The Mandate of Khaos: Codependency (ch. 13)

Shinji Matou's Room

7:30 AM, Friday

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Feat: Through your direct action, Fate has changed. Issei Hyoudou, the holder of the mid-tier Longinus Boosted Gear has been killed by Sakura Asutaroto. With his death, the course of the entire world has irrevocably shifted.

Rewards: One Advantage Diamond Random Ticket

I killed him.

That was the first thought that came to mind.

I killed Hyoudou Issei.

There had been many people in my old world who had vehemently hated him. Now, I personally thought he was a fairly weak protagonist, a breast-obsessed punchline in a story with a decently interesting world, but one did not watch High School DxD for the deep moral and philosophical themes.

At the end of the day, Hyoudou Issei wasn't evil. He was a pervert, a dumbass, a menace to society – but he wasn't evil.

And now he was dead. And I knew why.

"Nii-san," Sakura had asked, her brow furrowed with concern. "You look nervous. Everything alright?

I had seen him there, likely walking home, lumbering down the street, openly gawking at a porn mag, seemingly unbothered by the disgusted looks the women around him were throwing his way.

I had told Sakura about the Khaos Gacha. I had told Sakura that despite bearing Shinji's memories, I was fundamentally different from what the original was. We were similar – perhaps that was what Zouken needed in the first place – but we were different enough that I could never claim to be him.

I had not, however, told her about my knowledge of this world. For a start, it was flawed. The world I knew didn't have Sakura in it, it didn't have me in it, and it most certainly didn't have Ajuka casually vaporizing Matou Zouken in it.

The second, and far more important, reason… was that I really didn't know how to broach the subject. How does one tell another person that, to you, their entire existence had been fictional until a few days ago? That their lives had been written down on paper for the amusement of some nameless, faceless nerd?

I shook my head, attempting to reorganize my racing thoughts.

I hadn't told Sakura about that… but I had sworn I wouldn't lie to her. Not to Sakura. Never to Sakura.

And so, when she asked: "Do you know that boy?"

All I could manage in response was the truth: "I think he's probably the holder of the Boosted Gear."

The door to my room creaked open, and my head snapped towards it. In the doorway stood Serafall Leviathan… wearing nothing but a frilly pink apron.

Poets would find themselves lacking words to describe the sight. Sculptors would kill for a mere minute of her time, just to attempt the impossible task of replicating her figure in stone. Gods would wage wars, and mortals would die, to see what I was seeing at this moment, and I—

Simply couldn't enjoy it.

"Where is Sakura?"

Serafall sighed, and with a snap of her fingers, her outfit shifted into something far more casual. "Let me start by saying that she's fine," Serafall said, casually perching herself on the edge of my bed. "Not in the she'll get better or she'll make a full recovery after a while sense. She's fine fine. A bit bruised, but nothing permanent and certainly nothing life-threatening.”

The Leviathan sighed again. "It could have been worse. It could have been way worse. But it all ended up okay at the end of the day, so I suppose that's all that matters for now."

A wave of relief washed over me, leaving me weak-kneed and thankful I was still laying in bed. I felt bad for Issei, but when compared to Sakura—

I simply couldn't find any space on my heart left for that.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

They were incredibly, dangerously, insanely codependent.

Serafall had at first thought that it was merely the girl, but that was not it. The boy simply hid it better. He was as much, if not more, obsessed with his adopted sister than she was with him.

As if that was not enough, such feelings made them enablers of each others worst aspects. Sakura would never refuse her brother, and Shinji would never find in himself the will to truly get mad at his sister.

Left alone, they'd turn into some sort of incestuous perpetual motion machine who'd tirelessly work to make them into the worst possible versions of themselves.

Serafall sighed—a frequent sound lately, she noted—and contemplated the sheer understatement of It could have gone worse'.

When Sacred Gears were forcibly extracted from humans, due to the fact that they were intimately linked to their very souls, it was rare for the original host to survive for long after the procedure was complete. If there was anyone with the necessary skill and power to pull it off, it would, in her opinion, be Satanael, Azazel, or Ajuka. She hadn't heard a peep of the first for a while, and the other two weren't exactly known for their boundless empathy.

