Well, some bad news: My laptop was stolen (along with my bag full of schoolwork), and all my files went with it. All the drafts I made for this story and any others are gone, so I'm starting again from scratch _ Annoying beyond belief, but I'm not giving up on writing just yet.

Nothing can be done about it I suppose, so wish me luck you guys.

Anyway, to answer some questions:

1. The reason they didn't recognize Ichika is because he looks different compared to his past version. More sure of himself, more well built, longer hair etc etc. The "maiden's", on the other hand, don't look that different apart from looking slightly more mature. Common stereotype in anime/manga where the mom tends to look the same as her teenage years.

There's also the fact that he doesn't act like a dope in the future, contrast to here:/

2. Yes, there will be flashbacks to how the other kids got sent back, but others won't be shown at first since they might spoil facets of their character or issues they may have. Not all of them are open books, as you'll see later.

3. The main protagonist of the teenagers is Ichika, as you all well know. On the other hand, the kids have no main character since this is a harem fic. If I do need to have a viewpoint character, it will probably have to be Saito Sarashiki since he's the most "normal" (for a given definition of the word) and has the least quirks or issues gained from his parents. Think of him as "The Kyon" of the fic.

4. Just because the narration says so, doesn't mean it's completely true. The narration tilts in the favor of whoever's on the focus. So the narration saying that "he's the best guy ever" doesn't make it true.

By the way, the cover's the closest pic I could get for Saito Sarashiki. Gotta thank ZeroXSEED for that.

"No, there must be some kind of mistake. Most likely a...flux in the time wave or something," Tabane muttered to herself, "The machine malfunctioned, there was a divergence glitch, and this resulted in the split." She finished in a surprisingly calculative manner.

Tabane didn't know what was happening. No. More than that, she was beginning to think she was starting to go insane...er, if that's a word. Pretty ironic for her to start worrying about her sanity now of all times.

Everything was falling apart: Her lab was destroyed, most likely beyond salvaging now. Her recent experiment turned out to be a failure (And she spent 3 days on it! 3 days!). Kuu was gone, most likely teleported somewhere due to the machine malfunctioning. And to top it all off, this girl - and she had no idea who she was - showed up out of nowhere to say very ridiculous things.

"Mother, if you're done reminiscing, then we should really go soon. I wouldn't want to keep them waiting," The other voice sounded calm, like nothing was out of the ordinary or that she expected this to happen. While Tabane was trying to stay sane, she seemed to regard all this as a joke.

She sat on the ruined table like she owned the place. And, judging by the bored look on her face, she probably wouldn't have cared whether she did or not. A piece of broken...something sat next to her crackling electricity, but she ignored it and just yawned, most likely out of boredom. It wasn't like wanton destruction was anything new to her.

"Little girl, I think you're making a mistake," Tabane put on her 'professional' voice, something she never did for the last 10 years, "I only have one daughter, and she's not here right now," Speaking of which, she should really go find her. It was a good thing she planted that tracker on her when she was sleeping...what? Any protective mother would do that at the very least. At least she didn't put in the emergency gun implant.

"Oh no, I think I'm right," She had a self satisfied smirk on her face, "Let me guess: Another experiment gone wrong? Maybe you sent 4000 missiles at Japan this time instead of 2000? I heard the Generation 6 can stop an onslaught with a knife compared to the White Knight's broadsword," Though the smirk never left her face, her sarcasm was extremely biting. She didn't sound like any ordinary 10 year old.

Tabane was beginning to lose her patience. Who was she to make fun of her? She was great genius Tabane Shinonono! She didn't have to deal with this! When people laughed at her for her concept of the IS, did she cry and lick her wounds? No! She had her IS defend those ungrateful ingrates from those missiles coming for that city even when they laughed at her. Of course, how the missiles were launched in the first place was irrelevant.

It would take a genius to launch all those missiles, though.

