Date A Re:Live Encore
By : Tohka_Yatogami
...
Summary
A series of four special chapters not in the main story of Date A Re:Live
Chapter 01: Pre-Rinne Arc: Hot Springs of Love
Various areas in part of a section of Tenguu City suddenly explode repeatedly, the AST either taking cover or trying to avoid the incoming fire from... whatever was attacking since there were just way too many explosions to properly make anything out. Shido's group was somewhere during all of this. Ryouko just closed her eyes as she hears all the AST trying to explain their situations simultaneously, and then she finally snapped.
"What's going on?" Ryouko asked, shaking before looking up at the sky and screaming. "HOW IS THIS HAPPENING!?"
[Hey everyone, Shido here. So like Ryouko just asked, what's going on right this second? That's actually a good question, so to answer how we got into this this storm of chaos, let's go back to when the day fist began to answer that. Because the story behind the whole thing is... kinda interesting, in fact it all started back home when two of my girls were watching TV.]
"Meow"
"Oh, you're so cute Macaron!" Kurumi gushed, holding the kitten in the air as her eyes sparkled at the adorable little creature in the air.
Believe it or not, it was the same kitten from her and Shido's date the day prior to sealing her powers and fighting the Deus. After Ratatoskr got him checked out, they were considering taking it to a pet store where it would hopefully find an owner one day, but once Saya found out about it?
She told everyone how Kurumi always wanted pet cat, but couldn't because of her mother's allergies, so everyone unanimously decided that they'd make him Kurumi's moving in present. Her current reaction was all it took to show how happy it had made her.
"Wow, Saya wasn't kidding about how much you love cats." Kotori chuckled, seeing Kurumi nuzzle her cheek against Macaron's. Soon she gave a worried face. "You're making sure to train him right, I'd rather not get peed on if I have to hold him for you."
"Don't worry, I'm not gonna neglect my little Macaron anywhere." Kurumi said, making Kotori swear drop and giggle a bit.
While that was going on, Shido was cooking some noodles with Origami trying to help out a bit. Tohka and Yoshino were watching TV, though Yoshino kept staring at Yoshinon who unusually had her ears all droop and her one eye half open. In fact, this had been going on for a while.
"Yoshinon..." Yoshino whispered worriedly, catching the puppet's attention.
"H-hey don't worry Yoshinon, I'm perfectly fine. There's nothing to worry..." Yoshinon began, soon slumping all tiredly before snoring. Tohka sweat dropped at the sight of the sleeping rabbit puppet.
'Aside from the awkwardness of seeing a living inanimate object snore, Yoshinon's not fine.' Tohka thought, soon putting a finger to her chin as she began to wonder. 'Now that I think about it... Yoshinon's been this way since she and Yoshino stopped being able to Inverse freely. Is that connected?'
Shido yawns a bit and soon grabs his right shoulder a bit, getting Origami's attention.
"You alright Shido?" Origami asked.
"Yeah, I've just had this weird knot in my shoulder I can't seem to get rid of. Not to mention I think I've been a little out of place since the fight with that crazy killer robot." Shido yawned again, winding the arm of said shoulder a bit.
Tohka and Yoshino look at him worriedly, and as they did an oddly timed commercial comes up.
"Feeling tired and stressed out?"
The two quickly turned to look at the TV, soon seeing a commercial for the new Tenguu Paradise Hot springs that had just opened up. The commercial showing a woman holding a sign showing the hot springs relieved stress, muscle fatigue, tiredness and join pain. It also said they were co-ed.
"Come visit Tenguu Paradise Hot Springs, let our relaxing baths wash all your problems away!"
"Hey Shido, can we go here!?" Tohka called out excitedly.
"A hot spring? Hmm..." Shido wondered, looking at the others. "Anyone else interested?"
"Yeah, let's take a hot springs day!" Mana shouted, raising her hand.
Kurumi gave a light nod, and Kotori gave a look of thought before shrugging and taking one of her usual Chupa Chups. Origami gave a nervous looking thumb's up. Right after, Rinne's translucent form, only visible to those who knew about her, pouted a bit.
"Dang it, of all the times to not have a body!" Rinne complained, leading to Mana to try 'patting' her intangible form and comfort her. "Well, maybe I'll feel it through Shido at least? Seigo did say they relax the mind and I'm basically all mind right now. You know what, I say go for it!"
"Alright then. Let's pack our things, we'll head out right after we eat!" Shido declared, making everyone in the house cheer.
[And that's how it started, I kid you not. Just one simple planned trip to the hot springs. As you probably noticed with how the AST having come along with it us, we decided if we'd be going then inviting all of Fraxinus should be a good idea. We all got pretty stressed out over the chaos Westcott through Kurumi, so I picked up the phone and decided to see if they wanted to come.]
"Hot springs?" Reine asked, currently talking to Shido via a video call. Reine was looking a bit healthier looking as her eye bags seemed a bit more faded than usual.
"Yeah, Tohka and Yoshino saw a commercial for the new one that just set up and we all decided to head over. We wanted to know if anyone in Ratatoskr wanted to take the day off. I don't think we'll have much to worry about from the DEM for a while, much less this early." Shido replied, making Reine think a bit.
"Hey listen, you should join them. I can take care of everything here. Plus you really need to have some aunt bonding time with them." Kannazuki stated, getting Reine's attention. "What? Why are you looking at me that way?"
"You just wanna see me naked in the hot springs, don't you? You don't exactly hide the fact my figure is the kind that interests you." Reine replied, making Kannazuki flinch in response. Maria suddenly laughed at that reaction.
"Agreed." Minowa added.
"Fact established and acknowledged." Shiizaki followed.
Kannazuki shook for a moment before regaining his composure.
"Hey, I find that offensive! Plus it's a public hot spring. How would I even get cameras in there without breaking any laws?" Kannazuki asked, suddenly making the girl all stop and actually think on that. "Besides, you're always working too hard and you yourself state you can't sleep. We can't function properly if you end up exhausted!"
Reine sighed.
"Alright, I'll go. Though if I find you somehow got pictures, then I'm having Elliot find a way to make you clean up after farm animals for a solid week straight." Reine answered, making Kannazuki sweat a bit.
"U-Understood Commander." Kannazuki stuttered, Reine soon got up.
"Alright then. Everyone else, we're taking the day off." Reine declared, making the entire crew shout. Maria soon vanished from the hologram projector to upload into her android body. "I wonder how badly the others might need a hot spring now that I think about it?"
"SCREW YOU!"
Ryouko screamed as she threw a stack of papers out the window, some of the higher ups stressing her out... again. She pants and turns around to see Katie staring at her to her sudden horror.
"U-Uh, no this isn't what you think it is! It's..." Ryouko sweated.
"Captain, after seeing this twice I'm kinda used to it by now." Katie sweat dropped, making Ryouko groan and slam her head on her desk. "Um... if you'll excuse me, I've been asked to tell you that everyone but the Vice Commander's getting the day off."
Ryouko's head suddenly rose up in sock.
"Wait, day off? Since when?" Ryouko asked, usually she got a heads up in advance if she got time off rather than last minute.
"Well Shido thought that since we'll likely not be hearing anything from the DEM after that last battle, nothing was wrong with a day off, so he was thinking why not everyone go to the new hot springs spot that just opened up." Katie explained, quickly making a blushing face of excitement.
"Best of all its already handled, so we and the rest of the troops can even head on over right now if you want."
Ryouko stared for a bit before suddenly having her eyes gain hearts in them and slumping back in her chair happily.
"Captain?" Katie asked, confused by that reaction.
'A day off at the hot springs... best surprise ever!' Ryouko thought excitedly. After the initial shock. "Tell the troops forward march, we leave immediately!"
