When we looked around we realized that we were close enough to the restaurant that we decided to keep going on foot.

"Is it really okay to let them go? We have an advantage now." I couldn't wait until we got there.

"We don't have to follow them, Issei-kun, we already know where their base is." Rias didn't even turn my way to answer.

"Then we are going there?" I had to make sure.

"Yes, but I don't want to go tonight…" I don't understand why she sounded so hesitant.

"Why? They are hurt, it should be the easiest that we'll manage to get." I wasn't going to let her take the easy way out of the conversation. And by the attention that the others were giving to Rias, neither were they.

"We are here! Let's get in before it gets too crowded!" She totally avoided it, but I won't let it end like this. The fallen have been trouble for her and Sona for a while, and now they made a mistake by attacking us and losing. They're vulnerable.

I didn't want to cause any type of scene though, so I waited until we were seated to continue pressing Rias for some action.

The restaurant served Korean barbecue, so after we got our table and the servers brought the food for us to roast and made sure that everything was working properly, they left us on our own.

"Buchou, why don't you want to go after the fallen tonight?" The rest of the peerage also wanted to know, this time Rias would not evade the question.

"Haa… If you really want to know, it is because I don't want to put any one of you at unnecessary risk… We've fought twice tonight, I'm sure that you're tired, and back at their base they have many more members that would be a threat to us."

That is a point, I guess…

"Then why did you let them flee?" Akeno butted in during the conversation.

Rias was uncomfortable with our questioning, it was clear by the expressions that she made.

"We were tired, and Issei was hurt… I didn't want to risk a counter-attack from them. What if they had an ambush and they planned to bait us in after they fled? They still have more than forty other exorcists, we couldn't take them all on our own."

It is nice to see that she was thinking ahead, I didn't think she would. I thought this would be more in line with Sona, good surprises.

"Then, what do we do now?" I asked her.

"We eat, and tomorrow I talk with Sona and we make a plan to deal with them." She sounded satisfied with her plan, but I wasn't.

"Buchou, if we give them the night they will recover, or even call for backup. We have to be quick, that way they will have a harder time defending against us."

She released a long sigh, looked tiredly at me, and asked, "And what do you propose for us to do, Issei-kun?"

This is the moment, this could make things easier for us.

"I think you should call Sitri-sama and ask her and her peerage to meet us here so we can make a plan and attack today."

Our king looked around, trying to see what the others thought of my idea, Akeno was nodding while showing one of her sadistic smiles, Kiba tried to give her a supporting smile, but it was clear that he agreed with me, Koneko was the only one who wasn't paying attention, all that she cared about was the food.

Rias got the message, she sighed again, "Fine!" She answered us angrily.

After that, she took out her phone. While she was arranging a meeting with Sona, me and the other two that had been paying attention to the conversation turned our focus to match Koneko's.

There were a few strips of meat on the grill, some side dishes were spread around the table, and no one had begun eating yet.

I didn't pay much attention to Rias' conversation, if we were going to fight again I'd need sustenance, and we didn't have that much time to do it.

Her talk was longer than I expected. During it, we had time to cook a few batches of meat, since I was the one seating closest to her I tried to make her feel better by making sure that she always had some food on her plate.

That seemed to work, once she finished the call she looked at me and smiled brightly.

"Thank you for giving me food while I dealt with this problem that you threw at me Issei-kun… Also, I made sure to mention that you're the one that made this plan, so Sona will want to talk with you."

I can imply that she bragged about it once Sona realized that it was a good plan, I hope that is what made her happy. Please don't be some sadistic premonition, please.

It was only a few minutes later that the other heiress showed up, she was accompanied by all of her peerage members, for some reason they were all wearing their uniforms.

"Hi Sona, here, have a seat!" Rias made sure to make the bespectacled girl sit next to me, both of them, seeing as her queen followed her and joined us at our table.

"Thank you, Rias." She then turned to her peerage and continued, "Please have a seat, you can eat while we make up a plan, I don't think we will all fit on this table, so try to get the one next to us."

At her words, Kiba also got up, he received questioning looks from me and the newly arrived students.

"Since you want to make a plan, I think it would be best if I didn't interfere with you." After that, he left to join the others at another table.

Koneko did the same, but for her, I think it was more about the food than any idea of privacy.

When I tried to get up, Rias held my arm and smiled at me, her smile was incredibly similar to the ones that Akeno would often make when she had some sadistic ideas.

"You'll join us Issei-kun, it was your idea after all." I could hear the annoyed groan that Sona made, so she did boast about me…

I couldn't go against my king's order, and this way we could make a plan faster, after all, it was clear that Rias wanted to delay this until tomorrow.

