Reunions, reunions everywhere.
Also eldritch Asia.
Cheers.
Yuuji and Ruth didn't fear much. In fact, Yuuji had killed half the things in all the world that he feared.
When faced with the Wolf, it didn't matter if you were afraid. Everything that lived and breathed was prey for the Wolf, and anyone would become aware from the moment their eyes met.
Fur that had resembled lifeless ash in hue had come alive, bristling with the manic energy of a hurricane. Claws and fangs so viciously sharp that it felt like even a single glance could leave one bleeding. Eyes a molten, monstrous orange, a fury that burned with a fire that would never be quenched.
Despite having merely swelled in size so that he could step over a man's head with ease, his presence was so large, that it felt as if the whole room was gripped within jaws still stained with the blood of a Dragon.
And to think, the way the Wolf looked down at them was more out of curiosity than anything else.
{"A pup carrying the scent of old shadows and even older flames, and a brat bearing my sister's mark with an army behind his eyes,"} the rumble of Fenrir's voice seemed owed more to tension than timbre, as if every calm syllable uttered was an exercise in restraint. {"The Norns have been keeping themselves busy during my imprisonment, haven't they?"}
Great nostrils flared and pointed ears twitched as Fenrir lifted his huge head once more.
{"Don't think I'm neglecting my debt to all of you, but I can smell my brother's blood from here. Since you pups are in no immediate danger, I'm going to go snap up what vengeance remains within reach."}
"Don't let us keep you," Yuuji said, thinking before speaking.
The Wolf gave a low snort of amusement and was gone in the next blink.
The wall to their right shattered, and the steaming corpse of Nidhoggr splattered, yet the howling typhoon that had just left them behind didn't so much as tousle their hair with its passage.
Unaware that the conflict beyond her sister-in-law's prison had all but ended, Akeno dodged and weaved in mid air, a hand to her cheek as she reflected that maybe first impressions weren't going as well as she would have liked.
Luckily, the ire of the Evil Dragon busy sectioning and dividing up the neighborhood with barriers was focused entirely on her, and away from her companions.
Unluckily, the ire of the Evil Dragon was focused entirely on her, spurred on by the silent, doll-like beauty seated atop Ladon's head.
Currently, Kazami Kazuki's doll-like qualities were representing both an aesthetic ideal and a horror-movie trope in equal measure.
In a way, not having much time to do anything but evade was kind of helpful, because she didn't really have it in her to do anything but evade.
Her Iron Miko spell was still a bit of a work in progress- all that magic she'd shoved into Sword-chan had been all of the magic Sword-chan had stuffed her with, as well as basically all of her own magical reserves.
It felt more fun than excessive at the time, but now overdoing it during playtime was catching up with her.
The others were tied up at the moment fighting the Artificial Dragons that had swarmed in, so they couldn't really help her at the moment, but…
It was strange.
Despite the frosty glare following her unceasingly and making the fun kind of shivers creep up her spine, despite the way she seemed to be narrowly avoiding being scooped out or sliced up by barriers…
Despite all that, Akeno hadn't once gotten the impression that Kazuki was trying to kill her.
… Just that Kazuki might not feel too put out if she happened to die.
The lesser among the artificial Evil Dragons barely rated the name Dragon at all.
The two Dragon Kings could, and in fact had ripped through almost two hundred of them with little trouble.
The clones of the great Evil Dragons such as Ladon and Apophis could call upon perhaps a fourth of the might the genuine articles could bring to bear.
More than enough to make them terrifying foes to lesser races, but one on one, neither Tiamat nor Jormungandr would ever be bested by the fakes.
Even ten to one odds likely favored the Dragon Kings.
The two of them against a combination of Ladon, Nidhoggr, and Apophis numbering several dozen, backed by a similar number of the surviving lesser drakes?
That was pushing it, even for them.
Oh, surely there would be no stopping them if they were forced to withdraw, but then the youngsters within the castle risked being swarmed, and that was something neither could accept.
Even discounting individual feelings, a Dragon's pride would never accept being the first to retreat.
A Dragon's pride was much more accepting of going out in a blaze of glory, and-
… There wasn't the slightest need for them to consider doing so.
The land-locked Ladon's weren't even given the chance to scream before being mauled at mach speed. The blood was still spraying high when the great ashen-furred beast went still, standing on top of a swarm of Dragons torn into nothing but meat.
When the Wolf howled for the third time, a savage wave of sound ruptured the bodies of every mass-produced monster in his immediate vicinity, bursting them the way a mallet would burst a cluster of grapes.
When the Dragon Kings raised their voices in roars of their own and the strongest Queen of the Devils descended from above, the rest of the battle became a formality.
Kiba opened his eyes to the sound of beastly echoes in the distance, a soft but firm sensation cradling the back of his head…
And a glowing, translucent, green Asia with her thin arms buried up to mid-forearm in his chest.
Slim fingers gripped his cheeks, keeping his head still, and Musashi's upside down face smiled at him from above, revealing the origin of the lap being used as his headrest.
"Whatever you do, don't fidget," she winked and grinned. "Asia-chan is almost done pulling all the sword out of your blood."
"That's a phrase I never expected to hear in my lifetime," Kiba admitted, quietly to avoid disturbing the healer with her arms inside his ribcage. "Is that why she's so… see-through?"
"Mm, turns out her 'balance broker' thingie or whatever it's called took inspiration from Suu-chan."
Her Balance Breaker? Well, at least he understood why she was as translucent as Suu.
… And also that no, he wasn't seeing things, so he probably didn't have major head trauma.
Be a little unfair if he did, since the last thing he remembered before the soul-twisting agony was having won a duel.
Smiling softly, he gave the hand linked with his left a gentle squeeze, and Rias returned the gesture, her sigh inaudible but felt as vibration.
Then Asia withdrew both hands, one carefully clasping a shard of sharpened darkness in the tips of a pair of translucent green medical forceps that were a little hard to distinguish from her hand. The shard dissolved upon contact with the air, and moments later, the green luminescence drifted away like a fine mist, revealing Asia in her usual appearance, wearing an exhausted but relieved smile.
A moment later, a quartet of translucent blue tendrils retracted from where they were in contact with Asia, Musashi, Rias, and Rossweisse, retracting back into Suu's body, who flashed a peace sign as their eyes met.
Asia gave a long, shaky sigh to chase away some of the lingering tension, wiping a hand across her brow before meeting his eyes for the first time. "How are you feeling now, Kiba-san?"
