Volume 1 - CH 3(2/3)
"I don't want to hear that from a sister who won't listen to her brother."
Mixed with a sigh, Shidou said, and obediently walked towards the bridge's door.
"Good luck."
"Yeah."
Towards Kotori who raised her thumb, he lightly waved his hand as a reply.
His heart was still beating fast, but—there was no way he was going to run away from this chance.
To defeat them, or to make them fall in love, or to save the world.
Such grand things he was not considering at all.
It was just—he wanted to talk once more with that girl.
The transporter placed in the lower area of the <Fraxinus> apparently uses a realizer to instantly transport/retrieve things as long as the straight line path to the destination was not blocked by anything.
At first there was a feeling somewhat like getting seasick, but after a few times he was more or less used to it.
After confirming that his surroundings had instantly changed from <Fraxinus> to behind the dim highschool, Shidou lightly shook his head.
"Now then, first I should—"
As he started to say, his words stopped.
It was because, like a bad joke, the building's wall in front of Shidou's eyes had been sliced open, and he was looking through to the inside.
"Actually looking at this, it's unbelievable..."
"Well, perfect, enter the building from there."
From the intercom attached to his right ear, Kotori's voice was heard.
Shidou muttered "...Understood" while scratching his cheek, and went into the school building. If he wasted too much time the Spirit might wander outside, and before that, the possibility that Shidou might be discovered by the AST and put into 'protection' is also there.
"Now, let's hurry. The Spirit's response is three floors up the stairs beside you, in the fourth classroom in front."
"Roger..."
Shidou took a deep breath, and dashed up the stairs nearby.
Before a minute had even passed, he arrived in front of the specified classroom.
Without opening the door, he could not confirm the figure inside, but just thinking that there was a Spirit in there naturally caused his heart to ring like an alarm bell.
"Eh—this is, class 2-4. Isn't this my class?"
"Ara, is that so. Isn't that convenient. You can't say that you have a locational advantage, but it's probably a lot better than somewhere completely new to you."
Kotori said. But actually, it hasn't been long since he entered this grade, so it wasn't as if he was really familiar with it.
Anyways, he must make contact with the Spirit before her whims start acting up. Shidou gulped.
"...Hey, good evening, what are you doing in a place like this?"
In a small voice, he repeated the greeting countless times.
Making up his mind, Shidou opened the classroom's door.
The state of the classroom, dyed red by the setting sun, was projected into his retinas.
"——"
A moment passed.
The light words he had prepared in his mind were utterly blown away.
"Ah—"
The fourth row from the front, the second column from the windows—right on Shidou's desk, the black-haired girl with the strange dress wrapped around her body was sitting with one knee raised.
Her eyes emanating an illusory shine was in a melancholic half-open state, staring at the blackboard in a daze.
Half of her body illuminated by the sunset, the girl was, to the extent of stealing the thinking abilities of anyone looking at her for a moment, mysterious.
However, that scene which had been close to perfection, immediately crumbled.
"—Nu?"
The girl noticed Shidou's invasion, as she opened her eyes fully and looked towards him.
"...! H-hey—"
While trying to calm his heart, Shidou raised his hand... or was about to.
—Hyun.
He thought the girl casually waved her hand, and a streak of black light brushed past Shidou's cheek.
A moment later, the classroom's door that Shidou's hand was holding onto, as well as the windows in the corridor behind that, shattered with a great noise.
"...!?"
Suddenly faced with this, he instantly froze in place. He tried touching his cheek, and a bit of blood was flowing.
However, he was not even allowed to stay stunned.
"Shidou!"
Kotori's voice shook his eardrums until they hurt.
While making a gloomy expression, the girl swung her arm overhead. Above the palm of her hand, what looked like round blobs of light radiated black.
"Wai..."
Faster than his shout, he scrambled behind a wall and hid his body.
An instant later, a stream of light burst through where Shidou had been standing, easily blasting through the outer walls of the school building and extending outside.
Even after that, streams of black light were continuously shot out.
