Disclaimer: Own To Love Ru, I do not, hmm, hmm. Better ending, it would have otherwise, yes?
Extra special double update in one day! This chapter just wrote itself, after all!
When Rito woke up, he knew something was wrong. First of all, he was all but naked while suspended in what he hoped was only water, and he felt like his whole body was on fire. The fact that the majority of the pain was coming from his left hand concerned him, with the dream he had and all, but he felt sluggish and tired all at the same time. When he- When he picked something up-
It was all a blur to Rito, he was tired, he woke up in an unfamiliar place, he barely registered that he was breathing while being suspended within a liquid vat that was closed off, and he didn't even see anyone he was familiar with outside the glass that separated him from the outside world. He went to move his hands toward the glass, and proceeded to weakly bang on them, trying to move them through the syrupy liquid to garner attention to him. Suddenly he notices familiar reddish-brown locks through the glass, and the tall figure of Mikado-sensei suddenly becomes clearer, as she looks inside the vat. Rito can't help but smile when he notices she is smiling, and he feels the liquid 'pop' and start to pull him downwards. After a few moments the liquid was all gone, save what clung to his body in uncomfortable places, and the glass opened to the fresh air.
Rito felt a warm and fluffy towel wrap around him, which he took with gratitude as he fell to his knees on the floor, laughing as he does so. "Rito-san!" the voice of Oshizu states with relief as she helps him to his feet, "Mikado-sensei, should he be out of the regenerator?" Rito stops listening, as he feels himself being pushed onto a bed, and tucked under covers. He doesn't resist when the lights dim, and the indistinct voices speak in hushed murmurs. Perhaps the damage to Rito caused by- was too much for him to handle. He still felt tired, even though he's quite sure he's slept for days. The spurt of energy he had, has left him, and he feels like his own bones are made of steel and rock, and they just sink into the soft bed, the fluffy pillow, and the warm, tender, blissful sleep-
When he opens his eyes next, he almost isn't sure if he is still dreaming or not. He feels stiff, like his body weighs a ton, but as he shifts to take a look at his body, he sees why it feels so heavy. At each of his sides lay Lala, Mikan, and even Celine on top of him. It seems after he awoke, Shinzu and Mikado-sensei had alerted them to the fact he was awake. He also looked at the far wall to see Nana slumped against the crook of Momo's neck, while Rin oddly enough sat with her eyes closed, looking more like she was meditating as her hands rested on the hilt of her wooden sword, which was propped up in front of her feet, blade to the ground. Rito laughed, slightly and softly, at the sight of all these people here for him. He hoped they hadn't been waiting long, but he very much doubted he had slept more than a day since he awoke in the vat.
Celine opened up her sleepy eyes first, before looking at Rito and finding he was awake. "Mau!" she exclaimed joyfully, "Mau, mau! Mau!" At that outburst of chatter, Mikan slowly woke up on Rito's left, while Momo rubbed her eyes and moved, which caused Nana to tumble to the floor and have a rough awakening. Rin merely opened her eyes, with very little change, causing Rito to wonder if she merely had awoken earlier and was truly meditating. Lala was bright eyed as she awoke, to see Rito surrounded by his happy friends and family.
"Rito!" she exclaimed, practically jumping onto the bed and smashing her face into his shoulders, "You're awake- I was- I was so scared what would happen to you!" She begins to blubber as she tries to speak, the crying getting in the way of her communicating to him. Momo chose this time to speak up.
"What Nee-san is trying to say, is that we were all worried when you picked up Bladix," Momo says, wrapping her arm around her blubbering older sister, "When you picked up the sword, there was a violent reaction focused around you, and it caused you- it caused massive damage to your left hand, the one you used to pick the sword up with." Momo grabs his hand gently and curls it into a fist. "Most of the left half of your body was- sustained, massive burns, but your fingers-" Momo chokes out a sob, before trying to finish what she was saying, "Rito, the tips of your fingers were burned off, you shouldn't- you should not be alive right now-" Rito processes those words, before looking at his hands, his fingers, and seeing that there is nothing physically wrong with them, besides phantom pains he seems to feel.
