Part two of the Ravel arc.

Dignity

As time began to tick bye, and 10:00 am became closer, Issei waited at the door to the garage for the one who was to join him on this business trip. As much as he would rather be there with Asia at this time, this meeting was not one he could avoid. He was meeting with some people in order to expand the dealership to more areas. One such area, Kyoto. And so, he needed to go and settle this. Bringing Ravel along was impromptu, but it all worked out.

Issei sighed as he checked the time again. Anymore and he would be late. "Ah well. Can't hang around here. I gotta get on the road." Just as he turned to open the door, a pair of heels could be heard running into the room.

"Wait! I... I'm here." Ravel ran up and dropped her small duffle. Even as a demon, she was out of breath from moving so fast.

As she stood there a second. Issei took in the sight before him. Ravel's outfit did in fact compliment him and it was gorgeous. Her long sleeve dress was black, which matched his suit with little red accents around the waist and wrists to match his red tie. "Wow."

"What?" She looked up at him a blushed a bit at his staring.

"J-Just... You look amazing." The way her hair was tied back and not in it's normal drill style added a whole new sense of... beauty to her. "And your hair."

Ravel pulled at it nervously. "D-Do you like it? I wasn't sure that it would look nice."

"Like it? Ravel, I love it. You look like a model."

"W-Well of course I do! It's me we're talking about!"

Issei chuckled at her flushed face. "Come on, we need to get going." He grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder. "Which one do you want to take?"

As of recent, Issei hadn't really added any more cars to his collection. The yellow Nissan 400z sat near the front. Xenovia's bike was on a stand for maintenance. Akeno and Rias' Porsche was sitting in it's spot. Koneko and Ravel's Jaguar was in the shop for an oil change. However, there was a slight change to the lineup. The Aston Martin was gone.

"Issei? Where's your Aston Martin?" Ravel looked around, but found nothing.

"Oh. I traded that car. Picked this up from my dealer in exchange for the Aston." He pulled a large key fob from the lock box and hit a button. In the back, near the little MR2, sat a 2009 Audi R8. "We got this in on trade and the deal was too good. Besides, it's fun to spice things up. Come on, we're already running late." He lead her over to the car and placed their bags in the front hatch (frunk). "Hop in."

Doing as told, Ravel opened her door and sank into the car. Unlike the Aston Martin, the Audi had softer seats in it. She was also intrigued by the missing engine up front. She watched as Issei stepped in and sat beside her. "How long is the drive?"

"About 6 hours or so. The meeting doesn't start till 4, but I figured we could grab some lunch and find a hotel for the night before the meeting." The car cranked and the engine roared from... behind them.

Ravel's head instantly shot back to look. "So that's where it is. I was wondering why there was nothing up there." As she turned around, another thought came to mind. "Why did you have me wear this now, if we're going to the hotel first?"

Issei began to pull the car out of the garage and turned onto the street. "Well, it may be a long trip, but I knew you would pick something you would be comfortable in. Plus, you never know what kind of traffic we'll hit. Do you want to go back and change?"

"N-No it's fine. I'm good." With that settled, they hit the open road to Kyoto

The trip was smooth sailing once they got out of the larger parts of Tokyo.

(AN: From what I gathered, Kuoh is close to Tokyo if not a sub city.)

Traffic had backed up a bit on the expressways, but it seemed to clear up quick. The first stop would be in Fuji, after 2 hours, for some fast food before they hit the road again. The small place they stopped made even Ravel impressed at how well the food was done.

After the stop, Ravel kept noticing something. Issei was driving like a bat out of hell. When she would glance over, she would see the speedometer pinned at about 190 kmh (about 120 mph) for most of the trip. She wasn't going to question, but then she saw the police officer. "I-Issei!"

"Yea?"

They blew past the small Corolla still pinned at 190 kmh. "Th-That was a policeman."

"So?"

"SO?! They can arrest you for going this fast."

Issei chuckled at her nervousness. "Look in the mirror."

Doing as told, Ravel looked back and to her amazement, the cop hadn't moved. No lights, no sirens, nothing. "What?"

"I learned a long time ago. Police cars here are not fast. So, they can't keep up with something like this. Why even try? Those cars top out at around 105 miles an hour. I'm doing about 120. Trust me, they can't catch us." He then looked over a bit and smiled at Ravel's astonished face. "What? Surprised I knew something you didn't?"

That did it. "Listen here! I don't act like I know everything! There are obviously things I don't know."

"Oh, but didn't you say earlier that you know everything about everything?" She had in fact said those exact words. After that, the ride remained quiet. Mainly because Ravel had fallen asleep. Something about the hum of a V10 in her ear lulled her to sleep. "Well, that'll help her pass the time."

Kyoto was in sight at around 3:30. Issei rolled into the hotel's parking lot and parked the car under the cover. He got out and left Ravel in the car to sleep. Since he could see the car from the front desk, he wasn't worried. The receptionist handed him his room key and told him where to park. He walked back outside and moved the car to his reserved parking spot. He texted Yasaka and thanked her for helping him get all of this.

As he opened the front hatch, Ravel began to wake up. "Are we here?" She rubbed the sleep out of her eye and opened the door. Her eyes looked around at the beautiful scenery around her. "Wow."

"Never been to Kyoto before?"

"I've never been outside of Kuoh. Other than home of course." Her eyes were then glued to the enormous building behind her. "That's the hotel?"

"Yea. We have about 20 minutes before we need to be at the meeting. Luckily, the meeting is in a conference room here. Do you want to stay in the room, or come with me?" Issei closed the hatch and locked the car.

Ravel had her bag over her shoulder. "Well, since I went through all this trouble to get dressed up for you..." She knew that she was going to come along, but the option was appreciated.

"Alright. Room 409 is ours."

