Date A Re:Live
S1 Chapter 09: Yoshino Duality, Part 3
By : Tohka_Yatogami
...
Summary
Even a similar story can take it's own path. Shido and Mana are amnesiac siblings living with their friend Kotori, however the past catches up to Shido when he nearly runs into a space quake, and his world changes as one girl asks... "Are you here to kill me?" (Stronger Ratatoskr, weaker DEM, games & movie are canon to story) [Shido/Tohka/Harem]
Before we begin, I'd like to give thanks to my friend and fellow author Cryocene, author of the amazing DAL stories "Alternate Reincarnation" and "Angelic Darkness", for sharing something in his/her review about my mythological references I wasn't aware of. But first... my apologies for my choice of wording about Ragnarok in last chapter's end notes, I meant to imply more along the lines that a long winter was important to it, not the entirety of the event.
Anyways, what this review included was how Surtr is the one who ends Ragnarok by giving the whole world a fiery death, so my choice of giving the Nidhoggr machine black flames worked even better, because it shows I'm using two of prominent parts of Ragnarok together which I really like. Not to mention that there's a dual motif to water in ice in many religions, such as the spring of life, and yet it also represents the depths of death.
I honestly hadn't realized I had managed to make such a deep and different connection with Yoshino and Yoshinon as a result, or how fitting making the arc's name "Yoshinon Duality" as a result. I honestly only had Yoshinon take over Yoshino's body because the Inverse illustration implies it via Yoshino wearing an eye patch and Yoshinon not wearing one. I'm happy it managed to evolve it something much more than that.
With that thank you and bit of trivia out of the way, let's finally bring an end to the Yoshino arc.
S1 Chapter 09: Yoshino Duality, Part 3
"TOHKA! ORIGAMI!" Shido screamed.
The sight of the two heavily frozen spirits entered everyone's view as they could only look in horror at what they were seeing. Shido had been nearly hit by an intense mass of the freezing ice flames and both Tohka and Origami rushed in to push him away, only to take Shido's place in the prison of ice before them now. Shido screaming as tears flowed down his face, and Yoshinon stared in horror at what she had done.
"I just... I just made someone scream, show the same terror as Yoshino did that day." Yoshinon mutters to herself, her one visible eye shaking. She held her hands on her head as she struggled to avoid losing it with little success. "I'm... no different than the ones who bullied Yoshino. I've become the bully."
At that moment, Yoshinon screams loudly, nearly clawing at her face as her Demon King turns to her in worry.
[Master? Master, please calm down, don't-]
The Demon King never got to finish as it roared in pain, the black flames of Nidhoggr blasting it and sending it and Yoshinon flying. The Inverse Spirit tumbled and rolled across the ground until she crashed into a building and Astaroth was simply thrown into a wall of a building, cracking slightly as it takes damage.
"Good riddance, without those two in the way and you a complete mess, capturing you will be little trouble." Ellen said, her smugness projecting through Nidhoggr's speakers as parts of the machine open up to prepare an additional two spots to blast its black fire. "Now, time to kill you and take your-"
Suddenly Shido gave off an inhuman scream at that moment, his anger flaring off to a degree that everyone felt it, even the Nidhoggr machine did before Shido suddenly ran up a building with Sandalphon in hand, both Tohka and Origami's spirit power flaring off of him like nuclear radiation.
[What the? This is, no... Shido! Stop this right now, if you don't you'll-]
Mio's voice suddenly became too overwhelmed by the mass of power and she screamed, Shido roared even louder and the purple and white waves of power emitting off of Shido actually spread out and grew even stronger than before.
"What the hell?" Ellen wondered.
"What's happening?" Ryouko breathed, suddenly terrified. Mikie hugged her and screamed with her eyes closed. Feeling a panic attack as she recalled the fear from the time she was nearly caught in one of Tohka's Spacequakes.
"Big brother... oh no, his rage. He's losing himself to his anger." Mana breathed, soon running closer and screaming. "STOP IT BIG BROTHER! Don't do it, don't give into your rage! You have no idea what could happen while you're using your powers!"
Shido screamed as he swung Sandalphon into Nidhoggr endlessly, looking like a rabid animal mauling and ripping into its prey, either for food, enjoyment or as of killing for mere sport. He only kept slashing to just attack the machine as it keeps regenerating and healing from the damage left it.
"Ellen! This is your fault, if you weren't here the two I love would still be here! It's because of you that Yoshino froze them in ice!" Shido roared, still slashing into Nidhoggr without bothering to try to find the source of its regeneration.
"It's you! It's always been you, and everyone else working for that madman! You took everything from me, took everything from Mana! Took so much away from Tohka I didn't even know what you stole from here! Everything in this world since that day is your fault! You'll die today, I'll smash this thing until you bleed to a bloody death from your end! I'll give you the cruelest and most unmerciful death you can imagine!"