"More confused than anything else," Kiba honestly admitted, sitting up carefully with Musashi's steadying hand at his back. "What happened after I passed out?"
"You… glitched," Rias spoke up in a voice that was a little bit too strained to be deadpan. "It was like your body and an almost person-shaped stack of Holy Demonic Swords were trying to exist in the same spot at the same time, flickering back and forth. Musashi cut through them until the 'almost' part went away, and when the shape of the stack roughly matched your body, your body rematerialized properly and stabilized enough to light itself on fire. Holy fire."
"I'm not a Devil though, so I just put that out with more swinging," Musashi helpfully carried on. "And then Asia pulled the bits of Demon Swords out of your veins, and you woke up, aaand… tadah?"
"... Alright, I didn't understand any of that," Kiba nodded.
"Me neither," his girlfriend agreed. "I bet we'll understand it better when you fight me though."
"No sparring," Asia and Rias shook their fingers at them in unison.
"Aww," Musashi whined.
"Buchou… I didn't… hurt anyone in the process, did I?" Kiba asked a little hesitantly. The girls all looked kind of worn down, Rossweisse especially though her condition had been good the last time he was conscious-
"My fingers were a little numb from blocking all the swords flying around," the Valkyrie shook her head with a slight smile, "but no one was injured, so you needn't worry."
Rossweisse had decided not to mention that she'd defended against an Asgardian armory worth of enchanted swords in the process, but no one had been hurt and the exhaustion was more mental than physical.
"... That's kind of my fault too," Asia guiltily confessed. "I didn't have the mana to use my Balance Breaker long enough without help from Suu and everyone."
Oh, so Suu had been funneling mana into Asia from everyone else… he'd really been that much of a mess after using his true Balance Breaker, huh?
… Maybe he and Yuuji shared a few too many bad habits.
"Speaking of which, what is your Balance Breaker?" Kiba asked the little nun. "Other than Suu-cosplay."
Suu puffed up her chest and gave a proud little huff at that.
"Oh, that's my Formless Twilight!" Asia said with a sunny smile. "Twilight Healing works better the more clear a picture I have of what I'm trying to heal, and Suu can 'look' with any part of her body, so it gave me an idea! I just… needed a better way to look at people!"
"... So you turn your body into a semi-liquid form of your Sacred Gear?"
Asia's eyes went a little wide as she looked at him in awe.
"H-how'd you guess!?"
Kiba gave a shrug. "You Sacred Gear feels different from most healing magic, and it felt like you were 'surrounded' with that feeling? Sorry if that's a little vague…"
Asia gave a little giggle, and she wasn't the only one.
When Kiba tilted his head in confusion, Suu, who could laugh and talk with no problems at all, told him that Musashi had said the exact same thing.
"How'd that let you put your hands inside my… ribcage though?" Could Suu do that?
Once again, it was Suu that answered.
"Didn't you know, Kiba-kun? No one's body is completely solid."
"Right, I just slipped the cells in my body in between the cells in yours!" Asia innocently chimed in, not noticing how the listeners paled a little at her words. "So I can heal any part of the body I want to, though I have to focus real hard because seeing with my fingers is kinda tricky!"
"I'll… take your word for it," Kiba laughed, promptly deciding not to think about it anymore. "Does your Balance Breaker give you better defense as well? Suu is really amazing at that, so if you're basing it off of her…"
"Mhm, I had Yuuji shoot me a whole bunch to test!" Asia replied, just as innocently as before.
This time, those surrounding didn't so much pale as freeze (even Suu this time), and Asia belatedly realized she might have forgotten to mention that part.
"... N-not with bullets! W-well not with real bullets! Oh, but come to think of it, Yuuji looked like he'd bitten something sour the whole time we were testing, I wonder why that was?"
Speaking of Yuuji, Asia being naive in strange ways was a habit they both had in common, wasn't it?
Rias sighed into her hands as a familiar phrase escaped her lips unbidden.
"There are two of them, aren't there?"
Fenrir seemed confident that no more threats were nearby, and his words had seemed credible, but…
In spite of that, Yuuji got pounced on the moment they left the audience hall.
Not by enemies though, Raynare and Kalawarner were just going a little crazy from suppressing the sinful impulses that had been magnified by their ascension, and seeing him had made those fraying threads of rationality snap.
"Yuuuji~!" Raynare purred blissfully as she straddled one of his legs.
Kalawarner, straddling the other one and leaning over him in the same way, just licked her lips, eyes burning, barely-covered chest heaving.
{"I'll stand guard so I don't have to smell whatever happens next."} Ruth pointedly excused himself, padding off into the shadows.
Yuuji watched his Familiar go with some annoyance, but couldn't really fault him. That, and Raynare promptly gripped his chin so that he was looking at her, before swooping down to mash her lips against his.
When she withdrew, Kalawarner took her turn, before they crawled off him with great reluctance, pulling him up into a sitting position as they sat on either side of him, cheeks flushed and doing their best not to fidget too much.
"... Forgive us, Master," Kalawarner rasped. "Our desires got the better of us."
Were getting the better of them, it was more like. Nowadays they only called him that during kinky roleplay, and Yuuji was fairly certain there was more to it than that, at present.
"It's the new wings, isn't it?"
The two Fallen jumped a little, looking across at one another to confirm that no, their wings weren't out.
"You seem… 'more' than you did before we split up, if that makes sense." More dangerous, more powerful, more appealing, more horny…
Raynare couldn't help but feel a little thrill- even though it was silly, even Yuuji being his usual observant self was a turn-on when they were like this!
"Well, we don't exactly have time to relieve your urges right now, so…"
As hopelessly worked up as they were, the sadistic edge to his little smirk was enough to give the two Fallen a little orgasm.
The last thing they expected was Yuuji to be merciful about their little predicament.
The last thing they wanted was Yuuji to be merciful about their little predicament.
And Yuuji didn't disappoint in the slightest.
The two Fallen shivered, eyes wide, but disobeying their master's orders never crossed their minds even once.
The corpse of the Artificial Dragon was ridden to the ground with Durandal sticking up out the top of its skull, and Xenovia yanked her sword out and stepped off.
She turned just in time to see the last of their opponents crash to the earth on its back, splintering concrete with the force of the impact.
And then she was forced to dodge smartly as a fistful of scale and flesh came sailing past her face.
