Chapter 7

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It has been three days since fletchling and I began our meditation training it would be an understatement to say my training has progressed no it has skyrocketed 

Though out of embarrassment of my filthy state of being I had begun to Meticulously wash myself and to smell better I crushed up flowers and rubbed that on me, fletchling had begun to join my baths though she likes to “dry” me off by blowing hot air on me I got burned quite a few times but it's the thought that counts right?

But the weird thing is she can't shoot flames out of her mouth it is just very hot air at the moment

“Are you going to join me on my walk fletchling?” I ask curiously usually she stays near this forest to kill anything that intrudes on our little training spot 

Though I appreciate the be if its that has brought upon us such as system reward for “Disturbing the local ecosystem” which has brought fletchling up too level 4 from the combined exp brought by the systems exp reward and our efforts of training our control

“Linnngg!” she chirps in Affirmation

As I walk through the town trying to figure out the experiments I could do on the locals for a more comprehensive understanding of what the various hues of everyone's souls mean I glance up toward fletchling

She looks like a normal bird from afar though with slightly strange colorations I cannot help but feel a surge of joy fill me who would've guessed an example to follow would have such drastic effects

As I was distracted glancing towards my partner I bumped into someone thankfully I had started washing more thoroughly than before 

I glance towards the person and notice something rather alarming something is attached to her soul and this thing is not at all mundane

Connected to the grayish-yellow is a wispy black as my ability to see souls flicker out from my shock and lapse in concentration I look into the exhausted pair of light brown eyes she listlessly says something to me I still have no clue what the hell they are saying just sounding like fancy gibberish to me 

I don't understand why but I had the temptation to get rid of the foul-looking-looking smoky parasite. Attached to her soul I reached my hand out and grabbed hold of her shoulder

As we made eye contact I touched my ears and shook my head pointing toward her mouth hoping she understood my meaning

As she looked at me confused I molded my mana once again and directed it towards my eyes and also toward my hand concentrating that mana into my index and middle finger sharpening the mana similarly to that of a blade I swiped my fingers cutting the smoky tendrils connecting to the soul 

Watching as the smoky tendrils remaining on the soul faded out of existence and the rest still connected to the main bubble of smoke retracted till all that remained was a ball of malevolent-looking smoke floated in the air slowly drifting off towards an unknown destination 

I nod my head towards the girl as I begin to follow the vaguely spherical black ball of smoke

—————————————POV Switched

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As I walk home from the convenience store I can barely concentrate on walking my sudden bout of insomnia has been leaving me in able to focus much on anything 

Even when I do sleep I awake feeling just the slightest bit less exhausted shuffling my way home the only thought keeping me motivated is my favorite snack I had bought and the next episode of my favorite show that is premiering tonight 

Accidentally bumping into someone I look up to find the boy who often walks around town never bothering anyone or speaking just looking at them

As I look into his piercing almost gold eyes I subconsciously mutter apologies however his stare looks like he's observing not just me but my very soul I continue to apologize hoping to be relieved of this judging gaze

As I tried to explain myself and my foolish blunder he firmly grasped my shoulder and with his other hand gestured toward his ear then towards my mouth and shook his head 

Is he perhaps deaf, or just can't speak/understand Japanese? 

I awkwardly stand there all I can do is observe this young man seemingly in his first or second year of high school

 I often heard gossip about him from the store owners talking about the strange young man who had dirty hair with leaves and sticks tangled within his hair so dirty you could barely see the black color of his hair and how he had streaks of dirt all over his skin smelling of sweat along with eyes filled with cluelessness about the world around himself 

But as I look at the boy they so foolishly called the forest gremlin I cannot help but admire his appearance piercing yellow almost golden eyes that look right at your very being with the pleasant aroma of flowers along with the slight scent of smoked wood his hair an unnatural dark shade of black he almost looked divine in appearance 

As he held my shoulder made a strange motion with his hand nodded toward me and then walked away I stood there cluelessly feeling as though a burden had been lifted from me

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Gloomy: I’ve seen a bunch of fics with a weird troupe “rias bashing” honestly I don’t know if the authors just haven’t read/watched DxD or just have 0 comprehension I mean issei’s whole reincarnation was a big ass coincidence 

Rias’s familiar only handed issei a summoning pamphlet because of his overwhelming desire which issei was previously stated to be like an embodiment of lust 

Some authors try to compensate the fact the whole thing makes no sense by saying she is desperate for a solution for the whole riser situation but riser was a problem that should have only been present after Rias finished university in the human realm so Rias had no reason for such urgency she had YEARS to prepare and the only reason it was a problem was because it was pushed forward UNEXPECTEDLY

The only reason issei was reincarnated was because he happened to get a pamphlet from Rias’s familiar no planning occurred she had no reason to plan for issei to join her peerage 

I also noticed a theme of them bashing issei but issei is Rias’s second most powerful piece only weaker than akeno he just needed the rest of the pawns to be sealed cause Rias feared what might happen to a humans body if so much power were to be gained all at once

Another theme is them stealing the boosted gear which is a really good idea the amount of political power that alone could give you is amazing but they never use it like they unlock balance breaker (easily like no emotional strain or tough battle just oh I trained and unlocked my balance breaker cause I’m just so cool oh what’s that Ddraig said I could use this form permanently as my base? Ehh whatever let’s just forget that and bang Rias and akeno within 2 chapters)

And then never fucking use it unless they’re up against something crazy which is kinda boring in my opinion like if I could just be like you know what I’m feeling silly and just gift boost to people and see what happens

Think of it like this issei fainted from to many boost and he’s the weirder of the power what would happen if you overloaded someone else like that?