The New Issei

Issei: "So where are we going, miss?" He asked as he sat in the backseat of the Volkswagen Tiguan as they drove out of the airport. Irina was sitting next to him while smiling and clinging to his arm.

???: "You can call me Griselda. I am Irina's teacher and caretaker at the church in Italy." She said while smiling. "We are headed to a small church on the outskirts of Chilham called St Mary's church. It is where Irina's father now oversees. This vacation is a chance for her to not only see you but her father as well." She explained as she dealt with London traffic.

Irina: "Yeah, I am really looking forward to seeing him. Its been a year since I could last visit." She said while smiling brightly. Griselda and Issei both smiled at seeing her this happy.

Issei: "I am looking forward to seeing uncle Touji again." He said as he relaxed with Irina. It felt good to see her again. He then talked with her about all the things he had been doing for the last couple of years, besides the supernatural stuff. Every now and then he would drag Griselda into the conversation to try and get her to talk about herself as well. Although she did talk about her life in the church and her daughter she did not mention anything else that would give away anything important about her. As the three continued talking together time flew by and they soon reached their destination.

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As they pulled up at a house that was close to the church they could see Touji come out to greet them. He looked like he had aged ten years since Issei had last seen him. It was obvious that his friends death weighed heavily on him. But he still smiled brightly at Irina and Issei when he saw them.

Touji: "Man you have really grown Irina." He said as he caught her when she ran to him and hugged him. "You have also grown up quite a bit Issei." He said while looking over at Issei. "You always were bigger than your peers when growing up, but now your huge. Still keeping up with your training?"

Issei: "Of course I am uncle. I still practice with the sword and exercise daily. Its probably why I am so big." He said as he came up and gave Touji a hug as well.

Griselda: "Oh you practice with a sword Issei?" She asked as her eyes gained a slightly scary look.

Issei: "Yeah, but I just practice for fun. I do not really follow any style." He said as him and the others all headed inside.

Griselda: "Oh, then maybe you would like to have a spar with me to see how good you are? I am also a master of the sword so I might be able to give you some pointers for your training." She said as they all sat down in the living room. As she said this both Touji and Irina paled and had cold sweat running down their backs. They then looked at Griselda with dread in their eyes. Their looks then turned to looks of pity as they looked at Issei. They both thought at the same time. "We hope you survive this Issei." Griselda was oblivious to the looks on their faces as she looked at Issei for his answer.

Issei: "I would love to have a spar with you. I do not really have many people to spar with at home so it would help me out a lot." He said with an eager look on his face. Being able to fight against a master of the sword would greatly benefit him with showing him how his own sword skills measure up to someone like her.

Griselda: "Great. We will have our spar tomorrow morning so I expect you up bright and early." She said as she looked at him with a serious look on her face. Griselda saw this as nothing more than a spar with a kid who liked to practice the sword and so was not taking Issei seriously. She planned to point out his faults as they sparred and help him improve over this "vacation". She had not told Irina yet why they were here besides that they were here to let her spend some time with her friend and her father. In reality she had come here to hunt down a devil that was rumored to be at the Ultimate Class and had gone rogue. This devil had fled into England and they had tracked him to the area around London so Griselda was sent here to bring him down. She had brought Irina with her because she knew her father was in that area and thought it would be a good time for Irina to have a vacation as Griselda hunted. She knew the hunt would take awhile since she was hunting an Ultimate Class, so Irina had plenty of time to spend with her family and Issei. She had also brought several teams of strong exorcists that would do the tracking for her so she would be free until the devil was found, so she figured she could use this time to train Irina and now her friend Issei would also be a part of it since she found out he liked the sword.

Issei: "I have no problem with getting up early. Now I am a guest so I will make us all dinner. Any requests?" He said as he got up and headed to the kitchen.

Irina: "I want spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread!!" She said excitedly as she bounced around on the couch in anticipation.

Touji: "Sounds good to me. I remember the times you made that for us back in Japan. It was delicious." He said as he licked his lips. "You ended up having to cook it a couple times a month since it became Irina's favorite."

Griselda: "Is his cooking really that good?" She asked in a doubtful tone of voice. She did not think a child could cook that well.

Irina: "His cooking is amazing! I have really missed it over these years. The church cafeteria does not really taste as good." She said in an excited voice. At this Touji laughed while Griselda got a slight tick mark on her forehead.

Touji: "She is right Griselda, a church has pretty basic meals. Issei is a really good cook so eating his food kind of makes theirs taste bland." He said as he smiled at Griselda. She just huffed in annoyance and watched as Issei began cooking.

Griselda: "I hope it is as good as you say you two, or I am doubling your training routine Irina. I will also spar with you Touji to make sure you are not getting rusty." She said causing both Irina and Touji to pale and wish they had kept their mouths shut.

