As a girl with long dark-purple hair tied with a butterfly ribbon walked down the street, gasps rose all around her. The clothes she wore were nothing more than an ordinary school uniform, with no embellishments at all, and yet, on a girl so beautiful it was almost painful to look at, even that uniform seemed like a luxury-brand outfit some model would wear around town.
Violent beauty, the kind that made you want to strike up a conversation just once. Every time she sent curious glances around her and tilted her head in that cute, bobbing way, a few passing men clutched their chests and went, "Guh...!"
But only for a moment. Soon enough, jealousy and envy crept into the eyes of the men passing by, and they shot a sharp glare at someone else standing beside the girl.
What appeared in their line of sight was a blue-haired boy with androgynous features. Feeling the surrounding stares, the boy shivered for some indescribable reason, a creepy sensation crawling up his spine.
"Hmm? Why are you suddenly trembling?"
"Mm... I don't know. Maybe a cold?"
"A cold? What is that?"
"It's what happens when a person's body gets weak. You get chills, or start coughing, or your forehead gets hot."
"I see. Then perhaps..."
"W-Wait?! T-Tohka?!"
At the boy's explanation, the girl called Tohka nodded and reached out a hand toward his forehead. He flinched at the sudden touch, but Tohka didn't seem to care as she withdrew her hand and tilted her head.
"I don't feel any heat on your forehead. Then is it not a cold?"
"................................"
"Shido? Why have you suddenly gone silent?"
At Tohka's puzzled question, the boy called Shido couldn't answer and only blushed bright red. No matter how you looked at it, it was light physical contact that could only be seen as skinship. Seeing this, the people around them spat, "Tch!" and sent jealous looks at Shido. Shido was also breaking out in a cold sweat under those gazes, but Tohka, who had actually put her hand to his forehead, felt nothing strange at all and only kept tilting her head.
For a normal person, it was the kind of thing they would find embarrassing and never do. But Tohka's casual attitude made it seem as though she had no such common sense. Still, that made sense. Tohka wasn't an ordinary human, but a special disaster-designated lifeform called a Spirit.
After being asked a question by such an overwhelming existence, Shido let out a small sigh and answered that it was nothing, then started walking again.
"Oh! Shido, what can you eat over there?"
"Huh? Wait a sec. Ah... that's a cafe. It's a place where you can get drinks and coffee more than food."
"Coffee...?"
"It's a drink that's bitter but smells nice. They roast beans called coffee beans and steep them in hot water. Well, depending on the drink, there are sweet coffees too."
"Ohhh...! I want to try that coffee too!"
With shining eyes, Tohka shouted that out, and Shido gave a wry smile as he reached for his wallet. Thanks to all the times he'd gone around different shops with Tohka, he had a feeling his wallet was about to work overtime again. Even though Tohka had already eaten a ridiculous amount at the previous shop and the balance in his wallet was now nearly gone, he still had just enough left to buy at least one cup of coffee.
Still, what should he do from here? His finances had taken a huge, unplanned hit, and to be honest, things were not looking good. After buying coffee, he would really be out of money. But judging from Tohka's monstrous appetite, she looked like she could easily handle several more meals.
At this rate, was he going to end up having to eat and run, or wash dishes, despite never having been the sort of person to do that in life?
At the sight of his wallet, forcibly put on a diet and left skinny as a rail, Shido let out a sigh deep enough to sink the ground.
"................................"
"Tohka? What's wrong all of a sudden?"
And then, at that very moment.
Shido noticed that Tohka, who had just been as lively as a puppy out for a walk, had suddenly gone quiet, and he sensed something was off. Had she seen something interesting? But that didn't seem likely, because Tohka's atmosphere had become far too sharp.
She suddenly stopped walking and lowered her stance, sending sharp looks this way and that. It almost looked like she was preparing for a surprise attack or a fight.
What happened? Don't tell me AST showed up?
Seeing Tohka on guard, Shido overlapped her current expression with the times she'd fought AST and broke out in a cold sweat. There were so many people around. If Tohka started rampaging here, it would definitely be a disaster. Trying to calm her down somehow, he asked why she was acting like that.
"...I sense Whitey's presence."
"W-Whitey...?"
Shido looked bewildered at the unexpectedly cute nickname that didn't fit the mood at all. Tohka stared intently in the direction of the cafe, then slowly looked around that area and tilted her head.
"You saw it too, did you not? That white fellow who suddenly appeared yesterday and tried to ambush me."
"The white fellow...? ...Could it be?"
