Ch 270: The Fourth Progenitor’s successor.

Artemis glared at the two maids who walked closer to her cell. Another day was starting. Another day of watching that hateful man torment her Follower Lana.

She didn't know what was the worst part about her "punishment". The fact that Lana was already about to give in to him after just a few days? The hellish torture of the living rubber that kept her in a state of deep arousal, but unable to gain relief? Or maybe that she several times caught herself wishing she was in Lana's place, receiving orgasm after orgasm, even from a man she hated so much?

The maids looked identical, aside from the colors of the latex bodysuits they wore under their maid uniforms, light purple and blue, and the numbers on their hairpins. She didn't remember seeing those numbers the previous days, but there were literally over ten thousand of them, so it was no surprise.

For a moment, irrational anger surged in her heart. How dare this man, not even a god, have more Servants than her, and stronger ones as well?

The two maids entered her cell, and Artemis knew what would happen. She would be fed some food, be given a shower during which the living latex would retreat within the collar, then would be restrained with that black latex restraint she had learned was called a straitjacket, and would be brought into the watching room along with Athena, Aphrodite and Hestia.

She was right about the food and shower, and gritted her teeth as the maids groomed her without a word.

However, after the living rubber covered her torso, waist, hips and crotch once again, filling her with those torturous inserts, things changed.

Instead of producing the latex straitjacket from wherever their stored it, the maids seized her arms and pulled them behind her back and up!

"Blue Bitch, today, you will learn a new way to have your arms bound. It is called 'Reverse Prayer'. I am sure you can already see why." said one of the maids.

Artemis groaned into the rubber gagging her as having her arms wrists between her shoulder blades put a lot of strain on her shoulders. The maids fastened two leather straps, one around her wrists, the other between her forearms and the crook of her elbows, pinning them together. Her elbows were pressed against each other.

A short black leather sheath was pulled over her hands and forearms, then laced tight, pinning her hands palms together and adding another layer to the bondage keeping her forearms bound. Then a second, larger sheath covered her folded arms from below. This one looked like an armbinder, another piece of bondage she had learned about very recently, but stopped at the elbows. She understood that the two sheaths were part of a single set meant to secure her arms in this stringent position.

As the maids secured the straps of the outer sheath around her torso, Artemis tried to move her arms to test the limits of this restraint. She could barely move her arms a few centimeters. Those leather sheaths were even more restrictive than the armbinder.

"This position does a great job making you thrust your breasts out, Blue Bitch. We should use it on you more often." said the other maid with a nod of approval.

Artemis wanted to kill her. With her glare, she really tried to. Unfortunately, the impudent maid didn't have the decency to turn into a pile of ashes.

The maids also forced her to wear knee-high black leather ballet boots, and clipped a leash to Artemis's collar, forcing her to follow.

At least, they didn't walk fast, and she managed with tottering steps to follow without falling over.

They reached the door of the watch room… and kept going.

"Mmpha?" asked Artemis into her gag.

The maids ignored her and opened the door of the other room, the one where Noah had tormented Lana.

She looked with growing fear at the mirror, as if she could see her fellow Goddesses through it. She saw her own reflection, bound and gagged, and turned away from the mortifying sight.

The maid holding her leash forced her to stand in the middle of the room, and waited as the other walked out.

"Yes, Blue Bitch." confirmed the Maid. "The other Bitches are watching. Master has decided to give you a treat today."

"MMmphon!" screamed Artemis in protest, pulling on the leash to try to reach the door, but she didn't stand a chance.

…

Noah smiled at Lana as he opened her cell.

"Hi, Lana. Have you slept well?"

"…Yes… Master. Thank you for asking." replied Lana awkwardly, blushing, lifting her head slightly to look at him from her kneeling posture, her hands clasped in the small of her back.

"Good Girl." nodded Noah. "I have something special in mind for today. You will keep being a Good Girl for your Master, right?"

"Yes. Master." nodded Lana.

"Noah smiled and extended his right hand toward her, and she took it. He helped her up, then hugged her gently, rubbing her back and her butt through the black latex bodysuit covering her body. As he did, he kissed her, and Lana moaned sweetly as she returned the kiss.

"Have you accepted that you belong to me, Lana?"

"I… think so, Master." blushed Lana. "I… never experienced this pleasure before… I don't think I can live without it, now that I know it."

