Next chapter. I own nothing but what I create.

Within moments of their blades locking, Issei felt his blade began to easily push Raynare's back.

Explosion and large amounts of training helped, of course, but Issei would later suspect it had more to do with having two working hands on his sword than either of those things.

The locking of blades lasted no more than a few seconds before Raynare was forced to flee back, Issei chasing her every step of the way.

The two exorcists and the Devil had all gotten well-clear of the two sword wielders, reasoning that they would just get in Issei's way; even Kiba was impressed by Issei's burst of speed.

Issei, for his part, had torn across the courtyard of the old building, nipping at Raynare's heels, not understanding how she was moving at the lightning-fast pace that she was and not caring.

The ringing of blades meeting one another happened several more times over the course of the next minute, Issei well aware he was running out of time; already, he was feeling the effects of Explosion begin to wear off. He was recharging, but a single false move would render all of it irrelevant.

Then, as Raynare attempted to take his head off once more, Issei had an idea.

Locking blades with her once more, he slowly took one hand off of it. He knew his swordmaster would never endorse this sort of technique, risky as it was, but he was rather short on other options.

Even as he removed his hand, he could feel Raynare's sword begin to push his down, and Issei realized he had only a few seconds before his right hand would resemble Raynare's left.

He formed a sword in his left hand and stabbed Raynare through the chest.

The former Fallen Angel screamed in pain, darting backwards. The wound, while deep, was in the wrong position, and Issei gritted his teeth as he towards her.

Damn… missed her heart…

Raynare, for her part, had decided that perhaps this maneuver had not been such a good idea after all, as she immediately turned tail and ran back across the courtyard.

Just as Issei began to chase her, however, a voice rang out.

"You're done, Raynare."

"Huh?" both Raynare and Issei said at the same time. Everyone looked towards the source of the voice.

"All you had to do was get rid of those vermin from the church, but you couldn't even do that right. Instead you're nearly brought to heel by an Angel."

From behind one of the pillars stepped a man. He was bespectacled and gray-haired, standing of average height, and rather portly; dressed in priest vestments as he was, one could mistake him for a bishop.

"Oh, it's 'ol Valper," Raynare sighed, obviously disappointed and not even acknowledging the cut in her chest from which she bled freely, nor the insults she'd been on the receiving end of. "And I was just getting to chat with my old boyfriend."

Valper? Issei thought.

"Who the hell are you?" Issei snarled.

At that, the man looked up, a slight grin on his face. "Odd that you don't know, Angel."

Issei started to reply.

But Kiba's scream cut him off before he started.

"Valper Galilei!"

The man turned to look at the Devil, the latter more enraged than Issei had ever seen him. "The one and only," he snorted derisively.

"Valper Galilei!" Xenovia shouted. "Murderer of children! For your crimes I condemn your soul in the name of our God!"

For a moment, Issei did not understand what Xenovia was referring to. The next, a look of pure fury etched itself in his features.

This is the mastermind of the Holy Sword Project!

"I'd love to stay and chat, but we have other things we need to do," Valper continued, his voice thick with contempt for everyone present. "Raynare, do something right for once and get us out of here."

No!

Issei charged, but Explosion's effect had worn off, and a flash blinded him before he was halfway across the courtyard.

By the time he arrived on the opposite side, Raynare and Valper had both vanished into thin air.

"Damn it," Issei muttered under his breath as he made the sword and the Boosted Gear vanish.

When the Angel made his way back towards his compatriots, he did not let any questions come out.

"Guys," Issei said, his voice urgent, "we have to move. We need to find those two and we have to do it now, before they get too far. Let's get going."

Heads nodded, and without another word, the four each ran in a different direction.

"So no one found any trace of them? Wonderful." Issei asked, his voice exhausted.

The four were once more in Issei's room, in the same positions they had been in before. The unlikely alliance had spent hours running about the town, seeking any hint of the former Fallen Angel and the Archbishop of Annihilation, but their scouring of Kuoh had turned up nothing. All they had to show for their efforts were burning lungs and pained legs.

