On The Bench (AOT/DxD)

[DracoArgentum]

wow Mikasa territorial cat

Click to shrink...

Which makes Konekos move of asserting her dominance by claiming Erens lap all the more hilarious with context.

 

[mjgh5000]

"It's why the leaders are taking the Brigade seriously," Serafall, in a rare moment of maturity, warned. "Ophis is only weaker than Great Red, but that doesn't mean the Orroroboros Dragon is weak. It is still more powerful than all the Top Ten strongest beings combined. A list where the Ddraig and Albion at their strongest were only in the middle."

Click to shrink...

I still haven't gotten around to actually reading/watching HDxD, but I've picked up a fair bit of the plot and world from several years of reading crossover fanfiction. And yet. Somehow. It is only today reading this paragraph that I realize Ddraig and Great Red are not the same character lmao

 

[ReadingDangerously]

"Sorry," Akeno said softly.

"Hm?" Eren asked curiously, looking at her out of the side of his eyes.

It was still surreal, even after weeks, to see him without the bandages covering the top half of his face. The curving marks simply enhanced the effect of his grey eyes.

It wasn't like Eren was suddenly cured or anything. He was still thinner than he should be, still paler, but his eyes conveyed so much more than what she was used to.

Like the softness in them as they watched Lady Ackerman tend to the flowers she was planting along the path in this small park.

"About prying," Akeno explained. "When we first came back?"

Akeno had been trying to find the time to get Eren alone for a while now to apologize, but Mikasa was always with him. Ultimately, she had decided it was better to talk to them together rather than keep putting it off.

Eren looked blankly at her for a moment, then his mouth set into a line, and he looked away, remembering her insistent questioning.

"I didn't mean to hurt you two."

"You didn't," Eren grunted.

Mikasa's movements slowed slightly, but she continued her work without saying anything.

"I did."

Akeno would never forget the look in Eren's eyes that afternoon.

For months, she had thought Eren's admittance to killing his parents had been, if not painless, then at least numbed by the fact that he hadn't spent that long with them.

After all, he wouldn't have had long between meeting them and his retirement.

But that wasn't true.

Eren had been talking about parents in an old world.

Parents who had raised him, loved him, and who he had loved deeply in return.

Parents who had been kind enough to take in a girl who lost her own mother and father.

And Eren had killed them.

That self-hatred, that absolute despair in Eren's eyes, Akeno had seen it before—seen it in her own eyes when she looked in the mirror.

And Mikasa's gaze…

She clearly knew about the incident, whatever it was. Clearly knew that the man she loved had killed the parents who had taken her in as their own child.

It didn't look like she blamed Eren, but she couldn't look at him at that moment.

Not for the first time in the last few weeks of internal struggle did Akeno ask herself what type of world they came from. One where children were put in situations where they had to kill parents they loved.

She wasn't surprised they didn't want to talk about it, but Akeno couldn't help wanting to know more. Wanting to know more about the man sitting beside her and the woman tending the flowers.

What a rotten woman Akeno Himejima was.

"What happened, happened," Eren grunted. "I'll never be able to change that. I made my choices. No matter how much I wish things could have gone differently, they didn't. They are my sins. I've lived with them for nineteen years already, and your questions did not hurt me."

More than he was already hurt by them.

It went unsaid, but Akeno understood.

Mikasa had entirely stopped gardening, but she didn't turn around. Didn't face the pair on the bench.

"Still-"

"I don't need your pity," Eren cut Akeno off. "Don't treat me like I'm made of glass. If you do, I am going to hit you again."

Mikasa made a little noise, her shoulders shaking slightly, and then resumed her work with the flowers.

Akeno couldn't help but smile at the sound. That had been the closest she had ever heard the usually so severe Lady Ackerman come to laughing.

Still, that didn't change what she had come here to do.

"I am sorry," Akeno repeated, and when Eren raised a fist, she hurried to continue. Less of fear of pain and more to not have him strain himself. "For pushing, if nothing else. It's not fair to try and pry when we were keeping secrets from you, too."

"Nobody needs to know everything about someone," Eren shook his head. "Secrets, lies, identities, even our pasts. They matter, but not to others. Only to ourselves. What matters to others is our actions. Yes, I am from another world. Yes, you are devils. But you all have never been my enemy, and I am not yours. For the moment, that is all that matters."

Mikasa looked back at the pair for the first time since Akeno had apologized. The Pawn had never been the most emotive person, but the Queen thought she could sense something in that gaze.

Relief? Concern?

"Maybe," Akeno allowed, meeting her fellow devil's gaze. Mikasa turned back to her work. "Still, I felt I needed to apologize."

"And now you have," Eren grunted again. Either he didn't catch Mikasa's look or, more likely, understood it even better than Akeno and saw no need to address it. "Feel better?"

Akeno winced.

Maybe Eren using his eyes wasn't a purely good thing after all. He had clearly realized how much it had been eating up at her, something he might not have while still wearing his bandages.

At least before she brought it up herself.

"A bit," Akeno admitted with a helpless smile. "I also wanted to explain myself a bit."

Eren just looked at her, no expression on his face. Akeno took a deep breath.

"My father is a fallen angel."

Eren kept looking at her with the same expression, even as she opened her wings as proof.

"He's actually... Baraqiel."

Eren just looked at her.

"Baraqiel is one of-"

"I know who Baraqiel is," Eren said, interrupting Akeno. "I just want to know the point of telling me this."

"Eren!" Mikasa said sharply as Akeno winced.

The older boy looked at the woman, almost as if he was surprised she had raised her voice against him.

He didn't look unhappy about it, though.

Mikasa just shot Eren a look that he was somehow able to understand.

"Right, sorry," he sighed, rubbing his face. "This is important to you. Your mother. She died because of your father, right? Because he was a fallen angel, and so were you. But... I can't help you, Akeno. I can't change who you are. If you just want me to listen, I can do that. But I told you already. You need to be the one to take that step forward, no matter how much it hurts."

A part of Akeno was happy that the confession of her race hadn't changed how Eren viewed her.

Another part felt a little betrayed. Gathering up the courage to talk about this part of her life wasn't easy, and taking that step forward had been a hurdle. To have it brushed aside so easily felt... Well, it didn't feel good.

The most significant part of Akeno felt foolish.

What had she been expecting? Eren didn't seem to care that they were devils. Why would he care that she was part fallen or Koneko was a nekoshou?

Had she been expecting her admission of being part fallen to garner sympathy?

Eren already knew why she hated her fallen side, that her birth had been what led to her mother's death. Had Akeno expected Eren learning that it was her fallen blood was the cause to suddenly change his views?

It all seemed so absurd to Akeno at that moment.

"Fufufu," the Queen couldn't help but laugh, shaking her head at the questioning looks she was receiving. "Sorry, just felt very silly for a moment."

Eren clearly wasn't convinced.

"Silly?" Eren asked rhetorically, knocking his cane against Akeno's shins in chastisement. "Our problems might seem silly to others, but they are important to us. Your father... I know of him, like I said, but I don't know him personally. Never met him. I can't judge if he was a good father, whether he was to blame for your mom or not. But whatever you feel for him, whether you hate him or not, is not silly."

Akeno was honestly surprised Eren even knew who Baraqiel was. While he was well known in supernatural circles, to someone who only knew about the supernatural through tangential sources like Eren it was surprising to have heard about him. He was less known than the big names like Azazel or Michael.

Still, Akeno's giggling didn't stop. Less in self-recrimination and more at Eren's actions and words.

He could act like such an old man sometimes. At least she knew why now.

"Grisha."

"Mikasa?" Eren asked the woman turning up dirt.

Akeno also looked at her at the sudden name. Mikasa continued to work, not looking at either of them.

"That was our father's name. Grisha. He took me in after my parents were killed. He was a doctor. The best doctor in the area. He single-handedly saved hundreds, perhaps thousands, from a localized plague. As long as I knew him, he was a gentle, kind man. Never raised his voice. Never had a bad word to say about anyone. We loved him. I named my son after him."

Akeno didn't miss Eren's grimace at the mention of Mikasa's child, but he didn't interrupt.

"We learned later that we were his second family," Mikasa said, the ground ripping with a particularly strong tug. "Before he met Carla, he had another one. A wife he married for political reasons and a son he was nowhere near as kind to. He loved them both, but the man he described in the journals and the man I knew were so different that they would have been unrecognizable to me."

"Before he met my mom, he was the leader of a resistance movement," Eren explained with a grimace when Mikasa trailed off. "He joined it after he watched his sister, my aunt, be torn apart by dogs. They were children at the time, and she was still alive when it happened. He wanted revenge."

"I understand his reasons," Mikasa shook her head, still looking away. "But what he did to his son... I hated Zeke, but Grisha was not a good father to him. It doesn't excuse either of them. But the Grisha I knew and the Grisha back then were two different people."

"What happened?" Akeno asked.

"His rebellion failed. He was caught and sentenced to death. They tortured him and his wife. Before he died, though, he was saved. I don't know if it was Zeke turning him in that changed him, or it was seeing what happened to his first wife."

"It was both and his revenge," Eren said hollowly, eyes distant. As if he was watching it all play out in front of him. "He saw the man who killed his sister torn apart like she was. But rather than feeling happy, he just felt sick. After that, he never wanted to hurt anyone again... until he was forced to."

"... Grisha made mistakes," Mikasa eventually said, her voice soft. "He knew that more than anyone. But he could be the kind man I remember because of those mistakes. I didn't name my son after Grisha, the freedom fighter. I named him after the man who took in an orphaned girl when he didn't have to."

"My- Baraqiel is not like that," Akeno denied. "He's a leader of the Grigori. He's been around for thousands of years. He's one of the strongest beings in the world. He should have been able to protect his family. He should have been there."

"I don't know Baraqiel either," Mikasa sighed, repeating Eren's words. "I am not telling you to make up with him or forgive him. But losing someone you love puts things in perspective. The type of man he is now might not be the type of man he was before. Good or bad, you would regret not knowing what type of man your father is."

Akeno didn't know what type of man Baraqiel was.

She hadn't seen him since she ran away from him, blaming him and herself for the death of Shuri Himejima.

"Race is... it's stupid," Eren grunted, looking away from Akeno. "It's so stupid. I don't know if your dad deserves your hatred or not, but your race doesn't. Hating people because of their bloodline, because of something they couldn't control, is pointless."

Now it was Mikasa's turn to look at Eren in surprise, but she did nod in agreement.

"They called us Island Devils," Mikasa said, putting down her trowel and walking over to stand beside Eren. "The entire world hated us. Feared us. But the people who hurt us the most? They were also Eldian. Fritz, Ymir, Zeke, Reiner, Annie, Bertholdt, the slavers who killed my parents. They were all Eldian. Race had nothing to do with it beyond motivation."

"This world is different from ours, but in many ways, it's the same," Eren said, leaning back against the bench and looking up at the sky. "When I learned devils, fallen angels, angels, gods, monsters, and every other myth was real, do you know what I felt?"

"What?"

"Nothing. I felt nothing. Because nothing any of these supernatural races can do to humans is worse than what humans have already done to themselves, are still doing to themselves, and will do to themselves. The existence of monsters, of a common enemy, does not change humanity."

"It was not angels, fallen, or devils that created the Holy Sword Project," Mikasa pointed out. "It was humans."

What a bleak way to look at the world.

Still, that got another laugh out of Akeno, this one more genuine.

"As always, you are terrible at consolation. Both of you," she giggled helplessly.

Eren grunted, not commenting one way or the other. Akeno sobered as she continued.

"You are wrong, though, not about humanity but about the existence of the supernatural. It does change things. A lone human, no matter how powerful, will eventually die. No devil has ever died of old age. Grudges will last eons."

It had been humans that killed Akeno's mother. There was no denying that, nor was the Queen trying to forgive the Principle Clans of Japan. Even after Akeno fled, living in exile, the Himejima clan continued to hunt her and try to kill her.

But it was precisely because of Baraqiel's existence that such a thing happened.

The Lightning of God had made so many enemies, killed so many people, and led the Grigori for so long that entire generations of the Principle Clans had fought and died defending their land from beings just like him.

Several of Akeno's ancestors had died against fallen angels who still live today.

To her, those people might be a long thing of the past, but to the clan as a whole, they were enemies they couldn't forgive.

"Grudges and hatred will last centuries, even if their original causes are long dead and forgotten," Eren shook his head.

"There is also the benefit of long lives," Mikasa said to both of them, resting a comforting hand on Eren's shoulder. "Hatred will never fully die. Nor will war. But those who experience and rise above it will live longer, too. The mistakes of the past will not be forgotten over generations."

"We are at peace now," Akeno sighed, knowing what Mikasa was alluding to.

The leaders of the Grigory and Heaven were putting aside their millennia-old grudges for the sake of their people. Even the Satans of the Underworld, younger than the other faction leaders, had still lost family in the Great War.

But it was precisely because they had lost so much that all sides knew it couldn't continue.

Hell, Azazel was now their club supervisor.

He was watching over devil children, a race he had waged war on for countless years, yet he wasn't treating them in any way Akeno could describe as badly, despite his great interest in the Sacred Gears of the Occult Research Club.

If it weren't for Mikasa's liberal use of threats to get him to leave Eren alone, he might be there with them right now.

Akeno hated how petty she sounded, even to herself, when complaining about fallen angels while going to school with their leader and having an actual angel transfer in as a student.

At least Irina was good for teasing Issei. Rias had one-upped Akeno when she had somehow managed to get Ravel Phoenix some alone time with the Red Dragon Emperor.

If Akeno could get the new angel to commit to Issei somehow, she retake her lead in her little competition with Rias over who could get Issei's harem going better.

That, or get Xenovia to finally pursue her desire to have kids without interruption. It was like the universe was conspiring to keep Issei a virgin.

Akeno grimaced, shaking her head.

They had gotten off target about why she had come here in the first place. She hadn't intended to bring up their wounds about their past again when she was meant to apologize.

She was about to apologize again when she caught sight of Eren's face.

He stared up at Mikasa, his eyes wide as if she had just said something that had overturned his entire world view.

"Eren?"

"Sorry," the older boy said at the Pawn's gentle question. He shook his head softly, looking down at the ground and tapping thoughtfully with his cane. "Just... I was just wondering what it would be like if this world had someone like Armin in charge."

"Oh," Mikasa said, eyes softening. "I sometimes wonder about that, too. I miss him."

"Armin?" Akeno asked.

"Our friend," Eren said softly, still tapping thoughtfully with his cane. "Smartest man I ever knew. One of the kindest, too. But he knew how to get things done in a way nobody else could, even when he had to sacrifice that kindness. I... I left a lot of stuff to him because I knew I could trust him."

"We both did," Mikasa sighed as well, sitting on the side of the bench beside Eren. "Still, he always went above and beyond."

"Hmm," Eren nodded, still tapping away. "I see."

Then he looked up, meeting Akeno's gaze.

The tapping stopped.

"Sorry," he said suddenly. "Got lost in thought."

"I did the same," Akeno shook her head with a smile.

"Anyway, are you feeling better now?" Eren asked bluntly. "Don't you have another rating game coming up soon? Issei mentioned one. He's pretty angry."

Akeno grimaced at the reminder.

It was not that she had any doubt that they'd win. Diodora Astaroth simply had no way of beating the Gremory Peerage.

Instead, it was his unwanted advances on Asia and continual requests to Rias for a trade, combined with his inability to take no for an answer, that had her grimacing.

If anything, Akeno was looking forward to trying out her Holy Lightning on the Astaroth heir. She had a good idea now how to do it without hurting herself.

"Are you worried?" Eren asked, mistaking the reason for her grimace. "Don't be. It'll turn out fine."

"No," Akeno denied. Then, seeing an opportunity for mischief, she continued with a fake sigh. "I am just worried about leaving you."

Eren and Mikasa furrowed their brows at the Queen, though the Pawn looked noticeably more wary.

"I'll be fine," Eren grunted in displeasure. "I have been until now. Go fight your game."

"Ah, but before, we weren't leaving you at the mercy of an older woman," Akeno 'lamented.' "What if we return to find she has had her wicked way with you?"

The younger girl shivered in delight at the red hue both Eren and Mikasa's faces gained under her teasing words.

Akeno hadn't seen them so much as kiss, despite how close they were to each other at all times. She didn't know why they maintained such a boundary in their relationship. They clearly cared deeply about each other.

Something was holding them back, but that was one area Akeno knew well enough to leave alone.

Still, they were almost 'pure' in their reactions to her teasing, and Akeno couldn't get enough of it.

Seeing them together, talking to each other without words and with looks only the other could understand really showed how close they had been in their previous world. It made Akeno sort of jealous, but also devilishly pleased. She felt like every time she touched Eren, she was pulling a trick on the older devil.

Ah, what a rotten woman she was.

"I will be there," Mikasa said, her voice low and dangerous. "Sona is facing Sairaorg before your match, and I promised to watch her matches."

"Alas," Akeno sighed dramatically. "Eren must go unattended. Do not worry. I shall return to your side as soon as possible to keep you company."

Eren's blush had disappeared, and he was just looking at Akeno with a blank face.

Mikasa was grinding her teeth.

Maybe Akeno had gone overboard?

"Do you remember ODM training?" Eren asked suddenly. Mikasa looked at him and nodded slowly. "I think Akeno is feeling better. She could use similar training before her match."

Mikasa's eyes lit up, and Akeno suddenly felt very vulnerable.

"Eren?"

"I've always found that most supernatural creatures that can fly don't know how to use their wings to their advantage," Mikasa said lowly, two swords appearing in her hand.

"Eren? You'll save me, won't you, Eren?"

"No."

It took barely a second for the boy to be left alone again as the Pawn chased the Queen into the distance.

Eren wasn't watching them.

Instead, he spent the time thinking as his cane tapped away the hours on the bench.

********

Hmmm..... What to say with this one?

