Dimensional Quest: I Got Reincarnated Into My Trashy Fanfic

(A/N: Remember how I said in the last Author's Note that you'd find out soon?

It's soon.

Enjoy the true chaos~!)

---

The gyudon, miso soup, and Japanese potato salad were delicious.

Everyone ate their fill and shared friendly conversations throughout lunch, leaving not a single piece of food behind.

David had asked Shouko if she wanted to stay and hang out, but she wrote that her mother was expecting her home after lunch so they could talk about Shouko's experience.

He sent her off with a smile and sent Toa and Rinon back as well, their reason being that they had to go over Toa's gains from the dungeon earlier.

It was 3:00 PM by the time the lunch guests were gone and everyone was doing their own thing.

Shiki had been given money and went out to browse some bookstores, Tomoe and Rangiku were drinking together in the living room, Sofia was talking with Marin, Isane, and Yoruichi upstairs in Sofia's room, and Mio was watching Komoe play Final Fantasy in David's office.

⟪ I like when everyone can do their own thing and enjoy themselves, heheh. I always worry that I smother some of them with my constant attention, but I'm glad that's not the case. ⟫

David thought about what he wanted to make for dinner and, possibly because he was thinking about the past for some reason earlier, he was craving instant noodles.

Checking the kitchen, he saw that he only had a few packages of instant noodles, not enough to feed his household.

'While I could make my own noodles, there's just something about the cheap instant noodles that makes me happy... It's mid-afternoon on a Saturday so the chances of meeting someone new is high, but... I really want some instant noodles...'

David thought for a moment and then decided to just go to the store.

'I don't want any bullshit today, Chaos-chan. I had a peaceful morning, an entertaining lunch, and I just want to grab some noodles and come back to work on my game engine...'

[Huh? Why tell me?]

'Because I want you to work some magic and make it so that I don't have to deal with anything, that's why!'

[...You do realize you have a variety of ways to hide yourself, right? You could erase your entire existence from people's perception or just cast illusion magic on yourself to wear a disguise. You have so many different ways to accomplish your goal that I think you're just purposefully bitching in order to raise more flags...]

'...Meanie...'

[Oh, grow up, David.]

David looked up into nothingness and stuck out his tongue before going into the downstairs bathroom and looking in the mirror.

'Hmm... Nothing creepy nor too handsome, just... something average...'

After running through various characters in his mind, David snapped his fingers and his entire body changed.

He was now only 172 cm tall with thick, black, medium-length hair and black eyes. His face was very average and wouldn't ever grab anyone's attention. 

His clothes shifted like a mirage from his black t-shirt, grey sweatpants, and black slides to a black t-shirt, a white, black, and orange zip-up tracksuit jacket with an 'N' on the left breast, dark grey tracksuit bottoms with an orange stripe down the side, and black sneakers with bright orange laces and soles.

[Seriously...? That's who you're cosplaying as?]

'It's not cosplay if I look exactly like him, right?'

[You don't even know what his real appearance looks like!]

'I mean, I figured it'd be similar to the girls. Their appearances don't look like exactly like their anime counterparts, but I still recognized them immediately. Same with this guy.'

[...If, and I'm only saying IF! If that franchise exists, you better hope that people that know him don't see you.]

'Meh, it's fine. Even if it does exist, it's an isekai.'

[Haaa, whatever... So are you going to go by David in this disguise or should I call you Subaru?]

'Not funny... I'm always going to be David and I don't plan on letting anybody talk to me long enough to ask for my name anyway while I look like this.'

[Alright alright, just go have your fun being a spy and collecting the forbidden noodles.]

'...That sounds kinda gross...'

[But kinda hot at the same time?]

'No! Not this time!'

[Heheheh.]

David chuckled when he heard Chaos-chan giggling at him, something he hasn't heard lately since she always seems to be extremely cranky.

[...]

She always seems to be getting a headache from David's antics...

After leaving the bathroom, he walked out to the living room and stopped next to Tomoe and Rangiku.

"I'm going out to get some more stuff for dinner. I'll be back in a bit."

