On The Bench (AOT/DxD)

[ScriptGenius12]

So is the barrier just around Earth or is every Supernatural realm blocked off from each other?

Is the Wall invisible or can everyone see a massive red construct surrounding Earth?

Imagine being an average dude when suddenly you get dragged into the Paths and Eren drop's his massive infodump on you. Hello Rioting and Civil War.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

It had not been a special seed.

"'Why?'"

The tree it grew into was not unique or special in any way.

"I should probably start at the beginning if you want to know 'why.'"

The house it became a part of was not remarkable when cut down.

"I was not a strong God, originally. I was a god of a small tribe, one not focused on destruction, war, the dead, or such glorious things. Compared to the Hindus, the Greeks, or other significant pantheons, I wasn't worth mentioning."

Like the rest of the wood and stone that made the house, it was thrown onto the pile of scraps when the construction collapsed.

"I was a craftsman. A god of Creation."

The hands of the carpenter that pulled that beam from the pile, those that fashioned it into a cross, and carried it toward the sight of crucifixion, though. Those were special.

"So I Created. I Created beings to aid me, as I had no other gods to work with. I Created tools to work with and a framework on which to build. That was the initial version of the System that Michael still maintains to this day. Of all my Creations, except my children, I am most proud of the System. It was the very first thing I ever built."

As was the blood that soaked into the wood and nails for those six hours.

"You should understand, right? The things we build that will outlast us are what define us."

The wood and metal were not born special, but they became something more by being placed in extraordinary circumstances.

"..Apologies. I know this is not your ideal solution, but you know how precarious this world's existence is as well as I do."

But unlike the cup that caught the blood or the spear that pierced the flesh, these were not collected by the Creator.

"Don't worry too much on time. I'll have faded long before you die. I'm just a memory of a dead God. An echo in a bit of blood-stained wood."

Humans, those faithful and not, held the wood and Nails for years, passing them from one heir to another as sacred relics. Holy items.

"Anyway, where was I? My System. With it in place, I used it to give me the one thing that would allow me and my people to survive in this world."

Yet the march of time is ever fickle.

"Knowledge. I wasn't originally a clairvoyant, but I created a tool that would alert me of danger and give me awareness of my domain. My first true Creation. 'Let there be Light' and all that."

The wood, the crucifix upon which blood had soaked, was lost at sea in one of the Mediterranean's flights of passion.

"...I had built it to grow with me as I gained more followers and power, but I never predicted the extent it would reach. Ah! That was a pun, wasn't it? I always enjoyed the power of a Word... Or at least, the 'me' that lived did. I'm his memory, so does that make 'me' him? Or am I a different 'me.'"

The Nails fared slightly better.

"I suppose it doesn't matter. We all play our parts."

One was claimed by the Supernatural, a devil killing the possessor and claiming it as a trophy, only to be killed in turn. A holy relic, particularly one as powerful as the Nail, had many uses for those who recognized its significance.

"It didn't work like yours, you know? I didn't see an 'end' and worked my way back. I started at the 'now' and worked my way forward. At some point, my power grew to the extent that I was looking centuries into the future... And I saw it. The future. And it was in humanity."

From hand to hand, the Nail passed through the world. Even as the faithful chased it, it remained out of their reach until the Creator stepped in to claim it back from a God of War.

"I... can't explain it to a human. Not in a way that makes sense. Gods are... purpose with power. We have desires and ambitions, but, at the end of the day, we cannot really change. An evil god might do good but will always be evil. A god of war might enjoy peace but will always prepare for the next war. I could no sooner stop Creating than a human could stop their heart."

This was mere days before the Great War's final climax, where the Creator would die with his foes after sacrificing most of His power to seal a Beast from beyond their world.

"Dragons are the opposite. Power without purpose. They do whatever they wish, irrespective of consequences... I really hate dragons. Just... the worst."

And so that Nail was lost, speculated to exist in some Sacred Gear that would forever remain unfinished.

"But humans? I saw them create things I had never dreamed of. I saw them accomplish acts no god would ever conceive of. It was... beautiful. I would watch them for centuries in futures that would never be. Their variations and permutations... I loved them instantly."

At least the faithful and those angelic children who had lost just lost their father and Creator retained the other Nail, now fashioned into an iron crown.

"Don't look at me like that. I am fully aware that humans could be as whimsical as any dragon, as cruel as any evil god. Perhaps I am the only being in this world to have witnessed more cruelty than you, even if I did not experience it as you did."

Only... they didn't.

"It was their potential I loved. The capacity to be. These, the weakest race, would dominate this planet with or without my intervention. But I intended to help. To protect them. Guide them. And I used my other Creations to help me."

At some point in the past, when the circumstances were just right, a thief had exchanged the genuine Crown of Lombardy with a fake due to simple greed.

"...I was not a good father. When I directed my children, my Creations, to act for the betterment of mortals, I did not explain myself to them. Why would I? They were my Creations. They, like me, could only fulfill their purposes... But some had purposes that conflicted with my order."

While transporting their ill-gotten goods, the thief would be waylayed by bandits and slain. The highwaymen, unaware of the significance of the Crown, tore the jewels from their casing for ease of sale. The important part, the iron, was broken and sold. Melted and turned to horseshoes.

"I cannot describe how it hurt when Lucifer betrayed me. You must have felt something similar once upon a time. That rage... That pain... It's blinding. And when he severed our connection when he took Lilith and created devils... It was adding insult to injury. Others fell, and every single one of them hurt... But you never forget your first betrayal. That wound never heals."

No matter how the powerful hunted and searched for centuries, no one would find the nails or the wood of the cross.

"...I won't go into the details of war I waged in my rage and pain. I won't tell you of the pain every day brought. I will just let you know that every single being that died in the Great War was my children or their descendants... Even the devils. I saw them as extensions of my son, just as he had once been an extension of me. I hated them. I still hate them. They, who came from me but turned from me, who was their source of life! ...Yet they were still my Creations."

But they still existed.

"But I continued to grow stronger. My Creations grew more powerful, and so did the reach of my sight. My visions were my refuge. I drowned myself in futures where there was peace even as I was soaked in the blood of my children."

Washing ashore amidst other debris, the two boards would be used to build another house. Then, when the building was torched and destroyed during a war, the oddly pristine pieces of wood would make the central frame of a carriage.

"Then, one day, I had an idea. A simple one based on idle curiosity. 'What if I die?'"

Time and time again, these two pieces of wood would wander the world from place to place. Unnoticed of any oddity, except for their durability.

"Unlike your power, mine was based on my System. It would survive after I died. So, I looked into those futures. Most of them were what I expected. Chaos. Destruction. My angels slaughtered, and the world drowned in blood, sin, and vice."

The pieces of the blood-soaked wood would be separated and rejoined countless times. They were Damaged repeatedly, yet would always return to their natural state when none were the wiser.

"But, in a future where I took the Satans with me, I saw something else. Something I had believed impossible."

No harm remained on these planks for longer than a year.

"Devils acting as humans did. Loving. Growing. Creating."

Until that is, they were part of the lumber sent to a construction company in the early twenty-first century.

"In the futures I had seen before, ones where I won, I had slaughtered them all. A mercy, I had believed. For both themselves and the world."

The two planks of wood, which were always near each other, were judged to match the weight, length, and width needed for one of the ongoing projects. They were sent to join other planks in the pile before being placed on an assembly line.

"But outside the yoke of my son and his brood, they displayed the characteristic I so admired in humans. I hadn't thought it possible."

When the blood-soaked wood was sawed into boards this time, they would not regrow and regenerate ever again.

"That led to another question, one that terrified me."

For parts of the iron that bound it were also seeped in that same special blood.

"If devils could become like this, could others?"

The metal of the Iron Crown of Lombardy, having followed a similarly circuitous route, had also arrived in the form of iron bands and nails.

"...I watched my Fallen children drown in vice and sin, yet they were even quicker than the devils to move forward. Under Azazel, they unified. They worked with humans, creating wonders that matched even my greatest Creations. My angels, those who remained with me until the end, hurt the most, though."

It had passed from plow to scythe. From bullets to lids.

"Without me... They grew. Grew! Michael might not have my power or ability to Create, but he has become so much more than I ever Created him to be. They made peace! With devils and fallen! Even other factions!"

The metal that was once a blood-soaked nail came to the Land of Eight Million Gods on black ships.

"I... I couldn't make peace, not after the betrayals and the pain. Not when I hate them so much. But they could. They could end the Great War without complete genocide. I... I had never looked for a future like that. I hadn't even thought to."

When the weapon it was a part of was stolen and melted down, it moved through Japan's changing land until it, too, reached its final destination.

"I looked for other ways, of course. I quickly found that if I simply won and spared the defeated, my presence would prevent one side or the other from developing, and my faithful children would never grow... And I couldn't spare them. Not when just looking at them reminded me of the pain and anger."

Until it was reunited with that blood-soaked wood.

"So, I looked into faking my death. But so long as I existed, my System would remain bound to me, and that would act as a bastion for my children. A reassurance that would halt their own development. They'd wait for me, eternally, and never become what I knew they could be."

Though undamaged, iron and wood had been marked through the passage of years. They were always in just the right place at just the right time to be affected by the occasional spell, the odd battle between gods, devils or angels. And that left them changed in a way nobody could see or sense.

"No. For the future I wanted, for my faithful, loyal, beloved children, God needed to die."

The bench they formed was in no way different from every other that rolled off the line that day.

"That still left me with the problem of other worlds, though. The Beast was just the first that would find us, but others would come eventually, and, for all my contemporaries' powers, they remained as set in their ways as ever. The moment something stronger than them appeared, it would be over."

It was not special.

"I knew mortals, with their ability to grow without limits, would be the solution, thus I created Sacred Gears... They'd hold out for a while, but none of the futures I saw reassured me for the long term. And in most cases, my children paid too much for me to accept. I constantly searched for the best future. The perfect future... I failed."

But, by proximity to those that were, by the manipulations of the greatest Creator in this world who had planned a future where wood and iron would meet in just such a way to cancel His power...

"So, I looked beyond my world for the solution."

...It would become special to the boy who found happiness on the simple bench of wood and iron.

********

"Divine intervention?" Armin asked doubtfully, arm pausing mid-throw. "Really?"

"That world is absolutely insane," Eren simply said, throwing his own stone into the waves that lapped on the shore of the Gremory's private island.

Six bounces, a respectable result against the lapping waves.

"I couldn't go a block without running into a god, a dragon, or something like it."

"With population numbers that high," Armin mused thoughtfully, launching his stone. Seven bounces. "I guess it would make sense that many cultures would have many gods. Do you know if the gods came first and created humans, or did humans create gods?"

"No idea," Eren admitted, bringing them to a new location.

They wandered through the Underworld, devils living their lives in the light of a fake sun. This was Lilith before Eren attacked.

He didn't know what it looked like now, four months later.

"They... look like us," Armin said with some wonder. "I suppose the old propaganda was right."

"They act like us, too. All of them. Humans... devils... all the rest... They're just as bad as each other."

"And just as good."

Eren didn't reply, just weaving through the streets beside his friend.

"So... Aliens?"

"Insane," Eren repeated with emphasis, trying to convey his exasperation. "One of the most common beings that invade from another world is a... breast goddess."

Armin stopped in place.

"You cannot be serious."

Eren let the world fade around them. Suddenly, they were floating in the Dimensional Gap.

In front of them was a... woman, though calling her such was a bit of a misnomer.

"Meet Chimune Chipaoti," Eren said blandly. "Also known as the Chichigami."

"Just..." Armin gaped. Disbelief? Awe? Horror? Fascination? "...Why?"

"Insane."

"There's insane, and there's... That!"

"It's Issei's fault," Eren said casually, and Armin looked at him in disbelief. Eren sighed and explained. "In a future where I do nothing... A coalition of powers seals Trihexa, but an alien machine god race invades the weakened world and wipes out the world. In that future, Issei Hyoudou, as the Red Dragon Emperor, will be one of the main defenders. He teams up with this one, an opposing faction to the invaders, but they fail in the end."

"How can you predict that?" Armin asked, still goggling at the... woman. "Isn't that Issei kid as protected as the others?"

"No. He was the exception. I met him in person before I met him on the bench. It was my past, his future, though... I never saw any of the others. Not once. I can only see things I was there for, even in other futures, so it's not like I saw everything. Even if I know where to look for them now, they are still holes in the tapestry, as is everything they do. But not Issei."

"And he's responsible for this?

"Issei is... a character," Eren tried to defend his junior. "A good heart, if nothing else. Honest to a fault. I trust him to protect the others till they're ready. But... yes. He's just as insane as the rest of that world."

They didn't dwell on the... breast goddess for long, and Eren brought Armin to see one of his favourite sights.

"Woah," Armin let out a sound of wonder as he gazed down at the planet Earth.

"I don't know if you guys ever got here," Eren said, taking in the view. "But humans in this world managed to land on their moon... By the end, I was strong enough to come here by myself."

"There are theories, and such," Armin said, not tearing his eyes from the blue and green sphere that dominated their vision. "Probably not for a few years, though. Even now, we are still focusing on rebuilding."

"...Sorry."

Armin didn't accept his apology but didn't reject it either.

They both knew the horrors of the Rumbling, and they both knew it had accomplished precisely what Eren had set out to do.

Eren wasn't sorry for his actions.

Even now, even after all he'd been through and had time to confront everything he'd done.

Eren had time to come to terms, yet he'd do it all again.

He regretted his actions, but he wasn't apologizing for them.

He was apologizing for leaving everything to Armin.

"Thank you for showing me this," Armin said instead. "There are plans for a satellite, but I wouldn't get to see it before I die."

Eren sombrely stared up at the planet.

"...I'm already dead, aren't I?"

"No. Not yet."

"Are you?"

"I will be soon. After this vision is done, I'll have only about a minute. It's why the White God cut himself off. He rambled too long. But..." Eren trailed off.

"You never make things easy, do you?" Armin said, collapsing onto the moon's dusty ground and reclining to look up at the spinning planet. "I'm long dead from your perspective, aren't I?"

"Yes. For centuries." Eren said bluntly, not looking at his friend. "You are talking to a memory of the future, and I am talking to a memory of the past. His Creation, the one in my neck, it is linking my new Path with the remnants of the old one."

"...We destroyed the Paths."

"We destroyed the Founder, the source of Ymir's Paths and the source of the Titans," Eren corrected, collapsing beside his friends. "But... where there was one, there might be more. Maybe in another few thousand years, there will be another Ymir."

They were both silent for a long moment.

"...That would be awful," Armin eventually sighed. "Everything we did, everything we went through, and no finality? It makes it all seem... pointless, doesn't it?"

"No," Eren denied.

They were no longer on the moon.

They were at the End of the World, staring at an impossibly vast Wall.

"We might never eradicate Titans, war, hatred, or violence, but you did have peace. Even if it was only for our fleeting lifetime, we proved it wasn't pointless." Eren shrugged, looking up at his Creation. "To us, at least. "

The two friends stared up at the crimson Wall that trapped an entire world, just as they had done as kids.

"Why'd you do it?" Armin asked.

"...I wasn't going to," Eren admitted. "I would have chosen a future that lasted as long as my life—probably one where I alerted the great powers and convinced them of the threat. Most of the time, they don't believe me, or something goes wrong, and the world is worse off, not better. But there were a few where things turned out decent enough when I died. After that..."

Eren shrugged as if to say, 'Who knew.'

"Even if that world was destroyed after I was gone, I thought it might be better off than doing this to it. All this does is buy a bit of time until something stronger finds it, or they drive themselves to extinction. The entire time, they'll be living in fear and shame. It's... a terrible fate."

"But you decided to do it anyway. Why?"

Eren pulled up his knees, crossing his arms and mumbling his answer into them.

"Sorry? Didn't catch that?"

"...I didn't want them to die..."

Armin stared at his friend, whose ears were turning red, and was looking away so as not to meet his eyes.

He laughed.

"Shut up!"

Eren's face burned, and he splashed sea water at Armin to get him to stop.

Armin laughed harder.

They were back there.

On the beach.

The one where they had first seen the ocean together.

When Eren dunked the last Commander of the Scouts in the surf, Armin retaliated, tripping the sage and knocking Eren down.

They wrestled for a bit, each trying to be the one to drive the other under.

Soaking, panting and covered in drying salt and sand, Eren eventually continued his explanation.

"Like I said, there were other futures. Ones where Trihexa wasn't released, or I got the Top Ten, Ophis, and Great Red to act as defenders. But none of them were as certain as this one. I couldn't know if any alliance would survive after I died. This way, anything that wants into this world has to get through one side of the Wall, then Trihexa, then the other."

"As does anyone who wants to get out," Armin, also panting, pointed out. "All you had to do to start the Rumbling was take control of the Wall Titans. They won't be able to. When you die, there will be no more Eldians who can inherit your Founder. Unless..." Armin squinted at his friend. "Tell me the truth. Is Mikasa pregnant? Or... that cat girl... Kuroka, right?"

Eren splashed his friend again, but it was half-hearted.

"No," Eren answered. "God explained that all he did was take the traces of the Founder to copy its abilities like his other Sacred Gears. Only, it's not part of his System. It's linked to me. My bloodline. If they were children, I'd have seen them on my Path."

"And no one else could be?" Armin asked, and when Eren glared at him, he held up his hands. "I'm just asking. It sounds like you had a lot of female company."

"Nobody is pregnant," Eren bit out. "And even if they were when I die, this new Founder will die with me without someone to transfer to through my Path. I will be the only Titan this world ever has."

"...Are you alright with that?"

"With being the only Titan? Yes. With not having kids? Of course, I'm not!" Eren snapped angrily. "Of course, I want to have kids, live with them, and have a future! Of course, I feel terrible at the thought of Mikasa and Kuroka moving on and finding other people to love! It sucks, and I hate it! A second life, a second chance, and I still hate it!"

"...Wow..." Armin stared at his fuming friend. "You're even more of a pathetic scumbag than I remember. You two timed them and now want them to what... 'be loyal to your memory for the rest of their life?' And they're practically immortal, right? Thousands of years alone? You're just the worst. Or will you say something like, 'Just mourn me for a century?' The worst."

Eren punched his friend in the cheek.

Hard.

Armin went down into the surf again, and Eren gave the man a kick to the ribs for good measure, though it was nowhere near as hard.

"That was for telling everyone what I said last time!"

Armin had the decency to look slightly ashamed and decided to change the subject back to safer territory quickly.

"Do you think it will ever fall?" Armin said, sitting up slightly. "Your Wall?"

"It will," Eren answered with a sigh, sitting beside him in the shallow water. "They have thousands of years to try. They'll get there, eventually."

"...I'd like to have met them."

"You'd have liked Sona," Eren nodded. "She reminds me of you. Rias... She's too much like me. She needs Sona to hold her back. Mikasa will help. She was always reliable and strong. Stronger than either of us. Together... I think together they can do it. Tear down the Wall."

"And if they succeed?" Armin asked, leaning back in the water, his fingers digging into the wet sand behind him as he enjoyed the warm sun. "What then? By then, they'll be stronger than you ever were and have access to all the worlds that might have destroyed them."

"...It's one of the reasons I didn't want to do it," Eren admitted. "Even in the best case, when someone tears down the Wall, kills Trihexa, and frees this world, they'll become another Elidia. Another Marley. Another World that invades more Worlds. Another me. It will be the Rumbling, only worse, across who knows how many Worlds."

"But you did it anyway."

"I did."

Eren's fingers dug into the watery sand beside him.

Then they were somewhere else, warm and dry, as they sat on a bench in a small park.

"I think... I think I understood you," Eren said softly. "At least a little bit."

Eren looked at his cupped hand.

"In our world... I didn't see any other choice. Not one that could get me everything. Kill the Titans, get my revenge, and give you a chance for a future. I am... too selfish to give up any of them," Eren admitted quietly. "But in this one, I had so many choices. Yet I chose to do it all again. Because I think... they can do it better. They can avoid our mistakes... My mistakes."

Eren held out his cupped hand to the boy who sat beside him on the bench, showing Armin the small sea shell he held.

"I still dream of the sea," Eren said softly, handing over the shell. "But... I've started to dream of what lies beyond the sea."

Armin stared at the small, familiar shell in his hands.

"I'm-" The old man in a young man's body swallowed as his voice cracked. "I'm glad. You're finally free."

Linked between past and present, across the bounds of Worlds, the two childhood friends sat together in that timeless moment on the bench.

"...What now?" Armin eventually asked.

"Now?" Eren said, closing his eyes. "Now I get to fix my last mistake. The only regret I wished to undo."

Eren looked over at his friend.

"Now we say goodbye."

Armin's throat swelled.

"I don't know how much of this you'll remember," Eren admitted, looking back towards the sky. "It might just be a dream to you. But... This is it. The end. We... won't see each other again."

"No!" Armin denied. "We promised."

"You're not going to hell, Armin," Eren said softly.

"I am!" Armin denied it again. "The people I killed, the things I did... We helped push you toward the Rumbling. We couldn't give you another way. We were as much to blame as you. We'll shoulder it together!"

"No. You won't."

Eren looked as regretful as he was incredibly relieved as he spoke, and Armin's tears finally started to fall.

"Our world doesn't work like the new one. The afterlife here is... automated, according to him. There are no gods here. What matters in this world isn't a judgment on what you do... It's about how you live and how you die. And you've lived long enough, good enough, that you aren't going to hell. You'll be joining Annie and the others that helped you."

Armin hated the relief he felt at his first friend's words.

He hated himself for not begging Eren to ask the God he met to take his soul with him.

"What about you?" Armin asked softly, voice thick with sadness. "I promised. You shouldn't be alone. Not after everything. I promised."

"I don't know," Eren shrugged, looking away and attempting to be cavalier. "I'm not really part of that world. Just a temporary invader. I'm not part of his System. I can't get to heaven, but I'm also not part of any other pantheon. I can't reincarnate in that world, and I can't even return here. I put a Wall between us. Nobody is strong enough to bring me back, except for maybe Great Red, but I had enough trouble getting that delinquent to work with me. He would have healed me already if he wanted to save me."

Eren trailed off, and his own voice started to shake.

"Maybe... If- Once the Wall is destroyed, my soul will find another world. Be reborn naturally. Maybe I'll see the others again when they find that world... I think I'd like that. Maybe next time, I'll get it right."

The pair lapsed into a moment of silence.

"...But that's not what you want."

"...No...I..."

Eren's hands started to shake, and his following words came out in a hoarse whisper.

"...I don't want to die."

Eren looked at Armin, and the tears flowed from both their eyes.

Armin pulled his friend into a hug and each held the other tightly.

"I'm not like Cao Cao and the others," Eren confessed guiltily, holding his brother with all his strength. "I... don't want to die and be remembered. I want to live. For the first time in... so long... I want to live."

