CH.22 Demons

Saori watches the action from the roof of a nearby building and is fiddling with her two swords. She is simply bored and yawns. She stands up and says to herself.

"Well, I think I'm in the mood for an experiment. Life isn't fun without variables."

She enters her spirit form and warps towards the manor. Starting with the fight between Akihiko and Jessica, the latter has taken to the sky and is firing claw-shaped blasts from her new weapon, and each blast is powerful enough to put small craters in the ground. Jessica has grin as she continues to fire her weapon. Aki is getting annoyed and demands.

"Do something else already, will ya!"

Jessica continues to fire as she answers, smugly.

"Why mess with a good thing?"

Aki decides that he has to counter her blasts, so he waits for another blast and deflects it using his new sword. Jessica uses the feathers on the arm as shield to block the attack. Realizing that he is at a disadvantage, Aki decides to try something he hasn't tried in a while. He charges up his sword and gets ready to jump. Jessica puts up her wing shield again to block whatever Aki unleashes. His sword charged, Aki leaps into the sky with heavy force, holds his sword forward, it glows brightly, and once he gets to the same altitude as Jessica, Aki thrusts his sword forward and it extends by using his energy making resemble a sword made of light. He announces the technique name.

"Blade of Heaven!"

Jessica blocks the attack with her wing shield. The sword crackles with energy as it clashes with the energy feathers. Jessica smiles since it appears she has rendered Aki's attacks useless, but Aki's sword begins to gather more energy, but it is a very dark shade of purple. He has no idea what is happening as the sword extends longer and pierces through the shield and lightly stabs Jessica below her breast. She is surprised at this, but not as much as Aki is as he thinks.

"What...just happened?"

Jessica's eyes look shocked as she falls to the ground again, but this time, she is unconscious. Aki lands safely on the ground and has difficulty processing everything that has just happened, but it appears that he has beaten his opponent. This gets him smiling as he declares.

"I finally did it! I actually won on my own!"

He looks at his sword and thinks.

"Wow, this sword really helped me out. Maybe I misjudged that guy."

Out of concern, Aki checks on Jessica to make sure he didn't do too much damage. As runs up to her to get closer, and as he approaches, Jessica rises from the ground quickly, and stabs Aki in the chest with the talons on her hand.

Up to Hiro fighting with Origami. Hiro has taken the advantage quickly with his fight with the other version of his mother. He has already gotten a few good hits in against her; while she hasn't even scratched him. Origami is panting as she getting tired from fighting such a quick opponent. She is at a disadvantage due to Hiro's weapons; which he explains.

"Do you know why I can't lose to you? Because I was built to be one thing, you're destruction!"

Hiro has yet to equip his helm and fights her with sustaining any injuries whatsoever. Origami charges up a powerful shot and fires, but Hiro counters by slicing it in half using his dual blades in a circle formation. He further berates her by saying.

"Joining DEM meant that lost any chance of beating me. If Ellen Mira Mathers couldn't beat me, then you don't have a chance in hell."

Origami attempts a territory around herself, but Hiro immediately destroys it and grabs her by the chest of her suite. He then threateningly says.

"I'll give two options. One, you can quit DEM and quit hunting Spirits, or, you can try to fight me, and I promise you won't be able to move after I finish this fight."

Origami then asks one question to follow. Something that she really doesn't want to hear, but asks anyway.

"Is your father…"

Hiro interrupts her as he answers.

"Shido Itsuka is my father."

Origami then appears sad, and asks.

"Don't you care about your parents?"

Hiro coldy answers.

"I love my parents, but I hate DEM even more. I am DEM's enemy, I am the Spirit's ally, and I won't let my feelings interfere with my mission, DEM's annihilation.

Origami is surprised to hear the Spirit part, and says.

"But Spirits kill people!"

Hiro responds.

"People kill people, the Spirit's only attack when provoked. I don't count Spacial Quakes either."

Origami argues.

"Kurumi has killed thousands of people without real reason! How can you defend that!?"

