"...Well yeah, normally they'd close down the school for something like this..."

Shidou walked down the steep road extending from the front of the school while scratching the back of his head.

It was the day after he had named the Spirit Tohka.

Shidou had gone to school like normal, and upon seeing the tightly shut gate and the school building that had been reduced to a pile of rubble, sighed at his idiocy.

He was there when the school had been destroyed, so normally one would assume that it would be closed... but when faced with such an overly unrealistic setting, it was possible that his mind had unconsciously become detached from reality.

Plus, he had spent all night last night in a meeting with the others, reviewing the video of his conversation with Tohka and reflecting on it, so his mental capacity might have decreased from lack of sleep.

"Sigh... I guess I should at least do a bit of shopping then."

Letting out a single sigh, he turned to a different path than the way home.

It was true that they had run out of eggs and milk, and just returning straight home would've felt somewhat weird.

However—before even a few minutes had passed, Shidou stopped again.

There was a "Do not enter" sign propped up on the road.

"Oh, the road is closed...?"

But even if the sign hadn’t been there, it was clear as day that the road was unusable.

The asphalt floor had been torn up into a mess, the concrete walls had crumbled, and even the multi-tenant building had collapsed.

It was as if a war had taken place here.

"—Ah, this is..."

He remembered this place. It was part of the spacequake zone where he had first met Tohka.

It seemed like the repair forces hadn’t dealt with it yet, as the disastrous scene remained unchanged from ten days ago.

"......"

When he recalled the girl’s appearance in his mind, he let out a small sigh.

—Tohka.

The Spirit—the girl who brought forth disaster—who did not have a name until yesterday.

Yesterday, after conversing with her for longer than ever before, Shidou’s premonition was confirmed.

That girl really did possess an unthinkable amount of power.

To the point where all of the organizations in the world would agree that she was a threat.

The scene laid out before him was proof of that.

Something like this really couldn’t be left to itself.

"...dou..."

But at the same time, there was no way that she would use that power recklessly, like a careless, merciless monster.

"...i, dou..."

Shidou hated that melancholic face that she wore. He couldn't tolerate it at all.

"Hey, shidou..."

...Well, those thoughts were spinning around in his head, so before he knew it, he’d ended up walking all the way back to the school gate.

"...Stop ignoring me!"

"—Huh?"

A voice rang out—from the other side of the closed off area.

Shidou tilted his head in confusion.

As if splitting the frigid air, it was a beautiful voice.

It was like a voice that he'd heard somewhere... to be specific, at school the previous day.

...It was a voice that he did not expect to hear at a time and place like this.

"U-Umm—"

Shidou focused his gaze in that direction as he compared the voice he'd just heard with his own memories.

And then, his entire body froze.

She was right in front of his eyes.

A girl was leaning slightly on the top of the mountain of debris, wearing a dress that clearly did not fit the surroundings.

"T-Tohka!?"

Indeed, unless Shidou's mind or eyes were playing tricks on him, the girl was without a doubt the Spirit that he had encountered at school the previous day.

"So you finally noticed, stu~pid stu~pid."

The girl's face, beautiful enough to send chills down one's spine, was dyed with discontent. She kicked the pile of debris with a *thump*, and approached Shidou along the barely intact asphalt.

Probably because it was in her way, Tohka kicked down the 'Do not enter' sign with a grunt and arrived in front of Shidou.

"W-What are you doing, Tohka...?"

"...Nu? What do you mean?"

"Why are you in a place like this...!?"

Shidou glanced behind him while shouting, and caught sight of various people such as a group of women talking and a neighbourhood resident who was walking their dog.

No one was taking refuge in a shelter. That means, the spacequake alarm hadn’t sounded.

Basically, this meant that neither <Ratatoskr> nor the AST had sensed any foreshock before the Spirit appeared.

"Even if you ask me why..."

However, the person herself didn't seem to care about the strange situation at all. She folded her arms together, as if she didn't know why Shidou was making such a fuss about it.

"Aren't you the one who invited me, shidou? That... on a date."

