A Wild Freed Appeared

Human World, Japan, Kuoh.

Following the meeting with Irina and Xenovia, everyone went about their business like normal. At night, Rias' peerage did their jobs as devils and fulfilled wishes for humans. Tonight, because Yuuto had a lot on his mind. Needing some time to think, Yuuto decided to walk home, instead of teleporting, from his last job of the evening.

"Damn it!" Yuuto muttered to himself. "I know that the swords weren't to blame for what happened to me and my friends, but I can't control this anger now that I know they're nearby."

Yuuto continued to mutter to himself while he was walking home. However, he came to a stop when he felt a familiar aura.

"One of the fragments is nearby." Yuuto said while turning his head toward the origin point of the holy power.

Without hesitation, Yuuto began to sprint in the direction of the holy power. A few moments later, he caught sight of a human with white hair standing over a few teenagers with a holy sword in his hand.

'Is that one of the Excalibur fragments?' Yuuto asked himself internally while he approached. 'I'm not supposed to interfere with the Church girls' search, but he's gonna kill those people if I don't do something.'

"You kids have been really fucking naughty." the white-haired man said in a manic tone. "Summoning devils is such a naughty thing to do. I think you need to be punished."

As the white-haired man raised his sword, he came to a sudden stop. Then, he turned his blade to his right and swung down.

*Clang!*

*Shatter!*

Using the sword in his hand, Excalibur Rapidly, the white-haired man was not only able to block Yuuto's sneak attack, but he shattered the demonic sword he created as well.

"Well, well, well." The white-haired man said while tapping his sword over his shoulder. "If this isn't one of those shitty devils working under that redheaded bitch."

"If I were you, I wouldn't let James-Senpai hear you say that." Yuuto said with a solemn expression.

"What does it matter?" The white-haired man said while holding his sword out. "With this pretty little child, I'll be able to cut devil scum to shreds to my heart's content."

Then, the white-haired man wrapped his arms around the sword and hugged it tenderly like a loved one. This, however, allowed Yuuto to see the face of the assailant. Thanks to the slight glow from the holy sword, Yuuto was able to make out the face of the psycho priest they were all warned about.

"Freed Sellzen, so, you're back." Yuuto said while creating a new sword.

This time, the sword created had the attribute of holy power absorption.

"[Holy Eraser]" Yuuto said quietly while glancing down at his new sword. "Let's see how this does against one of the Excalibur fragments."

"Oh~~! That's quite the pretty sword." Freed said as he looked at the sword with a pitch-black blade, spikey golden handguard, and a golden hilt. "I think I'll add it to my collection after I cut you up."

"It remains to be seen who will be cut up." Yuuto said as he dashed toward Freed.

"Nope!" Freed exclaimed as he vanished from his spot. "You're too slow. There's no way I won't be able to cut you up, you shitty devil."

The next instant, Freed appeared behind Yuuto with his sword slashing down. Before the sword connected with its target, though, Yuuto also vanished from his spot.

"What?" Freed exclaimed in confusion. "How did you get away? I'm supposed to be fast now."

"So, that must be Excalibur Rapidly." Yuuto said to himself while staring at the Excalibur fragment in the psycho priest's hand. "It really does make the wielder faster."

As Yuuto muttered to himself, Freed threw a tantrum over not being able to cut the devil in front of him.

"He said this sword would make it so no devil could dodge me." Freed said unhappily. "I went through with that damn old man's experiment just so I could use these swords. And this is all the result I get."

"Experiment... To use... Holy swords?" Yuuto said while freezing up for an instant. "It seems I can't let you go."

"Let me go?" Freed said with a manic smile. "I don't think you understand how this works, you shitty devil. You won't be leaving from here, tonight."

Then, once again, Freed vanished and reappeared to Yuuto's left. As he did, he was swinging his sword upward from his left to his right. In response, Yuuto simply took a step back and tilted his head back slightly to completely avoid the sword strike, followed by an upward slash of his own. With his strike aimed at Freed's wrist, Yuuto was trying to force the psychopath to release his sword. Even if he did not, Yuuto was all right with cutting off his hand.

As Yuuto expected, Freed tried to jump away first. However, he realized that he would still lose his hand. So, he shifted the sword uncomfortably to block the slash. Unfortunately, he lost hold of the sword due to his unstable grip.

Using the momentum created when he was still holding Excalibur Rapidly, Freed flew into the distance. As Yuuto was about to give chase, he heard four gunshots. Realizing that Freed was shooting at the four teens from before, who had not been able to run because of fear, Yuuto gave up on chasing Freed. Instead, he dashed at his top speed to intercept the light bullets. As he did that, two shadows dashed past the discarded Excalibur Rapidly. Then, they dashed into the darkness after Freed.

"Did those Church girls just take advantage of my hard work." Yuuto asked himself in blank amazement. "Well, not that it matters to me. I only fought that psycho to protect the humans. It's a shame I couldn't capture him, though."

Shaking his head at the failed capture attempt, Yuuto contacted Rias and explained his encounter with Freed in detail.

"{I see, I'm proud of you Yuuto.}" Rias said, her tone indicating that she was smiling. "{You didn't allow your thirst for revenge to take over. Instead of forsaking the humans, you let go of your revenge to save them.}"

Hearing Rias' assessment of the situation, Yuuto finally realized that he did not lose his rationality like he usually does when thoughts of revenge cross his mind. Instead, without thinking at all he chose to save the nearby innocent people.