"My god... there's no positive emotion inside her right now. All that's there is sadness, rage, despair and even fear." Ryouko gasped.
"You honestly think you can kill me via a machine? I think I'll just take you out-" Ellen began replying, though suddenly she heard some alarms go off from the Nidhoggr's sensors. "Huh, what is... wait, what!?"
Soon even more spirit power began to flood and flare off Shido's body, and soon it began to spread where the Nidhoggr's own arm began to slightly burn while some of the city begins to crumble. Spacequake alarms begin flaring off everywhere.
"W-what's happening!?" Mana gasped, suddenly looking around for ripples but seeing none.
"This is... are Shido's powers starting to go out of control?" Mikie gasped, having opened her eyes in worry when they heard the alarms went off. "Captain Ryouko, Mana? What's happening!?"
"...I don't know." Ryouko said, only able to stare at the monstrous power Shido was emitting. Mana simply shakes her head to show she was just as clueless... all anyone knew was that the spirit power sealed within Shido was go rampant from his rage.
"He's... lost all control." Mana breathed.
Meanwhile back at Tenguu City, the Spacequake alarms had somehow managed to be activated despite Shido's presence in Tokyo. Everyone in Ratatoskr were rushing to discover what could be going on.
"Spacequake are being detected in Okinawa as well!" Shiizaki replied, checking some readings. "We still can't get into contact with Maria to confirm the situation either!"
"It's not just Okinawa, the entire Kanto prefecture is getting Spacequake warnings all at once!" Nakatsugawa adds, seeing the caution signs appearing in Japan's middle east section.
"What's happening out there? It sounds like that this rate that the entire middle east of Japan will be destroyed!" Kannazuki replied, suddenly sweating at all the reports showing up. "Commander Reine, do we have any idea what's going on?"
"...There's only one thing I can think of." Reine answered, getting all eyes on here.
"I think we all recall how 13 years ago there were two spirits who had their quakes collide, because they weren't equal in timing and magnitude they amplified each other. The only luck we had was at the time, these quakes were over the ocean where damage was next to nothing. For this however... we're witnessing the power of two Spirits' stacked on each other. That can only mean something's happened to Shido, and while maybe not a Spacequake, a force just as bad might be about to fire off."
"B-but what could be making Shido emit this? Are you sure it's even Shido?" Tamae asked, hoping that it wasn't as bad as everyone thought.
"It has to be, and his rage would need to be extremely high for this. Which means..." Reine soon showed a single drop of sweat, and that was enough to worry everyone. Reine rarely ever showed such strong signs of worry.
"...Something's happened to Tohka and/or Origami"
"Damn it, this is bad." Ellen muttered, grunting as she got the readings from the Nidhoggr's scans. "At this rate Arubi Island will be in the vicinity of mass destruction, and there's no way I can get Ike away in time. Nor can anyone else on the island."
Ellen tries to make the Nidhoggr shake Shido off, shaking, turning and even flying upside down as Shido kept striking with the full intent to keep attacking without interruptions.
"...I must kill this boy now!"
Nidhoggr sets itself ablaze, and Shido was finally forced off, but Shido keeps screaming and rushes at the dragon like machine again. Nidhoggr blasts its black blaze at Shido who simply slashes through it and then jumps at Nidhoggr again, soon slamming the Angel down on it before smashing it into the buildings before it. It's regeneration activating again as it tries to fly back up, firing at Shido again.
"Ah!" Mana screamed as she, Mikie and Ryouko combine their territories together to try and block against the destruction around them. "Stop it Shido! At this rate, the entire city will be wiped off the map before the rest of the immediate area!"
"I WILL DESTROY YOU!" Shido screamed, still smashing the regenerating machine, no closer to defeating it than before.
"It's no good... right now she looks no different than Tohka did during her inversion. Like he only considers murder as the best option." Mikie gasped out, shaking in pure terror. "I don't think we can do anything..."
"Wait, can't we just get Tohka and Origami out of the ice?" Mana questioned, but Ryouko shook her head to her surprise. "Huh? What do you mean no!? If we free them, then he might stop and calm down!"
"It's not that we shouldn't, it's that we don't know if it's safe to break them out." Ryouko answered, she knew the fire was some kind of plasma that ate heat molecules. Combined with the fact a Spirit had done it...
"If were to try breaking them out, there's no guarantee they'd get out without harm. It could be like permafrost or amber and then we'd end up killing them."
