On The Bench (AOT/DxD)

[ReadingDangerous]

It was a desolate wasteland.

Towering dunes of sand as far as the eye could see, with only the bright blue of the stars to serve as a light in this cold, lonely world.

No great tree of light towered in the distance, its innumerable branches reaching out in billions of Paths, linking past, present and future together.

There was but one Path in this world of blue radiance. One line of light at the center of the world.

No young girl wandered these dunes, building the bodies of Titans, tens of metres tall, one pail of sand at a time. No Eldian goddess dwelled in this eternal prison, eternally trapped to her bloodline and the power that dwelled inside it.

In this desolate wasteland, all existence was naught but sand and stars.

And a bench.

It wasn't a large bench. Long enough to support three adults if they were close enough to touch.

The bench's design was simplistic, with no extra flourishes or stylized embellishments, but it was well cared for despite clear signs of wear and tear. No splinters or frayed edges, despite signs of weather wear.

Its materials also were nothing special. Made of wood with iron fastenings, it wouldn't look out of place in a public park or on a sidewalk in an upper-class neighbourhood.

The bench, so at odds with the baren world around it, drew the eyes of the sole inhabitant of this wasteland like a moth to a flame. It lay thousands of kilometres away and yet so close. The only thing that existed in the empty world.

Eren Yaeger's tiny feet brought him to that bench.

It didn't matter if his strides were short. He just had to put one foot in front of the other. Step after step.

Eren would reach it so long as he kept moving forward.

It took him years, decades, to travel to that bench in less than a second.

Eren stared at the bench with blank eyes. Its top was eye level with his six-year-old body.

Then he hoisted himself up and sat down.

The view before his eyes shifted.

The sky lightened from dark blue to a clear azure as the endless dunes of the Path were replaced with trees and a well-paved trail. In the distance, he could hear vehicles passing and spy hints of the tops of buildings peeking above the green foliage.

This was no forest, despite the denseness of the trees. This was a park, a slice of wilderness in a world of steel and cement.

It was a cozy little spot, drawing a yawn from Eren's young body.

"This bench is the meeting place," an older, tired voice told the young boy.

"Who am I meeting," Eren asked.

The man remained silent.

"Where is this? When is this?"

"Thirteen years in the future," the man answered the last question but ignored the first.

Eren looked at him then, understanding the importance of that number.

The man slumped, exhausted, against the bench's backrest. He collapsed in on himself as if he could not support the weight of his torso or head. His head rested against the wood, the seat frame supporting him so he could stare at the sky, where white clouds drifted lazily by.

His clothes were in tatters, torn and shredded and covered in blood. Small chunks of flesh were missing from his body, weeping red ichor openly. Slight wafts of steam rose from his injuries, but it was too weak to be really healing the numerous wounds.

The man's body was emaciated, skin sunken over what might have been a muscular form once, now nothing more than a husk.

A walking cane leaned against his legs, a pair of stylized wings the only ornament on an otherwise plain stick.

Grey eyes stared upward at the sky, ringed by deep Shifter Marks. More dotted his face along sunken cheeks like teeth. Still more covered every inch of exposed skin.

He looked weak. Battered. Injured. Sick.

He was minutes from death.

"Why are you smiling," the six-year-old Eren asked his nineteen-year-old self.

The older Eren didn't answer, gazing up at the blue sky with a contented, fulfilled smile on his sallow face.

It didn't matter that he would die in thirteen years. He had already died once.

What mattered was that smile.

The young boy was envious of that smile.

That pure expression of joy was the most hateful and beautiful thing Eren had seen in a long time.

When was the last time he had smiled?

"Can you do it again?"

The question was asked quietly. Softly.

There was a finality, a sense of encroaching doom and resolution in the voice.

Yet the older boy still smiled.

"Why would I?" Eren asked his older self. "I do not know why or how I was reborn in this world. My friends are not here. Historia is not here. Armin is not here. Mikasa is not here. There are no Titans, no Marley. No walls."

"Can you do it again?"

Eren looked up at the azure sky, thinking about the question.

Could he go through it all again?

All the pain, tragedy, heartbreak, betrayal, guilt, and loss?

All the crimes he had committed for which there was no redemption?

Could he repeat it, become the enemy of the world despite knowing what lay at the end?

For one last time, could Eren Yeager, the Devil, dedicate his heart to something?

"I can."

"Then you'll know why I'm smiling."

"I suppose I will," Eren murmured as a nonexistent breeze brushed past the pair sitting on the bench.

"Remember, you only have thirteen years," the older Eren said softly, his voice fading.

As if whatever tiny glowing ember that had kept him going for so long was finally sputtering out.

"Then I should get started," Eren said, standing from his seat.

The trees disappeared with the azure sky as his feet met the sand.

All that remained were the dunes of The Path, the countless stars above and the bench.

And a six-year-old Eren saw it all.

The Path.

The Enemy.

The Walls.

And the cost of it all.

"I see," Eren said, eyes gazing at the future he would build.

"Not yet," his older self corrected with a long, weary sigh of relief. "But you will."

The man on the bench, Eren from thirteen years in the future, died with a smile.

The bench faded from the Path.

Though Eren could see his future memories passed back to him by himself, there were gaps. Holes in a tapestry. Voids of darkness in an otherwise clearly illuminated Path.

He could not see the bench, who he would meet there or when it would be.

He could not see a reason to smile.

But he could see the end.

So Eren walked forward, gathering sand to build.

Even if he did not have a reason to advance now, Eren knew he would one day.

That was enough.

Eren Yeager would continue to push ever forward.

And, on a bench thirteen years away, Eren Yeager died alone with a small, content smile.

********

"Sir, please wake up," Sona Sitri shook the man's shoulder gently but firmly.

"Mm...?" He murmured groggily as he awoke.

"Are you alright, sir?" She asked, stepping away slightly as he grasped his cane tightly and used it as leverage to sit up on the bench.

"Hm?"

"You were crying," she pointed out.

The man raised a hand to his cheeks, feeling the two liquid streams. His hand followed the trail of tears up to the wet bandages that wrapped from the tip of his nose to his forehead.

"Huh," he murmured softly, as if surprised.

"Is everything alright, sir?" Sona asked. "Do you need medical attention? Shall I call an ambulance?"

"No, I am fine," he shook his head as he wiped his cheeks. "A long dream. That is all."

"If you are certain," Sona asked dubiously, eyeing his skinny frame. "What are you doing here this late? Are you a student of Kuoh University?"

This park separated the high school from the university campus, and while not private property per se, it was hardly used by anyone besides Rias' Peerage.

The only reason Sona had even found the blind young man on the bench was because she was patrolling the school grounds.

Well, it was less of a patrol and more of a victory lap.

Her election as student council president might have been an almost forgone conclusion, but it was still another step toward her dream coming true.

It might be prideful to want to inspect her 'spoils of victory,' but she was a devil. She was all about pride.

That inspection had found the young man sleeping on the bench in the park, well inside the wards they had over this park area. Which is why she had approached in the first place.

"No, I am not smart enough for university," he denied with a sigh as he leaned more heavily on his cane. His voice was... off, Sona realized. Dead. Empty. Like all emotion had been drained from him.

"Intelligence is not a requirement for school," Sona insisted, the comment pushing her buttons. "Only a willingness to learn. To claim stupidity as an excuse is nothing but cowardice and laziness. There is no one too stupid to learn. There are only those who refuse to."

There was a beat of silence.

"You're right. Ignorance is no crime," the young man gave a tired nod. "It is only a crime if you refuse to change after learning. Only a genuinely thick blockhead would do that."

For some reason, Sona was sure the young man was talking about himself.

Sona realized she might have said too much.

The man on the bench, blind and weak, definitely had his own circumstances. He probably had a good reason for not going to school. Perhaps he had difficulty with brail, or his goal was something his physical condition prevented.

Either way, if Sona wanted to accomplish her dream of building a school for everyone, she would need to stop passing judgment so quickly.

Especially with how young she realized the man truly was. He was only a few years older than her at most.

Sitting on the opposite side of the bench, Sona looked out through the thick throng of trees. Some hundreds of meters away, hidden from view, was the old clubhouse where Rias lived and met with her Peerage.

"So long as you know that, it is never too late to learn."

"Sometimes it is too late," he rejected firmly. "Too late to travel the world, even if you want to. To visit the poles, a volcano, or a desert. To see the ocean. Sometimes, you don't have the time or the ability anymore."

He sounded so tired.

So worn down by the beatings of the world that all he wanted to do was sleep.

Sona wondered what he had gone through to sound so exhausted despite only being a teenager. It was a voice she had only heard a few times. When her family talked about times before her birth or on the few occasions her aunt spoke of home.

"You never answered my question," Sona pointed out. "If you aren't a part of the university, what are you doing here? You are not part of the high school either, or I would recognize you."

"No, I am not a student at all. I was just passing by when I found this bench. It seemed like the best place for a nap. No memories to bother me." Though he did not smile, the way he spoke made her think that the ability to forget was the greatest gift in the world. "Just the wind, the sky, and the trees. I'm moving into the area. There are no rules against me being here, right?"

"There aren't," Sona answered the question.

Technically speaking, this wasn't school grounds but a public park. There was no rule or law preventing anyone from wandering in. That was why there were benches in the first place.

But there was also a ward around the area that prevented people from coming in or noticing anything from inside. A ward designed to keep the practice of the young Peerages unnoticed by the city's populace.

A ward that might have been bypassed by pure accident by a blind man because it was intent and sight-based. He had no magic, no supernatural power that she could feel, so it may have been purely accidental.

Sona considered having her family servants change the ward to be more complete when a thought entered her head.

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen," he answered with a tilt of his head in her direction. "Why?"

"Why aren't you in school? Are you transferring in?"

"No, I am not going to school. I haven't for years since... this," he vaguely waived an arm over his body.

"When was the last time you had the chance?" Sona felt a pit in her stomach as he answered.

"In this country? I believe it would be the equivalent of... Elementary?" The way he half asked his answer filled the young heiress with horror.

"Do you know Japanese?" She asked the question desperately, though it didn't come across in her voice. Sona always maintained a professional demeanour when she could.

They had been speaking in English this entire time, which she had no trouble with, thanks to being a devil. Devils had an inherent ability to speak all languages fluently, but that was different for everyone else.

Kuoh was more metropolitan than most parts of Japan and thus had a higher percentage of people who were fluent in the lingua franca of the world. But a blind man should definitely speak the local language.

"I don't."

"What about your family? Are they familiar with the area or Japanese?"

"No family," he shook his head. "No friends. Just me. I'm all alone."

He didn't sound sad. Just a matter of fact.

The sky was blue, fire was hot, and he was alone.

Sona could only stare at the absurd existence before her for a second.

"If you don't speak the language, go to school or have family bringing you here, why are you moving to Kuoh?"

"I am here to meet someone," he shrugged softly.

"Who?"

"Don't know."

"Where then? And when?" Sona asked sternly.

Her wariness against the boy was starting to be replaced with genuine worry. There had to be someone out there who cared for him. He wouldn't have been able to survive otherwise.

"Here, on this bench," he said, patting the wooden seat between them. Then he paused as if searching for the right words. "As for when? I don't know exactly. Within two years. I know that much."

Sona mulled over the situation. Something had to be going on here that she wasn't getting.

"Do you have a place to stay?"

"A hotel nearby until I get a permanent address," he nodded, and the young devil sighed.

That was something, at least.

For a moment, Sona considered offering the young man a place at Kuoh Academy to keep an eye on him. Considering that Sitri and Gremory owned the school, it was well within her power, to say nothing of hypnosis. The gender restriction was to be removed this year to allow the heiress' Peerage to attend with them and widen the pool of potential recruits.

Eventually, Sona shook the thought away.

No, even if the boy wasn't years behind his peers, which he was, Kuoh was simply unequipped to handle a blind student on top of not knowing the local language.

A failing she would address in the future, but one that was relevant now.

Still, letting him go while he was so helpless in a foreign environment did not sit right with her. Rias might be a closet Otaku, but Sona knew that the Japanese were not kind to foreigners as a general rule. It was one of the reasons she was using the pseudonym of Souna Shitori rather than her actual name. Unlike Rias, with her red hair and outrageous... proportions, Sona could pass for Japanese, which made things easier for her.

This boy, on top of being foreign and not speaking the language, was clearly disabled. Sona could hardly think of an appearance more likely to ostracize someone in Japan. Sona might be a devil, but she still had a conscience.

"Are you still there?" The boy asked, his head facing the forest. "You are being quiet."

"I am still here," Sona answered seriously. "I am just trying to think about what to do with you."

"Do with me?" He repeated. Something in his voice made the young heiress hurry to explain.

"It wouldn't be right to let you leave when I can do something to help."

"You do not need to do anything," he insisted with a frown. It was the first show of emotion Sona had seen since waking him up. "I do not need help or a minder. I do not need to be babied."

"I am sure you don't," Sona agreed, though not in a patronizing way. She was well used to dealing with the pride of young men. If nothing else, he had moved to a foreign country alone in his condition. If that didn't speak about his ability, nothing did. "I was just wondering if you would like me to teach you Japanese?"

His frown lessened as he gave it some thought.

"It would be more convenient to be able to talk to people," he admitted grudgingly before suspicion entered his voice. "But why are you offering? You do not know me, and I don't know you. I can't pay you. I can give you nothing but my thanks."

"I want to be a teacher," Sona said resolutely. "One who will accept anyone. If you are willing to learn, then I will teach. As simple as that. Will you let me teach you?"

It would cut into her time as co-owner of the land, King of her Peerage and the new student council president.

But this was a chance.

She didn't know his circumstances, his goals, his history, or even his name. He was blind, claimed to be stupid, and was missing a decade of education. He also had a stubborn streak, a clear measure of pride, or he wouldn't be out here all alone.

Teaching him would be incredibly challenging.

But that was precisely why she wanted to teach him.

Sona Sitri did not dream of being a normal teacher.

Sona Sitri dreamt of a school for everyone. Her school would not discriminate on age, ability, race, status, or creed. Her dream school only had one requirement.

All who were willing to learn would be taught.

No exceptions.

It was a dream that flew in the face of thousands of years of tradition, a complete rebellion against her society and how the world worked.

It was a dream that only a handful supported and billions derided.

But it was Sona's dream.

One she would accomplish no matter what.

This blind, sick boy would be her first student.

First, she would teach him Japanese, then catch him up to his age group. Her job would only be done when he aced the entrance exam to the university.

If he was willing to learn.

"A teacher that accepts everyone, huh," he said softly. "That's an admirable goal. A good dream."

"I am dedicating everything to achieving it," Sona declared passionately, even if her voice remained as serious as ever.

For a long moment, neither said anything.

"I will be a terrible student. I am no one special. I have no talent or genius. Things others grasp after one try will take me ten."

"It doesn't matter if it takes a hundred. A good teacher never gives up on their students. So long as you put forth the effort to learn, I will never abandon you."

"That's all I've ever been good for," he said. Another hint of emotion. Derision. "Blindly putting forth an effort, no matter the consequences. I suppose I will have to one more time."

"Then here is your first lesson," Sona said with a smile as she stood from the bench. "In Japan, when giving greetings, you are supposed to bow and address your teachers with the suffix 'sensei.' My name is Shitori Souna. Last name, then first name. You can call me Shitori-sensei when I am teaching."

While she taught him, she would look into him. There was no way he was all alone. Someone had to care for him, care that he was here. Maybe not family, but at least friends? Maybe whoever he was supposed to meet here.

He couldn't be all alone.

Nobody was born alone in the world.

"You'll have to forgive the lack of a bow," the young man said as he slowly rose to his feet, leaning heavily on his cane and holding out his hand to shake. "I am afraid I will not be able to get back up again. It is nice to meet you, Souna. My name is Eren. Yaeger Eren, if we go by this country's customs. I will be the worst student you will ever have."

Sona stepped in front of the young man who had faced the wrong direction and shook his hand.

"I will be the judge of that."

And so, a devil shook hands with The Devil.

It was the first meeting on the bench.

********

So... what the hell is this?

For those of you coming to this story from my other work, Rapturous Rhapsody, you will guess this is the surprise I was hinting at. I fully intend to keep my promise to finish that story, and I will only work on one story at a time. But, between volumes 2 and 3 of RR, when I intended to edit that work, I had this idea and decided to write it out to get it out of my head. But then I kept writing. And kept writing. And kept writing.

In the three weeks between the epilogue of Volume 2 and the start of Volume 3, I wrote 60k words of this fic. Though it is all unedited and will thus be released weekly on Tuesdays as I edit, I wrote enough that from today, I have enough chapters to last till the end of RR and, therefore, can solely focus on it till it's done, and I will shift to this one. Chapters will be short, between 2.5k and 4k on average.

So what is 'On the Bench?'

It's a short story (probably not going to pass the 150k mark (so short by my standards)) that acts as a continuation of Attack on Titan. Yes, this means it is entirely cannon-compliant. Even the parts you don't like. I will repeat it again. I will be sticking as close to canon as I physically can. I started this story partly to give myself a form of closure.

I liked and didn't like the ending of AOT. It was the ending the story needed and was building up to, but I did wish for more of a happy ending. So this is my effort to give myself that in the only way I can.

On the Bench is also an experiment. I think I have improved with character writing over the years, and I want to push my boundaries a bit. More specifically, in tone and themes. Can I convey two diametrically opposed tones, like AOT and DxD, while remaining true to the characters AND telling a decent story? We'll see.

This is not going to be an action-focused fic. I am not reinventing the wheel or attempting anything as ambitious as RR.

This is me examining and playing with some of my favourite characters. I hope you will enjoy it, and I will see you on Tuesday for chapter two of On The Bench.

 

[ReadingDangerous]

"Suspicious," Rias Gremory muttered to herself as she peeked from behind a tree.

"I think it's cute," Akeno disagreed, also peeking.

"Suspicious," Rias corrected her queen with a pout, pulling away from the trunk of her hiding place. "My rival is so close to some random boy. It is suspicious."

"Of course, my liege," Akeno sighed exaggeratedly, but there was a fond look in her eyes as she teased her friend. "As you say, he is most suspicious."

"Don't patronize me," Rias huffed, crossing her arms. "What did you find out?"

"That Sona did her due diligence," Akeno answered, pulling a folder from nowhere. "I did not even need to contact the Gremory servants. I just asked Tsubaki for a copy of what the Sitri had found."

"Akeno!" Rias whispered/shouted. "This is a secret mission! You weren't supposed to tell anyone. We're finally in Japan, and you're Japanese. You don't leave loose ends when your lord gives you a task. It is the basics of being a ninja."

"Good thing I'm not a ninja then," Akeno snarked. Rias pouted, crossing her arms. Sometimes, her queen enjoyed ruining her fun way too much. "So you don't want to know what I found out?"

"Fine," Rias sighed. "Who is this Eren Yaeger?"

"A child soldier."

The playful banter left the pair as Rias blinked wide-eyed at her friend as if wondering if she was joking.

Akeno wasn't, mouth set into a thin line as she opened the folder and read through it again.

"The earliest records the Sitri agents found were from an orphanage in Mandoto, Madagascar. Apparently, he was left on the steps of the local church in a basket, his name written on the basket. It is not a local name, European obviously, so there was some confusion early on. The nearest guess is that some foreigners left him in as far away place as they could find."

"That's terrible," Rias frowned at the thought. The devil race's birthrate was so abysmal that the idea of abandoning children was almost anathema to them. Even if devils didn't make the best parents. "You said he was left at a church? Any connection we should be worried about?"

"None," Akeno reported, flipping through files to double-check. "It looks like it was just the most reliable place to leave him. Old human tradition and law. As far as the Sitri could tell, he's never set foot on church soil since, except in infrequent and specific circumstances."

"So he grew up in Madagascar in an orphanage," Rias asked, peeking around the tree trunk to watch the young man they were talking about try and repeat a word Sona sounded out to him.

His attempts were so bad that Language didn't even count it as an actual word. Only her knowledge of Japanese outside their racial ability allowed Rias to try and guess what he was trying to say.

It was either 'a lot' or 'Mister Octopus.'

Rias was betting on the former.

"Till he was six," Akeno confirmed. "He attended a few years of elementary there, but then a local warlord came recruiting for fighting on mainland Africa, taking advantage of the political instability of the time. Orphanages were prime targets for child soldiers. Expendable troops. Those that couldn't, or wouldn't, fight were put to work."

Rias grimaced, not liking where this was going. It was unbecoming of a devil, but she always had a soft spot for lost and hurt children. She might not have been able to completely heal her dear Peerage after their... troubled youth, but Rias liked to think she had given them the best she could.

A home.

A family.

But those she had managed to help, thanks to her family and brother, were pitiful in number compared to those children hurt in this cruel world.

"The record is spotty from there," Akeno continued, voice laced with sympathy. "The warlord who took him was dead within the year. As far as we can tell, records are spotty, so there was a lot of hearsay. He spent the next few years fighting for various factions off and on all over Africa. Not for a cause or one specific leader but as a gun for hire. A good one, too. He became something of a local legend. There are still rumours about a 'child of evil' even today."

"That doesn't sound encouraging," Rias muttered, wondering what sort of trouble Sona had gotten herself into with this student of hers.

"It was more about fear than actual evil, near as the Sitri could tell. They weren't able to find any notorious deeds committed off the battlefield. No looting, theft, or violence against civilians outside combat. On the battlefield, it was a different story. Anytime he was part of an army for any length of time, the opposing faction was quickly routed. He had a reputation for being merciless. It left an impression on any survivors or locals."

"Magic? Sacred Gear?" Rias couldn't help but ask, hope surging through her.

