In the occult research club thingy.
Rias was calmly drinking tea prepared by Akeno, in front of here were 2 exorcists from the church. Who came to her territory to talk business, or something along those lines.
"Thank you for agreeing to speak with us." The blue-haired one said, "My name is Xenovia."
"I'm Irina Shidou." The other one introduced herself as well.
"Before we start, Akeno? Where are Jinrang and Kiba? I didn't see Jinrang at school today either." Rias asked turning towards her queen.
"Well... He slept in, I didn't have the heart to wake him up in the morning, right now he should be with Kiba, he said he wanted to talk to him about something."
"Understood, thanks Akeno." She said before turning her full attention to the exorcists now. Rias smirked slightly, "Now, I wonder what the followers of god are doing here, talking to a devil?"
"Out of the 6 holy swords, 3 were stolen by fallen angels." Irina explained.
Rias's eyes widened a bit, while the others behind her gasped, minus Issei who snorted. and whispered to Koneko.
"You'd think they'd increase the defense around those swords given their importance." Issei whispered, making sure that only Koneko heard his words.
Even though Issei probably shouldn't have said that out loud given who their guests were, Koneko definitely had to agree.
"The ones we have, are from the ones that are left. I have the Excalibur Destruction." The blue haired exorcist, known as Xenovia showed her sword which was covered in bandages.
"And I have the holy sword of Mimicry! Excalibur Mimic!" She seemed to be a bit more cheerful than Xenovia.
"I see, I get the gist of it now. Well then, what would you like us to do?" Rias asked.
"It's simple, we want you to stay out of this situation, this is between us and the fallen angels." Xenovia said while glaring at Rias.
"You're overstepping your boundaries... one would think you're accusing us of colluding with the fallen, but I'm sure that's just my assumption right?" Rias said.
"Holy swords are a danger to both of you, so... Don't your interests match up?" Xenovia said.
Rias's anger surged, and her eyes glowed bright red for just a few moments before returning to their usual color.
"There's no way I'd join the fallen angels, I would never besmirch the name of the Noble House of Gremory or The Great Devil Lucifer. It's best you remember that."
"That is plenty, I'm just relaying the thoughts of those at the headquarters." Xenovia said with a smirk.
"Though, you do understand that I won't be aiding you two either, correct?" Rias asked leaning into her seat.
"Of course, I'm fine if you promise us not to intervene in this matter."
"I understand."
Just as the two exorcists got up to leave, the door was opened abruptly and In came a very large young man, with black hair that fell on his forehead, and a slimmer blonde boy.
"Hello everyone, did we miss anything?" Jinrang asked with a smile.
"Hello." Kiba greeted as well.
"You two missed the entire meeting." Issei said, crossing his arms.
"Good afternoon Jinrang, I must say, you look much younger without the beard and Sona will finally get off your back for a couple weeks." Rias said giggling.
"I prefer the beard." Koneko said,
"Not bad, Not bad at all," Akeno said observing his face closely.
"Glad you like it. Anyways, are they the guests for today?" Jinrang turned his full attention to the two clad in white robes.
"Indeed, and they were just leaving." Rias answered.
"Indeed, we don't wish to spend any more time with Devils than we need to." Xenovia said, going to the door to leave, but she stopped once she took a closer look at the blonde girl.
Her eyes narrowed, before widening slightly in recognition, "You are... Asia Argento, aren't you?" She questioned.
Asia took a step back, nervously but Issei put his hand on her shoulder to make her feel a bit safer.
"Yes she is, what's it to you?" Issei questioned, now standing in front of Asia.
"Oh my! So it really is you! The witch who has the power to heal devils, you've abandoned god's grace and turned to them? I will pray for you, oh misguided soul." Irina said, already praying this would no doubt cause pain to Asia, but she endured it, not showing pain any discomfort at all.
"Irina, sometimes people like her... maintain their faith and still pray to god. Now tell me witch, do you still have faith in our lord?" Xenovia questioned, her hand already going for her sword.
"Issei- No never mind, we'd be in trouble if we smacked her..." Jinrang muttered that last part to himself, but Kiba standing closest to him heard it clearly.
"If you wanted a fight, you shouldn't have stopped me then..." Kiba muttered while crossing his arms.
"Y-Yes! I still have faith in god, and I pray everyday..." Asia said meekly, hiding behind Issei.
"Then allow me, to cut you down where you stand, this way you'll atone for your sins." Xenovia said, clutching her sword.
Just as she finished saying what she wanted, she stepped back immediately with sweat dripping down her forehead, that's because an immense magical power erupted from Issei, who was now glaring at Xenovia while clenching his fists and gnashing his teeth in rage.
