High School DxD Volume 5

The time in the Underworld has been fun. It was a summer vacation I
didn’t think I would forget for my entire life.

As the train arrived at the underground platform on the human world-
side, I stretched myself.

“Well, we’ve arrived, we’ve arrived. Now then, let’s return home,
Asia—”

When I turned to look at Asia. A mysterious man with delicate
features had drawn near Asia.

“Asia Argento…We finally meet.”

“U-Umm…”

Asia was bewildered. This was bad! Was he a pervert! I won’t let
you put even a single finger on my Asia-chan!

“Hey, hey, hey! What business do you have with Asia!?”

I came between them! But, the mysterious delicate man questioned
Asia with a sincere expression.

“…So you’ve forgotten me. We should have met that time.”

The delicate man—Wait, I’ve seen him somewhere before. The
delicate man suddenly revealed his chest and showed a big scar
there. It was a deep scar. Asia’s eyes opened wide when she saw
that.

“—. That wound, could it be…”

Asia? You remember him?

“Yes, my face couldn’t be seen back then, but I am the devil from
that time.”

“—”

Asia became speechless at those words.

“My name is Diodora Astaroth. That time you weren’t able to treat it
to the point where a scar wouldn’t remain, but my life was saved due

to your Sacred Gear.”

I had heard about Asia’s past. She had been branded as a witch for
saving a devil by chance.

—That’s right, he was the devil who had been the trigger for Asia
being driven out of the Church.

“Diodora? You’re Diodora, aren’t you?”

Buchou seemed to recognise him…Ah, I remembered, he was at the
meeting between young devils! The handsome high-class devil from
that time! I think he was from the family of the current Beelzebub!

Diodora tenderly took Asia’s hand and kissed it! Y-You bastard, what
do you think you’re doing to Asia!?

I was about to leap at him, but without caring about that he spoke to
Asia.

“Asia, I came to meet you. I apologise that I couldn’t greet you at
that meeting. But, I think the encounter between you and I was
destiny. —I want you to be my wife. I love you.”

—He had proposed to Asia right in front of me.

The hot summer had come to an end, and the autumn that would
likely become long would soon begin.

Afterword

If the media expands, I’d to made character songs with the breasts
of each heroine singing.

The tsundere that has been long-awaited by the readers has
appeared (in Asia’s breasts, that is).

It’s been a while. Ishibumi here. More naughtiness has been done
yet again.

The story has come this far with just breasts as its material. Even
I’m surprised.

It’s to the extent that Ise has become a protagonist that does a
power-up like a Super Sa*yan and Ba*kai by poking breasts. Now
that I think about it, Ise snapped when Buchou’s breasts were nearly
halved, didn’t he?

About Bilingual…I was sick when of thought of it.

Volume 5 is the thickest book so far, but the afterword itself is also
long so that I can talk about it. There are spoilers mentioned
hereafter as well, so please read the rest of this volume first.

- New Characters and the Underworld

Now then, the new characters this time are the monster dragon and
the number one of the young devils, but I plan for Tannin and
Sairaorg to play an active role from now on, so please look forward
to them.

Vali’s comrades were revealed one after another as well. Koneko’s
onee-san “Kuroka”, the mysterious holy king sword-user. Are there
any others? That is a secret for the future.

The worldview was expanded in the previous volume, but I also had
to depict in detail the devil industry in the main story, so this time I
described that. From the beginning, I made the Three Great Powers
alliance for the sake of the Gremory group versus the Vali Team and
for the Rating Games between young devils.

I’ll also move forward while focusing on that from now on, and I’d like
to talk about things like the worldview and the setting in between
breaks.

Because, to the end, the main story is the high-school life and
romantic comedy of growing up of Ise and the others.

However, making the worldview of the Underworld was quite a
challenge. This work is a present-day fantasy. The present-day
Japan is also the stage in this world. Having to make a completely
different world from that was extremely difficult.

- Koneko and the club members

The setting of Koneko being a nekomata was discussed between
me and Editor-san from the beginning of the series. The chance
never quite came around and her true identity remained unknown for
over a year, but the ban was removed at last this time.

With this, all the members of the Occult Research Club has had their
pasts and identities revealed. Now I feel I just need to show how
they grow after that. Everyone has something they carry with them,
but I’d like to have they overcome it along with Ise.

When writing about the Occult Research club, I have the habit to
make pairs. For example, Rias-buchou and Akeno-san are the
“onee-sama duo”. These two were often at odds with each other
from volume 4, but this is because I’m writing them as the “onee-
sama duo” that compete for Ise.

So Xenovia has become a duo with Asia. Their first meeting was the
worst, but now they’re now friends through and through. I wanted to

establish a close friend for Asia and for Xenovia, so I thought of
making these two church-related people a duo.

Koneko-chan’s companion is Gasper, aka Gya-kun and Gya-suke.
The first-year duo. They’re a slanted pair as a sharp-tongued loli and
a hikikomori cross-dressing boy, but they’re both cute kouhai, so I
hope all the readers love them as well.

The last are the boy dup. Ise and Kiba. In the story, Kiba actively
teases Ise.

The ace is Kiba no matter how you look at it. Up until volume 5, the
ratio of enemies he’s defeated is in the top class among the club
members. Ise is the main character, so he’ll absolutely become
strong in the future. I also want Kiba to become similarly strong as a
partner who protects his back. Inside me, I want to make him play
as an active role as a rear main character, following Ise and Rias. In
any case, he’s easy to write about in battle.