"No," Akeno shook her head, staring at the folder's pages in fascination. "Just skill, cunning and bravery that borders on suicidal tendencies. If even a tenth of the stories about him are true, not counting impossible rumours, then he was good. Scary good. Some of these tactics... Anyway, he built a reputation. One that attracted the attention of some high-level people. Warlords and criminals, certainly, but also a few military dictators or generals of countries. It's actually where the records become more reliable. Recruiters were sent, and most were turned away."

"Most, but not all."

"Eventually, he accepted an offer from a mercenary agency based out of western Asia, close to the Middle East. Smaller than other mercenary outfits, but with a decent reputation internationally."

"Anybody I would have heard about?"

"No," Akeno answered, looking over a list of names. "Barely a few dozen members, all human, and none magical. They accepted all sorts of ethnicities, from Chinese to European or American, but they were new and small. The Sitri agents think he joined to climb the ranks quickly rather than stay low-level in larger and more established organizations."

"Did he?" Rias asked eagerly, caught up in the story.

It was like something out of a manga or anime.

Eren Yaeger's Bizarre Adventure? No, wrong genre.

Yaeger Chronicles? That had a nice ring to it.

"He was recruited at the age of twelve," Akeno smiled at her king, well-knowing the redhead's habits. "By thirteen, he was leading them. By the time he retired six months ago, he had led over two hundred missions and never failed once. His nickname, Child of Evil, is still well known in certain circles. It was how the Sitri found out about his origin, by backtracking it."

Rias clenched her fist in excitement.

Devils were trained in combat from an early age. The actual battle aspect of child soldiers was nothing new to her. It had been the mental aspect she had been most concerned about. While she had initially been worried when learning he was a child soldier, hearing about how he had overcome adversity and risen to the top was thrilling.

This was just like an anime.

The tragic backstory, the mysterious circumstances, arriving at a school and running into a devil heiress. Rias swore she would rub Sona's face in it if he had a childhood friend he had loved but left behind.

Anime was totally real.

Man, coming to Japan was the best thing to ever happen to her.

"Why'd he retire?" Rias asked, praying to the Satans that it was to 'live a normal life.' Or better yet, to 'fulfill a promise to get married.' Or as an 'undercover mission.'

"He's dying," Akeno grimaced, taking the wind out of Rias' sails.

"Oh."

"According to medical reports, his body has slowly been shutting down for years. Some genetic disease the doctors who tested him, some of the best money can buy, haven't been able to identify. It was first caught and noted three years ago, leading to a slight weakening of the muscles, but he could still operate without issues until last year. Once it got bad enough to limit his movement, he was forced to retire from fieldwork. He stuck around for a bit but eventually left his group. At some point between then and arriving in Kuoh, he lost his eyesight as well. The doctors estimated he only has a few years left."

"Oh," Rias said again, feeling down. "Why is he in Kuoh then? Why not go back to Africa? Or retire to some beach house to be tended to by servants? He must have made some good money."

"He did return to Madagascar and a few other places. He had purchased plane tickets for New York, London, and quite several other large cities. Maybe touring the world before... Anyway, he landed in Kuoh, checked into his hotel, and wandered around briefly. Being blind and without magic, he accidentally bypassed our wards, found a bench in the sun and then met Sona."

"He's been here for weeks, though? When is he planning on leaving?"

"He originally only bought three nights in his hotel and then had a flight booked for Rio De Janeiro. Instead of making that flight, he extended his stay at the hotel for a week and, in that time, bought a house only a few blocks away. A lot of bribery was involved. Then, he donated most of his money to charities. Orphanages, international relief efforts, that kind of thing. His banking records show he left himself enough money to live out another two years comfortably, three if he's thrifty."

"He doesn't expect to live past that time," Rias sighed, melancholy heavy in her voice.

She, who would measure her lifespan in thousands of years unless killed, could not relate to someone with only a few years left. But she could sympathize and regret the loss of life gone too soon.

"He claims to Sona that he is expecting to meet someone here but does not identify who or when they will meet, only that it will be within two years," Akeno said as she closed the folder.

Both young women, only sixteen, had come to the same conclusion the Sitri agents had.

The 'meeting' was with death.

Eren Yaeger was no spy from an enemy faction who came to Kuoh for a malicious plot against the two devil heiresses.

Eren Yaeger had been looking for a place to die.

He had found one in Kuoh.

If nothing happened.

"Sona's scouting him for her peerage," Rias told her friend, peeking once more at her rival and the dying young man.

"Most likely," Akeno agreed, also looking at the pair again. "I think she did an initial cursory background check, found out the basics and contacted her family for more in-depth information once she had the idea. He's the type of recruit she likes. More skill than power. Plenty of experience. Someone she can get to know before making the offer."

"But," Rias almost said before holding her tongue.

Akeno would know the problem as well as she did, probably even better than Rias.

Being resurrected as a devil provided some healing, but it was not a cure-all. Wounds would heal, especially if they were recent, but a person's physical condition would remain the same. No sudden muscle gain or genetic alterations besides the transformation into a devil. It was how Adjuka Beelzebub managed to retain the genetic advantages of the other races when they were transformed into devils.

If Eren Yaeger became a devil, he would be weak.

With considerable effort, his muscles could be trained up to par again. Still, his eyes would forever be weaker than others, and the underlying genetic disease that had caused his current condition would permanently hobble his growth potential, already limited due to a lack of magic or Sacred Gear.

Devils always struggled with healing methods, their magic wholly unsuited to the task. Their race's only method, besides medicine similar to humans, was sharing demonic energy through skin-to-skin contact to accelerate their regeneration. Even Phenex Tears only healed wounds, not diseases. Otherwise, sleeping sickness would not still plague their race.

"I hope she decides to make the offer," Akeno admitted to her king as they watched Eren try and fail to conjugate a verb for the third time. "And he accepts. Like I said. It's cute."

How much was pity, and how much was her best friend seeing some of herself in the young man? The heiress didn't know.

Rias' heart went out to the man, it truly did, but each high-class devil only had so many Evil Pieces, and trading was rare outside of families.

Sona would be permanently giving up a valuable piece for a member without magic, sacred gear, or a unique heritage. It would put her at a permanent disadvantage compared to all her peers.

And Sona, with her radical dream, needed all the advantages she could get.

A stinging pain let Rias know she was clenching her fists too tightly as she watched Sona compliment Eren on getting an answer right.

The worst part, Rias realized as turbulent emotions coiled in her gut, was that if this had been only five years ago, Rias would have reincarnated Eren Yaeger without a second thought.

Just as she had Yuuto or Gasper.

She hadn't known anything about their abilities or sacred gears at the time. All she knew was that children had died in front of her, and she could help. It was only the luck the Gremory were famous for that meant she hadn't wasted some of her Evil Pieces on weak humans.

But now...

Now, Rias Gremory's kindness was being sacrificed for her freedom.

********

Eren Yaeger was waiting to die, and Rias couldn't help him.

So why was she here?

"Souna?" He asked, looking in her direction but slightly off to the side. "I thought we were done for the day. Didn't you have a meeting?"

"I am not Souna," Rias said, taking a deep breath and using Sona's alias. It was too late to back out now. "My name is Rias Gremory, a friend of Souna's."

Eren's hand tightened around his cane, and he pushed himself up straighter on the bench, his face turning slightly towards her direction but still slightly off.

"What do you want, friend of Souna?" His tone wasn't rude, but definitely wary.

Given his history, Rias imagined he did not have good memories of being surprised.

"I just wanted to meet you," Rias said in a soothing tone, well used to dealing with hurt children. That he was older didn't matter. "Souna's spoken about you a lot."

She hadn't, but he didn't need to know that.

If it weren't for the fact that the bench he always sat on was close to Rias' club room, the Gremory Heiress might have never known about the young man her rival met every second day for tutoring.

As she talked, Rias took a step forward, then stopped. Then another step, then she stopped again. Each step was made deliberately loud enough for him to hear but slow enough not to spook him.

"No, she hasn't," Eren called out her lie directly. "Souna doesn't gossip."

For someone who had only known the Sitri heiress for a few weeks, he certainly had a good grasp on her character.

No wonder Sona liked him so much. He was sharp.

"Sorry," Rias apologized as she paused her steady advance. "I've seen you two talking and wanted to meet you. Souna's my childhood friend. I got curious."

It was like dealing with Akeno all over again. Wary, defensive, and ready to lash out at the first sign of danger.

But unlike Akeno, she couldn't help him.

Why was she here, alone and long after everyone had left the school?

Eren Yeager did not say anything, still facing her general direction, but his grip on his cane did slacken somewhat.

Rias took the chance to take the last step towards the bench, sitting as far from him as possible to give him room.

It was incredibly uncomfortable, and she didn't understand how he could spend days on end on the thing in his condition. After observing him for a few days through her familiar, she knew he arrived here well before sunrise and left long after sunset. Occasionally, he would wander back to his newly purchased house for food and other needs, but he spent as much time as possible on this uncomfortable wooden bench.

Maybe she was here just because of curiosity? That had to be it.

"How is learning Japanese?" Rias asked, trying to defuse the tension a little bit. "It's hard, isn't it? It took me years, but I didn't have Souna helping."

Just copious amount of Anime, Manga, Akeno and the best tutors her parents could buy.

For a second, the devil thought the young man would continue to remain silent, 'staring' at her until she left.

"It's hard," he finally agreed, body sagging against the bench as the tension and strength left him. "It's really hard. So many rules, similar-sounding words, and ways of speaking. I don't think I will ever get it right. I am wasting my time."

Rias was about to commiserate but paused. Her problems had stemmed mainly from the writing system, all three of them, and trying to parse them out without Language. A problem a blind human would not be able to sympathize with.

"Your English is really good, though," she pointed out instead. "Is it your first language? I don't recognize your accent."

"Fifth," Eren shrugged. "I just picked it up along the way."

There were hundreds of languages in Africa, Rias knew from her studies, not counting dialects. English, French, and Portuguese were more widely used due to its colonial past, but they were not completely ubiquitous.

"If you can learn five languages, then a sixth shouldn't be a problem," Rias tried to encourage him. She knew from experience that positive reinforcement was needed more than anything else.

"Twelfth," the young man corrected her. He couldn't see it, but Rias looked at him in shock. He was seventeen and already spoke eleven languages? His appointment as leader of his mercenary group made much more sense now. "But I had... advantages then that I don't here. It's a lot harder than I thought."

Right.

His blindness was recent, wasn't it?

The pit in Rias' stomach, the one that had been there since she had heard about his past from Akeno, reared its head again.

"If..." Rias started saying, her voice halting and hesitating. What was she doing? Why was she here? "Hypothetically, if there was a way to get your sight back, would you take it?"

This was stupid.

So monumentally stupid.

Yet the words left her mouth anyway.

"Why are you asking?" Eren's voice was wary once more. Rias realized her words were quite rude, if not a little mean.

"I don't mean anything by it," she waved her hands in front of her before remembering he couldn't see them and folding them in her lap. "Just a little question, is all. I'm the president of the Occult Research Club at the school and always ask questions like that. What ifs, stories, magic, stuff like that. It's fascinating, isn't it?"

It was also an excellent cover for her Peerage.

"I guess," he sounded anything but fascinated, and Rias continued to ramble.

Despite being an heiress, she was still just a sixteen-year-old girl. While she was used to dealing with hurt children, Rias actually had no experience with trying to recruit someone to her Peerage. They tended to fall into her lap by accident or her brother's machinations, thanks to the Gremory luck. Trying to make an offer she shouldn't be making while remaining discreet was something new to her.

"Sorry, is that a strange thing to ask? My family has this whole thing for making deals with the devil," Rias babbled nervously. She usually could maintain much better composure, but the subject, the guilt, and the intensity of Eren's focus were throwing her off. "Comes from our name. Gremory? Like the demon? Anyway, I just think it's an interesting idea. So would you take a deal to get your sight back? If you had the option, I mean."

Eren seemed to think on it for a long, uncomfortable moment as Rias did her best not to squirm.

"It would depend on the deal, I guess," he finally said, and the redhead breathed a sigh of relief as he turned his head away.

He hadn't been actually looking at her, he couldn't, but the weight of his focus had been enough to throw her off.

Imagining if he still had his eyes and was in his physical prime, and Rias could see how he had made such a reputation despite being so young.

"What if all it would cost is service to the one that healed you?" Rias asked. "Like an employee or a servant. Something like that."

"No."

The answer was immediate and instinctual, with no hesitation at all.

"I will never sell my freedom," Eren Yeager bit out. "Not for any reason."

"Not even if the devil completely healed you?" Rias asked again. "Not just your eyes?"

"Not for anything."

"What about if the devil was a good one?" Rias continued to press. "One that treated their servants like family, not slaves. There can be good devils too, right? Or do you not like devils at all." As she said the words, Rias realized she had become too into the question and revealed too much. "Hypothetically, of course."

"Race has nothing to do with it," Eren sighed. "Anyone who tries to take my freedom is my enemy. Whether they are the same race as me or not."

"Even if they are a good devil trying to help you?"

Rias didn't know why she pressed so hard.

Why was she almost desperate for him to give her an answer she could use to justify offering him a place among her Peerage?

She still had all eight pawns. One fewer in exchange for a man with his experience wasn't a bad tradeoff, right?

Even as she tried to convince herself, Rias knew the answer.

It wasn't a bad tradeoff at all.

For anyone but her.

For anyone whose enemy wasn't a Phoenix.

Tactics could not win against immortality.

Perhaps Eren heard the almost pleading tone in her voice because his tone softened.

"My friend once explained to me... Well, he was talking to someone else, but I was there," the young man relaxed against the bench again, turning from her and tilting his head to the sky as his voice took on a tone of longing. "When someone is a good person, it just seems to mean someone who's good for you. Nobody's good to everyone. So if someone doesn't help me, they're a bad person. So, if a good devil exists and they try and take my freedom, they are automatically a bad devil. No matter what they give me or how they treat me afterwards."

"I see," Rias sighed, sagging against the bench in turn. "Your friend sounds smart."

"He was that smartest man I know." The sadness in his voice, as well as the past tense when Eren spoke about this friend, told Rias all she needed to know. "If he was the one here, he wouldn't be in this mess. He'd have some genius idea none of us could think of and save the day. A real hero, that's what he was. Not a fake hero or a devil like me."

Rias appreciated the irony of him calling himself a devil next to an actual devil but didn't say anything. He probably thought his actions as a mercenary were enough to condemn him, but Rias knew and loved people with more blood on their hands than he could ever have.

"Souna reminds me of him a lot," Eren continued. "It's almost scary. He was always trying to beat things into my head, too. I think they would have gotten along."

"I don't think I could handle two Sounas, though I know someone who would love that idea," Rias smiled at the thought of Serafall Leviathan passing out at the sight of two Sonas.

"You don't have to worry about her," Eren sighed. "I really have no plans or schemes towards anyone here. I am just here to meet someone. After that, I'll be gone for good."

Rias knew Eren Yeager was waiting to die.

Knew she shouldn't, couldn't do anything to save him.

Ultimately, Rias didn't know if she would have made the offer if Eren had said he wanted it.

She liked to think she would have.

But Rias Gremory was also not the type of girl who would leave someone to their pain alone.

Even if it only meant giving a lonely, dying boy someone to talk to while he waited for death.

"I'll always worry about Souna," Rias smiled, relaxing against the uncomfortable bench. "That's what childhood friends are for. Do you have any?" His head's tilt and his shoulders' relaxation told her the answer. "Is one of them a girl!? Did you promise to marry her!?"

Eren Yeager might be waiting for death, but Rias would be damned if she didn't make his remaining time enjoyable.

And if his stories lined up with anime, well... That was just proof that anime was real.

Suck it, Akeno!

********

This fic will move along at a good clip, so don't expect long, drawn-out affairs like in RR. It is a slice of life, in a way, but it is one that tries to only focus on the key moments. A lot will go unsaid, and I will continue to play with unreliable narrators, so much of it will be up to reader interpretation. I hope this method will prove interesting, but we will see.

I will see you all next week for the regular chapter release of On The Bench every Tuesday.

PS: For those following Rhapturous Rhapsody, no fear. I will still release my regular chapters every Friday.

 

[ReadingDangerous]

"That will finish our lesson for the day," Sona said as she put away her notepads. She used it to keep track of where Eren was, as well as to mark what needed to be reviewed at what time.

Education was about practice. Not just memorization but application.

Even if Eren memorized every word, they wouldn't do him any good if he never used them.

"I must confess, I am impressed. You are in no way the abysmal student you said you would be. You must be putting in considerable effort when I am not here."

"When I can," Eren nodded slowly. He still spoke in that odd, almost dead way, but Sona was glad to see him emoting more. "Rias helps. She reads to me occasionally. Hearing the language consistently helps, and her translations are very good."

"Oh," Sona did her best to keep the annoyance out of her voice. She wasn't pleased with her rival interfering with her student, even if most of her ire had faded over the past weeks. "That's nice. What are you reading? I can make a few recommendations. Traditional literature is very important in Japanese education."

"I do not know all the names," Eren said. "I think they are children's stories. Short novels for young readers. Some are interesting."

"I see." Sona had to give Rias props. Choosing works targeting younger readers that were still interesting enough to engage a man of Eren's age and experience took some serious forethought. Maybe her rival had a talent for teaching as well? "Any that stood out?"

If nothing else, her future school's library should be well stocked.

"My favourite was... 'Suzumiya Haruhi no Bozo?'"

"Suzumiya Haruhi no Bousou," Sona corrected his pronunciation with a sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose under her glasses. She had read those books years ago at Rias' urging.

Of course, Rias would be reading light novels to Eren.

Sona didn't know why she expected anything different.

"You know it?" Eren asked.

"I've read the series before, yes," Sona sighed.

She had read those books and dozens of other light novels over the years at Rias' urging. The perils of having a Japanophile as a best friend. Eventually, the Gremory turned to manga and anime more than the written versions, and Sona became more focused on building her dream. Occasionally, Rias would make recommendations that Sona did read when she had the time, but there was no need to tell Eren all that. More important was fostering that engagement with the subject of study.

"Why did that one stand out?"

"I could sympathize," Eren frowned. Sona frowned in turn. Eren wasn't very expressive most of the time. She hadn't seen him smile even once. For him to respond strongly enough for it to show on his face was peculiar. "Trapped in time... Repeating the same days over and over again... It's a hell I would not wish on anyone."

"I suppose it wouldn't be enjoyable to be trapped," Sona hedged, trying to dredge up her memories of the story. It was rare for Eren to get interested in something so light novel or not. She should try and keep him talking. That was a crucial part of teaching. "But doesn't that story end with them free? If you could control it, it would be an incredible boon. The ability to do it all again, correct your mistakes, do everything perfectly in one go, and keep trying until everything is just right. I would like that. I am something of a perfectionist."

"You're wrong." His voice was steel, unbending and inflexible. "Everyone thinks it's great, but it's not. It's terrible. Even if you could control it. Because there is no perfect answer. There never is. People fight. People disagree. They hate, and they discriminate. We are all just big bundles of hypocrisy. Even if you have a million tries, there will never be a world where everything turns out perfectly. So you try, and you try, over and over again, but something is always lost. A price is always paid. But you won't want to pay it, so you try again. A never-ending hell of your own making."

Sona didn't know what to say to that. Clearly, the story resonated much more strongly with Eren than it had with her if he had given it so much thought.

For the last few months, she had been meeting with him three or four times a week on this bench, and the most emotion she had gotten out of him had been occasional bouts of frustration regarding some facet of the vocabulary or conjugation he was struggling with.

Besides the occasional derogatory remark at his own expense, Eren never talked about himself or expressed interest in hobbies.

In fact, it seemed like he was learning Japanese more out of a desire to have something to do rather than any genuine interest.

This was the first time she had ever seen him get passionate about anything.

Part of her resented that it had been Rias' dumb light novel that had him so engaged.

"And then," Eren continued, his voice impassioned. His words were practically spat out, bitter and vitriolic. This was also the most Sona had ever heard him speak without prompting. "You give up. You can't go on forever. No one can. When you realize there is no perfect plan, no way for everyone to be happy and safe, you make a choice. The choice of what matters most to you. The few things you are willing to sacrifice everything for. And when the time comes to pay that price, all you can do is laugh. Laugh because even if it wasn't you who pulled the trigger, you know your choices caused this. You know you could have chosen a different path. You knew what the cost would be. You saw it coming a thousand thousand times. But you paid it anyway. The bullet wasn't yours, but the kill was. So you laugh and cry because it is all your fault."

It didn't take a genius to understand what Eren was getting at.

They weren't talking about a time loop in a book anymore.

It was just a metaphor for making hard decisions.

Sona had read his file and knew of his past. His time leading his mercenary company had been consistently successful and without any known casualties on his side. But it hadn't always been like that.

He had been a child once.

A child on dozens of battlefields. Even if he was a genius, he would have made mistakes. Mistakes that would have cost people their lives.

Was it civilians that haunted him?

His comrades?

Or was it children like him, those thrust into a war not their own and gunned down because they were not as lucky as him?

Maybe he had to make that call.

To sacrifice the few for the many.

Maybe he sent someone to their death, knowing what would happen and knowing it was needed.

No matter the reason, it was clear that Eren Yeager was not so unaffected by his past as he liked to portray. That it was a dumb light novel that was the catalyst was irrelevant. What was important was that he was talking.

Sona gave him time to calm down, huffing and puffing as he was from his tirade. It also gave her time to organize her thoughts.

"Sorry," Eren said softly once he controlled his breathing after a minute of silence.

