Chapter 4
Fictions Mentioned:
Episode 4
OP Song:
MGS3 Snake Eater - Cynthia Harrell [With Lyrics] MGS3 Snake Eater OST
Insert Song: Start
A Different World - Corpse Party Blood Drive Music Extended
Between the Lines
It was the night before Shidou came back in time. A storm brews in, as clasps of thunder are heard echoing within the sky. It was happening somewhere in a city just a few kilometers away from Tenguu City.
"Ha...Ha...Ha..."
There was a young girl with an oversized green raincoat with a rabbit theme, sporting a poofy tail with a pink ribbon tied to it on the coattail, and a pair of rabbit ears on the hood. The coat is lined with a gold zigzag pattern, white frills, and the sleeves are partially detached at her upper arms. She wears green boots matching the color of her raincoat with pink socks inside. Under her raincoat is a white dress and a pink ribbon around her neck. On her left hand was a white rabbit puppet that she always held. Its right eye has a black button with a brown band that resembles an eyepatch, while its left eye is a tiny red dot. It has an orange and yellow collar around its neck.
Yoshinon is a mischievous, white rabbit puppet that Yoshino always holds in her left hand. Yoshinon's right eye has a black button with a brown band that resembles an eyepatch, while its left eye is a tiny red dot. The eyepatch is because Nagisa ran out of material to create the right eye. It has an orange and yellow collar around its neck.
A young girl named Yoshino Himekawa was hiding and running. That was nothing new to her of course. She had been running all of her life. In these days, she had been hunted down by a group of women that she did not know who were being outright hostile to her. What did she do wrong?
She did nothing. She was a Spirit. That was the only reason Yoshino was being hunted by these women, though Yoshino did not know that. By being a Spirit, she would forever be doomed to be hunted down, either by people who deemed her to be a threat to humanity, or people who want her for their own purposes. Likewise, she had no recollection of her life before this point. Her past had been a complete haze and the only things that she truly remembered were explosions and gunfire.
All her life, all she ever experienced was fear. And the same was no different.
"No! Stay way!"
She unleashed a fraction of her power. Blocks of ice materialized from all directions and were hurled toward her pursuers as they were knocked down. They were not the same mecha-women who had been chasing her for what felt like all her life. No, this was too different. They were not even something that could be resembling as humans. Their faces were that of bulls with scary red eyes that glowed and seemed to penetrate deep into her soul. They had darker grey skin and silver armor. Their wings were dove-like and twofold, capable of endless flight.
Bull-men with humanoid features and wings.
She knew instinctively, even as she could sense their sickly hellish aura, that something ran afoul. She knew that they were the enemy, and this was nothing compared to how it was with the mecha-women.
They gave off a sickly spiritual sense that would frighten her. Unholy, foul, dark, and all manner of evil. She had to run. And so she did.
With her power, waving her hand, she swept through the raindrops, turning them into large blocks of ice as she hit her newfound pursuers. With her agility and skill, she swept through several corners and alleyways. When being on the run, she had developed this skill of running, as she was not a fighter by nature, flight seemed more natural to her.
Aside from her current dilemma, Yoshino had harbored what may be a deep sense of longing, but she did not know why.
She felt a longing that she could not explain. There was some part of her that she could not ignore. She felt something missing in her life. She just did not know how to describe it.
"What do you mean you lost her?!"
One of the flying bull-men shouted as her bunny ears twitched. She tried hard not to yelp as she hid behind the garbage dump, shaking like a leaf. The bull-man who yelled was making of a holographic projection to communicate with some of her subordinates.
"Forgive us, my lord," one of the flying subordinates spoke with contrition. "We tried to search for her signature, but she seemed to have cloaked it through unknown means."
"Scour the city! Find her! Lord Asmodel will not be pleased when he hears of our failure to capture just one measly Spirit. This referential time frame is our perfect opportunity to do so. We cannot let her escape our grasp."
"Of course, my lord, we will scour without fail," the subordinate answered.
Yoshino, having overheard this conversation, grew concerned as her bunny ears twitched. Who was Asmodel? Who were these beings? Why were they hunting her?
Then she felt something gently touching her shoulder.
"...!"
She turns around, shocked that someone managed to sneak up behind her. Strangely though, she did not feel any kind of dread in comparison to how she felt when interacting with the bull-men. She turns to find a man with black hair, wearing a dark black business suit and white collar shirt, with a black fedora hat. He looked like an ordinary man working for a corporation. Quite handsome, with the face of a foreigner that seemed to be found in Europe, with eyes that glowed with a pale red, one that was different compared to the bull-men's scary red eyes, but no less different when it comes to probing one's soul.
The man made a gesture of quiet via his right index finger, and spoke with a gentle, yet cautious tone, accompanied by his concerned expression.
"Come with me if you want to live."
And then, they both disappeared as if by a sudden teleportation, with the sound of flapping wings echoing as they left.
Yoshino did not know what to think of the situation.
Well, actually, she had been mulling over the facts and memories of what had been revealed to her.
Firstly, after having escaped from the Bull-Men... or Fallen Angels in actuality, under the service of a powerful Fallen Angel and Hell Lord called Asmodel, she and the man known as Zadkiel - who is also an Angel - would be staying at a hotel room somewhere around the city. Zadkiel, under the alias, James Earling, had managed to procure this room for them to stay in, having paid for it of course.
What Yoshino was experiencing right now was something of a mixed reaction of concern and dread, and it all stems from one individual...
"Shidou-san..." She muttered, crying, as she regained her memories of what she once had.
Yes, her beloved hero and savior. During the night, Zadkiel, asking her permission, had managed to unlock her memories of the original timeline, and by extension, that would include her memories of how she met a young man, who she first met during a rainy time in her life, literally and figuratively in this case.
The same young man, however... had suffered and endured so much, ever since she last saw him. Zadkiel, aside from giving her back her memories, would also share the few memories and encounters that he had with Shidou Itsuka, who at the current time, was a member of a superhero team called the Midnight Suns. Well, Shidou had been a superhero for her long before he became an officially recognized one, so this does not seem to surprise her too much. She was more concerned by how much Shidou had changed.
From the memories she had gained, he seemed to be still the same at his core, but it was clear that he was much older and more... reserved she supposed. By this time, Shidou would eventually go back in time to the day when everything all began for all of them. April 10th. Which was today.
"...The video recordings depicted a giant unidentified creature that had been engaged by three unidentified people in the area."
"...Well, color me surprised," Zadkiel was sitting on the side of the bed along with Yoshino as he and the latter were drinking tea from their cups. His tone was that of a drawl and slight exasperation. "The Midnight Suns tend to have a lack of subtlety at the most misfortunate of times."
