One month of training is complete! Now it's time to dance, dance, dance, bro!

Thirty days have passed since the Gremory family were sent their separate ways to train themselves in preparation for their Rating Game match against the Sitri family, which takes place in five days. Today was the day that everyone would gather back to the Gremory Residence and prepare for the Maou-sponsored party the next day.

"Yeeeeehaaaaaaaw!"

Soaring through the skies on the scaly, monstrous back of a dragon, Michael boisterously roared for all to hear. He was finally done with his training and the remaining time that was spent was put to good use. Well, put to some productive use since he was finally able to stay within his Balance Breaker state for 15 days and even though he was mad that he couldn't get at least 30 days like Vali, he was still somewhat happy with these results.

However, he was gravely ashamed about his results for attaining Welsh Drive. He just couldn't be able to muster enough courage to do so, not after the nightmare that plagued him before. The thought of just entering his mindscape made him fear that he'd experience the same horrifying dream or something drastically worse. The bad dreams may not have happened after that, but the simple impact of experiencing one was already enough to keep Michael on his toes when going to bed.

Since everyone was gathering back together again, then that would mean Azazel would be back, too. Michael wasn't thrilled to face the man, especially since he couldn't keep up his end of the agreement. Anxiety came over him as he hoped that there would be a way that the man would give in and tell him about his parents, but each attempt that he thought out came to the same obvious conclusion.

"Grch!" Michael clutched his bandaged chest under his thick scaly cloak in pain.

"Boss!?" Bova worriedly looked back.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." Michael tiredly smiled.

"I know how resilient you can be Boss, and I understand that you're excited to return to your master, but try not to overdo it with your wounds, 'kay? You barely managed to get through training with them and if you push yourself too far, you'll probably faint from overexertion."

"I know, I know… Geez, I'm glad that you're worried about me, but hearing you say that for the 5th time is such a pain…"

"Boss…"

"Gerh…fine…I'll stop pushing myself too far…until we reach Rias' place." Michael whispered the last part to himself.

"Good."

After this past month, Michael and Bova had been able to gain a somewhat tight bond of not just boss and subordinate, but an interlocked bond of friendship. Yeah, Bova was a bit too much whenever he excitedly bantered on and on about Michael's future leadership as not just a devil, but for all misunderstood dragons like him. But at the end of the day, Michael realized that the dragon had quite the heart of gold when he's not getting mad and picking fights with other dragons and his grandfather.

"I'm just a little upset that Gramps couldn't come see me off." Michael sadly sighed and clutched his chest even tighter.

"Don't worry, Boss, it'll take the whole of Heaven and Hell to kill my Old Man. His wounds just need a bit more time to heal before he can properly move again." Bova reassured Michael but noticed the sad distant look on the devil's face, "And besides, he did mention that he'd arrive at that devil's party after he's ready to fly."

"Really?" Michael excitedly gasped.

"Yup."

"Sweet!"

A smile etched itself onto Bova's face as he saw the vibrant attitude of his Boss finally return. About five days have passed since that "incident" in the mountains that got both Michael and Tannin injured during the final stages of the teenager's training. Michael blacked out due to being the first one that was critically damaged and after he heard the full story from Bova and the other dragons upon waking up, he blamed himself for inadvertently getting Tannin hurt in the process.

In no time at all, the two finally made it to the front entrance of the Gremory Main Residence. Hopping off of the dragon's large back much to Bova's worried chagrin, Michael tucked and rolled before stopping to do a valiant pose.

"Hehehe…Hahahahaha! Sorry to keep you all waiting, everyone! But don't worry since, I, the Gutsy Michael Hanamura is back! GUUUUUUUTS!" Michael laughed, haughtily.

Flying in on a dragon, check. Looking sweet with his new scaled cloak, check. Shout catchphrase while doing a breathtaking pose, check. Be fashionably late, check. Making a big entrance was just what he needed in order to show off to his friends. He could only imagine the cheers of his name that would proceed to fill his ears.

…

"Eh?" Michael looked up from his pose to look around. There was literally no one there but Bova and him. He was expecting to be swarmed by his friends, but then a thought occurs to him amongst his confusion,

'Ah…wait, my training schedule was a bit different compared to the others so when you really look at it… I would have still been the first one to arrive… Meaning all of that effort into making the perfect entrance was all for nothing.'

Michael fell on all fours, gloomily.

"Hey, Boss, I hate to leave you like this, but I really have other things to do."

As much as Bova wanted to stay and cheer up Michael, he still had other preparations to make for the upcoming party.

"Eh? Like what?" Michael picked himself up.

"For the party of course, my Old Man's still a well-known devil in the society, so I get a pass to go since I'm his son."

"Hm, makes sense." Michael nodded.

"Hehehehe, but don't sweat it, Boss, for I will be back later with my crew to pick you up and fly you and your friends to the party."

"Seriously? That's awesome, Bova, we'll be flying in style!"

"In more ways than you'd know, Boss, in more ways than you'd know…"

His excitement ceasing, Michael worriedly wondered about what Bova meant by that and figured something suspicious would happen. He didn't forget the dragon's last act of giving his territory a stupid name.

"Wait, Bova, tell me what you're about to-!" Michael shouted, but Bova immediately took off into skies before the boy's words could reach him.

"Gahahaha! Yes, tonight, we'll show the public just how we, Misunderstood Dragons roll! Hahahahaha!" Bova took off into the horizon, laughing heartily to himself.

[I can say this for sure, he certainly does get his easy-going side from Tannin.] Ddraig whistled.

"How!? How can you consider this easy-going? Sure, Gramps was chill about things, but that son of his gets worked up over everything!" Michael shouted.

[That's obvious, Partner, you see back when Tannin was my vassal, he would…no, wait did he…? Could he have…?]

"Ddraig?"

[Ahem, I can say this for sure, he certainly does get his passionate side from Tannin.]

"OI! You really couldn't find a comparison before can you!? Plus, you can't just write off the line you said before like it never happened." Michael screamed.

[On the battlefield, Tannin would always hold strong feelings when faced with the enemy and would always care for his comrades like brothers, Bova's probably feeling the same way for you.]

"Don't ignore me! I'm not going to let that slide just because you finally found the right words to say!"

"Hahaha, you really haven't changed these past 30 days, Michael-kun." Laughed somebody as they approached Michael from behind. This caught Michael a bit off guard, but he calmed himself upon recognizing the voice.

"Now…lets see how much stronger you are!"

"…!"

Upon hearing the sound of metal cutting through the air, Michael spun on his heel to dodge the thrusted edge of a black and-red bladed katana. However, that wasn't the end of it as he still found himself dodging and weaving through the numerous blade swings. He felt no intent to kill from the blade, but noticed that the intent was quite serious as each swing could deal some considerable damage to him.

Michael found no trouble with dodging the swings as he successfully kept track of each attack and instinctively allowed his body to move with the flow. Just as things looked to be like a continuous dance of dodging, he immediately sensed a sudden spike of killing intent as the blade's single movement was a bit difficult for him to follow as it got past his field of vision and made its way towards his neck.

[Dragon Booster!]

*CHNK!*

Before it could even graze the skin of his neck, the blade was stopped by Michael's gauntlet cladded fingers.

Whistling, Michael said, "Wow, way to catch me off guard. To be honest, you scared me a bit there, but I should have expected no less from you, Pretty Boy."

Smiling from beneath the hood of his black tattered cloak, Kiba revealed himself to his old friend. He looked quite muscular and toned than before, he may have mentioned once that his body couldn't get as toned as Michael's did before, but from the training he took, it must have pushed his body to undergo a complete physical change. But that wasn't the only thing that changed since his once untouched Bishounen face now had a scar over his right eye.

"And I should have expected no less from you too, Michael-kun. Your reaction time was incredible, I was actually about to cut you're neck there for a second and let you catch my blade before it could decapitate you." Kiba laughed.

"O-Oi, I get that you wanted to test me, but that sounds a bit morbid to laugh about don't you think." Michael sweatdropped.

"Hahaha! My bad!" Kiba just couldn't help but laugh, it wasn't joke, but simply being in the company of his best friend lifting his spirits. His constant training against the infamous Sword Dancer was intense and void of any human contact. To face the creature, one would have to cast aside all emotion to at least stand a chance of surviving against the monster.

"Man, even after a whole month, you're still manage to annoy me…" Michael bitterly chuckled as he raised his hand, "But it's nice to see you again, Kiba."

"Right back at you, Michael-kun."

The two gave each other a high-five as they proceeded to walk towards one of the front entrance's gardens to wait for the others. They exchanged tales that they accumulated over the timespan of the month to allow for time to tick by a little faster.