A bit of a time skip, but not a long one. More will come, but this is kind of a return to form to the first parts of the fic, only with Mikasa added to the dynamic. So much of what passes between her and Eren goes unsaid in AOT, and I am trying to get accross as much without dialogue as with it.

At the same time, both Eren and Mikasa are different from the last time they really 'hung out' as it were. That was before the trip to Marley and Eren's disappearance. Since then, not only has the Rumbling happened and Eren's death, but nineteen years for Eren and eighty for Mikasa. They are the same people the other knew as children, yet their views have also evolved.

Hell, the difference between pre-Marley Eren and post-Marley Eren is already so different to the readers, and Mikasa never really got the chance to talk to Eren after that change. These evolving relationships, these changes, cannot be ignored—at least in any fic that wasn't to continue from the ending of AOT.

I won't say much more, just that Akeno is as fun to write as always, and that we are still a bit away from the end of part 3. I am looking forward to the next chapter, and I know many other people are, too, so I will meet you all next week on the bench.

 

[Godfire]

Nice update

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, love how Mikasa just started to run after Akeno in the name of "training". Stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[Gwynx]

I look forward to Mikasa's reaction when she sees Kuroka and Eren hugging and kissing each other... which will result in a territorial fight between 2 cats...

nice work

 

[Phillyitalian]

"... Penguin?" Koneko offered, looking sorrowfully up at the scowling boy and offering him a cracker.

Eren blinked down at the girl in surprise.

Then he sighed, his muscles untensing as he opened his mouth. Koneko fed him the cracker, looking pleased with herself.

Click to shrink...

Penguins make everything better.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

"Vali's in place, nyaa," Kuroka said, sliding along the bench to cuddle up to Eren and rubbing her face affectionately against his side.

"Hm," Eren grunted in acknowledgement, tapping his cane rhythmically against the ground.

Kuroka looked up to the boy, glad to be able see his eyes since he decided to get rid of those annoying bandages when on the bench.

"Nyaa?" She rumbled in question at his distant look. "Did something happen? This was an important step, right? Vali said you nagged him a lot."

"It is," Eren answered absentmindedly. "I can't see why it's important, but it is. Otherwise, the entire plan falls apart. And I'm glad we can get rid of that annoyance."

Kuroka hummed, continuing to rub her face against his chest.

"Is it because you can't see it because of the bench?"

"Yes and no. There is a blank spot the entire time I'm on the bench, and I can't check it now. But my presence with Vali would also lead to failure. I know what happens. Vali has told me in other futures, but I don't know what the exact steps are because those are not this future, the one that will happen."

Eren paused, sighed, and stopped tapping with his cane.

"That's how it has always been. I see the end I want. I try to replicate the steps to get there. I try and try and try to find the best way to get there, one where I don't hurt people. But there isn't a future like that. I can only control myself. I wouldn't control others even if I could. So I have to focus on certain key steps and moments that have to go right to get the future I want."

As always, hearing about Eren's powers was endlessly fascinating to Kuroka.

Not only because any future Titan Kittens might inherit the same powers and because she wanted to be able to help her children but also because it allowed her to understand Eren more. His mindset. His burden.

His limits.

"Any new discoveries, nyaa?" Kuroka asked curiously as Eren started scratching behind her ears just the way she liked it. When he looked at her blankly, she elaborated: "About the bench and your powers?"

"I think it is time-based, not proximity," Eren said. "I think if I don't sit on the bench for a while, my vision will return. Either all at once or slowly. I haven't tested it. Longer than a few hours, at least longer than twelve, maybe a day. I don't know."

It was an interesting tidbit but not really what Kuroka had hoped for. Still, it was something.

"So you knyaaow when you'll leave the bench?" Kuroka couldn't help the yawn that escaped her as she stretched lazily, laying across Eren's lap.

She didn't forget to flaunt her breasts, of course, but Eren was still lost in thought and didn't react.

"Not the exact date," Eren denied. "I've been here for over a year and been unable to use that form of my power. But I do remember the general time frame. It's getting closer."

Kuroka looked up at the young man as he gazed at the sky.

"Is that why you are like this? Or is that woman?"

Eren's hands froze on her head.

Only for a second, then he resumed.

"Mikasa is part of it," Eren admited, not looking at Kuroka.

"Are you certain it is her? It could be a trap from one of the factions of the Brigade or the New Satans."

"It's her," Eren denied immediately. "She knows things I never told anyone. And even after all these years, she is still... her."

So many feelings roiled in Kuroka's chest at the thought of Mikasa Ackerman.

There was jealousy abound. There was jealousy at the emotions in Eren's voice when he spoke about her, to her, or around her. There was jealousy at the way the pair could silently communicate so fluidly. There was jealousy at the secrets the two shared only between each other, secrets that even Kuroka was ignorant of.

She was jealous that the love that seemed to have been reserved for Kuroka was now something she had to share with a woman who came out of nowhere.

Apart from jealousy, though, there were many other emotions.

Hatred, for one.

Kuroka had always known there was a woman in Eren's past he had loved, even if he never spoke about it. The way he danced around the issue had made that clear.

While Eren never said anything, Kuroka had put enough pieces together to know that this woman, this Mikasa, had hurt Eren. Whether it was accidentally or on purpose, Kuroka didn't know, but she hated the woman who had hurt the man she loved.

If that had been all, Kuroka would have had no problem hating Mikasa Ackerman.

But life and emotions were never so cut and dry.

After discovering the pair together on the bench, Kuroka had watched them over the last few weeks and realized something.

She saw it in the wonder in his eyes when he looked at her, like every time he saw her, Eren couldn't believe she was real and with him.

She heard it in Eren's voice when he asked Mikasa about their old world. The closure Eren had always been missing as he listened to what happened to friends he had left behind.

She felt it in the touch of his skin, the omnipresent tension that had lightened ever so slightly as if a burden he had carried for so long had been taken from his back.

She understood it in the way Eren acted. The life that had been absent in the automated machine for years was slowly bursting to the fore.

Eren had changed from his time on the bench. He would continue to change, Kuroka was sure.

But Kuroka also realized something, watching the man she loved look at another woman with evident love: He would not change alone. It took these young devils to get him started, Kuroka's support to carry him along, and more.

Eren needed Mikasa.

If Eren was ever to heal, he needed this woman.

And Kuroka couldn't bring herself to hate someone who could be the key to Eren's smile.

But it hurt.

It hurt to not be the one Eren needed.

So yes, Kuroka's feelings about Mikasa Ackerman were mixed, complex, and not easily dealt with.

And they hadn't even properly met yet.

"It's her, then," Kuroka said, pressing her face into Eren's chest so she didn't have to look at him. "She's part of it, nyaa. What else are you thinking about?"

Eren didn't say anything for a long moment, just running his hands through her hair.

"It's... everything," he eventually answered. "Mikasa, me, our world, this world, how we got here, why we are here... Everything."

"You are still trying to find out why you are smiling in the end, aren't you? Leviathan's Pawn is not the reason."

"...No. She's not. I am happy to see her. So happy. Learning about what happened after I died is more than I could have ever hoped for. I am so glad I got to wrap that scarf around her again."

His hand stopped moving through her hair.

"But?"

Kuroka felt Eren start to shake.

"But her presence makes everything so much worse."

"Nyaa?" Kuroka asked, pulling her face away from him to judge his expression.

Eren stared resolutely at the sky, teeth biting his lower lip and his fist clenched.

"She'll understand," Eren spat as if accusing the sky. "Mikasa will understand the horror of what I am going to do. Nobody in this world would have, but she will. And... I don't think I can do that to her. Not again."

"You love her."

It wasn't a question.

They both knew the answer.

"I hurt her," Eren eventually said. "I hurt everyone, but of those I... cared about, her most of all. And she didn't deserve it. None of them did. None of you do. But it's all I do. Hurt people. More than anyone, I hurt the people I love."

Eren took a deep breath, and his shaking stopped.

As he let it out, the rage left him with the air.

Leaving a husk.

A simple Senjutsu technique Kuroka had taught him to maintain control.

She hated seeing him use it.

"I didn't want to. I still don't want to. But I will. I know I will hurt everyone. The future I've seen, that terrible day, is getting closer. I can't stop it. So why? WHY?! Why was I smiling?"

It always came back to that smile.

Mikasa's presence was necessary to help Eren change, but it wasn't everything.

So Kuroka did what she always did.

She took all those complex feelings, jealousy, pain, and hurt, and she buried them deep within herself.

Kuroka didn't deny them. No practitioner of Senjutsu ever would. They'd have their time.

But that time was not now.

Right now, someone she loved was in pain, and she was the only one who could help them.

Kuroka sat up, adjusted her kimono, and, in as fast a move as she could make, grabbed Eren's chin and pulled him down for a kiss.

Not even two years ago surprising him was impossible.

Now? Eren froze at the brazen act of affection, mouth opening in surprise, and Kuroka deepened the kiss.

Long, deep, and filled with every emotion she could convey, Kuroka kissed Eren.

Eventually, the surprise faded, and Eren began to kiss back.

Satisfied, Kuroka pulled away with a smile and a rumbling purr.

Which immediately turned into giggles at the embarrassed flush on Eren's face.

"That's better, nyaa," Kuroka said, leaning against Eren's chest again. "You need to stop obsessing about the future. You said it yourself. It will happen. You might not know why you are smiling in the end, you might not know until that moment, but you will know then, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"No buts!" Kuroka held a finger to Eren's lips and gave him a saucy smile. "Stop worrying about the smile. Maybe you can't understand it because you are trying to, nyaa? Instead of asking why you're smiling, ask a different question."

Eren looked like he was going to say something, but he stopped, bit his lip again, and hesitantly spoke up.

"Why me?"

"Nyaa?"

"Not—" Eren cut himself off, took a deep breath, and started again. "Not just why do I keep doing this. Why her specifically? Why Mikasa and me? It's not a coincidence. It can't be. Out of everyone from our world, it's both of us. And this bench happens to be right where the sister of Serafall Leviathan is going to school? It's obviously someone's plan."

"Why they want you is obvious," Kuroka said. "Your power and what you will do with it."

While Eren had never confided every step of the plan to anyone, not even her, Kuroka knew more than anyone else. She could think of a hundred different beings who would want Eren to follow his plan and at least a half dozen factions.

"Maybe it's Ophis' big plan, nyaa?" The Stray Devil said with a giggle, and even Eren snorted dismissively.

Ophis might have the power to organize something like that, but the Ororboris Dragon was... not a long-term planner.

"I understand why they want me," Eren nodded, starting to tap his cane again. "It's Mikasa's presence I don't understand. If they know me, they'd know I am less likely to go through with it with her here."

Kuroka suppressed the twinge of jealousy again and seriously thought about the matter.

"She must have some role to play in the plan. You can't see her, right? But she's Leviathan's Pawn. She's important." Kuroka's words didn't ease Eren's worries, so she tried something else. "Maybe it's not about your plan. Maybe she's important after?"

"After?" Eren asked as if the word was foreign to him. Tap tap.

"After you... die." Not that Kuroka would let that happen. "You can't see after that either, right? Maybe her part comes later."

"After," Eren repeated, trailing off. Tap tap.

"You never thought about what will happen after we're done, nyaa?"

"I know what will happen," Eren shook his head. "It will be the same in my world. Devil, angel, human, it doesn't matter. People are the same everywhere. Even now, when the world knows about the Chaos Brigade knows about Ophis, they aren't changing. A common enemy will never unite people for long. They'll get right back to fighting each other as soon as they can. Some haven't even stopped."

Tap tap.

"Sure," Kuroka nodded. "But I don't mean in general. I mean her specifically. You don't know what she'll do after, right? You said she'll understand. Maybe she's here to understand you?"

"Understand me? Can anyone ever truly understand anyone else?"

Tap tap.

"Never completely, nyaa," Kuroka shook her head. "It's impossible to completely understand someone. But, with enough time and effort, we can understand parts of each other. I might not understand the Eren from your world, but the Eren with me now? I understand him a little more every day."

The tapping stopped.

Eren's mouth opened, but no sound escaped.

Kuroka continued.

"You'll hurt her. I'm sure you don't want to, but you will. Either when she finds out who you are or when she finds out what will happen."

Just as Kuroka could see the love in Eren's eyes, she could see it in Mikasa Ackerman's every movement around the boy.

"She'll fight us," Eren said slowly, not looking at the woman beside him. "She won't succeed, but she'll fight us. They all will. They're good kids."

It took Kuroka a moment to realize Eren was talking about Shirone, the Gremory Peerage and Levithan's sister, on top of Ackerman.

"You'll hurt them too," Kuroka nodded with a grimace. Shirone wouldn't be happy, but she'd understand in the end. Kuroka was sure she'd understand. Still, best to cheer up Eren for now. "But they are strong kids. She lived after you died once, and they will, too, right? They have their entire lives ahead of them."

Eren would, too, if Kuroka had anything to say about it, but she didn't tell him that.

"You're right," Eren still spoke slowly as he looked into the distance. "They'll be here long after I'm gone. So will she. Mikasa's strong—the strongest. She'll never give up."

While it didn't feel nice to hear him complimenting the woman, Kuroka was at least glad Eren wasn't brooding anymore.

Then Eren looked at her, something in his eyes that even Kuroka had never seen before.

"You too," he said. "You'll be here. You all will be forced to live the world I'll build. Mikasa will understand, but you won't. You can't."

She didn't know why her survival was a revelation to him. Eren had flat-out told her that she didn't die.

This also wasn't the first time Eren had spoken about their inability to understand what he was doing.

It wasn't like he was concealing it either, so it wasn't a secret. It was more like Kuroka was missing some context, and she still wouldn't get it even if he told her flat out.

If Ackerman would understand, then it had to be related to their home world. Something only people who had lived there, who had experienced it first hand, would understand.

"Kuroka," Eren suddenly demanded, grabbing her shoulder and continuing to stare into her eyes. "I can trust you, right? Fully?"

Her heart skipped a beat.

Did he know? Had he always known?

Still, Kuroka knew how his ability worked, so if she ever admitted to it, even if caught, he could peer into a future where she did so and know the truth.

So Kuroka lied.

"You can," she nodded. "You know you can, nyaa."

Eren continued to stare into her eyes.

"Not just with the plan," he continued. "With everything. Can I trust you even after I die?"

This was getting too close for comfort for Kuroka, so she deflected.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt her, nyaa," Kuroka said reassuringly.

"Hurt her?" Eren repeated, looking confused.

"Mikasa, nyaa~" Kuroka singsonged. "I'll make sure not to hurt her."

"What?" Eren asked, baffled. "What are you talking about?"

"Your harem," Kuroka said with a sly smile. "Don't worry, I'll make sure there's no infighting."

Eren flinched, recoiling from her and letting go of her shoulder.

"We've never- I mean, I've never..." Eren babbled, shame covering his face.

Kuroka pressed the attack.

"I never expected you to be so sly," Kuroka giggled. "You shut down everyone in the Brigade. Was it just because you have a type? Jeanne will be so disappointed."

"Wha-"

"I see you with them, you know," Kuroka leaned forward on the bench, pressing herself against Eren. "The way you have those girls eating out of the palm of your hand. It's the dark hair, right? You should have told me."

"Kuroka."

"Poor Gremory. She'll have to dye her hair. Not Shirone, though. I forbid it. She's too cute as she is now. You'll just have to learn to love white hair, too. You'll have time. She's too young right now."

"Enough."

The steel in Eren's tone froze Kuroka in place.

It took her a moment to realize where she was, hands pressed on both sides of Eren's head as she loomed over him, tails waving frantically in the air behind her and ears flat against her head. Her breasts had even spilled out of her kimono.

Eren wasn't looking at any of that, though. His grey eyes bore into hers, unflinching even though he had been pushed against the side of the bench.

"Sorry," Kuroka said softly, pulling away and looking at the ground as she readjusted her clothes.

Eren watched her, not saying anything until she had composed herself.

"Matting season," he asked.

She appreciated his voice's lack of judgment or accusation, but it wasn't needed.

"No," Kuroka denied, still not looking at him. "Just got carried away a bit."

She wasn't lying, per se. She had diverted his attention with teasing as intended, but seeing his reactions had encouraged her on.

Why was it that she had to hide when Eren could finally express emotion?

Kuroka repeated the trick she had taught Eren, taking a deep breath and letting her frustration out with the air.

"What was that about?"

"Just... coming to terms with the change, I guess."

"Change?"

"I'm not the only one you love anymore."

Eren didn't say anything.

She didn't expect him to.

"Like I said, don't worry. I'll make sure not to fight Mikasa after everything. And I'll make sure the others are taken care of. Shirone cares for them, too, so I'll be seeing them a lot. You can trust me with them."

"That's... not really what I was worried about."

"You don't need to worry. Harems are the norm in the supernatural world. Once we can talk, I'm sure I can get along with her."

"That is really not what I was worrying about. You've been following Issei, haven't you?"

"Don't worry," Kuroka repeated. "Like I said, it's pretty standard—not just for guys but for girls, too. We nekomata are encouraged to have kids from a wide variety of races, you know? Devils are known for it, of course, but every long-lived race has some form of polyamory. Can you imagine being in love with only one person for thousands of years?"

"Yes."

"Then you are the exception, not the rule. Regular humans with no power have trouble lasting a few years, so imagine when you live for centuries, are surrounded by beautiful beings, and have a low fertility rate. Monogamy just isn't viable long-term for most of us. Even humans have lived most of their history with some sort of system-"

"Kuroka," Eren cut her off, and the nekoshou shut her mouth with a click.

She had been rambling, following a train of thought, all while unwilling to look at the man with her.

Ah, Kuroka had tried. She had really tried.

Why couldn't she just be happy?

"Kuroka," Eren asked, the steel bending into a hint of worry. "Are you all right?"

Was she?

