Leo understood instantly—Mahiru was bothered by the fact that he had clearly followed her yesterday with a purpose.
She might look gentle, almost angelic, but her guard was always up. Toward strangers, toward the world—she carried a constant, quiet vigilance. Deep down, she was far more sensitive than she let on, so things like this mattered to her.
And she knew better than anyone that, with her circumstances, most people—especially men—would approach her with an agenda.
That wasn't something unique to Mahiru; all the so-called flowers of Sobu High, Yukino included, shared this awareness. They all knew their looks attracted attention. Yukino was even a bit narcissistic about it.
But among Sobu High's five aloof beauties, only Mahiru was this sensitive, this wary.
It had everything to do with her upbringing. So Leo didn't think her heightened caution was a bad thing at all.
And he had no intention of hiding the truth.
"I already told you yesterday, didn't I, Shiina-san?" Leo said without turning around. "When a devil sets their sights on you, they're not looking to date you. They want your soul."
Mahiru hadn't understood that yesterday.
Now she did.
He wanted her as his servant—someone who'd give him her soul and everything else.
"…Why me?" Mahiru hesitated, then asked quietly, "It's not just because I look decent, right?"
Before yesterday, she really might have thought so. But she now knew Yukino, Asuna, and Utaha were all Leo's servants. Those three were just as beautiful as she was, if not more. Why would he bother with appearance alone?
Unlike Yukino and the others, she didn't have a Sacred Gear. What could he possibly want from her?
Leo had already told them that neither Mahiru nor Eriri had a Sacred Gear—but he never explained what made him choose them.
Not because he didn't want to. But he couldn't exactly tell them In my previous life, you were characters from an anime, and I picked you because you were heroines in the story I watched.
He could reveal his mutated trait. He could reveal that he possessed the second-strongest Longinus in the world. But his past life was the one thing he would never reveal.
So he spoke instead:
"I think you have a potential others haven't noticed. Something like…a force of destiny. It makes you someone who naturally becomes the center of things. That's what I value."
"…Sorry, I don't really get it."
A faint disappointment flickered in Mahiru's eyes.
She wanted a different answer.
The one she'd always wanted to hear.
And then—she did.
"Then let me put it another way."
A voice cut in. Leo suddenly stopped walking, turned around, and faced Mahiru directly.
Looking into those caramel-colored eyes, Leo smiled.
"I need you. How about that?"
Mahiru froze.
Mahiru bit down on her lip. Emotion surged up inside her like a broken dam, so strong she almost cried on the spot.
Yes. That was all she wanted to hear.
She wanted to know that she wasn't unwanted. That she wasn't, like her mother always said, a child no one needed.
If she were alone, or in her own room, she really would've cried.
But here, she held it in.
"…If I become your servant, I won't belong to myself anymore?" Mahiru's voice trembled.
"Right. Once you become my servant, you belong to me," Leo said frankly.
"You're not going to…do anything weird to me, right?" Mahiru asked just as bluntly.
"Who knows?" Leo laughed. "Maybe one day I'll want to."
"…You're very honest." Mahiru lifted her gaze, meeting Leo's amused eyes—and unexpectedly laughed too. "Aren't you afraid of scaring me off?"
"A devil scaring someone off—isn't that normal?" Leo shrugged. "I'm already a devil, why hold back?"
"Living by your desires, doing whatever you want—that's what a devil is."
Hearing that, Mahiru started to think that maybe…being a devil didn't sound so bad.
If anything, it sounded a lot less suffocating than being human.
Then Leo spoke again, his voice low and serious, carrying a strange warmth:
"You should think carefully," he said. "Once you choose to become my servant, you'll never get the family love you want again."
"Even if your parents cared, they'd only be with you for a few decades."
"A devil lives for tens of thousands of years. You servants have to watch your human loved ones die one by one."
"The ones who stay with you through the long centuries won't be your parents. It'll be me—and your fellow servants, your partners standing at my side."
Those words struck Mahiru deeply.
"The ones who'll stay with me for centuries…my partners."
As Mahiru repeated those words softly, Leo extended his hand. A magic circle unfolded in his palm, and a glowing Evil Piece appeared.
Its power was immense—far stronger than the pieces used to reincarnate Yukino, Asuna, or Utaha.
Leo stared at the piece for a long moment before handing it to Mahiru.
She had already learned what it was from the memories he'd shared with her. She, too, stared at it for a long time.
Images surged through her mind.
A little girl sitting alone in an empty house.
Her mother's disappointed face when she returned home.
Her desperate efforts—studying, training—trying to become worthy of attention.
Her walking alone in the rain, surrounded by crowds yet feeling utterly abandoned.
"You are not a child anyone needs."
That sentence, which had carved itself into her heart, echoed again.
By the time Mahiru came back to herself, her hand had already reached out for the crimson Evil Piece.
If she accepted it, she wouldn't belong to herself anymore—she'd belong to the man before her.
It was, unmistakably, a choice to fall.
But she no longer had another choice.
"If humans don't need me, then I'll stop being human."
"I'm not an angel. And I don't want to be one."
"I'm going to become a devil."
To prove she wasn't unwanted—that became Mahiru's new purpose.
For that, the angel chose to become a devil.
A soft hum filled the air.
At that moment, a strange pulse erupted from Mahiru's body.
"______!"
Leo's expression changed dramatically, his eyes lighting up with fierce brilliance.
He knew that sensation.
It was a Sacred Gear.
A Sacred Gear awakening—faint, but unmistakable.
Just as Mahiru was about to accept the Evil Piece and undergo Servant Conversion, a Sacred Gear resonated with her heart and manifested inside her.
And just like that—Mahiru became a Sacred Gear wielder.
Then the Evil Piece in her hand burst with blinding light.
The power flaring from it was second only to Yukino's—perhaps even surpassing it.
"Bang!"
The piece shattered the moment Mahiru touched it, dissolving into particles of light that sank into her body.
Devil wings burst open on her back, completely changing the angelic aura she once had.
And then—
[trait: Servant Conversion — activating…]
[Received basic feedback — demonic power (large amount).]
[Received rank feedback — Rank: Eight-Wing.]
[Received bonus feedback — Sacred Gear (Balance Breaker).]
As those messages flowed into Leo's mind, devil wings unfurled from his back as well.
But unlike Mahiru's single pair, or the three pairs he originally had—he now spread a full four pairs.
By reincarnating Mahiru as a devil, Leo had finally broken through, becoming an Eight-Wing Ultimate-Class Devil.
The demonic power that had been just one step away from evolving surged forward—not only crossing the threshold into Ultimate-Class Devil, but climbing significantly beyond it.
But even that wasn't the real reward he received.
The greatest gift was the sudden flood of visions appearing in his mind.
Inside him, Zenith Tempest stirred, resonating with an unknown force—passing down the memories of all its past wielders.
But this time, it wasn't about how they fought.
It was about the moment each of them reached the realm of Balance Breaker.
Someone awakening in absolute despair.
Someone going mad through sheer obsession.
Someone rising again with unwavering resolve.
Someone training endlessly, day and night, until their will transformed.
Leo experienced it all as if he had lived their lives himself—feeling every struggle, every breakthrough… every heartbeat of the power called Zenith Tempest.