"It is alright," Sona answered just as softly, then hesitated. "Do you... wish to talk about it?"

Sona was not good with these kinds of things. She excelled at providing structure. Rules and a procedure. Handling emotional and traumatized people was more up Rias's alley than hers.

But, after a few months of tutoring the young man, she did regard Eren as a student and a friendly acquaintance. They certainly kept secrets from each other, but that was to be expected, given their positions.

But that didn't change the fact that she regarded the young man as almost a friend. If nothing else, Sona could listen. This wasn't therapy, but if she could help, she wanted to.

"I don't know." He sounded lost, the passion gone. It was like even he was confused about why he said all that. "I don't... Most people wouldn't get it and talking... Talking can't change the past. Can't change what I've done."

"I might not get it," Sona admitted, being honest. Yes, life as an heiress to a prominent devil house had its fair share of combat, but it also hadn't put her in such a nebulous position as she knew he had been. She had never had to make a call like that. "But I am here. I can listen."

Sona decided to make a bold move and laid her hand on his.

She had done some reading on blind people after meeting Eren, and many of her books spoke about the importance of the other senses to those deprived of sight.

It wasn't anything like superpowers portrayed in media. It was a simple application of practice. They worked those senses much harder than most people and thus got more out of it. It was a simple state of sensitivity.

They were more aware of everything their other senses conveyed.

Sona had taken that to heart in her interactions with Eren. She refrained from loud bursts of noise, used a spell to tone down the effect of her light perfume, and always respected his personal space by sitting at the other end of the bench.

This was the first time she had touched him since their first meeting.

There was no sudden flash of sparks, pounding of hearts, or great revelation. It was just Sona reassuring Eren that she was there. That he wasn't alone.

Though his hand was very warm.

And then she let go, hand returning to her lap.

For over five minutes, they sat on that bench in silence, the spring wind blowing through the leaves of the trees.

"I was a soldier," Eren finally said, his voice distant. "Always wanted to be one. Partly out of anger, partly to fight for something instead of just living life waiting to die like cattle. Joined up the first chance I had. I wasn't the only one. They each had their own reasons, but others joined at the same time. Only a handful of those who made it through training survived the first year of duty. We went through so much. So many died. For me. Because of me. Because they entrusted their hearts to a cause greater than themselves."

Eren rubbed his hair in frustration as if the memories angered him. As he did, the thick bandages over his eyes shifted slightly for a second to give Sona a glimpse of his eyeline.

Small indents were regularly marked along his skin, too regular to be scars. Remnants from surgery? To try and fix his eyes?

She only had a second to look, but Sona now understood why Eren wore those thick bandages instead of just a blindfold. She could only imagine how much harder life would be for him here in Japan if people could see those scars.

Either way, if Sona wanted Eren to continue to open up, she needed to keep him going.

"Were you close?"

There was another beat of silence as Eren let his hand fall to the bench, the other tightening around his cane. His face stared upward to a sky he couldn't see, and for a second, Sona feared she had overstepped.

Then he spoke, voice heavy with a melange of emotions she couldn't hope to unravel but knew none were good.

"We were. We all were. We were all we had. All that remained. I cared more about them than anyone else. More than the whole world."

Sona just listened. This was the first time Eren had ever shared anything about his past, even after months spent together. In some strange way, it warmed Sona's heart. She wasn't the only one who considered the other a friend.

"So many died because of me. Most I didn't know well. Some I did. But one of them... Sasha was... special. Always hungry. Always eating, even when we didn't have a lot. She got in so much trouble. But there was no one like her. We could always count on her to have our backs and cheer us up. Right before our first battle, she managed to snag some meat from the higher-ups. We weren't starved, but meat was a luxury we hadn't had in years. She could have gotten in serious trouble. But instead of hiding it, she wanted to share it with us. One of the rare times she did. More often, she would try and eat everything before anyone else had a chance."

Sounded like Koneko, Sona thought with a slight smile at the fondness in Eren's voice.

"I think." His voice hitched. "I think she wanted to encourage us in her own way. We were going to split up the next day and possibly die, and she didn't want our last memories together before we left to be sad ones."

"She sounds like a wonderful woman. I would have loved to meet her."

"You would have hated her," Eren snorted in derision, the closest thing to laughter she had ever heard from him. "Sasha was way too chaotic for you. In our first training session, she started eating a potato during the roll call. And when the instructor took her to task, she tried to bribe him with half. The smaller half. I honestly didn't think he would ever let her stop running."

He lapsed into silence again, caught up in a memory.

"What happened?" Sona asked gently, her hand brushing against his just the slightest amount to remind him of her presence.

"I killed her."

Sona had expected it from his earlier words, but she also knew it was bound to be more complicated than that.

"I made the plan, knowing she would die. I hoped, prayed, and tried desperately to think of another way to do it, but I couldn't find one. I went through the motions for so long, hoping another option would show itself. But nothing did. And Sasha died. She wasn't the only one. So many more died because of me. But she was the one that hurt the most."

There was another long silence, and Sona noticed he had a white-knuckled grip on his cane, and his teeth were clenched.

"Her last word was 'Meat.' It was such an absurd thing to say, so... Sasha, that I couldn't help but laugh. From start to end, she was still the same girl who offered her comrades a piece of meat when they could die the next day. And I killed her."

"Did you love her?" Sona asked. There was no accusation in her voice.

"I did," Eren admitted as if saying it was confessing a sin. "I told you. I loved them all. I chose them over the entire world. Sasha. Connie. Historia... Even horse face." Sona didn't comment on the unique way he had said the third name and the pause that came after. Nor did she say anything about the... creative nickname for the last. "They were comrades. Friends. Family. I think I even loved Captain Levy and Hange in some small way. We were all that remained. You don't spend so long with people and not care for them. There were others. Daz. Floch. Even Samuel, who was on the wall that day with Sasha. I cared for them all. But..."

"But?"

"But I loved others more," Eren sighed, and it was like all the fight left him with that release of air. "And they would all have died if I didn't make a plan. And who knows how many of the others I cared about would have died without that plan. By killing Sasha, I got the last pieces I needed. Both of them, all for the price of one bullet. So I went through with it, knowing she and others would die, all because of me. All the while desperately hoping that I was wrong. That there was a perfect plan. A way to not lose anyone. But there is no perfect plan. So I killed Sasha and laughed and cried."

Sona could have said a lot of things then.

She could have tried to reassure him that he didn't have a choice, that his actions had been the right ones. She could have pointed out that the cold calculation he had done, the logical path he had followed, had been the right one. That lives had been saved because of his actions.

Sona didn't know if any of that was true. All she had to go on was a few pages in a file and what Eren told her.

Sona Sitri was not Rias Gremory. She was not the warm, almost dotting woman who would welcome a lost child into her family just because she could.

Sona Sitri was a young woman of logic. A dreamer with a plan.

And, as she thought this to herself, Sona realized something else.

She... probably would have done the same as Eren in that situation.

Of course, she loved her peerage. They were her friends, the closest thing to family she had besides her own. They looked up to her, trusted her judgement and leadership, and believed in her dream. In return, Sona wanted to do everything in her power to support them as well.

If something like what Eren described happened, she would have searched high and low and used every possible resource available to her, even those of a less savoury nature, to see them safely. She would have even given up her own life for them.

But...

If there truly was no other way...

Sona realized she would have made the same call as Eren. She would have sacrificed one of her friends to save the others.

At the end of the day, Sona Sitri would have sacrificed those she couldn't save to ensure the survival of those she could. It was a cold logic but one she could follow.

So Sona could not give Eren the encouraging yet empty platitudes that others could because she would have made the same call.

All Sona Sitri could give Eren was her hand over his, reminding him she was there as they sat silently on the bench.

********

ReadingDangerously, WTF is this? I thought On The Bench was released on Tuesdays?

Well, my imaginary reader, the reception I received was so overwhelming that I was super motivated to edit the next chapter and get it out early. From now on, OTB will release Sundays and Tuesdays until we run out of chapters. That means I will run out before RR is done, which will remain my priority till it finishes, but I figured I might have time to write a few more chapters between now and then.

I will see you all Tuesday.

 

[ReadingDangerous]

"What is wrong?" Akeno asked as she set the cup of tea before her King.

"We're going to the underworld for the summer," Rias said as if that explained everything.

Which it didn't.

"I am aware," Akeno nodded and set another cup down for Kiba, who thanked her and took her seat on the club room couch. Koneko was nibbling on some cookies beside her, her middle school uniform getting covered in crumbs that the Queen got rid of with a wave of her hand. "I know things are tense with your parents, but seeing them again should still be nice. It has been a year."

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I guess it will," Rias answered distractedly as she bit her lower lip, deep in thought.

"Are you worried about our contracts?" Akeno asked, trying to puzzle out what had the young woman so distracted. "I have already alerted my regulars to the disruption in service."

"I did as well," Kiba nodded with a smile at Akeno as he put his tea down to chime in.

"...Me too."

"No, no," Rias hurried to waive her hands in dismissal. "I trust you all to be responsible. I have also talked with Gasper, and he's prepared for the trip. It's not you all I am worried about."

So she was worried about someone but not one of her Peerage? The only other people in the school she knew well were Sona and her Peerage, and Akeno doubted there was anything to be worried about there.

Which left...

"Are you afraid to leave your boyfriend alone for so long," Akeno teased her best friend.

"Akeno! It's not like that," Rias protested.

"So you say. But you and Sona do spend so much time with him. Rivals of love, ah... what a scandalous master I have," Akeno kept up, delighting in the way Rias' face started to match her hair.

Akeno's... preferences and proclivities were no secret among the Peerage, and she could drop the Yamato Nadeshiko act in the safety of the club room.

Her words weren't solely to tease Rias either.

The idea of two devil heiresses fighting over an injured, weak human tickled her romantic sense. And the concept of Rias coming in and trying to steal a man from her rival, like a seductive mistress, was in line with Akeno's fetishes.

"Eren is a friend," Rias insisted with a pout as she crossed her arms. "A good one. He doesn't know anything about me, or the supernatural, or the Gremory. There is nothing romantic about it. He doesn't even know what I look like."

"Just because he can't see you doesn't mean you can't show him what you look like," Akeno chirped happily, and Rias tilted her head in confusion at her Queen's words. Taking a cue from the videos she had been watching, Akeno lowered her voice into a sensual purr as she ran a hand down her body. "You just have to get... hands-on. Physical."

"Akeno!"

"Fufufufu," the seductive act fell away as the young woman giggled, a hand covering her mouth, as her King gaped at her, face flushed with embarrassment.

"But you are worried about him, right?" Kiba asked his floundering King, aware that the two young women would continue for hours if he let them to it.

He and Koneko had never officially met the older boy but had been told about him. They had also read his file and occasionally saw him on his bench when they moved through the park behind their club building.

"Both me and Sona will be gone for weeks," Rias took the opportunity to shift the topic away from an embarrassing subject. "He'll be completely alone."

"He will be fine," Akeno tried to reassure her King, giving up her teasing for the moment. "Despite his condition, he is very competent. And the wards will protect him while he's on the grounds."

"I know that," Rias said with a huff. "I'm leaving my familiar behind just in case, but he should be safe."

"Then what are you worried about?"

"He'll be bored!" Rias answered as if it was obvious. "Without Sona or me, he's going to be lonely. I've been trying to figure out what to leave behind to help him."

"Sona will leave behind study material for him," Akeno pointed out.

If there was one thing they could trust the Sitri to do, it was to give her 'special student' summer homework.

"But that's boring," Rias whined. "Sona needs to let him have fun, too. I just can't decide what to leave him. Definitely a few drama CDs, but which ones? And should I leave an anime behind? Just because he can't see it doesn't mean he can't enjoy it. We haven't started one yet. I've been hesitating, but do you think he'd like to listen to one, or is it too soon?"

"And this is what has you chewing on your pen?" Kiba asked, his ordinarily suave smile slightly pained.

"Of course," Rias said with pride. "There are a lot of things to consider when making recommendations. It can't be anything war-related, obviously. But Eren doesn't like just slice of life either. It needs to be able to catch his interest. It also cannot be something wholly new that we haven't gone through together, or he won't understand it. Context matters a lot in enjoying anime. He's still learning Japanese, which leaves only a few options that will interest him but are at a low enough level to not hurt his head."

Akeno smiled as her King went through the listing of Drama CDs she had already chosen. Why and how it was not nearly enough to cover all the time they would be gone for, and how she wanted him to have options if some of her listings didn't click with him.

She suspected Eren didn't care for manga or light novels as much as Rias did and just put up with them for Rias' sake.

If nothing else, she was happy that Eren Yeager was here for Rias. The heiress needed someone like him in her life. Someone who didn't see her as a King, heiress, source of influence, or potential rival for power and prestige.

Someone who saw her as Rias Gremory, not Rias of the Gremory.

Which made his inevitable death all the sadder.

********

"Who are you?" Eren asked as she took a seat on the bench.

How he could spend all day on the uncomfortable thing, Akeno had no idea.

"Himejima Akeno," she answered politely. "A pleasure to meet you."

"What do you want, Himejima Akeno?"

"I am here to talk to you as Rias Gremory's best friend," Akeno kept her voice unfailingly polite despite Eren's rough words. She didn't hold it against him. The situation hadn't been the same, but she had been where he was before. Distrustful and suspicious of everyone who approached. "You might not believe me-"

"Rias has mentioned you," Eren cut her off. "I was asking why you were here now. You should be in class."

Akeno bit her tongue before the caustic remark could escape at his rudeness.

She had to remind herself that despite knowing about him for months and seeing him a dozen or so times, this was the first time they had officially met. All he would know of her was from whatever Rias told him, but he had never met her.

"I needed to speak with you," Akeno said instead, her voice still gentle, kind, and polite. "Thank you for worrying, but my grades will not suffer from one missed class."

Eren's lips quirked down for an instant, his hand briefly tightening on his cane, but he remained silent, letting her explain herself.

"As I said," Akeno said gently. "I am here because of Rias. We will be leaving for the summer, returning home to see her family."

"I know," Eren repeated, his empty hand gesturing toward a bag leaning against his feet. "She and Souna told me. Gave me all this stuff this morning before class since they're leaving this afternoon. We've already said goodbye, so if that is all..."

"I'm afraid it isn't. I won't take too much of your time, I promise." Once again, Eren's hand twitched on his cane. Once more, he kept silent, and Akeno continued to the main subject. "I wish to enquire about your plans for Rias."

"What do you mean?" Eren asked, fully frowning in her general direction now.

"I simply wish to ask what your intentions are for her. And Souna, but I am mostly here for Rias."

"Is this you telling me to stay away from her? That she's too good for me?" Eren sarcastically asked, completely unimpressed.

"No, no, I don't intend anything like that," Akeno hurried to say while staying polite. "I am happy that you are friends with them. Truly, I am. I would not wish to deprive them of you, nor you of them."

"Then what?" Eren's voice was even harsher now, as if fed up with talking to her. Akeno paused, trying to think of a way to say it delicately. Eren caught her hesitation and didn't let it slide. "Spit it out."

"Your dying," Akeno whispered gently, politely, and regretfully.

Eren didn't react negatively to her words as she feared. He just tilted his head slightly to the side in a minute gesture as if asking her, 'So what?'

"It obvious to those who saw you a few months ago and see you now," Akeno kept her voice soft and kind. She was genuinely sympathetic for the boy despite his abrasive tone toward her. "Despite spending so much time in the sun, you've gotten paler. You must have lost at least ten pounds. You walk slower. And it has only been half a year since you first arrived. You can't have long left."

"I'll die at nineteen."

It was said so casually and matter-of-factly that a shiver ran down Akeno's spine.

There was no bitterness in his voice.

No resignation.

Eren was just stating a fact.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Eren frowned at her again. "It's not your fault. And there is nothing you can do. There is no cure money can buy. We all die. I've already lived a lot longer than I should have."

"Still, it's not fair fo-"

"Life's not fair," Eren cut her off again. "It's never fair. It is as cruel as it is beautiful. Only children and naive idiots don't recognize that."

"But you're so young," Akeno tried to say, but Eren continued speaking over her.

"It is not about the length of our lives. It is about the amount of living we do in them. And I've lived enough for two lifetimes."

The devil-fallen hybrid was getting sick of being interrupted, but she contained her annoyance.

She was the one who had come to see him and brought up such a personal topic, after all.

"While that is an admirable and mature way to view things," Akeno kept her polite and gentle tone despite her frustration. "As I mentioned, I am here for Rias. And she will not see things that way. She is a very caring girl and has never lost anyone. I just worry that..."

This time, the reincarnated devil trailed off instead of being interrupted, letting Eren fill in the blanks.

"That I am going to break her heart when I die," Eren said plainly.

"Yes," Akeno said regretfully.

She did feel bad for the boy. He had never asked for any of this. His past may be filled with violence, but it didn't seem like he had done anything to deserve to die so young.

On top of that, she knew she was being a bit unreasonable, asking him to put Rias' happiness above his own when they had only known each other for half a year.

In some small way, she was also grateful for him.

Not only was he a friend Rias' needed, but he also turned down the opportunity unknowingly to be reincarnated as a devil.

Rias could not afford to have a weak peerage, not with so much on the line. Her reincarnating a sick and dying boy, with no magic or sacred gear, out of pity might make her parents decide to push the marriage ahead, despite the promise to wait until she was in university. And even if it didn't, with her dreams regarding the Rating Games, Eren would forever be a chain around her neck.

As it was, Akeno still wasn't sure Rias would let him pass on peacefully.

That was what she was truly worried about.

That the redhead, unable to handle the loss of her friend, would try and bring him back. It would not only cost her a piece she couldn't afford to lose, but there was every probability that Eren would resent Rias for it.

It would be acceptable, if slightly regrettable, if Rias wasted a valuable Evil Piece to save a friend whose only contribution to the team was combat experience.

It would be a tragedy if that friend came to hate her for it.

Already, the Gremory and Sitri agents were combing the globe for any magical or mundane solution to Eren's disease, and they had only known him for a few months.

Akeno no did not want their friendship, so sweet and enviable, to be tainted by regret and hatred.

"I am not asking you to stop seeing them, or stop being friends with them, or even to stop coming here," Akeno explained gently. "I just ask that you do not tell them when it is time. You can leave a message, a will, or anything, and I'd be happy to pass it along after... afterwards. I just don't want them to have to watch you die. It is a terrible thing to see someone you are close to die in front of you."

Perhaps Eren heard the way her voice hitched, her mask of prim and proper composure lifting slightly as memories of her mother's murder flashed before her mind.

His face eased from his frown for the first time since she sat down.

"You don't have to worry about that." His voice softened as he leaned back against the bench and turned his head skyward. "I doubt we will still be friends then."

"You do not know Rias as well as I do. She is a very greedy girl. I have never seen her let anyone go once she latches on."

"It doesn't matter."

"It does-"

"I will die alone."

Another shiver ran down Akeno's spine at the absolute certainty in his voice.

If the earlier statement had been a prediction, then this was a prophecy.

Akeno felt a deep sadness well up in her as she realized what it meant. How he knew exactly when he would die.

What he would do.

Eren Yeager would die alone, and nothing anyone said would change his mind.

In his own terrible way, he'd control how he died.

Akeno did not have the right to criticize how someone chose their end.

"I understand," Akeno said gently as she rose from her seat. "I will not bother you anymore. Goodbye."

Eren grunted in dismissal.

That was the final straw.

Akeno had bothered him, yes, but she had also been polite, kind, and gentle. She hadn't asked him anything onerous or insulting. She had done everything in her power to be as unobtrusive as possible.

And in return?

She had been rudely questioned, been cut off repeatedly, and now, instead of simply saying goodbye, he was trying to dismiss her with a grunt?

She could have accepted his refusal. She could accept his scorn. She could even accept his resentment for her unreasonable demand. Akeno had prepared herself for that when she approached.

But she could not accept blatant disregard.

Himejima Akeno might pretend to be a prime and proper Yamato Nadeshiko, the ideal Japanese demure beauty, but deep down, she was rotten to her core.

He wanted her gone?

Too bad for him.

"Oh, one final thing, if you don't mind," Akeno said sweetly as she retook her seat on the uncomfortable bench.

"What?" Eren asked bluntly, obviously put out by her return.

"I just wish to ask if you have some issues with me? You have been quite rude since I arrived." Though Eren couldn't see the smile directed his way, any observer would have noticed it was not a kind one.

"I don't like you."

"May I ask why?" A bit surprised at his bluntness, Akeno was genuinely curious about the source of his dislike.

Had Rias pranked her by telling bad stories about her to the man?

"Your damn voice is pissing me off."

"My... voice?" Akeno asked in confusion, not put off by his swearing. "I am afraid I cannot help the voice I was born with. And I admit, I have been told I have a lovely singing voice before, so I do not know what aggravates you."

"It's so fake!" Eren snarled. The outburst of anger reared its head from almost nowhere as his hands tightened on his cane in frustration. "So damn fake! It's pissing me off! Too damn polite, too damn nice. Just say what you really feel, damn it! Swear if you want to swear. Insult me if you want to. Scream if you want to scream. Just stop trying to be someone you are not!"

Stunned by his short rant, Akeno said nothing for a few seconds.

"What did Rias tell you about me?" She was soooo getting back at her King for this.

"She didn't have to," Eren bit out. "I knew someone like you. For years, she pretended to be someone she wasn't, trying to be liked by everyone. I couldn't stand her then, but at least I could avoid her. You came to me. And I am too old to put up with it again. I don't care how you act around others, but if you want to talk to me, you better leave that fake shit behind. Or I am going to punch you."

