First things first: I finished Persona 5.
And one thing that is very important there (you know, besides it being an AWESOME game, I meant to this story): just like in SMT4A, it has not-instakill Light and Darkness skills. That makes them much more attractive to me – unless you use the costly ones, like Die For Me, instakills just have too low a chance of success.

Which brings to my question…

Should I rename the "new Hama" Issei learned through Asia's Angel to Kouha? True, they are different games, but SMT is a big series and I personally doubt it won't stay like this for future games too (although… Kouha was in P1 too…).

Also, Review Time. Something that I do more than I like to, because I try to answer on PM but sometimes I can't.

Someone sent a review I really wanted to reply to, but couldn't. Their PMs were blocked.

First, they mentioned how there were just a few changes yet. True, but the small changes are significant. Raynare is alive and friendly, Asia is human, there are more human characters, Mil-tan is an actual magical girl now, the ORC is a less discriminative DnD table.
True, the big changes won't happen until the chapter I have under the planning title of "the other boot", midway two arcs from now (which, for those counting, means is when the forces of Heaven are actually going to appear, with the Excalibut arc in the middle). But I am trying to make small changes until then that will affect the future and be interesting.

And second, they asked about power levels…
I'm assuming Issei as level 16 but with plenty of battle experience, and Riser at level 26 but hyper-specialized. Mil-tan as level 18, the rest of the team at level 14, Rias' team at around level 14, most of Riser's peerage at around level 12 since Rias defeated them in canon with less people.
I'm taking the four Satans as around levels 65 to 72. Why so low? Because there are gods in DxD that supposedly can fight them, and Odin in SMT4 is exactly 65.

Oh, and sorry for the cliché fishing scene. But it fits this Issei so much I couldn't help but use it.

IIIII

Azazel was the leader of the fallen angels. He fell due to the sin of Lust.

It was literal at the time, but later it evolved into other kinds of lust. Lust for knowledge, lust for entertainment. Still lust and not greed though, for despite his overindulgence he did not at all plan on limiting the fruits of it to himself.

One of the ways he indulges in it for entertainment was in the so-called "trolling".

For example, invite someone to an important discussion, but if it isn't completely time-sensitive waste a bit of time on something casual, like fishing.

Now, this Issei was a very good fisherman. Enoug to worry most people about his plans for trolling him, the way he seemed to relax with a fishing rod on his hand. But he knew he was more and more frustrated, he just looked calm to the casual observer.

IIIII

Azazel, the leader of the fallen angels… was weird, in Issei's opinion.

His hair had two tones, black with blond bangs. And the goatee was also black. But the blond looked natural.

Now, one would think Issei should be used to weird things like this. He lived weirder situations in his life, and that one should not even be in the scale.

But "should be" is not the same as "is".

"…It's natural," the fallen, Azazel, said. "I'm a mosaic, where some of my cells have mutated."

"But how? I mean, weren't you hand-forged or something?"

Azazel shrugged. "Actually, angels do reproduce, but it carries a high risk of falling in doing the act."

"Wait, so there is a mother and father Azazel somewhere?"

"Ok, you got me," Azazel laughed. "God wasn't exactly worrying about appearances when making the angels of old. While some are your classic blond with blue eyes, there are all the range until your girlfriend with black hair and purple eyes. Some people get the impression that being a fallen changes your hair color or something, but there are still some blond fallen, I think you even met one."

"Yeah, Mittelt. Also, Raynare is not my girlfriend, we didn't hang out enough to take that step yet."

Azazel looked at Issei, surprised. Then to the blushing Raynare on the solid ground.

"You know, most people who claim someone isn't their girlfriend wouldn't go into so much detail." And she looked more flustered.

Issei, on the other hand… "She is right there. Didn't want to give her the wrong impression," he answered with a shrug. "I mean, dating does not mean relationship, it only gives the mean to know each other to start one, right? I mean, I know my dream still is to have a harem, but I have to know them enough… and they have to get along enough… and not mind being in a harem…" he looked at the fishing line, contemplative. "I don't know, it seems almost like an impossible dream now that I think about it."

"So you are giving up?" Azazel said, a bit of disappointment leaking from his voice.

Issei snorted. "Hell no. I'd rather think I'm not limiting myself just to it, though. I'm not giving up on if it happening, but I won't hold myself back if the chance to have just the one someone appears either."

And thus, silence reigned again.

And to make things worse for Azazel, Issei's problem seemed to really have been his hair, since the boy was calm and enjoying the fishing now. Raynare was curious, but playing with the boy's cute young shadow seemed to be a good distraction to her too.

