It's True Love 44 (Patreon)

"Give me everything." I pump mana through my body immediately. Something in the air just changed, and without a doubt this is no longer a date, it has become a battlefield. Actually those two might be the same thing.

I pici a knife from the table, and get up. Immediate I swing it close to Akiha's neck, mostly because I feel there's something invisible close to it. So really, I have no choice, but to trust my instincts.

The moment metal clashes with the invisible thing, my knife is almost cut in half, thankfully I reinforce it before it breaks. "Sparks are flying out! Why are sparks flying out!?" Without a doubt this invisible thing is made out of metal as well, it's probably a wire.

Akiha swings her hand, it immediately breaks the iron. "I don't need your help Yuta, sit down!" Why are you getting mad at me now too!? Can't you see that we are in public!? This is not the time for demon blood shenanigans!

Touko raises a hand, still glaring at Akiha. "Yeah, stand down Yuta, or it might get you." After saying that, I hear a mechanical noise all over the restaurant.

I immediately look around, and notice that many of the 'normal' people around us, suddenly have guns for arms. Wait... does that mean she paid entrance for a bunch of puppets!?

Before she fires at Akiha, she smirks. "Hah! As if guns are going to do anything to me!" Yeah, I imagine normal bullets would bounce of your skin pretty easily. However, I doubt Touko will be using normal bullets in the first place!

I dash. "Don't be stupid!" And then with one arm, I hug a surprised Akiha, and jump out of the window. The glass breaks with a screeching sound, and we immediately begin our descent.

And now I can see the bullets that missed us passing over our head. I still can't tell if they're supernatural or not, what I can tell however is that if they bounced off Akiha, they would probably hit innocent people like Miyako.

It's just like my fights with Vlov, it's just like any fight ever. This isn't just a video game where the world around us disappears, I need to constantly be aware of my surroundings, and the advantages and disadvantages that they give me.

Akiha blushes just as red as her head. "W-who are you calling stupid!?" This is no time for a tsundere act! I can't believe you went and pissed off the super mage with whatever you said! Even if you defending me makes me happy.

I stab the walls with my reinforced knife, so I don't fall who knows many stores, while doing that I'm still holding Akiha with my other arm of course. "Argh... why that even piss her off!?" And how am I I supposed to get up from here now!?

Akiha pouts, it's a comical sight considering she would become pancakes if I dropped her. "She received the title Scarred Red as a secret insult in the Clock Tower. I suppose she's still... scarred from it." Maybe I really should drop you.

I glare at Akiha. "I see... Anyways, I'll throw you up into the restaurant again, please take Miyako and run. Ignore Shiki though, he can die." I still can't believe the little bastard betrayed me without any hesitation.

She raises an eyebrow. "How do you even know Big Brother was here...?" Slowly her blush returns, and her eyes widen. "W-were you watching me!?" Ah, I really was. But just for a few moments!

Now it's my turn to blush. "No." I'm fine with lying during this situation. "Now focus on the plan, take Miyako and... if you can, take as many civilians as possible too. I'll do the same." Even if I still have no idea how I'm getting up there in the first place.

Akiha sighs. "Do you even have the strength to throw me up there? Letting me fall is perfectly acceptable." In what world!? "I could easily survive a fall such as this one." I see... But it's not like you weigh a ton anyways.

For a second I think about making a joke that would imply she's fat. Thankfully I'm smarter than that... However I never get to respond at all.

A beam leaves through the window, probably as a result of Sensei joining the fray, and while it didn't hit anything, something else must have had, because the entire building shakes, like there's an earthquake happening.

While my knife is reinforced, it's reinforced with grain, which tends to eat through material. It also doesn't help that it was already heavily damaged before... all these factors ended up meaning that my knife breaks into two.

Akiha and I fall. "Ahhhh...!" That's a scream that only comes from me, since the Tohno heiress stays annoyingly silent, a smug smirk on her face... Which soon changes into a terrified expression.

Probably because she just realized that while she will survive this fall without taking damage, that probably doesn't apply to me. To be honest I genuinely don't know if I can tank this, I didn't exactly test my durability before.