Katie smiled and soon rushed back to the others, Ashley got a drink from the soda machine right as Katie ran back in.
"Listen up! The Captain's accepted the invitation, everyone get ready for a road trip!"
"YAY! HOT SPRINGS OR BUST!" Everyone else cheered, Ashley just stared at them oddly.
"You're all acting like children, really. This is time you should be using to add power to the team." Ashley mumbled, and soon Cecile began to giggle a bit. "What are you laughing at?"
Cecile giggles more.
"Oh nothing, I guess you must be strong considering you're all work and no play." Cecile mocked intentionally, making Ashley freeze a bit. Suddenly squeezing her soda can a bit. "I guess we'll all go have fun and you prove how much stronger you'll end up once we come back-"
Ashley crushes the soda can, scaring most of the AST's members as the juice sprays everywhere.
"Oh shit, she's mad now!" Mikie panicked, and Ashley turned to the rest of them and mumbled something. "Uh... w-what was that Ashley?"
"I SAID YOU ARE TAKING ME TO THE HOT SPRINGS TOO, AND THAT'S FINAL!" Ashley roared to most of the girls' utter fright, making Cecile and Leonora high five at the side as the former's plan to get Ashley to join worked like a charm.
Soon on the highway area, Shido and the girls with Saya as their guest were all driving an SUV that belonged to Mildred towards the hot springs. Yoshino staring out the window, excited at all the sights passing by her.
Tohka was at the driver's seat as she was the only one who could drive or had a license (Reine took her to get one after Kotori was sealed), and Shido in the passenger's seat. The front row had Kotori, Mana and Origami seated, while Kurumi, Saya and Yoshino were sitting all in the back row. As for Rinne, her incorporeal form was on the SUV's roof.
"Wow." Yoshino replied, noticing a few things unfamiliar to her.
"Hey Yoshinon, you doing alright back there?" Shido asked, turning around to look at the rabbit puppet that suddenly gained a green tint.
"I-I'm totally fine, in fact if I wanted I could..." Yoshinon began before making hurling noises, Kurumi and Saya sweat dropped.
"...We're lucky you don't have a stomach to puke anything out of." Saya chuckled oddly, turning her head towards the window and whistling to distract herself. 'Who knew you could even get car sick without a stomach?'
From a distance, Mayuri and Rio suddenly teleported on top of one of the buildings. Mayuri panting a bit while Rio stretched, looking full of energy.
"Rio's happy we got that done, now Rio and Mayuri have some free time back home!" Rio cheered, soon looking at the still panting Mayuri before tilting her head. "Rio's confused, is Mayuri OK?"
"Rio, how are you not exhausted after what we just went through with the current Sister? I mean... she made Kurumi's tricks look simple and predictable, even if they lacked the lethal danger that Westcott influenced her with!" Mayuri wheezed, coughing right after.
Rio blinked before scratching her cheek.
"Rio didn't notice, then again Rio didn't need to watch her much when she did well avoiding Westcott for 27 years." Rio answered with a smile, making Mayuri pale.
"She's been a Spirit for that long!? No wonder she felt so dangerous-" Mayuri began, soon feeling her nose itch. "Hold that for a moment, I think I'm about to sneeze."
Rinne soon noticing some spinning cylinder attached to a building they passed by.
"Hey Shido, what's that spinning thing we just passed by?" Rinne asked, bending by the passenger window to get his attention.
"Oh that? It's a barber shop's barber pole, that's the place you go to get a haircut." Shido replied. making Rinne's eyes sparkle as she looks around for more things to question about.
"Isn't it weird for someone to have fallen in love with a human to be so clueless about most of the things on Earth? Especially when she's technically been living in Shido's mind?" Saya questioned.
"Not exactly. She didn't get much time to see things in person, and she's been asleep and amnesiac for a while. It's not that different from cramming for a test." Origami replied, soon noticing something odd outside. "Hmm?"
Back where Rio and Mayuri were, the latter's nose was still tickling as her upcoming sneeze started to creep up on her.
"A... A... ACHOO!"
Suddenly Mayuri sneezed towards the highway's direction, accidentally shooting off a burst of electricity. As it got close, Tohka suddenly felt something off.
"Say, is anyone else getting this weird feeling-" Tohka tried to ask, but unfortunately, she'd never get the chance.
Right at that moment, Mayuri's electricity shot hit the highway, and most of the cars suddenly screeched to a stop while Shido's group had the SUV they were driving fall into the debris from the destroyed section of the road, the electrical discharge crossing throughout the city through that area, though it didn't seem to do anything more than pass through.
Rio and Mayuri's eyes went wide and white at what had just happened, soon slowly looking towards each other.
"R-Rio and Mayuri actually saw that right!?" Rio asked, shaking in worry.
"Y-yeah, I just destroyed the highway bridge with my sneeze!" Mayuri replied, sweating once she mentioned the later. "...You think anyone will notice that electric charge came from this direction?"
Rio just blinked, not sure how to answer that. Mayuri gulps
[And... that's the moment things suddenly went south for all of us. Just a simple electricity empowered sneeze. You need to see it to believe it, so from here I'll let you judge how bad things will get.]
Soon in the hidden underground areas of Tenguu City, most of Ratatoskr's agents and the AST were currently on the Ratatoskr's deployment train, using it as their mode of transportation to heat to Tenguu Paradise.
"This is weird, who knew we'd ever use the deployment train to take a day trip?" Mikie replied.
"Let's not lose track here! We have the side goal of confirming the vehicle's operation on a route we rarely use, this part isn't for fun." Ryouko answered.
Most of the AST members quickly noticed Ryouko had some lipstick on, and on hand was carrying some liquor, a wash bin and also wearing a hot towel on her head. Needless to say... no one was believing her comment.
'Says the woman carrying all of that.' Mildred thought, sweat dropping at the sight. Soon she heard some odd rumbling. "Say is anyone hearing a rumble, or am I just hearing thing-"
Suddenly the entire train suddenly shook as they heard something falling and then the emergency break screeches, everyone tumbled a bit before the inertia Realizers suddenly kicked in to prevent everyone from flying. After the vehicle finally stopped and everyone got up, a dizzy Leonora spoke first.
"Does anyone wanna explain what the hell just happened?" Leonora asked, hitting her head lightly to make her eyes stop spinning in circles.
"I'll check." Maria groggily replied, putting a hand on a certain spot. A panel opens to reveal a phone. "Hello? Yeah, we're fine Kannazuki, what just happened? Please, we're all... wait, the highway just what!?"
Everyone suddenly looked at Maria's direction.
"Alright, I'll tell them." Maria nodded, hanging up the phone. "OK, apparently for some reason, the highway suddenly broke apart in one section. The emergency break activated because it caved the part of the tunnel we were about to cross."
"Well, that's just perfect. I guess we're gonna have to walk the rest of the way now." Reine sighed, making everyone groan at the response. "Oh quit whining, at least we're still actually going. Be lucky these sorts of places don't require reservations, especially ones that require a specific time. Now get moving before today ends and we waste our day off."
"Yes ma'am..." Everyone replied, soon beginning to walk and take a secret passage back to the surface.
Back on the surface of Tenguu City, the SUV was mostly intact and everyone inside was safe. Though Rinne panicked at the fact the rubble was keeping everyone stuck inside.
"Damn it, of all the times to be an astral projection!" Rinne screamed in anger, futilely trying to move the rubble out of the way, only to phase through it. She soon jumped back in surprise once a black shadow suddenly opened before her, with everyone coming out of it. "Phew, nice thinking there Kurumi."
