The wind was a familiar whisper against my ears, a sensation I'd come to enjoy since landing in this new body and this bizarre new world. I was flying, suspended several hundred meters above the cityscape, using the bare minimum of my newly acquired abilities. Below, the sprawling, neon-lit canvas of a major Japanese city unfolded.
My mind, however, was preoccupied with a persistent, nagging feeling—like a word just on the tip of my tongue. I was searching for context, for an instruction manual for this world. I knew I'd consumed media about this place before my... transition.
"Date... something."
"Oh, I got it. Date A Live. That's the name," I muttered, the pieces clicking into place.
I recalled the basic premise: a world plagued by girls called Spirits, who cause spatial quakes upon arrival. The solution? A blue-haired high school boy named Shidou whose power is to kiss the Spirits to seal their abilities.
"Kissing Spirits to seal them, huh? A little… hands-on for my taste," I observed, executing a slow spiral in the air. "And let's be honest, that power kinda sucks from a combat perspective."
I needed something concrete, something mine.
"Mhm… Best to reread Patchouli's grimoire," I decided.
A book bound in heavy, ancient leather, radiating faint magical energy, materialized in my hands mid-flight. I tilted it against the moonlight and began to skim the dense, hand-written runes, searching for a spell that would suit my needs.
Location: Unknown.
"Sir, we've detected an unknown flying object approaching the airspace over Tengu City," a technician reported, his voice tight with urgency.
Isaac Ray, a man whose face seemed permanently set in an expression of mild annoyance, took a drag from his electronic cigarette.
"Could be a civilian drone, or maybe the AST is running a late-night drill," he replied dismissively.
"Sir, no AST unit is scheduled for patrol in that sector tonight. And the flight pattern is… too fluid. Too fast for standard air traffic."
Isaac Ray eyes narrowed. He looked at the holographic map displaying the anomaly—a tiny, rapidly moving dot.
"Mhm… Send in a tactical team. Just to be sure. If it's a Spirit, capture her. If it's just a highly advanced, unauthorized drone… well, tell them to return. No collateral damage."
"Understood, Commander."
"Practically speaking, I need to test these spells," I mused, the words of a temporal manipulation incantation swimming in my head.
Before I could activate the spell, a prickling sensation of awareness—a low-frequency spiritual hum—registered in my senses. Multiple, heavily armed human signatures were closing in, and nestled amongst them was one unique, overwhelmingly familiar energy signature.
That chaotic, almost fractal essence…
"It's her. I know it," I whispered, dropping from the sky with controlled deceleration.
I landed silently in a secluded, overgrown patch of forest near the city's edge. The moment my boots touched the mossy ground, i and swiftly summoned a familiar figure.
A duplicate of myself, dressed in the iconic maid uniform, with the distinctive silver hair and cold, focused eyes, stood ready. My Clone.
"You know the plan," I said, establishing the mental link.
"Understood. Primary target assessment and engagement," my clone replied with practiced efficiency.
With a shimmer, I teleported away, retreating to a vantage point. The bait was set.
A moment later, a figure emerged cautiously from behind a massive cedar tree. It was a woman in a standard-issue DEM operative suit, her expression one of forced calm.
"Excuse me, miss?" she said, trying for a friendly tone.
My clone turned, her expression blank. "Who are you?"
"Ah, sorry. It's just, a lone woman in the woods at this hour is strange. Why don't you come with us? We can escort you somewhere safe," she said, offering a hand and gesturing for the clone to follow.
The clone's silver eyes narrowed slightly.
"Then tell me why there are multiple people with lethal force deployed and hidden behind you."
The woman's smile vanished, and her eyes widened in surprise.
"Well, I guess the jig is up."
Another voice, hard and male, cut through the air. In an instant, the foliage was parted as six DEM operatives in full CR-Unit gear sprang from their hiding spots, weapons raised.
'Clone, deal with them. Dont kill them. If there are any DEM officers among them, prioritize capturing the highest-ranking one for interrogation,' I instructed telepathically from my hidden location.
