Lusus Naturae

by SaintInfernalNeos

[Freak of Nature] When Kirigaya Minetaka and his wife Midori found a strange 'pod' in the mountains, they knew they should have walked away. When a confused and weird-eyed little kid came out, the feeling was only doubled so. But...he seemed harmless, and he made their daughter laugh, so really, bringing him home couldn't hurt, right? After all, what's the worst that could happen?

14. Chapter 12: Apex Predator

Hi there guys…it's been a while, hasn't it? I'm still alive, for those wondering, and if you want to know why here is the reason, but I know some may not be too interested in my personal life so you can skip the following paragraph too if you want to.

Anyway, the thing is, just as I finished putting up the last Update of The Eroge, I was called to start my summer job. It was very sudden and I started very fast too, I'm working at a hotel until halfway next month, and it's in a VERY annoying schedule, split into two shifts early in the morning and from late evening to late night so most of my free time, especially my writing one, has been killed because of it. Now, I can't really complain about it realistically, as I'm getting paid and I'm going to put the money to good use, but that's the reason why this Update was SO delayed: I literally had written nothing of it before I was left with nigh-zero time to write. In fact, most of this was written on my only free day of every week for the last 3 (As the first week I didn't have one). With that said, expect the next Updates to not happen until a few days after my job ends, especially as the next one in the schedule, OPG:CoF, had to be an Interlude which was going to be a bit long, and with my current shifts trying to write it would be a bit too much. But just know that's the reason, my stories aren't dead or being abandoned at all. Just letting you know :)

And finally, with that outta the way, we can get on with this long-delayed chapter! Hope you all enjoy it and that it was even just a little bit worth the long delay. Have fun seeing the freaks of nature clash and important developments take place! Oh, and, as always, help with the TvTropes page of this story would be greatly appreciated (This one's especially is in urgent need of an Update XP)

Disclaimer: SAO and its characters don't belong to me, but to Kawahara Reki. If they did, I would make 'There is But One Ultimate Way' the official canon epilogue of the series so as to everyone could be happy.

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Lusus Naturae (ˈLuːsʊs Næˈtʊəriː)

A freak, mutant, or monster. Also called: Lusus.

[Latin: 'Freak of Nature']

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Chapter 12: Apex Predator

January 8th, 2024. Kanagawa, Hayama. Isshiki Beach, 21:25…

Shigemura Yuuna knew her life wasn't really 'normal' by any standards.

Though it could be argued if that had been since the moment she was born as the daughter of the man who had taught the creator of the revolutionary thing that was FullDive technology, the discovery of her prodigal talent for singing, the moment she lost her mother…

But for her, without a doubt, what truly had changed her life was meeting that strange black-haired boy a few years ago, sitting there on a desk of her father's famous apprentice's lab, checking some weird notes.

Kirigaya Kazuto. Her singing rival, her best friend, her first crush…the boy she loved.

That he was also some crazy alien experiment from the other side of the cosmos probably had a lot to do with the 'not normal' classification of her life. In her eyes, though, the fact that he apparently had no problem loving several girls at the same time was an even bigger one, especially as the inhumanly pure an honest boy did so only out of the genuine goodness of his heart, a true wish of making all those he loved happy (Perhaps that's why it had ended up coming down to her being willing to try THAT out? Because of his clearly abnormal honesty and impossible goodwill?).

All in all, Yuuna knew her life could never be called normal, but that was fine for her. If she ever had to choose between a 'normal' life and this one filled with weirdness and hardships, she would the latter every time.

After all, no matter how strange and unreal the things happening around them were, as long as they were together, the songstress felt as if anything and everything was possib…

"Yu-Yuuna!"

The unexpected shout, borderline scream really, stopped the girl dead in her tracks, both because of the unexpectedness of it and because of how familiar the despair-filled voice was.

"Eiji-kun…?" asked the brown-haired girl with confusion, turning around and…"Wha-what the hell?! Eiji-kun, what happened to you?!"

Any confusion Yuuna had about her childhood friend's presence there at that hour was momentarily forgotten in favor of staring in worried horror at him. Though to be fair, Nochizawa Eiji couldn't really blame her.

Between the wrinkled and cuts-filled clothes, the stink he gave (Which hinted at some dark and damp place) and the grime and blood which covered him (Coming from several minor cuts over his body), it was far from the best state his childhood friend and crush had ever seen him in.

"That…doesn't matter!" assured the tall boy with a clearly disturbed look on his eyes, his gaze shooting towards a specific direction of the beach (Where Suguha and Asuna had gone to look for Kazuto, Yuuna realized) several times before he moved to her side and grabbed her hand. "We need to go, quick!"

"Wha-what? Wait, Eiji-kun, stop! You're hurting me!" shouted the idol-wannabe when he tried to pull her arm towards himself with a desperate urge. "What's going on?!"

"We don't…ugh, okay, please, Yuuna, in the name of our friendship, believe what I'm about to tell you!" all but shouted Eiji while his eyes darted from her to the beach repeatedly. "Mo-monsters…there are monsters here…a-and tha-that Kazuto boy you're friends with i-is one of them!"

Shigemura Yuuna felt the blood in her veins turn to ice as the words left her first friend's mouth, a myriad different ideas to try and deny his words filling her mind…before the full scope of them, and the state he was in, made something terrifyingly ominous 'click' in her mind.

"Wait…o-one of 'them'…?"

"Yes! Gods, you won't believe it, but when we la-last saw each other, this crazy girl I had met that morning…she kidnapped me, right from the elevator! E-except that…she was no girl. She was a monster…a-and she said she was looking for her brother!" at that point, the boy seemed clearly on the edge of either a panic attack or a nervous breakdown, the brown-haired girl having never seen him with such an expression. "She to-tortured me…told me to tell her where to find him if I wanted to live…i-it took me a while to realize she meant yo-your friend…it was so dark and it all hurt…"

"Si-sister…a sister? And oh Gods, Eiji-kun…yo-you need to see a doctor!"

"NO! Don't you get it?! There is no time!" screamed the former captive as he gripped the songstress' hands so tight it actually made her groan in pain. "Yo-your 'friend' has been deceiving you all this time a-and now his even more monstrous sister is here for him! I-I got her to promise to not hurt you if I got you out of the way when I brought her to this place, but we need to…!"

"Yo-you brought her here?!" shouted Yuuna while managing to pry one of her hands from his grip, looking at him with shock. "Why would you do that?! Ki…Kazuto is in danger now, if another like him has come for him! I have to warm him!"

"Di-didn't you get the part where that monster tortured me?! And I obviously did this to protect…! Wait." ever-so-slowly, the full implications of what he had just heard finally hit Nochizawa Eiji. "N-no…that can't be right…Yu-Yuuna…you know what that THING was all the time? E-even back at your dad's institute, whe-where…?"

'Where I saw you almost kiss him' simply couldn't escape the boy's lips. Because the mere idea of accepting that the girl he had loved since he was a kid would willingly do such a thing with an abomination like the one that had kept him in that dark place, terrifying and hurting him for hours…

Yuuna looked away, as if unable to answer him. Eiji felt his heart painfully clenching, his mouth opening to…

"Let go of her, young man."

Head snapping to the side, the two childhood friends came almost face to face with the stern visage of Kayaba Akihiko, arms crossed and looking down at the young man with a not-so-friendly look.

"Kayaba-jii…"

"Ka-Kayaba Akihiko?!" spluttered the surprised Eiji while taking a step back upon seeing the creator of FullDive tech appearing seemingly out of nowhere, dragging the brown-haired girl with him as he seemed to have no intention of letting her go. "How…? What…?"

"Didn't you hear him, boy?" came a new voice that made the tall boy spun around in shock, his heartbeat accelerating when seeing Akane staring at him with an upset look, Yuuki and Aiko at her sides while the rest of the Sleeping Knights had subtly half-surrounded him in the time he had taken his attention off the side that led to the resort. "Let Yuuna-neechan go or you won't like what goes next."

"Yeah, you're hurting her!" pointed out the younger of the twins with a scowl so uncharacteristic of her it actually made Eiji gulp and take a step back despite not knowing the young girl.

"As Yuu said, you're hurting Yuuna-san. Let her go like Merida told you or…you really won't like what comes next." declared the older sister while keeping her twin in check, though also glaring towards the tall young man.

Si-eun and Nobu stepped forward at those words, as if their guild's second in command had somehow given them an unseen order just by doing so.

Surrounded by seemingly countless hostiles, but still refusing to let go of Yuuna's hands, something within Eiji seemed to snap as he exploded angrily at them.

"I-I don't know who the hell you all are, but you need to let me get away! Isn't any of you getting this?! There are some nightmarish monsters here that are about to…!"

A soul-shattering sound exploded through the air, shaking the entirety of the beach and making everyone stumble as their eyes widened.

Calling it a roar would have been the best approximation, but…it would have also been wrong.

A roar implied animalistic intent. A sound made by a thoughtless beast.

This one, however, was filled by such a mix of grief, pain, and anger that nothing but a human being could have made it.

Or, maybe…something stuck between both sides of those definitions.

A massive explosion of sand in the distance ended the sound, followed by much more animalistic screeches.

"KIRITO!" screamed three voices at the same time, Yuuna getting free from her friend's clutch and sprinting towards the beach.

Eiji couldn't even start screaming after her before his heart froze as he saw Yuuki and Akane, the other two that had screamed, 'shift', the former's bones exploding from her back like nightmarish spider-legs and catapulting her forward, the latter's legs mutating as she jumped towards the disturbance like a human-sized flea.

Stumbling back, the black-haired boy fell butt-first on the sand, his gaze suddenly shooting to the several people surrounding him…that were no longer paying him any attention, Aiko reacting the next second and shouting her sister's name before springing in pursuit with a similar mutation, the rest of the Sleeping Knights hesitating for an instant before 'mutating' too and following after their first 3 members.

Kayaba's attention was snapped away from the animalistic sounds in the distance and the running hybrids in time to see the former captive fall down to the sand and curl into a ball, a haunted look on his eyes as he tried to make himself as small as possible.

