The last thing I remember was an ethereal blue glow. A blue glow I was quite familiar with. It was the same glow that fission reactors made, the Cherenkov effect. I had seen it a few times in my past life, that pale glow emitting from the water the fission rods were submerged in. That same color swallowed me whole before my memory was gone.
I gradually opened my eyes to see a ceiling in a dimly lit room, rays of sunlight peaking through drawn curtains. I was in the guest quarters of the Kyoto main shrine, I recognized.
I attempted to move, then realized I was partially weighted down. The reason had raven-black hair, soft skin, and an iron grip on my side. She had attached herself with the single-minded structural commitment of a limpet on a tidal rock.
Her arm was thrown across my chest, her fingers loosely curled against my ribs. Her head was tucked against my shoulder, black hair spread across the pillow in disarray. Her breathing was slow and even and warm against my collarbone, the rhythm of someone in deep, untroubled sleep.
I could feel the weight of her against me—almost all of her, because Akeno Himejima slept the way she lived, which was without any particular concern for the conventions of coverage. The thin fabric of what I was fairly certain was a black thong pressed against my hip, and the rest of her was exactly as present as that implies.
I lay still, enjoying her warmth, before my thoughts took over.
I had died. At least, I was fairly certain I had. Now I was in a spare bedroom with the work of art that was Akeno attached to me. The contrast between those two facts sent me momentarily reeling. But I soon settled back into her warmth, the perfect opposite of the cold feeling of death I remember like it was minutes ago.
After 59 seconds, I started cataloguing my condition.
I felt, odd. I felt no pain, stiffness, or anomaly. In fact, I felt better than I ever had. But still fundamentally different.
I looked to my left, grateful to see Shinjūka lying there next to me. Her presence in the connection was quieter than usual. I reached out through the bond we shared, a gentle pull on the thread between us.
She responded after a moment, slow and soft.
You're awake. Her voice in my mind carried the particular texture of someone not quite done sleeping, the syllables rounded at the edges.
I'm awake, I confirmed. How are you?
A pause that wasn't quite silence. I could feel her gathering herself.
The fusion was... She seemed to search for the right word. Exhausting doesn't cover it. There isn't a word that covers it. A faint impression of warmth came through the connection, something that might have been a wry smile. Your soul will feel it for a few days. The weight of it. Don't mistake it for weakness.
That explained the odd quality of my current state. Not physical exhaustion. Nothing in my muscles or my bones. It was deeper than that, seated somewhere below the reach of any physiology. A weariness that lived in the part of me that had apparently been rebuilt from the ground up while I wasn't conscious to protest the process.
I feel it, I said.
A pause, then something shifted in our connection, the drowsy quality sharpening slightly.
I love you, Toshio. The words came without preamble but were filled with emotion.
I'm so happy you survived. Both times. The alternative was something I did not permit myself to consider, and now I don't have to.
Something in my chest did a thing I didn't have a name for but was somewhat familiar now.
I love you too. I meant it in the way that was all-encompassing. I meant it the way you mean something you have examined from every angle and found to be true under all conditions. In addition to the emotions that seemed to be more apparent than before, it was hard to describe.
I felt the warmth of her acknowledgement, likely knowing exactly how I meant it.
Good, she said simply. Rest, my dear wielder. I will do the same until I fully recover. But I will always be here.
The connection thread quieted down, and I refocused on the girl next to me.
Akeno's fingers tightened against my ribs.
It wasn't a conscious thing. Her breathing didn't change, her body didn't shift, and the slow rhythm of her sleep didn't break. It was just a small, involuntary contraction of her hand. Her fingers pressed into my side with a quiet urgency that had nothing to do with waking thought and then released, and she settled again.
I stared at the ceiling for a moment.
Then I opened the system.
The notifications had been stacking since before I died, apparently, and the queue that materialized in my vision was substantial enough that I took a slow breath before beginning. Akeno's warmth against my side remained a constant, grounding thing as I started reading.
The first several notifications arrived in sequence, their blue text ordered and clinical in the way system text always was, indifferent to the fact that the events they were summarizing had nearly ended my existence entirely.
{Fusion system fused into Fusion system 2.0}
I read it twice. The implication was straightforward enough—the system itself had been rebuilt from the ground up apparently.
