Disclaimer: I do not own Highschool DxD or any of the references found in this story, nor am I making any profit from this story. All original Highschool DxD characters and references belong to their rightful owners, I just own the original characters and concepts that I have created myself.

The duration of the Sword Ceremony had mostly ended with a failure for most of the descendants. There were only a handful who have the "potential" to wield the Holy-Class weapons, but that was where it ended.

So in the end, everyone left the auditorium with empty hands and crestfallen expressions. Meanwhile, I walked out while holding five Demon Swords of legend in my hands, not unlike a mother would carry her child, with a giddy smile plastered on my face.

"Man, I can't wait to introduce you all to my friends. They're going to lose it." I told my swords when I arrived in my bedroom. I have no doubt that tomorrow morning, everyone is going to be on my case. There's already been talk of a success among the Institute staff and everyone is placing me one some pedestal that never existed before.

"I also find myself looking forward to meeting these strangers if they are anything like you."

"Oh stop it, you're going to make me blush!" I giggled like a love-struck high school girl.

"Please cease the infernal giggling." another voice spoke up, prompting me to shut my mouth and stare at the sword on the far right. It came as a surprise when I found the sword's appearance to be similar to it's other-world counterpart. A large, two-handed greatsword with a an elongated crossguard and blue gem embedded right in the centre of the hilt and a silver, double-edged blade.

Unlike Gram's soft voice, this voice was filled with authority. "It is unbecoming of my wielder to giggle like an idiot."

"Ah. Sorry about that."

Balmung glowed with what I suspect to be a sigh before the light died out again.

"Come now sister, don't be such a spoil sport. This is the first time in over a century that we've gotten to leave that dusty old room. You should try to... what was it Sigurd always used to say... live a little?"

"I shall 'live a little' once my wielder has shown some maturity." Balmung huffed. "And so far, I have seen nothing to prove that. Siegfried, my Siegfried, was a lot more composed even at this age."

"Wait a minute." I interrupted, "What do you mean Siegfried? I thought that Sigurd and Siegfried were the same person."

I knew that I made a mistake in asking that question. Balmung began glowing erratically in annoyance; not directed at me, but just annoyance in general.

"That's only because some bumbling fool of a playwright decided on it without any proof! Siegfried was far more greater than Sigurd ever was!"

"We both know that isn't true, little sister." Gram scoffed. "Do not forget that Sigurd was just as adept in the mystic arts as he was with the sword."

"And he was nothing compared to Siegfried when it came to swordplay; does that not mean he was just as terrible with his mysticism?"

"Watch yourself sister, lest I show you why I am called the Sword of the Sun."

"Um, can you not fight in my room? I really like this place and it's the closest room I could get to Freed and Lint."

The two swords let out a small grumble as the light began to die down.

Phew, disaster averted.

"So, how about the three of you? Got anything you want to say?" I turned towards the three swords who had decided to remain quiet for most of the conversation.

("I do not have much to say. You have already proven yourself to be better than most of your race, if sister's compliments mean anything.") Tyrfing was the first to speak with a quiet, calm and evidently female voice.

Similarly to Balmung, Tyrfing also has a blue gem embedded in the centre of its hilt, along with the elongated crossguard. However, it also has two blue gems embedded into each end of the crossguard and one more acting as the pommel and the blade is white in colour but slowly shifts to black near the tip, which curves outwards before turning back in.

{"I agree with Tyrfing. You understand us better than most of our past wielders. I would not mind being wielded by a human such as yourself."} Nothung also added her own piece, her deep voice somehow echoing in my head.

Nothung is entirely black in colour, from the bottom to the top, with a silver edge surrounding everything sans the handle, and a white symbol located on the tip of the sword. While it was rather simple in appearance, the first thing that comes into mind whenever I look at Nothung is "Sharp". There was a faint, white aura surrounding it that gave off a surprisingly calm feeling for such a sharp-looking weapon.

["Buddy, I was with you from the moment you took me out that storage room!] Dainsleif laughed with a cheery, female voice. The blade seemed to slightly vibrate as she laughed.

Of the five swords, Dainsleif stood out the most due to its bright appearance. Its grip is a darker colour than the rest of the blade, leading up to a crossguard that is exactly perpendicular to the grip, and a large aquamarine gem at the centre of the guard. The blade itself is a deep aqua colour and the base of the blade has a light-aqua attachment.

Unlike the previous five swords, Dainsleif is constantly releasing a cold aura into the surroundings. If I don't keep the blade sheathed, my bedroom would probably end up frozen.

And while their words were well received, I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at Dainsleif.

["What?]

