Hey guys, wanted to apologize for this coming so late. I was out of town and couldn't get back to my computer. Hope the longer chapter and excitement makes up for it!

Rias could count the number of times she'd felt this conflicted on one hand. The young devil heiress stood at rapt attention before the magically-projected hologram before her. Sirzechs Lucifer, the current Devil King and her older brother, stood there in all his glory. Adorned in his sweeping black robes robes and pauldrons, he had over a foot on her. And yet, for all his considerable size, he spoke to her almost gently. Even if he was the current Lucifer, he would never stop being her brother.

"Thank you for this report, Rias. I know these last few months haven't been easy for you or your peerage, but I believe that you're handling it well," he smiled.

"Thank you, Lord Lucifer. To be honest, it feels like we're not even winding down. I keep getting this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach, like the other shoe will drop at any moment."

To her surprise he laughed. "Heavy is the head that wears the crown, no? Rias, being a king is never easy but I trust you and your exceptional peerage to handle whatever is thrown at you. You've managed to get along with the agents of the church, something not even I thought was possible. Have more faith in yourself."

She wished she could. There were so many things to worry about these days. Her relationship with the exorcists, this whole Abella situation, the rumors of a witch infiltrating the town, and, of course, her imminent marriage. It felt almost childish, but out of all those problems the latter most occupied her mind more than any other. As a king and a noble devil it was expected that she would need to marry someone and bear a strong heir for her clan. And yet, the man her parents had chosen was as detestable as any stray she had put down. It didn't feel fair, and it wasn't. That was the worst part. Knowing she didn't deserve this but having to swallow her feelings and sacrifice anyway.

There was always the rating game, but as of now she had very little hope of beating her suitor. Riser Phenex's family dominated the playing field for a reason, and with her peerage being so few in number it would be a tough prospect to devise a winning strategy. Luckily, there was still one ace in the hole she was betting everything on.

"About my report. I assume you'll give me permission to slay Abella alongside the exorcists?" she asked.

The noble devil heiress had gotten the message late last night from Issei. Her familiar and the familiars of her friends hadn't reported his whereabouts for days, and she was beginning to get worried. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he had contacted her with the whereabouts of the stray devil. He'd made it clear that he wanted to work with the church on this as well, although the "why" eluded her. If Rias had to guess it was because he didn't want to leave Irina out of it. The girl could be really jealous when it suited her.

"Right, this is from your contact. Issei, was it? Are you still planning to offer him a place in your peerage?"

She nodded. "It's all but confirmed now that he possesses the Longinus Innovate Clear. He would be an extremely powerful asset not just to me but to all devil kind."

"I agree, little sister, but the circumstances surrounding this man concern me," her brother's lips thinned. "Namely where he seems to be pulling all these resources from. You said to yourself that you're unsure who is supplying him, only that someone most certainly is."

"Yes. He has very little magical talent and I would know if he was raiding electronics stores or metal plants for such things. As it stands, I believe he's working somewhere just outside of town to hide his creations. However, I haven't found a good way to approach him about it."

"Be careful, Rias. We have no idea who he could be working with, and it may even be likely that he's working against you. As of late, we've received a lot of strange reports not just from our own territory but other mythological realms. The Old Satan faction is on the move again, and they're getting bolder," the devil king intoned solemnly. "I understand why you wish to bring him into the fold, and I'm in agreement that it would be good to have him, but it's not worth you getting hurt."

"I understand, my liege, but I want to have faith in him. If nothing else, it would be a good way to draw out whoever his supporters are. Issei doesn't strike me as an especially violent or sinister person. I doubt he would make an attempt on my life."

She had never paid much attention to the boy prior to his involvement with Abella, but she'd heard rumors. There was no one in Kuoh Academy who hadn't at least heard of the Perverted Trio. By all accounts, Issei was a hopeless lech but harmless. While the loss of his friends spurred him on, he was still the same old Issei Irina had always talked about. Moreover, given his performance against Kiba, she was confident in her ability to manage him if he became a problem.

Sirzechs, on the other hand, was silent for a moment before speaking again. "Are you sure your desperation to be rid of this engagement isn't clouding your judgement?"

The words were like a slap in the face. Rias could admit to turning a bit red as she flushed. "What does that mean?"