"Listen little girl, I really think you're making a mistake," She was straining to keep her tone neutral. She hated dealing with uppity people, kids or not, "I only have one daughter, and she's not here right now. Now, I don't know what you're planning, or who you even are, but-"

"Usagi," She stated simply, interrupting the soon to be furious woman's rambling, "If you're going to lecture your own daughter, at least call her by name, will you?" Sighing, she hopped of the console and made her way to the end of the room, "And before you ask: Yes, I'm your biological daughter. Take a DNA test if you want to make sure."

And there she went again, making up nonesense. Her with a daughter made through natural means? Please, there would never be a man who could live up to her standards and intellectual superiority. Besides, there was only one man she would even consider giving a smidge of attention to, and it would've been more accurate to call him more of a boy than a man. If she would've made a kid with anyone, then it could only have been-

Wait, bad thoughts. No more. if she headed down that path of thinking again, it would feel like she was betraying her sister all over again. She already caused enough grief with the whole "Witness protection and leave the only guy you love behind for 7 years", and she still wasn't forgiven about that. Call her crazy (No seriously, please do), but she thought making and giving her the latest generation of the IS -completely from her own pocket, mind you - would win her some points on the 'forgiveness scale'.

On the other hand, she didn't get where she was by respecting the limits. When she found an obstacle, she didn't give up or try to go around it. No, she bulldozed her way through like any self respecting person should. The fact that she could summon missile launchers helped, though.

With that said, she decided to take a different approach, "So...assuming I believe these assumptions of yours," And that was a big if, "Can you tell me what you're doing here? This is a secure lab that changes its location every few days. No one can trace this place, not even the top government agencies."

She was right about it being secure. The base was mobile fortress, moving to a new country, state, or even the middle of the ocean if need be every few days. The entrances were sealed with a retinal scanner and only her and Kuu (And Chifuyu, Ichika, and Houki if needed be) were allowed access inside. If any sign of forced activity was shown then the automated IS would activate and deal with intruders at the entrance. If they somehow make it past that and get near the entrance to the lab, then the entire thing was set-up to self destruct; taking any equipment, files, blueprints and date stored inside.

It was a pain to rebuild again when or if it happened, but she wouldn't take any risks when it came to her work. She already made the mistake of trying to show her genius to the world once, and that just got her laughs and insults in return. Now when she was successful they wanted what she tried to share? Hah, no chance of that.

"Well, judging by that wreck," She made her way past the broken machinery to the giant circular machine, "I'm assuming this is a time machine, and you somehow sent me back in time. Or forward, but back makes more sense given the facts shown."

Alright, new problem: She knew what the machine was. This project that took her 3 days (3 days! That's a lot of time she can't get back!) to finish was supposed to remain a secret Everybody already overreacted when they found out what her First Generation IS could do, imagine what would happen if people found out she could alter the fabric of time.

They might find out the embarrassing dream she announced when she was 7! She made sure to delete all records of that damnable announcement, deleted all the pictures of said event, and even modified the memory of all those involved, her own parents included, to erase all trace of it. It was a closely guarded secret that no one should ever find out.

She also didn't like the implications that people could find things out about her and her activities without her telling them. If this little girl was a problem, then she needed to stop any possible threats right now before things got worse.

"Ah...hahahahaha," Her laugh sounded automatic and flat, "You're a smart little girl, aren't you?" Usagi gave her a raised eyebrow and a 'no, duh' expression in response, "Well, why don't we go to my carrot ride, it's right over there to your left (couldn't miss it, it was practically the only thing not crackling electricity or spewing out flames), and find you something to do while-"

"You push the button right next to it and send me as far away from here as possible?" She had to stifle herself from laughing at Tabane's open mouthed shock, "No thanks."

Tabane's words died in her throat. No way, how did she- Oh, this wasn't good. She was bigger than a risk, she was an outright threat. She knew everything about her lab, inside and out. Not even Kuu knew everything about the lab.

