Chapter Text
~~~0-0-0~~~
[Taya Residence, Earth-146692]
After sorting out Kaori Mitsui and Rika Yoshimura's issues earlier, half of Chito's group including herself, Yuuri, Mikoto Misaka, Lain Iwakura, Yuji Itadori, Megumi Fushiguro, and Nobara Kugisaki were at the mansion of the Taya family. The rest including Jolyne Cujoh, Kenpachi Zaraki, Nero, Shadow the Hedgehog, Lloyd Irving, Genis Sage, Stardust/Davie Wonder John and Lady Black/Piltz Dunant, as well as Tusk, Aleister Crowley III, and were at the Ninagawa residence.
With the Aesir now stepping up their game after Heimdall and the Einherjar firstly attacked the group the previous day, Chito had ordered Tusk, Allen, Davie, Crowley III, Shadow, and the Jujutsu trio to patrol the city for any Aesir presence. Meanwhile, Chito's group could not shake the feeling of seeing Yuri Saiki, a preternaturally smart teenage girl who is prodigious on her own right, and with them finding her behaviour as rather surprising. How could they not notice the same girl in that small room despite the heroes using the rooftop in the past as their planning area!
Inside Chito and Fumio Taya's own room, it was 11:00 P.M., and with Fumio sleepily embracing her older cousin from behind like the lovely older sibling she is, something that warmed Chito's heart a little. Chito turned her head briefly as she only patted Fumio's head.
"This essentially reminded me of grandpa..." Chito thought to herself, before pondering at her other teammate Zoro Roronoa. "But Zoro-san... He's hurting on the inside. All what Tusk-san had said to me about him didn't feel right at all. How could he even bear with the pain of losing another friend he attempted to set straight by some madman? It's as if Garrett-san's shit father wasn't bad enough."
Chito then only listlessly looked at her tablet as she searched for information regarding Yuri and the many achievements she did despite her age, of which included her publishing multiple scientific journals. Some of them were garnered with praise.
"She's such a genius, huh?" Chito said quietly as she scrolled down. "I wonder if she has something to say. If she knows anything about the mess we had to go through earlier."
A text came from Yuuri ten minutes ago before the latter slept, which caused Chito to snarl at the contents of it.
"Chii... Help me out... Naruko-chan's mad at me and how can I mend things with her? It's just that I liked her... And it pained me to see her like this. She's clearly suffering." Yuuri's text said.
"Ugh... Seriously, Yuu? You started this nonsense." Chito said, without bothering to reply.
Then a text message came from none other from Yuri herself, which was surprising for her.
"Chito Taya. Just a food for thought. I know it's weird for me to say about this, but can you visit my home? I've sent you the coordinates. It's just that I'm not a friend-smart person, but seeing you all... Is enlightening. Beyond all the high IQ and the prodigiousness I have, my ability to empathise is anything but a joke. I'm not good at it." Yuri's text said.
"At a time like this, Saiki-san? Fine. But what do you want?" Chito said as she replied back to Yuri.
"Well, a lot of things. I want to talk something... Rather personal. I know the type you all are, Unity Force. Heroes. But is it wise if I can get stuff out of my chest with you? In front of the hero herself?" Yuri's text said.
"Personal, huh? Well... If you insist, I will go." Chito replied.
"Meet me outside Hoshinomiya." Yuri replied back.
"At your school? Okay. I'll go. Just be careful. I'm not sure if this is a good idea, considering the stuff that has been happening for days." Chito sent the last reply as she quietly left the room, before changing into her casual clothes. Chito quietly used her dimensional device as she left the mansion by herself. "I'm going, Fumio." She said silently before using the device as she disappeared.
~~~0-0-0~~~
[Hoshinomiya Girls' High School Gate, Earth-146692]
11:23 P.M.
Twenty minutes later, Chito arrived at the gates of Hoshinomiya, which was curiously silent. All except for one person sitting at the bench beside the gate: Yuri Saiki. Currently, Yuri wears blue pajamas, as well as dark red jacket, of which Chito found it too absurdly surprising for Yuri to clothe herself in sleeping wear.
With Chito approaching the girl slowly, the hero sat down next to the savant, as the latter tensed herself a little in finally seeing her. Chito only smoked a cigarette as she wanted to calm herself down.
"So you're Chito Taya, right? You know, you and the Unity Force are already a mystery, with those superpowers and whatnot. But you were a real mystery, Chito-san. The televised broadcast of your revelations to the world had shaken this world to its boots. Your family, especially." Yuri cryptically said.
"Saiki-san-" Chito said, but Yuri replied immediately.
"Just call me Yuri-san." Yuri corrected.
"Yuri-san, that is." Chito simply said. "Okay. But why text me in the middle of my sleep?" She asked her.
"To tell the truth, I've been well... Eavesdropping the rest of you at the rooftops, which happened to be where my lab is. The place where I often conduct my research a lot." Yuri replied at Chito with some tension.
"How could we miss that?" Chito asked annoyingly. "We spent the first two weeks there before we stopped using it as a landing spot from where we help out Hinako-san and the Shijou siblings with their Reflector problems." She added as if a nail struck to her head.
"Though I admit that I don't go out on that place the most." Yuri noted rather somberly. "I've been in this Reflector business, working under the AASA, and it's frankly taking a toll on my sanity, and I felt like this one-on-one talk would be a way to release everything I've been burying for 10 years."
"AASA?" Chito asked.
"Ancient Ark Solving Agency. Think of it as an organisation that investigates the Sephirot, and if you haven't known those rings before, aka Reflector Rings, they all came from there." Yuri explained mysteriously. "You, of course, know Shirai-san who became a Reflector to achieve her dream of being able to walk again."
"Wait, what?!" Chito questioned in shock, realising the same rings she and her Unity Force group had been seeing constantly ever since their bizarre venture to the Common. "You mean..."
"Lime and Yuzuki Shijou, remember those two?" Yuri questioned rather quietly. "They are the daughters of my employer, Professor Hideyuki Shijou." She revealed.
"That's something that they never mentioned!" Chito paused upon hearing Yuri's words. The very secret that the Shijou sisters had never mentioned.
"Both of them were test subjects for the Common, which is a dangerous secret already." Yuri added as her tone turned solemn. "They were the guardians of that place. But Lime was stalwart... Yet what she was doing was reckless to the point of endangering herself and others."