But Hiro responds.

"I-don't-care. The Kurumi I know runs an animal sanctuary and can barely see. I don't care about the people she's killed."

Origami prepares to the counter with the various weapons on her Realizer, but Hiro lets her go, and with the blink of any eye, he focuses and slashes her Realizer to pieces and destroys her weapons. He then grabs her again, and says.

"Never show your face before me again."

He then casually tosses Origami on a nearby roof and leaves her alone. Origami can't believe that she lost so easily with DEM's technology backing her up, so she comes to the conclusion that she needs to find out where Hiro get his equipment. As she thinks this, Origami hears a voice saying.

"I can't stand the sight of you."

She turns around and sees someone standing on the roof of with building with her. She hasn't interacted with her, but it is Freki, one of Shinra's subordinates. Origami perceives her as an ally, but Freki shatters this idea with her next statement.

"Shinra really only needs one of you, so I think I'll take you out of the equation."

Without her weapons, Origami is in trouble as Freki charges with killing intent.

To Ellen fighting with Collette. Ellen is handicapped now with her left arm being hurt. Their fight isn't making much progress; as Ellen is still fighting very well with use of only one arm. This pleases Collette who is clearly enjoying their fight. Ellen is working on a strategy, but she has to lure Collette into making certain moves. They are currently clashing swords, and Collette asks, menacingly.

"Why aren't you using your best attacks? I thought Pendragon was built to fit your skills, Mathers."

Ellen replies.

"Clearly, you haven't looked closely at my Realizer. If you did, you'd notice that this isn't Pendragon; it is called Alexander."

Collette backs off and says.

"Different name, same results."

She sets up for her J'accuse attack again. Ellen notices this, and sets up a blue-colored territory in response. The attack cracks it like before, but the territory shines a little as it gets hit. He Alexander then glows slightly gold. Collette notices this and wonders what Ellen is planning, but she concludes.

"If I finish her before she can initiate her plan, then there shouldn't be any problems."

Collette takes a moment to ready for her next assault. To Mana vs Mana, the two are fighting on relatively even grounds, but Mana appears to be weaker because of her apparent operation. However, she has a much higher tolerance towards pain as Mana has injured her a few times without a single wince, twitch, or flinch. Mana has barely taken any hits so far. Mana asks her other self in a serious tone.

"What are here for?"

Mana answers, stoically.

"To capture a Spirit Child."

Mana is wondering why her opponent just blatantly admitted her plan. Then a territory appears around Mana and shocks her. Artemisia set it up and Mana leaves to complete her mission. Mana now understands why; she knew that she can't be stopped at this point. Mana flies closer to the mansion since it is apparent that her target is Shiori. Mana is very disgusted at this version of herself as it appears she has been reduced to a machine that follows orders without question. Artemisia prepares for assault. Mana readies herself to fight her replacement, but before they can get too close to each other, Saori appears between them with a mischievous smile on her face; causing both of the wizards to stop. Saori turns her head, looks at Mana, and says, playfully.

"I want to play with Miss Ashcroft, if you'd be so kind."

Mana is nervous about letting Saori take control, but feels like she has no real choice but to agree. Saori then slightly sticks out her tounge and faces Artemisia. She (Saori) looks at her with a more serious smile and tells her.

"Hello, I'm here to have some fun with you. So don't disappoint me."

Artemisia then readies for assault again, and notices Saori whisper something and her clock begins to move faster indicating she is readying a bullet. Artemisia then puts up a territory in hopes of taking Saori's crystal. However, Saori dodges and a bullet comes from behind and hits Artemisia causing her to freeze in place. Saori seemingly doesn't move, and moments later, Artemisia is back to normal. She notices that Saori has some blood on her hands, but she feels perfectly fine, except for slight chest pain. She puts up another territory again, and this time it succeeds. Saori in clenching from the pain as Artemisia begins chanting to remove Saori's crystal. But nothing happens for a minute; Mana is tempted to help, but has mixed feelings about helping a girl who clearly has ill intentions. After a minute, nothing still happens, so Artemisia stops. Saori has some steam coming from her body as she sweats a little from the pain as she is hunched over. She lifts herself up, and has some blood coming from her mouth; she wipes it with her hand and now has an upset look as she proclaims, deadly.