At Tohka's words, Shido remembered something and recalled yesterday's events. That had been not long after he gave her the name Tohka.
Amid the sight of the school grounds, utterly destroyed, and the rainlike barrage of bullets pouring down without end, Shido had spoken with her inside the barrier Tohka had deployed.
He could confidently say the atmosphere of the conversation itself had been good. Even if he had been pushed into it by his little sister and the Fraxinus crew, he had gotten a date out of it, and that was why he could walk here with her now.
But right after that, when AST's concentrated fire brought down the classroom wall, there had been a white-haired boy hiding beyond it.
The white-haired boy he had seen then was the Whitey Tohka was talking about. He had barely managed to defend himself against Tohka's merciless attacks, unable to mount any real counterattack, and then he had vanished.
Shido knew that boy from then. More precisely, he couldn't not know him. He was a foreign exchange student who had come all the way from Korea to Japan ten days ago through the exchange student project.
They had exchanged names, so Shido knew his name too. Kang Haneul. And in Shido's mind, his impression of him wasn't all that bad.
"Tch! His presence is gone. What a fast one he is, running away like that!"
But Tohka seemed to think differently. Seeing her click her tongue and clench her fist, Shido scratched his head.
"Um, Tohka? Do you hate that guy from yesterday?"
"Of course I do, do I not? Before, he blew me away with an invisible force of unknown origin, and yesterday he even tried to ambush you and me. The presence of the fellow who just disappeared a moment ago was surely because he was trying to ambush us again and failed."
Remembering what had happened before, Tohka said that in a voice heavy with irritation. It seemed she was quite worked up just thinking back on it. Tohka crossed her arms with a face full of anger, and Shido tilted his head.
He understood how Tohka felt, but he still couldn't immediately agree with her. The boy Shido had seen clearly possessed a mysterious power that ordinary humans couldn't have, but as far as personality went, he didn't seem like such a bad person.
Maybe he was someone who needed help too, like Tohka? Scratching his head, Shido shook his head at her words.
"...Mm. Hey, Tohka? I think maybe you're misunderstanding something."
"A misunderstanding? What do you mean?"
"That white fellow you mentioned is someone I know. Of course, I didn't know he had a power like that either. But at the very least, he's not the kind of guy who'd sneak around and ambush people."
Watching him fight Tohka from the bridge of Fraxinus only strengthened that thought. If he had really intended to ambush her, then in the battle that followed he wouldn't have just defended himself; he would have attacked more actively too.
But Tohka still puffed out her lips in dissatisfaction and snorted, "Hmph!"
"Even if, as Shido says, Whitey wasn't trying to ambush me. It remains an undeniable fact that the white fellow blew me away before."
"...Uh, Tohka? I have one thing to ask. Wasn't the one who attacked first you?"
Hearing Tohka talk about what happened ten days ago, Shido asked without thinking. He had been there ten days ago too. And he had seen exactly what happened. Unless his memory was wrong, or someone had tampered with it, the one who attacked first had definitely been Tohka.
At Shido's words, Tohka muttered, "Was that so...?" and fell into thought. A moment later, she let out an "Ah." and visibly stiffened, breaking out in a cold sweat.
"...Now that I think about it, even if I sensed his energy, the one who attacked first was me. I thought Whitey was on the same side as Mekamekadan, so I acted first..."
Cold sweat began pouring down her stiff face like rain. Tohka stared at Shido with wide eyes and spoke again.
"...Could it be that Whitey was not Mekamekadan?"
"...Yeah. He isn't AST."
"Th-Then...!"
At that moment, Kugung! thunder began to rumble in Tohka's head. At the same time, the words he had desperately shouted at her during yesterday's battle flashed through her mind. He wasn't trying to ambush her. He had no intention of fighting her at all. And finally, that line she had snorted at the moment she heard it: "I am friends with Shido." Tohka looked at Shido with a sudden sense of dread.
"Could it be that Shido is friends with that white fellow?"
"Well, yeah, but..."
"Gasp?!"
Tohka's face, already full of shock, turned even more shocked than before. Back then, with blood rushing to her head, all she could think was, "I'll split him in half and kill him!" But now that she had calmed down after going on a date with Shido and thought about it again, she realized she had never actually been attacked by him first, unlike AST.
Then had I misunderstood him?! Was he really innocent?!
"Sh-Shido... What should I do?"
The situation had reversed in an instant. She had definitely thought that white fellow was the one at fault, but in fact, she had been the one to attack first. Once she realized that, Tohka's confident expression collapsed into something pitiful, like a child who had done something wrong. Seeing her on the verge of tears, passersby who misunderstood the situation shot very unpleasant looks at Shido.
