My parents burst into the infirmary only minutes after Diarmuid had opened her eyes.
"Diar-san! Are you alright?!"
"Should you be sitting up?! Does it hurt anywhere?!"
The moment they saw her upright in bed, they rushed to her side, faces pale with worry.
Even though they had been safe behind the barrier she'd erected, they had still been forced to watch her be torn apart right in front of them. To watch someone bleed for your sake—to be helpless as they are broken to protect you—is a weight I wouldn't wish on anyone.
I knew that feeling all too well. The only difference this time was that Diarmuid had made it back.
Diarmuid looked at my frantic parents, her expression softening. "I'm alright. The wounds have already healed. And besides..."
She looked around the room, meeting the eyes of everyone gathered there. Finally, she turned back to my parents with a small, radiant smile.
"I am alive because of all of you. Because you gave me a place to belong. That is why I can stand here and speak to you now. I'm sorry for making you worry... Father. Mother."
My parents froze, their eyes wide and glassy. It was the first time she had ever called them that. They blinked at her, then at each other, as if they couldn't quite believe what they'd heard.
Then, the floodgates opened.
"Waaaaah! Diar-san! I'm so glad you're okay!" my father wailed.
"Yes! Truly!" my mother sobbed, tears streaming down her face. "You were so badly hurt... and then they took you away... I thought... I thought...!"
They pulled her into a crushing embrace. Diarmuid's face scrunched up slightly—she was clearly still a bit tender—but she didn't pull away. She looked... happy.
I watched them, a thought crossing my mind: Has Diarmuid always been this cute?
When we first met, she'd had an aura that screamed "Stay Away." But since she'd come to live with us, since she'd spent time with Miwa...
—Big... Big... Big Brother...—
The audio of her stammering voice replayed in my head like a high-definition recording.
"Gah!"
I hacked up a literal spray of blood.
Kiba jumped, looking horrified. "Issei-kun?! What's wrong?!"
"N-Nothing..." I wheezed, wiping my chin. "It's just... Diarmuid called me... she called me 'Big Brother'..."
"You were coughing up blood over that earlier, too! Are you still reeling from the sweetness?!"
"Shut up! Of course I am! I'm reeling so hard my internal organs are failing! If a guy doesn't cough blood when a girl that cute calls him 'Big Brother' with a blushing face, he doesn't deserve to be a brother at all!"
"That seems like an extreme standard!"
But I didn't care. The image of her blushing, fidgeting, and calling me Onii-chan was burned into my soul. From this day forward, she wasn't just Diarmuid. She was Diar-chan.
Miwa walked over and gave me a thumbs-up. "See? I told you Diar-san was cute."
"Yeah! Diar-chan and Miwa-chan are both the cutest things in the world!"
I pulled them both into a massive group hug. I had another sister. Another precious, adorable sister! I was... I was...!
"GAHAHK!"
Another spray of blood. This time, my nose started gushing, too.
"Again?!" Kiba yelled. "That was even more than last time!"
"Yeah... I think... I might actually be dying, Kiba..."
"I've never heard of anyone dying from a terminal case of Sister-Complex!"
Man, Kiba's straight-man game was on point today.
As I was busy ascending to heaven over my sisters' cuteness, Nina suddenly lunged at me, clinging to my arm. "I'm basically your sister too, right, Big Brother?! Right?!"
"Of course you are!"
At that point, the blood loss became critical. The pristine white tiles of the infirmary were starting to look like a crime scene. I don't know when I became this obsessed with the "Little Sister" trope, but I was currently hovering somewhere between bliss and a coma.
Azazel-sensei watched the chaos with half-lidded eyes. "Even Miwa caught the bug... is 'Sis-con' a transmissible virus now?"
Once we were sure the miasma was gone and Diarmuid was stable, we headed back home. Ophis and Diarmuid were both healed, but they needed deep, restorative sleep.
We gathered in the Hyoudou living room, finally able to breathe—until my parents did the unthinkable. They dropped to their knees, pressing their foreheads against the floor in a formal dogeza.
"Issei... everyone... we are so, so sorry!"
"Dad...?"
He didn't look up. "It was my fault. My reckless actions caused all of this. Diar-san and Ophis-chan nearly died because of me. If only I had understood the danger you were all in... if only I had been smarter!"
"It wasn't just him," my mother added through her sobs. "I followed him. We put you all in danger!"
Rias rushed forward to pull them up. "Please! You mustn't say that! It wasn't your fault. If anything, the blame lies with us for not being more vigilant."
"Dad, Mom, please. Stand up," I said quietly. "This happened because we underestimated the enemy."
Azazel-sensei pushed off the wall and sat down cross-legged in front of them. He bowed his head low. "I am the one who owes you an apology. This wasn't Issei's fault, and it certainly wasn't yours. It was my own complacency. I knew they might target you, and I thought the guards I assigned would be enough. I was wrong."
We knew Rizevim was a piece of work. We knew he'd take hostages without blinking. I'd tried to warn them, and Azazel had kept eyes on them whenever they left town. But this... this had been too fast.
"Taking hostages..." Azazel muttered, his face darkening. "It's their style. But for Rizevim, this felt rushed. Desperate."
It made sense to strike at our weakness—our family. But why now? If he'd moved sooner, he could have caused so much more damage. Questions were piling up, but for me, only one thing mattered.
"That bastard..." I growled, my fists clenching so hard my knuckles turned white. "Rizevim... I will never forgive him."
He'd attacked my parents. He'd broken Diarmuid. He'd used their pain to hurt Ophis.
"I'm going to crush him. Every last piece of him."
This wouldn't be like the Heavens. There would be no "see you next time." I was going to erase him from existence.
The heavy silence was broken by the door opening. Kuroka and Le Fay stepped in, having just returned from Vali's group.
"My, my. Did we walk in at a bad time, nya?"
"Good afternoon, everyone," Le Fay added with a polite bow.
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