CHAPTER 55
The days passed by fairly quickly. So much so that it felt like a week passed just like a flash.
It was Saturday and Issei decided to give the members of the two Peerages a day off from their training on Sunday. After all, in most cases, pushing oneself to their limit and beyond can be counterproductive when they need the best results as soon as possible.
That said, the host of the Red Dragon Emperor was greatly disappointed with the progress everyone was making, considering they were supernatural species.
Only Koneko, Yuuto and, surprisingly, Saji showed great potential in the 'technique' he was trying to teach. Everyone else sucked at it, for lack of better term.
Sadly, this included, but not limited to, Asia and Raynare.
"Why is that...?" Issei wondered aloud as he was at the park where he had ended his 'date' with the female Fallen Angel at his house, sitting at the 'fateful bench'. Also, it was late at night and the Devils were attending to their contracts, while Raynare got back home to have a shower and rest.
Lastly, he was all alone. Meaning that he could converse with his two tenants without being concerned that he could be seen as crazy.
"Honestly, I shouldn't be surprised that it doesn't work the way we thought." Zangetsu replied airily in his mind.
"Again, why is that...?" the brunet asked, this time with a hint of frustration added to his wonder.
"Probably because most of the Devils you teach excel in something else than technique." Ddraig gave his input wisely. "Most of them are magic users or straight up power types, but their technique is lacking severely."
"From what I've seen, Yuuto-kun is the only one that can be considered a technique type." Issei retorted conversationally, silently acknowledging the Dragon's point. "That doesn't explain Koneko-san and Saji-san, though."
"True." the sword spirit nodded in agreement. "But you forget one crucial thing for each one of those two." he added in the same tone as his wielder.
Issei frowned in thought as he tried to remember what made those two somewhat more special than the rest of the Devils and Raynare.
"Don't fry your brain while thinking about it, partner." Ddraig said calmly, making his host glare at his left arm half-heatedly, which he ignored. "As I've told you before, the short Devil is a Nekomata of some kind. Even if she hasn't showed any signs of her power over Senjutsu, her innate insitcts as a Youkai make her adapt to what you're training them quite easily. As for Sitri's Pawn, it's a little more straightforward; he has a Dragon based Sacred Gear. Even if he's a reicarnated Devil, his Sacred Gear makes his being part Dragon, whether he knows it or not. As such, all of his insticts are better than even your average High-Class Devil, which includes the two Kings of the Peerages that you're interested in."
"I get it now." Issei nodded in understanding, choosing to ignore the latest comment about his infatuation with Rias and Sona.
"Good." Zangetsu sighed in satisfaction, before he went back to the depths of his wielder's inner world to sit back and relax.
The Dragon in the brunet's Sacred Gear gave a grunt of acknowledgement, before he copied his roomate and went to sleep.
Issei got the silent message that he too needed a break and, as such, it seemed today was his day off from sparring with his two tenants.
He picked his phone from the right pocket of his pants' tracksuit to see the time.
It was 22:00 pm. Most of the world's population would consider this time to be somewhat early to be at their homes, or even go to bed. However, in Japan, people tended to fall asleep at this time in order to get up early the next day to do whatever they had to do. Or, at least, spend some quality time with their loved ones, before going to sleep around midnight.
So, with that knowledge, Issei chose to spend an hour or so on meditation, before he went back to his home.
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Raynare was restless.
Her body may be tired from the training that her love interest was putting her and the town's Devils through, but her mind didn't let her rest at all.
Since the first day of training, she and Asia had a faint idea as to what was bothering Issei, but they hadn't had a chance to 'confront' him about it, considering their reluctance over the matter and the fatigue from training.
Speaking of, she knew that she had made almost no progress at all in starting up her fighting insticts.
So, the frustration from her lack of progress only added to her restlessness.
She had seen the same sentiment to the rest of the Devils that weren't Koneko, Yuuto and Saji, who were far above herself and the others in the aspect Issei was training them for, but she couldn't find it in her being to care about them in the slightest.
The hot shower she had helped in calming her down a bit, but she wasn't in a state to get asleep just yet.
And just as she was about to sigh in dejection over her thoughts and try to get some Zs, the door to Issei's room, where she was at, lying on his bed in the same attire as every night, opened and her eyes widened at the sight of the very young man that occupied most of her thoughts entering the room in nothing but his plain black boxers.
Normally, Raynare would have almost drooled at the sight. However, her mind reminded her that this was a chance to get some answers from him.
"Hello, Ise-kun." she greeted him casually as she sat up on the bed.
