Back home.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

She did it! Ishtar was finally in a body she could control! She could see, she could hear, she could breathe and, more importantly, she could speak!

“Oh my God! Finally!” Ishtar heard her own voice as Cynthia’s voice, which was… unsettling. She was used to hearing herself in Will’s voice when she spoke with a body by now. Her body, too. Cynthia was super sexy so the body felt comfortable, but not feeling the strength and agility of Will’s body was awkward. But none of that mattered because Ishtar was back, baby! “I can’t believe it! First I find a girl I don’t know, then it turns out she’s Ruth’s roommate but she has no reason to meet her, but THEN it turns out she’s ALSO Cynthia’s daughter!? I thought my luck was rotten but it turns out I got the jackpot!”

Ishtar stretched her arms, her back, rotated her hips and jumped a couple of times, feeling Cynthia’s heavy chest bounce. Haha! Tits! She hadn’t felt herself having those in a while! And the lack of a penis was… oddly comfortable, but also a shame. Having that thing hanging between her legs was weird, but peeing while standing was so cool!

“Wait, wait, what was that about me?” Ruth asked, eyes wide.

“Um… Ishtar?” Nanami asked. “Is it… really you?”

“In the flesh! In Cynthia’s flesh, really, but the important thing is that I can move and talk!” Ishtar clapped her hands once. “And that means we can get to work! I’m not wasting a second. I need to go get Will back.”

“You know where he is!?” Anna asked with a hopeful smile.

“That bitch Helga got to us. Will is probably still at her place… Though I don’t know where that is…”

“Okay, lass, sit down and calm down,” Belphegor said, stepping in. “Aoi is on her way there as we speak. If the lad is still there, she’ll find out for us. For now, explain what happened.”

Ishtar sat down on the couch. Her body and her spirit felt in good condition. The potion Cynthia drank, one made of her own powers, actually helped in restoring a good chunk of her aether. Not back to full, but more than enough to kick ass if necessary. She was raring to go, actually, but… Maybe not in Cynthia’s body.

Ishtar crossed her arms and put one leg over the other. “We ran into too much shit when we crossed to the other side. We found a mirrorkin, followed him, had to fight dinosaur monsters before running full speed after the mirrorkin. Then a Black Roc snatched us without us hearing a thing! One moment we were running, the other we’re in the air in the clutches of a giant bird! Will had to keep the strengthening magic up all the way to her nest or he would’ve had his chest pierced. Then, when we got to the nest, a fucking snake monster was trying to eat the bird’s babies. Will shot it dead, but that was the last bit of energy he had left. We were drained like never before. The Roc took care of us, though. Smart enough to recognize we had saved her and her babies. We slept. Then the next morning Johana was there. She tracked us. We were making our way back to the portal when we saw a bunch of mercenaries trying to capture the mirrokin we had been chasing. Johana stepped up and kicked all their asses, but while we were alone, the bitch Helga stepped out of nowhere and fought us using weird puppets made of aether. Even drained as he was, Will fought and used more aether than he had left. His body paid for it and he passed out. We then got transported back to this world when Helga used a crystal to cast a portal spell, but not before Azazel put a spear through her shoulder! Remind me to praise him for that next time I see him. Ah, then the bitch pulled me out of Will and tried to trap me into another crystal, but I tempted her with my powers and she fell for it. I escaped and happened to find a girl with a faint, lingering bit of my essence and I possessed her, but I couldn’t take over her body or even speak to her, so I didn’t know what to do! Then her mother texted her and asked her to bring her a flash drive thing, and it turns out that mother was Cynthia! When they were face to face, I jumped directly from the girl to possess Cynthia, then asked her to lend me her body… and here we are!”

Ishtar only realized she was out of breath when she stopped talking. She spat everything out all at once. She was breathing hard, her hands, Cynthia’s hands, trembled violently, as did her lips despite the grin she **** on them.

Belphegor then stepped in front of her, looking down, and wordlessly put a hand on her head. It felt heavy, large… gentle.

“We’ll get him back, lass. But you need your rest, too. Relax, get some sleep. You have my word that we’ll get your man safe and sound.”

“...”

Suddenly, Ishtar was a little girl again. She pursed her lips hard and shut her eyes to try and stop the tears, but it didn’t work. Ishtar cried while trying to keep a straight face, but that only made her get the hiccups. She straightened up and gripped her knees while tears escaped her.

“I… I have to…”

“Rest. You have to rest,” Amelia said, standing behind her and gently putting her hands on her shoulders. “We’re still waiting on word from Aoi, and you know well how capable she is.”

“Johana is with her, too,” Nanami said, smiling wryly at Ishtar. “Who knows? Maybe if you take a nap you’ll wake up to find Will in the living room?”

Ishtar chuckled weakly. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“Take this workaholic to bed with you while you’re at it,” Amelia said, giving Cynthia’s shoulder a little pat. “The rest will do her some good, too.”

Ishtar was **** to do it, but finally being amongst familiar people, amongst allies, made her come down from her heightened state of alert, a state she’d been on for hours at this point.

She went to bed, to William’s bed. And in Cynthia’s body she lay there, alone, thinking sleep would have trouble finding her. It didn’t.