Of course, Tohka wasn't entirely without a defense. Up until now, every time she manifested in this world, she had been attacked by AST day after day, and the stress had piled up to the breaking point. In that state, if an especially irritating presence was nearby, it was only natural she'd treat it as an enemy.
But that was that, and this was this. Even if the situation had been understandable, Tohka had been the one to attack first, and in the end, if you traced the blame back, the cause had been provided by Tohka.
"Ugh... I'm sorry. I did something awful. I thought for sure he was on the same side as Mekamekadan..."
Holding her forehead with one hand, Tohka made a gloomy face. Then Shido told her to calm down and patted her back as if to comfort her.
"Let's apologize when we meet him later. I'll be there with you then too."
He'll definitely accept it if you apologize. After adding that, Tohka's drooping energy seemed to recover a little. Of course, if the boy ran away the moment he saw Tohka, that would be the end of it, but Shido figured he could mediate in between.
"Mm, then we must apologize when we meet him later. As an apology gift, if we give him delicious soybean-flour bread, I'm sure Whitey will accept the apology!"
"Well... I don't know about the gift part either..."
At the suggestion of giving as a gift the soybean-flour bread that had instantly become one of his life's foods, Shido gave a wry smile. The idea was a little offbeat, but Tohka's intention to apologize was still admirable. At the same time, Shido let out a quiet sigh of relief that Tohka's hostility toward the boy—Kang Haneul—had lessened compared to before.
As if he couldn't possibly leave Tohka alone, with no ally—no, no friend—beside her, Shido couldn't ignore the boy who was being treated as an enemy for such an unreasonable reason.
He was an unknown existence with mysterious power rather than spiritual power, but the sight of him desperately struggling to evade Tohka's attacks during yesterday's battle was still vivid in Shido's mind.
"Haneul... was it...?"
Muttering that name, Shido looked around. A moment ago, Tohka had sent wary glances around, saying she could sense the boy's presence. She said it was gone now, but judging from her words, he must have been nearby until just a little while ago.
"So he's alive..."
Shido had wondered where the boy had gone after seeing him disappear without even leaving a corpse in yesterday's battle. It had been a short acquaintance, but still, he was a friend whose face he'd seen for ten days. So he hadn't died. He was alive.
Relieved once more by that fact, Itsuka Shido walked on with Tohka.
○○○
"Shido, that guy. If my memory is right, he gets shot through by a sniper rifle later on instead of Tohka. Should I just let that go and have the story flow as originally written?"
Walking with my arms crossed, I found myself thinking that, and then I felt like a psychopath for even having the thought.
From the start, the reason I came to Japan was to watch pretty Spirits like Tohka and the protagonist wearing school uniforms and living peaceful school lives. And yet what I was actually doing was agonizing over whether or not to let a person get a giant hole blown through his body. What a lunatic.
Did I really apply for the exchange student program for nothing? Ever since I came to Japan, it feels like nothing but trouble has been piling up. Right from the start I built up hostility with Tohka, got dumped by Origami without even confessing, ended up ranking high in the school's 『Best Couple Chosen by Fujoshi』 with Shido, and yesterday I even got told by Tohka, "I'll split you in half and kill you!"
"Haa..."
"Why are you sighing like that?"
"Ah, Mildred..."
I sighed at how stifling things felt. Then the foreign girl trotting along behind me, Mildred, tilted her head and asked why. When she told me to tell her if I had any worries, I gave a dry laugh and said I was fine.
"Come on~. No matter how you look at it, that sigh was definitely the sigh of someone with a problem. If you've got something on your mind, tell it all to your life senior, Mildred!"
"Life senior, huh..."
I barely held back a laugh at that and turned my head away before she could see it. A life senior, she said. Mildred, puffing out her chest as she said that, was actually two years younger than me. Mikie, walking beside her, was one year older than Mildred but still one year younger than me. For reference, the reason Mikie, who was one year younger, was in the same grade as me was because she had skipped a grade.
Anyway, for that reason, among the three of us walking together, I was the oldest. Maybe that was why even Mildred, who had started out speaking politely, was now talking casually with my permission.
"...But why have you two been following me since earlier?"
But I had no idea why these two kept following me. We hadn't even agreed to hang out together, and yet somehow Mildred and Mikie kept trailing after me.
When I tilted my head and voiced that question, the response came from Mikie. She hiccuped and looked at me with trembling eyes.
