"Alright team, that about wraps up maintenance on the new system." Kotori Itsuka was finishing up with her team on Fraxinus doing maintenance on the programming for a newly updated system to further help Shido Itsuka, her adoptive-brother with dating missions. She was told from Ratatoskr HQ that they developed a major new software update that was ordered to be installed.

"We should put it to the test, personally I wanted to get Shido to test it out but there hasn't been any signs of a spirit yet and I don't just want him to try to date just any random girl off the street." she spoke to herself."

"Miss, if I may, I would suggest maybe trying to find someone else who might need dating guidance, we can't wait until another spirit appears or else it could lead to major issues for us if a malfunction occurs and we can't leave Shido hanging with another spirit." Reina informed her

Kotori took her lollipop out of her mouth and thought for a moment. "Hm… get in touch with HQ and propose this idea to them and see if they'll agree to this and if they have any leads on someone suitable."

Reina nodded and left her station.

Back at home, Kotori thought that she should also maybe try scouting around the area for other candidates as well, but then again, she would like the person to have something juicy in store for her. Someone who could be as good as a guinea pig as her brother.

Her cellphone ranged and on the phone was someone from HQ. "Did you get my proposal?"

"Yes, we approve of it. As for reference, we would like for you to scout out for someone from a very secure area."

"And the name of this area?" She replied.

"It's a city known as Asterisk, it's build on an artificial island that's located in a crater lake in the northern Kanto region."

"Huh? Crater lake? Can a city even be built in one of those?"

"That is where we go into details. It's not located here… in this world, but a parallel world."

"HUH?! SAY WHAT!?" Kotori was standing up from the living room couch in total shock.

"You see, there's a top secret project that practically almost no one knows about. We have a way to cross world boundaries. Since Fraxinus is our most valued and top priority division as of now due to having to deal with a majority of the spirit appearances compared to the other divisions, we decided to let you in on it."

"Alright I'll buy for now, start explaining" Kotori sat back down.

"We were able to copy the scientifics of how a spatial quake would form, though in a more stable matter and with a pathway inside. We call them "spatial gates." However, due to only having the ability to produce them in large sizes, You'd have to enter it with a huge airship like Fraxinus"

Kotori smiled, "Well that'll not be a problem since we need the ship to test out the system. But do you know what exactly is this "Asterisk" city?"

"We did manage to get as much info on the city as possible, we'll send you the data, but first we need you to prepare Fraxinus, be ready in four days, then we'll send you coordinates to the exact location, there, we'll open a gateway for you to enter."

"Understood," Kotori hanged up and called out to her brother who was making dinner. "Hey Shido, get your things packed and make sure the others have their things ready to board Fraxinus. We're going to attempt to pull off an isekai in a couple days"

"Okay, I'll- wait what?" Shido asked dumbfounded. "Did you just say we're going to "pull of an isekai?"

"Yeah, we can't leave the spirits alone here and since we are going out of town essentially, we can't just head back if we need something. Well, Yoshido might be fine alone with her soap operas during that field trip but still, we have even more spirits to deal with here and we obviously can't just leave Tohka alone or else she'll go crazy, so we should just bring them all with us to be safe."

Shido was still blank while Kotori just stated all that so casually. "That still doesn't answer anything. When you mean by "isekai," are you referring to-"

"We're going to go to another world, just like in all those anime."

"How are you so casual about that!? That isn't something you could just do everyday! Is that even possible?"

"HQ just revealed that they have a project regarding world travel, we're the first ones to try it out."

"IS THIS EVEN SAFE!?"

"They'll give us more details, just get packing up because we don't know how long we'll be in there"

"What is this for anyway?"

"We're going to a city in a parallel world, we need to test our newly updated system but we need to find another subject who is as unique as you are to test this out. We can't really use you to test it right now since there isn't any spirits spotted right now."

"And you can't find one in this world?" Shido asked sarcastically.

"We can't just test this out on anyone, we need someone special, like you bro. Now stop asking and start packing"

Shido deadpanned, "Whenever weird stuff like this pops up, I know something bad will happen"

Couple days have passed and Shido, Kotori, and everyone aboard Fraxinus were ready to depart.