Armin just held Eren tighter.

"I've died once already. I've lived two lifetimes. More than most get. I still have regrets but I've met you and Mikasa again... I've gotten luckier than a Devil like me deserves... This second life... It's been terrible... And wonderful... And I want more... I want a long, happy life..."

The two brothers just sat there, holding each other as they wept their final tears.

But even those tears ran dry.

"...It's why I used your Titan to help build the Wall," Eren eventually said, releasing Armin, rubbing his eyes and standing from the bench. "Even if we can't meet in hell... I wanted to do my best to fulfill our promise."

As he stood, Eren seemed to shrink, not in height, but in body.

He thinned, shifter marks deepening and skin splitting from the numerous open wounds that wept blood and steam.

As he leaned on his cane, Eren had once more become the Titan, the boy who had brought another World to its knees.

The monster who had traumatized a generation, killed thousands, and trapped an entire world in a never-ending Wall.

The Eldian Devil who had killed eighty percent of his world to save the lives of a handful of people.

"...Thank you."

Armin stood as well, an old man once more. One who'd lived through the age of Titans, the Rumbling, The Battle of Heaven and Earth, and the decades that came after.

The last surviving Titan Shifter and the man believed to be the hero who had slain the Attack Titan and kept the peace in the following years.

The Hero and Devil shared one last hug.

"And goodbye, Eren."

"Goodbye, Armin."

********

"Are you in a better mood? I cannot overstate how little I want this conversation to end. Once it does, we both die."

"...Just...Get on with it," Eren bit out, swallowing his annoyance. His every word sounded like it came from out of clenched teeth. "I'm... grateful... to get to say... goodbye... But that doesn't answer my questions. Why me? Why them? And what now?"

"...Do you still want to see it?" God asked as Eren regained control over himself.

Taking a deep breath, Eren answered with a resolute nod.

"Show me." They were still in the vision, but Eren leaned on his cane anyway. "I need to know what you did."

The memory of the dead God sighed.

"It's not that complicated," He said. "The hardest part was manipulating events in my world so the bench would come to be long after I died. Ensuring it was in place at certain events and times to get certain cuts and dings took decades of planning and vision. It was needed, though. My memory has been trapped in the blood on the wood while the Nail would nullify my powers trapping it... and my Creation in your spine while you were in contact."

"Show me."

"Fine."

As with Armin, Eren's world flowed around him.

The first sight they stopped at was near a... funeral home?

"I actually found your world about three or so years after you died," the dead God started to ramble again. "What we're watching is decades later, after I made the plan."

It looked high class, certainly the type of place for those with money or influence.

"Once I learned of the nature of your powers, I had the idea of resurrecting you to protect the world in my stead. But with the Founder dead and destroyed, you wouldn't be clairvoyant. You couldn't even use your Attack or Warhammer Titans without the Paths to build the bodies."

As they watched, a white bird flew down and turned into another version of the God that watched beside Eren.

"I had an answer for that. It was the easy part. One of the current Longinus, Innovate Clear, already does something similar. It is an idealized combination of Annihilation Maker and Dimension Lost. I didn't need anything that powerful, just something to mimic the Paths. A container of the power without the actual creature that joined Ymir."

"I don't care about how you did what you did," Eren grunted. "Just tell me what you did and why."

They watched as the God of the past, invisible to all the Eldians who worked at the establishment, wandered through the funeral home until he came to stand beside a large wooden coffin. It was one of many, though a nicer one.

"I care, though. I might be a memory, but I have my pride as a Creator."

Eren gave the memory a flat look as the God of the past waived his hand, and the nails that held the coffin together disappeared.

"... Why are you so impatient for this to end? You know what will happen."

"Because I need to be sure you have nothing else planned for them after I am gone. This is their world, not ours. They need to be free of futures they haven't lived yet."

A Nail appeared in the God's hands before it split into dozens of smaller nails, each piercing the coffin's wood where the mundane Nail had dissipated.

"I could lie to you, you know?"

"Why lie to a man about to die?" Eren said bluntly before gesturing to the funeral home around them. The memory had paused as the Nails entered the coffin. "What was that?"

"That was me making sure the Evil Pieces could bring back Mikasa," the God sighed. "That particular Nail, I enchanted to keep things fresh. Essentially freezing the coffin and its contents in time, not dissimilar to that dhampir's Gear, only much weaker. Holy Relics are some of my strongest materials, and I invested three of them into this plan. Both Nails and my Crusifix. Do you have any idea what I had planned as a Gear with those? One would be a Longinus, and the other could become the equivalent of one with the right Balance Breaker! They'd be really cool."

The image shifted again as the memory continued to ramble.

Eren's heart clenched as he beheld the familiar tree on the hill.

A small, old, worn tombstone was at its base. Though the lettering was faded weather and wear, Eren still recognized his own name.

Beside that small grave was a second tombstone. Fresher. Brand new.

The hole in front of it was open, as was the coffin.

The funeral preceded, and Eren could recognize an older Armin crying as the coffin was lowered into it.

A middle-aged man... Grisha... Mikasa's son... was speaking, but Eren didn't hear it.

Eren looked down at an older Mikasa as she was buried, wrapped in a red scarf and surrounded with countless flowers.

She looked... at peace.

The wrinkles around her face spoke of a long, happy life.

Eren knew he was looking at her past.

That in the future, they would meet once more.

The knowledge couldn't stop the pain at seeing the woman he loved be lowered into the Earth.

"...Do you want to say something?" The memory asked delicately, its rant on Sacred Gears done.

"No..." Eren said, stepping back. "We've already said what we needed to say to each other. She's still alive. She'll take care of them."

"Alright."

The scene started to fly by, time speeding up as figures came and went from the grave.

The tree on the hill was near a city now, Eren realized, in a park not unlike the one with the bench.

He saw Armin come by a day after the funeral, and Eren closed his eyes.

He'd already said goodbye to his brother.

Eventually, the scene returned to regular time a few weeks after the funeral.

It was a sunny but cold day when the white bird landed in front of the tree on the hill, turning back into the White God.

"It took a while for me to have a moment when nobody was nearby," the memory explained. "A local writer liked to come here at night to drink and contemplate story ideas. Believe it or not, she ended up writing an alternative history story centred on Historia's rise to power. One where everyone seemed to fall in love with her, and it was her rejection of him that drove 'Eren Yeager' to do what he did. While controversial, to say the least, it was very popular. Especially among those inclined to... tragic... romance... and... smut..."

The memory trailed off at Eren's completely unimpressed look.

The God of the past waived his hands, and the fresh grave opened, Mikasa's coffin rising before him.

"What did you do?" Eren asked as the Past God took out a note and tapped it onto the coffin.

One more wave of His hand, and it was gone, disappearing into nothing.

"Essentially just a very delayed teleportation," the memory said with an amused smile. "I sent it to the Underworld where, in a few centuries, Serafall Leviathan will build her mansion around where it will appear. The trick is to have it appear at just the right time so that I can take credit for her sister's birth. A perk of being clairvoyant, I'm sure you appreciate, is being able to claim, 'I planned this all along' even when I didn't do anything special. It was one of my favourite ways to mess with other gods."

"Why Serafall? Why Sona? They're devils," Eren pressed.

"...Would you have been able to connect with Angels like you do with devils?"

Eren didn't answer.

"When I started all this, I had no idea what my solution would be," the memory explained as they watched the Past God pull up another bundle from underground. "I just needed... something. Something that would protect my world and my children after I was gone. I searched dozens of Worlds before finding yours. When I saw what had happened in this one and how your powers work, I knew I had the key to a solution."

It was the remains of what had once been a small box, long ruined by time and the life underground.

"But I couldn't just bring you back. No, in every future, I do that, we end up fighting. We're just too incompatible. And if you have the Founder, you win. But I needed you to win, to find a solution I couldn't."

Inside the ratty box was a skull, all flesh and hair decomposed, leaving it the off-white of bone.

"So, I set you up to 'win' around when you could do the most good. When the Peace Treaty is signed and the Beast would be freed. But even then! All you do is the bare minimum. 'Save the world' for only as long as you are alive. So, I sent Mikasa to be reincarnated, trying to get you to care. And you spend your entire life with her, then die after bringing her to a new world. I cannot tell you how infuriating you are to try to work with. It's maddening."

Eren looked at his severed head as the memory ranted.

It looked just like every other skull.

No different from everyone he'd killed.

"So, I had to set things up in a way where you'd come to care about my world. Where you'd want to protect it, even after I died. And here is where I faced the problem with your power. You cannot connect with people, or truly come to care for them while you have the Founder. But without it, you are useless to me. So, I had to create the bench. A temporary reprieve from your powers."

The God of the past picked up the skull, placing a glowing white bone right where the spine was severed.

"Everything after that was just... optimization. Ensuring certain people were in certain places at certain times. It kind of all fell into place, honestly. You did most of the work on the actual solution. I was honestly impressed. All I did was choose the time and place, and you chose the future."

As the spine glowed, the Past God's hands glowed to match it.

Eren's skull warped and twisted, bone flowing and shrinking.

In seconds, the deity was holding a sleeping baby.

"Why the nineteen years?" Eren asked as he watched his past version disappear like the coffin before him. Another delayed teleportation. "If I had more time, I might have come up with something better."

"To be honest, I have no clue."

At Eren's look, the memory shrugged.

"Like you, I see things happen, but I don't always know why they happen. If I was omniscient, I wouldn't be fighting in a Great War for centuries, would I? It could be some remnant of the Curse of Ymir or your own version. A 'Curse of Eren' that prevents you from living longer than your original life. It could be the power just burns through you, and you die. It's not a Sacred Gear and not part of my System, so there will be no one after you to compare it to."

Eren accepted the answer, even if it didn't make him happy.

Still, at least there wouldn't be more people who'd received the cursed power of the Founder after him.

That had been one of his greatest fears once he started to believe the God of the Bible was behind his presence in this world.

The God of the Past looked out over the graves one more time, making sure they were exactly as they had been when he arrived before disappearing as dawn's light started to peak over the horizon.

"Is that why the Evil Pieces didn't work? Because it's not a Sacred Gear?"

"No. It's your body itself. Evil Pieces cannot work on my Angels, not without them Falling. You aren't an angel, so you cannot fall, but I still made your body directly, unlike Mikasa's. You cannot become a devil."

Eren couldn't deny the conflicted emotions that brought.

He still wanted to live, but... Even if he could stomach being brought back by Mikasa, Kuroka, or Rias, he thought a part of him would always resent them for it. For being his 'King.'

It was probably better this way.

"Do you have anything else planned after this?" Eren asked. "With them?"

"There are a few other, vague plans that will pay off in the coming years, like letting my faithful have children easier now that they are at peace and don't have the Brave Saints to rely on, but that isn't what you want to know," the memory sighed.

"No. I don't."

"I had to spend so much effort making sure all the lines met up simultaneously during your life that planning something intricate after that is just... I didn't have time for it before the Beast arrived, and I needed to end things with my son. I don't envy your power, but I do admire its convenience. This meeting is the product of centuries of work and countless attempts. So no, I have no great plans for your friends or lovers. They will live on, at least beyond where my visions stopped, without my interference."

"Good."

The pair stood there on that hill with the tree, watching the sunrise over a land without walls for a long minute.

"I could take your confession if you'd like."

Eren snorted.

"No. You can't. I do not repent. I regret. But I'll stand by my actions, my choices, to the very end. They were not the right ones, but they were mine."

"That's probably for the best. You couldn't get into heaven anyway. The amount of atonement you'd have to do... Let's just say that your Wall will fall long before you'd finish. Still, the option is there for anyone to take."

"You're just trying to delay the end."

"...I am. Once this memory fades... There'll be nothing left of me. God will truly be gone."

"There needs to be an end. To all things. Good... and bad."

"My world... It will need to stand on its own, and I won't be there to guide and protect it."

"...That's what it means to be free."

The pair were silent again.

God took a deep breath of the morning air.

"Goodbye, Eren Yeager. If we ever met, we'd hate each other. But... Thank you for saving my home."

The memory held out a hand for Eren.

Eren shook it.

"I don't like you, but... Thank you for the opportunity to see them again. To say goodbye. For this second life."

"You're welco- What?" Eren's fist tightened around the memories, and his face distorted as he looked behind him. "What are you looking at?"

Even when the memory looked around, he couldn't see a reason for Eren to look like that.

"You didn't do this?"

"Do what?"

"...No..." Eren said in realization.

He let go of the memory's hand and stepped beyond the dead God, staring out toward the horizon.

"This might be your memory, but... The Paths were always ours alone."

They were... everywhere.

Every inch of ground was occupied, as was every branch of every tree. They covered the buildings in the distance. They hung from walls and windows.

A sea of green, grey, and black that covered the horizon.

And they were all looking at him.

Eren knew them all. Knew them because he'd been there, looking through their eyes for their entire lives. He'd felt their pain. He'd inflicted it.

But... It was those closest to the tree on the hill that had his eyes captured.

Floch was off to the side with the other Yeagerists like Sam, Daz, and Louise.

Falco and Gabi were with their friends and family while Marcel and Porco hovered nearby, side by side.

Zeke was even further away, standing beside an older man in glasses as an old couple looked on.

Further back yet were Grisha, Dina and... Carla... Mom.

Shadis stood next to Erwin, severe looks on faces gazing up at him.

Nearby, Hange stood in front of Moblit and beside them, Captain Levi stood among Gunther, Oluo, Eld and Petra.

Bertolt, Reiner and Annie were also near the front, while Jean and Thomas waited not too far away.

Closer still, Connie and Sasha gazed up at Eren, their eyes not showing their usual exuberance.

Near the foot of the hill, Ymir looked reluctant to be there but was enduring it for Historia, who stood, arm in arm, with her.

And, in front of everyone else, Armin gazed up at Eren.

For close to a minute, they just... looked at each other in the silence of the dawn.

No words needed to be said.

Eren knew that they knew.

Knew of his time in the Paths. Of what he had done, why he had done it, and what it had cost.

Knew of his time in the new world, of his refusal to repent and his conviction to stand by his actions to the very end.

Between past, present, and future...

Across the boundary of two worlds...

They were all connected through broken Paths.

And, as one, they turned their backs on Eren.

They could not forgive him.

Eren had betrayed them all for his selfish desires.

He'd killed them.

He'd thrown away the humanity they'd fought for.

He'd thrown away the Yeagerists and Eldia just so his friends could be heroes.

He'd killed so many of them and countless more.

They all turned from Eren, from his comrades, to his friends, to his parents.

Except for two.

Historia, the worst girl in the world, looked up at the boy on the hill with the same smile as ever, even as Ymir turned from him.

Armin stood straight, eyes not leaving Eren's until the very end.

Eren stood before the tree on the hill and faced a sea of turned backs and two faces.

Armin Artlet, the last Commander of the Survey Corps, raised his hands...

...And spoke in the silence of the dawn.

"Shinzou wo Sasageyo!"

Millions of fists clenched over millions of hearts.

SHINZOU WO SASAGEYO!!

Their voice shook the world with the familiar words carved into Eren's heart since he was a boy.

They, who could not forgive the Devil, could understand Eren Yeager.

The boy who had accomplished their long-held dream of ridding the world of the terror of the Titans.

They had dedicated their hearts to a future.

Even if they could not accept Eren or forgive him for betraying that hope...

A single fist rose over a heart that was soon to stop beating.

From one heart to another...

Eren's voice was thick as he looked out over the memories of people he would never meet again.

"Sinzou wo..."

Eren Yeager had, one last time, dedicated his heart.

"...Sasageyo!!"

********

He was back on the bench.

The memory of the dead God had faded, slowly taking with it the ability to stop his power from passing to his past self.

According to the memory, he barely had a minute before someone would be here.

That was fine.

He'd had nineteen years more than he ever deserved.

Eren... still didn't want to die.

He wanted to live.

But... wanting to live...

That desire was something he'd lost when he'd come to accept the inevitability of the future that night with Mikasa in Marley.

To have it back, with everything else...

It was a gift he hadn't expected.

Eren wished he could give Rias her answer in person, but...

She'd just have to take his smile as the answer.

He wished he could see them all one more time, really.

Would Kuroka and Shirone reconcile?

Would Yuuto open his bakery?

Would Issei get his harem?

...Would Akeno come to forgive herself?

...Would Rias tear down his Wall?

...Would Sona teach the world of him? Of his reasons and mistakes so that they did not repeat?

...Would Mikasa move on again? Find someone else that could make her happy?

...Would Kuroka find someone who could give her the kittens she always wanted?

Eren wanted to see it all. Wanted to be there with them.

He wanted to see Issei and Asia married.

He wanted to be there when Koneko accepted her sister back.

He wanted to be there for the grand opening of Isaiah's Bakery.

He wanted to hear Akeno tease everyone again.

He wanted to finish that manga with Rias.

Eren wanted to finish learning Japanese with Sona, which was the only thing he'd learned without using the Paths to cheat.

He wanted to hold Kuroka.

He wanted to wrap Mikasa in that scarf one more time.

But, what Eren wanted... It wasn't what mattered.

What mattered were actions.

He could sense Sona now, in the school only a few hundred meters away.

He could sense the panic and confusion around him as the world was brutally confronted with the truth of their new reality.

Eren wished he could have come up with a better solution. There'd be wars. There's be panic, and fear, and shame, and trauma.

Eren knew he might have created another 'Eren Yeager' today. Another monster who would do whatever it took to be free.

But... He believed he hadn't.

He wasn't smiling because he wanted to die or because he had no regrets. He'd always have regrets. The blood at his feet would never drain. It could only grow.

No, that was not why he was smiling.

Eren Yeager was smiling because he had been freed.

Freed of a future that shackled him.

Freed of the certainty that things would always turn out in the worst way.

Freed of the duty to drown the world in blood just so those he loved could have a long, happy life.

War. Violence.

They would never disappear.

War followed peace, and peace followed war.

But... For the first time in his life... Eren Yeager was free to believe in others.

That they'd achieve his dreams, even without him and without making his mistakes.

They'd pick up the heart he dedicated.

The bench's power waned enough and suddenly, Eren was back in the familiar blue and white Path.

He didn't do anything, just resting as his body tried vainly to mend itself.

The pain could not wipe the small, content smile from his face.

It was not a smile of joy as he had when he flew.

It was not a smile of love as when he was with those he came to care about.

It was a smile of relief. Of hope. Of contentment and fulfilled dreams that had not happened yet.

And it was the most hateful and beautiful thing the six-year-old boy beside him on the bench would ever see.

"This bench is the meeting place."

"Who am I meeting?"

A dead god. A lost kitten. A vengeance-driven young man. An honest pervert. A girl who hates herself. A Japanophile longing for freedom. A girl dedicating herself to her dream. Kuroka. Mikasa.

But Eren did not tell the boy anything about that.

To tell him would be to ruin it.

"Where is this? When is this?"

"Thirteen years in the future."

Thirteen years. Eleven years of hell.

Half a year of resolution.

A year and a half of relief. Of growing hope. Of friends found, words spoken, and comfort given.

"Why are you smiling?"

Because he was relieved.

Because he got to wrap that scarf around Mikasa's neck one more time.

Because he got to say goodbye to Armin.

Because the Wall would eventually fall.

Because Eren was happy.

"Can you do it again?"

Can you face it all again? The pain. The fear. The heartbreak. Can you live eleven years that stretch for eternity while confronting your actions?

"Why would I? I do not know why or how I was reborn in this world. My friends are not here. Historia is not here. Armin is not here. Mikasa is not here. There are no Titans, no Marley. No walls."

"Can you do it again?"

Can you step forward one last time in this mad, cruel world if it means finding this bench and the beauty it can bring you?

"I can."

"Then you'll know why I'm smiling."

Because this was still a cruel world, happiness only came to those who'd fight for it.

Unless you push through the pain and loss and betrayal, you could never have the ending you wished.

But if you did fight for it... You can seize that happiness with your own hands.

"I suppose I will."

"Remember, you only have thirteen years."

Don't waste it. Don't let the pain hold you back.

Take what time you have, short as it may be, and move forward.

Though you are choked with regret, drowning in guilt, and moving toward further cruelties, continue to put one foot in front of the other.

Until you are happy.

Until you are free.

"Then I should get started," the six-year-old Eren said, standing from his seat.

In his eyes, the trees disappeared with the azure sky as his feet met the sand.

All that remained were the dunes of The Path, the countless stars above and the bench.

And a six-year-old Eren saw it all.

The Path.

The Enemy.

The Walls.

And the cost of it all.

"I see," a young Eren said, eyes gazing at the future he would build.

"Not yet," Eren corrected with a long, weary sigh of relief.

The boy saw the Path but not who'd push him forward.

The boy saw the Enemy, a world that preyed upon itself in an endless cycle, but not those who lived in it.

The boy saw the Walls, but not those he'd trust to tear them down.

The boy saw the cost of it all, but...

He didn't see the tree Vali would put him through for disappearing for a year.

He didn't see the hammocks behind the bench where Issei and Asia would cuddle.

He didn't see the minifridge under the bench, which held Yuuto's baking attempts and Akeno's meals that Koneko would steal.

He didn't see the box containing Rias' blanket, manga, or his Japanese homework that would forever go unfinished.

He didn't see the retracted covering Sona had installed to protect the bench from the elements.

He didn't see all the moments he and Kuroka would share on this bench, enough that even without the Path, their combined power and union would push her to her seventh tail on their last day together.

He didn't see the white flowers Mikasa had planted blooming in the warm spring air.

The boy could not see a reason to smile.

"But you will."

...

Returned from the End of the World, with Sona rushing to join them, they'd reach him only a few seconds later.

Like he'd always known it would be, he had died alone on the bench.

Battered. Broken. With blood and steam no longer pouring out of him as he leaned heavily back on the bench, he stared up at an azure sky he could no longer see.

With a familiar cane in his hand, Eren Yeager had died with a small, content smile.

********

All that is left is an epilogue on Friday.

...Our Path together has ended.

We've returned to the bench where it all began.

Thank you for sitting with me all this time.

It is time to say goodbye to the boy on the bench.

 

[kz3838]

Thank you for the great chapter, I really like how you wrote God here and am curious to see what remains of the Epilogue. Stay safe out there and keep up the good work!

 

[PintSizedSlasher]

Not going to lie, part of me is still holding out hope that Erin is going to get his soul removed from this body and placed into a new one, a body that is pure human from this world that can't be seen by his paths. I know it's not gonna happen but still, a man can hope.