"Yet, Lime-san had opened up to us how she was clearly struggling in her efforts to protect that realm. She was essentially broken from that horror of seeing two Reflectors being defeated by that Netzach." Chito remembered as she recalled the moments where their group had to deal with her stubbornness.
"Ah, yes." Yuri simply said. "Also, Chito-san. Before I divulge a lot of things on my own end, let's start with you, especially with your... rather complicated past."
"Oh, right. Since you really want to talk a lot about it..." Chito said.
Chito recounted her history to Yuri when she was born as the daughter of Jousuke and Misako Taya, long before the anomaly sent her far-flung 1000 years to the future into another world ravaged by war. Chito had recounted her adoption by her "grandpa", her late caretaker, as well as her first meeting with Yuuri. With no memories of her past life and her parents, Chito had spent her entire 23 years in a life of lies, which started from her living in a town rife with civil war over resources, then to her and Yuuri's personal journey to the megacity to reach the highest layer, a request that her caretaker had once given after the town fell in disarray. She then recounted to Yuri the long megacity journey, as well as meeting Kanazawa and Ishii, and most importantly Nuko. Then to their eventual recruitment by Max Tennyson within the Unity Force. Then she continued revealing her about how she got the powers of Crimson Lightning and how it led to the chaos in the Thunder Dome, as well as her being sick by the side effects of it, of which she had to deal with weeks ago due to overuse before she recovered from it.
Chito then introduced Yuri to the Unity Force. She then proceeds to introduce the Unity Force to her, including the existence of the multiverse and other worlds, as well as stopping any form of threat that comes into.
"Wow... That's quite a lot to take in, Chito-san." Yuri noted somberly.
"But I've been living in a lie for 23 years without eve knowing until later." Chito added as she smoked another cigarette. "Davie had set the record straight and I was the one who was foolish in clinging to such belief that I was born in that world. And then Mahito just showed up and I had to fully reveal who I am to the world."
"So those were the people who attacked your little hideout?" Yuri asked as she comforted Chito, who only looked at her right eye.
"My powers have been a blessing and a curse." Chito added, not bothering to even look at Yuri. "I'm dealing with the harsh reality that I've put the whole family and friends here at risk. And it's my goal to defend them." She added, before looking at Yuri. "And especially how I was even sent there at that world."
"Temporal anomalies happen whenever a Sephirot faced off against a Reflector, Chito-san, but only under specific circumstances." Yuri said as she scrolled down her tablet containing her journals. "Yours happened where the chances are absolutely astronomical. It is one in a zillion."
"Any idea over what even happened?" Chito questioned.
"According to Professor Shijou, there was a big battle between an army of Reflectors against a Sephirot known as Keter at the time. It was said to be unlike the Sephirot you and your group fought previously." Yuri explained rather cryptically.
Yuri then continued her explanation about Keter, who was rumoured to be the most powerful Sephirot, who is step higher than its brother Sephirot Netzach. She then added to her that within that battle 23 years ago, long before the Shijou sisters and Hinako became Reflectors, it was the first recorded instance of temporal anomaly in existence. What was, however, shocking was what the significant conclusion of that battle resulted: the battle had caused a one-of-a-kind time rip that unwittingly sent Chito to the future into the world that she currently lived, while her parents were sent to other worlds around the multiverse at different time periods, never to be seen and remembered ever again. "Unfortunately, with the multiverse so vast, there is no telling where your mother and father ended up." Yuri confessed in sadness, feeling that there was no solution to Chito ever having any solid chance of seeing her long-lost parents ever again.
"Thanks... At least I've heard the tragic story over what happened to them." Chito said to Yuri.
"Acceptance is important, Chito." Yuri noted to the girl.
"I have one more question to ask, Yuri-san." Chito said.
"What is it?" Yuri asked.
"You don't find my eye weird?" Chito quietly asked.
"No, Chito-san." Yuri said as she shook her head. "I assure you, you are not the only one with such a pained past. It's baggage. Because I have one, too." She said as she closed her eyes, unprepared for the torrent of emotions.
"Yuri-san. If it hurts you, tell it to me." Chito muttered solemnly.
"My smarts... My genius... It's a curse." Yuri confessed as she kept talking. "Intelligence and genius had led me to this hell that was my childhood. 10 years and I could not muster how to be emotive. I spent my childhood being prodigious to my parents, all for the while I began publishing scientific journals when I was only six. But deep down, I yearned for a normal life." She added somberly, revealing to Chito that Yuri was a natural genius indeed, connecting Yuri's name to the articles she saw about the journals she posted. The negatives, on the other hand, were so severe that Yuri practically mentioned to Chito how she had to deal with the immense bullying, ostracism, and even shunning from the other fellow children she attempted to befriend with during her elementary school years, due to her inability to show empathy and expressing her feelings to them, leaving her isolated from anyone else... Until she met Yuzuki and Lime. "You see... I've known Lime and Yuzuki when I was a child. They befriended me, regardless of what my genius dictated." She revealed.
"W-w-wait...!" Chito stammered as she heard the last sentence. "You actually know them?!"
"Yes. You see, they broke me out of my shell, Chito-san. Yuzu, especially, was upfront about wanting to defrost my personality and wanted to show the side that I've been hiding." Yuri confessed rather bittersweetly, as if the pang of emotions was hitting her hard slowly. "But the worst had yet to happen."
"I never knew you had been with them." Chito replied.
"But it didn't last, as something had irreparably damaged me mentally for good. And Lime and Yuzuki had a good reason for not telling it to you or their associations with me, since I voluntarily made my presence forgotten." Yuri said rather sadly, as she started revealing more of her past, with tears slowly coming from her eyes. She had revealed something shocking to Chito: her father, who was a scientist working for the AASA, had been killed in a catastrophic accident, six years ago. The aftermath of the incident had changed Yuri so much that she wanted to shut herself off from the Shijou sisters, the people she once considered friends, to spare them from the heartbreak that hit her family hard. Her mother was not spared from it either, as she had been more bent on taking her mother role more seriously than ever before. This in turn caused Yuri to revert back to her old personality, with the trauma of her father's death causing her to unable to empathise with others and with expressing her feelings to anyone. As a result, the combining factors caused Yuri to swear off about not making friends ever again, spending the next six years being a loner and quietly pushing anyone away, focusing more on doing what she wanted to do: research. The experience had also shattered any attempts of socialisation, causing her to be the person she is currently.
