"You… you're Nia?" Shichen asked, hardly able to believe it.
"Hehe~ It's me~ Shichen, you do know me, don't you? So why didn't you come find me all this time?"
Nia Honjou pulled off her baseball cap, revealing her distinctive gray-white short hair, then happily threw herself into Shichen's arms.
Her tone was openly coquettish, and the way she acted around him was way too familiar—like they'd known each other for ages.
Shichen was still stunned, mind blank for a moment.
Because the person in front of him was also a Spirit, but according to what he remembered, this was not the timing when she was supposed to show up.
And she already knew him.
He only spaced out for a few seconds, though, before snapping back.
Someone knowing him in advance… that was a situation he knew all too well. In this world, hadn't Kotori, Origami, and Kurumi all met him ahead of schedule?
In a world where time manipulation existed, this sort of thing was perfectly normal.
He himself now had the power to travel to the past and change it; that wasn't exactly surprising anymore.
But Nia's case was still hard to pin down. As a Spirit, her power was more or less "knowing the past and foreseeing the future."
Who knew if she hadn't just used that power to learn about him?
And since a Spirit's power came from his power, he couldn't block her from "peeking" at him anyway.
"Nia… do you really know me?" Shichen stared at her, unable to be sure.
"Shichen, what are you talking about? You're my hero," Nia said, burying her face in his chest and rubbing against him side to side.
The way she was clinging to him absolutely didn't look like someone meeting him for the first time.
"Hero, huh…"
Shichen thought about it for a moment and could only come to one conclusion: Nia must've been captured, and he was the one who saved her.
Which made sense. With his personality, if he went back to the past, there was no way he'd just stand there and watch Nia get tortured like that.
"Hey~ Shichen, why haven't you come see me? I've been waiting so hard for you~" Nia hugged him even tighter, looked up at him with a pout, and complained.
Nia was gorgeous. Her face looked like a high school girl's—bright and youthful—but Shichen remembered her actual age was over forty.
Becoming a Spirit had frozen her appearance in time.
Shichen didn't care about a girl's age. As long as she looked good, a few thousand or even a few million years made no difference.
But Nia was a modern human; with that much mental age, it was kind of amazing she could still act so spoiled.
"Nia, don't get ahead of yourself. Right now, I'm still not the Shichen you know," he said bluntly.
"Not the you I know yet… ah, I get it." Nia blinked and understood immediately.
"But it's fine. Now that I've found you, you're not allowed to run away~"
"…Calm down a bit. Everyone's staring. At least let me finish buying groceries, okay?"
"Groceries? You're cooking? I wanna eat too!" Nia said, completely unconcerned.
"Fine, fine, you can eat too. Just let go of me first, alright?"
"Nope. It took so long to finally see you. I'll just do this instead~"
She let go of his torso but immediately wrapped herself around his arm instead, grinning smugly.
"…That works too, I guess." Shichen shook his head and stopped worrying.
As long as he could still walk, it was manageable.
As for how clingy Nia was being—he honestly didn't mind at all. What guy would complain about a cute girl being this forward?
Especially when she wasn't a stranger to him in the first place.
With Nia clamped onto his arm, Shichen sped up his shopping. In no time, he had everything he needed.
"Let's go."
"Let's gooo! To Shichen's house!" Nia's mood was practically buzzing.
Probably had a lot to do with what she'd said earlier—him being her hero.
"Nia, reminder: there are other people at my place. But they're all Spirits like you, so don't feel awkward."
"They're all your women, right? No problem, I don't mind at all." Nia patted her not-small chest proudly, completely unbothered.
"You're really… never mind."
Shichen just shook his head and took her straight home.
"Onii-chan, you're back—…Who's she?" Kotori was just about to run into his arms when she spotted Nia hanging onto him.
"Hello~ little sister-chan, nice to meet you," Nia said, still holding onto Shichen with one arm as she waved at Kotori with the other.
"Who's your little sister-chan!?"
"You know Kotori?" Shichen glanced at her.
"Hehe, there's nothing I don't know," Nia said.
"In that case, I can skip the introductions."
