7 A Girl's Unlucky Day

Aika Kiryuu was having a pretty good day.

When she went to grab the mail this morning, she found an acceptance letter for Kuoh Academy. She had been pleasantly surprised. Then again, Aika never once doubted that she would get in.

She had taken the school's entrance exam a few months back. The test wasn't particularly difficult. At least, she didn't think so. Aika was fairly certain that she had scored pretty well on it, maybe even first place. Then again, Kuoh was a pretty high-tier school. Who really knows how many 'geniuses' had applied this year.

Well, a girl could dream.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur.

Nothing really happened. Aika mostly just stayed inside, watching TV and organizing her bedroom. She wasn't a particularly tidy person, nor was she exceptionally messy. If anything, she'd probably be considered normal. The real reason why she was 'organizing' her room was because of her parents. They were coming back from a two-week vacation, and the last thing she wanted was for them to see what she had gotten up to while they were gone. Suffice to say, there were quite a few things in there that she'd rather not have them see.

Among other things, Aika made sure to clear her browsing history, hide her 'toys', and stuff her 'magazines' in between her bedframe and mattress…

She finished her little spring-cleaning spree by mid-afternoon. Once she was certain that all the evidence of her 'summertime fun' had been properly concealed and hidden away from any prying eyes, Aika decided to reward herself. She decided to go to the bookstore.

A few hours had passed since then.

The sun was already halfway down the horizon and dark shadows were beginning to take over the landscape.

Aika was on her way back home. Her newly acquired 'prize' was stuffed securely in her bookbag.

The girl had just gotten off the train, and she was roughly twenty minutes away from her house. She had considered taking the bus back, but after a moment of consideration, she decided against it. The weather was pretty nice out tonight and there was a certain allure to walking a quiet street in the middle of a bustling city.

The bookstore that she had visited was not one of the local stores near her neighborhood. It was a large, privately-owned bookstore located in downtown Kuoh. Of course, there was a reason why she had traveled so far away for her books. It was related to the way she was currently dressed.

Aika wore an oversized grey hoodie that seemed ill-suited for the summer heat. Most of her face was covered by a face mask, while a rather large hat practically engulfed her head. A few hours ago, she also wore a pair of sunglasses in order to complete her look, but with the visibility as low as it was right now, she had reverted back to her usual pair of eyeglasses.

In short, she looked kind of like a creeper.

Still, it was a necessary precaution. After all, she had just bought a bunch of new porn magazines.

It was honestly a bit of a surprise that the clerk at the store did not notice her. Despite her disguise, she was still clearly a minor. Plus, the way her voice cracked during check-out had been a dead giveaway. Was the guy dense or did he just not care? She was leaning towards the latter.

During her stakeouts of the store (you could never be too careful with buying porn), she had taken notice of a brown-haired teenager who looked to be around her age. He was a regular at the store and often came by in the afternoons to buy porn. What really surprised her was the absolute shamelessness of the guy.

He had been very brazen about his purchases, even going as far as to read one of his newly purchased magazines in front of the clerk. Despite all that, the clerk did not even bat an eyelash.

Aika had been in awe at the teen's boldness.

He had displayed a real masterclass in perversion. Aika sincerely doubted that she would ever reach such a level, although not that she really wanted to. She much preferred to toe the line between normal and pervy. Despite her hobbies, she still wanted to be a functioning member of society.

It was why she had ultimately chosen to go to Kuoh Academy instead of any of the other schools within the area.

Kuoh Academy was considered the best school in the entire city. The only drawback was that the school had a disproportionate number of female students. To Aika, that meant fewer guys to ogle.

When it came time to decide what high school to go to, Aika had deliberated for over two weeks before she came to a decision. It was a very contentious decision, but ultimately, she had decided to go to Kuoh Academy.

She had chosen future success over her perversions.

Well, it wasn't all that bad. The Academy had just recently turned co-ed this year. While sparse in number, a few guys were bound to enroll this year…

Those were thoughts for the future though.

She much preferred to look at the present, and right now, her present appeared very, very bright.

Aika shot a glance down at the contents of her book bag. She smirked. The girl had finally gotten her hands on the prize, now it was time to reap the rewards...

Well, after she returns home.

Even she wasn't perverted enough to just go at it out here in the middle of the street.

Aika continued along the familiar route to her house.

Everything was going perfectly fine, up until it wasn't.

It started innocuous enough. Aika was overcome with this odd sense of dissonance. She did not quite know where the feeling was coming from, but after carefully inspecting her surroundings, it suddenly clicked.

The street was too quiet.

