“Good! Do it again!”

  Hachiman was a demanding combat instructor as always, and Arisu let out a loud roar as she readied herself for the next set of strikes that she was supposed to deflect.

  She had learned her lesson and wore a gi like those karate students could often be seen wearing, which was provided by Hachiman once she mentioned the damage to her clothes. She got multiple of them, too, allowing her to go all out during her training, fabric damage included.

  Mana sat on a nearby set of stairs, taking in the surrounding area with bewilderment; it was her first time in this realm of kami, and she was visibly overwhelmed by its existence, much to the amusement of Inari, who sat next to her and acted rather interested in her, with her hand hovering over the witches’ cat ears. Arisu could see Mana’s mouth move as she was talking to the goddess, but…

  “What are you getting distracted for?!” she heard Hachiman shout in his typical, booming voice. His katana descended on her, and she snapped back into reality, bringing her arms into a blocking stance.

  Her abilities allowed her to copy spells she had been hit by or touched before, for a limited amount of time, as she found out during the invasion of the red-robed wizards, but during her first training, they already figured out a power that was all her own: her ability to control and shape her Deogemma energies, which she continuously generated, into weapons or other things with a tangible shape. She was supposed to summon these energies as thick layers around her limbs and use them to block attacks to avoid damage, but right now, her concentration slipped a moment too long. She saw the katana descending and on course to cut her arm off, which she could heal through, but it would still hurt. Instinctively, in a bid to save herself the pain, the energies already surrounding her arm shifted, and changed shape, quickly forming into a burning blade emerging from her wrist. She clenched her fist and swung her arm to the side, quickly deflecting Hachiman’s blade with a loud, metallic sound.

  His eyes behind the demonic mask narrowed, and he scanned her up and down.

  “Impressive! But that was not what we tried to do.”

  “Ah! I… I'm sorry, I spaced out, and then it was too late, and I didn’t want to get hit, and…”

  The giant man lifted a hand to stop her rambling, letting out a little sigh, before he spoke in a surprisingly soft voice.

  “It is alright, young one. We’ve been at this for some time now, so why don’t we end our lessons for the day right here?”

  Arisu pursed her lips and considered his words, then she nodded, although hesitantly. She turned around and waved towards Mana, freezing as she saw Inari boldly grabbing and stroking the catgirl witches’ ears.

  “My, these truly are soft… I think Okumo was correct. You have a Bakeneko’s blood.”

  Mana only let out a noise that was reminiscent of an actual cat’s complaining before she hopped off the stairs to escape the silver-haired woman’ attention.

  “Why is everyone trying to touch them?! It feels weird, like I should only let someone who’s close to me do it,” she complained, then she froze as Arisu let her intrusive thoughts win and reached out for Mana’s ears, petting them. The witch turned around with a red face, staring Arisu down until she let go.

  “S-sorry… I guess I wanted to test if we’re…?”

  “Well, we’re friends, but that doesn’t mean that… ugh! Let’s go, already!” Mana complained, walking ahead with big, emphasized steps as if to communicate her annoyance.

  Arisu quickly followed, waving at Inari who casually reciprocated the gesture, then her and Mana passed the torii gates and were back in Tokyo.

  Mana took a deep breath before she turned towards Arisu, showing her an awkward smile.

  “Anyway, we still have time today. Want to go somewhere?”

  “You have multiple worlds at your disposal, and you wanted to go to Nara, of all places?” Mana asked with some exasperation after they walked out of her portal. Arisu looked around with a grin, taking in the sight of the nearby torii gates and the innumerable deer all around them and nodded, then she turned towards Mana and gave her a little wink.

  “I wanted to see the deer!” she announced, and Mana raised her brows at her audacity. She still couldn’t quite understand what was going through the head of this girl, as much as she liked her.

  That’s right… I like her. But I can’t tell her that now, right? And right now, I have someone else…

  Arisu, naturally, didn’t wait for Mana’s internal thoughts to conclude, and she was already all over the deer.

