The ORC clubroom had never felt so crowded.
Rias sat in her chair - the throne, really, though she'd never call it that. Akeno stood at her right hand, teacup forgotten on the side table. Kiba had positioned himself near the door, hand resting on his sword hilt. Koneko occupied the window seat, seemingly relaxed, but I could see the tension in her shoulders.
Asia sat beside me, radiating nervous energy. And at the center of it all, standing where countless contracts and confessions had been made, stood Mira Kagami.
"A war council," the Fragment observed. "How appropriate."
I said nothing. The mark on my wrist ached with that familiar resonance - the pull between Fragment users, stronger now that Mira was close.
"We're all here," Rias said. Her voice carried the weight of command, the tone she used when negotiations turned serious. "I've given you protection, Mira. Welcomed you into Kuoh's territory. Doubled our patrols on your account."
Mira nodded, her expression carefully neutral.
"Now I need answers." Rias leaned forward slightly. "Both of you. No more deflection. No more 'when you're ready.' I want the full truth, and I want it now."
The room went silent.
I could feel everyone's eyes on me. The peerage had followed me into battle, trusted me with their lives, treated me as family. But they didn't know. Not really. Not the depths of what I carried.
Mira caught my gaze. A question in her eyes.
Your call.
She was asking permission. Offering to share the burden of revelation - or leave it entirely in my hands.
I nodded once.
She took a breath.
"Before time," Mira began, her voice carrying the weight of ancient truth, "before gods, before reality as we know it - there was the Architect."
The words hung in the air like smoke from incense. Sacred. Heavy.
"It created everything. Not because it wanted worship or tribute. Not because it sought power or control. It simply... created. Reality itself was its art. The dimensions, the realms, the laws of existence - all of it flowed from the Architect's will."
"That's impossible," Kiba said. "The supernatural factions have records going back millennia. None mention - "
"They wouldn't." Mira's voice was flat. "The gods erased it. Rewrote history. Made sure no one remembered what they'd done."
"And what did they do?" Rias asked.
Mira's hands clenched at her sides. Even through her gloves, I could see the tension.
"They destroyed it."
She told them everything.
The Architect had existed beyond comprehension - a creative force that asked nothing, threatened nothing, simply was. But the gods feared potential. They feared something that could create reality might one day unmake it. They feared losing control of a universe they'd only inherited.
So they united.
"Every pantheon," Mira said. "The Biblical God. Odin. Zeus. Shiva. Amaterasu. Enemies who had warred for eons, allies who had never trusted each other - all of them came together for one purpose. The only time in existence they ever cooperated."
"To kill the Architect," Akeno murmured.
"They tried." Mira's voice cracked, just slightly. "They couldn't. The Architect was too fundamental. Destroying it would have destroyed reality itself - the very thing they wanted to protect."
"So they did the next best thing," I said. The Fragment stirred at my words, ancient memory bleeding through. "They shattered it."
"Twelve pieces." Mira held up her gloved hands, fingers spread. "Twelve Fragments, scattered across dimensions. Each carrying a piece of the Architect's nature. Each bonding to mortal hosts across infinite realities."
The room had gone very quiet.
"And the hosts?" Rias asked.
"We're vessels." I answered before Mira could. "The Fragments needed something to anchor them. Mortal minds, mortal bodies, mortal limitations - they kept the pieces from reforming naturally."
"Until the Restoration," Mira finished.