"Huh... I didn't really expect such a warm reaction from a 'cold' sword. I guess you're pretty 'cool' yourself." I chuckled.

"Oh no."

"Hmm? 'Oh no', what?"

["Oh, I like you, I really like you..."] Dainsleif began chuckling in a rather creepy way. Should I call the police? Is there even such a thing as the Sword-Police?

"I didn't think she could get any worse..." "No! Not another one!" {"Destroy her this instant!"} ("Oh dear Odin...")

["Wow, you guys really need to 'chill' out. Get it? 'Chill' out? Because I'm an ice sword?]

"Here we go..." "What were those dwarves thinking when they forged you!?" {"Why must you be this way, sister?"} ("It's too late, she's never going to stop now.")

"Alright, how about this ice pun! So basically I..." I paused for a moment before releasing a sigh. "Aw damn, I forgot it. It must have 'slipped' my mind!"

["Hah! Nice one!"] Dainsleif chortled. ["Consider this the start of a beautiful friendship, master~!"]

"Sieg, please stop." "I should have expected this from one of Sigurd's blood!" {"I should never have left that room!"} ("My lord Odin, All-Father and King of the Aesir who resides in Asgard! Please save me!")

Another year has passed and with it, many changes have come my way.

For starters, Valper Galilei has been excommunicated two months ago. He had finally reached the point where he decided to discard his test subjects after the Holy Sword project was considered to be a failure.

By myself, there was nothing I could do. Any accusations without any proof would have been ignored, and nobody would listen to the words of a child, an artificial child at that.

So all I did was force them to investigate without having to lift a finger. It was actually rather simple, especially when you have close relations to the most respected man of the Church, barring the Pope, Cardinal Strada. I knew that if anyone were to listen consider my words, it would be him.

It also helped that Archbishop Valper had been watching Jeanne from a distance ever since the Sword Ceremony. She had become the wielder of Excalibur Blessing, most likely due to her status as Joan of Arc's spirit holder. Her reputation with the Church skyrocketed as a result, just as mine did, and it managed to reach the Archbishop who had gained an obsession with her as a result.

It was rather terrifying seeing the level of obsession he had for Jeanne. The sight of an old Archbishop with a pot belly, staring at a group of children with unblinking eyes, is enough to scare even the bravest of men. Seeing the hungry gaze from a man of the Church had me instinctively clench my butt cheeks and prepare to fight for my innocence.

Thank God he's gone.

In the end, Gramps had sent a couple of exorcists in as spies to monitor Valper to make sure the Archbishop didn't make any rash decisions. It made me feel a lot better than usual knowing that I might have helped prevent the deaths of innocent children.

However, I didn't fully succeed. Valper still managed to kill some of the children, just not all of them. The reports showed that there were six confirmed deaths and three survivors who were currently missing.

I tried convincing myself that thanks to my actions, I managed to save more victims than in the original timeline, but that doesn't really make me feel any better. Children-innocent children-were killed.

That... That's just wrong, so wrong.

I don't think I'll ever feel better knowing that five innocent children were murdered by a madman that I knew about before it happened. Maybe I'll never get over it, but it helps knowing that Archbishop Galilei will die.

Valper Galilei has to die, there's no other way to go about it, and if he isn't killed by a certain Fallen Angel or one of the project's victims, then he will die by my hand.

It was with that train of thought that I had begun to train even harder. As a result, I've finally managed to go past two-hundred Mana crystals. Right now, I'm on my two-hundredth and fifty-second crystal. The only problem is that I have so many of them, I have to keep them in a dimensional storage, otherwise there would be no space in my bedroom anymore.

I've lost count of how many crystals I destroyed in the process and Professor D'Aiello has stated that she would be taking the costs out of my future wage once I become an Exorcist.

Speaking of magic, I've hit my limit with Rune magic. At my current level, I can't progress any further without being taught by an expert. There are a number of magicians in the Vatican but they're usually looked down upon or treated with some disdain, seeing as how magic and Christianity don't mix well together.

I think I'm one of the only trainees to be learning other forms of magic barring the Church Sacraments, a power that uses faith to perform all sorts of different effects. Hmm. Maybe I should look into them.

As for Touki, I haven't advanced by much since it's just activating and deactivating it. I've had some ideas on what else I could do with it but that's all they are at the moment. Ideas. I don't even know how or where to begin implementing those ideas without the use of Senjutsu. So until I learn Senjutsu, I'll be limited to just the basic use of Touki.

I've also begun training with the five Demon Swords, each one easily showing themselves to be able to back up the legends of their power. I had trouble getting used to their different sizes and weights but managed in the end.

Oh!

