So, a new tragedy begins here. With the death of one protagonist, the doorway to a million more have been opened, all for your enjoyment. Yes, we could just show you what happens next, describe in gruesome detail the tragic death of Rito Yuuki and the grieving fiancee he left behind... But what fun would that be to just dive right in to such fresh emotions?

Why not the time Maron became a human boy and fell in love, or how Saruyama ended up getting shot off into space by his best-friend and discovered the secret invasion of Mars. Yes, those would be more interesting, fresh starts for the direction of this story, but... Well, I love the classics, so why not do Alternate Universes!

Hmmm?

What, you think this is just some sort of stalling tactic until the next chapter is written? How dare you good sirs/madams! I'll have you know that I just happen to have gained a fondness for the character known as Rito Yuuki, so why not explore other ways his life could have turned out. After all This Isn't a Harem Story, but that doesn't mean we can't explore different choices he could have made. Very well, let's get going onto the first chapter of this little interlude...

[Two Years Ago]

The last thing he remembered were those piercing, soulless voids staring into his own in the darkness and lamplight of the street. She was a demon, some kind of vampire or succubus, come to steal his life away as he stumbled his way home in the dark. Or at least, he assumed he had been heading home, since everything gets fuzzy the further back he tries to look into his memories before that day. But he remembered her clearly enough...

The park was dark, he had stumbled out from the trees, falling head first down the hill and coming to a rough and bumpy stop at the base and mere inches from the concrete walkway that ran through the middle of the park. Picking himself up, bloodied and scratched, limping and confused, he dragged himself to the nearest source of light and comfort. It ended up being a park bench underneath the street post, something that allowed him to gather his jumbled thoughts and bring him some sort of relief to be out of the dark. He checked himself over, finding tears through his gray running suit, where branches had torn and cut him up, and sweat was soaked into his underarms, making the white undershirt he wore extremely uncomfortable. The boy had tried to remember why he was running, why he was so out of breath if the last thing he remembered was exiting the forest, and what the point of jogging was at the late hour of the chilly night.

Suddenly he heard the rustling of wings, and expecting to see some form of bat, or even an owl, he was surprised to see the girl appear from the shadows at the edge of the light. She didn't seem to view him with contempt or hostility like he was expecting, much to his confusion, instead she seemed to regard him with a neutral gaze. He could barely see the glint of her eyes in the light, yet it seemed to increase his pulse as he looked her over on instinct. She had the most voluptuous pair of breasts, unusually large for someone who he guessed to be in middle school, though her assets were not the most unusual thing he had observed about her. No, the pink hair, the black-red, spade tipped tail, the large wings he saw protruding from her back, and the fact that she was floating just off the ground like some kind of apparition, was what made him nearly have a heart attack. The cold, icy terror gripping his heart as she stared at him with her cool, violet eyes, black pinpricks against purple as she stepped into the light. She looked like something unholy, as she descended slowly to the ground and touched down, her wings detracting and dissapearing like magic before his very eyes. It was then that she spoke those seven hated words that repeated in his head forevermore: 'Rito Yuuki, come with me to Paradise!'

[Present]

Rito woke up with fear in his eyes, as he felt a heavy weight on his chest, constricting his breathing and sending him into a fresh round of panic. He looked up from the soft straw pillow he rested his head on, to see that the suffocating weight was someone he had become all to familiar with over the past two years. Sighing, he relaxes and lets his tense muscles loosen, as the short stint of panic and fear caused by that horrifying first meeting was brought up once again by his nightmares. Fortunately for him these were becoming more and more rare as time went on, and knowing that the figure in his bed usually only snuck into his room when he was having a terrible dream, Rito surmised it must have been one loud enough for her to awaken in the middle of the night. Suddenly violet eyes were sleepily opened, and again intensely focused on his toned, shirtless form.

