"Hold on! Are you serious?!"
Matsuda's voice blared across the hallway with his hand shot out, fingers clamping around my sleeve like a vice. Two girls from class 2-A glanced over, then kept walking, probably assuming we were having another one of our idiotic arguments about ass versus tits.
His face right now had an expression resembling something between wounded puppy and betrayed war buddy.
"After all the shit we've been through? The peeping? The beatings? That time we almost got expelled for hiding in the girls' locker room?" His grip tightened as he clenched his other fist "You're just gonna...what? walk away?"
I looked at him and held back my urge to knock him out like Ilia did to Charles in the first round.
There was a faint bruise on his jaw from yesterday's encounter with the kendo club, courtesy of Murayama's shinai connecting with his face after he'd suggested she'd look better without the hakama.
This was a guy who'd taken wooden swords to the places I can't even think of, for a glimpse of panties.
"Look, Issei has a girlfriend now, so I don't see the point in existence of our group anymore"
The words hit him like a truck. His hand went slack and fell away from my sleeve.
I watched the realization dawn across his face like watching someone realize they'd been betting on a losing horse the entire time.
"Can you tell me when has he agreed to peek ever since that day?" I said, like I was explaining why the sky was blue "Not once. Not since she showed up. He doesn't even hang out with us anymore"
Matsuda's mouth opened but he had nothing to refute.
"But... but we're..." His voice trailed off into nothing.
I could've been kind about it by softening the blow, and said something about how we'd had a good run, how all things end eventually, how maybe we could still revive out someday.
Instead, I patted his shoulder once with a smile that meant absolutely nothing and walked away. I left him standing there in the middle of the hallway, staring at nothing, while his entire worldview collapsed in real-time around him.
He doesn't know how lucky he is.
The afternoon sun hit my face as I cleared the school gates. Warm. Too warm for March. My phone buzzed in my pocket, which was probably Matsuda texting me some desperate plea to reconsider, to think about the good times, to remember that we were brothers in perverted arms.
I didn't check it.
Raynare's face flashed through my mind instead. Black wings. That smile. The spear of light piercing through Issei's chest in the original timeline. The quest notification that had popped up three days ago: Prevent Death Event: Issei Hyoudou from his new lover.
May that kind of love never find me.
. . .
Late afternoon light filtered through the trees overhead, catching dust motes in the air like tiny stars suspended in the air around me.
The clearing looked exactly how I'd left it yesterday, torn up, scarred, evidence of the past few days worth of training, marked across the ground like a battlefield aftermath. One particularly large crater sat near the edge where I'd tried to launch myself upward with rock beneath me and had instead face-planted directly into the ground hard enough to taste dirt.
Good old times.
I dropped my bag against a tree trunk. The Cloranthy Ring caught sunlight on my finger, which was probably worth more than my life at this point. No glaze.
My gaze swept the empty clearing. Birds chirped somewhere overhead. Wind rustled through leaves with that particular late-afternoon sound that always made me think of endings of dark fantasy manga.
If this goes sideways, I'd be the reason someone's story ends.
Some parts of my mind were warning me that I was probably about to get electrocuted by a gorgeous sadist with daddy issues.
Then, Akeno stepped through the trees.
Speak of the devil.
She was dressed in the Kuoh Academy uniform, her sleek black hairs down past her waist in that long ponytail, two strands framing her face perfectly. The orange ribbon holding it all together like some kind of aesthetic miracle. Her violet eyes caught the sight of me, and for half a second it looked almost mischievous.
Her gaze swept the clearing once like Megumi analyzes a curse's territory before engaging by looking for exits, terrain advantages, potential hazards. Except she wasn't looking for curses. She was reading me through the evidence I'd left behind in forms of craters and scorch marks across the area.
Then she looked directly at me and smiled.
It was gentle, elegant smile that somehow managed to be more terrifying than if she'd shown up crackling with lightning and screaming about punishment.
It looks like she has already decided something, and I have no idea what.
"I wasn't sure you'd come, Himejima senpai"
The words left my mouth before I'd fully processed speaking them.
"Oh my" Her voice carried across the clearing, with that particular lilt that made every word sound like the setup to a joke only she understood "Did you think I'd stand you up, Motohama-kun?"
She started walking toward me.