Another big event is that Jeanne finally unlocked her Sacred Gear!

It happened during the Sword Ceremony, where she had been chosen by Excalibur Blessing. The holy aura that was given off by the Excalibur shard seemed to have synced with her Sacred Gear, forcing it to manifest. She wasn't in danger of the forced manifestation due to the calm nature of Holy Swords; it was just a real surprise when she sneezed and a dozen Holy Swords protruded from the ground below.

Ever since then, she's begun training even harder to master her Blade Blacksmith. I've given her a few ideas on what kind of weapons she could create and ended up exploiting the Sacred Gear.

Blade Blacksmith is only able to create Holy Swords, we already know that much. All I told her to do was create swords with different shapes as to emulate different weapons. For example, a spear is just a sword with a really long handle and a small blade. A dagger is just a sword of small proportions. A mace is just a sword with four blunt blades facing opposite directions. An arrow is just a sword with a tiny, light blade and thin body.

And she can create swords with all kinds of different attributes just by willing it? Then what's stopping her from creating a sword that oscillates at high speeds? Or a sword that can absorb magic power? Hell, why not forge a sword that can produce chocolate milk? Holy chocolate milk is a thing now and it tastes amazing!

Jeanne didn't leave her home for a couple of days after I gave her all sorts of sword ideas.

As for life in the Sigurd Institute and the Training Program, it has proven itself to be an absolute hassle.

Lint and Riel have finally been inducted into the Training Program. Lint was so excited that she couldn't fall asleep and ended up late on her first day. I know that Riel could have woken her up but decided not to; she seems to have taken an... interest, shall we say, in my cute little Lint and whenever we see that certain gleam in her eye, we just look the other way.

Rion, your sister is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Stop fawning over her.

I had no problems before the Sword Ceremony had taken place, with most of the attention I had garnered being due to my status as a training maniac, but now that I've become the wielder of not one, not two, three or four, but five Demon Swords, I've suddenly become an important figure in the Vatican.

I've been called the Successor of Sigurd a couple of times and the Second Coming of the Dragonslayer at others.

Fuck off, you crusty old geezers! Stop treating me like a deluxe action-man figurine and just leave me the fuck alone! Is it not enough that you have children training to fight for your lazy asses in the future, now you want to parade me around like a celebrity!

Do they know how embarrassing this is for me!? I'm sorry that I don't enjoy all the attention and titles, or the sudden respect I'm getting from various Church members! I'm sorry that I'm not a chuuni like the rest of the world seems to be!

And don't even get me started on their outfits! There is no way in any of the seven hells that I'm going to wear that... that thing!

And for some reason, every single descendent of my generation seem to hate me! I can literally feel their glares on my back everyday and the teachers don't seem to realise it!

All I did was pass a test that was basically the purpose behind our creation while they all failed! Why would they be mad at me?

And Jeanne has been giving me some weird looks recently. I've never seen anyone switch from confusion to annoyance, to determination followed by embarrassment and finally back to determination again. It's been leaving me confused.

Four Months ago...

How can he ignore the stares sent his way; the expectations forced onto his shoulders?

That thought had been plaguing the mind of one Jeanne L'Ange as she watched the scene playing out in front of her.

"Siegfried! I challenge you to a duel for ownership of your swords!"

"I wish I could, but I really don't want to. Now please step aside."

And once again, Sieg has refused another challenge. She could already see the disappointed expressions of those who watched alongside her, hoping to see the "Successor of Siegfried" display his strength.

Ever since the Sword Ceremony, it had become an open fact that the Sigurd Institution had succeeded in their goal of producing the perfect wielder of Gram, the strongest Demon Sword. All sorts of expectations had been thrown on her friend, expectations that she knew very well as one who carries the Maiden of Orleans' spirit.

It's not easy being yourself when all the adults want you to be someone else, someone you can never hope to measure up to, but she has persevered. Every day, she spends her time working on polishing her skills; on praying to God; on acting like a proper maiden.

On being someone she isn't.

"What's wrong, afraid that I'll beat you?" the latest challenger taunted. "If you're anything like the Dragonslayer they say you are, then you'll-"

"But I'm not the Dragonslayer. I'm just a kid with a really cool set of demonic-class sentient swords and you're stopping me from getting to Magic Theory."

So how does Sieg do it? How can he still be the same Sieg as always, rather than Sigurd the Dragonslayer, even with the pressure and expectations placed on him?

Jeanne doesn't understand-can't understand-and it annoys her, but she wants to understand.

Maybe, she might find an answer if she were to... keep a closer eye on him?

I-it has nothing to do with how he is an interesting person and treats her like a normal person, or how they have a lot in common! not at all!

