[Minionization, Hypnosis, Masks]

The relationship between dimensions was rather fickle. That was how Izanami ended up meeting Mikai, and it was how Mikai ended up coming back to Izanami's home dimension once the former managed to return. But despite this relationship, one thing didn't change, and that was the kind of people that lived in each dimension.

Mikai, for instance, didn't stop being the happy young girl that she was at heart once she arrived in Izanami's dimension. Or, well, it wasn't actually her dimension. She had been from a different dimension entirely, but the one they returned to was one that she currently considered home as it was where her original host had been. But thanks to the troubles that cropped up when she bounced to Mikai's dimension and back, she no longer required a host. As a result, Mikai was given a simple task as thanks for her hard work keeping Izanami out of trouble.

Make sure that she didn't cause trouble now that she wasn't locked within Hikari. A seemingly simple task, since Izanami hadn't been so powerful when she was in Mikai's dimension. Unfortunately, returning to this dimension actually gave her back all of her powers and then some. And while Izanami promised not to cause problems because she didn't want to disappoint Mikai, somehow the young sandy blonde didn't believe her. Not because she wanted to distrust her, but because she had lied to her in the past and that resulted in... Izanami getting into trouble because she lied to try and get her powers back.

So what did Mikai do when faced with this problem? Why, there was a very simple solution. And this time there didn't seem to be any caveats. All it took was a few talks with Hikari for her to learn about Izanami's acolyte, Natsuki, and she immediately realized what she had to do.

Natsuki was close to Izanami. And if Natsuki was close to Izanami, that meant that she knew how to handle her. Even if she was an acolyte or a minion or something in that sense, then... Well, she didn't know what she was actually going to do, but Izanami was the type to do bad things to people that crossed her, so that meant that Natsuki was probably dangerous too. But Hikari said that she was nice, so Mikai was willing to believe that she was nice too. But she just couldn't shake the feeling regardless.

Either way, the only path forward meant that she had to head straight to Natsuki, while making sure that Izanami wasn't going to cause problems while she was away. And after that, well... Sheeee'd... Get her answers? Probably? Either way, she was going to meet somebody that was going to be nice and a new friend and all that cute stuff.

At least, that's what Mikai thought when she headed off. She just didn't realize that there might be a few caveats when she finally arrived.

---

"Hellooooo! You're Natsuki, right?"

Mikai immediately greeted the girl that wore the same sort of colors as Izanami. Black and red. Or was it red and black? Either way, it was almost impossible for her to not immediately identify her. She was dressed in such a way that it was easy to tell that she was Izanami's bestie.

Natsuki blinked a couple of times as she looked at Mikai. This wasss... The girl that Hikari had told her about, right? She was one of Izanami's friends too... Well, that meant that she was a good girl. Mistress only befriended the best kind of girls. That was why she and Hikari were friends, at least.

"Mmhm. You must be Mikai. How's Mistress been?" Natsuki gently smiled as she invited the girl in. Before blinking as Mikai had seemingly vanished almost immediately after she went inside. Goodness, how fast was she? It was a little overwhelming...

Mikai tried her best to not speed around inside of another person's house. But she was just naturally curious. She couldn't stop herself from looking around and giggling. She just couldn't stop herself from looking at everything. Whether it was all the masks laying around, or just everything else... Oh, there were a bunch of different pictures hung up on the walls. "What are these?" She asked, pointing towards the stuff on display.

Natsuki looked at what was on display, before chuckling. "Ah, that's pictures of when my mom was still active. Well, she wasn't exactly a real magical girl, but she always tried to help Hikari's mom. They were really tight back in the day, but they ended up taking different routes. And while Hikari's mom settled down, Mom was quick to invite Hikari to the MGA, to make sure that her power was put to good use."

"MGA?" Mikai asked, tilting her head slightly as she had never heard the term before. Not even Hikari had mentioned it, and it was definitely not something she would hear about from Izanami. Izanami was supposed to be a villain after all.

"The Magical Girl Association. If you've got any magical abilities, and you want to work without having any problems, you head to them and explain your powers. That kind of stuff. You don't have magical girls in your world, do you, Mikai?" Natsuki asked, all while slowly giggling as she looked at one of the pictures that showed both of her mom and Hikari's mom mugging at the camera like the dorks they were in their youth. Heh, it reminded her of the goofy smiles she and Hikari had made on several pictures.

