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For Hyoudou Issei, life had taken a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. Gone were the days when his greatest concern was being accused of peeping inside the Kendo Club locker room. Now, his new routine consisted of pedaling at full speed on a bicycle through Kuoh's streets, delivering magical flyers and fulfilling small contracts for Rias Gremory. His body was still adapting to his new demonic nature; along the way, he could not stop closing his eyes because of the sunlight, feeling as though it were piercing through his skin, something he simply could not bear. However, while the brown-haired boy stoically dealt with his duties as a low-class devil, a summit of maximum tension was taking place at the academy.
In the Student Council room, the two most powerful peerages in the city were gathered, and the atmosphere was an absolute and depressing chaos.
Rias Gremory massaged her temples in frustration, while Sona Sitri stared at the completely empty reports on her desk. Both heiresses had deployed their best pieces to follow Kaiju Hano after classes, with the goal of finding his home and discovering his weaknesses. The result had been a humiliating zero.
"It's impossible," Kiba complained, a tree leaf stuck in his hair and his uniform slightly dusty. "I followed him from three blocks away, completely hiding my presence. He stopped to buy a drink and, suddenly, a moving truck lost control of its ramp, dropping dozens of boxes that blocked the street. By the time I managed to cross, he was already gone."
"I had it worse," Akeno sighed, with a tense smile and the hem of her skirt wet. "I was watching him from the sky. Out of nowhere, an underground pipe burst right beneath me, creating a geyser that forced me to evade. He disappeared at that instant."
Sona adjusted her glasses, which still had a small crack from the previous day's incidents in the club. What the devils did not know was that Kaiju was only using the Purple color of his Celestial Iris, which granted the ability of telekinesis, to provoke those subtle alterations in his surroundings and shake off his stalkers through perfectly orchestrated "coincidences."
"We have nothing," Rias declared, crossing her arms. "He walks through the city acting with exasperating naturalness. He eats, breathes, and walks like a human. And then, by some absurd coincidence, we lose sight of him before we can even track the route to his house."
Discouragement filled the room, until a calm and polite voice broke the silence.
"Actually, I do have a report, Kaichou."
All eyes turned toward Momo Hanakai, one of Sona's Bishops. Unlike the rest of the devils, who looked exhausted, dirty, or frustrated, Momo was immaculate. Her uniform did not have a single wrinkle and her posture was perfectly serene.
Sona raised an eyebrow. "Were you able to follow Kaiju Hano, Momo?"
"No, President," the white-haired girl replied, adjusting her posture. "Knowing the others would focus on him, I decided it would be wiser to watch his blind spot: his companion, Sylvie."
Rias opened her eyes in surprise, realizing the tactical mistake they had made by underestimating the girl.
"Sylvie left the academy ten minutes after him," Momo continued, handing a small notebook to Sona. "Her routine was very different. There were no strange accidents around her. She went shopping, walked calmly through the shopping district, and then headed directly toward the forest park. The same park with the fountain."
The atmosphere grew tense at the mention of the place where Issei had been stabbed and killed by the Fallen Angel on the night of his date.
"What was she doing there?" Akeno asked, intrigued.
"That's the confusing part." Momo swallowed slightly. "Sylvie walked to the most secluded, wooded area, near an old giant oak. I kept a safe distance, ready to see whether she met with Kaiju or opened some dimensional portal. But she did none of that. She simply stepped into the tree's shadow... and disappeared."
"Did she use teleportation magic?" Kiba asked.
"No. There was no magic, no summoning circle, no spatial fluctuation," Momo shook her head. "It was as if she had crossed an invisible wall. I approached to investigate the perimeter, but I only found the tree and empty grass. There is no trace of a house, a basement, or a force field that I could detect with my senses."
The two heiresses fell into absolute silence, processing the information. What Momo had witnessed, and what completely escaped demonic understanding, was the reincarnated God's greatest defense.
Kaiju Hano's home was not an apartment downtown, nor a mansion hidden beneath complex demonic runes. It was a treehouse. A wooden structure he himself had built in that immense oak when he was barely a child. However, using the absolute powers housed within his soul, Kaiju had woven a boundary barrier around that tree. It was an isolation that defied reality itself, making the treehouse completely and absolutely undetectable to any existing being, whether devils, Fallen Angels, or even gods themselves. If you were not directly invited by him, or if you did not know the access frequency, you could spend a hundred years searching that park and never find his home.
