Chapter Seven - Wardrobe Warriors

October 2nd, 2012

Ultimately, it turns out being stuck in the dorms all day was decidedly boring. He'd already since gotten dressed, pretending to ignore the implications of the scars left on his abdomen and right forearm, taken his medication as per instruction, and was no simply lounging on one of the common room couches, wearing his patented 'Weekend Warrior' getup, a faded and worn shirt from a metal band, and a pair of grey sweats worn thin from years of use.

Ultimately, despite the fact that it was the weekend, Vin just moped around, sitting down and channel surfing, resigning himself to yet another day of boredom. Hey, maybe he would spend another day watching Xenovia training. But then again, he'd already done that the past few days…

Thankfully, Vin's silent cries for an answer to his boredom had arrived, in the form of a bubbly, twin-tailed girl.

Leaning over the back of the couch so that her upper body was close to Vin, Irina playfully poked him in the cheek with a perfectly pedicured finger.

"Hey Vinny, are you just going to mope around all day?"

Vin sighed, taking a sip of a beverage he held in his hands, "It's not like there's much else to do."

"Irina, you gotta understand," Vanessa called from the opposite couch, "Boys like Vin just want to lie around in their grubby clothes all day."

"They aren't grubby," Vin grumbled.

"Oh really?" Vanessa taunted, "I've seen better fashion sense out of a homeless man. Seriously, you only ever wear band shirts."

Vin swung his hands up in the air defensively, "Hey, that's my aesthetic, don't criticize me! Hey Irina, you're on my side here, right?"

Vin turned to see Irina's eyes light up in a moment of revelation.

"Everyone!" Irina shouted, drawing the attention of everyone in the room, "I have a great idea!"


Vin rubbed his hands over his face as he sat down on the plush seat of the public bench, "Why did I end up here?"

Turns out, Irina's 'great idea' was a group trip to the local shopping mall, for, what else, but clothes. Vin grimaced as various unpleasant memories of being dragged out to clothing stores by his mother and sister resurfaced in his mind. Although he could distinctly recall the brutal boredom and uneasiness he'd felt back then, he could also feel a smaller part of him aching for those moments back.

Ok, they were in public, so back in the mental box that went.

Vin was half-tempted to wander off, his friends scurrying and making excited chatter with themselves in the clothing store that Vin sat across from. Through the large entranceway, Vin could make out Irina and Vanessa each carrying large stacks of clothes in their hands, Ezekiel in the back looking very out of place, yet looking at a large black coat that seemed identical to the one that he wore. Ethan was looking down, his phone in his hands, as he absent-mindedly followed Jafar around the store, the larger man making sure to gently prod or pull Ethan out of the way of other patrons who he would have collided with otherwise.

Before he could get up to leave the store, another person sat down beside Vin. Even without turning his head, Vin could easily make out the piercing blue in the corner of his vision. Turning to face his companion, Vin saw that Xenovia had actually decided to forgo wearing her training clothes, or a simple set of sweats, in favor of a simple white t-shirt and a pair of grey shorts, a half-opened black hoodie worn over it all. Now, Xenovia traditionally exuded an aura of unparalleled confidence in the face of any adversity… But now? Well, she looked oddly unsure of herself, her frame betraying a level of unease that Vin hadn't expected to see in the blue-haired swordswoman.

"...This your first time clothes shopping?" Vin asked offhandedly, mostly to start conversation.

Unexpectedly, she actually nodded, "Yes… The church usually provides everything we need. So why did I come here? Irina is more crafty than I give her credit for…"

"You're right about that," Vin agreed, "This is the first time I've seen you wear something that isn't some kind of uniform or training clothes."

"Ah, yes, some of our comrades can be very persistent."

"Irina?"

"Irina," Xenovia nodded, the two seemingly in understanding of the joint hell that faced them.

"Oh! There you are Xenovia! I thought you ditched us!" Irina popped her head out of the store, inadvertently tripping the security gate thanks to the bundle of unbought clothes in her hands.

Even as the store employees swarmed to the entrance, Irina was undeterred, walking straight out of the store, despite their protests, grabbing Xenovia, and pulling her back inside the store. Vin facepalmed.

"C'mon Xenovia, me and Vanessa found so many cute things we'd like to see you try!"

Xenovia flushed pink, her damn professional pride breaking down by the second, "L-Like hell, I'm going to try anything on! You already dragged me out here instead of letting me train!"

Irina pouted, "Xenovia… You have nothing in your wardrobe. I even had to loan you clothes for this trip out. You're trying clothes on."

"No!" Xenovia protested, yet despite the very real fact that Xenovia could easily rip herself out of Irina's grip, probably taking an arm with her, Irina still managed to drag the squirming teenager deeper and deeper into the store.

Vin stared on in barley masked shock, a small dusting of pink on his cheeks. That had been the first time he'd ever seen Xenovia flustered before, and he could only describe it in one simple word: cute.

