Thugs again

The reputation gains for knowing the material and not showing off was also appreciated.

Thanks to the constant use of Stealth around people and managing to sneak up on them on went up to level ten, making it my highest skill –the bonuses it got at that level had me salivating. Reinforcement only got two levels after seven hours of constant use. I wanted to get it to level ten for the increase in bonuses that apparently happened every five levels of skill. Observe likewise got two levels and that was because I was even observing ants and plants. It now sat at level seven, meaning two more levels until I could see attributes and feelings.

When school ended I stopped using my skills to get a break for a few minutes, not that I needed it but it was an issue of the commodity. I wasn't going to get consumed by this. I will be the one consuming this ability and that best way to do that was being selfish. So if I wanted a break, I will get a break. I walked towards where, curiously enough, I had helped Katase and Murayama with the thugs and they were both waiting for me.

I waved at them. "Hello Mina-san, Miko-san," I said easily with a smile on my face. They smiled, well Katase smiled and Maruyama smirked as they gave me a shortwave. I approached them and shoved my hands into my pockets leaning on my right foot in a relaxed fashion.

"Issei-san," said Katase in greeting as she nodded at me. "How are you today? Sorry, we didn't get to speak earlier about you. Because we couldn't find you during the break," she said a tad sheepishly and she looked very cute like that.

Murayama rose an eyebrow at me. "Yeah. It was like you weren't in the school in the first place," she commented.

I rubbed the back of my head. "Ah. Sorry about that. I was actually taking a nap during the break behind the sakura tree. I'm sure anyone would be hard pressed to find me there," I said with a chuckle. It was true I was behind the sakura tree but they didn't need to know I had been meditating to grind skills faster.

Katase waved off my apology. "Don't worry. We just wanted to tell you we were going to go to a sweet's store not too far from here," she said and she motioned with her head as she began to walk, Murayama doing the same. I fell into step beside them easily and Katase rose an amused eyebrow at me. "Aren't you going to complain about sweets being too girly for you?" She said in a mocking voice teasingly.

I shook my head with a shrug and smiled lazily. "Nah. Unlike most guys, I don't mind sweets even if I don't go out of my way to eat them. Except for chocolate. Chocolate is awesome," I said sagely as I closed my eyes and sighed in bliss just thinking about chocolate. If you haven't figured out, I love chocolate.

Murayama kept her smirk in place as Katase groaned. "Well at least someone knows what the good stuff is," she said and I grinned at her as I heard that and I extended my hands towards her closed into a fist. Her smirk widened and she fist pumped me. Girls like it when you slightly treat them as if they were boys occasionally because in their mind you are seeing them as equals.

"Not another one," I heard Katase mutter and if the cheeky grin Murayama threw her way was anything to go by then she also heard her. I smirked at Katase and she took notice of our amusement and she took out her cute pink tongue at us. "Don't matter what you say vanilla will always be better than chocolate. And that's final!"

I scoffed but kept my smirk. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night," I told her and watched in amusement as she narrowed her eyes at me and huffed before crossing her arms under her bust and looking away, seemingly annoyed.

Murayama snickered and she mouthed 'Nice' to me and I nodded back at her just as amused. We lapsed then into a comfortable silence as the girls led me towards the sweet's store. It only took about five minutes to arrive and it was slightly plain but it looked inviting enough. We went inside and took a table by the window and we were immediately attended by a cute waitress. I ordered a chocolate milkshake with caramel, Miko ordered a vanilla ice cream with strawberry syrup on top and Mina ordered chocolate and Neapolitan ice cream.

As we waited for our orders Miko turned towards me with an interested look on her face. "I didn't get the change to ask yesterday but I was wondering where and when did you learn to fight like that? You don't look like a fighter at all."

Murayama also looked interested and I nodded towards them. "Like I said yesterday it was a recent development. A few days after last year ended I was mugged and I was quite angry at myself because I was helpless. I decided to learn martial arts and went to a dojo outside of Kuoh and the master took pity on me. He thought me the basics which I picked on very fast and then he had me fight the other students which is the reason I learned so fast," I lied calmly to then and thanks to [Gamer's Mind] the lie was quite believable.

[Lie successful!]

Mina nodded her head. "That makes sense. You fought like you had experience but you didn't look like you were fighting for long. However since you were taught only the basics, which I suppose are how to punch, kick, block, dodge and throw, and then you began to fight people more experienced than you then is no wonder you can actually fight without looking the part," she deduced easily.

I nodded at her in confirmation. "Indeed but I have been exercising recently so it's my hope I will look like a fighter soon. I want thugs like those of yesterday to think twice before crossing me. I will not start fights but I'm going to make sure I end them," I said with a smirk.