"Okay, now you've really pissed me off."

Saori turns to Mana and demands.

"Get the hell out here, please."

Mana is baffled by the demand, but doesn't want to argue, especially with Saori, so she leaves. Artemisia pays no heed to Saori's seemingly pointless demand and charges again. Saori makes no effort to move, and as her sword comes down at Saori, Artemisia is suddenly stopped and can't move. She struggles through this paralysis but can't even move a single muscle. Saori then casually slaps her (Artemisia) sword out of her hand and says.

"You thought that because I have powers, I had a crystal in my body, and thought that it could be removed. You are so ignorant."

Unable to move, Artemisia can only listen to Saori's explanation of what's happening.

"I'll let you to turn your head to see what happened."

Artemisia turns her head and sees Saori's guardian behind her with twenty red threads coming from her fingers and toes. Unable to analyze what's happening, Artemisia continues to listen to Saori's twisted explanation of what is happening.

"Oh, I forgot to mention…I took this."

Saori produces a jar that has red coating the inside and it can't be seen into. Saori casually tosses it around with a playful smile as she asks.

"Do you know what this is?"

Saori sarcastically waits for a response, and then explains, with a demented smile.

"No? Well, this would be your heart."

Saori then crushes the jar with her hand leaving a crimson pulp in her hand, and she adds.

"Well, it was."

She then snaps her finger and dead Kurumi pops out a small portal from above. Saori holds it up and points to a hole in the chest.

"I swapped yours with this one's."

Artemisia then manages to say.

"You…couldn't….have."

Saori shakes her head and retorts.

"On the contrary, I can, I did, and that is why we're here."

When Saori stopped Artemisia with her previous attack, Saori sped up time around herself to perform the replacement without killing her opponent. She had two Kurumis hold onto the guns that carried the enchanted bullets. She had to wait for blood to pump through Artemisia's body before assuming control, which she explains.

"You see, I can control these dead copies of my mother, but this extends to their organs, and with the heart of one, I can control that as an extension. In other words, I have complete control of your circulatory system. Now, it's time for a game."

Saori smiles sadistically as she chuckles a little.

Inside the manor, Kurumi readies to teleport the children, Miku, Tohka, and Shido to the ship. But Shiori realizes that her father is still in the master bedroom, so she runs off to go get him. Miku tries to go after her, but Shido says.

"No, I'll go with her. Kurumi, please get them to ship, please."

Kurumi nods with a smile, grabs Miku around the waist, and warps away with the others. Kotori is another part of the manor, and is kicking open different door in the hopes of finding her brother and any others. Fortunately, she kick opens a door and hears crying. Kotori realizes that she has stumbled onto the nursery. She puts down Camael and walks over to the crib to check on nephew of this time. Kotori looks into it, and sees the crying baby; she picks it up and tries to calm him down by gently rocking him and saying calming things.

"Come on, it's going okay. Aunt Kotori's going to get you back to your mommy."

Kotori does her best to avoid burning the child with her flames. She holds him close and runs out the door to check the rest of the manor for anyone else who could have been forgotten. Kotori looks around, and sees Mana and immediately recognizes that she isn't her friend. Kotori is nervous as she thinks.

"Oh this is crap-tastic, I can't fight her while holding this kid, and I can't just set him down in the middle of fight."

