The Bonds We Break 9 - (Post-Shinmai Maou no Testament OC-MC)

Is this what you felt back then... Jo-nii?

Naruse Maria was sitting by the bed on her room. Alone. Keeping her company, right beside her, was the large travel bag that she had stuffed with all sorts of stuff she had been preparing in secret for two months now and... and now was the day for her to go.

Without context, this all sounded like a stupid decision. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised to hear from her ever-understanding mother that she was making a hasty gamble. But Maria had been holding back for months. She held back to see if Basara could fix this somehow, if he could stand up and realize he had now twice the responsibility to bear between the harem and those unborn children he would be the father of.

In fact, one of the things that had made Maria so reluctant to go all out in the past was less about trusting Basara as a parent and more about her failing to see herself as a good mother. Mio? She could make it - she was rough in the edges, but she loved her family to the core.

Self-loathing was always the hard game that kept Maria in a rather upsetting spot. Not just because of the way she thought herself unworthy of her power, unworthy of life for the kind of humiliation she caused to her mother by forcing her in such a limited form, but also because of her burdens.

Despite being younger than Mio, Maria was the 'big sister'. She was the planner of many things, from battles, to teams, to the harem and- and what did it all amount to if she failed to see who she was hurting? Maria was not a child- she lost that right when she learned of her nature and her desires, and her purely demonic nature should have made her less understanding of human pain.

But she lived as a human, she had fun as a human- and she tried to build a solidly big family as a human. She had been so close to achieve all of that and- and she had a place for Jo too. He would have been there, with his girlfriend, maybe a few children. They would have been truly siblings at that point. She would have nagged him for advice, for tales, for funny lines, for... for his voice.

The silence hurts when you can't hear the noise you want.

It was absurd how such a loud life was hardly fitting as she had wanted. Maria's family should still be the same, but as Jo left, there was no doubt the cracks would show- and they did. Maria saw them readily, almost collapsing at the ramifications of what expectations clashing to create the perfect storm.

When Basara had told her what Chisato had done to get Nanao with him, she had been a little confused. It wasn't anything new, so she didn't oppose it since she didn't know important information at the time, but in creating the Master-Servant Contract, she did feel a hint of unease. Not much towards Jo, not back then, but over the harem as a whole.

After all, the harem was meant to be big but... how big, exactly? When would it end?

Maria was a succubus, but she was also a rational individual. When compared to Chisato, she didn't have an obsession on the topic. She just wanted to have fun, not make a mess out of her own careless nature. Mistakes happen, and you tend to work to fix it.

This mistake turned out to be far bigger than she had envisioned. Especially towards her.

Jo was her brother. Basara may be the one she shared a blood tie, but Jo was the one that nurtured a bond with her. A sense of family that wasn't born through lewd words and innuendos. It was abnormal for a Succubus, but Maria had long accepted she was 'weird' by her own species' standards.

And Jo had not shamed her on that. He knew she was not human, but that she wanted to also be treated as one at times. Between sex and combat, Maria wanted to just be an easygoing brat, one that was an actual 'little sister' to someone and not actively trying to slip into their pants.

Jo was that brother, and he was gone. And with him, the emotional core of an harem she had disregarded beyond its sexual potency. It was, admittedly, a mess and a half.

Zest, in particular, was the unchanged over the divide that had happened. She was angry, but she couldn't truly express it beyond behaving in a somewhat dejected manner. She was still 'supportive' but she had been reluctant in sexual interactions with Basara.

Mio and Yuki were a mixed bag.

Mio was supportive of Basara's trying to 'make things right', but she was stuck between in that spot due to her love and the baby she nurtured in her belly. Yuki was in a similar state, but she had her own reluctance born by the idea of knowing how it felt to be betrayed to this extent.

Celis was supportive to Basara because she didn't have that much time to know Jo. In fact, Basara was the only one she would tag around since he was the only one she trusted after learning her former alignment was wrong and almost destroyed the world.

Chisato? Chisato was aware she scorned her cousin, but she still obsessed over Basara and tried to run damage control without yielding much results.

Nanao was the oddest and most mysterious girl in the harem in Maria's mind: she was barely seen walking with others in school, but Maria knew she had neither wanted out of the harem or wanted to stop her pregnancy. In fact, she had limited interactions altogether as she limited those to just Basara and Chisato.

Odd but Maria didn't care enough now to truly be concerned- she had plenty of support, so it wasn't like her life was in danger.

And then there was... Kurumi.

