Issei was walking down the hall behind a maid who had been tasked to show him to a room where he could refresh himself for the upcoming meeting. Soon they were in front of the room assigned to him. As they stopped the maid turned around and said "We are here hyoudou Issei sama, do you need anything else?"
"Please call me Ise and yes I could use some battle kimonos and a few pony tails. I would appreciate if you could arrange some of both." Issei replied with a charming smile that made the maid blush red before she quickly nodded and ran of.
Issei sighed before he closed his door and proceeded to strip as he entered the bathroom for his shower. Issei groaned blissfully as he entered his hot bath and slid deeper into it, letting the water work its way on the cramps in his body.
The effect of the water was to much for Issei and he fell asleep in the tub. A couple of Hours later Issei was shaken awake by a stoic grayfia. "What Hit me?" Issei groaned out as he woke up.
"That would be me Issei sama you fell asleep in the washroom and its time for the meeting regarding the results of your training." Grayfia instructed.
"Give me 15 I will join you guys." Issei said with a sigh making grayfia raise an eyebrow at him. She knew how big a pervert Issei was. To see him not even reacting to her in the bathroom was a strange sight. In fact it was one that actually demanded looking into.
Nodding in response grayfia left the room. Issei then sighed before he stood up and left the bathroom and wiped his body. He then stopped in front of the mirror and looked at his body and compared it from just a month ago. He could see he was much more buff and had the body of a swimmer which was made for both power and speed. His face had lost all of its fat and had a very sharp jaw line. His now emerald green eyes had a sharp glint to them that he previously did not have.
Smirking at his new improvements he mentally thanked his dragon before moving back into his room. He then proceeded to change his clothes wearing a regular shirt and trowser. He then lazily walked towards where the rest of the peerage was waiting.
"Yo." he politely greeted the group plus azazel before taking an empty seat.
"Nice of you to join us Issei. Now let us discuss the results of our month of training. We will start with the king and descend from there." Azazel instructed.
"Very well then. As instructed by you sensei I spent the month studying tactics along with looking at as many old rating games as I could. I have many new ideas I wish to try when ever we get a chance to feature in any upcoming rating games." Rias proudly answered.
"Very good. Now your turn Akeno." Azazal said.
"I spent the month increasing my magical reserves and broadening my reserves. I added other elemental magic to my arsenal and now have control over fire, wind, Water, Ice and earth." Akeno answered feeling slightly happy.
"What about the task that I assigned you?" Asked Azazel.
"I have practiced but will only use it as a last resort." Akeno answered shortly clearly not in the mood to be questioned further. Azazel frowned at her response but nodded non the less before turning his attention to Asia.
He then said "Now asia its your turn what did you learn during the training trip?"
"Hai. I worked on extending the range of my sacred gear and learnt a couple of defensive barrier spells." Asia answered.
"How far can you actually send your healing powers?" Azazel asked as he eyed Issei who was uncharacteristically quiet. Azazel knew that something was wrong the old Issei would have screamed praises on the results that the girls had displayed. This one was just stoically listening and not even batting an eye.
"Hai. upto 10 metres." Asia shyly answered and looked at Issei who remained impassive.
"Thats very nice. Now what about you gasper?" Azazel asked.
"H-H-Hai s-s-sensei I-I-I m-managed to walk in front of everyone for 10 mins before the pressure got to me." The dhampir stuttered out.
"Very good gasper. Thats an improvement." Azazel said with an approving nod.
"You have done very well gasper I am proud of you." Issei said as he smiled at the dhampir before patting his head making the dhampir blush at his senpais praise.
"Arigatou senpai." The dhampir stuttered out. It was at this point that the whole peerage was on red alert. The way he interacted with gasper showed that he was purposefully ignoring the girls.
"Now your turn kiba." Azazel said as he tried to speed up the meeting so that he could pull Issei aside and ask him what was wrong. Azazel had already secretly sent a message to sirzechs informing him of the change in Isseis attitude.
"I worked on my stamina, my defence. Along with that I worked on getting my basics to the point of perfection. I also managed to get in a few techniques from my master. All in all I think it was a very nice training endeavour." Kiba answered feeling proud of the results of his training.
"Great work I can already tell that you are at least a level above from one month ago. I think so far you have shown the highest amount of improvement." Azazel praised making the whole peerage smile for their princely knight. The only one with no emotion on his face was Issei, something that surprised the group once again since Issei did call kiba his brother at one point.
"Now you Xenovia." azazel said as he pointed towards the exiled excorist turned devil.
"I think it went well. My control over durandal has gone up by a couple of notches and now I dont need to rely on its aura for everything." Xenovia answered.
"Thats a big improvement. If you added control to your raw power its the way to go." Azazel answered.
"You have definitely improved xenovia I can tell from your aura. It much more controlled than from one month ago. Well done." Issei praised her with a smile, earning raised eyebrows and looks of slight disbelief from the faces of the other girls in the ORC.
"Alright Now its your turn koneko." Azazel hastily said keen to avoid any uprising.
"It was fine." The nekoshou answered in monotone clearly not willing to discuss her training in front of everyone.
"O...kay then. Finally that leaves you Issei. How did your training go?" Asked Azazel.
"I'd say it went well. I was able to collect my thoughts and learn a few truths. Along with that I have activated my balance breaker and can use it for 2 weeks in a row." Issei said to azazel with a small grin.
"Amazing. Your progress indeed does stand out the most. Alright thats it for the meeting. All of you can go back to doing what you want to do. Issei I want you to stay back there are several things that we need to discuss." Azazel said.
"What do you want to talk to my dear pawn about?" Rias asked with narrowed eyes making Issei roll his eyes at her.