He sighed.

"I know," replied Issei, "they are not biting today…"

Issei couldn't see it, but Azazel felt his eyebrow twitch. Oh great, it backfired.

Better get to the meat of it.

"I noticed you didn't ask what I asked you here for."

Issei shrugged, turning around. "I guessed you wanted to figure out the human that defeated your subordinates. I thought fishing was your way of doing it.
I admit I expected some more talking, though."

Azazel's mouth opened, but no sound escaped.

He slumped. Damn it, he was trolled back. And by accident.

"What do you know of the Holy Sword Excalibur?" Azazel asked Issei seriously.

Which made Issei really think about it.

He once found Excalibur, or at least Flynn did. And it was a great sword, meaning in a world taken over by demons that it had some history… so that history was searched.

"A sword made famous by its wielder, the second sword of King Arthur and the symbol of his kingship, being beautifully made and decorated. Besides that, the only thing the sword has of important is that it was given to him by an important water nymph, known as either Nimue or Vivian. What was important was the sheath, which seemed simple but had strong healing properties. As time went on, the sword, since it was named, became the famous one and the sheath was not mentioned in most retellings."

"A good answer," Azazel nodded to him. "In fact, in its base it is perfect… But unfortunately, origin is not all that decides if something is Holy anymore. Nowadays, people's cognition of the object has a huge part. Like a saint's garbs are considered holy because the saint once wore them, while at the time it was just clothes a saint happened to be wearing."

"Which means that," Issei finished, "since everyone seems to only know of the righteous King Arthur, Excalibur and that he searched for the Holy Grail, Excalibur must have become one of the strongest Holy Swords around."

"You are quick on the uptake," Azazel commented. "Yes, Excalibur itself is one of the most powerful Holy Swords around… So powerful that, even fragmented—"

"Wait, fragmented?" Issei asked, surprised. "Wasn't it returned to the Lady of the Lake?"

"So the story goes," Azazel answered. "But remember, most don't know of that, and thus a powerful Excalibur was created. Is it the real one? Doubtful. Is it even related? Hard to tell. But it is the one considered the Excalibur, and it was broken in seven pieces during battle – and those seven pieces reforged into weaker, but still powerful holy swords with different abilities: Excaliburs Destruction, Mimic, Rapidly, Nightmare, Transparency, Ruler and Blessing. Two of the blades are usually kept with the Catholic, Protestand and Eastern Orthodox churches, with Excalibur Ruler missing."

"And let me guess, something happened to them," Issei summarized, seriously.

Azazel nodded. "Do you remember how Raynare was working under orders? Well, they were not my orders.
One of ours, Kokabiel, went rogue, and took a bunch of his followers with him. He was supposed to be Raynare and the other three's superior on the way to me, so you can understand them thinking the order was mine."

"And probably more people under him were fooled too…"

"Under and above," Azazel sighed. "I only found out about his rebellion when a bunch of ours disappeared without returning but with no complaints from our enemies about their presence, and then our inside men in the Church came to us about three of the Excaliburs having being stolen."

"And you want me to give them the Excaliburs back to save your group from their counterattack," Issei finished for him.

"Precisely. You are human and, as far as is known, neutral. You are equaly friends with some of the devils at your school and, surprising since she tried to kill you, Raynare and her friends. And you probably have a vested interest in not letting Kokabiel turn the human world into a battleground that a return of the war would create."

Issei nodded. "I'll need more info. On what the swords he stole can do, on who is more likely to be with them, and on where it is most likely for them to be."

Azazel nodded, and took the boat to the shore. When on firm ground, he took a folder from his suit's internal pocket and gave it to Issei.

"The Excaliburs are Rapidly, that increase the user's speed, enough for a human to leave afterimages and evade attacks just as quick; Transparency, able to turn itself and the user invisible; and Nightmare, able to create illusions and control dreams."

"Great... Speed, stealth and illusions, whoever has them has become a real-world ninja."

"Funny you mention ninja. We believe his next step is coming to Kuoh and doing an assassination."

Issei took the pages about the swords, and began letting Burroughs copy them and analyze the data. "Go on, I'm listening."

"Not only the few clues we got sent them going in this direction, in this area there are the sisters of two of the Four Satans.
We believe his plans are of restarting the war by killing one or both and blaming it on the church."

Issei could hear Raynare taking a deep breath, and feel the eyes of Alice on his back.

