25 Identities.
"Well.....this is a let down." Alex thought to himself as the group were gathered around the table.
All around him were only familiar faces.
Touma wasn't effected by the spell by product of his imagine breaker but the girls were.
They had merely switched with each other.
Frankly, the chance of that happening when it should have been random across the world was astronomically low. There had to be an outside factor that limited the spells effectiveness on them.
He wanted to put it all on Touma and chalk it up to the proximity to his imagine breaker that caused the spell to go haywire on the girls, but he also had some other thoughts.
When the spell washed over the world, maybe the effect was trying hard to focus on himself and Touma to try and take effect and the girls were only hit with the residual effects at a diminished capacity?
He couldn't speak for Touma, but he could feel the spell trying very hard and trying to wrap around him before he finally dispelled it. It was entirely possible that he drew in the focus of the spell in the immediate area.
Not that it mattered in the long run anyways.
At this point, everyone were on the same page with regards to the changes. Though alex withheld the exact information due to not being able to explain his knowledge, he was able to work around that and give approximations on what is going on.
And it was also very entertaining watching the girls play with their new bodies.
Mikoto is Kaori.
Index is Misaki.
Misaki is Mikoto.
Kaori is Index.
He also seemed to underestimate the spell a bit as well.
After talking with the girls, it seemed that the spell had also warped reality a bit to accommodate the changes and make sure no one noticed anything wrong.
Kaori felt no different even in her new body and could still perform the same feats and even use her saint abilities without harming herself. The weirdest part was that even with her shorted limbs, her reach remained the same. Alex was probably one of the only ones that would have noticed the oddity of it since he was essentially outside of the spells influence.
It was a very powerful spell, but the sheer distance it was stretched over caused it to be vulnerable to lesser effects. If it was focused on a smaller area, maybe even a single country, He didn't know if Rule Breaker would be able to break it.
Beyond those observations, he couldn't really analyze the spell or delve into its secrets. If Merlin was here, she could probably unravel it in a matter of hours, but he was but a beginner spellcaster. So, he would much rather spend his time doing something important, like making sure he gets all the pictures of the kids in their new 'bodies'.
Kaori swinging around her blade as a little nun. Misaki examining Mikoto's body with her starry eyes. Mikoto in Kaori's body as lightning coils around her.
And then theres Index...who seemed absolutely enthralled by her new found cleavage.
"As much fun as I'm having taking pictures, I believe we should deal with this problem before Touma's parents arrive." Alex suddenly said.
The others snapped out of their own little worlds at his words.
"You can reverse the spell?" Index asked.
"Yeah, but I'm curious if Touma can do it as well." Alex replied, looking towards the boy.
"I can give it a shot." He stated.
Touma walked towards Misaki in Mikoto's body who happened to be the closest.
He reached out and placed his right hand on her head and nothing happened.
"Curious." Alex stated.
"Why isn't it working?" Touma asked as he started to poke her all over.
"STOP POKING MY BODY!" Mikoto in Kaori's body shouted.
"Yeah! If you want to touch someones body....touch mine." Misaki said with a wink as she gestured towards her original body that Index was inhabiting.
Alex ignored the bickering as he got lost in his own thoughts.
It was a bit interesting. Imagine breaker dwarfed the power that Rule Breaker had when applying the same ability. Yet, Imagine breaker didn't seem to be able to dispel the effect yet he was able to with Rule breaker.
Maybe it had something to do with their states of 'being'. Imagine breaker was thoroughly solidified in the physical plane of existence. It had to physically interact with what it wanted to 'dispel' in this case. The spell itself was probably centered around the core of each person it was affecting so touching their outsides did nothing. Whereas Rule breaker was essentially a concept given form. It had a higher 'Authority' in this circumstance which allowed it to 'reach' the depts of the person it was interacting with and make contact with the spell.
Or he could be completely mistaken and has absolutely no idea why one works and the other doesn't.
He just mentally shrugged his shoulders as he took out Rule breaker at the confusion of those around him.
"Alright, who wants to get stabbed first?" He asked the confused room.
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The group had 'returned' to their original appearances. When one of them had the magic severed and returned to their original appearance, an interesting phenomenon occurred. The world apparently did not accept 'two' of the same person so it shattered the magic on the duplicate, which in turn caused the process to repeat on all four of them until they returned to the original appearance.
Perhaps it was the world's will that was removing any paradox. It seemed to accept the spell initially but as soon as the 'rules' were broken, the world intervened in some capacity to fix the problem.
It did reinforce the idea that this world had some form of will similar to Gaia back home. Alex was a bit worried about his presence due to that. He was a foreign entity and was causing a few waves that shouldn't have gone unnoticed. Especially when he used EA and caused the world to rupture a bit.
If it was the home he knew, the Counter Force would have descended upon him with its full force.
His best guess was that he had a certain amount of Authority like he did back in the fate universe, his status as a 'counter guardian' under his boss made entities like Gaia unable to leverage punishment against him unless he did something to really piss the world off.
He had probably skirted the edge of what was acceptable when EA was released. If he released its full force on the naked world, he would probably be expelled or removed. He would have to clarify his status with his boss when he returned. Just more things he needed answers for.
Alex and the kids suddenly stopped as they heard a car pull up at the building they were staying at.
"Looks like your family is here Touma." Alex said as a smile began to form.
"Go introduce them to their new Daughters." He finished with a wide grin.
"I hate you so much." He said in defeat as he walked out the door to greet them.
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The initial greeting was a bit awkward, and that was before the parents met all the guests.
Originally it was supposed to be Touma's Father, Mother and Cousin that were coming but his Cousin suddenly got sick the day before and stayed home so it was just his parents.
True to the source material, His father was unaffected while his mother had taken the form of a random girl, probably around 8 years old.
They would definitely have to make sure Touma's parents didn't sneak away for 'special' time alone.
The introduction to all the guests was rather fun though.
Misaki immediately introduced herself as Touma's girlfriend, which Mikoto actually argued with.
Index and Kaori also introduced themselves as well.
Alex introduced himself as a friend and neighbor.
Surprisingly, Touma's parents were very supportive of Touma's current predicament. After Alex did some covert explaining of their son's romantic exploits, they were excited at the prospect of many grandchildren.
It seemed as though Kaori was the only one that noticed the oddity around Touma's father.
Her experience wasn't to be overlooked, she noticed how he hadn't changed but also was effected by the mental aspect and didn't recognize the changes around him.
Alex was letting the situation play out. He couldn't come right out and say that Touma's father is the cause of the spell. There were a few things that led up to Alex just letting the plot play out. He was watching for any major deviations and was ready encase of any kind of interference. He also had no idea where Touma's parents lived. He figured it was better to keep a close eye on things and steer the plot in the correct direction before making any major moves.
Besides, it was fun to watch a little 8 year old treat Touma like a child.
The day was rather dull in the supernatural aspect. The kids were a bit on guard with the whole situation and couldn't really separate themselves from what was going on to enjoy the beach. He couldn't really blame them, they didn't have the knowledge that he did.
Touma's parents went to bed rather early as it was a long drive.
But that was probably for the best as Alex could feel two pairs of eyes watching them. It wasn't too hard to guess who they were based on the source.
As Alex walked outside with the kids in tow he shouted out into the distance.
"You both can come out now." He said.
A moment later two figured approached from different directions.
One looked like a popular idol and the other was wearing a red cloak and what looked black leather underneath.
"We need to talk..." The idol girl said as she peeked around at the ones staring at her.
The other girl said nothing as she stood there and looked on.
