That evening, the control room at the Tengu garrison of the Ground Self-Defense Force was packed with AST members, including their captain, Kusakabe Ryoko. Normally, if there was no scheduled training in the evening—or once training was over—AST members would spend some personal maintenance time resting or enjoying their own leisure activities.
However, today the atmosphere was a little strange. Instead of chatting, or casually playing table tennis in the lounge, everyone had gathered in the control room with heavy expressions. There were only two reasons AST members ever gathered there: either to receive a briefing just before something happened, or because something had already happened.
The situation now was clearly the latter.
“Haa... Honestly, I can’t believe it. To think the identity of that Unknown was one of the Korean exchange students...”
On the large monitor in the control room, there was an image of an East Asian boy with white hair and foreign-looking blue eyes, alongside the image of [Princess] attacking him.
Kusakabe Ryoko held her throbbing head and sighed.
AST. The Anti-Spirit Team. As the name suggested, it was a special unit of the Self-Defense Forces created to “kill” Spirits that appeared with Spacequakes. However, because Spirits possessed overwhelming combat power that only monsters or superhumans could even hope to face, AST had never once succeeded in killing a Spirit since its founding.
That was why AST always analyzed combat records after encounters with Spirits—after the Spirit’s loss, in other words, after its disappearance—and turned them into data in order to devise new strategies and prepare as thoroughly as possible for the next battle, so they could seize the most advantageous position before the inevitable fight.
The AST members gathering in the control room were there for the same reason. Originally, they had planned to review the combat records from the afternoon’s encounter with [Princess]. But today, there was one more thing they had to check besides [Princess].
“Kang... Gan... Ga... Kang, Haneul...? Korean names are really hard to pronounce.”
Name, age, nationality, weight, date of birth, and various other personal details were displayed on the large monitor. No matter how you looked at it, it was an utterly ordinary profile. Even if you searched carefully, you couldn’t find a single unusual detail. Aside from a past that was rather... no, very unfortunate, the profile was that of an utterly normal high school student you could find anywhere. And yet, precisely because it was so “ordinary,” the AST members couldn’t hide their confusion.
The owner of that utterly ordinary profile was none other than the same person as the Unknown who had suddenly appeared today.
Unknown.
That was the label given to the mysterious being who had appeared ten days ago without causing a Spacequake, slammed [Princess] into a building, and then vanished without a trace. Normally, they should have immediately classified that being as a Spirit and planned a subjugation operation, but since no spiritual power—the one thing that must be detected if someone is a Spirit—had been detected at all, even the higher-ups had argued over what the hell it was.
That was how the identification name “Unknown” had been assigned. It meant that, for now, nothing was known about it.
“...What about the detection of Unknown’s spiritual power?”
Ryoko, the captain of AST, asked the operator after watching the footage of the afternoon battle between [Princess] and Unknown. On the operator’s screen, graphs quantifying various values were being displayed. Looking at the screen, the operator broke into a cold sweat at Ryoko’s question. With an expression that said he couldn’t believe it, he forced the words out.
“...No spiritual power was detected at all.”
“Good grief. Then that means it really isn’t a Spirit.”
Holding her head, Ryoko muttered that much.
“Then what on earth is it? Could it be some kind of biological weapon secretly developed in Korea? Or maybe a new type of Wizard?”
“That’s unlikely. When we requested information about the student from Korea, they seemed to know absolutely nothing. And there was no Realizer response at all, so it’s probably not a Wizard either.”
At the operator’s words, Ryoko grabbed her head again. Where on earth were they supposed to start with this? Even one Spirit was enough to be a headache and leave them short-handed, and now a powerful being that wasn’t even a Spirit had appeared. It was nothing but trouble.
Still, if there was one piece of good news, it was that they had at least confirmed Unknown’s identity. And judging from the profile, unlike Spirits—those creatures with nothing but a desire for destruction—Unknown was attending school under the identity of a student without being noticed by anyone.
At the very least, unlike Spirits, the natural enemies of humanity who only desired destruction, Unknown still seemed to have the possibility of conversation. And this afternoon, Unknown had even fought [Princess]. Although he had retreated partway through, he had still fought far better than AST, who got beaten up day after day.
