YMMV / Alternate Reincarnation

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Minor, but noticeable one. Chapter 4 shows Shido explicitly rejecting the idea of Love at First Sight, something that the readers point out to be untrue, stating that Shido fell in love at first sight with Tohka back in the beginning of the story.
  • While this is likely to be the case in the anime, the novels (especially later ones) imply that while Shido is willing to do anything for the Spirits, his love and dedication for them is not out of romantic feelings, but out of his selflessness and determination to do what he believes to be right.
  • The visual novel spin-offs (which this fanfic is based of) outright confirms this, seeing as it takes conscious effort on Shido's part to prefer one over all the others for him to develop actual romantic feelings toward any of the girls.
• Les Yay: Rinne and Kurumi's status of relationship seems to be that of Heterosexual Lifepartners, but there are quite a few noticeable romantic elements:
  • The two of them are very close and that's putting it mildly; they know each other to the point that one can easily predict the surface thoughts and emotions of the other, and vice versa. This is especially noticeable in Chapter 8 and 11.
  • They openly express their feelings and affection to one another. They even throw Declaration of Protection for each other, Kurumi in Chapter 8, and Rinne in Chapter 12.
  • Despite being (rightfully) confident in their abilities, they are very protective of each other's well-being. Kurumi nearly flies into a murderous rage when Phantom imitates Rinne in the pilot chapter, and later they are angry on each other's behalf in Chapter 10.
  • Rinne outright admits that Kurumi's happiness matter to her more than her own in Chapter 12. In Rinne Utopia this was something she only did for Shido, who was her love interest.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Shido's Freak Out during Chapter 5. Upon seeing Rinne's Spirit form, Shido hallucinates a vision in which Rinne murders him. It traumatizes Shido so much that he lost consciousness and slips into a coma afterwards.
  • The fact that Rinne has experienced enough despair to undergo Inversion some time in the past is this, in and out of universe. It is Rinne's personal Trauma Button, and even Kurumi finds the memory unpleasant.
  • Kannazuki experiences how it feels like to be murdered as one of Kurumi's clones in Chapter 14, courtesy of Kurumi's Pensieve Flashback ability. Even Kannazuki can't keep his composure intact by the end of it.
  • The fate of Material B, the second Spirit the DEM ever secured. Considering what Honjou Nia suffered through it can already be inferred that Material B was tortured in a very gruesome manner, but Chapter 18 reveals it to be much worse than that. In a nasty case of Immortality Hurts, her regenerative powers were used by the DEM to create an army of clones by mutilating her over and over to create enough body parts to resconstruct new bodies. Rinne, Shido, and even Kurumi find it revolting.
• Unexpected Character: The author acknowledges that Rio wasn't originally intended to appear in the story. However for the sake of canon rules, the author went out of their way to implement the character into the story.