Just a small note this time: in this chapter, you will finally see what I was hinting at in chapter 3 when everyone thought I made Issei buddy-buddy with the devils, but I stated that was not the case.
I also dropped two hints to future events in this chapter, one concerning a future harem member who I haven't revealed yet and a certain "boost" for someone.
SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan.

Disclaimer – I don't own anything from the High School DxD anime/manga/light novel all I own are my original characters and plot twists.

'Talking'

"Thinking"

'Ddraig talking and Sacred Gear sounds'

"Ddraig thinking"

*expression*

Flashback

Chapter 7 – Thoughts

Issei was walking around aimlessly, merely taking in the scenery and watching people go about their everyday lives.

"I wonder… that girl, Xenovia, she mentioned Kokabiel, a powerful fallen angel. Is that was Azazel was hinting at, does he know all about this? If so, why isn't he doing anything, he doesn't seem like the type to want to start a war? Maybe he knows about all this, but doesn't want to do anything." Thought Issei, as he subtly changed his direction, now heading towards the pier.

-line break-

'So Rias, what exactly did those two want with you anyway?' Asked Sona, as she and Rias sat on the couches in the clubroom, while Akeno was making tea.

'They wanted to make sure that the devils would not team up with the fallen angels, due to the sudden theft of two of their Excaliburs at the hands of Kokabiel.' Said Rias with a sour expression.

'I see; that seems like a logical request to make, arrogant and insulting, but logical. I take it you agreed.' Said Sona, before Akeno poured the three of them tea and sat down next to Rias.

'Of course, I am fully aware of what could happen if anyone thought the devils were teaming up with the fallen angels, it would spark another war.' Said Rias, before drinking some tea.

'Still, our little kouhai certainly proved to be the biggest surprise out of the entire meeting.' Said Akeno happily.

'What makes you say that?' Asked Sona curiously.

'Issei rebutted one of the Excalibur wielders words by using their own faith's teachings to show that they were wrong for condemning Asia, it was rather surprising to say the least.' Said Rias.

Sona arched an eyebrow before sipping some of her tea.

'That is indeed surprising, however, despite you getting Issei to, at the very least, not loathe devils his priorities are still unknown, are you sure he can be trusted?' Asked Sona seriously.

'I believe so, as long as no one ever tries to harm those close to him he seems very relaxed, I can't say for certain, but I do believe he is close to accepting us as friends, at the very least, we are amicable acquaintances.' Said Rias honestly.

'I don't like the idea that we are not sure on Issei's position with the devils in this school, after all, we know he harboured great hate for most devils and it is only through your peerages action's that he even begun to reconsider his view point.' Said the student president, showing exactly why she was in charge of maintaining the school with her careful analysis.

'Me neither.' Said Rias with a small sigh.

-line break-

"There he is." Thought Issei, noticing that it was close to five in the afternoon once again, meaning less than forty eight hours had passed since Issei last talked to Azazel.

'Ah, back once again, to what does this old man deserve such companionship for?' Asked Azazel.

'I needed to ask you something.' Said Issei, getting straight to the point.

Azazel looked up at this and noticed Issei's stern expression.

'Very well, ask away.' Said Azazel.

'Is Kokabiel the darkness you were hinting at, are you and he working together to start another war?' Asked Issei flatly.

'You are only half correct, Kokabiel is indeed the darkness, but I seek only peace, seeking war on the other hand… is exactly what Kokabiel is aiming for though.' Said Azazel cheerfully, seeing no reason to lie.

Issei sat down next to him and watched the fish as they lazily swam around, sometimes nearing Azazel's bait but for the most part, simply swam around with no destination in mind.

'So does this mean you are going to stop him since his goal goes directly against yours?' Asked Issei.

'Nope.' Said Azazel with a cheerful smile.

'*sigh* So it will no doubt come down to the devils of this area and the two holy sword wielders to stop him, right?' Asked Issei rhetorically.