"Honestly? Yeah" I adjusted my glasses with one hand, buying time while my brain cycled through about fifteen different ways this could go catastrophically wrong "Most people hear 'spar with the guy who's had powers for a week' and suddenly remember they have literally anything else to do."
"Fufu, I'm more excited than you for this, Motohama-kun~"
No shit.
"Shall we start with rules, first?" Her head tilted slightly
I considered my options. They basically boil down to: set rules and maybe survive, or don't set rules and definitely die.
"Don't kill each other seems like a solid start"
"Oh my" Her smile deepened fractionally "Such low expectations you setting for me"
Yeah, well, my expectations are currently somewhere next to hopefully keep all my limbs intact.
"Also maybe...and I'm just spitballing here..go easy? You've been a Devil for what, years? I've had this power for a week"
Her fingers twitched slightly as lightning danced across them "Don't worry, Motohama-kun. I'll be gentle with you~"
The way she said 'gentle' made it sound like a threat.
.
...
..
...
*ZAP!*
The lightning bolt straight up demolished the earth three feet to my left.
Heat slammed into my face like someone had opened an oven directly in front of me. The sound came after was sharp, violent, the kind of noise that made your ears ring and your brain scramble for cover.
My feet were already moving to hide for cover.
A ridge erupted between us at chest height, angled, deliberately positioned to break line-of-sight between her hands and me. Compressed dirt packed tight enough that it'd take more than a casual swipe to break through.
I caught Akeno's expression for half a second before the ridge cut off my view.
She blinked in surprise, stopping momentarily and then launched another bolt in a surprise attack.
*Hiss—*
The second bolt came low, skimming earth at an angle designed specifically to laugh at the concept of ducking.
Hands slammed flat against the ground. The ridge collapsed back into the earth like it'd never existed. A trench tore itself sideways across the clearing with shallow, wide, positioned directly in the bolt's path.
Lightning hit the trench and grounded out, scattering into crawling yellow sparks that bit into it, burned for a moment, and died down.
Thank you, basic physics. You're literally the only thing keeping me alive right now. Glad, I didn't skip the classes.
My palms pressed flat against dirt, reading feedback. Two steps left. Her positions shifting in directions. She was looking for an angle, trying to cut off my options to take her by surprise as she was still on the ground.
I sent a pulse through my feet, washing across the clearing like a ripple on water. Not enough force to knock her down, she was a High-Class Devil in a Queen piece, and I wasn't delusional enough to think I could just sweep her, but enough to make the ground *lie* under her next step.
My legs were already moving before she could get a chance to launch a surprise attack on me. I covered six meters in a straight sprint, not to strike, because I valued my continued existence, but close enough to force the decision.
Retreat or commit.
The earth compressed under each stride. But, Akeno stepped back and her smile changed.
It was something that made the back of my neck prickle and my survival instincts start screaming warnings about predators and prey and which one I definitely was.
Not good to face her closely.
"Interesting~"
"What is?" I kept my stance loose, ready to move. Every muscle coiled. The Cloranthy Ring hummed against my finger, waiting for my next command.
"I expected you to keep blocking it, while I struck more lightings at you" She gestured vaguely at the clearing, at the trenches, at the scattered evidence of my completely unorthodox approach to earth manipulation.
"Yeah, well" I adjusted my glasses with my left hand, keeping my right palm pressed against my thigh, maintaining contact with the ground "Blocking your lightning sounds like a fantastic way to get very dead very fast. Your lighting is not the regular one at my home"
Her eyes glittered.
Oh no. That's the look I can feel. That's the sadist getting interested look.
*CRACK*
Without warning this time, lightning screamed across the distance between us, which was not a test shot, not a ranging attempt, but actual intent to hit. The air itself seemed to tear apart.
I tilted the ground beneath her, just a fraction. But enough that her footing shifted half an inch to the left as she fired.
The bolt missed my shoulder by maybe two inches.
Heat washed across my neck. I smelled burnt air and my own fear sweat. The lightning carved a smoking line through the dirt behind me, hit a tree trunk, and left a black scorch mark that'd probably be visible for months.
I looked back at Akeno.
She had one hand covering her mouth and giggled.
Not the polite giggle. Not her usual 'ara ara'. Real genuine amusement at the fact that I'd just barely dodged and avoided turning into a grilled Motohama.