  “You could have just waited for the next school trip or something, almost all schools visit Nara or central Kyoto…”

  “Oh, but I wanted to see them right now! According to Inari, these are the messengers of Takemikazuchi, another visitor who settled as a kami!”

  “So? And why are you interested in him?”

  Arisu shrugged. “Mostly because he’s a thunder god, like grandpa, so I wanted to come and check something...”

  Arisu stopped in front of a group of deer and grinned before she bowed before them, and the animals returned the gesture before they walked closer, looking expectantly at her.

  “I’ve read about this! They’re very respectful and bow back. Strange though, I don’t really see anything otherworldly about them, even though they’re supposed to be divine messengers…”

  Mana tilted her head, then she realized a rather obvious mistake that Arisu had just made and ran towards the scene. “Wait Arisu! Don’t bow to them unless you have…!”

  “Haha! Ow! That one headbutted me on the hip! Ow, ow! You guys, too?! What are you doing? Ah…!”

  Arisu went quiet all of a sudden, and Mana could see that she was trying to keep her composure, while a deer sunk its teeth fully into the folds of her skirt that covered her butt, and said butt besides. More deer swarmed her and headbutted her again, with some even trying to find food in Arisu’s pockets. A part of Mana wanted to laugh at the situation, but instead she ran to one of the many vendors in the area, slammed a few yen coins into his hands and ran back to Arisu, to lure the animals off her with the promise of deer crackers…

  ***

  “Ow, ow, ow! What was that for?” Arisu complained after Mana pulled her away and they stood near the main torii gate marking the entrance of the temple grounds of Kasuga Taisha, right next to the deer park. She rubbed her doubtlessly still aching butt, while Mana did her damnedest not to laugh. She was successful, at least partially, meaning that instead of loud laughter, she noisily let air escape from her lips, while her cheeks were ballooning up, and Arisu looked at her with a big pout.

  “What’s so funny?!”

  “Sorry, sorry! I should have told you: don’t bow to them unless you have food. They expect it, and they get very angry if you make them believe you have something for them and then give them nothing. They also get rowdy when you do have food and don’t interact with them. They will try to mob you and then steal the food out of your pockets.”

  “Ugh… very rude for supposedly being divine messengers!”

  “As you noticed, they’re normal deer. But they have been pampered for a long time,” Mana said with a smile, patting Arisu’s head.

  “Uuu… even though I’m not allowed to, you’re patting my head?”

  “You don’t have sensitive cat ears, so stop complaining,” Mana sighed and pulled her hand back before she guided it to her own ears.

  “They’ve been giving me nothing but trouble since they came out of my head. Everyone wants to pet them, boys came to me to try and confess… some girls, too. I know that they only see me as some real-life catgirl right out of their fantasies, and not as Mana,” she said with a bitter sigh.

  She felt Arisu’s hand on her shoulder and turned her head to look right into Arisu’s eyes. Both of them, as she had removed her eyepatch.

  “I see you as Mana,” she said, giving her shoulder a little squeeze.

  “Put that back on before someone sees you!” Mana whispered, but she gave her a thankful nod, nonetheless, as her thoughts drifted off. Was this why they were supposed to be married in the future? Two strange girls who saw each other for who they really were, instead of just seeing a freak?

  “Well, back to the reason you wanted to come here,” Mana said, turning to face the gigantic torii gate. Ichi no Torii of Kasuga Taisha. It stood tall above them, six meters or so, and its massive beams radiated ancient power even to Mana, who could not see the portal to the other world in them unless Arisu dragged her along.

  From what she was able to gather, most people who walked through a torii gate towards a shrine were only half in the realm of the kami, where they would be able to listen to their prayers and give them a little spark, while they couldn’t exactly grant their wishes directly.

  “What now?” she asked Arisu, who grinned in return.

  “Wait here. I just want to take a quick peek!” she announced, walking through the torii gate where she simply appeared to vanish into thin air.

  Mana looked around in panic, trying to see if anyone witnessed Arisu, but the girl definitely had more luck than sense, as it was a rare quiet moment on the street.

