บท 64: The Wings of Love
The first sign that something had gone wrong was when Arthur suddenly hesitated mid-swing.
Things hadn't been going right, per se, but they had been holding their own. Keeping Eren from getting any closer to Lillith.
They weren't winning by any stretch of the imagination, and this part of the Underworld would need to have its maps redrawn, but still, they could have kept Eren at bay for at least another half hour if he continued to fight as he did.
But when Kuroka's clone noted Arthur's unexplained pause, a sense of foreboding overtook her.
She'd been staying in the back, unwilling to fight Eren but also making sure these battle-hungry idiots didn't get themselves killed, so she had the best view of the situation.
She felt the slight swell of magic from a device he wore right before the pause. There was a heartbeat as Arthur's sword hung in the air, missing several white lances that shot toward his undefended neck.
Kuroka's clone conjured a barrier that delayed them long enough that Arthur could dodge, severing the spears as they passed and gouging a furrow into his shoulder. Thankfully, it wasn't deep, but blood did splatter his face, and he had to take off his glasses.
"Le Fay's spell went off," the Pendragon said quickly. "...The one monitoring Elaine's well-being."
It took Kuroka's mind only a moment to realize what he meant.
Oh, Eren.
Why were you so cruel?
But... that was how it worked with Eren, wasn't it?
He chose a Path and walked it, no matter the cruelty.
Now, Arthur had to choose between staying and helping his team fight Eren or the woman he loved.
Kuroka knew what he would choose.
After all, Eren had promised him the opportunity to reunite with Elaine, and here it was.
"Go," Kuroka said simply. "I'll step in."
"Make sure they're safe."
That was all Arthur said, trusting Kuroka as he cut a hole through space with Collbrande.
Leaving Kuroka to pick up the slack as the only one who could rapidly teleport the combatants around the battlefield.
She was a poor replacement. Teleportation was not her specialty, and she lacked Collbrande's speed.
But she was the only one they had.
********
Arthur emerged from the tear in space to find his family home in ruins.
"There you are," Siegfreid greeted amiably, his calm and welcoming expression at complete odds with the destruction around him.
Or the blood covering him.
"Hm? Oh, this isn't their blood. I finished my task for Eren before coming here and they put up a fight. Fun, but not worth remembering."
"Seigfreid," Arthur greeted, just as politely with Collbrande levelled at the hero. "What are you doing here?"
"Calling you," the clone of the dragon slayer said simply, nodding toward the two prone figures on the ground. His own six blades aimed right back at Arthur. "Eren needs you out of the way."
"Am I supposed to let myself die, then?"
"Hmm? Oh no." Siegfreid stepped away from the bruised and battered forms of Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father, and Elaine Westcott, Arthur's lover. "I have no intention of using them to kill you. They're just here to make sure you stay. So we can fight."
Arthur tried to think of the implications of all this, of Eren's need to get him off the battlefield specifically, and why Siegfreid specifically.
Like Kuroka, it didn't escape his notice that this was a twisted way for Eren to keep his promise.
Still, one thing did stand out to him.
"Eren sent you here to die," Arthur said simply, though not unkindly. "You've never beaten me before. If we fight now, with their lives on the line, I will kill you. If you leave now, I won't chase you."
"I know I'll die today," Siegfreid nodded, settling into a stance. "We all do. Today is the last day of the Hero Faction."
"There's no heroism in this fight. You attacked them unprovoked. They are human. Reclusive. You are not a hero for fighting me while holding my family's lives hostage."
"A bit dishonourable," Siegfreid agreed, not budging from his preparation for the oncoming battle. "But it needed to be done. I asked for this fight and am willing to dirty my hands to get it."
At Arthur's look, the clone smiled.
"You didn't know? Eren told us the day we'd die. But he let us choose how it would be. The others wanted to be remembered, be greater than their predecessors, or see the pinnacle a human could reach."
Seigfreid shrugged as if saying, 'What can you do?'
"I wanted something else. I wanted to see how far I could get with this cheap life of mine. You are the greatest human swordsman in the world."
