1.1

[Rosario+Vampire]

Staring in surprise at the flaming fist currently protruding from his chest, Tsukune idly wondered why it was he wasn't panicking. In the background he could hear the sound of his loves screaming out in rage and anguish, but the strange ringing in his ears made it a passing concern. Actually... that thought was more worrying than the remains of what he vaguely recognized as his heart in the fist of the arm of his attacker. There had never been a time he could remember when he hadn't been concerned about the women in his life, to the exclusion of all else. He supposed that it was a testament to his fatal injury, that for the first time that was the case.

It was funny. He couldn't even remember how old he actually was and yet it was only now when faced with an injury even his vampiric abilities couldn't repair that he contemplated the possibility of death. With a sickening jerk the arm retreated from his body and he fell to the ground. As his life-blood seeped from the wound he found himself thinking back over the memories he had made in the course of his life. His very, very long life.

He didn't exactly remember the first time he had abruptly found himself returned to the past, but he could recall with a sense of certainty the events which had followed. He had gone from enjoying a day at the Youkai Academy not long after the defeat of Alucard to being hit by Moka's bike on his first day in a split second. Of course considering the fact that the pinkette he had known had been lost to the battle against the Shinso Lord, he had been admittedly surprised to see her again. It went without saying that their second first meeting didn't exactly go well and Moka was left with a poor impression of his mental state. He was able to change that following the incident with Saizo, but all in all it could have gone better.

Despite his best efforts however he had lost Moka again by the end of the fight against Alucard, only to once more return to being hit by her bike on the first day of his first year. Their third first meeting went much better. At that point he decided that the universe had somehow chosen to throw him a bone and given him the opportunity to save Moka from apparently certain doom. It took a few tries but he did eventually succeed. Only to once more find himself being run over.

Seeing as how saving Moka didn't end whatever it was that was going on, he decided to simply run with it. If nothing else it gave him more time to spend with the woman he loved. However it was then that things became complicated. He hadn't taken any pains to avoid becoming close to his other friends in the Newspaper Club, and as a result they eventually came to care for him as strongly as they ever had. Tsukune wasn't blind, even the first time it had happened. He knew what they felt, but as much as he cared for them he had already chosen Moka. And then Kurumu died.

Obviously that didn't sit well with him. He had assumed, incorrectly, that she had been exaggerating her claims of needing love to survive in order to coerce him to choose her to be with. He couldn't ignore that afterwards. He had at first tried to find a decent monster at the Academy for her to fall in love with, but every effort either ended in complete disaster or in her uncovering his efforts and falling in love with him instead. That was when he first started to consider her claims of Destined Love seriously. As a result of trying to find someone for her to be with other than him, he had found himself growing closer to the Succubus in rapid succession. Eventually he was forced to accept the fact that his love for her was as great as his love for Moka and he began to spend more time with her for its own sake. And then came the incident with the Yuki-onna village and Mizore's forced marriage.

Because he had spent more time growing closer with Kurumu, she and Mizore had spent less time becoming friendly rivals. And as a result of that lack of bond Kurumu had failed to comfort Mizore in the manner she had always done so following the Snow Woman's perceived tainting at the hands, and lips, of Miyabi (otherwise known as Alucard's clone). Tsukune had held the dying Mizore in his arms after finding her nearly dead from self-inflicted wounds, and after her death had simply left the Academy. He had sat out the rest of the events which followed at his parent's home. The events of Fairy Tale's revival of Alucard had been broadcast to the world, but he chose not to watch with the rest of his family; instead simply choosing to go to sleep and wait for the end of the world. Then he got run over.

The next several times he found himself in the past he had focused on trying to pay equal attention to all three of the women he loved, and somehow even managed to get them to ignore their own personal issues with each other for each other's sake. This lasted for nearly a hundred repeated returns to the past, less than a quarter of the total he had experienced by that point. He was somewhat less surprised when Ruby was the next to face a crisis he hadn't expected. For whatever reason her master had been far more shrewd in her actions, and rather than find her at the Witch's Knoll it wasn't until facing off against Fairy Tale that he discovered what had happened. Oyakata had used the forbidden magic to fuse with Ruby rather than the Hanabake plants. Tsukune, already desolate at having not seen her for the whole time-line, had been further devastated when he had been forced to take her life in order to free her from her Master's possession.

At this point Tsukune found himself unable to take it anymore and immediately upon standing from his impact with Moka's bike had simply turned and walked away. He wasn't sure how long he completely avoided the Youkai Academy, but he estimated he didn't set foot within it for at least a hundred and fifty years. Eventually however, his desire to see the women he loved proved too much and he returned. That was a decision which nearly broke him.

He had done his best to reconnect with all of his friends, but due to the extended period since his last visit he had forgotten a vitally important detail. Yukari. He had gotten so used to remembering the young witch as the powerful magical fighter from the attack on Fairy Tale he had dismissed the threat the Lizardmen posed to her earlier self. He would never forgive himself for what happened that day, and even more he would never forgive them. They suffered for a long time, but not nearly as long as he himself did; albeit in a much less physical manner.

Tsukune considered himself to be a fairly intelligent person. Maybe not the brightest bulb in the box, but above average for his age-group. He knew how to take a hint, even if it did take him a while. He spent a long time after that making sure to pay equal attention to his girls; and at this point he had long since lost the reluctance to call them anything else, they were his girls. After a long time however he did find himself once more desiring to spend more time with his first love.

He took a great deal of care to ensure the others were happy, but in all other aspects he devoted himself entirely to Moka. Every waking moment was hers. Every need she had he attended to. He showered her with all the love he had ever felt for her all at once, until she was all but overwhelmed by it. He even explained his situation as best as he understood it. Being who she was she accepted him, time-travel and all. And then she ran him over with her bike. The following revelation that Moka still recalled their previous time together was perhaps the happiest moment of his millennium long life to date. The fact that she didn't remember him the time after that was without a doubt the worst.

After he managed to overcome his depression, curiosity slowly consumed his mind and he decided to retry the events which had led to Moka's memory lasting past the time reset. It was an unqualified failure. After hundreds of times focusing all of his efforts on Moka once more, she failed to follow him to the past a second time. In desperation he turned to Kurumu and, just as Moka had before, Kurumu joined him in the past the next time he found himself there. And then she was gone.

Tsukune logically deduced that he would only have one chance with each of his girls and set about planning how long he felt he could maintain his sanity before he would need to bring one of them back with him. He made it a little less than one hundred years before he turned to Mizore. He only made it twenty before he sought out Ruby. And then there was a miracle shortly before he convinced himself to focus on Yukari, regardless of her youth; he was after all by this time more than a dozen centuries older than anyone he knew, what did a few years really matter.

Following his return to the past he was greeted by not just one, but all four of his loves once again reunited with him in the current present. After learning that for them no extra time had passed since they had previously joined him he tactfully neglected to inform them of the many, many years that had passed for him since they had last been together. Following the time reset he had wasted no time bringing Yukari into the fold once more. He soon discovered that he had to endure multiple resets until he next met up with his loves, and not always together as they had been that one time. Even so, for them he could wait until eternity.

Together they had set about finding a way to solve the problems which had plagued their first lives, and putting right what had once gone wrong. In the process they had inevitably grown much, much closer. It went without saying that their hormones quickly found an outlet, and frequently at that. But like all things tended to do, eventually that became boring; the problem solving that is, not the love-making. Never the love-making.

