The Sunday after Asia's rescue found her and Issei walking out of a movie theater, the nun smiling widely after having seen her first ever motion picture, her companion smiling softly at her obvious joy.

For some reason one of the older theatres in the area that tended to show older classics and blockbusters had been showing the Brendan Fraiser version of The Mummy, which Issei thought might be a good choice to introduce Asia to cinema. It had a good mix of action, romance, comedy and horror, with the latter not being too overwhelming. And it seemed that it had been a good choice.

It helped that this would be a good test of the language skill that he had helped provide Asia, seeing as the movie had been in English with Japanese subtitles. She had reported with a smile that she'd understood everything that was being said, and had no problems with reading the subtitles, which Issei had been relieved by. Not that he'd doubted it would work, but it was always best to confirm it with something more dynamic than his manga.

"That was so much fun, Ise-san!" Asia exclaimed with a beaming smile on her face as she looked up at him. "Thank you so much."

"It was nothing, Asia." Issei replied with a gentle smile of his own. "I had fun too, after all. It's been years since I saw that movie."

They walked towards a nearby KFC to get something to eat as they discussed the movie, Issei amused at Asia's awe of the special effects and her question as to whether they'd used magic for it. Considering the effects of the movie were rather dated by now, he wondered how she'd react to something like the Marvel movies.

"Ara ara, this is a surprise." A familiar voice said as they were about to enter the restaurant, prompting them to glance over to see Akeno in a casual dress, a few bags of groceries in her hands. "I wasn't expecting to run into you two today."

"Hello Akeno-san." Asia said happily as she waved. "Ise-san took me to see a movie today!" She said, acting as though he had taken her to visit a tropical paradise or something equally astounding.

Akeno smiled at the girl's enthusiasm. "It seems you had fun. I'm glad." She approached them as they moved away from the restaurant's door in order to avoid blocking the way while they talked. "Are you ready to start school tomorrow?"

Asia nodded rapidly, obviously excited by the prospect. "Oh yes, I can't wait." Then she looked down, suddenly seeming shy and unsure. "I'm worried my new classmates won't like me, though…"

Issei let out an incredulous snort. "Asia, I guarantee that only the very evil or very stupid wouldn't like you instantly."

Akeno smiled in agreement. "I agree. You have nothing to worry about. And even if someone did decide to be mean to you, I'm sure Hyoudou-kun would be more than willing to show them the error of their ways." She said, amused at the sharp grin that statement prompted in the boy in question. "And if you ever need help he can't provide, we devils would be more than happy to give it to you."

Asia smiled gratefully, reassured. "Thank you very much, Akeno-san. I'm happy I met you and the others." She then promptly clasped her hands together and began to pray. "Oh Lord, thank you for sending these friends to guide me in my time of need."

Issei noted that Akeno seemed to be wincing slightly in pain as the nun prayed in front of her, so he decided to distract her with another topic. "Well, if that offer is open to me as well, I do have something I could possibly use Gremory-senpai and Sitri-kaichou's help with."

Akeno looked at him curiously. "Oh? What might that be?"

"I'd rather keep that to myself till we discuss it." Issei replied with a smile. "I will say it will likely be quite profitable for everyone involved. Do you think they would mind meeting with me tomorrow after school in your clubhouse?"

Akeno tilted her head, obviously even more curious now, but she nodded. "I don't see why not. I'll be sure to inform them."

Issei smiled gratefully. "Thanks Himejima-senpai. I appreciate it." Then he turned to Asia. "In any case, I think we should get back to getting something to eat. I'm pretty hungry."

Before Asia could say anything her stomach rumbled, making her blush and Akeno giggle. "Yes, Ise-san." She bowed to the devil. "Have a good day, Akeno-san."

"And you as well." Akeno said with a smile as Issei nodded politely to her before leading the nun into the restaurant, her face turning thoughtful as she watched them leave before she resumed her trek home.

The beginning of school the next day started out normally for the students, none of them expecting anything out of the ordinary to occur that day.

