Chapter 11: Competition

A week passed in relative calm, Issei had finally become accustomed to having Rais living with him. The pair often travelled to the Academy together which Issei often felt was odd as it would of been far faster to go by Transport circle but Rias often called it a waste of energy when he made that point, Issei didn't question the fact that she used a Transport circle whenever she was travelling alone. Well Issei was accustomed to living with Rias; he most certainly wasn't comfortable about it. He was constantly plagued by thoughts that were often both enjoyable but costly to have if he ever acted upon them. He wasn't a fool he knew that on some level Rias felt something for him otherwise she never would have ended up naked in his bed but she had never mentioned it just like he had never brought it up both simply finding it easier to say nothing at all. Issei had his own reasons for not saying anything, his primary reason being that he spent far too much time in hiding. Issei felt he had no right to try and push or something, no matter how small, when he spent so much time actively avoiding Rias and her Peerage he felt like too much of an outsider for it to be acceptable to stand by Rias' side at an intimate level. Instead Issei simply wanted to make himself useful.

Unsurprisingly he was most often coming to Asia aid who had spent every day after school under the care of Koneko who had been tasked with improving Asia's stamina. She did this by making the blond Bishop run endless laps around the Academy's sport track. Koneko was merciless, making Asia run far more laps than Issei ever remembered running in a single week let alone a single day. He had felt bad that Asia had to do it alone so he had taken to doing several laps beside the girl doing his best to encourage her when she begged him to ask for a break knowing full well Koneko would refuse if she asked. Issei had thought about it for a moment but decided on another form of training for Asia, one Koneko adopted once she had learned of it. His proposal confused her for a moment but she slowed her run a touch, not enough for Koneko who was running laps past them to notice before closing her eyes and trying to use her Sacred gear. A green aura flared around her and instantly Asia felt better, so much so that she moved faster than before, Issei moved to catch up but after a few more laps Issei noticed a smile form on Asia's lips as determination filled her eyes as she learned of a way to train without constant pain. Unfortunately her sorrow had returned the next day when she learned that her ability to heal her pain didn't remove the aches that came the next morning and that was something she couldn't heal when she had classes especially because the aches always moved and shifted no matter how much she healed them in secret when she got the chance.

Issei hadn't just helped Asia and Inadvertently Koneko with training. Issei also found himself working with Akeno on transitioning his work into more in line with the Peerage as a whole which most meant retraining Titus to fill task Familar's like Moon fulfilled it was mostly much the same as he did before it was just done in a more effective manner in a fashion Rias preferred. This was due to the fact that after working together Rais had decided to take over Issei's own work, assigning him Pacts much like the rest of the Peerage. It was one of the things Issei was glad for as it granted him more free time. Freetime which was eventually taken up by Yuuto and Koneko when she wasn't training Asia. It began on the second day not long after Issei had helped Asia that Issei was ambushed but Yuuto who demanded he train with him, Issei agreed due to not having much else to do and the pair headed for the area behind the old school house. There they fought each other at first just going hand to hand, an area that Issei had the advantage, by the second day Yuuto brought a training sword which even the odd slightly but Issei was simply the better fighter yet Yuuto seemed to enjoy the training so Issei wasn't going to refute him.

The calm week was ended abruptly after classes during one of the Peerage meetings where Rias explained the proper way of attaining a familiar, claiming it was time for Asia to get her own familiar promising to make the arrangement when the door to the club house were open loudly and a group of 7 students walked in 6 of which were female with one lone male. The male stood off to the back wall, a bespectacled stern woman stood in front of the group looking over Rias' Peerage with a critical eye. Her gaze fell finally on Rias and she gave a small incline of her head in greeting. "Rias."

"Sona." Rias replied, giving the same incline of her head. "What brings the student council to our clubhouse?"

Sona regarded Rias with a measured expression. "I heard you had added a couple of members to your Peerage and came to observe them for myself, especially after all the commotion I heard them to be involved in."

