Kuoh Academy was open for another year of school, and Issei was stoked to be back. His school had the hottest girls this side of Tokyo in some of the sexiest school uniforms known to man, winter or summer, and there were all sorts of sports and clubs to make these babes all hot and sweaty.

Not only that, the ratio of girls to guy was like, 4:1 or even more. Eye candy as far as he could see and the chance to do lewd stuff with his dream girl? This was nirvana.

If only they'd notice him. Well, notice him for the right reasons.

Issei and his friends worked super hard to get into Kuoh. It was almost fate that a girl's school would become co-ed the year after they finished middle school, but after a year of failure, none of them had anything to show for it. It didn't help that they had to compete with Prince Pretty himself, that handsome prick Yuuto Kiba. What did he have other than good looks, charm, and an air of mystery?

Nothing, that's what. Issei was plenty mysterious. Screw Kiba.

There was one girl in particular he was looking out for that nobody knew but him, and while he hadn't found her yesterday, it was lunch time on a sunny Thursday and most of the school had flocked to the fields, him and his buddies included. They were lying on the grass on a hill underneath a clear blue sky, just chilling as they soaked some rays and ate their lunch.

"This is our year," Motohama said, sipping from a box of litchi juice. "We're older, wiser, and know secrets that no man was meant to know. Kuoh won't know what hit it."

Matsuda groaned. "Screw this devil shit, man. We don't need that in our life."

Issei rolled his eyes. Seriously, after all his big talk, after all his hard work? "What happened?"

"Stupid flyer busted on me. I even went back to that street corner yesterday to see if I could get a new one, but I didn't find Jack or Jill."

"That's 'cause they're foreigners," Motohama said, stifling a fit of laughter. "Do they even understand you?"

Matsuda shot up, raising his fist and shaking it hard. "This ain't time for jokes! I can't be left out!"

"You won't, man. Believe me, you'll find the girl you're looking for."

"Don't need your pity," he said, though he still lightened up.

"What about you, Motohama? Find a hot devil girl?"

Motohama grimaced. "I wish. My flyer worked, unlike Matsuda's, but instead of a gorgeous babe, I summoned a guy."

Issei and Matsuda winced. What a fail. He was really lucky and fortunate that he summoned Koneko instead of a dude.

"Was he cute?" Matsuda asked, grinning like a loon. Gee, someone recovered fast.

Motohama sat up and threw his juice box at Matsuda, who caught it. "Hell no! Dude was a real douchebag, and worse, he was a noob."

Issei craned his neck. Their... rep was helping them out in one way: everyone gave them a wide berth. No one would dare eavesdrop, giving him the confidence to ask the question burning his tongue.

"There are newbie devils?"

"Obviously," Matsuda said. "You need new blood or shit gets stale."

He handed Motohama his juice box, and he took it without a word.

"I wouldn't have known if he hadn't blabbed about it," Motohama said.

Issei stared at his uneaten curry bread, pondering the idea of new devils. Good thing Koneko wasn't one, it made his experience really smooth.

"Did you become that douchebro's client, Motohama?"

He shook his head. "Are you serious? I have standards."

"So he just went home with nothing to show for it? Damn, that's cold. He was new to this, you know."

His friend had the decently to be remorseful. "I wasn't trying to be mean. Honestly, he wasn't that bad once he stopped trying to show me up. We just didn't fit."

Issei smiled. "At least you know what to expect. Maybe you'll get to summon a hot chick with actual experience."

"Imagine summoning someone's great-great-grandma," Matsuda said. "I'd go live in the mountains before I got that desperate."

Said the guy that hadn't summoned any devil at all. It wasn't his fault, but Motohama had way more right to complain about getting the short end of the stick and he hadn't retorted at all. In fact, he was deep in thought.

"Can devils shapeshift?" Issei asked.

Motohama nodded. "No reason why they can't. Satan became a serpent, so maybe Matsuda's granny looks like a teenage girl."

Come to think of it, Issei assumed that Koneko was only a year younger than him because she said she was going to attend Kuoh Academy. Since devils could shapeshift, who knew how old she actually was?

Issei smiled. "But enough about your fetish."

Matsuda started banging his fist against the grass, doing his best to keep himself from howling as Motohama went beet red.

"Hey!" the loli lover said. "At least I don't go screaming about boobs all the time!"

"That's 'cuz they're the best," Issei said. "They're soft but pliable, more unique than snowflakes, and versatile as hell. You can bite, suck, lick, fondle, grope or just stare and –"

"Look at what you did, bro," Matsuda said, shaking his head. "This is why I'm an ass man."

As Issei continue to extol the beauty and bounty of breasts, his friends looked around, trying to ignore his passionate glorification of what was objectively the peak part of the female form.

