The Bonds we Break 1 (Patreon)

The Bonds We Break - (Post-Shinmai Maou no Testament OC-MC)

Many many years ago, I remember making a friend.

He was a grouchy kid, very unpleasant at first impression, but one that I could easily read because, deep down, I was like him. We were both ‘orphans’ of something. In my case, my parents- in the case of one Toujou Basara, it was a home.

He had his father, but he lost something valuable as they had to move out of their hometown and… I just didn’t think that first friendship with a boy my age would have led to a wild adventure as soon as we hit 17!

Gods, Demons, and Heroes! And even more plots and insane world-ending scenarios.

I was there, Fukaya Jo, being the happy support character. My only quality was having a degree of common sense that helped from time to time while also morally helping the growing harem of my friend.

The entire situation was wacky how it came to be, especially with the swift acquisition of members and, while some could be justified as long-standing friends from before we met, some others were driven into that female pack with limited understanding of who their ‘master’ was.

The whole Master-Slave Contract was plain weird to me, but I knew Basara was not a bastard and that the tool in his hand could do more good than bad. I helped people like Zest understand more on how to interact with Basara and… it paid off quite well.

A full year went by, and the world was properly safe by several heavy-hitting plots that could have plunged it into damnation itself. All was nice and well as I focused on the very thing I had shelved away up until these last few months: getting together with a girl from school that was my first childhood friend ever, even before Basara - Tachibana Nanao.

She was… wonderful. Clumsy at times, but so nice and so well-meaning. She was a dhampir that had trouble getting close to other kids her age when we were in elementary school, but I was the one that reached out and was rewarded by her kind smiles.

I would be there all the time, always being the best friend possible and giving her some compliments whenever she felt self-conscious of her boyish preferences in terms of clothes. I saw nothing wrong with that and… and I loved her. I loved her madly.

I didn’t push her into it for a while, and the introduction to the supernatural further delayed anything meaningful in that regard. We went on a ‘date’, which was more of a hangout as she mentioned it being.

I felt so apologetic towards her whenever I started being busy helping Basara and his Harem, but I put my best to make it up to her whenever I missed occasions.

I thought that I could be with her- I thought that I could now entertain dating her as I had been quite relieved to have a lessened burden in terms of responsibilities between school and working for the Moderate Faction from Hell but…

But then I realized that it was all a lie.

Not ‘all’ in a general sense, but the friendship I held towards Basara.

I had helped him so much with social issues and cues, I helped him by pushing him out of self-loathing because of his power causing him so much pain, I helped him with the harem, I was around and he was too busy doing that job back to me!

But I didn’t mind. I knew he had a lot on his plate already. No, being one sided in the support was my decision.

I couldn’t blame him for not playing wingman for me when handling Nanao before Mio and Maria came into our lives since he was bad at that sort of shit. I couldn’t blame him for being quite distracted between training, bonding, and much more.

I could blame him for doing something far worse than any of that.

It all started on a Friday Morning. It was schooltime, and I had been moving fast to keep up with my punctual timing with lessons when-

“Niisan~!”

I huffed, catching a succubus-born missile grappling me like a little monkey, giggling as she got off and paraded her school uniform.

Nanase Maria was surprising me for sure as she tended to skip on putting on the proper school uniform from time to time, so I had invented a game regarding her favorite snacks, Skittles, and her actually putting on her proper uniform.

I rolled my eyes at her, fishing out two bags of skittles that she happily caught in her welcoming hands.

“Always a pleasure doing transactions with you, Niisan. So, how’s your day?”

The chirpy tone and the honorific was not one that was driven by mere teasing. Despite Maria being Basara’s step sister/cousin, their relationship had led to that sort of familiar bond to pretty much not exist in a regular way.

When it came to me, however, Maria ended up slowly mellowing around me and actually demanded to be treated like a little sister. A year later, and I could say that we were siblings in all but blood.

It was a nice way to de-stress when around her, all the while she was out of sexual situations to enjoy some quality time of the wholesome kind around me. I also worked closely with her sister, Lucia, and I would say that it really helped with my job from time to time due to how nice things were with the Moderate Faction.

“Mostly well, Skittle Gremlin,” I mumbled, using her nickname I have on her whenever I wanted to tease her a tiny bit. “Especially since I plan to finally take the girl I have been trying to date in a lovely restaurant in three days from now.”

She gasped. “So, it wasn’t a lie?”

I frowned at the sarcasm and Maria giggled as she took hold of my arm. I didn’t tell anyone in the harem that I was into Nanao for many good reasons: first, I didn’t want to be teased about it, second, I didn’t want any baddies to know who was my ‘weak spot’.

It worked just fine through these months, but I have to say I was a bit surprised when I learned that Nanao had been busy with Basara about training over his new influx of divine power from the contract he had with Shiba.

It was odd since Nanao was more of a physical specialist rather than a magical one, but I didn’t think too hard about it and just thought it was something that tied physical power to divine power.

“So, did you tell it to Basara already?”

“Once Nanao and him are free, I will tell them both.”

The little succubus huffed. “Well, it’s going to take a while with all the babymaking they are busy with.”