"Good morning," Momo Belia Deviluke yawned sleepily, as she stretched out against him in his bed, allowing him to feel the contact of skin against skin beneath the covers, "Have a bad dream again?" Despite literal years of having the girl practically awaken in his bed underdressed, or occasionally stripped completely of her clothing, the fact of this particular skin-to-skin contact still sent jolts of embarrassment through his body. Rito quickly slipped out from under his covers, thankfully with his briefs still on him this time, ears and face red-hot from the fresh wave of emotion washing over him. The merciless chuckle from Momo as she sat up, draped in his covers, did nothing to help him calm down as he quickly got up and went to use the washroom. He couldn't tell if Momo was pouting as he left, he knew she would have dragged him back under the covers if she could, so he dare not look back and fall for her ploy.

Having snagged a fresh set of clothes that he had set out the night before, Rito quickly showered and dressed, before exiting the bathroom to go downstairs to the kitchen. He heard the water running once more, signifying that Momo was now utilizing the facilities and allowing him a good half hour to get breakfast ready in peace. Walking past the front door and taking a right into the family room, he continues on past the couch and into the empty dining room and its kitchen adjacent. He sighed as he felt the cold timbers of the kitchen underneath his feet, as he looked towards the small, empty table in the marble floored dining room. It was days like these, when Momo woke up in his bed having snuck in, that made him feel something that was a cross between nostalgia and confusion, then followed by crippling loneliness. Something always seemed to be amiss, lacking when he came down the stairs foolishly expecting the smells of a hot, cooked meal already being served up for breakfast, something his body seemed to be expecting, but his mind could not remember why. His memories were mixed up, jumbled and locked behind some sort of psychological trigger, just waiting to fire and release them back into his pounding skull. Yet every day he waits for something to change, something to give, even just a little bit, he finds himself more isolated and alone despite the occasional company of the Devilukean Princess.

'It was funny,' he thought as he opened up the cupboards to retrieve pans and tools for his breakfast, 'How I used to think she was out to steal my soul, when we met in that park that night.' He picked out some rice, some milk, eggs, and other necessary ingredients from the fridge and pantry to make a double breakfast for himself and his house guest. The woman had saved him all those years ago, so he always provided her breakfast before she disappeared back off into her own world, leaving him behind alone. 'I should be more grateful, really, for her saving me from my own world,' Rito thought as he cracked a few yellow eggs into a bowl, 'She told me how people had persecuted me for being different, how they shunned me and turned me away, thinking I was just perverted teenage punk...' He discards the eggshells and washes his hands of any of the blue egg whites. Retrieving the dashi stock, he sets it to the side and prepares a pan with oil. As it heats up, Rito then moves to measure out the proper amounts of rice and water into the instant rice cooker Momo had provided him with.

"Don't forget the mirin, it's an important seasoning that helps set the omelet," a feminine voice states, "Just make sure it's real mirin, not one of those fake, starchy condiments..." Rito smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Thanks for the reminder, I almost forgot about that!" he states in gratitude, as he gets down to look through the bottom cupboards where the oils and sauces were put, "How'd you know I was making an omelet M..?" He turns to find himself in an empty kitchen, the sizzling of a pan and the sound of running water going through the pipes all he can hear. "Huh?" Rito looks around the room, finding no one there. Shrugging it off, Rito's mind catches the smell of smoking oil, and all thoughts turn towards preparing the food. By the time he gets finished rolling the omelet, the rice has finished cooking, and he brings out the plates to serve it up. Getting the rice plated, he moves the omelet to a cutting board and he slices it into four pieces. Taking and plating two for himself, he cuts the remaining two diagonally, then arranges them on the plate to the way he knew Momo liked.

The one thing that Rito couldn't get used too was how colorful the dish was. While most of the food items were familiar, or earth-equivalent, using alien eggs to make breakfast was quite an interesting prospect. The rich, red yolks with blue egg whites, made an omelet that was purple, something that seemed unappealing at first glance but once it hit your tongue the differences were mainly the color. His rice, for instance, was white and long grain, but he could tell it was different from earth-bred cousin, though eating it was a familiar comfort to him. "Don't forget to make her rice porridge," Rito hears a faint voice speak again, "Add the honey too, she's been getting a sweet tooth for it..." Again he turns around to where he think the voice is coming from, yet no one is in the room with him. Now that he had heard it again, he couldn't dismiss it as someone talking to him. He had to have been going crazy, either that or he was remembering...