"No," Kuroka denied, unwilling to lie. The tears came, heavy and wet. "I'm not."

She finally looked at him, trying to give him her usual teasing smile, even through the tears.

Her lips moved upwards, but the weight kept pulling them down.

"The man I love is going to die soon, and I can only spend time with him in secret."

It was Eren's time to look away in shame once more.

Even if Kuroka planned to change that future, she knew the odds weren't great. Everything Eren had ever predicted had come true without fail.

Neither said a word for a long moment.

Ah, she must look like a mess. She couldn't do this.

She needed to be the cool Onee-sama.

She needed to be the woman leading the Chaos Brigade.

Kuroka needed to be someone Eren could trust.

"Sorry," Kuroka repeated, wiping her eyes. "It's not your fault. I made the decision to go to Stray before ever meeting you. I have to live with the consequences."

"I could-"

"You cannot leave," Kuroka cut off with a glare, eyes still wet but unwilling to entertain the idea. "Not until you have to. I will not force you to live like you did before just because I am feeling lonely."

She wanted to be with Eren, but she wanted him to be happy even more.

Like it or not, Eren was happier here, on this bench, than he had been in all the years she had known him.

Kuroka didn't take that personally, understanding that his power, more than the lack of her presence, was the main factor.

It still sucked balls, as Shirone would say.

"You could-"

"No, I can't," Kuroka's glare redoubled. "They find out I am here and we will have to move forward with the plan early, and you'll have to leave. It's not even Ackerman. It'd be the same if she was gone. So, no. I will not meet them until it is time, either."

Eren's jaw clenched, fists tightening around his cane.

He wasn't angry at her, Kuroka knew.

"You don't deserve this," he eventually growled through clenched teeth. "None of this. None of you do. Yet I..."

She never wanted to see that look on his face.

Kuroka raised a hand to gently caress Eren's cheek, rubbing her fingers along his shifter marks and giving him a sad smile.

"You don't deserve it either," she said softly. "Nobody deserves anything. You told me that. But I have never regretted any of it. I never regretted loving you."

Eren leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers.

"I still have time," he said softly. "We still have time."

"We're going to make the most of it, nyaa," Kuroka said with a wet smile. "I'll take every second with you I can. But..."

Kuroka took a deep breath, steeling her resolve.

She had been vacillating on this decision for weeks, ever since learning who Mikasa Ackerman was to Eren.

In the end, Kuroka chose those she loved.

She always did.

"Before you leave the bench, you need to tell her how you feel."

"Kuro-"

"And!" Kuroka cut Eren off. "And you'll tell her about me. At least everything you can without jeopardizing my role. After that... Whatever happens after that, I want you to do what makes you happy."

"Kuroka," Eren said softly, pulling away and looking at her in bafflement. "Why are you doing this?"

She knew what he meant. Eren would never be able to give her the same... permission she had just given him.

But she was not Eren Yeager.

She was Black Cat Kuroka, the most infamous Stray Devil alive.

"Because I would want the same in her situation. I do want the same. Knowing someone you love is going to die, and not being able to hold them one last time... I don't want to feel that. I don't want someone you love to feel that either."

Kuroka hadn't been lying about the polyamory aspect of the supernatural world. Everything she had said was true.

It was increadibly common, and she had honestly never expected to 'settle down' as it were with someone. She had expected to find men she liked, certainly, but never stay with them long.

Kuroka had never forgotten her mother, nor had she forgotten what happened to the woman who gave her heart to one man alone and the tragedy that followed.

Kuroka had never understood Fujimai until meeting Eren.

She was increadibly jealous of Mikasa Ackerman. That had never changed and would never change, whether the other woman was with Eren or not.

Kuroka wasn't jealous of the kiss she knew they shared.

Kuroka was barely jealous that Eren loved someone else. She had honestly expected something like this years ago with how universally attractive power was to supernatural races. Eren had power in spades.

No, Kuroka burned with jealousy because she was no longer number one in Eren's heart.

She had been.

For years, Kuroka could say with a hundred percent confidence that Eren loved nobody like he loved her.

Now, she couldn't.

And that hurt.

Because there was nothing she did wrong, nothing she could do, that would change reality.

Kuroka knew emotions didn't work like that. Eren couldn't just stop loving Mikasa, any more than Kuroka could stop loving him.

There was too much history there. History Kuroka hadn't been a part of and barely knew about.

She knew.

Kuroka knew that she just had to say the words, and Eren would never touch Mikasa in that way again.

She knew because he hadn't, even after all these weeks, even kissed her again.

If Kuroka wished it Eren would live the rest of his life and go to his death having been 'loyal' to her.

And he'd never smile then.

Not when he repeated one of his greatest regrets.

Not when he was forever haunted by the love that never was.

For the man she loved, for the smile they both wanted to see, Kuroka would live with her jealousy.

"I'm doing this because I love you."

It was not a night of passion.

It was not a romantic fairy tale.

It was a kiss tinged with salty tears, fueled by grief for an inevitable parting and lament at the complexity of love and life.

And it was just as beautiful as any other moment that passed on the bench.

********

This is one of the rare cases where I deliberately went against canon portrayal. I do think it has a sound basis, though, given that this Kuroka has had a vastly different experience in recent years compared to her canon counterpart.

Canon Kuroka would have been like, 'You like Mikasa? What are you waiting for? Invite her into bed. I'm gonna watch.' It would have been less of a catfight when they meet and more like Kuroka teasing Mikasa to rile her up and running away because she couldn't be bothered with an actual fight.

I wanted to give her a bit more of a nuanced perspective.

Yes, DxD is a world where harems, polyamorous relationships, and the like are common. I tried to be a bit more logical with the reasoning besides 'power, boobs, unga bunga.' Even if these people are culturally inured to the concept in a way we (as people who might live in largely monogamous societies) are not, it doesn't change the fact that feelings are messy, painful things.

Kuroka might be fine with Eren boning other women, but does she feel the same about him loving others more? And what about Eren? Does he feel right about this? Mikasa is sure to have an opinion as well.

Kuroka and Mikasa will inevitably meet, but that isn't for a while yet. For now, Eren has to contend with revelations, plans, emotions, and upcoming meetings. He still has a ways to go before he can smile.

We'll be with him until then, waiting for the next meeting on the bench.

PS: For those unaware, my other fic, Rapturous Rhapsody, finished on Friday, April 12th. After two years and 750k words, it is finally done. What that means for On The Bench is that starting in May, we will return to two chapters released a week. Sunday will remain the same, but I'll also begin releasing on Fridays now that the slot is open.

That's not till May, though. I will catch my breath and finish ironing out my plans for the final part, part 4. I expect this story to end sometime in the summer.

Until then, I will be waiting for you all on Sunday on the bench.

 

[Gwynx]

eyyyyy, finally someone who gives logic and realism to a harem, the sad and bitter reality is that not everyone will be happy, there will be jealousy and a lot of remorse between them and it will be a battle royale between all the couples just to win affection hah.




nice work

 

[Brazilian_cheese]

eyyyyy, finally someone who gives logic and realism to a harem, the sad and bitter reality is that not everyone will be happy, there will be jealousy and a lot of remorse between them and it will be a battle royale between all the couples just to win affection hah.




nice work

Click to shrink...

The worst part would be on the children, caus the battle royale will get stupidly worse when it's time for the inheritance to come
Unrelated note, TFTC

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, I really like how you wrote Kuroka here and am curious to see how she tries to save Eren. Stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[Renoldmc]

Part of why I hate harems lel, I don't like the pain it causes.

If you love someone why would you hurt em with that shit, it just makes me feel bad thinking about it


Anyway I'm still holding out hope for the monogamy even if it looks like that's not gonna happen

 

[TribuneAlpha]

Having found this after Rhapsody Ended (heh), I can definitely say I prefer this story more. I got invested in Micheal's story, but this genuinely made me cry, which is very rare and immidately made this one of my favorites. I'm honestly not even all that into AOT, nor HS DxD. This, though, was enthralling in a way few of my reads are. If you're familar with the concept of Greek Tragedy (A hero brought low by a fatal flaw that in other circumstances could have made them the hero), this is a perfect distilation of it. Eren's torturing himself on the idea that he'll be happy again(?), and we the audience are screaming that he's already found it. That what made him so sucessful last life is tearing him to pieces in this one. But at the same time it's so utterly natural to see him struggle with the idea of 'getting better', and what that even means. We even see Kuroka noting that he's more emotive then he's ever been, possibly precisely because he doesn't have that omniscent view of the future anymore, the same thing he's bemoned on more then one occassion. And Kuroka planning around the second best thing to omniscence is making for some delicous mystery and suspense towards both the sucess of her attempt and Eren's reaction to it.

I do have very high hopes for the reveal about how and who got Eren and Mikasa into this new world. It's obviously not just fortune or luck, and I suspect Mikasa knew at least a bit given how she seemed to know how to send herself 'to' Eren. Rhapsody did the reveal of the root cause quite well, but then mangled the 'big bad' in the end by not really lending them enough screentime. The problem with big bads: too much screen time (or word count) and they get annoying, too little and they feel underwhelming no matter how strong. That somehow had both. Here, the reveal is a lot slower, precisely because Eren doesn't really care like Mikeal, and thus the reveal can happen on narrative terms instead of character ones. Which we'll see if it's better or worse, I suppose.

This feels like a twenty season slice of life with everything not plot relevent removed. While somehow still feeling very slice of life, which is weird considering they should be pretty antithetical. But damn if it isn't good.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

What a great day!

Issei Hyoudou couldn't stop grinning.

Not when he woke up after getting little sleep.

Not when he had to sit through the school day bombarded by questions by his classmates about his derpy expression.

Not when his two friends accurately guessed the reason for his great mood and started trying to beat him up.

Issei didn't even notice their attacks, thanks to his Rook durability, too lost in the memory of the night before.

The stupid smile did not even leave Issei's face as school finished, and Buchou gave the club a day off to rest after the battle yesterday.

Sure, Issei was alone at the moment, most of the girls dragging a red-faced Asia away and Kiba aiding Gasper with his powers, but he didn't let that get to him.

Issei simply decided to go for a walk, enjoying what a great day it was with a broad, stupid smile on his face.

"What happened?"

"Senp- Eren!" Issei jumped in surprise at the interruption of his idyllic thoughts.

He hadn't realized that his wanderings had taken him down the well-trod path toward the bench and its occupants. Ackerman-sensei sat up from where she had been leaning against Eren on the bench, looking over the boy.

As always, understanding what the Pawn was thinking was difficult, but the older boy was an almost open book with his emotions.

Eren's lips had thinned at the title Issei had almost called him, but he didn't comment.

Issei appreciated it.

Unlike the others who had gotten used to international standards of names, he had lived his entire life until only a few months ago in the Japanese nomenclature system. (A word Issei had heard Kachou use!)

While the others used suffixes to blend in, and Language translated it for him when they didn't, Issei still found it difficult to unlearn the habits he had grown used to.

"Did something good happen?" Eren asked again.

Issei didn't answer, reminded of last night's events, and his expression returned to that derpy grin.

"Yeah," he sighed in wonder, drawing a deep breath to appreciate what a wonderful day it was. "It was... great."

Eren's brows furrowed, and he looked at Mikasa. The woman was just as in the dark as him, though, and gave a minute shrug.

"That's... good," Eren said doubtfully. "Mikasa was telling me about your Rating Game and what happened. It's good to see you... happy, even after all that."

Issei flinched, reminded of the disaster that was their battle against Diodora Asteroth.

Sure, the devil scion had been getting on his nerves for the last few weeks with his incessant confessions to Asia and request for a trade. Still, Issei had not expected that the man would be in league with the Chaos Brigade until he used those weird snakes of theirs to fight the Gremory on equal footing.

And his Peerage...

Issei felt his good mood vanish as he was reminded of those women.

"Um, Ackerman-sensei?" He hesitantly asked, rubbing his cheek awkwardly, unsure how to do this.

"Yes?" Mikasa asked, face still inscrutable.

"Uh, what's, um, going to happen to them? The Peerage, I mean."

Mikasa's eyes softened, and Issei finally got something he could identify from her. Sadness.

"They're going to be alright," she said softly. "We, Serafall and the others, they have experience with these kinds of problems. There are programs in place to help people like them recover. They'll be safe. They'll heal."

Issei bit his lip, looking away.

Hearing that Diodora's victims had a chance at recovery was a weight off his back, but Issei did not miss the implication.

Devils had systems in place because this had happened before.

He had never really given it much thought about how lucky he was to have Rias as his King.

'Akeno. Do it.'

Sure, not everything was perfect, but Buchou did her best to take care of him. To take care of all of them.

It was one thing to hear about how other devil Kings could treat their Peerages and another thing entirely to see it in action.

Riser Phenex, the Yakitori, might have been a pompous ass, but his Peerage had genuinely cared for him. It was one of the reasons Issei had been jealous; Riser's harem had been, in a way, what Issei had always dreamed of.

What Diodora Asteroth had done, the lying and manipulation of naive women, separating them from all they had ever known and... breaking them...

It was like a punch to the gut.

A direct blow to every ideal Issei ever held.

A cruel mockery of Issei's dream.

A rage Issei had never known had burned in his chest. Never before had he felt such pure anger, such hatred for another being.

Then, even that anger was eclipsed when he believed Asia to have died because of Diodora's spiteful vengeance.

For the first time in his life, Issei understood why people feared the Red Dragon Emperor.

And now, he did too.

[Partner] Ddraig said softly. Consolingly. [Juggernaut Drive is not something you should ever use again. Not under any circumstances. I don't want to lose my favourite wielder.]

Issei wanted to smile. That was the first time Ddraig had ever called him that.

But he was lost in the memories of the rage.

"You told me hating someone is easy," Issei said, leaning against a tree and looking at the sky.

"It is," Eren said sombrely. "Rage is the easiest emotion to feel. Hatred is just rage with a target. We can create any number of reasons to hate."

Issei had lost himself in that rage, willing to burn the world and himself down if it meant satisfying his bloodthirst.

And if he had, if none of his friends had been there to stop him...

If Kiba hadn't fought him tooth and nail.

If Akeno-senpai's holy lightning had been less effective.

If Rias had let her grief consume her like he had and not defended her Peerage from his rampage.

If Koneko had not been there to take his blows.

If Xenovia hadn't hugged him...

Issei would have died.

Issei would have burned up his life force to fuel a rampage against a dead man.

If he didn't kill anyone else, that is.

And he would have never seen Asia again.

It was only dumb luck that Vali's team had been passing through the Dimensional Gap at the exact right time to rescue Asia before she died.

Without that dumb luck, Asia would have died, and so would Issei.

"You were right," Issei said, fists clenching. "I killed him. Killing him was easy because I hated him. I still hate him. I... I killed him, and I don't feel bad. I should feel bad, right? I killed someone. But I don't. Is it because I'm a devil? Because I am a bad person?"

"Being a devil has nothing to do with it," Ackerman-sensei said, and Issei looked around, realizing she was standing beside him while Eren remained on the bench. Watching him. "All it does is change race. The physical body. The resurrection does not change who we are. Who you are."

"Then I'm-"

"No." Mikasa cut Issei off. "You are not a bad person either. You are a boy. Hating someone who hurt you is normal."

Not just hated.

Killed.

Diodora Asteroth had been the first person Issei had ever killed.

He had defeated plenty of people before. Whether it was the occasional Stray Devil or Yuu-Raynare and her group, Issei had fought plenty of enemies who ended up dead.

But he had never killed anyone.

Was that why Buchou tried to finish all the Strays herself? To spare her Peerage the responsibility?

Was that why Akeno-senpai and Kiba were the ones to kill the fallen angels and stray exorcists?

Had Issei been protected all this time and not realized it?

This Peerage, these friends, this family, he was so lucky to have it.

And that made Diodora's actions so incomprehensible to him.

"I... I..." Issei stuttered, wiping his eyes furiously to look into the older woman's eyes. "I don't understand. Why? Why do something like that? If it's not because of being devils, why are people like this?"

"Race doesn't matter," Eren joined in, staring intently at Issei from the bench. "Devil. Human. Dragon. It doesn't matter. There are animals in every race. Monsters that look like people. But most? Most people who hate, kill, fight, and die? They are like everyone else. They have things they care about. Things they want to protect. Things they will kill for. And they are not bad people. Just people."

"I-" Issei cut himself off, unsure what to say.

It had been easy to ignore these feelings before, to live life pretending that everything was great, that nothing bad had truly happened, and that nothing would.

Last night had been wonderful. Everything he had ever dreamed of.

It was easy to drown worries in joy.

Asia was alive, after all.

Issei had been stopped before he hurt anyone he cared about.

A happy ending, right?

But even losing his virginity could not erase the fear in Issei's heart.

Fear of the future. Of what he might do. Of who he'd become.

"I hated him," Issei eventually said. "I still hate him. I don't feel bad that he's dead. That I killed him. But.."

"But," Eren nodded as if understanding Issei's words before he ever spoke them.

"But I feel bad that I don't feel bad. I don't want to do it again," Issei admitted. "I like my power. I like Ddraig and being a devil and fighting in Rating Games. But I don't like hating people. I don't like killing people. I don't want to live like that."

"You will need to," Eren said softly. "The world is not so kind to give us what we want."

"I know that," Issei said sombrely. "I know I'll have to kill other people. Some I don't hate."

Already, Chaos Brigade was becoming more active. Issei knew that he'd end up fighting them more and more. He'd end up killing some of them. People whom he didn't know and didn't hate.

Would you die for me?

There would come a day when Issei Hyoudou would kill others to defend his way of life.

And he didn't want to become that type of person.

"It gets easier," Mikasa said sadly. "It's not a consolation. The more you kill, the more you fight, the more you lose, the easier each battle and death comes. You become numb. But nobody is the better for it. You become stronger, but strength is not happiness."

