My name is Kusei Kazuchi. I never thought love at first sight was actually real. Especially in my case, I thought I'd never fall in love for some pretty weird reasons.
I'm not bragging, but I'm an orphan. After that, I was taken care of by an orphanage funded by Zaia Corporation, and then they said I had "the potential to save humanity" or something like that, so I ended up going to the Sauzer Archipelago Federation. And after that, I was trained as a warrior.
Just to be clear, Zaia had nothing to do with why I became an orphan. It was completely due to a fire accident. If they were gonna pull something that elaborate, they would've just made it look like an accident and made the whole family disappear from the start.
But honestly, after being there for quite a while, I started thinking "Isn't this kinda messed up?" I mean seriously, every other word was "the foolish thoughts of these aberrations" and stuff like that. The premise was "aberrations are foolish" so "these thoughts are foolish."
It's like they decided on the answer first, then figured out how to make the equation work to get that answer, you know? They were forcing it really hard, and honestly, you'd never get points on a test doing that. But I also knew that if I said anything like that, I'd be in trouble.
Those guys were doing all kinds of crazy stuff after all.
They'd say things like "You need a partner to support each other,"
"Stress relief is absolutely necessary,"
"If you have something in common, you can coordinate better both at work and personally," and then they'd assign you a partner. It actually does make it easier to get along, so I guess they had good insight. I gotta give them credit for that. But do you encourage kids in their early teens to relieve sexual urges with each other?
They encouraged us to actively relieve sexual urges with each other, saying "Sexual seduction is commonly used" and "So we should get used to it instead."
They even gave us sex education in the process.
...Man, I wonder how I was able to react like that in such an environment. According to the manga I started reading after being taken from Zaia Corporation, when you get ideological education in this kind of special environment, your thinking becomes uniform and you become blind. I've heard stories about using methods like that to control people's hearts too.
Well, in that situation, I was trying to calm down my partner Himari while thinking about what to do.
The environment was special, and I figured they probably had countermeasures for escape attempts and rebellions. The only option was to obediently follow orders, train hard on my own, make them think I was a competent and loyal pawn, and wait for an opportunity.
...Then somehow they got wiped out before I knew it, and I ended up being rescued by Grigori.
Man, it was really tough. The Anti Illusion Monster Squadron, AIMS for short, received that kind of education like I mentioned.
A special unit centered around high-performance Raider types, with us elite few using Aims Shot Risers. They gathered people with the premise of "guiding excellent children who suffered from the delusions of aberrations."
Ah, if they were serious about it, they were totally nuts. Plus they weren't trying to manipulate with pretty words - they were seriously willing to die for that cause. Talk about being put off.
I mean, sure, the way aberrations act is different from human society's surface level.
But when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Culture and values change quite a bit depending on religion, country, and ethnicity. It's only natural when it comes to different species. Let me be blunt. Those guys were completely insane.
I couldn't keep up with them at all, and I'm glad I didn't get influenced by them. I feel sorry for the guys who got influenced and fought to the end and died, and honestly I feel pretty bad that I couldn't stop them.
If I had tried, my life would've been in danger and they might've done brain surgery on me, so it couldn't be helped, but it's probably gonna leave a scar on my way of life.
...Yeah, I have a way of life. I want to become a man who can change the meaning of tears.
I want tears born from sadness and despair to become tears of relief and joy when they flow. That's the way of life I want. That's why I've been thinking about becoming a firefighter or mountain rescue team member since I was little.
That's why, in a form that can make use of my current power, I want to protect innocent people from the malice of aberrations and mystical outbursts as a fallen angel's ally.
"Thank you. And I want you to... smile"
That memory from when I was barely conscious is strangely vivid. Shedding tears of despair, looking at me, and showing that smile like she was truly saved from the bottom of her heart.
That's my original landscape. And for some reason, I met a girl who reminded me of that memory. A girl a little older than me, with white hair that reminded me of a drawn blade.
I ended up making what was almost a confession, but I can say for sure that I meant it seriously. I never thought I'd actually experience love at first sight. That's how strong an impulse I felt. Well, that's why I'm now….
"GWAAAAAAHHHHH!?"
"...You're doing better than I'd expect from low-class reincarnated devils. Well, if it were Xenovia or Irina as opponents, it would definitely be tough though."
Watching the pretty incredible sight of the Red Dragon Emperor and a survivor of the Holy Sword Project getting blown away.