"All of these false faces and pretences I tried to keep track of were just a way to cope with the mess I head to deal with, Chito-san!" Yuri said with a sobbing tone, as she cried more. Her chest had twisted so hard that she was unable to resist the emotional pain. "You don't know how hard it is to be a genius, while dealing with a whirlwind of emotional pain and trauma from losing the person you cared... All it did was for me to shove Lime and Yuzuki away... I just can't!" She sobbed more, almost as if any form of reasoning was thrown out of the window.
"I never knew you had so much baggage..." Chito commented, as the only thing that she saw with Yuri was her face brim to the tears. "Believe me... I was furious when Davie casually mentioned my past, since I had no idea how to deal with it. It angered me, Yuri-san..." She added as she clenched her fist. "But with their help, I was able to move on from it. Even at the cost of me being unable to see my parents, Yuri-san. You are lucky that you still have your mom taking care of you. Me and Yuu had nothing. We had to live and survive for over two decades! And compounding the fact about my true past, it was a tidal wave of reality that hit me! So shut up and understand what I have to deal with for two decades, Yuri Saiki!" She argued at Yuri. "At this point, you have to understand that shoving anyone you cared for and being an unempathetic, indifferent asshole will not change anything and look at what that led you in the first place! You think Lime-san and Yuzuki-san would be happy to see you like this?!"
Yuri stayed silent at Chito's shocking words.
"You don't understand the story of it!" Yuri shouted at Chito. "Lime and Yuzu were dead for over a year and you think talking to their soul would soothe things easily?! You don't know who you're talking to!"
Chito quickly slapped Yuri to the face as hard as the latter reeled from it. Yuri had been taken aback of Chito's assertive personality. On cue with that, rain slowly poured as it pelted the two, as Yuri could only touch her reddened cheek.
"I know, Yuri-san. Lain-san, a friend of mine, had told me about it, but we kept it secret to Hinako or even to the sisters." Chito continued. "I know you are not ready to see them again, but think of what you're doing to yourself. You are hurting yourself more than ever. Emotionally." She added in silence, as if she couldn't help but to feel bad with what Yuri had to go through. "Genius thinking won't save you from reality. And unfortunately, this is the reality of what you are doing to yourself." She ended, before grabbing Yuri by the shoulder. "I was merely incensed of what Lime-san had been doing before we called out on her behaviour. It pissed us off when she caused Chihiro-san to be bullied just to stoke her emotions, but we finally relented when she told us a lot of her past. You, Yuri-san, should also do the same thing to yourself. This is your idea, right? To talk things out to me personally?"
"It is. Thanks for understanding... I just that I could not trust others enough to listen to what I'm going through, given my history." Yuri said silently before her teary face looked at Chito's face. "But you and the Unity Force, as well as with Shirai and Lime and Yuzu... You are all something I can trust with." She added.
What happened next was a gesture that surprised Chito the most. Yuri had given Chito a warm embrace that seemed so out of place for the aloof girl. A strike of irony for her who had berated Yuuri for causing a mess regarding her "relationship" to the older Noda sibling had played out the exact same thing, only for the fact that Yuri's heart had been opened. She had wanted to see the more vulnerable side of her.
"W... W... Wait?!" Chito exclaimed as she panicked at the sudden affectionate gesture. "You can't do this!"
Yuri broke out the hug as she looked at Chito.
"Too bad." Yuri simply said with a faint of teasing tone. "But the point is that you're the first person to open up on me, something I refused to do so for the past nine years, not since I swore off not befriending people ever again and went back to my old ways." She added with a slight smile, almost to the point of how jarring this looked like for Chito. The group's first meetup with Yuri, albeit brief, did certainly not see her as this.
"Don't be silly." Chito simply said. "I barely even know you, Yuri-san."
"Yet you are good at opening people up. Plus with the endeavours you and the Unity Force are going through, it is not that hard to know where to ask for help." Yuri added with a warm tone. "You understood my pain. My life being totally destroyed. All because of one incident that permanently shook my family and my life forever."
"Don't hesitate to ask for help, Yuri-san. We're here for you." Chito added, before looking at Yuri with a dramatic facial expression. "Seriously, what's with the sudden embrace?" She added as her face slightly blushed.
"It's me trying to open up." Yuri added. "Though I can tell that you also yearn for something deep within that heart of yours. It's love. Well... I mean a gesture of friendship. I can tell that being stuck in that world for two decades certainly took a toll." She said with a slight smile.
"Well, at least you are not as hopeless as Yuu." Chito said with a snide tone. "You know, Yuuri."
"Maybe I could talk to the rest of your group in the meantime." Yuri replied quietly. "So... I mean to ask this. Can I be your friend? Please? I want to see the world beyond the confines of my research papers and such."
"Yuri-san, yes." Chito replied warmly as she patted Yuri's head.
"Thanks. Then I will be your friend starting now, so I'll drop the honourifics. You should do the same too." Yuri noted.
But their conversation was interrupted when Chito's eyes widened in shock as she saw a beam of Bifrost hurtling straight towards the duo.
"YURI, LOOK OUT!" Chito shouted as she shoved Yuri out of danger, before the former created a Crimson Barrier around Yuri, who screamed in horror, as well as shielding herself from Bifrost.
"Sorry to spoil your little fun, but the little games are over this time, you little bitch." A familiar voice said as Chito looked behind. "The All-Father wants you, Chito. You think that by hiding away from us would make you safe? Foolish!" He added with a challenging tone.
Suddenly, they saw Heimdall, the Aesir and the person she dreads seeing the most after Mahito's demise. Chito's eyes widened as he saw the God of Foresight with a malevolent smirk, with him encountering her for the first time. The Aesir took out his Hofuð as he only smirked at his potential victims.
"Chito-san, w... who is that...?" Yuri stammered.
"Heimdall, damn it." Chito said with a clipped tone, before looking at Heimdall. "You are Heimdall, I see. The Aesir that Odin bastard sent to hunt me down and caused trouble the previous day. Here's the news. Save it. We've stopped Mahito and his group already, so you're not going to have some chances getting me." She threatened as she conjured a new weapon from her Crimson Lightning: a lightning sword.