Kotori holds the baby closer as she summons Camael again, but has to hold it with one hand. Mana shoots a straight blast at Kotori, which she manages to block with her Camael, but her fingers are grazed by the laser. They heal quickly, but Mana continues to blast more while approaching closer. Kotori is getting more nervous as she can't think of anything else to do but block with her halberd. The baby keeps crying and Kotori can't do anything about it. More concerned for her nephew's safety, Kotori decides to imbed Camael into the floor and sprints off down the hallway while she carries him in angle that the lasers will not hit him from Mana's firing zone. Kotori starts taking hits at the side of her body which hurts, but she won't let anything happen to the child. As Kotori passes past a corridor, Shiori enters the hall from that point, and as she enters it, she is hit through the chest by the lasers and falls backwards. Kotori, horrified, stops running and Shido comes through the corridor to see the horrifying site. Shiori is on the ground and blood seeps from the injury as she lies on the ground dying. Shido becomes distraught immediately he runs up to Shiori and picks up her torso in his arms. She has blood coming from her mouth as she is showing signs of extreme pain, and even mutters.

"It hurts..it hurts."

Shiori then begins to go into shock. Shido is panicking since she is dying in his arms. Kotori, enraged by this, looks Shido and places the baby close to him as she says, in a silent rage.

"Hold him…This has gone far enough."

Shido, concerned, asks his sister.

"Kotori, what are you going to do?"

Kotori's eyes glow red with rage as she answers.

"I'm going to watch her burn for this."

Kotori summons Camael again and with both hands free, she deflects the lasers and slowly approaches her opponent with a furious look on her face. Shido wants to stop his sister, but can't leave Shiori to die. He is panicking more frantically as he has no idea of what he can do to help. He looks at his hand and tries for anything as he shouts.

"DO SOMETHING! COME ON, SHIDO, DO SOMETHING!"

He is starting to cry as he doesn't want this to happen. The baby, who is still crying loudly, begins to glow a little and a light seeps from his tiny body. Shido is still in his panic as he fails to notice the light going into Shiori's body. Shiori's body begins to glow as well. Her wound begins to close, the blood from her face fades, and she starts seeing images of her mother. Shido now notices and thanking everything since he knows what is coming. Shiori's eyes then glow yellow as a glowing set of strings emerge from the ground and wrap into a ball above her body. Her body begins to glow as she reaches into the air and a bright sea-green dress appears around her body. It resembles Miku's dress, but the skirt is slightly longer, a piece of periwinkle colored cloth hangs from the inside of her skirt, a silver crescent moon accessory; with sea-green and periwinkle counterparts to Miku's dress. Shiori grabs the ball of strings and they glow golden and transform into yellow and indigo colored electric guitar forms in her hand.

Shiori then appears to come back to reality and looks at herself and her new guitar. She is shocked at first, but she then immediately turns her attention to her crying baby brother. Shiori walks over and picks him up. She immediately comforts him and gets him to calm down. Shido wipes some sweat from his forehead after this scare. Shiori notices his reaction to her transformation and asks.

"Do you know what is going on, Mr. Naruhodou?"

Shido decides to explain everything to Shiori since she is involved now. He gets her to hide with him in a nearby room to avoid the violence that is occurring around the mansion and inside it.

Back to Ellen and Collette, Ellen has taken a couple more hits, but is close to getting her plan in motion. Her Realizer is glowing like a star in the night sky. Collette is still unsure about what Ellen is planning and is unleashing her best attacks. She is setting up for Aure Dominium by creating the star symbol with her rapier. Ellen puts up her blue territory again to guard the attack. The blast of energy is blocked by Ellen's territory, but it the pull causes her to get winded from the amount of fatigue she is feeling from her injuries and energy usage. This time, the blue territory turns gold as Ellen stands still and waits. Collette sees this and says, smugly.

"I see your plan, but it won't work. Your territory won't work once I pierce through it."

Collette charges Fer-De-Lance to pierce through the territory. Ellen remains still as Collette makes her rapier connect with the gold territory. She then prepares to pierce through it as she shouts.

"Fer-De…."

Before Collette's attack can finish, the territory disperses and transform into chain-like binds that wrap around Collette's arms and legs as a sigil forms below both her and Ellen. Collette cannot move and says, irritated.

"So this was your real plan."

Ellen has a serious expression as she explains.

