-Ayako's POV-

"Morning Itsuka." I glance over at Shido as his weirdo friend, Tonomachi, stops in front of his desk first thing in the morning and groan to myself. Guess I won't be getting a pre homeroom nap today with this loudmouth over here.

"Good morning Tonomachi, what can I do for you today?" Shido asks, a deadpan look on his face.

"Hehe I'm glad you asked, I wanted to take the time to introduce you to my girlfriend today." He says proudly as his phone goes off. "Oh perfect timing that's her." He reaches into his pocket and pulls his phone out and proudly shows it to Shido.

"... Tonomachi that's a dating sim." I peek over at his phone and nearly cough aloud as I see the title of the game, Fall in Love: My Little Seed. I smash my forehead against my desk, hoping its a dream but when I look back over I groan in despair.

"She is still my girlfriend, don't be prejudiced!" Tonomachi exclaims, coming to the defense of his "girlfriend" throwing me in an even deeper depression. I'm never coding another dating game ever again…

"Saying a video game character is your girlfriend? Isn't that just a little too pathetic?" Ai says from her desk a few seats down from theirs, a look of disgust on her face.

"I know, ever since that game came out all he does is talk to his phone with a perverted look on his face. I even remember him talking to it about changing her into a bunny outfit once." Mai adds with a shake of her head.

"That's so lame…" I hold back my chuckle as Mii piles on to the disses.

"You are all just jealous of the deep connection and love my honey and I have together! You could never understand how we feel about each other." Tonomachi declares and I just groan. Just let me die please, I created a monster. "This game is a textbook for love! Everything you could ever want to learn when dealing with women!"

"I highly doubt that." Shido says skeptically.

"Why don't you buy the game then? You'll see exactly how right I am once you play it a bit." He dares Shido and I pray he doesn't accept.

"Thanks but I would rather spend my money on things more worthwhile." Shido declines and I pump my fist, mentally of course.

"Hmph, I guess this isn't for everyone. You should think about getting a girlfriend yourself Shido, though I don't know how good you would be with most girls, maybe try someone easy, like Ayako over there." I sit up straight and glare daggers at him. Did this bitch just call me EASY? Hell no, I belong to Onee-sama and no one else, so there is no way I'm 'easy'.

"Tonomachi apologize to Ayako right now!" Shido demands which just earns him a confused look from his soon to be murdered friend.

"What? Why?" Tonomachi stares back blankly at Shido, not comprehending what he did wrong.

"For someone who claims to have the textbook of love and how to handle girls at the tips of his fingers, literally, you are a total idiot. You don't just call a girl easy, even if you don't mean it like that." Shido tells him off sternly, but it's like he is talking to a brick wall.

"She is though, she's quiet and keeps to herself, she would be perfect for you." He suddenly yelps in pain as our other classmate, Tobiichi Origami, walks past Tonomachi and accidentally drives her foot into his leg causing him to nearly fall over.

"Apologies, I didn't see you there Tonomachi, good morning Shido." She says in her usual bland voice and continues to her seat. Tonomachi grumbles in pain and hobbles back to his seat.

"Sorry about that Ayako, he is a complete idiot." Shido apologizes and I just shrug, but the murderous intent must not have abated because he adds. "Hey I'm meeting Kotori after school at Danny's to celebrate her first day of school, wanna join us? I bet she would be really happy to see you since you two haven't hung out recently."

"Sure, your treat right?" I give a smug little grin, giving him the look of a cat waiting to pounce as he gives a sad little chuckle.

"You don't really need me to help pay for you do you?" He asks hopefully, knowing full well that my sister and I have never had any money issues and I always have a hefty allowance given to me each month.

"Hmm, I'll cut you a deal, you invited me so you pay for my food, and I'll pay for Kotori's as a present." I give him the compromise, Sure he probably would have said he would pay for me, but why should I make him?

"Sounds good to me." Suddenly alarms start blaring and all heads snap to stare out the window. "Another spatial quake?"

"There've been a lot more of them recently." Tonomachi comments as I watch Origami stand up without a word and exit the class before Tama-chan can even notice.

"A-Alright class no cause for alarm, let's all proceed to the shelter." Tama-chan says, obviously not taking her own advice and panicking slightly as we all hurry from the class.

I'm surprised Onee-sama didn't let me know that a spatial quake was going to happen, I hope something hasn't happened. I hang back near the entrance of the bunker with Shido and pull my phone out to check if I have any missed messages and swallow hard as I notice a message from earlier saying there will be a large quake around this time. Oh no… I'm gonna get punished this time for sure. I look up in time to see Shido dash out of the shelter with Tama-chan and Tonomachi calling after him to stop. I swear softly to myself and slip out as soon as they are distracted and start to race after Shido. I pull my phone out as I run and quickly dial Tsubasa's number.

