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Isaacbloodstorm1 - To be honest after looking back on it, I kind of exaggerated his response.

He is simply the type of guy who will just bluntly tell you an idea is stupid and will just explain why. Were it not for him though, this story probably wouldn't have made it this far.

That being said, he told me to tell you that he likes ur input :)

"Batter up!"

Baseball. One of the few American sports to actually have an audience outside of the US.

And so, here was the Occult Research Club, practicing a few rounds of baseball.

Why, you may ask? Simple! The school was going to have a tournament soon, one where all the school's clubs would compete in various sports— and Kuraima had a sneaking suspicion that the Student Council would be eager for round two after their little battle for the rights to go to the Familiar Forest.

Kuraima kept up surprisingly well with his fellow club members, considering that his opponents were all Devils that surpassed the limits of most highschoolers.

Helenski watched from the sidelines, sitting out from the game for…reasons.

A few minutes ago…

Helenski stood, bat in hand, ready to swing.

"Come on Sola-san! I believe in you! Just swing as hard as you can!"

The ball came flying at her, and with a nervous yelp, she swung.

And boy, did she swing!

That ball flew into the sky, and that was the last anyone saw of that particular ball as it disappeared with a twinkle in the sky.

At least, the last anyone saw of it, until after school when Kuraima would discover that a rather unfortunate Cru Staion had just so happened to "catch" the ball whilst on the other side of Kuoh.

No words needed to be spoken, as the arm cast would spell out the rest of the story for them.

Back in the present…

After that one particular incident, they came to the hesitant conclusion that maybe having Helenski play ball was kind of just…well, straight up cheating.

Other than that, things went quite swimmingly!

That is, until it was Kiba's turn to catch the ball.

"Kiba! You're up next!"

Rias swung the bat, sending the ball in the blonde swordsman's direction…

…and he completely whiffed it, snapped out his deep train of thought when the ball bounced off of his head.

"Kibaaa! C'mon man!" Issei shouted, "You gotta get your head in the game!"

"Ah…sorry. I've just got a lot on my mind right now."

As Rias called for them to take a break, Kuraima walked up to the blonde swordsman.

"Hey, Kiba. After school, let's have another practice session. You seem like you need a distraction."

"…Sure, Kuraima-senpai. I appreciate it."

Some time after school…

Kuraima and Kiba stood across from each other, wielding wooden swords as they both took up combat stances.

"You seem well-practiced in your stance."

Kuraima gave a playful smirk, "One of my gangsters has a sword-based Sacred Gear as well. Maybe you two should spar sometime?"

Kiba gave a small smile, "That would be nice."

Rias stood by, here to make sure nothing got out of hand.

"Ready…start!"

With her declaration, the two went at it, their wooden training swords clashing.

Compared to Ai Sore, Kiba was still pretty fast thanks to his status as a Knight piece.

However, it was still enough that Kuraima was able to keep pace. Besides, Kiba was probably holding back, being a sparring match and all.

Their swords continued to clash as they swung around. Were their blades not mere wooden training swords, sparks would be flying everywhere by now.

Kuraima had to admit…this was weirdly kind of thrilling!

In Kiba's place stood a rather buff-looking man with wildly long hair that flowed in the wind.

'Ah, the samurai visions again.'

The air around them smelled of iron. Yet despite the pungency, it was weirdly tolerable.

"You're an eager one, trainee!" Despite the person's barbarian-like appearance, he spoke with a seemingly carefree, almost jovial even, fanged grin on his face.

Their blades collided, sparks showering upon the trodden ground. 'Not-Kuraima's' oriental blade versus this barbarian's large scimitar.

The two jumped back away from each other, and each went for slashing maneuvers.

It was clear this man was holding himself back just to have a fair fight, so—

"Now, trainee! You should never let your guard down, lest…"

The blade began to glow with a strangely familiar aura. Was that…[Rage]?!

"…Your opponent pulls a fast one!"

And he charged forward, swinging widely—

Kuraima was brought out of the visionary trance by a twinge of pain as the wooden training sword flew from his hands.

"Whoa! Kiba-san! This is just—"

He saw Kiba's eyes, beholding a dark aura of torment within them.

"…K-Kiba…?"

His opponent dropped the training sword, activating his [Sword Birth] to materialize a much actual, far more sharper blade.

"Woah, woah, WOAH! KIBA!"

SCHWING!

"Kiba! Stop this right now!" Rias Gremory ordered. But her words fell on deaf ears.

Kuraima's Balance Breaker activated, a suit of chainmail covering his body. Sidus formed in his hand…

CLANG!

The blonde swordsman snapped out of it when his blade was only mere inches from Kuraima's neck, the Astral Student having just barely managed to stop the oncoming attack with his own sword, his hands trembling from the impact.

"I…huh?"

"Kiba! What is wrong with you?!" Rias demanded, grabbing Kiba by the shoulders.

"I—"

"Rias…" Kuraima put a hand on Rias' shoulder, "Go easy on him."

"But he could've—"

The Astral Student shrugged halfheartedly, dispelling his armor. "Killed me? True, but I'm the one who challenged him to a duel, Rias. I figured that he had a hatred for holy swords…I just didn't think the issue ran that deep."

