Chapter 301: Holy Sword Project & Yuki
First, very few people can wield Holy Swords, with sometimes not even one appearing in a century.
Second, Yuuto Kiba's body became like this because the church attempted to artificially create Holy Sword wielders, performing human experiments on her during childhood.
Finally, besides Yuuto Kiba, there were other survivors of the Holy Sword experiments. A few days ago, she accidentally obtained related clues from Issei Hyoudou.
Combining his vague memories with Yuuto's detailed explanations, Haruto couldn't claim to fully understand the Holy Sword incident, but he grasped most of it.
However, he remained skeptical about the Holy Sword's effectiveness against devils.
This world seemed to have specialized weapons against every race. Haruto clearly remembered there was also a Dragonslaying Sword specifically designed to deal with dragonkind.
It was said that any dragon touching it would suffer severe injuries, and the wielder of this weapon was Issei Hyoudou...
After obtaining numerous bloodlines, Haruto had become completely numb to this world's so-called counter systems.
Not just him - many people possessed completely opposing abilities.
In the original timeline, Yuuto Kiba eventually mastered both Holy Sword and Demon Sword powers.
She just manifested them through Sacred Gears - namely, the Sacred Gear Demon Sword Creation and Sacred Gear Holy Sword Creation.
It seemed any unreasonable power could be transformed into a Sacred Gear and then utilized.
As for how much power could be unleashed, that depended on the compatibility and abilities between the user and the Sacred Gear.
An excellent Sacred Gear could multiply the user's combat power several times over.
Haruto initially found this absurd, but after all this time, he had grown accustomed to it.
From a higher-dimensional perspective, everything in "High School DxD" derived from the concept of Sacred Gears.
This appeared to be one of this world's fundamental rules, devoid of conventional logic.
Haruto refocused his thoughts and carefully considered the intelligence about Holy Swords.
The true Holy Sword, the Sword of Kings, had been damaged in war, after which the church used its fragments to create seven different Holy Swords.
Subsequently, the church initiated the so-called Holy Sword Project, attempting to mass-produce Holy Sword wielders.
But the project failed, the person in charge was punished, and failures like Yuuto Kiba were to be executed.
Besides her, who escaped due to bodily mutations from the experiments, one other child who awakened a barrier-type Sacred Gear survived, though maintaining a state of suspended animation.
Haruto couldn't recall the specific name, but he remembered Yuuto Kiba had good relationships with all experiment participants, so this last survivor must also be her close friend.
Yuuto Kiba became a devil specifically to take revenge on the church and destroy all Holy Swords.
Originally, she could only gradually improve her strength step by step, but after witnessing Haruto's abilities, she changed her approach.
Besides Haruto's inherent appeal, her strong desire to return to her female form was also to rapidly increase her power.
Until the day all Holy Swords were destroyed, Yuuto Kiba couldn't truly enjoy the current peaceful and comfortable life.
She had originally buried this matter deep in her mind, but after coincidentally discovering clues related to the Holy Swords, she could no longer deceive herself.
Well, up to this point, it matched Haruto's memories quite closely, with only minor differences in some details that didn't affect the overall picture.
However, Haruto clearly remembered that Irina Shido and Xenovia had appeared because three Holy Swords were stolen by fallen angels, leading them to investigate all the way to Kuoh Town.
At the same time, Azazel had also come to Kuoh Town, followed by a series of events. After the Holy Sword arc was smoothly resolved, it seamlessly transitioned into the Three Factions Summit plot.
But under his influence, Azazel had long since met his end, the fallen angels in Kuoh Town had been completely eradicated, and the three factions had even signed a peace agreement. So why would these two church magical girls who wield Holy Swords still come to Kuoh Town?
After wrestling with the question for a while, Haruto decisively gave up deep contemplation.
Rather than racking his brains here, it would be better to just ask the people involved directly.
Haruto was actually quite interested in these two Holy Sword-wielding magical girls - whether it was their looks, figures, or personalities, they were exactly his type.
If he couldn't get close to them before, that would be one thing, but since the opportunity presented itself, he wanted to conquer them.
Thinking this, Haruto suddenly chuckled wryly.
