"Sigh… all this commotion has made this place unusable," Gorou muttered while floating in the air.
The power of the spell had altered the weather itself.
Beyond its visual effect, the wish magic had drawn an enormous amount of negative energy to its location.
A presence that would be difficult for yokai to conceal.
A miscalculation.
"With every wish, the Dragon Balls draw on an entire year's worth of accumulated good fortune. However, they also store a massive amount of negative energy," he recalled as he set his feet back on the ground.
What did that mean?
At this moment, Gorou was literally saturated with a vast amount of negative energy.
To senjutsu practitioners, this energy was often considered the malice that permeates and flows through the world.
As a user of Dragon Ball ki, he should never have been able to perceive his condition so clearly.
However, he was in the world of DxD.
The laws of this world were different.
Logically, Gorou should have been affected by the world's malice mixed with his ki.
However, the Grand Sage had his back.
"…I should avoid senjutsu users for now. They might think I'm dealing with a mass murderer," he thought, turning his gaze toward his counterpart.
Stan Pines.
He was still in shock after the raw display of power performed by his alternate self.
"Y-you're human?" he blurted out as he watched Gorou approach.
The bunker ceiling had long since collapsed under the energy released by the wish magic.
The blue sky was now visible above them, bathing Gorou in light as if he were a saint.
"Human? Haha, of course… biologically, at least," he replied, stopping in front of him.
Ford let out a sigh of relief at the first part of the answer.
However, the second part made him frown.
"What do you mean, biologically?" he thought, increasingly confused.
A reaction that Gorou's supernatural senses easily picked up.
Unconsciously, he smirked at Stanford's ignorance of his true potential.
Gorou opened his mouth again to speak, but his senses detected unexpected guests arriving earlier than expected.
"Asia!" he called out, looking over his shoulder.
The nun snapped out of her daze and immediately turned toward her savior.
After witnessing a devil's soul being returned to the living world through what she considered a true "miracle," her eyes were filled with boundless admiration for Gorou.
Asia was now convinced that the man before her was a saint sent by the "Lord."
Thus, she answered with unusual fervor.
"Yes, Lord Gorou!" she replied, approaching with her hands clasped in prayer.
A gesture that reminded Gorou of Albedo from Overlord, though he chose to ignore it.
"Sorry for raising my voice, but quickly go get Soji and the other girls. I need to erase all traces of what happened here. You all need to evacuate immediately," he explained while carefully removing Stanford's head from the machine.
Thanks to the Unique Skill Creation, it was easy for him to ensure the scientist's head suffered no damage during extraction.
A procedure that would normally require significantly more time to avoid any risk of brain damage.
"Understood! I'll inform them immediately!" she replied before rushing off.
Within seconds, she had already vanished from sight.
"Sorry for the interruption, my other self. Our conversation will have to be postponed. I hope you understand my situation," he said sincerely to StanFord.
The scientist tried to respond, but Gorou put him to sleep with a simple spell before he could utter a single word.
…
On top of a hill.
A woman with a generous figure stood alongside a group of armed yokai.
It was Yasaka and her bodyguards.
(Image)
"A quantity of malice like that… concentrated in a single point," she said, hiding her mouth behind her fan.
Yet disgust was clearly visible on her face.
Barely ten minutes earlier, an enormous surge of good fortune mixed with powerful magical energy had been unleashed.
Yasaka still did not know why such a phenomenon had occurred before her eyes.
However, it was already too late.
The areas around Kyoto were now saturated with malice, a direct consequence of the excessive use of that good fortune.
The yokai were now facing a critical situation.
"If we cannot purify this malice, we will have to leave Kyoto," she thought as she approached Gorou.
Before she could even step into the damaged bunker, a surge of magical energy made her flinch.
A pillar of pure energy rose from the ground into the sky once again.
Unlike the first time, no weather anomaly appeared.
Instead, Yasaka could feel the "malice" being cleansed by this overwhelming mana.
"Yasaka, isn't it? Sorry for such an abrupt welcome. My name is Gorou… Gorou Hyoudou," he said as he stepped out of the debris.
In that instant, a single word formed in Yasaka's mind.
Gorou was extremely powerful—too powerful for the standards of the High School DxD universe.
Yasaka was intimidated by the pure magical energy of the man before her, but that was not the most frightening part for the nine-tailed fox.
Gorou's ki felt bottomless.
She could not perceive any clear limit.
"W-who are you?" she stammered, trying to remain calm.
Gorou raised an eyebrow at her seemingly naive question, but answered anyway.
"I already told you, didn't I? I'm Gorou Hyoudou, though some call me Hunter in the Underworld," he introduced himself once again.
"Lady Yasaka, I've already heard of a certain Hunter," murmured a bird-headed man.
Hearing him whisper this information to the fox, Gorou was surprised by Rei's accomplishments in his absence.
The young man had built a solid reputation in the Underworld outside Kuoh.
"A mercenary who takes almost any job as long as he is paid, but also a hunter of supernatural creatures? Is that really it?" Yasaka asked, clearly doubtful.
She struggled to believe that someone as powerful as Gorou could be a mere money-driven mercenary.
The tengu yokai nodded to confirm.
"You confirm this, dear ~?" she asked, gently waving her fan.
The fox woman had regained some composure thanks to Gorou's calm attitude toward her and her group.
"It is true I was once a hunter and mercenary, but I've retired," he replied with a shrug.
He glanced down for a moment, then continued:
"Right now, I'm a bit busy dealing with a family matter. So if you don't need me, I'll leave."
He turned his back on the yokai group.
A gesture poorly received by Yasaka's subordinates, but she stopped them with a smooth, elegant flick of her fan.
"I understand your haste, Mr. Gorou, but you entered our domain without permission and damaged the area," she said, gesturing toward the ruined hill and forest.
Due to the malice caused by the high concentration of negative energy, all the trees and plants around were dead.
Gorou had not noticed this detail.
"The System and the Grand Sage protect me from changes in world laws, but I must be more careful with my surroundings," he thought, turning back fully toward Yasaka.
He could have ignored her and left.
After all, Gorou was the strongest here.
He was already doing Yasaka a great favor by remaining polite and cleansing the malice.
The strong do not need to explain themselves. Yet Gorou was still a man.
Yasaka had two very large arguments in her favor.
"Hm… don't you think we would be mocked if we received no compensation?" she finally said.
The woman with generous curves placed her fan against her lips as she spoke.
A gesture that subtly emphasized her chest.
Perhaps she had noticed Gorou's gaze, as she smiled a little more.
"What do you mean by compensation, miss?" he asked, slightly stressing the word "miss."
"Yasaka. Just call me Yasaka," she replied, emphasizing the lack of honorific.
She observed his reaction for a moment.
Seeing no rejection, she continued:
"As for compensation… I think this place isn't suitable to discuss it. Why not come to my home, over tea?"
Yasaka proposed it with a smile.
Watching the scene, the yokai attendants were reminded why kitsune are feared in myths and legends.
It was not only a matter of power, but also temptation.
Thus, Gorou was invited into the yokai territory.
***
Author's note:
honestly, Asia isn't wrong lol. Gorou is a saint since he reached 50% of the Yuuki model (after defining the new relationship between him and Rei).
Also, a bonus is planned at 50 stones, so vote!!