"Ok…" he said, taking a deep breath. "So I have two options, I either find a way to protect the two from a super-fast, invisible assassin able to create illusions, or I find the swords before they do it.
And I guess you don't know anything else?"

"I have a couple names of people you could try to find," replied the fallen. "This is Freed Selzen. I think you are acquaintances."

It was a file on the guy he stole light swords and guns with light bullets from.

"He is the most likely candidate to be the user of the blades. He is a psycho and battle crazy, but was trained from a young age to be an exorcist, being considered a genius at 13. In fact, he was created artificially to be able to wield Sigurd's Gram. We tried to give him a place and control him, but it seems like Kokabiel has… other plans for him. Doubt he'd have trouble doing the deed if he put his mind to it."

Issei read the files. In them, Sellzen did not seem as unhinged as when they met. Was it because of his attempts to unbalance him, or was the man getting worse?
Either way, Issei knew that this time the other male would not give him even close to as much openings.

"But how would he use the Excaliburs? Aren't holy swords kinda selective of their wielders?"

"Ah, yes… for that there is one of the shames of the church."

Issei was presented with another file.

"Valper Galilei," Azazel explained. "Kokabiel recruited him. I did not approve of his methods, but would not leave his research to rot, as a researcher myself. It seems that the only reason he did not fight me in my 'no using humans as test subjects' policy was because Kokabiel spoke in his ear about leaving with him since them.
He was in charge of a project of the church to let anyone they decided be able to use a holy sword, focused on experiments with the Excaliburs. His project was successful, but he sacrificed all his test subjects to do so."

"This is bad, Azazel-san."

"Understatement."

"Probaly. A search in a whole town, trying to keep said search secret, and when it succeeds then to recover the items from the ones to steal it. This calls for the greatest, bravest warrior in the human world."

"I think you're exaggerating."

"I don't," Issei assured him. "Too bad I'm all you got right now."

"I wouldn't say 'all', but all my agents would bring up trouble if found out. You, on the other hand, at least is in good stature with the current overseers of the town. They'll trust your word that you only want to protect them."

"I'll be honest with you, Azazel-san… I really doubt I'm capable of doing it," Issei explained seriously. "But I'll still do my best. You know what they say, when you got lemons you make lemonade, find a cute kid to sell the lemonade for you for half the profits, then use your share to buy what you really wanted instead of the lemons.
I got my cute kid already," he said, pointing to Alice behind him, who waived, "and you got yours," he continued, pointing to a suddenly blushing Raynare. "Let's do our best together to make this lemonade tasty."

Azazel looked Issei in the eyes.

Then he blinked.

"…what?"

"I'll do my best, but also do your part. Our findings will help the other on our search. If you find something you can't act on reasonable, send me a warning so I can look into it. Raynare will be our contact."

"…and the blond gilr?"

"Alice is just a cute kid. Not all allegories are meant to be understood."

Azazel looked at a confused Raynare, and at a shrugging Alice.

"You are a bit random sometimes, aren't you…" Azazel finally said.

"Eh, maybe it is a coping mechanism. My life is a god damn mess. Or maybe I'm just a bit insane, who knows."

Azazel looked deeply into Issei's eyes… and his mouth grew into a grin. "I like it."

IIIII

"What do you mean, you got married to Gremory?" Raynare yelled.

Issei swallowed the bite he took of the hamburguer. "I did not. We are in a marriage contract until she is old enough people can't make them without her approval anymore. We'll break it as soon as she is free to go."

"And who told you she'd want to break it?" She insisted.

"The contract was made so that either side can break it without big consequences."

"And do you think you will want to break it?"

Issei looked at her. In her eyes.

Took another bite of his hamburger.

Her eyes again.

Swallowed.

"Raynare… I never pegged you as someone to read Harry Potter fanfic."

Raynare got a weird mix of red and white.

"Nothing in our contracts makes us fall in love with each other, not even get along, or this whole situation with Riser wouldn't have happened. Nothing in it even makes us meet each other before the marriage if we want to.
If, for some reason you seem to imagine, she's want to keep it going, she'll have to convince me herself," he shrugged.

And then felt a hand clamp into his shoulder. Hard.

"You are taking me on a date. Right now."

Issei looked at Raynare.

Raynare blushed.

"…you want to try to kill me again?"

"No!"

"Oh, ok then. But can we go through different places in town? This way we can search on the way to them."

Raynare just nodded, avoiding his eyes.

"Alright then. First stop, the batting cages on the other side of town."

"The other side of town?" Raynare complained.

