"So, you are saying you ate some plant and because of it you became like this?"
"Pretty much."
"I see, I see, and, just to make sure but… DO YOU THINK I AM STUPID?!"
Meguri yelled as she heard the explanation from Akashi who winced at the volume. The girl really had lungs for days and he was halfway shocked she did not break his windows with how loud she was just now.
"Hey, calm down will you. I have not lied or anything, I did eat a herb to become like this. It is a medicinal herb I had since a while back and could only consume it now since my body got strong enough for it." Akashi said before mentioning something to stop this crazy woman. "Besides, with how insane this world is, do you really think something like this is truly and completely impossible, huh, miss devil?"
And, with that, Meguri froze. Her eyes widened as she looked at him in shock.
"You, how did you-"
"I knew of the supernatural for a while now, I was born very sensitive towards magic energy so I could sense the stray devils and you all. And as to how I know the difference, last I checked stray devils are, well, monsters for the most part. I would know it, I have seen them fighting some of you guys last year."
Meguri was shocked at how he knew so much, but her face hardened as she said.
Meguri then decided to try and sense Akashi to test something. Since she comes from a family long established in the Onmyouji and exorcism she knew many techniques centered in detection and sensing others, she just normally never bothered with using them as she was more of a 'fight first, think later' type.
Sensing was never her speciality and she would only use it when needed and not as something almost passive like some others would.
As she tried to sense Akashi, Meguri's eyes widened, his vitality and life force was entirely through the roof, and that was saying nothing of the faint but powerful phoenix energy she could sense in him. It was similar to that of the Phenex clan, but oh so different as, while much weaker in power than the power she felt from the likes of Riser and Ravel the last time they met during the birthday party of Sona, it was also incredibly more pure and, shall she say it, terrifying.
Meguri did not know, but a true Phoenix flame had the power of purification and was 'anti-evil' in a way. The phenex clan could not use the actual flames or power of a phoenix as their pure devil energy runs against this so, even if they could show the resurrection aspect of a Phoenix in a much more powerful way than what Akashi could do, their natural flames could not compare to those like the ones Akashi should be able to produce when he gets the time to actually learn how to apply them.
"You, you come with me right now. Sona-kaichou will want to meet you." Meguri said right away.
No kidding, with the sort of energy Akashi was emanating and with the fallen angels active in town it was just a matter of time before things turned out bad somewhere somehow.
Akashi, however, shook his head in the negative.
"Look, I can meet her tomorrow after class, alright. I need to eat something as I am hungry and I need to do my groceries and whatnot." Akashi said.
And, while this was all true, he also wanted to give time to where he could meet both Sona and Rias together otherwise it would make approaching Rias ever so slightly more complicated.
Meguri looked uncertain, but nodded her head.
"Fine, but take this." She said as she presented him with a summoning circle ticket. "If anything happens, just call Kaichou and she will come over soon after."
Akashi nodded his head before leading Meguri out of the house.
After saying his goodbyes, Akashi finally relaxed as now he was one step closer to being able to use those experience cards he had.
"Wait, if three days passed…" Akashi muttered as he went to check something. "System, missions."
With that, the mission section was opened.
[Mission 1: Choose allegiance - Become a reincarnated devil of the New Satan Faction; Reward - Zenkai boost {Dragon Ball} (in progress)]
[Mission 2: Issei, the child of destiny of this world, has just been invited by Raynare to a date - Let the date between Issei and Raynare happen and let Issei be killed; Reward - Transparency Magic {Seven Deadly Sins version} (Complete)]
[Mission 3: Issei, the child of destiny of this world, will be attacked once more by the Fallen Angels - Kill the fallen that came to attack him; Reward - Fire Elemental Magic experience card 5 months {Mushoku Tensei} (In Progress)]
[Due to special circumstances, the system specially warns the time when the even of Mission 3 will be terminated, 30 minutes]
Seeing this, it was clear he had missed the date between Issei and the fallen and things followed CANON, but most troubling.
"FUCK!" Akashi said as he only had 30 minutes to find where Issei was located and fight off the fallen that had come after him.
At least, as he felt his body previously and understood all the benefits from consuming that Immortal Herb of 99998 years, he obtained more than just the huge improvement to his body and potential in all aspects.
No, he also got something else and, as he felt it out and understood more of it, a smirk could not help but appear on his face as Akashi walked out in search of Issei.