Mana and Mikie gasped, soon turning to stare at Shido and Nidhoggr's apocalyptic looking battle. Yoshinon was soon seen still lying on the ground, but not due to being unconscious... she was staring at the wall of the building she crashed into lifelessly. Yoshino soon got up and moved herself near Yoshinon.
"Yoshinon, please get up." Yoshino said softly, shaking her body in an attempt to get Yoshinon to react.
"...why bother?" Yoshinon replied.
"Huh?"
"Come on, your part of me... you saw what happened. I'm no different from everyone who's bullied you. No... I'm even worse, I'm the real bully, the real monster." Yoshino answered, her body shaking at the horror echoing through her mind.
"I was born because you wanted me to be your hero, to have someone to protect you. I thought I was doing that, I didn't think that it was wrong to use such force against the people that attacked us. Yet look at me now... I took everyone who neared you as an enemy, yet that girl brought you back to me when you dropped me and were scared. Then that boy's screams... it was so awful, they were the same as yours. Now two innocent people are frozen forever, if I try to help I'll only bring more damage."
Yoshinon's single eye sheds tears as a crying whimper begins to escape her mouth, the puppet with Yoshino inside it stares for a moment, but then suddenly the V shaped mouth opens along with the eyes to become blue dots.
"...Then let me be your hero this time." Yoshino said.
"Huh?" Yoshino suddenly gasped, looking at Yoshino in surprise. "What?"
"You remember don't you, why you were born. Why you became more than just a part of me." Yoshino asked, moving closer and cupping Yoshinon's face.
"You were who I wanted to be, someone so brave, so strong, someone not so pathetic. The greatest person that I wanted to become... but I knew it was who I'd never be. I'm just a shy, scared and timid girl who's too afraid to hurt others and just runs away rather than even trying to fight back."
Yoshinon just keeps staring.
"I realized it so easily... that I don't like pain, or being scared, I'm a big scaredy cat. I thought anything that feels had to despise them, even when they attacked me I was sure everyone did so was as scared as I was. Maybe I was wrong, I still don't know if I really was or not. When I got afraid, I'd freeze up, I couldn't move, think or speak and that left me doing nothing but standing there hoping I'd be saved. Then you came, you saved me, gave me the strength I didn't have on my own."
"Yoshino..." Yoshinon breathed.
"You were by courage, my strength, and most of all... you were my friend. Now, I want to be there for you. You've given so much to me, it wouldn't be fair if at least once I didn't pay you back for everything you've done for me." Yoshino finally finished, holding onto Yoshinon's hand. Yoshinon's visible eye shined at that.
"You'd still trust me? Even if I end up making another mistake like this one?" Yoshinon asked, and Yoshinon nods at her. Yoshinon's single eye closes before tears come out of it and underneath the eye patch.
"You're... so kind Yoshino, I don't know what I did to deserve you."
[Master, I will fight with you too!]
Yoshinon and Yoshino look to see the still damaged Astaroth get up and walk towards them, soon picking them up and tossing them on its back.
"Astaroth..." Yoshinon breathed, soon looking outside and noticing Shido's rampage. "...Come on, we started this mess! Now it's time we clean it up!"
Astaroth's eyes glow in approval and rushes forward, soon taking to the skies.
"TRISHULA!"
With that call, Astaroth's big body became distorted and was absorbed through the control strings connected to Yoshinon's fingers. The dense light stored in the strings coiled around Yoshino's body as a dark blue light formed. The others all notice it and turn around to see it.
The light settled down and soon, Yoshinon could finally be seen. She was now wearing a black armor, though if one could call it that was the question as the material couldn't be taken as metal or resins has joined together with the ice flames to cover Yoshinon's Astral dress as if she was wearing Astaroth.
"Let's do this Yoshino!" Yoshinon shouted with determination, soon shooting forward at Nidhoggr and pushing Shido out of the way. The act distracted him briefly as cold air surrounding Yoshinon's body.
After Yoshinon was fully covered with cold air, she thrust both her hands forward and joined her fingers, a cyclone-like blizzard covered her arms and formed a gigantic cone. She gave a mighty yell as she twisted her joined arms with all her might and drilled through Nidhoggr.
"What the!?" Ellen's voice projected from the machine, surprised by Yoshinon's sudden power.
"Today is the first day-" Yoshino began.
"-That we fight together, rather than alone!" Yoshino finished, the Ice Spirit flying towards the Nidhoggr as it regenerated and began charging its fire at her again.
"Let's do this!" Both shouted together, blasting Nidhoggr with ice again. As they did this, Ryouko noticed while Shido's readings were still going crazy, they were slowly dropping while Yoshinon kept him from landing a hit on Nidhoggr.
"Everyone, it seems that Shido's powers won't worsen while she's got that machine's attention." Ryouko replied to them, but her expression didn't get any happier. "Yet... that may only be a temporary solution."