"Ah... um... well... Actually! Mildred was following you, so I was following Mildred!"
"Huh? Mikie. What are you talking about? You were the one following Haneul, weren't you? If anything, I was the one following you."
"Eh. Ah. Um..."
Seeing Mildred with a question mark on her face and Mikie flustered and at a loss, I roughly understood the situation. They had just misunderstood each other and somehow ended up following me. With that mystery solved, I muttered, "So that's how it is..." and called out to the two of them.
"I guess you two just misunderstood each other and it turned out like this. If you don't have anything else to do, I'll head off then."
It would be a little weird to force myself into the middle of two people who had already been getting along fine, and I still hadn't finished thinking through my problem, so I figured I'd go back to the lodging and sort my thoughts out. Also, I was a little scared of running into Tohka again.
Anyway, with that in mind, I waved and left them with, "See you next time." Mildred waved back enthusiastically and said, "See you next time~."
"Ah, no...!"
"Huh?"
Then Mikie gave an unexpected answer. Startled, she shouted in a hurry, and I, who had been about to head back to the hotel, blinked in confusion. Mildred also seemed surprised by Mikie's outburst. The two of us tilted our heads and looked at Mikie at the same time. Under our gazes, Mikie blushed and waved her hands around before speaking again in a violently trembling voice.
"Th-th-th, th-th...! I-I mean...! We met like this, so it's kind of a shame to just part ways, isn't it~? Besides, school has been closed today, so it's a day off~. So if Haneul doesn't mind, I was thinking maybe we could hang out together..."
"Ehh~? Mikie. Since when did you start liking hanging out with other people so much? First you were trailing after Haneul, and now you're saying this... Could it be that you really like him?"
"Th-th-th, no way! There's absolutely no way that would happen─!"
"Wasn't that a little too intense for a joke? Look, Haneul's tearing up after hearing you."
"S-sorry! Sorry! Are you crying because of me?!"
"...No. I'm not crying."
It felt a lot like when I got dumped by Origami without even confessing. At Mikie's question about whether I was crying, I shook my head, but for some reason it felt like hot liquid had gathered at the corners of my eyes. If Mildred hadn't said something unnecessary in the first place, I wouldn't have felt like this. I glared at the two of them, and Mikie, shoulders twitching, suddenly jabbed Mildred in the waist with her elbow.
"Ahem, cough! Hey, Mildred? Didn't you get a message on your phone or something?"
"A message? Hmm, not sure. Unfortunately, I forgot my phone and left it behind──"
"W-Why the hellllllll───?!"
I was worried she might lose her voice. Mikie let out another shriek so high-pitched it was almost painful to hear. Then she plopped down on the spot and put both hands on the floor, striking an OTL pose. The way she openly radiated a gloomy aura and despair made me think, 'Shouldn't we take her to a hospital or something?'
"What's wrong, Mikie? You're acting really weird today."
"...It's nothing. My head just started hurting."
As she said that and held her head, Mildred and I exchanged a glance before looking back at Mikie. I didn't really know why, but Mikie seemed to want the three of us, including me, to go around together. But I had no idea why she wanted to do that. I whispered to Mildred and asked quietly, and she shook her head, saying she didn't know why Mikie was acting like this either.
"Well... if that's what she wants, why don't you come hang out with us too, Haneul?"
"...Then maybe I will? I didn't really have anything to do anyway since school was closed today."
With Mikie reacting like that and Mildred saying it too, I gave up on the idea of going back to the hotel and decided to just hang out with the two of them. There wasn't anything to do if I went back anyway, and it felt better to walk around outside than to hole up in my room and get lost in my thoughts.
I was a little scared of running into Tohka, but I could just spot her first and slip away if that happened. And in a city as big as Tengu City, there was no way I'd run into Tohka and Shido again, right?
After nodding and agreeing, Mikie straightened up from her crouch. The face of Mikie, who had fallen into despair and then gotten back up, looked like it had aged by ten years in an instant, even though she was definitely a year younger than me.
"Mikie~? Haneul said he'll come with us. So where are we going now? If we go to the dessert cafe you mentioned, now would be the perfect time."
"Dessert cafe?"
"Ah, this morning Mikie found a shop that sells famous desserts and asked us to go with her, so we came out. By now it should be about time for them to open, so I thought it would be fine if Haneul came too."
"Nice. I'll go too."