"There are better."
"Devils and monsters. Beings who have no idea what it is like to be born limited have to trade lifespan for power. No. You are a descendent of King Arthur, trained by the best, wailing the greatest Holy Sword. I am a clone specifically created to handle the greatest Demonic Sword. Which of us is the best? I am here because I wanted an answer to that question."
"You already have one," Arthur said simply, sliding into his own stance. Collbrande glowed white, ready to cut anything to pieces. "By your admission, you will die here."
"Yes," Siegfried smiled, Gram radiating a malevolent red in response. "But just because I'll die doesn't mean I'll lose."
********
"Stubborn, thick, blockheaded, suicidal fool!" Kuroka's clone listened to Sona curse Eren as she relayed Arthur's disappearance.
Honestly, if it weren't for the situation, Kuroka would be giggling at seeing the normally prim woman come undone from the stress.
"Arthur was my emergency evacuation tool."
"Collbrande can cut space," Kuroka pointed out. "But it's a portal, not teleportation. Quicker, but people need to move through it, nyaa. He wouldn't have been able to evacuate the city."
"Not the city," Sona said, taking a deep breath, adjusting her glasses, and surveying the battlefield once more. "If it looked like we were going to lose, I was going to have him try to bring the Satans here. Mix their fight with this one to give us more time."
Her evacuation plan was to bring two of the top ten, four Satans, and Cao Cao? All to cause more chaos?
Kuroka was seriously starting to wonder if the mind behind those glasses was in any way sane... or if it had cracked because of the stress.
"Direct Lord Agaras to move his Queen toward the north," Sona snapped off. "More of the Titans bypassed Rias's position and are nearing the walls. If they get over them, it will be urban fighting. We'll lose the killing field we have here."
Kuroka conveyed the order to the devil through another clone.
Sona was quiet for a second, watching the chaos around and below them. The pair were flying high in the sky, both for the bird's eye view and because the shaking from the clashing giants in the distance was too destabilizing.
"I don't get it," Sona eventually said.
"Don't get what?"
"Eren's plan here. I know he'd prefer not to kill people he doesn't know or care about. He's targeting people who fight back. And the only deaths from those are the people who try to run after fighting back. Targeting the civilians seems like an afterthought, a provocation at best. He's already completed his task."
The pair watched Saji, clad in Vitra's complete avatar, swallow a smaller Titan whole and tear another to shreds. Seven more of the white giants dogpilled the Pawn.
Sona's fists were clenched as she watched, and her following words came through grit teeth of helplessness.
"No matter what happens now, even if all the Satans survive, it will be centuries before the Underworld is at a comparable power level. Rebuilding the same society will be impossible, even if Lord Beelzebub pulls out another miracle. Everything lines up with the fact he's stalling for time for my Aunt to get back... except for one thing. What is going on with Rias' Peerage?"
Momo and Tsubasa together managed to kill one of the Titans on Saji, giving him wiggle room to twist his body and bite off the head of another.
"What do you mean?"
"I thought Eren was just trying to spare the people he knew," Sona gestured toward the north, where a crowd of Titans was being decimated.
Despite the number of attacking giants being similar to everywhere else (That is to say, overwhelming), more were getting by to the walls because they ignored half the defenders.
"But that doesn't make sense. They attack Akeno, Yuuto, Koneko, or Rias as soon as they're damaged. Eren's not saving them. He's just letting them get a first hit. So why bother? Why not include Xenovia? He's met her. Or Irina? Why only those four? There's a clear cause and effect with every other part of his plan. Except that. There's something I'm missing."
Eren roared in the distance, hand clasping around Fenrir's neck where it had bit down on his side. Vali grabbed the arm and twisted it, freeing the God Devouring Wolf.
Eren's other arm, concealed by the move, had snaked around Gogmagog's leg and used the enormous golem as a cudgel, bashing the White Dragon Emperor on the head with a resounding 'GONG' that vibrated the air it was so loud.
Surprisingly enough, Kuroka actually had an answer to Sona's question.
