User blog comment:Jopjopjop/Volume 19 Spoilers/@comment-23847729-20141105105810/@comment-24502975-20141110140520

Yup, it's an affectionate term.

Again, Ise fights with his teammates. Even those 6 combined that B mentioned would eventually get overwhelmed and defeated by Rizevim's Evil Dragon army. There's no one person who can defeat everyone in DxD (even Cao Cao must rely on Truth Idea or a transferred Penetrate to deal with Rizevim). Ise gets the credit he deserves, as does everyone else. Ise defeated Euclid the second time, hands-down, but was able to deliver the finishing blow with Rose's help. He defeated Cao Cao through his own skills and ingenuity, with a bit of help from Rias at one point. He and Sairaorg worked together to bring down Grendel once and for all. Everyone's receiving credit equal to their efforts here.