We wrap up the raid on DEM!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Date a Live.

Shido's POV:

Of all the time I've known Yoshino, I have never seen her this angry. I mean, I've seen her angry before, but she's always been able to keep a cool head. This is the first time she's shown true anger, and it honestly scares me.

"You've returned, [Hermit]." Isaac greets Yoshino, looking unfazed by her angry expression. "Looks like even Project: Siren wasn't enough for you."

Yoshino does not look amused by his statement. In fact, she looks angrier. "You are a real piece of work, Wescott." She snarls. "You'll target families for your goal. I've learned that when you had Ellen kill Origami's parents. But I didn't expect... THAT YOU WOULD USE MY OWN MOTHER!" She shouts at the end.

"MOTHER?!" The girls and I shout, shocked by what she just said.

"So you have learned our project's true identity." Wescott smirks. "I thought you would be happy to see your mother again."

Yoshino growls angrily. "Under normal circumstances, perhaps, but you turned her into one of your sick projects and made the two of us fight!"

"Wait! Hold on a minute, Yoshino!" I interrupt the conversation. "Are you saying Project: Siren is actually your mom?! How can that be?! Didn't you say that she died before you became a Spirit?!"

"Ah, yes. The lie that I had the doctors give."

Wescott's words make us all look at him with wide eyes. "What...?" Yoshino whispers with growing anger.

The CEO of DEM smirks and begins to explain. "When we first [Hermit]'s mother, she wasn't yet dead, but she was very close to it, to the point that we needed a DNA scan to learn her identity. At the time, we were in the planning stages for one of our special projects, so we figured we might as well try to make use of her. However, learning that she had a daughter who was hospitalized made things a bit complicated, so we had the doctors lie, saying that she actually did die in a work-related accident." He looks at Hermit with a smirk. "Imagine my surprise when I learned that that same daughter was the Spirit that overpowered Ellen four years ago. The moment I realized this, I knew that I could do more with her mother than I originally planned."

Tohka's eyes widen. "Nothing is more despair-inducing than not realizing you've killed your loved one until the last minute." She mutters. "Was this what you meant? Were you planning for Yoshino to kill her mother, hoping that it would make her fall to despair and Inverse?!" I don't know what Inverse is, but it doesn't sound good.

"Exactly, [Princess]."

Wescott's admission infuriates all of us, but none of us are more angry than Yoshino. "So, even my mom is no more than a tool for you." She says coolly, but her anger couldn't be more evident. "Well, now you're about to see what happens when you anger the reaper." What is Yoshino planning? "Yoshinon, let's show him our new trick."

"So, it's finally time." Yoshinon says as she transforms back into a puppet, her visible eye glowing. "Leave it to me."

We all watch as Yoshino and Yoshinon float into the air, Reiryoku surrounding them both, and then the two of them move their heads closer...

An eruption of Reiryoku engulfs them the moment their foreheads touch. To our shock, the Reiryoku begins to turn dark in color, before bursting outward in a powerful shockwave, making us all brace ourselves as to knock get blown back. Opening our eyes, we see Yoshino standing there, but looking much different.

To start with, her Astral Dress could hardly even be called a dress. She still has her trademark rabbit hoodie, though now black, but the ears look sharper in comparison, and there's a button eye on the left side of the hoodie with a stitched "eye" on the right. The mouth also looks more like sharp teeth in comparison. Her left arm is still in a sleeve, but her right arm is now sleeveless and has a fingerless glove, with an icy-shaped ring on her pointer finger, and she's wearing toe-less black boots with the same puffball on her Astral Dress' "tail" As for the rest of her Astral Dress, it looks more like she's wearing underwear than anything, with black panties and a short baby-doll nightgown that barely reaches her stomach, tied by a blue ribbon. Finally, her has turned into a translucent white, and her eyes have turned blood red. Though, only her left eye is visible, as her right is covered by a black eyepatch.

"What just happened?" Kaguya asks, awed by the transformation.