Heimdall had none of it as he just gave her a bitter laugh.
"So you're the Crimson Lightning wielder. Well, I've finally met you in the flesh. But it's a damn shame that you're going to lose your life with that power before your eyes in the foreseeable future." Heimdall threatened as he smirked. "And you think I'm that asshole Mahito? It's a foolish idea that you mistake me for that useless sack of shit like his group of nobodies! His threats are just like a wooden tree branch, ready to be snapped! Defeated by a little bitch suffering from being separated by her now-dead parents! A girl who had been ripped apart from her life for 23 years. It really hurted you emotionally, but for me you are sick."
Chito's anger rose at Heimdall's mocking words.
"Try saying that and your mouth will be next!" Chito threatened as she activated her power.
"Don't say I didn't warn you." Heimdall said with an unfeeling tone. "But since you are stubborn enough to give in, let's do this the hard way, Chito. I won't even remember the time someone hit me until that brat Tusk and his half-breed freaks of his 'friends' did!" He continued derisively. "I'm here to tie up that loose end and that means you. An inconvenience." He continued before arming himself. "Well, you know what they say that this... This is going to be a mano-a-mano between me and you, so show me what those pitiful powers of yours have!"
Both Chito and Heimdall fight each other across the city.
[OST: Bear McCreary - Magni and Modi (Heimdall's version) (God of War: Ragnarök OST)]
"I've waited a long time for this. The pathetic little hero of the Unity Force versus an Aesir! Well, I'd expect an audience on who loses this shit badly!" Heimdall bragged as he dashed towards Chito, where he swings his sword against Chito, with the latter blocking it through her lightning sword. "Chito, you have become quite a thorn lately for the All-Father and to ME!" He gritted his teeth.
Chito then unleashes multiple piercing stabs with her lightning sword against the Foresight God, but each attack caused Heimdall to dodge it at superhuman speeds that even Chito could not comprehend.
"Just as expected... Foresight!" Chito revealed, before Heimdall punched her with his Bifrost-powered right arm instantly, sending her flying to a house. "Just how powerful is THAT attack?!" She said to herself.
"How predictable. Is that what you call power?!" Heimdall teleported in front of Chito. "Do you think the All-Father was just sitting around not doing anything? Bullshit!" He continued as he grabbed Chito through her collar as he punched her hardly with his Bifrost arm, sending her flying into another house.
"CHITO!" Yuri shouted.
Chito stood up within her feet as she could not believe the enemy she's fighting against. "So this is why you've been pulling the strings? That All-Father... An absolute disgrace of a God he is." She contemptuously sneered.
"You are an anomaly. Something we cannot allow to have been running like some lost little squirrel. You are a loose end and we're no longer going to put up to your shit." Heimdall said in a warning tone, who then unsheathed his sword again, preparing to stab the ground as he fired Bifrost in a conic manner. "You should have learned how to put yourself in your own place, Chito. The world and the universe does not revolve an arrogant, hard-headed shit like you." He continued furiously.
"Unpredictability. Foresight's weakness is throwing attacks at the person at such volatile manner that they too cannot anticipate." The Spy's previous words echoed as Chito activated Crimson Shield on her left arm, with the lightning sword to her right.
"Maybe it's you who needs to be put into place, Heimdall." Chito said as she suddenly blocked his attack with her lightning shield before proceeding to throw off the God with a Bleeding Edge attack, hitting the arrogant God right to the face, throwing him off as he was slammed into a wall.
At this point in time, the noise had caused the people around them to slowly witness the brewing chaos in front of them, with Chito telling them to stay away as far as possible. But it was not until Hinako Shirai, of all people, showed up.
"Chito-san?!" Hinako called out as she then looked at Yuri, protected by the Barrier. "Yuri-san? What happened here?"
"Shirai, don't!" Yuri exclaimed.
"Hinako-san, get out of here! Don't use your Reflector power!" Chito commanded. "This is not an ordinary foe you are going up against...!" She explained as she was on a struggle.
"I have to... There is no other option!" Hinako exclaimed as she transformed herself into her Reflector form.
"Hina what?" Heimdall questioned in surprise as he clenched his teeth, before realising that Hinako is Chito's friend and a Reflector. "Motherfucker! You brought another 'friend' to fight your own battle. How fitting of a massive coward like you!" He fumed as he saw Hinako, but Chito distracted him enough.
Both Heimdall and Chito traded blows with each other violently, with Chito shoving the mad God from one house to the other, before slamming him into a wall, while Heimdall was trying to give her a repeated series of punches. This caused their battle to escalate into a full-blown confrontation between the two newly-minted mortal enemies.
"Tell me, what is your obsession to pursue me and my team halfway across this universe?" Chito questioned rather angrily. "That your father ordered Mahito and the Disaster Curses to break into my hideout by having that freak torturing and coercing Doraemon, compromising my privacy here and forcing myself and my team to reveal to the world?!" She added angrily as she dodged another of Heimdall's faster attacks, blocking it with her shield.
"You are messing with forces you clearly... DO NOT UNDERSTAND!" Heimdall replied as he attempted to sear Chito with his Bifrost hand right to her face. "As if one fuck-up isn't enough, but you all just have to multiply. I could not care less what that sore loser did. He is just another pathetic excuse of a fucking trash that would be better left alone! There is just you who I am finally having had enough of it! You are just a rabid dog that cannot be put down. AT ALL! So I made it absolutely clear that I'm not going to stop until the All-Father finally will have a piece of you!" He scowled as he replied in a scorching tone as he managed to grab Chito by her neck.
"Get away from her!" Hinako exclaimed before shouting "Ciel Mois!" as she unleashed a quick slash against the Foresight God, causing him to get hit by it. Chito then followed it up with another quick Bleeding Edge, hitting him right through his stomach. The resulting attack sent Heimdall flying against the gates of Hoshinomiya.
"I should have known by now that you have a coward teaming up with you!" Heimdall sneered as he looked at Hinako. "And the bitch herself who injured her knees and having her dreams crushed like a cow being stepped on by me!" He mocked disgustingly, as Hinako was less pleased at his poor choice of words.
