The next day, Souna walked towards the unused classroom after school. Then when she was about to open the door, she remembered that Issei was on a date with his new girlfriend. She did not know why but it felt a little hurt around her chest.

Opening the unused classroom's door, Souna saw nothing but the desks. No Issei in sight. She sighed in resignation.

She put the notebook she brought on the table for no particular reason. Looking out towards the window, she saw the sky was orange. Issei must be enjoying his date with that Kanamori Asuka now. Imagining how Issei would undeservedly treat that girl perfectly made Souna a little vexed for some unknown reason.

In order to occupy her mind, she drew a complicated magic circle of a spell that she still had trouble to draw quickly with her mind. Devil's magic does not need calculations, but this was something she found she liked, drawing a carefully calculated magic circle for a spell. And besides, it had the benefit of improving her calligraphy.

Actually, she wanted to play chess, but she did not bring her chess set to the classroom nor she could play with only herself. Well, technically she could, but as she had experienced playing chess with herself before, it was hard to stay neutral. She would favor one side over the other.

Come to think about it, she had never played chess with Issei before. She wondered how interesting it would be.

"There! I've taken your Queen!"

"By doing that your fate is sealed, Hyoudou-kun. Checkmate."

"Nooooo!"

Souna smiled to herself. She could see Issei making the exact same move she imagined. Even after the lesson with her to better himself, Issei still showed his honest and straightforward personality towards her. Maybe next time she tutored Issei, she could bring her chess set with her and offered to play it with him.

She sighed again. No matter what way she tried to distract herself, her mind always came back to Issei again.

Suddenly she heard someone knocking on the unused classroom's door. Her heart skipped a beat. Could it be...

Souna rushed towards the door.

Dare she hoped that it would be that person?

She opened the door. "Hy-"

Whatever words she wanted to say to Issei stopped as she stared at the person standing in front of the unused classroom's door.

Her hope died a little because it was not Issei. The person standing in front of the door was, in fact, her childhood friend slash rival, Rias Gremory in her blazing glory.

"Oh, Rias. Is there something you need?"

Rias looked at her from head to toe. "Hmm, not exactly, Sona. But what were you trying to say earlier? I didn't catch it."

"Nothing," she clammed up.

Rias did not look convinced by her admission, she probed her again. "Come on, you can say it. We're friends, after all. If it's a secret I'll take it to my grave."

"It is not a secret. It is also not something you need to know. Speaking of, Rias. You have not answered my question. Is there something you need that you seek me here?" She tried to deflect the questioning by questioning her back.

"Ooh, nothing important, I assure you. I just want to know why you haven't put up the barrier today when you never failed to put up one every day for the past month."

That struck right towards her heart, unironically. She had been too preoccupied with Issei that she forgot to put up the barrier before she entered the classroom.

"That's why I knocked here. I never expected to see you alone. What are you doing, anyway?"

Souna wanted to answer that with the same answer she gave her before. It was none of her business. But...

Even if Rias was her rival, she was first and foremost her irreplaceable childhood friend.

"Do you bring your chess set, Rias?"

"I always do!" Rias answered cheerfully. "Do you want to play?"

"Yes. I will crush you as usual."

"Hey, the score is 78-78! What do you mean by 'as usual'?" Rias glared playfully at her before she entered the classroom and sat on the opposite of her. She opened her chess set and set up the pieces.

Fifteen minutes later, both sides had several pieces left on the board. Sona really really wanted to focus on the match, but she could not. Her mind went back to the imagination of playing chess with Issei.

Would she have no way to gain peace of mind anymore? She grimaced internally. Knowing Hyoudou Issei somehow made her always think about him. At first, it was interesting. But now that Issei was going out with that Kanamori Asuka, all she could feel was vexation.

"Hey, Sona." Rias began talking. "What seems to be the problem? You're never this subdued when we played chess before. And I saw you making several costly moves you'd never make before."

