Yuuto lay sprawled on his couch, one arm draped over his eyes, a satisfied smile playing at the corners of his mouth. The apartment was quiet except for the soft hum of the refrigerator and his own steady breathing.
His body felt pleasantly heavy, muscles relaxed in a way they hadn't been in... well, ever, if he was being honest with himself.
'Life is Good,' he thought, the smile widening slightly. 'You know what I mean, right?'
He thought back to his previous existence—cramped apartment, instant ramen for dinner three nights a week, working a soul-crushing part time job that barely paid rent. The closest he'd gotten to female interaction was awkward eye contact with the cashier at the convenience store.
And now? Now he was a devil in a world of supernatural beings, had actual combat abilities, lived rent-free in a decent apartment, and—
His face heated up at the memory of what had just transpired in his bathroom.
"Work hard for more and better rewards, Kiba-kun~"
Those had been her parting words, delivered with that trademark sultry smile and a finger trailing along his jawline before she'd teleported away. The implications were crystal clear.
'I'm living in a goddamn harem anime,' Yuuto thought with a mixture of disbelief and gratitude.
Not that he was complaining. After years of barely scraping by, of being invisible, of watching life happen to other people—this felt like a blessing in disguise. Reincarnation as a devil? Best thing that could've happened to him.
His thoughts drifted to Akeno, to their conversation in the bathroom before things had gotten... intense.
'She's close,' he realized. 'So close to making peace with her past. One more push, maybe two, and she'll be ready to talk about it properly.'
The only wild card was her father. Baraqiel, one of the Cadre of Grigori, leader of the Fallen Angels. If he showed up at the wrong time, tried to force reconciliation before Akeno was ready...
'I'm not crazy to think of something like that after Roygun's surprise visit to me'
But aside from that, if he could get her to embrace both sides of herself, to use her Holy Lightning without the self-loathing that came with it...
'The Rating Game against Riser,' Yuuto thought, strategic possibilities unfolding in his mind. 'Holy Lightning would be devastating against a pure-blooded devil like him. We could turn the battle greatly in our favor.'
The problem was getting Akeno to that point. It required time, patience, and careful emotional support.
'I should spend more time with her,' he decided. 'She's actually opening up, which is more than I can say for Koneko.'
He thought about the white-haired Nekoshou, who'd been accompanying him on morning sessions and gladly accepting his cooking in exchange for "training" that mostly consisted of her watching him train while eating snacks.
'That girl's just scamming me for free food at this point,' Yuuto thought with mild amusement. 'I say I need help training, she shows up, eats half my groceries, gives me like two pieces of advice, then disappears'
But Akeno—Akeno was different. She'd actually let her guard down. Showed him vulnerability. That meant something.
'Yeah,' he decided. 'More time with Akeno. Build that trust. Help her work through her issues. And if that happens to come with additional "rewards"...'
The smile returned to his face.
'Well, I'm not complaining.'
He stretched, joints popping pleasantly. The plan for the rest of the evening was simple: rest for another hour, cook a proper dinner, then head out for a training session to test out his new Metal Bat abilities. Nothing fancy, just—
Warmth bloomed across his right palm.
Yuuto's eyes snapped open, and he lifted his hand to see the familiar red glow of a summoning circle beginning to form on his skin.
"Oh, come on," he groaned, sitting up. "I can't catch a break, can I?"
The glow intensified, pulsing with urgency. Not a casual summons—this one felt desperate.
'Please don't be some weird cosplay request,' Yuuto thought, remembering some of the stranger contracts he'd fulfilled. 'Please don't be someone who wants me to dress up as their fantasy boyfriend or—'
The summoning circle expanded on his floor, crimson light painting his apartment walls.
Yuuto stood, rolled his shoulders, and stepped into the circle with a resigned sigh.
"Sometimes being a devil feels like being a corporate employee," he muttered as the teleportation magic wrapped around him. "But at least in my case, I get paid well. Lucky me."
