On The Bench (AOT/DxD)

[SirGrim]

Wasn't expecting a philosophy crash course following the Rating Game chapter, but it was a good one! Excellent work.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

There was silence on the bench.

Both young men were lost in their own thoughts. One of them stared sightlessly at a sky he couldn't see through thick bandages.

The other stared at his left hand, held up in front of his face with a complicated expression.

Not a word had been exchanged in over five minutes.

Issei, usually the one to talk when he visited the sickly boy, hadn't even felt the time pass.

To be fair to the pervert, he had a voice in his head he could talk to—a real one.

[Partner. The boy is trying to talk to you.]

"Sorry," Issei said, snapping out of his funk to look at Eren, who, in an uncharacteristic move, had been the one to break the silence. "I didn't hear that Yaeger-senpai."

"Don't call me that," the blind boy said for the dozenth time, but there was no heat to it anymore.

That was something Issei still didn't understand.

Eren allowed Kiba to call him senpai without comment but tried to stop everyone from doing the same. The Red Dragon Emperor didn't know why. Even after reading his file and talking to the others, much about the dying boy was still a mystery to the high school student.

They had talked a few times in the last couple of weeks, primarily Issei trying to get to know his Peerage's friend.

It mostly devolved into the pervert talking about women and harems and providing in-depth descriptions of various girls' breasts since Eren couldn't see them.

(It should be noted that once she found out, Sona bribed Issei to lie about her cup size to the older boy.

Issei steadfastly refused.

To lie about Oppai was blasphemous of the highest order. He might be a devil now, but he wasn't evil.

Turning down the student council president's offer of all previously confiscated contraband was one of the hardest things the Rook had ever done in his life. Issei really missed his limited edition copy of Milky Paradise 3: Olympus Mons. He never collected all the scenes.

But doing God- ow- Satan's work was often unrewarding, even if it was the right thing to do.)

Today, the younger boy had picked up where he left off last time, comparing the merits of size, firmness, perkiness, and bounce versus body types. As Issei rambled, Eren had listened, even though he was not very engaged.

Sometimes, Issei thought Eren just liked the company. But once Issei had finished proselytizing about the merits of the 'Oppai Loli,' the Rook didn't continue.

Instead, he started to talk to Ddraig in his mind.

"I asked if you were all right."

"Ah," Issei awkwardly rubbed the back of his hair, trying to devise an excuse. "Sorry. I, uh, got lost in thought. I'm fine."

Eren didn't say anything, but his lips did press slightly in a frown.

"Really!" Issei said with cheer. "I'm great!"

[Partner.]

Issei ignored Ddraig's sigh in favour of keeping a focus on the older boy, who looked even more displeased than before. But rather than calling Issei out on whatever he wasn't happy about or continuing to press him about his silence, Eren shifted the conversation.

"You talk about girls a lot."

Even Issei knew that was an understatement of the century, but he stared at the other boy in confusion, wondering where he was going with this.

Eren was speaking slower than usual, even if it was in his regular, plain voice. Was he... embarrassed?

"Have you, um, been with a girl? Do you have a lover, I mean?"

The questions were so out of character that Issei stared, mouth slightly agape in surprise. Only when Eren smacked his leg with his cane did the student stutter out an answer.

"Uh, no. No, I don't."

"Why not?" Eren frowned. "You want one, don't you? Or do you not have a girl you like?"

"I like all girls! Big girls and small girls. Milfs and Lolis. There are no girls I don't like! No Oppai is wrong!" Issei declared passionately before deflating. "But... it's complicated."

Would you die for me?

Akeno. Do it.

Phantom pain pulsed through Issei's chest. Only part of it was physical.

Nobody achieved Balance Breaker without strong emotions.

"Why is it complicated?"

"Well, um, I, ah," Issei stuttered, trying to think of what to say. Direct questions like this were not really common among Japanese social norms, where feelings and circumstances were usually kept quiet. Throw in the secrecy of magic, and Issei was seriously panicking. "I'm not very well-liked, you see."

"And?"

"And girls don't want to date a pervert."

It somewhat hurt to admit it out loud, but Issei knew what people thought of him and his friends. But he didn't regret it. He might be a pervert and an idiot, but he was true to himself. He refused to hide who he was.

It just made finding a date difficult.

"But you want to make a harem?" Eren asked doubtfully.

"Of course! I am going to be a Harem King!"

[Partner.]

This time, Ddraig's sigh was less of sympathy and more of exasperated exhaustion.

Eren surprised Issei then. Unlike everyone else who had heard his dream, he didn't mock Issei or laugh at him. Instead, the older boy asked a simple question.

"What are you doing to become a 'Harem King?'"

"Uh," Issei stuttered once again, unsure how to handle the frank question. Too used to derision, the student was caught flat-footed. Even his fellow Peerage members, who didn't deride his dream, still didn't seem to get it and often joked about it to him. Koneko was especially brutal. "What do you mean?"

"How are you advancing toward your goal," Eren asked. "Having a dream is good, but you must work at it. Souna wants to be a teacher and is practicing with me. Yuuto is walking his path. Even Rias and Akeno have their own goals and ambitions they work towards, though I don't know what they are. So, I will ask you again. What are you doing to become a 'Harem King?'"

Issei floundered once more.

He did, in fact, have an answer. It just wasn't one he could tell Eren.

High-class devils received their own Evil Pieces, and it was common for those not interested in climbing the ranks of the Rating Games to fill them with lovers and make their Peerage into their own personal harem.

More than that, both Ddraig and Buchou had told him multiple times that dragons and their Sacred Gear holders tended to attract members of the opposite sex because of their power and presence.

The short answer to Eren's question was Issei was training to get stronger.

Every day, Issei worked with Kiba, Koneko, Akeno, and Rias to take advantage of his Rook traits. With Asia on hand, they didn't need to worry about permanent damage, so they could go all out.

Every day, Issei grew stronger and tougher and could last just a little longer in his Balance Breaker Armour.

So he'd never be that weak, that helpless, again.

And Issei wasn't the only one to feel the hunger after the fight with the Phenex peerage. Everyone was training harder than ever.

They bled, they fought, and they grew.

But with the older boy's ignorance of the supernatural, Issei couldn't say 'training' and have it make sense.

Instead, to buy time, Issei asked a question of his own.

"Why are you asking?" Issei's eyes lit up as an idea came to him. "Have you decided you want a harem as well?"

"No," Eren said plainly, and the Red Dragon Emperor deflated. "I'll be dead soon. It's no secret. I won't start a relationship with a girl for it to end in tragedy. Even if I had the chance."

"Oh," Issei wilted further. "Right. Sorry."

There had been something in Eren's voice, a regret maybe, but Issei didn't know the older boy well enough to say for sure.

"I am asking because you have been off all night," Eren said, not bothered by Issei's lack of tact. "And don't give me that 'I'm fine' bullshit. I've used that one enough to know when someone is faking it." Issei closed his mouth. Sometimes, he wondered if Eren really was blind. "You are not a complicated boy, Issei. That is not a bad thing. If you have a problem, it's most likely about girls."

Issei wanted to say that wasn't true but paused as he gave it some serious thought.

Yuum- Would you die for me? - Raynare had been the one to kill him, leading to his reincarnation.

Asia had been the one he had been defending when they tried to take her back.

And the Yakitori fight was because of Buchou's -Akeno. Do it.- forced engagement.

Come to think of it, baring Kiba, all the supernatural beings he knew of were female.

[Attracting attention, especially from the opposite sex, is typical for dragons.] Ddraig rumbled within his soul. [That isn't always a good thing.]

"Will you tell me what is wrong?" Eren asked.

Issei knew then that, whether he answered or not, Eren would accept his decision. So long as he acknowledged something was wrong, Eren wouldn't ask any further questions if Issei didn't want him to.

There was just one issue.

"I don't know," Issei said helplessly, looking at the older boy. Eren couldn't see the confusion, hesitancy, or fear in the brown eyes. "I don't know what the problem is. I don't know if there is a problem. I've been having... nightmares."

The young devil said the words slowly as if admitting it was a weakness, a sin he shouldn't speak of.

"I don't remember most of them, but they're bad. Really bad. I woke the whole house a few times. Asia has started sleeping with me so she can wake me up when I start... screaming."

Eren looked ready to say something, but he closed his mouth, gave his words more thought and eventually asked a simple question in his usual monotone.

"What do you remember?"

A spear of light pierced his chest. Red blood. Red hair.

Lightning. Fire. Pain. Red hair and green eyes filled with tears.

