Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Date a Live.
Shido's POV:
"So..." I begin as we all look at the person Yoshino has transformed into because of Natsumi. "You're still Yoshino?"
"I am." Yoshino nods. "Though right now, my appearance who I used to be before I reincarnated and merged souls with her."
"Which means you're Fuyu Hana." Kotori deduces.
"That's right." Fuyu nods in confirmation.
"So this is what you used to look like?" Miku asks, looking over Fuyu's past appearance. "You actually look pretty cute!" Fuyu slightly blushes at Miku's compliment. She does look pretty cute.
"But how did Natsumi know to transform you into your previous self?" Nagisa-san asks a big question.
"She must've transformed into me at some point." Fuyu guesses. "If I'm to guess, it was when she was deciding her disguise for the game. The thing about Haniel's transformations is that it also allows Natsumi to see the memories of whoever she transforms into."
"So she saw your memories, and now knows about you being a reincarnation." Origami summarizes, to which Fuyu nods.
"Hang on. If Natsumi can see other people's memories by transforming into them, wouldn't she have known I didn't see her real form when she transformed into me?" I ask.
"She could've." Fuyu replies. "But either she was so angry at you that it didn't cross her mind, she selective chose which memories to look at, or she just decided not to, believing she was right." I can't help but groan in frustration, knowing that this all could've been avoided if Natsumi had properly checked my memories.
"So, now what?" Tohka asks.
Fuyu sighs. "At this point, Natsumi is going to just stick to harassment." She looks at me. "I would recommend that you avoid making contact with anyone for now, Shido, lest people's clothes "mysteriously" shred off whenever you touch them." I quickly nod at her warning, knowing that that could cause loads of misunderstandings. "We should also form a barrier around the house in case she decides to turn into a brothel."
"Oh no way in..." She pauses and briefly looks at Rio. "No way am I gonna allow her to change MY house into one of THOSE places!"
"What's a brothel?" Rio asks.
"You'll know when you're older." Rinne, Fuyu and I quickly say in unison.
Natsumi's POV:
Damn it. Things have not been going my way. First my plan to ruin Shido's social standing flopped because his harem exposed me immediately, then my plan to take all his precious people away failed because Yoshino tricked me into outing myself!
Or is it Fuyu Hana? Honestly, I never thought reincarnation was even a thing until I transformed into that girl. I had initially planned to disguise as her during the game. I figured since everyone seems to trust her, Shido would never guess that she was actually me.
But then I looked at her memories and learned that she was actually a human in her past life. Not just any human, but a human from a world where we're all just fictional character from a manga that got adapted into an anime!
I did NOT ask for an existential crisis!
Seriously, if our world was created by someone making a manga, then I hope that person suffers for giving me a shitty past, a shitty mother and an ugly appearance!
For now, though, I need to focus on making Shido's life hell.
I was planning to use Haniel to destroy people's clothes whenever Shido touched them, but whenever it looked like he WAS about to touch them, he would suddenly dance around them to avoid making contact. Fuyu must've warned him about what I was planning to do to him at school and that's why he's refusing to touch anyone.
Though I'll admit, it was quite humorous watching him dance around, trying to avoid touching people.
But then I tried to transform his house into a brothel and making the people inside his 'products', while also making the walls completely see-through for everyone to witness. But that didn't work because his house is apparently being protected by some barrier.
Damn Fuyu Hana. Even after transforming her back to her previous self, she still manages to be a pain in the ass. If I'm gonna get back at Shido, I need to do something even she won't expect.
I fly off into the forest to plan my next move, but the moment I touch down on the grass, I sense an attack coming my way. A surprise attack? That's not going to work.
With a wave of my hand, I turn the projectiles heading towards me into candy canes and confetti. I then turn to look at who attacked me and see two Wizards in the air. "Oh? Two Wizards are here for me? Sorry, but you'll have to come another time. I'm a little busy." I lazily dismiss them.
"That won't be happening." The blonde one says. "We're here to hunt you down."
"Oh really?" I smirk. "Haniel!" I aim my Angel at the two of them and hit them with my transformation magic, turning them both into little kids.
"What... is this?"
"Interesting."
Oh, don't they look cute like that~ Well, as they are now, they're pretty much harmless-
"Regardless, this does not change anything." ... Wait what? Are they seriously going to fight like tha- Too fast!
I panic and quickly block the orange girl's attack with Haniel, but that still left me open to the blonde as she slashes cut across the stomach, cutting clean through my Astral Dress. The stinging pain causes me to fall to my knees as I panic and use my powers to instead stop the blood loss, but this means that the two Wizards are now back to normal.