But before Vin could calm himself down properly, a hand came to rest on his shoulder, causing the boy to jolt up in shock, only to find that, of course, it was Vanessa who was standing behind him.

"You have to stop doing that."

Vanessa looked indignant, "And sacrifice my gimmick? Never. Now c'mon macho-man, we got a changing room and a stack of clothes with your name on it!"

Having these experiences already under his belt, Vin knew that resistance was a hopeless endeavor, so with a sigh, he stuffed his hands into his hoodie's pockets, and followed Vanessa into the store.

Past the shelves they went. As they progressed further back, Vin could see the bobbing heads of Irina and Xenovia as they also walked their own path to the changing rooms at the back of the store.

Eventually, Vanessa urged Vin into one of the stalls, where he was greeted by…

Vin gulped. Yikes, that was a lot of clothes.

Guess he had to get it over with.

Slowly and carefully, Vin stripped off his hoodie and sweats, grabbing the first of many small piles of clothing which made up little outfits. Holding it up to eye level, Vin unfolded the shirt, gazing at the dark fabric. Honestly, he expected worse. Sliding the clothing on without too much of a thought, Vin pulled back the curtain screen, as he stepped out.

Instantly, he was met by a small crowd, with Irina, Vanessa and Ezekiel sitting on the bench out front of the changing rooms. As he emerged, Vin could feel the three's gazes roving over his clothes, a simple black long-sleeve shirt with some sort of stylized pearlescent graphic, and a pair of distressed bleached jeans. Vin gazed down at the graphic shirt, and then back up to Vanessa, who was grinning while she wiggled her fingers, making obvious reference to his Sacred Gear.

"The pearl's a little on the nose," Vin deadpanned.

Vanessa's smile fell slightly, but ultimately waved it off, "Yeah, yeah. You look good in it though."

Still unused to the free-flow of compliments, Vin blushed, "A-Ah, thanks."

"Vanessa's right, Vinny, you look good," Irina nodded, before turning to the stall next to Vin's, "Xenovia, are you coming out?"

"Y-Yes," Came Xenovia's reply from behind the curtain, before it was yanked open, and the bluenette stepped out.

Vin's breath caught in his throat as Xenovia moved into his view wearing an outfit that looked way too good on her body. Despite the fact that it was a simple and pretty non-revealing green halter top, and a pair of rolled-up jean shorts; it hugged Xenovia's every curve in a way that set Vin's brain on fire. The exposed, rugged midriff of rock-hard muscle had his mouth watering like a man in the desert. Perhaps it was due to being thrust into a new and unexpected environment, but Xenovia had long-since lost her stoic edge, and now stood there, a slightly embarrassed blush on her face that Vin was fairly sure could give him a sugar high.

For the sake of maintaining his composure, Vin took one last mental snapshot, before darting back into his change room, drawing the curtain closed before he could meet his comrade's eyes. Crashing down onto a free spot on the bench, Vin covered his burning face into his palms.

Why was this happening? He wasn't stupid, he knew what all of these reactions meant. He was in love... No, more accurately, he had a crush. A bad crush; and he actually had no idea precisely why. I mean, he kind of knew, his mind flashing back to the image of a blood-stained Xenovia standing over his weakened body, her face showing so much emotion, for him.

Yeah, safe to say that it left an impression on him, but still, for the life of him, Vin had no idea why the feeling was so strong. It wasn't like he knew Xenovia super well. For crying out loud, he'd only learned her favorite color two weeks ago. There was no denying that Xenovia was incredibly beautiful, elegant, and captivating in an intimidating way; but still, none of that should have translated into such… intense feelings before.

Maybe it was just puberty. Yeah, that was probably it: super crazy puberty which was making up for it's relative lack of presence on a sexual front for the last few years in a big way. Yep, that was the hypothesis that Vin was going to run with.

Giving his face a light clap with his hands in order to shake himself out of his stupor, Vin peeled the clothes off his body, before grabbing the next stack of clothes. It was… a swimsuit. Sighing, Vin yanked back on the jeans wrapped around his ankles, and walked out of the stall.

"Vanessa, why are there swim trunks in these clothes? It's October," Vin asked, pointedly ignoring Irina covering her own eyes, and the sharp wolf-whistle that Vanessa gave off upon seeing Vin's exposed, slightly scarred torso.

"We have a pool in the dorms," Vanessa shrugged.

"But how did you know that I didn't have swim shorts?"

"Same reason why I know that you only have band shirts. I checked your closet," Vanessa declared in a way that was decidedly too proud for someone admitting to rifling through someone else's clothes.

Vin pinched his nose with his free hand, muttering, "Of course you fuckin' did."

Vanessa made shooing motions with her hands, "Now, go try on the trunks for me. I wanna see if I got the size right."

"I'm afraid to ask how you have my clothing sizes," Vin grumbled, as he marched back into the change room.