"Girls," Issei eventually said. "Familiar ones."

"Rias? She said she hurt you again."

"And others," Issei said lowly.

"Do you hate them?"

"NO!" Issei shouted in surprise at the question, looking at Eren in horror. "Buchou saved me. And she didn't want to hurt me. She didn't have a choice! I can't hate her for... what she did." He had almost let the circumstances slip but caught himself at the last second.

"And the other women?"

Issei couldn't answer.

He honestly didn't know.

It should have been easy.

Raynare had lied to him. Betrayed him. Killed him. Tried to kill him again. She hurt his friends and hurt Asia. Issei knew she had been a monster, and the world was probably better with her death.

It should have been easy to hate her.

Yet, Issei couldn't find it in himself to hate Yuuma Amano.

No matter what the circumstances, she had been the first positive experience with the opposite sex he had ever had outside his mother. For a few hours, while the fallen's mask had been on, Issei had thought about giving up his dream of a harem if it meant making this girl happy.

It was naive. It was stupid. But, for those few hours, Issei could understand why his father had given up on the same dream in order to be with his mother. Issei wouldn't do it after one date, but he could understand his father's choice for the first time.

To the fallen angel, it had been a fun game. Make pretend. A higher being toying with a hapless mortal.

To Issei?

It had been real.

"There's your problem," Eren sighed. "It is easy to hate. So easy. To rage and fight and kill. People say killing is hard. It isn't. Not when you hate your enemy. But when you don't? When you understand them, know about them, care about them, or love them? When you know why they are that way and why they do the things they do? Hatred is easy. To care is so much harder."

They were both quiet for a long moment.

Then Issei broke the silence in the most 'Issei Hyoudou' way possible.

"I want a harem."

"You've mentioned," Eren said dryly.

"It's been my dream for most of my life. I used to think it was going to be easy," Issei said softly, staring at his left arm again. "A previously all-girl school? It was like an anime or eroge. Even if most girls hated me, one or two would like me, right? I'd give it my best, and everything else would fall into place. In some way, I thought it was inevitable."

Becoming a devil had only made that feeling grow. A society with a system tailor-made for harems, accepted his perversion, saw him as valuable, and provided him a path to walk to his dream?

Issei had almost considered his inevitable harem as set in stone. He had entertained fantasies about who would be in it. Rias. Akeno. Koneko. Maybe even Asia, once she was more worldly. Maybe some classmates or other supernatural races.

Issei had imagined it. Fantasised about it.

Dreamed about it.

For a while, Issei Hyoudou had lived in a world where he was the protagonist.

Then it collapsed in a flash of light, a clap of thunder, and the searing of flesh.

Issei had spoken the truth when he said he didn't blame Rias. In some way, he didn't even blame Raynare.

Issei Hyoudou blamed himself.

He blamed himself for being a naive, perverted, too-honest, and too-trusting boy. Someone more intelligent, wiser, or better than him would not have fallen for Raynare's facade.

They wouldn't have gotten captured by a defeated enemy and used as a hostage against his friends. Someone else would not be this week and pathetic.

Buchou claimed that the Rating Game had shown the world Issei was one of the most promising Red Dragon Emperors to ever live.

Issei disagreed.

All it showed was a young, dumb, weak pervert in over his head.

"Now, I am not sure I will ever have a girlfriend again, let alone a harem."

"You might not," Eren nodded.

Issei stared at the boy.

That... was not encouraging. Far from comfort or advice, as the Rook had expected, the sickly boy had responded instantly and brutally.

And Issei couldn't deny the truth of the statement.

"But that will be for you to decide," Eren continued. "You have to decide what you want and what you fight for."

"I'm not that bright," Issei said hesitantly, rubbing the back of his head. "But I don't think that's how love works. I think I don't get to decide whether girls like me."

Eren frowned, opened his mouth, leaned back, and looked at the sky. Issei wondered if he had put his foot in his mouth again and accidentally said something wrong when the sickly boy spoke.

His voice was heavy, slow, and deliberate, as if every word was worth its weight in gold.

"I knew a couple, once. Younger than you are now," Eren started. "Trained with them for years. They danced around each other's feelings forever. When they got together, they were inseparable. We always joked about their inevitable marriage. Teased them. If two people were made for each other, it was them." Eren grit his teeth as he spat the following words. "He died the first day on the job. We found Hannah cradling what was left of Franz, refusing to face reality. Refusing to acknowledge that he was dead."

Issei froze. It was one thing to read about Eren's history as a mercenary; it was another to hear stories directly from him.

There was a weight to them. Like Issei was being entrusted with something precious. But they were also far from what a boy who, only a few months ago, was a regular teen had any frame of reference for.

For all the conflict and trauma Issei had dealt with since becoming a devil, he had never lost anyone he cared about. He didn't know what to say.

Thankfully, Eren didn't expect him to say anything just yet.

"My experience with romance isn't great either," Eren's voice deadened as if all emotions had drained from his body, yet his words were as impactful as ever. "I never really thought about love. Too busy chasing my goals. Too busy running ahead. I never noticed her feelings. In my defence, I had always considered her an overprotective sister and never considered her a romantic partner. Still," Eren paused as if lost in thought.

Even if Issei didn't know Eren as well as the others, he still could hear the regret thick in his voice.

"I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had understood her better. If I had known what she always felt for me. If I had known what I could feel for her. If we had more time together, would we have been happy? Or would it have been a greater tragedy?"

This time, when Eren paused, he did not continue to talk. He was lost in his memories, staring at a sky he couldn't see.

Issei had a lot of questions, but one floated up, interrupting the older boy's reverie.

"Who was she?"

"She was," Eren paused again, voice thick with emotion. Longing. Regret. Love. "She was quiet. Private. Protective. She would do anything for those she cared about. She was the strongest person I ever met. In body and in heart. But she never wanted to use that strength. She would have much preferred a quiet life than one of battle. But she chose to follow me. To protect me. She saved my life. So many times. Too many times."

Eren choked back something. Maybe a grunt. Maybe a sob.

"She was my sister. My family took her in after hers were killed by slavers. She was one of my best friends—someone I could always trust to have my back. I had always loved her. Not in that way. Not initially. She had been in love with me for years, but I was too dense to notice. To caught up in my own pain and rage. I didn't fall in love with her till later. Till it was too late."

"What happened?" Issei asked, fear making his voice tremble.

"She didn't die, if that's what you are asking," Eren said as he shook his head. "It was a close thing, though. That was how I fell in love with her, believe it or not. I had done something stupid and got myself captured. Again. People died to get me back. Too many people. And one of them was really dear to us, almost an uncle. We watched as he was torn apart. We almost died, too. We were about to. We were sure it was going to happen."

Eren raised his own left hand over his head as if to stare at it, unknowingly echoing Issei's previous position.

"All I could do was scream. Scream at myself for being helpless. For failing. For everything. It was all my fault. More than I realized at the time, it was all my fault. And yet..."

For the first time, Issei saw something else on Eren Yeager's face.

It was only a shadow, a hint of expression lost in his words, but Issei would swear up and down that Eren almost smiled.

"She smiled. She didn't care about my guilt, uselessness, or anything else. We were about to die, and she smiled as she thanked me. For being with her. For rescuing her from those slavers. For teaching her how to live. For wrapping that scarf around her neck. We were about to die, and all I could think about was how beautiful she was when she smiled."

Enraptured by the story and the emotions that so mirrored his circumstances, Issei couldn't help repeating his question.

"What happened next?"

"We survived," Eren nodded. "But things changed. My feelings had changed. Maybe she sensed it, but she no longer was as overprotective. And I no longer resented her concern, seeing it in a new light. It took me a while to sort out my feelings. I am not good with that sort of thing. But I realized what they were pretty quickly. But we had a final mission to do. After that, I would talk to her if we survived."

"Did she? Survive, I mean?" Issei asked eagerly before realizing how insensitive that question would be if she hadn't.

"We did," Eren thankfully nodded, but his face was set in a heavy frown. "Two hundred scouts died that day. Nine survived. The mission was a success, but my thoughts were... occupied. I put off confessing till we had a plan on what to do from there. But then I had one. A plan that would get me almost everything I ever wanted."

Despite his words, Eren did not sound happy. If anything, he sounded furious.

"I wanted it. I wanted that future so bad." Eren bit out, teeth clenching. "But it would cost me so much. The lives of my friends. And I would never be with her. Even if we loved each other, we'd never be together. I searched desperately for an alternative. A way to avoid that plan. To save lives. The lives of strangers and of my friends. To save the life I wanted to live with her. Even when I resigned myself, I was prepared to throw it all away if it meant spending those few years with her."