"W-wait! I'm not your enemy!"
From the corridor that had become rather breezy, he let out his voice.
Then, it seems like Shidou's words got through, as with that the lines of light stopped being fired.
"...Haa, can I come in...?"
"From what I can see, she's not preparing to attack. If she wanted to, it should've been easy to blast the wall away along with Shidou. —On the other hand wasting time and annoying her is not good. Let's go in."
Shidou muttered, as if speaking to himself, and Kotori answered. The camera had probably entered the classroom already.
Gulping down his saliva, Shidou stood in front of the entrance to the now doorless classroom.
"..."
The girl was staring intently at him. As if wondering whether an attack will come, that gaze was filled with doubt and caution.
"C-Calm down for n—"
Raising his two hands to show that he had no hostility, stepping into the classroom.
However,
"—Stop."
At the same time the girl's cold voice rang out— *pshh*, the floor in front of Shidou's feet was seared by a light ray. Shidou hurriedly froze his body.
"..."
The girl carefully looked over Shidou from head to toe, and opened her mouth.
"Who are you."
"...Ahh, I am—"
"Wait a moment."
As Shidou was about to reply, for some reason Kotori stopped him.
The screen in <Fraxinus>'s bridge was currently displaying a head shot of the Spirit, the girl wrapped in the dress made of light.
Her charming face, decorated with a thorny gaze, was glaring towards the right side of the camera—towards Shidou.
Surrounding her, a bunch of parameters beginning with the words 'affection level' were there. Reine was using the realizer to analyze/numericize and display the mental status of the girl.
Together with the AI built into <Fraxinus>, the conversation between the two of them was displayed without time lag at the bottom of the screen as text.
At a glance, it looked exactly like the game that Shidou used for training.
Selected crew members were looking at the galge screen displayed on the giant monitor with absolute seriousness.
It was an extremely surreal scene.
Then—Kotori suddenly raised her eyebrow.
"Who are you."
At the moment the Spirit said these words to Shidou, the screen flickered, and a siren echoed in the bridge.
"Th-This is—"
In the midst of a confused voice from someone in the crew, a window appeared in the middle of the screen.
①"I am Itsuka Shidou. I came to save you!"
②"I'm just a helpless passerby please don't kill me."
③"Before asking for someone's name, state your own first."
"A choice—"
Kotori's candy's stick stood up straight.
The realizer for analysis that Reine operates, in conjunction with <Fraxinus>'s AI, detects the changes in things like the Spirit's heartbeat or faint brain waves, and instantly displays possible response patterns on the screen.
The times that these are displayed are limited only to when the Spirit's mental status became unstable.
In other words, with the right decision, one could gain favor with the Spirit.
However, if one makes a mistake—
Kotori immediately moved her mouth closer to the mike, stopping Shidou from making his reply.
"Wait a moment."
"—?"
A sound like a breath being held could be heard over the speaker. He was definitely wondering why Kotori had stopped him there.
They could not let the Spirit wait forever. Kotori turned towards the crew members and commanded.
"Choose the option that you think is right! Within five seconds!"
All at once, the crew members operated the console before them. The results of that immediately showed up on the display in front of Kotori.
The most popular was—number ③.
"—It seems that we all share the same opinion."
Kotori said, and the crew nodded in unison.
"① seems like the obvious choice at first glance, but while the opponent has doubts that we might be the enemy, saying something like this would just seem suspicious. And it also seems a bit disgusting."
While standing still, Kannazuki said.
"...② is out of the question. In the off chance that he was able to escape, that would be the end of it."
Next, from the lower part of the bridge, Reine's spoke.
"That's right. To that point, ③ makes sense logically, and if all goes well we might even be able to control the direction of the conversation."
Kotori gave a small nod, and once again drew the mike close.
"...H-hey, what did you just say..."
Having stopped his sentence while exposed to the girl's sharp gaze, Shidou was standing in the middle of an unpleasant atmosphere.
"...I will ask once again. Who are you."
The girl said, as if irritated, her eyes growing even sharper.
