e of this unexpected situation.

Cosplay Girl Olivia asked a question as she flew around with her jet engine.

“What do we do, Maya? It doesn’t look like this is over yet!”

“Either way, we can’t fulfill Tyrant’s order without Kamijou Touma’s head. We have to do this if we’re going to save Kamisato-kun!!”

After all, he had accepted that ghost as she was. He had supported her very existence by saying she did not need to change. And that was why Goryou Maya was still here.

So she would become any evil spirit and she would transform into even a vengeful spirit.

Even after growing to the size of a high-rise building, the ghost with the heart-shaped headdress and the bewitchingly revealing burial clothes had to travel along the ground. Olivia and the others who called the sky their home could view the situation from a different perspective.

“How about we destroy that magic circle?”

“If they don’t notice, they’ll essentially start operating on Kamisato-kun with broken tools. If we want to rest easy, we have to kill the doctor and not just break the tools. The magic circle on the road doesn’t matter. We need to keep chasing the ones who will use it!!”

But that target was a problem too.

After several transport helicopters had landed in the container yard in a nearly suicide mission, they had flown off again in different directions. It was unknown which one Kamijou Touma, Fran, and Luca were onboard. It was even possible they had split up and were riding multiple helicopters.

“What do we do!?”

“Let’s go with the only surefire solution: bring them all down!!”

Part 10

Normal helicopters only had a top speed of 300-400 kph, but that was still far faster than a 50cc cart. And helicopters could ignore the terrain and take the shortest route, so the time loss was considerably reduced.

But.

They still could not lose Cosplay Girl Olivia who had a jet engine built into her magic wand. She was continuing to fire tracer rounds that looked like red or blue fireworks, perhaps to look like magic bullets.

“Damn!! She’s still flying around up here!?”

The gunner leaned out of the side cargo door and returned fire, but the downpour of bullets could not hit the magic girl who was taking complex turns through the night sky.

Also...

“On your mark.”

Kamijou could have sworn he heard a voice saying that.

He immediately grabbed the gunner’s shoulder and pulled him back inside the helicopter.

The very next moment, someone jumped in through the open cargo door and continued on to break through the opposite door.

Kamijou thought his eardrums would burst from the explosive pressure of the wind.

The gunner had been strapped in by a belt in place of a lifeline, but that belt had been severed.

Fran had been sitting on the floor of the helicopter and she vocalized what she had seen from there.

“C-Claire!! Did that plant glasses girl make a comeback with her fake A.A.A.!?”

That girl had indeed made a decoy version out of plants to make Kihara Yuiitsu think the A.A.A. tech was spreading. It had not functioned as an actual weapon and only flew using plant alcohol fuel, but...

“All of you girls are way too obsessed!!”

“Also, I’m pretty sure Claire had both her fists held forward as she flew,” pointed out Luca.

Kamijou looked out from the helicopter which was much more ventilated now. The glasses plant girl and the magical girl were complexly intertwining their paths as they targeted the helicopter once more. Only the other cargo door had been hit, but the helicopter would break apart if they took any more of those attacks. And this was too much for the gunner to hit with his heavy machinegun.

They would be destroyed at this rate.

“Take us lower!!” shouted Kamijou. “Get close to the walls along the road!!”

The power of inertia seemed to erase the pull of gravity. Both cargo doors were wide open and they had no lifeline. They could be thrown outside at any time, but the pilot went all out in fulfilling the reckless flight request.

Kamijou thought he heard someone click their tongue.

Perhaps to avoid running into a wall or breaking through the helicopter, the jet engine cosplay girl sharply changed course at the last second.

But Claire charged right on in.

If she had not hesitated to avoid colliding with Olivia’s altered course, that attack would likely have destroyed the helicopter. But she strayed a bit off target and broke through the thick reinforced glass of a building alongside them.

And she did not seem to care.

She actually accelerated inside the office building and blew away countless documents and LCD monitors as she flew alongside the helicopter.

“I can’t believe her! She’s adjusting her glasses in the middle of all this!!”