At Mildred's words, I immediately agreed, and she energetically shouted, "Then let's go right away~!" before leading the way with Mikie in tow. Mikie still seemed uncomfortable around me. She was the one who asked to hang out together, so what was with that reaction? Unable to figure out the reason for Mikie's behavior, I thought it over and came up with one guess.
"...Could she be AST? And that's why she wanted to stick with me and keep an eye on me?"
It was a plausible story. Since I'd already shown my face in front of AST yesterday, it wouldn't be strange at all if they had secretly sent someone after me. Besides, Mikie was also someone I'd seen in the anime. If I thought about it, I felt like I'd seen her sticking close to Origami in the show too...
"Mikie~. The dessert shop is the other way, not that way~."
"Eh? Ah?! N-now that you mention it──?!"
"...No, there's no way."
But if she was AST, Mikie was way too clumsy. If she'd approached me for the purpose of surveillance, she wouldn't have screamed, "Eeeeeeeek?!" the moment she saw me. My memory was fuzzy, but the scene of her sticking close to Origami in the anime was probably just because she was personally close with her. In fact, at school, Mikie had followed Origami around more than once or twice, even when Origami ignored her.
More than anything, there was no way someone that clumsy was an AST member fighting against a terrifying existence like a Spirit. It was rude to think of her as clumsy, but honestly, looking at her, it would be harder to find someone who didn't think that.
"Hmm..."
By the way, since I was thinking about the anime, the scene I had just seen of Shido and Tohka on a date came back to me. At first I had been so busy freaking out and running away after seeing Tohka that I hadn't thought much about it, but now that I thought about it properly, the scene of Shido and Tohka on a date was definitely one I'd seen in the anime too.
And if my memory was right, it happened that evening. The background had been a sunset then, so yeah, it must have been evening. Anyway, that's when Shido gets shot by a sniper rifle and ends up with a hole blown through his stomach. It was one of those scenes that left a huge impression because I was so shocked to see the protagonist get shot right at the start.
Since I had just seen Shido and Tohka on a date, the scene I saw in the anime would probably be recreated tonight.
So the thing is... I was seriously agonizing over that right now.
Whether I should stop Shido from getting shot by the sniper rifle, or not.
...Of course, I knew very well that the thoughts I was having right now weren't exactly normal. Morally speaking, if you know in advance that something like that is going to happen, and you have the power to stop it, then of course you should stop it.
But if I just acted recklessly, this was such a special case that I couldn't move lightly.
Shido getting shot by the sniper rifle is definitely part of the original story. If I interfered and twisted something there, and then Tohka's spiritual power sealing, which was supposed to proceed as originally written, ended in failure, that would become a real disaster.
If the sealing of her spiritual power failed, then there would be no way to stop the Spacequake from going off. And if that happened, the casualties and property damage would be enormous. Well, these days they can figure out the place and time a Spacequake will occur, so they evacuate the citizens beforehand and casualties are almost nonexistent, but still, if I carelessly interfered and made things worse, it would all be for nothing.
In fact, on my first day in Japan, I had slammed Tohka into a building, and she had held a grudge over it and attacked me, so I couldn't help but feel the butterfly effect even more strongly.
Besides, Shido has the ability of regeneration, so even if he gets shot, he can come back to life. That's why the protagonist can get shot at the beginning of the anime and still keep the story going normally. Knowing that made me even more reluctant to step in.
If things proceed according to the original story, no one will die. But if I step in and needlessly wreck the original flow, then the number of deaths could increase dramatically.
In other words, it could become a situation worse than doing nothing at all.
But even so, it still felt wrong to just let it go. For a short time, Shido and I had become pretty close. We hadn't gone by first-name basis, but I still felt friendly toward him. Maybe it was just me, but anyway, I thought of Shido as a "friend," and the idea of just ignoring him getting shot and having a hole blown through his stomach was far too hard to brush off.
To be blunt, I wanted to stop it too. But if I messed up and tangled the situation, it would be even worse.
That was why I'd been stuck in this dilemma the whole time.
Seriously, every time I thought about it, I just kept sighing. From the start, I only came to Japan to watch the protagonist and pretty Spirits living peaceful school lives, so who could have known that the exact time I came here would line up with the start of the original story?
Haa... another sigh slipped out of my mouth.
"This way, Haneul! If you go this way, you'll find the delicious dessert shop Mikie mentioned!"
"................................"
For a moment, I thought maybe I should compare my situation to the trolley problem and ask Mildred and Mikie for advice, but I gave up right away because my brain wasn't up to explaining something like that from the start.
Since we were going to a dessert shop, maybe if I ate something sweet and got my sugar up, my brain would work better and I could come up with a decent solution?
