"What on earth is even happening here?" AST captain Kusakabe Ryouko scowled, unable to believe the scene unfolding before her eyes.
Whatever it was, the business district of Kagamiyama was packed with DEM Wizards and mechanical dolls, and countless versions of the Spirit Nightmare all wearing the same face, moving from defense to offense and back as the battle raged.
The sight almost made her forget that this was Japan, and in a sea of office towers on top of that. Bullets flew, magic light flashed, and the orderly rows of buildings were turned into piles of rubble.
After receiving orders to stand by, the AST had finally been given the order to mobilize.
But that order hadn't been to go deal with the Spirit controlling all those people at Tenguu Square. Instead, they were to provide backup for DEM because a new Spirit had shown up and was attacking DEM's Japan office.
They were ignoring the unprecedented riot at Tenguu Square to respond to the request of a favored supplier. Ryouko had some objections to the priorities on display here, but nevertheless, if there was a new Spirit in play, she couldn't exactly let the havoc unfold unchecked. Ryouko hurried with her team to the business district of Kagamiyama and the DEM Japan office.
She took a deep breath to get herself back on track and started giving instructions.
"All personnel, provide support for the DEM Industries Wizards and eliminate the Nightmare on the ground... It's not an interesting mission, but those are our orders. So get out there and do your jobs."
"Yes sir!"
The AST members in their CR units leaped into the air.
As for Ryouko herself, she would have been lying if she said she trusted DEM. Not only had they forced ten new members onto her team against her will, but they had attempted to do battle in a public place with the general population not evacuated.
That said, however, given that these orders had come down from the highest brass, she didn't have much choice about obeying them. If she let her emotions take over and stepped out of line here, she would be giving the brass an excuse for axing the AST. In the worst case, it was even possible that they would hand the members of the AST over to the DEM Wizards.
And there was also the matter of Origami. Although her conduct had been a clear violation of orders, the danger Squad 3's mission posed was also evident. Ryouko was using that fact as a weapon to reduce the disciplinary action Origami would be facing. She couldn't create any weaknesses in her case now.
Ryouko fired up her thrusters and threw herself into the thick of the melee with the rest of her team. With the enhanced vision her Territory offered her, she picked out one of the several silhouettes flying around in the raging flames and gunpowder smoke, and pulled the trigger on her laser cannon.
But Nightmare easily dodged the blast, and instead of counterattacking, she went off somewhere, making silly gestures as she left. She looked almost as if she were playing.
"What is with them? What on earth do they want?"
And then she heard a strange sound and arched an eyebrow.
"Huh?"
The roar was like standing in the middle of an intense typhoon. She thought maybe it was a plane, but she couldn't see anything like that in the sky. And as a general rule, aircraft other than SDF machines were prohibited from flying through areas with an active spacequake alert.
An instant later, something that she could only describe as a hurricane with a will of its own whipped past, kicking up fierce winds as it cut across her field of vision.
"Wha...!"
She automatically increased the density of her Territory. Blown back by this mass of wind, a number of the Wizards, dolls, and Nightmares lost their balance and tumbled backward.
"Wh-what was that..." She blinked rapidly. She hadn't been able to get a good look at the abrupt phenomenon.
◇
Ngah...!"
It felt like something was shredding the tissues of his muscles in the hand that held Sandalphon. And then a fiery heat assaulted his arm, and he very nearly dropped the sword. But the tendons in his poor hand were healed in the nick of time.
Shidou kept fighting to take down the Wizards somehow and move forward in the building, forcibly healing the physical damage from handling Sandalphon with the blessing of Kotori.
He was forcing a power beyond human potential to yield to him by using a power that existed in a realm beyond human knowledge.
But there was no way his human body could endure this cruel cycle indefinitely. The Wizards kept coming, and the healing flames gradually lost ground, unable to keep up with all the damage the Angel was doing to him, until at last, he ended up with his back against the wall.
"Ngh..."
He didn't have the strength left in his arms to raise Sandalphon. He was barely even holding on to the sword, and yet the bones and muscles of his entire body shrieked in agony.
Shidou gritted his teeth and looked around.
Three Wizards with guns at the ready. Coming up behind them, another five Wizards. A total of eight human beings surrounded Shidou.
"You've given us a bit of trouble, hm? But it's over," one Wizard said, holding up her gun.
Shidou suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe.
"Ah! Gah...!" Most likely, the Wizard was blocking his nose and mouth with her Territory. Or else lowering the concentration of oxygen around him. Apparently, an ordinary human was easy pickings for a Wizard at close range.
He tried to fight, but his legs and arms were very heavy, and he dropped to his knees.
"Ngh! Aah! Aah!" His vision blurred, and his mind grew hazy. "Toh...ka..."
But just when he was about to be swallowed by the encroaching darkness, he heard the wall behind him cracking, and in the next instant, the windows lining the corridor shattered. Pieces of glass rained down on their heads.
"Whoa!" The Wizards were stunned.
But that wasn't the end of the weirdness. A powerful wind rushed in through the broken windows and lifted the three Wizards helplessly into the air.
"Wha...?! M-my Territory, it's-"
Shidou felt the temperature around him drop abruptly. It was as if he were suddenly inside a refrigerator.
And it seemed that this was not a hallucination produced by his fading consciousness. He could hear the Wizards ahead of him screaming.
"Th-this..."
"My Territory's freezing?! R-release your Territory now!"
"R-roger!"
The pressure bearing down on him and his trouble breathing vanished as if they had never been.
"Huh?" Blinking rapidly, he looked around at a corridor that was transformed from mere seconds earlier.
The Wizards were panicking. Windows overhead had shattered, and they were being attacked by waves of cold. They were still looking at Shidou threateningly, but it was clear they had no clue what was going on.
Soon, however, Shidou at least understood everything.
"Hmph. Hoooow pathetic." Miku stepped through a broken window into the corridor, dressed in her shining Astral Dress. At the same time, she did a little dance. "Gabriel. Solo!"
A long, slender silver cylinder appeared. It was apparently one part of that massive pipe organ. The tip of the silver pipe bent in Miku's direction.
It looked exactly like a mic stand.
"-!"
Miku turned toward it, and the voice she produced was so beautiful that anyone would automatically listen in ecstasy.
It passed through the cylinder and reverberated multiple times, spreading out far and wide.
Hearing this song, the Wizards dropped their weapons as one and formed a neat line against the wall.
"Miku!" Shidou shouted.
Miku averted her eyes with a displeased sniff. "Could you please not say my name so casually? When my adorable name is spoken with that voice coming from your throat and shaped by your tongue, an iiiiinescapable filth builds up on it."
As always, the pointed verbal abuse seemed incredibly out of place when it came from her charming face, and her words gouged Shidou's soul.
He looked out the window to see Yoshino and the Yamai sisters with their Angels manifested. They had likely carried Miku up to this floor of the building.
"Miss Miku...what shall we do?" Yoshino asked, clinging to the back of a giant rabbit doll, and the stern face that Miku had turned toward Shidou changed to a smile in an instant as she looked at Yoshino.
"Mm-hmm, riiiight. It seems it'd be a tight squeeze for you and your Angels inside the building... Okay. Please take caaare of the Wizards outside so that no one comes inside to disturb us." Miku held up a finger and winked.