She sighed at Rias' question. It seemed that she could not hide it anymore.

"I forfeit," she replied which made Rias stumbled in surprise. "Indeed. My mind is occupied by something that I cannot concentrate fully on our match. I'm sorry for the bad match, Rias."

"For something to be so deeply ingrained in your mind that you cannot concentrate on your favorite pastime, I wonder what it is about," Rias probed her for more information.

"I have to confess, I erected the barrier so that I would not be disturbed on what I was doing in this classroom for the past months. Now I am free of the obligation, but it feels strange to be free of that I cannot help but reminiscence inside this classroom," Souna started to explain. "That obligation is also what makes me could not concentrate on our match just now. Forgive me, Rias."

Rias smiled, "It's okay, Sona. Though if you won't mind, I'm curious about this 'obligation' you have."

The obligation, she mused in her mind. Unconsciously, her lips curled into a smile as the visage of one Hyoudou Issei was formed as she closed her eyes.

"I was tutoring Hyoudou Issei privately."

Rias gasped in shock. "That second year who made waves on the mid-term? No wonder he improved so fast."

"I take no credit for his determination to improve. I only nudged him a little here and there," she replied with a shake of her head.

"Soo," Rias leaned on the desk so that her face was below Sona. "You're claiming him, hmm?"

She blinked in confusion. "Have you not heard? Hyoudou-kun is now going out with that Kanamori Asuka. How can I claim him?"

"That's not what I mean, Sona. Though now I wonder what made you think I was talking about that. No, I mean about Peerage. Are you going to add him to your Peerage?"

Oh, so that was what Rias meant.

"I do not think so. Barring certain special circumstances, I do not think I want to throw Hyoudou into our world. He is... He is too straightforward he will not survive in our world. I am teaching him how to restrain himself, but as they say, you cannot suppress your true nature perfectly, he still shows his straightforwardness sometimes."

Rias' eyes twinkled, "Teaching him how to restrain himself? My my, Sona. I wonder what kind of private lesson are you offering..."

She blinked. Again. Did Rias just try to make an innuendo? "I am teaching him to be a better person, if not perfect. That includes a wide array of knowledge, manners, appearance, habit, and many more."

Rias gaped at her frank admission. Her wide-eyed surprised expression was, she had to admit, funny. Though, she wondered why Rias looked so surprised.

"Sona... that's..."

"Is there something wrong?"

"Are you grooming him to be your betrothed or something?!"

She had to admit Rias was not making sense. There was nothing that indicated her grooming Issei to be her fiancee. She was just tutoring him on how to be perfect.

She voiced her thoughts to Rias as an answer to her question.

"I can't believe you don't get it. Look, Sona. Perfection is subjective, okay? When you tutored this Hyoudou to be perfect, you're using your standard of perfection."

"And so? There is definitely nothing wrong with my standard of perfection," Sona raised her eyebrow in confusion.

"There's nothing wrong, but your standard of perfection and my standard of perfection is different. For example, you placed important values on brainpower, right? Your ideal perfection is to be able to beat you in chess, after all. But mine is not like that. I don't care if my ideal perfection is smart or not; it's not one of my criteria. So if I were the one tutoring this Hyoudou I won't tell him to place on the top twenty or something!"

"I understand. But I still do not understand why you said I was grooming him. It was just a coincidence that Hyoudou wanted to change himself and asked me. As the Student Council President of this school, of course, I am obligated to help him."

Rias took a deep breath. "Obligation. Right. You're seeing this as an obligation of your job. No wonder you missed my points. Moving on. Why is this tutoring session occupying your mind, then? Isn't Hyoudou going out with Kanamori a good thing in your book? That means your tutoring session bears fruit, right?"

She wanted to nod at Rias' question, but she held herself back. "I... I know it should be a good thing, but for some reason I cannot think it as a good thing; Hyoudou-kun going out with that Kanamori Asuka."

"Hmmm, can you elaborate?"