There was a long moment of silence in the clearing with the bench. Issei was lost in thought, Mikasa giving him time to think, and Eren...

Eren was biting his teeth in a grimace, fists clenched around the handle of his cane.

He didn't look angry, Issei idly realized. He looked determined. Resolute.

It was like Eren was going to do something he didn't want to do and was gathering his courage to step forward.

But step forward he eventually did.

"I told you how we met," Eren eventually said, nodding at Mikasa but eyes never leaving Issei's. "Do you remember?"

"Yes," Issei nodded, wondering where the older boy was going with this. Mikasa seemed to know. She was touching the red scarf around her neck and looking down. Not in shame, Issei didn't think, but in memory. "You rescued her from slavers, then she rescued you, and you gave her that scarf, right?"

"Right," Eren sighed, leaning forward and resting his chin on his cane as he looked at Issei.

But he wasn't looking at Issei. He was looking beyond the Red Dragon Emperor to another world and another time.

That fierceness never left him, though.

"I was six. There were three of them. To rescue her, I killed two of them with a knife. Do you know what I felt?"

"What?" Issei asked part horrified at the idea of a boy that young killing someone, part admiration for Eren's willingness to save a girl he didn't know, and part fascination at another piece of the puzzle that was 'Eren Yeager.'

"Nothing," Eren said simply. "They were animals. Nothing but beasts that looked and talked like humans. I was angry at what they did, but I felt nothing for killing them."

"I killed the third one," Mikasa said, voice just as plain as Eren's as she retook her seat beside him on the bench. "Stabbed him in the back with the same knife. They killed my mother. My father. They wanted to sell me into slavery. And I... I didn't hate them. I was too numb to feel anything at the time. But I killed him anyway. Because I needed to fight. To live, we must fight."

"Those bandits weren't unique, either," Eren continued, squeezing Mikasa's hands and gazing into the distance. "I've killed so many. Some, I took pleasure in their deaths. I hated them. Others, I was putting down animals. Even more, they were just enemies. No hatred or love. Just a path of corpses toward my goal."

Eren took a deep breath, his gaze returning to Issei even though his eyes had never left him.

"Most... most of the people I've killed didn't deserve it. They weren't enemies, animals, or people I hated. Innocent bystanders. Friends. Loved ones. I've killed them all. Those... Those I feel every day. So no, you are not a monster because you killed someone or will kill again. You are just a boy who gained power. The same as me. There is no one way we are supposed to feel, no 'right' way to live. But we must live."

"Why..." Issei asked, voice cracking. "Why are you telling me this?"

"So you can understand," Eren said, voice grim. "So you don't make the same mistakes I did."

"The mistakes we did," Ackerman-sensei corrected. "I've done the same. I've killed comrades. I've killed bystanders. I've... killed loved ones. I shook. I cried. I grieved. But I did it anyway."

"You need to understand," Eren repeated, eyes boring into Issei. "Killing is something that happens when two sides clash. Ideals. Benefits. Hatreds. It doesn't matter. Even if we think the reasons are stupid, even when it seems so pointless, it is something that happens for a reason."

"I don't want that!"

"Nobody wants that!" Eren growled, physically shaking in rage. At Issei, himself, or the world, the Rook didn't know. "I didn't want that. She didn't want that. Nobody wants to kill others for no reason. Only animals want to live like that. But that is life."

Issei almost stumbled back as Eren rose to his feet, cane in hand and taking a step toward the Red Dragon Emperor.

"As your power grows, your ability to kill will too. It will grow and grow and grow until your every step crushes dozens of lives. And you'll do it. Because you have those you love, those you hate and those you want to protect. All heaven and earth will tremble with your every step. So you need to understand the cost of that step forward!"

"Eren." Mikasa barked, not unkindly but firmly, as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

Eren blinked in surprise, the spell broken, as he looked at Mikasa's hand. Then, to her face, worry and concern shone through a warning expression.

Then at Issei, caught in a back step, Boosted Gear on his arm and raised defensively.

Instinct was a powerful thing.

"Sorry," Eren said softly, eyes not leaving the red gauntlet as he sagged backward back onto the bench. "I got... Sorry."

Mikasa looked at Eren, a question and concern in her gaze, and he just nodded and sighed. Her lips pressed together, but she did not comment.

She retook her position on the bench, sitting even closer to the boy as if her presence could heal him.

It struck Issei then how old the two people on the bench were. Not in age—he didn't know their exact ages—but in experience.

In life.

Issei wasn't a soldier or a war-weary victim. He was a perverted teenage boy who just happened to be born with the soul of a red dragon in him.

Half a year ago, his greatest worries had been getting a date, a harem and whether his grades were good enough to stay at Kuoh Academy.

So much had happened in such a short time that he wondered if his past self would even recognize the 'Issei' of now.

What would he look like after living a life like this?

Would he look like Eren and Mikasa, haunted by their past and their deeds?

Why... didn't that seem so bad?

It wasn't his dream or even his goal. It wasn't what he was working toward. But...

There was something beautiful about those two people on the bench, together and happy for that simple pleasure.

Even if he came to regret the choices he made today, Issei didn't want to be alone if he ever became the boy on the bench.

[He isn't wrong, Partner.] Ddraig said, the green gem in the Boosted Gear flashing with his every word. Both Eren and Mikasa looked on, not having heard the Red Dragon Emperor's voice before now. [My hosts are always powerful. And the actions of the powerful have consequences. Some will challenge you just because of what you are. You will either need to fight and kill or die.]

"I know that!" Issei snapped, helplessness colouring his voice as he sank to the ground, resting his back against the tree. "I know that. I just... I don't want that. I don't want to live like that."

"You're an honest boy, Issei Hyoudou," Mikasa said softly, almost motherly, as she looked at him. "Honest and kind. But you have power. We can help you. We can prepare you. But only you can decide how to use that power. What do you want, Issei Hyoudou?"

"I want a harem," Issei answered instantly.

Mikasa Ackerman blinked in surprise, but Eren didn't even twitch.

[Partner.] Ddraig said, letting out a long-suffering sigh.

It had been almost instinct, an automatic response for him.

Issei wanted a harem. As simple as that.

But it wasn't simple, was it?

Not too long ago, at the Peace Conference, Azazel-sensei had asked Issei for his opinion as the Red Dragon Emperor.

Did he support peace?

Issei had said yes, but only after being told that he wouldn't be able to enjoy time with his girlfriend if they were at war.

Issei was just as a schoolboy thrown into the deep end of wars, hatreds, and goals thousands of years old. He hadn't felt he knew enough to make a decision. Even with all this power and all this 'potential' that people said he had, he simply didn't have the knowledge or experience to understand what 'war' was. What it meant.

Now he knew.

Now Issei had his answer, what he wanted to do with his power.

His goal had never changed, but it was stronger now than it had ever been. More refined. Clearer.

"I want a harem," Issei repeated, more strongly this time, as he looked into Mikasa's eyes. "I want a bunch of women with wonderful Oppai that I love and who love me. I want to live with them, do naughty things with them, go on dates with them, and have a big family with them. I want to be the Harem King!"

"That's..." Ackerman-sensei clearly didn't know how to respond to that, looking to Eren for help.

Eren was just watching Issei intently.

"I'm not smart enough to try and fix the world," Issei continued, standing up. "I don't know anything about wars, killing, hatred, or anything like that. All I know is that I need to be strong to live with my harem in peace. I want to be so strong that nobody will ever be able to hurt those I love!"

"That is just more power," Eren challenged. "Even if you are the strongest person in the world, the world will still attack you."

"Then I'll be tough enough to endure every attack!" Issei responded, pounding a fist against his chest. "Even if Orphis, Great Red, or everyone attacks, I will endure it all! I'm going to be the strongest Rook!"

"Nobody can endure forever," Mikasa warned. "To live, we must fight."

"I know, but I'll fight like a Rook," Issei responded. "If my every step kills, I'll make as few steps as possible. I might have to kill people again, but I will only do it when I need to. I will be so strong that getting me to move will be almost impossible. I'm going to become the strongest wall to ever exist!"

It was like Issei's words punched the two in the gut.

"That is-"

"A Wall," Eren said contemplatively as if tasting the word on his lips as he interrupted Mikasa with a squeeze of her hand. She shot him a worried look, but Eren was still looking at Issei.

"A wall to protect everything I want to protect!" Issei reaffirmed, gauntleted fist clenching.

"Walls are... they are a defence, but they are also a cage," Eren warned. "If you become a wall, all you protect will be confined. Trapped in your shadow."

"Huh," Issei asked in confusion, not understanding what Eren was getting at.

"Walls keep people safe," Mikasa said with a severe look. "But people will come to depend on you. Use you. They will cease doing things for themselves, trusting their Walls to protect them instead of learning to protect themselves."

"Ah," Issei nodded, realizing what the pair were talking about. "I know. People will want me to do stuff like that when I get stronger. Want to use me. Buchou has been teaching me all sorts of stuff. But that's fine."

"That is not fine," Eren growled. "Walls create a different kind of animal. Cattle. Those who sit within their pens waiting to die. You cannot let that happen!"

"Um," Issei scratched his cheek in awkwardness, realizing he had made a mistake in explaining himself. "That's what my harem's for, right? And my friends?"

Both occupants watched Issei, clearly nonplussed at his answer.

"I'm going to defend them," Issei explained. "I'll be the strongest Rook, a wall that will never break. But... I'm not that smart. I know that. But my friends are. So they'll protect me, and I'll protect them, right? Buchou will never let people use me. I'll make sure I don't, um, trap them?"

Issei tried to use the metaphor they were using but wasn't sure he got it right.

"Buchou wants us to be free, so I'll let her worry about that part. I just need to get stronger so I don't have to kill people and can defend better."

Ackerman-sensei looked like she wanted to argue something but couldn't decide what words to use.

Eren just looked like he was considering the younger boy's words.

Eventually, Eren closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and looked back at the Rook.

"Issei," Eren said, and something about his voice made the Red Dragon Emperor sit up straighter. "I will trust you to not become a Wall that stands in the way of freedom so long as you understand one thing."

"What?" Issei's croaked, throat suddenly feeling dry.

"All Walls fall."

Eren words had the weight of a guillotine.

"All Walls must fall."

Eren was trying to tell Issei something important. Issei had never heard that kind of gravity in the older boy's words before.

"For people to grow, to be free, they need to tear down the Walls that surround them. Do you understand what I mean?"

Issei thought he did but couldn't answer Eren's question without knowing for sure. Not when this seemed so important to the boy on the bench.

Thankfully, there was someone there who understood Eren.

"When a wall falls, it happens because of two reasons," Mikasa said, voice just as serious as Eren's but more warning than threat. "Either an enemy has destroyed it, and it has failed. Or, those it protected tear it down themselves, and it has succeeded."

In a moment of clarity, Issei understood.

There would come a day when his existence as a defender was no longer needed. When there was peace or those he protected were strong enough to fight on their own, Issei had to be ready to step down.

No matter how strong he became, Issei couldn't force his protection on others.

He couldn't become someone like Diodora, who just lived without caring how others felt. Otherwise, he'd have lost the entire reason to become the strongest Rook.

His wall needed to fall if his friends and his family ever needed to go beyond his reach.

Issei needed to see that moment when he was not required, not as a threat but as a victory.

"I understand," Issei answered as seriously as he could. Giving his chest a thump with Ddraig as proof, he gave the boy on the bench the promise he needed to hear. "No matter how strong I get, I'll never be a wall blocking those I protect."

The two on the bench must have believed him, as Mikasa's lips quirked upward and her eyes softened. Eren let out another deep breath and slumped back against the bench.

"I'll trust you," Eren said, not looking at Issei but up at the sky. "This time, I'll trust you, Issei."

Issei grinned, chest filling with warmth.

"You can count on me Sen- Eren!"

Eren didn't look at the Red Dragon Emperor as he spoke, but there was... something in it that filled Issei's chest with that same warmth.

"... I suppose you're my junior in this. You can call me Senpai if you want."

For the rest of the day and the day after, Issei's grin never left his face.

The grin was less derpy, less pure than the one he wore when he left school.

But this smile was all the more beautiful for it.

Issei couldn't help but be reminded how great a day it was as he left Ackerman-sensei and his Senpai on the bench.

*********

I won't comment too much on this one. So much happened in such a short time in this chapter—for the characters and for the story. I fear I'll spoil too much if I start talking about it.

I'll just say that Asia's rescue after the whole Diodora fuck up was always a sticking point with me. It is way too far-fetched even for the suspension of disbelief DxD usually asks of its audience. At least in this fic, there is a reason it happened.

I will also note that Diodora is Issei's first confirmed kill in DxD. It's never given much weight because Issei's not that self-reflective as a character, Diodora was an asshole, and it would be a tone shift, but I wanted to at least show another aspect of the change Eren has brought to his friends. Through spending more time with Eren, they are becoming more self-aware. Even Issei.

I know some were expecting a Mikasa chapter after last week's chapter, but Eren is not prepared for that discussion yet. He doesn't even know what he wants to do, so we'll have to be a bit more patient.

Till then, I will meet you all again next Sunday on the bench.

 

[Spearow]

dude when issei said he was going to become a wall, i was expecting eren to go full titan right there.

 

[Azzy Rael]

This, above all other things I have read, is the best. This is not just character development but also something I feel would be Canon in a similar situation- for novel Issei at least- and flows well.

 

[ScriptGenius12]

I'm glad some of the Dio peerage got spared and had the fact that they were victims acknowledged, it always bothered me how these brainwashed and abused women got callously forgotten after Freed Vored them.

 

[MejaisBlack]

I know some were expecting a Mikasa chapter after last week's chapter, but Eren is not prepared for that discussion yet.

Click to shrink...

I like the chapters with DxD characters more than the Misaka ones tbh, so I don't mind. I guess I'm just more invested in seeing the DxD characters changing under Eren's influence.

 

[Kalstorm22]

Great chapter, glad to see Issei is learning and growing as a person, also its interesting to see that Eren has gained another Junior. see you next week on the bench. Don't you dare go Hollow.

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, I really like how you write how the interactions with Eren help the DxD cast develop as characters. Stays safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[ReadingDangerously]

"Why am I here?" Sona asked wearily. "I have work to do."

"Oh, relax," Rias said, tossing popcorn at her rival.

It missed, sailing over the couch and bouncing off Tsubaki's glasses. Rias gave the Queen an apologetic look before answering Sona's question.

"We're here for some downtime," Rias said. "No training, no talk of Rating Games or work. We're just here to have fun."

Sona narrowed her eyes at the Gremory.

"I would believe that if I didn't know for a fact that you are still training your power under the couch," Sona said, adjusting her glasses so they glinted in the light. Rias looked unapologetic at the accusation. "I also know you are doing this to brag about your Rook."

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

Akeno's King would have been more believable if she wasn't positively radiating smug satisfaction.

"Ufufufu," Akeno giggled at the glare Sona was sending Rias. "She's not wrong, Kachou. It has been a stressful few months. Taking a night off won't kill us."

"Some of us have duties to attend to," Sona sniffed.

"You'll work yourself to death with all your duties," Rias rolled her eyes, tossing more popcorn into her mouth. "You've been so busy lately that I've barely seen you on the bench."

Sona shot a quick glance to a corner of the room at Rias' words.

She wasn't the only one whose eyes travelled in that direction every few minutes. Half the teenagers gathered were sending looks that way every other moment.

Akeno was one of them.

On a plush long chair, with a smug Koneko on his lap and Mikasa next to him, Eren Yeager looked distinctly uncomfortable. His eyes roamed the large, opulent room as if searching for an escape route.

There was something about seeing the sickly boy anywhere but on the bench that seemed so... Not wrong, but it certainly was something Akeno was having trouble getting used to.

Granted, going from a plain wooden bench, even one surrounded by luxurious amenities, to the private home theatre the Gremory had installed when remodeling Issei's home was a significant change.

It was another moment of surreality that seemed common these days where Eren was concerned.

"How did you convince him to come to... this?" Sona whispered, leaning forward as if the question would attract the older boy's attention.

"Cuteness is justice," Rias 'explained.'

Sona looked at Akeno for a proper explanation.

"Koneko-chan was with Eren and Aunty," the hybrid nodded in their direction. "They were going to go home for the night, but she asked them to come. Eren doesn't show it, but he's really soft on Koneko. It's cute."

"Still," Sona whispered. "This isn't the type of thing they would enjoy."

Akeno doubted Sona needed to be that careful about attracting their attention. Both Gremory and Sitri Peerages, as well as Irina, were in the room, and nobody was trying to be particularly quiet.

Really, if it weren't for the prime drama going on right here, Akeno would have been in the thick of things, teasing and instigating all sorts of mischief.

Oh, what great targets there were now that Issei had been... unsealed.

Should she try to instigate the new angel to fall, convince Xenovia she and Issei needed to 'practice' some more, or tease Asia into a blushing mess?

Choices, choices.

Even if she didn't poke Issei and his little harem, Akeno was not lacking for other targets. While she'd feel bad about messing with Saji after his clear rejection by Sona, the way those other girls were pressing against him was fertile ground indeed.

"It's because it's his Kohai's big movie debut," Akeno giggled. "He'd never miss it."

"He would," Sona deadpanned. "Neither my aunt nor Eren appreciate this kind of... childishness."

"Maybe they've learned the joys of Tokusatsu," Rias sniffed in haughty dismissal. "I don't expect you to understand its subtle intricacies and mature appeal of the genre."

"You don't get to say that to me," Sona retorted. "You're not the one who had to listen to their sister break down children's shows, genre by genre and trope by trope and explain, in great detail, why Magical Girls are mathematically superior to all others."

"That..." Akeno hesitated with a shaky smile. "That sounds like Leviathan-sama, alright."

Sona's face was haunted, staring past Akeno toward some no doubt traumatic and horrifying memory.

"Four and a half hours. She had me frozen to my chair for four and a half hours. I just visited to talk to my mother. And she had... costumes."