"What makes my Realizer different from Pendragon is that it can absorb energy from my opponent's attacks. But it can only do that once I put up a special territory. Once I realized what attacks you'd be using, I simply decided to play at your ignorance to finish this fight. Now…"

The sigil begins to expel energy from itself at a slow pace that causes sharp pain to Collette, but Ellen is just starting this attack as she declares.

"Struggle against these holy chains…."

The sigil now begins to emit a sound that signifies build up, and Ellen shouts.

"Shining Bind!"

The sigil erupts with golden energy that nearly destroys Collette's Realizer and she screams loudly from the even more intense pain as she is shot through the sky by the intense burst of energy. Ellen lowers herself down to the ground and unequips her Realizer. She then grips her arm around her wound. She needs to get back to the ship and get medical assistance before she passes out. She stumbles as she walks to where the ship should be floating above.

"That woman was tough. I don't know how much longer I could have lasted. At least I stopped her, for now."

Aboard the Bifrost, Akane is welcoming Miku and her children to the ship. However, Miku is in a panic because she realized that her baby isn't with her, so she yelling at Akane."

"You! I want my baby! Let off the ship so I can get him! Or go get him yourself! I don't care how, just get me my baby!"

Akane now realizes she is not going to hear the end of it, so she looks at Kurumi, only to see that she has already left; causing her to say, mad.

"I can't believe that bitch just left me alone with this pissed off mother."

Akane looks at Miku, who is now covering her two boy's ears with an upset look. She is now going get a language lecture from Miku.

Two out of the five wizards have been defeated, three remain. Inside the manor, Kotori is relentlessly assaulting Mana and their fight has escalated to the backyard of the manor. The backyard has a playground built in for the children. Mana is panting since Kotori has taken control of the fight. Kotori is still angered by Shiori's injury and has no idea that she is alright. Kotori is unaffected by her previous injuries as they have already healed. Her opponent, on the other hand, isn't as fortunate. Mana is still injured from her previous battles despite their shortness. She doesn't speak much, but she mumbles to herself.

"Must..complete assignment…Must succeed…for Director…"

Kotori walks over to her opponent and mockingly says.

"What a sad thing you've become. Losing your humanity has made a very boring opponent. Endangering children, attacking unarmed people, and being unable to put up a decent battle; yeah, you've really sunk low. But don't worry, I'll put you out of your misery….Camael Megido!"

Mana is unable to move out of the way as Kotori readies her canon. As Kotori charges her canon, Hiro walks to the battle scene to check on his ally. He sees the scene, and simply leans at the doorway he's standing at. He watches as Kotori is ready to launch her attack. Kotori smiles with her eyes glowing red. Mana makes her way to help Kotori, but is terrified to see that Kotori is seconds away from firing her canon. Knowing that Kotori will regret this, Mana charges to divert the canon's trajectory, but Hiro flies towards her to prevent her from stopping the canon. Mana is visibly upset as she says, slightly panicked.

"Hiro, we have to stop her. Kotori won't be able to handle this when she reverts!"

Hiro then gets serious as he argues.

"They came here to kill us. We can't make exceptions."

Mana retorts.

"No, they came to capture a Spirit Child."

Hiro makes no remarks, but Mana finally gets to him by saying.

"Do you want her to live with this!?"

Hiro turns his head towards Kotori and nods

Kotori's canon then fires a massive blast of fire and it is on a direct course to hit Mana. Hiro utilizes his Mana Eater's full capabilities to dash in and grab Mana to pull her to safety. Kotori gets irritated as she readies another blast. She prepares to charge until she hears a voice shout.

"STOP!"

Kotori then feels a sudden urge to lower her weapon and stops with her eyes still glowing. Mana looks and sees Shiori standing nearby with a worried look on her face. Shido is standing with her. Shido explained how her powers should work to her. Being familiar with Miku's power, Shido has a base idea of what Shiori can do. Shido makes his way to Kotori to bring her back to normal. He manages to get her to revert back without having any true damage done. Mana joins her brother and Kotori to brief a little. Luckily, Kotori is easily calmed back down thanks to Shiori's command. Once they've calmed down, Mana asks.

