Chapter 9 - Date A Raid (Part 1)
...
Late evening. I destroy the training room dimension. The girls have finished training and have learned a bit of their new powers. As for the rest, it'll have to be learned on the fly. That hopefully won't be a problem, they knew their angel's powers at first, so it'll probably be the same here.
"Alright then." I say, turning to the girls, a serious expression of my face. "You both already know the general game-plan we've revised a minute ago. I'll go straight for Nia, while clones of me rescue the prisoners. Kurumi." The time-warping Spirit turns her head to me. "You'll focus on distracting the wizards. There's a lot of them, but they shouln't pose too much of a threat, aside from their numbers."
"Ufufu~ I'll be careful." She says, a nice smile on her face, one that hides her sadism quite poorly.
"Natsumi." The illusion-crafting Spirit turns to me. "You don't have many offensive capabilites with your angel, so you'll stealthily grab some documents of theirs. Wether we'll use these as proof or blackmail, we'll figure out later."
Natsumi nods her head resolutely. "I'll turn the guards into something quiet and immobile. Maybe a... capterpillar?"
"You'll figure it out." I say, with a smile. "Girls, we've only got one shot with this. If we fuck up, we probably won't get another chance as good as this one. We're gonna get in, save our fellow Spirit from these assholes, and get out. Are you both ready?"
"Yeah!" "Of course." The two say, fully serious.
"Good. Oh, and if you see Ellen or Isaac anywhere-" I cut myself off as I make 3 small, things in my hand. "Use these communicator thingies. Push a little bit of Reirokyu into them to activate, and the other two of us can hear you. Simply say what you need to say in your head, and it should travel to the other devices. They hook onto your right ears." The girls take both communicators and place them on their ears, as do I. "Okay, testing, testing." I say, without moving my mouth.
"Whoa, it works!" the shorter Spirit exclaims, in her head.
"Well of course it works." I say.
"This is rather odd, but that's so like you, Issei-kun."
"Alright, enough screwing around. Let's go rescue our new friend. Are you with me!" I shout the last bit, throwing my arms into the air for emphasis.
" "Yeah!" " Both of them shout.
"Then let's go!" I turn around and hold out my hand. In it, a copy of Michael appears. In front of me, a portal appears. I walk into the portal. The two follow.
Neryl Island. 22:32
We step out of the portal and onto the beach of the small island. A place hidden from the world, the cruelty that occurs here is just below the surface. Seeing the two girls behind me, I close the portal. Our Reirokyu levels are at 'zero', and can't be detected. "We've still got the element of surprise. Good." I create a small whiteboard, on it is a diagram of the facility, thanks to Rasiel. "Now here's how the floors are situated. A single above-ground floor, ten below-ground and a single one very deep, containing Nia. Most scientists and papers will be on the tenth and ninth floors. The eighth, seventh and second are where the wizards are primarily. The higher floor is guarded by one squadron of twelve, the lower two have two squadrons.
In between that are the fourth and fifth floors, containing prisoners and the third and sixth contain more scientists. The higher scientists experiment on the prisoners, the lower ones, on Nia." Both girls bristle at this. "The first floor and the above ground parts are weak, only guarded by humans. These guards are also present on all other floors, to the eighth, none are below that. After you're done we'll meet up at say... the fifth floor and teleport out. You both know your jobs, and we're gonna stay non-lethal here. I don't wanna see any casualties, okay?"
"Haah, if I must." Kurumi says, like a child.
"K-Kurumi?!" Natsumi is taken aback.
"Stop teasing her, dammit." I say, having enough.
"Oh fine, fine." With a flash of black and red, Kurumi activates her Astral Dress. "Let's go." She begins to walk forward.
Natsumi and I transform as well as I destroy the whiteboard. "Oh and Kurumi?" I say, causing her to turn and look at me over her shoulder. "While I don't want any deaths, feel free to go wild."