"It seems I've missed your vitals." I hear the blonde say nonchalantly. "Whatever, I'll just cut off your limbs. That shouldn't kill you. Artemisia."
"Got it."
No... I don't want to die... Someone... save me...
The two Wizards approach me with their swords raised. I shut my eyes, waiting for my life to end.
...
"You?!" I hear the blonde exclaim in surprise. Did someone... really save me?
Opening my eyes, I see an older woman with blue hair in a ponytail standing in front of me, blocking my attackers' swords with a spear that looks like it's made of crystals.
"Nagisa Himekawa." The blonde says, staring at the woman that saved me. Nagisa Himekawa? Isn't she Yoshino's mom? "You still live?"
"You really expected my own daughter to kill me?" Nagisa growls, sounding angry. "Don't underestimate our bond, Ellen!" She pushes the two Wizards back.
"I don't know how Yoshino managed to keep you alive, but that doesn't matter right now." The blonde, Ellen, says. "I suggest you hand over the Spirit behind you. You can't beat the both of us alone."
From behind her, I can see the corner of Nagisa's lips move into a smirk. "And who says I came alone?"
The moment she finishes that question, Yoshino herself, now also back to normal, comes charging from behind and attacks Ellen and Artemisia with a wide slash of energy, cutting right through their Territories and cutting them across their stomach, making them double back in pain. "Consider that karma for hurting Natsumi." She says as she lands in front of me with her mother.
"Yoshino Himekawa." Ellen growls, pushing through the pain and standing.
"It's not just her you have to worry about!" I hear a familiar male voice this time as Shido arrives with his other Spirits, all of them standing ready to defend me. Why? I'm trying to make Shido suffer...
"Ellen, we need to retreat!" Artemisia tells her partner as she stands up as well. "We can't face them all together like this!"
"Fine!" Clicking her teeth in annoyance, Ellen complies with her partner and they both leave.
The last thing I feel is the sudden feeling of being teleported before I pass out.
Third POV:
"What the hell have you done, Wescott?!"
"Calm down, Murdoch. I merely had a small advanture in Japan."
Isaac Westcott, CEO of Deus Ex Machina Industries, is seated at a large table in the conference room, along with every last one of DEM's board members. Thy had all rushed back to HQ the second they heard of the events that had transpired in the Japanese branch.
"Calm down, my ass!" Murdoch bites back. "You've brought massive losses to us!"
He pulls out a sheaf of papers from his bag and started reading aloud. "At 19:00 on the 23rd of September, fighting broke out around DEM Industries' office in Tengu City. The battle involved several Spirits, somehow allied with former Adeptus 2, Mana Takamiya, in a conflict with DEM Industries' military forces. The fighting is thought to have been caused by DEM attempting to interrupt the Tenou Festival earlier that day, ostensibly to capture a disguised Spirit amongst the masses.
"There's a lot of gibberish here, but to cut to the chase, you caused an all-out brawl in the middle of the city, involving [Nightmare], [Princess], [Berserk], [Diva], [Ruler] AND a boy named Shido Itsuka, who is able to use the power of the Spirits, temporarily dubbed [Samurai]!"
Murdoch slams the papers down and glares at Wescott. "The Japanese government estimates the damage at over one-and-a-half billion pounds! They've got their grip around our throats, thanks to you!"
"You forgot [Hermit]." Westcott points out casually. "She's the star of that show."
"That's ANOTHER thing! That whole Inverse that you preached about? That's been proven incorrect because of [Hermit]! You said that a Spirit becomes an Inverse by falling into despair, but instead, [Hermit]'s shown that a Spirit can Inverse whenever the hell they want!"
"Everyone, I ask you if we can leave things like this." Murdoch addresses the rest of the board members. "Can we afford to let Wescott continue to run this company into the ground for his own interests? Could the world afford to lose our Realizers? I vote for the forced resignation of Sir Isaac Ray Pelham Wescott!"
As Murdoch slowly raises his hand, the entire room falls silent. Ellen steps forward, trying to say something, but is silenced by Westcott putting a hand in front of her to quiet her down for a bit. He still has the same smile on as always, but a small sliver of annoyance was visible through the outwardly friendly appearance. "Very well. Let us vote for my forced resignation, then. All in favor, raise your hands."
More than half of the board members raise their hands, agreeing with Murdoch that Westcott's recent antics were too much.
