At Shido’s sudden appearance, the two spirits who had been preparing their final strike turned their heads and looked at him.
"Shido!"
"Why? Why did it come to this? Tohka, Origami!"
Shido couldn’t make sense of the situation.
Why had Origami become a spirit? Why was Tohka in her complete manifestation form, fighting Origami?
He couldn’t understand any of it, but even so, he thought he had to stop the two of them.
"...Tch!"
"Origami!"
At Shido’s shout, Origami recalled her angel and then left for somewhere without another word.
"Origami――!!!"
Even with Shido calling after her, Origami ignored him and kept going, as if she had lost sight of where she was supposed to go.
*******
After witnessing Tobiichi become a spirit, we were all exhausted, so we returned to the spirit mansion.
Miku should have gone home normally, but since there was an empty room and she said she wanted to rest at the spirit mansion for a day too, she came with us.
Before everyone went back to their own rooms, we gathered in the living room to talk about Tobiichi’s transformation into a spirit.
"Did Origami really become a spirit?"
Itsuka-kun said it like he couldn’t believe it.
It was easy to understand why he reacted that way.
Tobiichi, who had been trying to kill spirits, had become one herself.
But contrary to his hopes, the fact that Tobiichi had become a spirit was undeniable.
"Yes. Definitely. The form of her clothes, and the way she summoned a weapon too. Everything was the same as a spirit."
Her outfit had changed into something that could only be described as special, and she had summoned a weapon by calling out its name.
On top of that, she had endured Tohka’s Sandalphon and used a special ability.
Everything about it pointed to her being a spirit.
"Haa.... Just what the hell happened...?"
"I don’t really know either. After Hieta blasted Origami away, she suddenly came back as a spirit."
Itsuka-kun listened to Tohka’s answer and looked out the window.
Outside, the aftermath of the battle between Tobiichi and us had turned the whole area into a complete mess.
The smell of burning drifted everywhere, and the sight of smoke rising from the ruins was a little grim.
"The only good thing is that nobody got hurt, I guess."
Maybe Tobiichi still had a shred of conscience left, because she had sounded the alarm before fighting, so no civilians were injured.
And since I, the Fire Keeper, Mayuri, and Rinne had blocked the attacks, none of our group had been hurt either.
"By the way, shouldn’t we seal Tohka?"
Mayuri said, pointing at Tohka, who was still in complete manifestation form.
Just as she said, if we didn’t seal Tohka now, there was a very high chance AST would start chasing after her again like before, so we absolutely had to seal her.
And to do that, Itsuka-kun had to kiss Tohka.
"Hmm... should we give them some space?"
"I guess we should."
It would be hard to kiss with everyone watching.
Just as everyone was quietly slipping away to give the two of them some privacy, someone’s phone rang.
"By the sofa?"
Apparently she had been really tired, because Yoshino, Natsumi, and Rio were all asleep on one sofa together.
That was only possible because all three of them were so small.
And because the sofa was huge.
Since the sound was coming from there, I checked, and...
"Yoshino’s phone?"
A call was coming in on Yoshino’s phone while she slept on the sofa.
The caller was none other than the commander.
We hadn’t been able to contact her this whole time, so what on earth had happened?
As I wondered that and reached for Yoshino’s phone, Yoshino opened her eyes.
"U-Um... H-Hai...?"
"G-Good morning?"
I greeted her while sweating nervously, and Natsumi, who had been sleeping soundly beside her, opened her eyes too.
"What, so loud...."
"Natsumi. Listen. It’s a misunderstanding."
"No questions asked! You rotten piece of trash!"
"Guhk!"
"Hai!?"
As I tried to explain to Natsumi, a fist came flying at me without warning.
Thanks to that, I got punched and sent flying all the way over to where Mayuri was.
How strong was that fist?
"Y-You filthy bastard! To think you’d try to do something indecent to Yoshino while I and Rio were sleeping right next to her!"
"I said it’s a misunderstanding...."
I had only been trying to answer the call on Yoshino’s phone, so how far was her imagination running?
No matter how you looked at it, I wasn’t such trash that I’d pounce on Yoshino, who still looked like nothing more than a middle schooler, especially in front of everyone else watching.
Protesting my innocence, I staggered back to my feet and held up Yoshino’s phone.
"Kotori...?"
"Yeah. The commander was calling Yoshino’s phone, so that’s why."
I quickly cleared up Natsumi’s misunderstanding, then pressed the answer button.
"Hello, commander?"
[What. I called Yoshino, so why are you the one answering, Hiki?]
"Because Yoshino was asleep. So where are you right now?"
"What!? Kotori!?"
"Itsuka-kun. You’re late to react."
[Haa.... We’re in the underground facility of [Ratatoskr]. Because of that woman, Ellen...!]
"...Ellen?"
Why the hell was that disgusting woman’s name suddenly coming up there?
The moment I heard it, my grip tightened and I almost crushed Yoshino’s phone.
That was how much I hated Ellen.
"Hoo.... Just what happened?"