I silently sat back down, Akeno looked amused, Sona's queen as well, but she concealed it better.

When the rest of the group went to find a table for them to eat, Sona began talking.

"First of all, I'd like to introduce myself and my queen. I don't believe we had an opportunity ever since you joined Rias." I nodded affirmatively at her.

"I am Sona Sitri, heiress of the Sitri House. This is Tsubaki Shinra, my queen."

I bowed, as was normal during such situations, and replied, "I am Issei Hyoudou, Rias' pawn and the Red Dragon Emperor."

She looked satisfied with my answer. By her lack of surprise regarding my title, I could guess that someone had already told her about it.

"Now that the formalities are out of the way, please tell us what it is that you want." She looked like a much more formidable king than Rias, what with this feeling of control that she let out, might be from her position at school.

"Yes… As you probably know, we've been attacked by the fallen that are trespassing in your territory. It didn't make sense for them to do so, but now that they did and we won, they are at a disadvantage."

All four girls were paying attention to me, I didn't know about the other table, because they found one that was behind me.

"From what Buchou told me, the reason that you two chose not to fight them was the fear of being overwhelmed by their numbers, and even though this is still a possibility, we have the better hand now that their leaders are hurt."

Seeing that none of them wanted to say anything, I continued, "Their troops' morale will be lowered and we can use that to our advantage, if we hit them now they'll be in disarrange and they won't have their strongest fighters in good conditions to help them out."

"Fine, and how do you suggest we confront them?" Sona asked.

"I was thinking to divide us into pairs, from our peerage, I'd be with Akeno, Kiba and Koneko would be together, that is because those two should have enough synergy to cover each other, and a promotion to a rook as well as using my sacred gear would be enough to hold them so Akeno can shock them."

Akeno smiled at that, she liked my idea. Sona on the other hand was a bit skeptical.

"And you'd want me to divide my peerage into pairs that would similarly be able to work together?"

At my nod of approval, she continued, "That would leave out Rias, what would she do?"

The redhead was now glaring at me.

"I was thinking of having the two of you in a pair, we'd also put one of your members as a bodyguard, so your trio would provide support to all the other pairs since both of you are long-range fighters."

She hadn't thought about that, her surprised face was pretty cute. It almost makes me want to try and do it again, unfortunately, I don't know if that'd be healthy for me.

"That would make approximately nine exorcists for each pair, I don't know about that."

And that would be the biggest problem to make them move today, I hope that I can just convince them.

"It'd be four for each person, you three would also be free to help the strugglers, I think we can take it… My peerage definitely can." Rias swelled with pride, Akeno to a lesser degree, but she did so too. Sona on the other hand took it as some sort of challenge.

"Hump… My peerage can deal with that as well." Playing with her competitor's side worked out great.

"In that case, there shouldn't be any problems, I think you'd be best to separate your members, I'd only suggest that you put at least one rook in each pair, also ask your pawns to promote to rooks, the fight will be of endurance if we can hold them we will win."

The Sitri heiress agreed with me, which prompted a smile to surface, now we only had to get everyone ready and try to designate positions so we don't mess with the other pairs.

"You're as good as Rias made you out to be, it almost makes me regret not choosing you to become mine… Almost." Well, I made a good impression, I hope this will be enough for her to forget my past attitude.

"Thank you, you should eat… We can't fight on an empty stomach." I said to Sona and her queen.

Once they began eating, I looked at my fellow peerage members, well only Rias and Akeno, they were both smiling at me.

"What?" I asked them.

"Nothing, I just think that you looked very reliable. I'm glad that I got you in my peerage." Rias started. "You also looked cute while trying to convince Sona-sama." And that was Akeno, my good impression wasn't limited to the new arrivals it seemed.

"Well… Thanks, and um… I'm sorry I didn't let you two talk, I didn't think she'd accept my idea like that." Their words made me blush a little, I blame the hormones.

"Oh! Don't worry about that, you did great." My king said.

With the pleasantries coming to an end, we nibbled on some food until the rest had their fill.

Once they were done, we went outside and Sona explained to her peerage our plan of action.

She ended up putting her and Tsubaki together with Rias as our main assistance group, the short girl with brown hair in long twin ponytails named Ruruko alongside Reya, a slim girl with long brown hair that ends in two short braids. The next pair was made by Tsubasa, the tall girl with blue, shoulder-length hair, and Momo, the girl with white hair. Finally, the last pair was formed by the only male in her peerage Saji, together with Tomoe the girl with shoulder-length, reddish-brown hair.

The teams formed up and we got ready to teleport closer to the church.

