The following is a fan-based

FICTION

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Chapter 4: The Odd Girl (4)

~Nemesis' POV~

After several minutes of shouting and dodging some unpleasant accusations, Casey had managed to return peace and silence to the infirmary ward.

A large majority of the crowd made by a mix of students and teachers had been urged to return back to their classroom after the young man had decided to adopt a sterner but calmer approach to the matter, with only Kotegawa, Mea, and Yami staying behind for further explanations.

Momo had tried to remain there too to try and get some more words in and out, but the collective assurance that she would have received som explanations on a latter time of the day seemed to put her in a neutrally good mood to relinquish the pressure.

Once the room had been mostly vacated, the time for some odd predicaments started by the very cause behind such an unneeded uproar.

Yui was incredibly apologetic and ashamed of how things had escalated from the massive misunderstanding she had thought to be true, close to tears even at how quickly she had forgotten the kind of person she had thought had done such a heinous affair.

The girl had gone without a pause with her efforts to continue apologizing despite the overall peaceful dismissal that the principal was more than happy to dispense back to here at each turn.

It was an odd scene for sure to look at, yet the original Transweapon's attention was still drawn to the sleeping child in her lover's hold.

The dark-haired girl that was donning such an exquisite kimono dress seemed to be enjoying thoroughly the warmth coming from her 'father', even going so far to snuggle close to his chest at the mere hint of being pull away.

It was an adorable sight and… Momo's actions hadn't abandoned her own mind.

So much that the tanned young woman had to keep a watch over her hands as those seemed to be ready to mimic the action of patting her stomach.

An odd tic that quickly proved to be fairly easy to decipher as to why she was now forced to keep an eye out for it.

For something so little, so fragile, and so immensely adorable to come out of her… what had happened?

It was a wrong thought, something that Casey had long tried to stamp out of her mind because of how toxic it was.

She had hoped, for the best of reasons, that their relationship wouldn't have gone as far as it did.

Her mind had been annoying her by repeating in a dreadful way how things could easily go wrong the more she put the human in danger by being so attached to him.

Not only that, there was also about their different biology.

It had been a pleasant confirmation to conclude that Casey was just two years younger than her, especially with how awkward it had been to settle the fact that she had to use her real form more frequently than in past instances.

While her young, childish, and prankful form was her favorite, the one she was the earnest to put in use the most in a normal basis, her real form was the one of a young woman that had reached early adulthood.

It had been an unconscious mechanism, the fact that while she was eager to trick her enemies with a faux form, while she religiously kept in mind the true essence of herself.

She aged like any other living beings, albeit a little slower than a majority of other races, and sanity had urged her to maintain some remembrance of her original appearance.

With how wacky her life had been until she had reached Earth, with how many insane adventures she had to go through for the sake of survival and revenge, Nemesis was still someone that saw in logic an important essential tool for life itself.

The core of her being, the manifestation of her real self.

It was odd for someone that lurked by chaotic scenes to be so endeared by order itself… and yet some personal rules had turned out to be essential to keep around from the very first few weeks or her free life.

And now the Transweapon tried to make sense of that little chaotic thing that was supposedly going to be her daughter in the future.

She could easily see the resemblance, a mix of her traits mashed up with Casey's- the mere sight was driving her in a state of mesmerizing awe and wonder, thinking how things had gone by for this to even happen.

Nemesis had been stubborn to accept subduing her own habits, yet the prime sign that she had conceded to the need of settling down and form a family of her own together with the woman was plenty of proof to bring up the chances of a bright future.

Maybe some bumps would still come around from her troublesome and create some issues for everyone here on Earth… but perhaps things weren't going to be that terrible to deal with.

She sighed, glancing at Yami as the blonde herself was staring at the child with mixed emotions, ignoring Mea's loving comments about how cute the child was.

The redhead had turned in a mumbling dummy while enjoying the mere idea that she was going to be her aunt, while her 'older sister' was trying to fully connect the fact that she had now another family member to get to know better.

This time, differently from the other cases, it wasn't a sibling. But rather someone much younger and… someone that was the product of two people she knew well about.

Was it concern from her red orbs over the possibility that the little girl was going to be like her mother, or maybe was the blonde pondering over the opportunity to have a 'mini-Casey' run around and helping people?

From mere looking, Nemesis couldn't truly tell and she wasn't sure that probing around would be acceptable with how things were right now.

Mikado was helping Casey by providing some more information about the situation to those that were still unaware of the theories behind the sleeping child's presence here.

Her mind had long accepted the time travel probability advanced by the principal, knowing well enough that the chances of someone having elaborated a method to go back to the past were pretty high and…

Why?