Koneko was seated on the fallen Dragon's chest, tearing and gouging with her bare hands, tiny fingers easily ripping through scales that could stop high-caliber bullets.
The usually expressionless and quiet Rook laughing like a savage as she mauled her victim like a beast.
It was Irina's turn to yelp and dodge as a chunk of rib bone was torn free and flung carelessly aside.
And yet Kuroka stood watching, hand on her hip and an arm draped around Gasper's shoulders, a smile of wry affection on her lips.
"It's good for you to see this nyow," she was saying. "Shirone's still getting used to who she is, so she might have little outbursts like this in the future."
"This is little?" The Dhampir asked in morbid curiosity.
"Yep, be way worse if she was in heat."
Gasper went beet red, averting his gaze but flinching a little as a lump of something splattered around the barrier the older Nekoshou was casually maintaining.
Kuroka giggled mischievously, but her voice was anything but light-hearted when she spoke up next.
"Scared?"
"A little," Gasper admitted honestly.
Kuroka winced, secretly glad Gasper wasn't looking her way.
"Well, can't say I blame-"
"She's not paying attention to her surroundings at all," Gasper continued on, oblivious to the dip in Kuroka's mood. "She could be in a lot of danger if someone isn't around to keep her safe."
Kuroka's long lashes fluttered as she blinked several times in rapid succession, and when she looked down at Gasper, it was to find the little Dhampir had twisted his head to smile innocently up at her.
"But don't worry Kuro-nee, I'll watch her back so you never have to worry!"
Kuroka was silent for several seconds.
"... Hearing you and Shirone talk about each other never fails to make me imagine what it's like to be an auntie, and I'm not sure how I feel about that."
Rip.
Claw the hamstrings so the prey couldn't run.
Tear.
Bite the throat so the prey couldn't scream.
Beast.
She was a beast.
The bloodstained truth that she had always been a beast set her free.
Free to revel in the violence and the fear.
Cats were cruel after all, so what was wrong with being who she was meant to be?
After all, she…
… What was she supposed to be doing?
Focus, focus, there was something… no… someone?
To kill?
No, that didn't seem right…
Calm, she needed to calm down-
"Nuh uh, Shi-ro-ne~" something had snuck up on her, gotten inside her guard-
An enemy?
No, never an enemy.
Never her.
Calm, she needed to calm down-
"If you keep fighting this, you'll end up like me," the important one insisted. "This is the best chance you'll ever get… I won't let you hurt anyone you're not supposed to hurt."
She wouldn't? That was good, because she couldn't quite remember who those someone's were.
"So don't be afraid, Shirone," Shirone, was that her name?
"Let. It. Out."
… Let it out?
She could?
It was… it was okay?
"Mhm, trust your Onee-chan, and let your beast out for real." The important one implored. "We'll start small, so all you need to do is just repeat these two little words after me."
… She wanted to.
She wanted to say the words so bad it was driving her crazy.
… And so she did.
"Byakko… White."
"And I'll follow along with… Byakko… Black."
While the outer world shook when the wolf howled, the inner world trembled as the tigers roared.
To Akeno, it wasn't all that different from the sensation of Gasper using his eyes of Balor.
It felt as if the world had simply… stepped aside, for a moment.
And then the barriers moving to slowly crush her between them were shredded into silent pieces, and a small girl with tiger stripes in her tails and hair was crouched on on all fours in front of her.
… And the gigantic apparition of a white tiger loomed high over them both, bearing its fangs in ferocious challenge at the Dragon that had been tormenting her just moments before.
A brief moment of weightlessness followed, and Akeno froze on instinct as she was lifted high into the air.
Because on the reflection of a broken window pane, she could see clearly that the towering black tiger that she still couldn't sense had scooped her up like an unruly kitten, bearing her to safety as two bestial titans sized each other up.
And then, just as surreptitiously as she was lifted, Akeno found herself dropped into the arms of a black-haired beauty with streaks of moonlight in her hair and mischief in her eyes.
Without a moment's pause, Akeno looped her arms around Kuroka's neck and gave her a smile.
"My hero~"
"Stealing a princess from a dragon doesn't feel too bad, nyah," Kuroka smirked, though her eyes were elsewhere. "That's Playboy-kun's sister, right?"
"Mhm."
"Good job wearing her out," Kuroka said. "She'll have less energy to try and kill me after I tell her I'm also sleeping with her little bro."
"But you're still going to let Xenovia-chan go first?"
Kuroka's sly smile widened slightly in response.
And then the time for banter was over, because the white tiger pounced, and trying to make yourself heard over the roaring of a tiger was a waste of breath.
It took roughly five seconds of fighting for Kazuki to understand that Ladon was outmatched.
What sounded like a cacophony of shattering glass was the tiger spirit clawing through Ladon's barriers faster than they could solidify.
And it was only one tiger fighting, the smaller of the two, while an ominous feline shadow simply hung back and watched, not unlike a mother watching its kitten at play.
Protecting both the white tiger, and the feathered hussy that had tried to lay claim to her brother.
It wasn't as if Kazuki was intending to kill the crow… maybe squash her a little.
She would have preferred to kill the crow, but she spoke Yuuji's name too fondly to be wholly unconnected, and seemed close enough to his real age that Kazuki couldn't risk eliminating her.
The hussy was the closest thing she had to a lead as well.
A lead to why Kazuki kept convincing herself to build an army and fight a war to protect a brother she hadn't laid eyes on in almost a decade.
Her jailers promised that the knowledge was being kept from her so that it couldn't simply be plucked from her defenseless human mind by their shared enemies (of unknown identity), but she had never truly had the opportunity to address them directly.
Every meeting with the fool in glasses or the white-haired dandy occurred only in memory- she could remember the conversations yet couldn't remember being present for even one of them.
It was as if Kazami Kazuki was a character in a play, and she was but one of the actors playing the role.
Arrogant though it was, Kazuki couldn't help but wonder if it was a precaution against her- Ladon had not been on guard against her, and look where that had gotten him.
She'd dreamed of putting his brain in a golden chalice, mixing it up and then pouring it down the drain. And when she awoke the next morning, Ladon's sole purpose in life was to heed her every whim. She was a bit curious how the tiger would fare if Ladon hadn't lost a fair bit of strength by having his head followed out, but the unconditional loyalty had been worth the price until now.
A satisfying start to her revenge, and now the tiger looked liable to finish the rest.
