So yeah, I'm planning to finish AT LEAST Arc 1 of Date A Live, could be more, before I move to other stories of mine. If any of my followers read this, my apology for the delay of the other stories.
Before the chapter starts:
To Nachox1: Thanks for the understanding. Although, may I ask what 'that incredible fic mentioning the crossover' you mentioned is?
With that out, let's get to the third chapter!
A few days later
"Another spacequake?" Emerald asks in confusion, as the alarms go off everywhere.
"It's increasing these days… Let's head to the safe hideout…" The shopkeeper immediately starts closing the store before running off.
"I need to find a few friends of mine. Wish you be safe."
"To you too!"
Upon the figure of the store owner out of her sight, Emerald taps on her phone and calls the Fraxinus. "Is the spacequake anywhere near me?"
"A klick to your east being the center of the blast. What are you planning?" Kotori asks.
"A little observation. I want to see why the spacequake kept occurring." With that, the girl runs straight towards the direction of the supposed spacequake.
"Be careful. You have seen what happened when you appeared."
"It's not something I couldn't handle."
Three minutes later, the spacequake happens, and Emerald stops her running as she feels the force of the event passing through her. Then, the nearby buildings collapse, causing the dust to mix into the wind that temporarily blocks her vision. Using a Wind Spell, she wipes those dust away and gives herself a clear view to the center of the destruction. As she expects, a new Spirit is standing in the middle of the crater. Based on how young the girl looks, Emerald suspects the Spirit being around Rom and Ram's physical age at most, with her personality being either of them. Her expression looks bland, and she doesn't look like the type to fight…
"Watch out! AST teams are aiming at her AND you!" Immediately on her guard, Emerald looks up to see the warning Kotori just sent her. Quickly protecting herself with a Barrier Spell, she takes a run to the new Spirit and tries to somewhat get her out of the mess. However, the new Spirit has already flown up to the sky while dodging the bullets that try to kill her. Seeing the small girl being agile enough, Emerald decides to stop fearing for the Spirit and instead drawing attentions to her.
And that's an easy task, as she sends multiple mini-sized Sylhet Spears, dangerously gazing over the AST members. Many of them shift their attentions from the young Spirit and start focusing their fire on Emerald. Casing Assam Link on herself, she starts ziczac-ing on the road to avoid getting hit. However, one of the missiles knocks her off the ground, making her lose her footing and fall on the street. All bullets then start concentrating on the protecting sphere, and slowly and steady, the sphere starts to break…
The new Spirit suddenly flies towards Emerald, passes through the sphere much to AST's surprise, and grabs Emerald before flying up with the older girl in her hands. Thanks to that, the sphere slowly regenerates itself, and the duo is safe again from the attacks from AST. However, the Spirit doesn't want to take another risk, so she immediately hides herself and Emerald into a mall… a very familiar mall.
And of course, the two are temporarily safe. After landing, Emerald dispels the protection spell before saying: "Thank you very much for saving me."
"It's nothing! You did save Yoshinon before, so this is Yoshinon's thank!" Hearing the… uncharacteristic voice, in Emerald's opinion, she turns to see if the girl really speaks… only to see the bunny doll in her left opening its mouth. "But, if you're not with them, then why were you on the road?"
Normally, she would ask why the girl didn't speak for herself, if she didn't detect a second appearance of 'soul' in the doll, being similar to the girl and yet different. 'Soul-linking? The girl could do that?' Emerald thinks to herself, before replying: "I was in the same position as yours before. Also, they marked me as an enemy, like you. And… you don't look like the type to attack anyone."
"Then you're Yoshinon's friend alright!" The doll claps his hands, while the girl shows little to no change on her face. "Ah right, I forgot to introduce myself! Yoshinon's name is Yoshinon! Isn't it cute?"
"It's very cute." Emerald smiles back. 'That's… like Ram saying in third person.' "My name is Emerald. I just…"
"Emerald! Are you alright?" The girls turn to the stairs, where Shidou is starting to run up to them. "Did you two get hurt?"
"We're fine." Emerald assures the boy, which makes him sigh in relief.
"Aren't you the lucky pervert, Big Bro?" Yoshinon suddenly speaks up, causing Shidou to look at the bunny in disbelief.
Emerald notices the way the Spirit look at Shidou being a little scared, so she asks: "Yoshinon, have you met him before?"
"Ah, Yoshinon was playing in the shrine when we saw him." The doll explains. "He was touching Yoshinon all over the places, though."
Emerald immediately sends a glare of suspicion towards Shidou, causing him to explain in panic: "She fell on the ground, so I planned to help her standing up, that's all!"
"So he's your friend, miss Emerald?" Yoshinon asks.
"Ah, right. Shidou, this is Yoshinon." Emerald says, pointing SPECIFICALLY towards the doll. "Yoshinon, that's Itsuka Shidou. He's helping us avoiding the people shooting us before." She then quickly sends a mental note that then displays to the crew of Fraxinus: "Tell Shidou that Yoshinon is the name of the doll, not the girl herself."
