Several days had passed since Raiser's matter was settled. And now, Issei was in the form of Madara inside a massive castle-like fortress somewhere in the Human World—not at Kuoh Academy, nor at the Church—for a very simple reason.
"At present, [Akatsuki] has a total of 976 members, including humans, dragons, devils, fallen angels, youkai, gods, vampires, werewolves... and more."
In front of Madara, seated upon a throne in a room larger than Kuoh Academy's athletic field, a crowd of various races had gathered in a tight cluster. Standing directly before him was a black-haired young man, who spoke and then knelt down.
While Rias was fighting her Rating Game and Issei was rescuing her from the Demon World, Madara—his clone—had been building [Akatsuki]'s structure from the ground up. Every one of them bore the name of a strong man, and every one of them was strong. Some had come willingly to follow Madara, while others had come determined to crush him and seize absolute supremacy. But they had all been forced to submit to his overwhelming power and become his subordinates. The most representative example was the black-haired man kneeling before Madara now.
"I, Jojo, and [Akatsuki], swear our loyalty to you."
He was Jojo, the future leader of the Hero Faction of [Chaos Brigade]. He bore the name Jojo, but he was not the original Jojo. He was a descendant of the Jojo from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a successor who inherited his power and will, and a genius said to be no less gifted than Jojo himself. As of today, he had been selected as an executive of [Akatsuki], and together with the eleven executives standing beside him, he knelt before Madara.
'I've gone and done something ridiculous... but I can't help it.'
Seeing it all laid out before him made the scale of it feel absurd. Most of them were villains, yes, but nearly a thousand people had gathered here saying they would follow him. The pressure was enormous. Still, this was the kind of situation he had once dreamed about. He had already prepared his lines long ago, and at the end, he opened his [Sharingan], packed with chakra, and shouted.
"A fine sight. So long as you follow me, Uchiha Madara, I guarantee you eternal prosperity. But death shall descend upon anyone who defies me! Spread that word across the world!"
"This magical power is incredible."
"Power close to a god... no, it is the power of a god itself!"
"This is our boss!"
"So long as Lord Madara is with us, we are invincible!!"
""UOOOOOOH!""
""Long live Lord Uchiha Madara!!""
""Long live [Akatsuki]!!""
The castle was filled with cheers under the crushing pressure that seemed to surpass even Madara's own divinity. And so Madara had, in effect, declared world conquest. But Issei himself had not the slightest intention of actually doing that. He had only recited the line he'd prepared while imagining a situation he'd once dreamed of. Still, for the villains who had joined [Akatsuki], the fact that an absolute powerhouse who had nearly annihilated the devils alone had become their boss filled them with pride and confidence. As rebels walking the path of defiance, simply joining an organization called [Akatsuki] was, to them, a matter of honor and glory. And once the induction ceremony ended, Madara strolled out through the ranks of his subordinates while everyone remained kneeling in reverence until he had fully departed.
'This is insane! I really feel like a king!'
Without thinking about the consequences at all, Issei was simply basking in it, drunk on happiness. Yes, happiness. Not excitement—happiness. For Issei, happiness meant...
""Welcome back, Lord Madara.""
A maid unit composed of many different races!
The earthly paradise every man dreamed of!
Human, devil, youkai, god—every one of them was a beauty, and the maid corps was a feast for the eyes. On top of that, they had all been selected according to Issei's tastes, so he felt so satisfied he could die without regrets.
'All that's left is to enjoy those breasts...'
That was the hard part. Why? Because Uchiha Madara was already an existence that had conquered the world. He had to be a lofty being with the dignity and majesty of a ruler. If such a being started groping women's breasts and grinning like an idiot, the newly formed [Akatsuki] might collapse on the spot. So those were all just dreams... but—
'I can fantasize!!'
Maybe because he was in the middle of a high point, he seemed satisfied with nothing but his fantasies. It was a situation that made one want to ask if that was really enough, but if he said it was enough, what could anyone do? In any case—
"Lord Madara, three of our members were captured while fighting the gods of Olympus. What shall we do?"
On the very first day, trouble had already started. Well, given that this was a gathering of villains, he had expected as much, but he hadn't expected them to cause problems this quickly, and a headache began to build.
"There's no need to care for fools who ignored orders and ran off on their own. Eliminate them before the information spreads."
All he had to do was sit and issue orders. Then his excellent subordinates would handle the rest on their own, and if they couldn't, then he would step in.
"And inform all members: if anyone acts on their own and disrupts the plan, I'll kill them myself."
"Yes, sir! Right away!"
The man before him was, for a villain, an exceptionally loyal subordinate.
'That guy... if I remember right, he was from the exorcist family Nakiri... Ouryuu, was it?'
He had once used his [Sharingan] to peek into the man's memories because he couldn't quite understand why a human exorcist had joined them. There had been no real reason for him to get involved with villains at all; he had only said he came because he admired the existence called Madara, but for some reason it still felt suspicious. Still, he was a capable man, so Issei decided to leave him alone for the time being. And there were plenty of other troublesome figures as well. The information he had extracted from wandering devils and Raynare was limited, so he hadn't known, but there were many humans who possessed power comparable to a Demon King.
And among them, some had already entered [Akatsuki]'s ranks. There were also dragons, devils, fallen angels, and youkai who were not Dragon Kings but were still quite strong. Among them was a youkai named Nurarihyon, and honestly, Issei couldn't understand why he had joined [Akatsuki]. He was the boss of an underworld organization like a yakuza syndicate, yet he was the type to use his power for good. The reason, again, was that he revered Madara. The ones whose reasons were unclear all talked about admiration, reverence, or respect. Thus, he had become an ambiguous figure—both a core member of the organization and the one they had to be most wary of.
