From guest:

not a boring fic, and I've seen dozens of stories like the author couldn't think of anything better than writing just another version of Shido. Was a good read. Had some flaws like spelling errors here and there, but that's merely a nitpick.

Bakuganman: This fic used to get called that all the time by plastic nobodies but I haven't gotten those types of reviews anymore. I will admit back then, there wasn't much to go on which was perhaps another reason.

From just a reader:

you know after looking at your profile and seeing this credentials, I was skeptical at first, but Michael is starting to grow on me. Some authors manage to be lazy and only do a male x reader fanfic and is the most boring plot that an author can imagine (or not imagine). just another version of Shido.

But Michael seems pretty unique thus far. I've read up to the lemons so far (which are steamy), and his personality is vastly different from Shido by a long shot. Shido is able to sympathize with the Spirits and yeah Michael does too, he's also not afraid to speak his mind either, calling out Miku on her actions more directly than Shido.

This fic has my attention so far. You'd better not disappoint.

Bakuganman: Like above, this was another talking point about this fic, but it stopped as the fanbase grew. Glad your liking it thus far and I hope to live up to your expectations.

From guest:

I like the expanding on the lore. Sad Shido apparently died though.

Bakuganman: So sad indeed, but thanks for the approval of lore expansion. Could I have done it with Shido? Maybe, but then I'd get called a 'lazy writer' by anonymous reviewers again. Can't win with those types of people, can you? Lol.

Mayuri Judgement - Part 11, Judgement Date:

The city of Tenju was doing its normal thing: people walking around, cars driving by, a certain AST member still fleeing from her teammates… the usual.

"Origami-San, you can't run forever!" Said Mikie, her and Mildred still chasing her. However as they ran, a bright light appeared in the sky which one would assume was the sun, only it was directly over the city. This made everyone stop and react, be it looking at the sky or looking out of their car windows or etc to see what was going on.

"Oh, hey! What is that?"

"What's going on up there?"

"Mommy! The suns way to bright, turn it off!"

"This's so lame!"

That was the townspeoples' reaction to the light. One thing's for sure… it wasn't natural…

XXX

Back on the overlooking bridge where the light was worse, the group of 7 Spirits and one Human Sealer up there was also reacting to it. This also blinded the cameras of Fraxinus as well.

"Yo, what is that?!" Kaguya asked.

"Blind! It's too bright!" Yuruzu said.

The light did stop… only for the ball to finally become visible to everyone, showing its form begin to swirl and shift, undergoing a startling transformation. It grew 4 large wings very similar to Mayuri's only much larger and had gems in their centers akin to Mayuri's earrings and the colors they would swap to from time-to-time, a long and large metal tail that hung down and resembled a chain, and 4 wheel-like gears.

Yeah… definitely a certain someones Angel…

Everyone watching was stunned at the sight. The group of teens having never seen something that large or expected it to form, and the townspeople seeing this not understanding what was going on. In fact, this reminded allot of then about a similar incident that happened before this summer with a giant tree exploding out of a tower-like building.

The Government explained the large tree on behalf of Rattoskr that it was man-made growth hormones going out of control because they were carless, which was of course a lie but sounded plausible… how can one explain THAT?!

"What is that thing?" Asked Miku, referring to the object.

"Who's that?" Asked Yoshino, referring to the now visible Mayuri that they could all suddenly see.

"Kerubiel?! No, don't!" Mayuri spoke to the object.

Ya know how when you shake a toy version of an 8 ball and a object in liquid rises to the surface? That's sort of the visual that occurred here, a green diamond shape rippling out from seemingly within the object before looking down at the group. It also seemed to lowly growl while doing this…

hmmmmmmm… ZAAAAAAAAP!

What then followed was a large bolt of thunder coming out of that same diamond shape like a cannonball being shot out of a cannon, the thunder looking identical to how Mayuri used it only MUCH larger in size.

It's target: the overlook.

BOOOOOOOOM!

The bridge crumbled and shook from the absurd amount of power that it was not built to handle, alarming Kotori from her seat in Fraxinus. A large cloud of dust covered the area as well, making it impossible to see the outcome.

"MICHAEL!" Kortori and Mana said at the exact same time, both worried for the boys safety.

XXX

Back in the city with the townspeople watching this in shock, Origami took this chance to take action, having an idea of what that was. She didn't know what was going on, but knew that thing was obviously Spirit related. She ducked into an alleyway to try and dawn her emergency AST gear like she did during the Kurumi Killer situation, but this time it refused to activate giving her an error sound. She tried to reactivate it over and over again and aggravation, but then figured out why.

Her body was unable to handle it in her current state, and running around the city only made it worse. Cursing under her breath, all she could do was try to get to shelter, as its not like she could fight something that strong in her condition.

XXX

"Status report! Answer me!" Kannazaki said, now in serious mode due to the situation becoming dire.

The dust eventually cleared to show Michael was okay, being surrounded by the other girls who got to him just in time and had dawned their Limited Dresses (minus Kurumi's, whose was already active.) Mayuri was also shown next to Michael on the ground, both of them slowly standing up.

Perhaps Mayuri attempted to avoid the attack and fell, or the other Spirits saved her, or a mixture of both. They would unfortunately never know unless they asked. As for Michael, he was glad he wasn't French Fried, but that was only one thought going through his head:

6 days… Not even one full week; and something blew up.

Hinako: Michael is unharmed!

Munechika: Wait, who's that girl?

Kozue: The orb! It's visible! And Armed!

Masaomi: The numbers are coming in!

Kyoji: It's an Angel! A powerful one!

That wasn't all, the scan was showing extremely high levels in all categories. In fact in comparison, it was stronger than Rinne's Angel based on these parameters, not to mention larger in size and shape. It made the crew rightfully nervous.

"Michael Pelham. I'm going to ask you one more time." Tohka said, which while she was still concerned for Michael, the aggravation in her voice was more apparent. "What is that thing? Who is that girl? And for how long?"

"IIIIII'll explain later…" Michael said, seeing Tohka wasn't in her usual happy mood now. Again, this was the reaction he was afraid of. "… but so we're clear," he suddenly added, then pointing up in the sky added: "It was her idea!" As Mayuri was on the ground, he was referring to somebody else…

"Incoming!" Kaguya shouted, warning everyone the Angel was moving again.

The diamond-like cannon was reabsorbed back into the ball, only for the low growl to be released again; and THIS time pink eyes (the same color as Mayuri's eyes) spawning from every possible spot on the orb, looking down at its targets.

"Zafkiel! Zayin!" Kurumi summoned her own Angel with its gong sound going off, and loaded its time-stopping bullet into her musket before firing it at the massive Angel. Kerubiel appeared to have gotten effected by it, its entire body glowing red… only for the red to vanish a second later, and no negative colors to signify the effect was successful. Kurumi of course gasped. That didn't work?!

Kerubiel continued were it left off, its eyes widened and glowed before it shot small bolts of pure Spirit Power akin to a machine gun.

To counter this; Yuzuru and Kaguya combined their power to shoot a tornado, Yoshino fired ice crystals, and Miku unleashed a song as a large visible sound wave. This was able to effectively block Kerubiel's next attack.

While the Spirits were engaging in combat, the Fraxinus crew also prepared for battle. Seeing at this point it was unless to sound a Space Quake alarm, as the city was once again aware of what was going on before they were evacuated into the shelters.

Looks like Fraxinus had to get directly involved again, or the city could very well be destroyed. "Kannazuki!" Kotori ordered.

"Right beside you!" Kannazuki said. "Disable camouflage! Direct power to Yggdra-Folium! Launch all Yggdra on target!" With Kannazuki rapid orders, the crew did as asked and uncloaked Fraxinus, also having it trigger a function. When commanded this, leaf-shaped units left the ship and rapidly spun around Kerubiel.

"Bound Wrap!" Kannazuki said, the leaf-like units making a gold barrier underneath Kerubiel and also catapulting it into the sky. Figuring it was an attack on itself, the Angel used the same Eye-Flashing attack, but the ship already got away and the attack itself impacted the barrier which protected the city and its people. Some ran, some stood.

The Bound Wrap did not cover the entire overlook where Mike and the Spirits were however, so some shots did manage to get through but thankfully they were not specifically targeted for this attack.

"Argh! I can't stand here and be stuck on defense! Let's go, Yuzuru!" Kaguya, unable to sit still, wanted to take this Angel head on.

"Concur. Was thinking the same thing." Yuzuru said, agreeing with her twin and both of them flying up to engage in combat.

"I'm going with them!" Tohka said.

"M-Me too." Yoshino said, wanting to help out.

"Can't miss this party." Yoshinon added.