"Oh, I stole one of your shirts," Vanessa answered.

"I knew I didn't misplace my Iron Maiden shirt!"

"Just put the trunks on, Vin."

"Fine, fine…"


The long process of buying clothes continued on for another hour or so, from one store to another, the group managed to scoop up a sizable amount of clothes, games, and other items. Finally, they decided to make a final stop at the second floor food court to eat some food.

Overall, the group had a fun time. Despite Vin not being too keen on clothes shopping, he still couldn't deny that it was fun to hang out with friends, and although he would never admit it based on principle, Vanessa had a good sense of style, and he'd ended up buying most of the stuff that she recommended.

By the time they were nearly done, even Xenovia came out of her shell more, and actually started to actively give opinions on the clothes that Irina was finding, and by the end, she was walking around with four nice stuffed bags of new clothes; something definitely nice to see.

Yep, there was nothing quite like this. A quiet, uninterrupted peace to unwind to…

*Blam* *Blam*

Oh you had to be fucking kidding…

The sounds of gunshots silenced the chatter along the food court, as all eyes turned to the far end, where ten people wearing ski masks, armed with a variety of firearms stood. Three security guards on the ground; two of them conscious, alive, breathing. One was face down, a pool of blood oozing out from under him.

Vin sucked in a breath at the sight. The man was dead. Around him, his comrades tensed up, prepared for combat at any moment, but the tense situation left them unable to act. All of them knew it, this wasn't a properly administered mission against an inhuman enemy, this was a hostage situation, and judging by the fact that one guard had been shot dead, this situation was a volatile one.

The crackle of a megaphone filled the air, as one of the men passed the megaphone to a man in a distinct skull-themed ski mask. The leader, most likely.

"Greetings citizens. I'll be blunt, this is a hostile takeover," 'Skull-Mask' declared, "Right now, you are all our hostages, make one move, and you'll end up like this."

Skull-Mask made a motion with his hand, and another shot rang out, as another goon shot one of the two remaining security guards, the body falling against the floor with a splat. Vin felt a distinct helplessness and fear rise within him, until he realized something.

He could fight back. Hell, they all could. The problem was simply managing to take them all down without getting anyone else killed. Vin looked at his friends, locking eyes with them, as they all reflected the same idea.

Only problem was, aside from Vin, everyone else was completely unarmed. Not a great situation when you're in a gunfight. Underneath her breath, Xenovia whispered, her eyes locked to Vin's.

"If you can get me in close enough, I have a holy sword I can use."

What? But Excalibur Destruction was sealed in the vault at the Vatican…

"I think I can make a barrier to protect everyone here," Vin whispered back; although his whispering voice was unfortunately too loud, as a gunshot rang out in the air, and Skull Mask leveled his rifle in Vin's direction.

"You there, you little fucker! When we tell you to shut up, we mean it!" Skull-Mask spat, "Come on up here, huh? You got something to tell to the whole fucking class?!"

Well, that certainly helps things out... Just doesn't get rid of how scary walking towards a group of unhinged gunmen is.

Slowly, Vin stood up, his limbs shaking as he slowly paced his way up to the front of the food court. He could smell the metallic tang of blood and lead in the air, which spurred the bile in the back of his throat. Eventually, he reached the front of the room, as he turned his back to the gunmen, distinctly feeling the invasive presence of a rifle's muzzle press up against his lower back.

"Now speak, you little cocksucker, or forever hold your peace," Skull-Mask hissed, his breath smelling of old cigarettes, a hazy, disgusting smell that soiled the air around it.

Vin raised his hands slowly, choosing to embrace his little shred of fear to sell a convincing performance while his analytical brain raced to formulate a plan of attack, "I understand sir, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Skull-Mask gave a heartless chuckle, "Yeah, that's what I thought... But it's time for you to die, you little sissy bitch."

Vin threw a glare over his shoulder; now or never, "Then I'll see you in hell."

Recalling his training, Vin instantly pivoted; both his arms swinging out in a pirouette as Midas' Rings materialized on command. Instantly, the room was flooded with quartz, one hand swinging to materialize a veritable tsunami of crystals to block the entire crowd, while the other summoned a spike that burst out of the ground, piercing right through the rifle that Skull-Mask was carrying.

Already, the other members of Skull-Mask's little militia trained their guns on Vin and began to fire a flurry of bullets towards him. Not losing focus for a second, Vin swept a hand up, summoning a wall to protect himself.

For a brief moment, Vin was scared that his brittle crystal wall wouldn't hold under the pressure of gunfire, but then he realized something.

If magic swords and giant monsters that could crush steel were only able to shatter his crystals with a decent amount of effort, well…

These thugs may as well have been carrying Nerf guns.

Vin looked up, as he heard a voice coming from above, as a recognizable head of blue hair arced through the air, yelling something that Vin couldn't make out over the sounds of gunfire.