{Shinigami and hollow energies successfully fused. Visord status achieved. Arrancar status achieved.}
{Souls successfully fused.}
{Spiritual body and human body successfully fused. NOTICE: The fusion process has completely remade the host's body into a new being. All advantages of being a human and being a spiritual being now available.}
{NOTICE: System reconstructed from the ground up. System and host body fused components: DxD human body, DxD human magic system, spiritual body, shinigami constitution, hollow constitution, DxD senjutsu/touki circulation system.}
{Host status has changed.}
{Status
Name: Toshio Amano
Title: Fatal Survivor
Race: The Coalesced
Age: 17
Level: 1 (1 / 1,000,000)
Health: 100/100%
Coalesced Energy: 100,000,000
BASE FORM STATS:
Physique: A
Zanjutsu: S
Hohō: B
Hakuda: D
"?" FORM STATS:
Physique: ?
Zanjutsu: ?
Hohō: ?
Hakuda: ?
Spiritual Potential: EX
Soul Resonance: 99%}
I held the status screen open and stared at the race field.
The Coalesced.
It meant nothing to me on its own. A label applied to something that had never existed before, which meant the label itself was new, assembled from scratch to describe a category of one. I willed the entry to expand for more information.
{Race: The Coalesced: A completely new race as a result of fusing multiple race types from the domain of the Soul King and the domain of DxD. Further race fusion and evolution is now impossible unless otherwise modified by external forces. The fusion of a spiritual body and a physical body is the core of this race.}
All things considered, I was happy with how it turned out. After all, a very real possible reality was soul suicide. I continued to investigate.
{Coalesced Energy: The fusion of both shinigami and hollow reiryoku, human magic, and life force energy. The synergistic result is energy drastically more potent than any single energy type alone. The fusion and reconstruction process has greatly expanded the energy reservoir of the host. Due to the inclusion of life force energy, lifespan has been expanded by [total energy x 0.00001] years. Estimated lifespan: 1000 years. Further evolution is possible.}
A thousand years.
I read the number again with the same flat disbelief I'd applied to it the first time, and it remained a thousand years regardless of my opinion on the matter.
Mortality had always been the quiet arithmetic I'd kept in the back of my calculations—the variable that made every relationship in this world a kind of ticking clock I couldn't ignore.
Akeno, Rias, and the rest of the people I cared about in this world were devils. Devils whose lifespans stretched into centuries or millennia, depending on their power and circumstances. The gap between a human's decades and their centuries had been a thing I'd been quietly aware of since the early days of understanding what this world was—that particular arithmetic where everyone you love continues and you don't, which was its own specific category of grief that I'd been methodically not thinking about.
I also knew it was because of this fact, the fact he was human with a human lifespan, that the other factions looked down on me. At least, what I had been exposed to. The was likely the solution to that problem, and may be the in I was looking for to be accepted as a real player and ally to them.
Akeno's hand migrated south.
It was a gradual process, unhurried and apparently quite purposeful even in the total absence of consciousness behind it. Her fingers had been resting against my ribs. Then they were at my stomach. Then, with the serene inevitability of a tide following the moon, they arrived somewhere that made me close the status screen involuntarily.
I looked over and stared at her sleeping face, making sure she was still asleep.
Her slow breathing hadn't changed. She was, by every available metric, completely asleep and entirely unbothered by what her hand had apparently just grabbed. It didn't help that I had the typical male physiological morning response. Thankfully, her hand didn't move, just softly gripped me.
This girl was horny even in her sleep. I did my best to ignore the feeling and refocus on my new system.
{Level 1: Level system has reset due to new race. Currently, only 10 levels exist. Upon each level up, each base stat increases a letter grade, and energy reserves multiply by 5. Level-up requirements multiply by 10 per level.}
I appreciated the simplicity of the new level system, but I was also remiss in determining that it was going to be even more difficult to compare myself to the other beings in this universe. Unfortunate that it was just a regular letter grade, rather than a full one. The jump between S and SS and beyond, I'm sure, was immense.
Next was the stats overview.
{Notice: Stats now scale with strongest beings currently in the domain of DxD rather than the strongest human. See examples, which are due to average of stats per being, sheer energy, or unique abilities.
