As the tension in the air escalated to the point of being palpable, the illusion shaping Weiss' form broke into pieces to reveal for good the small girl that Neo was in size, but was more than capable of containing all of her corrupted essence.
It wasn't for nothing that she was making an appearance like this in the first place, being sure to wring a reaction out of Winter whose initial shock quickly ceased to exist to be replaced by something else Sasuke knew all too well.
Considering what had happened between them earlier, it would have been a surprise if this reunion had gone differently.
Unfortunately, if it was up to Neo, it could still get a lot worse.
"Sorry for interrupting, but I had to, or you guys were going to end up doing some pretty dirty things~" Neo made good use of her evolved Semblance by writing in the air each word with letters as colorful as she herself was. After all, while she was able to speak now, that was only possible by creating copies or embodying someone else's appearance. "Who knew Winter Schnee would be that kind of woman?"
In fact, at first, she even wanted to have seen a bit of 'action', believing that she could take advantage of it somehow later, but it was only after seeing these two kissing that such an idea died completely along with the expectant smile she had. For some reason, her amusement vanished without a trace to be replaced by a nagging feeling of anxiety that made her reveal her presence without a second thought, interrupt these two before clothes started falling to the floor and getting under Winter's skin in the process.
After all, this woman had nearly broken her neck when they fought earlier, so a little revenge was more than justified.
Unfortunately for Neo, that could still happen.
"You!?" Winter made her Aura visible like white fire to the point of expelling the IV from her blood transfusion and burning the devices monitoring her condition, hardly able to believe her eyes that glowed like ice crystal as her initial fear of being seen by her little sister in that kind of situation gave way to an even greater hatred. "Try to lay a finger on him again, and this time I'll be sure to end you!"
Forget the warning, Winter had no intention of giving this girl a chance to even try! Advancing with nothing but her hands, she would finish what she started and subdue this little assassin!
Except this time, the speed boost Winter gained from being strengthened and healed by Sasuke's spiritual energy was within expectation, and he managed to stop her in her path of revenge in that exact second, inches away from having Neo by the throat.
A little more and someone really would end up dying, and that couldn't happen.
Worlds depended on it.
"Wow, calm down princess!" Neo recoiled in fright at almost being caught and was quick to raise her hands in surrender, not intending to fight this crazy woman again. "I'm not an enemy anymore!"
Not exactly true, since she still didn't like Sasuke very much because of what he did to Roman, but the fact that he endured and even accepted her hatred when killing her was so much easier, made her desire to watch him, so she could learn more about him, grow without end; about how he managed to change like that, going from a cold, hate-filled monster to become someone kind who was able to love and be loved. Besides, if what Sasuke said was really true, staying under his wings was the only chance to survive the catastrophe in the form of a hungry goddess to come and keep Roman safe.
To ensure that would happen, Neo would do anything, where she wasn't kidding when she said she would join his harem, being more than willing to become one of his women.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Winter only paused in her advances because she was in the comforting arms of her beloved. But still, she wanted a proper reason for all of this. Otherwise...
She'd be sure to smash this girl to pieces, leaving her in the same state as her damned illusions.
"Well, it means that," Neo had just the right idea about how to do this and brought both her hands alongside her hair close to her flushed face, and smiled shyly in a way that no man could resist, "I've also joined Sasuke's harem!"
The silence that followed that absurd statement, one that was accompanied by drawings of little pink hearts and even fireworks, was so much that someone could drop a needle in this room and it would sound like the bomb this mindless girl just dropped.
Thanks to that, once again in this life, Sasuke was regretting one of his decisions.
Why can't things be easy?
Maybe because if they were, it wouldn't be his life.
"No, you didn't." Sasuke couldn't help but sigh as he considered releasing Winter and letting her put some sense into this girl's broken head. "Because I don't have a harem."
At least that's what he wanted and would continue to believe until the end.
"Own~" Neo smirked, not missing the opportunity to continue with her act and try to score some points. "So does that mean I'm the only one for you?"
Unfortunately, the points she was scoring were negative.
"No," his answer was short and sharp, where now Sasuke actually regretted stopping Winter. That or threatening to use her as snake food.
Hard to know which would be worse.
Considering what this girl still had the nerve to say and do while ignoring his warnings, Sasuke would say that the two might not be enough and would really need to make use of his latest discovery.
"Ouch~" Neo pretended to have her heart broken as she dried a tear, created by her Semblance, from her eyes and Winter looked at her in disdain as she rejoiced in her apparent rejection. Hmph, so you want to turn this into a competition? If so, I have no intention of losing to you again!
With that being decided to fuel her determination and spite for this woman, her form shattered to make Winter flinch, proving that Neo wasn't the only one who was afraid to repeat the fight from before and reappear on Sasuke's back with her hands around his neck to have her face touching his and she genuinely loved that; the fact that he would allow something like that when he could have easily avoided her.