"...I hereby set you free!" Xenovia cried out, as she swung out a massive blue and golden sword that must have been the size of her entire body.

Xenovia touched down right next to Vin, barely sparing him a glance, "Get the last guard to safety. And look out… I can't control this very well."

As soon as she finished speaking, Xenovia shot off like a rocket, her sword dragging along the ground behind her, kicking up sparks as it dug a noticeable trench in the marble tiles that lined the floor. Swinging up in an arc, with a shout of rage, Xenovia sliced straight through one of the goon's arms, before delivering a kick to his head that sent him flying off his feet, knocking him back so far, he tumbled over the railing, sending him careening down to the first floor.

After seeing the brutal display, Vin decided to stop asking questions, and start dashing for the last guard. Everyone seemed to be distracted by the teenage girl with the massive sword, so Vin was able to get to the final guard without much resistance.

"Hey," Vin grabbed the last security guard, "We're going to get you out of here safe, okay?"

The guard looked… Well, justifiably terrified, his eyes darting from the crystal wall, to Vin, to Xenovia who just swept out the legs of one of the goons, before stabbing the grunt through the stomach, lifting the sword up, the terrorist still impaled, as she used his body like a crude meat shield to block a volley of gunfire.

"Who… Who the hell are you guys?"

Vin gave him a close-eyed smile, "Well… I guess we're your guardian angels. Can I have your name?"

"Uh… Marcus Troy…"

Remember that, future Vin. He'd...probably need to get his mind wiped.

"Alright, Marcus. If you could just follow me, I'll get you out of range of our little battle. Head in, and if you see a group of teenagers trying to get you guys to group together or something, listen to them, alright?"

Vin picked up Marcus, and helped the man limp over to the far right side of the crystal wall. Seeing no entrance, Vin knocked against the crystal, before cocking back, and throwing a punch at the section of quartz, shattering it into shards of light effortlessly. Quickly resealing the whole, Vin turned back to the fight at hand, right as a bullet whizzed right past his ear, giving him a haircut.

"Ha!" One grunt had a pistol levelled at Vin. Overconfident.

Vin couldn't fight monsters or his allies, sure. But normal-ass people?

They never stood a fucking chance.

With a flick of his wrist, Vin summoned a spire of crystals that jackhammered the taunting grunt in the stomach, winding him, even through the heavy-duty padding they wore. They flew up into the air, just as Xenovia had leapt above them, delivering a devastating axe kick to the guard's head, firmly planting him in the category of 'concussed and unconscious'.

Vin looked over the field, grunts scattered, dead or unconscious littering the floor. Severed limbs, firearms and more littered the field. Suddenly, Vin was thankful that he managed to summon a wall before Xenovia summoned her weird uncontrollable magic sword; children definitely didn't need to see the slaughter in front of them.

And there, in the middle of the carnage, stood Xenovia. Her clothes stained with splatters of dark red, breathing out panting breaths as her hand had such a tight grip on her sword that her knuckles were turning white.

"Hey, Xenovia… Are you alright?" Vin asked as he approached her.

Xenovia remained silent, her breathing beginning to come out as hisses.

"I need you to help me," Xenovia gasped out, breathlessly; her entire body shaking, "Hold me. Hands on my wrists, now."

"Um, okay…" Vin followed through with her instructions, pressing his chest against her back, as he reached out, and wrapped his hands around Xenovia's slim but sturdy wrists, a firm hold on each hand.

"Huhhhhh," Xenovia closed her eyes, grunting in effort as she, and by extension, Vin lifted up their right arms, a small gap opening in thin air. In a flash, numerous celestial chains burst forth from the wormhole, ensnaring the blade, as the ornate sword slowly sunk into the portal, until finally, it left Xenovia's hand, and slipped through completely, the portal sealing itself as it finished swallowing up the weapon.

Vin let out a sigh, as he felt Xenovia's body slowly stop it's tremors.

"Well, that was certainly something."

"...You can stop holding me now," Xenovia bluntly responded.

Vin, suddenly remembering his position, practically leapt off of Xenovia, his face ablaze.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Vin stammered, thoroughly flustered.

"It's alright," Xenovia walked up to Vin, leaning in so close that she was only an inch away from his blushing face, her own features reflecting… apprehension?

"Thank you for that," Xenovia whispered, "It...It meant a lot."

"T-That's alright- I mean, that's ok- I mean, you're welcome!" Vin stumbled.

Xenovia gave a fond smile, reaching up and giving Vin a little pat on the cheek with her hand, before turning on her heel, and beginning to walk towards the massive crystal wall.

"Do you think that the others have already called Griselda?"

Wait, what?! What the hell was that?

Vin gulped, he couldn't get back to his cup of water fast enough.

After another ten minutes of waiting, the church had finally arrived at the mall's food court, all the witnesses had had their memories wiped, and sent on their way by numerous church officials, all while a janitorial team from the church closed the mall due to 'vandalism problems'.