A man can also hope that God remains a dweeb in all DXD fics rather than a weirdly racist guy like so many others portray him

 

[Kalstorm22]

Thank you for the fantastic chapter and story, this was a very beautiful end for both the story and Eren. I think that God was written superbly and the idea that the bench was made from the Cross and Nails was very clever and quite unexpected personally. I'm very glad that Eren got to say goodbye to Armin and see that Armin and Historia forgave him and that everyone else at least understood him even if they couldn't forgive him, it feels like a true end for AOT. I'm very intrigued to see what the Epilogue will contain and if we will see if the others dreams and ambitions have come true. Thank you for inviting me to sit on the bench and letting me see Eren's smile, I'll see you on Friday.

 

[mpbjunkie]

Thank you very much for the story.

 

[Aravis]

Thank you for writing this wonderful story! I can't wait to read the epilogue, too.

 

[Renoldmc]

Floch was off to the side with the other Yeagerists like Sam, Daz, and Louise.

Click to shrink...

It's king floch

...Would Kuroka find someone who could give her the kittens she always wanted?

Eren wanted to see it all. Wanted to be there with them.

Click to shrink...

LOL I know what you where going for and you probably didn't mean it that way, but him saying he wants to see kuroka have 'kittens' with another man is just so damn funny

 

[ScriptGenius12]

A better ending than 139, I loved it.

Isayama could never.

Though I wonder, is there really no chance that Eren can't reincarnate or have his soul placed somewhere else by another entity? He died a mortal human without any powers right?

Is he going to Hell? Who would be in a position to punish him?

 

[ReadingDangerously]

It was a serene sight.

Picturesque in a way that was as beautiful as it was haunting.

The warm light, the lost cane, the small, content smile.

Eren looked happy.

""EREN!!""

Dozens of feet rushed toward the boy on the bench.

Rias Gremory was not one of them.

She stood there, rooted in place, as she looked at the boy who had died on the bench.

Even before anyone reached him to check, Rias knew the truth.

Eren was dead.

There would be no miracle. No clever trick or grand plan this time.

Eren was dead.

And he looked... happy...

Rias' heart was in her throat.

When she'd thought he'd killed Issei, she'd chosen not to use the mutated Rook to bring Eren back if he died.

When he'd seemed poised to destroy her home, threatening the lives of all her loved ones, she'd fought him with everything she had.

When he'd disappeared for months, Rias fought against the remnants of his Chaos Brigade while constantly fearing another Titan attack.

When Eren had set them up to unleash Trihexa only a few minutes ago, Rias had feared for her entire world.

And then he'd called them into that world of white sand and blue light to show them what he'd done.

Rias Gremory had stared up at that crimson wall.

She'd known, vaguely, of other worlds for most of her life, thanks to Aunty Mikasa. They'd been more relevant since the discovery that Eren was also from one, but Rias hadn't given them much consideration.

To know that they were filled with alien beings, some so powerful and hostile that her world couldn't survive their attention. To know that all it would take was the wrong extra-dimensional monster finding them by chance, and all her family would die.

To discover that she had been free to leave her world to go to another where she'd be 'Rias' instead of 'Rias Gremory' instead of having to fake it in the human world...

Rias wasn't the same girl she had been when she first fled to Earth in her little rebellion, but to discover that there had been a real option for freedom out there all along?

And to have it stolen from her?

Rias Gremory had stared up at that crimson wall and hated it.

Hated it for the fear it brought her of what could be waiting on the other side.

Hated it for the hope it gave her for what amazing things lay beyond her reach now.

Rias Gremory had stared up at that crimson wall and swore to be the one to tear it down.

To destroy it so utterly and completely that Trihexa would be nothing but a distant memory, and the Titans that built it would never be able to heal.

But...

...That was what Eren wanted, wasn't it?

Please. Take it back.

Rias had heard the words and knew he was talking to her.

Begging her to regain the freedom he had stolen from her.

He had entrusted this world's future to them.

To see Eren here again, after months, after everything she'd learned about who he truly was and what he'd done...

To know him as the man who killed thousands, people she knew and many she liked...

Rias Gremory looked at the smiling form of Eren Yeager's corpse and saw the Devil.

The man who'd killed a billion and a half people for his revenge and freedom.

The man who'd terrorized her world and destroyed her society.

The man who'd trapped them all in a cage, waiting for some passing god to come by and swat like flies.

Rias Gremory looked at the smiling Devil, and she...

Mikasa cried as she reached Eren first, holding the limp body to her chest.

"Move!" Kuroka, also crying, ordered as she tried to pull the Pawn away from the corpse.

In her hand was a chess piece, a Queen that glowed with demonic energy.

Everyone held their breath as Mikasa let herself be removed, her eyes locked on the Evil Piece.

With trembling hands, Kuroka pressed the piece against Eren's unmoving chest.

There was a beat of silence.

Then another.

"...why?" Kuroka croaked, staring at the glowing piece that remained in her hand. Her tails hung limply behind her.

Eren continued to smile.

"Damnit, Senpai," Rias heard Yuuto mutter under his breath.

"Onee-sama..." Koneko approached her sister, still holding onto the smiling body.

"Why!!" Kuroka shouted at the body, causing them all to flinch. "Why this future!? Why couldn't you have stayed with me? With us!"

"...Kuroka..."

"Anwer me, you stupid, suicidal idiot!"

Eren continued to smile down at the nekoshou.

In the silence, Kuroka's sobs were especially loud.

"Ophis!" Issei suddenly shouted, and all eyes turned to look at the boy.

Then she was there, the small girl appearing amidst the gathered group.

"Yes?"

Wordlessly, Issei pointed toward the bench.

Ophis turned and saw Eren.

"...oh..."

She was suddenly there, standing on the bench beside the body.

Kuroka looked up at the Dragon God with wet eyes filled with hope.

"Please, Ophis," she begged. "Please bring him back."

Ophis continued to stare down at the smiling Eren.

"Please," Issei begged as well. "You brought me back! Bring Senpai back as well!"

Ophis' face was completely blank, but her eyes were wide.

"...I..."

The entire clearing was quiet as the Dragon God spoke slowly.

"...I...am...weak..."

"You're stronger than everyone here," Arthur argued, though not unkindly. He wasn't crying like most of them, but his knuckles were white as they held his sword.

"...Eren...Took... Baka Red... Into... Dream..."

Ophis turned her blank eyes toward the group.

She looked small. Lost. Confused.

"I, didn't want this." Ophis declared vehemently before it petered out once more as she looked back at Eren. "I... wanted... Silence... Not... this..."

Kuroka rose slowly, scooping the diminutive girl into her arms and holding her tightly.

"I know," Kuroka whispered hoarsely. "I know. It's not your fault. Eren chose this. He chose his end. It's not your fault."

Whether she was speaking to Ophis, to anyone else, or herself was unclear.

"...Hurts..." Ophis muttered, pressing her face into Kuroka's chest.

"I know," Kuroka repeated. "It hurts. Loving him hurts."

Mikasa, her little hope now squashed, stepped forward to Eren's side again.

"We need to hide him," she muttered despondently. "A place to bury him. Everyone will be looking for him now."

It was a sobering reminder of what Eren had done only minutes ago.

Everyone in the world now knew about the supernatural, about them, and about him.

Even among fellow devils, there'd be countless that Rias knew who would parade around Eren's corpse as some sort of monument.

...Less now, she guessed. Sona and Eren had killed most of them.

"...We know a place," Vali said softly, looking at the smiling boy with trembling eyes. "A valley. Our home."

"He'd like it there," Bikou tried to lighten the mood slightly, but nobody missed how his smile was forced. "We used so much Senjutsu to repair it from training that it's practically a paradise."

Akeno touched Rias' arm, and the Gremory started in surprise.

She'd been staring at Eren without blinking for minutes.

Looking at her Queen, Rias saw in Akeno's eyes her own grief mirrored, but they were also tinged by concern for Rias.

Rias wondered what she looked like for Akeno to be looking at her like that.

She didn't have time to ask because Sona, who had also been silent until now, spoke up.

"It might be for the best," the Sitri muttered, and when her aunt turned to look at her, she elaborated. "That we can't bring Eren back."

There was a harsh intake of air.

"How can you-"

"Asia," Xenovia interrupted her friend gently with an arm on her shoulder. "Kaichou has a point."

"Are you saying that because you don't like him?" Issei asked and winced at the hurt look Xenovia gave him.

"I don't like the Child of Evil," the former exorcist pushed on. "But... I don't hate him, either. He gave Ise back." The Red Dragon Emperor bit his lip and looked away. "But, his power... If he came back, what would he do with it this time? He lamed one of the greatest exorcists at nine without using supernatural abilities. At nineteen, he's done... this. If he had thousands of years of life? Would any of us be able to do anything? He'd be unmatched. An immortal, all-powerful ruler. A tyrant."

"Eren would never do that," Kuroka snapped.

"Just like he hated walls but built an indestructible one around us?"

Nobody really could argue with that. Eren had his principles and beliefs, but in the face of a future he wished for, he'd throw them all away, no matter how much he hated to.

"He'd lose his Titan powers if he became a devil," Mikasa argued in a different direction. "They're tied to his Eldian race."

"Just like he shouldn't be able to use the Founder without a Royal Bloodline?" Xenovia rejoined instantly. "No. We've made too many mistakes on how his powers work. If he comes back with his powers, we've already lost."

"Xenovia has a point," Rossweiss added but pointed at the Student Council President, who hadn't taken her eyes off Eren. "But I do not think that is what Sona was talking about."

All eyes turned back to the Sitri.

"I don't want him dead," Sona declared with a shaking voice, looking around the clearing as if daring anyone to contradict her. Her eyes landed on Mikasa. "I... Want him here with us. With me. But... he might be better off this way."

"Sona..." Mikasa started to say but trailed off as she realized what her niece was discussing.

"...We all saw him," Sona choked out the words. "He... wasn't happy. How could he be? With the Founder and the world and the futures and everything..." Sona hiccuped. "...I saw my sister die. Everyone died. My world was destroyed. I only saw it for a few minutes. He lived with that for thirteen years. Death... might be the only freedom he has. The only peace."

"That's what this bench does!" Kuroka argued. "It nullifies the Founder! He doesn't have to live like that anymore."

"Then why isn't your Piece working," Sona asked despondently. "If Eren's connection to the Founder was severed, he could be brought back. But he isn't. If it was cut, how would he have memories of this... smile?"

"Even if he came back like that," Vali sighed, leaning against a nearby tree and looking toward the sky. "He'd forever be trapped here, on the bench. Unable to leave without fear of his powers coming back and trapping him again. A prison if he stayed and a prison if he left. He'd hate that."

"Senpai..." Issei said, looking at the still-smiling boy. Issei wiped his eyes and stood up straighter. "...He looks happy."

Was he happy because he was at peace? Because he was finally free of his power? Because he'd accomplished all his goals?

Or was there another reason?

Why was Eren Yeager smiling?

"Eren would hate to be trapped," Akeno said into the silence. "He'd hate to live in this world, trapped in a wall he built. He'd hate to be dependent on the bench. He'd hate to be trapped in the Paths again. He'd hate to be under anyone's control, no matter who brought him back. But... So long as he was alive... Eren would keep going. He'd keep fighting, no matter how much he hated it until he reached where he wanted to go. No matter how much it hurt. That's the Eren Yeager I knew."

Rias Gremory looked at the smiling Devil, and she...

"But now he doesn't have to fight anymore," Sona sighed sadly. "Now, he's at peace. We should-"

"I don't care."

All eyes turned to the crimson-haired devil.

Rias was still staring at the corpse.

Eren continued to smile.

"I don't care if he's better off dead. I don't care if he's a threat. I don't care that he might end up trapped on this bench, in the paths, or with us in this cage."

"Rias-" Mikasa tried to speak, but Rias bulldozed over her.

"I don't care that the world will look for him. I don't care that he's made an enemy of everyone, killed thousands, and practically destroyed his own homeworld. I. Don't. Care!"

Rias was huffing mad, glaring at the smile that was taunting her.

"I never cared about any of that crap. And it doesn't matter. If he decides he's better off dead, that's his choice, not ours."

"What are you saying?" Kuroka asked, a spark of hope in her. "We can't bring him back. We tried. Unless you have another way?"

"I don't," Rias said simply.

She wasn't more intelligent or more knowledgeable than everyone here.

Just more stubborn.

"But Just cause we can't bring him back now doesn't mean we can't find a way in the future." The Gremory saw when it clicked with them. "If Ophis is too weak now, we need to strengthen her. Or I'll become strong enough. Or I'll ask Valerie to use the Grail on him once she's better. Or we'll find another way. I don't care if it takes a thousand or ten thousand years."

Rias saw it in them: hesitation, fear, and hope.

Eren was dead. There was no denying that.

But even death wouldn't stop a rampaging Rias Gremory from getting her family back!

"I care about the dream Eren stole from me. I care about my friend. I care about the future I will make," Rias stared into Mikasa's, willing her to understand the lengths Rias would go to for this. "Eren entrusted this world to us, and I will fight for it. Even if I fail, I will fight again and again until I get my ending."

Wordlessly, Mikasa gave a slow, shallow nod.

As Rias looked at the smiling Devil as he was lowered into the coffin that was slightly too small for her, she turned all her grief, fear, and sadness into an angry determination.

Eren still owed her an answer, and she would get it, no matter what it took.

Eren Yeager might be determined to die like some tragic Seinen protagonist, but he forgot that Rias Gremory was a Shonen protagonist.

A greedy one at that.

Rias would never let her story end on anything less than a perfectly happy ending.

As the coffin lid closed, ending a part of their lives they would never forget, Rias spoke one last time to the smiling boy.

"See you later, Eren."

********

Three Years Later

The murmuring and clamouring grew in intensity as Sona ascended the stage.

Sona ignored the gleaming of camera lenses, the flash of lights, and the murmured insults and praises as she marched steadily toward the podium at the center of the massive amphitheatre.

She passed her Peerage, who gave her smiles of encouragement. They looked professional in their uniforms. Most were still in college and wouldn't officially take positions till they had their degrees, but they were still part of the staff, in a more clerical sense, until then.

Sona had blown through her degree as quickly as she could, unwilling to waste time. She needed to strike while the iron was hot if she wanted her school to help shape this new age.

Sona gave the tiniest of nods to her Aunt as Mikasa stood beside Georg with her back straight and arms crossed behind her back.

Mikasa looked... good, Sona decided. It was approaching the anniversary day, and she tended to get down around this time of year. Sona didn't blame her; she was the same, but it looked like she wasn't too maudlin.

Sona was glad.

Other members of the staff, professors, lecturers, custodians, instructors, and many more were also on stage with them.

They were opening with just the university division first, but there were plans to expand to younger years as the decades passed, and if this experiment succeeded.

The first institution which employed devils, fallen, angels, humans, dragons, gods, yokai, and any other race, being, or member who had something to teach.

It wasn't like they would run out of space any time soon. This basin, formed from the psychedelic material of Eren and Great Red's clash, would be large enough to house her school, no matter how much it grew, with room to spare.

And Sona owned it all, thanks to selling out her race.

Sona walked by beings that could crush her flat with a thought, by former enemies and allies. People she had fought against and beside.

She held her head high through it all until she reached the podium.

Looking out over the enormous area packed with people, Sona didn't say anything at first.

She just surveyed the beginning of her dream.

There were all sorts of people here. Of course, the first batch of students, but so many others.

Glares were aimed her way, and Sona bore them. They were hardly the only ones to dislike her for her actions during the Battle of Broken Worlds.

Some revered her, rejecting the rumours and only looking at her actions of helping lead the defence of Lilith.

Others... didn't.

To put it kindly, at least.

And it only got more complicated as the world learned more about devils.

As humanity learned of the Supernatural world, rumours were aplenty about Sona Sitri, the most devilish of devils who sold out her race for money and power.

The wealthiest woman in the world.

Sona had inherited so much wealth from the dead that she could claim to be worth more than most countries.

Other races were part of the crowd, though, not just devils. Even with the school being created in the Underworld, regular transportation between realms had already been established and maintained.

Sona passed one final gaze over the crowd as the noise started dying.

Rich and poor.

Strong and weak.

Gods and humans.

Devils and angels.

From scouts of human colleges to eager students, Sona's heart swelled at seeing them all.

A school that would teach anything to those willing to learn.

She'd dedicated everything to this moment.

And, when silence finally fell, Sona Sitri took a deep breath and spoke to the whole world.

"My name is Sona Sitri and I knew Eren Yeager."

Wide eyes.

Shocked silence.

Then the explosion of noise, yelled questions, cries of fear and disbelief.

She could even hear some of the staff behind her shuffle unconsciously, as surprised as everyone else.

Sona weathered it all unmoved.

Even when some people tried to get violent, she didn't move, trusting her security to handle it.

She'd known this would happen when she planned this speech.

She'd deliberated on not saying anything about Eren for a long time. About keeping their relationship a secret.

It wouldn't help the rumours about her after all.

But Sona couldn't claim to be dedicating herself fully to her dream if she didn't do this.

She had promised, after all.

With Mikasa's permission, Sona would push on.

It took minutes for peace to return.

Once silence had fallen again, with tension thick in the air, Sona continued.

"To me, he was not Eren Yeager the Titan. The Sage. The Wall Builder."

As expected, everyone wanted to know everything about 'Eren Yeager' after his proclamation in the Unified Dream.

His appearance on a church's steps, his time at the orphanage and his time as a mercenary had been easy to find. Eventually, the wider world learned of the Chaos Brigade and his role with them, culminating in his attack on the rest of the world.

Opinion on him was torn. Some venerated him as a hero, while others saw him as a terrorist.

Some went so far as to have him be a Christ-like figure, using his lack of attack on heaven as proof and basing religious sects around him.

His motivations, goals, and history were endlessly puzzled over by people. Either to try and understand him, to imitate him, or in fear of another like him.

"No. To me, he was simply Eren Yeager. The boy on the bench."

They were all wrong, of course.

They knew nothing of his world, of the fear of the Titans and the struggles of the people called 'Island Devils.'

Sona could feel her aunt's gaze behind her and let it bolster her.

Nobody truly knew Eren. Not even Eren.

But Sona would teach them what she knew of the boy on the bench.

So there would never be another 'Eren Yeager' in the world. Never another 'Rumbling.'

After all, Sona had promised the boy on the bench.

"He didn't know I was a devil or who I was. I didn't know who he was, either. Just a coincidental meeting."

Not strictly true, but not a lie either.

Sona had thought long and hard about her time with Eren over the last few years. She'd debated back and forth with herself whether the actions she had taken were really hers or the product of some unseen force that had been around since before her birth.

In the end, it had been solved with a simple question.

If given the chance, would Sona do it all again?

"He was my first student. I did not teach him magic or combat or politics or history."

She would.

Sona would not trade the memories of her time with the boy on the bench for anything.

"I taught him Japanese. A language he never used. It wasn't needed in any of the futures he saw."

The worst student she'd ever have.

He hadn't been wrong about that.

You can't top a man who kills the Dream, traps Great Red in the Path, and turns them into a Wall that imprisons all of reality.

"He knew he only had a few years left, knew the exact time and place of his death, yet he decided to spend those few precious years learning a pointless skill."

...Though Great Red still seemed to have fun. Last Sona had heard, the red dragon had grown himself a body the size of a car and was using the various shades of the Hero Faction that manned the Wall as aides in his stunts.

Ophis, when she decided she wanted silence, was very put out when they occasionally interrupted her naps. Still, she couldn't do anything bout it, even with her slowly returning powers.

"Yet, as I taught him, I also learned. I learned about my dream. I learned about my world. I learned about myself."

Now that she had the crowd hooked on mentions of Eren, now that they would salivate at the chance to attend her academy and learn about him and his history, it was time to turn the subject.

She would teach about the boy born within walls and beset by Titans and his world so that his mistakes weren't repeated, but they were only one subject she'd teach.

This was not a speech about Eren Yeager.

This was a speech about a girl's dream.

And the future they'd build.

"I always dreamed of a place where anyone with the will to learn would be welcomed. Of a school that would teach all that could be taught, irrespective of race, religion, status, or belief."

Sona's voice sobered and gained a grim undertone as she continued her speech.

"And I learned of the cost of knowledge. Of the price of every piece of wisdom."

To read about events in history books was one thing.

To talk to the survivors was another.

"We all stand atop the shoulders of titans. Everything I can teach was learned by someone who bought that information with time, pain, and lives."

Sona never forgot the emotions, hidden and tremulous as they were at the time, as Eren spoke about his world.

The boy who talked about millions of tries to find the perfect future, yet never finding one where everyone can be happy.

Of making the hard call.

"I am but the most recent peak of a mountain of corpses. I can feel them below me. They, who groped blindly in the darkness for the simplest answers, now prop me up."

And then Sona had been there. Making that call that cost hundreds of lives.

Sona's eyes flitted over her sister's banner, proclaiming her greatness to the remnants of the Underworld's nobility.

Eighteen.

That was how many of the Pillar houses remained after her actions. Only eighteen of the original seventy-two.

They were a dying breed.

And they knew it.

"They look up at me, begging me to carry their hearts and dreams. To pass them onward."

Sona would not try and deny her responsibility. To herself, at least.

She didn't know if what she had done was the right thing, the best choice.

She didn't even know if, in a future where she didn't lure hundreds to their deaths, more people might have survived Eren's attack.

"So their sacrifices weren't for nothing. So their lessons aren't forgotten to the annals of eons."

She had made more calls like that in the following years.

Assassins sent after her. Families of the deceased that tried to gain revenge. Even just the greedy and duplicitous.

These three years had been brutal and bloody as they all lived in the footprints of the Titan.

"To ignore those wishes, to ignore their mistakes and their suffering, is to topple this mountain."

Civil wars. International wars. Religious persecutions. Racial extermination. Terrorism. Public uncertainty and political upheaval.

The world was still changing, still warping into something new, and it wasn't doing so peacefully.

Eren had been right about the chaos and pain his actions would lead to.

"I am not a good woman. By devil standards or others. Most I stand astride weren't good people either."

But it could have been so much worse.

Most of the moves and changes were happening to humanity and the supernatural races' relationship with it.

"I am not a strong woman. Neither were they."

Those with power, whose every move could have destroyed a country, were locked in place by the deadlock Eren had forced with his last attack.

The three factions were probably the best off, but even they couldn't be reckless and push an advantage for another few decades. Especially with most of their war-mongering belligerents dead.

"But, like them, I wish to dedicate everything I am to the future I wish to see."

The Peace Treaty had survived and was still going strong, even if there was a little discontent on the angel's side. They had only gotten a few Brave Saint decks before the material was lost, only enough for the highest ranks of angels, and it was nowhere near the promised total.

There were even slight pushes for a restart of the Great War with the broken promise as justification. A large portion of humanity, now aware of the conflict, would side with them on racial prejudice alone and those who argued for it counted on humans to swell the ranks.

