The next morning Issei and Mash were walking to school. While they were walking, Issei couldn't help but keep glancing at Mash. She was wearing her new Kuoh Academy school uniform and seeing her in it excited him to no end. This is really happening, he thought to himself.

As his mind wandered in bliss the school was coming into sight and other students were gathering. They all saw the pair walking to school together and began whispering among themselves. As Issei and Mash walked into school, they were greeted by a member of the student council. "Hello, I'm here to pick up Kyrielight-san and take her to introduce her to the faculty. She will return when first period starts."

"All right. See you later Mashu." Issei gave her a soft smile.

"Y-yeah. See you later Sen- I mean Issei-san," she said awkwardly.

(Mash) I guess it would be hard for me to call Senpai by his actual name after calling him Senpai for so long, not that I have anything against it.

Issei chuckled. "Don't worry. You'll get used to it." The two left and soon Matsuda and Motohama rushed to him.

"All right, spill! Who was that and why were you walking with her!?" Matsuda yelled.

"How did you get a cute girl like that to be near you?!" Motohama yelled while adjusting his glasses.

Issei simply smirked at the duo. "You will see later on. Why would I spoil it now?" he said casually.

(Kiryuu) Ha! That's so mean. He's just letting it eat them up inside.

(Issei) Yeah, but sometimes they really deserve it. Especially since those two always end up using me as the punching bag to vent out their frustrations.

He began walking off as the duo began cursing him and the other students were talking among themselves about what they saw. Some time passed and eventually first period was about to begin. The teacher walked in and began class. "Now before we begin class today, I have an announcement. We are getting a new transfer student today."

The class began to stir with excitement over the news. "A new student?!" "I wonder who it could be?" "I hope it's a cute girl." "Maybe we can get a handsome boy finally, we need more to counter the perverted boys in this class." Everyone kept speculating who it could be.

Issei and Kiryuu had small smiles on their faces watching everyone's reactions, since they knew who the new student was. After a bit the teacher calmed the class down and continued. "All right, that is enough everyone. Let's let them introduce themselves. You may come in now." The teacher spoke loud enough so that the person on the other side could hear them.

The door slid open and a girl with lilac hair and a white fluffy animal on her shoulder walked in and to the front of the class. Many of the students recognized her from seeing her the past few days and some turned to look at Issei who had a wry smile on his face. Once she was up front, she introduced herself.

"Hello, I am Mash Kyrielight. Or I suppose it's Kyrielight Mash since you do last names first in Japan. And this little one is Fou. It's nice to meet you all," she said with a bow, her nervousness evident in her voice.

(Sona) Wait, she brought a magical creature to class with her?! Is she trying to expose the Supernatural?!

Sona as well as some others were surprised by what they could only see as a reckless action. Mash herself felt embarrassed but understood where they were coming from and was also wondering what her other self was doing.

"Now then, we will have the class ask a few questions before we begin. Does anyone have a question for Ms. Kyrielight?"

Immediately almost every hand in the room shot up. The teacher pointed to one of the students and she asked. "What is your relation to Hyoudou?" Many heads nodded in class wanting to know the same thing.

(Issei) Here it comes.

His voice sounded less than optimistic about what the result of all this would be, and the others looked at him with sympathetic expressions.

Mash's face turned to a blush, and she looked over to Issei. He had a complicated look on his face but eventually gave her a look that said to say whatever she wanted. Seeing his face Mash resolved herself and said seriously. "I am Issei's girlfriend." The fact that she said it without faltering made the class go silent in shock.

Everyone watching was impressed with Mash's resolve. The girls felt a bit jealous that they never were bold enough to say that to the other students, for fear of what they might do to Issei. Rias especially felt a tinge of regret for not standing up for him in a similar way before, especially now that it's too late because she graduated. Issei himself was staring intently, waiting to see how his classmates would react.

Many of the students couldn't believe it. It didn't make sense for someone to go out with a pervert like him. Immediately after that someone else jumped in before they could be called on. "But why, him?" There was notable disgust in her voice.

The DxD girls glared at the screen for that comment. They all loved Issei too much to let him be described like some piece of trash.

Mash frowned, clearly displeased with how her Senpai was viewed. "Because I love him." The class was shocked into silence again. Mash continued, now determined to speak her mind. "Senpai has done a lot for me. More than anyone ever should have. Because of him I'm able to experience things I never would have gotten the chance to. He saved my life and asked for nothing in return." She looked hard at the class, her gaze sweeping across them. "From what I saw the few times I visited before becoming a student, I saw how poorly you all treated him. Even if his preferences are less than decent, so what? Last time I checked people were more than just their preferences. I wonder, what does anyone here actually know about Issei Hyoudou besides his taste in women?" Her gaze was cool but still displayed her displeasure.

The class was silent. They couldn't refute what the girl had said, and they knew that asking anything that made Issei look bad would make her more upset, so they stayed quiet. The teacher, sensing the atmosphere, tried to change the mood. "Ok, I think that's enough. Ms. Kyrielight you may take a seat where there is one available."

Once again, the viewers were in awe of Mash's boldness. Her speech spoke volumes of how highly she treasured Issei. The FGO group knew about what the other Mash was referring to, and Ritsuka felt like his Mash probably felt the same way about him, even if things differed slightly. The DxD group felt like they had made a mistake now for not stepping in sooner for their Issei. Everything Mash said was true, but they never thought to say that to others, probably because deep down their moral compass agreed with the other students to some degree, despite them ignoring it for their relationship with Issei. As for the man in question, Issei didn't know how to respond to what was said. It was always something he thought to himself but never vocalized because he thought it was a pointless endeavor. But here was someone defending him in a way he had secretly always wanted, and he just felt, warm.