While our group had been fighting Tobiichi, something had definitely happened at [Fraxinus].
Otherwise there was no way to explain why the commander still wasn’t home.
And with Ellen’s name being mentioned too, it was safe to say DEM had definitely been involved.
[Well, you see....]
The commander told us everything that had happened at [Fraxinus] while we were fighting.
DEM’s aerial ship, Getia, had suddenly appeared while they were trying to provide support.
It attacked [Fraxinus], then made a one-sided announcement after requesting communication.
So they had no choice but to fight, but the enemy ship was basically a giant CR-Unit made for Ellen, so they were outmatched in mobility and rate of fire.
As a result, they lost the battle and [Fraxinus] got wrecked.
Just hearing it made it obvious the scale of the battle had been enormous.
"Setting aside how we failed to notice any of it, if I ever meet Ellen again, I’m definitely killing her."
As I made that vow, someone suddenly knocked on the front door of the spirit mansion.
"Who is it?"
[Ah, looks like the people sent to meet them have arrived. Let’s talk in detail after they join up. Tell Shido that too.]
"Got it."
And with that, the call with the commander ended.
*******
On a night lit by moonlight.
From the rooftop of a certain building, Tokisaki Kurumi was looking up at the moon when she sensed someone’s presence and turned around.
"My, my. I’ve got an unexpected guest. Wouldn’t you say so, Tobiichi Origami?"
The guest who had found her under the moon was the spirit who had become a spirit in order to kill spirits, Tobiichi Origami.
"Tokisaki Kurumi...."
"So you managed to find out I was here."
"Searching for your doppelgängers scattered all over the city isn’t that difficult for me now."
"Oh my, oh my! How very violent of you~"
"I controlled my strength so I wouldn’t kill you."
Kurumi didn’t seem to have much of a reaction to Origami becoming a spirit.
Was she just surprised on the inside and not showing it, or did she know something about a human turning into a spirit?
Only Kurumi would know that, but Origami didn’t care about Kurumi’s reaction.
"And what brings you here~? It’s a little too late to invite me for tea, isn’t it~?"
"I just need you to answer one question."
"A question, you say~?"
Kurumi tilted her head at Origami’s words, then let out a seductive laugh in the moonlight and continued.
"Fufufu. Whether I can answer depends on what it is."
The question Origami wanted to ask was something Kurumi couldn’t possibly not know, so Origami asked without the slightest hesitation.
"Your Zaphkiel is an angel that manipulates time. And each of the twelve bullets has a different ability. Is there a bullet among those twelve that can send whoever it hits into the past?"
"If there were such a thing, what would you do?"
"I’d like to borrow your power."
Kurumi was a little surprised by the request to borrow her power.
The person who had tried to kill spirits was asking a spirit to lend her power.
It was a somewhat hard-to-understand action.
"You’re asking me to use 【Yud Bet】, the twelfth bullet, for you... is that what you’re saying?"
"Yes."
"...Then here is my answer."
Kurumi said that was her answer and pointed the muzzle of the long gun in her hand at Origami.
"I’m sorry, but I can’t meet your expectations."
"Your power is extremely strong. But if it doesn’t hit, it means nothing."
As Origami said, Kurumi’s angel, Zaphkiel, only applied its ability after the bullet hit its target.
In other words, as long as she didn’t get hit, Kurumi’s power couldn’t do anything to her.
The reason she bothered saying that to Kurumi, who surely knew that already, was obvious provocation.
But her opponent was the worst spirit of all, Tokisaki Kurumi, so there was no reason for her to take the bait.
"Kihihit. Looks like you’re underestimating me quite a bit. I’ll ask anyway, but what exactly are you planning to do with 【Yud Bet】?"
At Kurumi’s question, Origami lowered her head and answered.
"I want you to send me back to August 3rd, five years ago."
"Five years ago, you say?"
"If I can go back five years――I’ll make it so the fact that my parents died never happened!"
That was the one and only reason Origami had sought out Kurumi.
She wanted to return to that day five years ago and protect her parents from the spirit’s attack.
"I’m going to change history with this power!"
"I see. What if I had refused?"
"I would have used any means necessary to make you agree."
"How insolent! Still, I don’t mind."
Once Kurumi learned Origami’s purpose, she took back the long gun she had been aiming.
"I was already uneasy about facing real combat without using 【Yud Bet】 myself... so I’ll use you as my test subject."
"...Really?"
Origami looked surprised that Kurumi would help her, and Kurumi only smiled as she summoned her angel.
"Now, come here. [Zaphkiel]!"
A giant clock appeared at Kurumi’s call.
When she brought the gun barrel to the twelve o’clock position, a black aura flowed into it.
"[Zaphkiel]――【Yud Bet】"
Bang!
The bullet that sent existence into the past slammed into Origami’s head.
"Show me. Just how far God will allow your foolish, reckless attempt to rewrite the world."
On the rooftop of the building where only Kurumi stood.
Only Kurumi’s small murmur remained there.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register