"Hee-hee-hee! Say, daaarling? You can come closer, you know? Come on nooow."
"Uh. So, umm, Miku."
"What is iiiit? Oh, right. I found this lovely little Italian place the other day. Do you have any plans toniiight? How about you join me?"
"Oh, uh, I have to make supper for Tohka and everyone, so..."
"Whaaat? Then let's go with Tohka and everyone, too. I'm not a petty woman, you knoooow. Of course, it would be my treat, so please don't worry about that."
"No, but seriously, Miku." Itsuka Shidou looked at the girl snuggling up to him with an innocent smile on her face, a troubled look upon his own.
Bluish-purple hair, smooth and shiny like silk, and well cared-for, luminous skin. She was-without exaggeration-gorgeous.
Izayoi Miku was in the grade above Shidou, but her behavior was always so childish that it was hard to believe she was actually the older one. Her body, however, was definitely mature. Every time she moved, her more-than-ample bosom pressed into Shidou, leaving him at a loss for what to do. All he could do was look anywhere but at her, a cold sweat popping up on his forehead.
But it wasn't only Miku's innocent come-on that was making Shidou freeze up.
""..."" Two people glaring intensely at him. Well, to be more precise, only one person stared intensively while the other didn't really have any reaction in particular.
His little sister Kotori and Lucas were sitting right in front of them. Kotori's hair was tied up in two black ribbons, eyes round like acorns, and a Chupa Chups stuck in her mouth. She wore a crimson jacket over her shoulders and was resting her chin in her hands as she grumpily watched Shidou and Miku's (one-way) flirting.
They were in a room on the airship Fraxinus. The space was dim, as though the lights had been purposefully lowered. Chairs had been set out in the center of the room and long tables set up around them. The scene was like a stressful job interview or even an audience at court. Miku didn't seem to be bothered in the slightest by the tense atmosphere.
"Maybe that's enough for now, Miku," Kotori said, finally.
"Hmm? Whaaat do you ever mean?" Miku said, innocently.
"I. Told. You!" Kotori gritted her teeth and slammed a hand down on the table. "This is an inquiry! Shidou's only here as a special favor, because you said you wouldn't do it unless your 'darling' came!"
"Ohhh, that's right." Miku laughed and turned toward Kotori. But her hand remained wrapped around Shidou's arm.
Kotori sighed heavily as she flipped through the documents in front of her. "So then, let's get on with the questions."
"Yes, yes. Pleeease do," Miku said, warmly.
Kotori let out another sigh. "There are a number of things we want to ask you about your powers and your Angel. But I'll set those aside for now. First..." She snapped her index finger out at Miku as she said, "We need to ask about the being that made you a Spirit."
"...!" Miku stiffened.
"You're not a natural-born Spirit- you were originally human," Kotori continued. "No mistake there, right?"
"..."
Miku frowned slightly and looked pained. She started breathing a little faster.
Shidou wondered for a second if there was something preventing Miku from answering Kotori's question, but then he remembered that she had become a Spirit at a time when she had lost her faith in human beings entirely and saw no good in the world. She was probably just reluctant to speak of that time.
"Are you all right, Miku?" he asked. "If this is difficult for you, we can take a break."
"No, it's all right." Miku shook her head. "I have you now, daaaarling. I've decided to move forward, and that means parting with everything in the past, too."
"Miku." He patted her back gently in encouragement.
"Yes, that's right," Miku said. "Several months ago...everyone in my life betrayed me. I lost my voice due to psychological aphonia, and with it, all hope. That's when God appeared before me."
""God?"" Kotori's and Lucas' gaze sharpened the tiniest bit. Shidou furrowed his brow, slightly.
But Miku appeared not to notice this as she continued speaking. " 'Don't you want power? More power than you've ever imagined, enough to change the whole world,' God said and handed me this shining purple jewel. I reached out to take it, and the jewel melted into my body. And then I had the magical voiiice that could make anyone do whatever I told them to."
"Sephira...." Lucas muttered, too quiet for anyone to hear.
"I see," Kotori said, a complicated look on her face, and flicked up the stick of the Chupa Chups in her mouth. "Tell me everything you know about this 'God' of yours."
"Everything? Ooh." Miku's eyebrows climbed up her forehead. "It felt strange somehooow. They were definitely there, but I couldn't really see them. It was like they were covered in static. And I could hear their voice and understand what they were saying, but I had no idea what their voice sounded like. Pixelated and blurred out, like on TV."
"Pixalated...you say?" Kotori repeated, turning her gaze to Lucas.
As if knowing what Kotori was about to ask, Lucas shook his head left and right.
"But then, when Lucas suddenly stepped into the fight against Tohka, I felt like...I saw my 'God' again!"
""Huh?!"" Kotori and Shidou gasped in sync.
"...! Nonsense! As if I can turn people into Spirits!" Lucas protested. "Sure, I can manipulate Mana, but not Reiryoku! Maryoku. I use Maryoku!"
"We get it, we get it! ...Next question. After you gained your Spirit powers, were you ever overcome with destructive urges? Did you ever feel your sense of self erode?"
"Destructive...urges? No, nothing in particular comes to mind."
"Hmm." Scowling, Kotori made some notes on the page in front of her.
"Destructive urges..?" Shidou questioned. Right. He didn't know a single bit of what they were talking about.
"Yeah." Lucas nodded. "I've seen too many people transform into mad beasts after receiving a Sephira crystal. I still wonder just how she knows who is compatible with one or not. It's extremely lucky that you are still alive Miku, else you would've probably been killed by now. And not just you. Everyone else too." Lucas said, bitterly.
"S-she..? Who are you referring to?"
"This 'god' she had seen was probably the First Spirit."
"F-First Spirit...?" Shidou's shoulders jumped. Not only Shidou, but also Kotori. She is the commander of the Fraxinus airship, so she of course knew about the Spirit of Origin.
"B-but, why would she..?"
"I don't know myself. I don't remember too much from when I faced her because she almost killed me." Lucas told him, somehow not bothered by the fact he almost died.
"Could both of you pleeease not ignore me and just sit there thinking," Miku tugged on Shidou's arm and begged.
"Oh. Sorry." Shidou smiled at her.
"The inquiry's only just begun. I'm going to be listening very closely to everything you have to say. We can't discard the possibility that your memories were manipulated by her, though, so we're going to put a few electrodes on your head to watch your brain waves, okay?" Kotori grinned, while Miku looked apprehensive.
The sun was setting by the time Kotori and Lucas finally let Miku go.
After being transferred to just outside the Itsuka house via the Fraxinus transporter, Miku staggered in exhaustion and leaned against Shidou.
"H-hey, whoa!" he cried. "You okay?"
"I-I'm so tiiiired." Miku exhaled, heavily. "Honestly, all I want to do today is go straight home and dive into my futon. Darling, I am so sorry, but can we go to that restaurant another time?"
"Huh? Oh, sure, that's fine," Shidou said.
Miku clasped her hands in front of her chest, her face brightening dramatically. "Mm! Oh you! You really are so kiiind, darling!" And then she snuggled up against him even more.
"H-hey, isn't this sort of thing kind of dicey for an idol?" Shidou averted his eyes, his face red, and Miku looked at him, blankly.
The corners of Miku's mouth turned up neatly, as if she'd read his mind. "Hee hee! It's fiiine. This is nothing. If the paparazzi are hiding around here, I'll pose for them nicely and flash them a peace sign. They can come at me Friday, Sunday, whenever they want."
"Oh, I think Sunday'll be all right, though." Shidou smiled, dryly.
Miku giggled. "Darling, you said even if no one else will listen to my songs, you'll always be my fan, riiiight? So it's all good. As long as I have you, I don't care what happens."
"Oh, right, I guess." Shidou bowed his head a bit bashfully.
A grin spread across Miku's face as she pulled away from him. "Then I'll be heading home for today. I'll be waiting with bated breath until I can see you again, darling."
"Yeah, see you."
"Well then." Miku wound her arms around Shidou's neck and pushed her lips forward.
"Wha-?! Wh-wh-wh-what are you doing?!" he cried.
"Hmm? What?" She raised an eyebrow. "A goodbye kiss, of course."
"I-I mean, I know you're not worried about a scandal, but this is too much," he protested.
"Mmm, honestly, you're so shyyyy. It's fine. Come on." Miku tightened her arms around his neck, and his face was inextricably pulled towards hers.
"H-hey, hang on!" he yelped. "S-stoooppp!"
◇
After returning Shidou and Miku to the ground, Lucas decided to head home as well. He sat down in his chair, leaning back and simply relaxing. The lights were still turned on even though Lucas should've already went to sleep by now. The reason was that he still had to think. About everything Miku had told them. On the monitor infront of him was a transcription of Miku's recorded voice.
