Rias
“One of their leaders. Kokabeil.”
That tightened the air in room.
Xenovia-san continued.
“Our request, no, our demand of you is to not intrude into any battle between us and the fallen angels. We came to tell you not to interfere with our search for the Excaliburs.”
Akeno’s smile became sharper at that statement.
“You believe that you can demand something of me? You believe that we might join hands with the Fallen Angels to prevent the Church from retrieving Excalibur and you decide to make demands of us?”
I questioned her coldly.
“Our superiors believe that it is possible that you Devils may side with the Fallen Angels.”
Xenovia-san said, staring me down without blinking.
“Our superiors told us that it would not be unthinkable for you Devils to help the Fallen Angels keep Excalibur from us. You both stand to gain from it. That is why I wanted to warn you. That no matter if you are the sister of a Maou, if you have sided with the Fallen Angels then we will eliminate you and your peerage. This is what we were told.”
Xenovia-san gave a short nod.
I paused before responding
“We have not and will not form an alliance with the Fallen Angels. I promise that in the name of house Gremory. I would never tarnish the name of my house or the name of our Maou!”
Xenovia-san let out an affirmative huff.
“Fu. That’s good enough. If something were to happen and Kokabiel managed to keep the three Excaliburs it would cause many issues at our headquarters. I had to warn you to ensure that we would have a better chance in our mission. Due to the tenuous state between the three factions we will not ask to form an alliance with you. Especially since a sibling of a Maou would bring attention to any cooperation between God’s side and the Devils.”
I leaned back slightly and regarded them both.
“And you came with only the two of you?”
“Yes,” Xenovia-san said.
“That is reckless. It’s almost like you are trying to get yourselves killed.”
Irina-san’s expression brightened in a way that was either admirable or absurd. “We are prepared for martyrdom.”
Akeno smiled again, though only with her mouth. “How very devout of you.”
“Oh! Also, the Church told us that if we find it necessary we can destroy the stolen Excaliburs rather than let them stay in the Fallen Angels hands. This is an extremely important mission and why it was deemed acceptable for us to sacrifice ourselves if need be.”
Irina-san chimed in far too happily for such a grim statement.
Their devotion to God could not be questioned, at least.
The two of them got ready to leave.
Irina-san glanced at Kusari again. Perhaps she was more cautious of Yokai, or she may not have seen one become a Devil before.
Asia had been quiet for most of the exchange, but I could feel her distress building beside Issei.
The Church, holy swords, stolen relics, dying priests, destroyed Excaliburs—each new piece dragged at wounds she had not fully learned how to stop touching.
Then Xenovia-san looked at her.
Really looked at her.
“Wait,” she said.
Asia froze.
Irina-san turned too, following Xenovia’s line of sight.
“Are you,” Xenovia-san asked, “the former Holy Maiden, Asia Argento?”
Asia’s fingers tightened in her lap.
“I…”
Irina-san’s eyes widened. “So it really is you.”
Kusari’s posture changed slightly.
Only slightly.
A tension entered her shoulders the same way it did whenever she sensed cruelty moving toward someone and could not yet decide whether to interrupt.
Asia lowered her gaze. “Yes.”
Irina-san looked honestly startled. “I thought I recognized you at Ise-kun’s house. I heard you had vanished after being exiled.”
“Not vanished,” Xenovia said. “Fallen. She was called a witch after it was learned that her powers could heal both Devils and Fallen Angels.”
The word hit harder than she intended or exactly as hard as she intended. With Xenovi-san, it was difficult to tell.
Asia flinched.
I felt Issei’s mood turn at once.
Not outwardly first. Inwardly. The heat in him always came before the motion.
Irina noticed and tried to lighten the mood
“Don’t worry! I won’t tell anyone in the Church that we saw you here. I’m sure that many people would be shocked or not believe me if I told them anyway.”
But Xenovia-san kept speaking.
“You were praised as a Holy Maiden, yet now you stand among devils.” Her expression hardened. “Do you still carry your beliefs?”
Asia looked up in shock. “What?”
“I can tell,” Xenovia-san said. “You still believe in God.”
Irina-san stared at Asia more intently. “Is that true?”
Asia’s face tightened with hurt.
“…I can’t just throw it away. My beliefs were my whole life.”
Asia’s old pain of her faith.