As numerous workers went around to collect weapons, shrapnel, and bodies, while others went about cleaning up the bloodstains, cuts, craters and any other signs of battle. Honestly, Vin was sort of captivated by the process, watching it as he pulled the blanket he received from one of the staff over his shoulders more, savoring his comfortable warmth. He sat up on one of the food court tables, Xenovia sitting beside him, sipping on her smoothie, while the others sat at a table farther away, chattering amongst themselves about some vapid topic.

Still, when he wasn't prepared for it was the very strange silver and black haired girl who had arrived with the first wave of officials. He'd heard his friends refer to her as Lint; an odd name for sure, but he wasn't one for too much judgement.

"Wowie," Lint let out a low whistle, "You really did a number on this place, huh?"

At least Xenovia had the forethought to look bashful in the face of her superior's teasing, "I apologize, given my current level of control over Durandal, this was the best I could do to mitigate the damage."

Durandal? Vin connected the dots… Oh, her crazy sword. So it's called Durandal, huh?

Lint patted Xenovia on the shoulder, "Hey, it's all cool, alright? I know how much you've been struggling with mastering that thing, but on a brighter note, I think your control has noticeably improved!"

Vin shuddered at the idea; there were a lot of words he could've used to describe the fight earlier, and 'controlled' was most certainly not one of them.

Daring to voice his concerns, Vin spoke up, "Erm… If that was Xenovia using Durandal with control, then what would happen if she wasn't?"

Lint tilted her head cutely, "I don't know, we probably wouldn't have a second floor to stand on right now… Maybe the entire mall would be destroyed."

"Durandal is an extremely powerful holy sword, one of the strongest, in fact," Xenovia elaborated with a nod, before it switched into a slight grimace, "That comes at the cost of being extraordinary fickle. It doesn't choose it's wielders lightly, and it can be a bit… overzealous at times."

"It can be overzealous?" Vin asked in disbelief, "The sword's alive?"

Xenovia shook her head, "No, it's more accurate to say that it simply responds to power, and nothing else. There's no soul inside the blade, just a cataclysmic amount of power that can be a bit of a struggle to control at times."

"So, all this extra training you do-"

"Is to ultimately master control of Durandal as it's new wielder? Yes," Xenovia confirmed, "Yet despite training for years, I've only managed to barely control it, and that's in the best of conditions."

Xenovia looked down to her right hand, as she slowly clenched it into a fist, "It's not so much that I can control Durandal properly yet; I can only slightly steer the direction that it's power unleashes in. So, I suppose that I still have much to learn in regards to actually wielding it."

"And you'll get better at it with time," A familiar voice called out, as Vin and Xenovia looked up to see Griselda walking over to them, flanked by two church officials, who quickly broke off from her to assist their fellow men and women in the restoration efforts.

"G-Griselda!" Xenovia hopped off the table, and bowed her head at her guardian and mentor, "I apologize for recklessly using Durandal, even after explicitly being instructed not to. It was a decision made on impulse; so I understand your anger, and will accept any punishment you see fit."

"Punishment? Dear, you seem to be confused," Griselda reached out, and lifted Xenovia's chin until the two locked eyes, "I'm not angry at you, Xenovia. You were faced with a hostile situation, and you made the correct judgement call to defend innocent people. It may have been a risk, but you managed to showcase a level of control appropriate for the circumstances, and the end result was that there were only two innocent casualties, as opposed to well over a hundred."

"You made the right call, and for that, I'm proud of you," Griselda smiled.

Now, from where he sat, Vin wasn't sure, but the slight tremble in Xenovia's shoulders almost made it seem like… she was crying.

Griselda continued to pat Xenovia on the head for a few moments, before the bluenette wiped her eyes, whispered her thanks to her mentor, and turned around, the same stoic Xenovia as ever, just this time, there was a glimmer of even more light behind her eyes. It… It was a welcome thing to see, honestly.

"Now Vin," Griselda's gaze shifted to the teenage boy, her tone flat, unimpressed. Oh, he fucked up didn't he.

"I believe you were under specific orders to not engage in any physically strenuous activities for at least another week, correct?"

Vin lowered his head in defeat, "...Correct."

"And what did you decide to go and do?"

"...Perform a physically strenuous task," Vin sighed, "But Griselda, I'm fine. And it was important that I did so! Me and Xenovia were the only two people in that food court with any weapons. I didn't engage with the enemy directly, I put up a barrier to separate the danger from the innocents, and then moved to protect myself while I left the fighting to Xenovia."

Griselda simply kept her arms crossed, looking down on Vin as he hopped off the table.