"Even should I join them one day, so long as my lessons and mistakes are not forgotten, so long as someone, somewhere, learns from them, then I will serve as another step in this path we are all paving together."

Thankfully, they were in a minority and easily suppressed by Michael and the other Seraph.

Quantity only mattered when your opposition couldn't kill millions as quickly as one kills an ant.

"We are all on this mountain. We are all grasping blindly for a sky we will never reach."

The world had become a much larger and smaller place simultaneously.

Tension and fear seemed omnipresent.

But Sona knew that this was where education would come in, where she could accomplish her dream.

"But, with every lesson learned, every moment of the past and future acknowledged, we climb just a little higher."

It wouldn't be perfect. It wouldn't solve all problems, cure hate and eradicate violence.

But it was the unknown people feared.

The unknown of tomorrow and yesterday. Of what might be lurking over that mountain or beyond that wall.

When the 'unknown' becomes the 'known,' that is when they can have peace.

"One day, our mountain will be so high there will be no Wall that can block our vision."

Sona took a deep breath, calming her racing heart, and once the cheers died down, she continued in a calmer, more welcoming tone.

"Standing here, in front of you all, at the dawn of a new age, I fondly look back at those lessons with the boy on the bench."

She dreamed of a future where an angel could sit beside a devil in a classroom and learn about why they fought and how similar they were.

Because that was the one truth she had learned in her short life.

A human could be more of a devil than even Lucifer.

A dragon could be slain by a boy with a plan.

And everyone, without exception, had something to learn.

"Not just because of nostalgia for a simpler, easier time. Not just for the peaceful days with friends and family before we all learned so much."

As she drew her speech to a close, Sona turned her gaze toward the front of the crowd.

"I look back on those days and smile because, when times are hardest, when the world seems to end, and I feel the Walls close around me, those precocious memories push me forward. I put one foot in front of the other."

A bit to the side, Bikou and Arthur were chuckling at Vali's sake as he rubbed his ear. His mother had lectured the White Dragon Emperor about something, and he was grouching.

Sona took a good look at the woman for the first time. She hadn't seen her in person since Vali had found her. Supposedly, Eren had put the two right next together when he brought them to the Path, and the young Lucifer had been able to track her down in Italy only a few weeks later.

"Because, even after all the pain, the betrayal, the loss, and the heartbreak, I know that if I keep moving forward, keep learning, I will one day reach another bench. "

She did appreciate that Valerie had managed to get Gasper to attend without his cardboard box, though Sona didn't think a paper bag was appropriate headwear.

"Another student that will teach me more than I will teach them. And when I meet them on that bench, I will smile once more."

Yuuto gave Akeno a wry smile as the half fallen's eyes were alight with mischief.

Sona didn't want to know what Rias' Queen was up to now.

She hoped Akeno wouldn't be trying to set Yuuto up with a harem like Issei. He and Tosca were cute together and didn't want that disgusting wholesomeness ruined by a woman addicted to matchmaking.

"For those who wish to move forward, to find your own path... "

Rias was here with her Peerage, which Sona appreciated. She knew her one-time rival was incredibly busy between her own education and organizing the 'The Scouts,' the team she was putting together of freedom seekers looking for ways of tearing down the Eren's Wall and exploring the other worlds beyond.

Everything Sona had heard told her that Rias was swamped with applicants from all races.

"For those who desperately yearn for freedom, a better future..."

Not too far away, Kuroka and Shirone Toujou sat side by side. Leviathan's Bishop was feeding a banana to Ophis, who was on her lap, while something she had whispered to her sister had the younger girl blushing.

Sona... still felt conflicted over the former stray. Their relationship was further complicated by her and Mikasa's part rivalry, part friendship, with Kuroka.

Serafall's pieces were just too different, yet too similar to truly be friends, to say nothing of the contentious topic of 'Eren.'

Yet, they had an odd closeness.

Sona didn't know how to act around the nekoshou and hadn't had the time to lay out their relationship, so she moved on.

"For those willing to face the world's cruelty and push through..."

At the very front, Issei sat between Asia and a heavily pregnant Xenovia while the rest of his harem filled the surrounding seats.

Eren Hyoudou bounced on his father's lap in an Oppai Dragon shirt, green eyes lighting up at the sight of Sona, and the toddler waved chubby arms at his aunt in excitement.

"For those who are dedicating your hearts to your beautiful dreams..."

For just a moment, Sona would swear she saw a boy look up at her from a seat, one hand over his heart.

That boy was smiling.

"I welcome you all to Atlas Academy."

********

"Senior!" Oppai Dragon cried in a panic.

The Breast Dragon Emperor dove at full speed to catch the figure that fell from the grotesque monster's neck.

As befitting the protagonist, Ise Gremory caught the man before he crashed into the ground.

The young devil quickly carried his charge toward his girlfriend, the saintly Asia Hyoudou.

Yet, no matter how Oppai Dragon powered up the Saint with his mysterious Oppai Dragon Energy, she could not fully heal the thin, emaciated figure in his arms.

Their allies surrounded them as the battle was won, yet the mood was sombre as they looked at what victory had cost.

The frail man in Oppai Dragon's arms weakly opened his eyes, seeing the crying faces around him.

"...Why are you crying?..." He sighed out tiredly. "...You won... Evil... Lost..."

"Because you gave us the chance, senior," Hellcat-chan muttered despondently.

"If you hadn't taken my curse..." Darkness Knight Fang cried regretfully, his fists tightening on his giant sword.

"...Don't... fall... back...to... darkness..." the older man chastised through raspy breath. "...Revenge...It's not... worth it..."

"But-!"

"Are you going to ignore your teacher's final lesson?" Mistress Night said scathingly, but the heat was lost by how her hands wringing her whip in worry.

"...Don't... be... sad... I... was... a... villain..."

"No!" The Butt Dragon Emperor wailed as he landed, his sidekick Monkey not far behind. "Senior!"

"Hold on!" Oppai Dragon ignored his rival to plead with the man, his arms as his eyes drooped. "Miracle Girl Levi-tan is almost here! So are Mi-tan and Ku-chan! I can sense their Oppai! Don't you want to see them again!?!"

"They... deserve... better..."

"...Please..." Oppai Dragon cried. "Please, senior. What... what are we going to do without you?"

"...Be free... Be happy...Be the hero I know you can be..."

Shakily, the weak man held an arm toward the crimson-armoured figure.

"...Be Oppai Dragon..."

"I promise. So trust me."

One last time, Ise Gremory bumped fists with the older boy.

"I am the Oppai Dragon Emperor!"

The leitmotif swelled as the credits started to roll.

Miracle Girl Levi-tan landed amongst the group with her two comrades as the first names danced across the sky.

No words were spoken, though lips moved as the sounds of the world were drowned out by the sombre music.

"What-"

"Wait!" Sirzechs Lucifer held out his hand to stop any talking. "This is the best part."

As the music continued to play, the scene shifted forward in time.

Tears were shed, goodbyes were said, and the city began to rebuild.

The music started to shift, the low notes of melancholy giving way to a more hopeful and upbeat tune.

Finally, the credits finished scrolling, and the music paused.

All the screen showed was Oppai Dragon standing before a small grave.

"See you later, Senpai."

On crimson wings, Oppai Dragon took flight toward the distant horizon.

Leaving the tree on the hill, bathing in the warm sun as a familiar tune started to play once more.

ZOOM ZOOM IYAAN!

"Gah!" Serafall wailed, blowing her nose in a handkerchief as she cried. "Gets me every time! Season 4 was the best!"

"First supernatural show to win a human award," Sirzechs said, puffing his chest proudly. "Three, actually. I personally accepted the 'Best Theme Song' Award. A dream come true. I had always wanted to be a musician way before I became Lucifer. I think we can aim higher, though."

"We can get an Emmy," Serafall said seriously, still drying her eyes. "I'm sure of it."

"I already have the lyrics for the next season ready," Azazel said distractedly, examining his findings.

"Wonderful," Sirzechs beamed. "Can you send them over? I'm considering a more 'Rock and Roll' beat this time. The kids are getting older, and I want the music to grow with them."

"No, no, no!" Serafall argued fiercely, jumping from her seat with all the ferocity of a dog that smells the mailman. "A children's show should always remain timeless! Season twenty needs to evoke the same feelings as season one! Only then can it remain truly pure!"

"I do believe that he just wishes to change the music for his amusement," Michael sighed in exasperation, putting down his cup of tea. "'The Devil's Music' and such."

"I resent the accusation," Sirzechs Lucifer said with a truly awful attempt at a show of wounded pride. "I would never lead a child into temptation."

"Last week, you tried to get Eren to say your name in exchange for a stuffed animal," Adjuka deadpanned at his friend, looking up from his own tablet.

"...'Eren?'..."

"Issei and Asia's son," Serafall cheered, hurrying to pull up a picture of a chubby baby on her phone. "He's soooo cute! Has his father's hair and his mother's eyes."

The explanation given, Sirzechs went back to defending his wounded honor.

"All I'm saying is good music is not a sin," the devil spoke with a forked tongue. "It's not like I want to play a fiddle."

"...Why am I alive?"

The room went silent momentarily, except for the continued noises of Azazel and Adjuka working with the lab's machinery.

And Falbium's snores from the corner of the room.

"To answer that question," Sirzechs said, far more severe than he'd been for the last half hour. "Let me ask you the same. You could have killed us. Had Cao Cao slay us with Truth Idea or done it yourself. Nobody in this room could have stopped you. You've made no secret how much you dislike our society, and you have no way of knowing if Adjuka will create another version of the Evil Pieces."

All eyes had moved from the television against the wall to lock onto him.

"So, Eren Yeager. Why are we alive?"

Eren, still sitting up in the open coffin, looked at the gathered leaders with blank eyes.

"...In every future where I do not force another Great War or kill you, almost everyone here will sacrifice themselves to seal Trihexa with them. Potentially forever. I wanted insurance if it broke out of the Wall after I was gone."

"Don't lie!" Serafall accused, standing before the young man and pointing a finger imperiously at Eren's nose. "You just didn't want to hurt Ria-tan, So-tan, and Mi-tan!"

Eren uncrossed his eyes on the finger before his nose to look at the Magical Girl.

"I do not hate you. Any of you. You've never hurt me. " His eyes bore into hers. "You were simply another step in my Path. Everyone was just a tool I used along the way."

"Don't try the 'cool' look with me, mister! Miracle Girl Levi-tan is immune to all 'Dere' tropes! Even Kuudere! You shall not seduce me!"

Eren's eyebrow twitched, and his fist clenched.

"Our answer is the same as yours," Sirzechs said smoothly, bringing them back on track. "Why wouldn't we use every tool we have for our goals? What would you do if you knew someone was out there with information on hundreds, possibly thousands of extra-dimensional threats? Who knew of possible futures? Wouldn't you do everything in your power to get that information?"

"Don't lie," Azazel said with a mischievous smile, repeating Serafall's earlier line. "You just don't want to see Mi-tan, So-tan, and Ria-tan sad anymore."

Sirzechs threw his teacup at the fallen without looking, and the former Governor General dodged out of the way with a laugh.

"I can't help you," Eren said simply. "Whatever you did to bring me back has cut me off from the Path. Without it, I can't see anything and can't turn into a Titan. I am just a human... If I am still human."

"Still the greatest Sage to ever live with your memories of the futures you saw before," Adjuka pointed out. "Hardly weak or useless."

"...So I am a devil now?" Eren asked, his voice carefully neutral. "Which one of you is my 'King?'"

Anyone who heard the question would have to be an idiot to miss the implications.

Just because Eren had spared their lives before and didn't hate their race on principle didn't mean he'd accept someone as his 'owner.'

Even if he couldn't beat them without the Path and all his other powers, it didn't mean Eren still wouldn't fight to the death until he was free.

Thankfully, for everyone involved, that didn't need to happen.

"No. You're not a devil. And you don't have a King," Michael said, putting his tea aside. He leaned forward and held Eren's eyes. "My Father. That's how you came to be in our world, right? He brought you here?"

All the devils looked serious at the mention of the White God, and Azazel tried to act like he didn't care.

He failed.

"...Why do you say that?"

"Because you can't be a devil," Adjuka answered instead of the angel. "We tried everything to bring you back, but even when we used a splinter from the bench to mutate one of Sirzechs pieces, the strongest devil ever born, you wouldn't turn. Evil Pieces worked on Mikasa, so it wasn't because you were from another world or your Eldian bloodline. You aren't divine. Just strong. So, once the bench nullifies your powers, any sufficiently strong devil should be able to bring you back. It baffled me for years. It didn't help that you destroyed my lab."

"Agreas was too perfect a target. You shouldn't have had it out in the open for anyone to destroy."

"Be that as it may," Adjuka continued, his own brow twitching while Michael tried to conceal a smile behind his cup.

Azazel didn't bother, and his smirk was out in full force.

"I had a breakthrough once I realized the metal of the bench nullified your power, not the wood. Its similarities to the coffin had me going in the wrong direction. After I inserted a few needles of it in your upper spine, you should only be a stronger than usual human."

Eren hesitantly raised a hand to the back of his neck. It didn't feel any different than usual, though he probably wouldn't be able to use human airports to sneak around the world anymore.

"But we still couldn't bring you back!" Adjuka exclaimed. He didn't sound angry. In fact, he sounded thrilled, as if the puzzle had been the most fun he'd had in years. His eyes were wild as they roamed over Eren. "I was forced to confront the truth that it wasn't your power preventing you from being reincarnated. Over and over, I thought about it. Only two races cannot be brought back by the Evil Pieces. Gods and Angels. Yet, you weren't one of either. So what were you!?"

"Easy there, Adjuka-chan," Serafall laughed nervously as the Beelzebub pressed close enough to Eren that he had to lean away.

"Erm," Adjuka coughed awkwardly, stepping away.

It didn't escape anyone's notice that Eren raised his hand closer to his mouth.

He might have sat still to get answers, but he was like a wild animal. Ready to fight or flee at the slightest provocation.

Nobody wanted that.

Particularly Adjuka. He hadn't yet finished setting up this lab to his desired specifications.

If he had to start all over again, he'd be pissed.

"I actually found the answer," Azazel said smugly. "When I heard of the curious properties of the bench, I wanted to see if I could create an Artificial Sacred Gear with it. And it..." The fallen trailed off with a rueful chuckle and a head shake. "To think the Holy Cross was so close to me for so long, and I couldn't tell. He always was a tricky bastard."

"I would ask you not to insult Father in front of me," Micheal said, but his words lacked heat. Then he focused back on Eren, and his voice gained a tone of... longing? Desperation? "Did He ask you to do everything? Did He leave you a message? Is He still alive?"

Everyone went very quiet and still.

Eren hesitated for a moment before explaining.

"He's dead," the shifter said plainly, and he could see how hope had fled from the angel. Still, the truth needed to be said. "He left a memory fragment in the wood of the bench to talk to me."

"...What did he say?"

"He didn't give me a message. I don't think he expected me to return," Eren admitted. "The bench interfered with both our powers. He mentioned something about helping you have children, but I don't know what that is."

"Probably the bench itself," Azazel muttered. "If it nullified His powers, we could repurpose parts of it to allow His restrictions on His angels to lessen slightly within a certain range. A 'sex room' perhaps?"

Eren gave the fallen a blank look, then turned back to the angel.

"He didn't want you all to be dependent on him. From here on, you're on your own."

"...I see," Michael said, gently rubbing his closed eyes. "That does sound like Him. He works in mysterious ways that I never could understand."

Maybe he did it as a favour for the dead God who reunited him with Mikasa and gave him a second chance.

Perhaps it was thanks given to a man who had sat with him on the bench and offered absolution to a regular human who neither wanted nor deserved it.

Maybe Eren just wished a father's feelings would be conveyed to his son.

Either way, Eren continued.

"...He loved you. We only talked for a short time, but that was clear. He loved his children dearly. He was very proud of who you've become and what you've done."

"...Thank you..." Michael gave Eren a smile that was mournful, loving, and grateful. "I would have traded my entire deck to hear those words, let alone my Queen."

Feeling uncomfortable with the situation, Eren looked around at the others who were studiously looking away.

Azazel's lips were set into a line while Serafall pretended to whistle.

Falbium was still asleep.

"So... What now? I'm an angel?"

"No," Azazel said, bouncing back eagerly. "You are the first devil-made angel to fall. Pretty much as soon as you were reincarnated. Do you feel any different? Any existential loss of the meaning of your existence? Any weakness? Any desire to tear down heaven and all His works and fornicate in the rubble?"

"...No?" Eren said. "Should I?"

"Possibly because he never experienced His presence?" Adjuka hypothesized. "Or were you an angel for too short a time for it to matter?"

"It could be that Brave Saint angels don't fall the regular way," Azazel added, scribbling furiously. At Eren's look, he grimaced. "When we Fall... It's traumatic. The worst experience you can imagine. Like all good in the world is torn from you."

"I don't really feel any different," Eren shrugged. "Weak, compared to the end, but also more... stable? My body isn't tearing itself apart anymore."

"Hmm," Adjuka hummed in thought, evaluating some graphs on a tablet. "We'll want to keep an eye on you for any possible side effects. Normally, a new devil needs to stay near their King for a year to stabilize their transformation, but you fell right away, and we'll want to make sure your body doesn't start to warp like a Stray. The Brave Saints are more optimized than the Evil Pieces, but we'll want to be sure."

"So, I need to stay near you?" Eren asked suspiciously.

"Hm? No. We'll need you to spend about thirty minutes with Michael every week for the next few months. You can do that when we debrief you on possible threats you saw in the various futures. You're free to go."

Eren stared at the Beelzebub with disbelief.

His gaze panned around the room, looking at everyone else. Searching for the trap.

"That's it? 'I'm free to go?'"

"Yes?" Serafall asked with a tilt of her head. Then, she put a fist in her palm in realization. "Ah! Right! You might want to keep your survival on the hush-hush. You're a... controversial topic these days. Thankfully, you looked like a shota in that Dream and didn't have those cool markers on your eyes. You should be able to live pretty normally if you don't give your full name."

"What's to stop me from ripping out the metal in my spine and regrowing it? Once I do that, nobody will be able to stop me."

"Nothing," Sirzechs shrugged. "But, if we killed everyone because of the threat they could pose, nobody would be alive."

"Although," Azazel rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "It might be interesting to see if you can even use your Titan powers now that you are no longer human. I might be able to create an Artificial Sacred Gear that would allow you to turn it on and off. Doing that for the first Reincarnated Fallen wouldn't be seen as too biased."

"I killed so many of your people," Eren stressed.

He wasn't trying to be locked up or anything, but he couldn't understand their point of view. Until he did, he couldn't be sure whatever he did wasn't some sort of trap.

"I locked you in a cage with no key! I revealed your existence to the whole world! There's probably been wars or genocide because of what I've done!"

"We've managed to keep things largely peaceful. Though that might be because humanity is still trying to find its feet in this new world," Adjuka said casually. "A few organizations and groups have opposed the peace but aren't strong enough to do anything too consequential. Because you eliminated all the real threats with the Chaos Brigade."

"As for the dead," Sirzechs sighed. "You do realize that everyone in this room has killed more than you, right?"

When Eren frowned, the devil elaborated.

"Oh, I'm not counting your time in your world. In this world alone, I have killed more devils than you have killed people at all." The Lucifer tilted his head in thought, then snorted out a laugh. "Hells, I've killed more relatives of mine than you have. We all have."

"If we can work with one another for a greater peace, why would we not work with you for the same?" Michael asked rhetorically. "Everyone here has slain those I love. Brothers and sisters that I shall never see again. I shall never forgive them for that."

There were grim faces all around, and Eren realized that it wasn't that he was being 'forgiven.'

Just as he couldn't forgive those who hurt him.

"But I will live with those feelings," Michael declared. "I will do what I must to ensure that those I protect have the peace and safety I can provide. Reviving you, even without the knowledge you gave me of my Father, was simply another way I could protect them."

More than anything that reassured Eren that this was not a trap.

If they had claimed no resentment for what he had done, he'd have broken free of them as soon as possible.

But swallowing bitter feelings for a future you wished for?

He understood that feeling all too well.

"If you had killed us or wiped out devils like you claimed to want to," Sirzechs Lucifer said, standing and holding out a hand for the boy still sitting in the coffin. "Or if you had used your power to allow the Chaos Brigade to win, we wouldn't be here. But you didn't. You killed people, yes. There will be people who won't forgive you for that. But you also saved our world from threats we had no idea were out there."

Eren stared at the hand for a long second.

"With ultimate power in your hand, you chose to use it for this world," Micheal prompted gently. "Words and desires don't matter. Only actions. And your actions have given us enough confidence in you that we wished to bring you back."

Eren took the hand, and the devil pulled the boy from the coffin.

Eren took a second to stand on unsteady feet.

Without his powers killing him, he felt... good.

Sturdy in a way he hadn't in years.

"Damnit!" Serafall cursed as she looked at the boy, biting her thumb.

"What?" Eren asked in confusion at the sudden curse.

"Nothing," Serafall bit out with a pout and crossed her arm.

Under her breath, she muttered petulantly.

"Stupid abs. How am I going to protect So-tan from them? Should I freeze him? Then Mi-chan and Ku-chan will be mad. Grrrrr."

Everyone there could hear her, and Eren looked at the others for an explanation... or help.

Azazel looked like his favourite show had just announced a new season, while Michael's face was one of awkward exasperation.

Sirzechs though...

"Stay away from Ria-tan!"

...Was also glaring at Eren.

The shift from serious to silly was disconcerting to the new fallen, and he desperately wanted to be somewhere else than in this lab with the six leaders of the Three Factions.

Thankfully(?) Serafall seemed to know his thoughts.

"Just go," she pouted, waving her hand and a magic circle formed under his feet. "They're waiting for you."

Eren didn't have time to ask what the Magical Girl Leviathan was talking about before he was teleported away.

Eren appeared in the sky and immediately started falling from the sky.

Serafall wasn't above playing a few pranks on the boy who had caused her such a headache.

For a moment, Eren panicked at the sudden displacement and fall.

The wind rushed past him, as did the clouds, and the ground was approaching quickly.

He wouldn't be hurt, even without his Titan powers. He was still a sage, after all. A very good sage.

But the surprise threw him for a loop.

Only for an instant, though.

Instincts took over as he remembered a warm autumn day that seemed like a dream from a different world.

Eren stopped falling.

And finally saw where he was.

Below him, in a clearing with a bench and various amenities, a group of young devils were gathered.

They were looking up at him with wide, wet eyes and smiles.

Seven black tails swished in excitement.

A hand clutched a red scarf.

Hands waved in welcome, and voices rose into the air.

...There was still so much to say and do.

Apologies to give.

Conversations to have.