Together, they made their way to the hotel room that the card was assigned to. When they opened the door, Ravel was a bit shocked. The room itself was very spacious and comfortable. The bathroom was right inside the door, but other than that, it reminded her a lot of her room in the Underworld at the Phenex manor.

She stepped in and set her bag on the... one bed? "Issei? Why is there only one bed?"

Issei smiled as he dropped his bag by the table and straightened his tie. "What? You don't wanna share with me?"

That got her to blush up a storm. "N-No! W-What I mean is..." She stopped as he kissed her head.

"Ravel, I'm messing with you. If it's really a problem, I'll sleep on the couch over there." He pointed to the couch that was nestled between the bed and the window.

She took a deep breath to calm herself. "No, it's not a problem. I tend to sleep with you most nights anyway." That much was true. Ravel's spot mirrored Asia's on the bed and was just nestled by his waist. This would be the first time she got to really choose. "Where is the meeting?"

"It's downstairs in a conference room. You all set?" Ravel nodded and they left the room.

The meeting went by in about an hour. In the end, the business deal did not go through. However, that was not due to the placement of the site, nor the offer to build it. The plans went out the window when the man seated next to Ravel at the table started to touch her.

Issei had been up front talking about how the overall demographic worked when it came to sales, and the man in charge of the new dealership's development was seated in Issei's chair. That chair was directly to Ravel's left. At first it was small things like dropping his pen, then it became a little more. When the man would reach down to grab the pen, he would place his hand on the chair next to Ravel's butt to push himself up.

Ravel decided to ignore it since this was for the good of the company, but that was until he placed his hand in a different spot. He didn't even bother to drop his pen as he rested his hand on her upper thigh.

Meanwhile, Issei was oblivious to it all as he talked. "Yea, this plot should work..."

His assistant shot out of her chair with record speed. "Would you knock it off before I kill you!"

Everyone recoiled at her tone as the man fell out of his seat in shock. Issei moved over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "What happened?"

"This fucking asshole kept trying to touch my butt and then grabbed my thigh!" She pointed her pen at the accused on the floor.

Everyone stared at the man as he worked his way to stand up. "That's completely untrue. My pen rolled off the desk and I..."

Issei cut him off by stepping between then. "Mr. Shirokawa. I believe our business here is over."

"Mr. Hyoudou. You're going to believe this little..."

"Little what? I don't think you want to go there with me." He leaned closer to Mr. Shirokawa and whispered. "I can make sure there's not even a body left to be found." That shocked the pervert to stand straight. "Now you will apologize to Ms. Phenex and beg she spare you mercy."

Ravel pouted as Mr. Shirokawa bowed, smirking as he did. "I am terribly sorry Ms. Phenex. But your ass is just so nice."

That did it, Ravel snapped. Her aura flared with flames of the Immortal Phoenix as she gripped her pen so hard it broke. "Issei? Do I have permission to end his miserable life?" Her sweet voice now a growl.

Issei was quick to grab her shoulder. "Not needed. I took the liberty of having cameras installed in this room before the meeting started. The police should handle this." He then pulled out his cell and called for the police, as well as hotel security. Within a few moments, Mr. Shirokawa was detained. Police officers were keen on asking questions to Ravel, but Issei kept them off of her. "The camera footage should be enough for you. I'm not having her live through it again." The officers reluctantly agreed and let them leave.

Once back in the hotel room, Ravel finally spoke. "Thank you."

He turned back to look at her. "I can't believe he did that to you. Why didn't you say something sooner?"

"B-Because I knew how important this meeting was for you." She blushed and fiddled with her dress.

"Ravel, you're dignity is more important than some meeting."

She laid back on the bed and stretched her arms out. "I don't care about my dignity, really. I don't need it as much when I'm with you."

"That sounds awfully sexist." He laughed a bit as she smiled.

"Well, I guess you could see it that way. But given what I was born to, my self image unrealistically high. It made me think that these things wouldn't happen simply because I'm basically royalty. Now I know." She sat back up on the edge of the bed.

Issei sat next to her on the bed. "I should've seen it sooner. If I would've known..." He paused once her lips found his. It was rare that Ravel initiated a kiss with him.

"It's fine dummy. My brother had a habit of doing that for a while, but he stopped when I threw him in a wall." She shrugged her shoulders and leaned on his arm.

"No way. You threw Riser in a wall?" He didn't think she had the strength to do that. "I didn't know you were that strong."

"Oh you didn't know? Riser was entrusted with the power of the Immortal Phoenix. After you beat him at the party, the Phoenix came to me. He said that the power would awaken after my 21st birthday which was in June." She blushed as he wrapped an arm around her.

"I see. Well how about you joining my peerage, oh Ms. Powerful Phenex. You're a free agent right now, so how about officially coming on board as my other bishop."

Ravel turned to him shocked. "A-Are you sure? I don't think..."

"Rias is fine with the houses merged, she just doesn't wanna do it. I, on the other hand, would love to be your husband Ravel, and I would be honored to be your King." He knelt in front of her and grabbed her hands.

"Well." She wiped her eyes with her sleeves. "This is much more romantic then when you proposed a year ago."

The realization hit them both there. Issei proposed to Koneko, Le Fay, and Ravel over a year ago. He was quick to sit up and hug her. "I'm sorry I keep making you wait. I promise that we'll be married soon."

Ravel held him back and smiled. "I know you will." They paused a moment before she spoke again. "You said that I get to pick what we do tonight?"

"Yea. It's all up to you."

"In that case..."

Next one might or might not be fun. I did get complaints about taking Ruruko away and simply put, she was a route to add Sona to this, but I've chosen a different idea. She might come back, she might not. Either way, Ravel, Koneko, and Le fay need a wedding and I am running out of chapters.