"Wonder: Did the Great Sage fuse with her familiar?" Yuzuru asks, also in awe.

I continue only stare at Yoshino. She looks like a completely different person, yet somehow, still familiar. "Yoshino?" I attempt to call out to her.

To my surprise, she looks at me with a small smile. "Don't worry. Partner's still here." She speaks, but her voice sounds different. Wait, no. It actually sounds familiar... And she said 'partner' as well.

I take another look at Yoshino, taking into note her facial features. The white hair, the visible red eyes, and her other eye being covered by an eyepatch... It's almost like she's...

"Yoshinon?"

Her smile widens. "Bingo! Yoshinon is here now!"

Everyone else looks at her with surprise. "Wait, Yoshinon?! You've taken over Yoshino's body?!" Origami asks.

"Well, it's not really 'taking over'. More like the two of us swapped consciences." Yoshinon replies.

"You've swapped consciences?" Rinne repeats in confusion.

Just then, a puppet appears next to Yoshinon. This one is different in that it looks like a little girl. Is that... Yoshino? "Yoshinon has always been more like a familiar to me." The puppet says. "However, it's also accurate to think of her as something akin to... a split personality."

"A split personality?" Origami gasps. "But that would mean... you Inverted?!"

Yoshinon smirks. "When a Spirit Inverts, they take on a split personality, right? Having my own personality separate from partner, I basically fit the bill."

"Knowing this, I realized that it was possible that my Inverse is comparably different from other Spirits; that I could Invert without having to fall into despair." Yoshino continues.

"She can control her Inversion." Kotori says in shock.

We suddenly hear laughter and look to see that it's Wescott. "Amazing! Truly amazing!" He laughs. "To think that you can Inverse at will! You continue to amaze me, Yoshino Himekawa!"

Yoshino and Yoshinon both glare a Wescott, their eyes glowing with anger. "Yoshinon, let's show him what happens to those who mess with family." Yoshino says darkly.

"Right back at ya, partner!" Yoshinon says, holding her right hand out. Yoshino glows a black light and flies into Yoshinon's open hand, and Yoshinon grasps it and swings her hand out, the light forming into a scythe.

Compared to Yoshinon's scythe form, Yoshino's is black with blue outlines, with the crystals being noticeably darker in color. The blade is a different shade of blue, more matching Yoshino's hair color, but the blade has a more sinister and intimidating appearance, and the two blades on the other end have combined into one and is longer in comparison. Finally, the orb where the pole and blades meet is blue instead of red, matching Yoshino's eye color.

"Tell me. Do you fear the reaper?" Yoshinon asks ominously. "Because now, you will face the chill of death!" Faster than anyone could blink, she suddenly moves in front of Ellen and slashes her, sending her flying into the wall, and then Yoshinon sends a slash wave at her, causing her to go through the wall and out the building, with Yoshinon flying after her.

Wescott looks out the newly-made hole, a huge blizzard forming in the distance as we see what looks like a black Zadkiel forming in the distance. "The Demon King Astaroth." He says with a sinister smile. "Marvelous. So this is the demonic power of the Inverse [Hermit]- the [Reaper]."

"Hey, bastard!" I call out Wescott with a glare. "Don't forget we're still here, too!"

"First my parents, and now Yoshino's..." Origami growls, aiming Metatron right at him. "I'll make sure you pay for the suffering you've caused us!"

Artemisia stands ready to defend him, but with Ellen now occupied by Yoshinon, we have a much better chance at winning.

"Artemisia." Wescott calls. "Go retrieve Ellen, but wait until after the fight is over." Artemisia looks at Wescott, surprised by his command, but nods and flies out the hole after Yoshinon and Ellen.

"You're leaving yourself vulnerable?" Rinne asks with narrowed eyes.

Wescott shrugs. "Ellen may be my ideal soldier, but I will admit that [Reaper] will prove too much for her." Then why provoke Yoshino into Inverting in the first place?