Ladon unable to keep up with the tiger's relentless assault, the next swipe of its paw tore through not just a barrier, but also the eyes of a Dragon.
Ladon screamed and reared up, and the tiger silenced that scream by sinking its fangs into his throat.
The barrier keeping Kazuki in place upon Ladon's head fizzled as the Dragon choked its life away, and the thrashing of the two behemoths easily flung away the frail rider.
Briefly, ever so briefly, Kazuki had a birds eye view of what remained of the neighborhood.
And then gravity reasserted itself, and Kazuki found herself faced with the truth that even a magical cup that churned out Dragons like a factory couldn't overcome the simple truth that she was useless when it counted.
"Oh and just look, my death is going to be messy and ironic." Rushing up to meet her was the thrashing tail of Ladon in his death throes.
Faced with the reality of one failure too many, Kazuki closed her eyes, sighing bitterly.
And the moment she did, gentle arms cradled her body and gently reversed her momentum, sedately carrying her away from certain opened her eyes to find herself in the embrace of a beautiful young woman with pure white stripes adorning both her pitch-black hair and pointed feline ears.
But what came out of the woman's lips was just a sigh, a sigh laden with disgust and self-loathing.
"Giving up is the last thing you should do," she chided without looking at Kazuki. "Didn't you know? The worst thing a big sister can do is decide on her own that no one needs her anymore."
The first words Kuroka ever said to her were words Kazuki would never forget as long as she lived.
If Konek had to describe the feeling, it felt like she was riding a storm.
She'd truly cut loose for the first time in her life, and in the process learned that she had no idea what cutting loose meant.
Yet even as the tiger that was her soul and her ki given form savaged the Evil Dragon, Koneko herself felt calm.
She thought she understood just a little of how Ghoul Mnemonic had set Yuuji-senpai free.
And she understood a little more of just what Nee-sama had gone through, when her own inner beast had gone mad. Nee-sama hadn't revealed that in as many words, but now it was clear as day.
Because now Koneko was fully aware that her own breaking point had been just over the horizon. How far over the horizon she couldn't tell, but she was certain that eventually, her slumbering beast would have woken up to claw its way free of the cage that was her heart.
Nee-sama just hadn't had anyone to depend on when their former master tugged on the tiger's tail.
And so the first step in ensuring that Nee-sama never bore another lonely burden was-
Show her the worth of the white tiger's claws.
A vicious apparition tore the throat from a shackled legend, proclaiming its victory with a thunderous roar.
A roar that shook a phantasmal world to its roots, yet carried no further.
Or at least… that should have been the case.
Worlds away, atop a mountain wreathed in mists, a single eye opened, and a rumble like an earthquake was heard…
… As something ancient awoke from his slumber, and began grumbling to himself about kittens and their never ending quest to ruin the naptime of their elders.
…
… Well, since he was awake now anyway…
For someone defenseless before a group of Dragonslayers, Kazami Kazuki didn't look the least bit intimidated.
She'd quietly thanked Kuroka for having caught, after she was set down, and seated herself on what was left of her house with arms crossed.
Blood red eyes raked the group up and down like surgical knives, slicing away any pretense and leaving them all feeling dreadfully exposed.
"I seem to have run out of Dragons, so tell me, is this a kidnapping or a rescue?"
"A rescue," Akeno smoothly replied. "Though it's far from our only goal at present, reuniting you with your brother is one of the major ones."
"Hm, that confirms that my brother being held hostage is false," or rather, the confused look from the Angel confirmed as much. It actually wasn't the first time her only card was a cup, but at least this time the powerful beings she was speaking with didn't seem irked by the fact she was breathing and speaking in their presence.
"And what's this about being Yuuji's first girlfriend?" And why was she asking that, when there were… no, there weren't any questions more important than that, were there?
"I offered him my everything, and he accepted it?"
"... And how many other women are there?" The emphasis on 'first' suggested as much- and the curvier of the two Nekoshou as well as the Devil with the Holy Sword showed a clear reaction.
"Two more… present~"
"And not present?"
"Seven… and counting?"
"T-there are ten of you!? H-how does he-"
The 'involved' women began to blush dreamily, and the question of 'how does he keep up' died in her throat.
How did a shy, sweet little boy like-
Ah… yes, that was right. The 'Yuuji' that was supposedly being 'protected' by her employers couldn't possibly be real. Yuuji must have been old enough to be a man by now.
Truth be told, she was a little afraid she wouldn't recognize him when they reunited… and even more afraid that he wouldn't recognize her.
Ignoring her surroundings for a moment, Kazuki took all the memories she'd labeled as unreliable… and dumped them into the cup for disposal.
Mercifully unaware that Yuuji's older sister was in the process of editing her own brain in real-time, Akeno went on to further apprise her of the situation.
"Currently we're trapped in here with you, but it shouldn't be hard to track down the core-"
Absent-mindedly, Kazuki held out a picture frame.
"Destroy that and don't let me see you do it." It was a child's crayon drawing, depicting a silver-haired girl hand in hand with a smaller dark haired boy. The only difference from the genuine article was no sign of being torn in two and taped back together.
… It was the first picture and only Yuuji had ever drawn for her, when she had become the sole provider for their household at the tender age of 12. The deadbeat had taken it as proof of 'failure', whereas Kazuki had treasured it as a symbol of her brother's effort and affection.
… She'd never been able to recover the real one, but it still felt like she was experiencing the same loss twice. Fitting, really.
Everything real and meaningful seemed to slip through her fingers, and that gloomy fact sat at the heart of why the title of 'genius' was all but worthless to Kazami Kazuki.
Speaking of worthless, was it just memories she needed to discard? She'd dumped unnecessary things into the Cup before, and no matter how much she put in it never seemed to overflow-
Kazuki's eyes snapped open and her body jolted as the hands that took careful hold of her arms delivered a slight static shock.
Cold violet eyes were inches from her own, staring intently.
"Whatever you're doing with that magic cup of yours, stop it." was the stern order, "Go face your family properly."
In hindsight, Akeno wasn't entirely certain if she'd meant that second sentence for Kazuki… or herself.
Rias felt the prison of Dimension Lost break before anyone else outside of it did- her Evil Pieces were suddenly 'much closer' than they'd been minutes before.
The first ones to reunite with them were Yuuji and his group, however- the four of them simply waltzed out of the shadows as Ruth followed Suu's scent (that not even Koneko could normally pick out).
