"Hah!? You were a guy!?"
Unable to reconcile her with the girl in his memories, Issei was left flustered. It was the classic pattern of "I grew up thinking my childhood friend was a boy, but it turned out she was a girl."
"What are you, some childhood friend from a light novel!? You were a guy, weren't you!? Don't tell me you, uh, switched!?"
"No! You were the one who just assumed I was a boy! I've been a girl from the very beginning!"
Irina snapped back after taking a brief shock from Issei's words.
"I am Xenovia. Irina's partner."
Just as the two of them were getting lost in their own conversation, the blue-haired girl beside them seemed to realize her presence was being forgotten and introduced herself first. Issei followed suit.
"Ah, nice to meet you. I'm Hyoudou Issei."
When Xenovia held out her hand, he shook it in greeting. Then Irina suddenly circled around Issei once, looking him over.
"Boys really do grow fast. You used to be shorter than me."
"I was still growing, and back then I was in elementary school."
Before puberty, girls usually grow faster than boys. After that, it flips and boys tend to overtake them, but Issei's height had been increasing at an absurd rate lately. Of course, that was because after gaining the power of a sage, he could freely adjust his own body and had been fine-tuning it little by little.
"Hee~, still, it's nice running into you like this. Do you have a girlfriend or anything?"
"...Not yet."
There was someone he wanted to make into his girlfriend, but he didn't actually have one. Somehow, it felt like he was bragging to a childhood friend he hadn't seen in ages, and Issei answered with a faintly annoyed tone.
"Really? I figured as much. I mean, Issei-kun used to throw himself at any girl's body without restraint. No wonder you're unpopular."
Apparently, Issei had been a gentleman from the start—meaning a pervert—and that was probably the influence of his past life.
"Don't say I'm throwing myself at them! Say I'm being true to my instincts!"
"You haven't changed at all, have you...?"
After ten years, Issei still hadn't changed one bit, and Irina could only smile wryly.
"Well, standing here talking like this isn't very practical. Let's talk inside."
"Sorry, I've got something to do, so I need to head out soon."
"...Something to do?"
"Mm. To be honest, I came looking for a Sacred Gear."
"..."
Irina casually revealed her identity, and Issei was left speechless for a moment. Then, deciding to play dumb for now, he asked, "Hee... a Sacred Gear? Like one of those things that only show up in fairy tales?"
"It's not a fairy tale. It really exists."
'Is it really okay to just blurt out your identity to a civilian like that!?'
"Irina, I'd say telling that to a civilian is a bit much."
"Ah! Stop, sorry! Forget I said that. It was nonsense, anyway. In any case, I'm looking for something right now."
"I see. If you need help, just say the word. I may look like this, but I'm a local here."
Flustered by Irina's loose lips, Xenovia put a hand on her shoulder, and only then did Irina hurriedly start making excuses. Issei, in the end, decided to pretend he hadn't heard anything. The two of them then quickly left, apparently worried he might start asking questions about Sacred Gears.
'A Sacred Gear... so it wasn't Asia they were after.'
If they had been targeting Asia, he would have ended up fighting his childhood friend, so this was a huge relief. Just as he was thinking he could finally go inside and rest—
"! Again!?"
Another presence had intruded into the town. A Fallen Angel's magical power, and a rather formidable one at that—at the level of a Demon King. As he was thinking about the cause of its appearance—
"!! These guys..."
—another one appeared before he could even process it. A powerful and oddly familiar magical power. More than that, he could feel two presences within a single power. A devil and a dragon. If it was someone who possessed both devil power and dragon power, then—
"A dragon reincarnated as a devil?"
He was completely wrong. In fact, the answer lay in the being dwelling in his own left hand.
"Haa... I'm exhausted, and I want to sleep."
He wanted to sleep, but if he left it alone, who knew what it might do. In the worst case, his friends or Rias could get caught up in it. So, dragging his sleepy body along, he decided to investigate the Fallen Angel first. Just as he was about to jump nearby with Flying Thunder God Technique—
"!! Again!! And this magical power is..."
—a huge, dark, black magical power suddenly registered. A power so vast it seemed to have no end. It felt like looking at the Ten-Tails inside himself. Of course, it wasn't on the level of the Ten-Tails, but just sensing it was enough to shock him. A monster like that existing here made him start seriously thinking about what to do.
"Why are strong guys suddenly showing up... What the hell is going on?"
He hadn't felt much concern when the Fallen Angel and the dragon that seemed to be a reincarnated devil appeared, but the last one was a real headache. And since they had all appeared at nearly the same time, he could sense some kind of connection. But if he rushed in carelessly and a battle broke out, the city would be blown away. So first he decided to observe the situation, then use [Akatsuki]. After jumping nearby with Flying Thunder God Technique and erasing his presence, he approached the unknown giant existence—
"...A little girl!?"
There was a small girl there. Straight black hair reaching her waist, a gothic lolita outfit, and her chest exposed with only bandages covering her most important parts. It had an intensely bizarre feel to it. And the being standing atop a telephone pole, looking down at the ground, was—
"!"
—suddenly met with Issei's eyes.
Even though he had erased his presence, she still noticed him. Issei immediately thought she was no ordinary person and tried to leave quickly, but—
"Found you. Ddraig."