"Nope! Lots of armored heroes, like myself, but no magical girls. Well, I guess you could kinda call the baddies that I fight magical girls, but they're not exactly magical. Or girls. They're meanies with big boobs that always just cause problems." Mikai explained, before rubbing her chin slightly. "What's with people trying to hurt our moms, anyway? One of my enemies tried to attack my mom and make me fight her, and... Well, I dunno why, but it feels like your Mom and HIkari's mom both got attacked while Hikari was active."

Natsuki had to shrug her shoulders a bit. "People just go for the people we hold precious. If Mistress Izanami was a heroine, I would probably be a target. And so would you." She explained, all while smiling still. Heh, now she could just picture... Mikai in the same sort of outfit as her. Oh, that was hot. Actually really hot now that she thought about it...

Mikai nodded. "Yeah, there were people that tried to attack Izanami while she was in my world. Just because I was close to her. They thought she was my girlfriend! Or my older sister! I don't even wear black!" Mikai pouted and shouted a little. Even if she blushed because she kinda liked the thought of all of those. Wait, that's right, she was here specifically because of Izanami, not just to talk about magical girls and moms and all that! "Natsuki, do you know how to keep Izanami in check? I don't want her to get in trouble, and I don't want Hikari to blast her if she tried to do something!"

"Well, I don't know how to keep her in check exactly." Natsuki explained, before walking over and grabbing one of the masks that were currently hung up on one of the walls. She didn't grab her own mask, that one was for her and her alone. But there were a couple more. Some that were meant for common minions, and... One that was still waiting for its fateful owner. Well, Mikai was special, so she could give her that one. Couldn't she? "But I do have this."

Mikai watched as Natsuki gave her one of the masks, causing her to look all over. It was a big red mask that was just begging to be worn. "Isn't this one of Izanami's masks? What's so different about this one?" She asked, giving it a few knocks to make sure it was real. She would totally believe that Natsuki would keep a couple of fakes around just for the sake of doing some sort of roleplay. She seemed like the kind of girl that would do that, especially since Tsubasa did the very same with the replica PAWN armor that he had made in case he ever wanted to imagine that Hiro had saved him again.

"Well, why don't you try it on? You've seen what Mistress Izanami can do, but have you tried to feel it out yourself?" Natsuki chimed, all while she smiled and giggled. She was a good minion. And good minions made sure to make even more minions. That was a fundamental part of being a minion, and she was going to make sure that Izanami was happy with everything that she did. And turning Mikai into one... Well, that just made sense. She was such a good friend that she would make a great minion, especially one that wasn't just faceless and another normal minion among the crowd.

Mikai looked at the mask a little. She spun it around, she gave it a couple of good glances, and then she tried to push her hand into the side that was supposed to go on her face. She really didn't know how it was supposed to store any sort of power, but Izanami had used one of them before in her world, and it hadn't worked. So why would this one work? ...Well, there was no better time than the present to try one.

She put on the mask, and then she made sure that it was practically strapped to her face. All while she blinked a couple times. Huh, it was actually fitting onto her rather well. Was it that small? Weird, she thought it was... bigger...

Almost immediately after Mikai had attached it to her face, it started to beam hypnotic spirals right into her mind. Spirals that completely tossed and turned her mind around. She could barely even keep track of her mind as soon as they started going. And they kept going and going all while she looked into the mask, not even bothering to try and remove it.

While the spirals were making a complete mess of her mind, several images were being beamed straight into the center. Images of her dear Izanami. Her friend... Her... friend? No, Izanami was more than a friend. She wouldn't be thinking this much of a friend, except if that friend was Yumeko, so this was much more than a friend. Mistress? No, that didn't feel right, that felt like it wasn't quite as emblematic of the kind of woman that Izanami was. It was more like...

Goddess! That's it, that's what Izanami was! A goddess! A real, bonafide goddess. The single goddess that Mikai needed to devote all of her time to. She needed to kneel before her and kiss her feet and love her as much as she possibly could. Well, she was already doing a good amount of the latter, so she just needed to make sure that Izanami knew that she loved her. That way, she would be in her good graces. And then Izanami would praise her. Mistress Izanami would praise her for thinking of her as a proper goddess..!

As Izanami took up a permanent spot inside of Mikai's mind, her clothes were being changed on a fundamental level. Not just by having her school uniform change into a nice shade of red and black much like Natsuki's outfit, but her hair was also taking on the same shade of white as Izanami's. Most of Izanami's minions wore the same kind of outfit as Natsuki, but Mikai wasn't just going to be a special minion, she was also the kind of girl that completely internalized her transformations. Which meant that to truly worship her goddess, she needed to look her part.