"Everywhere…they're everywhere…the monsters…"

For an instant, the man hesitated while looking down at the pitifully shaken boy, before a scream of pain tore his attention away and he finally ran after everyone, hoping he could do something, only slightly surprised when he heart the sound of the van he had come to pick up everyone in driving towards his position, a familiar person at the wheel.

Forgotten and alone, Nochizawa Eiji kept muttering to himself.

As such, a few minutes later, he was the first to hear and see how a strange and massive 'pod' flew through the air towards the clash of monsters…

---

"Doing the right thing is never easy. Especially when only we are convinced it is." – Anonymous (Must have had a shitty life…)

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Painfully horrible.

That was the only way Kirigaya Kazuto could describe what he was feeling at that moment.

It was probably the most conflicting emotion (Sensation? Feeling?) he had ever experienced, and he didn't like it one bit.

The moment that strange girl had shown up…the moment his eyes had crossed with hers…

It was as if every single cell on his body was shouting and shaking with relief and joy, motivating him to go forward, to embrace the stranger and melt into her arms, to assure him that everything would be well once he did so, that he would be safe…

However, his actual mind was horrified by this. Beyond the fact that the sensation creeped him out on all levels at being caused by a stranger, even if she was a pretty girl, there was the fact that his common sense was screaming at him that he and everyone around him were in terrible danger, that he would truly regret it if he didn't grab Sugu and Asuna and ran away as fast as he could.

And then, there were the most obvious things that he could see with his eyes and process with his brain.

Her eyes…they were like his. Like his 'true' eyes. And…she had called him…

"Kazuto-kun!" shouted Asuna once she saw him fall to his knees and look as if he was going to throw up; ignoring the girl whose mere presence was terrifying her to the core to check up on him. "What's wrong?! What did she do to you?!"

"Can't…no…shouldn't be…Waryum-jii never said…not only me…?"

"What's wrong, brother? I don't understand…why aren't you rushing to my side? Why aren't you filled with the same joy that I am?" wondered aloud the white-haired 'girl' while idly putting a sinisterly 'shifting' hand under her chin. "Perhaps it's been so long that you can't recognize me in this pathetic form despite our bond? It's me. Your other half. I know you can feel it, can't you? I'm called Mirai now…a name is certainly something charming…did that bug say yours was 'Kazuto' now? Curious, if very simple-sounding…"

For all answer, the black-haired boy screamed as if in pain, holding his head while black tendrils tore out of his back and whipped the air frantically, making the chestnut-haired girl squeak and take a step back.

"Kazuto! Ha-hang in there!" cried Suguha while kneeling down at his side without hesitation and holding him, ignoring the black alien tentacles that could have easily broken her effortlessly as if they didn't exist. "Don't worry Onii-chan, we're here for…!"

"What did you just say?"

The change in tone was so brutal that it nearly made the young kendoka's heart stop. Suddenly, the 'foreign pressure' that had been surrounding them was fully focused on her, what had been so easy to ignore for her distorted mind suddenly being like the invisible jaws of an unstoppable force about to devour her.

Looking up, she saw Mirai was now fully looking at her, the nonchalant curiosity and simple cheer of before replaced by a completely blank face and a dreadful feeling hidden within her eyes.

"Wha…?"

"Just now. How did you just call him?"

"…Onii-chan?" answered the girl weakly, almost against her will.

A lifetime of training kendo to national level. Growing up with her big brother as an alien abomination. Knowing that the world was a weird and bizarre place more than almost any other human on the planet and taking it in stride.

That was all that saved Kirigaya Suguha's life, her instincts screaming at her in time to make her roll and jump to the side.

A long and teeth/spike-filed tendril still pierced her just below her hips, though, literarily tearing through her body as if it was paper and separating her right leg from her body with a horrifying munching sound.

Blood exploded everywhere, some of it drenching Kazuto's shaking form as his entire self SNAPPED and his gaze shot up.

"How dare you call MY brother as if you could ever be related to him, you lowly bug?" spoke Mirai with a completely inhuman voice, through the countless eyes-surrounded mouths filling the tentacle finishing to chew through the bit of the human's leg.

Asuna screamed in horror. The young kendoka fell into the sand and started to scream in agony, all but starting to convulse in place. Another tendril shot out, this one aimed at the chestnut-haired girl's head, as casually as a person would crush an annoying mosquito…

And then a sound SO brutal it took even Mirai by surprise exploded from the depths of the humanized alien experiment's being, and the full form of the Lusus Naturae exploded forward, slamming the white-haired inhuman away with the force of an angry stampede, making sand fly everywhere as he shielded his little sister and his savior with his body.

Asuna took several deep breaths, staring up in shock. After all, it was the first time she saw the 'true form' of the boy she had fallen for, even if it had been described to her a couple times, and a part of her couldn't help but shiver before the truck-sized abomination.

It lasted as long as it took to see the many eyes closest to her were staring up and down around her with a worry like she had never seen before, the amount of feeling (Fear, hurt, worry, apprehension, love…) within them making even their alien colors and shape seem like the most honestly human thing she had ever seen.

Then, she was already moving, stopping at Suguha's side and cradling the young girl against her chest, trying to calm the screaming and sobbing kendoka down while a few tendrils shot from her adopted brother's bulk and closed around the bloody stump of flesh and bone where her leg had been, others moving to drag the fallen limb back to them…

A sound the Yuuki Heiress' mind wasn't able to describe, something that was neither a scream nor a roar, filled with a feeling she couldn't put into human words, dragged their attention back as their attacker stood back up…in a truly bizarre way.

Mirai's neck seemed to have snapped and most of her 'human' limbs twisted in ways they shouldn't, but none of it seemed to matter. She stood now in the dozens of tendrils that had grown from her body, keeping the 'human body' up as if it was nothing more than a flesh puppet, staring at them…no, at Kazuto only, with a gaze that none of them could decipher.

"You…you hit me. You attacked me." mumbled the abomination while its entire self shook, emotions 'she' clearly didn't fully understand, a product of the human DNA Tryum tech had accidentally forced upon her body, consuming her being. "WHY?!"

"You just tried to kill my sister and the girl I owe my life to! Two of the people I care about the most in the world! Two of the girls I love!" snarled the Lusus Naturae with barely restrained rage, through every single mouth in his body, even as Asuna found she could blush from the words of a giant monster while looking at him using his tentacles to stitch his little sister's leg back together. "Why the hell do you think?!"

"But I'm your sister! Those are just…humans! Bugs! Hairless apes! They're nothing to us!" screamed the white-haired girl while her tendrils whipped against the sand repeatedly. "Why do you talk as if…as if they were equal to you?! As if you actually cared for them?!"

"Because I do! As far as I'm concerned, I'm a human too!" replied Kazuto with a roar so beastly his tendrils flashed against the sand almost by instinct, making the other alien abomination rear back. "And I don't know who or what you are, but on that same vein, you're NO sister of mine!"

For a moment, everything was silent, Mirai's body seemingly frozen at the declaration.

Then, an unholy sound no one present could put a name to literally exploding from deep within her, just as the alien experiment finished stitching his adoptive sister's leg back to her body, making both humans present fall to their knees, covering their ears from the pain and unknown emotions the eldritch sound caused.

Deciding he wouldn't wait until she tried to hurt them again, the Lusus Naturae roared and shot forward, aiming to crush her, pin her down so that she couldn't hurt anyone and…!

And she stopped him effortlessly, tentacles bursting from her tentacles until she had more than him, holding him in place as if he was a toddler.

Asuna and Suguha weren't as shocked as he was, finding himself unable to move. Never before in his life could he recall having been overpowered by anything, unlike most normal children would, so the experience was…more than frightening.

"How…?!"

"To even think you could actually just push me aside…oh, my dear brother, how much have they corrupted you? How far have they ruined you?" cried Mirai with what seemed true sadness, only making the gesture and the way tears fell from her upside-down human face to seem even creepier for Kazuto. "Don't worry, though…I will fix it."

Then, the alien experiment found himself weightless, before realizing he was actually being lifted up…and then thrown away as if he was a rock launched by a particularly strong adult, rolling over the sand with thunderous force, screeching in utter shock.

When he finally came to a stop, he barely had time to regain his senses before hearing the girls screaming his name, just in time for something to pin him down again with brutal force.

The abomination disguised as a girl hung over him, her tendrils keeping him pinned and barely able to squirm as her many eyes looked at him with pity and longing, his growls and shouts seeming to make her shiver.

Frustrated, enraged and, as much as he wouldn't accept it, scared like never before, Kazuto roared and spit raw plasma on her, the burning energy overheating the sand around them and crystallizing it in seconds.

Mirai stood still over him, undeterred, what remained of her human clothes gone and some smoke rising from her body and what little normal skin that part still had, but otherwise looking as if nothing had happened.

"Ho-how…are you…so strong…?"

"You truly have forgotten, haven't you, my dear brother?" mumbled the abomination while closing her charred human's face to the Lusus Naturae's head, making him recoil in unusual terror. "About us, about our time together…or how while you're the jewel that shines brighter, I'm the fang that was sharpened on everything that gave you light."

"What…what does that mean…?" coughed Kazuto before vague and half-blurred images shot through his mind.

All of them showing an immense abomination towering protectively over him. All of them showing it fighting and besting countless other creatures and monsters without care for her own self. And all of them showing her feeding him the remains.

Dawning horror mixed with realization finally showed up in his many eyes, even as Mirai slowly shifted over him.

"Ah, I see that you get it now, right? Everything that you are, everything that you can do, all the things that make you what you have become now…I killed all of them before. I bested all of them before feeding them to you." as she spoke those words, the girl's twisted form tightened around her brother, making him scream and start thrashing around, unable to free himself. "I'm so much stronger than you it's not even funny, because I had to get that far in order to protect you. How sad, that now I must use that strength to hurt you so that you recover your sen…"

"Don't touch Kirito!"

"Leave him be, you bitch!"