  She sighed and wanted to pull out her phone to kill time, then she let out a surprised shout as Arisu appeared again from behind and grabbed her shoulders.

  “I’m back!”

  “Gah! Don’t surprise me like that, you…! How did it go?”

  Arisu shook her head. “It’s not grandpa in there. It’s a different guy.”

  She looked a little disappointed, but after a short while her smile brightened up and she patted Mana’s shoulder.

  “Oh well, let’s go home. Are you free tomorrow?”

  Mana shook her head. “I have plans.”

  Plans to see Marisa. Plans to embrace her.

  Mana turned her head away from Arisu and cleared her throat to avoid looking her friend and supposed future wife in the eyes.

  I can’t tell her. If she learns about it, things will fall apart.

  “Aw. What are you up to? You’ve been busy half the week last week, too.”

  Mana froze, clenching her jaw before she strung together a spontaneous, thin lie.

  “I’m just… busy, okay?” Mana kept deflecting. She hated herself a little for it. For lying to Arisu, who meant so much to her, though, as she was now, they weren’t in a relationship. And for endangering her. She heard about the red-robed wizards, the minions of the sorcerer king her and Arisu faced together, who apparently appeared the other day to take back their library. All of that was still in this Arisu’s future, but she was targeted as a thief, for something she hadn’t even done yet. Mana wanted to apologize to her, but, naturally, things got complicated there.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Past and future intertwined, leaving behind a gordian knot-like mess that Mana couldn’t untangle without cutting it all apart. She should leave it for whenever the time for her time traveling adventure came, if it ever came.

  “Listen, I like hanging out with you, Arisu, because I like you. But sometimes I need some time alone,” Mana said with a little smile, opting to at least do away with the lie about studying.

  “Hmm… I’d really just like to know where you’re going all this time.”

  “Sorry, no can do. I might be able to properly tell you one day, okay?”

  “Hmm… I hope that’s soon!” Arisu said with a little pout.

  I can’t possibly tell her that I’m ‘spending time’ with Marisa.

  Arisu was bored. She sat in Inari’s world after school, staring out into the vast fields while her new friend, the goddess, tended to her duties. Hachiman was busy today, as well, listening to the prayers of the people coming to his many temples, so she simply stared at the white foxes that patrolled the rice paddies and let her thoughts drift.

  Was Mana trying to avoid her? She was friendly enough when they were together, but she looked like something about her hanging out with Arisu was unpleasant, or like her thoughts were somewhere else most of the time. She would quickly excused herself and leave, and Arisu could tell that she wasn’t telling her the entire truth about those solo outings, either.

  She let out a sigh and stood up, rummaging through her pocket to pull out her allowance.

  Maybe I’ll hang out at the arcade?

  She turned around and walked through the torii gates, leaving the golden, shimmering world of kami and returning to the not-so ordinary world of Tokyo – where a girl stood idly next to the vending machine, sipping the drink she bought from it, and saw Arisu emerge. She was a gyaru wearing kogal fashion, meaning a school uniform that was worn inappropriately and spruced up in various places, by wearing a checkered scarf, loose socks, various cute accessories on her bag and plateau shoes. She had pink hair, obviously dyed. Or was it dyed?

  The girl made eye contact, and Arisu immediately felt a familiar energy behind her.

  A Deogemma!

  Arisu felt relief; she wasn’t sure how she would explain her emerging from the empty space inside a torii gate to a normal person, but if she was a Deogemma like her, everything was alright! Or was it?

  “Hey there!” the girl greeted her with a raised hand, before she grabbed into her bag and held a beverage towards Arisu. It was the same one she bought every time she stopped here before entering the world of kami, the so-called ‘intellectual drink of the chosen ones.’

  Arisu must have stared at her for an uncomfortably long time, as the gyaru simply winked and spoke again.

  “Come on, I don’t bite. Okay, that’s a lie, if someone’s into that, then…”

  “Okay, okay!” Arisu interrupted her, feeling her face flush as she took big steps towards the girl and grabbed the offered drink, quickly opening it to gulp it down and hide her embarrassment.