"So where does that leave us?" Irina asked, her voice hesitant and uncertain.

"It leaves us with a crazed woman with an Excalibur," Xenovia cut in, her hands in her lap. "It leaves us with a man who murdered dozens of children running free. And it leaves us with no clues to go on whatsoever."

Issei shook his head. "What I want to know is why Valper's working with that bitch… what's he got to do with a Fallen Angel and a former one?"

"Well," Kiba reasoned, "from what I understand, collusion among the excommunicated and the excommunicated with the Fallen Angels is pretty common..."

Issei bit his lip, remembering the swarm of rogue exorcists Dulio had defeated with Zenith Tempest. "But why? What are they trying to do with those swords? And on that note, what kind of sword was Raynare using that let her move as fast as she did?"

"It was probably Excalibur Rapidly," Irina supplied helpfully. "It's known to massively increase the speed of its wielder, after all."

"Great," Issei said. "Then there's yet another question – how can she even use it to begin with? I thought you had to have some crystal to use a Holy Sword."

Xenovia shrugged. "Issei, this Fallen Angel managed to steal three of the most closely guarded of the church's Holy Swords. It's far from impossible that the thief made off with a few crystals in the process."

The Jack's eyes narrowed. "On that topic, Xenovia, how exactly are those crystals even made? Something else I should know?"

Irina put her hands up, her next words urgent. "Issei, the process doesn't require you hurt anyone. It takes a bunch of people, yeah, but it doesn't require killing them. Valper's research figured out that you need a large amount of a so-called element and specific genetics to wield a Holy Sword – most people have some of each but don't have enough of on their own."

Xenovia nodded. "You can easily extract and concentrate the gene and the element by taking small blood samples from a large number of people. After that's done, all that's left is to crystallize it. It's a process that's harmless to all concerned."

Issei's response, far from being placated, was laced with anger.

"So you're telling me that they kept using that research even after it got a bunch of kids killed?"

"If we didn't," Xenovia snapped, "then those children truly would have died for nothing. And even then, quite a few modern medical techniques have their roots in highly unethical experimentation. Should we discard those as well?"

Issei's mouth opened, then closed again.

Kiba could sense the mounting tension in Issei, and rather than pester him about it, changed the subject to what had come up before. It wouldn't have been his first choice of topic, but he couldn't think of anything else to discuss.

"So, the Boosted Gear. Is it true that it contains the spirit of the Welsh Dragon?"

Issei rolled his eyes. "Ddraig?" he called, addressing the dragon rather than responding to Kiba's question.

"What?" came the surly response of a dragon who clearly did not want to talk.

"Come on out and say hello to our temporary residents."

"No," Ddraig replied flatly, his voice even crankier than it had been before. "Piss off."

Issei playfully smirked at the back of his hand. "Pretty please?"

"Did you suddenly have a bout of amnesia and forget what "No" means?"

"Have you forgotten that it's rude to tell someone to piss off?" Issei shot back sarcastically, though he was still grinning.

"Have you forgotten that I'm a dragon's consciousness sealed in a magical gauntlet created by the God you serve?"

Issei's eye twitched as he listened to Ddraig tread very close to that topic, though he kept a look of good humor on his face. "Still rude, though."

"I don't care. Shut up and go away. I'm trying to sleep."

With that, Ddraig fell silent.

Looking up, the brunette gave an amused snort. "I think you've got a pretty good idea of what Ddraig is like just from that."

The three other people in the room nodded, though Irina was the only one to speak.

"Is he always that much of a grouch?"

Issei shrugged. "Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Depends on when you catch him, just like us."

After a few more minutes of discussion, Kiba went home to… wherever it was that he lived. Shortly after, Xenovia and Irina retired to the spare room.

Issei undressed and fell into bed, exhausted, and despite the fear plaguing his mind about Raynare and Valper, he fell asleep very quickly.

Issei's hatred of his alarm clock seemed to grow larger every single morning he was awoken by it.