It was one of those things that she simply didn't have time to explain in the frantic hurry of the last few hours.
"It's not you that's missing something," Kuroka explained simply once they could hear again. "It's Eren. He can multitask with all these Titans because he's cheating with the Path. Infinite time to direct and control them, seeing through the Titans' eyes. But he can't see those four. Or you, for that matter."
"What-" Sona started to ask but stopped when her eyes caught something. "Quick! Sairaorg needs to get to Seekvaria!"
Kuroka hurried to relay the message to the front line, and the golden lion blasted southward to save his friend.
Kuroka realized quickly what had Sona so spooked.
Another group of Titans were bearing down on the young devil King and her Peerage. There were only three, more than enough for Seekvaria to deal with usually, but these were different.
They moved fast, much faster than the usual giants, and travelled on all fours. Two looked almost identical, with odd faces of white bone.
On top of moving at greater speeds than regular Titans, all three had sharp claws that dug into the dirt and wicked, jagged jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth.
There was a tense second as the three new Titans lunged at Seekvaria's Peerage like rabid dogs, tearing into flesh with their claws.
Thankfully, Sona's quick warning had Sairaorg there before any were eaten. The wounded were carted off to Asia as quickly as possible as Sairaorg made quick work of the three new Titans.
As soon as the situation was somewhat stable, Sona asked her question, not taking her eyes off the battlefield.
"What do you mean Eren can't see us?"
"Part of losing his power in Kuoh, nyaa," Kuroka quickly explained. "Anyone he spent considerable time with there gains protection from his power. You are invisible to the Path, which means Eren can't see any of you unless he looks at you with his own eyes."
There was a beat of silence between the two women, but the noise of battle drowned it out.
Then Sona fully whirled to face Kuroka, fear writ large across her face.
"Is my Aunt included among those?" The heiress demanded. "Did Eren know she was in this world before meeting her?"
Wondering what had the heiress so spooked, Kuroka answered.
"She's also invisible, nyaa. He had no idea she was in this world until a few months ago."
Part of Kuroka knew that it was only because Eren had been ignorant that he was on this Path in the first place.
If he knew Mikasa was here the entire time, he probably would have simply spent his new life with her, away from everything and everyone.
Only with Mikasa's absence had there been room for Kuroka.
The nekoshou ignored that dark pit in her stomach as Sona bit her lip in thought, growing paler by the second.
"You should have told me this," Sona bit out, worrying her lip. "Send Rias toward my Peerage."
Kuroka did as she was asked, and the real her with Shirone alerted the devil King.
"Even if he can't see you, the future he sees is absolute, nyaa," Kuroka reminded Sona. "He can't see most people and has no idea what they do to help build the future. They still help build it. Even me."
"That's not the problem," Sona bit off, rubbing her temples. "But it means my plan, which was based on my idea of his plan, is fundamentally wrong."
"So far, you've-" Kuroka cut herself off as Eren's fight got closer.
The wind from a leg sweep created a wave of force strong enough to toss the two women flying, knocking about in the air.
Kuroka's clone caught Sona and quickly teleported them to another part of the sky.
"My initial premiss is still good," Sona said, quickly readjusting her glasses but not bothering with her hair as she returned to surveying the battlefield. "Eren is still acting like he's waiting for something instead of killing us all. But he's not waiting for my Aunt. He's not trying to replicate his death to make her seem like a hero."
"If he saw her with his own eyes, not the path, he would have known she was in this world," Kuroka nodded. "He still could be waiting for her, even if he doesn't see her again."
"No," Sona denied. "Eren doesn't want to die. But if he has to die, his death has to do something. Achieve something. He won't let himself die if it's not to make someone a hero, end the Titans, or something equivalent. He would have found a different Path. So either he's not planning on dying today, or whatever he's waiting for is worth dying-"
Eren roared.
Thunder boomed as new Titans were conjured.
The differences between these new arrivals and the first Titans were immediately clear.
There were more quadrupedal Titans with claws and fangs and similar ones that lacked animalistic weapons in favour of more human limbs while remaining on all fours.