"You will not need to. But before you bind your soul to my own and irrevocably become mine, and I want you to do something for me. Something that concerns your previous Goddess."

"Arte…mmph?" started Lana, but Noah covered her mouth with a hand.

"My sweet Lana, you must not utter her name. Not until her punishment is over. If you must refer to her, call her Blue Bitch, or simply Blue."

"I…I understand. Why is she being… punished?"

"She repeatedly insulted my own Goddess. But Lilith isn't like the Gods you know. She is literally the Goddess who created all of this. The Human World, the Underworld, and Soul Society. The one who created the Soul King and Gods like Odin or Zeus. She is on a whole other level compared to Blue."

Lana's eyes widened as she realized just how serious a blunder Artemis and the others had made.

"Come with me, Lana."

"Yes, Master." Nodded Lana. Walking behind him on her high-heeled leather boots, she followed him to the training room she had become familiar with, although she had tested less than half of het many pieces of furniture and restraints it contained.

She gasped and froze as she saw her Goddess in the middle of the room, bound and leashed.

"Tell me honestly, Lana." said Noah as he hugged her from behind. "Are you angry at your former Goddess, for causing you to fall into my hands? Do you want an opportunity to vent your anger?"

"…No …I, am not angry anymore." said Lana with a heavy sigh, keeping her eyes on Artemis. "Rather, I feel thankful? If not for Ar… I mean Blue-sama, I wouldn't have… fallen into your hands."

She blushed at her admission, and Noah licked her right ear, making her moan.

"Mmohph!" angrily protested Artemis.

"Just Blue, Lana. When her punishment is over, she will not be above you, Goddess or not. If she wants to be called with this honorific, she will have to deserve it with her future actions. Would you like to demonstrate your gratefulness by doing something for her, then?"

"Yes, Master." nodded Lana.

Noah nodded and walked to a cabinet.

"You see, my sweet Lana, Blue here has been mercilessly edged, day and night, since her capture, and been unable to orgasm even once. She is quite desperate for an orgasm, even if she is too angry with me and prideful to beg me for it. You are going to allow her to get some relief and make things more tolerable for her."

He took a fairly large double-ended strap-on from the cabinet, and both Lana and Artemis gasped as they stared at it.

"You are going to give Blue some relief, right?"

"I…" hesitated Lana, glancing at Artemis who was angrily shaking her head.

"Do not mind her, Lana." said Misaka 18724. "Blue is too proud to admit it, but she really needs a good fucking. She will be grateful to you later. You know how hard it is to be edged for hours, right? She had been for days now."

"Mmpphol!" denied Artemis, sending panicked glances at the mirror.

"I… I guess…" slowly nodded Lana. "If I can make… Blue… feel better, I should do it."

"Good girl." smiled Noah. "Once her punishment is over and she becomes a slave like you, she will thank you. Now step into it."

Lana nodded and put her legs into the loops, letting Noah lift the strap-on to her hips. Holes opened in her bodysuit, and she already was wet enough. She groaned softly as the inner shaft entered her, and Noah fastened the strap-on securely around her hips.

Noah nodded to Misaka 18724, who removed the leash from Artemis's collar, and he grabbed her, forcing her to the center of the bed. The sleeveless rubber leotard retracted itself from her crotch, and Noah transferred his clothes into his inventory.

Misaka lovingly ran her gloved hands a few times on his shaft, getting him rock hard, and Noah lifted Artemis over his penis. With Misaka's help, he slowly lowered Artemis on him, his cock entering her anus.

"MMpphin!" squealed Artemis, her eyes bulging in incredulous shock. Noah's cock entered her ass deeper and deeper, until she was firmly impaled, feeling full.

"Look, Lana." smiled Misaka 18724. "See how sopping wet Blue Bitch is? She may deny it, but she needs it badly."

"Come, Lana." smiled Noah. "Use her front hole to give Blue a good fucking, and give her the orgasms she needs."

Lana hesitated, staring at Artemis's crotch glistening with love juices, looked up at Artemis's flushed face, and nodded.

"Yes, Master." nodded Lana.

She climbed into the bed, positioned herself in front of Artemis and Noah, and Misaka helped her guide the head of the strap-on.

"Start, Lana. You will help me give Blue many orgasms today."

Lana nodded, and pushed. She ignored Artemis's groan and moved back and forth, and it didn't take long for Artemis to get her first orgasm. Encouraged by the Goddess's reaction, Lana picked up the pace.