The world dissolved into red light.
---
The first thing Yuuto registered was the smell.
Blood. Fresh. A lot of it.
The teleportation circle deposited him in what appeared to be the main hall of a mansion—high ceilings, expensive marble floors, ornate decorations that spoke of old money and refined taste.
Or rather, what used to be a refined space.
Now it looked like a slaughterhouse.
Bodies were scattered across the floor in pools of spreading crimson. Butlers, from the look of their uniforms—at least five of them, throats cut or chests pierced, dead eyes staring at nothing. The blood was still warm, steam rising from the larger pools in the cool evening air.
And in the center of it all, on her knees, was a face Yuuto recognized.
The girl from the date. The one who'd hired him to make her ex-boyfriend jealous at that fancy restaurant a few days ago. She'd been bratty, demanding, but harmless—just a rich girl with relationship drama.
Now she was on her knees, expensive dress soaked with blood that wasn't hers, mascara running down her face in black streaks, hands shaking as she pressed them against the floor.
The moment she saw him, something broke in her expression.
"Please!" She scrambled to her feet, nearly slipping in the blood as she ran toward him. "Please, you have to save me! He killed everyone—everyone—and now he's going to kill me too! Please!"
She crashed into him, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt, looking up with eyes that held nothing but terror.
Yuuto placed his hands on her shoulders, steady and calm despite the massacre around them.
"Breathe," he said quietly. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you."
"But he—he's—"
"I know." Yuuto's voice was soft but firm. "Stay behind me."
The girl nodded frantically and moved to stand at his back, her hands still clutching his shirt.
Yuuto's eyes swept the room, taking in every detail. The cuts on the bodies were clean—too clean. Professional work. The blood patterns suggested the victims had been taken by surprise, killed before they could even scream.
And there, standing in the doorway at the far end of the hall, silhouetted against the evening light filtering through tall windows—
The figure stepped forward into the light, revealing a face twisted into a manic grin.
"Well, well, well!" The voice was high-pitched, gleeful, utterly unhinged. "Looks like the little bitch actually went and summoned a devil to save her ass! Oh man, this is perfect! This is fucking perfect!"
Freed Sellzen.
Rogue exorcist. Mass murderer. Complete psychopath.
He was exactly as Yuuto remembered from the anime—wild white hair, pale skin stretched over sharp features, eyes that held nothing but madness and bloodlust. He wore priest's coat splattered with fresh blood, holy weapons gleaming in his hands.
And that grin. That horrible, gleeful grin.
"Did you really think," Freed said, voice dripping with mock sympathy as he addressed the girl behind Yuuto, "that summoning one of these filthy devil scum would save you? You just made this so much more fun for me!"
He threw his head back and laughed, the sound echoing through the hall.
Yuuto's expression remained calm, but his eyes went cold as he faced the man.
He said quietly, voice carrying across the blood-soaked marble. "You're the one who's been killing our contractors."
His hand moved in a subtle gesture, and the girl—still trembling—stepped further behind him, understanding the implicit command.
"Humans who make deals with filthy devils deserve to die!" Freed proclaimed, bringing his light gun up to his face. His tongue slid across the barrel in a grotesque display, eyes rolling back in pleasure. "Mmm, fuck yeah. I'm gonna enjoy this so much!"
He aimed the gun directly at Yuuto and the girl.
"Let's start the party!"
BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!
Five light bullets erupted from the barrel in rapid succession, streaking toward them with deadly accuracy. Each one glowed with holy energy, leaving trails of golden light in the air.
Yuuto moved.
The world blurred.
One moment he and the girl were standing in the center of the hall, directly in the line of fire. The next moment—
"What the—WHERE'D YOU GO?!"
Freed's eyes went wide, his aim still pointed at empty space. The light bullets punched harmlessly into the marble wall behind where Yuuto had been standing, leaving scorched craters.