A few looked similar to the regular Titans, just slightly larger and with pointed ears.
Some were animalistic, like bulls, wolves, or birds. There was even a sheep-looking Titan.
Others were still human-shaped but were clad in armour of varying thickness and styles.
Some bore weapons. Spears. Axes. Swords. Hammers.
And some... were women.
Kuroka could slightly understand why that last fact stood out so clearly. After seeing so many Titans with no sexual characteristics, seeing breasts on one of those giants was decidedly eery.
For a while second, she wished the Hyoudou boy was still alive. His face would have been priceless.
But that thought passed in the blink of an eye.
Thankfully, there were no Founder or Colossal Titans.
That, and the fact that there were fewer total Titans than before, were the only blessings as Kuroka beheld a small army comprised of the Nine Titans.
Whatever Eren had been waiting for, they were out of time.
"DOWN!" Kuroka shouted, grabbing Sona and diving toward the ground as arrows filled the sky.
"We can't fight this!" Sona shouted. "Not without the army!"
"We'll have to!"
"You need to help us!"
"I am helping!"
Kuroka pulled up at a sharp angle, skimming the ground, rising a bit to get a better look at the battlefield before ducking behind a half-destroyed building.
It had been a few seconds since the arrival of the Nine Titans, and it was clear things were already turning against the defenders.
The weaker Peerages were already on the retreat from the increased ferocity, and even the stronger ones were struggling.
Sairaorg might still be able to kill one with a punch, but it was only one. And sometimes he needed multiple hits if it was one of the Armour or Warhammer Titans.
The quadrupedal Titans were nimbler and quicker, and the Warhammer, Armoured, and Female Titans were tougher. Even the Attack Titans were simply better designed than the Pure Titans, with more optimal bodies for fighting.
Half of the attacking Titans were able to simply bypass the defenders because the devils were so pressed to survive they couldn't draw their attention.
Vali and his team were still holding Eren back, but Arthur's absence was felt with every step closer Eren grew to the city.
They had gone from holding out in a defensive battle to just trying to survive.
The city, its citizens, and all the refugees were on their own, and the Titans were moments away from the walls.
Walls not meant to keep out giants.
"You can help more!" Sona shouted back as two Jaw Titans and a Cart Titan rounded the building they had been hiding behind, looking directly at them.
Kuroka's clone quickly hid herself in an illusion, knowing that Sona was invisible to them.
The devil heiress had frozen, like a hare staring down the houds.
The Titans were only about three times her size, but a miss-step would be enough to kill her.
Sona was not Rias. Her power was not strong enough or suited to carve out the back of their necks.
For a tense moment, the Titans stood there, their heads swinging back and forth, but Eren's poor sensing could not locate Kuroka's clone, and the trio bounded off in search of more prey.
"You are a seven-tailed Nekoshou," Sona hissed angrily. "A master of Senjutsu, Youjutsu, and magic. You are one of the few Ultimate class beings we have! You should be fighting!"
"I can't fight Eren," Kuroka argued as her invisibility fell. "I won't! I am helping enough! Or are you forgetting who's saved the most lives today!?"
"And you could save more!" Sona snapped. "I've sold out my race, my morality, my dream, and maybe my life for this. I don't care if you love him. I love Eren. I'm still fighting him!"
"I can't!"
Because Kuroka's whole plan to save Eren's life was based on one of the first flaws in the Path's abilities she had discovered.
Eren had to actively look for a potential future for his ability to come into effect. For example, he'd never look into a future where he became a devil, so he'd been blindsided by his inability to become one.
And everything Kuroka had done since she fell in love was to make sure Eren never thought to look into a future where 'Kuroka betrays me.'
It was why she had been willing to let Mikasa kill him again because Eren needed to die with a smile on his face.
Eren's future sight was absolute, and Kuroka wanted him to have that smile he desperately ran toward.
But it was after that death that her betrayal would come.
But what if Eren looked into a future where he faked his death? One where he was 'dead' in a way Kuroka couldn't sense, and she went ahead with her plan?