Once it became absolutely apparent that there was unlikely to be any end to the never-ending time resets, they were forced to find other ways to entertain themselves. Yukari was the first to resort to pranking Fairy Tale, but that soon became a favorite past-time for the entire Club.

And then as it had done so many times before, the universe threw him a curveball. Rather than returning to the now long familiar road up to the Youkai Academy he had instead found himself running along the school track, and moving far faster than his human self had ever done. Having not expected to find himself mid-step at full speed, he quickly became acquainted with an entirely different segment of ground than the one he was used to. That wasn't even the beginning of the changes which he found himself. The absolute worst of them was the fact that apparently Moka was dead, and at his hands no less; courtesy of the School swimming pool.

He had the horrific memories of the event, which he had never lived through and simultaneously lived all too clearly, branded in his mind. He had no idea where Yukari, Mizore or Kurumu were and somehow he had found himself dating Keito of the Student Police. All together these revelations proved enough to keep him in a state of shock for weeks. Only his previous experience dealing with the loss of one of his girls and the knowledge that this would all be wiped away when everything reset kept him calm; and ironically it was his still blinding self hatred for what he had allowed to happen to Yukari which managed to keep him from killing himself for what his other self had done to Moka.

During the whole distasteful affair he surprisingly found himself relying upon Keito a great deal, and he actually found himself growing closer to the Jorōgumo. Once he moved past her strict, sometimes cruel, outer mask he found her to be just another person like any other; albeit one who could produce her own silk for her knitting. He wasn't sure how much of her personality was this version of her alone, and how much she shared with the other version of her he knew but he soon found himself in a state of something approaching contentment. It helped that he had managed to come clean to his parents about his current relationship. The end of the strange events found him holding the sleeping woman in his arms contemplating the strangeness which was his life. And then the world reset.

It was almost eighty years before the events of that time returned with a vengeance. In retrospect he should have realized at the time what he was doing; every time he had spent a repeat in a singular focused relationship with one of his girls, she had joined him in the past later. He supposed it had been the utter difference between that world's history and his normal one which had convinced him that nothing could come from it. Clearly he had been wrong, and consequently he had spent almost two thousand years trying to return everything to a stable state and include Keito in the group dynamics. Eventually everyone had come to terms with the situation in their own way and they had moved on with their seeming immortality. Time passed as it always tended to do, and before long another millennium had passed; and then two, and then four. Eventually he just stopped counting.

In theory Tsukune knew that they were all insane to some degree, after all no mortal mind was truly prepared to shoulder the burden of eternal life. In practice however, he often had trouble seeing the problems which he knew they had. Somehow, through a method he didn't even pretend to understand, together they managed to hold each other steady; each supporting the other where they were weak and in turn being supported in their own weaknesses. Or as Yukari had said, the sum was greater than the individual parts.

That had led to greater risks whenever they were all together, because they trusted one another to cover for them. Which was probably how he found himself in the current situation. They had decided that Kuyou needed to be taken down a peg or two, but they had dismissed his pride and short temper. As a result they had misjudged exactly how far the Kitsune would go in order to have his vengeance. They had never even considered trickery and literal backstabbing. As his vision started to darken Tsukune reflected that that had clearly been a mistake, he was a Kitsune after all.

A quiet thought came to him, as his breath grew short. 'I think this might be the first time I've ever died. I wonder if that means it's finally over?'

And then he knew no more.

-x-X-x-

Urd was not a complicated Goddess. She liked fun, she liked sleeping and she liked alcohol, none of which she got to have much of since the Event. It was always do this, patch that, make sure that none of the Loopers accidentally Ascends and destroys all of existence. Bah! Abruptly a loud beeping erupted from her monitor, drawing her ire. Like that. That was exactly what she was talking about. One of the Anchors just got him/her/itself killed. With a frustrated sigh she pulled one of her consoles up and rapidly pulled up the file for the Loop. Quickly reading through it she was prepared to shunt the Anchor off to Eiken or something before doing a double take. That... that couldn't be right. Could it?

"Well shit."

-x-X-x-

Skuld was irritated. Well, less irritated and more full blown seething mad but she'd be damned before she let her pest of an older sister know that. "Let me get this straight. This Branch has been active ever since the Crash and nobody noticed?!"

Urd nodded as she showed her little sister the printout. "It looks like Yggdrasil activated it on its own. The Anchor didn't really cause any problems for his first few hundred Loops and there was so many other problems to deal with that it slipped past the radar. By the time we got everything settled again, he had avoided causing any issues and so nobody realized anything was going on."

"What about Fused Loops? It's been almost ten thousand years since the Crash happened. Someone had to have seen him."

Urd scanned through the data before pointing out the relevant sections. "According to this the code which the program uses to set up Fused Loops got scrambled and ended up tied to one of the Loopers. The problem is that the person it's tied to isn't Awake. The Branch reads as having had an appropriate number of Fused Loops but since the one with the coding attached to her isn't even Loop Aware it couldn't properly activate the program."

Skuld felt a migraine building and fought the urge to pull her hair and scream. "Okay, first of all Activate whoever the data is tied to as long as it isn't a threat. Then get Freya down here. This Loop is her kind of thing so she can deal with it."

Giving a tired sigh she leaned back in her chair causing Urd to frown sympathetically. Ever since this whole debacle began her little sister had been forced to grow up way too fast and take on a lot more responsibility as the Chief Debugger. She may not have had the best relationship with the youngest Norn, but they were still family. She'd see if she could get Belldandy to visit more often, they got along much better with each other than she did. Still she did have something which might cheer her sister up.

"There is one bit of good news about all of this." She said with her normal grin. Skuld raised an eyebrow questioningly but said nothing. "Since this is the first time the Anchor has died so far, his Branch is incredibly stable. In fact this guy may have sped up Yggdrasil's recovery by a few million years."

Skuld considered this and gave a small smile at the thought. Granted in the long run that was barely chump change, but anything was better than nothing if it meant that eventually they might actually be able to put this whole thing to rest at last. Progress was always a good thing.

Seeing that she had accomplished her good deed for the day, Urd headed out to get back to work. But maybe she could stop off at the break room and get a bit of sake; good deeds should be rewarded after all.

-x-X-x-

Tsukune lurched forward with a desperate gasp as he frantically gripped the hole in his chest... except there was no hole. And accompanying the sudden lack of gaping wound was a stunning absence of pain to go with it. Quickly putting two and two together he slumped back down into his seat.

Wait. Seat?

Taking a look at his surroundings for the first time he was surprised to find himself back on the bus to the Youkai Academy. After what had happened he actually found himself missing the familiar sensation of Moka's bike running him down, if for no other reason than because it was always immediately followed by seeing his pink haired lover. More upset by the extended wait to see Moka than by his previous murder, he rested his head against the window and stared blankly out at the passing scenery.

"So even dying won't end whatever's going on then." he mused with a sigh.

"Heh. Death is only the beginning kid." the familiar voice of the bus-driver spoke up, catching Tsukune's attention. "If you're worried about dying, maybe Youkai Academy ain't the place for you."

Tsukune gave a soft laugh. "Sorry Mr. Bus-Driver, there's nowhere else I'd rather be."

The bus-driver gave a chuckle and pulled to a stop. "You sure kid? Youkai Academy can be pretty scary."

Tsukune smirked and grabbed his bags as he recalled his past, even before time had begun repeating for him. "So can I."

Grinning around his cigar he watched as Tsukune stepped off the bus before replying. "Tell that to her."

