"This is fucking insane!"
I spat out a curse and went looking for Natsumi.
I should’ve realized something was off the moment the commander started acting strange.
That commander I’d just seen was probably Natsumi in disguise.
[For now, she’s not inside [Fraxinus]!]
"Damn it!"
Since Maria and Marina could check the whole [Fraxinus], I could trust what they said.
Then where the hell was Natsumi supposed to be?
I didn’t know her hideout or anything like that, and it wasn’t like I’d talked to her enough to narrow down her likely spots.
She was always drowning in self-loathing, so I’d been too busy thinking about how to fix that to notice this coming.
I’d been way too careless.
“Wait!”
The chance was slim, but maybe she was at the spirit mansion?
That thought crossed my mind.
On the way there, I passed Itsuka-kun’s house.
The front door was open.
For a second I wondered if Natsumi had snuck in to prank us again, so I quietly stepped inside—only to see a familiar head of yellow hair.
"Once more, I’ll ask you. In exchange for the safety of the six spirits, tell me where the [Witch] is."
And that yellow-haired bastard was pointing a sword at Itsuka-kun.
I didn’t know when the hell she’d gotten in, but the look on her face was twisted with annoyance.
"Like hell I’d tell you that!"
I knocked Ellen’s sword aside with my spiral sword and kicked her in the stomach.
Boom!
"Ghk!"
Staggered by the kick, Ellen was shoved backward and slammed into the sofa.
"Kuhk!"
"Hieta!"
"What kind of crazy bitch points a sword at someone?"
I raised my spiral sword high and brought it down, intending to cut Ellen in half.
Then a barrier sprang up.
Ellen frowned, deployed the barrier, and clicked her tongue.
"Tch. You really are lucky, Itsuka Shido."
"And you’re really unlucky!"
But a barrier alone wasn’t going to stop my attack.
That yellow-haired bastard had killed Itsuka-kun once, so I had no reason to go easy on her.
I brought the spiral sword down hard, aiming to push her to the brink of death, and cracks spread across the barrier.
"...I’ll withdraw for now."
Seeing the barrier crack, Ellen tried to pull back, but I jammed my spiral sword into it and twisted, stopping her.
"Who said you could leave?"
"Kuh!"
If she dropped the barrier, she’d get sliced apart. If she kept it up, she might get caught here and who knew what would happen next.
Faced with that hopeless choice, Ellen did something simple.
"Did you think I wouldn’t prepare for this situation?"
At Ellen’s signal, robots burst in through the windows.
They looked a lot like the ones Itsuka-kun had said he’d seen on the school trip.
According to the commander, they were DEM’s mass-produced weapons, called [Vandersnatch].
The [Vandersnatch] that came through the window rushed straight at Itsuka-kun, and I had no choice but to pull out my spiral sword and cut them all down.
In the meantime, Ellen slipped away, carried off by another [Vandersnatch].
Crunch-!
"That bitch..."
I stomped on the crushed head of a [Vandersnatch] that had been split apart by my sword and glared at the direction Ellen had gone.
The large window in the living room had already been blown wide open when the [Vandersnatch] smashed through it.
I felt like if I kept staring, I’d just get even more irritated, so I looked around instead—and found an even uglier scene.
The [Vandersnatch] collapsed around Itsuka-kun were sparking with exposed wires, crackling with electricity, and the sofa that had clashed with Ellen was wrecked beyond use.
It was my handiwork, technically, but it still made me want to sigh.
"Haa..."
I let out a long breath and turned to Itsuka-kun.
It was a shame Ellen had gotten away, but there was nothing to be done about the state of his house.
First things first, I should check whether Itsuka-kun was okay, so I kicked aside a tin can head lying nearby and asked,
"Are you all right, Itsuka-kun?"
"Y-yeah. I’m fine."
Itsuka-kun answered with a slightly dazed look.
I could roughly understand why he looked like that.
He’d probably been out looking for Natsumi too, and then when he came home, the bastard who’d killed him had suddenly shown up in his house.
As I nodded in full sympathy, Itsuka-kun suddenly looked like he’d remembered something and asked me,
"Right! What about Natsumi!?"