"Kihihihihihihi!" A mad grin appears on her face and she cackles like a woman possessed. "You sure know how to excite me, don't you?" A mass of black appears below her as she sinks into it. "I'll distract those idiots for you two~"
As she disappears, Natsumi draws my attention. "Issei?"
"Yeah?"
"Has Kurumi always been like that?"
"Eh, she was a bit sadistic before becoming a Spirit, so-"
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM
My thoughts are cut of my the alarm blaring suddenly. "Well, that's our cue." I feel my helmet form around me. Creating another portal with Michael, I turn to Natsumi. "This leads to the sixth floor, incapacitate everyone and take anything you can." I hand her a small bag. "Put those documents in this, it's much bigger on the inside." She takes the bag and steps into the portal.
"Here I go..."
"Stay safe, Natsu-chan."
She blushes. "O-Okay."
As the portal closes, behind her, I feel a wicked grin on my face. "Here we come, assholes!"
Eighth Floor
"Shit, shoot her!" "How is she doing that?!" "Why the fuck is Nightmare here?!"
Feminine screams and alarms fill the hallways of the Eighth Floor and I dance between swords and bullets.
"She's a fucking monster!" "Kill her already!" "How did she even find this place?!"
I don't get to let my sadistic side out as much as I used to, so this is very nice. These wizards are certainly stronger than your run of the mill AST, but they're still quite weak. A bullet catches one of them in the leg. Another person begins to move oddly, having been slowed by Zafkiel, another is sped up and moves clumsily. A full twenty-four wizards, and barely any of them have even hit me. And Issei said they were trained to specifically guard this place?
Whoever trained them must be an idiot. Or perhaps, I've gotten stronger. I never could shoot Zafkiel's stronger bullets willy-nilly like this, but thanks to Issei fixing Zafkiel, now I can.
Fufu~ I'll really have to thank him later...
"Really now. Are you all seriously having this much trouble with just little old me?" I tease the girls.
"Fuck you!" One of the braver ones shout at me.
"Well that's not very nice... Though if you don't want to play with me..." I summon eleven of 'me' around myself as I feel a manic grin worm it's way onto my face. ""How about you play with the other 'me's'!
"Oh fuck..." "Shit!"
Sounds like they've just about given up. "I hope you all can handle all of me~ KIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHIHI!"
I'll have to try quite hard to hold myself back from killing them.
Sixth Floor
Fhew... this was easier than I thought it'd be. The scientists are pretty much helpless, as are the guards without their guns. Kaleidoscope quickly turned them all into even more helpless caterpillars. Haniel's really good for incapacitating enemies!
I quickly skim through documents scattered amongst the tables and cabinets. The tables and shelves are covered in various beakers, chemicals and other mechanisms. I have no idea what any of them are or what they do, not that it matters.
"Let's see..." I begin skimming through the papers. "Nothing, nothing, nothing, no- !"
I find what I'm looking for. 'Ongoing Report on Patients, October 21, 2022'
Oh-Oh hell... Issei was right, these people are downright evil. I place my hand over my mouth in an attempt to stop myself from vomiting. These people did all of that?
I slap my cheeks. 'Get a grip, Natsumi!' Grabbing the documents, I begin to skim through more documents, focusing on the titles this time.
With a sigh, I look around the room. There are so many papers... I hope I can finish soon.
Ninth Floor
"Fuck!" "Stop him!" "Where are the guards?!" Various scientists shout as I take them down, having teleported directly into their lab.
"Guards? Oh you mean your wizards, they're dealing with my friend. Ever hear of Nightmare? I'm sure you can hear those bullets above us." I say, teasingly.
"N-Nightmare?!" "We're doomed!" "Please, mercy!"
"Mercy? I'm already doing you all a mercy. You all get to leave her alive, just not as healthy as you were before." I grab another one by the neck. "Besides, you never showed mercy to that girl you've got downstairs."
SNAP "AAGH!"
"Oh, that was your arm. Sorry, I don't know my own STRENGTH!" I finish by throwing him into the wall.