'Naturally.' Said Azazel, as he flung a fish back into the water.

'I suppose I need to get going then.' Said Issei as he stood up.

'Oh, why so soon?' Asked Azazel.

'Well, with all due respect, but Kokabiel is not someone to take lightly, so I need to train some people and train myself as well in preparation.' Said Issei as he walked away.

'You know.' Said Issei as he paused.

'You are quite strange; you are very passive, but also desire peace. I honestly can't see someone never taking action capable of achieving peace, but if anything, at least the leader of the fallen angels has a cool head on his shoulders.' Said Issei, before walking off, leaving Azazel with his thoughts.

-line break-

'Should we be worried?' Asked Karlamine.

'Well, I don't think so, sure it was odd, and he left in a hurry, but he should be back anytime now.' Said Raynare, as she, along with the three devils currently living at the Hyoudou residence, discussed Issei's abrupt leaving.

'Still, he seemed very serious, I hope he doesn't do anything rash.' Said Asia worriedly.

'Well, I can't say I know him that well yet, but he seems to be a reasonably level-headed individual… maybe he just needed some time to himself.' Suggested Xuelan.

'Still, what those two said… Kokabiel is certainly powerful, going off what I managed to sense from them, they will be destroyed if they try to face him.' Said Raynare, her voice slightly strained.

'I don't know, it might be interesting to face one of the top tier fallen angel leaders.' Said Karlamine in a relaxed tone.

'You can't be serious?! We are nowhere near Kokabiel's level he could destroy me a thousand times over right now if he wanted to. You don't understand, ten wings is not only five times stronger than two, it is ten times stronger for every set of wings, right now, none of us can face him.' Said Raynare in fear.

'What about Issei?' Asked Asia timidly.

Raynare paused at this and took a moment to think about it. Issei was already at a level much higher than hers, if anything, he was at the very least at the level of a strong four-winged fallen angel. However, with the Boosted Gear, he could double every ten seconds, instantaneously if he went into Balance Breaker. That being said, there is always the chance Kokabiel kills him straight away, but that seemed unlikely.

'I-I think he might be able to if he has enough time to boost to a sufficient level, but that is assuming Kokabiel lets him.' Said Raynare hesitantly, after a great amount of thought.

'Is Kokabiel really that strong?' Questioned Xuelan, to which Raynare responded with a nod.

'He was, and still is, one of the top fighters for the Grigori, he is definitely not someone to take lightly.' Said Raynare seriously, getting a worried glance from Asia.

'I suppose we will just have to wait and see.' Said Karlamine.

-line break-

'So what do you think we should do now, Xenovia?' Asked the ever-happy Excalibur wielder.

Xenovia didn't respond, causing Irina to groan in annoyance.

'Come on Xenovia, you haven't said anything for hours, what's wrong?' Whined Irina.

Xenovia paid no heed to her friend's pleas, her mind too absorbed in what had recently been brought to her attention.

"Have I really been going about things the right way? To heal a devil is a sin; a person who does so must be a heretic. However, isn't it taught to love thy neighbour, does this apply even if it was a devil? Christ in his dying breath asked for forgiveness of the ignorance of the people who had him crucified. Does this mean we should have forgiven Asia's mistake? However, if we forgive the fallen angels and devils, will they not see it as a sign of weakness, but then again, are we not meant to be better and more benevolent than them?" Thought the blue haired holy sword wielder, rethinking and rationalising all her beliefs from the words of one man.

'*sigh* Fine then.' Said Irina as the duo walked in silence, due to the fact that one of them was lost in her thoughts.

-line break-

Kiba was walking around, unknowingly circling in on the location of the church previously occupied by the fallen angels. It was late in the afternoon, around seven Kiba guessed, as the sun had almost sunk below the horizon, barely casting a pale reddish light on the town. Kiba's anger had begun to rise slowly after Issei's speech, while it did soothe him temporarily, the memory of those two Excaliburs and their wielders reminded him of the beliefs of his friends, and himself from so long ago.