"...Ohh~ Looks like Shidou-kun just got himself into even more trouble than before~" Yoshino's puppet, Yoshinon, would express with a hint of humor.
"That's an understatement if I ever said so myself," Zadkiel was shaking his head. "Never mind the fact that at least six different Earths are currently hovering over your world's skies and other universe inhabitants formerly consumed by the recently deceased Baphomet appeared out of nowhere which can cause a bit of a population crisis for the world to deal with for the coming weeks, the major concern is that Itsuka Shidou's identity had just been revealed for the entire world to see. But fortunately, I've anticipated this conundrum, so I ordered my subordinates to deploy the Memory Specified Neutralizer (MSM) whose effect would subtly spread itself around every corner of the world and make most inhabitants forget the boy's identity at the very least, but I can't say the same for the other Suns, as I'm already risking plenty enough and would not want to draw too much attention."
Yoshino in turn was in deep thought. As much as she wanted to go meet with her hero right now, even giving him a long overdue hug, Zadkiel cautioned her about maintaining "unorthodox vigilance" as he calls it as it would not be wise at this time to break her hero's focus because this was the moment where he needed to focus more on Tohka Yatogami. Only after he manages to capture her would they appear before him and his allies.
Until then, all they can do is wait and prepare on their end.
Now
There was a sense of quietude and contemplation within the Itsuka Residence. Gathered were the individuals, the Midnight Suns and the Spirits, in light of whatever fates that were now about to be reancted within this given crisis that occurs and stretches throughout creation.
Reine Murasame mulled over everything she had received. Her original memories and experiences from the original world had had been restored to her by her son who had come from a future that, in-between, turned bleak and misfortunate, yet it was a struggle for survival that eventually bore fruit to a sense of peace despite the hurt that had been carried like a cross of fire that burns even now.
She recalls the many decades that had come to pass ever since she had lost Shinji Takamiya, the young man who had found and met her, the one who took her in during the beginning stages of her mere existence, back when she was ignorant of the world around her.
Has one ever wondered of a time when one would think that one's life is being repeated all over again?
That was the unquestionable feeling that she, the First Spirit, had felt ever since a year ago. Intimately, she knew something was wrong about the world. It was like the wind was metaphorically shifting in another direction for someone like her. She felt like she had come back to where she started, but she did not know how to express such feelings. The world seemed to have remained unchanged, but little by little, subtle cracks started to appear to dispel this illusion. She knew that time was slowly deteriorating, the world she had known had changed and revolved once again from that very change.
She lacked context, but she was not wholly ignorant of what was happening. For this world as well as the neighboring world she had made with her own creative hands were slightly shaking from tremors that lay beyond. The feelings that had come, not just from within her own being, but from the very world itself. It urged her. It cautioned her to be alert. A feeling of wrongness would subtly haunt her every day, which she could feel even as she thought of her own goals to revive the man she had loved most dearly.
Now, in the past two months, that feeling of wariness grew stronger, as if the very events that were making that subtle ripple were starting to catch up relatively speaking from a chronological point of view.
Now, as she remembered her original life before the change that set this universe back to the very date where it all began, she remembered the feelings of contrition and sorrow, the realization that, yes, her goal to revive the man she had loved more than anything, would be doomed to failure. She held great power, more power than most could ever fathom. But there was one thing she could not do within her power, and that was to raise the dead. And it was because of that lack of power that spurred her to enact things she would normally never do. Her trauma spoke through her own actions. Losing Shinji made her into a killer whose ends justify the means. The blood of both innocent and guilty were now overflowing to the brim.
How many things have she sacrificed for the sake of bringing back the man she loved?
Too much. The birth and creation of the Spirits served for such purpose, but at the cost of most losing their normalcy and their lives being one of misfortune and dread. And they were nothing but instruments to develop the vessel that was her son, the man who convinced her to ultimately realized her own sins and inadequacy.
Her last act...
One of either cowardice or bravery... depending on how one sees it... perhaps its both...
She saved her son from the bastard who took her lover away and the one who ultimately pushed her into the path that she had trodden for decades.
...At least, that was what she originally thought.
As Reine remembers the information her son gave her, so did her feelings of outrage. The bastard who took away her lover was a pawn. The man she loved was a pawn. The family of the man she loved was a pawn. The entire circumstances that surrounded her very own birth were nothing but pawns being moved by pawns. The birth of the First Spirit, she herself, was planned from the very beginning, to enact the birth of the Spirits who would come after her, the son that she would eventually carry and give birth to, and give rise to a multiverse-filled with an abundant source of reiryoku.
An entire conspiracy was ultimately responsible for these outcomes. Everything was planned. A perfect timeline. And it all started from the very beginning, from the childhood of the bastard who destroyed her life.
The bastard - Sir Isaac Ray Pelham Westcott.
That man was twisted, even more so than even the most evil person in the world. Before the rise of someone like Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin, before infamous dictators and tyrants, there was this man, who along with his entire village had been descended from the secret occult society known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
A brilliant and ingenious mind. A magician above other magicians. His sheer charisma and personality were seductive. It seemed genuine, but what lay inside was a man who secretly relished the pain and suffering of others. His initial plan, born from the tragedy of his village burning to the ground, was that of absolute supremacy for all magicians, a radical desire to unite all magicians as comrades, while excluding those who were either non-magicians or humans. Genocide. That was the means he would willingly accomplish. It relates to the goal for magicians to reign supreme while humans without any power are trodden down. A new world, where only the magicians ruled, and with Isaac Wescott as the ultimate ruler.
That new world was nothing but a dark and terrible future where only everyone was nothing more than playthings to his whims, which delight in torture and torment. His desire to kill everything and revive them continues into an ouroboros cycle plunged into diabolical machinations, all to satisfy his own ego and twisted desire for pain.
But he was the obvious evil. A cover behind the true evil that lurked within the shadows.
There was a man who had pulled the strings of this bastard and his followers. This man was among their number, and yet he was not. If Wescott was brilliant, this man on the other hand was a gift. He came from the same, simple isolated village. Unknown, yet a true genius, and was an older brother of two women, one of whom was Ellen Mira Mathers, the future follower and trusted right-hand woman of Isaac Wescott who would become the acknowledged and elite - the most powerful Wizard, molded to Wescott's liking.