At that, Rito perks up and widens his eyes in surprise. It hadn't even occurred to him that he was remembering things from his old life, before the memory loss. He wondered if the person he was hearing was important to him, or someone he knew and ate a lot with. There was at least a third person she was referring too as well, meaning he must have had a big family, maybe a younger sister even. Momo would know, since she had been watching him before he had taken him away from the Earth, but he wasn't sure how happy she would be about it. Ever since he came to live in her agricultural paradise, he hadn't once remembered, or even dared ask, about his past after the first week. He had been questioning her a lot, about the flowers, the air, the sun, the place, and she had answered them all in turn. She had collected plants from across the universe, explained that the world around them was actually a virtual reality of sorts, a pocket of the universe outside of normal reality that maintained all the normal rules, including an artificial sun that provided heat and light comparable to the earth's sun. Then he asked her why he had been chosen by her to come here, why he couldn't remember people in his life before, and why she went to the lengths she did to make him happy? She had frozen at that, made some offhanded excuse about 'an important date' coming up, and saying she would be gone for a while, but assuring him he had enough stuff set up in the house she had programmed in for I'm to survive until she came back with refills.

She had been gone for three weeks, and while he had had enough food to last, he had at first been afraid that he had said something wrong and offended her. She had warned him that while he was safe in the area she had designated as his, going beyond certain areas were ill advised without her guidance. There were Touch-me-nots that could shoot seeds the size of softballs, like cannonballs. Then there were Dazuul vines that could ensnare him just by touch alone, or giant carnivorous plants able to swallow whole humanoids, or produce berries that smell deceptively sweet that cause death to those who eat it, so that seeds could take root in the carcass and use it like fertilizer. Despite the threat of death ever looming around him, Rito was overjoyed when Momo had appeared, a little more tired, a little more drained of energy, she had been the most closed off she had ever been around him. Yet she was back, and for that Rito was grateful for a bit of companionship to stave of the loneliness.

Blinking his eyes and coming out of his daydreams, Rito sets the rest of the food he had prepared for himself and Momo onto the plates, and then waits to hear the footsteps of his guest. With a fresh set of Devilukean clothes on, and a white towel wrapped around her head as she lets it dry, he watches as her face morphs into an expression of joy at seeing the hot food on the table. While her intrusion and invasion of his personal space was quite unwelcome, he knew such incidents were rare and a sign that something was stressful in life when it resulted in her sneaking into his rooms just so she could tease him in the morning afterwards; a bit of familiarity and humor she used to wind down and get a better perspective. He also knew that despite her status as a princess, hot food was the one luxury she rarely was able to partake in, due to the unknown factors and threats from outside sources to the royal family necessitating food tasters that resulted in cold breakfasts. And no one should spend their morning lacking in good food and association. "Rito, you shouldn't have!" she beams, as she lets him pull out a chair and push it back in, "Omelets and rice for breakfast!" She inhaled the pleasing aromas of the food, and salivated at the purple delicacy. "Even cut into little hearts, like you know I like them?" she says, looking to Rito with a grateful expression, "I...I don't know how to tell you how happy getting truly pampered like this feels like..." Rito merely smiles in return, forgetting the hallucinations for the moment, and wanting to spend the morning eating and talking with his friend and savior.

"You know I don't get to use these skills that often, not that I seem to possess a lot of skill," Rito jokes, "After all, it only took thirty practice omelets to finally get the recipe right." She giggles as she takes a bite of rice, nearly choking on it from laughing so hard. After a sip of water, and a reassurance she was okay, Rito calmed down. "I was afraid I would have to explain to your family why you died," he says, smiling, "Sorry sir, your girl thought my joke was so funny, she died laughing?' I could see how that would pan out..." After a nervous laugh from him, Momo seems to stare at him a bit, before resuming their breakfast in silence. "So, uh, I know I don't get to ask you this often, but it has been two years now... could, I, uh, possibly get any hint at to who I was before?" Rito asks, swallowing his nerves after a stretch of silence, and looking into Momo's eyes with a hopeful expression, "I mean, it seems like you knew me before, but can't you tell me anything about who I was before the accident.. maybe, if I had a sister, or a daughter.." Suddenly the glass of water slips from Momo's hands and falls to the table, tipping over and spilling the water onto the tablecloth. "Oh, geez!" Rito states, worry in his voice as he gets a rag out of the kitchen and begins to blot at the water staining the cloth, "Be more careful Momo, you should be happy that didn't break the glass!"

