is around and spread his dragon wings and flew down.

If anyone was nearby this mountain, he would see young man barely illuminated by moonlight, carrying rock tied to his back up and down very steep mountain path until late night.

The similar routine continued for a whole week: Issei would wake up early and go for a quick jog, have breakfast with others ORC members, train with them the whole day, has dinner and continue his night exercises, every second night with Rias' help. She would mostly just sit on the rock and throw extra workouts at him, though Issei was grateful as he had never trained before and she would guide him, suggesting different exercises to train his whole body evenly.

Everyone, Issei included, was surprised by this. Brunet barely even slept, maybe two, three hours a day, and yet he had more energy than ever. Even if he woke up exhausted quick shower and morning jog seemed to erase all symptoms and he was ready for training. He wondered if this was an effect of him being a devil or his new wings, but seeing others didn't show alike enthusiasm he was inclined to the second option. He had never let it bother him too much, he simply put it on the Nonimportant stack in his mind to ask the dragon in his hand later.

The only notable exception was on the fourth day when Rias decided to teach her new peerage members about Devils' knowledge.

It offered them all an excuse to rest while still doing something productive. Issei couldn't understand how names of devil's, angel's and fallen's help with preparation to Rating Game, but never complained, especially when it was Asia's turn to explain church related stuff, he just found Devil priestess' actions adorable.

Eight days have passed since devils came to the mountains, tomorrow is the last day of training. After that, they will return to their homes to rest before battle.

Issei was coming back from his night train session for a quick nap, his thoughts getting rather depressing.

'I have no talent in using swords. I have no talent in martial arts. I have no talent in demonic-power. The more I train with the others the more obvious it is how bad I am. I'm...so weak and so useless.'

"Ara? You're awake?" Rias' voice came from the living room. She was sitting by the table in a simple crimson negligee while wearing glasses her crimson hair tied into a ponytail.

"Ah, Buchou. Hello."

"Why are you so stiff? Good timing, let's talk for a bit."

Issei then sat opposite of her with the table between them trying to keep his eyes on her face.

"Huh? Buchou, do you have bad eyesight?"

"Oh, this? It's just for looks. I can think more clearly while having my glasses on. Fufufu, this is the proof that I have been in the human's world for so long."

Issei smiled gently at her comment and looked at the table.

There are loads of papers that looks like a map and battle formation.

"Staying late to prepare the strategy for the game?" he asked the redhead who closed the notebook with different strategies written on it.

"…To be honest, the only thing I will get by reading this is to have a peace of mind."

"Why is that?"

"If the opponent is another High-class Devil, then we could fight by reading this. This book is written with lots of research. But that isn't the problem."

"? Then what's wrong?"

"Raiser himself. No, the biggest problem is that our opponent is the Phoenix. When we called him fire bird we weren't exaggerating. The humans named the Devils' Phoenix as "Phenex" to distinguish it from the mystical beast Phoenix, however, the mystical beast has the same ability as Raiser's clan. In other words immortality. That's the opponent we must fight against."

"That's cheating! I mean being immortal is basically being invincible!"

"Yes. They are basically invincible. Even if you attack them, their wounds will heal right away. They can resurrect no matter how many times they are defeated. The other Devils have limits to their defense unlike the Phoenix, so they would get defeated once they get hurt badly enough, but Phenex? They can just stand still and take almost any attack with almost none consequences."

Issei just sat there with mouth wide open unable to form any response to that. Rias continued talking looking at something none existing in a distance with a sad expression on her face.

"I felt something uneasy when I heard that Raiser was chosen as my fiancé. Yes, I think Otou-sama and the others chose him in case something like this was to happen. They chose Raiser so I will have no choice but to marry him. Even if it becomes a match between households, they knew that there was no way for me to win. In chess, you would say they tricked me. A swindle. "

Buchou looked back at her servant and chuckled seeing his face.

"You know, it's not like we can't defeat Raiser?"

"Are you serious!?"

"Yes. There are ways you can defeat him, especially in games in which winning is not defined by eliminating [King]. But I'm sure they won't give me that opportunity. That leaves us with two options: beat him down with incredible power or keep on taking him down until his mind crushes. The first method requires the strength of a God-class. The second one is to save our stamina until Raiser gets his mind crushed. Even if his body is immortal where he can resurrect his body many times, his mind isn't immortal. His mind will definitely tire down every time we defeat him. It's our win if we completely crush down the Phoenix's mind. Then he will stop resurrecting and he will fall. Well, the easiest way is to defeat him with a power that is on par with God that crushes him down with one strike which takes down both his body and mind.