Unlike Wescott who harbors supremacy for all magicians, and vengeance against the human race, and all of those reasons were nothing more than a shallow desire to see an eternal recursive loop of tragedy and suffering, this man had far grander dreams and ambitions. He was dissatisfied with the status quo. He refused to hide in a corner like a coward. In a world where humanity is contrarian to things that aren't in conformity with their own world view. As Wescott dreams of ambitions for wizards to rise up against their human oppressors, the man in question had a different dream. Some might say it was a radical one.
And it was something that had been offered to him by the mysterious conspiracy organization whose ideals touched his mind and heart. And so, for the sake of proving his loyalty and his worth, he sold his entire village out to the humans that they had harbored fears of. The village was burned to the ground, leaving only a few survivors, one of them was Wescott, another two were his two sisters, and the other was a childhood friend of them all. The man faked his own death during that tragedy, making everyone think that he was dead.
But he did not die. He continued planning and watching.
On that day, the man had discarded his old name and took a new one in its place. Aligned with the goal to bring about a New World Order, one that moved beyond boundaries and quos, one that exceeded even Wescott's beliefs for supremacy. He chose the name of a title. A Commander. Of Heads. Of a Hydra.
The Hydra Commander.
That was his name from henceforth.
And thus, the plan would be set into motion, for the pieces to fall into place, and for the Spirits to be born. Of course, they did not count on a Time War that shook the entire Multiverse. They did not count on her son to be a Kamen Rider, who had become one during that War. The War itself was something that even they could not predict. Nevertheless, this did not deter their goals. They would bid their time. They would wait patiently like a snake.
This crisis was just a culmination of that ever-relenting patience. Many things had needed to happen before this crisis that occurred throughout their universe and several others. Slowly but surely, the World of the Spirits would merge into another universe. It may take some time for that process to be completed, but it would come.
Now the world is currently in chaos. People had randomly appeared in the aftermath of the battle against the Hell Lord Baphomet.
"...Grrrk."
Reine would glance at Kotori as she felt trembling. She sees Shidou already taking Kotori by the hand and making use of the Spirit (Michael) power to help the latter understand and regain memories of the original timeline. The result.
"...DAMN THEM!"
Kotori was more than angry. She was enraged. Shidou had given her the general truth of everything, the same as Reine. She felt used. She felt manipulated. Her entire life that she had made out and lived through had seemed to have been something of a deliberate manipulative lie that had been well crafted into a genuine truth. Her eyes sparked like flames as she looked at Shidou, her eyes now forming a sense of empathy as she felt her brother's suffering.
She... She saw... everything.
At least, the general gist of it. She saw the War that her brother had fought, the same war that had burned their entire world out, over and over, and everyone was deader than dead. A Time War, different from the time war that dealt with this Convergence. A nightmare that most would not like to see or experience. She never saw much, but she saw enough, and she felt that Shidou kept those memories deliberately. Shidou didn't want Kotori to see any more than necessary, and Kotori could understand why.
How could anyone remain sane after that? Kotori thought as she looked at her brother with not just empathy, but concern for his well-being.
She looked at the two women who were seated somewhere on the left of the table. Rinne Sonogami and Sona Sitri. Rinne, Kotori would now know at this point. She's met her, at least in other lives, which is an entirely complicated story of its own. But Sona's... well... Kotori was a bit surprised, not to mention a bit miffed, though considering the thousands of years that her brother had lived without them... should it honestly be a surprise?
Despite her "she was not jealous!" feelings, she was begrudgingly thankful that Sona was there for her brother during those darker moments in his life. Although, she thought dryly, to think her brother managed to get two wives in a row, and it wasn't even deliberate. She can already hear the complaints from some of the other Spirits if they do get their memories back just like her. Joy, she thought dryly again.
Then her eyes would look at the left and the right. Aside from the two Spirits, Mayuri and Ren, whom she now recognizes, there were the other three that were in the room, the latter of whom were her brother's and his second wife's comrades.
The Midnight Suns.
A catchy name for a famous interdimensional superhero team, she had to admit. Kotori once remembered the old days of how her brother had what you'd call the chuunibyou syndrome, which was a type commonly found in people of young age where they act out their wildest imaginations. Shidou was no exception, always acting out from those old toku and superhero animes.
Never would she have imagined him becoming an actual superhero. Even more, transforming into a superhero from a fictional television show.
Kotori tried to calm down, though it was admittedly quite difficult. Imagine being told that your entire life was deliberately made out the way it is because an organization with so-called grander ideals thought it was a good idea. Yes, it was a good idea to essentially create the Spirits, whose lives have more or less been ruined one way or another, and the one who made the Spirits, the first one, was no exception to this manipulation.
Her eyes look upon her brother who was kneeling down in front of her as he held her trembling hands.
"...I...I'm sorry," Shidou spoke. Really, what more could he say? He cannot say enough. Just adding any more words would not help with this situation.
Kotori sported an empathetic look. Reigning in her anger, she focused more on her brother and showed him a slightly broken yet empathetic smile.
"Sorry?" She asked incredulously. "Why do you need to feel sorry, Shidou? If anything, I should be more worried about you."
Shidou smiled sadly, but didn't say a word.
Kotori glances at Reine, who gives her an empathetic nod. Reine was drawing near to Shidou, touching him by the shoulder as her arms wrapped up in an embrace. There were many things Reine felt sorry for at that moment. But even she felt that this wasn't enough. Despite the revelation, this did not change the fact that Reine played a hand in the Spirits and that her original plan would make her use them along with her own son just to bring Shinji back.
But that was an impossible goal from the start. She could never truly bring the dead back, despite the power that she is more than capable of wielding. She could do anything... except bring the dead back. Now, she found out that, due to an imperfect merging of her dead universe and the dead universe where her son's second spouse had come from had been the one that brought back her Shinji, but reborn into a new world, a new life, with a brother... who was also him.
Shinichiro Takamiya. Kamen Rider Shadow Moon. Kamen Rider White RX.
He was a version of her Shinji from a different universe, one who came from a world where the Spirits never existed. An Earth devoid of any influence from the bastard. A normal world, with average people going about their daily lives, no advanced technology compared to the world Reine came from, just the modern day and humanity still being the same complicated species as ever in a more so mundane form of existence.
Shinji Takamiya. Shinichiro Takamiya.
Both of whom were reborn as brothers in a new world, on a significant eclipse, that would signal their candidacy to the throne of becoming the king of the universe, becoming part of a 50,000-year-old tradition conducted by a dangerous cult that served its Creation King.
RX Universe-789.
This was the future iteration of both Reine's world as well as Sona's world.
And now, her lover's future world, as well as Reine's and Sona's worlds of the past are slowly colliding.
