"Huh?"
He unconsciously let out a voice of surprise.
He looked around at his changed surroundings; he could see a single bed in the corner of the room, a shelf that contained a book and manga in another, and a computer with a gaming console placed on the desk beside the bed. Overall, it looked like a typical room for a high school boy.
"Did I teleport? That's impossible, but how can I suddenly change places instantly?"
He furrowed his brow in confusion; several possibilities entered his mind, each one making his brow furrow deeper. He then decided that standing around and thinking was not going to change his situation, so he approached the desk to take the smartphone placed on top of it.
He grabbed the smartphone and activated it, but then he noticed the smartphone had a password, and he didn't know the code to unlock it.
"What should I do? Should I—"
Sharp pain wrecked his brain, and he clutched his head while closing his eyes in grimace. He felt a large amount of information pour into his mind, but he couldn't analyze it yet because of the pain.
"Ugh!"
He groaned while gritting his teeth. Thankfully, after several moments, the pain slowly subsided, and he let out a breath of relief.
"Thank God, the pain is gone, but what the hell just happened?"
He confusedly rubbed his head to relieve some of the remaining pain, and then his eyes opened wide when he remembered memories worth a lifetime.
He furrowed his brow while analyzing the information. Apparently, he had been living in this world for 17 years as Ryou Akuma. There was nothing extraordinary about him; he lived a normal life with normal parents. But then something changed his normal life one day: his parents died in a car accident.
Ryou obviously feels sad about his parents' death and takes permission not to go to school for seven days to take care of his parents' funeral and his emotions by shutting himself in his room while playing video games and reading manga and novels.
On the last day, when he convinces himself to go back to school, memories from his past life appear, and that is the current situation.
He sighs as he skims through Ryou's memories until the last one. The reason he is convinced that Ryou is his reincarnation is that he feels all his memories and emotions are his own, including the sadness from his parents' death.
Thankfully, with the memory of his past life and his girlfriend comforting him, he can bear the pain of loss and move on from his parents' death.
His stomach suddenly grumbles loudly, and he looks at the clock on the wall. It is still early in the morning; he should have time to get breakfast and prepare himself to go to school.
With that in mind, he immediately walked toward the door, but then he paused and his eyes widened when he remembered the school name, Kuoh Academy.
His face paled and he gulped his saliva. While he felt it would be fine to be an ordinary person in the world he lived in, he didn't want to become a random casualty of people with supernatural powers.
He suddenly became stressed and thought about several ways to become stronger so he could protect himself and not die from someone randomly throwing a nuke in his general direction. But then he forcefully shook his head to get rid of that thought when his stomach grumbled louder than before.
"Arggh! I'll think about this later! For now, I want to eat... this empty stomach is driving me insane!"
Worrying about the potential danger is useless if he dies from hunger. With that decided, he opened the door to his room to go to the kitchen to get something to eat, but he paused for a moment to glance back at the room across from his bedroom before he turned back again and walked downstairs to the first floor.
◇ ◇ ◇
He absentmindedly ate his grilled fish while thinking about his future.
He would be fine for several years with his parents' inheritance; in that time, he should search for a part-time job to cover his living expenses.
He should also think about getting stronger. He doesn't really care to become the world's strongest, but at the very least, he wants to be strong enough to survive.
Munching on the steamed rice and grilled fish in his mouth, he thought about several options he could pursue to gain supernatural power.
Ding!
He widened his eyes in surprise when he heard a ringing bell. He looked toward the front door and hurriedly gulped his food while slurping the miso soup to wash his mouth. He then raised himself and went to the front door to greet his guests.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
"Yes! Yes! I am coming!"
He slightly increased his pace; it seemed his guests were slightly impatient hearing the bell ring multiple times. Arriving in front of the door, he opened the lock and swung the door open, feeling slightly curious about who was visiting him.
"Yes, what do you—"
He stared in a daze at his two guests.
The first one was a pretty girl with shoulder-length black hair wearing glasses. She had amethyst-colored eyes that sparkled every time light hit them. Her pink-colored lips stretched into a light smile while she looked at him. She was shorter in height than him, with a slim and proportional body.
The other one is another knee-length black-haired beauty who is also wearing glasses. She has light brown eyes with a calm smile spread across her face, and her height is a bit taller than his while having a voluptuous body that is unfit for a high school girl.