"Okay, all 5 crew members? Check. Analysis officer? Check. Vice pres-" Kotori turned to see Kannazuki Kyouhei on the floor squirming around and gigglin in his masochistic fantasies… again. She sighs in annoyance "Scratch that, the ship's #1 moron? Check. Shido is with the other spirits in the lounge and we now have the coordinates so we are good to go, let's take off!"

The coordinates that were sent has the airship flying not to far off the coast into the pacific. Kotori contacted HQ and told them that they were ready, so they were told to wait 15 to 20 minutes for them to open a gate. Kotori took advantage of this by getting everyone together on the main deck and explained what she saw in the data, even Shido, but minus the spirits though. She wanted them to think that they were just going to go on a fun trip but in a more unique way.

"Okay, so here's the city we're going to be heading to once we enter this alternate world." Kotori brought up a big picture of an artificial island with a city in the center, looking alot like an asterisk.

"This man-made city built on an island is known as Asterisk. It's called that because it actually looks like an asterisk. The island holds six academies that houses students known as genestellas."

"Genestellas?" Shido asked.

"Correct, genestellas are an upgraded race of humans with enhanced physical abilities because of influence from energy known as mana. Mana is basically the same principle as magic. Mana originated from an incident that occurred during this world's 20th century known as the Invertia. It was a destructive meteor shower with it's meteors striking all over the entire planet. This world was almost identical to our world in the 20th century prior. But after the incident, many cities were destroyed. Therefore, countries lost a lot of power and authority. Which gave rise to the Integrated Enterprise Foundation. The foundation is the government that runs the entire the world with it's six branches and maintain the planet's economy."

Everyone was in shock at the last bit. "Wait, that one government controls the world?" Shido asked.

"Basically, yes. They also use the island to run tournaments once a year known as festas. Genestellas from the six academies enter and fight one another to the very top. The winners of these festas are granted one wish of what they desire by the foundation."

"Any wish!?" Shido turned to his step-sister.

"Pretty much."

This was all too crazy for Shido to take in, "But why would they do that? People could abuse a free wish like that if they could get whatever they want."

Kotori shook her head, "That much, I don't know, heck I don't even know why the island was built to begin with. That island isn't the only place where genestellas reside, so why it's so special is beyond me."

Then she showed a couple pictures of futuristic-like weapons, mainly swords, guns, spears, and axes. "They fight with special weapons called lux. Weapons that can only be wielded by genestellas. However, being a genestella does not mean they can just pick up whatever lux they like.

She then brought up three symbols, one looking like a bird, a griffin, and a snake. "There are three kinds of festas which have different competing layouts. Phoenix, which is 2 on 2, Gryps, 5 on 5, and Lindwurm, 1 on 1. Every year, they rotate between the three, kinda like how the olympics work when they rotate between summer and winter every two years."

Shido scratched the back of his head, "Guess those festas are a huge thing"

"They are, they are known worldwide in their world, so they actually are like the olympics."

Shido was heads over heels about all this info. An artificial city, six schools, tournaments, a government maintaining not a country but an entire world.

There was a beeping noise coming from Kotori's spot, she looked at it and saw it was from HQ.

"Hey, what's up?"

"We're ready, what we will do is open a hole and you will proceed to enter it, we have ways to contact you when you're in the other world if something comes up. We'll give you up to a week before we notify you to return back. We'll extend the time period if you contact us in advance with definitive reasoning."

"Thanks" Kotori then hung up. "Okay people, any minute now a big hole will appear in front of us and we fly the ship right into it, everyone ready?

"Yes ma'am" her crew replied back.

Then suddenly, the sky started distorting and formed a big purple hole right before the ship for it to fly into. Everyone started in awe.

"Alright, full speed ahead" Kotori yelled.

The Fraxinus started moving and flew into the big hole with no problem, but then after they were fully in with the outside consisting of purple flowing space, the ride started to get bumpy.

"Everyone hold tight!" Kotori was hanging onto her chair while everyone else was hanging onto their desks. Shido on the other hand was leaning his arms on the wall. "Oh god, I hope Tohka and the others are okay."