"Don't even think about using my dreams for this, God. I've become a Reflector in an attempt to restore my leg to perform ballet again. Lime and Yuzu had helped me with that goal by fighting the Sephirot. But you? You and those allies of yours have put my whole life and my friend's lives at risk forever! I can no longer spend my normal school life without going paranoid about you and your group attacking us all because Chito-san doesn't give in to your demands!" Hinako ranted at Heimdall, seemingly furious of how her once normal life outside of the battles with the Sephirot was permanently shattered following the previous attack that had put her and her Hoshinomiya friends in the spotlight. She said as tears streamed from her eyes. "This cannot stand... I am not going to stop until you are all gone...! Never! EVER!"
"You dare to mock me, you melodramatic little shit?!" Heimdall fumed in absolute fury as he took out his Hofuð and dashed quickly towards Hinako, with her parrying his sword attack as he unleashed a powerful kick towards the Reflector, following it up with another blow from his Bifrost arm. "Weak! Utterly pathetic! Is this what a Reflector can do best? So pathetic that even a minor Einherjar would kick your ass to Hel! Just another pathetic little shit proving to play the hero!" He added furiously as he used her Bifrost arm and punched her straight to her stomach, sending her flying right next to Yuri as she hits a wall, causing her to fade consciousness as she went back to her normal form.
"Shirai!" Yuri exclaimed, where her protective barrier dissipated, before Heimdall quickly teleported to Yuri and grabbed her. "Chito! Help!"
Heimdall pointed the blade of his sword right through her throat. "Ah, you are that Yuri Saiki. The child intellect whose father died of a pathetic death."
"Stop, what are you doing to me...?!" Yuri said with fear.
"Toying you, that's why." Heimdall smirked as she looked at Chito. "Any last words for this new 'friend' of yours before she'll bite the dust to Helheim, Chito? I give you two options: surrender yourself to the All-Father or not, but at the cost of her poor little life. Your choice is yours and I'll foretell which one."
"You better get her out of this." Chito threatened.
"No, the moment YOU stepped into this shit, anyone you now cared for is no longer safe, Chito." Heimdall continued as he dig the blade deeper. "Consider this as a price you pay for actively running away!"
"Chito, don't do it... Don't listen to him!" Yuri exclaimed.
"Now, shut the fuck up, you whore." Heimdall hissed. "I'll make this painful and swift as fast as I can!"
"Unpredictability... Unpredictability... Unpredictability..." The Spy's words echoed thrice again.
"Just give up. No matter how much you try, Heimdall. You and your Aesir cronies, especially your father, are just another desperate fools going after me. Which will never work... UNDER MY WATCH!" Chito activated her Haki from her left eye. "Now. Get. Out. Of. My. Sight!" She punctuated angrily as she used her more powerful version of Bleeding Edge onto the ground twice, causing brief tremors to happen as the Foresight God was surprised at Chito's strategy. But Chito had enough of his nonsense as she quickly dashed right towards Heimdall, freeing Yuri from his cold grasp before the rapid punches hit straight into the Foresight God's head, leaving him zero time to react. The resulting blow sent the god flying into parts unknown, with Chito hoping that it would be the last of her and her group to see him.
With the battle over, Chito approached both Yuri and the injured Hinako. Yuri was scared straight out of her mind over her harrowing experience with Heimdall, while Hinako was grunting in pain over what the Foresight God was truly capable of.
Suddenly, as if on cue, Tusk, Allen, Davie, Crowley III, Shadow, Megumi, Nobara, and Yuji just finished their patrol around the city, who missed the confrontation between Chito and Hinako against Heimdall. However, Davie revealed that he and his group confronted the Einherjar earlier.
Chito scolded Hinako for being reckless in fighting against a God that certainly almost killed her in an instant had it not for her intervention.
"You okay, Chito-san?" Nobara asked her partner.
"You just missed the battle." Chito said with her head hung down. "Heimdall and Odin are making their moves faster than what I can anticipate. They're no longer going to care how many people are hurt. They're just going to target me until they finally did."
"We just dealt with those Einherjar bastards again." Tusk added as he took off the helmet of his power suit.
"I must say that they're even more persistent than the Curses." Yuji noted, remembering his previous encounters with the Curses being nothing compared to this.
"Damn it. We're going to alert the rest back at Ninagawa's place and yours too." Tusk continued as he holstered his Sturmgewehr to his back.
The rest then noticed Yuri.
"Wait, was this the girl we met after we sort out Mitsui and Yoshimura's problems at the Common?" Tusk asked.
"Yeah, and that Heimdall bastard was planning on killing her as a way to submit to his whims." Chito added in unbridled anger. "Just what the fuck is going on? Ever since we stopped Mahito, things have been more or less even worse than ever before."
"That's a sign that they're no longer excuses on hunting you down, Chito." Davie warned in a pragmatic tone. "It's your powers that have been currently putting you on their radar." He added rather coldly.
Chito then punched the walls of Hoshinomiya.
"And then have more people get hurt?" Chito shot back angrily at Davie. "Now Yuri was almost a victim of it! How many more get dragged into our own mess if we don't take action?!" She bellowed almost instantly.
"THEN TAKE ACTION!" Davie shouted as he argued back.
"Davie, stop." Shadow suddenly butted. "Chito, this is not the way to handle things like this. The best thing to do is for us to keep any eye on Heimdall and the Aesir. This is dangerous path we're treading in."
"The problem now is that anyone we know is in danger." Chito said in a mordant tone. "How are we supposed to deal with it?"
"We're gonna discuss it the next day at Ninagawa's place. For now, get some rest." Megumi said.
"So you're now friends with this intelligent girl, as well?" Crowley III asked.
"I do. And it was frankly a lot of things she talked about. How I was sent to that world I was in." Chito revealed, surprising the rest. "Yuri had the answer herself."
The rest paused at the gravitas of Chito's words, unable to comprehend at what Chito had just mentioned.
~~~0-0-0~~~
[Ninagawa Residence, Earth-146692]
The next day...
As the rest of Chito's group met up at the Ninagawa mansion at around 5:00 A.M. as early as possible, they paid no time discussing the events that transpired yesterday, including Heimdall's second attack and the shocking revelation that Chito and her parents were victims of a temporal anomaly caused by a Sephirot known as Keter. Mao Ninagawa, still in her pajamas, was just observing the group as she listened the conversation.