I smiled… and then I felt my face forced into that mask from that moment onward.

“...What? I-I thought they were training.”

“That’s sexual training, yes. And Nanao had been asking Basara to be in the harem for a while. Poor girl was quite interested in that.”

…

My world was crumbling even as I pushed my body to not show it. It couldn’t be true that Nanao- sweet Nanao had actually done that. That Basara, my friend, would have just done this to me.

“That’s a… surprise,” I uttered weakly and Maria nodded, then stopped as she turned to look at me.

“Niisan, you are so pale. Is everything alright?”

“Just…” I gulped down the first hint of vomit. I needed to get to the bathroom. Fast. “I just feel a bit unwell. I may have messed up my coffee for breakfast. I… I have to go.”

Maria looked so worried, but I patted her head and calmed her a bit. She wasn’t at fault. I knew she wasn’t.

“It’s alright, just a case of a bad morning. Nothing weird, skittles gremlin.”

She puffed her cheeks. “Fine, but go home if you don’t feel like you can make it to class. Kay?”

I nodded. “Sure thing.”

I saw Maria leave shortly after, and I rushed to the nearest bathroom to empty my bowels through vomiting. I felt I was ejecting so much all at once- today’s breakfast, yesterday’s dinner, the promises, the lies, the hopes and the dreams.

All was pushed out as I felt my sight blurred as tears had come naturally to the pain. It was just burning my guts, lashing from within and leaving me agonizing for a good while.

All the sacrifices made, all the efforts put, all the good faith- it all amounted to nothing. Basara, he… he didn’t care. He never cared.

But as I wallowed in my pain, the ‘opposition’ to such belief came up. I cleaned myself and my mind mounted a last ditch effort to give me hope. Maybe Maria had misunderstood, maybe they didn’t do that sort of thing- maybe this wasn’t as bad as it sounded.

Anyway, I had to check in with Chisato as she was the school nurse. As I mentioned my sickly condition, the woman added that I had a bit of a fever and… told me that Nanao was expecting a child from Basara from the last time she checked her two days ago.

I thanked her and advanced congratulations to the two. She didn’t seem to suspect the source of my sickness, only that I needed some rest. And yet, in my walk back to my flat, I felt like ‘resting and staying’ were not the truest option.

I couldn’t just stay put and accept it. I couldn’t just accept the idea that all I did was spat upon by someone that truly showed himself a horrible person. I wanted to lash out and hurt but…

It wouldn’t have fixed anything.

Basara was too strong to even consider clashing with, at this point it was possible that Nanao was also his slave through the Master-Slave Contract (and she was pregnant), and I couldn’t just ‘fix’ something that wasn’t broken. All I had to do was to accept this reality- the true decision was to pick what to do after this.

Stay and accept, or leave and… try to find my new path.

I couldn’t stay. No matter how much affection I held with the other girls and the other friends as Basara had burned a major part of me with this outrageous shit and… and I couldn’t take it.

As I returned home, my body moved automatically as I found some dimensional pocket bags, stuffed those full with stuff and then prepared my documents. Before dismantling my pc, I also erased my accounts, my password and my most recent web history.

I finished that touch by sending two emails, one at the school to retire myself from it, and one to the Moderate Faction’s official address to resign from my position as an accountant.

I felt somewhat more at ease as I felt myself shed away what I had of my life, but I wasn’t done yet. I prepared my passport, I contacted an airline to be given the first flight out of Japan and to the States- I got one connected to Hawaii and then to Los Angeles for tomorrow morning.

I had everything packed, and I was soon leaving the emptied flat at once. I took the bus that led to Tokyo and… I picked my phone. Everything was such a rush, and I was in pain as I composed the one number I needed to call before leaving.

I closed my eyes, glad that the bus was empty at this point so I could handle this conversation properly.

“Jo?”

“Hi pops,” I muttered, the nickname aimed at someone that had been a father to me. Toujou Jin. “You busy?”

“Not really, no. But shouldn’t you be in school?”

I held back a sigh. “Stuff happened and I need to ask you a favor.”

I don’t know if he picked up my peculiar mood, but I heard him shuffling and his tone changed altogether from calm to quite serious.

“What is it?”

“I will send you a video tomorrow morning from another email. Can you please show it to Basara and the others?”

At least those that mattered were going to know why I was no longer going to be around in town from now on…

—------d-d-d-d—-----

AN

Tah-dah! Angsty piece here we go! I noticed I have done mostly wholesome and horny stuff, so here’s an idea I had been cooking with in the Discord. Realistic/Weak!OCMC ends up in a bad mental spot caused by Basara’s uncontrollable attraction for his harem, leading to some interesting consequences in the long run. The harem doesn’t explode, but there’s a lot of retrospective over how some situations came to be.

Also, it will be an AU since most of the girls are not pregnant- Maria, for example, is not.

Lastly, yes MC will have a pairing with a character that is not paired canonically with Basara.

P.S. It goes by saying that some stuff will be original stuff within the loose limits of this series since this is post-canon.

Any questions are welcome as I expect some confusion and curiosity.