Chapter 21

Disclaimer: I do not own High school DxD or Fairy Tail they are property of Ichiei Ishibumi and Hiro Masima respectively.

Wendy, Rias and her peerage walked into the recently unsealed classroom in the old school building. Akeno removes the top of the coffin that was in the centre of the room and a scream could be heard.

The person that popped out of the coffin was the source of the scream. This person had platinum blond hair styled in a short bob cut with several small fringes over their forehead, pinkish-violet eyes and pointed ears. They looked like a beautiful girl with a frail body and wore the Kuoh Academy girls' school uniform with thigh-high socks.

"Everyone, this is my other Bishop, Gasper Vladi," Rias introduced her Bishop to the rest of her peerage.

"Another cute girl, I won't allow Natsu to steal her as well," Issei declared and quickly grabbed hold of Gasper's hand.

Suddenly time froze for everyone in the room besides Rias, Akeno and Wendy since they were prepared for Gasper's sacred gear to activate, while Akeno's mating mark protected her from the sacred gears effects since it was only freezing time and no other effects were being activated. They have seen it happen before when he first joined Rias' peerage.

They were also the only two members of the ORC group that knew of Gasper prior to today though. They were unsure whether Natsu knew or not since he seems to be well informed on most things.

"Gasper calm down we are all friends here," Wendy calmly said to her Bishop.

"Issei won't hurt you he's just… unique," Rias said trying not to be rude.

Gasper managed to calm down and unfreeze time. The rest of the peerage knew something happened.

"Why did time just freeze?" Akeno said as she snapped out of her momentary shock.

"That was Gasper's sacred gear, Forbidden Balor View. The reason he was sealed was because he can't control his ability.

"Wow not only are you a cute girl but you are powerful as well," Issei praised Gasper.

As Issei tried to get close to Gasper once again Koneko swiftly delivered a punch to his stomach stopping him in his tracks.

"Gasper isn't a girl," Wendy giggled.

"He just prefers the girls' uniform," Rias explained.

Issei comically fell to the floor but a second later he was on his feet again.

"Sorry for suddenly grabbing you hand and startling you," Issei apologised to Gasper while rubbing the back of his head,

"I-It's a-all right," Gasper stuttered.

"Hey I got an idea how about we train you to control your power?" Issei suggested.

"That's a great idea Issei, if he can control his power he can join the rest of us without worrying about accidentally activating it," Rias said with a smile.

"Remember we have to help with the preparations for the Three Faction meeting," Akeno reminded Rias.

"I almost forgot, thanks for reminding me," Rias said.

"Okay Akeno, Kiba and I will go and help with preparations for the meeting and the rest of you can train Gasper, that is if he wants to," Rias said looking at Gasper,

"I wouldn't mind being able to control my power and be around the rest of you," Gasper replied with a small smile.

"That settles it then. While we are helping with the preparations you will help train Gasper to control his powers," Rias finalised the decision.

The group retuned to the main room in the ORC building and as they were about to go out the doors opened revealing Sona, Tsubaki and Saji.

"What luck, we just came here to fetch you Rias," Sona said with a smile.

"We were just on our way to go find Sirzechs or Serafall," Rias replied,

"And here I was thinking that you forgot," Sona said with a sly grin.

"What? Me? Forget something this important? Never," Rias said while giving her peerage a glare that told them not to say a word about how Akeno reminded her.

"That's not how I remembered it," Akeno said with a devious grin loving that she could tease her friend.

"Shut up, Sirzechs and Serafall must be waiting for us," Rias said wanting to escape Akeno's teasing.

Sona, Tsubaki, Rias, Akeno and Kiba then left to go find Sirzechs and Serafall in order to find out what they needed to do. This left Issei, Gasper, Koneko, Wendy, Xenovia and Saji in the ORC building.

"Well we are going to train Gasper here to control his power, want to join?" Issei asked Saji.

"Sure, I don't have anything that I need to do so this might be fun," Saji replied.

"Great lets go outside where there is more room," Issei said with a little jump.