"So, you fought some crazy thing called the Sword Dancer for a whole month straight!?" Michael gasped besides Kiba as they sat on one of the marble benches.

"Yup, my instructor told me that I shouldn't put too much effort into trying to kill it since it would only evolve past my current limitations, so I simply survived and improved my swordsmanship."

"What about you're Balance Breaker? How long can you hold it now?"

"To be frank, I haven't the slightest clue, but if I were to guess then probably around 17 days now." Kiba rubbed his chin.

"Shit!"

"Huh?"

"O-Oh, its nothing…" Michael cried to himself, even Kiba was ahead of him in his overall time limit in the state.

"I may have been able to get a much better grasp over the state, but I had to focus my sights on another aspect of my training to figure out." Kiba raised his hand and created a black and white orb of demonic-holy energy.

"What did you do?"

"I was told that since I completed the training before, I was able to grasp perfect control over my demonic energy."

The orb became pitch-black as it overpowered the white energy.

"So, for the past month, I had to focus my training on something else. The opposite of what I had to do with demonic energy, a task that would be completely difficult for an ordinary devil like me to do."

Suddenly, white energy began to overtake the black energy and just before it can completely be whole, Kiba fizzles it out.

"So were you able to do it?"

"Yes, but with some difficulty, I still haven't perfected it yet, so it's a work in progress."

"So, what did you do? Show me!" Michael grinned.

"That's a secret." Kiba winked.

"Aw come on! You can tell me, I won't blab about it!" Michael exclaimed.

"Sorry, but I'm saving it for the Rating Game, you'll just have to wait like everyone else, Michael-kun."

"Man, you suck!"

Michael huffed in annoyance and looked away. Thinking of a way to quell the pouting pawn, Kiba decided to open his cloak to reveal something that only Michael would understand.

"But if you're interested in my swordsmanship, I can tell you about a style that I decided to try out."

"Yeah, and what would that b-! *GASP!* Oh my god-ow! You can't mean that you're-!" Michael's eyes lit up as he saw three katanas strapped to Kiba's waist. Out of the three there was a white katana, a black katana and an ominous black and red katana.

"That's right, I'm going to try the Three-Sword Style from that One Piece manga you recommended to me, and I'd just like to thank you for showing it to me."

"So, you're going to use the Santoryuu in battle?" Michael excitedly breathed.

"Yes, and no, it may be an interesting technique to use in battle, but I'm still getting the hang of it. Recently, I've been more efficient with using two swords than one, but I can use three swords for some final blows should I need to use it." Kiba explained.

"So, it's sort of like a trump card?" Michael asked.

"Well, one of my obvious trump cards, I still have a few more left that's hidden." Kiba patted the hilts of the black and white katanas, "And one special one right here…"

Kiba pulled out the ominous katana and showed it to Michael.

"What is it?" Michael asked.

"Well…"

"Hold on, let me guess you can't tell me?" Michael groaned.

"Sorry, but its more of a secret, but I'll tell you this. It's quite a legendary demon sword from Japan, and I was surprised that the Sword Dancer had this when I barely was able to cleave this out of one of its arms." Kiba looked up at the beautiful black steeled blade with its gleaming crimson edge,

"A famous sword from Japan, that's difficult to pinpoint since Japan has a ton of those." Michael groaned, "But whatever, I get that you want to keep your plan a secret, so the enemy won't be suspicious of what you have planned by how we'd react to it. So, don't worry about it, cool?"

"Wow…" Kiba looked genuinely surprised.

"What?"

"I guess the time that you spent on the dragon mountains really have changed you, Michael-kun. I noticed this earlier, but you seem to have this level-headed air about you. If it were the Michael-kun from before, he would have pestered me to reveal my secrets."

"For Lucifer's sake, why does everyone keep saying that!? I'm still the same Gutsy Hanamura, bet on it!" Michael roared out in annoyance, "Just say that I'm mature next! Do it, you Ken Doll Bastard! Say that to my face! Fucking do it!"

"Okay, I take it back then, you're still the same loudmouthed, immature Michael-kun." Kiba said with a genuine smile.

"That's better…" It took Michael a while to think about it, "Wait a minute… So, you have jokes now, eh, Kiba?"

Kiba simply laughed as Michael went on a long-winded rant about him.

'You're right, Michael-kun, you've always been this way even if you do mature a bit, you still remain as the Michael-kun that we all believe in.' Kiba's thoughts lingered in his head as he began to finally pay attention to Michael's shouting.

"I swear, you never change, Pretty Boy, you always have to say something to piss me o-!"

"So that's why it was so loud around here its you, Michael, and you too, Kiba?" Approaching the pair was Xenovia, who had her arms heavily wrapped in bandages. Appearance wise, she wore a clean white dress shirt and black slacks, but physically, she looked exhausted as there were bags under her eyes.

"Xenovia?"

"Why hello there, Xenovia-san."

Looking at the two young men, Xenovia was able to see how dense and wild their auras have become and smiled,

"You two grew even stronger. I'm glad…" Xenovia yawned as she slowly stalked towards them.

"Hey, are you okay? You don't look too well."

"*YAWN~!* I'm fine, I just finished practice with sensei. I figured that the gardens here would be a nice place to rest, but you two talking actually woke me up."

"Yeesh…Sorry about that Xenovia, we didn't…" Michael and Kiba looked apologetic.

"It's fine, I decided to rest here just in case anyone returning passed by." She shook her head, "I may be tired, but I decided not to let it sway me from seeing everyone else's progress. I may have worked my body past its limits, but my mental fortitude has risen considerably over this past month."

"Incredible, so this Sensei of yours really went that far for you're training? So, what did he teach you?"

"Well…he, *Yaaaawn~!* he taught me how to do this…" Xenovia climbed onto Michael's lap and wrapped herself around his shoulders, "And thi-*SNORE!*."

'Mental fortitude my ass!' Michael thought in annoyance but decided against saying it out loud since she was considerably tired.

"Looks like Master put Xenovia through the wringer. I just hope that he succeeded with changing her power focused tendencies."

'So, it was Kiba's old master that trained her? Must have been rough for her considering her dynamics…' Michael stroked Xenovia's head and smiled as she nuzzled into the crook of his neck.

*Gacha!*

"!" Michael gasped as he sensed somebody very familiar approach them.

Opening the front doors of the manor was Asia, who was wore her nun apparel, she looked exhausted as she frantically looked around the front entrance. She had heard the loud commotion from earlier which came from Bova's flying and landing. The Gremory residence was a big place, so rushing to the front door took some time for her, but upon seeing her three friends in the garden, she looked indescribably happy.

"Michael-san! Kiba-san, and Xenovia-san, too!" Asia waved.

"Oh, its Asia-san." Kiba smiled but was quite surprised when he noticed that Michael vanished from his spot on the bench.

Before Asia could even take a step outside of the manor, she was wrapped into a tight hug from Michael. Despite still carrying the tired Xenovia in his arms, he still did his best to embrace the blonde girl as closely as he could. It may have looked to be an exaggeration for those watching, but to the him, it was a massive relief. The last that he saw of Asia was in that horrifying dream of his and how she ended up left him quite a mental scar.

'S-She's safe, she's okay… That's good, perfect…'

Having to suffer through a nightmare like that and be unaware of the well-being of the person in it was torture, and having seen that the Bishop was safe, he could finally alleviate some stress that he carried around with him.

"E-Erm…Michael-san?" Asia blushed as she made contact with Michael's bare muscles, she found the hug nice, but getting embraced like this allowed her to notice that Michael was completely shirtless beneath cloak.

Not minding Asia's embarrassment, Michael unbearably stopped his hug with her to avoid dropping the sleepy Xenovia to give Asia a calm smile, "I'm back…"

"Welcome back, Michael-san…" Asia returned a heartwarming smile as the two stared deeply into each other's eyes.

"Oh my, it seems that the remaining group that went out has finally returned." Appearing behind Asia was Rias, she smiled upon seeing her servants return, but looked inquisitively at Michael, who was passionately staring at Asia while carrying Xenovia in his arms, "And I take it that you're getting real acquainted with your reunion with the others, right, Michael?"

"O-Oh, Buchou, sorry… I was just-!" Michael panicked, he was already on her shit list after what happened during his last visit with Akeno.

Stopping him by raising her hand, Rias smiled, "Don't worry, I don't mind it at all. I'm just glad that you're back. All of you." She turned to all of her adorable servants before gesturing them to enter the comfort of her home, "Please come in. To save time, we already received reports from Akeno, Asia, Xenovia, and Gasper on their own results from their training, so the only ones left are you two, Yuuto and Michael."

Noticing something amiss, Michael asked, "Eh? Haven't Ray-chan and Koneko-chan arrived, yet?"