"I don't understand it myself. Though, if my train of thought is correct, I cannot be happy that such a guy like Hyoudou-kun is going out with someone like Kanamori Asuka. Yet, I looked upon Hyoudou-kun and see my effort acknowledged by others. I should be happy, but I cannot." She told Rias. "I feel like Hyoudou-kun could do better than getting that Kanamori Asuka. She is way out of his league."

"And what kind of girl is this Hyoudou-kun's league?" Rias probed yet again.

"Someone who is also good at academics. Someone who also have good manners, and good appearance. In other words, the kind of girl that is Hyoudou-kun's league is-" She wanted to say 'a perfect girl' but Rias cut her quickly.

"You."

"Yes..."

...

"Wait, what are you saying, Rias?!" Startled, she shouted towards her childhood friend.

A sly grin appeared on her childhood friend's face as she leaned even more forward than before. "I'm just saying. From what you said, your description of the kind of girl who's in Hyoudou's league is basically you."

...That was certainly true if one were to look further. "Nevertheless, that was not my intention."

"You didn't deny it!" Rias exclaimed while wiggling her eyebrows. "Sona. This is why I said you're grooming him. Regardless of your self-proclaimed obligation, from an outsider like me, it looks like you're raising him to become your perfect boyfriend. As of now Hyoudou certainly is not my ideal boyfriend. Why? Because he does not fit all of my criteria. But he certainly fits all of yours. Tell me I'm wrong."

She could not. She could not deny any of the things Rias mentioned.

Souna let out a sigh.

"What should I do, Rias?"

This time her question made Rias blinked. "What do you mean by 'what should I do?'"

"I enjoy teaching him. I want to teach more things to him." She then picked up the white knight from the chess set and dangled it in front of her eyes. "I have not even taught him to play chess..."

"Fufufu. Fuhahahahahaha!" Rias was laughing for some reason. "I can't believe I lived to see the day my best friend has that look in her eyes!"

"What look?" She asked in confusion.

"The look of a maiden in love."

She uncharacteristically scoffed at her best friend's declaration. Maybe because subconsciously she denied it, or maybe because of something else. "I do not think so."

"You can deny it all you want, Sona. But at that moment, with the orange glints of the dusklight, you are not out of place being the heroine in a shoujo manga."

That statement made her eyes twitched in irritation. "You reading those fiction comic books again, Rias?"

"At this point, I'm not even sure if it's a fiction with how uncanny you look like that one panel I read. And besides, it's Koneko-chan's, I just stumbled upon it in the clubroom," Rias shrugged. "The story and the art is interesting enough for me to borrow its continuation."

She did not think Rias' teasing had a single grain of truth. She did not want to think Rias' teasing had a single grain of truth. So she buried that one sentence her best friend uttered into the depth of her heart to never be brought up again.

"Anyway, it's already late. I didn't tell anyone in the club where I am. So thanks for the talk Sona, it's been fun. But I have to go back. Think about what I said, will you? I think it's good for you."

She certainly did not want to think about what Rias said. What did Rias say again? She couldn't remember. She did not want to remember. She refused to remember that sentence.

After all, if she were truly raising Hyoudou Issei to be perfect according to her standard and fell in love with the perfection she was carving along the way, she was already too late.

No. She did not want to realize that she was too late.

And yet.

And yet.

Despite her refusal of acknowledging the matter, said matter could not leave her mind.

She did not know if what Rias said was the absolute truth. But the seed had been planted. And with each reminiscence of her time spent with Hyoudou together, analyzing her feelings and Hyoudou's body language, that seed began to grow bigger and bigger.

Then it bore fruit.

She could not deny it anymore.

.

.

The first time the Devil known as Sona Sitri fell in love, was the first time she felt heartbreak.

.

.

A/N: Been a while in this story. Anyway I'm tired of putting hints of IsseixSona on my other ongoing fics I'm using this as an outlet. Where do you IsseixSonna shipper at?