  “There you go. I’m Filo, nice to meet you!” the girl introduced herself, though Arisu narrowed her eye in response and took the drink off her lips again before she spoke quietly.

  “No, you’re not. Who are you really?”

  A little twinkle went through the eyes of the stranger, and she pushed herself off the wall, slowly walking in front of Arisu.

  “You’re right. I am not ‘Filo’, that’s just a name I use here to blend in. But it is part of my real name! I am Amicitia, or Philotes, incarnation of friendship and… well, naughty things between lovers.”

  Arisu felt her cheeks heat up again, and Amicitia continued.

  “I’m also your cousin! Uhm… first cousin… four times removed, I believe. Meaning your great-great-great-grand-aunt is my mother.”

  Arisu’s head felt like it was spinning as she tried to follow the family line to make sense of Amicitia’s words. Even her mamas Minerva and Bellona weren’t in the know about the entire extended family tree of the Deogemma, so her implanted knowledge was of little use in this situation. She simply nodded along and asked a question.

  “Why are you here, then, Ami?” she asked, opting to stick to the short form of her relative’s name.

  “Oh, I just wanted to see my family,” Ami spoke, gently patting Arisu’s shoulder. “News of Jove’s new granddaughter spread like wildfire, you know? He’s always so proud when the families of his children are growing.”

  Arisu simply nodded at that information; that did sound like Grandpa Jove, at the very least, so it was unlikely that Ami was lying about it.

  “Want to hang out somewhere? I have a few hours before I need to go recharge back home.”

  Before Arisu could even think about it, she was being dragged along by her cousin.

  Month 5, Year 1 of Chief Technocrat Meryl’s Rule

  Mana was lying in Marisa’s bed, with her eyes glued to the ceiling yet again. She felt the warmth of her girlfriend next to her as she clung to her under the sheets and could hear her soft breathing. It should have been a quiet, peaceful moment, one that would have her think about how lucky she was to have Marisa, this magical person who was created as Mana’s color-inverted clone in her life, but instead, feelings of guilt kept gnawing at her.

  No amount of pleasure or euphoria could wash away the fact that she was playing with fire. Her intimacy with Marisa risked the entire fake scenario they built to keep Doppelg?nger contained to collapse. No one knew how little or how much was needed to undo the effect of Alter Memory, or if it could only be broken by Break Spell, so Mana was anxious. What if during one of their nights together Marisa suddenly remembered their relationship before last year’s big fight? Would it break the rest of the memory alteration? Would Doppelg?nger emerge again and get her revenge?

  “Mhh… leaving already?” she heard Marisa’s voice behind herself. She didn’t even realize that she stood up and put her school uniform on again.

  “Yeah… sorry, but I was only able to drop by for a short while,” she lied. She needed to go somewhere else to clear her head.

  Marisa rubbed her eyes and looked at her, and despite it all, she gave her a smile. “That’s alright then. I’m glad that you were here with me.”

  ***

  “Leaving already?” Claudia asked as Mana entered the observation room and retrieved Portal from the safe. She looked prettier than she did before, with shiny skin. She also used better conditioner for her hair, keeping it silky smooth in the ponytail she wore it in. Her hand unconsciously wandered to her stomach as she addressed Mana.

  “Yeah, I just wanted to see her, but I can’t stay that long. Also, congratulations! I heard. How long until…?” Mana started and Claudia cleared her throat.

  “About six more months. Don’t look at me like that, it’s not like it’s stopping me from working in a room full of monitors.”

  “And if things get dangerous?” Mana asked.

  “I’ll run and security is only ten seconds away,” Claudia said with a serious expression. Mana nodded; that would have to be good enough for her. Her eyes wandered to the golden, jeweled ring which still sat in the console, in a slot specifically created for it. Alter Memory, trapped in a magic ring that Marisa created, only for it to be used against her in the end. It was being supplied with magic energy by the terminal, and able to apply its effects to the whole containment area below, multiple times even.