"Might as well get other Mes' to help out. That thing's…" Kurumi was saying, but Tohka put her sword in front of her without looking at her before she could move or summon any other clones, surprising her.

"You and all of Yous stay here. Protect Michael and don't let her out of Your sights." Tohka ordered, seemingly taking a page from Michael's book and referring to Kurumi and her clones as he usually does, also telling her to keep an eye on the newest Spirit to appear. She also narrowed her eyes at her.

Obviously, that was not a request.

All Kurumi did was smile and hold both of her hands up in defense. Ignoring this, Tohka then looked back to Michael, staring at him for a few more seconds with her expression not having changed. After that, she flew off to join the others, with Yoshino summoning her Angel and following.

The look on Tohka's face was clear: you've got serious explaining to do when I get back.

"… ~Someones on the shit list.~" Kurumi said playfully while turning her head to Michael and in a sing-song voice. Michael did look at her with a deadpan and was biting his lip, but did not respond further. He wasn't exactly in a good position to backtalk her…

"Well in that case, I guess I'll…" Miku was saying but as the other 4 Spirits began to fight, one of Kerubiel's lightning attacks headed for them! Miku immediately began singing a sound wave again to block it. After fizzling the attack out, she ran in a cutesy way to Michael. "Protect Darling too!" She said, hugging the nearest arm she can grab.

"Just what you want to do, eh?" Don't get Mike wrong, he was thankful for the protection… even if it was only an excuse to be near him…

Kurumi also couldn't help but smile at this. "First your school, then a whole auditorium. Anything to get out of work, huh?" She had to tease Miku.

Miku glared at the Nightmare. "… At least my powers actually work." The Diva expertly rebutted. Michael could hear the 'bout to end this whole mans career' shouting in his head after Miku's counter and had to admit, it was excellent. Kurumi, if she had anything else to say, did not answer further.

Mayuri just continued to look up at the battle above… she could only ask herself why?… Why did this have to happen again? She wasn't crushing on this Vessel this time around even if this Vessel wasn't too bad looking himself. She also accepted the fact she was gonna disappear, as this was her job… so why was it triggering this time?

"So, since you've been seeing her, what exactly is her deal?" Miku asked Michael and Kurumi but mostly Michael while holding a hand on the side of her mouth so Mayuri couldn't hear her, not that the Judgement Spirit was paying attention anyway.

"Still trying to…" Michael was going to respond with 'still trying to figure that part out', but Miku immediately asked another question.

Miku: Are you dating her next?

"DU-?!" Of all the questions Miku could have asked, Michael did not expect that one to come out of Diva's mouth. And as luck would have it, Kurumi also gained her teasing smile, but didn't say anything just yet. She let it play out a little, then would most likely jump in to strike herself. "Why?!"

"Darling, I mean, look at her," Miku continued, giving an explanation for her thought process. "Deep eyes, long hair, cute face, slim figure… she's practically a 10."

Here's where Kurumi got involved in the conversation. "I have to agree, Macho. She's definitely your type." She said with a smile, agreeing with Miku, even if it was only to be purely at Mike's expense.

Though wanting to rebut at first, Michael looked back at Mayuri instead (who was still focused on her rampaging Angel), doing so for a few seconds. "... And if she is?" He asked while looking back between the Nightmare and Diva, wanting to know what the point was… they weren't exactly wrong either, Mayuri hit all the checkboxes, having a similar type to every female in his circle of friends.

"Well I gotta know, is she gonna be a part of our harem?" Miku asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Michael bit his lip, preventing him from shouting. Of all times to bring that up…

His mood switch appeared lost on Miku however, but Kurumi just egged him on further. "I suppose actual competition is a good thing…" she said, doing this to poke both bears and see how far she can get away with this one. Both said bears were not amused, the female one frowning at her while the male one deadpanning further. "Childhood crush, cy-twins, loli rabbit, incestual roommate, ex-solider… hungry princess' a close secon-…"

SLAP!

Both Kurumi's and Miku's eyes' widened as Michael clamped both Kurumi's and Miku's traps shut (as Diva was opening her mouth again to rebut Nightmare) at the exact same time with one hand each, slipping his one arm out that was previously held captive by Miku quickly to make sure to shut them both up before yet another argument started.

"For the final time between both of you," Michael said to both girls and having to look back-and-forth between them, as Miku kept encouraging the idea while Kurumi merely teased on it (the latter never technically disavowing it either). "We are not a harem, and are never going to be!"

XXX

While Michael was having that conversation with Miku and Kurumi, back in the sky, the battle with Kerubiel raged on. After the Spirits evaded some more thunderbolts, Tohka was the first to strike back, using her sword to slash an energy wave at the massive Angel (probably calling Michael a Stupid Baka in her head as well). When an opening was presented to them whist dodging as well, Yoshino had her Zadkiel fire an ice beam, and the Yamai sisters combined their power again to launch a tornado.

One-by-one, the attacks hit Kerubiel, but it didn't appear to cause any visible damage, if any damage at all. If anything, it seemed to piss off the Angel, it roaring out before it summoned a new attack method: it grew a pair of horns and lightning crackled around it's ball form, launching continuous streams of electricity similar to the diamond-shaped cannon, but this attack had a wider range than a single location.

The Spirits had to evade again, with the addition of attacking through lightning that threatened to shock them as they did so. Tohka was the only one who gained an opening to counterattack, launching 3 waves in succession, but this ended with the same result: no visible damage, but she was able to see that her waves didn't even make contact at all, and dissipated before impact. This was most likely because this things Spirit Power exceeded their's, and like an Astral Dress being able to block bullets and such, the same logic applied here.

Mayuri said something about her and Kerubiel being a defense system, so this thing was most likely designed to withstand a large amount of power, while at the same time being able to throw back that same amount of power. Seeing as Kurumi's Zafkiel didn't initially work, and they had to combine their power to block just one attack, this was one of the toughest battles they've currently had in recent memory. At least Light Wing and Rinne's tree took visible damage even in their sealed states.

"Grr! This isn't working! We aren't strong enough!" Tohka said.

"Confirmation. We need a plan." Yuzuru said.

"Step aside, girls." Came Kotori's voice over from Fraxinus some distance away. "We can end this fast. Magic Cannon, Misteltien; engage!" Kotori gave the order to fire Fraxinus' main weapon.

"Roger! Convert energy to Misteltien! Maximum Power!" Kannazuki said as the cannon opened up and charge up. "Ready… FIRE!" After reaching its limit, Mistelien's beam of destructive power was fired directly at the large Angel. The immense magical power flew past the girls in the air, before exploding upon contact with its actual target, making a enormous cloud of dust.

In fact, the energy used was so strong, the Bound Wrap also vibrated from the aftershock, the people below even more stunned at what was happening, but that had to have worked, right?

…

…

…

Kerubiel was shown to have completely nullified the attack with its wings, which implied such power WAS able to pierce through its defenses and had to use an alternative means of defense. Regardless, the attack didn't do anything else, the Angel looking completely unscathed, also retracting the horns it grew previously.

Kotori reeled back in her seat… even their attack had virtually no effect on this Angel either! A flash then came from Kerubiel, and a small pink ball dropped from below it and passed through the barrier below…

The Angel itself stopped moving entirely, making no moves to attack. Tohka was the one to attempt too, her drive to protect Michael (and annoyance for him keeping her out of the loop) influencing her, but Kerubiel merely used a wing to deflect the attack and STILL did not counter in any fashion, which only further confused those paying attention to it… What exactly was it doing?

XXX

"We are not a harem, and are never going to be!" Picking back up with Michael denying a harem of ant sort, he and the 2 Spirits didn't notice the pink ball made a bee line straight for Mayuri, who noted it and gasped with widened eyes.

ZAP!

The sound of an electric shock was what got Mike, Miku's and Kurumi's attentions, seeing Mayuri attack the pink ball and causing it to disintegrate… but that wasn't the only one, as more pink balls floated around her.

"Kerubiel, no!" Mayuri finally leaped into the air and took flight just as one of these balls grew metal bar-like extensions appeared to try and capture the Judgement Spirit. The rest of the balls flew after her, trying to catch her in the same way as the first one, but Mayuri would zap them with sparks from her hands and continued to fly away.

She flew pretty fast and elegantly too, almost enough to give Kaguya and Yuzuru runs for their money.

Mayuri would do different acrobatics and spins, zapping more of the balls and even using an attack with her wings that launched feathers at the balls as well as she continued to protest. Despite putting up a good fight against her own Angel, the final one of these balls managed to snag her before wrapping around her in a sphere shape and closed her inside.

"NOOOO! NO! NO!" Mayuri cried out, but then this ball sprouted wings on top where the ball part was.