Yes, that's right! It's just her trying to understand, that's it!

Did I do something to offend her? I seem to be offending a lot of people nowadays.

How strange.

"What do you mean you're leaving? You can't leave!"

Masaomi raised an eyebrow at my outburst. "It's exactly what it sounds like. I'm leaving on a mission, so I won't be able to train you for a couple of weeks, maybe months. Why do you sound so worried?"

Well, that's probably because you're going to meet the love of your life during your mission, only to be murdered by your own allies who will cover up the entire thing.

Then, you're going to be revived by an insane Devil who's descended from Lucifer himself, and is one of the only three Super Devils in the Underworld, who will send you on a warpath towards the Church.

You're going to end up murdering everyone and anyone who had a part in your and your lover's deaths with a super sword and a pissed off dragon, be given the Protagonist Talk™ and finally, be killed again by the previously mentioned insane Super Devil.

There's no fucking way I can tell him that.

"Uhh... We won't get to train together anymore?" I didn't mean for it to come out as a question but Masaomi ignored it nonetheless.

"It's not like you need it anymore. I've taught you everything I know, all you need to do now is just practice. Hell, I'll even write you some pointers if it means I can finally be rid of you."

"Hey, I take offence to that!"

"That was the point." Masaomi snorted.

I honestly don't know what your future lover see's in a guy like you.

"Keep that attitude up and you'll never find your special someone."

"My faith in the Lord above is enough for me."

"26."

"Huh?"

"You've used that excuse 26 times now. I've been keeping count."

I was given a smack on the head for pointing that out but it was well worth seeing the annoyance on his face. By smacking my head, he just admitted that I got to him.

Hah! I win!

"Alright, time for another beat down."

"Uhh, you mean training, right?"

"Did I stutter?"

"Alright, jeez." I huffed as I grasped the air with my hand. A moment later, a wooden sword materialised in my right hand. Repeating the action, another sword materialised in my left hand as I began to get into my stance. Masaomi had pulled out his own practice swords at the same time as I did.

"Since this is going to be our last session for a while, I want you to show me everything that I've taught you from the beginning." Masaomi ordered. "No spells, no magic items, no magic weapons. Think of it as a final test of sorts."

Well, alright then. If that's the case, I better put my all into this.

"Ah. I forgot to mention that I also won't be holding back."

"Wha-"

That was all I managed to get out before I moved my head to the side, barely managing to dodge the strike aiming for my face. The sheer force behind his swing produced a gust of wind that blew my hair about erratically.

Before I could get my bearings, he was already upon me. His right arm swung down, slamming against both my swords that I had lifted to meet his strike.

'Heavy' was my first thought. Masaomi's strikes are never this heavy, not when we're practising. I wasn't able to handle the force behind his swing, and shifted my arms to force his sword to slide down my own.

Now all I need to do is use that small opening to get my own attack in and-

I jumped back almost instantly, my eyes wide and breathing slightly heavy as I stared at my previous spot. The ground had been slightly broken by his swing, creating a small crater at the point of impact. In his hand was a broken weapon, the wood having shattered due to the power behind his strike.

If I had been a second slower...

"Didn't I tell you not to hold back?" Masaomi said calmly as he pulled out another practice sword. "You should know better than to not capitalise on every single opening your opponent creates, not when they could be intentional. I taught you better than that."

...I see. I know what my mistake was.

I'm treating this as another sparring match against Masaomi Yaegaki, the man who has trained me for the last two years, when I should have treated it as a fight against Masaomi Yaegaki the Exorcist. The man who has eliminated all manners of supernatural creatures.

This... is not going to be easy at all.

"Now get ready, I'll be coming at you from the front."

And he did.

I hastily raised my arms, blocking a strike aiming for my waist and left shoulder with both swords before kicking him back. As he went back a couple of steps, I moved forward with him and began a rush of attacks. All of my strikes were met with a parry, blocked with enough strength to reduce the knockback to the lowest levels possible.

I tried jumping back, tried making some space between us, but Masaomi moved forward at the same time I kicked back. He is unrelenting in his assault, his arms a blur as they continue to move forward in their attempt to land a strike.

But I parry every single one of them with graceful movements, each sword gently nudged to the side to avoid hitting me at the last moment. Of course, I'm barely able to keep up with his assault. Never mind the speed at which he's moving, the amount of power he puts in each strike is too much for me to handle.

As I blocked another strike with my left sword, Masaomi lifted his remaining sword into the air. I reversed the position of my right sword so that it was facing the ground and moved my arm forward, guiding his overhead slash along the edge of my wooden sword.