"Then either we hope she can destroy that machine..." Mana began, soon looking at the frozen Tohka and Origami. "Or they can somehow get out of that ice. Please, both of you..."
Mana soon walked near the ice and put her hand on it, closing her eyes like she was paying with all her willpower.
"Please... save Shido, he needs you!"
Meanwhile inside of Tohka's mind while she was entombed by the ice, she was laying against a, endless black void with her body grayed out, almost as if to represent what was happening outside... her life being sucked away by the cold eating away at what she was.
"[...What do you think you're doing?]" A strange voice asked.
Tohka's body shifted slightly.
"Who's there?" Tohka's voice echoed out.
"[Why are you lying there doing nothing when something terrible is happened to Shido at this very moment?]" The voice asked again.
"...What can I do right now?" Tohka's echo replies, slowly graying out "As I am now, this is probably it for me... and for good this time."
"[...Don't you remember?]" The voice replied.
"Remember... what?" Tohka's echoed questioned.
At the same time, within Origami's mind, she was also in a dark void under the same conditions, but where Tohka had been laying on her back, she was laying on her stomach on the cold dark ground.
"[...So, this is all it takes to finish you off?]" The same voice asked.
Origami's hand twitched briefly.
"...Who are you?" Origami's voice echoed out.
"[Is this really how strong you truly are?]" The voice questioned, sounding disappointed.
"Say what you like, I couldn't do anything." Origami's echo replied, graying out as the seconds passed. "Now I truly can't... and I'm about to perish."
Soon the two voids begin to slowly inch closer to each other.
"[Didn't you say you wanted to help? While Shido's been off fighting or doing something, you've just stood on the sidelines. So much for promising to always protect him.]" The voice replied.
"What... no, that's not true!" Tohka's echo yelled out, her body's graying slowed as it tried to move. "I want to help him more than anything, but I can't! How can I help when I can't, you think I want this!? I want to walk by his side to the bitter end!"
"[Then what's stopping you Tohka Yatogami? Don't you realize, you've always had the means to finally rise up by his side.]" The voice stated.
"Huh?" Tohka's echo asked.
"[Don't you love him? No, I don't need to ask, you DO love him. For that reason, in the end...]"
Soon a figure of pink energy walks by Tohka's body.
"[...That's all you need to stand by him.]" The voice revealed, taking hold of her left hand.
The voids keep closing in on each other.
"[Did you already forget? For years, you were consumed by your despair, you had nothing inside of you.]" The voice questioned.
"No, I haven't forgotten..." Origami's echo answered, her body frowning a bit as it's graying slowed. "I had no hope, no future, I was only living because Phantom said I had to try to keep living."
"[And who was the man who gave you that hope you were searching for, who told you what it meant to live again? It was Shido, so why are you just lying here now?]"The voice answered, trying to encourage Origami.
"How am I supposed to? I want to, but I'm too weak... I don't have the strength!" Origami's echo yelled, her body nearly about to cry. "I want to help him... but, how can I?"
"[No, you DO have the strength. It's the same thing Shido gave you. You must give it back in return, don't you see? What your strength is...]"
Just like with Tohka, a figure of pink energy walks by Origami's body.
"[...it's your love for him. Those feelings are all the strength you need, so believe in them.]" The voice smiled, taking her right hand into her own.
At that moment, the two voids fuse, and Tohka and Origami's eyes open up. The two look and see the pink figure, and for a brief moment, they saw her visage's actual appearance within the pink mass of energy. She lowers her head to them slightly, smiling before she fades away.
"Shido..." Both of them reply, their bodies soon stop graying and regain their colors as their spirit power begins to well up. "Don't worry, I'm here for you!"
Soon their Limited Astral Dresses form, before a bright flash takes over the entire void, turning the black into a bright purple and white.
Shido roars as she zooms at Nidhoggr, and Yoshinon was soon knocked out of the way.
"No... not yet, please." Yoshinon said weakly as she flew off, tears in her eyes. "I can't fail here, I can't. If I don't stop this then we'll all die!"
Shido screams and launches on a building, forming Sandalphon's throne and then smashing it to create Halvanhelev. After it forged, he shoots at Nidhoggr and starts slamming the giant blade on the gigantic machine, his strikes spinning it around like a tumbling dice.
"Damn it!" Ellen growled, the warning signals kept growing. "No choice, I'll just have to do this the hard way."
Nidhoggr begins glowing brightly and burns brightly, blasting all it's dark flames on Shido, Shido growling as they push him back. He raises Halvanhelev high and the sword glows red as it overloads with all the power could flood into it.
