Ch.63 The Oasis
After some awe-inspiring light show, the three prime dimension visitors sit with this world's Shido as he pours everyone some tea from an ornate pot. This world's Tohka even appears, she's wearing another similar outfit to the others but with a purple hue. Shido is happy to see another Tohka again and even notices a little visitor standing near her leg.
It's a small child, a girl, with blue hair and indigo eyes, and she's shy hiding behind Tohka's leg. This makes him wonder if the child is Tohka's or if she was just close to her.
Being a source of comfort, Shido, calls the child with a calm voice "It's okay, come say hello to our friends." Hearing her father's words, the child nervously walks over to the table and sees a somewhat bad aura around Origami and Kurumi, and then immediately runs back to hide behind Tohka.
She shakes behind Tohka and says "I'm scared of them, mommy." She says to Tohka confirming that she is indeed the child's mother.
Tohka picks her up and laughs a little says what she came here for "Shido, It looks like Natsumi is almost ready. Nia says it could happen any minute now."
Shido looks at his Tohka and excitedly exclaims "Ah, that's great. I can't wait for the big moment."
Hearing the names Natsumi and Nia, along with the earlier mention of Mukuro, Shido can't help but think he remembers those names before. Until he remembers "Anyone "Someone, please just tell me to stop. Tohka, just tell me anything and I'll stop. Origami, Kotori, Miku, Nia, Yoshino, Mukuro, Natsumi, Kurumi, Kaguya, or Yuzuru…just tell me to quit playing and I'll stop without thinking." He remembers thinking of the names. It just hits him and he asks suddenly "Wait, so Nia, Mukuro, and Natsumi are all the names of Spirits?"
A little confued, Shido turns his face back to his alternate self "Oh, you probably haven't met them yet. But, yeah, Mukuro, Nia, and Natsumi are Spirits just like the others. Everyone here is a Spirit or my children. Why the sudden question though?" he asks with concern.
Shido recalls his dream and explains it to his future self. After hearing it, Shido replies "I don't know about that. With Nia's power, even I can't find any of that out. But, maybe it's something else entirely."
Kurumi interjects by looking at Shido and asks "Why was I not informed of such a vivid nightmare? Only I'm allowed to give my little Shido a spook." Her face playful, as she gets a little close while Origami grabs her arm and is ready to fight, so Kurumi is about to enter her Spirit form until Shido waves his hand and a light appears making Kurumi and Origami resume their sitting positions.
He proclaims "Okay, that's far enough, you two. No fighting is allowed in this place, unless it's just playing."
Breaking her silence, Origami is compelled to ask "So why has the AST and other organizations not attack here for all this time. If this is an all Spirit home, then surely they've detected you before."
Shido waves his hand again and a screen appears while he shows that Wizards have become law enforcement, like in Hiro's world, and explains "It is true that our presence is detected constantly, but Mana has made it clear to everyone that attacking us won't fly. But, I promise, not a single person has died because of a Spirit's power since we've started living here."
Despite hearing this place is peaceful; Origami can't help but still be disgusted by an all Spirit home with so many people living in it. So Shido tells her "How about you go look around? Check out our home while you're here."
Being ever stubborn, Origami answers "No thank you. I'd rather…" she almost finishes her refusal when she gets a sudden headache and she puts her hand to her head and she gets a vision, much like Shido's dream, and she finds herself near Shido, who is on the ground in the middle of the city.
He's clutching his head in pain and shouts "Get away from me!" Despite his protest, Origami still approaches him and then a giant flash of white appears and the vision ends.
Back to reality, Origami is on the floor and wakes up in the middle of the room where her Shido is trying to wake her "Hey, hey! Are you okay, Origami?" His voice sounding concerned, Shido is relieved when Origami wakes up.
Shido sighs at her waking up, but Origami tells him "I can't get up. You'll have to carry me around." Her look plain, but obvious, Shido knows what she's up to.
Even so, Shido does at least help her back in the chair. She brushes it off as a bad dream because she thinks it's similar to her parents dying and thinking of Spirits puts her at unease. Besides, Shido is right here with her.
Kurumi giggles and says "My, I simply feel like I'm going to faint. Maybe I'll need you to carry me around too."
Shido simply snaps back "Would you please quite the teasing for one day at the least!?"