(Rias) It's regrettable. We kept these things to ourselves because we knew how the other students would react, but here we have someone who was brave enough to tell them all they were in the wrong without worrying about how it would make them look. It makes me feel like we've been neglecting a problem that could have had a simple solution the whole time.

(Kiba) True… We all knew Issei-kun had a reputation beforehand and Issei-kun himself was already used to it, so we ignored it as something that we didn't need to deal with. But maybe that was us just being careless, like last time.

The ORC all looked downcast remembering when they yelled at Issei for not understanding Rias' feeling, completely forgetting that Issei was going through his own emotional troubles and more or less ignoring it until it became a problem for both him and Rias.

(Mythos) Hate to twist the knife here, but you all are rather careless when it comes to Issei in general.

This comment earned him a few glares, but no one refuted him.

(Mythos) Hey, I'm just calling it like it is. I've mentioned to you before how there are other creators like me out there, right? Well for some odd reason, that I personally don't understand or find interesting, a lot of other stories about your world that other creators make, are about how poorly you all treat Issei, with some going even as far as you all betraying and/or abandoning him.

This shocked the entire group, their faces painted with horror at the very idea (minus Vali, who only seemed vaguely interested). They would never do something like that to Issei. Most of them would rather die than let that happen, but as they have seen on screen, things can change drastically depending on the circumstances.

(Mythos) I've skimmed a few such universes just to see what was going on, and let me tell you despite how dark some of them went, the thing that stuck out to me the most was how many different starting points there were for many of them. While I don't personally agree with some people's view of you guys, I would be lying if I said I didn't see where they were coming from with their view of the situation. Personally, I would be pretty upset if I were in Issei's position during those times, but as someone said earlier, Issei was so used to being talked down to and berated that he didn't see a problem with it. It's almost like Stockholm Syndrome, except not nearly as extreme, or with the attachment issues.

The others didn't know what to say. They had thought they were treating Issei well considering everything that he had done for them, but maybe that was just their own selfish perception. Issei himself didn't say anything. He didn't look at anyone. He was just lost in thought about how he was treated and what he saw on screen earlier. The others saw him and didn't know what to say so they all decided to continue watching while they thought about what they should do in the future.

Mash nodded her head and went to the back of the class and took the desk next to Issei. When she got there, she gave him a warm smile which he returned. Fou who had been silently sitting on Mash's shoulder jumped onto Issei's and got himself comfortable. The class looked at their interaction and were perplexed. After that interaction, classes went on like normal. Mash demonstrated her knowledge, and the class was impressed with her academic abilities. Some were also curious about Fou and saw how well behaved he was. Soon lunch came around and many of the students wanted to talk to Mash and hang out with her. She didn't know what to do and looked over to Issei for guidance but saw that he was dealing with his own sort of trouble.

"So she was the one who sent the love letter! C'mon man tell us how you did it!"

"Share the wealth man! You can't keep this to yourself."

(Kiryuu) Those poor idiotic fools.

Issei nodded, wordlessly agreeing with Kiryuu.

(Sona) So everyone's just going to ignore the fact that an unknown creature is in the room?

(Tsubaki) Seems like it, Master.

The perverted duo were shaking Issei, trying to get him to magically give them the answers to getting girls. The other students were giving the three cold stares. "Seriously, don't those three idiots ever learn?" "It's a miracle we can survive being in the same room as them."

The girls were trash talking the perverted trio as they usually do. Mash started to become upset again, so she walked to the trio surprising the girls in the class. The duo hounding Issei became quiet when she walked up. "Senpai, do you want to have lunch together?" she said with a gentle smile on her face.

Issei smiled back while releasing himself from his friend's grip. "I would love to." He grabbed his stuff, and they went to the courtyard to have lunch. On the way out Mash gave a cold glare to the girls who were talking bad about Issei earlier and they looked down ashamed.

(Akeno) She handled that rather expertly.

(Irina) To think the solution was so simple.

The two girls spoke regretfully as the other girls nodded in agreement.

"You didn't have to do that, you know," Issei said as they were walking down the hallway.

"Thank you for worrying about me, but it's like I said before. I'm your girlfriend, you are all that matters to me."

"I'm glad, but that is a slippery slope to walk. I don't want you giving up friends just because they say a few mean things about me. I'm used to it."

"But you shouldn't have to be!"

Those lines stung more than anything else that was said recently. It just reminded them of their own passiveness to the terrible situation.

Issei had a grateful smile and brought her in close. He ignored the stares of the other students and spoke again. "You're really too good for me," he said softly. Mash blushed heavily but smiled. The two continued on and enjoyed the rest of the school day.

There was a moment of silence as the scene began to change, but it was broken by an unexpected person.

(Gasper) Are we, bad friends?

Gasper sounded like he was on the verge of tears and the others didn't have a response. Issei wanted to comfort Gasper and say they weren't, but even he realized that whatever he said would sound hollow to them. Since no one seemed like they were gonna respond they went back to watching the screen. All the while the FGO group felt really awkward watching the drama unfold next to them.

Of course I say I'm stepping away from writing for a bit but then I'm suddenly overcome with motivation to write again. My brain hates me. Well, at least this chapter was short and easy to write so no complaints here. Also for anyone who's reading too much into my characters comments on stuff, this isn't aimed at anybody and I'm not trying to stir up trouble, these are just my opinions. For people who are curious as to what's gonna happen with the characters who are reacting and learning all these meta things, I'll try to pay them off during each intermission (no promises though, that's not the point of this react series). Anyways I look forward to the comments as always. : )