Then, at that moment, finally Kotori's voice reached his right ear.
"Shidou. Can you hear me? Answer exactly how I tell you to."
"O-okay."
"—Before asking for someone's name, state your own first."
"—Before asking for someone's name, state your own first. ...Wha"
As soon as he said it, Shidou's face grew pale.
"Wh-what did you make me say..."
However, it was already too late. The moment she heard Shidou's voice, the girl's expression distorted, this time raising both of her arms and creating balls of light.
"..."
He hurridly kicked the floor, tumbling towards the right.
A moment later, a black ball of light was thrown to the place Shidou had stood. A giant hole opened in the floor that seemed to pierce all the way through to the second or first floor.
"...Uwaa..."
"Ehh, that's weird."
"That's not what you should be saying..., are you trying to kill me...?"
Responding to Kotori who seemed to be genuinely mystified, Shidou raised his body up while holding his head.
Then—
"This is the last time. If you don't have any intentions of answering, I will treat you as an enemy."
From on top of Shidou's desk, the girl said. Flustered, Shidou immediately opened his mouth.
"I-I am Itsuka Shidou! I'm a student here! I have no hostile intentions!"
"..."
Shidou spoke while raising his two arms, and with suspicious eyes the girl dismounted from Shidou's desk.
"—Stay like that. Currently, you are within my attack range."
"..."
Signalling that he understood, Shidou nodded while maintaining his posture.
With slow steps, the girl approached Shidou.
"...Nn?"
Then, lightly bending her waist, she stared at Shidou's face for a while, and "Nu?", she raised her brows.
"Hey, haven't we met once before...?"
"Ah... ahh, this month—I believe, on the tenth. In the town."
"Ohh."
As if remembering, the girl lightly hit her hands together, then returned to her previous posture.
"I remember now. You're the one that said some kind of weird thing."
Seeing that a slight amount of harshness was gone from the girl's eyes, for a moment Shidou's nervousness diminished.
However,
"Gi...!?"
Just a moment later, Shidou's bangs were grabbed and his face was forced to face upwards.
The girl tilted her face as if to look into Shidou's eyes, as she let loose her gaze.
"...If I recall, you said that you had no intention to kill me? Hmph— I've seen through that. Tell me, what are you after. Are you planning to attack me from behind after loosening my guard?"
"..."
Shidou raised his eyebrow slightly, biting down hard on his back teeth.
It was not because he feared the girl.
Shidou's words—I did not come to kill you; words like that, the girl could not come to believe them at all.
It was because she had been exposed to an environment where she could not believe them.
He felt sick, and couldn't stand it.
"—Humans are..."
Involuntarily, Shidou let out his voice.
"... not all people who try to kill you."
"..."
The girl's eyes grew round, as she removed her hand from Shidou's hair. And then for a short while, with a questioning gaze she looked at Shidou's face, then opened her lips a tiny bit.
"...Is that so?"
"Ahh, that is so."
"The people that I've met, they all told me that I must die."
"There's no way... that's so."
"..."
Without saying anything, the girl moved her hand backwards.
She half-closed her eyes and pursed her lips—making a face which said that she could still not trust what Shidou was saying.
"...Then I will ask. If you have no intention of killing me, then for what purpose are you here right now?"
"Uh, that is—umm."
"Shidou"
Just has Shidou started to stammer, Kotori's voice echoed in his right ear.
"—Another choice huh."
Kotori licked her lips, looking at the choices displayed in the middle of the screen.
①"Of course, I came to meet you."
②"Whatever, that doesn't matter does it."
③"It's just a coincidence."
The display in front of her instantly gathered the opinions of the crew members. ① was popular.
"Well, for ②, after looking at the last reaction it's probably impossible. —Shidou, for now just simply say that you came to meet her."
Kotori spoke towards the mike, and shown on the screen, Shidou opened his mouth while standing up.
"I-It was to meet you."
The girl made a blank face.
"To meet me? Why?"
The moment the girl tilted her head and said this, once again choices showed up on the screen.