"This is a surprise, I thought you would have your hands full dealing with Princess right about now." Tsubasa says as she answers the phone.

"Yea about that, I didn't see your message Onee-sama. I'm currently enroute right now." I tell her as I race out of the school, pausing only a moment to call Zuriel and change into my Astral Dress.

"How did you miss it? You usually respond to my messages almost as soon as they are sent." She asks, obviously puzzled.

"W-Well I went to bed late last night so I kinda fell asleep when I got to class, almost missed homeroom even." I laugh nervously and get silence in return. "Onee-sama?"

"Pray tell what exactly were you doing last night? I believe I tucked you in at the usual time, so you should've had plenty of sleep." Her voice takes an icy tone which causes me to shudder involuntarily.

"W-Well I wasn't feeling all that sleepy, so I decided to sneak out to my workshop and work on a little pet project of mine that's all." I stutter a little as I explain.

"Really now? You haven't told me anything about this yet." Shit she is pissed…

"To be honest Onee-sama I'm not even sure if what I'm working on will work yet or not, so I didn't want to bother you with my silly project until I knew it would work or not. I was waiting until I had a working prototype to show you that's all." I lie through my teeth. This is my own person project, not for mass production, but if I can get it working I can finally live out my dream and fantasies!

"Mhm, well get to Princess and provide her cover and when you get home we will talk about your punishment, and then you will show me this pet project of yours." Tsubasa says in a stern tone.

"Onee-sama that's not fair! This is my private project, you promised that as long as I kept my grades up I can work on anything I want and you won't be nosey!" I complain loudly.

"No arguing Ayako, I'm the boss and when I say it's bedtime, it's bedtime and you disobeyed me. Normally I wouldn't be so strict on this but this is a dangerous situation." I cringe at her tone of voice.

"Is now a bad time to mention that Shido is on his way to the quakes location too?" I ask in a worried tone.

"... Get over there now Ayako, don't let anything happen to him." She says, her tone deathly serious before she hangs up. I'm so screwed

Suddenly a violent blast of wind rips out as the quake begins. "Zuriel, Sosei!" I summon several holographic screens in front of me and use them as a wall to block the brunt of the explosive force as space destorts in front of me, but even with my shields the force pushes me backward. "This is a big one!" I grit my teeth as a few of my screens crack against the pressure. Once the initial blast subsides I drop my shields and head closer to the blast but freeze as I see Shido on the ground, Princess standing over him, sword pointed at his chest.

"You've come here to kill me, just like everyone else, haven't you. I should take care of you before the others come and try to interfere." Her voice is cold and dangerous.

"H-Hold on a minute that's not why I'm here!" Shido's voice comes out straight as he stares up at the girl. I hold my position out of sight and squeeze my fists tightly in frustration, one wrong move at the wrong time and Shido could be killed.

"What? You are lying." She says but her voice is full of confusion.

"I couldn't kill anyone, I just wanted to find my sister." He presses but suddenly Princess turns away raising a barrier as the AST swoops in yet again, as a barrage of missiles explode against her barrier. She launches herself into the air as the next wave fires and she begins cutting them down as they approach.

I watch in shock as Princess leaves Shido alone and unharmed as she shifts her focus to the AST. I let out a sigh of relief until I see a missile slip past her, its trajectory aimed right at Shido. I launch myself from my hiding spot aiming straight at Shido. "Zuriel, Sosei!" I dig my feet in and skid to a stop between Shido and the incoming attack and summon my screens around us both to act as a barrier.

"W-Who are you, what's going on?" He asks, starring up me with wide eyes as I save him from the explosion.

" Don't ask questions, just get out of here!" I yell at him. "Zuriel, Kurudo." I draw out a blue crystalline rapier and turn to face the rest of the AST as Princess faces off against Origami. I slowly walk away from Shido but leave Sosei around Shido so he doesn't get drawn into the battle. I stop in front of the AST forces, their weapons pointed at me and I give an elaborate bow.

"Roulette, today we bring you down." Ryouko Kusakabe declares as they prepare to mount their assault.

"Don't you say that every time?" I ask her mockingly as I flourish my rapier nonchalantly. She gives the order to fire and they let loose a barrage of bullets. With my fast, nimble blade I swiftly cut down the bullets as they approach me, knocking the projectiles harmlessly off to the side. Thanks, Onee-sama, for the private sword lessons. I smirk as I continue to deflect their constant attacks and take one slow step forward, and then another as their attack is shown to be pointless. I pause my approach for a moment as I notice Captain Kusakabe hoist a giant rifle into firing position.

