Chapter 5

With yet another responsibility put on my shoulders, I began a new day.

I decided to not bother Asia about her decision, I'll just wait for her to let me know when she's ready to talk about Rias' offer. I did give her a cell phone, the poor thing didn't have any way to contact us.

Today is class day, so another day that will pass by without me noticing, thanks to the routine.

-O-O-O-

I was wrong, today turned out to be a special day, it all began when I was getting ready to leave for the dojo.

"Issei, we have a mission to do today. There have been reports of a Stray Devil in the industrial area of the city. I want us all to go there so you can see how we work as a group during a fight."

This seems to be a great opportunity to see how far I've gotten with my training, both the stamina one and the one with Sadao-sensei.

"Sure thing Buchou." After answering her, I started to get ready. There wasn't much to do, just warn the dojo and my parents that I'd be late thanks to club activities.

Similar to me, the other heard Rias' words and got ready, Akeno put away the tea set, Koneko put on a pair of gloves and Kiba started warming up his arms.

Once we were all ready, we got close together in the middle of the room and, a few seconds later, the glowing red light of the magic circle took over the room and we were off.

What we found once the light dimmed was a dark road, the sun had already set and some of the light posts were malfunctioning, however, this didn't bother us thanks to being devils, but it was a clear death trap for any humans passing by, especially with a stray running around.

Our task here was to find and deal with the stray, we didn't have any information on precise location, so they all summoned their familiar and let them loose to see if we could find it before it found another victim.

It didn't take long before Koneko's familiar, a small white cat, came back and started leading us towards a side of the neighborhood.

Our walk ended in front of a warehouse, looking at the outside, it didn't seem different from any other, and that is considering that some of them had markings that made it clear that they were used during the day.

Once we got confirmation that there was only the stray devil inside, we got in. Rias didn't want me to fight yet, so she made me stay by her side while the other three took care of our target.

Said target showed up as soon as all five of us were in the warehouse, it turned out to be a female.

She was, what I could only describe as a centaur, the creature that had a human's torso and head atop a horse's body.

The stray looked to be young, with short white hair and very big breasts, enough to make me give them a double-take, especially because they were free for all to look at. What made her ugly was her expression, she had a maniacal grin, with her long tongue moisturizing her lips.

"I smell something bad. But I also smell something delicious. I wonder if it's sweet, or if it's bitter?" Upon her words, the three that would fight got ready to attack, they were only waiting for Rias' orders.

"Stray! You've caused plenty of damage in my territory, we came here to show you that a measly stray devil should try to mess around the territory of others… Kiba you go first, Koneko help him, Akeno you'll hit her from afar." After her words, the fight began.

Kiba, being the fastest, got to her first, he swung his sword towards her front legs, however, the centaur dodged by raising them, her counter came in the form of an attempted stomp upon the blonde.

While Kiba dodged it Koneko took the opportunity to get close and connect a punch to her enemy's stomach, the stray flew onto some wooden boxes that littered the warehouse, but that hadn't been enough to take her down.

We saw that when a pair of high-pressure green liquid came flying towards us from that direction that she had crashed.

Right after them, she came charging, holding two spears, one on each hand, her target was the small girl who had attacked her.

Unfortunately for her, her charge was interrupted by a lightning bolt, courtesy of Akeno. The stray gave the black-haired teen a hateful glare, which turned into a snarl as magic circles appeared on her nipples, seconds after the same double jet of liquid flew out, now headed toward Akeno.

The queen took the threat calmly, she released her wings and flew up, leaving a melted wall where she stood. The centaur wasn't happy, she let out an angry scream and looked to find another target.

She found Kiba, and much like before, she charged him. The knight also didn't panic, he got into a stance that, once she got close and struck with her spears, made it easy for him to deflect, thus making her attack go towards the floor, leaving both spears stuck.

The stray panicked, she was in a vulnerable position, with both of her weapons stuck. Yuuto didn't miss the opportunity, he struck at her arms, he found no resistance since she was more concerned with the spears.

She got paralyzed by the pain, which gave an opening for Koneko, who punched her in the stomach again, sending her flying. This time, just to make sure, Akeno released a bolt towards her crashing position and electrocuted her.

We didn't see any movement after that, but they still stood alert. Once the dust settled we could see the stray, she was laying on top of broken boxes, she was bleeding out from both of her shoulders and her body twitched every once in a while.

Since it appeared that she was unconscious, Rias made us get closer to have a look to see if the stray had died or not.

It turned out that no, she wasn't dead, but she was close to.

"Congratulations, you beat me… Now please, end this, I'd rather go than live mad as I am." The stray seemed to get some semblance of consciousness, something that surprised us.

