"Shin, are you wat- SHIN!"

Shin looked up and saw his father standing in front of him with his arms crossed. His father, Rowan Faulkner, was a relatively tall man of Scottish descent. He wore a simple black shirt and grey pants with hiking boots on. He had brown hair and hazel eyes. His father wore a pair of thick frame glasses. He sighed as he looked down at his son.

Shin was currently sneaking up on a cicada.

"Shin, pay attention to what I'm about to do. You said that you wanted to learn how to use weapons like your sister, right?" Rowan asked.

He nodded and straightened himself.

His dad smiled. Rowan pulled out a pistol from his bag. "I borrowed this from Touji so this should be fine."

"Tou-san. If I use this, will I be able to keep Onee safe?" he asked.

Rowan smiled. He reached down and ruffled his son's hair. "You're the one that wanted to learn. And you wouldn't stop pestering us until you got the same training as your sister." Even if we never wanted you to step into this… your contract with Vivian put a stop to all that, he added.

"Yeah so I can protect Ise! And Rin! And Onee! And Tou-san! And Kaa-san! And Kureha! And Vivi! And Ran! And.. And… And…" Shin furrowed his brow as he tried to think of more people to list off.

Rowan chuckled. "I'm sure you'll grow big and strong to keep them safe. But remember, you have training with your mother tomorrow."

Shin nodded.

"Now, let's see… here." He handed Shin the pistol.

Shin gingerly took it into his hands, marveling at how heavy it was. Such a small object could weigh this much. It baffled his recently turned eight year old brain.

"Alright now, I want you to take aim. Hold your arms out straight. Line up the sight with the target on that there tree," Rowan said.

Shin nodded and raised his arms, pointing the barrel at the tree.

"Spread your legs out to about your shoulders."

"Huh?"

"Like this." Rowan spread his legs out to about shoulder-width apart.

Shin nodded and did the same, mimicking his father.

Rowan let out a small laugh when he saw Shin almost perform the splits.

"Okay okay. Move them in a little." He pushed Shin's legs towards each other. After a few adjustments, he nodded in satisfaction. "Good good. Okay, let's see."

Rowan corrected his son's arms and shoulders.

"Okay, you're going to feel the gun kick back at you, okay?" Rowan said.

"Kickback?" he asked.

"When you fire a gun, the air inside is going to push the gun back in your direction but only a little. That's why you need to hold it real tight okay?" Rowan explained.

"Okay!" Shin said.

"Okay, I want you to count down from 3. After that, pull the trigger like this." Rowan took the gun from Shin's hand and pulled the trigger. A loud crack reverberated across the woods. The bullet hit its mark dead center on the target.

"WOAH! Tou-san! That was so cool! Let me try! Let me try!" Shin jumped up and down and pestered his father for the gun.

"Okay, okay, here you go," Rowan chuckled.

Shin took the gun from his father's hand and resumed his stance.

"Remember, count of 3." He covered Shin's ears.

Shin nodded.

3

2

1

A blue energy bolt hit the dummy in the head, causing it to fall over from the force of the impact. Shin sighed. He twirled the pistol and blew on the barrel.

"Nice shootin', Tex," Sophia said. She sat on a rock, watching her friend shoot dummies in the woods. Asia sat on the ground next to her, scribbling on charm paper. A crisp spring breeze blew past them. It had been approximately a week and a half since the Rating Game against Riser Phenex. A week and a half since… Shin shivered, not from the cold but from what he saw.

"Yeah but… I've just about got there. Vivi, how fast was it from creation to firing?" Shin asked.

Vivi looked down at her smartwatch. She tapped the screen. "Uh… .098 seconds. Almost there. Maybe this time, you might remake them even faster," Vivi said. "You should've brought Issei here. He would have jumped at the chance to train."

"Yeah, but Rias has been keeping him to herself a lot lately. I don't wanna pull them away. Especially since that game against the student council is almost here." Shin created another Failnacht pistol and fired it at another dummy.