"Let her ~GOOOOOOOOOO~!" Miku, assuming her power would work again, sang at the cage containing Mayuri. But like how the larger model blocked Fraxinus' cannon, the new cage did the same against Miku's voice, rendering her power completely useless and shocking her. So much for 'my power actually works'…

With a single flap, the cage flew into the sky, carrying a crying Mayuri with it! Before it got towards the barrier, Kurumi appeared before it… then several more appeared after that, surrounding it. Just as they fired their guns, the cage used its wings a second time for defense. When they unfurled themselves…

SLASH!

…

…

…

Every Kurumi in a 360 radius was sliced at by the wings spinning on it's x-axis, the clones (as the real one was still on the ground) all being cut in half in various different ways and dissolving into shadows and fizzling away. The cage then continued up through the barrier with Mayuri in tow.

Michael's first instinct was to try and go after her, but Miku got ahold of his arm again. "Darling, no! It's too dangerous!… *gasp*" Miku said, not wanting to see her number one fan get hurt, but then noticed the veins in his neck growing. His fists were also balling up very similar to when they were working together when Tohka was kidnapped.

He reacted this way only two times before: once to her story and the other when Westcott taunted them with his games… what was this new girls story then, Miku had to wonder? What did she say or do to make her Darling's normally repressed emotions start flaring up?

"… Guys, get me to Fraxinus." Michael said to both Spirits and when they both looked like they were going to protest this, Michael vehemently added: "Now!"

XXX

The cage with Mayuri inside then connected directly underneath Kerubiel, fusing with it and the Angel began glowing. The fighting Spirits noticed this.

"Wait, whats that girl doing?!" Kaguya asked.

"Question. Why is she fusing with it?" Yuzuru asked. For all they knew, this new girl had decided to swap sides, assuming she was on their side to begin with.

"Kerubiel, knock it off!" Mayuri pleaded with her Angel, but it instead begin attacking once more, again bringing out its original diamond shaped cannon. It's target… what attacked it last…

ZAAAAAAAAAAAP!

"Deploy Protect Territory!" Kotori immediately ordered and the ship was surrounded by a protective shield…

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The impact was so strong, the entire ship shook despite being shielded and alarms were going off.

"Territory completely down!" Hinko said.

"Down? Already?!" Kotori asked. That was scarily incredible! One attack and their defenses were completely down!

Kyoji: The Angel has captured the mysterious girl!

Masaomi: Energy levels rising!

Kozue: Attack power and attack speed increasing!

The crew quickly read off the data that was coming in, all of them finally understanding what the Angel just did… it was a strategic calculated move! It deliberately stopped attacking to conserve energy, only to capture its owner for another outlet of power! Like an AI program, it appeared to learn the longer it fought!

And it was charging that same cannon again…

"Grrrrrrrr… FALL BACK! RETREAT!" Kotori what is normally not one to run away, but seeing as they had no form of protection left, they'd better steer clear or risk the ship crashing. The Bound Wrap was meant to contain magical power, NOT physical mass.

hmmmm… ZAAAAAAAAAAAP!

While Kerubiel managed to get another blast out, it fortunately missed its target as said target moved out of the way and then cloaked itself immediately after.

Kotori sighed in relief, knowing they were safe now. "… scan that Angel again! A thorough sweep! I want everything right in front of me on that Angel right now!" She ordered, doing this because she needed more information for a new plan. The crew immediately went to work.

With the battleship gone, Kerubiel instead turned its attention back the other Spirits once more, this time with higher intensity and power behind it's attacks, also using 2 new attacks: the gems on its wings shot beams and it also attacked with the gears on its underbelly.

They didn't need data to know they to the no chance of blocking or repelling THAT; so Tohka, Yoshino and the Yamais' had no choice but to evade. Even then, Kerubiel's attacks were also scarily more accurate, giving the Spirits absolutely no opening to counter whatsoever and forcing them to stay on the run. Even the Yamais', the fastest of the entire group, were nearly struck several times.

"Kerubiel! That's enough! Stop it! Just stop it, dammit!" Mayuri continued to plead in vain with her Angel, but it openly refused to obey her orders and still launched attack after attack. 'I don't understand… why is this happening again? Their emotions for Michael are stable now, and I don't have any attachment to him like the Original Vessel… why, Kerubiel… why?!' Mayuri thought, still trying to understand why the System was acting up.

Then… it suddenly hit her… flashing back to every moment during Michael's dates she happened to catch during her observations. The girls were happy, they were calm… yeah, a few slip ups here in there, but the majority of their time spent together was all positive.

'Make them the best dates of your life.' Reine's words when the week started echoed in Mayuri's head, her eyes widening from the realization.

That's why… why Kerubiel was rampaging again…

XXX

"GRRRR!… I can't just stand here and watch!" Mana's own drive to protect people kicked in, no longer able to watch from the sidelines. She ran out of the bridge area to dawn her Vánargandr gear to help out.

"Be careful, Mana!" Kotori said as she left, knowing she cannot stop her since she was as stubborn as herself. "… Perfect." She lamented afterward. "Tohka's date was going so well, then this random girl snags him, now she and her Angel are going berserk." Kotori added.

"That doesn't matter now!" Mana said via they communication channel. "That Territory won't hold forever! If we don't stop it now, then it'll just keep rampaging and put the people of the city in danger!" She continued as by this time she had flown out of Fraxinus after equipping her armor and was moving as fast as her armor would allow her. "If magic won't work…" she then took out her saber. "I'll just strike it directly!"

?: Hold it, Mano-Bot!

Hearing that unexpected voice fill her ear referencing her to be an AutoBot, Mana immediately pulled back. "Michael?"

Michael was shown having barged into the bridge as Kurumi and Miku came behind him, the two doing as asked and safely escorting him here. "Just hold back a second!" He requested, then turned to Kotori. "Tori, we gotta get Mayuri out of that thing, then Mana can go scissor-happy."

"Michael, have you lost your damn mind?!" Kotori asked him. "She took you on a side trip across the city, now she and her Angel are…"

Michael didn't even let her finish. "She was made from all of you!" Kotori gasped at this. "Tori, think about it: before her or her Angel appeared, what's been hanging over our heads from the start?" Kotori response to this would've been the invisible ball Michael had been claiming to see, which made her ponder and actually listen to what Michael was trying to say.

"It's been a ball of energy. Spirit energy. And from who's energy was built up in there?… Tohka's… Yoshino's… Kaguya and Yuzuru's… Miku's… and Yours! She's part of all of you!" Michael said, in the exact same order that Reine used to describe the orb when it was discovered what was inside it. "… Yes. That makes her my daughter, don't start." He added dryly while gesturing a finger towards Kurumi without turning around to look at her, knowing full well she would probably use this as ammunition later, so he prematurely shut it down.

"Wait… part of me? Of us?" Miku asked, surprised at that tidbit of information. "Darling, why didn't you tell us this before?" She added on to her question, not necessarily getting as aggravated as Tohka was and would be, but was quite shocked that Michael didn't come forward with this information readily. It just seemed very unlike him.

Then again, this kinda explained his behavior lately…

"Miku, I promise I'll explain everything later!" Michael sort of waved her off as kindly as possible, as to him right now there were more important things to worry about.

"Well, that's nice to know, bro; but you do remember the new policy after those two showed up, right?" Kotori said, mentioning the only other Spirits in this room aside from herself.

Yes he was aware. Though it was more specifically after Kurumi's shenanigans from her initial appearance, Rattoskr's new policy for dealing with Spirits after her was if they are still destructive and have no attachments to the client (being Michael), then they have no choice but to be dealt with by force similar to the AST. And deadly if necessary.

Of course, this was strictly only as a last resort and if the Spirit is hostile. Mayuri currently fit this criteria, having been following him around and kidnapped him. Then from Kotori's point of view, Tohka managed to find him and almost immediately Kerubiel was summoned afterward.

"She wasn't trying too! That's her function!" Michael argued back. "She told me that her and Kerubiel, her Angel, they are summoned only when they detect a high concentration of Reiryoku. They're only a defense mechanism in case it ever goes out of control!"

"Commander!" Called Hinko, getting everyone's attention. "You may wanna take a look at this!"

"After rescanning the Angel, we detected a brand new signal that doesn't match the other signals, but its what we initially detected when Michael was first taken!" Said Masaomi, as the previous data on the invisible ball was then brought up… only with only one signal in it this time, and it must have been buried deep within the invisible sphere to only appear now.

"Is that…?" Kotori was asking her self out loud, and everyone was shocked as there was only one possible conclusion…

It was Mayuri's.

"Jealousy." Reine said, now deciding to finally speak.

