Ch.46 The Future That Could Have Been PT.1
The Bifrost arrives in the next timeline with Mana and Ellen at the helm while the others are resting. The loss of Shido and Aki at the moment is very disheartening, but hopefully they can find a lead here. Aki left the previous timeline with his new powers, and Shido with Kurumi could show up any time, but they have to be careful with their movements due to Saori's damage.
Ellen and Mana look at the night sky in this new timeline with a bit of discomfort since it was just night when they left the last timeline. Kotori joins them as she can't sleep very well because of what happened, and Tohka isn't doing any better. Kotori walks up to the controls of her normal station and asks.
"So, any view down below yet?"
Mana answers with seriousness as she hasn't done any real recon yet.
"No, I just wanted some time to calm my nerves. Shido is gone and I'm worried about him."
Kotori agrees as she simply replies.
"Yeah, it isn't the same without him, and I miss him."
Ellen adds her two cents as she feels the same way.
"Indeed. I miss my husband very much, but we've gotten this far, and we can't give up now."
Mana and Kotori agree with Ellen completely as Shido wouldn't give up. Then they get a transmission on their system from an unknown source as an older voice requests.
"If this is a DEM crew, we need dire assistance. Spirit….out…of…con…"
The transmission ends as an explosion is heard outside and the ship can detect a very powerful source of negative energy. In a reflex, the three ladies pilot the ship away from this area and use the cloak with shields to avoid danger. The others run to the bridge as they heard the explosion as they are still in their sleeping attire. This is odd for Tohka as she is actually now wearing her full Astral Dress as she enters the room and Kotori can suddenly feel her power returning. This is an immediate concern for the group as they turn the monitors to show the city below before they left, and it is in ruin as smoke comes from all over and fires are scattered everywhere. The entire group is worried because of this as Hiro looks in horror at the city he cherishes burn. Miyuki is horrified by this and is prepared to start crying, but Shiori comforts her as she takes her to her room and sooth her before anything bad can happen inside the ship.
Tohka looks in horror as she asks.
"What in word was that?"
Thinking ahead, Ellen sends out a transmission to any ships within a certain radius as she asks.
"If anyone can hear this, we need information on the situation in Tengu City."
Akane goes to her station to be ready for anything as that attack wasn't a good sign of things in this world. The sudden appearance of Tohka and Kotori's powers would normally be the first concern, but the state of the city and the explosion is what everyone is worried about. They are in a safe area at least so they decide to wait for a time until they can at least hope for a transmission.
Base Timeline
Shinra is returning from a date with Miku as he smiles upon taking off his Shiori wig as he had to do that, but he didn't mind. He is walking around ready to start hitting on the other girls and he hears something that catches his attention. He hears a crunching noise from a nearby area, specifically, inside of a bakery eating hard bread. Shinra walks to the shop and he smiles and says to himself.
"How lucky could I possibly get…"
He spots Akihiko, who randomly appeared in this timeline as Sora lies next to him as she passed out from lack of air, but he let go before she suffocated to death. He looks at Shinra with a blank expression as he can sense Shinra's powers as he states.
"You posses the same power as us…"
Aki approaches the man as he appears to be inspecting him. Shinra then lightly touches the young man's forehead and he gets a vision of what is happening internally. He sees inverse Tohka sitting on the ground while holding Akihiko in his new inverse form as she simply rubs his head and appears to be saying something to him. Shinra then states.
"So, the inversion consumed his mind so it wouldn't break... interesting."
He then looks at Sora and gets an idea.
? Timeline
Ellen and the others are waiting for a transmission and it has been an hour. They are giving up hope for the transmission and they finally hear one, but it's fuzzy.
"If…..informati….come…..A….T….Ba…ship….head….soon….."
A map appears on the monitor that is clearly directions to an island, and they follow it. The ship takes another hour to get there and it is out of the way, but they need answers to move through the city because they could find someone they need down there.
While on the way, Tohka takes this time to think about why her powers returned. Shiori and Miyuki are going to stay on the ship regardless of what decision is made due to the very apparent danger they could face so they simply spend time together. Hiro's injuries are not fully healed, but he can at least remove most of his bandages and fight again at a higher capacity.
The Bifrost flies over to an island and it appears normal, but a small door on the surface opens up, it isn't nearly big enough for a ship. The group prepares to warp down to go inside, but something catches their attention first, the first message they got about a possible Spirit. With this in mind, Ellen makes a plan for everyone.
"Okay, so what'll we'll do is this. Me, Hiro, Mana, and Origami will go down to that place and gather intel. Kotori and Tohka will stay on the ship, if they don't fight or use their powers they should be fine with the ship's cloak. DEM built this ship to contain Spirits. The others will be backup in an emergency. If the ship is attacked while we're gone, don't hesitate to escape, but contact us first."