①"I'm curious about you."
②"It was so we could love each other."
③"I have something I want to ask you."
"Nn... what should we do."
Kotori rubbed her chin, and the display in front of her showed ② as the answer.
"It's better to go with a straight attack here, commander. Show her his manliness!"
"If you don't say it clearly this lady won't get it!"
From the lower part of the bridge, the voices of the crew rang out.
Kotori "hmmed" then crossed her legs.
"Well, it's probably fine. ① or ③ would probably get another question as the response. —Shidou. Go with ②, it was so we could love each other."
She said her command towards the mike. In that moment, Shidou's shoulders began to shudder.
"Ah... it's, you know."
Receiving the order from Kotori, Shidou's words hesitated and his eyes swam.
"What, you can't say it? Or did you appear in front of me without a reason? Or is it—"
The girl's eyes once again started to look dangerous. Shidou hurridly saved his hands and let out his voice.
"I-It was so... we could ... love each other?"
"..."
The moment Shidou said this, the girl crossed hand over hand and swept horizontally.
In an instant, right above Shidou's head a blade of wind passed over—cutting through the classroom wall and escaping outside. Several strands of Shidou's hair were cut and danced in the air.
"Uwaa...!?"
"...I don't want to hear your jokes."
Making an extremely melancholic expression, the girl said.
"..."
Shidou gulped.
In that moment, the fear he had felt up to now faded, and his heart beat fast.
—Ahh, that was it, it was this expression.
This expression, which Shidou so despised.
As if considering themselves to be not loved at all, an expression showing the loss of faith in the world.
Unconsciously, Shidou's throat shook.
"I came here..., in order to... talk to you."
Shidou said—and seeming not to understand his meaning, the girl raised her eyebrows.
"...What do you mean?"
"Just that. I, want to, talk to you. I don't mind what the topic is. Even if you don't feel like it and just ignore me, that's fine. But, I just want you to know one thing. I will—"
"Shidou, calm down."
As if warning him, Kotori said. However, Shidou could not be stopped.
After all, until now, this girl had nobody who would reach their hand out to her.
After all, with just one sentence she could have been in a completely different situation, but the person who would tell her that one sentence, not one had existed there.
For Shidou, he had his father, his mother, and he also had Kotori.
But, the girl had nobody.
Since that's the case—Shidou had to say it.
"I will—not deny your existence."
Shidou took a heavy step forward, and as if clearly pronouncing each word, said.
"..."
The girl raised her eyebrows, and averted her eyes from Shidou.
And then, after a short silence, she opened her mouth with a crack.
"...shidou. You said you were shidou?"
"—Yeah."
"You really won't deny my existence?"
"Yeah."
"Really really?"
"Really really."
"Really really really?"
"Really really really."
Shidou answered without pausing, and the girl stroked her hair, and stood up while letting out what seemed to be a sniffle, turning her face back.
"—Hmpf."
Raising her brows and forming a sneer, she crossed her arms.
"Who are you trying to fool with those words baaka baaka[1D 5]."
"As I said, I am—"
"...But you know, that."
While making a complicated expression, the girl continued.
"I don't know what kind of insides you have, but you're the first human that I could have a proper conversation with. ...To get more information about this world you might be of some use."
Saying this, she snorted once again.
"...H-huh?"
"I'm saying that I wouldn't mind if it's just talking with you. But it's just for gaining information. Mm, that's very important. Information is super important."
While speaking—it was just a bit, but the girl's expression seemed slightly softer.
"I-Is that so..."
Scratching his face, Shidou so replied.
With this... well for the moment the first contact could be treated as successful.
While Shidou stood perplexed, in his right ear Kotori's voice sounded.
"—Good job. Just continue like that."
"A-Aahh..."
Then, the girl started to slowly circle the classroom in large strides.
"But, just try taking a suspicious action. I'll open an air tunnel in your body."
"...Okay, I understand."
Hearing Shidou's reply, the girl slowly let her footsteps sound in the classroom.
