Issei was walking into the school from the entrance, as others looked at him, confused.
"Huh? Is he a new student?" muttered a girl, as everyone stared at him.
'Did I change that much?' he thought while going to his class.
As he opened the door to his class, every eye went to him.
"I-Issei?" muttered Murayama, shocked at his change.
"Yeah?" he said, confused.
"THAT'S ISSEI!" was everyone's reaction, his change shocking them.
Not only had he changed his hairstyle, but he also had become more buff and slightly taller, adding to his looks.
"Holy hell... that's our Issei?" muttered Matsuda while Motohama adjusted his glasses.
"Uh... yeah?" he muttered and then went to his seat.
"Issei! DAMN YOU, YOU CHANGED SO MUCH!" said Motohama with jealousy as Matsuda agreed.
"I mean if you focus more on yourself, you'd be pretty much the same," he replied, as they looked at him confused.
"I mean Matsuda, weren't you like the track field jock? And Motohama, weren't you like the topper whole through Middle School and the first half of our first year?" Issei stated, causing them to shut up.
"I mean, I admit I was stupid, but I learned my lesson. But you both need to too. I'm not saying stop simping altogether, but like don't make it the only trait of our personality," Issei whispered to them, to not let others hear him.
"I am ashamed to know that it's Issei this is coming from," said Matsuda, crying as Motohama sniffed.
"It's just embarrassing that the King of Perverts is telling us this. How much have we fallen."
A few tic marks could be seen on Issei's head as he balled his fist and hit them both on the head.
"Issei, Motohama, Matsuda, focus on the class!" said the teacher, as they then realized that the class had started.
Unknown to them, Katase and Murayama were listening, and were pleasantly surprised by his change.
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Steve and the group had just arrived at the place they were supposed to stay, in a small town a few hundred Kilometers from St Petersberg, near the Russia-Finland border.
"Alright, remember, stay in character, no slip-ups. Alright?" he asked, within a temporary infinity barrier.
"ROGER!" all of them said at once, then giggled.
"Alright, here we go," Steve said, knocking on the door.
A few seconds later, the door was opened by a maid, who let them in.
"I believe you are Otto Becker?" she said in Russian as Steve replied in a sort of broken Russian.
"Yes, I am expecting to meet Mr Oleg Ivanov, regarding my stay?"
She nodded and then Steve turned to his companions.
"I'll talk to him, you guys stay here. And make sure the camera is ready, we need to go to the site as quickly as possible," he said as they nodded, Artoria moving in to kiss him.
"Do well, Darling," she said, and while to untrained or even trained ears it would seem perfectly normal, Steve could feel the smugness and teasing intent in her voice.
"Yeah," he said, a little red as the maids giggled, and Koneko pouted.
"Doing this on a work trip, very unprofessional," Koneko said as Steve just trailed behind the maid taking him to the office.
After knocking twice, the maid let him know that Steve, or more like Otto Becker was there.
"Send him in Maria, and thanks," the voice from the other side replied, and Steve entered.
"Ah, Mr Becker, nice to meet you. Shall we skip the formalities and talk business?"
"Ah, just a moment Mr Ivanov, let me do the preparations. You know, notes and stuff," he said as he engulfed the room in a barrier.
"Now that no sound can go out, we can talk. So Ivanov san, I am sure Sirzechs briefed you about the information to be given to me?" Steve asked, as Ivanov bowed and nodded.
"Yes. Though there is little to no physical or digital record, I can tell you the rumors and the results of my investigation, if you'd prefer," Oleg said as Steve nodded.
"A few kilometers to the east, there is an abandoned automation factory from the 90s. Humans used it to manufacture armed vehicle parts and weaponry there, until the demand dropped. While it did resurge due to international trade, any company that came to claim the factory vacated it after multiple workplace injuries. Most of them also had concussions and mild Amnesia, or so the doctors said, though my bet is on Memory Manipulation.
Also, around two years ago, a rumor of a white-haired kid also started to spread around the area, who was always accompanied by big monsters. About that, I have no idea, even of the credibility of the rumor.