The idea of Eren Yeager, blind and sickly human, trying to punch her, a devil-fallen hybrid that could kill him with a twitch of the finger, was so absurd that Akeno couldn't help herself.

"Fufufufu," Akeno giggled. "If you can hit me, I will reward you." The way her voice dipped low hinted at the nature of the reward. "I am usually an S, but I always wanted to try being an M."

As she teased him, she went over their short conversation in their head.

He had been wary at first but hadn't been hostile until she deliberately tried to be gentle and polite, knowing what she was asking would be rude. It wasn't politeness or kindness that bothered him. Sona spoke formally as well, and Rias was almost entirely too kind.

In only three sentences, without ever seeing her, Eren Yeager had understood Akeno Himejima better than most of her peers ever did.

No wonder Sona was so intrigued.

Rather than blush, fidget, or continue to be angry, Eren simply sagged against the bench in relief.

"Much better," he sighed.

Akeno blinked owlishly at the boy.

Sure, he couldn't see her, but her voice was sensual enough that he should have gotten the hint. Either he didn't care for women, had more experience than she expected, or...

Once more, the sadness and sympathy welled up within Akeno.

She supposed it was too much to expect a boy, even one at that age, going through what he was to not have hormonal issues.

"I wasn't lying about being concerned for Rias," Akeno diverted the topic back from less... sensitive grounds as quickly as possible. "It would be best if we could find a cure for what you are going through. Then my worries will be pointless."

Whoops.

She hadn't meant to let the fact that they were even looking for a cure slip out.

As far as Akeno knew, Eren had yet to learn of the resources Sona and Rias could call to hand. To him, they were just helpful young women, his friends who sat and talked with him.

She also didn't want to give him false hope. Devils were famously bad at healing magic.

"There is no cure." Eren thankfully didn't seem to catch on to the hint as he spoke with indifference about his impending doom. "I was born with a time limit. I will not live to see twenty. I do not regret living my life. It was necessary. Now I am just waiting for the meeting I was promised."

"That is... a mature way to look at it," Akeno hedged, her voice less polite and more dissatisfied. It was fine to look at one's mortality philosophically, but he was casual about it that it angered her. Eren shot her a look, lost under the bandages, but the frown was back, so she spoke her thoughts directly. "But death is not just about the dead. It is about those left behind. Souna will miss you. Rias will miss you. You should not belittle their care."

"You lost someone."

It was not a question.

The light note of sympathy in his voice and her knowledge of his own experiences gave Akeno the push she needed to share a bit more than she would usually.

"My mother. She was killed when I was a girl. Rias' family took me in after they found me."

"Losing a parent is..." Eren was clearly searching for the right words but came up blank.

"Yeah..." Akeno sighed, not blaming his silence.

It was unfair to expect Eren, who never knew his parents, to be able to understand what she had felt when her mother had been murdered before her eyes.

Because of her.

Because Akeno Himejima's birth had been a mistake.

The conversation lulled, both teens on the bench caught up in their memories.

In the end, since she was already missing class, Akeno decided to use the time to get to know Eren better before leaving with the rest of the Peerage this afternoon.

"Tell me about the girl?"

"Hm?"

"The one I remind you of. The one you don't like."

"I didn't like her," Eren corrected softly, the rage gone and leaving the void it had once filled. "By the end... she was probably the third closest person to me."

"Oho," Akeno tittered. "How close? Did you ever..."

"...No," Eren said simply. So much was packed into that short word that Akeno decided to not push.

So far, this conversation had not gone her way at all. She got the feeling most of her usual tactics to get under people's skin would not work on Eren Yeager.

Akeno did always enjoy a challenge.

"Do you want to help me play a little joke on Rias?" She asked, trying to talk about a less dour topic. If asking questions wouldn't get her answers, she would have to evaluate how he handled himself in other situations.

Just because it didn't look like Eren had a funny bone in his body didn't mean he couldn't help.

Maybe this would even get him to smile.

One way or another, Akeno would break the older boy's calm.

"On Rias," he asked. Akeno nodded, realized what she was doing, and answered in the affirmative instead. "I don't mind. The last time I played a prank was... Training?"

He trailed off as if asking himself a question. Akeno filed that away and kept going.

"You know Rias thinks you're an anime protagonist, right? When we return, you just need to say a few words to her."

Eren tilted his head in confusion, looking in her direction. That he was facing slightly to her left didn't bother Akeno as she slowly wove her prank on her best friend.

It would be over a month before it paid off, but it would be worth it.

By the time she explained her idea and gave him his lines, it was almost time for her to meet with the rest of the Gremory Peerage to head to the underworld.

"You are a worse person than I thought," Eren sighed as she stood up.

"It won't hurt her," Akeno assured. "She'll love it... after a while."

"You know her more than I do," Eren gave an ambivalent shrug. "I do have a question."

"Of course."

"What is 'anime?'"

Akeno blinked owlishly at the boy, unable to understand how one could spend months being friends with Rias Gremory without knowing what anime was.

Then again, hadn't Rias just said she was hesitating about introducing Eren to one? Had she never even mentioned it to not burden Eren with knowledge of what he was missing?

Had Akeno just, unknowingly, blundered through her King's well-intentioned consideration?

And more importantly...

How do you explain anime to the blind?

With difficulty, Akeno realized in the following hour as she tried to explain a visual medium to the blind boy on the bench.

********

As I mentioned in the first chapter, part of this story is me trying to experiment with tone.

AOT is pretty much the poster child for PTSD, angst, and trauma, but DxD is the complete opposite. A head-empty, no thoughts, only OPPAI kind of world, even in its darker moments.

One is a serious take on humanity, and the other is as close to a crack fic you can get while still getting published.

I try to lighten the AOT moments and give weight to the DxD moments to give On The Bench a blend that is both, yet neither. I think I am doing all right, but feedback is always appreciated.

Either way, I will be waiting on Sunday for you all On The Bench.

 

[ReadingDangerous]

"Eren! We're back!" Rias cheerfully greeted her friend as she sat on the uncomfortable bench.

"Rias," Eren nodded at her but tilted his head in question in his usual expressionless manner. Sometimes, he reminded her so much of Koneko that Rias decided that waiting for her Rook to enter high school was entirely too long before introducing the two. "Who else is with you?"

"I am here as well," Sona said as she approached at a much more sedate pace. She slightly adjusted her glasses, making them glint ominously as she glared at her rival. Rias stuck her tongue out at the student council president. Sona chose to be the bigger woman... metaphorically.

Either she'd hit her growth spurt and gain her sister's... assets, or she wouldn't and would grow up to be a beauty like her aunt.

Either way, Sona didn't need to compete on such a base level.

Or so she told herself.

"I trust your summer was enjoyable. What progress have you made with the lesson discs I left for you?"

Rather than let Eren answer the boring question, Rias started speaking again.

"I also brought Akeno." "Hello." "She asked me to introduce you."

"Good afternoon," Eren nodded in the direction Akeno had spoken from and tried to greet her in Japanese. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

The pronunciation was correct, but the accent was off. Still, it was enough to get Sona to congratulate him.

"I see you have been practicing," she nodded with evident approval. "Now that you have the syllabary order down and some basic vocabulary, we will work on sentence structure and conjugation while increasing your word pool. By the end of the year, I want to be able to practice with some simple test conversations."

"But you don't have to worry about it right now," Rias hurried to add, sending a light glare of her own at Sona. "Akeno is fluent in English like us."

"Thank you," Eren nodded at them both.

Or at least tried to.

Instead of nodding at Rias and Sona, he faced Akeno and a nearby tree.

"Have you been out here all day," Rias asked, a note of worry in her voice as she looked around the wooded park, just now realizing how hot the August afternoon really was. For a devil, it wasn't a significant concern. But for Eren? "Should we head into the shade? I brought a picnic."

Kuoh didn't get as hot as some parts of Japan, but leaving someone to sit in the sun for hours on end was in no way safe. The tree leaves blocked a lot of the direct glare, but Eren was already sickly. Rias was worried about heat stroke.

"I am fine," Eren shook his head in denial. "Heat doesn't bother me."

"You're burning up," Rias insisted as she hurried to grab his hand not holding his cane. "Come on, my club is near here. You can cool off inside."

"Don't worry," he said as he lightly shook off her hand. "I run a few degrees hotter than most."

"It's true," Sona agreed. "He felt warm even months ago, and it was spring." Rias gave her rival another glare as Akeno looked at the Sitri in delight. "Ah, I just mean when I touched him, it was warm. Just his hands." Sona lightly flushed and fidgeted under the Gremory's glower and Akeno's widening smile. "But I do think the park furniture could do with an update. I will discuss it at the school's next budget meeting." It was a transparent ploy to change the subject, and everyone knew it. "We should be able to replace all the benches with more mod-"

"No."

Eren's one word stopped Sona's voice in her tracks.

"Excuse me?" Sona said with a frown. She wasn't one to tolerate people being rude.

Just because this was the first time Eren had done so didn't mean she would allow it to slide. The boy wasn't what she would consider polite, nor was he outright rude.

He was just... rough around the edges, unaware of the social niceties due to his upbringing.

Sona willfully ignored the fact that even if Eren knew how to be polite, he would still choose not to be unless it was someone he respected.

"Not this bench," Eren insisted, not cowed in any way by Sona's harsh tone. "If you want to change the others, go right ahead. Not this one."

"Why?" Rias asked instead of Sona. "It's really uncomfortable, the spot isn't good, and you're exposed to the elements. I've seen you sit out here in the rain. You can't keep doing that in your condition, even with an umbrella. Winter is coming, too. We even get snow here in Kuoh. We can replace the bench with a full sitting booth. There'd be more room, and you'd be safer."

"Not this bench," Eren repeated, stressing every word. He would not be budged on the subject. "It's comfortable to me, and the elements don't bother me as much as other people. I've dealt with worse."

"Why is this bench special?" Sona asked, trying to get why he was being so obstinate about a bench, of all things.

"It is important to me," Eren said, and none of the young women there were happy with that answer. But then he continued. "I met you here on it, didn't I?"

"Oh," Rias said softly, her face flushing softly as she twiddled with a strand of her hair.

"I suppose," Sona coughed and cleared her throat as she looked everywhere but at Eren, pretending as if her own cheeks were not pinking. "If we simply installed a retractable covering and maybe a heater for winter, it would accomplish the same goals. It is not as if Kuoh is hurting for funds."

This sentimentality from Eren was utterly new, but it was... nice.

Akeno watched it all in undisguised glee.

So cute.

But the best was yet to come if Eren remembered the plan she had proposed before the break.

Thankfully, he did.

"Since you are both here, I was hoping I could ask you a favour," Eren said in silence after Sona's words.

His voice was as without inflection as it usually was, but this was the first time he had asked for anything, so both young women paid close attention.

"If it is within our power," Sona hedged gently, knowing not to make any promises before hearing all the details.

"We'll do it." Rias, of course, didn't have such worries with her friends. "And Akeno will help."

"If I can," the queen said gently, hiding her smile behind her hand as her eyes lit up with mischief.

"I am looking for two girls. They should live in the area and are a few years younger than me."

"What are their names?" Sona frowned.

If they lived here, there was a good chance they were Kuoh students, in which case she would know them. But it wasn't guaranteed. Their school had stringent admission requirements, so they might have gone to a different school in the area.

"I don't know their names," Eren admitted with a shrug, his voice still plain and without inflection. As if talking about the weather. "I met them when they were younger. I was only ten, and they never gave me their names. I only recently found out they lived in Kuoh."

"So, they moved here?" Rias asked, and Eren nodded. That would narrow it down considerably. "Can you give us any hint or description we can work with? And why are you looking for them?"

"You shouldn't have trouble finding them," Eren shrugged. His voice was bland, almost deadpan. "They were cute when I met them. I imagine they are only more beautiful now." Both Rias and Sona frowned but let him talk. "One of them had bright blue eyes and crimson hair, so she should stand out in a crowd." Rias froze. "The other had black hair, so it will be slightly harder. But her eyes were the most beautiful amethyst you will ever see, and she wore glasses." Sona froze. "I promised to marry them when we got older, but I doubt they remember me. Still, I have to try."

Silence.

Absolute silence filled the little park path after Eren's declaration.

Then Akeno broke.

"Ahahahahaha," she laughed uproariously, doubling over to hold her stomach in an entirely unladylike fashion. If any students had been around to see her mad burst of laughter, her reputation as a Yamato Nadeshiko would have disappeared overnight. "Your faces! Ahahahaha! Oh, Satans! Your faces!"

"A.KE.NO!" Rias bit out through clenched teeth. Her face was so red it almost eclipsed her hair. Part of it was anger, but a larger part was absolute mortification.

"Rias." Sona, by contrast, was cold in her anger. "Deal with her. Ten thousand spankings. Don't hold back."

"Ufufufufu," Akeno lewdly giggled. "Don't threaten me with a good time."

Rias lunged at her queen, who danced out of the way with more giggles.

As the pair ran through the park, laughing and growling in turn, Sona took Rias' vacant seat on the bench. Her face was still flushed, which Eren thankfully could not see, and her heart was racing.

"That was quite cruel," Sona said harshly as she calmed herself down.

"It was Akeno's idea," Eren explained plainly, utterly unperturbed by either her tone or the joke. "She visited before you left for the summer and asked for my help with a prank. I am guessing the two women she talked about were you two?"

"We can be described as such, yes," Sona coughed gently into her fist, cheeks flushing again at the memory. "In case you were curious, Rias is the one with red hair. I am the one... the other."

Dammit Akeno!

Sona cursed inwardly. Talking to Eren had never been awkward before, but even now, she couldn't help the slight stutter in her voice.

"Do not be too hard on her," Eren sighed softly as if reading her thoughts.

"I shall be," Sona denied simply. "This is far from the first time she has pulled something like this. Rias lets her get away with too much. And do not think I have forgotten your part in this little joke. If you have such free time to go along with frivolities that toy with a young maiden's heart, then you have time for twice the homework. I shall revise our lesson plans."

"If you wish," her first student nodded, unbothered by her threat.

Something about the way he was handling this unnerved the young heiress.

"Why did you go along with her?" Sona asked, genuinely curious why the usually serious boy decided to go along with something so whimsical.

"I thought it was a good idea." Eren couldn't see it, but Sona frowned at him. She did not understand how playing with her feelings was a good idea.

"I fail to see how it is so. The joke was in poor taste."

Eren paused for a moment, then he seemed to slump slightly, and his following words came out not in his usual monotone but in a nostalgic, almost regretful tone.

"A word of caution," he said gently. "A dream is a beautiful thing. Pursuing yours is admirable. But do not forget to live. Do not forget to laugh with your friends. Or cry. Or rage. Someday, you might not be able to anymore. All you will have remaining are the memories of those times together. It will be all that pushes you forward."

Sona fought back the shiver she felt at the sheer blankness of his voice, even knowing he wouldn't see it.

She knew she was incredibly lucky.

Wealth, power, family, friends, a Peerage supporting her and a dream she pursued.

Hell, Sona had recently gotten out of her arranged marriage while Rias still had hers hanging over her head.

Looking at the man beside her, who had only a few years left to live, no family, and had given up all his wealth, Sona knew she had no right to complain about a prank between friends.

It also drew something to her attention she hadn't noticed before.

Eren looked worse than she remembered.

His clothes hung from a frame that looked skinnier than before. Despite sitting in the sun for hours, his skin was a shade lighter than she remembered.

And he had spent the last month alone.

Every day, sitting on an uncomfortable bench, with no one for company but their hidden familiars.

An unfamiliar and unwelcome emotion rose in Sona's chest as she looked at her student and friend.

Rather than give voice to it or continue criticizing the boy for the prank, she turned to another subject.

"Your hair is getting too long," she chided gently, grabbing a long strand of dark hair that fell to below his chest and pushing it out of his face. "You should get it cut as soon as possible. A tidy appearance helps maintain a tidy mindset."

Eren didn't say anything, just giving her a weary nod.

A sound had Sona pulling her hand away as if she had been scalded by the brown locks.

"Ufufufu," Akeno giggled at the sight, her uniform and hair dishevelled from the chase but unharmed otherwise. "How cute."

"You're in my seat," Rias said with a pout and a glare at her rival as she crossed her arms in displeasure. She was also dishevelled and had a twig in her red hair but seemed more concerned with Sona's placement than anything else.

"Hem," Sona coughed softly in her hand, acting as if nothing had happened. She did not get up. "Since Eren asked, I will not be harsh with your punishment, Akeno." The reincarnated devil looked at the young man in surprise as Sona continued. "You will join the student council every night for two weeks to aid us. There is a lot of work to be done after the summer. This will be on top of your usual duties. I trust this is agreeable, Rias?"

"You took my seat," Rias repeated, still pouting, but nodded. "Fine. She can lose some free time."

"Ah," Akeno gasped dramatically, raising a hand to her forehead to feign a faint. "What a cruel mistress I have! Sold off to slave away for another. You will save me, won't you, Eren?"

Perfectly timed and without any tonal inflection, Eren answered.

"No."

"Ha!"
"Pfft."

Even as Rias crowed in triumph, pointing a finger at her queen, Sona desperately covered her mouth to try and cover up the sound of her snort escaping from between clenched lips.

Everyone turned to the Sitri, though Eren's facing was slightly off.

There was a beat of silence as everyone digested what had just happened.

"Ufufufufufu," Akeno's giggles gained further fervour as she watched the normally stoic young woman turn red for the second time today. "How cute."

"Rias!" Sona snapped at her rival, who was staring at her like she was seeing a ghost. "Didn't you say you brought a picnic? Let's eat."

It took another five minutes for Rias to bring out the picnic basket she had brought, and Sona had to give up her seat to do it, but the four teens eventually settled into a light meal. Eren and Rias sat on the bench while Sona and Akeno contented themselves to rest on the blanket in the grass.

In the afternoon sun of a small park, the three childhood friends ate and talked about their summer and plans for the coming semester. They laughed, teased, and enjoyed a moment of freedom.

Freedom from their responsibilities, their pasts, and the worries of their futures.

The young boy sat on the bench through it all, eating lightly and listening to them. He rarely joined in their talk, though they tried to include him when they could.

He was content to simply be there on that bench.

Eren's mind wandered to memories. To memories far away and long ago.

Eren Yeager never smiled.

Even surrounded by laughter, that didn't change.

Even if all three girls there would swear, his expression eased more than they had ever seen.

But if, while listening and remembering, Eren dozed into one of his habitual naps, none of the young women with him tried to wake him.

And if, while sleeping, he saw three children running to a tree on a hill...

Eren Yeager never smiled.

But the boy in the dream?

Well, the young boy in the dream was smiling enough for both of them.

All three girls quieted, content to let him rest as they spoke and laughed in hushed tones as Eren napped on the bench.

********

Thanks to Old Man of the Mountain/Darklord331 for betaing this.

One of my favourite parts of AOT is how much goes unsaid. If you only look at the words spoken, you get one view of the characters and the story. But if you also consider the actions they take and even their body language, you get a much more rounded picture.

That is harder to convey through purely writing format, lacking as it is the visual storytelling of manga or anime. Still, I am trying to match that storytelling method as best I can.

It may not be apparent now, but like rereading the manga or rewatching the anime, I want my readers to start On The Bench after knowing the end and be able to point to a specific moment and go: 'That's it. That's when this happened' without me spelling it out for them. That is half the fun of AOT.

This chapter might be one of those moments. It might not. You'll have to read to the end to find out.

I will meet you all next time On The Bench.

 

[ReadingDangerous]

Eren woke up from his nap.

Koneko could tell by how his body tensed slightly, unconsciously reacting to a world he couldn't see.

Her senses had always been more sensitive than the others. Thanks to her heritage as a Yokai and her affinity for...

She bit into another cracker.

"Who are you?" He asked in his accented Japanese. He was facing her direction but noticeably higher than her head's position.

Koneko frowned minutely.

She still hadn't hit her growth spurt, but it was coming. Probably when she graduated middle school and into high school. Then she'd be tall, and her boobs would be bigger than Rias' and Akeno's.

She was sure of it.

She had to pause slightly to finish the cracker in her mouth to answer. Her eating had probably been what woke Eren up from his nap.

"...Toujou Koneko. Nice to meet you." After a beat, she decided to say a bit more to put him at ease. "You can speak English."

Eren's muscles slightly eased. Still tense, but not held on a knife's edge. His lips quirked. Not a smile. But something... something.

Koneko bit into another cracker. Elephant. She liked the idea of eating something so large in one bite.

So she did.

"...Rias' friend?"

Koneko nodded once.

Then, she froze, the back half of a horse cracker in her mouth.

This was going to be rough.

"...Yes."

"What are you doing here, Koneko?"

"Watching you."

"Why?"

"Buchou asked."

"'Buchou?' That is... 'club president?'"

"Yes."

Eren sighed. It was so quiet and minute that most others would not have caught the exhalation of air from his mouth.

Koneko put the cat cracker back in the box and ate the dog cracker head first.

She wasn't lying about Buchou asking her to come.

She, Sona, and Akeno had apparently decided the teenage boy in front of her shouldn't be left alone after classes ended. They didn't want him to get lonely or something. There was some sort of schedule or rotation setup Koneko was unaware of.

Unfortunately, a Stray devil had wandered into Kuoh, and both Buchou and Akeno had decided it was safer for both of them to go. Sona was still occupied with the student council, so they had asked Koneko to sit with and meet Eren and let him know they'd be late.

Koneko had agreed, not really caring. She had no clients tonight and planned to stay at the club to munch on snacks. Maybe visit Gya-kun and play a game. Sitting on an uncomfortable bench while doing the same was no great sacrifice.