"I only mean that your emotions should not obfuscate your duty," he raised his hands. "You have a lot on your plate, and I don't want you to get hurt because you're distracted."

"That sounds a lot like an accusation."

"It wasn't meant to be, Rias. Honest. I only say this because I worry. I understand your feelings about your marriage to Riser, but there are bigger things at work. We must all make sacrifices, that is our lot in life as noble devils. As Gremorys."

She heard that song and dance before. When was she not sacrificing her personal feelings for the betterment of devil society and her clan? Still, it wouldn't do to mouth off to one of the Four Satans even if he was her brother. Instead, she swallowed her irritation and tried to channel it into pure professionalism.

"Moving on, I plan to work closely with Irina and Xenovia. Issei has said that he's going to help us take her down, which is only fair. We have her whereabouts, and the wounds from Excalibur Mimic should still be slowing her down. With all of us together, I have no doubts that we'll be able to end her life."

"Good. Take care Rias. Things are changing much too quickly for my liking. Old enemies and threats I had considered dealt with show signs of stirring. And now that the Red Dragon Emperor and the White Dragon Emperor have taken the stage, I have a feeling our era of peace is going to come to an end soon."

There were many Longinus users popping out of nowhere. The whereabouts of the True Longinus were still unknown, at least according to the church. Meanwhile, she had one of them in her own town. Very soon it was likely that the wielders of the Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing would meet and fight. How that would impact everything was anyone's guess. For now, Rias had to stick to what she could control. And that meant being her for her town and keeping the inhabitants safe. The connection terminated not long after, followed by Akeno arriving along with Kiba and Koneko.

"Milady, we're ready when you are. I've just gotten word from Irina that they're set up outside the marked zone," Akeno bowed slightly.

"Good. We're going to do this by the book then. I don't want anyone getting hurt or trying anything stupid. Kiba," her voice softened a tad. "Are you going to be okay with working alongside exorcists? Alongside Holy Sword users?"

She watched her longtime knight grow stiff as emotions warred across her face. The fact he had restrained himself as much as he had was commendable, especially given his past. She didn't want to, but to avoid causing an incident she would leave him here if he had to. It would stain his honor as a knight of the House of Gremory, but to protect him and their alliance she would do what she had to. Eventually, Kiba unclenched his fists and nodded.

"Yes, Miss Rias. So long as they don't push it I can handle it."

She smiled. "I'll see about pairing you up with Issei and Koneko then. I want you two to keep an eye on him. Not just to protect him, but also to see if he does anything strange. Lord Sirzechs is suspicious of his motivations and his apparent backers. As should we."

Rias desperately hoped she was wrong. Issei's help could turn the tide against Riser's peerage if it came down to that. She knew about Innovate Clear's abilities and how useful it could be against opponents with a bit of prep time. With him by her side, she would no doubt be able to defeat that pompous doucher.

0-0-0-0

God, he was glad he put heaters in this suit. Issei sat very conspicuously outside the spacious warehouse that Abella had - apparently - holed up in. His blood boiled at the thought of just going in there and killing her himself, but he kept his emotions in check as much as he could. The night was cold, and it would only get colder in the coming months. Kuoh had always been a place of rather mild winters, but now the chill in the air seemed apt. To his side, Irina's teeth chattered as she drew her white cloak around her tighter.

"You know, I could've made you some heaters if you had asked," he said offhandedly, double checking the redundant systems in his suit.

"W-Would've been good to k-know that was an option," she stammered, a great shiver running through her body.

Her mumbling and fidgeting was making him antsy, and his nerves were already wired enough. "Here, how about you just-"

Without explaining further he drew his friend into a one-armed hug. With a small "eep" the girl pressed into his side and was drawn beneath his arm. She seemed stiff as a board for a second before the heat coming off his armor finally thawed her frosty exterior. Even face-burning embarrassment couldn't trump a nice heat pack in the middle of a cold night.

"Geez, Romeo. You're off gallivanting with Aika and now you're putting the moves on me. I see you're still the same old perv," despite her words Irina sounded anything but unhappy. "I swear if you make a codpiece joke…"

"Focus, Irina," he chided softly, mostly to keep his mind off the very soft boobs pressing into his ribcage.

