Tsutsumi looked annoyed as he faced Esdeath, memory fragments of him in this world finally settling into place.
So, summary: childhood friends, village destroyed, survived together, trained together. Reasonable so far.
Then the part he didn't like.
This version of him had fallen completely head-first for Esdeath. No brakes. No pride. Just followed every command she gave like some overly loyal dog who thought "self-respect" was optional. He had decent combat skills, but emotionally, he was basically a walking yes-button for her.
And Esdeath didn't even like that.
She could acknowledge the basics, strength, loyalty, looks, but the fact he had no real goal or ambition made him dull to her. Something to keep, not something to care about.
Tsutsumi rubbed the bridge of his nose.
He really hadn't expected to arrive in a world where he was a full-time simp.
To be fair, the multiverse was infinite. There was probably a version of him somewhere who was a horse girl, being forced to cook for another gluttonous horse girl with a bottomless pit for a stomach.
"How annoying," Tsutsumi sighed, finally lifting his gaze to Esdeath.
She paused when she saw his expression. No usual eagerness, no gentle warmth, no obedient smile. Just tired and not very interested.
"Let's end things here," Tsutsumi said simply. "You and me."
Her brows knit slightly. "What?"
"We go our own way from now on," he continued in the same tone. "No more whatever-this-was supposed to be. From now on, there's nothing between us."
He honestly couldn't figure out why this world's him fell that hard. He also had zero desire to investigate it. It wasn't his problem.
This Tsutsumi was not that Tsutsumi.
He had the memories, the skills, the techniques. But the person sitting in the driver's seat was completely different. Since she didn't feel anything for him, he saw no reason to pretend he felt anything for her.
Esdeath's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Oh? Getting bold now, are we?" she said, stepping closer. She didn't bother covering herself; she never cared about that kind of thing when around him. "Did the dog finally grow a spine and decide to bite its owner?"
She reached out casually and swung at him.
He caught her wrist.
For a second, she froze, not because of pain, just because she wasn't expecting resistance from him of all people.
Without saying anything, Tsutsumi pulled and tossed her backward. She hit the water with a big splash, disappeared for a moment, then rose again with her hair plastered to her face, staring at him in disbelief.
He stood up from the bath.
"Like I said," Tsutsumi repeated calmly, "we'll each walk our own way. Our relationship ends here."
Immediately, ice spread outward, freezing the water solid and sealing the doors, the temperature dropping fast.
He looked at the frozen exit, then back to Esdeath.
Esdeath walked toward him slowly across the frozen surface, bare feet tapping against ice. Her expression had lost the playful tone from earlier. Cold air rolled off her, frost creeping around them.
She walked toward him without hurry, bare feet tapping on the frozen surface. Her body was completely exposed now, but what pressed harder than the sight was the cold, suffocating aura rolling off her.
"Last chance, Tsutsumi," she said quietly.
Frost rose beside her hand. She snapped off an ice spike like it was nothing and held it like a short blade.
"As I said," he replied, unfazed, "we're done. You don't need me. And I don't need you."
Her expression tightened.
She lunged.
The spike came down in a clean arc. Tsutsumi exhaled and ran his magic circuits. His arm reinforced, he lifted it and blocked. The ice shattered easily, scattering across the frozen floor.
He didn't bother reacting much. He simply punched forward.
Esdeath hopped back, eyes narrowing, already forming another ice blade. She slashed, sending a wave of jagged frost toward him.
Tsutsumi didn't stop. He just ran straight into it.
Her eyes widened a little.
Before the spikes could tear into him, he activated his Semblance, his body flickered, glitched for a moment, and he was suddenly past them, standing right in front of her.
His fist clenched, wrapped in Aura and the burning glow of activated magic circuits. He drove it into her stomach. The impact sent her flying backward, crashing into the wall and cracking ice around it.
She slid down slightly, staring.
"…You," she muttered. "You've been holding back on me?"
Tsutsumi didn't answer. He actually didn't have half her context yet, memories were still syncing. Whatever she thought she knew about "him," it wasn't really his problem.
Even so, they had been childhood friends. She'd kept him around even after becoming a general. That much was clear.
Their eyes met.
"It was fun while it lasted," he said.
The smile he wore wasn't the usual foolish, naive grin she was used to. It was… innocent and genuine, with an undertone of sadness mixed in.
Enough to make her momentarily halt in place, and her heart did the same upon seeing the look on his face.
"Goodbye, Esdeath."
He pulled out a card and slid it into place.
Attack Ride: Connect!
A red magic circle opened beside him and swallowed him whole, the frozen room vanishing from sight.
He reappeared on a rooftop, the cold air brushing past him. The white towel around him shimmered and shifted as he tapped the device on his wrist, and a set of clothes quickly covered him.
"Azu, give me a scan of this place," he said.
Part of his thick fur cloak separated and reshaped, becoming a short long-sleeved jacket as multiple white drones shot into the sky. A moment later, a holographic map unfolded in front of him, detailing the Empire.
"Master," Azu's voice said in his mind, calm as ever, "shall I continue gathering information on the Empire?"
"Do it," Tsutsumi replied. "I want to get a feel for this place before I decide anything."
His gaze turned toward the nearest border region.
Attack Ride: Advant!
Blancwing appeared behind him, great white wings spreading with golden edges. The swan lowered its head slightly in acknowledgment.
Tsutsumi hopped on.
The wings beat once, and the mirror beast lifted into the sky, carrying him out over the Empire.
...
As Tsutsumi wandered through this new world, he ended up running into quite a few Danger Beasts. They were loud and ugly but not much else. With basic combat sense, Aura, Magic Circuits, and his Semblance, they went down pretty easily. He didn't even bother pulling out serious weapons. Sticks, rocks, broken branches were good enough.