"PREPARE TO DIE! I don't care how much I have to destroy to do it, I'll annihilate you so badly that it'll be like you were never even born or existed in this world!" Shido screamed, his power making his entire body shake as his power was finally about to detonate to everyone's horror. "Now, time for you to-"
Suddenly a stream of purple and white spirit power flies off from behind Shido and strikes the Nidhoggr, the machine was struck hard and fell onto the ground, crashing into a building. Shido gasped at the sight and suddenly looked to see energy forms of Tohka and Origami on his sides before disappearing.
"Tohka? Origami?" Shido asked, suddenly looking behind him. The others including Yoshinon and even Ellen via the Nidhoggr all watched as the ice began to glow brightly with their respective colors as the bodies of the two frozen girls were seen glowing, and soon the ice slowly cracked... before it shattered apart!
"No way..." Yoshinon breathed out in shock.
Soon from the glowing mass of the spirit power's light, two figures were seen walking out. Tohka walked out of the purple, followed by Origami who walked out of the white, but both of them hadn't walked out in the outfits they had been last wearing... but in their Astral Dresses!
"You're OK... You're OK!" Shido suddenly cried out, his savage flow of Spirit power finally quelled and retreated back into him as he lowered back to the ground and the two walked over to him. "And you've managed to recall your powers? But... but how?"
[This is... it's a miracle!]
"It's simple, we realized just what we were missing. It doesn't take great strength or an unyielding force of will." Origami began, taking Shido's left hand in her right.
"I promised that I would protect you, and Origami said she'd always be there for you. Human or Spirit we will stand by you. That's how we finally achieved recalling our powers to fight alongside you, because..." Tohka finished, taking Shido's right hand in her left. The two both smiling at him.
"Because we both love you Shido." Both said together, Shido smiled and shed some tears before giving a determined look at them in return.
"That's right, this is our bond!" Shido began, and soon he felt a new power well in him. "And now, it's time I showcase that bond to Ellen first hand, so let's do this together!"
Yoshinon flies down before her Trishula armor changes back into a healed Astaroth.
"I'd like to be part of this too, room for one more?" Yoshinon asked giddily, the three smile and nod. "Alright!"
Ellen could only stare in shock through Nidhoggr's visual screens, but it wasn't the fact that [Princess] and [Angel] were with this boy... it was that the readings Nidhoggr picked up from them stated that neither of the two were Spirits. That didn't make any sense! She clearly saw them, but neither was registered as a Spirit?
"What the hell... what the freaking hell! None of this makes any sense." Ellen growled, soon having the Nidhoggr take flight once more. "I may not know what kind of trick you're pulling here, but I assure you now I will capture [Marionette], and then I'll take [Princess] and [Angel] too!"
Nidhoggr charges its black flames, Shido and the Spirits all get in a battle stance, soon Mana and the other two Wizards get by their side as the Nidhoggr prepares its attack. Right as it was about to fire however...
"MEGIDDO!"
Suddenly from behind, the Nidhoggr was struck by a red beam of fire, and tumbled forward in the air to reveal the special core that ran its regeneration program before the giant machine healed the damage once more as usual.
"What the?" Shido suddenly said, everyone else showing the same surprise as he did.
Soon the question to what had surprised them was revealed as a ball of flames spiraled around in midair, covering whatever was inside other than from the fact it had horns and a kimono like outfit. Ryouko and Mikie gasped as they saw her, while Ellen's eyes widened a bit.
"That's Spirit No. 5, the Flame Spirit! What's [Efreet] doing here?" Ryouko gasped, surprised another Spirit had suddenly shown up.
"So now I have four spirits I'll be bringing back? Fine! Try all you want, you're only helping my job." Ellen declared smugly, unaware that everyone had seen the Nidhoggr's core and finally knew where to strike. Origami stared knowing just who the Spirit was.
'Kotori... so this is where you've been, but what happened to your voice?' Origami thought, soon seeing Kotori silently hold out Camael as it transformed back from its cannon form into its axe form. No one aware of her blue-eyed state as she rushed forward.
"Camael!"
Kotori, still cloaked by the flames, slammed into Nidhoggr and knocked the machine into the sky briefly. Nidhoggr prepared to blast its black flames at Kotori when...
"Fire the Mystletainn!" Hiroto shouted from a speaker.
Suddenly the Sagittarius uncloaks and fires a blast of mana, hitting the Nidhoggr strongly and ripping through its weapons. Ellen gasped as the jet came into view. Maria soon appeared on Shido's phone.
"Sorry we're late, but we're OK and here now!" Maria said with a smile.
Mildred smirked from within the ship as the Sagittarius formed a territory and rammed into Nidhoggr to push it away a second time.
"Where the hell are you all coming from!?" Ellen questioned irritably, turning the Nidhoggr as it regained its position.
