Don X Don (High School DxD Miracle Child SI Chapter 8)

The next meeting with Gabriel was very different than Xenovia expected.

"Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to my brother, Metatron." Gabriel said, smiling in amusement at the children's expression.

Milo, Rachelle and Xenovia looked around the empty room in confusion.

"What brother?" Asked Milo.

"Mother," Rachelle elbowed Milo, without looking. "Where's Lord Metatron?"

"Right here, de gozaru." Metatron spoke from behind them.

"AAAAHH!" The girls shouted as they jumped in fright.

"Holy shit, he actually says 'de gozaru'! Hahahahahaha!" Milo also jumped from scare, but was more interested in laughing at Metatron's dialect.

Xenovia Quarta (17 Years Old)

Over the past four years quite a lot of things changed in Xenovia's life, and seemingly the Church as a whole.

For starters, Father Galilei-Xenovia remembered him from that talk Milo had with Sister Griselda asking about Father Cornelius' character-had apparently been declared heretic and excommunicated from the Church. He had been found to have skipped his reassignment to Australia, and secretly went ahead to conduct his unethical experiment, the Holy Sword Project.

The project was shut down definitively when the Seraph Gabriel herself, descended on the project's secret location, like the wrath of God, and smote all the evil heretics that participated in that horrible experiment.

All the children were thankfully rescued and relocated to a better home, this time supervised by someone actually virtuous. Xenovia heard that occasionally Father Strada would go visit that place, to look at how things are going.

Sadly, Valper Galilei, the Mad Holy Sword Researcher, had managed to escape the Seraph's raid, as he hadn't been in the facility at the time unfortunately.

As for things in Bolsena church, not much had changed on the surface, beyond Rachelle and Milo not being seen hanging out as much, but it was taken as children just having different interests growing up.

Rachelle publically, became more withdrawn into her studies, with her duties of blessing and healing, taken up by the rest of the nuns and priests. In truth of course, she was constantly undertaken Lord Metatron's training. The first type of training he had her take, was exclusively physical training, to strengthen her body, so she could handle her Holy Power, which had finally plateaued after all this time. It was through this that she started her training in controlling her Holy Power, and got better at using it.

Milo seemed to have actually taken well to the stealth training. Xenovia thought that he might have finally found his niche. Lord Metatron said something about how Milo had good breath control. Milo could now usually be seen sprinting along the border of the town as part of his daily training.

And as for Xenovia herself, she couldn't take to stealth training, but parkour and free running seems to have been something she found herself taking a shine to.

The only other change around the Bolsena church was...

"Boo! Found you, Xenovia." Irina said jumping down from a tree branch near Xenovia startling her from her search.

"God dammit, Irina!" Xenovia shouted, losing her hold on concealing her presence, and losing the trail of the Light point she was following.

Lord Metatron had made a training course where he hit several points of Light through the church and town, and the three kids-teens now-were tasked with finding and tagging those points, without being seen by anyone.

Rachelle was seemed to be most adapt in this game, surprisingly enough, even with her large Holy Powers. Milo was second after the Miracle Child in being skilled in this game, with Xenovia coming in last.

Mostly though, this is because of Irina Shidou. Three years ago, a year into Metatron's training, a new Exorcist and his Exorcist -in-training daughter joined the Bolsena church.

Xenovia didn't think much of it at the time. Another pair to protect the Miracle Child. Not a big deal.

Oh she was wrong. She was so very wrong.

Milo and Irina should never have met. She sheer amount of hyperactivity that would at times escalate to-Xenovia shuddered-pranks was unfathomable.

While Irina didn't have the full picture of the trio's training, like who created it and assigned them to it, Irina followed Milo's request to disrupt the stealth-scavenger hunt training at random, in order to "improve" it. The annoying thing was how Irina was able to insert herself into their training, simply because she was a natural at it.

Milo once joked at Irina could probably hide she was a girl, and no one would know. Xenovia didn't get the joke.

At least it's not Lady Gabriel bombing my training this time. Xenovia thought.

That was the other thing. Lady Gabriel had taken easily to Lord Metatron's stealth training. Or maybe she just trained more without Xenovia and the others knowing. But Lady Gabriel had gotten so good at sneaking around, that at times she would suddenly appear out of nowhere.

"Hey, I came to get you for the mission. Aw, you failed this time, that's a shame." Irina said.

"Not if I complete the exercise before the mission briefing." Xenovia grumbled. She would have to go back to the start, to gain the trail of the Light points again, at least she knows their locations up to this point. ...Unless Lord Metatron came and changed the order again.

"You have like ten minutes." Irina said apologetically.

Xenovia clicked her mouth, cursing under her breath.

"I can't believe they're making us hunt Vampires on Christmas Eve." Irina whined.

"Hey, maybe we'll discover the meaning of Christmas, while we're stabbing the bloodsuckers in the snow." Milo chuckled.