Before Tsukune could ask what he meant, the doors closed in his face and the bus pulled away. Frowning slightly Tsukune hefted his bags and turned to begin the familiar journey to the Academy, only to stop short at the sight in front of him. Sitting on a large boulder was a strawberry blonde woman in an armored tunic covered by a cloak of what looked like feathers and with a winged helmet hanging from her waist. Parked beside her was a large chariot, the harness of which was wrapped around what appeared to be a pair of blue Bakemono whom she was petting gently. Alerted by one of the large felines the woman turned to face him before breaking out into a grin.

Tsukune was forced to retreat as the woman rapidly made her way over to him, walking around him in a circle as if inspecting a product. Finally she gave a laugh and smacked him on the back with a laugh. "Not bad, not bad at all. I can see why your ladies like you so much." This was punctuated by a pinch in a very sensitive area, causing Tsukune to give a yelp. "Such a shame I couldn't meet you earlier." she said with a seductive pout.

"Wh-who are you?" Tsukune cursed himself for the stutter in his voice, but it wasn't often that beautiful women approached him like this.

...Actually, no. This was pretty much par for the course ever since he had come to the Youkai Academy. It was just usually he knew the woman in question before she came onto him. Staring into the bright blue eyes of the unknown woman he tried to think of a single time he had ever even seen this person before, only to come up empty.

She gave a stunning smile and placed her hands behind her back, emphasizing her 'assets' as she responded. "My name is Freya, I am the Goddess in charge of your world."

Tsukune took a second to process that before nodding. He then picked up his bags and proceeded to walk away from the obviously insane woman. He quickly came to a stop however when he found his path blocked by the two large cats from before. A pair of thin arms wrapped their way around him and Tsukune quietly hoped that none of his girls had come back with him. He didn't want to die again so soon after the last time.

"Now is that anyway to treat a lady? I really am a Goddess you know. I'm here to help you deal with your little time loop problem." Abruptly switching from seduction to force she then proceeded to lock his arms behind his back and drag him over to the rock she had been sitting on when he first saw her.

Rubbing his shoulders to try and get feeling back into them he stared at the supposed Goddess as she dug around her chariot.

'Damn she's strong. -sigh- So if she's really a Goddess then maybe she actually can help.' Taking a look at the junk being thrown from the chariot Tsukune sweatdropped. 'Or maybe she's just really drunk.'

"Aha! Here we go." With a happy smile Freya sauntered over to where Tsukune sat and handed him a small booklet. "This should explain the fine details, take a look at it once I'm done. Alright so first thing you should know is that the universe is broken. Not just your universe though, all of them. Do you know anything about Norse mythology?"

Taken aback by the apparent non sequitur, Tsukune tried to remember any details he knew of mythology. It wasn't much. "Uh, I know about some of the Gods like Odin, Loki and Thor."

Freya sighed, an act that did interesting things to her anatomy which Tsukune definitely didn't notice. Definitely.

"Well, that's about what I expected. It would have made it a lot easier if you had at least some knowledge about the World Tree though. Okay, think of it like this: reality is composed of infinite universes each with its own set of lifeforms and rules. Each of these worlds is comparable to the leaf of a tree. That tree is called Yggdrasil."

Tsukune nodded hesitantly. "So all of reality is a giant tree?"

Freya smiled lopsidedly. "Close enough. A much more simplified explanation is that it's actually an n-dimensional representation of the cosmological superstructure upon which the universal superstring can materialize the conceptual existence of time, space and energy on a twenty-fifth dimensional plane, which exists both within and outside of itself while simultaneously encompassing the entirety of the time-space continuum and casting a four dimensional shadow of itself upon the fabric of reality. But it's just easier to say its a giant tree. Which is also a supercomputer."

...He wasn't sure how, or if, he should respond to that.

"Moving on! My job is to help Yggdrasil run smoothly and ensure the continued growth of the Multiverse. However a long time ago, don't ask how long, something happened and as a result Yggdrasil was damaged. In order to buy time to repair it we Goddesses and Gods were called in to manage the various Universe's contained within the World Tree. To do that we were forced to take the worlds and place them within a recursive fail-safe program. Similar to putting your computer on Safe Mode. With me so far?"

Tsukune ignored his growing headache and nodded woodenly. He really wished Yukari were here to help him deal with this.

"Good. Now the way the program works is it takes a Universe and places it into a time loop focused around the most prominent point in its history at the time of the original Event. The duration of this period varies but in all cases it is known as a Loop. In order to make sure the original coding for the branch is safe and secured we choose the most stable individual from that period and place them as a local backup, sort of like a cache file. As a result this person, or in some cases persons, is always aware of time resetting; this is known as being Awake and the person is called the Anchor. Their only job is to stay alive and not do anything to make our jobs harder. As long as they don't do something monumentally stupid, such as dying, the Loop stays safe and they can basically do whatever they want. If they crash the Loop however there are methods we have for punishments. Try to avoid those."

Tsukune gulped nervously. He wasn't sure what was meant by 'punishments' and he would rather not know.

"The only other thing an Anchor needs to do is prevent themselves from Ascending. Sometimes there are methods to ascend to a higher plane naturally within a Loop, but intentionally trying to end the Loops entirely by Ascending - with a capital A - to the level we Admins are on is absolutely forbidden. Ascension without fail results in the destruction of the Universe by the one Ascending, and with the state Yggdrasil is currently in could possibly end all of existence. Don't. Do. It. When the system is eventually fixed it'll be a different story, but until then just leave it alone."

Tsukune by this point was well and truly warned, and more than a little frightened by the deceptively beautiful Goddess. During that last bit she had momentarily given off an aura similar to the one Inner Moka had whenever she dealt with Saito. Only far, far more intense. Suffice it to say that he no longer doubted the blonde's divinity and would be doing his best to avoid irritating Freya any time soon.

"Besides the Anchors, there are also others whom can be activated as Loopers. The degree of likelihood for whether they will Awaken depends on several factors but mostly upon how close they are to the Anchor personally. However you should be aware that for some reason that rarely translates to parents or parental figures. In most cases an Activation is authorized by the God or Goddess in charge, their Admin, but occasionally Yggdrasil itself will make the decision without input. That was the case with you, and in a roundabout way with your lovers. Since we only just discovered your Branch's activation we weren't available to make the call on your girls, but now that we know what's going on it won't be as simple as just spending a single Loop with them. Too many new Loopers at one time is actually almost as destabilizing as not enough. So say goodbye to that little shortcut. We can't remove it completely since it's been hard-coded into your Branch, but it won't be a simple one and done thing anymore."

Tsukune was fine with that. He already had everyone he really needed, he could survive if they were all he got. It was already far more than he had ever expected when he first came to the Academy.

"You should know, you won't always be stuck in you original Branch. Because of your unexpected Activation we weren't able to set it up properly, but now you should expect that every once in awhile you'll Awake in a different world than the one you're used to. This may be as simple as a change in the history, otherwise known as a Variant, or as major as having entirely new details from other Branches mixed in, otherwise known as a Fused Loop. While a Variant is much more common it is less drastic than Fused Loops in which, as the name implies, two or more Branches are Fused into one for the Loop's duration. You may find yourself with an entirely new history or set of abilities. You should get into the habit of always checking your memories for anything unusual first thing every Loop. Additionally you should learn how to send what is referred to as a Ping, you'll find information on how to do that in the manual along with other basic skills like the Pocket which will let you carry items with you past the end of a Loop.

"Other than that I think I've covered everything but just in case you should probably spend some time studying the book I gave you, it will fill you in on anything else I missed. Now normally you'd be stuck in a Punishment Loop for crashing your last Loop, but this one time I'm going to let that go. You actually did us a pretty big favor even if you didn't realize it. By managing to avoid crashing your Loop for so long you made our job just that much easier.