If Unknown could be brought over to humanity’s side, he would become an incredibly reliable asset against Spirits. No—perhaps he was already on humanity’s side.
“...Has there been any order from headquarters yet?”
“They’re still arguing back and forth about Unknown. There are all kinds of opinions being exchanged, from saying we should recruit Unknown to saying we should begin subjugation immediately, but the differences haven’t been narrowed down, so no definite conclusion has been reached yet.”
“More armchair theorizing, huh... Things like this should be resolved as quickly as possible. At this rate, we’ll be tied up until at least tomorrow when it comes to responding to Unknown.”
At the operator’s words, Ryoko clicked her tongue with a familiar air and muttered to herself.
“For now, let’s wait until headquarters gives us clear instructions. And Origami, Miki.”
“Y-yes, ma’am!”
“....................”
There was a small brown-haired girl who had startled and bitten her tongue, and a white-haired girl who turned her head without answering and looked at Ryoko. They were AST members Okamine Mikie and Tobiichi Origami.
“I’m saying this to the two of you just in case, but I absolutely will not tolerate you contacting Unknown on your own.”
“Um... Captain? Since headquarters hasn’t decided anything yet, that part makes sense. But why are you emphasizing it specifically to me and Origami-san...?”
“Even if he’s only here as an exchange student, Unknown is still attending the same school as you two. I’m sure the two of you would use that as an excuse and do something on your own.”
Although they were AST members, Origami and Mikie were still students first and foremost. And both of them attended the same school as Unknown. In Origami’s case, she was even in the same class as Unknown, while Mikie was in a different class but had skipped ahead a grade at a young age, putting her in the same year as Unknown. On top of that, their homeroom teacher, Okamine Tamae, was also a relative of Mikie’s.
Both of them had more than enough justification to contact Unknown under the excuse that they were simply students from the same school. And in truth, they had not completely failed to consider that. But thanks to Ryoko seeing through them in advance, Origami and Mikie could only nod helplessly.
○○○
There was one thing I realized after surviving yesterday’s fight with Tohka.
Being alive is really beautiful.
I muttered that with a moved feeling as sunlight streamed in through the window. Honestly, when I saw Tohka swinging that absurdly huge sword with those brute-force slashes, I really did shit myself. I was close to thinking, “Oh, am I actually going to die here?” And yet somehow, I’d survived and made it to the next morning.
But even after the fight with Tohka ended, things hadn’t exactly been quiet. The moment I evacuated to the hotel, I collapsed onto the bed and passed out, but not long after that, I had to go through another mess thanks to my friends returning from the shelter.
They’d caused a huge uproar when they realized I wasn’t at the shelter. They’d assumed I’d been caught up in the Spacequake for sure, so when they came back to the hotel and found me sprawled on the bed, dozing off, they were shocked.
Well, it wasn’t exactly wrong to say I’d been caught up in the Spacequake, but even I had no idea how I’d ended up in that situation. When I woke up, I was lying on a bed in the infirmary, and when I told the others that, they said I’d suddenly fallen asleep and collapsed. That was why the others had brought me to the infirmary—but the problem was why I’d suddenly fallen asleep in the first place.
I had heard that once I fall asleep, I don’t wake up easily, but I’d never had a case of suddenly dropping off without warning like that. Could it be narcolepsy? Or maybe some side effect from becoming Sans? I didn’t really know what the problem was, but it seemed like something I should look into later.
“So what do I do now...?”
I crossed my arms and leaned my head against the window. My mind was full of anxiety about what the future held. I’d somehow survived the fight with Tohka yesterday, but the problem was that AST had been there, and they were the type to attack first the moment they saw a Spirit. On top of that, Shido had also been there. Which meant Ratatoskr, the group supporting Shido from behind the scenes, had also seen me suddenly barge in.
Logically speaking, no one would look at a guy who could summon a giant dragon skull firing beams, create bone-like things in midair, and fly freely through the sky without any jetpack and think, “Yep, that’s a normal human.” If it were me, I’d classify a guy like that as a Spirit immediately.
