Koneko's eyes widened in shock from Ira's words. "What-" she began, only to quickly cross her arms to shield from his incoming punch. The blow struck and sent her flying back through several trees to become embedded in a large boulder, her entire body screaming in pain from the strike. She tried to gasp, only to cough up blood.

"You should have been able to handle that," Ira stated calmly as he walked towards her, death in his eyes. "There's power in you greater than almost anyone else on your team. Power you have locked away, sealed away. That is why I am going to kill you." He threw another punch.

Tensing, Koneko just barely managed to pull herself out of the rock in time to avoid being reduced to paste by the blow. Even so, the boulder burst into fine powder from the force, and the shockwave shredded most of her clothes and ripped into the skin of her arm, sending rivers of blood down to her fingers. "I won't use that power!" Koneko managed to gasp out. "I won't-" She tried to throw a punch of her own with her uninjured arm.

Ira caught her fist between two fingers. "And that is why I will kill you," he stated simply before tossing her at the broken trees. She let out a gasp of pain as part of the broken wood impaled her leg from the force. "Because there is no such thing as power someone has that they won't use. All that means is it will come out when you're pushed beyond your limits, and then it makes you more a danger to ally than enemy." He brought his hands together in a solid clap, sending a wave of compressed air to slam into Koneko's body, shattering the wood her leg was impaled on and sending her tumbling.

Koneko desperately struggled to her hands and feet, barely able to support herself. "W...what?" she gasped out, confused.

"Whether because you have reached the limit of punishment you can take, or because one you care for is hurt to the point you lose your mind, sealed power will escape you," Ira stated calmly as he walked up to her before casually kicking her across the clearing the one-sided battle had made. "And when it does, you will have no control, and anyone who tries to stop you with power less than yours will be dead, no matter whose side they are on. Friend and foe alike, dead because you would not control your fear until you could not control your rage."

As Koneko braced herself against the tree she landed against, her legs barely holding her up as her back held most of her weight, she stared up at Ira with thoughts racing through her mind. Is...is that what happened to Kuroka? she wondered silently.

"I won't let that happen," Ira stated calmly. "I am the enforcer of Lady Satsuki's discipline, and I will not suffer such a threat to her house to continue to exist." He calmly cracked the knuckles of both hands before drawing one back. "For Lady Satsuki!" His inner energy blazed as his entire body bulked up, and the fist shrieked through the air towards Koneko with the force of a meteor and the implacableness of an iceberg.

Koneko closed her eyes as she felt her death coming. This was better for everyone. This way she wouldn't be a danger to those she cared about. She couldn't hurt Akeno...or Asia...or Gasper...or Kiba...or Ryuko...or Rias-sama...

Rias leaned down towards the small white haired girl. "It's alright now," she said softly. "I'll take care of you from now on."

"You shouldn't," the girl murmured softly. "I'm a monster. I should be killed..."

Rias chuckled softly, her hand gently cupping the girl's cheek. "But you're mine now, Koneko-chan," she whispered softly, her eyes locking onto the girl's. "And I haven't given you permission to die...understand?"

As the memory flashed through her mind, Koneko's eyes snapped open. That was right, she belonged to Rias-sama. Her body, her life, her soul, and all her power...and she did not have permission to die here!

Silver-white fire blazed over her body, instantly healing all her injuries as white-furred cat ears and tail erupted from her head and tailbone respectively. Her arms snapped up, palms out and fingers spread, guiding the fire to form an unbreakable wall, putting all her strength into not letting the incoming blow kill her. The wall of flames that shaped was blinding to look at.

Ira's fist stopped without making contact with the wall of flame or the magic aura surrounding it. He tilted his head calmly, examining what Koneko had shaped. He then lowered his fist. "I do not have to kill you now," he said simply.

Koneko blinked, stunned, as the fire she'd summoned dissipated, only some of it flowing back into her as she had not yet learned how to reabsorb all of what did not get used. "W...what?" she stammered as she slumped down, the adrenaline crash stealing the strength of her healed limbs.

"You have unleashed the power inside of you, and you exerted control," Ira explained calmly. "Therefor, I don't have to kill you."

Koneko blinked in surprise, and then her eyes narrowed angrily. "This was a trick?" she demanded coldly.

"No," Ira replied calmly. "Had you been unable or unwilling to call the power forth or been unable to control it when you did, I would have killed you. You called it forth under control, so you live, and I will teach you to control it better." He crossed his arms as he stared down at her, ignoring the fact that between his blows and her fire she was now completely nude. As a member of Nudist Beach he had fought naked alongside the other members of the Elite Four and others. There was nothing erotic or unnerving about purposeless nudity to him. "Now stand up. Training begins now."

Koneko barely managed to get to her feet, staring up at him in surprise...and awe. "But...but what if I lose control?" she managed to ask. "Become a danger to...our families?"

"Then I will kill you," Ira stated immediately, as though that should have been obvious.

Koneko's eyes widened, quivering as for the first time in a long time she began to feel hope for herself...and a touch of something else. "Promise?" she whispered quietly.

Ira instantly clasped one fist to his chest. "On my honor as a servant of Lady Satsuki, I promise!" he declared fervently, the woods seeming to ring with the force of his oath.

Koneko felt herself starting to tear up as a flush came to her cheeks, staring up at the giant who showed her how to be whole. Lunging forward, she clung tightly to his leg, wrapping her arms around it as much as she could as the tops of her ears barely reached his waist, and whispered, "Thank you, Ira-sempai...nya..."

Ira blinked uncertainly as he looked down at her. "Sempai...nya?" he asked worriedly, suddenly completely out of his depth for the first time in a long time.