"Look, I'd understand if this was another stray devil or something, but these guys were regular flesh-and-blood humans. Their only weapons were guns that didn't even scratch my crystals; so while you may think that I made the wrong choice here, I refuse to agree. What I did was the most logical thing I could have done in that situation, all while factoring in the tools I had available to me, and my current condition," Vin glanced over at two workers in the distance, lowering the corpse of the security guard they were never able to save into a body bag, "I'll accept any punishment you might give me, because I know for a fact that it would've felt worse to see more innocent people being packed into body bags!"

Vin huffed, his chest heaving from his little monologue. He didn't understand why he felt so strongly about this… Well, he sort of did, seeing someone you knew you could have saved die right before your eyes will do that to you; but his rational side still argued that there was no reason for him to get so incredibly worked up over it. He couldn't have made it in time regardless. He was fast, but not faster than a bullet. If he had acted then, all he would have accomplished was getting more people shot.

Still, the memory of the two security guard's corpses made his blood boil in frustration and anger in a way that nothing had quite ever before. It was frankly unnerving. But ultimately, Vin took a few deep breaths, and the red tint that had begun to seep into his vision receded, bringing proper color back to his world.

Lint, who had remained silent behind Griselda the entire time looked… impressed, actually. Her eyes roving up and down his figure, before a grin split across her face.

"He's got balls talking back to you like that, Griselda," Lint jabbed a thumb in Vin's direction, "I like him."

"I'm not angry at you Vin, I was more so worried about you," Griselda stepped forward, "I… I made a mistake sending you into a mission when you truly weren't ready; I was all too focused on getting you acclimated to the way that things work for us exorcists, that I didn't even stop to think about all the details. I want you to know that I regard every scar left by that thing on your body as a result of my personal failure, not yours."

"You made the right call, and it's that self-sacrificing nature that makes a true hero," Griselda continued, "Not by making a foolish martyr, but by being conscious and considerate of their own limitations, and acting in spite of that. You may not have been able to take down a stray devil, but this event proves that you're just as much an exorcist as the rest of your peers. So, from the bottom of my heart, and the hearts of every innocent man, woman and child in this food court today: thank you, Vin. That fact that you made it out without another injury makes me so relieved and proud at the same time."

…That...That was possibly the most emotion that Vin had ever seen the stoic Griselda to ever express, and if the reactions of Lint and Xenovia were anything to go by, that was the same for them. There was something so… warm and motherly about Griselda, and a piece of Vin's heart ached in a way that rang throughout his entire being.

If Griselda was going to abandon her professional demeanor at that moment… Well, perhaps Vin could afford to let himself embrace this feeling inside of him. Throwing caution to the wind, Vin shut off his rational, scared and lonely brain, and threw his arms around Griselda, hugging the woman tightly, as her own hands came to pat his shoulders and the back of his head.

With his chin tucked over her shoulder, near the crook of her neck; the feeling of warmth and safety washing over him like a soft glow of a fire, Vin could feel the formerly ugly feeling within him blossom into a bittersweet ether. As he smelt the soft, faint scent of lavender in Griselda's hair, and acknowledged the strong, muscled, and protective arms wrapped around him, Vin realized something, from the bottom of his heart and soul, he missed this feeling, he missed it so badly.

It was like the embrace of his mother.

Unable to avoid it any longer, Vin turned his head down, and began to silently weep into his mentor's shoulder. Her hands refusing to let him go, coaxing him through warm, soft pats to simply let everything out. Their hug continued for an amount of time that Vin wasn't exactly sure of, but it probably couldn't have been more than a minute.

Letting go of the hug, Vin felt more refreshed than ever. Turning around, he found his friends waiting right behind him.

"Alright, I see you're all here," Griselda spoke, her professionalism retaking her, "Lint, can I leave this to you, while I take these one's home? It's been a long day for them."

Lint struck a salute, "Aye-aye, you got it."

"Thank you," Griselda nodded, before turning back to the group, "Come now, we've organized a transport to get you all back to the dorms."

There were no cries of resistance uttered from anyone on the team, as they all picked up their bags, and followed Griselda, beginning their trek to their ride home, all of them plenty full of the mall for one day.


It had been early nighttime by the time they arrived back home in their underground dorms, everyone trotting off to their rooms in order to put away their new stashes of items. As for Vin, he was no different, yet as he began to put away his new clothes, a strange sensation began to overtake him.

As he rummaged through his wardrobe, he couldn't stop his eyes from roving down to the box that housed his old family's photos. A source of tears and heart-wrenching pain for him, and yet, he still felt such a strong compulsion towards them in that very moment.

Initially choosing to ignore it, Vin continued to put away his clothes, until at long last, the feeling reached such a peak where it was impossible to properly ignore it.

Hands shaky with anxiety and trepidation, Vin slid the box out, running his hands over it's lid, before cracking it open, and drawing a random frame from the stack. Eye's closed, in fear that whatever he saw was going to inspire another host of negative emotions.