'Understood. Engaging,' the clone responded.
She didn't waste a second on a physical charge. A flurry of razor-sharp silver knives materialized and sliced through the air toward the operatives.
"So fast!" the initial woman operative thought, barely managing to dodge the initial volley.
A second operative, quicker than the others, pulled the first woman out of the trajectory, saving her.
The air then crackled with temporal energy. The clone, Sakuya, was already launching the second wave of attack: not just knives, but bullets from her flintlock pistol. The operatives managed to deploy their shields just in time, deflecting the barrage.
"Lightspeed 'C. Ricochet'!" Sakuya declared, activating her spell card.
She tossed a single silver knife. It didn't fly in a straight line; it bounced off a nearby tree, then off a piece of DEM armor, before whipping around to bury itself precisely in the shoulder joint of the initial woman operative.
"Ah!" she cried out, clutching her arm as the metallic clang of her dropped weapon echoed.
"She's not a Spirit! She's something else!" the injured operative yelled, confirming my suspicion. The DEM didn't have a proper classification for me yet.
Sakuya's expression didn't change. "I am no Spirit, but you won't live to tell the tale."
She charged, knives held low. One of the male operatives quickly pulled a plasma sword, clashing loudly with Sakuya's knife. Steel met plasma in a shower of sparks.
'She's strong!' the operative thought, struggling to match the sheer speed and inhuman precision.
Sakuya didn't allow him a second thought. She vanished. A shimmer of temporal displacement, and she reappeared behind him, delivering a swift, powerful drop-kick that slammed him into a nearby tree trunk, knocking him unconscious.
"Best you surrender now," the clone advised.
But before the remaining DEM could react, a new spiritual signature powerful, familiar, and darkly sweet erupted into the clearing.
A woman appeared in a swirl of shadows and light, wearing a crimson and black Gothic Lolita dress, her hair a cascade of raven black. Her eyes were a strange mix of gold and a crimson clock face.
"It's her," I thought, my focus sharpening. Kurumi Tokisaki. Nightmare.
"Hello~ I am Nightmare. Nice to meet you," she said with a chillingly innocent smile.
"Nightmare is here! We need reinforcements now!" one of the remaining DEM operators shrieked into his comms.
Kurumi ignored them, her focus entirely on Sakuya.
"I must ask you," Kurumi purred, tilting her head. "How do you possess such power yet are not a Spirit? That aura… it is just like mine, yet… different. I felt you back at that restaurant, though you looked much plainer then. Are you sure you aren't a Spirit?"
"I don't have to answer that," Sakuya replied, her voice flat and cold.
"Very well. I suppose I could just beat the answer out of you."
Kurumi smiled, and raised her hand, a massive, ornate clock face Zafkiel materializing behind her.
"No," I declared.
With a violent flash of light, I instantly teleported to Sakuya's side. My own silver knife was already arcing toward Kurumi's exposed neck.
Shing!
Before the blade could touch skin, multiple shadowy hands erupted from the ground and grasped my wrists, immobilizing me instantly.
"Tsk tsk. Attacking a person while talking is bad manners," Kurumi chided, her smile widening into something predatory.
She aimed her antique flintlock pistol—the minute hand of Zafkiel—directly at my forehead.
"Now, about that answer."
I remained silent.
Pew!
The gun fired. The bullet hit its mark, and my clone instantly dissolved into a shower of light particles.
"Mhm… She disappears the same way my shadow clones do," Kurumi mused, a flicker of genuine intrigue in her strange eyes.
She gave a final, bored glance at the bewildered DEM operatives before sinking into the shadows, Zafkiel dissolving above her.
She was gone, leaving the DEM to puzzle over the strange, non-Spirit entity they had just failed to capture.
I rematerialized back in the apartment near the city center.
"She knows me now… This will be… hard," I sighed, running a hand through my hair.
I turned to see my companion, perched on the kitchen counter, surrounded by torn bags and empty boxes.
She had devoured all the groceries I had just bought that afternoon.
"RUBY!"
"Eeeee!"