Rias smiled sweetly as she regarded Sona's own Peerage. "I see I was not the only one to add to my collection."

"Quite, this is my pawn Genshirou Saji." Sona said as she gestured her hand towards the sole male member of her Peerage.

Genshirou walked towards Asia reaching for her hand with a sure smile only to have Yuuto hand catch his own, judging from the look of pain that flashed over Genshirou face Yuuto wasn't using a gentle grip. "It's a pleasure to meet you Genshirou. I'm Yuuto."

Genshirou pulled his hand free with a look of disdain for Yuuto who smiled brightly. Issei walked behind Genshirou putting his hand on his shoulder smirking darkly. "Be sure to leave Asia alone. OK , we wouldn't want to overwhelm her."

Asia's pleas that she was Ok, were outshadowed by Genshirou's arrogant outburst. "I took four pawns you should watch yourself."

Rias' smile was victorious as Sona signed heavily. "Genshirou that Issei Hyoudou. He's Rias' pawn and he took all eight."

Despite the revelation of how many Pieces he contained, Issei's wicked smirk twisted into a full on grin as took Genshirou's hand. Sparks seemed to literally fly as the pair stared off with one another. It wasn't until both kings cleared their throats that the pair backed off from each other. Rias smiled at Issei fondly. Sona gave Genshirou a gaze that promised pain. "We will discuss the error of your ways at a later time Genshirou. As for you Rias, my primary purpose of this visit is to inform you that my Peerage is claiming the right to travel to the Familiar forest this full moon so we can get a Familiar for Genshirou. I hope that won't cause any issues."

Genshirou seemed to shiver in fear at Sona's promise as Rias took a turn at sighing. "That is unfortunate. I had planned on visiting myself, you see Asia here is in need of a familiar as well, seeing as we can't both go why don't we have a little competition. The victor gets first rights at the Forest well the loser waits until the next full moon."

"Agreed. But seeing as neither of us would be granted permission for a Ranking game, why don't we settle this using more mundane methods."

Raising an eyebrow Rias cocked her head. "What are you suggesting?"

"We select a sport, no powers, just skill and stamina."

Nodding once Rias agreed and so began the debate on what sport they should select. It took far longer than it should have done but they firstly settled on tennis. One of Sona's Peerage acted as the referee which likely already slanted the odds in Sona's favour however not long after the first couple of set the rule of no powers went out the window as both sides used everything they had at their despole until the inevitable end came about, the match ended in a tie. The tennis rackets were unable to withstand the punishment the pair threw at it. Unwilling to let such an end occur, the two kings disappeared off to decide on a new sport to play, returning several hours later announcing their decision…Dodgeball.

A couple of hours later Issei started to wonder if all the gym classes he had skipped might have been worth going to as he stood against the gym wall not quite sure what he was supposed to be doing. Well Issei didn't know the rules of the game all that well; he did know that the Kings had decided to do a winner takes all. So all his team needed to do was win. The same member of Sona's peerage as before was once again refereeing as Sona had one more piece than Rias so she stayed out to make things even team wise. The referee blew her whistle and Genshriou ran from the back wall they started on to collect a ball and throw it towards Issei's lower region with an arrogant smile, going off the name of the game Issei dodged out the way the ball bouncing away behind him. The game moved quickly with very few members of either side going out, their heightened devil reflexes made it easy to dodge the soft rubber balls. Eventually Yuuto moved beside Issei, a ball in hand. "What are you doing?"

Dodging another ball, Issei looked towards Yuuto. "What do you mean?"

Yuuto was quiet for a moment before he threw his ball, getting lucky and hitting one of Sona's Members. He then looked around to see if anyone was gonna him before he turned to Issei. "You're only Dodging, if you caught the balls or even threw some of your own we could be doing better."