"Right, right."

"I see you two have hit it off," a voice from behind them spoke.

He didn't even need to turn to tell who it was. The energy signature radiating off her holy sword was enough. Xenovia stepped up alongside them, not even blinking at the frigid breeze despite not wearing a cloak. Issei could admit that the whole "sexy nun in leather" look was really working for her. It made him wonder what Aika would look like in a number like that.

Gah, focus! Focus, idiot! This is going to be the most important fight of your life! He mentally slapped himself.

"Oh shut up, Xenovia. That is, like, so not what's going on! We're childhood friends," Irina said as if that explained everything. Again, he couldn't help but note the pride in her voice as she spoke. "Did you find anything?"

"An entrance in the back, one on the second floor, and the main doors. I have no idea where the filthy demon is hiding, though. I was counting on our tech savvy hero here to help," she responded in monotone.

That was his cue. He tapped the device that encompassed his ear, his visor directly connected to it on either side of his head. At once, his vision shifted. Although he could see perfectly in the dull night light, the upgrades he'd made gave him a few more tricks. The factory before him suddenly shifted, outlined in cool blues and lines of red as the scanner penetrated its layout. It sifted through the entirety of the complex in seconds before it isolated a unique signature near the back. That would be Abella then.

"She's on the bottom floor, somewhere in one of the corner rooms. She's just sitting there."

Irina nodded. "I did do a number on her. Even a high-level demon can't just shrug off wounds from an Excalibur. I imagine she's still pretty weakened."

"Even four months later?" he asked to which his friend nodded. With a low whistle he accepted that logic. Good thing he was packing some holy light of his own.

A channel suddenly opened on his communicator. It was a frequency he had specified beforehand, so it could only be one person.

"Issei, do you read me?" Rias asked him.

"Loud and clear, Ms. Gremory. We're set up across the street. I've located Abella and put her at the northeast corner of the factory. And you guys are…?"

"Here," a voice cut in. He whirled around to find the redheaded woman and her queen standing there. "Sorry to be so abrupt, but I figured you didn't want to dawdle."

"You figured right! Thanks for coming," he let go of Irina and walked over to them. "I owe you."

"Nonsense, this is my duty. If you really want to pay me back, maybe come over for tea some time."

He wasn't sure why, but he blushed. "O-Oh, yeah. Swell idea…"

"Ahem," Xenovia fake-coughed.

"Right, yes, sorry. Anyways, if no one has any objection to it, I'd like to split up our forces to make sure she doesn't escape. It would be a hassle to chase her down again," Rias sighed. "I mean, if that's okay with you Irina?"

"I mean, yeah. What were you thinking?"

She went over the plan with them, although all he could focus on was just getting in there and slaughtering that bitch. He got the broad strokes of it though. One team would head through the back to block off any escape, while the other team would hammer her as much as possible. With two Excalibur users, the general consensus was that even a high-level demon wouldn't be able to get away. He was paired up with Koneko and Kiba, mainly to provide some long-range support to the two close-range fighters. They would head in through the back and corral her into a killbox located on the main floor. There, Akeno and Rias would soften her up enough for Xenovia and Irina to cut her down.

Simple, brutal, efficient. He liked it.

Weapon systems… online…

Propulsion systems… online…

Energy levels… exemplary…

Core reactor… uncompromised…

He was ready. Issei finished off the final check as they approached around the backside of the building. He'd promised himself not to give into desperation or excitement, but as the location of his friends' killer had been revealed there had been no time for further talk. No time to reconvene and attempt to convince his team of a different option. She could and would move again, and if she knew how close they were to finding her she may just run away all together.

He couldn't have that.

So he spent his time tuning the last of his kit together. Shoring up power deficiencies and redundant systems. All for this moment.

"You seem tense," Kiba observed.

Issei couldn't help but notice the restraint in his voice as well. "Yeah… I'm worried about losing. About not being good enough and getting someone else hurt."

"Hey don't worry man, we got your back. Us Gremory servants treat each other like family, and you're a good friend to us."

"Let's stick it to that d-bag," Koneko chimed in. "This place smells like rotting fish."