"...Alright, I think I understand the gist of things," Kotori looks at the American foreign man, John Constantine, who was sitting to the right. "So there's a crisis that's happening throughout the multiverse, with my world as well as my brother's wife's world merging into your world because of whatever HYDRA is doing."
"More or less," Constantine nodded. "Though in terms of precise timing, the process of the merging of your world with ours is relatively slower, so one could say that any outside faction like say, the Hell Lords, can have plenty of relative time to take advantage of the situation before your world becomes permanently merged into my world."
From what Kotori understood, there was plenty of diversity to choose from among these Lords of Hell and how to find out more about them. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Greek, Roman, Norse, Hinduism, Buddhism, Celtic, Shinto, Incan, Aztec, and other religions. Then there were all those religions that actual extraterrestrial and extradimensional races belonged to. Then there were those pantheons that were unknown, not even worshipped nor expressed a desire to be worshipped. And then there were others.
Not all of them were benevolent of course, which made Kotori roll her eyes and mentally snark with an "Is that so?". Really, you'd think that the title 'Hell Lords' would have given that hint already. She understood that they aren't a unified faction by any means, more divided if anything as each of them has contradictory goals and motivations. So there would be rivalries and politics that are a common daily affair when dealing with them.
The common currency, stock exchange, and main interest of these Lords of the Infernal Regions was soul business. That meant things that are classified under the term Faustian, named after the magician Johann Georg Faust, who in the universe that both Constantine and Enma came from, was a German itinerant alchemist, astrologer, and magician of the German Renaissance who had dealings with a powerful Hell Lord called Mephistopheles, or Mephisto, and her brother and his allies, particularly the American biker person, Johnny Blaze, had dealings with in the past.
Bargains, contracts, patronage, protection rackets, territorial disputes, all of that nonsense, and more are contained within the broad category of the term "Faustian".
And concerning the recent event, which was the appearance of the Baphomet, it was a Hell Lord whose modus operandi was trying to grab her entire universe and incorporate it into his hell dimension to expand his territory and borders, as well as the fact that her universe was heavily saturated with reiryoku. Therefore, for Hell Lords like that monster, her universe was likened to a potential gold mine, hence their entire universe would have probably suffered a fate worse than death, becoming monkey chow to an eldritch horror. Not exactly the most appealing prospect, Kotori thought, disturbed by the implications.
"And even before that," Sona spoke with a serious, softer tone. "My world would be the first to collide with yours, which may cause quite a stir from my side of things. I believe that my husband would have already shared with you the general information of what my world is like."
"Yeah, I got the gist," Kotori nodded.
Shidou shared information with Kotori about his second wife's world. A world where the supernatural existed, hidden within the shadows. A world where humanity in general is wholly ignorant. Religions that hid actual supernatural factions that control the world from behind the scenes. Her brother's wife, Sona Sitri, came from a race called Devils, and from what she could now tell, she was one of them, a Spirit just like Kotori. And it was... well...
Kotori didn't like to think about that part. She felt the urge to hit Shidou for some reason because it was such a dumb reason to gain the powers of a Spirit. But then again, the same could be said about kissing.
But then, upon the information she received as well as upon first impression, Kotori had to begrudgingly admit that her brother had quite a good if not unique taste in women. His wives could not be any more than opposites of the spectrum.
Rinne Sonogami for instance feels like that next-door neighbor and caring childhood friend... and Kotori, upon regaining her memories, looked at Rinne as her sweet onee-chan. And of course, Rinne felt like the perfect yet content housewife, giving you caring "I love you so much" vibes for the hardworking husband.
Sona Sitri on the other hand... well, she felt like the perfect ojou-sama, which is pretty much accurate to a tea since she came from a noble devil house. The living definition of one who strives hard to perfect her craft. A hardworking woman who doesn't fit in simply stays inside the house and walks towards the world with her head held high. A woman of big dreams and is determined to accomplish them.
Rinne was light. Sona was dark. An angel and a devil on your shoulder, taken literally in her brother's case.
Kotori thought that if Natsumi Kyouno, one of the Spirits, were here, she'd probably remarked how perverted that scenario was and how she didn't think that Shidou would be into that kind of thing. Nia Honjou, another of the Spirits, on the other hand, would probably draw inspiration from this bizarre situation, maybe even turn this into a light novel or a manga that would somehow be a best-selling hit.
Kotori could see it now. The plot of how the dead wife suddenly came back to the living and now has to deal with her husband having married someone else while she was dead. What would this family's hijinks be like?
And speaking of the Spirits...
"So Hell's gunning for me and all of the Spirits, huh," Kotori softly muttered, mulling over the information she had been provided. "And with America compromised, no doubt that there would be the possible scenario of American troops secretly sent to Japan to keep an eye on the Spirits, since most Spirit activity so far is centered around here."
"Let's just hope that it's just American soldiers, their intelligence agents, or their Realizer pilots, because those are admittedly easier for us to deal with," Johnny Blaze, the man with the biker outfit, spoke as he was leaning against the wall. "Though I wouldn't put it past a BED to be present among those people too, probably the one balking out the orders."
"Military officers or those within the chain of command are more likely to be possessed by BEDs," Sona spoke with a cautious tone. "If they've done their research, and they would have, they should know that conventional firearms and Realizer units are not enough to take down the Spirits, as the Anti-Spirit Team more than amply proves my point."
"BEDs do love canon fodder after all," Blaze grimly spoke. "Plus, they also won't hesitate to get innocent people caught in the crossfire too."
"They could box us from multiple angles," Kotori spoke softly. "There are various ways they could try their hand."
"But they won't," Constantine reminded. "At least not at the moment. Remember, the BEDs are just in their observation phase, and they aren't the only Hell faction that's lurking in your world."
"I think I got that part with the Baphomet," Kotori dryly remarked. Her expression turns grim. "Then..." She looks at each of the Midnight Suns. "I think it's about time all of you gave us the gist about the BEDs' boss, this... Yellow-Eyed Demon. How much of a problem is he going to be right now?"
Kotori, along with Reine, already knows about Yellow Eyes, at least from the general information that Shidou provided to them. But it's not a complete truth.
What they both understood at least was that Yellow Eyes was a Hell Lord, a powerful one and one of the few Hell Lords they needed to be genuinely worry about, who was from a race of angels from Constantine's, Blaze's, and Enma's reality, the First Angels, to be specific, calling themselves the Mal'akh, and among them, he was part of the Dominions Choir (4th Choir) and was its leader, before he inevitably fell from grace and became a Fallen Mal'akh.
"Depends," Constantine spoke grimly. "The slippery bastard's pretty quiet in how he does things for the most part, and that hasn't changed during this crisis. Normally, he has his grunts doing all of the dirty work for him and it's the ones we usually encounter."