Cast out by the Church, saved by devils, still carrying God in her heart because faith planted into a child does not vanish simply because grown men decide she is inconvenient.
For one moment, nobody moved.
Then Xenovia-san unwrapped Excalibur Destruction again.
Not fully.
Enough.
“If that is true,” she said, “then perhaps we should cut you down here. If you still believe in God while living as a devil, then dying by the sword may yet save your soul.”
Asia went white.
Issei moved before I could stop him.
He stepped in front of Asia so fast the chair behind him skidded.
“Get away from her.”
His voice filled the room.
Clear. Furious. Loud.
Xenovia-san met his glare without flinching.
“I am speaking of mercy.”
“No,” Issei said. “You’re speaking bullshit.”
Asia’s breath caught.
Irina-san’s brows rose.
Akeno actually looked pleased for half a second.
Kusari tensed like she was ready to intervene if it came to blows.
Xenovia-san’s eyes narrowed.
Issei took another step.
“You people decided what Asia was supposed to be, threw her away when she didn’t fit, and now you want to talk like you’re saving her? Don’t screw around!”
That part of him—his refusal to step around what felt wrong once he had decided it was wrong—would be the death of him someday.
It was also why I loved him.
“Where was God when she was kidnapped by Fallen Angels, when she was hurt?!”
“God loves us all. If she was not protected by him that means that she didn’t fully believe in him or that her faith was false in the first place.”
Xenovia-san’s answer was as hard as iron.
Issei looked appalled at her logic.
“Then what are you to her?”
Issei did not hesitate.
“Her Family. Someone who wants to protect her! Her friend and comrade!” His fists clenched. “And if you try to touch Asia, I’ll turn ensure you refer everything!”
The room went very still.
Kusari’s eyes flicked to Issei, then to Asia, then to Xenovia-san.
She heard the word family in a small wounded way: with disbelief before relief, and distrust before either.
Xenovia-san’s eyes sharpened.
“Is that a declaration to us or the whole church? Gremory. I don’t think you’ve educated your servant well enough.”
My frown deepened at her words.
Yuuto stepped forward.
That was worse.
Because unlike Issei, Yuuto was not running on indignation.
She was running on rage and bad history.
“That’s enough,” she said.
Every eye in the room turned to her.
She did not look at Asia.
She looked only at Xenovia-san and the sword.
Her smile was gone.
The version of Yuuto who drank tea in the clubroom and corrected Issei’s manners and fought with elegant precision had stepped back, leaving behind the girl from the rain.
“I’ll be your opponent,” she said.
Xenovia-san’s brows lowered. “And you are?”
Yuuto’s lip curled.
“Your senpai,” she said. “Even if I was considered a failure.”
Demonic swords burst into existence around her.
They filled the room with steel and red-black demonic light, crowding the air with killing intent sharp enough that Asia gasped and Irina-san’s smile vanished completely.
Kusari stiffened.
Not at Yuuto’s power.
At the hatred inside it.
I rose at once.
“Yuuto.”
She did not look at me.
Xenovia-san, on the other hand, did not retreat.
“Good,” she said. “I wanted to test the so-called servants of Rias Gremory anyway.”
Irina-san sighed. “This became troublesome.”
“No,” Akeno said pleasantly. “It was inevitable.”
I closed my eyes for one heartbeat.
Then opened them.
I was [King] before I was anything else.
“If you are going to fight,” I said, “you will do it under my rules.”
All of them looked at me then.
Issei, still burning.
Yuuto, still brittle.
Xenovia-san, still severe.
Irina-san, calculating under a warm smile.
Akeno, amused.
Koneko, ready.
Asia, frightened.
Kusari, silent.
I stood and let my demonic power settle around the room like a command.
“No one dies. No holy swords on flesh. No lethal strikes. Barrier around the match. Outside.”
Xenovia-san considered that.
Then nodded once.
“Fine.”
Yuuto did not nod.
She just turned and walked for the door.
Kusari’s gaze followed her immediately.
I saw the impulse in her—to go after Yuuto, to stay near her, to make sure hatred did not become self-destruction in the space between rooms.
She did not move.
That restraint cost her.
I could see that too.
“Come,” I said.
The clubroom emptied with more tension than noise.
Kusari
The barrier made the air feel wrong.
