"Hashiramaaaaaaa!!"
"Madara. Are you still out there sowing hatred across the world? Just how long are you going to..."
Before the Demon Kings, who were still dumbfounded by Hashirama's sudden intrusion, Madara and Hashirama—old friends and bitter rivals reunited—and the [Susanoo] that had been halted by Hashirama's sudden appearance stood facing one another.
"Big brother!"
"Rias!? What in the world is going on?"
Rias, who had come with Hashirama, looked flustered as if she still hadn't fully recovered her composure.
"It's all thanks to this boy."
"This boy is..."
He was the human boy who had recently been shown in a photograph when Rias reported on the legend of the ninja—a human boy who used ninjutsu.
"His name is Hyoudou Issei."
"Thanks to Issei calling that person for us, we were able to come here."
"This boy did that?.."
The only boy who possessed power of the same kind as the monster before them—Sirzechs's mind lit on one possibility, one hope. If they could win over this boy and raise him properly, just like Madara wielding monstrous power before his eyes, wouldn't they gain an enormous asset? Of course, there was no basis for such a thing, but having witnessed the terror of ninjas and ninjutsu firsthand, that thought had surfaced all the same.
"I offer you my respects, Hyoudou Issei."
"I-it's an honor that even Lord Demon King knows my name!"
There was no need to be especially polite to someone who had been reduced to despair at the sight of [Susanoo], but since this was someone who might become his brother-in-law someday(?), he at least greeted him as respectfully as possible. Then—
"Who exactly is that man?"
"Do you remember the story of the legendary ninja? The god of ninjas who alone stopped Uchiha Madara and brought peace to the ninja world—Senju Hashirama. That's the man in front of you."
"W-what did you say?"
At Rias's words, Sirzechs stared at Hashirama in disbelief, eyes wide. He had never imagined that another monster like Madara could exist. Meanwhile, the other Demon Kings—
"That man... has power equal to that monster?"
"Indeed, the amount of magical power is on a completely different level from ours. At this rate, isn't it even greater than that Uchiha Madara's?"
Beelzebub and Asmodeus were stunned by Hashirama's monstrous chakra. And all of this was, according to Issei's plan, because the Hashirama before them had been created by drawing even on the chakra of the Ten-Tails in order to faithfully reenact that legendary ninja. Even Madara, who controlled the Nine-Tails, was overwhelmed by that amount of chakra. At the sight of the god of ninjas himself, the onlookers swallowed hard in tension. Then the scene returned to—
"I don't care about any of that! To think I'd end up fighting you again! Heaven is on my side!"
"Madara... abandon the path of asura now, and why not leave this mortal world with me? The world as it stands now is an age where true peace can be attained if only we disappear."
"Hah! You think I'd live such a boring life!? I told you already. I don't care what happens to the world anymore! Here I come!! Hashirama!!"
"So in the end, I'm fighting you again..."
Hashirama began trying to persuade Madara. Of course, those were lines Issei had prepared by staying up night after night for several days. At this point, maybe he could make a living as a writer without ever becoming a ninja. And just as Madara finally began moving [Susanoo], the [Wood Release] sea of trees that had been binding it was severed, forcing Hashirama to form seals.
"Now! Let's enjoy ourselves after so long, Hashirama!"
"[Wood Release]—Wood Golem Technique! [Wood Release]—Wood Dragon!"
He immediately summoned a wood golem and a wood dragon to oppose [Susanoo]. Then—
"He made something that huge in an instant..."
The Demon Kings were aghast at Hashirama, who had created a wood golem and wood dragon roughly the same size as a Perfect [Susanoo] in an instant.
"Here I come! Hashirama!!"
"Come at me! Madara!!"
And so the clash of the two monsters began. Every time fist met fist, the ground was gouged away; every time blade met dragon, earth and sky were split apart. The Demon Kings watching this were already so wide-eyed their mouths would not close, and even the one who had created them—
'They're things I made, but... damn, they're amazing. I want to jump in there and fight too, but... hold it... I have to hold it in.'
He was confident he could crush both clone Madara and clone Hashirama, but he had to act weak no matter what, so he endured for the sake of the plan.
'At least until those guys arrive!'
As if someone else had made an appointment, Issei kept repeating the character for endurance in his head, waiting for the moment he would finally get to shine.
After a long exchange of blows that even altered the surrounding terrain—
Boom!
They each landed a counter to the other's face and toppled backward, shaking the earth. Then—
"[Fire Release]—Great Fire Annihilation!"
