The date between Shido and Hermit, which began after their conversation, was simple.
They walked around the department store, looking at the sights.
That was the whole date.
There was a minor problem in the middle when Shido called Hermit a doll and her mood plummeted, but fortunately, her easygoing personality kept it from becoming a bigger issue.
“Wahaha~”
Hermit balanced herself atop the children’s jungle gym in the toy section and asked Shido,
“How is it, Shido-kun! Cool~? Yoshinon, cool~?”
Hermit swayed precariously, as if she might topple over at any moment.
Since there was a chance she could get hurt if she fell, Shido shouted in alarm.
“H-hey, that’s dangerous up there...”
It certainly wasn’t very large or very high. But it was still high enough to hurt if she fell.
Of course, Shido also knew that Spirits could fly. He had just seen AST chase them at Fraxinus.
But the image of Hermit falling at the shrine was still fresh in his mind, and that was why he worried.
Shido ran after Hermit, who had dashed ahead first, and headed for the jungle gym. Jae, who had been following behind, stopped for a moment to use his magic again.
“Hey, wait, why are you asking whether it’s cool or not── whoa, huh...?!”
Hermit, who had been waving her hand and complaining, lost her balance because of her own movement and began to fall.
Maybe because she was falling straight toward Shido.
“Ghk!”
Shido, struck by her, lost his own balance and fell as well.
Shido and Hermit tumbled down together, tangled up with each other.
“Ow...”
Rubbing the back of his head, Shido let out a groan, then suddenly felt something was off.
He had collided with Hermit and fallen with her, and yet...
He couldn’t feel any physical contact with her.
Why? Wondering that, he opened his eyes, and what he saw was...
“Hmm~?”
Hermit hanging in midair by the back of her clothes, as if she had been grabbed by something.
It was strange.
It wasn’t Hermit’s power.
If she had been flying with her own ability, she wouldn’t have been making such a puzzled sound. From that reaction, it seemed someone else had interfered.
Then who, exactly?
Only one figure came to mind.
“......”
Just then, someone revealed themselves out of thin air.
Armor twisted as if it had been melted by fire. An emotionless gaze felt through the helmet. And above all, the only presence that had been following Shido and Hermit all this time.
“Hmm.”
Jae’s figure, as his magic’s duration ended, was revealed to Hermit.
“Oh~? Who are you, mister? You suddenly appeared out of nowhere... don’t tell me, a ghost~?”
Jae let out a low breath as he watched Hermit chatter brightly even while being held.
He had grabbed her to keep her from colliding with Shido, but he hadn’t expected the magic to be canceled and his appearance exposed.
Still, what was done was done.
“Eek?!”
Jae immediately let go of Hermit and turned his head in another direction.
The presence he had felt earlier.
Someone else had come to the department store besides Jae, so he set Hermit aside and greeted the guest who had arrived.
At the same time, an alarm began sounding over Shido and Jae’s communication devices.
“Huh...?”
Startled by the sudden alarm, Shido glanced at Hermit’s expression.
Hermit looked curious at the sight of Jae, but she didn’t seem wary or angry.
Then why was the alarm sounding? What on earth was it?
That question could not continue for long.
“──Oh no. An emergency has occurred. The worst kind of emergency.”
Kotori’s anxious voice came through the intercom.
Crack
Then, the sound of something breaking behind him filled Shido with fear.
But even if he was afraid, he couldn’t avoid checking.
Shido’s head turned stiffly toward the direction Jae had been looking.
“To, Toka...?”
What he saw was Yatogami Toka.
She should have evacuated to the underground shelter at Raizen High School, yet for some reason she had come all the way to the department store.
As if she had run here without even an umbrella, she was soaked through and breathing hard.
“──Shido.”
Toka called Shido’s name in a voice that had gone cold.
The chill in her tone ran straight through Shido’s body.
As he stiffened, feeling the hairs on his body stand on end, Toka opened her mouth again.
“...What are you doing right now?”
To Toka, Shido was her savior, the one who had rescued her, and the person she loved most.
It was only natural that she would be angry to see that person with another girl.
“...W-well, that is...”
Shido understood that, so he tried to wring out an excuse in his head and explain the situation.
But perhaps he took too long thinking.
“After making me worry like that...”
In a voice squeezed out like that of a sulking child, she said,
“What are you doing with a girl in a place like thisss!”
Spitting out her jealousy, Toka stepped forward.
Bang!
At that moment, the floor beneath Toka’s foot cracked and split.
“W-what, what what what...”
The moment Shido saw that, his mind practically short-circuited.
Before Hermit’s rescue began, Reine had told Shido that Toka was now no different from an ordinary person.
Then what was that?
There was no way a normal high school girl could stomp the floor and make it crack.