"Keh-keh, indeed. We shall ensure that our Lady Miku's road home is swept clean."
"Concern. Will you be all right without us?"
"Ha-ha-ha!" Miku laughed merrily. "However strong they might be, they're still human beings in the end, yes? There's no way they could eeever get the jump on me, a Spirit!"
The three Spirits looked at one another and nodded.
"If you say so, then..."
"A-accepted! Trust in us to handle this. I vow that we will lay out a velvet carpet directly from this building!"
"Roger. It shall be as you wish, Miss Miku."
"H-hey, Yoshino! Kaguya! Yuzuru!" Shidou shouted, but the three Spirits ignored him and flew off in their own directions, spurring their Angels on.
A few seconds later, he saw an icy current of cold air and a mass of wind stir up the Wizard-Kurumi battlefield.
After seeing them off with a satisfied look, Miku turned toward Shidou.
"Miku... Why are you-," he started, and then his eyes flew open in surprise. "Are you actually keeping your promise?"
"...!" She scowled. "Could you pleaaase not get the wrong idea? I do not care in the sliiiiiiiiightest about some unpleasant suicidal jerk blathering on and on about random nonsense in a shrill little voice that's hard on the ears. I came because I wanted to add another Spirit to my collection!"
"Miku," he murmured, and bowed his head. "Thanks. I owe you!"
"Hmph! I told you, there's nothing for you to be thaaanking me for. I came of my own will to take Tohka away... You're free to tag along if you must, but please ensure that you stay oooout of my line of sight." She glanced at him before walking briskly down the hallway, and he hurried after her.
◇
Countless micro missiles filled Mana's field of vision.
Naturally, this many projectiles in an airspace packed with this many people meant that it wouldn't only be the target who took damage. Missiles hit the DEM Wizards and Bandersnatches, and they fell to the ground.
"Those are your allies!" Mana protested.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You don't have a chance!" Jessica laughed shrilly, encased inside a massive piece of red machinery.
"It seems...you haven't got any proper judgment left in your head." Mana frowned as she fired her thrusters incrementally to zigzag through the sky.
Each and every blow was a hard one. If she let down her guard for even an instant, she worried that her own Territory could be violated by the powerfully concentrated magic contained in every missile, every gun blast, every swing of the laser blade.
She was certain that Jessica's brain had undergone some kind of magical processing. The same sort of operation that had been done to Mana's body over the course of years, except within the span of hours.
"Ngh-"
She didn't know what exactly they could have done to Jessica to give her this much more strength in less than a day. But it was easy to imagine that, whatever it was, the effect on the body of the warrior would have been profound. In fact, she could already see the impact in Jessica's actions. The Wizard must have been having trouble thinking clearly because she was so focused on defeating Mana that she was firing her weapons indiscriminately with no regard for the damage she was doing to her own allies. She had even blown up one of the towering DEM facilities in the area.
"Ngh-"
"Mana! We got your back! Evasive action!" Kotori's voice rang out through her earpiece.
In the next instant, a small Territory popped into existence. The missiles chasing Mana slammed into this and exploded in midair. The blast triggered several of the other missiles in the dense cluster to also explode. A burst of intense light radiated outward, like fireworks scorching the night sky.
Kotori sent an Yggdrafolium this way and turned it into a mine to defend Mana from the missiles.
"Thanks. You saved me-," she started, but then cut herself off and whirled around.
A current of cold air shot past the space where she had just been. "This is...!"
For a moment, Mana thought that Jessica had fired a magic cannon, too stubborn to learn her lesson, but that wasn't it. She turned her gaze directly downward and saw a little girl in a maid uniform clinging to an enormous stuffed rabbit.
"Hermit-I mean, Yoshino?!" she cried.
"This is...Miss Miku's order," Yoshino said. "I'll take out...all the Wizards!"
"Yaah! That's the spirit, Yoshino! Woh-kay! Let's freeze her up nice and good!"
"Okay...!"
Yoshino exchanged a few words with the rabbit Zadkiel, and then they danced up into the sky while Yoshino pulled icicles out of the air and shot them at Mana.
"Hey!" Mana hurriedly twisted around, and dodged some of the chunks of ice and knocked others to the ground with her laser edge as she raced through the air.
But an incredible wind pressure slammed into her from above, blocking her way forward. Mana frowned, changed her Territory to defensive mode, broke through the wall of wind, and flew up higher.
"Keh-keh! Well then, you do have some skill! So you are unlike these mediocre Wizards crawling around this enclave?"
"Caution. Kaguya, be careful. I believe that is Shidou's sister. I've heard she is quite good."
The twin girls, one clutching a lance, the other a pendulum, stared at Mana, their guards up.
"The Yamai sisters...is it?" Mana said, and licked her lips. She tasted a little sweat.
Now that she was thinking about it, these Spirits were also under the control of the Spirit Diva. She'd heard that the Fraxinus radar had picked up a wind that seemed to be the Yamai sisters heading for Building 1, but it looked like Yoshino had also tagged along.
She didn't know what they were doing here. But she didn't have the luxury of figuring that out now. While she was dealing with these newcomers, a red silhouette was closing in on her, cutting through the missile blast.
"Seriously?!"
An ordinary opponent would have been one thing, but Jessica's brain had been recklessly toyed with to increase her magical power to the point where she rivaled Mana. Add three Spirits to the mix, and it would be a difficult battle even for a strong fighter like Mana.
"Ngh!" Mana frowned. "Doesn't look like I'll be able to shake off Jessica. I'll have to divert the attention of the Spirits somewhere else!"
She spotted a group of Wizards in the sky ahead. They weren't wearing DEM wiring suits. They were probably the SDF's AST, called in for backup.
"Ah!" She spotted a familiar face among them, and her eyes opened wide in surprise. "Captain!"
"Huh? Y-you-Mana?!" AST Captain Kusakabe Ryouko stared back at Mana with a shocked look on her face. "What on earth are you doing-"
"We'll talk later!" Mana interrupted her. "Tag!"
"Huh?" Ryouko arched an eyebrow at her.
"Take care of these girls!" Mana yelled, and fired her thrusters to race past the AST group.
Rattled by this sudden move, the AST members looked at one another in confusion.
But they were completely taken by surprise a heartbeat later. And that was only natural. Because Hermit and Berserk were charging straight at them.
"Wh-whoa?! All hands! Combat! Squad A, you take Hermit! Squad B, Berserk!"
"R-roger!" But Ryouko was a captain to her core. She responded to even the most sudden events with a cool head and set about counterattacking the three Spirits.
Yoshino, Kaguya, and Yuzuru noticed this new threat and shifted their target from Mana to the AST. Mana watched this out of the corner of her eye and broke away from that region of the sky.
But she didn't have the chance to even breathe a sigh of relief. All she'd done was maintain the status quo in a situation that threatened to take a turn for the very worst.
Chasing after her from behind, Jessica didn't so much as glance at the Spirits or the AST as she turned her massive magic cannons toward Mana.
"Maaaaanaaaaaaaa!"
"So stubborn!" Mana scowled and clicked her tongue once more.
And then she felt something like a cold finger running up her spine. "-?!"
For a second, she thought maybe Yoshino or the Yamai sisters had come after her. But that wasn't the case. This was the sensation when two Territories ate into each other as they overlapped, when two Wizards with Territories deployed over a wide range came into contact.