Last is Azazel-sensei. He suddenly showed ways of fighting that no
one thought of to the club members, and displayed himself as a
deplorable teacher. This time he didn’t fight directly, but even so if
the number of readers who like sensei increase, I’ll be happy.

Now, there are many worries about what will become of the
remaining [Rook] piece, but that’s something to look forward to in
the future. I think it will come out within the next year.

Here is a single point about the front cover of volume 5. When you
take the wrapper off and look at the front cover, Koneko-chan’s **
is…

- Rating Game

Volume 5’s story focused on Koneko and Saji. I was especially
happy about writing the story this time because I’m been planning
this battle since I first created Saji. Since I wanted for Ise to be
defeated at least once and I thought that Saji was the only one for
that role.

I wanted to give Ise an ordeal in the volume he attained Balance
Breaker. I’m a severe author, aren’t I?

There are a lot of prodigy characters in this series, but even so I
was thinking that I’d like to also bring out effort-type characters. Ise
and Saji are effort-types. I didn’t want to write like you can’t succeed
if you’re talentless. Because I have usually found that hard work
pays out. This is the back theme this time.

I originally like thinking about the battlefields and tactics in Rating
Game battles, but because this work is a romantic comedy, I thought
that they shouldn’t just suddenly start playing the games, so I started
by reinforcing the characters and worldview first. There are still
more game battles to come in the future.

Speaking of which, did you notice? The members that retired and
the members that remained are reversed from the Phoenix battle.

- Advertisement

It’s late, but here’s an advertisement. Short stories have started
from this year’s Dragon Magazine November issue!

Before that, all the female club members also appeared on a ecchi
swimsuit poster (Buchou’s is a string swimsuit) + a short story in the
September issue, but the announcement was slow. I’m truly sorry.

To the readers who have only purchased the volumes, you may be
unfamiliar with the short stories, but it’s mainly making the characters
dash around in jokes and ero-moments.

The sale of the short stories’ collection is still uncertain, so please
read what you want.

- To all the readers

Thank you very much for all your support! Thanks to you, this series
has been doing well. It seems it will continue for a long time, so
please continue to take care of me. I’d like to reach ten volumes by
all means.

I’ve also received fan letters! Since volume 4, there have been a lot
of comments about Akeno-san. Did everyone fall for Akeno-san in
volume 4, I wonder? I also enjoy writing Akeno-san since volume 4.
Pay attention to the ero-ero onee-sama duo from now on. Of

course, Asia and Koneko-chan will also play an active part.

- About me

Thanks to this, I run to work every day. My lower back, which I
fractured from weariness back in early spring, is still in rehabilitation,
but it’s mostly fine now. Health is number one. I’ve also started
drinking aojiru. (Note: Vegetable juice made from green leafy
vegetables.)

- Thanks and about the next volume

I give thanks to Miyama Zero-sama and editor H-sama, for finally
being able to surpass five volumes.

Every time I oppai-oppai-talk to Editor-san, it’s “breasts this” and
“breasts that”. When we went to a Yakiniku restaurant together, we
also oppai-oppai-quarrelled.

I amended and corrected in Akeno-san’s finger-sucking scene in
volume 3, and the truth is I corrected Akeno-san’s scene in volume 4
as well. I remembered how to use Akeno-san in volume 5, so there
were no corrections this time.

This time I also wanted to do a “Ise powers up by sucking Buchou’s
breasts!”, but since I couldn’t take out anything further from the
fantasia collection, it was poking instead.

But, it was Editor-san who said the absurdity first, requesting
“Please put ero-material in the battle scenes” in volume 2. Thinking
that “It’s fine as it is, though”, I wrote and sent in the stupid
development where girls’ clothes are sent flying. Thinking that they’d
definitely refuse it, I was told “The best! This is it, this!” and given an
instant OK. That is the secret story of the creation of Dress Break.
I’m glad that Dress Break was born. The support of it from the
readers is also high. Consequently, the author and editor were both
ero-ero too.

However, I’ve finally gotten to the point of talking about breasts,
but…What will become of this work?

And Miyama Zero-sama. I sincerely apologise for always bringing

out absurd settings and characters. But, I’m already filled with
emotion from your wonderful illustrations in each volume. The
perfection of your colour monochrome pictures is so high they make
me tremble and shout “Amazing, amazing!” every time. All you
readers, really, please read the short stories as well. Just looking at
Miyama-san’s illustrations in the short stories make them plenty
enjoyable. With one of Buchou as a little girl and of an attractive
yuki-onna, you won’t get tired of looking at it.

The front-piece illustration of Ise’s armour and Vali’s armour in
volume 4 was really exciting. I was glad that transformation scene
had been made, and I unconsciously gave a guts pose when I saw
it.

It’s obvious, but I always and strongly believe that High School DxD
has managed to get this far with not just my power, but also thanks
to the assistance I’ve had from Miyama-san and Editor-san from the
beginning.

When I think about it, I’ve managed to came so far, but it seems it
will still continue for quite some time, so please continue your
support!

The next volume is about Asia. It ended with an incredible pull in
volume 5, but it will become serious in volume 6. The volume of the
second school term may become longer than the volume of the first
term, but please continue your support!

Credits

Author (石踏 一榮) Ichiei Ishibumi
Illustrator
Publisher (みやま零) Miyama-Zero
Translator
(富士見書房) Fujimi Shobo

Baka Tsuki
Eternal Dreamer

Book designer

Armaell