"Come to think of it. I never asked but who taught you gun-kata?" Sophia asked.

"Huh? Oh, my dad taught me how to shoot. My mom taught me the Onigari-Ryuu. I just sort of mixed them together with Aka-nee's help. Usually, I use unarmed techniques and movement techniques with Failnacht. I use the rest of the other sword arts with Clarent," Shin said.

"That's pretty cool," Sophia said.

"Yeah. My cousin, Kureha, uses the Onigari Ryuu with her bow and Onee can use all the sword techniques without a sword. Don't ask how. She just can," Shin said.

"I see. But… umm…"

"What?"

"Did you really have to make the dummies look like Riser? You have to get over it, man," Sophia said.

"Get over what?" Shin said innocently.

"Shin. Look, I get it… okay, I don't really get it. I can only sympathize from the victim's point of view but she's a big girl. Your sister can date whoever she wants and you should be happy for her," Sophia said.

"Er… but…"

"Aw come on. Did you really think she was going to stay single forever?" Sophia asked.

"No… but I wish… I wish she would've told me this sooner so I didn't have to go through… that," Shin said.

"Oh right, that was… that was really weird. Who puts a nude of their girlfriend as their lock screen?" she agreed.

"Riser does apparently. Ugh. I have to see him at work and school! He goes to the University extension of the school! Okay, okay, calm down. You've had over a week to come to terms with this," Shin said, breathing.

"Yeah, take deep breaths. Come on. Deep breaths," Sophia said. "See?" she smiled after seeing him visibly calm down. "She'll always be your big sis. Besides, you gotta let her go out there and find someone. Do you want her to be single forever?"

"N- No," Shin said, kicking a stone.

"Then, what's the harm? Besides, from what I can see, those two really love each other," she added.

"Okay, okay. But, if Riser breaks her heart, I'm going to kill him." Shin summoned Clarent and Failnacht into his hands and grinned.

Sophia sighed at the unnerving amount of killing intent that was radiating from his body. It seemed that Akane wasn't the only protective sibling. Shin seemed to have shades of this as well. She walked over and slapped the back of his head, knocking him out of his psychotic reverie.

Shin grabbed his head in pain and gave her a glare. He immediately shrank back when he saw Sophia's imperious gaze boring into his soul. He gulped, seeing the visage of Lilith behind her.

Sophia smiled with slight satisfaction when she saw Shin calm down.

"So, what are you getting Issei for his birthday?" Sophia asked.

"Hmm, I'm getting him the best gift ever, ehe," he chuckled.

Sophia raised an eyebrow. She created a light spear in her hand and aimed it at one of the dummies.

"Well, I'm gonna ask Rizevim to see if he can get me either this limited edition figure of Olga Discordia or a body pillow of Nemu Manaka." She threw the spear and impaled the Riser dummy in the skull.

"Nice."

"Aw, thanks."

"Oi! You two! Can we focus?" Vivi snapped her fingers, catching their attention. "Jeez. Shin, we're supposed to be working on taking your powers to the next step, not discussing what to get Issei for his birthday. As my contractor, you represent me out there on the main stage. But so far, you can't even make the other weapons."

"Err…" Shin rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Other weapons?" Asia asked.

Vivi nodded and hovered in the air above them. She closed her eyes. A massive series of pixels burst forth from her body and condensed into various objects around her. Some of them stood out from the others and some were instantly recognizable from the design. Sophia glanced at the pitch-black bow with the red and blue highlights running along the limbs. At the ends of the limbs was a ruby and a sapphire respectively.

"Is that Failnacht?" Sophia asked.

"I think I see Clarent." Asia pointed to the familiar holy sword.

"Remember what your goal was when we were training? You'd be able to make Excalibur before college," Vivi said.

"Yeah, Shin. What Vivi said. You're supposed to be training to-" her words stopped as she registered what the Lady of the Lake had just said.

