Ch.5 World of order

Shido's party had arrived in the next timeline but unlike the others the place where they ended up this place was destroyed and barren like a war zone. Destroyed buildings everywhere and even large pieces of ships were covering the field. Everyone was surprised by this since the area was devoid of life and yet something was off. They spent about an hour looking around for anything since this was one of the timelines they were supposed to visit according to Kurumi.

Shido couldn't get Saori off his mind so Akane tried to cheer him up.

"Shido there's nothing you could've done back there"

"I know but..I can't help it. Saori was just so…"

Akane just bluntly responds.

"Crazy"

"Please don't say that. It just feels like I've failed as a parent and it hurts"

"Shido you're not technically her dad or mine for that matter, so why do you care so much?"

"I don't care if you, or her, or Aki are from different times you're still my kids in one way or another and I love you all like a dad"

Akane was touched by his words, puts on a casual look, and lifts her face to the sky.

" My dad is a good man, he always does what he can for me and mom, he's always kind to us, and he never once gave up on anyone he believed in. Now I see why mom loves him so just by talking to you."

Shido felt a little better and pats Akane on the head to show his gratitude.

"Thank you, Akane. You know you really remind me of Kotori"

Akane's white ribbon shows as she says.

"Of course I'm not as cool as my mom"

After some more time walking they decide to take a break and think about their situation. Kurumi talks a little more about what was going on since she has a better grasp on the situation. From what she understands Shido has been gone for about two weeks, Mana went missing, and the other spirits are worried beyond words. Kurumi was looking into it and along the way she encountered the woman with the bandages and got to where they were now. But Shido was more curious about the other ally that was mentioned.

"So Kurumi did the bandaged woman say anything about the other person she was sending?"

"No, but she did say they would know who we are and that they'd be strong"

Everyone was relieved to hear that last part especially after their encounter with Saori and they had a feeling she wasn't the worst of their problems. When night hit they made a fire with some stuff they found around the area and they even found some stuff to eat. Akane leaves on her own for a little while to clear her head while the others sleep. Shido and Aki slept sitting up while Shido let Kurumi laid her head on his lap so she could sleep lying down. While the others slept Akane found a private area and turned into her spirit form and began training her powers. She didn't want to admit it but she jealous that Aki awakened a power she didn't know existed without much effort so she dedicated herself to awakening her own guardian and the night sky lit up with her flames filling it.

Back in the original time at DEM headquarters Shinra was meeting with Isaac to discuss their next move since both of them were losing their patience. Shinra wanted to send one his followers again, but Isaac felt different.

"Listen Shinra I've been patient with you so far. But now I think it's my turn to send my own right hand"

"You mean to send Ellen. Am I correct?"

"You are sharp but then again with all the information you've given me I can't feel surprised by anything you say"

"You praise me too much Isaac."

Upon concluding their meeting Isaac ordered Ellen to make preparations since it was her turn to try and she assured her director she wouldn't fail. He also asked Shinra about using the gauntlet he gave them but he said they weren't ready to use. Ellen was determined to prove her superiority to Shinra since he seemed to belittle her. Isaac also prepared some bandersnatches to go with her as a little backup. Elsewhere in the building in a room that Isaac thinks is monitored Shinra was meeting Saori, who teleported through the shadows, in secret since she had failed in her mission or so it appeared. Shinra greeted her with a smile and a polite demeanor.

"So Saori how did it feel meeting your father in such a way."

Saori was smiling an uneasy smile as she answered her masked leader.

"Hehe it was fun but I have to say sorry for not knowing that Akihiko's powers before it was too late."

"Don't worry about even he didn't know about it."

Saori shook her head, chuckling at the absurdity of her loss.

"By the way, why'd you let him send his whore when I'm the optimal choice?"

Shinra looked at Saori, but his expression wasn't clear due to his eyes being covered by his mask.

"Easy, because unlike you I don't care if Ellen survives the next fight and I want to know who SHE's going to send next. Besides I can't afford for any one of us to get injured yet."

"Whatever, it's not like I care as long as I can have my fun later"

Saori tries to leave, but Shinra stops her.

"Saori would you kindly deliver a message to Shido? I'm not ready to meet him yet"

"Sure as long as I can have fun with it"

Back in the timeline where Shido and the others were it was now morning. Shido was asleep still when someone shook him awake and was talking to him.

"Hey you know kids aren't allowed here"

Shido woke up and a woman had her arms on his shoulders. She was wearing AST equipment and had long brown hair. Shido didn't recognize her at all or see any resemblance to anyone he knew she was just a regular wizard. She had two other wizards with her none which stood out to him. They talked to each other about procedure stuff like how should they go about finding kids in the restricted area.

