Beyond Critical - Chapter 14.1 (Patreon)

To say Yanagi took the reveal of Irina well, was to say Hyoudou wasn't a perverted loser with a tiny penis.

Utterly fictional in other words.

It was only the fact that they still had some classes remaining after lunch, that kept the voluptuous gravity manipulating shortstack from stomping her way to his apartment.

It was one of the rare moments he was glad he went to a Japanese school. Because if this was Scotland, she wouldn't have given a shit and just blew off the afternoon classes.

That didn't stop her from demanding he explain everything he knew about Irina and everything he'd done with her.

And she wasn't happy with that either.

He spent his afternoon classes being stared at weirdly by Koneko and having invisible impacts smacking into him every few minutes.

It didn't hurt but it did keep him distracted.

If it were anyone other than Yanagi, they'd be getting a gauntlet clad touki enhanced fist smashed in their face for their shit.

Because it was her though he let it go. He kind of deserved it after all.

Either way, as soon as the bell went signifying the end of classes for the day? Yanagi wasted no time in marching over to him and grabbing him by the hand and dragging him by the hand to leave the classroom.

Koneko stood outside the class waiting for them and upon noticing him she began, "Evander I-"

"He's busy today." Yanagi shut her down hard, stunning the white haired devil girl with the upfront bluntness.

Kaito could only give her a helpless shrug as he let the short girl pull him along.

She didn't say a thing to him even when they got out of the school, frown firmly locked in place.

And Kaito wasn't really sure what to say here either. He had known after all of Yanagi's intentions and she knew that he knew. She had just been patiently waiting for him to get in the right place.

And then Irina came along. And he'd lost control of himself in the moment. Yet, despite it…

Kaito couldn't say he regretted it at all.

And he knew that wasn't fair to either of them. But he couldn't help himself. He wanted Yanagi, but he wanted Irina as well.

So he just let her drag him along.

…Until she remembered she hadn't ever been to his apartment before and had to get directions from him.

"…So this is where you live," Yanagi commented as they walked along the landing towards his apartment, her head peering from side to side, "Good to know."

"If I have my way, I'll be moving out of here soon." Kaito shrugged. Though, he had to admit there was some sentimental value in the place. It was his first ever home, his alone.

Perhaps he'd purchase it? If he wasn't wrong, these small apartments went for something like two million yen if not a bit lower. He could totally afford that now.

Hmm, that wasn't a bad idea actually. The rent for his apartment, paid for by his sponsors was roughly forty thousand yen a month. He could buy it and rent it out.

It would take a few years but then the apartment would start getting him a net gain and he would still own the property which he could then sell later if needed.

Perhaps part of his future lay in becoming a property owning business tycoon and-

"Stop stalling!" Yanagi broke him from his thoughts, and it was then he realised he'd unconsciously led her to his apartment door and stopped out front of it, "It's not like I'm gonna smoosh her into paste by increasing the gravity over her body a hundred times over in every direction."

Wait…what?

"You can do that?" he gaped at her. Like, just increasing normal gravity from above by one hundred times was something else but…every direction?

"Yup, drains me a lot and it's the max I can do right now, but I can totally do that," Yanagi gave him a toothy smirk, "You should remember that next time you make me mad."

…That would be amazing for training. He'd need to build up to something that crazy though.

"I'll be sure to remember." he replied as he reached into his pocket for his keys.

To be honest, he wasn't really worried about Irina getting into trouble here, even with that. Gravity Jail or not, Irina was very strong and very fast. And now she had a sacred gear that took it to the next level.

And he really doubted Yanagi would actually try to squash someone like Irina just over something like this. She might have been mad right now and a total troll at times, but she was a kind girl.

Oh well, best to get this over with.

He slotted the key into the door and turned, opening it up. when he pulled the door open, it was to reveal Irina sitting on the chair in front of the television.

Thankfully, she wasn't as skimpily clad as he had left her this morning. She had changed into a pair of track pants and…wait.

"…Is that one of your shirts?" Yanagi peeked under his arm to stare at the girl and deadpanned.

Why yes, yes it was. It was just a simple white t-shirt that looked positively massive on Irina's much smaller and sveltely built frame.

Irina turned at their voices and her purple eyes lit up upon seeing him, "Kaito-kun you're back!" she chirped excitedly, hopping up from the chair she was sitting on.

Kaito specifically did not respond to Yanagi's question as he stepped inside, "Hey Irina, how's life?" he greeted her blandly.

He forgot one thing though.

"Great, I found an anime on I haven't seen since I was a kid, it was even marathoning it was great!" Irina happily replied back, not at all sensing the mood. Her gem-like purple eyes zoomed in on the girl who entered the apartment behind him, "Oh, are you Yanagi-chan? I'm Shidou Irina, nice to meet you!"