Why would the child be sent to the past?

The more she delved in that very thought, the more she felt like she was missing something crucial about the predicament.

Something so important that her mind was still half-focused over the matter despite how much of her focus was already left to continue with her silent staring.

Casey had concluded to speak with Kotegawa, the girl quietly accepting the polite request of leaving the infirmary and return back to her classroom, having accepted with some minor protests the fact that the principal too angry at her and that expulsion wasn't even considered as a 'punishment'.

Instead the young man had provided her with some pressure to continue working under the Devilukean Queen in her free time, pointing out that she was still making some 'essential work experience' with these daily activity.

As soon as the brunette had left the room, the two restless transweapon jumped at the opportunity of having a closer perch where to stare at the little girl.

But while the two came close to where Casey was sitting, Nemesis' eyes widened just a fraction as she noticed that a pair of orbs akin to hers was staring back at her.

The girl was… awake, but not completely.

Her eyelids were half-open, her silent glance that sported some sleepiness and tiredness was all directed to the older transweapon.

A cute yawn finally made way through her lips, making it known to the rest of the room's occupants that the child was awake.

The young man holding her adjusted a little as to look better at the girl, and the child slowly shifted to stare up to her 'father'.

Some surprise appeared on her face, but she didn't budge from her current predisposition.

In fact, she seemed to delve a little more in the warmth and cuddle closer to Casey.

"Good morning," He had said quietly, holding everything but kindness and quietness in his tone.

The child yawned again before giving a slow nod to him.

But the principal didn't attempt to pry a stronger reaction out of the girl, merely glancing at her with a worried and confused look.

"Is something wrong, Onii-san?" Yami inquired with a tense look back to the young man, to which he merely sigh.

"It's just that I'm concerned about the fact she hadn't said anything until now," Casey admitted with a calm voice, starting to caress softly at the child's hair, drawing some pleased hums from her. "We don't even know her name and what truly troubles me is that it is possible that it is connected to the reason why she is here."

Nemesis blinked at that comment, her eyes giving a stronger intensity to the glance she still had over the little kid and she herself thought about those words.

Casey wasn't wrong in being worried about the lack of verbal responses. While a frightened child wouldn't be keen to let out words out of their lips, one or two curt replies were meant to be blurted out in the heat of the moment.

And yet the little girl had yet to do so.

"You think that she was hurt somehow?" Mea asked softly, her hand slowly reaching out to comfortably pat at the child's back and getting a little stiff resistance before the chibi melted to the development. "Maybe something else had happened and that made her unwilling to talk?"

The dark-haired transweapon nodded unconsciously at the proposition as the young woman thought well herself about this circumstance even more.

The redhead was advancing some worthy theories, yet there was something that didn't fit well with the fact that the girl had been so quick to find out where 'her parents' were.

Could it be that her real ones had been attacked before she was sent to the past? Or maybe she was sent here because of something had finally gotten the best out of everyone in the future?

This last thought was incredibly distressing and it drove her to accept the fact that some thorough investigation was needed for the sake of knowing what truly was going on.

While Casey was correct in not pressing too much onto the unknown girl, it was best for them all if a non-invasive probing was done with the purpose of ceasing this maddening question once and for all.

So she hummed quietly, standing up from the bed where she had been perching by until now and moved to sit right beside her lover.

Casey merely glanced her way, his posture as easy as usual after having been together for a while now, but the child seemed to tense up just a little bit at her approach.

The young one's focus was swift to return back to the young tanned woman, her stare following the movements until the original transweapon had taken her seat as she slowly resumed her sleepy watch.

"I wish to make an attempt," Nemesis calmly proclaimed while sparing a brief glance to the young man. "I think I can get some information without hurting her."

There were some seconds spent in utter silence, the young principal contemplating over the pros and cons of allowing this to happen.

"Are you sure?" Casey inquired with a slight note of nervousness. "No risk for-"

"Nemesis should be able to do it," Yami admitted with a polite nod, drawing some surprise from the older woman. "I think I could do it myself, same for Mea, but Nemesis has higher chances of doing it properly."

"And the girl would feel more at ease if it was her mother to do this," The redhead agreed with a fair degree of amusement at addressing her former master as a 'mother'.

Many would take it as a reason to lash out in annoyance, maybe even punish the cheek latched onto the girl's words

But the tanned transweapon didn't mind, it actually sounded fairly nice to listen and… she could see why Casey didn't feel interested in debating the fact he was technically a father now.

Moving the little girl out of his arms proved to be a little bit difficult as there was some early resistance to their operation, with the child grasping well at Casey's shirt before relenting as the man continued to kindly pat at her head.

