Chapter 12 The Kiba Conundrum
I don't own DxD; I just use its characters and techniques. All credit goes to its creator. Same applies for anything that I used from other animes.
(Kuoh Academy)
A smiling Issei, charged the cerberus with a smile on his face and his new power soaring around him. He charged the first beast using his great speed and slammed it in the stomach sending it into the air, but before he could revel in taking the opening move the second beast blasted flames at him forcing him to dodge.
"BOOST"
A smiling Issei turned towards the second one, "Get out of my way mutt. DRAGON SHOT" Issei shouted before sending the strike at the beast that connected flush causing a decent explosion.
"Go get em Issei!" Murayama shouted wanting to encourage Issei as he fought for all of them. Irina was silent as she watched her childhood friend and new lover fight, but she couldn't help but worry. These were cerberus and they weren't exactly the easiest things to take down.
"You should say something also" Ravel smiled from next to her. She knew how the young woman felt and she was equally eager to encourage him, but she knew he needed the support from her more.
"I know" Irina said nervously. She wanted to shout but she figured this would be easier.
As the beasts tried to get a hold of him Issei continued to dodge and send simple strikes back. Never enough to truly finish them but little by little they were weakening.
"Not bad but it won't be enough" Kokabiel smirked watching the battle play out.
"We'll see" Issei smiled. In truth he could've ended it, but he wanted to get used to fighting at this level before he inevitably fought Kokabiel.
"Come on Issei" Irina finally encouraged and little by little the rest followed.
"BOOST"
'Partner it's time' Ddraig said from inside him.
"Yeah" Issei replied as he found his sixth boost.
EXPLOSION
At last, his power exploded and Issei soared above the cerberus ready to take them out for good. Issei focused his energy into one massive strike and the cerberus looked up firing blasts of flame towards him. Deciding to call back to one of his favorite moves from his childhood days Issei brought his hands together and spun his hips halfway to the right.
"That's" Irina gasped recognizing what Issei was going to do.
"Care to explain." Ravel said in confusion.
"Good grief, Issei's really trying to be Goku right now" Murayama chuckled recognizing the same famous stance.
As the girls expected, the dragonic energy focused in between his slightly open hands, "Take this KAMEHAMEHA" Issei roared and Issei sent a blast of energy to counter the flames and one of the cerberus was struck by the powerful attack killing it instantly. The second one was just fine but now it knew that his new opponent was a real threat.
RESET
"One down" Issei smiled and he turned towards the second one ready to face it. Unfortunately for Issei, fate had other ideas and decided to ruin his plans. As everyone looked on the second beast was overwhelmed by sword strikes from below.
"That bastard is actually back!" Issei roared in fury as he landed on the ground having recognized the attacks and the person responsible. The whole group looked in shock as Kiba Yuuto appeared on the ground and in front of the group wearing his Kuoh uniform.
"Oh goodie. Blondie is here." Freed said happily but he was probably the only one who was happy with Kiba's interference.
"Sorry I'm late I-" Kiba started to say before he was punched in the gut by a furious Issei who used his speed to appear in front of him in the blink of an eye.
"You FOOL!" Issei said with rage as he stood above Kiba.
"You should be thanking me" Kiba winced in pain.
Issei grabbed Kiba by the scruff of his uniform and lifted it up in the air, "Not at all. Ignoring the question of why the hell you're here in the first place, I had a deal with Kokabiel and thanks to you IT'S RUINED." Issei roared before letting go of his uniform just to send a ferocious roundhouse kick to his stomach sending him flying back towards a shocked Freed.
"Damn and here I thought they were allies." Freed chuckled.
"Not at all actually. I get that you want to kill him after what he pulled but you might want to get in line." Issei growled angrily walking towards Kiba his boosted gear glowing with rage.
BOOST
"That's enough boy. Your last opponent was going to be me regardless so nothing changes." Kokabiel smiled. Issei's rage was impressive and he knew that the boy was holding back in order to keep himself ready for a potential battle with him.
