"Then... can we come with you?"
Alice Nakiri spoke up again.
"You're not afraid of dying?"
Makoto blinked, caught off guard. Had this little silver-haired princess already made up her mind about him?
"Aunt Mana's sick and can barely do anything on her own. Erina's a textbook tsundere who's never taken care of anyone in her life. I think it's better if I come along, so you don't decide they're dead weight down the road and kill them off."
"Who are you calling a tsundere?!" Erina shot back. "I... I can take care of people. I can."
"Oh really? Can you draw a foot bath? Can you give someone a foot massage?"
Her cousin's barrage of questions left Erina completely speechless.
Give someone... a foot massage?
When in her life had she ever done something like that? If anything, she'd heard plenty of boys at school wanted to worship her feet.
"See? You can't do any of it." Alice spread her hands. "With you and Aunt Mana the way you are, how could I possibly relax? I need to come along."
"And... and you can?" Erina sputtered.
"Of course. When I was little, I used to wash Mama's feet all the..."
Alice caught herself mid-sentence and snapped her mouth shut, remembering too late that Erina's mother had abandoned her as a child.
Behind them, Sōe and Leonora Nakiri watched the exchange without intervening. Their daughter had a point. None of them knew these superpowered strangers, and teaming up with any random group felt wrong. Following Makoto was the only option that made sense, even if it came with higher risk.
Without him, they'd probably die even faster.
"Alright, groups are set. Get going."
Makoto waved them off.
"Makoto, I'm going to miss you so much."
Airi Akizuki threw herself into his arms, rising on her tiptoes as high as she could.
He dipped his head to meet her. *Mwah*
"Makoto, don't worry about us. Go do what you need to do."
Marina Akizuki stepped up right after her sister. *Mwah*
"Sensei-kun, if you forget about me, I will never forgive you." *Mwah*
Utaha Kasumigaoka bit down hard on his lip, then grabbed his hand and dragged it along her thigh twice for good measure.
Just as a side note, her black stockings had been ripped to shreds the day before.
"Don't rush into anything. Wait until you're certain before you make a move. I can be patient."
Megumi Kato wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth.
One after another, the farewells kept coming. The other players watched with their jaws hanging open.
"Is this ever going to end..."
A full fifteen minutes passed before everyone had said their goodbyes.
The last to approach was Yu Ishigami. He walked up and said, "Senpai, I want to form a contract with a Devil."
He hadn't joined any group. Instead, he'd chosen to go it alone, convinced that relying on a superpowered protector would make him complacent and slow his growth.
The words landed like a stone in still water. Makoto paused mid-wipe, the handkerchief Alice had given him still pressed to a face covered in lipstick prints. Everyone stared at Ishigami in disbelief.
"You're serious?"
Ishigami nodded. "I've been thinking about it for a long time. Ten years is too long. Once I've trained to the absolute limit of what my body can achieve, I want to try contracting with a Devil to push beyond that. And I want to fight alongside you, Senpai. To control Devils in battle."
Makoto laughed despite himself. "If you want to Control Devils in battle, you'll need to contract with something a lot stronger than a low-tier one."
"Would the Gun Devil be enough?"
Silence swallowed the group whole.
"Focus on getting stronger first." Makoto thought it over, then said simply.
"Yes, sir!"
Ishigami dropped into a full ninety-degree bow. "Next time we meet, I'll be strong enough to help you. I swear it."
He turned and walked away. Watching him go, even Eriri, who hadn't exchanged a single word with him, murmured, "That level of resolve... it's on a completely different plane."
Before all this, Tomoya Aki had been evaluated by Iruka and told he lacked the talent to become a ninja, resulting in his forced expulsion from the academy.
And after that? He'd given up entirely.
Compared to Ishigami, Eriri realized her childhood friend's willpower was pathetic.
One failure and he just quit.
Ishigami was the polar opposite. That kid was training like his life depended on it. Because it did.
"Eriri, let's go."