Rangiku looked up and was startled, almost wanting to attack David as soon as she saw him, but Tomoe just nodded and said, "Understood, young master. Why the disguise though?"

David shrugged, "Eh, I feel like if I go out looking like I normally do, I'll get hit with really good luck and run into a beautiful woman, then accidentally make her fall in love with me. I'm not saying I dislike it, but that has happened too many times in the past week and I want to be able to take a breather at least until school starts on Monday."

"Okay, that's what I thought. Can you bring me some chips while you're out? Oh, and some chocolate. Rangiku and I ate all the snacks you guys bought the other day."

"...Didn't I spend like, way more money than should be spent on snacks that day...? Eh, whatever. Yeah, I'll get you chips and chocolate," David said, surprised that Tomoe would treat him like a shopping robot.

Tomoe grinned and reached her hands up to ask for a kiss, but David backed away.

"Sorry, I don't want you kissing another man. I'll be back in a bit!" He called out as he quickly left and walked out the door.

"Just take off your disguise first!" Tomoe shouted, trying to call back David who had already left.

"Tch... How rude..."

"Hahaha~! Don't worry, you can just smother him in kisses when he gets back," Rangiku said, pushing another beer in Tomoe's hand.

"Come on~, let's keep goin'!"

Tomoe stopped sulking and clicked open the beer, chugging it in seconds.

"I'll smother him in kisses until he can't breathe, wahaha~!"

Rangiku and Tomoe broke out in raucous laughter as they enjoyed each other's company as drinking partners.

...

David successfully made his way out of Roselia Heights without anyone noticing him, making him breathe out a sigh of relief.

"Damn, that was probably the most stressful part, heheh."

He chuckled to himself as he started walking down the street on his way to Maruetsu Petit.

He thought about teleporting there to make things easier, but chose not to do so for two reasons.

One, he feels like teleporting everywhere all the time would make things too easy and he'd get spoiled. Doing it every now and again is no problem, but to do it for simple grocery runs might make him rely on it for everything and become lazy.

Two, he enjoys the exercise and fresh air. It calms him down and relaxes his mind.

On the way to the store, he saw parents walking happily with their children, couples happily walking their dogs, and even various men and women happily getting off of work extremely early.

All of the good vibes in the air transferred to David and caused him to feel even happier.

It only took about 10 minutes to get to Maruetsu Petit.

Once he was inside, David grabbed a handheld shopping basket and casually walked around through different aisles until he came to the aisle dedicated to instant noodles.

"Just pick a few and let's go!" A loud and irritated female voice came from the other end of the noodle aisle from David, causing him to immediately look away without even checking if he knew her or not.

"No. You all made me wait for two whole hours when we were only 30 minutes away, so now I'll make you all wait. I want it to be perfect after all...," a beautiful monotone voice said.

David used all of his self-control to not look at the girl whose voice he just heard.

"Mika, we could tell you were about to cause another incident. You had that same look in your eyes last year and what happened then?" A gentler older sister-type voice asked.

"...I broke a few buildings and Rokujou-sensei got mad..."

⟪ Did she just say Rokujou-sensei? Like Minori Rokujou from 'Maken-ki!'? ⟫

The voices stopped abruptly, causing an eerie silence to fall over the noodle aisle.

Curious and unable to hold himself back anymore, David turned his head slightly to look at the other end of the aisle, only to see six girls looking around with different expressions on their faces.

Some were confused, some looked like they didn't care, some were excited, but one of them suddenly made David feel a little weird.

A beautiful blonde girl, who David thought looked exactly like Violet Evergarden, stopped looking around and was now staring directly at him with a blank look on her face.

[Mika] 'That has to be David...'

⟪ Get my noodles and go, I'll just get my noodles and go... I'm an average man with average looks, nobody knows me, nobody knows me~... ⟫

David turned around and hurriedly filled his basket with a bunch of different brands and flavors of instant noodles.

[Mika] 'It is!'

Mika tried calling out to David, but because she only knew it was David from his inner voice, she couldn't call him by his name.

"Hey, you." she said, looking a lot more aggressive than she wanted.

