The morning sunlight slipped through the window and tapped at my eyelids, trying to wake me up.
“Ugh...”
I was exhausted from everything that happened at the pool yesterday, and for a moment, I considered sleeping in. But I figured I should get up and wash up regardless.
Just as I tried to sit up, my arms felt strangely heavy.
“...Huh?”
Wondering what was going on, I turned my head. I saw the Fire Keeper clinging to my left arm and Yoshino clinging to my right, both of them fast asleep.
My bed wasn’t even that large, yet they had managed to squeeze in, pressing themselves right up against me.
“...I want to get out.”
I felt that if I pulled my arms away, I would wake them, so I stayed frozen.
“...Haa.”
“Mm...”
Stuck and unable to move, I let out a sigh—and then the Fire Keeper’s eyes slowly fluttered open.
“Ah, you’re awake?”
“Y-yes, I’m awake...”
Still half-drunk on sleep, the Fire Keeper’s words trailed off drowsily. It was so cute that I reached over and patted her head.
“Mm...”
The Fire Keeper leaned into my hand a little more, then suddenly froze.
“...Ashen One?”
“Yes?”
“T-t-this is! Th-that is!”
Now fully awake and realizing the situation, the Fire Keeper began to stammer as if she had completely broken down.
“S-so!”
“You’re being too loud...”
“Oh, Yoshino’s awake too.”
Apparently, the Fire Keeper had been a bit too boisterous, because Yoshino woke up as well.
She looked around with half-lidded eyes, and then—
“H-Hieta-san! T-that is! I, I...”
She broke down just as the Fire Keeper had.
I smiled at the two of them, both currently malfunctioning, and asked, “So, why were you two in my bed?”
The two of them looked at each other before speaking up.
“Well, Yoshino came into the Ashen One’s room last night...”
“I, I sleep better in Hieta-san’s arms...”
While patting the heads of the two girls speaking in strangely tense voices, I chuckled. “Ahaha, I’m not blaming you. Still, next time, I’d appreciate it if you told me first.”
“Okay...”
“Understood...”
“Heave-ho...”
With the two of them finally free, I got up and drew back the curtains.
“...What is that?”
That was when I saw it: a strange, translucent sphere floating in the sky.
It was huge. Massive, even.
I blinked several times, but no matter how impossible it seemed, the sphere didn’t disappear. It just sat there, radiating a powerful presence.
“Y-you two. Can you see that?”
“Huh?”
“See what?”
At my question, the two of them came closer to the window and looked outside.
“Huh? What is that?”
“Uh... is there something there?”
Their reactions were split.
The Fire Keeper seemed to be seeing the same thing I was, while Yoshino didn’t seem to be able to see the sphere at all.
Thinking this might be the work of another spirit, I hurriedly called the commander.
Click!
After a few rings, the commander picked up.
“Good timing. I was just about to call you.”
“You were just about to call me?”
“Yeah. Shido says there’s a huge sphere floating in the sky. Can you see it too?”
So Itsuka-kun could see it as well.
This was a situation similar to the one with Rinne.
“Yeah. I can see it very clearly. Sachi can see it too, right now.”
“Really? Then come to [Fraxinus] with Sachi for now.”
With that, the call ended.
“What did Kotori say?”
“She said to come over.”
“Then we should go.”
To understand what was happening, I asked Yoshino for permission, and the three of us moved to [Fraxinus].
“Ah! You’re here!”
When we arrived at the commander's station, Mana was the one who greeted us.
Beside her were Itsuka-kun and Rinne.
“What, so not just Itsuka-kun, but Rinne can see it too?”
“Yeah. I can see it too.”
The commander, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, pointed at the monitor with the lollipop she was holding. “So, to your eyes, there’s a giant sphere visible around that area?”
“That’s right.”
The people who could see the sphere were me, Itsuka-kun, the Fire Keeper, and Rinne—four in total.
There didn’t seem to be any common thread between us, so I couldn’t understand why only we were capable of seeing it.
“Being able to see something invisible to other people is amazing! Mana still has a lot of training to do!”
“No, I don’t think that’s it...”
“I don’t think that’s something training would fix...”
Mana really did have a strange side to her.
“Could it be something like the [Invisible Body] this ship uses to hide itself?”
“If that were the case, there’s no way those four would be able to see it. It’s hard to think this is DEM’s doing.”
As the commander said, if Kannazuki-san’s theory were right, then we shouldn’t have been able to see it either.
Just as we were wondering why we alone could see it—
“The analysis is in!”
The analysis of the sphere was complete.
“We’re definitely detecting an enormous spirit wave being emitted in a spherical pattern from those coordinates.”