Issei took a deep breath and smiled, "Good to know, but I'm still killing pretty boy right now. He deserves it for what he's done to us" Issei smiled before focusing back on Kiba.
"Wait!" Kiba pleaded. He probably didn't deserve Issei's kindness, but he hoped that he would get it.
"Why should I listen to everything you have to say. You tried to kill me, and you put people I care about in danger. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now." Issei said coldly.
"Because I need to confront my past." Kiba said calmly.
"I'm listening." Issei said impatiently. If this was stupid, he was going to kill Kiba immediately, but he was willing to give him a shot.
Kiba looked towards the scientist with a scowl, "Before I served Rias, I was part of something called the Holy Sword Project, it was run by that man and he gathered a bunch of children like me together and promised that with our help we could wield the Holy Sword Excalibur"
"Ahh so that's what happened to the boy who escaped." Valper smiled.
"Escaped." Issei questioned.
"That's right. One day that bastard gathered us together and I watched as all my friends were slaughtered. I managed to escape before Rias saved me." Kiba frowned.
"And yet you told sicko over here the home address of an innocent girl in order to get some revenge on me. Sorry Kiba, but I'm killing you right now." Issei said coldly. His past had nothing to do with the girls and he put them in danger knowing all of that.
"Wait" Murayama spoke up catching him off guard.
"Please tell me you're not going to have me spare this idiot after what he did Mury" Issei said in disbelief.
"I am Issei. Let Kiba at least try and get his revenge. If he dies that's that, and if he gets his revenge you can kill him afterwards." Murayama explained.
"I like her." Freed chuckled since it killed two birds with one proverbial stone.
"Back off Freed she's mine." Issei said coldly staring him down.
"Well fine but how about this since we're floating out ideas. The boss here still needs to finish my blade and then blondie and I can fight it out like you want. Once I've killed him, we can have our fight. That way he gets his chance and you can just sit back and relax. Way I see it either way you get what you want since I'm not dying easily" Freed smirked.
"Fine with me. As far as I'm concerned you killing Kiba just saves me the trouble." Issei smiled.
"I can't believe they're literally discussing who gets to kill Kiba." Katase muttered.
"Boys" Murayama groaned in agreement.
"I like him." Kokabiel smiled at the ruthlessness.
"Does that mean you'll leave without any more of this stupidity." Issei hoped.
"Nope. It does mean I'll give you a break on our fight." Kokabiel chuckled.
"I can work with that" Issei shrugged.
"This is ridiculous" Ravel frowned as everyone waited for Valper to finish his weapon. The ease with which Issei spoke about killing Kiba was horrifying, but there was another issue that needed to be dealt with and one she was focusing on herself. Fusing the Excalibur together would require tons of power and a very specialized spell. Even if they stopped Kokabiel that spell would still pose a problem and one that they needed to deal with.
After ten long minutes the weapon was finally and Freed couldn't help but smile. "Finally, it's fight time." Freed cackled. The glowing blade shone ominously and to everyone watching it was clear it was no ordinary weapon.
"Shall we" Kiba smiled before stepping forward and summoning a blade of his own. When the first clash happened, the result was painfully clear to everyone.
"Kiba's toast" Issei voiced.
"Oh yeah" Irina nodded in agreement. As much as Kiba's allies wanted to argue against it they couldn't. Every clash of blades ended with Freed pushing Kiba back and the only thing saving Kiba from being killed was the fact Freed wasn't quite used to his new weapon.
"Is that it for you, pretty boy. I expected much better from you." Freed taunted as they exchanged blows. Freed was easily handling everything Kiba did and no matter what Kiba tried it would never work.
"Damn you." Kiba roared but it was futile and no matter what he tried it was nothing and his latest attack had him on the ground with Freed towering over him ready to finish the job.
"It's over pretty boy. I'd say rest in peace, but I don't really care about that" Freed cackled as he prepared to end things at last.
"Stop Freed." Valper ordered catching everyone off guard.
"Why boss. I'm having fun here" Freed cackled.
