"As expected, being human is what makes me happy! Mm!"
After escaping from Rias, Issei was inwardly relieved that he had gotten away safely. But thinking about it again, there had been no reason for him to run at all. It was more like a reflex of the body, or an automatic reaction born from memory. He had watched too many movies in his previous life about exorcists and black priests and other devil-related things, so his body had moved on its own.
"Man, I really need to do something about this..."
The same problem had plagued him in his previous life: this impatience. The habit of speaking or acting before thinking. Old habits die hard, and even after reincarnating and starting a new life, the same tendencies were still showing themselves.
"Yeah, now that I've even obtained the [Rinnegan], I'm not the same me anymore! I'm a being who can stand at the peak of the world! I am! If I want to, I can even knead anyone's chest! Anyone's!"
An awful example of how to use power. It seemed the [Rinnegan] and the Ten-Tails had fallen into the hands of someone who should never have had them.
"Ah, breasts... Yuuma-chan's breasts were nice... and Rias-senpai's looked good too!! Ahh! Calm down, my Johnson!"
As Issei twisted his body around, recalling the sensation of the first breasts he had ever touched, it was a scene so disgusting it was hard to watch.
"I can't take this! Shadow Clone Technique!"
In the end, he created a clone and then immediately...
"Transformation Technique!"
When he cast the Transformation Technique, the clone took on the form of Rias Gremory, the beautiful red-haired woman he had seen during the day.
"Ah..."
He had tried to transform it into Yuuma-chan, but when Rias appeared instead, he was briefly flustered. It was proof that he was unconsciously fixated on Rias Gremory!
"Come to think of it, Rias-senpai's chest was amazing too! Ahh, breasts!"
In the end, when he tried to grope the breasts of the Rias standing before him...
"You little bastard! Have you lost your mind!?"
His clone ignored the command and reverted to its original form, then delivered a groin kick.
"Y-You bastard! A clone, and yet..."
"Don't be ridiculous! A man has his pride! Why the hell would I want another man touching my chest!?"
That was right. A clone was another self, meaning he would be touching his own chest. And if the positions were reversed, it would mean a man was touching his chest, so unless he was some complete freak, there was no way he'd allow it. So he tried to force it with the [Sharingan]...
"Denied from this side!"
Since it was his own clone, of course it had the [Sharingan] too. In the end, both of them were caught in [Genjutsu], and after spending themselves breaking out of it over and over, they collapsed and fell asleep. That part, at least, was a secret.
After bickering with his clone like that, the next day Issei started scheming again. His plan was to send the clone to school and skip class himself...
"Like hell we will! You want to make us do all the work while you laze around!?"
"Huh!? You're just a clone, and you're talking back!?"
And so the fistfight began again. It seemed that unless they had some clear purpose, the clones shared the same desire to skip school. Maybe it was the kind of thing where you couldn't stand seeing other people do well, or maybe even Hyoudou Issei himself couldn't stand seeing himself do well.
"Damn it... I finally got powers, and this makes them completely useless!"
The biggest advantage of using chakra was [Shadow Clone Technique]. A person's time was limited, and there were so many things he wanted to do. But with clones, he thought anything would be possible. Yet things refused to go the way he wanted, and all he could do was sigh.
In the end, he gave up on the idea of lazily skipping school with clones, and the moment he arrived at school using the Flying Thunder God Technique...
"Ufufufu, good morning."
"....."
For some reason, Akeno was standing there.
"Um, this is..."
"Ufufufu, I was just taking a walk, what a coincidence."
She stood there with both hands folded, looking far too much like she had been waiting on purpose for it to be a coincidence.
"Ufufufu, have you thought about yesterday's offer?"
"No... I think I already refused, didn't I?"
"Is that so? What a pity. Then..."
He had expected her to keep pressing the offer after waiting this long to ask, but she gave up surprisingly quickly, which only made him feel suspicious.
"If you ever change your mind, please talk to me anytime~"
Her soft, melting voice whispered right into his ear, and Issei's face turned bright red. Akeno laughed, "Ufufufu," and disappeared.
"Ah... I'm glad I'm still alive..."
He was so dazed by her voice alone that he nearly toppled backward. It was truly the whisper of a devil!