“A refined gardening girl is a frightening thing. What is wrong with the world when she’s overshadowing a cosplayer who lives for posing in front of the camera?”

Claire broke through another window and was released into the night sky once more. While Olivia was essentially a normal human, Claire was made of plant cells and could regenerate even after being bisected. This damage would be nothing to her.

“She’s probably relaxed because she knows she can’t die. That just means we need to send her into a wall too thick for her to break through.”

The pilot must have picked up on that because the helicopter descended even further. They entirely abandoned the advantage gained by the flying machine. They skimmed just off the ground and followed the entirely unlit streets at 400 kph.

Olivia and Claire of course pursued them with their magic wand and boosters, but they had to be much more careful now. They sometimes had to duck below pedestrian bridges or fly above elevated highways while just about grazing the surface. Claire was far outside the norm since she had broken through thick reinforced glass before, but even she would have difficulty flying after running straight into a mass of steel or concrete.

But lowering their altitude so far brought another threat back into the picture.

Something heavy and gigantic passed by directly overhead. From the cargo door, it looked like a comet measuring several dozen meters across.

But it was not.

It was...

“Maya’s...will-o’-the-wisp!?” shouted Luca.

Then the giant mass dropped down in their path. In the blink of an eye, it remade itself into a girl in white burial clothes who then made a full right-to-left swing of a tower-sized arm.

“Owaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

The unnamed pilot screamed.

The helicopter rose somewhat and slipped between the giant fingers before passing between the two legs below the revealing burial clothes.

“Looks like she’s the type that doesn’t wear underwear with Japanese clothing,” commented Fran.

“!?”

The gunner quickly looked back, but they had already passed by and it was impossible to tell if Fran was telling the truth. Having missed her target, the giant vengeful spirit let her humanoid form collapse and transformed back into a comet-like will-o’-the-wisp.

The pursuing spirit produced a spiteful voice.

“I won’t let you have him... I’ll never let you have Kamisato-kun!!”

“Who ever said he was yours?” asked Fran. “I will break Kamisato Kakeru’s curse and free him! I will show him he is not just a powerful attraction! I will show that we can leave him of our own free will and that that is exactly why all of you are staying with him of your own free will!! Doing that – just that – will surely take a burden off his heart!!”

“Why...would you do that!? There is nothing in that for you!!”

“No matter how this ends, I can no longer stay by his side!! But I can still do something for him! And I will see that desire of mine fulfilled. Maya, no matter what you might do, I won’t let you interfere with the end of my love!!!!!!”

Kamijou and the others were being helplessly tossed about, but they could not just let the situation carry them along. Kamijou had regretted doing just that with the High Priest and with Kamisato. He could not let that happen again.

“Let’s do something about this. We can’t bring these monsters with us to the District 7 hospital. That’ll just be a repeat of the container yard!”

“But what exactly do we do!?” asked Luca. “Normal bullets can’t hit Olivia or Claire and Maya has partially become a perpetual motion machine by turning her own scent into the incense that maintains her own existence. I can’t think of any way to defeat them!”

“I’ve been wondering about that,” muttered Kamijou. “Hey, Luca. You said Maya was adjusting her scent by being careful about what she eats right? And that she’s always munching on vegetable sticks or sipping at a sweet drink.”

“Only Maya knows the exact ratio, but it looked something like a combination of vegetarianism and an extreme sweet tooth.”

“Keh,” interrupted Fran. “You’re dead wrong if you think a girl’s body is made of fruit and sugar.”

The spiky-haired boy continued thinking and then leaned out of the cargo door even as the helicopter shook violently.

“What are you doing!?”

“That would mean her mouth, I guess. Okay, this might work.”

Without looking back, Kamijou focused on the powerless city.

“Somewhere...there has to be a windowless building somewhere...”

“Kihara Yuiitsu’s base? It’s true that’s somewhere in District 7, but...”

“No, not that one!!”

Kamijou shouted back, but the giant will-o’-the-wisp passed over the helicopter again. They could not ascend for fear of Claire and Olivia, so they were restricted to the roads. That made them easy to pursue for those who could fly freely.