Lucas cross-referenced this as he prepared a report to submit to the Rounds. Nowadays, he would leave this type of work to someone else in the organization. But when it came to the mysterious Spirit of Origin, Lucas felt like he needed to handle it himself, given that he had faced her directly.
Miku and Kurumi were the only people Lucas knew, who had encountered the Spirit of Origin, or.. Spirit Code <Deus>. Their testimony could very well contain information that might lead the true intentions of <Deus>, so Lucas couldn't delegate this job to anyone else.
"The purple Sephira Mio gave Miku..." Looking back into the past, neither Lucas or Kurumi had encountered a Sephira of the color purple, or a Spirit with similar powers to her. "...." Lucas couldn't figure out any conclusion to his report. The method of how people turn into Spirits, is not as easy as to just give it to them. No. It's far from that. From what Kurumi can remember, Sephira had to be "refined" before they can be used with control. However, the process of refining is a brutal one. Giving it to people, and killing them. All over. Again and again and again, until the Sephira is refined enough for a strong-willed person to take it and keep their sanity..
All of this information meant Mio must have continued this malicious act without anyone's notice. Lucas thoughts didn't stop processing. He unintentionally continued to write down every possible outcome of her plan into his report card. The entire room was filled with constant noises of Lucas' fingers tapping his keyboards' keys over and over again. Until-
"Eek!" Lucas yanked his face around and caught the sight of two familiar girls. The two of them had identical faces. One of them had her hair pulled back, and the other one braided. One was calm, and the other one was more energetic.
"Kaguya? Yuzuru?" He said the name of the two girls. Yes. Yamai Kaguya and Yamai Yuzuru were in his room, dresses in matching pajamas. Kaguya's pajama was colored pink, while Yuzuru's was blue. The top of their pajamas weren't connected properly, exposing their soft skin of their chest slightly. Just a few days after the incident on Arubi Island, Kayuya and Yuzuru were allowed to choose a home for themselves. Either, they choose to will in the Spirit apartment next to Shidou's house where they could connect with the others, or have Lucas renovate an empty room in his giant house for them. Of course, the most obvious choice for them was to live with Lucas. So after a bit of work, shopping and installing, Lucas made good work out of the empty room on the second floor. It was the first door on the second floor when going up the stairs from the first floor, and next to Kurumi's room.
At first, Lucas wondered why they wanted a room for both of them, even though he could simply give each of them a room of their own, but quickly took back that idea. They were twin sisters after all, and the room was quite large anyway.
"Why aren't you two asleep? It's already past midnight."
"Uhm... well your typing was a little...noisy."
"Complaint. It was a little noisy, so we couldn't sleep.".
"Ooohh.." Lucas scratched his cheek. Looking back at it, it made sense now. "Sorry, I was doing some work as you can see. I'll install some sound absorbing foam around my room, so there shouldn't be any noise next time."
"I-I see..." For some strange reason, Kaguya was blushing. But Yuzuru kept her usual blank face.
"Hm? Something wrong, Kaguya?" Lucas cocked his side to one side. There wasn't anything unusual going on, so Kaguya's blushing was completely out of the blue.
"Truth. Kaguya and I wanted to sleep with you in your bed tonight." Yuzuru said, without any shame as if it's the most normal thing in the world.
"Huh?!" Lucas jumped up from his seat. He blinked his eyes for a few seconds to make sure he wasn't hallucinating from all the work or anything. But it was definitely real.
"F-feel honored! To share a bed with us, children of the storm!" Kaguya crossed her arms, but her red face stood out more.
"No-no-no-no. This is absolutely not going to happen!" Lucas screamed, but tried to keep it low as to not wake up Kurumi. He tried to push them out of the room, but they pulled their move on him.
"Wha-?!"
"Failure. This is-"
Well, it didn't turn the way they wanted it to. They put their feet in Lucas' way, so he flipped over to the bed. But what they didn't anticipate is that Lucas dragged them down with him onto the bed. The situation became extremely weird in a matter of seconds. Their pajamas have opened up, revealing their entire chest. Not to mention, Lucas was on his fours above the two of them, pressing his hand on their shoulders to support his body up. If someone would walk in right at that moment, there would be a massive misunderstanding.
"L-Lucas, I wasn't-"
"Surprise. We didn't plan to go this far...But if we're fine if you want to proceed..." Yuzuru said, feeling somewhat embarrassed now. Lucas froze completely in place, puzzled by how this situation had turned. His mind was going crazy, and he didn't know what to do.
"Sorry!" And---they spend another eventful night together.
◇
Sunday, October 15.
The city was decorated in full Halloween mode. Shidou and Tohka walked towards the shopping district to pick up groceries for supper.
"Oohh. Shidou. What's that?" Tohka pointed at an enormous pumpkin monster adorning a storefront.
"Oh, that's a jack-o'-lantern," he told her. "You make them by carving up pumpkins. That one's not a real pumpkin, though. It's plastic."
"Pumpkin?" Tohka frowned. "That monster's orange, though? Aren't pumpkins green?"
"Yeah, in Japan, they're mostly green," he agreed. "But I guess they have pumpkins like that in other countries."
"It's just...so big. You could make a stew and tempura and soup and still have some left," Tohka said, admiringly, her eyes wide, as she nodded in agreement with herself.
He'd actually heard that the type of pumpkin used for jack-o'-lanterns was basically for looks only and not really eaten, but...there was no real need to crush Tohka's dreams.
"Hmm," he said. "Okay, since they're in season, how about we get pumpkin for supper today? I'm pretty sure I've got some ground beef left. I could do a stew or croquettes."
"Ooh!" Tohka waved her hand vigorously, eyes shining. "Mm, that's really great! I know what stew is, but croquettes? I thought you made those with potatoes?"
"Normally, yeah. But if you make them with pumpkin, they're sweet and very tasty."
Tohka closed her eyes for several seconds, as if imagining the flavor, and then swallowed her drool. "Mm. Let's have croquettes today! It's decided, so let's go, Shidou!"
"Oh, hey! You have to watch where you're-" Shidou started to warn her, but it was too late.
Tohka slammed into someone coming around the corner and was knocked backward onto her butt. "Ngh!"
"Whoops," the person said.
"Oh, come on." Shidou rolled his eyes. "I just warned you. Are you okay?"
"Mm... Mm-hmm."
After helping Tohka up, Shidou turned toward the person she'd just run into and found a foreign man in his fifties in a wheelchair with a spectacled woman in her mid-twenties pushing it.
"I'm sorry," Shidou said. "We weren't watching where we were going. Are you hurt? Hey, Tohka, you have to apologize too."
"Umm. Sorry. I wasn't looking." Tohka bowed, apologetically.
The man shook his head with a gentle smile and spoke in surprisingly fluent Japanese. "No, we're sorry. Are you all right, miss?"
"Mm." Tohka nodded. "No injuries."
"That's a relief. If I were to hurt a lovely young woman such as yourself, I would have to go straight to hell," the man joked. To be able to produce such a line so smoothly, the man had no doubt been quite the playboy in the past.
Shidou secretly noted that he could learn a thing or two. Although the young lady in question was not reddening in the cheeks, but rather staring blankly.
The man clapped his hands, as if he'd just remembered something. "I did want to ask you something, though. Do you know where the municipal hospital is?"
"Hospital?" Shidou said. "Oh, you'll want to go straight up this street full of shops, and when you come out onto a road, turn left. Then make a right at the third intersection, go straight and then you'll see it."
The man shook his head.
"I don't really understand," he said. "I'm sorry. Would you mind showing us the way?"
Shidou scratched at his cheek, awkwardly. They were supposed to get groceries. Then again, the hospital wasn't that far away. He supposed it wouldn't take too long.
"Sure thing. It's this way," he said, and started up the shopping street.
"Sorry for the bother," the man said. "Japanese people really are so nice. I appreciate it."
"Not at all, it's nothing," Shidou replied. "Mr....umm."
"Oh, please call me Baldwin. And this is Karen." The man-Baldwin-pointed to the woman pushing his wheelchair.
"Hello," Karen said, simply, before falling silent once more. Pale Nordic blond hair, blue eyes. Even though Shidou had definitely never met her before, for some reason, he got the feeling that he'd seen her elsewhere.
"Is something wrong?" Baldwin asked.
"Oh. No," he said, hurriedly. "I'm Itsuka Shidou."
"Yatogami Tohka," Tohka said.
Baldwin nodded, looking pleased. "Mm-hmm. I must give thanks to God that I was able to meet such a wonderful couple in this unfamiliar place."
"Pft!" Shidou sputtered.
"Mm...?" Tohka tilted her head, perhaps not understanding the meaning of Baldwin's words, or maybe wondering at Shidou's reaction.
"Are you all right, Shidou?" Baldwin asked, concerned.
"W-we're not actually a couple," Shidou stammered.
"Oh-ho! My mistake then. Apologies." Baldwin shrugged, and Shidou wiped away the perspiration from his forehead.