Our destination was a few blocks away from the abandoned church, on our way there we'd have plenty of time to figure out where everyone would stand and other minor tactics.

Mine and Akeno's position was one of the furthest from the assisting trio, me having the boosted gear was a big factor, as well as Akeno's possibility of chaining her lightning through our enemies.

I didn't pay attention to the other's assignments, I was too preoccupied with not getting nervous, and screwing the plan.

When we got only a small distance away from our destination Rias and Sona gave us orders to get ready, I immediately summoned my red gauntlet, Ddraig's voice calling out the first boost was an indication for me to get fully focused on the task ahead, this would possibly be the toughest fight that I'll have in a long while, I could die, any of these people that are with me could. I'll make sure that that is not what happens with any of us!

After the first boost we moved quicker, the church's doors were closed, there was no one outside, probably due to their leaders coming back injured.

Rias wasn't planning on playing any games, as soon as we got close enough she sent a ball of power of destruction at the doors, they were immediately gone.

Inside we could see that they weren't expecting an attack, possibly because we took some time to get here, thus the nave, the part where the benches normally would be located, had only a few exorcists.

Those were sitting around, some even preparing to go to sleep, we didn't lose the opportunity, those that were going to stay at the front rushed in, me and Akeno included.

My first target was a guy that was standing guard near the entrance. I didn't have any weapons that'd kill him quickly, but a good punch to the chin would serve well enough.

My strength was a bit too much for the human, a devil's physiology and a boost were sufficient to make it so my punch broke the guy's jaw, he didn't even have time to draw his weapons before he was down.

Seeing that no other came after me, I used this time to promote myself to a rook. Once I did so I could feel the increase in strength, I might be able to kill them quickly now.

The time it took for the promotion was all that the other exorcists took to get their bearings and see that they were under attack. The ones closer to the entrance met our charge head-on, the ones that were in the middle part of the long stretch pulled out their guns and took aim, while the ones in the back got ready to provide backup, some of them left downstairs, most likely to call for the rest of the exorcists.

I saw that I quickly became encircled, those close to me were all holding lightsabers, and from what I've learned those were very effective at hurting devils.

The sound of Ddraig screaming boost was what made me move. I dashed towards the closest one, my speed was way above his own, he could not defend against my attack. After he, were two others who stood side by side before I could try to take them on, a bolt of blue lightning shot past my shoulder and hit them, they fell convulsing on the floor, that is Akeno for you.

Moving on, I knew that we had to at least get to the halfway point inside the church, that way we could get into a circle formation, and our assisting trio would have an easier time helping us all.

Pushing onward, I didn't pay attention to my allies, I just kept moving.

Normally one punch would be enough to incapacitate my enemy, sometimes it took two. The hardest part was making sure that only the boosted gear got in contact with their weapons since I knew that it could take on holy attributed attacks.

I entered a sort of trance as I bobbed and weaved in and out of my enemies' range, punching them in their faces or their stomachs. I didn't register the boost calls from Ddraig, the same as I didn't register the pained cries of my enemies.

What brought me out was the sound of metal hitting metal, which happened due to one of the shooters hitting the Boosted Gear. Thus, I had to look where I was.

I had gone pretty far, Akeno was with me up above, the other pair that should be by my side was lagging behind a bit, but they were alright.

Not having to worry about my back, I turned forwards, there were still plenty of exorcists, I could also see that more were showing up from downstairs.

Another bullet flew past me, I don't think it hit anyone, there were no cries of pain from any of my allies. The said bullet made me focus on the ones that would be the most troublesome of them, knowing that I would have a way to deal with them from range, I shouted to my temporary partner.

"Akeno! Focus on the ones shooting at us, I'll take care of the closer ones!" I didn't look to see if she heard me, but not long after I saw another blue lightning flying towards their ranged units.

I decided to stop pushing forwards, now all I had to do was draw aggro and rely on Akeno to take down our enemies. Another boost came in, I didn't know which one I was in, but I could start to feel my body getting strained.

I kept my stance firm, any exorcist that came close enough got punched and then was no longer a problem. This new position allowed me to notice the other pairs, the one that was beside me was made by Saji and Tomoe, they were fighting side by side, with one covering for the other, they looked to have trained to do this, fight as a duo.

The three of us managed to hold well what turned into some sort of front line, Akeno had fallen back a bit in an attempt to avoid their bullets, she was still zapping them, only at a slower rate.

It was then that our support started to show up. Alongside the lightning bolt, there was a serpent made fully of water, it flew as if it was swimming in the air, its destination was the same as the electric attack.