The speed had been so extreme, so impossibly fast, that to Freed's eyes it looked like the devil and the girl had simply vanished. Disappeared into thin air between one blink and the next.
"WHERE'D YOU GO, YOU COWARD?!"
Freed's voice cracked across the hall like a whip. His grin had twisted into something uglier, eyes scanning the room with manic energy.
"Stop hiding and show yourself! Come on, devil scum! Let me paint the walls with your guts!"
He raised his light gun, aiming randomly around the room.
Yuuto had moved—fast enough that Freed had lost track of him—and settled the girl into a corner behind a marble pillar. Out of the line of fire.
"GOD DAMMIT!" Freed screamed, frustration bleeding into his voice. "Where the fuck are—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
Someone else had entered the hall.
A girl in a white and green nun's habit, blonde hair catching the evening light, green eyes wide with shock and horror as she took in the scene—the bodies, the blood, the madness.
"Asia," Yuuto muttered.
"Father Freed!" Asia's voice cracked as she stared at the bodies. Her face had gone deathly pale. "Why—why did you do this?! These people—they didn't—"
"Oh for fuck's sake!" Freed whirled on her, his manic energy shifting to irritation. "What the hell are you doing here?! I told you to maintain the barrier, didn't I ?!"
Asia flinched like she'd been slapped. "But I—I heard the screams, and I thought—"
"Just quit it already!" Then Freed's grin returned, sharp and cruel. "But hey, since you're here, maybe you can watch! I'll give you a front-row seat to what happens to devil-loving trash!"
He raised his light gun toward the pillar where the girl was hiding.
"And you! Devil scum! If you won't show yourself," Freed said, loading bullets that glowed with holy energy, "then I'll just destroy this whole fucking place! Starting with his little contractor bitch!"
He laughed, high and manic, as he aimed.
The sound of metal striking marble echoed through the hall.
CLANG.
Freed froze. His eyes widened slightly.
Yuuto walked out of the shadows, emerging into the light with measured steps. In his right hand, he held a bat—approximately three feet long, with a surface that gleamed like polished metal.
Except it wasn't metal.
It was water.
Densely compressed water, held together by precisely controlled power and increased pressure that made it harder than steel and heavier than iron. The bat's form rippled slightly, surface tension creating the illusion of movement, but the core remained solid.
Yuuto let the end of the bat touch the ground as he walked.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Each step sent the metallic sound echoing through the hall.
'Similar principle to Metal Bat's weapon,' Yuuto thought, adjusting his grip. 'But made of water instead. Increased pressure throughout the entire structure makes it just as hard and heavy. Perfect for testing these new abilities.'
He stopped about fifteen feet from Freed, the water bat resting against the floor.
His eyes met the rogue exorcist's, and there was nothing warm in them anymore. No smile. No friendly demeanor.
Just cold, absolute judgment.
"There you are!" Freed's grin split his face from ear to ear. "Finally decided to stop being a pussy and—"
"Asia," Yuuto said, not looking away from Freed. His voice was calm, but carried an edge that could cut steel. "Step away from him. Now."
Asia stood frozen, eyes darting between Yuuto and Freed, clearly torn.
"Father Freed," she said, voice trembling. "Please, even if Yuuto san is a devil, he- he is a nice person. I-I can make you see—"
"Make me see?!" Freed barked out a laugh. "The only thing I'm gonna make this devil scum see is his own intestines when I gut him like a fucking pig!"
He raised his light gun, aiming at Yuuto.
"Please!" Asia stepped forward, hands outstretched toward Freed. "Please don't kill him! He hasn't done anything wrong!"
Freed's hand moved.
Fast. Vicious.
The slap would have caught Asia across the face, probably sent her sprawling.
Would have.
Yuuto moved faster.
The water bat came up in a brutal arc, aimed at Freed's extended arm.
CRACK.
The sound of the impact echoed like a gunshot.
