Chapter 16: A Family's Memory

A/N: Trigger Warnings for implied rape, abuse and violence, although the latter should be there in every chapter. Seriously, I should be putting more of these up. Sorry I put it up late, though.

The world was black and white. When MC came to, that was the first thing he realized.

The second thing was that he wasn't back home. He was somewhere else entirely.

"Where am I?" he called out, to no one at all.

As the world formed further, he could make out two figures standing in front of him. Two women. One was in what seemed to be a kitchen, cooking something. The other was nearby, on their phone. He couldn't make out any colors on their body, because they were as black and white as the rest of the world.

"Hello?" MC called out, discovering that he could walk to them. "What is this place?"

They hadn't responded. In fact, they acted like he wasn't even there in the first place.

"Hey, listen to me-"

"Mama!" a young girl's childish voice rang out from directly behind him. Before he could move out of the way, the girl had phased through his body and ran up to her mother.

MC paled at what he had just witnessed. "Why… Why did she… go through me like that…?" he said out loud, to no one at all for no one would hear him.

"Hello, Natsuki!" the woman who was cooking looked down at her and said. "You're up from your nap early."

'Natsuki?' MC thought. 'Is that her… as a kid? Why am I seeing this?'

"Day One," MC called out. However, to his growing demise, his Stand hadn't responded.

Natsuki, who was about tall enough to be four years old at that moment, suddenly walked up to the other woman in the room. "Auntie Nikki!" she called out, making her set her phone aside. "I read that book you gave me! It was awesome!"

Chuckling, Nikki bent down to ruffle Young Natsuki's hair. "It's called manga, and I'm glad you liked it," she said. "I can give you the next volume if you want?"

"Nikki, are you sure you should show her your manga so early?" Natsuki's mother said from nearby.

"Don't worry, Mitsuki," Nikki replied. "I'm sure she can handle it. I won't give her anything too mature, of course."

"That's not what I'm talking about," Mitsuki retaliated, shaking her head. "I don't want her to get addicted to those, like you were."

Nikki mock gasped in reply, then chuckled. "Geez, you can be a bit of a hardas – I mean, a helicopter parent, you know?"

Natsuki gasped as well, but in wonder. "Helicopters can be parents?!"

Nikki laughed out loud, and even Mitsuki held back a few chuckles. Not even MC could hold back a light chuckle, despite the odd situation he found himself in. Nikki ruffled Natsuki's hair again, making the girl pout angrily. "Helicopter Parents are just a term, Natsuki," Nikki explained. "It means a mom or a dad who cares too much for their child."

"Aww…" Natsuki grumbled. "I wanted a helicopter…"

Mitsuki laughed openly this time and walked up to her daughter to boop her on the nose. Natsuki recoiled by scrunching up her face and lightly brushing her nose.

"Don't worry, we can get you a toy one."

Natsuki, hearing this, widely beamed at her mother. In turn, her mother smiled sweetly at her daughter as well.

Suddenly, Nikki's and Mitsuki's phones rang out, causing them both to look at them. Nikki looked first, seeing how she already had her phone on hand, while Mitsuki had to go to a nearby table to pick hers up.

They both paled as they saw what was on it, although MC could only make out their fear from their trembling faces and not their color.

Looking at each other, they grimly nodded.

Suddenly, Nikki focused back on her phone to fiddle with it some more, activating remote shutters placed on all the windows and the front door as a barricade. She went further by dragging the sofa from the nearby living room all the way to the front door to block it.

Meanwhile, Mitsuki started to work on her phone while grabbing Natsuki's hand.

"Mama, what's going on?" Natsuki asked, noticing the shift in the air of the house.

"Natsuki," Mitsuki leaned down to keep her head level with her daughter's and set her hands on her shoulders. "There are some bad people here, okay? I want you to be strong. Please, don't come out even if you are scared."

Dragging her along the way, Mitsuki opened up a secret panel within the island in their room.

"I want you to get in here, and hide," Mitsuki said, gently pushing her daughter in. "Please, don't come out. And please, stay as quiet as you can, no matter what you hear."

Having successfully set Natsuki in her secret cabinet, Mitsuki took one last good look at her.

"Natsuki," Mitsuki smiled at her, with a few tears in her eyes. "I want you to know this, okay? You're the best thing to ever happen to me. I will always love, you, remember that. No matter what happens, I'll always be in your heart."

"Mama?" Natsuki began to ask, but they were interrupted by a rapid banging at the door.

"We've got no time," Mitsuki said, letting her tears fall, looking back at her daughter for the last time, cradling her head. "I love you, Natsuki."