"EXCALIBUR!?" she screamed.

"Oi. I'm right here," Vivi said, covering her ears.

"You want him to make the most coveted holy sword on the planet!? Are you crazy!?" Sophia yelled.

"Coveted? That piece of junk? Pfff… ahahahahaha!" Vivi burst out laughing and dispelled the weapons in the process. "AHAHAHAHA! I watched a whole damn anime about it! Sword of Promised Victory, my ass! Bwahahaha!"

"Oi, back to the topic. Shin can make weapons. We get that. But why that sword specifically?" Sophia asked.

"Huh? Oh… right. The big why. All the swords of the Knights were created through various means. Galatine was created by taking a normal Holy Sword and reforging it in a place where one could be close to the Sun. Obviously, someone had the bright idea of trying to remake it at high noon but that failed. So they took it to the next level and pissed off Lugh. Arondight was created through the process of bathing a holy sword in the blood of a dragon, giving it dragon slayer attributes, and so on… Excalibur…" Vivi trailed off and a nostalgic smile appeared on her face.

"Excalibur was forged by me. It was the first sword I ever created with my powers."

"With your powers? Did you copy it from somewhere?" Shin asked.

"No. I made it from scratch," she replied.

"How? Our power is called Reconstruction. We can remake things we see," Shin said.

"Not necessarily. That's the basics of our power. Our power can be taken further. Use it once and never forget. That's the surface of our power. I created Excalibur using the idea of a 'Holy Sword'. If you want to say it in our terms, I remembered what a holy sword was and used that idea to make a new one," Vivi said.

"I'm not following," Shin said.

"Your goal of creating Excalibur won't be to literally remake the sword. You will remake the idea of Excalibur or something else and make it your own. I said Excalibur because that's how it was for me. You and I see logic and reason in a completely different manner. Don't trap your mind within this limited viewpoint of a single idea. Set your mind free. Our power is based on the Law of Genesis. Only we can reach the truth of an idea ourselves," Vivi said.

"Are you even sure I can reach that level? What you're trying to get me to do sounds… out of my range," Shin said.

"Out of your range? Shin, I was a backwater water spirit from some hick town in Britain. I was friends with an idiot who had bricks for a brain and thought with his hot girthy staff of carnal desire 7 out of 10 times. I was friends with an idiot who was sexually attracted to all the red flags some redheaded chick gave off because she gave him her time.

"If I, some nameless spirit, could turn that idiot into a king and turn some random holy sword into something that everyone wanted, you can too," Vivi said. "Besides, you've already grasped some of it. You fully understand the workings of Failnaught and firearms to the point where you created a modified version of it."

"Yeah. With your help," Shin said.

Sophia smiled and placed her hand on Shin's shoulder. "You can do this. Believe in me who believes in you… oh god, that sounded so corny."

Shin laughed at her statement. He felt nice. If Sophia believed he could do it, then by all means, he would do it. "Alright! Let's do this! I'll practice making things until I can make the next weapon within the Knights' arsenal," Shin said, clenching his fist.

"Which weapon are you thinking of?" Vivi asked.

"Secace."

Issei wanted to die. He wanted to take the [Boosted Gear] and fire a Dragon Shot right through his skull. His mom was doing the most embarrassing possible. In front of her was an album filled with his most embarrassing moments from toddler to teen. Issei glanced to the blonde bird lady who sat next to his mother, snickering at all the pictures.

Ravel Phenex. Rias said she was nicknamed "Blazing Radiance". Issei had seen firsthand why she was called that. It had been a week and a half since the Rating Game and the unexpected had happened. Riser was revealed to have had a girlfriend and the identity of the lucky woman made them all pale. Akane Faulkner. The older sister of Shin and his adoptive older sister.

But why did they have to move here of all places? Issei thought. The only reason he wasn't at the pub was because Ran was running dinner service alongside Riser's Queen and some who volunteered to accompany their king. The rest stayed in the Underworld.

