Me? Human? : Chapter 14 : Magnifying Lens, Lingering emotions, Poor Issei & Fear of one's own power.....

Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.

Kuoh, Japan

–Motohama Kenji–

He had way too much time on his hands when he was under curfew, the one that was entirely voluntary on his part, simply because he could have waltzed out at any moment. He did not do so because he could not return to the forest without risking being identified, and also because he did not want to get caught breaking his curfew.

What he could do was get himself a little bit more prepared for the upcoming fight. Now, while he had thought of the events that led to Issei being reincarnated as Rias’ pawn not happening at all, but he figured that adapting to any Fallen Angel’s weapon was beneficial, which is why for the past week or so, he was sitting in his room, using multiple magnifying lenses, all aimed at a single spot on his hand. 

Now, it did not burn him at all, all because he had already burned himself quite a bit, but he did feel some hunger as time went by, which he took to be a good thing. It remained to be seen whether it would work on a Fallen’s light or not.

After all, their Light was magic light. It had a physical shape, mass, and some energy as well. So, he had already adapted enough to stabbing himself quite well by now, and heat as well, so the only vulnerable aspect was the light. He had done his best by maximising his sun exposure by using the magnifying lens, but he wouldn’t know if it all worked or not without testing in real life.

Which is why he was here, right outside his house, in a casual T-shirt and pants. He had briefly talked to Issei, who was too drunk in the happiness of finally getting a date with a girl to remember that their relationship was in a weird place, and got all the details of the date, Issei had planned for her.

It was honestly tragic how he knew what was coming for him, and how he had clearly poured his heart and soul into this date, not knowing the true motive of the other party.

He had planned a complete data, starting at the park and then ending at a different park as well. During the day, he was going to take her to the small mall they had in the town, had already shortlisted multiple restaurants in his budget, had budgeted for some clothes, and had identified multiple gift shops he was going to take her to.

He winced as the urge to march down to his house and tell him the truth about everything only increased as he thought of the sheer happiness Issei exuded all around him when he thought of his date, only to slap himself lightly. 

No need to start from the goal! Plus, if things went according to plan, Issei should have a fairly nice career in the supernatural world, even without becoming a Devil, provided he did not do anything very idiotic, which was almost a certainty.

He sighed, his head hung low as he realised just what his knowledge had brought upon him. Now, not only did he feel responsible for saving his friend from death, which was nothing because Mama ain’t raised no cowards, but he also felt responsible for his well being. He felt the urge to make sure that Issei wasn’t railroaded into becoming a Devil or didn’t die because he tried to use his Scared Gear on the pathetically small magic pool he had, to fight someone way above his pay grade.

Unlike canon, he wouldn’t have the two big guns of the Devil race to stop the older, more powerful members of the other supernatural pantheons from moving to get the clearly young and easily impressionable wielder of a Longinus, the Boosted Gear.

Taking a deep breath, he repeated the mantra in his head. Take it one step at a time. He could figure out the rest later on. 

First, save Issei from being subjected to a spontaneous stabbing event, and then he could think about the latter. Being a mishmash of two souls and two sets of memories and feelings, even if one of them was far more muted than the other, had now resulted in him deciding in his mind that he was going to make sure Issei was not killed simply for the crime of being who he is and having an uber powerful Artifact made by a dead God who didn’t ask for his consent before shoving a sentient being into a prison and attaching that prison to a human’s soul.

He blinked; that explanation ringing in his mind as some sort of rant, as he shook his head and took off running. He had his running gear in his backpack, as well as a few weapons. Now, the Fallen didn’t really have any elemental weaknesses, aside from the common ones like magic, and what he planned to exploit, really heavy kinetic damage.

He had made sure to buy cheap knives, had them sharpened before shoving them in makeshift metallic sheaths, made up of small sheets of aluminium, the material for which he stole from the barricading near the canals.

Guess who confirmed that they could use their hands to stab through metal, and then just pull, tearing apart metal with their bare hands? This guy!

He really needed something to keep the sharp knives from cutting through his backpack, and since he had already lost some knives from the house, he wanted to keep this separate from anything that could be traced to his mom. Also, it was a really good way to test his progress, and it was exhilarating to do so.

Walking into the park, he noted that it was already fairly populated, which made sense as this was one of the more popular parks in the city. Setting up shop on the grass, he put on his fake glasses and began reading a book he’d already read beforehand.

Now, this serves a double purpose. It would seem that his all around self torture had yielded some results in the enhanced senses division. Not that he could see through the book or hear stuff halfway across the city, but the upgrades to his brain, along with basically everything in his body upgrading itself, he could now listen to the general noise all around him and somehow filter individual voices from the masses.

So, he was here to look for Issei and his date. This also served as training for him. After all, even if he could adapt to many things and become a physical powerhouse, he should know how to use it as well. Unlike his strength and durability, which hadn’t had any effects on his day to day life, he had a hunch that even if he did get enhanced senses, he wouldn’t be able to use them without some serious training.

Hell, it might even backfire on him as his senses might just subject him to constant sensory bombardment. He might even adapt to that, and he had no idea what that might end in. Would he lose his senses entirely? Would his power delete some senses and focus on only one or a few? Would he adapt to the heavy information dump, but then, lose the ability to process low level sound as a result?

All in all, it was quite the scary situation. His power could work in ways that only seemed right at the time but later turned out to be damaging to his overall life. Just like the constantly negative thoughts swirling in his mind about his power and his future in this universe, all because his power made him adapt to his need for long bouts of unconsciousness.

He lamented his very short sleep cycle now and the fact that it was likely going to take a while before the negative effects of very little sleep were registered as damage to his power, and his power removed that weakness as well. As he was now, a subtle uptick in negative emotions and bouts of zoning out were the only signs that his power hadn’t worked properly.

If only there was some sort of interface he could use to pick and choose the adaptation he wanted. For example, he wanted to eat spicy food, but out of fear that his body might register some of the spicier stuff he liked to consume as damage, he refrained from going too high on the spice scale, drawing confused looks from his regular Ramen Cart owner.

Old Man Tengen was very kind and actually—

His thoughts stopped as he subtly leaned towards the source of the sound, his mind instinctively filtering out the other dozen conversations happening around him. It was a familiar voice. It was Issei, and an unfamiliar female voice.

“This is my favourite park, but it’s always too crowded. Ah! My spot in the lawn under that small tree is gone.” Issei’s painfully earnest voice spoke out.

Raynare’s giggle made him realise that if nothing else, the two Winged Fallen Angel was capable of pulling off quite the act. He couldn’t sense anything fake in her tone, and both his past selves, since he was someone new and the amalgamation of two people, had heard enough girls, cheerleaders, and gold diggers' fake interest to the point that he could atleast recognise some degree of false cheer, like laughing at clearly bad and unfunny jokes.

As he watched both of them walk by the fountain, talking to each other, laughing, as if Raynare had known Issei a long time, he realised that he couldn’t compare the skills he saw in humans to the skills any supernatural entity could simply pick up, on account of most members of the supernatural community, even the lower tier members, had far longer lifespans than a human’s/

Simply put, even if they had half the talent of an average human, they would be a master pretty quickly. All because they had time on their hands.

He watched as they did a tour of the park, and then walked out, towards the mall. He heard Raynare suggest walking the entire way, to which Issei wholeheartedly agreed. Why wouldn’t he? It would just mean that he was going to spend more time with this girl who was interested in him.

He sighed. Issei was going to fall in love with her.

What shity luck.

….

…

..

Welp, if Issei got his Sacred Gear activated out of this date, then he would consider it an overall W in his opinion.