If the name Freed was brought up, he was probably the most troublesome shitty priest to the Church and the Devils. Combining Lint-san’s face along with that name, it was quite easy for people’s alarms to go off as they suspected her of having a relation to Freed, so it shouldn’t be a good thing to her. After Lint closed her hand, the flame disappeared from her palm. “Hmm, well, there are various meanings in it. As I share the same genes, I want to carry on the name of the deceased Freed-aniki, and also to atone for the vicious crimes that aniki committed.”
“I see.”
…To atone for that guy’s crimes huh. Though there isn’t really a need for Lint-san to do so…. She doesn’t seem like a bad girl. Both Azazel-sensei and Heaven had entrusted the Longinus to her, and she had also joined Rias’ team, so it only seemed natural that she couldn’t be a bad person. The next problem though was what kinds of things this girl had already done in the past. There was no clear answer to this question. Ravel had already done some research, but there was basically no information that could be confirmed. Looking at it from this perspective, did she actually belong to a secret division like assassination? Or was she a spy that travelled between various countries? Neither Xenovia nor Irina recognised her, so she didn’t seem to be a warrior who fought on the front lines. So I wanted to use this opportunity to ask her about this issue. “Ise…and Lint Sellzen huh.”
Just at this time, Xenovia and…Irina appeared in the living room. “Ara, what a coincidence. Were you two chatting?”
Irina asked. After Lint-san saw Xenovia and Irina, she spoke to them in a rather emotional manner. “Oooh, if it isn’t Quarta-paisen and Shidou-paisen. I would love to try having a girls’ talk with other female warriors.”
Xenovia and Irina looked at each other, and then their eyes shone like crystals as they expressed their passionate interest in the matter. Xenovia put her hands on top of Lint-san’s shoulders as she said
“Hoho, now this is interesting. There are a lot of things I want to ask you. First off, how old are you?”
“I’m seventeen this year.”
Ah, so one year younger huh. Well, I did guess that we were roughly the same age based only on appearances. Irina seemed overjoyed upon hearing this. “Younger? That’s nice isn’t it? Yes, as your senior, I’d really like to know more about my junior!”
Xenovia raised her arm up as she said
“Alright! Before Master Rias comes, we should have a good chat as fellow compatriots! I’ll also introduce you to Asia upstairs!”
“Good idea! Asia and…if Sister Mirana also came, then we could have an even merrier congregation as fellow believers!”
“Ooh, this feeling, do you mean I can make friends? Iya, I’m so grateful.”
Like that, Xenovia and Irina took Lint-san over to Asia’s room. I was left alone in the living room. I was unable to ask Lint-san about what her former affiliation was. …Church Trio, you have to return Lint-san when Rias comes back, okay? Though, just as Irina said, Asia, Xenovia, Irina, Mirana-san and Lint-san were five girls of similar age from the Church who had somehow gathered close by. It might be good if they can form a small group. Just as I thought that, Ravel sent me a detailed schedule from outside. The match was approaching — and so our final preparations were now beginning. Part 3
The next day—. I went to the large training space set up in the underground of the Gremory territory, and began our special training before the match with my team members. Incidentally, this space was a different space to the one that the Gremory peerage used before. In order to celebrate my promotion to a high-class Devil, the Gremory house specifically prepared a dedicated training space for me. It felt as though they really took care of me, and though I felt as though I was imposing too much on them, Ravel said to me
“You must accept it!”
Hence, the space that was supposed to be my exclusive training area — had now become the training space for the Hyoudou Issei team. This time, I was here with my team’s new member, Nakiri, to practice with him. “Hyoudou-senpai, please spar with me.”
“Alright, no problem.”
Before the training, we saluted each other. I changed into my Balance Breaker form and equipped my armour, while Nakiri was dressed in a long-sleeved shirt for athletics. Nakiri stood in front of me like that with the stance of a normal athlete — of course, it certainly wasn’t as simple as just standing there. A thick touki surrounded his body, and as expected of someone who had formed a contract with the Sacred Beast [Ouryuu], he emitted bursts of a dragon’s majestic aura. The Sacred Beast [Ouryuu] was said to govern the ‘earth’. From this ‘earth’ — Nakiriborrowed ‘ki’ fromthe dragon’s veins which flowed through the earth, and added his own touki to it. Depending on the richness of the land, and whether or not other conditions were optimal, it was possible to borrow almost an endless amount of ‘ki’. The power of Nakiri in front of me—. Nakiri used his touki to continually increase the physical abilities of his body, so his attack, defence and speed greatly sharpened, and then he charged towards me at high speed! Nakiri’s speed totally surprised me. His speed was possibly greater than a high-class Devil’s, and Nakiri charged at me with this speed! I easily evaded, but Nakiri jumped up — and in the process destroyed the ground by puncturing it with a large crater! Simply through the enhancement of touki, he had boosted the power of his legs to such a degree! I flew upwards, and then Nakiri hurled a ball of dragon’s aura towards me! So he’s good at melee as well as mid and long distances! He would occasionally leap towards the air in order to shrink the distance between us so that he could attack me — I endured heavy blows even through my armour. But I was still capable of handling something of this extent! Because he was able to engage in melee combat with me face-to-face, we would sometimes engage in close-quarter brawls with our fists and legs. I was surprised that Nakiri was able to withstand my punches. His touki had actually enhanced his physical defences to such a level. He was truly powerful as a pure human to be able to possess such strength. But, being able to spar with someone like him from the younger generation made me really happy. I also had this kind of training with Gasper, and I felt rather happy about it back then too. Because of the tournament, I was unable to train with Gya-kun though, so I felt a bit lonely. Nakiri was also great at melee combat. I was truly delighted! It was also a fighting style using touki that was similar to Koneko-chan and Sairaorg-san. By practicing with Nakiri, it meant that I would have a good idea of what I would be facing if I had to go up against Koneko-chan or Sairaorg-san. Some distance away was the mock battle between the swordswomen Xenovia and Irina.