The familiar background noise that the city provided was suddenly missing. The summer Cicadas had gone dead silent. Even the trees had stopped rustling, which was particularly weird, considering how windy the weather currently was.

It was as if everything had just… stopped.

A shiver ran down her spine.

Aika wasn't normally superstitious. She didn't believe in ghosts or monsters or spooky little children with all-black eyes, but when things start getting creepy… well, it was only natural to get creeped out.

She hurried along, practically speed-walking down the rest of the street. The sound of her own harsh breathing echoed through her ears. Her heart raced a mile a minute.

As she moved, a single doubt entered her mind.

'This is stupid. It's probably just my mind playing tricks on me. I should just—'

That was when she heard it.

Footsteps. Heavy, thudding steps that seemed to grow even louder with each second that passed. She did not know what was making those noises, but whatever it was, it was slowly gaining on her.

Aika did not dare look back.

Instead, she got rid of all the pretense and broke off into a dead-sprint.

She did not know how long she ran for, but somehow, the girl had ended up in a construction site, of all places. When she realized that she could still hear the footsteps, she immediately climbed up the unfinished building and looked for a spot to hide.

Unfortunately, hiding was probably the worst decision she could have ever made. It was like that thing possessed the nose of a bloodhound. In a little less than three minutes, it had found her.

Aika's back was pressed against the corner of the room.

She hugged her knees tight to her chest. Her body trembled like a leaf, as her own rapid, shallow breathing reverberated through her ears like artillery fire. At some point during her run, she had lost both her hat and her mask. She tried to make herself as small as humanly possible, but it was a pointless endeavor.

The creature waddled its way into the room and almost immediately, it zeroed in on her position. It was ugly, that much she was certain of, but Aika's panicked brain had trouble processing the entirety of its appearance. Instead, she focused on its face.

It possessed the face of a woman with black eyes and lips that were far too wide to be considered normal. Worse still was its expression. Its face was twisted into a look of pure hunger.

'I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die.'

Such a realization repeatedly echoed through her head. It drowned out nearly all cognitive thought and higher brain function, to the point where she was almost catatonic.

Even when the creature started talking, she could not hear it. Even when someone else had barged into the scene, she did not notice it. Even when the creature's head suddenly exploded like a popped water balloon, she still didn't notice it.

Aika only snapped out of her reverie when a strangely familiar stranger walked into the light.

Belatedly, she realized that she had just been saved.

*****

Issei blinked in surprise.

It was a girl around his age.

She had brown hair styled in a messy braid and a pair of purple-red rimmed glasses.

The girl was unlike any of the women that typically populated the Immortal World. She did not have pale white skin or a body filled with luscious curves. That was not to say she wasn't attractive though. She was small for her size with a body type similar to that of a runner or maybe a gymnast. Issei really couldn't tell; she was wearing a baggy sweater that hid most of her curves.

Still, he caught a glimpse of her thighs. They were smooth and curvy. He wouldn't mind receiving a lap pillow from thighs like those.

Overall, the girl was cute, like a cross between a charming bookworm and the girl-next-door.

To be honest, the girl was kind of refreshing. After a three-hundred-year dry spell in a world where nearly all the women are cardboard cut-outs of the same damn archetype, it was nice to see something different.

Also, there were literally zero glasses girls in the Immortal World. The grievance in his heart ran deep.

'Issei quit staring at her breasts.' Ddraig chided him through their mental connection.

'I wasn't staring at her breasts.' Issei replied back, only slightly annoyed at the old dragon. Surprisingly enough, Issei wasn't lying. His eyes were not pointed at her chest. Instead, his gaze was honed in on her eyes.

There was something about her eyes that just naturally drew him in. They were... different, for a lack of a better term. He couldn't quite describe the feeling that they elicited, which left him at a loss. What was it about her eyes that made them so unique? He did not know. Maybe if he were to get a better look, then…

'Regardless of what you were looking at, now's not the time. Tend to the girl.' The old dragon advised.

Issei nodded his head. He knew Ddraig was right. There was a time and place for everything and right now, the girl was the priority, not her eyes.

For a moment, the man who yearned for a harem was replaced by the boy who helped old ladies cross the street and returned lost wallets to their rightful owners.

"Are you okay?" He asked carefully as he took a step towards her. Issei made sure to keep his arms raised, showing the girl that he meant no harm.

The girl slowly stood up on shaky legs. She opened her mouth to speak, but even before she could get a word out, her body crumpled back down to the floor. Issei caught her just before she hit the ground. His hawk-like gaze skimmed over her fragile form, pausing briefly on her amber-colored eyes.