Hmmm, Akeno should try to spend more time with Serafall-sama if she gets the chance. Seeing how Sona shivered in fear sent a wonderful shiver down the half-fallen's spine.

Rias, at least, decided to take pity on her rival.

"You haven't been around for a while, but something happened between Eren and Issei," Rias explained. "I think Eren said something that really inspired him. Issei's been giving training his all, even more than usual."

"...Your last Rating Game, perhaps?" Sona offered, and all three young devils grimaced at the reminder. "Still, I suppose it is for the best. Better his time be spent training than getting up to his usual perverted antics with his friends."

It was a clear topic shift from Diodora Astaroth, but nobody pointed it out.

"I don't think Issei needs to worry about that anymore," Akeno said slyly. "He has other... outlets."

Rias sent her Queen an aggrieved look, but Akeno returned a smug smile.

They had both agreed that Asia was a foregone conclusion and the 'head wife,' so she wouldn't count in their little bet, which meant Akeno was currently in the lead since Xenovia was the only other to officially join Issei's little harem.

Until either Irina or Ravel Phenex, both girls Rias had chosen to push forward, the score was one to zero in Akeno's favour.

It wasn't all peachy; Akeno was still searching for a second candidate that not only liked Issei but wasn't just a power-digging slut looking to hook up with the Red Dragon Emperor.

"Why are you so busy anyway," Rias turned from her smug Queen to ask her rival. "It's not academic, right? You're not even on campus."

"No," Sona denied, slumping back in her cushion. "I am, unfortunately, suffering from success."

Despite the words, Sona did not look happy. Just tired.

"You're sponsors?" Akeno guessed, and the Sitri Heiress nodded tiredly.

"I knew what I was getting into, but I underestimated how... bitter some members of our nobility are about the peace. Just this week alone, I have had a dozen meetings with Lords and Ladies of various ranks discussing how I intend to build my school, where it will be, and what its initial focus will be on."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Rias offered with a shaky smile.

Sona glared.

"If it were just them wanting to make certain that their wealth and influence was put to good use, then no, it wouldn't be too bad," Sona growled in a rare display of open frustration. "But it's not just that. They not only want to ensure favourable treatment for anyone they will send in the future, but they also want to ensure other races are taught the 'truth about devil culture.' Nepotism at its finest, and they are all but demanding I turn my school into a brainwashing center for propaganda."

"Your words did have a certain... target," Akeno said delicately. Sona's glare turned on her. "All I'm saying is that was your plan, right? Target the malcontents that would oppose your dream and turn them into allies. Then, by the time they realize what's happening, it's too late for them to stop you and you'll have the support of their political opponents."

"I know," Sona sighed, rubbing her eyes under her glasses. "As I said, I just underestimated... or I guess I overestimated them. I can almost understand some of the animosity. Those who lost family or friends in the Great War want to ensure that they don't lose in this new culture war. It does not excuse their demands that other race students be treated as slaves, but I can at least understand where they are coming from. Others though... they have asked for some truly vile conditions and have been none too subtle of the threat of withdrawing support if they are not met."

"Like what?"

"The tamest of which would make Diodora look like a saint," Sona deadpanned. "Since I've started taking these meetings, I have had fifteen marriage proposals, twice as many unwanted sexual advances, and five who all but demanded I prostitute my Peerage. I've actually been able to give your brother some names for him to investigate. You'd be amazed how some of them talk when they think I'm just a dumb girl riding my sister's coattails."

"Are you going to be all right," Rias asked, worried for her childhood friend.

"I might not be as strong as you, but I am not weak," Sona waived off the concern. "Very few of these reprobates are Ultimate Class, and Aunty is on the premises if I ever feel in danger. No, it is more likely exhaustion than violence that will kill me."

Unsaid was that even the most foolish devil noble knew how much Serafall Leviathan dotted on her younger sister. They might try to pressure her for benefits, but nobody was dumb enough to try and physically force Sona to do something she didn't want to do.

That was a great way to have your entire territory suddenly enter a new ice age.

Coincidentally.

"Still," Rias worried her lip in concern. "I know this is for your dream, but wouldn't it be better to put things off till you're older and stronger."

"The only reason I am getting this much support is the recent peace conference," Sona denied. "The outrage is fresh and that leads to impulsive decision making. It is either I lay the groundwork now using that resentment as fuel, or I wait decades for things to settle down. While that path might be safer, it doesn't account for any incident that might happen in the meantime. Besides, I've already started down this road. I'll see it through to the end."

"Let me know if there's anything I can do to help," Rias offered.

"Thanks," Sona gave her friend a slight smile but didn't look relieved. "I do not mean to vent, but I am just... disappointed. I knew there were bad actors and malcontents among the 31 Pillars, but I suppose I wanted to believe it was simply a few bad apples. But it's not. It's pervasive, even after the Great War and the Civil War. I guess I just hoped they had learned something. That they were better than all this."

"You both are fortunate," Akeno couldn't help but point out. "Your siblings and family are very modern and permitting. Just because a Pillar family sided with them during the Civil War does not mean they did it for the right reason. They maybe just wanted to preserve devil-kind, and now that population has recovered, they want to regain their lost glory."

It was a testament to how much they had gone through recently that neither heiress protested Akeno's words.

Not too long ago, they would have argued against any intervention from their siblings and family.

Now? Both Rias and Sona couldn't help but nod grimly, well aware by now of how sheltered and privileged they had been all their lives.

"That's what your school is for, isn't it," Rias told her rival, trying to bring the mood back up. "To help people learn from other's mistakes? You just have to put up with these types for a few years, then they'll have no choice but to bend to the times."

"I hope so," Sona sighed again, then visibly gathered herself, looking around the theatre. "So, when will this show begin? And I thought it had been airing for a while in the underworld?"

"We're just waiting to receive the final product," Rias said with a smile, returning to her popcorn. "The show is still mid-season, but it's been so popular that the studio decided to make a special movie. That's what we're watching tonight."

"We will have the first showing," Akeno elaborated. "It was actually done last week, but apparently Issei found out it was going to happen through Ravel Phenex and asked for some last-minute edits. The public won't see it for another month or so."

"What sort of edits would take a week," the Sitri heiress asked with a furrowed brow.

Sona would know all about the absolute marvel magic conjoined with technology had brought to film and television. Even if she didn't want to.

Serafall Leviathan had been the pioneer behind the incredible speed of the devil entertainment industry's rapid project completion. It was the only way she could film her show, movies, and specials while also attending to her duties as a Satan.

"Issei won't tell us," Rias pouted, throwing a piece of popcorn over to her Rook.

Even surrounded by his girlfriends, with a pleased smile on his face, Issei instinctively opened his mouth and caught the food, not taking his eyes off Xenovia's bust the entire time.

"He's really shy about it," Akeno smiled mischievously. "I can't wait."

"Be nice," Rias chastised her Queen. "And you, try and relax."

"Very well," Sona said, relaxing into her chair and idly swiping Rias' popcorn bucket. The red looked affronted, but Sona paid her no mind. "I can spare a few hours."

Then Sona froze, popcorn halfway to her mouth and glared at her friend.

"My sister can never find out about this. If she heard I watched her 'rival's' movie instead of one of hers, I'd never hear the end of it."

"Tell Aunty that, not me," Rias said as she stood up to grab another popcorn bucket from the machine against the back wall. As she did, she nodded toward where Mikasa and Eren were talking with Yuuto in low tones, Koneko napping against Eren's chest.

"... I'll talk to her tomorrow," Sona eventually said with a conflicted look on her face.

Akeno noted it but didn't tease her about it.

Eren's situation was already difficult for all of them, but having her aunt be the woman Sona's crush had confessed to loving and Lady Mikasa return those feelings would surely put Sona in a rough position.

Akeno wasn't entirely convinced Sona wasn't just using her work as an excuse to avoid the bench and its daily occupants.

However, she didn't have time to ask the student council president about her theory as Rias let out a cheer behind them.

"Got it!"

With a quick flash of magic, the Gremory King had a case in her hand. She hurried to set up the movie and returned to her seat as the theme song began.

'Zoom Zoom Iyaan.'

The room quieted as everyone sat back to watch the movie without talking.

They may be devils, but they weren't evil, after all.

The premise of the show was straightforward.

Ise Gremory was a young devil who made a pact with a legendary dragon to protect his friends when their school was attacked by evil monsters. After that, he goes on to fight other threats to devils.

All of which was relatively common for children's shows.

What was uncommon was Ise's love of breasts.

The man who loves breasts and fights for breasts. He turns into the legendary Oppai Dragon to defeat those who do evil deeds. He powered up by talking about boobs, seeing boobs, and touching boobs.

It lent the show an absurdist, comedic, and light-hearted tone while still appealing to more mature audiences.

Akeno could admit, if nothing else, that the production quality was well done. Although she didn't usually enjoy the genre, she could see why it became a monstrous show, boasting viewing rates of around 50%.

It was helped that over half the current devil population were either reincarnated devils or the children of such, meaning a large portion was very young compared to most supernatural races.

The movie covered the Oppai Dragon's origins, the first time he met the legendary dragon and the deal they made, which hadn't been shown in the show yet.

There was, however, one moment in the movie that took everyone by surprise.

Near the end, during the attack on the school, the legendary dragon demanded Ise Gremory demonstrate his conviction before agreeing to partner with him.

Cue a flashback.

Ise Gremory, a young devil sitting in a park.

Beside him on the bench is an older boy, face cast in shadow.

"Someday," the older boy said, taking a hand from his cane to ruffle Issei's hair affectionately. "Someday, you'll face a choice. You will have to choose what sort of devil you want to become. I am trusting you to make the right choice."

"I will! I promise!" Young Ise Gremory swore, eyes wide as he held a fist out.

The two boys knocked fists.

The flashback ends.

Ise Gremory stands up, covered in the red armour of the draconic scale mail.

"I promise!" He shouted, thrusting his fist out as if fist-bumping someone who wasn't there and destroying the monster tormenting his friends.

The leitmotif of the theme begins.

"I promise to become a devil that will defend all the Oppai in the world! So, trust me! I am the Oppai Dragon Emperor!"

The fight begins and, powered by the legendary dragon and by touching his girlfriend's boobs, Ise Gremory wins in grand fashion.

The movie ends with a shot of the Oppai Dragon Emperor flying away into the sunset, off to defend all the Oppai of the world.

"What." Sona demanded, popcorn fallen to the floor and forgotten. "What did I just watch?"

"Ufufufufufufu," Akeno was laughing so hard she was having trouble breathing.

Rias wasn't much better, biting one of her knuckles to keep from laughing as well.

"Well, um," Issei started to explain, face red as half the room looked at him. "Everyone else has a role, so I figured, you know, it wouldn't be fair if Senpai didn't as well. And, uh, the studio really liked the idea. I mean, they really, really liked it. They decided to rewrite the ending of the movie to include him."

All eyes turned to the back of the room.

Eren Yeager looked completely poleaxed, eyes wide and mouth open, as he stared at the credits rolling across the giant screen.

The look of confusion, complete bafflement so at odds with his usual severe expressions, sent Akeno into an even deeper fit of giggles.

Nor was she the only one.

Mikasa was facing away from Eren, mouth covered and shoulders shaking in silent laughter of her own.

"Congratulations," Yuuto said, prodding Eren on the shoulder companionably. Not one ounce of mockery could be heard in his voice. "My character is a villain in season 1 and doesn't join till season 2. He hasn't even shown up yet. When this airs, everyone will want to know who you are."

Shaken from his surprise by the nudge, Eren looked at the Knight in horror.

"They told me he will appear here and there for flashbacks," Issei said proudly, seeing he wasn't being yelled at. "'A mysterious senior with a hidden past! Who is he? What does he want? How does he know Oppai Dragon?' The director was very excited and said he'd sprinkle in scenes through seasons 1 and 2 to tease the audience. Still, since those are already written, you'll be a mysterious background character until you appear in season 3. Sorry."

"...That's-" Eren said, still looking confused but no longer horrified. He took a deep breath, released it, and looked at Issei again, face once more composed. "That's all right. I... appreciate the thought. Thank you."

Issei beamed.

The rest of the evening was spent eating, talking about the movie, chatting with friends, laughing, and discussing everyone's own favourite shows.

Akeno was glad to have a memory like that.

Eren had been right.

Memories like that were what pushed you forward when the world seemed determined to see you stop.

Such as when, the next day, Azazel appeared with a perverted old geezer, a hapless Valkyrie, and Akeno's father, Baraqiel.

********

Just a silly little chapter to bring a smile to the face. Absolutely nothing here is important to the later plot, I swear officer... and if there were, I wouldn't talk about it to avoid spoilers.

I will talk about a few silly things, though.

For those curious about the ripple effect, here are a few differences from canon. First, since Vali and his team only rescued Asia, while the Gremory Peerage were the ones to stop Issei's rampage, Bikou never called Rias 'Switch Princess,' so her character is not the main heroine; Asia's is. Secondly, while it is still 'Oppai Dragon Emperor' (Because Issei is still all about boobs), there is more focus on the heroic aspect because of his actions during his three rating games, so the narrative is slightly changed.

Only a handful of chapters remain in part 3, and then we will move on to the final part.

I will also return to 2 chapters a week this week, so I will meet you all on Friday on the bench.

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, the mental image of Eren just staring at the screen completely baffled is hilarious to me! Stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[ReadingDangerously]

"---"

Akeno's vision swam, messy blurs of colours and shapes blending into one another as darkness crept along the edges of her vision.

"......."

Her ears were ringing, a persistent and omnipresent buzz that made her head hurt and focusing impossible.

"....."

And then the pain.

Oh, the pain.

Akeno could say with certainty that this was not the type of pain she wanted to feel when she teased Eren.

"...!"

Eren... mmmh, there is a nice thought.

He was definitely an S, Akeno was sure. If she could rouse his anger... ung, the things she wanted him to do to her.

That was the type of pain she wanted. The short sting of a whip. The tight, almost chafing confines of ropes.

Not this vomit-inducing nausea, this bone-deep weariness, and the omnipresent ringing.

"...! ...!"

Lady Mikasa could join, too. Akeno wasn't sure if Aunty was an S, an M, or both, but she wanted to find out.

An M for Eren and an S for everyone else? Maybe. Probably. Hopefully.

Of course, if the older woman wasn't interested, that wasn't a problem either. Akeno and Eren could sneak around. Akeno really liked the idea of being the mistress, the shameful little secret.

"---"

Ah. Right. Eren was going to die.

Or was he?

Rias hadn't given up yet, and maybe not Mikasa? Akeno wasn't sure.

Akeno would help.

She just had to seduce Eren, then he would want to be a devil and hold her and do naughty things to her and live together and have a family together and never leave her alone and never abandon her, and Akeno wouldn't lose anyone again.

That would be...

"...no!"

...great.

"Akeno!"

Oh, look, the colours were talking. The ringing was quieter. That was good.

Maybe?

Akeno's head was really starting to hurt.

"She's not talking!"

Everything hurt.

[BOOST]

[BOOST]

[BOOST]

[BOOST]

[BOOST]

[TRANSFER]

The speed at which the world flowed back into focus increased dramatically, and everything became clearer.

First came sound.

Dragon roars. The howls of wolves. The clap of thunder and the unending crash of lightning.

Then came smell.

Sweat. Mud. Blood. Burnt flesh.

Next, the disconcerting swirl of colours started to gain defined lines.

Akeno saw the green glow of Twilight Healing in the corner of her vision, but it could not hold her attention.

In the vague form of a serpentine dragon, a mass of shadow writhed around a wolf. Both monsters fought in a savage display of fangs and claws.

The familiar red-black of the Rias's Power of Destruction chased another wolf through the sky. When it turned to counterattack, its way was blocked by a wall of magic sigils conjured by a vaguely familiar white-haired woman.

Other figures fought across Akeno's line of sight: Yuuto, Koneko, Xenovia, Sona... They were all fighting what seemed to be clones of some other dragon. They killed one, but the nine others did not even falter in the slightest.

An idle thought that flitted through her mind. Every one of the clones was taller than Tanin, the dragon Akeno was most familiar with, which meant they had to be at least sixteen meters. Yet Midgardsormr, on which they were cloned, was the largest Dragon King by quite a bit.

Did that mean the clones were big? Or small?

Those sights came and went, vague impressions punctuated by moments of clarity, but two fights seized the Queen's attention.

Not even Asia's mumbled request not to move could stop her from jerking to get a better look, sending another wave of vertigo and nausea through her.

Akeno vomited.

Her dinner, lunch, and a not-inconsiderable amount of blood splattered onto the ground and her outfit.

It helped.

Slightly.

So she vomited again, more blood and bile spilling from her mouth in a truly foul-tasting concoction.

Asia was still healing her, hands pressed against Akeno's head, and the Queen could finally look to the sky. Asia took her movement as proof she could return to healing the mess that was the Queen's lungs.

The first and greatest battle across the sky was... 'apocalyptic' was the best word Akeno could think of in her dazed state.

Loki, the god who had ambushed them, was alight with enough spells that Akeno could not distinguish his form in their incandescent glow.

Odin, the old letch, had shed his veneer of a senile old fool who insisted on touring Kuoh's strip clubs and bars.

What replaced the mask was a true god of war.

His magic was less powerful and bright, but it was so exact and direct that the old god only needed to fire one spell for every five of Loki's. His every movement, every spear thrust, and every spell flowed like a river. One led to another to another to another.

Loki was the more powerful.

Even to Akeno's dazed mind, that was clear.

He glowed with the purple-black power that characterized those who received the snakes of the Oroboros Dragon. Yet, despite being pressed and forced back, time and time again, Odin held on without significant injury.

Their battle was fast. Violent. Confusing. And, more than anything, awe-inspiring.

In her semi-delirious state, Akeno couldn't help but laugh to herself.