"Reine, speak plainly." Kotori said, just wanting things to not be so confusing anymore and asked her smartest crew member to just come out and say it.

"While I can't say for certain, but if what Michael says is true, and this Spirit is in fact a defense mechanism of sorts; then perhaps this resulting emotion caused the system to malfunction, so the Angel itself thinks its merely following its intended programming." Reine suggested.

By what they gathered, this seemed to make the most logical sense. Mayuri and Kerubiel were summoned by high levels of Reiryoku, she followed the targets around to observe them, checking to make sure everything was okay, and the end result was the defense system triggering.

"So your saying… she likes…?" Kotori asked, but Reine nodded her head before the question was finished, already gathering what it was. This only made the situation that much more complicated, as the aforementioned policy was now presented with a gray area:

A hostile Spirit liking the client.

"There's still more." Michael said, as he wasn't through explaining Mayuri's side of the story. "She also said after her function is fulfilled, she'll simply decompose herself and she and Kerubiel would vanish. And she's done it before…" Kotori and Miku were surprised, Kurumi having already heard this for already established reasons.

Oddly though, Reine's eyes stiffened but no one seemed to notice…

"… Don't you all get it? This has nothing to do with dating simulation this time!" Michael continued. "Even if she does, whether she likes me or not is irrelevant! She's been through this God knows how many times, and each one would end up in her vanishing after her deed was done… she doesn't want to force herself to disappear again! She wants to live! To live at least once in her life without having to snuff out her own flame! And her Angel, the system, malfunctioning or not, is attempting to fulfill that desire! The desire of its operator!" Michael deduced. "She's not jealous over me, but what we have! The right to even exist!"

That was a pretty decent alternative to the theory Reine had, assuming which one of them was actually the closest one to be accurate. If it was, then she would then fit the criteria to actually save and Seal her as she's technically not violent, just wants a chance at something so precious, you only get one…

The gift of life.

"… Michael… even if that's all true, why even go that far?" Kotori had to ask, while yes what Michael wanted to do was noble, but there were still one problem. "If she was born from our power, then its like Rinne all over again. Sealing her would probably make her disappear anyway."

Before Michael officially gave an answer, he looked at the monitors watching over the battle with Kerubiel, one of them zoomed in on Mayuri.

"I don't know who you think I am, okay?!" His outburst towards Mayuri just before Kerubiel was unleashed echoed in his head. "I'm just a guy!"

"… Your wrong, Michael." Mayuri's response to his outburst echoed next. "Your the Inheritor… the one who will restore and maintain the balance between our worlds…"

He clenched a fist again… was it true…? Was he, some rando who just so happened to get involved with aliens in cute and/or sexy dresses as armor, really destined to be this God of War-type hero? All he wanted was the truth behind his abandonment, then he finally got it.

But beyond that?… Was there really more to his story?

…

…

"Because she's like me…" Michael finally began giving an answer. "She's a Pawn… only intended for one use before repeating the cycle over and over again…" His fist clenched a bit tighter, realizing that despite not knowing Mayuri extremely well, they had quite a few things in common. Most notably, they have/had only one intended purpose.

For him, it was being an heir to the throne for a psychopath if he was deemed "successful." And for Mayuri, just do her job and wait for more energy before rinsing and repeating.

"I want to help her…" Michael said. "She deserves a chance like all of you!"

Michael didn't realize his voice could be heard by the girls near Kerubiel as the mic was still on, but when they heard that, their hearts did beat an extra time hearing that from the boy who did so much for them… but that's not the strangest thing, as each Spirit Michael has Sealed began sparkling in a respective color matching their elemental power, the girls looked at themselves not understanding what was happening.

"Wh-What's this?" Miku was the first to ask.

This was odd enough, but then a certain item they all had reacted to this: the additional flash drives they had received from their last adventure to DEM, the ones with the same model as the one Michael found before rescuing Tohka from the hands of Westcott.

"Our Battleogs…" Kurumi said, also not understanding the correlation as everyone got out the still unclear piece of technology. Each Battlelog was then shown moving on its own before inserting itself into a random yet the closest location to the girls skin before they could react to it or stop it.

"Is this…?" Was all Kotori was able to say, before her and each Spirit glowed even brighter!

(AN: Date A Live main anime theme.)

Fire surrounded Kotori before taking the form of a kimono with a translucent sash, and her black ribbons tied around a pair of oni-like horns.

Yellow light and musical notes ringed around Miku as they fused to form a full yellow dress, basically her Astral Dress fully restored.

Wind flowed around both Kaguya's and Yuzuru's bodies as their Astral Dresses were also fully restored.

Ice shards circled around Yoshino, her Limited Dress going back to its oversized green raincoat with its poofy tail.

Kurumi's body was slowly enveloped in shadow, her Astral Dress back to its former glory. In addition to that, she also posed in a similar position just before her fight with Mana and her Zafkiel's gonging sound was heard going off.

Tohka was last, her body swirling with purple energy as her true power miraculously returned to her as it did for everyone else.

We currently focus on the Spirits in Fraxinus, each girl looking themselves over in surprise while feeling 100% in tune with their powers… weren't they Sealed in Michael though? How did they get them back in full just now?

"Our powers… they're back?" Miku asked.

"While it feels nice to be whole again, why?" Kurumi asked, admitting it felt good to be fully Astral Dressed again, but how this was possible was the question. This summer just kept getting weirder and weirder.

"Got any ideas, Reine?" Kotori asked.

"If I had to make an educated guess, perhaps the emotion behind what Michael said resonated with you all." Reine said, not exactly sure herself.

"And these things?" Michael had to pull out his Battlelog from out of his pocket, which for whatever reason did not react the same way as the others' did. Again, weirder and weirder.

"I'm honestly not sure, but we have seen how they interact with Spirits, so maybe their returning power is what triggered them." Reine said, still not sure as they have only seen these thumb drives function only once back at DEM. Whatever other capabilities they had were unknown. "I don't know how long this will last until their powers ultimately return to Michael or if its permanent and will have to be resealed, but this seems to be our only chance."

Michael looked back at the monitors for a second, watching the battle continue with the other girls' powers restored. They most likely had no idea what was going on either, but were still fighting the Angel not having time to question why and probably saw it as a blessing.

"Wanna go save the world again, hero?" Kurumi asked, half joking and half serious.

"I've got your back, Darling. Whatever you decide." Miku said.

Michael looked back at the now unsealed Spirits near him when Kurumi spoke… he nearly forgot how beautiful they looked in their full forms… how powerful they were. Against Kerubiel though? It was spawned by their power, so if all of them were all 100% battle capacity…

"Only if your ready to face Judgement." Michael said, also half and half on the joking and the serious. Miku nodded once, Kurumi smiled at him. As for Kotori, she put her hands on her hips and closed her eyes before answering.

"… Watashitachi no dēto hajimemashou…" The Fire Spirit then smiled back after saying that.

The 3 Spirits and Michael then left, though Kurumi was the only one to leave the bridge via her shadow powers while Miku and Kotori went out the main doors with the Spirit Sealer. Reine watched them all go…

"Unbelievable!" Hinko suddenly said, getting the rest of the crews attention.

"What happened?" Reine asked.

"I… I was running another scan just to be safe, see what our odds are and…" Hinko hesitated for a moment. "… well. This." She shared what she found, data on each Spirit currently manifested…

Tohka…

Yoshino…

Kaguya…

Yuzuru…

Miku…

Kotori…

And Kurumi…

All the Spirits Michael had sealed… had their numbers increase! Somehow, they had gotten stronger. They weren't the biggest increases in the world, only small changes; but without this data, nobody would probably notice otherwise.

Now Reine was normally one to keep her emotions in check, rarely showing any or if she did, it would be very acute. This time however, utter shock was shown on her face, the Spirit Expert even stood up from her seat with her hands on her control panel.

"How is that possible?" She asked, repressing her shock somewhat in her voice but it was still obvious she was.

"I don't know!" Hinko said.

"Confirmed. All Spirits' strength, consistency, Reiryoku levels… it's all shot up!" Kozue added, also going over the data on her end for confirmation. While none of the crew knew what to make of this, Reine just continued staring at the data, shock still on her face.

Reine: *… They've Transcended…*

While Michael was running down the hall of Fraxinus, he suddenly stopped. He looked to be thinking about something.

"Darling, what's wrong?" Asked Miku.

"Your not backing out, are you?" Kotori asked.

"… Kurumi. Get out here." Michael said without answering either Spirits' question. Kurumi did arise from a shadow 2 seconds after Michael called her. Before she could ask why or the other two could accuse her of hiding, Michael spoke again. "In case things go south…"

We don't get to hear what Michael asked as the scene changed.