Eren would never allow her plan to succeed if he knew it, so she did absolutely everything she could to ensure he never felt the need to look into a future like that.
There was a reason she thought of her plan as a betrayal after all.
Sona glared at Kuroka, all the last day's heartbreak, pain, fear, and exhaustion packed into that glare.
Kuroka bore with it, unbending.
She felt for the girl. Even liked her.
But Kuroka would not give up on that dream of hers.
Not for anything.
The tense moment was broken when another scream tore through the air.
It wasn't Eren's earth-trembling roar.
It wasn't a scream of pain from loss of limb or pain.
No, it was a scream of despair.
Of loss.
A heartrending cry of sadness and grief.
"What was that?"
Kuroka's clone took a second to process the information she received and grimaced.
"The former exorcist let slip that the Red Dragon Emperor is dead to the dhampir. He's going absolutely berserk."
Sona took a second to digest the information, and then she glared at Kuroka.
"He's going to attract the Titans," Sona summarized simply. "He was sealed for a reason. Gasper going berserk is going to be a genuine threat Eren won't ignore, if not to himself, then to his Titans."
"You want to use him as bait, nyaa?"
"No. He'll do that on his own, and Rias will be there to protect him. Send her back over. Eren saw this happening because Gasper isn't protected from the Path, right?"
"Right."
"But your sister is?"
Kuroka's heart skipped a beat.
"If you won't fight to save our lives, then you will to save hers, right?"
"Be very careful with your next words, girl. I killed my King for less than what you're threatening."
"I won't do anything," Sona denied, almost sounding affronted. "But if I have to use every tool to make sure we see tomorrow... well, I've already done worse than simply point out a fact."
"What are you talking about?"
"Merely that Eren's blindness to those four and myself is an advantage... and a weakness." Sona adjusted her glasses. "You say he's smiling in the end? Is that why you've felt safe this entire time? Because he wouldn't be able to smile if he hurt you or Koneko? Then you haven't realized the problem."
Eren had told Kuroka that she'd survive.
She didn't doubt him, knowing that he genuinely cared for her and that he wouldn't be smiling in the end if she was hurt or dead.
"Eren could accidentally kill one of us and have no idea," Sona said simply. "If he doesn't see it with his own eyes and doesn't get news between now and whenever he dies, he'd have no clue what he did. He could be smiling the whole time, unaware that he accidentally stepped on someone without noticing. I imagine identifying all the bodies after this will be a nightmare, and I don't think Eren intends to live long after this."
Sona wasn't arguing that Eren would be able to smile if they died. Just that the blessing of not being visible to Eren was as much a curse.
"I'm right there with her," Kuroka argued back. "I won't let anything happen to her."
"Eren's already ramped up once. Who knows what he'll do once the army is back. You won't be able to protect her when there are a dozen Ultimate class devils fighting. One stray spell is all it will take. Your best bet to make sure your sister survives today is to make sure Eren is stopped as soon as possible."
"If it gets to that point, I'll just take Shirone and run."
"Will she let you?" Sona pressed. "If you succeed, will she forgive you?"
There was a moment, a beat, as the tension hung in the air.
Then, another roar from Eren mixing with Gasper's screams of sorrow.
The rubble they were hiding behind bounced as the ground rumbled from another blow in a battle of giants that was drawing closer with every breath.
Kuroka broke the silence between them first.
"You are a real Devil."
"I learned from the best."
********
Despite her words with Sona, Kuroka, the real one, didn't suddenly throw herself at Eren.
No, she stayed with Shirone.
Shirone, lacking as she was with Senjutsu, couldn't deal any real damage to the Titans. She'd gotten a few kills from smaller Pure Titans, but that ended with the assault of the former Shifter Titans.
Her enhanced durability helped her stay alive, but the Rook strength didn't mean much in this league. Not when blunt force was useless unless it fully destroyed the spine.
So Shirone wasn't one of the main combatants.
The white nekoshou didn't let that stop her for a second.
Her face was the empty blank it had been since they found Hyoudou's body, but she moved with all the determined anger of a predator.