I let my arm continue moving forward, aiming to hit his face with the handle of my sword, when he kicked the back of my leg, forcing me to bend my knee. That single moment was all it took for my left arm to lose its strength as my left sword flew out my hand.

Before I could blink, Masaomi had already moved into my personal zone and raised his right arm, bringing his sword along with it. I tried to parry it but he used his other sword to block my swing. In the end, his speed overwhelmed my own as he delivered a rather nasty strike on my chest, sending me flying back a couple of meters and on the ground.

Damn, I can't breath properly. He knocked the air out of my lungs with that one strike.

"Is that it? You can't even handle two minutes?"

I try responding but can't get anything out. I'm desperately sucking in all the oxygen I can as I try standing back up. Masaomi has the patience to wait for me to stand but he looks angry at my performance.

"Do you think that devils and vampires will put you human body into consideration during a battle? The answer is no, they won't." Masaomi said as he crossed his arms with a scowl on his face. "There's no place for weakness on the battlefield, not when your life and those of your comrades can be taken with the smallest mistake. Now get up, we're going again."

Five minutes later...

I... think I understand what he's trying to get out of this.

Masaomi is trying to teach me one final lesson before he leaves. Everything that I've been taught, both in my time as Masaomi's apprentice and at the Training Institute, were all human techniques, and that in itself is the problem.

I am a human, one of the weakest races in the world. We don't have powerful bodies or enhanced senses, nor do we have a long lifespan or powerful Magic Cores. Compared to the various races that make up the supernatural, we humans are nothing to them-merely a couple of ants walking about.

So how do we fight against such beings? How do we fight against those who easily surpass our strength, our speed, our magic potential?

With trickery and deceit.

I am a human, a race of creatures that have relied on trickery and deceit since times immemorial to survive against the beings that make up the supernatural world.

I dashed forward at the same time Masaomi did, throwing the sword in my right hand directly at his face. He moved his head to the side, just managing to avoid the thrown sword, but was forced to close his eyes as I threw a handful of dirt I picked up earlier on his face.

Using the two seconds that I had just granted myself, I slammed my remaining sword on Masaomi's right wrist, effectively destroying his grip on his sword. He swung blindly with his other sword but missed as I managed to duck at the last moment, picking up the sword he dropped and thrusting both swords forward.

I hit him in the liver and the right lung, causing him to stagger backwards. I step on his foot, causing him to fall backwards. I've bought myself at least three seconds with that manoeuvre. Now that I've completely broken his stance and balance, I can use this chance to-

I quickly brought my swords together onto my chest in an x-position, blocking his powerful kick. The force of his kick blew me back and in that time, he picked up his sword again.

"Better, much better." Masaomi complimented. "This is how humans fight against monsters. This is how we've survived for so long; by using any means necessary. Pride and honour don't matter when you're dead, and they don't matter to those who believe themselves to be above you. Remember that and you'll survive whatever is thrown your way."

Masaomi relaxed his stance, rolling his shoulders with a groan as he got rid of his sword. "You sure hit hard. What do they feed you at that Institute of yours?"

"Pain, suffering and sermons." I quipped with a tired laugh as I relaxed my own stance, dropping the swords in my hands to rub my chest. "Thank god that's over. I don't think I could have gone on any longer after that."

"Who said it was over?"

That was the last thing I heard before he struck me on the back of my neck.

Masaomi watched as his apprentice fell to the ground like a puppet who's strings have been cut. The black-haired boy had put up a good fight near the end, that much was certain, but he still has problems with rushing into every opening he makes. That, and he needs to work on detecting malicious intent from his opponents.

Well, that last part can easily be fixed with experience in the field.

"Man, what a little monster I have on my hands." Masaomi groaned as he rubbed his torso with his right hand, namely his lung and liver. While he may have exaggerated the result of Siegfried's strikes, they still hurt like a truck.

Still, he couldn't help but smile fondly at the child who remained unconscious. There was no hesitation in his strikes-exactly what Masaomi wants to see.

'I guess that's to be expected from a monster I trained.'

Siegfried is strong, much stronger than Masaomi was at his age. His talent with the sword isn't exactly common among the Exorcists either. Most of them started off as normal humans who were forcefully introduced to the supernatural world, usually due to an attack on their family members or themselves, while the rest were born into it.

Masaomi falls into the former category. His family was killed by a vampire when he was but a child, unable to do anything to save them. He remembered hating himself for a couple of years after that, for not being strong enough to protect them.

Maybe that's why he accepted Siegfried as an apprentice; because he saw a little bit of himself in the young boy who wanted power to protect his family (but he'll never let the brat know about that).

