Addressing Critiques and Criticism

Hello, everyone. I know that this isn't the kind of chapter that y'all would like, but I just wanted to get stuff off my chest. Repressing all of this is starting to give me a headache.

1. "Forcing plot"

I have made my characters perform some actions that make it look like I'm doing so purely to move the plot forward, but please understand that there is a proper rationale behind these actions.

For example, Issei choosing to not attack Vali and Bikou when Bikou interrupted their fight in the most recent chapter. This was out of caution. Many people are used to stupid, trashy Issei, but I believe that it should be clear by now that I'm not aiming for that.

Bikou is another enemy from the Khaos Brigade, as far as Issei is concerned. And he's strong enough to bear being around the extremely dense aura shared between him and Vali. Issei has no knowledge of Bikou's capabilities beyond this, and so knows that it'll be foolish to just jump back into fighting.

2. "Haruki doesn't feel like the main character anymore."

But he is, though. I was never planning to have Haruki replace Issei, or have Issei removed from the story. Chapter 1 to 4 should have let everyone know that.

Having chapters be focused on other characters apart from the main character shows that they are actual individual beings, not NPCs that are only there for the main character's convenience.

And the battle between Issei and Vali is something that no one in the area had any right or true capability to interrupt. The brokenness of the Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing cannot be understated.

People canonically hate having to fight both Red and White Dragon Emperors, because they know that if they don't obliterate them in a single blow, the fight is almost as good as lost. It's just that canon Issei was agonizingly weak. Issei here is a High Rank being at his base, making him hundreds to thousands of times stronger than canon Issei.

3. This is specifically from Helios_Sol who called the developed and less burdened Koneko, and I quote, "busty bimbo trash".

Dude. Just what is up with you?

She is canonically a teenager whose body was forced into that state because, by the rules of her very species and race, she was lacking a basic part of her heritage, which she canonically got back. That image of her is a colorized version of an image from the novels. Which is the frickin source material that I'm using. I only reference the anime every once in a while.

4. "Haruki's backstory is contrived and lazy."

I'll be honest. Writing the detailed lives of characters as children is not an easy thing for me, especially when they live in heavily supernatural worlds with their parents. Mostly because I don't have much of an idea how to be a parent, or how a child would live under parental rules that I haven't lived under myself.

Second, I wanted to make it so that his dragon slayer powers aren't the only reason he is powerful. His parents are lightly given their own backstories to help build his.

Take Hanabi for example. She is an extremely talented magician, and a magic nerd. I don't know if you know this, but magic knowledge doesn't just land in your lap, even if you're in an organization that focuses on developing it.

So when she eventually left Grauzeberer, she still had an extreme interest in learning magic of all kinds. This adds a considerable amount of reasoning as to why Haruki, her son who also showed a high talent in magic, has a considerable amount of magic knowledge himself.

Nadeyoshi, like many animal yokai, has an innate level of talent for senjutsu. He had a notable level of talent, and was already training in using a staff. Sun Wukong, or since this is based in Japan, Son Goku, despite being a sage, is also very much a free spirit that does whatever the hell he wants. And this is canonical both in Highschool DxD and in the Journey to the West stories.

And he chose to take in Nadeyoshi as his disciple. Now, if it isn't clear enough, Haruki is a case of mutation, as when it comes to senjutsu, a quarter yokai is a usually just small step up from a normal human, and Haruki is not a usual case. And so while his body doesn't exhibit the physical features of his yokai heritage, the internal parts are more pronounced.

5. "Why didn't Haruki just kill Vali?"

First, Vali is a sworn brother to him, to the point that he actually treats Vali like a sibling, that he actually cares about.

Second, Divine Dividing. The Dragon Emperors are normally already hard enough to fight when they are strong and skilled with their Sacred Gears. Add a perfectly manifested Balance Breaker to that, and you end up with game breaking beings that can turn the tides of battles with their mere presence.

So until Haruki reaches the level of Heavenly Dragon by himself, a battle between him and Vali is more times than not, a losing one.

Thank you for reading up until this point. So if you have actual sensible criticisms, please don't hesitate to let them be known. I can only improve with proper feedback.

After all, y'all keep me motivated to write.