"Okay, since everyone's present and accounted for, mind if you explain to all of us just what's this Yellow-Eyed Demon all about?" Ren asks.
"Well, first of all, one needs to go back to the very beginning, and I mean that literally," Blaze explained.
"The Yellow-Eyed Demon, or Yellow Eyes, was once an Angel. And I'm not talking about fluffy wings or halos or whatever you think angels are. His kind of angels are different, more "beyond". His kind are known as the Mal'akh, an extradimensional race of angels from the 0th Cosmos Era, created by Yours Truly (GOD)." Constantine raised his right index finger, pointing above to get the point across before lowering his finger down. "They're the ones who essentially governed the world (multiverse) according to the Divine Will, composed of Nine Choirs, and Yellow Eyes is from the 4th Choir which is the Dominions, and he led that choir as its leader and high lord, and was in charge of Heavens' War Council. Well, at least he was until he fell from grace when he joined the Original Upheaval."
"Original Upheaval?" Rinne asks, sporting an inquiring expression.
"You know, that old Sunday School story about how Lucifer, the Devil Himself, practically said no to God, and that turned into a Cosmic War of the Heavens where the good angels and the bad angels duked it out. God chose Michael, a lowly Archangel from the 8th Choir, raised him above the ranks, and granted him the authority to lead the good angels. After a cataclysmic battle that shook creation, Michael defeated Lucifer, and by the end, the dragon and his angels were cast down to the fires of Hell and to the first Earth (0th Cosmos)," Constantine explained.
"And what happened to the Yellow-Eyed Demon?" Mayuri asks.
"Raphael, one of the Seven Archangels chosen by God, banished and bound him to a dimension cut off from reality, limiting his power. The thing you have to understand about the Mal'akh, Angel or Fallen, is that their true forms are described as multidimensional wavelengths of celestial intent. That means that they can't really just fit into the normal reality."
"Why? What happens if they show up as themselves?" Mayuri asks again.
"Not a good thing," Blaze said. "If a normal human, or really, any mortal species that tries to look at a 9th Choir Mal'akh (Angel) in their true form, they'd burn their eyes out, literally."
Constantine continued. "And if a 4th Choir Mal'akh (Dominion) like Yellow Eyes shows up in his true form, well, the universe where all of us living mortals live pretty much implodes. The mortal plane is just not designed to handle a higher dimensional being on Yellow Eyes' level, hence he needed some kind of vessel to walk the earth and possess a human body. All of the Mal'akh need to manifest and limit themselves to some degree when entering the mortal plane. The good angels among them have the power to manifest physical bodies resembling humans while the bad angels... well, since their powers are mostly limited in general under divine law, they need to possess people if they want to interact at all."
"Does this Yellow-Eyed Demon have an actual name? Because I figured that the Yellow-Eyed Demon is merely just something he is referred to in general, but not his original name," Ren pointed out.
"You're right, he does have a name," Sona responded, with everyone looking at her. "His true name... is Azazel."
"...Azazel," Mayuri muttered softly, with arms crossed.
"In the Bible, Azazel is said to represent a desolate place where a scapegoat bearing the sins of the Jews was sent during Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism and Samaritanism. In the apocryphal Book of Enoch, he was part of the rebellious Watchers that preceded the time of the Flood, who taught men the art of warfare, of making swords, knives, shields, and coats of mail, and taught women the art of deception by ornamenting the body, dyeing the hair, and painting the face and the eyebrows, and also revealed to the people the secrets of witchcraft and corrupted their manners, leading them into wickedness and impurity until at last he was, at the Lord's command, bound hand and foot by the archangel Raphael and chained to the rough and jagged rocks of Dudael, where he is to abide in utter darkness until the great Day of Judgment, when he will be cast into the fire to be consumed forever."
"Well, he doesn't seem to be imprisoned considering you and your people's explanations," Ren pointed out.
"Biblical facts are multi-complex in my universe, let's leave it at that," Constantine casually waved his hand, with an exasperated tone that indicated his opinion. "The point being that Yellow Eyes can't just do whatever he likes. He still has to abide by the rules, and those rules are something the Midnight Suns had exploited as loopholes in our fight against him. Half of us can't take him on in an actual direct fight as far as his true self is concerned. We'd lose, hard. One of the loopholes thankfully enough is his possessed meatsuit, since that limits him to some degree, but he's still dangerous even then."
Constantine would look at Reine. "And the Mother of All Spirits just so happens to be the perfect counter to someone like him. If you and Yellow Eyes decided to fight and go all out, it would probably be a brutal deadlock where neither can do much of anything."
"Just what kind of threat does this Yellow-Eyed Demon pose, John?" Rinne asks.
"Very," John Constantine responded. "And well, that also depends on what kind of goals he has. "My guess is, whatever's causing the convergence is at least some kind of threat, not to himself specifically, but for whatever he may have wanted to do, which is how he usually does things. The thing about Yellow Eyes is that one of the main things he'd been planning before this whole convergence nonsense was trying to open the gates of Hell located and built somewhere in an old cemetery around southern Wyoming back in the 19th century."
"Opening the gates of Hell?" Ren dryly spoke while taking note of that. "So what, he plans to bring the apocalypse or something?"
"Heh," Constantine made a deriding smirk, not directed at Ren, but at the Yellow-Eyed Demon in particular. "Apocalypses come and go in my universe all of the damn time, that's the simple thing that an average Hell Lord would want. Yellow Eyes isn't average. Sure, bringing down the gate would bring down all of the other gates and allow hell to walk on earth. Damned souls running loose, demons causing terror, something, something, whatever Hells usually are. But that's just one part of his plan, and to get that plan going, he'd need something called the Colt, a legendary gun that's more than capable of killing anything."
Well, almost anything, Shidou thought grimly as he could think of a few names who are outright immune or at least impervious to getting automatically killed by it yet feeling the pain of the weapon in question.
Constantine then looks at Reine Murasame who was engrossed in the discussion, sporting a serious look. "And that gun could probably kill you as well. If you have some kind of body to shoot at, you're dead, doesn't really matter how powerful you are or how much immortality that you have going for you. You have something to be shot at, you die, plain and simple."
"And where is this Colt now?" Ren asks. If this were the truth, then this Colt would be the most dangerous weapon in all of existence if it fell into the wrong hands.
"With our leader of course, Eugene Thruston, who had been keeping it safe within his own person ever since he got it half a century ago," Constantine explained. "The thing about the Colt is that one of its prescribed conditions would be that anything that isn't human which is aligned with evil or who is evil or who would intend to use the Colt for evil could never wield the Colt."