These were gods. GODS!

No wonder that, for all their pretentious name, none of the twelve Longinus had ever actually killed a god.

Plenty had fought gods; some had even survived, but no Longinus had ever actually killed a deity.

Even Issei, clad in his Balance Breaker Scail Mail, was relegated to acting as a wall.

Their greatest fighter was relegated to using his Boosts to reinforce himself and fly around, blocking the shockwaves and after-effects of the battle between the two gods so that the others didn't accidentally die.

Occasionally, he'd have a reprieve to transfer some of his Boosts to one of his companions, usually Rias or Saji, to give them an edge in their fight.

Akeno couldn't help but wonder what had they been thinking?

They were kids.

There were undoubtedly kids with potential, but these were beings older than most countries with the power to reshape the map.

They were kids, scrambling in the rubble as two titans clashed, desperately trying to survive the side effects of the true battle.

Akeno realized then that Azazel had lied.

They hadn't been tasked with protecting Odin. Nothing they could provide was better than what the old god could do for himself.

The Gremory Peerage had simply been entertainment.

Curios to demonstrate the future potential of the three factions while the former Norse leader toured, caroused, and negotiated with Azazel about joining the Three Factions' peace.

Maybe not even that? Maybe Azazel had only gotten them involved to give Baraqiel, one of his oldest companions, an excuse to try and make up with his daughter.

Akeno's head, still swimming and half delirious, drooped.

Her eyes fell from the clash of the gods to the final battle.

The third wolf, dwarfing the first two in size by orders of magnitude, howled in fury and pain as Mikasa Ackerman, like a whirling blender, flew around it and carved red lines through its hide with her enchanted blades.

But that was all they were. Red lines.

Not even the best-enchanted blades money could buy or the underworld could produce could significantly damage Fenrir, the God Devouring Wolf.

Mikasa would have been swatted like a bug if it weren't for the two fallen angels.

Azazel and Baraqiel.

They were...

Akeno threw up again, gut-churning at what she saw.

Azazel lacked his usual easy smile and mocking grin. He was deadly serious as he faced down a being that, at its peak, had nearly been a rival to the Dragon Emperors. Spears of light, dwarfing even Fenrir's ten-meter size, rained down on the wolf as it tried to kill Mikasa.

He was meticulous, closer to Odin in approach than Loki, as he laid out a cage of tainted light. It burned fur and flesh, tearing another growl of pain from the massive wolf, but it was all a distraction from the true attack.

Baraqiel, the Lightning of God, unleashed a bolt of Holy Lightning that blinded and deafened Akeno, even though she was far from the battle.

Fenrir, distracted by Mikasa and trapped between giant light spears, could not dodge as a sea of blessed electricity coursed through his body. Its roar of pain sent a shockwave that blasted everything away from it.

Its children, Hati and Skoll, tried to help their father. Saji, Vritra, or whoever was in control at the moment did not let them, as the Prison Dragon held the two in place.

The other battles, the ones against the smaller clones of Midgardsormr, were halted for a moment as allies and enemies were forced to reorient themselves under the wall of sound.

With a moment of reprieve, Issei transferred a few of his Boosts to Rias.

The Gremory Heiress glowed with power, but rather than use it to deal a blow to one of Fenrir's children, she created thousands of raindrop-sized points of Destruction and threw them down.

The black rain tore through the Midgardsormr clones, killing almost all of them.

Rias returned to her battle against Skoll, aiding the Evil Prison Dragon King once more as she let her friends clean up the rest of the 'small' dragons.

Despite the reprieve in the battle between weaker forces, the truly momentous conflict was taking a turn for the worst.

Fenrir's fangs glowed, and he bit through his prison of light to lunge at Azazel with a bite strong enough to end the king of the Norse gods.

Odin himself had faltered slightly at Fenrir's roar, giving Loki the chance to gather power to unleash a truly massive spell.

The one-eyed god fell.

Not dead, but wounded.

Loki followed.

Akeno noted all this with the detached, almost apathetic feeling of watching a movie.

It was like a dream.

None of this felt real in this world of swimming colours and hazy pain.

Certainly not the image of Baraqiel laying in a pool of his own blood, his left side wholly gone.

His right and only arm raised to continue to pour Holy Lighting against the God Devouring Wolf to try and save his best friend from its god-slaying bite.

Akeno's fuzzy head remembered the ambush.

She remembered a tide of massive dragons arriving out of seemingly nowhere.

She remembered fighting them beside her friends. She had been in the air, flying and raining Holy Lighting, when the wolves arrived in a second wave near her.

Mikasa had distracted Fenrir for a moment, and Saji had transformed, using the other Vritra Sacred Gears to battle the smaller wolves for the first time.

Akeno had tried to make some space for better advantage but had been too close to make a clean break.

A Midgardsormr clone smashed into Akeno, sending her toward Fenrir. It snapped at her reflexively, massive jaws trying to swallow her whole.

There had been another blow, one that sent her spiralling out of the sky and the wolf's jaws.

Akeno's last blurry and painful memory was crashing into a Midgardsormr clone and watching a body fall in a torrent of blood and black feathers.

"Akeno-senpai!" Asia cried, continuing to heal the Queen. "Stop moving! You are making your injuries worse!"

Akeno didn't have time to praise the Bishop for her confidence. This was the first time Asia had ever raised her voice to her.

Nor did Akeno have time to listen to Asia.

Uncaring for the mud, blood, and bile on her clothes, Akeno unsteadily tried to rise to her feet.

She almost fell over immediately.

To remain upright and moving, she opened her wings and gasped in pain. They, too, were hurt, but Akeno didn't pay any mind to the pain.

She also did not spare any attention to Asia's surprise at seeing one of her wings covered in black feathers.

Akeno didn't have the concentration to maintain her usual disguise.

The Queen couldn't walk, so she tried to fly.

She made it less than a meter before falling back to the earth.

Small arms caught her.

"Akeno-senpai," Asia said, almost begging with tears in her eyes, and Akeno blinked the daze from her eyes. "You can't move. You almost died, and I need to heal you."

Right.

No matter how weak she looked, Asia was still a devil. One who had joined them for all their training. She had no problem holding the limp Akeno in her arms.

"...there," Akeno weakly pointed.

It was all she could do. All she could say.

Asia, the angel that she was, looked over at Baraqiel's half-dead form.

Then her tears stopped, and Asia looked intensely determined as her devil wings unfolded.

Akeno absently noted, with the wandering mind of those recently concussed, that the look reminded her of a puppy chasing its tail.

With Akeno in her arms and without the green light of Twilight Healing dimming in the slightest, the Bishop carried her Queen through the chaotic battlefield toward where her father lay.

It wasn't easy.

Asia's boost to strength from her Bishop piece was minuscule, and she had only been training for a few months. Before that, Asia had been comically weak in both strength and stamina.

And that was just the physical aspect.

Carrying a wounded combatant through a battlefield, even with the ability to fly, required more concentration than simply charging at the enemy.

Concentration Asia also needed to keep healing Akeno.

But she did it.

Asia dodged the flailing tail of one of the Midgardsormr clones. She flew to the sky, only to dive again as Skoll tried to swallow her whole.

Through spells, bodies, and weapons, Asia flew.

And in her arms, feeling safer than she had any right to, Akeno surveyed the battlefield.

The Gremory Peerage was winning their battles, and both the clones and Fenrir's children were being pushed back or killed.

Yet their victory wouldn't matter if the greater battles were lost, which seemed more and more likely.

Fenrir was chasing after Azazel, Mikasa barely able to retain its attention for longer than a moment. Baraqiel was grounded due to his injuries, only able to pour Holy Lightning down when the occasional opportunity presented itself. If any of the combatants attacked him, he would die.

It seemed like he would die either way, even if nobody touched him.

To Akeno, it looked like Odin was entirely on the defensive now, holding on only by the skin of his teeth.

How long that could last, she didn't know, but one thing stood out to the half-fallen.

Not because of some great insight into the nature of battle or understanding of strategy.

It was simply because Akeno was recovering from a blow to the head, had a bird's eye view of the battlefield, and from her experience as a sadist.

Loki looked scared.

He had ambushed them, completely taking them by surprise multiple times. Yes, his lesser forces were losing battles, but he was undoubtedly winning this little war.

All it would take was a lucky blow from either him or Fenrir, and Loki would have the chance to kill Odin and achieve his goals.

Yet, in those few seconds of travel, as Asia flew through a battlefield of gods, Akeno idly wondered why Loki was the impatient one.

Why did the attacker look like one of her regular patrons when she broke out the good whip?

Then Asia landed next to Baraqiel and Akeno thought no more on the subject.

Baraqiel was only still alive thanks to his quick thinking of burning his wound closed, but he had already lost a considerable amount of blood and a good chunk of his torso with his limbs.

"Akeno!" Baraqiel grunted in surprise, blood spewing from his lips with every word as he turned his attention from the battle with Fenrir at the sight of his wounded daughter. Then he looked at Asia. "Get her out of here!"

Asia didn't heed the order, instead crouching down between the pair so that one of her hands, glowing softly, was on each of them.

Akeno, who had been the one to urge Asia to come here, did not say anything.

She just zapped him.

"Gah," Baraqiel, Lightning of God, grunted in pain and surprise as he felt, for the first time, Holy Lightning hurt him.

Akeno had felt it hurt her too many times to count over the last few months.

So she zapped him again.

"Akeno-senpai," Asia cried.

Akeno zapped her father for a third time before she said anything.

"You don't get to die!" Akeno spat, her voice a rasp of pain. Every word hurt, but she needed to talk. "You don't get to come into my life out of nowhere and then die!"

"Wha..."

"YOU WEREN'T THERE!"

The battle didn't end or even pause when Akeno shouted at her father in rage and pain.

In fact, only four people heard her words amidst the clamour of battle.

Still, it froze Baraqiel in his place.

"You weren't there when they killed her! You weren't there when we needed you. When I needed you."

Every word seemed to pierce Baraqiel's chest, hurting him more than the pain of missing part of his body.

Akeno knew those looks.

She saw that same regret, pain, and self-loathing on Eren's face. On her face in the mirror.

Akeno did not have any profound realization upon seeing the guilt and pain written across Baraqiel's face.

Somewhere deep inside, Akeno had always known it would be there.

Akeno had always known she was the one in the wrong, the one blaming a man for the death of his wife.

She had always known that if she hadn't run away in anger when he had first found her, maybe she wouldn't still be carrying around this hatred for him and herself.

Akeno had always known that she was just as guilty as Baraqiel.

The last few days, seeing him again, seeing him try to awkwardly find a place in her life, had left her confused, angry, and, more than anything, afraid.

"You weren't there when we needed you," Akeno repeated far more softly. The tears fell as she looked at the man who had lost his wife and child the same day. "You weren't there when I killed her."

"Akeno, you didn't-"

Akeno zapped him again, the Holy Lightning feeble and flickering.

"I did!" Akeno snapped. "Mom died because of me, and you weren't there to save her! We are both guilty! So you don't get to die!"

Akeno didn't know if her words came from her anger at herself, the man bleeding out on the ground, or the boy on the bench.

It didn't matter in the end.

All three needed to hear it.

"You don't get to throw your life away defending me and feel better about yourself! I have to live with this guilt, and so do you! You don't get to die until we move forward. So live, you suicidal idiot!"

And all three heard it.

But neither of the two men who were the targets, one knowingly and one unknowingly, answered.

One, because he was hidden and far away.

The second didn't answer because, this time, the battlefield did freeze in place.

Not because of Akeno's words, though.

Instead, everything stopped because most beings on the battlefield ceased being able to move.

[DIVIDE]

[DIVIDE]

[DIVIDE]

[DIVIDE]

[DIVIDE]

The magic around Loki visibly dimmed as a white armoured figure blew past him, blue wings glowing with absorbed power.

Vali Lucifer used the absorbed power to kill Skoll and Hati in a blast of demonic magic.

Fenrir could not do anything to prevent the death of his children as he was attacked by a giant statue of stone and a monkey yokai in armour.

The God Devouring Wolf would have no doubt torn himself free of the attackers easily if it, too, hadn't been frozen in place by another new arrival.

Akeno had seen fragments of Excalibur before. She felt their aura, and any devil who did would never forget that sensation. The feeling of death and doom.

Akeno knew what six of them looked like, leaving only the seventh, which is said to have been lost to time.

Excalibur Ruler.

It alone had frozen the entire battle.

The blade, held in the hands of a blonde pretty boy, hung over Fenrir's frozen form as if it were a guillotine waiting to descend.

The wolf seemed paralyzed at the sight of it.

No, Akeno realized. Excalibur Ruler was doing something to the massive beast as it tried to wrestle itself free from the giant statue.

But the half-fallen didn't continue to watch, her attention torn to the side as Saji, still transformed into Vritra, started to writhe and roar.

"Oppai Dragon!" A young woman called out from the witch's broom above the black dragon's back. She glowed gold with magic, a large spell formula forming in the air. "Help me put him to sleep! He's hurting!"

Issei, it seemed, wasn't frozen due to Excalibur Ruler, just surprised.

He looked around the battlefield, particularly at Vali, and Akeno could almost imagine Issei's confused face, wondering what he should do.

They were technically enemies, after all. Vali was supposedly Issei's destined rival. One was supposed to always seek out the other and battle to the death.

Issei wasn't the type to care about such things, though. He decided to trust his rival once more.

Vali had recently saved Asia and was fighting Loki, so it seemed like the White Dragon Emperor was on his side this time.

Issei didn't know these others, but if Saji was really suffering, then Issei wanted to help.

[TRANSFER]

"Thank you, Oppai Dragon!" The witch yelled as her magical circle grew to preposterous size. Saji's writhing slowed. "Can I get an autograph later? I'm a big fan!"

"Um," Issei stuttered, no doubt completely befuddled by the events. He wasn't the only one. Akeno could see everyone else frozen in place, watching on in confusion. "Sure?"

A part of Akeno, the sane, rational part, noticed how Asia hadn't been frozen and continued to heal both her and Baraqiel. It also noticed that her father had been frozen but was already starting to twitch free of Excalibur Ruler's control.

That same sane part of her brain told her it was only logical.

He was Baraqiel, one of the first angels to fall and a leader of the Grigori. While she had been severely hurt and put out of commission because of one attack, he had managed to keep fighting with half his body missing when a human, or even most supernatural races, would be long dead.

Another part of Akeno, one decidedly less sane, decided that thinking about any of that was infinitely less important than the fact she had possibly discovered another member she could push into Issei's harem.

It would require some vetting (I.e. teasing) to make sure this witch, whoever she was, wasn't just a fangirl or power digger, but Akeno had a good feeling about her.

(Akeno would note later that, while she wasn't wrong about Le Fay Pendragon, the good feeling probably had more to do with the headache finally disappearing than any innate 'Harem member sensor.'

She, unfortunately, had not noticed that at the time and spent most of the rest of the encounter concocting elaborate schemes on how to convince a young witch to sign a deal with the devil to get into a dragon's bed, all so Akeno could win a bet with her King.

As such, lost in thought as she was, the rest of the battle and its world-changing end went almost entirely unnoticed by the half-fallen, so lost was she in her evil plotting.

Akeno blamed the concussion.

Everyone who ever heard the story thought that sounded like something Akeno Himejima would do, concussed or not.)

"Why are you doing this!?" Loki roared in rage as his power was once again divided. "We are winning! Answer me, Vali!"

Vali, surprisingly, did so.

More than just answer, Vali Lucifer fully retracted his Balance Breaker armor, leaving him flying in the air with only the blue wings of Divine Dividing.

"You went against the plan," Vali said simply, looking almost bored as he hovered in the air with his hands in his pockets.

"The plan?" Loki spat in rage. "There is no more plan! Wake up. He's dead. His plan is dead. Instead of following the plan of a dead man, I made my own plan."

"Without the plan, we will not succeed," Vali said with the bored cadence of someone who was saying something he had repeated a thousand times. "You are not forced to follow the plan, but anyone going against it will fail."

"The Chaos Brigade does not need a plan!" Loki snarled. Ever since the White Dragon Emperor had appeared, all of his calm facade had faded, leaving a god lashing out. In fear, a few observers noted. "We are just using each other for our own ends. Our goal is chaos itself! Why should we bow to the whims of a dead human!?"

"Uhuh," Vali absently nodded, looking at the man standing over Fenrir with Excaliber Ruler. "Are you almost done, Arthur? That noodle place I wanted to try closes at eleven."

"Give me one more minute," Arthur Pendragon said, face furrowed in concentration. "Co-opting a god's control is not easy, even with Ruler."

Loki was no idiot. He knew he was taking a significant risk by going against the orders of the Brigade leader to kill Odin before it was time.

He had simply tried to do it fast enough to not have any of the leading faction come down in time to stop him. Loki wasn't scared, or so he told himself, but rather, succeeding with their interference was much harder.

If he succeeded, he would have used his victory as an example to the others and overthrown the humans who had dared to command him.

But he had failed, and now Loki had to think of the consequences. Underneath the over-inflated anger, his mind had been running a mile a minute for a way out.

But he still had his pride as a god.

Loki could not stand the disrespect shown to him, the blatant disregard by a half-devil mongrel.

All this time, his healthy wariness of the White Dragon Emperor had stopped him from acting rashly, but even fear and caution gave way to rage.

For all his cunning, Loki was famous for his impulsive decision-making.

So he lashed out, almost without thought.

A torrent of magic, powered by Ophis' snake, tore through the sky.

Vali didn't even look at it.

[DIVIDE]

Without his Balance Breaker, Divine Dividing could only use its ability once every ten seconds.

However, Vali didn't look worried, even as half the attack approached him, and his wings vented the stolen power.

As if he knew he only needed one Divide.

A dozen clones of Black Cat Kuroka appeared for a half second, each sticking their tongues out in mockery as they took the blow and dissipated into nothing.

