Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Highschool DXD.

Author's Note at the end.


CHAPTER SEVEN: MA RI

Caleb had spent most of the early morning on a run, having neglected said activity for the past few weeks because of the Occult Research club, so feeling the burning sensation in his legs and the sweat on his skin was refreshing for him. A good five miles into it he decided to take a break and stroll through the park, no longer weary about encountering fallen angels.

'Sweet, sweet exercise, how I've missed you!' He says to himself, stretching his arms out and yawning. He had decided earlier to stop by an ice cream store and treat himself after he finished his, so there he was, walking along towards a convenience store, when he hears a familiar voice.

'Excuse me mister, but do you know where Kuoh Academy is?'

Caleb stops dead in his tracks, and tries to replay the voice in his head. He can hear the voice conversing with another person about the Academy, including detailed directions on how to get there. Caleb listens intently, checking, double checking, and triple checking the familiarity of the voice. He had no doubts about who the voice belonged to, yet he could not let himself believe said person was standing but a few meters away from him.

Caleb turns around slowly, his heart beating in his ears, and his mouth dry. His soul be damned to hell, even seeing only the back of the person talking, he knew who it was.

Kirishima Ma Ri.

Kirishima fucking Ma Ri.

Caleb wanted to turn tail and run as fast as he could back to his apartment, where he was sure the entire Occult Research Club was hanging out, since Rias invited them there, which is also the reason Caleb went on a run and tried to stay on his run until they were gone. But he couldn't will himself to. Not when Ma Ri was in front of him, albeit she didn't know that he was there. He wanted to kick himself in the face for acting the way he was at the moment. This was too traumatizing.

Fuck this.

Caleb's indecisiveness costs him when Ma Ri finally turns around, and their eyes meet. Caleb instantly freezes, his head going into panic mode.

Oh crap, too late! He thinks to himself.

'Hide?'

He hears her say, but he still doesn't move a muscle. Then Ma Ri starts to walk towards him. Oh God, she's headed towards me. Caleb then feels a sharp pain in his head, and momentarily flinches at the sudden feeling.

'Ah crap.'

'Hide.'

Caleb opens his eyes and suddenly comes face to face with his ex-girlfriend, well, she was looking up at him, and he down on her. He takes a step back reflexively, and just stares. Her messy blonde hair were now just past her shoulders. She must've gotten a haircut. He thinks to himself. And she had bangs now. Her blue eyes still had their bright, expressive feel to them, even if they were behind her glasses.

'Kirishima Ma Ri.' He finally says to her. She raises her eyebrows at him.

''Kirishima Ma Ri'? Who are you, mom?' She says to him jokingly, though Caleb was still processing her very presence and could not register her joke into his brain.

'You're really here.' He states, dumbfounded, complete astonishment evident in his eyes. Ma Ri looks at Caleb's reaction, and a reminiscent smile graces her lips.

'Hi Hide.' She says to him, smiling cheerfully. Caleb tries his best to resist, but slowly, a smile starts to creep its way to his face.

'Hey Ma Ri.' He replies. All of Caleb's willpower could never deny or erase his current thought out of his mind, he was still head over heels for her.

And that was it, he was once again hooked on her.

'What are you doing all the way here?' He asks her earnestly, still unable to believe his eyes. Ma Ri beckons him to walk with her, and he follows.

'Dad was thinking of opening up a new shop around here, so we're kind of scouting I guess.' She says cheerfully, walking ahead of Caleb and stretching her arms out. She was the happy-go-lucky type, and her outgoing personality only boosted the charm that helped her win people's trust so easily. Caleb could only watch her look around her surroundings, her skipping around a park lit up by sunlight was a scene that suited Ma Ri perfectly. Caleb quickly catches up to her and asks a follow up question.

'Why were you asking about Kuoh?' He asks with his eyebrow raised. She raises her eyebrow back at him. 'So you did hear that?' she asks casually, but being found out doesn't deter Caleb. 'I asked first.' He answers, a smirk playing on his face. However, Ma Ri keeps her cool and instead plays dumb, raising her head and tapping her chin pretending to be in thought.

'Hmmm, Kuoh? I wonder why?' She turns her head to Caleb slightly, checking his reaction. He pouts for a second, before donning a smug look.

'You don't have to be shy about saying you were gonna look for me.' He teases, Ma Ri scoffs at him. 'As if.' She maintains her playful tone as they both stroll through the park, idly bantering about random things. It was their normal routine to tease and outwit each other when they were still together, it was nostalgic to Caleb.

'So how's everyone back at school?' He asks, Ma Ri takes a second to answer. 'The baseball and football teams are doing alright considering you left some pretty big shoes to fill. Fujiwara's trying to find his next new best friend, though he isn't faring too well.'

'And the rest of them?' He was asking about their group of friends, Fujiwara and he were best buddies. Caleb keeps in contact with all of them, but it was nice to hear from someone firsthand.

'Miki-chan still bickers with Fujiwara every day, and Kira still breaks them up after.' Caleb smiles at her statement. He missed their everyday situations of hilarity, he could imagine all of the things his friends would argue about day in and day out.