"Very well." Rias created a ball of raw destruction power, she didn't even hesitate in releasing it on the maimed centaur lady. I guess she has had to do this a few times before because the way that she is taking this situation is too cold to be her.

With the stray dealt with, we were free to continue our night, however, before that, I suggested that we went somewhere so we could take our minds off of the happenings of the evening. It was too late now for me to keep with my schedule.

"Buchou, why don't we go out to get something to eat? As a group, I think it would be nice after what we've to deal with tonight." My prompting brought out smiles from my fellow peerage members, I guess that I wasn't the only one disturbed by the death of this lady.

"Yeah, that would be nice."

With her agreeing words we all, once more, teleported away.

-O-O-O-

We showed up at the club's room, we left our stuff there and we chose to go somewhere close to it so we wouldn't need to use magic to get there.

Since everything was packed, we left quickly after arriving, no one had any semblance of what had transpired, we looked like a group of students that ended up losing track of time while doing some school work.

The school grounds were empty, it was too late for anyone to be there, the same could be said about the streets surrounding the building, it was calming for us to walk in what was our base.

That calmness didn't last long, this had turned into a very annoying night.

The first showings of something amiss were the changing of the sky's color, where once was the night sky, now we saw it as a solid purple color, we could see any speck of light, indicating stars or satellites.

What followed it was the most telling event.

"Well, well, well… Look at what we have here. A pretty little group of devils, walking happily in the silent night." The voice came from the ceiling of the building that was in front of us.

When we looked up we saw four Fallen Angels, the one that took the lead was a male, he had short hair and he wore a pale gray trench coat, the most telling feature of him were the two pairs of black feathered wings that rested on his back.

To his left, was a girl with blonde hair styled into twintails, she wore a Gothic Lolita attire which, combined with her small stature, made her look cute.

On the building directly in front of them, but on the other side of the road, we could see the other two fallen, both females, one was tall and buxom with long, navy blue hair, while the other was familiar to me and to past Issei.

Raynare was there, her gaze was solely on me, it looked as if she didn't even realize that I wasn't alone.

All of the women had only a pair of wings, which made it clear that the man was the biggest threat.

"You haven't come across a pretty blond nun, have you?" The male fallen continued.

None of us showed a reaction at the mention of Asia, we were too tense to even register his words.

These four were dangerous, we could take them on but they could also kill any of us easily, we'd have to be careful.

"No, we have not seen any nun. And if we had, I don't think ours would be the best company for her." Rias, being the leader, answered them.

He didn't like her answer, either because he didn't believe it or because he did, we wouldn't know, for his next action made it all go to hell.

"In that case, we don't need you here… Kill them!"

With his command, the four of them took flight and started to form light spears. I don't think this was the best option for him to take, but it doesn't matter anymore.

"Be careful, those will hurt you more than you think," Rias warned us at the sight of the holy weapons.

"What do we do, Rias-sama?" Akeno was the one to urge her into action, unfortunately, her answer was delayed by us having to dodge their attacks.

Alongside their ranged attack, the four plunged into us. I didn't have time to see who went for my companions because Raynare focused solely on me, just like before.

The spears that she threw were easy to dodge, a simple jump backward solved that. The tricky part came with her charge.

She had an advantage over me, I couldn't fly yet, and I didn't have a way to attack her from afar. Luckily she didn't seem to want to play for her advantages.

"Long time no see, Issei-kun. Didn't you like our date?" She started once I dodged her attack.

"I thought it was fun, too bad that you ruined it at the end, Yuuma-chan" My answer made her mad, I don't know why.

"You're the one that ruined it! Couldn't you just have accepted my request and stayed dead?" Once again she formed light spears, this time she made only one.

"I'm sorry for that, I don't think you're worth that much." My attempt at a taunt made her charge me again, now she was similar to the centaur lady, her complexion was of utter rage, as she screeched and aimed the spear at me.

I know that this time I wouldn't be able to dodge, but as if Ddraig saw the same, the Boosted Gear gauntlet showed up, with the red dragon immediately giving me a boost.

Now twice as fast, my body managed to move enough that I blocked her spear with my cladded arm.

Raynare didn't expect that, the Boosted Gear served as an excellent countermeasure to her holy attribute, the spear didn't leave a single scratch in it.

With her attack mitigated, and her now in a disadvantageous position, I struck back. It was a simple downward hook, but it connected.

My newfound devil's strength and the multiplier given by my sacred gear proved to be enough to force the fallen to crash face-first onto the floor. I didn't lose the opportunity, now that she was momentarily stunned, I punched her again, this time with my left hand.

I tried giving her a barrage of punches, but I saw that they weren't as effective as I hoped for them to be. Still, I managed to make her bleed, something that enraged her even further and prompted her to retaliate.

