Kurenai looked at him as she spoke. "So, wanna come in?".
Leo looked at her as he shrugged. "Sure senpai".
He followed her into the Shinganji estate, as they both walked through the halls.
Then they both heard a voice, a female voice.
"Oh, My whose this Young Man?".
Leo turned around and saw who the voice belonged to.
She is A woman with blonde hair, and twin tails. Has green and orange eyes. Under her green eye, she has two beauty marks.
[Inster image of Shinganji Kaede]
Kurenai looked at her as she spoke. "Oh mother, this is Leo Fuuma, he was ok the mission with me".
Kaede smiled as she spoke. "Oh his friends welcome to the house"
Meanwhile, something else was going through his mind.
'Ah! What the fuck! You're supposed to be dead. The only timeline you didn't die in was in RPGX, where you and Edwin had a loving relationship, but in that timeline, Nomand is one of the good guys; they are still bad guys here. What's the timeline for this?'.
Kurenai paused mid-step, glancing between Leo and her mother.
Kaede's smile lingered—warm, effortless, alive.
Leo froze for half a heartbeat.
'No… no, no, no. This is wrong.'
'You're dead in almost every branch. Public execution. Assassination. Sacrifice. Pick one.'
'RPGX was the only divergence—and even that required Edwin, Nomand defecting, and half the world burning first.'
'So why are you standing here, perfectly fine, offering tea like this is a slice-of-life route?'
Kaede tilted her head slightly, her mismatched eyes studying Leo with a knowing curiosity.
"…Ara? You're staring quite intensely. Did something on my face catch your interest?"
Leo snapped out of it a little too fast.
"Ah—s-sorry, ma'am. Just… surprised."
Kurenai shot him a look.
"Surprised?"
Leo coughed lightly.
"Didn't expect such a… lively atmosphere. After the mission and all."
Kaede chuckled softly, bringing a hand to her lips.
"Oh my. Flattery already? You Fuuma boys grow up fast these days."
She turned and gestured deeper into the estate.
"Come, come. You must be tired. I'll have some tea brought in."
As she walked ahead of them, Leo's eyes followed her every step.
'Her chakra flow is stable.'
'No necromancy.'
'No illusion.'
'No soul stitch.'
'She's really here.'
Kurenai leaned in slightly, lowering her voice.
"You okay, Leo? You're acting strange."
Leo hesitated, then shook his head.
"Yeah. Just… processing."
They sat in the receiving room moments later. The sliding doors closed with a soft thunk.
Kaede knelt gracefully across from Leo, pouring tea with practiced ease.
"So," she said gently, "you were on the mission with my daughter?"
Leo nodded.
"Yes, ma'am. She saved my life more than once."
Kurenai frowned.
"That's an exaggeration."
Kaede smiled wider.
"Still, I'm glad. Kurenai has a habit of carrying burdens alone."
Her gaze flicked to Leo again—sharp for just a fraction of a second.
"You, on the other hand… carry something much heavier than you let on."
Leo stiffened.
'She noticed.'
'She always notices.'
'That's why they kill you early in most timelines.'
He met her eyes carefully.
"…Maybe. But I'm trying to do the right thing."
Kaede's smile softened—not mockery, not suspicion.
Understanding.
"Well," she said, sliding a cup toward him, "then you're always welcome in this house."
Leo wrapped his fingers around the warm porcelain.
'This timeline is already off the rails.'
'And if Kaede Shinganji is alive…'
'Then the worst events haven't happened yet.'
'…Which means I might actually be early enough to stop them.'
Kurenai looked at how Leo was looking at her mother, as she got the wrong idea and was a bit jealous even though she didn't know why, she then whispered something in Leo's ear. "Leo, she's my mom and she is married, stop looking at her like that"
Leo stiffened so hard he almost spilled the tea.
He leaned back just enough and whispered back, panic tightly wrapped in his voice.
"Senpai—no—no, it's not like that."
Kurenai narrowed her eyes, clearly unconvinced.
"…Then why are you staring?"
Leo hesitated, then sighed quietly.
'Careful. Too much truth breaks the timeline. Too little makes this worse.'
He leaned in again, voice low.
"I'm not looking at her like that," he whispered.
"I'm looking at her like someone who shouldn't be alive… but is."
Kurenai blinked.
"…What?"
Before she could press further, Kaede spoke up, her tone light but precisely timed.
"Oh? Am I interrupting something important?"
Both of them jumped.
"N-No!" Kurenai said instantly, straightening.
Leo nodded a bit too fast. "Just… mission stuff."
Kaede smiled, sipping her tea.
"I see. Then allow me to put your mind at ease, young Leo."
Her mismatched eyes met his—gently, but directly.
"I've had a long life full of near-misses, brushes with death, and… paths that could have gone very differently."
Leo's breath caught.
Kaede continued, calm and warm.