Nero, Kenpachi, and Jolyne could not believe what they heard.
"So the Sephirot we just fought earlier were not the first ones?" Kenpachi asked.
"Most likely. Yuri said that there were six other more including Malkhut, Hesed, Keter, Binah, Hod, and Gevurah, of which we didn't even know they existed." Chito said as she drank some yuzu tea that one of Mao's servants gave to her. "But according to her employer from this AASA, they were all sealed long before they were born, dealt by previous generation Reflectors. But this Keter was the reason why I was thrown to that world, which I frankly could not believe after Yuri revealed all of it to me." She ended.
"Thank god we aren't dealin' with the rest. At least we now know why." Yuuri said as she smoked some cigarette, while trying to comfort her best friend. "What about that Heimdall asshole, though?"
"That little trashy piece of shit really gave you a hard time, huh?" Nero asked Chito.
"But Hinako-san, of all people, showed up in that battle, which angered me since she's trying to put herself into a meat grinder." Chito added with a tinge of annoyance. "We stopped him, but we're dreading about the fact that we didn't."
"The point is that we also stopped a pocket of Einherjar around the city, as well." Tusk said as he took out a small street map of Nagoya, with red blips noting the previous appearance of the Einherjar. "First from that abandoned factory, then to some neighbourhood and then to the area close to your former hideout." He added as he connected it with arrows, triangulating across Hoshinomiya. He then lit a cigarette. "For the past two days ever since our first run-in with Heimdall, we're dealing with these assholes and all of them are at close proximity within that school where Shirai and her friends are in."
"It seemed that they're hunting our old ghosts on the latter." Mikoto said, rather nonplussed.
"But remember that we are not fighting the Cursed Spirits anymore." Davie said with his arms crossed. "These are soldiers from Valhalla who die with honour and are resurrected again to prepare themselves for Ragnarök, like in the mythology. We're essentially dealing with continuously reviving soldiers."
"The question remains, how are we going to deal with them accordingly?" Genis questioned.
"With what army?" Piltz asked rather doubtfully. "Between them, Odin, and Heimdall, as well as the Sephirot, we're talking about dealing with soldiers who are resurrected on a regular basis. Armies enough to stave off against us from an upcoming apocalyptic event within the Norse world, which we have no business of." She continued as she sauntered around. "Even if we kill them, Odin would potentially send their souls back to Valhalla and possibly resupply them again."
"We're going to divide and conquer." Chito suggested as she looked at the map again. "That means we're going to do the same thing as how we dealt with Cursed Spirits two weeks ago. Even if we cannot fully kill these soldiers, we can at least distract them as much as we can."
"Yeah, but it's the question of how." Yuji said as he pondered at Chito's ideas. "We're not just concerned with them, but it's Odin." He added as he spun a pen. "Especially now that you are a living target from those freaks. Not to mention you said that Heimdall is possibly not dead, so we're even more screwed twice."
"That's something we dread with." Chito continued as she sipped another tea. "But then again, we have no other option left other than to call the rest of our friends back home if push comes to shove." She added, before Jolyne then changed the topic about Yuri's past friendship with the Shijou sisters.
"About that Chito, this Saiki girl knew of the Shijou sisters long before Shirai even knew them?" Jolyne said in a rather questioning manner.
"Not just that, but both of them were her childhood friends in the past." Chito said.
"Which neither sister never mentioned to us about it." Lain commented.
"No way. No freaking way. We've been... Well, with these two girls for the past few week, but this bombshell!" Yuuri argued towards the group. "Were they hiding this to us?! How dare they!"
"Lime and Yuzuki Shijou." Mao said as she suddenly looked at the group, while coming down the stairs. "That's because she has reasons, Yuuri." She said, with her words silencing the annoyed Yuuri.
"Ninagawa?" Jolyne called out.
"I had a heart-to-heart talk with her yesterday... Long before Heimdall showed up. And she said to me about her past. Her father's death from some catastrophic accident when he was working with this AASA had essentially traumatised her to the point of being the aloof girl she is currently." Chito revealed, where she then saw Mao leaning to the barrister.
"Based on the news, Saiki's father was killed during one of his research works in his AASA years." Mao simply added. "It was all over the news and it happened a few years before the controversy that hit my parents."
"Wait, I thought you were mostly blind to this Sephirot business? Plus, how did you even know Yuri-chan in the first place too? I mean she doesn't usually go out of that little lab room she has." Yuuri simply said as she crossed her arms.
"We never talked mostly face-to-face, but it was clear that well... She's rather broken." Mao coldly noted. "She's a talented genius just like me, no doubt about it, given her IQ of 300. But unlike me, research and scientific journals were essentially her blood, so she was more laser-focused on this Common. But all of it was spurred from the emotional pain she was going through. And especially last year."
"You mean the deaths of the Shijou sisters?" Chito revealed.
"Wait, what the hell?!" Allen suddenly exclaimed. "You're saying they're dead?!"
"Remember the school photo?" Lain asked the rest. "Both of them did not appear in that photo, yet this was still unexplained as to how."
"Pardon us?!" Kenpachi questioned at Lain's words.
"Excuse me? Are we saying that we're walking with the dead after all this time?!" Nero joined in.
"In fact, no one myself included even knew of them. Except Saiki herself. But that's because Saiki had been estranged from them for years. The death of her father had cinched it completely." Mao revealed to the group. "They just 'showed up' from out of nowhere."
"No, we're gonna tell these two what they're hiding-" Yuuri suddenly suggested.
"If I were you, don't." Mao bluntly added with refusal. "Such news like this would never bode good news with Shirai or the Shijou sisters themselves. Essentially because Saiki had never reconciled with them after being estranged for over six years."
"Plus, this is info that cannot be taken lightly." Shadow said with a bitter tone. "If we are going to spill the beans immediately, there's a guarantee that Lime and Yuzuki would do something reckless and with the two ending their friendships with us because of this revealing info. Not to mention anyone we befriended there. Hinako would also be greatly affected with this news, as well, so our course of action is to not tell her until we are absolutely certain."
Chito then decided to end the planning phase.
"With that said, we're going to put all of these into action." Chito suggested.
Then a text message suddenly popped out of Chito's tablet.