Once she was put on Nemesis' lap, the nameless child settled her chin by her bosom and stared right at her 'mother' as the woman prepared to see what had happened to this poor little girl.

The plan was flawless and it wasn't the first time she had done it to someone else…

But she had so severely underestimated the fact that this was still her daughter and, albeit not a full transweapon, she could still do something similar to her abilities.

So while the tanned woman's hair stretched and prepared to reach for the child's inner mind, the adorable chibi decided that someone else would have had to join too.

The only notice Nemesis got as she concluded the standard procedure before dropping deep inside her psyche was the sudden full-body jerk coming from the principal as a little trail of hair coming from the child's head reached for the young man's chest.

Darkness covered both of their sights and soon both were falling into the abyss…

~Casey's POV~

I've experienced this kind of 'intrusion' just once before and I wasn't happy that I had been pulled in this circumstance once again.

Mikado had said something about my 'daughter' having some high chances of being able to use the absurd abilities that only transweapons had, but I had thought that the best she could have been able to do was having some high regenerative rate since she had healed so quickly.

Still, despite the early panic at having my consciousness literally yanked deep in the memory of the little girl, I still managed to maintain a fair degree of composure once the world 'returned to make sense'.

The world was still dark. Really dark.

But it wasn't difficult to see limits of this oddly-familiar corridor.

The place was actually something I was sure I had been there before, as if this was-

I blinked, my eyes half-closed as sudden light bathed the entire scene, the nearby window showing a slightly-clouded sky, but it seemed that it was still early in the day.

With the presence of new illumination, I was given a proper look of where we currently were, making me frown in confusion.

But yes, we.

I noticed that Nemesis was glancing back at me just a few meters away from where I was standing, but our attention was pulled away suddenly from giving us the chance of seeing if everything was alright with each other.

Our forms proved to be intangible and unseen as two figures passed through us and entered in one of the rooms… that I knew was the Yuuki's household.

My brain tensed at this realization as endless theories emerged from the sight I was given, and I recognized the happy couple that was entering Lala's experimentation room fairly easily.

I looked incredibly… hairy. Maybe it was the beard I had left growing and the fact my hair was longer than now.

It was still all well-cared, but I was never much of a fan of growing up a beard.

Really itchy, never liked sporting one, truly.

I was still wearing the principal uniform while one of my arms was arched by Nemesis' waist.

Her beauty had matured somehow, something that got me to pause at how mesmerizing her appearance was.

The present one was still drop-dead gorgeous, someone that many women would envy in terms of beauty, but the future version of herself made me almost giddy to see how things were going to develop in the next couple of years.

I blinked in minor surprise when I noticed that the woman was holding in her hands a familiar little girl.

Smiling a little and appearing fairly amused, the kimono-wearing girl looked happily at both of her parents.

We followed the small family inside Lala's room and I managed to get close enough to listen up to some interactions between the family.

"Papa, can we get ice cream later?" The little girl inquired eagerly and my eyes widened in a mix of awe and diabetes at hearing the little angel's voice.

Goddammit, my daughter just can't be this cute!

My other version seemed to have a milder reaction compared to mine, merely smiling happily and nodding while the tanned woman huffed.

"I thought she was meant to get some restrictions for today, dear," Older Nemesis chided with a sigh, causing the Older Me to look away nervously. "I remind you about the incident with the cat."

I frowned at this. We have- no, we are going to have a cat? I wasn't against having any pets but… I hadn't given it thought until now.

Maybe I should consider getting some animal to bring some more life to the warmth in the flat?

I didn't comment anything about this to Present Nemesis, the younger woman keeping herself as silent as I was while we continued to listen up to this curious situation.

"Bah, she didn't know at that point," The Older Me tried to sound overly-appeasing about whatever mess the giggling child had committed quite recently. "Plus Hocchan is a good girl that will never do that ever again. Papa can already tell."

Another round of giggles filled the room as the couple started to walk towards a certain pinkette.

Lala sighed in satisfaction as she finished fixing some inner mechanism inside one of her machines, slowly turning at the sound of footsteps approaching and her eyes widening in glee at the sight of the trio.

"Oh, Casey and Amaya, I didn't expect you both to come here so quickly," The eldest of the Deviluke sisters eagerly greeted as she descended off from the large device. "And I see that you've brought my little niece!"

The child still smiled, but backed deep in her mother's chest- Wait, Amaya?

I blinked, my brain scrambling a little as I remembered that it meant.

"Night Rain," Nemesis muttered with a hint of surprise. "I didn't expect to-"

"Change name? Maybe… it's about the conversation we had two days ago, about giving you a new name."