"Well…" Issei tried to explain, blushing a bit for how thoughless it could sound, "we are doing two things at once, and I thought it would be better if we started far away and walked back than the other way around."

Raynare grumbled for a bit. It made sense, and they didn't know how time-sensitive their objective was.

"But how will we arrive there?"

"Well, uhm… I have a bicycle…"

Raynare slumped. "Not even a moped?"

"I didn't think I'd need one," Issei tried to justify, "bicycles are good leg training and I never had to take someone with me somewhere before. …Save for Alice, but I can teleport her."

Raynare sighed. That made sense. "Alright, guess it is understandable. Let's go by bike then."

Issei took his bike from the rack and got into it, and Raynare sat behind him.

"Have fun," Alice giggled, before looking intensely into Raynare's eyes. "I'll be watching."

And thus she disappeared into thin air.

"…I had forgotten how much she scares me," Raynare whispered, hugging Issei from behind.

Issei said nothing. He had no problem whatsoever right now.

IIIII

"You're batting like you're trying to hit someone's head, Raynare-chan," Issei sighed.

"I'll hit your head," she grumbled.

He sighed, and wrapped his arms around her, holding her hands to the bat properly. He was a bit worried he may be moving too fast, but her "eep" and blushing, he couldn't help it.

He tried batting a few times like that, giving the fallen angel a few examples of how to bat properly, before letting go.

"Wha… I'm not good enough yet!"

"Well, you need to try by yourself," Issei countered.

Raynare pouted at that, but Issei stood firm.

Then he had an idea.

"Hey Raynare-chan, what about, if you get a homerun, I do you one favor that does not involve me dying?"

"Damn it, stop bringing up—wait, any other favor?"

"That I can do by myself, and takes me less than a day to do," Issei added. "Need to keep it to things I can do without big problems."

Raynare blinked, then nodded.

And started hitting the thrown balls much more accurately.

"Well, someone is motivated…"

IIIII

"No! Let me go! I can do it!"

"Damn it Ray, they are closing!"

"But… but…"

"You can keep training by yourself tomorrow if you really want."

"But… but…"

"Besides, now it is time for bowling."

"But… homerun…" She then blinked. "Wait, bowling? Who are you, cousin Roman?"

Issei's eye twitched.

IIIII

Issei's eye twitched.

Raynare did yet another strike.

It wouldn't be too bad, but she threw the ball, despite Issei always telling her she had to roll it. "It works better for me like this," she said, ignoring the fact most humans couldn't throw the heavy balls like she did.

Luckily no one seemed to have noticed, or if they did they were ignoring them. Human's ability to avoid observing what doesn't fit their worldview could amaze Issei still sometimes.

IIIII

"It wasn't a competition and I had fun, who cares if I did it wrong?" Raynare asked honestly, hugging a sulking Issei from behind as they progressed on his bike to a club.

"It's not that," Issei said. "Well ok, not just that."

"Oh?" Raynare teased, breathing hotly into his right ear. "Does Issei awakened a competitive streak and wanted to defeat if I played properly? Or maybe… you enjoyed teaching me a bit too much and wanted to do the same for bowling?"

Issei smirked. "The second definitely adds a bit to it, but those are not the only reasons either."

"Oh?" she asked, licking his ear now. "Then what do you say we skip the club and go to a more… private place?"

Issei huffed angrily, confusing the fallen.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no. I'd love to spend some more time alone with you, but…"

"But?"

"But we got company ever since we left the bowling aisle."

Raynare blinked then looked around. She saw no one, but that was the bad sign: only now noticed how no one was around them, for good or bad.

Trusting Issei's instincts, she released her wings and flew above the impromptu battlefield.

With her out of the battlefield, Issei gets out of his bike, and draws a sword handle from his pocket.

"So, are you going to keep hiding, or will you come and face me?"

"Oh?" said a laughing voice. A voice Issei recognized. "So the thieving shitstain wants to fight me for real this time?"

Freed Sellzen appears out of nowhere, on the other side of the road.

'Did… did he really show up out of nowhere? Was he invisible… and gave it up?'

Issei luckily held back from calling his opponent an idiot.

"Do you really think you can fight me? Hahahaha! Remember that you only won last time by running away?"

"I had things more important to deal with than an idiot like you," Issei waved him off. "But I heard you got a few toys that could make this interesting."

"Oh… oh ho ho. So you heard about it…"

That said, Freed advanced, and was parried by his own old Light Sword.

IIIII

Suicidal.

Suicidal was the fighting style he was using.

Suicidal was using a fighting style he only heard about in the middle of a fight.

