AN: Splitting the next updates into a couple of parts, sorry for the length.
Level 17.A
It has been a habit of mine to constantly keep track of the locations and status of individuals important to me. As I am far from being omniscient within my domain, I had to make do with shuffling a bit more focus through all my relays at a rapid pace to gather data regularly.
Working on the assumption that an ambush is conceivable at any point in time due to shadowy figures acting behind the scenes or monsters just being their stupid evil selves is a good reason to form good "constant vigilance" habits.
Today was a quiet Sunday.
There were only a few dozen or so mundane crimes in Tokyo which my little shadow relays resolved through a variety of subtle means. The usual domestic crimes that could be resolved by draining and redistributing emotional energies were handled quietly whilst I had my clones put together enough material to solve such situations permanently. No supernatural beings were causing trouble, all in all, it was a nice safe day.
This made it a good Sunday. A good day for a date with my two girls or to spend time with my immediate family. Of course, I have shadow clones, so I can do both!
If I was a Persona series main character, then I must be playing on a hacked version of the game. Choices with high opportunity costs? What is that? Does it taste rancid? Ha! Hacks for the win!
Life is good... despite the looming terror of everything I love getting annihilated at the whim of the truly powerful beings… anyways, enough about that.
It was unfortunate that the "girls try on skimpy bikinis to get the dense harem lead's attention" trope wasn't applied to my life, but all the same, they were still going out to buy it privately in order to give me a pleasant surprise later.
I suppose the sexy clothing changing room trope wasn't in effect in this case as Atago and Valerie already knew they had my affections. In Valerie's case, I had only gotten up to playing with her breasts and fingering her before administrating her blood meal, still, it definitely counted as a show of sufficient mutual trust and interest in each other beyond that of friendship.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that I ended up in a polygynous situation, this is DXD after all. It's still taking me more time than I would have liked to acclimatize myself to the circumstances. So far it's been going smoothly, considering that I simply doubled my efforts to make sure that both of them were getting the amount of attention reserved for any normal girl with a single partner. Hooray for Shadow Clones!
It's harder to balance my affections when I have the both of them together, not by much as they are mutually supportive of each other, yet just having one body to show devotion to both of them in the same place adds a lot more complexity to my efforts.
If they could hear me monologuing then they would have scolded me for "overthinking" things, which isn't true at all, I'm simply using my imagination to it's utmost.
Habitually using my imagination to prepare for conflict and warfare seemed to have carried over to my day-to-day life. No complaints there. It is, overall, a good habit.
The imagination is a weapon. Those who fail to use it, die first. - Goblin Pussy Slayer
Heh… it's a good thing that the manga still existed in this world (unlike Naruto, Bleach and other… DXD crossover material… I'm still on the lookout just in case), it's the closest thing to a R-18 doujin that I'll allow into my possession.
I have learned well from other high school boys. Never leave anything that can be defined as porn into one's bedroom, especially when in a battle harem verse. Goblin Slayer doesn't count despite how well drawn some scenes are, and I can just read doujins by scanning and storing them within my mind anyway.
It was during my typical Isekai'ed character's reflections that one of my predictions came to pass. Having sensed a familiar presence within the area an hour ago, and taking into account my own "luck" (that is likely influenced by a dragon's intangible fate-manipulating aura rather than the suppressible aura of power), I had foreseen that if I had simply followed Atago's lead in our shopping trip, my friend within the area would naturally run right into me.
"Heeeeey! Saji-kuuun!" The bubbly Knight of Sona's peerage came running up to me as I sat at the shopping street's bench.
"Whoa! Slow down there!" I spoke just as she came to a running stop right in front of me, somehow, as if they had sensed danger arriving, the crowd had subconsciously avoided the straight path from her to me. "Are you planning to try out for the track team or something?"
"Haha! It's kind of too late in the year for that. Besides, even if I could join the team, it wouldn't be fair… for the younger girls, yeah! They need their chance to shine too and I already had my turn." Tomoe Meguri quickly made up an excuse for not "cheating" with superior physical ability. "Anyways, what are you doing?"
"Sitting."
"I know that! Geez!"
"Waiting for some people to finish their shopping. Yourself?" She was wearing a tube top and shorts, traveling light, with a single shopping bag containing a swimsuit if my senses weren't mistaken. "Are you getting a swimsuit for the summer?"
"Ehehe, nah, it's the opposite really. I'm returning the one I bought recently." Tomoe patted the paper bag carrying the piece of clothing.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"Haa… summer remedial lessons. What's up with that? It's only the first term, and I've been studying really hard already, can't they give me a break?" She quickly skipped over the main reason and began chatting about how she felt about the whole thing. To cut a long story short, she bombed her first term's exams and some practice papers for Kuoh Academy.
"Ah." I interjected here and there with such "conversational" sound bites in order to assure her that I was listening.
Right. No summer break, no beach. I'm guessing that her parents or Sona is being strict with her after getting that kind of grades.
Eventually, she shrugged, saying, "Anyways, on the bright side, this just means I have more money to buy a bigger one next time. I mean, like, it makes no sense to buy something that would fit just right if you know you're going to outgrow it soon right?" She tried to hide her disappointment of not getting to play around with her new swimsuit over the summer.
Well, from what little I know of her future bust size…
"I'm so sorry." Is this the sadness that Obi-Wan felt when he had to kill Padme's husband? Nah, not even close, but she has my sympathies regardless.