Freed's eyes went wide. His arm—the one that had been mid-swing toward Asia—was suddenly being driven backward with incredible force.
He managed to dodge at the last second, throwing himself to the side with reflexes honed by years of killing. The bat whistled past, missing his arm by inches.
Freed rolled, came up in a crouch away, breathing hard. His eyes had lost some of their manic gleam, replaced by something sharper. More focused.
"Well, well," he said, grin returning but different now—edged with actual interest. "Looks like this devil's got some bite. I'm gonna enjoy carving you up even more now!"
Asia had stumbled backward during the exchange, falling on her rear. She stared up at Yuuto with wide eyes, clearly shocked that he'd moved to protect her.
"Yuuto-san?" she whispered.
"Get back," Yuuto said quietly, not taking his eyes off Freed. "And go next to that pillar behind you"
The girl who'd summoned him—still hiding behind the pillar—peeked out. Her eyes widened as she saw Yuuto standing between them and the psychotic exorcist, water bat in hand.
Freed stood up fully, rolling his shoulders. His light sword materialized in his left hand—a blade of pure holy energy that hummed with power.
"You know what I love about killing devils?" Freed said conversationally, as if discussing the weather. "You fuckers always think you're so tough, so superior. Then I cut you open and you scream just like everyone else!" He pointed the sword at Yuuto. "I'm gonna take my time with you. Make you scream like a bitch!!!!''
His grin stretched impossibly wide.
"And that little nun over there? She can watch while I do it. Good lesson for her—never try to save devil scum!"
Yuuto's grip tightened on the water bat.
"In time, we will know who was the devil scum all along"
Then he moved.
Freed barely had time to bring up his light sword in a guard position before Yuuto was on him, the water bat swinging in a horizontal arc that would have shattered ribs.
CLANG!
Holy energy met compressed water. The impact sent shockwaves through the air, rattling the windows.
Freed grinned, pushing back—
Yuuto's other hand came up, fingers spread.
A lance of ice shot from his palm, aimed at Freed's face.
"Shit!" Freed threw himself backward, the ice lance missing by inches. He raised his light gun, fired three shots in rapid succession.
Holy light bullets streaked toward Yuuto.
Yuuto's body moved easily, Metal Bat's combat experience guiding his movements. He twisted, the first bullet passing harmlessly by his shoulder. Ducked, the second whistling over his head. Brought the water bat up in a defensive position, and the third bullet impacted the bat's surface with a hiss of steam.
'The holy energy isn't enough to disperse my water bat' Yuuto noted, feeling the slight burn where the bullet had struck. ' But I Can't block too many of those directly.'
"Fast little fucker, aren't you?" Freed laughed, circling to the side. "But speed only gets you so far!"
He lunged, light sword coming in low, aimed at Yuuto's legs.
Yuuto jumped backward, the sword passing beneath him. Landed, immediately swung the bat at Freed's head.
Freed ducked, came up inside Yuuto's guard, gun pressed against his chest—
Yuuto grabbed Freed's wrist with his free hand, yanked it to the side just as Freed pulled the trigger.
The light bullet discharged into the floor, blasting a crater in the marble.
At the same time, Yuuto brought his knee up toward Freed's midsection.
Freed twisted, taking the knee on his hip instead of his gut, grimacing but grinning through the pain.
They broke apart, both sliding backward across the blood-slick floor.
"Not bad!" Freed's grin was manic again. "Not bad at all! This is gonna be so much fun!"
He raised both weapons, light sword and gun glowing brighter.
Yuuto settled into a stance, water bat held low and ready. His breathing was steady, controlled.
'He's fast,' Yuuto assessed. 'Probably faster than most mid-class devils. But his technique is sloppy—all aggression, no defense. He's used to overwhelming opponents with pure offense and holy weapons.'
Metal Bat's combat instincts whispered tactics, reading Freed's body language, predicting movements.