David, not knowing who this angry-looking woman was or what she wanted with him, decided to pretend to be deaf.

"Hey!"

The average-looking deaf man decided to give up on his shopping as he proceeded to leave the noodle aisle, set down his basket, and quickly head to the store's entrance.

⟪ I can just make curry tonight... ⟫

Mika started feeling frustrated at her inability to call his name, but she was even more frustrated with herself for not even being able to move.

She looked back to see her sisters getting ready to subdue her if she lost her cool again.

"...I'm not doing anything...," Mika said slowly.

"We know what you were thinking, okay? You don't know that that was him. Why can't you just wait until we get back home?" Banri asked.

"It was absolutely--! ...Tch, whatever... I'll wait until we get back home..."

Mika turned to face toward where David ran off to, crossing her arms as she 'sulked'.

The sisters relaxed and turned back to the shelf so they could quickly pick out some noodles that Mika might find acceptable to present to David,

*BOOM!*

until Mika instantly disappeared from where she stood, causing the sisters to feel a massive headache coming on.

Without a word to each other, the sisters all ran to the store's entrance where they felt Mika run off to.

...

When David left the store, he breathed a sigh of relief.

'Phew, I dunno what that girl's problem was, but she looked like she wanted to eat me alive! I think that's the first time I felt threatened by a girl who can hear my inner voice. Or maybe she couldn't hear my inner voice and just mistook me for someone else... Mm, that probably might sound more likely...'

David was about to say screw it and teleport back to his penthouse empty-handed, but before he could even think to do so, he suddenly got tackled from behind and felt himself get wrapped up in a bear hug.

"Agh!" he gasped, feeling the air get knocked out of him.

He gently tried to rotate himself, but was locked in place.

Using his super-quick-not-slow-at-all thinking, David threw up an Observation rune to see who was behind him.

If it was a dude, he'd drag him home and torture him for a bit. If it was a woman, well... He'd at least find out if they're good or bad before deciding to get rid of her.

What he saw shouldn't have surprised him, but he was so disoriented from the aggressive girl in the store that he never would've thought she'd chase him down and tackle him.

"What's your name?" Mika asked as she held David with enough force to instantly kill a normal person.

David thought about telling her his name was Subaru Natsuki, but quickly decided against it.

"Can we go somewhere more private to talk?" David said, noticing the stares of passerby on the street.

After all, he was facedown on the concrete sidewalk...

Mika didn't respond for a few seconds, but if David really was who she thought he was, she didn't want to be around anyone else.

"Okay...," she said, standing up with David still in her tight embrace as she started to walk into an alley.

⟪ This is the most undignified position I've ever been in so far in this life... This girl better have a damn good reason why she tackled me or I'll... I dunno, I'll just sic my wives on her to teach her some manners, heheh... ⟫

Mika's grip on David got tighter as he heard her mutter, "Never..." under her breath.

Right as they arrived in the alley, away from the prying eyes of people who didn't feel the need to call the police, Mika asked once more, "What's your name?"

Despite having the Goddess of Luck's Blessing, David was having a round of bad luck today because before he could even answer...

"Mika! Put him down!"

Now that David could move his head freely, he turned to the side and saw a 165 cm tall girl with long pink hair that flowed down past her hips, looking quite angry as she raised her fists that were covered by red knuckle gauntlets.

⟪ ...Does someone wanna tell me why Ouka Shiunji has big ass gauntlets? And what happened to her twintails? They were cute. ⟫

Ouka flinched slightly, but focused her attention on Mika.

"Mika! Now!"

Mika clicked her tongue, "Tch... I wasn't wrong, I found him. I just need him to tell me his name..."

"Ahem! Sorry, but can the both of you please calm down? I'll gladly introduce myself, but I don't exactly like being held like a toy..."

"Shut up, bastard!" Ouka yelled, feeling annoyed at both their problem and solution being so casual in this situation.

Mika's grip tightened around David again.

"Do not badmouth my husband, Ouka..."

David really didn't know whether to laugh or cry this time.