"Hey, what did you just say?"
"Anyways, about your grades-" I quickly changed the topic with as much subtlety as Palpatine telling Anakin about a particular Sith legend.
"Urgh, I don't want to think about it."
"Surely, you want to avoid a repeat of this?"
"Mmmm…"
I shuffled to the left, making more space on my right side of the bench.
"Take a seat, young Meguri."
"Okie dokey."
She sat down quickly enough, only to tense for a moment, her eyes gravitating to the bench where we place our hands and… she quickly placed her hands on her lap, as if conscious about all of it.
Seeing as I had no real reason to be looking at her nice exposed legs, I hadn't looked at that part of her at all, and simply knew she had done all this through my supernatural spatial awareness.
"Oh, um, you mentioned that your friends call you Gen right?" She brought that up all of a sudden.
"Yup." I confirmed.
"Can I call you that too?"
"I have no issues with that."
"Then… you have to call me Tomoe-chan! There's no need to be so formal with me. You have racked up a lot of friendship points for all those desserts you sent me, hehe! Ah right, thanks Gen, for the Macarons yesterday. My parents liked them too."
I subscribe to the Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, and Stardew Valley tradition of regular talking and gift giving for the sake of relationship building. It was only natural.
Once we came to an agreement, I decided to broach the subject of her grades, "Walk me through why you feel you hadn't done as well as you would have liked." Giving her my usual patient look, she eventually relented and began talking about it.
"My parents needed a lot of help after they… got new jobs, I've been busy sorting things out with Sona-chan, her family has been a good help and…" She was clearly censoring some events related to her life as a devil and current training regime to be a more effective swordswoman. "The teachers at school hadn't really been understanding, and my classmates uh… no one took any good notes for me. I had been sick a lot until recently too so I didn't have many friends there and…" It was a bit long-winded, apparently not long enough, as I could feel Atago and Valerie moving to another store in order to find the swimsuit they wanted.
When she was done expressing the lack of faculty support, Sona's rather ineffective (in her case) tutoring, and a bit on her self-admitted difficulties in the academic space, she sighed and gave me an apologetic look for going on and on.
It wouldn't be the first time I had to listen to someone's woes. Hopefully, I would be able to help her with this. And while I do want to offer my help in a straightforward manner... When will I ever get another chance to say this?
"It is upsetting to me that the school doesn't seem to fully understand your circumstances. Don't you wonder why they aren't being very helpful?"
"I wish I knew. More and more I get the feeling that I'm being excluded by my classmates. I know they haven't been telling me the right answers or giving me useful tips when I asked for it."
I did spy on her during school hours before. The shroud of jealousy surrounds the female population. Tomoe had been popular as a First year student, her curse had finally begun to affect her health in her second year and she ended up missing a lot of the curriculum, by the time she entered the Third year well… girls can be real bitches at times.
"They don't like you Tomoe-chan. They see you as a threat to the social ladder they had created over the years. Don't listen to them if they make fun of you for not being smart enough or any such nonsense."
"How do you know-"
"School students can be assholes everywhere, bullies will always exist. I have dealt with a few in my time."
"Oh!"
Time to offer my help.
"Let me help you understand the subtleties of the curriculum."
She gave me an odd look, "How do you know so much of the curriculum I'm dealing with?"
"I taught myself everything on Japan's curriculum, even the nature of the grading system."
"You know how our papers are graded? Well, that would explain how Gen has 100% in every test."
"Tomoe-chan, if one is to understand our country's examination system, one must study all it's aspects, not just the hollow instructions of the teachers. If you wish to become a well-rounded and wise student, you must embrace an instruction beyond rote memorization."
I could feel that she was hooked, wanting to know what I was offering.
"Be careful of those trying to help you study without understanding the education system fully. Only through me can you achieve the grades greater than anyone your age has the right to have. Learn to study what is required and more, and you will be able to save your results from certain failure."
"What did you say?"
"Use my knowledge I beg you."
"... Is this the part where I whip our a lightsaber and call you a Sith Lord?" She grinned as she finally comprehended what I was saying, both on the true message and that of the format.
The last time I used that line was against a devil that rejected my help and tried to kill me, so all in all, I consider this a very good response.
"If you actually brought one then sure!"
"I was wondering why you were talking so strangely."
"I was waiting for when you would catch on. But in all seriousness, let me help you with your studies. I'll have you ace'ing the exams, both your finals and the Kuoh entrance exam, by the time you have to sit them."
And if it doesn't sink into her head, I'll just put whatever is needed into it.
"Well, since you're offering, then I'll pledge myself to your teachings."
"Goooood."
"Stop that. You sound creepy. Keep that up and I wouldn't be surprised if you talk about beating up children."
"Don't you mean killing younglings?"
"Have you filled your meme quota for the day yet?"
"I'll stop now."
"Good. Gen. Good."
"Okay, you got me there."
She left a bit later, and after another hour of waiting (where I productively trained my ability to influence the crowd's movement through vague mental suggestions), Atago and Valerie were finally done with their shopping, giggling all the way.
Knowing the genre, it seems that I would have to prepare for the usual tropes surrounding "pretty girls at a public beach in anime". I get the feeling that I'll need to hurt some fools, non-lethally, without being too much of an ass.