"Come on everyone, let's do this!" Shido declared, unleashing Halvanhelev's stored power at Nidhoggr to knock it back again. Halvanhelev reverted to its form as Sandalphon shortly after this.
[Yeah, together everyone!]
Everyone nods in response, the Wizards all pull out their signature weapons instantly. Though Yoshinon suddenly darted her head around at the sound of Mio's voice.
'Who said that!?' Yoshino thought, blinking confused.
"Sandalphon!" Tohka called as she stomped the ground, forming the throne and unsheathing her own Sandalphon before taking to the sky with Shido in hand. The two swinging their Sandalphon's together to create slash wave that struck Nidhoggr's additional flare cannons, keeping them from blasting out any flames.
"Metatron!" Origami shouted, her crown glowing as the gold feathery pillars all rise out of the ground. Soon she took to the sky and used her hand to aim them towards the massive DEM weapon. "Kadour - Sword of Light!"
The pillars all break formation and fly at Nidhoggr, stabbing into it like swords. Ellen began to unleash its black flames again, but Kotori slammed Camael into its main fire cannon and jammed it with her own flames to her surprise.
"Taste a large portion of lead, you freak!" Ryouko screamed, stabbing her Cry-Cry-Cry gun into a spot in the Nidhoggr's armor, and begins cackling loudly as all her pent-up stress came out as her constant firing of the weapon.
"Watch out, here comes the pain!" Mikie declared as she formed a pair of sharp daggers, tossing them at Nidhoggr's eyes and blinding the machine in three of them. Making Ellen's range of vision almost zero.
"Damn it all, the Nidhoggr will still just regenerate-"
Suddenly Ellen hears something ripping, and her warning screens show her that the core was exposed as Mana uses Murakumo's swords to cut through the area hiding the core and rip it out. As it tried to regenerate and pull it back in...
"The core's open! Take him out now!" Mana screamed, using all her power to form a territory that locked the core from being pulled back in.
"What!?" Ellen gasped, the Nidhoggr failing to break the territory and putting the core back in place. "Damn it! No choice, time for Nidhoggr's final-"
"Go Sagittarius!" Mildred yelled, the jet flying and creating an energy tether to wrap around the machine and grab it, swinging it behind as it flew until it swung the DEM weapon high up and it began to fall. Ellen could only stare in shock as Yoshinon charged up an ice beam from Astaroth at it.
"And that's game over angry lady!" Yoshinon smirked, snapping as Astaroth fired the beam. The icy blast struck the core, and Ellen saw all the system's fail as her to the machine was about to break.
"NO!" Ellen shouted one last time before the link was shattered.
The core slowly began to crack apart, and after a few more seconds... it completely shattered apart into pieces that fell to the ground, the Nidhoggr's body soon began to shake heavily from all the stress it sustained and quickly exploded. Everyone cheered as they saw the machine finally explode, Shido, Tohka and Origami all reverting to normal while the trio of wizards dispelled their CR-Units.
"See that Yoshino, we did it." Yoshinon smiled, Yoshinon nodded with a smile. Shido soon walks over to her and she notices before making Astaroth disappear and floating to the ground. Once she stood before him...
"I'm sorry about everything, I caused you all so many problems because I thought you were trying to hurt Yoshino without considering I was wrong. Most of all... I nearly took away some of the people most important to you."
Yoshinon suddenly felt herself being pet, making her blush in response.
"W-what are you petting me for!?" Yoshinon asked loudly, still blushing from the sudden contact. "You really are a lucky lecher aren't-"
"It's OK."
Yoshinon blinked in surprise at that.
"I think I get it, you were only trying to protect your friend, not hurting us just because you had the power to." Shido said, smiling at Yoshinon and making the Inverse Ice Spirit stare in awe. This man was so forgiving, even after all she had done... she smiled and bopped Yoshino against her forehead.
"Huh?" Shido wondered, then noticed Yoshinon and Yoshino switch places.
"You really don't hesitate to speak your mind, even if you sound like a dork doing it!" Yoshinon said before laughing a bit, making Shido blush slightly. "But still... you're a good person. Right Yoshino?"
Yoshino nods.
"He is." Yoshino replied, soon looking at Shido. "You're someone we can trust, the first people other than Yoshinon... that I can call a friend."
All of the girls suddenly squeal from Yoshino's cuteness, while Shido smiles.
"Thanks Yoshino, and now it's time I save you so your never alone again. Never have to run away again." Shido said, surprising Yoshino and Yoshinon a bit. Though right after that Shido scratched his cheek and blushed a bit.
"Though... in order for me to save you, there's something we have to do first. Though I'm not sure if you'll want to do it. You see, we have to kiss."