"If I become a servant, will I get to see Akeno-san every day...?"
He briefly wondered whether it might not be so bad to become a devil if it meant hearing that gentle voice from Akeno-senpai every day. But in the end, becoming a devil was impossible. Issei had clearly reached his answer and stood up.
"Still, they're a little different from the devils I imagined."
The devils Issei had imagined were hideous creatures who only did evil things. But Rias Gremory and Himejima Akeno, the ones in front of him, didn't look like that at all.
"Could this be some kind of devil trick too!?"
He had already been tricked by the Fallen Angel Raynare, so he couldn't help being suspicious. So...
"Fine, I'll uncover the truth myself! I refuse to go through that again!"
He decided to expose the true nature of devils with his own hands!
.
.
.
.
.
The old school building of Kuoh Academy was shrouded in darkness.
The Occult Research Club, led by Rias Gremory, had come out to the old school building for business. The club was currently active with four members: vice president Himejima Akeno, the handsome blond second-year Kiba Yuuto, and the first-year mascot, the white-haired girl with the bob cut, Koneko Toujou.
"A low-ranking stray devil appeared around here, Akeno."
"Yes, President."
At Rias's command, Akeno flew up into the air and began searching near a derelict building not far from the old school building. And watching them was another presence.
It was Issei, who had completely erased his presence by blending into nature with the Ten-Tails' natural energy.
'I'm going to expose the true nature of devils!'
He deployed clones all around him to keep watch, refusing to miss even the smallest opening. The moment Akeno's magic circle reacted, a woman burst out from the abandoned building.
"You're cute little kids. Want big sis to play with you?"
Seeing the woman appear naked and openly provoke Rias and the others, Issei nearly spurted a nosebleed at the sight of her bare breasts, but...
"Kiba! Koneko!"
At Rias's shout, Kiba and Koneko rushed in. The woman's form vanished without a trace, replaced by a monster like a giant spider. Then Kiba and Koneko struck the monster, Akeno's lightning followed in rapid succession, and finally Rias unleashed her annihilating magic. The monster disappeared without a trace.
'I thought something interesting was happening, but in the end it's just devil hunting.'
"Still, it seems like their numbers have increased quite a bit lately."
"Yeah, that makes five in just the past week."
"Busy, huh."
"If we leave them alone, the damage to civilians will only get worse."
As Kiba spoke while dismissing his sword in midair, Rias nodded in agreement. Akeno simply smiled brightly, and Koneko worried about the damage to the surrounding area. Seeing this, Issei thought,
'For devils, they sure are worried about civilian damage...'
They were different from the devils he knew. And more than that...
'Come to think of it... Kiba and Koneko-chan were devils too...'
He had never imagined that even the academy mascot Koneko-chan and the popular guy Kiba were devils, so it was quite a shock.
'Then maybe the others are devils too?'
He figured there had to be even more unexpected people who were devils. With that thought, he steeled himself to uncover everyone's identities at once. He was about to leave it there for the day when...
"Kyaa!"
From inside the abandoned building, after Rias and the others had left, a woman's scream suddenly rang out.
"No way!?"
He hurriedly slipped into the building, and what entered Issei's sight was...
"Ara~, this time it's a cute boy~"
A naked woman with short black hair, and beside her a normal woman lying on the floor, bleeding. But...
"Uhehe... breasts!"
All he could see was the naked lady's chest! At minimum, it looked like a D cup, and he couldn't tear his eyes away from those voluptuous breasts.
"Do you want to become one with me too~?"
"Yes! I want to become one with you!... No, that's not it!"
He nearly fell for it as she licked her lips and seduced him with elegant movements, but then he snapped out of it and shouted,
"You're a devil, aren't you!?"
At first he hadn't known, but once he used detection mode, he realized devils were emitting something similar to their own unique chakra. That was how he had noticed immediately.
"You were hiding your presence!?"
"While I was asleep, it looks like one of us got taken out~ Was that your companion? Are you a human on the church's side?"
That was right. There had originally been two stray devils in this building, and the one Rias's group had exorcised was the active stray devil. The other had been sleeping and had even erased her presence, so Rias and the others hadn't detected her. The stray devil licked her lips and approached Issei.
