Disclaimer: I do own nothing, nor High School DxD, nor the image or any non-original concept I will put in this fiction. They belong to their rightful owners and I am not making a profit by doing this. Since when we can do profit anyway. Just wanna have some fun writing this.

There will be many reference or concept from other animes and games.

But before we start. A thank you to Darklord331 for beta reading my chapter.

Chapter 3 - I shouldn't tempt fate or Murphy now

Previously in Hallowed Blade

"Next time, I will win."

"I'll be waiting for the next spar."

It's been one year since I became Dulio's ward and an apprentice exorcist.

I often trained with Xenovia by Griselda since Dulio was often called to duty and couldn't take care of me.

Well, when Dulio came back from missions, it was often to give us dishes that came from the country where he was.

Sometimes, he would train me into hand-to-hand combat or tell me some stories of his adventures to spend some time with me before he's called again by the church to another mission.

When he has a long break from missions which is quite rare, he invited me to go visit some church facilities and give food to the children who live in there.

You can tell from the face of the children when they saw Dulio's face that he did this for a long time now. They smiled at him then jump on him while laughing. Great respect for him.

Xenovia is a calm and serious girl with few words. While she can be very blunt, she is nice to hang out with.

When she learned that she is older than me, she wanted me to listen to what she say because she is the oldest one. Well, child mentality.

Even if the only thing she would ask is to spar with her which I obviously didn't refuse.

I won't miss a chance to improve myself. After many spars done with her, my swordsmanship has become more sharper.

But Xenovia's problems, for one, is that she is a power idiot. She rarely uses her head when fighting and always tries to defeat me with pure power and strength.

While she is stronger than me, I'm still faster than her. But with Griselda's training, I slowly but surely started to get closer to Xenovia's level of strength.

When I remembered of Master Owen's training and comparing it to Griselda's, Master Owen was a sheep to Griselda who was a true demon.

Every day, she will make us surpass our limits, running around the city, push-ups, sit-ups, squats and there is more... while wearing magical enchanted weights.

For Griselda, that is only the warm-up. Then, she will make us fight either between me and Xenovia or sometimes us against her.

Once she is satisfied and us tired, she will make us study how to use magic and general studies. Yes, even as an exorcist, you still have to learn subjects like at school.

Griselda may look like a good person, always acting polite and smiling at us. But I could see the mirth behind her kind eyes but she's scary so I won't say anything.

Xenovia once told me that as punishment for disobeying her. Griselda tripled her training program with the weight of her magical weights doubled. I'm sure I'm not a masochist so I'll pass.

At first, it was tough but I caught the pace after two weeks of training. Did I tell you that we have our weights for 24 hours and 7 days?

But other than that, I could say I'm proud of my progress in magic. In Griselda's class, we are being taught some basic spell like dimensional magic to store object. I got my inventory.

She also teaches us how to make a spell circle to use magic. When I say us, I mean me. Xenovia has no interest in using magic, as I quote her "Cutting people is the best way".

When I have time outside of training, sparring with Xenovia, spending time with Dulio.

To use magic, one must make an equation which will result in a formula that is the spell circle and then dumped some magical power in it to power the spell.

And to activate the spell, you can either activate it mentally or by a verbal incantation.

But if the equation is wrong or the amount of magical power dumped is too great, one can lost his own life. To learn magic is to walk with death.

And so, I'm supervised by Griselda when I want to create some spells.

For now, I'm working on lightning magic since it seems that I'm better with that element but I can only electrify my hand just to give a shock for now.

I have so many ideas on how to use lightning magic based on anime I saw in my previous life but for now, I can only focus on the basic.

Either way, it will take some times and precaution to make those spells.

As for my Sacred Gear, let's say I got some help from someone.

"SA-CHAN!" Well, when you spoke about her, here she comes and running at full force toward me.

"Sa-chan! Here you are!" "Ouf... please, let go of me. Jeanne."

Yes, the person who has the same Sacred Gear as me was Jeanne, the one who possesses the soul of Joan and future member of the Hero Faction.

"No, as your older sister, you have to listen to what I say and I want you to let me hug you."

And she is my self-proclaimed older sister, you may be lost but here is how we met.

- Flashback six months ago -

"Hey, Dulio. Who is that person who has the same Sacred Gear as me?" I asked him when he told me if I had gone to see that rumored person to help me train with my Sacred Gear which I kinda neglected overtraining my swordsmanship and body.

"You don't know, then follow me. Let's go see her." "Hey, wait for me." And like that, I followed Dulio to meet my future trainer.

After walking for a bit, we arrived at a meadow filled with flowers. I think I will love that place.

"Hey, Jeanne! Are you here?!" I heard Dulio screaming for someone. Jeanne, where have I heard that name.

"Ha, Dulio. I'm here !" Someone replied from far away and the sound of steps was heard.

