"Is Shido doing okay with Yoshino right now?"
Having moved down one floor away from Shido, I asked Kotori through the intercom.
[Her favorability is very stable right now, aside from the brief dip a moment ago. Well... compared to how your favorability keeps going up, it’s barely a drop in the bucket, and the real problem is that it hasn’t shown any sign of rising since thirty minutes ago.]
"Ahaha..."
At Kotori’s words, I could only laugh vaguely and not really answer.
A little while ago, when I was dragging myself through the support role for Shido’s date, everything I did was supposed to be for raising Yoshino’s favorability toward Shido. And yet, for some reason, [Fraxinus] had said that my favorability was going up instead of Shido’s.
I’d tried tossing out a light joke about bones to lower it a bit, but I quickly realized that it was pointless when the favorability kept filling back up even more than before.
[And seriously, building a roof out of bones and calling it “bone”d board... how do you even come up with a joke that gives people goosebumps just hearing it?]
"I was trying to make the favorability go down with that joke, actually."
[...Anyway. More importantly, what are you doing there right now?]
"Huh? I’m playing."
For reference, I was currently having a blast in the indoor playground inside the department store.
The reason I was playing in an indoor playground came down to two reasons.
One, I’d left the area because I was worried the favorability issue would interfere with Shido’s approach to Yoshino.
And two, I’d actually wanted to play in one of these indoor playgrounds for a long time.
Whenever I passed by a department store back in the day and saw kids having fun here, I’d often feel really jealous. Normally, with all the eyes on me and the age restrictions, there was no way I could play in an indoor playground. But now, with everyone evacuated because of the Spacequake alert, there was no one here to stop me.
Happy that I’d finally gotten to do something I’d always wanted to try, even if only in this form, I let out a cheer and dove into the ball pit.
Kiiyooot!
[...You’re having way too much fun.]
I heard Kotori sigh through the intercom. But I cleanly ignored it!
[Still, that’s pretty amazing. You said you’ve never even taken care of a child, but you handled [Hermit] so smoothly. It’s like I’m watching a “mom” or something. You only talk like that, but maybe you actually have a lot of experience?]
"A mom, huh..."
At Kotori’s use of the word mom, I let out a dry laugh. Come to think of it, there was a character in Undertale with a mom-like vibe too. I touched the goat mask in my arms with my finger and muttered,
"Toriel..."
[Hm? What was that just now?]
"No, nothing."
Toriel. The monster who appears second in Undertale, a master of fire magic, and someone who sets up all sorts of tricks in the game to make first-time players wonder whether she’s a good person or a bad one. But to me, she was the one who’d already been spoiled as a good person by the fandom screaming, “Wow! Sans!” from the start.
Come to think of it, the butterscotch cinnamon pie I made before was originally Toriel’s food too. But why was the recipe for that pie in my head? I’m Sans, not Toriel. That had been a question back then too, and even now, I still couldn’t make sense of it.
"...Could it be?"
For a moment, one hypothesis flashed through my mind. But since it was nothing more than a baseless guess, I shoved it back down with an “Eh, no way~.”
[Honestly, this is a problem.]
"Huh? What is?"
At the sigh in her voice, I asked what was wrong.
[Yoshinon’s favorability is going up well enough, but Yoshino’s favorability just doesn’t seem to be rising at all. It would’ve been nice if this had gone as smoothly as someone who started at 70 from the beginning, too.]
"Yoshino didn’t say anything?"
[Not at all. Only Yoshinon’s been talking up a storm.]
"That is a problem..."
Remembering how Yoshino had only spoken to me and not to Shido at all when we walked through the department store together, I muttered that to myself.
Only Shido could seal spiritual power, but Shido’s favorability wasn’t going up, and my favorability was rising for no reason at all. From Kotori’s perspective, it was only natural she’d be sighing.
Well, from my perspective, since Yoshino was my favorite character, I didn’t exactly feel bad about her favorability going up. But in the end, if this was for Yoshino’s sake, the one whose favorability needed to rise wasn’t me. It had to be Shido.
To let a Spirit live like an ordinary person, her spiritual power had to be sealed. And the only person who could seal that spiritual power was Shido. It’s not like I could seal a Spirit’s power by kissing her the way Shido could.
So raising Yoshino’s favorability toward Shido was absolutely necessary for Yoshino’s sake too, but if the process itself wasn’t going smoothly, it was only natural to want to sigh.
[──Shido, an emergency has occurred. And not just any emergency. It’s the worst emergency imaginable.]
"...Hm? What? What happened?"
Kotori’s voice through the intercom was calling for Shido in a panicked tone. A loud siren began blaring through the intercom. Had Shido said something stupid? Startled by the sound, I asked what was going on, and Kotori repeated the word emergency once more before telling me too.
[Tohka has appeared at the scene. Yoshino fell over and accidentally kissed Shido, and Tohka saw the whole thing.]