"Chito-san, sorry for what happened yesterday. Can you guys come early at 6:30 in Hoshinomiya? It's about Yuzu and Lime." - Hinako.
Chito was stumped with the text.
"That early?" Yuuri asked. "What does she want us for?" She asked.
"Probably something important." Chito said. "Trying to unwind after what happened yesterday night in Hoshinomiya, which is already news." She said as she looked at the articles. "Lain-san, keep an eye, okay?" She offered, with Lain nodding.
~~~0-0-0~~~
[Hoshinomiya Girls' High School, Earth-146692]
6:25 A.M.
As the entirety of Chito's group sans Lain as usual visited the academy through the dimensional device, Hinako was already there waiting. Her eyes were somewhat tired due to the events of yesterday. Still unable to shake off the feeling of encountering Heimdall for the first time in the flesh, Hinako's normal life had spiralled out of control ever since the madness that was the Sephirot and the Disaster Curses. She had dreaded to herself that anyone she has known is now in danger.
"Whoa... You look real tired, Hinako-chan." Yuuri said as she stood down next to Hinako, where the group were heading inside the school's court.
"And half of my body's still in pain." Hinako said as she tried to stretch her body. "That God was something else. And now I'm a bit groggy for an early practice for The Little Mermaid play for the upcoming festival."
"Which I told you not to use your Reflector powers." Chito said sternly.
"I know, but I cannot allow someone to get hurt." Hinako replied meekly. "But seriously, how could he foretell our attacks that fast?"
"Hinako-chan, you know that was never a regular enemy, right? He's the God of Foresight for a reason." Yuuri said as she patted her shoulder. "I'd take Chii's side here. You should be lucky that it was not Odin you're going up against."
"Odin?" Hinako questioned. "You mean the King of the Aesir?"
"Except what we're going up against is a complete psychopath version of him." Lloyd replied.
"From another world, no less." Chito replied as she looked at her tablet. "Plus, remember that he's Mahito's former employer, so he's essentially responsible for the mess we had to deal with in this world for the past few days."
"Wait, what?" Hinako questioned in a nonplussed manner. "You're saying..."
"The Cursed Spirit attacks around the city, the attack of the Disaster Curses, and the attack of our former hideout. They were all a means to Odin's end, since he used Mahito as a way to target me." Chito revealed as she enumerated everything.
"That's especially important since me, Fushiguro, and Kugisaki know who these people are." Yuji said as he ate a piece of candy. "Pests we once dealt with back in our home world."
"But with him and his group dead again, we're still not out of the woods yet." Nobara added.
"All we can say is that this is now the new normal you and your friends are in, Shirai." Jolyne said rather coldly with no room for empathy. "The sooner or later that you accept it, the more you are prepared for what it is to come."
"I'm still getting used to it." Hinako said rather embarrassingly.
"We're going to deal with this shit." Nero said as he looked at the school. "Honestly, dealing with my literal past demons wasn't as bad as this."
Inside the school's court, it was empty, rather than the expected meet-up they have planned with the Shijou sisters.
"At least it's quiet in here." Lloyd said, before looking at Hinako. "Oh, you said you're here to practice for that play of yours, right?" He asked the girl.
"Well, it's quite empty for now." Hinako said, before stepping in the middle of the court as she decided to do some ballet dances.
...Only for her to fail miserably as she fell down.
"Well, that's a 2 out of 10." Nero jeered.
"Ugh... Guess being a Reflector does not really apply to my legs outside of it." Hinako grumbled.
"That's an obvious sign that your legs are not fine, Hinako." Davie noted.
"You said your teammate's powers can heal it, right? It would be good if that's the case, but I cannot do it." Hinako said as she looked at Piltz.
"Or else that would be cheating." Piltz added rather playfully, as she sat down next to Hinako. "Remember, you need to pursue this on your own, Hinako. My powers, while it can heal injuries even beyond all of modern medicine, has to be used only when it matters the most. Not to cover up insecurities and challenges that you need to face. There is always a saying that powers should not be used for the simplest of tasks, as well as using it responsibly." She ended with a somber explanation. "Face them headstrong, Hinako. You can do this."
"Thanks, Piltz-san." Hinako noted.
Then, all of a sudden, Yuzuki showed up. But Lime was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey guys! Hina-chan!" Yuzuki called out.
"Yuzu-chan!" Yuuri said as she embraced the girl.
"Yuuri-san...!" Yuzuki added as she only blushed. "That's unexpected of you to hug me, hm?"
"Well, that's what friends are for, duh!" Yuuri noted.
Yuzuki then looked at the rest. "But why are you all here so early? And Hina-chan too?"
"Oh, it was Hina-san who suggested the idea of it." Chito pointed out at the girl. "She said she wanted to practice for the play The Little Mermaid. And the next thing we knew she wanted to practice her ballet moves... Well, it lasted for only five seconds."
"Hina-chan, don't be reckless." Yuzuki said in worry. "Also, why you didn't tell me about your fight with that bad God?" She asked, realising what that alluded to.
"Heimdall, you mean?" Hinako questioned. "Oh, I cannot even comprehend what kind of enemy we had to deal with! He was nothing like the Demons we fought in the Common! If you can even believe it, he was able to foretell our next move and we would have lost had we not throw him off." She continued.
"But that's just one Aesir." Mikoto said to her. "If the Norse Pantheon under Odin's thumb gets involved in targetting Chito-san, then we're in for a bigger fight than just Heimdall himself."
"Correct." Chito added.
"I mean to say this, Yuzu. Before we changed Lime for the better, as it had been my goal to dance once again, would my dream be a reality the more we get Fragments? Piltz-san had said to me just earlier that I have to face my problems headstrong than to do it the easy way out?" Hinako asked at her fellow Reflector.
"Is it not good enough?" Yuzuki asked.
"Not good that I'd be laughed off the global stage. It's not enough to be considered it to be étoile standards, you know." Hinako replied.
"But that's because you should not let that shortcoming dictate you." Piltz said.
"Mind if I ask." Shadow suddenly said.
"Well, that's unexpected of the aloof hedgehog." Lloyd teased.
Shadow only glared at him.
"Don't think about it." Shadow said bitterly, before looking at Yuzuki. "Where is Lime? Should she be with you?"
"Well... She's busy hunting Fragments. She has been restless as of lately." Yuzuki replied.