Rias sighed, dropping into one of the council chairs, feeling as if they were playing chess against an invisible opponent. "Then we know where in the park they disappear, but we cannot see what lies beyond. Sona, this boy is a maze with no exit."
While the peerages continued turning over their frustration, they were completely unaware that high in the undetectable oak, Kaiju was comfortably reclining on a wide sofa inside his cozy treehouse. He was playing a racing video game on his television while Sylvie, humming a happy melody, prepared dinner in the kitchen, both enjoying absolute peace after leaving their "watchers" miserably wasting time in Kuoh's streets.
...
Walking through Kuoh's bustling shopping district with two heavy grocery bags full of vegetables and discounted meat was not exactly the image one would expect from the deadliest being in the multiverse.
Kaiju Hano possessed the "Celestial Eyes," a perfect gift created millennia ago by the goddess of the Moon, Lunaris. He could disintegrate deities, stop time, manipulate space, and eradicate entire continents with a single thought. However, all that divine omnipotence, all that power accumulated after devouring pantheons, became absolutely useless and irrelevant when Sylvie, with a slight pout and shining eyes, handed him a shopping list and kindly asked him to get the ingredients for dinner.
Before her, the reincarnated God of Destruction was absolutely and comically powerless.
With a monotone sigh, Kaiju adjusted the bags in his hands, ignoring the looks of some girls whispering about the attractiveness of the "scarred boy." He was about to turn the corner toward the park to return to his undetectable home when a pitiful, dragging voice pulled him out of his thoughts.
"Ah... my life is constant torture..."
Kaiju stopped. Leaning against a lamppost, with his school uniform disheveled and looking as though he had been run over by a garbage truck, stood his classmate. Hyoudou Issei, whom his parents and friends simply called Ise, seemed to be on the verge of collapse.
"If you're going to die in public, do it away from my groceries, Issei. Sylvie will be upset if dinner is delayed," Kaiju said, approaching with his usual expression of stoic boredom.
Issei looked up, narrowing his eyes as if the simple act of focusing his gaze caused him physical pain.
"Kaiju!" the brown-haired boy groaned, separating himself from the pole with difficulty. "Don't be so cold! Being a devil is consuming what little life I have left. My mornings are a disaster. I have an alarm clock with a tsundere voice that's supposed to wake me up, but it doesn't work, and I always end up mumbling on the floor because I fall out of bed."
Kaiju raised an eyebrow, showing not a shred of compassion. "That's your great tragedy? Falling out of bed?"
"That's only the tip of the iceberg!" Issei protested, waving his arms dramatically. "On my way to school, I can't stop closing my eyes because of the sunlight; I feel it piercing through my skin and I simply can't stand it. I'm like a defective vampire forced to deliver pamphlets by bicycle!"
While the brown-haired boy continued bitterly complaining about how his new boss made him work like a delivery slave, Kaiju's hyperdeveloped senses picked up a new presence approaching from behind.
Thanks to the Constant Vigilance ability inherent in his soul, Kaiju could register every movement within a radius of several kilometers. He knew exactly who was approaching. It was not a devil trying to watch him, nor a bloodthirsty Fallen Angel seeking revenge. It was a purely human presence, bright, warm, and... exceptionally clumsy.
Kaiju could have stepped aside with imperceptible speed. He could have altered space to avoid contact. But, judging that the entity represented absolutely no threat, and feeling a little curious about that strange and pure warmth, he simply stayed still and let physics run its course.
Plaf!
"Kyah!"
A soft impact, followed by a sharp and adorable squeal, echoed as someone crashed directly into Kaiju's back. The force of the impact was so minuscule to his hardened body that it did not even move him a millimeter, but the person who struck him bounced back and landed seated on the concrete floor with a pained whimper.
Issei immediately stopped his lamenting, his eyes widening at the scene.
Kaiju slowly turned, lowering his gaze.