"Ngh!" Mana hurriedly flipped around and took evasive action.
In the next instant, a laser blade as long as Mana was tall sliced through the space where her body had just been.
"Oh-ho! So you were able to dodge? You have excellent reactions." The girl that had appeared out of nowhere behind Mana raised her chin in a leisurely greeting.
The golden hair dancing in the air, blue eyes. Platinum CR unit over pale skin. DEM Industries' most powerful Wizard, Ellen M. Mathers.
Mana gasped. "Ellen!"
"I heard that there was a traitor among the attackers. So it was you, Mana?" Ellen said, looking down on her. "It's unfortunate. I had viewed you as someone with strength second only to my own at DEM."
"Ha! What a joke," Mana spat. "You're all just messing with people's bodies."
Ellen's eyebrow twitched. "I see. You've learned that much then, have you? It appears that it is true that Ratatoskr took you in."
"Hmph. I'm guessing from the way you're acting that you were in on it, too," Mana replied. "Although the ideal sitch here would have been for you to have a big old change of heart after learning the truth and come with me to give the president a real good thrashing."
"Unfortunately for you, I could never betray Ike."
"Guess not," Mana muttered in annoyance and frowned.
If she was being perfectly honest, this was one woman she didn't want to take on. The pinnacle of the Adeptus Numbers. The world's most powerful Wizard recognized by both herself and everyone else. Although Mana was wearing the Ratatoskr CR unit Vanargand, that was no guarantee she could beat Ellen. And on top of that...
"Go to hell! Blast Arc!" Jessica shouted and launched powerful streams of magic from the two cannons she had turned toward Mana.
"Ngh...!" Mana might have had her Territory, but if she took a direct hit from Licorice cannons, she wouldn't escape unscathed. She twisted around to minimize the impact, so that the blasts slid across the surface of her Territory, then she leaped back so that she could keep both Ellen and Jessica in her sights.
On the right, the most powerful Wizard, clad in platinum armor.
On the left, the most crazed Wizard, carrying a crimson tank on her back.
"I find pitting two against one to be a bit deflating, but well, if that's what Ike wants, then I suppose I will have to oblige. We'll end this quickly."
"Ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Mana, looks like you're finally backed into a corner. Maaaanaaaaa?"
"Tsk..." Mana clicked her tongue in open frustration as not one but two hostile sets of eyes homed in on her.
◇
"So then wheeere is Tohka?" Miku asked as they walked down the hallway. "It's a waste of time to go charging around this big building at random."
"Oh. Uh," Shidou said awkwardly. It wasn't like he knew her exact location
"What?" Miku frowned. "Did you break in here without inveeeestigating? Hm? Is that ugly lump sitting on your shoulders like a clay doll stuffed with overboiled udon noodles?"
"Hngh..." Bull's-eye. He began to stammer, "B-but it's not so easy to find stuff like that out!"
"Hmm. Do you reeeally think so?" She stopped, heels clacking against the floor, and looked over the DEM Wizards lined up against the wall after hearing her song. She selected the youngest girl from among them and crooked her finger at her. "You there. Please come over here!"
"Y-yes, Miss Miku!" The girl walked over to Miku nervously.
Miku lifted her chin with a charming gesture. "Say? Please do tell me. Where is Tohka looocked up?"
"Th-that's...confidential..."
"If you don't tell me, I'll hate you, you know?" Miku said, a smile flitting across her face.
"N-no! Miss Miku!" The Wizard's face crumpled like she was about to burst into tears as she clung to Miku. "She's in the isolation area on the eighteenth floor! Y-you can use this ID to get inside! P-please, Miss Miku! Have mercy! Please!"
"Hee-hee-hee! I adooore obedient girls!" Miku took the ID card, brought her index finger to her lips, and then touched it to the girl's.
"A-aah?!" The girl let out an ecstatic cry and dropped lifelessly to the ground. It seemed the rush of emotions was simply too much for her mind to bear.
The other Wizards fidgeted jealously and yanked on imaginary handkerchiefs. Even the men were doing it, so the whole scene was just a little surreal.
But Miku paid no attention to these believers. Instead, she turned contemptuous eyes on Shidou, a victorious look on her face. "How do you like that? There are aaaall kinds of ways, you know?"
"...Apologies." Normally, he would have rebuked Miku for recklessly toying with human beings, like she had at the Tenou Festival, but the situation they were currently facing called for some drastic action. He scratched his cheek, a complicated mix of emotion in his heart.
But at least they had gotten both Tohka's location and the key to getting inside. He clenched his fists and turned his gaze toward the upper floors.
"All right. Let's go, Miku."
"Could you pleeeease not make it feel like we're working together?" she demanded. "You do understand, yes? I simply want to add Tohka to my army. You and I are enemies!"
"I-I get it." He had a few things he would have liked to say, but the fact was, without Miku, he wouldn't have even known where Tohka was. He simply followed meekly when she began to walk again.
Who knew how many stairs they had climbed or how far they had walked when they spotted another group of Wizards in wiring suits, equipped with close-range weapons and small arms. They had likely been informed of the irregularity that was Miku. They were better equipped than the Wizards Shidou had faced alone, and their faces were tense.
"Fire! Show no mercy!" a Wizard said, apparently the squad leader, and the Wizards opened fire.
Miku took a deep breath.
"Wah!"
The sound she produced was substantial and formed a barrier in front of her.
The bullets closing in on Miku and Shidou were repelled by the invisible wall of sound and sank into the floor and the surrounding walls. The Wizards cried out in confusion. Although the wall of sound had a directionality, the shaking of the air still reached Shidou, and he unconsciously plugged his ears.
"Ha-ha-ha!" Miku laughed. "Were you trying to stop meeeee with an attack like that? You've really underestimated me, hm?" The faces of the Wizards twisted in fear.
And then two more Wizards showed up in the corridor behind them, pistols aimed squarely at Miku's back.
"Miku!" Shidou shouted, and swung Sandalphon with both hands.
The light from the blade flew out in the arc of the sword and sent the Wizards and their Territories sailing backward. The bullets fired from their guns were knocked up into the ceiling.
"Ngah!" An intense pain raced through Shidou's body, originating in the hands that held the sword. He dropped to his knees.
"Hngh...!"
"H-hey?!" Miku called to him with a frown, having cleared away the Wizards ahead of them.
But Shidou didn't even have the strength to respond to her.
This Spirit sword was more than a human body could handle, and the price he paid for swinging it again and again and again was higher than he'd anticipated. The burden of commanding the Angel ate into his flesh, and he felt as if needles were shooting out of every bone in his body and ripping open his flesh from the inside.
But the unknown power that lived inside him hadn't abandoned him yet. He felt a fiery heat grow in the depths of his heart and gradually spread out to his extremities. He could tell that the flames were healing the invisible damage to his muscles, bones, and organs. Of course, this violent remedy was accompanied by a hellish heat.
"Unh! Ngh!"
Still, he couldn't complain. He gritted his teeth against the pain, which nearly sent his consciousness into a black void, and stood up. He somehow managed to start walking again, dragging the tip of Sandalphon along the floor.
Miku sniffed in annoyance. "How unsightly. Why would you push yourself so haaard?"
"I told you... I have to rescue Tohka. Who knows what they're doing to her while I'm here wasting time on my ass... I can't stay here," he said, clenching a fist and wincing at the pain of that. "Ngh..."