Her fingers crackled, as she didn't even bother to apologize for her escalated action.
"Are you prepared for Round two, Motohama kun~"
What other choice do I have?
- - -
Three more rounds.
I didn't win any of them.
Winning wasn't even in the realm of possibility. She had years of experience, lightning that could turn me into charcoal if she actually got serious, and kind of combat instincts that came from actually fighting for survival.
I had a week of falling on my ass and a magic ring.
But I forced her to change approaches. Got her to actually think about dodging instead of just overwhelming me with her lightning.
Silence.
The forest had gone still around us. No birds. No wind. Just quiet and the faint smell of burnt earth.
When she spoke again, her voice had lost all its playfulness.
"Did you really awaken this power a week ago? You seemed to do a lot of stuff"
"Which includes a lot of face-plants" I rolled my shoulder and regretted it immediately "But it was an important part of the learning process, I'd say"
She just giggled as we sat at the clearing's edge while the light went amber and slow.
Akeno perched on a low root with that same effortless grace she did everything with. I sat next to her, working my numb fingers in slow circles, trying to coax feeling back into them through sheer force of will.
I watched a leaf spiral down through the air between us, catching light, tumbling in that specific way leaves do when there's no wind to guide them.
"Thank you" The words came out more honest than I'd intended "For the books. For yesterday. For all of it. Gremory-san didn't have to agree to any of that, but still she did all of that for me"
"Ara ara" She replied, but her eyes were watching the trees instead of me "Can I ask you something, Motohama-kun?"
"Sure"
"Why won't you join Rias's peerage, even after you witnessed what she has to offer " Now she looked at me with genuine curiosity "Why?"
I picked up a small stone. Turned it over in my good hand, feeling the weight, the texture, buying time while my brain organized thoughts into something coherent.
"You want the polite answer or the real one?"
"The real one." Her smile sharpened slightly. "I'm very curious what makes someone refuse protection in a world with unseen dangers"
"Because the second I become her servant, I stop being me." I tossed the stone, caught it, felt the satisfying weight of it settling back into my palm "I become 'Rias Gremory's whatever-piece-she-uses' to turn me into a devil. And then, I'd have to shoulder not only hers but Devil society's expectations."
"She would protect you—"
"From everything except the system she's trapped in" I cut her off. Not rudely. Just... tired "She's the Gremory heiress. Bounded by her Family honor, so I doubt she would step to her superiors. She is already chained by rules and traditions of devil society, so I don't feel like being a part of becoming a devil"
I set the stone down carefully, deliberately, watching it settle into the dirt.
"She can't protect me from that because she's not free from it herself"
Akeno said nothing as she'd gone very still. The kind of still that meant she was actually listening, actually processing, not just waiting for her turn to talk.
I stood, brushing dirt from my pants. Looked out across the clearing, at the scorch marks scattered like evidence of a small war, at the trenches and ridges and that one massive crater where I'd tried to launch myself and had instead discovered what it felt like to eat dirt at high velocity.
"The moment I step onto someone's chains, even hers, those rules would govern my life. I've been given something that gave me a chance to be a human, with strength to rise and be free"
I glanced back at her.
"I'm not exchanging it to serve for someone else's expectations. As I said before, I just want to be free. That's it"
Akeno looked at me.
Whatever moved behind her eyes stayed there, neither with agreement nor with argument. Just that particular stillness of someone sitting with a thought that landed heavier than expected.
I guess even she agrees to it.
. . .
I stood in the clearing afterward, working my numb fingers in slow circles, listening to the forest settle back into its evening rhythm, after Akeno left for her devil duties.
'In this life, I want to be free'
The words echoed in my head. Maybe the truest thing I'd said in my both lives.
I pressed my foot against dirt, feeling the familiar link to earth.
No idea if that conversation was for good or bad. Knowing this world? Probably both. But in the end, who cares? I wasn't going to become a devil and that's all that mattered to me.
I reached for my bag as the soft blue light materialized in front of my vision. The Gacha System panel glowed against the clearing's fading light.
...
**[QUEST COMPLETED: SPAR WITH A DEVIL]**
**[REWARD: 1x RANK 2 GACHA TICKET OBTAINED]**
...
. . .
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