"So you're just gonna admit defeat?" Tohka asks.

"I'm more than willing to admit when I've lost." He's too calm about this, but maybe...

"Alright, but there's one thing I want to ask you." I say seriously.

Wescott raises an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

"What's your connection to the Spirit of Origin?"

My question catches everyone by surprise, so I begin to explain. "Rinne's Angel, Eden, can create a massive barrier that allows her to control reality within it. Yoshino compared it to a Realizer's Territory, but on a far greater scale. DEM are the main producer of Realizers, so as its CEO, that must mean you have some sort of connection to the Spirit of Origin."

Wescott's eyes widen as he looks at Rinne, before he starts laughing again. How many times is this now? "I see. So that is your power, Rinne Sonogami. Your Angel, Eden, may as well be one of that woman's Angels but with a different name." He mentions 'that woman' again.

"And by 'that woman', you mean the Spirit of Origin?" I press.

Wescott smiles. "I am also impressed by you, Shido Itsuka, that you were able to figure out my connection with her based on that alone."

"So Itsuka-kun is right?" Origami questions.

"Indeed. I do know the Spirit of Origin." Wescott confirms. "I was there when she first appeared in our world. Or, more accurately..." He smiles. "I was actively involved in her creation."

The revelation shocks all of us. "You... created her?" I repeat. "But that means... you caused the Eurasian Sky Disaster?"

Wescott smiles. "Correct. I, along with three others, caused the event that brought about the existence of Spirits."

I stand in shock at the metaphorical bomb that was just dropped.

The reason that Spirits exist...

The reason that Spacequakes happen...

The reason that Tohka and Rinne are even here...

It's all because of him?

I look at the girls and they are just as shocked as I am right now, but Tohka and Rinne have it worse, knowing that the cruel man before them is the one who created who is essentially their mom.

"Why...?" Tohka speaks after a full minute of silence. "Is this related to your desire to wipe out humanity?"

"Humanity was the one who started all this." He answers, confusing us all. "40 years ago, I and the three mentioned others were all kids living peacefully in our village. A village of mages, cut off from the rest of the world, for they feared what we were capable of. And that fear led humanity to burn our village to the ground. The four of us were the only survivors of that purge, and we swore revenge against humanity on that day."

"So that's what you mean by returning the favor?" Origami mutters. "But then, why all the twisted experiments?"

"Do any of you know the phrase schadenfreude?" Wescott asks, though I say nothing as I have no knowledge of German language. "It's a German word with no direct translation, meaning 'to take joy in the misfortune of other'. It's something I realized was core to my nature when my mother passed. I grieved, like any normal person would, but knowing that others were in just as much, if not more pain, I found myself filled with a strange sense of jubilation."

"Summary: In other words, you just get off on making other people suffer." Yuzuru summarizes.

"Oh, don't get me wrong. My desire for revenge is genuine." Wescott defends. "I feel sadness and anger just as everyone else. I'm just acutely aware that the thins that bring me joy are not the same as regular humans, and who am I to deny who I am?" So he's just embracing his true nature.

"And where does the Spirit of Origin come into this?" I return to the original question.

"Easy. I, along with the other three survivors, created the Spirit of Origin, as a means to create a Neighboring World, which we had intended to use to overwrite the one we live in." He tells us his revenge plan.

Rinne narrows her eyes. "You intend to create a paradise where only mages exist." She accuses. "And in doing so, fulfill your revenge by making humanity go exist."

"Correct. Alas, a lapse in judgement led to [Deus], as we call her, escaping." [Deus]... So that's what they call her. "The rest, as they say, is history."

I want to press for more information, but we feel a great power and look outside to see a huge pillar of light rising in the distance, before dying down and revealing a huge glacier. "And with that, it seems our conversation is over." Wescott says as he takes a bow. "A pleasure talking to you all. We will meet again." I sense mana circulate around him, then the next moment, he disappears.