She had to salvage this situation now before she ended up in a government lab somewhere with a collar around her neck, "Wh-What are you talk-"

"Oh, here's a thought," Usagi interrupted her again, "That pod's the only way out of here and the only one still functioning. If you send me out of here right now, then you'll be trapped in this entire base with nothing but broken equipment and no choice but to go out and look for help, which will probably end with you being handed over to the government," Urk, she had a point there, "That's if you're lucky. If you had the bright idea to say: Park this thing in the middle of the ocean," The deadpan stare she gave her pierced through her like hot knives, "If you did that. Well, you're pretty much...I don't think I have to say it."

As much as she wanted to, she couldn't deny that she was right. In her haste to try and get the little intruder as far away as possible, she had completely forgotten that just about everything had been destroyed because of the accident. It would've been fine if it was just some functionality problems, but even she couldn't re-solidify something that had been melted halfway through. At least not without tools she couldn't.

"So what are you saying?" Tabane managed to finally ask out.

"Hmm, I say we both go in there and we leave this place," She held up her right hand in a 'stop' sign, "Before you ask: Not only will this save the both of us, but you'll find your...daughter as well when we arrive. It seems like a good idea to me," She shrugged nonchalantly, though the way she said daughter gave the older woman some doubts.

"How do you know Kuu-chan will be wherever we're going?" Tabane asked suspiciously, though the serene smile remained plastered on her face. She didn't like where this entire thing was going. Being powerless in a situation irked on her nerves more than that secret did.

Usagi pointed at the empty pod next to the carrot device, "If I remember right, that's where you made the experimental teleporter," The twitch on her mother's otherwise neutral expression confirmed her statement, "Well, it looks like it was activated shortly before everything in here...exploded, so I checked the destination prompter while you were still unconscious," She paused for dramatic effect, "Turns out the set point was IS Academy."

"IS Academy?" The purple haired woman parroted, "Oh, that's not good~ Chi-chan's going to get mad at me when she finds out!"

"Yep. Dunno why you had that as a preset destination, but it's good luck for me. If I'm getting the year right, then Father's probably still schooling there." She smiled when Tabane flinched at the word 'father', "I'm interested to see what he looks like when he's younger. But if you want, we can just stay here. I haven't had a chance to talk to you in a while. It's really a win-win for me either way."

Tabane wasn't sure. On one hand, she had some very good points which she couldn't deny. On the other hand, sharing a small pod with someone who she didn't trust and seemed to know everything about her really wasn't at the top of her list. She didn't get where she was by trusting random people who claimed relations to her. It wasn't the first time someone claimed to be her long lost cousin or some such to try and steal her research from her.

But Kuu was nowhere to be found and this Usagi claimed that she was blown back through the teleporter. It made a lot of sense, considering that only someone with her capabilities could make a teleporter that could work even when everything around it was falling apart.

In the end, however, her need to find her missing daughter - not counting the one in the room, who she really didn't believe - won out.

"...Alright, let's go."

Chi-chan was going to kill her for this.

Nohotoke Honne wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed by a long mile. Frequently sleeping in class, at work, or even when she was waiting in line to get her favourite food. Working 4 days a week for her master/best friend/childhood friend, taking the rest of the week off. And frequently forgetting what she was doing or about to do when something else became more interesting.

Out of all the people that knew this, no one came close to knowing more about this than herself.

She wasn't dumb, though she tended to act like it at times. Despite her ditzy nature, she was raised to serve the Sarashiki family, a family that was well known in the shadows. Coupled with that, the Sarashiki patriarch and matriarch both entrusted her with their youngest daughter, a responsibility they wouldn't have given anyone they didn't place their whole trust in.

She knew more than she let on at times, evidenced by the fact that she remained one of the best calibrators of the engineering class despite said sleeping habits and slacker attitude. As they taught her when she was younger; 'the best laid plans always happen when no one can see you coming'. Rarely would anyone look twice at the person acting ditzy or falling asleep standing up.

