After Gorou's return home, the days passed calmly, without any major events.
Things became similar to the calm before the storm, in several aspects, for the head of the Hyoudou family.
Yet, he couldn't do anything about it.
He had already kicked the anthill named Grigori, and he didn't have any real support from an organization to protect him.
One of the reasons that allowed him to dare sleep at night at home was the dissociation between Gorou and the man named Hunter.
But once again, Issei Hyoudou was linked to both, and the Gremory clan was already subtly putting pressure on him for information.
Another reason is simple, due to obvious logic, both funny and sad.
He's just human.
Yes, he had started following magical training.
But it wasn't enough yet to really attract the attention of someone like Azazel.
For the leader of the Fallen Angels, he was just a normal magical human, without a Sacred Gear.
Nothing special.
"I'm going," said Gorou, as he left his house.
Issei caught up with him quickly.
Since the incident with the Fallen Angels, their relationship had slowly repaired itself.
But nothing extraordinary, like a complete return to normal.
Especially since Gorou had made sure to keep Asia away from him and the Devils during these two weeks.
"You wanna wish me a good trip too?" he said, spreading his arms for a hug.
Of course, he knew why Issei was there.
"W... When will I be able to see Asia?"
Exactly.
He had wanted to see her again since the day he abandoned her in an apartment about to be besieged by a group of Rogue Exorcists.
A real hero.
"Sigh... I told you, Issei." Gorou shook his head from left to right, wearing a tired expression.
"She needs to master her power, and you should do the same too," he said, glancing furtively at his hand.
At Gorou's words, the teenager clenched his fists before leaving.
'He's so worried about a girl he's known for less than a month, or barely two weeks... what about me?'
A small smile stretched across his face as he looked at the young man's back, as he headed toward his laboratory.
On the way, he glanced at a machine resembling dragon radars.
There were small lights on it, which indicated the different characteristics of people around Gorou.
'I don't understand why Ajuka didn't modify this invention to make it just as versatile.'
The greedy human detector.
A Devil technology that Gorou had studied and reproduced during his free time.
Originally, it only indicated people possessing strong greed.
Later, Gorou had modified it to indicate certain character traits besides greed.
Now, he had updated it again for greater range, and shrunk it to a size small enough to fit in his pocket.
'Oh, the neighbor is glowing deep pink.'
The pink color indicates that the person has a lustful personality, and the accentuated glow shows increasing activity of this aspect of her.
Gorou wanted to take a look, out of curiosity, only to finally stop his steps.
He was already too busy recently.
'I already have my sword training with Souji, and the dimensional portal on standby.'
A hentai heroine wasn't going to run away.
And if she had already been eaten?
No big deal, there are plenty of fish in the sea.
...
In a laboratory – or, more precisely, in a room of it unknown even to its own creator.
There was an albino woman, who was taking notes next to a board similar to those of conspiracy theorists, filled with information about Gorou.
There were various words in an unknown language on it, accompanied by ordinary photos of Gorou in mundane situations.
Anyone would find the board alarming, even unhealthy or morally questionable.
However, this was unknown to everyone in Gorou's laboratory.
The woman, with extremely pale skin and hair as white as snow, was observing a jar filled with an unknown greenish solution.
If a person approached, they could see a brain floating inside.
"Hmhm~ I succeeded."
The cloning of living creatures.
This was something that had fascinated Alpha since the beginning of her studies with her father.
The young girl had always been intrigued by her artificial nature, but also by life itself.
As for magic?
The existence of this hidden laboratory was born thanks to it, and to Alpha's frightening talent in this field.
Rei hadn't noticed anything, even though he was supposed to have more extensive knowledge in this field thanks to the Gremory clan's knowledge.
"This is proof that I can have auxiliary brains and extend my efficiency in multiple simultaneous tasks," she said, taking the jar in her arms like a treasure.
Normally, Alpha was always learning and assisting Gorou in his projects.
However, she had hit a wall.
Time.
Unlike her biological father, she didn't want an overly busy schedule, nor to depend on a tool like a good computer... or the entire control room.
That was just out of the question for Alpha.
Especially since she judged her personal research as too dangerous and intimate to expose carelessly.
Thus, she had spent the last few days studying processes related to her own birth or creation of artificial life.
Gorou had never found it useful to hide Alpha's nature from her, and he had destroyed all information related to the creation of her personality's submission to him.
So, there was no risk.
Thanks to this meticulously studied information, Alpha had been able to create a clone of her own brain, without ego or self-preservation instinct.
Her goal?
To extend her cognitive abilities, distribute tasks between each brain, all connected by a special link via a neural network.
A bit like a main AI that works on different servers for different objectives.
Alpha hadn't yet created the machine, nor the magic spell, that would manage the brain networks.
She had rather focused on the annihilation of any consciousness in these future auxiliary brains, because she didn't want other voices in her head.
Once her experiment was finished, Alpha would theoretically be intellectually unstoppable.
The pronoun "I" or "she" would no longer be appropriate.
Only "we" or "you" would be more suitable. But Alpha didn't plan to reveal her secret.
After all, she would potentially be poorly perceived by her master if she revealed her experiments.
She was perfectly aware that she was touching on taboo aspects of the mind and soul, from a moral point of view.
'The only problem in my project is the inability to infinitely increase my IQ by simply adding brains.'
She just wasn't strong enough.
Alpha had theorized that if Asia helped her, then...
"Tch... I'm not gonna ask for help from that hypocrite who hangs around Father."
At the mention of her father, she looked toward her suspicious board with a strange smile.
Finally, she left the place after seeing a surveillance video image showing Gorou entering the laboratory.
The latter had two small boxes in one hand, which he quickly concealed before entering