In other words, I was screwed. My plan to just watch the protagonist and the pretty Spirits from a distance had gone completely off the rails.
“What do I do? What should I do?”
Maybe I shouldn’t have come to Japan in the first place. It had been a spur-of-the-moment decision, made because I wanted to see the original protagonist and characters after ending up in a light novel world. But I never expected that impulsive choice to come back to bite me like this.
Since AST was definitely going to treat me as an enemy, my only options were to negotiate with Ratatoskr and somehow get in with them, or flee using spatial movement and wander the world.
But the latter was a bit much to pull off, in more ways than one, so that left only the former.
“Guess Ratatoskr is the only option left...”
Compared to AST, who fired bullets the moment a Spirit appeared, or DEM, who practically reeked of hidden villain energy, Ratatoskr—the organization created to protect Spirits—was the best choice for me. At the very least, Ratatoskr was the kind of organization that would choose conversation before bullets. And there was no way they’d just sit still and leave someone who was clearly beyond human, firing beams around, alone...
“...Maybe I should go for a walk.”
Being cooped up inside was making me feel cramped, and my head wasn’t working right. I wanted to get some fresh air and clear my thoughts. I’d just take a short walk. Besides, school had been closed today, so it was a day off. When I told my friends I was going out for a walk, they told me to be careful.
Were they saying that because of what happened yesterday? Honestly, it made sense for my friends to say something like that. So today, if a Spacequake alarm went off, I’d really not do anything unnecessary and just run straight to the shelter.
It might seem pathetic, but anyway, that was the resolve I made before heading outside.
To prepare for a possible AST attack, I deliberately chose a crowded place for my walk. Even AST wouldn’t be able to move recklessly where so many people could see them. It felt kind of awful, like I was taking innocent people hostage, but I could only hope they’d forgive me for this one time.
“Hmm... By the way, how did the story progress in the anime?”
With the outside air, my head started working again and other thoughts came to mind. Come to think of it, yesterday I’d barged in and messed things up, but that scene had definitely been the one where Itsuka Shido gave Tohka the name Tohka, just like in the anime.
The scene where he handled the serious business of Spirit conquest like he was playing a dating sim had been so funny it left a strong impression on me, but the problem was that I couldn’t really remember what happened after that.
────If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve reread Date A Live one more time. No, there’s no way anyone could predict something like this and watch the anime in advance.
Maybe because the last time I watched the anime was four years ago, I couldn’t remember much beyond the scenes that left a strong impression, a few details about the characters, and some other minor things.
For now, Tohka had probably disappeared after yesterday’s incident, and Shido was probably with Ratatoskr doing whatever he was doing.
At any rate, after what happened yesterday, both AST and Ratatoskr were probably in chaos, so there was no way they’d be out somewhere having a carefree time—
“Shido! What are these things?! They look extremely delicious!”
“Uraaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
It was an instinctive reaction. At the voice that came from not too far away, I hurled my body hard in the opposite direction. A few passersby looked at me with startled, weirded-out expressions, as if to say, “What is that?” But that didn’t matter right now.
That was definitely Tohka’s voice. The same voice that had told me yesterday, “Split in half and die!” I cautiously poked my head out and looked toward where the voice had come from. Upon closer inspection, Shido was standing right beside Tohka.
“Dating is really fun! Thank you so much, Shido!”
“Shh! Shh! Tohka, I know you’re having fun, but... please, don’t say things like that so loudly!”
“....................”
Apparently, Shido and Tohka were on a date right now. I never imagined I’d run into the two of them like this. What an unbelievable coincidence. Fortunately, Tohka and Shido still didn’t know I was nearby.
I didn’t want to get spotted by Tohka and have this place turned into a wreck, so I should leave quickly. I slipped away—fast, but quietly—running in the opposite direction from where the two of them were headed.
The two of them were now out of sight. Letting out a relieved sigh at that, I rubbed my chest.
“That was close...! I almost got split in half and killed by Tohka!”