With that, Mitsuki gently closed the door to the secret cabinet. Standing up, she walked away and rang up a number on her phone.

"Naoko!" she yelled into it. "They're here! They found us! Yes, Natsuki's safe, but we need you!"

With that, she hung up and pocketed her phone, still expecting a reply from her husband.

"Mitsuki," Nikki spoke out, still barricading the door with whatever she could find. "What are we going to do?"

"We keep them out for now," Mitsuki replied. "Let's wait till Naoko gets back. We need to pack up in the meantime."

Suddenly, the front door burst open despite the massive barricade set in front, shearing straight through the couch set in front of it like nothing. Once it opened, five drooling men barged into the house, their muscles bulging more than any person and hair oddly growing from various parts of their body like they were beasts. Once inside, their hair somehow receded back into their body and their muscles compressed to normal levels.

"Shit! What the hell?!" Nikki cursed out loud as she hastily picked up a fire extinguisher she had set aside earlier to arm herself. Mitsuki raced to the kitchen to pick up a couple knives.

The men who barged in separated to form a path into the house. Now that MC could see them all better with the dust settled, he could see that they were all wearing what seemed to be the same type of leather jacket. There also were rows of bikes lined up outside the house.

'A biker gang…?' MC thought.

Along the pathway formed by the henchmen, a single figure walked through.

If MC could see his colors, he would have noticed that he had the same pink hair and eyes as Natsuki and her dad. However, his hair was grown out and he had pink stubble on his face, unlike Naoko whose face was neatly set. Unlike the others, he wore camo pants under a leopard-printed fur coat bearing the same insignia as the others. An insignia bearing two swords forming an X, with a snake squiggled around them forming a wavy circle.

"Hey, sis," the man said out loud as he walked ahead, completely ignoring how Nikki was holding a fire extinguisher up to him by the odd smile on his face. "I missed ya."

"I can't say the same, Noboru," Nikki replied, scowling.

Noboru chuckled. "Yeah, yeah, I know. You know why I'm here, after all."

"Seriously, I can't believe you're not getting the hint," Nikki chuckled. "Mitsuki fucking hates you, there's no way in hell she'd join you anytime soon."

"Like that's up to you, you dumbass," Noboru replied. "If she doesn't listen, then I'd just have to punish her."

"You…" Nikki growled low. "RAAAGHH!" she yelled out as she charged at the group with her fire extinguisher.

"You can't beat me anymore, little sis," Noboru replied, smirking. "I've gotten much stronger. All of you, protect me. Raised by Wolves."

MC, still watching from nearby, could make out a beastly Stand emerge from Noboru's body, which slashed every person in front of him with its teeth. Suddenly, the scratch that it had formed healed, and the men in front of him transformed into their wilder forms from before, when they burst into the room.

Nikki yelled out as she swung the fire extinguisher down at the group. MC himself could see that her swing was frighteningly fast, and that it would easily break bones even if someone tried to block it. However, it was stopped by a single man, putting his hand in the way.

"W-What?" Nikki yelped as she withdrew her weapon, swinging from the side this time. Just like before, one of the men protecting their leader punched through the incoming weapon, making it burst into pieces. The burst had sent shrapnel into Nikki's chest, making her falter back to clutch her wounds. However, even though the shrapnel pierced through the men as well, they all but ignored it.

"Lemme tell you something," Noboru said, as the beast men in front of him split apart to reveal him. "Mixie came to me first. She was my girlfriend first. She gave her sweet virginity to who? Me. I just want her back from the brother that stole her from me. You chose to run away and help them, so I gotta kill you now."

Nikki looked up at him, growling. "Dammit, Mitsuki broke up with you! She never loved you in the first place, and she found that out only after meeting-"

Whatever she was trying to say was cut off from Noboru suddenly appearing in front of her, his own body turning as wild as everyone else there, to rip her heart out by shoving his whole arm into her body.

With his fur coat floating in the air behind him, he looked down at Nikki, coughing blood as she widened her eyes at her state. "I'm sorry, little sis, but I've got a duty as the new chief. And that duty is to take care of traitors, like you. Even if you are family."

Noboru unsheathed his bloodied hand from Nikki's body, letting her corpse fall down to the floor. He presented his bloodied hand to the beast men behind him, who piled up on it to lick the blood off it. MC found that their wounds weren't really bleeding too much.

Soon enough, Noboru's hand had gotten clean. MC noticed that the men hadn't lapped up the blood oozing off Nikki's dead body, so he reasoned that they did it to serve their master more than an odd hankering for blood.