Do I feel bad about this? Not really. I've never really wanted to cause harm to another, but I'm fucking pissed. Besides, after knowing what just an incredibly small amount of what they've done to Nia, I feel justified. Sure it's hard to watch a man's leg be twisted the wrong way, or another's arm turned into mush, but fuck it, I'm letting my inner Kurumi out on these worthless bastards.
"Oh, God." "Please anyone!" One of them begins to pray.
"God? Your God is right in front of you, idiots.
AND HE'S FRESH OUT OF MERCY."
Seventh Floor
These idiots... I'll give them credit, they're quite durable. The other 'mes' have been throwing them around and they're still standing. Well, three of them are.
"You... d-damn." BANG
With a shot, she goes down.
"N-No!" BANG BANG
The last two fall as well.
"Sigh, well that was disappointing. What floor are the rest on?" I ask myself.
"The second."
"Ah, thank you, me."
Issei really over-estimated these girls, or maybe he just under-estimated me.
"Let's hope the rest entertain me more than these fools..."
Fifth Floor
I run upwards, toward the next floor of scientists, passing downed guards when I spot a familiar shape.
"Issei?"
"Oh, Natsumi. The real me is lower, but another me already finished up here. You heading up?" He, or rather the clone, asks.
"Yeah."
"...You read the documents, didn't you?"
"Yeah..."
"Haah, I should've warned you not to do that." He says, with a sigh.
"No. This just makes me more sure we need to get everyone out of here." I say, resoultely. I was a bit skeptical people could be so evil, but now I know these DEM people are pure evil.
"Another 'me' has taken the people held here to the beach and put a barrier around them and the real me is near Nia, so don't worry, we'll make sure these people don't have to go through this shit again."
"Good." I say with a smile. I hope those people can have good lives from now on.
"C'mon, I'll help you get those papers."
I nod as we begin to head up. "I wonder how Kurumi is doing."
"She's probably left those wizard girls less injured than those guys on the Ninth and Tenth floors..."
"What?" I guess they both have dark sides to them.
Or maybe they just don't have any mercy for these people...
Tenth Floor
The sounds of pained groans and moans are the primary sounds in the two lowermost floors. The secondary ones are those of papers rustling as my clones snatch up as many of them.
"Christ, I knew it was bad, but..." "Save if for later, just keep getting 'em." My clones chatter amongst themselves as they shift through papers.
"Keep at it guys, I'll be back with a guest." I say, walking towards the elevator that leads down.
"Got it, man." "Good luck."
I press a button to open the door, then step in. There's only two buttons here. Down it is! The doors shut as I feel a shift, fuck I've always hated elevators... I decide to create a fake Rasiel to skim through as I descend, don't wanna be caught off-guard. Seems even with the alarms blaring, these fuckers are still experimenting on her?!
With a slow inhale and exhale to calm myself, I ignore those murderous thoughts. The elevator stops and the doors open. A long corridor leading to a single room greets me. I step forward as my footsteps echo in the eerily quiet hallway. There are 'alarms' on the walls, glowing a bright red, but no sound is emitted. My body tenses 'Am I prepared to see what's in this room?'
I have to be. That fucker Isaac can't keep getting away with this. I'm getting Nia out of this hell hole, then I'm gonna save the rest of the Spirits, both from DEM, Mio and themselves.
I stop at the door. Inhale... exhale... I draw power into my arm and rear my fist back.
"I'm comin', Nia."
Pain
PAIN
PAIN
PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN
This is all I've felt for what seems like an eternity. How long have I been here, anyways? My sense of time got muddled together a long time ago...
Various voices speak out words I can barely make out as- PAIN PAIN PAIN!
Again and again. Day after day, it's always the same. These guys break me in different ways, then heal me, never letting me die. Why are they doing this? Why? I stopped asking myself that a long time ago. Now I ask myself a different question these days.
Why did that woman have to turn me into a Spirit?
If she hadn't, I wouldn't be here. I hate these people, but I think I might hate her more.
BOOOOOM
An explosion rocks the room. It's reverberations clear my mind and I can hear voices clearly.