He observed the area up ahead where Maya landed and become a girl in burial clothes and a heart-shaped headdress. He read the large writing on a building wall.

“H552M. That’s got to be it!!”

When Kamijou reached for the heavy machinegun sticking out of the cargo door, the professional gunner quickly grabbed him.

“Tell me how to shoot!!”

“Maya isn’t reliant on her Censer drones right now,” warned Luca. “She can’t be defeated by physical attacks!!”

“That doesn’t matter! Listen, I’m going to start firing with this!!”

It was a lot like a three-legged race. Without a lifeline, Kamijou could be thrown outside if the helicopter tilted and he worked with the gunner to forcibly aim at the flat wall of a building up ahead.

Each shot was a huge bullet the same size as from an anti-materiel rifle. It was a poorly aimed stream of bullets, but each one opened a fist sized hole in the wall, cracks spread from those, those cracks connected, and the entire wall peeled away. It may have been similar to piercing a window with an icepick to create a triangular hole.

But none of it actually hit Maya’s giant form.

“Don’t think your tricks can stop our feelings for Kamisato-kun!!” roared the ghost girl.

“!!”

Fran manipulated the screen of the card-sized terminal she pulled from her backpack. Her UFO balloon had been floating around somewhere, but now she sent it toward the ghost girl. Pirate Girl Luca’s spare bombs had been attached to it, but even that failed. Maya swung her arm and they only blew away the wall of a nearby building.

The ghost girl with long black hair and white burial clothes was entirely unfazed. To target the helicopter down by the ground, she swung her foot back like she was about to kick a soccer ball. She built up enough strength to break a landmark broadcast tower.

“What do we do!?” shouted the gunner.

“It’s already over.”

The immediate reply was the one everyone had wanted but that no one had expected. Fran and Luca gasped right along with the gunner.

“Maya was careful about what she ate to maintain just the right scent. I don’t know what the exact ratio was, but messing it up is easy. When I was talking with the chemistry club, they said there are basic smells just like there are primary colors. Use them and you can overpower other, more sensitive smells.”

Henning’s theory had 6: Spicy, Flowery, Resinous, Fruity, Foul, and Burnt.

Amoore’s theory had 7: Camphoraceous, Musky, Floral, Pepperminty, Ethereal (as a chemical), Pungent, and Putrid.

Unlike sight or taste, the classification was not complete, but that showed just how complex a sense it was. For example, some neurophysiologists who researched smell rejected the very idea of basic smells and – with two exceptions – it was not known why humans detected those scents at all.

“That helped when we had no water during the heat wave. It was a luxury though, so when we didn’t have any, we had to search out used coffee filters and teabags.”

This was Kamijou Touma’s goal.

“I targeted a windowless agricultural building where crops are grown. And with an H for herbs and an M for mint!! The entire building is full of mint. Even if it’s all shriveled up with the power out, blowing holes in the wall should release a dense aroma. And once you breathe that in through your mouth or nose, you’ll lose that incense created from the optimal balance!!”

It was unclear if ghosts really existed, but Maya did at least. By inducing psychological instability with low-frequency waves and smells undetectable by human senses, she created an environment where she could be seen and thus exist. It was a lot like passing colorless light through a prism, so she could create the color or form that she wanted. And that had transformed the slender and ethereal girl into a nearly undefeatable force.

“What...?”

But what happened when that fell apart? What if someone took a hammer to the prism that split the light? Not even she would know how the light would scatter.

Goryou Maya’s beautiful face swelled out unnaturally.

The building-sized vengeful spirit could no longer maintain her own form. Her outlines collapsed one after another, like her own bones were consuming her flesh.

“Kaaami...sssa...”

If she had come to a stop and calmed down, she might have been able to regain her form.

But.

Even if she had died and lost her physical body, she was still a girl in love.

“I will...do anything...for him!!!!”

There was no way she would stop. She stayed true to herself to the end.