Which is how she found herself in her current situation, eating food with a bunch of kids she didn't know and acting like she wasn't paying attention. As her older sister told her; 'Sometimes it's easier to gain their trust and nudge them in the right direction rather than force them to do something when they outnumber you 4 to 1'. She wasn't confident she could tell all 4 of them to come with her and they wouldn't just run off. She was pretty confident in herself (as long as she got enough sleep), but even she couldn't catch 4 people going in different directions.

It had nothing to do with the fact that she was hungry or anything. No, this was all going according to her brilliant plan. The deep fried tempura was just a bonus.

The blonde haired child was the first to speak, "So, now that we're finished with our meal, I think we should talk about what happened here," Her voice was laced with a thick accent, most likely English by the sound of it, though her words were Japanese. Flawless one's at that. She must have practiced for a while or was raised in Japan.

"Eh? What do you mean C-chan?" The blue haired one gave her a look of confusion. Compared to the previous speaker, she had no discernable accent on her or any indication she was a foreigner apart from her (very familiar) features. The Blue hair and red eyes were giving her a headache, though she didn't know why.

The other two people at the table - The brown haired boy and girl - chose to maintain their silence and just stared down at the table, unmoving. Neither of them were supposed to be here and they let their hunger get the better of them instead of thinking rationally. Well...as rationally as two kids who had no idea what was going on, anyway.

"I mean why we're here," 'C-chan' clarified, "I was walking around the garden looking at the roses when suddenly I wake up here. I have no idea what's going on or why I'm here. I'm hoping one of you knows more than I do."

"That said, I believe that we should introduce ourselves properly to each other for proper communication," She suggested, "Oh, and please call me by my full name of Claire, everyone. Especially you, Sara-san." She added at the end with a poignant stare at the smiling nicknamer.

They didn't have much chance to properly introduce themselves earlier, what with being busy and all trying to stop the grumbling in their stomach's.

"Well, you can just call me Sara-chan, like I said earlier," Sara responded after her. Based on her mannerisms, it probably wasn't her actual first name. A last name maybe.

"My full name's a pain, so just call me Fuka." The ponytailed girl was the next one to answer.

That left only the short haired brunette boy, "Yuu..." He said nothing else.

Alright, now she was getting somewhere. All of the kid's were ignoring her, so she could listen in perfectly. Slowly, Honne leaned forward and placed her head down in her arms and pretended to sleep. If they thought she wasn't listening in, then they'd have no reason to try to lie or omit any details from what exactly they thought was happening to them. One thing she found growing up was that kid's tended to talk more when they thought no one was listening in. Especially not older figures.

Sara just shrugged lazily, "No clue. I was just skip- Um, I mean doing what my mom told me and practiced my memory training and now I'm here," She smiled and stretched her arms, leaning back on her seat, "I'm glad I'm here. It's way better than boring 'shape recognition'."

Alright, that was 2 down with neither of them knowing anything about what happened. The only ones left were the two brunette's.

"Alright, who's going first? Is it gonna be ponytail-chan or tomboy-chan?" Said two people twitched at the nicknames they received.

"I-I'll go first." Fuka was the first to comply. By her features, she probably had foreign blood on her as well, though Honne didn't know what. No accent either, so it was probably the same deal as Sara earlier. She was betting it was the 'raised in Japan' option.

"Well, I just came home and started cooking dinner for Mom and Dad when the power went out," She shuddered at the memory of the sudden blackout, "I went outside to check it out, but I couldn't see anything since it was already dark out. The entire street had no lights on."

She nearly injured herself when the lights turned off. Cutting radishes on a chopping board and complete and utter darkness really don't mix with one another. Reading a horror book right before you start cooking really doesn't help on the nerves either. Not at all.

"Sounds like a horror movie," Sara commented with slight excitement.

"Um, yeah..." She looked away from her, "Anyway, I saw something pop up behind me, but I couldn't see what it was. All I know is that it was blue since that's what the light colour looked like from behind me."

"What happened after that?"

She shook her head sadly, "I don't know...I woke up here and I don't remember anything else. The last thing I remember is the sound of electricity before blacking out. I'm as clueless as the rest of you here." She finished.