Sitting on the ground, rubbing her forehead with both hands, was a girl whose beauty violently contrasted with Kuoh's urban surroundings. Her hair was such a pale and radiant blonde that it seemed woven from starlight, falling in soft waves down her back. She wore the traditional habit of a Christian nun, an unusual outfit that emphasized the purity of her aura.
When the girl lifted her face, Kaiju found himself looking into a pair of immense and beautiful emerald-green eyes, blinking with a mixture of surprise, apology, and restrained tears.
"O-Ow, I'm so terribly sorry!" the young nun exclaimed, clumsily getting to her feet while dusting off her habit with trembling hands. "I was lost looking for an address and didn't watch where I was going! Are you all right? Please forgive me for being so careless!"
Issei, who had looked like he was about to faint from exhaustion a second earlier, experienced a miraculous resurrection. His posture straightened, his eyes shone with otaku devotion, and his demonic fatigue vanished before the foreign girl's presence.
"An... an angel!" Issei murmured, drooling slightly. "A blonde sister in our city!"
Kaiju completely ignored his drooling companion and observed the blonde girl with an analytical gaze, though his face remained impassive. He did not need to activate the Green color of his Celestial Iris to notice the obvious: the girl was not only beautiful and pure, but also carried an extremely dense miraculous healing energy inside her. An energy that, coincidentally, was the polar opposite of the devils who ruled the city.
"I'm fine. It was nothing," Kaiju replied calmly, adjusting the grocery bags. "But you should be more careful. This city can be very... complicated for someone who walks distractedly."
The blonde girl, known in Heaven's records as Asia Argento, clasped her hands at chest level and gave him a smile so radiant and innocent that it seemed to illuminate the entire street.
"Thank God I didn't hurt you!" she said, letting out a relieved sigh. "My name is Asia. Asia Argento. I just arrived in Japan and I'm a little lost..."
Hyoudou Issei, who only seconds ago had looked like a living corpse complaining about his morning misfortunes, was now completely revitalized. The brown-haired boy drooled slightly, looking at the young blonde with almost fanatical devotion, his perverted thoughts working at maximum capacity.
"Don't worry, it was nothing," Kaiju replied in his usual stoic tone, offering her a free hand to help her up.
Asia accepted the hand shyly, her huge green eyes shining with genuine gratitude. "You are very kind. I have just arrived in Japan and, to be honest, I am completely lost. I was sent to this city's church, but the maps here are very different from the ones I know."
Kaiju nodded slowly. Kuoh's church. He knew perfectly well where that place was. It stood on the outskirts of the city, atop a secluded hill, and his Constant Vigilance senses had warned him long ago that the place was infested with a dense and unpleasant Fallen Angel energy. Sending such an innocent and pure nun to that den was equivalent to throwing a lamb into a pit of hungry wolves.
"I know where the church is. We'll accompany you," Kaiju said, making an immediate decision.
Before Issei could celebrate the opportunity to walk beside the beautiful foreigner, Kaiju turned toward him and threw the two heavy grocery bags directly against his chest. The brown-haired boy staggered under the sudden weight of meat, vegetables, and liters of milk.
"H-Hey, what do you think you're doing, Kaiju?!" Issei complained, trying to balance the groceries.
"Consider this part of your physical training. You're the luggage carrier from now on. Walk," Kaiju ordered, leaving no room for discussion, turning toward the nun with a courteous gesture. "Follow us, Asia."
The walk toward the outskirts of the city began. As they walked, Asia showed herself to be incredibly talkative, sweet, and devout. Noticing that Kaiju listened to her with genuine respect, the young blonde began speaking about her faith, her beliefs, and the infinite love the Creator felt for humanity.
For Kaiju, this conversation was not simple religious small talk. He knew the truth of the worlds. He perfectly remembered the history of his power; he knew that in the universe there existed the deities of Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian, Celtic, Norse, Japanese, Aztec mythology, and more, except the Christian one. Those other pantheons had one thing in common: they all saw human beings as toys. But the God Asia spoke of, the biblical God, was a different entity, one whom Kaiju, as a Catholic believer, held in deep and solemn respect.
"The Creator guides us through His miracles," Asia said, clasping her hands with a radiant smile. "Even in the darkest moments, His light always finds a way to protect us."