"Come on~ it's breasts~ You can touch them~"
She began tempting Issei with lust, and as expected, Issei...
"R-Really!?"
"Come on~ come on~, want me to lick them too~?"
"Ghk!"
He had already understood the enemy's bait, but his instincts were still aimed straight at her chest.
"Damn it!! Fine, whatever happens happens!"
He steeled himself and launched forward.
"Mmmh~"
"Hehehehe, breasts!"
...and then proceeded to knead her chest with both hands without mercy! He had forgotten everything else—his purpose, his mission, everything—and had fallen completely for the devil's temptation. As a result...
"Then die!"
From the devil's back, tentacles suddenly burst out and pierced straight through Issei's body. Issei...
"Guhk!"
Coughed up blood, then...
"Ah~ human blood is such a pretty co..."
Boom
He vanished in a puff of smoke. The stray devil was thrown into confusion by the fact that something outside her knowledge had happened, and she stood there with a blank expression for a while. Then...
"You idiot! Did you really think I'd fall for something that cheap!?"
She was instantly subdued from behind by Issei, who had appeared in midair, her arms restrained as she was forced face-down onto the floor. Then Issei created a black object and wrapped it around her arms to bind the stray devil, and once he had fully suppressed her...
"Haa... this was my first real fight, so I was nervous, but I'm glad it worked out."
He stood up with a relieved sigh. Then...
"Ghk, my body won't move! What did you do to me, you bastard!?"
"Oh, that? It's called [Truth-Seeking Orb]. Seems like it works on you guys too."
The [Truth-Seeking Orb] was one of the tools of the Sage of Six Paths, something he could use after obtaining the power of the sage. It was a supreme item that could be shaped into weapons or used to control an opponent's body. Bound by something like that, a low-ranking stray devil had no way to resist.
"Thanks to you, I got some good experimental data. Now then, here's the real question."
He brought the devil's face level with his own eyes, and the stray devil, meeting those now-red eyes,
"Answer my questions."
"Yes..."
Her eyes lost all life, and she began answering Issei's words like a machine. She had fallen completely under the [Sharingan]'s [Genjutsu]. He had worried whether it would work on a devil, but seeing it take effect so cleanly, he felt relieved and started asking test questions.
"How old are you?"
"I'm 203 years old..."
"Ugh, that old...? Then your three sizes are?"
"96, 56, 85 from the top."
"Ooooh..."
Now that he had her pinned down, seeing those huge breasts almost made him lose himself to desire for a moment, but he shook his head hard.
"So where did you stray devils come from?"
He kept extracting information from the stray devil after that, making full use of the [Sharingan]'s power and pulling out everything he wanted to know. Then...
"Well, if I leave you like this, you'll just keep killing people, and you won't be saved either."
Based on the information he had extracted, he predicted the future this stray devil would reach and steeled himself. He didn't think of himself as the kind of person who would act like a hero, protecting the weak and innocent or taking down villains, but this was the neighborhood where he lived. If he left things alone, it was obvious that someday even his parents and friends would be harmed. In the end, what Issei chose was...
[Amaterasu!]
"Aaaaghhh!! You damned human!! Aaaaghhh!!!"
He burned the devil to ashes with black flames unleashed from his specially transformed [Sharingan], until she vanished completely. Then he healed the woman lying nearby and took her to the front of the police station, finishing the work Rias's group had not been able to complete. Afterward, feeling a strange sense of accomplishment, he lay down on the rooftop of the building and stared up at the moon shining brightly in a cloudless sky. The information he had just extracted from the devil came back to him.
"Devils, huh... so the world is structured like this..."
The basic way of life and history in this world were almost the same as in his previous one. The difference was that beings who should only appear in myths existed alongside humans. Perhaps such mythic beings had existed in his previous world too. Maybe, just like Hyoudou Issei until now, he simply hadn't been able to recognize their existence.
A life different from before, with things he had never experienced continuing to happen from now on. Thinking that way made him feel fear, but at the same time, he was excited. And above all, what made Hyoudou Issei happiest was...
"Ahh, that devil from just now had a nice chest."
What the fuc.....!