Update (09/04/2020)

Hi, everyone, Retribrutus here... Don't worry, I'm not going to announce this being end of the story or another hiatus rearing its ugly head. I'm only here to discuss why this chapter and the chapter for other stories haven't been updated lately. As you're all aware, Summer break is over and I unfortunately have to go back to school and finish my required courses before I can finally graduate. I want to finish and finally move on with my life and do something different or at least plan something out that's beyond just buying textbooks and scheduling my classes for next semester.

But enough about that. You didn't come here to read me complain about school, but the reason why this update's here and not the actual chapter. I'll be honest with you guys. After Chapter 80 (Wow, I never thought that I'd reach that number of chapters, but frankly I admit that I cheated with a few of them being Shorts and admittedly (now that I'm 22 and no longer the hyped up 17 year old) cringe anime openings), I already began writing the new chapter, but I had to delay that because I was moving back to school. Yes, I know that there's a quarantine, but I'd rather move away from home and focus on my work so when I do return its for relaxation and fun with loved ones. The point I'm making is that I'm not going to be in hiatus, but it will probably take me a while before the chapter pops up since I'm back to juggling school, work, and my writing.

So, expect a chapter this month or at best early October, and don't sneeze at this and say "Heh, yeah right, you're just making an empty promise just so you won't lose favorites and followers" because I could have just kept silent and left the story untouched until Christmas Break. If me taking too long to update a chapter is a turn off for readers then thats fine, I relate to dropping a story that reels me in only to leave me hanging by not updating for the past 6-8 months. But here's the thing, I hate giving myself a due date, but since I'm excited to finally move onto the next arc, and because I actually appreciate you readers, who tolerated to even stick through with this mess of a developing fanfic, I really want to try and go the extra mile and make something enjoyable for you and me to look back on.

Now before any of you complain about why this is an update rather than the actual chapter with all of this info in the Author's notes. I originally planned for that, but had I gone that route, I probably would have went into a hiatus as the next chapter is the end of the current arc. There's also the fact that I had planned another "Gutsy Sekiryuutei Question Corner before spilling all of this, but I figured that would waste more time that I would invest in writing the chapter, so I wanted to be up front and tell you my plans concerning:

1) "The Broken Promise of Twilight" Arc

2) The DxD Special: The Dragon Trio vs. Time (Yes, I'm actually going through with it)

3) ...Uh...I'll probably respond to reviews from last chapter for this part. Mention the TvTropes Page that I made for this fic and...I didn't really have a concrete third part to discuss...

So the next arc will probably be my serious one so far, not that I'm saying that things will be depressing or totally gory...okay, so it will probably be a bit explicit with the violence but considering how you all probably read the LN for Volume 6, that should be a given. No, it won't be sickeningly angsty, but I'll be covering some dark themes that I probably wouldn't have been careful with a few year ago. Of course, there will be comedy in the story since that's my forte, but even that's limited as to not hinder the story's pacing and write it to be during inappropriate moments that require things to be serious. Now this balance between being comedic and serious leads up to Michael Hanamura, the protagonist, as the way he'll be written will spark considerable contention with some of you since his character will steadily descend from being a Kind Hero to a "Selective" Protagonist. That might not make sense or seem that drastic to give you pause, but you'll be seeing how dramatic this is as the aftermath will even extend as just a small glimpse in the DxD Special*.

Yes, I'm REALLY going to do a DxD Special involving time travel. The setting of it will take place in between the end of "The Broken Promise of Twilight" Arc and the next arc involving Loki and them. So the basic gist of plot is your usual stop the bad guy from ruining the timeline and rewriting time itself, but this straightforward story gives the opportunity for some fan service/easter eggs to be glimpsed. Now of course, they're not going to be spoilers, but glimpses into the past and future for this Alternate Universe fic of DxD's own history. Now of course since we're dealing with time travel, we'll have to be introduced to Grand Deity of Time itself, Chronos, who watches over and maintains the flow of all time for the entirety of the DxD Universe. This single God is literally one of the remaining characters that know just about EVERYTHING in the story and keeps the entire universe from collapsing into utter chaos should there be frays in the timestream, his role is that integral that after allying with two like-minded friends to establish a basic system for the foundation of the world, he basically excommunicated himself from the Greek Mythology.