There are also ways to stop his regeneration in the first place, like Belial's Worthlessness, Holy or Divine energy, strong water or ice magic to stop his flames but unfortunately, we don't have any of that"

After that, both teenagers appeared to be lost in their thoughts until Issei broke the silence asking question that has been bothering him ever since his nightmare.

"Buchou."

"What is it?"

"Why do you hate Raiser…no, more like, why are you against this marriage?"

Rias sighed at the question and looked away before answering.

"…I'm a "Gremory"."

"Huh? W-Well, you certainly are…"

"No. I didn't re-introduce myself. I'm a Devil from the House of Gremory, and that name will follow me to wherever I go. Don't get me wrong, I feel proud of it, but I wish people would see me as Rias Gremory no Gremory Rias" she stopped for a moment before laughing slightly shaking her head "And with that dream, I moved to Japan where the family name comes before given name. However, I'm enjoying my life in the human world. They don't know about the Gremory the Devil. Everyone looks at me as who I am. I really like that feeling. I never felt something like this in the Devils' society, and I never will now on as well. The only time I can enjoy my life as myself is when I'm in the human world.

I just want to be with someone who will love me as Rias without the fact that I'm a Gremory. That's my small dream I have… Unfortunately, Raiser only looks at me as Rias from the Gremory. And he loves me as Rias from the Gremory. That's why I hate it. But still, the pride of being a Gremory is very important. My feelings may be complicated, but I want to cherish this small dream I have."

For a moment Issei was just looking at sad devil not sure what to say. He didn't understand why she would open so much to him, but that felt unimportant; he just wanted to comfort her, but how. He never felt anything to his name: he wasn't born in some noble nor rich family, hell, he was the most famous, or rather infamous, in his whole family; he was just son of his parents, just one of many middle-class families in Japan. Only expectations towards him were to graduate from high school or maybe university and to find a good job while she has been spending her life while carrying the name of Gremory on her back. He didn't understand both the feelings of a girl and the structure of the Devils' society, but her words struck a familiar chord from his past.

'So Buchou wants to be loved as "Rias" and not as "Rias Gremory" from the opposite sex'

That simple thought brought memories from his childhood, his lonely childhood with only one friend, Rin, who moved to England when he was seven. Memories of other kids avoiding him seemingly for no reason and his simple desire: to meet someone who would want to be his friend, to get to know him, to see past whatever it was that kept others away.

"I like Buchou as Buchou." He said only slightly louder than a whisper, but due to devils enhanced senses Rias heard him and was staring at him in wonder causing him to continue

"I don't know anything about Gremory or about the Devils' world, but to me Rias-buchou is Rias-buchou… Nggh, I don't understand all the complicated stuff but to me, the usual Buchou is the best!" that simple sentence followed by his genuine smile was all that was needed to make heiress' cheeks match the color of her crimson hair.

"B-Buchou? D-Did I say something weird?" Issei asked with a dubious voice

"I-It's nothing!" Rias responded quickly in a slight panic and tried to change the subject unknowingly bringing dragon back to his previous thoughts. "How was your training?"

"Buchou, I'm worthless. I have been useless…since I got here."

"Ise?" she asked shocked seeing tears on her [Pawn] face

"I think I've gotten stronger since I came here and trained with everyone, but more than that… I felt the difference between us. If I do sword training, I realized how amazing Kiba is and realized that I won't be able to become a swordsman like Kiba… When I do the training for using demonic-power, I realize how superior Akeno-san is while Asia is improving her demonic-powers… And I can't do anything… Even after giving my… " he stopped himself before he told his master about his deal with Ddraig and tried to hide it by wiping his tears "Even after giving my best and training almost non-stop I'm still the weakest. Not only that, I'm also the most useless. Only good thing about me is Boosted Gear and it means nothing if I'm the one with the ultimate Sacred Gear. That's why I was laughed at by Raiser back then, right? I acted tough by thinking like it makes me someone... someone... " Issei wasn't able to finish his sentence, choking because of crying. It made him feel even worse, he lowered his head in shame making tears drop on the floor. Because of that, he didn't notice when his [King] approached him and sat down next to him realizing that after she hugged him gently and started patting his head.

"You want confidence, right? Okay, I will give you confidence, just wait until tomorrow. But now, you have to rest your body and mind. I will be with you until you feel like sleeping."

