-Tsubasa's POV-

"I apologize for my failure to defeat the Princess. Next time I'll be sure to take her head." Ellen swears to Westcott as they land at a safe location far from the crumbling DEM tower. Westcott stares at the tower, watching from a distance as he can make out a battle happening in the air above the tower.

"Do you think Roulette has much of a chance against Princess?" He asks Ellen without taking his eyes off the tower.

"Based on the data we have collected on Roulette's battles and the power Princess was just putting out, I find it highly unlikely that Roulette will survive the confrontation." Ellen answers calmly.

"You think so? A pity, she certainly is an interesting specimen." Westcott responds with a slight sigh.

"I wouldn't write her off just yet if I were you." I say, a smirk on my face as the two of them spin around, dumbfounded by my presence there. I watch them, a smirk of contempt on my face as I stand there with my arms crossed. "It's been a long time Westcott, I see you are in good health, though your tower, not so much."

"Tsubasa, well this is a surprise. I haven't heard from you in years." Westcott says, quickly recovering his cool from my surprise appearance. "How have the years been treating you? I do hope your younger sister is well." He smiles cooly.

"I've come to give you a warning Westcott." I respond, all my joking gone. I take a step toward them and Ellen swiftly moves between Westcott and me.

"A warning you say?" I grit my teeth at his mocking tone but don't let myself lose my cool.

"I promise you, if you ever hurt the people I care about I will show you pain you couldn't imagine in your wildest nightmares Westcott. So for your own sake I would stop your misguided quest for Spirits." I threaten him.

"How dare you!" Ellen rushes at me and I can't help but smirk as she thrusts her blade at me. "I will not suffer such disrespect toward Ike!" She roars. I raise my hand and stop her attack mid thrust. She gasps in surprise as I block my attack with my bare hand. "Tch, just die!" I stand there as she lets loose a barrage of blows, her sword a blur as she strikes at me over and over.

I chuckle as I block each one of her strikes like swatting a fly, enjoying the look of frustration on her face as her attacks are rendered ineffective. I flick my wrist and launch her backwards, the force of the 'attack' smashing her into a wall. "If that's the best you can do Ellen, you don't stand a chance of touching me." I turn and start to walk away. "I'll warn you again Westcott. If you ever hurt the people I care about, I will end you." I teleport away, heading back home.

"She's a monster." Ellen says, walking up to Wescott.

"Hmm, she won't be an issue once we reach our goal, so for now we will work around her until the time is right. Make sure you keep an eye on Shido, and Roulette." Wescott orders her. "It's pretty obvious that Tsubasa is tied up with them, most likely Roulette is her little sister. Don't make it obvious we are watching them though."

"Understood Ike, I'll make sure steps are taken when we get back to DEM headquarters." She promises.

"Hmm, looks like they're not gonna listen." I sigh as I close my portal and dispel my Astral Dress.

"Welcome home Tsubasa." Kurumi says from the couch.

"I've never seen you so disheveled before, except in bed." I comment with a slight smirk.

"You try fighting a whole army and come out unscathed… on second thought don't bother, I already know the outcome." She says and I laugh loudly at her.

"Where is Ayako?" I ask curiously as I conjure up a portal to take a look.

"She's on her way home now. I couldn't really bring her back with me without people asking questions so I left her with Shido and the others, hope you don't mind." She informs me.

"No that's probably for the best. It's good they don't know your connection to Ayako just yet." I tell her, closing my portal. "Did you check on her before you left at least?"

"I'm not her babysitter Tsubasa, it's not my job to look after her." Kurumi says with a loud 'hmph'.

"I know you're not, and I've never asked you too, but you seem to like to anyway, which I think is adorable." I smile and take a seat next to her, giving her a hug.

"You don't know what you're talking about, also you owe me a reward for today." She says while hugging me back.

I stroke her back fondly and give her a squeeze. "Don't worry, I'll spoil you plenty later once everyone is home and taken care of."

"You better." She leans back and looks up at me. "Ayako's pretty wiped out. Tohka really did a number on her, even with Miku lending her support Ayako was left in pretty bad shape. I'm fairly certain her serious injury has been taken care of for the most part, but she didn't even have the strength to get home herself."

"I saw Miku was carrying her home."

"She's lucky Miku showed up. Tsubasa, I don't think Ayako would've been able to hold out if she hadn't shown up, you were being too reckless. You should've taken care of Tohka when things started to get out of hand." Kurumi says, a hint of anger in her voice.

"I was going to, if I'm being honest. However I saw Miku was on her way and I trusted Ayako to hold out until she got there, and if Miku was on her way so were the other Spirits. Believe me, I won't let anything bad happen to Ayako ever, but I can't coddle her, she has to grow up and fight her own battles. Even if I had gone with her she wouldn't have let me help." I tell Kurumi and gently stroke her hair. "Would you mind running the bath in my room? Ayako will probably need to get cleaned up and she's just about here." Kurumi nods and heads to my room to get the water heated up and I make my way to the door, opening it as Miku reaches for the handle.