She had honestly thought the smell would be the only hassle. Usually, sick people aggravated her sensitive senses. Open wounds, sweat-soaked clothes, or the smell of medication annoyed her sometimes.

Eren Yeager did not smell like any of that.

He just smelled... normal, really. He clearly bathed regularly, and his time in the park gave him the faint odour of grass, wind, and pollen. Even then, it was incredibly subtle. No overpowering smell of body spray, like so many of the boys in school.

Koneko sometimes wished she could punch people who thought deodorant replaced a shower.

But Buchou would disapprove.

Koneko continued to munch away, lost in her own thoughts.

Neither of the occupants of the bench were the most talkative of people, which suited Koneko just fine. She was ready to kill another hour or so, waiting for her King and Queen to find the Stray, kill it, and return.

From everything she had heard of Eren Yeager, he would also continue to sit in silence.

So when he asked her a question after long minutes of silence, she had to take a moment to swallow the rhino in her mouth before responding.

"Do you enjoy it?" His voice was hesitant, almost awkward. The words came out in an unsteady rhythm like he was forcing them out.

"...Enjoy what?"

"Your club. Rias and Akeno." He gestured vaguely in the direction of the school as if to try and explain with movement what his words couldn't convey.

"Yes."

"How about schooling? Do you like going to school?"

Koneko frowned minutely, trying to understand where this was coming from. Why was he being chatty?

Akeno had told her he would be wary and cautious. Buchou said he wouldn't open up easily, and Koneko would need to help him. She hadn't been sure she could but had promised to try.

"It's alright," she answered simply. "Boring. Not too bad."

"That's good. And your club duties? The others complain about them. They aren't too bad, are they? Rias doesn't work you too hard?"

The words tumbled from his lips as if nervous energy pushed them out despite their lack of tonal inflection. Like he didn't actually care and was just going through the motions. Or fulfilling some duty he was unsuited for.

Koneko's frown deepened further. This... didn't seem to be small talk, like her classmates sometimes engaged in.

What was going on with Eren Yeager?

Was he... trying to get information on the others through her? To make sure they didn't act differently behind his back?

She knew of his past and could understand a certain level of paranoia, but she thought he was their friend. Buchou certainly seemed to think so, and Akeno generally had good things to say about him.

"No," Koneko answered truthfully but kept it at that.

She only had a few clients and had plenty of free time. Rias provided everything she wanted. Her life was good.

If he was searching for something bad about her family, she wouldn't give it to him.

Koneko might be younger than the others, but she wouldn't be tricked.

"Did you..." Eren paused in his questions as if searching for the right words again. Koneko corrected her earlier thoughts. His voice had been as monotone as hers this entire time, but he seemed strangely invested in her answers. Eventually, he settled on a question. "You also went with them for the summer?"

"Yes."

"You live with Rias' family?"

"Yes."

"Are they kind to you?"

"Yes."

"Are you... happy?"

Koneko froze, unable to keep up with the one-word answers she had been giving.

Was she happy?

Rias, Akeno, Yuuto, and Gya-kun were her friends. School, while annoying, was alright. She ate what she wanted to eat when she wanted to eat it. On the weekends, she'd nap through the afternoon in a cozy spot where the sun would warm her.

She was strong, safe, and well cared for.

But was she happy?

Her mind flitted back to the nightmares.

To two young girls, black and white, all alone against the world after they lost their mother.

To long days of privation and starvation.

To an older girl, swearing to be there for her, only to leave.

To a small cell, trapped alone with nothing but her unwashed smell and nobody but herself, crying for anyone to tell her where her sister was.

Was she happy?

"...Yes."

It took her a long moment to think it through, and Eren had made no movement to hurry her along, But she arrived at the answer she honestly thought was the truth.

She still had nightmares, still woke up screaming for a sister who wasn't there or for release from the cell. She still feared senjutsu and the effects it might have on her in the future.

Koneko was still afraid of being abandoned again.

But, here and now?

She was happy.

Her new family was kind.

"That is good."

Again, only Koneko's excellent senses allowed her to notice the faint sigh in Eren's voice. Was that relief in his voice? Envy? Wistfulness? She honestly couldn't tell.

Koneko tilted her head as she bit into a giraffe.

Had she been wrong about why he was asking questions?

If he wasn't looking for dirt on Rias, why ask all that?

It took Koneko a bit longer than she would have liked to realize what probably had happened.

Eren Yeager knew nothing about devils, nekoshou, magic, or even the Gremory.

He wasn't asking about Toujou Koneko the Rook, but the Toujou Koneko the student. He was asking about her daily life.

Eren Yeager was a human boy asking about a life he would never have.

An everyday life with school, clubs, friends, and family.

A slight pang of sympathy echoed in Koneko's heart. She wished she had said more than her one-word answers. That she was like Rias, Akeno, or Yuuto and could talk to him at length.

About how life, despite being hard, and scary, and lonely sometimes, was still fun. That he, too, could be happy.

But Koneko wasn't like the others, so she only did what she could.

"...Do you want the penguin?" Koneko asked, holding out a cracker to the older boy.

Eren tilted his head again, and Koneko cursed internally again, realizing he couldn't see her offer.

And he might not know what animal crackers were.

This friendship thing was hard.

********

"Take the picture, take the picture, take the picture." The voice tumbled in a hurry.

"I did."

"Get another one! This is too cute! Eeeeepppp." A squeal that caused Koneko to frown minutely and snuggle deeper.

"You're going to wake them up," the second voice chastised.

"But they're so, so, so, daaaahhhhh!"

Koneko's frown deepened, wishing Akeno and Rias would let her sleep.

"I know," Akeno said with fondness in her voice. "How'd she get so close? When I first met him, he threatened to punch me."

"Pffft. You just aren't as cute as our Koneko."

"Should you be saying that? Didn't he shake your hand away?"

"That was a long time ago," Rias defended herself with pride. "Just last week, I held his ha-. Never mind, just keep taking pictures."

"Ara? I just heard something juicy. Have you decided to become a mistress after all? Should I tell Sona?"

Koneko was full-on scowling now as she kept her eyes closed and buried her face deeper into the couch.

Sometimes, she wished the older girls would be more like Yuuto.

It wasn't like they weren't reliable, but sometimes they got so caught up in their little games that they forgot about others in the room.

The Knight, on the other hand, was a bastion of calm serenity.

On days like this, Koneko thanked the Satans that the two younger Peerage members could simply sit on the uncomfortable couch together, her napping and he rubbing her hair. He was even kind enough to use the special soap that masked most of his scent because he knew she was sensitive.

"You can't bother me today," Rias said primly. "I am too busy being overwhelmed by cuteness. If Gasper was here, it'd be perfect."

"...They are quite adorable," Akeno admitted. "Like an older brother and younger sister. Still, is this alright? For Koneko to be like that?"

"Don't worry about it. You haven't known him as long, but waking Eren from a nap is super hard."

"... I suppose even if he does wake, it is not like he will see them. She must be really comfortable to let them out."

Damn. Koneko had accidentally let her ears and tail out in her sleep. Despite the seating, she was just so comfortable that it didn't seem worth it to go through the discomfort of hiding them again.

Well, no, that wasn't true. The couch was way more uncomfortable than usual, but her pillow made up for it in spades.

Even if having her racial traits out left her more sensitive to the various energies her race was known to manipulate, it was fine so long as she didn't reach out to the world around her.

"It can't be the bench. That thing is terrible. I have no idea how he sleeps on the thing. It has to be his lap. I'm jealous."

"Who knew Koneko would get the famous Lap Pillow before all of us," Akeno giggled.

"My Koneko is the cutest! And cuteness is justice!"

"Didn't Lord Lucifer say the same thing about 'his Ria-tan' this summer?"

"Hush you! That never happened."

Seriously, those two needed to leave. Or keep it down.

Relaxed and half-dozing, Koneko tried to snuggle deeper. In her state, in that awkward realm between wakefulness and sleep, when she was at her most vulnerable, Koneko's supernatural senses slipped the leash she usually kept in tight control.

Like a fire, it blazed across her senses.

"AAAHHH," she screamed in surprise, falling from the bench and to the ground as she rolled away.

"Koneko!"
"Koneko!"

Rias and Akeno dashed to her fallen form, concern and worry written across their faces as they checked her for injuries.

Koneko paid them no mind, staring at the boy on the bench with wide eyes.

"What was that?" He asked, sitting up from where he had been sleeping, Koneko in his lap. "Rias? Akeno? ...Koneko? What happened?" His hand rested on his cane, and he looked ready to stand and fight.

"Fine," Koneko said hurriedly. "I'm fine. Just fell."

Eren remained tense, and Rias and Akeno continued to brush the dirt from her uniform as they checked her over.

"You fell?" Eren asked with a frown, his empty hand raising slightly to his bandaged eyes before falling back to his cane. "Are you hurt?"

"No." She struggled to keep the emotions out of her voice as she stared at the older boy with dilated eyes.

"Koneko," Rias whispered in her ear. Her cat ear. "What happened?"

Quickly hiding her ears and tail, the middle-schooler looked at the older girls and shook her head slightly.

They couldn't talk about this here. Not with Eren here.

"When did you two get here?" He asked the older girls. "What time is it?"

"Just now. I guess we woke Koneko. Sorry for waking you," Akeno lied easily at Eren's question, sensing something off in Koneko. "It's a bit past eight, and the sun is setting. Do you need help getting home?"

"I can do it," Eren said but made no move to stand, instead relaxing back on the bench. "You should head home. You still have school tomorrow, and staying out late isn't safe."

Rias looked like she was about to protest, likely pointing out that the three of them would be much safer than he would, even discounting being devils. They were creatures of the night and stayed up much later than most teenagers could get away with without sleep withdrawals.

Koneko stopped her by tugging at her sleeve gently and giving her a pleading look.

"We were just picking up Koneko before heading back," Rias said with a smile that Eren couldn't see. "Sorry for missing today's appointment. I'll make it up to you tomorrow."

"You don't need to baby me," Eren frowned, but there was no heat in it. "I am fine on my own. If stuff happens, you don't need to send someone to watch me. I am not going anywhere."

"We had an appointment, and I missed it. And we're almost done with Battle Tendency. I think you will like the next part a lot. So I will see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow then," Eren said, giving up on changing the stubborn girl's mind. He nodded in their generation. "It was nice meeting you, Koneko."

"...Yeah. You too."

"And me?" Akeno said with a teasing lilt in her voice.

"...Goodnight, Rias, Koneko."

"Ooohhh, denial play. I like it."

"...Come on," Koneko said as she dragged Rias and the pervert away from the park, the bench, and its occupant.

"Goodnight, Eren!" Rias called back, and the sick boy raised a hand and gently waved farewell toward them.

Koneko continued to drag the pair through the woods and to the clubhouse nearby, leaving Eren behind on the bench.

********

Thanks to Old Man of the Mountain/Darklord331 for betaing this.

A bit on the shorter side with this one, but needs must.

In writing this fic, I am trying to keep to only writing the needed parts, either for the story or to establish the characters. This way, I can avoid story bloat that is all too common in Slice of Life stories. (To say nothing of my other work that went from a planned 150k words to a 600k monstrosity that is still going strong.)

This means that, for the moment, Koneko and Eren have little to discuss. While both have strong opinions and beliefs, neither is the type to talk about them to strangers, leading to their first meeting being more awkward than Sona's, Rias', or Akeno's, who are very sociable girls despite their various characteristics.

Koneko will get her time in the sun, but because she is so closed off, it will be a while before I can really dive deep into her. Otherwise, it just would feel wrong for her character.

For those who celebrate it, have a good turkey day. I will be waiting for you on the bench.

 

[ReadingDangerous]

Nobody said anything until they were well out of earshot of the young man.

"What happened Koneko?" Rias asked gently, taking the younger girl's hand in her own. "You're shaking. Another nightmare?"

"...No."

How was she supposed to say this?

Was she supposed to say anything?

"Was it Eren?" Akeno asked with a concerned frown as she took her junior's other hand. "Did he do something?"

"He didn't do anything." In the end, Koneko trusted her King and Queen. "I felt his life force."

""What?"" They both asked in confusion, but then Rias' eyes lit up in excitement.

"And?" She asked eagerly. "Did you feel anything special? Some hidden bloodline or Sacred Gear? Magic?"

"No." This question was easy to answer, as it was one she had looked into before. "He's definitely human. No magic or Sacred Gear. I'm sure."

It wasn't just a pitiful amount of magic, like some humans. Koneko had not felt even a drop of magical potential in the boy. It was like he was magically disabled, which did happen sometimes. That meant he couldn't have a Sacred Gear, as they all had a magical component to them, even if only a tad.

Rias's face fell, and Koneko immediately felt terrible. She knew her King had been searching for any excuse she could find to make an offer to Eren to have him join her Peerage. Still, she wouldn't lie.

"If it wasn't that, then he had a lot of life force, right? That's what surprised you?"

Koneko nodded at Akeno's guess.

"That's good!" Rias fist pumped quietly. "I can have my cousin train him. I hear he's been trying to attain Touki recently. With Eren's experience and the chance he can gain Touki, the family won't complain when I reincarnate him."

"You can't."

"I'm going to ask first, of course," Rias' chuckled, rubbing Koneko's hair gently. "Eren would flip if he was forced into a Peerage. I want to get him to trust me first so he'll agree. I was just worried about the repercussions. But this should be enough. Thank you, Koneko."

She looked so happy, as if a great burden had been lifted from her shoulders, that Koneko regretted her next words as soon as they left her mouth.

"You can't," she repeated. "You're too weak."

Rias froze in place, hand resting on Koneko's scalp in the middle of ruffling her hair.

Koneko felt her eyes water at the hurt in her King's eyes. She didn't want Rias looking at her like that.

"Koneko," Akeno crouched slightly till she was at eye level with her junior and spoke softly. "Dear. What do you mean? Rias might be a lazy weeb, but she's not weak."

The nekoshou knew Akeno was trying to use humour to deflect, but it didn't change the truth. But how to explain it in a way they could understand?

"It's like a fire." She eventually said, speaking to both of them. "Most people are candles. Yuuto is like a fireplace. You two are bonfires. Buchou's is bigger."

It was a testament to the situation that Rias didn't start immediately bragging about 'size' to Akeno.

"And Eren?"

"... Remember the forest fire Surtr II started two years ago?"

"The one Nee-san tore into him about?" Akeno remembered with a fond smile. That smile dipped. "The one that burned down his entire territory?"

"Eren felt like that?" Rias asked with an intake of air. "How?"

Koneko shrugged, not having an answer to the question. She just knew what she felt.

"Can you compare it to anything else, dear?" Akeno asked gently, and Koneko gave it some real thought.

She didn't keep her Ki senses open often. Partly because it was only possible to get a really good sense of things when her ears and tail were out, but also because she was afraid it would leave her open to Senjutsu and the malice of the world that drove her sister mad. So, she only had a few frames of reference to work from.

"Less than Nee-san," Koneko said with certainty, then continued with much less confidence. "More than... Lord Gremory?" This was not an exact science by any means, and she was going by impressions more than anything.

Both Akeno and Rias shared a look.

Grayfia Lucifuge was probably the second strongest female devil alive, so Eren being less powerful than her didn't say much. But Rias' father was firmly in the ultimate class, if on the lower end.

For Eren's life force to rival his...

"Does he know Touki," Rias asked, and Koneko shrugged again. There was no way to tell if someone knew how to use their Ki until they actually did.

"Even someone with only a little Ki can use Touki," Akeno shook her head and explained to her King. She was more familiar with the practice, thanks to her past studies. "Having a lot of Ki doesn't mean he can use it, just that finding it is easier, and once he does, it is more useful. The question is, how did he gain so much? If he was part Yokai or had a Sacred Gear or something like it, it would be understandable. But a pure human?"

"Eren exercises regularly when he gets home," Rias spoke aloud. "I've had my familiar keep an eye on him occasionally when a Stray is in the area. Despite his condition, he spends at least a few hours daily keeping up a demanding regime for a human. It is the only thing he does besides sit on the bench. It's why he's still in decent shape."

"That isn't enough," Akeno shook her head, not even commenting on Rias' use of her familiar to 'keep an eye' on a young man. "Some humans have more Ki than others, but nothing like Koneko saw. Not without access to some sort of mystic art. A few hours of exercise isn't enough to make up that difference. To even have a hope of gaining that much lifeforce at that age, he'd need training from a Sennin or a similar teacher and years of effort."

"He's meditating," Koneko said with realization, the Queen's words tickling her brain to memories of her older sis... to Kuroka learning her own Ki arts. "When he's on the bench. He's meditating."

"Unconsciously?" Rias asked with disbelief. Humans meditating was nothing new, but doing so in a way to channel or raise their Ki without instruction was practically unheard of.

"Maybe not," Akeno, too, had a moment of realization. "His second in command in his mercenary company was Chinese if I remember right. And others were from cultures with mystic traditions that merged with regular humans. The Sitri agents didn't find anything supernatural in his past, but it is possible he learned proper meditation techniques without knowing how to consciously use the Ki. If all he does is meditate and exercise, it is theoretically possible for a human to reach Ki levels comparable in magnitude, if not usage, to an Ultimate Class. It would take an insanely gifted genius to do it at his age, but it is possible."

"That still doesn't make sense," Rias said, biting the tip of her nail in frustration. "If he has that much life force, he shouldn't be dying."

That Koneko did have an answer for.

"Strong, but limited." She struggled to put what she had felt into words. "The forest is running out of trees. Or, fire isn't getting air?"

What she had felt had been incredibly bright to her senses but not spread. In fact, it had been tightly contained.

Koneko was a nekoshou, a variant race of nekomata which were themselves a race of Yokai supernaturally gifted with talents in the Sage arts, and she hadn't felt any of his prodigious Ki when Rias first asked her to investigate him. It was only because she had been touching Eren directly, with her ears and tail out, that she felt it.

Like a sun trapped in a glass ball.

And that ball was shrinking as his body gave out.

Only a few hundred feet from that sun, Koneko could sense nothing special about the boy.

Ki was not a cure-all. Nor was having a significant source of vital energy a guarantee of a long life. People with Ki would still get sick and would still die from disease, poison, or even age. Their life might be strong, but their body might not be.

In real life, Ki was not like it was in Dragon Ball or other media. Eren Yeager could have all the Ki in the world; all it would do was delay the inevitable if his body failed.

Rias' finger was bleeding she was biting its tip so hard.

"If Koneko only sensed it now, it would explain how the Sitri servants missed it." Akeno continued to piece the puzzle together. "And why no other devil or faction has come to snatch him up."

"Is there any way he can learn to use his Ki to heal himself?" Rias asked both of them, a bit of desperation leaking into her voice.

Akeno looked at the Rook, but Koneko shook her head slightly.

"It is his body," she explained. "It shouldn't be this way, but it is. He's already doing everything but is still sick. Ki can't help, or it would have. Sickness, not injury. Internal, not external."

Koneko didn't need to tell them that it was probably only thanks to his prodigious life force that Eren had managed to stay alive this long. If he didn't have that internal reservoir of power he was unconsciously using, his body would have shut down long ago.

How young would he have been when he died without it?

Ten? Twelve? Koneko could not imagine he would have survived to fourteen if all his Ki could do was keep him going till nineteen.

But she did not need to speak those grim words to the older girls.

Both of them had probably guessed as much.

"If we could move his soul to a new body, it would fix the problem at the root," Akeno postulated. "But the only thing that can do that is the Sephiroth Grail, which hasn't appeared in generations."

Counting on the appearance of one of the twelve Longinus in this generation was wishful thinking in the extreme. The world's factions always kept a close eye on them when they showed up, and the last time the Grail appeared was decades ago.

And even if a user did appear in the time they had left, they would need to find them, convince them to help Eren, and create a body for him.

"Ok," Rias said to herself, pacing along the dark path back and forth as she continued to chew her nail. "Ok."

"Should we... tell Lord Lucifer?" Akeno asked delicately, knowing how much Rias valued her independence from her family and brother.

"No." Rias was firm in her denial, and when Akeno made to insist, she continued. "I don't think he can help. Think about it. We are already looking for a way to heal Eren and aren't going to stop. All that has changed is that we know Ki doesn't work and how much potential Eren has now. Potential we cannot let anyone know about. Ever."

Akeno pursed her lips but nodded, seeing the point.

If other high-class devils learned that there was someone like Eren, a once-in-centuries genius with the potential to be a Sennin, was currently weak and vulnerable in the human world...

"If anyone forcibly reincarnates him, he'll go Stray instantly."

Rias nodded sharply at Akeno's words.

Everything she knew about the older boy told her he would rather die than give up his freedom. He had said as much to Sona and her on different occasions.

That was why she had initially simply planned to make his last few years fun. Her plans had shifted since then, unwilling to let her friend die if she could help it, but she still wasn't going to reincarnate him against his wishes.

"Anyone able to turn him will be the peak of High Class or Ultimate Class at the very least. If he goes Stray, which he will, they'll kill him instantly before he can grow into his potential. He'll start weak because of his condition, Ki or no Ki. The greater his potential, the more risk he's in and the quicker they'd kill him."

"...Sorry," Koneko apologized, feeling terrible that her inattention had inadvertently put Eren in danger.

"Nononono," Rias hurried to reassure her Rook, drawing the young girl into a tight hug. "Us knowing about it is a good thing. It's an excellent thing. It'd be too late if we didn't learn about it till later. We still have time now."

"Time for what?" Akeno asked.

"Time for me to make Ultimate Class!"

"Rias!"