Her eyes roamed them up and down, confirming their safety and basking in the sense of relief at having them safe and whole. Battered, but whole, Raynare and Kalawarner especially, breathing rough and strides jerky… though the flush of their cheeks was a bit odd.
Asia bustled over to heal the scrapes and bruises, an effort that ended in a cute little yelp as the two Fallen Angels promptly glomped her from both sides.
… They'd been working hard, hadn't they? Something about them was different… something about them was simply more than she remembered, and they wore the changes well.
And as for her beloved and chronic overworker-
Yuuji's response to her silent inquiry was a warm but subtle smile, like the sun peeking out between the clouds.
The tension left her shoulders before she could fully register its presence. He had achieved something every bit as important as freeing the Wolf from his chains, and she couldn't wait to hear every last detail.
But before that…
Rias watched as Yuuji looked past her, eyes widening in shock. He actually leaned against the hand on Ruth's back for a moment, though the moment of weakness was so brief and subtle she could almost believe she'd imagined it.
Rias turned to see what he was looking at.
And even if they'd been on a crowded street and she hadn't been arm in arm with her Queen, she was certain that she would have recognized Kazami Kazuki in an instant.
… Because Yuuji's only surviving family was looking at him the same way he looked at her.
A tumultuous air of bewildered, fragile hope, as if gazing upon a miracle they were both desperate to believe in.
The distance shrank with stumbling steps, hands outstretched long before there was anything to hold.
It was Kazuki that faltered first, furtive momentum petering out as guilt poisoned relief. She missed him so badly that every inch of distance was painful for her, yet couldn't bring herself to take another step.
Not after what she'd done to him.
Not after she'd abandoned him to a home where even ruling it like a queen hadn't been enough to keep it from being abusive towards him.
Not when the vision granted by the Cup helpfully informed her that his body would be retirement-ready at 30 had he remained human.
That he was alive at all had nothing to do with her.
If he'd found any semblance of happiness, it had nothing to do with her.
Their whole family was a blight, and it was Yuuji and not her that was the sole good thing to have been born from it.
She remembered the cat's words but… how could her presence in his life possibly mean anything good?
How could-
"I missed you, Nee-san," her mind properly registered how big he'd gotten the moment his arms were around her, and every doubt and insecurity was melted away by a warmth even illusions had denied her.
In that moment, Kazuki ceased to be the genius that had shaken the foundations of every world she stepped foot in.
She ceased to be the bearer of the Holy Grail, the Chalice of God Himself.
At that moment, she was nothing but a girl reunited with her family after far, far too long.
While Yuuji was having his long-awaited reunion, JB was dealing with another one of his messes.
Assumedly, since strange women had shown up on his doorstep looking for him.
While mentally bracing herself for 'he got me pregnant' (she was bound to hear it eventually), Julia carefully regarded the two unannounced guests.
The younger of the two was a sharp-eyed but shapely example of a high-class Japanese beauty, and was pushing the wheelchair of someone who could believably pass as an especially stacked foreign supermodel.
Foreign as in 'probably from Hell' because she had cherry blossom pink hair, and horns that curved upwards to frame her head almost like a crown. She'd done enough homework to identify the woman as a member of the Belphegor Clan, a family of so-called Extra Demons like the Lucifuge that Grayfia belonged to.
"Can I help you ladies?" Julia asked, concealing caution with confidence.
Not a lot of caution, admittedly, because the Seraph on the rooftop across the street had given her a cheery wave the moment she opened the door.
… And was now holding up a sign that said 'yell 4 smite'.
"My sincerest apologies for the unannounced visit," the Devil in the wheelchair said with a tired but melodic voice, before making JB a little jealous at being able to make a seated curtsey look elegant. "My name is Roygun Belphegor, and this is my Pawn, Sakaki Yumiko."
"Yuria, Harudera Yuria," Julia responded in a distant and professional tone. "Now that introductions are out of the way, feel free to share the purpose behind your 'unannounced visit'."
Sakaki's eyes narrowed a little at the brusque questioning, but Roygun merely winced and smiled. Admittedly, both were rather puzzled to find a human answering the door, but they were fully aware that they weren't in a position to be asking many questions.
"To be wholly honest, we were feeling just a little desperate, not knowing if our savior was even alive or dead, so I confess to being overly hasty in our efforts to locate him," Roygun admitted. She was barely fit for traveling at all, let alone making an appearance that could be considered even vaguely formal.
But though she had many failings, Roygun refused to let ingratitude be counted among them, and she and Yumiko were of one mind in that.
"Savior?" Julia and Uriel both blinked in unison. Wait, she said 'him' and it was obvious that things were complicated in some way-
"Kazami Yuuji," Roygun stated clearly. "Yumiko and myself both owe him our freedom and our lives. Please, if he's here, may we ask for just a moment of his time? At the bare minimum, we would both be sincerely grateful for the chance to thank him face-to-face."
Thank him, and make it clear in no uncertain terms that they would repay him in any way possible, even if their means of doing so were rather limited at present.
It passed by in less than a fraction of a second, but Roygun clearly caught the hint of put-upon exhaustion that flitted across JB's comely features.
["I do believe you're safe with these two, but since they're liable to drop dead from fright if they catch sight of me, I'll remain hidden."] Uriel commented, using telepathy instead of a sign board.
"... He's not here at the moment, but you're welcome to come inside." Julia said, her expression softening and her posture relaxing. Given that the girl pushing the wheelchair was subtly using it for support without meaning to, it was obvious that whatever Yuuji had 'saved' them from was very recent.
Recent enough that where he had saved them from was equally obvious.
None of that was the main reason Julia relaxed her guard around a pair of beings who could kill her in an instant, should they so choose.
Maybe she was just getting soft, but really, she'd just decided that anyone sincerely worried about Yuuji couldn't be so bad.
They'd backed off to give the reunited siblings some privacy, but when the two returned hand-in-hand, Kazuki's composure was firmly in place once more.
Sure, she may have healed away the redness and puffiness from her eyes before even her not-so-little brother could see it, and sure, Yuuji may have surreptitiously dried away the tear stains on his shirt, but appearances were important.
Nevertheless, there was some surprise that the initial reunion lasted minutes at most, and perhaps would have been more surprised to hear that the siblings had barely shared a single word.
Even if Kazuki had as many questions for Yuuji as Yuuji had for Kazuki, those were put aside for the moment, because, after all…
"Aren't we still in a warzone?" Yuuji pointed out.