"How- these are my hands, all five of my fingers are here, and I don't feel like I was burned," Rito states in reply, shock obviously affecting him already to the view of the others in the room, "If I was hurt that badly, how am I here right now, talking to all of you?" It was Mikan's turn to speak.
"You've been asleep for twenty days, Rito, they barely managed to get you to Mikado-sensei and into that regeneration tank, before anything too irreversible could be done to stabilize you before you bled out, or worse," she chokes out, crying hot tears, "Onii-chan, about five days in Mikado-sensei called to tell us she found something unusual going on in your body at the cellular level... something was exciting your cells into focusing solely into healing your body." She chokes out a sob and climbs deeper into her brothers lap. "You were so bad looking those first few days, we didn't even let Mom or Dad see you like that, Celine was crying nonstop because she knew you were hurt, so badly!" she grasps him tightly, like she doesn't want to let him go to find out this was all a dream, "By the time ten days had passed, your fingers were raw, but starting to reform, and most of the scar tissue below your stomach and waist was healed, like it had never existed at all..."
Rito clenches his hand, as he hears Mikan recount what had happened. "It- it finally came time about three days ago, that you were physically healthy, more so than you had even been at your last physical," Nana states, as she lets Mikan rest in his lap, "They tested your new muscles, your lungs, your heart- everything was in better condition than ever before, stronger than a normal human should possibly be able to recuperate to, let alone maintain naturally." Rito is a little shocked at that, but he lets her continue. "Not only were your new muscles stronger, but it seems whatever it was that Azenda left the sword to do, it strengthened your unaffected areas as well, you are currently one of the most perfect specimens of the human race, alive on your planet," Nana continues, "And then we figured out why your cells were so excited, why you were able to heal from these normally life threatening injuries; that was when we called Nemesis-chan in."
Suddenly, as if appearing from thin air, Nemesis is in his face and on his bed, clothed in her Yukata, and pining his arms and legs down. The others are slightly surprised and pull away, but Nemesis merely smiles before disappearing and reappearing at the foot of his bed, slouching on it. "You've changed, Yuuki Rito," she says in her sultry voice, "Or should I specify, you've been changed, into something new, something unknown..." Rito doesn't know quite what to make of that. Nemesis merely frowns, before standing and walking up to the opposite shoulder of the one that Lala was crying on. She grabs his hand, and places both his and hers palms down over his heart. "Do you feel that, Yuuki Rito?" she asks him, "Your heart still beats like a human, maybe just a little bit faster, but not much, do you feel your breathing, your blood pumping through your veins and arteries?" Nemesis grabs both hands, before taking them and placing them over his ears. "Do you hear the blood rushing through your skull, to the thrum of the universe?" She asks, which causes Rito to pause at her words, "No- maybe not yet, but you will- as you begin to hunger..."
The others try and make sense of her words, yet Lala and Momo both seemed unsurprised at them. "What do you mean, 'I will hunger for the universe'?" he asks the living weapon, "I don't understand, what have I become?" Lala grips a little tighter into his shoulder, and he looks down to see she is trying to hold back tears.
"You, Yuuki Rito, have become a living weapon," Momo states clearly, "We think because you took Nemesis inside yourself, that when she trans-fused with you, something about your genetic structure changed within you, laying dormant until some trigger would activate it." He looks to Nemesis, then around the room as everyone just sits in silence at this revelation. "The nanites, Bladix, they each did something to you in their own way; we think that something happened to you when we last fought Bladix," Momo states, "Mea-chan, her 'Psycho Dive' is a trans-ability unique to her, we think when you fought Bladix and dove into Rin's subconscious, when you broke her free, we think a piece of Bladix was transferred into your psyche, when he tried to jack Mea." Rito thinks back, to the accident, to the voice he had heard in his dreams, but it almost hurt too much to think.
"We think that somehow, even though Bladix's main conscious was destroyed by Yami-chan, that that fragment of Bladix's psyche dove deep into your subconscious, where it locked itself away," Momo states, "When Azenda attacked, she somehow knew that a fragment of Bladix survived, she expected it to be in Rin, but when she couldn't find it, and when Yami attacked her and she lost both the sword and the Peark of the Taoist, we think the Bladix within your subconscious tried to reunite with the sword." Momo rings her hands into the bed as she continues speaking. "The nanites were still programmed to extract Bladix from his host body, but we think something in the nanites reacted badly with your dormant trans-genes," Momo states, "We think that the Tao energy excited them too much, that it caused your body to try and absorb the energy from the nanites that became a part of the blade." Rito nods, trying to understand what she was saying.