"WOOOOO! A vacation trip with an amusement park ride as well? Best day ever!" Tohka obviously was okay, a little too okay.

Yoshino on the other hand was gripping her hand on one edge of her chair for dear life while having Yoshinon in her other, shivering in fear.

Kaguya wasn't as freaked out as Yoshino but was still surprised, while Yuzuru was just sitting still in her chair calmly. "W-whoa, I thought earthquakes don't happen in the sky!"

"Affirmative, Kaguya, yet you are still dense enough to even doubt that." Yuzuru replied calmly.

"Then explain why it feels like one!?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot compute"

"And you're one to call me dense!"

Miku was actually enjoying, taking the rumbling in like it was some sort of massage. "Ahhhh… this is lovely. I haven't had one of these in a long time."

Back on the main deck, a light began to emit and everyone covered their eyes until it finally faded down and what appeared in front of them was a normal blue sky.

"We aren't in heaven are we?" Shido asked.

"Let's see…" Kotori looked at the camera displays on her computer. "Team, we aren't in Kansas anymore!"

Kotori whispered to Reine to disable the ship's filter to make the ship see through and everyone gasped. Right under them was the city that was named after the symbol it looks like, Asterisk.

"Thank you" Kotori just got off the phone with HQ once again. "Okay, I just got coordinates for where to transfer people off the ship. Shido, you go down there with the other girls and treat this like a fun trip for them alright? In the meantime, I'm going to stay up here a little longer to figure out where to look for our candidate."

"Okay," he replied.

"Shido wait!" He halted after Kotori's immediate call to him.

He turned around and saw Kotori glaring daggers at him with flames around her. "Whatever you do, if someone off the street asks you to marry them, DO. NOT. SAY. YES!"

Shido screeched at her sister's wrath, "I told you before, she just wanted to try out a dress and wanted to know what it feels like to get married. She didn't actually propose!"

"Good, now hurry to them, before Tohka starts crying out for you"

Shido left to fetch the girls mumbling, "Geeze, she's still pissed about that day."

Kotori looked at the info provided to her from HQ, so far she doesn't really have any leads on a certain person. Unfortunately there was no data on civilians besides the higher ups, mainly the student council presidents from the five academies.

"We should definitely find someone from one of the five academies. Seidoukan Academy, Arlequint Academy, Jie Long Seventh Institute, Rewolf Black Institute, Saint Galahadworth Academy, and Queenvail Girls' Academy. The data we have on people however is worthless. None of these five people would work."

"Why's that?" Reine asked?

"Well for one, Claudia Enfield and Sylvia Lyyneheym are both girls, we need a guy for this. Dirk Eberwein does not look like someone who has a girlfriend or someone who would want to date him, especially with that menacing face. Ernest I would be interested to look into but, seems he showed his true self during the finals of the Gryps festa, which caused him to lose control of his lux. Part of what cost his team the match. He has a laid back personality which is not someone we should be dealing with. Then there's Sakon Shuuma, who just screams "boring" since he doesn't really have any of the qualities we'd look for."

"Though, I do suggest we see these Claudia and Sylvia people, I'd personally would like to do research on the measurement of their chest sizes since they both have decent sizes for their ages." Vice president Kyouhei Kannazuki blurted out.

Without second thought, Kotori stood up, faced Kannazuki, then just straight up kicked him in the groin.

Kannazuki was now squirming on the floor holding his kicked area, but also filled with glee. "So painful, so wonderful!"

Kotori sighed "Oh god… I might as well just check out the schools myself. Though we can cross off Queenvail since that's a girl's school."

With that, Kotori departed from Fraxinus and ventured into the city, she managed to get her hands on a map but it wasn't really easy because from the looks of it, everything is done here digitally. Though she couldn't really tell what people were using since they were using floating screens right in front of them with no visual technological device to be seen on them.

First she decided to head over to Arlequint. And of course, she was somehow able to get a visitor's pass, thanks to Reine's assistance. Her first impression on the students, too nerdy. Everyone seemed to be more into their robots and gizmos rather than be on a date.

"HEY! DO I LOOK LIKE I HAVE AN APPLE ON MY HEAD?!"

