8 Afterglow of your First Time

It's been over an hour since Issei's encounter with the stray devil.

Right now, he was sitting on a park bench. Beside him was the girl that he had saved, someone who he still didn't know the name of.

The Park was a pretty nice place, all things considered. He remembered frequently coming here back when he was a child. He would often drag his friend Irina with him, and the two would construct these elaborate make-believe adventures. Their games usually lasted from sun-up to sun-down. It was a tiring affair, now that he thought about it, but the fun times he spent with Irina were irreplaceable.

At night, the Park gave a different vibe. It was a lot quieter and deceptively larger than it actually was.

Issei thought it would make for a great end-of-date location. Maybe he'd take his future girlfriend(s) here?

The transmigrator checked his phone. It was already 8 PM. He had texted his parents earlier that he'd be home late. Still, he couldn't help but be concerned. His parents were known worriers. Hopefully, they won't make too big a deal out of this.

Issei shifted his attention over to his unexpected companion.

The girl that he had rescued was far more composed than earlier. In her hands was a warm cup of hot cocoa. As expected, giving her some of that delicious brown nectar had been the right move.

She breathed out a long sigh. A small flush colored her cheeks as a whisp of steam leaked out from her slightly parted lips.

"Feeling better?" Issei asked.

She glanced up at him for a moment, before suddenly lowering her gaze to his midsection.

What was she looking at? His belt? Issei didn't wear a belt. Whatever it was, it caused the girl to blush red. She quickly shifted her gaze back up to meet his eyes.

The weird sequence of actions confused him, but he did not show it. Instead, Issei simply met her gaze with his own. Without the shadows to obstruct her face, Issei was able to catch a better view of the girl's appearance. More specifically, he was able to more closely inspect her eyes.

They were a dark amber color with small little gold flecks interspersed throughout the irises. Unless one were to actively look for them, then the gold flecks weren't really that noticeable.

As expected, her eyes were something else. They were beautiful, but more than aesthetic appreciation, Issei was focused on something else. There was something about her eyes that stood out. Something that made them unique. They were definitely different from normal eyes, but Issei couldn't quite place his finger on why.

What made her eyes so special?

"Who are you?" The girl's sudden question broke Issei's train of thought.

The transmigrator blinked. He sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Right, we haven't really introduced ourselves, have we? Sorry about that. My name's Hyoudou Issei. You can just call me Issei. As for what I am… uh, a middle school graduate?"

She shot him a look. The girl was clearly not amused by his response. He couldn't really blame her. After all, that was clearly not what she wanted to hear. Issei could only chuckle awkwardly.

Fortunately, the girl still returned the gesture.

"Kiryuu Aika. Also a middle school graduate," she paused for a moment, taking her sweet time to flash him a challenging look. "Now, can you please explain what happened earlier?"

"I figured you'd want to hear about that…" Issei sighed. He leaned back against his seat and crossed his arms. "Well, the short version is that I saved your life. That thing back there was a stray devil."

"A stray devil?" She repeated, the phrase foreign to her tongue.

He nodded. "They're apparently mutated devils. I don't really know why they mutated or how. From my interactions with that thing from earlier, I think it might have something to do with rebelling against their masters, but I'm not sure. Heck, I didn't even know devils had masters..."

Issei paused for a moment. He glanced over at the girl. She sported a dazed look on her face.

"Sorry, I was rambling." He sheepishly apologized. "To be honest, I don't really know a whole lot about the specifics of the supernatural side of the world…"

Issei trailed off. He was really bad at explaining things. Maybe he should get Ddraig in here to do the talking for him? Unfortunately, the old dragon wasn't very sociable to other people. The last time Ddraig had personally conversed with someone, it ended up with the both of them on the receiving end of a continent-wide kill order.

"Wait, did you say the supernatural?" Aika questioned. "As in ghosts and vampires and stuff?"

"Yup. That and devils, angels, gods, Big Foot, you name it. All the myths and legends are real. They might not show themselves to the general public, but they definitely do exist."

"You're joking, right? There's no way what you said is true. It just wouldn't make any sense…"

"You really don't believe me? I honestly thought you'd be easier to convince, considering the fact that you've just had your first encounter with the supernatural side of things."

"I… but that was…"

"That thing back there was a devil. A mutated devil to be sure, but a devil nonetheless."

"…"

At this point, Aika's denials ran dry as the girl lapsed into silence. It didn't take a genius to realize that she was currently in a state of shock. Of course, it was only natural. Having your worldview upended like that was a pretty big deal.

'Oi, partner, should you really be telling all this to that girl?" Ddraig suddenly interrupted.

Issei blinked in surprise. 'What do you mean?'

It wasn't like Aika was a part of a supernatural faction. With this girl, Issei did not have to worry about getting jumped by other forces. He really didn't know what problem Ddraig had with her.

'Well, there's an unspoken policy of secrecy between the factions.' Ddraig explained. 'Most of the time, the factions try and keep the mundane human world separated from the affairs of the moon-lit world.'

Issei nodded his head. That sort of made sense. A policy of secrecy was a common trope in many books and movies. Why wouldn't it apply here too?

'Wait, what happens when someone does find out about this stuff?' He quickly asked.

If the stuff in most popular media was to be trusted, then the answer definitely wasn't anything good.

Ddraig hesitated for a moment. 'Well, for those with the ability, they usually erase the related memories of whatever supernatural incident the human got caught up in.'

'I… do we have a skill for that?' He couldn't help but ask.

As far as Issei could remember, they never had such a martial skill. Well, that was mainly because there was never any need for one. Issei wasn't really that big on secrecy, and the Immortal World was pretty open regarding all of its mystical components. Heck, even the regular civilians knew the thirteen realms of cultivation.