G = Human
F = Entry level Human sorcerer
E = Low-class Devil
D = Mesial Middle: Koneko Toujo
C = Middle-Class Devil: Yuuto Kiba
B = Mesial High: Akeno Himijima
A = High-Class Devil: Rias Gremory, Yubelluna, Sona Sitri
S = Mesial Ultimate: Rizer Phenix, Sairaorg Bael, Kuroka, Cao Cao
SS = Ultimate class: Grafia Lucifuge, Tiamat, Kokabiel
SSS = Satan & Seraph class: Leyline enhanced Lucion, Azazel, Serafall Leviathan,
EX = Heavenly Dragon, Deity, & Super Devil class: Albion, Draig, Sirzechs Lucifer, Hades
EX+ = Great Red, Trihexia, Full power Ophis
? = ? }
The stat scaling was immediately useful context. A High-Class devil sat at the A rank, and my base physique was sitting right there at A. My Zanjutsu had cleared that entirely, landing at S, which put it in the range of what this world apparently classified as Mesial Ultimate.
I turned that over for a moment. My sword skill, by the metric of this universe, was brushing against the threshold of ultimate-class beings. I suppose it made sense though, as sword skill was more muscle memory and technique, rather than a raw stat like physique. So in my transformation, it retained the most stat scaling. Which was interesting, considering my prior skill was SS. Did that mean there were techniques and skills that only supernatural entities could learn? Likely, the more I thought about it.
My Hohō sat at B, which put it solidly in the Mesial High range. My speed was core to my ability set, so I was happy with this. My Hakuda was a D, which I had no particular feelings about. I had never been a hand-to-hand fighter by preference, and the system had apparently been paying attention.
And these were just my raw stats. How much stronger would I be when using reiryoku or ki- well now coalesced energy, body enhancement? The thought made me eager to test it against someone.
Then there was the question mark form.
Every stat in that second column was a question mark, which meant the system knew something existed there and had chosen not to tell me what it was. I found that profoundly irritating in the specific way that locked doors are irritating—not because you can't eventually open them, but because the lock itself implies a decision was made to keep you out.
I had a gap in my memory. I remembered the Cherenkov blue glow consuming everything and then nothing, and then the ceiling of this room. Whatever had happened in the space between those two points had apparently been significant enough to warrant its own stat block with its own classification system, and the system had filed it under a heading it wasn't prepared to share. Or maybe I wasn't ready for it?
I wanted to know what happened to Yasaka. I wanted to know what had become of Lucion. I wanted to understand what I had apparently become for however long that blank space in my memory lasted and what that thing had done on a battlefield full of people I knew.
But that could wait for a conversation. I had more to go through. And I was enjoying my Akeno.
Speaking of, her hand on my member was shifting, resulting in further stimulation. I tried to ignore the distraction.
Looking at the stat scaling, I saw the three names next to EX+.
Great Red. Trihexia. Ophis.
Three entries that sat above the Heavenly Dragons, gods, the Super Devils, and everything else the scaling system had bothered to name individually.
I had no reference for any of them. No memory who they were, no entry in any of the knowledge I'd accumulated in my previous life or since arriving in this world. They were present somewhere in this universe and apparently strong enough that the system had created a separate bracket just to classify them. I remembered the name Ophis from a fanfic I read in my previous life, but it still gave me no reference for who that was or what their power was like.
Here's to hoping I didn't have encounter beings like that anytime soon.
The EX spiritual potential, by contrast, carried little surprise. Given what I had become, given the fusion of energies that had apparently rewritten me at the most fundamental level, anything less would have been weird. What I had been before, a human with limited spiritual power operating at the margins of what my body could contain, B was likely the ceiling. That ceiling was gone now, or at least so far above me that I couldn't see it from here.
What did surprise me was the number sitting directly below it.
Soul Resonance: 99%.
I stared at it for a moment before I expanded it.
The text that materialized was the kind of language the system deployed when it had decided that precision was insufficient and that only poetry would do.
