A few days have passed since the phone conversation between #### and Gorou in the garage.
Gorou had already set up a laboratory under an abandoned church.
Unlike the first time, he worked on building the place himself without help.
Everything was created illegally to avoid leaving traces in the governmental system.
How was all this possible for a non-mage human in a city in Japan?
All this was made possible thanks to the creation of robots, which can perform simple tasks like cleaning or construction.
But none of them possess truly advanced artificial intelligence.
They're limited to simple and fixed tasks in their programming, because Gorou hasn't decided to create a combat-adapted robot or an AI assistant like Jarvis at the moment.
If Gorou had the choice, he would have already built it but...
"Even now, I'm still lacking equipment and research funds," he said in a tired tone.
Yet there was pride mixed in his voice.
Walking through the laboratory, his gaze turned toward a young boy of about 17 years old with red hair in one of the capsules.
By using robots for menial tasks, he was able to better focus on his research and particularly on those from the Sigurd Institute.
Thanks to the artificial human creation technology, combined with Stanford Pines' knowledge,
he was able to create two artificial creatures and one clone.
The first one was born from Rias Gremory's DNA.
Fortunately for him, the young devil is extremely careless with her belongings.
It wasn't too difficult to obtain her hair from Issei Hyoudou's bed.
This created young Rei in the capsule, who is already finished.
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He just needs to wake him up.
The second one isn't a complete creature, but a clone of the samurai named Soji Okita.
He's currently in an artificial coma.
Gorou will soon take him out of the capsule, after the final checks.
He looks surprisingly like his version from Shuumatsu no Valkyrie, but Gorou transformed him into a woman.
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Certainly, his act might make people think he has perverted views on his creation, like a certain scientist in DC with "the bride."
But the truth is quite different.
"Dr. Animo from the Ben 10 show showed me a dangerous path, but... I don't really have a choice for efficiency."
In creating the clone and Rei, Gorou didn't struggle to create them biologically thanks to his knowledge and the Sigurd Institute researchers.
He struggled to preserve part of their memory.
He had to dig into their genome himself, to find information related to the DNA donor individual and transmit it in a controlled manner to the clone and Rei.
Rei and Soji Okita are, in theory, as strong as their originals.
Except for one detail: Gorou censored everything related to their private lives.
They have information about language, magic, the supernatural world, their fighting style, but nothing else.
'Yet Soji Okita has too high a murderous instinct.'
Despite the memory erasure, Soji was born to kill and fight.
Gorou transformed the man into a woman to tone down that part of him, but it's too ingrained in his nature.
His little attempt is just desperate.
Yes, Gorou is a bit afraid of losing control over his battle thirst despite having ensured several times to make the clone instinctively comfortable and submissive to him.
As for making both creatures complete obedient slaves?
That was out of the question.
It would limit their potential.
He was obliged to give them a personality, memories, and emotions.
After checking the two entities, there was one last capsule.
It contained Gorou's current failure or masterpiece, as it was his future assistant.
Just creating her provided him with 4% synchronization, which is a good sign.
Stanford Pines' former assistant and partner could create giant robots with tons of scrap from a junkyard.
The system alert made him confident... too confident during the project application.
"You're the only non-combatant, because I don't want you to take that path."
This creation is literally the only non-combatant artificial human, but the most dangerous of the three creatures.
Gorou deliberately limited her to a certain level during her creation, otherwise he wouldn't have just gotten 4% synchronization.
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He hadn't just experimented on devils and other supernatural creatures, but on himself and human DNA.
Within ethical limits, of course.
The result is the woman in the capsule.
"Sorry, I can't grant you freedom equal to the other two."
Unlike the other two artificial creatures, who possess a certain free will,
Alpha is completely submissive to Gorou, thanks to thorough and meticulous brainwashing.
She's a fanatic down to the cellular level.
Apart from her body and soul adoration for her father, she has intellectual potential unknown to Gorou.
But one thing is certain for him:
She's superior to his 50% synchronization.
This pushed Gorou to avoid directing her toward direct combat.
Unconsciously, the scientist caressed the glass tenderly with a gentle look... almost paternal.
However, there was a trace of sadness in his gaze.
