Noah entered the cssroom after being absent for nearly ten days. It was early in the morning, and no other student was present yet.

  He sat at his desk, crossing his legs, leaning back, and intercing his fingers behind his head, appreciating the quiet and alone time. It was something he started to see as increasingly valuable these days.

  He reminisced on all the things he had done since that fateful meeting with Lilith, up until now. It was a life full of training at a frenetic pace, with little time to take a break… but also a very rewarding one. Whenever he felt tired, he only had to think about his girls, counting on him to live safely, to gain a motivation boost.

  After a few minutes, Noah heard footsteps coming from the hallway, and the door hos if cssroom opened.

  "Hi, Miyabi."

  "Hey, Noah. Nice to see you again! You made a HUUUGE ruckus! It was you, right?" grinned Miyabi.

  "Yeah. I can show you some of my memories of it ter, if you want. Anyway, I came, I saw, and I kicked butt."

  "Eheh!" ughed Miyabi.

  "It's thanks to you, Lizel and Reina, you know? If I didn't have Stride and Armored, I'm not sure I'd have defeated the strongest opponent, an old sword master with cybernetic impnts and hidden weapons."

  "I'm gd our contribution was appreciated. You saved a lot of people."

  "Yeah. And four of the strongest among those people are going to become my cards, just like you. I've got the Arcana."

  Noah took it from his vest's inner pocket to show it to her.

  "Looks like we were right to entrust our fate to you." muttered Miyabi.

  "So, when does the competition starts? When can I go kill that trash with the Devil Arcana?"

  "You know him already? Lilith told you?"

  "Yeah. I don't want to kill most of the competition, but that guy, I'm dealing with him first, and with extreme prejudice."

  "You sound like you have a bone to pick with him. Did he murder your dog and steal your car or something?"

  "I do, do I?" snorted Noah.

  "In a sense, if he a bit like my evil twin, a perversion of some of my most fundamental beliefs. We are both into dominant/sub retionships, but while I care a lot about the wellbeing of my girls and think that the process of convincing a girl to become mine is something precious, a memory to be treasured…"

  "This guy…this fucking guy just use the Devil Arcana's power to ensve people in seconds. He isn't worthy of being called Master by his subs, as he didn't do the work to win them over. That's his first major sin. His second sin is that he doesn't care about his sves, at all. He would use them as cannon fodder in an instant, and will just sell off his sves in the underworld if he needs to free up some of his invisible colrs and chains to ensve more people. This abandonment of the most basic of any Master's responsibility, taking care of and providing for his sves, piss me off to no end. So, the instant the competition officially starts, I'm going for his head."

  "And his third sin, is actually reted to you."

  "To me?" excimed Miyabi, her eyes widening.

  "Lilith has shown me a possible future. One that would likely have happened, if not for me coming here and changing the course of events. It's thanks to that that I know about Reina's issues, and how to solve it."

  "In that future that won't happen anymore, that scum Ibiza started preying on your retainers, two girls your age named… Rebecca? I don't remember the other's name. Anyway, he ensved them and used them and their access to your family's finances and such to have your family accused of crimes and ostracized, then managed to put one of his colrs on you, Miyabi. When you were under his influence, he didn't do more than grope you a bit, because his goal was to sacrifice you and obtain your bloodline magic to reinforce the effect of his colrs, but he did have you fight against the rest of the Lover's team."

  "You know about my bloodline magic… Thanks, Noah. It seems I dodged a bullet here… In that future… Did he succeed? Was Reina saved? And what about Rebecca and Maki?"

  "He didn't succeed, and fled to the underworld, possibly never able to return to the human world. And yes, Reina was saved, with the cooperation of Tower as well as that guy Aspite, the World Arcana. As for your two retainers, well, you can guess how I learned about what Ibiza does with sves he doesn't need anymore. Even after his defeat, they were never found again. A good thing this isn't going to happen."

  "…Yes. But Aspite? He's one of our worst enemies. Why would he cooperate with helping Reina-chan?"

  "He was the first to be defeated by Yuuto after kidnapping Lizel, then formed a strange not quite friendly retionship with him. Sort of like 'My defeat will be less shameful if you also defeat every other Candidate, so I'll help you a little', that kind of reasoning."

  Miyabi snorted.

  "I can see that guy acting like that, if he was truly defeated by Yuuto, a human of all things. But wait, from what you're saying, Yuuto was pretty strong in that future! When you convinced us to join you, you made it sound like he didn't stand a chance." frowned Miyabi.