Valper walked over to him and reached into his pocket. "Since you came all this way just to see little old me. I thought you'd want to see your friends one last time as well" Valper smiled as he revealed a blue jewel.
"What!" Kiba exclaimed.
"What's with the jewel." Murayama wondered.
"After I killed the brat's friends on that fateful day, I realized that I could use the Holy Energy left behind for my experiments. This is the result and it was a rousing success." Valper revealed to the horror of the others.
"You bastard!" Kiba yelled out in range.
"It was a shame to lose all of those test subjects, but the fact I got my result made it all worth it. Of course, when I brought my results to the church, those hypocrites from the church kicked me out. The fact they have nerve to use my work for their experiments was enough to drive me crazy." Valper cackled before tossing the jewel to Kiba.
"My friends" Kiba cried out as he held onto the jewel. It was clear to almost everyone watching that this hurt Kiba on a deep emotional level though some weren't as forgiving as others.
"This is stupid." Issei deadpanned. Kiba deserved zero sympathy as far as he was concerned.
"Issei have a heart. What would you do if somebody killed me or Murayama?" Irina responded.
Issei turned towards his childhood with eyes that were horrifyingly cold, and the group couldn't help but shudder, "I'd hunt them to the ends of the earth and when I found them, they would be torn apart. As far as I'm concerned Kiba's lucky to still be alive and not because of Dr. Robotnik over here. I figured the devils would've punished him for what he did to me and even after getting a second chance he still chose to betray us." Issei said with a calm rage. Kiba was running on borrowed time as far as he was concerned and the only good thing to come out of this was the fact that he might put up a decent fight now.
"Umm guys something's happening" Murayama said out of nowhere causing everyone to look back at Kiba.
Everyone watched as blue human-shape figures started to appear around a crying Kiba and then they started chanting.
"You've gotta be freaking kidding me. They're singing the Holy Song." Murayama said in disbelief.
"The holy song?" Issei said in confusion.
"It's a special song of prayer used by members of the church." Irina explained. The wild scene continued as Kiba's body began to glow the same blue light.
"Oi oi. You're not telling me that those blue shadows are Kiba's former buddies, are you?" Issei said in disbelief.
"I think they are and from the look of things they've changed the game." Irina smiled as Kiba got up with his body radiating power.
"Valper you will pay for what you've done, and I will see to it personally." Kiba said proudly as he stood up. Out of nowhere a blade appeared before it began to glow with an odd power.
'Partner it looks like the knight has achieved Balance Breaker.' Ddraig said mentally.
"I guess so" Issei frowned as Kiba's new sword appeared in a mix of dark and light energies. The silver blade had a black grip alongside a decorative gold guard. The most interesting feature of the blade was the red sword-like design on the inside that looked like it was loading up power.
"That can't be" Valper gasped recognizing the energies around Kiba's blade.
"But it is. This is the power from I've gained from my friends. The Sword of Betrayer a mix of Holy and Demonic powers." Kiba said proudly as he turned to face a bored Freed
'What an ironic title' Issei smirked to himself.
"So can we finish the battle already? I've got a blonde idiot to kill" Freed scoffed uninterested in the whole thing.
"Let's go" Kiba smiled as he prepared for battle. Much to the surprise of everybody the tide had completely turned, and it was Kiba dominating the proceedings.
"You gotta be kidding me. His sword gets a little boost and now he's winning. This is lame" Issei said in disbelief.
"You know it kinda makes sense in hindsight because the Fragments he has aren't exactly the greatest in the world for battle." Irina mused.
"Care to explain" Murayama wondered since Irina knew more about those then she did.
"The Fragments the stole from the church were Nightmare Rapidly and Transparency and their powers are impressive but pretty basic. Nightmare can make a person experience his worst nightmares, but that wouldn't help much since Kiba's friends seemingly just helped him resolve that. Rapidly just makes Freed faster which won't help against a Knight like Kiba who is fast by nature already and finally transparency is good for tricks, but those won't really work unless you're against a novice. If he had Blessings or Xenovia's fragment Destruction that would be another story but the fragments he took kinda stunk as far as battle was concerned." Irina explained.