Momo merely grabs her napkin and wipes the crumbs from her face, before folding the napkin neatly and placing her utensils on it. She folds her hands, and after a few minutes of staring into them, she looks up at Rito with a painfully honest, regretful look. "You know I can't do that Rito... anything I say or do, could put you into jeopardy," she states, seriousness on her face as she talks, "I made a promise to you, to my- myself too, that I would not divulge your place here in my paradise, or your past that would cause you to start remembering." She unfolds her hands, but sees the disappointment in his eyes. "Rito... If I said anything, and that's a big if, the people I hid you from would be able to track you, be able to find you here," Momo states, as she gets up and walks closer to him grabbing for his hands, "They have incredible power, eyes and ears just about everywhere, and if they knew you were here, defenseless, they would do anything in their power to break your trust in me, in everything I've done for you, just for their own amusement." She grabs his hands and pulls him closer to her chest. "Promise me, promise me, you'll just let this go and stop trying to learn about your past, okay Rito?" she asks with a smile, "Sometimes the past is less painful when you can't remember it..." He doesn't know what to say, but he pulls away from her with a neutral expression. It isn't soon afterwards that he watches her leave the room, and hears the front door slam.

Ten seconds later he has his shoes on and is running out the door, catching a glimpse of her tail as she just goes beyond the thicket of trees that borders his habitation. He makes the decision to follow her, intent on finding answers, so he runs through the trees, consequences be damned onto the other side. As he passes under dark patches of shadow, past strangler vines, meadows and fields of flowers of all colors, shapes, and sizes, he keeps his eyes focused on Momo, as she flies through the air on her disappearing wings. He makes it through a field of blue poppies, when he finds himself watching her leave through a mysterious glowing portal held within a very civilized looking area that seemed to be the hub of many branching paths that stretch into his territory and beyond, to places he dare not go now. He had questions, about where she went, what he had been seeing, why she wanted to keep him locked away, and the hallucinations were just the tip. His burning curiosity had been lit long ago, contained for ages until the straw finally broke. Rito had to know, and if it meant following Momo into some strange, parallel, hellish landscape, he was intent of following her to the ends of the earth, if it meant he got his answers. Stepping up to the glowing portal, Rito pauses and gulps, until he steps into the shimmering field and finds himself in pure light.

++++++++++++++++++

[Elsewhere]

The experience is fleeting and disorienting, threatening to spill his breakfast on cool tile floor, but the queasiness passes and he finds himself alone in a room that causes his head to hurt. The area is alien, unrecognizable, and the least bit human to him, yet parts of it seemed comforting, almost familiar to him too. Standing up and looking back at his doorway home, he recognizes it as a mirror now, a form it lacked on the other side, back in Momo's paradise. Perhaps he was just dead, and by leaving the world he was given behind, he had failed some cosmic test and he would be condemned because of it. Not stopping to think about that for too long, Rito gets up and begins to go for the only way in or out of this room besides the mirror: the door. Walking out of it, he finds himself in a large, empty hallway, though this place too seems familiar. Deciding to pick a random direction, Rito walks and walks and walks, until his feet begin to ache, and he finds himself stopping in front of a door more unusual and grander than the rest of the ones he passed by. This one was still plain, yet it seemed to call to him from with in it. 'No, Rito, ignore it, just turn around and go back' a voice of logic seems to whisper in his ear, 'Nothing good will come about if you go into that door, trust me...' He wants to listen to the familiar, soothing voice that erases the headaches, but the curiosity, the burning itch on his left hand as he reaches out to grasp the handle of the door...