…

[I know what you're trying to do, Noah.] said Lilith inside his head after he returned Artemis to her cell. [You are going above and beyond what I asked to try to placate me, to make me feel pity for them and make me reduce their sentence.]

[But did it work, Lilith-sama?] grinned Noah, and he heard Lilith snort.

[Nice try. And you did give us a good show to watch. Having them suffer humiliation by their own former subordinates really is a nice touch. If only you knew what was in Blue's mind when you changed places and Lana took her back hole!]

[I think I can imagine, Lilith-sama.] nodded Noah, remembering Artemis's bulging eyes and squeals.

[But now that I cooled down, I was already planning to show leniency. Punishments lasting centuries or more are for those who caused large amounts of deaths, and those four didn't. I am not so thin-skinned that I would inflict such cruelty for centuries simply for a few words.]

[Lilith-sama, I am half-suspecting that you wanted an excuse to capture all their followers. You used your Avatar and muted your aura, when you could have appeared in person and brought them all to their knees with your presence alone.]

[…I didn't put those words into their mouths, but you aren’t wrong. Consider it a gift to help you after you retire from the Great Game. I do not doubt that you will go on a recruiting spree when I unleash you on my Magnum Opus. I am even confident about predicting who you will target, in what order, and the methods you will use. But even then, you will still need a lot of manpower to restrain the locals' more objectionable habits. On top of that, there's also this agreement we reached with… I won't spoil the surprise, but we are preparing something that will be a net drain on your number of available subordinates, although not in a bad way.]

[I see… Rather, I don't, but I guess I'll have to wait.]

[Do not worry, it will be a good surprise. Regarding the bitches, I am changing their punishment. What Blue experienced, seeing her follower fall and become your tool to humiliate her in front of her fellow Goddesses, make them experience this three times each. After that, you can do whatever you want with them, as long as you keep them. Their reactions would have become stale anyway. Yes, I know that you do not have any of Aphrodite's subordinates. Use some of the Sisters for her.]

[Thank you very much, Lilith-sama… I was wondering... Are the real Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite and Hestia okay with how I treat those local Goddesses? They do share the same name, and…]

[A bit late to ask about this after your little session earlier, don't you think?] chuckled Lilith. [And they do not just share the names, but the appearances as well. They are fine with it. I would have stopped you or given you different orders if it could offend them… As a reward for the show you gave us, I will give you a bit of advice. Get things moving regarding that server in the SAO world. You won't have time to dive in as you were planning to do. Give some artificial bodies for the locals to start working on replicating, and you can obtain the girls you wanted later using Resurrection. You should wait until after you're in that world cluster, so you can have more allies with you over there. You will be busy enough until then, between the Valkyries, those thousands of girls in my stasis arrays, and Erin's request.]

[Erin?] blinked Noah in surprise. It had been a while since he had last spoken to Erin Adams, Athena's Champion and the one who had sent Asuka to the Fate world as her representative.

[You'll hear about it soon. She's about to make up her mind.] chuckled Lilith.

[Thank you for the advice, Lilith-sama.] nodded Noah.

[I look forward to what you will do soon. We have a few bets going on, and with just a bit of luck, a certain Goddess is going to be my "guest" for a week. At least a week.]

[…Do I want to know?] chuckled Noah.

[I will leave it to your imagination. Keep working hard, my endlessly lustful and greedy Champion.] laughed Lilith.

Noah smiled to himself, satisfied that his little scheme hadn't backfired on him, and opened his system store to buy twenty low-grade artificial bodies.

…

"…and since the warship doesn't fly very fast, they should reach Itogami Island tomorrow evening. Jinah already asked the ship's cook to make as many specialties from the Aldegyr Kingdom as he could. Once she samples them and memorize the taste, she'll be able to replicate them at will." smiled Gudako.

"And when we taste the dishes Jinah replicates, we will be able to do the same, and soon enough, every member of our faction will have them added to our cooking repertoire." nodded Mash.

"You guys are such cheats." sighed Nagisa, selecting a pack of fruit yogurt from one of the store's fridges.

She had the habit of taking a stroll in the city every night, often buying a few things from the local 24/7 stores, and Yukina and Reina always followed her.

"We are. It isn't without a few drawbacks, though." nodded Mash. "We take up a task that will never be fully done, even though we do not have quotas to fulfill or deadlines and can take it easy if we want to. And for those of us who are born in the 72 worlds we are in the process of saving, it often means parting with family members."

