High School dxd: cursing this second life from zero

Chapter 2: Contact

While leaving the library, Issei noticed something unusual. Whenever he entered and exited the library during the first day's break, everything followed a pattern. Everything followed rules that wouldn't change without his intervention. But now there was an anomaly, an anomaly that blocked his way out of the library.

"Do you have a moment, Hyoudou-kun?"

Upon hearing those words, he quickly stepped back a bit. Something that had never happened before was happening in front of him, something that had never happened in his previous loops was now holding him back at the library exit.

"Student council president... Sorry, I don't remember your name."

He certainly wasn't lying. It had been more than a year since the start of this loop. Most of the time he was devising ways to survive, he had no other thought than not to die at the hands of that psychopath. It was a basic human instinct. The thought of not feeling that pain again flooded him every time he opened his eyes in the morning and every time he closed his eyes at night. Under such circumstances, he had unconsciously discarded some basic memories of his student life.

"Shitori Souna, Hyoudou-kun, pretending not to know my name even though you do. Do you think that will make you more popular with girls? You'll only drive them away more if you keep up with those kinds of acts."

As she adjusted her glasses, she began to look Issei up and down.

"I've heard some noisy rumors, they say you've been acting unusual since this morning, are you okay?"

Strange, this was certainly strange. In the last 10 loops, he had made exactly the same journey, had acted exactly the same and yet this unusual encounter had occurred. Something had started to move without him knowing.

"I'm fine, I just didn't sleep well last night, that's all. Did you come all the way here because you were worried?"

The reason, he needed to know the reason why the course was deviating in this loop. Something might be moving without him knowing, that might change the course of this dead-end loop.

"It's my duty as student council president to see if one of the most troublesome boys has finally reformed, although you seem to be acting normally."

Saying that, she kept walking, passing by his side. Although she suddenly stopped as if she remembered something. Issei still hadn't moved, he was standing in the same place with visible nervousness.

"By the way Hyoudou-kun, try to sleep more, that look you have is very creepy."

She said that as she continued on her way, disappearing into the library. Issei didn't move, ten, fifteen, thirty seconds and he still didn't move because of something he felt. Yes, that something was fear. When he spoke to her, no, before that, when he saw her in front of him, what he felt was a fear from the bottom of his being.

Was it his survival instinct? After facing that fallen angel dozens of times, his danger sensors had sharpened quite a bit. But... why did they sound so loud when facing the student council president?

"Damn it, have I gone crazy?"

Being in front of her felt like being in front of a natural enemy. After so many deaths at the hands of a girl, had he developed an instinctive rejection of women?

"Damn it."

As he continued on his way, his hand was still shaking. To think that he, who had previously aimed to become the harem king, would be afraid and reject women, it was laughable. Yet...

"This hasn't happened to me before. Even when I pretend to have a date with that psychopath I never felt so nervous. Is it because I'm used to being around her or because I simply see her as an enemy and not as a woman?"