If she couldn't kill Titans, Shirone would simply help those who could.
Her tiny form was almost invisible in this battlefield of giants. Unlike the others, the Rook didn't take to the air, instead staying on the ground and darting between enormous feet.
Thanks to a small discovery that Titans were lighter than creatures their size should be, Shirone had found a way to help.
Invisible to the Titans, Koneko placed herself right under where an Armoured Titan's foot would fall.
Like a super strong tack, she caught the descending foot with her raised arms right before it hit the ground. Its considerable mass pressed down on her, and she braced her knees to not buckle.
She held that position for a half second, and one could almost imagine the Titan's confused face if it could think for itself.
Then, Shirone pushed off the ground with all her might, using every ounce of strength she had.
Seeing a sixteen-meter-tall giant stumble because of a tiny girl barely a meter and a half tall was honestly hilarious.
Shirone couldn't throw Titans unless it was one of the smaller ones. Even though they were lighter than they should be, they were still massive.
But she wasn't trying to throw them.
As the Armoured Titan fell forward, it exposed the back of its neck to the sky.
A blast of holy lightning destroyed the spine, armour plating and all, as Akeno flew by.
It was a well-coordinated, well-planned small group tactic that allowed Shirone to work with whoever was nearby. Rias, Akeno, Xenovia, Kiba, Irina, or someone else who could finish the job for her.
It was also stupidly dangerous.
Already, Kuroka had to pull her sister out of the way a few times when a Titan was about to crush her without her being in a proper position to catch its descending mass. Or when a Warhammer Titan turned out to have spikes under its feet. Or when a Jaw Titan nearly tore the Rook apart while she was still held down by a foot.
It had barely been thirty seconds since Gasper Vladi had begun his rampage, becoming a mass of shadow and blood-red eyes that froze Titans in time before ripping them to pieces.
In that time, Shirone would have died seven times if not for Kuroka.
It was after the seventh time that there was a brief pause in fighting for the younger nekoshou due to Gasper's rampage getting closer.
Kuroka expressed the wish she had been holding this entire time.
"Let's run away."
Shirone looked at her, and Kuroka's hands balled into fists, the cane handle creaking slightly.
Kuroka hated that blank look in her eyes.
Shirone used to be so expressive and happy.
"I won't."
"Please, Shirone," Kuroka begged. "If Eren wanted us dead, we'd be dead. We can leave. Just for a little while. A day. Half a day. My clones will stay here, helping people. We'll be safe. You'll be safe. I'll make sure your friends are fine."
"My family," Shirone corrected. "And family doesn't leave family."
It hurt.
It hurt so much.
"...Eren's my family," Kuroka admitted lowly. "Vali, Le Fay, the others. They're my family too. But I can leave them behind because I know they can care for themselves."
"And I can't," Shirone nodded, not seeming hurt by the implication. As if she had always known. "I need to be saved. I can't defend anyone. I can't hold onto anyone. Issei-senpai was a better Rook than me."
"You don't have to be a Rook," Kuroka said kindly. "You can just be Shirone. Not everyone needs to fight. I never wanted you to fight. That's what Onee-sama is for."
"...You're like Ackerman-sensei," Shirone said, and something was finally in her eyes. Pity? Empathy? Love? Sadness? "You're too strong. Too reliable. People count on you, and you try and protect them."
"Onee-sama wouldn't kill Eren for humanity," Kuroka denied.
"...But you don't understand the protection," the white cat continued, ignoring the interruption. "You don't understand that we want to be strong enough to protect you too. That every time you protect us, that you leave to do something we can't, a small part of us dies."
Shirone's small hands clenched into fists, and she held up to her sister.
"We might not be strong, but we can do something. A tiny thing. I can't kill Titans. I can't fight Eren. But I can help those that can. I couldn't save Issei-senpai, but I could have been there for him when he died. I won't leave them alone."
"...Is it wrong to want my family to be safe and happy?"
"...Nobody should be alone," Shirone said softly. "If you are running ahead or running away, you leave everyone alone. I can't do that."