"Raynare-san is still preoccupied with her training, but Azazel says that she'll return tomorrow the night of the party. As for Koneko, she did return from her training, but she hasn't really spoken up about it. The moment that she returned, she headed straight to her room to rest."

"I see…"

Michael was a bit disappointed to hear that, but sort of expected this sort of outcome. Natsuru wasn't really Koneko's ideal teacher, so being instructed by her must have been a challenge. That's not to say that Natsuru wasn't doing her best to be a good instructor, he knew that she wanted to try her best for the benefit of the young nekomata and he couldn't fault her for that. Unfortunately, like he thought would happen, getting Koneko to warm up to her would take much longer than just spending a month together.

He really wanted to give Natsuru a hand with this, but he feared that vouching for her will only make the situation between her and Koneko even worse. He can't sway Koneko's thoughts so easily with his own views on Natsuru, she's her own person and she probably won't be satisfied if he forced his perspective onto her.

'Senpai, good luck…' Michael took a deep breath and mentally gave his regards to Natsuru, all he could do now was trust that she'll succeed in getting through to Koneko. All he could do now was at least try to cheer up Koneko, but not today, she must be exhausted, so he'll try cheering her up tomorrow at the party.

XXX

It was heaven.

Entering the air-conditioned haven that was Rias' home, forced Michael and Kiba to tears. The last month had placed them in the wild, so alongside their training, they had to learn how to survive without the aid of civilization.

Michael did have dragons to train with, but the hierarchy of the place was rough, and he had to basically learn how to hunt his own food, boil and sterilize his own water, and worst of all, he had to learn how to sow his own clothes after getting them singed or torn to shreds.

As for Kiba, he literally had no support whatsoever during his training. The forests that were around did have wild animals, so he was able to hunt and pick which ones were appropriate thanks to his extensive knowledge about the Underworld. However, he did find it difficult to navigate his way back to the Gremory Residence since his instructor dropped him in the middle of nowhere. Two days prior to arriving, he had to stop his training to find and trek his way back to the Gremory Residence.

Gathering in one of the residence's guest rooms, the remaining members of Rias' peerage finally discussed the results of their training. The others were already resting from their individual training to arrive, so they were understandably absent. Michael made sure to lay Xenovia on the couch to rest, he didn't want to strain his bandaged wounds any further since that stunt he pulled with rushing to hug Asia with Xenovia in his arms really was a bit much for him.

Reporting in, Michael and Kiba briefly told Rias the results of their training without going too in-depth with it. Short and sweet and to the point. They both were able to increase the days that they can maintain their balance breaker and learn more interesting techniques from their teachers. It came as relief to Rias once Michael told her that his control over his Dragon energy was more refined meaning she wouldn't have to watch her beloved Pawn either sacrifice a limb to the Welsh Dragon for more power or break his limbs for overusing said power.

Kiba's training had helped him get a better grasp of Sword Birth and the much-needed properties to create each individual blade but has yet to craft a perfect enough blade. It was like his instructor said, it would take him years to master such a detailed crafting process. Thankfully, he managed to make do with the much he could do and crafted two durable blades. Like with Michael, he was a little secretive about what the three blades strapped to his hip were capable of and not one to doubt her servants, Rias agreed to only know as much as he would tell her for now.

Stacking everyone's report together, Rias sighed, "And that's all of them. I just want to tell you all how proud I am to see how hard you worked this past month. I feel confident that we'll be able to give Sona and her servants quite a surprise."

"Hah, of course we will! This may not be like the Volleyball game, but we'll be sure to blow them all away especially since I've worked on some new bombastic techniques during my stay with Gramps!" Michael pounded his chest in pride before wincing in pain.

"Ah, Michael-san are you okay?" Asia immediately rushed over to Michael's side, she held her hands out in order to push aside his cloak.

"U-Urh! I-I'm fine!"

"You are?"

"Yup, see?"

Defensively shirking the cloak from her, Michael wryly smiled and delicately grasped her shoulder.

"Don't worry, Asia, I'm just a bit sore from training is all. I'll feel better later and if I don't well I'll rely on you to heal me, okay?"

"I-If you say so but promise me you won't overdo it though." Asia looked worrisome for his wellbeing.

"Heh, Michael Hanamura the Gutsy promises." Michael patted Asia's head much to the girl's amusement.

"Wow, Michael-kun, I'm quite surprised."

"What do you have to say now?" Michael tiredly look at Kiba.

"I must have been right before, you've matured so much that you're sense of lingo has gotten pretty bizarre. I mean who says Bombastic anymore?"

"Seriously, will you get off my ass already, geez!" Michael hissed.

"Get off your ass? What a strange term… Could it be referring back to baby-making se-?"

Immediately grabbing the pillow that she was laying on, Michael tried to smother Xenovia, but reacting on time the girl was able to momentarily stop that from happening.

"And look who we have here. I thought you were too tired to even speak let alone move. How come you decided now off all times to regain your energy?" Michael said with a deadly look in his eyes.

"I was actually awake during your whole discussion with Buchou and wanted to hear how far your training has come. Now that you've trained with dragons, you can now last longer in battle whether its on the battlefield or-"

She pulled out a condom, "In bed!"

Snatching the condom from her hand, Michael roared, "For Maou's sake, you haven't changed one bit this whole month!"

"That's not true, we all underwent training this month, remember? I'm much stronger than I was before." Xenovia looked quite offended.

"That's not what I mean, you haven't changed that freaking straightforwardness of yours at all!" Michael pulled at his hair, he liked the chick, but she was literally driving him insane.

"Huh? Straightforwardness?" Xenovia rubbed her chin, "Ah, I see, Michael, if you aren't too busy later, then would you mind coming to my room later. Make sure to bring as many of these as you can."

She took out another handful of condoms.

"Nice try but you can't do that after blatantly revealing your intentions! Sheesh! How come I have to be the straight man for you, its usually my job to be the wise guy!" Michael screamed.

"So, if I'm hearing this correctly, you mean you don't want to be straight or…" Kiba trailed off.

"Shut the Mmmngh up!" Michael censored himself in Asia presence as he argued with the two annoying Knights of the peerage while Asia did her best to handle damage control.

Not taking part in the lightheartedness, Rias simply stared at Michael in confusion and suspicion. The way that he acted when Asia reached to check his chest was awfully strange. Usually, he wouldn't act in such a way around the girl and would completely open to the idea of getting healed by the bishop. Well, that would be the case if it weren't an injury that he inflicted upon himself. Upon realizing that may be the case, she decided to personally speak with him about it later.

"Hey, Ri-I mean Buchou?" Michael looked to her with a smile.

"Hm? O-Oh, yes, Michael?" Rias was caught off guard by Michael's call.

Noticing that he broke her train of thought, Michael chuckled, "I was wondering if I can talk with you later about something."

'What?' Rias was frankly stunned, usually she would be the one to pull Michael to side for a one-on-one talk but hearing him be the one to do it was a change of pace for her.

"I mean if you're too busy preparing for the party then I underst-."

"No! I mean-ahem! No, I'm too busy at the moment. We've already prepared the dresses so I'm completely free in case you have anything to discuss."

Rias shouted but recollected herself before her servants can notice her slight blunder.

"Sweet! Thanks, so I was wondering if we could actually start talking after the-!"

*Gacha!*

"…"

"Yo…"

Entering the guest room, Azazel waved to the remaining collection of his student rather solemnly while keeping a bit of his usual playfulness in his tone. Right now would usually be the time that Rias would scold the irresponsible Fallen Angel for rudely barging in like that, but she couldn't. Her attention, no, everyone's attention was on Michael, who stopped speaking and set his eyes only on the man, who entered the room.

Azazel eventually did the same as neither of them spoke for what seemed to be an awkwardly long number of seconds. Eventually, Azazel broke the drawn-out silence with a tired "Lets get this over with" before beckoning for Michael to follow him.

"Come on…"

Michael tensed up and nodded as he followed the Fallen Angel out of the room, everybody noticed something strange about the boy, his expression, he looked anxious on the verge of being desperate. As soon as they left the room, everyone was left to wonder what the two had planned, but before they could voice their questions, Rias decided to go figure out what was happening between the two.

"Why don't we end things off here? Yuuto, you must be tired from your trip. Forgive me for holding you up, so why don't you return to your room, shower and relax for tomorrow?" Putting a stop to the meeting had to come first, or else she'd lose precious time to listen in on what those two were discussing.

"Got it, thanks, Buchou." Kiba bowed his head as he left the room and took it upon himself to carry the worn Xenovia to her own bedroom. But before, he left out the door, he looked to the worried looking Asia and smiled, "Excuse me, Asia-san?"