However, Issei had no other choice.

He moved his sword to block Freed's. Then moved the sword to block the next attack, before his opponent even started it.

Because he had left himself opening.

Because he was always leaving himself open.

Issei was slow. Slower than his mind. Slower than Flynn. And definitely slower than Freed's current boosted speed.

He would usually be forced to tank the damage, but Issei was also weak. He was keeping a low profile while searching (and for the dates), so he unfortunately was unable to wear proper gear.

So he had to improvise.

He was a pervert, and thus he played echii games sometimes. One of them is Fate/Stay Night.
In it, there is a character that is able to best faster fighters not because of skill, but of his fighting style.

His fighting style is full of holes. Holes that his opponents instinctually could not ignore, and thus aimed for. Holes he knew where they are, and could move to block before they even started moving to them.

Issei was trying to reproduce Archer's fighting style in the middle of a battle just by the descriptions in the visual novel. A suicidal approach about a suicidal fighting style.

But as far as he knew it was his least suicidal option right then.

"Why won't you just die?" echoed in his ears as his frenzied opponent swung his blade. No clear planning or higher thought, just instinct and desire to kill. Luckily for Issei it was that instinct his defense strategy was based on.

Freed was faster. Freed was stronger. But Freed was using the Holy Sword's power to be so. And such power could not come from nowhere, Freed would tire sooner or later. Issei just hoped it was before himself.

"GAH! What the hell! Son of a bitch!"

Or Raynare could use this time to almost kill Freed herself with a spear of light. That was an option too.

Too bad his instincts were so good, enough to overpower his bloodlust and save him – but that also left him open.

Issei left him no chance to attack Raynare back, advancing on his distracted foe with a swing of his own. Freed once more jumped back, but…

He jumped back.

Issei took advantage of this, shooting at him while he was in the air and unable to dodge.

Not even Excalibur Rapidly can move fast enough to block properly from a bullet, and Freed yelled in a mix of anger and pain as it bit into his shoulder.

Issei was hoping that this would limit his opponent to only one blade, since he already used the power of Excalibur Transparency before their battle.

He forgot the type of person he was fighting against.

With a cry of fury, Sellzen opened his priest-like coat, revealing two more swords under it.

'They are all here,' went through the heads of both Issei and Raynare.

Sellzen picked a blade, apparently without much thought, and advanced. Part of this was good, meanng Sellzen had no plans of using the sword's power in the fight. And the way he moved showed it was more due to rage than actual ability to dual-wield, meaning his fighting would be sloppier.

Part of this was bad, since even in a sloppier fighting style, he was still a swordman wielding a blade in each hand. Issei had only been keeping up until now due to copying a fictional character, and now this.

"Maragi!" he yelled. Time to add magic to the mix.

A circumference of a few meters of radius around him just burst into flames with no other warning.

Issei juped to the side by instinct, just as the flames disappeared. He just avoided a strike from Freed, who either was in the middle of the attack already and decided it was best to keep going, or was so incensed he'd rather attack than not be burned.

Either way, fire did not seem to stop him.

Regardless, using fire was flashy and would draw attention. Better not to use it right then.

So he used Mazan, a tornado spinning around him and throwing Sellzen into a tree.

"Argh! Stop using your cheap magic and fight me like a man!"

"Funny," Issei answered. "It seems to me that I'm fighting more like a man than you, mister 'I need a sword to make me fast enough to win'."

Sellzen yelled in rage and advanced again, only to be met with yet another Mazan.

"Fine," Freed spat. "You want to play this game, let's play this game."

Issei was hoping Freed took his bait, and would stop using Excalibur Rapidly's speed.

Well, Freed dropped Excalibur Rapidly, and grabbed his third sword with that hand. Issei guessed he didn't think anyone around would be able to wield it, so why bother securing it?

But, unlike Issei's wishes, he did not stop using a sword's powers. He just started using the power of the other two.

Freed disappeared… and the field was covered in Freeds.

And to make matters worse, Excalibur Nightmare was clearly deserving of the name. He knew that they were fakes, but his instincts still screamed that he was surrounded by a mob. Yet when he used Mazan, none moved.

Sellzen was probably invisible and using Excalibur Transparence and Nightmare in conjunction to hide the signs of him being thrown around.

So he used Mazio.

The images flickered, and he could hear the sound of someone being socked from behind him. So he wasted no time, and ran away in the direction of Rapidly.

Sellzer took his time following, though.

Mostly because of the light spears falling between them.

