The sky had begun to turn red, signaling that the two of them were nearing the end of their date.
At the moment, Tobiichi and Itsuka-kun had chosen Upper District Park as the final stop.
Because it sat high up with a wide, sweeping view ahead, the park created a pretty romantic atmosphere with just the two of them there.
"Tobiichi Origami’s emotional readings have remained stable for a while now."
"Her favorability is still holding at a high level as well."
At the two crew members’ words, I felt relieved.
If you asked why, I’d have to say it couldn’t be helped.
Before things had reached this point, Tobiichi’s bizarre behavior had been far too memorable.
Even after the incident where she wore that strange outfit at the clothing store, Tobiichi had caused one mess after another.
For example, while Itsuka-kun was in the bathroom, she’d tried to mix something into his water. Or she’d buried her face in his coat and sniffed it.
After all that weird behavior, the fact that they were now just standing there normally together counted as huge progress.
It would be great if she didn’t do anything strange from here on out.
"The mood isn’t bad. I wonder if it’d be okay to wrap this up today."
The commander was wondering whether Itsuka-kun could kiss Tobiichi today, after only one day, unlike with the other spirits.
Honestly, in this world they’d only met two or three days ago, so going straight for a confession and a kiss was basically a stretch.
If it failed, her favorability would drop hard, and the difficulty of the route would obviously shoot straight up.
But if they dragged it out any longer, there was also the risk that when another spirit appeared, Tobiichi would show up as a devil, which would be dangerous. So they needed to seal her quickly too.
In other words, this was one of those situations where they couldn’t go either way.
"...That should be fine. But there’s one thing. It feels like there’s still some anxiety left inside her."
"Anxiety?"
"...Maybe she’s worried about whether God will accept her?"
"Well, that makes sense. After all the weird stuff she’s done, it’d be nice if something could push her one step further."
Her favorability still hadn’t reached the level where she could be considered fully routeable.
It would be a shame to end things like this, so they needed a decisive moment to raise it further.
As the commander watched the screen with a lollipop in her mouth, looking disappointed, Itsuka-kun and Tobiichi were talking while taking in the scenery.
[So Origami quit AST.]
[Yeah... I didn’t say anything, but I’ve fainted from anemia before, and things got hard to understand. I started wondering whether defeating spirits is really the right thing to do....]
When thoughts completely different from the original world spilled out of Tobiichi’s mouth, Itsuka-kun’s eyes widened in shock.
Same for me. In the original world, there was no way she would have said something like that.
The Tobiichi who always burned with revenge, using that hatred as fuel to try and kill spirits, was saying something like this now.
Life really was full of things you couldn’t predict.
[No, I mean, history changed, so isn’t that obvious?]
"Maybe. Maybe he developed a grudge against spirits because he was angry that Itsuka-kun saved his parents and died."
It was a long shot, but since that possibility existed, I pushed back against Marina’s objection.
[He’s a benefactor, but he’s still a complete stranger. Why would he get angry?]
"...Are you a psychopath?"
[Huh!?]
[Marina, that was a little psychopathic."]
[Even Maria!?]
Sorry to Marina, but I really did wonder if she was a psychopath.
If someone saved your parents right in front of you and then died, how could you not get angry?
Even if you didn’t get angry, the normal reaction would be to feel sad or something similar.
Maybe because Marina was born as an AI, her emotional empathy was lacking.
[That really hurts, you know!?]
"Ah, sorry. You heard that?"
[...Forget it. I’m not talking to you anymore.]
[It’s okay, Hai. Talking with me will be more fun than talking with Marina anyway.]
[That’s not what I meant! Who said I was really going to do that!?]
[What a shame.]
[Hey, Maria, get over here!]
[Eek. Hai, Marina’s bullying me.]
Miss Maria called out to me in a voice that wasn’t scared at all, and Marina kept arguing with her, saying that made her even more annoyed.
I could only chuckle and watch the screen.
Those two were best friends who would go right back to being close after this, so there was nothing to worry about.
I’d seen them like this more than once or twice anyway.
"...Hiki. Aren’t you going to stop them?"
"Won’t they sort it out themselves?"
"...You’re the one who caused it, though?"