"Wha—"

Shidou’s shoulders trembled at her careless declaration.

"Y-You remembered...?"

"Hm? What, do you think I'm an idiot or something?"

"No, that's not what I meant..."

"—Hmph, whatever. More importantly shidou, let's get on with that date already. Date date date date."

Tohka kept repeating 'date date' with a unique intonation.?[1E 1]

"I-I get it! I get it, so stop repeating that word!"

"Eh, why? ......Ah, shidou, don’t tell me that you took advantage of how I don’t know what it means, and taught me an indecent, obscene word?"

With her cheeks coloured bright red, Tohka raised her eyebrows.

"—! I-I didn’t, I didn’t! It’s a completely pure word!"

He scratched his cheek when he said that.

It was a bit of a lie. As far as humans were concerned, it was a word that could be extremely impure.

Shidou turned around with an uncomfortable glance.

The women were grinning, looking at him as if they'd seen something charming.

Well, there was also some doubt mixed in in their gazes, due to Tohka’s strange appearance.

"...Nu?"

Tohka seemed to have noticed those gazes too. She hid herself behind Shidou, and watched them acutely.

"...shidou, who are they? Enemies? Should I kill them?"

"Hu... Huh!?"

Shidou's shoulders shook upon Tohka blurting out such dangerous thoughts with no warning.

"No, no, no, why are you saying that? They're just ordinary women."

"What are you saying, shidou? Those fiery glimmering eyes... aren’t they like birds of prey? There's no way they aren't targeting me. ...They might cause trouble later on if we leave them be. I think that it would be best to take them out before that happens."

...Well, it's true that their eyes were gleaming, but...

First of all he'd have to come up with a new conversation topic.

"Don't worry. Didn't I tell you? There aren't many humans that will attack you."

"...Hmph."

Though Tohka still hadn't let down her guard, at least she stopped seeming about to strike at any moment.

"Whatever. So, about that date—"

"L-L-Let’s go somewhere else first. Okay?"

Shidou said that to Tohka, who had continued on unabashed, and hurriedly walked away.

"Nu. Hey, shidou, where are we going!"

Tohka followed right after him, and raised her voice in discontent while walking beside him.

Together with Tohka, Shidou entered a deserted back alley, and finally let out a sigh in relief.

"So you’ve finally calmed down. Sheesh, what a strange person. What exactly is wrong?"

Tohka narrowed her eyes in disappointment.

"Tohka... what happened after everything yesterday?"

There was an assortment of things that he wanted to ask, but the first one to leave his mouth was that.

Tohka’s lips moved with a bit of a scowl.

"Nothing really, it was just like always. They swung their blades that won't cut anything, fired their cannons that won't hit anything. —Finally, my body just naturally disappeared."

"...Disappeared?"

Shidou tilted his head, puzzled.

Come to think of it, Kotori and the others also had a hunch like that, but they didn't really understand how it worked at all.

"It's just moving from this world to a different space."

"S-Something like that exists? ...What kind of a place is it?"

"I don't really know."

"...What?"

Shidou frowned at her answer.

"The instant I move there, I naturally enter a sleep-like state. From what I can remember, it felt like I was drifting around in a dark space. —As far as I'm concerned, it's like falling asleep."

"Then, do you come to this world when you wake up?"

"That's not quite it."

Tohka shook her head and continued.

"In the first place, I could never choose when to come here, I'm just randomly sent to and stuck on this side. Well, I guess it's like being forcefully woken up."

"......"

Shidou held his breath.

He understood that spacequakes occurred when Spirits appeared in this world, but if what Tohka said was true, then it was not by their own will that they appeared here.

In that case, aren’t spacequakes really just like accidents?

Forcing the responsibility on Tohka—on the Spirits—is too unreasonable no matter how you look at it.

At that moment, one more question passed through Shidou's head.

There was one part of Tohka’s story just now that didn't quite fit.

"...What did you mean by 'could'? Is today different?"

"......"

Tohka's cheeks twitched slightly, her mouth bent into a frown, and she averted her gaze at a slant.