"shidou."
"W-What?"
"—Then I'll ask. What exactly is this place? It's the first time I've seen somewhere like this."
Saying this, she walked around while poking the toppled desks.
"Ehh... ahh, it's a school—a classroom, well, a place where students the same age as me go to study and learn. We sit in those desks, like this."
"What?!"
The girl's eyes balled up in surprise.
"Do all of these get filled with humans? Don't joke with me. There must be close to forty."
"No, it's the truth."
While saying this, Shidou scratched his cheek.
When the girl appears, the evacuation alert would have already sounded in the streets. The humans that the girl had seen were probably only the AST. They probably didn't have that many people either.
"Hey—"
About to call the girl's name—Shidou's words were stuck in his throat.
"Nu?"
Probably noticing Shidou's state, the girl scrunched up her brows.
And then, after placing her hand on her chin for a while, as if thinking,
"...I see, in order to have a conversation with someone, that's needed huh."
Like that, she nodded,
"shidou. —What do you want to call me?"
Sitting in one of the seats nearby, she said.
"...Huh?"
Not understanding what she meant, he asked.
Crossing her arms with an "hmpf", she continued in an arrogant tone.
"Give me a name."
"..."
After a brief silence.
—So seriooooooooooous!!
Shidou screamed in his heart.
"M-me!?"
"Yeah. I have no plans of talking with anyone else anyways. There's no problem."
"Uwahh, another heavy problem has come."
Sitting in the captain's seat, Kotori scratched her face.
"...Hmm, what should we do."
From the lower part of the bridge, Reine nodded, as if responding to that.
In the bridge, neither did the siren sound, nor did choices appear on the screen.
If the AI just showed random names, then there were too many to show.
"Calm down Shidou. Don't rush and say a weird name."
Saying this, Kotori stood up, and raised her voice towards the crew.
"Everyone! Immediately think of names for her and send them to my terminal!"
After saying this she dropped her gaze to the display. A few crew members had sent in names already.
"Ahem... Kawagoe! Isn't Misako the name of one of your ex-wives!"
"S-sorry, I couldn't think of anything else..."
From the lower part of the control room, an apologetic male voice could be heard.
"...Jeez, let's see... Urarakane? Kimimoto, how do you pronounce this?"
"Clarabell!"
"I forbid you from having children for the rest of your life."
She pointed at the male crew member who raised his voice.
"Sorry! My oldest child is already in elementary school!"
"Oldest child?"
"Yes! I have three!"
"And by the way their names are?"
"From the oldest, Pureblue, Fullmonty, Seraphim!"
"Change their names within one week, and move outside of their current school district."
"Do you need to go that far!?"
"Think about the feelings of the children who are given the weird names you double baldie."
"It's fine! Recently everyone's been doing the same!"
*Gong Gong*, a muffled sound rang out in the bridge.
Shidou was probably tapping on the intercom.
Looking at the screen, the girl had her arms crossed, and was tapping her elbow impatiently.
Kotori looked quickly over the screen. There was nothing helpful. *Haaa*, she let out a big sigh.
Her subordinates had absolutely no sense whatsoever. Disappointed, Kotori shook her head.
She looked at the girl's beautiful appearance. Something that would suit her would be something elegant and refined in the old style. Yes, such as—
"Tome."
"Tome! Your name is Tome!"
As soon as Shidou said that, a pure red light shined in the control room, and a loud *pii pii* sound started to ring.
"Pattern green, displeasure!"
One of the crew raised his voice while looking panicked.
In that moment, the affection points meter displayed on the big screen had rapidly dropped.
Following that, in front of Shidou's feet in the screen, *zugagagagagagagagan!*, as small balls of light rapidly showered down like a machine gun.
"Nuwahhhhhhh!?"
"...Kotori?"
A questioning Reine's voice.
"Huh? That's weird. I thought it was a great old-styled name."
"...I don't know why, but it seemed like you were making fun of me."
As veins popped in her forehead the girl said.
"...! S-sorry... wait a bit more."