Yoshino blinks at Shido.
"Yeah, expected that reaction. Not to mention it requires a very strong form of trust." Shido continued, scratching his cheek more. Yoshinon keeps staring before looking at Tohka and Origami.
"Both of you really like him, don't you?" Yoshino asked, making the two blush bashfully at the question. "Does he... make you happy?"
The two both showed surprise at that question before smiling and nodding.
"I wouldn't be who I am today if I hadn't met Shido, we're like two halves of a single whole." Tohka said, smiling brightly.
"I was lost, but Shido helped me find my way. I can never thank him enough." Origami replied, blushing a bit. Yoshinon looked at Shido before smiling a bit herself. She didn't know how to explain it, but she felt hearing it from both of them that even if she didn't know, she'd have something special with Shido one day.
"Then... he makes me happy too." Yoshino said, soon surprising everyone as she kisses Shido. She moves back to see the surprised Shido. "Was that OK with you?"
"Y-yeah, it was awesome." Shido said, still blushing a bit. He eyes widened as he took off her coat and put it around Yoshino. He did so just in time as her Astral Dress dissolved away, making it all that covered her. Luckily it did so better than Tohka and Yoshino due to her smaller statue, and as if to help celebrate the moment, the ice melted away and the sky cleared to show a rainbow.
"Amazing." Mana smiled, everyone doing the same as they saw the rainbow above them. At that moment, everyone suddenly heard a groan as Kotori walked out from behind one of the nearby buildings. Rubbing her head a bit, Mana suddenly smiling as she saw her safe.
"Kotori! Thank goodness you weren't hurt, where were you?" Mana asked.
[Yeah, we were worried sick when you suddenly just disappeared out of nowhere!]
"My head was hurting so I went to rest by one of the buildings, please don't be so loud right now..." Kotori lied, though her head did hurt due to her other persona taking over. Origami stared at her and noticed her expression.
'She doesn't look like she's lying, but...' Origami wondered, soon getting confused at trying to explain it in her mind. At that moment, the Sagittarius soon landed down by the group, and Hiroto and Mildred waved at them from the door.
"Come on you guys, let's all get back to Tenguu City now!" Hiroto stated with a smile, Mildred giggling at his comment a bit. Soon everyone gets on the plane, and Yoshino looks around as they did.
"Where are we going?" Yoshino asked, and Shido smiles as he pet her head. Choosing to answer her with just a single word.
"Home."
Westcott noticed Ellen walk in with an angry face, having been her superior for the last 30 years, that was enough to tell him that the mission had failed. He was sure he was going to LOVE hearing about this.
"So, I take it we failed to capture [Marionette]?" Westcott said with a frown, after two failures as of recently he found it a chore to even get angry at it anymore.
"And lost the Nidhoggr presumably, I can't fully confirm it because my connection was cut off, but I'm pretty sure that was enough to confirm it was." Ellen said, angry that she had been beaten by a spirit not once, but twice already. "That's not even the worst of it though... Marina?"
The AI appears from a projector.
"Yes Ellen?" Marina asked, curious to the sudden call.
"Bring up this data I managed to save from the Nidhoggr's readings, you'll both want to see this." Ellen answered as she slid an information disc towards said projector. Marina nodded and tapped it, bringing the recording of Tohka and Origami in their Astral Dresses by Shido.
"[Princess] and [Angel] alongside that boy? So they're regained their powers, that's-" Westcott suddenly saw Ellen hold up her hand, confusing him. "What is it?"
"Ike... look at the Nidhoggr's readings at this exact moment, you'll see exactly what I did." Ellen answered, both Westcott and Marina took a look... and saw the readings that mentioned that they weren't registered as spirits by the machine's detection system.
"What!? They're wearing their Astral Dresses, and yet they're not labeled as Spirits?" Westcott gasped, he was seeing something that should clearly be impossible. Marina's eyes bugged out a bit.
"That's impossible! The machine must have been broken by that point, I refuse to believe the Nidhoggr's readings on this were accurate!" Marina roared, soon sending the data over to the base's supercomputer. "This will prove it's wrong for sure!"
After a bit... the supercomputer's results only came out with a huge negative to the AI's surprise, these readings were the real deal.
"No... what the hell is going on?" Marina breathed, only for her to suddenly receive an alert that [Marionette] had her readings vanish like the others. "No, now Marionette is gone too!?"
"...This boy, something about him is different, and it's dangerous to our plans." Westcott said, staring at the boy who had foiled him twice, even leaving Tenguu City to do so. It's time he finally tried to get some information about him. "Ellen, is there also a picture of this possible sister Jessica told me about?"