Besides, mental manipulation was one of the standard abilities for the Nihility realm of cultivation. Cultivators of this realm could basically manipulate a person's personality and memories with the ease it took to lift a pencil. Issei had performed such a feat only once.

Back then, he had used his ability to change the memories of a hostile Sect Elder. Issei had changed the memories of their encounter. The Elder wrongly believed that he had fled to the west, when in actuality, he moved towards the east. Because of this, Issei was able to get three months' worth of extra time, which was just enough for him to break through to the next realm.

'I don't really know if we have one of those.' He felt Ddraig shrug his shoulders from inside the Boosted Gear. 'You may have stumbled upon one or two during your journey, I'm not certain. You'll probably have to check.'

Issei inwardly groaned at that.

The transmigrator had accrued over a million cultivation techniques, pill formulas, array blueprints, and martial arts manuals. In martial skill manuals alone, Issei had at least 500,000.

Martial skills were esoteric techniques that allowed cultivators to pull off amazing feats of wonder. A few examples include shooting fireballs from their fingers, lightning manipulation, and even high-speed teleportation. Mind manipulation certainly sounded like the type of ability that could be found within a Martial Skill manual.

When Issei's physical body was destroyed in the Immortal World, those manuals did not just disappear. They came with him to Earth, in the form of a mental copy. When Issei first stepped into the Nihility Realm, he had created something of a mental palace to help organize his thoughts. He also transcribed every cultivation manual into his palace. Unfortunately, the manuals and all the information within his mind palace were separate from his conscious self.

This meant that while he technically 'remembered' every single manual, he did not really know most of their contents.

If he wanted to find a cultivation manual pertaining to memory erasure, then he would need to enter his mind palace and personally search through its vast library.

Unfortunately, integrating the contents of his mind palace with his conscious self was impossible with his current cultivation realm. To fully subsume all that information, Issei would first need to reach the Soul Formation realm.

Naturally, Issei was unwilling to search through a library of over one million books, just for a measly martial skill manual.

'What happens when they can't erase the memories?' Issei asked the old dragon.

'Nothing good, partner.' Ddraig mentally shook his head. 'The lucky ones are sworn to secrecy via a geass. The unlucky ones are either killed or placed into indefinite servitude.'

Issei's face scrunched up at the last part.

"Hey, are you okay?" Aika's voice cut into his thoughts like a hot knife on butter. "You've been making all sorts of faces for a good while now. Is everything alright?"

"Ah, sorry." Issei scratched the back of his head. "It's just that, I suddenly remembered what happens to ordinary people who accidentally stumble into the supernatural world."

Aika probably understood the subtext of his words, as her facial expression suddenly morphed into a look of apprehension.

"What happens?"

"Well… the normal protocol is to wipe your memories clean." Aika widened her eyes in shock. "If that's not possible, then they're apparently killed off to preserve secrecy. Either that or enslavement."

At this point, her face had turned a pale white. Issei somewhat found it funny. It was a small change, but she was looked kind of like a jade beauty now.

"You… you're not going to do that to me, are you?" She slowly scooted away from him as she spoke.

"What!? No, definitely not!" He hurriedly responded. "I wouldn't do that to anyone, much less a cute girl."

His unfiltered words caused her face to redden up like a lobster.

"Besides…" Issei continued, "I'm not exactly normal. At least, not by supernatural standards."

Aika forced herself to calm down. She stared at the boy in front of her with curious eyes. "What do you mean? What are you?"

"I'm…" He lapsed into silence as he deliberated over how to respond. After a short while, he eventually decided to just go with the truth. In the first place, Issei was never really big on secrecy. Besides, who would she even tell?

The brown-haired transmigrator straightened his back and puffed out his chest. A look of pride bloomed on his face. "I am an Immortal Cultivator."

"Uh…" she stared blankly at him for a few seconds. "So like, you grow vegetables?"

Issei practically deflated. "No, I don't grow— you know what, just look it up."

So, she did. Thanks to the convenience of the smartphone, Aika googled the phrase 'Immortal Cultivator'.

After a few silent minutes had passed, she spoke again. "So, you're basically a magical martial artist?"

"Yeah, that about sums it up." Issei shrugged his shoulders. If you ignore the whole 'seeking immortality' thing, then magical martial artist was a pretty apt way of describing a cultivator.

"Huh… cool, I guess." Aika shrugged her shoulders. It was kind of a lackluster response, but then again, this girl had just gotten her worldview turned upside down. The knowledge that her savior was some magical martial artist didn't really seem all that groundbreaking by comparison.

"So, what happens to me now?" She asked, still a little concerned with what Issei had told her earlier.

"Well, your best bet is to probably just pretend none of this happened. Live an ignorant life, keep your head down, and hope to God you don't run into anything else supernatural."

She slowly nodded her head. That did sound like a reasonable enough solution. At the very least, it did not end with her getting killed or enslaved. Still, she couldn't help but feel unsatisfied. For her to just pretend that none of the events of tonight ever happened… it felt wrong.

"Or…" Issei trailed off. He looked up and met Aika's gaze. Again, he found her peculiar eyes fascinating. Without a shadow of a doubt, there was something unnatural about them.

Aika's spine shivered. The way he looked at her… It was a deep, penetrative gaze that felt almost predatory. Issei wasn't looking at her. He was looking past her. It was kind of perturbing… and slightly arousing.

In order to distract herself, she broke eye contact with the man. Unfortunately, her gaze wandered over to his pelvic region.

'Not helping!'

She squirmed in her seat. After taking a moment to calm her frantic breathing, she finally asked him. "Or I could do what?"

Issei blinked. And just like that, Issei was suddenly looking at her. He flashed a toothy smile. "Or you could be like me."

Aika tilted her head in confusion. "What?"

Issei's smile widened. "Would you like to learn how to cultivate?"