Getting back to topic, Kurumi presents a question to Shido "So, I've been wondering. If you have this many children, hasn't at least one of them inversed?"
Kurumi remembers the incident with Aki at the shrine and wants to know if it is possible for a Spirit Child to have the ability naturally.
Thinking on it for a moment, Shido explains "Well, no, not that I can think of, anyway. But I can say that my children are born with powers, but we drain most of them before we send them to live below."
Hearing the word "Send" makes the younger Shido protest "Whoa, what do you mean, send them to live below? You just abandon your kids or something?"
Waving it off, the elder Shido further adds "No, they choose to leave on their own. They have dreams of being doctors, teachers, astronauts, police officers, and anything else you can think of. But, I will say there is a big price for it."
Before it can be further explained, dimness enters the room and Shido silently becomes unease as he immediately warps out of the room. The suddenness of this causes the three in the room to become confused.
Outside
Mana and her angel, Seraphiel, make it to Ellen and Jessica, who don't look phased by the appearance of a second Ellen.
Ellen simply asks "Are you a Spirit working for DEM, or a traitorous dog?"
Mana crosses her arms and replies "Neither, I'm just a very protective little sister is all."
Wondering what this woman is talking about, Ellen further asks "Who are you?"
Mana materializes a pink energy blade that forms around her hand and makes a threat "I don't have to answer that. Either leave this world now, or I'll make you leave."
Ellen smiles and brandishes her new red beamed sword and reveals it is shaped like a tooth. She doesn't realize who she is fighting and then Seraphiel appears behind Ellen and kicks her arm with such force that you can almost hear the sound of bone breaking.
Ellen flies away and puts up territory for defense as Jessica flies in to attack Mana and swipes at her with energy claws that come from her Mana eaters on the fingers. But, before Mana can defend, a beam of energy shoots past them from out of nowhere. The two look over and see Lucius floating with his Realizer and sees four floating panels around his body.
"Sorry, but I can take this one on, Mana?" he asks politely. While Mana allows Lucius to fight Jessica, she turns her sight back on Ellen.
Inside her red territory, Ellen overhears this and wonders "Mana? Mana Takamiya?" she then holds her arm after it was crushed, but then, her body glows red and her arm begins cracking and the pain seemingly gets worse until Ellen begins to feel better and the glows fades. Feeling better, Ellen moves her arm which is now fully healed. She looks at Mana and wonders if it could be true.
Jessica and Lucius fly around while Lucius fires different colored lasers at his foe, but she blocks each blast with a green territory. She flies up to him with her wings glowing neon-green and she announces "Dancing Bayonett!" and a set of razor-like disc form around Jessica that she shoots at Lucius. He puts up territory of his own, yellow in color, and the discs penetrate his territory and slices part of his face, side, and his left leg.
Jessica smiles at her successful move and states "I'll let you run away if you want, little boy."
Lucius wipes the blood off of his face and retorts "Not while my trigger finger is still working." He begins shooting more lasers from all four of his panels but they get blocked by territory. Lucius, not happy with his current results, summons the panels and says "Well this isn't working out." He puts them away and pulls out a small handle that appears like nothing but he calls out "Quaking Autumn!" His hilt glows yellow and the yellow panel attaches to the hilt causing it to change and transform into a giant great knife energy sword with a yellow blade.
He speeds over and swings his sword at Jessica, who blocks it with her two energy claws and swipes at him but he also blocks by curving the blade. He then flicks the sword and makes Jessica lose her position and swings the blade which slashes her across the stomach. Jessica backs off and holds her wound.
However, unlike Ellen, he wound does not close. "Dammit, I refuse to lose to another brat. I won't lose again…" she says to herself as her body glows green again, and then she shouts as her eyes go blank "I REFUSE TO BE IGNORED AGAIN!" Her Mana Eater glows as more energy is being fed into it and Jessica's outfit completely changes appearance and her wound closes. Her wings detach from her suit and now six wing-like panels float behind her back, her claws disappear, and now her body is covered in a white bodysuit with green energy lines. Her eyes reappear and now they glow green giving her a heavenly appearance.
Lucius backs away and puts his sword into its hilt form as all four panels return while he panics a little "Oh man, she's gotten a lot tougher." He then forms the panels into a square formation that he shoots all four colored beams at Jessica in rapid fire. He announces "Ready for this….ARC LASER!" then four widespread lasers fire from the panels that attack Jessica.