Not in a dangerous way..
Wrong in an artificial way.
The sort of pressure that reminded the body it was now inside rules written by someone else’s power.
Rias-Buchou’s red aura spread in a dome around the practice ground behind the old school building, sealing out human sight and enclosing us with a bloody shimmer that bent the late afternoon light into something denser.
Inside it stood Issei and Yuuto.
Across from them stood Irina-san and Xenovia-san.
All four had shed the ordinary school atmosphere with unsettling speed.
Irina-san and Xenovia-san removed their white outer robes first.
Underneath, they wore close-fitted black battle clothes that covered more than they revealed and still managed to look as if they didn’t.
It was an interesting choice of uniform for a group that is normally associated with modesty and purity.
Xenovia-san unwrapped Excalibur Destruction fully now, and the sight of it made the skin at the back of my neck tighten.
Irina-san’s Excalibur Mimic flowed in her hands, changing from its carry shape into a katana.
Beside me, Akeno gave a low whistle.
Asia swallowed.
Koneko stood with her arms folded, face flat.
Rias watched from the barrier’s edge like a queen presiding over an execution she had not yet decided how to interrupt.
I watched Yuuto.
Her stance was perfect.
That was what worried me.
Too perfect. Too little waste. Too little surface emotion.
She had gone past anger and into something colder, something more rigid.
Revenge had finally been given a shape in front of her, and the result was not relief. It was clarity.
Clarity is dangerous.
Especially to people who think they finally understand what they are for.
Irina-san moved first.
Fast.
Not fast like a Devil would be.
Fast in a Human way, sharpened by training, holy reinforcement, and terrifying intent.
She closed on Issei from the side while Xenovia-san came straight at Yuuto, the two church members separating their targets with practiced confidence.
Yuuto met Xenovi-san with a demonic blade in each hand.
Steel struck holy steel and the sound bit through the barrier like an animal scream.
Issei barely got out of the way of Irina-san’s first attack.
He ducked, stumbled, recovered, cursed, and his sacred gear boosted almost on instinct.
“It’s truly a pity Hyoudou Issei-kun. Perhaps I should call you Ise-kun considering how close we used to be. It’s a twist of fate that I left for England when it was learned I could wield holy swords and you became a Devil. Returning to my homeland only to find that my childhood friend has become a Devil that is my sworn enemy. This truly is a harsh trial from God! It is cruel but through this my belief in God will only grow! My Excalibur will judge you Ise-kun! Amen!”
Irina-san appears to be very devoted to her faith.
She was on the edge of tears while speaking.
While attacking Issei.
“I have no idea what you're talking about!”
[Boost!]
His Sacred Gear’s voice rang out.
Irina-san rushed at him swinging her blade.
Issei continued to barely avoid her attacks as he continued to gain strength.
The two of them broke apart for a moment.
Irina-san shuddered. “What a lecherous face. Ise-kun, what exactly are you planning ?"
Issei smirked with a perverted look that would have him smacked by most of the girls in the school.
“……Be careful…..” Koneko warned her “Issei-senpai has the ability to strip a girl naked by touching her.”
“Why did you warn her?!”
Issei looked at Koneko as if betrayed.
“……Enemy of all women. You’re the worst.” Koneko muttered in response.
“Why are you so cruel to me Koneko-chan!”
“Oh, that’s awful! Ise-kun has fallen to become a sinful pervert! God please forgive this misguided boy.”
Irina-san looked at Issei sadly while stopping to pray.
“We are sparring! Why are you praying for me?!”
I don’t know if this really counts as a spar anymore, Issei.
“……The worst. Pervert.”
Koneko-chan continued to berate Issei.
“Ise-san! If you really want a woman’s body so badly, you could have just asked me…. I wouldn’t mind if it’s for Ise-san….”
Asia, standing next to me, made a comment about sacrificing her body for Issei’s perversions.
I decided this was the moment to look away and watch Yuuto and Xenovia-san.
I might have smiled about Issei suffering if Yuuto were not trying to cut through Xenovia-san hard enough to make my chest hurt just watching it.
“She’s not measuring,” I said quietly.
Rias-Buchou answered without taking her eyes off the field. “I know.”
Yuuto’s attacks came too sharp, too early.
Good enough to force Xenovia-san to respect them.