'Fujiwara's pretty lucky, having three beautiful girls to himself.' He comments. Ma Ri scoffs at what Caleb had just said. 'He keeps bragging about it to everyone in the class, thus Miki-chan hits him on the head quite frequently nowadays.'

'Careful, Miki might destroy whatever brain cell Fujiwara has left.' Caleb says, laughing at the thought of his old friend getting his head pounded every day.

'With luck, she might end up pounding some brain cells into his head.' They both laugh at the thought, but the laughter soon dies down, and Caleb decides to ask Ma Ri another question, 'How about you?' he asks. Ma Ri once again dons her playful aura.

'Me?' She asks.

'Yes, you.' Caleb asks in an annoyed tone, but his eyes showed that he was playing along Ma Ri. The latter takes an exaggerated thinking pose, the nonchalantly answers, 'Oh, you know, just being me.'

'Being you?' He asks impatiently. Caleb knew this attitude all too well, it's how she baited him into her bidding, and he refused to do so. Okay then, two can play this game.

Ma Ri simply smiles at Caleb's impatience. 'Yup, being lil' old me.' Caleb pretends to sighs in defeat. Then approaches Ma Ri enough that their faces are mere inches from one another. His offensive works and Ma Ri backs into the fountain, Caleb cornering her.

'Come on, Ri. Give me something here.' He says sincerely. He didn't like being in the dark about Ma Ri, even their friends weren't completely aware what Ma Ri had been up to after they had broken up. Ma Ri's cheerful smile gets replaced by a sad one as she looked at Caleb. She reaches over to him and cups his face in her hands, prompting the latter to look at her in surprise. She says nothing to him, but offers a smile. Caleb in turn holds one of her hands with his own, bringing his face a tad bit closer to her.

'Hey.'

'Hmm?'

'You know, we didn't have to break up.' He sees a hint of hesitance from Ma Ri before she answers.

'You had to move.'

'Bull.' Caleb bluntly replies, a short laugh emits from Ma Ri. 'Blunt as always, that's one of the reasons that I like you.' Caleb's ears perk up at what Ma Ri said.

''like', not 'liked'?' He asks hopefully, Ma Ri simply pulls away from him and walks ahead, a cheeky smile on her face.

'Take me on a tour here.' She looks at Caleb expectantly. The latter not wanting to deny her request. He decides to just hang loose and spend time with Ma Ri for the time being.


Caleb took his time walking back to his apartment, completely abandoning his run. He hung out with Ma Ri for over three hours, even meeting up with her folks. They had to part ways because the Kirishima family had relatives that they had to visit. However, Ma Ri promised to spend the entire day with Caleb tomorrow, leaving him in high spirits. He had decided then and there, that he would get her back. He could do it, he had all the confidence in the world, and the skills needed to win Ma Ri back. Giving his mood a little boost, he runs up his apartment steps and opens his apartment door.

'Oi, Kiba! What did you say!?'

'Oh my, looks like you two are arguing again-'

'*munch munch*'

'Of course, Akano-san, I'm sure Caleb would be happy to know you're dropping by.-'

Caleb opened his apartment door,

To complete and utter chaos.

Issei was chasing Kiba around the living room, Akeno was watching them happily, and Koneko was making a mess on the sofa, whilst Rias was simply talking on the phone. Their newest member, Asia, was timidly watching everyone go about. No one had noticed Caleb open the door, nor did they notice his flabbergasted expression. A few seconds pass before Caleb is able to collect his thoughts. So much for a good day.

'What is going on?' He means to ask someone. Unfortunately, everyone was busy in their own little moments, so he decides to throw the question to everyone. It's Asia who first notices Caleb.

'Hide-san, welcome home.' She says to him brightly. 'Yeah, home. What is happening?' He quickly asks.

'Relax, Caleb. We're just having a happy get together.' Rias shouts over while ending her phone call with Akano. Caleb looks around again, still seeing Issei and Kiba running around. 'Seems more of an obstacle course slash battle field to me.' He says, annoyed. He waits for Issei to run in front of him, then puts his arm out, effectively knocking Issei down.

'Why'd you hit me!?' He says, groaning in pain.

'You were the loud one.' Caleb says exasperatedly. 'And I was having such a good day, too.'

'And why would you say that?' He hears Rias ask.

'None of your business.' Caleb answers curtly before heading into the bathroom.

'Want me to join you in there?'

'Stay away from me, woman!'

MA RI END


A/N: Hey! I'm not dead yet!

This was supposed to be the nice Arc ender but alas, the explanation follows.

So, I know I owe all the people who read this an explanation. Two years ago, I think I remember promising to update every two weeks. The problem was that my tablet broke, and that's where I write all of this. So it broke, and the model was all but readily replaced by a newer model, which made it harder to find a replacement battery. With all of that going on, school swamped us with a lot of work, so I got busy the last two years of college just trying to manage school.

All of it was resolved just recently, I've graduated, and now my tablet is fixed. Just to be clear, THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE POSTED TWO YEARS AGO DAMMIT. I hope you all can forgive me.

Some final stuff. I still read the reviews that were added over the years, and even responded to some via private messages. Rest assured I will be writing again! Fair warning, though, I'm rusty, and I'm fairly sure that my writing style has changed over the years.

That's it, I think. I'll see you all in the next chapter, next week!

Kai out!