"Not a lot of time, but it should be enough," the King continued despite her Queen's shock and Koneko's wide eyes.

Rias was powerful for her age and did deserve her High-Class status even without her noble heritage. She was the peek of the current generation of devils in pure potential alone, thanks to her raw power and bloodline abilities.

While Rias might not be comparable to her Super-Devil of a brother, something that bothered her, she was still a once-in-a-generation talent. It was one of the reasons the Phenex family pushed so hard for her hand in marriage.

Any child of hers, combined with Phenex immortality, had the potential to reach or even eclipse her older brother's stupendous power.

But devils did not grow over years, but over decades. A young devil wasn't even considered mature until after their first half-century.

Rias claiming she could reach Ultimate Class in power, if not in status before she even turned twenty, was nothing less than insane.

"I'm going to tell Sona," Rias rambled on, putting her thoughts in order and setting out a game plan. "She deserves to know too. I'll have to leave ruling Kuoh to her, but between the two of us, I have the best chance. I still have all eight of my pawns. Those are our best shot. After that, I am going to need to get to training. A lot of training. I still have a year and a half left, at least. Akeno, do you mind taking over my clients? I'll need all the time I can get."

"Of course," Akeno answered instinctually but then paused as a thought arose. "What about... you know? Riser. You only have so many pieces left."

Power wouldn't save Rias from the marriage. If it could, she would have had a much easier time.

Riser was the peak of the High Class. Even if Rias became Ultimate Class, it still wouldn't be enough to overcome his regeneration. All he would have to do was stall her out, regenerating over and over again until he could wear her down.

Even if Eren had the potential to use Touki, it was ironically one of the worst matchups against a Phenex unless the latter was utterly outclassed.

It didn't matter if one could cause internal damage to someone if the Phenex could heal internal damage in seconds.

The initial desire to come to the human world was to gain independence and fill out their Peerages over the years. The plan had been to comb the human world, particularly the school, for anyone with the potential to at least counter the regeneration. Kuoh was a hotbed of magical potential, which tended to attract Sacred Gear holders unconsciously.

Rias had been promised till the end of her time in the human world before the actual marriage, even if her family was putting more pressure as the years passed. The stress was mounting for Rias without a counter appearing, but she still had years.

Even if it wasn't a Longinus, certain sacred gears or mystical talents could negate the regeneration of the Phenex clan. Members of the family had been killed or beaten by such in the past.

"We'll still look for someone," Rias reassured her Queen. She wasn't willing to completely give up the hope of finding a counter to the pompous asshole and getting her freedom. "But if I get stronger, it will cost fewer pieces to reincarnate them. So it's a win-win. And once Eren's reincarnated, he can train, get better, and will be able to help."

"Does this mean you aren't going to spend time with Eren anymore?" Akeno asked, trying to follow along with her King.

"What? No! If anything, I am going to spend even more time with him. It won't matter if I get strong enough to reincarnate him if he doesn't accept the offer. A year and a half. That's how much time he said he had, right? That's all the time I have to make Ultimate Class and convince Eren I won't take his freedom from him."

"...Are you sure about this, Rias?" Akeno asked, looking worried. "What about everything else? Your hobbies, your dreams. I like Eren, and I want him to live as well. But I don't want you to burn out. That won't help him."

"I won't," Rias reassured her friend with a smile. "I'll be with you all most of the time I'm training, and I read manga to Eren. Two birds, one stone. I'm also ahead of the curriculum at school. Really, there is no reason I shouldn't have been training this entire time. If I get good enough, we might be able to lift the seal on Gasper. Control training during class and when I'm with Eren, and power training when not. It will be my very own training arc. You better take video's Akeno! I will want to make an anime montage after this."

Koneko and Akeno shared a look.

Rias was putting a brave face on all this, trying to stay chipper and reassure them, but both understood just how hard this would be.

It was easy to say, read about, or play a game about someone spending all their time constantly training to improve, but it was a wholly different thing to do it.

Nobody wanted to spend every day exercising, doing repeated and monotonous training that left you tired and sweaty. 'Training' was easy to say, but who wants to go to bed every night sore and bruised, exhausted and weak, with a killer headache from overusing their magic.

You give up hobbies. You give up friends. You give up everything but the pursuit of power.

And that was for humans.

Devils, creatures of vice and indulgence, did not have to train to become strong. It certainly helped, but any devil that lived over five centuries would become High-class in power just by virtue of age, even if all they did was sleep and eat. If they did basic exercises in magic for ten minutes a day, that time frame shortened to only two centuries.

Rias was already much more dedicated than her peers and spent at least an hour a day training herself and her Peerage. It was a significant factor as to why they were so much stronger than other devils their age. By human standards, they were very active teenagers.

By devil standards, they were nothing less than training maniacs, only beaten by the likes of Sairaorg and his Peerage. And they didn't have to overcome the same deficiencies as the Bael.

Rias was projected to hit Ultimate Class before she was fifty if she kept this rate up. It was an insane growth speed for a race that measured their lifespan in millennia.

To shorten that down to before she was twenty?

Remarkably few ever achieved something like that, and of those that did, four were the current Satans.

"...We'll help," Koneko said simply after sharing a nod with Akeno.

"I shall break out my good whip," Akeno giggled, but there was a tenseness to it.

"Thank you," Rias said with a wide smile, dragging them into a tight hug. "I love you guys."

Akeno had one last question, but it was an important one.

"If you don't get strong enough in time," she asked as she wrapped her arms around the redhead. "What then?"

"Then I'll ask my brother or one of his Peerage to reincarnate Eren," Rias said with a troubled sigh. "I'll explain everything to Eren, and once I am strong enough, I'll request a trade."

"Eren won't accept that," Akeno sadly shook her head. "Maybe, just maybe, he might trust you enough to become a devil under you or Sona. But someone else? He'd rather die. Will you be able to let him? Let him die if he chooses to?"

"It won't come to that," Rias insisted, a slight tremble in her voice, squeezing both of them tighter. "You'll see. I'm going to be strong enough. Eren will trust me enough. I'm going to save him. Eren is going to live a long, happy life. You'll see."

********

I like having hard facts to play with when I write fanfiction. Especially with this fic, since it is an attempt at a continuation of AOT's story, I am trying to stick as close to canon facts as possible.

Unlike AOT, which is very grounded in logic processes and has clear cause and effect, DxD does not make it easy. At all.

Ishibumi is excellent for a head empty, just Oppai, story with depth for those who want to look for it, but he is absolutely abysmal with giving us mechanics or anything that would go against the 'rule of cool.' He will often invent things just to justify a new girl joining the harem and then give no consideration for what it means for the wider world.

What this means is that for subjects he only mentions in passing, I have to make my own guesses and write into the margins he left.

For example: Koneko is a nekoshou. Their whole thing is being sensitive to natural energies. The 'nekomata massacre' is fannon, but it stems from the 'nekomata incident' where Kuroka did kill her master and leave Koneko behind. Ostensibly, this is because she went mad with the malice of the world because of Senjutsu. But here is the thing. That 'malice' is never a thing at all. We know Kuroka did it to save her sister, and, for the rest of DxD, the 'malice' of the world is never brought up once. A total non-factor. A convenient excuse by the author to justify giving Koneko a reason for Issei to comfort her.

In fact, Ishibumi casually mentions 'sennin' at some point, but that is never elaborated on. Ever. So humans can use Ki, duh, and thus touki. Those who do are famous, yet not powerful enough to be genuine players on the world stage, or they would have appeared in the story. This means that I have to guestimate the rules that this power system follows, which are completely different from magic and demonic power.

This long rant is just me venting and letting you know that I am aware that some of what I write is not 'explicitly' canon. But, as far as I know, I have not written anything that goes against canon. This is just my understanding of the characters and world. If you find something that is 'explicitly' against canon, let me know. It could be something I overlooked (or it could be a hint, who knows

Ishibumi made things up as he went along. That is pretty clearly the Doylist reason for certain facts and actions in the story. Assuming characters are already familiar with their world (or at least the parts they should be), I have to provide the Watsonian reason.

Either way, I hope this tangent has been instructional on my thought process as I write. I will see you all next time on the bench.

PS: For those who enjoy Attack On Titan's music, the Grissini Project is currently running a Kickstarter for their Orchestral covers of the soundtrack. You can find them on Youtube to give them a listen before donating if you are interested. I listened to their work while I wrote, so I figured I'd give them a shout-out as thanks. They are very good and is some of the best covers I've ever heard. Vogel Im Kafig, in particular, is spectacular.

 

[ReadingDangerous]

Kiba Yuuto did not understand.

He watched his King read the manga to the blind boy, describing the pages in great detail. She spoke in English most of the time but would say the lines in Japanese. If the blind boy did not understand the meaning, she would also provide a translation.

It was extremely slow going. A volume of manga Kiba had seen Rias devour in less than an hour ended up stretched for days.

And through it all, Rias practiced with her magic.

Hidden below the bench, behind a tree, or at a distance from the seated pair, small clumps of destructive magic wove their way through the air. Sometimes, they would clump together to form small stick figures of black and red energy bobbing up and down in a crude approximation of Rias' narrated scenes.

It was a display of control that the Gremory King wouldn't have been able to achieve even a few months ago, and a part of Yuuto watched it with pride.

He just didn't understand why it had happened in the first place.

He did not understand why Eren Yeager was such a point of focus for the two Kings of the school, Akeno and even Koneko, in recent months.

Intellectually, he knew that he was their friend. Sona took him under her wing and was teaching the blind boy Japanese. Rias had decided to befriend him thanks to her kindness, and the other two met the dying young man through her.

Intellectually, Yuuto understood that Eren Yeager had been through a lot, as had everyone in the Gremory Peerage, and it gave them a common ground to stand on that was missing with a lot of their human peers. Even if Eren didn't know their history, he had a maturity and bearing that was sorely lacking in the average teenager.

Intellectually, the Knight understood that all the effort the Gremory Peerage was putting in now, the long hours of supplemental training, would only help them achieve their dreams later.

All this Kiba Yuuto understood intellectually, but it was like something was just out of his grasp.

It wasn't love. At least Yuuto didn't think so.

As far as he knew, none of the women he was closest to had expressed romantic interest in the sickly boy. Nor had Eren ever hinted at any feelings of such a nature either.

Sona might have a crush on him, but her sense of decency, his impending death, or some other factor kept her from acting on such thoughts.

It probably helped that the blind boy couldn't see the beauty of the women around him, which usually drove other boys his age to folly in their efforts to impress them.

But if it wasn't love, and they had only known Eren for a little under a year, Yuuto could not understand how the older boy had wormed his way into their heart to such a degree.

Kiba Yuuto did not understand Eren Yeager.

But today, he'd try and change that.

Rias nodded at her Knight as she left Eren with a farewell.

Strictly speaking, she was only entrusting him to watch over the blind boy, something he could do with his familiar.

It was a protection detail they kept up when they could ever since they had learned of his prodigious potential with Ki. While Rias and Sona were the only officially known supernatural factions in Kuoh, barring the destroyed church, it wasn't impossible that some malicious Yokai or Stray would wander into their territory.

Eren would be a delicious and inviting meal for such beings if they discovered his powerful life force. Eating him would give a number of man-eating races numerous benefits. It was always better to have a pair of eyes on him.

The park was warded against such creatures, as was his small house, but Eren came and went from the bench at odd hours, so at least one familiar was entrusted to follow him at those times for his safety.

There were blind spots, of course. The devils still had school and duties and needed to sleep. Unless there was an active threat, there was no reason to constantly watch him. Still, it was another factor to indicate how important the boy was becoming to Yuuto's friends, and he wanted to know why.

Rias had repeatedly insisted that Eren could never know, as he valued his independence fiercely. The sickly boy was unaware of the true danger he was in, and telling him about it would only stress him out and ruin what time he had left.

Yuuto had agreed readily enough, initially not really interested in meeting the boy who had captured the attention of his friends. He had enough on his plate, between school, contracts, avoiding his growing fan club, the occasional Stray devil, and the increased dedication to training the Gremory peerage was putting themselves through.

It was a whim, more than anything, that led to deciding today was the day he'd try and understand the blind boy.

But how to go about it?

In the end, the decision was made for him.

"Are you going to stand there all night?" Eren called out to the park.

He wasn't facing Yuuto, but the Knight could see no one else there. But Eren couldn't be talking to him, could he?

While he wasn't super far from the bench the boy sat on, Yuuto had been standing there without making a sound for over ten minutes now, resting against the bark of a tree. Eren couldn't have seen him, could he?

"I know you're there," Eren continued, turning his head. He wasn't facing the Knight directly. In fact, it was a few feet in front of him, but it was close enough that Yuuto knew it was him being addressed. "I can hear you breathing."

"Sorry," he said as he stepped closer. How had Eren heard him? He hadn't been doing his best to remain stealthy, but he also hadn't been breathing loudly. "I didn't think I was being that loud."

"You weren't. I hear a lot more than I used to."

Yuuto winced in sympathy.

It was easy to forget with the confidence he held himself with, but Eren had only been blind for slightly over a year, according to the file. He had gone through most of his life with the use of his eyes. It made sense that his hearing was still developing to compensate for the difference.

Probably helped along by his stupendous amount of Ki, unconsciously channelled to his body as it tried to keep him alive.

"Sorry," the Knight repeated. "Can I take a seat?"

"Go ahead," Eren said with an uncaring shrug. "It's a public bench. Though I seem to be one of the only ones to use this park."

"It is in a remote area," Kiba chuckled lightly as he took a seat, knowing the wards kept most people out. Wards Eren walked through entirely unconsciously. "Not many people go from the high school to the university."

"You must be Kiba Yuuto, then."

"You know me?" Yuuto asked in surprise. Seriously, was this boy really blind?

"Only Souna and Rias' club members come through here, and you sound different from how Rias described Gasper. She brags about you guys a lot."

"Ahaha," he chuckled awkwardly with a light blush. When Eren put it that way, it seemed obvious. "She talks about you too, you know."

"I'm sure," Eren said plainly. That was one thing Yuuto had understood about Eren without ever meeting him. The older boy never smiled, and on the rare occasions he showed emotion, it was usually in a negative way. "Rias is a nice girl, but she has too much energy."

"She's only a few years younger than you," Yuuto pointed out at the almost diminutive way the older boy spoke about his King.

"I know. But she is still naive about the world."

Yuuto bit back his instinctual desire to defend his King. Eren didn't know about anything they had been through. He had no clue of the true nature of the world or the efforts Rias was going through to give the blind boy a chance to live.

Instead of saying any of that, he settled with a vague statement.

"She could still surprise you."

"I'm surprised every day," Eren said, his voice lightening slightly. "Souna, Rias, Akeno, Koneko, and now you. Every time I meet someone on this bench, I am surprised."

Yuuto didn't understand the exact nature of that surprise but judged it to be good by Eren's tone of voice.

The conversation was silent for a minute before Eren broke it again.

"Ask it."

"Pardon?"

"You wouldn't be here if you didn't want something," Eren grunted. "I'm not good for anything physical in my state, so you must have a question. Go ahead and ask it."

Akeno had told them how sharp and perceptive the boy on the bench could sometimes be, but Yuuto still found himself surprised.

Since he had brought it up.

"Who are you?"

"What?"

"I don't mean your name, but who is Eren Yeager. You came out of nowhere, and all my friends are suddenly all over you."

"Are you in love with one of them," Eren asked with a sympathetic tilt to his mouth. "You don't need to be jealous. Trust me. I'll be gone soon."

"No, no, no," Yuuto hurried to clarify. Thinking about his word choice, it was easy to see how it could be misunderstood. But he really wasn't interested in romance or sex. Not until he had his revenge. "I don't mean stop meeting them. I'm not in love with anyone. You are a friend of my friends, so I found myself curious, that is all."

"More than curiosity," Eren said plainly. "You are wary. So was Akeno. Good."

"It is a bit rude, so I apologize," the Knight said gently. "I just wish to understand who you are. What makes you special?"

"Cut that shit out. You're better than Akeno," Eren sighed. "But you don't need to speak so formally. And don't bother apologizing to a man like me because there is no secret. I am no one special."

"If you will pardon-" Yuuto started to say, but as Eren's hand tightened on his cane and his frown deepened, he shifted to a less formal tone. "I don't know everything you've been through, but what I've picked up tells me your life has been anything but normal."

"That's just it," Eren said as he relaxed against the bench. "My life hasn't been normal by most standards. I recognize that. Circumstances and other people's decisions thrust me into the spotlight. And I used to think that made me special. That I was some sort of hero. I wasn't. Nobody is. There are no heroes. There are no villains. There are just people. I am just a man. A terrible man, but just a man."

"There might not be heroes, but there are villains. Evil people in the world that need to die."

Eren paused, and Yuuto realized he had unconsciously let his vitriol leak into his voice. The blind boy let the silence hang momentarily as if deciding whether to respond.

"There is evil in the world. Animals in the shape of men," Eren eventually nodded. "As well as good. But people... People are a result of their environment. Societal pressures that dig into young minds. Religious indoctrination. Nationalistic rhetoric. Even dreams, birthed by a child's mind, can lead to destruction. But these ideals are foisted on people. By books. By parents. Friends. Teachers. Leaders. Governments. We all do it to each other."

"So what," Yuuto bit back. "We should forgive people for what they do because it is not their fault? Are they just products of their environment? No. That isn't how that works. They don't get to do what they do and not pay for it using some tragic backstory as an excuse."

"I never said that," Eren sighed. "We are products of our environments, it is true, but what we make of them is our own. Our freedom is our own. Our birthright. We can't choose our birthplace, our society, or our family. But the things we can choose define us. That choice is what separates man from animals. And, when others try and take that choice from us, we can choose to fight back or die."

Yuuto took a deep breath, calming his racing heart. He hadn't meant to get so caught up there. He honestly felt like punching when Eren sounded like the church's preaching.

"Sorry," he apologized to the older boy.

"There is nothing to apologize for," Eren said. "You want to hurt those who hurt you. I get it. More than you will ever know, I get it."

"You're not going to tell me to forgive them?" The Knight asked wryly. "To understand where they are coming from?"

"Forgive? No," Eren said. "Even when I understood where they were coming from, that they had been manipulated by forces so much greater than what I could expect anyone to reject, I never forgave them. I just recognized that I was the same as them."

"To kill someone who kills others for fun is not the same as killing an innocent person."

"It is." Eren's voice was dead, completely absent any tonal inflection. "Nobody thinks they're in the wrong. Everyone believes themselves to be on the side of justice. But the fist, the blade, and the bullet. Those are the only things that prove justice. It doesn't matter who is actually right. Whoever is left is justice. They will tell whatever story they want. Worst of all? They will believe it. They will believe their own lies, their own justice."

"So all lives are equal to you?" Yuuto was struggling to wrap his head around Eren's viewpoint. It was like he kept vacillating between a saint and a Satan. "That nobody should ever kill anyone?"

"All people are fundamentally the same. But we assign values to different things. I just recognize that some people's values are completely different from mine. I will never kill in the name of religion. I think it is a stupid belief system that turns people into livestock. But millions die in its name. I gave value to a few people and a few beliefs. And they weigh heavier on my scale than the entire world. So I killed people. I am no better than anyone else."

"So when I say I want to kill someone for revenge for killing others?"

"You are weighing their life against your revenge. Just as they weighed the lives of whoever you are avenging to their own goals. We kill for revenge, justice, survival, and ideals, but ultimately, we are putting things we value on a scale and determining the results."

The pair lapsed into silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

Then the Knight realized, in his engagement with Eren, he had let slip stuff a regular student would never think about.

"Sorry," he apologized once again. "I said I wanted to learn about you, but we ended up discussing hypotheticals like this."

"Hypotheticals?"

"Right," Yuuto laughed awkwardly. He'd always been a terrible liar. "I'm not going to go around killing people. I promise."

"I didn't think you would," Eren gave another minute shrug. "And I know you guys aren't normal, so the subject didn't surprise me."

Yuuto's heart clenched. What did he know? Had Eren found out about the supernatural? That they were devils?

Had he known all along?

"What do you mean?" His hands tensed, ready to call his Sacred Gear in a moment.

"After all this time, it's pretty obvious." Even as the blind boy spoke, a sword's outline started forming in the Knight's hand. "Rias and Souna are rich. Independent. They started helping me with no questions of return. And both Akeno and Koneko stayed with her during the summer? And now you? I'd be an idiot to not understand what was going on."

"What do you mean?" Yuuto repeated, his voice a lot less wary as the sword dissolved from his hand.

"You are all orphans. Lost your family somehow, and Rias took you in. None of you come from a normal background. That is the answer to your first question. That is why they get along with me. We aren't special people. Nobody is. But we all were put in special situations. You included."

"You are right," Yuuto gave a light chuckle. "None of us are normal. And yes, Rias took us in when she didn't have to. She got in trouble over it for a bit, but she is kind. Too kind sometimes."

"I know," Eren nodded simply.

"You know she'd love to help you, too, right? To take you in?" Rias had complained about Eren's stubbornness multiple times. It wasn't really an offer for Peerage ship, but it was as close as possible without tipping their hand about the supernatural. It would also make keeping a watch on him easier. "You wouldn't have to worry about anything. Her family is very well off, so it wouldn't inconvenience them in the slightest, and Rias would feel better if you didn't live alone."

"No." Eren's rejection was firm, giving no room for negotiation. "I don't doubt her kindness, but I am better alone. I have this bench, people to meet, and some time left. I am better off than I have been in a long time."

"If you say so."

By now, Yuuto was coming to understand why spending time with Eren appealed so much to the others.