I was told that someone was targeting that place, and I did discover supernatural traces there. But it was not recognizable, belonging to neither the devils nor the angels or fallen angels.
If you want, should I assemble a team to assist you?"
"Hm... that's a lot of information. Thank you for telling me all that, and also for the kind offer, but I already have my team and a few people stationed here for assistance," Steve said with a smile as Oleg nodded and passed him the papers.
"This is what I told you in writing. I would suggest going over it in case I missed something, though I should have covered everything. So when will you be leaving for investigation?" he asked as Steve smirked.
"Right now"
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After a small commotion, nothing out of the ordinary happened, and soon it was time for a break.
And that was what Issei intended to do, until he saw a group of five people, most likely third graders going towards the gym with three first-years timidly following them.
'I know that the school year recently started, but are they gonna really gonna pull this off knowing how Sona senpai is?' thought Issei, trailing them as to see what would happen.
He also noticed another person trailing them, most probably another first year. He had pinkish hair, and was fairly tall to the point anyone could confuse him for a second or third grader.
What nobody noticed was Katase and Murayama, who were trailing them.
A few moments later, the person stood on the first floor of the gym, the spectator area, from where the whole gym was visible.
The third year had cornered the students, who whimpered in their presence.
"So this is the first year crop huh?" said the tallest of them, someone who Issei was VERY familiar with.
When he first came to the school, he was in his second year. And from then on, for the next 3 months he continuously took money from him. And not only him, but other students too, until Sona discovered it and put a stop to it.
"Tch, he's getting outta hand," Issei muttered next to the pink-haired guy who was startled.
"Whoa! Where did you appear from?" asked the person as Issei smiled.
"I've been following them like you. Pretty irritating, aren't they? By the way, I'm Issei Hyoudou, your second-year senpai," he said, offering him a handshake.
"AH, the famous pervert! I am Yuji Itadori, Nice to meet you senpai!" he said with a comical salute making Issei laugh.
"Yeah yeah, I am kinda famous in that way. Ugh, now that I think of it, it's pretty... cringe," he said with a sigh.
"Eh, now you aren't a pervert? And by the way, should we stop them now?"
"Eh, I'm more of an admirer. Like I appreciate beauty still, but I am trying not to build my whole personality around it. Plus I recently realized, after a bad experience mind you, that an aesthetically pleasing girl might not be an actually nice person. So yeah, nope. Anyways, we got two options, one, we beat them up, and two, we go to the Student Council. What do you say?"
"Well, it's two versus five..." Yuji said with a smirk, and Katase and Murayama expected them to go to the council and were preparing to intervene themselves, but Issei beat them to it.
"Two versus Five. So of course... we're gonna win," he said returning the smirk with his own as their smirks turned into grins and they both leaped off the railing.
"HEY LOSERS!" yelled Issei, gaining their attention, as he landed by planting his foot in the face of Makabe Shindo, his old bully.
As for Yuji, he too kicked someone in the face and then punched the person next to him. Issei grabbed the collar of one of the students and tossed him to Yuji, who hit him with a hook, sending him back to Issei, who backhanded him and knocked him out.
"HYOUDOU YOU BAST-"
Makabe was met with a right hook so strong that he felt his jaw shake and his nose bleed, sending him back almost flying.
"For your information, my parents are married," he said before kicking him in the nuts.
"That doesn't mean you have to rob him of the chance senpai," said Yuji referring to the nut-shot.
"Eh, I mean he did use to bully me back in the day," Issei replied with a shrug as his eyes narrowed.
'Yuji... he had cursed energy!'
As for Murayama and Katase, they watched it all with their mouth open, and only one thought in their mind.
"What. The. Fuck?"
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Hello everyone, I know it's been a while, but piano2099 has been suffering from some personal issues and he's the main story director you can say, I'm just the writer and editor.
Anyways, thanks for nearly 45K reads, it means a lot.
Also, as for the Arifureta book, it's in development, and I have more creative control over that so maybe there'll be more updates there.
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