Then a girl appeared in front of us, she looked older than I and Xenovia, at least one year older than us.

She has long blond hair and sky blue eyes like the sister from three years ago but not as beautiful as her.

"Hey, it's been a long time. Hey, who is he?" She said after seeing me.

"He's Sakuya, I found him in Japan. He has the same Sacred Gear as you so I was thinking if you could train him. Hey, introduce yourself."

"Good morning, I am Sakuya. Nice to meet you." I bowed at her and then she took my hand.

"Hi, I'm Jeanne. Nice to meet you. Hey, how old are you ?" She said smiling at me while holding them but my mind was elsewhere.

Why is she here?! She is a future member of the Hero Faction! Did she get excommunicated?! How?!

Many questions passed through my mind but I smiled at her to hide my nervosity.

"I am 8 years old." "I am 10 this year, so I'm your superior. Don't worry, I'll treat you nice."

"Great. Now that the introductions are done. Wanna eat something? My treats."

"Yeah!" I nodded while Jeanne jumped in the air when Dulio proposed to treat us.

As we walked and talked about mundane thing. "Ah, look. It's the Maiden Jeanne and Lord Dulio."

A few whispers and whispers are made around us. While Dulio seemed to go every day, Jeanne was a little uncomfortable.

- Timeskip in the Flashback -

Three months after knowing Jeanne and her helping with my Sacred Gear, I found her agreeable to hang with but I always found her uncomfortable when people talk about her.

So I decided to approach it when we were alone in the meadow.

"Hey, Jeanne. Can I ask a question?" "Sure." She smiled at me like everything was alright.

"Why did you get uncomfortable when they spoke about you?" With that, her smile fell and she stared at her knees.

"Do you know about me? About my title?" At her question, I nodded no, after all, there wasn't any background on Jeanne in the anime.

"Well, you see, I'm carrying the spirit of the Maiden of Orleans, Joan of Arc, in me. So, when people from the Church found about it, they declared me like I was the second coming of Joan.

So when they call me things like Maiden, I often feel like they don't worship me because of what I am but only because of what I'm carrying. That I am just Joan's second coming..." She started to sob. Alright, I'm starting to feel bad now.

So I moved to hug her in my arms which shocked her.

"That's just stupid. You are not Joan, you're Jeanne." Then I looked straight in her wet eyes capturing all of her attention.

"Listen, Jeanne. You've helped me with a lot of things these past three months.

Even if you're childish, you're fun to hang out with and I love spending time with you. You've always offered me, sweets, after you've trained and there's still so much I can say about you.

If you do not know who you are because of those people calling you Joan's second coming then I'll tell you right here, right now.

The person I see in front of me is not Joan. I see one of my best friends, Jeanne!"

After my little declaration, Jeanne just stared at me. For a moment, I panicked, I tried to cheer her but now I didn't know what to do.

Then she hugged me and cried on my chest. I could only hug her back and rub her head.

After crying for a while, she fell asleep. I could only let her sleep on my lap, waiting for her to wake up.

And when she did, she started to say that now, she will be my big sister and that she will take care of me with the brightest smile she did until now leaving me speechless.

- Back to the present -

After this, she started to join us our training program under Griselda and she also adopted Xenovia as her surrogate younger sister. I won't forget the face Xenovia did when Jeanne called her with her new nickname. "Xe-chan".

If Xenovia is specialized in power then she is specialized in speed. She is even faster than me but I can still follow her speed.

And another type of sparring partner will give me a wider range of experience.

And thanks to Jeanne, I made great progress with my Sacred Gear. I can summon swords either by popping them from the ground or by making a magical circle on the air and having them appeared from them.

Since I could summon swords of different attributes according to my will. I tried to summon swords from other animes but they were not as powerful as their originals. Oh well, as long they work and looks good. I'm happy with it.

When I summon swords from the ground, I can only do it around me but it also serves me as a defensive means but what I'm working on with my Sacred Gear is to keep the magical circle intact around me and keep summoning multiple swords through them instead of one by one.

A kind of submachine gun but with swords. But for now, let's focus on the child on our back.

"So, what is it, Jeanne." I asked her, seeing her humming on my back.

"I heard that some people from the Protestant Church will be coming here." The Protestant church isn't that where Irina and her family are. But there are no chance that she'll come.

"And when will they come?" "In an hour." What... I stared at her eyes, she stared at mine.

I tried to see for an inch of a lie in her eyes but I could see nothing but mirth as she understood what I was trying to do.

I understand that she understood and ended up sighing.

"Why do I learn that only now?" "I though Xenovia would have told you."

"Xenovia, our dear power idiot telling me that kind of thing. You know she is only interested in sparing."

After thinking for a bit, Jeanne could only nod.

"Well, Griselda wants us to go with her to welcome them. Let's go." She took my hand to pulled me with her as I could only shrug my shoulder.