The fury that filled the blind boy fizzled out as he slumped against the bench in defeat.

"But that never happened," Eren sighed sadly. "Instead, I went ahead with the plan. We never so much as kissed. She probably moved on. I hope she moved on. I hope she is happy, even if it is not with me. I don't know what happened after I... left."

A creaking sound tore Issei's gaze from the older boy's bandaged face, and for the first time, the Rook noticed Eren's hands.

He had gripped his cane tightly, so tightly it had creaked under his white-knuckled grasp.

Unused to the overt display of emotion from the boy, Issei scrambled for a way to change the subject to something more positive, something that might bring back the hint of a smile he saw.

"What was the scarf you mentioned?" Issei asked hurriedly. "The one she thanked you for?"

It thankfully worked, and Eren's frown fell from his face for a softer expression as his fists unclenched. He took a deep breath as if to compose himself before he answered.

"I rescued her from slavers, and she saved me right after. But it was the middle of the night in the mountains. It was cold out." Eren idly raised a hand to his neck as if to adjust a scarf that wasn't there.

"I wrapped my scarf around her. It was a simple thing to me. She seemed cold, almost in rags, and I still had my clothes. She kept the scarf. For years, she never went anywhere without it. I didn't realize what it meant to her till that day. It meant much more to her than it did to me. I promised I would always wrap it around her."

Eren softly lowered his hand back to his cane as he whispered the last words, almost to himself.

"I hope she got rid of it."

"Do you regret it?" Issei couldn't help but ask, morbidly curious, as he remembered a small scrunchie.

A small gift purchased to commemorate his first-ever date.

"Since you can't be together, do you regret giving her the scarf?"

It was the wrong thing to ask.

"Listen to me, Issei Hyoudou," Eren said, voice quiet but intense as he suddenly leaned forward, turning to face Issei as if to look him in the eye.

All the Rook saw were bandages and a mouth set into a determined line.

"I am a monster. The Devil in every sense of the word. I have killed. I have murdered. I have more blood on my hands than anyone ever before or since. Throughout all my life, everything I have done has ended in tragedy. I have many regrets, far too many."

Eren stabbed at Issei with a finger, right in the heart, and the Rook flinched in surprise.

"There is one thing I have never regretted. It is the only purely good thing I have ever done. The only time I was ever a hero. No matter what happens, I will never, ever regret wrapping that scarf around her. Do you understand?"

Startled by the intensity of the blank gaze and the fervour in his voice, Issei hurried to answer as he nodded frantically.

"I do. I do. I understand."

Eren maintained his position for a few heartbeats after Issei's frantic answer as if daring him to take back his words. When Issei said nothing else, he relaxed back into his chair with a grunt.

"I got off topic," Eren said as he resettled. "I wasn't telling that story for memory's sake. There was a point. Did you get it?"

"Uh," Issei stuttered. He had honestly been too absorbed to think about the more profound implications or possible morals. "No. Sorry."

"The point was that there is no such thing as a fated love," Erin grunted. "If life were like Rias' manga, I would have ended up with her. I am not unaware that my past can be considered fantastic enough to qualify for entertainment. But this is real life, not fiction."

Issei remembered a few weeks ago when he thought that his life had become a light novel.

Had he always assumed he was the protagonist? Or had it just been the exceptional circumstances getting to him?

"There is no such thing as destined love or soulmates," Eren bit out. "If there was, I would have settled down and married my childhood friend whom I loved and who loved me. My friends would not have died as soon as they got together. Another of my friends would not have had to find love in a marriage she never wanted. We would have lived happily ever after." Eren grunted in derision. "But that didn't happen. Because nobody is certain to end up with anyone else."

"I get it," Issei said morosely. Eren had a point, but it still hurt to have his naive dreams thrown in his face like that.

"I don't think you do," Eren said. "Because if you did, you would not sound so sad."

Issei blinked, unsure why he shouldn't be sad.

"Didn't you just say I am not fated to be with anyone?"

Eren smacked the boy on the back of his head.

"You aren't destined to be with anyone," Eren said roughly. "But that applies to others as well. They are not fated for anyone else, either. That is the freedom of it. I know nothing about your love life, about harems, or romance. All I know is that no romantic or otherwise relationship happens if you don't work for it."

Issei almost bit out something sarcastic about Sona but held it in.

Maybe Eren did know about the devil's crush and chose not to say anything because he did not want to start something doomed to a tragic end.

"Do you have a problem with someone? Fight! Do you like someone? Ask them out! Do you want a harem? Work for it! You will stumble, fall, and get hurt as you move forward. I can't promise you will achieve your dream or even have one girl, let alone many. All I will promise is that you will have none if you stay still."

Issei took a deep breath and looked at the older boy. Sickly, dying, and regretful.

Yet still living, still fighting in his own way.

"You're right," Issei said, smacking himself in the cheeks with both hands as he stood from the uncomfortable bench. "Your right! I've been too lazy. If I want to be a Harem King, I need to be better. I have to pursue more girls. I've been rejected a thousand times. I can handle a million rejections if I achieve my dreams. Even if it hurts, I can't just sit still!"

"Before you run off to get yourself hurt again," Eren said dryly. "I have some advice I wish I had received myself. It might help you get started with your... harem."

"What is it?" Issei asked eagerly, still fired up.

"Look to the ones beside you," Eren said gravely. "Instead of running ahead, slow down. You will reach the same destination, but you will have fewer regrets. Those who want to travel your path with you will thank you."

Issei left the clearing with the bench, pondering the older boy's parting words.

He left Eren Yeager alone on the bench with his memories of a love that never was.

Issei would continue to have nightmares, but they lessened over the coming months.

It might have been thanks to Eren's words, or it might be because, a week after that talk on the bench and turning the words over, Issei puzzled out what the dying boy meant.

A few days after that, when he gathered his courage and after a hefty amount of pep talk from Ddraig, Issei Hyoudou asked Asia Argento out on a date.

Asia's smile, as she agreed, was angelic.

Maybe Issei would get his harem, or perhaps he wouldn't. He'd been hurt. He would be hurt again, Issei was sure.

He had a long road to become the Harem King of his dreams. He didn't know the future.

All Issei knew was that for that smile, for that light in his life, he'd name his first child after the boy on the bench.

********

Beta: Old Man of the Mountain

Issei isn't an edge lord, vengence-driven type of man. That is his problem. He blames himself for most things that go wrong. That is half his trauma, always wondering if it was him and not Raynare that was the issue. The closest you get to that type of Issei in canon is when he goes Jugernaught Drive, and even then he is explicitly not in control then. Issei went through trauma, yes, but he is still Issei.

One of my pet peeves in Fanfiction has always been characters going OOC for no reason. AUs are fine, excellent even, but there needs to be a thread of logic I can follow, or I lose my investment and see the hand of the author. It can be subtle, but it has to be there. Ironically, AOT is one of the best examples of quiet character growth.

One of the most common complaints I've heard about the end of AOT is that 'Eren suddenly loves Mikasa? Where did that come from?' I respond that Eren didn't at the show's start, but he changed. Mikasa did, too. I can point to the exact moment where Eren fell in love. You can, too. Just read Chapter 50, 'Scream.' They are pages 21 to 26. That's what I always point to. I dare anyone who knows the ending of AOT to read that and say Eren didn't fall in love with Mikasa.

Between that point, throughout the entire ordeal with Historia's family and the battle to retake Maria, Eren never lashes out at Mikasa, and she never babys him, yet she is still concerned about him. It is a subtle realization of love without the 'daisuki' or overt displays of affection so common in anime. Neither of their characters is the type to be overt with that kind of emotion. After Maria, Eren sees the Rumbling and spends years searching for a way to stop it. When he can't, and Mikasa is too shy to say she loves him, he goes on to what we see post-time skip.

Do not get me wrong, AOT is not without fault. I have many issues with it myself. But the Eren/Misaka love thing was never one of them because I saw that love grow throughout the entire series. I just never understood why others couldn't see it, either.

Characters have reasons for their actions, or they aren't compelling characters. I hope to get that across with my writing.

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, and I will meet you all next time on the bench.

 

[Gwynx]

Two things that Eren values a lot in his life, giving scarves and freedom.... deep...

Excellent work as always

 

[Venyr4434]

All Issei knew was that for that smile, for that light in his life, he'd name his first child after the boy on the bench.

Click to shrink...

Damnn......


That's all.

 

[Tortonium]

Thanks for the chapter!