"Don't look now, but someone's checking me out," Matsuda said.

"I think I know her," Motohama said. "She's that new girl, Ko-something. Kodachi? Kohaku?"

Issei snapped out of his trance, pulling himself up to get a better look. They weren't yanking his chain, Koneko was sitting on a bench next to the courtyard, sucking on an orange popsicle.

He finally found her.

"It's Koneko," Issei said, immediately drawing his friends' attention. "I mean, that's what I heard in the hallway."

Matsuda rubbed his chin. "Koneko's pretty cute."

"And I'm the lolicon?" Motohama said, scoffing. "I appreciate cuteness and innocence, not that depraved crap! But I make one compliment –"

"Sure, dude, and I'm the next front man for G-Unit. Sides, Koneko isn't a little girl. Think I should take my shot?"

Issei bit his lip. Why was he worried? It wasn't like Matsuda had enough game to win over Koneko. Case in point, one of the other guys who attended their school approached Koneko, clearly angling to ask her out. Sure, he couldn't hear what he was saying, but he could see someone faking confidence from a mile away.

A few seconds later, Koneko shook her head, and the guy took his walk of shame.

"You sure you want to do that?" Issei asked.

Matsuda frowned. "Nah. Gotta prep first. Hey, Motohama, can you get her sizes for me?"

Motohama adjusted his glasses. "She's too far away."

He seethed. "Screw this shit! I'm going peeping, who's with me?"

Issei was in, so was Motohama. New year meant new girls. One year passing meant more girls maturing.

Other students approached Koneko, a bunch of pretty girls from the swim team, but while she let them hang around her, her golden eyes remained locked on him. Yeah, him.

Now, how was he going to approach her so he wouldn't have to make an excuse to talk to her like a friend? For one, he'd have to do it in private. The last thing he wanted was for someone to cramp his style.

In the meantime, he'd just spend the rest of his lunch break eating the rest of his curry bread and watching Koneko try to pass for a normal human being.

A well-adjusted person once asked Issei why he liked to peek at unsuspecting girls when he watched porn on the regular. His perfectly reasonable answer had simple logic behind it: their naughty parts weren't censored and weren't 2D.

It sounded really crass, but the truth was that nothing compared to the real deal, and since he didn't have a girlfriend, it would serve him well to take a closer look at some of his options. The anticipation as girls he knew or saw walking around Kuoh slowly undressed themselves, compared their sizes, got turned on as they started gushing about their crushes and fantasies...

That shit was hot.

After school, Issei and his friends went outside the swimming pool's locker room, where Matsuda had carved a peephole for their viewing pleasure. It was a tight squeeze, and they had to bend over to see through it properly, but it was discreet, which was really important.

No way they'd ever check out the kendo club's fine ladies after they got caught and went through unspeakable horrors at their hands. The joke was on them: their violent retribution couldn't break him, or Matsuda, and definitely not Motohama.

Motohama had learned that the remaining members of last year's swim team were coming in for an early practice before clubs officially opened. Targets set, their resolve bore fruit as the swim team arrived and damn, they hadn't let themselves go at all.

Issei loved breasts more than anything, but he'd be a fool if he ignored everything else a woman had to offer. The official Kuoh girl's swimsuit was a one-piece navy outfit that hid just enough to keep a girl decent, but not so much that he'd have nothing to appreciate. With fabric tighter than a subway in the morning, their breasts clung to their swimsuit like it was their lifeline.

That wasn't even mentioning the way the swimsuit rode up their crotch. One girl he liked to watch had long, smooth legs and a nice, round ass, and she knew it. Her petite but perky breasts weren't anything to scoff at, either, but he hadn't worked up the courage to ask her out because, well, it didn't matter.

She had just bent over after dropping her swim cap in front of a bench. Unfortunately, she wasn't naked, but not only was she was fine as ever, her friend was hiding herself with a towel. Not even three days had gone since Kuoh re-opened and he was about to see some nipple.

"Someone's coming!" Motohama shouted.

"Let's go, Issei!" Matsuda shouted.

Shit. Not now, he was this close to the promised land, but Matsuda and Motohama had already bailed, leaving him out in the lurch. Traitors.

This wasn't good. He could hear footsteps approaching and there was nowhere to hide. Well, no point in crying. He was going to etch that swim babe's titties into his mind's eye and take his punishment like a man.

Then the girl dropped her towel to reveal her swimsuit. Gah, what a boner-killer. Well, at least she still looked good, so –

"So, the rumours were true."

Issei's heart dropped into his stomach. He prayed to any god that would listen that he hadn't heard what he just heard, that he was just imagining his worst nightmare coming to life, but it seemed like they or he wouldn't rewrite reality just because he asked. So he turned away from the peephole and decided to face the music, one beat at a time.