"................"
At the frantic voice coming through the intercom, I froze in place, still in the same pose as when I’d been playing in the ball pit. At the same time, forgotten memories surfaced in my head, and cold sweat began to trickle down my back.
Right. Come to think of it, there really had been a scene like that. Tohka showing up in a rage, asking Shido what he was doing, then Yoshinon’s not-quite-a-provocation provoking her into a huge mess that sent everything off the rails...
Boom──!
A loud crashing sound, like something had been smashed apart, came from the floor above. Without even time to think, I prepared to use teleportation and told Kotori to give me the location.
[Two floors above your current position! It’s the toy store!]
The moment I heard the location and used teleportation, my vision flipped. I’d meant to appear right in front of them, but when I looked around, Shido, Tohka, Yoshino, and Yoshinon were about fifteen meters away from where I’d appeared.
Tohka, who was angry, and Yoshinon, who was provoking her, came into view. And between them was Shido, looking helplessly back and forth at the two of them.
"Damn it!"
Before I could hurriedly reach out and shout for them to stop, Tohka had already grabbed Yoshinon by the collar and was yelling in anger. Yoshinon, who had been moving full of energy just moments ago, now hung limp in Tohka’s hand without reacting at all.
I could see Yoshino’s face turn pale in an instant, her whole body trembling. Using teleportation once more, I appeared right in front of Yoshino.
Shido and Tohka were startled by my sudden appearance, but only for a moment.
Then I heard a sob from behind me, a pitiful "Ueeeng..." and Yoshino, with trembling hands, clutched tightly onto me.
"Y-Yoshino?"
"W-What? Why are you crying all of a sudden?"
Tohka was flustered by Yoshino’s tears, but I was just as flustered. I’d forgotten for a moment that things were going to turn into a disaster once Tohka showed up, but thanks to that, I’d remembered what came next. And if my memory was right, the next thing that should happen was Yoshino panicking after Yoshinon was suddenly stripped away, summoning her Angel and fleeing the area.
Even though my interference had changed things a little, I was certain that there had been no scene in my memory of Yoshino clinging to someone while bawling her eyes out.
[Shido! Calm Tohka down first. And Kang Haneul, comfort Yoshino! Your appearance has suddenly stabilized Yoshino’s mental state, which had been unstable!]
Kotori’s voice burst out through the intercom. I had no idea how things were unfolding, but if she said to do it, then I’d do it. At the very least, I wasn’t so lacking in comprehension that I needed to hear the same thing twice.
Hurrying, I wrapped my arms around Yoshino and gently patted her trembling back.
"Yoshino, don’t be afraid. It’s me. Kang Haneul. Now that I’m here, don’t worry. I’ll stay by your side."
While patting the back of Yoshino, who was sniffling in my arms, I slowly held out a hand to Tohka and asked her to give me the Yoshinon she was holding.
Tohka looked a little displeased, but perhaps because she had seen Yoshino crying, she agreed for now and obediently tried to hand Yoshinon over.
Yeah.
She tried to hand it over.
That is, if not for the explosion that suddenly happened.
"Kyaa...!"
"Aaaah!"
Yoshino was startled by the sudden explosion, and Shido screamed. What the hell is going on?! Shido shouted that toward the intercom, and Kotori on the other side answered in a loud voice.
[AST has started firing! It looks like the spiritual power backlash from Tohka earlier was the cause!]
"Hide behind me!"
I created a wall made of bones in front of us and blocked the explosions that were closing in on this place.
"Haneul! Teleport! Can’t you use that teleportation to get us out of here?!"
"Sorry, but I’m not skilled enough yet to move with other people!"
The moment I answered Shido’s shout, a cold sensation suddenly came from my arms, and I looked down. At that instant, Yoshino, with a face even more terrified than before, cried out [Zadkiel] and raised her right hand. And that raised hand happened to slam hard into my chin.
With a short cry of "Kuhk-", I toppled backward.
"A doll...?"
"──No, that is──?!"
Shido and Tohka shouted at the same time, and I hurriedly got back up, grinding my teeth as I muttered that this was bad. A huge white rabbit smashed through the floor and appeared. Yoshino was already riding on top of that giant rabbit, with both hands shoved into the two holes in its back, and soon a low roar followed as pure white smoke burst from her entire body.
"What a useless punching bag, and you can’t even rack up results...!"
Looking at the AST barely visible beyond the collapsed ceiling, I muttered that in an irritated voice.
"Haneul! Dodge!"
Apparently they’d aimed wrong, because one missile was flying straight toward us. I sent a bone at it. A moment later, with a huge KWAANG!, the missile exploded in midair.
"You pathetic dog-brained idiots!!!"
And then I kicked off the ground and shouted that toward the AST chasing after Yoshino as she fled the building at high speed.
Good.