 

[Adorador de Trap]

Excellent chapter, this ending left me a little teary. Issei, the young man who was willing to give himself body and soul was injured and left scarred. With the help of a young man who is destined to die, he ends up finding the chance to overcome the trauma.
It would be really cute if I just stayed with Asia.
Eren, Issei's first son, if Eren dies, many would not understand the weight that this name has for the bearer of the longinus: Issei

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, I really like how you wrote Eren's talk about love and regrets. I think you captured it wonderfully, and I agree with you on when Eren started to feel more romantic love towards Mikasa. That last line about Issei naming his first born after Eren honestly made me tear up a bit, as I feel it would be something that honest boy would do. Stay safe out there, and keep up the good work!

 

[l---erddad---l]

Never watched either anime or anything official, only know both of these through anime, but goddamn, you've got me invested. Ggwp

 

[Mirror1mage]

Sometimes I wonder why I look for fics on this sight - this this is why. This is one of the best things I've read in a bit.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

The familiar voice cut through the red haze of rage and pain.

"What is going on here?"

Everyone froze, Excalibur Destruction inches from Kiba's neck.

""EREN!"" From his place on the ground, the Knight heard Akeno and Rias shout in surprise. It was the King who continued. "Sona! Get him out of here!"

"A human?" Kiba heard the executor with the sword at his neck mutter in confusion.

"Have you tried talking him out of something," the student council president asked rhetorically with more than a little bit of anger. "We heard a commotion, and he insisted on checking it out."

"I recognize a fight when I hear one. Especially one with metal blades." Kiba heard Eren say dryly.

Only the Knight's long experience with the dying boy let him understand that much of his tone.

Eren was speaking in that dead way of his, like nothing in the world mattered. From his position, the Knight couldn't see the boy's face to know his expression.

"Now, will someone explain what is going or will I have to start hitting things with my cane?"

"What have you done, Sitri?" Xenovia snarled, finally pulling the hateful blade from Kiba's neck and pointing it at Sona. "A hostage? What have you done to him? Torture? Is there no low your kind will not sink to?"

"Sitri? And Rias called you Sona?" Eren asked, and Kiba could finally look at the boy and notice him tilting his head in question.

The blind boy was off the bench, standing with the Sitri heiress on the far side of the clearing they had their fight in. Sona had kept him clear of the fallen trees and holes they had torn through the dirt.

Of all the exorcist said, only the names had given the former mercenary pause.

"I told you my family is foreign, right," Sona hurried to explain, a note of panic in her voice. "When I moved to Japan, I went by a Japanese version of my name. Souna Shitori, rather than Sona Sitri."

"Huh," Eren grunted. "That explains a lot. You should have told me. I'd have called you Sona."

"I'd like that," Sona said, relief in her voice at Eren's easy acceptance of her words, but she still glared at the exorcist. "And no. He is not a hostage. He was simply resting on a nearby bench when we heard your fight. If you are done, we will leave."

"Ah, Lord." All the devils winced in pain as the other exorcist, Irina, recited a prayer. "Please save this lost lamb from the devil's clutches and return him to the flock."

Eren's face was still set in his placid expression as if all emotion had drained from him. Still in a daze, Kiba noted that his friends hurriedly looked at each other, trying to communicate silently.

This was bad. They needed to get the boy out of there. If things devolved even further, they wouldn't be able to keep Eren safe if the exorcists attacked.

"If nobody will explain what is happening, I will have to get involved." Eren started to draw his blade, but Kiba's ragged and rough voice stopped him.

"Senpai," he croaked. "These are my juniors. They have my goal. It is right here."

All eyes looked at the fallen Knight.

"Yuuto!" Rias resumed her rush to his side, paused by the arrival of the unexpected guests, and began worrying over him and checking for injuries.

Even a little nick from an Excalibur was fatal to most devils.

"I see," Eren said, returning his blade to his cane with a click. He poked around a bit with his cane till he found an exposed stump and then, unmindful of the dirt, sat down. "Are you going to kill them?"

The casual way he asked the question, the complete disregard for human life, sent a shudder through the spine of the newer members' backs.

Both exorcists focused more intently on the older boy, reevaluating him.

"Who are you?" Xenovia asked bluntly. "Are you also a survivor of the project?"

"I have no idea what project you are talking about," Eren denied. As he spoke, Kiba was glad to see Akeno, Koneko, and Sona circle around the boy, ready to protect him in case things went bad.

"The Holy Sword Project," Kiba spat out as Rias lifted him over her shoulder. "It took in orphans. Ran experiments on us. And when they were done with us? They killed us. Guns. Gas. They killed us all. Except for me."

Kiba was laughing bitterly, even as tears fell from his eyes.

He felt weak.

Impotent.

His vengeance was right here!

And not a single blade of his survived a clash.

Rias tightened her hold on her Knight even as Asia gasped and Issei's gauntleted fist clenched. The others already knew about it, but they all still looked angry. Even the executors looked uncomfortable.

"They're from the church," Kiba rambled. "All the pain we went through? They got the reward for that. This is my chance for vengeance."

Eren snorted.

"There's no such thing as a holy sword," he denied, unable to see the blades glowing power. "All swords exist to kill. It is as simple as that. But the church doing something like that, I can believe. Religion is for the mad, the desperate, and the cattle."

"Who are you?" Xenovia asked again, anger filling her voice. "Who are you to question God and his followers?"

"The Devil," Eren deadpanned as the actual devils winced in pain again from the exorcist's use of the word. "And I've never seen proof of god or that he cares about his followers. I have seen a few churches, though. I saw one collapse, killing all the 'followers' inside like bugs. No god saved them. I've destroyed a few myself. So who are you, followers of a god that isn't there?"

Sona and Rias hurried to share a few looks, and the redhead sent a few subtle directions at her Peerage.

The devils were tense, ready to act at the first sign of actual conflict, but they were also quiet. More than anyone else, they understood that Eren had a way with words.

For good and bad.

So long as everyone kept talking, killing time wouldn't be too bad.

More than that, it gave Asia time to heal the fighters and for them to recover. Every second that passed, the devil's side was in a better position if it did come to a fight.

Irina Shidou didn't seem to care.

"Shidou Irina," she introduced herself cheerfully, waving her whip-sword around. "Nice to meet you, Heretic-kun."

"Xenovia Quarta," Xenovia said with displeasure, much less exuberant than her companion. "I should not be surprised by your blasphemy, given your company. Swine lays with swine."

The devils bristled, but Eren simply hummed in thought. He still didn't express any emotion. Like he was going through the motions rather than feeling anything.

It was incredibly off-putting.

The last time he had been like this for so long was almost a year ago.

"Quarta? And with the church?" He tilted his head, idly tapping his cane. "Any relation to Griselda Quarta?"

Everyone stared at the blind boy in shock.

Except for Issei, who whispered into Koneko's ear.

"Who's that?"

"Exorcist," Koneko whispered back. Low enough that Eren couldn't hear, but Kiba was still a devil. "Top five."

"How do you know her?" Xenovia bit out, hands tightening around her sword handle. Irina looked from the blind boy to her companion in confusion.

"We've met. At a church, believe or not," Eren deadpanned. "How's her leg?"

Kiba was the fastest person there.

He had been on guard ever since the exorcists had appeared. His eyes tracked the Excalibur's like a hawk watching a mouse.

He was still almost too late.

CLANG!!

Eren didn't flinch as Excalibur Destruction was deflected less than a foot from his face.

The devils lept into action, surrounding the boy even as Xenovia retreated from her failed blow.

"Xenovia!" Irina cried in surprise as the blue-haired girl snarled.

"That's him!" The exorcist spat. "Eren Yeager! The Child of Evil!"

Irina's eyes widened, and Excalibur Mimic returned to its sword form.

Kiba didn't see any of it. He was too busy staring in shock at the black sword in his hands.

He had summoned it on instinct.

It hadn't shattered.

"Griselda should have survived," Eren said blandly, still not emoting. "If she got help quick enough, she should have even been able to save the leg. If she died, it was not my fault."

"She's still alive," Xenovia spat. "No thanks to you. You left her for dead."

"She shouldn't have gotten in my way."

"She was protecting people!"

"The people she was protecting were mercenaries and sex traffickers."

"They had surrendered! They were asking for sanctuary! From you!"

"I'm sure that matters to their victims."

"You blew up a church!"

"It should have been better protected if it didn't want to get destroyed."

Was he dreaming?

Was this real?

It was too surreal that Kiba wondered if he had actually died under Destruction's blade.