Or maybe it was thanks to the pay he was given by the Vatican after a small chat with Cardinal Strada.

Either way, it all works out in the end. Siegfried gets trained, Masaomi gets paid and the Church gains a powerful exorcist. Everybody's happy.

With a small grunt, Masaomi picked up Siegfried and hefted him onto his shoulder, carrying him like a sack of potatoes as he made his way back to the Sigurd Institute.

If he's lucky, he'll be able to leave before that terrifying kid shows up. What was her name again... Lint Sellzen?

"But I don't understand why it had to be him when there are lots of other dual-wielding Exorcists!"

"Because he's one of the best." I answered Lint for what felt like the tenth time, "And he's the only one who makes time for me. The rest are either busy with their own work or stationed in another country."

It's been a week since my final training session with Masaomi. He's already left on his mission, doing who knows what in Kuoh right now. He never gave me the specifics on the mission, only that he needs to investigate something going on.

I managed to have one final conversation with him before he had left. It was mostly a lecture on areas I need to improve on and tips that I could use to help with my training, but I also got him to agree to be extra careful during his mission and made him promise to come back alive under the guise that I still need to beat him up.

Hopefully it will be enough for him to try and escape with his life, at least more harder than he did in the original story.

"But there are others, so it doesn't have to be him." Lint huffed as she crossed her arms. I looked to Freed for help but he just shrugged in a "What can you do?" manner.

"Is it really that bad?" Lint swerved her head towards the origin of such blasphemy with a scowl while Jeanne smiled back. "I think that they're perfect for each other."

"Hah!? Are you stupid or what? They don't suit each other at all!" Lint defended as she slammed her hands on the table. I grabbed my bottle before it could fall over while Freed held his tray down. In the face of Lint's annoyance, Jeanne's smile just widened.

"Hmm? I think that you're wrong. I also think that Freed would suit him as well, don't you think so?"

"Don't test me, Maiden!"

"Please don't involve me in this." Freed muttered.

Before I could stop the situation from escalating any further, Lint threw a meatball at Jeanne. Rather than attempt to dodge the meatball like anyone else would have done and most likely fail in the process due to the speed of the meatball and how close it was, Jeanne took the one possible route that would serve to annoy Lint more than she already had.

Freed and I watched with raised eyebrows as Jeanne displayed an amazing show of reaction time and caught the meatball. The same meatball that was right in front of her face.

""What.""

Jeanne seemed to preen under the awe she could feel emanating from Freed and I.

"Come's with the perk of being a Holy Maiden."

Was that the Maiden of Orleans at work? Because if it was, the higher ups would be frothing at the mouth knowing that their precious little Maiden was using the experience of a deceased Joan of Arc to catch flying meatballs.

Freed looked down at his own plate, specifically at the four meatballs calmly sitting there, before turning to look at me with the most serious face I've ever seen before.

I narrowed my eyes.

"Don't you-"

I tried, I really did, but I couldn't replicate the miracle that Jeanne had made a moment ago. And so, the meatball had left his plate and made contact with my face, namely my forehead. The meatball fell with a dull thud and rolled off the table, landing on the ground and rolling a bit further before stopping for good.

"Why." was all I could ask.

"I wanted to test your reactions." Freed answered nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders as my hand found itself reaching for my plate. "I hope that you take this lesson to heart and-"

That was all he managed to get out before four of my meatballs slammed into his face.

=[The Ward]=

Xenovia Quarta was feeling a bit nervous as she walked through the large corridors of the Saint Mary Training Institute.

She worked hard to get a place in the institute, to be trained as a warrior of the Church. This is what she was practically raised for. While the methods may have been... questionable, let it not be said that Griselda Quarta isn't a good teacher.

Now if only she knew how to separate her work life from her personal life...

The walk though the halls of the Institute was mainly a quiet one, the students seemingly having disappeared. She expected the building to be more busy to be honest. Maybe she came in when they were closed?

Preposterous. They can't be closed, not when they're training warriors who will defend humanity!

Xenovia shook her head, banishing the thought out of her mind and stared forward. The double doors at the end of the corridor lead to the cafeteria, where she could hear various sounds coming from.

Ah, of course. She couldn't find the trainees because they were currently eating lunch. Now it makes sense.

Now that she knew where they all were, she felt herself falter a little bit as her hand hesitated to move forward. What if they didn't like her? She heard that boys and girls her age will bully those who are different. Her blue hair already makes her stand out compared to her fellow trainees; doesn't that make her different? Will she be bullied?

No, of course not. They're all brothers and sisters, children of God and family don't bully each other. Why should she be afraid of her fellow children of God? What a silly thought.

