"Yikes. What's the farthest you've run before this, again?"

"600...meters..."

"Jeez...you sure you're the kid who scared Sirzechs?"

"Bite...me...!"

"..."

"Ow! Stop!"

"You asked for it."

To the outside observer, it might've looked like Issei was running and talking to himself with a weird red cosplay glove on, but to anyone who was a bit more clued in, it was an even weirder sight- Kuroka, in the form of a black housecat with two tails, was sprawled on top of his head while he tried to build some endurance. Kuroka had assured him nobody would care if he had the Boosted Gear out, and it would be better for his training to keep it summoned anyway, so he did.

Issei Hyoudou, running on a pedestrian street wearing a black and red tracksuit, with a cat riding his head, wearing the Gauntlet of the Welsh Dragon.

A spectacular sight, indeed.

Completely out of steam, Issei slowed to a halt before falling to his knees. Not one to waste time, he skipped the part where he stood back up and went straight to laying on the ground, face first. Luckily for him, he'd reached the city park, and he fell onto grass instead of concrete.

"You're a pussy."

"That's rich, coming from a cat."

"Fine. You're a vagina."

Issei laughed, once again beaten to the punch by Kuroka. "I hate you."

Kuroka, still a cat, yawned in boredom and stretched out on his back.

"After you get back up, we can work on weights. Even juvenile dragons are normally crazy strong...you're kinda lacking, nya."

Issei groaned into the dirt before replying. "You know, people keep calling me dragon this and dragon that, but I'm definitely not a dragon. I had a human mother and a human father."

"Yeah, but you've got the soul of a Dragon. With a little senjutsu magic once you're stronger, we can bring you closer to your...spirit form, per se."

"...You're gonna turn me into a dragon?"

"You're already a dragon, nya. I'm gonna make you feel like one."

"That sounds...permanent."

"Not nearly as much as you'd think, actually. It would happen naturally anyway as you grow into your power, but thanks to yours truly, we can accelerate the process. But, before that, more training."

Another groan.

"Issei? Is that you?"

From inside the park, a woman's voice made itself known. Kuroka's head shot up, half-expecting a devil to have found her. Instead, it was just a scantily-clad fallen angel, and a ridiculously weak one at that. She had her wings hidden, but was wearing a BDSM outfit like it was normal. Standard fallen angel.

Kuroka laid back down, unphased.

Issei raised his face by less than twenty degrees, just enough to see who he was being addressed by.

It was a girl who'd asked him out not two weeks earlier. He'd denied her, but he couldn't really remember why; thought he supposed it was a good thing. He could never have gone out with Kuroka if he'd been dating Yuuma.

"Yuuma? What the hell are you wearing?" Issei asked, not bothering to lift his head, or anything else, any more.

"I, uh...workout clothes?" Yuuma replied, suddenly very self-conscious. She quickly and subtly summoned a plain black t-shirt and athletic shorts, slipping them over her Fallen Angel attire in such a way that wouldn't raise suspicion. "But, that aside, why are you on the ground?"

"I was working out too. Now I'm not. The grass looked nice..."

"Is that a cat on your back?"

"Uh...yes. Yeah, I found her a few days ago and she just...won't go away. I've taken a liking to her. Her name is...'kuroneko.'"

Issei felt sharp claws dig into his back at the pun, but he was smiling too hard to care.

For those of you in the audience who don't quite understand, in spoken Japanese, the words "black" and "cat" are "kuro" and "neko", respectively. Hence, 'Kuroneko' is literally just a goofy way of saying black cat, not to mention being a semi-homonym with Kuroka's actual name.

Coincidentally, it was also the name of one of Issei's favorite classic horror movies.

A moment passed, Yuuma not really acknowledging the statement. Then, she noticed his arm.

"Is...is that...Issei, what's on your hand, exactly?" Yuuma said, just now realizing the boy had a Sacred Gear out in public. There were people not even thirty meters away; he was near a pedestrian sidewalk, in broad daylight.