Not long ago he was complaining about having too many women, but when faced with the chance to get close to such alluring beauties, he still wanted to completely possess them.
While monogamy made him susceptible to the Cuckold Protagonist Template's influence, Haruto's power had reached a level where the Cuckold Protagonist Template's rules from adult-oriented works could no longer affect him.
Whether this promiscuous mentality of wanting to bed every attractive woman he saw was forced upon him by the Cuckold Protagonist Template or was his true nature - it was truly hard to say now.
After mentally mocking himself a couple times, Haruto looked at Yuuto Kiba. "I'll help you with this matter. Tomorrow I'll personally visit Issei Hyoudou's house."
"Haruto-kun, I'd like to come along."
While mastering the power within her was meant to resolve her inner conflicts, resolving part of those conflicts first before mastering the power was also acceptable.
Due to Haruto's influence, Yuuto Kiba's way of thinking had changed considerably.
People influence each other, and she was determined to resolve the Holy Sword issue.
But unlike before, she wouldn't insist on first delivering an impassioned speech before being able to accept help from comrades.
Yuuto Kiba said solemnly, "Even if I can't personally destroy the Holy Swords, I must witness it with my own eyes."
Destroy the Holy Swords...
In the original timeline, you actually fused them to create a Sacred Gear of Holy Sword creation, not only making peace with the matter but even becoming comrades with those two girls.
This must be what they call the "Leopard Cannot Change Its Spots" phenomenon.
Haruto glanced at her, silently complaining endlessly in his mind.
So it wasn't his fault that he wanted to possess new beauties despite feeling overwhelmed by too many women.
Everything was the fault of one of the world's three great truths - the "Leopard Cannot Change Its Spots" theorem!
"Haruto-kun, what's wrong..."
Being stared at with that strange look, Yuuto Kiba suddenly became fidgety. "Is there something on my face?"
Haruto's mouth twitched as he quickly corrected his attitude.
If Yuuto Kiba could transform back into that busty blonde big sister and show this expression, he'd be quite pleased.
But seeing this current appearance of a cheerful blonde handsome guy acting like this... it wasn't disgusting, just downright weird.
After all, good-looking people are attractive no matter what expression they make—even an ahegao face makes one want to aggressively ravish them.
"Then we'll set off at nine tomorrow morning."
"Alright, Haruto-kun."
Yuuto Kiba also lived in the large Western-style house, so they only needed to agree on a time.
"Kiba, you can just call me by my first name," Haruto said casually.
Yuuto Kiba looked at him with a resentful expression, "But you always call me by my last name—you never use my first name."
Haruto: "..."
"If you don't mind, I could call you Yuko... no, never mind, I'll just call you Yuki instead."
"That's fine."
The name Yuuto Kiba was given later anyway; she didn't mind names at all, as long as Haruto was happy.
Facing Yuuto Kiba's eager and excited gaze, Haruto tentatively spoke: "Yu... Yuki..."
"Mhm, I'm here, Haruto."
Yuuto Kiba flashed a dashing smile that could charm thousands of girls, seeming very pleased.
Her true form is a blonde, big-breasted older sister, her true form is a blonde, big-breasted older sister, her true form is a blonde, big-breasted older sister...
Haruto repeatedly reminded himself internally, barely managing to suppress the indescribable feeling in his heart.
He forced a strained smile, "Yu... Yuki, you should head back first. I'm going to stop by the Takamine house on the way."
His claim about going to the Takamine house was a lie—mainly he didn't want to continue being alone with Yuuto Ki... Yuki.
"Alright, Haruto."
Watching Yuuto Kiba's slightly excited retreating figure, Haruto truly solidified his determination to help her restore her original form this time.
If this continued, he really couldn't handle it—especially when school started. If people saw him calling Yuuto Kiba "Yuki"...
He'd probably get rumors at Kuoh Academy about him swinging both ways.
After Yuuto Kiba left, Haruto went to a convenience store to buy some snacks and alcohol, killing time alone.
There was still most of the night left. When he returned, he planned to get close with a real beautiful girl to mend his pure heart that had been tormented by Yuuto Kiba.