Calming thinking about it, Tome was clearly out. While crouching and looking at the smoke rise from the floor, Shidou cursed his own thoughtlessness. Apologies to all of the old ladies in the nation, but it was not a name fit for a girl of this time.
Or rather in the first place, he had never considered that he would become a godfather through a sudden encounter. No matter how much he tried to supress his heartbeat, when he thought his vision started spinning. However, there was no way he was going to be able to suddenly come up with a girl's name. Name, name, name... he skimmed over the names of the females he knew. But he did not have much time. As he was doing so, the girl's face showed displeasure.
"——To-Tohka."
From the troubled Shidou's mouth came such a name.
"Nu?"
"H-How... is it?"
"..."
After a moment of silence—
"Oh well. It's better than Tome."
Looking at that Shidou made a hard bitter smile and scratched the back of his head.
However... an even greater regret formed in the back of his mind.
After all, it was because their first meeting was on April?tenth[1D 6], what a simple name.
"...What am I doing..."
"Did you say something?"
"Ah, no, nothing..."
Hurridly he waved his hand. The girl seemed slightly curious, but did not pursue.
Immediately, she trotted towards Shidou.
"Then—Tohka, how do you write it?"
"Ahh, that's—"
Shidou walked to the blackboard, grabbed a piece of chalk, and wrote "十香".
"Hmm."
With a small nod, the girl imitated Shidou and traced the blackboard with her finger.
"Ah, if you don't use chalk then the words..."
He started to say, but stopped his words. The places where the girl's finger touched were cleanly shaved away, and crudely the two words 十香 remained.
"What is it?"
"...Nothing."
"I see."
Saying this, the girl stared at the words she wrote for a while, and gave a small nod.
"shidou."
"W-what?"
"Tohka."
"Eh?"
"Tohka. It's my name. Isn't it marvelous?"
"Ah, ahh..."
It was somewhat... embarassing. In a lot of ways.
Slightly averting his eyes, Shidou scratched his cheek.
However, the girl—Tohka, once again moved her lips.
"shidou."
...Even Shidou understood Tohka's intentions.
"To-Tohka..."
Shidou called that name, and seeming satisfied the edges of Tohka's lips turned upwards.
"..."
His heart leaped.
Now that he thinks about it, it was his first time, seeing Tohka's smile.
Then, at that time,
"—...?"
Suddenly, the school building was faced with a tremendous explosion and shaking.
He instantly supported his body with the hand on the blackboard.
"Wh-What the...!?"
"Shidou, get on the ground."
In his right ear Kotori's voice echoed.
"Eh...?"
"Hurry."
Not knowing what's what, Shidou did as he was told and laid on the floor.
In the next moment, *gagagagagagagaga—*, a loud noise rang out, breaking the classroom windows' glass all at once, and opening countless bullet holes in the wall behind. It was like a scene from a Mafia's battle.
"Wh-What the hell...!"
"It looks like an attack from the outside. Probably to try to lure the Spirit out. —Ahh, or maybe it's to make the school building collapse, and thus getting rid of places where the Spirit could hide."
"Wha..., that's absurd...!"
"—But still, this was outside my expectations. Them coming up with such an aggressive tactic."
Then, Shidou raised his face.
Tohka had an expression that seemed exactly the same as when she was dealing with Shidou earlier, gazing outside the shattered windows.
Needless to say, bullets were useless against Tohka, even the fragments of shattered glass could not touch her.
However, that face seemed twisted with extreme pain.
"—Tohka!"
Unknowingly, Shidou yelled out that name.
"..."
With a start, Tohka's gaze moved from the outside to Shidou.
Even now, overwhelming gunshot sounds were ringing, but the attack on the classroom of class 2-4 had momentarily stopped.
While bracing himself for the attacks, he raised his body up. Then, Tohka gloomily lowered her eyes.
"Hurry up and escape, shidou. If you stay with me, you'll be hit by your fellow humans."
"..."
Shidou was silent, and gulped..
Certainly, he had to run awa-->>