"If you're wondering why I'm still here when I 'shouldn't be'…"
"…then the answer is simple."
She set her cup down.
"This world is already changing."
Silence fell.
Kurenai looked between them.
"…Mom?"
Kaede laughed softly.
"Nothing for you to worry about, dear."
She turned back to Leo, her smile unreadable now—kind, but sharp at the edges.
"So don't carry that expression," she said.
"You're not the only one who remembers things that never happened."
Leo felt a chill crawl up his spine.
'…So she knows.'
'Not everything.'
'But enough.'
Kurenai crossed her arms, flustered.
"…Okay, now I'm officially confused."
Leo exhaled slowly, then glanced at Kurenai and whispered, half-joking to defuse the tension:
"For the record, senpai—if I were staring at someone like that, you'd definitely know."
Kurenai's face heated instantly.
"…Idiot."
Kaede smiled into her tea, thoroughly amused.
Leo then remembered something Kurenai said. "So, Man, you have a Husband?"
Kaede smiled as she looked at him. "Yes, his name is Edwin Cromwell"
Leo's brain blue-screened. 'Yup that's official, I am Taimanin RPGX Timeline, but Nomand is still here, which means they have someone else running them and not Edwin and yet, things from the Old Canon are still happening, what is this Universe!'.
Leo froze.
Like—actually froze.
"…Edwin," he repeated slowly. "Cromwell."
Kaede tilted her head, amused by his tone. "That's right. You look like you've just seen a ghost."
'No,' his mind screamed.
'I've seen a patch note.'
His soul promptly left his body, checked the timeline index, found nothing useful, and returned screaming.
'Okay. Okay. This confirms it. RPGX branch variables, Old Canon event flags still active, Nomand still hostile, Edwin alive but not running things—'
'—WHAT THE HELL IS THIS HYBRID BUILD?'
Kurenai frowned. "Leo? You good?"
Leo snapped back to reality, coughing lightly. "Y—yeah. Sorry. Just… didn't expect that name."
Kaede's eyes softened. "That happens a lot. Edwin has a habit of leaving impressions—sometimes even on people who've never met him."
Leo winced internally.
'Oh I've met him. Multiple versions. One died tragically. One became a final boss. One married you and retired peacefully.'
Out loud, he chose survival.
"…He sounds like a good man."
Kaede smiled warmly. "He is. Complicated. Stubborn. Kind to a fault."
Then, very deliberately:
"And someone who has also noticed the world behaving… strangely lately."
Leo's heart skipped.
Kurenai stiffened. "Mom?"
Kaede waved a hand gently. "Nothing dangerous, dear. Just… patterns. People surviving things they shouldn't. Events misaligning. Old enemies moving without their usual leaders."
Her mismatched eyes met Leo's again.
"And young men who react to names they've never been told."
Leo swallowed.
'She knows something. Edwin definitely knows more. And Nomand being active means—'
'—someone else is pulling the strings.'
Leo exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Guess I'm not the only one having weird days."
Kaede chuckled. "Hardly."
She stood and gave a polite nod. "You're welcome to stay for lunch, Leo Fuuma. Anyone who fights alongside my daughter is family enough for me."
Kurenai blinked. "…Mom, you don't just say that to people."
Kaede smiled knowingly. "I do when I mean it."
Leo bowed instinctively. "Thank you, ma'am."
Inside his head, alarms were still blaring.
'RPGX timeline logic.'
'Canon events bleeding through.'
'Edwin alive but not in control.'
'Nomand still active.'
'Conclusion: this universe is unstable.'
'Secondary conclusion: I'm already knee-deep in it.'
Leo straightened, forcing a small grin.
'Guess I'll just have to survive long enough to figure out who broke reality.'
Leo got up as he looked at them. "I will leave now, Mom might get worried".
Kaede smiled as she spoke. "Ok, have a safe trip to the Fuuma Estate"
Leo got up, left the estate and rushed to the forest, as he screamed in his head.
Leo didn't even wait for a response.
The moment the trees swallowed him and the Shinganji Estate vanished behind the leaves, he skidded to a stop, hands on his knees, breath sharp.
'ALEX! JAMES!'
'WAKE. UP.'
There was a brief, ominous silence.
Then—
'—Wow, rude,' James' voice drawled lazily. 'I was mid–power diagnostic. What's got you screaming like the apocalypse just clocked in early?'
Alex came in sharper, more alert.
'Your vitals spiked. Explain. Now.'
Leo straightened, eyes burning.
'Kaede Shinganji is alive.'
Pause.
A hard pause.
'…Yes?' James replied. 'That's called "a living person," Leo.'
'No,' Leo snapped back internally. 'She's alive in THIS timeline. Married to Edwin Cromwell. Nomand is still active. Ingrid is probably working under a new "Black-sama." This isn't Old Canon, it's not RPGX, and it's definitely not clean reboot.'
Alex went quiet for half a second longer than usual.