"That's not healthy." Chito said.
"But at least her methods are considerably slightly for the better than what it was before you all showed up." Yuzuki added with joy.
"Not gonna lie, long before we fixed the hard-headed bitch herself, she was as stubborn as Dante." Nero said as he sat down the stage.
"Well, the thing is... Lime does care about Hina-chan and the rest of you, particularly Shadow too." Yuzuki confessed. "She grappled a lot of stress during her time as a Reflector, but that doesn't mean she is a bad person. Between the time she saw two reflectors being defeated by Netzach and now the problems that happened here on your end, she is growing out of her old ways, thanks to your help. It's to ensure that none of you put her on a darker light."
"Though how did Hinako even become a Reflector in the first place?" Davie asked.
"If I were meaning to ask, what could the two of you have been-" Hinako said, but was interrupted when her Reflector ring and Yuzuki's Reflector ring shine.
On cue with that, the Common-entering device blared much loudly than ever before.
"What the hell?!" Chito questioned. "Who is our target this time?!"
"They're making us leap into the Common!" Yuzuki exclaimed.
"Then we have no time to waste!" Davie exclaimed rather straightly.
With the rings shine and the Common-entering device doing the same thing, the group were soon transported into the Common. Or is it?
~~~0-0-0~~~
[The Central Zone, The Common]
As the group arrived in the Common, what stood out to the group was that they are neither from Fear Zone, Sorrow Zone, Happiness Zone, etc. Instead, they are in what looked like an entirely different area that had little to do with the aforementioned locations of the Common.
Around them were just nothing but them being surrounded by intricate rock formations, as well as blue rocks and a giant beam of blue light right in front of them. The floor around them was also made of light. Around them were strange entryways revealed to be connected to various Zones. They are now revealed to be in the Central Zone of the Common.
"What is this place? Yuzuki-san, are we even in the Common?" Chito asked Yuzuki.
"We are, but not in a way you would expect." Lime suddenly said, causing the group to turn their heads at the source of the words.
"Lime." Shadow said as the two soon embraced each other.
"Good thing you're all safe." Lime added. "And you too, Shadow-san." She replied rather affectionately.
"Now, now." Chito
"Oi, care to tell us what this place is?!" Nero asked the Reflector.
"Wish I could tell, because even I had no idea too. My ring just glimmered all of a sudden." Lime said to Nero.
"Lime-chan, this thing... We keep seeing this from the previous Zones we visited earlier." Yuuri said as she pointed at the towering rock formation with the blue light on it.
"That's because this is the Common's central area." Yuzuki revealed, shocking some.
"Wait, so we are in the literal middle of it?" Mikoto asked.
"Correct." Lime said, before pointing at it. "This is the core of the Common. The reason you see this everywhere because of how connected all the Zones are." She explained briefly.
"Yeah, but why are we here?" Jolyne asked. "If this place really pulled us, there would be some Demons to fight."
"Wait, hold on." Lloyd paused. "But where are the Demons? This is in fact the opposite." He examined.
"You bet. Probably there's more to this." Hinako added.
"We have to get out of here." Chito said, before the rest of the group were exited out of the Common.
~~~0-0-0~~~
After visiting the Central Zone, the rest of Chito's group came back to the academy proper, where they then heard a loud noise and a violent quake.
"What is going on?!" Yuuri asked as she took out her rifle.
"You might have to look over there." Davie said as he looked at the sky, revealing a shadow, before yet another familiar creature showed up: a Sephira. This time, a new one who is known as Tiphereth.
Tiphereth is a giant flying Sephira who resembles the biblical Cherub and Seraph, surrounded by gold and blue patterns. In the middle of it are three rotating blades that is shaped S.
"Shit, here we go with these freaks again!" Nero exclaimed.
"That's a Sephirot we're dealing with?!" Tusk exclaimed.
"This one's different!" Chito said as she activated her Crimson Lightning.
The rest of their friends including Sanae Nishida, Sarasa Morikawa, Rin Sanada, Kei Narimiya, Ako Ichinose, Shihori Sugamoto, Chihiro Inoue, Fumio Taya, Kaori Mitsui, and Rika Yoshimura had just joined in.
"Perfect timing, you all!" Yuuri exclaimed to the Hoshinomiya group.
"That's a Sephira?!" Kaori asked.
"The third one." Hinako said to the rest.
"You told us stories about it, but we did not expect to see one in the flesh!" Rika exclaimed.
"Chito-nee-sama, can you, Shirai, and anyone fight with it?" Fumio asked worriedly. "I'm not the one to doubt, but I just wanted to make sure everything will be fine..."
"Leave it to us, Fumio." Chito said with a reassuring tone as she patted her cousin's head.
Shadow, meanwhile, observed with Yuji, where they saw familiar faces: Einherjar soldiers, fresh straight out of Valhalla. He gritted his teeth as he looked to the group with an alarmed faces.
"What the hell are those?!" Kei asked.
"Armoured soldiers?!" Sarasa added as she looked at the new enemies that she had never seen before.
"W-What are those bad people there...?" Chihiro asked meekly.
"Shit! Einherjar! This will be a tough one!" Shadow replied.
"These fuckers again...!" Tusk said as he took out his Sturmgewehr to the left and a new weapon, LaserKraftWerk, to his right. "We had to deal with these guys yesterday and now they're back!" He added as he turned on the helmet of his power suit.
"We-We're fighting warriors from Norse mythology now?!" Ako exclaimed, unable to comprehend at the new situation in front of her.
"Odin must have sent it here." Chito added.
"Must be some payback over what we did to that Heimdall guy!" Hinako said.
"Odin?" Lime asked.
"We'll tell you later, but first we're going to stop this Sephira and them!" Chito added.
"Get ready, anyone." Megumi ordered.
The Einherjar had just watched the heroes in anger, all poised and ready to battle as if they see the Unity Force as enemies to be defeated and like everything else, to die with honour.
With that, Chito's group and their team's battle between the Einherjar and Tiphereth has just begun...
[TO BE CONTINUED...]
~~~0-0-0~~~
The characters that appear in this chapter (in order):
Tiphereth from Blue Reflection
~~~0-0-0~~~
A/N: This story is inspired by the ideas of Tamama900. It will continue on to the next chapter.
And with that, have a good day!