⟪ Eh? Since when am I this girl's husband? I'm 100% positive I've never met a Violet Evergarden doppelganger named Mika. My wives, please, I am innocent! I would directly inform you of any girls I have an interest in and while this girl is extremely beautiful and her voice is the most beautiful voice I've ever heard, she's not my wife! This is slander! ⟫

David was half-expecting Chaos-chan to say something or mock David, but she had been oddly silent ever since he left the penthouse.

'Oi, Chibi, where'd you go? You're missing the show!'

Chaos-chan didn't respond and the two sisters finally snapped out of it.

[Ouka] 'This perverted bastard is treating this whole thing like a joke! Does he not care about public safety?!'

"Mika, I'll say it one last time. Let the man go and calm down," Ouka said, trying to sound gentler this time while maintaining her strictness.

"Not until he tells me his name..."

David tried to turn around to face Mika and give her his deadpan stare he's been working on, but he ended up not being able to rotate, making himself look like an uncooperative dog that refuses to get in the bathtub.

"Haaa... Look, can you let me go? I don't want to get rough with a beautiful girl when I don't even know what her objective is," David said with a sincere smile.

Mika couldn't see his face, but she blushed nonetheless at being called beautiful.

"No... Stop being stubborn and tell me your name..."

"Me? You're the one that's still holding on to me, you're the stubborn one!"

"It's just a name. All you have to do is say two words and I'll let you go..."

"If you'll let me go then why are you still holding on to me?"

Mika didn't respond, but Ouka finally blew up.

"Dammit, stop talking to each other like you're best friends! Mika, just let that perverted bastard go and calm the hell down!"

A vein bulged on Mika's forehead as her sclera and irises turned pitch black.

The black lace choker on her neck seeped into her skin and turned into a tattoo as her veins became black and her skin turned ash grey.

"I told you... Not to badmouth my husband..."

The alley they were in turned monochrome and the temperature dropped drastically.

⟪ Well now, this is interesting. ⟫

"MIKA! DISABLE YOUR MAKEN RIGHT NOW!" Ouka shouted, her gauntlets glowing red and radiating heat.

⟪ Eh? The Shiunji Family Children merged with Maken-ki? The fuck? ⟫

Pitch-black human-sized shapes rose from the shadows of the floor and buildings, standing two-meters tall with slender figures.

They all circled around Mika and David, standing like bodyguards ready for a fight.

"Dammit... JUST TELL HER YOUR NAME!" Ouka shouted.

David tilted his head in mock contemplation for a few seconds before he shrugged, "Mmm... Nah."

⟪ Why the hell do they have a hard-on for my name anyway? I now see what Katsuragi and Marin meant when they said they wanted to see a boss fight. Two beautiful girls with Maken fighting over some random dude's name, what could be more entertaining on a Saturday afternoon? I just hope they don't bring civilians into it, I don't feel like getting involved... ⟫

Ouka wanted to scream at David and punch him in the face a few times to vent her frustrations, but she knew that Mika wouldn't ever allow that to happen.

Meanwhile, Mika tried every way possible to let David know she was Mikayla Star from their past life, but even that was restricted for some reason.

She figured out that all she could do was wait for David to admit his identity and only then would she be able to properly reunite with him.

"Please tell me your name..."

"Let me down and give me 100 yen."

"...Why the monetary charge?"

"Your friend looks rich, I figured I could at least make enough to buy an onigiri."

"She's my sister..."

"Then your sister looks--wait, what?"

David had to stop his playful banter as he processed what he just heard.

⟪ In the franchise 'The Shiunji Family Children,' there are seven children. Banri, Seiha, Arata, Ouka, Shion, Minami, and Kotono... Where the hell in that list is there a 'Mika Shiunji' anywhere? Chaos-chan, can you come back and answer my questions, I'm getting lonely being the only one watching this... This world is totally out of whack; romcoms should be with romcoms, not merged together with a damn ecchi harem anime... ⟫

The six sisters were stunned by David's revelation. 

Mika was stunned because she just found out that she's the odd one out in a franchise that David knows about.

The other five were stunned because they had never heard of the name 'Arata' before and had just recently assumed they were a part of the 'Maken-ki!' franchise. Now they were being told that they have their own franchise and it's supposed to be a romcom? The hell?