"I'm so sorry!"

Kotori ended up yelling at a student because they were testing out a robot and it's laser went off and almost blasted off her head.

Next was Jie Long. It felt way more like a chinese dojo rather than an actual school. And people here seem to be more intent on doing martial arts.

"COME ON!"

"Please excuse me for that"

This time, she almost got hit by a punching bag that went flying from a girl's kick

She then arrived at Saint Galahadworth. She went walking by and saw some people sparring like it was medieval times, like if they were training to become knights. And of course, someone's hand slipped and an axe went flying and almost took Kotori's head.

"WHAT!? IS IT "TAKE MY HEAD OFF" DAY!?"

"So sorry!" the owner of the axe was bowing apologetically.

Next stop was Rewolf. She was fidgeting at what she was seeing in the entrance hall. Students were fighting each other and causing trouble, it was a place filled with delinquents. The inside wasn't the cleanest place either.

"I-I-I thought this was a school, not a shady back alley"

She then saw a man who was struggling to drag a student with him, "You'll have plenty of time to think about what you did in your cell."

Kotori went white at what she heard, "C-cell!? As in, p-prison?!"

She screeched as she almost got hit by a chair in the head just like with the previous schools.

"AW COME ON!" She went from startled to pissed once again.

She lost her anger as she noticed a couple students that seemed to be male delinquents and they gazed their menacing eyes upon her. "What do we have here? A little cutie who's lost? Why don't we bring you somewhere nice and safe and enjoy your visit here?"

Kotori went running out of the entrance screaming at the top of her lungs. As soon as she was far away from that school and on the street's sidewalk, she leaned on her legs to breathe, "Note to self, never go back into that hell trap, not in a million years! I wonder what the next one will be like."

"Listen, this Saturday afternoon alright?"

"O-okay."

"Good"

Kotori turned her head over to where she was hearing that conversation, it came from a boy who looked to be Shido's age with purple hair while the other is a girl around the same age as well with purple pink hair. She didn't see the school uniforms they were wearing at the other schools, so they must be from Seidoukan since that's the only one she didn't go to yet.

They just finished their conversation when Kotori spotted them and saw the girl part ways the boy. He sighed in exhaustion, "Great, now I have separate plans with everyone…"

Kotori's head jolted at what she just heard. She smiled, "Perfect."

Unfortunately for her, while she was plotting her next step in her head, she didn't noticed that he already left and when she looked up to see him, he was gone. "Aw crap! I had to get his name!"

Kotori sighed, "Well, I guess I can just see if I can find him at Seidoukan."

Her phone rang and she picked it up, "Yes Reine?"

"Have you found someone yet?"

Kotori smiled, "Yup, we have our guy. I need you to come with me to Seidoukan Academy tomorrow, we're going to find the guy at his school and speak to him."

"Understood," With that, Kotori hanged up.

As Kotori continued to walk down the streets, she noticed a big TV screen, and became shocked at what she is seeing. It was a replay of the finals during the Gryps fest from two weeks ago. But that wasn't what she was attached to. What she was attached to was that one of the competitors was the same purple haired boy she saw a couple minutes ago. As soon as it shown the guy win the round, it moved right to a recording of the ceremony with his name "Ayato Amagiri" popping up under his image.

"Ayato Amagiri, huh" Kotori took out the finished lollipop stick in her mouth and put a new one in her mouth. "And when he was referring to his plans with "everyone," he was probably referring to everyone on his team since they are all girls. Wouldn't be surprised they would all fall for someone who was their MVP in that tournament."

Kotori arrived at Seidoukan Academy entrance, Reine was also there waiting for her as well. "Do you know the name of the potential candidate?

"Yeah, got away barely with it, forgot to speak to him, but he was shown on TV. His name is Ayato Amagiri, he actually won the festa that happened around two weeks ago. I overheard his conversation with a friend that he has to go out with her, and I think he has more of them as well. He'd be perfect, we'd be helping him with his little dilemma and we get test data. He probably has to date has many girls as Shido."

Reine nodded, "We'll have to ask in the lobby for his name and have them trust us. We have no connections here so they could find us suspicious, and no one here has even heard of Ratatoskr either."