Mina shared my smirk and nodded her head in approval while Miko shook her head but there was an amused smile on her face. "Savages," she muttered loud enough to be heard and Mina swatted at her lightly while I shrugged my shoulders with an amused chuckle. It didn't take long after that for our orders to arrive and it was an unspoken unanimous decision that our sweets were best enjoyed in silence.

After we were done we kept talking about ourselves and I have to admit that the original story didn't make justice to Mina's and Miko's characters. They had too much potential and they were portrayed even lesser than a filler character. Well, I'm going to change that. The fact that they were both supper hot only added to my motivation. And I could feel, thanks to my [Gamer Ability] and the reputation points, that they were taking the best kind of interest in me. I was not going to complain.

We spent an hour in the store and while I wanted to spend more time raising my RP (Reputation Points) with them I needed to go grinding my levels to get stronger as fast as I could to get stronger. If Rias was already observing Issei and since I was "Issei" then I had two weeks at the most to get as strong as I could before the shit hit the fan. And with the gamer ability and with my knowledge of games and manga/anime I know I'll get very, very strong.

We walked out of the store and I turned towards the two girls with a smile on my face. "Thanks for inviting me and for letting me pay. I hope that it'll be enough to repay anything perverted I have done to you in the past and that it allowed you to see that I'm serious about changing my blatant ways."

Mina nodded her head with a shrug of her shoulders while Miko smiled. "You are certainly on your way to redeem yourself in our eyes and if I'm honest you're not far off. We can see that you are serious about changing the obvious part of your perverseness. We, women, find it flattering when men look at us, but we like it better when they do it like you have been doing today, than the way you used to do it in the past," she said with a cheeky smirk and her face was slightly flushed.

Mina smirked as I blushed slightly and I chuckled nervously as I scratched the back of my head. "Sorry. It's hard not to look when you have two beautiful girls in front of you. I'll try harder. I promise."

Mina waved me off and shook her head as Miko giggled in amusement. "We don't mind as long as you don't are blatantly obvious about it. As Miko said, we find it very flattering," she said with a smirk on her face.

I chuckled nervously and shrugged my shoulders. "Well if that's the case then…"

I was interrupted by feeling ill intent directed at us and as the window popped out I turned towards the source to see a slightly bandaged Lieutenant Thug –The same one from yesterday walking towards us with a nasty glare on his face. Walking next to him was a bald man that was taller and bigger than him and was probably nastier than his friend. He had some scars on his face and he was hefting an aluminium bat.

Boss Thug. Lvl 15.

A despicable member of society that leads a gang of thugs committing minor crimes which include thievery, public harassment and the destruction of property. Nobody will really miss him if he were to suddenly disappear forever. He might be big and strong but he is very slow.

HP: 1000/1000

MP: 100/100

I idly noticed that there weren't people around again for what obviously was going to be a violent confrontation. I noticed the girls looking alight nervous and I saw that I was because they weren't carrying their shinai. It was understandable since they were trained in the use of it and not unhanded combat.

"Those are the ones I told you about Boss! Those two girls practice kendo and that guy knows martial arts! And they took our money too! Please avenge us, boss!" He cried petulantly once they were a few feet away from us as he pointed and I was surprised to see real, pitiful tears on his eyes.

The Thug Boss looked at us and snorted. "You idiots are weaklings if you were beat buy this scrawny little shit. But you are my subordinates and it is my duty to take care of you so I will avenge you," he then brandished his bat and a perverted smirk appeared on his face as he licked his lips, his eyes roaming the bodies of Miko and Mina. "And we are done we will have fun with those two beauties. You'll get dibs."

Mina and Miko gulped as they moved closer to each other and my eyebrow twitched in anger. While I wasn't against roleplaying a rape situation what this guy wanted to do was stepping over boundaries I wasn't willing to cross. I moved protectively in front of Mina and Miko and I set my face into a blank expression. "I'm afraid you'll have to get through me first," I said evenly and I almost smirked when I saw the lieutenant gulp in fright.

The girls looked at me with wide eyes and Miko opened his mouth to say something but I turned towards them and smiled reassuringly with my eyes closed. "Don't worry. As long as I am here nothing will ever happen to you," I said and I turned around so I didn't see how they reacted to my words.

The Thug Buss snorted and shrugged his wide, muscled shoulders. "If you insist then I will oblige, fag."

[Quest Alert!]

[The Cool Protector

Yesterday's actions had consequences for today. The boss of the gang you humiliated yesterday seeks revenge for his subordinates and he won't stop at anything until he hurts you badly and takes Miko Katase and Mina Murayama to do the unspeakable to them with the help of his gang. Defeat him soundly and protect the girls!

Reward: 2000 XP. Greatly increased closeness with Mina Murayama and Miko Katase. A surprise!

Failure: Severe injuries. Mina Murayama and Miko Katase will be raped and then killed.]