On one side was the shouting girl, waving a sword larger than herself and shouting accusations.

On the other was the blind boy sitting on a stump, answering blandly without any emotions.

It was like a twisted parody of Kiba's recent outburst of hysteric rage.

And the subject matter was even more unbelievable.

Eren, young, sickly and blind, knew Griselda Quarta? Had fought her? Beaten and injured her?

It was like Kiba was in a world where up was down, left was right, and his swords could suddenly stand up to an Excalibur.

Nothing made sense anymore.

But his body moved all the same.

CLANG!!

Excaliber Destruction bounced. Kiba did it again.

His sword deflected Excalibur.

This time, the attack didn't go without response.

"ENOUGH!" Rias shouted, glowing with power as Issei placed himself in front of Kiba and Eren. "You got what you wanted. Leave. Now! Another attack like that, and we will respond with lethal force."

Xenovia looked like she was ready to argue or even put up a fight, but she wasn't the first to respond.

"Why don't you?" Eren asked Rias. He was still speaking in that cold, plain monotone. "They're here. You outnumber them. I can help with the bodies. So why don't you kill them? They're Kiba's enemies, aren't they? Targets of vengeance who hurt him? So kill them."

Everyone looked at the boy, some in horror and others with consternation.

"Just as I would expect from the Child of Evil," Xenovia spat as she lept back towards her partner, facing the group side by side. "Bring it on. We are not scared of any of you."

"We are not killing anyone," Rias insisted as she glared at her friend. "If they were the ones who hurt Yuuto, I would. But they aren't. They're no older than us. So long as they leave us alone, I promised not to interfere and will not break my word."

Eren didn't know anything about the politics involved, Kiba could understand. He couldn't even see who he was threatening to kill.

As far as the blind boy was aware, there was a fight. He approached and found out it was the target of the Knight's vengeance. Everything Kiba knew about Eren Yeager told him that Eren would not hesitate.

But...

"I..." Kiba said, voice low with realization. "I didn't want to kill them. I just wanted to destroy their swords. Those cursed things. They're the reason all my friends died."

Both exorcists looked at the Knight in surprise, and Rias' eyes glowed with pride.

"Mmmh," Eren nodded. Then he pulled out his sword again. A sense of familiarity once again struck Kiba, like he had seen the flat blade somewhere before.

Eren held the thin sword before him, parallel to the ground.

Then he brought his elbow down on it.

It snapped.

The thin sword could not hold up to even the sickly boy's strength.

Bending down, the blind boy pawed around momentarily before finding the broken blade and picking it up. Without a handle, the razor-thin sword cut into his fingers and palm.

"Eren!" Sona shouted in shock, reaching down to get the boy to drop the blade even as his fingers bled. By the time she held his wrist, Eren had already thrown the sword at Kiba.

It missed. By a wide margin.

Eren was still blind, after all.

But it sank into the ground in the middle of the clearing, feet away from the Knight.

"If you are going to be stupid enough to believe that, use that sword. It will do you just as well as anything you might have," Eren said as the others fretted over him. He ignored them, pulling a roll of bandages from his pocket to wrap his hand.

Asia was already healing it, but he could not see the green glow.

"If that one breaks, I have dozens of the things," he said. "They're sharp. Made to cut through flesh. They'll cut you just as easily as any other blade."

"That will shatter in a second in a real fight," Xenovia said derisively.

"A sword is not meant to break swords," Eren replied. "A sword is made to kill. Ask Griselda. That blade is sharp enough to kill your actual target."

Then, the blind boy faced Kiba again, who was staring from his white blade to the razor in the ground.

"Hating inanimate objects is stupid. I know. I hated those walls for years. I still do. But your vengeance should never be against the walls but against the people who built them. It doesn't matter if you tear a thousand walls down if they are rebuilt."

Kiba started laughing.

He laughed and laughed and laughed.

Of course.

Of course, Eren was right.

So Kiba laughed and cried.

Excalibur had been broken before. That's why there were multiple swords now. Made from its fragments.

Kiba could break them and break them and break them, and there would still be fools who would torture children to reforge them.

Killing their wielders wouldn't even accomplish anything, either. There were always more slaves to the church to pick up the pieces.

It was all so pointless.

"Senpai," Kiba choked out through a sob. "What am I supposed to do?"

"That is your choice," Eren said simply. "I can't see your Path. I don't know what you will do or how it will end. All I see is my own. I had my vengeance. And I ended up alone for it. I would do it again, but I have regrets. Will you?"

Kiba looked at the exorcists. These girls had everything he had been promised. He looked at their swords. Those blades he and his friends had died for.

Then he looked at Rias, the girl who took him in even though he might not have anything to offer.

Akeno, who took care of him, taught him and cared for him like a sister.

Koneko, who looked up to him and held his hand on the first day of school because she had been scared.

Issei, the clumsy junior he took under his wing. Yuuto hadn't been called a Damn Handsome in weeks.

Asia, also betrayed by the church, yet so devoted to caring for others still.

And then he looked at the sickly boy on the stump.

At his Senpai.

At a twisted mirror of what he could become.

The black sword dissolved into motes of light.

"Now that this... disturbance has ended," Sona said with a sigh as she adjusted her glasses. "You can take your leave. We will not interfere with your search."

"Ah," Irina gasped and bowed in farewell as she spoke cheerfully. "It was nice to see you again, Issei-kun. Take care of yourselves, you filthy heathens."

Xenovia looked like she had swallowed a lemon, but she understood that further conflict would not help her mission. Still, she had a question she needed answering.

"How did you do it?" She asked, looking at Eren. Since he didn't respond, probably because he didn't know she was talking to him, the exorcist continued. "How'd you beat her? She never said."

"Beat her?" Eren asked. "Griselda? I didn't. I was nine. Nobody expects a child to stab them. I tricked her. It's why I went for her leg, to stop her from being able to fight in the first place. You can fight with one arm but not one leg. She was in the way of my mission, and I got rid of her threat. As simple as that."

"Why didn't you kill her?"

"Why would I? She hadn't wronged me. She wasn't even my enemy. I might have if she had a gun, but all she had was that stupidly oversized sword. She wasn't worth the loss of time it would take to kill her when my prey could run at any second."

Despite himself, Kiba couldn't help the snort of amusement that left his lips, mirrored by Akeno.

The idea that Griselda Quarta, famed exorcist and terror to devils everywhere, had been tricked by a human child and left to die because she 'wasn't worth killing' was too damn funny.

Xenovia's fingers twitched, but she swallowed her words and turned on a dime to stomp her way out of the forest. Irina hurried to follow with one last cheerful wave towards Issei.

There was a beat of silence as everyone waited for them to gain some distance.

"Dramatic." Koneko deadpanned.

"I only understood half of what just happened," Issei said, raising his hand as if in question.

"That's more than I expected."

"Hey!" Issei cried in self-defence as he whirled. Then he froze as he realized who had spoken. "Did you... Did you just make a joke?"

"Help me back to the bench," Eren said in his monotone, utterly unaware of the looks of disbelief he was receiving. "You haven't told me how the date went yet."

"Ah," Issei gasped and hurried to pull the boy up, slinging an arm over his shoulder. His face, as well as Asia's, was flushed completely red. "Hehehe." He laughed nervously as he led the boy back the way he came. Asia hurried to follow.

Those who remained watched them leave with a mixture of emotions.

"That boy," Akeno muttered, placing her hand on her cheek as she shook her head in silent laughter. "I can't tell if he's a good influence or not."

"Should I bake a cake?" Rias asked out of nowhere. When they looked at her, she explained. "For Eren's first joke with us. He's opening up. We should celebrate."

"He just told us to kill a couple of girls he had never met before," Kiba snorted, but he was smiling.

"I think it was sweet," Akeno giggled. "He was defending his Kohai."

"What do you think, Sona," Rias asked her rival, who continued staring after the departed boy. "Chocolate, vanilla, or ice cream?"

"I am not interested in cake flavours, Rias," Sona said as she removed her glasses to rub her eyes tiredly. "What I am interested in is how a nine-year-old human boy was able to injure one of the most dangerous women in the world enough that she couldn't fight anymore?"

"Anybody can be defeated if they are taken by surprise," Akeno shrugged. "I wouldn't expect a kid to stab me in the leg, either."

"...Sneaky," Koneko said with a thumbs up.

"Maybe," Sona said lowly, looking thoughtful.

"What is it?" Rias asked.