As Shido, betrayed by the Reine he had trusted, trembled in confusion, Jae, who had been silently watching Toka, moved.
“──Stop.”
A low voice rang out.
That cracking, rough voice blocked Toka’s advance.
Seeing Toka pause for a moment, Jae pointed to the crack in the floor.
“If you keep going, this place will collapse.”
If she kept adding that kind of force, the department store would definitely come down.
And then the one in danger would be Shido.
Right now, Toka’s spiritual power had returned as her emotions surged, and Hermit had not yet been sealed. Jae was an undead who could not die in the first place.
In the end, the only one left was Shido’s ordinary human body.
Of course, Shido had regenerative ability, so it probably wouldn’t be that big a problem.
But Jae’s mission was to guard Shido. His purpose from the start was to protect him from danger. There was no reason not to stop Toka.
“Hmm... hmm~ ...I see.”
Hermit muttered anxiously as she watched the scene, then soon approached Toka.
“Um, big sister~? Hmm, your name was──”
Toka, looking at Hermit as she came closer, answered irritably.
“...Toka.”
“Toka-chan? Sorry, but~ it looks like Shido-kun is tired of you~”
It was a sudden provocation.
In such a serious situation, even though she must have understood the circumstances, Hermit still provoked Toka.
“......”
Neither Shido nor Jae could say anything about Hermit’s behavior. Even Toka herself swallowed at those brazen words.
“From what I’ve heard, Shido-kun broke his promise with Toka-chan and took Yoshinon──”
Hermit’s provocation continued.
Shido, who tried to stop her, almost got hit by Toka’s fist, and Jae pulled him back just in time to avoid it.
Then, just as the provocation was beginning to cross the line, the doll suddenly disappeared from Hermit’s hand.
“......?!”
Hermit’s eyes changed the moment the doll was taken away.
“As I thought.”
Watching her, Jae murmured that softly.
Having watched Hermit this whole time, Jae had felt something strange.
The way the doll alone chattered without the body opening its mouth was definitely not ventriloquism.
In Jae’s world, there had been all kinds of living things and all kinds of people. It was a world overflowing with bizarre beings.
So Jae had simply guessed that there was something else involved, and he had been right.
“There’s no way!”
Hermit’s doll was in Toka’s hands.
She grabbed the doll by the collar and shook it back and forth, denying the doll’s provocation.
She said Shido would never abandon her. She told them not to mock her.
Watching that, Hermit trembled like a frightened puppy.
The fragile Spirit lowered her hood deeply as if avoiding Toka’s gaze, then tugged at Toka’s clothes.
“──P-please... g-give it... back...”
Saying that, Hermit jumped in place, trying to grab the doll.
Seeing Hermit desperately trying to get her doll back, Kotori spoke to Shido.
“Shido, don’t just stand there, hurry up and stop them!”
Ever since the doll had been taken away, Hermit’s mental state had started to deteriorate rapidly.
It kept getting worse, and now it had fallen to less than half of what it had been.
After hearing Kotori’s words, Shido hesitantly asked Toka for help.
“T-Toka, um... could you give me that doll back...?”
“...Ghk!”
At his request, Toka looked at Shido with an expression of utter disbelief.
To her, Shido’s request sounded like he valued Hermit more than her.
“So... that girl matters more than I do...”
“W-what? No, that’s not it──”
Just as Shido tried to explain himself at Toka’s words.
“...Come, [Zadkiel]...!”
Hermit summoned her angel.
A miracle given form manifested and revealed its massive shape.
What emerged from the shattered floor was a huge beast with smooth, metallic skin and something like rabbit ears.
Hermit clung to the beast’s back and shoved both hands into the two holes there.
Roar!
Then the beast let out a low bellow, scattering red light from its eyes.
At the same time, cold air poured from its entire body in the form of white smoke.
“Damn it.”
Seeing that, Jae immediately grabbed Shido and Toka and pulled them back.
The cold was far too severe.
If they had been exposed a little longer, their bodies would have frozen. The angel’s chill was that intense.
“She manifested her angel at a time like this...! Hyun, take them and run!”
At Kotori’s urgent voice over the communication device, Jae nodded.
Shido had no idea what an angel was, but this was the first time he had heard Kotori sound so flustered while acting as commander, so he couldn’t bring himself to ask.
Thudthudthud!
Then, just as Jae stepped back, rainwater shot forward.
Rainwater carrying terrifying force and speed pierced through the windows and walls and poured into the place where they had been.
Clang!
Jae quickly pulled out a shield and blocked every attack.
The massive shield, shaped as if carved from rock, was enough to protect even Shido and Toka.
Jae held out with Havel’s greatshield for a while, until the rainwater gradually subsided and the attack finally stopped.
“......She’s gone.”
Along with a huge hole torn through the wall, Hermit had vanished.
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