At my own ridiculous idea, I let out a dry laugh inside and quickened my pace to follow Mildred, who was urging me to hurry.
○○○
"...The sky is red."
"It sure is~. We got so caught up having fun that it's already evening~."
As I muttered to myself while looking at the sunset sky, Mildred, with both hands full of food, chimed in with a cheerful, "It sure is~." I had followed them around from place to place, dragged along by the two of them, but I hadn't expected we'd end up wandering this much.
I had only thought it'd be an hour or two at most, and yet before I knew it, evening had arrived.
"I think we played a little too much since school was closed."
"Come on~. If not now, when else are we supposed to have fun like this~? Sometimes you need a day off like this~."
"...Fair enough."
Watching Mildred finish off the snacks in both hands in an instant, I lifted my head and looked up at the sunset sky. The sky had turned a perfect orange. Seeing that, the scene I'd seen in the anime came back even more vividly.
In the end, I chose the option of leaving Shido getting shot alone. I thought it was a pretty problematic conclusion in a lot of ways, but I still judged it was much better than carelessly interfering and ruining everything.
I don't have the confidence to interfere with the original story and create a better future, and I don't have the confidence to deal with an angry Tohka, interference, and AST treating me as an enemy all at once.
I'm really sorry to Shido, but I had to rationalize it somehow and look away from the sunset.
"Zzzzzzz~~~~~~."
Then Mildred filled my view, staring at me with narrowed eyes while making a "zziii..." sound with her mouth. Looking like she had something to say, I tilted my head and asked what was wrong.
"...Haneul. You've been making that troubled face both earlier and now. If you've got a problem, it's okay to talk to me about it, you know?"
With her hands behind her back, Mildred said that with a slightly sulky expression. Apparently it showed all over my face. I appreciated the concern, but this was the kind of problem you really couldn't talk to other people about. Besides, I'd already reached a conclusion.
I told Mildred thanks, but shook my head and said I was fine. Then Mildred pouted and said, "What is that~? You don't trust Mildred very much, do you?"
"Thanks for worrying about me, but I'm really fine. If anything, I think Mikie needs counseling more than I do."
"Ah~. That's definitely true."
"Cough! Cough-cough! W-Why am I suddenly the topic here?!"
Apparently she hadn't expected to be called out, because Mikie, who had been quiet until then, looked shocked. She also coughed a little from having sprayed her drink. With a flustered expression, she shouted that out, and Mildred and I gave her looks that said, seriously?
"Well, it's because... Mikie had this weirdly pressured feeling all day today. She kept wandering around while walking, doing things she normally wouldn't do, and she kept getting startled a lot too..."
At Mildred's words, I nodded and agreed. Then Mildred seemed to run out of things to say and lowered her head, making a low, "Uuuuu..." sound.
"Honestly, I'm worried, Mikie. Haneul too, and you too, Mikie. Why won't you all rely on me, your friend~?"
"Maybe not me, but I only met you today, you know?"
"If you eat something delicious, that makes you friends! That's how everyone does it in England!"
"...Really?"
Mildred shouted that with a confident expression, but after her behavior all day, I couldn't easily trust her words anymore. When I looked at her with a suspicious expression, Mildred pouted and shouted, "What's with that face!" But anyway, that wasn't the important part.
When Mildred, dissatisfied with Mikie's behavior, and I, feeling uncomfortable, said that at the same time, Mikie broke into a cold sweat and suddenly bowed her head to apologize. Seeing her frantically bowing like that, I, who hadn't even been expecting an apology, was the one who ended up flustered.
"H-hey... Lift your head already. People are looking at us weirdly. I wasn't trying to make you apologize in the first place..."
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'll beg like this, so please don't eat me...!"
"I'm not eating you─?! What do you think I am, some kind of monster?!"
"Hiiiiiik──?!"
"................................"
At Mikie's terrified reaction, the people passing by started whispering while looking at me. I was very curious what on earth she thought of me, but if I tried to press her any further, it felt like only worse rumors about me would spread, so I decided to give up.
Anyway, it was evening now, so if we didn't head back soon, our friends would worry. Letting out a sigh, I told the two of them I was going to head back soon for that reason, and Mildred went, "Eeeeh~?" with her eyes wide in surprise.
"Already? Can't we play a little longer? There's a park I know nearby, up on that hill over there~. If we go up there at this time, the view is just amazing~."