When he finally opened his eyes however, he wasn't met with the same suffocating feeling he felt when initially arriving at the dorms, but rather, he was overcome with a sense of fond nostalgia. Sure, there still was pain that stirred deep in his chest at the sight of his old family, but it was heavily outweighed by Vin's acceptance of what happened. Guess hanging out with Jafar caused some of his accepting, serene nature to rub off on Vin, that, or he really just needed that hug. Probably both.

Vin gave a small smile at the framed photo, before walking over to his desk, and neatly propping the small framed photo up against the back wall, as he gazed down at the photo with a sad, nostalgic smile on his face.


Hey, I'm back!

First off, HOLY SHIT, WE'VE HIT ALMOST 6,000 VIEWS! You guys are fucking incredible. Thanks for every drop of support you all show, it never fails to bewilder me.

I've been pretty busy as of late with a whole tidal wave of university work, including a number of essays, which has kind of left me with very little time to write. But ultimately, I was able to get this one out in line with the other chapters, but I… really don't expect that to last for very long. Truth is, I'm running out of time to write, especially with my classes in their last month before the winter break. Still, I'll try posting when I can, but just expect the updates to slow down a little. Following or favoriting should help work around that problem for you guys, since you'll know exactly when I update.

Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest real quick before we delve into the chapter notes. Now, let's go over the notable details in this chapter. I'm going to try a slightly different format for the notes, just so it doesn't seem as dense and wordy to read.

Chapter Notes/Details:

[Mall Shopping]

First of all, yep, we got another slice of life chapter! What can I say, I'm a little bit of a sucker for writing chapters like this. I genuinely enjoy taking a small cast of characters, placing them in a mudande and sometimes arbitrary setting, and seeing how they would act around it. In this case, clothes shopping at the mall, because let's be real here, I don't think that any of the DxD girls have more than four outfits, and one of those is either the Kyoh Academy school uniform, or a battle costume. And hell, sometimes both… I feel so bad for Xenovia and Irina...

So yeah, I wanted to both give an excuse for some new clothing for the girls, and also, it makes for a very fun setting. I got to draw upon the years upon years of childhood trauma (for legal reasons, that's a joke guys) from sitting on a mall bench out front of a women's clothing store as my mom took forever trying stuff on. I know that some of you may relate a lot to that as well, so hey, these chapters for you guys out there.

Also, a slightly unrelated fun fact, but the layout for the mall I used in my head while writing this chapter was based on a combination of two malls in my area that I go to every once in a while. You probably wouldn't be able to understand that from reading the chapter, but it certainly helped when coming up with the setting while writing.

["It's a little on the nose…"]

It's a throwaway gag line that I included. The whole point of the joke was that the pearlescent decals on the shirt that Vanessa picked for Vin was an obvious reference to the color of his crystals. The little action that Vanessa does with her fingers during that moment is meant to be a not-so-subtle signal that it was about the rings. Maybe some of you got it, or you didn't. Either way, now you know, and the joke has been officially ruined.

[The Goon Squad]

The group of armed terrorists, who I affectionately refer to as the 'Goon Squad': a term that I've been using to describe teams of incompetent bad guys long before Space Jam 2 stole it. These guys are as basic as they come for villains, and that's sort of the point. They may seem nonsensical, I mean, they have no actual motivation, but hey, that doesn't really matter, because I just wanted an excuse to have a little bit of an action scene to break up the tone set by the last chapter and the beginning of this one.

They're weak by design, and part of their whole reason for existence is to also showcase that yes, Vin has seen improvement. It may not seem that way because of the sheer power level of his other opponents, but he's pretty much strong enough to beat a full-grown man easily. Combine that with his Sacred Gear, and even without Xenovia's interference, Vin could've likely beaten the entire group on his own. It would have just taken much longer, and maybe the security guard wouldn't have made it out alive.

When up against untrained human opponents like these guys, Vin definitely has the upper hand. If the bottom of the barrel is an unarmed teenager, then the goons would go above them, and just above the goons would be Vin. So… yeah, there's a little power scaling for you guys.

[The Introduction of Durandal]

Alright, here's the big event of this chapter, the introduction of Xenovia's trademark weapon, Durandal. It's described in DxD canon as being super fickle with it's wielders, and that even Xenovia has a hard time controlling it, hence it's pocket dimension. Still, despite that throwaway line in the original series, we don't really see Xenovia truly struggle with the influence Durandal gives off.

In this fanfiction, that's going to be explored more. As Xenovia puts it in this chapter, even after training for years to use Durandal, the best she can really do right now is roughly direct its destruction. Simply put, she's not necessarily wielding Durandal right now, Durnadal is wielding her; so one of the main focuses of this arc in terms of Xenovia's character progression is going to be her struggling with learning to wield Durandal with a greater amount of finesse. Here, we simply see what happens when she directs that burst of power towards her enemies, she goes berserk, barely in control, so much so that she needs to get Vin to evacuate the security guard, because she doesn't know if she could accidentally kill him. It's brutal and a little scary to think about, but still cool nonetheless.