Shidou greets back as he walks a bit closer. "Hello, Yoshinon. Is…" Luckily, Kotori halts him and tells him what Emerald wanted to tell him. He gets the note, then asks Yoshinon again: "May I ask…"
"Wait." Emerald stops him, as she hides behind the pillar so she won't be seen from outside. She then peaks out and sees the two AST members standing on the building nearby. "Everyone, get out of the sight of the window."
The two immediately follow the order. Yoshinon asks: "What are you planning, miss Emerald?"
"Planning on how we can get out without being shot." Pulling her phone out, she starts checking her inventory to see what she could use for this…
"Can't we just use that sphere of yours?" Shidou asks in confusion.
"It drains my mana. And it won't help much stopping concentrate fires..."
Suddenly, the floor below them gives in, and the trio falls to the first floor, with the Spirit being in Shidou's arms. Emerald immediately steadies herself up and stands up with the support of her staff. "Everyone alright?"
"Hurt, but still alive." Being the Spirit's 'landing zone', Shidou receives pains from both the fall and the girl's collision on his body. And thanks to the Spirit power in him, the pain slowly subdues.
She then notices the AST starting to close in, so she raises up her staff and summons tree vines from the ground and lets them climb everywhere between the trio and the pursuers, stopping AST from approaching them. "Shidou, grab the girl and make a run for it."
"Got it! Let's go!" Helping the Spirit standing up, the boy then pulls her out of the harm way and they run towards another exit of the mall, while Emerald quickly follows behind while trying to make sure the AST is slowed down.
"She dropped her friend?" Kotori asks from the bridge. "You mean the doll?"
"Yeah. After that falling. Though, we can't return anymore, not until the place is fixed, and the JGSDF would cover everything up." Emerald talks through the phone, as Shidou's trying to stop the Spirit from crying. The three have managed to cut off the pursuers, but then they found out that Yoshinon is not with the Spirit anymore.
"Yoshinon…" The Spirit mumbles, as she pulls her hood lower to hide her scared face.
"It's alright, it's alright. We will find him for you, okay?" Shidou is appeasing the girl as best as he could, but it proves to be a little difficult.
Then, a grumbling sound can be heard, as Emerald turns to see the Spirit's face redden up in embarrassment. "Someone is hungry." She says, teasingly. That gets the hood to be pulled down even lower.
"Guess she has reached the limit." Kotori says through the Fraxinus. "How about you two take her to somewhere and grab something for dinner?"
"I don't know. Seems like the stores are deserted for now." Shidou replies, as he looks around to see the closed stores and debris.
"How about you take her to your house and make dinner?" Emerald suggests. "I'm going to get Tohka to join as well. Kotori, how about you and Reine?"
"Well, if Shidou can withstand us…" Kotori says jokingly.
"Okay, okay." Shidou chuckles. "I will make dinner for everyone."
…
"So that's why." Kotori says, after hearing how important Yoshinon is to the Spirit, who revealed her name to be Yoshino. "He's basically what you want yourself to be."
"Now that's an ideal I like." Shidou says while preparing the dinner.
That earns the Itsuka's siblings Yoshino's blush face. "It's… the first time somebody agreed with me about…"
"… So you're like Rom, and Yoshinon is like Ram. Got it." Emerald notes to herself, which catches Tohka's attention. Upon noticing that, Emerald asks the Spirit: "You want to know who they are?" A nod is her response. The girl pulls out her phone and starts checking if she could show an appropriate picture. "Ah, here." She then shows it to everyone the time when the Candidates of Lowee were practicing some spells with a female mage. "The one in pink is Ram, and the younger blue is Rom. They're nearly inseparable."
"They look so happy…" Yoshino comments on the photo, seeing everyone's smiling brightly.
"Come to think of it, you never told us where you came from. Mind giving us some background?" Reine asks, earning nods from the others.
"Well… if you want to." Emerald scratches her head, then starts: "Alright, the first thing is about our world…"
Sorry, but please go and play Neptunia. I'm not going to write that series down in a two-to-three-kay-word chapter. Though I will write out what changed compared to the original.
"…" After telling the story, Emerald earns blank stares from everyone, including Yoshino who's super confused as well.
"Yeah, I know it's hard to believe, but for now, just accept it." Emerald says nervously. Now she feels how awkward Kuro always felt when he had to spill out the beans. How he managed to keep a straight face… and how he explained how he did that was still beyond her imagination.
"The food is ready everyone." Shidou decides to break the ice. With that, everyone gathers around the dining table and starts digging in. He then asks Emerald: "So Heart isn't actually your last name?"
"From our sister's generation till now, nobody really has a last name. The only exception is Uzume, who's from about thousands of years in the past. And Kuro, if we count his old name…"
"But still, to hear that you're one of the Goddesses…" Reine continues. "You must have really high respect from your people."
"Kind of. I don't like bragging about it, though."
"You even helped a neighbor to deal with…"
"It's just personal matter, Kotori. It's absolutely not related to any of me being a Goddess." After swallowing, Emerald then offers: "You know, if things goes smoothly, maybe I could invite you to visit my world."
