DxD: Emperor of Chaos

CHAPTER 16

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Yawning with his whole soul put into it, Akira mumbled as he gave out some smaller yawns. He was currently in class with Toujou next to him, who was doodling on her book.

After the Riser fiasco and the slight canon divergence of events, life finally went back to normal with him going back to school after taking a good dozen days off. He can confidently say that he did not miss this at all, the glare from the other students makes it hard for him to concentrate during classes. Feels so disgusting…

What’s worse or better, is the fact that Toujou had been dragging him around Tokyo with the mission to eat and review every food stall, so for the past few days they both had been on trains every day to travel to Tokyo.

The food is nice, especially those stalls at the side of the street, but the fare costs… It hurts his wallet to think about, even with all the Kuoh Scholarship benefits like reduced fare costs, discounts, and all that.

And dare he say that Toujou was getting a little too close to him during the train rides?

… Nah, maybe it was just his imagination. Especially just a few days ago, when he accidentally fell asleep and got decked in the face for laying with his head on her lap. No idea how he didn’t even reached her lap, but that punch hurt.

Eh, you win some, you lose some. Surprisingly her lap was really soft for such a petite girl. And the day turned dark upon getting decked in the face, when he started feeling sleepy during the mid-day.

Yeah, he doubts that she’d let him sleep on her lap for the hours during their trip back to Kuoh, that was a dumb thought.

But! Because of the constant outing that lasts till midnight, he grieved at the lost time he had meant to use to train, so instead of sleeping he simply grinded, training his body and demonic energy until dawn arrived.

If he used his tired brain to do the maths, he’s currently running on… Only 2 hours of sleep, with the sleeping happening 3 days ago.

Hahaha, he was so damn tired, but the gains were crazy good.

During the few days after the Riser Phoenix Arc, he finally was able to get proper power level system to work, yay! Like Dragon Ball, this power level scaling depends on the amount of energy that the person currently has, and the level of threat they pose from instincts alone.

… He’d admit that the power level scaling compared to Dragon Ball was worlds apart, Goku in the Saiyan Saga was only at 8,000 while he had counted himself at 15,000, 8,000 when not fully powered.

But the more numbers the value had, the higher threat level that one can see numerically.

Comparing himself, he was 15,000 when he fought in the Rating Game while his master at the time was at a high 50,000-ish, and now he was steadily increasing his power level by the thousands each day, which is inhuman… Well, he was a devil, but such growth was crazy to him, a human who hit his peak years ago.

At this point, he would only need a few quiet months to reach the peak of High-Class level, provided he could continue to gain thousands a day consistently… The problem was that there was not going to be peaceful and quiet months, because of the next arc.

The Excalibur Arc, that features Freed Sellzen, Valpa something something, and last but not least Kokabiel and his goons of fallen angels.

The fallen angel was strong, from his estimates of Azazel’s proud bickering to analysis that came from old books and ancient reports that he could get his hands on, the crazy bastard that wanted to restart the war had a power level of nearing Satan-Class level, which was about 100,000,000.

Yeah, they were fucked unless he manages to reach at least 50,000. Then with his boosts and multipliers, at least he would maybe have a chance.

He wasn’t going to rely on canon now, since he knew that canon could change with him here as the butterfly. It already happened, the prime example being the event that happened just 4 days ago.

Issei was supposed to punch the shit out of Riser with Asia’s cross, but instead because of his whipping out the Kamehameha, Issei did a beam attack too that was super powerful. Not only did Issei changed the way he defeats Riser, but now Issei had a more powerful attack in his arsenal.

And even Ravel didn’t stop Issei from Riser, she simply had a worried look on her face before she faced towards him, accepting the fact that the marriage contract was now null.

This changes a lot of canon in the long run, beings that his previous canon self couldn’t do, now Issei had the tools to use because his moves could be copied, and his moves were eccentric at best.

Fuck, maybe because of him here, Vali wouldn’t step in and save the Gremory Team from Kokabiel. Maybe Kiba doesn’t unlock his Sacred Gear’s Balance Breaker? Maybe even Xenovia wouldn’t join the peerage, he already took the Valkyrie’s spot as Rias’ Rook, which would 100% affect the plot in the future.

Fuck, he should have read the light novel, he only had the anime and some vague fanfics as his guiding path, his meta knowledge leading him until the end of the Kyoto arc.

He rests his head on the table as he ignored the teacher’s teachings, opting to just take a quick nap to sooth his throbbing head.

“Toujou, wake me up if anything happens. I’m so damn tired…”

He whispered to Toujou before feeling his consciousness fade.

He honestly expected her to wake him up after that, since she usually would have already shook him awake, but she simply nodded before looking back at her notebook. She must have seen his eyebags, what a thoughtful bro.

“Get some rest, you dummy.”

… Maybe he was imagining it from the lack of sleep, but he just heard her mutter kind words. Eh, maybe he was too tired, hallucinating such words coming out from a scary girl like her.

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“You’ve changed.”

Toujou suddenly said while they were enjoying a nice bowl of ramen from a small shop in Tsukiji, Tokyo. With his mouth still slurping on some ramen, he turned his head to the girl with a confused look. He quickly swallowed the noodles before asking.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

She continued to stare at the bowl of ramen, still untouched before her eyes met his.

“You are less serious now, ever since becoming a devil. No, your whole demeanor changed. ”

He opened his mouth to retort, only to close it. Flashes of memories ran through his head before he sighed.

… It is true, he had changed a whole lot ever since getting his past life’s memories. He was more cheerful and less brooding, admittedly. That’s because… Hah, he was a weird person back then. Even now, he was a broken son of a —

“… Well, it’s because I finally solved my career path. Since I’ve read that I’ll make a lot of money from doing pacts once I reach High-Class status, I’m not that worried about money now. Might as well finally do things that I really like.”

He gave her the best smile that he could make. She looked at him.

The silence continued with the background sound of people and frying as an ambience as they stared into each other’s eyes until Toujou disengaged, looking back at her noodles. Moving her hand, she took her chopsticks and spoon before starting to eat her ramen.

He did the same thing.

The silence remained until she spoke with a soft voice.

“I like the now you more.”

His heart froze as his head snapped to her direction before she continued eating without a care in the world. For a moment, he reallylooked at her. Her flowy silver short hair, her amber gold eyes, her beautiful face that was leaning more to adorable than hot. He gave her a good look before chuckling, throwing the idea of… in his heart away.

“… Yeah, I like the now me more too. Thanks, Toujou.”

Yeah, he liked the him now more. That’s why he pushes his body and soul to the limit, the feeling of freedom and power was amazing. And if someone threatened anything he loves…

*SLAP!*

He slapped his cheeks before eating the ramen heartfully. No need to think about serious stuff, right now he was here to review the food and enjoy his time with his friend. Leave that to future Akira.