Twin shouts broke through the night as one, Mirai's awareness returning to something beyond her brother just in time for a blade of black bone and a kick of brutal strength to slam against the back of her main body, destroying her balance.

That was more than enough for Kazuto to roar and throw her off himself, the Lusus Naturae quickly spinning back to his 'feet' as he looked back to see the panting/surprised forms of Yuuki and Akane, both girls seemingly surprised as their opponent spun around and back to her feet, furious and basically unharmed.

"Tha-that didn't do anything?!" shouted the leader of the Sleeping Knights with shock, clearly taken aback. "I-I wasn't even holding back! What is she?!"

"I don't care! She hurt Kirito, so she's going down!" replied the hybrid with probably the best reflexes on Earth before she leaped forward, dodging Mirai's tendrils in midair with a mix of insane reaction time and the black bones sprouting from her body like demented roots, finally getting up close to the abomination's human 'face' and stabbing through it with her bone-blade. "HYA! How do you like that?!"

"…what is this?" as she spoke those three words, the terrible abomination simply 'shrugged' with brutal force, sending a screaming Yuuki flying away even as 'her' eyes moved once again towards the panting Kazuto. "Dear brother…what sort of joke is this supposed to be? Why do these bugs…have pieces of our precious essence?"

"Yuuki-chan!" screamed the Lusus Naturae before his tendrils shot out and caught the young girl in midair (Which made her release a weird sound he dismissed right away), quickly dragging her back to his side and letting her before Asuna and Suguha. "Get out of here! You too, Akane-san, and take Sugu and Asuna with you! She's too strong!"

"Ki-Kirito…"

"Then all the more reason to not leave you alone with it!" came another shout as countless spikes of black bone shot through the air like a rain of spikes, many targeting Mirai's eyes and making the alien abomination scream, even as Aiko landed near her guild leader with a ferocious scowl. "Nobody hurts Yuu and gets away with it!"

"You heard our second in command, guys! Sleeping Knights, protect everyone and surround that thing!" declared Si-eun as she landed behind the two fighting-ready girls, cursing herself and trying to remember both that this was not a virtual game and the abomination in front of them was probably deadlier and more dangerous than anything they had ever faced there.

Of course, there was also the fact that it seemed hell-bent on doing something horrible to Kazuto and/or killing anyone who tried to stop it, so even as her friends (Or second family, as she had thought of them as for a long time) surrounded 'her', she took a deep breath and let the worries of An Si-eun fade, to be replaced by the calm and understanding determination of 'Siune'.

"So many…why, brother? Let me understand…are they pets? You thought it would be amusing to mix part of your core with these bugs to see what they would make?" mumbled Mirai with an almost vacant tone as she looked at the grim-faced Sleeping Knights. "Please, tell me that's just it…don't make me accept what I see…that your mind is so twisted you consider these biological stains as your equals…"

"You're sick, Mirai. And they're my friends!" growled Kazuto while his tendrils lashed around, forming a half-wall between his body, Mirai, and the girls. "If you can't even understand that concept, then we will never understand each other."

"Friends…? What is that?" wondered the alien abomination while looking at the Lusus Naturae what remained of her charred and broken human face slowly twisting into a despairing rage. "What need could you possibly have of something like 'friends' when you have m…?!"

Something slammed against that same disfigured face, exploding into a cloud of dark smoke. Screaming with a thousand unholy voices, Mirai started 'coughing' in a very bizarre way.

"GAH! What…?!"

"Direct hit! Now, Keiko!"

"HAI!" squeaked another familiar voice before yet another of the round objects flew true, hitting the first cloud and releasing a second one, this one grayish, which mixed with the first and made the abomination's screams to intensify. "I-I did it, Shi…I mean, boss! All that ball-throwing practice playing with Pina paid off!"

"Meow."

"Shi-Shino-san?! Silica-chan?!" screamed Asuna in shock at seeing the bespectacled and twin-tailed girls having arrived at the scene at some point, both looking out of breath but ready. "What…?"

"There is no time, Aa-chan!" declared Shiori as she also showed up, helping her and the stunned Suguha to their feet while Yuuki looked at them in surprise. "We need to get moving, now!"

"KIRITO!" screamed Shino while pointing towards the twitching Mirai, surprising the Lusus Naturae as all his eyes fixed on her. "Her senses are all wrong because she's not used to using human ones! ATTACK THAT!"

Barely a second of hesitation was needed for Kazuto to understand what his alien-obsessed friend meant. Then, a grin split all his mouths as he released a focused sonic-scream towards Mirai's twisted 'human' body, his 'sister' screaming louder as her entire self started to spasm wildly, her tendrils lashing out without any control.

Asada Shino was right, after all. With all her overwhelming power, resistances and immunities, there were little things on Earth that could hurt X-K0941.

The human DNA she had forcibly absorbed through Tryum tech to try and blend in, though? THAT was something she had never had to deal with. And while her own inhuman nature overwrote almost every single physical weakness that could involve…it didn't do the same for her senses.

By having, for some reason, kept that vague human shape on her core all this time, she had also kept the organs that let a human see, hear and even smell. Which could be easily disturbed to quite painful extremes with the right mixes, like the bespectacled girl had apparently prepared together with her young 'assistant' for reasons normal people would probably prefer not to think about. And that against the nauseous onslaught of twisted sound that her 'brother' was unleashing against her, it was completely vulnerable, affecting even the parts of her that were clearly not human in nature at all, because she had not abandoned the human shape on her core.

Leaving her exposed to…

"Sleeping Knights, pin down those tentacles, now! Argo-san, get them out of here! Who knows how long what Kirito is doing will help!"

"Way ahead of you, Merida!" shouted back Shiori as she dragged the half-unwilling girls away, who kept looking back the screaming Lusus Naturae. "Girls, I'm worried about him too, but let's be real, we can't help him in here, we're more of a burden! Let the aliens and alien hybrids deal with the crazy alien yandere, we need to get out of…Yuuna?!"

"Ka-Kazuto…" panted the songstress as she stopped near the boy, seeing several of his eyes looking at her in shock, even as the Sleeping Knights raged war against the lashing tentacles of Mirai, pinning them down one by one in ways that seemed reserved for some hardcore gore movie. "You're okay…thank the Heavens, when I heard you scream, I thought…"

"Yuuna-chan…get out of here!" whispered one of the mouths closest to her with clear worry. "You're in danger and…uhm…m-my real form is scary…"

"Your real…?" trailing off, the brown-haired girl blinked and looked up, finally seeming to realize she was, indeed, staring at a truck-sized monster with eyes and mouths where they shouldn't be and countless tentacles trying to create a wall around her, unleashing a scream of raw power against another abomination while the mutated hybrids he had created/saved tried to cut/crush/impale all her own tentacles, all the while trying to not get hit by their alien friend's attack. "Oh…guess I have become very messed up too."

"Yuuna…?"

"It's nothing…Kazuto. I think I just realized it…but, I really do love you." whispered Yuuna before kneeling and, with a small smile, planting a kiss just above the mouth that had been talking to her, her lips connecting with the black and twisted flesh, even as the many eyes around it widened with shock.

She felt no revulsion from it. Just…happiness

And it was that single gesture…what made her snap.

Not Yuuki and Aiko impaling the last of her tentacles with sharp bones into the sand so deeply they would need to be torn apart to get free. Nor Siune and Nobu slamming her spasms-riddled main body into the ground so hard most of its main frame cracked. Not even how a relatively large van did a very bad drift over the sand and opened its side-doors just before the open-mouthed forms of Shiori, Asuna and Suguha revealing a stunned Rika and Kayaba at the wheel.

It was seeing that human girl doing that (Kissing, her mind supplied) to her dear brother with what remained of her functional eyes that made something within the being now calling itself, herself, 'Mirai' to lash out. A burning mix of emotions that she had never felt to such a degree overcoming her.

Rage. Hate. And, completely new and alien to her…jealousy.

In a simple, clarity-focused moment among the twister of pain and confusion she had become, a new, extremely thin and long tendril lashed out of her body with the speed of a bullet.

It tore through Shigemura Yuuna's neck from side to side, her previous happy smile freezing on her face as blood stained it, her shirt, and several of Kazuto's eyes.

He tentacle was severed a second later, by a bone-blade all but shot by a horrified Aiko. The idol-wannabe's body fell limply to the side, eyes wide open, tendril still piercing through her.

The sonic onslaught ceased abruptly as the Lusus Naturae just stopped moving, his mind having gone blank. From a second to the next, the Sleeping Knights found themselves being thrown from the brink of victory to a total defeat, Mirai's mangled form throwing them all way like ragdolls now that her senses weren't being endlessly bombarded, though she clearly struggled to move and get back to her 'feet', seeming barely able to hold herself together, her body no longer regenerating.

Kirigaya Kazuto ignored all of that, though. In that single moment…his entire existence was focused on the unmoving form of the brown-haired girl beside him, the one that had just told him how she loved everything of him, the one he loved dearly, his first real friend outside his beloved little sister…

Every single memory stored in his DNA that contained the challenging, smiling form of Shigemura Yuuna shot through his mind in an instant. Then, all of them BURNED, consumed by the sight of her unmoving body before him.

Wrong.

So wrong.

That was wrong.

Yuuna couldn't be…nothing could have…no…no…

Nononononononono…!

NO!

(NO!)

"What is it?"

Time stood still, turning around, Kirigaya Kazuto stared at…himself.

No, that wasn't right. He was standing there, sure, but that was his…'real' form. The monster. The 'failed' experiment the Tryums had called X-K0940.

The one standing, he 'himself' right now was the human shape…the one he personally considered his true one.

"Yu…Yuuna-chan…my Yuuna…she…Mirai…NO!" screamed the black-haired boy while falling to his knees, tears streaming down his face as he shook and tried to contain endless sobs. "Is…is this my fault…? Is it?"

"…yes. It is." mercilessly replied the Lusus Naturae, its countless eyes fixed upon the crying child. "But it's also hers. And Mirai's. And everything else's."

"Wha-what…?"