“So it really was there.”
“What, did you think it wasn’t?”
There was no way something four people had confirmed didn’t exist.
“We’ve only confirmed spirit waves, so we can’t say for certain whether there’s a physical object there...”
“But it’s definitely a concentration of some kind of energy.”
A concentration of energy and confirmed spirit waves.
A hypothesis formed in my mind.
“A new spirit?”
After all, Rinne had been born in a similar fashion last time, hadn't she?
But my theory was immediately shattered by Murasame-san.
“...No. At first glance it has a complicated waveform, but when I break down its state, it’s basically Tohka, Yoshino, Rinne, the Yamai sisters, Miku, Kotori, and Hiki. Each one is similar to the spirit waves of the spirits that Shido and Hiki have sealed so far.”
“Huh?”
According to Murasame-san, that giant sphere was essentially composed of my spirit energy and that of the other spirits.
“The analysis is 99.6% consistent with the analyzer’s report.”
“The sphere may be made up of your spirit energy, Kotori.”
“Ours?”
“What, so this was all just the commander messing around? Geez, don’t scare us like that~”
As Kannazuki-san poked the commander’s head, the commander flicked his finger back sharply.
“Thank you!”
I watched the scene and fell into thought.
What exactly did I, Itsuka-kun, the Fire Keeper, and Rinne have in common?
And why was my spirit wave being detected in there?
“Spirit energy...”
“Hm?”
“Could it be that only people with spirit energy or souls can see it?”
For now, the first question would be solved if my guess was right.
Itsuka-kun had Tohka and Rinne’s spirit energy, and because of the path connecting us, he also carried the spirit energy of the other spirits in his body.
On top of that, Rinne, the Fire Keeper, and I all had souls inside us, and Rinne’s body was half soul to begin with.
In this world, where spirit energy and souls were treated as similar things, it was a plausible explanation.
“Yeah, that does seem possible.”
The commander nodded, agreeing that my theory was sound.
As for the second question—well, if my soul had also been transferred along the path to Itsuka-kun’s side along with the spirit energy, then that would make sense too.
“Putting aside why we can see that sphere, how are we supposed to deal with it?”
“...My guess is that this sphere might be a manifestation of the spirits’ unconscious minds.”
“Their unconscious minds?”
That was a vague and incomprehensible way of putting it.
“Yeah. Maybe it’s some emotion you’re all holding onto that’s taken shape. For example...”
“Jealousy...”
As Murasame-san trailed off, I heard Shiizaki-san mutter under her breath.
“W-what are you saying all of a sudden, Shiizaki!”
“Ah! S-sorry! But I thought maybe the commander and the other spirits all secretly want to monopolize Shido-kun and Hieta-san somewhere in their hearts...”
“That’s not wrong. If you think about what the Yamai sisters and Sachi showed Hiki on the last day of the Heavenly Festival last time—”
“Okay. I get what you mean, so let’s not bring that up.”
I cut Murasame-san off before she could say any more.
If she kept going, the Fire Keeper beside me looked like she’d turn so red she might actually burst.
So she knows that was embarrassing, huh.
“So, the conclusion is...”
“A date.”
The way to calm the spirits’ jealousy was simple: a date.
More specifically, a custom-made date tailored to what each of them wanted.
“Kotori, what are you going to do?”
“I-I don’t have any other choice if there’s no better way!”
After hearing the commander’s answer, Murasame-san stood up, left us with a single request to take care of things, and walked out.
“Miku’s is going to be the worst...”
“Ah, for Hieta, it would be.”
Right now, Itsuka-kun only had to deal with Tohka, Rinne, and the commander—three people total—but I had to deal with Yoshino, Kaguya, Yuzuru, and Miku, four in all.
“Ashen One. That includes me too, right?”
“...Yes. Of course.”
Five people total, including the Fire Keeper.
The future looked bleak.
“But why is Hieta-san’s date with [Diva] the most painful?”
At Mana’s question, I let out a heavy sigh. “Haa... because I have to become a woman.”
“Huh?”
“Because I have to become a woman.”
“Huh?!!!”
Mana stared at me with a shocked expression.
Yeah, I get it.
I’d be shocked too if a man had to become a woman.
“Hieta-san as a woman...? Then that means you’d be an older sister?!”
Correction: she wasn’t shocked. She was thrilled.
“What are you talking about!”
“Don’t worry too much, Hieta-nee! Surely nothing bad will happen!”
“That’s right, Miyuki. Hang in there.”
“Damn it...”
The teasing from Itsuka-kun and Mana continued for quite a while.
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