But you need me, don't you? In fact, there was a very good chance that he actually liked her touch, and that made her want to smile in victory and stick out her tongue at Winter. 'When we're alone, I'll definitely do that. At this moment, however, the goal was another and she had her best pair of saddened eyes ready to strike. "B-but you held me in your arms, stroked my hair lovingly, and even whispered in my ear that you wanted me; promising that I would never have to be alone again..."
Which was true and that just made it all the better...for her.
A part of her wanted to recreate that moment with her Semblance right there, in a much more fanciful, dramatic, and maybe a little romantic way, to finish breaking Winter. The only problem with that was that Sasuke would probably break her too, given the way he was looking at her.
Neo really got under his skin this time and as dangerous as that was, she loved every second of it; of having his attention all to herself!
As for Sasuke, he wanted to pull Neo off of him and throw her through the nearest window, being sure that this girl was trying to kill him again, even if indirectly, if the way Winter was staring at him meant that much.
Jealousy was a dangerous thing like that.
"Don't twist my words." Even if he had said it all in the heat of the moment and it had sounded like some sort of confession as she described, Sasuke would never admit having done any of it. "And stop doing that." He made her let go and get off his back as he tried to ignore the soft feeling that was having this girl's body pressed against his exposed skin one more time before Winter finally snapped out of her stupor and turned this into a bloodbath. "Just because you're acting like a cute little girl doesn't mean I won't punish you if you insist on continuing with this nonsense."
Winter's gaze narrowed even more after that, for Sasuke just called that little assassin cute right in front of her!
The nerve of him!
And what about me?! Winter puffed out her cheeks in annoyance, wanting to scream her indignation, and was genuinely starting to hate this girl. This little hussy, just because she's younger, she thinks she can do whatever she wants!
Just as she was about to carry out her threat from before and finish this brat off for touching her beloved, this girl had one more thing to say that was bound to make her stop in her tracks for more than one reason.
"Little girl?" Neo ignored the compliment because of the indirect offense that reminded her of her diminutive stature and nearly lost her smile as one of her multicolored eyes twitched in irritation. "I'm older than you."
Probably, she wanted to say.
If he wasn't a god as he claimed and was as old as he looked, then yes, Neo was older than him by at least two years.
"Besides," she recovered her smirk based on the incredulous look these two had stamped on their faces and hugged herself to accentuate her generous breasts, thus proving her point. "I'm not small and you know it~"
On the other side of this unexpected revelation and unnecessary teasing, both Sasuke and Winter stared at this sassy girl unsure of what to say and how to react to it.
However, that only remained until taking into consideration how strong she was, her straightforward attitude, and...undeniable sex appeal.
In short, she was probably telling the truth.
Except that, truth or not, it was hard to accept that someone who looked as young as, if not more, than Ruby was actually a grown woman.
That complicated things a bit.
Now, her implications about joining Sasuke's nonexistent harem, as much as it carried an undeniable hint of playfulness, held much more weight.
Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one who thought so.
Suddenly, Winter's world had turned upside down. Not just because of this girl, but because of everything she had ignored until then.
After all, she had come to the conclusion that sharing Sasuke with her little sister was the best solution so that neither of them would have their hearts broken.
But what about the other girls who undeniably arrived first and also wanted Sasuke?
It wasn't for nothing that the idea of sharing her beloved with strangers didn't appeal to her at all.
While polyamory, a term used to define a relationship between more than two people, was relatively common and acceptable in Remnant, especially after the last war where the number of women in the world became at least twice as many as men, the same couldn't be said for a harem.
That kind of degrading practice ended with the last monarchy in Remnant, almost a hundred years ago.
In that case, all that remained was to believe that it was considered normal where Sasuke came from.
If so, what was Winter supposed to do?
Give up her first love or accept sharing him with several other girls, five of them if Winter was correct, where one of them was someone who tried to kill not only her but Sasuke himself?
Regardless of what she chose, there was Weiss to consider.
As a Schnee, her name carried prestige and weight, and she would always be the target of a lot of public attention even as she lost her position as heir.
Criticism and repercussions would be so much that bad things could result from it, especially coming from her father.
The last thing she wanted was for Weiss to get caught up in something toxic like that.
"Sasuke," Winter decided to ignore the perverted implications of this girl, or better said 'woman' now, and gained this boy's attention to try and better understand what she was dealing with. "Explain, now."
Why was he being complacent with someone who had literally tried to kill him and why was this same person now trying to get into his pants?
The only thing Winter didn't want to hear was the confirmation that he really did have some sort of abnormal effect on the opposite gender.
If so, she would be extremely disappointed, not only with him but with herself as well.