Because I’d slammed Tohka into a building ten days ago, she still considered me an enemy. I’d tried to somehow resolve that hostility yesterday with the plan of, “Aren’t your friend and I friends? You wouldn’t attack me, right...?” But as everyone knows, that had failed too, and the hostility remained.
Even if her spiritual power got sealed later, wouldn’t she just see me and immediately send an angel flying at me? But even if I had slammed her into a building, I’d been the one attacked first, so shouldn’t I be the one getting angry instead?
I had a vague thought like that, but I didn’t have the courage to start throwing a fit at Tohka, who was several times stronger than me. I’d be lucky if I didn’t get split in half by her angel.
Just being alive was enough to be grateful for, so I stopped running and walked along at a leisurely pace. I’d gotten so tense that my throat was a little dry. Maybe I should stop by a cafe and buy a drink? Just as I thought that, I happened to spot a cafe nearby.
Good. Let’s go there. I made up my mind right away and walked toward the cafe with a confident stride.
“...Huh? That girl is...”
And on the cafe terrace, I spotted someone familiar.
“Haaaaa...”
“Why are you sighing so much, Mili?”
“You know, you know? Listen to this. Miki. Do you know what happened to me this morning?”
“Hmm... Well, I did hear that you got scolded badly by the captain.”
“I recently developed a new invention, and if I use it, I can boost the firepower of a CR-Unit way more than it is now. But since I didn’t have any actual field data, I secretly installed it on Ryoko-san’s CR-Unit to get a little data, and then it went boom...!”
“That’s completely your own fault, Mili-san?! Captain’s already been struggling because the budget is short! More importantly, was that explosion this morning the cause?!”
“My lovely invention vanished from the world without even seeing the light of day─!”
“That was the problem?!”
Two girls were sitting at a table on the terrace, drinking their beverages. Both looked to be in their mid-teens, and one of them—the girl with brown hair tied into twin tails—was someone I knew.
Okamine Mikie. A girl from the class right next to mine at Raizen High School, and a relative of Teacher Okamine Tamae. We weren’t especially close, but thanks to the Raizen High School store’s Four Heavenly Kings incident, we were at least acquainted.
The other girl was a typical foreign girl with glasses, blonde hair, and blue eyes. I’d never seen her before, but maybe because she was foreign and had a more open mindset, she was wearing a pretty shocking outfit under her white lab coat: a sleeveless belly shirt with only a sports bra on top.
Do foreigners really think differently or something? Silently admiring the foreign girl’s generous chest relative to her height, I walked into the cafe to buy a drink. As the distance between us closed, Mikie on the terrace noticed me too. Our eyes met. Since I only knew Mikie a little, I was planning to just give a slight bow and head inside.
But at that moment.
“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek~~~~?!”
“Pffft─?! M-Miki...? W-why are you suddenly doing that...?”
At the ear-piercing shriek, I pulled my hand back from the doorknob and jumped in surprise. The foreign girl sitting with Mikie also spat out her drink and asked why she was doing that. Mikie’s finger was pointing at me, clearly. Seeing that with wide eyes, I stood there awkwardly, and Mikie looked at me with violently trembling eyes before shouting loudly.
“Y-y-y-y-you are...!”
“...Me?”
“Miki? Why are you suddenly freaking out at a stranger? Is he maybe your ex-boyfriend or something?”
“M-M-Mili-san! This person isn’t like that...! It’s just...!”
“U-um... Okamine? Why are you suddenly acting like this...?”
Had I done something terrible to her? I hurriedly racked my brain, searching through my memories from the day I first came to Japan all the way up to yesterday, but I couldn’t think of anything. When I asked why she was acting like that, Mikie went “Hah!” in shock, quickly withdrew the finger she’d been pointing, and lowered her head.
It all happened so fast I had no time to react. What the hell is wrong with Mikie all of a sudden...? As I kept staring in surprise, the foreign girl who seemed to be her friend slid in between us and held up both hands.
“Miki, calm down for a second. Pointing at a stranger like that is incredibly rude. Sorry about my friend’s rudeness. As an apology, would you like me to buy you a drink? Would that be okay?”
