Issei POV
"Man, it's all just training..." Issei muttered under his breath, his body soaked in his sweat as he lay on the ground unbothered for the dirt that stuck to his clothes. He knew his strength couldn't be compared to Kousuke, it's like the difference between earth and underworld. So he needs all these training to control his balance breaker form better.
But still, the Oppai Dragon couldn't help and wondered what his friend were doing at the moment. He had been surprised when he learned from Rias that Kousuke had somehow build something crazy, he called it VR Capsule, a very self explanatory tech. He didn't have the chance to try the game but from the praises of his girlfriend, it was the greatest dream of every gamers/otaku in the world.
As a cultured gamer, Issei wishes he could help his friend in some way that only someone like him could. He wanted to know if there's a way to do inappropriate acts in his game, it was just for research! After all, a game developer must know what the players would do at every situations and developed countermeasures or easter egg around it. Amongst all the praises, Rias stated it was difficult for her to tell whether it was virtual or reality, the NPC didn't seems to follow their preprogrammed scripts at all. They talks and live like an actual people with dreams and hope for tomorrow.
[Being a Boss in a video game doesn't feels right, but if what your devil girlfriend said to be true, then I'd love to see it.]
Ddraig commented in his mind. Issei immediately recalled how Rias died her first death in the game. It happens so suddenly, a dragon's breath hit her while she had just slain the mountain bandits. The last thing she saw was 2 huge dragons, red and white battling in the sky and she was caught in it. From her own words, she finally experienced the hopelessness from the viewpoint of a mortal.
"Are you tired already?" Kiba asked with a handsome smile before he sat next to him. The knight was a lot calmer and socialize more than before after he had sparred with Xenovia. Though he still wanted to get revenge for his passing friends, Kiba was no longer consumed by it. It wasn't just that, but witnessing Kousuke's strength first-hand seemed to have awakened him out of stupor. He realized his level strength isn't enough to make the culprit of the experiment to submit under his sword, he needs overwhelming force to rid of his trauma, or at least master his sacred gear to a point he can create powerful sword.
After all, wouldn't it be an insane irony if he used the one thing they wanted the most, as the scythe that will take their breath away? Kiba looks forward upon such a day, so he continuously praying despite the pain that the mastermind behind the experiment to stay alive until then. Of course it would've been quicker if he had asked Kousuke to lend a help, but Kiba was stubborn, he wanted to be the one to finish the job. Only then will he soothe the souls of his friends that plagued him in his dream.
"Well yeah, it's just the same thing, get into Balance Breaker form and tried not to immediately lost control of my own body—it required insane focus that definitely fried my brains," Issei muttered with hollow laugh. That was the price for borrowing Ddraig's immense power, even with the latter permission, his body still have to be tough enough to handle the stress. He was just a normal human a year ago before being turned into half devil. Even if he had grown since then, it was passable at best. He could easily defeat most mid rank devils, and even stood some chances against high ranked if it's 1v1. He has Boost Gear after all.
"You might finds it boring, but control is also important, strength without it is just brute," Kiba said with a distant look. "And brute is easy to be rile up, someone is going to use your weakness against you one day."
"Sigh, I know..." Issei recalled the first time he had challenged Riser and lost terribly. The latter clearly had more experiences in Rating Game as, despite his arrogant attitude, the Phenex heir clearly put a lot of thoughts into the planning before facing anyone. If he hadn't gone after Rias, maybe the two would've been a good friend. After all, Riser had fulfilled his dream, he had a fucking harem.
But from what he heard, Riser seems to have been in a slump after his defeat. He even developed some trauma against Dragons. which in Issei's opinion seems kind of a little bit outlandish. Though of course the person himself doesn't knows what kind of fearsome image he had imprinted on the poor Phenex Heir to the point the latter had trouble sleeping every nights. After all, he only thought of that particular event was just him being true to himself—and that was revealing his feelings towards Rias. Even recalling it gives him second-hand embarrassment, Issei couldn't believe he had the balls to shout how much he wanted to touch his girlfriend's boobs with her family and friends watching the match.
"But still, how did his tour ended up rescuing Gasper's childhood friend? He must be some kind of trouble magnet," Issei muttered. He thought he must been unlucky since his life had gone through a whole lot after turning to half devil, but Kousuke just returns after his sudden disappearance and he was already dragged into Hero Factions ploy. "But he easily dispatched them like they were children, man that is some insane strength."
"He must have went through a lot of training to get that strong," Kiba said. The knight could tell from his smooth movement that didn't have the slightest opening, that kind of thing can't be earned in a night or two. Heck, some even trained their whole life but would never reached that level of control that borderline perfection. "If we ever get the chance, I'd like to spar with him and maybe I can learn something."
"You called?"
"!!!" "What?!"
When they heard a familiar voice coming from behind them, the two turned in shock as their pupils reflected the haughty smirk on Kousuke's face as the latter had succeed yet another prank. They watched in utter silence as he pulled out a pen and a notebook from his pocket to cross a line on the paper before turning back to them.
"What? Weren't you two talking about me just a while ago? Well, here I am, the man in the flesh!"