{99%: It is the space between breath and silence, no longer something you enter, but something you are. The echo has become presence, and the reflection no longer stands apart—it moves with you, shaped by every truth you have faced and every piece of yourself you have accepted. What was once divided has been drawn into a single current, not by erasing what you were, but by allowing it to exist without resistance. The distance that defined your growth has thinned to something imperceptible, a boundary that no longer separates, only lingers. Still, there is a quiet tension at the edge of that union, like a moment held just before something inevitable takes form.}
I found myself smiling before I'd fully registered doing it. The abstract language had been impenetrable to me the first time I'd encountered it, months ago, some entry about a single-digit soul resonance percentage that had read like the fever dream of a philosophy student. Now it landed differently. Now it felt less like obfuscation and more like an honest attempt to describe something that didn't have a cleaner vocabulary. The system wasn't being evasive. It simply didn't have better words, and neither did I.
There was something quietly reassuring about that.
I closed the resonance entry and moved on.
The game panels materialized in their familiar arrangement, the interface rebuilt but recognizable in its bones, the way a house is recognizable after renovation. I let my gaze move across to the adjacent displays.
The figure was still there. The small, featureless humanoid outline that the system used to represent equipped items and accumulated damage.
I ran a quick assessment of it. No injury markers. No red indicators flagging structural damage or compromised areas. It was reassuring to know I was free from injuries. A hole through the skull would probably leave some kind of notation.
The item slots showed what I was currently wearing, which was not much, a fact I was acutely aware of, Akeno firmly reminding me.
Shinjuka's panel was right next to it still, showing the shikai form, but now radiating the slow-moving flames I'd come to associate with her and my abilities. Maybe it was my soul resonance or maybe a new appreciation of life, but I couldn't help but admire how beautiful the blade was.
Mmm thanks… mm.. wielder, I heard her mumble sleepily. It was actually quite cute.
I pulled up my skill list next, and I was surprised by the changes. Skills were now put into 3 distinct categories.
[A/N: Only modified/new skill descriptions are shown.]
{Personal Skills: The skills that only affect the host.
Perfect Memory (Rank X)Gamer's Altered Mind (Rank X)Gamer's Altered Body (Rank X)Observe (Rank 10: MAX)
Allows you to gather basic information about a person, creature, or object you focus on. Displays name, condition, threat level, race, sacred gear (if applicable), and a brief descriptive insight. Threat levels are on the same letter scale as above, and are relative to your current power and abilities.}
{Name:
Condition:
Threat Level:
Race:
Soul-bound power:
Descriptive Insight: }
Combat Instruction (Rank 8)Poison Resistance (Rank 6)High-Speed Perception (Rank X)Physical Damage Nullification (Rank 6)
Physical Skills: The skills that have tactile interaction with the world.
Cooking (Rank 9)Exercise (Rank 10: MAX)Advanced Swordsmanship (Rank 10: MAX)Shinken no Tenketsu" – True Sword of the Celestial Pulse (Rank 6)Pursuit of the Flash Goddess (Rank 2)Agility (Rank MAX)Runic Shunpo (Rank 3)
Energy Skills: The skills that generate, channel, or manifest energy within the world.
Energy Sense (Rank 1)
By attuning your coalesced energy to subtle external signatures, you have gained the ability to sense nearby living beings that emit any form of natural, magical, or spiritual energy. Current Passive Range: 100-foot radius. Current Active Range: 1000-foot radius
Coalescence Flow (Rank X): The fusion of energies into a singular pathway, including life force energy, human magic, reiryoku, and nature energy, all flowing with perfect synergy. Coalesced Energy Body Enhancement (Rank 1)
The user can use internal energy to increase speed, strength, and reaction time. Higher ranks allow for greater efficiency and greater improvements.
Dominion of Coalesence (Rank 1)
This skill represents a foundational mastery over coalescence energy, vastly improving the user's control, harnessing, and externalization of energy. As the skill increases in rank, it gradually grants the user absolute command over both internal and external spiritual (coalescence) pressure (Reiatsu). Internally, this mastery allows for more precise regulation and distribution of energy within the body, significantly improving efficiency in physical enhancement, healing, and energy-based abilities. Externally, the user gains the ability to project and manipulate their reiatsu deliberately, creating pressure capable of suppressing, intimidating, or even incapacitating weaker beings. At higher ranks, this skill will enable complete concealment of the user's presence, as well as precise, overwhelming concentration of reiatsu against singular targets. Additionally, each rank greatly accelerates the ease and effectiveness of learning and mastering new energy techniques. Currently, basic and high control is passive, With continued improvement, this dominion will eventually become as effortless as breathing.