Loki only had time to regret pouring so much of his power into the attack, only had time to realize what it meant for Vali Lucifer to act like this, before the tip of a spear erupted through his chest.

Divine blood splattered the ground, and the spear glowed with white light.

Loki did not feel anything as he was bathed in the power of the Sacred Gear.

There was no incredible explosion, final words, or monumental event to mark Loki's death.

He just died.

Like a mortal.

For the first time in history, a god died, not to another god but to a human.

"This is why so many of our colleagues die," a man said, pulling his ornate spear from Loki's body. It was already dissolving into magic without the divine ego holding it together, yet the god's blood still stained the spear. "They always think they are going against the plan. We never forced anyone to follow it, just told them what would happen if they didn't. They never think that he accounted for their choices in the plan all along."

"Look away!" Azazel, somewhere on the battlefield, yelled, voice filled with command. "That's the True Longinus. Looking at it for long enough will kill you!"

Though most of the young devils gathered were frozen in place by Excalibur Ruler's control, they heeded the fallen's warning and focused their attention on the new arrivals instead of the glowing spear.

None of those new arrivals paid the combatants even the slightest of care.

"Don't give a speech," Vali snorted. "This wasn't a real battle worth celebrating. It was an execution. I hate his missions. There's no fun in a guaranteed victory."

"I think this is a great time to celebrate," the man holding the most powerful Sacred Gear in existence was, in contrast, all smiles. "The first Longinus to ever kill a god. An evil one at that. A deed that will never be forgotten. This is what it means to be a hero."

"Good thing we're not heroes," the monkey yokai laughed as he joined them in the air.

"All finished, Vali," Arthur said with his sister on the shoulders of the stone giant. "We have Fenrir."

"And I got an autograph," Le Fay said proudly. Vali grimaced.

[Oppai Dragon Emperor] Albion's laughter rang out from the white wings. [See what you have become, Ddraig.]

[...shut up.]

"Who are you," Issei asked what everyone was thinking as he carefully kept his eyes off the spear stained with divine blood. "And let my friends go."

"The Red Dragon Emperor," the man said, looking Issei up and down in approval. "I've heard good things. I am Cao Cao, the reincarnation of the hero by that same name. I lead the Hero faction, the leaders of the Chaos Brigade. While Ophis is the backer of our organization, you can consider me the temporary leader while the other two are absent."

Issei immediately went on guard, flying away and placing himself between Cao Cao and his friends on the ground.

"I am not here to fight you. That is not part of the plan," Cao Cao laughed lightly, casually knocking his spear against his shoulder. "We were just dealing with some housekeeping."

"I just wanted the dog," Vali said plainly, looking just as bored as ever with tonight's events as he pointed at Fenrir.

"... Okay, you have it, and Loki is dead," Issei said, relaxing slightly but not lowering his guard. "Let them go."

"Azazel, Odin, and Baraqiel already freed themselves," Arthur said, sheathing his sword. "You and the healer are also free, and the others will be able to move when we leave. I simply kept those we didn't need out of the fight."

"We do have a celebration to get to, so we won't keep you up," Cao Cao was all smiles and charm as if he hadn't completely changed the supernatural world tonight.

As if the fundamental truth, that humans were prey to the gods, hadn't been rewritten.

"Please spread the word of what happened tonight. Killing a god." Cao Cao took a deep breath as if relishing the moment. "I might not have done it alone, but I did kill a god. This shall be an example for humans and monsters alike. Anybody can die. That, Issei Hyoudou, is what it means to be a hero. An example and a warning."

Then he was gone, swallowed in mist, and all the devils present, even Vali, could breathe a little easier as the holy spear left.

"Vali!" Issei called out to his destined rival before he could depart as well. Then he bowed, deep and low. "Thank you for saving Asia."

Vali's eyes widened, but he just looked away and grunted in acknowledgement, nodding toward Le Fay.

"By Oppai Dragon," the witch waved enthusiastically. "Try to stay away from our boss, okay? He said he'd kill you. I'll be sad when you die, and they might cancel your show early, so try to live a little longer, okay?"

Then, before Issei could ask what she meant about that, Le Fay Pendragon teleported Vali, and his team were teleported away with Fenrir.

"Well," Azazel said dryly, and Issei jumped in surprise, looking around. "I am going to count tonight as a success. What about you?"

The leader of the fallen angels seemed to shimmer out of the air, along with Odin and Mikasa and Issei realized they had been beside him for a while.

"The Longinus," Odin said, looking toward where Cao Cao had disappeared. For the first time since Issei had met the old god, he looked... disturbed. "In the hands of Chaos Brigade."

"And Dimension Lost, if I am not mistaken. I can't think of another way they could remain concealed for so long. At least we now have a good idea of their internal structure. We might be able to cause more division and break off more factions if more aren't happy with their leader's plan."

"It will be harder now," Odin grunted. "They had this planned, used us to weaken Loki and waste his tools so they could kill him. They didn't even bother trying to kill us so we would spread the word. Other factions will fall in line. The Brigade might even see a boost in recruitment. They traded one uncooperative god for who knows how many others."

"A dead god," Azazel said, looking to where some of Loki's blood still stained the ground. "The world will be even more chaotic after tonight."

Mikasa was not interested in the talk of old men and used her new freedom to find the young devils scattered around the battlefield.

Most were relatively intact, with Akeno and Baraqiel sustaining the worst damage.

The latter would live, if barely, thanks to Asia's quick care, even if he'd be severely handicapped until Azazel created prosthetics he could use.

"Akeno," Baraqiel rasped quietly as they lay on the ground together.

"Hm?" Akeno hummed, still half-lost in thought over how to get Le Fay Pendragon into Issei's bed so she could have bragging rights over Rias.

From her position on the ground, she couldn't have looked at the True Longinus even if she had wanted to.

"You are right about one thing. I should have been there, but I wasn't," Baraqiel said, staring at the starry sky. Something in his voice tore Akeno from her mental wanderings. "Not a day goes by where I don't regret leaving that day. Not a day goes by without wishing I had not let you run away. I know you don't want me, don't forgive me, but I would... I would really like to get to know my daughter."

"I don't forgive you. I don't forgive myself. But someday, I might," Akeno said, more lucid than she had been in a while. "That's why we don't get to die."

Akeno's wandering thoughts went to the boy on the bench who still hadn't forgiven himself, whose every day was spent in memories as beautiful as they were cruel.

"I am going to move forward until someday, I can forgive us both."

********

"I had forgotten."

"About the orders you laid out for tonight," Kuroka asked Eren as they watched Shirone's Peerage leave the battlefield. They were setting up defences around the area, though. A god had died here, and there would be political and spiritual ramifications. "It's pretty important, nyaa."

"No," Eren denied, looking toward the father and daughter lying bloody in the dirt.

"I had forgotten this fear. The fear of losing someone. I know they won't die. I know I won't be able to smile if they die. Yet... I shouldn't have forgotten what this feels like. I'm glad I remembered."

Kuroka didn't say anything, having noted throughout the night how Eren had tensed every time one of his friends was in danger.

He had almost marched forward when Akeno had been trampled or when Fenrir nearly consumed Mikasa.

Kuroka almost wished he had, almost wished Eren had thrown the entire plan to the side if it meant seeing him transform again.

But he didn't, settling for clenching his fists tight enough that his palms bled and the wood of his cane cracked.

Rather than comment about any of that, Kuroka pointed something else out.

"With Loki dead, word will spread fast."

"I know."

"The others will fall in line. They'll know this was part of your plan."

"I know."

"... You're almost out of time, Eren."

"...I know."

Neither said anything for a long minute, long enough for the battlefield to be cleared.

"I have..." Eren started, then stopped.

He tried again.

"It's been coming to me. An idea. About why I'm smiling, in the end. I am still missing a few pieces, though."

"What is it?" Kuroka tried not to sound too eager.

"I can't say," Eren shook his head. "Not yet. I still have a few more meetings. And I need answers."

"...Have you decided on what to do?"

"I have." Eren's voice was firm and unwavering. "It will be up to them all. Up to her."

********

The longest chapter to date, almost an entire DxD volume of events crammed into one chapter.

One thing I dislike about stories is how authors can handwave away trauma. I try to keep my characters as realistic as I can. Akeno is better than she was at the start of the story, thanks to Eren, but she still has half a life's worth of trauma regarding her father to deal with. I didn't want to go, 'They made up, and everything is perfect now.'

One of my favourite aspects of AOT is that it does not do what DxD does. Trauma lasts. It compounds. It grows.

Until you face it. Then, you can only whittle it down, little by little, day after day. Winning against pain might be impossible, but you can move through it for a better life. Both Baraqiel and Akeno will have their entire lives to face their shared pain, and I don't want to cheapen their loss by saying it can be cured by talking to an Eldritch God of Boobs from beyond reality. (Yes, that is canon DxD)

Anyway, today is the first Friday release for OTB, and I will release one on Sunday as usual. That will be the schedule until I finish. There will be three or four more chapters in Part 3, then Part 4, which will be the last. I will see you all again soon on the bench.

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, I 100% agree with you on how DxD handles trauma. While it works for the type of show that it is, it doesn't make it convincing you know? And I think the way you are mixing in those elements of AOT with DxD is perfect. Stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[Kalstorm22]

Fantastic chapter, I hope we will get another Rias chapter to see how she is handling what has happened and what she has learned. Also nice to see Eren starting to at least have an idea on why he smiles. see you Sunday on the bench.

 

[Phillyitalian]

Until you face it. Then, you can only whittle it down, little by little, day after day. Winning against pain might be impossible, but you can move through it for a better life. Both Baraqiel and Akeno will have their entire lives to face their shared pain, and I don't want to cheapen their loss by saying it can be cured by talking to an Eldritch God of Boobs from beyond reality. (Yes, that is canon DxD)

Click to shrink...

I read that volume when it was first translated and still cannot believe it's actually canon. Still one of the funniest scene from dxd to date imo, especially the part where everyone thinks he has brain damage from a concussion.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

"Do it."

Rias almost jumped out of her skin at Eren's sudden words.

As it was, she barely managed to stop herself from dropping the portable player and pause the anime on the screen.

Only the two of them were on the bench. Mikasa had left to help a few of Sona's Peerage train, and many of her Peerage had joined them.

It seemed that the death of a god could be a significant motivational factor.

Which left Rias and Eren alone on the bench, ostensibly for 'language practice.'

"What do you mean?" Rias asked, putting the show to the side.

Rias had tried to act normal, tried to act like this was just another of their regular language (anime) lessons.

"You want to talk about something," Eren said. "You have all afternoon. Not once have you talked about the show."

She should have known Eren would catch something, if only the state of enervation she had been in since she arrived.

Not that she didn't have plenty of things to think about.

But it wasn't jealousy at her cute little servants getting to go to Kyoto soon, the impact of Loki's death, or even the fear that the mysterious leader of the Chaos Brigade had something against Issei that had occupied her mind all afternoon.

Rias didn't have the brain space to think about anything but her worries for today.

"I do," Rias said, gathering herself.

She had been putting it off for the last hour or so, but she really shouldn't have. The nerves were almost too much.

Today was the day.

This was the best chance she'd have to get the unvarnished truth from Eren without fear of anyone else getting in the way.

And, without anyone else getting in the way, it was the best chance Rias Gremory would have to convince Eren that she was trying to save his life.

"I can guess what about," Eren nodded, lips set in a firm line as he nodded toward the case poking out of Rias' bag.

The Gremory Heiress looked sheepish as she pulled the ornate box from her bag.

"I suppose it's obvious," Rias muttered in embarrassment, unable to believe she had made such a mistake due to nerves.

Then she took a deep breath and released it as she had seen Eren do a few times.

She looked Eren in the eyes, willing every ounce of care, sincerity, concern, and trust she could into her expression.

"Eren Yeager," Rias Gremory said formally. "I promise to always be someone you can trust and count on. I promise to never take your freedom. I promise to defend that same freedom to my dying breath. So, please, will you give me the honour of becoming a devil of my Peerage?"

Rias held out the case, opening it to reveal the eight pawns glowing with red power.

Eren looked serious as he reached in and delicately picked up one of the pawns, holding it to his eyes.

The nerves got to Rias again, and she couldn't help but babble.

"I have all eight, and I should be strong enough," she said hurriedly. "If I am not yet, I am still training, and I can grow. And I am still looking for other ways to heal you, so you don't have to become one now. I just... I need to know if... Please, Eren, don't die when I can save you."

Though she had started strong, Rias was practically begging by the end, the worry and fear of rejection making her eyes water.

"Mikasa said the same thing," Eren muttered, continuing to examine the red pawn.

"I don't know why you turned her down," Rias hurried to say. "But whatever it is, we can fix it. I can fix it. If you want, if you trust her more, I can... I can trade you to her after your piece settles. It's formality only, of course. Like I said, I won't own you or anything. And with a bit of training, you can be a high class in a few years, and at that point, it won't even be a formality. You have a lot of potential, and I know we'd all love to help you."

"I didn't turn her down."

Eren's words froze Rias in place.

"...What?"

"I didn't turn Mikasa down," Eren said simply, continuing to observe the Evil Piece. "She tried to use her Queen Piece as soon as she realized I would die. It didn't work. We don't know why, though there are a few guesses. It doesn't matter. It didn't work, and we can't change that. I can't become a devil."

Rias opened and closed her mouth, trying to get words out, any words out.

She couldn't, and the tears started to fall.

"I don't hate devils," Eren said softly, replacing the Evil Piece in the case and closing it.

Rias didn't try and stop him as he put it to the side with the movie player.

"Some devils I've met are animals and need to be put down, but I never hated devils as a race. I never really hated anything in this world. Nobody in this world has hurt me, so how can I hate them?"

Eren wasn't lying, Rias realized.

He wasn't trying to come up with an excuse to reject her. Eren really believed he couldn't become a devil and wasn't trying to change that.

"...Why?"

"You need to understand. Nothing I do or say is because I hate devils. I just-"

"NO!" Rias yelled, cutting Eren off before he could continue. She grabbed him by his shirt and threw herself over him so she was holding him down, staring into his grey eyes.

She almost couldn't see them through the tears.

"Why are you going to die," Rias asked, begged really, her voice thick. "Why can't I save you? I've worked so hard, I've trained every day, so why are you telling me that it didn't matter!"

Rias shook Eren.

"You don't get to turn this into some sort of lesson, some story! You are going to die, Eren! You are going to die and leave us all behind! The woman you love. Your friends. Your juniors. Everyone who cares about you. All of us! And you're saying there's nothing we can do to stop it? Why! Why are you okay with this? Why are you going to die? Why can't you live?"

Rias sobbed, shaking with the reality of her failure.

Over a year's worth of tears poured out of her and onto Eren's shirt.

Tears of long nights spent training.

Tears of fear of failure.

Tears of helplessness.

Tears of mourning.

Rias Gremory poured her heart into her tears, all her love and loss, all the fear she had been hoarding and building up.

And Eren...

Awkwardly, with the hesitant movement of those not used to physical displays of affection, Eren held Rias as she cried.

It was not her family's warm, tight hug or the tender and affectionate contact of a lover.

But it was the first time Eren had ever reached out to her.

Rias cried harder, pulling herself tighter against him as if by holding on tight enough, he would never leave.

"I died once," Eren said softly as he held her. "What is killing me now, I had in my last life. It came later, I would have lived to twenty-three instead of nineteen, but no older. In both lives, I've lived with a time limit."

"What even is it?" Rias asked, half hysterical. "You never told us. What is killing you?"

"It's..." Eren hesitated, but he did explain. "We called it Ymir's Curse, after our common ancestor. It's a genetic condition. Only Eldians can get it, and only a few every generation. But as soon as someone does, they only have thirteen years to live. My father had it before me, and so did my brother, though both died before it took them. I had it in my last life. I knew it would kill me, just like I know it will kill me now if I don't die to something else first."

"So what?" Rias gasped, bunching Eren's shirt in her fists. "You're used to it? Used to waiting to die? That doesn't make it any better!"

"In my world, I learned about my condition when I was fifteen, a few years after I got it," Eren continued. "I died when I was nineteen. I didn't want to die. I never wanted to die. I told you all that I wanted to live out the few years I had left with Mikasa. Far away from everything. I wanted to run away."

"But you didn't," Rias wetly repeated. "Because she didn't give you the answer that you wanted."

A part of Rias wanted to give Eren that answer right now, to say those three words he had wanted to hear so long ago.

But she couldn't.

Not out of fear of rejection but because Rias couldn't say them and truly mean them.

She liked Eren. She liked Eren a lot. She certainly had a crush on the older boy.

Rias could not say she loved Eren, or at least not say it with absolute conviction. A crush, even a deep one for a good friend, was not love.

Certainly not the type of love that lasted decades and transcended worlds.

Rias could not utter those three words unless she felt her love could match what she saw between Eren and Mikasa.

So Rias, like Mikasa before her, could not say the three words Eren had wanted to hear.

It was for the best.

Rias Gremory was not Mikasa Ackerman, nor should she try to be.

"I didn't," Eren nodded, resting a hand hesitatingly on her head. "That plan, the one that killed so many innocent lives, my friends included? It killed me."

Rias's breath hitched, and the tears stopped flowing.

"I knew it would. I knew what I would do was monstrous, terrible beyond all reckoning. I knew I'd die for it. I hadn't wanted to die, Rias. I spent years searching for another solution, one less terrible and one I could live through. For four years, I searched, and I found nothing. Nothing else would accomplish all my goals."

Rias looked up, and through red eyes, she saw Eren staring off into the distance as he spoke. He was looking at a different world than the one she knew.

"I was left with a choice. Go through with my terrible plan and die early, or run away and live a little longer. That night, that party, was just the last of hundreds of attempts. Like all before it, I failed to change my path."

He trailed off, still lost in memories of a world away.

