Finished with that, Yuuji turned his gaze toward the hotel, which was already almost completely finished.
It had the appearance of a classic Japanese hot spring inn, with the difference that it was significantly larger.
While thinking about that, another device appeared in the area.
Some kind of giant spider whose body was a huge tall elongated glass container and whose mouth consisted of eight enormous tubes. The instant it appeared, those tubes began sucking in at full power with such force that an air vortex formed in front of the mechanical beast, the noise echoing throughout the entire place.
However, the transparent container in the center did not begin filling with air, but with dirt, while Yuuji noticed how the surrounding environment became more and more breathable as the dust and dirt in the air disappeared.
Once finished, the device vanished again as if nothing had happened before similar devices appeared.
Unlike the previous one, these were smaller and could fly, embedding themselves into the ceiling like spiders while a small drill began drilling upward until it reached the surface.
The difference was that these did not have such a murky appearance, instead looking like elegant futuristic robots that even turned invisible after starting their work.
"Some kind of alien air purifier?" Yuuji assumed while observing their use.
"Yuuji, I'm done!"
Finally, after a little over an hour, the hotel was completed.
"So? How did I do?" Lala asked proudly as she stood beside Yuuji.
"Perfect." Yuuji smiled while giving a thumbs up.
"Ooh, it's been a long time since I saw that gesture from you."
Curiously, Lala seemed more focused on the gesture than on the words, confusing Yuuji.
"Why are you focusing on that?"
"I don't know." Lala smiled.
"Lala, it turned out amazing!" Risa said while appearing behind them.
"Risa, what are you doing here?"
"Why do you look disappointed?" Risa teased after seeing Lala's expression before asking, "Could it be that you wanted more time to act lovey dovey?"
"Lovey dovey?" Lala asked without understanding the term.
"...Forget it." Risa gave up. "So, are we leaving already?"
"You already want to leave?" Yuuji asked.
"Yuuji, it's been almost two hours already, how long do you think normal people can stay in hot springs?
Although I would like to explore the inside of the hotel first, it looks amazing."
While speaking, Risa turned for a second to look at the inn, however, when she looked back at the couple, there was only empty space there.
"Eh?"
...
"Damn it, I forgot about this." Yuuji complained while looking at the surroundings.
"Yuuji, we're..."
"Yeah, we returned to the other world." Yuuji nodded.
"What will happen to the others?"
"I don't know." Yuuji admitted, although he was at least sure they were still in the To Love Ru world. However, they had no way out of the underground yet since they still had not made an exit.
While thinking about what to do, Yuuji frowned.
"Good." Lala clapped her hands, pulling Yuuji out of his thoughts. "The place is perfectly habitable, the hotel has all the necessary amenities and is already stocked with food. Besides, Run can protect them from any kind of threat.
Let's focus on completing this mission and return to them."
Hearing this, Yuuji visibly relaxed and nodded.
"Alright, thanks for that." he said.
'System'
[Due to your intervention, the timeline has deviated enormously from the original, creating both good and bad variables.
Repair the world line before it heads toward collapse.]
[Main Mission - Route of Power (3):
Due to the changes in the world, an organization noticed Issei Hyoudou before Rias Gremory. Such organization strongly opposes devils, and joining them will cause Issei Hyoudou to completely deviate from his original destiny.
Correct the trajectory of the world's protagonist so that it approaches his original destiny.
Similarity index of Issei Hyoudou's destiny: 30% (minimum required to complete the mission: 80%)]
'I need a more detailed explanation than this. What does it mean by heading toward collapse and how serious is it?'
[It is not truly serious.]
'Not serious?'
[It is not. The so called collapse of the world line simply means that this world's predetermined destiny can no longer be fulfilled.]
'That's all? Things will simply happen differently? Then what is the point of this mission?'
[As always. The mission is for you, the world does not matter.]
'Right.' Yuuji remembered that until now the missions had never been about helping or fixing something, so why would they now? It seemed they had simply added that part to make the mission sound more interesting.
'What about the similarity index of Issei Hyoudou's destiny? How does it work?'
[The more Issei's life resembles the one he should originally have, the higher the index. Once it reaches 80%, you may choose to leave this world or try increasing it even further for better rewards.]
