Honestly, I’m not sure if I can write this well, but I did mention it before and talked about it in the Q&A too, so I guess I’ll write the yandere side story.
Alright, let’s go~!
******
Love is the most twisted curse of all.
It was something some nobody said in a manga, and I think it fits this situation better than anything else.
"H-Hey, Yoshi..."
"Um, Yoshino? Could you maybe let me go...?"
The girl who had bound me in ice and made it impossible for me to move, Yoshino.
We had met by chance at first, and after that I sealed away her spirit power by making her like me.
Well, even after that happened, I did still go around targeting the other spirits.
But that didn’t mean I understood why she had suddenly broken into my room, frozen my entire body except for my face, and dragged me off to some unknown place.
"No, you can’t. You keep letting the others tempt Hii-san..."
"What...?"
That answer, in response to my plea to be let go, was honestly shocking.
For a moment, my brain just stopped because I couldn’t make sense of what she meant by other people tempting me.
Everyone’s nice, so who exactly is tempting me...?
"Hii-san belongs only to me..."
The look in Yoshino’s eyes as she said that was anything but normal.
How should I put it?
If I had to compare it to the anime I used to watch before coming here, it was like there were heart-shaped pupils in her eyes.
An indescribable atmosphere was pouring out of Yoshino and leaving me speechless.
"Besides, you love me too, Hii-san, don’t you...?"
"That’s..."
I had nothing to say.
I had no idea whether this feeling could even be called love.
I had only thought of her as a cute little sister type, so this sudden lunge caught me completely off guard.
No, to begin with, being bound all over my body and unable to even kill myself was even more shocking.
"Could it be... no...?"
Since I couldn’t answer from how flustered I was, Yoshino looked up at me with a fierce glare.
Then she muttered something under her breath.
"So the others really are the problem..."
Ah, please, Yoshinon, I need you.
For some reason, hearing Yoshino say it like she had left Yoshinon behind and was talking as if she had no choice but to kill the others made me realize just how badly I needed Yoshinon.
I’d known it before, but never this desperately.
"I-I lo..."
Just as I was about to say I loved her, because I couldn’t let other people die because of me.
Boom-!
"Found you, Kotori!"
Itsuka-kun appeared, smashing through the wall.
"Shido..."
Itsuka Shido.
Unlike me, he was someone who had originally lived in this world, and the boy who was supposed to take on the role of handling the spirits all by himself.
The boy who burst into this strange space with his blue hair flying behind him gripped Tohka’s angel, Sandalphon, and shouted.
"Yoshino! What the hell is wrong with you!"
"...Shido doesn’t need to know."
A voice colder than anything I’d ever heard from Yoshino came out of her mouth.
I couldn’t understand what was happening, no matter how hard I tried.
"I can’t lose you again... [Zadkiel]."
Crack-!
An angel was summoned, and the surroundings froze over.
What on earth was happening right now? Why was Yoshino trying to attack Itsuka-kun?
And beyond that, what did she mean by saying she couldn’t lose me again?
Unable to understand the situation before my eyes, I could only remain trapped in the ice and hope someone would save me.
Fwoosh-!
The ice holding me in place began to quietly melt away under flames.
"K-Kotori—"
"Shh. Quiet. I snuck in without Yoshino noticing. Get out while Shido draws her attention."
Fortunately, the commander, who had received my location from Itsuka-kun, freed me and let me move again.
My movements were sluggish from being frozen for so long, but I still nodded, grateful that I could move at all, and carefully made my way so Yoshino wouldn’t catch me.
But a woman’s instincts were apparently even more terrifying than I expected.
"K-Kotori-san...?"
"Damn, we’ve been spotted! Run, Hiki!"
"O-Okay!"
The instant we were discovered, ice spears came flying at us.
While the commander blocked the attack, which was clearly meant to stop me from escaping by exploiting the fact that I wouldn’t die, I kicked off the ground and ran.
Clang-!
I could hear the sound of ice and Kamiel colliding behind me, but I ignored it and ran toward the hole Itsuka-kun had blown open.
"No...!"
"Snap out of it, Yoshino!"
What the hell was really going on here?