"Indeed, I can tell you haven't killed all my Dragons, and for that matter, no, I'm not close enough to exert any meaningful control. Given how fast their presences fade from my consciousness, doing so would be pointless to begin with," Kazuki said.
A rumble was felt as the last of the Artificial Dragons within proximity were slain simultaneously, crushed beneath the rolling coils of the Midgard Serpent.
"With that out of the way," Kazuki said without bothering to elaborate on the meaning behind the noise. "Ladon is accounted for, but what of the other Evil Dragons?"
"... Ladon?" Akeno tilted her head curiously. "That… wasn't a clone, was it?"
"Hm? No, the genuine Ladon was serving as my bodyguard."
"'Bodyguard' and not 'prison guard'?"
Kazuki's thin lips curled into a cold smile, but she said nothing more on the topic.
"Azi Dahaka is the only Evil Dragon unaccounted for, though we only know of his involvement from reports originating elsewhere," Rias replied, Ladon had been the only other uncertainty after earlier reports from both Yuuji and Grayfia.
"And the Hero Faction is bereft of its executives, with the lower ranks dwindling as we speak," the voice was airy but ominous, the terrible calm that befalls a battlefield where nothing living remains.
Hela, the Norse Goddess of Death strode out from a wound in the air with blood dripping from the tip of the sturdy looking rapier in her hand.
… The solemn air that heralded her arrival warmed immediately as the Death Goddess preened at the attention she was getting from one person in particular, not that anyone could tell.
'Dressing to impress' had worked, and no, she hadn't ruined the look by getting blood on her clothes.
What Hela wore was quite the skimpy take on a military uniform, predominantly white with black accents and sleeves. The main piece of the outfit was a tight-fitting hybrid of a military jacket and one-piece dress. It was white with black sleeves and somehow looked proper (even by Yuuji's standards) despite all the pale cleavage and thigh it had on display.
Completing the look was a white cap with a black brim, high-heel boots that covered up to mid thigh, and a sword shaped from a single piece of Jotun bone.
In the span of three seconds, Hela decided that she was going to wear the outfit again.
… Often.
… As often as she could get away with without causing her Chosen's appreciation of it to wane.
But the pleasant distraction evaporated in her mind as her gaze fell upon the mostly-mortal at her Chosen's side.
A single glance was more than enough to read a single human like an open book, but Hela took care to keep her scrutiny brief and shallow.
And so just as she had identified the girl at his side, so too had Yuuji taken note of the strands of ashen-gray fur clinging to her garments here or there.
The Goddess and her Chosen spoke not a word to each other, eyes smiling while lips remained still.
Content in the knowledge that there had been more than one happy reunion that day.
It was Hela that elected to take charge of returning the task force to Kuoh- upon reuniting with the others as they exited the castle, Grayfia had informed them that the Dragons and the Wolf were 'hunting'.
In other words, they'd set out to eradicate the last of the Artificial Dragons not present at the Qliphoth base, whereas Loki…
According to Hela, her father was 'sleeping off a Mjolnir-induced concussion, while planning to make a Jotun-sized wine cup out of Hrungnir's skull'.
As she ushered them into the rift torn from empty air, Hela looked back over her shoulder and muttered a brief, cold command.
Their last sight of the castle was of it being dragged crumbling into the earth by skeletal arms as long as city streets.
The battle had been won, but the vengeance of the Trickster and his brood had only just begun.
Emerging into the common room to immediately find themselves in the presence of JB and two unfamiliar Devils was cause for alarm, especially since the younger of the two leapt to her feet and placed herself squarely in front of her still seated companion.
But before a single word could be spoken, the young woman's sharp violet eyes locked onto one person in particular, and all the fight bled from her body to be replaced by relief.
Gently, the seated Devil pulled her back a little bit, smiling softly, and in the puzzled silence that followed, only one person took the initiative to break it.
"So you made it out, huh? Good for you," Yuuji said quietly, addressing the young woman. He glanced at the horned woman, who gazed back with a smile that was too warm and patient to belong to a proper stranger. The lady must have been the 'leverage' that forced Yumiko to fight him back on the man-made island. "Imagine you've got a few things to say, but we'll have to put that on hold for a moment."
Roygun and Yumiko didn't need any further explanation- the girl in his arms was held with a tenderness bordering upon reverence, and their immediate concern of whether or not he'd survived had been answered in blatant fashion.
And so they didn't say a single word to the savior they'd been reunited with as his attention shifted to JB, and a wordless and brief conversation passed between the two.
When Yuuji looked back at the people he'd saved, they just bowed their heads low, and didn't lift them until he was out of sight.
With the attention of the room firmly directed elsewhere, JB quickly wiped away the moisture on her cheeks before anyone could take note.
With the Goddess who had transported them having vanished before anyone could notice, Rias dispersed the group with some quick and heartfelt praise, sending them off to get some rest and telling them that the debriefing could wait.
"We've had something of an eventful day," Rias addressed the two unexpected guests with a lofty smile as she took a seat by JB's side. "So I'll ask for your understanding when I cut straight to the chase."
Grayfia expressionlessly positioned herself behind the couch, but Akeno briefly stepping away to make a fresh pot of tea did much to relax the two guests with the implications.
"Tell me, why has a lady of House Belphegor and her attendant come to my home unannounced?" Rias asked. "Naturally, I recognize Roygun Belphegor, but who might you be, Miss…?
"Yumiko," the dark-haired Devil replied, standing briefly to make a low bow. "Sakaki Yumiko. An honor to meet you all."
Roygun smiled softly while using the blanket on her lap to make a seated curtsey. "My deepest apologies for the poorly timed visit, Rias Gremory. And for not leaving my seat," She gestured subtly to the wheelchair at the side of the couch, an unspoken explanation that Rias accepted with a nod.
The sincerity on display was not missed- a Devil noble (former or not) allowing her infirmity to be clearly visible to relative strangers was nearly unheard of.
"We owe both our freedom and our lives to your servant, Kazami Yuuji, and until now have been unable to even confirm his safety. I hope you'll excuse our ill-mannered haste after having found a reliable lead." That they'd managed to track Yuuji down was little cause for concern, the peerage was rather high-profile at present.
And more importantly, just like JB not all that long ago, Rias had more or less relaxed her guard once she caught the way they looked at Yuuji. Anyone who could be genuinely happy to see her precious servant safe was a friend in her books.