"Yeah… Still, I am grateful that you guys came to save us all." replied Nagisa. "If this great demon is as passive as you are saying, we probably wouldn't have noticed until it was too late."

They stopped speaking when Nagisa headed for the cashier, as this wasn't a matter they wanted him to hear about. Nagisa paid, and they headed out.

"It's the second time in two days that you girls are out at night. Are you night owls?" asked Mash.

Yukina and Reina glanced at each other and shrugged.

"Patrolling at night is part of our job." lied Reina.

"Eh." snorted Gudako. "Isn't it because Nagisa is the Fourth Progenitor, and you girls are escorting her?"

"H-How do you know about that?" blurted out Nagisa, gasping.

"We aren't idiots, Nagisa, and we have eyes." shrugged Mash. "When we mentioned wanting to meet the Avrora Florestina last night, Yukina and Reina immediately glanced at you. And let's just say that none of you would be successful poker players. Is Nagisa an alias you took to be able to live quietly?"

Nagisa stared at Mash and Gudako for a few seconds, before she sighed.

"No, it really is my name. And I am not really the Fourth Progenitor. I am her successor."

"Her successor?" asked Mash.

"…I met Avrora-chan two years ago. We became friends, although it only lasted for a few days. A terrorist group, the same Black Death Emperor Front we mentioned yesterday, was after her, and when they shot at us with a strange silver weapon… It was like my body moved on its own, and I tried to shield her."

"The weapon pierced us both, and Avrora-chan retaliated, destroying everything in our surroundings. And then…"

Nagisa paused, wiping her eyes.

"She transferred her powers to me to heal my wound, and her body turned into ashes."

"…I'm sorry, Nagisa." sighed Mash with a compassionate tone. "She really is a great friend. I am looking forward to meeting her."

"Didn't you hear what I said? She isn't in this world anymore."

"No, she is still alive." shrugged Gudako. "Or at the very least, we will be revived in the near future. The Gods we work for know everything, and they wouldn't have given us this mission to convince her to join our side if it was impossible. And I just have a hunch that, maybe, she didn't transfer only her powers to you, Nagisa."

"You're thinking about the reward for the first mission, right, Senpai?" smiled Mash, and Gudako nodded.

"A reward?" frowned Yukina.

"Yes. As a reward for saving someone named Astarte, the Gods will give us an artificial, flesh and blood body made to host a soul. Moreover, the body will adapt to the soul and gain the appearance, special characteristics and abilities of the soul's original body. There are two people in our faction who are Artificial Intelligences and used similar bodies to gain a human body."

Nagisa stared at Mash, her left hand pressed against the middle of her chest, when Gudako's smartphone rang.

"Ah, sorry, this is Natsuki-chan's ringtone." said Gudako as she accepted the call.

"Hi, Natsuki-chan." smiled Gudako.

"Their bad habits are already rubbing on you. Don't call your teacher with a chan!"

"Technically speaking, we're only starting class tomorrow. So you aren't our teacher yet." grinned Gudako.

"…Arguing with you is a waste of time. I got some news that might interest you. I found out who Beatrice Basler is. She works at Magus Craft, a company that creates magic-powered automata for domestic use."

"That's interesting… If the Gods referred to her as an Arms Dealer, maybe the range of Magus Craft products cover more than just household appliances."

"That wouldn't surprise me." replied Natsuki. "But there is more. The Leader of Magus Craft is named Kensei Kanase, and I do not think having the same last name as Kanon Kanase is a coincidence."

"It looks like we need to meet this Beatrice Basler asap and wring some answers out of her." nodded Gudako. "Do you know where we might find her?"

"I can give you the address of Magus Craft's office, not that you wouldn't find it with a two-minute search, but do not do anything illegal. Your status is fragile at the moment, do not jeopardize it."

"…Fine. We aren't going to do anything violent, unless they start it first. We'll make sure we have justification."

"You better. I received your school uniforms. Make sure you are well rested for class tomorrow. I will punish you if you doze off." warned Natsuki before ending the call.

"We visit them tomorrow after class?" suggested Mash.

Gudako was starting to nod when a flash of red light came from her left, and she turned toward the nearby industrial district.

Huge flames rose from behind some factories almost a kilometer away. Gudako noticed a huge bird made of flames rising above them, looking at something on the ground.