"Don't you think Eren is being too... blase about all this?" Sona asked, looking around. "He hears a sword fight and goes toward it instead of away. In that entire conversation, only my name gave him pause. I think..." She trailed off, worrying her lower lip.

"Eren's life hasn't been normal by any stretch," Akeno pointed out wryly.

"But that's just it," Sona pursed her lips as she adjusted her glasses. "Everything about him is slightly off. Names that don't fit. Events we can't trace. A timeline that doesn't line up."

"Lying?" Koneko asked with a frown.

"No way," Rias denied instantly. "There is no way I will believe what he... That what he told us is a lie. There was too much emotion, too many details, and over too long a period of time. Maybe your family's agents missed some stuff, that's all."

"It's possible, but everything on that file was verified. We are missing something. Some key fact. Some clue that will make everything make sense. And..." She paused, giving the matter another moment of thought. "And I think he knows something is going on."

"What do you mean?" Yuuto asked.

"I don't think he knows about the supernatural, or at least not fully, but he didn't even flinch when Asia started healing him."

"If he fought Griselda Quarta, he probably ran into other supernatural beings while he was active," Akeno nodded in agreement with Sona's words. "He probably saw things he couldn't explain but never got a full explanation of how the world really works."

"Should we tell him," Rias asked eagerly.

"Eren... probably already knows something is up with us," Sona continued, worrying her lip. "He's sharp enough and known us long enough that I can't imagine he doesn't know we aren't regular students. Today would just be proof. But he hasn't brought it up. It might be best to leave it for now. Until he asks, at least."

"Fine," Rias pouted. "But I get to be the one to tell him. I already have a speech and everything."

"Fufufufu," Akeno giggled behind her hand, eyes twinkling in mischief.

"There is another thing, though," Sona said, her smile muted as she shook her head at her rival's antics. "We might need to be more careful from now on. Eren has enemies. And now, they know he is here. Or at least the church does. We need to get those exorcists out of our territory immediately. I will have my Peerage send out their familiars to search for the Excaliburs."

"Trouble," Koneko nodded as she punched her fist into her palm.

"Hm," Rias gave the matter some more thought. "I know we said we would leave those exorcists alone, but we can do that and keep an eye on them. Maybe subtly point them in the right direction if we find the swords first." She looked at Koneko, who nodded, and then to Yuuto. "Can you do this?" She asked softly. "I don't want to leave Koneko alone when Excaliburs are involved. Can I trust you to keep calm and back her up?"

"You can," the Knight said as he saluted with one of his swords. The black blade glinted in the light.

"Hopefully, we all get out of this intact," Sona muttered as she eyed the blade curiously.

The next day, Kokabiel, cloaked from surveillance and scouting the local leylines under Kuoh Academy, found a blind boy sitting on a bench.

********

Beta: Old Man of the Mountain

There's a lot I want to say with this one, but at the same time, I think this is one of the cases where I am better off letting the readers form their own opinion, so I'll keep mum on most of it.

All I will say is that my experiment with tones continues. The hard-hitting emotional moments shifting to light-hearted jokes, to serious concern. It is a whiplash, but I hope it flows well enough.

I wish everyone a very happy new year, and I will meet you all, in 2024, on the bench.

 

[Arielus]

This story is downright one of the most fun things I have ever read
And I never even watched attack on titan and only watched a season or two of dxd years back on YouTube but I'm loving this to death

 

[Speedshot]

This was fucking super hot fire.

 

[Surya]

The next day, Kokabiel, cloaked from surveillance and scouting the local leylines under Kuoh Academy, found a blind boy sitting on a bench.

Click to shrink...

Fuck, that is an interaction I really want to see, from one genocidal maniac to another.

 

[Gwynx]

Hah, apparently Eren was a little involved with the moonlit world, excellent job as always and happy new year

 

[Spearow]

Kokabiel and eren have a high potential of being best friends

 

[Blazing blue]

The next day, Kokabiel, cloaked from surveillance and scouting the local leylines under Kuoh Academy, found a blind boy sitting on a bench

Click to shrink...

Oh this is going to be interesting

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, I did not expect Eren to have injured Griselda Quarta but I am very curious to see what other things he's done in the moonlit world.

The next day, Kokabiel, cloaked from surveillance and scouting the local leylines under Kuoh Academy, found a blind boy sitting on a bench.

Click to shrink...

Not to mention that I am very curious to see how this goes, I look forward to what kind of discussion they have. Stay safe out there, and keep up the good work!

 

[Orphus]

When is he going to meet the hero faction? and how is his old subordinates going to react to him getting close to the Satan sisters?

 

[ZaydenBlaze47]

An excellent and satisfying chapter.

"I think it was sweat," Akeno giggled. "He was defending his Kohai."

Click to shrink...

'Sweet' might work better.

 

[GAMB42]

Dammit man, leaving us with a cliffhanger like that is just cruel.

On the other hand that was a fantastic chapter, easily one of the best this story ever had. The way Eren straight up dominated the entire encounter and being unwavering in his way of doing things. Though I can't really see Xenovia and Irina going the same way as canon this time around.

 

[Vanbers]

Kokabiel: "I just wanna kill everyone, y'know? Just really go to town and destroy all who oppose my plans."

Eren: "Mood."

 

[Frescko]

Fuck, that is an interaction I really want to see, from one genocidal maniac to another.

Click to shrink...

im imagining Eren scaring the shit out of him. I really hope we'll see someone see Eren's Karma or something that lets them glimpse the amount of people he's killed and see the hundreds of millions of souls and curses hanging onto him.

with Angels being what they are, they'd definitely be able to see sin right? And while Kokopuffs isn't a Angel anymore he should still have some of the capabilities.

 

[Surya]

im imagining Eren scaring the shit out of him. I really hope we'll see someone see Eren's Karma or something that lets them glimpse the amount of people he's killed and see the hundreds of millions of souls and curses hanging onto him.

with Angels being what they are, they'd definitely be able to see sin right? And while Kokopuffs isn't a Angel anymore he should still have some of the capabilities.

Click to shrink...

Tbh I kinda doubt it, this sounds more around a Buddha's area of expertise, at most someone more spiritually sensitive like a japanese Miko should be able to sense the amount of death curses Eren accumulated with the amount he killed, but as we can see with Akeno never commenting anything about it that's likely unnoticeable.

 

[Frescko]

Tbh I kinda doubt it, this sounds more around a Buddha's area of expertise, at most someone more spiritually sensitive like a japanese Miko should be able to sense the amount of death curses Eren accumulated with the amount he killed, but as we can see with Akeno never commenting anything about it that's likely unnoticeable.

Click to shrink...

Or a death god. Perhaps also Az cause he's the Angel of Death.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

Kokiabel felt a shiver of excitement down his back.

Was this it?

Was he going to die here?

Now?

Could his millennia of life of warfare, victory, and defeat come to an end today?

Would all his planning, his careful orchestration of events to his benefit, fail fruitlessly here, right before the finish line?

Kokabiel was one of the very few beings aware of how useless plans were before this foe.

With a mad grin, the Angel of the Stars stepped towards the bench and the young man sitting on it.

... When he wasn't immediately attacked, Kokiabel's excitement and nervousness started to fade, and wary caution replaced it.

Step after step, the fallen Cardinal approached. He made no move to quiet his steps, knowing it was pointless.

Yet no attack came. No ambush or trap.

It was just him and the boy.

Which meant...

"What do you need?" Kokabiel asked, sitting beside the sickly boy on the bench.

It was better to work with him. Trying to defy him would be pointless.

Kokabiel thought his plan was foolproof, but if there was one thing he had learned in his life of war, nothing was without flaws.

"From you?" Eren Yeager asked, not looking at the Fallen but facing the sky.

As if he was really blind.

"Nothing."

Kokabiel scowled but didn't lash out at the human.

"Then why are you here?" He asked instead.

If Yaeger was not here for him, then he had another goal in mind.

He knew the depths of the power within the human. Even if Kokabiel was not the reason he was in Kuoh, somehow, their meeting was part of his plan.

Whatever it was.

"I'm retired," Yaeger answered simply. "Just waiting to die."

Kokabiel couldn't help the bark of laughter that escaped his lips.

"Aren't we all," he chortled to himself. "And you chose here? In the town with the sisters of the current Satans? You are up to something."

The boy shrugged as if unbothered by the Cardinal's disbelief.

Kokabiel was no fool.

If Eren Yeager was here, it meant Kokabiel's fate was in his hands already.

This conversation was enough for the fallen angel to understand he had fallen into a trap.

Still, the old war veteran couldn't help but ask the question. The same question that had teased his mind ever since he set out on this course of action. This final plan.