"Haa... Unfortunately, I couldn’t find her."
At my negative answer, delivered while rubbing my face, his expression darkened too.
Both Itsuka-kun and I had searched all over the place, and still not found Natsumi. That was enough to make it obvious how well she’d hidden herself, whether I wanted to know it or not.
"That Natsumi..."
"Where the hell did she go...?"
Just as the two of us were feeling dejected over our total lack of progress, Maria’s urgent voice came through the intercom.
[Hi! You probably won’t believe this, but an artificial satellite is going to fall on Tengushi in a few dozen minutes!]
"...Huh?"
My brain froze for a second, unable to process what Maria had just said, and then Itsuka-kun’s phone rang.
"...What did you say, Kotori?"
Apparently the commander had told Itsuka-kun the exact same thing Maria had told me.
The fact that an artificial satellite was about to fall on Tengushi hit us like a hammer.
It didn’t matter who had done it, why, or for what purpose.
The only thing that mattered was that if we failed to stop the falling satellite, we had no idea what would happen.
"What happens if it falls...?"
[If that satellite falls... Tengushi will be destroyed.]
"......"
It was basically the same level of threat as when Marina had tried to crash [Fraxinus] before.
Wheeeeee-!
While I was still blankly trying to wrap my head around the absurd scale of it all, the spacequake alarm slammed into my ears.
I snapped out of it at the shrill noise and looked at Itsuka-kun, only to find him looking back at me.
"Itsuka-kun. You heard that too, right?"
"Yeah. An artificial satellite is going to fall..."
Itsuka-kun trailed off in disbelief and looked out the window.
The orange sky outside still showed nothing yet, but soon it would become a fierce battlefield.
Even if Itsuka-kun could regenerate thanks to [Kamiel], there was no way he’d be safe from the aftermath of a satellite impact.
So I made him a suggestion.
"I think you should head to the shelter, Itsuka-kun."
"...Yeah, I guess I should. I’m counting on you for the rest."
With that, he ran toward the underground shelter.
I also left Itsuka-kun’s house and tapped the intercom.
"Maria, what do you need me to do?"
[...First, find Natsumi before the very last possible moment. If you can’t find her, come join us.]
"Roger."
After answering Maria, I stepped outside.
If I couldn’t find Natsumi, she might get caught up in the satellite’s fall, and I wouldn’t be able to seal her either. Either way, I had to find her.
Where in the world was Natsumi now?
"...Natsumi, you there?"
I muttered quietly, hoping she might be somewhere near me.
There was no way she’d answer, of course, and just as I scratched my head in embarrassment, her voice came to me.
[...What.]
Her voice echoed from all around me, like she was speaking from inside a cave, and I felt a little relieved as I opened my mouth.
"An artificial satellite is about to fall here. Even if we shoot it down, debris will still come down. It’s dangerous to stay on the surface, so get to the underground shelter now. If you don’t know the way, follow me."
[...And then you’ll lock me up again?]
"As if. Once this is over, you can run off on your own if you want. I’ll still chase you, though."
[...Why are you going this far? The one you’re looking for right now is the real me. I tried to ruin your life. I did a ton of awful things. Why are you trying so hard to protect me?]
"Beats me."
[...Hah!?]
I shrugged at Natsumi’s reaction.
It wasn’t like I was trying to tease her. I just genuinely didn’t understand my own feelings.
Originally I’d kept chasing her with the intention of making her eat something disgusting once I caught her, but now that had changed into wanting to help her no matter what.
Maybe, like with Miku or Marina, once I realized how badly Natsumi loathed herself, some kind of pity had taken root in me.
But even so, that didn’t make what I felt now any less real.
I could honestly say I wanted to help Natsumi.
"...Well, I don’t really understand my own feelings either. Sorry if that’s not the answer you wanted. I’m heading to the underground shelter, so follow me if you’re coming."
I spoke to the empty air, but no answer came back.
I didn’t know whether she’d already left my side or was just keeping quiet, but I chose to believe Natsumi was still with me and started toward the shelter.
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