"You still need to get some kind of punishment though so I'm going to give you a slap on the wrist so to speak. As I said your Loop's activation went unnoticed for a long time, so right now your Branch is being caught up on the Fused Loops it should have normally been given. Your girls have been temporarily coded as Traveling Loopers, which means they'll be visiting several other Branches for awhile. Until then you'll have to stay here and wait. I think you'll probably be on your own for about double, maybe triple the time you usually are before you'll see them again."

She grinned mischievously and ran her finger down Tsukune's cheek. "But a tough guy like you can handle that can't you?" Again, Tsukune was grateful that none of his girls were around to see this.

Chuckling merrily Freya stepped into her chariot, her two cats stepping into place at the head, before turning to speak one last time. "You may want to hurry though, don't want to miss your first day of school." With a crack of the reins she flew off into the air with a laugh, leaving Tsukune to panic over how late he was.

1.2 - (Detective Ethan Redfield)

[Gurren Lagann]

Memories flooded the two Loopers almost mid-stride. It was like vertigo for a moment, you didn't know which end was up and it always sucked. "Bro," Simon began, "remind me why we tried combining Spiral Teleportation with the Anti-Spiral Big Bang Storm again?"

Kamina placed his arm around his younger brother and held the other up to the roof of the bunker they were now in, "Isn't it obvious, Simon?! We're men, and we'll do anything we can to destroy the ceilings placed over us. It's our duty since the formation of team Dai-Gurren to break free from all chains that hold us down! Using their own weapon and our teleportation, we would move our entire universe back into the normal time flow."

Simon deadpanned, "Instead, we somehow managed to destroy all of time and space."

Kamina would not let his spirits be dampened, "Don't give me that, Simon! No matter how many Eiken Loops we have to go through, we'll someday find a way to escape the Loops. Now, let's go find my woman!"

Little did they know that the goddesses running Yggdrasil had set up special contingencies just for the Gurren Lagann Loops to prevent catastrophic system failure based on their destructive actions alone.

Kamina and Simon turned to exit the bunker when an air raid siren sounded. Countless people rushed past them in fear while the two Loopers took no note of them. Kamina bellowed, "Who's causing that noise! The great Kamina demands that it cease at once!"

The older of the two picked up the pace, drawing his prized katana from his pocket hammerspace dimension, intent on beating the hell out of the moron sounding that alarm. Over the wail, the crackling of flak guns couldn't be heard. Simon seemed a bit more nervous, "Uh, bro, I don't think this is another Eiken Loop."

Kamina paused his pursuit of the siren and looked himself over, noting a torn military uniform, "Hmm...true. Seems we might be in some sort of military."

He looked over to Simon and gave a shit-eating grin, "Think we're in another Command and Conquer Loop? Playing as Empire of the Rising Sun was a blast."

A minute later, the two were out of the bunker. Their first sight when exiting was a multicolored barrier a little under four miles away with a sea spanning the distance between them. However, what they could tell was that it was enormous. It made them forget about the siren they had come up to stop.

Around them, countless anti-air batteries continued to fire away on an unknown foe overhead, making the two of them look to the sky. If the barrier gave them pause, countless pegasi descending like dive bombers caused their brains to shut down for a moment. It was in that moment that their Loop Memories returned.

Simon pinched his nose as a headache started forming, "Well, damn."

It was moments later that glass jars filled with colorful purple liquid dropped like rain.

Yes, the goddesses of Yggdrasil had set contingencies for the abnormally destructive nature that was the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Loop. Entire galaxies in the prime universe were used as weapons after all. Those contingencies meant sending them into a Fused Loop in order to give time to reboot their universe. Unfortunately, those contingencies just couldn't handle the stress of all of time and space collapsing.

1.3

[Kill la Kill/Highschool DxD]

"Let me get this straight. You're telling me that the main villains of this Loop are a hot blonde and a bonafide MILF who get their power from clothing?"

Satsuki frowned as the brown haired boy who had Replaced one of her Elite Four repeated her words, albeit in a manner which left a sour taste in her mouth. "That is correct, although the idea of anyone referring to Ragyou as a ...MILF is rather distasteful and I would greatly prefer you not do so again."

The current Replacement to her Athletic Committee Chair however seemed to not have heard her, as a perverted leer spread across his face. "I love this Loop! Destiny here I come!"

With that Issei Sanegeyama, wearer of the Sacred Gear Regalia, ran ecstatically from the Student Council office laughing in a highly disturbing way.

"Madam, I fear we may have unleashed a devil upon the Academy."

Satsuki sighed, before taking a sip of her tea; allowing the once unpleasant but now greatly enjoyed brew to soothe her nerves. "Delicious as always Soroi. You may be correct, the Academy may be unprepared to face the likes of the Red Dragon Emperor."

A smirk broke out upon her face. "However I can't help but wonder how well Ragyou and Nui Harime will fare against this particular foe."

Years of self-control and discipline allowed the faithful servant to control the blush which threatened to work its way across his face. But only barely.

"Yes, quite. I imagine it will be a short fight. Will you be needing anything else My Lady?"

Satsuki shook her head, ignoring the shrieks of feminine outrage echoing from the halls. "No thank you Soroi, that will be all."

"As you say, Madam."

Only once her loyal ally had left, did Satsuki allow herself the luxury of a brief laugh. It was a shame Ryūko wasn't here this Loop. She'd have to get pictures of the event to show her sister later, for now she was content to simply enjoy the relative peace for once.

"Satsuki! What the heck is going on with the stupid Monkey?!"

Satsuki gave an ironic smile. Well it was nice while it lasted.

1.4

[Familiar of Zero/Hellsing]

Louise coughed as the cloud of smoke from her summoning washed over her. Another Loop, another explosion. While it was always interesting to see what new Familiar she had summoned, the reversion from respected Mage and Crown Princess to Louise the Zero was an unfortunate side-effect. Speaking of which the first line of taunting should be beginning any moment now.

"By the founder, what is that?!"

Louise blinked. Okay, not what she had expected but it meant that she probably hadn't summoned Saito this time. So who did she get this time?

"It's a body, Louise summoned a dead body!"

"That's a new low even for her."

"Can that even be called a Familiar?"

"I bet she killed him with her explosive summons."

"No, look at it. It's been dead for a long time."

"Who cares about that. I got hit with a flying rock from Louise's summoning. I'm bleeding. Shut up about the stupid mummy."

Louise clenched her fists. "Shut up! Don't you have any respect for the dead?! Even if I messed up, that's no excuse for acting like a bunch of-of"

-Monsters.-

The collected group of students fell back in shock as the supposed corpse's voice echoed horribly around the courtyard. No one had noticed, but when they hadn't been paying attention the Familiar had moved; crouched over the ground near the last student who had spoke. As the terrified boy watched in horror, the creature's tongue stretched out and licked up the meager drops of blood which had been spilt.

Abruptly he straightened, his body moving in ways no normal creature should accompanied by the crack of bone and cartilage as he jerked upright. Then he threw his head back and laughed. And laughed. And kept laughing as he covered his face with one hand and stared with a dark grin at Louise.

To her credit the relatively young Looper. met his crimson gaze with only slight hesitation. The person grinned, and then without warning he was standing directly above her; having not appeared to move, yet somehow crossing the entire field.

Falling to her back at his sudden appearance, Louise stared into the depths of his gaze; forcing herself not to break the deadlock. He grinned.