XXX

While the battle was ranging on, the same local news reporter, the same one who covered the sudden destruction of DEM and the Tenju Tower after that. Just like both times, she was having her news crew use a drone to observe the story, the story this time being a giant ball with wings and its unexplainable appearance.

"We are coming to you live, people of Tenju. Just like you, this reporter is as unnerved and confused as all of you are from the appearance to be an angel-like sphere!" She said, explaining the situation as she saw it. "But also what you probably didn't see was a bunch of girls flying around this thing, possibly one AST solider!"

As she was reporting, she then had her segment show what her drone was seeing: Kerubiel still launching attacks, but Tohka and the others flying around it. Of course due to the distance of the drone, the forms of the girls were a bit blurry, the only reason Kerubiel was clearly visible was due to its massive size.

The crowd watching included Ai, Mai and Mii. Hiroto was there too, but hugging his "Vurital Girlfriend" protectively and not exactly paying attention.

"From what this reporter can tell, these girls are fighting off this monster after that strange yellow symbol appeared in the sky!" The reporter continued as Kerubiel was using its gem-beams to attack the girls. This time however, with their power fully restored (and slightly increased according to Hinko), Kerubiel's attacks weren't fast enough to strike them as they nearly did before.

Kaguya and Yuzuru combined their power again, but also their Angel's to use that deadly bow and arrow attack. Once they launched that, Yoshino's Zadkiel roared and unleashed a thicker ice beam than normal. Tohka then used a energy wave from her Sandalphon again like she had been doing, but only now it was wider and stronger with her energy returned. Mana, seeing a possible opening, rocketed over for a direct attack, but held back a bit on the power per Michael's request.

Before Keribuel could even react, both the Yamai Twins' attack hit it, making the entire Angel shake from the blowback of the new level of power it wasn't ready for. When it attempted to block further damage with its wings, it was then hit by Yoshino's attack and making it stagger further. Tohka's sword wave struck after, and Mana's sliced through one of its top wings and while it didn't break, it did bend back a bit.

This was also the first time during the entire fight where visible damage was seen, more specifically on its ball body with dents and scratches. Though these injuries recovered shortly after as the ball appeared to regenerate, the tide was starting to turn in the Spirits' and Mana's favor. They just had to keep pushing!

Mayuri was also effected by this, her cage rattling from the damage her Angel took and having to hug herself.

"Guys!" Came Michael's voice. Tohka was the first one to notice him, being carried by Kotori but having Miku and Kurumi close by.

"What are you doing here?!" Tohka asked as she flew to him, not even calling out his name… guess she's still a bit mad, and was probably using this battle as an excuse to vent. The others joined them soon after, the hostile Angel taking allot of damage as was busy recovering so they had a small break to cool down.

"You okay, Michael?" Yoshino asked.

Michael looked around at all the people around him before giving an answer. He realized something very important not just from this ordeal, but everything they've all been through together up until this point, whether it would be a threat from some other force or each other…

This Spirit rabbit hole… it was so much bigger than any of them. There were still some questions of how deep it was exactly, but it was too important to just let it go unchecked. There were people counting on them, even if those same people didn't know it or realize it yet, the city being a prime example.

Whether or not this "Inheritor" bullshit was true… He couldn't leave… not just yet.

"We've got another Spirit to save." Michael said.

"You mean her?" Asked Kaguya, referring to Mayuri.

"Inquiry. After she tried attacking us?" Yuzuru asked.

Michael sighed, expecting that question. "Its hard to understand, I get it. And I'm sorry I wasn't honest from the get-go." He said. "… But right now, I need your help… please."

While some of the girls didn't understand what exactly was going on or why, they all smiled at him, seeing no reason to deny him. He also apologized, which was nice, even though they weren't aware of the full context. He'll probably clearly explain everything like he said he would later.

One by one, the Spirits and Mana flew at Kerubiel. Tohka flew down first, Mana second, Yoshino third, Kaguya and Yuzuru fourth, Kurumi and Miku fifth, which left Kotori to carry Michael as he couldn't fly.

Kerubiel, fully recovered and sensing a comeback, growled at them and began attacking with its eye-flashing attack, gears, and wing beams.

Tohka was able to stop one gear with her sword before slicing it in two. Mana was able to defect the Eye-Flash attacks at her and evade others, though would have been hit by a gear attack if Yoshino hadn't froze them. Kurumi was the only one who took on the wing beams, her shadow bullets shot from herself and shadow hands countering them.

The wind the Yamais' would generate would both deflect the gears and eye-flashes, though this was also done to make a path directly to Kerubiel for Kotori and Michael, As Kotori was carrying Michael to an opening with the cover provided by the others, a few stray shots of energy did manage to slip through and flew at them…

"LAAAAAAAA!"

BANG-BANG-BANG!

Only for them to be nullified by Miku and Kurumi (the real one most likely) as they flew in front of the roommate duo from different sides. Kurumi smiled at Miku, who frowned as they split up… their rivalry knows no bounds, doesn't it?

"Well this was a good secret, huh?" Michael asked, as there was absolutely no way to justify this to the public, least far as he could tell. Kerubiel sent a gear at the duo, noticing the path they created toward it.

"Give it hell, bro!" With that, Kotori hurled Michael at the massive Angel, while at the same time summoning her own and using it to block the gear from striking Michael as he skydived. The gear itself burned up completely when contact was made.

Call Kotori crazy, but she could swear she felt stronger… adrenaline rush maybe?

Michael dove towards the Angel, no fear showing on his face. The sight of the massive defense system was intimidating, don't get him wrong; but he was a man on a mission, his focus solely on getting Mayuri out if that cage… speaking of which, it didn't look much like a trap but rather a natural part of the Angel. Perhaps this was how Mayrui pilots Kerubiel when it actually listens to her.

'Alright, Mayuri… if your saying I'm supposed to go on some hero's journey…' Michael thought as another gear flew at him while he focused on the familiar power and borrowing it from its owner, Sandalphon forming in his hand as his eyes turned golden. "I'll start with you!"

SLASH!

Using Tohka's sword, he cut through the gear without difficulty as he continued towards Kerubiel. Mayuri noticed him coming in, but unfortunately so did Kerubiel, which stopped using its eye attack seeing it was pointless (no pun intended), and swapped to its cannon form, aiming directly at the incoming boy.

It released its attack, and Michael had no way of blocking that, and he ended up electrocuted, much to Mayuri's horror. She looked like she was gonna cry…

"SURPRISE!"

SLASH!

From behind the cage instead, Mayuri heard the metal break from enough force and flinched from the sound. It was shown Michael was okay… somehow… and used Sandalphon to cut the cage like originally intended. How he did this was shown by a few still-image, black and white flashbacks:

When he was still on Fraxinus, he was asking Kurumi whatever question he was asking, then another image showed him being shot but their was surprise on his face so he didn't anticipate it. Even Kotori and Miku were shocked at this, but it was shown in another image that Kurumi's Zafkiel was active, and a shadowy puddle was shown arise from Michael's shadow while he was still standing.

He basically asked Kurumi how to clone himself with her powers as he only just started using them, but she shot him with a smirk on her face instead, cloning him with a Bullet… this was his plan all along, to fool the defense system Angel into thinking he would risk a frontal assault without Spirit Armor to protect him, while a Kurumi (maybe THAT was the real one, but even Michael wasn't sure that time) was shown throwing him after Kerubiel shot the clone out of the sky, the Michael Clone dissolving into shadows after being struck.

"You okay?" Michael asked Mayuri.

"M-Michael?!" Mayuri gaped. "I… You…" she stuttered, obviously having so many questions on how he managed to pull that off and from all the emotions running through her system.

"Hey." He said sternly, which did get her to listen. "Just a guy, remember?"

"Michael…" Mayuri muttered his name and blinked. Was it just her… or did he finally accept it?

The cage itself then glowed before it regenerated all the damage it took from Michael… odd how the Angel didn't do anything else to get the intruder out, but maybe it figured this was enough. Michael noticed this and tried Sandalphon again, only this time the sliced bars were regenerated immediately, keeping them trapped inside.

Michael looked around and noticed the ball that caught Mayuri in the first place was actually connected to Kerubiel's underbelly akin to a hook. Now that he thought about it, when Mayuri attacked them, they disappeared… maybe…

Michael: Let's blow this birdcage.

STAB!

Michael then proceeded to stab through the top of the cage by thrusting the sword upward, also hitting the ball underneath. It did in fact disintegrate… but as a mass of fluttering white feathers as Mayuri's wings. Like a Saturday Morning Cartoon Character who screwed up after pulling the rug underneath their feet, Michael glanced down while the sword was still in the position he held it in.

