Thoughts

A few months passed by swiftly, and Issei continuously trained hard. And some might even call his training, a torture.

Currently, he can be seen in a forest nearby. It's currently night as he didn't want his parents to know he left.

"Haah," Issei with his fist coated in white aura, punched a nearby boulder.

*Bam!* *Crack!*

The boulder was split in two.

"Haaa, with this my foundation should be sturdy. I can now start with my real training," he muttered.

[So the first phase is finally done, partner. Going by your current physical strength, you've reach mid-class in terms of physical strength. But your training has little effect now.]

"Right, although the training method is good for gaining physical strength fast, it still has its shortcoming. But this should suffice for now, especially with my senjutsu. I could take on a normal high class with my experience albeit, it'll be quite taxing." Issei smiled, "And with due to this training, my foundation is sturdy. I wouldn't need to worry about problems in the future as I become more powerful."

[But from your memories of the future, you seem to have no problem even when you've gained all those strength quickly. It only took you a year to reach the level of the gods and then the following years, you've achieved strength equal or surpassing great red's and ophis's strength.]

"...That may seem what it looks like from my memories but in truth, I've only shown memories relating to the war. There are problems I and some other encountered in outlr path to become stronger. Especially me, unlike the others who gained strength over the years with some training, my strength was gained so fast because of the sudden events we encountered," Issei explained, "Because of that, my foundations weren't that sturdy. Of course along the way, I've been strained too but it still didn't fix all. Luckily though I even took a miracle drug, and when I 'died', my body was reconstructed using great red's flesh so it became sturdy."

[I understand, is that why you focused on physical training first?]

"Yes, I want to create a strong foundation to build my strength on. I need to become strong fast and I don't have time to wait for those future events to gain strength. Besides, going back to those events, it's a miracle that I didn't die and gained my strength so fast. It's like fate is favoring me or something."

Issei thought back to those series of events that happened in his youth. He might not think much of it in his youth but after maturing over the decades, he felt something was wrong with those turn of events and how his journey went. In fact, if he's being honest, he thought his teen-self would've died if not for those seemingly miraculous turn of events.

A great example would be when his body was reconstructed by great red and ophis when they don't have a reason to help him. There were many similar events like that which baffles him to this very day.

[Haha~ That makes a lot of sense since I've also seen your memories of those events. The way you survive those life and death events were just miraculous.]

"Right? Though I don't know if that's still the case now but I'd rather not be complacent. I need to be stronger faster, this is only just the start." Issei clenched his fist in determination.

[But what will you do in the future? Will you still follow the same path and become a devil once again? Or complete go on a new path to follow. What about companions, you would need them too for your future endeavor.]

Issei got silent after hearing Ddraig. What his partner said are valid points. Currently though, he's undecided if he will still follow through the same path of following Rias as his master.

There's also the point that, if he didn't follow that same path, his advantage of knowing the future might be voided as some event could diverge from the original course.

It took him some time before finally sighing,

"...I'm not sure yet. If I follow the sane path then it's gonna be smooth sailing for me with my experience. I could also gain the affection of my wives's past self." Issei said, "...But, it feels wrong to do so. Even though they were my wives in the future, currently we're just strangers, I don't think it's right for the 'me' who knows what will happen and how they fell for me, to just do so for the sake of obtaining their love once again. It's like someone growing a child for the purpose of becoming ones wife."

[You do have a point, that's quite a deplorable act if you see from another angle. But what do you plan then? There is two path, one is the easy way to get everything back and the other an unknown path.]

"I'll leave for the future, I'll just follow the flow for now. I'll focus more on becoming stronger so I could protect my loved ones whether they know me or we're just strangers currently. It doesn't change the fact that they were my loved ones."

['Partner, that's a lonely path you're walking into.'] Ddraig thought