Okay, that was 3 out of 4 people here without any idea what was going on or why there were here. Honne wasn't getting anywhere and she actually was starting to fall sleep now, which would mean mission failure, having to report back to Tatenashi that she failed, and her sister was probably going to lecture her about it too.

She was more afraid of the last one than anything else.

Yuu didn't say anything for a few seconds and just took a deep breath. He wasn't used to talking to this many people at once. Not only that, but all of them were females. He had problems talking to the fairer sex since he was raised in a dojo where most of the students tended to be male. This in turn made any interactions with females without his parents awkward. Sara eyeballing him really wasn't giving him any good feelings either.

He was too distracted by his hunger earlier to notice what was happening. Only after shovelling the 2nd plate down his throat did he realize what just happened.

He started out slowly, "Um...I was sleeping in my bed for an afternoon nap when I heard electricity sounds," He recalled, "I woke up and looked around my room. There wasn't anyone there, but the entire room was covered in blue light," His voice sounded rough, like he was having throat problems or a cold. Odd, considering he had no problems talking earlier.

"So you were taken from your room?" Claire asked for clarification.

"I...I think so," He started unsurely, "I saw some kind of swirling...thing above me, and I think I heard voices, but that's it."

"Anybody you know?" Fuka asked.

The voice he heard sounded high pitched and cheerful. Did it sound familiar? He could've sworn he heard that way of speaking before somewhere at the back of his head. All he remembered was arguing, and his mother yelling at someone to leave her alone. The memory was hazy and he couldn't even remember much about it. It must have happened when he was still an infant.

He couldn't even make out the words. The most he could make out was his mother's voice yelling "Go away!"; everything else sounded like a garbled mess.

"No...not familiar at all."

Well, that was 4 out of 4 down, and none of them knew anything about what happened. Most of them slumped down at the table, hands in their arms copying Honne. This was beyond frustrating. None of them had any idea how they got here, why they're here, or even if their parents could find them. They had their confidence in their parents for sure, but even they doubted they had telepathy.

At least they knew they weren't kidnapped. Living with parents like theirs, most of them knew the basics of kidnappings and how to avoid them. They were found separately for starters, with no guards whatsoever to keep them in. They were allowed to move around, which was uncommon if you want to successfully use a hostage for leverage. In Yuu's case, someone even came to help him and was just as confused as he was as to what they were doing here. No restraints or locked doors either, which meant they could stroll on out of here whenever they wanted. It was only because they were still disoriented that they didn't do so.

At any rate, they weren't in any imminent danger at all. The teenager in the room with them didn't exactly give the 'do as I say or you get hurt' feeling. She even fell asleep on them. There was a new problem (well, not really) now though.

Sara wouldn't stop staring at Yuu.

It was subtle at first. He didn't really notice it at first since everyone was staring at him as he explained, then it got more and more obvious. Her eyes narrowed at him with a mischievous glint the longer he talked. Her mouth turned upwards into a smile and then an outright grin by the time he was explaining the last parts. It was beginning to unnerve him. She hadn't stopped doing it even after he finished. It wasn't because she was a girl. No, there was something about the glint on her eye that made him think he was in danger.

"...Yes? Is there something you need?" He asked hesitantly. Better to head this off now before something even worse happened.

"Hmmm?" She lazed around...lazily, making him feel even more nervous, "It's nothing~ I just found out something interesting~" That sing-song voice she was using was really grating on his nerves. Did she practice it in the mirror or something?

Hidden fact: It was required for members of the Sarashiki's to practice voice depth and pitch in order to manipulate a target easier. It was taught pretty early to most family members. Sara wasn't a master at it yet, but she was pretty adept at it for her 10 years of age.

"Oh? This sounds interesting." Not good, Claire had taken an interest as well. He had no idea what she was going on about, but the expression on her face pretty much screamed 'whatever it is, it's not good for you'.

Fuka didn't say anything and just peeked an eye out from above her arm. Honne didn't move at all; it was highly probable she had fallen asleep long ago.