'Easy to understand.' Yuuji nodded. 'Last question, what changes did my actions cause?'
[I cannot reveal that.]
"Mona." Yuuji said, switching to someone more reliable.
[Master, this world's network seems to use not only technology but also an original energy unique to this world. It will take at least a day to infiltrate and search for information.]
"Do it then."
After finishing that discussion and properly reviewing the mission, Yuuji explained the situation to Lala.
"But how do we know what Hyoudou's original destiny was?" Lala asked after hearing the explanation.
"Don't worry, I know about that." Yuuji said.
"Amazing, as expected of Yuuji."
Faced with Lala's excitement, Yuuji simply smiled.
Knowing this world's original destiny, completing the mission would be easy.
Although he asked Mona to investigate, in reality it was possible they would not even remain here for a full day and, while Yuuji would like to know what changes he caused, he was more worried about his friends trapped underground in the other world.
"Let's go." Yuuji extended his hand toward Lala and, the moment she took it, he lifted both of them into the air.
A bit of observation revealed that they were not in the Underworld but in the human world. Not only that, they were in Kuoh.
This made Yuuji suspicious, since not only was the mission simple, but the system itself seemed to be helping him.
"Too easy. Something is wrong." he muttered.
"What is it?" Lala asked.
"The mission is too easy."
"Should we investigate more?"
Yuuji thought for a second, debating between taking more time to make sure or hurrying in order to make sure the group in the other world was safe.
'System'
[The system has not been interfered with by administrators, so you do not need to distrust it.]
'...I'll trust you.'
Having made a decision, Yuuji set aside his suspicions and began searching for Issei's house.
Kuoh was not exactly a very large town, but it was not small either.
Fortunately, Japan is the kind of place where finding people is easier.
Stopping every few streets, Yuuji asked local elders for a while, the type of elderly people who know all their neighbors, until he finally found the place.
Although he heard about several Hyoudou families, only one had a single son, and besides, Issei's reputation was fairly widespread throughout the neighborhood.
"Did we arrive?"
"Yeah."
Yuuji's plan was simple. Rias needed strong members for her peerage, and even if that part of the plot had changed, any devil would still want powerful members, even if they no longer "needed" them as urgently as Rias originally did.
And according to what the locals told him, Issei was still the same pervert as always.
So Yuuji simply needed to convince Issei that he had power inside him and make him tell Rias so she would recruit him. Given the description of the mission, as long as Issei was recruited by Rias instead of that organization, the mission would be completed.
Of course, there were some variables. The first was that Issei might not believe him even after proving the supernatural exists, or that Rias might fail to detect anything inside him.
But since he was still the protagonist, he still possessed the Boosted Gear, so the solution to those two problems was simple, beat him up until he awakened his Sacred Gear.
The second and most important issue was the possibility that in this timeline the devil peerage system did not exist.
But Yuuji considered that extremely unlikely.
After all, the reason for its creation was the low number of devils left after the Great War. And no matter how random the butterfly effect might be, Yuuji had annihilated several devils, so it would be incredibly strange if that somehow caused the Evil Pieces to never be created.
Quite the opposite, if anything it should have made them create them even more desperately.
While thinking about this, Yuuji sensed something around him.
No, more accurately, he sensed nothing, every living being within a range of three hundred meters vanished, leaving only four people.
Yuuji, Lala, and two strangers.
"Lala..."
"Yeah, I noticed." Lala nodded.
At that moment the area fully closed off, transforming into an artificial night surrounded by an absolute black outline formed by a dome placed around the entire neighborhood.
Tap tap tap.
'Light footsteps. The fast and agile type.' Yuuji recognized.
Following the direction of the footsteps, two figures revealed themselves in front of him.
And upon seeing them, confusion appeared on Yuuji's face.
A petite girl with shoulder length white hair decorated with a pair of black cat hairpins on each side and golden brown eyes.
Despite how she looked at first glance, her footsteps were not light, and the gloves she wore revealed that she was the type who fought hand to hand.
Her companion, on the other hand, looked far more like the agile type.
The man, taller than average, with blond hair and fairly handsome features, revealed himself as a swordsman through his posture and the way he walked.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)