'Ah, what do we have here, a shitty devil walking around all by himself like he owns the place.' Said a voice in front of Kiba.

'You.' Said Kiba venom leaking into his tone.

'Oh, the pretty boy is angry, I love it, just like I will love running you through as you beg for mercy, but sorry, no mercy for shitty devils.' Cackled Freed, as he stepped out of the shadows and pointed a sword with a holy glow to it at Kiba.

'That's.' Said Kiba before Freed cut him off.

'Oh yes, you know what this is, don't you, especially now that two more wielders of them have come to town, I can't wait to run them through, then afterwards, I'll stab them with this sword as well HAHAHA.' Cackled Freed, with a sick expression on his face.

'Despicable, no wonder someone as vulgar as you was exiled.' Said Kiba dispassionately.

'Uh-uh, a shitty devil like you has no right to judge me, I'm sure you've done worse before, besides, I always wanted to have sex with a fallen angel, but your shitty friend ruined that, so why not a female exorcist? Two exorcists on opposite sides, it is almost poetic, oh, I just feel giddy imagining it.' Said Freed in excitement.

'You, are a vile creature, I will enjoy slaying you.' Said Kiba, as he materialised a demonic sword, before charging at Freed.

-line break-

'Yo, I'm back.' Said Issei, as he took his shoes off.

'Issei.' Cried two voices, while four pairs of footsteps made their way towards him.

Raynare and Asia both lunged at Issei and hugged him happily while Karlamine and Xuelan merely watched.

'What's wrong?' Asked Issei in confusion, as the two pulled back from their hug.

'Now Issei, if you are going to entertain multiple girls at once, you need to understand OW!' Said Issei's dad, before Issei's mum slapped him over the head with a wooden spatula.

'Issei dear, would you and your friends please go to your room; I need to discuss something with your father.' Said Issei's mum, to which the other five people in the room left, leaving only Issei's parents.

'Now dear, easy, put down the spatula, no, don't pick up the frying pan!' Said Issei's dad cautiously, before panicking at seeing the stainless-steel pan in his wife's hands.

'Oh relax dear, I'm just trying to make sure they don't listen in.' Said Issei's mum with a smile, causing Issei's dad to let out a sigh of relief.

'Although, should we be worried that he has four girls under the same roof as him, not to mention, most of his friends at school at girls, I don't like the implications of this.' Said Issei's mum, as she set the frying pan down.

'Well, it's not all bad, at least we will have plenty of grandchildren to spoil.' Said Issei's dad happily, while his wife nodded in contentment.

"Do it for me Issei, make the biggest harem possible." Thought Issei's dad, inwardly crying tears of joy at what his son was accomplishing.

-line break-

'So what's the matter girls?' Asked Issei, as the four sat on his bed while he stood.

'We were surprised at what you said.' Said Karlamine.

'Yeah, we never knew you had such wisdom, granted, the two of us haven't known you that long.' Added Xuelan.

'I had never thought you would have known anything about the bible, since when did you?' Asked Raynare.

'Well, when I was around eight or so, I made an interesting friend, she was a little strange, pretty emotionless, but she was really wise for her age, she told me that she knew about devils in the same way I did and told me a bit about fallen angels as well, but I really had no context to understand what she was talking about, so I decided to read the bible for clarification, it really is an interesting book and teaches a lot of life lessons, but it also provides a great deal on their teachings. Practically everyone on the side of the angels would no doubt be familiar with it and after being attacked by devils, I always wondered about angels and what they would be like as well.' Said Issei with a small shrug.

'I'm glad you have read the bible, but I wish you had told me, I would love to discuss it with you even if I can no longer read it.' Said Asia with a happy, but also wistful expression.

'To be fair, you never asked.' Said Issei, getting Asia to pout slightly, which he found adorable.