"We should contact the colonel and ask him how to deal with these kids"

While everyone else was waking up Shido had to ask the obvious question.

"Uh, what are you talking about restricted area?"

The three wizards point at the opposite direction. Shido sees the city and palm slaps his face since he didn't see it last night because it was dark. The three wizards place their hands on their earpieces which they took orders from and the brown haired one then spoke to the group after rounding them up.

"Okay, kids the colonel said he'd like to speak with the four of you tomorrow afternoon and asked us to escort you back to the city."

Since the three wizards weren't acting very threateningly they decided to go with them since the city was the place they wanted to be. Upon arriving in the city, the wizards let them go and told them they would have to report to the police station to meet the colonel. Apparently the AST makes more open appearances in this timeline and even occupy the police station now as the new police force. Once they take in the sights of wizards constantly soaring through the sky and waving to the townspeople below who were cheering for them. Shido and the others were confused until Akane saw something that caught her eye.

"Hey I think I may have found something"

Akane picked up a newspaper from a nearby stand and it read: Tomorrow is the day we celebrate the one-year anniversary of the downfall of the terrorist organization Deus EX Machina. The heroes who fought and survived the war will attend a memorial service for their fallen comrades. The elite unit who led the final assault will present the audience with a surprise they say will give closure to the relatives and friends of the heroes who lost their lives fighting.

Shido was the first to comment on the paper since he was feeling really surprised.

"Wow so DEM was labeled as a terrorist group huh"

Akane followed up with unsurprised response while still looking around the paper.

"That doesn't surprise me really. Mom never liked them and told me to never trust them"

Aki wasn't in much of a mood to talk since the idea of war made him uneasy. Kurumi had nothing to say on the matter. After reading the paper the group decides to go their ways and meet back in the same location in six hours. Shido walked around the city for a while and decided to see the school in this time and see what was the same was and what was different from the time they just came from. The school more or less wasn't different however seeing it so soon made him think of Saori again since he was standing in the place where they met so he walked around the school to get his mind off her. But just the idea of her being cruel just felt so wrong when he thought about how loving and caring her mother was.

In the city, Kurumi was looking through a window of a pet store since it was displaying some puppies that were recently ready to be purchased. She looked at them for a few minutes when a woman opened the door to the shop and approached her.

"Excuse me, young lady if you'd like to come in and hold one you may"

Kurumi paid no attention to the woman as she responded.

"Oh yes, I would. But I can't buy one"

"That's okay tons of people come in just to pet them. I don't mind as long as you're gentle with them"

Kurumi was a little excited to hold one the puppies behind the window since they were so adorable and followed the woman into the store. Inside she could only see the woman from behind and she had long black hair, a pink shirt, and a white knee-length skirt. She reached over by the window and gently picked up one of the puppies and handed it to Kurumi and immediately it started licking her face. The woman chuckled a little.

"He likes you"

Kurumi looked at the woman and finally got a look at her face and to her surprise the woman looked exactly like her only older and her hair wasn't covering her eye any more revealing her clock for everyone to see. But the thing that really took her by surprise was that her regular eye looked like she was blind. The woman was squinting when trying to get a better look at her face.

"You look familiar have we met?"

Kurumi decided to avoid using her name and just answered no. The woman didn't think more of it and introduced herself.

"Oh sorry, my eyesight hasn't been good since the war. My name is Kurumi Tokisaki and this is my animal sanctuary."

Kurumi felt a little surprised but also acknowledged that this possibility must exist since she didn't think it was too odd. So she asked about it.

"Oh so when did you open this place if I may ask?"

The older Kurumi smiled.

"About a few months ago actually. You see after the war I lost my….purpose and then they passed the animal laws. Then a friend offered to help me open this place to help get these animals to good homes."

"Animal laws?"

The older Kurumi looked at her younger self with confusion.

"I guess you're a tourist if you don't know. Before I opened my store the AST passed a law that absolutely forbids animal abuse and they strictly enforce it. Personally it's my favorite law. Anytime someone is seen abusing an animal they are arrested and subjected to whatever abuse they gave it."

Kurumi loved the idea since people who attack something so helpless would feel as helpless themselves. She spent the rest of her day looking at the animals in the sanctuary as she thought this wasn't a bad future.

Akane spent her time researching on the war for information she could use against DEM in her time since she'd love to crush them. Her search led her to a museum that was opened recently next to Raizen high school. Upon entering since it was free she looked at the mementos displayed including broken pieces from realizers, a DEM standard uniform, and even a chunk of the GOETIA airship. Seeing all these war relics made her feel mortified, especially when she saw the memorial of the fallen wizards and the hundreds of names that was engraved in it.