"They, the nanites, were designed to run on Tao energy, which is thought to be the most ancient, purest form of energy in the known universe, energy your newly activated Trans-genes needed to assist transition into their new form," she states, "But they also were programmed to go into your mind, literally your cerebral cortex, and extract the latent 'soul' of Bladix from you; they fed into your bodies craving to the point you literally held too much energy in your cells, that was what caused your Trans-ability to flare up in the form of explosive Dark Matter, which in turn caused the accident that hospitalized you." He feels Lala squeeze his hand, which causes him to smile, and tear up a bit, knowing he had such loyal and understanding friends with him.
"Thank you everyone, for being here, for telling me what is happening- what has happened to me," he states, before pulling his hands away from the others, and looking at his hands, "I-I need time to think- about this, about everything that has happened- can you all let me get some rest, and you guys can talk to me later?" Momo, Nana, Mikan, Celine, and Rin all smile, and they pull away from Rito, leaving Lala and Nemesis alone with him, as they walk outside the door, leaving the three alone. Now alone, he looks to Lala and to Nemesis, before focusing on the living weapon. "Nemesis, do you know what the situation with Black and Yami- Golden Darkness, is like?" he asks, "I hope Black was able to get some help in time..." The living weapon nods in response.
"Black-chan is doing fine, he- had a bit of his own issues regarding the nanites attacking his body, but Yami-chan was able to undo that with little effort in her Darkness form," she states, "He's, well to be honest he's quite the looker now, but then again he seems to be physically about three to four years younger than he was when the Nanites infested him, but there was nothing she could do about that." The living weapon drools just a little bit, lost in a daydream of her own making. "Not that I'm jealous of her or anything, since she can tap that sweet, sweet-" she stops when she sees both Lala and Rito glowering at her, "A-ahem, yes well...I think I'll leave you two alone now..." The living weapon walks out the door, unlike her usual affair of disappearing like a cheshire cat, but she knows better than not to leave these two alone.
It was then that Rito grabs Lala's hands, and pulls her up into a hug. Lala merely takes it for what it is worth, her tears now spent, and her nose merely sniffling as she tries to calm herself down. He gently pushes her away, and levels his eyes with her, smiling as he does so. "I'm so happy to know you are safe, Rito," she finally says, "I've been so worried, about you, about the others-" She stops when she finds herself being pulled towards him, and she squeaks in surprise when his lips latch onto her hers. She melts into the surprise kiss, but feels him pull away from her, and becomes slightly disappointed at the brief interaction. "Rito?" she asks. He merely smiles at her and sighs wistfully.
"When were you going to tell me?" he asks gently, to Lala's puzzlement, "About the letter your father sent, about requesting me to break off any romantic relationships I had with other girls, with you having to choose either to marry me or pick another candidate, or even fight to the death and/or face exile..." Lala looks like a deer caught in headlights, at Rito's calmness. "Lala... I'm not angry you hid this from me, I understand, truly," Rito states, trying to calm her before she flies into a panic, "But I didn't want you to burden yourself with this alone..." Lala merely whimpers, before breaking into a fresh new set of tears, once again crying into Rito's shoulder.
"I-I-I didn't," she starts to babble out, before taking a deep breath, "I d-didn't want you to feel pressured, o-or for you to make the wrong decision." She rumples her hands into Rito's bed,which he feels digging into his thigh. "You love- you are Haruna's boyfriend, after all," Lala murmurs into his shoulder, "I've learned how much emphasis you put on first loves, how special they are- I didn't want you to give that up for me, even if it meant marrying another suitor.." Lala is shocked when she feels Rito grip her tightly by the shoulders and face her to him.
"Lala, I've learned that first loves are special, I've learned that everyone loves differently, if the past three years of my obliviousness has shown me, I should have noticed obvious signs, but I shrugged them off because of my own insecurities and faults, and my lack of experience," he states, "I've spent the last six to seven months, moping over a girlfriend, who I never even knew moved away, I was never even told by her that she was moving, if that makes you feel any better." At that confession, Lala looks puzzled at Rito.