"I'll look through the files, I'm guessing now he's considered as important as the Spirits?" Ellen asked, only getting a node from Westcott. "Understood Ike, to be extra prepared I'll confirm the current status on [Material A] as well."
As Ellen got up to look, the sight of a bald man staring at was seen before he smirked.
"Looks like they're messing things up, and with the readings we got on Efreet, seems like it's time we take the chance to take over." The man chuckled, looking to his female partner in the room behind him. "You could use the exercise, right Minerva?"
The woman smirked a bit.
"You're really speaking my language there Edgar. I'm ready to kill someone, including something supposedly near impossible to kill." Minerva replied before giving a sinister cackle, a dagger stained with blood in her hands.
Soon the Sagittarius had returned to Tenguu City, and Ryouko gave her full report on what happened while they shared information on what happened on each of their ends when Shido had been absorbed by his rage.
"To think the entire Kanto prefecture could have been wiped off the map... we were lucky." Ryouko breathed, it was one thing to see the power and imply how bad it would be and another to know exactly how bad it could have been.
"Yes, I will admit it's good news to hear that Tohka and Origami have learned how to temporarily recall their powers" Reine replied, smiling slightly. "Now Shido won't be alone whenever he goes out to help the remaining Spirits."
"Yeah, that he will. Though I don't understand why Efreet was there." Ryouko answered, soon wondering about the Flame Spirit's sudden appearance. Reine also made a thinking face, unaware of how Efreet slipped into the area like she did.
"Guess that's a mystery we'll have to solve the next time she appears." Reine sighed, unable to think of any better results.
Meanwhile with Shido, he was sitting down on a chair as Origami brought him a moist towelette.
"I'm sorry about me and Tohka getting frozen like that, it must have been painful considering how you reacted..." Origami said, making a bit of a sad face before Shido took her hand and made her blush.
"It's OK Origami, in the end you two made it out OK. That's all I could ask for." Shido replied with a smile, making Origami give a teary eyed smile back. She wiped them before nodding in response.
"Hey guys, Yoshino's ready!" Tohka called, waving at them from the door. The two looked towards it as Yoshino walked into view, wearing a cute blue dress and a white hat. Both of them and anyone else looking all blushed from how cute she looked from it.
"Shido..." Yoshino began, soon bowing slightly before looking at him. "From now on, I'll be by your side."
"Me too, you can count on me!" Yoshinon cheered, raising a hand up in response.
"Right, same with me." Shido smiled, making Yoshino smile happily in return. Tohka, Origami, Mana and after a brief delay, Kotori all smiled alongside the two. Mio also smiled alongside them despite no one could see it.
['This warm feeling, I swear I've felt it before... but, where did I?']
Suddenly at that moment, everyone hears Kotori suddenly coughing in a violent manner and turn to see things turn worse for her as she suddenly falls back and collapses on the ground, her body trembling as she breaks into a cold sweat.
"Kotori?" Shido called out, shaking her to try and get a reaction. Mana gives a worried look as she and Shido saw Kotori look at them, she tried to speak, but no words came out before her eyes widen and she blacks out.
"KOTORI!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
Yoshino's arc has come to a close, and now things have gone south as Kotori's suddenly come down with something, are her spirit powers returning or is it something worse related to her strange blue eye phenomenon? Well you'll all learn soon enough because Kotori's the spirit of the fourth arc, and everyone aside from Origami who's been hiding the fact she knew as a promise will find out the truth.
Kotori's arc will be unique because Westcott will not be involved in any Spirit capturing plans this time, to anyone who may not know, Edgar and Minerva who were mentioned near the end are the villains of Date AST Strike and will be the villains during her arc. Also, if anyone asks, once Yoshino can start using her Spirit form again, the situation will depend on if she'll Inverse by swapping bodies with Yoshinon. Usually she'll be Yoshino for Spirits, but the DEM will bring out Yoshinon, exceptions may happen though.
In regard to Tohka and Origami being able to use their Spirit forms now, a friendly reminder to you all that the strength of Shido's bonds with the Spirits effects how strong they are after being sealed. Shido still can't use the Spirit Ascension with Origami yet because his bond with her is still new, as a result her Spirit form's weaker than Tohka's because Shido's bond with her is stronger.
Though even his bond with Tohka isn't enough that Tohka can have her original level power in her Spirit form either, and that's only because they only officially became a couple after their reunion, so their relationship has changed slightly. I'd say Tohka's able to recall only about 70% of her actual strength right now, and Origami's about a 35%, where Spirit Ascension requires at least 50%. Yoshino would be about 20% right now in case anyone's curious.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will enjoy the Kotori arc when it begins.
-Spirit Bond Levels-
Tohka - 70%
Origami - 35%
Yoshino - 20%