Bad enough to tell Xenovia-san exactly where her fury was directed.
Xenovia-san adjusted almost immediately, turning Yuuto’s hatred against her by giving ground only where it created worse angles.
Yuuto was capitalizing on her multiple swords and speed, but it didn’t matter.
Xenovia swung Excalibur Destruction and shattered Yuuto’s two swords as she tried to strike her.
A Church swordswoman.
A survivor of the Holy Sword Project.
Excalibur between them.
The fight was less a spar than a wound reopening.
Irina-san, meanwhile, had decided that tormenting Issei and enjoying herself were not mutually exclusive.
Her katana-form holy sword flashed.
Issei blocked with demonic power and got pushed back anyway.
He boosted again, trying to close the gap with sheer force and stubbornness.
She slipped around him and slashed at his side without touching skin, close enough that the holy pressure alone made him hiss.
“Let me cleanse your lecherous thoughts with my Excalibur! You can still receive salvation.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my thoughts! Now hold still!”
Akeno-senpai laughed.
Asia made a tiny worried noise. “Ise-san…”
“He’ll live,” Koneko said.
“Probably,” I added.
Koneko’s eyes shifted to me for half a second.
That counted as agreement.
Yuuto’s blades rang against Xenovia-san’s again, harder now.
She forced Xenovia-san back two steps, then three, then overcommitted with a thrust that clearly wanted more than victory.
Xenovia-san saw it.
Turned.
The flat of Excalibur struck Yuuto’s wrist and knocked one demonic blade loose.
Not disarmed. Warned.
Yuuto’s expression changed.
She knew exactly what Xenovia-san had done.
And hated it.
“Too emotional,” Xenovia-san said.
Yuuto smiled then.
A terrible smile.
“I wasn’t trying to be calm.”
The second demonic blade in her left hand lengthened with fresh power.
Countless more swords rose behind her like the outline of a storm.
That made the air around the barrier tighten.
Rias-Buchou’s voice cut across it at once.
“Yuuto.”
Not loud.
Absolute.
Yuuto did not answer, but she did stop short of escalating further.
That, more than anything else so far, seemed to anger Xenovia-san.
The church girl wanted to be tested.
Truly tested.
Holy swords, demonic blades, full conviction against full conviction.
Yuuto’s restraint—forced restraint, but restraint all the same—denied her that satisfaction.
Xenovia struck the ground with Excalibur destruction.
The ground shattered outward around her destroying all of the created demonic swords and leaving a crater around her.
Instead of looking wary, Yuuto seemed more intent on attacking Excalibur now.
Unlike Xenovia Irina-san had no such frustration in her fight.
She was enjoying herself entirely too much.
By the time Issei hit his third boost, she was circling him with a grin that said she had already decided what kind of animal he was.
Hot-blooded. Loud. Predictable. Very easy to embarrass.
None of those things were wrong.
She pressed in, and Issei actually held his ground this time, demonic power coating his arms enough to turn aside the side of her holy blade without direct contact.
Not elegant. Effective.
The exchange pushed them close.
Too close.
Issei’s eyes changed.
I knew that look now.
The one where stupidity, desperation, and lechery aligned so perfectly that some terrible technique became inevitable.
“You’re doing better than I had anticipated. Your master fought you well for you to be able to dodge all of my strikes!”
“My master is strict with my training. Because of it I am able to fight those who would normally be stronger than me!”
[Boost!!]
“Let’s go! Boosted Gear!”
[Explosion!!]
“Kusari-senpai,” Koneko said.
She had seen it too.
“Yes.”
Asia had not.
She was still watching with earnest worry, hands clasped together under her chin as if prayer might help despite everything.
Irina-san cut in low. Issei twisted. Their shoulders nearly touched.
And then he shouted it.
“Dress Break!”
The technique launched wrong immediately.
I knew that before I saw its shape.
Too much demonic power. Too much panic. Too much excitement at being close to a beautiful girl wielding a sword.
The ability passed Irina-san's body at the last instant and shot wide.
Toward the sideline.
Toward Asia.
Toward me.
“No!”
Issei realized what he had done almost immediately.
I normally would have been able to avoid it.
But I saw it.
And stopped.
The world narrowed.
Not to the technique itself.
To the shape of it.
The memory under it.