He opens the door to find an empty room filled with discarded toys and full of dust, something which irritates his eyes and mouth, as he coughs and bats away a swirl of dust he kicked up introducing fresh air into the workspace. Walking in and closing the door behind him, he finds a light that illuminates the remainder of the room, which he finds lined to the brim with electronics, gadgets, robots, and all around doodads scattered both around the walls and the floors, untouched for ages by the thick layer of dust on the surface of the work table. Wiping a finger on the table just to see if this was real, he is amazed at how perfectly preserved the room is. Despite its seemingly chaotic appearance, he recognized a unique sense of underlying order within the room, something that caused his heart to flutter. When he laid his eyes on the small, winged doll left alone on the worktable, Rito feels a sense of pity and remorse at seeing such a beautiful thing rusting away on a dusty bench, and decides to pick it up. 'Her name is Peke, she's my companion!' a cheerful voice states from behind him, 'She changes my clothes into hundreds of fashionable and functional designs, from costumes to cloaks, to diplomatic dresses to fezs, Peke can do it all!'

"Can you bring her back?' he muses to himself aloud, before he blinks and wonders why he said that. Shaking it off, he looks the doll over, and finds that one of her power cells under her wings seem to be misaligned. "Let's pop that back in..." Rito states aloud, grabbing a nearby tool that looks like some magic wand up from some dusty workbench, realigning the disk, then replacing the panel with a snap, "There we go, Peke, let's see how you work!" With much patience, Rito waits for the dolls swirling eyes to start spinning, its joints to start moving, or even its tinny voice to start whining, just to show it was working. He wants to let his anger get the better of him, to throw away the broken doll, and just return to that garden world Momo 'gifted' him with, but instead he breaks down, right there, falling to his knees sobbing and clutching the little robot to his chest. "W-work, P-peke, work damn you!" Rito states, letting tears flow down his shirt as he feels the smooth, bald head of the robot held underneath his head, tears falling down his cheeks and spilling over onto it, "You were my only shot at getting any answers, why I am here, why I can't remember, why Momo has been keeping me locked up in her room!" Rito doesn't expect her to answer, he already knew it wouldn't work, so why did he bother trying to use the multipurpose tool like he knew how to use it... He wasn't familiar with alien mechanics, and for all he knew he just short circuited the electronics, proving just how much of a klutz he was. "If only I could remember who I am, what I'm missing," he sobs, "If only she were here, instead of me, she would have fixed you right..." Suddenly a click caused Rito to pause, then a clank caused him to slow his tears, until a whir caused hope to rise up in his chest, and finally the harmonious symphony of Peke reactivating and slowly coming back to life causes a smile and look of awe and wonder to grace his tired face.

He watches as hands begin to move, followed by feet, as if testing their stiffness after waking from a long nap. Suddenly closed eyes become swirling black pools, and eyebrows begin to move as a range of expressions seem to play upon the little robots face, before wings spread out and the robot began to lift itself up and out of Rito's arms. It stared at him, a look of curiosity, or confusion playing across her face, before it turns away from him in silent disregard, and begins to head for the door. "Peke?" Rito asks, "Peke, do you know where you are, who I am?" His question is hopeful, but ignored by the little robot who seems to be focused on another task. Slowly he follows the little robot out, and journeys behind her not once taking his eyes off of the robot out of concern for her muteness, as she finally reaches a room with wide double doors. Seemingly frozen, not doing anything but floating aimlessly in front of the doorway, Rito hesitates for a brief second before weighing the costs and opening the door for the robot. Following her in, he closes the door and is greeted with only darkness and more dust. It takes a moment, but he finds a light and illuminates the room. He looks around in awe, as he notices the immediate difference between the room he found himself earlier in, and the one now. A bed larger than one he had ever seen before graces the center with a massive, overhanging canopy, pink curtains draping against pink and black bed sheets, matching the overall, sickening pink walls.

