The next day, Issei found himself lounging around together with Matsuda on the bench when it was the lunch break in Kuoh Academy. After the tiring day yesterday, Issei immediately went asleep when he arrived at his house. He found out that he could dismiss Eternal String and summon it back with his thought.

"Yup, we can dematerialize our Sacred Gear, though if we want to use it, it has to be in the materialized state," Matsuda answered Issei's confusion about his findings.

"I see. What else is the general power of the Sacred Gear?"

"I thought your benefactor has told you?"

Issei shook his head at Matsuda's question. "We promised to meet again in that park this evening. She agreed to explain everything there."

"From what I understood and has been told by my boss, Sacred Gear users attract other Sacred Gear users. That's how I understood immediately when I teleported to the park," Matsuda explained.

"Yeah, Yulia-san had told me that. Any other things?" I asked my friend again. He finished his lunch before he spoke.

"Also, boss explained that we are Artificial Sacred Gear users because our gears were created by Angels. There are Natural Sacred Gear made by the God. You know, the one from the Bible."

"Really?"

"Made me consider converting to Christianity right there. Then I remembered if I join Christianity every time I watch porn I'll sin so I didn't bother with that."

Issei didn't know if he had to praise Matsuda for his galls or scolded him for his idiocy, so he settled on being silent and just nodded.

"Anything else? What are the capabilities of Port Shot, anyway? Let's exchange information to familiarize ourselves."

Matsuda nodded. "It's like a normal camera. However, it would never run out of power or space. So I can take infinite amounts of pictures without any worry of the battery dying. In fact, I have pictures of all the important places in this city, you know, for preventive measure. The main capability of Port Shot is as the name implies, it can teleport me anywhere as long as I have the picture of the place in my camera. As you realize from our battle, no matter how far it is, there is one and half second delay until I materialize into the place I choose."

"I see, I see," Issei nodded. "As for Eternal String. It can extend and pull the fishing line. The main capability is that the fishing line is endless. I've tried extending it for half an hour last night but it still has no end."

"Wait, it's not the electrocuting feature?" Matsuda interjected.

"Nah, I consider it as a finishing move, rather than the main capability. It's more fun that way, don't you think? Reminds me of that one American comic hero. So yeah. As far as I find out, that's the capabilities of Eternal String."

Matsuda nodded. "Rather than weak, it's just not strong but covered its lack of power by versatility."

"That's right. Any more information, Matsuda?"

Suddenly Issei felt an unrecognizable tingling. However, he ignored it in favor of hearing Matsuda's responses.

"Oh yeah, regarding the attraction between Sacred Gear user. If you were declared as lost, then you won't attract nor be attracted to other Sacred Gear users. Boss said it was to prevent the loser from being destroyed or taking revenge. Similarly, if a user is still in the competition but the one he fought didn't trigger the attraction, then he would know that the one he faced had already lost," Matsuda finished his explanation and then he sucked out the orange juice he drank.

"And how do you know you are being attracted to a Sacred Gear user?" Issei suddenly felt nervous when the tingling he had became even harder. "Is it a feeling of tingle in your entire body?"

"Yeah. Did your benefactor told you?" Matsuda threw the empty box of orange juice into the trash can. With a plop, the box was successfully thrown.

Issei looked around in panic.

"What's wrong, Ise?"

"No, Yulia-san hasn't told me that," Issei said in a hurry. His eyes wandering around trying to find something or precisely a someone. "It's because I'm feeling it now."

"There's a Sacred Gear user here!"

"Sssh!" Issei motioned to Matsuda to stay silent. Matsuda nodded and also scanned his surroundings.

Who was it?

Who was the Sacred Gear user?

Issei's eyes found the walking Kiba Yuuto, who noticed his stare and smiled at them with that handsome smile of his. Damn handsome bastard. He replied with a tongue out when Kiba had his attention taken by a girl coming at him.

Issei looked around for any sign of a Sacred Gear user but found the tingling sensation he felt leaving his body.

"It's gone," Issei spoke out loud informing Matsuda.

"Maybe whoever it is, they're just scouting? What are the chances of another Sacred Gear user from Kuoh? As far as I know, it's only you and me. I faced random dudes or even someone from other schools, not to mention this tournament is worldwide," Matsuda remarked.