"Yo." Issei greeted back in the same tone as he went to his wardrobe to get a fresh pair of boxers, wanting to have a shower of his own to get rid of the slight stench of sweat on his person.
"Can we talk for a minute?" she requested as calmly as she could.
Just as he grabbed another pair of plain black boxers, Issei paused, with his back facing the Fallen Angel in the room.
Slowly, he turned around and raised an eyebrow in a mixture of confusion and curiousity at her somewhat serious expression. "What is it?" he asked.
Raynare took a small, calming breath, before she addressed him seriously. "The true reason behind our training. All I can think of is that it has to do with your connection to Azazel-sama and you can't let the Devils know about it."
Issei had to give her credit. For a Low-Class Fallen Angel, Raynare was perceptive. Especially since she had almost no clues over the matter.
He almost smiled at his own thoughts, but refrained from doing so. "It's scary that you came to an almost correct conclusion without me saying anything back then." he admitted with a resigned sigh as he took a seat at the chair of his desk and faced Raynare.
The Fallen Angel slightly narrowed her eyes in suspition, but didn't say anything. She knew that her facial expression alone was enough to tell him 'start talking'.
Issei sighed one more time, before he too became serious. "You have to promise me, Raynare, that what I'm about to tell you will never leave your lips. Not even to Asia."
His obvious demand was met with Raynare's further narrowed eyes as she straightened herself, almost like she was ready for a fight at a moment's notice. She gave a slow nod to show that she understood the necessity of her sealed lips on the matter.
"Sometime ago, Azazel warned me about a subordinate of his that has gone against his peaceful mentallity. The subordinate's actions are nefarious, to say the least. So much so, in fact, that they're considered very dangerous to the relationships between the three biblical factions." Issei explained vaguely, albeit seriously.
Raynare leaned forward as her eyes narrowed even further. "Do you know anything else, Issei?" she outright demanded in a questioning tone.
"Yeah." the brunet nodded. "Azazel's subordinate has most likely their sights on Kuoh, after they finish up their plan in Europe." again, he was vague. He didn't want to tell her the whole truth immediately in case she had a negative reaction.
Speaking of, Raynare wanted to slap him silly because he was beating around the bush. "Issei, tell me the truth. What the hell's going on?" she sighed in frustration as she tried to speak to him calmly. "Don't you trust me?" she added with an equally frustrated glare.
Issei's serious facade softened a little at the last question. He was about to answer her the obvious 'I trust you.', but there was a better way to do that. Especially since there was a possibility for Raynare to face one of Kokabiel's followers. That is, if the latter would even bring his followers in the first place.
"Last week, after I trained all of you for the first time, I visited Azazel again, in order to have more information over the situation I'm about to tell you. As it stands, Kokabiel and an unknown amount of his followers are in the process of stealing Holy Swords from the Churches in Europe. We speculate that, once he's done, he'll come here in Kuoh, probably because Rias and Sona are here and are siblings to two of the four Maou. This obviously means that his actions alone could start another war between the three factions. A war that, according to what little I understand, none of the factions can afford as it could make them all go almost extinct. Unfortunately, Azazel thinks that Kokabiel is almost done with his business in Europe and is close to coming here. That's why I'm training all of you so urgently." he explained in a soft tone.
He was unsurprised by her following reaction.
Raynare's eyes were wide open in utter disbelief as her mind processed the gravity of the situation. Once that was done, her expression turned to a furious snarl. Her body went on autopilot and she found herself looming over Issei's calm posture. Without realising, her eyes were shedding tears of frustration and both her hands were clenched in tight fists, ready to start pounding his face to vent her raging emotions.
Without warning, the Fallen Angel started punching his face and an occasional fist found its target on his chest. Her breathing was erratic and came out from her harshly grinding teeth.
Issei, for his part, took all of the 'punishment' without changing his calm facial expression, nor showing any sign of pain. Not that he felt any physical pain to begin with, but that wasn't the point. He could see that the Fallen Angel was in some emotional turmoil and her raging emotions made it difficult to read them through her face or even her fists.
Eventually, Raynare was out of energy and her movements became sluggish. Her knees buckled from her fatigue and she fell on them, while she kept pounding his thighs with no power behind her strikes as her head lowered so that her teary eyes stared at the floor. Internally, she cursed her powerlessness for the uptienth time.
She felt two soft, warm hands clasp her own heavily trembling ones in a gentle grip. With her mind occupied, she failed to feel when the brunet brought her in a gentle, comforting embrace while sitting on his chair.
