Tobiichi’s thoughts upon seeing the video of the two Ifrits were simple and clear.
I’ll kill them both.
It was a simple, certain solution. The enemy who had murdered her parents was the Spirit who wielded flames, [Ifrit]. Since the video showed two flame-wielding Spirits, it didn’t matter which one was the culprit—if she killed both, the debt would be paid.
After all, the AST’s purpose was to exterminate Spirits or to "Lost" them. Killing two Spirits instead of one presented no problem.
But why had they attacked Itsuka Kotori first?
Itsuka Kotori’s face had been clearly captured on video, whereas the other figure had been clad in armor, leaving their identity a mystery.
The armor might have suggested the presence of a [Knight], but the girl, blinded by a thirst for revenge, never let her reasoning go that far.
For those reasons, Itsuka Kotori had been designated as the priority target.
And now, here it was. The Spirit who might be her parents’ killer had finally appeared before her.
There was only one choice. Since Itsuka Kotori had already fled, she would deal with the other [Ifrit] standing right in front of her.
“[Ifrit]!!!!”
A miserable, revenge-soaked scream rang out as Tobiichi clashed with the other [Ifrit], Hieta.
“Why! Why did you kill my parents!!!!”
Despite the girl’s desperate cry, the flame knight remained silent.
From Hieta’s perspective, he stayed quiet because he was concentrating entirely on controlling his power. One mistake, and the surroundings would become a sea of fire; worse, every living thing nearby would be burned to ash.
But Tobiichi, unaware of this, interpreted his silence differently.
He feels no guilt. Not a shred of remorse for what he's done. He's treating the Great Fire like it was nothing.
It was a wildly off-base interpretation, something she normally would never have concluded, but a heart consumed by revenge only sees what it wants to see.
“Because of you!!! I’ve been living in pain every single day!!!”
A missile launched from White Licorice, screaming toward the enemy.
The flame knight silently, wordlessly, drew the Spiral Sword and delivered a light horizontal slash.
Boom!
The flames released from the Spiral Sword caused the missile to explode before it could ever reach its target.
Hieta swept his gaze over the blade as if checking its condition, testing exactly how much power he could safely use against Tobiichi.
That had truly been a light swing. Even with minimal force, the attack had been completely neutralized.
But Tobiichi did not give up. This was her chance to slay the mortal enemy of her family.
“Die!!!”
If missiles wouldn’t work, she would use the laser cannon. She opted for an aerial assault, exploiting the fact that her enemy was grounded while she could fly.
The laser cannon fired from the remaining barrel, beaming toward the enemy. As a unit built specifically to kill Spirits, its firepower was considerable.
However, her opponent was Hieta in the state of [Incarnation of Kings]. The matchup could not have been worse.
Clang!
With the sound of metal striking metal, the Spiral Sword shifted into the form of a staff.
Hieta lifted the staff and gave it a slight spin. A small Soul Stream shot out, colliding head-on with the laser cannon.
Boom! Crash-crash-crash!
It was a small Soul Stream, but its power was anything but weak. The single projectile intercepted every laser blast raining toward Hieta before vanishing.
The resulting shockwave kicked up a massive cloud of dirt and dust, obscuring Hieta from view.
Seeing that long-range attacks were useless, Tobiichi abandoned her aerial advantage and dropped to the ground, charging straight into the dust cloud.
“Stop!”
Tohka tried to interfere, but she was held back.
“N-no...”
Yoshino had grabbed her from the side. Tohka couldn’t understand why Yoshino was stopping her; they needed to prevent Tobiichi from attacking Hieta.
Then Yoshinon spoke.
“Hieta-kun is deliberately acting as bait right now. Didn’t she say the girl’s parents were killed by a flame Spirit? The only flame-wielding Spirits we know are Kotori-chan and Hieta-kun.”
“So what!”
“Hieta-kun is drawing the girl’s revenge away from Kotori-chan and onto himself to divert her attention. That way, Shido-kun can seal her safely. Let’s not interfere.”
Understanding Yoshinon’s logic, Tohka nodded and stepped back.
“Why is nobody helping me!”
However, their calculations and Hieta’s reality were not aligned.
Soon, steel met steel inside the dust cloud.
Clang!
Tobiichi’s laser blade and Hieta’s Spiral Sword collided and locked together.
Tobiichi felt the heat of the flames radiating from Hieta’s body, as if her skin were being seared, but she did not stop. She swung her sword relentlessly, attacking Hieta over and over.
Hieta only defended. He never once struck back. If he landed a single hit in this state, her body would be obliterated. She was not a Spirit; she had a completely ordinary human body. Therefore, he absolutely refused to attack.
“Why! Why did you kill my parents!!!”
Tobiichi shouted, pouring every ounce of her emotion into the cry. Deep down, she knew the person in front of her would never answer.
And then, something changed. Hieta opened his mouth.
“...I don’t know your parents. I never killed them.”
It was a low voice that echoed as if coming from the depths of a cave, completely unlike Hieta’s usual tone.
The reason for the deep tone was simple: he was wearing one of those face-altering masks inside his helmet.
Regardless, the answer only fueled Tobiichi’s rage.
