IIlusion Of Choice

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Discord Link: KQAtTw9u7x

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"YOU… BASTARD!" Raynare screeched, trying to sit herself upright as a small stream of blood started to trickle down the corners of her mouth. 

"Well that doesn't sound quite right," Takauji said to himself. Placing a finger on his chin and leaning towards her. "Shouldn't you be saying something along the lines of thank you? You know, for saving your life and all." 

"YOU STABBED ME THROUGH THE…" She looked downwards with an expression the Magician would've loved to have framed on his wall. "... Heart?" 

Though there was in fact a blade driven into her, it was nowhere near her heart. Rather the blade seemed to be a lot closer to her kidneys. 

"See? I'm sure a Fallen Angel like you can survive that much," she looked at him with nothing but pure bewilderment. Just what was he planning? 

"You should probably thank Issei-kun as well, if not for the amount of attention he grabbed during this whole ordeal they would've probably noticed that you were still breathing alongside the faint twitching of your fingers. I'll give your acting a 6/10, you've still got some work to do after all." 

She still wasn't sure how to respond. Only able to watch as a bemused smile appeared on Takauji's face as he pursed his lips.

"I don't recall taking away your ability to speak. You can shout if you like, but I think you ought to say something at the very least." 

"... How?" She finally found the strength to make something come out of her throat. 

"I was expecting you to ask why first, but if that's what you want to know then I'm happy to answer. It was an illusion, as you can see I stabbed you in your side. But my illusion made it appear like it was in your heart, therefore your brain also interpreted it as having been stabbed through the heart which is why you felt pain there instead of where it was supposed to be." 

Now it clicked. 

Back when Raynare had confronted him, Issei, and Asia at the park. This is what Takauji had done to make it appear as if she had actually killed him and Issei. 

What a terrifying ability, and if only she knew he had attained such a level in a comically short amount of time. 

"Mm, it looks like the dots are starting to connect for you." Her thoughts were like an open book to him at the moment. "With that out of the way, you can go ahead and ask me the other question that should be on your mind." 

"Why?" Her voice started to become a little clearer, but her eyes still lacked a significant amount of understanding that she craved. 

"Because I have use for you, obviously." She was met with a condescending smile. "What you have in your fists may be useless to me, but I do see some use for what's in your head." 

Raynare absolutely loathed the way she was being looked at right now, it was like he was staring at a dirty rag used to clean up vomit and feces on the side of the road. 

"And I'm not talking about your intelligence, of course. But rather the information that's in your head, though that isn't quite why I let you live back when you took the nun." He scratched his chin. 

"Then why did you?" She needed answers, desperately. 

"I made a miscalculation," the Fallen Angel waited for him to elaborate. "See, I thought you were simply too weak to be the leader of the bunch." 

"... Asshole." She murmured. Taking a slight hit to her pride. 

"And I thought that by leaving you, I could get you to lead me to whomever was really in charge before the Devils got to them. Ah, truly a lack of foresight on my part." He pinched his nose bridge. 

"Then… what do you plan to do with me now?" Raynare could not be considered intelligent by any stretch of the imagination. However she did have the basic ability to comprehend when she was in front of someone stronger than her. 

"I plan to give you a choice." 

"A choice?" Takauji held up his index finger.

"One, I can just finish you off here." She shuddered, knowing full well that he wasn't joking as he held up his middle finger. "Or two, you form a Master-Servant pact with me, and become my subordinate from now on." 

He would make no compromise. 

"You want me to become your… slave?" 

"If that's how you want to word it, sure." He shrugged. "You have a Sacred Gear now apparently, though you don't seem to have a great level of control over it. And Light Magic is a field of Magic I would most definitely like to invest in, so becoming my subordinate would allow you to raise your strength quite a bit." 

If not for the display of power he had just shown during the battle, she wouldn't believe a word coming out of his mouth. 

"I can tell what you're thinking, you're worried about your freedom right?" 

"Yes…" She admitted. 

"You won't have any," it was like he splashed a cold bucket of water in her face. "You will do everything I say, you will follow every command I give you down to the letter. You will be an extension of me and nothing more. That is the reality of such a pact." 

One thing was for sure, Takauji wouldn't be pursuing a career as a salesman anytime soon. 

"Servitude or death, making that choice is the only freedom I will allow you. But don't take too long, if anyone ends up coming back here I'll have to kill you in order to cover my tracks." 

Of course, the Magician was already well aware of the burning desire to survive in Raynare's eyes. 

He was basically just giving her the illusion of choice, he wouldn't have bothered to take on such a risk if he didn't know it would pay off. 

Either she would serve the man in front of her, or get sent to what lies beyond. And judging by her actions in this life, the prospect of the one after being pleasant was quite low. 

"I… accept." She said in a defeated tone. Causing him to grin as he started to bring his head closer to her. 

"Excellent, I'll need some of your Mana to make the pact so hold still." He lifted her chin. 

"... Eh? Wha- what are you doi– mmmf!? MMPPH!" He locked lips with her without hesitation, pushing his tongue into her mouth as their fluids intertwined. "ST- STOP THAT!" She pushed him back as a string of saliva bridged between them. 

"All done." He wiped his mouth. 

"You… you… YOU!" Raynare's cheeks quickly flushed as she felt a connection start to form between the two. A faint burning sensation appeared on the back of her right hand. 

"That's my crest if you were wondering," a black Magic Circle with a face in the middle could be seen on her skin, the face itself having two smaller eyes below its main one's. 