Kurumi gave a shaky thumb's up, a bit disoriented from the whole experience.
"What just happened? It was like that one TV show where a young couple ends up breaking a car by-" Yoshinon began before groaning and sliding off Yoshinon's hand. "I think... I'll just lay here for... the new few eternities."
"Oh man, now we have to walk the rest of the way." Tohka bemoaned, Shido who was carrying all of the bags walked over and pet her head. Right at that second a pot hole rose up and the rest of Ratatoskr came out. "Huh? Why are all of you here?"
"Well... apparently, the deployment train's tunnel had a cave in from a highway collapse." Mildred replied, soon realizes they were standing before them. "Hey... wait a minute, why are you out on the streets? As a matter of fact, where's my SUV?"
Shido's group all widened their eyes and looked at each other for an answer, Mildred raised an eye before she saw said SUV in the rubble and gasped in horror.
"My car!" Mildred screamed, rushing over to it and barely avoiding a panic attack. She began whimpering as she touched the damaged vehicle. "No! You were so young, why did this happen!?"
"If we knew that, we'd know why the highway suddenly collapsed under us." Kurumi replied, sweat dropping at the sight of Mildred mourning over her still repairable SUV. "Well we aren't that far from the hot springs now, it'll just take us a bit longer to get there."
"Mildred, your car's not beyond repair. I'll call someone to tow it later." Reine stated, making Mildred cry more before Reine had to actually drag her away by force.
The now single group began walking, but during the course of their walk, they entered a certain area of the city right as one of the buildings began to shift position. Rio and Mayuri, who were nearby at the time trying to find the others, all noticed the sound.
"Is Rio hearing that or is it just Rio?" Rio asked.
"No, I hear it too. I wonder what it-" Mayuri began, only to suddenly see a bunch of cars drop in front of their path and block it. "What the? How did... what's this... I don't... WHAT THE LIVING HELL!?"
The two went a different way, only to reach a bridge right before the area in front of them collapsed into the water. Then they ran into a spot that had sudden a construction work barrier brought up to block them. Right after that they saw a road with a bunch of bulls' cross by.
"Rio thinks we ate something Rio and Mayuri shouldn't have." Rio blinks, finding this weird even by her young mind's standards. Mayuri sweat drops as she checks a map in vain while Rio's stomach growls a bit, making the young spirit hold it in pain. "And now Rio's hungry."
"Is this even Tenguu City we're in!?" Mayuri screamed, throwing the map into the air. Suddenly the road behind them was suddenly destroyed. The two looked behind them in shock, and Mayuri suddenly sweats. 'Wait a second, did I do that? I'm really worried now!'
Rio's stomach growls louder and she collapses.
"...But my worries come second, getting Rio food comes first." Mayuri stated to herself, picking the young spirit up and heading to any place that she could get food fast.
As the group continued walking towards Tenguu Paradise, they began walking through a small food district. As they began walking by, they passed a Manju stand and as Shido was about to pass it, one of signs flapped in the wind and Shido noticed something.
"Huh?" Shido wondered, soon making everyone stop as he went to the Manju stand and moved the one sign. Suddenly he saw Mayuri who gave an odd and embarrassed look upon doing so, Rio standing by the side, chewing a few Manju in her mouth. "Mayuri? Rio? What are you doing here!?"
"Hi you two! We didn't know you were back in town, why didn't you call us?" Tohka smiled, moving another sign to take a look.
"Yeah, if you were making a visit you should let us know before you leave again." Origami added, squeezing her head into view.
"Big brother, Rio's happy to see you." Rio smiled, swallowing the Manju she had in her mouth.
"Oh, uh... well we just got here and Rio was starving. So we didn't get the chance." Mayuri replied, sweating a bit. "Anyways we checked on a Spirit and it didn't take as long as we expected, no worries for now. We'll just be spending some time here and then going back out."
"Hey, don't be a stick in the mud. Since your already here, why not come and join us at the hot springs? Neither of you have been to one before." Saya reasoned, also squeezing her head on.
Rio's eyes sparkled.
"Rio wants to try these hot springs, can Rio go?" Rio begged, giving the powerful puppy dog eyes. Mayuri blushes a bit and her eyes sparkle a little.
"Well, I guess if you insist. Let's go-" Mayuri answered, before suddenly having her eyes go white and her body shaking like a controller's rumble feature gone wild. Everyone blinked and stared at her, including Rio, as this happened. "D-don't worry about me! I'm fine, really!"
"Rio thinks something's making her electricity feel all wonky." Rio replied, looking at the others.
"Is she... gonna be... alright?" Yoshinon asked.
Rio blinks as she notices the puppet's condition, almost like she was aware of what was going on or just acting like a kid not understanding the situation would normally.
"Yeah, Rio knows Mayuri will be fine." Rio replied, and Mayuri did her best to give a thumb's up of agreement.
"Yeah, who knows, m-maybe this is the perfect excuse to go in t-the hot springs for me!" Mayuri replied, shakily changing back into her casual clothes and walking out slowly. "D-don't worry, I can still walk there just fine."
Shido sweat dropped and kneeled by Rio.
"Rio, promise me that you'll stay close to Mayuri." Shido requested, Rio nods her head before she feels Shido pet it to her joy. "That's my little sister."
Right as the group was about to head over, a wall suddenly rises up before them. Everyone went wide eyed while Mayuri and Rio groan again.
"What is wrong with this city right now? We already had to deal with random cars, a broken bridge, construction and a herd of bulls!" Mayuri roared in frustration, holding her head as her already twitchy body shook heavily.
"Strange, I think this is one of ours. Did the highway crash effect some of the systems?" Reine wondered, making Mayuri suddenly go white as she realized what was likely happening.
'Oh shit! My sneeze is causing all of this, just act like nothing happened! Your shaking will make everyone miss it!' Mayuri thought.
Ryouko inspected the wall, humming a bit.
"Sarah, Claudia, Hannah! Give me the readings on this wall now!" Ryouko ordered, causing the said three AST members to flinch and pull out some gear and began checking out the wall and area.
"Vibration and Infrared sensor fail." Sarah reported, wearing special goggles and holding a realizer shaped like a tuning fork.
"No reaction form the acoustics sensor. No one but us are registered within 500 meters." Claudia reported, holding realizers shaped like mini satellites.
"The wall is a minimum of 56 centimeters thick and heavily enforced with rebar." Hannah reported, using a realizer equipped with a stethoscope.
"Like that will stop us! Mana, hand me a C4!" Ryouko ordered, making Mana go wide eyed before handing her a small bomb. "Everyone face the other way, this might be ugly."
Everyone does so as she sticks the bomb onto the wall and hits the trigger multiple times. Suddenly the entire wall blew up, leaving a large gap in the wall's middle area. Rio turns and shows surprise. Saya and Kurumi sweat drop at the sight.
"I knew she'd go big with that." Mana sighed, rubbing her forehead.
"I worry how high Ryouko's stress levels are right now." Saya whispered to Kurumi, shaking in fear at how eager the AST's captain seemed to blow the wall up.
"Well, at least with that wall destroyed, things can't get any worse." Mayuri replied.
Suddenly everyone's eyes were shadowed as they stared at her, and Rio sweat dropped a bit.
"Mayuri... Rio forgot to tell you this, saying that always causes things to get worse." Rio chuckled nervously, making Mayuri pale and sweat. Suddenly from the sky, a missile suddenly flies overhead until it drops and explodes, causing some kind of green slime substance to fly off everywhere and get some of the group trapped in the soon revealed to be incredibly sticky slime.
"Oh crap, this is bad." Reine paled, suddenly looking down as a net caught her and suspended her in midair. "The town's hidden defenses are all malfunctioning now."