"That means we'd have to fake it somehow, come on," Kotori started walking ahead and Reine followed.

They ended up at the reception desk and asked for a visitor's pass. Obviously the receptionist started asking questions. "Who are you? Are you from one of the other schools? You should be attending it right now."

Reine stepped in, "She is not from any of the schools, she's from off the island. It's me who's visiting. I am a representative from an organization off the island and we saw how well your student Ayato Amagiri did in the Gryps festa. We'd like to see him to make him an offer he might be interested in."

The receptionist was still under the clouds, "What's the organization called?"

"It's called Ratatoskr and we are an organization who searches out the top students and provide huge sums of funds in scholarships to support their college years"

"Oh, but if you wanted to offer him scholarships, why didn't you just email us or him instead of coming out here?"

"The sum of money we offer is very large, if we just contacted you, you'd probably see it as some scam. Internet scams usually try to offer high quality valuables."

The receptionist shrugged and went on her computer, "You got me there, alright, I'll show you his class number and give you a map to guide you there, do you want it printed or digital?"

"Printed please."

"Wow nice going Reine," Kotori whispered.

The receptionist handed Reine a map with the room number written down on the top right corner, along with the area they needed to head to circled as well.

"Just follow these routes and you should not have any trouble getting there" the receptionist said while adding some arrows on the map for them to follow.

Kotori and Reine continued to walk down the hallway as instructed and managed to find the classroom they were looking for.

"This should be the place," Kotori stepped forward and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" someone called out rudely.

Kotori then just opened the door and walked right in, she was obviously walking in on a lesson but she could care less either way. First person she sees was probably the class's teacher and she was also carrying a bat with nails in it for some reason.

"Who the hell are you? We're in the middle of a class so buzz off will you?"

Kotori sweatdropped, this woman was their teacher? She was very laid back and unprofessional with her language.

"Your name is Yatsuzaki Kyouko right? This is your class?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

Kotori took a look around and noticed the Ayato she was looking for sitting near in the back. She also noticed the same girl he was with before as well, sitting right next to him.

"I'm looking to talk with one of your students, Ayato Amagiri."

Everyone in the class turned their heads towards him while he himself was beginning to look confused.

Kyouko turned her head back to Kotori with daggers, "Hold on, you can't just barge into my class and just ask for whoever the hell you want! And what's with the get up? Are you playing dress up or something? I can't just trust one of my students in the hands of a teenager who doesn't go to this school, especially someone who's still short and their boobs haven't grown yet."

That last line popped Kotori's vein. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!"

Reine calmly grabbed Kotori's shoulder as she continued to flap her arms up and down trying to get a whack at Kyouko for making that comment that she considers an insult.

"Okay, don't try to piss her off"

"She's as feisty as Julis"

Some of the students were whispering, worried that they should not get on Kotori's bad side or else it'd be the end of them.

"U-um excuse me?"

Kotori turned around and noticed Ayato had stood up. "If you wanted to talk to me, I wouldn't mind doing it out of class." The girl that was his friend right next him became shocked.

Kotori sighed in relief as Reine let go of her, "It won't be very long, just a couple of minutes."

"Hold on a minute!" Now the girl was standing up flustered. "Just what do you think you're planning to do with him?"

"We're not abducting him or anything, sheesh…" Kotori was beginning to lose patience, obviously that friend of his was one of the more protective ones.

"It'll be just a moment," Ayato told his friend.

She calmed down and sat back down.

Next thing Kyouko was pointing her nailed bat at Kotori. "You got 5 minutes, any more than that and I'll come out and kick your ass."

Kotori sweatdropped, turned out the door and mumbled, "She's sounds like one of those students from Rewolf."

Kyouko smirked, "FYI, I'm a graduate from there."

Kotori froze in shock at what was said behind her back, then started trembling like back at the school, "O-oh god, there are even those kind of creeps here as well!"

Reine put her hand on Kotori's shoulder and helped escort her out from a teacher that she's now scared to death of. Ayato came out as well and after the door closed, Kotori relaxed fully this time and was ready to start talking.