Such notions died a quick, ignominious death when Issei walked through the gates with Asia at his side, the nun looking appropriately cute in the school's uniform. People stopped what they were doing as they caught sight of a new European looking beauty walking alongside the school's most intimidating enigma.

As the stunned silence, which was soon followed by questioning whispers, spread throughout the school yard, Asia found herself moving closer to Issei, taking his hand as she ducked her head shyly at the reaction she was receiving, taking comfort in her protector's presence.

Of course, seeing her actions just drove the rumors and speculation further, and Issei found himself shaking his head at the way the student body responded to this new development.

After dropping Asia off at the Student Council's office and making his way to his classroom, Issei was unsurprised but still exasperated when he was accosted by a hysterical Matsuda and Motohama.

"Is it true!?" Motohama screamed in Issei's face, making him pull back and wince from the sheer volume. At least until Matsuda grabbed him by the lapels of his uniform's coat and shook him.

"Did you really come to school with the cute new student!?" The taller of the two perverts exclaimed just as loudly.

Issei felt his eyebrow twitch before he slowly and deliberately pried his friend's hands off him as he considered how to answer. "Yes I did." He finally said, before making his way to his seat, the other boys following behind him.

"First that gorgeous blue haired girl, then the Two Great Onee-samas, now a foreign beauty that just arrived?" Motohama said, visibly seething.

"What are you doing to manage it, Ise? And why won't you let us know so we can partake of Kuoh's bounty as well?" Matsuda asked, now obviously begging for the way to get in a girl's panties.

Issei sighed. "Maybe I was just myself?"

The two just stared at him blankly before Motohama responded. "No, seriously, how are you doing it?"

Issei felt his eyebrow twitch once again, but before he could respond Ochu-sensei, their homeroom teacher, walked into the room. "Alright everyone, settle down." She said, giving the still standing perverts a look that prompted them to slink to their seats. Once she was satisfied that she had her class' attention she began to speak. "Now, as the rumor mill has no doubt informed you, we have a new student." She turned to the door with a smile. "Please come in."

Asia walked into the room, the hands clasped in front of her the only sign of her nervousness as she gave all her new classmates a beaming smile and bowed deeply. "Hello everyone, my name is Asia Argento, I mean, Argento Asia. I hope we can all be friends."

Issei smiled as he could see that all of his classmates were completely enamoured with the girl just from that brief introduction. Of course, he had to roll his eyes when the first question she was asked was "Why did you come to school with Hyoudou?"

Asia tilted her head, confused by the way everyone seemed to intently focus on her response to the question, and blinked guilelessly as she responded. "I'm living with Ise-san, so he walked me to school."

There was a beat of silence as everyone just stared at her in shock, making Asia even more confused, before the classroom erupted.

"WHAT!?"

As the school day ended and the students headed either home or to their club activities, Issei let out an irritated breath as he made his way to the Occult Research Club's base of operations with Asia once more at his side.

The revelation that the blonde nun was living with him had caused a bit of an uproar, with the girls of the class trying to make sure nothing untoward had happened to Asia, the boys caught between disbelief and jealousy, and Matsuda and Motohama both going back into hysterics over Issei's 'betrayal'. Even Ochu-sensei had been shocked enough to allow the chaos to go on for a couple of minutes before she managed to re-establish order.

Of course, that hadn't kept Issei from being accosted during lunchtime, to the point he'd had to glare his assailants down till they were too cowed to annoy him further.

It hadn't kept all kinds of rumors from circulating about him, however.

If there was an upside it was that Asia had made some fast friends among the girls in the class, particularly Aika, much to many people's surprise. The female pervert had happily taken Asia under her wing. He could only hope she wouldn't corrupt the girl's innocent mind too badly.

"I'm sorry, Ise-san…" Asia finally said as they walked into the wooded area that held the ORC building. "I didn't mean for my presence to cause people to bother you…"

Issei let out a small sigh before smiling and patting the girl's head gently. "It's not your fault, Asia. I just don't have the best reputation in this school, so it's not too surprising."

Asia frowned at that. "But you shouldn't have been treated like that. You're too nice."

Issie's smile grew as they reached their destination and made their way into the building. "Don't worry, Asia. As long as I have you and my other friends, then the words of people who don't actually know me don't matter."