I mean, I'd heard rumors that the Red Dragon Emperor's gauntlet was with Rias Gremory's servants, but I was surprised. Well, I had heard that fallen angels in the field had decided on assassination. Even though we have to accept the current situation, it does hurt my heart a little.
But a miracle like Rias Gremory making him her servant doesn't happen very often. Since fallen angels are enemies with devils, I couldn't do it myself in that sense either. A miracle that doesn't even reach 0.1% has over 99.9% failure behind it. And in this kind of case, one person's life and a dozen people's relief means putting the extinction and laments of hundreds if not thousands of lives on the scales.
Because I want to change tears of sadness into joy, I can't create tears of lament that would probably exceed even a thousand people without any certainty.
I don't intend to approve of it at all, but there are necessary evils that we have no choice but to accept. Getting rid of all of them would probably be difficult even if it took ten thousand years. They might even increase.
While thinking about that, I got up while watching the two reincarnated devils who got blown away spectacularly from a distance.
...Let me say this first. I got blown away spectacularly first and dropped out. And this is a sparring match. We decided to have a mock battle with several people because "If we're going to cooperate, I want to know your abilities to some extent." The first to volunteer was Kiba Yuuto from Rias Gremory's servants. But Kazuhi-neesan (I decided to call her that) cut him off saying
"I can't show Excalibur in a mock battle against devils" and came out herself. Plus she said "If you have complaints, defeat me first," so Kiba asked "Issei, lend me your power." And then, since we should send someone from the fallen angel side too, I volunteered.
...I wanted to look cool in front of the girl I fell for. It's stupid but I wanted to show off at that age. And from there it was chaos.
'Issei, use Dress Break! I'll take responsibility!!'
'! ...Kiba, I owe you one!!'
I had a really bad feeling about it, and the white flat chested girl watching said "It's a technique that strips women naked," so I rushed in to stop the Red Dragon Emperor first. After that, when I was thinking about going all out with my real equipment against an opponent who kept coming at me with incredible momentum…
'Um, this is a three-way battle, you know?'
Looking a bit apologetic, Kazuhi fired an explosive while dealing with Kiba. And from the positioning, I dropped out, and after that she was overwhelming them even though it was one against two. This is pretty scary, I guess. She's definitely at the highest level as an exorcist. She might even be better than holy sword users except for Excalibur as an attack weapon. More than anything….
"Load Set"
With those words, using magic power that would normally be impossible for a human, shells that suddenly appeared stayed floating in the air.
"Now take this"
At that moment, the shells were fired at high speed. Using something like a recoilless rifle to fire shells at high speed, sealing off the opponent's escape routes, and then following up with tonfa attacks when they lost balance from the blast. Not only that, she even pulled out a machine gun and used it.
Kazuhi-neesan is really strong!
"...How was that? Fighting me"
"Th-that was so awesome! So cool!"
Rienes and Himari came to my side with somewhat proud expressions. ...Um, I can't really talk, but Kazuhi is from the enemy church faction, right?
"What what! Watching her feels so good! Ah, is this love...?"
"That's definitely not it"
Since Himari was about to become a rival, I couldn't help but retort. And Rienes immediately retorted too. Somehow, while the two of us were patting Himari's head, we watched Kazuhi's overwhelming performance.
"Man, that person's really strong. Among the opponents I've sparred with in Grigori, only a few people would have a chance of winning against her, right?"
For example, the White Dragon Emperor Albion who's scheduled to come as reinforcement when he's free. That guy was concerned about the current Red Dragon Emperor. I wonder how he'll react when they meet? It's the ultimate enemy of women, but it's a pretty scary technique with originality, that Dress Break thing.
Will he be disappointed, or will he take interest for some special reason? It's gotta be one of those two.
"Alright, let's end this!! Regret the sin of trying to do something that makes you an enemy of women and encouraging it!"
"UWAAAAAAHHHHH!?"
Ah, it's over.
"Well, aside from Excalibur, they're more than enough for clearing the way. If we're going to cooperate, I think we could leave about one sword to one team."
"Well, I'd prefer not to die if possible. I don't mind as long as I can retrieve the core."
While Kazuhi and Xenovia were talking and working out the details for the future, I decided to try communicating with the devil side. We might be enemies in the future, but that's that. To coordinate at minimum, I should at least form minimum connections.