"Oh… I see…" 

"Now then, let's deal with this little predicament over here shall we?" He looked towards his Katana still embedded in her torso. "You might wanna clench your teeth."

She did just that as he clasped the hilt. "Three… two… one!" 

"SHIT!" She couldn't help but scream from the sudden influx of pain. Blood had already started to seep out of the wound, but it wasn't nearly enough to be fatal for her. 

"So, the Sacred Gear you stole. Tell me about it." He asked while wiping his blade clean. 

"It's called Twilight Healing, I think. It's a healing Sacred Gear that can also be used by one on another, regardless of what species they are. But because of that ability it was deemed a forbidden Sacred Gear by Heaven." 

Ah, so they're that type of religion. Like the comically corrupt ones you see in anime and manga.

"Interesting, then try using it to heal your wound." A set of silver rings appeared on her fingers, emanating a green hue from within.

It did seem to be making some leeway in terms of recovery, the rate of it seemed a bit too low for something like a Sacred Gear. 

It looks like I'll be studying Sacred Gears and Light Magic from now on, how fun. 

"I guess that'll have to do," he turned to the cross beside her. "So this is what you used to extract the Sacred Gear from that girl?" 

Raynare nodded. "Do you plan to do something with it?" 

"Maybe, but I don't really have any interest in using it for myself." She seemed a little surprised by his lack of fascination. 

"You don't? But you could possibly get a Sacred Gear for yourself with it." He didn't strike her as the modest type. 

"I could, but I'm more interested in watching other people make use of them, I myself have no need for a Sacred Gear." 

A truly out of character thing for him to say, an opportunity to attain a power coveted by all, and he simply viewed it like some spare change found on a sidewalk. 

"Uh… I guess it's your loss then." Raynare still couldn't comprehend the logic. "But I have to ask, why did you bother sparing me? You're supposed to be on the Devil's side aren't you?" 

"Indeed, I am a contracted Magician working for Rias Gremory." He answered. "But I've decided to put my own interests above her ambitions, not to mention that the contract will only last for a month. After which I may not be as interested in working with her anymore." 

He would work for her, but not forever. Sitting under the thumb of another his entire life was not something he could tolerate. Anyone who seeked to control him would be crushed. 

"I am their enemy, aren't you betraying them by doing this?" She saw the look of despair and wrath on Issei's face when he saw Asia's corpse, there's no way they would tolerate the man before her if they knew what he was up to. 

"Betrayal is such a strong word," he sighed. "However you aren't wrong, I am very much going behind their backs by doing this. Would you have preferred I killed you instead?" 

"Absolutely not," she replied adamantly. 

"Then all's well ends well," he nodded contently. "I'd like to take you back home right now, but unfortunately I think there might be a problem." 

"A problem?" 

"One of the members of the Gremory peerage has a tendency to frequent my place without permission, so first I'm going to need to make sure the coast is clear, and set up a system that lets me know in advance before she arrives." 

He already began thinking of countermeasures and contingencies. 

"Therefore, you'll have to manage on your own for a bit. Do you think you're capable of keeping a low profile until I summon you?" 

"That's not a problem," she reverted to her Yuuma Amano form she had used to lure Issei. 

"Not bad, but you won't be able to stay here. The Gremory's love scrubbing through my every little micromovement with a fine comb, I guarantee you they'll come here some time after I've left." 

"I know some pretty barren places I can use," Takauji seemed content. 

"Then I wish you the best," all of a sudden. The Magician began flooding the area around them with his Darkness Magic. 

"What are you doing?" 

"I don't want them picking up on any traces of your Light Magic or possibly the deployment of your Sacred Gear." Once he was satisfied with his work, he prepared to teleport himself back to his house. "Good luck," he left Raynare with that. 

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"It's only a week and he's already this shrewd. Good grief, quite the troublemaker if I do say so myself." A man said aloud, floating in the air with a set of twelve dark feathery wings protruding from his back. Each of them looking to be as dark as the void itself. 

He was a tall man who appeared to be in his 20's, having a fairly average build with black hair, golden bangs, and a black goatee. 

His attire was fairly ordinary, wearing a plain black coat over a dress shirt and a set of dark-brown slacks. 

"Then again, I wasn't so different when I was young. So who am I to judge?" He chucked a little, reminiscing on his past. "However on a serious note, I should probably keep him away from Rias Gremory. She has potential, but it's a bit too early for her to be handling someone like that as a subordinate. But how would I go about doing that?"

A lightbulb flickered in his brain as he remembered the time he had snuck into his target of interest's house. "Maybe if I just offer him the Familiar outright, he'll switch over. Actually as long as Sirzechs doesn't take a seat at the negotiating table, there's really no way for me not to bag him." 

The plan seemed pretty foolproof to him.

His eyes continued to peer into the abandoned church below him. "But I really wasn't expecting him to take Raynare in, this might be a good opportunity to see how capable he is of nurturing a Sacred Gear user." 

He tracked the woman leaving the run down building, scratching his goatee with a smile on his face. 

"Good for you Raynare, with any luck he'll be able to give you a bit of common sense. And with a miracle maybe you'll become the powerhouse you've always wanted to be." 

And in the blink of an eye, he vanished. 

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I think we all know who that was at the end. 

Anyhow, let's see how Raynare and Taka's relationship develops from hereon out. 

10+ Advance Chapters: patreon.com/Accel14

Discord Link: KQAtTw9u7x

Word Count: 2341