In one corner another, smaller worktable is set up with more forgotten tools and trinkets. Where one expected a girls room to be laden with toys and stuffed animals, Rito was surprised by the large mechanical creations, blueprints spread across the room and hanging off of the walls, some half finished or destroyed. All were ignored by Peke as she flew to the small worktable and set herself down in front of its computer, watched by Rito as he drew closer. Finally the little robot turned back around to face Rito, catching him off guard by her sudden change in stance, before a beam of light seems to emanate from the computer and engulf the room in a blue, sectioned pattern that swept around the empty room. Satisfied the room grows dim again, before Peke transforms before Rito's very eyes into a little girl with dead pink eyes, pink hair in side buns, and a uniform matching the robot's body. "It was a mistake for you to come here Rito," the little android girl says, "You should have stayed ignorant, but it appears your curiosity has gotten the better of you, once again..." Rito wonders what she means, but suddenly the girl is in his face as he barely blinks, staring up into his eyes, shocking Rito into taking a half-step back. "Do you feel it Rito, the pulse in your ears?" she asks, cocking her head with a neutral expression that just creeps Rito out and fills his heart with terror, "Hold on to it, and remember that you are alive." Suddenly Rito finds himself gasping and choking as tiny, slim hands wrap around his throat and begin to squeeze, causing him to claw at her hands as she grasps at him from below.

He feels his head begin to pound, his throat constrict with the pressure being poured into it, and the shallow, futile gasps as he tries to suck in air, all in vain. "Wake up Rito," a voice states, as he falls to his knees while being suspended by the androids sheer strength, seeing spots form and feeling blood vessels burst beneath her touch, until the dizzying dark begins to encroach upon him, "Stop fighting me Rito." Then as suddenly as he was gasping for breath, a flash of hot, sizzling heat is felt across his face, and the pressure is gone from his throat, while he takes long, deep, breaths of sweet, sweet air. He looks to see what happened to Peke, trying to orient himself, and he finds a gruesome sight. Half burned flesh and melted metal pools beneath the remainder of Peke's android body, the whole right side of its head gone as it lays on its side, pooling oil and other various internal fluids onto the floor. Looking to see what, or rather who, had saved him, he finds himself staring at a panicked looking Momo, out of breath, and holding a wickedly large, dangerous, three pronged weapon still sparking with energy and electricity as she releases the trigger and lets the gun fall to the floor.

Suddenly she finds her way over to a stunned Rito, before he feels the stinging hot slap she delivers to his cheek, wiping off the relief from his face. "What the heck Rito?" she states, as he stands, and she finds herself grabbing his head and keeping it still while inspecting his sore neck, "You should be glad that the Castle's internal security picked up Peke's energy signature and alerted me too it, before any of the others became aware!" She lets go of his face, before turning around and running her hands through her hair, her tail spinning in circles behind her, showing her obvious anxiety as it lashes out at the air behind her, a tell Rito had picked up after being near her for so long. "Damn it, all my work to keep you safe, and you go and do something foolish like this, so close to her..." she doesn't realize she is muttering a bit too loudly to herself, something Rito also picks up on, "Nana is already on her way here, and I can't hide you in my room because it is across the castle grounds..." Suddenly the door opens and Momo freezes, while Rito watches in awe as another, less buxomly version of Momo walks into the room in clothing similar to Momo's, but distinguishable from the green outfit by incorporating aspects of red into the outfit.

"What the heck do you think you are doing activating Peke like that Momo, you know how unpredictable she's been since Big Sis disapp..." The words in her mouth die as she sets her eyes on Rito, the concern on her face being replaced with venomous, spitting fury directed towards him, "YOU! Momo, what have you done?" Suddenly Rito finds a pair of hands behind his back, as Momo is hovering behind him and grabbing him by the back of his collar. She zooms past the angry, shouting girl and barrels through the hallway, causing rooms and people to blur as she flies haphazardly back to her room, before pushing Rito back inside it and through the portal to the other side.

They both are left breathless by the experience, and Rito almost questions why she ran, when a third figure follows through the portal and lands on her feet. Momo stands protectively in front of him, while the other girl just glowers at Rito. "Why are you protecting him?" the girl asks as she crosses her arms and frowns, "You and I both know he was the last person to see her alive, before the accident..." Momo cuts her off, rudely at that point.

"He doesn't remember Nana," she states to the girl, obviously Nana, and possibly her sister or twin, "Rito wasn't responsible for it, he doesn't even know her anymore, not after..."