"Why, what happens if they do?" Ren asks.
"They get their hands burned, literally," Constantine explained. "That gun has a complicated set of rules and conditions, and our leader's really one of the only rare few who fulfills the conditions perfectly, firstly because he's human, and being a human tends to be a loophole for moral alignments. Another is because he doesn't abuse the gun's power and doesn't use it all of the time unless absolutely necessary, meaning that it's a last resort."
Constantine looked at everyone dead in the eye. "Imagine yourselves always carrying a gun that could kill literally anything. Would you not be tempted to use it all of the time because it's oh-so convenient?"
While all of the Spirits pondered the uncomfortable question, Kotori in particular thought of it deeply and felt even more uncomfortable by the implications of this gun. She... never really killed anyone before. By default, a part of her would say "no", she wouldn't want to use a gun that could kill anything... but... she could not deny that the very idea of it was very tempting, which she found to be disturbing.
"Aside from being a gun that can kill anything, the Colt acts as a key to opening the Devil's Gate in Wyoming, naturally, Yellow Eyes can't get in, the entire crypt is completely warded, and no Hell Lord of any alignment could enter it, not even him. That's why back in the day, Yellow Eyes would distribute and feed some of his blood to a specific group of children when they were infants on a crib," Constantine explained.
Mayuri grimaced and twitched. "That's... That's a bit much."
"That's not even the worst of it," Constantine shakes his head. "See, back during the years of the Cold War, Yellow Eyes had been making deals with specific individuals that he'd know would take the deal, most of them being young, gullible, teens for the most part, but in exchange for a price: that he would be allowed to enter their homes in exactly ten years from when they made the bargain. He promised that no harm would come to them so long as they did not interfere with his business."
"And that business being feeding his blood to the young couple's infant children," Reine sported a colder look. A cold, chilling anger that was born out of maternal feelings. She was drawing from the general information that her son had given her as well as what was being discussed right now.
"That's right," Constantine nodded. "He needed to make Special Children, those who, having drunk on his blood, makes them develop supernatural abilities all so that they could serve as his generals for his own personal war. Now, these children, they're quite powerful. One could time travel, another could cause psychic projections and illusions on a city-wide scale, another could cause hurricanes, or as they say here in the East, typhoons, the list goes on."
"Why exactly would he do with all of this, John?" Rinne asks.
"Because of the Colt for one thing," Constantine explained. "They'd be the loophole for Yellow Eyes to take advantage of. He can't wield the Colt himself, so he needs someone who can do it for him, a human, a Special Child, doesn't matter if he's good or evil or grey, if he's a human, he can wield the Colt without consequences. Another reason is because he can't get near the Devil's Gate himself so he needs a human who could dismantle the defenses on the inside. Back in the year 2007, a Special Child tried that tactic, and the Midnight Suns had to deal with it, as always."
"So you guys won and the Yellow-Eyed Demon didn't succeed in the end," Ren surmised.
"Oh, we won one battle, but not the war, far from it," Constantine reminded. "Here's the complicated part, and the Convergence is just one of the main events of this war."
"By war, do you mean the Proxy Wars, right?" Kotori muttered softly, sporting a grim expression, drawing from the general information that her brother had given her as well as what was being discussed right now.
"That is correct," Sona confirmed, making everyone turn towards her. "The Proxy Wars are a multi-complex series of cosmic temporal wars where at least three main factions are all at a deadlock with one another; struggling and vying for control of a few multiverses, including the native one where some of my team members, Enma, Constantine, and Blaze, came from. The Hell Lords are one such faction, even though they aren't a unified whole, and not all of the Hell Lords could take part in this conflict in any meaningful sense as such means are beyond even them. And of course, one could not forget about the other two factions. HYDRA and SkyNet."
Reine and Kotori were... well, pissed would be the right word the moment HYDRA was brought up.
Reine on her part was quite enraged, because yes, she has her own sins that she willingly committed and that she could not deny, for her ultimate plan was to bring back her lover into the world of the living. But to think that her very own existence and her future misdeeds were planned from the start, she was essentially a puppet to the whims of a puppetmaster playing god, an entire organization. They seem to have everything pre-planned out, all for a desired outcome. Even the timeline changes from the original timeline such as Origami's past, Kurumi's multiple time leaps, and others were all hashed out accordingly within their alien calculations.
Her own independence. Her own autonomy. Her own nature. All of that. It seemed like her entire being felt disrespected and violated. Used like a puppet...
...Now she found it ironic, Reine bitterly thought. She was no different, and yet why did she become angry when she found out that she had been manipulated in turn?
She's destroyed so many lives at this point in her pursuit of reviving the man she loved. But... now that he was alive, in a future beyond her reach, she felt ashamed, contrite, and regretful, even if it was too late. When Reine absorbed all of Shidou's memories about Shinji who exchanged his own memories with their son, she saw his true feelings. He never judged her. He only felt guilt that his death caused her to become what she was today.
A part of her screamed with a 'No!'. Shinji shouldn't blame himself for her sins. It was all her own doing. She wanted to tell him that. But, it could not be denied that Shinji was the end goal for all of her actions. She was just... She was just so desperate...
And now that she thought about it, how was she any different from the Yellow-Eyed Demon who also used children? She was being quite hypocritical right now, so did she have any kind of right to judge? Even when Reine was driven by grief more than whatever malevolent desires this Yellow-Eyed Demon wanted to enact, nevertheless, the principles were similar enough. She committed evil acts all for the sake of her selfish goal which had been a lofty one from the very beginning. She ruined the lives of many, one in particular who she knew resented her with a passion. The only difference is that she stops once she finds out that Shinji is alive and well.
But what if it wasn't that way? She did not like to think of it. She may have just tried to find some way to end her life instead seeing as her goal had been doomed from the start. Her original timeline's memories informed her of what was going to be her fate, making her remember. She'd rather not have to live anymore. This may have been very selfish on her part, especially when this meant leaving Shidou behind, but she just couldn't handle the grief of not being with the man she loved.
"So we don't have to worry too much about the Yellow-Eyed Demon for now, but it helps at least to be prepared for whenever he shows himself. Fortunately, the guy has some weaknesses, so he's not invincible," Kotori spoke softly, making a thinking pose, before looking at Sona. "Are there any other Hell Lords that we should worry about besides Yellow Eyes?"
"There's some," Sona nodded. "Another Hell Lord that you need to watch out for is Mephistopheles, or Mephisto for short."
"Mephisto? The same Hell Lord who..." Mayuri glances sympathetically at Blaze, who nodded grimly.