Akiha hugs me. "Yuta!" And then she flips our positions, now her back will be the one striking the ground. This is a classic maneuver in movies and such, but I don't know if it actually works.

So I brace myself, hoping that I won't die before ever truly getting a harem. We crash not against concrete, but against metal, because we landed on a car's roof. Or at least she did, I landed on Akiha.

The car of the alarm starts blaring, it distracts me from the pain that is filling my body. It's actually not too bad, and I think I would have been fine even without her help, but... my arm which hasn't completely recuperated is hurting like hell.

And so are my eyes, I lost my glasses somewhere on the fall, and so I'm seeing lines of death everywhere. This is bad, I desperately need to find them before this starts affecting my combat capabilities.

Akiha's face is filled with worry. "A-are you okay Yuta?" But that's all, she really is completely fine. Just how tough is she anyways? I knew she was probably going to be strong, but I really was underestimating her...

I try my best to calm down. "I'm fine, thanks for saving me Akiha." I still don't know if her little trick actually changed anything. "Let's make sure things are more pleasant next time I'm on top of you though..." I couldn't resist.

She bites her lip. "Don't say these kinds of things in the middle of a fight..." Is it just me or are her eyes getting... hazy? Don't tell me Akiha is the type of person who gets lewd in the middle of a battle! Well, she is a demon... sort of...

And she soon realizes what she's doing. "N-now get off me, and count yourself lucky that I'm caring enough to not shove you away!" Okay, I won't push her anymore in this current situation.

I slowly get up. "Yeah, yeah..." Once I'm up, I jump from the car. "I'm surprised there are so few people around... as in, none." This is a pretty populated place, so I feel like this little fight should be the end of magecraft secrecy.

Akiha gets up too, and she too jumps out from the car. "The Aozaki probably raised a bounded field. Maybe one that kicked everyone outside, or one that makes us work in different planes..." I feel like the last one is a bit absurd! "It doesn't matter, the only people in dangers are the ones at the restaurant." So we have go get there as quick as possible.

Akiha continues. "But then again, it wouldn't surprise me if Aozaki's bounded field kicked them out, while erasing their memories automatically. That's the kind of mage she is." Sensei however is the destructive kind.

Even now if I look up I can see random giant beams being fired around, meaning Sensei is probably still fighting. I do think she's holding back, but even so the collateral damage is gonna be pretty crazy.

I sigh, this date is a mess. "So, what can do Touko do exactly?" If I'm gonna subdue her, I would like to know her capabilities first. Though I will also try talking her down of course.

Akiha raises an eyebrow. "You don't know? She can use puppets and runes..." Well I did know about the puppets, and that big scary one I fought did have runes too. "Anyways, you stay here... While I tear that woman apart." Huh?

I immediately try to object, but Akiha dashes into the building like a red blur, completely ignoring. Honestly I'm just happy she wasn't crazy enough to jump up into that floor... This means I have some extra time.

Since I'm now alone, I begin looking around the ground. "Where are them...?" I need to find my glasses, they are clearly unique and expensive, so... But if I don't find them soon, I'll have to jump into the fray anyways...

Contrary to my best efforts, I simply can find them. It's very likely that they completely broke once we hit the ground too. They were probably enchanted of course, but even that can only go so far.

This is bad, this is really bad.

If Touko doesn't have another pair, I'm completely and utterly screwed, and even if she does have it I doubt she's gonna give it to me so easily now. Welp, it's not I have given up on seducing her, I guess...

"No time like the present." If I can't find my glasses, then I just have to... get rid of the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. Now, I haven't managed to do that so far, but... I have no other choice.

I actually have a theory on why they're with me. You see Rika is essentially a hard drive made so I don't fry my brain, what I think happened with my eyes is that I sent the power to my body and not to hers.

And I should be able to get rid of them, or at least I hope so.

I close my eyes and try my best to... feel with my grain. As usual my energy just wants to devour anything around it, it's a superior energy source to mana, and something that poisons it. With it I can feel my connection with Rika though.

So I just... try guiding my mystic eyes back to her...

Maybe it's because this is a dangerous situation, or maybe it's because I have simply trained enough, but it ends up being surprisingly easy. Next time I open my eyes, I see normally again.