"Aah, aah, aah." Miku arched an eyebrow and then deliberately filled her face with loathing. "How terribly cold. What is this about? Are you drunk on the idea of rescuing the traaaaagic heroine? You're much too old to dream of being a hero."
Miku shrugged scornfully and continued.
"Ah-ha-ha! Is that maybe it? You said before that Tohka was more important than your own life, so you've gone toooo far to back down now? It's fine, really. I am well aware of the ugliness of human beings, so I won't be disappointed if you walk away now."
"..."
But Shidou simply walked silently down the corridor.
"Hey! Are you ignoooring me?!" Not particularly caring for this, Miku chased after Shidou, and then slapped a fist in one hand as though a thought had just occurred to her. "Ohh, I know. How about we do this then? Please say that you give up on Tohka. If you do, I'll use my voice to make howeeeeever many girls you like your slaves. What do you think? They'll obey you absolutely. They'll do aaaanything for you, you know? Hee-hee-hee! That's not such a bad deal, hm?"
Shidou's eyebrows shot up.
The whole thing left an unpleasant taste in his mouth. It wasn't to his advantage to put Miku in a bad mood. He was only too well aware of this, but he still couldn't let this pass without speaking his mind. He glared at her sternly.
"You can't be serious? There's no replacement for Tohka!"
Miku jumped a little before speaking again, her voice angry. "H-hmph! How long are you going to put on this little show?! After all, that's about all your talk about love and how important someone is amounts to, right? I'm telling you I'll find you a replacement, so that should be fine for you! Why would you go to such lengths?!"
Her tone grew more forceful. If she was just trying to lead Shidou astray, it was a bit much. She sounded almost like the fact that Shido was not taking her up on this offer was a rejection of her very self.
"You've got the wrong idea," he told her. "Human beings aren't all like tha-"
"Shut! Uuuuuuup!" Miku shouted. "Human beings are my playthings! Boys are slaves! Girls are cute dolls! Human beings have no other value!"
"Miku, you..." Shidou furrowed his brow. The words he didn't get to ask inside Kurumi's shadows popped back up in his mind. "Why...why do you hate men so much? Why do you treat girls like things? Why do you see human beings like this?!"
"Ha! That's obvious, isn't it? Human beings are just that-"
"But you're human!" Shidou cut her off.
"-?!"
She gasped and turned stunned eyes on him.
He met her gaze and continued. "You used to be a human being, and then someone gave you Spirit powers. Am I wrong?!"
"...!" Miku's shoulders jumped up. But she didn't deny it.
This was what Kurumi had shared with him on the way to DEM. This was the information she had read from the items they found in Miku's house- the CDs that had been published under a different name and a photo of a young Miku with what appeared to be her parents.
Just like herself, Miku was a human being who had been turned into a Spirit. And she had performed as an idol under a different name before that happened.
"How do you know that?" Miku glared at him with sharp eyes.
This was all the response he needed.
"Got it from an acquaintance." Shidou dodged the question with a vague answer. There was no need to get into all the things Kurumi could do.
But he didn't actually know the whole story. Much of the information Kurumi got from the photo and the CDs was fragmented. He doesn't know how people even get this Spirit Power either. Although he should catch up on that.
There was still plenty he didn't understand about Miku.
Like how if she had originally been human, then why did she treat other human beings like objects?
It wasn't only that she hated men. She interacted with the girls she liked as though she were playing with delicate antique dolls. She didn't treat human beings as living creatures like herself. This felt so powerfully wrong to him.
Shidou had thought that Miku's values were warped because she had been born with this voice and the power to make anyone do anything.
But if she had been human...
If she had lived in human society for a decade or more...
...What on earth had happened to make her feel so disconnected from human beings?
"You're human, too. So then you should-," he started, and Miku glared at him with sharp eyes.
"Please don't be ridiiiiculous!" she shouted hatefully. "How could you... What do you know?!"
Shidou opened his mouth slowly. "Miku... What happened to you?"
"Hmph! Why would I-"
"Miku," he said, pressing her, and she sighed in sheer annoyance.
"You're soooo persistent. Hmph." Miku began to talk, practically spitting the words out.
◇
"All I have is singing."
Miku had already realized this at the age of nine.
When it came to school and sports, it was faster to count her rank from the bottom. She wasn't good at art or making things, either. Not one of her elementary school report cards had a single "well done," and that fact didn't change when she moved on to junior high school.
But she had her voice. She could sing beautifully, better than anyone else in her class.
When had it started... Oh, yes. Her kindergarten sports meet. Her teacher had complimented her, telling her that she was such a good singer.
This made little Miku very happy. She felt proud, as if she had been given a shiny medal no one else had.
It was perhaps a foregone conclusion that she began to dream of being one of the idols who sang and danced on TV.
Young Miku became utterly engrossed with those girls and their adorable voices, dancing on the glittering stage. She memorized not only the lyrics of their songs but the choreography of their dances as well, mimicking them so perfectly that even her parents were surprised.
And then when Miku was fifteen, she caught the eye of the judges at an audition and made her long-awaited debut as an idol under the name Yoimachi Tsukino.
The joy she felt was indescribable. After dreaming of it for so many years, she was finally right where she wanted to be. Now so, so many people would hear her voice and her songs. Just the thought of it was enough to make tears spill from her eyes.
Although she was nothing then compared to how she was now, her career went very smoothly, no obstacles popped up to hold her back. Her CDs climbed the charts, and the crowds at her concerts grew bigger and bigger. Her audience was more than 90 percent male, a sight which made her shiver with repulsion when she thought about it now. But to Miku back then, they were her precious fans, people who swore they loved her singing with all their heart.
She liked recording CDs and radio performances well enough, but she really did have the most fun with her concerts. That's when she felt most keenly that her song was reaching all these people. Everyone complimented her singing. They said they loved her. The shiny medal pinned to her chest gleamed even more beautifully. She thought she would live this dream forever.
But the end came surprisingly soon and with little fanfare.
About a year after Miku made her debut, just when she was hitting her stride and getting a serious fanbase, her manager at the talent agency told her that a certain TV producer had taken a liking to her. If she played nice with him, she could get a regular spot on a prime-time show or something.
Although no one spelled it out for her, she knew it was basically that sort of thing.
Naturally, she politely refused. She hadn't become an idol so she could be on TV; she'd wanted everyone to hear her singing.
But soon after, a weekly photo magazine printed some alleged scandal she knew nothing about.
What was it again? She had been too shocked to actually read all the details, but she did remember that it was the kind of thing that would raise eyebrows- a past relationship, an abortion, hanging out with drug dealers- something of the sort.
She learned later that the producer in question had been a part of it. He also happened to be quite chummy with the president of Miku's agency. And just like that, Miku was dropped by her manager.
But the hardest part of it all had been the reaction of her fans-no, the people she'd thought were her fans. The people who told her "You're the best," "I love you," "I could die for you," etc., etc. Their attitudes changed overnight.
It was painful that they would believe some random stranger over Miku.
"Hey, how many times did you do it with your ex?"
"An abortion? So you basically killed a baby. What are you even doing here, you murderer?"
Every time a comment like this popped up on her blog, every time someone said something cruel to her at the handshake events and signings, which drew fewer and fewer attendees every time, a part of her heart was gouged out.