On the contrary, Azazel—like many—actively hunted down holders of Sacred Gears. She knew, thanks to her extensive information network, that the current holder of Canis Lykaon had only been allowed to live past boyhood as a very special favor to the boy's deceased grandmother. Otherwise, the boy would most likely have been killed too, sealed Sacred Gear or not.

Of course, the fact that Azazel had envisioned the path the boy would take, and how to recruit the Longinus user to his faction in the future (which had clearly worked, as could be seen) was certainly a factor in his decision back then, too.

That wasn't the only problem, though. There was a reason why Longinus-tier Sacred Gears weren't stolen more often. Besides the incredibly high chance of incompatibility, there were also… certain factions that didn't find such happenings to be very amusing.

Powerful humans, especially those associated with the Church, didn't take kindly to powers meant to bridge the gap between them and the rest of the supernatural world being forcibly stolen. One entire Pillar House had been utterly destroyed when its Heir had managed to steal Telos Karma. Although his compatibility with it had been so low that he was barely capable of affecting anything more than the probability of a dice roll, that hadn't stopped the combined forces of the incarnation of Arthur Pendragon and Belzard – may one like him never appear again – from decimating the entire House and all its affiliates as a warning.

It really could have been so much worse.

The assimilation problems were largely mitigated by Amethyst's special attributes, or so Ajuka told her. Should the Welsh Dragon prove actively uncooperative it was unlikely that Sakura would be able to make full use of her newly acquired Gear, but neither would she suffer the debilitating after-effects like a lifespan reduction and harm to her health from implanting a foreign Sacred Gear in her body.

The bigger problem though, was the possible 'retribution'. However, that too likely would not come to pass due to the special circumstances surrounding the people responsible. Or rather, the King of the person responsible. Sirzechs Lucifer had made it abundantly clear to the entire world that he was willing to go absolutely fucking mental if anything happened to his sister after all. It was unlikely, then, that the so called 'Hero Faction' would move against his sister's peerage and risk having to redraw the world map, though they'd probably be keeping an eye on them from now on.

It was an annoyance, as the current holder of Innovate Clear had made it clear that, as a self-proclaimed 'Hero of Justice' he would not stand for humans being senselessly killed. But considering the circumstances, it was unlikely that he would take action, especially after the recent kerfuffle his faction had with the Hindus.

The 'dying' part also wouldn't have mattered, as the true creator of Amethyst, unlike Ajuka, had been the type of person that cared for such niceties. As such, Amethyst was equipped with the ability to attenuate the blow to the soul of the human whose Sacred Gear had been stolen with its ability to bring out power of parallel dimensions. Indeed, Hyoudou Issei was not supposed to die… had he not gone mad with rage after his careless uncontrolled activation of the newly awakened Gear ended up severely injuring his mother.

A Juggernaut Drive berserker rampage in the middle of a densely populated city center… it really could have been so much worse.

No matter how good Amethyst was, not even it could salvage a soul that had so deeply merged with its Gear before the end.

Ajuka had retrieved the body and abducted the parents though, so Serafall knew that, if nothing else, that matter would be dealt in the most efficient way possible. He'd likely not want to annoy the Hero Faction any more than they already would be, so that family would likely end up far better than it started out as.

Being born with a Longinus… it wasn't a fate that Serafall would wish on any human. Recency bias would make one believe it wasn't that bad, but their fates were far from kind most of the time. Case in point, had it not been Sakura, then something else would have ended up smelling the power on the boy and 'taken care of it', she was sure.

Shaking her head of such thoughts, Serafall returned to observing as the boy went through the motions of cleaning himself, dressing, and seating himself at the table to eat breakfast. Serafall had been the one to make it this time, but it was clear he was used to his sister doing it all for him, along with—if his current state of dishevelment was anything to go by—helping him fix his uniform and hair.

"What are you doing?" The boy asked, his voice sounding less subdued than a few minutes, but still far from showing any real emotion.

"Arranging the rat's nest that is your hair," Serafall answered, receiving the predictable, amused snort she expected. The boy returned to his breakfast in silence as she worked, so Serafall took it upon herself to make small talk. "What's that thing over there?" She asked, pointing towards a small, gaudy fountain conspicuously shoved into the corner of the room.

If this were an anime, Serafall felt, an angry vein would have popped on the boy's forehead.