And something struck Rias.

"Eren."

"Hm?"

"You've been using past tense."

"..."

"Eren," Rias asked, terrified of the answer she'd receive.

But she didn't look away from those grey eyes.

Rias needed to know.

"Do you want to die?"

"..."

"Answer me, Eren!"

"...I don't know."

"You don't know? That is not an answer, Eren!"

"I..." Eren bit his lip, looking out over a distant horizon. "I spent my entire life moving forward. Always advancing. Always attacking. I was chasing freedom. But in the end... I was chained to a future, a terrible fate that I couldn't escape. Not because of any control or outside coercion but because of my own choices. Because of who I was, who I am. I didn't want to die, but living in that prison, that hell of my own making, was just as terrible."

Eren's eyes refocused on Rias.

"You should always chase freedom, Rias," Eren said with the voice of a dead man. "But never become like me. Never let freedom be your chains. Because if you do, you will never be free."

Rias closed her eyes and slumped forward, resting her head on Eren's chest.

"You weren't free, were you? Not even in the end."

"...No, I wasn't."

"You still aren't, are you?"

"...I regained my memories when I was six. Since then, I've been chained to memories and an ending I cannot change. I've known since I was a child I would die at nineteen. My old world had no cure, and there would be no cure here. All my friends, all I had fought and died for, were a world away. And I... I didn't know why I should move forward. Every day, I've asked myself; Why should I do it all again?"

"What about now," Rias asked, half desperate. "You have Aunty, you have Sona, and me, and Akeno, and Koneko, and Yuuto, and Issei, and Asia. You're not alone anymore. If... If you don't know if you want to die or not, at least live long enough to find the answer. Don't give up so easily."

"I know," Eren nodded slowly. "I don't regret being born. I've been thinking about it a lot. Mikasa and you all. I think I am starting to understand. It doesn't change anything. It cannot change the day I'll die, but it... But I think this bench, these meetings, they are what I needed to keep moving forward."

"Then," Rias asked, looking up at Eren hopefully.

"It still won't save me," Eren shook his head. "Evil Pieces don't work on me, remember?"

"Are you sure," Rias asked. "Maybe it's just Aunty's? We can try with mine."

Eren froze.

"Eren," Rias asked hesitantly. "Will you let me try to save you?"

"...It won't work."

"I have to try. Please."

Eren bit his lip, his grey eyes boring into her, and Rias felt her heartbeat quicken.

The slightest movement of his chin was all Rias needed to scramble off his lap and dive for the case with her pawns.

It was clear that, for all his confidence that they wouldn't work on him, Eren was still incredibly nervous.

Whether he was deciding to trust Rias or his supposed immunity to them, Rias did not want Eren to be in that state longer than necessary.

Rias had her pawns in hand as fast as she could, pressed against Eren's chest and glowing with power.

"By the name of Rias Gremory, I beg you, be reborn as a devil and live your life with me!"

The Evil Pieces glowed brightly but did not sink into Eren's chest.

Rias closed her eyes as her pawns clattered to the bench uselessly.

"...I never hated devils," Eren repeated in the silence that fell. "But I do hate Evil Pieces. Do you know why?"

"Because they can take away your freedom?" Rias guessed weakly, having lost all energy with her failure. "It's not because you believe those stupid rumours that the Evil Pieces are secretly mind-control devices, right? If that were true, there'd be no such thing as Stray Devils. A reincarnated devil needs to stay close to their King for a few years to stabilize their transformation, but that is it. After that, the only thing stopping a new devil from killing their King is the law and personal loyalty."

"I don't care about race or changes of race. Maybe if races were different in anything but power, but they aren't," Eren shrugged. "I don't think I'd have cared if I was reborn as a devil or anything else. I'd still hate the Evil Pieces. Because they are a symptom of the problem."

"What problem?"

"The same problem my world had, the same problem humans have. Those with power will take the freedom of those without. The Evil Pieces are just the second best tool to do that that I have ever seen."

"The second best? What was the first?"

"The power to directly force other people to do what you want, even after you are long dead."

"What spell is that?" Rias asked curiously. Eren had said there was no magic in his world, so it had to be something from this one.

"It doesn't matter," Eren shook his head. "As I said, the Evil Pieces are a symptom, not the root cause. The root cause is the society that created them."

"For someone who says you don't hate devils," Rias sighed, leaning against Eren in emotional exhaustion. "You certainly sound like you do."

"Not devils. Devil society. A society where a child can decide they want someone, have someone kill them, and resurrect them as a slave. That slave, for thousands of years, has to remain loyal to their master who killed them no matter what their master wishes to do to them. Otherwise, they are hunted and killed, whether they have done anything to warrant that or not."

"Not all Kings are like that," Rias protested. "And there are safeguards, laws in place to protect newly reincarnated devils."

There was no energy in her rebuttal. Not only was Rias disheartened by her failure, but recent events had more than proven that Eren wasn't wrong.

Rias had known Diodora Asteroth her whole life and had no idea what sort of monster he had been beneath the surface. Who else was hiding those kinds of horrors behind a smile of nobility?

"I know," Eren nodded gravely. "I know a King who used her power to save lost and dying children, who sees her Peerage as her family and does everything she can for them."

Rias flushed red, twiddling a strand of crimson hair.

"I know another who gathers her Peerage after careful thought and interviews. Who chooses them not because of their power but because of their similarity of purpose and ideals. Who chooses people based on the world they want to create together."

Sona would probably fiddle with her glasses and look away in embarrassment if she heard Eren say such things about her.

"And I've heard of one who let her lost and confused Pawn run away and live alone, visiting occasionally to ensure the new devil did not turn into a monster yet still letting her live her life as she wanted."

That was probably Serafall Leviathan, Rias realized. Eren didn't know any other devil kings, as far as she knew.

"But, those are not the ones who created the society. They are young devils growing up in an old world. One who's laws were written and enforced by the same people who've ruled that society for thousands of years."

"The Satans are trying," Rias felt the need to defend her brother's efforts. "They grew up in the devil Civil War and have been trying to save our race. Already, things are better than they used to be. The Great War is finally over."

"As a tool to expand your race, the Evil Pieces work," Eren said but still shook his head. "Much better than what Eldia did. Plenty of people would trade humanity for long life and power. The problem isn't the change of race. It's the system. It's always the systems. The empires, religions, beliefs, and societies that only exist to continue themselves, grinding bodies into a road of expansion and power. What devils need is not another tool for the powerful to take freedom from others but a reset. A blank slate."

Eren paused, looking grave for a moment. Rias was going to prompt him, but he shook his head.

"I've gotten off track from what I wanted to tell you today," Eren said, looking once more into Rias' eyes. "I'm not saying my world was any better or that I am better; I just need you to understand."

"Understand what, Eren?"

"I am going to die, Rias," Eren said simply.

He had said it so many times before, yet this time, Rias felt his words were more absolute, more final than ever before.

"Whether I want to live or not, I am running out of time. And you all will live in the world I leave behind. So, I need you to understand this world. I need you to avoid making the mistakes I made. Mikasa told me about your words, your dream."

"Oh," Rias said softly. She'd usually be embarrassed, but the topic made it hard to muster anything but melancholy.

"I was glad to hear it," Eren nodded. "It is a good dream. Wanting to be free. That is what I want. Someone I can trust to keep moving forward. Someone who understands that, even if the world stands in their way, they must keep chasing freedom."

"I... I'm not that determined," Rias sighed, slumping against Eren and looking to the sky. "I don't really have a lot of ambition. I just want to be happy. To be able to live the way we want to live without worrying about people trying to kill us. I want Yuuto to be able to open his bakery. I want Issei to get his harem and Xenovia to have the children she wants. I want Asia to go to school and make friends. I want Gasper and Koneko to not be scared by who they are and what they can do. I want Sona to build her school. I want Akeno to accept herself.

She's been talking with her father, did she tell you? It's awkward, and they're having trouble, but they're trying to move forward. That would never have been possible without the Peace Treaty. I just... I just want us to be able to live in the way we want. I want to be free to be happy."

"That sounds like a lot of ambition to me," Eren commented wryly.

"Not really. I am not trying to change society or make everyone free. Just those I care about. I guess... that's the limit of my kindness."

"And you will kill to defend that freedom to be kind? The freedom to be happy," Eren said, his voice heavy with meaning.

"I will."

"That is what you need to understand," Eren said. "I want you to chase that freedom. I want you to kill to defend it. But I do not want you to lose that kindness. The kindness of a girl who approached a dying blind human and was prepared to use one of her Evil Pieces to save him, even though she believed he had nothing to offer."

"You knew who I was when we first met, didn't you? That I was 'Rias of the Gremory,' Lucifer's little sister?"

"I did," Eren nodded. "When you told me you were Sona's friend, I thought she might be your magician contract, but the name of Gremory is very well known, even to me, who tried to stay away from devils."

As always, Eren didn't mince words to make Rias feel better. He was blunt and direct, even when trying to reassure someone.

"Why did you never say anything? Was it all a lie?"

Was this friendship, this year and a half, all just a lie? That worry had been niggling the back of Rias' head for over a month since they had returned from the Underworld.

"A lie? No," Eren shook his head. "I wanted nothing to do with you originally. I thought you were like all the other devil Kings I had met. When you first approached me, I knew you were offering me the opportunity to join your Peerage. I was ready to fight you for my freedom. But when I turned you down, you did not force it. And you stayed. I had nothing to give you; you had no reason to stay and help me learn Japanese. But you did."

"You were Sona's student," Rias explained. "I couldn't just leave you alone."

"You could," Eren disagreed. "I would have. I kept waiting for the trap, the other shoe to drop. I kept thinking this was some sort of ploy to get me to join your Peerage. Then, I met Akeno and the others. I asked every one of them, even Issei and Asia, about you. No matter what I asked, they all said the same thing. Rias is kind. You offered a choice to those you could, saved the ones you couldn't and never once tried to take away their freedom."

"That's not true. I've told them not to do a lot of things. Yuuto almost died because he ignored my orders to chase after the Excalibur Fragments,"

Rias didn't know why she was arguing with Eren on this point. It wasn't like she wanted to take away her family's freedom.

Maybe she just wanted Eren to see Rias, faults and all, instead of 'Rias Gremory.'

"I was part of the military, Rias," Eren deadpanned. "I know a leader's orders do not take away from soldiers' freedom. It is the soldiers who put their trust in their leaders. Just because you worry about their safety and tell them not to do something that will get them killed does not mean they are your slaves."

"But I was trying to make you into a devil," Rias protested. "I did want you to join my Peerage. I still do."

"Then let me ask you, why are you offering me the position only now?"

"I had to get stronger," Rias answered easily. "I wasn't lying. You have great potential. I was too weak before. I might still be. If I train more, I may be strong enough to turn you before you die."

"I mean, why today? I still have time, you know that. If you think you can still grow stronger, why are you making the offer now?"

"That's..."

"Let me make a guess," Eren said plainly. "It has something to do with the abandoned Valkyrie Mikasa told me about? The one Akeno finds fun to tease? The one drinking herself under the table because she was fired?"

Rias didn't answer.

Rossweiss's situation was... complicated. She had, objectively, failed in her duty to protect Odin.

Only luck had saved Odin from being the god that died that night.

Being fired was one of the better results that could happen in such cases. More than that, it was clear that neither Odin nor the Valkyrie had been pleased with her assignment as his bodyguard.

Rossweiss couldn't even return to Valhalla because of the shame of her failure and dismissal.

Rias really wondered if Odin had tossed aside such a capable aide or if this was another one of his tricks.

If Rias reincarnated the Valkyrie, not only would she gain an increadibly useful and powerful Piece, Rossweiss would gain protection and patronage from anyone who took offence to her failure, and Odin would gain a connection to Lucifer through his sister's Peerage. A valuable connection now that the Norse pantheon was part of the Peace Treaty.

It was a political move that Rias wouldn't have noticed a year ago.

Yet Rias couldn't help but want to offer Rossweiss something anyway.

"Rias," Eren sighed. "Would you be happy if I was healed without becoming a devil?"

"Of course!"

"And what if I became a devil in Mikasa's Peerage instead of yours. Would you still be happy then?"

"I thought by the time we returned from summer break, you'd already be one," Rias admitted. "I was disappointed and wondering if there was a reason you didn't join her in particular, so I wanted to let you know that you could join my Peerage instead. Now I know it was because you can't join any."

"I have learned this about Rias Gremory over my time with her," Eren explained, resting his hand affectionately on her crimson hair. "She's a girl who worries constantly. A naive rich girl who is still learning about the world. A girl too obsessed with Japan, its culture and media. A girl who does everything she can to support her friends. A girl who cannot ignore someone needing a home, even when offering that home will cost her.

'Rias' offered that home to lost and scared children. She provided that home to a girl excommunicated from the church who had been her enemy only a few days before. And now, when she sees another who has lost her home. That 'Rias' is torn between offering that home to her or possibly saving her dying friend. She is afraid of what her kindness will cost her."

"...Sometimes I think you are too sharp," Rias sighed, leaning into his hand. "And it's not kindness. Rossweiss is a very skilled Valkyrie. A Pawn's versatility would suit her well, between her magic and skill with weapons."

"One pawn should not matter then unless 'Rias' thinks she needs all eight for some purpose," Eren said wryly, and Rias looked away. "I've also learned that Rias Gremory is also a girl who cannot be honest with her feelings."

"I don't want to hear that from you," Rias muttered.

"Rias," Eren said seriously. "This is not a joke. This is me telling you. Do not save your Pieces for me. I won't ever join your Peerage."

It hurt. It hurt so much to hear.

Yet Rias needed to hear it.

"I want you to use them as you always have, to be kind and grow your family. To offer a home to those who want one. Because I know how much having a home to return to can mean."

"That's not fair," Rias pressed her head against Eren again so he wouldn't see the tears in her eyes again. "You are part of my dream. I want you to be free to be happy as well."

"Life isn't fair," Eren said plainly. "But no matter how unfair it is, you must hold on to that kindness, Rias. There will always be people who try and take your freedom. Unless you are the last person alive, you will always have enemies. But if you hold on to that kindness, even as small as it is, you will not destroy everything to get to them, like I did. If you hold on to the reason for your freedom, more than freedom itself, you will never become like me."

Eren rested his forehead on her, his words soft and pleading.

"I am asking more of you than all the others. It is something I failed at. I don't know if it's possible. But, please, Rias. Please be strong enough to not make my mistakes. Do not be trapped by your ideals. Be free, Rias. And free others with your kindness."

It was too much. It was too much like he trusted her to do what he could not.

It was too much like Eren was saying goodbye.

"Fine," Rias snapped, pulling away from Eren and standing up.

She had made her offer.

She had failed.

She had heard what Eren had wanted to say and understood what he wanted to convey.

Now, it was his turn to listen to her.

Rias Gremory loomed over Eren, thrusting a finger into his face.

"You don't want me to be like you? Fine! I won't. You obviously didn't learn enough about Rias Gremory, or you'd know she's a very greedy girl. She will keep trying to save her friends even if they give up on saving themselves. I am not Eren Yeager. I will not give up. I will keep searching for a way to save your life. You will be free!"

Eren looked at the finger in his face, then up to her eyes.

For an instant, Rias almost thought she saw his mouth quirk upwards.

"Is that from an anime?"

Rias flushed red in embarrassment.

Not because it was from an anime, though it might have been inspired by one or two, but because it was partly from the speech she had practiced. The one she had intended to use to convince Eren to join her Peerage before he had co-opted the afternoon by pointing out her plans.

"It is, isn't it?"

"No," Rias hurried to deny. "It's not. And I am telling the truth. I will keep looking. I'll always keep looking. I will offer Rossweiss one of my Pieces, maybe two, depending on how talented she is. But that doesn't mean I've given up on saving your life. So, answer me, Eren Yeager, if I can save your life, do you want to live?"

Eren's lips pressed again, hands curling around the stylized wings of his cane's handle as he seriously considered Rias' words.

"I do not know yet," he eventually said. Not dodging the question, just being honest. "All I can see is my end. What I'll feel, why I'll feel it... I don't know yet, so I can't answer. Only at the end can I give you that answer... If you don't change your mind by then."

"I won't ever change my mind," Rias said with complete confidence.

It was not the answer she wanted, but it was one she'd hold on to.

A promise to give Eren the choice he felt he never had.

Both had the same goal. Freedom and happiness for the ones they loved.

But of the two warriors fighting for freedom, the only one who had seen the future was the boy on the bench.

********

One of my greatest struggles with this fic is getting into Eren's brain Post-Rumbling.

Not only did he die, but he killed countless people. Perhaps even more tragically, his never-ending quest for freedom led him to a prison of his own making, where his own choices led him to a prison that spanned two thousand years.

I, honestly, cannot come up with a worse fate for Eren than what actually happened to him. This fic has to struggle with an Eren who went through that and is staring down the barrel of something similar happening again, only without the emotional connections that pushed him forward the first time.

The bench helps. Eren would not be able to move on, to come to terms, if he was still trapped by the founder's power. But all it does is even the playing field. He still has to find the motivation himself. In many ways, On The Bench is the story of Eren coming to terms with his own lack of freedom.

Anyway, just a few thoughts percolated around my head as we near the end of part 3.

I will meet you all again on Friday at our usual spot on the bench.

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, I really like how you wrote Eren here. At no point during his talk with Rias did I get the impression that he was angry with her, the feeling that I got was that he was tired and trying to impart the lessens he learned from his own pursuit of Freedom to someone else. I am very excited to see where this goes next, stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[ScriptGenius12]

I love these conversations far more than the usual battles.

 

[Kalstorm22]

Awesome chapter! I really enjoyed how Rias has grown and feels like a real person rather than a trope as she is often written as, also I think if she could see this chapter, she would be thrilled with how much she resembles a shojo protagonist. Thank you for the chapter, see you again Friday on the bench.