But Tohka was poking a finger into his back. "Shidou. What's a couple?"
"Huh?! Oh, the thing there is, uh..."
When Shidou was at a loss, Baldwin turned amused eyes on Tohka.
"Tohka-san. How long has it been since you met Shidou-kun?"
"Huh? Hmm." She thought for a second. "About six months, I guess."
"I see," Baldwin said. "So that would make it April then. That's right around the time of school entrance ceremonies and the start of lessons, yes? Is that where you met?"
"No. I met Shidou during a spacequake-"
"Aaah!" Shidou cried out to cut off Tohka's overly honest response.
It was only now Tohka realized the issue. Her eyes flew open, and she continued, trying to cover up the gaffe. "N-not that. A spacequake's a spacequake, but you know, it wasn't like I caused it. I mean..."
"W-we met in the shelter during a spacequake!" Shidou said.
"Mm-hmm! That!" Tohka bobbed her head up and down in agreement.
It was a bit awkward, but well, it would work as an answer to the question. Shidou timidly turned his eyes towards Baldwin.
The man was simply watching the two of them go back and forth with a smile and not a trace of suspicion on his face. They had apparently covered Tohka's slip well enough. Shidou let out a sigh of relief.
But there was something there, in the look on Baldwin's face that made Shidou uncomfortable, like the older man had actually figured their entire situation out.
"You did? That's fate for you." Baldwin exhaled slowly and with real emotion. "Tohka. Are you happy now?"
"Hmm?" Her eyes widened at the sudden question. But that was the extent of her doubt. She nodded, deeply. "Mm-hmm. I'm very happy!"
"You are?" Baldwin smiled, kindly.
And then a shrill siren began to blare from speakers all over the shopping street.
V w n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n m m m m m.
"The alarm!" Shidou shouted, while an announcement urging everyone to evacuate began to play, and shoppers hurriedly headed for the nearest shelter.
But he couldn't evacuate to the shelters with everyone else. The spacequake alarm also meant the appearance of a Spirit. He had to contact Fraxinus immediately and get them to pick him up with the transporter.
"Uh! Umm! Mr. Baldwin!" he said, panicking. "It's dangerous here. Please evacuate right away!"
"I will do just that. And you?"
"Huh? I-I just have a thing to do, so," Shidou stammered.
"Aah, that was a mean question, wasn't it?" Baldwin smiled and shrugged. "I'll pray that we are able to meet again someday. Good luck. Take care of that Spirit."
"Huh?" Shidou furrowed his brow.
But Baldwin said nothing in reply, instead giving an order to Karen and returning the way they had come.
"Shidou, what are you doing?" Tohka said.
"R-right." Shidou took his eyes off of Baldwin and Karen as he pulled the earpiece he used to communicate with Fraxinus out of his pocket.
"What shall you do now? Commander Itsuka has called a number of times," Karen said, as soon as they left Itsuka Shidou and Yatogami Tohka, while she pushed the wheelchair forward.
Baldwin glanced at her. "Ha-ha! I suppose I've worried her. Still, with the spacequake, Fraxinus will be busy. We'll be good and evacuate for now. Oh, and there was that DEM employee caught during the Berserk incident. Since we're in Japan anyway, perhaps we could have a little chat with him."
"Understood. I'll make the arrangements," Karen said in a business-like tone.
Baldwin nodded. "So? Anything unusual with them?"
"As far as I can see, no issue at the moment," she replied. "They're extremely stable."
"They are? That's good news," he said, and sighed.
Last month, the boy Itsuka Shidou had manifested multiple Angels against an "inversed" Spirit. Naturally, Baldwin had received a report on the results of the investigation into this incident, but he felt like he couldn't be completely free of concern until he met the boy himself.
But his fears appeared to have been unwarranted. He recalled the bounce in Tohka's voice, and the corners of his mouth curled up. "I'm glad we came to Japan. She really did seem happy." Elliot Baldwin Woodman smiled.
◇
"Well, this is quite some timing." After being transferred from Fraxinus to the location of the spacequake, Lucas looked out at the scene around him.
A vast circle two kilometers across had been gouged out of the ground, like the soil had been neatly prepared for some new endeavor. The mark of a spacequake, the spontaneous natural disaster that had been deemed a shaking of space itself.
But Lucas wasn't looking at these traces of the catastrophe. He was focused on the south side of the area lost to the spacequake. The structures there seemed oddly out of place in the city.
The rails of a rollercoaster cut off in midair, a merry-go-round missing the horse heads. Cracked coffee cups, a half-destroyed house of mirrors. They were all rusted and covered in moss, making it doubtful that the spacequake was the cause of the damage.
"This is... I dunno... kinda creepy." Shidou commented, just to his left.
The two of them were currently located at the remains of an amusement park on the outskirts of Tenguu. He didn't know it's actual name. Neighboring residents only ever called it "Monster Land." Apparently, by some stroke of luck, the facility had just narrowly escaped the Great Southern Kanto Spacequake thirty years earlier, but of course, the number of visitors declined after the disaster. After receiving practically no customers, the amusement park was forced to shut down.
On top of that, because it hadn't actually been damaged in the spacequake, the park wasn't allocated any of the subsidies for redevelopment, and had fallen into ruin, while other facilities sprang up one after the other all over the city.
The circle of damage from the current spacequake also just barely overlapped with the park premises so that the rusted attractions remained as they had been.
Given that it was also dusk, the entire effect was distinctly creepy. It was like the haunted house, nothing more than a side show in the amusement park's original incarnation, had eaten away at the entire place and expanded its territory.
"This is a bit too atmospheric," Shidou muttered, grimacing.
"Quit complaining." Kotori's voice came through the earpiece in his right ear. "The Spirit's already moving west from the spacequake's epicenter. The AST'll be arriving soon enough. Make contact before they add their fun to the mix."
""Roger!"" Lucas and Shidou said in unison, and headed south-towards the deserted amusement park.
Lucas wasn't budged by any of these creepy looking buildings, but Shidou would rather not have went that way, but he didn't have the luxury of saying no.
Although they had gotten the jump this time, the AST-Anti-Spirit Team-would be on their way in no time at all. Atleast one of them had to talk with the Spirit for at least a couple of minutes before they got there. Lucas would most likely buy some time by holding back the AST as always, which meant Shidou probably had to take care of the Spirit himself once the AST arrives.
But their feet abruptly stopped. "Huh?" Shidou gaped, rooted to the spot.
"Hey, what are you doing? The Spirit is-" Lucas started, and then he too stopped. Most likely because he'd caught sight of what Shidou was looking at.
At a certain point, the ruins of the amusement park gave way to a gaudy, tasteless area of deformed gothic buildings and crosses marking graves.
"Wh-what is this?" Shidou got the curious sensation that he'd wandered into a horror comedy produced with the latest CG or a Visual Kei music video, and unconsciously pinched his cheek. Naturally, all that did was make him feel a sharp pain. "The park attraction's changing? ...No, it can't be, right?"
"Hold on. I sense a faint Reiryoku signal coming from this." Lucas somehow kept his cool. "It's probably connected to the Spirit's powers in any shape or form."
Shidou swallowed hard as he stared at the abnormal landscape spreading out ahead of him.
"Ooooh?"
Lucas and Shidou heard a voice from above and jerked their face up.
On the roof of the church towering before them, they caught sight of a strange silhouette. A woman sat atop the cross on the church's gable and behind her glowed the orange of the evening sun. Because she was backlit, they couldn't make out her face, but the distinctive hat she wore was clear as day.
Wide brim, cone bent at the tip. The sort of thing a fairytale witch wore.
"Hee-hee-hee! I never meet humans other than the AST when I'm pulled to this side." The Spirit giggled and jumped down from the cross, floating lightly through the air to land in front of the two.
A tall woman clad in an Astral Dress the color of the setting sun and the black of the night sky. Based on her looks, Lucas as would guess she was maybe a little over twenty years old. Slender limbs, ample bosom. Perfect proportions to put a pin-up model to shame.
She was beautiful, like she had been built to specification, to create the ideal woman. Long shiny hair fell from under the brim of the wide hat, and eyes like emeralds peered out through the gaps to stare at the two with great interest.
"Hmm? What's with that mask of yours? Is this your cute Halloween outfit?"
"Ah... It's just my regular outfit."
"Hmm...I see, I see." Then, the Spirit leaned towards Shidou now, as though assessing Shidou's worth.
Caught off guard, Shidou unconsciously jumped.
The Spirit giggled again as if amused by his reaction.
"Uh. Umm. I'm-" Shidou started.
"Huh." The Spirit reached out a hand to nudge Shidou's chin up. "You're pretty cute, aren't you? What's up, hmm? I thought an alarm went off in this world when I appeared?"