⟪ Uh... Are they gonna fight now or what? Come on, this is something that I haven't even seen before! I wanna see if the other sisters show up! If they all have Maken, I wonder what everyone has? Banri is a sexy, teasing, reassuring older sister. Seiha is a cold, logical beauty. Ouka, well she's a sweet little firecracker. Minami is an energetic little goofball and Kotono is... Hmm, she's shy and cute, but I can't see her fighting. Kotono is definitely a support... ⟫

⟪ As for Arata and Shion, I don't really care since they're dudes, but I'm sure they'd have something cool or whatever... Wow, I definitely still need to work on my biases toward men... Anyway, this place looks cool and all, but I've run out of relevant thoughts right now. I wanna see some action! ⟫

"Ahem, uh... This little stand-off is very interesting, but why don't one of you do something? I'm not going to say my name so just give me a good show or something..."

Mika kept holding on to David and was adamant about not letting go until she was able to tell him who she was, but Ouka just wanted to end this whole thing.

Ouka knew Mika didn't want to really fight her, but Mika also knew that Ouka didn't want to really fight her either.

As if by the grace of the gods, a red fireball appeared to wrap things up.

"DAVID!"

⟪ Aw, dammit... Now they know my name... ⟫

The red fireball landed in front of David and instantly obliterated the shadow figures surrounding him and Mika.

The fire dissipated and revealed Marin in her complete kitsune form, wearing her short white kimono and all.

When Marin killed the flames, her once-bright appearance turned monochrome to match the surroundings.

She conjured up six grey balls of foxfire that slowly rotated behind her in a clockwise fashion.

She was staring at Mika's slightly sad-looking face and wasn't sure whether to treat her as a hostile or not.

"David, are you okay?" Marin asked, her eyes not leaving Mika.

"Haaa..."

David sighed as he disabled his disguise, reverting to his usual incredibly handsome appearance. Now that the illusion magic was broken, his body was much bigger and Mika could no longer get a good grip on him.

He gently pried Mika's arms off of him and separated himself from her.

"Hey, Marin. I'm fine, I was just watching a show. How'd you know where I was or what the situation was?"

"I love my hubby very much so when I felt you were in trouble, I flew to where I felt your presence."

Despite knowing the fact that David is strong and that he wasn't in any danger, Marin didn't like the fact that David got tackled by some unknown woman and that there was some conflict occurring because they wanted to know his name.

"Heheh, my wife is too cute," David said, rubbing Marin's head and playing with her fox ears.

Ouka and Mika were startled by Marin's sudden entrance, but they were more worried about Marin treating them like hostiles and trying to kill them.

"David Star...," Mika said with a slight quiver in her voice.

"Yes yes yes, you have my name now. Are you pleased with yourself? I've never met a Mika so I'd like an explanation of why you chased after me and tackled me. I'm not getting any hostile aura from you so I don't have the slightest clue as to why you're so interested in me."

'Well, aside from you probably wanting to find out about my inner voice or maybe use me to learn about future events.'

David smiled gently at Mika as he waited for her response.

"Can I... talk to you in private?" Mika asked, trying to keep her calm and stop herself from crying.

David looked into Mika's eyes and could see an endless sadness inside, causing him to feel a pang in his heart.

"Sure... First, can you disable your Maken? This shadow realm effect is pretty cool, but I don't want any innocent bystanders getting hurt."

The corner of Mika's mouth raised slightly as her thoughts almost ran rampant, thinking about how kind David is and how good of a father he would be and how nice it would be to cook for him and how nice it would be to--

"Mika?"

David waved his hand in front of Mika's face, causing her to snap out of her thoughts which did indeed run rampant.

"Sorry. You don't need to worry, only this alley has been affected and normal people won't be able to detect anything going on inside so we're fine..."

David nodded and turned to Marin.

"As you can see, everything is fine. I instigated things a bit out of boredom and slight irritation, but I'm all good. You can either head home or go hang out with that pink-haired cutie with the gloves," he said, pointing playfully at Ouka.