"We know the meaning of Christmas, Milo. We're Christians, we're Exorcist of the Lord. We invented the meaning of Christmas!" Irina exclaimed, to which Milo laughed out loud.

"Can you both take this seriously, it's our first mission." Xenovia clicked her tongue. This would be the first time she would venture on a mission, without Sister Griselda supervising. "We need to be careful, and ensure we complete this without any errors."

"We'll be fine." Milo waved her off. "Relax, being too stiff will lead to mistakes. And yes, I know," Milo raised a hand before Xenovia could call him out. "Being too relaxed would lead to us slacking off, or letting our guard down, but you are serious enough for all three of us. So tone it down." He grinned.

"No, no, I have to agree with Xenny on this. This is serious face time." Irina tried to look fierce. Judging by Milo's reaction of looking away, as his shoulders shook, while covering his mouth, it didn't work.

"A-Anyways," Milo took a breath. "Let's meet up at the church gate in ten minutes. Ready everything and prepare by then."

"But we have all our gear." Irina asked, confused.

"Toilet." Milo said and left, to which Irina scowl but nodded.

Xenovia understood what Milo was doing, since Irina wasn't privy to the real relationship between Milo and Lady Rachelle.

And so with a excuse of her own, Xenovia left to check on her lady. The Miracle Child should be fine while she was away, as Sister Griselda and the other clergy will be around.

"Hey," Rachelle said as she reached one of the many secret meeting places were she and Milo would meet. "I heard you're going on your first real mission today. Be sure to stick with Xenovia and Irina, okay? Use only the Light Guns, and don't get hit." She said in concerned tone.

"Seriously, relax. First Xenovia, now you? Whose the most durable out of all of us again?" Milo joked. While a surprise, while doing Lord Metatron's physical training, Milo showed the most stamina and endurance during said training.

"You are still only human," Rachelle went and fussed over Milo, checking on him and closing his jacket. "Honestly what were they thinking of sending you on a mission, today of all days?" She growled out under her breath.

"Yeah, no one wants to go Vampire hunting on the day before their birthday after all." Milo chuckled. "But the bad guys never rest, so we can't either. Besides, it's only two towns away, so if all go right, we should be their and back by tomorrow."

"Yeah..." Rachelle look down, frowning at Milo being away. But he should be safe, right? Father Cornelius himself chose this mission, so it should be okay, right? Rachelle thought. "Milo-"

"Here." Milo interrupted Rachelle by holding up a present.

"This is..." Rachelle took the small box and opened it to show a bracelet.

It was made of leather, and had drawing of red and green snakes on each of the intertwined bands.

"It took some work with Lord Metatron finding a skilled enchanter, but emergency bracelet that would teleport you away from a dangerous situation. Although that's not its main function." Milo explained.

"So what's it suppose to do?" Rachelle looked up at Milo, only to see him sporting the same bracelet on one of his wrists.

"It's a matching set, one of the snakes is suppose to light up if the other person is in danger. Red for me, green for you." Milo said.

"Why is mine, green?" Rachelle in childish petulance, but was obvious she was just joking.

"Because it reminds me of your eyes." Milo said back unashamed.

Rachelle blushed and looked away.

"Well, I also have something-" Rahcelle began, about to get Milo his birthday present.

"Let's leave it for tomorrow." Milo said, making her look up in surprise, a bit hurt. "It will give me a surprise to look forward to for when I get back."

"I-I...y-yeah." Rachelle looked down to hide the smile on her flustered face. She then felt a gentle hand patting her head. She looked up to see Milo's confident smile.

"I'll be back before you know it." He grinned.

Rachelle gathered herself up, before speaking with her usual confidence.

"I expect nothing less from one of my protectors." She with a 'serious' tone.

"Of course, my lady." Milo 'bowed', and turned to walk away before he laughed at their act.

Yet before he turned, Rachelle moved and hugged him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Milo also hugged her back.

"You absolutely need to live, okay? If things look dangerous, just run." She told him.

"Don't worry," Milo said. "Your 'protector' is strong after all." He then kissed her cheek.

The two separated, with Rachelle sneaking back to her room, while trying to hide her red face.

"Thanks for waiting." Milo said to Xenovia who was hiding behind the corner of the building. "Looks like all that training with Irina helped you get better."

"It was Sister Griselda's advice on hunting." Xenovia shook her head. "You're being too forward with Lady Rachelle." She warned. "Lady Gabriel would be most displeased if you hurt her daughter."

"Not if she approves." Milo smiled back to the shock of Xenovia. "Besides hugging isn't a sin."

"Still..."

"If things escalate in that direction, I'll just marry her. That makes everything right." Milo went ahead to meet up with Irina to head on their mission.

"Wait, you'll what!?" Xenovia ran after him.