"Life that is not us has no control over itself. Chaotic. Fleeting. But here…we're harmony. Together…we can fix everything." mumbled the towering beast while looking down upon the sobbing child. "Hear…can't you hear them?"

"Hear…?"

Falling silent, Kazuto listened.

There, deep within himself. Like the beating of a heart. No, like drums beating an endless rhythm.

No…like the terrifying waves on an enraged ocean.

'Let us out'. Let us out, it chanted endlessly.

Not voices, no. That would imply words. The concept of a talked language.

These were intents. A concept forced upon Reality, from the back of his mind, from the very depths of himself.

'Let us out'.

'Hunger'.

'C0o0n0s0u0m0e0e0v0er0y0t0h0i0n0g0'.

'*Fix*everything*'.

"Fix…everything…" mumbled Kazuto with unfocused eyes. "We can…fix it…even Yuuna?"

"We can." Answered the Lusus Naturae, before something metalized beside it. A familiar bird…a crow.

'We can' it cawed, intent being transmitted where sound didn't matter.

A strange creature the boy had no name for followed, long and think, with wings that were vaguely familiar…

-We-Can-

A 'tree' of flesh that seemed out of some madman's nightmares…

+…wE cAn…+

A blind 'dragon'-like beast which could breathe out raw plasma, vaguely familiar too…

"W()E()C()A()N!"

More and more, they rose from the darkness. Plants, beasts…things he had no name to, things he could vaguely describe. Smaller than his fingers, taller than buildings, of all kinds, shapes, sizes, all rising from the dark…no.

That was no darkness.

As if his eyes had finally opened, he realized it. That was just a sea of flesh and blood, from where they all kept rising, like plants growing from the soil.

Like in his old half-forgotten nightmares. Because…because this wasn't a sea of flesh and blood. It was HIM.

This was him. And these things, all 'talking', no, all chanting the same thought over and over…they were him too. They were all the beings he had consumed, in that life he could not truly recall, before becoming who he was now.

This was what he REALLY was. This was his true nature.

His fragmented soul…was like that because it wasn't really one. It was just made up of countless fragments of theirs.

"…we can." sentenced Kazuto and, suddenly, all the beings fell silent, the flesh and blood ocean bubbling harshly. "We…can."

(YES…WE DO)

Kirigaya Kazuto sank into the sea of flesh, becoming just a part of the whole, a cog in the machine…giving into the ravenous instincts within.

Like he had always been meant to do.

Within the red ocean…a massive eye opened.

("Then…let us forget the pain…")

Time resumed. Screams had just started, Suguha crying out for Yuuna's name as the others restrained her with terrified faces, Shino urging a horrified Keiko to move while Pina dragged them back, the Sleeping Knights starting to get up while Mirai started saying something…

A 'sound' that destroyed the night in a terribly disturbing way silenced everything else, everyone's heads feelings as if they would split apart. Agony, rage, hate, pain, suffering…then nothing but just a primal, ancient and wordless scream, exploding from the depths of Kazuto…no, of the creature known as X-K0940.

His eyes dilated and his flesh bubbled in a terribly painful-looking way. Hunching, his back seemed to painfully 'split' and grow, even as its 'arms' shot forward like rubbery missiles, twisting as its claws expanded and then solidified, new joints, way too many for a creature using a complex skeleton (At least following Earth's biology) clearly manifesting on the limbs.

He…IT grew a new pair, even as its size finished doubling, even as the many lower tendrils stopped tying themselves together and became some unholy amalgamation between arms and legs to act as rear limbs, lifting the massive mass of the horror upwards.

The tentacles all over its back warped, turning longer and deadlier-looking, now seeming like massive and thick cords of raw muscle rather than the disturbingly soft and gentle (Yuuki and Suguha's words) limbs they used to be, teeth and spikes growing all over them even as the eyes on them shrunk and the mouths receded to more 'useful' places.

A massive maw opened on the chest, surrounded by smaller ones, even as the 'head' reared backwards, now longer and rounder, somehow more humanoid than before yet seeming a thousand time less human for it, possessing no clear mouth as countless of them opened all over it and its massive eye seemed to narrow, no remains of human intelligence visible there.

The claws finished solidifying…to show how now all 'fingers' were tipped with HEADS instead, horribly twisted and fused faces of creatures man could put no name to put all together, drooling and snarling over each other, some with sharp teeth, some releasing strange fumes and some simply throwing up burning blood constantly.

Horror and shock was the first thing filling everyone's minds as the abomination of nature rose, a being that Earth, no, that the whole galaxy couldn't accept existed staring in every direction with its mindless, animalistic eyes.

Then, it ROARED, a sound that made sand explode everywhere and threw everyone but Mirai and those within the van flying away out of its sheer depth.

Birds in the sky froze and fell, crashing down bonelessly. Fishes in the sea swam faster, heading towards the beach and jumping into the sand to their deaths, mindless of everything but obeying the roar. Animals in the forest surrounding the area followed cue, most of them simply standing at the edge of the human-inhabited zone.

And, of course, people all around shot out of their homes in horror, looking around in fear before freezing or screaming while pointing towards the beach, at the terrifying THING standing there, now visible from the entire area.

The Lusus Naturae fell silent, staring down at its 'sister'.

She stared back, what little features remained on her seeming…ecstatic, at the sight.

Just then, a Tryum pod flew down and crashed not far from her, the thing shaking and writhing as what was within reacted, tendrils of black flesh exploding and breaking the thing before it could open, reaching into the 'girl' and connecting back to her, a moan of relief escaping the one calling herself 'Mirai'.

"Yes…look at you now, brother. This…this is you. The real you that these insects buried with their naivety. That the many-eyed fools failed to see…" whispered the older abomination as her body bloated and surged outwards in every direction, expanding, discarding the previous temporary form in favor of her true one.

Once, it may have looked like Kazuto's previous one did. Now, however, it was just a massive mass of flesh, eyes, and teeth, tentacle-like limbs expanding in almost every direction, almost twice as big as the new form of the Lusus Naturae was, the titanic cords of flesh that 8 massive tentacles were being apparently her main way of moving as she looked down on her sibling with something akin to very alien 'love'.

It was just bizarre and more terrifying for anyone sane enough to stare. X-K0949 answered by screeching that unholy sound away, jumping towards her and making the area shake as he tore into her massive body with animalistic fury, black blood falling everywhere as he clawed, mauled, bit and destroyed as fast as he could.

Mirai accepted all of it without even flinching, her tendrils 'lovingly' caressing the smaller abomination before throwing him off with a flicker, the colossal thing that had been Kazuto flying into the sea…and stopping, countless 'wings' having sprouted from his tentacles and keeping him in the air, almost seeming to dangle from them like a puppet of nightmare hanging from very macabre strings.

It roared again. Regenerating, its sibling released what could be counted as a chuckle.

"…Onii-chan…" cried Suguha while ignoring the pain crashing on the van's insides had caused her, staring at the Lusus Naturae's mindless and mutated form with soul-searing pain.

"Yes…that's it. Show me more, brother…and soon, you will finally fulfill our destiny, what all this time suffering under the stars has brought for us…"

A sister cried while another darkly rejoiced. Many people, human and not-so-much, stared with mixed horror, sadness, and powerlessness-induced frustration. Normal people watching knew nothing but horror and fear.

And Somewhere within the Cosmos…stars that were not stars started bleeding, even as X-K0940 and X-K0941 clashed again…

---

"Pretend to be everything you are not(…). You cannot change. You will always be…a monster." – Athena (Most annoying God-Spirit ever).

---

The special team that had entered the apartment complex within Tokyo had been ready for anything. From armed resistance to bizarrely unexpected circumstances, they had been briefed that anything could happen.

That a strange contraption made of kitchen utensils and other mundane things suddenly threw wires forward and made one of them fall backward and roll downstairs quite painfully, though, all of them paused, blinking at the scene and then looking at each other, seeing more of those haphazardly put 'traps' all over the stairs.

"You will never catch me alive, humans!" the words of Waryum the Tryum echoed from somewhere upstairs. "I have watched all those American movies about the little kid left home alone and the burglars! Thanks to that and my own resourcefulness, I have booby-trapped the entirety of the stairs! None of you are going to get even close to…!"

The sound of gunfire silenced the alien's words just as the deadpanning man at the front shot down the several 'traps' lining the stairway they were in, blowing them to pieces or uselessly triggering all of them.

Awkward silence ensued, followed by cursing and the sound of way too many feet for a normal person scurrying upstairs.

"…lieutenant Kikuoka? Squad Leader 1 reporting here."

"SL1, what happened?! We just heard shots! Is everyone okay?!" came Kikuoka Seijirou's voice through the official's helmet's speakers.

"Yes, we're all fine, just…ran into something we weren't really expecting."

"What was it?! Hostages? Illegal experiments?! Some macabre…?"

"The weird cosplayer…I mean, the main target booby-trapped the stairs using kitchen utensils and similar office things."

"…what?"

"Also, he apparently got inspired by an American movie to do so. AND he was close enough to clearly hear us doing so and keep an eye on things instead of hiding somewhere."

"…I…see." mumbled the bespectacled man while wondering if he had somehow heard wrong, before sighing and trying to put on a serious face again. "Re-regardless, he may have been trying to misdirect you all, so don't lower your guard just in case and proceed."

"Roger that, lieute…oh, c'mon Hanzo, seriously?! How did you trigger that without seeing it?! Now you have…is that ice cream? All over your helmet!"

Near the last floor, Waryum cursed as he once again failed to make a call, closing his phone while tightening the grip on his laptop and damming the fact of not having accompanied everyone on that stupid beach resort trip.

Of course none of them would have their phones on hand somewhere like that! Hell, even if they were already on their way back, most of them would be asleep or maybe even have left the devices silenced. And he didn't have Kayaba Akihiko's number, just his fucking luck, because he had never seen the need of talking to the man himself, just through Kazuto.

