Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!

When it came to combat, Xenovia and Irina as a whole were equal.

That was why Irina was Xenovia's perfect sparring partner right at the moment, in order for her to test out how large the boost in ability was. Both girls were standing apart from each other in their combat uniforms, Xenovia was boosted, and Irina was not. Since they sparred all the time to grow their skills, the simple fact was that nobody was better than Irina at figuring out how much Xenovia was being enhanced by.

Both were using their holy swords, but both girls were using the flats of the blades.

"I'm ready whenever you are." Irina gulped nervously. She wasn't going to get hit by the sharp part of the sword, but Xenovia used a big sword. Her arms were going to be sore by the end of it, no matter how she looked at it. They were standing a good 100 feet apart from each other. 'With my speed and weapon, I should be able to travel 80% of this before she travels 20%... with her enhancement, if the boost is big-' Irina stopped thinking.

Xenovia shifted her foot.

Irina shifted her foot as well, and like that both girls rushed off towards each other at full speed.

CLANG*

'So heavy!' Irina raised her sword to block as she took a defensive stance right away. She looked at where she was standing, and she was being pushed back by Xenovia's arm strength. She had barely been able to react in time to block the attack. '... She's at least 3 times as fast as before... but her strength... she's got to be like 5 times stronger.' Irina's arms were trembling just holding Xenovia's sword back, as the bluenette pushed the advantage on her.

So she diverted the blade and swung at Xenovia's side, even with the gap between them, the gap wasn't so wide that she couldn't go on the offensive at all. Her attacks were always faster and sharper, aimed with precision, unlike the brute force that Xenovia tended to use in many situations. Xenovia was skilled with a sword, but considering how huge her swords always were, there was less of a need for precise movements when large sweeping strikes were just more efficient.

Irina abandoned her attack though and went back on the defensive.

Xenovia had recovered from her sword being diverted at such a high rate, that she was already back on the offensive too. Irina had to block her next strike, abandoning her own strike or else get hit before her attack would hit Xenovia. Her sword was knocked out of her hand and sent flying, her hands shaking from the shock that traveled through her sword and into the bones of her hands.

"Aaah... ow... that smarts." Irina hissed as the spar ended there, once her sword was impaled into a tree nearby. Xenovia stabbed her own sword into the ground, and she flexed both of her hands intgo fists and looked at herself, a large smile quickly working onto her face. "That was insane, I know you're faster than me when you aren't using a huge sword, but I didn't think you would get such a big boost that you would be faster when you ARE using it." Irina hadn't expected such an insane jump.

'My reaction time was so fast, even though I was moving faster when I've ever moved before, I felt like I didn't have any trouble reacting.' Xenovia was just amazed by her own huge jump in stats. She was the physically superior between herself and Irina, but her choice in weapon slowed her down and made them closer to equals, with Irina being the faster and her being the stronger.

She and Irina were both stunned.

Xenovia felt the power boost fade away, when Naruto didn't feel she needed it. The yellow life force faded away off of her skin as it left her body, and she felt herself slowly going back to her usual strength. In response, she looked over at Naruto who was rubbing the side of his head in annoyance.

'Right, he has to keep focused in order to keep my body enhanced.' Xenovia wanted to ask if Naruto was okay.

Naruto gave a peace sign.

"Okay, I can keep 2 people buffed and keep my focus, I was about right. If I have two people buffed though, I won't be able to heal anyone." Naruto stated, because it took about half of his focus to keep Xenovia buffed. If he had to buff 2 people, it would be impossible for him to keep them buffed and heal anyone that needed healing. If he were only buffing 1 peprson, he would be able to split his focus between those two tasks for sure.

Himari nodded in approval of his self-assessment of his own skill.

"Okay, this makes it an easy choice then... Naruto... please do the same thing to me that you did to Xenovia." Irina turned and bowed to him politely. She wanted to see the results of the buff before she went through the same thing Xenovia did, but now that she saw how dramatic the enhancement was and felt it for herself, she could put up with being naked. In thet short spar, the gap between herself and Xenovia had been widened so far that she wouldn't be able to compete against her.

She managed to defend herself for a short amount of time, but that was a testament to her own skill, and not power between the two.

"He... help me."

"Huh?" Irina stopped what she was saying when a weak voice came out of the trees. She wasn't the only one, everyone was alerted to a voice. The air became quite when Yuuto came out of the woods, covered in blood. She and Xenovia didn't do anything to help, because they recognized him. 'He's the devil who was glaring at us when we visited Gremory.' Irina noted.

She wasn't the only one who noted it.

'He was the guy who looked like he wanted to kill us...' Xenovia looked over his injuries.

They were severe.

He had stab wounds and slash wounds on his body, and his right arm had been completely severed from his body. He had barely managed to get to them before his legs gave out. The wounds were inflicted by a holy sword no doubt. That left it pretty clear that he had chased down or encountered the man who was wielding the Holy Swords that were stolen, and had lost to him, but managed to escape with his life.

"What happened, how did you get so hurt?"

"I... disobeyed Rias... went after the Excalibur swords... by myself... found the guy..." Yuuto explained the best that he could. Naruto was already healing him, but his wounds were inflicted by a holy sword. They weren't wounds that he could easily heal, since the swords inflicted a special kind of damage against devil. Still, Naruto managed to stop the bleeding. "... Went rogue... planned to destroy the swords, all of them."