A smile reaches my face... and it quickly dies out. I have to remember why I'm in such a distressing situation in the first place!

I dash into the building and begin making my ascent through the stairs, the elevator is not working right now. And as I approach the restaurant, the tremors get worse and worse... This place might collapse.

Once I eventually enter the restaurant, it's like I have entered a battlefield. "C-calm down you three!" Those words come from the traitor, Shiki, who's slashing away any puppet that comes close to him.

Watching him move makes me feel a bit jealous to be honest, he's not exactly... skilled, but there's a certain grace and unexpectedness to his movements. It reminds me of a feline.

Akiha is smashing puppet after puppet. "Shut up and get out of my way!" Shiki is not even close to her, I think she's just losing herself in the battle. To be honest it's a embarassing, and cute sight more than anything.

Yeah, seeing Akiha go mad with power is absolutely adorable, and so Shiki is a coward for trembling at the sight of it!

Aoko is firing beams at her sister, who's using some type of rune to defend herself. "You're gonna pay for ruining my date!" I feel like Sensei is also contributing to ruining the date, considering she's tearing this place apart.

Touko really must have put some insane bounded field up though, because I genuinely see no civilian around us. It makes me specially glad that Miyako is not aroune, since this probably means she's safe and sound.

The puppet mage smirks. "Are you stupid or something...? Right, it's you. There was supposed to be nothing to ruin! Remember that you aren't supposed to fall for Yuta Okkotsu!" Sensei is too weak for that.

Aoko clenches her fists, and prepares for a big punch, which will probably just be a big laser. "I-I know...! But just 'cause I'm enjoying spending time with my sexy pupil, it doesn't mean I like him in that way!" As expected, she punches the air and a even bigger beam is fired.

This time Touko has to call some of her puppets back to her, to use them as shields. "Ugh. Weren't you the one saying this wasn't your type of scene?" She extends her hand, and those very same puppets begin rushing at Aoko. "If anything I should be mad. I was having fun." You were!? Also, you're clearly mad!

Aoko blushes, and makes a finger gun. "S-shut up! I'll admit it okay, I sort of liked this place!" She fired three smaller beans from her finger, Touko defends from them all using those rushing, and now destroyed puppets, but she's starting to sweat.

It's clear the younger sister is superior, at least when it comes to combat potential. It seems Touko is the trickster type, and since this erupted from nowhere, she didn't have time to plan this encounter.

As Sensei attacks however, she suddenly has to dodge one of Akiha's blows. "E-eh!? What's the big deal!?" She's as surprised as I am. Considering the whole reason this started, shouldn't she be attacking Touko!?

Akiha snarls, she really does look like a berserker right now. "The big deal is that you're trying to steal Yuta from me! Like the criminal whore you are!" She keeps wildly swinging, Sensei dodges it all with masterful acrobatics. "So I'll cut both of you down!" This is bad.

So I begin trying to get their attention, just like Shiki is doing. "Hey, everybody! You all need to stop fighting!" Sadly my scream goes unnoticed by everyone who isn't named Shiki. And even the traitor can only give me an apologetic look.

I doubt he knew things were going to escalate to this level, and now he's feeling bad. He deserves the shame though, because things will probably get even worse now that Akiha is slowly turning this into a free for all.

I have to stop this... I have to get their attention somehow.

I take a deep breath, and accept the death of my dignity. "I fucking love redheads!" Welp, it's not like I ever cared about it anyways. "I want to marry every redhead that I goddamn see!" I'm just saying the truth right now.

And I'll continue to do so. "And it's all Sensei's fault! She gave me a fetish for it by being way too hot!" I imagine that if Rika wasn't around, puberty would have been wasted with jerking off to memories of Sensei kicking me.

Still, my shouting has gotten their attention, with Akiha stopping to glare at me. "And you are telling us this because...?" She doesn't even notice that she stopped fighting. Truly I am a genius.

Aoko's face is bright red. "M-mission success...!" Your true feelings came out. "Wait, I mean, that's bad Yuta!" Sorry, but I won't forget what you just said outloud. In fact I don't think anyone will.