"Hold on a minute. I remember you saying there were seven fragments, but you only mentioned six." Issei wondered. He didn't care who won since he was killing the winner, but this was good information for the future.
"The last fragment is Ruler. It's held by Arthur Pendragon the former heir of the Pendragon family. I haven't seen him in a long time, but I assure you he's not somebody you want to face." Irina said ominously.
"Alright" Issei shrugged as Kiba broke the blade of his opponent and a smile appeared on his face.
"Alright Freed you've had your fun, but the battle is over. Now it's time to die." Kiba said happily but just as he was about to finish Freed for good Valper spoke up catching him off guard.
"I can't believe it. That must be why?" Valper staggered as he tried to gather himself.
"Why what?" Kiba frowned stopping his attack
"Why your Sword has Holy and Demonic powers. Don't you see?" Valper cackled.
"See what"
"See that the only explanation is" Valper started to say before a Holy Spear and dragon shot seemed to collide right in front of him. The combined explosion vaporized Valper as a shocked group looked on.
"Sorry but he was getting annoying." Issei deadpanned. Issei was hoping to hit the remnants of the spell that Valper used to combine the blade since that would be a headache. Fortunately for him, the combination not only killed Valper but vaporized the spell also.
"And here I thought it was because you realized what he was going to say." Kokabiel snickered.
"What do you mean what he was going to say." Ravel spoke up causing everybody to pay attention to the cadre.
Kokabiel's snicker turned into a full-on bout of laughter when he realized what was going on, "So you don't see it. This is rich. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
"See what" Ravel wondered further frowning as she tried to figure out what Kokabiel was getting at.
Kokabiel calmed down just enough from his bout of laughter to deliver the news that he knew would change everything. "The reason that the blonde knight can mix Holy Power and Devil powers is because God is DEAD!" Kokabiel revealed causing shock to appear on the group opposing him.
"What!" Irina said in disbelief.
"It can't be" Murayama gasped.
"That's right. During the Great War the Devil Kings weren't the only ones who died. So did God!" Kokabiel cackled as he dropped an absolute hammer on the group.
"No" Irina said in shock as she fell to her knees. Murayama Xenovia and even Asia each felt their heart break with the knowledge and collapsed just as Irina did.
"It's true. Michael has done a wonderful job of replacing him but it's obvious that he can't do everything" Kokabiel revealed.
"This can't be! No, you're lying. NO!" Irina cried out despair beginning to make itself known.
"I have no reason to lie girl. God died and that bastard Azazel withdrew anyway. We could've won that damn wore." Kokabiel cursed.
It was mayhem all around as the girls from the church looked on in shock and Ravel and Akeno wondered just what else had been hidden from them. As for Issei, he only felt rage and it was directed one place and one place only. "YOU!" Issei roared as he walked towards a despondent Kiba.
"What have I done!?" Kiba said in shock having been shocked by God's death also.
"That's right you little worm. God is dead and that's fine and good, but the only reason this prick told everyone is because of you." Issei roared as he grabbed Kiba by his neck.
"That's right. This is my fault." Kiba said in shock. If he had stayed in the underworld Valper wouldn't have made the connection and the truth wouldn't be known.
"That's right and now I'm going to finish what I should've done after your last screw up." Issei roared as he threw Kiba to the ground and summoned his boosted gear back. Thanks to their haze none of the group could stop him and Issei was very much looking forward to what happened next.
"Tell Rias, I said goodbye." Kiba smiled accepting his fate as Issei's hand came right in front of his face.
Issei looked down on the young blonde and smiled, "Not a chance, DRAGON SHOT!" Issei roared before firing a powerful kill shot at the blonde vaporizing him completely. The attack was enough to break the group of their shock over learning about God's death and when the smoke cleared everyone knew what Issei had done.