Brutal, hard truths to confront.

...Relationships that would be made or broken...

There would be no undoing what Eren had done. Blood would forever stain his feet and would never be washed off.

They were still trapped in a wall that would never end, a cage where they needed to suffer the fear and shame of being prey.

There would be no escaping responsibility with death this time.

Through violence and blood, Eren had built this beautiful world, and now he needed to learn to live in its cruelty.

...But nothing lasted forever.

His Path had ended, and now he faced an uncertain and scary future.

There was no guarantee of a happy end.

But so long as you are alive...

So long as you hold tightly to that one singular birthright we all hold...

You can always fight for that future.

So long as you live, there is always hope to reach that shore beyond the sea.

Black feathered wings carried a gently smiling Eren toward the bench in that park.

********

...And so it ends.

Like much of my story, I'm sure this epilogue will be controversial. I'll post my thoughts on the end, the fic as a whole and everything else when I get the chance, but this will be the last regular post on this story.

So, for the last time:

Thank you for sitting with me and listening to my story.
See you later,
-From the boy on the bench.

 

[kz3838]

Honestly I really like how you ended this. It's not the bright perfect ending some may have hoped for, but it's better than I was dreading. Eren has a chance to actually live and not be bound by the Paths. He can be there with his friends and work towards a world that can survive the great unknown outside of the world of DxD. This entire story has been a thing of beauty and I imagine that I will be giving it a full reread at some point in the future. So thank you for this fantastic story, and please stay safe out there.

 

[D.KnightOfShadows]

He gets wings of his own to fly now......

Yeah, that's a good ending.

Whatever else anyone says, whatever else anyone decries, whatever else is debated:

This story is amazing, and made me smile.

Thank you for writing it. And thank you for sharing it.

Well done. Be proud. Thank you.

 

[patientclamp]

loved this one hope your next one is as good.

 

[Basilisk]

good shit

 

[Arclight001]

That was an amazing ending.

Thank you for this story.

 

[zharshoul]

It's an end and it was a fic and its in character for the characters.

I wouldn't have brought him back, I mean his first thoughts have him considering killing people again which is telling. This guy will never be free enough or in control enough to stop being a second away from exploding.

I don't get Rias/Sona obsession with him either, their entire relationship was a manipulative lie from the start, maybe that turns devils on(wouldn't be surprised if this is a thing due to devil/echi biology).

I had hoped he could stay dead and finally know the peace he never had and now, will never have.

Anyways thanks for the fic.

——

Semi unrelated but Eren seems like those hyper controlling guys IRL that beat their wives and want to know what they are doing at all times or they start getting paranoid.

The women stick around because they "love" him (stock holme syndrome) and "I can change him".

It hits a little too close to home for me in my experience growing up and seeing others, but I understand this is just fiction.

 

[mpbjunkie]

Thank for the chapter and the story. I'm eager to read your final thoughts on it.

 

[Aravis]

Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful story! It's done everything from making me tear up to making me laugh and I have enjoyed it every step of the way, even when I was a little lost, lol.

 

[Kalstorm22]

Fantastic ending and such a beautiful story! Rias's proclamation of' not caring' was awesome, it was a very inspiring moment, and she actually felt like a Shonen protagonist and showed that she had truly inherited Eren's will. Sona's speech was very beautiful, and it honestly made me tear up a bit, this is the first time I've seen Sona achieve her dream and for it to be so awe inspiring and wonderful, this story has made me really appreciate Sona far more as a character. I'm also quite glad that Eren gets to live with the possibility of a happy life and can now even grow as a person, learning to live with the consequences of his actions. I wish I had better words to convey how much I loved this story and enjoyed reading it, but all I can think to say is, thank you for letting me sit on the bench and hear your story. See you later.

 

[Coolpsychic]

Damn, Eren is free now, ending is quite sweet, the boy on the bench reuniting with everyone he cares about in this world, after being back from grave lol.

This Path has ended now, I am quite eager to see what you write next.

Goodluck, Author.

 

[ScriptGenius12]

I feel that resurrecting Eren like that really cheapens the impact of his death.

Also the Oppai Dragon show portrays what the rest of the world would see as Hitler Von Stalin Bin Laden as a tragic hero soon after his real life inspiration went on a massive killing spree and walled everyone off. What. The. FUCK. I don't care how much money the Gremory family has, people who lost everything in Eren's rampage should be fucking pissed at this, in fact there should be "Cancel Oppai Dragon!" protestors in the streets and online.


That said, I still like this better than most AOT and DxD fics which are usually poorly written smut, word vomit that goes on for dozens of chapters with nothing much of importance, or retreads of canon with some dlc characters, so a story that truly does something new and actually ends in a timely manner while being long enough to be satisfying is nothing short of an incredible achievement on the forums, so congratulations to you.

 

[ILoveYouAll]

Damn that was incredible, both of your stories are excellent. Do you have something planned for the next story?

 

[Renoldmc]

but it's better than I was dreading.

Click to shrink...

I half expected him to pull the meme that was the ending in aot and cut to kuroka and Mikasa having kids with some other dude
I'm happy that the writer didn't do that lmao
Happy to have stuck around

 

[ScriptGenius12]

Still loads better than Isayamams abortion.

 

[ReadingDangerously]

So... this was supposed to be out weeks ago, but I've been laid up with Pneumonia, so... that sucked. Badly.

I still consider myself lucky that I only caught it after I finished On The Bench, preventing a delay in the conclusion.

It can even be considered a good thing since this won't spoil things for those who finished OTB and wanted to give it a reread in its complete state. Silver linings and all that.

Now that the story is finished, I can give my thoughts on it as a whole.

For those who haven't read my other work, Rapturous Rhapsody, I like to put my thoughts into words when I finish a project, and since I published this one, I will publish these as well.

Still, this can be considered on long AN, and if that doesn't interest you and you just want to know my plans going forward, feel free to scroll to the bottom.

If you are interested in 19K words of a two-bit fanfiction author's semi-coherent thoughts with too much ambition and too little skill, read on.

Before anything else, I will say this: As far as I am aware at the time of writing this, On The Bench is in complete compliance with Attack on Titan canon, up to and including the epilogue. It is also in canon with High School DxD.

The caveat is that the exception is a single incident: God finding the AOT world. Every change after that is a direct result of that one difference and is still in accordance with canon as it is now.

(I am leaving wiggle room for Ishibumi to once again pull something out of his ass that will completely retcon everything.)

Why is sticking so close to canon important when going against it would probably make for a better story?

Because, as much as I want On The Bench to be a good story, that was a secondary goal. I'll get to my other goals later, but one of my most desired outcomes was to have it act as a 'This could happen.'

Unlikely to happen? Definitely. But other timelines/worlds are both canon in AOT and DxD (one of the main reasons for the crossover). I wanted that slim, infinitesimal possibility to be just that: A possibility.

And, I suppose, that leads to the first thing I will say about On The Bench:

I wrote On The Bench for me.

I'm glad others have enjoyed it. Really glad. I also hope that it has provided not only an enjoyable story but also given some of you the same catharsis I wanted out of it.

But, at the end of the day, I wrote On The Bench because I wanted to read it.

Just as I am writing this reflection for myself to put my thoughts in order and improve as a writer through self-reflection. If you get something out of it, all the better.

Fair warning, these thoughts are all very meta-textual and completely rambling, with barely a coherent throughline. A stream of consciousness almost. They are also completely unedited, except for some basic typo corrections.

On The Bench is more of a meta-heavy fanfiction than most. This doesn't make it better or worse than other Fanfiction works; I just had a very deliberate plan for what I wanted out of this story.

I wanted to do a few things with OTB.

From a writer's standpoint, I wanted to practice with tone. RR was focused on getting better at character writing, but OTB was an attempt to merge two fandom's wildly different tones, AOT and DxD.

The grave, gritty, almost grim reality of Attack on Titan is entirely opposite to Highschool DxD's trope-heavy, whimsical, and absurdist nature. That's not to say that AOT doesn't have a few silly moments here and there, and DxD has some incredibly dark undertones for those who look for them, but I wanted to tackle these two together because it would be a fun challenge.

Those were my 'writer goals.'

My 'personal goals' were slightly different.

Like I said, I wanted to write a story I would like to read myself. I think every writer should only work on things they want to read themselves, and I haven't found too many AOT fanfictions I like, which is a crime, and DxD fanfictions are overstuffed with 'collect them all harem-fics' that don't really hold my interest.

My bigger goal was for OTB to act as a... reconciliation of AOT's end.

It's no secret that the end of AOT is controversial and almost wholly dependent on one's personal views/beliefs, especially if you took it in by manga or anime.

I liked the ending, and I didn't as well.

I wanted a happy end, like many did, but the end we received fits. Fit the story, the world, the characters, and even the fandom. It was satisfying, in one way and not in another.

The discourse around the end of AOT, however, I found almost wholly incomprehensible. So much so that I wondered if others had read/watched the same story as I had.

A big part of that disconnect is whether you were an anime-only fan or a manga reader.

The manga has better character character growth depictions, better pacing as a whole, and better foreshadowing.

The anime, on the other hand, the ending is portrayed better, has more hard-hitting moments, and the plot twists are all the more impactful. Also, it has an amazing soundtrack. Seriously. It's one of the best anime OSTs I've ever heard. Many of the songs I've added to my day-to-day playlists.

I think, from my point of view, the best way to experience AOT is to read the manga (only 139 chapters, so it's pretty quick), then watch the anime, taking the Anime ending changes as the 'canon' because the changes, slight as they were, are important to understanding Isayama's intentions for the ending.

I say this because I consumed both the Manga and Anime in one go (spread out over days, of course) without the serialization aspect over the course of years. I also did it without engaging any of the talk about the story, allowing me to just absorb it as one whole narrative, from start to finish, and form my own impressions on the 'whole' rather than 'parts' that most manga and anime consumers get.

That being said, AOT isn't without problems.

AOT is not the best story ever told. In fact, there are numerous plot holes and conveniences that I am not fond of. Some of the characters are obviously created just to fill a specific role and the story, and near the end, much of the vaunted foreshadowing/tightness of the story is lost in favour of plot progression. I have my own issues with many of them.

But, when I finished both the manga and anime and went to see what other people took from it, I was utterly baffled by the discourse many were engaging in. Things I thought were obvious or well done were derided as OOC characters and ass pulls. Characters I liked and thought were well-developed were hated and considered boring/ruined/hated/misunderstood.

I seriously considered starting a YouTube channel just to put out my own thoughts out there. Even if others didn't agree with my interpretations, I felt the difference between them and the common ideas were so different that I needed to at least get my thoughts out there.

I decided not to.

Instead, I sat back and contemplated the ending of AOT for a long time.

Then, I decided to use my own meagre talent at writing to try and make a story to really put my thoughts into perspective. If others enjoyed it, it would be all the better.

Thus, On The Bench.

I wanted to confront AOT as a whole, using an original story as a framework. In the process, come to terms with not only the ending but also my personal feelings and thoughts on it.

Now, before anything else, I will say this:

These are my thoughts/theories/beliefs/perspectives. All art is subjective and interpretive, whether books, games, TV, pictures, manga, anime, Fanfiction, etc... Everything is up to our own interpretation. What I like, you might not. What I consider good writing, you might not. What I consider an interesting character/arc can be tedious to you. That is not wrong.

You are not wrong for liking what you like, and anybody who tells you differently is the only wrong party involved.

All that being said on the high-level topics, what about On The Bench specifically?

Where to begin?

I suppose it has to be the end.

Any AOT fanfiction that uses the Founder/Attack Titan combo (whether with Eren or somebody else) has to begin at the end. At least if you want to use it as canon portrayed. Just from the mechanics of the power, you need to see the 'end of the path' and work your way back. I chose to show that end in chapter one, but that isn't necessary. You just need to know the Path and its end and stick with it, no matter what.

Since I wished this fic to directly tackle the end of AOT, the revelations it brought, my feelings on it, and come to terms with it, I couldn't escape that power, no more than Eren or Iseyama could, and needed to face it directly, no matter where it led.

This meant if I wished to stick as closely to canon as I wanted, the story had an end already set:

Eren needed to die.

The simple truth of the Paths is that they are a self-contained time loop by their very nature. The end leads to the beginning, leads to the end leads to the beginning.

More than that, I think Eren needed to confront the mental state he was in after he gained the power of the Founder. He was, essentially, trapped in an eternal hell where he experienced everything anyone ever connected to the Paths would ever experience. Even if he couldn't see their thoughts, he still knew their entire life.

In a way, death is his only release in AOT. Not just death but the destruction of the Paths completely and the removal of Titans with it.

It was fundamentally impossible for Eren to ever be free.

He needed to accept that.

And we, as the audience, needed to as well.

No matter how much we wish to change the past/future (the ending), we need to accept what actually happened.

No matter whether you are the type of fan who wished the Rumbling wiped everyone out, or someone who thinks Eren should have died before it started, taking the Titans with him without the Rumbling, the simple truth is that Eren needed to die.

So, like in canon, Eren needed to die here.

That actually helped me.

I am on record and stand by my belief that one shouldn't release a story unless one knows how it will end. This prevents things from going on infinitely without a conclusion, leads to a more cohesive story, and allows for proper setup.

So, knowing Eren needed to die, I asked myself how should he die?

Eren needed to do 'something,' I knew that much.

Not only to provide an entertaining story but also because his character is not one that can sit back and do nothing.

Even in a crossover situation, where a world hasn't hurt him, and he isn't invested in it, Eren Yeager cannot sit back and let things just 'happen.' He is defined by his search for 'freedom,' 'autonomy,' and 'self-determination.'

Even if it is fruitless.

Not only that, but he does have a sense of 'justice' (even if it warped differently than most).

So, Eren needed to die after doing 'something.' He'd also be the one who chose the end.

Which meant he had to want that end.

And what would Eren want more than anything?

To be free, to be with his friends/Mikasa, or to get revenge/destroy Titans.

With no titans to kill and no revenge to get, Eren would only choose a future where he is free and, if possible, would ensure he lives as long as possible with his friends.

This leads to a conundrum:

Eren cannot be free while he has the Founder's power.

Eren needs to have the Founder's power and use it if he (and I) are to confront it.

So, I needed to give him the Founder, have him choose a future, and then remove it.

Enter God, stage right.

Specifically, Truth Idea gave me the idea to use the dead God as a character. (Pun intended.)

It is explicitly stated that God left a portion of his Will in the True Longinus and that Will sided with Issei, a devil and a pervert trying to defend the Underworld, against Cao Cao, a human and 'hero' who was trying to kill God's historic enemies.

So, I didn't think it was impossible for him to have left a greater portion than just a vague Will behind. That is the Watsonian reason, at least.

There is also a Doylist reason for my decision.

I am the type of person who likes crossovers with actual reasons for their crossover status. Not just vague 'rebirth' or 'suddenly in another world without reason, and it is never brought up.' DxD canonically has other worlds, so it was a great fit for this, and having God be the one to have brought Eren and Mikasa over in the past allowed for the story to be completely canon-compliant to AOT's epilogue, which was important for my desire for this story to be a 'possible continuation.'

God, as the creator of Sacred Gears, could also be the reason why Eren could use the Founder when he explicitly should not have been able to if it were the same rules of AOT.

It also sidestepped the problem of Eren killing all the Titans in his world. Eren achieved his aim of wiping them out, canonically, even if there is a hint they will come back in the end. I wasn't about undoing what happened. Just adding to it.

I am very thankful for the literal Deus Ex Machina that Ishibumi left me, even if I suspect he did it for himself to get out of writing himself into a corner. I just had to be careful how I used it.

A Deus Ex Machina is usually a sign of a poor story, so if I didn't want quality to go down the drain, I had to have 'God' be a fully realized character and for his presence to be hinted at throughout the entire story. I hope I left not only enough hints but also made his motivation consistent.

Either way, once I decided to use God as a character, he solved many of my issues. He creates the Founder-equivalent in this world, which means he can also create the counter.

Thus, the Bench was born.

God in DxD is an... interesting character. He is dead. Full on, no doubts, deader than dead. Yet his ghost haunts the entire story.

Even if you ignore the fact that the MC, Issei, has a Sacred Gear, there is not an Arc that goes by without some new facet of God's past that is relevant. Whether it is the after-effects of the Great War, the revelation of a new Sacred Gear, the 'deterioration' of the church and angels without him, his actions with Trihexa, his creations of Lilith/Samael/etc...

Not only that, but he is not an omnipowerful, omnipresent 'good' or 'benevolent' God. He is the Old Testament God. Wrathful, jealous, vengeful. He fully cursed Sameal for eternity rather than just killing him because he hates dragons so much. He is a Lawful Good (aka Lawful Stupid) God that goes completely by the book. There is no moral grey with him. If you step a toe out of line, even for a good reason or to do something good, you Fall, are an enemy or are banished.

Yet his teachings are very New Testament. Love thy neighbour. Forgiveness. The 'Died for Our Sins' kind of God.

In the end, after reviewing everything I could about God (the character in DxD), I came away thinking of him as a complex and deeply flawed type of character, but one who grew... better or kinder as the years moved on.

Now, as I mentioned during the Michael chapter, I never wish to target any particular religion or belief system with my stories. All I am trying to do is have the characters act as I believe they would from the media they inhabit. Michael is portrayed as kind in DxD but also a warrior who's killed hundreds of thousands of sapient beings over the course of his long life.

God started a war of genocide but also led to characters like Asia believing his teachings. Sirzechs is a devil, THE devil, who has also killed hundreds of thousands in the Civil War, yet he also does everything he can for his family, helped end the Great War with the Peace Treaty and sacrificed himself to seal Trihexa.

And, I think all this duality in character in DxD that is often overlooked ended up tying into the overarching themes I wanted On The Bench to touch upon.

Iseyama has stated on numerous occasions that he never set out for AOT to have any particular messages, but if he had to choose one, it would be: 'Anyone can become an Aggressor. A victim. The protagonist. The love interest. Everyone, in the right situation, can become an aggressor.'

You see this in the way AOT is set up.

In the first half, Eren, his friends, the Eldians, and Paradis are all victims of Titans, the government, and the world. They are struggling to survive in a world out to not only trap and kill them but to keep them ignorant of the true nature of the world. Marley and the Warriors are the aggressors who've killed countless innocent people.

It is easy to sympathize with them. Not only are they victims of a cruel world, but they are also our protagonists. We've grown to know them and like them. We want them to 'win.'

In the second half, that all changes. The world and AOT as a whole undergo a fundamental shift in perspective.

Marley is still an aggressive nation, but their fear and hatred of Eldians is given a reason. It's only been a century since Eldia was an empire. There would still be people alive today who had parents who would have lived under the yoke of the Titan family. Maybe they even had grandparents they knew who were part of the forced 'breeding' programs to spread Eldian blood.

We also get a better look at the individuals trapped in that culture.

A race trapped in slums. Child soldiers were forced into the military and brainwashed to hate themselves. Their entire existence is on sacrificing themselves to make up for the 'sins' of ancestors they've never met. The entire way they view the world is fundamentally opposed to everything we've seen so far.

Eren is no longer a freedom fighter but a man who launches a war by attacking a civilian target. One filled with Eldians, not Marleyans. He's become every bit the monster Marlyan propaganda says he is.

The Scouts have become elite operatives that, while still able to kill titans, now focus on killing humans. They, irrespective of their own values, help in the attack on innocent lives, just like the Warriors did on Maria, only without the excuse of being children.

Our protagonists have become the aggressors, our antagonists have become the victims, and we are confronted with the truth.

There are no heroes. There are no good guys. There are only victims and aggressors, and anyone can be either of these at any time.

I wanted that duality in On The Bench, but I wanted to add my own spin to it.

Fundamentally, like AOT, On The Bench is written to be read twice.

The first is to read from chapter 1 to chapter 74. You go into the book from the perspective of Sona/Rias/Mikasa, etc. You experience the story in linear time. Its plot twists, its moments of fear, sadness, excitement, buildup and payoff.

The second read is after having read chapters 44 to 74, and you reread chapters 1 to 43. (Or, having finished a full read, just read the whole story again. I won't stop you.) This is the Eren/God/Author perspective. No linear in time, but in the story. You catch the buildup, the reasons why certain things happen.

I got quite a few reviews/comments about Eren's motivation being unclear or not having any around the latter chapters and how his character isn't properly defined. They were valid comments, but I always wanted Eren to only be understandable to those who had his 'eyes.' Who've seen the Path, the end, and can follow his footsteps.

Whether I succeeded or not is up to readers who decide on the reread (which will not be everyone, which is fair).

Through the use of these two read-throughs, I wanted to give my own spin on the duality of AOTs story.

Not reject it.

I am not one of the fanfiction authors who go, 'I didn't like that ending. I can do better.'

No, I wanted to take the 'Victims to Aggressors' message and expand it.

Because I agree that anyone can be a victim and an aggressor, but I think that duality oversimplifies things a bit.

So, taking from my experience with my other story, Rapturous Rhapsody, I expanded that message a bit.

Anyone, in the right framework, can be anything. Victim/Aggressor. Good guy/Bad guy. Hero/Villain. Human/Monster.

What you think of someone is inherently based on the viewpoints of who you are focusing on and when. Wholy human, flawed, and subjective viewpoints.

Marley is a victim of the Eldian Empire, the fear of living in a world of Titans, and of the Rumbling. They are the aggressors who released Pure Titans to terrorize Paradis, seek to exploit the Shifters for their own aims, and conquer other countries because of their military dominance. They are the heroes of the world who overthrew the empire.

Eldia/Paradis is the victim of King Fritz's isolation and vow, Marley's aggression, and the Titans just outside their cage. They are the aggressors who built an Empire on rape and conquest, destroyed Liberio, and wished to unleash the Rumbling. Either to wipe away all other life or to instill fear into the world for generations to come that they will do so at the slightest provocation(That is essentially the plan Hange, the scouts, and the rest of the military wanted to do). They are the heroes to a population who has been forced to live in a cage, to an entire bloodline of people who have never done anything wrong except being born.

Eren Yeager is a victim to the Titans, the government that seeks to keep him ignorant and contained, and a world that wants him and everything he loves dead.

(Before the argument comes that Eren 'did it to himself,' I will remind people that all Eren used the Founder for, time travel-wise, was direct to the Smiling Titan towards his mother and away from Bertdholt.

Carla's death might be on him in order to set him on his Path, but the events that led to it are not. The Warriors were sent anyway, the gates were knocked down, and Titans were pouring in. All that happened without him.

Unless Eren was willing to mind-control a bunch of people (which wouldn't include the Marlian high command since they were all non-Eldian), that still would have happened.)

