“Kyoumi, what’s wrong with Shidou? He looks really distracted.”
It had started a while ago—or rather, ever since Kotori Itsuka accidentally let slip that word.
The atmosphere between the siblings had turned strange.
On the surface, Kotori Itsuka didn’t show much reaction, but every now and then she would sneak a glance at the boy’s expression before quickly turning away, pretending nothing had happened.
Shidou Itsuka, meanwhile, wore the pained look of someone who had grasped a crucial clue yet was stuck halfway through piecing it together.
If this had been their first meeting, Tohka naturally wouldn’t have cared about Shidou’s feelings.
Back then, any hesitation or scheming behavior would have meant, to her, that he was preparing to kill her—an undeniable enemy.
But after spending the whole day together, both the boy’s sincerity and the addictive allure of kinako bread had made Tohka start to care about the person who had given her all of this.
To sum it up…
“Could it be that ‘kiss’ is some kind of secret signal to attack me? Maybe the bad guys are using Kotori to threaten Shidou!”
Tohka voiced her question and immediately followed it with what she believed was the most realistic answer, then turned a seeking gaze toward the other spirit, Kyoumi.
“Hmm… It’s a bit complicated. Simply put, Kotori is a spirit too, but she’s different from us.”
“Eh… eh? Kotori is a spirit?!”
Utterly shocked, Tohka reacted dramatically, circling the girl to inspect her from all sides.
She poked Kotori’s shoulder and frowned.
“But this Divine Raiment has really poor defense, doesn’t it?”
“This is just a normal middle school uniform…”
Kotori sighed helplessly at Tohka’s wild leap in logic, then continued where the sword spirit had left off while sneaking another glance at the still-distracted Shidou.
“I wasn’t planning to hide the fact that I’m a spirit from you. I just consider myself human, that’s all…”
“Still human?”
Tohka didn’t understand.
Several question marks popped up beside her head.
“Kotori’s spirit power is a little special. Before, it always felt like she was carrying a lot of negative emotions…”
“Of course I’d be angry after being buried underground!”
“Ehh~ So that’s the explanation? I think it’s fine to vent a little when the spirit power burden gets too heavy.”
In her field of vision, the boy snapped back to attention upon hearing those words.
Noticing his gaze, Kyoumi tilted her head.
“Shidou’s back with us. Shall we put that proposal on hold for now?”
“…Proposal? Venting? Hmm hmm hmm? What are you all talking about? Don’t leave me out!”
Cheeks puffed up, Tohka stomped her foot in dissatisfaction and called out to the boy.
“Hey, Shidou! I’m right here! What have you been spacing out about since earlier?!”
“Ah, sorry, sorry, Tohka… I was thinking… um… about where to go next.”
It wasn’t a lie.
Even while seeming distracted, Shidou Itsuka had still followed Fraxinus’s instructions and guidance to take the girls to quite a few shops.
Unknowingly, his wallet had ended up considerably lighter.
He’d probably feel the pain once he fully came back to his senses.
“Hm? I see! So, Shidou, where are we going next?”
For now, at least, the kinako bread pillow in her arms and the satisfaction of all the food now happily settled in her stomach made everything worthwhile.
Tohka’s affection level was already just one step away from the sealing threshold.
That was good news for the Fraxinus crew and for the boy who wanted to save spirits.
However, the reason Shidou was distracted wasn’t only because he was troubled by the truth from five years ago.
Part of it was that time was running out.
…They had been on this four-person date for quite a while now, and the streets were faintly tinged red.
The sun was no longer high overhead like at noon; it had begun to sink.
The support measures provided by Fraxinus were aimed solely at Tohka.
As for Kotori… truthfully, having lived together for so long, they knew each other far too well.
Temporarily raising her affection to lover level seemed, to Shidou Itsuka, extremely difficult.
Moreover, because Kyoumi’s appearance had triggered a spacequake, no ordinary citizens were out and about.
The only people visible were Ratatoskr staff disguised as residents.
…In that case, there was no way an amusement park would be open.
Every method he could think of to make Kotori’s heart race was effectively dead.
If things continued like this… Kyoumi would…
Wracking his brain, desperately thinking—the place in Tenguu City, where he had lived all this time, that was most likely to make someone’s heart flutter…
Among all the scenery he had seen while living with Kotori, the spot that best captured the beauty of this city…
And… if it was a little farther from the urban area…
“I’ve got it—!”
“…Just who could do something like this?”
A # shaped vein popped on her forehead.
Before being the current captain of the Anti-Spirit Team, Ryoko Kusakabe was first and foremost a soldier—and in ordinary times, a person who gladly helped others and eased the worries of the public.
“No doubt about it. It was done by an organization capable of using a Territory.”
Origami Tobiichi added calmly, lowering the spirit power detector in her hand.
“There are no traces of spirit power.”
“From observing the surrounding pavement, the other party must possess large-scale spatial transfer technology.”
If someone had simply used a Territory to move the building, AST members could do that too.
But there were no debris or dirt on the nearby roads that would have fallen from a floating structure.
That led Origami Tobiichi to a further conclusion.
“…Those guys up top still haven’t given me an answer. Some other organization meddling during a spirit manifestation… My head is killing me…”
Ryoko Kusakabe sighed and looked at the girl who seemed to have more to say.
“…So, Origami, what are you suspecting?”
“Unauthorized destruction of private property during civilian evacuation without notifying the JGSDF is certainly headache-inducing, but you’re not the type to get distracted during a mission…”
Her fingertip tapped a key on the device at her waist. Ryoko lowered her hand.
“I’ve temporarily cut the comms. Say whatever guess you have. No one else will hear.”
“…Thank you, Ryoko.”
“During work hours, it’s Captain, Sergeant Tobiichi.”
“So… Origami, what exactly are you trying to say?”
“Yes.”
Origami Tobiichi nodded lightly and narrowed her eyes.
“I suspect this organization is attempting to make contact with spirits.”
“Are you joking? No one with a normal brain would do something that dangerous, right?”
“…If they possess perfected spatial transfer technology… it wouldn’t be impossible.”
“…Ah…” If they had a guaranteed way to escape unscathed, it wasn’t unthinkable that someone would court death.
Even though she still found the idea absurd, compared to using that kind of high-end technology during a spacequake just to steal a shop, Origami’s theory seemed slightly more credible.
“I really don’t understand what those higher-ups have in their heads. Just don’t give me any more work!”
Complaining out loud, Ryoko Kusakabe opened the comms with a pained expression and issued orders for the team to observe street changes according to the map.
“Making contact with that kind of calamity… Ha… I sure hope nobody gets into trouble.”