Noboru wipe off the saliva from his hand and walked further into the hall, ignoring the kitchen nearby. As he walked up the steps, MC saw Mitsuki peeking out from the corner of the kitchen, with several kitchen knives in her hands.

Cursing to herself, Mitsuki gently stepped out and pulled out one of the knives, throwing it at her assailant. The knife travelled true to its aim, but before it could strike Noboru in the head, Raised by Wolves emerged from his body to catch it.

"W-What…?" Mitsuki murmured to herself. "It's… hovering in front of him…?"

"You see," Noboru started to speak as Raised by Wolves slowly dropped the knife into his palm. "After you left, I went everywhere to look for you. I mean it, I went all the way to Egypt, for fucks sake. And there, I met this old hag. Thought she was tryna kill me when she stabbed me with this arrow, but when I got up stronger, I knew she was helpin' me."

"This ability, Raised by Wolves, I call it, is a Stand," Noboru continued. "Only the strongest of men can see it, and I've met no one other than the people with the old hag back then who could. Since you can't see it either, my Mixie, I must say that you suck."

Mitsuki growled as she charged at him, bearing a new set of knives in each hand. Noboru chuckled and brought out Raised by Wolves.

"Let's see who you really are, shall we?"

Suddenly, Raised by Wolves swiftly dove onto Mitsuki and bit her. Upon feeling the bite, Mitsuki slowed to a stop, having her hair grow out across her body like all the other beast men. In her new form, Mitsuki looked back at Noboru, and growled.

MC noticed that Noboru had frowned at that expression.

However, instead of attacking him like MC had thought, Mitsuki dove back into the kitchen. Following her back, they noticed that she was standing in front of the entry panel to the secret cabinet in which Natsuki was kept, guarding it like an animal mother guarded her children, wildly growling at the gang in front of her.

"Now, now, what the hell's in there?" Noboru pondered out loud, earning him a louder growl from Mitsuki.

"Well," Noboru sighed. "Thanks for showing me that."

With that, Mitsuki's body hair receded back to normal, leaving her heaving on the ground. Suddenly, some of Noboru's men grabbed her by her arms and pulled her out of the way, despite her wild protests.

As Noboru walked to the panel, Mitsuki yelled out, "Noboru, don't! Please, I'll do anything! Just don't open that!"

Looking back at his ex, Noboru simply chuckled. With a swift jab, he ripped open the entry of the cabinet with his Stand enhanced strength.

"A kid…?" Noboru muttered, looking down at the cowering four-year-old form of Natsuki. Looking back at Mitsuki, he could see that she was crying as he regarded her daughter.

"You seem to love this little thing more than me," Noboru said, much to Mitsuki's discontent.

"No, please, don't hurt her-!" her voice was immediately cut off by one of the men holding her back clamping their hands over her mouth, muffling her.

"As much as I'd love to see your heart break, much like you did to me, I don't wanna kill no child. That's just not cool, not at all. No honor in it. So, here's what I'll do. You just told me that you'd do anything, right?"

Under the hand clasped to her mouth, she swiftly nodded, tears still running down her cheek.

"Heh, good," Noboru replied. "In exchange for letting your daughter live, there's one thing I want you to do for me."

Slowly, he walked up to her, slowly lifting her face up to his. "I want to relive our past. When we went wild and crazy, remember?" he said as he gently traced his finger across her cheek, giving her a lecherous look.

Mitsuki paused for a moment, but then paled as she realized what he was implying. Firmly shutting her eyes, she reluctantly nodded.

"Very well. You can let her go now. And remember, one step out of line, and your dear daughter's having her throat slit."

Slowly, the men had let go of her, letting her collect her breath once again.

"Just…" she gasped out. "I-I'll do it, to keep her safe. Just… I-I don't want her t-t-to see…"

Somberly nodding, he nudged to another man behind him. Nodding, the man went ahead to place the ripped out panel over the cabinet, hiding Natsuki once again.

"There ya have it," Noboru said. "Now, to fulfil your end of the deal."

MC had absolutely no interest in seeing what would happen, so he decided to shut his eyes, wanting this to be done with as soon as possible.

And in a whoosh, he heard another set of footsteps in the house.

Opening his eyes, he noticed that he had unknowingly skipped past the explicit scene that he would have witnessed. However, he saw that despite Noboru's promise, Mitsuki had laid on the ground in front of him, her throat bearing bruises and her clothes still ripped and stained. Natsuki was out of her cabinet, sobbing in front of her mother's dead body.

Suddenly, another man barged in to pick up Natsuki, shielding her too late from the sight that he couldn't bear himself. MC quickly recognized the man to be Naoko Honda, the man that they had just defeated.

