Chapter 23 R-18+

"Rias is waiting inside." Sona said calmly.

"Thank you" I said politely before walking into the room.

When I arrived at the room I was curious what the Gremory heiress was like and immediately spotted a beautiful young woman with long red hair who was around my age if not a bit older which caught me off guard.

"So you two are the members of the church that Issei mentioned." The red head said with a business-like smile.

This was the legendary little sister of Maou Lucifer, Rias Gremory and I could tell she was arrogant just by looking at her.

"Yes we are. I am Irina Shidou and this is my partner Xenovia Quarta." I said politely before bowing.

"I am Rias Gremory and this is my peerage." Rias said calmly as she motioned to the other girls in the room.

I immediately noticed that the black haired girl was a fallen angel and the white haired girl was a nekomata but when I noticed the two blondes I was barely able to contain myself.

One was the witch Asia Argento but the other girl was glaring back at me and if I didn't know any better sizing me up.

I had a feeling that if something were to happen it would involve those two women, but I hoped not.

"Ufufufu shouldn't we wait for Issei to arrive." the black haired girl teased catching me off guard.

"Akeno, this has nothing to do with Issei. This is devil business and Issei is decidedly human." Rias replied much to my relief. I didn't want Issei involved with this if I could help it.

"Alright" the now named Akeno chuckled.

"Anyway let's get back to business" I said calmly. "I'm here because a few weeks ago, a party consisting of rogue exorcists and fallen angels broke into Orthodox, Protestant, and Roman Catholic Churches and stole objects that were very important to the church. The church managed to trace the thieves to Kuoh and sent us believing that the ones responsible for the theft are in this town." I said calmly.

"I hope you don't believe we are responsible for such a thing." Rias replied with very clear annoyance in her voice.

"We do not believe you were directly involved. Since you're the sister of a Maou, we would hope that you wouldn't engage in such activities. What we do believe, is that whoever the thief is, he intends to use what was stolen in this town." I said diplomatically keeping a few critical details to myself.

Rias was clearly annoyed but she kept her calm and stared at me with a cold glance, "If you don't mind my asking what was stolen?"

I twitched big time since this was one of the details I didn't want known, "The thieves stole three fragments of the Holy Sword Excalibur. My partner and I are holding two more and a sixth one in the Church's possession is in a separate facility." I admitted.

Rias's eye widened before turning to the blonde that was giving me the stink eye before turning back.

"If I remember correctly there are seven fragments. Where is the last one?" Rias said calmly.

She was very smart to ask that actually.

"It's in the possession of the Pendragon Family of Knight's in Europe. I can assure you that it's safe." I replied.

Rias looked at me calmly before speaking again, "Well Ms Irina, Xenovia I can assure you that we were not involved and we would very much like to find out what culprit is acting amok in my city." Rias said arrogantly.

I twitched heavily at Rias referring to Kuoh as her city but I stayed focused on the task at hand, "That will not be necessary. We just wanted to make sure you didn't interfere in our investigation." I replied.

Rias was clearly annoyed but stayed calm, "Very well then. I thank you for speaking to us." Rias replied diplomatically.

"President we shouldn't let them leave so easily. This is a chance to destroy a disgusting Holy sword that those two shouldn't be able to use." The short haired blonde said angrily.

"What's that supposed to mean." Xenovia replied angrily. Sure enough the blonde was going to start something.

"Oh, so you're going to deny the existence of the Holy Sword Project now?" the girl said much to my shock.

"That's quite the peerage you have Ms Gremory; the witch Asia Argento, a fallen angel, and a survivor of the Holy Sword Project. Perhaps my superiors were right to be nervous." Xenovia said bluntly causing me to twitch more.

"What was that" a girl with short light-brown hair interrupted escalating things even further.

"Ufufufu you're a bold one." The fallen angel in question said angrily.

Just great I lost control of this whole mess.

"ENOUGH" Rias said angrily her power radiating seemingly stopping things in their tracks

"Sorry President" Akeno said bashfully.

"Well I'm not. I think you need to learn a lesson in respect." The short haired blonde said angrily.

"Fine with me. Let's take it outside" Xenovia countered. Good grief I was afraid of this.

When Xenovia gets started it's nearly impossible to stop her.

"Good grief." Rias groaned and I agreed with her knowing that letting this happen was the smartest thing we could do.

(Scene Skip)

Our group walked to the side of the old building into a small clearing that would do nicely for our attacks. "I'm assuming this will be fine" Rias said calmly.

"Yes it will" Xenovia replied.

"This is all you Xenovia. I don't want any part of it" I said firmly.

"That's fine." The blonde replied. Things were about to get very ugly.

"Actually no it's not" a new voice said angrily.

All of the sudden Issei appeared in the middle of the clearing and he was not pleased if the look on his face was any indication.

"Issei what are you doing here?" the short-haired blonde said nervously.

All of her anger appeared to be gone and it was replaced by nerves. What's going on here?

Issei walked over to the short haired girl and put his fingers on her chin an action she easily accepted, "Actually I'm just a clone, but the boss sent me to watch over you guys and make sure nothing stupid happened. Clearly he was right to be worried." Issei replied with a look of annoyance on his face.

"I see" the girl said bashfully turning away from Issei. Yeah something is off.

"If you don't mind Red Dragon Emperor, we were about to fight." Xenovia said bluntly catching me off-guard.

Issei pulled his hand off of the girl before walking over to Xenovia calmly, "Actually Xenovia I do mind. You see I'm rather fond of Yumi here and I know her emotions are running on high because of what happened to her recently."

"What happened?" I asked nervously. Oh this can't be good.