Kiba thought carefully about the consequences of lying and trying to hide everything so he could erase even another filthy cockroach from this earth.

On one hand, Koneko was learning how to make ovenless cheesecake.

In the other, he now held a spoon that she'd passed to him. Oh look. That was an easy choice. Hardly a choice at all, even.

"So." Kiba slowly spooned up a bit of whip cream with the cheesy bit. "Mmh. Mm." Why was cheesecake even called that. Did they add cheese to this? It didn't taste like any kind he knew. Maybe, like, cream cheese or something. He could ask Motohama later; it seemed like the sorr of inane factoid he might pick up to impress a girl on a date.

Kiba thought about that. Hm. The line might actually work if Motohama took his fictitious date to a dessert parlor or something. Not bad imaginary-Motohama-kun, Yuuto is impressed with your urbanity Thank you Yuuto-kun That's quite alright imaginary Moto-kun.

"This is delicious." Kiba said mildly.

Koneko nodded a little, and smiled victoriously. Rias cooed a little before snapping her head back to him. "Speak."

It's not a raiding party." Kiba said immediately.

Rias narrowed her eyes seriously. "Explain."

Kiba's thoughts were already racing. He'd arrived at the conclusion - but he had no idea how he'd gotten there. Think, think, what sort of person is Freed Sellzen?

Well, certainly he acted as though he were mad. Raving and ranting, killing on a whim and shouting as though he wished the whole world might hear it. But he acted carefully and methodically, and rarely allowed himself to be cornered. He was a priest, and for all his faults he certainly took that seriously, and he loathed devils with a frighteningly intelligent coldness.

Thus, the question now became 'Is Freed Sellzen insane or not?'.

If he was insane...then he would certainly fail to keep the terms of the unspoken accord. To place his pride over the value of their deaths...such dogma is certainly «madness» in it's own right. A kind of selfishness beyond the boundaries of good sense. Freed Sellzen certainly had the capacity to be such a man.

Nothing would be safe. He could attack at any time and any moment.

When he and Freed had fought, there was an understanding, that such acts would only be committed under the moonlight. Neither would jeopardize the waking world so long as it never infringed upon them.

But if Freed Sellzen was mad, then such understandings had been only in his head. The people that knew where he was would be a threat to his sneak attacks. Issei Hyoudou was certainly already a dead man, and there was nothing he could do to change that.

It would be a bloodbath.

Thus, let us proceed as though Freed Sellzen were sane.

And a sane man would not attack an isolated target like that, with little potential gain, unless...

"He was staking his territory." Kiba said slowly. He thought back to the sign of the man, crouched at a windowsill with binoculars, looking over the wall at Kuoh Academy. "It's not a raiding party. They're here to stay. They want to take Kuoh, without touching the legal bounds of the armistice."

Rias's eyes turned flinty. "Akeno."

The tall young woman stood abruptly. "Yes, President?"

"Call Sona." Rias's knuckles tightened to whiteness around her teacup. "We have work to do." She turned to Kiba. "When the Council gets here, you need to tell us everything you saw."

Kiba nodded slowly, already spinning a tale in his mind. Outside, a gust of wind blew leaves high into the air, sending them a-whirl and casting them high into the sky.

It would be a long time before Freed Sellzen could act as he pleased, Kiba knew. The Council entered the room, familiar faces one and all, and as they arranged themselves around the table he began his tale. Grand it was, full of subtlety and derring-do and mischief. Entirely fabricated, of course, but watching the leaves fall, Kiba felt very little in the way of guilt. He needed time. A young woman starred in his tale, bold, capricious and brave; Kiba mourned her escape with a deft touch and a tear. One of Sona's girls, Reya, looked touched, so Kiba made her death an extra tragic one. Koneko applauded him. Did she suspect? Likely; she followed him distantly on occasion, to make sure he was safe. He gave himself a pet cat that bravely distracted the pewbound hordes in the church, and from her twitching ears she was pleased.

He continued to run his mouth, in a manner that emulated Matsuda-kun. He was the best liar of the group and always made sure to embellish excessively to keep people drawn in. Kiba was always somewhat impressed, when he did that. It certainly seemed to work, though Rias seemed to be tearing up for alternative reasons. What, he couldn't deduce.

The tale ran endlessly on his tongue, and most of it would even check out from Ise's experiences. It seemed that Kiba wasn't a bad liar.

Lying.

Kiba wasn't sure he liked it. He needed - no he wanted to protect his friends, but the thought of endangering his peerage for such a reason...

He couldn't do that.

Instead, he made sure to add a bold and handsome blonde exorcist-cum-traitor-cum-messenger who revealed the growing threat after Kiba appealed to his conscience via a morally impassioned speech.

They bought it, turning grave and discussing the danger. Akeno was even visibly moved as she discussed something in a hushed undertone with Tsubasa. Hah, more fool them. Exorcists had no conscience or morals.

Oddly enough, the only person entirely unmoved was Saji Genshirou. Kiba elevated his opinion of the young man. Perhaps they could be friends as well...? A thought for another time.

Kiba ended his story quietly, allowing the growing discussion to simply wash him out. Instead he turned idle eyes back to outside, watching the world pass by.

