Black feathers spread from Tobiichi’s back like wings and wrapped around her.
As the feathers scattered, Tobiichi’s outfit changed.
A black dress-like form, a revealing upper body, and finally something like a black ring floating above her head.
It looked exactly like Devil’s inverted form of [Princess].
"〈Satan (Savior Demon King)〉."
When Tobiichi murmured the name of what might have been called an angel, black light burst from the feathers and fired toward the young lady.
"Damn it!"
Seeing that, both the young lady and I leaped in opposite directions to dodge the beam.
"Who would’ve thought the trigger for turning into a spirit would be seeing a spirit...!"
It was a trigger I’d never even considered.
No, come to think of it, I probably could have predicted it to some extent.
After all, every time Tobiichi, or rather Devil, had appeared, spirits had been around.
I’d just dismissed it as a coincidence and never paid it any mind.
"That’s quite a rude way to greet someone!"
The young lady leaped into the sky and pulled the trigger of her long rifle, attacking Tobiichi.
But Tobiichi gathered black feathers to shield herself, and the attack never reached her.
"Young lady!"
Then Tobiichi fired another beam at the young lady in retaliation.
The body pierced by the beam, riddled with holes, fell from the sky and vanished into the shadows.
She’d come as a decoy, just in case.
I was relieved by that, but now Tobiichi’s target was probably me.
Just as I was about to pull out the straight sword I’d use against Tobiichi, I saw it.
"...Tobiichi-san?"
Tobiichi, after killing the young lady, dismissed her [Princess] form and returned to her original appearance.
As if she’d finished what she came to do, her [Princess] form was dismissed the moment she dealt with the spirit.
Staring blankly at the scene in confusion, I heard Tobiichi speak in a puzzled voice.
"Huh...? Why am I here...?"
She looked as confused as someone who couldn’t remember what they’d just been doing, and when she turned her head, our eyes met.
Her pupils locked onto me, then suddenly began trembling violently.
"Oh, right...! I came to thank Higakieta-kun...!"
Tobiichi, who had been sitting on the ground, hurriedly got to her feet and bowed to me.
"I-I’m sorry! I called you out and then lost consciousness...!"
"...?"
I could only blink at her, unable to find any answer to her behavior.
*****
After taking a moment to calm down, Tobiichi and I finally began talking in earnest.
"Tobiichi-san, what do you mean you lost consciousness?"
"Actually, I’ve been blacking out every now and then lately."
"Blacking out...?"
"Ah, don’t worry! I’m sure it’s just something like anemia!"
I wasn’t worried about Tobiichi.
More precisely, what worried me was the fact that Tobiichi described it as losing consciousness.
There was no doubt that Tobiichi had seen the spirit, muttered something, and then manifested an angel and [Princess] form to kill the young lady’s decoy.
And if she truly couldn’t remember that, then it seemed right to assume that when she came in her inverted form, her consciousness disappeared.
So she hadn’t even realized she was a spirit.
What had only existed as a theory was now proven true, and all I could feel was a sour taste in my mouth.
Still, I couldn’t show that, so I asked why she’d called me here.
"Anyway, why did you call me?"
"Itsuka-kun told me. That Higakieta-kun was the one who saved our parents. Thank you so much!"
Unlike before, Tobiichi bowed not in apology, but in gratitude.
Someone who always seemed kind only to Itsuka-kun bowing to me felt strangely unfamiliar and gave me the creeps.
"Y-you don’t need to thank me that much. I was just there too, and I didn’t want to get caught up in it either."
"Even so, you did save our parents. Thank you again."
"......"
This person was too straight-laced.
No matter what I said, she was definitely going to thank me.
The thought that she was somehow similar to Itsuka-kun made me let out a dry laugh.
Tobiichi Origami having a personality similar to Itsuka-kun? Now that was...
"Haha..."
"Higakieta-kun?"
"Ah, sorry. It’s a little embarrassing to receive thanks for something I didn’t even mean to do."
Tobiichi looked at me with concern, so I said that and brushed it off.
"But Tobiichi-san, don’t you have something else to say to someone besides me?"
I said that because of what Itsuka-kun had told Tobiichi at lunch.
I wondered if Tobiichi had forgotten about it.
"Huh? Oh! Itsuka-kun! Could you tell me Itsuka-kun’s LINE ID!?"
"Huh? Sure, I guess."
And so Tobiichi got Itsuka-kun’s LINE ID from me, bowed her head again while thanking me profusely, and headed down from the rooftop.
Watching her back, I muttered softly the moment she disappeared.
"Young lady. That was a decoy, right?"
