A/N: Hello and welcome to another chapter! Well, anyway, just saying hi. So, on with the story!

Highschool DxD is, in any form, not mine. Only the OCs are mine.

After the long night of supervising the engineers of Grigori and making sure that it still looks like the same really took a toll on Takeshi as he fell towards his bed, not caring if he skip school today. As he was about to get consumed by sleep, he suddenly remembered Azazel did and that made him get up of the soft mattress he longed for. He quickly changed his clothes to his casuals and teleported to Azazel's house in Kuoh. Getting there, he saw Azazel, sleeping in the couch with bottles of sake on the floor. Walking slowly and quietly towards Azazel, he pulled out a thick book from his pocket dimension and rolled it. As he is above Azazel, he gained a tick mark as he looked at the careless sleeping face of Azazel. Overwhelmed by his anger, he rose the rolled up book and smacked Azazel's head as hard as he can.

"AWW FUUCK!" Azazel exclaimed as his hands quickly went to his head. When he feel like his head is fine, he sat up and looked at the person who smacked him.

"What was that for?" He asked with a carefree attitude.

"What was that for? WHY DIDN'T YOU TOLD ME THAT IT WAS THE GREMORY'S WHO OWN THIS TERRITORY?" Takeshi started with a whisper and ended while shouting, making Azazel cover his ears.

"W-well, I did expect that you would sense their auras." He replied while he removed his hand from his ear.

"You do know that I'm still training on sensing specific auras." Takeshi retorted back with a glare, making Azazel cringe.

"Hehehe... I thought it's not important...?" He said nervously, trying to get away from Takeshi's glare.

Takeshi, sighing as he know that Azazel's carefree attitude led to this. He walked towards the door and was about to leave when Azazel spoke.

"Did you encounter Miss Himejima last night?"

Takeshi, getting taken a back, stopped his hand on reaching the doorknob.

"Yes." He replied quietly, making Azazel sigh.

"Anyway, we'll be having a Peace Treaty with the Devils and Angels and I wish that you'll be there."

"Just get Vali, he'll like it much more." Takeshi replied, no emotion in his voice.

"I'll need the both of you there since you're there right before Vali arrived." Azazel said seriously, leaving no arguments left.

"If that's what you want, then I'll be there." He replied and left.

'That guy really need to chill out and rest. And, it's either he look for another potential mate or he talk to her about their ruined relationship." Azazel thought as he scratched the back of his head.

At Kuoh Academy, lunch time...

Takeshi arrived at his classroom, getting the attention of the remaining people inside. He shrugged off their stares and dropped his bag on his table and left the room to go to the canteen and buy some food as he forgot to prepare some bento. As he is walking towards the canteen, he saw the sight of red hair and that quickly set his alarm. He didn't know why, but he froze when he saw her. As their eyes made contact, her attitude became serious. He quickly checked her side and back to see... no one.

"I'm surprised your queen is not with you, Miss Gremory." He said after he checked out if theirs students that might hear.

"She's handling some things. For the mean time, please keep me company for a while." She said, making him sigh.

"Miss Gremory, I only have limited time to talk to you right now. For that, I'm sorry." He replied while bowing.

"You don't need to be so formal. Please rise and please, Rias is fine." She said with a smile. He rose as he faced her.

"Well, you must on your way Rias-sempai. Goodbye." He said as he walked away. Not getting too far, he was stopped when someone held his sleeve. He looked back to see Rias, holding his sleeve and looking straight in his eyes.

"Please, let's talk." She asked. Seeing the determination in her eyes, he knew that any attempt of saying no would be futile. So, he sighed and looked at her.

"Then let's talk, privately." He said seriously. She nodded as a reply and he guided her to the music room, where he felt mostly at ease when inside the building. When they went in, they found it to be empty, which is an advantage for the both of them. Rias sat on the chair by the piano while Takeshi leaned by the wall near the piano while grabbing an acoustic guitar and strumming it to hear that it was on the right tune.