Lucius sighs a little "Hope that at least made a dent…" he utters until, to his shock, Jessica emerges from the stream with a green territory up without even a dent in it. Lucius sweats a little "Oh man, that didn't even scratch her territory. I'm in real trouble…" He mumbles while plotting a method of escape.
Jessica smiles and spins which causes a warp as she appears behind Lucius immediately and kicks upwards which creates a small twister of green energy that slices her foe and creating cuts in his skin. He flies away but in vain as Jessica warps in front of him every time he tries to flee.
She smirks and says "You pulled out your best weapon, so I'll pull out mine." Her body glows green and decides to attack Lucius with sadistic glee as she summons multiple green spear-like projectiles and she announces "I'll pierce your body!" She shoots the projectiles at Lucius and he is pierced multiple times and then the spears heat up and spiral in green flames around his body "And I'll scorch you!" Jessica shouts.
She finishes her assault by shooting herself at Lucius as her body radiates green energy as she shoots through him while she announces "Sylphid Blaze!" her body shoots past Lucius as his body explodes with wounds and his body begins falling to the streets below.
Mana sees this, and has Ellen held in place by her angel and is apparently beaten judging by her injuries. She flies over and catches Lucius before he hits the ground and brings him to safety. Jessica is just drunk on her own power as she laughs at her new abilities.
She looks over and sees her defeated comrade and mockingly says "I won my fight, and Ellen was defeated…I can't wait. He'll praise me for sure. He'll notice me and mock her."
While Jessica revels in her power, she sees Mana coming back after laying Lucius down to rest, and gets cocky "I can beat her too. I can do it, I'll destroy this Spirit and be further praised."
She puts up her territory in defense, but Mana swiftly pierces through it with ease and she knees Jessica in the solar plexus and the impact is so powerful that she coughs up blood and this is followed by a vicious elbow to the back.
In her mind, Jessica is beyond anything "How….how can she be this strong?" she thinks while she crashes into the streets between buildings. Mana aimed it so that she wouldn't hit anything that would cause panic.
After those two blows, Jessica cannot get up and can only see Mana staring at her. But with Ellen's face, she can only think "Even now, that woman looks at me like so inferior. Why…why can't I be strong enough? Even when I win, I'm still weak." A tear streams down her face and she passes out.
Mana returns to Ellen, who has also passed out and looks at her Mana eater to examine it. "This weapon is too dangerous for anyone to have." She says, but it does little good since upon examination, removing the weapon would be fatal at this point. Due to her promise, Mana simply lets Ellen go as she falls near Jessica with her injuries not being too serious. Lucius is passed out and will need to healed, so Mana uses her powers to help.
?
In a hospital room, Shido appears alongside Tohka and they look upon an old women lying on a hospital bed, she has very pale plum-colored hair and has plenty of wrinkles and the name on the board says "Miria Yatogami." Her pulse is slow and Shido looks upon her face as she rests.
The two walk up to her and they watch for a moment as the old woman wakes up and sees them with a smile on her face and her only words being "Welcome back…" and then her pulse flattens and she closes her eyes. Tohka and Shido begin crying a little as they produce a sheet with a purple coloring that fades into white as they wrap it around the old woman's body.
"It's happened so many times that I've lost count, but it still sucks when it happens." He says to himself.
In spite of her pain, Tohka reminds her husband "But she lived a happy life at least." They move closer together and warp away.
Paradiso
The three brought here now see the adult Shido appear with his Tohka as they hold the old woman's body while it is completely wrapped in the blanket. Wondering what it's for, the three are escorted to a very special room. It's a massive doorway with a brilliant white light fading from it.
Shido approaches the gate while holding the body and Tohka explains "We couldn't bear the idea that the bodies of our children and grandchildren would rot, so we made a promise that we would preserve their forms as their souls move on.
But Origami asks "So who was that?"
Tohka sighs sadly and answers "She was our daughter. She was 86 years old."
Shido looks at the gate and can only say "What a sad place. No wonder he said there was a high price."
Tohka begins shivering as her husband fades away in the light to preserve his daughter's body. While tempting to see inside, the three can't stomach the idea of seeing so many bodies that are currently being held inside this light. So they decide to simply watch on as the father of these children does what he feels he must do.