“Huh? Ah, yes...”
After the foreign girl apologized on her behalf, Mikie, who had been bowing her head, belatedly shouted an apology too. Since I got a free drink as an apology and had to wait for the drink I ordered anyway, I somehow ended up sitting with them.
The girl, who apologized again with a nod, introduced herself as Mildred F. Fujimura and said I could just call her Mili. My eyes unconsciously drifted to her generous chest relative to her height, but I quickly turned away, thinking that was rude, and looked at Mikie instead. It was an unexpected, unplanned seating arrangement, so things were a little awkward, but Mikie seemed even more awkward than I was, staring at me with trembling eyes.
No, that looked less like awkwardness or discomfort and more like she was a little scared.
“Wow~ Miki usually isn’t the type to point at people so carelessly, so this is quite the rudeness~.”
“No, it’s not really rude enough to call it that...”
I had been startled by the loud voice, but I wasn’t offended enough to be upset. In fact, seeing her trembling like that made me feel uneasy, like I really had done something wrong. Mili clapped her hands with a grin, as if trying to ease the awkward atmosphere.
“By the way, you over there... Ah, may I ask your name?”
“I’m Kang Haneul. You can just call me Haneul.”
“Kang... Haneul...? Are you Korean?”
“Yes.”
“I see! Then since you said to call you casually, I will. Anyway, Haneul! You seem to know Miki to some extent too, so could you tell me just a liiittle bit about what kind of relationship you two have?”
“Suddenly asking what kind of relationship we have...”
With a sly grin, Mili’s face gave off a strangely scheming vibe. It wasn’t right to think a bad first impression of someone you’d just met, but those grinning eyes made it impossible to shake the feeling.
Besides, if she was asking what kind of relationship I had with Mikie, the truth was we really didn’t have much of one. Aside from being slightly entangled in the Raizen High School store’s Four Heavenly Kings incident, there was almost no point of contact between us.
Well, I did remember seeing Mikie in the anime and thinking, “Ah! That’s the girl who was in the anime!” when I first saw her, but if you excluded even that, I didn’t know where she lived, what she did, or even that her full name was Okamine Mikie until we introduced ourselves.
“...We’re not really anything special. We just know each other’s faces because we go to the same school.”
“Eeeeeeeh?”
“Why are you disappointed there, Mili-san?!”
At the clearly exaggerated look of disappointment, Mikie, sitting beside me, shouted loudly. I wondered what part of my answer had disappointed her, but then I saw Mili sinking into her own little world and immediately understood why she was reacting that way.
“Because~ when Miki got so startled, I thought there must be something unusual between you and Haneul-san~. A former boyfriend separated long ago over a trivial difference of opinion... But Miki was unable to let him go, trapped in the memories of those days... And then, by some chance today, you two reunite, and those old memories come flooding back~. In the end, the two of you who were once separated become reunited again today───.”
“Excuse me? You said earlier that Miki was the one being rude, but now you’re the one being even ruder?!”
Smack—a fist landed on the top of Mili’s head with a sharp sound. Mikie, who had been sitting quietly listening beside us, finally couldn’t take it anymore and threw a punch. A cute little “Kyaa!” escaped from Mili’s mouth. Rubbing her head as if it hurt, Mili shouted at Mikie.
“W-what are you doing?! Mili’s brain is a treasure of humanity, you know~!”
“I’m sorry. As you can see, Mili is rather gifted when it comes to delusions.”
“...Are all foreigners like this?”
I’d heard that Western people were open-minded, but I never expected that to mean this much. I’d always dreamed of traveling to Europe someday, but seeing a foreigner who actually lived there suddenly made me afraid of going.
But maybe it was just Mili, because Mikie shook her head and immediately said, “No, no, that’s not it.”
“Ow ow... It was a joke, a joke! I was just trying to lighten the mood because Miki seemed way too uncomfortable around Haneul-san!”
“If you truly believe that, I’d recommend seeing a hospital...”
“That’s rude too─! Though I don’t really have room to talk, since I did something similar! Damn it!”