"{Well, stay there for now.}" rias said. "I'll send Akeno to erase the humans' memories of the incident.}"

"Understood." Yuuto responded absent mindedly.

Meanwhile, Dante was hiding not far away from the location where Yuuto and Freed's brief fight took place.

"He's gotten better." Dante said while watching Yuuto from the branch of a tree. "I really thought I would have to step in to save them."

Then, Dante pulled out his phone and called James. After a few moments, James answered the call.

"{Yo, what's up, Dante?}" James asked in a cheerful tone. "{Any news to report?}"

"Yeah, that sword kid from the Gremory peerage ran into that psycho priest, stopping him from killing four kids from another high school." Dante said nonchalantly. "Surprisingly, I didn't have to step in to save those kids when the nut job targeted them while escaping. The sword kid gave up his pursuit on his own."

{That is surprising.}" James said in a serious tone.

"What makes it even more surprising is what that psychopath said during the fight." Dante said, pausing for a moment to build tension. "He said the old man that snuck into the town with him experimented on him so that he would be able to use the Excalibur fragments."

"{Oh, now that's really interesting.}" James said in an intrigued tone. "{With that information, I think I can piece together who the old man is, then. I'm probably not the only one either, Kiba probably knows as well.}"

"One last thing, Those Church girls followed after the priest." Dante said nonchalantly. "They took the Excalibur fragment as well."

"{Don't worry about the fragment.}" James said. "{Just monitor the chase. There's no need to step in, but if they're about to die... Try to save them as long as it doesn't endanger your own life.}"

"Got it, Boss." Dante said sarcastically.

After that, Dante ended the call with James and moved to follow Freed once again. The rest of the night went on without incident. The next day, however, Irina and Xenovia showed up at the ORC again. And they were less than amused.

"You agreed to not interfere with our search, didn't you?" Xenovia shouted angrily. "If so, then why was one of your devils fighting with our target?"

"Watch your tone, exorcist." Rias said unhappily. "What my [Knight] did was save four innocent humans from the blade of that psychotic stray exorcist. He did no such thing as interfering with your search. In fact, if it weren't for my servant, I'm sure you would have never even located him."

"Xenovia, she's right." Irina said, trying to calm her partner.

"*Sigh* I know that." Xenovia said unhappily. "I'm just a little frustrated because we lost Freed."

"Either way, now that you've said what you wanted to say, is there anything else or will you be seeing yourselves out?" Rias said in a dry tone.

"We'll be seeing ourselves out." Irina said while she pulled Xenovia away.

"Well, that happened." Issei said, not sure of what to make of that encounter.

"Just leave them be." Rias said while waving dismissively. "We were asked to stay out of it, and that's what we'll do. Until something big happens, anyway."

"Got it." Issei said.

At the same time in the MMA club, James and Flora were overseeing the training of the club members.

"So, what do you think those two are planning with the fragments?" Flora asked.

"They're probably trying to find a way to fuse them." James said with a shrug. "I mean, why else would they steal them all?"

"I guess that makes sense, but why here?" Flora asked in a confused tone.

"Now, that right there is the million-dollar question." James said with another shrug. "There's no way I could know before hearing it myself."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Flora said as she turned her attention to the training club members. "Hey, Shimazaki, what are you doing? If you're going to half-ass it, you should just go home!"

Chuckling at his [Pawn], James found it had to believe that this would be their last year attending this school, Kuoh Academy.

At the same time, Mio and Maria were standing off to the side of the training hall. Well to be more precise, Maria was working a heavy bag while Mio stood nearby as they spoke to each other.

"Something big must have happened." Mio said as she stole glances at James. "I wonder what it is."

"I'm not sure." Maria said while raining down blows on the heavy bag. "But if it had anything to do with us, I'm sure James-Nii would tell us."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Mio said unhappily. "I just don't like being left out of the loop."

"Well, if you came to a decision about joining Rias-Nee's peerage, we might possibly be in the middle of this whole mess." Maria said while wiping away her sweat with a towel.

"I know, but it's hard to trust them, fully." Mio said with her head lowered.

"I know, but if they're anything like what I've heard about the Gremory House, then you don't need to worry about it." Maria said with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Mio asked with clear confusion in her tone and expression.

"From what I've heard, the Gremory have the most familial love of any clan of devils in the Underworld."

"But there's no way to know if that's true." Mio said with a frown.

"But if we don't do something, we have no way to find out if it's true, either." Maria said, looking at Mio with concern. "Besides, we'll never know why our father was exiled from the Gremory House if we don't join Rias-Nee's peerage."

"In response, Mio only lowered her head and clenched her fists.

"More importantly than that, we'll be better protected from our father's enemies if we join them." Maria said, concern was still evident in her expression.

"I get it." Mio said in annoyance. "We'll except her offer after the mid-terms. I still need time to adjust my mindset."

"Good decision!" Maria exclaimed as she leapt to hug Mio.

"No, don't try to hug me." Mio said while running away from Maria. "You smell like sweat!"

"Aww, you're making me sad, Mio." Maria said while chasing Mio around the training hall with a laugh.

On the other side of the hall, James, Mizore, Moka, Flora, and Shuna were gathered as they watched the sisters run around.

"It's good that they're less tense than before." Shuna said with a smile.

"Yeah." James replied with a smile before sighing. "I hope they make their decision soon; things are starting to get crazy around here."