The disappearance of Hermit. Five hours after that.
“Hmm...”
Kotori let out a thoughtful hum as she looked at the screen on the console.
The image on the screen showed the moment Shido and Hermit had collided.
For a brief instant in that scene, their lips had clearly touched.
“Why?”
She had no choice but to wonder.
At the time, Hermit’s affection level should have been high enough to seal. So why had she not been sealed even after kissing Shido, however briefly?
Of course, unlike with Toka, her affection level had not been especially high, but at the very least, it should have sealed away twenty to thirty percent of her Spirit power.
And yet even that had not happened. It was maddening.
Unable to make sense of it, Kotori tilted her head, and the person who had been quietly standing beside her, Jae, suddenly spoke up.
“...Commander. There is something I would like to ask.”
“If it’s not important, later—”
“If the doll’s affection level rises, does the Spirit power get sealed too?”
“...Huh?”
Kotori’s brow furrowed at the absurd question.
The doll’s affection level? What strange thing was he asking now?
She narrowed her eyes as if to say she had no idea what he was talking about, and Jae continued calmly.
“The one who just went on a date with Itsuka was the doll, wasn’t it?”
“A doll? What on earth are you talking about?”
“Exactly as I said. The doll in Hermit’s hands. Depending on whether it was there or not, the person seemed to change.”
“...Reine.”
A miracle: he was using the same words, and yet she still had no idea what he meant.
Rubbing at her throbbing head, Kotori called for Reine.
She was asking Reine for help because she could not make sense of Jae’s words on her own.
But for some reason, Reine did not answer.
“Reine?”
When Kotori turned toward the source of the silence, she saw Reine focused on the console.
With a blank expression, she manipulated the console for a moment, then let out a faint hum and spoke.
“...I think Hyun is right.”
“Then you’re saying Hermit is a doll?”
“...Look at this.”
Reine said that and showed Kotori the screen.
What appeared was Hermit’s affection level and mood values, recorded in real time, along with the affection graph.
“Why is this...?”
Kotori tilted her head at the ordinary-looking screen for only a moment.
“—Huh?”
She noticed something strange.
The first thing was the change in Hermit’s affection level.
When Toka snatched the doll away, the affection value changed in an instant.
It had not shifted gradually, but dropped sharply as if it were reflecting someone else’s affection level entirely.
Of course, having a precious-looking doll taken away, and by someone who seemed to know Shido, was a reaction that made sense.
But the decisive clue was the second thing.
The affection graph that had appeared while Shido was walking through the department store with Hermit was not just one.
Beside the affection value she had mistaken for Hermit’s, there was a very small affection graph.
From this, they could infer not only that Jae’s words were true, but that the target Shido had been pursuing was not “Hermit,” but that “doll.”
In other words, the high affection level had belonged not to Hermit, but to the doll called “Yoshinon.”
“...Haa.”
With Toka already sulking and making things chaotic, this complicated new information only brought on a headache.
At least the good news was that the surging Spirit power had properly returned to Shido, which was a relief.
But if they left it like this, it might explode again at any time.
The question about Hermit had been solved. What remained was easing Toka’s mood.
The problem was that Toka did not want to hear Shido out or even meet him.
[What do I do about this...?]
Shido’s troubled voice came through the intercom.
“...Shin. If you don’t mind, would you let me handle Toka?”
The one who stepped forward to soothe Toka’s feelings was Reine.
As someone who had taught both Jae and Toka common sense, she was perhaps one of the people closest to them.
If Toka refused to meet Shido, it was not strange for Reine, the next closest person, to take her in.
Shido asked because he was curious about the reason.
“...This kind of thing is usually discussed when the person involved isn’t present.”
That was the answer he got.
And so Toka was left to Reine, and the only thing remaining was the reunion with Hermit.
“Tch. Well, there’s nothing we can do about this.”
Unfortunately, unless Hermit manifested again, meeting her was a long way off. Kotori could only feel disappointed.
Jae looked at her and said,
“The doll.”
“The doll? ...Ah.”
Judging from the mood values Hermit had shown when the doll was taken, that doll must have been very precious to her.
Since it had disappeared, even if they met again, there was a chance she would be in an unstable state of mind.
Of course, if Shido could pierce through that unease and make her open her heart, that would be wonderful.
“We’ll have to find it.”
As commander, Kotori had to consider the worst-case scenario.
If they assumed Hermit would become unstable and start rampaging again, then they would have to do whatever it took for Jae to protect Shido while bringing the doll to her.
If they could only return the doll, then they should be able to have a normal conversation.
If her personality shifted back to the doll again, there would be nothing they could do about that, but they would have to accept it.
Kotori operated the console again and began reviewing the situation from a little earlier.
In the video replay, the chase between Hermit and AST continued, then Hermit and Shido collided, and Toka found them and flew into a rage.
At last, Hermit manifested her Angel and fled, and with that, a girl entered the deserted department store through the broken wall.
“Found it.”
The AST member was a white-haired girl who picked up a doll from the department store.
It was the doll that had called itself Yoshinon.
“Tobiichi Origami...”
Kotori murmured the girl’s name.
Tobiichi Origami. A schoolgirl who was currently Shido’s girlfriend.
It was troublesome that an AST member had taken the doll, but since she was Shido’s girlfriend, there were plenty of ways to create a reason to go to her house.
Still, rather than sending Shido, it would probably be faster to break in separately and take it quietly.
“I’ll need to do a little investigating.”
Kotori decided she would have to find out the location and layout of Tobiichi Origami’s house.
And she did not know.
That over the next two days, everyone who attempted to infiltrate Tobiichi Origami’s house would fail.
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