'Fighting Spirit activates based on damage taken and emotional intensity,' Yuuto thought. 'Right now I'm calm, so the boost is minimal. But if he actually manages to hit me...'
A cold smile touched Yuuto's lips.
'I ain't stupid enough to get my ass kicked just to test out my power. Atleast not to a scumbag like him'
Freed charged, light sword leading in a vicious slash.
Yuuto sidestepped, brought the bat around in a counter-swing.
Freed blocked with his gun, the impact jarring his arm.
"FUCK!" He stumbled back, shaking out his gun hand. "What the hell is that bat made of?!"
"Wouldn't you like to know," Yuuto said calmly.
They clashed again, metal and light meeting in a flurry of strikes. The hall echoed with the sounds of combat—the crack of the water bat against holy weapons, the discharge of light bullets, the hiss of water meeting holy energy.
Asia watched from the floor, hands pressed to her mouth, green eyes wide with horror and fascination.
The girl behind the pillar couldn't look away, despite wanting to.
And Yuuto... Yuuto was analyzing every movement, every pattern.
'There,' he thought, spotting an opening. 'He relies too much on his sword strikes. Leaves his right side exposed for a fraction of a second.'
Freed came in with another overhead slash, putting his full weight behind it.
Yuuto stepped into the attack instead of away, moving inside Freed's reach. The light sword whistled past his ear, missing by millimeters.
And Yuuto swung.
The water bat caught Freed's right arm—the one holding the light gun—with the full force of Yuuto's strength behind it.
CRACK.
The sound of bone breaking was distinct, clear, final.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Freed's scream tore through the hall as his arm bent at an unnatural angle. The light gun clattered from his suddenly nerveless fingers, skittering across the bloody floor.
He stumbled backward, clutching his shattered arm, face twisted in agony and disbelief.
"You—you fucking—"
Yuuto didn't give him time to finish.
He stepped forward, bat already moving in another arc.
Freed tried to bring his light sword up in a desperate block, tried to move his broken arm despite the pain—
The water bat caught his left arm, just above the elbow.
CRACK.
Another bone-breaking impact.
Freed's light sword dissipated as he lost concentration, and his second scream was even louder than the first, pure agony.
He fell to his knees, both arms hanging useless, broken at compound angles that made Asia gasp and look away.
"FUCK! FUCK! YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!" Spittle flew from Freed's mouth as he screamed curses, tears streaming down his face from the pain. "I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU! I'LL—"
Yuuto walked forward slowly, the water bat dragging along the floor behind him with that metallic scraping sound.
Freed tried to scramble backward, but with both arms broken, he could only use his legs. He kicked against the floor, sliding through pools of blood, leaving crimson trails.
"S-stay back!" His voice had lost its manic edge, replaced by something uncomfortably close to fear. "Stay the fuck back!"
Asia stood frozen, hands still over her mouth, watching with wide eyes.
The girl behind the pillar had emerged fully now, standing and staring at the scene with a mixture of horror and grim satisfaction.
Yuuto stopped in front of Freed, looking down at the broken exorcist.
"I could have ended your life with a single strike of my sword," Yuuto said, his voice cold and empty.
He walked around Freed, moving to stand behind him.
"But then," Yuuto continued, "I realized something. You don't deserve a quick death."
Freed's eyes went wide. "Wait—wait, we can—"
The water bat came down on Freed's right leg, just above the knee.
CRACK.
Freed's scream was inhuman, a sound of pure agony that echoed off the marble walls. His leg bent backward, bone jutting against skin.
"These people," Yuuto said, his voice devoid of emotion as he gestured to the bodies around them. "These innocent people you murdered. They didn't deserve what you did to them."
Freed tried to crawl away, dragging his broken body across the floor with his one remaining functional leg, leaving a trail of blood and tears.
"Please," he gasped, voice breaking. "Please, I'll—I'll do anything—"
The air around Yuuto shimmered, converting the ambient moisture into vapor. It spread across the floor, seeping toward Freed's crawling form.