Sayuri Sawamura walked over, having finished her own farewell with Makoto.
"Okay."
Eriri answered and started to leave with her family. But almost immediately, she noticed something.
Her father hadn't brought Tomoya along.
"Hey! Eriri! I'm still here! Eriri!"
Tomoya, who had been sobbing uncontrollably just minutes ago watching Megumi Kato kiss Makoto goodbye, screamed her name with everything he had left.
Eriri looked to her parents, confused.
"Eriri, do you want us to end up like them?" Sayuri gestured toward the Kudo family, standing isolated and shunned by every group.
The meaning clicked. But seeing Tomoya in such a wretched state, Eriri felt her resolve waver.
"We've done more than enough for him." Sayuri let out a long breath. "What happens next is up to fate."
If Tomoya had shown even a shred of ambition, even the smallest accomplishment, she might have considered nudging him and her daughter together. But going after Makoto's woman? Nobody could save him from that.
"Eriri, stop pouring yourself out for someone whose heart was never with you. Counting the years in the ninja world, you've known him for over fifteen years now. After all that time, haven't you figured out what you actually mean to him?"
Those words were the last straw.
Eriri fell silent. And seeing that silence, Tomoya panicked. He dragged himself forward on hands and knees, wretched and flailing, his voice cracking with desperation. "Don't... don't go. Don't leave me, Eriri! I... I do like you. I really do. I like you! Please, save me. Save me!"
His face twisted beyond recognition as he wept, every trace of the self-styled creative genius stripped away, leaving nothing but groveling and begging.
The sight made Makoto grin.
Utaha, the Akizuki sisters, Yumiko Miura, and the others who hadn't gone far all wore open disgust on their faces. Even Megumi Kato, who was always as detached and unbothered as ever, shook her head quietly.
"That's... ugly, Tomoya."
Hearing him scream that he liked her should have made Eriri happy. Instead, all she felt was a disappointment so vast it hollowed her out. Fifteen years of hoping, waiting, wanting. And in this single moment, all of it shattered.
She fixed him with one last look, drained of everything except finality, and turned away with her parents. No hesitation. No looking back.
Tomoya froze. His outstretched hand hung in the air, fingers closing around nothing but cold emptiness.
Eriri's figure shrank into the distance and vanished.
Before long, his voice gave out too. The screaming faded to ragged, hoarse gasps, and nobody came.
He looked around at the ruined city, the crumbling buildings and scorched wreckage stretching in every direction, and saw a perfect mirror of himself.
A chair scraped against the ground beside him. He turned, stiff as a corpse, and found Makoto sitting there with his legs crossed, watching him with the idle amusement of a man enjoying the final act of a trainwreck.
"What... what do you want?!" Tomoya rasped.
"Nothing much." Makoto smiled pleasantly. "I just wanted to see how your story ends."
Erina and Alice appeared on either side of him. Erina held half a watermelon she'd procured from god knows where, scooping out a spoonful with visible uncertainty before offering it gingerly to Makoto's lips.
Alice pressed against his back, pressing her chest against the back of his head as a makeshift pillow, while her small hands worked clumsily at his shoulders.
Every frame of that scene burned itself into Tomoya's eyes.
So close. And yet a universe apart.
Megumi Kato, the girl of his dreams, had barely walked away, and already two more had appeared at Makoto's side, each one every bit as stunning as Megumi or Utaha.
And Tomoya? Flies crawled over his broken body. Rats gnawed at him. He could only stare through bloody tears, eyes locked on Makoto, unable to look away.
He didn't realize that his staring only made it sweeter.
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AN: Some readers in the comments suggested letting the protagonist have a daughter so she can continue to show off. You guys actually guessed right, but I don't plan on having him be a father at this current stage. After all, once a kid is in the picture, it makes the plot hard to develop. In my original plans, I actually intended for Mrs. Yukinoshita to have a child and then completely abandon those two [Yukino and Haruno]. It would give off a "I already have a new one, you guys are useless to me now" kind of vibe, haha...