"They're gauntlets!" Ouka yelled, her face and gloves burning brighter as her temper flared.

"Okay~, I trust my hubby, heheh~!"

Marin dispersed her shadow-infected foxfire and skipped over to Ouka, losing all of her anger once she heard David's confirmation that things were fine.

Once Marin was next to Ouka and David could see her start her usual actions of chatting and making friends, he conjured up a strong stone barrier around him and Mika as they stood a meter away from each other.

"Alright, we're alone now. Go ahead and say what you need to say."

Mika took a few imperceptible deep breaths as she tried to remember the lines she'd rehearsed thousands of times over the years.

"I..."

Mika got choked up before she could even utter her second word.

"We..."

Mika's eyes turned red as tears started falling.

David felt extremely confused, but more than that, he felt worried about this strange girl.

"Take your time," David said as he walked forward and reached behind Mika to rub her back.

"I... We... Uwahhh!" Mika immediately started sobbing when she felt the comforting touch from David.

She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest.

David didn't know what was going on, but he used his free hand to gently hold Mika's head against his chest and stroke her hair.

"It's alright... Let it all out. Nobody can hear us and nobody can see us. I don't know what's going on, but I don't like seeing pretty girls cry so just let everything out..."

Mika nodded her head as she continued sobbing, squeezing David tighter and rubbing her face against his chest.

She continued crying for a few minutes until she finally calmed down enough to speak properly.

"I... I'm sorry, David... I left you all alone..."

David had no idea what Mika was talking about, but he started getting an uncomfortable feeling inside his chest.

Even still, he continued rubbing her back and gently stroking her hair.

"I... I really shouldn't have started that race..."

David's hands stopped moving completely as he heard Mika mention a race. His brain shut down all motor functions as he tried to think about the possibility of what he was thinking being true, immediately jumping to the girl he had randomly started thinking about earlier in the day.

"I just wanted you... to be happy on your birthday..."

David's face lost all emotion as he instantly lost control of his powers.

His Reiryoku, mana, and control over the Chaotic Elements surged out of his body, causing him to suddenly be the epicenter of a 6.8 magnitude earthquake.

Mika was startled, but she was completely unharmed.

She looked up and saw David making the most miserable and depressed expression she had ever seen with tears already rolling down his eyes.

Mika didn't know what to do so she just hugged David.

Outside of the stone barrier, Mika's shadow realm completely shattered, revealing the cracked sidewalks and shattered windows all around.

Alarms were screaming as civilians ran for cover to avoid any falling debris, some stumbling as they ran and suffering minor injuries.

Most of the country was quickly thrown into chaos as various facilities went into emergency mode.

Multiple supernatural factions felt the power fluctuations David was emitting and immediately sent their agents out to investigate and try to get control of or eliminate whoever was responsible, unaware of the fact that the man responsible trapped himself in an endless loop of the traumatic memory of his first true love's death.

When the earthquake first started, Marin knew immediately that it was David who caused it, but she didn't know why.

All she knew was that it wasn't done on purpose.

"Is that--"

Before Ouka could ask her new friend if David was the one behind the earthquake, Marin lost all of her positivity and rushed up to the stone barrier and began beating her fists against it.

『 Marin Kitagawa (Foxy Otaku): I don't know what's going on, but everyone needs to get the fuck over here now! 』

Tomoe and Mio were in the Cradle with the Bleach girls and were showing them around when they suddenly got Marin's message.

Despite the Cradle being a part of David and residing in his soul, nothing that happens to him will affect the Cradle, even in death.

Therefore, Tomoe and Mio had no idea what was happening in the outside world.

Mio, seeing the change in Marin's attitude, ignored everything else and immediately merged into the shadows as she made her way back to David's penthouse via the mansion.

『 Tomoe (Feudal Fangirl): Calm down, Marin. What's going on? If you're this worked up, why not ask the young master for help? Haha! 』

Tomoe and Rangiku had been drinking heavily earlier in an attempt to become closer with each other.

It was a great idea, except for the fact that Tomoe was now incredibly drunk and didn't think there was much of an issue.