"Who are you?" "You can't be here?" Two voices, belonging to people who've been doing this shit to me, speak to someone.
"I can't?" A third, much deeper voice asks, sarcastically. "Well that's funny. Last I checked you can't fucking kidnap and experiment on people." The last few of his words are said with an indescribable amount of rage.
The only sounds in the room quickly become meaty thumps, beats of footsteps and pained grunts. Heh, these guys had it coming. But why's this guy here?
To save me, or to hurt me more?
"P-P-Please..." A strained voice calls out.
"How many times did she say that? How many times did she beg for mercy while you assholes did God knows what to her?" A thump rings out. "Fuckin' asshole... Don't you worry, Nia. I'm gettin' you outta here."
"...uh?!" I can barely speak.
"Shit, these guys messed you up, hang on." As he says that, I feel a calming warmth wash over me. The pain fades. "H-Ho-o-o-w-w?" I ask, somehow.
"I healed you." The guy says, as I feel the bindings on my body begin to loosen. "As for how I'm here, I can't just let a fellow Spirit rot in here."
Spirit? This guy? The bindings fall slack ad I can move my body. "Hold still, this thing's wrapped around you head." I then hear the sounds of him fiddling with the machinery.
"How do I...? Oh fuck it." CLACK
Did he just stab the helmet?! He grunts as the helmet splits and light enters my eyes. I quickly close them and begin to get up. As I do, my body fall from under me, a pair of arms catch me.
"Easy, there. You've been here for four and a half years and probably haven't moved much. Spirit or not, you've weakened a lot."
"F-Four years?!" I all but shout.
"Yeah. Can you open your eyes?"
"I-I think so." I slowly force my eyes to peel open. The first thing I see is-
'Holy shit, hot!'
-an incredibly handsome guy smiling at me?!
"Can you see well? No blurriness?"
"N-No"
"Good."
Fuck, why's this guy got me stuttering like a little girl?! More importantly, "Who are you?"
"Ah, I'm Issei. Me and my pals came to bust you out and piss off these DEM fucks."
"How did you even know I was here?"
"My angel, Helel, lets me make anything with my imagination as a catalyst. I made a copy, albeit a weaker one, of your angel and found out about you. Can you stand?"
"I don't think so." He suddenly picks me up bridal style?! "What the hell?! You're gonna give me the wrong idea holding me like this!"
"Oh, shush. Besides, I thought you only could love 2d?"
"You know that, huh?"
"Feels weird when someone knows about you instead of the other way around, huh?' He says with a grin. He begins walking out of the small room.
Wait. This guy has imagination powers, and he saved me this sounds like-
"Are you a fucking protagonist?!" The grey-haired girl, wearing only a thin gown in my arms suddenly shouts as I stop walking down the hallway.
That room was awful, those two fuckers were in the process of grinding away her arm with a giant fucking nailfile. They had better be glad they get to live at all. I nearly retched when I saw that, I had to activate a pseudo-Gamer's Mind for a second to calm myself. After they were dealt with, I used Camael's flames to heal her. The binds were kind weak, but I had to use Sandalphon to pry open that helmet.
"What the fuck?! How am I a protagonist?" I say, stunned by her antics.
"You have imagination powers! You can copy angels too! On top of that, you raided a secret base to save a girl! You're a real-life protagonist!"
I stare at her in pure confusion for a long while. "I guess so. You seem to be feeling better, at least." I say with a chuckle as I continue to walk.
"Yeah, the pain's all gone."
"Good." I step into the elevator and it begins to raise. "Think you can stand?"
"Maybe." I sit her down. A soon as she tries to stand, her legs buckle. I quickly catch her. "Guess not." She holds onto the railings in the elevator to stay standing.
"...maybe I am a protagonist. At least an iseaki one."
"Huh?!" She shouts, eyes wide.
"Long story short, Helel pulled me from my world into this one. I knew a lot about this world due to it being a light novel called 'Date A Live', that I quite enjoyed." Nia says nothing for a minute, frozen stiff until-
"Oh God! You're a fanfiction protagonist!" Ha! She's funny, there's no way that I'm a...