"Hmph, a-as if I know."

"Answer me properly. It might be something really important."

But Shidou continued to press on.

That's how it was—if Tohka had come to this world by her own will today, then that might be the reason why there was no spacequake.

But for some reason, Tohka's cheeks were flushed slightly pink, and her gaze was sharp.

"You're so persistent. This conversation is already over."

"No, but—"

Shidou started to speak, but Tohka stomped on the ground with one foot.

The asphalt that she stepped on instantly lit up, and beams of light radiated from it.

"Whoa...!?"

When the light touched Shidou, it scattered into fireworks with a crackle.

"—Come on, hurry up and tell me what a date means." Tohka said impatiently.

"...Gah."

Against that uncompromising tone of voice, Shidou couldn't do anything but fall silent.

If he questioned her any further, it'd result in a beam of light like yesterday.

Shidou spent a little while mumbling to himself before speaking.

"...It's when a boy and a girl go out and have fun together...I think."

"Is that it?"

Tohka stared at him, as if in awe at how anticlimatic it was.

"Y-yeah..."

Even though he said it, he was still troubled because he hadn't ever gone on a date either.

That is, he knew some things from manga and dramas, but that was the extent of his knowledge.

But Tohka grumbled with her arms folded over her chest.

"...So basically, yesterday you were saying you wanted to play together, the two of us?"

"...W-Well... yes... I guess."

For some reason it was 20% more embarrassing when he said it plainly. He answered while scratching his cheek awkwardly.

"I see."

Tohka’s expression slightly brightened as she nodded, and she took a long stride out from the alley.

"H-Hey, Tohka—"

"What, shidou? Aren’t we going to go have fun?"

"—! Y-You’re okay with it...?"

"Didn’t you say that you wanted to?"

"Ah... Well, that’s true, but..."

"Then hurry up. Or else I'll change my mind," Tohka said as she resumed walking.

And then, Shidou realized a fatal issue.

"T-Tohka! Those clothes of yours won't work...!"

"What?"

Tohka's eyes widened in extreme surprise when Shidou said that.

"What exactly is wrong with my raiment? This is my armor and my territory. I won't tolerate your insults."

"You stand out too much like that...! Even the AST will find out!"

"Nu."

Seemingly having realized that it would indeed be troublesome, Tohka made an unpleasant face.

"What should I do, then?"

"Well, you have to change your clothes, but..."

A single drop of sweat dripped down Shidou's cheek. There aren't any women's clothes here, and taking her all the way to a store would be difficult, too.

Also, his wallet wasn't that full.

While he racked his brain for ideas, Tohka impatiently spoke up.

"What kind of clothes would be good? Just tell me that."

"Eh? Ah..."

Even if she asked him what kind, he couldn't come up with anything right away.

But, at that moment, a familiar uniform passed through the edge of his vision.

"Ah..."

A schoolgirl that he didn't recognize walked along the road with a sleepy face.

It was probably a student that for some reason, also missed the announcement that the school was closed, just like Shidou had.

"Tohka, over there. Clothes like that would probably be fine."

"Nu?"

Tohka looked in the direction that Shidou was pointing in, and placed her hand on her chin.

"Hmm, I see. So that would be fine, huh?" said Tohka.

She tightly raised her index and middle fingers of her right hand together.

Then, a black ball of light appeared from her fingertips, pointed towards the schoolgirl.

"Wait, what do you think you're doing!?"

Flustered, Shidou struck Tohka's hand.

At that moment, the photosphere shot from Tohka’s fingers, grazed the schoolgirl’s hair, and hit the wall behind her.

A dull *thunk* rang out, and small fragments of the wall scattered around.

"Eek...!?"

The schoolgirl’s shoulders trembled at the sudden event, and she frantically looked around her.

But as if concluding that it was because she was half-asleep, she tilted her head in confusion and left.

"What are you doing? You made me miss."

"That's not what you should be saying at alllllllll! That's my line!"

"I was going to stun her and strip off her clothes, but..."

Tohka tilted her head as if asking what was wrong with that.