Touko glares at her. "How... how are you like this...?" She shakes her head. "No, it doesn't matter. I'm just glad that we ended up being so different." You two really didn't.

Shiki pushes his glasses up. "Well, I'm on a similar boat to Yuta..." Akiha immediately looks like she wants to kill him. And Aoko. And just everyone. "But I ended up being more scared of them than anything else." I see. Weak.

I raise a finger. "You have bad taste Shiki, that's why you're getting closer to that Sacchin girl. I however, am what people call based." Maybe I shouldn't be saying this though, since Rika originally had brown hair.

He rolls his eyes. "She's not generic Yuta... stop calling her generic just because she doesn't overreact to stuff like everyone else." What's that supposed to mean?

He continues. "It's like Rika fried your brain, so you only like girls who are always at two hundred percent energy at all times. Seriously, Sensei could punch you to the Moon, and you would think it's adorable." He knows me so well.

But also not really! "Hey, I'll have you know one of my greatest missions in life is marrying Hisui and living a happy life with her. Which brings me to my next point, why are you more attracted to Yumizuka than Hisui!?" Also, Hisui is not my little sister, so this is all okay.

He pouts. "She was working as my maid, it would be extremely inappropriate." That's actually... Shit, that's a really good point! "And really, it's not like I have too many options in the redhead variety." Oh?

He starts counting with his fingers. "Hisui and Kohaku were both working for my family, Akiha is my sister, Noel is my teacher, Sensei is my mentor, and I don't even know Touko." I repeat. Weak.

Which is why it's now my turn to roll my eyes. "None of those conditions are a real pro-." Suddenly I'm interrupted by a light slap to the upper side of my head.

It came from Akiha, who's blushing bright red. "What are you two idiots talking about!?" She's not the only one, Touko and Aoko are on the same state, and I feel like I should brace myself for a kick.

I smirk and send her a thumbs up. "Shiki and I entered into perfect synch and started debating something ludicrous so y'all would stop fighting of course." I'm lying.

Shiki copies my smirk. "And as you can see, our spontaneously made plan worked perfectly." He's lying too of course.

The truth is that Shiki and I just naturally slide into these types of conversions. Normal Rika would pulls out of it by saying some yandere line, but she's not here, so we just kept going and didn't stop.

Akiha's eye twitches, she can definitely see through our lie. "You two really are the worst...!" Even as she complains though, her hair starts to slowly turn back into being black, so our not plan worked.

I have to say though, it feels like Akiha has been really trigger happy with her demon powers recently. Maybe it's because I now know she's a demon? She certainly didn't use her powers this much before.

Aoko crosses her arms and scoffs. "Boys will be losers huh..." The actual saying is boys will be boys, but okay! Also, I'm not surprised that Sensei seemingly believes us, I wouldn't call her naive, but she does have rose tinted glasses when it comes to us.

Here comes the most important challenger however, Touko. "I see... Anyways, I'll go back to slaughtering this cocky half-demon then." This is what I feared, that she wouldn't back down.

The room becomes tense again, with Sensei slowly moving into a combat stance, while Shiki does the same. Akiha's anger will undoubtedly rise again, which means it will be super hard to calm her down again.

I have to stop this from resetting. "Why though? What's the big deal with that name?" The name I'm talking about is obvious, Scarred Red. Akiha said it was some mean prank on her, but surely there is more to this story...?

Touko raises an eyebrow. "You don't really pay much attention to detail do you?" Of course I do! How do you think I have survived having two yandere girlfriends!? Or having tons of yandere not yet girlfriends!?

I pout, I actually do feel a bit insulted. "I'll have you know I'm basically Sherlock Holmes. You're the one who hasn't even noticed I don't even have my glasses anymore." That's right, like a girl who cut her hair, I want her opinion.

She's a glasses girl after all, or at least sometimes! Ah, I have a feeling Senpai will be really sad, but maybe I can start wearing glasses just for the style? Would she be happy or insulted at that?

Touko rolls her eyes. "I noticed, I just didn't care." Ah, right into my heart! "Now stop talking Yuta Okkotsu. I make a habbit of killing anyone who calls me by that name." There's one problem with what she's saying though.