"...oh God, I'm a fanfiction protagonist." Critical hit.
"Wait, light novel! Were there illustrations?" She suddenly has a fire in her eyes. I'm a tad bit worried.
"Y-Yeah." I say, regaining my bearings. "They were pretty damn good."
"What kinda story was it?"
"Standard sci-fi action harem, that got really fucking dark near the end. Like really dark."
"All the guy's harem were Spirits?"
"Yeah?"
She lunges forward, grabbing my armor to hold herself up. "How'd he get me?"
"He and the other Spirits drew a love manga. Also, DEM made you Inverse, but the guy saved you from that shit."
"Heh, the standard hero trope." She says with a chuckle.
"Yeah. It was a bit cheesy at times, but the ending made me really love the story, I've always been a sucker for dark stories."
"Well at least you have some class." She begins to laugh, as do I.
"I'm surprised you're taking this so well." I point out.
"Eh, the last few years have felt like hallucinations. I'm sure it'll hit me later."
"Fair enough. But still, I feel you and I are gonna be good friends, Nia." I say, looking down at her with a smile. She's probably around 5' 5", so she doesn't quite come to my height.
"Same!" She smiles too, before becoming serious. "But remember, I can only love 2d."
"This whole world looks 2d to me! I feel like I'm in an anime, which I kinda am, come to think of it. Date A Live got four seasons, and a fifth and final one was being made. But, we're the same in that regard, I could only love 2d as well, though you look 2d from my perspective."
"Wha-?" Her face turns beet red as she pushes herself away from me. "You can't just say stuff like that suddenly! A girl's heart can't take it." She says, holding her chest.
"Oh hush, anyways we're almost at the top. C'mere." I hold an arm to her and hold her up.
"...I'm really leaving, huh?" She asks herself quietly.
"Yup. Every Spirit has been though some shit, you more than most others. I got these powers by sheer luck and I decided I'm gonna make this world better, starting with you girls."
"Issei?"
"Yeah, Nia?"
"That was cheesy as hell."
"Oh I know." I say quickly.
"Hahaha!" She laughs for a moment. "Thanks for saving me, though."
"Save your thanks, we've gotta regroup with the others first." The doors open as we begin to walk forward.
Second Floor
Bodies of wizards lay at my feet. Guess I'm done, here. I dispel my clones and sink into the floor. Time to leave.
Third Floor
Okay, I don't think I can get anything else important here. Time to go! I begin to run down to the fifth floor.
Fifth Floor
"This place is huge!" The grey-haired Spirit exclaims, sitting on a small bench. The fifth floor contained a lot of prisoners, up until a little while ago. The center of the floor is a giant prison, like one you'd see in an actual prison, but much larger. It's three 'floors' of cells on top of one another, with the center of the room near-empty, save for some tables and benches, like the one Nia's sitting on now. Alarms have stopped blaring, but still are glowing red. Thank God for that, I was starting to get a headache.
I dispelled my clones on the tenth floor as I helped Nia up here. Got all the documents in a pocket dimension for later. Oh, these DEM fuckers won't know what hit them!
"We're only halfway though, but the others are gonna meet us here in a sec." I say to her. "Then we're just gonna teleport out."
"Of course you can teleport." She says, deadpan.
"Obviously! Every fanfiction protagonist needs to be able to teleport."
"Pffft." Nia tries to stifle her laughter. "So, what can your friends do?'
"One can turn things into other things and another can screw with time."
"Time? Seriously?"
"Yup. Speaking of..." I trail off as I see a familiar mass of black appear in the room.
"What is that?!" Nia says, recoiling back from it's sudden appearance.
"Kurumi's way of 'teleporting'." I say. Suddenly, the worst Spirit, in all her glory, emerges from the inky blackness. God, I forgot how beautiful she was in her Astral Dress. I haven't seen it, since we met. Well, I saw it earlier, but I didn't have time to admire it.