At that the girl raises her eyebrow at Momo and focuses on her. "Not after what, Momo?" Nana asks, "What aren't you telling me?" Momo seems torn, between Rito and Nana, looking back and forth between the two, while Nana seems to simmer in her anger. "Rito Yuuki failed her, failed our Father's test, failed his planet, and managed to get a hold of level ten tech that wiped all of our memories of our own sister... and here you are defending him?" Nana states, obviously hurt, though this confuses Rito greatly, as he doesn't know which sister they were referring to, "You know, if it wasn't for Peke surviving the crash, we wouldn't have ever even known that Lala had died, even if it hadn't been his fault, if he hadn't have failed, Lala wouldn't have had felt she needed to run..." She looks to Rito and points directly at him. "And if you weren't such a coward, running away at the slightest opportunity when things aren't going your way, Lala would have married you, just like you wanted!" Nana states, "Or maybe she would have had her heart broken if you failed, and watched your world get obliterated like Father wanted, but you disappearing before the race even finished was the last straw, you... you... indecent scum that sullied our sister's memory!" Rito was confused, the pounding in his head was growing worse, while his neck was aching even more, and the rising panic and short breathes he was forced to deal with weren't helping matters as he froze underneath her anger and spite.

"Stop it!" Momo yells, drawing the attention back to her, "Rito didn't do it... he didn't wipe our memories of Lala, either." Nana looks to her sister, as does Rito. "Rito wasn't at the race... because I captured him before it ever took place, I wiped his memories of Lala, of himself, before the race even began and took him away," Momo states, as Rito and Nana both stare at her in disbelief and shock, "Lala had made a failsafe, in case Rito lost it was a gamble she would have made to spare the Earth of its destruction, and I found out about it and took it for my own purposes." She looks up at Rito, sadness and regret in her eyes as he stared at her in confusion, before she turned and steeled herself to look at Nana. "Father consulted with me to get a plant capable of ensnaring and failing Rito in his task, while I was consulting with him on his ship, I wondered in secret what made our older sister go mad for that man... and I grew jealous when I found out that not only was he seeing our sister, but a host of other girls that held affection for him in various ways, including a girl with purple hair that had a place in his heart equal to our sister's," as she speaks, understanding and uncertainty grace Nana's face, while she listens to Momo continue, "Then I learned our sisters plans, and took and modified it before stealing Rito away for myself... unfortunately as I smuggled him away on our ship, our dear sister confronted me once she learned her device was missing, and in a resulting struggle the gun went off and hit her... she forgot about him, about why we were there, and so she panicked and ran away again..."

At that horror graces Nana's face, as Momo just sits down with her head in her hands. "She took Peke and ran, no questions asked, and fled into space in an escape pod, it- malfunctioned, and just before it exited the atmosphere it blew up," Momo states, as Rito feels tears pool in his eyes and down his face, despite the fact that none of this was making sense to him, "She didn't die from sabotage, or whatever else you think you can blame Rito with, it was me; I c-caused her t-to run away a-again," she says, breaking down into sobs, "I k-killed my own sister with my j-jealousy..." She sobs into her arms and legs, curling in on herself, fearing her sister's lashing tongue and anger more than anything else. Instead she feels a pair of arms wrap around her, as the wailing and sobs she gave off were joined by another. Nana had joined her sister in crying over the loss of Lala. Rito just watched on, numb to the feelings they felt, hollow inside, but outside he felt his face heat up and eyes blur. He felt like this should mean something to him, but it didn't. It couldn't be real, it wasn't real, and yet the emotions displayed in front of him were full of true loss and sorrow, something that just couldn't be faked. And so he too cried, even if he couldn't understand why.