The group moved outside to the school yard and since today was a day off there wasn't anyone around.

"So anyone have any idea as to how we are going to train Gasper?" Issei said after they all stood awkwardly outside for a moment.

"Well from what I can remember of his sacred gear it allows hip to momentarily stop the time of anything within his line of sight," Wendy said looking at Gasper for confirmation.

"That is correct," Gasper shyly told Wendy.

"I have an idea," Xenovia said before drawing her sword and dashing towards Gasper.

In his surprise he was unable to use his sacred gear on her since he quickly turned around and started running away from her.

Everyone could only stand and stare as Xenovia chased Gasper around with her sword for a few minutes.

"Xenovia I don't think that is going to work," Wendy said as she sweat dropped when Gasper ran up to her to take cover behind her in fear of the crazy blue-haired swordswoman.

"I guess you are correct. My method did not provide any results," Xenovia said while looking down in disappointment.

"I have an idea," Issei called out as he dashed to the gymnasium.

When he returned he was pulling a basket full of dodgeballs.

"I see now that would work a lot better than my method," Xenovia said as she deduced what Issei was getting at.

"Yes, I thought we could throw the dodgeballs at him and then he has to use his sacred gear to stop the time of the ball and that would stop it," Issei explained.

"The plan sounds like it might work. What do you think Gasper?" Wendy asked the boy.

"Uhm if you think I can do it then we can give it a try," Gasper responded softly.

"Great, okay now I want you to stand over there and face me," Issei instructed Gasper making them stand far away from one another that Gasper should have enough time to dodge the ball if he couldn't stop it with his sacred gear but close enough that the ball would still reach him with some speed and power.

"Okay Gasper, here come the first one," Issei said as he threw the first of many dodgeballs.

The ball flew through the air at a manageable speed for a normal high schooler. Unfortunately for Gasper he wasn't on the same physical level as a normal high schooler with his shut in lifestyle due to him being sealed until recently.

The ball hit Gasper square on the chest making him topple over on his rear.

"Are you all right Gasper?" Wendy rushed to his side ready to heal him if he needed it.

"I'm all right thank you Wendy. That just caught me off guard," Gasper said while looking to his knees.

"Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of. You just started training and until now you were sealed away in that classroom," Wendy comforted the boy who was trying to hide his disappointment in himself by not looking up at her.

"You really mean it?" Gasper asked while looking up at Wendy.

"Yes I do, want to know a secret?" Wendy crouched down next to Gasper looking him in the eyes.

Gasper nodded his head up and down slightly, wanting to know the secret.

"I felt the same way as you do now when I tried to learn offensive magic. For years I thought I couldn't learn it because I was too weak or stupid to learn any form of offensive magic. I started to believe I was a failure when it came to offensive magic. But now I have really powerful attack spells in my arsenal and I even gained more support spells," Wendy began telling Gasper about her experience from when she thought she had failed.

"How did you manage to learn, what changed for you?" Gasper asked with an edge of desperation in his voice.

"I met someone that was able to show me I was special in my own way and he managed to show me how to use my power," Wendy said as she remembered fond memories of her training.

"But I'm not special in any way," Gasper said and lowered his head once again.

"I wouldn't say that. You have the power to stop time, if you ask me that is very special," Wendy comforted Gasper.

Gasper was lost in his thought for a few moments and Wendy could see a thoughtful look in his eyes.

"When I was being trained the guy who trained me told me something. He said 'We all start out as weak, no matter your origin, and even though some strength comes from heritage most of it comes from your own training and experiences,' and what he means by that is anyone can achieve power, you only need to work hard enough for it," Wendy smiled down at the boy next to her.

"Thanks for the talk Wendy, I think I'm ready to try again," Gasper said softly but with gratitude.

"Then get up and ask Issei to go again and don't be afraid to ask him to throw softer at first," Wendy told him with a bright smile.

"Issei can we try that again but can you throw it a bit slower?" Gasper asked with eagerness as he stood up.

"Sure thing," Issei happily said.