That was why Mikai's hair grew ever slightly, especially as it grew whiter and whiter. And as soon as she started to fully internalize the conversion, the mask slowly but surely fell off her face. All to reveal the red eyes that were now completely devoted to her goddess. All to reveal the white-haired minion that would love Izanami forever more. All to reveal Mikai, who was now marked with a very cute 9 on her cheek. Which would've denoted her position in the minion hierarchy, but it also just served to remind anybody that saw her of her general intelligence. Because... Really, she was a minion, she needed people to know that.

"Minion Mikai! Reporting for duty!" Mikai chimed as she saluted, making sure to grab her mask so she didn't lose it. It was proof of her servitude. She didn't want to lose it, because then her dear Mistress was going to scold her for getting rid of it. There was no way that she was going to get rid of that. Nooo way!

Natsuki chuckled a little. "You know, you don't need to do this. You can just be yourself. Mistress probably likes you as long as you're yourself. With the added bit of devotion because she knows that you're her minion:" She chimed, patting the much shorter minion on the head. "Now... This'll make sure that she stays in line. At least, I know Mistress doesn't actively try to hurt her minions. Especially the ones that are good."

Mikai nodded. That was great to hear. "Thank you, Natsuki! I'll be sure to try that out! I'm sure Mistress will protect me and be good because of it!" She chimed, before running straight out through the door to try and get back to Izanami as fast as possible...

Natsuki chuckled as she watched her run off. It had been hot, but she really didn't expect her to be this eager. Then again, she was eager too, wasn't she? That was why she kept trailing Hikari and Mistress...

Oh well. It wasn't like Izanami wouldn't be able to handle her. Mistress was definitely going to be able to handle Mikai like this... Right?

---

"Mikai! For the last time! Let go of me!"

"But you're fantastic, Mistresssss! I just want to make you haaaaappy!"

Izanami wasn't sure what she had expected when Mikai went off to Natsuki. To have her come back as a clingy minion... Well, she could've seen that coming, especially since Mikai's tendency to get really into the kind of things she got engaged with. She just didn't expect it like this!

Especially not when she kept on hugging her. The kid was way too strong, it was like she was squeezing the life out of her. All because she was doing her best. The girl didn't realize that her best was way more than Izanami could handle, she felt like life was being squeezed right out of her, goddamnit!

"Mistresssss..." Mikai sighed sweetly as she nuzzled Izanami. She wasn't actually hugging her that much. She was just being a little dramatic. She wasn't even trying to hug her that hard, she just wanted to make sure that Izanami loved it.

Izanami struggled against that hug. And then she struggled a little again. And then she ended up just giving up, frustratedly sighing as she let the girl just hug her. "Why did you go through all that trouble just to get turned into a minion, Mikai? I thought you trusted my promise."

"I do, Mistress. But I also just want to try and learn more about you. And sure, that meant that I ended up talking with Natsuki and getting a little transformed, but that's okay. Because I got to learn about Mistress' best aspects." Mikai said, giggling as she looked up at Izanami and smiling as much as she possibly could.

Izanami looked down at Mikai and started to blush. "Why did you want to learn about me? Didn't you learn enough while I was staying with you? Are you trying to turn into a stalker or something, Mikai? If you're turning into a stalker, then..." Izanami didn't know what she was going to do. Because if there was one person that was going to be hard to deal with if they were a stalker, it'd be somebody as overly enthusiastic like Mikai.

"I just wanna learn more about my Mistress, Mistress! I wanna learn what you're like to your minions, I wanna learn what you're like when you treat them nicely! I want to make sure that you're happy with me! And I wanna learn everything and anything I can. So we can be as close as possible!" Mikai chimed, explaining it all with a big ol' grin on her face.

Izanami trembled and stuttered and panted and wheezed and didn't know how to cope with this kind of interest, her dominant attitude being drained completely from her face. "B-But if you know everything, then how are you going to feel excited when I try to tell you something that I've kept hidden for so long? I-I don't want you to know everything, I want it to be a secret so I can-"

Mikai giggled as Izanami's eyes started to spin more and more as she tried to regain control. But that just made her look all the more adorable. And that was part of why she loved her Mistress. Because she was adorable. Underneath all of that strength, underneath all of that dominance... There was an adorable woman that she had come to love through the long time she had spent in her world. She honestly wanted to learn more about her. She also just wanted to be with her much more. And if turning into her minion was what it took to learn about her, if that was what it took to make sure she wouldn't get into trouble, and if that was what it took to be with her until the very end...

Then Mikai would happily be her minion, even if it made her Mistress so flustered that she couldn't even find the right words to try and scold her.