  If I tell Claudia about what I did, she wouldn’t be too mad, I bet. She would use the terminal, erase Marisa’s memories of our nights together and we could start over. I only need to tell her…

  She opened her mouth, but she couldn’t find the words, while Claudia stared at her, slowly tilting her head in light confusion.

  Just one word from you and you can fix everything. Come on!

  And just as she thought that way, she thought back to Marisa. The way she embraced her, the way her lips tasted. All desires to set things straight were gone from her mind again, just like that, as if she was under a spell.

  “Sorry, I was spacing out. I’m Going home,” Mana announced, and Claudia let out a little chuckle.

  “Get some rest. You look like you could need it.”

  Mana nodded and walked through her portal right into her bedroom. For now, she wanted to shut out the world and be alone with her thoughts.

  “A little more to the right! Now up! Yes, now lower it!”

  Arisu was operating a crane game, with Ami standing next to her, enthusiastically shouting her instructions. Arisu lowered the crane’s claw, and as it closed, it pushed a plushie in the shape of the Celestial Sisters’ very own Luna further towards the chute. The two stared with bated breath at the plushie with its cat-like facial expression as it wobbled, and then, finally, fell into the chute, right into the prize compartment below the machine.

  “I did it!” Arisu exclaimed with some excitement and grabbed the plushie from the machine while Ami let out a laugh.

  “See? I told you I am great with these machines!”

  “How do you know so much about them? They don’t exist in Capitolium…”

  “Oh, I’ve been in this world many times to… you know… it’s why I’m dressed like this.” Ami let the words hang in the air, and all sorts of things went through Arisu’s mind. She quickly felt her face heating up and faced away.

  “Ami!”

  The gyaru laughed and patted Arisu’s shoulder.

  “I’m messing with you, cousin. I sometimes come into this world to play around, though, that much is true.”

  “Boo! You keep pranking me with naughty jokes,” Arisu complained, and Ami grinned.

  “Oh, come on, you haven’t been long in this world, but I bet you had naughty thoughts, too, once or twice. Maybe about a pretty boy or girl?”

  Arisu turned away entirely and clutched the Luna plush close to her body, attempting to hide her tomato-red face from her teasing relative.

  “Or maybe you already have a crush on one very specific person?” Ami spoke quietly into Arisu’s right ear, making the girl flinch away.

  “Ah? I? H-how do you…? I mean, no! I don’t! Stop teasing me!!”

  Ami’s golden laughter filled the room, and she grabbed Arisu by the wrist, pulling her along.

  “Bubble tea? You can tell me everything about it while we drink.”

  ***

  Arisu narrowed her free eye as she stared at Ami, making her disapproval of the girl’s prying known by loudly chewing and crunching the sugar pearls the drink came with, sucking them one by one through her straw.

  Ami pulled her into a Karaoke Kan that offered bubble tea on its menu, so they sat in a more or less private room together, with some music coming through the door.

  “Don’t look at me like that! I like good gossip, but I’m on your side here! As an incarnation of the lewd stuff, I’d like to help you and your sweetheart to… well, to get there.” the gyaru said with a wink before she slowly sucked the tea through her own straw.

  “So, go ahead and tell me all about your crush, hm?”

  Arisu pouted and stared at the TV, which promoted its karaoke services with an idle animation, listing off hundreds or thousands of songs that were available to be sung adequately or less so.

  “I fell in love with her when we fought a yokai together. But…” Arisu chewed on her lower lip, letting every next word form completely in her mind before she dared to continue.

  “…she’s my only friend. What if she doesn’t like me the same way? Will I lose her? I wouldn’t be able to stand that.”

  “Ah… and therefore you keep to the comforting equilibrium of remaining her friend with an unspoken crush,” Ami continued for her, and Arisu grimaced.

  “…and even that isn’t certain. It seems like she just spends time with me because my mama asked her to. Every other day she’s somewhere, doing something, and she won’t even tell me where she’s going,” Arisu said, letting her head hang.

  “Hm… she has a secret…” Ami mused, and as if to underline her pondering, she blew bubbles through her straw into her drink.