The blue haired girl took a deep breath, held her chest high and pushed the double doors open, ready to meet her fellow warriors in training.

And what she saw made her pause in her tracks.

"They attacked us when we had our backs turned!" a boy cried out to the crowd from where he was perched, atop a large heap of lunch tables. "They could not face us as equals so they resort to dirty manoeuvres! What does that make them!?"

"COWARDS!" her brothers and sisters roared out together as a collected voice.

"And what do we do to cowards!?"

"CRUSH THEM!"

"That's right! We crush them with our unrivalled strength! We crush them with our unparalleled might!" the boy continued to rally the crowd-no, the army of exorcist trainees.

Xenovia didn't know how to feel. On the one hand, nobody looked like they would bully her. On the other, she was about to witness a war in the making. Perhaps she should just turn around before things got out of hand...

"Hmm? A late arrival?" the boy zoned in on her location, bringing with him the collected attention of battle-hungry children. "No matter. Can you use a sword?"

Xenovia found herself nodding her head, earning a pleased look from the boy. "Then hurry up and take your place, I'm assigning you to my Baguette Squad."

Before she knew it, she was stood behind the boy who had inducted her into his private army of baguette-wielding warriors of God.

"Potato Platoon, ready your mashed potatoes! Custard Corps, prepare your custard cakes! Banana Troopers, peel your bananas! Today, we will leave this lunchroom as the victors of this grand skirmish and become immortalised as legends in the Lunchroom Epic!" the boy raised his baguette into the air and towards the other end of the cafeteria. "CHARGE!"

The army of trainees let out a war cry as they left their stronghold, entering the middle ground where the final battle would take place. At the other end of the cafeteria, there was an opposing army of children coming their way with a war cry of their own.

Xenovia honestly didn't know what was happening anymore, but the boy who seemed to be their leader clearly placed his trust in her. Nobody had ever trusted her with anything before, always saying that she destroys everything, yet this boy trusted her even though he didn't know anything about her.

Xenovia mentally placed the boy on higher ranking than most people she knew. To honour the trust he placed in her, she would give it her all!

The two opposing sides crashed into each other in a glorious explosion of various dairy products, carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables and more. There were already a couple of casualties on their side but the same could be said of the enemy.

The boy turned his head to the right, gaining the attention of a blonde haired girl. "Jeanne! Deploy the mash potatoes! Mix in some pieces of tuna as well!"

"On it!"

He then turned the other way, having to look for his target. His eyes widened as he locked on to a golden-haired, male trainee. "Nero! Peel those bananas and get to the salad bar! They're putting pressure on us over there!"

"You got it boss!" the now-named Nero responded with a wild grin, turning around to the mentioned Banana Troopers. "You heard him, brothers and sisters! Let's peel those bananas and go!"

"Baguette Squad! Regroup with the Custard Corps in the centre! We're going to break through their ranks in a single charge! ON ME!"

He was met with a cry of affirmation as the two mentioned groups began to make their way forward, right into the thick of the battle.

At this point, Xenovia was beginning to have fun. Whatever nervousness she had previously felt had all but been washed away, replaced with a burning desire for victory. With every mistake she made, one of her fellow warriors saved her at the last moment. With every swing of her mighty baguette of destruction, the enemy soldiers fell one by one.

"BAKED BEANS INCOMING!" one of her allies suddenly cried out the warning. Xenovia looked up and, true to their words, baked beans began to fall from the sky like angry missiles.

"PICK UP A LUNCH TRAY AND FORM A SHIELD!"

Xenovia quickly lowered herself to the ground, picking up one of the many lunch trays on the floor and lifting it above her head. More and more of her allies repeated the action, forming a singular, yet wide-spread barrier.

She could feel the impact of the baked beans on the barrier, her arms slightly giving out. The assault continued for a good five seconds before her arms stopped trembling from the impact.

"NOW! WHILE THEY'RE FOODLESS, ATTACK!" the boy-their glorious leader!-ordered as he charged forward, followed by the entirety of their army. The enemy, seeing as how they had no other choice, were forced to do the same as they picked up whatever they could find.

Xenovia crashed into one of the enemy, an older student with black hair and brown eyes and took him down as quickly as possible with a baguette to the stomach. She didn't waste any time in moving on and rushing through the enemy ranks, resembling a train running over a large bundle of weeds.

She rushed forward, thrusting her baguette at an enemy right in the stomach, forcing him to crumple down onto the ground, before ducking and just managing to avoid the swing that would have hit her head. Xenovia turned around to greet her attack with a baguette to the face, forcing him away from her before tackling him to the ground to finish the job.

"FREED!" "SIEG!"