“You don’t even remember what you did!”
He's shameless. The man in front of me is utterly shameless. He murdered my parents and now claims he knows nothing about it. It was infuriating.
“I’ll never forgive you!!!!”
She continued her assault, enduring the searing pain of the heat.
Hieta was horrified to see her attacking even as her skin burned from the proximity of his flames.
Eek! Is this girl insane?! I really didn’t kill your parents! I mean, I did draw the aggro in the first place, but still!
In truth, as Hieta thought, he had never killed Tobiichi’s parents. He was an outsider who had been transferred from Dark Souls into this world.
But since he still needed to buy time, he added one more line.
“How ridiculous.”
Just that one phrase. After saying it, he fell silent again. Blocking Tobiichi’s attacks while meticulously controlling his strength required absolute concentration.
And the bait he had thrown was working beautifully.
***
“Die!!!!”
The attacks grew fiercer, and consequently, the burns on Tobiichi’s body worsened. Just as it seemed her body might reach its breaking point, Shido stepped in between them.
“Stop!”
Slash!
A deep gash was carved into Shido's chest.
Blood sprayed from the wound, splattering across Tobiichi’s face.
“What are you—!”
Tobiichi started to speak, but then she saw the flames rising from his body as the wound rapidly regenerated. Her expression shifted to one of pure shock.
“That was...”
Assuming that Shido had successfully sealed the commander, I released [Incarnation of Kings].
Fortunately, since I had used less power than last time, I still had plenty of stamina left and my body didn't collapse.
Feeling relieved, I stepped back and listened to their conversation.
“Origami. You said it earlier, didn’t you? That your enemy was the flame Spirit [Ifrit]. Not Itsuka Kotori, the human.”
Nice work, Shido.
I nodded quietly, praising him in my head.
“Kotori is no longer a Spirit. She’s human! So kill me! I’m [Ifrit] now!”
“What the hell is—”
“I remembered. What happened five years ago. What happened to me and Kotori!”
Hearing Shido's words, I thought, Of course.
According to Shido, the cause of the fire was definitely the commander, but she supposedly hadn’t killed anyone.
In response, Tobiichi insisted that the one who killed her parents had definitely been a Spirit.
But there was one thing she didn’t know: the Noise from the video we had seen. Shido mentioned there was another Spirit who had manipulated the commander.
“You expect me to believe that?!”
“Yes.”
“I want to believe it. But I can’t. Then how do you explain that thing behind you?”
Tobiichi suddenly pointed at me.
Huh, me?
“Ta-da! I was a [Knight] all along!”
When I switched my armor to the high-grade knight set, Tobiichi’s eyes went wide. It was only natural; up until now, she had thought I was [Ifrit], and now I appeared as someone else entirely.
“[Knight]...”
“That’s why I told you. I don’t know your parents, and I never killed them.”
At my words, Tobiichi bit her lower lip. “Then that means [Ifrit] is definitely Itsuka Kotori.”
“Origami! You said it back then! You said you’d make sure nobody else had to go through what you did!”
While Tobiichi was listening to Shido, she suddenly collapsed.
“Activity limit...? Now?!”
Then she pulled out a gun. Is that really the right move?
“Please! Don’t take Kotori away from me! That girl saved me! If not for her, I wouldn’t be who I am now! Please! Believe me!”
Thud!
In the end, Tobiichi passed out. Between fighting me and the strain of her CR-Unit, she had hit her absolute limit.
“Sigh. I should heal those burns.”
I casually healed Tobiichi with [Miracle: Great Heal] and returned to the [Fraxinus].
***
“Sorry, Shin. Today was completely my misjudgment.”
“You mean bringing Tohka, Yoshino, and Hieta to the date? But if that’s the case...”
“No, we shouldn’t have been dating at all.”
Back on the [Fraxinus], Murasame-san apologized to Shido. But what did she mean, they shouldn't have been dating? Wasn't affection the sealing condition?
“It would have been safer to seal her as soon as you woke up yesterday. But Kotori was looking forward to today’s date too much...”
“Wait a second. Murasame-san, wasn’t the sealing condition affection?”
At my question, Murasame-san operated the remote and brought up a window.
“This is?”
“Kotori’s affection trend toward Shin since yesterday. As you can see, it never wavered for even a second. It stayed at maximum the whole time. You said it yourself at the end, didn’t you? Kotori loves her big brother.”
That was the most shocking revelation of the day. So the commander was a brocon.
“Take that!”
“Gah!”
Before I knew it, the commander had rushed over and kicked Shido from behind.
“Oho~? Isn’t our commander the world’s number one brocon~?”
“Shut up!”
“Guhk!”
“That kind of thing is a measurement error! It has to be a calibration mistake!”
They say strong denial is strong affirmation...
“No way. There’s nothing wrong with the numbers—”
“Ten limited-edition La Pucelle milk cream puffs.”
“Sorry, Shin. It’s broken.”
Damn it! Murasame-san had succumbed to bribery! I'll have to do it myself!
“Commander. No matter how you look at it, that’s not bro—”
“Bonus.”
“Yep. It’s broken.”
“Hieta?!”
No choice. I can’t resist a bonus.
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