She didn't give up, though. She still had her songs. She had her singing. Right from the beginning, that was all she'd ever had.
Whatever rumors people spread, she was sure they'd understand the truth once they heard her singing.
"There's power in my songs."
This baseless conviction remained somewhere in her heart.
And so Miku stood onstage once more. But it was awful.
The people crowded into the venue looked like terrifying beasts, different from herself somehow, and her heart pounded with something other than nervous tension.
But she had to sing. Nothing would start unless she sang.
The music began. She brought her mouth to the mic. She strained her vocal cords.
However.
"...! ...!"
Only wheezing came out of her mouth.
Later, she went to the hospital and was diagnosed with psychogenic dysphonia.
Thus, the life of Yoimachi Tsukino came to its swift end. If a girl who had nothing but singing lost her voice, then that girl's existence had no value. She had known that for a long time. She had already understood it when she was nine.
That was when Miku started to think about suicide.
Any method would have been fine. Hanging herself. An overdose of sleeping pills. She could also jump in front of a train, and she didn't mind simply putting her hand on a razor blade and pulling. A simple movement to quickly dispose of a girl with no value.
But when Miku was about to actually do it, God came to her.
"You, disappointed by humanity. You, despairing of the world. Don't you want power? Don't you want a lot of power, enough to change the whole world?"
◇
"I lost it. Once. With the psychogenic dysphonia, because of those ugly men. My voice... More precious than life itself, my voice...!" Miku cried out, like she was about to burst into tears right then and there. "I thought about killing myself a million times. But then God came to me and gave me this voice! The most powerful voice! To make people my slaves with each and every song!"
Most likely, this "God" was the same mysterious Spirit who gave Kurumi her Spirit powers.
"Is that what happened?" Shidou said.
He felt an absurd disconnect from this Miku who didn't treat people like people. He felt like her values, her view of life and death, were simply too far removed from human beings. To the point where he'd even felt rage at it.
When he found the CDs and photo at her house and realized that Miku might have had a past as a human being, that disconnect had grown even more pronounced.
But he understood now.
Naturally, he did not in any way approve of how Miku interacted with people. He really couldn't accept her way of doing things, of acting like a queen and enslaving everyone around her with a voice imbued with Spirit power.
But he understood now. It wasn't that Miku thought of human beings as inferior to herself.
She was so scared, so terribly frightened of interacting with them as an equal. If she trusted them, they would betray her. If she opened herself up to them, they would abandon her. If she relied on them, they would deceive her.
If that was how it would be, then she would simply expect nothing. Distancing herself from human beings was the natural choice. She had to constantly keep in mind that humans were a different species. No matter what happened, she would never give herself over to a human being.
This was her unconscious defense mechanism, and it stemmed from losing her precious voice once before because of the despair other human beings had made her feel.
The producer who tortured her with a fabricated scandal because she wouldn't be his, the fans who hurt her, made to dance to the producer's tune- she scorned and rejected these selfish men.
But she was unable to open up to women, either. She no longer interacted with them as anything other than adorable dolls who would never betray her.
"That's why I hate men! They're despicable, dirty, ugly. Just looking at one makes me want to vomit!" Miku spat. "And yes, with girls! As long as there are cute girls who will do as I say, I don't need anything else! All those other humans can just drop dead for all I care!"
"...!"
Shidou gasped. He did understand Miku's suffering. Losing her all-important voice must have been very hard indeed.
But...
"You're wrong! I do think what happened to you was terrible! That producer and whoever wrote that article about you make me furious! And I'm angry at the fans who turned on you, too! But you can't go hating all the other human beings along with them!"
"What?! Be quiet! All men are exactly the same!"
"No, let me talk!" he shouted back. "Was there really not a single person who listened to your singing? I mean, weren't there people who weren't swayed by the scandal, who were really excited to see you sing?!"
"H-how could there-!"
They heard footfalls echoing ahead in the corridor. Wizards with pistols at the ready soon appeared.
"There they are! The intruders!"
"Be careful! One of them's a Spirit!"
"...!" Shidou gasped and readied Sandalphon in his hands. Kotori's flames had apparently healed his body enough for him to swing the blade again. Although he was still in pain, it wasn't so bad that it knocked him off his feet.
He glanced over at Miku. They had to defeat these Wizards. But this was the first time Miku had opened up about her past. If he let this opportunity get away, he had the feeling he'd be back at square one.
The Wizards fired in unison. But their bullets were repelled by Miku's wall of sound.
Aiming for this opening, Shidou's sword flashed and he shouted, "Miku! You've created this terrifying phantom of human beings in your mind! And you make everyone do what you want with that voice, so this phantom just keeps getting bigger! And you get more and more afraid of talking with a real person!"
"Huh?!" Miku cried out in disbelief. "Scared? How dare you?! You're saying I'm afraid of people?! And we're in the middle of battle, you know? Don't go getting-Aaaah!"
The Wizards' bullets closed in on them. When Miku raised her voice at Shido, she created a wall of sound at the same time and knocked the projectiles away.
"Like that's got anything to do with this!" he snapped back. "I'll say it however many times you want! You've been surrounded by nothing but yes- people this whole time because you're afraid to have a conversation with a real human being! But even though you reject people, somewhere in your heart, what you really want is to talk to someone!"
"What slander!" she said. "What would someone like you know about that?!"
Shidou swung Sandalphon, and together they knocked back the Wizards that appeared and made their way down the corridor.
"I know! I mean, isn't that why you wanted a person you couldn't control with your voice? Isn't that why you wanted Itsuka Shiori?!"
"...!" Miku gasped, and twisted her face up. Yes. She said she only needed people who did what she told them to, but she had been fixated by the anomaly that was Shiori. "Th-that's simply-," she protested.
"And when you made your debut again with this new voice, you didn't go with Yoimachi Tsukino or some new stage name!" Shidou shouted. "You used your real name, Izayoi Miku, right? You...you wanted people to know you, didn't you? You were saying, I'm right here! You wanted people to approve of you, didn't you?! You wanted that from none other than these human beings!"
Miku clenched her teeth, and her face was dyed red. "Shut. Uuuuuuuuuup!" she shrieked. "Shut it shut it shut iiiiit! Talking like you know anything! Stupid! Idiot! You morooooon!"
The last part was nothing but insults. But her voice apparently carried some potent Spirit power nonetheless. Wizards up ahead poked their faces out and were pushed back by an invisible wall.
"H-hey! So I poke a sore spot and you-"
"As if you could ever bother me! You're wrong! You're just an idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!"
"Aaaaah! Come on! I can't let you have Yoshino, and I can't let you take Kaguya and Yuzuru from Lucas! I am absolutely going to seal your Spirit power!" he shouted, and Miku's shoulders jumped up.
"I will...never let you do that! If you seal this voice, then I'll-" Miku gritted her teeth and then continued. "You... You're telling me to be that?! A me without song... A me without value!"
"That's not what I'm saying!" He swung the Angel through the air. The sword strike became light and slashed through the Wizards' Territories. "I...I just want you to sing in your real voice, the one without the power to enslave people!"
This was how he really felt. He had heard her human voice at the Izayoi house. It was full of an earnest appeal her voice now lacked.
However.