The blind, sickly boy on the bench possessed an odd charisma in his blank expressions and world-weary words.

Like you could talk to him about anything and everything, and he would understand. He still had opinions. He still cast judgements. But it was like no part of you needed to be hidden. Like he had seen it all and done it all.

It was... freeing, in a way.

To be able to vent these dark emotions to someone who had actually seen the worst of humanity. Not from a position of power and observation like the devil therapists the Gremory had provided. But from the mud and the blood and the dirt.

The absolute lowest rung of society had somehow managed to achieve his goals, survive, and be there for them to talk to.

Yuuto could honestly say he had enjoyed their short talk and wouldn't mind doing so again.

But there was one question he had to ask that had been bugging him for a while.

"The people who hurt you, the ones you never forgave, did you get revenge?"

"I did," Eren nodded once.

"Was it worth it?"

Yuuto would have his revenge. Nothing in the world would stop him. But he would be lying if he said he didn't fear that it wouldn't be as satisfying as he always hoped it would be.

That revenge wouldn't fill the void, the gaping maw in his soul.

"Worth it? In a way, it was." Despite the words, Eren did not look happy in any way. "I accomplished everything I set out to do. Fulfilled a promise I made when I was a child. Multiple promises. I returned the pain inflicted on me a millionfold. Most of the people I cared about even survived. The world became as I willed it to be. In some twisted, horrible way, it was a happy ending."

"But it wasn't enough?"

"It was. I felt justified, even happy, in some twisted way. Guilty. Incredibly guilty. But we don't feel one emotion. With that guilt was satisfaction. It's just..." Eren paused before sagging in on himself. "In the end, my revenge became a tangential thing. Something I accomplished while building the world I wanted. A duty that weighed more heavily on my scale than lashing out. I do believe that, even without that other goal, I would have still inflicted all that pain and death. I am not a good man. I would have still lashed out. But in the end, it hadn't only been about revenge."

"What was that other goal," Kiba asked hesitantly. "What was more important than revenge? If you don't mind me asking, that is."

"It's no great secret," Eren sighed. "I'm no saint. It wasn't to make the world a better place. It was a mixture of revenge, idealism, and a strategic plan. But the main reason was straightforward. I just wanted the people I cared most about to live long, happy lives. Even if I wasn't with them. A selfish wish. I've killed more people than anyone else in the world for my freedom, my revenge, and that simple, selfish wish."

If Yuuto had held any doubt Eren Yeager might know about the supernatural, it disappeared with that simple statement.

Some humans might have killed thousands directly or even hundreds of thousands in the case of bombs. Some humans were responsible for millions of deaths indirectly, such as Stalin, Truman, Mao, Hirohito, Hitler, Alexander, Ghengis Khan, and any number of infamous historical leaders leading great nations and empires.

But those numbers were paltry compared to the races who lived thousands of years of bloody history.

Zekram Bael, the first Bael, was well known to have killed hundreds of thousands during the Great War.

Personally.

His legions killed millions more. During the civil war, that number grew.

Other pantheons, other members of the three factions, and some great monsters could also count the deaths at their hands in the millions. That was what happened when you lived for so long, constantly in conflict with other factions.

As far as the Sitri had found out, Eren hadn't been responsible for any genocides or indiscriminate massacres during his time in active duty. He had been well known to be violent but effective. His kill count had maybe crossed the thousand mark but was nowhere near ten thousand.

It would be a staggering number to a teenage boy, unaware of the wider world. Enough to traumatize him.

To the supernatural races?

It wasn't even a statistic. Life simply has less value when you live for millennia. When the fall of empires was but another day for you.

Yuuto honestly couldn't think about how many people Eren would need to kill to back up his claim.

A hundred million? Five hundred million? A billion? A number so preposterous for a teenage human that it was almost funny.

Still, preposterous claim or not, it told the Knight something about Eren.

For all his talk, Eren's revenge hadn't been clean. It hadn't been without collateral damage.

The Sitri had missed something.

"Would you do it again?" Eren froze at the question. "If you could go back in time, knowing what your future held if you went after your revenge, would you do it again?"

"Yes." The word was firm as Eren spoke with the most conviction Yuuto had yet heard from him. "If I had to live through it a thousand more times, I would still do it all again. It wasn't a perfect answer, but it had been my answer. All the death, destruction, and hatred. Their lives, my freedom, my revenge. All of it together was worth that to me and more. If there is a hell, I will burn in it forever. But I would do it again."

"And if your friends, the people you were doing it for, had tried to get in the way of your revenge?"

What would Yuuto do if Rias, Akeno, Koneko, or Gasper stood in the way of his revenge? It was a distinct possibility. Destroying the Excaliburs would be tantamount to trying to start a war.

Was he willing to go Stray for it if it came to that?

"That is their choice. I wouldn't take it from them, no matter how much a selfish part wished they would side with me. I made my choices. They made theirs. I never blamed them for it. They are happier this way. In a way, I am, too."

That was why the boy was here alone, wasn't it?

The people he had cared about had turned from him, leaving him to live out his remaining years alone in a foreign country.

He would die alone.

That was why none of his former mercenary team had reached out to him even once in the year since he had appeared in Kuoh.

"There is no right answer," Eren intoned gravely. "No solution that solves everything. Just weights on the scale. If you ever find who you are looking for, you must decide what weighs more to you. Your revenge and everything that comes with it? Or the price you have to pay for it."

Kiba Yuuto did not know what weighed more on his scale.

The burning rage, the void within himself yearning to be filled with the blood and souls of those responsible?

Or the friends and family that had taken a broken, lonely boy in after bringing him back from the dead.

Kiba Yuuto didn't think he would know the answer until he was forced to choose.

"Thank you," the Knight said instead. "For talking to me. You've given me a lot to think about."

"You came to me," Eren shrugged. "You are the one who listened to a broken man ramble. All of you kids seem to like hearing me talk for some reason."

"You're only a few years older than me," Yuuto chuckled lightly. "And I think it's because having someone with your perspective and experience is nice. You don't shy away from hard topics. You simply speak of the world as you understand it."

"If that is enough," Eren said plainly with a tiny shrug.

"It is. So, Senpai, I hope you don't mind if I visit you sometime? To talk?"

Eren pursed his lips at the title but didn't say anything. He just nodded.

Yuuto hadn't called him his senior out of familiarity or obligation. He called him Senpai, not because the boy was older, but because Eren Yeager was farther down the path than Kiba Yuuto.

The Knight didn't know if his path would lead to the same destination as the blind boy, but knowing he had someone to whom he could talk about it was reassuring.

That was the role of senior, wasn't it? To guide their juniors?

It was comforting to know that whenever Yuuto wanted to vent or needed advice, he could find his Senpai on the bench.

********

A big thanks to my beta: Old Man of the Mountain/Darklord331

The alternate title for this fic in my head is something like: Retired war criminal, and Devil God gives teenage devils therapy.

Honestly, out of all the DxD characters, I think that Kiba would be the one Eren got along with the easiest. Unlike Koneko, everything is there for them to click, to connect in a way few others can. There is just too much overlap for them not to, in my book. He's often overshadowed because DxD is an ecchi harem story, but Yuuto has a lot of depth that often goes overlooked in fanfiction.

It is still early in the story, despite the next chapter marking the end of the first part of what I have planned. Most of the main cast has been introduced, though a handful are still coming. We've established the foundation and planted the seed. Now, we just need to water it and let it grow.

I will see you all next time on the bench.

PS: For those who enjoy Attack On Titan's music, the Grissini Project is currently running a Kickstarter for their Orchestral covers of the soundtrack. You can find them on Youtube to give them a listen before donating if you are interested. I listened to their work while I wrote, so I figured I'd give them a shout-out as thanks. They are very good and is some of the best covers I've ever heard. Vogel Im Kafig, in particular, is spectacular.

 

[ReadingDangerous]

"How are you progressing?" Sona asked her rival as she put Rias' king in check.

"Well," Rias nodded, placing her rook in the way. Sona accepted the sacrifice with her bishop, replacing the king in check. The bishop was then taken by the black knight. That was fine. "My total output has almost doubled."

Sona frowned. Rias had always been the more powerful of the pair, and it was slightly disheartening to hear that the gap had grown wider. It was for a good cause, but Sona sometimes wished she was as blessed as the redhead.

... In multiple departments.

The Sitri carefully ignored Akeno's bust as the queen refilled the King's tea cups.

She just had yet to hit her growth spurt.

"After only a few months? That is impressive."

Even as they played and talked about the situation and town, Rias hadn't stopped training. A small ball of Destruction was hovering over the chessboard as Rias kept trying to pour more and more power into it without increasing its size.

"Thanks." Rather than be buoyed by Sona's compliment and brag about it and her Peerage, Rias just pursed her lips in a frown.

"What is wrong?" Sona asked as she removed a black pawn with one of her own from the board. "You don't seem satisfied."

"It's just not enough." Rias shook her head in frustration. Her distraction cost her her knight. "Koneko felt his Ki again while she was napping with him yesterday. He's getting worse."

"How much worse?" Sona asked the white-haired girl sitting on the nearby sofa.

"... Ten percent?" It was half asked, as putting numbers on this sort of thing was always finicky. Still, for it to be that noticeable...

"Tomorrow is the year anniversary since I met him," Sona sighed. "Even with all his exercise, Ki, and the healing, he's noticeably skinnier."

A year. A short yet long time.

What had started as taking a student as practice for her dream and curiosity had turned into trying to keep her friend alive.

Some days, Sona resented that she couldn't do more. She didn't regret reincarnating her Peerage, but she did wish she had enough pieces that it would be her, not Rias, who had the best chances to bring Eren back.

As it was, all she could do was provide limited healing and keep the territory under control to give Rias as much time as possible.

"There's only so much I can do with only holding his hand," Rias pouted. "I need more skin contact. Maybe I should visit him in bed sometimes?"

"That's a surefire way to destroy any trust he has with you," Sona said wryly, well aware of how little shame Rias had about nudity taboos. It wouldn't be so bad if the entire Gremory family didn't share that same trait.

There were reasons Sona never went to any more sleepovers at Rias' place.

"I know," Rias pouted, crossing her hands under her bust. "I am just trying to find a way to get more time. I am wasting so much already. And my family has been pushing things again now that I am going to be a senior. I had to spend all of Saturday arguing with my father. An entire day gone! Just to remind him, I want to decide my own partner."

"Any luck on that front?" Just because the redhead had been focusing on growing her power didn't mean Rias had forgotten the marriage that loomed over her head.

"Maybe," Rias sighed. "There are a few promising candidates among the students. But they are unawakened, so I can't know who can help and who can't. I can't waste my Pieces. I can't."

"The longer you wait, the less time you will have to train them," Sona cautioned.

It was a dilemma all High-class devils faced when they gained their Evil Pieces.

Do you invest early, giving time to train at the cost of weaker pieces or fewer total numbers due to needing multiple for one person? Or do you wait till you are stronger and thus can reincarnate stronger people with less cost?

Every devil only got fifteen Pieces, except for rare trades; they were stuck with their choices for life.

Rias had played it fast and loose when she was younger. It had worked out for her so far, but the current situation made the dilemma even more difficult for the redhead due to the Sword of Damocles above her head and Eren's.

Sona didn't have that problem. She had a process for her selection of Peerage members. Potential was one thing she looked for, but so were group cohesion, complementary personality traits, and willingness to support her dream.

She never invited anyone to join without deep thought, investigation, and an interview if possible.

"I know," Rias sighed, and Sona took her king in a checkmate. The Gremory groaned, and Sona smiled slightly. "Enough about that. What's been going on with you?"

"Getting the situation for the new school year." It was Sona's turn to sigh. "I don't know what is worse, the Fallen requesting permission to stay for a few months or the dozen complaints about the perverted trio coming back. At least we can kill the former if they violate the cease-fire. I am seriously considering not letting those three come to Kuoh for their junior year."

"I think they're funny," Rias said with a smile. "It's refreshing to see humans so open about their desires."

"Some of us value our privacy, you exhibitionist," Sona said with a glare. "Between them, paperwork, admissions, complaints, and budgets, I am half tempted to drown the student council room in water."

"Ara? Naughty words like 'exhibitionist.' Threatening destruction of school property. Should the Student Council President be saying all that? You are setting a bad example for us, Kaichou."

Sona sent Akeno a death glare as the Queen giggled. Then her eyes turned back to Rias as the redhead also laughed.

"It's your own fault," Rias laughed unapologetically. "You are the one who volunteered for the extra work."

"I need to learn to do it all for my dream," Sona defended herself. "This will be my last year in high school, and I will be too busy during college to learn these administrative tasks."

"Uhuh," Rias nodded, still chuckling. "And it has nothing to do with your pride."

"Better prideful than a lazy nudist."

"Better a lazy nudist than a control freak."

"Better a control freak than a ginger cow."

"Better a ginger cow than a pancake."

Both teenage girls glared at each other as they devolved into familiar arguments, teasing, and needling.

Koneko watched them, munching on some sugar cookies she shared with Yuuto, while Akeno giggled like the chaos gremlin she was.

*********

"""""Surprise!"""""

Instantly, Eren shot up, hand pulling on the handle of his cane as he drew a sword and swung.

"Woah!" Yuuto muttered as he dodged out of the way in surprise. Thankfully, Eren was human, so even surprised the Knight managed to avoid the blade with his speed.

""Eren!"" Rias and Sona shouted in surprise, and the blind boy froze, blade pulled back for another swing.

"Souna? Rias?" Eren asked as he collapsed back to the bench. He kept his hand on his drawn sword. "What are you doing? What is going on?"

"A surprise party," Akeno chuckled a bit nervously. "Though I think we were the surprised ones."

"What are you doing with a sword on school property?" Sona asked severely, sending him a glare he couldn't see.

"Japan doesn't allow guns," Eren said plainly as if it explained everything before moving on to the more important part. "A surprise party? What for?"

"It's been a year since you came to Kuoh," Rias said cheerfully, entirely moving on from almost getting her head cut off. "Since you never told us your birthday, we decided to celebrate today."

Koneko blew a flat note on her little party kazoo to punctuate Rias' words.

The file didn't have his date of birth, just the day he had been left on the church's stoop. Celebrating that would probably be in bad taste.

"What?" Eren asked, completely baffled.

For the ordinarily unflappable man to be so out of it was a sight that had everyone present smiling.

"We brought cakes," Koneko said, eyeing the deserts hungrily.

There had been a candle on one of them, but that had been sliced by Eren's swing, so Akeno tossed it away.

"What?" Eren sounded like a broken record now, and a few of them chuckled this time at how flat-footed he was acting. Even Sona, who was still glaring at the sword, smiled slightly.

"It is also to celebrate Koneko's first day of high school this week," Rias continued with a note of pride. "Just a little get-together of friends before the new school year."

Koneko pumped a fist slightly as Rias ruffled her hair as she blew another note.

Her growth spurt was coming. She could feel it.

"I... see," Eren said hesitantly, finally lowering his sword. "Congratulations Koneko."

"It's cool," she said simply. "We have vanilla strawberry and chocolate fudge. Which do you want?"

"Uh... vanilla?" Eren half asked, still clearly out of it after suddenly rousing from his nap and the surprise party.

"Can I see your sword," Yuuto asked as Rias took utensils and plates from the basket as she sat on the bench.

"Don't think I will forget that you brought it onto school grounds," Sona cautioned as Eren slid it into the cane and held it out. "You could hurt yourself and those around you with that thing."

"The only ones near me are you guys, and you usually don't pull stuff like this."

There were a few nervous chuckles.

Maybe suddenly waking up the ex-child soldier with shouting hadn't been such a good idea.

"It's a good blade," Yuuto said as he examined the sword. It was a style that tingled his senses, but he couldn't place it.

It was straight to fit in the cane and flat for slashing, not stabbing. Only two fingers wide, it wasn't a weapon designed to clash with others, it would break too quickly, but it was deadly sharp. A weapon for sudden surprise attacks and cutting flesh.

The only ornamentation on the otherwise plain and flat sword was the two stylized wings, one white and the other blue, carved into the handle.

"Thank you," Eren said as the Knight handed it back. "It was a gift."

"Here," Koneko said, placing a saucer with cake in his hand and putting a fork in the other. Then she returned to her own, much larger pieces.

"It's good," he said simply as he took a careful bite. Clearly, he was still processing what was happening as he made slow, almost awkward movements.

"Fufufu, I made it myself," Akeno said with pride, and Eren gave her an acknowledging nod.

"When is your birthday?" Rias asked. "We'll throw a proper party then."

"March 30th," Eren said with a shrug. "But you don-"

"What!" Rias stood in a flurry.

"Are you being serious?" Sona asked with a frown.

"What's wrong?" Eren asked, setting down his cake after only taking a few bites.

"...Are you aware of what day it is today?" Akeno asked.

"Sunday."

"Sunday, March 30th." Akeno corrected.

"Oh," Eren said plainly. Then he picked up his saucer and started eating his cake again.

"'Oh?' That's all you have to say? 'Oh.'" Rias was gesticulating wildly. "It's your birthday! I should have gotten you a gift. Or we could have gone to a park. Or had a proper party at the clubhouse! You only turn nineteen once!"

"Eighteen," Eren corrected her simply.

"You told me you were seventeen on the day we met," Sona accused. "You never said anything about your birthday!"

"It's not important." Eren shrugged again. "It's just another day."

"It is important," Akeno chastised him. "If not for you, then for others who know you. A celebration of the day a loved one came into the world. If you do not wish to have a large party, that is fine." Rias looked like she would protest, but the Queen shot her a look. "But you should spend a birthday with people you love."

"I... suppose," Eren said reluctantly.

"Do you have something against birthdays? Or were they not celebrated in your culture?" Yuuto asked, munching on his own slice of vanilla cake.

"It wasn't unheard of," Eren shrugged. "But either I was too young to remember, food was tight, I was in training, or on a mission of some sort. With everything that happened, we never really took the time to celebrate that kind of thing. Our parties were for victories, for survival, and even then, they were bittersweet. Memorials. Too many dead."

"So you never had a real party? Just have fun and be happy?" Rias asked with a frown. Her and Sona's birthdays were usually extravagant festivals put on by their families. Their Peerage, while not to the same degree, was still doted on, so they were large affairs hosted in the underworld. "One where you can just be happy, play some games, sing and laugh?"

Eren froze, cake halfway to his mouth.

It was like all sound ceased at that moment. Like the very world was holding its breath.

"Eren?" Sona asked as the mood in the clearing shifted.

"There was... one," Eren said, his voice thick with so much entangled emotion that even Koneko paused her eating to look at him. "It wasn't a birthday thing, though. Wasn't even planned."

The group of young devils shared a look. Clearly, they had stumbled, inadvertently, on heavy ground.

Did they let it pass and hope the awkwardness faded, or did they press to learn more about their enigmatic friend?

"Tell us about it," Sona gently coaxed.

For a long moment, there was silence, as if Eren would hold this secret tightly to his chest as he did so many others.

As if he couldn't trust them yet with such a memory.

Then he spoke, words tinged with a deep longing, filled with love, affection, and nostalgia.

And guilt.

There was so much guilt it clogged his throat tight.

"I had rescued a young boy from a beating," he narrated, voice distant as the words came out in halting steps. "Ramzi. A nomad travelling with his family. A thief. He took me back to their camp. My comrades joined me. We laughed. We sang. We drank. We ate. It was so different from everything we had ever known. We were so happy. For a fleeting moment, I thought..." He trailed off as if the next words were too painful to speak.

But someone there had experience with this kind of thing. Who cared enough not to let Eren Yeager wallow in his painful memories alone.

"What did you think, Eren," Rias asked, resting a caring hand on the dying boy's arm.

"That I could run away," he admitted as if confessing a great sin. "Leave it all behind. Far from war. Far from death. Leave all my responsibilities behind. Live out the few years I had left in peace and happiness, even if I knew doing so would doom my friends without me. Four years. That was all I wanted. Four years. I didn't want to die. I didn't want to kill people. That night, all I wanted was four years with the woman I loved."

There was a collective intake of breath.

Eren had never spoken of love before.

Never even hinted at romance or experience in such. To know he once had someone like that and never spoke of it...

Eren was prepared to die alone on a bench on the other side of the world from everything and everyone he had ever known.

It didn't take a genius to know this story didn't have a happy ending.

"What happened?" Sona asked just as gently as her rival, though her hand fell on the boy's shoulder.

"Three words," Eren rasped. "That's all I needed to hear from her. Three words, and I would have left everything behind. All my plans, my revenge, my rage, my freedom, all of it. Three words, and I'd dedicate my last four years to making her as happy as possible in the time I had left. Three words, and I would have hope. She told me three words, but they were not the ones I wanted to, needed to, hear. I was trapped by my own hand and knew I would... We could never..."

Nobody said a word as Eren took a deep breath that could have been mistaken for a sob.

"I left the next day," he continued. His voice was dead. Completely flat once more as if all the emotion of the last few minutes had been an illusion. "Nothing could stop me then. My plan went off without a hitch. Everything was exactly as I wanted. I fought my friends to do it. Sasha died."

Sona gasped lowly, but her hand remained tightly on his shoulder.

"So did Hange. And others. So many others. Captain Levy was handicapped. So many of my other comrades died in the infighting. And I don't even know if most survived after... After. But they weren't the only victims. So many more innocent, guiltless lives were lost. Ramzi. His friend Halil. His grandfather. Everyone who was with us that night. Who had taken us in, laughed and sang with us. Many more whom I never knew. So many. All dead. All at my hand. Trampled under my feet like bugs into the mud. I... I killed them all."