He had been from the Partas Clan in this world anyway, so this kind of thing wasn't new. That place had simple rules: if you couldn't keep up, you didn't stay around long. Bad weather tried to kill them. Danger Beasts tried to kill them. Other people tried occasionally too.
Routine life experience.
Because of that, he knew the clan's tricks, where to hit, which parts of the beasts not to eat unless you hated yourself, and how to cook meat that normally tasted like chewed leather. Combining that with the cooking skills he'd picked up across worlds, the result was actually decent.
He sat near a fire, chewing slowly.
"Umu. This is not bad," Tsutsumi muttered, biting into grilled Jackaleo meat.
"This is delicious," another voice said.
He glanced sideways.
A girl with long black hair stood there like she had always been part of the camp. Black sleeveless top with white collar, red tie, black skirt with a red cover flap, long socks, red gauntlets.
She didn't wait for permission. She just opened her mouth and took a huge bite out of the meat, like she owned it. Bite, chew, swallow, repeat. Focus entirely on food. It reminded him of a certain blonde glutton with a sword and questionable decision-making.
"Who the hell are you?" Tsutsumi asked.
The girl stopped mid-chew, slowly turned her head toward him, then, instead of answering, took another bite and kept chewing. They just stared at each other across the fire like that. She finally swallowed.
"I'm Akame," she said. Then she looked at the meat again, realized she wasn't the one who cooked it, and looked a little awkward for about half a second.
"…Uh," she said, then shoved more meat in her mouth anyway, chewing faster like that would fix the situation. After swallowing, she asked, "What's your name?"
"Tsutsumi."
He didn't sound bothered. The Jackaleo was big. He wasn't going to finish it alone. If someone showed up and helped reduce leftovers, that just made cleaning up easier.
Akame froze the moment the name left his mouth. She still finished the bite first because priorities existed, then she slowly lowered the meat. Her hand moved to the sword at her waist, fingers closing around the hilt of Murasame. Tsutsumi had his attention elsewhere, body relaxed, easy target.
She moved in one smooth motion and swung.
His jacket shifted, splitting and reshaping itself into a large metal shield. The blade hit with a clean sound and stopped there.
Akame's eyes widened. For a weapon famous for "one cut, one kill," that was not the result she was expecting.
Tsutsumi glanced over his shoulder at her, eyebrow raised.
"So you're some kind of bandit," he said, sounding mildly disappointed. "Eat other people's food, then try to rob them after?"
Akame immediately stepped back, widening the distance, sword up again, and pointed straight at him. The floating metal shield flew back toward Tsutsumi, reforming into his jacket.
"Akame! Don't just run off like that!" another voice shouted.
More people arrived, stopping when they saw the scene: Akame in killing stance, Tsutsumi sitting by the campfire like it was still dinner time.
"Be careful! That's the Mad Dog!" Akame warned.
The group tensed instantly. Weapons came up. Eyes sharpened. Familiar atmosphere.
Tsutsumi: "..."
He just stood there in silence for a moment.
Being surrounded by multiple armed people with obvious intent to attack felt strangely comfortable. Like muscle memory, but social. It had happened so often across different worlds that it almost counted as a normal greeting style for him now.
His eyes moved across the group, taking his time. A faint glow traced through his vision as he looked over their weapons and quietly read the stories attached to them.
So this was Night Raid.
The one who had been eating his food and was now pointing her sword at him, Akame. Her Teigu, One-Cut Killer: Murasame. Cursed blade. One cut, you die. Simple description, very unfriendly marketing.
Next was the pink-haired twin-tail girl, Mine, holding her rifle-type Teigu, Roman Artillery: Pumpkin. She looked annoyed in the way someone gets annoyed when they haven't decided if they're scared yet.
A blonde woman with lion ears and tail stood with relaxed posture that really wasn't relaxed at all, Leone. Her Teigu, the belt Lionelle, let her turn into a beast. Basically Yang, but with extra cat mode and fewer jokes.
Near her was the green-haired guy whose hair covered one eye like it was doing him a favor, Lubbock. His Teigu, Cross Tail. Wires. The type of weapon that becomes a problem if you ignore it for more than two seconds.
He continued scanning.
A tall woman with long purple hair, Sheele, calmly holding a giant pair of scissors like that was normal tool usage. Her Teigu, Extase. Good at cutting through things that shouldn't be cut. Including people.
Then the one in white armor caught his attention for a moment. Big build, knightly feel, Bulat. His Teigu, Incursio. Armor type. Looked suspiciously like something that should shout its attack names a lot.
Finally his gaze stopped on a brown-haired boy holding an ordinary sword, Tatsumi. Regular-looking, very earnest expression. Very protagonist-like.
What actually stood out wasn't the sword.
It was the belt.
"Henshin!" Tatsumi shouted.
Black and red armor wrapped around his body, forming into something very similar to Agito. Red eyes. Golden horns. Familiar silhouette.
"Kuuga," Tsutsumi said automatically.
While he observed them, the group had finished surrounding him, forming a wide circle. Escape routes cut off. He didn't look especially bothered. He had been in this exact layout more times than he could reasonably count.
He pulled out a card like he was just getting something from his pocket.
"Henshin."
Form Ride: Decade.
Gray frames and images slid around him, folding inward until they settled on his body. His clothes adjusted themselves, shifting into their usual magenta color; his coat and bandana waved gently as a breeze passed through the clearing.
"Come at me if you dare. I'll destroy you all." Tsutsumi said confidently and coldly, his right fist slowly closing in front of him.