Fortunately, she was still conscious, but her skin was pale and clammy.

'She's still rattled from the earlier incident.' Issei easily hypothesized.

'What are you going to do with her, partner?' Ddraig curiously asked. Unlike his partner, the old dragon was not as concerned with the well-being of other humans. To him, the only person that really mattered was his host.

Issei silently thought about his current situation. After a short moment, he came up with a plan.

"Alright," the transmigrator nodded to himself. He looked at the girl and said, "wait here for a second."

Without even waiting for a response, Issei propped the girl up by the wall and walked away.

He approached the corpse of the stray devil.

'What are doing, partner?'

'Getting rid of the evidence.' Issei mentally replied. 'Can't have any of the supernatural residents of this city wondering who killed the stray devil in their territory.'

With that, his left palm suddenly started glowing. The color changed from yellow to red, then to bright orange. It glowed like a lump of steel that had just been freshly removed from a blacksmith's kiln.

He pressed the palm down onto the corpse's exposed back.

The body immediately caught on fire. The flames were like a virus, spreading rapidly until they completely encompassed the corpse. In a matter of seconds, it was reduced to ashes.

Issei had just displayed the Burning Palm, a mortal-ranked martial skill from the Immortal World.

Despite its low rank, it was actually one of Issei's favorite skills to use. It wasn't particularly powerful. If anything, the Burning Palm was considered one of the weaker mortal-ranked martial skills in the world. Still, it was immensely satisfying to use, especially when dealing with pompous prodigy-types. After all, there was no greater insult to a 'prodigy' than beating their ass black and blue with a 'weak' skill.

In addition, his Burning Tempest Divine Art cultivation technique basically supercharged the skill. As a result, his version of the Burning Palm was far stronger than the original.

The same principle applied here with his Harem King Divine Art.

With the evidence successfully erased, Issei turned and made his way back to the girl's side.

Aika, for her part, had watched with wide eyes as her savior had quite literally cremated the corpse with nothing but the palm of his hand. More surprisingly, Aika had quickly realized that her savior was the same young man who brazenly bought porn magazines at the bookstore.

As Issei approached her, he took in a few small details about her appearance.

There was a red rim near the bottom of her eyes, indicating that she had just been crying. Her hair was styled in a brad, but several large pieces jutted out, giving the girl a rather frazzled look. Fortunately, her trembling seemed to have gone down considerably.

Maybe seeing Issei dispose of the corpse had helped to alleviate her mental state?

Regardless, he still needed to do something about her. After all, he couldn't stand to see someone look so scared and confused, especially not a cute girl like her.

Issei stopped in front of her. The girl simply stared back, not really knowing what to say. After a short pause, he suddenly bent down and scooped her up in a bridal carry.

"Wha—!" The girl let out a surprised yelp.

"Ah, don't worry." Issei placated. A somewhat sheepish expression morphed his features. "I won't hurt you. Promise."

After a moment of hesitation, the girl timidly nodded her head.

Issei breathed out a sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted was to be accused of sexual harassment. Such a thing would definitely cause some major damage to his mental state. Heck, it might even create a heart demon.

With the girl's tacit approval, Issei began to move. He approached a section of the room that had yet to have its walls put up. Peering out into the night, he took note of how high up they currently were.

Issei nodded to himself, his grip tightening around the girl's upper body and thighs.

"Wait, w-what are you doing?" Seeing Issei eye the distant ground, a feeling of dread suddenly filled her heart. Aika's grip on his neck unconsciously tightened.

"Getting you out of here," His answer was straight and to the point. Before the girl could put up a protest, Issei suddenly leaped out of the building.

The girl let out a shrill screech that Issei was certain had woken up at least half of the neighborhood. He tried his best to ignore it, although it was an uphill battle, considering the fact that the girl was screaming directly into his ears.

Instead of hitting the ground below, Issei landed lightly on top of an electrical pole. Coincidentally, it was the same electrical pole that he had dented during his entry into the half-finished building.

The girl's screams stopped for a moment. She gawked at the scene before her. She had never seen the city from such a unique perspective, and definitely never in such a precarious situation. It was both frightening and exhilarating. Issei gave her less than a second's reprieve before he jumped again. This time, he landed on a nearby rooftop.

Issei continued to travel through the city with this method, jumping from house to house like a caffeine-fueled super kangaroo.

The transmigrator was moving in a certain direction. Right now, he had only one goal in mind.

What was the best way to calm a person down?

Issei did not quite know the answer, but he was a bit partial to hot cocoa.