The atmosphere inside the Gremory residence was… strange.
It wasn't exactly tense, nor was it calm. It was just heavy. All the adults had rushed off to sort through the wreckage of the day. The territory had to be informed that everything was alright and that it was nothing serious, the clan leaders also had to be calmed down, as that fight had shaken the underworld, so most of them would have already been preparing for the worst if called.
Rias knew her brother well enough to know he and the other satans didn't want the news spreading that the leaders of the Underworld had suffered a crushing defeat, especially not to a human, so they had to cover the whole mess up, or at least to most of the underworld residents.
Rias stood in the center of the room. She had brought her peerage and the Takahashi's, her arms folded tightly beneath her large chest, pushing them upwards, something Issei seemed to appreciate. Her eyes were fixed on the two girls seated across from her.
Even now, hours after the dust had settled, she found it hard to believe. Her brother, Sirzechs Lucifer, the unstoppable, strongest devil in history, had been defeated. And not just defeated, but beaten and systematically dismantled in a two-on-one fight alongside Ajuka Beelzebub, the smartest mind in the underworld, hell, perhaps the world.
She looked at Ayaka and Aoi. They looked like normal girls. Everything just normal. The idea that these children were the offspring of that... that monster, was just hard to picture, even knowing them before seeing Kenji in action.
"Are you guys alright?" Rias asked, her voice softer than usual, carrying a hint of the exhaustion she was trying to hide.
Ayaka leaned back into the plush sofa, exhaling a long, shaky breath she seemed to have been holding since her father walked through that rift. "We're okay. Just a little..."
"Just wow," Aoi whispered, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees as if trying to keep herself from floating away.
Beside her, Koneko gave a small, quiet hum of agreement. "Hmm," she said, nodding solemnly.
"THAT WAS HELLA CRAZY!"
Issei suddenly exploded, jumping to his feet, making everyone in the room flinch. "Like, seriously! Dudes, your dad is crazy strong! Like, no offence, but like, he just came in them bam bam. dude was flattening the mountains, the freaking mountains."
There was a frantic, high-pitched edge to Issei's voice, a mix of terror and the kind of starstruck awe that only he could manage. He pointed a finger wildly toward the ceiling, his eyes wide. "Why didn't you tell us your dad was a freaking monster?! He was throwing hands with SATANS like they were amateurs!"
Thud.
Koneko's elbow drove straight into Issei's stomach. "Don't say stuff like that," she muttered, gesturing toward the girls.
Aoi shrank slightly at the word 'monster,' but Ayaka simply sighed, rubbing her temple. She raised her head to look at Rias and the rest of the peerage.
"Sorry about him," Rias said to her.
Ayaka just sighed, her expression reflecting a complicated mix of guilt and pride.
"I should be the one apologizing," Ayaka said, her voice steadying. "This was all my fault. If I had just listened to Dad and Mom... if I hadn't lied and stayed at home, none of this would have happened. I'm sorry for dragging you into his shadow."
Rias closed her eyes for a moment, the weight of the day pressing on her shoulders. "I can't really say that it's not your fault," she admitted, her honesty cutting through the room. Issei opened his mouth to defend Ayaka, but Koneko's hand was already hovering near his ribs, so he thought better of it.
Rias stepped closer, her red hair catching the light. "I would have appreciated it if you told me your father hadn't given you permission... but I think, deep down, I already knew. The fault is also on me. I wanted you here so badly that I ignored the truth I didn't want to acknowledge. My greed blinded me, and see how it ended."
The room fell into a pensive silence. It lasted until Issei, incapable of staying quiet while there was still air in his lungs, broke it again.
"I don't mean to offend, but your dad was awesome. Like, how does a guy even get that strong?" Issei's eyes practically sparkled with a desperate need for a training montage. "Imagine if I had that power. I'd have girls lining up from here to the human world! Hey... wait. Does your dad have a harem? A guy that powerful has to have, like, ten wives, right? Think of all the Boobs" he giggled perversely.
The temperature in the room plummeted. Literally, a thin layer of frost began to creep across the coffee table.
"Keep your perverted thoughts to yourself, you monkey in heat!" Ayaka yelled, her face flushing with a mix of anger and embarrassment.
Aoi didn't even speak, her eyes simply glowed a cold, icy blue as a jagged shard of frost shot across the room, nearly pinning Issei's sleeve to the wall.
"WAIT WAIT WAIT—!" Issei scrambled behind a chair, his hands up in a defensive posture.
"Stand still, you breast-obsessed moron!" Aoi growled, launching another wave of frost as she jumped from her seat to give chase. "I'll turn both your heads into a popsicle!" she screamed at him as he flinched and grabbed his lower head as he ran.
Akeno laughed softly behind her hand, her eyes half-lidded as she watched the chaos. Rias felt a small smile touch her lips. She wasn't sure if Issei was being a genuine idiot or if he was intentionally playing the fool to break the tension, but it was working. The heavy atmosphere was finally starting to crack under the weight of his stupidity.
Once things had settled down, Ayaka leaned forward, her expression turning serious again, a lingering curiosity that had been burning since the fight ended.
"Hey, Rias?"
"Yes?"