Shidou let out a deep sigh from the bottom of his stomach, and placed his hand against his forehead.

"Listen, Tohka. You can't attack people. You just can't."

"Why not?"

"...Don't you feel annoyed when the AST attacks you? Listen to me—you shouldn't do things that people won't like."

"...Hmpf."

Tohka's lips tightened in dissatisfaction when Shidou said that.

Rather than disagreeing with what he said, it seemed like she was unhappy with how he spoke to her like he was talking to a child.

"...I understand. I'll keep that in mind." Tohka said in consent, with that expression.

Next, she raised her face slightly as if remembering something, and said,

"—It can’t be helped. I'll have to take care of the clothes myself, somehow."

With that, she snapped her fingers.

Just as she did that, the dress that she wore started to dissolve into the air... or so it seemed, but then as if it was being replaced, particles of light gathered around her, coiling around her body and forming a new silhouette.

After a few seconds, Tohka stood there, wearing the same Raizen High School uniform that the schoolgirl had been wearing.

"Wh... Wh-What is this?"

"I cast off my raiment and created a new outfit. I just went by sight so the details might be off, but it shouldn't be a problem." Tohka said as she crossed her arms with a 'hmph'.

"If you could do something like that then you should've done that from the start!"

Shidou shouted, and Tohka waved her hands around as if saying ‘I get it, I get it.’

"More importantly, where are we going?"

"A-About that—"

Shidou touched his right ear as if looking for help.

Then, he finally realized. Right now, Shidou had no intercom in his ear.

And of course, there was no camera floating around.

At any rate, the crew of Kotori’s <Fraxinus> hadn’t detected Tohka’s presence at all.

In other words, they were completely alone.

Shidou felt a bit dizzy.

The pressure made his stomach hurt.

There was a huge difference when Kotori and Reine weren’t behind him to give him decent advice.

"What's wrong, shidou?"

"...Nothing."

Shidou took several deep breaths, and started walking stiffly. Shortly after, Tohka spoke up.

"—shidou. You're walking too fast. Slow down a bit."

"...A-Ah, sorry..."

He adjusted his pace after having it pointed out. Their paces were different to begin with, so it was only natural that Shidou would end up in front... it was somehow a strange feeling.

This was definitely what it was like to walk together with someone.

For Shidou, who had never gone anywhere with a girl in his life, it was a new sensation (by the way, Kotori hopping and prancing in front of Shidou couldn’t really be used as a reference).

Thinking like that—Shidou stole a glance at Tohka walking beside him.

What he saw was not a monster who could split the heavens and earth with a swing of a sword, but rather just a normal girl.

As they left the alleyways and entered a large road where various stores lined the sides, Tohka narrowed her brows and nervously glanced around her.

"...W-what's with this number of people. Are they planning an all-out war!?"

It seems she was surprised by the incomparably more people and cars than what she had been used to seeing. While remaining alert in all directions, Tohka said in a serious voice.

Then, on the fingertips of both her hands, a total of ten small balls of light appeared. Shidou hurriedly stopped her.

"Like I said! There's nobody who's aiming for your life here!"

"...Really?"

"Really."

Shidou so said, and Tohka carefully looked over the surrounding again, for the moment extinguishing the balls of light.

Then—unexpectedly, the precaution that dyed Tohka's face dropped away.

"Huh...? Hey shidou, what's that smell?"

"...Smell?"

He closed his eyes and sniffed the surrounding, and just as Tohka had said, a fragrant odor lingered in the air.

"Ahh, it's probably from that."

Saying this, he pointed at the bakery on the right.

"Ooohh."

Saying just that, Tohka stared in that direction.

"...Tohka?"

"Nu, what is it?"

"Wanna go in?"

"......"

Shidou asked, and Tohka's fingertips twitched as her mouth curled into a frown. Then, with a miraculous timing, *guurururu*, Tohka's stomach growled. It seems that even Spirits can feel hunger.

"If shidou wants to go in then I won't not come in."

"...I want to go in. I really want to go in."

"Is that so, then I have no choice!"