"...My ears, must be clogged because... I didn't quite hear, what you were saying... Mind repeating it... Church's dog?" Issei spoke, closing the distance between him and Xenovia, who was now completely paralyzed, along with her companion Irina.
Issei got even closer, his face now only inches away from Xenovia's terrified expression. "C'mon now, I told you... REPEAT WHAT YOU SAID!" Issei yelled at her, while he raised his fist intending to smash her into the ground.
"ISSEI! STOP RIGHT NOW!" Rias yelled, rushing towards him, but someone else beat her to it.
"Enough of that Issei." Jinrang said grabbing Issei's hand, within a second, Issei's rage filled face snapped towards the person who stopped him.
"Let go of my hand... I don't want to fight you right now." Issei spoke, with a much calmer tone, than he did with Xenovia.
"Calm down, as much as I want to smack the self-righteousness and arrogance off of her face, I must stop you, because we'll cause problems for Rias, and perhaps the entire devil race... Also, you're scaring the person you want to protect." Jinrang said, glancing at Asia.
Immediately, Issei calmed down and that immense magical energy disappeared, he looked back at Asia, and his eyes widened when he saw her tearful face, too scared to even make a sound or move a muscle.
"A-Asia I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Issei said while reaching out to her, but she immediately stepped back, avoiding his touch, and that... really hurt Issei.
He stared at Asia with empty eyes, and Asia stared back with the same look on her face. The truth was that, she didn't avoid Issei's touch because she consciously willed her body to move out of the way, it was mostly her subconsciousness and instinct.
Issei looked down at his trembling hands with disgust, before he ran past Jinrang who didn't stop him at all, and out of the room.
"Issei!" Rias called out to him, but to no avail.
Akeno went to Asia and brought her into her arms to comfort her, Asia hugged Akeno tightly and cried in her arms.
"It's going to be okay Asia, don't worry." Akeno spoke while rubbing Asia's back,
Jinrang sighed very audibly, before looking down at Xenovia, who was still staring at the door.
"Girl... Do you understand the fact that, you almost reignited the great war?" Jinrang said with a glare.
From behind Jinrang, Kiba let out an audible sigh, "I shouldn't have expected much from the likes of them, are you still going to stop me? Jinrang?"
"I'll get to you in a minute." Jinrang said without looking back.
"I-" Xenovia was about to speak, "Silence." Jinrang said, narrowing his eyes even further.
"What were you about to do right now? Harm Asia? Then what? I hope you didn't think that you were going to leave this place alive because trust me, if even a strand of hair fell off her head... I would've ripped your head off in that same moment. You and the rest of your faction, preaching about how you humans are 'Superior', well guess what? You're barely even human and In some ways... you're even worse than Devils and Fallens. Superiors who don't care about the stray exorcists running around, and those stray exorcists in turn conducting experiments on children... or even worse things we aren't aware of." Jinrang stopped for a second, letting her digest everything he said.
"The experiments aren't The Church's fault, the headquarters didn't allow such things to happen, nor did they take part in such... disgusting experiments!" Xenovia said.
"You're right, The Church didn't, the stray exorcists did, and whose responsibility is it to bring down stray exorcists? The Church's, but they don't even bother to do anything, I reckon I've brought down more stray exorcists in the last month than The church has in one year. Your beloved Church... looks to be a shit place, don't you think? Out of all the factions, The Church is the most problematic, most corrupted, and-"
"I think that's enough." Akeno said, "You've made your point, Jinrang."
Jinrang just let out a deep breath and shrugged, " Alright, guess I'm done talking, Little girl I hope you... think about what I said."
Xenovia trembled in anger and shame, looking down at the ground while gritting her teeth, before she closed her eyes took a deep breath and composed herself once again, She turned around facing Rias's peerage and Asia.
"I apologize for my actions and words." Xenovia bowed and apologized with sincerity.
"Xenovia! What're you doing?!" Irina shouted, but was silenced by a glare from Xenovia.
Everyone was surprised, an exorcist was apologizing to devils, this was... an almost impossible occurrence, exorcists with their inflated ego and pride, would never do such a thing.
Jinrang smirked slightly and patted Xenovia on the shoulder, "I apologize for calling you foolish, little girl. You're much better than the other dogs of the church."
Xenovia pushed Jinrang's hand off of her, and left silently with her friend following behind her.
"Well, looks like I was right." Jinrang said with a smug smile while turning towards Kiba.
Kiba sighed once more, "...Alright, I admit it. I was wrong."
"What're you three talking about?" Rias cut in.
"Nothing much... Just Kiba's moody adolescence." Jinrang said, making everyone chuckle including Kiba.
"That's one way to put it." Koneko spoke.
Flashback to Kiba's and Jinrang's talk next Chapter, hehe.