Author's Note:

I put this note here to clear up any confusion. Upon some reflection, I realized I could do some cooler things later on if I had Valerie become the [Cleric] instead of the [Druid], so I am going back and editing to suit it. Not much will change in regards to Valerie, except her biokinesis will be focused more on a vampiric theme of bones and blood, with a bit of shadow magic thrown in, instead of the leaves, trees and vines the was originally going to have. I rather like the idea of "Valerie standing in a gothic chapel, [Sephiroth Graal] raised in one hand with her glaive in the other, as she stands behind a stone altar dressed like a vampire queen of old." more than "Valerie meditating in a magic circle deep in the woods, the grail before her feet as vines dance around her".

A few weeks later.

Issei, Valerie, and Aika stood in a corner of the warehouse base, still fairly run down and awaiting the funds for the major renovations, but with some new minor features added. Valerie had requested that we meet out here today, primarily because she used a chapel-like setup to practice her life magic and [Sacred Gear]. While Issei's soul was good for locating her body, the ritual circles inscribed on the floor helped her stabilize her powers and practice her abilities in biokinesis and soul manipulation safely. Aika was brought along to work on her own spellcasting, a sub category of wind magic that centered around music and vibrations. Currently, Aika was showing off her first spell, some kind of air elemental controlled by the song she played. As the notes of her flute echoed through the room, a small energy spike occurred and was subsequently hidden by Issei, while a swirling vortex formed near Aika's head. With a few deft presses of the keys, this vortex shot forward and began to move around the clearing, spinning and diving through the air to impact a small wall of bone spines Valerie had set up earlier. On its impact, the spines rattled, but held. Aika continued to move the spirit in time with her music, suddenly tapping her foot and launching into a spinning dance, as a second, then a third spirit formed by her and began to move in time with the first, forming defensive walls, then cycling out in offensive blasts, then back to a defensive orbit. A few seconds later, the elementals vanished, and Aika slumped to the ground, Issei and Valerie bolting to her side.

Issei and Valerie said in synch, "Aika, are you ok?"

She was beginning to sit up and was panting heavily. With a shaky breath she replied, "I'm fine. *Pant* I just got. *Pant* Caught up in the song. *Pant* Didn't realize. *Pant* How much energy. *Pant* I was burning through."

Issei and Valerie sighed, as Valerie summoned a green magic circle to replenish Aika's energy.

As Aika staggered to her feet, Issei's wards pinged something magical coming into range closely followed by a second and third ping together.

"Heads up, we've got company."

Issei dropped into a crouch, [Boosted Gear] deployed and calling its first [Boost]. To his left, Valerie stood, her glaive ready to support him while her body was positioned so that Issei's more resilient body could protect her. Aika shifted back, ready to support in what little capability she could at the moment.

None of them were truly ready for the flaming demon horse that blasted through the doors, followed closely behind by a girl on her own horse, which a headless knight was steering. While their initial surprise let their foes gain plenty of ground, Issei recovered quickly enough to cast an Explosive Rune in front of them, which the horse promptly ran over and was blown into the roof. The second horse rearing, its riders struggling to remain mounted. They managed to gain control, just as the flaming horse crashed into the ground, somehow managing to land upright. Huh. Must've rolled a natural 20 on its landing check or something. Anyways, the second it touched the ground, it was off like a gunshot, blasting back through the door, the other rider reeling around to follow.

All of the party looked at each other, the unspoken question of whether to chase after them or not hanging in the air. In the end, their curiosity won out and they all spread their wings and took off after the riders. Their energy signatures were masked, and they were making sure to stay out of sight, even though most of the area was abandoned, darting through alleys and around windows. Even so, not much can challenge dragons in the sky, so they rapidly caught up to the rider, still chasing her quarry. She appeared to be reaching for a loop of something metallic, when the creature in front of her seemed to snort, then vanished into the ground in a trail of flames.

The girl leaped off her horse and inspected the flame tracks, the knight who had been steering it remaining mounted. A few seconds later, she screamed skyward in a fit of rage and despair, pounding the ground with her fist. While she was distracted, Issei and company took this time to land on the concrete a bit further away.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!"

I piped up to Issei, 'Wow, that's a pretty good Team Four Star impression.'

Issei snickered, then glared at me, as his had alerted her to our presence. In response, I sent him a smug expression.

The girl scrambled to her feet, her knight, which I suspected was a dullahan, galloping towards her side and passing her the loops, which she uncoiled into a whip made of some sort of cable, likely silvered in some way.

She glared at us, "Who are you?"

Issei rolled his eyes, "The ones you nearly ran over about five minutes ago chasing whatever the hell that was."

Her face went red with embarrassment and she flinched.

Issei pointed at the respective members of the party, "Anyways, I'm Issei, that's Valerie, and that's Aika."

Now, let it be said that I'm not dumb, but I do have trouble focusing, so it sometimes takes me a while to put all the pieces together and remember information. This was the case right now, as all the pieces finally clicked into place and I realized who we were dealing with.