Miku twisted up her face in displeasure. "Please don't talk as though you know anything! It's because I have this voice that I can be a top idol! Who exactly would want to listen to my singing without this voice?!"
"I would!" he yelled.
Miku's eyes flew open, a shudder running through her body. "Wh-what... You're all talk! You've never even heard my singing!"
"I have! Just one song!" he told her. "It was earnest and intent and cool! I liked it far better than the way you sing now! No one would listen to your singing? Ha! Don't be ridiculous. At the very least, whatever happens, you've got one fan who's not going anywhere! He's right here!"
"Wha..."
"Spirit power's got nothing to do with it. Even without that voice, you're not worthless! Not by a long shot!"
"...!!" Now Miku looked like she was about to cry. But she quickly sniffed contemptuously, as if she had rethought the situation.
"I...I don't believe you! All the fans who said that, none of them believed in me! When I was having a hard time...none of them reached out to me!"
"I don't think that's true," he replied. "I'm sure you had fans who believed in you, who waited for you. But...even if that were true! If you were in trouble, I would reach out to you!"
"You're just saying what you think I want to hear to get your own way! So then what? You're saying that if I was in trouble like Tohka is, you'd risk your life to save me or something?!" Miku shouted, glaring at Shidou. Like she wanted to watch as he struggled for an answer.
But he spoke up without hesitation. "Of course!"
"...!" Miku stopped where she stood. And then scowled unhappily and chased after him. "I don't believe you! It's a lie! It's obviously a lie!"
"Look, you-"
Just then, as they climbed the stairs to the next floor, a Wizard appeared before them. It was a large man. Unlike the other Wizards they'd encountered, his hands held an enormous Gatling gun that was very clearly not intended for indoor combat.
"Halt right there!" he barked. "Looks like you've had the run of the place so far, but that ends here! Charged with protecting the building by Executive Leader Mathers, I, Andrew Carthy Dunsten Francis Barbirolli-"
""Shut up!"" Shidou and Miku shouted in unison.
The Gatling gun distorted under the pressure of Miku's voice, and the Wizard's Territory was severed in half with one blow from Sandalphon.
"Ngh! Ah!" Andrew Whatever-it-was yelped and passed out on the spot.
Sounding like she'd done nothing more than kick aside a pebble on the road, Miku continued. "And honestly, why would I even have to be rescued by you anyway?! Please know your limits and your place!"
"Wait! You're the one who asked if I'd rescue you!"
"Hmph! I have no idea what you're talking about!" She whirled her face away, and his face tightened.
"You...!"
But then Shidou realized that this floor was different from the others. Sturdy walls, not a single window. Almost like-yes, like an isolation facility.
"Hold on... Is this the place?" He furrowed his brow and looked ahead.
And saw a door in one part of the barrier wall that stretched out before them.
◇
"Ngh!"
The situation was less than ideal.
Ellen and Jessica with her enhanced magical processing. Mana was simultaneously facing off against what were likely the two most powerful fighters DEM currently possessed.
Racing through the sky at top speed to try and dodge the cluster of micro missiles advancing on her, Mana checked the positions of her enemies with her Territory. Behind her, Jessica. But she couldn't pick up Ellen's signal.
In the next instant, a Territory touched hers. She reacted quickly and swung the laser edge of her right arm.
Ellen's laser blade came down in that very spot, and a shower of sparks scattered when their weapons collided.
"Ngh!"
"That's quite the reaction speed. But do you really think you can win in combat against me?" Ellen said, and swung her laser blade so fast, it turned into a formless blur.
Mana couldn't follow it with her dynamic vision. Instead, she focused every nerve in her body, increased the precision of her Territory, and swung her laser edge in reaction to the slicing attack that touched her Territory.
But she wasn't up against just one opponent. While Mana fended off Ellen's attacks, Loot Box- Licorice's weapons container- fired another cluster of missiles at her back.
Some of the projectiles exploded before they could reach her. Most likely, Fraxinus providing support with Yggdrafolium. But there were just too many of them. The missiles that escaped the blast ripped into her back.
"Hngah!" she groaned.
"Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Bull's-eeeeeye! That's a no-noooo! You gotta watch your back, tooooo!" Jessica's disturbing laughter reached her ears.
Although Mana had her Territory deployed, she had all of its energy turned toward Ellen, and so the invisible barrier wasn't able to completely absorb the impact of the missiles. Her brain rocked inside her head, and she very nearly blacked out.
But Mana bit the inside of her cheek and managed to stay conscious. She issued orders in her mind, activating her thrusters to try and pull back. She needed a second to regroup.
However. When she tried to retreat, her path was blocked by an invisible wall.
"Wha...!" Her eyes flew open, and she quickly realized the true nature of the obstruction. A limited Territory generated by Licorice. The Licorice models were able to produce Territories in spaces other than the one occupied by the user.
"Bit soft, aren't yaaaa? It ends here, Manaaaaa!" Jessica laughed, a gruesome smile on her face.
"You...think that's all I've got?!" Mana issued mental orders and knocked Jessica's Territory aside.
But Ellen hadn't let that opening slip past her. A momentarily look of displeasure at the interruption in their battle crossed her face, but she then shook her head to refocus and brandished her laser blade Caledfwlch.
"Hnngh!"
Ellen was too close for Mana to dodge the blow. She switched her Territory to defensive mode and braced herself for the impact.
And then Ellen gasped. "Wha...!" She furrowed her brow doubtfully as a laser cannon blast came squarely at her from the right.
She knocked the magical light away with her raised laser blade, and Mana used this chance to knock Jessica's Territory away and fall back.
"What was that?"
For a second, she thought it was backup from Fraxinus, but no. When she turned her eyes in the direction of the cannon blast, she saw a doll-like girl floating there, shoulder-length hair pulled back.
"M-Master Sergeant Tobiichi?!" Mana cried automatically.
Yes. Charging in from outside to sucker punch Ellen was Mana's former colleague, Tobiichi Origami.
"You okay?"
Mana frowned. Something was off here. Origami was wearing a wiring suit and a CR unit, but the design of both was different from standard AST equipment. The navy wiring suit was daringly open in a plunging V down to her navel and a mess of mismatched weapons. It looked like she'd literally grabbed whatever equipment she could get a hold of.
"Tobiichi Origami?" Ellen frowned dubiously. "You should be recovering. And that equipment isn't AST issue..."
Origami ignored her and turned her eyes toward Mana. "Shidou?"
"Huh?" Mana said. "My brother? Yes, he's doing all right."
Origami's face relaxed the tiniest bit. "Where is he now?"
"Um, Building One."
"Oh." Origami nodded the tiniest bit, fired her thrusters, and flew off toward Building 1.
But Ellen raced through the sky after her. "Do you think I would just let you go?"
"I'll force my way through."
Origami and Ellen glared at each other, their Territories bumping. Magic rippled outward.
"Master Sergeant Tobiichi!" Mana called, and issued commands in her brain to provide backup for Origami.
The difference in power between Origami and Ellen was obvious. On top of that, Origami couldn't possibly have recovered from the battle the day before so quickly. Origami would be killed.
But when Mana started toward Origami, a blast from a high-output magic cannon shot in front of her, blocking her path. She didn't have to wonder where it came from- Jessica.
"Where are you going? I'm the one you need to concerned abouuuut."
"You...!" Mana scowled and made the laser edge in her hand vibrate.