Now I'm sure you're wondering, if Chronos is that powerful to already fix the kinks in time, why even bother recruiting Michael, Saji, Shirou to help him out? Valid point, but that point is easily answered in the form of Chronos' fledgling daughter, Chrona, who I've been waiting to reveal ever since Azazel first referenced her in Chapter 35 (Filler) after unveiling his completely *COUGH!* Original *COUGH!* *COUGH!* "10-year Time Bazooka". With the role of Stand-In God of Time thrusted upon her, she enlists our heroes to prevent, Krovos from rewriting and restarting time itself. The conflict in the special will even reach out even beyond the confines of the main plot's timeline*.

I placed a lot of thought into this since I was planning to do a major DxD Multiverse Special chapter introducing and referencing the Original Canon DxD, and other DxD fanfictions like "Hollow Dragon Devil" after asking the author Sangai-Havoc for permission to reference and/or use Yukio quickly for the story and ask for his advice on how to write for the character in order to stay faithful to his protagonist's interpretation. At the time I had the help of Bamafelix (Current PN: AnotherNamelessHero) to really make it happen by also using but the special couldn't really lift off along with the fact that he no longer has the heart to continue writing, which is fine, sometimes its natural to fall out of love with something and I still pray that he's able to find something else that gave him the same if not more excitement as writing did for him in the past. So after the whole Multiverse idea was a bust, I settled with the time travel thing, and made sure to slowly work it into the story so it won't be a whiplash of new material.

Finally, we have answers and comments on Reviews (Chapter 80):

-(Guest): why do I feel like saji and tsubaki are going to do it?

Me: What happens offscreen, stays off screen, my dude.

-(ghostFLIN): Buen cap bro continua asi espero pronto el sig cap bien trabajo
[Translation]: Good cap bro continue so I hope soon the next cap good work

Me: Thanks, I'll be sure to update the new chapter as soon as I can.

-(ZirioAkatsuki): I really like the Saji x Tsubaki parts. Can you try doing the DxD specials? Especially the Udon moment Please put Saji on the Udon moment I want Tsubaki to feed him Udon like how she fed Issei from The Powerful Ones fanfic I hope you consider this. Thank you for being awesome

Me: Wow, I didn't think I'd get too much positive reception for setting up this pairing, , I thought I was the only one who remembered that classic of a DxD fic, especially with the fusion of Issei and Vali, ah...good times... As for the Short DxD specials from the anime, I usually do those should the mood take me, so I'll probably do it once I see it again and feel like its something I'd want to write like with that Koneko short where she became perverted and honest after drinking Rias' laced tea. Aw, thanks for being awesome as to give my fic a chance, Zirio.

-(Libertad the Second): Damn. I've always known that Sona will fall in love and make babies with Saji in this story. It's been foreshadowed way back in that 10 year future time travel cannon filler story thing and Saji interacting for a while with his future daughter with Sona. And Future Saji almost calling Tsubaki "Tsu-tan". In the canon story though, Momo falling in love with Saji only started in this Rating Game. So I imagine that this is where you can insert the other Student Council girls like Reya, Tsubasa and Meguri in the equation. I am not sure about your plans with them. And since you have a soft spot for Saji in this story, I figured you may have more plans in putting more into a dual protagonist role and also giving him more of a harem beyond the Student Council girls... (There's more but it would fill up more space.)

Me: You mean you actually remembered that bit!? Dude that is freaking awesome, I thought that flew over people's heads and simply got dismissed or forgotten about as the story continued. I'm actually serious, I worry that my old chapters might not have been coherent or picked up on by readers as I hope that they can see that I really build some stuff up for the story's future events like the whole red eyes thing that's going on with Michael, and how it popped up during his fight against Dohnaseek in Chapter 6. But back to the good boi, Saji. Its correct that he did interact with his future daughter, but its not Sona's daughter, who wasn't born ten years, and I won't spoil and reveal who it is. as for Saji's harem, that's in WIP since I'm not too keen on having the entirety of the Student Council be interested in him, but a few might start fancying him. The only one with a complete and established Harem list is Michael and that could be found the fic's TvTropes page with the last member being a spoiler.

As for Diadora's peerage and their fate, well...this where the contention with Michael will be as the story progresses to display his regression from Kind to Selective. Don't worry, he's not going to kill them, he does absolutely nothing and that in itself is the problem, so know that it'll leave me with two less Diadora servants to create a backstory for as their pleas for help are ignored and forsaken by both their God and a silently seething Michael sitting in place.

If you need a better picture of Michael would look like, literally Google "HxH Gon Sitting" and you'll catch my meaning and the severity of how dead focus Michael is.