"Ehh~ I feel like you should still introduce us properly…"
"Shichen, you're back. I'm hungry~" Tohka wandered out of her room in her pajamas.
"Hungry? We just had breakfast not that long ago," Shichen said, eyeing her stomach. It was perfectly flat.
"Well… I didn't exactly eat much at breakfast," Tohka replied, a little embarrassed.
"Alright, I'll make lunch… Nia, go get to know everyone yourself for a bit."
With Nia's personality, Shichen had zero worries about her fitting in.
"What the heck, is there another new woman now?" Kurumi stepped out with Sawa at her side.
"Kurumi-chan, Sawa-chan, hi hi~" Nia greeted the two of them like they were old friends.
"You are…?" Kurumi eyed her curiously.
"She's Honjou Nia. Also a Spirit. You guys talk amongst yourselves, I'll go cook," Shichen said, giving a simple intro before heading into the kitchen.
"Shidou-kun, I'll give you a hand," Reine said, getting up from where she'd been sitting with Kotori and following after him.
The living room immediately got a lot more serious.
"So what's your relationship with Shichen?" Tohka asked first. She hadn't forgotten how Nia had been clinging to his arm a moment ago.
"Ah~ how should I put it? He's the hero, and I'm the woman who offered him my body in return?" Nia scratched her head and replied with a grin.
"Offered your body…?"
"Shichen's my lifesaver. I was so moved at the time I could barely stand it. Otherwise, who knows what they would've done to me."
"You were saved by Shichen? Then you're just like me," Tohka said, relating immediately, and her wariness vanished.
"You're a Spirit too?" Kurumi asked.
"Yup. Didn't Shichen already say that?"
"Can we see your Astral Dress?"
"Eh? You're so direct. Well, I guess it's fine. I don't mind showing you—but only if you all transform with me."
"Why do we have to transform with you?"
"It's embarrassing alone~"
"…Fine. Elohim Gibor, Third Form," Kurumi said, not bothering to hesitate. In an instant, her pajamas were replaced by her familiar black-and-red gothic lolita dress, and her long black hair was tied up into twin tails.
"Then I'll do it too. Elohim Gibor, Tenth Form," Tohka said, purely for fun, following suit.
Her purple armor-dress enveloped her, radiating kingly presence.
"Waa~ everyone looks so cool. Little sister-chan, aren't you going to transform too?"
"Stop calling me little sister-chan."
Kotori rolled her eyes, then her whole body ignited.
The flames seemed to burn away her pajamas, remolding themselves into a white kimono. With her small frame, she looked like a tiny princess.
"Waa, little sister-chan is so cute. Then it's my turn. Elohim Gibor, Second Form."
As Nia spoke, blue-and-white light wrapped around her, and when it faded, she looked completely different.
A veil framed her face, decorated with quill pens. Her outfit was a nun-like robe, semi-transparent like ink, edged with crosses. Hands folded in front of her chest, she looked solemn and sacred.
Except the outfit was… a bit revealing. High slits on both sides showed off long, pale thighs; the chest had a deep V cut, exposing delicate collarbones.
"Well? How is it?" Nia asked proudly.
Just like that, she shattered the atmosphere, making the whole thing feel slightly less holy.
"Waa~ a nun," Tohka said, excited.
"Looks pretty impressive, yeah," she added.
"Isn't it gorgeous?" Nia asked smugly.
"Tch. It's nothing but lewd. What kind of Astral Dress is that?" Kotori muttered, unimpressed.
"Maybe that's exactly the kind Shichen likes?" Nia shot back.
"You—! You're not allowed to seduce Onii-chan wearing that!"
"Eh~ why not? This is my advantage."
"No means no!"
"I see, little sister-chan's got a real jealous streak."
"…Mm…"
"Nia, what's your Angel?" Kurumi asked.
"Going straight for that? Well, alright, it's fine, I don't mind you knowing. Rasiel."
As Nia spoke, the air twisted in her hand, and a book appeared.
It was a large book, like a holy scripture; the cover was bound in something that might've been leather or metal, with a huge cross emblem in the center that matched her Astral Dress.
"This is… your Angel?"
"Yup. This is my Angel, Rasiel—the omniscient Angel that can see through everything in this world~."