Kotori took her lolipop out of her mouth, "Your name is Ayato Amagiri, correct?"

He nodded, "Yeah, that's right"

"My name is Kotori Itsuka, I'm a commander working for a government that's kept in secrecy for now. I saw you on the street the other day."

Ayato's eyes widen, "W-wha?"

"I saw your little conversation with that pink hot headed friend of yours.'

"O-oh, you mean Julis? Wait, how much did you hear"

Kotori nodded, "Not much, You're set up to go out with her and I also overheard you saying you had to plans "everyone."

"Oh yeah, I've been asked by all my friends to hang out. I ended up managing to keep the times after school on seperate days so nothing overlaps. One is on Saturday and Julis on Sunday."

Kotori put her hand on her chin and analyzed him for a moment, "Perfect, listen, I'm willing to help with your little dilemma if you assist us in something."

"Huh?" Ayato was shocked. She just met him and now she wants to help with his personal problems.

"Don't worry, we'll compensate with more than just solving your issue. We'll provide a 10 million yen scholarship."

After hearing that offer, Ayato was expressionless. "T-that's a lot, are you sure you would want me to take part in this and not someone else?"

"I tried looking at the other schools, no one could meet our standards, you on the other hand did."

Ayato thought for a moment and realized that he should try asking her something, "I have another alternate offer idea I would like to ask of you. If you can that is, if you can't then we can do the scholarship offer."

Kotori blinked, "And that is?"

"I have a sister who is in a coma who won't be able to get up, no one can actually, so I was wondering if you could wake her up."

Reine stepped in and shook her head, "Unfortunately, we probably won't be of help. Our medical equipment may be top quality but if even the top quality equipment of the doctors around the planet isn't able to help, we might not be able to do much either."

Ayato sighed in gloom, "That's okay, it was just a thought, I do have an offer actually but I struggle to actually trust her."

Kotori brought up her hand in front of him, "Do we have a deal then?"

Ayato smiled, "Sure, we have a deal." And with that they handshaked.

Kotori took out a notebook and a pen to write with, "Who are the names of these girls?"

"You saw Julis Risenfeld in class, she wants to roam the city, there's another girl in there as well named Saya Sasamiya who wants to go out shopping, she isn't in class today, she probably overslept again. I also have to meet Claudia at her dorm one evening. There's also a girl named Kirin Toudou who wants to see me at the park. Then there's Sylvia Lynneheym, she wants to meet at a cafe and then go see a movie."

Kotori just realized, Claudia and Sylvia were the names of two of the student council presidents. "Wow, not one but two student council presidents, he's definitely like Shido."

"Got it, and here, take this," Kotori put her book away and took out an earpiece to give to him, it was the same kind of earpiece Fraxinus uses to keep in touch with Shido when he's out on a date.

"This earpiece will keep you in touch with us, because otherwise you'd be on your phone while out with someone which we do not want. When your heading over for your date, turn it on to get in touch with us so we will have a heads up to get ready. Also, who's your first date with?"

Ayato thought for a moment about his crazy schedule, "It will be tomorrow Tuesday after school with Saya to do some shopping."

"Kay, we'll be ready by then, just use the ear piece to give us a holler"

After that, Kotori and Reine departed ways and Ayato went back to class. Suddenly though, her phone rang and saw that it was from Shido.

"Sup' bro? Everything fine?"

"I guess so… We may need your help"

"What's wrong?"

"Tohka doesn't know much about technology back at home, and everything here is insanely advance so I can't help her, basically she's going crazy at every futuristic thing she sees and unless she figures out what it does, she just breaks it."

"SHIDO! WHAT'S THIS!? WHAT'S IT DO!?"

Shido turned around and noticed Tohka shaking a pole that was projecting a holographic sign.

"COME ON YOU, DO SOMETHING COOL! AAAAUUUGGHHH!" And with that, Kotori rips the pole off the ground and slams it in half on the ground. Shido and everyone around them had their eyes widened at the scene Tohka made.

"Come on Tohka! This isn't even home so I have no idea what we're dealing with if we get in trouble, plus your making another scene in front of everybody!"

Kotori scratched the back of her head, "Oh god…"