-(D4C): Saji becoming eligible for promotion doesn't make much sense, especially when you consider how difficult it is to receive one and how small the number of Devils that rise is. Regardless of his performance, this was still a single Rating Game, which is far from enough to judge whether he's adequate enough to rise in the ranks. The praise from the two Gods is good and all, but that shouldn't mean anything in the Underworld's internal politics, which is dominated by traditionalist nobles that would oppose such a swift rise with so few exploits. All in all, it comes across as author favoritism in the end despite your claims to the contrary.

Me: I won't even dispute what your saying, even I felt that a bit of author favoritism was placed for Saji. Him getting the chance to promote to a Middle-Class Devil is pushing it a bit, but I think that your downplaying the whole thing by just limiting it to just the Underworld's internal policies and just thinking that the decision lies just with bigoted echelons of Devil noble society. The two gods that you mentioned weren't just gods, they were THE Chief Gods of their respective pantheons, who saw promise in Saji, and shared that with Sirzechs, who does have the power and authority to issue out the approval for a promotion after agreeing with their views. No where in Devil History ever since the inception of the Rating Games have there been officially invited guests from other mythologies to come watch and rate the players, and Saji just so happens to be the low ranked devil who was highly rated by Odin and Zeus, who are watching the games for the first time, for his hard work and achievements. Is there a bit of favoritism there? Meh, a little, but I'm not bending over backwards just make an excuse for it happening.

Getting the opportunity to promote isn't the same as getting promoted, he has to prove himself by taking the tests, and even after that, and IF he passes, he'll still have a lot of pressure on him to make sure that earns that middle-class rank as more eyes are on him. Look, in the end, I won't fault you for thinking that I show favoritism for Saji, I won't deny that he's my favorite character, but I believe that rare opportunities like these actually pop up in real life. And its not always a good thing since something so good as getting a promotion in society adds with it new stress that you weren't prepared for since things moved too fast. Plus, this achievement came at the cost of Saji's efforts which led to him sacrificing 100 years of his own lifespan and forcibly unlocking his Balance Breaker, so this reward is a bit balanced and pretty much bittersweet.

-(Hady09): yeah i feel disappointed about this, to be honest the similarity with issei it's too much, no i might said that this sekiryuutei is weakling, much weaker than issei which i myself found issei not that much stronger until youth gathering arc

Me: Well... I guess I understand what you're saying, but you don't really higlight the similarities between Michael and Issei or address the lack of differences between the two characters to comment on. I'm pretty sure that everyone agrees when I say that Michael's reception as a character is certainly less liked than Issei's as evidenced by the early chapters, but I don't quite see the similarities unless they're presented to me so I can find truth in your opinion. As for Michael being weaker than Issei, you have to be specific because are you comparing Mike to True Volume 4 Issei or the Youth Gathering Issei? Because if its the Youth Gathering Issei, then I might have to disagree with you since around this time Issei unlocked his complete Balance Breaker in his fight with Kuroka and has to wait 2 minutes to enter it, while Michael had unlocked an unstable form of his Balance Breaker all the way back in the Riser arc and had finally learned to control it and get over the 2 minute timer by the time he was done training.

Now if this isn't what you really meant then I'm sorry if I rambled on and missed your point, but based on your criticism there isn't much for me to latch onto, and genuinely want you guys to critic the bad parts of my story so it can stick with and get me better. I can't cry to insulting me or the story since its the internet and there are a dime a dozen comments like that. It admittedly hurts when you have a direct and brutal review that tears down my story, but those are the ones I enjoy the best since I know that they somewhat care about my story and wanting it to meet their expectations. Now don't tell Akeno-senpai, but I'm a bit of a masochist, so rip into my me and my story with valid points if your in the mood! Thanks for leaving the review, Hady, and if you can't follow my story anymore, i just hope that you find one that really steals your breath away and has excited for every incoming update.

Now there's a few reviews left, but I'm too tired to get to them, so lets move on to my shameless plug of this fics TVTropes page again! YAY! Search it! Search it! Search! IT! I'm very proud of myself since the old page got deleted so I had to build one up from scratch and it looks like its coming along quite nicely! So if you're interested in helping me edit it just PM me and I'll send you a discord link to join me in a chat so we can discuss the types of delicious tropes that we could add to the platter!

Welp, that's all that I wanted to say, just a reminder that this will be taken down once I'm done with the next chapter, so be on the look out when you see that the story's updated twice with the same 81 chapters.

Well, I'm Out so Peace Out!

I hope you all have a healthy and safe weekend + Labor day!