"You told me before that my dad was in the Top 40," Ayaka said, her brow furrowing as she replayed the image of her father standing over the bleeding Satans. "Are they all like that? Are the people above him that much more powerful than the man who just shook the world? If he's only 40, can number 1 just... delete reality by breathing?"
Because to her, that's what it seemed like. If this is 40, what of number 1?
Rias and Akeno exchanged a long, complicated look.
"What?" Ayaka asked, sensing the shift. "Did I say something wrong?"
"Ayaka... we were wrong," Rias admitted, her voice dropping low.
"Wrong? So he's not in the top 40, he's what... lower?" Ayaka tilted her head. She found it hard to imagine people more powerful than her father, but in a world of gods, she had braced herself for the idea that he might just be a small fish in a bigger pond.
"No," Akeno stepped forward, her usual playful demeanor gone. "What we mean is that we were wrong about where he stands in the rankings. As it stands, your father is at the very least Top 10."
The room went still. Aoi, who had been mid-step in her pursuit of Issei, froze. Issei stopped rubbing his bruised stomach, his jaw hanging open.
"The rankings in the Top 10 are usually shaky and shift often," Rias explained, her voice echoing in the quiet hall. "The beings there are so powerful that it's often hard to place certain people, and ranking them is hard. My brother, Sirzechs, is usually considered around 7th or 8th. Ajuka is right there with him. But your father faced both of them and won. By every metric of power, Kenji Takahashi is now one of the ten most dangerous beings in existence."
"Wow," several voices whispered in unison.
"That's... terrifying," Issei whispered to Asia.
Akeno nodded, her gaze turning distant. "And what makes it even scarier is that, as far as we can tell, he is one hundred percent human. No hidden dragon blood, no demonic heritage, no divine lineage. You have to understand that it takes a lot of time for humans to grow, hell, it takes every race to grow into power, and only a few among even those races are born with talent to get strong fast, talent, and time. But your father... he reached the pinnacle in what? A year? I don't think there has been anyone to reach this level of power in just a year."
Ayaka leaned back, "So... no human has ever reached his level? Not even the legendary heroes?"
Before anyone could answer, the door opened. Roman and Katie entered the room.
"Your father is unique, Lady Ayaka," Roman added, his voice tinged with unvarnished awe. "In all my years, I have seen many who claimed the title of 'strongest' come and go. Some deserved, others not so much. But I doubt there is anyone else like him in this world."
"We have secured the perimeter and made sure the residence is up to standard, my ladies," Katie said with a polite bow. Her eyes scanned the room, lingering for a fraction of a second on Rias, giving the girl a look when she went to speak, a silent reminder of who they truly worked for.
"Urg! Why are you guys still here?" Ayaka groaned, pulling a sofa cushion over her face. "Go back to the 'old man' and leave us alone. I don't need babysitters for a sleepover."
Roman shook his head, his expression unyielding. "We cannot. Your father is concerned for your safety, and our lives are quite literally forfeit if even a single scratch appears on you. We are not here to 'babysit', we are here to ensure that no one forgets the lesson your father taught them today."
"I know, I know," Ayaka's voice was muffled by the cushion. "But I can't live my life with him trying to control everything. It was nice having him around at first, it felt like a dream come true. But now it's like he's trying to make up for all those lost years all at once, and it just feels... too much. I want to breathe, have my own space, learn and grow on my own, too."
Suddenly, the front door burst open with a shower of magical glitter, interrupting Ayaka's words.
"HEEEEY~!"
Serafall Leviathan twirled into the room, her magical girl staff held high. Roman and Katie tensed instantly, their hands twitching toward their weapons. They had just finished a very pointed conversation with her, and they knew exactly what she was after.
Serafall paused, her eyes flicking to the two servants.
'Alright... new plan, the Satan thought to herself, her grin never wavering even as her mind worked at a thousand miles a minute. 'The parents are out of the way. I just need to win the girls over. Get them to talk about their father and whatever training he does. They're just kids, a little charm, and I'll have the secrets to Kenji's power in an hour. maybe find out his scared gear finally'.
Ayaka stared flatly at the Pink Satan, her cushion falling to her lap. "This is going to be annoying, isn't it?"
Far Away.
Kenji exhaled a long, slow breath as the scent of pine, damp earth, and salt water filled his lungs. The air here was different than home, it was cleaner, more vibrant, and saturated with a different kind of energy.
He looked up at the towering trees.
"Yeah," he muttered, his boots crunching on the forest floor. "This is more like it."
Quiet. For the first time in a while. The tension that had been coiled in his spine like a spring finally began to unwind.
"I needed this," he said. He sighed, but his golden eyes quickly sharpened.
He was back, back to the first world he had ever traversed, the world of Naruto.
He had stalled for too long, it was finally time to get the technique that'd make his future enemies shit themselves.
"The Shadow Clone Jutsu..."
A small grin spread across his face.
If he could create a hundred clones, he could train for a hundred years in a single day. He could master everything simultaneously, and with his system, it would be an even faster growth.
His growth would become even more exponential than it already was.
"Next time someone decides to test me..." Kenji stepped forward, his figure blurring into the shadows of the massive trees. "...they won't even understand what hit them. I'll be an army of one."
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