"Hey, where's Hiro?"

Hiro walk towards the group holding a bloody dual blade, which he twirls to clean it. Shido, worried, asks.

"Hiro, how did you get blood on your weapon?"

Hiro casually anwers.

"I finished Kotori's fight."

Now scared, Shido asks.

"Did you kill her!?"

To which Hiro calmly nods his head. Shido then gets upset and berates him.

"That isn't right! You can't just…"

Hiro then gives Shido a glare as he interrupts.

"Do what? Kill the enemy? Of course I'd do that, Shido. We can't have these things coming back."

Mana now feels a little afraid of Hiro as she adds.

"What!? She was a person. She was…me once…Does that mean."

Hiro, now more serious, explains.

"DEM will send more after us. I won't let them think that we're above killing. I'm certainly not, and neither are you, Mana."

Mana cannot deny what Hiro says. She has killed multiple copies of Kurumi, Jessica, and was even planning on killing her alternate self. But Shido still argues.

"But we can't just kill them. Hiro, please…no more. I don't want to see you kill anyone anymore."

Hiro doesn't respond; he simply walks past Shido and says, coldly.

"I got some unfinished business to take care of. Shido, do what you want; I'll see you on the ship."

Kotori comments on his actions with a calm tone.

"He does what needs to be done."

Shido looks at his sister and utters.

"Kotori…"

Kotori then adds.

"But I don't agree with him."

Mana decides to go retrieve the body so that no one else can see it. Luckily, Shiori didn't hear any of this since she went to see if her father is okay.

Hiro goes back to the roof where he left Origami with the intent to finish her as well. On the roof, Freki has Origami laying on the ground with her body being broken. Origami assumed she and Freki are comrades, so she asks, weakly.

"Why? …don't you work for…DEM?"

Freki walks over to her broken opponent and grabs her throat with a vicious grip and answers, sternly.

"Not on your life. I hate DEM for what they did to us. And I hate you even more. You…who…."

Origami can't fight back at this point can only gasp for air as her vision goes blurry. Freki tilts her head to look at Origami to see the life fade from her eyes. This causes her hat to fall off, and to Origami's absolute shock, reveals that her face is identical to Origami's. Her hair is the same only slightly longer, her eyes are azure, and she has a tattoo on her forehead that says CWM-O. Freki then tightens her grip and breaks her foes neck. Freki then stands up and takes a deep breath; she did what she came here to do and leaves before anyone else can arrive.

Back to Saori and Artemisia, Saori is smiling sadistically as she explains.

"The game we'll play is called "Guess what I just broke". Here are the rules; I break an organ or a muscle in your body, and you guess what I broke. Guess three in a row right, and I'll let you go. Got it? Good. I'll let you talk to be fair."

Saori snaps her fingers and a loud ripping sound is heard and Artemisia is starting to sweat as she expresses the pain and says.

"You broke…a deltoid…"

Saori then makes a buzzer noise as she says.

"Oh, you had the right muscle…But I forgot to tell you that you have to give your answer in Portuguese to get the point."

Saori then starts cracking her fingers and stretching her arms as more loud snapping and ripping noises are heard. Saori begins to get a little annoyed since her victim isn't screaming, and comments.

"Well that's no fun. It really isn't the same without hearing the bitch squeal and cry…so let's up the ante.

Saori begins slowing down to intensify the pain more, and finally, after many more attempts, Artemisia finally lets out a loud scream from the pain. Saori then blushes and says in a sultry tone.

"Oh yeah, that's enough to get engine going."

Finally satisfied, Saori is now ready to finish it. Before finally severing the jugular, Saori mockingly says.

"Oh, and the funny part is…I don't a word of Portuguese."

Saori gives one final snap and ends it. Shen then opens a small dark portal and a group of her dead Kurumis emerge to take the body with them. Saori then cracks her neck and says.

"Well, that really fun."