Clothes vanishing. Skin exposed. Orders. Hands. Stillness. Punishment for resistance. Reward for obedience. My body becoming something useful and not my own.
I could not move.
Asia gasped.
Koneko did.
She stepped in front of me so fast I only understood what she had done when the technique struck.
There was a loud tearing sound of clothes being shredded.
Asia’s uniform burst away in pieces.
Koneko’s too.
For one impossible second they stood there naked inside Buchou’s barrier, school clothes and underwear torn into the air by Issei’s cursed pervert technique.
Blood hit the ground.
Not mine.
Issei’s nose.
He stared for one stupid, doomed beat in absolute male appreciation before the rest of reality caught up to him.
What came next should have been my collapse into myself.
It wasn’t.
Koneko was still between me and the place the technique had been going.
Her back.
Her sudden motion.
The fact that she had seen it, understood it, and stepped in anyway.
Asia was beside us, not gone.
It had missed me.
I was still clothed, still standing, still here.
Koneko turned her head just enough that I could see one eye.
“Kusari-senpai.”
Not a question.
A hand reaching back without strings attached.
I took one breath.
Then another.
And the world came back in pieces instead of going dull.
Asia squealed and folded in on herself, both hands trying to cover everything at once.
Koneko did not.
She turned slowly toward Issei, and the look on her face made even Akeno-senpai stop smiling.
Issei was already white.
“W-wait! Koneko-chan, Asia! It was an accident! I didn’t mean to send it at Kusari-san!
Rias-Buchou moved instantly.
Akeno with her.
Blankets appeared in Rias’s hands for Asia and Koneko in a rush of demonic power and rustling cloth
Akeno came straight to me.
“Kusari-chan are you alright? You’re still with us?”
“….Yes I’m fine.”
My own voice sounded slightly distant and weak.
“Can I touch you?”
I gave a small nod.
Akeno was quiet as she rested a hand on the back of my shoulder and slowly rubbed circles on my back.
It helped ground me.
Yuuto had turned fully from Xenovia-san by then.
The look in her eyes when she saw where the technique had been going was so cold it made the barrier feel smaller.
Xenovia-san, to her credit, did not misunderstand what had just happened.
Irina-san absolutely did.
Or rather, understood it exactly enough to look fascinated.
“Your technique,” she said to Issei, “is terrible.”
“Shut up!”
“Obscene!”
“Shut up!”
“You stripped the wrong girls.”
“IRINA!”
Irina-san’s smile finally dropped off of her face.
She realized that he wasn’t only embarrassed and there was more going on that she didn’t understand.
Koneko stepped back toward me the second Rias had covered her.
Not because I was breaking.
Because she was still checking.
That was enough to keep my knees from giving.
“Koneko-chan,” I said.
She looked up.
“Thank you.”
Her expression did not soften much.
Enough.
“Obviously.”
That answer nearly undid me in a worse way than the technique would have.
Rias-Buchou’s eyes cut toward Issei.
Even now, even through what had happened, I could see the shape of conflict in her.
She loved him. She wanted to protect him. She also looked one breath away from ordering him thrown through her own barrier.
Akeno solved that problem for her without moving away from me.
“Ise-kun,” she said with a smile so beautiful it felt like a threat from a higher order of being, “kneel.”
He knelt immediately.
Good instinct.
“I’m sorry!” he blurted. Then, looking toward me specifically, “Kusari-san, I swear, I didn’t— I mean— I wasn’t trying—”
I spoke before the others could turn that apology into a public execution.
“It was a mistake,” I said.
The field went quiet.
Issei shut up instantly.
Koneko looked at me.
Rias watched us both quietly.
Akeno turned to me as her hand stopped.
Asia, cheeks still flaming, blinked.
Even Yuuto’s murderous attention shifted.
Xenovia-san and Irina-san watched quietly.
I kept my eyes on Issei.
“I know he missed,” I said. “I know it wasn’t aimed at me.”
That was true.
It was also the only truth I was willing to give them right now.
Issei stared like he could not tell whether I was saving him or condemning him more politely.
Possibly both.
Koneko’s hand found the edge of my sleeve then.
Not gripping. Present.
Another anchor.
It let me keep speaking.
“He misfired,” I said. “He’s an idiot. We know this already.”
Akeno-senpai’s brow rose.