"Your faith is admirable, Asia. The true power of a miracle does not reside in the one who grants it, but in the kindness of the soul that receives it," Kaiju replied, his voice losing its usual coldness and adopting a tone of genuine empathy.
However, barely two meters behind them, the situation was an absolute hell for Issei.
The brown-haired boy, carrying the heavy bags, sweated buckets and his face was twisted in a grimace of silent agony. Every time Asia mentioned the word "God," "Creator," or "Light," Issei felt as if a drill were piercing his brain. His new demonic nature violently rejected the nun's sacred presence and words. He felt nausea, dizziness, and a deafening ringing in his ears. He remembered his terrible mornings, how he could not stop closing his eyes because of the sunlight. It was the same burning sensation; he knew very well that sunlight felt as if it were piercing through his skin and he could not bear it. For his recently transformed body, listening to a nun speak about faith was torture comparable to being burned alive, reaffirming that the morning sun was completely bad for him.
"Damn... it... my head is going to explode..." Issei muttered through clenched teeth, dragging his feet and feeling that he might faint in the middle of the street at any moment.
Finally, after a painful uphill walk, they reached the top of the hill. Before them stood the old church of Kuoh. The building was in ruins, with broken windows, vines covering the stone walls, and an icy atmosphere that screamed danger.
Asia, however, seemed unaware of the darkness of the place, smiling with relief at having reached her destination.
"Thank you very much for guiding me!" the nun exclaimed, giving a small bow. "I don't know what I would have done without your help."
Kaiju stared at the old structure. His eyes scanned the hidden energies inside. He knew leaving her there was an enormous risk, but he also could not simply kidnap a nun on her first day in the city. He needed to give her a safety net.
Reaching into his pocket, Kaiju took out a small metal button. Applying the ability of Lunar Infusion, which allows the bearer to infuse objects with lunar energy, he channeled a minuscule but dense fraction of his absolute power into the small object.
"Take this, Asia," Kaiju said, extending his hand and giving her the button. "Keep it safe."
The young nun took it, blinking curiously. "What is this, Kaiju-san?"
"Consider it a good luck charm," he replied, looking directly into her large emerald eyes with absolute seriousness. "If you are ever in danger, if you ever feel darkness cornering you and there is no way out... press that button. I promise you a miracle will happen."
Asia smiled, moved by the gesture of that kind stranger, and carefully stored the button among the folds of her sacred habit. After waving goodbye, the nun turned around and walked toward the gloomy church doors, disappearing into the abandoned temple.
Kaiju stood silently, observing the closed doors, until the sound of a body falling to its knees pulled him out of his tactical trance.
Issei dropped the grocery bags and collapsed onto the dirt ground, panting as though he had just run a marathon with lead weights.
"Aaaah! She's finally gone!" the brown-haired boy groaned, clutching his head, though a foolish smile quickly spread across his lips. "But... heavens, Kaiju, she's an angel! She's beautiful! Even despite the headache, it was worth it! Maybe she'll be the next candidate for my dream... Yes! I could definitely include a foreign nun in my harem!"
Kaiju slowly turned his head, looking at the brown-haired pervert with a mixture of pity and deep boredom.
"You are a hopeless idiot, Issei. For a guy like me who would spend all day doing perverted things, that girl is literally a walking death sentence."
The brown-haired boy blinked, losing his smile. "H-Huh? What do you mean?"
"I mean that you are now a low-class devil, and she is a sacred servant loaded with divine power," Kaiju explained in a sharp voice, crossing his arms. "Her mere presence gave you migraines that almost made you faint. I'm warning you, Issei, don't get close to her. If you get the stupid idea of touching her, and the silver cross on her chest or a single drop of her holy water brushes against your demonic skin, you will disintegrate on the spot. And if that happens... you can say goodbye to becoming the Harem King."
Issei froze, swallowing loudly as the raw reality of the supernatural world crushed his high school fantasies once again. Kaiju, without adding another word, picked up the bags from the ground and began descending the hill back toward the city, leaving the newborn devil trembling at the idea that his ideal girl was, literally, toxic to his existence.