Due to this skill, energy regeneration is now significantly enhanced based on spiritual potential:
F: 1% per minute | E: 5% per minute | D: 10% per minute | C: 15% per minute | B: 20% per minute | A: 25% per minute | S: 30% per minute | SS: 35% per minute | SSS: 45% per minute | EX: 50% per minute | EX+: 75% per minute | ?: 100% per minute}Wave Motion Creation (Rank 7)Wave Motion Singularity (Rank 1): Using wave motion and compressing superstring singularities into a single focal point, a dense, micro-black hole is formed, obliterating anything it touches. Wave Motion Beam (Rank 5)Poly-Casting (Rank 1): Able to cast 2 different energy skills at once. Multiple Casting (Rank 5): Able to cast RANK*10 of the same energy skill at once. Energy cost is multiplied by 10 for every additional spell past the first 2.
{Magic-based Skill Creation (Rank X): A foundational spellcrafting skill that allows the user to design and cast original spells from scratch. Because it exists beyond conventional limits, its growth is tied not to rank, but to the creator's intellect, creativity, and magical aptitude. The more complex the user's understanding of magical theory, elemental properties, calculations, physics, and runic orientation, the more potent and innovative their creations can become. This skill cannot be ranked up—only mastered through insight and practice.}
{Tier 1 – Create Flame (Rank 10): Forms a small flame for utility or combat.}{Tier 1 – Create Frost (Rank 10): Generates cold vapor that can lower temperature in a focused area.}{Tier 1 – Create Sparks (Rank 10): Releases static electricity in short, crackling bursts.}{Tier 1 – Create Water (Rank 10): Summons a small quantity of purified water.}{Tier 1 – Create Ice (Rank 10): Instantly forms a small block or spike of ice.}{Tier 1 – Create Earth (Rank 10): Conjures soil or compact stone from surrounding mana.}{Tier 1 – Create Wind (Rank 10): Generates a directional gust of air.}{Tier 1 – Create Light (Rank 10): Produces an orb of steady illumination.}{Tier 1 – Create Minor Illusion (Rank 10): Projects a visual illusion with no substance.}{Tier 1 – Flare (Rank 10): Projects a ball of fire the size of a tennis ball traveling roughly 30 ft/s}{Tier 2 – Fireball (Rank 10): Projects a volleyball sized fireball that travels around 60 fps, causing a small explosion on impact.}{Tier 2 – Icicle Lance (Rank 10): Projects a 2 foot long, narrow diamond shaped icicle, that travels around 70 fps. Tier 2 – Electric Shock (Rank 10): A small, singular bolt of electricity arcs to the intended target, briefly stunning them. Does not stun being stronger than the user. {Tier 2 – Water jet (Rank 10): A thin jet of water capable of cutting through most regular materials up to metal. {Tier 2 – Earth spike (Rank 10): Stomping on the ground causes a spike of earth to form directly in front of the user. Max spike length is 3 feet. {Tier 2 – Wind gale (Rank 10): Create winds in a small designated area up to 80mph. {Tier 2 – Create Illusion (Rank 5): Create a small visual illusion with no substance. It is only disrupted when another supernatural being touches it. {Tier 3 – Acetylene Annihilation (Rank 10): {Tier 3 – Acetylene Napalm Annihilation (Rank 10): {Tier 3 – Lightning Bolt (Rank 10):{Tier 3 – Freeze (Rank 6){Tier 3 – Earth Plateau (Rank 4){Tier 3 – Wind slash (Rank 10){Tier 3 - Wind Vortex (Rank 10){Tier 4 – Plasma Vortex (Rank 3){Tier 4 – Hardlight Barrier (Rank 5){Tier 4: Lightning Vortex (Rank 3){Tier 4: Acetylene Napalm Vortex (Rank 3){Tier 5 – Plasma Bomb (Rank 4)Kido:- HadoHado #4 Byakurai: A thin beam of compressed lighting. - BakudoHollow:Cero (Rank 1): A powerful, concentrated beam/blast of spiritual energy utilized by hollow-like beings.