Issei froze for a moment before he looked at Yuuto as the game started to make more sense then he caught movement out the corner of his eye and he stuck his hand out. A light pink rubber ball impacted it. Issei gripped it in his hand as it tried to bounce away. The referee got the attention of the thrower and gestured her off the court before Issei found another member who wasn't paying him any attention. Issei threw the ball hitting his target in the side of the head, there was an audible sound of impact and those who saw the throw winced slightly. Yuuto who was also wincing well slowly backing away from Issei spoke softly as not to bring attention to himself as their opponent focused into Issei with murder in their eyes. "Headshots don't count and it's kinda taboo to go for one."

Cursing under his breath Issei returned to dodging as the whole opposing team seemingly ganged up on him throwing a seemingly endless supply of balls his way, he caught a few and sent some back quickly catching on that catching a ball brought a teammate back in as the throw got taken out. However catches were far more common than hits so the game seemingly entered an endless loop, that was until Issei got a break from his onslaught. Looking around Issei saw more balls on his side than on Sona's, others on his team moved to collect some balls and Issei did the same. Time seemed slow as the Peerage attacked. Each marking their own targets, Rias and Issei stood side by side as they hit the same target. As if getting payback for his previous attempt both rubber balls seemed to impact together directly into Genshirou crouch making him double over in pain. The referee blew her whistle loudly which seemed to pause the game. Some of Sona's members helped Genshirou to the side before Sona moved to Rias and regarded Issei. "That was foul play."

Rais shrugged, smirking slightly. "It was a happy accident. Call it pay back for hitting on my Bishop earlier."

Sona sighed before gesturing to the small gathering of her Pieces. "Whatever. It doesn't look like Genshirou is gonna be able to keep playing so I'm bringing Reya back in. So we'll have to call out our own hits that seem fair."

"Seems fair to me. Call when you're ready and we'll start again."

Sona nodded and the groups collected all the balls, placing them in the middle of the gym before getting to the back walls and calling out they were ready. The teams waited a moment before moving, Koneko and Yuuto from Rias' raced to beat the majority of Sona's team to the balls. Issei stayed back with Rias, Akeno and Asia all of whom lacked the speed the Rook and Knight had, Issei had the speed but he also felt he would bet more of a target the closer he got to the side border so he kept back making sure that he had enough room to dodge or catch where necessary. Sona's team beat Yuuto and Koneko to the balls picking them up or moving them up onto their side of the court, wasting no time the pair retreated only to be ignored as Sona's team did as Issei expected and targeted him. Throwing numerous balls his way trying to get him to dodge into a ball with well practised teamwork. Unfortunately for Sona's team Issei was able to dodge everything they sent his way, but they hadn't solely focused on him, instead taking other members of Rias' team off guard when they changed from targeting him to hit one of the less moveable members of the team. They took out Akeno and Asia well. They still had a full team but lost all their balls in the meantime, it had been Yuuto who took the initiative to collect the balls rather than throw them, although Koneko threw the occasional ball just to lessen the chance that Sona's team would notice what they were doing. It didn't work of course as the team backed away and spread out.

Having the ammunition they needed Rais' team started to fight back taking out three members in quick succession but had to dodge the quick return fire. Koneko got too eager and got hit keeping the team even. A moment later Yuuto got hit by two balls before Issei could take out one of the throws. Rias got the other a moment after Yuuto had been taken out which left Issei and Rias against Sona, Sona had the ammo and started an assault on the pair expertly throwing multiple balls at both keeping them on their toes. The balls moved too fast and with too much force to be able to be caught but the pair used balls of their own to block strikes they couldn't dodge. Eventually it was Rias that got the winning blow hitting Sona in the thigh as she tried to dodge one Issei's throw making her lose her balance and fall to the ground. There was a moment of silence before Rias' team cried out in victory, Rais ignored them helping Sona to her feet nodding to her with respectful words passing between them silently before Sona solemnly led her Peerage out the gym hall. Rias turned her own Peerage, a smile wide on her face proud of them she then led them away back to the occult club where she told them that she would be making the arrangement to travel to the Familiar forest. Issei's eyes moved to where he knew the student council building was a bud of an idea forming in his mind as he followed behind Rias' Peerage unable to shake the feeling that he wanted more.