'Anyway, we should get to sleep, I'm going to have to give you girls some serious combat training starting from tomorrow, and I'll have to see if Rias or Akeno have a place where we can train undisturbed.' Said Issei, getting a groan from Raynare, before they all left the room, leaving Issei alone.

Issei undressed down to just his shorts as usual and lay down in his bed, going over today's events; he was so lost in his thoughts that he never heard his door open and quietly close. Eventually though, the presence walked closer to Issei, who was starting to doze off, before he felt the person touch his arm gently. Issei looked up and saw Raynare in her real form, actually wearing clothes aside from leather, in the form of a low-cut nightgown which was violet in colour, matching her eyes.

'Raynare, what…?' Started Issei, before Raynare placed a finger on his mouth.

'Please, can you let me sleep with you tonight?' Asked Raynare in her actual voice, but the manner in which she did so reminded Issei of the voice of her other form.

'Why, what's wrong?' Asked Issei, after she removed her finger.

'I-it's just, I haven't been able to get to sleep very well ever since I stopped sleeping here and you said we needed to be ready for tomorrow, so...' Said Raynare, trailing off at the end, as Issei lifted the blankets and patted the spot next to him.

Raynare hesitated for a moment, before sliding under the covers as well; she shuffled over until she was only centimetres away from Issei, before he brought the blankets down.

'It's ok, you can stay as long as you want, I don't mind.' Said Issei with a charming smile, which made Raynare blush slightly.

'Thanks.' Said Raynare quietly, before she felt Issei shift so he was looking at her.

'It is no problem at all, light ray.' Said Issei, before he kissed her softly on the forehead and closed his eyes, still facing Raynare whose eyes were now level with his mouth.

Raynare waited for him to fall asleep which took almost half an hour, before she shifted slightly so she was a little closer to him. She softly placed her right hand on his face caressing it tenderly, but also vey softly so she didn't wake him.

'I'm sorry about this, but I can't help it.' Whispered Raynare softly, before she placed a delicate kiss on Issei's lips before leaning back.

'I know I like you a lot, but I think I have my answer now, I think I love you, my little dragon.' Said Raynare, eyes awash with emotion, before closing her eyes and snuggling her head into Issei's chest, before sleep claimed her as well.

-line break-

Issei woke up the next morning like usual, with bleary eyes. As his eyes started to focus, he saw Raynare's hair just under his head, her face smiling contently from his chest. Issei smiled and stroked her hair slightly, before kissing the top of her head and without waking her, made his way to the kitchen. To Issei's surprise, Xuelan was already awake as well, practising katas in the gym. She was wearing a blue singlet and wore matching silk shorts. Issei paused on his journey to the kitchen and watched Xuelan as she worked through two more sets of Katas before stopping.

'Is there something you need?' Xuelan asked, still not facing Issei.

'Sorry, didn't mean to disturb you, I just found it strange that you were up so early doing Katas. Do you normally do this?' Asked Issei.

'Everyday, a strict routine helps keep balance in a person's life.' Xuelan said with a nod.

'Care for a quick spar?' Issei asked.

'Sure, why not, I would love to see the power of someone who beat... Riser.' Said Xuelan, her mouth settling into a small frown as she remembered her old king.

'Ok, but no going all out, this room is designed to take a beating, but if I power up a lot or you start to use fire manipulation, things might get bad.' Said Issei, setting the conditions to which Xuelan nodded in agreement.

The two stared each other off, before Xuelan charged with a roundhouse. Issei raised his left arm and blocked her kick, before ducking down and trying to sweep her left leg. Xuelan somersaulted backwards clipping Issei in the chin with her toes, causing him to stagger slightly, as his jaw was abruptly closed. Capitalising on this Xuelan followed up with a fly kick which Issei rolled under and quickly sprung up, slamming and elbow into her back, sending her down to the floor.

Shaking off the hit, Xuelan rose to her feet before trying multiple push kicks aimed at Issei's torso, which he blocked by pushing them off to the side, after one such block, Xuelan rotated using the momentum of Issei's push and slammed a spin kick into his ribs which he crumpled under.