"Prepare to follow up when the Merry Ram punches a hole through her defenses." She shouts as the rifle begins to charge, and after just a moment a powerful energy blast fires out. I raise my rapier and without any hesitation thrust the rip of my blade into approaching attack. They collide and the force of my stab scatters the blast impact and once the smoke clears I smirk at them as I walk forward unscathed.

"An interesting new weapon you have there Captain Kusakabe, to bad that it's just not strong enough to break through a Spirit's defences." I keep walking towards them and I notice Origami get launched toward the group by Princess.

"Everyone fall back!" Captain Kusakabe gives the retreat order but Princess launches herself at them as they recover the injured Origami. I lunge forward and reflect the incoming attack with a thrust of my own.

"What do you think you are doing?" Princess growls at me as I put myself between her and the defeated AST, much to everyone's surprise. "You are always fighting against them and constantly tell me you are here to help me, why then are you defending them now?" She demands from me as I hold my place between them.

"My goal isn't to hurt humans or fight you. All I want is for us to coexist in peace with one another. I'll protect other Spirits from the AST, but I won't stand by and let them get hurt needlessly." I tell her calmly.

"Then it seems we are not allies like I had thought." I dodge sideways as she launches a blade attack at me and I lunge at her in response. She deftly parries my blade stroke and quickly presses her attack against me. Our blades spark as they collide over and over again. The force of each blow is enough to cause a powerful wind gust from each clash. I dodge around her heavy swings and use the needle tip of my rapier to drive her back step by step. The razor tip slashes through Princess' Astral Dress, leaving small knicks in her skin as she tries to parry my barrage stabs before finally giving up and leaping backwards and out of range of my attacks. I hold my position, not pursuing her as I cautiously wait for her next move.

"I'm going to blow you away in a single strike." Princess says as her blade starts to pulse with a dark purple energy, causing it to glow ominously. I prepare to summon Sosei to defend me but stop as I notice Shido still behind me, frozen in place by the battle that is going on in front of him.

I draw my finger down the flat of the blade and it lights up softly. The light crackles up the length of the blade forming a small hissing ball electricity at the tip. "I can't let you do this Princess, I really hope that you are strong enough to endure this attack, because against that, I can't hold back. Zuriel, Mado Saidai." I thrust my sword as she swings and the two attacks clash in the air. My lightning bolt slams into her attack with such force I have to dig my blade into the ground to not get sent flying from the clash of energy. Finally the power struggle ends and the forces explode, causing a massive shockwave that launches me backward and kicks up blinding dust in every direction. I cough loudly as the dust begins to settle and I sit up and look around. The area is completely decimated, most of the surrounding buildings damaged and cracked, many of them flattened outright, and Princess nowhere to be seen. I sigh heavily to myself and stand up. I quickly walk over to Shido, the force of the blow knocked him out but Sosei protected him from most of the damage caused. "The Fraxinus will no doubt pick him up so he will be fine here." I say, thankful that he didn't sustain any real injury from the fight. "I wonder if Onee-sama will get even madder since I fought with Princess so hard." I let out a heavy sigh and rush off towards home, knowing full well that's where she would be at this time.

I land in front of the house, the street silent thanks to most people still not being home after the spatial quake alarms. I undo my transformation and slowly open the door. "Good, you came straight home." I flinch as I see Tsubasa standing just past the entryway, hands on her hips and an annoyed look on her face. "I would lecture you, but you already know exactly what you did wrong, and I'm fairly certain you wouldn't do it again, or there will be more than a scolding." I swallow hard and nod my head. "Good girl, now what exactly happened with Princess?"

I give her a brief explanation of what exactly went down and much to my surprise she doesn't get angry when I tell her about our confrontation. "You did exactly what I expect Ayako, you protected both sides to reduce injuries to a minimum, honestly I think you handled the situation very well." She pulls me into a hug and I nearly swoon as she wraps me in her warm loving embrace. "Ratatoskr will begin moving in earnest now, I have already received an email about giving them the modded version of the game. I checked your database and found the completed file and sent it to them so I know for a fact that things are about to get more interesting." She explains well holding me against her, patting my head softly.

"Oh good, I had planned to give that to you tonight anyway so that makes things easier." I smile up at her before nuzzling against her with a content sigh.

"Don't get too comfortable little lady, you still have to show me this pet project of yours, and then we will see what kind of real punishment you deserve." I look up at her wide eyed, trembling slightly in fear. "Now come along, let's go see what you have been tinkering with." I whimper and follow along as she leads me by the hand to my workshop, the door closing loudly behind us.