At the edge of the beach, and in the middle of the night, everyone participating in the battle had gathered here. The members who would be participating in this operation against Trihexa included the Occult Research Club, Sitri peerage, Seekvaira Agares-san’s peerage, and the [Brave Saints] of the [DxD] team. Sairaorg-san…because the Bael had been attacked, there were a lot of things that he needed to deal with, which was why he had to come a little later. Although the Great King house’s misfortune continued, I had heard from Saji that the estrangement between Sairaorg and his own family had already improved a bit, which was something worthy of celebration. Of course, the ones who came here to help out didn’t just include us; there were also the high-class Devils who managed territory in Japan and their peerages who came to join the battle. Japan’s special ability users group — they had also appeared, with the Five Great Families supporting them. The majority of them were specialists dressed as Onmyouji. These people were led by Akeno-sans’ cousin, the current head of the Himejima clan, ‘Suzaku’. We had just met her not long ago, and she was really quite a beauty… My head is starting to hurt again! It really is too embarrassing for Akeno-san’s cousin to see me in such a worthless state…. Aside from them, there were also others who came—. “We also came, Ise!”
It was a very familiar-sounding voice; it was the blonde-haired fox girl Kunou, as well as her okaa-san, Yasaka-san who had arrived! “Kunou! Even Yasaka-san came!”
Yasaka-san bowed. “Sekiryuutei-dono, and everyone, the youkai of my kind living in Japan are also here to fight. Because our homes have been destroyed, we’ve been quite troubled.”
Following behind Yasaka-san was an endless legion of youkai which could even cover the entire surface of this small island. Even the elders of the youkai appeared among them. They had already fought against Trihexa once. Although they couldn’t be seen from here, the major gods of Japanese mythology were also assisting in the rear. I’ll leave protecting Japan to you guys. Since even our major gods said that, we could only go along with that. In order to face Japan’s crisis, everyone had come out to stand on a united front. At such a critical juncture, I would feel a bit sad if we couldn’t cooperate…I think everyone should work together during times such as these, that way, the future will be brighter! After we briefly confirmed the details of our battle, we had our last period of rest before the battle began. While everyone went about spending that time in their own way, I climbed up a rock by myself, and looked towards the direction that Trihexa would approach from. …As soon as we arrived at this island, I could feel incredible cold chills in the air. An indescribable pressure was coming from Trihexa’s direction. The sky was also clouded over. That was also due to the influence of Trihexa. …That beast was truly formidable. That was natural, after all, it was a beast that was able to easily change the terrain. It was a beast which was even able to defeat gods. Can I really beat it…. First was to stop the Holy Grail it had from functioning. Then…we’ll be relying on the plan mentioned by Azazel-sensei that only the VIPs knew about. To be honest, I was really curious about it. Of course, we weren’t just going to wait around foolishly for that plan. We have to do all that we can to resist, Japan…it’ll definitely be protected! But if that was to be the case, then we had to fight against Trihexa…it was in a completely different class from us…damn it, in the end, what should I do? Sensei, I really hope that you’ll be able to carry out that plan successfully! “Ufufu, what is one person thinking while his head is in pain?”
A voice called out to me — it was Rias. She looked at me curiously. “It’s nothing, I was just wondering how we would defeat Trihexa.”
Rias stood by my side, and looked up at the sky. “…Indeed. It will be difficult. But, I don’t want to give up. For me, the human world…Japan is my second home.”
With eyes filled with determination, Rias said so. I said
“…It’ll be time for graduation soon. I’m also going to become a third year.”
“Yes. I want to graduate in that school. Me, Akeno, Sona, and Tsubaki are all looking forward to becoming university students, you know?”
“I also felt that. Where are you all planning to go for your graduation trip?”
“Sona is planning the trip. We haven’t yet decided on Okinawa or Hokkaido. It might be better to go to both places while we can. It would be nice to eat our fill in Osaka as well.”
“So you were planning to do that much! No, but, if you use transportation magic circles, then it’ll be easy to achieve.”
“We want to travel by plane. At the least, it needs to be like humans, right?”
Rias gave me a wink. Flying in a plane huh. In that case, the trip’s schedule would become quite troublesome…but that wouldn’t be too bad since they were going to be traveling together. …I held Rias’ hand. Her hand…was shaking. It was probably trembling out of fear, but also out of excitement as a warrior. Rias had always remained calm, but she also had times when she acted like a girl her age. …Moreover, my hand was also trembling nervously. At this time, it could be said that we’re a cute matching couple who share the same state of mind, right? Rias suddenly revealed what she really felt. “…In truth, I don’t want you to participate in this battle. Even if you didn’t want to, I would want you to stay and rest in the Underworld together with ogifu-sama and ogibo-sama, that’s what I truly think. Everyone in the Occult Research Club also thinks that way…. But, despite all that, you would still come here without fail. So it would be better if we simply faced it together. We didn’t come here to die together, but with me, and everyone else together, we’ll be able to increase our chances of survival. Just then, Akeno also said that we’ve crossed overcome many many difficulties together until now.”
What Rias said was right. In this situation, even if I was positioned at the rear, I would forcibly charge out. Thinking about it that way, staying close together with the nakama that I’ve overcome struggles with from the outset would be a better option. That’s right, as long as we all fought together, no matter what the battlefield was like, we would be able to survive. That was all we had to do! …I was just thinking about such complicated things, but we’ve all come back alive so far. So this time, we should also go for an all-out attack! While we tightly clasped each other’s hands, I said
“Yes, everyone definitely has to come back alive!”
Rias laughed. “…Ise, you really feel reliable, but on the contrary, I’ve realised something lately. No, it would be better to call it an expectation. You will rise up even further. That’s why, I think you and I are another….