Chapter 4

Ken still vividly recalled one the many conversations he had with his friends.

"You'd want to live in DxD, too, wouldn't you, Ken?" Tim's familiar and somewhat nasally voice asked back then.

"Why would I want to live in that hellhole?"

"Huh? Really?" Another friend named Antony asked in surprise. "Even with a cheat?"

"That'd probably just draw more attention from dangerous people there, so still no."

"But the tits, Ken! Think of the tits!" Tim exclaimed while placing his forefingers against his temples.

"I'd rather be happy and healthy than horny and dead."

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"You know English that well? Who's Timu? And what are you even looking at?" Naru fired off multiple questions due to Ken's unusual outburst that interrupted his short flashback. When she followed his gaze, she raised an eyebrow due to only seeing normal people mulling about.

"It's nothing."

'Can Naru not see them? They stand out a lot, so maybe not.'

Ever so briefly, he studied the lines around them without fully activating his eyes. One unusual concept imprinted on his mind. 

{Mind Magic of a lower dimension cannot affect the mind of a being from a higher dimension.}

For some reason, that concept embedded itself in the forefront of his mind while looking at the glass-like texture surrounding the two girls. Unlike other things he read into and comprehended with his new cognition ability, he did not know exactly what kind of dimension the concept conveyed. At the very least, he understood that an anti-recognition magic blocked the perception of the average person from paying attention to the girls.

The fact that a form of anti-recognition magic surrounded the two girls convinced him that others like Naru truly could not see them. Therefore, not wanting to get involved with those two, Ken removed his gaze from them. 

Unfortunately, while removing his gaze from the two, he spotted another giant mass of lines and runes rounding a corner from an alley down the road. Although not as dense as the two girls, it far overshadowed the other pedestrians. 

Unlike the girls, this new person did not bother hiding themselves in any way, as evident by people avoiding them on the sidewalk. Detailed features could not be seen from this far away, but whoever it was garbed themselves in a brown trenchcoat, a black beanie hat, and a face mask.

'None of my business.'

Ken decisively ignored them all. So long as they did not bother him, he would not bother himself with them.

Not even a second later, he changed his mind.

The person who walked out from the alley raised a hand. A large black magic circle formed in front of his palm. Dozens of pitch black lances manifested around the person. Each one pulsated and hummed like caged electricity.

Screams echoed near the unknown person. People fled. Then, more people screamed and fled. Some pulled out phones to record. 

The red haired girl and black haired girl turned around to see what the commotion was just in time to see magic lances barreling toward them. 

Along the lances' path beyond the two girls, Ken ground his teeth in frustration. Almost like an automatic defense reaction, his eyes activated at maximum capacity. 

The world slowed in his perception. New blue threads formed between the magic lances and their expected targets. Most of the lances aimed directly at the two girls, but a few also careened toward pedestrians in different directions. Worst of all, three of the magic lances curved off toward the WcDonalds where Ken and Naru were currently eating. One of those three blue lines displayed the trajectory of a lance piercing the large window next to them.

Thoughts racing under the stress of imminent danger, his eyes locked onto the lance careening around the edges of a magical defensive barrier erected by the red-haired girl. It whizzed directly toward him.

Just like everything else, blue lines and symbols coated the lance's surface. In a split second, Ken's eyes pierced into its very substance. The structure, the invocation, the power source, the reasoning, the physical manifestation, and all other information about the magic stormed into his mind. 

Absorbing the knowledge in an instant, Ken's pupils dilated. His eyelids twitched. His pale irises glowed with a subtle blue hue. His skull hummed for only him to hear. 

Then, the lance disintegrated. Nothing remained of its existence.

Eyes straining as though pulled apart by an unseen force, Ken grit his teeth. He felt a sharp pop in both eyes, and his sight reddened. His eyes felt as though somebody had jabbed them with their fingers multiple times. The lines in the world dulled. His vision blurred and swirled.

Outside, several human torsos and heads exploded into shards of meat under magical bursts. Roads, sidewalks, and buildings alike crumbled under the bombardment. The two supernatural girls struggled to defend against it with defensive spells of their own.