High-Speed Regeneration (Rank 1): Able to channel energy into a wound to heal quickly. Missing limbs, severely damaged organs, heart damage, or head trauma can be healed at higher ranks. Requires exponentially more energy the more grievous the wound.
The skill reorganization into three distinct categories made the whole system feel cleaner, more intentional. Personal, Physical, Energy. A taxonomy that reflected what I had become rather than what I'd cobbled together.
I moved through all my skills with the methodical patience of someone taking inventory after a house fire, cataloging any changes. Most of what I'd built was still there, which was more than I'd had any right to expect from a process that had apparently disassembled me at the atomic level and made editorial decisions on the way back up.
The Cero entry was genuinely satisfying to read. The parenthetical notation that had sat next to the incomplete version for months. I'd apparently needed to die to earn it, which was a price I wouldn't have agreed to in advance and couldn't argue with in retrospect.
High-Speed Regeneration sat beside it in the same condition. The earlier version had been a half-measure, useful for surface damage and little else, the kind of thing that closed cuts but wouldn't touch anything serious. The new entry didn't specify limits the way the old one had, only that higher ranks would expand what it could address. Which meant right now I could handle things the previous version would have bounced off of, and further development would push that ceiling higher.
Something that was interesting to see were the changes to polycasting and multiple casting. Where before I was hard-locked to only casting 2 different spells simultaneously, I could now rank it up. That meant the potential ceiling had just increased. Multiple casting regressing a rank was a little annoying, but it likely had something to do with the change of my energy.
Speaking of which, a lot of my ranks for skills had changed, but with the 2.0 system essentially reconstructing it and myself from the ground up, it wasn't all that surprising. Honestly I was just happy to be alive. The whole fusion process could have detonated me like a hydrogen bomb.
I moved on to more notifications.
{Title Earned! Slayer of Primoridial Demons: Combat potential is increased by 50% when fighting ancient or primordial class demons.}
{Notice: Host can now equip up to 3 titles. Compatible titles can now be combined into one.}
{Notice: Compatible skills detected.}
{Title Combined! Slayer of Evil: Combat potential is increased by 25% when fighting devils, demons, and undead.}
{Title Combined! Ally of Devils: Cooperative attacks with other devils deal 15% more damage. Fighting with devil allies increases their combat potential by 5%, and yours by 10%. Devil allies within 10 meters of you are affected 40% less by mind control, illusions, and mental manipulation.}
Well that was a welcome addition; 3 titles at once was way more helpful. Fatal Survivor was definitely going to be a mainstay when not on the one week—oh, that changed.
{Fatal Survivor: If the user would take fatal damage, they do not die and are instantly healed to 50% health. This ability can only be used once a month.}
That made me wonder if every time I activated it, it would extend the cooldown. I guess it had to be balanced somehow. If I had to take an educated guess, the next cooldown time would be one year.
Combining titles was also helpful. That way, I could spread out my abilities with my limited title slots.
I was still turning over the cooldown extension theory when Akeno moved.
Not the small unconscious contractions of before. She inhaled and moved to stretch, her hand definitely not leaving what she was gripping.
"Good morning, pretty girl," I said, keeping my voice low.
For a moment nothing happened. Then everything happened at once.
"TOSHIO—!"
The name tore out of her at a volume entirely disproportionate to the size of the room, and then she was upright and her arms were around my neck and her entire weight had transferred itself onto my chest with a velocity that, three days ago, would have caused me to sustain some damage. The system's new physique rating absorbed it without complaint.
I wrapped my arms around her automatically, her hair against my face and her warmth flooding over me, and she was shaking with something that likely had been coiled in her for however long I'd been unconscious and was now releasing all at once.
"You idiot," she said into my shoulder. Her voice was muffled, but I could hear the tears in it. "You absolute idiot, you were dead, you were—" She pulled back just far enough to look at my face, her violet eyes wet and furious and relieved all at the same time, a combination that she somehow made look elegant. Her hands delicately framed my face, as if scared I'd break.
"I'm okay, Akeno," I said.
"Toshio, I thought I lost you," she lunged back into me, sobbing against my neck. "You're here. You're back, my Toshio," she choked out. With her body flush against mine, I slowly rubbed her back in an attempt to comfort her.