My interruption got her quiet once more, her mind surely thinking about what we had been talking for a while now.

Nemesis was a name bestowed to her by her creators and enemies, and I thought that maybe it was time for her to try to get herself a new name.

Something that gave her a sense of attachment to this new life, a renewal of her current existence.

I hummed quietly as I tried the new name in that moment. "It's sounds pretty nice."

"I like it," She admitted instantly, her eyes shying away for a moment. "But I suppose we will have to talk about this a little later."

I nodded and soon we were both back to the main discussion, with Amaya having released her daughter off from her arms as the child stood beside her mother and holding her big hand in her tinier one.

Some time passed and the conversation escalated about something over some inventions that had to be patented by Lala and she was asking for advice to both Older Me and the older tanned woman.

I zoned out from the instance as soon as I realized that this was possibly one of the most boring topics I had to endure silently.

Nemesis was already looking away, her bright eyes scanning all over the large room filled with machinery and we were ourselves pretty distracted from the main scene.

Until now there was nothing that truly showed any sudden attack or something of the kind, in fact I was even sure that the place was way too safe for an assassin to manage to sneak inside and force their way to this very location.

So what could have driven the instance to happen? What could have been the thing that made the child be teleported to the past?

Everything looked to be fairly normal, albeit I was unsure over the frequency of advice I had to offer to the former students of Sainan as Lala looked old enough to have already graduated.

But then the discussion took a newer note that I found rather interesting.

"By the way, is little Sachie already sleeping?" Older Me inquired with a mirthful tone. "I heard from Rito that she had been getting quite cranky at nights."

Much to my immense surprise, the pinkette sported a tired and drained look.

"She can be quite tough to satisfy," The woman admitted with some happiness. "But my baby is worth this and much more."

Lala will end up with a daughter? I guess Rito didn't have excuses to make once High School was over.

Maybe the arrival of a child of his own would reduce the-

"I've heard Haruna and Yui have been having the same issues, but they are doing pretty well," The Older Me gave out a groan once those words were out. "I'm still surprised you've managed to share him without any bickering."

A giggle left the pinkette lips, but my jaws were already dropping pretty low close to the ground at this revelation.

So the orange-haired guy still got a harem despite his interest in keeping things simple.

At least it wasn't the massive one that Canon had prospected about, and it didn't seem like things were that bad about this odd circumstance-

"And I've heard some curious rumors about little Momo," The Deviluke poked back with a smug tone. "I hope you are treating her well."

Strangely enough, my future version was blushing a storm at that sudden comment and… I didn't get it.

Like, I wasn't getting what Lala was alluding with treating Momo well. She had been treating fairly well when she visited and I was mindful about her needs. So why would there be a reason to press that on?

But just as I tried to understand her logic with the kind of response my older self was planning to give out, I felt someone pulling at my arm and… I stared at Nemesis.

"The child, now!" Her tone was stern and dipped in complete worry, enough to get my eyes to move away from the close-up of her face and right to where the little girl was.

Looking with awe at the strange mirror-like portal now in front of her, the kimono-wearing chibi had strayed away from her mother's hand-hold and was now standing beside an active machine.

The portal led to what looked to be a park with the bushes and the trees around and… there was an cart waiting on the other side.

Oh God, no!

My eyes widened in utter worry, but I stopped myself from yelling at her to stop as I knew that this was just… a memory.

"Hocchan, stop!"

Instead, my future self seemed to have noticed that the girl had taken a few dangerous steps close to the portal, her mouth watering at the prospect of getting some delicious treat if she vaulted it.

Amaya rushed some black matter energy to restrain her child, while Older Me sprung in a mad rush to stop the unthinkable to happen.

But it was too late.

The little girl jumped without looking back, thinking that nothing wrong could happen if she just went for a quick trip to get herself some sweet food.

The moment the child went through the portal, darkness fell upon the scene as our bodies were pulled away from her consciousness and…

I heard a word loudly shouted by the girl's father.

I was unsure if Nemesis had heard about it, but I could feel the name drill deep in my brain.

I blinked and I found myself back in my chair, with two worried transweapon quickly checking on the two of us.

Mea was quite affectionate about it as she tried to hug me in the process as to show how much worried she had been, while Yami had just took hold of my left hand with both of her palms, squeezing at him comfortably.

But my attention was quickly caught by the noise of crying.

I turned to the side and Nemesis looked with a sad look at the little child now hiding her tears away from everyone's sight.

I blinked, my breathing getting itchy at the scene as I felt somewhat unnerved by the thought of seeing someone that young crying because of what had happened.

Was she feeling guilty about what had happened? Add that to literally 'lose' her parents like that.