"So then, you who have summoned me. I take you would think to call yourself my Master. I have but one Master, and you are not she. What is your name, little one."

Louise swallowed around her dry mouth and spoke; clearly, precisely and purposefully. "My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, third daughter of the noble house of Vallière. You are my Familiar and you will know your place you dog!"

The figure was silent, his grin growing wider with every passing second; before he threw his head back and laughed again. "Magnificent, truly magnificent. Humans are such interesting creatures. Very well Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, third daughter of the noble house of Vallière; a dog am I? So be it, if I am to be a dog then it is only fitting that I have a Mistress of character to hold my leash. And if I am to represent nobility, perhaps a change of attire is appropriate."

His body seemed to shimmer, shifting unnaturally at the edges and growing hazy. When he re-solidified, his tattered black straightjacket and leggings had formed into a crimson charcoal suit with an intricately knotted cravat, leather riding boots, a frock overcoat and cape, and a wide brimmed fedora. Upon his hands he wore a pair of white gloves with a runic symbol of a type Louise didn't recognize and his inhuman eyes were also covered by a pair of circular, heavily tinted, wire-framed orange sunglasses with sidings.

Sweeping low he performed an elegant bow before the stunned gaze of Louise. "The Bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to keep myself tame. I am Alucard, the No-Life King. I am Awakened. How may I serve you, my Mistress?"

Louise blinked stupidly for a moment, taking in the stunned silence of the courtyard. Even Zerbst, incorrigible loud-mouth that she was, had nothing to say. (Although that likely had more to do with her attempts to undress her Familiar with her eyes than anything else.) Even Mr. Colbert was shocked into inaction, his hands gripped tightly upon his staff but otherwise unmoving. Stiff as a statue even, his eyes locked piercingly upon Alucard with an eagle's gaze; the eyes of a soldier who recognized death come calling.

Louise took all that in, along with Alucard's words, before speaking. "Professor Colbert, I think I should complete the ritual and Anchor my Familiar."

Colbert didn't blink or turn his gaze from Alucard as he replied. "That would likely be for the best Ms. Vallière. In fact I would suggest you not hesitate."

Louise nodded and closed her eyes as her magic gathered. "Pentagon of the five elemental powers; bless this humble being, and make him my familiar." Reaching up she grabbed Alucard's cravat, and standing upon the tips of her toes she kissed him to seal their contract.

Alucard raised an eyebrow, his grin undiminished; before bringing his hand up to his sight. Removing the glove he watched in fascination as several runes were emblazoned upon his visible flesh. "Fascinating."

Straightening to his full height, he gazed down upon his pink-haired Mistress. She was no Integra, but perhaps given time... well who knew. "Shall we be off Mistress? I'm sure we have much to discuss. The scent of war is in the air, diminished but fragrant nonetheless." He grinned, a twisted mockery of a smile. "It will bloom soon enough, and as my Mistress I'm sure you will make full use of your servant."

Louise grimaced at the reminder of Albion's coming battle with the Reconquista. She hadn't yet managed to find a way to prevent the coming war, but she wasn't going to stop. For Queen Henrietta, for the country of Tristain, for her friends and family and for her honor she couldn't. She would fight when the time came; just as she had always done, and as she always would.

As if sensing her resolve, Alucard's grin grew inhumanely. He gave a brief chuckle, which soon gave way to a slow laugh, until finally he had surrendered to his amusement and his mad laughter echoed around the courtyard; sending chills down the spine of all of those watching. A single thought echoing through all of their heads:

'What kind of monster had Louise the Zero summoned?'

-x-X-x-

Alucard stood across from the foppish boy who had challenged him to a duel. Guiche de Gramont, a sniveling child playing at romance. It was hardly Alucard's fault if the boy had failed to keep it in his pants, and allowed himself to be caught whispering sweet nothings into the ears of a second woman by the first. He chuckled as he idly twirled a small bottle of perfume between his fingers. Nope, not his fault at all.

"So Familiar, I'm impressed you actually came. You have sullied my honor and that of my beloved Montmorency and for that you cannot be forgiven. I admit your parlor tricks had me fooled alongside the rest of my classmates, but you are still just a commoner. No match for a Noble such as myself. But I'm feeling gracious, if you bow your head and beg my forgiveness I suppose I can allow you to leave."

Alucard simply grinned and remained silent.

Guiche narrowed his brow and scoffed. "So be it. Do you have any final words Familiar?"

Alucard chuckled. "A commoner you say. How pitiful you are, hiding yourself behind the trappings of nobility and calling yourself a man. You are no man, you are but a boy playing pretend. So come on, have I not spat upon your honor? Have I not defiled your good name? Show me Guiche de Gramont, show me your resolve. If you would lay down your judgment upon me, then stand. Stand and fight, and die for the honor you claim to hold precious." Throwing his arms out to the side, he left himself wide open. "Your target is clear, so strike!"

Guiche's gut clenched at the sight of the mad man before him, his eyes darting back and forth across the gathered students. He hadn't expected Louise's Familiar to meet his challenge, and now that he had Guiche was forced to either fight or submit and look a coward in front of his peers. Swallowing heavily he steeled his resolve, and met his opponents eyes. He flinched.

Nevertheless he couldn't back down now, and so with a wave of the artificial rose which served as his wand he called forth his magic; a feminine figure rising from the ground in a ring of light.

"My Name is Guiche the Brass. therefore a brass golem — a Valkyrie to be precise — will be your opponent."

Alucard smirked widely. "Is that so. A Valkyrie. Just one? Is that all your honor is worth to you? A single toy puppet?"

His brow twitching Guiche summoned two more golems to stand alongside the first. "Three then. I will not lower myself to using my full might against a commoner, be grateful."

With a laugh, Alucard met Guiche's gaze eagerly. In the next moment the Valkyries charged, the ground beneath their feet cratering as they advance. Alucard never moved. Even as they ran him through, his blood spattering the ground and staining the earth, he remained standing with his arms thrown wide and a grin upon his face; staring into Guiche's horrified eyes.

For a moment the courtyard was silent, then the students began screaming. As Guiche fell limply to his knees, staring traumatized at his victim, Louise finally managed to make her way to the scene. She had allowed herself to believe that someone like Alucard would be above accepting Guiche's taunting, and only too late did she find out about the duel. Staring in disbelief at her skewered Familiar she cursed herself for not preventing the fight in the first place. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It was practically an unwritten rule of the Loops. Guiche always challenged her Familiar to a fight, no matter who they were. And they always accepted. She had thought just this once... maybe someone would have enough brains in their head to say no!

"Alucard!" Louise's tearful cry was loud enough to cut through the uproar of the panicking students, drawing her several pitying looks. However, abruptly the air grew heavy and all eyes were drawn to the center of the courtyard where the two fighters still stood. The wind blew ominously, and despite the perfect weather it felt as though the sun had hidden its face.

-hahahahHaHaHAHAHAHAHAHAH!-

"Is that all you have Guiche de Gramont? Such a shame." In a flash of motion, the Valkyries impaling Alucard fell to scrap around him. His form wavered, shifting and twisting unnaturally, bathed in shadows despite the noon sun; only his crimson eyes and fanged grin visible. "My turn."

Faster than the student body could react the ground surrounding Alucard all the way to the far wall and beyond was torn asunder, ripped from its bed in the earth and reduced to rubble. In the center, surrounded by upturned rocks and stone in a perfect outline of his body, Guiche lay immobile; terrified beyond thought or motion as Alucard walked towards him.