"Yeah, the same," Blaze said. "Very slippery bastard, knows how to make shady deals and sweeten them to make it sound like you've had a good thing dropped on your lap, but he'd twist the terms of the deal and you wouldn't even know it until it's too late."
"Mephisto is more of a, strictly speaking, by the book and by the business, type of Hell Lord. He would either be our ally or our enemy depending on the circumstances. The Convergence would at least provide him with similar common benefits such as the influx of souls that may come or potentially come to his domain. Of course, if he somehow manages to get his hands on a Spirit, he would be able to do much more than any soul that he has at his disposal," Sona explained.
"Such as?" Mayuri asks.
"Turning you into an extradimensional battery for one thing, make all kinds of strange weapons for profit," Blaze explained. "Or even better, sell your souls to the highest bidder, and the Hell Lord with the most souls and donations of whatever it is in their infernal pocket gets to win the prize."
"So he's the "Don't make a deal with the devil" type? Okay, so we got that covered, anyone else?" Kotori asks.
"There's Marduk Kurios, a real nasty piece of work, once known as Lucifer Morningstar, a Fallen Seraph of the Deus Hierarchy, the First Seraph created by the primordial deity - Deus Trinitas who delegated him as King-Angel of the Hosts of the Heavens, and is considered to be the deadliest war criminal that was more or less responsible for initiating a cosmic time war that started long before the Proxy Wars, which was known as the War of the Heavens. In that conflict, trillions of Heavens and their Gods were said to have perished, and Marduk happens to be responsible for killing God himself,"
"Ki-Killing God?" Mayuri muttered in shock, with Rinne and Ren sporting the same look.
"Hmm, various versions of him anyway, couldn't really do that with his God," Constantine snorted while he clarified. "I'm not gonna explain the theological complications about there being different versions of God depicted in Christianity, so suffice it to say, to dumb it down a bit, there's God-God, who is the actual Man Upstairs, then you have the Gods who are just the CEOs of their respective multiverses...or omniverses, whatever you want to call it. Then you have the Gods who are just the micromanagers of their respective cosmic eras, and Deus Trinitas is one of them. Then you have all of the various analogs or would-be deities that more or less share the same Big Name. Then you have the Gods who are just more or less confined to influence only one universe, if not two or three or a few at best. Then you go lower and things get less impressive."
"So there's different categories and levels of those with the title of 'God', or at times, emanations in a sense," Rinne surmised.
"Exactly," Constantine nodded. "Sort of like the difference between say, someone like the genuine article, to someone who's just using his name. I guess Kentucky Fried Chicken seems to be a more apt comparison. God-God's the Colonel Sanders while the Gods are just either the board of directors, the come-and-go employees bearing his name, or those just using the name for profit."
Everyone looked at Constantine with bewilderment and raised eyebrows, except for Ai Enma who was just silently looking at him without blinking.
"Of all comparisons, you chose a fast food chain to describe God and the differences between Gods?" Kotori could not help but ask with a deadpan.
"Well, that's Constantine for you," Blaze spoke with amusement. "Trust me, kid, this explanation is tame by Constantine's standards."
"In any case," Sona shakes her head. "We should of course mention the other Hell Lords that could potentially make a move in this world."
And there was an admittedly long list of Hell Lords that gets brought up in the discussion. Malevolent Hell Lords that were brought up relevantly at least were Malebolgia, the infernal ruler of the Eighth Circle of Hell, and the type of Hell Lord that is intimately connected with the End of the World or Armageddon. Asmodel, another Fallen Deus Angel who was the King-Angel of the Cherubim Alpha Battalion and of the Bull Hosts, who was one of those who sided with Marduk during the War of the Heavens. Typhon, the fallen son of the primordial god, Zeus Jupiter, and the Dark Hellish Ruler of Greek and Roman Potentialities. And a few other noteworthy ones. What got their full attention of course was the Scarlet Spirit King, which is intimately connected with the Spirits themselves.
"Wait, hold on, you mean to tell me that one of the Hell Lords of your world, this Scarlet Spirit King, is actually from our world, and is a Spirit like us?" Ren asked, sporting a shocked expression.
"...Yeah," Shidou grimaced a bit, with the Spirits looking at him with concern. "Apparently, this "thing"... its'... it's something of an enigma. Almost nobody really knows just what this damn thing really is. Most Hell Lords couldn't even interact with it because it's just so... alien, even for them. All we really know about it since the times we've been fighting it a few times is that... it was "born" at the very moment when okaa-san was "born"."
"And in my world, the damn thing has literally entrenched itself onto the concept of the Qliphoth Tree, often interpreted to be the representation of evil or impure spiritual forces in Jewish mysticism, the opposites of the Sephirot Tree, and through that connection, it somehow formed a twisted variation of an angelic hierarchy and its own version of Heaven, with that thing as its God," Constantine explained further.
"So... it's a Hell Lord... who rules an Evil Heaven?" Kotori asks for clarification, raising an eyebrow.
"Confusing, I know," Constantine shakes his head. "Or you could just call him an evil version of your mom or that abusive deadbeat dad who had gained too much power more than anyone's liking would want to, seeing as he's... technically the Father of the Spirits, so that makes him your dad, and his Heaven could basically qualify as an Inverse World of Spirits."
The Spirits grew very silent about that, troubled by the implications.
"Anyway, I suppose that's it for the Hell Lord's discussions for now since we've pretty much covered most of the basics," Constantine would look at Shidou, Rinne, and Sona. "What we really need to focus on right now is you three."
"Huh?" Shidou sported a confused and surprised look while the wives became attentive. Everyone else was now paying close attention to them.
"I would have to agree with Constantine," Ai Enma spoke, after having been silent for a while. "Your family situation is... quite an awkward sight to behold."
"Understating it," Constantine dryly and bluntly. "You had better deal with this problem, Snake, because we don't need a family feud in the middle of a multiversal crisis right now. Hell does love doing the whole "Divide and conquer" tactic, and your family could be a loophole abuse against us."
Kotori, sighing in exasperation, would pinch her eyes out. "As much as I hate to admit, they both have a point, Shidou, you and your... wives do need to talk about your issues, because this could affect the current revised operation in light of everything we've discussed so far."
"Umm," Rinne spoke softly, sporting a hesitating and contrite expression. "If you're all worried about our problems, Sona and I had already agreed that we would discuss those issues continuously."
"Then discuss them, with your husband, and not just you two," Constantine pointed out. "I'm no marriage expert, but even I could clearly see the messy situation of a man having a dead wife coming back to life and a current wife all sharing the same roof. You three would need to talk about them, not right now of course, but preferably at night."