Even through impaired vision, Ken saw chaos unfold outside. Despite the pain in his eyes, the corner of his vision caught Naru's face morphing into an expression of terror as magic lances pierced holes through pedestrians further away.

Now was not the time to worry about pain in his eyes.

Everything returned to normal speed in his view. He ignored the screams that rapidly crescendoed inside the restaurant and leapt from his seat. He yanked Naru by the arm and pulled her under himself. They fell to the ground with him covering her.

Just before they hit the ground, the other two lances bombarded the center and far side of the building. Two simultaneous explosions rocked their ears, followed by agonizing screams. Shards of broken glass and concrete rubble splintered in every direction. One of the walls caved in. A large chunk of concrete and rebar barreled past Ken and Naru, barely missing them by the length of an arm. 

Chunks of debris scraped and bombarded Ken's back and limbs. Likewise, Naru suffered several scrapes on her exposed legs. She instinctively clung to Ken's shirt with every ounce of strength she could muster, which was quite a bit since she ripped his shirt even more than the debris did. 

Briefly, Naru looked around, but upon seeing mutilated bodies and broken limbs everywhere, she shivered. Instead, she focused her gaze on Ken. He looked back at her.

"You okay, Naru?"

Naru didn't reply right away. Her eyes remained steadfastly focused on how bloodshot her cousin's eyes were. She even saw small drops of blood in the corners of his eyes.

"I'm okay, but are you okay? I'll call an ambulance for you."

Ken nodded and said, "Good idea."

Considering how young the Rias and Akeno he saw outside were, he doubted Asia had joined them yet. Unless an angel randomly showed up to heal all the humans here or something, he figured a hospital was the next best option. He didn't worry about his body that much, but his eyes hurt terribly. In fact, he ended up closing them since it hurt too much to keep them open anymore. 

'At least I prevented the worst by somehow deleting that one lance.'

"Wait, Ken-kun! Don't fall asleep! Don't die on me now!"

"I'm not dying. I just got debris in my eyes."

"Oh, uh, I see," Naru mumbled with mixed anxiousness and embarrassment. 

With Ken assuring her that he was okay for now, she reached over to her purse sitting on the floor nearby. Due to slightly shaky hands, she struggled to reach it and pull it closer, but she did not make an effort to crawl out from under Ken to get a better grip, either.

Feeling Naru move about underneath him, Ken said, "Sorry. I'll move."

"It's okay. I already got it. You shouldn't move while injured."

Ken shook his head and raised himself off from his cousin anyway. With his eyes closed, he failed to see her somewhat reluctant expression. 

For the time being, he carefully scooched back toward where he remembered the wall to be, but he moved slowly enough to avoid cutting himself on glass or concrete shards. Naru followed and sat next to him while dialing the emergency number. 

While listening to the dial tone, Naru grumbled, "If I run into the guy who hurt you like this, I'm going to break his jaw."

Raising a brow, Ken turned his head toward her, but then he shook his head. Once again, he tried to open his eyes, but it immediately felt like a sandstorm blasted into his eyes. Although he could not see, he heard constant explosions and cracks of thunder outside.

'I'd like to see how things are going out there, but damn this hurts.'

Not quite trusting the abilities of the young devil girls, he hoped to check on the fight outside. He forced himself to open his eyes and clenched his hands into fists in order to fight through the burning pain in his eyes. Through reddened vision, he quickly raised his head just enough to peek out through the broken window.

Upon seeing the two girls somewhat handling the attacker after overcoming the initial surprise attack, a sigh of relief slipped from his mouth. That was a plus since he didn't really care what the situation was like for those girls as long as he and Naru got out of it okay.

Next to him, Naru anxiously explained the emergency on her phone to an operator. Satisfied that he did not die to the supernatural in this world that he always vehemently told his friends he would never want to live in, he closed his eyes again to relieve himself of the constant stinging pain.

'So much for being happy and healthy. Doing my best is going to be a lot harder than I thought, mom.'