Shirone turned, ready to dive back into battle.
Kuroka stopped her from advancing right before Gasper's power swept the area in front of them, freezing time for all within.
That was the problem with rampages.
Even if they gave you a burst of power, it was often accompanied by an accompanying problem for your allies.
This wasn't the first time Kuroka had stopped someone from becoming a casualty to the dhampir's unrestrained Sacred Gear, but there was a difference this time.
The hand she had held out to stop Shirone had been the one holding the cane.
Her cane.
Eren's cane.
The one she had made for him when it became apparent his body was starting to shut down.
It wasn't fully engulfed in the temporal freeze. In fact, only a small part of the handle was frozen.
If Kuroka was willing to cut those two wings in half, she could free it.
If she wasn't, then something could come by and destroy it, or she'd have to stand guard over the item until time unfroze, and who knew when that would be? Gasper's Gear wasn't following the usual rules at the moment, and the usual deadline had passed for many Titans that were still frozen.
Looking at the cane suspended in the air, Kuroka couldn't help it.
She laughed.
"Nyahahahahaha," Kuroka laughed and laughed and laughed and cried.
Had Eren seen this? Planned this?
Or was this just a byproduct?
A ripple in time that would crash into others until they formed a wave that would help carry him to the future he wanted?
It didn't matter, did it?
Everyone built the future with their choices. Eren just reached the end before everyone else.
A clone appeared beside the cane.
Another appeared beside Shirone, who looked at her laughing and crying sister with worry.
"Hey, Shirone?" Kuroka said softly, rubbing her eyes and giving her sister a watery smile. "When this is over, do you want to live with Onee-sama and Bother-in-Law? We have a really pretty house. Vali and the boys destroy the valley sometimes, but Onee-sama is good at fixing it by now."
"...Nee-san?"
"It won't just be us," Kuroka continued, wiping off her tears. They just kept coming. "Mikasa might come to if she can stomach it. Your new family can visit too. We'll be happy. We'll be safe. We'll be together. Everything we ever wanted. Eren will make his cookies, and we can play games while eating them. And there'll be kittens. The cutest kittens in the world."
"...That sounds nice, Onee-sama."
"It would be," Kuroka allowed herself to hold to that dream a final time, pulling Shirone into a soft hug. "Wouldn't it?"
Then Kuroka let go of her sister and teleported beside her clone, who had just teleported Le Fay away.
She didn't say anything, just starting to transform.
Everyone knew that almost all Yokai had a shapeshifting ability of sorts, to look either more or less human. The more human, the weaker they were.
Nekomata, and nekoshou like Kuroka and Shirone, could turn into cats, unsurprisingly.
What was slightly less known was that the stronger a Yokai, the greater their transformation ability. Their exact nature varied based on species.
Monkey Yokai, for example, gained more flexibility in the number of transformations. Sun Wukon was famous for his numerous forms. Kitsune grew in size. Yakasa, fully transformed, was larger than most dragons.
There had only ever been one seven-tailed nekomata, and Magari's transformation was similar to Kitsune's growth in size but to a lesser degree.
Kuroka wasn't just a nekomata but a nekoshou.
A variant of the species specialized in Senjutsu so rare that she and her sister were the only known nekoshou she knew of.
When Kuroka transformed, she grew in size, too, but it was barely twenty meters tall.
Compared to the spell-enhanced Gogmagog and Fenrir, the Titanico-clad Vali, or even the diminished Eren, she was little more than the size of a house cat.
Even her shape wasn't anything new; she was just more panther-shaped than a regular cat and having seven tails instead of one.
But nekoshou were never physical fighters in the first place.
Kuroka's roar mixed with everyone else's as thousands of spinning wheels of black flame surrounded her.
The Kasha spun like shuriken, lancing forward and cutting into Eren's back, ignoring his Senjutsu like it wasn't even there.
Eren screamed in pain at the sudden attack, though Kuroka knew for sure she hadn't taken him by surprise.
That was why she had been so adamant about not fighting him.