"I see," Rias relaxed, smiling warmly. "You're not the only one around here my Yuuji has saved with his efforts, so you're in good company. I should warn you that most likely, none of us will be seeing much of Yuuji at least until the morning, but you're welcome to accept our hospitality for the night, rather than returning to your own accommodations."
Somewhat taken aback by the immediate surge of friendliness, Roygun and Yumiko shared brief glances, before the horned Devil chuckled in delight, inwardly applauding herself for managing to do so without coughing.
"My my, it would seem the praises of the warm-hearted Gremory's have been underselling the truth," Roygun said. "If you're offering, then we would be most grateful. As for the details behind our visit, I don't plan on withholding details, but the story is rather lengthy, if you'd prefer to hold off for the time being?"
Even if she'd most certainly lost her edge, Roygun wasn't so far gone that she couldn't identify Devils returning from waging war.
"I'll take you up on that offer, if you don't mind," Rias instantly replied with a grateful smile. "I'd like to go check on my servants, so… Grayfia, if you don't mind showing them to their rooms?"
"Of course, Ojou-sama." Grayfia said with a brief bow. "When you're ready, dear guests, we'll take the elevator to your rooms."
"... A dormitory with an elevator?" Yumiko murmured under her breath, though she wasn't complaining that it was wheelchair accessible.
Though she didn't give any outward indication, inwardly JB was glad there was one more person in the building that could react normally to things.
And, most importantly of all, she had heard a good deal more of the story than Rias had.
So she couldn't help but look favorably on Roygun and Yumiko, not just with sympathy for the hell they'd been through (did that saying still work for Devils?), but for the way they were living, breathing proof of even more things taken away from the bastard who had killed her best friend, and…
For being even more undeniable evidence that Yuuji couldn't ignore…
Of all the good he had done.
He'd tucked Kazuki into his bed, and was planning to slip away quietly to let her sleep in peace, but…
The moment his sleeping sister had stopped being able to feel his presence, she'd had the most quiet panic attack he'd ever seen in his life, all without waking up.
So instead, Yuuji had pulled a chair up to the side of the bed, and taken her outstretched hand in one of his own.
Only then had Kazuki seemed to find some manner of peace in her rest.
Blissfully unaware of how such a simple thing had driven a startling revelation all the way home.
Kazuki's hand was… small.
Delicate, fragile.
The hand of God herself was actually just the ordinary hand of an ordinary teenage girl who had always been a bit on the small side. In a very real sense, God was dead after all- the Kazuki he remembered was a memory and nothing more.
Looking back, Yuuji wondered if he'd ever looked at his sister properly.
She'd been someone, no, something both terrifying and captivating- the only source of familial love and affection in the life of an unwanted 'dud', and the undisputed ruler of the household that could never be defied.
But not anymore.
Now, she was just his sister, returned to him against all odds.
Nothing more and nothing less.
To Yuuji, it was an indescribably precious thought… now, if he could convince Kazuki of that, even in the slightest, then maybe moving forward as a family wouldn't be so hard after all.
… Her first thought had been that she'd died in her sleep but she doubted Heaven wanted her, no matter how 'holy' the cup embedded within her was, and she'd never been the sort to draw comfort from dreams, and thus…
It had to be real.
The hand wrapped around her own that seemed so impossibly large had to be real.
Yuuji was real… her brother was real.
She wasn't all alone any more.
Even the fake world with a fake purpose and fake bliss hadn't been able to keep the loneliness at bay.
In the past, isolation hadn't bothered her.
Then she'd 'died' on that wretched mountain, and spent almost seven years in a tube- 'living' as the 'brain' of the Thanatos System, the biological core for an AI supercomputer.
… The sci-fi nature of it all became much less impressive when she emerged from that tube to find she'd been abducted by that filth Heath Oslo, who promptly gave her up as a gift to a real-live Devil of all things.
She'd been his obsession once, but she supposed passions had cooled, and she'd been replaced.
On the matter of Heath Oslo, she'd need to orchestrate his death and keep Yuuji from finding out about it, she didn't want that wretch in the same hemisphere as her brother, if she could help it.
At the same time she was planning to have an old enemy killed, Kazuki was devising strategies to bridge the gap with her dear brother, share her past without traumatizing him, vet the women flocking to him to make sure the sweet boy wasn't being taken advantage of, determine what to do with the closest to freedom she'd had in all her life, find out what 'restrictions' she'd need to accept or circumvent, and-
And every single one of those multiple concurrent streams of thought screeched to a dead halt when Yuuji opened his eyes, leaving behind just one vital task above all else.
… Apologize with all her heart, accepting full well that he had every right to not forgive her for anything-
But before she could say a word, Yuuji looked her dead in the eyes and spoke in a voice quiet but firm.
"I forgive you."
For the first time in all her life, Kazami Kazuki was speechless.
The words she'd been so desperate to hear, that she was willing to do anything at all to have them spoken, and he said them so easily.
Fully aware that she was a fundamentally difficult woman, Kazuki dryly took note of the way she felt almost cheated by this newest development.
But far beyond that.
"... How."
"Hm?"
"How can you just… you can't possibly mean that." What the hell was she doing, throwing his good will back in his face like that?
What the hell was he doing, staring down at her in aloof silence, as if patiently waiting for a tantruming child to settle down?
She didn't need to be reminded that he'd grown up without her, she didn't need to be reminded how badly she'd failed at the only worthwhile thing she'd ever attempted!
"How can you just brush aside what I did to you!?" Ah, how strange, she was yelling, she never yelled. "I abused you Yuuji, I treated you like a toy! Some doll for me to dress up and play with however I pleased! I was… I was…!"
It all came out in one single explosive scream, the ugly truth that had festered in her heart like a curse.
"I was no better than them! That bitch too scared to treat you like her child, that filth who could never see that his only worthwhile accomplishment was contributing half of the genes that made you! I was no different! Playing queen of a fucked up little castle, acting like I was oh so special for giving half a damn when it suited me! Face it Yuuji, leaving you behind was the kindest thing I've ever done for you!"
And even with those hateful words echoing off the dimly lit walls, even with all her unsightliness laid bare…
His expression hadn't changed, not even once.
A boy with a beautiful heart and a furtive smile like the sun peeking out from beneath the clouds.
Now a man with murky eyes so impossibly dark.
Unmoved by the pathetic whining of a woman he should have left in the past.
