Izanami.

"I can't believe you forgot to ask her about Daniel." Yue chided as we walked back to the dorm.

"Well, she'll be here soon enough. I can ask her then." I assured her.

"I can't wait." She huffed.

"I smell jealousy~" I teased her.

"I'm not jealous." She pouted.

"Aw!" I scooped Yue up in a hug and kissed her forehead, "Don't worry. I'll love you just as much, even when she comes over."

Yue made a cute noise and giggled happily snuggling up against me.

"I'll hold you to that." She said, squeezing my hand.

"Ugh. I'm going to get diabetes at this rate." Margo quipped, startling us.

I turned around to see her walking over, coming back from the infirmary with Eliot in tow.

"Relax. I'll take responsibility." I said causing Margo to do a double take.

"What?"

"I'll sell you the cure for cheap." I replied.

"Oh, that. Right." She looked away embarrassed.

"Why? What did you think I meant?" I smirked and got a deadpan look from her in return.

"Why am I not surprised that you have a cure for diabetes." She changed the topic.

"Because I'm awesome?"

"Un~" Yue intoned, "Jay is awesome."

Margo rolled her eyes.

"I'm surprised they let you out so soon?" I asked Eliot.

"Well after that healing serum you gave me, Lipson didn't see much point keeping me there." He said, "She did recommend a couple of days of rest but that's never stopped us before."

"Uh huh?" I said as my glasses pinged with a notification.

Something was happening at the safehouse where I had hidden Daniel.

A distortion in space time too as my time-space fuckery detector rang out in alarm.

I switched to the surveillance feed and found a woman in a veil, hands wrapped in gloves had appeared in the room.

Sonia Kikuno.

And beside her from the shadows appeared future Daniel.

They were back.

Did he cure her already?

Doesn't matter.

At least I got them now.

"Yue." I grinned, "Looks like you just got your wish. Daniel 23 is back."

A bestial grin spread over her face as her eyes lit up with murderous intent.

"Let's go." She ordered.

And I was happy to oblige.

"Do you need our help?" Margo asked.

"Nah." I refused, "We can handle it. Take Eliot back and rest. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

With that, I grabbed Yue's hand and disappeared.

.

Daniel Kikuno was in a dilemma.

On the one hand the memories he had been shown, the death of his mother at the hands of that man, Jay Walker.....

He looked back at the time window and gulped nervously.

"Why should I believe you when the first thing you did was kidnap my mother and burn down my house? Because that is some JRPG villain territory right there."

"Because if you don't, it will be too late! Even as we speak, every minute I spend here increases his chances of finding us."

"You talk about him like he's some boogeyman. I have met him. He's just....a guy. A nice, genuine guy."

"He is a monster! A frighteningly capable man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants! I have seen him devour gods, rip apart worlds with his bare hands! You don't know what future he heralds."

"What does he even want from me? Why would he..he do that?! To get my research? He already has a copy. I sent him one. He has no reason to-"

"I know his type. People like him cannot stand competition." This time his mother chimed in.

"You are a threat to him by your very existence. You don't know this yet but you are about to invent something far more powerful than a time window or timeline hopper. You are about to invent a machine that will allow anyone to travel across time, space, even other worlds and dimensions. My guess is, he wants to monopolize that."

Daniel stopped to think at that.

He was indeed nestling the idea but ti think it would lead to this.....

He didn't want to believe it but his mother was probably right.

She can be single minded when it comes to her research but she never put it above him and his safety.

"Let's say it was true. What do we do now?" He asked when a chuckle echoed across the warehouse.

"Now, you die."

In an instant, he felt something pass by him and suddenly he could see his own body.....from below?

A realization struck him, the near death high spread through him.

A blue haze covered the room and he could feel something pinch.

But he didn't mind. He couldn't mind.

And within seconds that stretched into eternity, he blinked and was gone.

.

"Shame." I looked at the younger Daniel's decapitated corpse and shook my head.

"I'd have preferred he complete his research before I dealt with him. But this is fine too. I can always do it myself."

Scanning the room burning with blue flame, the steel beams supporting the warehouse glowing red hot and melting, held together only by the magical warding, I spotted the duo of mother and son hiding under a shield spell, steam rising from the remaining Daniel.