'Issei, I know who this is'

Just after I said this she spoke up, "I'm Kiyome Abe and this is No-head Honda, I'm sorry for chasing that Nightmare right into you."

Issei's reply was terse, 'Info, now please.'

'Ok, as she said her name is Kiyome Abe, no sacred gear or major religious faction affiliation, two years your senior, currently enrolled at Kuoh Academy, where Valerie is going next year, member of the tennis club, current affiliation is to her family, who are a legacy of beast tamers, she's likely hunting or attempting to capture the Nightmare she was chasing earlier. I would recommend asking why."

Issei smiled and I felt a sense of smugness from him, "Why were you doing that anyways, and do you need any help?"

I was shocked, 'What!'

Issei replied smugly, 'Oh, come on, she clearly needs some help if her reaction from earlier was any indication, and you owe me for that comment earlier.'

She looked offended, "My reasons for this are my own, and I don't need your help, I have everything under control."

The whole party seemed to be on the same wavelength as Issei said, "So what was that little fit I saw three seconds ago?"

Abe grit her teeth and snarled, "I just lost the trail for a bit, I'll search the town and find the nightmare in an hour, mark my words!"

Issei's expression returned to the now-familiar vulpine grin, "Really, so you don't want the help of someone who could scry the location and have it to you in a few minutes without you moving an inch and can give you aerial support in chasing it? I guess we'll head home then."

And that was the straw that broke the camel's back, "Fine! Do your stupid, whatever it is."

I started laughing, 'Can you say, Tsundere?'

Issei looked confused, 'Solus, what are you talking about, that sort of cliché doesn't happen in reality.'

Five minutes later

We were flying next to Abe as she rode in the direction of the Nightmare's current location, somewhere deep in the woods around Kuoh.

Issei flew up beside Abe and spoke up, "So Abe, why are you tracking this thing down?"

Abe grit her teeth. She ground out, "Another family of beast tamers is seeking a blood alliance with us, and they're requesting my hand in marriage. My dad gave me this test as a way to prove that I could offer more than the marriage. Nightmares are notoriously hard to capture, due to their ability to teleport while running after a certain amount of time, and their flaming ethereal bodies making it hard to get a good grip with any device to capture them. If I capture one, I get out of the marriage, if I don't, I can expect to be engaged in a few years. I've treated the whip so it will affect the body, and I've got some calming herbs in my saddlebags, the problem is cornering the damn thing so it can't teleport."

Valerie called out from behind, "I'm sensing something major up ahead!"

With any luck, the cliff we had been riding along the bottom of was not in our way.

Everyone who inhabited Issei's body went on alert. Ddraig called out, "Issei! You and your party go around and cut off its escape routes!" I added, "Have Aika deploy two wind spirits if we can't cover all the routes."

As we zoomed ahead, we were able to analyze the situation more efficiently. To Abe's left, the cliff wall ran, about ten meters high. On the other side was a pond, about ten meters in diameter, with about twenty meters between its closest edge and the cliff. The entire battlefield was covered in light forest, not quite thick enough to hinder visibility, but enough that any high-speed diving through the canopy would be ill-advised. The nightmare, its flaming body easily visible through the trees, was trotting alongside it, quickly gaining speed as the noise of our approach reached it. Issei bolted ahead of it along the cliff, blocking a direct route from Abe. Valerie took the lower shore of the lake, her higher experience meaning Abe wouldn't have to divert as much attention to supporting her, while Aika, with her lower combat experience, took the shore closer to Issei, so he could support her as needed. The nighmare, realizing it's encirclement, wheeled around and charged at the lake, trying to leap over the water. As it rose over the lake, Issei held up his hand and cast a spell, while Aika began to play her flute.

"Magic Missile!"

Screeching through the trees, the bolt of wind energy crashed into the nightmare, and was soon followed by two balls of semi-sapient wind. Its trajectory now diverted, it crashed to the ground on Valerie's side of the lake. Valerie raced to block its escape route, while Issei and Abe moved in closer to trap it more thoroughly, Aika remaining on the other side of the lake in case it tried to jump again. As the nightmare regained its footing, Issei, Valerie, and Abe finished their encirclement. With its back to the lake, and not enough room to build speed for a jump or a teleport, the demonic horse reared and prepared to charge. At this, Abe leapt off Honda's horse, her whip uncoiling behind her. With a cry, she landed on the ground and swung the whip forward, its tip racing out and coiling around the neck of the beast. The second the cable went taught, the beast bolter. With all the force she could muster, Abe yanked on the cable, bringing the beast to rotate around her, drawing closer with each rotation as she gradually reeled the whip in. Once the nightmare got within about two meters, Abe quickly switched to a one-handed grip, her left hand darting down to her belt and pulling out a small yellow sphere, about the size of a tennis ball, no wait, it was a tennis ball. Throwing the ball at the nightmare's face it exploded into a fine white powder, which was soon sucked into the beast's nostrils. Whatever the substance was seemed to rapidly tire the nightmare, but in one last feat of enrgy, it reared up at full strength and yanked an off-guard into the air, sending her sailing into the pond, the impact with the water stunning her. Issei immediately dashed to help her, while calling out to Valerie, "Make sure it doesn't escape!"