Even if he had no actual combat experience yet, there would be absolutely no reason to fear what was to come. Instead, he only felt exhilaration over seeing the results of his gains.
In a certain park in Kuoh, a heavily distraught Issei Hyoudo was wandering off, not paying much attention to his surroundings.
Having just woken up from what should have been a lethal injury, the day only grew crazier from there. First, he could feel himself nearly hurting from the sunlight, his body very lethargic and tired, and second, no one could remember anything about Yumma. That was the first date Issei ever had, and now not only did she kill him in the end, there was no one who could even remember her.
"Am I going crazy?" Issei questioned himself as he sat in one of the benches of the park.
Looking around, he recognized that this was the palace where he was killed the night before, but now there were no signs of it and there wasn't even any sign of blood on the ground.
It was at this moment though, that Issei felt a terrible chill run down his spine. He felt someone watching him for a while now, the gaze becoming much more intense after Issei sat in this chair. A foreboding aura hung over the path ahead of where Issei was, the air so filled with malice that even an utter novice like Issei could feel it as clear as day.
The source of the young pervert's discomfort was a man dressed in a suit who was staring at him. His face was firm, but there was a hint of a mocking smile on his face as if he found Issei being there amusing in a way, actually.
Even for someone as inexperienced with the intricacies of the supernatural, Issei could tell that this suit bastard was out to hurt him!
Nay, not hurt him. He wanted to KILL him.
The man stepped toward Issei, silent and sure. After he got close enough, the man spoke up.
"What checkered luck to meet someTHING like you in a no-name town like this. Amusing really."
As Issei heard this, and felt the rising pressure of the man who, in the teenager's mind, was close to a predator ready to pounce at his prey, there was no doubt over what to do.
Not waiting for the man to say more, Issei turned and ran away from there.
"Trying to run just like that? You must be a stray, so it is within my rights to hunt you down." The man said as his fallen angel wings spread out, flying up to get to Issei.
The teenager only managed to run for around three minutes before he found himself in a dead end, Dohnasee, the fallen hunting him, looked down at the teenager with gloating in his eyes and said.
"When you go to the other side, tell them that the great Dohnaseek sent yo… is it just me or there are more flowers around than normal?"
Just at this moment, from all trees and plants that could generate flowers, they one and all did precisely that.
Flowers, flowers, and more flowers grew and bloomed all over. Dohnaseek and Issei stared at this in wonder, especially when they heard the sound of someone showing up.
"Well, lucky me I got here before it was too late."
The one saying so was none other than Akashi who finally found Issei just in time. If he was even two minutes later, the mission would count as a failure. Hells, due to not having much of an option he had to go to Kuoh Academy before going around in search of the pervert in the area with his bicycle.
"Who are you?" Issei questions since, while Akashi still looked like himself, the drastic differences in his body could not be faked or ignored in the end.
Akashi looked at Issei as if he was particularly dumb as he questions.
"And here I thought you would recognize me after all the time we spent together last year, me standing up and you curled into a ball on the floor after my fist met your guts for being a perverted freak who should never spread your genes for the next generation. Guess I should give you a good reminder next time I catch you doing an Issei."
"Wait, this way of speaking… Akashi, get the hell away from here. This guy is dangerous!" Issei said, currently not caring about the fact that the one on the other side was the same guy who would almost daily beat him up whenever he found him perving on the girls.
Akashi just shook his head and said.
"You think he is a threat, how adorable."
Dohnaseek, hearing this, had his face darken at being looked down on by this insect. Humans were the most inferior and pathetic beings in existence as far as Dohnaseek is concerned, to be looked down upon by one was an affront to his pride.
Not hesitating, Dohnaseek produced a spear of light and threw it at Akashi. As for Akashi, seeing the spear of light he merely raised his fist and punched it.
As his hand was swiftly covered in Touki the spear of light shattered as if it was nothing, much to the shock of both Issei and Dohnaseek.
"So, you chose death huh." Akashi said as he felt how his hand was not even scratched just now. Soon, from his right leg a weird armor-like item appeared, it was almost like a work of art and its design looked like petals of a flower, but the petals were all golden and looked almost as if they were made out of bone.
It was a surreal sight, but Dohnaseek's eyes hardened as his mind instantly imagined a reason for this.
"An unknown sacred gear user?"
The fallen angel's sensors did not point to such a thing, but that was the best explanation for what Dohnaseek was observing.