Essentially, he was alone, faced with unknown armed opponents, with no resources and no Tryum tech at his disposal. And seeing how his attempt at 'repelling' them before had gone, he may as well surrender and let himself be caught right now…

"No, what the hell am I thinking?!" growled the alien scientist while glaring at the wall, quickly rushing up the building's last set of stairs. "If they catch me they will find a way to catch the Sleeping Knights too, hell, maybe find out where Kazuto is! For their sake and for the security of this planet, I can't let them…"

As soon as he arrived at the building's rooftop, the Tryum stopped his words, watching wide-eyed how many lights were shining from down below at the edge of it. In fact, one of them was moving dangerously close to…

Closing the door again, Waryum moved downstairs and into the first apartment he found, one of the empty ones, cursing upon hearing the clear sound of the soldiers, officers, terrorists or whatever they were coming upstairs, seemingly no longer feeling threatened by the minor tricks he had put.

Out of options and knowing he had no time, the alien looked all around, seeing nothing but the main window…and stopped, staring back at it.

When the main squad entered 10 seconds later…they found the window wide open and no sign of their target, making them exchange confused looks…until their helmets beeped, the squad leader reaching for the communicator to…

"Red Alert! Everyone, the target's priority has changed!"

"Wha-what? Why?!"

"Because…that's clearly not a fucking cosplay!"

"This is…the most stupid thing…I have done since…coming to this planet…" growled Waryum as he used all his legs to basically run over the side of the building like some demented spider, denting the walls and leaving them clearly marked as he slid and almost fell off several times.

The Tryum didn't even care that now there was clearly a light focused on him and that shouts all around were intensifying, as well as what seemed the sounds of someone shooting a…

Waryum was barely able to hold back a scream when a bullet tore through one of his arms, clearly courtesy of a sniper, the alien letting go of his phone and cursing as he continued 'running', sliding down faster, aiming higher even as he almost felt himself being aimed at again…and then he jumped, as far as his legs could carry him.

Painfully rolling all over himself and feeling several of his bones cracking, idly aware of the sound of a bullet missing him on the background, the Tryum gasped in shock as he shakily stood up, still holding his mostly ruined laptop and barely able to believe he had actually landed on the roof of a neighboring building, before stumbling forward and heading for the door that led into the…

Said door burst open, several armed men emerging and aiming their weapons at the suddenly frozen alien, making him slowly raise his arms in the air as his eyes narrowed.

Around a minute later, Seijirou Kikuoka stepped into the rooftop, his eyes hidden behind his glasses as the light made them seem unreflective for a moment as they roamed over the clear injuries and slight bleeding of Waryum's body.

"Fascinating…I was expecting many things, but…nothing as bizarre as this, I admit." confessed the government officer with a wry smile before looking straight into the Tryum's many eyes. "Waryum, was it? I'm assuming now that it's not just a nickname, Mr…alien?"

"It is indeed my real name, human. Third-rate Scientist of Tryum-Delta's Outpost #5678880, Waryum." growled the alien while trying to think of a way to escape and coming up with none. "Any special reason for rushing into my home and trying to kill me?"

"You know, for an alien creature not only do you talk a very good Japanese, you also seem very human when talking." offhandedly commented Kikuoka while calmly walking closer to Waryum, though still maintaining a prudent distant and keeping himself out most of his men's line of fire (Showing he wasn't an idiot, much to the trapped one's chagrin). "I'm sure there is an interesting story there, just like it should be behind the fact that several terminally ill people, some of them underage, that were kidnapped from their hospitals not long ago are living with you and seemingly in perfect health, but that's something we will discuss at a 'less public' location, if you don't mind."

"And they call us Tryum self-centered…don't think I didn't notice that you dodged answering my question during your whole monologue, Mr. Glasses." dryly replied the Tryum while trying not to show how he was mentally panicking, realizing he had to find a way to tell Kazuto that the Sleeping Knights couldn't come back there by any circumstances and that they had been compromised, at least partially. "And the humans aren't here, as you can see. In fact, they're not coming back: The moment your 'attack' started I warned them not to."

"…I see. That's certainly a shame, but I'm sure you will be more than enough to get the answers we need, Waryum-san." finally declared the man with a cold tone, making it clear he was in no mood for more games and more than aware of the situation's full seriousness, even as he gave his back to the glaring alien. "Restrain and bring him with us. If he tries anything, you're authorized to knock him out or taking more…extreme measures, depending on the situation."

"Affirmative!"

Seeing how the men closed on him, Waryum realized that this was it. Even if he ran and let himself be shot to pretend being dead, they would still take his 'corpse' with them, pain aside, and realize he wasn't sooner or later or outright burn/destroy him before he could regenerate enough to move again. In any case, he would end up in a situation where he couldn't even warn the others of these guys and…!

A sudden and deafening sound made every human present scream and fall to their knees, energy failing all around them as the lights of not only their equipment but also the entire city block flickered.

Barely even having time to blink in shock, the Tryum watched as the air around him distorted in a vaguely familiar way before his body dematerialized, leaving only confusion and shouts behind, even as Kikuoka stood up and screamed for all the agents present to secure the perimeter and find where he had gone.

Of course, there was no way for any of them to see the invisible ship floating a couple hundred meters above the apartment building they had just raided, nor how it sped away into the heavens barely seconds later. Within it, the third-rate researched groaned, standing up wobbly and then looking around in shock at the many other Tryums giving him side-glances within the bridge, some with curiosity, others with annoyances and a few ones with cheer at their apparent successful rescue.

"Well, well, that was a close one, wouldn't you say, Waryum?" came a familiar and not-so-welcome voice, Waryum barely resisted the urge to groan as he turned around and saw Ubom and Grotek walking towards him. "Welcome to our ship. You're welcome for the rescue, by the way, though I don't even want to think how embarrassing it would have been to report we let one of our own be caught by humans, of all things, when we were just around the…"

"Forget that! Did you receive my earlier message?!" all but screamed the Earth-living Tryum while rushing and holding the first of the High Researchers by the shoulder, ignoring the pain on his right arm even as everyone stared at him in shock. "Did you call X-K0941 back?!"

"What?! N-no, of course we didn't! Do you know how many strings we had to pull just to get her off-planet and then come all the way here just to recover him?!" retorted Grotek while trying to separate the injured researcher from his partner, clearly confused and annoyed. "And you have a lot of things to explain regarding that, by the way! Like how the hell did you let him escape but apparently have been keeping an eye on him for so long and why are we detecting several unsupervised signals of his DNA in humans that…!"

"FUCK!" screamed Waryum without any subtlety while all but throwing Ubom on his fellow High Researcher, many in the bridge seeming alarmed at the violent and clearly unstable attitude of their fellow Tryum, wondering if so much time on Earth had messed up something on his brain. "You don't get it, do you?! You may have just doomed the entire world if those two make con…!"

"Hi-High Researchers, one of the humans that were aiding/being protected by X-K0940 was critically injured by 941!" shouted Pibap from where he was manning a console, the technician looking clearly panicked. "The unknown hybrids attacks have ceased and 940 has stopped moving, but…"

"What?! They're engaged in combat?! Against everyone?!" without waiting for authorization and ignoring all protocols, Waryum rushed towards the console where his fellow low-rank Tryum had spoken from, all of his eyes widening in horror at the scene that was now being projected on it. "Yu-Yuuna-san…no…"

"You…know those humans by name?" asked Grotek with clear confusion while his partner tried to stand again, clearly not used to being manhandled like this. "Waryum, I don't get it, what the fuck is going…?"

A sound that made all the aliens present in the bridge freeze as their hearts suddenly accelerated came from all the speakers at once, some swearing they could actually hear it all the way out there in the ship. At once, all gazes shot towards the main screen, which was now projecting the confrontation…and the terrifying and world-shaking mutation taking place on it, all kinds of warnings and smaller screens appearing while red alerts filled many consoles.

"(Biological Threat Level Epsilon…Biological Threat Level Sigma…Biological Threat Level Omega 1…)"

"…Fate above Everything…" muttered Ubom as he found his voice, even as the console kept updating on the increasing threat. "What…in the Universe…?"

"Kazuto…Gods…" whispered Waryum even as the abomination on the beach released an unholy sound no one could put a name to. "…we're all doomed…"

"Po-pod with the rest of X-K0941's biomass just arrived!" shouted Pibap with clear panic, his hands running over the controls before him. "Ma-maybe she can contain him before…!"

Mirai's following words were more than enough for the Earth-inhabiting Tryum to realize what no one else had until that point. That there was no hope left for them.

The fact that the pod was breached from the inside out, that 'Error' alerts started filling all the screens that ran the experiment's Programmed Protocol, as if it was 'dissolving' from her very DNA, and then how the older sister warped into her abominable 'Titan Form' were enough to make the rest of the stupefied Tryums to realize it too, however. And that before one of her tentacles casually swatted the two bio-drones that had been monitoring her while invisible, destroying one of them and making the other crash onto the sand, too damaged to move and barely still showing the image of the monstrous 'fight', even as the abomination welcomed her little brother's murderous and mindless rage like a lover would an embrace.

"(…Biological Threat Level Omega X. Warning, Planetary Evacuation considered unsafe at this point, Planetary Purge strongly suggested…)"

All the 'creators' of the freaks of nature could do was sit and watch in silence, powerless and useless…

---

"And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done." – Genesis 2:2-3 (Not everyone deserves resting after creating something, though…)

---

(Destroy.)

The earth was torn asunder, sand exploding and flying everywhere, even rocks sometimes from how deep their clash went.

(Assimilate.)

Sounds that man was never meant to hear filled the air, screeches, roars, wails and, most terrifying, distorted and monstrous laughter, even as the two abominations of nature, one raised on Earth and another on the harshness of the stars and the solitude of Tryum-Delta, clashed in a feral dance.

(DEVOUR...)

When all of that was taken into account, the man running through the sand absurdly close to the fighting titans of nightmare may have been called insane, but in reality, Kayaba Akihiko thought this was one of the sanest things he had done in recent years.

While he would have argued back then that his plans with SAO before he met Kirigaya Kazuto weren't truly the designs of a madman, he was sure the world at large wouldn't have agreed with them at all.