Akeno sat next to him with the utmost grace and elegance that most noblewomen he had met in the Underworld didn't possess.

"And this is the time little Issei went to the beach," Miki said, pointing to a picture of a buck-naked 6-year-old Issei.

"Pfftt, ahahahaha!" Ravel threw her head back in raucous laughter.

"Ara ara, Ise, did you like going to the beach naked?" Akeno teased.

"Stop talking!" Issei yelled.

"... small Issei, small Issei, small Issei…"

Issei turned to see Rias staring intently at his child self. An involuntary shiver ran down his spine. Was Rias one of those people? He shook his head and prayed to God that she wasn't.

"Shin doesn't have to suffer this," Issei mumbled.

"Ise, trust me. Akari will do what I'm doing to Shin," Miki said, sipping her tea. "When Shin gets a girlfriend and introduces her to the family, Akari will be much worse than me. Do you remember that she has a closet dedicated to Akane and Shin's baby photos?"

"Oh yeah… oh god. Aka-nee's chuuni years are in that closet," Issei said.

"Akane was a chuuni?" Akeno asked.

"That girl. Back in middle school, she used to run around saying that she was the Vermillion Star Eclipse who would fight for all the common people. To cast the vile Gods from their thrones and defeat the evil that polluted the world!" Miki said, imitating Akane's voice.

Ravel's cheeks puffed up as she tried to hold in her laugh.

"Kaa-san, you're going to embarrass Aka-nee too?" Issei said, giving his mom a pointed look.

"Oh no, what you said just reminded me of the old days…" his mother trailed off. Her eyes stared at an old photo on the wall.

"Yeah…" Issei's eyes softened. He knew what photo his mom was looking at. It was an old photo of his mother, Shin's mother, and Irina's father at their university graduation. He shook his head and looked over to Kiba, who was happily flipping through pages.

"Woah, what are you guys doing in here?" Kiba asked, pointing to a picture.

Issei suppressed a grumble. Of all people, he didn't want looking at his dark history, Yuuto Kiba was one of them. He reached out and tried to grab the album, only for Kiba to easily evade his grasp.

"Come on. I still want to look," Yuuto said with a smile.

"... Ugh, fine. That picture was when Shin and I were making a gift for our best friend, Rin," Issei said.

"Rin?" Yuuto asked.

Issei nodded and flipped to a page to a picture. Everyone got up and crowded around Yuuto while Miki sat down with her eyes closed and sipping some tea.

The picture that Issei had flipped to was a picture of three kids. They were seated in a living room, near a fireplace. Rias and Akeno recognized Issei due to his iconic hairstyle. Akeno's eyes drifted over to a boy with black hair, who was grinning into the camera. Her heart fluttered a little. Small Shin, Akeno thought.

"That tomboyish girl there." Issei pointed to a small girl with chestnut brown hair in a ponytail and violet eyes. Issei's eyes softened notably and his voice had a hint of longing in them. "That's Irina Shidou. She's our best friend and we practically-"

"Share a crib together?" Akeno finished.

"Shin told you?" Issei asked.

"Yeah. He also said she was your long-distance girlfriend," she said with a sly smile.

Issei did a spit take or an imitation of one. Rias's eyes widened considerably at Akeno's words.

"Senpai is dating someone?" Koneko asked.

"W-W- Wha- SHIN! Why is he always telling everyone that me and Irina are dating?" Issei grumbled.

"Your face says otherwise," Akeno said.

Yuuto and Koneko burst out laughing while Rias stared at the small girl in the album. Her eyes focused, remembering every detail of her. So this girl… this girl is my rival? I… I'm better than her, right? I can… her eyes moved over to Issei, who was currently trying to silence her Knight.

"Wait, wait, is Shin the third wheel in all this?" Kiba asked, wiping a tear from his face.

"N-NO! We're not dating! She's just a really good friend who happens to be a girl."

Rias calmed down at this.