Except the moment their hands were raised, every single raised hand is sliced clean off.
Several screams arise as blood flies everywhere, still somehow leaving Westcott's shirt spotless. "Well, I count zero hands, so I shall stay as CEO." He smirks. "Don't worry. As soon as I am finished with my business, I will personally step down myself."
Yoshino's POV:
A day has passed since we saved Natsumi from Ellen and Artemisia, and things went about as well as they did in canon. Even with us giving Natsumi a makeover and showing her how pretty her real self can be, it's still not enough to break past that negative mindset of hers.
"Hey, Yoshino." Shido calls for me. "You said that Natsumi's human past was worse than yours and Miku's right?" I nod. "Can you tell us what happened to her? We might be able to help her if we know what she went through."
I look around at everyone in the room as they look back with expectancy. I could even sense Natsumi listening in from around the corner.
With a sigh, I begin. "Like I said, Natsumi's past is the worst out of all of us. To start with, she was born out of wedlock."
Origami's eyes widen. "You mean she's a bastard child?!"
"What's a bastard child?" Tohka asks nervously, already not liking the sound of it, and I don't blame her.
"It means that Natsumi's an illegitimate child that was born because two idiots decided to have a one-night stand with taking any precautions." Mom explained.
"And those idiots were a businessman that's always away at work and an abusive drunkard of a mother." I add.
"Abusive?" Rinne repeats with a horrified whisper.
I nod sadly. "Natsumi grew up in an abusive household where her mother only used her for the secret hush money her father provided for them." I clench my fists angrily. "Her mother refused to feed her and would always belittle her for being ugly."
"So her mother is the reason her self-confidence is in shambles..." Miku whispers angrily.
"Initially, Natsumi tried to be a good child and help out around the house, but all that did was make her mother hate her even more."
"That... female dog!" My mom is rightfully angry, but she censors herself since Rio is also in the room. "What kind of mother punishes her child for helping keep the house clean?!"
"Natsumi's only source of nutrition was the school lunch, which was the only reason she went to school to begin with. But, she grew to hate school because of the other students ignoring or bullying her for her dirty appearance. During a long vacation, food became a matter of life and death for her. But she knew her mother would kill her for touching any of the packaged foodstuffs, so her stable food during those times was sugar and soy sauce diluted with tap water. It was a lucky day for her if the refrigerator had butter and margarine."
"Malnutrition." Origami realizes. "No wonder Natsumi thinks so poorly of herself. Her growth was stunted because of the abuse she suffered under her..." She grits her teeth angrily. "I don't even want to call that woman her mother!"
"She really does give all mothers a bad name." I agree coldly. "And this continued up to the day that Natsumi became a Spirit."
"What happened?" Shido asks with a frown.
"On that day, just as Natsumi started junior high, her mother found out that her recently passed away. With their source of income gone, her mother demanded her to do anything to make her money." I growl the next two words angrily. "Including prostitution."
Waves of Reiryoku wash around the room as everyone reacts with expected anger, the most notable being my Mom, Rinne and Miku. For Mom and Rinne, they are mothers themselves, and hearing that any mother would demand their child to prostate themselves for cash angers them beyond belief. For Miku, it reminded her of when her own parents tried to do practically the same thing, selling her off to that bastard producer.
"What is UP with this?!" Shido shouts angrily. "First Miku and her parents, and now Natsumi and her mom... Are Spirits just cursed to have bad luck with family?!"
"Thankfully, not all of us, but I understand your point, Shido." I reply. "Natsumi herself was also furious that the same mother who would always belittle her as ugly would demand something like this at her own convenience, replying that it was impossible since she got her ugly appearance from her."
That gets a laugh out of everyone, the waves of Reiryoku dying down. "She basically told that woman the pot is calling the kettle black!" Kaguya laughs.
"Yes, she did." I allow myself to giggle. "Unfortunately, this caused her mother to snap and begin choking Natsumi."
"And that was when Mom appeared, right?" Tohka asks.
I nod. "[Deus] appeared at that moment and offered Natsumi power. Desperate to survive, Natsumi accepted and transformed into a Spirit. Using her newfound power, Natsumi transformed her mother into a frog in retaliation, but stopped just short of killing her by stepping on the frog."
"... That woman better not be still alive when we're done helping Natsumi." Rinne says, a dark look on her face. "Because if she is, I'm going to kill her myself." Aaand Rinne's angry.