Pointing at the hill nearby, Mildred said that. At a glance, it looked like nothing more than a site under development, so I thought, 'What park is she talking about...?,' but looking closer, there really was a park right below it, just as Mildred said. It did seem like the view would be amazing if we went there, but time was really at its limit, so getting to the park would probably be difficult.
"Sorry. I really have to go... If I don't head back now, my friends will worry."
"Uuuuu... That's a shame. It'd be perfect if we went now. But I guess it can't be helped."
Shaking my head and saying that with a troubled expression, Mildred seemed to realize she couldn't keep forcing it and said that with a disappointed look. Seeing her shoulders droop, I told her I'd still be in Japan until next Tuesday, and Mildred, who had looked gloomy a moment ago, quickly regained her energy, said we'd see each other next time, and waved enthusiastically.
"We'll head off first~. See you next time, Haneul~."
"Yeah. Are you two heading home too?"
"Nope. Mikie and I were planning to go to the park one last time and then head back~. Actually, we were supposed to go even earlier than this, but we got so caught up having fun that we forgot~."
Seeing her say that while holding Mikie's hand, I muttered, "She's really full of energy..." and sent Mildred an impressed look. I was already tired and wanted to lie down on a bed, but she still had enough energy left to walk around everywhere. Meanwhile, Mikie was flustered by Mildred hugging her tightly and shouting for her to let go.
"Then I'm really going. See you next time."
"W-wait! Just a sec──"
"Mikie~. You can't forcefully stop someone who's saying they're going back~. Come on, hurry up and follow me~."
Leaving behind Mikie being dragged away while screaming, I hurried into a nearby alley. The alley I reached was so tucked away that there wasn't even a shadow of a person around, let alone any people. No one nearby was looking this way, right? After confirming there was nothing around, I slowly took a deep breath and pictured my destination in my mind.
Then I gathered my power into the form needed to use spatial movement, without rushing, but slowly. After finishing all my preparations carefully and completely, I raised one hand and snapped my fingers.
Actually, I didn't need to snap my fingers to use spatial movement, but if I used a specific action like snapping my fingers as a trigger, it made spatial movement a little easier, so unless it was an emergency, I always used spatial movement with a finger snap.
Snapping my fingers before spatial movement was kind of like flipping a switch to turn on a light. Or pressing the remote button to turn on a TV.
Anyway, once I used that action as a trigger, a strange sense of incongruity washed over my whole body. Slowly opening my closed eyes and looking around, the alley I had just been in was gone, and a pure white bidet was now waiting for me right in front of my face.
The disinfectant smell unique to a bathroom stabbed into my nose. Confirming that I'd arrived properly, I smiled.
This was the men's restroom stall in the hotel where I was staying.
"Around me... good. No one's here."
After confirming there was no one nearby, I immediately left the restroom.
Thanks to spatial movement, getting back to the hotel had taken less than a second, excluding the time it took to find the alley. It was truly an incredibly convenient ability. When I first turned into Sans, I had been very shocked, but now that I was reaping so many benefits from it, it felt like becoming Sans was a blessing.
"Grrr...! I wonder what the others are doing right now..."
Stretching my arms wide, I walked down the hallway to look for my friends. Once I got back to the hotel, thoughts like 'What are my friends doing right now?' started popping into my head all at once. Passing by hotel staff walking the corridor, I kept heading toward the room I was staying in. After walking a few more minutes while yawning, I was able to spot a familiar girl's back in the distance.
The owner of that back was Younghee. Seeing Younghee, I deliberately made my footsteps loud and ran up to her, calling out to her.
"Younghee~."
"...Hm? Haneul?"
Apparently surprised by my sudden appearance, Younghee widened her eyes and looked at me with a startled expression.
"What, when did you get back to the hotel?"
"Just now. Literally just now. But where are the others?"
"The others are probably downstairs. MInhyuk talked them into going to the karaoke room."
"Aren't you going to karaoke, Younghee?"
"Not really. I wanted to swim, so I stayed at the pool the whole time. I'm on my way back to the room now."
Looking more closely, there was still a little moisture in Younghee's hair. And now that I noticed, she was also carrying a bag with toiletries in one hand. So she'd really been swimming with all her heart. The image of Younghee turning into a fish the moment she got into water flashed through my mind, and I let out a dry laugh for no reason.
Having met up in the hallway, and since we were going the same way anyway, Younghee and I walked down the corridor and chatted lightly. From what I heard, Younghee and the others had spent the whole day playing in the hotel's facilities.
I wondered if AST or Ratatoskr had come to the hotel while I was out. That thought suddenly crossed my mind, so I casually asked Younghee whether any strangers had come by, and she immediately shook her head and said, "No?"