Xenovia turned her head to see her now named leader, Sieg, taking on the enemy leader known as Freed. Now that she got a proper look, isn't her leader the rumoured Dragonslayer? Her leader is the Dragonslayer!?

This day just keeps on getting better and better!

"I always knew it would end this way!" Leader-The Second Dragonslayer!-growled, baguette pushing against baguette.

"Yes, with me beating you once and for all!" Freed returned, pushing his baguette forward and taking the initiative to attack. Their battle swept them away from Xenovia's position, forcing them out of her sight.

A part of her wanted to chase after them, to give support to her leader, but she would trust her leader to win just as he trusted her with this baguette! With that thought in mind, Xenovia jumped back into the fight with a mad grin on her face.

She tore her way through the enemy with nothing but her trusty baguette, steadily decreasing their numbers. All that training with Griselda had certainly paid off as she took the brunt of another attack to her side, shaking it off as nothing but a minor inconvenience.

She soon found herself facing a young girl her own age, with black hair and red eyes similar to her leader's. While she would have wanted to get along with another girl, and maybe even become friends, she found herself blocking a strike from the girl.

"You're good." the girl complimented.

"So are you." Xenovia returned.

That was all she said before engaging once again, their baguettes crashing against each other with enough strength to break lesser men. The enemy girl was the first to break the deadlock, shifting her baguette to the side and sliding Xenovia's baguette down her own.

Xenovia, finding herself with no other choice, chose to back off lest she get a baguette to the face. Regaining her bearings, she charged forward with multiple thrusts, finding each one of her thrusts directed to the sides and barely avoiding the girl.

Switching up her game plan, Xenovia placed both hands on her baguette and swung it horizontally, the strength of her swing forcing her opponent to duck rather than block it again. Seeing a chance, Xenovia strode forward and used the centrifugal force generated by her swing to spin her body around, increasing the power of her next strike and-

"What is going on here?"

Runtime Error!
Program: C\Human\ExorcistTrainee\XenoviaQuarta
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact the application's support team for more information.

Due to freezing up on the spot in the middle of her attack, the baguette in her hands slid out of her grasp and flew towards an unlucky trainee who happened to turn around at the wrong moment.

Every single warrior on the battlefield froze in their tracks, their eyes widened with horror. The Baguette Squad stopped half-swing, the Banana Troopers slowly re-peeled their bananas and the Custard Corps dropped their bowls of custard to the ground.

Xenovia knows that voice.

She knows that voice very well.

"A food fight? I see..." Griselda Quarta narrowed her eyes before turning back around to closed the cafeteria doors. Every trainee present felt a shiver travel down their backs as they heard the lock click, and at that moment, they had never felt more afraid for their lives.

'We're dead' was the collective thought of every single trainee in the cafeteria.

"So be it." Griselda chuckled darkly, a dark gleam in her eyes as she stared down the exorcist trainees. "Class is now in session."

EDIT

Some of you are wondering what Nothung, Tyrfing and Dainsleif look like. Since most people are having a hard time picturing the three swords, I decided to just quickly change their appearances.

Nothung now looks like Elucidator, Dainsleif looks like Dark Repulser and Tyrfing looks like the Tyrfing from Final Fantasy XIV.

Hope that helps.

And that's another chapter finished.

Quite a lot happened this chapter: Sieg talks with his swords: Masaomi has gone on his mission to Kuoh: Valper was stopped before he could kill all the Holy Sword project victims: Jeanne unlocked her Sacred Gear and more.

Moving on, Sieg has changed canon once again! By bringing up Valper to Vasco, we now have five survivors rather than the two in the original timeline. Two of them are canon characters while the last survivor will be an OC, and all three of them will be introduced later on in the story.

And what did you all think about the final scene? It was inspired by the food fight scene from RWBY along with a twist of my own. Due to the manner in which Xenovia and Siegfried met each other, I think it's safe to say that she's going to have a lot of respect for him.

Next chapter will start off with a time skip where they'll have already finished their training at the institute. I'll be showcasing the abilities and powers that they worked hard for during that time, so you'll all finally get to see the five Demon Swords in action.

The graduating group will all be 14 years old and by the time canon starts, Siegfried will be 19 years old. Just thought I should throw that out to the readers who wanted to know his age.

And some of you seem to be getting the wrong idea about the harem. When I said that Issei's harem will consist of the original members, I meant that it's will contain Rias, Akeno and Koneko, the Big Three. Anyone else after that is pretty much fair game.

I suppose it's my fault you all thought otherwise, sorry about that.

I'm feeling more tired than usual so I won't be answering reviews today.

See you all next time.