It would be cold soon, Kiba thought slowly. He should remind his friends to bundle up.

Quietly, a pleased little smile crossed his lips.

1 month later

"Quick, use the goddamn circle!" Motohama hissed.

"Alright, alright!"

Issei hurriedly ducked and seized the tiny paper from his pocket, hurling it at the floor.

It poofed into a great cloud of smoke, from which Kiba emerged. "That was sooner than I expected, why-"

Issei dove for his right leg, clutching it. "Save us."

Motohama went for the left, and Matsuda doubled up on it.

"Save us."

"It's scary." Matsuda added.

"Really scary."

"Big scary."

Issei peeked up, and from where he was lying, and despite the polite smile on Kiba's face, could make out a throbbing vein on his neck.

"What are you eve-oof." He wheezed as the small shadow buried itself in his gut, the snarling little demon gleefully trying to carve it out. Having seen what it could do to trees, Issei briefly worried that he'd offed his meatshield, offset by an odd relief that at least he'd outlasted Kiba.

But no, Kiba straightened slowly, uninjured, and seized the gremlin by the throat. He raised it to eye level, other hand also coming up to- wham.

wham "Really now-" wham "-why are-"wham "-you lot-" wham "-always like this." wham

He sighed breezily, bloody fist lowering, as the pulped mass of gremlin in his left twitched spasmodically.

His fist tightened on its body like toothpaste, popping its head off and sending the innards flying.

Motohama slowly raised one open hand, shaking it at the heavens. "I sense a great unresolved tension in your backstory." He intoned slowly.

Kiba glanced at him, blood still splattered all over his face, and they stopped snickering.

Rolling his eyes, Kiba gently nudged the boys aside, walking past them to where several more of the little gremlins peeked out from behind little cabinets and blinds. Their vicious grins faltered as Kiba unerringly spotted them, and shifted from walking to a dead sprint. The den exploded into contralto screams and the sound of wood slamming as Kiba seized a straight-backed wooden chair and swung it bodily into the largest cluster of them behind a table lamp.

The chair shattered, the imps diving out from behind the lamp with little wings buzzing like hummingbirds, screaming with exaggerated mouths and long black fingernails reaching to gouge at the blond boy. Kiba ducked below the swarm, letting them fly harmlessly past before snapping a leg up and kicking one out of the air. It went sailing, impacting the ceiling with a wet crunch.

Issei winced.

The rest of the swarm howled their anger, swinging around in a great loop and picking up more of their brethren as they turned their focus entirely on Kiba. This time, they moved even faster, rushing him like a great mass of 6-inchhornets. They surrounded him, diving in to claw at his face and clinging to his hair, growing bolder and bolder until the boy's features was entirelyobscured behind purple flesh and flailing limbs.

Matsuda and Motohama looked on blankly, but Issei slowly rose to a half-crouch, ready to rush in if...well, if Kiba died or something maybe. He'd getthe body out, at least. Maybe. Did devil's even have corpses? That would be kinda weird, right?

But before he could move, the mass of gremlins bulged slightly. Some red lightly quickly swelled, somewhere deep in the mass something grew.

Then it burst, a great mass of flame exploding out and swirling about the blonde boy. Where the gremlins once flew was nothing but ash and charred bodies, slowly drifting to earth. Kiba's glowing eyes revealed themselves behindsomething that shone silver between his teeth, before that too vanished. In the absence of the brilliant flame, the home was once more cast into shadow, flakes drifting all about Kiba as a warm breeze gusted past them, sending their hair swirling and clothes briefly a-flutter.

The standoff lasted until Motohama coughed. "Matsuda."

"What?" Matsuda hissed. He was following the ash with his head, chin slowly lowering to touch his chest as he absently stared at the ash that had erupted from the air.

"Say something."

"What? No. Look how angry he looks. You say something."

"Fuck that."

"Bitch."

"Pussy."

Motohama gave up, turning around abruptly. "Issei, you say something."

Issei jumped a bit, startled, still blinking away the hot flash from his eyes. "Hold on." Isseiconcentrated, before lapsing. "No good, I can't contain my resentment. Even covered in blood he's more handsome than us. I know he's kind of our friend now but I still kinda hate him. Can we just find a way to quietly off him? We could be realrespectful at the funeral."

Motohama and Matsuda traded looks. "You're welcome to try. Those mysterious fairies sure couldn't, and we failed to beat them."

Issei and Kiba briefly looked down at the bloody sacks of demonflesh. Their eyes protruded slightly from under their stony brows, inch-long horns inplace of eares curving up and over their hairless scalps. One of their purple hands twitched, nude and hairless body crumpled and broken under the furious assault.

Fairies, Kiba wondered, the question dancing inhis eyes. These?

One sputtered a bit, vomiting bile and worse over it's distended gut. Kiba's expression continued to sour. His left hand twitched a bit, still wrapped around one of the little imp's, two fingers going fully around it's little gullet. He shook it a bit with mystified eyes. It dripped, a little.

"Sorry to interrupt." Kiba raised the corpse of the gremlin. "Motohama, Matsuda, can you see this?"