Michael: … (looks back up) should've thought that throu-WWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAH!

With no wings or any way of flying himself, gravity did its job and pulled Michael down back to earth. Mayuri, without any hesitation, flew down after him with her arms outstretched to catch him, which she was successful at doing. Both teens faces were pretty close together now, and Mayuri was sure her heart beat an extra time. In Michael's case, he was staring yet another cute girl directly in the eyes.

(AN: Ending of Date A Live main anime theme.)

Wordlessly, Mayuri carried him to safety and back toward the other Spirits. Kerubiel did try attacking them with its cannon, most likely only meaning to target Michael, but a barrier of golden protected them, Mayuri's power shielding them both from harm.

"You okay, Michael?" Tohka asked, not sounding as mad anymore but probably still was, and Ofcourse was still concerned for Michael's safety from his plan.

Mayuri was the one to answer. "He's fine. I got him." She said, then turned back to look at Kerubiel. "I've been trying to stop it, but Kerubiel won't listen to me."

"Then we'll have to shut it down manually." Kotori said. Now with Mayuri safe, there was no reason to hold back. That Angel was a threat that needed to be neutralized.

Kerubiel for some reason, began swirling around on itself like when it first manifested but in reverse, only being a lone black ball now.

*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!*

Fraxinus' alarm system began going crazy at that point. The equipment that was scanning the entire area detected Spirit Power dropping, which signaled an Inverse. This confused them as well as the teens fighting the Angel, as none of their emotional states should be triggering an Inverse.

They quickly realized… it wasn't the girls…

Kerubiel's body parts swirled back out, looking completely different from before. Also much darker.

"Did that thing just… Inverse?" Michael asked, shocked that it happened, and as quickly as it did. Well duh, it was an Angel, so right now it was a Demon King, but it appeared instantaneous and at will almost; whereas from Tohka's case, it took about a minute to reach that point.

Kerubiel's Demon King form still had its black ball body, except now its wings were detached from its main body while connected only by white electricity. Speaking of the wings, they were also black and the gems were glowing yellow, as well as appearing less angel-like and more raven-like (but not feathery) and also upside down. It no longer had gears below it, and its tail was still a chain but was now pointed upward behind it instead of down.

Michael couldn't help but wonder if this was also a visual representation of what Mayuri would also look Inversed, not to say he would've wanted to deal with that.

Inversed Astral Dressed were hot if he was being completely honest… in a scarily, twisted way…

Mayuri's eyes narrowed… this had gone on long enough. "Sit here." Mayuri said, letting go of Michael with one hand but still keeping him secured in the other. Using her now free hand, she summoned forth a oval of light next to her before placing Michael on it.

Mayuri then flew a bit further away from the group… hang on… was she seriously going to fight that thing?! Alone?!

Before anyone could talk her out of it, Kerubiel's cannon reemerged and charged up before firing it. This is where Mayuri's eyes flashed…

The same barrier that blocked Kurumi's shadow arms was summoned around the entire group, shielding them all from the deadly electricity. The other girls were flabbergasted. It took the combined power of multiple of them just to match this Angel's power, but Mayuri was able to block an attack by herself, and now here it goes Inverse and yet was stopped solely by her.

Yes it made sense as she was the owner, the operator as Michael put it, but it was crazy to them a single Spirit was able to match something this strong.

Mayuri then lifted up both her hands and formed a ball of yellow Reiryoku, where it then flew at Kerubiel at a pretty decent speed, but it surely didn't look like it was going to do much. It flew up above the Demon King, where it grew 4 wings like Mayuri's non-transcendent ones…

*shine*… BOOOOOOOOM!

Kerubiel roared out in pain as the same ball then shined before causing a large downwards explosion below itself that covered nearly its entire body except the tips of its wings. After that, 4 yellow crystals spawned around Kerubiel from 4 different angles and began shooting yellow flashes at it, this attack being ironically similar to the eye-flashing attack Kerubiel used in its Angel form.

Mayuri then did a twirl while building up yellow electricity around her body, which then separated into four balls of sparking electrical power. Finishing this move with an extended arm and open palm, these balls homed-in on her target, being her own Angel/Demon King, where each gave off a harsh explosion after making contact, making Kerubiel cry out further.

Mayuri wasn't done with her assault just yet, and now pulling back her arm and extending the opposing one, the ends of a crossbow formed on this arm before she pulled back with her free hand what looked like an arrow of yellow lightning. This crossbow was similar to Kaguya's and Yuzuru's combined Angel but only half the size. She held the arrow there, it sparking as if it was further charging up the damage output.

Only when her previous attacks began to fizzle out, is when she released the arrow…

BOOOOOOOOM!

Kerubiel let out another pained cry, a much louder one this time that threatened to topple a skyscraper. The sheer power Mayuri had unloaded into her own Angel/Demon King had caused a large explosion and smoke, the other girls and Michael's mouths all dropping open.

Like any Spirit, Mayuri was cute, but seriously not one to be underestimated.

…

…

…

Mayuri gasped suddenly, and it was revealed the Inversed Kerubiel, although heavily damaged by her attacks, was still flying after the smoke settled.

"Seriously?!" Mana blurted out.

"Shock!… It's still alive?!" Yuzuru said, unable to contain her surprise. Everyone was rightfully shook up by this. Even after all the power that's been thrown at it throughout this entire fight, then being given a wallop by Mayuri herself, it STILL did not quit! This Spirit Defense System adamantly refused to go down!

"grrrrrrrrr…" Kerubiel growled this time, a deep and very demonic-like growl that fit its new appearnce. "… grrrrrrr-RAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-aaaaaaaaaooooooooooooooo…" Betrayed by its own master, Kerubiel folded in on itself again but nothing immediately came out this time. No wings, no tails, no nothing. It weirdly looked like it shrunk a bit as well, but it also appeared to go back to its orb state…

According to Fraxinus, its energy levels shop back up, yet it didn't go up to the positives or return to Angel form either… now what was it doing?

…

…

…

CLAMP!

The tiny orb that was once Kerubiel was swallowed up by black flaps before those same flaps extended into a large drill, effectively doubling its size many times over. On its back, it grew wings and while they had the colors of its Angel state including the gems, the wings had the shape of its Inverse ones. It no longer had a tail in this form, and it also grew horns on its sides that were more devilish and pointy than when it would use the electrifying horn attack.

This seemed to look awfully like a state between both its Angel and Demon King forms. How that was possible, they couldn't be sure, or if this was a special ability exclusive to the Defense System itself should it ever encounter a huge enough threat… though Kerubiel sounded extremely pissed off when it initially started this transformation.

It almost seemed like this Angel had a mind if its own.

"What did it just do?" Miku asked.

"That… can't be another Inverse, can it?" Asked Kurumi, as even she wasn't sure what to make of this.

Kerubiel then summoned a ball of blue electricity on the tip of its drill…

"It's Final Form…" Mayuri's shaky voice gave Kerubiel's newest transformation a name: "Lahathelev…"

… BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST!

That blue ball then expanded into a very large beam, heading straight for the group including Mayuri! Instinctively, Mayuri used her hands and summoned another barrier again, but she actually recoiled a bit and grunted while doing do. She was obviously struggling against Kerubiel's Final Form, and the barrier itself began cracking.

"GRRRRRRR!… GET BACK!" Mayuri shouted in warning and distress while slowly turning her head to look at the group behind her. They did get out of the way with Kotori grabbing Michael…

SHATTER!

It was in the nick of time, because Mayuri's shield completely failed less than a second later as the Blue electrical been continued on towards the mountains…

KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Those same mountains were engulfed in a large blaze, completely and utterly destroyed. The news drone watching portrayed this on the news, but that wasn't necessary due to how large the blaze was. The entire city saw it, and even felt the heat from it wash over like a heat wave.

Nobodies mouth wasn't open.

"That things WAY stronger than it was either time before!" Yoshinon said.

"… hold this!" Kotori tossed Michael aside, him getting nervous he'll fall, but Kurumi was the one to catch him. "Reine!" Kotori called upon Reine via an earpiece she had.

"We have the results." Reine said, sounding like she had recovered from her initial shock when she mentioned the Spirits Transcended… whatever that meant. "None of your attacks will do single thing to that Angel in your current states."

"Seriously?" Kotori wanted confirmation on what she heard.

"The Angel's readings are nearly off the charts." Reine continued. "If you can all focus on a single spot, then maybe you can damage it; but with such a high Reiryoku level, I'm not you'll have enough time before your powers return to Michael."

"But how will…?" Kotori was asking, but here's where Mayuri grabbed Tohka's wrist. She was confused as to why, especially because the blond girl had a serious look on her face.

"Tohka? Do you trust me?" Mayuri asked.