He couldn't understand what she meant by those words or why she was so nice to him, but he didn't care. He was just enjoying comfort his [King] warm hug offered, sobbing in her arms.

Next morning Sekiryuutei was reluctant to leave his room, memory of last night breakdown burning in his mind. He was supposed to be her [Pawn], her servant and soldier who will support his [King] in anything and bring her victory over Phenex giving her her freedom back. But he wasn't; in fact, he appeared to be complete opposite: a scared teenager who needed her support instead. He was ashamed of himself and was afraid to face his friends.

After a few minutes of internal debate, he finally moved towards the doors, after all, he couldn't just hide here forever. Slowly walking toward kitchen while imagining worse and worse scenarios of what is waiting for him there he reached kitchen doors.

"Ah Ise, did you sleep well?" to his surprise it was nothing like he imagined, instead he was greeted by smiling red haired [King] and the same expression was on all other peerage members faces who offered their greetings (well, except Koneko, she didn't show any emotions like usual). He didn't trust his voice so he simply returned the smile and nodded.

"That's good to hear. Now, eat your breakfast and meet us outside, I have a promise to fulfill" again Issei didn't understand what she meant and just looked at her with puzzled eyes but she didn't say anything more, just smiled at him once more and brushed his hair on her way out.

-o-0-o-

"Use your Boosted Gear, Ise."

That were the first words Buchou said to me when I joined other devils. I was forbidden to use since I got into the mountains, what changed? And what with the promise she mentions? Huh, I probably should get used to the feeling of not understanding what is happening around me, it seems to be happening a lot lately.

"I want you to prepare for mock battle with Yuuto while keeping Boosted Gear active, we will start the battle in two minutes."

"Of course, Buchou." I and Kiba say in unison.

I make my Boosted Gear appear on my left arm just like Buchou orders me to.

"Boost!"

[Boost!]

The Sacred Gear makes a sound at my words, and I can feel the power coming into my body. With this, my power has doubled and it will continue doing it every ten seconds until it will reach the limit of my body.

I got my twelfth power up after Buchou ordered me to power up. Then Buchou orders me to "Stop" my Sacred Gear's power up.

"Let's do this, Boosted Gear!"

[Explosion!]

"Ise, I want you to fight Yuuto in that state. Yuuto, I will ask you to be his opponent."

"Yes, Buchou."

Kiba makes his stance by pointing his bokuto toward me after Buchou ordered him.

"Ise, do you want to use a sword? Or do you want to fight with bare hands?"

Buchou asks me how I will be fighting. Hmm, even if I have a bokuto, I won't be able to use it…

"I will fight bare handed!"

"Very well. Now then, I'll ask the both of you to start."

I also make a stance against Kiba. Well, it's a newbie's stance but it is still better than standing still. I don't know why, but this fight seems different, or more accurately I feel different waiting for Kiba to make a move. I don't know how to explain this feeling, it like my body is excited by the prospect of a fight. I move my attention back to the [Knight] who started his attack. Weird, he seems slower… and with that, he disappeared from my sight. That dammed trait of [Knight], his speed is god-like I can't lose focus.

SWISH. BANG!

I raise my left arm and block Kiba's swing with my gauntlet. I can do this!

Kiba makes a shocked expression, this is my chance. I punch towards Kiba who stopped moving but he disappears just before I hit him, and my punches cut through the air. Crap! He dodged it!

-o-0-o-

Rias Gremory watched her [Pawn] and [Knight] fight with pride, especially towards her [Pawn]. She knew how fast Yuuto is and Ise was able to block his attack and almost succeeded in counter attack attempt. She winced slightly as a moment later dragon received a nasty blow to the head, however, he didn't seem bothered too much by it and continued his tries to hit his opponent. She was impressed how he released a kick toward the [Knight] exact moment Yuuto landed on the ground. Her [Knight] managed to dodge again and she could see that the fight was coming to a stalemate so she decided to end it.

"Ise! Shoot with a block of demonic-power! When you form a block of demonic-power, shoot it with a shape you imagine the most!"

She watched as her servant summoned a small ball of flames over his armored palm.

'Huh, it seems that Akeno was right, he really has an affinity with fire alone' she thought little disappointed; fire is not effective versus Phenex. Although there was something odd about this fire, it felt different than she was used to, was is because of Boosted Gear influencing it? Then she realized what it was 'It's not a ball of flames at all! It's a block of demonic-power covered in flames, no, it's more like the block of energy is burning! What in the name of Maou? Why does it look like that? Maybe he imagined it as flames and…' her train of thought was broken when Issei shot that energy towards Kiba.