"Isnt it obvious Rias sama? Azazel sensei is a sacred gear specialist he obviously wants to make sure that my balance breaker is fully functional and has no deterimental effect on me." Issei stoically said.
Rias frowned at his tone and the way he called her. It was way to impersonal from the pervert from before. She however nodded non the less keen on finding out the cause of the change in behaviour from her pawn.
With that everyone except Issei and Azazel left. When they were gone Issei turned to Azazel and lazily said "So what do you want to talk about sensei?"
"I'll be blunt, I want to know why are you treating most of your teammates in such a cold manner?" Azazel asked in his usual carefree tone.
"I dont really think that the way I behave towards them is of any concern as long as I perform the duties that are required of me." Issei replied with a small shrugg of his shoulders.
"And what about your massive upgrade in power? I know for a fact that even with tanins training getting a time limit of 2 weeks for your balance breaker is near impossible. So how did you do it?" Azazel asked this time with a slightly serious voice.
"That is one of my trade secrets one that I don't intend on giving away. I hope you understand." Issei said in the same carefree voice.
"He may understand but I wont. Specifically when you are the part of my sisters peerage. I want you to answer both of the questions asked by Azazel." The voice of sirzechs reached Isseis ears.
Turning around he found himself under the scrutinizing gaze of Sirzechs. He shivered slightly when he felt the pressure being exerted by Sirzechs. Sighing softly Issei scratched the back of his head and asked "What do you want to know first?"
"Your power up if you will." Sirzechs said as he folded his hands.
"Fine then you need to promise not to share it with anyone else." Issei said.
"That is fair enough." Sirzechs said with azazel nodding along.
"Since I was only 30 percent devil, I had ddraig convert 60 of the remaining 70% of my body in to that of a dragons. Because of that Change my base stats all rose from non existent to upper tier high class. And then with tanins training it only increased. Balance breaker came along in the last week and I stayed in it for as long as possible to extend the time limit I can stay in it. There that was my trade secret you happy now?" Issei asked with a huff as he finished his explanation.
"While it is fleasible How did you avoid any mutations?" Asked Azazel.
"Oh tanin ossan helped me in training with draconic aura. I can regulate my aura on a subconcious level to release my draconic features or to hide them like I have now. Apart from that there were no complications or mutations since ddraig used the magic of one pawn piece as the price for the change and tanin ossan helped with the whole transformation process." Issei explained getting nods of understanding from the two faction leaders in front of him.
"Any thing else you have to mention in your training trip? I have a right to know as your faction leader." Sirzechs asked with a smile.
"I'll tell you Ni sama, but you need to promise not to tell rias sama about it. I am keeping it as a trump card for myself." Issei said.
"Alright but you will need to explain why you don't want Rias to know." Sirzechs said getting a nod from Issei.
"During training it took about a week for the dragonification process to complete it self. During it ddraig discovered that I am the ancestor of Ruroni Kenshin and he bought out my latent talent in swordsmanship. Tanin ossan then created a time lapse barrier where one week became one month. In that barrier I mastered my draconic abilities in the first month, then moved to mastering ascalon with tanin ossans knights for the second, before mastering my balance breaker in the 3rd month. After that I came back here." Issei said getting nods from both Sirzechs and Azazel.
"Well we will have to thank tanin for the great training session he put you through. Now why dont you want to share all this information with Rias? She is your master after all." Azazel asked.
"Its pretty simple I don't trust her or the other members of occult research club." Issei shortly answered.
"And why not you fought quiet valiantly for her name before what changed.?" Azazel asked as Sirzechs listened on with an interested look on his face.
"Because what Vali said was true. She did let me die at the hands of raynare, so that she could revive me as a loyal piece." Issei said.
"How do you know that? For all we know Vali said that to mess with your team dynamics." Sirzechs asked.
"Tell me ni sama is it possible for a high class devil to not know about the happenings in their territory." Issei asked.
"No they do know everything that happens." Sirzechs slowly answered not liking where this conversation was going.
"Then how can rias sama claim to not know about the fallen angels in her territory. Add it to the fact she had her familiar give me her summoning paper. She knew exactly what the rogue fallen angels were planning and let them do it so that she could have me as a piece." Issei answered making sirzechs bow his head in shame as he knew what Issei had said was in deed true. He never knew that his sweet little sister would be capable of doing something this heinous.
"I can see why you don't trust Rias but what about the others?" Asked Azazel.
"Ddraig told me that he had sensed both koneko and kiba following me. That shows that the whole group was in on the plan which is why I can't trust them anymore." Issei explained.
"What about Asia?" Asked Azazel.
"I have nothing against her. But Since my mind is now several times sharper I find her annoying." Issei said with a shrugg.
"Thats all well and good. What do you plan on doing in the future? Are you threat to us?" Sirzechs asked in his leader mode.
"I plan on rising through the ranks and becoming a high class devil. I will perform all the tasks required of me as a devil of the gremory family. I will perform requests and fight in rating games. However any and all the promises I made about protecting them are off the table. I wont go out of the way to protect them anymore. Also there wont be any chance of having a romantic relationship with any of the ORC girls." Issei said making both the leaders in front of him nod in understanding. Truth be told both of them were expecting a lot more, in comparision to their expectations Issei asked for literally nothing. While they knew that their sister/ goddaughters would be saddened at losing their love interest it was for the greater good.
"Well The only thing I can say is that I am deeply sorry Issei. I never expected my Little Ria tan to do some thing so evil. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" Sirzechs asked.
"Well nothing immediately comes to mind. How about I give you a rain check and then cache in that favor when I need it?" Issei said as both the leaders nodded before disappearing into their magic circles.
BANG THATS IT FOR THE CHAP HOPE YOU LIKED IT.