Tohka really thought about that… she didn't know honestly. First this girl spies on all of them, kidnaps Michael, summons this Angel… sure she attacked it afterward, but Mayuri was a mystery to her.

"… yes?" Was Tohka's rather unsure answer, but that's all Mayuri needed to hear as she and Tohka both began to glow.

What occurred then was a strange fluctuation of Reiryoku that resonated with the other Spirits present, but only the ones Mayuri was summoned from so Kurumi wasn't affected by this. Each effected Spirit glowed just like the moment before their powers returned.

"Awe. What is this?" Yuzuru asked. It was strangely beautiful display they had to admit.

"With my power as a catalyst…" Mayuri said, then a ring of the affected Spirits energies formed above Mayuri and Tohka, though it was more specifically focusing on the latter of the two. It was clear what Mayuri was doing: she was acting as she said, like a catalyst to fuse their powers together.

"I… I feel it…" Tohka said, thoroughly amazed at what she was feeling, and her Astral Dress was glowing while simultaneously undergoing a transformation. In the hand Mayuri was touching was a blade shape taking form as well.

"GRRRRR-RAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Kerubiel began charging up the same attack again, blue electricity swirling and taking the shape of a ball at the drills tip. They were in a defenseless position and if its owner couldn't block it, then none of them had a chance in hell.

Mana was the one to fly at it, and a few 10's of Kurumi giggling behind her. "Mana, don't!" Michael called out in worry as a Kurumi (obviously the real one) was still holding him…

BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST!

Kerubiel launched its most powerful attack again, making a bee line to the groups location, but Mana had triggered her Territory to block it. Before it actually hit her is when she noticed the Kurumi army fly around and in front of her, taking the attack head on and obviously failing, but doing this in an attempt to soften the blow.

It still wasn't enough as just like Mayuri's barrier, even Mana's cracked nearly immediately.

SHATTER!

The attack went successfully through, but the attack from Kerubiel was softened enough so by the time her Territory was destroyed, she was able to survive the attack. Alarms were going off on her Realizer, signaling it was practically empty, and she would have fallen to the city below if a black hole didn't form below her and a certain Spirit grab hold of her before pulling her in.

XXX

Mana was then shown arising from another black hole with a Kurumi letting her go as they were both out of danger. Mana looked at the Spirit in question.

Kurumi: (points to Mana playfully with a smile) You owe me.

…

SLASH!

Mana cut her head off with her blade as a 'thank you'. Kurumi dissolved into shadows, which by this point Mana already anticipated.

"Yeah. I did." She said as she sheathed her blade, but knew she wasn't gonna be much more help in this fight. It was up to her cousin and the Spirits now.

XXX

With Mana down, Kerubiel began flying towards the group. Without thinking twice, Michael broke out of Kurumi's grasp surprising her and grabbed Tohka's Sandalphon from her as he stupidly dove at the twice-as-massive Angel flew at them.

Tohka: Michael!

Kotori: Michael, what are you doing?!

Kurumi: Get back here, you idiot!

Each of the girls called his name as Michael raised the sword to strike the Angel when it gets into range, each girl worriedly calling him from how sudden the action was. Yes, he knew this was stupid, and yes maybe he had 'lost his damn mind' as Kotori would say… but maybe if he could buy some time, even if just a few seconds to keep the Angel's attention off the girls just long enough so Tohka could finish her power up…

WRAP!

Remember that metal cage that caught Mayuri? Well from the back directly behind the Angel, those same extensions shot out and captured Michael by wrapping around his body when he got close enough, causing him to also drop Sandalphon in the process.

"GRRRRR-RAAAAAAAAAAAA!" And from its tip, Kerubiel charged its ball of electrifying death for a third time, going for a point-blank range shot on its prey with Michael being held maybe 5 feet away from it, it so close he could feel the intense power radiating off of it.

He was staring Death right in the face.

Tohka stared at the sight Michael was in. Whatever angry emotions Tohka was still feeling towards Michael completely vanished from her person, the sight of him in mortal danger and risk losing him again too much for her to bare.

"MICH-AEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL!" Tohka screamed, and that was the final push she needed…

SHINE!

Tohka's Astral Dress finally finished taking on its new form, fused with the power of 5 other Spirits thanks to one extra being able to transfer it. It had the lily flowers of Miku, the leg straps of Kaguya and Yuzuru, the sash from Kotori, and a portion of the skirt of Yoshino. Tohka still had her own armor of course, and in addition to that, she appeared to grow a single pair of wings that did have a slight similarity to Mayuri's but were made of black and gold armor, while still having portions of her own purple armor in it. Another unique trait gained from this transformation were gold claws.

With nothing stopping her, armed with a new Angel (which was also a sword like Sandalphon), dove down towards Michael and Kerubiel with speed that even the Yamais' couldn't reach, and probably not even Kurumi with Aleph either. The girls were stunned as how fast she flew.

Without a current explanation in Michael's point of view, the cage-like extensions keeping him hostage were suddenly sliced and he was set free by something cutting him free in the same second, but he was also grabbed by something just before he would have fell to his death. Additionally, that was also the exact same moment Kerubiel fired, it's electric beam piercing into the sky through the clouds until an electrical explosion went off somewhere in the atmosphere.

'What the…?' Michael asked himself what was going on, but then noticed who was holding him. "Tohka?" He asked as he took in her new appearance. she definitely looked more fierce in this form… and was it just him, or did she also look a bit hotter? More skin was shown here than her normal form, close to bordering on par with her Inverse.

Or maybe Diva and Nightmare were right, and slim girls that had fierce appearances were his type.

"Leave the rest to me." She simply told him, Mayuri coming over to hold him so he wouldn't fall as Tohka prepared to engage the Defense System once again. The group could only pray this was enough, this was their last chance, and Kerubiel growled at Tohka while charging its electric beam a fourth time.

The news drone was also watching Tohka engage the Angel, but the footage was still kind of fuzzy.

"Can't you enhance the footage, you big oaf!" Asked the Reporter to one of her editors. Before he could answer back, she continued when she noticed a lone girl (Tohka) take a stand against the monster (Kerubiel). "Zoom in! Right there!" She ordered, pointing to the girl (Tohka).

Not wanting to annoy his boss any further, the editor did as asked and zoomed in on the fight as much as the drones camera would allow. Sure enough, it gave a closer view of the fight, and even the picture was a bit clearer. Everyone was shocked at what they were seeing, a lone girl the only thing standing in the way of a shape-shifting monster.

A certain trio of girls also saw this and they all gaped and blinked. The girl taking the monster on was stunning beautiful, and her figure was near perfection… but those eyes… that hair… and the ribbon in it…

Aii, Mai and Mi looked at each other once before looking back at the screen and the girl on it… was that…?

BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST!

Kerubiel fired at Tohka, but she used both her new Angel and newly regenerated Sandalphon together to cut into the attack in a T-Cross formation by throwing her swords like boomerangs, causing a massive explosion and completely nullifying any effect it would have had on her! Bits and pieces from the attack fell down into the Bound Wrap Territory, where while it protected the city and its people, cracks finally formed in it.

Kerubiel attacked again, this time its wings flapping forward so it can use the gem-beam attack from all 4 wings. These beams were much thicker and didn't appear to charge up at all, merely just shoot out. However this proved ineffective, as Tohka's massive power increase also applied to her Astral Dress, the beams unable to pierce through a barrier her Dress generated.

"GRRRRR-RAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Probably angry its last 2 attacks was cancelled out by Tohka, Kerubiel was now using a variation of the Electric Beam move. This time, tiny holes opened up on its drill, before blue electricity and Spirit Power was fired at Tohka like the Eye-Flashing attack; only this time more akin to a barrel/gatling gun more than a machine gun.

All Tohka did was slash her 2 swords with blinding speed like how her Inverse did against Ellen, completely deflecting the entire attack. No matter what Kerubiel appeared to try, its attacks appeared unable to scratch Tohka in her current state.

However when Tohka finally finished deflecting all of the shots, that's when the Bound Wrap finally shattered. After enduring so much energy from all 3 of Kerubiel's forms, along with the other Spirits powers whilst they were fighting it, and even some of Fraxinus' own power; the Territory had finally reached it's limit and was unable to contain that power any longer.

"HYAH!" Tohka then launched both her swords like boomerangs again, the attack cutting 3 of Kerubiel's wings off while severely grazing a fourth. The Angel cried out from this and even lost a little bit of altitude as well. It finally looked like they had a winning strategy.