Groaning as he turned it off, Issei desperately wished he could just roll over and forget his duties for the day.

Alas, a quick knock at the door dispelled any chance of that, and Issei reluctantly dragged himself from the sheets to answer it.

When he pulled back the door, Issei was confronted by exactly who he expected.

"What's up, Irina?"

His old childhood friend looked him over, an odd look in her eye, before she addressed him. "Issei, Xenovia and I were going to keep sweeping Kuoh while you're at school. You're fine with that, right?"

The Angel shrugged. "You don't need my permission, Irina. I'm not your boss, after all; I'm just auxiliary support. It's still your mission. How you approach it is up to you – though again, like I said..."

Irina nodded, understanding immediately that the brunette was referring to his two "conditions" again. "We'll keep things as quiet as we can, Issei."

Issei nodded in return. "If you guys do need help, text me. I'll have my phone on vibrate, and I'll find a way to… excuse myself from class, even if it gets me in trouble."

Irina's head bobbed once more before she disappeared back down the hall.

Her old friend sighed and retreated back into his room to get ready for school, not enjoying this constant balancing act in the slightest.

It took everything Issei had to keep calm and quiet during the day. He did not care a whiff for the mathematics or science his teachers were attempting to instruct him about. Not when he had two people he'd promised to protect potentially risking their lives searching for a madwoman and psychotic ex-bishop.

Issei did not see the Devils at school, and Kiba was particularly conspicuous by his absence. Schoolgirls wailed childishly at that note while schoolboys celebrated. Issei did neither, knowing the truth of both of their worlds and of Kiba's tortured past.

Instead, Issei wondered if he had joined the exorcists in their hunt for their quarry.

Issei's dread was, upon a cursory glance at home, unfounded. Xenovia and Kiba were already in his room, though Issei had no idea if he had entered through a magic circle or one of the actual doors. The blue-haired exorcist and Gremory Knight were in casual discussion over sword technique when Issei returned.

"Any luck hunting, you two?" the brunette asked as he set his school items down.

"Negative," Kiba replied. "Even skipped school to try and find them and still had no luck." A wry, humorless grin came over his face at this. "Rias is going to kill me when she finds out."

"Wouldn't be so sure," Issei replied easily, having thought as much of Kiba's whereabouts. "I didn't see her at all today. None of the Devils were there, actually – that or they gained the ability to turn invisible when I wasn't around."

Xenovia gave a slightly amused snort.

Issei's face suddenly lost all humor as he realized something.

"Hey, where's Irina?"

Both Devil and exorcist shrugged. "We fanned out to cover more ground," Xenovia explained. "Irina went alone while Kiba acted as a guide for me. Irina knows this town far better than I, after all."

"Any word from her?" Issei asked.

Xenovia nodded. "I received a text from her about twenty minutes ago. She's decided to extend her search, apparently."

Issei nodded, but something about this easy explanation did not sit right with him.

Throughout the afternoon, as the three waited for nightfall, there was no sign of Irina anywhere, and the trio grew increasingly worried. Issei bolted through his dinner at a speed that left him feeling physically ill, so great was his nervousness.

With he, Kiba and Xenovia all seated in the room, they chatted about nothing as the sun slowly slipped beneath the horizon, each growing more afraid for Irina's safety by the second.

Finally, just past sundown, Issei could not wait any longer.

"We need to go loo-" he began to say, interrupting Xenovia, before cutting himself off as something washed over him.

It was the same dread he had felt when he had raided the church. The one he had been swamped by in the presence of Azazel.

While not quite as strong as the latter's case, the dread utterly dwarfed the former.

With the slightest flick of his eyes, Issei looked at Rias Gremory's Knight, who nodded.

Issei shot over to the window and threw it open with such force that he was partly surprised it did not snap off of its hinges. Sticking his head out, he frantically looked up and down the street. For a few moments, he saw no sign of the source.

Then against the moon, he saw the silhouette of a person hanging in midair, framed by ten wings.

And cut.