The girl looked up at him with wide, trusting eyes before smiling and nodding in understanding.

A few moments later found the two before the doors to the ORC's office, which Issei proceeded to knock on. After a moment the door opened, Kiba smiling at them in greeting as he allowed the two into the office.

Issei was mildly surprised to find Sona already there. He would have expected to have to wait for her, since she likely had duties as kaichou to see to before she could attend. Seeing as she was there without anybody else from the Student Council being with her, she'd likely delegated those duties so she could be there.

"Hello, Hyoudou-kun." Rias said with a smile as she motioned for him and Asia to have a seat. "Akeno told us that you had something you needed help with that we might find of interest. I admit I'm curious as to what you could need from us."

Issei took a seat across the desk from the two devils and nodded thankfully to Akeno as she began serving tea, Asia making her way over to one of the couches to take a seat next to Koneko, who silently offered the blonde some mochi. "I'd be happy to tell you as soon as Bell arrives." He said as he took a sip of tea.

As if on queue there was a tap on the window which Kiba opened, allowing the high pixie to fly into the room with a moderately beat up leather backpack in hand.

"Hello everybody." Bell said with a smile as she flew over to the desk, setting the backpack in front of Issei before taking a seat beside him, taking the small teacup Akeno offered her with a grateful hum. "I hope everyone's doing well."

"We are, thank you." Sona said as she focused on the bag the small woman had brought in. "I take it that the reason we're here is regarding the contents of that bag, Hyoudou-san?"

Issei nodded as he set his tea aside and grabbed the backpack and began to open it. "Correct." He began taking things out of it, such as various weapons that definitely shouldn't have fit into the bag, including some firearms that had Sona pursing her lips in disapproval, many of them obviously magical or otherwise exotic, then some equally eclectic pieces of armor and protective gear, followed by a large amount of obviously expensive jewelry, quite a bit of it practically glowing with enchantments as well.

"What is all of this, Hyoudou-kun?" Rias asked as she carefully picked up a strange looking handgun unlike anything she'd ever seen before. She was pretty sure it was in no way normal even with her limited knowledge of modern weaponry.

"This is all some of the stuff I collected during my time away." Issei said as he dumped a small mountain of mundane yet immensely valuable cut and uncut jewels, including rather large diamonds. "The things I've got in this bag are things I no longer need or don't have any sentimentality for. So I'm hoping you two could help me sell or trade them." His mouth shifted into a smirk as he began pulling ingots of various metals from the bag, including gold, platinum, and others they didn't recognize right off the bat, and setting them on the desk with heavy thunks. "I'm primarily wanting to purchase some property, though some help investing what doesn't go to that wouldn't go amiss either, if you know anyone good at it that's also trustworthy."

Sona adjusted her glasses as she studied the bounty of items in front of her. "I don't believe Rias or I are exactly qualified to give you an estimate on what this all might be worth, but if you would walk us through the details of each item I think we can give them to someone who can do so and help with any other financial transactions, if you want."

"For a cut of the profits, I assume?" Issei asked with a slightly sardonic smile on his face.

"You did promise some profit in it for our assistance, I believe." Sona said with a small smile on her face as she picked up a notebook and got ready to write.

Issei didn't see any issues with that, so started with the melee weapons, most of which were either mundane if well made or with some interesting elemental enchantments that Sona made a note of. The armor was the same, some of the pieces old enough yet in good enough condition that Rias noted some human museums might be the best buyers.

It was as they came to the firearms that things took a turn. "Wait." Rias said, eyes wide with a bit of disbelief and she gestured to the handgun she'd been studying earlier. "You're saying that this is an energy weapon, a laser pistol, that was made and is powered without magic?"

Issei nodded with a smile on his face as Bell laughed from over where she'd been playing chess with Kiba as Asia and Koneko watched, occasionally chiming in on some item when she felt her boss forgot something. "That's correct. I've since replaced it with a better, more powerful weapon, so I thought that may be of interest."