"A familiar! A vampire is fighting someone!" exclaimed Yukina.

"We're going?" asked Gudako, already activating Augment, and Mash nodded. "We're going."

They both used Shunpo, leaving Nagisa, Reina and Yukina behind.

It took them only seconds to reach the scene and quietly land on a rooftop, but during those seconds, the huge flame bird had been grabbed by a giant, translucent arm, and its energy was being absorbed. As the bird was disappearing, Gudako and Mash saw glowing yellow fluids circulating from the giant palm along the arm, to a small girl whose back was connected to the giant arm.

She had long blue hair with bangs covering most of her forehead and crossing over her nose and wore a short white cape reminding Mash of a hospital gown. Given the simplicity of the garment and the girl's naked feet and blank face, Mash suspected that the gown was the only thing she wore, and that it had been given to her with no regard to her own wellbeing or preferences.

Two more people were present, a man with short black hair wearing a suit, standing on the catwalk of an industrial tower, a trickle of blood escaping his lips, and another man, with short cropped blonde hair and a metal monocle over his right eye, stood a few meters behind the girl, draped in a dark blue cape. Bits of metal armor could be seen under the cape, and around his right forearm, and he held a large steel axe.

"Cease fighting this instant!" shouted Mash, attracting the attention of the two men and the girl.

"Who are you?" asked the blonde axe-yielding man. The vampire saw an opportunity and started running away.

"We are some of the strongest people on this island." replied Gudako. "Violence is forbidden here. Whatever your beef with that…"

"I don't have time for this!" cut in the man, running after the vampire. "Astarte, kill them."

"Accept." replied the blue-haired girl with a dull tone. "Rhododactylos."

Translucent white matter burst from Astarte like an aura, taking a mostly humanoid shape. A twenty meters tall humanoid shape, although without a head. in the middle of the white torso was a green orb, in which Astarte could be seen.

"Senpai, pursue that man, please. I will deal with her."

"Okay!" grinned Gudako. She wouldn't need long to intercept the axe-yielding man and reinforce Mash, assuming she even needed it. Igris was in her shadow.

…

Gudako, using Shunpo, landed on the man's path. His right eye widened, but he reacted immediately, swinging his axe, only for Gudako to block the blow by grabbing the shaft just before the head, and use a golden sword to sever the weapon's shaft near the handle.

"You!" roared the man. "Do no get in the way of our just crusade!"

"Crusade? Who are you?"

"I am Rudolf Eustach, a Combat Deacon from Lotharingia!"

"I see." nodded Gudako. "And why did you come to Itogami Island?"

"Why would I tell you?" spat Rudolf.

"Because I am trying to decide if I will let you go or not. Come on, give me a reason…"

"…I am here to retrieve a relic that was stolen from our temple. The severed arm of our saint." replied Rudolf before stopping himself, wondering why he felt an urge to answer that strange girl's question.

"Sounds like a good cause." nodded Gudako. "I might even help you. Where is that relic? Who stole it?"

"The creators of this cursed island stole it to use it as its cornerstone!"

"Cornerstone? Then, what happens if it is taken away?"

Rudolf steeled himself and refused to talk any more, but Gudako got her response anyway.

"The whole Itogami island will collapse, and most of its 560 000 citizens will die." replied Natsuki from a nearby rooftop.

"I see. I understand the kill order now." sighed Gudako, just before she pointed her floating sword toward the man's heart.

He saw it coming and tried to block the sword with his armored arm, but Gudako simply rotated the sword so that the edge would face his arm, and all Rudolf managed was to cause a wound to his arm before his heart was pierced. He sent an indignant look at Gudako before collapsing.

"You seem rather blasé about it." said Natsuki with a raised eyebrow."

"This is actually my first time killing a human… although I killed a few man-eating demons in a previous world." shrugged Gudako. "I'll sort out my feelings later."

In truth, Gudako didn't feel much about it. She knew there was something broken inside her. She was pretty nonchalant about anything, and she remained calm even when the bombs had exploded in Chaldea. This didn't mean that she didn't value her relationships with others, or that she was a complete psychopath, and being calm during a crisis was a good thing, but she was still… off, and she knew it.

"I'll go check on Mash and Astarte, do you wish to capture that vampire that ran away?" asked Gudako, wanting to change the subject.

"I'll go deal with the vampire." sighed Natsuki, disappearing.