"Oh, y-yes, Kiba-san?" Broken from her worried stupor over Michael, Asia approached Kiba.

"I was wondering if you could come with me to heal a couple of my wounds. I'm not as well versed in healing magic like you, Akeno-san and Buchou so my medical aid was barely able to keep me together during my rough training."

"S-Sure, I'll be glad to help."

"Thank you, Asia-san, you have my gratitude." Kiba bowed his head while looking to Rias and giving her an understanding nod. He knew the reason for the sudden end for the meeting and that his master was quite worried for her pawn, but it should already be a given that Asia would be just as worried, too. Measuring how much the pair cared for Michael would be downright unfair and impractical.

If Asia were to follow Rias, then it would probably difficult for the both of them not to get caught by the Fallen Angel Governor-General. This deserved a single person's kind of touch and Rias seemed more than ready to do just that.

"Lets go…" Kiba led the blonde girl out the room, but stopped as he noticed her lack of footsteps behind him. He looked back to see that the girl was no longer following him, but hesitantly stood still in the hallway, looking back at the direction that Michael and Azazel most certainly took.

"Asia-san?" Kiba called.

"Oh, r-right! Sorry." Asia rushed over to Kiba's side and stuck with him as they left Rias to herself.

'Thank you, Yuuto.' Gathering the stacked reports, Rias beckons for a nearby maid to take them.

"Yes, Ojou-sama?" The maid bowed.

"Please take these to my room."

"O-Ojou-sama's room!?" The maid gasped in fear, "E-Excuse me for sounding rude, ma'am, but are you sure you want these in there?"

Rias sighed, she wasn't surprised with that reaction, she would have expected it from all of the servants in the residence. To them, her room was Pandora's Box. She would recollect on why they were so afraid of it but decided to move things along before she missed Azazel and Michael's conversation.

"On second thought, please put them on my desk in the study."

"Right away, Ojou-sama."

"Thank you." After bowing to each other, Rias and her maid went their separate ways with Rias actually rushing down the hallways. Familiar with the route, she was led to one of her Residence's gardens. It didn't take much for her to look for the pair after she heard Azazel's voice exclaim,

"First, lets see how much progress you made. Power up."

"Haaaaaaah!"

*SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!*

Emitting a bright red light that practically engulfed the entire garden, Michael's body was cloaked in a dense layer of flowing red draconic aura. Rias was quite impressed with the display of power as she personally almost mistook Michael's usual aura for that of a real dragon.

"Good. You've finally managed to gain a respectable amount of aura, I can only imagine how powerful your touki has gotten as well. Next show me you're Balance Breaker."

[Dragon Booster!]

At Azazel's command, Michael called upon the Boosted Gear and concentrated before donning himself in the Red plated dragon armor. Upon equipping it, the intensity of his aura grew exponentially as the force of the dense aura caused strong winds to stir up the once serene garden around them. Before, his scale mail had this dangerous air about its aura, sure it was powerful, but there always this sense of cautionary tension when Michael used it.

It could be compared to an unsuitable wine glass that was breaking down because of the vast amount of water poured into it. Due to practically forcing himself to achieve Balance Breaker before his body was ready to attune to it, he would always be at risk of hurting himself when using the form. However, now he felt like an appropriate vessel for the power as it felt more concentrated and compacted to keep it from wildly flowing around him.

Rias took a deep breath out of relief, she wouldn't have to worry about watching him cripple himself anymore.

"Well done, brat, you actually managed to not only get a good grasp of your Boosted Gear's dragon energy, but you also managed to transform into it without the timer and finally get close enough to Vali's level in his own Balance Breaker."

"Really?"

"Now don't go getting too thrilled about that. I'm only comparing you to him based on when I last gauged his power which was about 2 years ago. This also applies to his stamina to stay in Balance Breaker for a whole month, I didn't really get to do any recent updates about his status because he preoccupied himself with his own agendas." Azazel explained.

There was no way to know how much Vali has improved especially after his last bout with Michael. For all he knew, the Lucifer descendant was probably honing his skills just like they were and considering Vali's extraordinary talent for magic and combat, it's likely that the power gap between the two would be drastically widened as a result.

"So, it's not enough yet?" Michael clicked his tongue out frustration as he reverts to normal.

"It is, don't get too hot and bothered about sheer power and scaling yourself to Vali. The progress that you made is already quite impressive considering your circumstances up 'til now. Hell, you can even say that you've finally became a decent Red Dragon Emperor in terms of power and control. Asking for any more than this is just asking for trouble."

Azazel glanced at Michael's bandages much to his confusion before continuing, "Besides, you should already know from your time with Tannin that battles don't just rely on sheer power alone, but also the environment and the versatile assortment of powers that one has. Your last fight with Vali is an example of the latter since you were able to use Ascalon's dragon slayer and holy properties to deal effective damage against Vali. Let's not forget that you also have the ability to use Touki, a form of power that not even Vali has."

Azazel still noticed the dissatisfaction on Michael's face, 'Not convincing enough, huh?'

"Well, that alone wouldn't be enough. To be frank it's your versatility that makes you a danger to someone as prodigious like Vali, so don't get too hung up about it and continue to get stronger."

Just as he finished giving the teen the tidbit, Azazel began to walk off. Confused and annoyed that Azazel was probably skipping out on their agreement, Michael called out,

"W-Wait! A-Aren't you going to-?"

"Ask about Welsh Drive? No need, I already received my answer through this display."

Visibly shocked, Michael grew enraged, even he himself knew that he couldn't attain the power, and it shouldn't be a long shot for Azazel to expect that as well, but what really got to him was that the man wasn't even going to acknowledge the probability of even attaining it or the serious agreement that they made.

"How can you be so sure about an answer that I haven't even given you yet? I thought you wanted to see the progression of each form, individually, so what am I missing here, Ero-Ossan?" He knew that the result would lead to failure, but he strongly held on to anything in order to make an argument. Hopelessly making an argument seemed much better to him than accepting such a daunting failure.

"You make a good point, I would ask for Welsh Drive after Scale Mail right now, but I didn't think that I would need to do that." Azazel swerved around and walked back to Michael, "I figured that since you're…you…that you would have excitedly shown me the form in your base state power up. No, I expected you to come out of the blue and show me since I figured you would be hasty enough to get the agreement over with and hear about what you wanted to know, am I right?"

Forced to shut his mouth, Michael sadly hung his head.

"Guess that's a point for me." Azazel said solemnly, "But instead of acting like your usual gloating self, you've been tense and oddly serious about this whole thing. You haven't spoken to build up your, ahem, "gutsiness" and you followed my instructions with that expectant look on your face. The look of failure."

Michael gritted his teeth in frustration and bitter acceptance.

"Two points for me..." Azazel sighed and reassuringly patted Michael's hair, "I understand that you want to know more about what happened, but I still don't believe it's the right time to tell you."

"But-!"

"I already gave you a chance and Tannin isn't here to speak up for you again. I was hesitant at first, but I did and still do believe you had the potential to unlock Welsh Drive, sadly I also believed that you couldn't attain Welsh Drive all within the span of a month. It looks like my belief of the realistic outcome came true. Listen, kid, rushing yourself isn't going to make life run faster. Things take time so enjoy life and what it has to offer until then, and who knows you may realize that the thing you really want won't be that important in the end, okay?"

"I understand…" Downtrodden, Michael softly replied. His eyes refused to meet Azazel's until he felt a sharp pain on his ear thanks to Fallen Angel flicking it, "Ouch! What's the big idea!?"

"The big idea is that you smell like ass. For Christ's sake, I can literally feel my nose hairs burn from taking single whiff of you." Azazel pinched his nose and shooed Michael away, "Go to the hot springs and clean yourself up before you accidentally kill a few birds flying by. Yuck!"

And with that Azazel left the teen on a light note much to Michael's annoyance since the flick stung more than Rias and Asia's cheek pinching.

Watching the conversation eventually end, Rias was a bit out of the loop save for the main conflict dealing with Michael's inability to attain Welsh Drive. She made a mental note not to bring it, so she wouldn't make the boy depressed. She really wanted to know what Azazel meant when he talked about some agreement and how important it was to her [Pawn].

She saw the annoyed expression on Michael's face slowly turn to sadness and deduced that it must have been impactful to force him to make such a face. Still undetected, she decided to reveal herself as he was calming his nerves.

The teen took a deep breath before he took notice of the crimson haired beauty approaching him. He made sure not to show much of his downtrodden attitude by taking another deep breath to grin at her.

When she waved at him, he waved back enthusiastically. It may not have fully cheered him up, but it helped him to readjust to the regular flow of things.