Her eyes widen at the sight of the attack. The ball, previously size of a golf ball at best, was now bigger than a car and is flying toward the [Knight] with impressive speed. She sighed in relief when Yuuto dodged the attack and continue to observe it flying further toward mountain next to the one they were on and hit it creating a massive explosion.

'A-Amazing… and terrifying' she thought seeing the upper third of the mountain vaporized by the attack.

[Reset]

The sound made by Boosted Gear brought her attention back to the [Pawn] who was lying on the ground, eyes and mouth wide open clearly in shocked.

"I'll have both of you stop it there." 'If only because Ise is unable to fight more' she was amused by his reaction and walked to her servants. Kiba put his bokuto down and looked at the mountain and back to his opponent.

"Good job you two. Now I will hear your impression. Yuuto, how was it?"

"To tell the truth I'm astonished. I tried to finish the spar with the first strike, but I couldn't break through Ise-kun's guard. I was focused on breaking through it. I also tried to knock him down in my second strike by hitting his head from above the air, but that failed as well." [Knight] laughed and put his bokuto to the front to show it to everyone. It looked like it was going to break into pieces at the slightest touch.

"I strengthened the bokuto with demonic-power, but it couldn't give that much damage to Ise-kun because his body was too hard. If we continued, I would only have the option to run around because I wouldn't have my weapon."

"Thank you, Yuuto. That's how it is, Ise."

The [Pawn] finally closed his mouth and moved his eyes from remainings of the mountain to look at his [King] with a puzzled expression.

"Ise. You said to me that you were "the weakest and have no talent", right?"

"Y-Yes."

"That's half correct. You, who haven't activated your Sacred Gear, is weak. However, you become a totally different person if you use the power of the Boosted Gear. That attack is one of a High-class Devil. If that hits, most people will be blown away.

Your body which went through basic training became a vessel that can handle a Sacred Gear that increases the power drastically. Even now, your body is strong enough to handle the power increase. I told you before, right? You can become the strongest as long as you improve your basics. The higher your initial strength is, the more the power can increase. The basic stamina rises from "1" to "2". Even something like that would become a big factor for you to become strong." She smiled warmly at sight of confidence returning to her [Pawn].

"You are the key to the game. Alone you would be in trouble if someone caught you off-guard while boosting, but you are not alone Ise. This battle is a team battle, we all will be there to support you as you will be there to support us, right? Trust in us. Together we can win this, no, we will win this battle!" she finished her speech and other peerage members voiced their confirmation.

Rias was surprised when Issei stood up and walked towards her. Not because him doing that, but because the look on his face, she could swear she saw fire behind tears in his eyes.

Issei on his part didn't understand (again!) why she was so nice to him nor why she sounded so sure of his usefulness. But it didn't matter. He finally felt like he belongs somewhere, with people who cared for him, people who trusted him and people whom he could trust. He promised himself that no one in this world would take that away from him, and those who try will burn.

He kneeled in front of his [King] ignoring everyone's shocked gasps.

"Thank you, Buchou, for everything. I promise I will not disappoint you!"

"Let's show it to those that looked down on you. It doesn't matter if the opponent is Phoenix or not. We need to teach them very strictly in how strong Rias Gremory and her servants are!"

[Yes!]

Everyone replies to her with a strong voice. With that Rias decided it was time to start usual training and started instructing her pieces what they should do.

Issei just stood there for a brief moment staring at his [King] before leaving to his training area.

'I will repay her kindness. I will defeat Raiser Phoenix! No matter how or at what cost. I will give her what she deserves: happiness"

A/N

Yes, I'm alive and still plan to continue writing this story: it is just much harder than I thought. Having ideas is one thing, write them? Well, apparently I cannot write something I am satisfied with. But I will try to improve, after all, it is the main reason why I started writing this...

The last two parts (talk with Rias and fight with Kiba) are just slightly rewritten from LN and parts are just plainly copied. Why?

1. I don't want to rush things too much. I don't want him to change from perverted looser into strongest and smartest being in the universe over night.

2. With that said: why bother inventing the wheel anew?

I hope you don't mind.

However, I tried to add some things. I added some of Issei's past and his feelings to better explain his character I'm trying to develop (I'll make a full explanation of what he refers to in future chapter), sneak peek of his powers he got with his deal with Ddraig and his dragon instincts waking up. Hope you enjoyed!

Oh, and I updated the previous chapter. Nothing added, I just tried to fix some mistakes.

Till the next time