Hiro, Origami, and Mana all agree to the plan as Origami is now changed into a in wire suit from the reserved outfits aboard the ship to look more the part as Ellen, and Mana do the same with Hiro maintaining his Colonel uniform. The four of them are then warped down as they are the intel team. The others merely wait as this timeline is probably one of the most dangerous they've been too and if any of the others are here, it would be disastrous.
Below on the island, the four inspect the area for any sort of traps as they enter the opening which leads to a staircase that is apparently dark. Origami is the first to walk down as she doesn't appear to be worried about anything. The others follow her, but Mana asks.
"Isn't a little brazen to go down a staircase without thinking, Origami?"
Origami simply answers while walking.
"Yes, but we have little choice. If an enemy shows up, the four of us should be more than enough to win."
That's a good point as they continue walking. Hiro seems to be the most on edge about the whole thing since a Spirit is most likely involved. They venture further down until they come across a door with a lock on the door. Hiro recognizes the design from his own timeline and offers to input the password, and he actually gets it correct. He explains before they question.
"I'm higher ranked than anyone is AST before it expanded. I therefore have access to all the passwords in the bases. I think this one used ours from my base for some reason."
They simply walk past the door, and immediately they aren't greeted with warm welcomes, but Hiro is at the mercy of over a dozen wizards with rifles and swords pointed at him. A voice then shouts.
"That's enough, he's human. He couldn't sneak in otherwise."
The wizards back down as someone makes her presence known. The group then notices an older Ryouko Kusakabe, and she looks a bit different from her younger self that Mana and Ellen know of. She has longer hair that is tied with a loose white string, a patch of white on her right bang, and she even has an eye band on her right eye. She looks and is rather shocked by the appearance of Origami, Mana, and even Ellen as she mutters in shock.
"The three of you are alive? But….no it has to be a coincidence. All three of them are dead."
She walks up to Hiro and inspects him a bit as she tells him.
"You look just like a guy I used to know. He was a good kid that had his problems, but a good sport none the less."
Ellen and Mana aren't surprised by the news of their deaths in this world as they kind of expected it from most other worlds, but Origami's is a little surprising. In fact, Origami herself isn't fazed by this news at all. She just stands there with an uncaring expression. Hiro is the one who seems the most fazed about their deaths, except Ellen of course. Ryouko walks up to a monitor as she introduces herself formally.
"I'm Ryouko Kusakabe, the leader of the resistance force that used to be the Anti Spirit Team or the AST for short."
Resistance force is what catches their ears. Ryouko pushes a button on a computer as she explains to them.
"Yeah, we used to be a fully functioning group, but then that Spirit appeared one year ago, and I had to come out of retirement since no one else could do it but it's good to see there still others out there with equipment. Especially since we just lost a whole squad today."
The squad she is referring to could have been that ship from earlier that apparently got blown up. This is more troubling to them as Spirit appears to be on a rampage if things are this bad. Ryouko then pulls up an image of the Spirit in question and they wonder who it could be. Ryouko, while looking up the image, explains.
"We need as much help as we can get at this point. We're getting more desperate by the day to stop this thing. I thought only female Spirits existed like Princess of Hermit. Hell, I'd prefer if Nightmare were the one we'd be dealing with, but this guy is in whole different league than any of them."
A male Spirit is something that they haven't heard of and this catches their interest. When Ryouko pulls up the image of the Spirit, everyone, except Origami, gasps at the image.
Aboard the ship, the group who stayed behind look at the monitors to relieve their boredom for waiting on the others below, but this is interrupted when they get a warning signal on the monitors as a signal of massive negative energy reads on the scales at an alarming rate. They turn on the monitors as a streak of darkness appears in the distance and is getting closer to them. Kotori tries to focus in on the appearance as a figure is in the middle. Tohka and Kotori then feel the presence because of their abilities, and they notice the appearance before Akane as they utter.
"It can't be…"
Akane looks at the monitors, and the figure in the darkness is Hiro, but he is the Spirit that heading their way, but his power is that of a normal Spirit who's inversed and they don't know what's going on.
In the base, Ryouko introduces the Spirit as Hiro's photo is on screen in an inverse form.
"This is Spirit we codenamed Nemesis, because he seems to hate humans more than any other Spirit we've ever seen."
Ellen and Mana look at Hiro with disbelief. His inversed form is rather unique as he is wearing a kendo Hakama that is tattered and ragged with thorn-like tears and he is shirtless with what appears to be black cloth around his chest in tatters. He also has empty blue eyes and a scar on his chest where his heart is. The base then gets the alarm themselves as they scatter for a defense. This revelation is a bit much, especially Hiro as they wonder what happened in this time.