In response Yanagi stepped passed him, leaving him to close the door and made her way over to Irina, not greeting her back. Instead, the grey haired girl was frowning as she peered at Irina and began circling her, "…Taller than me. Twin tails. Fit. Big boobs, big ass and wide hips. A natural air head….and virgin church girl," she murmured as she examined the taller girl, making Irina blink and stare at her confused, "Tch, you're really formidable. You cover over five different fetishes."

Kaito resisted the urge to palm his forehead. That was the first thing she said?

"Umm…thanks?" Irina tilted her head and replied, "Is that a good thing?"

"Definitely," Yanagi nodded simply, "For a homewrecker like yourself." she promptly added.

"….I'm not a homewrecker," Irina pouted, "Why would you think that?"

Yanagi in response crossed her arms under her breasts and made a show off pushing them up as if levelling a weapon at the twin tailed older girl, "you totally are, you made a move on my territory, even if you didn't know, I've been setting that dumbie up to be mine for months," Yanagi replied, before jabbing her thumb over her shoulder at him, "You see that? That is where my babies will be coming from."

…Wait, what? Again…what? Her as well!? That was the first he'd heard of that from her. They hadn't even got to dating yet!

"Oh, mine too!" Irina chirped back, "I actually wanted to get started on it last night but Kaito-kun said he couldn't because he had to talk to you first. I don't mind if you go first Yanagi-chan!"

Silence.

For once, it was Yanagi the impish troll that had been stunned into silence. And it took her a good few moments to find her voice, "….Excuse…me?" the short girl gaped at Irina.

"What do you mean?" Irina tilted her head, looking genuinely confused, "You're going to marry Kaito and so am I, we'll both be his wives. We'll be like sisters!"

Yanagi stared at the twin tailed older girl for a moment in utter silence before her neck turned around almost robotically, "Kaito…explain." her voice was bereft of emotion and for a moment he swore he could see gold shining beneath her bangs once more.

He winced.

…How the hell would he explain that? It wasn't even his idea in the first place. It was Irina's!

He was just the shmuck who couldn't say no to such an idea.

Honestly, all he could do, was wing it at this point.

"…It's pretty common in the supernatural side of things for men to have more than one wife?" he tried.

"Yup!" Irina thankfully contributed, "Like King Solomon had hundreds of wives and lots of the church higher ups have quite a few as well. Not to mention most devils have harems, I actually fought a guy once who had a peerage of nothing but girls that were his lovers."

Yanagi just continued to stare at him. Thankfully though, that ominous yellow glow disappeared.

She sighed after a bit of staring at him, "Okay, so it's way more common than I thought, but what has that got to do with me having to share?" she asked pointedly, "I was here first and if it weren't for your stupid self-pity issues over being broke, I'd have already tattoo'd my name on that well muscled ass of yours."

"…Look," Kaito sighed, running a hand through his hair, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to come to this. I really was just planning on making something of myself and then asking you out…but…"

"But?" Yanagi prompted him to continue.

"But I'm a total sap," he admitted in defeat, "I met Irina and didn't want her to die on the mission she was given. And then we found out God was dead and she got kicked out of the church and she had nowhere to go..."

He really honestly had no other excuse.

"That doesn't make it any better," Yanagi shot back bluntly, "Just because you're a sap and she's hot as shit doesn't mean you've fallen for her…unless.."

He felt the pressure of her stare increase and he winced, "…I can't say for sure, I'm not sure what love is at this point," he admitted, "But, I can definitely say I really enjoy having Irina in my life, not even just because of how attractive she is but because I genuinely like being around her, just like you. Sorry, I don't really have any excuses, I know it's a scumbag move."

Honestly, he knew he should have had a plan before talking with her about things. But, how was he supposed to make a plan for something like this that didn't involve plain old manipulating her to see things his way?

That just wasn't his style. He'd rather just take it head on.

"Damn right it is, this so isn't what I saw coming," Yanagi huffed, before turning back to face Irina who had stayed silent to let them speak, "What about you? What do you have to say on this?"

"Sorry?" Irina tried, before frowning herself and shaking her head, "No wait, I'm kind of not. I'm sorry I'm causing you trouble, but I…kind of don't regret anything? I love Kaito-kun. I want to be with him and don't see anything else that I want beyond him. It might be selfish of me, but I don't plan on letting him go."

Yanagi's mouth opened wide and Kaito got the feeling she was staring wide eyed in shock at Irina's blunt confession.

Kaito wasn't any better. Actually he was worse, he felt his heart speed up and pound rapidly and felt his cheeks flush.

…Nobody had ever outright bluntly declared they loved him like that before.

"Yeah, well so do I!" Yanagi shot back after she gathered her wits.