Running near two fighting alien experiments to reach, grab and run away with the unmoving body of the girl he had come to see as a niece, though? Yeah, he was pretty sure much more people would be way more understanding about such an act, nor that he really cared for said opinions in this matter.

But even as he ran while cradling Yuuna's body as far as his burning legs, more used to lab work than to physical activity, allowed him, he couldn't help but glance back as the nightmarish Earth-raised monster slammed down like a missile on the one that had come from the stars, causing only more laughter in answer to his beastly roars even as 'Mirai' threw him back as if he was a naughty child playing around, the earth shaking once again as the Lusus Naturae rolled back to its feet and took flight once again, like a beast that knew nothing but instinctual violence.

"Kazuto…"

"Kayaba-san, here!" shouted Si-eun as the van everyone had boarded moved closer and the man quickly rushed towards its side, all but jumping into the vehicle as it kept moving, away from the madness and chaos. "Are you okay?!"

"I…I am." mumbled Akihiko while looking up at the worried faces of most of the Sleeping Knights, even as he sat again while still holding Yuuna's prone form. "…why is Shinozaki-san still driving?!"

"Bite me, we're in way too much of an emergency to change drivers, and it seems no one else here has been doing so for at least a few years! I may not have a license, but at least my dad's lessons are fresh on my mind!" retorted Rika while gripping the wheel a bit too tightly, eyes fixed on the sand and wincing every time an inhuman sound that wasn't laughter reached them. "Fuck…dammit…no…"

"…we need to go back…" muttered Yuuki from where Aiko was holding her, Akane sitting near them with a frustrated/resigned expression. "Please, Nee-san, Merida, we can't leave him! Kirito…!"

"He's…I don't think we can do anything for him now, Yuuki." softly replied the leader of the alien hybrids with a trembling voice, as if the mere fact of saying such words caused her pain. "We just…we need to make sure everyone is safe…"

A quite subtle way of saying they would all just be in the way, but no less painful for it. After all, despite trying their hardest, the alien hybrids had barely been a bother for Mirai in her previous form, and it had been borderline suicide for the humans to get close during that part, as Yuuna's current state showed. While Kazuto had still been backing them up.

Now? Getting close would be like asking to be horribly murdered in a very messy way. Whatever the hell had happened to him, it was clear that the Lusus Naturae had lost all sense of reason the moment the brown-haired girl had been 'killed' before his eyes and turned him into an animalistic nightmare. Akihiko wasn't even sure he even had a coherent reason to attack his 'sister' beyond being the closest and biggest thing to himself.

Slowly, the father of FullDive technology looked around, seeing frustration and impotency in everyone eyes. Also rage and regret. Loss and…emptiness.

It was quite easy to see it, at that moment. How that bizarre 'boy', that alien experiment a careless and quite frankly stupid race had discarded like trash and that had only stumbled upon this planet, upon their lives, by a series of freaky coincidences and mistakes, had changed them so much. Had become such an important part of their lives.

More so for others, as his eyes could easily see.

Shiori was looking out of the window and cursing softly while mumbling 'Kii-bou…' from time to time as they got further and further away.

Shino and Keiko sat together, Pina curled on the former's lap, but even as it was the youngest one who sobbed softly, it was the older one who was being comforted with pats on the back, muttering about her efforts having been useless (Though being fair, the scientist was more than impressed, if a little disturbed, that the girl had prepared and carried around makeshift 'anti-alien bombs' made with lots of spicy and irritating dust as precautions).

Asuna was doing her best to look strong despite the tears in her eyes, refusing to look back and just trying to tell the last and most silent person within the van that everything would be fine.

And her…Kirigaya Suguha, that is, was just looking blankly at her feet, seemingly unable to do or say anything…or so Akihiko thought until her fists clenched at the latest roar coming from the clashing alien monsters shook the vehicle. Then, she all but stood up, scrambling over the slightly cramped (Despite it being big enough to carry everyone) space within the van to rush towards the man, ignoring the group's surprised looks as she leaned over Yuuna's prone form.

"What the…?! Kirigaya-san, what are you…?!"

"…she's alive." muttered the young kendoka with a vibrant look in her teary eyes, everyone's eyes widening in shock as she gripped the girl's chest. "Yuuna, wake up!"

"Wa-wait, what are you saying? She has no pulse…she isn't breathing." looking contrite, Si-eun tried to move closer to the youngest Kirigaya, clearly thinking she had lost it. "Suguha-san, please, you need to…"

"NO!" silenced the Suguha with fierce eyes, another roar of mindless rage and fierce hunger almost making Rika lose control of the vehicle (Though her attention being focused on the events behind her may also have been the cause of that). "She's alive…I know it…I can feel…she wouldn't…she wouldn't leave Onii-chan like that! Do you hear me, Yuuna?! Weren't you boasting you would get to marry him before me or Asuna?! Then wake up! He needs…he needs you, dammit!"

"Suguha-chan…" cried Asuna while closing her eyes, hands tightening even as everyone blinked or gaped, though if it was for the 'marry' statement or because of how the girl seemed to be having an emotional breakdown was anyone's guess. "She…she can't…"

"…can't…annoying…little girl…" everyone's heart froze, eyes moving down to the impossible sight of Shigemura Yuuna's eyes opened so slightly it wouldn't be noticeable if they weren't paying attention, her voice coming out distorting and with broken gasps.

Also, the small bit of alien tentacle that had still been piercing her neck was gone…no, it had changed shape, almost seemingly turned into…'patches' for her skin. As if it had suddenly recognized her as something it should restore rather than hurt.

Kayaba Akihiko stared at the impossible phenomenon with utter shock, unable to understand what had happened…before his gaze snapped towards Kirigaya Suguha, who was just smiling down at her 'friend' as she continued crying.

Had she…had she done THAT? But how?! She wasn't 'really' Kazuto's little sister, emotional considerations aside; she wasn't even a hybrid like most of the people in the van were. She shouldn't have the ability to manipulate the alien DNA in any way…unless…

Had the boy somehow…?

"Wait, what the hell are you…?! SUGUHA!"

The sudden shout snapped the scientist back to reality, together with the sound of the vehicle's door being opened, just in time to see the young kendoka jump off the van and rolling into the sand, ignoring everyone's shouts of her name.

Grunting in pain, Kirigaya Suguha rolled back to her feet, ignoring the throbbing all around her body and the sand in her face to run back, just idly aware of how the pain seemed to be dulling starting from the spot connecting one of her legs to her body…the same one her brother had re-attached to her minutes earlier.

That felt like a lifetime ago now, though. Even as she ran towards the laughing monster that had come to hurt her most important person and…whatever he had become in his pain and grief. She didn't care.

He was still her dearest big brother. The person she loved the most in the world. No matter what. And, at that moment…he needed her.

As if in accordance with that thought, the abomination calling herself Mirai 'slapped' him away, the Lusus Naturae's massive bulk flying through the air and crashing down just a few meters away from the sea with cataclysmic force, almost making her lose her footing…but it had also left him uncanny close to her.

"ONII-CHAN!" screamed her at the top of her lungs, running faster than she had ever before even as the titanic creature slumbered back to his feet, almost drunkenly. "SHE'S FINE!"

Animalistic alien eyes shot towards her, as if registering her presence, the mindless rage in them not mattering in the slightest for the young kendoka, for their bizarre color and shape that would have terrified even hardened soldiers had been synonym of comfort and safety since she had memory.

"What are you doing, bug?" came Mirai's distant and distorted voice, as if having also spotted her. "You're in the way."

"Yuuna is fine! You heard me?! She's still alive!" continued screaming Suguha while completely ignoring the other creature, tears filling her eyes as what Kazuto had turned into turned fully to look at her, tentacles thicker than a car and longer than her house whipping around angrily. "She…she needs you, Onii-chan! I…I need you too. Come back to us…to me…please…"

"I said you're in the way!" roared the most violent of the alien experiments, her massive limbs stretching forward like bullets the size of small buildings…only to be prevented from touching the human by a wall of smaller tendrils, put together in a geometric shield-like formation. "What?!"

"…Onii-chan…?" whispered the young kendoka between sobs, idly aware of the tentacles protecting her, of the van coming back towards where she was, of Mirai's angry roars…

But most of her focus, her mind, was fixed on the many eyes of the titanic creature before her, even as it tilted to the side, staring at her.

Within the chaotic mess that was the 'mind' of X-K0940…the sound of the girl's cries echoed.

Slowly, it made 'something' within open its eyes, remembering. That sound was…familiar. Intimately so.

That's right…it was the first sound it…no, HE had ever heard, so long ago he had almost completely forgotten it.

Not in his life before as a mindless beast being raised and experimented on by the Tryums, but as a 'human being'. It hadn't been the voices of the married couple that would become his parents, no…it was the crying voice of a baby girl what had reached his mind first as he gained 'awareness' within that pod, as the human DNA filled him and let him 'think' like one of them.

That little girl. The teenage one before him. His little sister. Kirigaya Suguha.

(EatDevourConsumeAssimilateOneAllNothing…!)

With a gasp, Kirigaya Kazuto emerged from the sea of blood and flesh that was his mind, the deformed parody of his body 'looking' around at the limbs, heads and more things he couldn't name emerging partially from it, all of them 'chanting' endlessly at him, all of them trying to bring him down again, with them…

He simply stared back, easily pulling himself out, easily becoming 'himself' again, nothing but pity and sadness in his gaze.

"I see…I see now. That's why my soul is like it is…so 'fragmented', unlike everyone else's…is because of you all, isn't it?"

(PainAngerRageConsumeAbsorbOneAllNothing…!)

"You all…every single one of you, so many I can't even count…every time I ate you…no, every time she fed you to me, so recently dead, I…no, whatever I am, forced a part of you to stay, didn't it? A part of your souls…became a part of mine. Of me."

(ONEMANYDEVOURONEMANYDEVOUR…!)

"I'm sorry…I can't say I understand your pain. At all. And I can't really make it up to you in any way I can understand…but…I can't stay here. I can't become 'you'…because they need 'me'. My little sister. My family. my friends. Everyone I love. I had almost forgotten it for a moment, in my pain, but…now that I remember it, your voices can't draw me back anymore."