"Oh, hello, Rias. Sorry for getting serious back there." Michael chuckled, "So are you free to talk with me now?"

"Sure, the meeting is already over, so I have enough free time for you." Rias happily nodded.

*SQWUAAAAAAK!* *THUD!* *THUD!* *THUD!*

Keeping his smelly armpits up for too long caused the stench to kill three birds that were flying by. As their dead bodies dropped to the floor, Michael froze and lowered his armpits, slowly. The surprised look on his face almost made Rias laugh, but she held it in and rubbed his arm, affectionately.

"Why don't we get you comfortable before talking. You deserve it after all." She figured that it would be best to kill two birds with one stone.

"Hahaha, yeah, thanks…" Michael chuckled as he followed Rias while looking up at the sky in a perplexed manner.

XXX

Being quite far away from their destination, Rias decided to cut their trip in half by teleporting them to one of the many gardens in the Residence. The Hot Springs there were Japanese themed, this made it easier for Michael to relax in a familiar setting as they were ushered in by the servants working there. After getting their towels and soaps, the couple entered the changing room without much fuss.

At this point in their relationship, they were both comfortable about being nude in the other's presence. After wrapping the towel around herself, Rias happily does up her hair as she relished her alone time with Michael. Looking back, she noticed Michael's pain-stricken face as he finally removes the cloak on his shoulders, giving her a good view of his large back and the bandages wrapped around it.

'I-I can't believe it, he's gotten more robust, I wonder…' Reaching out to touch the muscular back, Rias stops herself and blushes, 'What was I about to do!? Touching him out of the blue might hurt him even more.'

Casting out such inappropriate thoughts, Rias worriedly walks over and wraps her arms around him to cast some healing magic on his bandaged chest and midriff.

"Geez, you could have told me that changing was too much for you." Rias scolded.

"Thanks, Rias." Michael smiled, with some of the pain etched onto his face ebbing away.

"You can thank me by taking your wrappings off, my healing magic isn't as strong as Asia's so without direct contact, I won't be able to mend the wounds as well." Rias explained as she hesitantly tore herself away from the boy.

"Alright, but…you have to promise me that you won't get mad…"

"Why would I get ma-? Wait a minute… Is this blood?" Rias examined the thick red substance in her hand before gasping, "Michael, turn around."

"I-I think I'm fine like this actually…" Michael nervously laughed.

"Michael, turn around. Now!"

Heeding the demands of his lover, Michael did just that and revealed his bloody bandages much to Rias' horror. She didn't even have time to process the amounts of blood leaking out of them as she was already busy undoing the wrappings around him.

"Your wounds opened up? When did this happen and why didn't you say anything?"

"See, I knew you'd be mad…"

*PULLLLL!*

"Ouch!"

"Of course, I'd be mad with you after seeing this… Dear Maou! It just gets worse with each layer I unwrap…" Rias said in a mixture of anger and fear.

Michael looked away and exhaled sharply, "It started to get like this after I talked with the Ero-Ossan."

"I see…"

'That makes sense, Azazel did make him power up…' Rias decided not to say anything about it or else he'll find out about her eavesdropping. She wanted to know what they're "agreement" was, but figured that forcing the answer out of him would be no good, which is why she decided,

'I'll leave it to Michael on whether he trusts me enough to talk about it…' The talk that they're about to have was definitely not about what happened earlier, and she was fine with that.

"Rias, are you okay? You sort of stopped there for a second."

"No, I'm fine, I was just thinking about why you didn't-!" And it was after unwrapping the last layer of bandages that caused the woman to cover her mouth, horrified at the large bleeding scar on Michael's chest. The wound was deep and most of the skin that was there seemed to have been burned away. Looking up, her eyes met with Michael's as she cried,

"W-What happened?"

"Well, that's a bit of a long story…but first could you try healing the parts of the bleeding wound?" Michael asked a little in pain, he tried to smile through it, so Rias wouldn't burst into tears. Hiding his pain was a must in situations like this and at this point he was already used to it thanks to past experiences.

Getting rushed to the enter the Hot Springs albeit cautiously, Rias did her best to heal his wounds while enjoying the soothing hot water that covered their legs.

Deciding to cut to the chase before Rias started asking, Michael told her the events that led to him getting this big chest wound. It was about 5 days, he was getting prepared to face Tannin for the remainder of his training on the mountains and he was completely stoked to see how far he had come. The battle was an overall improvement than their first one but compared to Tannin's overall strength as an Ultimate-class Devil, he was still no match for the Dragon.

Every tactic, new technique and old fashioned trick up his sleeve may have helped him, but it still wasn't enough to cause serious damage to the Old Dragon. At that point, he felt anger, frustration and depression from his lack of strength and eventually, well, at that point he completely blacked out. After a couple of hours, he woke up in a beaten-up state with his deep chest wounds bandaged, he was out of the loop until Bova came and told him about a group of Rogue Dragons that attacked him and Tannin out of the blue in order to usurp the mountains.

Bova managed to explain that Tannin was able to eradicate them after surviving the life-threatening bombardment of fireballs, but still sustained crippling injuries that were a result of him trying to fight and protect Michael at the same time.

"So that's what happened, I hope Tannin-sama is alright." Frowning, Rias softly placed her glowing fingers on the bleeding portions of the wound.

"Don't worry, Buchou, he's fine. Bova even said that he'll try to make it to the party tomorrow." Michael reassured her.

"Really? Then I'm glad he's fine." Rias smiled as she manages to stop the bleeding, "There, that should do it."

She shamelessly drags her finger against his unharmed defined muscles before lightly touching the burned scar again, "Now let's move on to healing this…"

"Actually Rias, I was wondering if I could keep my chest like this." Michael touched the large burn scar compromising most of his chest.

"Why on earth would you want to do that?"

"Don't you mean, why on the Underworld would you want to do that?" The unamused look that he got from the girl caused him to groan, "Okay, I get it bad time for a joke…"

"I'm serious, Michael."

"Sorry…" Michael scratched his head, "I just wanted to keep this scar as a painful reminder is all."

"A reminder for what?"

"A reminder about my weakness." Michael grit his teeth, "Even after training for a whole month, I still wasn't able to accomplish as much as I wanted. Sure, I can last longer in my Balance Breaker and my touki sure got a boost, but it still wasn't enough. I still got tossed to the side by stronger Dragons and became a burden for Gramps."

Suddenly the image of Asia from his nightmare popped into his head as his expression hardened a bit, "From then on, I decided that starting now I'd make sure to keep getting stronger to avoid losing my friends and loved ones."

Rias noticed how intensely he clutched the scar on his chest and made sure to move his hand away, so he wouldn't open any more of his healed wounds. Feeling Rias' touch was enough to settle his nerves as she wrapped herself around his arm and leaned against him.

"I understand, if that's how you really fear then I won't obstruct your vow. Besides, I think it suits you, makes you look pretty manly and gutsy…" Rias whispered the last part into his ear.

"You really think so?" Noticing his voice crack, Michael coughed and laughed, "I-I mean of course it does because after all I am the Gutsy Hanamura!"

"You sure are and I wouldn't have it any other way…"

"Hey, Rias, I-"

"I know, I love you, too."

"Wow, have I really gotten that predictable?"

"Yes, yes you have, but that's just another weird quirk that I love about you."

"W-Weird, and you didn't even deny it at all…" Michael's head fell, but he couldn't help but feel strangely happy about her reply.

Rias laced her fingers with his as the pair held hands in the steam filled hot springs, enjoying their companionable silence until Rias says,

"I've been wondering Michael, why didn't you have Asia heal your wounds earlier? It would have been a faster process with her doing it than me." The Bishop had been training her Twilight Healing for weeks now, so that question still loomed over Rias' head.

"That's because I wanted you to do it, Rias. I-I…just wanted to talk to you about it alone like this and I didn't want her to worry too much about it, so she can have fun at the Sponsored party tomorrow." There was also the fact that the nightmare he had was still bothering him and getting so close to Asia after reuniting with her wasn't really helping much right now.

He just hopes that he'll be able to readjust to being in her presence soon enough.

"I see…" Rias was quite happy to hear that and agreed with what he said about Asia. The former Nun was quite a worrywart whenever he would injure himself before, so it would have devastated her to see him carrying such a gnarly scar like that.

"So…instead of talking about me. Let's talk about what you did for your training." Michael wrapped his arm around her.

"Yeah, how about we not do that. See? We can just sit here in each other's arms without ever mentioning my training schedule and instructor?" Rias sweatdropped trying to change the topic.

"Come on, it can't be that bad compared to me, I flipping fought dragons on a daily basis!" Michael chuckled, "And besides, I can't think of anything that can truly rattle you, so it must have been something minor. Rias?"