That combination took out a great portion of our assailants, what sealed the deal temporarily was the orb of destruction that flew slowly towards them.

When it hit the ground, the orb got bigger and swallowed the majority of the exorcists that were resisting us, there was nothing left of them.

These attacks made our situation much better, we now could continue to push inwards, we just had to be careful with the new enemies that showed up from the bottom floors.

Slowly but surely we moved in, their numbers started to decrease since it seemed that there wasn't any downstairs.

The pairs that covered our rear moved to the front, this was the signal to push it as hard as we could.

They didn't stand a chance, now it was a group battle, with the mages and Tsubaki making barrier and mirrors to block their projectiles, I no longer received any boosts, my body had reached its limit, however, I'm sure that this was enough to take care of anything that could show up.

A couple of minutes later and we were all that was left standing in the church, the fallen had not shown up, they likely had fled. We didn't sit idle, I hadn't been the only one to notice where they were coming from, so that turned out to be our destination.

We couldn't all fit in the stairs, so we went down in trios, the first ones to go were me, Tsubaki, and Akeno.

When I got down, I could hear voices that seemed to be in a heated discussion.

"What now Dohnaseek? Your stupid idea of going after the spoiled brat backfired and here we are, Raynare is out, and Mittelt is scared to go out, they defeated us before, do you think they won't do it now?" The lady sounded angry.

What answered her was an equally angry voice, this one deeper, clearly from a man, "I know! I know! But what could I do, he was going to abandon us here if we didn't give him something, it was either risk and have glory or this… You all are useless, how can you not be able to deal with low-class devils?"

The woman didn't have time to answer because we showed up, the first to attack was Akeno, her dislike for fallen angels was too big for her to simply sit there and listen to their plans.

Her attack was aimed at the woman, now that we were closer I could identify her as the blue-haired buxom lady. The lightning bolt hit her chest, she flew to the opposite wall, we couldn't see how much damage she took.

The other fallen looked surprised, I think he didn't expect us to take care of his minions so quickly.

This time, he wasn't interested in conversation, instead, he released his wings and created a blue light spear.

He attempted to hit Akeno, her being the closest to him due to her previous attack, he failed. I was faster than him, stronger as well.

Much like how I countered Raynare in our fight, I did so with this guy. My red gauntlet blocked his spear and my right hand connected with the man's face.

The power behind the punch was impressive, the force sent him back much faster than the previous fallen had flown.

Akeno smiled sweetly at me, she was excited to hurt these people.

"We should wait for Buchou and Sitri-sama, calm down a bit Akeno-san, you used plenty of your magic up there." I tried to calm down my partner.

It worked, she chose to stand still by my side, we were looking at the fallen figure of our enemies.

They were both alive, the woman was looking much better than the man, but none of them could move.

A couple of minutes later, all of the members of the two peerages were downstairs, the two kings took a position at the front and we moved in.

Our first stop was the two downed figures in front of us.

They looked to be conscious, but when either of the teens asked them any questions they wouldn't respond.

Both of them didn't want to keep them as prisoners, especially after I said what I heard them talking when we were getting down.

Rias was the one to finish them off, her power of destruction didn't leave a trace from either of them.

After dealing with that, we looked around. There was only a door that we could take if we decided to not go back up.

Similarly, with the decision to get down, we chose someone to open the door first so the rest would wait to know if it was safe to enter.

I volunteered to go first once more, but Rias and Akeno denied me, saying that I had done too much already.

It then turned out to fall on Tsubasa's shoulders to go first.

She did, and fortunately, there wasn't any danger for her, even though the room had been occupied.

Inside we found the last two fallen, Raynare was laid on a bed, sleeping, and Mittelt

was sitting by the bedside tending to her wounds.

The sound of the door opening alerted the small blond girl, and once she turned towards us she froze.

She saw that she was heavily outnumbered, she knew that she wouldn't be able to fight against us, so she surrendered.

Both leaders wanted to get rid of her as well, something that terrified the little girl. Perhaps it was that which made me jump ahead and try to ease the atmosphere.

"Please, we don't have to kill her. She already surrendered, it would be best to send her back to the Grigori, this way we'll have proof that we weren't the ones to attack first."

All three girls were shocked, Rias was so much so that she accepted my opinion and spared the blonde.

What was left was to deal with Raynare.

"Issei-kun, I won't accept pity words for this one," Rias said while pointing at the sleeping fallen angel.

I was okay with that, to me this would be revenge for the past Issei, she's the reason that he's gone. I know that he didn't say anything about it, but this woman was responsible for making him scared of getting in a relationship, she'd made a big scar on his mind, and now he'd have revenge.