Mayuri suddenly noticed an unmanned takoyaki stand drop a fresh batch before firing a bunch of them at the group... where they turned out to be explosive and making all the non-fighters scatter around!
"You put bombs in pastries!" Kurumi asked while screaming, looking at Mildred who was running besides her.
"Well would you expect a bomb in there!? Makes it more effective! Be glad these aren't meant for killing or we'd be in worse shape right now!" Mildred screamed in reply.
Suddenly some nearby stuffed animals shot off cables, and Origami looks as two latch onto her outfit before she felt herself facing a 10,000-volt shock, followed by moving stands firing off meat skewers.
"They're... quite... effective." Origami coughed out, wobbling a bit before suddenly stepping on some kind of liquid that makes Origami suddenly slip and slide on the ground before crashing into some buildings and hitting the pins in a bowling lane.
"{STRIKE!}" The building's speakers declared.
"What is that stuff?" Tohka wondered.
"I recall Matthew telling me about it, it's a special liquid that's meant to stop a target's progression by lowering the friction. It's like slipping on a wet floor, but tenfold." Mana explained, soon looking around as more defenses come up. "Aw man, so much for not having to work today."
Mana manifests the Murakumo, and soon attaches its blades as she rushes forward, cutting through some food shaped missiles flying at them.
"Come on girls, if we wanna get to those hot springs we've gotta take names against our own organization's defenses!" Mana roared, her eyes showing flames in them.
"You heard her girls, use the suppression equipment!" Ryouko added, making some of the AST sweat drop at the sight. Either they were hungry for a fight due to the stress, or they just really wanted to get to the hot springs already.
"We better listen before some heads start rolling." Katie replied, sweat dropping at the situation. At that moment, she suddenly heard something spraying at turned around, soon covering her mouth as she noticed some flowers spraying knock out gas, putting the SSS trio to sleep. "...And before the rest of us are out of commission."
Every in the AST who was still conscious or able to move quickly summoned their CR-Units and attempted to subdue the defenses attacking everyone, while also trying to help the others who were incapacitated, especially those who weren't part of the AST.
"Quick, everyone move to shelter!" Shido shouted, as all of them quickly moved out, including the Spirits. While the latter could have helped out... no one wanted most of the Tenguu City leveled over just a few malfunctioning defenses. Suddenly, Shido noticed something falling at them. "Aaaaw man!"
Soon it hit them, and Yoshinon was suddenly sent flying.
"I thought we weren't taking any planes!" Yoshinon screamed, soon going so high up she twinkled. Everyone stared before their eyes all moved towards Yoshino who was staring in shock, looking very saddened.
"Y-Yoshinon... Yoshinon!" Yoshino whimpered before crying heavily, causing everyone to see it start raining while the ice froze a bit, showing Yoshino's powers had went a bit wild from her emotions flying everywhere. Geysers soon even came out in a few spots. Luckily it stopped a few of the defenses.
"Don't worry Yoshino, I'll go and find her. Just try to relax yourself." Shido quickly assured, petting Yoshino on the head before her crying face looked at him. Shido nods before running off. "I'm going in!"
Soon some newer defenses begin to take the place of the frozen ones, all suddenly where Shido was running.
"Quick, we gotta keep my big brother out of harm's way till he can find Yoshinon!" Mana shouted, a few AST flew over right as a lottery wheel fired some of the lottery balls out and pelted them. A noodle stand suddenly immobilized them with... well noodles.
"OK, this is... wait, this one's easier to get out of!" Mana realized before biting the noodles and slurping them, which was a bit of an odd sight. "I can't believe I'm actually doing something like this, shouldn't this only happen in anime?"
"Who knows?" Minowa commented, making Mana look behind her confused as she and Shiizaki were each having a bowl of noodles.
Ryouko was soon seen cutting through all the noodles and lottery machines, panting angrily.
"That's it... I'm exhausted, pissed, and covered in sweat. We were supposed to be bathing in the hot springs by now." Ryouko quietly said, the other AST troops suddenly noticed a dark feeling come off her and suddenly back away. Even Mana did, which was a sign it was serious.
"How the hell did this happen? Oh... that's right, because all of Elliot's orders stress me out! This job's always all work and no play, especially after that DEM attack years ago! I AM MAKING IT TO THE HOT SPRINGS, EVEN IF IT KILLS ME!"
Everyone gasped as Ryouko brought out her signature weapon, the Cry-Cry-Cry gun.
"She brought out the C-C-C!" Everyone screamed, especially Mana and Mikie who remember seeing what she did to the Nidhoggr with it. Their fears quickly made themselves justified as Ryouko starts cackling and shooting down the entire area, destroying all the buildings holding the defenses. "And she's pissed!"
"They think they can do whatever they want and we won't retaliate!? These stupid pieces of junk are pathetic, the AST won't be defeated!" Ryouko cackled, smiling as she kept firing and her eyes glowed red. Soon grabbing a bunch of grenades and throwing them, causing explosions.
"Do yourselves a favor and repent! Ladies, you better give them hell! We're gonna make this fun! Go ahead! Annihilate, slaughter, eradicate, eliminate, kill and destroy those pieces of trash! If any of you have bullets when this is over, you'll be shoving them down your throats for lunch!"
From where Shido was watching, he stared at seeing Ryouko snap and the AST all listening to her as they became very afraid. Shido himself did as some sweat trickled down his face and his left eye twitched.
"See that you tin cans of scrap metal!? If you're lucky you'll left with a gear in your pathetic frames! You won't stay young forever, I have to bust my butt to keep myself looking young despite all the stress and lack of sleep I have to deal with!" Ryouko screamed even louder.
"...Note to self, pissing off Ryouko is a good way to possibly get yourself killed." Shido noted, soon turning around and running to find Yoshinon. After running around for a bit, a sign came into view.
"Hey Shido... a little hand?" Yoshinon called out. Shido looked to see the lethargic puppet laying on the ground and picked her up. "Thank you... oh, and... look up."
"Huh?"
Shido suddenly heard something falling and looked up to see a giant green pumpkin was about to drop on him. A giant green pumpkin that was a bomb! Mana suddenly noticed this from afar.
"Captain! My brother's in the firing zone!" Mana screamed, making Ryouko snap out of it and notice.
"Oh crap! We won't make it in time to stop it, and I think that weapon's actually lethal!" Ryouko yelled, freaking out as Mana suddenly paled at her saying this was a lethal weapon.
Shido sweated with his eyes completely white and soon closed them to brace for the impact and soon an explosion went off, making Mana scream hysterically as it encompassed her brother. The dust soon faded, and when it did... everyone looked to see a barrier of pink spirit mana protecting Shido who was unharmed.
Within the barrier, Shido saw Rio with her Astral Dress equipped and floating in place with her eyes closed, showing the barrier had been put up by her. She opened her eyes and looked at her son with a smile.
"You're safe now, is everything OK?" Rio asked.
"Yeah, just in the nick of time." Shido smiled, meanwhile all of the AST watched in surprise.
"Incredible, she negated that entire bomb without even trying. Just how strong is that barrier." Hannah wondered.
"Wish our territories could defend like that." Claudia sighed.
"Hey, I don't see any more defenses acting up. The malfunctions are gone." Sarah noted, sighting in relief. "Finally, this nightmare's over. I wonder how so much electricity could have caused..."
Suddenly at that comment, everyone frozen in place before looking at the now shaking Mayuri who wiped her forehead with a towel. Rio simply sweat dropped, having a good feeling what was about to happen.
"Finally, I stopped shaking, and it looks like-" Mayuri finally noticed the stares at her, everyone looking a bit angry to her worry. "What? Why's everyone looking at me that way?"