"Damn so this is what war is like"

As she continued looking around for any information about how DEM was exposed Akane comes across an elementary school class on a field trip. Akane was planning on moving for them so they wouldn't be bothered but she sees someone very familiar. It was the class's teacher who had a striking resemblance to Yoshino and she even had Yoshinon with her only Yoshinon was missing half of her left ear. Akane decided not to talk to her but did here part of her lecture to the students which Yoshinon spoke.

"And this boys and girls is an MRE used by the AST. Can anybody tell me what MRE stands for?"

A few students raise their hands and Yoshino points at a little girl and she answers.

"It means meal ready to eat"

Yoshinon shoots up.

"Correct and for getting the right answer you get a Yoshinon sticker."

Yoshino walks over and hands the little girl a sticker shaped like Yoshinon. Akane wasn't feeling very comfortable seeing a group of children learning about a war that apparently devastated part of the city and decided to talk to Yoshino about why she brought them here but needed to wait for her to be alone. So she moved around the museum in opposite directions to avoid being seen while at the same time knowing what the class is doing. After seeing more generic questions like what is the color of the mass-produced uniform, the name of the Ratatoskr's commander at the time which was Kotori, and the day the war ended, Akane was beginning to think that Yoshino wasn't happy to teach these kids about war especially since she avoided the weapons section as well as the memorial. She also was walking with a noticeable limp. After more time waiting Yoshino lets her students eat their lunches and leave them for minute to use the bathroom.

When in the bathroom Yoshino actually just uses her time to gather her thoughts and talk to Yoshinon. She was actually holding back her tears since she actually hated this place.

"Yoshinon why are we here?"

"I don't Yoshino I don't know "sigh" I mean I love those kids, but this is insane"

Akane was listening while inside a nearby stall and talks to her without being seen.

"So if you hate this place then why come here?"

Being as nice as she is Yoshino answers Akane's question despite not knowing her or seeing her.

"The school wanted us to a mandatory field trip to this place"

Yoshinon was more vocal with her disdain about this trip.

"Yeah and they said WE HAD TO or else we'd lose our job for insubordination!"

Akane understood their position but had to say her thoughts about it.

"If you hate doing stuff like this then why continue being a teacher?"

Yoshino then smiles as she gives her answer.

"Because I can help children this way; you see I've never been very confident but when I see my students smiling faces as I teach them it feels amazing"

Yoshinon showed great enthusiasm when speaking her own reason.

"I'm with Yoshino I love those rugrats to death and I love seeing them laugh and smile"

Akane gained respect for the Yoshino of this time she even forgot about Yoshino's limp and just let her get on with her day, but Yoshino gave her words of gratitude.

"I feel a lot better after saying that so thanks for asking me uh miss…"

"Oh don't worry about it. Just keep doing your good work Yoshino"

Yoshino leaves the bathroom and Akane begins to have second thoughts on finding the way to destroy DEM here since she doesn't want to cause a war.

Elsewhere Aki was wandering around the city and came across the shopping arcade and saw a crane game with bread pillows as prizes which made him think about his mom and the one she still has.

"She loves that thing so much. I'll bring her back one myself"

Aki then began playing the game and started remembering a time when he came here with Tohka while she was pregnant with his sister Aiko. He was seven years old when he and Tohka came by here to have a fun day together before Aiko was born. The entire day they played games together, ate snacks, and Aki felt her stomach to feel his baby sister kick but that's when Tohka saw the crane game and told her son about her first date with Shido and how they won that pillow for her. Aki was always playing with his mother when he was younger and he just formed an incredibly strong bond with her. He also remembers how much his dad taught him and always had a smile on his face whenever he came home from work. After some more time of playing he runs out of coins and decides to go for some lunch since he was getting hungry.

Shido walked around the city for a while and began seeing that while the city was more locked down the buildings was exactly the same and there were new ones there was also a wall that kept the city locked off from the forbidden zone and he help couldn't but wonder.

"What happened in this time?"

He liked that the city was safer and he even learned that spacial quakes haven't happened in years from a passing citizen who was talking about the AST's ceremony tomorrow but then he heard a name that rang in his ear. It was from another citizen talking about ceremony tomorrow.

"Colonel Itsuka is such a courageous man I'm glad he's protecting us"

Apparently Shido or his kid in this universe was a colonel in AST something that had him feeling proud but at the same time uneasy.

"Does that mean me or my kid fought in that war?"

Shido would have preferred that he fight in a war rather than his child especially if it meant killing people. After some more time thinking, he runs into Aki who was just leaving a restaurant and wants to catch up with him.

"Hey, Aki!"

Aki turns around and sees Shido walking towards him and stops to let him get closer. They walk together and Shido asks Aki about something he's been curious about for a while.

"Hey, Aki how do you feel about your parents?"