"You play the guitar?" She asked, curiously. Getting a nod as a reply.

"So, what do you want to talk about, Rias-sempai?" He asked her as he looked at her with a curious gaze.

"I'll be straight to the point, what is your relationship with Akeno?" She asked seriously, getting a sweat-drop from him.

'That is so straight to the point!' He thought as he was also taken a back by her question.

"What do you want to know about it?" He asked as he looked at the guitar sadly.

"Your past with her." She said. His eyes widened at what she said.

"If you must know, then I will try to tell you about us as much info as possible.

I met her at a shrine, probably about 10 years ago, when I was exploring the place. We became friends after 3 days of our first meeting. We basically hang out the whole time after that. But sometimes, I can't see her because of intense training and resting. After that, we became so close after all those meetings, and if I could tell you, it's fun in many ways. Probably much better than training when I was that age. And I think, that's also the time when I fell in love with her.

I could tell you that Barakiel really tried to become a great father and husband for them. He made sure that he have time for them and begged Azazel to give some of the missions to Shemhazai and Kokabiel just so he can give those time to them. They were such a happy family back then. And, Barakiel treated me like a son, not much like my father." He mumbled the last part, making Rias look at him curiously.

"Anyway, one time, Azazel gave a mission to Barakiel. Of course, he would try to beg to be given out to the others but, at that time, there was no available fallen so he accepted it with a heavy heart. At that time, the Himejima clan attacked Akeno and Shuri-san for mating with a fallen and bearing a hybrid. At that time, I also wasn't there as I was busy training. Then, I sensed a bad feeling and I know that she needs my help. I quickly ended the training and went straight towards the shrine and that time, I saw the shrine burning and the people from the Himejima clan was so close in killing her. I ran towards them and fought them, leaving them barely unconscious and left them to be burned with the shrine.

I brought her out of the shrine and went back to retrieve Shuri-san's body. After that, Akeno ran towards the forest, leaving me with the body of Shuri-san. As a kid, I felt that I was someone useless as I didn't arrived on time and I don't know any healing spells, so I just stayed with Shuri-san. After the fire subsided, that was the time when Barakiel came back from his mission. When he saw the burned shrine, he couldn't help but cry and hug the dead body. Being a useless kid that time, I just watched as he grieved for Shuri-san.

As he calmed down, he asked me about what happened and where's Akeno. I told him and pointed at where she has ran off too. Quickly getting me to prepare, we searched the whole forest for her. But we didn't. We came back to Grigori and the both of us didn't went out of our rooms for a while. Two years have past and we both came out, the only difference is that I went out a week before him. As I went back to the shrine, there I saw, her. Looking around, reminiscing. I called out for her and she turned with a happy smile but I sensed something off.

That's when I found out that she got turned into a devil. Not blaming her about that decision, I still befriended her and that's when we both started falling for each other, or probably, her falling in love with me. After two years, I admitted what I felt and she accepted. That's the start of our relationship, I guess. There were times when she wanted to burst and let her thunders loose, but I would always be on the receiving end. She talks to me about what's happening. Probably usual to human couples. Three years after that, we're still happy. But, I got summoned for a mission that up until now, I still can't forgive myself for accepting.

I was assigned to kill all of the people inside this building, on the outskirts of Kuoh. I accepted it at the thought of all those people inside that building are sinful people. So, I went there and killed all of them. There's this thing inside me that enjoyed it. After a couple of floors full of sinful people, I started to embrace that feeling. I killed without mercy. Hell, I didn't even noticed that there were children inside. After all that's done, I still seek for blood and was about to go out of the building when the door opened.

There, I saw Akeno, gasping and her hands covering her mouth while her eyes are wide and filled with fear. Seeing that sight made me snap back and remember what I've done. I tried, going for her, but she took a step back and shouted all those things that clearly describes me, up until now. Murderer of the innocent, beast, merciless, and a monster who doesn't deserve love. That's also the time when she left everything from her past."

He finished with tears falling from his eyes. Rias, didn't know how to comfort a man, just patted him on the back.