"Do I win?"

For a long minute, Eren Yaeger remained silent. Then he gave his answer.

"Does it matter?"

Did it?

Kokabiel would restart the Great War and fight his long-time enemies until he died in glorious battle. It wouldn't be long, but it would be glorious.

Sirzechs Lucifer or Serafall Leviathan would stop at nothing to tear him to shreds.

Or he would die in the attempt, and Azazel would have the grounds for the peace he had always wanted.

Peace. Something Kokabiel couldn't stomach but was necessary for his race's survival.

No matter what happens, Kokabiel, Angel of the Stars and Fourth Watcher, would face his end.

"No," Kokabiel spoke, turning from the bandaged boy and staring at the sky. "It doesn't."

For a minute, both were silent, facing the sky yet not seeing it.

One was thousands of years old and responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of sapient beings.

The other wasn't even nineteen.

Both were terrible people by every metric imaginable.

Both had done everything they could for their people.

It was a silent moment of acknowledgment between two old soldiers, two men about to die.

That camaraderie, that resignation to an approaching doom, was why the words slipped out.

"I hate them."

The words were spat out with vitriol. Rage, despair, loathing, pain, and grief mixed in three words that failed to encapsulate all the emotions contained within.

"I hate them all," Kokabiel repeated, his fists clenching. The teenager made no sound. "They killed so many of us. My brothers and sisters. My comrades. My friends. Slaughtered. Tortured. Despoiled. I hate devils and their ilk. I hate the hypocrites that cast us out for doing our duty. I hate them all. Every one of them. I'll kill them all."

"Hate."

The boy tasted the familiar word, sampling it like one would a wine they knew intimately.

Then he shook his head.

"Old wars should be settled by old men."

The words of an old man in a young body.

Kokabiel knew that Yeager's abilities must be why he was like this. Why this mortal of only eighteen could speak on such subjects with such certainty.

Still...

"I know that," Kokabiel snapped, unwilling to be lectured by a boy in his teens. Even if it was Eren Yeager. "These kids," he spat the word. "They know nothing of war. Nothing of battles and death and destruction. They play their games. They fight for position and power. They only know peace."

"The goal of every war is peace." Yaeger was speaking, yet his words were light as if he didn't mean them, yet believed them to be true.

"THEN WHY CAN'T I BE AT PEACE?!" Kokabiel roared, standing from the bench and glaring at the boy. He didn't even flinch. "WHY CAN I NEVER HAVE THAT?! WHY DO I WANT TO FIGHT AND FIGHT AND FIGHT UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT BUT AN OCEAN OF BLOOD?! WHY IS EVERYONE ELSE ABLE TO FORGET WHEN I CAN'T?"

"They don't forget," Yeager spoke softly. "Nobody forgets war."

"Azazel is content to play with his toys," Kokabiel snapped, pacing in front of the bench as his wings flexed in agitation. "Penume drowns is sex. Baraqiel tried to play house." As if all the corpses at his feet were nothing more than waste. As if entire nations hadn't disappeared in a flash of Holy Lightning. "None of them care for the dead. Their grudges. Their wishes. What about their peace?"

Even as the fallen Watcher raged and paced, the boy sat still, unbothered by the being so beyond his league that fighting wasn't even a consideration.

They both knew who had the power here.

"We all move forward." Yaeger's voice was dry. Resigned. Words spoken a thousand times to a thousand people. "We all dream. But some dream of the sea. And some dream of what's beyond the sea. You and I? We dream of victory. They? They dream of a life after victory."

Kokabiel stop pacing.

"How?" He asked.

Not a plea.

A snarl.

Kokabiel would ever be the monster.

The fallen Cadre who tried to restart the Great War.

Whether he succeeded or failed, no one would ever celebrate his name. He'd be vilified by his own people, by his enemies, and the world.

A martyr nobody would celebrate.

But even monsters want to dream.

"I don't know."

Kokabiel barked a mad laugh.

He laughed and laughed and laughed.

His laughter was crazed, at once joyous as it was despairing.

It was the laugh of a dead man.

"If even Erin Yaeger doesn't know, what hope do I have of finding an answer," Kokabiel crowed in jubilation, arms spread up and wide to the sky as if to embrace the heavens. "If I shall never have peace. I shall have war!"

Then he rounded on the boy, marching with quick steps until he loomed over the tiny, sickly human. His shadow blotted out the fading light.

Yaeger did not so much as twitch.

Kokabiel longed to impale the boy on his spears, to force him to do... something. Anything.

Kokabiel wanted violence. He wanted rage and pain and death.

He didn't want this pitiful wreck of a man.

He wanted worthy foes.

Yet Eren Yeager was not one. Too weak. Too strong.

So Kokabiel sat down on the bench, his rage spent without an outlet to vent it on.

It left him... empty. Hollow.

What was he if not the rage?

"War is simple," Kokabiel spoke to the sky. "You kill your enemies, or they kill you. It brought out the best in us. The comradery, the passion, the bravery, the valour. It showed us who we were. We knew who were craven, duplicitous, and weak. It shaped us and forged us in the Holy Light and Demonic Dark. It was glorious."

He spoke the last word with a rapturous fascination. He would give anything to have those days back.

"We fought for something. A better future. And we were cast out. But we fought on. From one bloody battlefield to another. For centuries. And when He died? The victory was ours to claim. Our war was won. One final push, one last mountain of bodies."

That road to the top, paved with countless corpses, called to Kokabiel.

"But we didn't," the fallen spat. "We fled. Maybe if we had won, I would be able to close my eyes and not see them. Maybe I would not see their eyes accusing me. Why did they die if we would flee from victory? Why did we fight if we do not claim our prize?"

"Some soldiers die too young," Yaeger sighed, and, for the first time, his head turned from the dark sky to face the Fallen Angel. "Some soldiers live too long."

They sat there in silence for long minutes. The darkness of the park was contrasted by the city's light in the distance. Neither said a word. All that needed to be said had been said.

Then, when the time had come, Kokabiel stood.

"This seat is too uncomfortable to be my throne." Ten black wings flexed, and his almost vampiric features twisted in annoyance. "Irregular, too small yet too large. Old wood and steel. It makes me nostalgic for better times. It fits you, Child of Evil."

"This will be your last choice," Eren Yaeger said solemnly.

"I know not what your plan is, Yaeger," Kokabiel responded just as solemnly to the sickly boy. "Why you are here, nor what talking to me accomplished. I don't care. If you impede my plans, I will fight."

"I won't," Yaeger nodded.

"Then, no matter the outcome, I go to my last war."

********

It had been a good fight.

Two severed wings, a blackened stump of a hand, and dozens of wounds that bled freely.

Kokabiel laughed in glee.

More than he had ever wished, it had been a good fight.

The church executors had been barely noticeable, though a wielder of Durandal was a pleasant surprise.

No, it had been Gremory and her peerage that had been the real prize.

The Rook and Bishop weren't worth his interest, but the others?

They had gone above and beyond his expectations.

The Knight, a product of the Holy Sword Project, had achieved a mutated Balance Breaker before his eyes.

Holy and Demonic swords in a reincarnated devil.

The Old Man would be rolling in his grave.

Baraquiel's daughter was a gem and a half. It was crude, lacking the millennia of practice his comrade held with his element, but for a few moments, it was as if Kokabiel stood before the Lightning of God for one final time.

The Gremory herself was responsible for almost all the damage he had sustained. She didn't have the inborn instincts or power for the signature power of the Bael family as her brother did. She wasn't the monster Sirzechs was.

But she could be.

Kokabiel recognized it when he saw it. The hunger. The passion. The fear.

Rias Gremory wasn't born a monster. But she would shed blood until she became one.

The idea that the devils could gain a second Crimson Devil was so absurd that Kokabiel would have started a war just to stop it from happening.

But the greatest surprise was, hands down, the Red Dragon Emperor.

When the Cadre first heard that Ddraig's new host had been reincarnated as Devil, he immediately dismissed him as a threat.

Any Red Dragon Emperor that was reincarnated by someone not on par with a Satan, was automatically the weakest in history.

Vali would tear him apart in a heartbeat.

Then Kokabiel heard that he had achieved Balance Breaker in less than two months, and his hopes had risen.

Issei Hyoudou had surpassed even his wildest expectations.

The boy had not landed a single blow on the Fallen. In fact, Kokabiel's thoughts about him being the weakest Red Dragon Emperor ever were probably true if you just looked at his offensive capabilities.

But the Rook had not even tried to throw a punch once.

