~Takashina Residence, Private Training Field~
*CRACK!*
A blue slash appeared directly in front of Soutarou’s chest…
There was no warning beyond the minute shift in Mamako’s shoulders nearly thirty meters away.
And yet Soutarou twisted his body and raised one hand…
Golden light erupted across his palm before darkening into a black sacred radiance.
The slash struck his barrier.
*BOOOOM!*
The training field shook…
Soutarou slid backward several meters, his shoes carving two lines through the reinforced earth before the force dispersed.
Across the field, Mamako stood with a sword held in each hand…
At thirty-two, the uncertainty of the eighteen-year-old who’d once approached Soutarou at a funeral had disappeared…
Her chestnut-brown hair now fell in smooth waves past her shoulders…
Her expression remained warm and gentle by nature…
But ten years of training had refined her body and movements into something no ordinary person could mistake for harmless…
The blue sword rested in her right hand…
The red sword burned in her left.
Neither blade had gained elaborate decoration…
Both remained almost strangely plain…
Simple steel-colored guards, dark handles, and blades defined primarily by their impossible colors…
Mamako’s violet eyes widened in immediate worry.
Mamako lowered both swords and anxiously called, “So-kun!
Was that too much?!”
Soutarou straightened and dismissed the cracked barrier before reassuring, “I’m fine, Mamako-nee.”
Mamako took one hurried step forward as from the edge of the field, Lavinia raised one hand and firmly ordered, “Mako-nee…
Don’t stop in the middle of the exercise.”
Mamako froze while Lavinia stood beneath the shade of a reinforced observation awning…
Her long blonde hair spilled down her back beneath the familiar dark hat she continued wearing even at twenty-seven.
Time had only matured her beauty…
It hadn’t however improved her ability to remember where she put ordinary household objects, nor had it changed the strange divide within her personality.
At home, Lavinia could easily become lost while walking between two stores she’d visited for more than a decade, but at the same time inside a battle or training field, she was frighteningly precise.
Mamako looked toward Lavinia before worriedly saying, “But the barrier cracked…”
Lavinia crossed her arms and patiently reminded, “Sou-chan designed the barrier…
Sou-chan told you to strike it…
And Sou-chan spent the last three months complaining that you keep reducing the force whenever you think you might hurt him.”
Mamako’s lips formed a small pout.
Soutarou almost smiled.
‘Lowest edge of Ultimate Class…’
That was where Mamako currently stood while actively using her Sacred Gear.
Her ordinary human body would never have reached that point without assistance…
But the twin swords responded to her protective instincts so naturally that every year of training produced results no one else could reasonably explain.
Soutarou had spent countless hours helping her develop that power.
Very…
Very…
Very hands-on hours.
Correcting her grip…
Guiding her mana circulation…
Teaching her how to mark targets for the red flames…
Standing at different distances while she learned to place the blue sword’s slashes directly within her awareness…
Allowing her to test how long her sword’s Soulfire could remain active against his own resistance…
And discovering that Mamako’s power increased dramatically whenever she genuinely believed someone she loved needed protection.
She still didn’t know the Gear’s true name, neither did Lavinia.
But the two plain swords had pushed an ordinary human woman into Ultimate Class…
So obviously at the very least the swords were Longinus level…
Soutarou glanced toward Lavinia, as her own power had reached Mid Ultimate Class without becoming a Devil…
A result of relentless training, natural talent, Absolute Demise, and years spent refining all of that…
Soutarou himself stood above both of them…
High Ultimate Class…
Not because he possessed greater experience than Lavinia, nor because he’d trained harder than Mamako, but instead because his bloodline, reserves, and ability to shape magic through imagination gave him a foundation so absurd that every year of growth simply widened the gap.
Mamako reluctantly raised her swords again as her violet eyes became focused.
Soutarou settled into his stance.
Lavinia lowered her hand and calmly announced, “Continue.”
Mamako vanished.
*BOOM!*
The earth cracked beneath her previous position.
Soutarou turned as the red sword descended toward his shoulder.
He caught the flat of the blade between a layer of golden light and his reinforced palm.
Red flames spilled across the barrier.
They produced no physical heat…
Instead a sharp spiritual pressure scraped against Soutarou’s soul.
