Chapter 957 The Unreasonable Dragons
Before anyone could notice, the rift in space had already disappeared and Kisuke was standing with everyone, "Ophis, make sure not to use any energy blasts!" He shouted, "I don't want this place to be destroyed beyond repair."
Ophis briefly looked at him and nodded before renewing her attacks against the fleeing Flanna.
Flanna, meanwhile, shouted at Kisuke, "Boss! What is this useless thing!? It's defective! It doesn't cut!"
"I specially made it for you and just for you. You're the only one who can use that.", Kisuke replied.
Flanna's face lit up in delight and turned her head to him, "Really!?" But her happy expression disappeared as fast as it appeared when she remembered the position she was in, "But it's still use-" In the middle of speaking, Flanna received another punch to the face and was thrown back.
Kisuke watched Ophis getting excited and tried to guess from where 'Is it because she can beat up Great Red now? Or is it because she's glad to see her?' At that moment, Kisuke felt a pull on his sleeve, "Hmm?" He looked down and saw Lilith staring at him.
Kisuke crouched and patted her head, "How about you go join them? This is your first time meeting her, isn't it? It's fine to give your greeting like Ophis is doing."
Lilith's eyes lit up as soon as she got the permission she didn't actually need to get before flying towards the two Dragons in Humanoid form, "...Dumb Red...", she called out to her.
Flanna saw her coming and her face fell, "Even small Blacky!? Give it a rest!" Finally throwing her 'useless' greatsword away, Flanna pulled out the black and white pistols from her holsters. Pointing each of them on the 'twins', she started pulling the trigger nonstop. As they do not operate like normal pistols despite their appearance, she doesn't need to reload them and instead of physical bullets, they spew forth red bullets made out of her condensed aura without much delay between each other.
Naturally, most of the bullets missed their targets, but since Ophis and Lilith weren't dodging, they still got hit by one bullet each and were thrown a meter back back.
With something finally taking effect, the three of them stopped for a moment before Flanna began gloating to herself while raising her already beloved pistols, "Wooo~!!! This is the stuff!"
Thanks to the playing field leveling out, their game of tag became even more destructive, but thankfully, the barrier could still hold up.
"Kisuke... Could it be..." Sakura approached Kisuke and muttered. Although they were confused at first, everyone except for the kids managed to connect the dots to guess who the red-haired 'Ophis' is and they became even more sure of it the way Lilith called her.
"She's the one who offered her former body to be used as the core of the barrier after concluding that she couldn't win against the invader."
"Did you pull out his soul before he died?"
Kisuke shook his head, "If I did something like that, the chances of the invader following were high. That guy indeed followed, but he went after the dead body and that made a big difference. Besides, it's true that Great Red was killed at that time." 'Though I'm not sure if Great Red has something like a soul that I could recognize and pull out.'
"...Then how?"
Kisuke stared at the fleeing Flanna for a few seconds before answering, "I'm not sure either. Great Red is the True Dragon of Dreams... But I think it's more accurate to classify her as an 'illusion' that has turned real. She's real, but she's also just an illusion that became alive through dreams. I would guess that she's an 'unkillable' being as long as no one can separate her from the concept of 'dreams' and 'illusions' like how Ophis will never cease to exist as long as she's 'infinite'. That's just how unreasonable these 'Dragons' are."
Kisuke has always wondered how Aizen, who just stepped into transcendence, was more powerful than Great Red and Ophis who were born into it. But then, he realized that transcendence wasn't just about power like how he believed. In a sense, Aizen's unbridled display of power blinded Kisuke from the truth.
'It's the state of existence... Aizen's [Evolution] is still below the Soul King's [Soul], Great Red's [Dream], and Ophis's [Infinite]. It wasn't even clear if Aizen really has [Evolution] or something else. But that vagueness is what puts him below the latter three.'
Kisuke then looked at her own hands and thought, 'Then in my case, what state of existence will I achieve?' Because he doesn't know what he's trying to become in the first place, Kisuke sees himself as far inferior compared to Aizen who knew exactly what he wanted.
"What are you thinking about?" Sakura's face came into Kisuke's view, disconnecting him from his thoughts.
Kisuke smiled wryly and shook his head, "It's nothing."
He turned to everyone and the first thing he saw were Claire and Tanis making worried expressions while watching the fight that had been brewing for countless years finally break out. Kisuke approached them and matched their eye levels, "Are you worried?"
Claire and Tanis looked at each other before turning back to him and nodding.
Kisuke patted their heads and explained, "There's nothing to worry about. That's just how people like them play. They aren't actually hurting each other."
Those few sentences instantly calmed the two little girls and those who were watching thought that they had way too much faith in Kisuke. Claire then thought about it for a few seconds and asked Kisuke something he wasn't really expecting, "So if I want to join, I have to be strong?"
Kisuke and the others were a bit taken aback by her question, "...You want to join them?"
Kisuke's question made Tanis raise her hand and said, "I want to join them too!"
Kisuke could feel Sakura's intense stare on his back so he didn't dare turn around, 'It's not my fault! I promised!' he shouted internally.
He tried to think of a good answer, but Kisuke didn't really want to disappoint the girls by saying that they can't really play that 'game' since that would defeat the purpose of hard work and achieving things in the realm of possibility. In other words, it was all his fault for thinking like this.
"...Er... If you train enough, maybe you'll be able to join them? But they can play other games too, you know."
"We want to play those too!"
Claire's answer, which shouldn't have come out of a kid's mouth while such destruction was happening behind him, gave Kisuke a cold sweat down his back and thought, 'I'm going to get a scolding...'
Kisuke tried to ask for help from the others, but Irina, Koneko, Kuroka, Sona, Aika, and even Medusa averted their gaze.
Kisuke clicked his tongue and returned his sights to Claire and Tanis. He then pointed toward the girls behind them and said, "Nii-chan will be busy, but you could ask your Nee-chans to help you." He chose to dump the problem on them entirely instead.
The girls wanted to protest but as soon as Claire and Tanis turned to them with expectant eyes, they couldn't do anything to resist. Meanwhile, Kisuke slowly backed away to escape, 'Finally some peaceful days ahead, I guess? Although it's a bit regretful that I won't be able to spend it with Yoruichi for now.'
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Five years went by without anything big happening if we go by Kisuke's standards. In reality, massive turmoils were happening left and right and the most notable of it all was the Human World was already on the verge of a third World War due to a clash of those who'd accepted Magic and those who'd rejected it, with the latter mostly predominated by those who wanted to cling to their power and authority using nuclear technology.
And the person who started all of this was lazily lying down on his side in his empty candy shop while watching the news of Issei's marriage with Rias, Asia, Xenovia, Rossweisse, and Ravel that had happened a week ago through his old CRT television that was connected directly to the Underworld network.
'Considering how horny he is, it's surprising that he hasn't had a child yet.' He thought while sucking on a lollipop, 'I guess he's scared to have one in this world of fake stability.'
Kisuke wanted to change the channel because he had already watched this news multiple times on top of being one of the attendees, but his hand stopped when he was about to reach for the remote and looked towards the entrance of his shop.
He slowly sat up and opened his paper fan and covered his mouth, "Welcome~ Please feel free to look around, Kanzaki Mitsuya-san."
The young man who'd just entered had a deep frown on his face.
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