"You should be grateful, I chose not to lower myself to using my full might against you. I hardly need to explain just how lucky you are. But your luck's just run out."

Staring with wide eyes as death approached, Guiche payed no mind to the tears running down his face; his sole thought being the knowledge that he was going to die; and the wish to live. However his gaze, and that of everyone else's, was drawn away at the sound of a shout from the sidelines. Standing with her fists clenched at her side, shaking with tension, Louise stared down the demon which sought to end his life.

"That's enough Alucard! You've proven your point. I order you to stop, heel you stupid dog!"

All was still, before Alucard grinned and laughed. "As you wish my Mistress, if you say this boy should live then I obey." Turning to face Guiche again with a mocking grin, he spoke one last time. "Remember this day Guiche the Brass, you faced a monster and lived to see the light of a new morning. Remember to thank my Mistress, she saved your life."

While Alucard turned and bowed at Louise's feet, accepting of her anger without complaint, Guiche sank his head to the ground bonelessly; his heart desperately trying to escape from his chest.

Suddenly without warning his head was knocked to the side, and then again, as Montmorency slapped him fiercely; tears in her eyes. "You stupid moron. Don't you ever do something that stupid again!"

Guiche shuddered. She didn't need to worry, once was one time to many to come face to face with a monster; he wasn't eager to repeat the experience. And may the Founder have mercy on anyone who was so unlucky as to fight against Louise de la Vallière, because the Familiar of Zero would not be denied a second time.

1.5 - (Tabac Iberez)

[Girls und Panzer]

Admin Space

Sitting at her computer, Skuld sighed happily. It had been a full half hour since something had gone horribly wrong! Leaning back for just a second, Skuld stretched out languidly, de-tensing for a second. Kicking up her feet, both landed on the desk with a light thunk, and she closed her eyes.

As if the universe had decided that this was too good to exist, a chain of events that would put Rube Goldberg to shame begun. Balanced precipitously on a thirty-six can pile of Monsters, an old coffee mug full of pencils and pens tumbled down. One of the erasers, made of new "Never-Run-Out Synthetic UberRubber" started bouncing around the room like a piece of shrapnel. Two pens hit the keyboard shortcut for "Server Audit". The eraser, somehow gaining momentum, knocked the perilous tower of Monster cans into the desk's workspace, one hitting the pens on the keyboard, which pushed the omega, epsilon, ehwaz, and mu keys. This opened up the RAM subsystem. As the can rolled off, it bumped a pencil over the first paste key, slapping a chunk of code down related to identifying memory leaks. The rest of the pile of cans fell onto a pile of trash trying to creep out of the can. Another can, rolling off the impromptu ramp hit the still-bouncing eraser, catching it's energy and undergoing a 95% momentum transfer. The can, now trying to hit Mach 1 with all it's might, hit a wall with enough to rattle the ceiling light, which dropped a dust ball the size of Fenir's head. Said dust ball hit the keyboard smack on the ENTER key, activating the unholy mess that had been created.

This occurred inside a space of time approximately even to a human's sneeze. Skuld groaned, looked at the carnage, and promptly dialed the cleaning department to take her off the blacklist and clean her office, or else she would put the fear of Yggdrasil into them. Grabbing her "Out For Lunch" sign, she put the computer into Sleep mode and left.

-x-X-x-

As Miho Nishizumi walked home after the party that had followed their heroic win over Black Forest Peak, she saw a shooting star. Smiling, she wished it well as she made her way to her bed. She was bone-tired, and needed to sleep or she would be worse than Mako come morning! Getting into her apartment, she got into her pajamas, and fell into bed. Sleep came shortly after.

-x-X-x-

In Skuld's office and computer, the series of unfortunate events that had started with an unguarded moment of relaxation continued apace. The cleaning tech, who had been scared to the quick of Skuld, had been fixing the light when he fell off his step stool, and dropped onto the desk. The mess created by his retreat from the High Altar of the Queen of the Debug, and woe to thee who disturbed it. Putting it to rights, he saw a dangerous sign.

NEW LOOP INITIATED. CONFIRM?

Hitting YES, he made sure the diagram looked less Eldritch before abandoning the fell computer to its own devices. Doing an excellent job with the rest of the office, he finished and ran for the hills.

Returning to her office after her lunch break, Skuld cracked her knuckles and got down to work. Most of her job entitled either directing her hordes of debuggers to spackle cracks in the code while she managed the take. The remainder was her grabbing the metaphorical gun and plugging the holes herself. Admittedly, if she had to do that, things were getting bad. As in, "Catastrophic, Admin was in the can having a smoke while their computer burned" bad. After a few minutes, though, Skuld was noticing a trend. Most of the issues she was finding were physics issues. After a quick call to the Hell Desk to tell Fenrir that parts of the Improbable Island physics engine were shedding again, she buckled down for the normal spat of BS that flooded in after about 1500, which was when the server hit max load as all the other Admins had finished their siestas and tried to work.

That's when her phone started ringing.

"Ma'am, we're losing RAM batteries by the dozen!" a panicked voice called from the depths of Servers.

"What's knocking them out? Another of Jörmungandr's Timey-Wimey things dropped on a server that didn't have the patch?"

"No, Ma'am! This is core RAM batteries! We're looking at having to shut down Admin access if this keeps up!"

Skuld hissed. Core RAM was what modeled any Admin changes to an in-progress Loop. Once the patch was modeled, it could be seamlessly applied. Cracking open her RAM interface, Skuld spat like a cat dropped in a water barrel. The entire system had been plagued with memory leaks. Hitting the "Massive Shite" button on her intercom, she growled as her minions started hunting down the Goldberg of Ooopsies.

-x-X-x-

Sitting up in her bed, Miho yawned. It was a new day, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, the alarm clock wasn't beeping...

Crap!

Scurrying with the speed of a professional, Miho got herself and her apartment shipshape and scrambled for the main building of Ooari Academy. It wouldn't due to be late on her first day! Wait? Where did that thought come from? Ignoring it, Miho rushed to school. Late was late was late was Sodoko railing at her because the Captain of the Tankery team should never dare be late...

-x-X-x-

Hitting her head on her desk in frustration, Skuld let loose an Eldritch sound. The RAM banks were being occupied by something with higher priority than her, and nobody was using them. Therefore, the tree was up to tricks. Meanwhile, it was approaching Hour 14 of the fiasco, and her debuggers had discovered they were bailing a paper-mache canoe with stone buckets. Throw a little water out, knock a hole to let more in. Grabbing her next can of Red Bull, Skuld rolled her shoulders and got back into the fray. As far as she could tell, SOMETHING was locking up the ram banks because it couldn't get anywhere else where it could do it's thing better.

Arriving, Miho waved to Sodoko, who just frowned at her. Shrugging, she got to class and started getting ready. Afterwords, however, she was confused. They were all acting as if this was their first time meeting each other. Didn't they know about how she had won the Tankery tournament, and that their school was saved? Shrugging, she moved to get up. Inexplicably, her pencil bag fell off her desk. Shrugging, she went down to pick it up. Coming back up, she heard a friendly and familiar voice talking to her.

"Hey, you want to go out to lunch?"

Not turning very much she responded. "Sure, Saori. Give me a minute, though. I think one of my pencils rolled away..."

A frowning expression appeared on Saori's face. "Do we know another?"

"Saori, stop joking around, will you please? I'm your tank commander- of course you know me!"

"But... ahm..."

Turning fully around, Miho looked at Saori, and the until-now silent Hana.