The redheaded Devil sighed, "You're way too nonchalant about almost losing your head, Kuraima-san."

"Oh, Rias, trust me," He huffed with a pained smile on his face, "I'm barely holding on right now."

He looked over at Kiba, who still looked quite uneasy.

"…Kiba…I know you're going through a lot at the moment but…can you at least tell us what's up? What exactly is going on here?"

The blonde swordsman sighed, "I guess I should."

And so, Kiba laid everything out on the table for him.

"Me and many others had been taken in by the Church as orphans. We'd all thought our lives would've turned around, but…"

He clenched his fists.

"We were nothing more than lab rats. They started doing experiments on us."

Kuraima wiped off the sweat from his brow. "That's…uh. Wow."

Kiba continued on. "They wanted to make artificial holy sword wielders. None of us were qualified, so…"

The Astral Champion was able to put the dots together.

"…They killed all of you." He finished.

"Correct, I'm only here because the President gave me a second chance at life."

"And the Church allowed this?!"

"After the culling," Rias interjected, "Word reached the higher-ups. The lead researcher and his cohorts were excommunicated from the Church as a whole, though their current whereabouts are unknown."

Kuraima sighed.

"…That's fucked up on so many levels. How were they allowed to do that in the first place?"

"The Church was desperate. As you know, Longinus-class Sacred Gears are extremely powerful, but the problem is that they're limited to one user at a given time."

The Longinus. Kuraima had read up on those— named after the spear used to pierce Jesus Christ on the cross; the title of Longinus was given to any Sacred Gear with god-slaying potential.

…and to think Issei was amongst those lucky enough to wield one.

Rias continued, "So they sought to create something that could bridge the power gap."

"…And so they were willing to excuse the child experimentation but drew the line at child murder? Why children in the first place?!"

Rias sighed. "The Church regularly takes in orphans as it is much easier to train them into fully-fledged exorcists. As for why those involved in the Holy Swords project were killed, we can only speculate."

Kuraima looked over at Kiba again.

"…Hey, Kiba. We'll get through this together."

"Huh?" The blonde swordsman was abruptly pulled out of his depressed stupor.

"I've already vowed to help my housemate with her own revenge arc. What's the harm in joining one more?"

Kiba chuckled at that. "Heh…thanks, Kuraima-san."

"…I did tell him that…but where would we even begin?"

Kuraima walked down the sidewalk, deep in thought.

He thought he had quite a bot to worry about before, but now with the addition of Kiba's vendetta and the indirect warning left by Helenski's dad, it was starting to pile up.

He sighed. With any luck, maybe things would just fall into place.

"Maybe I'm just worrying too much."

Looking across the street, he noticed a good number of people gathering at a recently opened local artist exhibit.

'Paintings of Holy Figures Exhibition? How weirdly on point with the timing. Might as well.'

He followed the crowd inside, looking around.

"We've gotta find them!"

"Search pattern, go!"

…What?

Kuraima looked over to see some faces of varied mild familiarity.

The Kuoh Academy's Manga Club members, the ones responsible for all the Kiba x Issei yaoi doujinshi.

He could only guess that one of the artists here had caught their attention.

And soon, he saw why—

Hanging on the wall was a depiction of the Joan of Arc in the style of an ancient Chinese painting.

The flowing lines, the way she held her banner up in the air amidst the flames of war, golden locks of hair billowing in the wind behind her…

It felt mesmerizing. It felt…alive.

'Holy. Shit.'

"Big brotha."

Kuraima was snapped out by a familiar voice as a certain familiar rushed up to him in her human form.

"…Mochi?"

He looked up from her to see that Champ was also there.

The two stared at one another while Mochi quietly grabbed Kuraima's hand.

"Uh…fancy meeting you here." The former mob boss said, half-heartedly averting his gaze.

"I could say the same to you, Champ. Why are you here, anyways?"

"Perfa."

"…Perfa?"

She nodded towards the picture on the wall.

The gears in the Astral Student's head began to turn.

"…SHE made that?!"

That was when he finally noticed the little card off to the side that displayed info about both the artpiece and its artist.

Heavenly Saintess Joan of Arc, Oil on paper, by Anonymous (17)

Ah, so THAT'S why the Manga Club was so fired up. They were looking for this so-called "mystery artist" with the intent to recruit them simply based on their similar ages.

"Yes. Were it not for my…investments, she'd be our biggest source of income."

"Where'd she learn to make art like that?"

"I don't know much of her past myself, but up until she joined us, she was raised by a retired martial artist who had ties to a Chinese mafia."

Kuraima raised an eyebrow. "Martial artist? Like in Wuxia stories?"

"Not too far off. It's more akin to Xianxia, though it's incredibly rare nowadays because of just how time-consuming it is."

"…Oh, neat. Say, since we're here, do ya wanna just hang out?" He asked with purely platonic intentions.

Deep down, Champ internally screamed, but outwardly, she had a persona of indifference to maintain.

"…Y-Yeah, sure."

And so, the two walked side-by-side with Mochi tagging along, blissfully unaware of the devious gazes of the Manga Club's members.

So this chapter turned out pretty short. I thought I was finally going to get to the church girl meeting, but looks like that will be in the next chapter.