Shidou's mind was going wild right now. At first,he thought "Why isn't she focused on Lucas instead?" But it made sense why Shidou was her main focus. After all, Lucas was hiding his handsome face.
"Th-that's..." Completely knocked off balance, Shidou fumbled for the words, and then heard Kotori's voice in his ear.
"Shidou! Options!"
A window popped up on the airship Fraxinus's main monitor, above the feed of Shidou and the witchy Spirit. Fraxinus's AI had determined three speech options suitable for the current moment.
1. "THERE'S ONLY ONE REASON. WE CAME TO SEE YOU."
2. "W-WE DON'T KNOW, EITHER. WE DIDN'T RUN IN TIME, AND BEFORE WE KNEW IT, WE WAS HERE..."
3. "ANYWAY, WOULD YOU MIND LETTING US FONDLE YOUR BOOBS?"
"Choices, people!" Kotori shouted from the captain's chair, and the crew, assembled on the lower deck, began to tap their consoles as one.
The aggregate results were soon up on the screen. One and two were neck and neck for top place; there were no votes for three.
"Well... I suppose that's reasonable," Kotori said, flicking the stick of her Chupa Chups back and forth.
"It has to be one!" Nakatsugawa snapped his fingers from below her. "Given that we don't know her temperament yet, it would be risky to act deliberately odd."
But Minowa's voice rose up in protest. "No, we should definitely go with two here. Nakatsugawa's a man, so perhaps he doesn't know this, but Shidou surprisingly brings maternal instincts out in women! From the look of this Spirit, she's an older girl! We should make maximal use of this weapon!"
"Oh," Shiizaki said, softly, sounding like she was in agreement.
"Mm-hmm. I do get what you're saying. But it's a surprise that there are no votes for three. I was convinced Kannazuki would pick it as a bad joke." Kotori uncrossed and recrossed her legs as she looked back behind the captain's seat.
A tall man with a prominent nose was standing there with an impossibly serious face.
"Unthinkable," he said. "I am always in earnest."
"And how do you really feel then?" Kotori asked.
"The first gentle swellings of the chest are supreme," he declared. "I have no interest in slovenly breasts such as those."
"..."
"If one of the options had been 'please let me lick the backs of your knees,' I would have had a little trouble deciding."
"..."
Silently, Kotori beckoned him closer with a finger, made him bend down, and then spat the stick of her now finished Chupa Chups at his eye.
"Nooooooo!!" Kannazuki fell over backward, a hand pressed to his eye.
As she pulled a fresh Chupa Chups from her lollipop holder, Kotori flicked the switch to connect with Shido's earpiece. "Shidou, two. Get some tears going and look up at her with real puppy dog eyes."
"Uh. Uhhh." Shidou frowned at the instruction that came through his right ear. After all, he was in high school now. He very much didn't want to put on an act like he was a lost little kid.
"What's the matter?" The Spirit cocked her head at the change in expression on his face.
The last thing he needed was her getting suspicious. He needed to say something fast. With no other choice, he looked up at her with sad eyes just as Kotori had instructed and opened his mouth.
"Uh. Umm. I...have nooo idea. We didn't run away in time, and before we knew it, we was he- Ugah!" Suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, a punch landed on his head. It wasn't the Spirit, since he had seen no movements from her. He didn't need to look to see from whom it came either.
"The hell are you doing...?" Lucas said quietly to Shidou.
"What am I supposed to do then..?!"
The Spirit's eyes grew round. Her cheeks reddened ever so slightly, and the corners of her mouth slid upward. "Hmm. Is that so? You two are pretty funny. And what's your name?"
"Uh. Itsuka Shidou."
"Kunshu Lucas."
"Shidou-kun and Lucas-kun, hmm? Hee-hee-hee! Cute names."
"Thanks...I guess. And...What's your name?" Lucas asked awkwardly.
The Spirit smiled cutely. "I'm Natsumi. Although I guess you all call me Witch."
"...! Natsumi?!" Lucas reflexively shouted when he heard her name. It made the girl take a step back from the sudden shout. This girl... was she really Natsumi? The Natsumi he met so many years ago? Why did she appear so here, out of all places? And why...
"After so long..." Lucas muttered, sounding like he was about to tear up. "Are you really the Natsumi I remember?! From five years ago? We hung out before, August 3rd after the Nanko Fire. Remember?" He recalled the memories in his mind out loud. It wasn't like Natsumi was a uncommon name, but she had almost the same hair and eye color scheme as the little Natsumi he met so many years ago.
"Hm? What are you talking about?" She said, with no sign of knowing what he's talking about or who he is.
"...?! Wait-" Lucas rushed to pull back his hood and take off his mask. He revealed his face to her, which was changed a bit since they last met. His hair was suddenly all black again, but his left eye was a different color than this right. But still, there was definitely no way she could not remember him. But to his surprise-
"Hm. Have we met before?" There was still no sign of Natsumi remembering him.
"...!" It hit Lucas in the heart. He fell on his knees and his head sloppily dropped to gaze at the ground below. Although almost everything changed about Natsumi. Her vibe, her looks----Lucas could somewhat still feel a mutual connection between them. Did she lose all her memories when she became a Spirit..?
"L-Lucas, what's wrong?!" Shidou shouted, when Lucas got completely decimated and fell to the ground.
"Sorry....I'll need take a break to think..." Lucas said, walking the way they just came from. "...No way. After all these years...I've finally found you. But---" He sat down on the ground not too far away. His thoughts raced. His heart ached. It felt like a rejection from a girl he liked.
"Shidou, don't worry about Lucas for now. We'll investigate his case later. Continue your chat with Natsumi." Kotori told him, and he nodded.
"Miss...Natsumi," he said, trying to play up the lost little boy angle.
"Hee hee! Just Natsumi is fine," she told him. "No need to stand on formality. I'm not too fond of all that stuff."
"Uhhh, okay, Natsumi," Shidou said, and the Spirit-Natsumi-nodded with satisfaction.
"Oh," she said, as though she'd just remembered something, and clapped her hands together. "Right. Hee-hee-hee! I meant to ask the next time I saw a person."
She had no sooner whirled around than she was kicking out a heel with a clack and striking a pose. She turned her eyes back to Shidou.
"Hey, Shidou-kun? There's something I want to ask. You mind?"
"Huh? Oh. No, go ahead," he replied, baffled.
"Shidou-kun." Natsumi ran a finger across her lips sexily and smiled at him. "Do you think I'm pretty?"
"Huh?" His eyes flew open at the unexpected question.
He didn't need to stop and think for an answer. She was obviously gorgeous. But why had she asked him this out of the blue? This was the real question. Maybe she had some ulterior motive or secret plan? He couldn't help but hesitate at this thought.
"Shidou, what are you doing?" Kotori snapped. "If you take too long, you run this risk of putting Natsumi in a bad mood."
She was right. Shidou made his decision and turned back to the Spirit.
"Uh... Oh. I think you're super pretty."
"So I really am?!" Her face brightened as she pressed her hands to her cheeks and squirmed happily. "Hey, so, Shidou-kun? What specifically? What part of me's pretty?"
"Huh? Umm," he said. "Your almond eyes, maybe the perfect line of your nose."
"Uh-huh, uh-huh!" She urged him on with shining eyes.
"And you're tall. You have great style."
"Go on! What else?!"
"Your hair's so shiny and beautiful."
"Yes! You get it! You get me, Shidou!" she cried, and hugged him tightly.
He felt her large breasts push up against him, and his face turned red. Natsumi appeared not to notice this, however, and began to hum happily, still hugging him.
But the pleased humming stopped abruptly, and for some reason, Natsumi got a sad look on her face.
"So this me is pretty then," she said, softly.
"Huh?" Shidou frowned. What was that supposed to mean?
But before he could ask, Natsumi looked over her shoulder and said, "Oh dear."
"...?"
Shidou lifted his face and followed her gaze.
In the sky reddened by the setting sun, he spotted several rough shadows in mechanical armor.
"The AST!" he cried.
Yes. The SDF's Anti-Spirit Team. With their objective being the elimination of the Spirits, they were in direct opposition to Ratatoskr.
Shidou frowned. He couldn't see Origami in the AST formation deployed in a V in the sky, even though she was always in the vanguard.
"Shidou-kun," Natsumi said. "You know the AST?"
"Ah!" His eyebrows shot up. He had maybe said too much.
But Natsumi didn't seem particularly concerned with that. Instead, she patted Shido's head like she was praising a small child. "You're a smart cookie. Look at you!"
"Uh. Right. Thanks," he replied with an awkward smile. This Spirit was all over the place.
But he couldn't stand there idly forever now that the AST had arrived.
"Shidou! Get out of there!"
"...!"
Just as Kotori's shout rang in his ear, there was a flash in the sky, and then a barrage of missiles was raining down on Shidou and Natsumi.
"Wh-whoa!" he shouted, and reflexively shrank back.