The members of the old Gremory peerage were silent as the reality of the blonde's death hit and even Koneko couldn't really say anything against Kiba. Kiba was running on borrowed time and the fact that it was his actions that led to Kokabiel dropping the hammer wasn't lost on them. He was going to be in deep trouble anyway. While they silently mourned their former comrade, Issei's childhood friend had a very different reaction to Issei's slaughtering of the former knight.
"Who are you, and what have you done with Issei?" Irina stammered as she walked towards Issei who was still smiling after Kiba's brutal death.
"Irina" Issei said solemnly his good mood quickly fading as he noticed the look of pain on his childhood friend's face. God's death hurt her badly and he was pretty sure the realization that he had just killed the blonde in cold blood didn't help.
"The Issei I knew was kind, gentle, he wouldn't just kill somebody in cold blood like that." Irina said weakly before Issei shot towards her and quickly embraced his friend.
"Irina, I did what I had to do. Even with Kiba's hatred for Excalibur, he still willingly put Murayama and her father in danger along with you and Xenovia. He had to die, and you know that." Issei said softly.
Irina gathered herself enough to look into Issei's eyes and saw the warmth that kept her going even though they were far apart, "Okay but promise that after this is all over, you'll be the gentle Issei I know and love once again. When my exorcist training was getting to me, I could rely on two things. God's love and the memories of the kind Issei I left behind. Thanks to this news I've lost one of those things, and I can't lose the other." Irina replied as she stared into Issei's eyes with tears threatening to fall.
Issei responded by picking up her chin slightly and kissing her on the lips, "I promise that I'll still be the Issei you know and love once this is over, but right now I'm going to become a vicious dragon." Issei smiled as he let go of Irina before turning towards Kokabiel who was simply enjoying the moment.
"Are you done having your little moment? I was getting bored waiting for you Red Dragon Emperor." Kokabiel said with a look of amusement on his face.
Issei turned towards Kokabiel and smiled, "Yeah I'm done. Now how about we clear the area so we can have a proper fight." Issei said happily as he walked towards Kokabiel leaving Irina behind.
Issei's words brought everyone back to the moment and that included his new master, "Issei are you crazy? You can't fight him alone." Ravel exclaimed.
"Ravel's right. Let them help you." Murayama insisted
"Sorry but that's not going to happen. You can yell at me all you want later but this is something I have to do." Issei said firmly.
Ravel could see the look on Issei's face and realized that there was only one solution, "If that's what you want okay" Ravel nodded aware that Issei went through incredible training just to give them a chance in this battle. She didn't like it but would accept it.
"You can't be serious Ravel! This is madness." Murayama exclaimed trying to make the Phenex heiress see reason.
"I am Murayama, and this is what it means to be a devil sometimes. I'll trust in my servant and await his victory. Now let's go." Ravel insisted not wanting to discuss this.
"But" Murayama started to say but Katase interrupted her.
"Let's go Mury. We can give him all the grief we want later after this is over." Katase said with a smile before spinning to leave.
"Don't you dare lose Issei." Irina shouted before leaving. Xenovia took one last look at the young man who had been their benefactor for the end of the trip before she walked away also. Finally, the Gremory group made their way out of the barrier so Issei wouldn't have any distractions. Issei used the moment to gather himself since this battle was going to be a big one for him.
A smiling Kokabiel watched it all happen, "Are you ready boy. I've fought in more battles then you can ever imagine and survived every one of them. Do you honestly believe you can stand against me?"
"If you were fighting at full power, you'd probably tear me apart, but you said you'd take it easy." Issei smirked as he began to focus his energy.
Kokabiel found Issei's remark amusing and got off his thrown before landing in front of him, "Then get ready boy because if it's a fight you want. It's a fight you're going to get." Kokabiel said happily.
That's it for Chapter 12 and yeah, this one was a doozy emotionally and otherwise. Kiba is dead, the truth about god is out, and now Issei's about to face Kokabiel. Next time Issei faces off with the cadre but although his power has vastly improved, he's in for a rough one.