Valerie darted forward and speared her bone glaive into the ground, where the tip exploded outwards, burrowing through the earth and reemerging to quickly form a lattice, that gradually expanded to form a cage with a roof. The reason Valerie couldn't do this now was that the nightmare would have jumped out of it or bashed through the walls in the time it took to set it up. Meanwhile, Issei was dragging a soaked and hacking Abe out of the pond, both of their clothes soaked and clinging to their skin. Aika, having arrived when Valerie set the cage up, and Valerie herself went beet red as they saw exactly what Issei's body looked like under his clothes, every muscle defined like he was chiseled from marble. Abe slowly got back to her feet, then looked down and quickly covered herself, realizing her shirt was soaked through and Issei was about five feet away. Her expression soon lost its embarrassment and rage when she realized that Issei wasn't looking at her, instead he was focused on a small patch of ground. Suddenly, a blast of white-hot flame erupted from the ground and condensed into a small furnace-like ball about a foot off the ground. With a second wave of his hand, air began to circulate, forming a drying function. Issei turned around to inform Abe that he was done, only to freeze and let his eyes slowly drift down towards her chest, which was nicely pushed up by her arms, the soaked shirt doing nothing to hide her cleavage. As Issei was focused on Abe's chest, he didn't notice her own eyes glance first at the fire he made for her, then at ssei's own soaked clothes.

Both me and Ddraig decided to snap him out of it, "Issei!"

Issei went bright red and quickly bowed, said "Sorry", then moved so that his back was to the fire and Abe, motioning for her to get closer and dry herself off. Upon seeing this, Aika and Valerie started laughing their asses off. As soon as she realized what she had been doing and what Issei had done, Abe's blush only grew greater.

About five minutes later Abe and Issei were dry again, and Issei cancelled the fire spell, immediately, Abe's fist slammed into the back of his skull with a cry of "Pervert!", her face still beet red. Aika and Valerie, having almost finished their earlier laughter, resumed their cries with a vengeance.

Issei called from the ground, "I said I was sorry!"

"No, you weren't you pervert! I bet you planned this, didn't you?"

"So let me get this straight, I somehow managed to train a nightmare, a feat seen as near impossible, with no prior experience, got it to Kouh, then somehow learned of your quest, set the nightmare free with explicit orders to randomly run to me while I was in that warehouse, destroy a door and make me pay to have it replaced, then lead you on a wild goose chase so that I can step in with two other girls, while it has been instructed to teleport to the nearest body of water, something I doubt this horse likes…"

"They don't, nightmares abhor water and only go near it if they have no other alternative."

"So how did I tame one to do that?"

"Um, ok fine you win!"

Issei smiled, "Again, I'm sorry about the staring, but as far as Solus and Ddraig can tell, my impulse control is a bit unstable, and it appears it just failed right there,"

"Who are Solus and Ddraig?"

Issei's mental sigh was immense.

'I'm going to have to give the speech again, aren't I?'

'You're going to have to give the speech again.'

Five minutes of exposition later.

Abe had moved over to the cage while we waited, having called someone on her cell phone to pick up the nightmare, and was currently doing something with the nightmare. She looked up at us.

"I have one question."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Can I join your party?"

The current party let out a flat, "What."

Issei decided to elaborate, "Why do you want to join?"

"Because you were nice to me. No one in my family besides my father was willing to help me escape the engagement, and the only help he was able to give me was this quest to prove my worth. By joining up to you, I can ally the family with a useful faction, and gain some personal power so that if this sort of issue comes up again, I have somewhere to go. Plus, you all seem really nice, even though you, Issei, are a major pervert."

"Solus said I would have been worse if he didn't step in."

Abe started chuckling, "Oh gods, that would have been impressive."

Issei turned to the party, "So what do you guys think?"

I was the first to comment, "I want dinosaur cavalry! Make her your [Ranger]!"

"How the hell would we do that?"

"Valerie resurrects a fossil, Abe tames it, simple as that."

"Ddraig?"

"I'm all for it Issei, she seems like an individual who will grow to great power."

"Aika?"

"She seems a little prissy, but she does need our help, plus, the [Party] is kind of small right now, let her in."

"Valerie?"

"You helped me on the word of a friend. It would be rude of me not to do the same."

"Ok, Abe, looks like you're in. We'll finalize the paperwork tonight. Here's my address, meet us there."

Issei handed her a slip of paper, then the party spread its wings and took off, Abe calling out behind us,

"Thank you Issei! I promise you won't regret this!"

Author's Note Part 2:

So, urgent things like retcons and delays will be noted in Author's notes at the top, with the lower ones containing general information. Anyways, Issei now has a ranger, and I've completed every major pre-canon event. So it is my pleasure to announce Timeskip Shenanigans, the small things that occur during the time skips that I can't make a full chapter out of. While that is going on, I will also be setting up a poll, in order to determine who to use as Issei's [Fighter] and [Barbarian], it is accessible from my profile.