Normally I should have been the one calming Yoshino down, but I knew that if I did that now, the situation would only get worse.
So I left the back to Itsuka-kun and the commander and kept running.
How long did I run like that?
My frozen body gradually began to thaw and return to normal, and when I finally looked back, I could see the commander and Itsuka-kun retreating.
Thankfully, they didn’t seem to be badly hurt.
"Haah..."
I let out the breath I’d been holding all at once and hid myself with the ring for a moment to think things over.
First, as of just yesterday, I had talked with Ren and then gone to bed.
Second, when I woke up, Yoshino had locked me up.
"This is insane."
What the hell was going on?
The information I’d just recalled wasn’t helping me at all.
I had genuinely gone to sleep and woken up frozen somewhere, so there was nothing I could infer from that.
"For now, going to the spirit mansion is dangerous."
If I went to the spirit mansion where Yoshino lived, I’d obviously get found again and frozen.
So where should I go instead?
"Would [Fraxinus] be okay?"
[Fraxinus] was floating very high up, so I figured it should be fine if I went there.
At the very least, it seemed better to stay there until Yoshino returned to normal.
"Then let’s drop the stealth."
Deciding that Yoshino couldn’t possibly find me by now, I removed the ring.
This should get me recovered by [Fraxinus].
Bang-!
The moment I thought that, a bullet lodged itself in my head.
"Kihihihit! So you were here, Hii-san."
The voice of someone I knew all too well, someone familiar beyond familiar, rang out.
"Now then, good work, everyone. Hii-san should rest for a little while."
The spirit with the identifier of the worst spirit, [Nightmare], Tokisaki Kurumi.
The bullet she fired at me, the one I called lady, was none other than [Zayin], a bullet that stopped time.
As my body and consciousness gradually hardened, the last thing I saw was her face, wearing a smile full of blush.
******
Inside the airship [Fraxinus] of [Ratatoskr].
Right now, many people were gathered around one man there.
"G-Guh...!"
A man with one arm cut off, his legs frozen, and the place where one eye should be completely empty.
"Ugh...!"
At the sight of that cruel-looking man, Shido felt his stomach lurch and almost gagged, while Kotori let out a sigh and asked Reine,
"Reine, why the hell is his condition suddenly like that?"
"...I don’t know. His mind isn’t intact either."
[...What on earth happened?]
[Beats me....]
Looking at the man whose mind was also far from intact and who seemed ready to convulse at any moment, Kotori, the commander of [Fraxinus], Shido, her friend, and Maria and Marina, watching from the cybernetic space, all worried.
[Hii....]
The man’s name was Higakieta Hii.
Just yesterday, he had been getting along fine with everyone else, so why had he shown up in the [Fraxinus] lounge this morning in such a horrific state?
It was a good thing Vice Commander Kyohei Kannazuki had arrived early and found him first, because if someone else had found him, it would have been enough to leave them with PTSD.
Why had the healthy Hieta ended up like this overnight?
Unable to figure that out, the current situation was to do everything possible to lay the near-unconscious Hieta on a sickbed and check his condition.
"Where the hell did his regeneration go...?"
In truth, Hieta, who had fallen out of the world of Dark Souls, possessed the trait of an undead.
It was a power that meant no matter how badly he wanted to die, he couldn’t, and even if part of his body disappeared, it would regenerate as if it had always been there.
He should have had that absurdly broken power.
And yet, for some reason, his regeneration was not working right now.
[I’ll make up some excuse to the others for now.]
"Do that. Especially make sure Yoshino doesn’t see this. Lock this place down so nobody except the crew can come in."
They didn’t know what had happened, but if the others, especially the people who had feelings for him, saw Hieta like this, it would definitely not be good for their mental health.
At Kotori’s words, the crew members there nodded, and Marina and Maria said they would do the same as they locked the infirmary.
"Grrrr...!"
"Damn it, he’s convulsing again! Hold him down!"
"Yes, ma’am!"
The others restrained Hieta’s entire body as he tried to convulse again and couldn’t even endure that much.
"Hieta..."
Watching that, Shido could only worry about why Hieta had ended up looking like that.
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