"I'm here, Akeno." She pushed herself up, straddling me. Can't say I didn't miss the view. But my eyes were drawn to her baleful expression.
"Don't you ever do that to me again!" A soft smile crept on my face.
"I won't." Her expression immediately softened. She began to inspect my body for injuries.
"Are you okay? Are you in pain? How's your, um, head?"
"Currently quite happy. Oh, you meant my actual head," I joked. Though it was no lie, it was between her cheeks after all. She rolled her eyes with a giggle.
"I'm intact, hun."
"I know you're intact; I checked about forty times." She said it with the particular dignity of someone who had made peace with that fact about themselves and was not apologizing for it. Her thumbs pressed against my cheekbones, and her expression shifted into something softer and more complicated that she let sit there for a moment before she pulled me back in, gently placing her lips on mine.
After a long, chaste kiss, she pulled back slightly. "Toshio, please, don't ever leave me again." I saw the desperation in her eyes. I hugged her tightly. "I promise."
She smiled.
I let her hold on for as long as she needed, which turned out to be a while. I didn't mind. She smelled like sleep and something faintly floral, and the warmth of her was specific and irreplaceable in a way I was now acutely aware of, having had brief firsthand experience with its absence.
"How long?" I asked eventually.
She pulled back far enough to look at me. "Three days."
I processed that. "Three days huh."
"Seventy-one hours, if you want the precise number." She said it without any particular inflection, which told me she knew the precise number because she had been counting.
Something in my chest did the thing again.
"Akeno—"
The door opened abruptly.
Another beautiful girl with blood-red hair barged in.
"Akeno, I heard scream— !" She froze once her eyes landed on and processed the sight in front of her. Akeno was still on top of me. And I was still very much in between Akeno's ass. Rias' face lit up in an atomic blush.
"Uh… um…" Her eyes were glued to it.
"You know Rias, it's not nice to stare," Akeno teased, "unless you want to join in that is~." I chuckled at her teasing. Rias, just as abruptly as she came in, did a 180°, standing ramrod straight.
While distracted, Akeno quickly wiped her lingering tears and recovered from her emotional outburst.
"Fufufu don't worry Rias. We weren't actually doing anything. Yet~."
"Akeno!" Rias said embarrassed. Akeno rolled off the top of me, covering me with the blanket.
"Okay, okay," Akeno giggled. "It's safe to look now." Rias peeked over her shoulder, likely to make sure the coast was clear Looking relieved that I was covered, she turned around, the blush still heating up her face. She obviously didn't care about Akeno's exposed chest, having seen it so frequently.
"Hey Rias," I said, amusement clearly in my voice from the girls' shenanigans. She took a deep breath and stepped closer to the bed.
"I'm so happy you're okay, Toshio. You really scared me— well, us." She indicated Akeno with a small gesture of her hand. I smiled genuinely.
"I am too. There's still so much life I want to live with you both." Rias' blush returned in full, her eyes widening. What'd I say? Akeno bumped me with her shoulder.
"Look at you go smooth talker~." I could tell she was enjoying my confusion.
"Was it not normal to want to live a long time with your friend and significant oth— OH." I connected the dots in my head.
"I uh, didn't—" Before I could finish, Akeno elbowed me, her closed, upturned eyes telling me to shut up. I sighed with a smile. Multiple significant others did sound nice. Rias turned away again, her hands cupping her cheeks.
"You both should get dressed. We're meeting in the main hall soon." She recovered from her blush and turned back around with a solemn expression. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions, Toshio."
"You'd be correct. We'll be out in a bit then." Rias nodded once, but not before quickly glancing at the tent in the blanket covering me, her blush returning again. She left quickly after that.
Once the door closed, I looked toward Akeno, staring lovingly at me. My heart did the thing again.
"I love you, Akeno." Her beautiful eyes widened some, but she quickly broke out into an absolutely beautiful smile, lunging into a hug.
"And I love you, Toshi-kun." After a moment, she pulled away from the hug and tossed the blanket covering me aside. Giving a sly grin, she used her finger to move my tip around.
"I think it's time we take care of this, don't you?"
My face fell into a resolute stare.
"Absolutely."
I'm sure she relished the hunger in my eyes.
All the high-ranking officials from some of the most powerful factions in this universe were just gonna have to wait their turn.