The blackness disappears as her feet hit the ground. "Ara ara, you're staring at me quite intensely, Issei-kun~"
"Sorry, sorry. I just forgot how good you looked in that dress. How're the wizards?"
A sly grin worms its way onto her face. "Not dead."
"Eh, good enough."
She peeks behind me and sees Nia. "Is that her?"
"Yup."
"It's nice to finally meet you, Nia-san." Kurumi says, curtsying slightly. "My name is Tokisaki Kurumi."
"Uh... nice to meet ya too." Nia says, confused a bit.
"You'll get used to her. Now, where's Natsumi at?" As if pre-planned, I hear footsteps coming quickly towards us. A familiar mop of green hair appears in my eyes. "There you are."
"Sorry I'm late, I got as much as I could."
"Still got the bag?" I ask. She hands me the bag and I place it in a storage dimension. "Good, now these assholes really are screwed."
"Whaddya mean?" Nia chimes in.
"The bag has a bunch of incriminating evidence. Enough to get these fuckers the death penalty ten times over."
"Seriously?!"
"Nia. We're standing in a prison right now." I hold my arm towards the cells. "You think you were the only one they kidnapped?"
"...these guys really are the worst, huh?" Nia says, in realization.
"The worst." I agree.
"Ufufu, I may be the worst Spirit, but these people are the worst humans." Kurumi agrees.
"After reading those papers... I can't help but agree with you guys." Natsumi says, quietly.
I'm not gonna miss this place, needless to say. I just hope the people held here get a good second chance at life... God knows they deserve it.
"Alright then, I've had enough of this hellhole. Natsumi, help Nia up." The short Spirit nods and goes over to the weakened Spirit and helps her up. She still can't stand, and probably won't be able to for a while, naturally at least. I'll fix her up later.
"Alright then, you guys ready to go?" I ask, turning to both of them.
"Let's." Kurumi says.
"Yeah." Natsumi says.
"Fuck this place, let's go." Nia says, clearly tired.
"You're not going anywhere." Ellen says, wait a second.
"The fuck?" I whip my head around to see Ellen floating behind me, a smug grin on her face. "Well well well. Good ol' Adeptus 1, Ellen Mira Mathers, in the flesh. To what do I owe the pleasure, your smugness?" I say with a flourish of my arms.
"What do you think, Spirit? I'm here to capture all of you." God her voice is annoying.
"Capture? Someone's sure of themselves. You'd have an easier time killing us than capturing." I say, an equally smug grin on my face.
"Of course I am. I'm the strongest Wizard! You all are stupid to willingly come here. For what? To save your fellow Spirit?"
"To save my fellow human, from those who clearly have no humanity left." I say deadly serious, staring right into her eyes. "You sicken me."
"Yet you stand next to Nightmare?" She says, pointing at Kurumi.
"She's a goddamn saint compared to you fucks." My body is tensed, ready to fight. I know Ellen's the same way. "So how about you stop all the hypocrisy you're spouting and tell me what you want." I say, patience gone.
"I want you all in chains."
"For what? You're psychotic boyfriend? Does his pasty ass get off on torture?"
"Don't talk about Ike like that!" She shouts, suddenly. We all wheel back a bit at her rage.
"Struck a nerve, huh?" I begin to walk forward. "Well, I guess there's no choice." I create a copy of Sandalphon and point it straight at her. "You're in the way. Move."
"Not a chance." She enters a stance, in the air. Her lance shimmering with energy. My sword crackling as well. Tension rises. Neither of us move a muscle, but our entire bodies are itching for a chance to move. Time moves slowly. It feels like an eternity. This is gonna be my first real fight, Ellen's a monster when compared to the AST girls I fought when I first got here.
I've no idea of how fast or strong she is, but I'm probably gonna get my ass kicked. Oh well.
Suddenly, the tension breaks as we both shoot forward.
"RAAH!"
"HAAH!"
AN
Edit: August 12, 2022: Misspelled 'pseudo'.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and take a look at the next chapter, released alongside this one!