She sounded irritated, but there wasn’t a trace of irritation in her voice or face. I was losing my mind watching her act out the whole drum-and-gong routine by herself. When Mikie and I both made the same expression and looked at Mili, she suddenly let out a strange laugh and shouted with a confident expression.
“Still, Miki’s attitude toward Haneul-san is a lot better than before! Fufufu... To think I can even control someone’s atmosphere. Indeed, as expected of me~. Fufufufufu~!”
“..............................”
At Mili’s words, Mikie and I were both rendered speechless at the same time. Two cold stares landed on her, but Mili didn’t care at all. It was true that Mikie’s gaze, which had been so wary of me that it made me think, “Why is she acting like that?”, had softened a little compared to before, but that seemed less like Mili’s doing and more like the two of us had briefly been on the same wavelength because we were both so dumbfounded by her words. Nothing more than that.
“Um... Would it be okay if I stepped away for a moment?”
Mikie, who had been half-lidded and drowsy-looking, suddenly raised her hand and said that. There was no way we’d tell her she couldn’t if she wanted to step away. Mili and I both nodded, and Mikie trotted toward the back of the cafe. As her back receded, Mili waved and then turned to look at me.
“But seriously, what did you do to Miki? She’s not the type to point at people like that and get so shocked.”
“...I don’t know. I really don’t.”
She had a weird side to her, but was she at least the type to care about her friend? Looking at me with a more serious expression, she asked, and I shook my head with a genuinely clueless look. Honestly, I still couldn’t understand why Mikie had reacted like that when she saw me. I’d been planning to ask her if I’d done something wrong, but since she’d left before I could, I couldn’t ask now.
“Hmm~ Hey, hey. If you don’t mind, could you tell me how you and Miki first met? Maybe your first meeting with Haneul-san was so impactful that Miki instinctively avoids you~. There’s that saying that first impressions control everything about a person, so maybe that’s the reason, don’t you think~?”
“Well, as for the first impression, there really wasn’t much of a—”
Just as I was about to answer Mili that way, a memory suddenly flashed through my mind. As that memory surfaced, I stopped speaking without realizing it. The memory that had suddenly come back was from the Raizen High School store’s Four Heavenly Kings incident.
Memories from that day came back vividly, like a video being rewound.
At lunchtime that day, in front of the crowded school store, Washitani Shunsuke—one of the Raizen High School store’s Four Heavenly Kings—shouted loudly while looking at the students fighting a war in the store just to buy the bread they wanted after defeating countless rivals.
“Fuhahahahahaha~! Hear me, fellow users of the school store! Today, our Raizen High School store’s Four Heavenly Kings has gained a new comrade from a foreign land across the sea! The strongest warrior who will newly rule the school store! I shall introduce him—his name is──!”
“My name is Kang Haneul! I’m the new member of Raizen High School’s store Four Heavenly Kings! My favorite is curry bread! K-k-kuk...! By the way, I only recently joined, so I’m the weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings... Even if you defeat me, the Four Heavenly King behind me is even stronger than I am...?”
............................
My conscience was screaming, “Don’t bullshit me!” if I tried to brush that off as nothing special. It was true that Mikie and I had met through the Raizen High School store’s Four Heavenly Kings incident. Honestly, that incident was so intense, objectively and subjectively, that it was practically overflowing. Even my friends had burst out laughing until they were gasping for air when they saw me calling myself one of the Four Heavenly Kings.
But even so, I didn’t think it was enough to make her scream and cause a scene like she had earlier?
“Puhahahahahahahahahaha~! Ahahahahahahahahaha~! What is that, the school store’s Four Heavenly Kings?! Of course Miki would react like that after you did something like that! Ahahahahahaha! H-hic?! I’m laughing too much... my stomach... my stomach...!”
That was when it happened. After hearing that story, Mili suddenly grabbed her stomach, burst into tears, slapped the table, and started laughing like a maniac. Her wheezing, near-suffocating laughter drew weird looks from passersby, as if they were thinking, “What’s wrong with her...?”
