Chapter: 13

Chapter 13:

"His mind is blocked from me for some reason," Emma called out with a frown. Her hands were on Gasper's temples as she was about to start the purge of the evil transmigrator's consciousness.

I noticed that the unconscious Gasper was still wearing that strange metal headband on his head. I pointed it out and told Emma to take it off him. I had wondered why he was wearing it in the first place.

"The barrier blocking his mind is gone now." Emma stated in relief once the headband came off Gasper's head. "Whatever this thing is, it can block my telepathy." She tossed it over to me before she went back to her task.

I examined the headband. From far away, it looked to just be a metallic colored strip of cloth. From up close, it seemed to be integrated with micro-circuitry! Whatever it was, it was beyond me, just like the blaster was. I'd pass both of these tech items along to Nezu and let him figure them out.

Rias looked at me concerned. "Are you okay, Akane? You really shouldn't be standing. Sona messaged me earlier. The battle is over in Kuoh. All the surviving Fallen Angels and stray exorcists are being rounded up. Once they're done, Asia will come here to heal you." She sounded worried. My stomach did burn, but I could tell the blaster wound wasn't devastating. I would like for Asia to heal me so it wouldn't leave a scar, though. I wasn't afraid to admit I was too vain to want to keep a scar.

Still, though, I did what she asked and took a seat on the ground. Rias and Akeno joined me as they fussed over my wound.

"Ugh," Emma called out from where she was leaning over Gasper. "It's done. The transmigrator has been purged. He was a disgusting piece of work. In his past life, his crimes were so great that he actually got the death penalty!" Emma exclaimed. She didn't elaborate further. She looked like she was going to be a bit sick.

"It's ok, Emma. You did a great job. Why don't you take a rest. That looked like it took a lot out of you."

  "Thank you. I do have some more disturbing information to share, but it can wait til later." Emma walked away to the edge of the clearing and sat down in a meditative pose. She said she needed to expel all the man's unpleasant memories she didn't want to keep in her head.

While Emma sat off to the side to do that, Rias jumped up excitedly before she ran over and glomped me in a big hug. "Thank you so much!" Rias exclaimed in happiness. "I'll never be able to thank you guys enough!" She then let me go and ran over to Robin and gave him a big hug too. I laughed as his face was shoved right into her bosom. He started squirming awkwardly, trying to escape. I pulled out my phone and snapped a quick blackmail pic. When Rias finally released him, his face was bright red from embarrassment.

"Y-you're welcome, Rias," Robin sputtered out. "Now, if you don't mind, there's something I need to do real quick."

Robin escaped the enthusiastic Rias and walked over to where Gasper lay on the ground. He reached down and started frisking Gasper's unconscious body... there wasn't really a better way to phrase that.

I turned and looked at him awkwardly. "Um... what are you doing over there, Robin? You can't loot his body. This isn't a video game, and he's not dead…"

Robin sputtered in indignation. "T-that's not what I was doing!"

"Then what were you doing?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I wanted to confirm my theory from yesterday," Robin explained as he kept rummaging inside Gasper's pockets. "Here it is!" From Gasper's pants pocket, Robin pulled out… a smartphone.

That was odd. Why would Gasper have a phone? Who was he even going to call? He'd just arrived in this world and didn't know anyone. It's not like he had his own chat—NO! Was that possible?

"This phone," Robin said as he examined it closely. "...It seems to be perfectly functional, but I can't access it at all. No matter what I press, the screen won't light up at all… one more test then." Robin set the phone on the floor before he raised his metal boot and slammed it down on the fragile device! When he raised his foot back up, it was undamaged. Not a scratch.

"Son of a bitch!" I exclaimed. "He was part of a chat group too!? That explains where he got the Star Wars gun and the headband that blocked Emma's mind reading. The members of his chat group must have been able to send him those somehow."

"That's highly probable," Robin said.

"So, you guys are the hero chat group, right? Does that mean there's a villain chat group?" Rias questioned. She looked concerned.

"Ara, that's disturbing if it's true," Akeno added. "I'd rather not have to deal with any body snatchers again."

"Emma over there read his mind fully," I said and gestured to the still meditating blond. "We'll have to confirm from her later."