This explained almost everything… but I think the situation of delving back in the realm of theories could have waited a little more than now.

I sighed and gave a patient smile as I slowly reached out to caress the child's head once again.

She didn't tense up, her sobbing seemingly taking more priority at the touch but… now I had something to do to get her attention.

From the lack of solutions presented by the tanned transweapon, I felt like I was the only one that had heard that last word.

I sighed and I nodded to myself. It was now or never.

"Hoshiko."

Nobody but me and the child knew of that word's meaning, everyone gave me a surprised and confused looks about my sudden intervention.

The child's sobbing reduced to little to nothing, as she seemed to regain sudden energy from that name being muttered.

She pushed her hands on Nemesis' chest, standing up on her lap as she looked at me with her wide bright eyes that were still letting go of some tears.

I gave her a small patient smile and nodded. "That's your name, isn't it? Hoshiko."

Hoshiko blinked in utter shock, her attention fully mustered to stare at my face and her incredulity was close to get me to crack a chuckle at how hilarious it looked on her face.

"I think you are worried by the fact that we don't feel the same as your parents do," I continued with a calm tone, glancing at Nemesis with a nod. "We aren't in fact your real parents… we are their younger version."

The child moved slowly, trying to get on my lap to look closer to my face and I finally let out a chuckle at the difficult maneuvering we had to go through once more.

Once she was well-settled, I had her in a mini-embrace, keeping her closer while I resumed my speech.

"Right now you are in the past, a little bit before you were born," I hummed quietly while caressing her head. "But I can assure you that your Papa and Mama are already working for something to bring you back home."

She tilted her head, letting her cheek squish a little on my chest and I sighed.

"But I promise you that we will treat you as our daughter," I concluded with a happier note. "And about that, you can trust your… Young Papa on that, Hocchan."

Mea held back a snort at that new title, but I was giving my full attention to the new tears swelling by Hoshika's eyes.

She sniffed a little and I pulled her head on my chest, keeping her quiet and warm in that embrace as she broke out in another round of crying.

"So… 'Young Papa'?" Nemesis mused with an entertained tone and I smiled back at her. "I guess that makes me… 'Young Mama'?"

"And Yami and I are 'Young Aunties'!" The redhead finally let out with a giggle, drawing a groan and a facepalm from her 'older sister'.

But if there was one thing that I was sure about is… that things were going to take a bizarre note now that I had a child to take care about with Nemesis.

…

Hopefully, with the chaos of canon now over, things will take a simpler and smoother way from now on.

…

Yeah, who I'm trying to fool here. I bet crap will hit the fan by the beginning of tomorrow…

AN

Quick warning so that people don't bomb my PMs like madlads: I'm alive, I'm healthy, nobody from my family has been suffering from Covid-19. While I live in Italy, I live far from where the worst zones are right now and I've been in self-isolation since… two years (ignoring a complessive amount of six months spent outdoors/away from home for important business). Yes, people without a job and without Uni can and will stay at home instead of going for a run.

I don't do runs, but I would definitively run for the sake of some Nutella. XD

Anyway, the chapter is done, the name was dropped together with the reasons why she is here and… Hocchan's presence here will only be one of the two main themes for this story.

P.S.
1)Hoshiko is from '星' (Hoshi/Star) and '子' (Ko/Child). Star-child!
2) Amaya is a 'forceful' name with the kanji as it is from '雨' (Ame-Ama/Rain) and '夜' (Yo-Ya/Night) and in a normal circumstance it would be 'Rainy Night', but I've read that there are particular instances of people donning this name/surname with this meaning. So in this story it will mean 'Night Rain'.

Also quick question: Would you watch it if someone decided to remake Rosario + Vampire Anime following closely to the manga? (I know it's unlikely that will happen now, but I wish to hear some opinions about the matter since I've been thinking how it would be with the current standards of animations.)

Lastly, if this question sounds odd, what I can say is that I might be doing a R+V story once I wrap up this one. I've been thinking of keeping up with the genre, so it is either R+V or Love Hina. (What about Castlevania?) So many choices!

P a treon . com (slash) socialistbukharin

k o-fi . com (slash) justbukharin

REVIEW Q&A!

Konami-kun 2000: Either you are getting good, or I'm getting sucky at leaving cliches behind.

Genderbend: Technically, 'not yet'.

Sonicflash78: No more children popping around, just Hocchan for now.

Byayan: In a very complicated journey of adulthood... parenthood! Expects hand-holding, head-patting, and much more to deepen the parents-child bond.

Halo-Genderbend: I see the question has been solved... do I need to answer that now? xD