'First rule of Onee-sama's training: Do not talk about Onee-sama's training!' Rias replayed one of the many rules that Grayfia beat into her head.

Michael stopped his laughing to notice the trembling Rias in his arms, the very mentioning of her training must have triggered something in her subconscious. Eyes widening with a hint of mischief, Michael said in awe,

"Whoa! I can't believe it, something or someone did rattle you up!"

"That's foolish, don't joke around like that."

"Hah! No way, I'm not letting this potential vantage point slip pass me! I'm going to figure out your weakness even if it kills me, so spill it!" Standing up in front of her in the springs, Michael made sure that Rias wouldn't escape by holding her hands captive with his own.

"No!"

"Come on, I promise not to tell anyone else! This secret is safe with me!"

"No!"

"Fine then, if you won't tell me then I'll just go ask Ero-Ossan or…I could just go to Vene-sama and get the full story from her. We've grown to be close friends, she and I, and I think we're close to discussing some embarrassing parts of my girlfriend's childhood." Michael smirked, devilishly.

"You wouldn't dare…" Rias lowly growled and narrowed her eyes.

"Oh, I dare milady… I dare…" Michael threatened as he toyed with her, "So what are you going to do about it? Come clean now or have someone else tell me about it? Taunt, taunt, taunt~!"

Taking a moment to think about it, she smirked, "I choose the third option."

"Nice try, but there is no third option." Michael dramatically glared at her.

"And that's where you're wrong "Darling" there's always more to the choices that one receives. If I can't get the outcome I want with either option, then I'll just have to make my own and to make sure that happens, I'm going to shut you up."

"And how pray tell are you going to do that, Rias? I already have you trapped, there's no way that you can get away from me. Face it, the Crimson Ruin Princess has finally met defeat at the hands of the Gutsy Hanamura! Hahahaha!"

Amidst his maniacal laughter, Rias giggled, "You, naïve fool."

"Nani?" Michael gasped.

"Keeping me trapped like this doesn't change a thing, I don't need my hands to shut you up."

"Your bluffing!"

"Am I, am I really?"

'Ngh! How is this possible? I know have the advantage, I know I do, but why do I get the sneaking suspicion that I'm playing right into her hands! No, she's playing mind tricks, she probably wants me to think this way. Meaning, she's already putting her plan into acti-!"

"Take~."

*CHU!*

Pouncing at him, Rias locked Michael in a passionate kiss that stunned him as the both of them fell into the hot springs behind the boy. Emerging from the warm depths, the two gasped for air without taking their eyes off each other.

"Curses, I fell for it. Hook line and sinker!" Michael wailed.

"It looks like the Crimson Ruin Princess dominated the Gutsy Hanamura yet again." She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and snuggled into his chest, "Now how should I make use of my spoils of war?" Rias circled her fingers on his pectorals, as she had so many frisky choices to choose from.

Wrapping his arms around her hips rather forcibly, Michael whispered, "You'd best hurry and make your choice otherwise I'll make it for you."

"Oh, yeah?" Rias purred.

"Yeah… Is what I would say if I wasn't so tired, so take this!" Michael backed away and splashed water in Rias' face.

"H-Hey, no splashing in the hot springs!" Rias splashed back.

"Then how come you're doing it!"

"Because as your King, I hold immunity!" Rias continuously splashed water in Michael's face.

"No fair, that's just your way of saying you can get away with breaking the rules!"

"So~?" Rias stuck her tongue out.

"You sneaky little-!"

Laughter filled the hot springs as the couple rejuvenate themselves by enjoying the other's presence with them. Soon enough their horseplay came to an end as they silently rested in the large pools, hand-in hand before they had to eventually get out. The resident servants made sure to bring more suitable clothes for Michael just before they entered the changing room since the one's that he brought were in poor condition save for the dragon scaled cloak that they folded for him.

Walking back to the main residence took a while since the pair wanted to enjoy the other company for as long as they can. By the time that they reached the stairs to the second floor, Rias made a habit of stalling by standing in place with each step they took. This greatly halted Michael's walking but he didn't find it to be an issue, they haven't been together for a long time, so it was only fair to milk as much time as they wanted.

Eventually, they did make it to bedrooms and sadly said their farewells, but just as he was about to enter his bedroom, Michael could have sworn that he heard Rias mention something about inviting him somewhere and cleaning someplace up. Anyways, with everything done for the day, he finally relished a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, that good night's sleep was a bit hindered with both Asia and Xenovia fast asleep on his bed after waiting so long for his return.

'Well, at least I have a bed again…' Michael shrugged and slipped into the covers with Xenovia and Asia. Soon enough he felt Asia wrap her arms around him, he found her light snores to be cute along with the way Xenovia tossed and turned in bed. The exhausted girl was all over the place especially her legs which seemed to get closer and closer to his crotch.

"Wait a minute, what?" Seeing the girl raise her leg and drop it, he estimated that his nads would receive critical damage.

"Xenovia, hold on, you have to wake u-!"

*GONG!*

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Michael cried before limply passing out from the pain.

XXX

Standing outside of Koneko's bedroom, Natsuru leaned against the balcony as she quietly watched the sleeping nekomata through the window. Usually, it would be her job to keep watch over Michael, but since the two had their bedrooms placed together, she was able to still keep watch over him along with the girl. She couldn't explain it herself, but she at least felt compelled to do this much for Koneko since she wasn't able to teach Koneko much about senjutsu due to the white-haired girl's distaste for her.

The remaining time they had in the last 15 days was basically the same as before, but Natsuru felt that something was off. The moment she had returned, the girl was strangely acting distant and troubled. Of course, she had to use her senjutsu just to notice the girl's emotions since she was so great at being physically hard to read.

The Rook's resistance to her training hadn't gone away, but simply changed and that concerned Natsuru enough to just keep close tabs on her should something happen. She may have only been responsible for the girl's training, but she could be in deep trouble should something happen to the girl. So, she was only doing this just for the sake of being safe and avoiding any unneeded suspicion, yup, nothing else. Although she told herself that, she just couldn't help but feel like there was more to her worries than that.

*SNAP!*

"!" But before she could deny the notion of worrying about Koneko again, she sensed an unknown presence just at the cusp of the woods surrounding the Gremory Residence. Focusing her eyes, she could easily see through the darkness and through the thick brush of the woods below the balcony.

Her surveillance of the area was quick and precise, she would have found whoever it was in flash, but it would seem that their form was much more suited for the environment and it didn't help that they're presence was dialed down to make it difficult to track them. All that she could get from it was that there was someone there and they didn't want to be found.

At least that's what she thought was what they wanted since after a while she caught notice of a black cat lazily lying on a tree branch staring at her.

*Meow~!*

"…"

*Staaaaaaaaaaaare~!*

"…"

Her eyes didn't even twitch as she stayed locked onto the cat. No, it was something more than just your average cat as it retained a total of two tails.

'A nekomata…' Natsuru would have been ecstatic in the past to see another one of her kind around, but that was in the past, and besides, why would there even be a nekomata in the Underworld in the first place and what purpose would they have coming to a devil's territory like this?

There were too many suspicious variables that she couldn't ignore, so she decided to do a little test. Immediately, she gave off a threatening aura through the use of Sage Arts to get a reaction out of the black nekomata. Her aura was a strange blend due to her mixed Kitsune and Nekomata origin, so that alone might give them a bit of a surprise to tread carefully. After a while, the nekomata responded back in kind as they released just an equal amount of aura that rivaled Natsuru's.

'What in the-?' Natsuru thought in disbelief, here she had expected to surprise the potential enemy, but instead she ended up getting just as flabbergasted. Just like herself, the nekomata exuded a distinct blend in her aura as well, but it was more familiar yet artificial blend. A blend that reminded her of Reincarnated Devils like Rias Gremory's servants.

'A Nekomata that also feels like a devil? Could they be?' Natsuru's eyes sharpened as she pieced two and two together. Faced with a perceived threat, she flared her aura as the black nekomata did the same. Eventually their auras clashed in a challenge to see who would back down first, but before a conclusion could be made Natsuru stopped herself as she heard the sound of rushing footsteps approach the balcony.

*GACHA!*

"…!" Pushing the glass doors open, Koneko ran outside in a cold sweat. Natsuru, who managed to hide her presence hid on the roof as she watched the girl frantically look around for the source of natural energy clashing. After a while, Koneko began to calm down and returned to bed, but not before looking out the window one last time out of fear.

'I can't believe how careless I was. Getting riled up so close was bound to make Koneko restless.' Natsuru stood up and noticed the disappearance of the black cat, 'She must have left once Koneko awakened, too.'