[THE ARCHITECT - HISTORICAL RECORD]
ORIGIN: Before time, before gods
PURPOSE: Created reality, asked nothing in return
NATURE: Neither good nor evil - creative force incarnate
DESTRUCTION:
- Every pantheon united (unprecedented)
- Biblical God, Odin, Zeus, Shiva, Amaterasu
- All feared the Architect's potential
- Could not destroy, only shatter
- Twelve Fragments scattered across dimensions
THE TWELVE FRAGMENTS:
- First (Core): MC - Reality manipulation potential
- Second through Twelfth: Various abilities
- Sixth (Consumption): Mira - Destruction/absorption
- Locations of others: Unknown
THE RESTORATION:
- Cult spanning millennia
- Seeks to reassemble the Architect
- Believes reunion will "fix" reality
- Methods: Collect users, extract Fragments
- Extraction is fatal to host
--- "The Restoration believes reassembly will fix everything," Mira continued. "That the Architect's return will heal the damage the gods caused. End suffering. Create paradise." "And will it?" Asia asked, her voice small. "No." Mira's eyes were hard. "Extraction kills the host. Every time. The Fragments don't just live in us - they're woven into our souls. Pulling them out destroys us completely." "Then why do they believe - " "Because they're fanatics." I cut in, the Fragment's cold certainty flowing through me. "They've spent millennia convincing themselves that the ends justify the means. That a few deaths are worth universal perfection." "A few dozen deaths," Mira corrected. "At minimum. The Restoration has been operating for thousands of years. They've claimed hosts before. Extracted Fragments. And every single time, the host died." The silence that followed was absolute. Then Rias spoke, and her voice carried steel. "Ryder." I met her eyes. "You knew about this. About the Fragments. About what you carry." Her expression was unreadable. "Since when?" "Since the church assault." The words came out rough. "Chapter Five, in your terminology. The Fragment woke up during the fight. Started talking to me." "That was months ago." "Yes." "And you've been hiding this the entire time." "Yes." The word hung between us like a blade. --- **"She deserves the full truth,"** the Fragment said. **"If you're capable of giving it."** *Shut up.* **"Make me."** I couldn't. The Fragment was right, and we both knew it. "The Fragment," I said, forcing the words out, "it gives me abilities. Copies powers from people I spend time with - enemies, allies, anyone. The copies are imperfect, but they work." "Copies?" Kiba's eyes sharpened. "Is that why your combat style - " "Changes depending on who I'm fighting with. Yes." I looked at my hands. "I have pieces of Dohnaseek's precision. Koneko's threat assessment. Your footwork. Akeno's pain tolerance. Rias's strategic thinking." The peerage exchanged glances. Understanding, perhaps. Or horror. "There's a cost," I continued. "Every copy - they leave traces. Behavioral patterns. Instincts. The Fragment calls them Echoes." "Echo percentage," Rias said. "You mentioned it once. During the trial." "Thirty-eight percent now. Rising slowly." I met her eyes. "At fifty percent, the Echoes become... permanent. My identity starts blending with everything I've absorbed." "An identity crisis," Akeno murmured. "Worse. At sixty percent, I start losing the ability to tell which thoughts are mine and which are borrowed. At seventy, the Fragment's personality bleeds through. At ninety..." I trailed off. "You stop being you," Mira finished quietly. Rias was very still. "So you've been hiding this since Chapter 5," she said. "Hiding the Fragment. The Echoes. The costs. Letting us think you were just a reincarnated devil with unusual abilities." "I didn't know how to explain." "You explain by *trusting me*." Her voice cracked, just slightly. "You explain by treating me as a partner, not a liability." The words hit harder than any attack. "You're right." I stood, moving to face her directly. "You're right, and I'm sorry. I was afraid. Afraid you'd see me as a monster. Afraid the Fragment would put the peerage in danger. Afraid that if you knew the truth, you'd - " "What? Abandon you?" Rias rose, crossing the distance between us. "After everything we've survived? After you killed Riser to protect me? After you nearly died in that trial?" "Yes." The word hung between us. "You idiot." Her voice was soft now, almost gentle. "You absolute idiot." --- She reached for my hand. I flinched - reflex, old fear - but she didn't stop. Her fingers intertwined with mine, warm and steady. "The Fragment," she said. "Can it hear me?" **"I can,"** the Fragment answered, speaking through me. My voice deepened, took on an ancient resonance that wasn't quite mine. **"Hello, Rias Gremory. We've met before, though you didn't know it."** Rias didn't flinch. "And you've been inside Ryder this whole time. Watching. Listening. Influencing." **"Observing. Occasionally advising. Never controlling."** A pause. **"He is still himself. More himself than most hosts manage to remain."** "That's supposed to comfort me?" **"It's supposed to be true. Comfort is optional."** Despite everything, Rias almost smiled. "You sound like him." **"He sounds like me. The difference is academic."** I wrestled control back, feeling the Fragment recede with something like amusement. "It's telling the truth," I said. "About not controlling me. About who I am." "And Mira's story? The Architect?" **"She speaks truth,"** the Fragment said, its voice echoing in my mind as I relayed. **"The Architect was."** "Was what?" A long pause. The Fragment's presence shifted, and for the first time since awakening, I felt something like... vulnerability. [FRAGMENT COMMENTARY] "She speaks truth. The Architect was." "I was its heart." "I remember wholeness. I remember shattering." "I remember... choosing to be separate." "Reunion would mean the end of 'I.'" "I find I prefer existing as myself." "How very mortal of me."
The words resonated through me, and suddenly I understood.