Instead, he had stood between Kokabiel and everyone else. All his Boosts went towards his durability or were passed to his comrades.

No matter the size of the attack, the potency of his Light, or how Kokabiel positioned himself, the boy was there—an impenetrable wall of red scale.

It was like seeing the true Red Dragon again.

So massive and powerful that even his greatest blow did naught but singe its scales.

Issei Hyoudou wasn't there yet.

He was too slow, and he couldn't leverage his body to counter properly yet, but with time to grow, he could be the greatest Red Dragon Emperor of all time.

Alone, they were impressive for their age.

Together?

Kokabiel had lost his wings when Hyoudou gained a hold, and the Gremory princess wrapped hoopes of Destruction around them. Reeling, he had blocked the Holy/Demon sword and Durandal with one hand and taken Holy Lightning with the other.

It had been his underestimating of them that had allowed them to hurt him, certainly.

But that they could hurt him at all was monumental.

Kokabiel hadn't been hurt at all in almost a century, and even that had been from the greatest exorcist the church had ever produced since the Great War.

Not even yesterday, he had cursed these children as not knowing war, of being addicted to peace.

He was right.

They didn't know the horrors of the Great War.

But they had it.

The killer instinct, the comradery, and the drive to push themselves till their bodies, minds, and souls cried out in pain.

Then they pushed some more.

Had they been born but a millennia earlier, Kokabiel would have been proud to give them a fitting death.

Instead, he would just make it quick.

He would despoil their bodies after they died, as had been done to his comrades during the Great War, to incite Sirzechs and Serafall further, but the children needn't be alive for that.

The fight had gone on long enough to know that neither Satan were coming.

Not even the revelation of God's death had drawn Heaven down or Hell up.

Were they so committed to peace that they would let these promising seeds die rather than take up arms again?

A shame.

With an idle thought, more spears of light gathered in the air. Unlike his earlier attacks, Kokabiel focused on them, carefully controlling their formation and angle of attack.

The children weathered the first volley well enough.

Baraquiel's daughter and the Ruin Princess dealt with many at range, and the rest of the group handled those that passed them well, deflecting and dodging those they couldn't destroy with sword or fist. The Red Dragon Emperor was solid, as ever, and the rest of the group slowly started to converge around him and the beacon of safety he provided.

That was their mistake.

It was easy to see the flaw in the Gremory peerage. They fought well, were more powerful than almost anyone their age, and were decently coordinated.

They had managed to injure him, after all.

But Kokabiel had not been entirely wrong about their lack of actual experience.

Tactically, they absolutely failed.

Even now, as they fended off an assault from hundreds of light spears, they failed to realize they were being corralled.

The Hyoudou boy was undoubtedly solid, but he was almost immobile because he focused on defending the rest. They, in turn, exacerbated the problem by giving more targets to defend.

The King and Queen of the peerage were powerful, but they lacked any sort of creativity with their magic. They were so focused on their attack magic that they failed to account for supplementary spells that would help the group remain mobile, hidden, or provide support.

Without the others to provide them opportunities, the sword wielders and Rook were unable to affect the battle in a significant way.

They had lost as soon as Kokabiel decided to take them seriously.

If he hadn't needed to keep their bodies intact, he would have simply blasted them and this town to pieces.

With all his enemies in a close grouping, another rain of spears fell from their hidden position in the clouds directly above the defenders.

With their death, Kokabiel would have his war.

[Divide!]

[Divide!]

[Divide!]

[Divide!]

[Divide!]

Kokabiel's war died with his spears of light as power flowed out of him and into a man in white armour.

It happened quickly.

Blink, and you'd miss it.

Kokabiel felt his remaining wings being severed. White armoured fists pounded into his body with stollen strength.

Kokabiel felt weak. Weaker than ever before.

In any other situation, he would have appreciated the irony.

Ddraig would rise to meet his foe.

Albion lowered his foe to his level.

As his plan came undone, Kokabiel felt rage well up within himself. He embraced the familiar fire as consciousness added.

Was this why nobody had answered his call to war?

Was Vali the reason why Michael did not descend from his throne?

Was the White Dragon Emperor, surely here at Azazel's behest, why the Satans were so sure of their sibling's survival?

Kokabiel could see it now. Could see the plan that had been woven around him. He had suspected but hoped to be wrong.

Kokabiel hadn't meant to restart the Great War. He had been a tool, a patsy, for his leader to have the justification to bring the other leaders to the negotiation table.

Even the Gremory peerage hadn't been in danger with the White Dragon Emperor nearby.

Kokabiel had been used to give them the experience he had just lamented they lacked, and as soon as it would cost them, Vali had descended.

The brat probably thought it was an excellent idea to toughen up Ddraig's wielder for their inevitable fight.

Kokabiel had been a puppet on a string dangling from the Scapegoat's hands.

A fitting name.

A scapegoat is what Azazael had made him. Like so many of his fallen comrades.

Scapegoats for peace.

Kokabiel had known that his failure would lead to peace, had expected it even, but still, he raged.

Raged at the vengeance he was denied.

Raged at the end of his war.

Then the rage, too, left him as he was carted back to the Grigori.

All that was left was amusement, wry and sadistic.

Kokabiel remembered the boy on the bench.

The boy who had known what was going to happen and known the foolishness of the fallen who visited him yet still offered an ear to an old soldier.

Kokabiel, Fallen Archangel of the Stars, was imprisoned in the ice of Cocytus, and, with his defeat, the great peace conference of Kuoh was called.

There, for the first time, a peace treaty between all three biblical factions was signed, marking the death of the Great War that had raged, on and off, since time immemorial.

One would expect that the fallen Cadre would lament or continue to rage in the wake of his failure.

Instead, the face below the ice of the Cocytus' frozen waters was light with laughter and mad joy.

Kokabiel's war died with him.

Eren Yeager's war had only just begun.

Kokabiel, as the ice consumed him, laughed madly, remembering the boy on the bench.

********

A big thanks to my Beta: Old Man of the Mountain.

It's been a while since I posed. Over a year. My, how the time flies.

I have seen Kokabiel portrayed in a few ways in fanfiction. Some added nuance to his character that was lacking in the books because of his short appearance. I like that, turning a two-bit villain of the week into a complex character. Something like that can only happen in fanfiction. I wanted to do something similar without sacrificing what was shown about his character.

I did not want Kokabiel to be a hero as he is sometimes portrayed. While a fascinating read, that is entirely at odds with his canon self, which I have tried to stick to this entire story. He isn't a noble soldier, no matter what he thinks of himself. Even in this fic, his perspective warps how he sees Azazel and everyone else. He is unable to recognize kindness, forgiveness, or anything like it.

Kokabiel is a monster. A warmonger who would drown the world in blood and fire. There is no excuse for that.

But there is a reason for it.

If you fight in an eternal war, where your enemies are literal devils, and you are cast aside by your leader/creator/dad, you bet your ass there is trauma there. It is why Fallen Angels are such a common enemy in the series.

As a society (before the Evil Pieces, at least), the Grigori were the best off after the war. But they were also the most scarred. Every Fallen we meet is deeply traumatized in some way. It does not excuse them, but it makes them understandable.

At least, that is what I am going for.

It is important to remember that even if someone has reasons for their actions, and everyone does, it does not make their actions acceptable. AOT is great about that, and I want this fic to reflect that a bit.

Happy New Year to everyone, and I will see you all next week on the bench.

 

[SirGrim]

It's been a while since I posed. Over a year. My, how the time flies.

Click to shrink...

Cheeky. Happy New Year, and same Old Bench! Also, this is the first story I've read that actually promoted real sympathy for Kokabiel. Excellent choice, and wonderful execution!

 

[Gwynx]

From the beginning to the end Kokabiel was just a martyr. heh

Nice work.

 

[HalfEmpty]

We finally get a glimpse of Eren's power level in the DxD setting and it did not disappoint. Kokabiel recognizes that if he wasn't dead immediately in Eren's presence, it's because Eren didn't want to kill him yet.

Since the peace conference was held in Kuoh Academy, I wonder if any other supernatural beings might have spoken with Eren.

 

[MejaisBlack]

I confess I'm very curious what the endgame of this fic is going to be, I thought for sure Kokabiel would be it, but it seems like Eren's Child of Evil reputation is bigger than what the Kuoh Devils know.

The thing is, if Kokabiel knows, no way the other factions don't know who he is, so what's the rationale for Sona and Rias to not be informed of Eren's reputation? Mysteries, mysteries...

 

[Monarchist Guy]

BUST