"Wha-?! He's gone!" Kaguya yelps in surprise.

"He teleported away." Rinne says. "I could sense mana being used. He used teleportation magic, in line with him being a mage."

"No wonder he was so calm leaving himself alone." I say, clicking my teeth in annoyance.

"Don't worry about it, Onii-chan." Kotori tells me. "He may have gotten away, but you were still able to get valuable information out of him, so we still came out with the better end of the deal." Kotori's right. We now know how everything started, and what Wescott's ultimate goal is.

We'll let him go with his life for now, but we still stop him.

Third POV:

Yoshinon's attack sends Ellen flying out of the flying, but she uses a Territory to stop herself, just in time for her to be able to block the Inverse Spirit's scythe, but the force still sends her to the ground. "How dare you!" Ellen growls as she stands up, glaring at Yoshinon. "Ike's been trying to make a Spirit Inverse for years, and you casually do so right in our faces?!"

"Casual?" Yoshinon repeats with narrowed eyes as she descends to the ground. "There's nothing casual about Inversion." She points Yoshino at Ellen. "You pushed us to do this by using partner's mom, so now you're going to feel our rage!"

Ellen responds by pointing Pendragon at Yoshinon. "Regardless, I will prove myself as the Strongest Wizard by killing you now!" The Wizard declares.

"And I will shatter your delusional belief that you can defeat me!" Yoshinon shoots back. "ASTAROTH!"

A huge blizzard begins blowing behind Yoshinon as Zadkiel's Demon King counterpart, Astaroth, appears. In comparison, its appearance is black as an inverse to Zadkiel's white body, with its eyes instead being a fierce light blue, except its maw, along with parts of its body, are emitting a similar-colored fire that is actually a heat-sucking plasma that drains any warmth nearby.

"Trishula!" Yoshinon calls, and Astaroth roars as a dark blue light surrounds both of them. The light settles down as Yoshinon is now wearing a set of armor similar to Zadkiel's Shiryon, except if it can even be called armor is a valid question as it is really just ice flames covering her Astral Dress. "It's only fair that we go all-out this time, right?" Yoshinon asks, before giving a mocking smirk. "Or are you gonna make the excuse that you're not at your best from fighting our friends earlier?"

Ellen growls at the Inverse Spirit's mockery, her pride driving her to accept the challenge. "So be it! I'll bring my all to bare and strike you down!"

Ellen rushes at Yoshinon, and the Inverse Spirit responds in kind, the two slashing at each other and clashing blades, but Ellen could feel her Territory slowly coming apart, leading to Yoshinon's strikes starting to overpower her.

"Frost Wave!" Yoshinon spins her scythe in her hand, gathering energy in her blade, and then performs an uppercut slash that sends the energy forward in a slash wave. Ellen quickly blocks the wave of ice energy, the attack pushing her back while also freezing the ground as it travels. Ellen eventually manages to stop the attack with her Territory and rushes forward to attack Yoshinon, but the Inverse Spirit smirks and slams the bottom of her scythe into the frozen ground, causing ice shards to rise up from the ground, catching the Wizard off-guard as it pushes her up into the air.

Thanks to Ellen's Territory, she's able to block the worst of it, but Yoshinon uses Mist Dash to quickly fly above her. She notices and tries to use her Territory to block the back attack...

...except what she didn't see was Yoshinon charging her scythe with Pure Reiryoku, thus allowing her attack to shatter the Territory and strike Ellen true.

The Wizard gasps in pain as she is sent flying back down, but Yoshinon isn't done. "Hail Storm!" Yoshinon sends a barrage of slash waves at Ellen as she hits the ground, causing dust to kick up from the impact. When the dust settles, it reveals Ellen mostly fine, having managed to reform her Territory in time to cushion her fall and block the attack.

Yoshinon floats down on the ground as Ellen shakily stands up. "You can still use [Deus]'s power even as an Inverse?" Ellen grunts.