"I... I don't know how to comfort a man. This is the only thing I know, I hope this helps." She said, getting a nod as a reply.

"Y-you must be g-going now Rias-sempai. Its okay to leave me like this here." He said. She is reluctant to leave him but after the bell rang, she sighed and didn't have any other choice but to go. She walked towards the door and was about to open it when she looked back to Takeshi.

"Takeshi-san, I'm sorry if I brought up a lot of bad memories for you. I hope you don't hold a grudge about this." She said before leaving the room and back to her room. As he was left in the music room, he couldn't help but slump down and cry, not caring if he dropped the guitar without any kind of care.

'Is it right to say that much to her? I know that she needs to know those things to her peerage more, but is it really the right thing?' He thought as silent tears run down his face.

'Is this my punishment for being a monster, Akeno?' He thought, not noticing a pair of sadness-filled violet eyes that is looking thru a small gap on the door. The figure wanted to help Takeshi but something is holding it back. The only thing that she could do was cry while watching him bare that burden alone.

"Akeno?" A voice was suddenly heard, catching her off-guard. She quickly turned to see Rias, looking at her curiously.

"B-buchou! What are you doing here? Should you be in class?" The figure, now known as Akeno, asked as she desperately tried to wipe away the tears.

"I was looking for you. What are you doing?" Rias asked, crossing her arms on her chest.

"N-nothing." Akeno said while averting her eyes from Rias. By those actions, Rias sighed as she knew that her best friend is hiding something.

"If you're feeling a bit off, don't hesitate to rest the infirmary." She said as she left her to go back to class. Sighing, Akeno did what Rias suggested.

'Is it really the good decision to leave him with all the burden?' She thought while walking towards the infirmary.

2 days later...

Takeshi walked lifelessly towards a park, feeling his energy leave him bit by bit and maybe, just maybe, the nature around the park would help him bring back those rebellious energies that left him. He reached the park after 5 hours (but in reality, its really just 5 minutes). He quickly looked around to find a spot where trees and plants can surround him, getting him to smile a bit and rush towards there. As he sat, he inhaled deeply, getting the scent of nature as he felt that his senjutsu is stronger there. As he was relaxing, he remembered some things that have happened yesterday.

'Come to think of it, I didn't encountered Miss Gremory's peerage yesterday and there's no further contact after I told Miss Gremory of my past. Something feels odd.' He thought.

'Well, never mind that! I'll just relax here.' He added as he lie down on the grass.

He didn't notice that he fell asleep after he suddenly got woken up by a loud crash. He quickly stood up, looked around to see that it is already nighttime, and walked towards the place where he heard the crash came from. He found a small storage shed after some walking.

'Wait, is there a stray devil there?' He thought to himself as he sensed some demonic energy, missing out the faint fallen energy it also emitted. He slowly walked towards the entrance, careful not to alert the stray devil, and opened the door. He looked around and saw some tools used like ladders, pails, brooms, and some other things used to keep the plants healthy and the cleanliness of the park. He walked cautiously towards the back as he felt the energy is much stronger there.

When he reached the back, the organized things before are now in ruins. He scratched his head as he know that if someone caught him going out of the storage shed, they would think that it was him who messed it up. He sighed at that thought and started removing and placing the things in order. For quite a while, he reached the end, but what he saw shocked him and made his heart stop.
...

...

...

...

"Akeno?"

A/N: And... another cliffhanger! Sorry for the delay guys. I was actually planning on finishing and posting this chapter on Saturday, but being sick for a week makes small things like this harder. And then, I was about to finish this chapter yesterday as I regained some of my strength but I got hooked on a TV show and, apparently, didn't started my laptop to continue. So, for compensation, I made this chapter much longer for you guys to enjoy. Also, please check out the updated version of the Character Bio, as I forgot some important detail there. And, Happy Chinese New Year for you guys! Well, I'm just greeting in case some of you do celebrate Chinese New Year. Anyways, stay tune for the next chapter! Peace out! - Frost