"[Wood Release]—Advent of a World of Trees!"
With [Susanoo] gone and the wood dragon and wood golem collapsed, Madara's fire rained down from the sky as if to engulf the ground, while Hashirama's trees surged from below as if to devour the heavens.
Despite the extreme elemental incompatibility between wood and fire, neither side gave ground, pressing each other in a deadlock until—
Kuuuuuuung!
—a massive explosion erupted in the sky. Then Madara, having pierced through the smoke of the blast at high speed, closed in on Hashirama.
[Amaterasu!]
The black flames that would not vanish until their target was erased were unleashed right before Hashirama's eyes. The black fire wrapped around his entire body, and then—
"!! A [Wood Release] clone!?"
—it turned into an ordinary wooden statue and vanished along with [Amaterasu]. Then—
"Above!? No, below!?"
Seeing Hashirama appear above him, the magatama of the [Sharingan] spun as Madara realized it was a clone. Sensing the chilling presence from below, he hurriedly summoned a small [Susanoo], but—
"Too late!"
"Ghk!"
Before the blue light could even finish forming, Hashirama's fist burst up through the ground and smashed into Madara's jaw, sending him soaring into the air as if he were about to collapse. But at that very moment, something that had suddenly intruded snatched Madara away. The Demon Kings, and even Hashirama, were thrown into confusion by the abrupt interference, and where everyone's gaze turned—
"Deidara, huh... and you're late."
There was a huge white bird, and a man with long blond hair wearing a black robe patterned with red clouds. Then—
"It's my first time in the Demon World, so I got lost on the way~"
"I never thought you'd be the one having trouble."
"Kukukuk, there are plenty of guys here who'll make fine fodder for the Cult of the Dead God!"
"Your laugh is vulgar, Hidan. And those aren't fodder—they're money."
"You're both wrong. They'll be my puppets."
The blue-skinned fish-man, the Uchiha genius with the same [Sharingan] as Madara, the immortal duo, the man who thought of a scorpion with a bizarre blade-like tail, and finally—
"You're late. Pain."
"I had to keep the gate to the Demon World open until these guys got through. Naturally."
The orange-haired man with what looked like a face full of black piercings and [Rinnegan] eyes appeared last. With that, the Akatsuki had all revealed themselves.
"W-what are those guys..."
"Every one of them has terrifying magical power."
"Don't tell me they're all enemies?"
As the Akatsuki appeared in unison and took positions as if guarding Madara, Asmodeus, Sirzechs, and Beelzebub all frowned.
"You gathered this many ninja in no time..."
"To understand everything, power alone isn't enough. Hashirama, that's something you said long ago."
"Don't tell me... you gathered even rogue ninja to bring about the world's destruction!? Madara!"
"No, that is different. The reason I gathered these ninja is one thing only: to unite the world!"
"Unite it!? Don't tell me... you bastard! You're planning world conquest!?"
Hashirama's perfect assist, with him repeatedly interjecting to make Madara's meaning easier to understand, caused the Demon Kings' comprehension to rise steadily.
"Unite the world, and rule it. And I, Uchiha Madara, will become an absolute existence that surpasses even the gods!"
"Madara, do you really think I'd let you go that easily after hearing something like that?"
"In your current state, even you can't do anything. Are you really going to fight me and my Akatsuki while protecting those dying scraps and those trash who've lost all will to fight?"
"Madara..."
Madara emphasized that Hashirama was protecting the devils and the Demon Kings.
"Well, today I only came to show this to all the factions, but meeting you as well was an unexpected stroke of luck."
That was right. From the beginning, Madara's appearance in the Demon World had been to make the devils kneel and reveal his existence and Akatsuki's to all the factions. No—Issei's true aim had been exactly this.
"And today, as a demonstration, I'll annihilate every devil here."
"What did you say?... You're going to kill every devil here?.. Letting you talk is making me hear some damn bullshit..."
At Madara's declaration that he would wipe out the devils, Issei bristled. If the devils here were destroyed, that meant Rias, who had come with him, would be destroyed too.
"I won't let someone like you lay a hand on Senpai!!"
"Issei!?"
Issei stepped forward boldly and shouted at Madara. Rias tried to stop him in alarm, but the script had already been written, so he would not stop.
"I don't care whether you conquer the world or whatever else! But if you lay a hand on Senpai, I'll kill you right here and now!"
"I thought you might be something, but you're just a brat. You seem to be a ninja too, but at that level you're not even close to me, let alone Akatsuki. Know your place!"