Now it's my turn to roll my eyes. "You weren't even focusing on Akiha though, you were completely focused on Aoko!" She was just looking for an excuse to pick a fight with her sister. Or at least fighting her sister is more important than the nickname.

Touko blushes. "W-well..." An opportunity has now presented itself to me.

So I might as well continue the offensive. "Besides, Akiha didn't mean what she said!" She totally did. "She was just trying to defend me because she's super duper adorable!" Like a true tsundere, only she can lower my self-esteem!

Akiha stomps the floor, proving that she is indeed adorable. "I very much meant what I said! Scarred Red!" And apparently she desperately wants to become an adorable corpse!

Touko's eye twitches. "I... I see your point Yuta." She does!? "Fine, I suppose... messing with teenagers is bellow me." Now Akiha really wants to kill her, but Aoko and Shiki are both holding her back.

An awkward smile reaches my face. "So... no more fighting?" Why do I feel like Akiha still shouldn't lower her guard? Well, she does have Toji as a bodyguard, so it's probably fine.

Touko nods. "No more fighting. I can't be worrying about this, I have a date to go tomorrow." Her answer make Sensei's jaw hit the floor. She shouldn't be surprised though, Touko is just as lonely as she is.

I laugh. "Great!" But there is one problem... "By the way, what excuse do we have for this whole mess?" It was a pretty destructive fight, even if nobody actually ended up getting hurt. We destroy tons of stuff.

Touko shrugs. "Gas leaks. Works everytime." I highly doubt it will work!



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"I cannot believe that worked..." I mutter to myself. Well, I still ended getting chewed on by Senpai though, which I deserve of course. Ah, she also congratulated me for getting a bit more control over my body.

There are plenty of things I could hypothetically do with my new established connection with Rika after all. Like rapidly calling and returning powers, switching them as needed, or summoning Rika through long distances, or even teleporting to Rika herself...

But these are all far away from the current me. It's still nice to have a set-goal though.

Rika sounda worried. "Are you okay, Yuta...?" You know it's bad because she stopped watching Twilight to address me. By the way, we are currently watching it in a big group, except Ciel left.

She has good taste. "Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit tired." Rika nods and goes back to watching it. The cute sight of it restores my spirits, sadly the awful movies crushes me right after it. I truly am eternally pushing a boulder.

The sad fact is that I really am getting tired from these constant dates... and also because I fell pretty hard into a car. It's something negligible though, this is the path I chose.

Still, my weak answer apparently isn't enough for Kohaku. "Are you sure Big Bro? If you need a bit of help in your dates... I have some... stuff that you can inject in them." Do I even want to know?

Hisui nods. "While Honored Sister's suggestion is a crime, we could help in other ways if needed..." The worry is clear on her face, mostly because she's slowly, but surely getting my comfortable showing her emotions.

I wave them off. "It's fine, I'm built different." I'm just glad they didn't hear my conversation with Shiki. All the points I have with them would probably instantly disappear.

Kohaku and Hisui look at each other... and come to a silent agreement. Why do I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be even more troublesome?

Being a big brother can be challenging.



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Being a big brother can be challenging. "N-no...! No!" I wish I was there to see it, but I wasn't. I missed a special moment as usual, a shame to be sure.

But just the knowledge that she is slowly, but surely accepting that red is making me happier, even if the reasons for it make me sad, make me pissed to be honest. It can't be helped though.

I ignore the squirming of my food and bite into her neck, I'm not looking for blood, I'm looking for meat. It's a pretty gruesome delicious sight, it makes me want to vomit, the meat tastes nice.

Since she became red, I felt like accepting it a bit too, a big brother has to set an example after all, so the young ones can follow. Also, I'm hungry, as always.

Getting food is hard, I'm always being hunted for some reason.

It can't be helped though, I gotta eat. It can't be helped though, I gotta eat. It can't be helped though, I gotta eat. It can't be helped though, I gotta eat. It can't be helped though, I gotta eat.

I want to meet them.

If I have my way, I never will.



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AN: I recently noticed just how many redheads there are on the harem. In my defense though, even if they had different colors they would still be top tier.