"Please, Rito, don't hate me for all of this," Momo states, after the sobbing is through and they had regained a sense of normalcy. She had gotten up off the ground with Nana's help, and was now standing sullenly before Rito, seeking repentance. "I know- I know what I did was unforgivable; stripping you of your memories of yourself took more than I had expected, I didn't want you to hate me, or remember Lala, but things went too far," Momo states, rubbing her elbow and arm, "When Lala died- it was unexpected, but I had already erased your memories, and I had hidden you before we even left for Earth, that it was impossible to take you back without you being implicated in her death, so shortly after your disappearance..." She picks a stray lock from her bangs and stuffs it behind her ear, looking up at Rito with a smile. "You were innocent, so caring and kind, despite practically erasing your sense of self, and then I decided if I couldn't take you home, if I couldn't replace my sister in your heart, I could live up to my Sister's memory by making your life there, perfect," she states with a sorrowful smile, "I didn't think you would really question me, I didn't believe you would want your memories back if I lied about them, hid your past from you; If I made you happy, I figured you would never want to leave..."

'You've lusted after me all this time? You give me a new life, you desire to satisfy my whim, and expect me to give everything over to you in return? You stole my life away from me, stole me away from my family and yours, and you expect me to love you?' Thoughts like these raced through his head as he watched her, 'I pity you Momo, but I understand; you don't love me, you love your sister and couldn't stand to see her hurt herself ." Instead of blaming her, or letting her know how he really felt, he grasped his hand tightly into a fist and glanced up with a neutral face. "You didn't just seek to replace her in my mind, you desired to see exactly what made your sister fall in love with me, and you fell in love with me too," Rito mutters, with a hint of bitterness in his tone, before he shifts to a louder, less happy one, "I think I always knew the truth Momo, but now knowing the truth, how could I ever trust you again?" She had lied and said that she had taken Rito away from a world that scorned and ridiculed him for being different. Maybe she had, but he had too much time lost on his hands to ever know. Momo looked surprised, even a bit disappointed, but he knew she deserved the rejection, the feeling of guilt left behind now like a sprouting seed. She had lived a lie too long to ever feel true remorse, but he didn't hold it against her really. He had enjoyed their time together after all, despite what he knew now to be the truth.

"I- I think I need to leave," Rito states, looking at Nana now, "Can you- can you take me back to Earth, maybe even give me back my memories?" Nana looks between Momo and Rito, then stepping away from her sister, she walks up towards Rito and puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"I- I think after a bit of explanation to my Father, and consulting a doctor, we can arrange that," Nana states, "For now, maybe staying here with Momo isn't going to be the best for you; I'll have a servant make up quarters for you, and we can explain everything in the morning." Rito nods, then follows Nana back to and through the portal to the other side. Nana glances back at a mournful Momo, and steps through the portal to follow Rito and pick up the pieces.

Momo watches as Rito walks away from her life and back into reality, while she is left behind. Holding up her left hand, she looks at the imperceptible band circling, wriggling like a living thing across her skin. The red string unwinds and unravels as if fleeing and coming off of her finger will save it. While she views it with curiosity, it is already flying away and dissipating into regular light. "You won't be able to stop him, you know; he's choosing to fight for her, even if right now it's only subconsciously," Momo sighs, as she watches the sky above darken with the sunset, "She asked me to protect him from you, but now he's determined to make his own path." She doesn't turn, but she feels the dark presence behind her, sending chills up her spine and causing her to shudder. She brushes it off and continues to view the darkening world around her. "He thrives off of his connections, while you just cut yourself off from those who love you," she states defiantly, as the darkness raises its appendage, "That is why he won't lose." Suddenly she takes a sharp breath, as a sword slides out from her stomach, having been violently thrust into her as she finished speaking. She collapses to the ground, before the man walks over her body and leaves the empty, dark void, now drained of all life within it, before the portal collapses behind him, shattering the mirror on the other side.

A/N: Whuh... Huh?

Looks around, as a spotlight shines down on him, blinding the Author and making him everything around seem black

A: What happened?
A: Where am I?

Looks around to see rope is tied around him, keeping him seated in his chair

A: Hey, what's going on... where's my story...

Sees an open laptop, with finished draft set up for approval

A: Okay... I don't remember writing this, or tying myself to this chair...

Screen goes black, as writing scrolls across the laptop

Hello, sorry for this cloak and dagger nonsense. Hope you enjoy your new chapter... I left the disclaimer for you.

A: Okay... As always, I do not own To-Love Ru.

*Fade to black*

(Echoing Voice) A: But who tied me up?