"Oh! Onee-sama you're here, I brought Ayako home for you." Miku says, her face blushing a little bit and she stutters in embarrassment and I just smirk at her. I reach out and pull Ayako off Miku and she leans against me heavily and I pull her into a hug.

"Thank you Miku, for helping Ayako and for bringing her home." I tell her while petting Ayako's head and she hugs me.

"You don't have to thank me Onee-sama. It's the least I can do for her." She answers. "Also I'm sorry for what I did earlier, I hope you can forgive me."

I chuckle and pat her head. "You fought to protect my sister, so we can call it good." I inform her and she sighs in relief. "But if you get out of line again we're going to have a problem."

"Y-Yes Onee-sama, understood!" Miku stutters. "I should probably get home, have a good evening, bye Ayako."

"Bye Miku, I'll text you later." Ayako mutters, her voice tired.

I help Ayako back inside and she nuzzles her face against me. "You look exhausted, I had Kurumi run a bath for you, want to get in together?" She nods silently. Something happened, this is more than just being exhausted and hurt. I look down at Ayako worried and make our way to my bathroom where Kurumi is sitting on the edge of the tub, kicking her feet in the warm water.

"Mind if I join too?" She asks, but notices the look of worry on my face. "Actually I think I'm gonna get a snack, I'll come check on you in a bit if I still wanna hop in." She walks past us and shoots me a questioning look and I shrug in response and close the door behind her.

I turn to Ayako and start helping her undress, tossing her torn and bloody clothes into a pile before undressing myself. I quickly scan Ayako, checking for any injuries she might have and notice several painful bruises and a long bruise along her torso where she was probably cut by Tohka. I frown and step into the tub and slide into the hot soothing water. Ayako steps in and I grab her and pull her into my lap and wrap my arms around her. "What's wrong Ayako?" I finally ask, resting my cheek on her head.

"You mean besides being beaten up?" She chuckles.

"You know exactly what I mean Ayako, what's on your mind?" I push and she sighs and falls silent. I wait patiently, knowing she will talk when she is ready.

"Onee-sama… why didn't you come help with Tohka?" She finally asks. I raise my eyebrow in surprise.

"I had some business with someone that couldn't wait unfortunately, why do you ask?" I ask, curious about why she brought it up.

"To be honest I could barely fight Tohka on the tower." She confesses. "I weakened her, Miku made me stronger, and hit her with the most powerful railgun I've ever fired and it didn't even phase her. Everyone got hurt because I was too weak to fight her. If you had been there no one would've been hurt. Honestly if you had been there I doubt what happened to Tohka would have happened, but instead I went, and I couldn't protect anyone, I could barely even protect myself." She finishes bitterly. I sit in silence for a moment, a bit taken aback by how upset she was with herself.

"Ayako…" I wrap her in a tight hug and kiss her head. "You aren't being fair to yourself. Tohka's powers are completely different from yours, her abilities make her a great fighter, and Inversion is a phenomenon that only makes her that much stronger. More than that you aren't me, it's true I could've resolved the situation easily enough, but unfortunately I don't have the liberty of using my powers as openly as you do."

"I understand, but it doesn't make me feel any better, honestly it makes me feel like I'm not trying hard enough." She says, staring into the water. "I want to get stronger, I want to get strong enough to be of use to you, Onee-sama."

"Of use to me? Did you get hit in the head Ayako?" I ask teasingly and rock us both from side to side. "You do so much for me. You help with the company, you cheer me up when I need it, you protect the Spirits, something I can't do. However, if you want to get stronger I understand, and I'll do whatever I can to help you get stronger." I promise her. "Now come on, let's get you washed up and treat your cuts and bruises, Kurumin is waiting for us in the living room and we don't want to keep her waiting too long." I quickly lather her up, making sure to be careful as I clean her up and once I'm done I send her to get in some comfy clothes and make my way to the living room.

"Everything ok?" Kurumi asks as I sit down on the couch next to her.

"Yea, we just needed a sister to sister talk is all. She'll be out to join us in a minute so how about we relax and put on a movie? I feel we could all use a good night to relax." I flip through our movies and Ayako comes out and sits next to me. I hit play and pull them both to me, wrapping my arms around their hips and holding them close.

They rest their heads against my chest and my hands slowly migrate to their stomachs as the movie goes on and I absentmindedly rub them slowly. "Hey Tsubasa, am I the only one noticing that Ayako and I aren't showing yet? Aren't you worried about it at all? By now we should be showing at least a little."

"Yea, I'm kinda surprised too. Though it's also helpful not to have to worry about it at school." Ayako agrees.

"I had wondered about that too, and honestly I have no idea why you two aren't showing, but I know for a fact the babies are healthy." I hug them tightly to me. "I know it's different, and honestly kinda scary because we really don't know what's going on, but I promise no matter what we will get through it together." I bend down and kiss each of them softly before returning my attention back to the movie, keeping them pressed tight against me until they both eventually doze off.