"Hana, Saori, you have to stop this joke. I swear, today's exactly like the first day I was here..."

Looking at a hanging calendar, Miho smiled.

"See? It's already past the end of... Tankery... season..."

Hanging there was the date for the first day of school. Turning back to Saori and Hana, Miho gulped and said in a very small voice something that scared her. "You don't remember me, do you."

Hana answered, concerned. "I know your last name is Nishizumi, and you looked lonely, but..."

Miho fell onto her desk. "If you don't remember me, do you at least remember Anglerfish-san? Either of you?"

Both of them shook their heads.

Miho made a small eep. "I think... I think we can go to lunch. And maybe the Nurse's office, later. I need to clear my head..."

-x-X-x-

In the depths of Skuld's growing monument to the powers of caffeine and aggravation, she roared triumphantly!

"I found the root issue, you slimy (CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED THAT'S PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE CENSORED). It's a new Loop! Now, who initiated it without telling me?!"

The screen told her, in mocking voice.

"Well, crap."

1.6 - (OracleMask)

[.Hack/Soul Eater]

Haseo stared up at the building. And up, and up...

"Are those candles sticking out?" he asked, incredulous.

"Of course they are," the blond in pigtails standing next to him replied.

She sounded amused by his reaction, which was probably just as well. Maka Albarn was, as she described it, the Anchor for this universe and therefore the one person Haseo had to not piss off. Bad enough when it was just looping through time in his own universe, but now Haseo was in a new universe and now all bets were off. Still, it beat getting killed in increasingly annoying ways as he continued to fail to get to the end of his own original life – and a book thumped painfully into his skull as Maka decided Haseo had ignored her long enough.

"Enough with the damn chopping already," Haseo growled, rubbing his head.

"Enough with the spacing out, then!" Maka countered, "We've got a lot of work to do!"

Hearing Maka's explanation about meisters and weapons was one thing. But seeing the girl turn into a scythe in front of him, Haseo thought, was pretty damn surreal.

"Are you...always a scythe?" Haseo asked.

Maka's voice was tinny and distant from inside the blade of the scythe.

"Normally I'm the meister, not the demon weapon," Maka admitted, "But I have a common Loop Variant where I inherited demon weapon powers from Poppa, and after living it enough times, it stuck."

Well that didn't make this any less weird. Haseo shrugged, and tried picking Maka's scythe-body up. A problem became apparent immediately.

"Ugh! What the hell are you made of?! You're way too heavy!"

"Demon weapons have to synchronize soul wavelengths with their meisters before they can be used!" Maka scolded, "Didn't your Loop Memories say anything about that? You're lucky I'm not burning your hands off right now!"

"Lucky, says the twenty-ton scythe," Haseo grunted.

His arms were screaming in protest now, muscles straining and joints aching as Haseo fought a losing battle to keep from dropping Maka.

"Shut up and channel your soul wavelength already."

It was really disturbing to do soul resonance. More than once Haseo felt the familiar surge of Skeith beginning to manifest itself – only for a zap from Maka's soul to drive Skeith back into dormancy. Every time she did it, it gave Haseo a splitting headache. Complaining about it netted Haseo exactly zero points of sympathy.

Even when their soul resonance reached 'acceptable' levels, Haseo found new reasons to complain. His scythe-using skills were, according to Maka, 'below pathetic' and she refused to let him go anywhere until she deemed them passable.

Calling her a slave-driver tended to result in Haseo getting Maka-chopped.

Through blood, sweat, tears, blunt trauma via book, and a lot of cursing, Haseo and Maka had managed to collect 99 kishin eggs. Fighting like this was definitely a new challenge for Haseo – back in his home Loop, the battles were all done in-game. Those battles still hurt like hell, of course, but the amount of actual physical skill needed to fight was pretty low.

Here, the battles were in real life and Haseo had a good chance of being permanently maimed or killed if he screwed up. While he was not going to regret going back to his nice, safe (not really) online game after this, Haseo couldn't help but admit to seeing the appeal of real combat.

What he didn't see any appeal to was Blair's offer. Maka did seem to think he'd take it, which almost made Haseo agree to it just out of spite. He at least pretended to consider it, if only to hear Maka sputtering.

Besides, Pi's were bigger.

All of Maka's warnings about their new opponent faded from his mind as Haseo stared at the pink-haired...person in front of him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Crona asked, nervously.

"Because I can't tell if you're a boy or a girl," Haseo admitted, seeing no reason not to be blunt.

"Does it matter?" Maka asked from inside her scythe-form.

"Kinda, yeah!" Haseo retorted, "It's going to bug me for the entire fight otherwise!"

"You...don't know how to deal with it?" Crona said, "Oh no...I don't know how to deal with someone who doesn't know how to deal with something like that..."

"You just stab them, you idiot!" Crona's black sword shouted.

Maka found herself sitting in the infirmary watching over two patients. One was the idiot Looper who'd Replaced Soul for this Loop, Haseo. He'd missed a block while fighting Crona and been stabbed fairly deeply by Ragnarok. The good news was that it hadn't hit anything vital. And the black blood hadn't gotten too deeply inside him before the demon Haseo called Skeith woke up and ate it.

The other bed contained Crona, who'd discovered first-hand that Skeith really didn't care if Crona's blood was black...which it no longer was, again thanks to Skeith's apparently voracious appetite and weird powers. Crona still being alive afterward was probably a miracle.

At least Maka could take comfort that this twist was sure to make the rest of the Loop very interesting.

1.7 - (Leviticus Wilkes)

[Neon Genesis Evangelion]

The dojo was specially reinforced. The floors and walls and roof could contain a multi-megaton nuclear explosion. The paint was impeccable.

Asuka usually trashed it anyway. Today would be no exception.

Rei pulled a white fan from her sleeve and opened it. "Ready?"

On one side of the room, dressed in her plug suit, Asuka fell into a long fencer's stance, her personal sword Artemis Bleed leveled at her opponents. "Ready!"

Across from her, Gendo ignited his lightsaber, the red light cackling unstably. A flicker of orange light off of her left hand heralded the phase shift of his still minor AT Field. "Ready."

Next to him, Misato transformed her grenade launcher hammer, Magnhildr, into it's hammer form. The mechanisms snapped into place easily and the long hammer fell lightly into her grip. "Ready."

Rei closed the fan, flipped it over, and opened the red side. "BEGIN!"

Misato and Gendo shot like cannonballs at Asuka, rocketing across the hardwood floor. Asuka knocked Magnhildr off course and above her head before reversing her grip on Artemis Bleed and stopping Gendo's lightsaber. She ducked a swing from his AT Field armored hand and lashed out at Misato's ankle, sending the over balanced woman to her knees. Turning to Gendo, Asuka lashed out and kicked him in the face, sending him flying into the distant wall. As Misato collapsed Magnhildr, Asuka reached down, flicked the safety on, and then grabbed Misato and sent her flying as well.

This battle lasted five seconds.

Asuka chuckled as sheathed Artemis Bleed. "Not half bad Misato. Good try with Magnhildr, but be a little quicker on the draw next time."

"Sure..." Misato drawled as she dropped the hammer/grenade launcher into her subspace pocket. Gendo declined comment and simply phased his lightsaber into his pocket.

Kneeling on the edge of the carpet, Shinji sipped a cup of ginseng tea. "You know, I think you two are getting better. That was a lot longer than when you started."

Misato grumbled something unintelligible. Gendo grabbed a cup and poured himself some tea. "Should I take honey with this or..."