"It's~ a~ secret~" She placed her pointer finger softly atop her lips and winked at him, causing another wave of nervousness to surge through him. She knew something, the way she said it all but guaranteed she wasn't lying. Besides, what reason would she have to suddenly lie about knowing something the others didn't?

"I wasn't given the Tatenashi name for nothing. The Sarashiki family's always been trained to find out facts about someone from something as a conversation. I found out something interesting about Yuu-chan when he was explaining something, that's all." She played it off like they were discussing each others favourite colours.

She'd just dropped a bombshell. As mentioned before, Honne was both the personal maid and the childhood friend of Kanzashi Sarashiki. Any mention of relation to said surname would garner her immediate attention and cause said speaker to be dragged before acting head Tatenashi for questioning if needed. This was a great development. Finally she was going to get somewhere and find out about these kids.

...Or it would be, if she hadn't fallen asleep halfway through everyone's explanations.

Needless to say, the only ones who heard the surname were the other kids, and they didn't see anything odd about it. To them, it was just a surname. Saying her first name, Tatenashi

"I-I don't have a secret!" Yuu denied hotly.

"Really?" She raised her eyebrow, "Your voice says otherwise. Don't worry, I won't say anything~" She smiled sweetly at him, "Every guy's got to have their secrets, right?"

"R-Right..." He nodded hesitantly. He didn't trust her on that, and he probably shouldn't, but even someone like him knew better not to antagonize her. Maybe she was just bluffing (doubtful), or maybe the secret wasn't as severe as the one he thought it was. But if said secret was actually what he was afraid of, then he had to be very careful.

Whatever conversation that could have continued was immediately cut off by a blaring announcement.

"Excuse me, would everyone who has been in contact with children please gather at the dormitory lobby."

All 4 of them looked at each other, back at the PA system on the wall, then at the sleeping Honne at the table. Technically they had interacted with her, and they did talk to each other, so that meant they 'interacted with children' as well. Maybe they could get some answers.

"Well, I guess it's close enough," Fuka jumped off her seat and strolled over to Honne, "If we're going to find the dorms, we're going to need a map," She searched around the sleeping girls pockets for a few seconds before pulling out a folded out map. They should be able to make their way there on their own.

Yuu blanched, "How did you know she had a map...?"

She just shrugged, "She seems like the type."

Fuka walked past him to the entrance, Yuu following close behind. Claire was about to follow her out before she turned back to the sleeping woman.

"Should we not wake her up?" She inquired, slightly worried. It didn't feel right taking this woman's belongings and just leaving her here, no matter how confused they were about what was happening.

Sara walked past her in a slight jog, "She'll be fine, don't worry~" Claire gave her a dry look in response, "I don't know why, but I get the feeling she'll be alright. She reminds me of someone..." She mumbled to herself as she walked out the door.

Claire was the only one in the room now. With one last look at her, she jogged to catch up with the others. She decided to leave the light on in case she needed it later.

For anybody hoping for a Tabane 2.0, don't worry. Kids tend to act different with their parents than they do with their friends and peers, so Usagi's not going to be a perpetual smartmouth like she was here. Ask yourself: Does Tabane really seem like good parent material? For me the answer to that question would be no, so this reflects on her child's character here.

Also, I'm aware that the humour aspect is near absent here, but it's already close to the meet up. It'll be back shortly when things reach past the slope.

I'm gonna make a list full of the kids age and appearance in the next chapter, just in case anybody needs a full compilation.

Last note: The reason Sara said her surname was Sarashiki was because Tatenashi says the family's been active for generations. This makes it easy to assume that the one who marries in has to subsume the surname to the family. This is common practice with the low ranking family taking the name of the higher ranking family regardless of gender.

Also, Tatenashi once said that her name was given to either the eldest sibling or the only child in the family. Since Sara's an only child, this amounts to...

Next update: Either Synchronicity or The Soldier and the Bride. The latter's almost done anyway.