But Natsumi chuckled nonchalantly, as she threw her right hand up into the air and cried out, "C'mon, time to work, Haniel."
A broom-like object appeared from nowhere and settled into Natsumi's brandished hand. Although it looked like a broom, the bristled end sparkled and glittered magically, as though adorned with precious metals and jewels.
An Angel. A Spirit's absolute weapon.
Natsumi spun the broom around and pointed the business end toward the ground. The broom opened gently, and a dazzling light spilled out as though it were reflecting the setting sun.
Poof!
He heard a silly sound, and the missiles barreling down on them turned into cartoon-cute carrots.
"Huh?" Shidou's eyes narrowed to stunned points in his face as he watched the carrot missiles hit the ground with a ridiculous BOMB! explosion like something out of a gag manga.
"L-Lucas, the AST!" Shidou shouted in the direction of Lucas, who had now apparently regained his composure and at some point put his mask and hood back on.
"..." Without saying a single word, Lucas dashed directly towards the AST.
"Oh-hooo. Just what is that guy? He can't possibly be a human." Natsumi commented. It was true. Lucas definitely had strength and abilities beyond that of any human. Beyond even the AST.
In just a blink of an eye, multiple AST Members have been beaten to a pulp.
"Tch! New Target! Fire!" The Team Captain shouted. The Wizards all squeezed the triggers on their weapons and rained bullets down on the Magician.
"Just hang on a sec, okay, Shidou-kun?" Natsumi sat down on the broom and zoomed off into the sky, flying with an acrobatic flair. "I'll take care of them alongside your cute friend right there."
Now, it was the Magician and a broom-riding Spirit against the AST. Fighting a single Spirit is already a difficult task.
They deployed heavy missiles and fired them all directly to Lucas and Natsumi. Lucas quickly turned his route mid-air, and attacked the other wizards. That meant all the missiles have been put on Natsumi, but Natsumi showed no signs of panicking. She raced around the sky and the bristled end of the broom produced a dazzling glow once more. The light radiated outward, swallowing up the AST members and the projectiles they fired.
"Wh-what's going on?!"
Bathed in the light, AST members and bullets alike were completely transformed. Now they were an assortment of rabbits and dogs and pandas and other adorable characters.
"Hee-hee-hee! You're all so much cuter this way!" Natsumi laughed as she turned in midair and returned to Shidou. Lucas took out the other members, which were the last one's capable of fighting. They were totally confused by what had happened to them and no longer in control of their armor. Lucas dropped to the ground as well, slowly walking towards them.
"All wrapped up," Natsumi said. "I was thinking of getting out of here and ditching these chumps while they're all a mess. You coming with, Shidou-kun? You can leave these girls to your friend here."
"..."
"Huh? Are you sure?" Shidou asked.
"Of course. As long as you tell me more about how pretty I am, hmm?" Natsumi winked at him, adorably.
But then a carrot missile closed in on them from the sky above and hit Lucas with the same funny noise as before.
"Uwah?!"
"Whoa!" Shidou yelped.
In terms of power, it didn't begin to compare with an actual missile. But because of the close range of the explosion, a cloud of dust puffed up around them. Dirt flew into Shidou's eyes, and he was momentarily blinded. Lucas couldn't be blinded in any way, but he looked back at the AST, who had somehow managed to launch an attack, despite being transformed into bunnies.
"Aah! Ha...ha-choo!" Natsumi sneezed loudly, the dust no doubt tickling her nose.
Though his gaze was turned to the AST, Lucas could tell that a bright light shone behind him. Yes. Almost like Natsumi herself was glowing.
As soon as he turned towards Natsumi, she stood there as if nothing happened
"Mm." Shidou rubbed his eyes and managed to get his lids open.
At the same time, an emergency alarm blared through their earpiece.
"Shidou! Lucas! Be careful! Natsumi's mood values are plummeting!"
"Huh?" Shidou furrowed his brow at Kotori's words. The dust blanketing the area cleared away, and he could see Natsumi again.
For some reason, her face was bright red, and she was glaring hatefully at them.
"You guys saw that, huh?" she growled in a low voice, totally different from the way she had spoken thus far.
Lucas raised his eyebrows, perplexed at the sudden change from the cheerful Natsumi of only moments ago. "Saw what?"
"Don't play dumb! Just now, my... My...!" Natsumi clenched her jaw, straddled the broom in her hands, and bobbed up into the air. "Now that you both have seen that, I can't let you walk away! Remember this. I will end your lives!"
She pointed a finger at Shidou and then Lucas, and then shot off into the distance.
"She's getting away! After her!" the AST captain called out, completely ignoring the presence of the Magician. The target of the mission wasn't Lucas anyway.
Shidou looked up and saw that the AST personnel were back to their normal selves. They spread their mechanical wings, got into formation, and chased after Natsumi.
"Wh-what on earth was that...?" Left alone, Shidou could only stare up into the sky, baffled.
"...Kyouno Natsumi." Lucas muttered to himself. Lucas didn't quite know what Natsumi was talking about.
"Both of you come back to Fraxinus. We need to discuss something, especially with you, Lucas."
Right that moment, a weird buoyancy wrapped around their body, and their sight was instantly changed.
They were now aboard of the Fraxinus Airship, as usual. They headed their way to the same conference room as always, where Kotori sat alone on a circular table, with a single light coming from above.
"Straight to the point. Lucas. You clearly know who Natsumi is, right?"
"..." Lucas didn't say much, but he knew he couldn't deny that fact after what he said earlier. "Yeah...I've been searching for her. For five years."
"Five years ago?" Kotori repeated. "What were you doing at that point?"
"No, nothing in particular. When I met her, I wanted to help her, and be her friend."
"I see. Then, what do you know about her?"
"Her name is Kyouno Natsumi. I met her here in Tenguu City after the Nanko Fire Incident. Although she is a Spirit, I know for a fact that she's----§
Shidou gulped before Lucas continued to end his sentence.
"-That she was...human."
◇
Monday, October 16.
Tobiichi Origami arrived at school and sighed as she sat down at her desk.
"..."
Hair that reached down to her shoulders. A slender physique. And a face like a doll's on which no expression could be read. But someone close to her might have noticed the faint hint of gloom that colored her features now.
The reason was simple.
The previous evening, a spacequake had been measured in the suburbs of Tenguu, and an evacuation order issued. In other words, a Spirit appeared in this world. The AST had mobilized immediately and attacked the Spirit.
But Origami, who should have been considered an active AST member, could only obey the alarm, evacuate with everyone else to the shelter, and wait for the threat of the Spirit to pass.
Frustration consumed her. Knowing that she had the power to pull the trigger but wasn't allowed to was a major source of her restlessness. Origami, though normally composed, fought the rising swell of emotions spurred by this aggravation.
That said, this situation was the inevitable consequence of her actions.
First, she had taken the experimental weapon White Licorice without permission from where it sat peacefully in the hangar and used it to attack her allies. Then last month, she had equipped herself with an array of irregular equipment and bared her fangs at the DEM Wizards. As a result, while her superiors deliberated over her punishment, Origami was under suspension and prohibited from using any AST equipment.
Of course, her transgressions warranted disciplinary action, regardless of her reasons, and several criminal charges to boot. But the whole incident had been caused by irrational action on the part of DEM, and so more than a few voices were calling for Origami to be exonerated, and the discussions leading up to her punishment had dragged on. Despite all she'd done, Origami could be considered blessed.
However, this did not alleviate her anxiety.
There was one other reason for her agitation. A certain phenomenon had upset Origami's emotions.
"Shidou," she said, in a voice too quiet for anyone else to hear, and looked to her right.
The seat there was empty. The desk of Origami's beloved, Itsuka Shidou.
There was still time before morning homeroom started, though. It wasn't certain that Shidou would be absent that day.
There was one more thing Origami wondered.
She stood up silently and walked over to the desk next to Shidou's.
"Hmm?" The girl sitting there noticed Origami and glanced her way unhappily. "You? What do you want?" The girl- Yatogami Tohka-turned an almost-glare on Origami.
Origami had been wondering about this girl's presence in the classroom. Much to her chagrin, this girl lived near Shidou, so they often came to school together.
"Shidou's still not here?" Origami asked.
"Hmph!" Tohka scowled and then whipped her face away. "Hmph! I'm not telling you that Shidou has a thing today, so he'll be a little late!"
"..."
Apparently, Shidou had a thing that day, so he would be a little late.
Now that she knew this, there was no point in remaining there. Origami returned to her seat. She had no reason to speak with Yatogami Tohka unless pressed by necessity.
Perhaps sulking at Origami's attitude, Tohka stuck out her tongue at her. "Bleh!"
The rest of the class looked upon this exchange with well-worn exasperation.
Then the door to the classroom clattered open, and a boy came inside.
Neutral features, kind eyes. Yes. It was Origami's beloved, Itsuka Shidou.