For a moment, his eyes linger on her big breasts for a lot longer before he turns toward their faces with a smile on his face.
"Well, how can I help you, Sitri-san and Sinra-san?"
Sona's smile turns into a teasing one when she notices where his gaze has wandered.
"Akuma-kun, it seems you are a bit naughty for staring at Tsubaki's breasts."
He closes his eyes in thought, hearing the teasing tone in her voice, before he opens his eyes again with a serious face.
"It's natural for a larger mass to attract objects, and it's only natural for a boy to look at big breasts."
Sona's teasing smile turns into a frown while Tsubaki's cheeks redden slightly. Sona then glares at him with pouting cheeks.
"Are you implying that I am not attractive because I have smaller breasts?"
"Who knows?"
Sona sighed when he casually shrugged his shoulder; she then looked at him in the eyes and said,
"Anyway, can the two of us enter?"
"Sure, do you two want a drink?"
"No need, it will be brief."
He then opened the door wide and invited them inside. The two then took off their shoes and wore the slippers on the shoe rack. He guided them into the guest room and sat on the sofa across from them.
"So? Why did the student council suddenly visit me?"
"Other than to visit you, who have been absent for seven days, I want you to join my peerage."
"Huh?"
He blankly and confusedly looked at Sona. It seemed Sona thought he didn't know about peerage, and she began explaining it to him in detail, including their race as devils and their history.
It was not for that reason he felt confused; he already knew about the supernatural in this world thanks to his previous life knowledge.
He was confused because she offered him to join her peerage. As far as he knew, Ryou Akuma was an ordinary person who had no connection to the supernatural world, so he really was confused why she offered him to become her peerage. Unless he had a hidden sacred gear inside him, her invitation wouldn't make any sense.
"And that's how it is. Do you believe in me now?"
Sona smirked after finishing her story while unfurling her devil wings alongside Tsubaki.
"Hmm, that's kind of unbelievable, but seeing those wings, I can't help but accept the reality."
He said while acting surprised by hanging his mouth open and opening his eyes wide. It seemed Sona was convinced by his acting; she and Tsubaki retracted their wings back onto their shoulders.
"So do you want to become a devil? There are a lot of benefits to becoming one."
Sona smiled pleasantly while offering her hand toward him. He couldn't help but think that she had a cute smile. He hesitated for a moment before he grabbed her hand in agreement; he couldn't throw this opportunity away.
"Alright! Let's turn you right away."
Sona smiled happily and she took the briefcase from Tsubaki that came out of nowhere, and opened it to show one rook and eight pawns with crystalline blue color.
It seemed she had not yet recruited Saji into her peerage.
"Come here, I'll put it inside you."
He felt weird hearing that line, but he still came toward her and sat by her side.
"It hurts in the beginning, but it will feel good in the end."
Again he felt weirded out when he heard that line coming from a pretty girl, but seeing the teasing smile on her face, he figured she was just making a joke.
Sona then took the rook piece from the briefcase and shoved it into his chest; after several moments of feeling nothing, the evil piece ejected from his chest.
"Hmm... so it's not enough, huh? In that case..."
Sona furrowed her brow and then took four pawn pieces at once and shoved them into his chest; again the pieces were ejected.
He stared at Sona, trying to increase the pieces one by one with confusion. He was pretty sure he was just an ordinary person; there was no way he was worth that much evil piece.
Did he have something powerful inside him?
He thought excitedly, with some nervousness, if there was really something powerful slumbering inside him, he wouldn't worry anymore about life in this world.
"Oh? Finally, all eight pieces, huh? You sure have a lot of potential, Akuma-kun. I am a bit worried that it wouldn't be enough to reincarnate you."
He snapped back from his thoughts when he heard Sona's happy and satisfied voice. He then looked downward to see his chest glowing blue with the Sitri clan crests on top of it.
After several moments, the glow in his chest subsided and the crests vanished. He then felt something click inside of him.
[Sinful System Activated]
[Race change item has been detected]
[Do you want to change your race?]
[Yes] / [No]
He stares dumbfoundly at the word that appears in the upper left corner of his vision; he doesn't know what to do as his mind blanks out upon seeing that.