"But Rito, didn't she tell you?" Lala asks, "She told almost everyone else on her last day that she was moving to Shurufuku over the first weekend of school, we had a party and everything the day before-" But then Lala squishes her face in concentration, as she remembers something. "Oh, that's right, weren't you camping out with Zastin a lot over that summer?" she states, "We must have forgotten to pass on the message that Haruna had moved, somehow, in the confusion of the beginning of the new year; she even gave us her new phone number and address, since she had lost her phone at the beach...I think Momo was supposed to let you know?" At that, Rito's heart goes cold. Then his anger begins to boil, and Lala pulls back in shock, feeling him heat up.
It seemed Yuuki Rito was literally hot headed, as his orange hair began to show dark wisps and float around as if there was a breeze. "Where is Momo?" he asks through clenched teeth, "Lala, I need to speak with your younger sister, please..." Lala nods, but she stops and grabs his hand. She leans down and kisses him on the cheek, with an audible pop at the smack. Suddenly confused, his anger abated, he looks up at a smiling Lala.
"You needed to cool down," she states cheekily, "You're still not in your right frame of mind, no matter what Momo may have done." Rito sighs and takes a calming breath. "There, you see," Lala states, "You need to get control of yourself right now Rito, then we can both face what we must to go forward, together!" Rito sighs, smiling wistfully as he realizes his girlfriend is just too good for him. He smiles and looks at Lala happily.
"Very well, I deal with Momo later," he states with a positive attitude, "How about this instead- if Rin-chan is still out there, can you have her come in, instead?" Lala nods, before leaving for real. After a few moments, Rin has stepped inside, facing a smiling Rito with one of her own.
"I owe you my life again, Yuuki Rito," she says, "Twice you have saved me from Bladix, twice you have shown me your worth as a man; you are no longer that perverted teenager that roamed the school halls, groping student and teacher alike by sheer clumsiness." Rito laughs at that, and invites Rin to sit in a closer seat than where she stands.
"I wouldn't say I've changed that much, but that doesn't mean I haven't tried to put more effort," he states, laughing, "But I have a serious request of you Rin-san." Rin nods, and become serious.
"If this pertains to the matter you wished to discuss after the auction, then I am all ears," she states, "I think Saki-sama will understand any request you make to me on her behalf-" Rito laughs again at this, to Rin's confusion.
"Quite the opposite of what I had in mind, no this is a personal matter regarding my engagement to Lala?" she nods as he speaks, "Rin, it's come to my attention that, while I'm sure the feeling is mutual, you have been considered a potential love interest of mine by -other- parties, and I wish ask for you to hear me out." She nods, giving him her attention fully. "Due to legal matters surrounding Devilukean politics, I have been required to break off any romantic relationships, real or imagined, and ask you to testify you reject any feelings for me romantically, if asked of you to appear before the King of Deviluke," he states, "This is a strange request, I am sure, but the other option is for you to reject my rejection and when asked, fight Lala either to the death or to accept exile from all Deviluke territory in the entirety of the Milky Way galaxy; and I please beg of you to accept my rejection." Rin nods, as Rito finishes speaking. She then promptly covers her mouth with her sleeve in a bad attempt to hide her laughter.
"I thank you than you have informed me of your legal obligations, and I assure you while I am flattered I could be considered one of your prospective wives, I have no intention of ever showing affection in that regard towards you, Rito-kun," she states with a smile, "If I am asked, I, as well as Saki and Aya, would surely provide our own testimonials to our lack of romantic love for you, Yuuki Rito, as well as assuring we wish you and Lala all the love in the universe." Rito smiles at that, and chuckles along with the normally fierce girl.
"Thank you Rin, I'm glad to hear that," he states, "Now, I am very tired, and I thank you for your concern regarding my well being; tell Saki I hope her auction went well despite the end, and you all have a nice rest now!" Rin nods, before leaving the room after saying her goodbyes. Rito Yuuki merely snuggles down deeper into his bed, yawning. Passing out into the land of dreams, Rito Yuuki hoped this would be the last discovery he would make about himself today.
Finding out he was a living weapon now, was a really tiring discovery, after all.