"Turning me into a girl is part of world peace?" Mizuhana said with a deadpan expression. Issei snickered at her words, but looks away when she turned to glare at him. Both of them didn't believe a single word he said, what kind of world peace requires gamers to be strong anyway? An apocalypse? In fact, the gamers themselves might starts an apocalypse because some people just enjoys watching the world burn. Especially the teenagers around their ages, they are controlled by the growing hormones and more prone to developing mental health problems. There are countless bad examples of these in movies.
"Yes! That is especially crucial to the plot! Your penis is dangerous to our society!" Kousuke replied seriously with a nod, though not for long before he let out a boisterous laugh and Issei followed along. Mizuhana could only clenched her fist in anger, despite gaining newfound strength, she had a feeling she still couldn't beat her two friends. Issei aside, Kousuke had this confident air around him from the first day of school. He seems to be the type that prepared himself for every little things life gets at him. One could even say he might be a little paranoid.
"Well, your identity crisis aside, I was very much serious about the world peace. I can't explain it myself, but I can feel it with each passing day. You could call it sixth sense, or precognition of sort, and it's very reliable, that much is certain."
"Are you sure it's not just your paranoia?" Issei asked. His life had been rather comfortable lately, no more people trying to kill him except in the game. So it's weird hearing from his friend that this peace wouldn't last long. He had always been keeping up with his training after suffering a loss against Cao Cao. Boost Gear might be a cheat, but so was the Longinus Spear. It was especially dangerous to him since he was a half-devil. That divine spear were made to destroy evil by catholic standard after all. Of course that problem no longer matters since Kousuke had changed him back to human while retaining the half-devil's physical trait.
"I'd rather be paranoid than regretting I couldn't do anything when my suspicions came to life." Kousuke muttered with a tired sigh that seems to hold some weights. Then he shook his head before continuing. "If anything, I can handle a self-made apocalypse, instead of a surprise one, at least I would know how to prepare for the former but the latter? If you have nothing to back you up, then you'd better off praying for survival."
"So what you're saying is... an apocalypse is coming?" Mizuhana mumbles, her face becomes pale from fright. She thought he was joking about the world peace, thinking he meant his ordinary life, not the actual world. That kind of stuff were usually seem in movies after all, she didn't even consider the day her gender changed as extreme as that.
"Eh... The end of the world? There's no way right? I mean there are Gods out there, even Dragon God like Ophis is chilling in your house, right? Can't they do something about it?" Issei asked. Logically speaking, strong individuals like them definitely have the means to stop any apocalypse from happening. However, believing and trusting them are two separate matters.
"Would they? If you're part of the God Pantheon, then maybe. Some japanese people might be safe, thanks to the existence of Shinto Pantheon. But can they protect every single japanese? And would they save you, even though you're half devil? What about your family then? Would they willingly protect your family while knowing you're a half devil? In the end, it's more reliable to protect yourself and your love ones with your own strength." Kousuke said in a somber tone. His words burrowed deep into their hearts, as if he's not speaking nonsense but from experience.
"...How did my question evolved into such heavy topic? Now I don't even have the mood to study, I'm feeling more motivated in training my strength," Mizuhana mumbles. Even she was affected by Kousuke's words, believing that something might really happen in there future. Like he said, she would also be relieved if nothing arise from it—however! On the off chance that it becomes true, then she will likely regrets for not training.
There's no demerit in training to begin with, she can train to control her strength better and at the same time, becomes even stronger. It's a healthy exercise that only benefits her.
"Well, you're not wrong. But why haven't there been any news about players with superhuman strength on TV?" Issei said thoughtfully. He always watched the morning news before going to school, a habit he developed from living with his family. It doesn't go away even though he had moved to a bigger house, of course thanks to Rias as his sugar mommy.
"Very simple really. No one wanted to be at the center of attention, especially if it risks their livelihood. At the very least, the few top players seems to be content enough to keep it to themselves." Kousuke replied, a smirk surfaced on his face. He wasn't entirely lying, only a few of them tried to expose it in some way—like publishing a post in a forum, but was quickly removed and banned without explanation. It was too early, so he made Belfast handles it until she couldn't.
After all, fireworks is only beautiful when it explodes at a night time.
"Really? If it were me, you would see me on the news, flaunting it like a stupid influencer," Issei admitted with a shameless grin. As if recalling something, he added. "Oh, I'll also be surrounding myself with beauties around my arms!"
'Yeah, that's how you becomes slave to that Gremory Devil. You'd sell your soul without any hesitation if a succubus is willing to take your virginity,' Kousuke thought with a wry smile. He knows his friend really well. Even now, despite getting some actions from Rias almost every single day, Issei hadn't once given up his dream of becoming a harem king.
He had even started pursuing the single Valkyrie after learning from Kousuke that she have been giving the latter the look of a curious maiden. Kousuke pray that his friend success in his endeavour, mostly because he wasn't interested in Rossweisse. If possible, he wish Issei could also take Kuroka away from him, but that black cat seems very particularly attached to him. Even Morgan had tried to threatened her, but that nekomata was rather fearless. He really didn't know what else to do with her.