I nodded and walked away, I could be the one to kill her, but I already gave her a beating, so it doesn't matter who does it, she won't survive the night.

After the attack we went back to our homes, Mittelt was taken by Sona, who informed her sister, the one responsible for devil's foreign affairs, and the fallen had been given back to the Grigori.

They also informed us that this had been a rogue group and that there had been no orders from any high-ranking officials to settle in Kuoh City, which was weird.

That made it so we didn't receive any fallout from our attack on them. We received apologies and a promise that the Grigori would keep a closer eye on their members.

Other than that, everything has been calm, school is going on as normal, and we haven't had any stray reporting, so everyone was relaxing after the tiresome night.

I continued with my routine, only one thing changed, that was Asia.

I made sure to tell her, the very next day, about what happened with the fallen. She didn't look well with the news of their decimation, so I tried cheering her up by spending time with her.

I showed the TV and how to operate it, I also shared some stories, both from my life and from books I had read.

She loved it. During the time we spent together she didn't stop smiling for one second, this had been what she truly wanted, a friend with whom she could spend time and have fun.

When I left during the first day, I could bear to see her sad face, so I gave her a pamphlet. I also showed her how it worked and informed her to call me whenever she wanted to spend time together.

When she did, she became my first contracted client, she'd call for me every other day, during her calls we'd always do the same things we did the first day, just hang out and have some fun.

This went on for a couple of weeks, however, one night she didn't call for me, I got worried, she had never done that before, and she didn't leave her hotel so she couldn't have been occupied with something that would prevent her from keeping our meetings.

I didn't know what to do, thus I asked the other members of the peerage for some help. All in all, they said to let her have her time, that she'd call me again when she felt ready.

I didn't agree with them initially, but after Rias sent her familiar, and guaranteed that Asia had been well, I did as they recommended and waited for her.

A couple of days passed before she called me again, it was during the same time that it had always been. At first, I thought it'd be just like all the other times, but I was wrong, this turned out to be the last time that she used my contract.

"Hello Issei-kun, I'm sorry for not contacting you during the past few days." That was how she greeted me.

"Hello Asia-chan, it is fine, I was worried but now that I see that you're alright we can forget about that." That had been how she made me call her, she did that after we read a romance manga.

"Yes… But first I wanted to tell you why I did that." She began, my affirmative response prompted her to continue, "I did it so I could think about Gremory-san's proposition, the one about joining you in her peerage."

"Oh!... And did you get to a decision?" I was getting nervous. When I told her about the failure that was the fallen's operation here I guaranteed her that if she chose to go work with the Grigori I'd do my best to get in contact with them and find a way to send her to their headquarters, something that had made her relieve since she still had a choice in what future she wanted for herself.

"Yes, I have… I'll accept it. I want to spend more time with you Issei-kun, and if that is the way, then that is what I'll do." Those were some powerful words, I'm glad that she is still a bit naive and didn't realize their effect on me.

"Really! Then today I'll take you to Buchou and we can get this done with." She agreed with me and took her trunk, it was already prepared and sitting beside the couch, just waiting for her to grab it.

After she did so, we teleported back to the ORC club room and I told Rias about what had happened.

My king had been very happy with the new addition, she didn't wait any longer and transformed her right there. Asia became her second bishop.

We celebrated similarly as when I got in when we ended Asia requested me.

"Issei-kun, can I ask you something?" She made sure that I was alone to ask me that.

"Sure."

"I-I wantedtoknowifyouwouldbewillingtoletmelivewithyou." She blurted out, I almost didn't catch what she said, but after thinking about it for a bit I understood.

"I think it'd be nice to have you there, we do have a spare bedroom, but we'll have to convince my parents first, if they agree then I'm fine with it."

What she showed me next was pure joy. She hugged me and squealed happily. If she shows such a cute side to me, I'll have to try even harder with my parents.

That night we went home together, my dad was home earlier and my mom was preparing dinner. I chose to skip the dojo due to the special circumstance of the day, Sadao-sensei would forgive me after an incredibly hard session during the next day.

It felt odd how easy it had been to convince my parents, all we did was tell Asia's story, how she was an orphan, how she had been kicked out of her home, and how she had been a possible victim of some bad guys.

I guess they misunderstood and thought that she was my girlfriend that I wanted to help, I saw the proud looks father sent my way and the way that mother started treating her as a daughter.

Well… In the end, everything was alright, misunderstanding or not, I had a very cute friend living with me now and she'd give me the warmest of smiles every single time we saw each other in the morning.

Her brightest had been during the day that we told her that she could go to school with me, an offer that she accepted without delay.