Eren could say no more.

The Sitri report had nothing on this, this attack or plan or whatever it was. Which meant only one thing.

There had been no survivors.

Nobody else said anything, either. They just kept their hands on the blind boy, reassuring him that they were there.

They were good kids. Despite being devils, they were not murderers or soldiers. They wanted to go to school with their friends. They wanted to live their lives, grow up, fall in love and fulfill their dreams.

They had been hurt by the world, and were not normal by any stretch, but they were good kids.

Eren Yeager was a monster.

If what he had just confessed was true, then he was a murderer who had killed not just his enemies but also his allies and an unknown number of innocent lives. A killer who sacrificed countless lives for his goals.

A Devil worse than actual devils.

But feelings don't care about morality.

They stayed. They, with their silent presence, continued to reassure Eren.

That he wasn't alone.

That he, too, despite the terrible deeds done, was cared for.

There is no complete evil. There is no absolute good.

There are only people.

Even the Devil can be loved.

The cakes sat forgotten as white bandages dampened with tears.

A year was such a short yet long time for the boy on the bench.

********

Thanks to my beta: Old Man of the Mountain/Darklord331

Sometimes, something simple, innocuous and entirely mundane can change your world. It comes out of nowhere and destroys us.

A well-told story. A party with friends. A hand extended in kindness.

Something what means nothing to others can mean everything to us. That human experience unites us.

We are born alone. We die alone.

We must never live alone.

This ends the first part.

I'll be waiting for you all, next time, on the bench.

 

[ReadingDangerous]

Rias Gremory stared at the cooling corpse of Issei Hyoudou.

Crimson stained the area.

Blood had stopped flowing from the gaping wound in his chest as the heart stopped beating. Blood still pooled below his body, seeping into the dirt below in ugly splotches.

Regret welled up within the heiress as she stared at the body of her junior.

She had been so focused on training herself and her Peerage, on getting strong enough to reincarnate Eren, that she had let the task of ruling Kuoh fall to the wayside.

Issei had paid the price.

The boy had been a pervert and a nuisance to many, but he hadn't deserved this. Didn't deserve to die, stabbed to death in a public park and left to rot in the open for the morning birds to feast on.

His parents didn't deserve to stay awake at night, wondering where their boy was, not knowing he would never return home.

Rias could have stopped this.

Could have kept a closer eye on the Fallen in her territory. She might have gotten here in time if she had dedicated her forces to their appropriate duty instead of having familiars watch over Eren and focusing on training.

It was pure luck that Issei had a flyer to summon her in his last moments. After handing most of her duties off to Akeno and Sona, this was only the second time she had been summoned. He must have had an enormous desire to live in his last moments.

A part of Rias wanted to blame Sona, but she knew that was unfair.

Unlike Rias, the Sitri was fully occupied. She was busy with the Student Council affairs and the additional duties of running the school, and she also had to handle her own Peerage's training, education, and recruitment. And she was helping lighten Rias' burden when it should have been them both ruling Kuoh.

Another part of Rias tried to deny responsibility in this matter.

Yes, the fallen had shown interest in Issei, but killing him was utterly outside their standard behaviour.

For the last few decades, the Grigori had been on a hiring spree, snapping up every Sacred Gear holder they could find and recruiting them to their side. It was concerning, as it seemed like they were building an army, but the fallen organization hadn't made any hostile moves, so the cease-fire held.

For a group of fallen angels to kill a Sacred Gear holder on devil territory, one unfamiliar to the supernatural and with as little potential as Issei seemed to have, was so out of character that Rias felt it was completely reasonable to not expect this to happen.

All those reasons and more did not change the guilt and responsibility Rias felt as she looked at the unblinking eyes of a teenage boy who never got to live a full life.

With a long sigh, Rias internally cursed her kindness.

Once again, it was going to get her in so much trouble.

With a wry grin, Rias placed the pawn on the dead boy's heart and went through the motions and words of the ritual to bring him back to life as a reincarnated devil.

If there was one thing hanging out with Eren had taught her, it was to take responsibility for her faults.

And yet, nothing happened.

Blinking in surprise, the Gremory looked down at the boy.

Then she tried again with two pawn pieces.

That failed as well.

Finding Sacred Gears was in no way an exact science to the magical community. If it was, they'd know who had one of the Longinus as soon as they were born.

A big part of it was a simple 'feel.' Koneko was one of the best sensors around, and she had said Issei's aura was absolutely pitiful. Less than a devil child's.

Had she gotten lucky again? Could it be that Issei's Sacred Gear was powerful enough to make up for his absolute pitiful reserves of power? That had been the limiting factor in why she hadn't approached him before, despite seeing hints of a Gear.

Sometimes that happened, where a Sacred Gear was so unique that its abilities did not translate into power that could be felt but in some sort of utility that was extremely useful despite their low output.

The idea that Issei Hyoudou, one of the perverted trio and all-around average human, could have a Sacred Gear based on growth did cross her mind, but the most common of those types, Twice Critical, would not require multiple pawns from her after her recent increase in strength.

Rias couldn't think of others that would explain such a low beginning output yet still have enough potential to require three pawns from her.

Well, that wasn't strictly true.

There were two Sacred Gears that fit that bill perfectly, but the idea that Issei Hyoudou could have one of the Twelve Longinus was even more unlikely than the thought of Eren suddenly breaking into song.

For a moment of brief hope and a giggle at the mental image, Rias replaced the pawns with her last Knight, worth three pawns, and went through the process again.

Still, nothing happened.

Rias' mood fell back down to the bottom as she replaced the Knight piece with her last Rook.

A Rook was worth five pawns. If even this wasn't enough to reincarnate Issei, Rias didn't know what she would do.

She still had to save as many pawns as possible for Eren.

If Issei was worth six or more pawns, would she let him die to try and save Eren?

Even knowing there was an excellent chance the sickly boy would still turn her down, even if she became strong enough in time?

Issei was an innocent if mischievous teenage boy whose greatest crime had been peeping. His Sacred Gear had to be incredibly powerful to make up for his own lacking abilities. He might even be the key to breaking off her engagement. Given that she still had years before the due date, it would be plenty of time to train him to a useful level, regardless of his Gear.

Eren Yeager, by his own admission, was a mass murderer who had killed innocent and guilty alike. Even if he was reincarnated, it would be years before he was 'useful' with his Ki. Touki and Senjutsu just took longer to train than almost everything else by their nature. Her cousin had been trying for years without success.

Issei might not deserve to die, and Eren might not deserve to live. Both came from vastly different backgrounds.

The choice between the two was evident.

From a strategic standpoint.

From a moralistic standpoint.

Would Rias Gremory let Issei Hyoudou die for only the possibility of saving her friend?

Guilt reaffirmed its ugly head as the answer came to Rias.

Yes.

She would let Issei die if it gave Eren a chance to live.

The intelligent answer was Issei.

The one Rias Gremory chose, in her heart, was Eren Yeager.

Rias Gremory, for all her youthful cunning and ambition, had never chosen based on strategy or morals.

At her core, Rias Gremory was a greedy devil who would choose her family, her Peerage, and her friends over morals, herself, or even the world.

It was no wonder she got on so well with the Devil.

If the Rook piece failed, she would let Issei die.

Yet, Rias Gremory was still a lucky girl.

The Rook sank into the chest of the dead boy as he glowed red in the crimson light of the Gremory magic circle.

Rias breathed a sigh of relief as the hole in Issei's chest knitted itself together. A healing process based on Phenex tears and one of the reasons Evil Pieces were so valuable. It would see Issei in perfect physical shape in a few moments.

Picking him up quickly over one shoulder, Rias teleported him to the address listed in his wallet. A light touch of hypnosis on his parents sent them to bed early after getting directions to his room.

She needn't have bothered. Only one room was covered in anime posters and porn magazines.

Rias did spare an appreciative glance at his collection of figurines. She'd have to ask where he got that rare Goku. Most depicted either black hair Goku or post-Super Saiyan.

A mid-transformation figurine was pretty rare, and the hall at her family's home dedicated to her hobby had more than enough shelves left for one of her own.

Her job done for the night, Rias returned to her nightly training.

Only very rare cases required her direct attention regarding a summons. An hour had passed between getting called and getting Issei settled in his bed. No significant time had been lost, and now she had another cute Rook to join her little family.

A good night, despite the tragic start.

Tomorrow, she'd call him to the club room and give him a basic explanation of his new situation. She'd also need to start getting the Grigori to recall their agents. It would take a long, convoluted string of messages passed between intermediaries that Rias wasn't looking forward to.

Both factions were technically still at war, even if they were in a cease-fire.

Still, she and Sona couldn't tolerate them killing people in her territory. They might get away with it this time due to Issei not even being a contractor, but it would send the wrong message to the vultures that watched the two heiresses if it happened again.

And Issei deserved some justice.

Guilt, gratitude, and enthusiasm rose within Rias at the thought of her newest servant as she reappeared in her training grounds.

Issei might not have been as close to her as Eren was, but now he was her newest Rook. That could change as they spent more time together. They were family now, after all.

Rias didn't even want to think about how much Issei would have cost her if she had tried reincarnating him before she started training in earnest. It would have cost at least seven pawns if not all eight.

She might not have been able to at all, leaving a boy to die due to her inattention.

And yet...

The self-reflections of the night continued to weigh on her.

Rias Gremory didn't think of herself as a bad person. She hadn't been lying when she talked about being a 'good' devil. The Gremory family was famous for treating their servants well, but Rias was incredibly kind even among them.

Some chalked it up to youthful nativity that would change with age, while others saw it as a symptom of the peace the current generation faced. Either way, compared to most devils, Rias Gremory was practically a saint.

And yet...

That kindness had never cost her anything, she realized now.

It might have if her luck hadn't been so strong. Sometimes, she suspected her brother or family of orchestrating things to her benefit. Still, baring the situation with Koneko, none of her other servants had shown any sort of manipulation. In fact, in the case of Yuuto and Gasper, her family had been actively against their reincarnation.

For Rias, kindness usually came with rewards rather than costs.

But tonight, she had confronted a part of herself she didn't think she liked.

Even when she had first approached Eren, she had expected to be able to reincarnate him with one pawn. His sickness and her family's rejection of him would have hurt, but his experience would have been worth such a paltry cost to her.

At least, that was how she justified it to herself looking back.

It would have been a price, but not a large one.

Choosing Eren over Issei, when it had been partly her fault the perverted boy had died in the first place, had been eye-opening.

Words spoken a year ago floated to the forefront of her mind.

"When someone is a good person, it just seems to mean someone who's good for you. Nobody's good to everyone. So if someone doesn't help me, they're a bad person."

Did it matter if she wasn't a good devil?

As she destroyed another of the training blocks, each as dense as an entire mountain condensed into the shape and size of a human body, Rias let her frustration at herself flow out.

Things had worked out this time, too, and if she continued to work hard, everything would turn out well in the end.

Rias Gremory would make sure of it.

********

"How do you do it?"

"Hm?"

Rias took a moment to think about her words. The question had slipped out almost unconsciously as she packed up her manga for the night.

Questions about Issei, herself, her actions, and her guilty conscience had plagued her all day. She had tried to proactively address all she could to take her mind off the subject.

Sona knew about the Fallen's actions and her newest Rook.

Rias had started the process of having the Grigori either remove their agents from the town or having them declared as rogue agents.

She had introduced Issei to the club, explained the basics of being a devil, and gave him the tutorial on the new world he had found himself in.

Issei had been a bit out of it. He had died the night before, after all, but the mentions of High-Class devils getting peerages and the possibility of a harem had the boy as motivated as she had ever seen anyone.

Then, they had set about trying to manifest his Sacred Gear.

That was partially why she was so late to meet with Eren today.

It looked like a regular Twice Critical, but it couldn't be. Not with the cost of reincarnating Issei. So that left...

Had she been willing to let a Longinus slip through her hands, of becoming the first devil to reincarnate a Dragon Emperor, all so she could potentially reincarnate one dying boy? One who might reject her?

Once again, once Rias searched her heart, she had found the answer, and it continued to torment her.

"Your choices," Rias ended up saying. "How do you know when you make the right ones?"

"You don't," Eren shrugged. "Nobody does. Sometimes you make the right ones, sometimes you don't. Only after time has passed, at the end, do you know if what you did is correct. And sometimes, there is no right choice. I learned that the hard way."

"And if you make the wrong one? How do you deal with the guilt?"

"What is this about, Rias?"

The redhead sent Eren a smile he couldn't see at his showing of concern.

"I have a new club member," she started to explain. Eren nodded for her to continue. "I'll introduce him to you later. He's... lively."

The idea of the perverted Issei Hyoudou and the sombre Eren Yeager sitting and talking on this bench tickled Rias' funny bone.

"And you feel guilty towards this boy?"

"Yes," Rias admitted easily. Baring the supernatural, she had no secrets from Eren these days. "He was hurt badly due to my inattention. His invitation to the club was partly to make up for it. We are quite popular, you know?" She bragged with a smile.

Eren didn't smile.

"Do not let guilt make your decisions," he cautioned. "Taking responsibility is important, but never let it exceed your own actions. If you take responsibility for other's actions, you are absolving them of their own sins."

"Speaking from experience again?" Rias couldn't help but ask, always eager to learn more about the boy.

"Not mine," Eren shook his head. "I took responsibility for my actions in the only way I knew how. Years ago, a man felt so guilty for the crimes of his ancestors that he decided that not only should he pay the price, but untold innocent people should as well. He had options, so many possibilities, but he chose one of the worst because of his guilt. But Fritz's," Eren practically spat the name, venom lacing his voice. "Actions were his own. So are yours."

Understanding he was prodding for more explanations, Rias continued to word it as best as she could.

"I am not feeling guilty for what I actually did," she clarified. "It worked out in the end. But..." She paused, trying to find the words to put her struggle in terms Eren could understand. "Helping Issei, that's my new junior, by the way, cost me nothing. But it could have. And if it did, I don't think I would have helped him. And, I guess I feel guilty about that. And I wonder if I can call myself kind, good, nice, or anything like that if I only do those things when they don't cost me anything."

Eren was silent, and Rias appreciated that he gave her worries appropriate thought.

"I don't understand the issue," he eventually said. Rias frowned at him but let him continue. "You know my thoughts about 'good' people, but you are you, not me. If being kind or good is important to you, then yes, you will have to pay a price for that. But that is how life is. Everything has a cost, whether in time, resources, or life itself."

"I know that," Rias sighed, frustrated that Eren wasn't seeing the problem. "It's just... what if, next time, I have to pay something I am not willing to pay? Even if I want to do the right thing? Even if it's the correct choice? What do I do then?"

Eren continued to frown in thought.

"I still don't get it," he admitted but held up a hand to stop her from saying anything.

It smacked her in the face.

"Sorry," he apologized, a hint of sheepishness in his normally placid voice.

"It's fine."

It hadn't hurt at all, and it was her fault for sitting so close to him to hold his hand and press into his arm to get more skin contact to heal him. If he cared at all about her prodigious breasts pressing into him, he never commented.

"Anyway," he continued. "As I said, I still don't get the problem, but I can give you my own advice and the advice of my friend."

"Your friend?" Rias asked, hoping to get a more specific answer.

Sometimes, Eren spoke of people, places, and events they hadn't been able to track down. They had gotten a clue recently when he had mentioned 'remaining four years' during their surprise party, but they hadn't been able to link that time frame to a concrete event.

The more information he provided, the better their chance of understanding who Eren actually was and what he had been through.

"My best friend," Eren nodded. "The smartest man I've ever known. And one of the kindest. Despite that kindness, he used to have this saying. 'Someone who can't sacrifice everything can never change anything.' Only when you are prepared to sacrifice everything, even your humanity, kindness, and morals, can you accomplish your goals."

"So I should give up on being kind?" Rias asked.

That didn't sit right with her.

"If that's what it takes," Eren shrugged. "This is where my advice differs from his, even if he is smarter. You need to sacrifice something to achieve something, but only sacrifice what you can afford to lose. You have to choose what you absolutely cannot let go of. You hold onto that and never let it go, even if it means sacrificing everything else. Sometimes, you don't know what that is until it is time to make that choice. Sometimes, you think you know what is most important, but then you make a different choice. But, when you do, when you make that choice, make sure it is one you can live and die with. Even if it is not the kind, good, or correct choice."

"Is that what you did," Rias couldn't help but ask. "After... the party?"

"It is," Eren nodded gravely but not sadly. "I chose, knowing I was sacrificing almost everything for it. It was the wrong one from absolutely every standpoint but my own. But it was one I could live and die with."

"And they made a different choice? Your friends?" Rias asked, but she already knew the answer.

"They did," Eren nodded. He didn't sound sad, just regretful. "I could sacrifice my humanity for the future I wanted to build. They couldn't. They made a choice."

"Even if you were doing everything for them?" Rias felt infuriated at the thought that Eren, who had sacrificed so much, had been betrayed by his friends. He hadn't said as much, but she could read between the lines.

Why else was he here in Kuoh, left to die alone in exile?

"I do not blame them," Eren shrugged. "And neither should you. They made the right choice. The one I pushed them to. I am happy none of them were as monstrous as I am."

"You aren't a monster," Rias replied instantly. Eren didn't look convinced, so she plowed ahead recklessly. "That was the problem I was having. Helping Issei almost meant I couldn't help my friend. And, if it did, I wouldn't have helped him. Even if it was my fault. So I am like you-"

"Don't be like me!" Eren interrupted sternly, and her mouth clicked closed at the steel in his voice. "Never become like me!"

"But-"

"No, Rias." Eren interrupted again. "I am not someone to be admired, looked up to, or imitated. If a god exists in this world, he will ensure another Eren Yeager is never born."

"I am happy you were born!" Rias insisted, tightening her hold on his arm.

"So am I," Eren sighed, the stubbornness seeming to drain out of him as he rubbed a tired hand over his face. "This isn't me saying I shouldn't have been born. But Rias, part of the reason I did everything was to ensure nobody was forced to become like me ever again. What makes you think I'd want one of my friends to become me instead?"

Rias didn't answer.

That had been the first time Eren had ever called her a friend.

"Choosing your friends and family over strangers does not make you a bad person," Eren said, resting his other hand on top of hers so he could hold both in his hands. "Nor should you be kind to everyone equally, especially if you are faking it. That pisses me off. But you should always be aware of what you are sacrificing. It is a cold calculation. If you decide your friend is worth more than your kindness, their happiness is worth more than yours, or whatever you give up is worth it, that is your decision. I refuse to take that choice from you or from anyone. I just wish you never have to make the sacrifices needed to become me."

"But what if I have to?" Rias couldn't help but ask.

That was the source of her fear and her guilt.

Not what had happened but what could have been.

"You will make hard choices," Eren said simply as if predicting the future. "You will have to sacrifice something. That is the only way you will accomplish anything. But you will never become me. You are too kind for that. Just as they were. And I am glad for it."

Rias hadn't gotten an answer to her question.

She still felt guilty the next day when she saw Issei and sent him off on his bike to deliver flyers. Rias still didn't know if she was happy with the revaluations of who she was or what choice she would make in the future.

All she knew was that she didn't like that Eren had compared her to his old friends.

Eren Yeager clearly didn't understand how selfish a Gremory devil could be, but he'd learn.

Rias Gremory would never give up on her friends. Not on her family, her Peerage, or the boy waiting on the bench.

********

Thanks to my beta: Old Man of the Mountain/Darklord331

We're officially in canon time now, and things will both speed up and slow down, story-wise. I mentioned in the last chapter that it was the end of part 1. That doesn't mean in story length or even chapter numbers. I'm dividing this story in my head based on key moments rather than length.

Boosted Gear was worth 7.9 pawns for Rias (A powerful young devil with enormous potential), and Issei was worth .1 pawns. That was the only reason she could reincarnate him in canon, and (as far as I am aware) no other Boosted Gear holder ever became a devil.

For those who hope I will Issei bash or do something similar, I am sorry to disappoint you. I stick as closely to cannon characteristics as possible, the good and the bad. His character is worth exploring, and I can go deeper into the others, too. Also, don't expect me to have Eren suddenly become someone else to shoehorn him into canon situations.

Finally, I have been getting a lot of questions regarding 'fanon' and such about DxD. As I mentioned, I steer clear of anything that explicitly goes against canon, but the nature of DxD is such that it was written with barely any long-term planning, unlike AOT.

Take the Riser situation. It occurs in volume 2, and it is mentioned that it was pulled forward from initially being set after Rias finishes her education. It isn't mentioned at all in Volume 1. But it wouldn't make any sense for her not to at least think about it, have some plans about it or consider it. A lot of fanfiction paints her as lazy or unmotivated, but we have to understand that, as readers, we only see what the author writes. If he doesn't write about something in one volume, it doesn't mean it isn't happening in the background. It's just that the story isn't relevant till later.

Could canon Rias have trained more, gone actively searching for specific recruits, or dedicated her entire life to getting out of the marriage? Sure, but that would be a boring character to read about and go against every other aspect of her character. Especially with serially published stories (manga, anime, light novels), we always have to be ready to recontextualize what we know of characters in light of new knowledge.

Here is an example: From the position of knowing the ending of AOT, knowing that it is a future explicitly designed by Eren and Ymir, reread the manga or rewatch the anime. If you do that, almost all the questions and problems most have about the story are easily answered. (Not all of them. There are still issues, but they are small compared to the most glaring ones people point to.) (I highly recommend doing this anyway. It is even more enjoyable when you know the end, as you see the secrets Isayama hid along the way and get the subtext instead of just what is explicitly stated.)

Either way, I hope you will continue to visit me on the bench.