But Mili paid no attention to those looks and kept bursting into laughter. At least because we were outside, she didn’t collapse onto the floor and roll around, but even so, wasn’t she laughing way too hard?
“Khk...! I’m the weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings... Pffft! Puhuh...! Puhahahahahahahahahahahaha!”
“...........................”
When would Mikie come back from the restroom? Watching Mili now, with her head buried in the table and her whole body shaking violently, I found myself thinking that.
○○○
“What do I do...? What should I do...!”
Click-clack, click-clack—Mikie, her teeth chattering, entered a deserted alley and called someone. Her face, pressed against the phone, was shaken more than I’d ever seen it. Fidgeting anxiously, she peeked her head out from the corner of the alley.
Not far from the cafe terrace where she was standing, there was a white-haired boy she could only describe as familiar. Mikie felt guilty for leaving her friend Mili alone with that boy and focused all her attention on the phone that was still ringing.
She couldn’t believe the current situation. After all, she had run into the Unknown that AST had designated as a person of interest while stopping by a cafe to chat with her friend Mili.
The fact that she had screamed and pointed at him in surprise the moment she saw Unknown was clearly her own mistake. Why on earth had she done something like that? Mikie shut her eyes tightly in regret.
“AST, Private Okamine Mikie. A-0619! Please connect me to Captain Kusakabe Ryoko!”
Once she confirmed the call had gone through, Mikie immediately stated her affiliation and identification code before getting to the point. From the other end of the phone, she heard a request to wait a moment, followed by the sound of a line being connected somewhere else. It didn’t take long. About three seconds later, a puzzled voice came through the phone.
“[What’s wrong, Miki? You were off duty today, weren’t you?]”
The owner of the voice was Kusakabe Ryoko, the captain of the AST unit Mikie belonged to. Stationed at the base, Ryoko asked what was wrong, puzzled that Mikie, who was off duty, had contacted her through the dedicated line.
But Mikie didn’t answer Ryoko’s question. As if every second mattered, she hurriedly got to the point.
“C-captain! We’re in trouble! U-Unknown has appeared here right now!”
[...Wait. What did you say?]
Hearing Mikie’s frantic voice, Ryoko thought she must have misheard. There had been something in Mikie’s words just now that she couldn’t simply let slide. Startled, Ryoko urged the stammering Mikie to explain what was going on.
[Tell me in detail. You said Unknown appeared—don’t tell me you made contact with him?]
“U-um... well...”
Ryoko was flustered by the sudden claim that Unknown had appeared without any explanation, but as the captain of AST, she couldn’t afford to stay shocked. She quickly regained her composure and had Mikie explain the situation in detail. Depending on the circumstances, it might be something that required the entire unit to deploy immediately.
As AST’s captain, Ryoko had the duty to grasp the exact situation and make a judgment accordingly.
Mikie kept the phone to her ear and explained everything she had experienced. How Unknown had appeared, how she had ended up making contact with him, and finally, what he was doing now.
After explaining everything without leaving anything out, Mikie asked, “What should I do...?” and waited for Ryoko’s instructions. But from the phone, no instructions came—no sound at all.
“...Captain?”
Seeing only silence coming from the phone, Mikie felt uneasy. But only for a moment—soon, a long, drawn-out sigh of “Haaah...” came from Ryoko on the other end.
[...For now, I won’t blame you for your carelessness right this second. After all, contact with Unknown was something that was bound to happen sooner or later anyway.]
“Y-yes... yes...”
At Ryoko’s sighing words, Mikie flinched. At the same time, the image of herself pointing at Unknown and screaming “Eeeeeeeeeek?!” flashed through her mind. As that scene came back to her, she accidentally bit her tongue while trying to answer Ryoko.
Mikie winced and teared up a little from the pain.
[By the way, is Mili still with Unknown?]
“Yes. Since she stayed up all night yesterday maintaining the CR-Unit, I think she just didn’t get the information about Unknown because she was busy.”
[She probably just wasn’t interested. That girl doesn’t even know what her own company boss looks like.]
“Um... that’s true, but...”