Even as she crumbled away, she tried to kick at the road like there was a soccer ball there. She did not give in. She would not hand Kamisato Kakeru’s fate to anyone she did not approve of. None of them was a villain, but they had all chosen the wrong method.

Kamijou leaned out of the helicopter and clenched his right fist without thinking.

He considered jumping out at her if she continued pursuing them.

But she could not keep it up. By attacking as she fell apart, she ended up detaching her own foot. The giant leg flew in a parabolic arc like someone throwing their shoe after picking up speed on a swing.

The helicopter just barely managed to avoid it and then slipped below the girl in burial clothes by flying right up next to the destroyed agricultural building.

But those behind them were not so lucky.

“Ah!?”

First, twintailed Sawai Olivia flew in on her jet engine magic wand. She tried to take a sharp turn away from the giant leg, but it grazed her shoulder and sent her into a tailspin.

Next, Tazuma Claire tried to fly below Maya, but she was caught in the collapse and crushed.

Kamijou’s group no longer had to fear pursuit.

The other girls might continue pursuing them on the ground, but the helicopter could outrun them by ascending and flying at full speed.

Kamijou Touma recalled where he had seen Patricia looking out of the hospital’s window.

“The 13th window from the right on the 8th floor!! We don’t have time to land. Fran, Luca, you two jump right iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!!”

Part 11

“...?”

Things were noisy outside.

A small blonde girl sat up in bend and looked out the window.

And then it happened.

An elevated window could be heard shattering.

The transport helicopter was piloted with miraculous skill. It flew right up to the hospital window and turned to the side like a stunt car drifting into a parallel parking spot. The cargo door had already been blown off and the girls were not strapped in, so that was a decisive action for them.

The powerful inertia swung them around and tossed them out before they could even steel their resolve.

They broke through the window and rolled into the hospital room.

“Dh!”

Pirate Girl Luca groaned and got up, but she did not find what she expected.

“What’s this? He sounded so confident, but there’s no one here. Did he get the room wrong?”

“No, that may have been intentional.”

Fran also stood up and tapped on the wall with a loose fist. She seemed to be confirming the presence of a patient in the neighboring room.

After seeing Sample Shoggoth and the red fur of Cannibalization, it may have been impossible for that girl to look away from the truth of the world. After receiving the flesh and blood of Magic God Nephthys, it may have been impossible for her to be removed from the mystical.

But there was no reason to actively pull her into it.

That may have been the thought behind it.

“It’s just one thin wall.”

“That’s right. We can fit her inside the ceremonial ground from here.”

The two girls faced each other.

They were swapping the A.A.A. out for the remnants of Nephthys. The different symbols would require redoing some of the details, but they already had the overall framework worked out. They did not need any encouragement. They knew they could do it.

They breathed in and then out.

“Thank you for sticking with me this far, Luca.”

Then Karasuma Fran smiled and gave an announcement to the girl who had been her comrade in arms and her rival.

“Now, let’s bring an end to my love.”

Part 12

When she received the report below the Windowless Building, Kihara Yuiitsu’s fate was also sealed.

“...”

“...”

“...”

The atmosphere had entirely changed. The girls she had positioned as her personal guards were no longer obligated to obey her orders. Plus, this was the group she had selected to protect her. Their combat ability was immeasurable. So once their positions changed, everything took a 180 degree turn and she was thrown into an utterly hopeless situation.

It was like a clownfish being mistakenly eaten by its symbiotic anemone.

The many blades, gazes, and pressures that had defended her now turned to face Kihara Yuiitsu from all directions.

“I see, I see, I see.”

Lab Coat and Bikini Yuiitsu did not sound particularly interested.

One-armed Mass Murderer Salome slowly stood up in front of her. No, it was not just her. The other girls with equally strange powers and abilities also approached.

While inside the predator’s maw, the greatest evil looked like she was seeing the end of an experiment.

“This would be game over then.”

Between the Lines 4

Someone spoke from somewhere.

“Oh? You’re leaving already? Well, don’t worry about us.”

“This battle will probably never end, but that should be a lot of fun.”

And someone else replied.

“Yeah, everyone’s calling for me.”