"Oh, Shidou!" Tohka's expression changed completely as she exclaimed cheerfully and jumped to her feet. Shidou's eyebrows twitched in reaction, and he walked toward her.
"That was fast!" she said. "Did you finish your thing?"
"Yeah, thanks," he replied. "Anyway, you got a sec?"
"Mm-hmm. What?" Tohka cocked her head curiously.
Shidou smiled gently, dropped his bag onto the floor, and with his now-free hands, grabbed Tohka's breasts.
"Mm? Hmm..." Tohka gaped for a second like she didn't understand what was happening. A beat later, her face turned red, and she launched a fist at his face. "Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-what are you doing?!"
"Whoops!" But Shidou dodged this blow splendidly and waggled his hands as though he were relishing the sensation of her chest. "Aah, those are some magnificent breasts! Squeezing the real deal just feels different."
"Wh-wh-!"
"Let me give them a squeeze in the raw next time?" He winked at her. "I'll be gentle."
"Wh-what are you talking about?! Are you out of your mind?!" Tohka said, stunned, cheeks tomato-red, as she clamped her arms over her chest.
Perhaps catching a bit of this commotion, the group of three girls chatting at desks nearby surrounded Shido with fierce glares.
Yamabuki Ai, Hazakura Mai, Fujibakama Mii. A well-known trio in grade eleven's Class Four and Tohka's good friends.
"Hey, Itsuka! What are you even doing?!"
"That's a straight-up crime, you know!"
"Want us to rip your fruit right off?!"
But Shidou shrugged, indifferently, before taking the hand of Ai, who was closest, in a graceful movement and pressing her back against the wall. With his free hand, he gave her chin a nudge upward.
"I know you want me to play with you, too, but quit your squeaking," he said. "Or should I keep your mouth busy?"
"Whaaat?!" Ai's eyelids flew open, and she froze at this sudden counterattack.
Mai and Mii were also shocked by the unexpected development and gaped, forgetting to even try and stop Shidou.
"N-no! I've got Kishiwada!" Ai tried resisting him, but Shidou didn't stop. The distance between them shrank steadily, and Ai squeezed her eyes shut, her entire body tense.
Shidou smiled, mischievously, and then brought his lips to her ear and blew gently.
"Ha-hanyaaa..." Ai's knees buckled, and she sank to the floor.
Mai and Mii finally came back to themselves with a gasp.
"A-Ai!"
"How dare you do that to Ai!"
They turned toward Shidou with stern faces.
But Shidou crouched down low, grabbed the hems of their skirts and flipped them up. A cry of "Ohhhhh!" rose up from the boys in the class, and Mai and Mii hurriedly pressed their skirts back down.
"Eeeaaaaaah!"
"Wh-what are you-how dare you?!"
"Ha-ha-ha! You're both wearing such cute underwear!" He smirked. "I'd love to get a more leisurely view of them in bed next time."
""Wha-?!""
Mai and Mii both turned beet red.
Shidou threw up two fingers in a smug gesture. "Adieu," he said, slipping past the flustered girls with casual ease before leaving the classroom.
"Shidou?" Origami frowned very faintly in the chaos he left in his wake.
"Fuu~ Let's have some more fun. Hee-hee-hee..." Shidou said, turning around the corner of the hallway, suddenly changing completely.
◇
"Fwaaah." Yawning hugely, Lucas walked down the usual way to school. "Lunchtime already," Lucas muttered to himself, scratching his cheek absently. "I'm seriously late." He'd been forced to attend an emergency meeting on Fraxinus the day before. Normally, this sort of meeting ended in the middle of the night, but because they hadn't been able to glean anything on Natsumi's abilities or intentions, and because she'd made a statement about harming Shidou and Lucas somehow before she left, this particular planning session had gone on longer than usual. Neither do they have any knowledge of why Natsumi suddenly turned into a Spirit, or why she has lost her memories. After all, Miku kept her memories.
Although he'd managed to sneak in a nap, he was far from fully rested. He rubbed his eyes gloomily with the back of his hand and yawned again. He still needs sleep and rest after all.
He recognized a figure walking the same way he did. The way to school. The figure worse the same uniform he was wearing. A black shirt, with a Raizen High logo on it. His hair was blue, and his eyes were a light brown. It was Itsuka shidou.
"Mornin' Shidou."
"Ooh. Lucas. Morning." Shidou weakly waved his hand.
"Yesterday was quite the pain wasn't it?"
"Mhm...Natsumi. Just what was she talking about yesterday?" Shidou asked, and yawned again.
"Dunno. But it's best to keep our guard up. Anything can happen."
They didn't talk much during the rest of the walk to school. The rest of the way only took a minute or two anyway. Shidou rubbed his eyes gloomily with the back of his hand and yawned again as he climbed the staircase at school.
"See ya later, Shidou."
"Ah... later." Shidou waved his hand, and put his hand on the door.
But when he opened the door to his classroom, Shidou snapped wide awake.
""...!!""
His classmates all whirled around to look at him as soon as he stepped inside.
He jumped and glanced around in confusion, sweat springing up on his forehead. "Huh? Wh-what? What's going on, you guys...?"
The eyes of Ai-Mai-Mii flashed, and the girls charged toward him from where they were huddled together on the other side of the classroom.
"How dare you shamelessly march back in here, Itsuka Shidooouuu!"
"You know what you did!"
"We will make you suffer and regret the fact that you were ever born!"
They surrounded Shidou and began growling at him like wolves.
He unconsciously shrank back. This wasn't the first time the three girls had yelled at him, but he could see no reason for it that day. Not to mention, from the way they were talking, it sounded like Shidou had been in this classroom earlier and done some evil deed to them.
"H-hang on a sec! Why on earth are you so angry?!" Shidou said, spreading out his hands to placate the angry Ai-Mai-Mii. He had no idea what they didn't like about that, but their snarling grew even more vicious.
"Playing innocent isn't going to work here, buddy!"
"Yeah! There are plenty of witnesses!"
"You can't say you forgot that storm of cherry blossoms!"
Ai made a very unladylike gesture with her right hand, Mai swept an arm out to indicate everyone in the classroom, and Mii made a move like she would tear his jacket off but stopped before she did.
He still had no idea what they were talking about. Eyebrows tenting on his forehead, he looked around, pleading for help with his eyes.
"You mind, girls?" He heard a familiar voice from behind Ai-Mai-Mii.
"Tohka!" His face brightened.
Lips pulled tight, Tohka stepped forward from between Ai and Mai to stand in front of Shidou. He let out a sigh of relief.
"Thanks, Tohka. What's going on with those three anyway? I just got to school-"
However, Tohka flushed and hit Shidou's stomach.
"Why would you do that randomly?" she said. "That, I mean... Of course I was surprised."
"Huh?" he said. "Wh-what are you talking about, Tohka? I didn't do anything."
"What?" She frowned and her expression grew hard. Tears in her eyes, she whapped Shidou on the chest repeatedly.
"Ah!" he cried. "Wh-what, Tohka? That hurts."
"Shut up! I totally misjudged you, Shidou! Maybe I could forgive you for that-maybe-but you won't even admit what you did!"
"No, seriously," he said. "What is the 'that' you're talking about?!"
"...! I-it's... You know. That. M-my...," Tohka stammered, her face growing even redder. She hung her head.
Ai-Mai-Mii threw their arms around her.
"It's okay! You'll be okay, Tohka!"
"Not only does he not admit his crimes, he forces the victim to relive their trauma!"
"There isn't a hell terrible enough for you!"
"No, seriously! What is going on?!" Shidou shouted.
Someone grabbed his wrist.
"Huh?"
Tobiichi Origami had appeared next to him at some point. Her gaze was calm, but shining with a hard light that made him feel her determination.
"O-Origami? I didn't actually do something to you, too, did I?" Shidou asked, ever-so-timidly.
Origami lowered her eyes and shook her head. "Nothing."
"O-oh okay." Shidou relaxed his captured hand and let out a sigh.
But Origami tugged on his wrist, thrust his hand inside her-already unbuttoned-blouse and pressed it against her chest.
"Anggh?!" The sudden sensation made Shidou produce a noise that had never come out of his throat before.
He tried to yank his hand back, but Origami had a solid grip on his wrist, and he couldn't move. Not only that, when he tried to fight back, a warm softness came through his sensitive palm and the tips of his fingers, turning his brain upside down.
"Wh-what are you doing?!" Tohka had recovered herself and ripped Origami's hand off Shidou's wrist.
Shidou hurriedly pulled back his now-free hand and took a deep breath to try and calm the furious drumming of his heartbeat. But with the warmth and feel and faintly alluring scent of Origami lingering on his hand, his face grew even redder.
"O-Origami? I thought I didn't do anything to you, though?" he asked, confused.
"Yes." Origami nodded. "So I'll ask you to do it now."