It began with her releasing some sort of holy aura, that had been enough for me to jump back. After that, she got up, I could see that her face was perfect, the bleeding only came from her mouth.

She noticed it, and once she cleaned the trickle that got to her chin she smiled maniacally at me.

"How dare a little shit like you make me bleed? You'll pay for this!"

She once again rushed me, this time faster than I could follow, the only other thing that I noticed was Ddraig's voice informing me of another boost.

I didn't have time to comprehend the changes that the second boost gave me, because once I registered it, I was flying back towards one of the buildings. Raynare was hot on my tail, with the same mad smile.

When I crashed into it I felt the pain of the hit that made me fly, I also felt the pain that the crash gave me. But I had to ignore them because a light spear was being aimed at my chest.

I tried my best to move my left arm and block the attack, I didn't manage to do so, but my efforts had been enough to parry the attack. My assailant wasn't happy with it and quickly used her free hand to deliver another blow, this time on my head.

It hurt, but not as much as the hits from before, probably because of the boost, this turned out to be good for me. I took the hit as if it didn't bother me, my right hand was ready to counterattack.

And counter attack it did, this time she was the one that flew. However, I was in no position to follow her as she did with me. Instead, I took the opportunity to regain my breath and look around.

I could see that Rias and Akeno were dealing with the trench coat guy, Kiba was running circles around the blue-haired lady, and Koneko was jumping around trying to get to the cute blondie.

My observation stopped when I heard Ddraig's voice for the third time, this made me look ahead, toward my opponent. She had crashed on the building opposite of my own, it appeared to have hurt since she was catching her breath just like me.

When she saw that my attention was on her, she dashed again. I decided to do the same, we met in the middle of the road, her hand on my face, and mine on her stomach.

I won the confrontation, she flew back to the hole that had been made on the building that I sent her to previously, the third boost had made me surpass her in physical condition.

I wasn't going to let her rest. I rushed her, meeting her with a superman punch, not a smart idea, she had seen it coming and managed to dodge it. Luckily, I recovered fast, and this time put my studies to the test, combos of jabs, crosses, and hooks flew out.

My newfound speed and strength proved to be too much for her to handle, it didn't help that after a few seconds of beating another boost happened and I only got faster and stronger.

I continued to attack her, this time I saw the damage, her nose broke, her lips ruptured and her skin changed to a dark purple. The images that I saw when I awakened my sacred gear came back. I remembered the helplessness that I felt when she killed Issei when she killed me.

'Not again, never again!' I promised myself.

With the promise made, the memories were gone, and I looked at the girl that I had been beating up all this time.

She was alive, extremely bruised, but alive. She had also passed out.

I saw no more purpose to continue hitting her, so I decided to look around and see if anyone needed my help.

They didn't, none of the other fallen were in as bad of a shape as Raynare, but they had all lost, the other three had regrouped and were now looking at the hole that I was in with their companion.

The buxom lady was beside herself once she saw Raynare's state, she flew to us, disregarding me or my fellow peerage members. I got ready to strike her, but she didn't give me any attention.

Her focus was only on the other fallen, I saw the concern she had when she inspected her friend closely, I also saw the relief once she realized that she was alive. She quickly grabbed her and flew up, I didn't see a reason to impede her.

Once all four fallen angels were reunited, it was clear to see that they lost. Raynare looked the worst, but the traces of a fight were clear on all of them, something that couldn't be said from my group.

I was the only one to show any form of injury, that crash to the building had made cuts on my right arm, which only now started to sting. I hope that this disappears before I get back home, it wouldn't be good to worry my parents.

Our assailants didn't want to waste any more time. With a gesture from the male, the barrier was gone and they flew away, no doubt toward the abandoned church.

"Are you okay Issei-kun?" Akeno had been the first one to approach me.

I smiled at her and tried my best to show that it looked worse than it was.

"I am fine, Akeno-san. This looks worse than it is."

She smiled back, and after her came the worried looks of the other three.

Rias was the one that took the initiative. She moved closer and started inspecting the cuts on my arm, every time she touched one it made me hiss and she'd quickly move her hand away and apologize.

She realized that what I said was true, and let out a sigh of relief.

"I didn't know that you were this good at fighting Issei-kun... Still, you were too reckless, you could have hurt yourself more."

Her words left a good feeling inside of me, it was nice to have others worry for you, to know that they didn't want to see you hurt.

"Well… I've been going to a dojo for a while now, I thought I had mentioned it to you."

Realization showed up on her face, after which she came to a smile and a pull from her.

"Now that you say so, I remember. Regardless, let's go, we were going to celebrate, and now we have a better reason to do so."

It was surprising the quickness that she moved over that attack, I'll try and talk with her during this celebration. There is no way for any of us to dissuade her from it, so we better enjoy it.