"MAYURI!" Everyone screamed angrily.
Mayuri suddenly sweated at that, suddenly piecing two and two together.
"Uh... I can explain, I swear!" Mayuri whimpered.
Finally, after taking nearly forever to actually reach them, the group finally made it to Tenguu Paradise as the sunset came. Everyone finally soaking in the hot springs.
"Ah... after letting lose and getting to enjoy this, I feel so much better!" Ryouko sighed happily, the other AST members all understandably keeping their distance after her little... explosion of emotion earlier.
"Glad we finally made it." Shido replied.
"We did, today sure... was hard." Yoshinon said, soon her head fell off her body and into the water. Making those closest stare, especially Yoshinon. "Uh... we have a sowing kit, right?"
"...Well that's totally not creepy." Saya mumbled.
Mana giggled oddly at that, and soon as she turned, she noticed Tohka's bathing form... and then how her breasts just floated. She stared more with a bit of a scowl and then sank a bit under the water in defeat.
"...It's not fair!" Mana cried, sulking in a corner of the hot springs as she curled her arms around her small chest.
"I'm really sorry everyone, I didn't mean for a simply sneeze to cause all this craziness." Mayuri stated, bowing her head apologetically as Rio rubbed it. "And for not saying something sooner, I was just too embarrassed to admit it."
"Just promise the next time this happens you'll tell us, alright?" Reine asked, causing Mayuri to nod. "So Rio, what Spirit will you and Mayuri be looking for next after you go back out?"
"Rio thinks we'll look for Zodiac, Rio hasn't heard anything from her in a while." Rio replied, resting on Reine's lap. "For now tough, Rio wants to enjoy family time."
With that, everyone just relaxed for the rest of the day. Rinne's astral form soon floating across the water surface.
"It actually does work on incorporeal beings. Earth, I love you right now." Rinne sighed happily.
.
.
.
Chapter 02: Pre-Kurumi Arc: Yoshino Bug Catching
Shido was cooking some vegetable soup for lunch, and as he turned to grab some seasoning, he noticed all of his harem minus Yoshino staring at the latter who was just sitting on the floor. Shido clears his threat and motions the three over.
"Any reason you're all watching Yoshino like that?" Shido asked.
"Sort of... have you noticed that Yoshino hasn't really been going outside, even when we offer? The only time she did was our Ocean Park trip and that's because it was clear she'd be home alone." Kotori replied, making Shido think a bit.
"Yeah, she does seem to be inside a lot." Shido wondered aloud, soon rubbing his chin as he handed Tohka the basil. "Watch the pot in case it bubbles, and add a few shakes of this. I'll see if Yoshino will tell me why she's inside all the time."
Shido walked over to Yoshino, the Water Spirit watching Yoshinon playing with some string like she was doing embroidery, and soon saw Shido kneel down by her.
"Oh, do you need something Shido?" Yoshino asked.
"Sort of, the others and I recently noticed you don't seem to go outside often, is there a reason for that? If there's a problem just tell us." Shido replied, and Yoshino looked away covering her mouth a bit. "Yoshino?
Yoshino blushed slightly.
"There's not a problem, but... it's kinda embarrassing." Yoshino replied, holding Yoshino up. "The problem is Yoshino doesn't know doesn't really know anywhere in the city. If she went outside right, she'd just get lose. The house is the only place she knows where anything is."
Shido sighed in relief.
"So that was it? Well if that's the case, we just need to help you get familiar by doing something together. We don't have school tomorrow so its good timing. Question is... what should we do?" Shido wondered.
"How about we do some bug catching? That'll help us go around the city a bit, and it's a good time of year to look for some too." Origami suggested.
"Ooh, that sounds exciting! Let's do that!" Tohka nodded excitedly.
"Alright then." Shido replied, soon shouting upstairs. "Hey Mana, can you dig out the old butterfly nets!?"
Mana pokes her head into view from upstairs.
"Sure thing, we bug hunting or something?" Mana asked.
"Yeah, pretty much. We'll use it to help Yoshino get more familiar with the area tomorrow." Shido replied, and Mana gave a thumb's up as she went to look. Soon a timer went off. "Oh, the soup's nearly ready. Better finish the last few touches."
The very next day, the group found themselves in part of the park, one of the many spots where bug catching was a prime spot. They had already been showing Yoshino a few areas of town on the way and now was one of their few mandatory breaks.
"I can't believe this whole park has a forest on it, this is really cool." Yoshinon commented, looking at Shido. "So, what spot are we gonna start at?"
"That depends on Tohka's choice." Shido answered, confusing the rabbit slightly.
"You remember when I made that odd food mixture? The one where I left out a bit of food that rotted?" Tohka inquired.
"Oh yeah, I remember. What about it?" Yoshinon asked.
"Well for rotted food, it was sweet and nice smelling. Bugs love that smell so a while before the sun set yesterday, Tohka made more of that mixture into smell traps, and we put them around prime bug catching spots since sweet scents draw insects towards them." Origami explained.
Yoshinon made an excited look at that.
"Hey look, there's one of them." Tohka smiled, pointing at it. A group of four different beetles were seen surrounding the smell. "We even got a good group here, I bet there a lot are around this area too."
Yoshino takes a closer look at the beetles.
"Hey Shido, what kind of bugs are these?" Yoshino asked.
"They're called beetles, a type of bug with antenna, mandible for mouths, and shells that hide their wings. They come in a lot of colors but share a similar ovular shape and size." Shido answered, soon thinking a bit. "Hey Origami, you know any more about beetles to share?"
"Sure do. Beetles are the most common insect, in fact they're the most common living creature family in general. The number is kinda wonky due to the Spacequake damage to fauna still being a bit unknown, but before they went off they comprised around 25-30% of Earth's species." Origami answered.
"Whoa! 30%, how many is that in number form?" Tohka asked.
Origami thought for a moment.
"I'd say about... 400,000 maybe?" Origami answered, making the others all gasp.
"What I like most about them is that they're the least feared kinds of insects, someone who's afraid of bugs tends to be more OK with beetles. In fact, a common sport in Japan is bug collecting, you can even get some money by catching them for collectors if you want."
"Whoa! Sounds like this is a big deal here, any impressive beetles among these?" Yoshino asked, making Origami nod as she grabs a book about beetles out of her bag.
"I'd say the two most famous beetles are the Rhinoceros and Stag Beetles." Origami answered, showing a picture of both. "They used to be a fortune back in the day until a crash happened, that's the consequence of artificial breeding. Still, people do like collecting them to see how big a natural born can be."
Yoshino smiled at this, she was getting really excited about Bug catching.
"This is really exciting, so how do you catch them?" Yoshino asked, Origami looks at Mana. Mana smiled as she readied a net.
"You gotta swing with the right timing, but make sure your swing doesn't alert the bug your trying to catch. On a tree that's easy, but something mobile like this trap, not so much..." Mana replied, soon moving slowly near the trap before swinging the net and aiming it at the tree.
She looks to see she got all four beetles in it and put them in her container.
"See, just like that. It seems like one of them was a Stag Beetle too." Mana said, showing the Stag Beetle up close to Yoshino and Yoshinon who held it in their hands. "Alright, let's all try to see what kinds we catch and how many."
Everyone nods at that, and grab their nets as they look around the trees to catch some.
After about three hours, and visiting about 7 different spots in the city during Yoshino's tour, everyone stopped to show the collection they had gotten so far. While they had caught multiple bugs, they ended up deciding to only keep the beetles since Yoshino had gotten quite interested in them specifically due to what Origami had shared with them earlier.