- At the airport -

"Hey, I also heard there was a girl of your age, what do you think ?" "I don't care as long she's strong enough to spar with us."

As the girl were discussing about the people coming from the Protestant Church, I was speaking to Griselda why they were coming.

It seems that they want their youngest apprentice exorcist to gain more experience by visiting the Vatican and train there for a time period of 3 years.

"It looks like they are here. Please, stand straight and be silent, everyone."

Doing what she instructed and we waited next to her in front of the airport's door to see it open.

But what came first was a familiar voice and chestnut hair I didn't heard or see for 4 years now.

"Sakuya?! What are you doing here?!"

You know, I shouldn't tempt fate or Murphy now.

A/N: And that was the fourth chapter of Hallowed Blade.

I wanna say thank you all for the reviews and a great thank you again to Darklord331 for beta reading my chapter.

This time, a smaller chapter since I got a new game given to me as a present, I will take some time playing on it.

I may got some inspiration from it.

And the main reason is because it's just better to cut there. I don't want to take to much time on the childhood arc but I will still cover the main point.

And now, I will try to answer to the review.

AnimeA55Kicker: His knowledge of Archer and Gilgamesh give him many ideas on how to use his Sacred Gear. If you were to compare Kiba with Sakuya in term of strength, Kiba is a glass sword whose only advantage will be speed because of his knight trait. Sakuya is stronger and durable than him.

While their Sacred Gear are a counterpart of each other, how they use it are different.

Kiba will primarily use it to equip himself and attack his enemies with the newly created swords meanwhile Sakuya will more use his Sacred Gear like an AOE Spell or a ranged attack.

I won't spoil everything but Sakuya will be more powerful than Kiba when canon will begin.

Ashborn2271: Sorry to break your hope but he will be quite neutral toward Devil, knowing them from the anime and being influenced by two peoples who don't have a bad opinion towards Devil in general. He will only have a bad one with the Old Faction.

With the Gremory and Ise, he will not help them. He will be on his own job only seeing them in a few minor events and some majors one.

Loser Stuck In Memory Lane: Gilgamesh was only a reference because Sakuya could only think of either Emiya Shirou, Archer EMIYA or Gilgamesh when he thought about someone summoning multiple swords. It's like in canon, Ise thought of Goku when he tried to summon his Sacred Gear for the first time. He won't emulate Gilgamesh nor emulate him as his fighting style will be different.

I don't feel like giving a second Sacred Gear, Blade Blacksmith is enough for my opinion.

While Erza's versatility comes from the different weapons and armors she has, Sakuya will come from both his Sacred Gear, giving him different elemental weapons to match the situation and his magic that he will improve in the future.

But the sub-species Balance Breaker I thought of giving him is quite similar to one of Erza's armor and its power. I won't say which one. Even if I didn't think of her when I first thought about when I created my character sheet.

With the "Protector" thing, it's more the fact that Sakuya looked like he could give his life to protect those that he cherish from the point of view of Dulio when he looked at him. Sakuya greatly cherishes his family for giving him a happy early life and being loved by them while knowing he wasn't supposed to exist in the DxD-verse. He thinks that he got more than he deserved and so he will fight to protect the one he loves with all he got.

You could compare this to Ichigo Kurosaki's personality of protecting people, even if he only has a big sword. The only "shield" Sakuya will have would be barrier made from magic.

The Last Nanaya: I wasn't really thinking when I read about this comment and didn't bother searching.

I answered just after finishing working on my college's assignment and receiving my chapter beta-readed so I was quite tired. So sorry about that.

Alstao: To be honest, Memory Partition and Thought Acceleration required to consider the human body like an arithmetic unit and doing calculations which is the proof of an Atlas Alchemist.

And Sakuya, while he is a reincarnated person, he is not the brightest mind and certainly not a genius. I don't think of him being smart enough to manage to create an equation that can manage to replica those two magecrafts.

Even if they are cool. But thanks again for the suggestion and the review.

Frankieu: Thanks for the comment. Well, we will see. While he has the perve gene ( I mean, we know that Ise, his parents, and his grandfather are perverts. Not sure about his grandmother. ), he has enough self-control to resist it. If he were a pervert, he would be a closet one.

As for God, he watched the anime in his previous world, so he knows. But the God he will often be referencing to will be Elder Grah, the perverted god who killed him by mistake.

As for trolling the Angels, with Dulio, who is his guardian, is quite carefree and an easy-going man so you can expect a little of that.

Itsuki Minami1: Thank you for the comment. Yes, Xenovia had long hair when she was young but at 8 years old, I just made that up. We only know from the LN that she had long hair when she was 14.

The size of the harem really depends on one person see it. We don't have the same estimation when one considers a harem become too big.

As for now, I only have 5 persons who are paired with Sakuya.