Origami changed orientation in the sky. Her operation of this unit was still not very steady, likely because she wasn't familiar with it, but she couldn't do anything about that. She reached a hand around behind her and pushed the laser cannon on her back forward.
The wiring suit she was wearing was not procured by the AST, but equipment formally adopted by the SSS- Special Sorcery Services, a British anti-Spirit unit. Additionally, the large laser cannon, the assault rifle loaded with anti-Spirit bullets, the Gatling gun, and the other close-range equipment she had were a mishmash of whatever happened to be on hand.
This was the idea that Mikie had come up with. A CR unit hidden in the basement of an empty apartment building, not managed by IDs. It had been concealed there by a terrorist group made up of former SSS members who had attacked the AST several months earlier. The majority of their equipment had been seized, but it seemed they had kept reserves in the abandoned cache that Mikie discovered.
"...!" Origami turned her gaze on her opponent, who cut a graceful figure in the air.
The girl pulled back her beautiful blond hair. "Tobiichi Origami. I never imagined I would find you here."
Origami recognized her. This was the photographer who'd come along on their school trip.
When she thought about it, several other parts of that trip were obviously suspect. The sudden change in destination right before their departure, the DEM mechanical dolls that had appeared before Origami.
So when she saw Ellen Mathers attacking Mana, rather than being surprised, she felt things clicking into place.
"I was told that you used Licorice in a fight against Bailey and were unable to do battle after surpassing activation limits. Even if you were treated with a medical Realizer, you can't possibly be well enough to be out of bed, much less wearing a CR unit. I say this with genuine concern- if you push yourself too hard, you will die."
"That's got nothing to do with this."
"I see."
A wiring suit she wasn't accustomed to using, and an assortment of rarely used, outdated equipment, likely concealed from the military. Those were the only cards in Origami's hand. But she could still fight. No matter how despairingly large the difference in strength was, she could turn her sword on her enemy.
She was up against a DEM Wizard in cutting-edge equipment. Origami just might die here. And if she was lucky enough to survive, she might never be able to fight again.
But even if that was the case, she had to save Shidou. To this end, she didn't care what kind of surprise moves, what kind of tricks, what kind of coincidences she had to rely on!
Origami noticed the change in the numbers projected onto her retinas and got some distance from Ellen.
The magic values for Ellen's powerful Territory kept going up. This likely meant she was preparing for battle.
The magic values for Ellen's powerful Territory kept going up. This likely meant she was preparing for battle.
But Origami didn't need to see the numbers to know that. She had been able to more or less guess at Ellen's power when she touched her Territory earlier. Ellen was more powerful than Mana, and Mana had wiped the floor with Origami and the rest of the AST during mock battles. Origami had never before touched a Territory with such a dense concentration of magic woven into it. If she were careless enough to engage Ellen at close range, that alone would spell the end of Origami's little excursion.
"...!"
The action her brain decided on was immediate. She fired the anti-Spirit assault rifle in her right hand and the Gatling gun in her left, and pulled the trigger on her laser cannon with her Territory to launch a barrage at Ellen.
She didn't have artillery to spare. In fact, she hadn't even had the Gatling gun in her left hand when she originally set out. She'd grabbed it from a Bandersnatch full of holes on her way here.
But given that she didn't have a chance of winning in close-range combat, her only option was to attack from afar. Absorbing the recoil with her Territory, she concentrated all her magic-imbued bullets on one spot.
Eventually, the rain of bullets ended. Naturally, not because Origami wanted it to stop. She simply ran out of ammunition.
When the curtain of smoke was cleared away by the wind, however, Ellen was floating there leisurely, clad in a CR unit without a scratch on it.
"Did you really think such a thing would be effective?" Ellen sighed, exasperated, and turned the laser blade in her hand toward Origami. "If you did, then you have certainly underestimated me." But then her eyebrows arched up.
The wall of a building was falling toward her, riddled with holes from Origami's attack.
Naturally, Origami had never thought she could do anything to Ellen with bullets. So she had kept Ellen's focus on her while she worked on the building rising up behind her.
"Hmph." Without even moving, Ellen stopped the massive pile of rubble closing in from above when it was on the verge of touching her head.
But this was also within the realm of expectation. Origami released the connection on the assault rifle in her hand, poured magic into the body of the weapon, and threw it with all her might at Ellen.
Naturally, this was also blocked by Ellen's Territory before it could reach her body. And then something like a gas began to stream from the lower part of the weapon.
"Wha-This is...!" Ellen frowned and covered her mouth with her hand.
Origami had attached a grenade to the rifle and set it so that the pin was pulled when it cleared her Territory.
Still, it wasn't as though the gas itself were a powerful poison. It merely gave off a foul odor and was used to put down riots. At most, it would cause a powerful itching in the eyes and nose.
But Ellen had no way of knowing that. Given that she might have been sprayed with a poisonous gas, she had no choice but to mitigate the potential effects with her Territory, or pull her Territory in tight around her to shut out the gas.
"Now!" Origami pulled a stun grenade from where it hung on her hip and lobbed it at Ellen. There was an intense flash accompanied by an earsplitting bang.
Less than a heartbeat later, she issued orders in her mind and shifted to the micro missile pod on her back, launching every single one of them at the more powerful Wizard.
The Territory was maintained by a basic Realizer built into the wiring suit. And that Realizer was controlled by none other than the human brain.
Ellen's brain at the moment would have been carrying out parallel processing to handle a number of issues-defending from the rubble from the building, mitigating the gas, guarding against the light and sound. On top of that, she was being showered in micro missiles processed with magic. If she'd been an average Wizard, her brain would have overheated, and she would have either failed to deal with one of these attacks or released her Territory for a moment.
However...
"You thought this through, hm?"
"...?!"
Origami heard a voice from behind and gasped.
But she was too late. At the same time as she hurriedly whirled around, a hand grabbed her throat. The effect of the Territory holding her body up weakened, and gravity suddenly weighed on her heavily.
"Ngh..."
"Rather than trying to engage the Territory itself, you confuse the brain that generates it. Is that how you managed to do this? I see. It's not a particularly elegant method, but it is effective," Ellen said, having appeared behind Origami at some point, and squeezed the hand around her throat.
"You were so close, hm? You no doubt would have won if your opponent had been anyone other than myself. But unfortunately. This is not a method to be used against the world's most powerful Wizard."
The corners of Ellen's mouth turned up in a smile.
Fifteen thousand meters in the air above DEM's Japan branch, the main monitor on the bridge of Fraxinus was showing a video feed of the total chaos unfolding in the business district.
"Wizards approaching Mana's rear! Bearing down at one o'clock!"
"Send out Yggdrafolium 3 and 4."
"Roger. Yggdrafolium 3 and 4 set to land mine mode."
At the same time as the cool voice rang out, a small explosion occurred in the air above the business district on-screen.
"Counterattack confirmed. Target has lost Territory."
Most likely, no one had noticed them in among all the blasts and commotion of the battle, but Kotori and her crew had sent all the autonomous Yggdrafolium units to the ground, where they were providing support for Mana.
As long as they couldn't connect with Shido inside the building, this was about all that they could so. Kotori managed to keep her frustration in check while she dispassionately carried out her work.
"C-Commander! There!" a member of her crew cried out.