Well, at least they were all in agreement. The tinkerer wished he had come to play with a few more gadgets, but the modular gun harness wasn't complete yet and bringing it to the fore here was inadvisable. He'd need to work with the weapon he did have. The trio snuck around the back, pulling up alongside the rusted emergency exit. Koneko was right, this place smelled foul.

His scanners kept themselves busy, drinking in ambient information and displaying it in paraphrased chunks across his vision. The petite girl walked up to the door and raised her fist as if about to knock on the door. To his surprise she smashed her hand against the structure, caving it inward like a beer can and ripping it off its hinges. The shriek of metal on concrete was loud enough to wake up a comatose person, let alone a stray likely on edge.

"Guess the element of surprise is out of the window," he muttered as his comprehensive map indicated that the magical signature of Abella was no longer where it was before. He couldn't tell much more without a second ping but she knew they were here.

The smell was even worse inside the warehouse. It smelled of blood and rotting things. Issei was pretty sure he glimpsed the half-chewed carcasses of animals piled up in the corner of the room they entered into. There was a loud skittering sound from outside the door. Kiba drew his sword and instantly it burst into flame, illuminating the grim interior. They made it halfway across the room before a guttural shriek made them pause.

Okay, element surprise is REALLY out the window, Issei cracked his neck as the weapon systems hummed to life.

"Let me give it a go," he offered as he stepped ahead of the two devils and approached the door to the hall. He raised his hand and felt a current of blue-white energy jump from the main core located in his chestplate jump down to the palm of his hand.

More like a bolt of lightning than a concentrated beam, light flashed and destroyed the door. Sparks flew as he heard another shriek as something big moved just out of sight. His allies were quick to capitalize on the moment, rushing by him and bursting into the hall. Literally in the case of Koneko who opted to go through the wall instead of the door like her comrade. Issei tapped his heels together and took off into a low flight as he followed them.

As he passed through the barrier of dust that had been left behind, he was immediately welcomed by the sight of his hated foe. Abella, that wretched bitch, loomed above them in all her horrific glory. She looked the same as she did before, but now with a lot more scar. Angry, puckered flesh surrounded inflamed scars all over her body. No doubt courtesy of the Excalibur Mimic. Her two sets of eyes watch them as she clung to a wall until she was completely horizontal.

"Remember me!?" he screamed as he sent another bolt of holy light at her.

Either because she sensed the radiant power from the blast or she was just smart enough to not want to be hit, Abella virtually slithered out of the way. The moment the spindly legs of her lower body scraped the floor Koneko was upon her. The white haired devil lashed out with a leg and caught the monster in her side. Despite the massive difference in size and weight, Abella reacted like she'd been hit with a truck. With a squeal not unlike a stuck pig she rolled over and lashed out with a clawed hand. It narrowly missed the small girl, succeeding only in tearing a strip of cloth from her shirt and exposing part of her bra.

The beast regained balance and reacted by spitting up a stream of greenish-yellow fluid from her spider-like jaws. It came out with the force of a fire hose and drew a line that divided Issei from Kiba. The concrete spat and bubbled as the demonic acid ate away at it. He was intimately familiar with its capabilities. The memory of poor Matsuda dying so horrifically brought an indignant spark of rage as the LEDs on his suit turned momentarily crimson.

With an inarticulate howl of rage, Issei rushed the woman, putting his suit's propulsion pack to the test. He crossed the distance between them in moment and punched a fist wreathed in burning sparks out at the woman. The stray devil's body contorted in a way that shouldn't have been possible to narrowly avoid. However, a few of the sparks managed to burn away a patch of already scarred flesh from the beast. She howled and a putrid, sulphur-yellow glow suffused her body. Issei used the momentum to put some distance between them, but as he tried to right himself his relative inexperience with flying in such a manner came back to bite him. His world rolled to the side as he struggled to right himself.

Abella noticed, and instantly lunged at him. He caught the briefest glimpse of her split-jawed visage hurling itself at him before she was interrupted by a war cry. Kiba, using his inhuman speed, charged forward and drew his sword in a wide arc. The burning flames that tinged the blade exploded outwards and carved a trench through the she-demon's shoulder. It served to arrest her momentum and, like a runaway train, she skittered on by the fortunate tinker.

"Damn," Issei turned back to see Kiba's sword already melted. "It's some kind of corrosive aura. Don't let her even touch you, Issei!"