"I will make sure" Yuuto said, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper, "that you would go through far more pain than they felt."
The vapor reached Freed's body, sinking into his pores, his mouth, his nose, his eyes.
Absorbing into every cell.
"No—" Freed's eyes widened as he felt something wrong, something cold spreading through his body.
Yuuto's eyes stared down at him.
He clenched his fist.
The vapor inside Freed's body froze.
Instantly.
Completely.
And then expanded.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—
Ice spikes erupted from every cell in Freed's body. Thousands upon thousands of crystalline spears, bursting through skin and muscle and bone from the inside out.
Freed's scream was beyond words, beyond human comprehension—a sound of absolute, total agony as his entire body was impaled from within.
The spikes grew, spreading, turning him into a grotesque sculpture. A human porcupine made of blood-red ice, each spike painted crimson from the inside out.
The screaming continued for five seconds.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Then stopped.
Freed Sellzen—rogue exorcist, mass murderer, complete psychopath—hung suspended on a forest of his own frozen blood, dead eyes staring at nothing, mouth frozen open in a final scream.
Silence filled the hall.
Yuuto stood there, staring at what he'd done. His hand was still clenched into a fist, breathing controlled but heavy.
A notification flickered in his peripheral vision.
[QUEST COMPLETE]
He dismissed it without reading, without caring.
His eyes moved across the hall, landing on each of the butlers' bodies. The innocent victims who'd done nothing except serve their employer and died for it.
'I made sure he felt more pain than any of you,' Yuuto thought, something heavy settling in his chest. 'For what it's worth. For what it matters.'
He stood there for another moment, paying silent respect to the dead.
Then he sighed, long and heavy.
"I went overboard," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
'That bastard deserved it,' part of his mind argued. 'After killing so many innocent people. After what he would have done to Asia if given the chance. He deserved every second of that pain.'
But another part—quieter, more uncertain—whispered: 'You killed him. With such Brutality. Does that make you any different from him? Even if he deserved it, was that the right choice?'
Yuuto closed his eyes, took a breath.
'I did what I felt was right,' he decided. 'That bastard deserved exactly what he got for his actions. And I'll live with the consequences of that choice.
He opened his eyes.
And Turned around, immediately wishing he hadn't.
Asia stood about ten feet away, hands still pressed to her mouth, green eyes impossibly wide.
The girl who'd summoned him stood frozen next to a marble pillar, staring at Freed's corpse. Her expression was complex—horror mixed with something that might have been satisfaction.
Both of them were looking at Yuuto like they'd never seen him before.
Like they weren't sure what they were looking at.
Asia's hands slowly lowered from her mouth. She opened her lips, closed them, opened them again. No sound came out.
The other girl just stared, silent.
Yuuto felt something cold settle in his stomach.
'Right,' he thought, the weight of realization hitting him. 'They just watched me torture someone to death. Watched me turn a human being into a porcupine made of blood-ice. Watched me kill him slowly and deliberately.'
He thought about how he must have looked—standing over Freed's broken body, voice cold and empty, methodically breaking bones before delivering that final, horrific execution.
'They probably think I'm a psychopath,' Yuuto realized, something uncomfortable twisting in his chest. 'Hell, maybe I looked worse than Freed himself just now.'
The silence stretched.
Asia's lips trembled. She looked like she wanted to say something, ask something, but couldn't find the words.
The other girl's hands were shaking.
And Yuuto stood there, water bat dissolving back into regular liquid and splashing to the floor, trying to figure out how the hell he was supposed to explain this.
How do you convince someone you're not a psychopath after they just watched you commit what could only be described as an extremely gruesome murder?
'How,' Yuuto thought, meeting their scared expressions, 'am I going to explain all of this to them?'
The mansion was silent except for the sound of blood dripping from Freed's suspended corpse.
And Yuuto had absolutely no idea what to say.
. . .
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