There was nothing we could do after that but wait for Emma to finish organizing her mind. A bit later, Sasuke showed up with Asia in his arms. Noticing I was injured, she immediately rushed over and started healing my burned stomach. I was amazed that it only took her around 30 seconds to fully heal me from that blaster shot. She had a better healing ability than any quirk I'd ever heard of. Even Recovery Girl couldn't hope to heal that fast with seemingly no effort involved.

…

A few hours later, all the chat group members were sitting back inside Rias's clubroom. It was only Rias and Akeno with us since her other peerage members were exhausted from defending the town. Gasper still hadn't woken up, and Asia was in bed.

"So, Sasuke, what happened in the fight? I heard there were more than 4 fallen?" I asked. Raynare must have called in reinforcements. I'm glad Kokabiel didn't show up. I'd have to warn Rias about him later. She didn't have Issei's Boosted Gear to rely on.

Sasuke arrogantly scoffed. "As if their numbers made a difference. I beat them just as easily as I did the first time. The glasses girl's peerage was also there, but I didn't need any help in the first place." He said with a smirk. Everyone was giving him impressed looks.

"He's lying… Sasuke got stabbed by a light spear in the back." Alice said nonchalantly.

...and everyone's impressed looks changed to deadpans.

"You got stabbed, man!?" Robin looked at him worried. "Are you okay?"

"Tsk… I'm fine. Asia healed me immediately. I just let my guard down a little bit at the end." Sasuke said.

We all collectively turned to Alice, hoping she'd give us a better explanation than that. Thankfully she did. "He was fighting that Ray-something girl and her 3 groupies. He had them all beaten up and at his mercy… and then he started monologuing. Another fallen stabbed him from behind while he was busy gloating about crushing them a second time in a row…" Alice explained. "I zipped over as fast as I could and beat up the Fallen Angel, and then raced Sasuke to Asia to get healed before he bled out!" 

"What the hell, Sasuke…" I trailed off. It sounded like he almost died due to his Uchiha arrogance.

At least Sasuke had the wherewithal to look embarrassed and ashamed.  "Whatever…" He muttered as he turned his head to the side. "It won't happen again. I'll be stepping up my training after this." 

"Other than that, everything else in the fight went smoothly. Sona's group was very competent as well, and all of the captured enemies were handed over to her. She said her sister would be arriving in a few hours to take all the prisoners away. After that, the regular townspeople were allowed to return to their homes. Sona hypnotized the police and had them tell everyone they had to evacuate in the first place due to a large gas leak," Alice finished explaining. It sounded like everything was wrapped up smoothly.

*DING*

Five simultaneous alerts went off from the phones of all the group chat members in the room. We all pulled out our devices to check them.

[System: Congratulations on completing your first mission! A new feature has been added to the Hero Chat Group. World Travel! Every 24 hours you can freely travel to the world of another group member. There's no limit on how long you can stay, but you can only travel again after 24 hours. You may take one person with you each trip.]

And just like that we unlocked world travel. That was awesome! I couldn't wait to see the other members' worlds. Except Emma's. Her world frankly sounded terrible in its current state. 

I heard someone immediately start sobbing and I turned and saw that it was Emma. "I don't have to go back!" She exclaimed with tears in her eyes. "I really don't have to go back to that hell! I can travel to another world and stay as long as I want…" Emma started letting out happy sobs. Alice walked over to her and gave her a hug. 

Robin and even the stoic Sasuke both told Emma that they were happy for her. "I'm glad you can escape your world and those horrible Sentinels that have done unspeakable things." Robin said. "But I do think in the future, when we are able to, we should travel back to your world and put a stop to them. Even if you no longer want to live there, you can't leave all the other people of your world to their grim fates." He said passionately. I agreed with him. That's what heroes do after all.

"I'll help too!" Alice exclaimed.

"I've never fought robots before," Sasuke murmured. "Sounds like fun."

"Of course I'll also go there and smash the shit out of all those Sentinels!" I added. I was already forming plans in my head about traveling there in the future for some scouting. With some supplies, I could easily stay the full 24 hours. I could even try to disable one of those Sentinels and bring it back for Nezu to study. The furry mad scientist is an expert in robotics and with any luck, he could figure out a weakness or even develop a virus against them.