"Got it. Wasn't planning on bumping uglies anyhow," he growled. "Light bolts it is."

The devil knight created another sword, however this one seemed different. The blade had various markings on them, as if it was segmented. His hunch was proven correct a moment later as, with a flick of its wielder's wrist, it came apart into a bladed whip. Abella formed a trio of magical circles from across the room, each of which spat more caustic aura. Issei raised both gauntleted hands and produced a stream of holy energy that managed to clash with the overwhelming force. His handy-dandy HUD informed him this was not a good longterm strategy.

"Can't hold her!"

"We got your back, Issei!" Kiba shouted.

There was a massive crash as a piece of concrete the size of a sedan launched itself at the stray, courtesy of Koneko. Abella wailed as it caught her head on and sent her crashing into one of the warehouse walls. The magical circles cut out soon after, and Issei took the moment to go on the offensive.

"You'll pay for what you did to Matsuda and Motohama!" he roared as he charged another shot.

"Issei, no, stay back!"

He didn't care to listen to his friend. He wasn't about to let her snake her way out of this one. Mimicking the favored position of his favorite character from the anime "Drag So-Ball", he launched a gout of light at the devil. She lunged to the floor, bellowing in abject agony as the blast instead flensed the skin from her exposed back. The rest of the blast blew out a sizable hole in the wall with a sound loud enough to make the floor shake.

Shit, the energy systems needed time to recover. To her credit, Abella did not. Light was poisonous to devils, but this monster was almost a mindless animal. And an animal was at its most dangerous when it had nowhere to escape to. As a stream of acid forced him to fly to the right his friends took the chance to back him up. With a grunt, the Gremory rook tossed another piece of concrete at Abella only to be immediately followed by a lash from Kiba's whip-sword. Both attacks managed to land, although they only seemed to piss the beast off more. Issei would give her this much, Abella could take a beating.

"Good, wouldn't be fun otherwise," he snarled to himself. "Keep pushing her back!"

The three of them made a concerted effort to keep the pressure up. Like rotation they switched between long-range blasts followed by crushing heaps of stone and metal so that Kiba could strike at her most vulnerable points. However, Issei could see it was like chipping away at a mountain with a spoon. Whatever steroids Abella was shooting up in her free time it made her a virtual tank wrapped in steel plating.

The intrepid inventor leapt into the air, propelled by his jetpack, and let loose a concentrated stream of light. It drew across her back, only to be absorbed by more of her corrosive aura. It seemed that she was capable of melting away even holy energy. He understood why Rias had had such trouble putting this one down. As his ascent came to an end near the rafters of the warehouse, Abella struck. Faster than he had seen her move thus far, the stray devil jumped off one of the walls and threw herself bodily at him.

His visor screamed out a warning right as all the wind was sucked out of his lungs. There was a sensation like being struck with lightning as his whole body went numb. There was a deafening crash followed by his vision tumbling over itself. When it finally returned to normal, Issei realized he was on the ground. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe. His mind raced to catch up with what happened. He'd been hit.

Armor Integrity… Compromised…

Internal Regulatory Systems… 49.4% Integrity…

Power Core… Uncompromised…

Performing system reboot…

His chest spasmed as if trying to press against the confines of his dented and crushed armor. A moment later his lungs prevailed, and he sucked in a victorious gasp of air. With the welcome sensation of oxygen came a deep, throbbing pain that spread through his whole body. There were voices… shouting, screaming… His head was still spinning too much to make sense of it. Limply, he turned his head and saw a massive, blurry figure being hammered into the ground by blasts of reddish-black energy and lightning.

Strong hands worked themselves beneath his armpits and dragged him away from the fighting. He was pulled behind a ruined piece of machinery as a familiar face came into view. Kiba yelled something at him, but for some reason his mind seemed too far away to comprehend it. A sudden sharp sting on his cheek brought him back to reality with all the force of a tsunami crashing upon the shore.

"Issei! Issei!" Kiba was shouting. "Are you alright!?"

He nodded and wheezed out a faint. "Yeah."

"Abella hit you pretty hard, man. Good thing you were wearing that suit or you'd be a smear on the ground right now."