"Kihih! You know me so well~"
Along with the young lady’s voice drifting up from the shadow at my feet, she appeared.
I didn’t really know why she’d come out of my shadow of all places, but seeing that she was safe put me at ease.
"I was right in the middle of enjoying myself with the two of you, and then I got interrupted. That leaves me a little grumpy."
"Please don’t say weird things... What do you mean, enjoying yourselves...?"
The young lady’s highly misleading remark made my head start to throb.
"Fufu. Then I’ve absorbed enough of Higakieta’s time, so I’ll be on my way."
"Ah, yes. Take care."
With the young lady gone as well, I was left alone on the rooftop.
My head hurt because it felt like a lot had happened in one day, but I figured I should report what just happened to the commander, so I called her.
After a few rings, the commander picked up.
[What is it, Hiki? What happened?]
"...Commander. I just met Devil."
[...What!? Where!?]
"The school rooftop."
[...Let’s talk about the details in the spirit mansion living room.]
"Yeah."
After reporting to the commander, I hurried back to the spirit mansion.
*******
"So this world is a changed-history world where Shido used Kurumi’s time-reversal ability to go back five years and save Tobiichi Origami’s parents?"
"That’s right."
When I arrived at the spirit mansion, Itsuka-kun and the commander were in the living room, deep in conversation.
It looked like Itsuka-kun had finally told the commander that history had been altered.
Beside them, Murasame-san seemed to be looking at something on a pad.
"I’m back, Commander."
"Oh, you’re here. Tell me in detail what just happened."
"What do you mean, what happened?"
"Ah, well..."
I told them everything that had happened on the rooftop.
That Tobiichi had called me there, that the young lady had come and absorbed time, and that after Tobiichi saw the young lady, manifested an angel and [Princess] form, killed the young lady’s decoy, and then returned to normal.
After hearing that, the commander and Itsuka-kun both looked complicated.
"Seeing a spirit is the trigger...?"
"This got a little complicated."
"...Let’s summarize the story for now."
Listening quietly, Murasame-san said that while playing back a video on the pad.
"...According to God, the parents’ deaths were prevented, but Tobiichi still exists as the inverted Devil."
The video Murasame-san showed was footage of Tobiichi fighting the young lady on the rooftop earlier.
"...I interpreted the conversation Hiki and I had on the rooftop, but she wasn’t lying."
"So she really didn’t know..."
Itsuka-kun’s expression, after hearing it confirmed directly, eased up a little.
He must have had some worry buried in his heart, wondering what if Tobiichi had been lying.
"...Tobiichi Origami doesn’t recognize herself as a spirit. If God altered the world, and only God, Kurumi, and, exceptionally, Hiki have the memories of the original world, then..."
"Yes."
"That’s right."
After hearing our answers, Murasame-san thought for a moment before speaking again.
"...I’ll exclude Kurumi, since this was caused by her own ability, and Hiki is an irregular by existence itself, so excluding him too, I can infer two conditions from God’s situation."
The two conditions Murasame-san named were these.
1. She must have been hit by a bullet sent to the past.
2. There must be spirit power in her body.
"...If those conditions overlap, maybe she regains the memories of the original world."
"Indeed, Tobiichi Origami was hit by Kurumi’s [Zayin], achieved time reversal, and then spent peaceful days thanks to Shido’s world alteration."
"Then [Phantom] appeared and granted Origami spirit power, making her remember everything..."
"Then isn’t something strange? If her memories came back, she should know Itsuka-kun."
When I asked that, Murasame-san proposed a hypothesis.
"...Maybe her self-defense instinct split the two memories apart. In other words, the peaceful girl Origami and the spirit-hunting spirit [Devil]. Like that."
"Then Tobiichi seeing a spirit and turning into a spirit too..."
"If we follow Reine’s reasoning, the moment she senses spirit power, she loses her usual memories and consciousness and awakens as [Devil]. It’s only a hypothesis, but it fits."
"Then what are we supposed to do?"
At Itsuka-kun’s question, the commander answered with a lollipop in her mouth.
"If Origami is a spirit, then there’s only one thing we have to do, right?"
Everyone here knew exactly what the commander meant.
"Go on a date and make her fall for you."
"Exactly. Then we seal her spirit power. Go set up a date with Tobiichi Origami right now. Let’s start our date―!"
"Ah!"
Just as the commander was about to launch into her usual line, Itsuka-kun cut her off and held up his phone.
"I already made plans for Saturday."
"...Huh!?"
It was kind of funny how the commander’s jealousy exploded after hearing that.
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