Kotori turned her eyes to the monitor and saw the battlefield and two girls hanging in the air. No. Actually, to be more precise, a blond girl in platinum armor had her hand around the neck of a girl in a navy suit and was holding her up midair.
"That's..." Kotori furrowed her brow.
"It appears to be...Ellen Mathers and Tobiichi Origami," Kannazuki said from beside her, putting a finger to his chin.
Yes. Although she was wearing unfamiliar equipment, the girl being strangled was Shidou's classmate and AST Wizard Tobiichi Origami.
DEM and the AST were supposedly working together. In fact, the AST had also joined the fray earlier and were fighting the Kurumis alongside the DEM Wizards.
But Kotori quickly reassessed the situation.
She remembered how when a group of unknown AST personnel had appeared in the air above Tenguu Square the day before, perhaps targeting a Spirit, Origami had tried to stop them using the weapon of annihilation called White Licorice. It was hard to think that Origami had been acting to protect Tohka and the others, strictly speaking, especially not when she hated Spirits the way she did. The likeliest explanation was that she had wanted to save Shidou in Tenguu Square.
"It can't be..." Kotori flicked the stick of the Chupa Chups in her mouth up as she stared at the monitor.
She could think of only one reason why Origami was fighting the DEM Wizard right now.
"Prepare the convergent magic power cannon Mistilteinn. We're going to give Tobiichi Origami some backup."
"Are you certain?" Kawagoe asked from the lower deck.
Kotori glanced at him and let out a short sigh. "My feelings here are complicated. I'll have trouble sleeping if I let her be killed. And I can't just walk away from someone who's trying to help Shidou, whatever her reasons."
She pulled the lollipop from her mouth and snapped it at the girl in the monitor.
"AR-008, parallel operation of five and six. Commence magic charging. Turn gun number three downward at the same time. Switch partial control to manual. Target: Ellen Mathers," Kotori said.
"But, Commander." Minowa on the lower deck spoke up, a troubled look on her face. "The target is in close proximity to Origami Tobiichi. Even if we curb our output, isn't there a risk of collateral damage?"
It was a reasonable concern. But Kotori snorted in disdain.
"That's why I told you to switch it to partial manual. Kannazuki."
"Yes sir!" Kannazuki nodded.
"Get a headset. I'll leave the targeting to you. You can do it, yes?"
"If you gave the order, I would nail an apple sitting on her head without fail." He bowed his head without an instant of hesitation.
The members of the crew gulped loudly and began to tap at their consoles, following Kotori's orders.
"Now then. The truth is, I enjoy sparring with you, but unfortunately, I am in a hurry myself," Ellen said in a quiet voice, squeezing Origami's neck tightly. She raised the enormous laser blade in her right hand and touched it to the other girl's cheek.
"Unh... Hngh...," Origami groaned.
"You're a favorite of Ike's, and I don't really want to kill you. But it seems you're a clever one, and it would not be to our advantage to simply leave you running free."
She fired up the blade of her sword. Origami heard a sizzling sound and felt a sharp pain on her cheek.
"Ngah!"
And then she saw something flash brightly like a shooting star in the dark sky. Followed by a beam of light cascading down toward them.
"-?!"
"Wha..."
That light shot straight at Ellen, right into the top of her head. The moment it touched her Territory, tiny implosions of magic scattered like sparks.
This was the product of a super-high-energy magic gun on a level that was impossible for an individual's equipment. The pillar of light was probably even more powerful than White Licorice's Blast Arc.
"Wh-what is this?!"
It seemed that even Ellen hadn't been expecting this blow. For the first time, anguish colored her face. And Origami felt the power blocking her Territory weaken, perhaps because Ellen simply couldn't react in time to the blast from nowhere.
"...!"
Taking advantage of the instantaneous opening, Origami spun around and escaped Ellen's restraint. She put power in the tip of her right foot and stretched her leg toward the other Wizard. A knife with a blade about ten centimeters long poked its face out. She coated the blade in magic and swung her leg.
"Hah! Ngh?!"
She felt an unmistakable impact with her foot, and Ellen groaned.
But then an invisible hand grabbed her foot and flung her at a building.
"...!"
Unable to decelerate in time, she slammed into the wall. She managed to absorb some of the impact, but the blow still knocked the wind out of her.
"Cough! Cough!"
"Well, you're something, hm?"
Still standing after the blast of mysterious magic, Ellen turned her gaze on Origami, her brow furrowed in irritation.
Her wiring suit was ripped from her chest down to her waist, and painful-looking tracks had been gouged into her pale skin. She had stopped the bleeding with her Territory, but traces of the blood that had scattered when she was injured stained her platinum armor red.
Ellen turned the tip of her sword on Origami.
"Albeit with some excessive outside assistance, you are the second person in my entire life to have injured my person, Tobiichi Origami. You are a magnificent Wizard. You should be confident and proud. But in the afterlife. Not in this world."
"Ngh..." Origami floated in the air, her aching body supported by her Territory. Although she'd managed to strike a blow, the already hopeless gap between her and Ellen had only opened up even farther.
But then Ellen's eyebrows twitched up and her gaze shifted, as though she was listening to something.
"Ike." She glared at Origami again before turning her face toward Building 1.
"...! Where are you-," Origami said.
"It appears that's all the time we have," Ellen interrupted. "You're lucky."
"I-I won't let you!"
Shidou was inside that building. Origami gave orders in her mind to go after Ellen.
However.
"Origami!"
She heard her name suddenly and began to glide swiftly through the air, her body wrapped in someone else's Territory.
A blast of cold air shot through the spot where she had been floating only a heartbeat earlier. If she had still been there, she would have been frozen solid along with her Territory.
"Ngh?!"
"You... What are you doing here?! You're supposed to be on strict bed rest!" The owner of the Territory that saved Origami looked down at her. A woman clad in a familiar wiring suit. AST Captain Kusakabe Ryouko.
"Captain?" Origami murmured.
"Yup. And what is with this equipment?" Ryouko frowned. "Is it SSS?"
"Let me go. I have to go after her-"
An incredible onslaught of wind and ice interrupted her. Ryouko furrowed her brow ever so slightly and manipulated the Territory that held Origami to evade the attack.
"Miss Miku's orders are...absolute...!"
"Keh-keh, so you flee then? But that only gives worth to the chase! I do so never tire of you humans!"
"Admiration. Master Origami is here. This is a battleground. Please leave immediately. In the event that you do not obey this instruction...I will dispose of even you, Master Origami."
A girl clinging to an enormous rabbit and two others with a wing each growing out of their backs danced in the air, and Origami gasped. The Spirit Hermit. And the students from the class next to Origami's, the Yamais.
"Kaguya, Yuzuru. You can't be...Spirits?" she asked, stunned.
But the Spirits themselves apparently could not have cared less about Origami's shock. The Yamai sisters cloaked their lance and pendulum in the currents of a roaring hurricane and then lobbed a mass of wind at Origami and Ryouko.
"Ngh-" Origami broke away from Ryouko's Territory, fired her thrusters, and managed to escape further injury.
"Kah-kah! How well you perform!"
"Affirmation. But if you are hostile to Miss Miku, then we will show no mercy."
The Yamai sisters glared at her.
Discovering her throat suddenly very dry, Origami gulped and faced the Spirits alongside Ryouko.
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