Issei sat up with his friend's help, wincing at the sharp stab of pain that lanced through his side. Broken rib for sure, serious but not immediately fatal. He could continue with the mission. His visor was a mess of alerts, alarms, combat models, and other information that clouded his vision. He was forced to manually go through the alerts as the other team scraped away at their foe. Dammit, he hadn't thought to program a data compiler to organize all this shit.

Thoughts for later, Issei turned to look at the fight happening before them. Rias and Akeno stood above, suspended in the air as they took turns hemming the demoness in. Irina and Xenovia followed suit, moving in between the lulls in the barrages to stab at Abella. It seemed the monstrous thing had learned from last time, and prioritized avoiding the two Excaliburs with utmost prejudice. On shaky feet he stood, one hand pressed against his side, as he limped towards the action.

"Issei, no!" Kiba yelled at him. "You're too injured."

He grit his teeth in pain and frustration. "She… she killed my friends. I'm not going to let anyone finish that bitch off but me."

"Your friends wouldn't want you to die just to avenge them yourself. Leave this to us, you've done enough."

"I can handle it!"

"Issei, please, you're only human!"

Only human, huh? Kiba was right. What could he hope to do. Even Xenovia and Irina had mythical swords and years of training and enhancement. What could he ever hope to do by himself? He wasn't strong enough to lift cars like Koneko, he didn't have the innate magical talent of Rias or Akeno, and he wasn't lightning fast like Kiba. Against them, or a foe like Abella, he wasn't even worth considering.

And yet…

Issei pressed a button on his wrist computer and brought up the energy levels in his suit. The Empathetic Core that subsisted off his emotions burned with restrained safety limiters. These feelings of frustration, of anger and hate for Abella, of guilt for betraying Irina's trust, all of it still burned throughout his whole body. Unsure of what even he was thinking, he manually disengaged the limiter on the power output systems.

"I'm not just a human," he breathed as his whole suit began to shine with a rainbow-hued glow. "I'm a hero!"

The limiter fully disengaged, and with it came a flood of excess power. At once, all the systems began to operate at a hundred percent, fueled by all feelings he'd kept bottled for too long. Issei took to the air, holy power already crackling around his fists. Abella dodged underneath a blast from Rias and sidestepped a swipe from Irina only to be pummeled by a concentrated gout of light and heat courtesy of his overloaded weapons systems. It hit the she-devil as hard as every blow they'd landed on her had combined. Abella was thrown into the wall and then sent through it.

"Imperious Quark Cannon!" Issei roared, christening the newly-formed attack.

His HUD rang out with alarms. Such a sudden increase of power wasn't sustainable for his suit, and already he could see systems shutting down as safety mechanisms engaged. All the emotions that had weighed him down poured into the beam like water being sucked down a drain. As the stream finally cut out, he fell back down to the earth. His whole body was spent, and his suit had reached its limit.

Gentle hands caught him before he could impact the ground. His eyes fluttered open to see the smiling visage of Irina set him on the ground. "Hey there dumb-dumb."

"Hey troublemaker," he smiled tiredly.

"Oh my, that was quite impressive," Akeno smiled as she touched down next to them. "I had no idea you were so pent up."

He gave a hoarse laugh and immediately regretted it as fiery pain shot through him. Irina stroked his head for a second before picking up her blade and moving towards the smoking form of Abella. The thing gave a warbling moan as it tried to right itself, only to find a quarter of its abdomen and one of its arms completely gone. Animalistic fear filled the wounded demon's eyes as it cowered before the assemblage of devils and exorcists levied against it.

"You…" it growled out. "Meat kills us…? Meat defies!?"

"Unfortunately for you, yes. And now, so the souls of Issei's friends, Matsuda and Motohama, along with all the innocent people you devoured can rest easy, I condemn you, Abella, to the deepest pits of Hell!" Rias intoned, her family's Power of Destruction burning brightly in her hand.

"MEAT!" is all the stray devil turned abomination was able to scream before it was consumed by a tide of disintegrating energy.

The thing's scream echoed in the ruins of the warehouse, seemingly following Issei into his dark, sudden slumber…

0-0-0-0

"He's… I don't…" a voice mumbled from beyond the veil of darkness. "Maybe…"

Who is that? His mind wondered. He was warm, and the pain that had dragged him into the land of unconsciousness seemed to be only a distant twinge in his bones.