"... Normally, I would against killing anyone." Shido speaks up. "But for Natsumi's sake, I think I wanna join in myself." Wow. You know it's bad when Shido, of all people, is advocating for murder.
"I'm with you, Shido!" Tohka joins it.
"Let us enact vengeance upon the heathen you made our comrade so miserable!" Kaguya rallies everyone.
"Wait a minute!" Origami shouts. "We can't just kill someone! We need to plan our alibi first!"
"Origami's right." Kotori speaks from Fraxinus. "We'd also need to find a way to make it look like an accident. Throw the cops off our trail."
"Volunteer: Kaguya and I can use our wind to make it look like she died in a natural disaster." Yuzuru gives an interesting idea.
"I'm not very keen on using the control aspect of my powers after what happened." Miku speaks up. "But if push comes to shove, I can do some 'convincing'."
"Why go through all the trouble?" Reine asks. "The perfect crimes are the ones can't prove happened at all." Looks like everyone wants a piece of Natsumi's shitty mother.
I look over at my mom, who seems to be contemplating something. "What are you thinking, Mom?"
"I'm making my own plans right now." Mom replies. "Step one involves killing that failure of a mother." Yeah, that's to be expected.
"And step two?"
"Step two requires filling in some adoption papers." Adoption papers?
It didn't take long at all to know what Mom was hinting at, and it surprises everyone, myself included. "Mom... are you planning on adopting Natsumi?" I ask.
She smiles. "Natsumi endured living in an abusive household for so long. It's obvious that what she wants more than anything is to feel loved. And if that failure of a mother isn't gonna do it, then I'm gonna have to step in and give her the love she deserves." Wow. I didn't realize until now just how big my mom's heart is.
"You're right. Natsumi deserves to be loved." I smile with her. "If it means bringing her into our family, then I'll happily accept her as a little sister."
"You said it, Partner!" Yoshinon exclaims in agreement.
Mom looks at Miku. "I was actually of adopting you, too, Miku."
"E-Eh?!" Miku is caught off-guard by the reveal.
"I don't know where your parents are right now, but they obviously abandoned you after that false scandal broke out. It shouldn't have even been allowed to happen in the first place. Under no circumstances should any parent sell off their child for anything." None of us can argue with Mom there. "Both you and Natsumi have suffered from bad parenting, so it's my job to step in and be a proper mother for both of you."
Miku stands there in stunned silence, taking a moment to process what she just heard, before stepping forward and hugging Mom tightly. Mom accepts this and hugs her back. I guess I'm gonna have two little sisters.
"Your mom has a really big heart, Yoshino-chan." Rinne says with a smile. I can see in her eyes that she's developed a newfound respect as fellow mothers.
I smile back. "Yeah. She really does."
Natsumi's POV:
Why...? I don't understand...
I wanted to approach them all disguised as Kotori to see how they really felt about me. I refused to believe that they did all this out of the kindness of their hearts. I wanted to know the truth.
Just as I was about to turn the corner, though. I hear Shido ask Yoshino about my past. I stayed hidden and listened, but internally, I scoffed. There's no way she knew that much about me.
Oh, how wrong I was...
Yoshino summarized my past perfectly, from the circumstances of my birth, to the reason I'm stuck looking look an ugly little kid, all the way to the day I became a Spirit.
I was expecting to hear everyone laugh at my suffering, but instead, they were... angry... for my sake. Hell, they were even making plans on killing my mom as revenge for me!
But the most shocking thing of all... was Yoshino's mom's suggestion of adopting me.
I nearly blanked out when I heard that. Adoption? Me? After I kidnapped her daughter? What's more is that Yoshino even agreed to it, saying she would happily accept me as her little sister!
I couldn't take it anymore and ended up running away. Those guys... They really are doing this to help someone pathetic like me.
It's just like Yoshino's mom said. All I wanted was to feel like I was genuinely loved. And they're willing to go so far to make that happen.
"I lost." I say as tears begin to fall from my eyes.
Natsumi deserves to be happy, and Nagisa decides she's the adult that needs to do it. She also plans on adopting Miku. Honestly, she's just as deserving after what I put her through.
Also, Nagisa's new spear is Yoshinon Jr's weapon form, and it's basically Shenhe's Calamity Spear from Genshin Impact.
And yeah, Murdoch tries to overthrow Wescott not just for the damage caused by the fight between the Spirits and DEM, but also because of Yoshino's unique Inversion, not knowing that she is the 'exception' rather than the 'rule'. He still failed either way, so now we've got falling satellites to worry about.
That'll come next chapter, though.