It had been a few minutes since I started chasing after Itsuka-kun, who had suddenly made a break for it.
Neither I nor the shadow had any flying ability at all, so all we could do was use the terrain and keep running after him.
Yeah, so it was only natural that our pursuit was getting slower.
"Damn it! Seriously! Give me some flying ability too!"
-!!!
Even the shadow, whose personality was so similar to mine it was basically identical, complained that it had no flying ability. But that still didn’t make one appear out of nowhere.
As we kept chasing him however we could, I finally spotted Itsuka-kun being held by something black in the distance.
"Miss?"
-!?
Looking closer, I realized the black thing was the shadow the young lady had been using.
Once the shadow and I realized that, we both stopped in surprise for a moment.
"No time for that. Let’s go!"
-Nod.
We quickly came to our senses and ran toward Itsuka-kun.
Right now, this wasn’t the time to just stand there staring. We had to subdue Itsuka-kun quickly and create an environment where the others could kiss him.
"Shadow! Throw me!"
-Nod!
Unfortunately, I couldn’t fly, so I ordered the shadow to throw me.
After all, it had been born from me, so it could emulate part of my physical ability. That made it possible.
-!!!!
Letting out some incomprehensible battle cry, the shadow threw me without hesitation.
Thanks to that, my body rapidly closed the distance to Itsuka-kun, and when I was almost right on top of him, the young lady’s shadow began to disappear.
"Aaaaaah!!!"
"Oh, come on, what’s with the teenage rebellion now!"
The moment the shadow disappeared, I grabbed Itsuka-kun’s arm before he could start thrashing around.
That left him practically hanging from a tree like a cicada, but it was enough to seal off his movements.
"Just sit still and take the kiss!"
"Hieta! Hold him there!"
At Rinne’s shout, I nodded and tightened my grip on his arm, holding him almost like I was hugging him.
"Aaaaaah!!!"
Itsuka-kun struggled to break free from my restraint, but there was no way something like that would loosen my grip.
Even while he was going berserk, he didn’t use any spiritual power attacks, probably because he was worried about hurting me, which made it even easier to keep him pinned down.
Still, his legs weren’t restrained, so he kept kicking at the air.
"Hah, sorry about this, Itsuka-kun!"
Since those kicks could hurt someone, I pulled out the witch’s staff I’d gotten from sealing Natsumi’s spiritual power in my inventory and used electricity.
Then the witch’s staff turned into a flame of sorcery, and I brought the flames to Itsuka-kun’s face and used sorcery.
"Sorcery—[Charm]."
Wooooong—!
The [Charm], strengthened by the witch’s staff, invaded Itsuka-kun’s mind, and his body went limp, falling into a near-faint.
I’d thought his resistance would be high because of his spiritual power, so it was a relief that it worked so quickly.
"Ah, wait a sec."
But there was one thing I hadn’t expected.
Since Itsuka-kun had fainted, he could no longer keep flying, which meant the only thing left was for him and me, clinging to him, to fall to the ground.
"Oh, no—!"
Before I could even finish speaking, Itsuka-kun and I were plummeting.
The moment we hit the ground like this, my body would be smashed to pieces, and Itsuka-kun would definitely wake up from his faint.
Just as I was wondering what the hell to do, something suddenly flashed in and caught us.
"Honestly, I knew this would happen when you went off on your own."
"Ahaha, sorry. Commander."
The one who caught us was none other than the commander.
She let out a long sigh, set me and Itsuka-kun down on the ground, and stepped back.
I wondered why she was doing that, but then Rinne stepped forward first, and I understood what it meant.
She was probably going to kiss him in the same order they had cleared the route.
"I’ll step out for a bit."
Of course, I wasn’t really stepping out. I was going to watch from behind.
Partly because of the shadow, and partly because if Itsuka-kun tried to wake up again, I’d need to use [Charm] to put him back to sleep.
After I got up and stepped back, Rinne approached Itsuka-kun.
"Shido, just like you did for me back then. This time, I’ll give it back to you."
Saying that, Rinne kissed Itsuka-kun.
The "back then" she was talking about was probably when Itsuka-kun had sealed her spiritual power.
Compared to then and now, it really was no different from giving back exactly what she had received.
"Next is me, I guess."
"Please take care of me, big sister."
The next one was Ren, another spirit who, like Rinne, had been saved by Itsuka-kun.
In other words, she was returning the kiss she had received when she was saved.
"Shido...."
The moment Ren approached Itsuka-kun and called his name—
Twitch—!
"Ren!"
Itsuka-kun’s hand trembled, and he swung [Sandalphon] at Ren.
I never expected him to wake up this fast.
Just as I was about to hurriedly get Ren out of the way,
Shoop—!