"H-huh?!"
"Do to me what you did to them. Press me up against the wall, lift my chin. Blow sweetly in my ear. Slowly lift my skirt."
"Wha-?!" His eyes flew open at the unpleasantly specific instructions, and the cheeks of Ai-Mai-Mii reddened in embarrassment.
Origami ignored them all and kept talking.
"And then give me a passionate kiss, rip my clothes off, steal my maiden purity, and stake your claim on my body so that I am marked by you for the rest of my life."
"Uh. Uhhh?!" Shidou half-screamed.
"Tobiichi Origami! Shidou didn't do any of that!" Tohka cried.
But Origami ignored them both and closed in on Shidou. "Come on, Shidou. Come on."
"Hey. Uh. Umm..."
"Come on."
"S-sorryyyyyyyyyyyy!" Shidou apologized for some reason as he fled.
But before making his escape, he heard yet another familiar voice.
"Itsuka!"
A small woman with glasses. Although she looked to be young enough, she wasn't wearing a uniform, which meant that she wasn't a student. This was Shidou's homeroom teacher, Okamine Tamae-aka Tama-chan.
"T-Tama-chan---I mean, Ms. Okamine." He hurriedly corrected the nickname he'd accidentally spoken.
Tama marched over to him and grabbed onto the hem of his shirt. "Wh-what's wrong, Ms. Okamine?" he asked, a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"Wh-what are you talking about after doing a thing like that!" Tama looked like she was about to burst into tears at any second. "N-no man will have me now... You will have to take responsibility for your actions and take me!"
"Wh-what?!" He had more or less expected something, but this was a leap too far. Shoulders shaking, he took a step backward.
And now a boy appeared from around the corner in the hallway. "Eep!" he cried, fearfully, as soon as he saw Shidou.
It was Shidou's best friend, Tonomachi Hiroto. Hair slicked back with gel and a traditionally masculine face. He was also blessed with a better physique than Shidou. And yet he wrapped his arms around his shoulders in a girlish gesture for some reason, and his teeth began to chatter.
"T-Tonomachi?" Shidou called, cautiously, and Tonomachi shook like a chihuahua.
"Itsuka... Sir. Umm. I... I do make a lot of jokes, so maybe there's been a misunderstanding... But I don't swing...that way..."
"What exactly happened to you?!" Shidou cried, and perhaps surprised at his loud volume, Tonomachi pulled his head back just like a turtle.
"Ngh!" He didn't know what was going on, but the group gathered there clearly was not going to hear anything he had to say to try and clear his name. This was not a good place for him to be.
◇
After parting with Shidou in the hallway, he went straight to the classroom, as he would usually do. He was still tired ajd even considered skipping school for the day. That would also give him some time to fix a small issue. Since Lucas' appearance changed due to the given body part of that boy, half of his hair was white and his left eye was something no human could possibly have. Which meant he had to borrow Kurumi's eyepatch for a while. He dyed his white hair black as well. It's only temporary, and repeating it over and over will be a massive pain. Maybe he can make an excuse that he dyed his hair white...
Once he slid open the door to his homeroom, he saw two familiar girls. Two girls with the same face.
"Morning, Kaguya. Yuzuru---" He started to call out to them and then noticed something was off. For some reason, the girls weren't in their Raizen High School uniforms, but their school swimsuits.
"Hmm?"
"Discovery. It's Lucas."
Kaguya and Yuzuru raised their eyebrows at the same time as they noticed Lucas. And then their gazes sharpened, and they both threw out their arms threateningly.
"At last, we locate you, Lucas! So you remained within the school instead of fleeing! Hmph! I must at least praise your pluck!"
"Caution. We will not be caught off guard any longer. We will settle this debt right now."
"Huh? What are you two talking about?" Lucas protested. But the two weren't having it.
Kaguya and Yuzuru frowned, dubiously.
"Do you intend to feign ignorance, Lucas? Enough! Return to us the panties you pilfered!"
"Outrage. Who exactly was it who threw water on Yuzuru because he 'has a thing for see-through bras'?"
"W-what?!" Lucas was confronted with a crime that he never committed.
"I know not what you were thinking, but it's clear we must be ever vigilant with you."
"Assent. We panicked when our gym clothes were gone, but it was fortuitous that we left our pool bag."
"I-I wasn't even-"
"You would claim innocence?! Impossible! That was most certainly you! I would not mistake your face!"
"Assent. That is correct. Kaguya would never mistake the face of the Lucas she loves and adores."
"What are you talking about, Yuzuru?! If you're gonna say that, then you too-"
"Ignore. I have no idea what you're talking about."
The Yamai sisters then argued amongst themselves for a moment, but quickly shook their heads and turned back to Lucas.
"At any rate! This will not pass! We will exact penance for the sin of spurning the Yamais from your flesh! Specifically, from Lucas! Remove your underpants!"
"Concord. Additionally, Yuzuru will thoroughly spray your body with an atomizer."
The Yamai sisters slowly moved toward him.
"H-Hey! Hear me out will you?!" He couldn't accept retaliation for a crime he didn't commit. He whirled around, ready to run.
But when he was about to run, someone else had come up from behind. Beautiful, silky black hair, and red eyes like Lucas had himself. Unusually long bangs, which hid her left eye. And a face that can make everyone fall for her instantly.
"K-Kurumi?! Good timing, I need your-" But then he stopped. She was acting weird, just like Yuzuru and Kaguya.
"L-Lucas, what you did earlier... You surprised me.." Kurumi said, tugging her skirt down, and blushing a bright red. "You could've warned me. I-I wouldn't mind if we were at home... but not here in school... That's inappropriate!"
"Huh?! But- I wasn't even here! I have security cameras at home. I can show you the recordings!" Lucas quickly pulled out his phone. He tapped a few times on his screen and showed it to Kurumi, who's eyes popped up.
"See?! Look at the time, it wasn't even half an hour ago!" Lucas pointed at the time indicator on the security footages' overlay. He turned around to face Kaguya and Yuzuru, and showed them the exact same thing.
"T-that- how is that possible?!"
"Confused. Then who was it, who stole our panties? A doppelganger?"
"As if I kno-" Lucas cut himself off. Just when he was about to figure out a solution for these problems, he saw a figure running down the hallway. No.. it was two figures. Two with the same faces.
"S-Shidou?!" He cried out his name. Yes, it was the same Shidou, but the vibe on him was different from the usual. Shidou ran past him at incredible speed, not reacting to Lucas' shouting.
"Lucas! Chase after that fake!" Another Shidou came running the same direction as the other.
"W-what is even happening?!" Without hesitation, Lucas began running down the hallway, chasing after the person that looked exactly like Shidou.
They ran and ran around the school led on by the fake Shidou until eventually they came to the door to the roof.
"Haah! Haah! No...where! Left...to...run..." Shidou put a hand on his chest to try and get his breathing back under control. Naturally, he was hanging behind. Lucas had absolutely no problem in keeping up with the fake Shidou's pace. But the problem was the eyes of the other students. He couldn't just sprint as fast as possible. There's bound to be atleast a few witnesses.
Lucas put his hands on the knob and flung open the door.
The dim area was illuminated by a liberating blue sky.
They stepped out onto the roof and looked around, searching every nook and cranny of the fenced-in area.
"Sup. You guys are faster than I thought."
""...!""
They heard a voice from behind and stiffened. They looked back and saw a boy with exactly the same face as Shidou sitting leisurely on the rooftop shed they had just come out of.
"You...really are me?!" Shidou grimaced and glared at the other Shidou.
"Just who are you?! What is your plan here?!" Lucas demanded. Seeing the other boy up close, it was obvious that he hadn't been mistaken. He was a perfect copy of Shidou, like he had stepped out of the mirror world.
"Heh-heh." The other Shidou chuckled, leaped down from the shed, and landed in front of them. Right when the other boy landed, his appearance suddenly changed.
"How do I look? Quite magnificent isn't it?"
"What?!" Lucas saw himself at that moment. The blue hair had suddenly switched to black, and the right eyes was exactly the same as Lucas. And so was the eyepatch that covered his left eye. And so was his voice.
Which meant...He was the one who committed the crime against Kurumi, Yuzuru and Kaguya.
His voice and mannerisms were a perfect match. Every word he spoke caused an unfathomable unease to grow in the pit of Lucas and Shidou's stomach.
"You.. what do you want?! What are you?!" Lucas couldn't figure out what or who that person is. The aura coming from that boy was almost identical to his own. It was like a real exact copy of him. Had someone taken his blood and used it to make a clone? Hass technology developed to the point that they can make humanoid creatures?!
"Do you think you're funny committing all these crimes?!"
"Heh-heh! Well, of course, it's funny. I mean, you guys still haven't caught on. Idiots."
"Wha..." Lucas gasped and his eyes flew open.
