It's been a little over six years since I met Mil-tan, and this spring I finally graduated elementary school and became a middle schooler.
I tried looking for Hyoudou Issei—the original protagonist—after starting elementary school, but it looks like he goes to a different school. Guess I'll have to wait until middle school.
As for whether I'll get involved in the original story or not, I figure I'll just play it by ear.
Even in the original, Kuoh Academy had plenty of supernatural folks besides the Gremory and Sitri peerages anyway.
Plus, my knowledge of the source material only comes from fanfiction and the anime—I never actually read the original novels. So I only know the rough outline up to maybe the Evil Dragon War.
If I knew all the details of what was coming, I could probably plan ahead better, but I'm not that clever.
...And there's no guarantee things will follow the original story anyway.
Let me talk about other stuff. First, my senjutsu—as my physical strength improved, my life force and vitality went up too, making it way easier to refine ki.
My detection range now covers all of Kuoh Town, and I can mix the world's ki with my own life force as a core to cloak myself in touki.
I could probably snap a tree in half if I sparred with one now.
As for body control, I think I can stop my heart at this point. I haven't actually tried it, but I can at least make my heartbeat stronger or weaker.
Also, before I could only draw out muscle power when I removed my brain's limiters, but now I can speed up my thoughts like those flashback sequences too.
It's basically like the Divine Speed thing from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha—the combat-crazy Takamachi family... That anime's messed up in all kinds of ways.
For Verg Avesta and the twin swords Zarich and Taurvi, I've been practicing sword swings in a clearing in the nearby woods after making sure no one's around.
I can keep my sword strokes from wavering now, but I really want a sparring partner... though that's probably impossible.
As for the retribution ability, I caught a stray cat and let it scratch me before activating it. I was shocked when blue-white patterns appeared all over my body the moment I triggered it.
"Man, if those patterns hadn't disappeared until the wound healed, I would've been screwed... Good thing they vanished right away."
Oh, and since I can now scan all of Kuoh Town with senjutsu, I've noticed there are definitely some people around with clearly non-human, alien auras.
At first I thought "Time to meet the Gremory peerage!" but the auras were all heading toward the "abandoned church on the outskirts of town."
Those non-human presences I'm sensing are probably fallen angels.
Now that I think about it, after Cleria Belial—the previous overseer who was supposedly killed by a devil conspiracy and church purge died, Irina Shidou moved overseas right away.
And when Rias Gremory met with the original Bael, she said she inherited from the previous overseer, but that was just a body double.
So right now, Kuoh Town officially belongs to the Bael family, but both devils and angels have pulled out.
It wouldn't be weird at all for the fallen angel faction to sneak in during that gap.
If these auras belong to fallen angels, I'm not sensing any other types of presence.
Rias probably hasn't been put in charge of managing this town yet.
So should I try making contact with those fallen angels? ...That's obviously a hard no.
I've already manifested a Sacred Gear.
Issei got a hole punched through his stomach just because he might have a Sacred Gear.
I'm not saying all fallen angels are bad people, but the only decent fallen angels I know are Azazel, Shemhaza, and Baraqiel.
Going to chat with all the other fallen angels who are in various shades of gray-to-black morality? What am I, suicidal?
The aura strength I'm sensing is about the same as mine—if anything, I'm probably stronger. But if they come at me with killing intent, I'd probably lose.
There's no way I could beat fallen angels who can fly, have ranged attacks, and have (probably) killed people before when I've got zero combat experience.
Maybe I could win with a surprise attack, but they're not necessarily bad fallen angels, and they're not targeting me anyway—there's no reason to fight in the first place.
"Yeah, I'm gonna keep ignoring them for now!"
….
"You harbor a Sacred Gear within your body, don't you? It would be troublesome if you became a servant when the devils managing this territory return. You shall die here."