Now that gets Tohka to hype up a little bit, and Yoshino as well. But, the latter then remembers: "But, I have to get Yoshinon…"
"I'm sure he's not going to be harmed… I think. After all, he's a Hero, right?" Emerald plans to say 'doll', but then she remembers how Neptune dealt with the babies before, so she changes it.
"…Right." Yoshino smiles up, as she continues enjoying the food the Itsuka brother provided. "It's delicious!"
The next day
"That blizzard…" Emerald says, as she focuses on the said thing in the middle of the city. "Damn it. I thought we already supported Yoshino enough, and yet…"
To help the girl stabilizing her conditions, everyone has agreed to let her stay for the night. They have managed to comfort the girl that they would find Yoshinon in no time, and the girl agreed. The Spirit then slept in the house Ratatoskr provided, with Emerald checking on her occasionally. However… in the morning, she just disappeared. Both Fraxinus and Emerald double-checked all the cameras, and they could only conclude that: 'someone' or 'something' took her away via teleportation. The former immediately went for a scan around the city to see if they could find her, and the latter excused herself to the shopkeeper to go check from the ground. After school, Tohka also joined with Emerald in searching for her, while Shidou went to Origami's home after receiving info that Yoshinon was there.
Then, Yoshino appeared in another spacequake and AST returned to try to kill her. This time, the Spirit called out her Angel as it attacked everything on-sight. Emerald had to stay far away while observing from the top of a building, watching the AST members being frozen in their barrier, though she could still feel their life signals, so they must still be alive.
…Turning off everything that could send her words to Fraxinus, she speaks to herself: "You're the only one that could be responsible to this."
"My sincere apology." A man's voice can be heard behind Emerald. "However, this is my order. And I see nothing wrong in it."
"Nothing wrong, or it's because this must happen?"
"Both. Shidou WILL succeed, and that's what we're after. YOURS, as well."
Emerald sighs. "Just, give me a warning next time."
"Depends if he wants you to know or not." A second later, the Goddess feels the present of the man vanish.
"… Let's give Shidou some time to reach to Yoshino." Jumping off the building and landing on the ground, she starts rushing towards the AST team on the ground.
Immediately noticing the 'Spirit', AST aims their weapons towards Emerald, who decides to call up the best defensive sphere she could mutter. She then thinks of one spell that could stop them… when she notices Origami going in with a sword and trying to slash her. "Don't bother. You have no chance to get past this."
"Your protection cracked before. We could do it again." Origami counters.
"Only because I'm a little too carefree. This time, no mistakes will be made." Stabbing her staff on the ground, she calls out fire that burns the whole area around her, causing the AST to step back. "And I can't let you hurt the innocent girl anymore."
"Innocent? All Spirits are dangerous! Including you!" Using her Realizer, Origami drops a whole building on top of Emerald.
"One person's action doesn't represent the whole race." An explosion occurs in the bottom of the building, blasting the debris away, and it shows an unharmed Emerald. "If you want to release your hatred, do it on the right person."
"You have no right to lecture me!" Closing in again, Origami slashes her sword violently on the sphere, only for her attacks to bounce away harmlessly.
"Having one or not, you're only ruining yourself." Emerald sighs. "And why bother attacking me anyway if I don't even want to fight you in the first place?"
"And let you cause those spacequakes again? No chance!"
"*Sigh* I'm hoping that you're more cooperative than the others." Her phone then rings up, and she answers, ignoring the firing on her: "Yes?"
"Do you need some help?" Kotori says, concern filled in her voice.
"Not really. Where's Shidou?"
"He stepped right into that blizzard, with Yoshinon in his hands."
"So, I just have to ride them off, huh? Got it." Closing her phone, Emerald then tilts her head and gives AST a smile. "Let us race for a while, shall we?"
It causes a moment for the AST to be confused, since they never saw her flying before. Then, a burst of light from Emerald causes everyone surrounding her to raise their arms and block the light. After it dies down, they see a completely new person replacing the previous 'Spirit'. This woman has long green hair flailing freely in the wind, and her eyes are purple with power symbols replacing the usual pupils. Her outfit is just an emerald bodysuit, which resembles a swimsuit for some 'odd' reasons, as there are two pairs of purple wings behind her back. Her weapon in hand is a metallic staff, which has a circle on top with a crystal in the middle.
"None of us wants to use it much, since it drains our power a bit fast…" The woman's voice, which is very mature, snaps the AST back to reality. "However, for the greater good…" She then swings her staff above her, and calls out a barrage of icicles around her, narrowly missing the soldiers on purpose. She then says: "Try to catch me, if you can." And she flies away with high speed, causing the AST to quickly dispatch and try to chase her.
After Shidou manages to seal Yoshino's power, everything returns back to normal…
Normal enough, that a certain Spirit doesn't have the mood to kill something, as she saw what happened from afar on top of a building.
"Ara ara. They followed me here. I thought this is what it's meant to happen. I hope they understand why I did so… and that I won't be grounded soon." The Spirit then disappears in a portal, leaving no traces of her behind.
Chapter 3 end!
So yeah, unless you're completely new to Date A Live, the person Kuro and Emerald are after is the Third Spirit. Though...
The next chapter will be out soon. See you all then!