Going over what just happened, Natsuru seriously whispered, "She's powerful, I'll give her that, but she should be around the same level as me. Too bad I can't say that I'm that confident I could win a fight against them. They exhibited patience, back when I released my aura, they didn't hastily bring out their own. No, they got a good feel of me before replying back."

This wasn't any ordinary nekomata that she was dealing with, if anything they seemed to be quite a competent youkai, making them a formidable threat. Heaving out a sigh, Natsuru had hoped that things wouldn't have taken such a turn for the worst, but it looks like she'll have to get involved in putting a halt to someone's plot.

"I just hope that I have time to at least get some souvenirs for Kiyo-chan and Ma-chan…" Natsuru said wistfully as she wondered how her siblings were faring in Europe. The last that she heard of them, they were already accompanying Kiyome's mother to study the monsters that lived there along with some artifacts that her mother was able to discover.

XXX

Pouncing from branch to branch, the black cat traveled through a portal mid-jump and arrived on the coast of some unknown beach. Upon landing on the hot sand, the cat quickly scuttled towards the shaded table and chairs beneath a white parasol.

As it landed on the table, the cat painfully mewled, "Ny-owch! I should have known creating a dimension like this would be hell on my feet while in this form."

"I find the feeling of hot sand on my feet to be quite soothing."

"Seriously? How are you not dying out here? You're literally drinking Black tea, nya." The black cat looked over at the occupied seat to see an elegant, beautiful yet regal blonde woman sipping a cup of tea. The woman's clear blue eyes really brightened her face underneath the parasol as her lace braided blonde hair lightly swayed with the wind as the sea beside them swayed onto the shore. It may have been difficult to notice because of her business suit, but she has quite a lithe figure that would distract whoever wasn't paying close attention to how toned her body looked.

"Tea calms me down and it helps before a mission, so it doesn't bother me where I drink it, but you already know that because after all, you chose to create a pocket dimension like this in order to grate on my nerves, correct?" The blonde woman's ahoge bounced as she accusingly glanced at the cat.

"So, you figured me out, nya…" The cat stuck its tongue out.

"You being a vile cat aside, how were your efforts in surprising your little sister? I take it that it didn't go as planned." The woman looked around for any signs of another cat.

"You can say that, I really wanted to see her face when I decided to try and pick her up before the actual day of her choice, but I came across a very troublesome obstacle. I could have tried to dispose of them, but I wasn't really in the mood."

"And you stopped because you could have alerted the Devils in the area, right?"

"Oh, and that too, nya~!"

The blonde woman groaned, the cat probably didn't think that was a consequence and simply listened to her own lazy instincts.

"So how about you, Arthur? Receive any word from our donor, nya?" The cat licked its arm.

Wearing a hard to read expression, Arthur shook her head and groaned, "Unfortunately, I did and the talk I had with them was quite an experience to say the least. She used quite a bit of…modern lingo? Is that how you say it? Well, she made sure to tell that she positioned portals around the location of the party to act as our distraction for when we confront the Red Dragon Emperor and claim your sister."

"Good, good… Everything is coming together, and I didn't even have to do most of the work either. I should start doing this type of stuff in the future, you know, nya?"

"You mean sit back and watch others do the work for you? The thing you basically do all the time with my sister?" Arthur dryly replied.

"Oh, come on, Le Fay loves helping around the manor, so what's wrong with giving her more of what she wants?"

"Kuroka, stop taking advantage of her or else…" Arthur glared at the yawning cat.

"Whatever…"

"I mean it…"

"Yeah, yeah…" The cat dismissed the threat as she stretched out over the table, "So anything else our donor had to say?"

Rolling her eyes, Arthur said, "Not particularly, but to be frank, I tuned out most of what she was saying since the way she spoke disturbed me. All I remember was "Gotta get dolled up" and "OMG, I have got to start vomiting to fit into my old dresses" so yeah, that kind of dribble." Arthur imitated their donor using an overexaggerated teen voice.

"Sounds about right, I only ever talked to her once in person and I could tell that she was a loony." Kuroka said.

"Just where did you find such a person to help you?"

"I didn't really find her, she pretty much found me, nya."

"Come again?"

"Well, before I came to you, I originally asked Bikou to come with me to pick up my sister, but he backed out saying that there would be a chance that he would run into "him" should he even go with me. So, I pitched for some extra help from the other factions of the Brigade, who weren't too extremely busy to lend me a helping hand, then boom, she arrived with an offer in hand, nya-nya~!"

"That sounds shady and it's most likely that this "help" of hers can cause us just as much damage as the people we're using these chimera on…" Arthur rubbed her chin.

"I know, but should she try anything funny then we could simply kill her." Kuroka yawned.

"True, but I don't believe I like the vulgar way you phrased that." Arthur shook her head.

"I'm pretty sure there are a lot of things that you don't like about me, Arthur." Kuroka giggled.

"True yet again…" Seeing Kuroka sprawl her little cat body over her portion of the table, Arthur said, "Get off the table."

"No."

"You're about to spill my tea."

"Too bad for you then, nya~!"

"If you want to relax then transform to your human form and relax on the chair like a civil living being."

"Lemme think about th-no~!"

"Move…"

"No…"

This long battle of words dragged out to point to where, Arthur slowly summoned a golden portal slowly releasing the hilt to a sword.

"I'm not going to ask again, Kuroka. MOVE." Arthur coldly demanded.

"Nyeh~!"

*CHINK!*

Kuroka kicked not Arthur's tea cup, but instead the whole tea kettle onto the sand as the ground absorbed all of her precious black tea.

"…" Arthur angrily glared at the cat.

"Oopsie~!" Kuroka stuck her tongue out.

*SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!*

Suddenly a radiant light shined beneath the table as Kuroka's face went pale before nervously smiling,

"S-Sorry?"

"CALIBUUUUUUUUUUUUUURN!"

"Nyaaaaaaaargh~!"

And with a yowl of pain and fear, Kuroka and Arthur engaged themselves into another one of their usual spats that inevitably destroyed the dimension that Kuroka created.

XXX

The next day, during the evening everyone was already prepping themselves for the party, the girls were whisked away by the maids while the boys were taken by the butlers. It was a lengthy and tedious process for the butlers since they dealt with Michael's defiance to their assistance to help him change and Gasper trying to escape the crowded dressing room. By the time they got out, the boys wore their black suits with their hair combed back.

Deciding to go check on whether Bova and his gang had arrived to pick them up, Michael parted ways with Kiba and Gasper, who decided to wait for Rias and the others.

"Ugh…this sucks! I can barely move like this." Michael groaned, "And these loafers are killing my feet! Why the hell do men's shoes need heels!?"

"A month passes by and you still haven't changed."

"Wait a minute, that voice…" Michael whipped his head around to spot Saji approaching him, "Doctor Science!"

"Don't call me that, Mike, and its nice to see you again, too." Saji pushed up the frame of his glasses before waving at his best friend, he too was dressed up in a black suit. The young man had obviously changed during his own month of training over at the Sitri side, he appeared to be just as robust as Michael was. Not to mention that the aura he now possessed seemed way stronger than before and Michael couldn't tell if it were his eyes deceiving him, but it felt as if there was a familiar white aura mixed in with Saji's black dragon aura.

The two happily fist bumped upon their reunion.

"What the heck are you doing here, man?" Michael laughed.

"The Kaichou wanted to go to the party with Rias-senpai, so I decided to tag along as her body guard while the others went on ahead to the party. I sort of got lost after she went to change with senpai, and that's how I ended up here." Saji explained.

"Pfft! You seriously got lost? How sad, I've only been here a couple of times and I still managed to navigate myself around with no help at all." Michael chuckled as Saji rolled his eyes.

Passing by a maid worriedly approached Michael and asked, "Young Master, do you require any directions on how to reach the bathroom? Last night, you looked awfully distressed as you crawled around looking for it. S-Should I call some butlers to help carry you like last time? Or do you want me to bring some spare clothes for you in case you can't hold half of your bladder like befo-?"

"NO! I mean, no thank you, I'm fine…" Michael rapidly shook his head as he directed the maid elsewhere before looking back to Saji, who wore an incredulous expression on his face.

"Wow, what are the chances that the same maid would pop up at this exact moment. You must have been born under some special star, Mike."

"STOP TALKING!" Michael screamed.

"Alright, alright…" Saji sighed.

"But enough about that. You've really changed, Saji, you're much stronger now." Michael grinned, "This long interval of training really worked wonders on you."

"Thanks, Mike, I really appreciate that. I've been put through hell this entire month and I'm just glad that someone was able to-where are my…?" Saji touched his face to realize his glasses weren't there and spots Michael talking to them a bit away from him.