"Ah, so the shitstain really got a shitty crow looking out for them, I see," he half yelled half laughed while he advanced between Raynare's shots. But he seemed unconcerned.

Issei grabbed the Excalibur with his left hand, the Light Sword activaded on his right. His idea was to slide into a defensive position.

Instead, he ended up splayed on the ground.

The blade did not budge.

"Surprised, shitfucker?" Freed asked with glee. "Only those chosen can even budge a Holy Sword. And you clearly were not."

Issei shrugged. "It's not like I need to wield it. I just need to keep it with me away from you."

And then the sword disappeared. And Freed Sellzen's eyes bugged in surprise, before he advanced in a yell of rage.

Issei could not wield it, but Burroughs apparently could store it no problem.

Freed was so blind in his anger that Issei was able to kick him in the face, since the fake priest was aiming for stabbing his neck.

That seemed to wake him up.

It also gave Issei the time to stand up again, so yay.

"You fucking son of a bitch! I'll kill you next time."

'Next time?' Issei thought, then his eyes widened.

Freed Sellzen disappeared in front of his eyes. Soon, he couldn't feel his presence anymore.

Not like he'd trust his instincts in that, since Nightmare seemed to be able to fool them.

A few minutes later, Raynare got impatient and landed besides him.

"Ok… what just happened?" she asked, confused. "Out of nowhere Freed dropped a sword and you were acting like you had no idea where he was.

"I tried to trick him into stopping using Excalibur Rapidly's speed. He decided to use another's power instead," Issei said between heavy breaths, the adrenaline leaving him. "You said you could see him?"

Raynare nodded. "It was pretty weird, how you started looking around while he just moved behind you."

"Good, great. You had attacked him before, and I doubt he'd just forget about it. That means he probably can only use the power of one sword at once." He took a deep breath before continuing. "He dropped Rapidly as bait, and used Nightmare to pretend he used Transparency while making many illusions to confuse my battle instincts. Thanks for the save."

"Don't mention it," she replied. "And what about when the sword disappeared?"

"I sent it to my armory," he explained as good as he could, not knowing himself where Burroughs kept his weapons. "Just because I can't lift it doesn't mean I couldn't take it from him."

"So, victory?" Raynare tried to be optimistic. Issei nodded, but did not seem happy.

"But now that he escaped he'll probably be more careful not to be found. And now he knows I can do this."

Raynare shook his shoulder. "Hey, it's more than we expected so soon. And all because Freed may be a genius at what he does but is still an idiot."

Issei sighed, but smiled. "Still a victory, uh?"

"That's the spirit," Raynare smiled. "I'll take you home."

"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" Issei joked.

Raynare rolled her eyes and threw him his bicycle, before holding him under his arms and carrying him to his house.

And thus the two left, careful but still smiling.

IIIII

"Welcome hom—what is she doing here?" Rias asked as soon as Issei opened the door.

"That's my line," Raynare replied.

The sudden tension in the room could be cut with a knife.

"We were on a date," Issei shrugged, ignoring Rias' wide eyes and Raynare's victorious smile. "But what about you?" he echoed the fallen's question.

"W-well," a red-faced Rias tried to answer, "you saved me and all, so I thought about coming here and making you dinner… and maybe you'd let me live here since I'm living alone… Your parents agreed…"

Issei looked at her… and shrugged. "If they already agreed, I see no problem."

Rias looked victorious to a surprised Raynare, who grumbled something about not thinking of that.

"Well," Issei said, trying to ignore his thoughts about the implications of those looks – they were probably a faction rivalry think, nothing more, he told himself, "if no one minds I'll go take a bath for now."

"Hey Ise-kun, do you mind if I stay for dinner?" Raynare asked as he was leaving.

"I see no problem, make yourself at home."

"Oh, I will," she agreed, waiting until he was out of sight before she and Rias started glaring at each other.

IIIII

So, Freed Sellzen… in my personal opinion, he is probably Issei's closest thing to a rival at this point. He is experienced, he is devious, he is a survivor.

But he is still a bit of an evil idiot, favoring being cruel to being efficient. Evil Overlord's List he doesn't follow.

The thing about only being able to use one Excalibur's power at once, no idea if it is true. It just made sense to me.

So, Issei got Excalibur Rapidly, but can't use it yet. Freed got a wake-up call, or maybe his higher-ups did and will force him to think more.

And Rias and Raynare are apparently developing a rivalry, but ignoring they probably aren't the only ones after their mutual goal.

Hope I'm not rushing things too much. This chapter feels a bit short. Do you guys think it feels short?