(…PainLonilenessDespair…)

"Yes…being alone must be terrible, isn't it? But…you don't have to be alone. You're ALL a part of ME, remember? We're one and the same, so…let's not do this. You all are also who they care for. You're all also big brothers, sons, friends…we're all Kirigaya Kazuto. We're all…Lusus Naturae."

For a moment, there was silence. Then…something that the boy couldn't put a name to.

But in his mind, it sounded very much like endless crying.

And it was with a burst of flesh receding and animalistic screeches that Kirigaya Kazuto opened his eyes for real too, standing before his shocked sister, who didn't even register the fact that he was naked before rushing forward and hugging him, her sobs renewing in strength.

Silently, the alien experiment turned human hugged her back.

"Onii-chan…Onii-chan…!"

"Sorry for scaring you, Sugu. I'm back. Now, did you say Yuuna was…?!"

"WHY?!" reacting faster than she had ever seen him do before, Kazuto carried his little sister and jumped away from Mirai's massive tendrils, which would have crushed them both if he hadn't. "Why did you turn back into that pathetic form?! You were so close to becoming the 'real' you, brother!"

"Stop calling me that! The only one who has any right to do so is right here in my arms, and she's one of the people I love the most in the Universe!" roared back the Lusus Naturae as he landed on the sand, ignoring how the girl turned beet red at his words as he let her go, standing protectively before her. "And you, Mirai…is time I stop you once and for all."

"Stop me…? Has your mind decayed so much from interacting with them, brother?! Even before, you could barely oppose me like this!" roared the abomination with all of her mouths, the earth trembling in all directions as she did so, forcing the group inside the van to stay back even as they stared at the scene with bated breaths, relief, fear…and hope.

"That's because…I was fighting you like a monster. And I would never win that way because you're an even bigger monster…but also because I'm more than that! I'm a human being! A son, a friend, and a big brother! I'm Kirigaya Kazuto!" shouted the black-haired boy as his body shook, eyes closing for a moment before he sent a smile to his sister behind him and to the people in the van, as if trying to reassure them. "But I'm also something else. Something very adept to fight monsters, even if not in this world…but still me!"

"What…are you saying…?" growled Mirai in clear confusion.

"I…am a Hero."

And having made that declaration, as if it was the most natural thing to do, Kazuto…posed.

Kayaba Akihiko stared, idly aware that everyone else was doing the same. Not because of the fact that the alien boy seemed to have forgotten about his nudity (Though he was sure several of the girls staring were more than mindful of it), but because he could easily recognize WHAT pose that was. Hell, he could see in everyone's eyes that they did. Even the youngest in the group, Keiko, Akane and the twins, clearly had a vague idea of it.

After all, one couldn't grow up in Japan and not at least had heard or seen in one way or another one of the most iconic 'heroic' poses ever, with the boy's right arm aiming left diagonally before himself.

"…is he really…?"

"Yes, Clovis, I think he is."

"There is…there is no way that's going to work…right?"

"…are you seriously asking that, Nori?"

"Is…is Kirito really going to…?!"

"Yuu…at this point, I don't think anything is impossible for…"

"HE'S DOING IT!"

Akane's excited shout was in utter contrast with the eerie silence outside as the Lusus Naturae's arm moved clockwise over himself, slowly changing his pose as he uttered a single, world-shattering word.

"HENSHIN!"

As soon as the cry was uttered, true to it, Kazuto 'transformed'. His naked body grew and turned slightly more muscled, filling out and turning black even as metallic-looking bone plate formed armor around him, enclosing every inch of himself except his head.

A 'helmet' grew around it. Literally, from his neck, as if he had deliberately done so in a way that wouldn't really 'transform' his head and only Suguha realized the 'why' of it immediately.

For, behind that black and slightly insect-like 'helmet', the boy's eyes never changed into those of his true nature. They remained as human as they were in their father's own, in a direct defiance of every single time he had 'transformed' in any way in the past. A if to challenge his true nature with his 'Human' one.

Standing proud, the armored black figure glared forward, staring up at the alien abomination's titanic mass as if he had nothing to fear, two black blades made of his bones growing from his arm as he easily caught them in his grips.

An eye opened on his chest. One of his back too. Then two on his forearms, shoulders, and knees. And, as if an afterthought, 'eyelids' made of some sort of transparent chitin covered them, protecting the obvious weak points with a hardness easily surpassing diamonds.

In answer to the shocking development…Mirai released an angered sound.

"Are you…mocking me?! What is that ugly form?! Why are you insulting me by taking a shape based on these insects, brother?!"

Once again, the gigantic tendrils lashed out, this time in angles so that the two in her sights couldn't escape…

"Starburst Stream."

And they brutally repelled, the alien monster unable to hide her utter shock as their tips were impossibly shredded apart by 16 ultra-fast slashes from the bone-blades, which were now surrounded by a chirping electric-like energy being generated by the armored alien's hands.

Standing proudly before his awed little sister, unwilling to back down even an inch, the transformed Kazuto spoke again.

"Now you face Kirito, the Smiling Swordsman." true to his words, the Lusus Naturae let a face-splitting grin appear behind his helmet. "Time for round two, 'sis'. It's time I teach you what happens…when you're not a nice person."

Declaring so, the black-clad boy shot forward thrice as fast as he had ever done, tearing inside and through the body of the abomination calling itself his sister. A roar of shock quickly became one of pain.

And the last round of the clash of freaks started…

---

Author's Notes: Done! Freaking finally, eh? Also, yeah, that's what happens when you let an alien abomination watch too much Kamen Rider XP

For those who want a clarification, Kazuto basically did Kamen Rider Ichigo's transformation sequence there. Also, his 'evolved form' was inspired by both the game Bloodborne and the manga Hakaiju, with a mix of Lovecraft, of course. And his 'armored form' there at the end was inspired by Alex Mercer's own from the game Prototype (But if the guy had been a Kamen Rider fanboy XD).

Also, sorry it had to end 'there', really. I swear, this was planned from long ago to not bloat the chapter unnecessarily, but my time-eating-job getting in the way and making this seem like an eternal wait didn't factor back then, sorry to force you to wait more to see the full conclusion to this part of the plot, my dear readers…

Anyway, onto the chapter itself, not much more to say than what you already read. We got a small glimpse into Lusus-kun's true and disturbing nature, the depths of which no one but Mirai seems to really know, not even himself yet, even if he reached deeper than ever before now. How will that affect him? You're about to see…

And Waryum got 'saved' by the skin of his teeth, though if that's for better or worse remains to be seen…with that said, though, I leave you with this time's Omake so you can read a bit more!

---

Lusus+Vampire 9: What's colder than loneliness?

Shirayuki Mizore was abnormal and apathetic even among her fellow monsters, and that was something she knew and accepted without much care. At least outwardly.

Then again, being a Yuki-Onna, a Snow Woman, one of the most reclusive and secretive races of youkai, and also amongst the ones with the most myths and inaccurate stories about their relationships with other beings, human especially, that wasn't too much of a surprise.

In fact, she didn't mind that at all, for if her experience earlier that year had taught her anything was that, sometimes, it was better to not be noticed at all. To be honest, she wouldn't really have come back to classes, despite being a student of Youkai Academy, if it wasn't because of the 'rumors' she started hearing a few weeks back.

About the exploits of the strange members of the recently reformed Newspaper Club. Or, to be more specific, those of a certain member in particular, around which everything seemed to revolve. A bizarre boy that was apparently a kind of monster no one had heard about before…

Kirigaya Kazuto. Who just so happened, as if it was a joke of Fate, to be going at the same class she was supposed to.

Intrigue and curiosity had slowly grown within her, wondering if perhaps all of it was just a coincidence or maybe life trying to tell her something. Bit by bit, she started to learn more about him, overhearing other students' conversations, snatching away newspapers and reading the articles he made and, more recently, even subtly spying on him.

She was very good at going around unnoticed and watching over other people when doing so. Though she wasn't sure why that seemed to disturb others so much, but again, she didn't really care much about it.

Her work had proved quite the interesting and satisfactory results: Kazuto was a nice, brave and caring person. Someone who valued those he held close more than anything and that would do everything in his power for them. Also, his articles regarding understanding and comprehension between youkai (Of a surprisingly high quality for having been writing by a boy just starting High School) had more than fascinated her, especially how honest and firm (To the point that some may have called it naïve) his belief on everything he wrote seemed to be.

The Yuki-Onna had found herself enraptured and captivated by him easily enough. The whole debacle with Kuyou and the PSC the other day had only reinforced that.

He truly was everything she dreamed and hoped for, and this time she had actually seen and checked it out firsthand to be sure of it. The black-haired boy was, no doubt, the perfect candidate to belong to her, forever…

Of course, there was just a small problem with that, beyond that he probably didn't even know she existed (At least until she had 'casually' greeted him that morning when buying a newspaper, which he had answered with a bright cheer that had made her cheeks feel strangely warm): The girls around him, which he seemed unusually close to, and that were clearly infatuated with him. They were an obstacle for her…therefore, they needed to be…'removed'…

Which was what had led to the current situation. That is, Mizore waiting patiently while sitting beside a small lake/swamp of the many that littered the forests around Youkai Academy, the girl with long light purple hair softly licking a lollipop. All in all, standing there with her light brown skirt, a white sweatshirt, equally white shoes (Accompanied with long dark & light purple-striped stockings) and a yellow pendant (Never mind the belt oddly tied to her left leg), nothing about her indicated anything but a gentle loneliness.

And it was to that sight that Kazuto walked out to, blinking in surprise for a moment before regarding her with a curious look.

"Hi there, Kazuto. I see you received my letter." smiled the Snow Woman while turning around. "I'm…"

"Shirayuki Mizore, I know!" happily replied the black-haired boy with a smile, freezing (Pun not intended) her dead in her tracks. "You're in my class; sit a few seats behind me!"

"Yo-you know me…?" asked Mizore with actual shock, not having expected that.