"No." "Not at all."

Kiba blinked and slowly turned to Issei, who shot him a thumbs up. "Sure can."

He turned back to Motohama and Matsuda with a lost look.

They shrugged.

"How..." Kiba tried. "How are you trying to beexorcists if only one of you can see your culprits?" He absently kicked at the one still drowning in it's own filth.

"We're banking on absorbing yin chakra from all these dead ghoulies." Motohama pushed up his glasses. "We were told that was how it worked."

"That's not how it works."

"Well shit." Motohama turned to Matsuda. "Back to the spirit goggles plan." Matsuda nodded firmly, reading into his pack to pull out three aviator goggles, slightly stained red and scuffed up.

"I don't like the spirit goggles plan." Issei whined, eyeing the goggles a touch warily.

"Shut up and bleed, these lenses won't coat themselves."

"Wait." Kiba raised a hand, fighting back a throbbing between his eyes. "Why do you want to see the demons?"

"Why do I want to see them." Matsuda asked slowly.

"Yes."

"Why do I want to see the face-eating fairies filling this home top to bottom."

"Well." Kiba hedged. "Being able to see them, means drawing their attention. It's dangerous."

"More dangerous than the murderous demonoids literally all around us."

"Well, yes." Kiba said. "You're better off going without. Most people never interact with them for their whole lives. Just walk away, and you'll be fine; they have no reason to follow you. They're more interested in the home, and in all likeliness will move along soon enough."

"Wait." Motohama cut in gently. "So what you're saying to us, is to just not worry about it, despite the fact that we're potentially inches from death at any time. At all times."

"Lay back and think of home." Kiba soothed. "Just let it happen. Let the world wash over you."

"I support this." Issei raised a hand.

"Shut up idiot." Motohama stripped off one long rubber glove and flung it at Issei's face, who failed to catch it and sputtered as it caught on his face.

"We were paid for this gig, remember idiot?"Matsuda huffed, tossing aside a crystal windchime that hung from a belt loop. "No backing down now." Issei winced as the delicate affair shattered with a loud crash, shards and fragments sent spinning and flying past. A streak of hot blood appeared on Kiba's blank expression, stained like ink on a blank page, but he seemed not to care.

"Gig? Is this not your home, Matsuda-san?"

Matsuda looked around and barked a short laugh. "Oh god no. It's Kiryuu's." He kicked at a dark wood endtable vindictively, only looking guilty when it scuffed the floor a bit, sliding back a bit. "And we're not here exactly willingly."

"A fujoshi is the bravest sort of person." Aika Kiryuu said somberly. "We're always willing to back down and give up their love so a more beautiful romance may sprout. Our whole lives are a sacrifice, and I will go to any lengths for their happiness. Kind of like writing fanfiction. Your life exists to support a superior existence." She wiped away a proud tear, turning away slightly. "God I'm so noble."

Issei politely applauded.

"Now go away."

Kiryuu folded her arms. "Didn't you hear me? Any lengths, Hyoudou. Not until you accept my terms."

Issei began slowly massaging his forehead, trying to tune out the dunces laughing uproariously behind him.

"One." Kiryuu flicked out a finger. "Stop dating Kiba. Two, never speak to-"

"Stop." Issei thrust an arm out. "Hold on. Go back to number one."

"One, stop-"

"Don't actually say it."

Aika rolled her eyes. "Look, just cause everyone knows-"

"Who the fuck is 'everyone'?!"

"Everyone." She repeated imperiously. Hanagata-chan turned around and waggled her fingers at him from the second row. Her horrid friends began giggling. Dread began to grow in his gut; the acoustics in this classroom may have been a mite more impressive than he'd ever realized...

"We're not dating." Issei spat defensively. His eyes darted back and forth. Taking in his classmates, taking in their moods; Issei's concern only grew as he took in how many girls were currently giggling for unknown reasons. More than were supposed to be in this class, for sure.

Motohama and Matsuda began laughing harder. The bald one fell out of his seat.

Aika sighed. "You hang out. You call each other by your first names. You've gone to get food together." She placed her hands on her hips. "You're basically having sex in public at this point."

"What kind of equivalency is that?! It doesn't even make sense! And anyway, I do that with the wonder twins-" a thumb jabbed backwards. "-as well!"

"Oh Issei." Kiryuu patronized. "The difference is that girls like Kiba."

The wonder twins stopped laughing.

"You boys may think it's platonic normal friendship, but girls recognize romance when we see it."

Issei could taste the ashes of his social cred. Matsuda winced.

"It's love, I tell you. Can't you even tell how a man feels?" She continued ruthlessly.

"I'm a man, you realize." Issei pointed out weakly.

She shot him a disparaging look. Issei wilted.

"But why are you here?" Kiba asked awkwardly.

"Oh right." Motohama snapped his fingers. "We're being blackmailed. One of Kiryuu's friends saw us running around asking about demon stuff, so Kiryuu told us that if we didn't check and see if her house was haunted, she'd spread rumors."

"Rumors."

Matsuda shuddered. "Don't ask. Suffice to say, her house is super haunted. Can't even blame her at this point."

"I can." Issei muttered plaintively.