Eren Yeager is an aggressor to the entire world, not only because he did unleash the Rumbling but also because he cannot let go of his hatred, his revenge against the rest of the world. He represents every reason why Titans and Eldians are feared and hated by the rest of the world. He has become The Devil, and he did it of his own choice.

Now, one of my goals with On The Bench was to complete Eren's trifecta.

Attack on Titan can be described as the story of Eren Yeager, our protagonist, transformation from Victim to Aggressor.

I needed to come up with a story where I turned that Aggressor into a 'Hero' without devaluing the journey he and we went through.

Enter DxD.

High School DxD is a story in which race is a key component while simultaneously having race not matter at all. If AOT's message is 'any victim can become an aggressor,' then DxDs would be 'people are people, irrespective of race.'

(Well, the second message, at least. The first message would probably be something like 'Hot women and sex are awesome' or something like that.)

I've seen it a lot in DxD fanfiction, where devils get this expanded lore where they secretly are all evil or 'creatures of sin' of some sort. Not as a culture but as a race. That Evil Pieces are irredeemable, that all Kings are manipulative, monstrous, evil, yadda yadda.

Now, before anything else, the benefit of Fanfiction is to be able to play with a setting/characters to tell a new story. I don't think there is anything wrong with trying to tell such a story, and I am even a fan of a few like that, but I think what has happened is that the fanfiction 'lore' has replaced what is actually shown in canon.

Again, nothing wrong with 'fanon' lore for a good story, I even give a few nods to fanon here and there through the story, but we should never accept it as 'fact.'

Now: races in DxD.

Let's just get this out here: It's all kinds of fucked up and inconsistent... which, I think, is the greatest show that it doesn't matter.

I will use devils as an example since they are the main focus of DxD.

First is the actual differences. Lifespan and power.

I do not believe a devil has ever died of old age, seeing as Zekram Bael, one of the first devils born, is still alive. Power wise... while devils are stronger than humans on average, the simple truth is that it is devils, not humans, that almost went extinct. On top of that, there are people like Tobio, Griselda Quarta, Arthur, Vasco Strada, and Cao Cao who prove race isn't really a limiting factor to how powerful one can become.

Canonically, devils were created by Lucifer with Lilith after the former Fell from heaven. The original 72 Pillars, with the four Satans at the top and miscellaneous houses here and there. From there, the race expanded as one usually would, breeding, growing, and spreading across the Underworld.

These are the quintessential 'devils' that we see in other media. Soul stealing, full of Sin (Capital S), and evil creatures who act against God and all that is good. I believe it was mentioned as a one-off joke early in DxD that devils used to take souls as payment, but they don't anymore.

But that comment epitomizes what I believe DxD's devils. Race doesn't determine their 'goodness or evil,' but their culture.

In the early days, under the lead of heaven's biggest tantrum thrower, Lucifer, of course, the culture he built would be entirely shaped by his rejection of God and what he saw as 'good.' He and the other Satans would pass those beliefs on to their children.

Let's not forget not long ago, humans thought owning other humans was not only not a sin but a moral virtue. Even today, no matter what society you are reading this from, I am sure there is another society out there with completely different values from your own that you believe is 'wrong.' We all do it, even though we are the same race.

But back to devils.

As soon as the people in charge no longer hold those beliefs, the race is free to explore new cultures. Ones not based on being cartoonishly evil.

Devils, in this new culture, are wholly different from those that were born before the Civil War. They worry about schools, romance, Rating games, day-to-day life, and the future. They don't really care about angels or fallen, except in situations that could lead to a fight.

There are exceptions, of course. We see plenty. While most of them are from the 'old guard,' devils from before the Civil War, there are a few like Diodora who are the exceptions that prove the rule.

In every society there are those who use their power/wealth/influence to prey on the weak. If you think your society is the exception, boy, do I have news for you.

In this manner, DxD is very similar to AOT in a way most don't think about. Race, which is a focus of both, simply doesn't matter in anything except powers.

People are just people, for good or bad, irrespective of race.

Both of them have a very grounded view of race that lines up to reality.

On The Bench is a story about a Devil who is more devilish than actual devils, learning to be human again with the help of actual devils.

Being human doesn't mean being 'good.'

It means confronting reality as it is, not as we wish it to be.

Eren recreates the nightmare of his world.

He terrorizes this world with Titans.

He unleashes the equivalent of the Rumbling (even if the death toll was much less.)

He traps people in his nightmare reality as livestock in a cage, forced to live in fear and shame of the predators lurking beyond.

Fundamentally, Eren is no better or worse of a person between the beginning of On The Bench and its end.

All that has changed is that he is free.

...This was my biggest hurdle in writing this fic.

Before I even began putting my finger on the keyboard, I had to ask myself: How can Eren be free?

The simple truth is that the freedom Eren dreams of throughout AOT is fundamentally impossible.

He imagines a world beyond the wall without war, violence, titans... 'evil' in a sense.

Eren's ideal of freedom is that of a child.

When he is confronted with the truth that beyond the sea are more enemies, he is 'disappointed' because the bitter truth of the world is that 'freedom' is impossible. That 'humanity' is not the good guys he thought them to be.

There will always be more enemies, more 'others,' more walls, more titans out there.

So long as there are two humans alive, neither will be free.

So, with his ideals betrayed, with his hope dashed, and his faith in humanity completely shattered, what does Eren do? He gives up on almost everything. His ideal. His love. His vengeance. His freedom.

Not immediately, of course. He spends years looking for another way out. He's frantic for another answer. But in the end, he gives up his last holdout.

Hope.

Eren Yeager is the first and last victim of the Rumbling.

Eren, at the end of Attack on Titan, has given up on ever being free. Of being a hero. Of any sort of morality to guide him. Of a future where he can live a long, happy life.

Only a few things he never gave up on. His desire to remove Titans from the world, his revenge, and a few people he loves that he refuses to lose.

So, taking an Eren with that mindset in mind, how do I... rebuild him. Force him to confront what happened and let him grow from it.

Not 'fix him.' Not 'forgive him.' Not 'blame him.'

How do I 'accept him' so he can be free?

The first thing I had to do was, paradoxically, trap him.

The Bench is Eren's prison, one Eren chooses.

At any second through the fic, Eren can leave the Bench and never return. But he also can't.

To leave the Bench is to trap himself in another prison of his own making, the Paths.

Even if Eren didn't have the Founder, there would always be enemies, people who would take his freedom. Devil Kings that wish to make him theirs. Gods looking for followers. Humans looking for soldiers for their wars. Even other worlds, looking to seize this one.

Even death is no longer freedom since Eren might be reborn in another world again.

No matter what Eren Yeager does, he will always be trapped.

Confronted with irrefutable proof that his idea of 'freedom' is wrong, Eren needs to redefine it if he wants to be happy.

He doesn't do this consciously, but he does do it.

He does it by trying to learn from the other person he knows who yearned for freedom, but in a 'better' way: Armin.

Eren's freedom is one that can be 'taken.'

Armin's freedom is one that can be 'gained.'

I won't bore you all with the philosophical distinctions of 'freedoms,' if you are interested in the subject, you can google 'Positive Freedom' and 'Negative Freedom.'

The point is that for Eren to be happy and thus provide motivation for him throughout the story, he needs to be free.

For him to be free, I needed to have his Path be one that shifted his view of freedom from 'the sea' to 'what lies beyond the sea.'

Here is where I get a bit meta again.

I deliberately had On The Bench retrace the steps of AOT's story, if loosely. We hit a lot of the same beats, similar characters, and plots.

This was not only due to my desire to use OTB as a confrontation of AOT as a whole but also because I like to use themes in my work.

Themes like revenge and its cost.

Themes like freedom and its subjective/unattainability.

Themes like love and what people are willing to do for it.

Themes like humanity and what it means in a world with different races/powers that regular humans cannot have.

Themes like the inherent contradiction in using violence for 'good' causes.

All of these themes also matched with the ones AOT touched on, so retracing the steps would not only allow me to revisit these themes but also either expand on them or use them to delve into character plots and motivations.

To do that, I created a little extra challenge for myself that would help me stay on task without meandering: Every single chapter had to correspond to a similar AOT manga chapter, never repeating one.

It's not really a secret, and many of you have caught on, but every title of every chapter of On The Bench is based on one of AOT's manga chapters. Specifically, I used synonyms or antonyms of chapters that corresponded to manga chapters whose themes/characters/plot I wanted to either reinforce, elaborate on, or serve as a contrast.

For those curious, here is the full list with the corresponding volume numbers:

1. To You, 2000 Years From Now (1)
2. That Day (2)
3. First Battle (4)
4. Wish (66)
5. Trust (60)
6. From One Hand to Another (97)
7. The Easy Path (26)
8. Guilty Shadow (99)
9. Island Devils (123)
10. Choices and Consequences (28)
11. What Should I Do Now? (18)
12. The Easy Path (26)
13. Wound (13)
14. Delusions of Strength (17)
15. In the Depths of Despair (134)
16. A Dull Glow in the Midst of Despair (5)
17. Marley's Soldiers (92)
18. The Nameless Soldiers (80)
19. A Dream I Once Had (70)
20. Where's the Left Arm (10)
21. Strike, Throw, Submit (44)
22. Still Can't See (19)
23. Declaration of War (100)
24. Two Brothers (119)
25. See You Later (Itterashai)
26. Icon (12)
27. Midnight Sun (84)
28. Night of the Disbanding Ceremony (3)
29. Actors (56)
30. The Beating of a Heart Can Be Heard (9)
31. Small Blade (7)
32. The Dawn of Humanity (130)
33. The Basement (85)
34. Good To See (98)
35. Borderline (87)
36. Pride (126)
37. Wall (33)
38. Guides (109)
39. The Thunder Spears (76)
40. Chains (63)
41. Meeting (89)
42. A Long Dream (138)
43. The World that the Girl Saw (6)
44. Memories of the Future (121)
45. Traitor (128)
46. A Sound Argument (108)
47. The Hunters (45)
48. I'm Home (36)
49. Ruler of the Walls (68)
50. Welcome Party (64)
51. Dreams and Curses (65)
52. Sin (62)
53. Sinners (133)
54. Ignorance (112)
55. Children of the Forest (111)
56. Liar (95)
57. Retrospective (129)
58. Assassin's Bullet (105)
59. Sunset (125)
60. Night of the End (127)
61. The Rumbling (131)
62. Too Little, Too Late (102)
63. Assault (103)
64. The Wings of Freedom (132)
65. Victors (105)
66. The Battle of Heaven and Earth (135)
67. Roar (8)
68. Hero (82)
69. Perfect Game (79)
70. Losers (30)
71. Dedicate Your Heart (136)
72. Thaw (124)
73. The Boy Inside the Walls (94)
74. From You, 2000 Years Ago (122)
75. Epilogue- Toward the Tree on That Hill (139)

Right away, some of you will notice the odd man out.

Chapter 25 is not named after a manga chapter but rather a song. This is because it is not part of the 'progression' of the story but rather a simple part of the epilogue. Thus, while I included it to provide some insight to readers and hint at eventual plot points, I can't, in good consciousness, take credit for much of it.

I won't be going in and breaking down every chapter, why I chose that manga volume, and what each change of words represents in what I am trying to say. If you are interested, really that curious, and have an afternoon to kill, it's not that hard to figure out. I am not that clever. I also won't be going through and pointing out all the foreshadowing, hints, or clues I left behind from chapter one. There are plenty that nobody has commented on, so they will remain there for those who want to look for them.

More than that, I want to reward those who put in the effort. Whatever conclusions you come to, they are just as valid as everyone else's. Once a story becomes public, it is no longer the sole property of the author. It now belongs to all who read it as well.

Any takeaways you have from Attack on Titan, High School DxD, and On The Bench are just as valid as my own.

This is not about 'Oh, look how good a writer I am.' This is about readers getting out of a story exactly as much as they want.

You can read AOT as a simple action story with good worldbuilding, a few surprising twists, and decent characters. Or you can read it as a deeply philosophical, hard-hitting reflection on human nature, war and violence with deed characters who develop through actions, not words.

You can read DxD as a silly ecchi series wholly dedicated to boobs, sex, and with little plot or meaning besides a 'collect them all' style harem and inconsistent worldbuilding. Or you can read it as a reflection on the meaning of humanity through the lens of race, power, and societies with different values (and boobs.)

You can read OTB as a slightly above-average Fanfiction from an author too full of themselves, with plot hole ass pulls, wish fulfillment, and who uses controversial and traumatic topics as a misery farm for engagement. Or you can read it as an imperfect attempt of a fan of a story trying to use that same story that had an impact on them as a tool to come to terms with the end of said story.

No matter how you consume a work of art, as good or bad as it is, or what you take away from it, it is as equally valid as everything else.

...I Got a bit off-topic. Like I said, stream of consciousness.

I suppose the next thing I wanted to think about, now that I had the broad strokes of the story set up, I had to think of the characters.

Early on, I knew I wanted to keep the cast relatively small. Rapturous Rapsody suffered from its character bloat, and I didn't want to repeat that mistake here.

So, keeping the cast light, who did I want to be 'Primary characters,' 'Secondary Characters,' and 'Teterary Characters.'

I should probably just go through them one by one to make sure I get my thoughts on all of them.

I won't talk about Eren and God here since I already did, though I will say God was always going to be a primary character in impact, even if he was secondary at best in presence and screen time.

So, let's start with the other Primary characters:

Mikasa.

To say Mikasa Ackerman is a controversial figure is an understatement. To this day, any chapter that features her significantly gets more engagement just from the hate she seems to generate. For the longest time, I didn't really understand where it was coming from.

Then I realized it came from the fact that she is, fundamentally, a character that differs from every other 'female protagonist' in anime. Specifically, Mikasa Ackerman was the first character Iseyama ever designed, and he deliberately made her different from every other female protagonist (at least at the time he was designing her, which was decades ago).

Mikasa is, fundamentally, a silent character. Her story is not one that comes from her words but from her actions, her body language, and the actions she does and doesn't take. This leads a lot of people to think she is boring or doesn't have an arc. Because of this lack of connection throughout the series, her actions at the end of AOT generate a lot of hate from those who haven't tracked her story through AOT because it is much less... loud for a better word than Eren or Armin's. It doesn't help that the anime (which is famous for its production troubles throughout every season) cut many of those moments that were pivotal to her growth.

I'll use an example: Mikasa is every bit the hothead Eren is. When Eren is in danger from the Female Titan, Mikasa disobeys direct orders to try and rescue him. This leads to Levi having to save her. Eren gets rescued anyway, but Levi twists his ankle while rescuing her. Mikasa, in the manga panel, clearly notices this, and Levi is injured for a while after this.

Her actions have cost humanity its strongest soldier.

It is never mentioned verbally once. But, when Eren is in danger again, she has orders that go against her desire to save him as soon as possible. This time, she follows those orders.

Through not one word spoken, Mikasa has shown a compassionate side to someone who isn't Eren, a willingness to learn from mistakes, and a sense of responsibility. All this has built on her existing character. All this without Eren even being present.

If this were something like Fairy Tail or Naruto, there'd be whole chapters dedicated to explaining the guilt Lucy felt and having to go through dramatic scenes of self-recrimination and cheering up for Sakura.

And this entire sequence I just told you about? Completely missing from the Anime. Just... not there at all. It's not the only time these non-verbal, body language-type moments are missing, either. Hell, manga readers who don't pay attention might miss it as well.

I get it.

From an animator's point of view, with limited time and every frame costing money, there is a need to focus on impressive moments or those with a strong impact. From an anime watcher's point of view, if you don't read the manga, you have no idea you are missing anything, so how would you know?

...I've digressed again, back to OTB.

As I mentioned, Mikasa is a silent character. Most of her story is told through body language, context, and actions. Which makes her a bitch to write in a book. She was easily the hardest to write of all the characters. Unless I wanted her to be the POV character and have her internal monologue be present every time she's part of a scene, I needed to come up with a way to have her participate in the story through more dialogue than she'd usually use.

There was also the fact that, of everyone in OTB, Mikasa is the only character who I consider to have completed their arc. Not only had she overcome her demons at the end of AOT by being able to fight and kill Eren, but she also had decades after that to come to terms with what happened in her youth. She started a family. Lived a long life. Died of old age. She... doesn't really have anywhere left to go.

Yet, I could not leave Mikasa out of OTB. Like her or hate her, Mikasa Ackerman is so intertwined with Eren Yeager's character that, fundamentally, I don't think Eren could have the closure I wanted him to have if she wasn't part of the story. Whether you want to pair him with Historia or someone else, there is no denying how important Mikasa is to him unless you want to completely reject canon.

So, I used both problems to solve the other. Mikasa's older age allowed her to grow more outgoing (not unlikely. We see this in AOT as her circle grows beyond just Eren and Armin.) This allows her to be more verbose, if only slightly, and having this expanded social circle also gives me more ways for her to grow.

Specifically, I wanted to confront an aspect that never really gets resolved verbally in AOT. Mikasa is so used to being the strong, dependable one that she has control issues. It was the primary source of contention between her and Eren. I wanted to use OTB as a chance to reinforce the lessons she learned from her relationship with Sona.

There is also the issue of the complex nature of her love for Eren that I wanted to tackle for both of them.

I might be in the minority, but I actually think AOT's depiction of love is one of the better ones in media. And I tried to bring that over to On The Bench.

Before everyone grabs their torches and pitchforks, I'll explain what I mean.

First off, I will point out that there is this habit in fandoms, and media in general, to go either of two ways with romance. The 'Pairing' way and the 'Drama' way.

'Drama' is basically what we see in long-running media about romance, for the most part. The idea that romance or love is just there changes on a dime to make a story interesting, or that it only exists to further the plot. Think of your standard long-running TV shows, comics, or movie series where nobody ever stays with anyone long-term because that would make the story stale. 'Something' always comes along to shake things up right when, in reality, the romantically involved parties would be settling down into a long-term relationship. For the drama.

Yet, going the opposite way is almost more dangerous.

'Pairing' is, as the name suggests, the idea that these people 'belong together.' It doesn't have to be monogamous, though it usually is, but it is the inherent idea that two (or more) characters should be together. Thus, if romance is a part of a story, naturally, one cannot be romantically involved with just themselves. (Well, they can. It's just not an interesting story if one is a Narcissus equivalent.) A second character is needed to interact with, and thus, a 'pairing' is a natural conclusion. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. If a story is going to have romantic aspects, then obviously, it will involve characters getting romantically involved. Some of these characters we, as the audience of the story, believe are better for each other than others.

Here is where it becomes a problem: the idea that two characters HAVE to end up together. It is not just that two characters being together is the natural state; anything different than that state is absolutely wrong. Morally or the like. And any character that violates this assumed status quo is indefensible, whether they are an outside party or even a member of the ideal 'pairing.' Because we, the audience, demand it to be so... even if it doesn't make sense.

Anime is absolutely terrible at this. Not really a surprise. This is from the culture where Idols regularly receive death threats, and their careers are ruined if the public gets the idea they are romantically involved. So, people build up the mental... shrine, for lack of a better word of these people and any time anything happens that clashes with how they believe this character (real or fictional) should act, they feel like it's a personal attack.

Fanfiction, as a product of a fan, in a fandom, is inherently rife with this sort of thing. The OTP (one true pairing) is born.

Again, this is not a bad thing, per se. At least, not the idea that two characters being together makes more sense than others. I've read plenty of great Fanfiction where two characters are together through the whole thing. Even the cliches like soulmates or soul bonds or the like can tell decent stories.

It is the extremism, the waifuism (husbandoism?) that sometimes accompanies this idea that is wrong. Because it's not realistic in the slightest.

I think AOT is a good example of romance because it shows romance in various forms it can take. The character's feelings grow and change over the story.

Ymir and Historia might have a romantic history (I think this was confirmed canonically, but even if it's not, it is hinted very heavily.) It doesn't stop Historia from using her marriage as a tool to get the future she wants. This isn't a change of character. This is the same woman who was willing to abandon Paradis for Ymir if it meant saving her. Or rejecting her (manipulative) father, even if it meant leaving the fate of her people in Eren's hands. She chose to save the people she cared about, even at the cost of herself.

Jean gets a lot of shit throughout the story because he's the foil to Eren, the regular Joe to Eren's shonen protagonist attitude. But, despite his crush on Mikasa throughout the entire series, not once does he make unwanted advances on her. He is, quite literally, a teenager with a crush. If this was some shonen shit, he'd be stalking her or sniffing her panties or something equally creepy. In the epilogue, Mikasa is shown holding a baby and accompanied by a man with the same hairstyle, but only after ten years have passed. Meaning that he gave her time to grieve. Jean, from the start to the end of AOT, remains the same down-to-earth, 'human' character. Not great, not evil, just... a man. Who has the unfortunate misfortune of ending up with the primary female character in a popular anime.

(Come on, guys. Take a hint. I get the idea of a woman loyal to a man's memory can be romantic, but to deny reality just because Mikasa was buried in white flowers is... absurd. To demand that someone remain alone for their entire lives just so they remain 'loyal' to someone they never even dated is... psychotic.

That being said, the ending is loose enough that an argument can be made... if you squint really hard and ignore all the signs against it.)

Mikasa is probably the perfect example of why I think AOT has a good depiction of romance. It is clear from the get-go that she has romantic feelings for Eren. Anime has conditioned us to believe that it means they will end up together. But... they don't. Because they are 'destined' for each other. Relationships only happen when both parties work for it. Both Eren and Mikasa's choices led to the fact that, even if they loved each other, they wouldn't be together.

The simple truth is that both of them had been, up until roughly the reclamation of Shinganshima, terrible to/for each other. Eren was, quite simply, an edgy teenager absorbed in his own angst in drama. He simply did not have the self-awareness to be in a healthy relationship, no matter who it was with. Mikasa, on the other hand, simply didn't listen to the target of her affection. She was controlling, smothering, and never let him fight his own battles when she could help it. If they had gotten together when they were younger, Eren would have grown to resent her, simple as that.

The simple truth is that they were teenagers and were not ready for any sort of long-term romance. (Which, again, is a better portrayal than most anime. Why do we assume that teenagers (magical powers or not) will have the emotional stability to maintain a long-term relationship just because they like each other? That rarely happens in real life. Childhood sweethearts happen. But it takes a lot of growing pain, and it is nowhere near as common as media would like us to believe.)

There was, however, a point where both of them were in the proper place (as characters) to actually get that future. But, here again, AOT takes the opportunity to tell us that love isn't so easy. You are responsible for your own happiness.

Mikasa chose to not tell Eren how she felt when he asked. Shyness, teenage angst, or whatever reason you want to give her, she made that choice. Eren chose to start the Rumbling, knowing he'd die. He chose that future, knowing it would cost him the four years he could have with her. Did both choices mean they loved each other less? No, but it acknowledged the reality of the setting.