"Whoa, it looks like Tohka got the most overall." Shido replied, impressed by her collection of 30. "Though Kotori is the VIP where it comes to variety, I think she's got at least fourteen different types of beetles.
Tohka and Kotori both smile, Origami gives a somewhat bitter smile at her collection though. Shido looked and saw she had a good deal in number of variety which made that smile kinda odd.
"What's wrong Origami?" Shido asked.
"Oh, sorry about that. The thing is there's one kind of beetle I've wanted to see for a long time and I was hoping maybe we might find it today... still no luck. Then again it's a rarity among the rare." Origami replied.
"Which one is it?" Tohka asked, making Origami take the book and showing a Miyama Stag Beetle. "That one, but I have it here?"
Tohka showed it to her, but Origami chuckled and shook her head.
"No Tohka, not the beetle itself. A certain type of Miyama Stag. What I want to see is what literature calls a Yama White-Eye, that'd make my day." Origami answered.
"Yama White Eye?" Kotori asked.
"How should I define this? Ah! Kotori, didn't you tell us your natural science class had a lesson on albinism?" Origami asked.
"Yeah, that's when an animal's born with pigment, right?" Kotori asked.
"Right, however for Stag Beetles this is only possible with the eyes. This is why finding a Miyama Stag with white eyes is rare. So rare that a natural born one is easier to find than an artificially bred one." Origami answered, soon lowering her head slightly depressed. "Doesn't seem like today's the day I'll find one either."
Tohka pats her back, hoping to cheer Origami at least slightly through it.
"Hey, don't worry Origami, you'll see one eventually." Tohka assured her, Origami sighed slightly. "Alright, where to next-"
Tohka suddenly gave a panicked scream to everyone's surprise.
"What? What is it!?" Mana asked.
"Yoshino isn't here anymore!" Tohka panicked, and everyone soon noticed the same and gave the same panicked responses she did.
"Where'd she go!?" Everyone shouted.
"Quick, everyone split up to look! She can't have gone that far this fast!" Kotori reasoned, and everyone ran off in a different direction. 'Please don't have teleported or we're really screwed on this!'
After a few hours, the sun began setting and everyone still hadn't found any signs of Yoshino, they all stopped gathered around the place they split up, all panting heavily from their non-stop running having completely depleted their lung capacity.
"Where is she? I'm getting worried, what if her powers go out of control? People are gonna notice it if that happens!" Shido groaned worriedly.
"What are we gonna do, Yoshino is like a little sister to me. If we can't find her, I'll... I'll" Tohka sniffled, her powers flaring out slightly and ripping the ground below them before Kotori and Origami hurriedly rubbed her back to relax her.
"Where can she be though? I mean she only just learned the area layout, she should have stayed on one place. I mean... that's the obvious thing if she got lost, right?" Mana asked, soon making herself pale. "Oh god, what if she didn't get lost!?"
Everyone threatened to panic more, and right at that moment, Yoshino ended up walking nearby. She gasped lightly as she swung her net at a tree. The sound caught everyone's attention, and soon they rushed over to the blue haired spirit and her living rabbit puppet.
"YOSHINO!"
Yoshino turned as she felt herself getting a sandwich hug from all of them, causing her and Yoshinon to get a bit smothered between them all.
"Seriously young lady, where were you!? Do you know how freaked out you made us!?" Mana scolded, making Yoshino blush a little.
"I... I was looking for this." Yoshino answered.
Yoshino held up a beetle, at first it didn't seem like anything special, just a Miyama Stag-
"Hey wait a second." Origami suddenly interjected.
Origami looked closer and... saw it was a Miyama Stag with white eyes! A Yama White Eye! She gasped happily and grabbed it, her pupils turning into yellow four pointed stars as she squealed loudly to the others' surprise.
"You found it! A Miyama Stag Beetle with white eyes, I'm really seeing it!" Origami cheered, soon taking Yoshino's hand and Yoshinon's paws as she jumped up and down doing a happy dance, making everyone stare at the sight.
"Wait a second... Yoshino, you spent all that time just to find the one beetle Origami wanted to see?" Tohka asked.
"Oh, we weren't trying to find it, we were relocating it. We had actually saw this one earlier, but we didn't catch it because we thought it was blind." Yoshinon answered, rubbing her left paw behind her head.
Everyone stared in shock at that.
"You had seen it by complete chance!?" Mana repeated, blinking. "Why didn't you tell us? We could have helped you find it!"
Yoshino and Yoshino blink.
"...Oops/Oops!" Both said together, making everyone nearly face fault. Origami blushed as she held the White Eyed Miyama and put it in a special spare container of hers.
"Thank you so much Yoshino, and Yoshinon! I owe you!" Origami said happily, too overjoyed to show her usual shyness.
"Then can I have some ice cream?" Yoshino asked.
Everyone blinks at that reply, and soon everyone began laughing at the simple request before Shido pet their heads.
Soon everyone was at the ice cream shop, everyone having some ice cream.
"Well today was pretty odd, but it was fun." Kotori replied, holding a strawberry cone with some chocolate chips.
"Yeah, we should try something like this again when we find more of the Spirits." Mana replied, licking a Grape flavored cone. Soon taking a large bite of it. "Plus, we can end it with ice cream again."
Shido snorts as he held a chocolate cone, pretty sure Mana just wanted the ice cream. Tohka nods at that, holding a large sundae topped with nearly everything.
"I'm gonna keep this one, I can't believe you found one this big Yoshino." Origami mentioned, holding the Miyama White Eye's container while eating a mint flavored cone. "So Yoshino, did you have fun today?"
"Mhm, can we... can we do this again someday?" Yoshino asked, holding a cup of Vanilla ice cream while Yoshino uses the spoon to feed it to her.
"Of course Yoshino, next time we can even do butterflies, those are pretty." Origami smiled, making Yoshino smile as well.
"Ooh, I wanna go too!" Tohka replied, her butterfly ribbon flapping in response and making everyone giggle slightly.
[The day was simple, not anything too major or exciting, but I think in the end what made it so worthwhile was that smile Yoshino gave us all at the end of it. I guess that's what's the most important thing every... preserving the smiles of those you care for.]
Soon a picture of everyone at the ice cream shop, with Origami holding the Miyama White Eye in front was seen. Soon this photo was shown in an album next to the picture of the Hot Springs trip.
.
.
.
Chapter 03: Special Chapter - Holiday Havoc
Within the Takamiya Household, the sight of Shido making some cookie dough could be seen, with Kurumi and Origami helping him out. Mio was moving her fingers to put up the decorations at the same time.
"Jingle bells, jingle Bells, jingle all the way!" Miku hummed, smiling brightly.
"Glad this Christmas isn't filled with any kind of problems." Tohka smiled.
Mio chuckled at that.
"Yeah, we didn't exactly get to enjoy the last one due to the looming threat we had to face." She recalled.
As they said that, Miku flashed off her ring.
"Not to mention we weren't married to our darling at the time." The Sound Spirit sang.
Macaron meowed happily.
"Looks like our little kitty's in the holiday spirit as well." Origami giggled.
"Of course he is, who do you think taught him the Christmas Magic?" Kurumi giggled, making a cat motion with her one hand.
Walking into the room, Rinne clapped her hands excitedly.
"Is everyone excited to celebrate over our Holiday Reunion?" She asked, closing her eyes and smiling.
"Honey, was that a rhetorical question?" Seigo chuckled, carrying the ornaments into the room.
She giggled a bit.
"Did someone call for an elf!?" Rio exclaimed.
Everyone looked at Rio flipped into view, wearing an adorable little elf outfit as she danced around.
"Aw, of course we did!" Seigo gushed.