Issei inclined to agree. Whoever they were, maybe they just scouted from ridiculous places like the rooftop or something and then they jumped outside the range.

The ringing sound of the bell snapped the two out of their suspense. "Come on, Ise. Let's go to class. It's obvious whoever they are, they aren't going to attack now."

Issei nodded and they went back to their class.

However, Issei couldn't shake the feeling that he had overlooked something.

It was after school when Issei felt the tingling again. His mind instantly went to overdrive. He hadn't even left the classroom yet, so there was no way that a scout from the rooftop or something was the user. It had to be a member of this school.

Issei ran to catch up to Matsuda. He was the only reliable source he had now, and they were friends. When he was running on the hallway, though, he bumped into someone and fell to the ground.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I was in a hurry," Issei reflexively apologized to the person he bumped.

"It's fine, it's fine. Nobody was harmed so it's okay." There he was again. Kiba Yuuto the Prince of Kuoh Academy. Girls all over fell for him. He extended his hand for Issei who just looked at him ridiculously.

"There's no way I'd take the hand of a handsome bastard like you, hmph."

Issei froze.

"Hyoudou-san? What's wrong?"

The hallway was strangely empty. There were no other students even though the class barely ended. There should be a traffic of people here. The tingling sensation also never stopped and it reminded Issei about this afternoon.

This afternoon, the tingling happened when Kiba Yuuto was entering his range of vision and stopped when Kiba Yuuto left. Issei wanted to left him to test his theory but he feared that Kiba Yuuto would attack him from behind.

After all, if his suspicion was correct, then Kiba Yuuto is a Sacred Gear user.

Issei took several steps back while facing Kiba. He then summoned Eternal String and held it with both hands.

Kiba narrowed his eyes. "I see. Tell me, did the church send you? Or the Grigori?" Then a sword was formed on his hand. It was a normal sword with no remarkable trait. "To think that there's an agent hiding beneath our noses. How careless."

Issei didn't know what Kiba was talking about so he didn't answer. This was a hallway. The setting was not good for his Sacred Gear, Eternal String which needed free spaces. On the corner of his eyes, he saw a tree outside the building.

That was it, Issei decided.

The hallway was on the third floor. There was no other way to go outside unless he jumped out of the window.

So he did.

He opened the window and jumped from the third floor. Without waiting Issei extended the fishing line so he could swing and not fall. He landed with a roll to soften the fall on the ground. When he looked at the third-floor hallway that he just jumped out, though, he saw no form of Kiba Yuuto.

"Shit," Issei muttered. "It's like yesterday all over again but in school."

Issei's instinct told him to move right. He relented and barely managed to dodge a lethal slash from his opponent who left his vision again and suddenly appeared from his blind side to try another slash.

This time, Issei raised Eternal String to block the sword. Despite being made of carbon fiber, surprisingly it could handle the sword being swung at him. Issei disengaged from Kiba and used the butt of Eternal String's handle to shift the momentum and throw his opponent aside. Without waiting for any retaliation, Issei extended his line and caught the sword on Kiba's hand and pulled it toward him.

Issei smiled. Now he could use the sword Kiba made against him.

However, to his surprise, Kiba in front of him didn't look panicked at all. He even smiled that infuriating handsome smile that he hated. In annoyance, Issei swung the sword.

But no edges met someone's neck. The sword was disintegrating in front of his eyes. So that was why Kiba was smiling!

"Is the sword a Sacred Gear which can teleport back to its user?"

"You seem to misunderstand something, Hyoudou-san," Kiba suddenly spoke up. On his hands, a various model of swords was formed instantly. "My Sacred Gear is not the sword. In fact-"

"The sword is created by the Sacred Gear!" Issei realized when he looked at Kiba's handful of swords.

"That's right. Sword Birth. I can create any kind of swords that I want."

It was fucking scary! Was this the kind of weapon made by the peaceful Angels?! Although...

"Do you have to explain your power to me? That seems like, a bad move, man. We're not in a shonen manga so no need to explain it."

Kiba just smiled at his response. "It's called courtesy, Hyoudou-kun."

"I don't know where you learned but if courtesy means you give your opponent ammunition to help defeat you, then I welcome you!"

Issei then extended his line to try and encircle Kiba to restrict his movement. His target replied by cutting the spaces around him at light speed.