"Ah, so that's how you were so powerful. I was wondering whose dick you sucked to break through my inventions. I mean sure you cpuld have calculated the circumstances of my tech via trial and error but that level of power, it was beyond even a master magician. Nearly at the level of a demigod." I chuckled as his eyes glowed blue and his skin cracked, condensed magic wafting off his skin like perspiration, "But this I was not expecting. You crazy bastard! You niffinized yourself. Became one with magic and then stopped that process halfway through with time magic to keep your humanity. Brilliant!

Just genius!" I laughed out loud.

"Hraaah!" He cried out, sending out a massive wave of force at me that rippled through space, cracking the space time continuum as it barreled towards me.

"Too bad you decided to fuck with me."

With a wave of my hand the entire spell dissipated in a show of extreme divine power.

But he didn't give up. He began to flicker as he pulled on the Wellspring once more, summoning up more and more magic till it began to freeze into sleet and condensate around him, a visible actualization of magical power.

But not without cost. His body was cracking, falling apart now as his skin began to flake away, the time wards around him shattering one by one.

"You look a bit strained there? I take it that much power takes a fair bit of concentration eh?

All of yours, in fact." I noted dryly, "But if you're focusing on that.... who's protecting your mother?"

His eyes went wide as his gaze flashed towards her much to my delight.

I snapped my fingers and Sonia Kikuno exploded into blood and gore.

"MOTHER!!!" He cried out, his eyes glinting with madbess as tears of crystallized magic flowed down his cheeks, forming crystals on his face, blinded by rage.

"She not dead. Not yet." I told him, and he slackened just a bit,

"No, I have kept her alive as a sentient suffering pool of blood and guts. For now. But that can change...." I offered him a fake string of hope.

Just enough rope to hang himself with.

"What do you want?" He asked, collapsing onto the floor as hope became a scarce commodity.

"Let's see....a distraction for one." I said as realization struck him. He looked down at himself and saw that the magic in his skin had disappeared as a pool of liquid magic soaked his pants, evaporating before his very eyes.

I could almost see the despair in his eyes as he cracked and broke, the magic he had gathered at great cost vanishing at a mere thought from me.

"I don't suppose you'd let us go?" He asked, but I could see that it was a feint.

"Oh no no. Not in a million years. You're smart, boy. But....tsk tsk tsk!" I wagged my finger at him, "Not as smart as you like to think. You won't bait me into killing you. I know you have a dead man's switch somewhere that activates automatically when you die. Probably revivea you back in time so we can get back to this same song and dance." He looked shocked, staggering back.

"It's only natural. It's what I would have done."

"You.....I never had a chance did I?" He asked.

I grinned evilly.

"Nope." I zoomed over to him as space bent to my will.

His neck cracked as I tightened my grip around his neck.

"I wonder if half niffins need to breath?" I asked as he clawed at my hand in vain.

"Let's find out!" I snickered and crushed his neck.

In an instant his body reconstituted itself, and he gasped, falling to his knees.

"So it's an involuntary measure huh?" I commented like a nature documentarian, "A holdover from when you did need to breath. Maybe a comfort habit?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Why? Because I want to! And because I can!" I patted his cheeks in a condescending manner as I constructed an Izanami-ish pocket space just for torturing him.

It strained my divine power, being more power intensive than my current connection to the golem could draw but it was well worth it.

He needed to be punished.

"Now how about round two. This time, let's try ripping out your lungs!" I announced with glee.

Meanwhile Yue walked over to Sonia and collected her goopy form in an electrocution chamber I had conjured up where she would be constantly shocked over and over at non regular intervals for maximum pain and helplessness.

Not long after she returned and joined me in dealing with Daniel as we while the night away toying with him.

Come morning, I walked out, as behind me the warehouse collapsed into a point space, forever trapped in a nigh imperceptible pocket dimension sustained by Jane's pocket watch like the Clock Barrens she had made, suffering from the worst tortures known to man in a time loop of the past night, till I can kill him permanently, if I decide to kill him at all.

There was a certain schadenfreude in letting him suffer for eternity.

But enough for now.

The sun was rising and I was tired.

"Alright. Let's go home."

_____________________

Alright. Daniel 23 has been dealt with.

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