  “Ever thought about following her to find out what it is?”

  “But… wouldn’t she be angry?”

  Ami let out a little giggle.

  “If she knew, that is. I trust that you can be sneaky enough,” Ami said with a little smirk, sipping on her drink again.

  “But she’s probably going somewhere with her portals. How could I follow her?”

  “So, you already forgot what you did with those wizards recently?” Ami asked nonchalantly and Arisu blinked.

  “Wait, how do you…?”

  “I was watching. I’ve been trying to talk to you for some time already,” Ami responded matter-of-factly, and Arisu furrowed her brow.

  “You could have helped, you know?”

  “You had it under control, didn’t you? Besides, I’m not a combat type of Deogemma. What did you want me to do, hump them to death with my powers of sex?”

  Arisu felt her face heat up again after Ami’s retort and blew bubbles into her tea herself, now, while staring at the wall.

  “Anyway, what I’m saying is this: copy abilities like that usually work through you getting hit by the spell, or by you feeling the magic energies that flow either through the user, or through the air before the spell manifests. You’re close enough to touch her shoulder while she opens that portal, yes?”

  “…I think so,” Arisu admitted sheepishly.

  “Good! Then you know what to do the next time you hang out with her.”

  Arisu thought about Ami’s words. While she didn’t have a good feeling about secretly following her crush to wherever she went, she couldn’t deny that her curiosity was almost unbearable.

  “So, where do you want to go today, Arisu?” Mana asked and gave Arisu her best smile. To her surprise, the younger girl clung to her arm after she asked her question and looked up at her.

  “Wherever you like… if that’s okay?” she said quietly, and Mana raised a brow in response to that admittedly cute display.

  You’re making it so much worse for me to lie to you.

  Mana shook off the self-deprecating thought and nodded in response to Arisu’s request.

  “Okay, then. How about we enter one of my favorite worlds?” she asked, opening a portal to Bonnie’s world. A random island to have some harmless beach time on, nothing more. She couldn’t bear visiting Marisa’s little hideout these days.

  “Do you have a swimsuit?” Mana asked casually, and Arisu was still clinging to her arm, torn out of some thought as she looked up to Mana. “Hm?”

  “I asked if you have a swimsuit!”

  And immediately, Arisu’s face turned a little redder.

  “I… no! I was born at the end of summer! Of course I don’t have one.”

  “Hm… then we’ll have to go buy one first,” Mana concluded, and she immediately felt Arisu cling a little tighter to her arm.

  “Oh dear. You're embarrassed, hm?”

  Arisu nodded, and Mana let out a little sigh as she felt her heart hammer a little faster in her chest.

  Looking at her now, she is really cute.

  “Well, what can you do. How about another world, then? There was one that had martial arts tournaments on top of a giant statue. Maybe it's been long enough that they forgot about me…”

  “…what did you do?” Arisu asked, giving Mana a suspicious look with a furrowed brow.

  “Not important. Let's go!”

  ***

  “What did you do?!” Arisu shouted as the two hopped through one of Mana's portals, back into Tokyo. An energy blast flew past them and exploded somewhere in the sky before the portal closed, turning thousands of heads and causing no few people to check their phones to see whether there was an incursion alert.

  “They're severely overreacting!” Mana declared with a pout and corrected the seat of her headphones.

  “All I did was cast an analysis spell on two of their martial artists during some tournament to copy their abilities into magic rings – magic rings that helped your mama defeat her worst nemesis, by the way – and they suddenly dropped everything to hunt me down and kill me! Talk about overreacting.”

  “…that's really all you did?” Arisu asked, eyeing Mana suspiciously.

  “Of course! Promise!” Mana insisted, patting some dust off her school uniform.

  “I didn't even go in my witch robes, and have cat ears now, and they still recognized me…”

  Mana kept grumbling to herself, complaining about their little adventure-turned-hasty-retreat, while Arisu kept looking on, smiling at her. Mana had a strange feeling, like something was off about their interactions today, but she quickly shook it off, telling herself that she was imagining things.