"Oh, that? It's a...cosplay."

"I'm not stupid, I know what a twice cirtical looks like. Why do you have that out? What if a normal person sees you?"

At this, Issei raised his head, looking Yuuma in the eyes. "You know what a sacred gear is? And hey, weren't you just wearing like one third of a swimsuit? Don't lecture me on being weird in public."

Yuuma blushed, having been called out. Around other fallen, she was totally fine wearing that, but with Issei? Not so much. "That's, that's...different. But, yes. I know what a sacred gear is." She hadn't expected to see him on her patrol, so she hadn't really been worried about it.

"Oh. Neat. Well, it's not a Twice Critical, or whatever. It's the Boosted Gear, so I'm told."

Raynare staggered backwards, almost falling over her feet. The Boosted Gear? No wonder Kokabiel was worried about this kid!

She mentally squashed any plans she'd been harboring about hurting Issei- she could never take on a Longinus, especially that one. No, the only viable option now was to report back to Kokabiel. No, not even Kokabiel- Azazel. If Kokabiel were to complete his plan and attack this town, Issei would absolutely rally to defend it, and even the Angel of The Stars would lose against the might of the Red Dragon.

Forget options concerning Issei or the girl with Twilight Healing, her only option for survival at this point was to go straight to Azazel and rat on Kokabiel.

"Yuuma? You okay?" Issei asked, noticing her worried expression.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Hey, it was good talking to you, but I gotta run. See you later~!" 'Yuuma' said sweetly, jogging further into the park. As soon as she was out of Issei's sight, she teleported away.

"Was it just me, or was that kind of weird?"

"No, what was weird to me is that you were just talking to a Fallen Angel about me like I was some stray cat, nya."

"You can't object against being a stray cat and say 'nya' in the same sentence. It's not even a verbal thing like that, you're literally just meowing. Wait, Fallen Angel?"

"You were pretty chummy with her, too. Somebody I should be worried about, nya? I might seem aloof, but I take loyalty very seriously, dragon boy."

"Uh...no. And, I do too, don't worry. She asked me out a while back, but I turned her down. We've talked, like, twice. Not counting just then."

"She asked you out?"

"Yeah, but I said no."

"Good thing, too. A prime Fallen Angel tactic for killing Sacred Gear users is to ask them out and then just straight up murder them. Works like a charm, especially with one like that."

"Yikes. I think you need to tell me more about all this supernatural stuff."

"That sounds boring, nya. I'll do it later. For now, more training."

Issei slapped his forehead against the ground, dreading the thought of doing anything else athletic.

"Don't be such a baby, look." Cat-roka hopped off of Issei's back and walked around to stand in front of his head, then pushed both her tails against his face.

"Uh...I'm not ticklish, if that's what you're going for."

"That's depressing, but no. Stop talking and just breathe normally for a second."

Issei did as she asked, and within moments, his fatigue was gone. He sat up, flexing the muscles in his legs and looking at them in wonder.

"'Thanks Kuroka, I owe you one!' Would be the correct response, nya."

Issei stood up, no longer exhausted. This was probably the first time he'd been so worn out- Kuroka's response to hearing that he'd been barely athletic at all, ever, was to say "You can start with five kilometers then, nya." Neither he nor his legs were a fan of the abusive regimen.

"Yeah, thanks. Still blows my mind that magic is real."

"Yeah, it's pretty great. I accept praise in the form of spooning and kittens, just so you know."

"Well, I can't do either of those right this second, but how about a chin scratch?"

"A what? Hey, just because I look like a ca~t...mmmm..."

Mid-sentence, Issei scooped up Kuroka and began lightly scratching her chin- a time-tested trick just about all cats loved. His mom taught him that; you could get just about any cat to chill out by scratching it's chin or the top of it's head. Kuroka, it appeared, was no exception.

Issei filed that information away for further use, and mentally proposed the hypothesis that doing the same thing in her human form probably wouldn't work as well.

Probably.