He released the blade and stepped back.
Mamako followed.
The blue sword moved once.
Three spatial slashes appeared behind him, above him, and directly beneath his left foot.
Soutarou’s eyes sharpened.
The structure of each attack unfolded before his sight.
Soutarou smiled and lightly declared, “Got you.”
Mamako blinked.
Then her cheeks puffed.
Mamako indignantly protested, “That doesn’t count!
You know my attacks too well!”
Soutarou withdrew his hand and teasingly replied, “Whose fault is that~?”
Mamako’s pout deepened and immediately the red sword’s flames brightened.
Soutarou immediately raised both hands.
Soutarou cautiously amended, “You did very well.”
Mamako’s expression transformed almost instantly.
Mamako brightly asked, “Really?”
Soutarou nodded and sincerely praised, “Hm.
Your second slash nearly caught me.”
Mamako happily dismissed both swords before rushing forward and pulling him into a hug.
Lavinia stared from the observation awning.
Lavinia rubbed her forehead and tiredly muttered, “Mako-nee…
We were still training.”
Mamako tightened her arms around Soutarou and warmly answered, “Positive reinforcement is part of training!”
Soutarou rested his chin against her shoulder and looked toward Lavinia.
‘Can’t argue with that.’
Lavinia’s stern expression lasted another second before softening as she walked toward them and sighed.
Lavinia pointed toward the house and instructed, “I suppose breakfast first…
Then we can continue.”
Mamako released Soutarou only long enough to grab his hand properly…
At seventeen…
After a decade of supernatural training…
While possessing enough demonic power to erase most Devils from existence…
Soutarou was still led inside like a child who might wander into traffic if Mamako released him…
And he didn’t resist one bit.
~Takashina Residence, Dining Room~
A dark Kuoh Academy uniform rested across the back of an empty chair.
Mamako-nee had ironed it three times and Soutarou knew because she’d told him three different times.
The first ironing removed the wrinkles, the second was apparently to make sure the first had worked, while the third happened because Mamako-nee became worried that leaving the uniform untouched overnight might allow the wrinkles to return.
Soutarou ate his breakfast while Mamako adjusted the jacket’s collar for the fifth time.
Lavinia sat opposite him and poured tea.
She poured until the cup overflowed.
Soutarou watched the tea spread across the saucer, but Lavinia continued pouring.
Soutarou calmly reminded, “Nia-onee-chan.”
Lavinia looked down and her eyes widened before she hurriedly straightened the teapot.
Lavinia embarrassedly said, “I-I was thinking.”
Mamako immediately retrieved a cloth and gently reassured, “It’s alright, Nia-chan.”
Soutarou stared at both of them.
‘Mid Ultimate Class magician…
A Longinus wielder…
Defeated by a cup of tea…’
Some things hadn’t changed no matter what.
Mamako wiped the table before returning her attention to the uniform.
Mamako emotionally murmured, “My So-kun is really attending Kuoh Academy…”
Soutarou took another bite of rice and dryly replied, “It’s a school, Mamako-nee…
Not a something crazy.”
Lavinia lifted her cup and quietly added, “Well…
There are two Devil heiresses, several reincarnated Devils, multiple familiars, and quiet a few supernatural wards…”
Soutarou paused, while Mamako’s eyes widened…
And all of a sudden Lavinia realized her mistake as Soutarou slowly turned toward her and Lavinia lowered the cup and weakly corrected, “But I mean…
It’s only a school.”
Mamako’s hands immediately settled upon Soutarou’s shoulders.
Mamako worriedly questioned, “Do you really have to attend that one?”
Soutarou placed his chopsticks down and gently answered, “I’ll be fine.”
Mamako remained unconvinced before Soutarou covered one of her hands with his and added, “You know I’m stronger than everyone there.”
Mamako hesitated before quietly admitting, “That doesn’t mean I have to like it…”
Soutarou smiled slightly.
‘And she thinks I’m the one who might stop caring because she’s human.’
He squeezed her hand and Mamako finally relaxed enough to return to her chair.
On the table beside Soutarou’s plate rested Kuoh Academy’s newly printed information packet.