Wendy re-joined Asia and Koneko who was standing on the side-lines while Saji and Xenovia walked up to Issei to offer their help.

"What did you say to him that got him so eager to train?" Asia asked Wendy as she joined them.

"Just something Natsu told me when he trained me," Wendy said with a fond smile.

As the group watched they saw Gasper only physically dodged the balls but was never able to use his sacred gear to stop them.

"Gasper you must try and stop the balls with your sacred gear. That's the point of this training," Issei said after Gasper dodged another ball.

"Sorry," was all Gasper replied.

"This isn't working," Xenovia said as she drew her blade once more getting impatient.

Before she could start chasing Gasper once again Wendy quickly decided to speak up wanting to prevent the fruitless chase from starting again.

"That won't work Xenovia you already tried it," Wendy calmly told her.

"That might have just been because he wasn't expecting it," Xenovia countered wanting more instantaneous results.

"May I be allowed to provide you some advice?" a new voice said from the edge of the school yard.

The group was startled since no one was supposed to be around. Their heads quickly turned to the source of the new voice.

A tall man who appears to be in his twenties with an average build, black hair, golden bangs, a black goatee and red eyes stood at the edge of the school yard. The man wore a V-neck maroon long-coat with a wide, open high-collar that opens up at the hem with two black belts around the arms and four black bands on each arm, two on the wrists and the other two near the elbow, grey slacks and brown shoes.

"Azazel, what are you doing here?" Issei asked moving into a defensive position in front of his friends quickly followed by Xenovia drawing her sword and Koneko settling into her fighting stance.

"I am no threat to you. Come on Issei you have to believe me when I say I won't do anything," Azazel said as he saw their stances while raising his hands to show he means them no harm.

"What do you guys think?" Issei asked the rest of the group.

"Who is this Azazel guy?" Saji asked but his question was ignored.

"Rias doesn't seem to trust him," Asia commented.

"And he is the Fallen Angels leader," Xenovia added not lowering her blade.

"But Natsu did say he wasn't a threat but a generally nice guy," Wendy voiced her opinion.

Koneko relaxed her stance a little when she heard what Wendy said but still remained on guard.

"Who is this Natsu person, it sounds like he knows me but sadly I can't recall anyone who goes by that name," Azazel asked curious of the person who apparently knew him personally.

"That's not important right now, what is important is what you are doing here," Issei said.

"I just saw you trying to train this young… boy here," Azazel said while pausing in the middle to identify Gasper's gender.

"And what of it?" Issei asked having assumed the position of speaker for the group since he had previous encounters with the Fallen Angel leader.

"It just looked like I might be able to give you some advice," Azazel said with a smile.

"And why would the Fallen Angels' leader help a group of devils?" Issei asked.

"What is there to gain for me if I withheld this information? What is there to gain for me if I gave you this information? These are the questions you should be asking," Azazel countered with a grin.

"Whatever. So what advice do you have for us?" Issei asked not wanting to argue further.

"If he drank the blood of a dragon he would be able to gain control of his power and you would be a suitable donor Issei," Azazel stated.

When Azazel said 'drank the blood' it gained some confused looks from everyone but Gasper and Wendy.

"I have to be somewhere else soon so I will leave you with that," Azazel said as he made his way to the school building where the meeting will be held.

"What did he mean when he said you will have to drink blood?" Issei asked Gasper as soon as Azazel disappeared from view.

"He is a Dhampir, a half-Vampire half-human," Wendy answered when she saw that Gasper was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable.

"Well then you can drink some of my blood if it would help you as long as it doesn't have negative side effects for both of us," Issei said wanting to help his new friend.

"I don't drink blood, I just don't like the idea," Gasper quietly said.

"If you don't want to we won't force you," Issei said.

They returned to the dodgeball training they were doing earlier until Gasper suddenly runs back to his classroom where he shuts the doors after another failed attempt at controlling his power.

That's it for chapter 21. Next chapter will start with the pep talk Gasper will receive and then we will see how the meeting with Michael will go. See ya next time.