“Kotori…”
Shidou Itsuka bit his lip tightly, his gaze locked onto the screen.
The deafening explosions could be clearly heard even inside the airborne ship, yet the boy still wanted to convey his voice, his worry, and his care to the girl who was fighting.
The earpiece that served as a communication device had originally been well-protected by Kotori, but the moment that embodiment of destructive impulse took over her body, it was burned to ashes by spirit flames.
Waterproof, fireproof, shock-resistant guarantees were a joke.
With Shidou Itsuka’s judgment as an ordinary person, he could only see the forest in his line of sight being destroyed, unable to confirm the specific battle situation.
But even that alone brought increasingly intense psychological pressure to the boy.
There was no helping it.
Even Mother Earth would have a headache watching an oversized husky demolish the house, right?
For ordinary people, this was already on the level of a kaiju destroying a city in a tokusatsu show.
“Shidou, Kyoumi she… kyaa—”
Tohka wanted to comfort the boy, but she herself didn’t understand the current situation.
To her, it was just two friends she had just made suddenly fighting.
Even that level of understanding was interrupted by the sensation of something being draped over her shoulders.
The girl warily jumped back two steps.
Her view shifted from the large screen to the woman with heavy dark circles under her eyes, large coffee-colored stains on her chest, and some undissolved sugar crystals.
She looked utterly listless.
“…Sorry, did I startle you?”
In her hand was a white lab coat.
It seemed she had just tried to drape it over Tohka’s shoulders.
“…Ah, that… I-I thought someone was going to attack me…”
Kyoumi’s outerwear fit perfectly on its owner, but on the well-endowed Tohka, it barely covered her upper body.
If the girl hadn’t also fastened the crossed lower hem around her, it wouldn’t just be vaguely visible right now.
Realizing her mistake, Tohka tilted her head, explained her actions, and sheepishly accepted the lab coat that could fully cover her body.
Only then did she belatedly notice that the gazes falling on her were being withdrawn one by one.
“Tch…”
“What a shame…”
“We didn’t get to see aaaah—”
There were other people here—!
Suddenly on guard, Tohka looked left and right, turned around, and saw the officers’ seats in the command room.
“It’s the lottery guy!”
Raising her arm, Tohka pointed in surprise at 【Early Burnout Period】 Kawagoe, who had completed his mission and returned to the airborne ship.
“The prize distributor!”
Her finger shifted to 【Dimensional Transcender】 Nakatsugawa, who pushed up his glasses and pretended nothing had happened while looking away.
“The one who was scribbling all over the prize column!!!”
You actually noticed!!!
Unable to hold back, the officers simultaneously groaned in their minds and exchanged glances, completing internal communication.
“Ahem, Miss Tohka, let me teach you a common fact,” Nakatsugawa, who looked the most serious, cleared his throat and raised a finger.
“Generally, there are three people in the world who look exactly alike. We’ve been here working seriously the whole time. The ones you saw were probably other people… maybe?”
…If it were exposed here that all the humans she had seen were deliberately arranged, it would be bad.
Though that was indeed the case, for them who wanted to establish the concept in Tohka’s mind that 【humans are not all filled with malice】, muddling through here was the best option.
“Hey! Idiot! That excuse is way too half-assed!”
Confirming that message in Chimoto’s eyes as she looked over, Nakatsugawa glared back without hesitation.
“You do it then!”
“Eh? Is that how it works?”
Shocked by this never-before-heard common knowledge, Tohka looked confusedly at the others and received frantic nods of confirmation from all the officers.
“Mmm… then please take care of me! People who seem to not be the prize distributors!”
“It actually worked!!!”
“Also, where is this place? Why are Kotori and Kyoumi fighting? Why can’t I call out Sandalphon?!”
With too many things on her mind, Tohka anxiously pointed at the screen with fingers covered by sleeves, firing off questions in rapid succession.
“Mmm… let me answer them one by one…”
Brushing off the sugar crystals stuck to her clothes with her knuckles, Reine Murasame reached out and gently ruffled Shidou Itsuka’s hair, turning the boy’s anxious face toward her as well.
“Little Shi too, Kotori is not in danger. Fraxinus has special equipment that can display her physical condition… relax a little…”
“But… Reine… Kotori she…”
“This is Kotori’s own decision. Just trust her… Little Shi…”
“My name is Shidou… Reine…”
Regaining his senses from Reine’s soothing voice… the boy sighed, feeling helpless at having gained a second nickname…
Come to think of it, everyone on Fraxinus hadn’t shown much worry about Kotori… Kotori should really be fine…
But… no matter what, he couldn’t calm down.
That was his little sister, after all.
Even if he wanted to believe Kyoumi’s words, he couldn’t help fearing something unexpected might happen.
“Is Vice Commander Kannazuki not here?”
Still somewhat distraught, Shidou Itsuka looked around the command room and voiced his confusion.
“Kannazuki has… other matters to attend to…”
“Hey! Isn’t it about time you let me go?!”
The girl frowned and shouted at the slightly panting girl.
Kyoumi still maintained the posture of pinning her down, her body trembling almost imperceptibly.
Even propping up her upper body was done very slowly, as if she wasn’t in a hurry at all.
“Don’t be so impatient. Kotori still has something she hasn’t said to me, right?”
Squinting, Kyoumi shook her head and asked in a testing tone.
“…Wha… what?”
“I helped you burn off a lot of spirit power, and now that you’re awake, you have nothing to say?”
“…Hmph…”
Further recognizing the girl’s nastiness, Kotori wanted to say something, but it ultimately turned into a reluctant, mosquito-like voice.
“Thanks…”
“…”
Kyoumi opened her eyes again, refocusing her gaze on the girl’s face. Suddenly, the corners of her mouth lifted.
“Pfft…”
“What’s so funny!!!”
“Pff… no, no~ I just think, as expected, Kotori is still the cutest~ All covered in dirt like a little flower cat… hehe~”
The purple-black giant claws released Kotori’s arms, and the weight pressing down her legs was also withdrawn.
“Ara~ I was even wondering, if Miss Flame Demon wanted to talk with me and was to my taste, maybe I would choose her instead. But as expected, Kotori is still the cutest~”
“You—”
“No need to mind it, Kotori~ The one who overcame that guy’s will was you. The one who found herself again was you. The one suppressing destructive impulses to not hurt others was also only you.”
“And me? At most, I just inexplicably beat you up twice. Thanking me would make you seem strange, wouldn’t it~”
“…What a nasty way to put it… So in the end, you just wanted me to thank you so you could properly tease me!”
“Yes, yes, think whatever you like.”
As if suddenly interested, Kyoumi, still smiling, raised a massive claw and pointed to the sky.
“Have you thought about how to clean up the aftermath? With them?”
There, scattered figures were flying. With a spirit’s eyesight, Kotori Itsuka confirmed—they were the Anti-Spirit Team, AST.