And I wanted that 'reality' to carry over to On The Bench.

On The Bench is not a story about love and romance, but a story that contains love and romance. And, as the author, I am declaring this now:

There is no canon pairing in On The Bench.

Because there is no canon pairing in real life. I will touch on the epilogue after I (finally) move on from the characters, but I will say this right now. This is not me trying to dodge the waifu wars or trying to avoid controversy (god knows it's too late for that). This has been my intention since I first started this story.

Can Eren and Mikasa have their happy ending? There's a chance. But Mikasa is a very jealous woman, just as Eren is a very jealous man. Maybe they can't overcome their respective pasts, either romantic or otherwise. (Loving Eren is to suffer after all. Mikasa did kill him.)

Will Kuroka get her domestic dream? Maybe. Maybe she gets that family and safety she always wanted. Or maybe she will back off so Mikasa can be with Eren. Or she can't accept not being first in his heart.

Will Sona's first love be returned? Will Rias' romantic dreams come true? Will Akeno successfully become a mistress and live out her deprived fantasies? Will Shirone marry the man who creates the world's greatest cookie despite her sister's teasing? Will Ophis get her banana dimension?

All of it is possible. Maybe even all of them. You can believe Eren somehow ends up with a super harem that makes Issei weep with envy. (I might as well go after Serafall, too. And Yasaka. And why not Gabriel? She's female and attractive, so let's throw her on there too. She can bring Griselda with her or something.)

But none of that definitely will happen.

Eren is not destined to end up with anyone. Does this mean that he will die alone? Maybe, maybe not.

The only thing I will say is that if anyone wants to 'end up' with someone else, they have to work for it. They have to commit. They have to pursue it. And even then, it might not work out in the end. But absolutely nothing will happen if they do not try.

The romantic aspect might end on an unsatisfactory note, but that is because I wanted On The Bench to not give that resolution.

Like us, the audience, Sona, Rias, Akeno, and Kuroka all went into this with certain ideas and expectations about love, Eren, and the future. I hope On The Bench has shown how those expectations meet reality.

I suppose, after that massive tangent on romance depictions in anime, I should finally move on to the next character.

Kuroka honestly surprised me a bit.

Not in the sense that I pulled her out of my ass to fit a certain role. I had always planned from the start to have her act as senjustu teacher for Eren, and once I had the idea of bouchujustu linking her to the Path, I rolled with it. She'd always been intended to have a romantic incline toward Eren, that's simply the type of character Kuroka is in canon.

Rather, I was surprised at how perfectly things fell in line for her to not only have those feelings reciprocated from Eren but also how she became a kind of counterpoint to Mikasa. Outgoing, where Mikasa was reserved in almost every way. Sexually. Vocally. Emotionally. Hell, even Kuroka's arc ended up somewhat mirroring Mikasa's, though in a different way.

Kuroka is one of those characters that tend to pop up often in Fanfiction. It's no surprise, really. Ishibumi leaves a lot about her up to interpretation, allowing fanfic writers to write into the margins of what goes unsaid in canon. (There is also not the inconsiderable aspect that she is an older, busty, teasing cat girl. The smut practically writes itself.) That being said, I wanted all my characters to have the depth that is usually lacking in Fanfiction, so I struggled a bit with how to fold her into the overall narrative and themes.

Kuroka, as far as I can consider her, is a character defined by two aspects. The shallower one is, of course, her search for a 'mate.' I mean this in the literal sense, not the 'destined one' sense. In canon she is, explicitly, looking for strong genes to have children with.

Her sexuality and teasing are almost just a tool for that goal. One gets the feeling that she wouldn't really care about the father of said children so long as their traits were desirable and they weren't complete assholes like her dad. She easily propositions Vali and then jumps to Issei pretty quickly, seeing one Heavenly Dragon as just as good as another. Eren's Titan abilities and their combination with Senjutsu would no doubt lead her to consider him just as good as a match for this purpose. So you have the start of an interest there. But true feelings take a long time to develop. It is only in 'thanks' for Issei's effort to reunite her with Shirone that she really decides to stick with him long term. Same with Eren. Idle thoughts of 'The children would be strong' become 'I've come to care for him.'

This leads to what I think is the true core of Kuroka's character: her love for Shirone.

Kuroka is a flawed character. Impulsive to a degree that can only mirror a cat's own capriciousness. Her flight from killing her master is one example, but not even the greatest one. Our first introduction to her in canon is when she tries to kidnap Koneko. Not explaining the situation, just acting like a vilain because it 'seemed like the thing to do.' (I blame Ishibumi and narrative contrivance for this, especially in Japanese media, but we work with the characters we have, not the ones that make sense.)

But, throughout the entirety of DxD canon there is one throughline to Kuroka that never wavers or changes. How much she cares for Shirone.

So, to give her depth and such, I decided to lean more into this aspect. Taking that love for her sister, her memories of her mother, her father's apathy, and their time on the streets, as well as her explicit desire for children and expand it into a 'family' focused woman. Not in the traditional sense but in the 'Hestia' concept of family. Love. Warmth. Affection. But also safety and power.

In an almost coincidental way, this ended up mirroring Mikasa as well.

Mikasa is also a very family-focused woman. Almost matronly. While this is primarily directed at Eren, we see it in how she treats Armin and her other friends. She fits a strong matriarch type, where they take on burdens for others because they feel they should. It's no coincidence that while Armin and the rest are rebuilding after the Rumbling, Mikasa builds a life for herself away from all that. She never wanted to join the military or fight like Eren, just doing it to keep those she loved safe.

Kuroka is not a matron, for all her physical maturity. She's too unmotivated, capricious, and whimsical. But what she is is affectionate. Loving. Warm in a way, Mikasa, for all her strength, cannot be.

Yet she's also self-sacrificing, with a bottom line that she won't cross, not even for Eren.

I knew from the get-go that if Eren were to have any chance of reciprocating Kuroka's feelings, she needed to prove to him that she could stand up to him. That she was not a slave to love as she thought she was.

I think, of all the lies he told Mikasa and Armin when he told her he hated her, that was the closest to his true feelings. Not that he hated Mikasa for always being there, but that he did not wish her to be dependent on him. That she needed to be a person in her own right. Only in that way could she be free of him. And I don't believe Eren could come to feel for someone who was dependent on him like that.

All the time in the world in the Paths, it wouldn't matter if the emotions weren't there. Since I already knew the ending and Eren's plan, I knew it would put Shirone at risk, even if he didn't want it to. It was just putting Kuroka in a position to make that choice. Shirone or Eren. And, unless I wanted to completely change who she was, it would always be Shirone.

Again, there's this idea in fiction where the 'waifu' should only care about her lover. As if everything else before and after cease to matter as soon as they are romantically involved. Or, if they do matter, they are completely secondary. It can happen in certain characters, especially those without other tethers like family or goals, but I always found the most interesting relationships to be between those who do not solely exist for their partner. It keeps them 3D in a way other characters often lack. I think this would also mirror Eren's own interests.

Eren knew Kuroka would stand up to him if he crossed her lines before ever meeting her. The perils of dating a clairvoyant. Paradoxically, it is because he knew she was not wholly dependent on him (even if her actions since they started 'dating' seem to indicate differently) that he could come to care for her in a real way instead of just using her.

And that's something I'll get to soon. The characters Eren 'uses.' It should go without saying, but pretty much every single character that Eren could see through the Path was a piece on his board. Someone he 'used' to one degree or another. Some he cared about. Others, he didn't. But they all played their parts, and he couldn't help but see them that way because of his power. Corpses for his Path.

However, some characters, even if they had a role, were invisible to him, allowing him to form genuine connections with them because he didn't know their roles.

Sona Sitri is, in many ways, the key to this entire story.

Before anything else, I will say this was not due to any 'waifu' or 'harem' shenanigans that often come up in Fanfiction. You know the type where a key character is only a focus because the author likes them, and they're their 'type.' They get screen time just because the writer wants the protagonist to sleep with them. DxD fanfiction is especially bad at this since there are so many 'types' for all desires.

I was able to completely ignore that temptation in this story because of my desire to stick to canon and my desire for there not to be an 'official' pairing. (If I didn't, Sona would not be the character I'd have focused on. I won't name names, but let's just say a certain maid or fluffy fox milf would have been much more prominent... or show up at all.)

No, Sona Sitri is the key factor in this story for two reasons:

The first is that she is a linchpin of characters that often goes underutilized. She is connected to Rias, and her peerage (the main cast), through their long friendship and rivalry. She's also Serafall's sister, which gives her a connection to the Satans.

If that were all, why not just use Rias? Her brother is Lucifer, after all. Why not just have him be the one to bring back Mikasa? Because of the second reason Sona is key.

Sona Sitri's dream is seriously underrated in Fanfiction... and in canon in DxD as well.

When Sona first declares her dream to build a school for Rating Games for all classes in the light novels, it is treated increadibly seriously. It goes against everything devils have stood for for centuries. She gets laughed out of the chamber yet continues to pursue that goal despite all that. Baring Saji, she doesn't really have any noteworthy peerage members, nor does she have the strength of Rias' Power of Destruction. Yet her dream is the only one that actually has ambition.

Rias just wants to never lose a Rating Game, which is... underwhelming and an example of how her character kind of disappeared after getting together with Issei. Sairaorg's ambition to be a Satan is impressive, but again, nothing that hasn't been done before. No, Sona is the only member of the young devils who really wants to change something in her world instead of just becoming a piece in it. And she works for that dream.

Only... it doesn't really go anywhere, does it? Oh, sure, she builds Aurora Academy in canon but... it doesn't have an impact, does it? She doesn't even really lead it since her father gets the devil's sleeping sickness (cause... why not?) and has to become Lady Sitri instead.

So, with a bit of an inadvertent push from Mikasa when she's young, Sona is in a perfect position to expand on her already radical dream. Instead of just Rating Games, why not have a school that teaches... everything? Or at least one that teaches subjects people are interested in without discrimination.

This leads me to another theme of AOT that I wanted OTB to tackle: Knowledge and Ignorance.

One could argue that the entire story of Attack on Titan is based on a quest for knowledge and wisdom. A battle, not against monsters, but against ignorance itself. Ignorance of Titans and how to fight them, how they work, and their true nature. Ignorance of what the world beyond the walls is truly like. The ignorance of racism, classifying others as monsters or demons just because they are different.

One can quite easily track the story of AOT by how much the main cast (and us, the audience) know. And that knowledge is power. From starting the series where Titans were unkillable treats, to the knowledge of their weaknesses, to the knowledge of shifters and intelligent Titans, to the knowledge of the reality of the world beyond the sea. At the end, Eren literally has ALL the knowledge in the world. (To a degree, at least. He's limited to Eldians and only within a two-thousand-year timespan.)

If the world knew about the vow of peace, they wouldn't have feared the Rumbling for a century. If the warriors knew of the humanity of the 'island devils,' they wouldn't have started the chain reaction that led to Eren becoming the thing they feared. If Eren had known about his powers from the start, could he have found a better way? Or at least one that didn't cost the lives of so many friends and family? If Gabi hadn't been brainwashed and knew what she did at the end of the show vs when she was first introduced, would she have still shot Sasha? (Now that I think of that, I think that might be a good idea for a fic... probably won't write it though. I'm not really interested in 'fix it' fics, so anyone is free to take it.)

By the same nature, OTB can be reduced to a story about Sona Sitri's journey from ignorance to knowledge... or perhaps wisdom is a better choice of words.

From the start, though she wishes to be a teacher and is increadibly intelligent, Sona is making assumptions and judgement calls that are fundamentally wrong because she is working off of false information. In many ways, she mirrors Armin, thus giving a basis for Eren's initial connection with her.

And knowledge isn't always a good thing. The more she learns, the less clear the answers become. People are complicated. Love is complicated. The world is complicated. Like in AOT, as OTB progresses, Sona and the audience can no longer keep making assumptions. This ceases to be a world with 'good vs. evil' or where knowledge=happiness. Instead, the power that knowledge brings also brings with it terrible choices, ones we wouldn't have to make if we remained ignorant.

For all that knowledge is power, ignorance is bliss. Yet knowledge has to be chased, even if it hurts if one wants to see the world as it really is and make the changes you want to make. The ignorant are happy. The wise rarely are.

Piece by piece, Sona unveils not only the true nature of her world, the story being told, and Eren but also about herself. Her faults, her limits, her dreams, and her own biases. She never knows everything, for nobody ever can, but by the end of her time on the Bench, Sona Sitri is wiser than when she first sat on it. Not just because of talking to Eren but because of her own choices and experiences.

From the get-go, I wanted Sona to be a focal point because her arc, her connections, and the themes she engages with match almost 1 to 1 the overall narrative of On The Bench.

Rias fulfills an almost diametric opposite to Sona in this way. Not that she's wiser or doesn't have an arc, but rather instead of her arc being from 'ignorance to dreams to knowledge of reality,' it is 'ignorance of dreams to the reality of dreams.'

I wanted everyone Eren spent time with on the Bench to reflect some aspect of his own journey back at him, both for his own realizations and for my intentions to confront AOT in the story. Rias is, unsurprisingly, his childish belief and desire for freedom. A naive way of viewing the world.

Beyond her role as 'main waifu' in DxD, Rias Gremory is another one of those matronly figures, like Kuroka or Mikasa. The difference is the position she is coming from. One of privilege, shelter, and naivety. A lot of Fanfiction has come to depict her as some sort of shadowy manipulator who controls Issei and others. Or they go the opposite way and have her be a lazy do-nothing with everything handed to her by her brother. While both can be interesting character studies in their own way, the simple truth is that Rias Gremory is exactly what she is in DxD canon.

For better or worse, Rias is just a teenage girl born into a wealthy and powerful family.

Compared to other noble devils, she's practically a saint. Compared to Sona, she's a moron. Compared to Sairaorg, she's a bum. Compared to her brother, she's a weakling. But... those are all comparisons. Valid, but they only look at 'what could be' not what 'she is.'

In many ways, her depiction in Fanfiction has become exactly what she feared in canon. She is 'Rias of the Gremory,' not 'Rias Gremory.'

'Rias Gremory' is a teenage devil, a rich ojou-sama type, a Japanophile who prefers an anime montage to long-term training, and a girl who, from an early age, was using her evil pieces, a limited resource she probably would not ever get back, to save people.

People seem to think that because things work out in the end, mostly through Ishibumi's continual power creep, Rias reincarnated everyone she did, knowing they'd grow into powerhouses or that Sirzechs knew they would. No. It's explicitly stated that her reincarnations (except probably Akeno) were against her family's wishes. She spent her most valuable resource not for power but to save the dead/dying/abandoned children. Then, when they were broken and couldn't be 'useful' (Akeno's holy lightning, Gasper's entire situation, Koneko's senjustu, etc...), did she abandon them? No. She continued to support them and showered them with affection.

Rias is opportunistic, don't get me wrong. She swept up both Asia (that one is probably half opportunity and half kindness for Issei), Xenovia, and Rossweiss when she got the chance. But Rias is also... kind of a sucker. Someone who reincarnated Issei just because he summoned her. She only knew about Boosted Gear once she saw him summon the 'twice critical' and knew he cost eight Pawns.

Rias is, again, a teenage girl. A kind one at that. One that is a romantic at heart, in both the 'love' sense and in the naive sense. Things will work out in the end because they always have for her.

I wanted her to reflect Eren's own inherent idealist nature and how it conflicts with reality.

Kindness has costs.

Freedom is subjective.

Someone you love might be the bad guy.

Rias' struggle for freedom from her own identity mirrors Eren's struggle for freedom in a world with 'enemies' because, inherently, they are both absolutely pointless. Naive conceptions of freedom that cannot ever be achieved because they fundamentally ignore reality.

Yet, Rias never stops dreaming.

From the start to the end of OTB, her dreams, her kindness, and her freedoms are challenged. Yet she never stops wanting to be free. No longer free of her identity as 'Rias of the Gremory' but rather a more refined version of freedom. The freedom to be happy.

When Rias looks at the Wall Eren builds at the end of the fic, she does not see it like Eren saw the walls of Maria. Rias probably never even considered going to other universes, even knowing they exist. Instead, Rias simply sees the Wall as something that prevents someone she cares about from being happy, thus taking away their 'freedom' to live a happy life.

From start to end, even when she was fighting him, even when she thought she helped kill him, Rias never once removed Eren from the 'we' in 'We will be free.'

Rias' dreams had been challenged, and they'd been damaged, but they never broke.

Unlike Eren's.

I will talk about the epilogue at the end, but it is no coincidence that Rias is the one who refuses Eren's death. Because, at her core, Rias' freedom is a selfish one.

If Eren goes from 'dreaming of the sea' to 'dreaming of what's beyond the sea' to achieve his freedom, then Rias goes from 'freedom from negative consequences' to 'accepting the consequences of freedom.'

Which, I think, leads us to the final 'primary character' as I think of them.

Issei Hyoudou is, I think, one of the most hated protagonists in a popular series. Not without reason, of course, though I will point out anime only watchers tend to hate him more. At least in the light novel, he has an arc, and his trauma is depicted relatively well. (Relatively. It's DxD, after all.) That trauma goes a long way in explaining his actions throughout the series. (Again, relatively. DxD is famous for the disagreements between Ishibumi and his editor about how to handle it.)

Still, Issei is a really fun character to write. He's just so... fun. And I think that epitomizes the best characteristics of 'Issei Hyoudou.' Unapologetically who he is without shame. Relentlessly upbeat. A dreamer with an absurd dream.

I have problems with Issei Hyoudou as a sympathetic character, just because of what I like in my protagonists, but from a purely storytelling perspective, Issei Hyoudou is the perfect protagonist for high school DxD. He is the key factor in the tone, the message, and the overall story that DxD is trying to be.

I like stories like AOT, with themes, deep characters, tight plots, and grounded worldviews.

But High School DxD is not a story like that.

DxD is THE ecchi anime. Not the first, but the one everyone thinks of when they think of the genre. The brain off, boobs good, pretty colours, yay harems, hot women, good vs. evil story. Just like Issei, it's dumb fun. Give it any sort of deep thought, and you will see Ishibumi's horror roots, but you aren't really supposed to think. Like Issei is DxD in a nutshell. A bit of depth if you want it, but mostly there to enjoy the ride.

There is a reason DxD is so popular. Like him or hate him, Issei Hyoudou is the lens through which we see the DxD world. It is because of him we see it as a magical world of boobs, magic, and magic boobs. If the protagonist was some serious, no-nonsense type or even just grounded in some sort of realism, then DxD wouldn't work.

We see this in Slash Dog, where the protagonist is a much more 'mature' teenager like many fanfictions have, and it's... grim, frankly. It has similar jokes and some recurring characters, and it is even set in a school setting, but the overall tone is one of death, horror, and, quite frankly, enough EDGE to cut yourself on.

No. DxD is at its best when it goes the full Issei-tard root. Head empty, no thoughts, boobs make brain go BRRRRRRRR. Just dumb, ecchi fun.

So, naturally, I had to go into the oft-unexplored depths of Issei's character.

What can I say? I wasn't writing DxD. I was writing On The Bench.

And there was a lot there for those who cared to look for it. This is not just because he's the protagonist and gets a lot of screen time but also because Issei just has some unironically really good character moments.

There's obviously the trauma of Raynare's killing him and its long-term impact. Hard to have a harem when you don't believe a woman can love you because you've, quite literally, been stabbed in the back by your first girlfriend. (I just wish this depiction of trauma and its long-term effects were also shown in other characters rather than them 'getting over it' so quickly. Makes other characters feel shallow.)

But, apart from the romantic aspect, Issei also has a surprisingly heroic side to him.

Many harem anime/stories have these milk toast protagonists, those whose greatest traits are basic human decency in some supernatural setting. This is so the audience can use them as a self-insert 'this could be me' type of person. A reader-insert story that isn't even Fanfiction. But it leads to this twisted idea that basic kindness is all that is needed to have multiple women throw themselves at your feet.

Does Issei 'deserve' to have all the romantic interest that gets thrown his way? Probably not. But is he one of those basic bitch protags that just does the bare minimum to get it? Also no.

Perhaps the biggest example of this is when you remove the romantic aspect entirely.

Look at how Issei treats those he's not attracted to, particularly those younger than him. His relationship with Gasper is an example of this, as is his actions of trying to save Ophis from Cao Cao (by this point, she didn't have an 'adult' version.) However, the greatest example is Issei's relationship with the children of the supernatural world. It starts with just devil kids, but it expands to wider races like Yokai and others as the story goes on.

Unironically, the best example of this is volume 10 of the light novels: Lion Heart of the School Festival. Whether it is his brief conversation with a fan of Oppai Dragon who didn't get to see the show, his respect/rivalry with Sairaorg, or his final push to ask Rias out despite his trauma, I am of the opinion that this is Issei Hyoudou at his best.

Issei is an idiot, a pervert, and an idiotic pervert, but time and time again, when he sees some injustice happening, he doesn't stand by and watch, even if it's the 'wrong' thing to do and gets him in shit later.

Which dovetails quite nicely with Eren Yeager. (I swear, the fact they have the same voice actor is just a coincidence.)

Both Eren and Issei are very honest with their feelings, or at least Eren is when he's not trying to manipulate you. Both had a dream they were chasing, even if everyone else called them crazy. Both have that 'heroic' trait, that intolerance for injustice that many protagonists have.

The difference?

Eren's world was one where there were no heroes, and he was betrayed by his dreams and ideals.

Issei's world is one where he is rewarded for heroics, where his dreams are a direct result of his 'good deeds.'

And when the two worlds mix?

That, my friends, is what you call a story worth telling.

And Oppai Dragon was the perfect medium to tell it.

I never wanted to change Issei, just like I didn't want to really change any of the other characters. Instead, I just want to challenge him, to peel away the superficial layers to get to his core. To force him to look into a mirror.

What happens when you look into the mirror is up to you? You can change, or you can double down on who you are. Neither is a wrong answer.

Issei Hyoudou was too dumb to change and too honest to look away. So, he simply decided to double down (pun intended.)

Like all things in his life, Issei chose to face it head-on.

Besides being the first domino that led to that change, Eren really didn't have too much to do with who Issei was.

All Eren did was make sure that Issei knew the risks and what might be at the end of the path. Apart from that, all Eren did was make sure Issei didn't make the same mistake he did. Everything else was all on Issei.

Because Eren knew his future, unlike the others. Everything Issei did have to be his own choice, even if his role on the stage would fit the play Eren was laying out.

I guess that ends the 'primary character' category. The 'secondary characters' will go by faster since there is less to say.

Akeno straddles the line of secondary and primary characters pretty well. (Something I'm sure she'd appreciate.) She was an interesting dichotomy to write. At once, the most 'honest' and 'dishonest' character with herself. Self-aware of her desires and problems in a way most teenagers never are, yet also filled with a self-hatred and hatred of her own race, which is wholly irrational.