Excessively cheerfully, Tohka responded, and triumphantly opened the door to the bakery.

"......"

Hiding in the shadow of the walls, Origami stared fixatedly at the boy-girl pair talking in front of the bakery, and without her expressions changing even one millimeter she let out a short breath.

She had gone to school only to find that it was closed, and on the return home, she had noticed Shidou walking together with a female student.

Just that was already an extremely serious situation.?Like a lover, she quietly began to tail them.

However—there was an even bigger problem than that.

That female student, Origami recognized it.

"—Spirit."

Quietly, she muttered.

That's right. Monster. Abnormality. The calamity that would destroy the world.

The thing that was not human, whom Origami's group was supposed to annihilate, was wearing a uniform and walking beside Shidou.

"......"

But if she calmly thought about it, such a thing was not possible.

Before a Spirit appears, as a precursor, a foreshock of abnormal levels would have been detected. There was no way AST's observation squad would have missed that.

But, in that case the spacequake alarm should have sounded like the previous day, and an order should have also reached Origami.

Origami took out her cellphone from her bag and opened it. There were no messages.

In that case, then that girl was not a Spirit after all, but just someone who had an accidental resemblance.

"...There's no way that's the case."

Quietly, her lips moved. There was no way Origami could have mistaken the Spirit's face.

"......"

Origami pushed some buttons on her cellphone, opening her address book and called a number inside.

Then.

"—AST, Master Sergeant Tobiichi. A-0613."

Stating her position and ID code. She then cut to the chase.

"Send me one observation machine."

"Ah, Reine~. If you don't want that then let me have it."

"...Nn, okay. Go ahead."

Kotori extended her fork, and stabbed it into the raspberry in the plate placed in front of Reine. She then slowly brought the fork to her mouth, savoring the sweet and sour sensation.

"Mmm, yum. Why don't you like this, Reine?"

"...Isn't it sour?"

Saying this, Reine downed the apple tea filled with plenty of sugar in one gulp.

Right now, the two of them were in a café on Tenguu Avenue.

Kotori was wearing a white ribbon and her middle school uniform, while Reine had on a lightly colored cutsew and denims.

Kotori had gone to school as usual but, due to the spacequake yesterday Kotori's school had more or less suffered some damages, so it was closed.

Somehow, going straight home after that would feel somewhat weird, so she called Reine out to have an enjoyable snack time.

"...Oh, this is a perfect opportunity, so tell me."

Reine opened her mouth as if remembering something.

"Wh~at?"

"...Sorry that it's such a basic question, but Kotori, why did you choose him as the negotiator with the Spirits?"

"Mm..."

Hearing Reine's question, Kotori frowned.

"You won't tell anyone?"

"...I promise."

In a low voice, Reine nodded. Seeing this, Kotori consented and replied. Murasame Reine was a woman who will follow through with what she says.

"Actually, I'm not related by blood with my brother. It's a super galge-like setting."

"...Hrm?"

Neither seeming amused nor surprised, Reine tilted her head slightly. She quickly processed Kotori's words and made a pose that seemed to be asking 'what does that have anything to do with my question?'.

"That's why I love you, Reine~"

"......"

Reine had a mystified expression.

"Don't mind it~. ...Then, to continue. I wonder how old I was then, it was during a time that I don't even remember, but onii-chan had been abandoned by his real mother, and our family took him in, or something like that. It was so long ago that I don't really recall, but it seemed like he was quite troublesome when we first took him in. It was at a level where it seemed like he might just go and commit suicide."

"......"

For some reason, Reine's brows moved in surprise.

"What's wrong?"

"...Nothing, please continue."

"Nn. Well, there was nothing we could really do about it. To someone who wasn't even ten years old, a mother was an absolutely essential existence, so to my brother, it was probably a big event that completely denied his whole existence. —But well, it seemed that after around a year his condition had stabilized."

Exhaling audibly, she continued.

"Probably because of that, onii-chan had become strangely sensitive to the despair inside people."

"...Despair?"