He blamed himself for botching his child, while nature had already messed up the other one's mindset.
One got pure power by chance and the other just got intelligence.
Gorou now wonders if the world is mocking him.
Unlike Soji Okita and Rias's clone, Alpha is technically his biological child.
Gorou was inspired by the creation of Agent 47 from the Hitman game to create her.
All the "good" and intelligent humans whose DNA he could buy from them via #### and the black market are in her.
Even Gorou's DNA is no exception.
She's potentially the intellectual apex of the human race in the DxD universe, but DNA related to martial arts wasn't used.
This is also the case for philosophy.
Gorou was extremely cautious and the price was a weakening related to these aspects in Alpha, as she has no knowledge in her memory related to those.
She just inherited scientific and magical knowledge from geniuses with clean histories without scandal.
'Magic worries me a bit and her appearance similar to Echidna doesn't help with my worries.'
Despite this, Gorou convinced himself that all albinos with dark and abyssal eyes can't be... obsessed with a particular goal, right?
Unfortunately, the future will demonstrate to Gorou his daughter's greedy nature for research and his well-being.
...
After leaving his perverted trio comrades, Issei headed toward the old school building.
During these last few days, he had to distribute flyers intended for greedy humans with the goal of concluding contracts or pacts with them.
What kind of agreement?
A service in exchange for money or a valuable object, but there are humans who can offer their life in a contract.
However, Rias destroys Issei's enthusiasm about this category of greedy humans.
"The value of human lives are not equal."
A phrase spoken by his mistress, which made Issei uncomfortable, but he ended up understanding it.
"Still, I don't understand why dad wanted to study the device that detects greedy people."
Issei will understand much later why the magical device was great from the perspective of a human anime fan.
After all, if it can detect a certain type of humans, then it would be possible to create a version targeting a specific category, right?
Finally, he reaches the old building.
"I'm coming in."
After announcing his presence, Issei entered the building.
Once inside, he noticed the presence of a good part of Rias's occult research club.
The room was dark, because the windows had been covered to prevent light from entering.
After all, daylight belongs to God and darkness to devils.
The only light available in the room comes from candles scattered in various ways on the floor.
"You finally arrived." Rias confirmed Issei's presence, before ordering Akeno something.
"Alright, Rias. Ise, come to the center of the magic circle."
During these last few days, Issei was able to get a little closer to Akeno and Koneko.
The woman one class his senior had even started using his nickname, along with Rias.
Issei nodded at Akeno's request, before joining her.
"Ise, your flyer distribution is finished. Well done."
Rias smiled at him.
He had finally finished the thankless task of distributing flyers every evening by bike.
Issei even remembers his father, who mocked him by calling him a helpful slave.
'Now dad will stop mocking me, because I'm moving on to serious things!'
A thought that inflamed his determination.
Unfortunately, he wasn't aware of the creation of a rival in his father's laboratory.
Rias's next words motivated him further.
"Now, I'm going to make you do the real work of a devil," she said in a serious tone.
"Now I can make contracts!?"
The idea of obtaining young girls' lives lit up an excitement in Issei that showed in his voice.
"Yes, that's right. But since it's your first time, it'll be a contract with someone who wants to fulfill a small wish. There are two reservation contracts with Koneko. Since it's difficult to do both, I'll leave you one."
"...Please, help me."
Koneko bowed her head toward him.
Issei fought fiercely not to pet the cute head of his junior by one class.
Akeno prepared the magic circle, while Rias took Issei's hand to allow him to use the Gremory clan symbol.
Everything seemed in place, but during the teleportation process... Issei failed.
This confused Akeno and Rias, but Issei quickly remembered his father's words.
'You have a pathetic amount of demonic energy, but you'll often have to use your Sacred Gear to use certain spells.'
It was thanks to this that he had been able to tear Rias and Akeno's clothes at the time.
Immediately, he followed his father's advice, while Rias and Akeno wondered how to resolve the unprecedented situation.
"...I... I'm disappearing..."
Issei teleported for the first time.
Gorou didn't know it, but the timeline had already started to deviate from its original path.
Issei remained a pervert, but was quickly learning to become a competent devil thanks to his simple advice.