Unshaken by the pitiful remnants of the family he'd never needed.
"You're right, you know," Yuuji's voice was calm and still, like a great sea above which no wind traveled. "No one was without guilt. No one was without blame."
Kazuki tried not to flinch, tried and failed.
"There's no escaping that I was an abused and neglected child," Yuuji said, blind or perhaps simply indifferent to her turmoil.
But as if the ceaseless shocks of the day had been nothing but a poorly constructed house of cards, Yuuji swept the board clean with a single sentence.
"But Kazuki… So were you."
If Kazuki had been rendered speechless before, this time, Yuuji's words rendered her all but thoughtless.
It was as if that one simple sentence was ceaselessly bouncing to and fro within the confines of her skull, smashing any thoughts to pieces before they could fully form.
An inexplicable terror gripped her, and she crawled away from the one person she'd sworn never to leave again, pressing her back against the bedroom wall.
"..." Her mouth opened but there were no words she could speak. "... Agh…"
The room was shaking.
Everything was shaking except him.
"... No…. n-no… that… that c-can't be… that isn't right, that can't be right, what are you saying that can't be right!" It couldn't be right, it didn't make sense, "you're wrong, you're wrong, what are you saying!"
Oh, a panic attack, she'd read about these. These were something that happened to other people, she needed to calm that person down, talk in a low, soft tone.
"Just like I thought, you didn't figure it out either," yes, a tone just like that, "I only just realized it today, to tell you the truth."
"You can't be serious." Kazuki said.
"Can't I?"
"You can't," Kazuki insisted, more forcefully. "Abused? Neglected? Me? How can that possibly be true? Yuuji, I was the one in charge of the whole family. None of you dared disagree, none of you could do anything but depend on me and listen to what I said. How could that possibly be abuse?"
"If you didn't know, our family imploded the moment we all clued in that you weren't coming back."
"And what of it? That just shows how important I was, how needed-"
"What a shitty fucking burden to put on a preteen girl."
"... Eh?" As much as hearing Yuuji swear was dizzyingly bizarre, it was the venom leaking into his voice that brought her up short.
Yuuji's eyebrow rose. "You think that was normal? An entire household to be dependent on a daughter too young to legally hold a job? Do you think anything about what you had to do to keep our family off the streets was even remotely fair to you? Kazuki, that bastard was practically retired in his thirties, you were taking care of our parents decades early. While raising me at the same time."
"Don't talk like that… don't act like you were some kind of burden."
He had been, and they both knew it, but it wasn't his fault.
… It hadn't been her fault either.
"True, when that man was out of the picture, our mother stepped up and took care of me properly. All my best memories of her are packed into that single month," and for all the times she'd failed him, he'd never forget that his mother died to give him a chance at a normal life.
"But what about you, Kazuki? Who was there for you? Maybe I tried in my own way to be a good little brother," he honestly didn't remember, "but there was no way I could have stepped up to be what you needed. I couldn't be an adult, and neither could you. You never should have needed to try."
… Looking back, she'd never let herself think about how desperate she'd been.
Even her 'quirk' of frequent naps… it wasn't a quirk at all, was it?
A polyphasic sleep cycle that developed because she simply couldn't afford to sleep for a healthy time period at once.
Too much to do.
Always too much to do.
Yuuji needed her.
They needed her.
If she didn't make money they'd starve.
She'd learned to forge signatures because the mortgage was in that filth's name and she couldn't trust him not to drink the money away.
What kind of…
What kind of middle school girl was responsible for every aspect of finances for an entire household?
What kind of middle school girl became an expert for making excuses to why she was the one going to parent-teacher interviews?
She….
"... Why? Why… did I have to…" Amane never realized how the strange too-smart girl was actually desperate to be liked by her, even when they were stranded in the mountains. She'd never realized how starved for companionship she'd been, until this very moment.
She'd never realized how desperately she'd tried to convince Yuuji that everything was okay, that she was handling everything.
… Because she was a 'genius'.
Because she had to be 'better than that', whatever 'that' even was.
She'd pretended she was living for Yuuji, to distract herself from the simple fact that she couldn't afford to live for herself.
Even the selfish way she'd tried to take control of him was because there wasn't any other kind of selfishness she could afford.
… When had she ever truly had the chance to be a child, a teenager, a woman… any of it?
Abuse and neglect could take many forms, that's what made it so insidious and sometimes impossible to identify.
She'd been… overburdened, over-relied on.
Depended on for things that no child should have to be depended on for.
… Maybe if she hadn't constantly fooled and deceived the social workers…
It would have been two children removed from the Kazami household, instead of one.
"... I tried my best." What a useless, pointless thing to say.
Yes, she'd tried her best.
And so what?
What worth, what meaning-
… In all the world, he was the only one with the 'right' to condemn her.
And that was why he was also the only one who could save her, the only person in all the world who could hopefully give just the tiniest bit of meaning to the words Kazami Kazuki needed to hear.
"For raising me, for loving me, for being there for me when no one else could…" The arms around her were so very, very warm.
"Thank you, Nee-san. Thank you and… please, don't forget that you'll always have one family member who loves you. Never forget that I still love you."
The first time Kazami Kazuki cried in her brother's presence, it was a subtle thing, nearly inaudible even to a Devil's ears.
The second time Kazami Kazuki cried in her brother's presence it was anything but subtle, and thus the meaning of the second time was incomparably greater than the meaning of the first.
Oof, that last scene was hard to write.
But there you go- Kazuki ruling the Kazami household like a little god was something that occurred in canon, and as much as it showed how hyper-competent she was… what a shitty situation, to be in a family that needed her to be that good.
Anyways, enough of the depressing shit, we're going to have much more fun with Kazuki's arrival in the next chapter.
Because now Nee-san gets to properly meet the harem.
Which includes a super-maid with a distinct problem, and a death goddess cosplaying as Esdeath.
Roygun and Yumiko will have their time with their savior as well, naturally.
Also, shout-out to Fenrir for letting me write a phrase like 'mauled at mach speed', but he's not the only great beast who's going to be getting involved with our cast in the near future, and there are yet more reunions to come.
PS: For those curious about the random little namedrop, Hrungnir ('brawler'), the Jotun Loki double-crossed and ganked offscreen, was a giant made of stone that Thor soloed in a duel, according to myths. Not really significant, I'm just having fun dropping hints at what an absolute unit Loki really is.