At Ryoko’s words, Mikie broke into a cold sweat. It was true that Mili tended to shut off her attention completely when something was outside her interests. And when she was focused on something else, that tendency became even stronger. She was the kind of person who didn’t even know what the president of her own company looked like, saying, “As long as you pay the development costs, I don’t care who’s running the mechanics company~.”
[Haa... This situation really is a headache. Of all times, Unknown had to show up now. Still, I guess Unknown is relatively manageable? At least he doesn’t have the same desire for destruction as the other Spirits....]
“Um... Captain? What do you mean, ‘of all times’...?”
Noticing something strange in Ryoko’s words, Mikie asked a question. “Of all times.” That sounded as if there was something else besides Unknown, didn’t it? When Mikie pointed that out and asked, Ryoko let out another earth-shaking sigh before answering.
[Actually, I just got a call from Origami asking us to send an observer. She said she found a girl suspected to be the Spirit [Princess].]
“P-P-Princess...?! ”
[Yeah. And after checking, the match rate between the girl and [Princess] was 98.5%. Since there was no sign of a Spacequake, she probably used what DEM calls a “quiet realm” or something like that.]
“S-so...?”
[For now, the response to [Princess] is being discussed in a meeting by the Defense Minister and the other big shots. It was only a few minutes ago that they concluded the girl was [Princess], so we still haven’t even gotten authorization to deploy the CR-Unit. Well, it’s only a matter of time before the order comes down, though....]
“...Should I return to base right now?”
Mikie, who was off duty, said that in a solemn voice. But the answer she got from the phone was completely different from what she expected.
[No.]
“Whaaaat─?! Why?!”
Ryoko answered immediately without even a second’s hesitation. Mikie looked deeply hurt by the response, but Ryoko told her to calm down and continued.
[Just calm down for a second. Actually, under normal circumstances, you should’ve been recalled even if you were off duty. But you said you’re currently in contact with Unknown, right?]
“Ah, yes. Come to think of it, I was...”
Mikie had been so shocked by the appearance of [Princess] that she had momentarily forgotten about Unknown’s existence. Hearing Mikie brush off contact with Unknown with a casual “come to think of it...,” Ryoko was slightly dumbfounded.
Clearing her throat, Ryoko continued.
[So I’d like you to keep an eye on Unknown for now.]
“...Huh? Huhhhhh?! W-w-wait a second. Captain! You want me to watch Unknown?!”
And at that, Mikie let out a loud scream of shock.
[Don’t worry. By “watch,” I only mean guiding his route so he doesn’t make contact with [Princess]. It would be nice if you could stick close to him and get some information out of him while you’re at it, but expecting that from your personality, Miki, would be too much. I’ll assign combat personnel separately in case something happens. If an incident occurs, you get out immediately.]
Since Ryoko had already been informed of [Princess]’s appearance, giving Mikie this order was unavoidable to some extent. Unknown and [Princess]. If two beings with such immense power made contact and collided like they had yesterday, the aftermath would be passed directly on to the civilians who hadn’t evacuated.
Ryoko was giving Mikie this order precisely to prevent the two from making contact at all. And since the two had, by coincidence, already made contact, and since Unknown and Mikie were attending the same school, there was no one more suitable than Mikie to handle the immediate task of watching Unknown and guiding his movements.
Of course, Mikie had been greatly flustered when she first heard the order. But after Ryoko’s explanation made it clear that there was no one more suitable than her, she could only brace herself, holding back her trembling legs.
Since combat personnel would be sent separately, there was no need to be too afraid. If Unknown started running wild, she just had to run away immediately, just as the captain said. Mikie steadied her shaking heart, took another breath, and nodded as she answered Ryoko that she understood.
“...Ah. B-but Captain, what should I do about Mili?”
[...Right. That girl was there too!]
“Should I tell Mili about the situation too?”
[Hmm... No. Miki, just focus on watching Unknown and guiding his route. If you start explaining the situation to Mili and Unknown overhears, that’ll be a problem. I’ll send her a separate message myself. Anyway, I’m counting on you.]
“...Yes.”
At Ryoko’s words, Mikie answered in a trembling voice.
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