'I thought he was deleted?' MC thought. 'How is he here? Yes, this is the past, but deletion should have erased him from existence, right? How is he here, even in memory?'

Naoko, however, seemed different in this moment. He seemed to be gingerly petting Natsuki, soothing her even though he was traumatized from the sight himself.

'He's being a good dad,' MC realized. 'What made him start to abuse his only family?'

Suddenly, the world blotted out like a record getting corrupted.

'Wait, what's going on now?!' MC thought as he saw the world changing once again. Seeing Naoko this time, he noticed that instead of simply being covered by the blotches, he was burned out of the image.

MC gasped as he came to again. He was still in the black and white world; he was still in memory.

"Mama!" Young Natsuki yelled as she ran to her mother, now with the house reverted to how it was before the attack. It seemed that he had rewound to see this again.

Or that's what MC would have thought, if it wasn't for the fact that Nikki was absent this time.

"Hello, Natsuki!" Mitsuki Honda said. However, different from before when she was cooking, she was taking off a suit's blazer as she walked into the house, dark circles visible in her eyes. "You're up from your nap early."

"Mhm! You're home!" Natsuki yelled out, earning a chuckle from Mitsuki. "Mama, mama! I read that book you gave me!"

Suddenly, Mitsuki joyous smile faltered, then switched to a more somber one. "It's called manga. You know, your auntie really loved them."

"My auntie?" Natsuki asked. "Who? Who?!"

Mitsuki sighed as she bent down to boop her one the nose like before, earning the same reaction from the little girl as last time. "She was an amazing woman, Natsuki. The strongest person I knew. Her name was Nikki, you would have really liked her."

"What… What happened to her?" Natsuki's smile fell as she saw Mitsuki's worry.

Taking a breath, Mitsuki smiled again. MC, after dealing with Sayori for so long, recognized her fake smile immediately. "No need to worry about that, little kitty."

Young Natsuki pouted as she cutely folded her arms. "I'm not a kitty!" she said while bearing her fangs out to her mother.

Mitsuki simply laughed as she walked away, to change back into her casual clothes, MC presumed.

"Oh, mama!" Natsuki spoke out, calling her again. "Can you teach me how to bake? Like those pretty girls in the book?"

"It's manga, Natsuki," Mitsuki replied with a soft sigh. "And can we do it some other time? I'm really tired now."

Natsuki frowned, but swiftly nodded. Smiling back at her, Mitsuki went upstairs.

'What happened?' MC thought. 'Why am I seeing these so close to each other?'

Suddenly, MC felt himself being pulled back, just like he had whenever he had willed a Load Save to work. As he travelled back, he quickly left the space where young Natsuki and her mother were, entering a purely white space. As he sped back, he saw several other scenes replacing themselves.

A scene where Natsuki and her dad were mourning in front of two graves were replaced with two scenes: one with Natsuki playing in the park and the other with Mitsuki somberly standing over a lone grave, seeming to be more in remembrance than in mourning.

A scene in which Naoko landed his first hit on Natsuki, smiling at the action before he could catch himself was replaced with Mitsuki collapsing on the floor of their house, severely frightening Natsuki.

A scene in which Naoko would diligently beat up Natsuki while talking to her about the dangers of all men were replaced by Mitsuki fixing the cameras at the door, only to be interrupted by Natsuki as she brought a fresh batch of cupcakes for her.

MC gasped as he came to once again. He laughed as he noticed that he was finally in his house, and that he could see color again.

As Day One fizzled out into him, he turned back to Sayori.

"Did it work?" she asked. "Please tell me it did! Does Natsuki still exist?!"

MC sighed as he looked down. "I… don't know. I saw something as I went back this time, and I have no idea what to make of anything that I saw."

Sayori nodded, and then immediately pulled out her phone. She shot a text out to who MC presumed to be Natsuki.

"We need to contact Yuri as well," MC said. "Dying couldn't have been easy on her."

Nodded, Sayori fiddled some more with her phone. A sudden ping made her widen her eyes.

"It's Yuri," Sayori said. "She's saying that she needs to talk to someone about it."

"She can always come here," MC said. "We're all here for her, after all."

"Yeah, I'll tell her," Sayori said as she typed on her phone again. "Natsuki hasn't responded, though," Sayori said while typing.

"I actually think she's fine," MC said. "I'm just not sure."

Sayori looked back at MC and set her phone after finishing her text. "Why? What happened?"

"I… saw some things," MC revealed. "I think they might have been Natsuki's memories."

"What?!" Sayori yelled. "How?"