".....Huh?"
It seemed she had detected him because of the other being inside him.
"This magical power... is that Ophis?"
Ddraig blurted out a reaction on his own when he sensed the girl called Ophis. Issei, confused, looked back and forth between Ddraig in his left arm and Ophis.
"You know each other?"
"Ah, we crossed paths a little long ago. She's the true monster known as the Ouroboros Dragon, the Infinite Dragon God, whose power far surpasses even us at our peak and is feared even by gods."
"Seriously..."
Issei had suddenly found himself face-to-face with what felt like a final boss. Ophis, however, didn't seem interested in Issei at all; her gaze was fixed on Ddraig in his left arm.
"Long time no see. I just met Albion."
Ophis spoke in a flat, almost mechanical way, as if she lacked either language ability or emotion.
"Ah, I can feel it a little too," Ddraig replied.
"Albion? The White Dragon Emperor?"
Issei had heard about him from Rias at first, and more recently Ddraig had explained it in detail. The White Dragon Emperor and the Red Dragon Emperor were destined to fight each other. And if the White Dragon Emperor was here, then the mixed magical power he had sensed earlier—dragon and devil together—made sense.
"So that guy is the White Dragon Emperor. Well, he doesn't seem like much trouble to beat."
The magical power he could feel was only at the level of a Demon King, so he could defeat him at his leisure. When he said that with confidence—
"Well, if it's my partner, I suppose that's possible."
—Ddraig reached the same conclusion after seeing Issei's power firsthand. More than that, Issei was now curious why Ophis had appeared here in the first place. If she had come with destructive intent, then just as he was about to ask—Ddraig spoke first.
"Come to think of it, weren't you living in the Dimensional Gap?"
"I was taken. By a big red one. But I will take it back. For the sake of stillness."
Issei didn't understand a single thing about their conversation.
"Dimensional Gap? Big one? Stillness?"
Ophis's emotionless manner already made communication difficult, but words like "Dimensional Gap" were so far removed from reality that anyone would be bewildered.
"...I have no idea what you're talking about."
"This girl, you see..."
Then came Ddraig's kind explanation. Ophis had originally lived in the Dimensional Gap, a place no one could approach. A space with no one in it, a space no one could enter. If someone forced their way in and stayed there, they would be devoured by the void and disappear. And the only beings capable of existing there were transcendent beings like Ophis, who surpassed even gods. But Ophis said that someone had stolen that space from her. A gigantic red dragon so immense it couldn't even be compared to Ddraig in his prime—the true Red Dragon God Emperor.
"I feel like I just heard something incredible..."
The Great Red. A being Ddraig had only glimpsed for a moment. A void-born existence born from a dreamlike haze, and the one being whose power stood in direct opposition to Ophis's infinite power. This was the first time Issei had ever heard of it.
"I was taken. So I will take it back. Allies to help me gathered. I will reclaim it."
"Just how strong is this Great Red guy...?"
It seemed Ophis had gathered a party of her own, and Issei was honestly interested in the group she had assembled. They were surely packed with monsters. He even wanted to compare them with the [Akatsuki] that had gathered under him. But before that—
"Then... why did you come to this town?"
"A person who will cooperate is here. But I cannot say. It is a secret."
The fact that she said it was a secret only made her security sound questionable. He was curious, of course, but he had a feeling that digging any deeper would drag him into something troublesome. If he did nothing, he'd leave it alone. But before that—
'Hmm... she looks cute, though.'
Not in a romantic sense, of course, but more like a niece. With her doll-like, adorable appearance, she didn't look anything like the Infinite Dragon God at first glance. Then again, only someone like Issei, who possessed sage power, could even think of Ophis that way. And so, thinking of her less as the Infinite Dragon God and more as a cute little girl, Issei found himself asking without thinking—
"Want some candy?"
"Candy? What is that?"
He took out a lemon-flavored candy from his pocket—the kind he'd been living on lately because he had so much to think about—and held it out. Ophis looked at it with a puzzled expression. Issei peeled one open himself, popped it into his own mouth, then held out another one. Ophis took it with her small hand and swallowed it. Then—
"...! W-what is this? It's sweet... very sweet."
'Oh, that's adorable!'
Her normally expressionless face seemed to soften with expectation, her cheeks turning a little red as she smiled faintly. It made him want to scoop her up and raise her somehow. Then—
"Haa... haa... how about it? Want big brother to give you something even tastier?"
"Something even tastier? Is there something sweeter than this?"
Sniffing the air, she struck a pose like she was about to pounce on him—or rather, like she was about to be picked up.
"Of course there is."
"I want it."
"Then how about calling me 'big brother'?"
It was a scene that made one wonder just how wide Issei's defensive range really was. If anyone questioned him, he would surely defend himself by saying, "As a daughter-like existence!" Whether that was an excuse or not, only he would know. And Ophis, little by little, began moving closer to the bait Issei had dangled.
"I don't really understand, but if I call you that, you'll give it to me?"
"Yep!"
"Big brother?"
"UOOOOOOOH!! So moe! This is moe!!"
After she bit down on the bait, Issei felt something inside him explode. It was a secret that he had just awakened to a new world.