Just as Madara shouted that—
"Hya! Then I just need to take that guy's head, right?!"
Hidan, scythe of the Cult of the Dead God in hand, charged at Issei on Madara's signal. At that instant—
"Rasengan!"
Before anyone knew it, Issei had formed a blue mass of chakra in his hand and thrown a kunai. As Hidan dodged it—
"Flying Thunder God Technique: Rasengan!"
—the moment the kunai passed by Hidan's side, Issei jumped and drove the Rasengan straight into Hidan's face. Hidan was sent flying, wrapped in blue light.
"Oh? Not bad for a brat. But—"
"You rotten bastard!!"
Whether it had no effect or not, Hidan reappeared in perfect condition with his scythe raised again at Madara's words and swung straight forward—
"Issei!"
For some reason, Rias unleashed red magical power and blocked Hidan's approach.
"Oh, my!"
Thrown off by Rias's attack, which had not been in the script, Hidan retreated for the moment.
"Senpai!?"
"I won't let you lay a hand on Issei!"
"Senpai..."
Issei was moved by Rias shielding him like that, and the clones—no, the Akatsuki—fell silent for a moment at the situation that had diverged from the script.
'Hey, hurry up and pull out. Don't ruin the mood.'
At the order sent from Issei—
'Huh? You dragged us all the way here and now you want us to just leave?! We haven't even gone wild yet!'
'Yeah, you bastard of a main body! Let us clones have some fun too!'
"....."
The clones had apparently gone insane and refused to listen to the main body. In the end—
"You bastards!! I'll kill you!!"
As Hidan launched a head-on charge—
"Get lost!!"
Issei's furious fist smashed Hidan square in the face, and with a tremendous gust that shattered the ground, Hidan vanished far away into the sky like a star.
Then—
"...."
"...."
"...."
"What did I just see?"
After a collective silence, Beelzebub finally spoke softly.
"Ah..."
Only then did Issei realize what he had done after accidentally letting out his true power, and he froze. The entire group remained silent for a while, until—
"Oh! Boy, to think you can use the power I gave you properly! You look promising!"
Hashirama's clone hurriedly covered for him.
"Don't tell me... the disciple of that legendary ninja!"
"His disciple?"
"No wonder... he was strong for a human."
Everything was brushed off as him being Hashirama's disciple. Then—
"Since when...?"
Rias, who had been standing beside him the whole time, was also briefly bewildered by this completely new development, but thinking about it again, it would not have been strange for him to become a disciple after bringing Hashirama here. And perhaps because of all this—
'That boy, Hyoudou Issei, must absolutely be brought over to our side.'
'I must absolutely make Hyoudou Issei my brother-in-law.'
'If only I had a sister! No, would a son-in-law be fine too!?'
Sirzechs, Beelzebub, and Asmodeus were all thinking the same thing. If they could pull in Issei, Hashirama might come along as a bonus, one plus one. And even if Hashirama didn't, Issei—who had just sent Hidan flying with a single blow—was valuable enough on his own. Meanwhile, once again in a situation that had not been in the script at all—
'Hey, main body! What the hell are you doing if you make a mistake like that!'
'The main body is the one causing trouble!'
'Damn it, we were finally getting into the acting and the main body ruined everything!'
The Akatsuki—no, the clones—shouted in unison at Issei, and as a cross-shaped mark began appearing on his forehead—
'I'll summon the Ten-Tails and wreck everything here. Just you wait.'
As the enraged Issei prepared to summon the Ten-Tails—
"It seems this is about as far as we go today."
"Ah, we have all the time in the world."
Pain's clone and Itachi's clone hurriedly improvised.
"It can't be helped. This was only a simple demonstration. Until we appear again, I'll allow your lives to remain."
Because of Rias's sudden interference, they had all gone slack, but thanks to the main body's fury they skipped the rest and only delivered the final lines, then began throwing themselves one by one into the gate created by Pain.
"Madara..."
"If you've sided with them, then we'll surely fight again someday. When that time comes, I'll bring this long battle to its conclusion, Hashirama!"
"I..."
After Madara made his final declaration to Hashirama and passed through the gate, Hashirama's clone finished his last emotional performance, and thus the curtain fell on the first act of Issei's carefully staged sham battle.
Then—
"I-it's over?"
"...It seems so."
It was over, but the Demon Kings still couldn't quite accept it. Not knowing the truth until the very end, the commotion came to a close, leaving behind only a lingering sense of bewilderment.