But before Maria could consider that thought, her pondering was interrupted by a knock on the door. Tensing up, the Succubus looked up at it and frowned.

At this point, Basara and others should be out shopping. She could skip it since she was 'in a bad mood' and has been in one for months now. Did she overthink and waited too long? No, a quick glance at her watch confirmed she was still well within the window of action.

A huff left her lips as she addressed the ensuing louder knocking. "It's open, Kuru-chan."

Without hesitation, but an annoyed look on her face for the delay, Nonaka Kurumi entered the room in a hurry. She had a bag as big as Maria's on her back, the plan of leaving not limited to just her. And it would be fair to say that the plot came not from just Maria, but Yuki's little sister herself.

Albeit one could easily think that Kurumi had seen Basara as a big brother sort of deal, the way things unfolded in regard of the harem morphed that affection into something lewder and twisted. But, despite the similarities Kurumi's bond toward Basara felt, the love there was lacking. And it became apparent with the way the bluette would nag on Jo whenever he was free from work and Maria's own antics.

If Maria was the easygoing brat, Kurumi was the tsundere brat that couldn't truly admit how much she cared for the dork. Belittling as some 'insults' were, Kurumi's actions were what made Jo understanding of her situation, which further made her more at ease around him.

When he left, Kurumi was the one that would have fought Gods and Monsters to get him back. Not because it was right, but because she felt the truest form of abandonment for the first time. After all, her big sister and Basara were tough enough to face 'leaving' her life, but Jo had been a squishy young man and one that had purposely dodged most battles to not get hurt.

The few times he was involved would promptly see Kurumi rip his butt for putting himself in harm's way. The worry was easy to spot, and hugging was usually one way to contain and calm down the overly-protective girl.

For him to leave so suddenly, with little planning beyond 'leaving', it made Kurumi lose her shit. And Maria was quite sure she would have been like this too had she not been subjected to similar pains beforehand.

After months of trying to find peace on their own, a secret meeting between the two saw their current mindsets confirmed: they wanted to find Jo but... did they want to stay there too?

Bringing him back had made sense if things could have been talked out. But the damage done and the time that passed from that day made such a hope idiotic and hopeless. Even Kurumi had given up on trying to 'bring him back to make things right', and just wanted to see where he had gone and make sure he was fine.

So, they spoke with one another and a plan was hatched.

"Are you ready?" Kurumi asked with just a tiny bit of unease. "What's the first step?"

Maria licked her lips, standing up from her bed. "Removing the Master-Servant Contract."

"How do you- Mpph!?"

Despite the deep changes in her personality, Maria was still a cheeky succubus. And one that earnestly exploited a 'fun' way to remove an important component from the Contract- since the Master-Servant Contract worked around her energy being involved as a 'glue', removing it made the contract void.

Lips on lips, tongue on tongue, Kurumi was stunned at the sexual interaction, but didn't stop her as she felt the 'heat' vanish from her throat and travel out to her mouth. Soon, Maria pulled back, revealing two pink pearls resting on her tongue, those then vanishing as she swallowed them with a giddy smile.

"And done."

"L-Like that? Couldn't you have removed them w-with another method?"

"Yes. But I just felt we had to seal the deal," Maria argued mirthfully, causing the ever-so upset Kurumi to actually crack a brief smile.

"F-Fine. But next is?"

"The necklaces," Maria answered readily, handing one to Kurumi before putting hers around her neck. "Then we get to the airport."

"Tickets?" Kurumi nodded right as she was handed hers. "Anything else?"

"Remember that he might not be in LA. His flight went there by what Lucia was able to find out but he could have moved elsewhere."

"We will find him."

"The USA is big," Maria argued realistically. "It would take a long time. Like lots of months."

"We will find him."

The firm tone didn't vanish, and it was clear that Kurumi's determination was a mix of genuine stubbornness, awareness they had taken all major steps needed to finally leave and that there was no way back.

Maria ultimately nodded, smiling as she took the lead in walking out of the Toujou's home with their bags. By the pillows on their respective beds, letters explaining why they were leaving, how long it took them to think of this plan and why they weren't going to be found.

They had made the big step- no, the huge jump and there was no turning back now. There was only to walk forward and make it to their goal as steadily as possible.

"We are going to. I promise you that as a Skittles Gremlin."


AN

I think I need to mention that they are older than in the show now so... they have 'evolved' from the rank of 'lolis'. Next time will see a bit more interaction between Jo and Lucia, but also the first real mission for the Dumas Trio as them and their teacher go to Europe for some mysterious disappearances happening in Spain.