"Yes, because we skype-call our female friends at every chance we get," Akeno said.

"S-Shut!" Issei said indignantly.

Kiba kept laughing and returned his gaze to the photo. His eyes grew wide when he saw a small detail at the top right corner of the image.

"What's wrong? Why'd you stop laughing? Don't tell me you found another embarassi-"

Issei's words were cut off when Kiba pointed to a certain object in the photo.

"Issei, what is that?" Yuuto asked. His tone was far different from what Issei was used to. It sounded hollow and cold as if there were a deep bubbling malic threatening to break free from within him. His grey eyes were filled with a growing hatred that made Issei uncomfortable.

"That?" Issei glanced at the photo. Kiba was pointing at Irina's father's legs. A sword was resting right next to it. "That? That's a fake old European sword that Rin and her family had. Her mom is half British. She's kinda like Shin. Three-fourths sushi, one-fourth crumpets."

"What happened to Irina?" Rias asked.

"Oh, she moved to Europe because of her dad's work. Shin ran into her when they went on vacation to the UK and got her contact information. Eventually, we made Skype and Discord accounts and talked there," Issei said.

"Yuuto? You okay?" Koneko asked.

"Yeah, you've been staring at that photo like you want to set it on fire. Are you alright?" Rias asked.

"I…" Yuuto set the album down on the table and got up. Everyone moved back at his sudden movement. "I have to go. I need… I need to deal with something."

He rushed out of the living room towards the door.

"Yuuto…" Rias began to move towards the door. She stopped when she felt Issei's hand on her shoulder.

"I'll go. You guys stay here," Issei said with a smile.

Rias nodded and Issei rushed out the door after Kiba.

"Oi! Casanova! Where are you going?" Issei caught up to Kiba in record time. The Knight seemed to be in his own world, not even noticing that Issei was calling his name.

"Oi! Kiba! You deaf or something?" he placed his hand on his shoulder, causing Kiba to jolt out of his funk.

The blonde knight looked over to his side and sighed when he saw Issei next to him.

"Ise, I'm fine. You can go back," Kiba said, shaking Issei off.

"Really? You're fine? The fact that you left in such a hurry while my mom was embarrassing me shows that you're fine. Dude, you had a complete 180 after you saw that old picture of me, Irina, and Shin. So tell me, how fine are you?" Issei asked.

Kiba was taken aback. Issei was many things but he didn't take him for someone that was empathetic to others. He shook his head. This must have been a rare moment. If Issei was that empathetic, he would've noticed that Rias and Asia were practically fighting over the right to sleep with him.

He said nothing and turned around.

"Come on, man." Issei followed after him.

"Just let me be. I need to sort this out myself and gather my feelings about it," Kiba said.

"Fine. But I'm not going to let you wander around town while you're leaking demonic power like that. It's bad for you. What if you snap and hurt someone?" he said.

"Issei, I'm not going to hurt anyone," Kiba replied.

"Says you. Come on. Shin should still be there," Issei said, grabbing Kiba's arm.

"What? Where are you-"

"To a secret training ground that Shin and Aka-nee use. It'll be a good place for you to vent. Hey, maybe we can even ask Shin to make dummies and you can take out all your frustrations on them?" Issei said, practically dragging Kiba by his heels across the pavement.

Kiba sighed and wrenched his arm from Issei's grasp. The boy turned around to face him with a raised eyebrow.

"Well? I'm not going to let you drag me across town. Where is it?" Kiba asked. He had that same infuriating smile on his face. Issei felt a twang of annoyance inside him but felt relieved when he saw Kiba smile.

"Is it here in the-" Kiba's eyes widened when he felt Issei pull him back. The two fell on their butts.

"Watch where you're walking. Jeez, it's like whatever's on your mind is messing with your senses," Issei said.

"What do you mean?" Kiba said tiredly.

"Look." He pointed in the direction in front of Kiba.