  "And do you think Yuuto in the present would stand a chance, with me among the competitors, and knowing how dangerous he might become if allowed to grow? I didn't mislead you girls. If you had stayed in the Lovers team, you would have lost, and I would have gotten my hands on you, the hard way. And I'm not the only one Yuuto would have little chance to defeat. The Death Arcana, Lost Jou… whatever his full name is, is also super dangerous, with a certain death curse vioting the ws of causality, and being able to recover from any wound. Anyway, how is Reina?"

  "…She's fine. Mom is getting attached to her, and Reina is happy. Can you imagine? She cried when she tasted Mom's homemade food, saying she had never eaten something to delicious."

  "She's such a good girl. She deserves happiness, and we will give it to her."

  "Yeah."

  They both smiled at each other.

  "Since we have some time alone, I'd like to know more about you, Miyabi. Your birthday, your favorite dishes, the career you wish to pursue, your dreams, everything."

  "Oh? You're making a move on this gal already?" asked Miyabi, adopting a teasing tone.

  "With the Hagun Isnd business over, I got some free time. I want to devote it to nurture and deepen my retionships with many people. And you, my dear, are one of them."

  "It's nice to know that you seem interested in more than my body, at least."

  "Do not underestimate my greed, Miyabi. I want ALL of you."

  She nodded in acknowledgement, but decided to change the subject.

  "To answer one of your earlier questions first, the competition is already underway, although no candidate has been eliminated yet. Everyone is still in the process of observing each other and considering alliances. You can join the fight right after a short ceremony is conducted. We can do it this evening, if you're okay with it."

  "I know what kind of ceremony you're speaking about. Just need to have a few of the other candidates acknowledge me as a worthy rival, right? But I'd rather we do this tomorrow evening, if that's fine with you. I just got four maids, and I need to take them shopping for essentials, buy them smartphones, and other stuff. They'll join our academy starting next week, by the way. Most of the Japanese Returnees will."

  "Okay for tomorrow evening. I'll inform Lizel, Reina and the Headmaster. The Headmaster will ask the candidates to gather for the ceremony. But did you just steal four maids from that isnd?" wondered Miyabi.

  "No. Of the four, two are strong sacred gear users, the other two are Youkai. They were held captive on that isnd, and three of the four were forced to fight regurly."

  "…And you convinced them to become your maids? In a day? You work fast!"

  "I did convince Lizel and Reina to tentatively join my side within an hour of meeting them. It's all a matter of knowing what people want, and having the means to provide it to them. Like this saying, about being able to lift the world, with the right leverage. They agreed to work as my maids ssh bodyguards, in return for an important favor, and for a thousand days only. It's private stuff, so I won't tell you the specifics."

  Miyabi nodded, and gazed at Noah thoughtfully for a while. Then she nodded to herself.

  "Noah, after you defeat two other Arcana holders, and save Reina, let's go on a date, just you and me."

  "With pleasure. I look forward to it. Do you have any particur activity in mind?"

  "How about going to a theme park?"

  "It's a good idea. I'll make sure to win you a big plushy at a stand or something. You like plushies?"

  "Yes. There are many things I want to try. Like going to an arcade. With me being part of a noble house and such, I wasn't free to do many of the things devils consider as 'commoner's hobbies'…"

  "We'll make sure to change that. And it may interest you to know that my home, where I will eventually have you and Reina live, has a room devoted to video games and movies."

  "Me and Reina live with you? I'm not sure I'd want to leave my mother alone."

  "Let's discuss this at a ter date. There is still time, and maybe we'll come up with something by then."

  "Yeah. Ideally, I'd like her to meet someone worthy of being her boyfriend. It would do her some good."

  For a second, Noah had a thought of wooing Miyabi's mother as well. He knew she was beautiful, looking like a more mature Miyabi, and he wasn't at all opposed to the idea of a threesome. Differences in age would be meaningless once all his sves gained an infinite lifespan and the ability to control their apparent age.

  Miyabi apparently saw something in his eyes she didn't like, as she frowned, but before she could open her mouth, the sounds of several footsteps were heard in the hallway.

  "You better not have any design on my mom, Noah." she warned with a low voice.

  "What do you take me for? I was wondering if she was going to act cordially in my home, should she move in, and if I would get along with her. She seems to be a bit on the stuffy side."

  "Yes. She's big on the standing of the Yuugaoze family. But she's a good mom."

  The door opened, and several students came. They looked at Noah in deep suspicion, likely wondering if the big new on TV were reted to him.