"I hate to break it to everyone, but unfortunately I have to go back now. Batman told me to return as soon as I was able to. I know Emma has some information to report to us about the transmigrator, but she'll just have to tell me in the chat." Robin Said. I wished him goodbye and so did everyone else. 

"Bye Robin, it was really cool meeting you in real life!" Alice waved to him as he pressed something on his phone and vanished into the golden light.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted and we all turned to him to see him vanish in the same golden light.

"He just left without saying anything… that was rude." Rias commented.

"Ara, little Asia will be ever so disappointed her ninja knight has left the world." Akeno said.

Rias looked sad as she realized we were leaving. "I guess this is goodbye huh? I really wish we could keep in touch." She lamented. I wished we could too. 

*DING*

I looked down at my phone's latest notification. My eyes widened at what I read as a smile formed on my face. Looks like we weren't done with the DxD world quite yet.

[A new member has been added to the Group. Rias Gremory has been selected as the new member.]

There was a familiar flash of extremely bright golden light, before a familiar smartphone materialized in the room. It floated in the air momentarily, before it zipped forward and flew into Rias's hands. Her eyes widened in shock.

"Waaaaah!? I'm a member of the chat group now too!?" Rias asked excitedly before she let out a squeal. "Hell yes! I get to go on adventures in anime worlds too! This is the best day ever. And I can take a person with me!" Rias turned to Akeno. "We can go on adventures to anime world's together, Akeno! Isn't that exciting?" Rias asked her best friend.

Akeno tried her best to look enthused, but I could tell she just didn't have the same otaku passion that Rias had. "Ara, at least we can visit Akane in her world. After all, we still haven't repaid her for all of her help towards us. Isn't that right, Rias?" Akeno said teasingly as she grinned at me.

"You don't mind if I come to your world do you, Akane?" Emma asked me. I knew this question was coming.

"Of course you can, Emma. You can even stay with me at All Might tower." I told her.

"I would also like to join you in your world if that's alright…" Alice said as well. That surprised me. Was there something wrong with her world? Noticing my probably confused look, Alice continued. "I'm kind of on my own in my world. There's also a certain group that's been constantly trying to recruit me to join them. I haven't wanted to and lately their recruitment methods have gotten more and more aggressive. I can explain more later, but I'd prefer to not have to deal with them anymore." Alice told me. 

"Of course you can come too, Alice. You wouldn't even have to hide from the sun in my world. Lots of people in my world have quirks that make them sparkle, and there's also quirks that require people to drink blood as well." I said to her. Alice smiled as she told me that she hadn't even thought about that. She just wanted to stay with her new friends.

"I've been living my whole life hiding my supernatural abilities from humans. It'll be weird not having to anymore." Alice said. She looked happy about it. I reminded her that in my world was still dangerous though, and she would no longer be the strongest and fastest thing around like she was in the Twilight world.

Before we left, I was feeling pretty bold. I walked over to where Rias was still admiring her indestructible phone. She looked up at me with excitement in her eyes. "This is so cool Akane! I'm gonna ask my brother to train me so that I won't be a burden when we go on missions." Rias said. Her excitement turned to stuttering from what I did next, though. I leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

"Waaaaaaahh…" Rias was completely red faced. I then turned to Akeno and did the same to her. 

"Ufufu. Trying to claim me and Rias for yourself? How bold." Akeno said as she licked her lips.

I smiled at the beautiful devil pair. "I'll see you two later then~." I said before turning back to Emma and Alice. The former just let out a sigh from my blatant flirtations.

"… That was so bold, Akane…" Alice muttered. I suppose that was from her perspective. If this version of Alice never became a Cullen or never met Jasper, then I'm pretty sure she's been single for 100 years now…

"I wouldn't want to keep my people waiting either. Why don't we head out for now. We can always come back here later now that Rias is a member of the group." I said. Emma and Alice nodded as we all opened our phones.

[Initiate world travel to Plus Ultra's World?]

[Yes] [No]

I clicked yes and returned home.

XXX