The thing was, the fishing line could not be cut. So Kiba's effort was fruitless. The fishing line caught him.

"You got me, Hyoudou-san."

Yes, Issei got Kiba. So why was Kiba's hand glowing? Issei did not let down his guard because of that.

Kiba thrust his restricted hand to the ground. It shook and then suddenly the ground below him rumbled and dozens of pointy irons came out from the ground.

Issei barely managed to dodge by jumping to the left, even then some of the swords (can it even be called that?) grazed his right leg, making it bleed.

"Shit!"

"It seems that we're in a deadlock, Hyoudou-san."

No, they didn't. Kiba strictly had the upper ground.

"So why don't you tell me all about the mission from your organization? This area is under Buchou's jurisdiction and should not attract any attention."

Buchou... wasn't Kiba Yuuto part of the infamous Occult Research Club? If he remembered correctly, the club president was... Rias Gremory from the third year! What did she have to do with this Sacred Gear competition?

"What do you mean by jurisdiction?"

"Don't play dumb!" Kiba's hand glowed for a moment. It was an intimidation. Kiba didn't want Issei to play dumb and lie. He wanted an honest answer.

But Issei didn't lie. He really didn't understand anything anymore. He thought the Sacred Gear tournament was the extent of the supernatural world.

Issei's hand hovered around the electrify button. He was tempted to push the button to see Kiba's reaction. However, he had felt that something was missing from the picture. He was very sure of it, but couldn't identify what it was.

His mind raced.

Yesterday, Matsuda sensed him and instantly understood the situation. He understood that Sacred Gear users attracted other Sacred Gear users because it was deliberately designed that way by the Angels. However, not all Sacred Gears were created by the Angels. There were Natural Sacred Gear created by God and bestowed to human, therefore, not all Sacred Gear user would understand that there was a battle royal tournament.

The handsome blonde in front of him, he didn't instantly understand that they were supposed to fight. Instead, the one who did the first aggressive move by summoning the Sacred Gear was him. And then there were his responses. First, he asked if Issei was an agent of the church or Grigori. He didn't understand what Kiba meant. Then, Kiba also said something about Rias Gremory and jurisdiction.

Therefore, Issei can conclude that Kiba Yuuto was a Natural Sacred Gear user. He was not one hundred percent convinced, though. He had one last card left to prove his point.

"Kiba Yuuto. Tournament."

Kiba's expression morphed into a confusion, but it instantly went back to the default stoic handsome.

Issei sighed when he noticed that. "I see. It seems that there is a misunderstanding, Kiba-san."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Sword Birth. It wasn't given to you by an Angel, was it?"

"No. What do Angels have to do with Sacred Gear? It was His creation."

Issei released Kiba from his hold. "Please wait for a bit. I assure you I mean no harm. I was wrong." He then dialed Matsuda's number.

"Matsuda? Can you come to the backyard of the school?" Issei looked around him. "You said you had all the photos of important places, right? Five meters south from the big sakura tree... You don't know where south is? Just look at the shades, damn it. Good."

Exactly one and half a second later, Matsuda appeared beside him.

"What do you need, Issei?"

Issei pointed at Kiba who looked a little startled by the suddenness of Matsuda's appearance.

"We came into a little scuffle. I thought he is also a competitor, turns out he's a Natural Sacred Gear user."

Kiba perked up at hearing the word Natural Sacred Gear.

"What do you mean by Natural, Hyoudou-san? And what competition?"

Matsuda looked aghast. "How the hell I couldn't sense him until now?!" He then sighed.

"It's a long story, Kiba-san. And I think if you follow me, you will find an answer. I also don't have much of the answer. Matsuda here has been in longer than me," Issei answered Kiba's question.

"Hey! I didn't want to upset your benefactor by dumping you with the information she wanted to tell you!" Matsuda chirped in.

"And I'm very thankful about that, Matsuda. If you hadn't said anything about the Natural Sacred Gear user, I wouldn't stop from fighting Kiba and I might be hurt worse or dead," Issei reassured Matsuda.

"Tch, don't mention it, you idiot."

Kiba agreed to join him in getting an explanation from Issei's benefactor, Yulia. So the three of them went to the park where Issei and Matsuda fought just yesterday.