"Try rat shit, I heard it's delicious with Shinji's cooking," Asuka retorted. To herself, Rei snorted, drawing incredulous looks. Gendo rolled his eyes and got a dollop of honey for his tea.

Misato glanced at Artemis Bleed. "So..."

"Nope."

"Come on Asuka!" Misato whined. "You say you've had that sword for millennia! It's supposed to be the oldest sword in the Multiverse. How come you won't tell me how you made it?"

Asuka rolled her eyes. "First, it's not the oldest sword in the Multiverse, that honor goes to Ichigo's Zanpakuto. Secondly, this isn't even the first Artemis Bleed, or even the fifteenth. Thirdly, I'm not telling you because you tried to seduce Shinji."

Misato blushed. "I was drunk, alright."

Shinji lowered his tea cup. "Asuka, please don't hold it against Misato. It's not her fault I'm the cutest fourteen year old in history."

"WHAT!?" Asuka screeched. "HOW DARE YOU! I'M THE CUTEST AND YOU KNOW IT!"

"YOU CANNOT HANDLE THIS LEVEL OF CUTE!" Shinji roared back. Instantly, he began to sparkle. "BEHOLD THE BISHONEN SPARKLE!"

"BISHOJO SPARKLE, ACTIVATE!"

Gendo clicked his tongue. Misato chuckled. "So... they always like this?"

Rei broke from her fond staring to glance back at Misato. Had Misato been a little more versed in Rei's subdued mannerisms, she may have caught the depth and meaning behind her smile. As it was, all she saw was one of the rare Ayanami grins. "Yes. Yes they have."

1.8 - (Nuebattles)

[Cardcaptor Sakura]

For the first time, Sakura Kinomoto Woke up.

She smiled, sitting up and looking at her desk at where the bear Syaoran gave her... wasn't. Shooting out of bed, she pulled out Kero's 'room.' He'd know where it was, right?!

Kero's room wasn't there. The drawer was filled with all her old stuff, the things she got rid of or put elsewhere to make room. Her Sakura Cards weren't where she left them, either, and with that came the sinking realization that her Key wasn't around her neck.

She sat numbly, turning her head to the clock, suddenly shrieking at the time. She was going to be late! Kero and Big Brother were probably just playing a mean prank, and she'd yell at him once she got ready for school and down to eat. They could be such jerks.

But as she sped down, she looked at the whiteboard with the schedules for the day. The date was right... For three years ago, the day she discovered the Clow Cards. Actually, the schedules were the same as then too.

Could it be RETURN? No, there'd be a second Sakura. TIME? No, it can't go this far back. Her heart raced as she stared at the board, ignoring Toya calling her a monster, which really worried him. She always rose to the bait.

But not today. Today, she ate quickly, and sped out right after him, not even turning the slightest bit red at seeing Yukito. Her head was racing at the possibilities, her face going paler and paler as a thought occurred to her.

What if it was all a dream? What if it was a premonition, or worse, never going to happen? She might never meet Meiling or Kero or Yue or Eriol or... or Syaoran. Clow Reed might never even have existed. All the Sakura Cards... They were her friends and they might never have been real in the first place. She'd have to find out. She'd have to find the book of Clow Cards. After school, she'd find it, she hoped.

Unbeknownst to her, her quietness was noticed by her brother and Yukito. Toya could sense an immense power fluctuation in her. She wasn't the same as when she went to sleep.

-x-X-x-

Sakura was so relieved to find the Book. But it wasn't her Book. It was Clow's. Kero was still on the cover even! She really had gone back in time. This was too much... But...

Opening the book and looking at her oldest friend, WINDY, she couldn't help but smile through tears and read it aloud. Which, really, she should have known better; having lived through it before.

The Cards scattered, Kero introduced himself in his bombastic way, and Sakura knew everything would be alright.

1.9 - (Krisoverstreet)

[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]

Most of the Loopers I've met can't remember their first Loop with any clarity. I don't mean remembering their pre-Loop baseline. I mean, most people don't have a clear memory of the first time they realized they were repeating the same bit of their life over again. That first Loop tends to blur together with memories of other early Loops when the Loopers experimented, went wild, went insane, and pulled themselves back to something that could pass for sanity in a good light.

But I will always remember my first Loop.

A large part of it is because I'd experienced Looping before, in that endless summer, even though my memories didn't accumulate there except as the occasional extreme attack of deja vu. My mind was prepared for the possibility. Living with Haruhi's insanity had prepared my mind for nearly anything.

So when I woke up and realized I was in my own past, without actually traveling through time, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my chance to live things over again.

And the very first thing I wanted to do set the tone for the rest of that Loop.

I stood up on the first day of class and introduced myself, giving my name and my former middle school.

"My friends call me Kyon, though I wish they wouldn't. I am an absolutely normal and ordinary human being. If there are any aliens, time travelers, or espers, come see me. That is all!"

As I sat down I looked at the face of the girl seated behind me. I shall treasure the pure shock and surprise in that face for as long as I shall live, and it lasted a good five seconds. Then she smiled, looking at me as if to inform me that she couldn't wait for the first opportunity to get even with me.

"Oh God," I heard Taniguchi mutter, "there's two of them."

An ordinary person is of course no match for Haruhi Suzumiya, much less a rival. But a Looper? That's a different story.

1.1 – Welcome to the party. Better late than never... right?

1.2 – Remember kids, if you break the Universe you'll get attacked by magical xenophobic technicolor ponies!

1.3 – Beware the Oppai Dragon.

1.4 – The No-Life King in Halkegenia? Founder save us all.

1.5 – Drive me closer! I want to hit them with my Moe.

1.6 - .Hack/DWMA

1.7 – You Can (NOT) Stay Sane

1.8 – One Fateful Day, Redux

1.9 – Just a regular guy caught up in irregular circumstances. Situation normal, all F****d up.

Welcome to the Compilation of the Miscellaneous Anime Loops. This is a part of the growing universe known as the Infinite Loops, originally started by Innortal before being revived and restructured on Spacebattles by Saphroneth.

Here are the basics of the Infinite Loops: Every piece of published original fiction exists as it's own universe in the Multiverse contained within Yggdrasil, which has broken. Until it is fixed, everything is held in stasis via Time Loops to keep it from getting worse. ETA of final repairs: yes. The Infinite Loops is the story of the various characters caught up in the Time Loop as they deal with the problems caused by having Infinite Time on their hands. Shenanigans will inevitably ensue.

Immediately below are the rest of the basics and additional information can be found on the TvTropes, Wikia, and Spacebattles pages. Jā mate ne!

Loop mechanics (general)

One person in a Loop, often the main character, is an Anchor. They are the person who first starts time looping.

There is always at least one Anchor present in a given Time Loop snippet, though it may not be the local one. The standard pattern for a loop is that the Anchor (and whoever else is Looping there) come to awareness in a loop at a particular point in the story. From there, events will play out as influenced by the Loopers present, acting with the benefit of their foreknowledge, until either a predetermined end point is reached or all the Loopers have copped it.

To be Awake is to be aware of the time loops (that is, to have gone back in time this time.) The Anchor is the only character guaranteed to be Awake. Even after others have started looping, it is mostly random as to whether they will be Awake this particular loop. Crossovers, fusions, and alternate pasts can also take place. It is perfectly possible, for example, to have the characters Awaken into a loop which conforms to a fanfic universe rather than reality.

Loops do not have to be in chronological order, but it is strongly preferred that they not require a mutually contradictory order (where A must be before B and B must be before A.)

Just about every Looper is very, very stir crazy.