Issei was pushed back and crouched down to numb the pain, slowly rising as Xuelan charged him again. Xuelan delivered another spin kick, but Issei locked it against his body with his arm and swept her leg taking both of them down to the floor with Issei on his knees between her legs, a fist raised over her head. Xuelan nodded, which Issei took as his victory and helped her back to her feet. Neither was particularly tired, but both were breathing heavily, something which Issei noticed made Xuelan's bosom heave slightly with every breath.

'Well that wasn't too bad, if you had been using your fire abilities, I would have taken some serious damage.' Praised Issei, getting a small appreciative smile from Xuelan.

'True, but with a few boosts I'm sure you would have overwhelmed me.' Said Xuelan, with a hint of disappointment in her tone, which Issei picked up on.

'Don't ever think power determines everything; a smart attack will beat a strong attack every time, you can't use supreme power if you've already been stabbed in lung, or had your arm broken.' Chastised Issei.

'After all, when I took Riser out, I only hit him four times and one of them was me hitting him with a bottle of holy water while another was just for fun.' Said Issei, remembering jabbing Riser in the eyes just to spite him.

'F-four hits?' Questioned Xuelan in shock.

'Like I said, smart beats strong, not in every case, but at the very least in most, anyway, better get ready for school.' Said Issei, before leaving Xuelan to ponder his words.

-line break-

In class, Issei was listening intently as his science teacher went about explaining combustion. It wasn't because Issei particularly liked science, or that he had trouble with it, but rather, it was due to a technique he had been trying to master. Issei made a few small notes in the margins of his book for later, before refocusing on what was being said. Sometimes Issei wondered if the Occult Research Club even attended class, he had only been at Kuoh for a month and a half now and during that time he had missed out on half a week's worth of classes, not to mention the two-week break when he helped train Rias' peerage and herself. It was a good thing the stuff being taught wasn't particularly hard for him, otherwise he might have failed.

The bell rang signalling the end of class, to which many people let out a sigh of relief.

"Seriously, this stuff isn't even hard." Thought Issei, as his weary fellow class members left, almost in fear of having to listen to more of the dry subject of combustion.

Issei made his way to his usual spot with Raynare, Xuelan and Karlamine in tow, Asia had left midway through class, making Issei think that a new development involving the Excaliburs had come up.

'Do you think they found them or something?' Asked Karlamine.

'Well, they only had a couple of hours, I doubt they could have gathered much in such little time.' Said Issei.

'If they are looking for Kokabiel, they are looking for trouble.' Said Raynare in a tone of worry.

'Who exactly would Kokabiel have working for him anyway?' Asked Xuelan curiously.

'Well, he is a ten-winged fallen angel so he would most certainly be able to get his hands on many two and four winged angels, however, that isn't really his style. Kokabiel prefers having a few strong comrades, no more than necessary, as he loves fighting himself.' Said Raynare thoughtfully.

'Well then, we can just take out his friends and then all gang up on him.' Said Karlamine happily.

'On the other hand, we don't have to do anything at all.' Said Issei quietly, getting incredulous looks from Karlamine and Raynare and a confused look from Xuelan.

'Eh, but why wouldn't we get involved?' Asked Karlamine.

'Yeah Kokabiel can't be up to anything good you know.' Added Raynare.

'But the thing is we don't know what he is up to; sure, he might just be gathering Excaliburs, but that might not be it.' Said Issei, recalling Azazel's words to him.

'What do you think he is up to then?' Asked Xuelan.

'Well, it is just a thought, but he stole the Excaliburs from the angel faction, came to a territory of two high class devils with strong connections to the underworld and is himself representing the fallen angel faction, something of this magnitude could start another war.' Said Issei seriously.

'So what should we do now then?' Asked Xuelan.

'For now, we wait.' Said Issei calmly.