"It's still not enough." Mayuri said as Michael looked at her, and the moment after doing so; Kerubiel, despite the heavy damage it had sustained throughout the entire fight, began regrowing its wings via Reiryoku. While this was happening very slowly, this was still a problem. "Even if Tohka can match Kerubiel in strength now, unless she destroys it in one go, it'll just keep regenerating with Spirit Power!"

Michael looked back at the fight… while Tohka was definitely a fighter, there's no telling how long she can sustain this form. And even if she could, Fraxinus' barrier has been completely wiped out so if the fight continues, there's nothing to protect the people below! Someone could get seriously hurt, or worse!

"So; what? There's no end to this thing? It'll just keep coming back?!" Michael snapped while looking at the fight, wondering if this stupid Judgement thing would ever end! Kerubiel, by all counts, really did seem like the perfect defense system. It learned, it grew stronger, and if all else fails, it could just regenerate any injuries until the threat tired itself out.

Actually, it then hit him…

"… Miranda? Is there a way to cut off it's Reiryo-FFFFFFHHHHH?" Michael got Mayuri's name wrong, but he couldn't finish his question because she ended up kissing him on the lips and her body started glowing. Since they were behind all of the Spirits, they didn't notice she did this.

"raaaaaaaaa…" Kerubiel also glowed at the exact same time, giving off a much different cry than any of its previous ones. It didn't sound like anger or pain, more like the sound you make when you moan when you don't wanna get out of bed because you're still tired.

And on Fraxinus, Kerubiel's Reiryoku Levels dropped down to zero. Its was quite odd, as there was no steady decline like you would see in a stock chart in a business… it just went from 100 to zip like that.

Tohka saw an opportunity to strike with Kerubiel now, and while she didn't why, she still took it. "Sandalphon!" First Tohka caught back her main Angel after throwing at Kerubiel from before. "Shekinah!" She caught her newest Angel before flaring her own Reiryoku as much as she could, preparing for one final strike.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Kerubiel, though its body was still not fully recovered, flew up at Tohka. With its Spirit Power now cut off and no way to heal itself or attack from long range, this was clearly an act of desperation by the Angel.

WWWWWWWHIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRL!

CLASH!

Tohka and the Angel, like Michael and Inverse Tohka had done before, clashed into each other and tried pushing the other off, the Angel's drill spinning like an actual drill would. While it couldn't use Reiryoku and was now just a weapon without ammunition, that didn't mean it wasn't still dangerous and was still very capable of attacking. Sparks from the drill and the clashing dual swords danced between them, the Spirit grunting and the Angel growling.

If one faltered: the opposer wins.

Seeing Tohka struggle during this part of the showdown, the other Spirits gathered whatever a little energy they had left, and joined in Tohka's final assault. Yoshino fired an ice beam, the Yamais' a tornado, Kotori her flame cannon, Kurumi her bullets, and Miku a sang wave.

All these attacks hit different spots on Kerubiel's drill. Kotori's cannon and Miku's song hitting from the right side of Tohka, Yoshino's beam and the Yamais' tornado hitting from the left of Tohka, and Kurumi's bullets hitting from both sides of Tohka; helping with what they could in a final effort to finally push the super-strong Angel back.

CLANG!

"uurrrrrrrrrrr…" Kerubiel, unable to take anymore, recoiled slowly upwards right as the attacks from the other Spirits ran out of power. This was finally Tohka's opening that she needed! Not wanting to give this monstrous Angel even one second, she flew up to the tip of its drill with instantaneous movement.

"HHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAA…!" Tohka, with all her strength or whatever remained of it, pulled back both her Angels…

SLASH!

And in a cross formation, slashed the defense system with all the power she could muster… the entire Angel's body began to turn gray and bubble up all over from the point of injury…

POOF!

Kerubiel then exploded in a mass of feathers, and this continued to happen all over its body until every last inch of it was turned into feathers and flew away in the breeze. The Defense System, after a harsh battle, had finally been destroyed.

The resulting force of the explosions caused the news drone to malfunction from the sudden turbulence generated from the destruction and it completely shut down, falling back to the city where it would impact the street at some point. The reporter of course complained about this, shouting inaudible words in annoyance, but the images from that intense news coverage burned in the peoples brains… especially appearance of that purple-haired girl with a certain trio that was still processing that information.

"… you idiot!" Came Michael's strained voice that sounded like he was trying to control his emotions, but none of the girls understood why he did that, at least not until after they turned around to see why…

Mayuri's body was slowly vanishing.

"Why the fuck did you do that?" Michael asked Mayuri, obviously understanding what was going on. Since he kissed her, though technically her kissing him, she was being Sealed. But like Rinne, who lacked a physical body, she too was disappearing.

"It was the only way… the only to weaken Kerubiel…" Mayuri said, her voice sounding weak.

"Look; if you wanted to help us stop that thing, that's cool," Michael said, coping by making a joke despite the clear sad emotion still on his face. "But to take it this far? Tohka was winning!"

"Baka…" Mayuri said, very much like how Tohka would say it, which only struck Michael in his heart that much harder. She also said this with a smile on her face. "Even if she was, the city wouldn't have… I was designed to protect, Michael. That's my function. I technically failed."

"Listen to me! You didn't fucking fail!" Michael insisted. "You helped us stop its Inverse, and gave Tohka a new…"

"But I did, Michael…" Mayuri cut him off. "I wasn't designed to have emotions… and I made of the others… Not just their stress, Michael… everything…" Mayuri explained, she then laughed. "Guess that makes me an Inheritor too, huh?… Another thing we have in common."

Michael sort of got the gist of what this now disappearing Spirit was telling him, but she continued to speak. "While your power is different from the Original Vessel… how Sealing is done is the same… and since I was made by them… how could I not?" Mayuri admitted to liking Michael, maybe not necessarily loving him, but definitely liking him. She was made by the others' love for him, meaning it was impossible for her to not dislike him.

"I was jealous… jealous I was destined to repeat the same thing over and over again…" she then confirmed Michael's earlier theory, which hurt even more. "And you tried… you really tried to give me a chance… you ended up once again doing the right thing…" her cracked a little there, a small tear did come out one of her pretty pink eyes.

"Everytime I return to the nothingness, I'd keep having the same reoccurring dream… no one can see me… no one could hear me…" she confided in him. "But you… you were able to see… able to listen… it made me feel alive…"

At this point, even the other Spirits began to sympathize with her… she was speaking of one of the many reasons they also fell for Michael. He did see them. He did listen. And as a result, they were all saved by him.

Mayuri was now barely there, appearing more transparent then she was solid. As a result of this, the fusion form of Tohka began to fade and glittering energy returned to the other girls… seeing as Mayuri was the one that initiated that transformation… since she was no longer about to be here…

Michael wanted to say something, but the words were caught his throat, his teeth clenched as he still tried to control the emotions he was feeling.

"Now that I've met you, one thing is really clear…" Even Mayuri's voice sounded like it was disappearing, as if she was slowly walking away and you can barely hear that person talk to you as a distance between you both increase. "Your going to be the one to break the Cycle… defeat the Resetter… and give everybody a happy ending…" Mayuri began saying her final words, it being extremely difficult for her to maintain her current form. "Knowing I was part of that… that's enough…"

"Wai…!" Michael didn't even get to finish what he was saying, as Mayuri completely vanished in his arms in golden light until that dimmed and she was gone. Tohka, now back in her regular Astral Dress, flew over to Michael to hold him.

The only things Mayuri left behind… were the 100 yen pendant, and one of Kotori's lollipops she had taken…

Hearing Mayuri's dying words sent the feels to everyone present… including Michael, but he still try to hold in by tightly clenching the two items in his fists. Anyone could see he was hurting, maybe not because he had any feelings for Mayuri, but felt it was unfair… unfair that a girl who was basically destined to disappear and reappear over and over again, attempted to take her own path for just once…

And yet… she still succumbed to her destined fate…

While Michael didn't cry when Rinne passed, he did now. Crying as Tohka hugged him from behind for emotional support. The other Spirits gathered around too, again for emotional support.

What none of them knew was… the blue Battlelog in Michael's pocket slowly turned yellow, and it's symbol changed to a lightning bolt…

END.

Before you ask, Kerubiel's Inverse is actually based on its alternate form during its boss fight in the Spirit Pledge game. This includes some of Mayuri's powers as well, so it's not like I just pulled them out of my ass or made them up by imagination. They are canon to both her and her Angel, even if the wiki hasn't acknowledged it.

You may notice that I didn't do the very end of the movie where the girls want to go on another round of dates with the MC. That's because there's an epilogue after this, one that will be coming to you very shortly, which has a different ending from canon.

Not much else to say at the moment, only that I hoped you enjoyed the conclusion to the movie. And with this finally done, the official story is right around the corner. I'll be seeing you in the epilogue. Read and Review!