"Partner and I are two sides of the same coin." Yoshinon states, her visible eye closing as her Reiryoku starts flowing in and out of her in dark blue streams, with some of them turning rainbow. "Anything she can do..." She opens her eye, which is now bright blue as she enters Origin Mode. "I can do as well."

Ellen growls angrily and sends a slash wave of Mayroku at Yoshinon, but the Inverse Spirit dodges by turning into mist. The mist then moves underneath Ellen and rises up in an eruption. The Wizard tries to use her Territory to withstand the attack, but the Pure Reiryoku charging the attack renders it mute as lacerations form on her body, before Yoshinon performs an uppercut slash with Yoshino that sends her up into the air.

"ENOUGH OF THIS!" Ellen shouts angrily, deciding that she's been toyed with enough as she takes out Rhongomyiad.

"Here it comes, Yoshinon." Yoshino warns, feeling the Mayroku being charged up.

"I know, partner." Yoshinon confirms. "I got this."

"DIE!" Ellen fires Rhongomyiad, resulting in a large beam of concentrated Reiryoku traveling towards Yoshinon, but the Inverse Spirit creates a wall of ice that, to Ellen's shock, manages to stop the attack without cracking.

Yoshinon smirks. "Winter's Reflection." The ice wall starts glowing white at her declaration, and then it releases a huge beam of energy that pushes back Rhongomyiad's attack. Ellen's eyes widen as she realizes what is happening. The ice wall didn't simply stop the attack, it was absorbing it and returning it twofold!

Ellen tries to move out of the way of the counter attack, but the beam still catches her and knocks her out of the sky. She barely catches herself and uses her Territory to once again cushion her landing, but as she stands up, strings of rainbow energy suddenly rise up and immobilize her. "No!" She gasps.

"Feel the eternal chill of imprisonment in an endless frost." Yoshinon chants. A Pseudo-Territory forms around Ellen, and she immediately feels the temperature dropping at a dangerous rate. "Puppeteer's Cocytus!" Ellen is engulfed by a huge beam of ice energy rising up into the air for all to see. When it settles, a huge glacier is left behind.

On the ground, Ellen Mathers is seen trapped in the glacier, with Yoshinon looking at her with a triumphant smirk. "That's for both my mother and Origami's parents." She says, before looking up in the air and to her left to see Artemisia Ashcroft approaching. "What? Wanna take a shot at me as well?" The Inverse Spirit challenges.

"Considering Ellen's current state, I doubt I would fare any better against you." Artemisia states. "Though, I must ask that you release her from that glacier." Yoshinon narrows her visible eye at her, her gaze making the new Adeptus 2 flinch, but she still holds her ground.

"Let her go, Yoshinon." Yoshino tells her. "This is enough for now. The time will come when we will get our payback in full."

Yoshinon sighs. "If you say so, partner." She snaps her fingers, and the glacier shatters and drops Ellen to the ground. "Take her and go before we change our mind." The Inverse threatens Artemisia.

"Thank you for your mercy." Artemisia thanks her, before taking the freezing Ellen and flying off.

With the retreat of DEM's best, the battle has been won by Ratatoskr.

However, both Yoshino and Yoshinon knew that there is one more matter that needs to be addressed.

Something that has them both extremely worried.

It's a well known theory that Yoshinon is actually Yoshino's Inverse. I mean, she's a puppet with a personality separate from Yoshino's. She fits the bill. So, I decided to use that for this story, while also explaining how Nagisa is still alive this time around. Of course, doing so in a way that paints Wescott as even more of a bastard than he already is.

But more importantly, Shido in this story is not a complete idiot. He remembers what he was told about Rinne's Eden as well as DEM's history as the main producer of Realizers, and was able to connect the dots that Wescott might be connected to the Spirit of Origin... which he admits! This results in an early reveal of some of the prologue of Date A Live's story. At least, up to Mio's creation.

How will the heroes move forward with this information? And most importantly, how will they save Yoshino's mom?