Her arc is one I didn't think is possible to ever finish. There's this idea people have of... I guess 'original sin' is a way to put it, but it's not only a thing that pops up in religion. It has its ties in racism, in ideology, in cultures across the world. This idea that one is guilty as soon as they are born, either for the very act of being born who/what/where/when they are born, or because of the actions of their ancestor/culture/country/religion/race.

This idea permeates both AOT and DxD, though the former obviously takes it more seriously. The idea that one's own existence is something to be ashamed of for a myriad of reasons. Reiner and Gabi internalized it due to the propaganda they were fed, and Akeno has, as well, through the guilt over her mother's death. And it's something that is very real, even in the modern age, and very fucked up. It's also not something one ever really wholly gets over. You struggle with it all your life. But it's worth it to keep going.

I think it is one of my favourite themes of AOT as a whole. That, irrespective of who you are or where you come from, nobody is inherently 'guilty,' no matter what their ancestors did. Because our ancestors are separate people. We can choose to inherit their hearts and wills, for good or ill, but that is something we choose.

If Sona's arc is about the struggle for knowledge, Issei's about the struggle for heroism, and Rias's about the struggle for dreams and ideals, then Akeno's is about the struggle for self-acceptance.

And Yuuto Kiba's is about revenge.

Duh.

It's always a bit of a shame when solid male characters fall to the wayside in harem stories to focus on the waifu of the season. Make no mistake, Kiba isn't the greatest character ever written or anything, but he often gets shafted in Fanfiction just because he doesn't have a pair of boobs.

With how much revenge is a focus in AOT, I couldn't not include Kiba. More than just because I think he is the most similar to Eren, I think Eren needed Kiba as much as Kiba needed Eren. He needed to reflect on the Rumbling, his ultimate vengeance against the world. Because, quite frankly, he never had time to.

While in the Paths, he was trapped by the Founder's power, and after that, he died. Eren never really came to terms with what he did, why he did it, or what he felt for it. Would he do it again? Yes. But that doesn't mean it was easy, right, or even understandable at the time. Eren explicitly says his head was messed up, and even if dying to Mikasa didn't get him what he wanted, he might have unleashed the Rumbling anyway. Whether he would or not, we'll never know, but I wanted to capture not just that rage but the cooling embers of it after the fact.

Eren, for all that he acted out of revenge often in AOT, wasn't just a two-dimensional character. He moved out of fear, ideals, love, pride, and betrayal as well. I don't disagree with the common trope that someone who lives only for revenge will destroy themselves in the search. But those kinds of pure 'avengers' are rare. Most people don't just feel one emotion at a time, even one as strong as rage. They have other things they care about and desire. Even the quintessential tale of revenge, the Count of Monte Cristo, ends with the Count sparing the main target of his revenge and sailing away with his lover, having left a considerable fortune to the son of an old friend.

Kiba is Eren's junior, not just in the pursuit of vengeance but also in the fact that there was something else. Something that pushes them on more than revenge.

Koneko/Shirone was... difficult. Like Mikasa, she's not really expressive and relies more on body language than verbal speech. Not only that, but so much of her story is tied in with Kuroka's, and there is so much overlap. In the end, I feel like I didn't really get to go very far with her despite her own small growth.

I guess the most relevant thing I wanted to connect with her was the inherent chaos of any sort of self-sacrificial behaviour. Even if one does something for a good reason, by the very nature of the act, the one that sacrifices themselves will have no clue of the long-term effects of their actions. Kuroka did what she did to save her sister, but that doesn't make her happy, does it?

Eren kills off all the Titans, but that doesn't mean the future is 'good.' He has no way of knowing if it will turn out for the better or worse than before. All he could do was trust the future to those he left behind.

Vali and his team are stranding the line of secondary and tertiary characters.

Again, this is a case where so much of their characterization is laid out later in the light novels that the anime hasn't reached. Vali is a try-hard edge lord with a huge dorky side and a soft, gooey center. Bikou is like a shoulder monkey, more along for the ride and the fun than any sort of grand ambition. Arthur is pretty much a gender-bent Saber from Fate (I know what I said.)

All three are battle maniacs but all three also have the sort of 'rogue with a heart of gold' trope going for them. Le Fay (because she gets the harem treatment) gets more screen time than them in DxD, but I really didn't have time to dive into her characterization without slowing the story down.

Asia and Xenovia: Despite having a bunch of ideas for these two, Eren's general disposition towards religion and its adherents kind of prevented them from having too much prominence in this story. Asia's power is seriously underrated; one doesn't mess with the white mage for a reason, and it pairs so well with Issei's that it astounds me that she doesn't get much exposure for anything more than being the 'kind, naive, ditzy nun.' Xenovia also often gets reduced to the token haremite because of her straightforward approach. I hope I at least gave them some decent moments despite their tertiary nature.

Xenovia, in particular, even without the whole Griselda incident, I think is a good voice of opposition. Those close to Eren who consider him a friend/loved one might be able to understand his reasons (even if they don't agree with them), but she is able to just look at the facts. Eren is, unapologetically, a monster. If one ignores all justifications and reasons and just looks at his actions, Eren Yeager is the worst monster ever born. Even if I like to understand the 'why' and 'how,' to look at the world through a nuanced lens, every once in a while, we need to step back and see the whole picture, not just the pieces.

Serafall and the Satans: They, as a group, are another example of fanon and nomenclature getting away from the root of the story. Yes, they undoubtedly killed a bunch of people in the civil war, and Adjuka's Evil Pieces directly enabled the likes of Diodora and other Pillar Devils abusing the system. I am not saying they were heroes or perfect or anything, but one can't ignore what actions they do take. Time and time again, they bend over backward for their family, for peace, and for their people. When Trihexa is unsealed, they sacrifice themselves to seal it back. This is very different from the shadowy devil masterminds many Fanfiction portray them as. (Again, I've read plenty of great stories where they are satanic in their actions. Just that one shouldn't mistake that as the canon version.)

The Hero Faction: I didn't want to change them, and I don't think I did. Fundamentally, baring Herc's Balance Breaker, I didn't even add anything to them. Instead, I wanted to show the different ways 'heroism' is interpreted. In canon, they are antagonists because they are, essentially, humanist terrorists. They don't care about anything but killing non-humans. Any valid points their ideology might have is drowned out by the fact they are willing to genocide entire races for the actions of the few.

In OTB, they aren't any different. All that changed was that they had Eren to point them in a direction that actually benefits the world and allows them to attain their potential. Anyone has the potential to be a 'hero,' so long as the circumstances put them in that position. Nobody is 'inherently' one.

Rizevim: In a story full of complex characters with deep motivations and a wealth of depth, it's always nice to have a root of simplicity somewhere. Rizevim is that simple. He is the rich and powerful being who had everything he ever wanted and grew bored of it. He would rather destroy the world than let anyone else 'have' it. Is he powerful? Sure. But power is not an interesting character make.

For all that, the world is a complicated, messy place; sometimes people are really just assholes. They have their reasons, even if not good ones, but that doesn't change the fact that these 'animals,' as Eren would put it, exist.

There are a whole bunch of other characters that only appear once or twice, but this is already 15k words, so I'll leave this part done and get to the last major section I want to talk about.

The epilogue.

A brief side step before that. On The Bench was designed to have three endings. Not as in different endings, but as in different parts of the story where one can theoretically cut it off and consider it 'done.'

The first is Perfect End: This is the ending the cast and the audience, to a degree, expect. This isn't a 'bad end,' but rather the type of thing we commonly see in most stories. Eren, having achieved his goals, slain Great Red and dies at the hand of Rizevim, who stabs him in the back. Filled with righteous grief, the cast hunts down Rizevim, putting a stop to his plans and internalizing Eren's memory. A good vs. evil sort of story, with Eren faking his death so he can pass peacefully on the Bench, safe in the knowledge the cast can handle the rest.

I wanted this possible end to be the equivalent of how we all thought AOT would end, either in some great reveal that Eren was playing Zeke and Marley all along, that there was some way to establish peace between the nations, or even that the Rumbling would succeed. No matter who you were, we all had expectations of how AOT would end. Expectations that ran contrary to the reality of the world and the characters.

The second ending, and probably the easiest to accept, is From You, A World Away.

This is the 'True Ending' in a way. The one set up in chapter one answers most of every question, ties everything in a neat bow, and gives an ending most would be able to accept. Is it a happy ending? Maybe, maybe not, depending on how you look at it. Bittersweet but an ending that fits the narrative and the characters.

This is obviously the equivalent of the actual ending of AOTs. Messy, morally complex, with nobody really happy but also the world able to finally move on. This ending was the one I had imagined when I first thought about a story that confronted AOT's ending. And, if I had just wanted to recreate AOT in On The Bench, I would have ended things here.

But I didn't just want to do that. I wanted to go beyond Attack On Titan, not necessarily to make a 'better ending.' In fact, from a literary standpoint, I do think the last part of the epilogue harms the story overall. But... that's kind of the point.

To be meta once more, if chapters 1 to 74 take on the role of AOT's story, then chapter 75 takes on the role of 'On The Bench,' this Fanfiction, in that metaphor.

Toward the Bench in That Park is, in essence, a fanfiction of a fanfiction.

That it is my own Fanfiction makes it all the more egotistical and nonsensical. That being said, I still stand by the epilogue. I still consider it my canon continuation. But I wrote OTB for my own selfish whims, so I fully understand if someone thought it was unnecessary/ruined the story for them/invalidated what came before/hated it.

So, what about the contents of the epilogue itself?

Taking it from top to bottom, the first scene where they find his body, I wanted to really capture the conflicting feelings the cast would be feeling at Eren's death. Yes, he messed up the world, but he also saved it. He killed a bunch of people, but nowhere near what he threatened to do, and they thought he would (and had done in the past.) He was their enemy, but he was also their friend.

Remember, the time between Eren leaving and his attack on the Underworld is only a few weeks. If you are able to unequivocally declare a close friend a foe in that short a time, based only on the words of others without them actually hurting you, then you probably weren't close friends in the first place.

The time after Issei's 'death' and the end of the Battle of Broken Worlds is only a few hours. This was probably when they were most able to see Eren as a foe, as he had 'killed' Issei (or at least tried to, they'd think, after Issei came back.) Here, they are able to fight him because they don't think he'll stop, but even then, they don't like it.

But then they discover that Eren has the Founder, thus knew Issei wouldn't die and could have killed them all, yet he chose to not go through with his threat of destroying the Underworld. He spared them their loved ones (the Satans/family/civilians). So, is he the good guy? Not really. A bunch of people still died. So what should they feel? Those conflicting emotions, ups and downs, are only left to fester after he disappears for months, and they spend time hunting down his 'killer.'

Then they discover his full plan, as well as experience a fraction of the terrible effects of the Founders' power. Is Eren a hero? He saved the world. Is Eren a villain? He's killed thousands (in this world, at least) and essentially put them in a cage. Is Eren their friend? ...Probably. Certainly, while he hurt them, he also helped them. Their entire time together, he hadn't manipulated them when he could have, and every sign points to him caring about them... but he did hurt them.

And then, in the end, they don't get the answers they want. We, the audience, see his meeting with God and Armin. We get some closure. They do not. They just find him smiling on the Bench.

So yeah, I really wanted to capture the complex feelings I think we all felt toward Eren at the end of AOT. He's the protagonist and antagonist. The hero and the villain. The genocidal madman and the boy who wanted to be free whose journey we've followed this entire time.

And, in many ways, Eren's death is a relief. With him dead, he doesn't have to confront the world he's built. We don't have to deal with complex emotions when the subject of them is no longer there. We, and they, can move on, even if sad.

Enter one, Rias Gremory.

As I mentioned in the character section, Rias's arc was always one where she, over and over, has her dreams blocked by the realities of the world. Her kindness leads to pain. Her freedom is stolen. Her family is torn apart from within. Her crush, her first love, is the source of it all, even 'killing' one of her loved ones.

Rias is able to confront Eren. She's able to fight him. She's even able to help kill him for those she loves... But she doesn't want to.

Rias Gremory is, at her heart, a selfish dreamer who wants the world to go her way and will do everything in her power to make that happen, even if it goes against what the rest of the world considers 'right.'

In many ways, Eren has slowly been sapping the freedom she so craved from the get-go by (sometimes inadvertently) forcing her to face the truth of a cruel world. Then, he tops it all off by destroying her society and literally putting her in a cage.

And, in the end, Rias steals Eren's freedom to die alone and at peace.

Even if the final part of the epilogue never happened, Eren's presence in the coffin means something, sometime in the future, 'could happen.' Maybe in decades, centuries, or millennia, but just by the existence of the coffin that keeps him 'fresh,' Eren becomes the equivalent of the idea that Titans will never really die.

The time skip after that is more about a 'where are they now' sort of thing.

I had always intended for Sona's school to bookend the story, and it worked as not only a great framework to show the 'post-Eren-world,' but I also wanted to show how different people/factions took the events.

For most of humanity, Eren can generally be considered a heroic figure since he didn't really do anything against them and saved them. That being said, he pretty much traumatized the whole world and declared he destroyed his own, so only small subsets of the population can really consider him messianic in any way, to say nothing of the chaos and confusion that happened in the years that followed.

For most supernatural factions, Eren is... probably the equivalent of the heavenly dragons. Powerful. Destructive. World Changing. He isn't a hero in any way, but he's not really different from what they're used to dealing with in anything but the scope of his abilities. He's not the guy who set off the equivalent of the Rumbling, even if he showed what he did. He's pretty much no different than the biblical god in their eyes. Not better, not worse than any other godlike being in this setting.

Also, I wanted to address what seems to be a point of confusion for many. Most of the world has absolutely no idea about anything that happened on the Bench. They don't know Eren spent a lot of time in Kuoh. They don't know he was friends with Rias/Sona/et al. l. They don't know that Mikasa is also from the same world or that she is connected to Eren. They can find out about Kuroka, Team Vali, and Ophis, but there's a reason Kuroka decided to become Serafall's bishop, and nobody wants to fuck with the others.

That's why it was a big deal for Sona to declare that she knew Eren. Because, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, he came out of nowhere and disappeared. So much of his past/motivations/abilities were unknown. Sona needed to do it if she wanted to be able to teach about his past, but the other's connection to him remained largely unknown. 99.999999% of the people who watch Oppai Dragon have no idea that the 'senpai' character is based on Eren, or that he and Issei have any relationship outside of being enemies.

As for the school itself and its success? Who knows. Whether it succeeds or not will be up to the effort of those involved. Another story for another time that might not ever get told.

I will say that I struggled really hard with what to name it, not wanting to use the cannon 'Aurora Academy' or anything trite like 'Eldia Academy,' which wouldn't mean anything to most people. I actually didn't come up with Atlas Academy until I was writing it, and I am very proud of myself for it. Not its originality (god no. I'm not that good) but rather because anyone who reads RR knows my fondness for wordplay and 'Atlas' works on, like, five different levels.

As for the last part of the epilogue, and possibly the most controversial part of the fic?

As I said, the existence of the coffin always ensured 'something' could happen in the future. DxD is simply a setting where resurrection is too easy and common. I complained about it with the Issei resurrection, and with Eren, I was actively jumping through hoops, so it wasn't easy to just go, 'You died? So what?'

Realistically, unless Eren's death was something that completely destroyed him and his soul, then there was always going to be a chance of resurrection in DxD, and that runs into the problem of why Eren would choose a future like that in the first place.

If Rias' actions guarantee that 'something' could happen, then I wanted an outside force to be the ones to actually do it. Make no mistake, the Satans/Michael/Azazel are fully aware of the threat Eren poses, but they also aren't blind to the benefit he can bring. Even beyond the Satans' desire to make their sisters happy, there is a very realpolitik thought process behind their actions.

Because, at the end of the day, in this world Eren is not the man who unleashed the Rumbling. He is the man who didn't. The man who has knowledge of threats nobody else does. The man who could have killed them all (or directed Cao Cao to do so) but chose not to. Eren's actions, more than the threat of what he could do, are why they decided to pursue his revival.

Let's also not forget that these are the same people who worked with Cao Cao and the hero faction in canon after they attacked the Underworld in a manner similar to Eren's. While Eren's attack had a greater impact due to who died, the death toll is probably lower in total due to his control of the situation.

All that being said, if I wanted to stick close to canon, I couldn't really see why they wouldn't want the information and military power Eren might bring to the table. Especially since they knew his weakness (the Bench).

Finally, I will say this about the epilogue. It is not a 'happy ending.'

Just as Eren has no official paring in this fic, so too is there no guarantee that he is welcomed back with open arms by his friends. I saw a lot of comments wondering why Sona/Rias/etc... would still hold affection for Eren after all he did. As I mentioned earlier, their emotions toward him are in no way simple.

The state of the world is also in no way 'good.' The three faction leaders think it is manageable, at least right now, but there is no denying the death, confusion, trauma, and chaos Eren caused with his actions. Wars began because of him, to say nothing of individual tragedies.

But, at the same time, all his sacrifices gave both worlds something that wasn't there before: hope.

Eren, in the end, gave up on pretty much everything. The future. His values. His morals. His dreams. His ideals. He gave it all up for a few people he wanted to live a long, happy life.

Make no mistake, this fic is not about pardoning or excusing Eren's actions with the Rumbling. It's just about giving perspective. He literally gave up his freedom, the thing he'd been chasing his entire life, to experience a literal hell, essentially forever, just so he could end Titans, get revenge, and give his loved ones a small chance at a long and happy future.

He isn't a saint, and I don't think 'redemption' is really possible for that kind of willful death and destruction. That being said, if anyone had been punished for that kind of genocide, it is Eren Yeager. He essentially existed in a never-ending hell of his own making, all without the escape of death.

Yet, he never had the possibility to confront his actions. He built the world, but he had never been forced to live in it.

More than that, Eren never really had a chance to live in it. From the very first chapter of AOT, his end had been set. Even if Iseyama (or myself in this fic) changed the course of the Path, the destination would always be the same.

No matter what he did, Eren never had the chance at a long, happy life.

This epilogue, and On The Bench as a whole, was never about creating a 'happy ending' where everything turns out well. It was about creating a 'possibility' where happiness is, theoretically, achievable. Eren and everyone else still need to work for their happiness. Still need to live in a cruel world. But now, they have the chance to find the beauty in it.

Eren, as he falls from the sky, does not smile because everything is good.

Eren is smiling because, for the first time, he is free to chase a long, happy life... even if it takes two thousand years or more.

********

Whew!

18K words of rambling! The delay in this release definitely allowed me to go into much more detail than my post about RR. Still, I'm glad I got these thoughts out there. They are nowhere near everything, and there are still little things sprinkled throughout the fic that I didn't talk about for the eagle-eyed reader, but they are probably the most relevant.

Now for some crunchy, crunchy numbers.

I posted On The Bench across eight websites, and all this information is based on my best approximation. Depending on the site and the tools it provides, these numbers might be more or less accurate. (There might be some overlap, but there also might be some lurkers, so I feel they even out.)

FF dot Net: 1254 Followers
AO3: 365 Kudos
Webnovel: 2910 Collections (closest I can get to total readers)
Scribblehub: 204 Readers
RoyalRoad: 200~ lowest chapter reads
Questionable Questing SFW: 733 watchers
QQ NSFW: 1258 watchers
SufficientVelocity: 211 watchers
SpaceBattles: 966 watchers

That totals to *Drum roll* 8101 readers at the time of writing!

Holy shit!

Why on earth would 8k people waste time on my stuff!?

Specifically, if we assume an average reading time of 300 wpm (higher-end speeds, but you're all awesome) and a final word count of 355101 words (also HOLY SHIT! This was supposed to be a 50 to 75k short story! Why do I do this to myself!?) not counting Author notes we get to a total of *Gun Salut* 9,588,910.67 minutes spent reading On the Bench.

Or 159,815.18 hours.

Or 6,658.97 days.

Or 18.23 years!

Holy fucking shit Batman!

I have sucked 18.23 years collectively from the human race! My evil plan is working!

In all seriousness, words cannot describe how thrilled, humbled, and thankful I am for all the support, encouragement, and engagement I have received throughout these last few months. I might have written On The Bench for me, but I am really glad so many of you have been able to get something out of it, even if you disagree with some of my decisions.

In particular, I would like to thank Safely Hijinks, Netra, and OrangeMaster on Spacebattles, as well as an anonymous fellow on AO3 for their Omakes. I would also like to thank Old Man of the Mountain for his help in the early chapters, both for his beta help as well as having someone to bounce ideas off of.

For the omakes, I highly recommend anyone interested in going to the websites to read them. In particular, Netra has published a new Omake after the end of the fic, a wholesome 'what if' situation focusing on Sona and Eren's possible relationship.

I will, in the coming days, release a chapter with these omakes on all sites. I will give credit where it is due, of course, and will remove any that the writers do not want me to share on the other sites.

So, what next for Ol' ReadingDangerously?

First off, a bit of a break.

I've been writing pretty much nonstop since June of 2022. Totalling about 1,132,712 words, averaging around 1400 words a day, not counting editing time or rewrites. All while working a full-time job, moving a few times, and not making even a penny for the work.

I'm planning on not writing anything until November and just relaxing.

After that? I haven't decided yet.

Probably a few omakes/side stories for Rapturous Rhapsody that I never had time to do while writing On The Bench, but apart from that, it's really up in the air.

I have ideas, both for fanfiction and for original stories, but I will have to see what really interests me. I might do a few one-shots here and there, too. Once I settle on what I want to write, I would like to get a good chunk of it done before I start publishing. I like having that buffer of extra chapters for when real life rears its ugly head. I might even start a Patreon/kofi/whatever the current trend is to try and make writing a full-time thing.

It's all undecided except for one thing.

I'm not done writing. I don't think I'll ever be 'done' writing. So, if you've enjoyed my work, I hope you will continue to do so as I improve.

Until next time, I would like to thank everyone for sitting here with me and listening to the rambling stories of a stranger beside you on the bench.

 

[Aravis]

Work kicked my brain in today, so I spent a couple minutes trying to figure out what math got you 18+ years of me reading your story before I realized that was an 'everyone' type statistic, lol.

It was great to read you thoughts, thanks for sharing both them and this wonderful story! Enjoy your break and I hope you see you again!

 

[William L Thacker]

Thank you for such a wonderful experience.

 

[ScriptGenius12]

Thank you @ReadingDangerously

 

[Basilisk]

Well done, looking forward to your next work

 

[mpbjunkie]

Thank you very much for writing the story and for giving us such thoughtful notes on it. I'm glad to hear you're doing better and will be there to read what you write next after your well deserved break.