"Did you come to get our Christmas Lists for Santa?" Shido joked.
"Just ho, ho, hold on a minute everyone. We have a party to prepare for." Rio reminded them, winking in reply.
Kurumi playfully rolled her eyes at that, tossing her a gumdrop.
"Mine!" She exclaimed, jumping to catch it with her mouth.
Right at that moment, Nia opened the door as she finally got home from work, stretching her arms out.
"Sorry I'm late, took longer to finish up that new story than I thought." She apologized, shivering a bit.
"No worries, we still have plenty of time before the party." Mio reminded her.
At that same moment, Yoshino walked through the door in a heavy green jacket as she carried bags of presents, one that soon glowed to reveal it was Natsumi.
"We've got all of the gifts as well!" They said together.
Rinne grabbed the begs, smiling at the duo.
"Good work you two, now I better go help Kotori with wrapping them all in time." She stated.
"Anything else we can do?" Yoshino asked.
"Hmm... yes actually, we still need our non-desserts and drinks ready." Rinne recalled.
"On it!" Natsumi saluted.
Both of them headed into the kitchen's other side, beginning their work.
Driving through the snowy roads of Tenguu City, the members of the Takamiya Household soon found themselves in a big room they rented for their big Holiday Reunion as they parked their car. Opening it up, all of them started unloading everything to bring inside.
Upon getting inside, the first face they met was none other than Hiroto and Ai, with the former immediately waving.
"Hey guys." He greeted.
"Hey there Hiroto, still practicing your dating skills on your phone app?" Tohka joked.
A whistled followed that question.
"No, I've... actually got a real girl that I'm in a relationship nowadays." Hiroto admitted.
Tohka blinked a bit, soon widening her eyes as she looked towards Ai.
"You mean..." She asked.
"Yep." He confirmed.
"How did..." She continued.
"Long story." He answered.
Shido blinked a bit before holding a hand up, which Hiroto returned for a high five.
"Congratulations there." He praised.
"Says the man who now has 12 wives, I wouldn't be surprised if you have them do something related to the 12 Days of Christmas." Hiroto joked.
"Ooh, we should totally do that! I wanna be the Partridge!" Tohka exclaimed, looking excited.
The only male Spirit immediately looked at Hiroto with a face that said: "look at what you just started" to him. A sheepish grin was all Shido got in response, with Tohka just blinking at the two.
"Uh... anyone else not as comfortable with that idea as Tohka, besides Miku obviously?" Kotori asked.
The Spirit Idol gave a playful pout at that remark.
"Can we still sing it?" Rio asked, looking hopeful.
Everyone looked at her, while Miku's face had one of her perverted idea looks.
"Uh... think you can handle being a dress up doll while you do it?" Seigo asked.
"I like dressing up, I don't even mind this elf costume's a little itchy." Rio smiled, briefly doing an Irish jig for emphasis.
Miku squealed before hugging her.
"Rio, you're the bravest person we know right now." Mukuro praised.
A cute sounding car horn was seen, making everyone turn as Artemisia and her friends came in, carrying in the decorations with them.
"Hi everyone!" She waved.
Saya slipped in behind her, which is when everyone saw the huge tree she was carrying with her.
"Hola everyone, did someone order a Christmas Tree!?" She winked.
"Whoa... that tree is huge! How'd you get it." Kurumi asked, pointing at it.
"Might think this is crazy for a party, but... I may have saved three months of allowance just for this?" Saya admitted, rubbing the back of her head.
Everyone's eyes widened as their jaws dropped.
"Not sure if that's amazing, stupid, or just plain weird?" Nia remarked, shaking her head.
"Of course it's weird! Not like we're keeping this tree-" Marina shouted.
And at that moment, everyone saw the tree had roots and a planter for it, making everyone go silent.
"Not only that, but... I may have bought this rental area, so we could annually hold this reunion here?" Saya added.
Kurumi blinked before giggling a bit.
"Wow, you really are rich." Kaguya remarked.
"Incredibly right." Yuzuru nodded.
Another beep was heard, but this one clearly from a truck, which is when Ryouko, the former AST members, and the ex-Fraxinus crew all showed up with supplies.
"Hey everyone, are we all on time?" Ryouko asked.
"Plenty, now... let's get this party started!" Seigo exclaimed.
With that, everyone began working together to set things up.
Only half an hour passed by before the drab rental space had become a Holiday Fiesta for the former members of Ratatoskr, emphasized by the banner saying: "1st Annual Ratatoskr Holiday Rumble!" by the stage area, which Shido was pretty sure Nia had made.
Her reply to was she had no comment.
"Alright, guess everything is up and running here. Good work everyone." Shido smiled.
Tohka soon slipped behind him, hugging him from behind.
"Hey Shido!" She sang.
"What is it." Shido chuckled, looking at her.
"Look up." Tohka giggled.
He looked upwards at the ceiling, then saw a mistletoe. He blushed as Tohka immediately planted a kiss on him.
"I can't remember when you got so bold... but I like it." Shido breathed, blushing happily.
"Bold enough to consider having children now." Tohka giggled, winking at him.
And with, he did the only thing he could.
Run away with a face redder than a tomato, which left his main and first wife gave a playful laugh at his fleeing form.
"Two turtle doves, and a Partridge in a pear tree!" Rio sang, shifting from a dove outfit into a partridge outfit.
"And a partridge in a pear tree!" A few others sang alongside her.
Natsumi soon transformed into a partridge and flew into the air, making the bird's usual cry before she ate an actual pear. Everyone looked before laughing at the scene.
"I knew that would be comedy gold!" She replied, laughing in a chirping manner.
Kurumi picked up a tray of gingerbread and began carrying it around the room.
"Everyone, who wants a gingerbread selfie!" She asked, leaning the tray forward to show there was a gingerbread man based on everyone.
"Ooh!" Saya smiled excitedly.
Grabbing the one based on herself, she took a bite of it and soon shivered from the taste.
"Madam? Your food is très magnifique!" Saya stated, making herself sound a little French.
The Shadow Spirit gave a small curtsy at that.
"When I look at all of this... it reminds me just how much we fought for and succeeded in protecting. I just wish everyone were here to see it." Mio sighed, looking at everyone from the window.
"Mio..."
Her eyes shot wide as she heard that, turning outside to see a few lights flying across the snow. The sight of everyone they lost appeared as brief silhouettes as Mio teared up slightly, making her smile.
"Guess there truly are some amazing miracles hidden with usual Christmas miracles." She sniffled, rubbing her eyes.
With that, Mio joined the others and celebrated to her fullest.
.
.
.
Chapter 04: Special Chapter - Chaos of Children
Inside of the Takamiya Household, screaming was heard as the sight of multiple children running around could be seen, all within the same age range of 7 to 3-year olds.
Shido could be seen laying on the couch, with all his wives that didn't work during this time or at all were similarly fatigued against some part of the room. They didn't plan to have this many kids so quickly, but they were easily facing the consequences of it now.
"Daddy, play!" Reine shouted, pulling on him.
As his eldest daughter tried to tug him off the bed, making him groan as she did, a younger version of Origami with his eyes jumped on him from behind the couch. This was Hikari, his 5-year old daughter with Origami.
"Daddy is a cushion!" She giggled.
A girl resembling a short-haired Nia and Kurumi with small pig tails were seen pulling on a book right as that happened. The first was Fatima, the 4-year old child of Shido and Nia; while the second was Jamie, the 6-year old daughter of Shido and Kurumi.
"Mine!" Fatima whined.
"Mine!" Jamie whined.
In the kitchen, a boy with hair the shade of blue belonging to Yoshino could be seen as he played with the faucet, spraying water all over him. He was Ushio, the 3-year old son of Shido and Yoshino.
