DXD: Parry This, You Filthy Casual

CHAPTER 4

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In the last year of junior high, while Ryuji was tending to the cashier as always, a little girl with long hair as white as snow walked into the store, her topaz eyes sparkling, which was a contrast to the blank, emotionless face that she wore.

She looked a little different, but this was definitely another canon character from the DXD series. Toujou Koneko, Rook of Rias Gremory, and a Devil-Nekomata hybrid. He knew that he'd see another main character in the future, but this soon?

Time sure does fly when you're young, because with her appearance, that meant that it was almost time for canon.

'So this is demonic energy that I'm sensing, huh? It feels similar to the Chaos element, but... less dense?'

'It's more between the stages of the Chaos element and its predecessor element, Dark.'

'Ah, gotcha.'

"Welcome, miss."

Giving the typical greetings to her, Ryuji continued doing his homework while keeping an eye on the Nekomata as Koneko continued walking around in the store, her arms moving at superhuman speeds to shove sweets and candy into the complimentary plastic bag that the store offers at the entrance.

'I'm noticing that she has some kind of aura surrounding her. Huh, I have it too, now that I have a reference.'

'That is a supernatural aura called Gift; every being on the other side has it. Passively improves the appearance of its user to distinguish normal people with the mystical side of people. One of the best things that I've set when creating my sons, honestly.'

'Basically, you just made every supernatural being hot.'

'Yes, but can you blame me? I could create any hot guy or gal that I want to as God! This was before I stopped having my seven sins, mind you. In fact, you all should thank my Sin of Lust, look how hot everyone is now.'

'Pre-creation Yahweh sure was a menace.'

'Hah, hah. Bite me.'

'I'm not complaining; I look majestic in the mirror.'

Eventually, she walked over to the cashier and placed the overfilling bag onto the counter. Without even looking at the bag, Ryuji entered the full amount of the bag into the cash registry and presented her with the total.

"...didn't check..."

A whisper escapes her mouth as he nods, understanding the confusion since this has happened many times.

"I already did the calculations while you were shopping around. It's 6780 yen, and don't worry, I can recount it if you want me to."

A skill that he caught on to after a year of working in this shop, something that even Wrath was impressed by. Koneko stared at him for a moment without breaking eye contact before taking out a cute cat-themed pouch and taking the exact amount in notes and coins.

Accepting it gracefully, Ryuji gave her the receipt and placed the overfilling bag into a larger plastic bag as a precaution before he thanked her for her patronage.

She took the bag, looked into it, before tilting her head back to stare at Ryuji.

"..."

And without making a sound, she exits the store. Ryuji stared at her last location before going back to his unfinished homework, thinking about the future in the meantime with a hum, especially Issei's.

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She came by every few days per week since, buying weeks worth of candy and sweets only to appear again. That must not be good for anyone's health, though they were Devils, so maybe it's fine?

In the mean time, Ryuji had suddenly been declared a delinquent.

It's a short story, honestly.

Some thugs from another school in the same prefecture came for their annual school trip here and started harassing Kuoh High students, especially the girls. Things started escalating here and there, with one of the thugs getting touchy with a senior who clearly did not give her consent.

He was passing by the school with Issei and his gang; it was during the lunch period since they had to submit their application to Kuoh Senior High's admission test by this week, with the test being held two months from then.

He was getting a little restless, plus he wanted to test his skills on someone other than Wrath, who constantly kicked his ass, so he intervened and helped the senior with a one-hit-KO punch to the thug.

One beating later, another group of thugs arrived at Kuoh the next week.

One more beating later, another group appeared.

You get where he was going with this.

Soon, he was a one-man gang leader in the Kanto region, with new enemies appearing like tokusatsu villains that get beaten every week just to appear every few episodes later for another beating.

At first it was amazing to finally be able to win fights, and then it got tiring mentally. Every day during school, after school, during work, after work, and even in the evenings, there were people that wanted to challenge him.