Saori then turns around and sees Hiro floating behind her. He has a look of disbelief as he asks.

"How did you beat her so easily? Even I couldn't do it that well."

Saori then casually floats to Hiro, lightly slaps his face a couple of times, and answers.

"Because no human can match my whit. I prefer playing smart, rather than hard."

Hiro has already found Origami's body. He found it before seeing Saori. When he saw it, he coldly said before leaving due his indifference at her death.

"It's only your fault that you died like a dog. I cannot pity you."

The only fight that remains is Akihiko and Jessica. Aki is badly injured from being stabbed in the chest by Jessica's weapon. He has a little blood dripping from his mouth, and he is clenching his chest where the wound is. Jessica has taken a huge advantage in this fight due to her underhanded attack. He is unable to properly fight back due to only using one arm at swing his sword with. Jessica kicks him around like a ragdoll. She has her foot on his head while he lays on the ground. Jessica has a look of ruthlessness as she insults him.

"Hahahaha, why did I get with the weakest one? Only idiots check to see if their enemy is alright. Wow, I simply can't believe how easy this was."

Jessica then begins stomping on Aki's head as he becomes angry. He thinks to himself.

"I'm…not weak. I'm sick of being inferior to them…I'm sick of being pushed around. I'm sick of being reliant on others….AND I'M SICK OF DEM!"

Aki's eyes suddenly turn empty with darkness as his sword begins to emit a dark aura. He suddenly has a burst of energy and forcefully stands up knocking Jessica back a little. His body is now emitting the same aura as his sword and his wounds even close as he wipes the blood from his face. Jessica is started to get a chill down her spine a little and can't understand why. She readies more blasts from her hand like before, but Aki immediately gets up close to her and fiercely grips it with a tight grasp. Jessica barely manages to get her hand out of it and readies her blast, but to her shock.

"He squished the discharged system."

Jessica sees that the blasting unit in her weapon has been crushed by Aki's grip. He immediately follows with a powerful headbutt that causes her face to bleed. Jessica then tries to fly away, but Aki grabs her by the ankle and slams her back to the ground and stomps on her stomach four times. Jessica manages to discharge a small barrier with her weapon that pushes Aki away. Jessica is recovering from his vicious assault. Aki now assumes a one-handed stance with his sword being held over his shoulder. Jessica's weapon then begins to glow itself and her body's mana begins to radiate as it goes into the core of her weapon which is in the palm of her hand. Jessica then cries out as this causes her great pain. Her weapon then begins to extend itself by covering more of Jessica's body; from covering her entire arm, to covering part of her back. She sweats profusely from the pain. Jessica, now realizing the danger, puts up a territory around Aki just long enough to flee the scene.

Aki then starts to pant as the aura around his body dissipates. He then starts seeing the images of Tohka looking sad again and it snaps him out of what he was in. He doesn't exactly realize what happened, but he realizes that he won the fight which causes him great excitement. He completely ignores the aura that came out of his sword. He reverts to his normal form and runs to find the others inside the mansion.
Jessica has flown far enough away to hide in an alley. She reverts to her normal form and her weapons configures to a wristband with a hawk symbol. She is exhausted from using it and her face is still hurting.

"Damn, I didn't think that this Mana Eater thing would be so taxing."

As Jessica catches her breath, her ally, Collette stumbles into the alley with her and leans against the wall. Even though her clothes are fine since she also reverted, Collette is covered with burn marks and cuts as she is also exhausted. Collette then asks Jessica.

"Are we the only ones left, Bailey?"

Jessica says she isn't sure since she fled quickly. Collette immediately deduces.

"Then Tobiichi, Takamiya, and Ashcroft are dead. I knew they were pathetic. I'm rather impressed YOU survived though, Bailey."

Jessica isn't in any mood for the insults, so she says.

"I think we should withdraw. We're both too injured to carry on."

Collette remarks.

"I agree. We can't beat them if they've already killed three of us. Plus our condition is unsuited for fighting at the moment."

The two then use a crystal they received from Shinra to retreat this world and report their failure.