"I have no idea. I had no control over it, I didn't want to peek into her life, after all," MC replied. "But if what I've seen is correct, then she should be fine."

They then heard a new ping on Sayori's phone.

Lunging for it, Sayori picked it up and opened up her notification.

"It's her!" she announced. "She's alive!"

MC sighed in relief. He was correct. Now, she was probably-

"Umm, MC?" Sayori interrupted his thoughts. "This is… pretty concerning. Take a look."

Turning her phone to MC, he looked down at it.

Natsuki: Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for asking.

Natsuki: But something's wrong.

Natsuki: I know MC can revert time and all…

Natsuki: But how the hell did my dead mom wake me up for supper?!

MC widened his eyes. "I knew it!" he yelled out, surprising Sayori.

"Huh?" Sayori asked. "How did you know?"

"Because I saw her timeline change!" MC replied. "I don't know how, but that's the only explanation for the change. Back then, her mom was killed by who I thought was her ex, and probably Natsuki's dad's brother. He had a Stand, too."

"Wait, what?" Sayori asked. "Since when could you see someone's memories like that?"

"I have no clue?" MC replied, letting his smile fall a little. "I mean, this is the first time it's happened. I've never saved someone from deletion before, after all."

"Okay, but what happened to Natsuki's dad?" Sayori asked.

MC shook his head. "I don't know for sure. He wasn't even mentioned in the new timeline. I think he might have been actually deleted."

"Oh…" Sayori frowned, looking down in light despair. "Well, what matters is that she's okay. So, we have to wait for Yuri now instead."

MC nodded, agreeing with her.

In a few minutes, Sayori heard another ping on her phone.

"Could that be Yuri?" MC asked. "I already called JoJo, but he wouldn't contact me through your phone."

"Let me see," Sayori said as she walked to her phone. Upon opening the message, she paled.

"What is it?" MC asked hesitantly.

"It's Natsuki," Sayori said, showing MC a location sent to her on her phone. "She's in trouble."

MC paled as well, as he ran up to the door to get his shoes. "Ask her if it's Noboru. Also, send Yuri the location, and me. I'll forward it to JoJo. We'll all meet there."

"Noboru? Umm, okay." Shooting Natsuki the message first, she got a ping back immediately. "She's saying she doesn't know how we know that, but yes."

MC paled as he got up, his shoes properly set and tied on his feet. "They don't stand a chance on their own, then. We need to get there, quick."

"I can help us there," Sayori said as she dragged MC out of the house. "I hope you've got your keys."

"Yeah, I do."

"Okay, I learned something from last time, I'm hoping it still works."

Letting out a breath, Sayori hoisted MC onto her back and handed him her phone.

"Send the details to Yuri and JoJo. I'll take us there."

Manifesting Take Me to Church, she quickly shot out strands of rope at the streetlights after securing MC behind him. With a short yelp, she carried both of them forward in a swing.

"I'll help you as well!" MC yelled out. "Day One!"

However, his Stand hadn't responded.

"Huh?" MC exclaimed. "Day One!" he called out again. However, the call yielded the same results.

"What happened to my Stand?" MC asked out loud. "I can still see yours. Why isn't mine responding?!"

"Don't worry about that now," Sayori interrupted, still swinging across lightpoles. "You work on sending the location to the others. I'll handle this."

MC heaved in concern, but slowly nodded, leaving himself in his girlfriend's arms.

A/N: More on Noboru Honda's Stand in the next chapter.

This chapter had gone through a couple changes in planning. I had originally planned to have Naoko sacrifice his life to save his family from the gang, but that couldn't have fit with the whole deletion theme. That's why I adjusted it.

Yes, Noboru got his Stand from Enya. Also, I based Raised by Wolves on Scary Monsters, even though they look nothing alike.

Noboru absolutely sucked to write. I've tried to make my writing style more casual for him, but I know I hadn't done a perfect job there. Even worse is that he's a key character in the next chapter as well.

Review!

IzuOchaShipper99: Thanks a lot for the praise, man. I hadn't really thought of the connection with Illusio, but I guess I can see where you're coming from. I did think about making the butlers a separate Stand, but I had no way to make that work. So, I stuck with it as is.

You're right about the chapter names spoiling a Stand reveal. It's a pattern I had established early on, to let readers know what to expect for the chapter upon reading the title. JoJo's new ability isn't special enough anymore to earn a chapter title, but Natsuki's Stand is. Her Stand name will be the next chapter's title. And yes, it might make you laugh.

And that's all! I hope you guys enjoyed your New Year celebrations! I'll see you all next chapter.