Because if Kuroka fought Eren in this timeline, the one he chose, it meant she fought in others.
He would look into others to see her abilities and what actions he could take to ensure he didn't kill her yet still achieved the desired outcome.
And, in those futures he didn't choose, in some of them, she'd die. On accident or not, it didn't matter.
And he'd see it.
Eren literally could not stop himself from seeing an entire timeline when he looked into one.
In those timelines, he'd grieve for her. In some of them, he might end up searching her body for one reason or another. Or maybe someone else would. Maybe her holding spell would simply fail, and its contents would spill out.
The last price she had asked of the Satans in exchange for betraying Eren.
A single Evil Piece. A Queen.
One mutated when Kuroka demanded that it be created with a splinter of wood from a bench as part of the deal.
If Eren saw that in another timeline, he'd know it was for him. And if he learned it now, it meant the past versions of him would know it, too.
Either Kuroka went her whole life never giving Eren the knowledge of what she planned, or he had always known.
There was no in-between.
As black flame burned.
As the Kasha cut into Eren's back.
Kuroka's claws tore into his legs, thighs, back, and shoulders.
As Kuroka tried to bite into the back of his spine, her teeth scraped across the crystal that protected him.
As Kuroka failed to pull Eren from his Titan yet continued to strip him of Senjutsu, disrupting his Ki as she could so that the other's attacks could do more damage.
As Kuroka destroyed her hope for the future for the sake of her sister's safety, she couldn't help a trickle of terror.
That Eren hadn't been waiting for Mikasa.
That Eren had been waiting to die at her hands.
That all his delays, all his holding back, had been to give her the time needed to come to a decision.
It had been a fear since she realized what Mikasa had done in her world.
Would he do it all again?
Would Eren require Kuroka to be the one to end his life to get that smile?
Then space tore as a colossal rent in the fabric of the Underworld's reality opened in the sky.
Eren, his Ki disrupted, in pain, off balance, shrunk, and weakened, was unable to defend himself as a fist the size of his head clad in a red and green gauntlet punched him in the face.
[EEEEEERRRRRRREEEEEEENNNNN!]
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ReadingDangerously
ReadingDangerously I'm not going to lie, guys. I'm not doing so hot. Been sick all week and only barely starting to get better today, and I've barely written anything. The only reason there is even a chapter today is because I like to keep a buffer of at least half a chapter in case of emergency, and even then, it's nowhere near as polished as I would like.
What does this mean? It means I could, theoretically, hurry and write the next chapter and have it available Sunday. If everything goes great and nothing unexpected happens, it will still be a mess due to a lack of time to edit.
I won't do that.
So, this is the only chapter this week. I rushed to the end of my last fic, and the story suffered for it. I don't want to do it again. It is a bit of a disappointment, but it will lead to a better story in the end.
About this chapter: Kuroka has been an... interesting character to write. In many ways, she's like a more expressive Mikasa. In others, she's been a wholly unique character. I always wanted her to be the type of character that exemplified AOT's habit of forcing characters to choose what they value at their most basic, most profound level.
Annie to return to her father. For Floch, it was a safe Eldia. For Historia, it was Ymir. Eren with Mikasa and Armin. Despite loving others and having all sorts of connections and concerns, these people are forced to throw away parts to protect what truly matters to them.
Someone who can't sacrifice anything can never change anything.
Kuroka, as I hope comes across, loves Eren deeply. But, no matter how I write her, I can't imagine her picking a man she loves over Shirone. Not if I want to stay true to her character. If Eren couldn't see the future, if he wasn't so hell-bent on getting to that endpoint, she would have done anything to get that dream of hers.
Forced to choose between her dream and Shirone's safety (and what Eren's doing to achieve his smile), she chose the latter.
Koneko also shines, I think, when she had her sister to play off of. Nowhere near as expressive, but loving in her own way. Very family-focused yet shaped by the trauma of her life. Issei's death simply solidified the beliefs that had been taking shape throughout this fic.
I will meet you all, hopefully feeling better, next Friday on the bench.
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