It got super awkward once the news reached his parents when a guy knocked on the door to ask for a fight. He was dealt with swiftly before going back into the house with everyone staring at him, especially Mom. Those were a rough few days trying to explain his side of the story and enduring the silent treatment, something that was rare whenever he got into fights.

His Dad gave him a thumbs up behind Mom's back, though. Issei started rambling about how this would make him a Harem King, which was promptly ignored by Ryuji. Being a Harem King was very enticing, especially in this world where supernatural beings were fifteen out of tens, but there were problems with that kind of lifestyle that make him shudder whenever his mind wanders onto the topic.

Seriously, you punch one gang member, and then trouble comes your way instantly for months.

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Currently, Ryuji was in Cross Counter's mindscape for some independent training of his magic skills. It's been almost ten years since he met Wrath, now that he thought about it. Time sure goes by fast when you're enjoying yourself, huh?

He should review them quick though; he had less than 20 minutes before lunch break ends and classes start once again.

So, he had mastered 3 of the 7 elements: dark, Dark, Earth and Water. And with that, he had already leveled up his Dark and Earth attributes to Chaos and Metal Magic in the past few years, with his Ice Magic proficiency still at an intermediate level due to the complexity of the element.

With magic, he could do anything that he wished as long as he had the magical energy and the intent. Yahweh's version of Human Magic was way different from the standard Human Magic of formulae and calculations taught by Merlin back when Camelot was still a kingdom.

First off, his Dark and Chaos Magic. The difference between the two elements was that Dark Magic takes time to erode magic, while Chaos Magic disintegrates anything that it touches.

The benefit of Dark Magic was the cost, being 10 times less compared to Chaos Magic. The cons were that anyone with energy can simply shrug it off by channeling more than what the Dark Magic spell cost.

Meanwhile, Chaos Magic could instantly make someone disappear into atoms. It is not easily countered by simply overpowering the spell; you had to be able to regenerate on the atomic scale in order to escape it once it touches you.

Second was Earth and Metal Magic. Earth Magic is simple enough: magic that relies on creating or using earth found on the ground for attacks or defense. On the other hand, Metal Magic is a little more complex; it requires you to draw out the metals in the earth in order to manipulate it to your own needs.

It doesn't have to be said that Metal Magic is far superior in terms of damage and durability. The disadvantage of using only Metal Magic was that it is slow due to its weight, hard to find in niche environments, and takes a crap ton of magical energy to search, draw, clump, and manipulate it compared to the simple Earth Magic.

Lastly, Water Magic and Ice Magic. While he wasn't used to the latter, the former was so much fun to play around with. With it being the least damaging element in his disposal, it was a breath of fresh air being able to not explode or get hurt whenever he experimented with it. Plus, the healing factor of it was amazing when fighting against Wrath for hours on end.

Ice Magic... It was something that he had a hard time learning. Now that he thought about it, he started Ice Magic almost 3 years ago with little to no progress.

'I already told you when you started Water Magic that Ice would be your weak element.'

'Yo, Wrath, you've been quite quiet these past few weeks.'

'Been looking through the DXD Series again; did I mention how weird Rizevim was?'

'All the time.'

'Ugh, what did my little boy do for this to be his attitude?'

'Have you ever thought that banishing one's son from their home would not turn out like this?'

'Hey! I'll have you know that I sent him messages every week begging him to come back home until he somehow corrupted his soul and ghosted me! Mind blowing, let me tell you!'

Moving on, the other elements in Yahweh's Magic System — yes he was going to call it that — Fire, Wind, Light, and Null. He had some experience with all four elements; he could use the basics, but he didn't really master them as well as his preferred three elements.

'You do need more firepower, I'd admit. Sure, your fighting style is more to patience and countering, but sometimes you will have to fight offensively and go outside your comfort zone.'

'I'll think about it.'

(DING~)

Crap, lunch ended! Leaving his mindscape, Ryuji quickly grabbed his bento box, courtesy of Mom, before dashing back to class.