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Issei: "The foods ready, come and help set the table." He said two hours later as he finished making everything. Touji and Irina both helped Issei set things out while Griselda got the plates and cups. Issei and Touji sat down next to each other with Irina and Griselda across from them. The spaghetti looked delicious covered in homemade red sauce with large homemade meatballs in it. The garlic bread was made into long individual sticks that Issei had also made himself and all of it smelled great.

Griselda: "This looks really good Issei. Thank you." She said as she made her plate. She was thinking to herself that if it tasted as good as it looked then she would not get to have as much fun "torturing", cough cough, "training" Touji and Irina as she wanted.

Issei: "I am glad you think so. I hope you enjoy it." He said as he and the others also made their plates. They then all prayed before starting to eat.

Touji: "Wow Issei I think you have gotten even better at cooking." He said while digging in.

Irina: "Yeah Issei, this is delicious. You should think about opening a restaurant with how good your cooking is." She said as she happily ate a garlic bread stick.

Griselda: "I must admit I am impressed. I have not ate something this good in awhile." She said as she also savored the taste of the food. She was disappointed in not being able to double Irina's training and beat up Touji a bit.

Issei: "Glad you all like it. Also I do not really want to cook for a living Irina." He said as he got the tea pot and pored everyone a cup before passing them out. They then spent the rest of the meal in comfortable silence enjoying the food and the tea before cleaning up and then going to the living room to relax.

Touji: "Dinner was great, thanks Issei." He said as he leaned back in his chair.

Irina: "Yeah Issei thanks. Its been so long since I got to enjoy your cooking." She said as she leaned on him on one of the sofas.

Griselda: "The food was good, thank you for cooking for us Issei." She said as she sat on the other sofa and relaxed.

Issei: "It was no problem, I enjoyed doing it." He said as he leaned further into the sofa with Irina resting her head on his shoulder. As he did Touji started to glare at him.

Touji: "Issei don't you think you and Irina are just a little to close?" He said with a dark look on his face. As he did so his daughter turned to glare at him.

Irina: "I have not seen Issei in two years dad. I want to spend some time with him like this so be quiet or I will not talk to you anymore on this vacation." She said in a chilling tone of voice. This caused Touji to break out in cold sweat while Issei just shook his head.

Issei: "Do not be mean to your dad Irina." He said as he bonked her on the head. "He has missed you to you know."

Irina: "I know, I just want to spend more time with you right now." She said as she pouted and looked away. On the inside she had made up her mind to confess to Issei by the end of this vacation and she was not going to let her dad get in the way.

Griselda: "While this is interesting to watch, I think you kids should be off to bed now. It is getting late and you both need to be up early in the morning." She said with an amused look on her face.

Issei: "You are right." He said as he got up. "Irina why don't you show me to the guest rooms." He said as he grabbed her and pulled her towards the stairs. The house was actually quite big, since there would occasionally be groups of exorcists or priests staying here.

Irina: "Okay Issei, you don't need to pull me." She said as they reached the top of the stairs. Issei then let go of her hand and let her lead the way to his room. Once inside he quickly closed the room and used an artifact to make it so that no one could hear or feel what is done in the room. Since he had used an artifact and not his own mana Griselda and Touji could not tell anything had been done. The artifact had also been Enchanted to make it harder to sense when it is activated. "What did you just do Issei?" She asked curiously as she looked at the small box Issei had just sat on the table by his bed.

Issei: "All I did was make it so that no one would hear or feel what is done in this room." He said as he sat on the bed. Irina then came over and sat next to him.

Irina: "Why would you do that?" She asked in curiosity as she looked at him.

Issei: "Because I wanted to increase the effectiveness of your necklace and talk about your training with you. We could not do that when those two could hear us or feel my mana when I am working." He said as he smiled at her.

Irina: "Oh, I see." She said as she slipped her necklace off and gave it to him. "I always wear this, it has helped me a lot during training."

Issei: "I am glad it served its purpose." He said as he took it and started strengthening all the Enchantments. Irina watched in awe as she saw the many different symbols being infused into her necklace. She knew Issei was skilled but this was the first time she had seem him working. To see his amazing control over mana was a sight to behold. His look of concentration as he focused on the task he was doing made her fall for him even more. A few minutes later Issei was done with the necklace and handed it back to her. "All the Enchantments have a stronger effect now so you need to be a little more careful around others."

Irina: "I will be, thanks Issei." She said as she put the necklace back on and hugged him. After she had hugged him she went back to sitting next to him. They then began to talk about Irina's training and all the stuff she had learned. Issei also talked about some of the stuff he knew and gave her some advice on some different training methods. A few hours later they said goodnight to each other and Irina went back to her own room to get some sleep.

Issei: "I am really looking forward to the morning." Issei thought to himself as he got ready for bed. "I hope Griselda is as good with a sword as I heard." He thought as he fell asleep.