"What a shame," Ren spoke with humor, putting both hands to support her face as she lay down her elbows on the table. "Because I for one had been anticipating such a brewing conflict between these two."
"Nee-san, that's not funny," Mayuri spoke dryly, not amused. "Two Spirits in conflict with one another could blow up the entirety of Tenguu City and everything within close range.'
"...I...I would have to agree with all of their assessments, my dear husband," Sona, putting her hands to the bridges of her glasses, would look at Shidou with a troubled expression. "...We must talk about our family issues at some point, and thus I propose that we do that in your room, just you, me, and Rinne. I say this also because... I humbly admit that I still have a few misgivings about our current situation."
"...Sona," Shidou spoke with a concerned tone.
"Ehehehe," Rinne laughed softly with a contrite voice, making Shidou pay attention to her, seeing the latter's own troubled look. "I would also... need to be honest, Shidou, I'm... I'm still not... used to you having another wife besides me."
"...Rinne," Shidou said.
"But, don't worry, I don't blame you for it," Rinne reassured with a smile. "It's just... It's just... a lot to take in, that's all." Rinne would look at a silent and concerned Rio who would look at her. "Rio, mama, papa, and Sona-mama will be discussing a few things tonight, so you're going to have to sleep without us for the time being."
Rio nodded, understanding yet sadly. "Hmm, don't worry, mama, Rio understands."
"She can..." Reine softly muttered. "She can sleep with me of course, if that's okay with you, Rinne."
"...Hmm, of course, okaa-san," Rinne softly smiled as she nodded.
"Well, that's all fine and dandy, we still need to worry about the fact that we just got our faces recorded on live television," Blaze pointed out. "This may affect the future dating activities that Snake would have with the rest of the Spirits."
"Good point..." Kotori sighed heavily. "While Ratatoskr could provide some loopholes and leeways, we can only do so much for somebody from the public eye would notice my brother dating with one of the Spirits."
"Actually, I don't think you need to worry about that, at least regarding Snake," Constantine spoke, bringing everyone's attention.
"What do you mean?" Sona asks.
"Zadkiel called," Constantine responded, making the Midnight Suns raised eyebrows as they recognized the name. "He said that the Black Hosts have already deployed the MSM so that the problem of Shidou's identity at least would be kept secret."
"MSM?" Rinne asks.
"A light magic spell whose effects are wide-ranging yet subtle," Sona explained. "In this case, it would erase the memories of most of the people on the planet regarding Shidou's identity."
"But wait, wouldn't that draw a lot of attention from someone like... Wescott?" Kotori asks, while shuddering at remembering the man who almost succeeded at his goals, becoming a Demon King that eventually rivals Reine... or Mio... in terms of power.
Shidou sported a dark expression. "Knowing him, he's probably already figured things out by now, but he's not stupid, he's gonna start planning first, because this time, he's gonna be dealing with a whole lot more baggage than just me, so we shouldn't worry about them for a while."
"And if he does try anything, let him," Ai Enma spoke softly. "The Midnight Suns have faced individuals like him before and stood alive and triumphant, and I say this more of reassurance than mere empty boasts."
"Ah," Shidou nodded. "Let the bastard try this time, because we'll all be waiting for him." He looks at Constantine. "And, what else did Zadkiel tell you?"
"Nothing much, the guy's vague as always, just that he's been here for a while on your universe doing some "private" investigation on his terms, god knows how long though, he didn't give me any specifics," Constantine explained.
"That's just so like him," Shidou sighed heavily.
Between the Lines 2
Her name had once been Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Now, she currently goes by Angela Vincenza Strange. However, one can still call her Index if one prefers to if only to at least recognize her.
A woman from England, with the body of an eighteen-year-old, and yet had the mental maturity of an adult. There were far too many things that had happened to her in her life. She had an old life where she clearly remembers the days when she spent with a spiky-haired boy, a favorite calico cat, and a tiny god of magic. But that had been her original life. Many things had changed.
She may look younger, but she had lived for decades if not centuries at this point. When one has a knowledgeable mastery of magic, she manages to maintain her younger appearance. Her silver, long hair now matched the actual age that she had. Her build and figure were now a little taller than before, with a modest buxom hidden underneath her clothing. Her emerald eyes carried that sense of wariness, of an older age that nevertheless carried the spark of who she had been when younger, just a bit more considerate of things compared to back then.
Her nun clothing ad consisted of a pure refined black robe with silver embroidery at its edges. On her head was a black nun cap with a silver metal band on the forehead that had the words "I.N.R.I.". The black color represented the new turn of age, the mourning of the past, and the humbling reflective thought of a religious nun. The silver represented the thirty-three pieces of silver that were bought in a Field of Blood.
Currently, she was back in the world of her fellow Midnight Sun, Shidou Itsuka, or rather, at a period during the past of the latter's world, five years apart from the relative present.
Her eyes bore witness to flames engulfing the surrounding suburban area. Smoke arises, yet nobody seems to be hurt, except for a younger Shidou Itsuka, a boy who had yet to fully experience what it meant to lose everything he held dear.
From a relative point of view, this was five years before the present time when her Shidou and the other Midnight Suns were. After taking care of a few things, such as having to rewrite the timelines and prevent unnecessary convergences, as well as dealing with irritating Hell Lords who tried their luck and fortune, she went back to the world she left behind, a few years in the past.
Why?
Because she sensed an oddity. A paradoxical oddity. This event that she bore witness to was in fact a complicated one. There were two versions of Shidou Itsuka running around. The first was the Shidou of this period, who had been knocked off to the ground by the uncontrollable flames and attended to by a younger, distraught little sister that was Kotori Itsuka. Another was a Shidou from a relative future that still was a very long way off from the Shidou that Index knew.
A predestination paradox seems to have been the normal set of occurrences within this event. A future Shidou hopped back in time, hoping to prevent a tragedy from one of the Spirits that went on a rampage back in his time. On the surface, nothing had changed. The events still play out as intended. But there was one thing that she noted when visiting the past.
As Index traverses the town, she notices something strange. She looks up and she sees what appears to be... a few blackish humanoids with bat-like wings were seen, hiding as they observe the young Shidou and Kotori in silence. But just like a blip, they disappear, to parts unknown.
Index sported a look of concern on her face.
"Nahema," she muttered softly.
Her heart grew troubled.
Because a dangerous Hell Lord - the Scarlet Spirit King - had just made its move and had sent its lowest angels - the Nahema - to keep watch of the Spirits, already from within their own past.
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Sins of The Father · Donna Burke · Ludvig Forssell · Akihiro Honda