By now, it was all so tangled and knotted that Issei's brain could no longer keep up, so he gave up on thinking altogether... (hopeless...)
"..."
It was frustrating, and yet he couldn't even sigh freely. The throne he had admired so much had turned out to be a self-made road to hell, and his ideals had been shattered in one blow. But since he had already done it, he decided to let everything go to hell and returned to the Church, leaving everything to his clone.
"Haah... I'm tired. I want to rest."
He had only given a speech and issued a few orders, yet the glass-hearted Issei was already exhausted and flopped onto the bed. As always, the moment Issei returned, Raynare appeared automatically. At this point, it was enough to make one seriously suspect she might be a stalker.
"Asleep?"
"..."
With no energy left to answer, Issei simply pretended to be asleep. Then, from behind his face-down body, he felt a soft touch.
"....."
Without understanding why, Raynare wrapped her arms around his body.
"Ahhh... Issei's scent..."
"..."
Raynare hugged him and inhaled the scent of his entire body. Issei became seriously curious what had turned her into this, but since it felt like something good might happen, he decided to keep pretending to sleep. Then—
"Dummy. If you came back, at least say something."
She seemed to have some severe case of affection deprivation. Even so, Issei still didn't get up.
"What have you been doing all by yourself that you're sleeping this soundly?"
It was strange enough that he had fallen asleep the moment he got back, and with her sitting beside him like this, he should have gotten up by now. But since he kept sleeping, Raynare began to worry.
"I wish I had the strength to help you."
She seemed to vaguely sense that whatever Issei was doing was dangerous, and that made her feel sorry for her own weakness. There was nothing more painful than being unable to do anything for the person you liked, so she had prepared all kinds of things to make Issei happy, even wearing purple lingerie, but she had been too embarrassed to go through with it. Still, she had come today determined to make him happy, only to find him asleep, and that left her feeling empty and disappointed. In the end, while waiting for him to wake up, she had fallen asleep right beside him. Then, once Issei confirmed she was asleep, he got up.
"...Ah, I can't take it anymore!"
Issei's timing was completely off, and Raynare, whose figure and breasts were every bit as impressive as Rias's, was pressing herself against him like this. He found it amazing that he could still endure it. And when he looked straight at Raynare, sleeping completely defenselessly,
"Breasts..."
Her buttons had come undone, leaving her cleavage fully exposed, and he swallowed hard.
"Today's the day I do whatever I want!"
The manly Issei had returned from [Akatsuki] without laying a hand on any of the beauties there. Even after the incident with Raiser, there had been no real progress with Rias. His lust was already on the verge of exploding, and resisting a perfect target like Raynare would be foolish! In the end, just as his instincts led him to reach out,
"Issei-san? Are you there?"
Asia's voice came from the door, and Issei immediately froze and pretended to be asleep again. Then—
"Issei-san..."
Asia approached carefully and came to the side of the Issei who was pretending to sleep.
"Are you sleeping?"
"..."
"Ehehe, Issei-san's sleeping face is cute."
Asia, seeing Issei's sleeping face for the first time, poked his cheek with curiosity. A blonde beauty touching him like that was nice in its own way, but since he had already mentally marked her as someone to protect, he had no intention of laying a hand on her.
"I wanted to act spoiled with Issei-san, but you haven't been coming around much lately, so I..."
Thinking he was asleep, Asia spoke her true feelings without restraint. Her soft touch and gentle voice, spoken so close to him, made Issei itch with the urge to move.
"At least... sleeping together should be okay, right?"
She leaned her body against his.
"Good night, Issei-san."
Issei fought a battle against himself until Asia finally fell asleep, and only after she was completely out did he get up.
"Haah... pretending to sleep is hard work too..."
Being forced to lie still while a beautiful girl touched him was no easy task. Still, thanks to that, he had learned what both of them were thinking, and he couldn't hide how happy he was that their feelings were directed toward him.
"Asia..."
Thinking of how Asia had been cast out of the Church and forced to endure all kinds of hardship, he quietly draped a blanket over the two of them. He had been planning to leave them sleeping and go home himself, but then—
"!!"
Something was detected near his home. It was neither devil, fallen angel, nor angel, but human—a human with magical power similar to Asia's. And he sensed two of them. Issei wondered if perhaps a fallen angel had come to execute Raynare and Asia, who had been branded a heretic, and to get a grasp on the situation, he used the Flying Thunder God Technique to move nearby.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Suddenly, two figures in white robes had appeared in the village. The white robes bore the cross symbol of the Church, making it obvious at a glance that they were Church exorcists. The two of them began wandering around the village, searching for something. Then one of them found a house that looked vaguely familiar and was about to press the doorbell when—
"What brings you to my house?"
Issei, who had flown over with the Flying Thunder God Technique, approached as someone was about to ring his doorbell. At that,
"Could it be... Issei-kun?"
"Huh? Who?"
"It's me, me!"
As the hood came off, a cute girl with orange twin tails appeared. Then the figure beside her also removed her hood, revealing a cute girl with short blue hair. Issei tilted his head, having no memory of either of them.
"Ahaha, I guess it's no wonder you don't know us. Back then, I was a total troublemaker."
"So who are you?"
"I'm Irina. Shidou Irina. Do you remember now?"
"Huh!?!? You were a guy!!?"