Once her mind picked up this detail, she calmed down considerably and felt herself returning the embrace, albeit in a tight grip; as if she was afraid to lose him.
The room became quiet, aside from Raynare's occasional sniffling.
The brunet started softly caressing her smooth and silky black hair with his left hand, while his left administered the same treatment on her back.
"I honestly don't know what's on your mind, Ray-chan." Issei said softly as he closed his eyes and continued his comforting ministrations on the Fallen Angel that turned to a vulnerable teenage girl in a matter of seconds. "All I can say to you is that everything will be alright." he reassured.
Hearing that, Raynare tightened her hold on him, knowing that he wasn't uncomfortable and buried her face to the crook of his neck.
For a few moments, the room was almost completely silent once more, with the only sound being the duo's breathing and the rustling of Raynare's nightgown as Issei caressed her back.
Surprisingly, the Fallen Angel broke the embrace gently as she backed up a bit and lifted her head to look at the brunet in the eyes.
Issei brought his hands on her face and cleaned the last of her tears that leaked from her red from crying eyes with his thumbs.
Raynare's expression showed a lot of emotions, the most prominent of which was sadness, closely followed by helplessness and worry.
The Sekiryuutei didn't say anything, opting for his calm demeanor to relay the same silent message as his last words to her did; that everything would be fine.
Neither of the two said anything for what felt like hours, but it was only a couple of minutes just staring at each other's eyes without even blinking.
The silence was broken by the Fallen Angel girl as she voiced a question in a soft, yet clearly worried tone. "What have you agreed with Azazel-sama, Ise-kun?"
Issei had the urge to turn away from her gaze at the question, but refused to. Nonetheless, he answered truthfully in an equally soft manner. "I'll deal with Kokabiel in his stead and keep our connection a secret for the time being from Rias and Sona, in order to avoid unnecessary tension between the Fallen and the Devils, considering that Rias and Sona are siblings to two of the Maou. As I fight Kokabiel, Rias, Sona and their Peerages will deal with his minions, while you'll stay here and protect my parents. Well, at least that's the plan I have come up with."
Truth be told, Raynare wanted nothing more than fight alongside Issei, but had the sence of mind that she was nowhere near strong enough to fight against a Cadre-Class Fallen Angel. Not that the Devils of this town had a chance without their siblings' help either and it seemed that her love interest was of the same mind. From his explanation, it was obvious that Issei wanted this situation to be as harmless to the Devils and herself as possible. And, while she didn't know how powerful the Sekiryuutei was, she was optimistic enough to believe that he would defeat Kokabiel, considering what she had seen at the Rating Game some days ago and she knew that his display was just the tip of the iceberg.
It was for all of these reasons that she cursed her powerlessness... and conceded his point for her to stay out of harm's way with the pretext to protect his parents.
"Will you be alright?" she asked tentatively, putting emphasis to the a certain word out of worry.
"Yeah." Issei smiled reassuringly, inwardly glad that she seemed to have calmed down completely. "I can't leave you, Asia-chan and my parents alone, can I?!" he asked jokingly.
"You better not." Raynare pouted cutely, almost childishly, as she answered.
Issei's smile widened a small fraction, satisfied with the overall outcome, before he stood up.
"Where are you going?" Raynare asked in confusion as she stood up herself, ignoring her body's protests.
"To have a shower and get to bed." Issei replied, smile still in place, before he started making his way to his door. He didn't tell her about his day off from sparring with his tenants because he knew that it would be counterproductive to his much needed rest.
Raynare smiled at his back because of his answer and got herself comfortable on the bed. Just as she heard the sound of rashing water, she fell asleep.
Five minutes later, Rias and Asia appeared through a crimson magic circle and immediately got ready to sleep in their usual attires.
Well... in Rias' case, she lacked one, considering she slept in the nude.
Thankfully, none of the other girls, or even Issei, had any problems with her nudity.
Anyway, the two Devils promptly fell asleep due to another tiring day of training and contracts. Although, neither took notice of Raynare's small smile on her lips.
Issei got back to his room ten minutes later, refreshed due to the shower he just had, already aware that the Devil girls had returned earlier. He smiled fondly at the sight of the three girls on his bed positioned in such a way that would put him in his usual situation; his body restrained by the girls and in a way that he couldn't move, unless he made them uncomfortable.
He shook his head in fond exasperation as he slipped on the bed, lying on his back, with the girls instictively/subconsciously latching onto him.
It took less than a minute before he too fell asleep.
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