It takes a few days, but they finally do!

They didn't have any luck the first day they tried their plan. Nor the second or third days. Day four of trying to flush out Kokabiel, Saji was getting impatient. "No luck today, either?" Kiba glanced at him, still deep in thought, but having a good bit more focus than he had before. It seemed that Issei had at least somewhat gotten through to him.

"No, not yet... I'm not sure the plan is even working at this rate..." he admitted.

Issei turned to look towards Raynare. "Any word from Azazel on when that Vali guy will show?" he asked her.

She shrugged. "He says Vali is already in the area and looking for Kokabiel independent of us," she replied. "Vali is keeping his distance from you on Azazel-sama's orders."

"...it still irks me that Albion is nearby," Ddraig spoke into Issei's mind, but Issei chose not to respond at the moment. He guessed correctly that Albion was the White Dragon Emperor's name.

"So, unless he finds Kokabiel first, he'll only get involved as a last resort then?" Issei inquired, and Raynare nodded.

"That was the impression I got as well," she agreed.

Suddenly, Koneko stiffened, as did Kiba. "... there's someone nearby..." Koneko stated, before Kiba turned and blocked a sudden swing from Freed, who came from the shadows, swinging his Excalibur blade. Kiba's blade cracked, but held.

"...eh? You're no Exorcist from the Church!" Freed stated, jumping back as Kiba formed another blade in his free hand and tried to swing at him.

"That's right!" Kiba declared, discarding his cracked blade to replace it. "I'm here to take you out, along with Kokabiel!"

"I'm ready to fight too! I'm not the same weakling who needed my Peerage to bail me out like last time we met!" Issei declared, calling his Boosted Gear.

"Oh... Well, this could be fun..." Freed sniggered, before Raynare lowered her own hood.

"... actually, Raynare, why didn't you just kill him when you were done questioning him before? Or at least capture him and bring him back to Azazel?" Issei asked Raynare casually, making Freed splutter.

"Oi! Don't ignore me! Shitty Devils! And what the hell are you doing working with them, Raynare!?"

Raynare sighed and shrugged. "Honestly? I thought he was working alone at the time, whatever the hell else he was up to, and not much of a problem. It would have been a risk to my own life to try to capture or kill him, and wouldn't have achieved much anyway, or so I thought, and that would have been counterproductive to my mission at the time. Information is useless if you can't live long enough to use or share it, so taking unnecessary risks is a stupid thing to do. One of the basic rules of being an espionage specialist. Of course, had I known he was working for Kokabiel, and that they were this flagrantly going against Azazel-sama, I might have made a different call," she explained, somehow managing to sound sheepish and careless at the same time.

"...fair enough," Issei nodded, unable to argue with that logic, and they turned their attention back to Freed, who was still raging at being treated as a mere annoyance they could ignore for casual chatter.