That last comment from the other Lucas was in a woman's voice, totally different from Lucas'. And it was a voice they'd heard somewhere before. Recently. "That voice... No way... Natsumi?"
Yes. There was no doubt that this was the voice of the Spirit Natsumi they had encountered the day before.
The other Lucas grinned, bewitchingly, and gave him the OK sign with thumb and forefinger.
"Ding-ding-ding! Correct. Well done. Look at you!"
"Why are you...?!" As he started to ask, the scene he witnessed the previous day popped up clearly in his mind.
Haniel, the Angel Natsumi manifested. The missiles and AST members showered in its light were all forced into new forms. The ability to change objects into other things. If she could apply that power to her own body, then her current form made sense.
But now that he'd figured this out, there was something else he didn't get.
"What exactly are you after?" Lucas demanded, a stern look on his face. "Turning into a cheap copy of me, playing tricks on everyone!"
The other Lucas-Natsumi-abruptly dropped the merry grin and returned his glare. "You really don't know? Really?" She said, as she twirled 360 degrees again, and changed into Shidou's appearance once more.
"Wh-what..." Shot through by Natsumi's sharp gaze, Shidou felt like his heart was being squeezed.
At the same time, the words she had spoken when they parted the day before came back to life in his ears.
"Now that you've seen that, I can't let you walk away! Remember this. I will end your lives!"
"I told you, didn't I? No one gets to just walk away after learning my secret. Do you think I'll let it go with this level of harassment? Don't be ridiculous. I'm not gonna stop until I make an absolute, awful, appalling mess out of your lives!"
"H-hang on a minute. We don't actually know your-" Shidou started, exasperated, but Natsumi kicked at the roof loudly to cut him off.
"See? There we go. No one who knows my secret is allowed to live in this world."
"...?!"
Overwhelmed by the rage on Natsumi's face and her abnormal force, Shidou unconsciously took a step back.
But paying this no mind, Natsumi pointed a finger at them, an exquisite smile spreading across her lips. "But don't worry. After all, see? There are two Shidous here. And it's weird for there to be two of the same person, riiight? And with another person knowing who the real deal is...That just means I have to make sure there's only me."
Fear transformed Shidou's face, Lucas gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, ready to punch the heck out of her at any moment. Natsumi nodded leisurely, grin still plastered on her face.
"Starting today, I'll be Shidou and Lucas. Starting today, I'll perform Shidou and Lucas. You don't need to worry about anything. I'm an excellent observer, and I've done my research. Looked into you guys and your relationships. I won't play any more games like the ones before. I'm sure no one will even notice you guys are gone. The world will carry on unchanged even when you're gone."
Natsumi continued, gesturing and moving like she was performing on stage.
"Hee hee! Relax. I'm not going to kill you two or anything. I'm just going to have you guys go somewhere you can't get in my way."
"Try it, Natsumi! I won't hold back even if you-"
Slam!
The door to the roof flew opened, and three girls poked their faces out.
Tohka, Kurumi and Origami.
"You! You go somewhere else! I'm going to find Shidou!"
"I could say the same to you. I can't leave this to someone like you. Hurry back to the classroom."
"Hey! Both of you calm down already!"
Apparently, they were looking for Shidou. (Except Kurumi. She was looking for Lucas.) The two girls glared at each other and Kurumi tried to intervene as they pushed and shoved their way onto the roof.
But then they realized someone else had beaten them to it. They froze at the same time, and their eyes grew round like they couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"Huh?"
"T-two...Shidous?"
"Meaning?"
Kurumi, Tohka and Origami spoke in tandem, brows knit suspiciously, and looked back and forth between Shidou and Natsumi.
Although Kurumi's intention was to find Lucas, her attention was caught by the irregular things that are happening in front of their eyes.
"Kurumi, Tohka, Origami! Listen to me! This is-"
"He's the fake!" Natsumi cried out loudly, cutting Shidou off. Naturally not in her own voice, but in a perfect copy of Shidou's. "He's the one who impersonated me and played all those pranks on everyone!"
"As if! You're the fake here!" Lucas shouted, pointing at the Shidou in the middle, which was actually the doppelganger.
"E-Exactly! He's the fake!" Shidou caught onto Lucas' move and also pointed his finger towards the Shidou in the middle.
"You're both wrong!" Natsumi grabbed the two of them by the uniform and dragged them into a small fight that somehow created a mask of dust, which coincidentally covered the three of them up in their little drama. Almost like in a kids cartoon.
Then suddenly, the dust faded away, and the three of them stood at a position different from the start.
"Tch! Now what?!" Lucas shouted. Using that fight, the Shidou's switched positions so many times, Lucas didn't memorize who was who now. And since their aura was practically the same, and the way they talk and act, Lucas couldn't tell who was the real Shidou.
"I'm telling you, everyone! He's the fake Shidou!" Natsumi shouted, and pointed at Shidou.
"Wha-? I'm the real Shidou, stop lying!"
Kurumi, Tohka and Origami frowned slightly. They were apparently confused about which was the real Shidou. Neither can Lucas help right now.
But Shidou could only continue his desperate appeal. He turned toward them and kept going.
"Tohka, Origami, you have to believe me! I'm the real Itsuka Shidou!"
"Don't let him trick you! Please! You have to trust me!" Natsumi also cried out, desperately. Even Shido thought she looked like the real him.
"Mm. So this means that one of them is a fake? Then..."
"An impossible situation. But..."
Tohka and Origami compared Shidou and Natsumi for a moment, and then each of them raised an index finger.
"You're the fake."
"You. Fake."
At the exact same moment, they snapped those index fingers out. Toward the fake Shidou. Natsumi.
"Wha...?!" Natsumi was stunned. She hadn't imagined they would be able to discern the genuine article without the slightest uncertainty like this. But she couldn't let it go. "Wh-what are you talking about? I'm..."
Tohka and Origami showed no signs of rethinking their decision. They shook their heads and came over to Shidou.
Natsumi finally gave up and glared venomously at them. "How'd you tell? My transformation was perfect. Guessing at random would've only been fifty-fifty. How can you be so confident and point at me?"
Tohka and Origami met each other's eyes before speaking in turn.
"I mean...I just am," Tohka said, vaguely. "You do look like Shidou, but when you're standing next to the real thing, I feel like you smell different or something. That's all."
"If you had been here alone, then maybe I would have been deceived. I did actually think you were Shidou before. But if we're talking about two Shidous and which one is the real one, that's a different story. You blink zero point zero five seconds faster than the real Shidou, and your center of gravity is zero point two degrees to the left of Shidou's. I could never mistake you for him," Origami explained at length.
"Wh-what..." Natsumi/Shidou looked at them like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "What is with these girls?! Something's wrong with them!"
"Oh, well, that's...yeah," Shidou mumbled. They had easily picked out the fake. Naturally, he was grateful to them, but he also felt like he could understand Natsumi's surprise. And so did Lucas and Kurumi.
"You...isn't that extreme stalking...?" Lucas muttered to himself as he stared weirdly at Origami.
Natsumi gritted her teeth in annoyance and threw her hands up. The broom-shaped Angel appeared out of thin air, and she had no sooner grabbed onto it than the tip was fanning open to emit a glow like a reflection of the sun.
In the next instant, Natsumi shone faintly and turned into the beautiful, tall girl Shidou and Lucas had seen the day before.
"Wha...?!"
"...!"
"Impossible... Impossible... Impossibleeeeee!"
"Wha..."
"First, you learn my secret, and now you see through my perfect transformation? No... It can't be! I won't... There's no way!" Natsumi shouted, hatefully, and snapped a finger out at Shidou and the girls. "This isn't over! I will absolutely get you back...I'll give you the shock of your life! Kunshu Lucas! Itsuka Shidou!"
She jumped onto the broom, leaped up from the roof, and flew off into the sky.
"Aaah! Hey!" Shidou cried out in a panic and ran toward her, but he was too late.
Without so much as a glance back at him, Natsumi's silhouette grew smaller in the distance.
"Ngh..."
They were supposed to be getting their likability with her up and sealing her Spirit powers, but the whole thing had ended in them making zero progress.
"Tch! I never thought Natsumi would change so much in just a few years..!" Lucas was about to jump off and get after her, before he realized Origami was watching as well. Naturally, he can't just reveal that he's the Magician.
Kurumi, Tohka and Origami had vigilantly watched the sky until Natsumi disappeared completely, and now they were looking at Shidou and Lucas.
"Shidou. What's your relationship with that women?"
"Lucas-san... what did you mean with 'in just a few years'....?" Kurumi's aura was suddenly the same as when Lucas was caught with the Yamai sisters the other night. "Hm? Luuuucaaasss-saaaan?" Kurumi said, smiling. But that smile did not scream happiness.
"Eek!" Lucas shrieked. He had to somehow explain it to Kurumi. She'll definitely get mad at him for this...
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