Akashi almost laughed at that, if this really was a sacred gear he would be able to easily cheat his way into being strong without any need for so many missions.
'But, this is a good thing as well.' Akashi thought as he activated his Spirit Bone further. The blossoming flowers then one by one started shredding away their petals which began to fly around in mid air.
A spirit bone was a form of the crystallization of the abilities of a spirit beast, a unique type of creature that could live for hundreds of thousands of years. The spirit bone would give higher and more powerful skills the older the spirit it came from is, this spirit bone specifically came from the Immortal Herb previously absorbed by Akashi and, due to more of its cultivation being turned into the power for the spirit bone, it turned into a 100000 years spirit bone, granting it two skills.
What Akashi was using now was precisely one of those two skills, Spring and Blood Blossoms together. In all honesty, Akashi almost laughed as he had the information of this skill appear on his mind.
If you want to call it strong, it is undoubtedly strong, but if you call it weak you would also most certainly not be wrong either. Dohnaseek in the distance did not understand what was happening as those petals from all sorts of plants flew towards him, but instinctively he tried to make a light shield to defend himself.
CLANG
CLANG
CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG
It was as if the thing hitting the light shield was not a simple flower petal, but a sharp metal piece flying at high speed. Dohnaseek's face was filled with horror as he had to use his whole strength to try and block that stream of flower petals, only for the ones which hit his shield and break regenerate quite naturally and go right back at him.
Even on the surroundings, the flowers that lost their petals were soon blooming more and more and, the more time passed, the more petals there were in the air until-
CRACK
The shield Dohnaseek created broke, and with nothing in front to defend him the Fallen could only scream in pain for a scant few moments before he was drowned entirely in the flowers.
By the time Akashi deactivated the skill, nothing but the red stain in part of the petals in the floor were left of evidence of Dohnaseek ever having been alive in this place.
"Phew, that was harder than I expected." Akashi said as this skill consumed some of Akashi's internal energy. Thankfully, due to having eaten the Immortal Herb from the same world as the Spirit Bone, he obtained some spirit power he could use to fuel this skill. Sure, he would need to later try and increase this power or test if he could use other sources of energy to power this and his other skill. Either could work, truth be told.
Issei, who was still on the ground, could only stare in shock and fear of what he just witnessed.
He just saw what should well be impossible, a guy with crow-like wings and using a spear of light, as well as his bully using freaking flower petals to kill the crow guy. That was simply too much for the poor pervert, but the surprises were not yet done as, from within the forest, a woman's voice sounded.
"Well, you really shocked me, Akashi-kun."
In came one Rias Gremory, her ruby red hair shining against the sunlight almost like a flame as her blue eyes stared in interest at Akashi.
"What can I say, I have my secrets and I prefer them this way." Akashi said with a shrug.
"I see." Rias said as she looked at the bloodstains on the flower petals around and questions. "I believe we have a lot to talk about now, would you mind following me back to the Occult Research Club so we can do that?"
Akashi, however, shook his head in the negative.
"Sorry, I honestly just came here because I felt something was wrong in this place. I still need to do my groceries now, since I already agreed to talk with Miss Sitri tomorrow, we can talk together at that time." Akashi said and, without waiting for Rias to have a chance to talk, darted away from there.
No way, he already said he would meet Sona tomorrow, better he talks with both at once anyway. Besides, if he let the two stew on some of the knowledge about him, they would be more willing to put on better conditions for him when he was invited to join.
Rias was mixed about it, while she was interested in what she just saw, she also was worried that Sona might 'steal' her chance here. Especially now with her engagement getting closer and closer she desperately needed that extra something to make sure she would win that Rating Game.
With Issei having taken all eight of her pawn pieces it was clear he had incredible potential, but potential was just potential after all. Even if he was able to become incredibly strong to the point he could single out Riser's entire peerage, that would only be for the future in the end.
If he could become strong enough in the next year or a few months was doubtful at best, impossible at worst. Rias needed strong people right now, and what she saw from Akashi just now and how he dealt with that fallen picked her interest quite a bit.
Turning then to Issei, Rias smiled kindly and said.
"I was hoping to talk with you tomorrow, but I guess it would be cruel to leave you like this now. Come on, there is a lot for us to talk about." At that, Rias led Issei away who followed her due to needing to understand just what the hell was going on here.