"Mm. Something like everyone rejecting oneself—thinking that one will never be loved by anyone else. Well, basically what he had been like back then. If there was someone with such a melancholic expression, even if it was a complete stranger, he would probably go help them without a second thought."

That's why, her eyes said as they were cast downwards.

"So I just thought, 'if it's him'. —The only one that I could think of that could cheer up the Spirit was onii-chan."

Kotori so said, and Reine went '...I see' and lowered her eyes.

"...But, what I want to hear is not that emotional kind of reason."

"......"

At Reine's words, Kotori's brows moved in surprise.

"So what do you mean?"

"...It's troublesome when you play dumb. I won't believe that you don't understand. —What?exactly is he?"

Reine was <Ratatoskr>'s best analyst. Using the specialized realizers, nevermind the material structure, but through the distribution of temperature and the measurement of brain waves, she could pretty much grasp the subtleties of one's emotions.

—Even the hidden powers and traits within someone.

Kotori gave an audible sigh.

"Well, the moment I left onii-chan to Reine I kinda knew this was going to happen though~"

"...Ahh, sorry but I had analyzed him a bit. ...I thought it would have been weird to engage a normal person in this strategy without a solid reason."

"Mm, I don't really mind~. Eventually it'll probably become something that everyone knows anyways~"

Along with the sound of the door opening and the waitress's voice calling out 'Welcome', Kotori shrugged.

She then picked up the straw that was stuck into the cup in front of her, and sucked up the remaining blueberry juice in one breath.

Then—

"Puufghfghghhfgh!?"

Seeing the couple that had just come into the store sit down in the booth behind Reine, the juice that she had sucked into her mouth was blown out with amazing force.

"......"

Somehow it seems that the couple did not notice, but Reine, sitting in front of Kotori, was not covered from the impact. Uncovered, she was covered. Well, basically she had become soaking wet.

"Sorry, Reine..."

"...Nn."

Quietly, Kotori apologized, and as if nothing happened, Reine took out a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped her face.

"...What's wrong, Kotori?"

"Mmm... I thought I saw something unscientific or maybe unrealistic."

"...What was it?"

Responding to Reine's question, Kotori silently pointed behind Reine.

"...?"

Reine turned her head around—and suddenly stopped moving.

A few seconds later, her head slowly rotated back to its original posture, as she brought her apple tea to her mouth.

Then, *pfffft*, she blew tea towards Kotori.

"...That was too surprising."

Maybe that was Reine's way of showing her agitation.

But that was to be expected. After all, behind Reine, Kotori's brother, Itsuka Shidou, was sitting together with a girl.

That was not all. The said girl was the one whom Kotori's group had called a calamity, a Spirit.

"Ehhhh... what's going on."

Kotori wiped her face with the handkerchief that Reine passed her, as she asked with a lowered voice.

By the way, Reine's handkerchief had an image of a bear printed right in the middle. Due to the stains from the blueberry juice and apple tea, it took on a Kikaider-like appearance.

She searched in her pockets and looked at her cellphone. There were no messages from <Ratatoskr>. That means, they had not noticed any disturbance from when the Spirit appeared.

But, that was undoubtedly the Spirit, Tohka. There was no way that there could be many girls that beautiful.

"Is there a way for Spirits to appear without us noticing?"

"...What's the chance that it's just a look-alike?"

Kotori thought for a moment about Reine's words.

But she immediately shook her head.

"If that was the case, then onii-chan would be going out with a normal girl. If you ask me whether that or a Spirit silently appearing is more likely... then by a narrow margin it would be the latter."

"...I see."

It was a rather harsh comment, but Reine readily accepted it.

"...But if that's the case then this is troublesome. I wonder whether Shin can deal with the Spirit by himself."

"Nn..."

Then, as the two of them placed their hand over their mouth and groaned, they heard the conversation from the two sitting behind Reine.

"Huh, so it's fine to just choose what to eat from this book?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Mushroom bread. Is there no mushroom bread?"

"Uhh I think that's a bit... Or rather, didn't you just keep eating that at the bakery?"

"I want to eat it again. What the heck is with that powder.-->>

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