#lbkk

see I could be coy but unlike my Lb7R thing I have no idea if I'll ever have this fully written so I'll just tell you!

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//Lostbelt Depth……..500-600 Years. Rank: E- //Lostbelt Resemblance……..ERROR!!!ERROR!!!ERROR!!! Disparity value inconclusive. *Connection Lost* ... ... ... [20XX, Somewhere in Central Asia]

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[Neo Kiyosu Palace]

As Ritsuka silently wandered the halls of her new and unfamiliar quarters, she eventually found herself completely lost in the upper ward of the palace. She’d tried to go back to bed already, and failed multiple times; something was off. She felt a tension in the air, as if she was still under that single mystic eye’s gaze…or that of the Avenger themselves. 

So she got up, and began to explore, well past where she knew she was meant to. For whatever reason, she found herself moving further up the palace, as if her mind was shielded from a sensation that every part of body screamed was about to become an overwhelming threat - a threat that no god or devil could save you from. 

Finally, just as Ritsuka began to wonder if this was all simply another nightmare, her breath caught in her throat as a familiar voice cut through the night from just a room away. The crackle of embers registered soon after as her senses were sharpened by adrenaline. Without a noise, Ritsuka began observing the room - a chamber of some sort filled with vaguely familiar artifacts, lit only by what little moonlight entered and the glowing outline of Maou’s eternally burning cape.

The demon king in question continued speaking to someone.

“You still haven’t answered my question. Why did you run in fear when I first approached?”

“...”

Silence was a response Nobunaga never imagined she’d receive from their own kin. All their life people had things to say about them. The detractors never ceased in their slander and objections to the Fool’s latest antics, the sycophants never ceased in their vain attempts to curry favor with their latest horse to bet on, and on the other side the Demon King’s own betrayers were always waiting with their latest excuses. Silence was rare for a warlord. Silence was the response reserved for those whose heads held thoughts worth holding onto….and so, it was a response they always thought unfamiliar to their brother, whose shortsightedness was always his worst, but in the most fateful moments his best, attribute.

But all such thoughts were as useless in a Lostbelt as contemplating the could and should haves, she supposed. 

“...For one who wears most of my brother’s disappointing face, your actions bear little resemblance to the Nobukatsu of my world.”

The alleged Lostbelt King flinched - an act that brought a hint of a nostalgic smile to the Demon King’s face.

“Ah, there it is. That timidity is something I’m much more familiar with.” The smile disappeared just as quickly as Nobunaga spoke in a tone that even the eavesdropping Master rarely heard from them. “My brother was many things. Timid, naive, foolish, manipulable, even spineless…but he was never once a coward.”

Nobunaga planted their sheathe to the ground in a familiar pose - one that only such a fool as they described would mistake for ease. 

And it was a mistake this new, one-eyed Nobukatsu clearly did not make, as his porcelain, almost sickly face paled even further in the moonlight. Even now, neither the outworld Master nor her Servant knew if they should believe his claims to Kingship; it was hard to imagine, seeing a boy so close in so many ways to the one they knew from their world claim to be this Lostbelt’s King.

But then he spoke, and as he had before, he spoke regularly with a conviction known to the boy of their world but once in his lifetime. 

“The reason I ran when we first met was not because I was afraid of you.”

Nobunaga did not react, but they didn’t need to. Their doubt was implied from the start - it was the same doubt she always held when addressing her sibling, ever present in this world as it was the last. However, where the Nobukatsu they knew would protest and lose composure instantly, this one simply smiled a nostalgic smile of his own to mirror the Demon King’s, as if the very situation they were in was an act of comfort to him. 

…And yet all the while, Ritsuka felt the same overwhelming sensation of dread in her stomach as the boy spoke again, more assertively this time.

“Please don’t think that for even a moment; I could never, in this life or any other, be afraid of you, sister!” There. That word. That exclamation.

Ritsuka knew it by heart. The way Nobukatsu had said it at that moment was the most familiar thing in this world to the Chaldean. 

“The joy your presence brings me….words could never do it justice. I gave up so long ago trying to find a way to see you take form again. No power, be it magical or technological, seemed able to bring something back from beyond the pale unscathed, and even were it capable, I could never risk losing you a second time…”

The coals between the two glowed faintly, and Nobukatsu’s uncovered eye stared into the pit intently as Nobunaga remained silent, as if judging every word to come from the boy before them. 

“Seeing you again, I was beside myself for the first time in centuries. I could barely think; I was so filled with an irrational joy at the opportunities and dread at the possibilities I could not sleep until we met a second time, and I could speak to you as a guest rather than the intruder I stupidly mistook you chaldeans for.”

There was a single, extremely weak chuckle. “E…Even now, I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what you would want me to say. I don’t know what I’m meant to do, or what any of this could even mean for us…”

Guilt tore through Ritsuka at the Lostbelt King’s words, and she was forcibly reminded of the very reason she could not sleep in the first place….here, in the hospitality of this world she was there to eradicate. 

No such expressions or betrayals of emotion flickered across Nobunaga’s face, however. The warlord knew their brother in this or any other world. They knew this was nothing but a preface to confession. 

“…But…Yes. I still haven’t answered your question, have I?” He looked up with a small smile of innocence. “Why I ran away-"

FWOOSH

Just like that, the tension inaudibly yet tangibly snapped, and the chill of death itself spread through the entire floor of the palace and likely beyond, as the sensation drove Ritsuka to nausea and she would surely have outed herself as she collapsed, were it not for the various clatters of the drapes and cracking of window glass echoing over the floorboards beneath her. 

And from her unmoving stance, the Warlord looked down with something in their eyes the fading Ritsuka knew was novel to them  - a mixture of wrath, uncertainty, and above all else, concern. “Brother, I will not repeat my question, nor will I restate my intent, for I could not possibly make clearer the deathly seriousness with which it was first presented. So answer me before I question why I should indulge you at all.”

Complete silence fell over the palace. No curtains billowing, no embers crackling, not even a breath from any of the three there that night.

Until slowly, the King spoke.

“....when I saw you, I was afraid, sister. And I… I still am. It wasn’t the shock of seeing you again that sent me running, nor the company you now keep, nor even the thought of you as an enemy.” Another weak and fleeting smile. “I know there is never a cause you could pledge yourself to that wasn’t more just and true than any other.”

The boy’s head fell, finally breaking away from his idol’s gaze as shadows fell across his face.

“...What put that fear in me….what terrifies me to my core, is that I felt fear at all - that I was uncertain from the start. I’m afraid because I would never fail to recognize you - whether this history or your own, I would never forget that smile.”

The king’s head bowed forward, a hand to his face as his voice cracked.

“So…please…if you’re my dear sister, from so long ago, please tell me…

…w-why…”

Drip

There was a drop. And then another. Each accompanied by the sound of evaporation against the coals of the room’s fire pit.

“I am the Demon King - If I am to be feared and despised, so be it. I am the liberator of humanity unto heaven. I am the one who laughs at your feeble order, and will still be laughing when it falls to itself. I am Decay. I am Retribution. I am Oda Nobunaga! If there is but one world, then it can never know my love! If there are six, they shall not forget my name! And if there are three thousand… ...not one will escape my wrath. So, should that make this world my enemy… ...then It Can’t Be Helped!"

Pāpīyas Reborn - Reveal your truest self, DEMON KING OF THE MYRIAD HEAVENS!!!