  Ren was moving fast. When he gave her the bck notebook, Noah had kicked himself for not first taking photos of its pages with his phone, in case Ren or some other higher-up in the government would act in a corrupt manner and erase the evidence. On the contrary, Ren had arranged for many arrests within Japan, not caring about how rich or influent they were, and to deal with those abroad, had released the integrality of the list and their payments to the press.

  A number of arrests overseas had already occurred, and in a few cases, more people kept in captivity had been freed, giving credence to the rest of the list. The whole political and media world was in chaos, and politicians and celebrities alike could not be faster trying to distance themselves from the revealed sponsors.

  Noah suspected the Devil nobles were also instructing their contacts in the human world to purge any criminal who supported the stuff happening at Hagun Isnd, and who knew too much about devils.

  "Miyabi, can you tell me what I missed while I was away?"

  Miyabe welcomed the change of subject, not wanting to speak about private matters in front of other cssmates.

  "Hum, let's see… The day after you left, we had a big lesson on the history of torture. then…"

  …

  The day passed in a fsh. Noah ate his lunch with Miyabi, Lizel and Reina, where he told them about what had happened in Hagun Isnd, and Noah's future pns. Lizel had one of her retainers keeping tab on Yuuto Morioka, and it seemed the Arcana – Lovers hadn't contacted him yet.

  Over the st few days, Lizel had received invitations to join as a card two other factions. The first was from Aspite, the World Arcana, who was infatuated with her and wanted to possess her, by any means necessary. Noah could sympathize with him, since he would also have used any mean necessary if convincing her didn't work. The difference was that Noah was smart about it, using negotiation to get his way, while Aspite was just an arrogant moron, resorting to threats and ter violence.

  The other was a young woman that Lizel actually got more or less along with, Stel Hoshigaoka, the Star Arcana. Like Aspite, she was prideful, but more restrained, and didn't openly despise lower ranked devils and humans. She had a somewhat pyful personality, and saw Lizel almost as an equal or a childhood friend. Stel was also a famous singer with an international career, and her arcana allowed her to harvest some of the positive feelings and admiration of her millions of fans, converting it into energy and giving her huge reserves of power.

  Noah knew from reading the novels that she had three special powers aside from normal demonic magic. Horoscope, some kind of passive defense granting her good fortune or a temporary shield against attacks, Star of Death, a curse killing her target after a day, and Gaxy Zero, a rge-scale offensive magic that allowed her to bring a meteor down on her target.

  After agreeing to do the ceremony the next day, they separated and returned to css. Noah didn't really listen to the afternoon's lesson as he mostly pondered about everything he remembered about the other Arcana holders, their Cards, and the looming bleach crisis in a month. And then there was whatever would appear from the unnamed novel the anti-demon corps came from. Noah suspected that it wouldn't be long before some trouble manifested itself from that side, as was typically the case from shonen works. Surely some strong enemies would make their presence known soon.

  And then there was the trouble coming from the high-school DxD side. If the crises appeared in the same order as in the novel, first would be that Arrogant Raiser Phenex, trying to get his lustful hands on Rias and her peerage.

  Noah would of course put a stop to it. The only lustful hands allowed to touch Rias, Akeno and ter Koneko were his own. Then would come the trouble with Kokabiel, the fallen angel and battle maniac, trying to destroy Kuoh academy and the daughters of the Gremory and Sitri families to start an all-out war between Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils.

  Maybe he could teleport Kokabiel to Ren Yamashiro, or to Zaraki Kenpachi. The two battle maniacs would surely like it. And Noah would make himself some popcorn and watch on the side.

  Though, there was an issue with the timing. Kokabiel attacked at night, and he didn't want to teleport him to Ren sleeping in her bed. And if he remembered correctly, the thing with Raiser Phenex wasn't actually the first hurdle in the DxD novel. There was that scuffle with a few low-ranked fallen angels trying to kill that little nun Asia to steal her sacred gear.

  He had felt retively indifferent to Asia's character in the novel, as he wasn't that fond of her being devoutly religious, and not his type.

  Maybe he should try to check on her. If the Asia in this world was as underage as in the novel, he should just save her, and make sure that nun-eating devil Diodora didn't viote her, either. Yet another vilin on his kill list. If Lilith made her legal, however… Who would reject the idea of gaining a blonde girl with green eyes and big boobs? Even if she ended up ft at eighteen, that was something he could fix. Yes, he should definitely check on her, for science.