Younghee seemed to know nothing. Seeing that, I asked whether a girl named Tobiichi Origami had come by, and Younghee shook her head again and said she hadn't come either.
Weird. Younghee's answer filled my head with that thought. AST and Ratatoskr had both openly shown their faces in front of everyone yesterday, and yet it was strange that not a single one of them had come looking for me until now.
With the organizational power those guys had, there was no way they wouldn't know where I was. Could it be that Tohka, who showed up today, had drawn everyone's attention so much that I got pushed out of sight?
"What are you thinking about? Could it be you're thinking about Miss Tobiichi?"
"...W-what?"
Maybe she misunderstood something after seeing me lost in thought, because Younghee asked that with a teasing expression. I answered a beat late and looked flustered at her question.
"No, that's not it──"
"Well, I can't say I don't understand. If you got dumped by the person you had feelings for, it would be hard to forget them easily."
"That's not it at all─?!"
"Still, you're in Japan until next Tuesday, so until then, do your best. I'll cheer you on, fighting!"
"I said that's not it, didn't I?!"
Maybe because she'd brought up Origami earlier, Younghee seemed to have firmly mistaken me for someone thinking about Origami right now. The whole "got dumped without even confessing" incident from that day was, if anything, even more infuriating than the incident where, because of everyone else's misunderstanding, I ended up ranking high in 『Best Couple Chosen by Fujoshi』 with Shido.
And even if she said she'd cheer me on, there was no way that would work if I, not Shido, confessed a hundred or a thousand times to Origami, who only ever shouted "Shido LOVE!". They say if you hit a tree ten times and it doesn't fall, there's no such thing as a tree that won't fall, but Origami wasn't a tree. She was a reinforced concrete pillar, so even if I hit her a million times more, there was absolutely no way she'd budge.
If the one doing the hitting were Shido, she'd probably fall over on her own before he even picked up an axe and hand over her liver and gallbladder too.
Anyway, I told Younghee that absolutely wasn't it and changed the subject again. We kept walking down the hallway, chatting about this and that. But maybe the earlier topic of Origami had been more interesting to her, because between her occasional relationship advice, I had no choice but to grab the back of my neck.
"S-so! I don't have any thoughts or feelings at all about that Tobiichi girl───!"
Just as I was about to say something to Younghee, who was grinning and saying that strong denial is strong affirmation in response to my intense rejection...
"................................?"
Suddenly, an enormous chill swept over me.
"................................"
"...Haneul? Why did you suddenly go silent?"
Seeing me freeze in place with a face full of shock, Younghee, who had been grinning, changed color and looked worried. The very moment she asked why, I felt a single bead of cold sweat run down my forehead, along with an overwhelming presence so intense it felt like it was choking the breath right out of me.
"Uh... did I tease you too much and make you mad? S-sorry. It was just too funny, I didn't even realize..."
"...No. It's not that."
"What? What are you talking about all of a sudd── kyaah?!"
As if an earthquake had struck, the hotel corridor beneath our feet was shaken by violent tremors. The lights on the ceiling flickered rapidly, going on and off in quick succession. Clack, clack—my teeth chattered, and my whole body trembled as if I'd been thrown naked into the dead of winter.
An unpleasant sensation, like my heart was being squeezed.
I can feel it. I can definitely feel it. That overwhelming presence, clearly stamped across my whole body. The gigantic slash that had been branded into my mind suddenly came back to me.
"W-what?! An earthquake?!"
"...No."
Hurrying my steps, I moved to the side of the corridor where a large glass window looked outside. There, beyond the glass, stood people with their mouths hanging open in utter shock at the sight before them.
"Hey, Kang Haneul! Why are you suddenly running?!"
Younghee, who had hurried after me while catching her breath, put a hand on my shoulder. Then she raised her head and asked what on earth I was looking at. Lifting her own head, Younghee also turned her gaze toward the scene beyond the glass.
"Did a bomb drop or something? What on earth is goin... th..."
And then Younghee's face filled with shock, her words trailing off. She had the same expression as the people standing around us.
But it was only natural that everyone here would make that face.
The high hill not far from this hotel, where land development seemed to be in full swing. That vast tract of land, which was obviously enormous at a glance, had been split clean in two, as if it had been roughly cut by a giant blade.
"...Shido."
At the supernatural sight, something that could not possibly be called a normal natural phenomenon, I found myself muttering that name.
I realized it instinctively.
That Shido was there.
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