Only to fall on his ass.

Koneko was right in front of him, hands at her sides, and she was pissed.

"H – hi, Koneko, fancy seeing you here."

"Save it."

This was exactly why he didn't want her to know about his reputation: him and his buddies were known as the perverted trio for going above and beyond appreciation for women into absolute debauchery, and Koneko hadn't seen that side of him.

Until now.

"Are you gonna beat me up for peeping on the swim team?"

She sneered. "You'd probably enjoy that. You disgusting pervert."

It was like she stabbed his heart with a long, forked dagger. Damn it, damn it, this sucked. He wasn't sorry, but he couldn't explain the guilt that swamped him harder than a tsunami. When he saw the disappointment flecked in her golden eyes, he realized it wasn't guilt that he was feeling.

It was shame.

His only female acquaintance – the closest thing he had to a girl friend – was actually disappointed in him, and it hurt worse than any beating she could dish out. What could he do to take it back?

Was there anything that could make this sinking feeling go away?

Issei was sprawled out at Koneko's feet, terrified and ashamed, and it was enough to halt her indignation. She relaxed her tensed muscles, willing herself to calm down before her fury consumed her.

Then she looked at Issei again and nearly lost it.

As a new student at a new school, Koneko kept her ears open in order to hear the cogs beneath the machine. Simply put, she wanted gossip, and she found it. Some of it was so off-base that it amused her, like the rumour that Rias Gremory was a transfer student from Scandinavia. Others had a kernel of truth hidden beneath nonsense, such as Kuoh Academy's old school building being haunted.

The idea that Issei Hyoudou and his pair of accomplices were actually a trio of degenerate, perverted freaks sounded like truth warped by slander. Issei had the stench of a porn-loving virgin with no social awareness whatsoever, but other than checking her out a couple times, he'd been a real gentleman, even when she'd shut him down. That made it easy to dismiss those rumours. They didn't know him well, they hadn't seen his good side.

She was wrong. She hated being wrong.

"Stand up," Koneko said.

The pervert followed her orders. Next step was dealing with this garbage.

"Can I ask you something?"

She wanted to say no, shut him down again. It was the least he deserved.

"What?"

She couldn't do that to him again.

He flinched, backing against the wall. "Um, how did you find me? Thinking about joining the swim team?"

Someone thought that joking around would do him any favours. His awkward laughter was the only appropriate response.

"I don't like water." Because she couldn't swim. "Is Kaben Rider Pinky not doing it for you?"

Issei shuffled his feet, blushing up a storm. "I still like her."

She suddenly imagined Issei... pleasuring himself to that piece of plastic and wanted to vomit. Instead, she glared at this idiot some more, and cursed the morons who summoned her that assumed waxing poetic about their fetishes passed for a personality.

"Not like that!" he said. "I admire Pinky from a distance, I don't –"

"Jerk off to her?"

Did she seriously just say that?

"No, I don't. Well, not the figurine."

Course not. The little perv had standards. Why couldn't she just ditch this degenerate?

"Do you touch yourself when you're spying on these girls?"

She was still talking about this crap.

"No! It isn't right!"

Koneko scowled. "So is spying. You're better than this, Issei."

Her eyes shot wide for an instant.

"You mean it?" Issei asked.

There was her way out. She had a chance to take it back, wash her hands clean of this mess. He sounded so hopeful, even through his justified doubt.

"I do," Koneko said, because that wasn't her style.

Issei smiled slightly, shoulders dropping. "Guess you want to know why I like peeking, don't you?"

"No."

He looked at his shoes, properly cowed. Good. The sooner she drilled this into his skull, the better.

She didn't care if Issei masturbated to Momo Momozono – she despised that otaku freak who told her all about Kaben Rider Pinky and desecrated her sacred toku without thinking – or whoever, but she couldn't believe that he'd do something so short-sighted, so, so stupid.

"I still don't know how you found me," Issei said.

Koneko shrugged. "I was on a walk. I saw you and your friends hanging around the swimming pool. I checked it out."

She had also heard him and his so-called friends talk about their plans to 'peep' during the lunch break, but she was certain she would've caught him in the act eventually. If he ever tried to spy on her while she was changing... better leave that thought unfinished, before she got any ideas.

"Sounds about right."

Issei frowned just then, and part of her was afraid that she did too much, got too angry and made him scared of her.

"What's wrong?" Koneko asked.

"Nothing. I guess I wouldn't peek – I mean, spy on anyone if I had a girlfriend, but that's not an excuse."

It wasn't even a good one. The only excuse that would pass her BS detector was if he was literally spying on the swim team, but even that would be a stretch.

"Why don't you ask someone out?"

Issei scoffed. "Who'd date the school's biggest pervert?"