…

(A minute earlier)

Mash jumped aside to evade the giant fist of the… inhabited golem? Ectoplasmic mecha? Biological power armor? …whatever it was that Astarte was using. A small crater was left where Mash had stood.

"Hey, Astarte!" called out Mash. "Can you stop fighting? We do not mean you harm, and you're damaging the area! The people working there will be sad!"

Astarte paused for a second, frowning in concentration, and Mash hoped the girl would stand down, but the blue-haired girl came to a different conclusion.

"Stop evading. The damage will be minimized."

"No, that's no good either!" retorted Mash as she jumped to evade a sweeping arm. At least Astarte seemed to be paying attention not to damage the ground this time.

She took her black sword from her spatial ring and poked the mecha slash golem slash armor's left leg as a test. The whole area around the puncture wound popped like a balloon and Astarte started to fall, but she caught herself with a hand, and the wound closed in seconds.

Mash nodded to herself, and put her black sword away. Instead, she took something else from her spatial ring. A fifteen meters long black chain, each of its links imbued with Stop runes.

She had gotten the idea after reading about the reward for the third quest being named Gleipnir, after the legendary chain who bound the divine wolf Fenrir. Suppressing someone's power with a rune engraved directly on their skin or on a collar was well and good, but she had thought that sometimes, the opponent wouldn't let you get close easily and for long enough to perform said engraving.

So, she had come up with the idea of making a long chain, to gain in reach and depower an enemy long enough to restrict them with a more long-term solution. It had been quite draining to create an object weighting tens of kilos and covered with over a thousand runes, but it was well worth it in her opinion.

Mash jumped in her air, creating light footholds, twirled the chain around, building centrifugal force, and swung it at Astarte.

The chain almost instantly destroyed most of the white golem as it coiled itself against it, but not without losing its momentum, and it didn't actually make contact with Astarte's body. Mash was about to correct that.

Before Astarte could react to the heavy damage of her golem, Mash was on her, using the end of the chain she still held to destroy the orb protecting Astarte's body, and she looped it around Astarte a few times, pinning her arms against her body. The Golem dissipated completely, and Astarte would have fallen to the ground if not for Mash holding her.

"Rhododactylos." dully said Astarte with a frown, not understanding why her familiar was unresponsive.

"It's over, Astarte. You lost." replied Mash, coming down from her light footholds and touching the ground.

Still holding the chain around the girl's body, she turned her around and engraved a Stop rune on her nape, then removed the chain.

"…Will you kill me now?" asked Astarte. Her voice was still dull, but Mash could detect a bit of dread in it.

"I don't plan to." smiled Mash.

"…Why? I tried to kill you."

"Why were you willing to obey that man's order?" asked Mash.

"He is my master."

"Your master?"

Nagisa, Yukina and Reina reached the scene, and Mash waved them in.

"He made me." replied Astarte.

"Is that the only reason you obey him?"

"Yes."

"Are you fond of him? Does he treat you well?"

"…I do not know…" frowned Astarte, confused. "I was made to be a weapon. He gives me food, and I am able to function at optimal performance. So, I am treated well?"

"I see." sighed Mash. Astarte's situation was a painful reminder of her own childhood. She, who had originally been designed before birth as a vessel to host a Heroic Spirit, had also been like this, once. And she knew exactly what Astarte needed. A big sister to guide her along the path to humanity.

"Well, I defeated you, but I chose to spare your life, so you belong to me now. I will take good care of you, Astarte. " smiled Mash, gently squeezing her right shoulder.

"…Accept." nodded Astarte. "My owner is now… What is your name?"

"Mash. Mash Kyrielight. It is nice to meet you, Astarte."

"Mash? What happened?" asked Yukina as she caught up, panting. Reina and Yukina were following close behind.

"Ah, everyone, this is Astarte." smiled Mash, seeing the recognition on their face. "Astarte, those are Yukina and Reina Himeragi, and Nagisa Akatsuki. They are friends."

Astarte nodded to them.

"It's nice to meet you, Astarte!" grinned Yukina. She looked around while Yukina and Reina were also greeting her, and saw Gudako appearing on a rooftop before she jumped toward them.

"Has the fighting stopped?" asked Reina.

"Yep! No fighting lasts long when we're involved!" grinned Gudako. "That guy intended to steal the cornerstone of Itogami Island, which would have caused its destruction, so I killed him. And Astarte now looks… okay?"

"Astarte, this is Gudako Fujimaru." nodded Mash. "She's also part of your family now."