"He went rogue... if he went rogue, then he is no longer affiliated with the Gremory family. That means he needs to be put down." Xenovia started to approach Yuuto with her sword back in her hands. Irina wordlessly approached Yuuto with the same look in her eyes.

"I'll kill you both... and destroy your swords." Yuuto glared at them as they approached him.

He had a lot of hate in his eyes.

Naruto stopped healing him.

"You two, I won't help you if you kill him when he can't fight back... and you... I'm not going to heal you if you plan to attack them." Naruto put his foot down as he stood back up straight. He stood between Yuuto and Xenovia. Rogue Devil or not, Yuuto had some mental issues that were causing him to act out. Naruto didn't know the guy that well, but he was a polite and kind boy usually.

Xenovia nodded her head and backed off.

"If he attacks us first, then we can kill him?" Xenovia asked him, and Naruto glanced back at Yuuto.

"Yes, if he attacks first, I won't stop you from protecting yourselves." Naruto wasn't foolish enough to hold self-defense against Xenovia. Irina seemed disappointed, but she nodded her head when Naruto looked towards her as well. Naruto looked back at Yuuto, who sucked his teeth and seemed upset.

Still, he nodded his head.

"I will destroy those swords one day." Yuuto affirmed, but he removed the part where he would kill the girls wielding them. That was good enough for Naruto. Naruto didn't return to healing him though. "... I won't attack them, so heal me!" Yuuto pleaded with Naruto.

"I already healed you enough so you won't die. I can't regrow your severed arm, and I can't reattach it without the arm here. Go to Rias, your life isn't in immediate danger anymore. If I heal you, you're just going to try and fight again." Naruto was done healing a man that would throw his life away against an opponent he had little chance of beating.

Himari joined his side when she saw Yuuto glaring at Naruto.

"Her healing won't put me in fighting condition though! If I go back to her, I'll be forced to recover before I can fight again... put me back into fighting condition! This is the entire reason I came to you!" Yuuto was so angry. He had come to Naruto so that he could be healed and go back to fighting right away.

Naruto leaned down.

"I don't care about what you want. I'm not going to heal a man who plans to throw his life away. I'm not helping you commit suicide. You'll die, but I'll have to live with the fact I helped you kill yourself." Naruto didn't want Yuuto's death to haunt him. Yuuto stood up and leaned against a tree, and he glared at Naruto. He looked down in shame for a second, Naruto wondered what was going through his head that caused him to look down in shame. Still, he went back to glaring at Naruto.

"I can't go back to Rias. I disobeyed her, I went rogue... I'll be killed if I go back, so just heal me." Yuuto explained.

Naruto didn't believe that.

"We both know Rias will accept you if you go back to her. She's not going to kill you. I'm done healing you... your desire to throw your life away is not my business." Naruto turned around and started to walk away.

Yuuto's heart broke when he was denied.

"... Please... I need this... you have to help me, he killed my friends, I was the only survivor... We were experimented on... I can't go on living without my revenge. Please don't deny me... You don't know what it feels like to have the people you love killed... when you couldn't do anything to protect them." Yuuto had tried being angry, he had tried lying to get his way, and now that Naruto was still refusing to help him, he only had a single option left.

The total truth.

"I see, he was apart of that project from that twisted Valper." Irina covered her mouth in sympathy, because she put together what Yuuto was talking about. She looked towards Xenovia, who was waiting to see what Naruto would do.

Naruto didn't respond at all.

"I'm not healing you anymore than this, go away. I'm not helping you commit suicide." Naruto continued to walk away.

Anger, Lying, Honesty, and all of that failed.

"If you don't help me, I'll kill myself... right here and now." Yuuto summoned a sword and held it to his own throat. He would use his own life as a bargaining chip to get Naruto to heal him. In the end, if Naruto didn't heal him and let him fight, then his life was forfeit. He didn't want to go on living in a world where he couldn't get his revenge. He gained hope in his eyes when Naruto stopped walking away.

Everyone waited with baited breath.

"... If I heal you, you're going to get yourself killed. If I don't heal you, you'll kill yourself. I can't heal you, because you're going to attack innocent people." Naruto looked at Xenovia and Irina, who were targets on Yuuto's list of people. He had to protect innocent people as his top priority, and these two girls were innocent in whatever revenge Yuuto wanted. "... and I can't ignore you, because you're innocent too. Just... do everyone a favor and kill yourself then." Naruto gripped his fists.

That was not the response anyone expected.

"If you life is worth so little you'll throw it away, then your life isn't worth protecting." Naruto wouldn't do it.

Guilt tripping didn't work either.

"Stop trying to force him to heal you, when the Young Master has truly made a decision based on his convictions, his mind isn't so easy to change." Himari crossed her arms and looked down at Yuuto. Naruto was walking back to the apartment building, and the exorcist girls were following him. It was clear that Naruto wasn't going to side with Yuuto. Himari turned and looked at Naruto and everyone leave.

When they were gone, she stayed by Yuuto's side.

She walked so that she was standing behind him.

"... Just kill me... If I can't avenge my friends... this was my only chance to avenge them. Please, put me out of my misery." Yuuto heard the sound of Himari drawing her sword. He closed his eyes, and he made the decision to accept death. If anyone would kill him, it would be the samurai girl who knew the value of honor and avenging friends.

Himari readied her sword.

The next moment, Himari's aim was quick and true.

A body slumped to the ground, unmoving, a second later.

Chapter End!
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