"... Impressive… dumb as hell…"

His eyes fluttered open, and he was met only with vague shapes and impressions. Blood roared in his ears like a thunderstorm, blotting out most of what the figures looming over him said. One seemed to notice his eyes being open and gently put a hand on his shoulder. Over and over they said the same word, and with every iteration it became clearer. His vision sharper.

"Issei. Issei. Issei!" the familiar form of Rias suddenly crystallized. "Issei?"

"M'wake…" he moaned.

"Easy, easy there tiger. You took one hell of a wallop," Kiba helped raise him up to a sitting position. He offered the young tinker a bottle of water, and Issei felt the strangest sense of deja vu as he took it. "Drink this. Take it slow."

He did as commanded. The water was ice cold and served to wake his mind up a bit more. It helped that he felt dehydrated as all hell. He attempted to clear his throat but instead coughed up a wad of phlegm which he spat off to the side. His mouth tasted like fish and citric acid and he involuntarily shuddered.

"Did we win?" he asked as everyone else came into view.

It was the middle of the night, or perhaps very early morning. Rias and her peerage sat around him, Xenovia and Irina poking their heads overtop them. Compared to him, they looked like the picture of health. Save for a few burns or torn clothing, it looked like Abella hadn't even managed to hit them. Rias gave him a proud smile as she nodded.

"Thanks to you and that attack we managed to finish her off in a single blow. That was very impressive, Issei."

"And very stupid!" Irina added huffily. "What were you thinking?"

"I really wasn't."

"Figures," his childhood friend sighed, aggrieved.

"Regardless, it's good that everyone here made it okay. I gave you some healing Issei, but I don't think you should do anything too strenuous for a while. Do try and take it easy, will you?" Rias helped him to his feet. He swayed for a moment, only to be steadied by Kiba.

"No promises, president," he tried for a cocky grin but it came out more like a weary smile. "Can't keep a dog like me down."

"Dog is right. C'mon pervmeister, let's get you home before your parents worry."

He was transferred over to Irina who hooked his arm over her shoulder. With her supporting his weight, he felt confident enough to start walking. Xenovia stood a few paces behind them with that same impassive look on her face. Just as the trio of humans began to make their way towards the road, they were stopped as Rias asked him something.

"Issei, Kiba said that just before you created that beam of light you said something about being a hero. If you don't mind me asking, what did you mean by that?"

He paused, unsure of what to say. If he wanted to let her in on the big secret, then now was the perfect time. But how could he do that without immediately raising suspicion. The hero was silent for a moment before he raised his head and spoke.

"A good hero always works close to home, Madame President."

And with that, he nudged Irina forward and the two began their walk back to his house. The two of them were silent, but there was no awkwardness between them. It felt just like the good old days when they would stay up all night watching bad movies and eating snacks. Those distant summers spent running around or just enjoying each other's company. It felt good to be like that again. Irina dropped him off at his house with the offer for him to stay at hers, but he declined. After everything he'd gone through tonight, sleeping in his own bed was the only thing on his mind.

Issei watched the two exorcists go as he activated the disguise module on his suit causing it to vanish from sight. His hand paused at the front door of his house, his mind adrift with alien emotions.

"You can rest easy now guys. I made good on my promise. You just enjoy that great big titty bar in the sky for me, okay?"

"Thank you bro…"

It wasn't even a whisper on the wind. The words were so quiet that he might've even thought they were just in his mind. But as Issei turned he caught sight of something. In the dim gloom of their street, illuminated ever so slightly by a beam of moonlight, a pair of shadows stood there. Their silhouettes and veiled faces were so familiar to him that he could never forget who they were. They lingered for a moment with wistful smiles on their faces, and then they were gone. Vanished from this world like they were never there to begin with.

The tears that stung at his eyes were ones of victory that night.

Arc 1 is done guys! Thank you to all my readers that have stuck with this story so far! Issei finally avenges his friends and gets a very big victory under his belt. From here on in I expect that the pace might move a little bit faster as things in the story begin to pick up. Once again, thanks for all the support yall have given me and I hope you enjoy what comes from here on out.

XOXOXO

CoffeyJoe