"Do you love him, enough though?" Irina fired back, for the first time narrowing her eyes in the slightest hint of hostility, "I don't know how much you know about things. But, even while I don't know much myself, I know one thing, it was taught to a lot of us at the church. Women, especially supernatural women flock to the strong. Kaito-kun is strong, really strong. And he'll just get stronger and stronger in the future. The stronger he gets, the more women will come to him and try to snatch him for themselves."

"…Damn thots." Yanagi growled.

…Kaito wasn't sure where Irina was going with this. But she was doing a better job than him, that was for sure.

The grey haired girl shook her head, "Whatever, where are you going with this?" she asked.

"Nowhere, I'm just letting you know," Irina shrugged, "Will you be able to deal with it? All these women approaching him? I know the heiresses of the Gremory and Sitri already have their eyes on him. They're powerful and rich and they're devils, they're not the type to be above seduction to get him. If you can't handle that, then you should just give up now, you won't be able to handle marrying Kaito-kun."

"…Freaking Gremory as well? I knew that chicks tits had to be supernatural," Yanagi growled, completely ignoring the fact her own tits were just as huge and looked even more out of place on her tiny frame, "Whatever, are you trying to say you can handle it? That you won't care about all these hussies after him as well?"

It was kind of odd how easily she accepted girls would be pursuing him. Kaito wasn't even sure about that really happening himself, but…she believed it so readily.

"I mean, like you I'd want to keep Kaito-kun to myself, but I'm just not going to be selfish about it," Irina crossed her arms and smiled brightly, "Kaito-kun is the light of my life. I'll support him the best I can. Just like King Solomon the more powerful he gets, the more women he'll attract and the more of them he takes for himself, the more connections and power he'll get. And Kaito-kun wants to be powerful more than anything else and he's already claimed the power of a Cadre and become part dragon, so there's no stopping it now."

She then sighed and smiled at Yanagi kindly, "Besides, there's one big problem about this even if I did just want to selfishly keep him to myself."

"…Yeah, and what's that?" Yanagi uttered back, tone rather subdued.

"Because it's both or neither," Kaito decided it was time to make himself known in the discussion again, his voice causing both girls to look at him, "It's pathetic of me. But I'm not going to choose one of you over the other. I'll admit it, shameful as it is, I want you both, but I won't settle for just one and leave the other out in the cold."

As much as he'd hate it, as much as he'd quite possibly rage about it later. It was better to let both go than to choose one over the other and leave them heartbroken.

"Kinda that…" Irina pointed out with a wince.

"….Oh." Yanagi said simply.

She then…just sat down on the floor.

And sniffled a bit, "You suck." she directed at him.

"Sorry." was all he could say. He totally was too. Yanagi was a great girl who deserved to get what she wanted. It wasn't fair of him.

He was very well prepared for her to hate him for this. And he would deserve it. It would hurt to have her walk out on him after this, beyond even the relationship aspect of things, she was still his best and only friend, but he simply couldn't give himself to her alone.

"This isn't fair," Yanagi added, "This is like if you asked me out and I said yeah but I wanted to fuck somebody like Hyoudou on the side. How would you like that?"

Red blurred his vision.

"Umm…Kaito-kun?" Irina called to him a bit awkwardly

"See, that's what I mean!" Yanagi pointed at him.

And it was then he realised, without him even noticing. His lips had shifted into a snarl, a gauntlet had formed on his wrist and the familiar weight of wings had formed on his back.

Kaito blinked and took a deep breath, dismissing his Sacred Gears. Just the mention of what she just said had sent a white hot rage rushing through his veins.

The image of that fucker touching Yanagi at all, made him want to go find him and tear his head off right fucking now.

"You don't like that thought at all." Yanagi snorted.

"Course I don't," Kaito huffed, what did she want from him? Beyond what he wouldn't give, "I'm serious though, don't just say shit like that to get a rise out of me. I understand you're pissed at me, and I won't blame you if you decide to look for someone else, you deserve everything you want out of life. But don't bring that shit up again, cuz if you do I'll go kill him, that's one thing I won't accept at all and I don't care how selfish you call me over it."

The thought was such, that he didn't care if he turned Gremory, her brother, her peerage or the entire devil species against him. He would never allow that.

And he didn't care how possessively selfish that made him sound he noticed as well.

"…Please don't, I know Issei has strayed since we were kids but I don't want him to to get killed." Irina pleaded.

"…Whatever, you get my point," Yanagi sighed in defeat, "….Fine."

…Fine?

"What?" Kaito blinked.

"I said fine!" Yanagi growled and her head whipped up, golden eyes peering through her bangs, "You want a harem like Hyoudou? Fine, let's get you one, but don't think for a damn second I'll be playing second fiddle to anyone. In fact they'll all play second fiddle to me!"

….Huh?

Just like that?

What?

Yanagi sputtered a second later as Irina swept her up into a hug from behind, casually lifting the shortstack into the air, "Don't worry Yanagi-chan, Kaito-kun has plenty of love to give us both!" she boldly declared.

…No, what?