The cover proudly announced the beginning of a historic transition.
| KUOH ACADEMY – A NEW COEDUCATIONAL FUTURE |
The public explanation was filled with predictable nonsense…
Modernization…
Expanded opportunity…
Changing educational needs…
A commitment to serving the entire Kuoh community…
Soutarou had read every page and he believed exactly…
none of it.
‘Kuoh was an all-girls academy for generations…
His lips twitched.
‘How…
charitable.’
In the original story, Yuuto Kiba’s enrollment been the justification for opening the academy to boys, but that logic no longer existed…
You see…
Yuuto- No….
Yumi Kiba was female in this world…
Not to mention she was also one year older than Soutarou remembered, both physically and academically, and would begin her second year alongside Rias and Sona.
Soutarou’s transfer placement would put him inside that same second-year cohort.
But the real question was…
There was no male Knight requiring an exception…
No existing reason to redesign the school…
So why?
Which then left the simplest answer…
Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri simply wanted a larger recruitment pool.
The two heiresses had incomplete peerages, a territory filled primarily with ordinary humans, and an academy containing almost no male candidates…
So they changed the academy.
‘They convinced an entire private school to abandon tradition because they wanted more options for their peerages…
Then again they probably bought the school board off…’
Soutarou lifted his tea.
‘Well I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same…
If I didn’t know where to find half a dozen Longinus users that is…’
Mamako picked up the packet and worriedly read through the safety policies again while Lavinia carefully placed the teapot farther from her cup.
Lavinia glanced toward Soutarou and curiously asked, “Why transfer now, Sou-chan?”
The question sounded casual, but it wasn’t really.
Lavinia knew Soutarou rarely did anything without reason.
Soutarou leaned back and offered the safest truth.
Soutarou calmly explained, “Kuoh Academy is useful…
The education is good, the facilities are better than my current school, and attending gives me a controlled way to meet the Devils managing the town.”
Mamako’s brow furrowed.
Mamako cautiously asked, “Do you want to meet them?”
Soutarou lifted one shoulder and answered, “Want is a strong word.”
Lavinia’s lips curved faintly as Soutarou continued, “But avoiding the Underworld forever isn’t practical.
I’m a Devil…
Eventually someone will notice.
I’d rather choose when and how that happens.”
That was true, it just omitted the mutated Evil Pieces in his lab…
The blood imprint he needed removed…
The peerage he intended to build…
The Devil houses he would eventually claim…
Not to mention the eternal lives he wanted to secure for the pair of them…
Add the fact that Rias and Sona were the safest doors available because Soutarou already knew enough about them to predict where their loyalties usually settled…
Well not perfectly…
After all, canon had already changed too many times for perfect predictions.
But the facts remained…
Sona Sitri was still disciplined, ambitious, and sister of Serafall Leviathan.
Rias Gremory was still compassionate, proud, and politically valuable, and of course sister of the public leader of the Devil Race…
Sirzechs Lucifer.
Not to mention both were considerably safer than approaching an unknown Devil bureaucrat and asking how to rewrite a dead devil’s blood imprint.
Mamako lowered the packet.
Mamako hesitantly asked, “You’ll still come home every day?”
Soutarou nodded.
Mamako pressed, “No staying overnight without telling me?”
Soutarou nodded again.
Mamako continued, “And you’ll eat the lunches I prepare?”
Soutarou smiled and agreed, “Every bite.”
Mamako finally brightened.
Lavinia watched the exchange and quietly asked, “What if the other students invite him somewhere?”
Mamako’s smile vanished all the while Soutarou turned toward Lavinia as she innocently drank her tea.
Soutarou narrowed his eyes.
‘Really Nia-onee-chan?!?
Damn sell out…!’
Mamako immediately began listing new rules.
Soutarou allowed her to continue while his gaze drifted toward the male enrollment materials attached to the packet.
Hundreds of names filled the preliminary roster.
Most meant nothing, but two did.
Genshirou Saji.
Issei Hyoudou.
Soutarou’s fingers tightened slightly around his cup…
The school opened in one week…
Rias and Sona wanted new pieces.
And two boys capable of becoming far more important than either currently understood were about to walk directly into their reach.
‘No.’
Soutarou took a quiet sip.
‘I’m afraid not this time.’