Deatte Hitotsuki de Zecchou Jorei Vol 12 - Kaede! Perfect ending for the story!
I just finished reading the 12th and final volume of the light novel series Deatte Hitotsuki de Zecchou Jorei! (出会ってひと突きで絶頂除霊). It surprised me with a series of developments that I wasn't really expecting. We start back where we left off in the previous volume, with the team preparing to launch an all-out assault to prevent the Succubus King from being reborn.
The idea is that they want to strike the enemy and steal the remaining parts while keeping Souya in a safe place to avoid putting all the pieces of the Succubus King at risk. Haruhisa, on the other hand, will be on the frontline, as his powers are essential to defeat the final boss and absorb the remaining parts. All the Saints (including Aoi) and their respective gods are also going to participate, creating a huge army.
As expected, things don't go according to plan, and the enemy manages to divide the group. While the Saints are fending off the various criminals, Haruhisa is isolated. He is approached by one of the enemies who "sucks out his genes" (you can guess what I mean by that) and unwittingly provides them to Azazel. This seems to be enough to revive the Succubus King, even without stealing the remaining parts.
Azazel then completes the ritual, becomes a giant mass of energy in female form, and starts thrashing around. The gods seem to think that she will "self-deteriorate" over time due to the excess energy, as apparently happened in the past. However, it turns out their understanding was flawed, and the original Succubus King willingly self-destructed back then.
In a flashback moment, we learn that, unsurprisingly, Mihoto was the original Succubus King. She was born out of love between her father (a god) and her mother (a demon) and was always chased away by both sides as an enemy. While running away, she met Sonya, a young human girl with whom she bonded almost immediately and became lovers.
When the gods arrived to kill her, she lost control trying to protect Sonya and started absorbing their energy until she became that gigantic monstrosity we saw in the present battle. She then disappeared instead of continuing to destroy the world to guarantee a future for her beloved Sonya. From the pictures, it was clear (she looked EXACTLY like Souya), and it is confirmed straight after that Sonya is a distant ancestor of Souya and they are related by blood.
Back in reality, everything seems lost, but Mihoto has a plan. Souya and Haruhisa have to have sex to maximize the energy they can use to fight against the giantess. Kaede jumps in, declares her love for him, and asks to do the same, with her going first. Haruhisa complies, and all three get powered up enough to fight the final battle together against the giant.
In the final battle, we get to see pretty much all the characters from the story lending a hand to defeat the enemy. Even Enju, who didn't get much screentime, appeared. Haruhisa and the others manage to defeat it, and all the parts disappear from them. Mihoto tries to disappear too, but Haruhisa convinces her to reincarnate and stay with them to "sort out the mess".
In the ending credits, it is revealed that Haruhisa accepted Kaede's confession and they became lovers. However, as an aftereffect of the battle, his sex drive is over the top and will remain so for a few years. Therefore, Kaede allows him to take the other girls as "concubines" as long as she is the first and legal wife. The story ends with Souya telling Haruhisa that she doesn't mind being the second or third wife as long as she gets to be with him.
Honestly? I wasn't expecting Kaede to actually win the romantic race, even though she made the most sense among the heroines due to her strong connection with Haruhisa. I mentioned a few times in other posts I have written about this series that Kaede was my favorite heroine. I am really a sucker for these dedicated heroines who have followed the protagonist since childhood without wavering.
I also knew that usually those childhood friend types are left to lose the race compared to the "new heroine" that appears. Souya was the titular heroine of this series, so everything pointed to her being the main wife (even if I suspected the others would also take a role due to the ecchi nature of the novel).
Mihoto being the Succubus King was kind of expected considering the flags she raised during the series. The biggest was definitely the fact that she recovered more memories the more pieces of the Succubus King Haruhisa recovered. Thankfully, she also managed to get a happy ending, living a new life just like her parents wanted her to.
Overall, Deatte Hitotsuki de Zecchou Jorei! was a blast to read through and really shows what a great writer Hirotaka Akagi is. I have already started another novel of his (Inma Tsuiho) and may make a post about it in the near future, so stay tuned.