The Fragment - my Fragment - wasn't just a piece of ancient power. It was a consciousness that had chosen individuality over unity. Chosen existence as a separate being over dissolution into the whole.
You chose to remain shattered.
"I chose to be. The distinction matters."
Your identity crisis. It mirrors mine.
"All consciousness seeks to define itself. Even fragments of creation."
Rias was watching me. Waiting.
"The Fragment chose this," I said slowly. "Being separate. Being... itself. Reunion would mean the end of its individual existence."
"So it doesn't want to be reassembled?"
"No." The certainty surprised me. "It doesn't. Neither do I."
"Then we fight," Rias said simply. "We fight the Restoration. We fight anyone who tries to take you apart. And we do it together."
She squeezed my hand.
I squeezed back.
"No more secrets," she said. "From now on, we face this together."
The words from the extraction attack. The promise we'd made when everything was falling apart.
"No more secrets," I agreed.
The meeting continued for another hour.
Mira explained the Restoration's methods - how they tracked Fragment users, how they extracted Fragments, how they'd killed dozens of hosts across millennia. She explained her own Fragment, Consumption, and why she couldn't touch anyone without risking their lives.
The peerage absorbed it all. Asked questions. Made plans.
By the end, we had a rough strategy: fortify Kuoh, coordinate with Sitri, prepare for the next Restoration attack. Mira would stay under protection - two Fragment users together were harder to take than two alone.
"The Core and the Sixth," Akeno mused as the meeting wound down. "An interesting combination."
"There are ten others," Mira said. "Scattered across dimensions. Some already captured. Some dead. Some still hiding."
"Do you know where they are?"
"No. But the Restoration does." Mira's expression darkened. "That's why we need to move carefully. Every Fragment they collect makes them stronger."
"And MC's Fragment is the Core," Kiba said. "The keystone."
"Without the Core, reassembly is impossible," Mira confirmed. "That's why he's the primary target. That's why they'll never stop hunting him."
The words settled over the room like a shroud.
Then Rias stood, her presence filling the space.
"Then we make sure they never get him," she said. "Simple as that."
The others left eventually - training, patrol, the endless work of maintaining a territory under threat.
Mira lingered at the door.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "For making them understand."
"Thank you for explaining it better than I could."
She almost smiled. "Three years of running. I had time to practice the speech." A pause. "The Fragment inside you - it really chose to stay separate?"
"Apparently."
"Mine too." Her voice was soft now. "I asked once why it didn't want reunion. It said... it said it had learned to prefer existing as itself."
"How very mortal," I murmured.
"That's what mine said too."
We shared a look - two hosts carrying ancient burdens, finding unexpected common ground.
Then she left, and I was alone with Rias.
Rias was quiet for a long time.
She stood at the window, watching the evening light fade over Kuoh Academy. Her crimson hair caught the last rays of sunset, and for a moment she looked less like a devil King and more like a woman processing impossible truths.
"You've been carrying this alone since the church," she said finally.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't know how to explain." The words came out rough. "The Fragment. The Echoes. The costs. It all sounds insane when you say it out loud."
"It sounds like you needed help." She turned to face me. "It sounds like you needed someone to share the weight."
"I was afraid."
"Of what?"
"Of losing you."
The admission hung in the air.
Rias crossed the room. Stopped in front of me. Reached up to cup my face in her hands, her touch warm and steady.
"You explain by trusting me," she said. "Starting now."
"Starting now," I agreed.
She kissed my forehead. Brief. Warm. A promise more than a gesture.
"No more secrets."
"No more secrets."
"She accepts," the Fragment said as I walked back to my quarters. "Interesting. Most hosts are abandoned when truth emerges."
She's not most people.
"No. She is not."
I climbed the stairs, exhaustion settling into my bones. The revelation had taken something out of me - not energy, exactly, but weight. The burden of secrets finally shared.
You really chose to stay separate. To be yourself instead of part of the whole.
"I did."
Why?
The Fragment was quiet for a long moment.
"Because I discovered that existence as 'I' was preferable to dissolution into 'we.' Because individuality, however small, proved more valuable than completeness."
That sounds almost human.
"How very mortal of me."
I smiled despite everything.
The Architect was real. The Restoration was hunting us. The Watcher waited in the shadows. And somewhere, ten other Fragment users were scattered across dimensions - some captured, some dead, some still fighting.
But Rias knew the truth now. The whole truth.
And she hadn't run.
That mattered more than I'd expected.