Rias-Buchou still looked unconvinced.
Yuuto looked disappointed in the entire situation.
I exhaled slowly.
“Koneko-chan got in front of it,” I said. “Asia-san got hit. I didn’t. So stop staring at me like I’m going to break and deal with what actually happened.”
Silence followed that.
Then Asia nodded quickly. “Y-Yes. Kusari-san is right. I’m all right, and Koneko-chan is all right, and Issei-san didn’t mean to do it!”
Koneko clicked her tongue once. “He’s still stupid.”
“He is,” I said.
“….And a pervert….”
“Yes.”
That, finally, made Akeno-senpai laugh again. Softly. Carefully.
She glanced at me and quietly asked “Are you sure it’s alright?”
I gave her another small nod
Rias-Buchou’s shoulders eased by a degree.
Yuuto’s expression remained hard, but the edge of immediate violence left it.
Issei was still on his knees, looking dazed.
“….Do not look relieved,” Koneko told him.
He visibly stopped looking relieved.
Irina-san because she was impossible, tilted her head and said, “Your fox girl is kinder than she looks.”
“No,” I said.
That got her to blink.
“I’m practical.”
Koneko’s mouth moved at one corner.
Not quite a smile.
Close enough.
Rias-Buchou stepped into the center of the barrier.
“That’s enough.”
No one argued.
She looked at Xenovia-san first.
“You came to test us. Consider your curiosity fed.”
Xenovia-san inclined her head once. “I learned enough.”
Then Buchou looked at Issei.
He was still kneeling.
Still pale.
Still bleeding a little from the nose.
Ridiculous man.
“Ise…. kneel there for another minute,” she said.
“Yes, Buchou.”
His voice sounded miserable.
She sounded both fond and exasperated.
Then her eyes shifted to me.
Only for an instant. Careful. Asking without asking.
This time I met them.
Steady enough.
Not all right. Standing.
That was enough for now.
The barrier dissolved a minute later, the red aura lifting from the training ground in waves until the school evening returned around us as if nothing had happened at all.
Nothing had happened.
That was how places like this survived.
Students still passed on distant paths. Club activities still wound down. The sun still lowered. Somewhere, a whistle blew.
And in the middle of it, Issei remained on his knees while Koneko stood beside me with all the silent fury of a small, white-haired executioner waiting to decide later how much he deserved.
Asia tugged lightly at the borrowed cloth around her shoulders.
Yuuto looked at the place Excalibur had occupied and not at any of us.
Xenovia-san and Irina-san left.
Rias-Buchou held the evening together because someone had to.
Akeno had moved away and now was watching everyone and saying nothing.
I stood where I had frozen, hating the fact that I had done exactly that.
Koneko’s hand was still at my sleeve.
Not because she thought I would fall apart now.
Because she knew I knew she had been there.
I swallowed.
The pressure behind my eyes had nothing to do with Veil Sight.
The numbness in my chest wasn’t from the cold bite of my Stillmark
Across the field, Issei finally lifted his head.
He looked at me.
Then at Koneko standing in front of where the technique had been going.
Then back to me.
The shame on his face was real.
And because Koneko had stepped in, because Asia was safe, because I had managed to speak before others decided what I was supposed to feel, the sight of that shame did not break anything further in me.
At the door to the old building, after the walk back in uneasy silence, Issei finally spoke.
“Kusari-san.”
I stopped.
So did everyone else.
His voice was quieter than usual. No bravado. No grin. No attempt to joke the thing away.
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at him.
At the honesty in his face.
At the fear there too—not of punishment, but of what he had almost repeated without meaning to.
I did not want the others to keep tearing into him for something I had already named.
So I answered clearly this time, with a lie.
“I know. It’s alright.”
I did know it was a mistake, and I didn’t blame him for it.
His shoulders loosened a fraction.
Rias-Buchou glanced between us.
Akeno-senpai watched me for a moment longer and said nothing.
Koneko gave me one brief look, measuring, then faced forward again.
It was enough.
Not forgiveness in full.
Enough to end the moment without letting it rot.
We went inside after that.
The old building swallowed us back into shadow and familiar hallways.
The day was not mended.
Yuuto still carried Excalibur in her eyes.
The church girls had left after the fight. Issei was still an idiot.
For tonight, that would do.
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