『 Marin Kitagawa (Foxy Otaku): If you don't think I'll knock the shit out of you just because you're David's wife, you've got another thing comin'. David is the one who needs help so get off your lazy ass and help me! 』

Tomoe at first wanted to get upset at Marin due to how she was talking, but when she read the second half of the message, her face turned pale and she instantly sobered up.

Without saying a word to Rangiku, Isane, or Yoruichi who were with her, Tomoe created a Mist Gate that led to the penthouse.

The Bleach girls weren't sure what was going on, but seeing Tomoe's expression, they knew it wasn't good so they followed after her through the Mist Gate.

When they entered the penthouse, they instantly knew why Tomoe and Mio were acting the way they were.

Tomoe, Rangiku, Isane, and Yoruichi went as fast as they could to get to David's stone barrier, arriving in less than a minute.

When they got to the epicenter of the earthquake, they saw Marin, Mio, and Ouka punching, slicing, blasting, and doing whatever else they could to break open the barrier.

Understanding that David must be inside the barrier, the new arrivals joined in without a word and desperately tried to break David free.

One minute and 30 seconds into the earthquake, a black-haired girl with twintails, a red gothic lolita dress, a red right eye, and a yellow left eye fell from the sky, landing behind the girls who were trying to break open the barrier.

[Kurumi] 'Mikayla didn't follow my instructions...'

Kurumi had a terrifying expression on her face as she quickly realized what caused David's outburst.

Her presence was suffocating as she stepped past the girls and reached a hand out toward the barrier.

She touched a slab of stone and tightly clenched her fist, grabbing a fistful of stone before yanking it out.

The girls were stunned, but the surprises didn't stop there as Kurumi shoved both hands into the hole she created and tore apart the barrier, revealing David staring blankly into space as he cried while Mika clung to him as she cried with him.

"Tch..."

Kurumi clicked her tongue as she gently separated Mika from David.

Mika looked at Kurumi in confusion, anger slowly bubbling up within her as she wanted nothing more than to hold David again.

"I gave you one simple rule: do not make contact with my darling until I say so... What was so hard about that? Do you know why I gave you that rule? Do you know why we've been waiting so long to see my darling? Could you not have waited one more FUCKING WEEK?!"

*KABOOOM!!!*

Kurumi punched out at the rest of the stone barrier, causing it to shatter into pieces.

Mika stared wide-eyed at Kurumi, unsure of what to say.

"I couldn't help it... When I heard his voice, I wanted nothing more than to find him... I didn't know how long I would have to wait..."

Kurumi glared at Mika before walking over to David and tapping on his forehead.

He instantly lost consciousness and fell into Kurumi's arms, stopping the earthquake.

Kurumi lost all of her hostility as she looked down at David.

She gave a beautiful and gentle smile and intimately caressed David's face.

"Congratulations, Mikayla. You've earned your family the opportunity to clean up your mess. Because you couldn't wait a few more days for my darling to stabilize, you've caused him to experience a forced growth. Not only will he be bedridden all day tomorrow, but he'll have to suffer massive amounts of pain, too. And to top it all off, I'll now have to deal with troublesome people that will view my darling as a threat... I'll be sure to tell Minori-chan about this. The Shiunji family will bear all responsibility because they couldn't keep their daughter on a tighter leash."

Kurumi kissed David on the forehead and wiped the tears from his eyes.

"I understand your feelings, Mika...," Kurumi said, changing the way she called Mika as she calmed down further.

"But I made the rule for a reason. We've been waiting for longer than you have, but we've been able to control ourselves. Now, our surprise is even more ruined, though that's more thanks to a certain someone else..."

Kurumi carried David over to Marin and held him out for her to hold.

Marin was confused, but took David into her arms anyway.

"I can't wait to officially meet you, Marin. Please take my darling back home and let him rest. He'll be in a lot of pain tomorrow as his body goes through more changes, but there's nothing anyone can do about it. By Monday morning, he'll be better than ever."

Before Marin could respond, Kurumi flew into the air and disappeared.

After Kurumi left, Mika realized the consequences of her own actions and fell to her knees, regretting her impatience.

