DxD: The Fox and Demons

To an outside observer, the chess game between Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri, both of whom were among the most popular girls in Kuoh Academy, was just a friendly game between friends.

In most cases, if you saw two childhood friends play chess, then you'd be right, this time however, they just so happened to be giving each other death glares as their natural competitiveness took over.

It didn't help that they were the respective leaders of their own...'clubs', which were used to hide their devil activities from normal human eyes.

The Peerages of both of the kings were present as well, displaying varying degrees of amusement at their usually mature leaders acting like children, squabbling with one another.

Though, at the moment, Sona was looking on in thinly veiled amusement as she watched her friend try to find a way to protect her king piece without losing her last rook. "So, how is your investigation going along? The one about your potential new Peerage member, Rias?"

Blue-green eyes shifted from the board to the violet ones of the student council president in annoyance, her lack of available moves on the chess board was getting to her.

The bespectacled girl quirked an eyebrow, patiently waiting for a response as she gave her rival a chance to concentrate on her next move.

"It's rather difficult to discern currently, Sona. But that's alright, since I have already asked Koneko-chan here to use her strong nose to check his scent, in the hopes that it could give us a clue to what his Sacred Gear actually is." Rias eventually claimed, a noticeably growing smile lighting up her face.

Sona noticed Rias' growing happiness and couldn't stop her curiosity from growing along with it, wondering what Rias' resident rook found out.

Yet, despite her growing interest, she didn't want to 'lose' by admitting as much to her rival.

So she held her tongue and concentrated on the chess game, her violet eyes crinkling in slight annoyance.

Thankfully, Tsubaki; her queen, noticed her reticence and decided to do the honors herself, saving her from her admittedly childish dilemma.

"What did Koneko-san find exactly, Rias-sama?" Tsubaki asked, earning a pout from the young Gremory, disappointed that Sona herself didn't admit to her curiosity.

Beside her, Rias' queen began to giggle at her king's antics.

She really was too cute sometimes.

"Ara ara, Rias, are you upset that Tsubaki-san asked you and Sona-chan didn't?" asked Himejima Akeno with a sly smile, the second most popular girl in Kuoh Academy.

Rias glared at her queen through the side of her eye, before ignoring her question entirely, which in turn, just made Akeno break out into a new round of giggles.

The red-head shifted her attention to her rook; Toujou Koneko, and motioned her to come to her.

Toujou Koneko stepped up to her king, ready to give her report on the person that she has now dubbed as; 'the pervert'. "...Buchou asked me to use my enhanced sense of smell to check what Sacred Gear the pervert had...the other day. I...managed to get close to him yesterday while the pervert...was away running from the swimming club...again."

Even as she was speaking, the end of her lips were twisting downwards, expressing her displeasure without words.

Now...most people would think that she was only a little upset over Hyoudou Issei's actions, but anyone who knew her also knew that even the smallest amount emotion out of the usually stoic girl was very indicative of her mood.

In short, she was less than enthused by the perverted boy's actions.

"Please continue, Koneko-chan." Rias encouraged, her growing grin hinting to how much she was going to enjoy her friend's reaction.

Koneko nodded and continued. "...When I got close to the pervert, I managed to catch his scent, which I recognized as..."

She hesitated there, unsure if she was sure in her assessment or not.

Still, she soldiered on regardless.

"A dragon." Koneko finished, while maintaining her standard monotone voice.

Completely unlike her though, Rias, for her part, responded with a full-blown victorious grin thanks to the information's implications.

And, if the widening of a pair of violet eyes were any indication, then those implications were big news indeed.

Dragons were legendary creatures of immense power and prestige, so much so in fact, that the Sacred Gears that were based off of them were all quite powerful.

More than that, very precious few Sacred Gears could smell like a dragon, which helped narrow down the possibilities...

Rias may have just hit the jackpot.

Sona couldn't help but cursed internally, more than a little putout that she didn't put more effort in finding out what that boy carried.