"Well, yeah? I mean, you came back to classes all of a sudden two weeks ago, you seem like a nice person and you have been kinda watching me a lot while hiding lately." commented Kazuto as if he was just talking about the weather, even as the Snow Woman recoiled slightly at the admission. "I thought it was because you were very shy so I decided not to say anything until you felt ready to openly talk, and it happened in the end so I'm glad I did! Do you perhaps want to be friends?"

Suffice to say, the purple-haired girl was quite thrown off and unsure of how to react at that moment, which was very strange for her. After all, she was no stranger to people finding her out when 'watching over' them sometimes (Even if they always called it stalking), and it had never really bothered her at all.

However, the way in which he reacted…so sincere and happy just because she was finally talking with him out in the open, truly not minding at all that she had been 'spying' on him and his friends, honestly seeming not bothered or finding that 'weird' or 'disturbing' at all, like every other person since she had moved away from her home village had always done…it was making her feel oddly shy and embarrassed, making her cheeks heat up in an unknown but not unpleasant way she had never experienced before.

It seemed she was right, after all. He truly was something else, someone special, if he could make her feel so many strange things with just a few words. He truly was the one who…

"Kazuto-kun…the truth is, I'm a fan reader of your work." confessed Mizore with a soft smile while walking extremely close to him, though the boy didn't seem to react negatively to her invasion of his personal space beyond another blink. "He-here…look, I made this scrapbook with some of your articles from the school newspaper…"

Clearly curious about the whole deal, Kazuto accepted the small notebook, opening it…and looking into the many cut-offs articles spread over the many pages, with tons of words that had been writing countless times over and over on the edges and sometimes even over the articles, so deep the ink seemed to almost pierce the page, looking honestly quite disturbing for any sane person…

"Woah, amazing! You ordered all of them without missing a single one…and you even put your personal thoughts and notes about them on every single page!"

…but then again, the Lusus Naturae was probably someone that totally didn't fit said description.

"Yo-you can tell with just a glance…?" asked the Snow Woman while feeling the blush on her cheeks intensifying, mirroring the smile on the boy's face with her own.

"Yes, I have very good eyes for these things. I learned how to make articles like these from my mom so it would be bad if I didn't, that's also an important part about writing them…" explained Kazuto with a thoughtful look, before smiling once again. "In fact, I think I want to show this to my friends, I'm sure they will love it too! Why don't you come with me to the Newspaper Club, Shirayuki-san? Everyone will…!"

Slowly, the Lusus Naturae realized something was 'wrong', that there had been some drastic change in the air around the girl as he said the last words.

It probably had more to do with the way in which the temperature had dropped dramatically and frost had started to cover every surface around them than with his own ability to realize he had said something wrong, though.

"The Newspaper Club…what's so special about those girls? They can't possibly understand you…you're the last of your race, right? That must make you feel very lonely inside, no matter how many other people surround you…and I can understand that loneliness, understand you, better than anyone else in this school…" whispered the purple-haired girl with a suddenly 'dead' tone, even as the boy felt the air around him turn freezing cold in an instant. "That's why, you should forget them and become mine and mine alone, Kazuto…"

More by instinct than anything else, the black-haired boy threw himself back easily, his eyes widening slightly at seeing the entire swamp freezing in a second and the change that Mizore had suffered, her hair and hands having turned into icy sharp icicles and her skin seeming to have gained an icy gleam, her face now devoid of any warmth.

"A Yuki-Onna…Shirayuki-san, you're a Snow Woman?" muttered Kazuto while tilting his head, once again not reacting as most people would at the sudden change and hostility coming from his female classmate.

"I am, indeed. We're a very lonely race that has problems to relate with others, and that has been declining in numbers during the last age, you know? That's why I just know, if anyone can understand me, it's you. And I can understand you better than…!"

"You're wrong."

Those words made the Snow Woman stop in her tracks once again, as if frozen (Once again not a pun), even as her wide eyes looked at the suddenly serious and narrowed gaze Kazuto was directing towards her.

"What…?"

"You say you know of me, but if you actually think that then you have clearly been only thinking and hearing what you want to. Deluding yourself." declared the boy with the same passion with which he had denied Kuyou the other day. "Sure, I may be the only 'Lusus Naturae' around…but I have never felt lonely. I have never been alone, and I thank the Heavens for that every day. Be it family or friends, I have always had someone around me to love and that could love me back, in one way or another…and even those few times I thought that what I am would be a problem or isolate me from them, they always made sure to scold me for thinking such stupid things. People should love you for WHO you are and for what you are, after all."

"…I see." mumbled the icy Youkai with a suddenly depressed tone, the temperature dropping further as her ice-claws grew. "You're right…we're just too different, I don't know what I was even think…!"

Then, the girl fell silent once again, in shock, seeing the Lusus Naturae standing before her, his hand holding one of her claws with surprising force and not seeming bothered at all by the deadly cold it should cause.

In fact, he didn't even flinch when ice crept up his arm from the contact, as if it meant nothing at all to him.

"I can't say I understand your situation, Shirayuki-san…but I know that the loneliness is hurting you, a lot. And I know that just imagining such a thing for me terrifies more than even the water does. I wouldn't wish such a thing on anyone, ever."

"Ka…Kazuto…" mumbled the Yuki-Onna while more unknown emotions whirled inside her at the sincerity of his words.

"You just told me a moment ago to forget about my friends here to be yours…but would you really want that? Tell me, could you honestly ever care for someone who would discard others because someone else told him to?" insisted Kazuto while tightening his grip on her icy limb, making her eyes widen in surprise. "Would such a person be worthy of any affection or trust from you? When you know firsthand they could do the same to you if someone stronger came along and told them to do the same?"

"I…I…" unable to find words, it was clear that Mizore had never thought that far, suddenly wishing to look away in shame, but finding herself unable to tear her gaze from the changing eyes of the boy before her, those alien and unnatural red and golden orbs seeming to pierce past her ice and into her soul.

Idly, she noticed the arm she had been subconsciously freezing bulging slightly and turning black and clawed, strange 'spikes' emerging from the limb and releasing a weird heat that warmed it and melted the ice. Surprisingly, it was just enough to do that, and not to hurt or even make her feel uncomfortable, steam of just enough hot and cold temperature rising between them at the continuous contact.

"You said something very scary just now. It sounded as if you wanted to hurt my friends, and I would never forgive you if you did that…but things don't have to be that way, you know? They can be your friends too. You can become like me…someone that, no matter what their circumstances are, doesn't have to be alone anymore." softly declared the Lusus Naturae while his gaze softened and he raised his other hand, tenderly caressing the icy cheek of the girl, his touch feeling unusually warm despite her nature. "Instead of lashing out or watching in silence…why don't we talk, Shira…Mizore-san? Would you tell me what hurts you so much; what makes you so distrustful that you would act like this without giving others a chance…? So that I can understand you better?"

At those words, something within Shirayuki Mizore seemed to break, even as the temperature around them returned to normal, icy tears forming on the Snow Woman's eyes.

At that moment, the girl's Ice Clone, which had been threatening Moka with deadly intentions and that had been about to be destroyed by Kurumu and Yukari in a 'surprise attack' upon seeing their friend, love rival and love interest (In the latter's case) in danger, stopped and collapsed into harmless pieces of ice, making all three girls blink.

Around ten minutes later, all three of them would find Kazuto, sitting close to a half-melted swamp and with Mizore crying like a little girl in his arms, even as he whispered soothing words to her and waved their way with an awkward look. A lot of explanations would ensue.

Not so far away, though…a tall figure hidden in the shadows observed the scene with a scowl, clearly unamused by it all.

"Tsk, dammit Shirayuki…what the fuck was all that? And that Kirigaya boy…he's more trouble than I considered…I will have to deal with them before things turn more complicated…"

Declaring so, the man turned around, a sinister smile appearing on his face.

Behind him, as his form distorted slightly, eight long tentacles swung in the air menacingly…

---

Author's Notes 2: Done with that! Heh, that was honestly interesting to write :3

Reading the manga again, I'm surprised by how deep, if quickly brushed aside after they happen for quite some time, some of the situations of R+V first half were, especially when introducing the characters. Comedy and 'romantic' shenanigans usually made one forget if they weren't paying attention, but like mentioned with Kurumu and Yukari's situations, things are surprisingly deeper than they may seem at first glance (Especially compared to the anime), and they didn't take full advantage of that until the manga's second half.

Mizore is a fandom-favorite, and while not my Best Girl I liked her a lot too, so writing her was both interesting and complex. Her issues and insecurities at the beginning, and also her 'obsessive' personality, are both bizarre and understandable at the same time, given everything we get to know about her and her situation, but also have a lot of 'problems' that only become obvious when you analyze them deeply, like what Kazuto pointed out up there about the lack of faith you should put on someone you 'forced' to love you and to ditch others they care for if ordered. These are understandable because she's, Youkai or not, a teenage girl in the end, and I think we all know emotions run rampant and can usually make us make a lot of mistakes at that age.

Of course, Lusus-kun is NOT Tsukune, so things change quite a bit. Personality and traits aside, and lack of over-reactions caused by the human nature and social awkwardness of the latter, when it comes to feelings he understands them very well because they're important to him, even if he rarely voiced them aloud unless it's necessary (His 'confession' to Asuna, Suguha, and Yuuna in the main story should be proof of that, even if he's not the sharpest one yet to 'notice' when other's feelings are directed towards him, at least those of romantic nature). More than friends/romantic rivals or a love interest, what I think Mizore really needed when first introduced was someone that would listen to her and try to understand her situation, so I tried to portray how that would go here. Hopefully you enjoyed reading it :3

Anyway, with that said, we're done here! This long-delayed update is finally over. Seeya all next time in OPG:CoF, even if it may take quite a while. And while we're at it, a shoutout to my friend KnightEstoc, who has helped me keep my writing muse alive during these longs work days. Go check out his "Stand Together and Smile" SAO fanfic if you haven't yet, it's great and will give you something nice to enjoy while waiting for more here XP

Until next time, this is Saint, signing off!