Not too many girls, at least at Kuoh Academy. It made her wonder what a regular girl would see if they met Issei for the first time, unbiased.

Issei wasn't a slob, he smelled good and his skin was free of acne. He had kind brown eyes and a passable haircut that made his brown hair slope out around the bottom of his neck. He was kind of scrawny, but he wasn't fat, and he was tall. His black blazer fit him well and so did his black trousers, which were neatly ironed. He had a red t-shirt peeking out beneath his white dress shirt, and it stood out against the sea of black.

While he wasn't the prettiest boy at Kuoh, he didn't need to be to get a girlfriend.

"You'd be surprised," Koneko said. "Find a girl you like and ask her out, in private."

The perv's cheeks went red. "What about you? Are you seeing anyone?"

Koneko frowned. She should have seen this coming. "Sorry, bro. I don't date my clients."

Frankly, she wasn't interested in dating anyone right now.

He smiled, wryly. "I get it. You're probably too busy to find time for a boyfriend."

"Exactly," she said.

Relief grasped her. That went surprisingly well. If he could handle rejection this gracefully, then there was hope for him yet.

"But are you busy right now?"

"I've got a meeting in an hour." Issei's mood dropped, and so did his face. That wouldn't do. "Can I come for dinner tomorrow?"

Issei smiled, bright and cheerful, one that wiped away his worries. "Absolutely!" His smile waned, growing more tender. "Thanks for giving me a chance, Koneko."

"Don't make me regret it," she said, suppressing a smile. He gave her a chance, so she'd return the favour just this once. "Come on, let me walk you home."

Koneko made sure that she hadn't been followed to the swimming pool, and as she left the school alongside Issei, barely anyone saw them leave together. It was kind of late, after all. She was inexplicably popular for reasons she couldn't fathom. Issei was the direct opposite, but his reputation wasn't as important to her compared to his deeds.

She didn't plan on holding his hand, but she could give him some pointers. Anything to stop him from being a degenerate asshole.

"How far are you with Dragon Ball?" Issei asked after a few minutes of silent walking.

Koneko pursed her lips. "Almost done. It's... interesting."

Son Goku was a monkey boy like the legendary hero he was named after, but when he saw the full moon, he transformed into a hideous, mindless monster. She took a break from reading after his friends cut off his tail.

"Right? How'd you like the Kamehameha?"

"Awesome," she breathed. "I can't believe Goku pulled it off so quickly. Or that hermit made such a powerful technique. He's just a human, isn't he?"

"He's a genius. Don't underestimate us humans, Koneko."

She didn't. Humans were blessed with Sacred Gears. Humans were coveted by the supernatural world. Humans could break the limits on their potential without losing themselves.

Maybe it was the same in the world of Dragon Ball...

"What would you wish for if you had the Dragon Balls?" Issei asked.

Such a personal, intimate question and Issei threw it out like it was nothing.

"Wait, what am I thinking?" Issei laughed for a bit. "You're a devil, you make wishes come true, not the other way around!"

Koneko frowned. "Doesn't mean we don't have dreams."

There was an easygoing smile on his face. Carefree. "Then what's yours? If you don't mind me asking."

"... I'd wish to be with my friends forever," she said, pleased that it was mostly the truth. "What about you?"

"Don't laugh, but I'd wish for a harem of beautiful ladies."

Typical: a perverted wish from a super pervert. She bit back her retort. "Start with one girlfriend first, you big perv."

Issei didn't respond, but he was still smiling. Good. She still felt a tense discomfort from shutting him down the other day. There were better ways to keep up her guard, ones that didn't force her to be unfairly mean to one of her friends.

Clients. Yes, clients. That's all he needed to be.

They reached Issei's house a few minutes later, and Koneko took a bit of pleasure from realizing this was the first time she'd be entering through the front door. Until she remembered that she had a meeting scheduled with that otaku Morisawa. Funny how he kept on going on about Dragon Ball, but it was Issei who inspired her to actually give it a shot.

"We're here," Issei said. "You sure you don't want to come inside? My mom literally can't stop talking about you."

Koneko shook her head frantically. "I can't." Even though she really wanted to. "Tell her I said hi, okay?"

Issei smiled. "I will."

Now she could leave without a guilty conscience. However, there was one more thing she needed to do before she let him be. She looked up, made eye contact with him.

"No more spying. Got it?"

He gulped. "Got it. No more spying."

Good. Now that he was safe and had his marching orders, she could leave before he unlocked the door, though not without a quick goodbye. Manners make the man and the woman.

Now it was time to visit another guy with sex on the brain all the time. This was her life, but there was a reason why she didn't dump these perverts like yesterday's garbage, and Issei helped her realize it. It was so simple... because it was the truth.

She couldn't abandon anyone in need.