"…Family? I do not know that word." replied Astarte, confused.

"You don't?" blinked Gudako.

"It seems that Astarte was artificially born, and probably recently." shrugged Mash. "She does not appear to have a lot of life experience."

"I see. We'll teach you a lot of things from now on, Astarte." smiled Gudako.

"Accept." nodded Astarte.

Natsuki appeared near them.

"I let that vampire go. He was only defending himself."

"Natsuki-chan, this is Astarte, who was mentioned in the missions we received. She's part of our faction now."

"Your mission, you say?" asked Natsuki with a raised eyebrow, before nodding at Astarte, her expression softening.

"There's an issue with the quest, though, Senpai." frowned Mash. "I have temporarily sealed her power, but we were asked to 'neutralize' the familiar inside her before it completely drains her of her life force. I could Purge it, but the exact wording of our mission is unusual, and it may be significant."

"Hum, you're right." frowned Gudako, scratching her skin. She walked closer to Astarte and touched her shoulder, scanning her body with Greater Healing, then stepped back. "It looks like something that would require Soul Magic, but only Noah can..."

Gudako stopped as Nagisa suddenly walked to Astarte and hugged her, burying her face into the girl's nape, and Astarte moaned softly.

A few seconds later, Nagisa released her, and looked at the others. Astarte had two small puncture marks on her skin, a bit of blood seeping from them.

"I hath stabilized her familiar. It won't devour her life force anymore." said Nagisa with a very unusual tone.

Mash was about to ask if she really was Nagisa right now when the girl blinked, and looked around in confusion.

"Why are you all staring at me? Did something happen?"

"…What was that?" wondered Reina, confused.

"If I had to guess, I would say this was Avrora speaking." suggested Mash. "Astarte, how do you feel?"

"My shoulder hurts a little. I feel… different. Lighter?"

Mash healed her without a word. She scanned her body again, and could feel the change, like a hole she hadn't noticed before had been filled.

"That did the trick, our mission has been fulfilled." grinned Gudako, taking from her spatial ring an androgynous looking body dressed in a gender-neutral white tunic. It looked like one of those plastic mannequins used in clothing stores.

Mash nodded, as she had seen the notification.

"I'm not sure how to use it, though. There's no notice included, and…"

The body suddenly moved on its own, escaping from Gudako's arms as she was too surprised to grab on to it. It walked to Nagisa who stood frozen, grabbed both sides of her head and pulled it close until their foreheads touched for an instant, then collapsed to the ground like its strings had been cut. And the body started changing, becoming more feminine, the skin changing from pure white to human pink, long blonde hair growing from its scalp. And her face… For some reason, the artificial body's face became identical to Nagisa's.

"It seems someone decided to help us a bit. I'm grateful for it." chuckled Gudako.

In less than a minute, the body had turned into that of a beautiful young woman with long golden hair.

"Hey, Nagisa, is it normal that she has your face?" asked Reina.

"How would I know?" replied Nagisa, her eyes tearing up as she stared at the blonde version of herself. "I can feel in my guts that this really is Avrora-chan, but she didn't have my face back then. If she lived in my body for years, then maybe I rubbed off on her or something?"

"I think this is a matter of how Avrora sees herself, and her own self-image." guessed Mash. "If she has seen Nagisa's face in the mirror for a long time, then maybe she started subconsciously considering Nagisa's appearance as her own?"

The girls nodded dubiously, none of them having a better explanation to suggest.

"Anyway, Natsuki-chan, I guess you're getting yet more students to take care of." grinned Mash.

"Don't call me… You're doing it on purpose, are you?" sighed Natsuki, opening and closing her folding fan in irritation. "Let's all return home for tonight. I need time to sort this mess out… You've been there for a day and two nights, and you're already making this a habit."

"Look at the bright side of things. We neutralized a threat to Itogami Island already." grinned Gudako, carefully picking up the blonde girl who was likely Avrora.

Natsuki could only nod.

"I'll be going ahead to deal with the paperwork. Yukina, Reina, Bring Nagisa to her home along with her." decided Natsuki, gesturing toward Avrora. "Mash, Gudako, bring Astarte to my home. She will live with us for now."

"Yes, thank you, Natsuki-sensei." smiled Mash.

"Don't call your teacher with… damn it!" started Natsuki before she caught herself. She shook her head at the grinning Mash before she disappeared.