The Boosted Gear's fist cratered the locker room wall where Dean's head had been half a second earlier. Steam rolled off Issei Hyoudai's armored forearm as the sacred gear's voice boomed: **"DOUBLE CRITICAL—"**
Dean's **STATUS SCREEN** exploded with warnings before he hit the tile floor:
**WARNING: [BOOSTED GEAR ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED]**
**THREAT LEVEL: [DRAGON-CLASS]**
**RECOMMENDED ACTION: [DIMENSIONAL PHASE - 500 SP]**
He rolled left as Issei's second punch atomized three lockers. Rias Gremory's towel slipped in her scramble for cover—Dean's NZT-enhanced cognition noted the exact angle of her stumble (47 degrees), the trajectory of the falling soap bottle (0.7 seconds to impact), and the precise moment Loki decided to make everything worse.
"Interesting mating rituals," Loki mused, materializing upside-down from a ceiling vent just as Koneko's kick shattered the shower pipes. The resulting steam explosion obscured Dean's view as his **STATUS SCREEN** updated:
**ENEMIES ACQUIRED: [RIAS GREMORY, ISSEI HYOUDAI, KONEKO TOUJO]**
**OBJECTIVE UPDATE: [PACIFY DEVIL HEIRS - 5000 SP]**
**WARNING: [SERAFALL LEVIATHAN INBOUND - 00:02:59]**
Dean spat blood. "You call this pacifying?"
Loki caught Koneko's fist mid-strike and twisted. The nekomata's yowl was pure outrage. "Semantics."
Rias' power circle flared crimson beneath the steam. Dean's Precognition branch-paths showed three outcomes: incineration (92% probability), dimensional banishment (7%), and—
The fire alarm went off.
Dean's Quincy arm reformed into a reishi shield milliseconds before the sprinklers drenched them all. The **STATUS SCREEN** flashed:
**OPPORTUNITY DETECTED: [WATER CONDUCTIVITY - 100%]**
He jammed his silver fingers into the pooling water.
Ten thousand volts of stolen Hollow energy lit up the locker room like a Christmas tree.
**STATUS SCREEN UPDATE:**
**ENEMIES NEUTRALIZED: [TEMPORARY PARALYSIS]**
**SP AWARDED: [1000 - NONLETHAL SUBDUAL]**
Loki wrinkled his nose at the twitching devils. "Barbaric."
Dean grabbed Issei by the collar. The Boosted Gear's gauntlet flickered weakly. "Listen carefully, you horny bastard," Dean hissed, pressing his NZT-enhanced forehead against Issei's. "The Red Dragon Emperor is coming. And you're not ready."
The **STATUS SCREEN** pulsed:
**ISSEI HYOUDAI BOND: [5%]**
**RECOMMENDED APPROACH: [TRAUMATIC REVELATION]**
Dean showed him the memory—Cao Cao's spear through Issei's chest, Ophis' blood on the Kyoto streets, the Great War's corpse-paved battlefields. Issei's pupils dilated.
Loki sighed. "We're out of time."
The ceiling caved in.
Serafall Leviathan descended in a whirl of magical girl sparkles and annihilation-class mana. "~Mischief in my territory? Not~ cute!"
Dean's **STATUS SCREEN** screamed:
**WARNING: [MAOU-CLASS THREAT DETECTED]**
**EVASION PROBABILITY: [0.3%]**
**RECOMMENDED PURCHASE: [DIMENSIONAL BREACH - 3000 SP]**
He swiped Confirm just as Serafall's staff lit up with enough power to glass a city.
The world tore open—and spat them into a classroom where a white-haired boy in glasses was methodically disassembling a pistol.
**STATUS SCREEN RECALIBRATION:**
**CURRENT WORLD: [CLASSROOM OF THE ELITE - SECOND ITERATION]**
**NEW TARGET: [AYANOKŌJI KIYOTAKA]**
**OBJECTIVE: [RECRUIT WHITE ROOM ASSET - 15000 SP]**
Ayanokōji didn't look up. "You're late."
Dean's grin was a bullet in the chamber.
"Traffic was hell."