Alrighty, that concludes the chapter's notes and details, so it's time to move onto the Review Roundup! Little bit of a smaller pool of comments today, but that's okay, let's check 'em out!

REVIEW ROUNDUP!

soSentinel says:

"Hey man love the story so far and I'm looking forward to what you end up doing with vin sacred gear cause there are some really cool things you could do with the balance breaker especially because it's a creation-type one. P.S. love the way you've done Xenovia cause tbh she's one of my favourite characters in dxd. Btw what your upload schedule gonna be like cause I want more."

I'm super glad you're enjoying the story so far! I've been putting a lot of effort into it, and I would be lying if it wasn't a bit of an emotional outlet for myself too.

Vin's Sacred Gear is super fun to write, and I think you're going to enjoy the ways it evolves and develops over the next while. It's still stuck in its most basic form, similar to Issei at the very beginning of DxD, but rest assured, it will get stronger, and change form. The choice to make it a creation type was something I wanted since I found a lot of the DxD fandom's fan-made Sacred Gears ended up being mostly being State-Change Gears, Attribute/Element Gears, or some bizarre, impossible amalgamation of several different types. Making it Creation type, I understand that some parallels are going to inevitably be made to Sword Birth and Blade Blacksmith, but I want to promote a slightly different style of battle with Midas' Rings. Instead of attacking with the items created by the gear, like how Kiba will wield swords he creates, Vin instead fights using creation of his crystals, by attacking from a variety of ranges with spires and clusters of sharp crystals. There will be some new things that Vin can do with the crystals later, but for now, I still think it's a bit more of an interesting style of battle, considering that Vin's fighting style promotes a style of fighting that hasn't been explored too much in DxD, and that's keeping and maintaining distance and range. It's a slightly more conscious approach to combat that still doesn't lose out on the simple catharsis of seeing someone beat the shit out of the bad guy.

Moving on, I hold a special place in my heart for Xenovia. Best girl by far, mainly because there's a lot of nuance that can be explored in her that leaves her as a compelling character to adapt and expand on. I also like tomboys, so that too. I hope that this interpretation of Xenovia continues to please you and everyone else reading this story!

Finally, in terms of upload schedule, I don't particularly have one. I find those kind of stifle creativity, even though sometimes a deadline is a necessary evil for writing. Right now, I won't properly commit to a schedule, but I generally like to make a new chapter every few days. That said, I am becoming more and more swamped with schoolwork, so writing and updates may slow down. If I had to give you anything, I'd say try checking in every few days, by following and/or favoriting, you can get updates whenever this story gets a new chapter, so that would probably help. Hope that helped, I'm sorry for my generally sporadic update schedule, but it's just what works best for me, both as a writer, and as another human being who does have a life outside of simply writing this story.

Regardless, thanks so much for taking the time to review! I hope that you enjoy this chapter, and I hope that you're having a great day whenever you're reading this!

Crestowl Returns! What will he say?

"New chapter, although it is a bit short! I don't comment on one chapter, turn around, and another one's already there! Some nice character introductions and other tedious plot points, but overall, I'm looking forward to the next few chapters! I hope you have a more natural power progression for Vin compared to other DXD fanfics, but considering the author's self-awareness so far, I don't think that's gonna be a problem."

Well, that's what he says!

Leaving the little 'bit' aside, it's great to see you once again Crestowl. Let's see what you've commented this time around.

Yeah, the last chapter was a bit shorter than the others, but hey, it got what I wanted to convey just fine. My method for determining when to stop a chapter is up to when I think the point of the chapter has been shown; in truth, if there's a chapter where one major thing happens, then there's no need to continue onto a completely unrelated topic in the next chapter. I like to write chapters with a focus on one specific event or 'action beat', what happens in that chapter? How should I convey it? It's these micro-goals I set for myself when writing each chapter, like a little checklist for what should go into the chapter as I write it. The only other thing that determines when a chapter ends is the final line or paragraph. It has to have a snappy, conclusive ending. You can't simply end off a chapter on a line where people will just immediately think 'Wait, that's it?'

Thanks for believing in me and my ability to write Vin in a convincing and interesting way! He's no Superman, that's for sure. I'm also super glad that overall, no one's actually voiced any negative critique of Vin as a character. It kind of proves to me that the DxD fandom does actually have an interest in seeing a character who doesn't immediately grow all-powerful and attractive. It's… nice.

Once again, thank you so much for leaving a review, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter, since it's a little longer, and potentially has a greater balance of character writing and action. Have a great day, Crestowl.


Well, that wraps up another great round of the Review Roundup! I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter, and don't forget to leave a follow, favorite or review (or all of the above) if you enjoyed what you read.

And lastly, reminders that if you want to have your comments, critiques, theories or more about this story answered, to just leave a review on this chapter, and I'll make sure to answer your question at the end of the next chapter!

Have a great day everyone, and rock on!