The group gets together aboard the Bifrost after coming back together after all their fighting. Miku has her sons resting in the sleeping quarters with their father. Aki found him while searching the mansion and Shido has yet to meet him. Shiori is with the group as is her mother. Ellen is resting in the medical wing with Mana helping with her bandages. Tohka is also resting in the medical wing. The others are on bridge. Shiori is having her status explained to her by Akane. Shido is talking with Miku about what happened. He apologizes to her about what happened.

"Look, Miku, I'm really sorry about your home. It was so nice too."

Miku smiles and shakes her head.

"No, I'm just happy that my children are safe. We can always rebuild the manor. We'll just stay with my Darling's parents for a while."

Shido scratches the back of his head as he asks.

"But won't that cost a ton of money?"

Miku explains.

"Shido, I said I'm successful business woman, remember? I didn't say that to flirt. I'm the owner of Full Moon Records; the studio that Shiori is signed with."

Shido can only imagine the mint that Miku has made off of her daughter's success. Meanwhile, Akane heard about what happened with Shiori, and has started thinking about something. When they arrived on the ship, the baby had a fever, but it passed shortly after Miku took him. So Akane concludes that Shiori didn't have enough Mana in her body to transform, and that's why she didn't despite all of the stress she was feeling. She doesn't have enough data to make a conclusion yet.

Kotori is relieving some stress by talking with Aki about the fights. She doesn't tell him about the full details, and listens to him boast about his victory. Hiro and Saori are eating in the kitchen. Hiro has decided to never let Saori out of his sight again after what she pulled in the trial. They haven't told anyone else about the other two deaths that occurred, and don't intend to tell the truth about it either.

Miku decides to go to her boys and rest with them since she just wants to spend time with them. Shiori speaks with the rest of the group after hearing about their journey. She says.

"Listen, I know I'm not very good with stress. I know I'm not very strong. And I know I'm new to this "Spirit Child" thing…But I want to go with you all."

Shido opposes this idea as he explains.

"Shiori, we've met dangerous people so far on this thing. I don't want you to get hurt."

Akane doesn't disagree with Shido, but adds.

"Shido, I would like to see what I can learn about Spirit Children, and I may need her for research."

Akihiko agrees to let her come along, Kotori thinks the idea isn't bad, but they will need to be careful. Shido agrees in the end, but is still unsure about the whole thing. The only real thing left to do is to get permission from Miku. By the end of the night, the group drops off the Itsuka family of this time. Tohka's injuries aren't fully healed, but she should recover with rest. They are dropped off by Shido's old home and they'll order the repairs in the morning.

The next day, Shiori is waving to others from the street to be picked up. She is now wearing more normal clothing from her pop star outfit. It is a simple long-sleeved yellow buttoned shirt with a blue knee-length skirt and white tennis shoes. She has a luggage bag and a backpack with her. Seeing her ready to go, the group beams her up, and gets ready to take off to the next world. But, not before Miku runs over to the same area and is shouting something. They can't hear what she's saying, but Shiori just says.

"GO GO GO!"

The group opens the next gateway to the next timeline. Shiori doesn't say it, but her mother actually said no. But Shiori disobeyed her mother to leave. She also noticed earlier that Shido and Aki are both wearing dirty school uniforms, so she gives Shido a pair of her father's old clothes, and gives Aki a new outfit that consists of a sleeveless shirt that zips up and down that he wears under a purple short-sleeved jacket. Blue jeans with purple trim, black tennis shoes, and his jacket has a sword symbol on the back. Shiori explains that it was originally going to be Tohka's stage outfit, but it was designed for a man due a miscommunication with the designer. Aki loves his new clothes and thanks his new friend.

The group is now full of uncertainties. Hiro is shown to relentless in his goals, Saori has proven she can't be trusted, Ellen is injured and has her arm in a sling for a little while, and Aki is keeping secrets from his friends. But Shido is still determined to find Tohka and Origami then return home with the help of his new friends.