"Wa-wa!" Ushio exclaimed, splashing more of it on himself.
A red-haired boy was seen poking a blonde-haired girl that looked like Mukuro with hair not yet as long and without the hair buns, whimpering from the poking. The boy was Kasai, the 4-year old son of Shido and Kotori; while the girl was Luna, the 7-year old daughter of Shido and Mukuro.
"Hokey Pokey!" Kasai snickered.
"Please stop..." Luna requested.
Hanging from the ceiling, the sight of a boy that resembled a male version of Natsumi's child form was seen as he screamed. He was Echo, the 6-year old son of Shido and Natsumi.
"I am Echo! I am Echo!" He kept repeating.
A young version of Yuzuru with Shido's eyes was seen panting as she piggybacked a male Kaguya who lacked her bun and also had Shido's eyes. They were Flash and Breezie, the 5-year old sibling cousins (who also shared a birthday) of Shido and Kaguya/Yuzuru respectively.
"Vroom!" Flash exclaimed.
"Please, let me take a break..." Breezie begged, panting a bit.
A young girl resembling Shiori with Miku's colors was seen humming loudly towards the mirror, being Melody, the 6-year old daughter of Shido and Miku.
"La, la ta la, ta dah!" Melody hummed.
Finally, trying their best to quell the chaos as they held a fidgeting Shinji were another pair of twins. They looked like Shido if he had Mio's hair color and that one long strand of her bangs, and Mio with Shido's eyes and her hair in a long braid.
They were Adam and Eve, the 7-year old twins of Shido and Mio, also being the most responsible among the many half-siblings.
"H-hey! Calm down Shinji, stop it!" Adam begged.
"Everyone, please calm down..." Eve whimpered.
At that very moment, Mio herself walked down into the room, causing her eyes to widen at the chaos before she made a serious look. A huge flash went off as all of the children suddenly froze in place, noticing her tapping a foot on the ground.
"She/He did it!" All but a few of them said, pointing at one of their brothers or sisters in the room.
"All of you come here, right now!" Mio ordered.
They all shivered and listened, lining up before their angry parent before them.
"Now sit down!" She exclaimed.
"Y-yes Mio/Mom!" They answered.
All of them sat on the floor, soon getting themselves pointed at.
"Everyone who made a mess, you clean it up right now without any fighting! Everyone who didn't? You're the only ones getting snacks until then!" She stated.
"Yes Mio..." The guilty party said, looking down.
Putting the few who didn't cause any trouble, they all smiled as Shido lifted his head up to view his 12th wife.
"Thanks for the help, they can be monsters sometimes when we're not all here." He groaned.
"You did let your kindness make you have kids with everyone only shortly after Tohka had her twins, so someone has to be strict where you aren't." Mio replied.
Only then did she notice something was missing.
"Hold on, where'd the maid go?" She wondered.
A muffled screaming could be heard, making Shinji sweat a little as he tried to sneak off.
"Sweeties, who locked her in there?" Mio asked, a scary smile on her face.
"Shinji did it." Luna blabbed, pointing at him.
He immediately tried to run off in a panic, only for Mio to hold her hand out and pull him back with her powers. He began shaking in horror as her glare burned through his face.
"Shinji, you're getting an extra punishment... you and Reine will swap outfits for school today." She declared.
"NO, NOT THAT AGAIN!" He cried.
The rest of his half siblings all gave nervous looks, while Reine just shrugged.
Whimpering a bit as he walked into the room, his sister wearing his outfit and him wearing his, their teacher (who was none other than Mikie) blinked a bit before looking at Reine.
"And he got the switching punishment for what reason this time?" Mikie asked.
"He locked our maid in the closet for who knows how long, he even tried to run away." She answered, chuckling a little.
Mikie giggled a bit.
"Don't worry Shinji, this is a good way to form some humility." She smiled.
"Oh come on, not you too!" He whined, groveling on the floor as his pride died.
From a nearby desk, a slight giggle was heard.
The one who made it was a girl with messy white hair and blue eyes, who quickly moved her head near a blonde who also had blue eyes.
"Hey Rinemu, is that what a pride before a fall's like?" Hibiki asked.
"Uh... I think it is? To be honest, I don't really know." Rinemu replied.
Shinji's sister chuckled a bit, knowing that the girl known as Hibiki just happened to be who her twin brother had an interest in. The apple truly didn't fall far from the tree when it came to finding love at a young age.
"OK everyone, take your seats so we can begin class." Mikie requested, clapping her hands.
At that moment, Reine and Shinji walked to their seats.
Mio sighed a bit as she sat in the park, currently with all the kids who were still too young to attend school as they were eating ice cream.
"Glad the school day's reducing the stress of having 14 children." She breathed.
"Oh, trouble in paradise I presume?" A familiar voice asked, standing by her side.
Turning around, she looked to see Ryouko standing by her, a playful smile on her face. The Spirit of Origin chuckled at the sight of her old friend.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Mio smiled.
Ryouko soon sat herself down on the opposite side of the bench.
"I've heard you and the others all had children with Shido, but I didn't think you had this many." She remarked.
"Yeah, Tohka gives birth and then the rest of us follow. Our husband's way too nice a man sometimes." Mio replied.
She chuckled a bit before continuing.
"Aside from me and Tohka having twins, that's one baby per mother, and having a group of kids between toddler to young grade school ages is already chaotic with the help of a maid... one that the oldest boy locked in a closet earlier this morning." The Spirit of Origin chuckled.
"How did he pull that off?" Ryouko asked.
"Considering that our children are all the second generation of the newer Spirits, why wouldn't he be able to pull it off?" Mio questioned.
The former Fraxinus Commander sweated at that, now worried about being near Tohka's son at his current age.
"Luckily, the one advantage we have is they're all afraid of me because they know my powers throw a wrench into anything they try. I even punished Shinji by having him and Reine switch school uniforms, meaning he's currently wearing a dress to school." She giggled.
"Ooh, that's an effective punishment to give. I should recommend that to a few friends of mine." Ryouko remarked, smirking a bit.
The silver-haired Spirit breathed a sigh of relief.
"At the very least, not all of the kids are walking time bombs. My twins, Miku's daughter, and Mukuro's daughter are the good ones. Although... the last two don't help stop the chaos because the former's always distracted, while the latter is too timid." She mentioned.
"In other words, only your kids help keep the peace?" Ryouko summarize things.
"Pretty much." Mio confirmed.
At that moment, Ushio ran over to the two, holding his pants as his legs quivered.
"Gotta go number 1?" She asked.
"Hurry... can't... hold it!" Ushio whimpered.
Mio chuckled before lifting him up, carrying the young Water Spirit into the bathroom before he accidentally wet himself.
Eventually, the school day ended as everyone returned home, with Shinji immediately changing out of his sister's outfit.
"Freedom!" He screamed, crying happy tears.
"At least until you cause trouble again." Tohka said with a cat-like smile, looking at her son.
He flinched at that remark.
"She has a point, even your mother and I didn't pull stunts like that when we were your age. You aren't going to make that girl you have a crush on return your feelings if you keep things up." Shido mentioned.
"Dad, stop it already..." Shinji whimpered, dragging his feet as he moved to the table.
Right at that moment, the door opened to show Nia and Miku at the door, having come back from their jobs as the others joined the table.
"Alright everyone, let's eat." Tohka smiled, clapping her hands together.
Everyone made the same motion.
"Thank you for the food!" All of them stated.
"Plus today's desert!" Shinji exclaimed.
With that, all of them began eating today's dinner, with Shido and all his wives knowing that tomorrow would have some new craziness to it.
THE END