"That's putting it mildly." Sona murmured as she eyed the innocent looking gun. "I think most mundane governments would give quite a bit for access to this if it's reproducible. Beelzebub-sama would likely be greatly interested as well out of scientific curiosity, if nothing else."

"I assumed so." Issei said with a chuckle. "Well, being Japanese, I would prefer my government get first refusal for it if we end up selling to a mundane nation."

Sona nodded in understanding, making a note of that request. "I don't see why not. Is there anybody you don't want it sold to?"

Issei shrugged. "The usual suspects: China, North Korea, Russia, etc… I don't doubt they'll acquire the information eventually, but I'd prefer that nations whose governments I don't find mostly morally objectionable get a leg up first."

The two Kings nodded before continuing the inventory of the items for sale, both girls quite aware that just what they've seen already likely meant that Issei wouldn't need to work for quite some time.

Going through the jewelry they found most of it had enchantments against various elements or physical damage, with a few of the more interesting types increasing physical and even magical capabilities. Comparable items to what he was showing them went from being somewhat uncommon to being rare and jealously hoarded things. Sona was seriously considering purchasing a ring that doubled the wearer's magical power for herself. That alone was quite a find.

The jewels and gems, on the other hand, were all mundane and varied in worth from slightly expensive to ludicrously valuable, so they left that aside for someone more knowledgeable to look into.

The metals were when the true shock came in.

"Mythril." Rias said flatly as she held up a surprisingly light ingot of silvery metal. "You're telling me this is mythril."

Issei was confused. "Why is that so odd?"

"Because mythril is one of the rarest substances in known creation." Sona explained as she eyed the ingot her friend was holding. "For the longest time it was thought to be a myth even by the supernatural community, and the total amount found so far, in the world, is about the amount in that ingot." Then she turned her gaze to the six identical ingots resting on the desk. "And you have seven of them…"

Issei's eyebrow rose. "I see…" He glanced at the ingots as well. "I'm guessing it's valuable, then?"

Rias let out a breath and set the metal down. "Yes, Hyoudou-kun. Just a single ingot is probably worth as much as the rest of this put together, if not significantly more."

Issei nodded thoughtfully before picking up four of the ingots and setting them back in the backpack. "Alright then, I'll keep these in reserve and we can see about selling those three."

Sona nodded slowly, seeing the wisdom in the choice, Rias doing the same. "Any other bombshells you have for us, Hyoudou-san?"

Issei hesitated for a moment before picking up an ingot of a reddish metal neither girl recognized offhand. "...Orichalcum?"

Rias and Sona stared for a moment before the redhead let out an explosive sigh and Sona pinched the bridge of her nose to keep a headache at bay as Bell began to laugh again.

Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeh.

I am not a fan of this chapter. It's one of several transitory chapters I'll be doing before we get into the Riser arc, but…

Problem is I had ideas for this chapter that I realized, a thousand words in, simply didn't work. I had to delete everything I'd already written and start from scratch. This is basically the best I could pull out of my ass that led to what I wanted.

Still, it's done, and I have plans that stem from the events in this chapter, which I hope are surprising and entertaining, especially to those that read the original version of this story.

Oh, and just to cover my bases, I did look up whether mythril is a thing in either SMT or DxD before I used it as I did, and while it only has a few mentions in SMT (specifically, Persona) I could not find anything about it in DxD. If I'm incorrect then let's just retcon it into what I put in this chapter unless it's an important plot point in a recent LN or something.

Also, for those of you wondering why Issei would sell all that useful gear… Well, what exactly do you generally do with outdated gear and items in SMT, or most RPGs, for that matter? If anything what should be weird is Issei holding on to the lower level stuff as long as he did.

Alright then, I don't think there's anything further to discuss, so I'll go ahead and take this opportunity to give the reminder that you all can have a say in what I write by donating to my Pat A Ron at dotcom /athanmortis. I put a poll up each month for what should be updated next, and each dollar donated equals one vote in the poll. Don't worry if what you voted for doesn't win that month, however. Votes accumulate month after month till that thing eventually wins, at which points that specific story has its votes reset to zero. The current poll will run till November 2nd. Again, that is Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis.

Thanks for reading and sticking with me so far. Till next time!