"That", he spat, emphasizing the word with a venomous glare, "is a useless piece of shit water fountain that claimed to be able to become any alcoholic beverage the user could think about, after removing the water from it, but conveniently forgot to mention that to be able to 'think about' the beverage, the user either has to have drank it before or know the chemical composition of the damn thing down to the fucking atom!"

Serafall snorted. "Couldn't you simply 'think about' an alcoholic drink that gave you ineffable powers if it hadn't those limitations?"

"…it could be limited to drinks that existed to circumvent that exploit."

Serafall rapped her knuckle against the boy's skull. "And how is a mere fountain supposed to know if the drink exists or not? The knowledge, I assume, has to come from your body, so it makes sense. Otherwise you could just dream up any type of drink, and this little thing would be technically more powerful than many Gods associated with the concept," she said, chucking at the idea.

The boy sighed, muttering something about not being able to expect that much of a Common Item, after all before scowling up at her. "Can't you just let me complain and nod sympathetically?" He asked petulantly.

Serafall laughed—that musical laugh that turned the brains of most males into mush. "Don't you already have your sister for that?" I'm different, she was implying. Unique. Valuable. Desirable.

Ajuka was right. It was harder to predict how to best interact with a person when the available information was limited. However, the extent to which it hindered his ability to communicate was unique to him, because of his dependency on the Kankara Formula to do the thinking for him.

Serafall had to grow up the usual way, trying to guess what the more experienced and far older devils around her were thinking, and plan her next moves accordingly.

A teenage boy… really wasn't that hard a challenge in comparison.

"Lady Serafall—" she rapped her knuckles on his head once again, and scowled down at him, mouthing the correction and raising an expectant eyebrow. "Sera…-tan… why are you here?"

"You're in love with Sakura." He flushed crimson. "You have talked to her about it, your mutual feelings for each other." She nodded at his lack of disagreement. She was guessing, but it was easy for one like her to guess such information. "I know kids like you put a lot of stock into being each other's firsts, but if you want to really give her a good time…" Serafall leaned forward, straddling his lap, her mouth hovering tantalizingly close to his as she smirked inwardly when he didn't return her advances. "Experience matters." A soft, deliberate grind drew a stifled gasp. I could provide valuable… tutoring."

"It's… not about that." he managed, voice strained.

It was partially about that, she translated. He was japanese though, so the cultural hang-up on purity was to be expected, if a bit quaint.

She could have said she had been on a dry spell for around a century now—she was Serafall Leviathan, after all. All the devils strong enough to meet her standards, those few whose numbers could be counted on two hands (if not one), were either not interested or were too far from her moral alignment for her to consider them a viable partner. And of course, if she resorted to fucking some random Tom, Dick, or Harry, the reputation she had so carefully cultivated as the Idol of Gehenna would crumble faster than a Vtuber forgetting to mute her mic during a private conversation with her secret boyfriend. Still, even accounting for all that, using that fact as a weapon… no. Not in a million years.

Even Serafall Leviathan wasn't immune to her own insecurities. Serafall still rued the day her mother had discovered the term 'Christmas Cake.' She would never forgive the Japanese for that one.

"I swore to Sakura that… well… ahem…" Putting such thoughts aside, Serafall had to admit, it was sort of endearing how flustered he was getting.

She made a show of pouting cutely before acquiescing. "After then," Serafall said, carefully establishing in the boy's mind that there would be an after. "She doesn't strike me as the type of girl who would stop you from having some on-the-side fun as long as she was still… ‘best girl’ I suppose is the most accurate term, no?" She asked, her eyes sparkling with teasing amusement.

His flustered facial expressions were answer enough.

She leaned in, her hot breath ghosting across his parted lips. His hands instinctively grasped at her hips, and Serafall made sure to let out a soft, anticipatory 'hmm~' to really get his engine revving.

"Why… why?" It surprised her. Surprised her that he still had enough self control to wonder 'why' at this point. To worry about that. Serafall could respect that. Even if it was more likely to come from a place of insecurity (Why would she be interested in me?), than solely his willpower.

Grinding against his lap one last time as she straightened, Serafall perched on the edge of the table and smiled down at him, her eyes gleaming with mischief.

"Because, Shinji-kun…"

She had always wanted to pull this line on someone.

"I want your babies."

Really, she thought, watching him choke on thin air. Kids these days are so adorable.