Aki was a little confused by this question since it was pretty sudden.

"What's this all of the sudden?"

"I just want to know I mean Akane told me she loves her parents and Saori well I don't know about her"

"Oh I see, well my dad works hard and a lot of the time he's at work most of the time but I understand his job is demanding at times."

Shido was curious about what he did for a career and why he'd take a demanding job if it meant less time with his wife and kids.

"So what do I..he does?"

"My dad's a major executive at a video game company I can't remember the name though. Anyway, I love my mom more than anything else she's caring, she's good at making sweets, and she's always there to make us smile. Now that I think of it I couldn't have asked for a more perfect mom."

Shido was pleased to hear what Aki had to say about the Tohka in his time and even daydreams of what it would be like to be a husband and father. After a minute more of walking around they come across a street fair and something caught their eyes, a woman who looked like Tohka wearing her astral dress was handing out purple and sword-shaped balloons. Shido rushes over in the hopes that it's her and calls to her.

"Tohka is that you!?"

The woman turned around with a smile on her face, but it wasn't Tohka, her face was different and she had green eyes, not to mention she looked at least 23 and she looked a little confused.

"I'm princess who is this Tohka you speak of?"

Shido was disappointed and the woman handed him a balloon and tried to cheer him up.

"Come on cheer up, here have a balloon its spirit day after all so put on a smile and go try some of hermit's shaved ice"

The woman dressed as Tohka pointed over to a stand and behind a counter was a young girl dressed as Yoshino with yellow eyes was serving shaved ice from a dispenser shaped like Zadkiel. In another stand was a girl dressed as Kotori with her astral dress selling toys and games, and in another part was a small stage with cut out of Miku with a banner that said Diva's sing-a-long. There were also other girls cosplaying as the other spirits either handing things out or handling stands. Shido and Aki were beyond words with their jaws hanging wide open as they both said at the same time.

"Spirit day?"

They walked around the stands to see what was going on and the cosplaying girls were pretending to be the spirits. After a few minutes of gathering the absurdity of the situation they noticed that lots of other girls were also dressed as the spirits since they were selling costumes of the astral dresses and matching wigs. Not want to the think more of it they decided to buy some shaved ice from the girl dressed as Yoshino who oddly enough was wearing a hook on her hand and they were tempted to ask about it but decided not to. When they sat down to eat their ice a shock suddenly went down their spines and a familiar voice went through Shido's heads.

"Hello Shido remember me?"

Shido immediately recognized the voice as Saori.

"Saori?"

"Hehehe that didn't take long"

"Where are you?"

"Like I'd tell you that. I'm here to give you a message from my boss"

Aki looked at Shido and saw his surprised expression.

"Hey Shido what's wrong?"

Saori told Shido not to let Aki know what's happening so he put on a fake smile.

"Oh nothing Aki just a little brain freeze"

"..Okay"

Aki just goes back to eating his ice while Shido looks around for Saori.

"You're not going to find me Shido, but I'll give you hint I'm dressed as mom"

Shido looks for anyone dressed as Kurumi, but then he notices that there are dozens of them.

"I'd be careful Shido after all don't you think I could kill every man, woman, and child here if I felt like it?"

Shido doesn't respond to Saori's threat.

"Do you think I'm lying to you?"

Shido's heart begins to beat faster and then the sound of gunshot is heard in the background causing him to nearly have a panic attack. But then the sound of cheering is heard, it was a trick. Aki looked at Shido with a worried look.

"Shido it was just a trick what's wrong with you!?"

"Oh it's nothing I just have to use the bathroom"

Aki was growing worried by the second and decided to follow Shido to the bathroom while he continues his mental talk with Saori who was laughing at him.

"Heheheheheh your reaction was better than I expected, you're fun. Anyway my boss wanted me to tell you that Ellen Mira Mathers has come to capture you"

"What?"

"She hasn't arrived yet, but she'll be here soon"

"Why are you helping me?"

"My boss told me to nothing more also he said he's very anxious to meet you soon"

"Who's your boss?"

"Sorry that's a se-cr-et"

"Okay, then how are you doing this I mean the mental thing?"

"Wow you're dumb I can do this because we're connected I am your daughter in a sense"

"If you acknowledge that much then why are you threatening me?"

"Oh Shido it's so easy to mess with you it hurts. But I can't stay much longer so good luck with Ellen."

"Saori!..Saori!"

The voice stops and Shido becomes more worried as a huge question comes to mind.

"Who is it that Saori is working for and why me?"

He decided not to tell Aki since Saori was still nearby and he could feel it. He wouldn't tell anyone until he was sure that there was nobody close by. He also was curious about Colonel Itsuka and why there's a spirit day.