The knight followed Issei's finger and his eyes grew wide in astonishment. In front of Kiba was a fairly large chasm that extended deep into the earth. Tree roots were poking out the side. He looked over the edge and saw a small creek flowing at the bottom.

"This… This wasn't in the reports when Buchou and Sona-sama took over stewardship of the town. How… this isn't even on any of the maps," he said.

"Yeah, that's why I said be careful. I told you like… a billion times when we went in," Issei said. He spread his wings and flew across the ravine.

Kiba gulped and followed suit.

"Where did that come from? That's not on any of the city maps," he asked, landing next to Issei.

"Aka-nee made that," he said, pushing through the brush.

"Aka-nee? Shin's older sister? She made that? And no one noticed?" Kiba questioned.

"Did anyone at school notice there was a girl named Yuuma Amano after I got reincarnated?" Issei asked.

"Okay, touche. But how? When?"

A gorge of that size and that length was not something that could be easily hidden. It had to be at least a hundred meters deep and at least nearly several hundred meters in length. This was no ordinary chasm. Someone of great strength had to have made that and such an existence in Kuoh would have set someone off. But to think it could have been Shin's older sister that made such a ravine.

"Shin told me she did it when she was 7… or was it 8? Either way, she was super young," Issei said.

"But how? Sacred Gear? Holy Sword? Demonic Sword?" he pressed.

"Ugh! I don't know! All I know is that Shin said that she did it. I almost fell into it too," Issei said.

Kiba nodded. Perhaps Shin wanted to keep his sister's power a secret. Just like… Kiba frowned. Shin also had a holy sword. Was the holy sword within the album his? Wait… Issei said it was Irina's father's so…

"Issei, I have to ask you something. Your friend, Irina. Her father… where did he get that sword?" Kiba asked.

"The sword? The fake one?" Issei replied.

"That's not fake. But I wouldn't imagine that one ended up in this town," he said. "And to see it twice too."

"See what?" Issei's eyes lit up when he saw the rock with the small burn mark.

"A holy sword."

"That was a holy sword? It looked underwhelming to be honest. It didn't shoot lasers like Shin's."

Kiba clenched his jaw. Issei knew Shin had a holy sword? He stared at the back of the boy's head.

"Come on, I think I hear Vivi."

"Remember what your goal was when we were training? You'd be able to make Excalibur before college."

Kiba froze. Did he hear that wrong? Vivi… she just mentioned Excalibur.

"Hey, what are you- He-"

Kiba slapped his hand over Issei's mouth and held his finger up to his lips. "Shh. Come on. Get down."

Issei rolled his eyes and complied with his words. If this would help get this annoying casanova out of whatever mood he was in, then so be it. Issei squatted next to Kiba and watched Vivi talking to Shin and Sophia.

She thinks Excalibur is weak? Damn… poor King Arthur then, Issei thought. His eyes glanced over at Kiba and saw the Knight's gaze becoming darker by the second. It wasn't until Vivi said the final thing that Issei realized Kiba's feelings ran deeper than he originally thought.

"Excalibur was forged by me. It was the first sword I ever created with my powers."

And with that, Kiba said nothing and got up. He turned around and silently walked away.

Heylo! No TIPS section this week! So we've finally entered the Holy Sword Arc! As you can already tell, I'm setting up some conflict between Kiba, Shin, and Vivi regarding Holy Swords and the Excalibur... since she made it after all. Other than that, I really don't have much to say. Issei's birthday is coming up so a certain someone will be coming back *wink* *wink*. I'm pretty sure you can all tell who it is judging from what happened in this chapter. Also, for those who didn't figure it out, Akane and Riser are dating and Shin is a little... miffed about the entire situation. I mean, who wouldn't be if the way they found out was... that way. Anyway, as I said before, I am planning to merge the Holy Sword and Peace Treaty Arcs into a somewhat cohesive single arc since I think it works better that way for how this story will progress. Anyway, leave a review and see you in the next one.