Sasuke wasn't one to be intimidated, but to see this woman whose eyes held nothing but love for him until a moment ago now staring at him with this level of seriousness, somehow transpiring the image of his mother while showing an undeniable touch of doubt and worry, made him feel guilty as he understood the reason behind it;
His divided heart, one that undeniably carried unrealistic expectations regarding the future.
That and Neo was definitely not helping.
"Oh no, could it be that you're in trouble because of me?" she covered her lips with her hand, more to hide a big smile, and feign surprise at her actions when the truth couldn't be more different. That's fun and all, but let's keep my feet on the ground.
She would have to tone down her teasing a bit.
After all, the last thing Neo wanted right now was for Sasuke to get really angry and try to throw her out the window or something worse.
The memory of being trapped by those white snakes from before was still fresh in her memory and she didn't want to have to go through that again.
At the same time, however, with her evolved Semblance, Neo could make other people experience that little nightmare! Unfortunately, that was something to think about later, as the mood suddenly weighed down, where she could see the seriousness in the strange eyes of this boy who wanted her but was playing hard to get in front of his other woman.
"While I admit my heart is split in several directions at the moment, creating some sort of harem is not and never has been my goal," Sasuke wasn't lying, regardless of the seed that younger, untouched by hate version of him had planted in his mind. "What I seek at the moment are allies to help me deal with a threat."
Of all the girls he wanted by his side, only Winter hadn't learned about that yet and she deserved to know.
"Allies?" she decided to focus on that instead of pressing on how exactly this division in his heart worked; on who filled the biggest part of it but her ego said it was definitely her. "For which threat?"
A more than fair question and with a good reason.
Everyone had gotten a glimpse of what Sasuke was capable of when he destroyed those Grimm and now Winter had an even greater understanding of his abilities after spending some time with him; about the fact that it was all but the tip of the Iceberg.
Still, he claimed to need help.
While some surreal ideas popped into her mind like the elimination of all the Grimm in the world, especially the Fragments of Darkness that were weapons created by the hand of the God of Darkness itself and were certainly an even bigger threat than Salem according to the General, or Sasuke had something more dangerous in mind involving world domination.
The answer he had for her was as absurd as her theories and his supposed alien origin.
"To defeat a goddess," Sasuke was blunt about it and the disbelief-filled silence he received was only as expected. I don't blame her for that.
For, in the end, no matter who it was, that kind of information was a lot to process.
Even now, Sasuke still had issues about the fact that he was Indra's reincarnation and preferred to ignore the implications it had when it wasn't about the power-related benefits.
"Crazy, right?" Neo nodded repeatedly, Winter's reaction being something they had in common. "I couldn't believe it either when he told me."
Even now she still wasn't sure if she did.
Like, a goddess who devours worlds?
How absurd that was!
If it wasn't for the fact that Sasuke was an anomaly beyond belief, she wouldn't even consider the possibility of that being real.
Either way, real or not, the power he had and was offering her was legitimate, and Neo would rather side with someone who didn't want to eat her...
Literally speaking at least.
Figuratively, though?
Unconsciously, Neo bit her lips as she focused on this boy in front of her who was covered in blood and that only made him look even better, like a strawberry-covered ice cream sundae, and remembered what happened earlier on that terrace, when she was on his lap getting all his attention; the intoxicating feeling it was to have the power of a god filling her body and strengthening her beyond her limit to make her feel things no one was able to awaken in her before.
"Right..." Winter hated to agree with this woman of all people, but she had a point. "This goddess... does she have a name?"
It couldn't be Salem, right? While that woman was a thousand-year-old monster, she was hardly dangerous enough for Sasuke of all people to need help.
The only problem was that Winter forgot that Remnant wasn't the only world that existed.
"Otsutsuki Kaguya, she was sealed inside the moon of my world for over a millennium until she broke free a few days ago." Sasuke walked over to the window of this room so he could stare at the large fragmented moon that was shining in the night sky. "Then, using that same moon that once served as her prison as a catalyst of sorts, an illusion that only I was able to resist was used to affect nearly every living being in my world and trap them in an endless dream."
But that was not all, where those people would be turned into White Zetsu if enough time passed and nothing was done to remove them from that state.
The reason why Sasuke needed to finish assimilating the Six Paths Yin Chakra, fix the Six Paths Mark on his neck, and get all the power he could before returning home.
Eventually, Sasuke would have to face that goddess and it could happen sooner than he expected.
The moment Kaguya considered Naruto to be more trouble than he was worth or, in the worst-case scenario, managed to kill him, she would come after Sasuke and this world.
Even if that didn't happen, Sasuke would still go to her as soon as possible.
One way or another, this fight was fated to happen and he would be sure to get rid of Kaguya...permanently.
So...Happy New Year? or is it too late?
Anyway, I'm back and writing again, or at least trying to.
Let's see how things go.
That's all for now, so let me know what you think and I'll see you again in the next one.