"I’m just a dead piece of ash who knows nothing."
"Geez...."
The commander let out a long, exasperated sigh as she looked at me.
It stung a little, but since I really had caused it, I silently wiped away my tears.
"You’re not even crying, so why are you rubbing your eyes? Focus on the screen."
When the commander said that in disbelief, I turned my attention back to the screen.
Right now, Tobiichi was apologizing to Itsuka-kun, saying she’d been worried about whether it was right to kill spirits when his older brother had died.
She was apologizing without realizing the person in front of her was the one involved.
[You don’t need to apologize! I...! I don’t think Origami’s thoughts are wrong at all! My... no, my brother would think the same thing too.]
"Well, there it is."
The commander nodded at Itsuka-kun’s words.
I had the same reaction, because given Itsuka-kun’s personality, he wasn’t the kind of person who would blame her for something like that.
Though it was also because he was the one involved.
[Itsuka-kun.... I’m sorry! I... I!]
"Favorability skyrocketing!"
"Points have reached the cap!"
"...Looks like that anxiety she had was caused by this after all."
The anxiety Tobiichi had been carrying was her fear of how Itsuka-kun would react to her wondering whether killing her brother’s enemy was the right thing to do.
Since she was struggling over whether it was right to kill the person who had avenged her family, a normal person might well have scolded her for it.
What she’d overlooked was that Itsuka-kun was the person involved, and that he wasn’t a normal person.
So when Itsuka-kun affirmed her thoughts, the words he spoke became a huge blow that erased the anxiety she’d been nursing inside.
As a result, the space that anxiety had occupied was filled by favorability, and it reached the upper limit for sealing.
"Shido, this is looking good! But finish it in one go!"
Maybe the commander’s encouragement had reached him, because Itsuka-kun grabbed Tobiichi by the shoulders and set the mood.
Anyone could see it was the atmosphere of a confession, and the crew members were practically certain they’d succeeded.
But reality wasn’t that easy, and an anomaly always appears when people let their guard down.
[Ngh...!]
Tobiichi stumbled back in embarrassment and hit the wooden railing, and because it was old, the weakened railing collapsed.
[Kyaaah!]
[Origami!!!]
As Tobiichi fell over the cliff, Itsuka-kun grabbed her and pulled her back up.
In the process, his hand was torn by the broken railing and blood flowed, but he managed to save Tobiichi safely.
[Are you okay, Origami?]
[Yeah, thank you....]
Right now, they were in a position where Itsuka-kun had used too much force pulling her up and fallen backward, with Tobiichi sprawled on top of him.
He’d just saved her from a life-or-death situation, so her favorability had risen even more, and with their faces this close, a kiss right now would mean success.
But Tobiichi’s gaze shifted elsewhere.
Her eyes were on Itsuka-kun’s hand, the one that had been injured by the railing a moment ago.
And that wound was now blazing and regenerating under the commander’s power.
In other words, Tobiichi had sensed his spirit waves.
[A spirit....]
"...Damn it, spirit waves."
"Shido, run!"
[Ghk!]
Black feathers spread out behind Tobiichi as she sensed the spirit waves, pushing Itsuka-kun away.
"Hiki!"
"Got it!"
[The transfer device is ready!]
The moment I saw Tobiichi unleash those black feathers, I turned and ran for the transfer device.
Marina had finished setting everything up, so the instant I stepped onto the device, my body was transported beside Itsuka-kun, and I faced the devil-form Tobiichi once more.
"Hieta!"
"Itsuka-kun, do you want to save Tobiichi?"
"Of course!"
"Okay, request received. I’ll make an opening, so Itsuka-kun, squeeze through it and save Tobiichi."
Saying that, I drew my curved sword and set my body on fire.
Nothing less would let me break through half-transformed Tobiichi’s barrier.
For Itsuka-kun to reach Tobiichi, he had to break through the spherical barrier surrounding her.
"Huuuu...."
As I exhaled, black smoke spilled out, announcing that my body was blazing.
Then Tobiichi, sensing my soul, fired off black beams.
Fwish-! Fwish-!
"Hmph!"
But all I had to do was cut them down.
Now that I had already entered the Lord of Cinder state, Tobiichi had no way to beat me.
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