Then:
'Confirming hypothesis,' Alex said slowly. 'You are not in a single canonical timeline.'
James whistled.
'Ohhh. So it's one of those universes. Hybrid continuity. Cross-branch bleed. Someone mashed timelines together like a bad modpack.'
Leo clenched his fists.
'That means future knowledge isn't reliable. Bad ends can still happen. Good ends aren't guaranteed. And Edwin—'
'—exists but isn't the controlling variable,' Alex finished. 'Which implies the Nomand leadership node has been replaced.'
James' tone darkened.
'Translation: somebody else is wearing the villain crown.'
Leo exhaled hard.
'And Ingrid knew I was Fuuma. Knew three Taimanin would be there. There's a traitor. Maybe more than one.'
Alex responded immediately.
'Agreed. Probability of internal information leak: high.'
James added, quieter now,
'And if Black-sama is already observing you… congratulations, kid. You're officially a plot anchor.'
Leo looked up through the trees, sunlight filtering down like fractured code.
'So what now?'
Alex answered first.
'We adapt. You stop assuming outcomes.'
James followed.
'And you stop holding back. Because in mixed timelines—'
There was a pause.
'—the universe tends to test the anomalies.'
Leo's jaw set.
'Fine,' he thought.
'Let it test me.'
He started moving again, deeper into the forest, back toward the Fuuma Estate.
Behind him, unseen, the world kept shifting—
threads crossing, destinies misaligned, and somewhere far away, a figure marked with the letter B smiled at a screen filled with Leo's data.
The game had changed.
And Leo was no longer just playing it.
Meanwhile in a different place in Gosha.
In the lab, Suiren woke up, as if she had felt a machine, and sometimes on her head. "Where am I?"
"Good, the memory restore process works".
She turned to voice, as she saw dark skin man walk up
Ryuji looked at her as he spoke. "Morning, I think you have many questions"
Suiren groaned softly as her vision cleared, the sterile white lights of the lab stinging her eyes. Tubes, monitors, and sealing talismans surrounded the bed she was strapped to—but none of them felt hostile. Just… cautious.
She tested her fingers. They moved.
"…I remember fighting," she said slowly. "Fire. Water. Kurenai-senpai's voice."
Her eyes snapped to Ryuji. "And before that—darkness. Commands that weren't mine."
Ryuji stopped a few steps away, arms crossed, his expression firm but not unkind.
"That's because your memories were tampered with. You were captured, conditioned, and deployed as an asset."
Suiren clenched her teeth.
"…House of Greed."
"Yes," Ryuji replied. "And someone above them."
She swallowed, then looked down at the faint sealing marks still glowing on her wrists.
"So you didn't kill me."
Ryuji snorted once. "If we killed every Taimanin who got brainwashed, Gosha would be a graveyard."
That earned a weak, humorless huff from her.
He continued, more serious now.
"You were missing for three months. During that time, your chakra pathways were rewritten. Obedience triggers. False loyalties. We removed what we could, but—"
He paused. "—some scars don't disappear overnight."
Suiren nodded slowly.
"…I hurt people."
"You fought them," Ryuji corrected. "There's a difference."
Silence settled between them for a moment before she finally asked the question she'd been avoiding.
"Kurenai-senpai…?"
"She's fine," Ryuji said immediately. "Angry. Worried. Relieved. In that order."
Suiren closed her eyes, relief washing over her face—then guilt followed right after.
"…And the boy," she added quietly. "The one with the water dragon."
Ryuji raised an eyebrow. "Leo Fuuma."
Her eyes opened again.
"He wasn't supposed to be there. None of them were. The information House of Greed had—it was too precise."
Ryuji's expression sharpened.
"So you noticed."
"Yes," Suiren said. "Even while I was under control… I felt it. Like someone was feeding them mission data in real time."
She hesitated, then added,
"And there was a woman. Pink hair. Black flames. She spoke like she already knew the outcome."
Ryuji exhaled slowly.
"Ingrid. A Hell Knight."
That made Suiren stiffen. "Then this isn't over."
"No," Ryuji agreed. "It's just starting."
He turned toward the lab door, then stopped.
"You'll stay here for now. Recovery. Debrief. When you're ready, you'll talk to the elders."
Suiren looked away.
"…And Leo Fuuma?"
Ryuji glanced back, a faint smirk tugging at his lips.
"He's already causing headaches."
That, somehow, made her smile—small and tired, but genuine.
"Then," she said quietly, "tell him… thank you. Even if I didn't say it then."
Ryuji nodded once and left the room, the door sealing shut behind him.
Alone again, Suiren stared at the ceiling.
Her memories were back.
Her will was her own.
But somewhere out there, the hands that had pulled her strings were still moving.
And this time, she intended to cut them.
To be continued
Hope people like this Ch and give me Power stones this is the last Ch for this week's and also I just discovered I am what 179 in the power ranking, thanks for all the support