[Mika] 'I just wanted to see David again...'

Marin walked up to Tomoe and said, "Here, take him back to the penthouse. I'm going to find out what happened."

Tomoe nodded with a solemn expression and took David from Marin before opening up a Mist Gate and bringing him back to the penthouse.

Marin then walked up and squatted next to Mika.

"What happened in there?" Marin asked gently.

From the conversation she overheard, she could tell that Mika just wanted to meet David and that they seemed to have some sort of history, but she couldn't understand fully.

Mika looked up at Marin and said, "I told him who I was..."

"..."

Marin waited for more information, but Mika didn't offer anything else.

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand. Who are you?"

Mika teared up again at the memories of her past.

"My name is Mika Shiunji, but in my past life I was Mikayla Star... David and I were very close with each other and he gave me his last name when I had none... I loved him and I knew he loved me, but we never mentioned it aloud... On his 17th birthday, I wanted to treat him to some snacks from the store, but I made a mistake and died right in front of his eyes before I could even do it..."

She suppressed the urge to cry and instead just sat there as she repressed her sorrow.

Marin was unable to understand how Mika was also reincarnated just like David, but she was more focused on the part about her and David loving each other and her dying right in front of his eyes.

"When I told him about it just now, he froze up and then went out of control... I didn't understand why Kurumi told me to stay away from him, but I should've listened... I made a mistake..."

Marin didn't know exactly what to say so she just said, "He'll only be in pain for tomorrow, right? He isn't dead and he would've found out about you eventually. Kurumi should've explained more so it's not all your fault, okay?"

Mika just nodded her head, but didn't say anything else.

Rangiku, Isane, Yoruichi, Mio, and Ouka listened to everything and came to their own conclusions about the event and what they would do next.

Rangiku and Isane decided they would go back to the Soul Society early and report back to their superiors.

Yoruichi wanted to stay by David's side and watch over him to monitor any changes.

Ouka had to get Mika and bring her to her other sisters and explain to them what just happened and about the consequences that would follow.

Mio walked up to Marin and, seeing that she was done talking to Mika, took her by the arm and sunk into the shadows as she hurried back to the penthouse.

[Mika] 'I really just wanted to see David again... I didn't mean to hurt him a second time...'

David's casual trip to the grocery store for instant noodles ended up in a country-shaking disaster that forever put him on various factions' radars...

...

Deep in space, far away from any civilization...

Two women were sitting cross-legged with their heads resting on their hands.

≪ That certainly went a lot worse than I expected... ≫

{ You don't say? Couldn't you have told David to just teleport home or use his strength to break free and run away? }

≪ He would've had a lot of questions for me if I did that. Kurumi and her damn obsession with keeping her secrets as a surprise are to blame for this. Hell, Kurumi's lax attitude alone is to blame for this! She knew what Mika was doing all these years, but she didn't step in and tell her to stop until she had already found David and it was too late! ≫

{ So what's going to happen to David now? }

≪ Now, he'll have to deal with insecure bastards that want to scheme and work together to get rid of a weak threat before it gets stronger. ≫

{ You still think David is weak after what he did? }

≪ Yes, because I know he's still weak. Once his body has fully adapted and the seals are released, he'll be fine against most threats, but he only has one seal released right now. Despite causing an earthquake that affected all of Japan in some way, that was only with about 33% of his total capacity. Imagine him being able to utilize all 100%? What then? And what about when he gets more powers that make him even stronger? What about that? ≫

{ ...Alright, I get it. I just wish he could relax and take things at his own pace. }

≪ That's what Kurumi is there for. She can take care of almost any problem by herself, but she'll be spread too thin now trying to deal with whatever she can find as a threat. Sawa and Shiro will be trying to help where they can, but one of them will have to stay nearby to monitor David to keep him safe from threats he can't handle. ≫

{ Ugh, I see why Kurumi was so pissed at Mika now... It'll all be fine though, right? }

≪ My fingers are crossed. ≫

{ Yeah, mine, too... }

The two women sighed and crossed their fingers, hoping dearly that their favorite person will be able to live a relaxing love-filled slow life in the future.