"I mean you even changed your frame and everything. These past years of training has done you some real justice." Michael excitedly laughed as he talked to the pair of glasses as if they were Saji, "To be honest, I almost didn't recognize you there but at least we're back to being the two amigos you and I! Hahaha-eh?"

*WHAM!*

"Who the hell are you even talking to?" Saji yelled as he gave Michael the old right hook.

"O-Ouch, just relax I was just talking to the real Saji. No need to get all fussy." Michael picked himself up and presented Saji's glasses.

"Mike, I'm right here! Those are just my new prescribed glasses. I pick them up yearly as backup should anything happen to my contact lenses." Saji explained.

"No, this is Saji, you should seriously get your eyes checked, dude." Michael shook his head.

"How exactly is that me? Those just appear to be a pair of glasses!" Saji exclaimed.

"Don't be stupid, these are obviously Saji, the very same Saji, who went off to the mountains in order to train for years when middle school was close to ending." Michael said, seriously.

"I did no such thing and you know that! Hold on, are you referring to time that I decided to first use eye contacts in exchange for glasses?"

"No, of course not, I'm talking about the time that Saji went to the mountains to train for years. Come on keep up." Michael scolded.

"Kind of hard to do that since you're talking crazy like a lunatic." Saji growled.

"Don't you get it? Well, I wouldn't expect a glasses hanger like you to get anything." Michael sighed, mockingly.

"O-Oi, hold up, did you just reduce me to nothing but a glasses hanger?"

"You see this was Saji back in the day, my best friend, I met him with glasses and I will forever remember him that way. No, the world will forever remember him that way since these glasses were his identity, they were the reason why he was ever truly Saji in the first place. You see where I'm going with this?"

"You're full of shit! How could a measly pair of glasses be me? They're not even the same as my old pair!"

"Sshh…shush!" Michael placed his finger over Saji's lips as he smiled, "That doesn't matter."

"The hell it doesn't!"

"Look, dude, you can't deny that these glasses make up 98% of what makes up "Saji" while the other 2% consists of waste and water." Michael held out the glasses.

"I counted so many things wrong with that statement." Saji sweatdropped.

"No, no, just listen to me for a second and think this through. Between the meat bag in front of me and these cool glasses..." The teen whispered as if he made some sort of breakthrough, "Which one is the real Saji?"

"You're the only one who needs to face reality!" Saji snatched the glasses away, "And give me that, your smudging the lenses."

"Smudging the lenses? No, I'm just clearing "Saji's eyes so that he'll see the truth…" Michael said, wistfully.

"Shut up, Michael…" Saji groaned.

After their little exchange, the two decided to sit on a couple of the nearby couches near the gardens to catch up. Michael and Saji discussed what kind of training entailed during the past month with Michael being more than happy to blab about his regimen rather simply while Saji talked about his own to a minimum without giving too much away. The conversation started off light-hearted, but after a while the mood began to turn serious.

"The game will be taking place very soon now." Saji brought up.

"Yup." Michael nodded.

"I trained like hell to get this strong."

"Me too."

"…"

"…"

The two remained silent, at this point they should have been considered enemies to each other for the upcoming match, but there was a somber feeling that welled up within them. Sure, they competed in the past like in the volleyball game, but that wasn't a real fight. Since the day they met, they've been the best of friends, working together like brothers and now for the first time in their lives, they were finally going to exchange fists as enemies.

Hoping to lighten up the conversation, Saji said, "You remember what happened back there with the Old Devils at the Young Devil gathering last month? Well, it got me thinking about something."

"Like what?"

"The Kaichou, her dream is to create a School for any devil without appealing to the class system. A school free of prejudice so the next generation can grow up and be given the freedom to choose what they want to do in life." Saji chuckled, "She has such a virtuous dream that reminds why I lo-admire her so much, but it had me thinking. What should my dream be?"

"How should I know? You're the smart one while I'm badass." Michael joked.

"Debatable, but I'm serious."

"I know, bro, but if I were to take a swing in the dark, I'd say that you would have wanted to help Sona-senpai out by being a teacher at her school, yeah?"

"You guessed right, that was my initial dream at first…" Saji trailed off.

"Was? What changed your mind?" Michael asked.

"…" Saji simply remembered back to his training days with Shirou act as his sparring partner, the two didn't really talk all that much since Shirou was too busy enjoying pummeling the poor pawn into the ground. However, there were a few instances to where Shirou grew interested in Saji's motivations for getting stronger and remembered back to the Young Devil Gathering too and how Saji's master was ridiculed as much as his own master.

-"Listen here, helping out your master by becoming a teacher is good and all, but are you sure you want to build a dream based off of her own? I can tell that you like her, so shouldn't you try to grow a pair and figure out what your dream should be? Masters like ours are hardasses so its hard to garner their attention without proving ourselves as their equals. Someone like Sitri-sama is never going look your way if you just keep following her as just her pawn. But what do I know, do whatever the fuck you want its not like I care or anything, fuckwad! "-

"You can say that an unexpected yet brutal friend talked me out of it." Saji looked to the ceiling with a determined look, "Just because Kaichou has an inspiring dream doesn't mean that I should blindly follow her. I want to get better not just for her, but for myself as well. It would be a disgrace not to figure out my own goal while everyone is trying their hardest to attain their dreams. Which is why I decided… I'm going to become an Ultimate Class Devil and form a peerage of my own."

"That's a pretty good dream, Saji." Michael grinned.

"Thanks, but that's not all to it." Saji raised his hand to the sky.

"Huh?"

"That's only my first step, no, my actual dream is to become the Asmodeus Maou."

"…!" Michael may have been surprised, but he could help but grin after hearing his friend declare that.

"Sorry, if I sound like I'm taking your schtick, but I honestly can't think of anything else that can satisfy my dream than that. I already know that it won't be easy since I'll need Intellect, Power, Experience and the recognition of the entire devil society. Intellect and Power are a work in progress, but I lack Experience and gaining recognition is already going to be a pain after what happened at that Gathering."

Saji shrugged, "But I'm in no rush, I want to enjoy everything coming my way. Natural progress seems to be the only way for me to be considered the Kaichou's equal, so I'll take each step-in stride to fullest."

"Right… Then let's do our best to become Maou then, Saji. We might be a long way from accomplishing our dreams but let's make sure that we never give up on in no matter what." Michael raised his fist.

"Gotcha."

The two men fist bumped.

'Just like Sairaorg, Saji has a clear idea on what kind of Maou that he wants to be, and he just attained this dream only recently too. I still haven't even decided on what kind of Maou that I want to be, much less what I want to stand for as one.'

Michael shuffled through all of his perplexed thoughts before shaking his head,

'No, I have to take my time. Creating a half-assed goal will only lessen the value that I give to it.' Michael shook his head.

"Michael, sorry for making wait. Hm, so Saji-kun was here with you?"

Arriving onto the scene was Rias and the rest of the girls, who wore wearing beautiful dresses that made them look to be like princesses. Walking along with them were Kiba and Gasper.

"Wow, you guys look amazing!" Michael smiled.

"Why thank you, Micha-!" Kiba started.

"Shut the fuck up, Kiba!" Michael growled.

"K-Kaichou?" Saji immediately blushed as he saw the dressed up Sona in front of him.

"Is something wrong, Saji?" Sona asked, curiously.

"N-No, ahem! Excuse me for that, I was simply amazed with swell you're looking this evening." Saji bowed.

"Why thank you. Now shall we?" Sona lightly smiled as she walked ahead of him.

"Right." Saji did his best to keep up, someday, he won't be watching her back anymore, he'll do his best to walk beside her as his equal.

"So, you said that Bova was coming to pick us up with his gang?" Rias asked as everyone made their way to the front entrance.

"Yeah, he said would be early, so he's probably waiting for us right as we speak." Michael opened the door to spot the dragons, and once he did, he instantly regretted opening the door.

"BOSS! WE! HAVE! ARRIVED!" Bova roared along with the many large dragons behind him as they loudly roared like a pack of animals. They seemed to have worn large leather biker jackets as they furiously pounded their chests like wild gorillas. Everyone was at a loss for words at the scene as the dragons just kept on chanting Michael's name.

Leaning in close, Saji whispered, "So I see you weren't the only one dealing with delinquents over the summer…"

"You have no ide-hey, wait, what are you talking about? Don't tell me that you-!" Michael was just about to call out who Saji sparred with for the month, but Bova's obnoxious chanting broke his concentration.

"BOOOOOSSSSS! WEEEE! HAVE! AR-RRRIIIIIIV-!"

"STOP TALKING!" Michael shouted out in annoyance, they weren't even at the party yet and he was already getting exhausted.