A thick tree branch shot up from the ground and blocked [Sandalphon].
"Heheh, it seems he really does dislike me quite a bit. But even so, I like you, Shido. Enough to give up my goal."
Ren calmly deflected Itsuka-kun’s attack and said that before kissing him.
"And I’m sorry?"
Clack!
At Ren’s will, the branches wrapped around Itsuka-kun’s hand and restricted his movements.
He struggled against it, but after being weakened by [Charm] once already, he couldn’t break free from the branch’s restraint so easily.
"Grrrrrr!!"
Itsuka-kun fought with all his might to escape the branches, like some kind of beast.
Ignoring even that, the next one, the commander, stepped forward.
"Big brother, I tried to give you up. I’m sorry. And I won’t do that again."
From the way she said that, it seemed like she had tried to do something before coming here.
Saying she tried to give him up probably meant she had tried to kill Itsuka-kun or turn him into something equivalent.
I didn’t know what kind of feelings she had as his younger sister when she made that decision, but it seemed she had changed her mind and decided not to abandon him after all.
"I love you."
While I was relieved by the commander’s decision, she murmured softly and kissed Itsuka-kun.
That left Tobiichi, Tohka, and my shadow. Three left.
I was relieved that Itsuka-kun would soon be able to calm down, but I still didn’t let my guard down.
"Gyaaaaaah!"
"Kyaa!"
After the commander’s kiss ended, Itsuka-kun’s struggling grew even more violent, stirring up wind around him.
That began tearing the branches to shreds, and shallow cuts started appearing on the commander’s body too.
Yeah. This was exactly why I couldn’t relax.
I couldn’t let Itsuka-kun escape again, so I was about to kick off the ground and use [Charm] through the sorcery flame to knock him out again—
"Wait."
If Tobiichi hadn’t stopped me.
Tobiichi held out a hand to stop me, then turned into particles of light and appeared in front of Itsuka-kun.
"Shido. This time, it’s me."
After muttering that briefly and kissing him, Tobiichi quickly returned to this side.
But the kiss still wasn’t completely over, so there was still a chance Itsuka-kun could escape.
I’m sure Tobiichi knew that too, but for some reason, the hand stopping me still didn’t lower.
"Tobiichi, what are you doing right now..."
"It’s Tohka now."
"Huh?"
Just as I was about to ask what she meant, I heard a familiar voice from above.
"Shidooo!!!"
Tohka was descending from the sky at incredible speed.
Come to think of it, when the commander caught me and Itsuka-kun as we fell, Tohka hadn’t been in sight.
I never expected her to show up in a situation like this, but maybe that had something to do with why Tobiichi had stopped me.
The answer came from Tohka’s actions.
"Tch!"
Tohka knocked aside Itsuka-kun’s [Sandalphon] with her own [Sandalphon], and hers scattered into the air.
Since she still hadn’t fully manifested, her spiritual power had reached its limit.
"I have to go now...!"
"Don’t come! Let me do this!"
Even in that situation, Tohka didn’t want anyone else interfering. She wanted to overcome the hardship herself.
That was a kind of resolve, her own determination.
"Aaaaaah!!!"
"Tch...!"
The raging wind grew even stronger, leaving cuts all over Tohka’s body, but she didn’t stop and kept going.
To save the one she loved, to tell him how she truly felt.
The pure love of an innocent girl, with not a single lie in it, reached Itsuka-kun.
"I like you, Shido."
"Ugh..."
After Tohka finished her kiss too, Itsuka-kun definitely looked different from before.
Now all that was left was...
-?
Only my shadow remained, tilting its head as if asking why I was looking at it.
"Come on, let’s go."
-!???
When I grabbed the shadow’s arm and dragged it along, it resisted as if asking why I was doing this.
It felt a little weird, dragging myself around like this, but this was all for Itsuka-kun and the world, so I pulled with even more force than the shadow’s resistance.
-!!!!
"It’s easier if you give up."
-!!!
For the shadow, which kept resisting as if asking what kind of bullshit that was, I simply told it the truth.
"You were born to kiss Itsuka-kun."
-?
The cruel truth made it panic for a moment, and its strength went slack.
Not missing that opening, I yanked it forward and threw it at Itsuka-kun.
Whoosh—!
The shadow was launched toward Itsuka-kun with the sound of slicing wind.
It was pretty fast, so Tohka, who was close to Itsuka-kun, hurriedly stepped back too.
Just as the distance between the shadow and Itsuka-kun was almost closed—
-Hey, you bastard of a main body—!
The shadow spoke for the first time.
But it was already too late.
-....
"......"
The thrown shadow’s lips met Itsuka-kun’s, and his body fell backward.
-...Shit.
And so, with everything finally resolved, only the shadow Miyuki’s curse echoed on.
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