Final Chapter

Life with a Spirit

“…That’s everything,” Kotori said, finishing up her report on the capture and recovery of the Spirit at the round table in the center of Fraxinus’s dim transmission room. As commander, only she was permitted entry into this special space.

Five people were at the table, but Kotori was the only one actually aboard Fraxinus. The others were taking part in the meeting through speakers set on top of the round surface.

“…So his power is real then.” A slightly muffled voice came from an ugly stuffed cat toy to her right. The sound was actually coming from the speaker directly in front of the plush toy, but from where she sat, it looked like the ugly cat was speaking.

Since the people on the other side of these speakers didn’t have a video feed, Kotori had fixed the place up how she liked. As a result, the room in the deepest part of Fraxinus was bizarre and fantastical, like the Mad Hatter’s tea party from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

“I told you. I said Shido’d be able to do it.” Kotori crossed her arms smugly.

“We couldn’t be certain based on your word alone.” A quiet voice came out of the teary-eyed mouse to her left. “We’re talking about the ability to regenerate here…and the ability to absorb a Spirit’s power. Such claims are impossible to believe without evidence.”

Kotori shrugged. That was just the way it was.

It had taken roughly five years to confirm Shido’s unique nature using a variety of measurement devices. During that time, Fraxinus had been built, and the crew rounded up. The timing was pretty much perfect.

“What kind of condition is the Spirit in?” The voice came from the toy next to the ugly cat, a bulldog with an extremely stupid design, complete with drool hanging from its mouth.

“We’ve been watching her since we recovered her with Fraxinus, and so far, she’s extremely stable. We haven’t measured any spacequakes. We won’t know for sure until we look into how much power she has left, but at the very least, we can say it’s so reduced that she’s very unlikely to ‘kill’ the world simply by being here.”

Of the four stuffed animals seated around the table, three sighed in unison.

“So then, at present, there’s no issue with the Spirit being in this world?” the ugly cat spoke up, very clearly excited.

“Yes,” Kotori replied evenly, although her disgust shone in her eyes. “In fact, in her condition, it would actually be difficult for her to be Lost to the neighboring world under her own power.”

“Well then, how is the boy now?” the crying mouse asked. “He absorbed so much of her Spirit power. Have you noticed any unusual phenomena?”

“We have seen no abnormalities. Not in Shido, nor in the world.”

“What? Aren’t we talking about the world-killing catastrophe?” the idiot dog said. “You’re telling us that the person who locked all that power inside himself is perfectly fine?”

“You gave approval to use him after it was determined that there would be no problems, didn’t you?” Kotori asked in response.

“…What on earth is he? Those abilities…almost remind me of a Spirit’s.”

It wasn’t just the stuffed animal—this person really was stupid. Sighing in her heart, she replied diligently, “I explained the regeneration earlier. We are currently investigating the absorption ability.”

The stuffed animals were silent for a moment, and then the squirrel holding a walnut spoke in a quiet voice.

“Anyway, nice work, Commander Itsuka. Wonderful results. We’re looking forward to more from you.”

“You can count on it!” Kotori straightened up for the first time and put her hand to her chest.

“…Haaah.”

Monday, following the weekend after the “incident.”

A number of students were already inside the school building, which had been completely restored by the relief corps. Sitting among them, Shido let out a dull sigh and stared absently up at the classroom ceiling.

He had passed out pretty quickly after all the action that day, and when he came to, he was lying in Fraxinus’s medical office once more. They had then brought him to a facility where he’d been forced to undergo a thorough medical check, and he hadn’t seen Tohka since he passed out. He insisted they let him talk to her, they insisted on the exam, and in the end, he wasn’t even given so much as a glimpse of her.

“…Aah.”

Absolutely nothing had happened over the weekend, so the dizzying ten days after meeting Tohka seemed like they had never happened. The two days had honestly been so empty and dire that he’d half wanted to die, but one other thing kept whirling around in his brain.

Shido had definitely kissed Tohka that day. Her Astral Dress had melted away, and he’d felt something warm pouring into him.

What exactly was that?

“…”

He touched his lips in wonder. He could still feel the sensation after three days, and he flushed slightly.

“That is next-level creepy, you know. What’re you doing, Itsuka?”

“…! Tonomachi. If you’re there, say something. Geez.” He turned to look at his friend.

“…I’ve been here the whole time. And I tried to talk to you. When Tonomachi gets lonely, he dies, you know.” He sat down backward in the empty chair in front of Shido and put his elbows on Shido’s desk.

“Aah, not my problem, man. And, like, go back to your own desk. Homeroom’s gonna start any minute now.”

“It’s fiiiiine. You know Tama’s gonna be late anyway.”

“You know, she is our homeroom teacher. Quit with the nickname like she’s a cat or a seal or something.”

“Ha-ha! Whatever. It’s cute. She might be older, but she’s just my type.”

“Aah… You should ask her to marry you then. She’d probably say yes.”

“Huh? What’re you on about?”

The door to the classroom rattled open, and Shido jumped in his seat.

Instantly, a commotion rose up in the class.

And it was no wonder. After all, the Origami Tobiichi had come to school covered in bandages—legs, arms, forehead.

“…Gh!”

Shido himself gasped. He knew that by using a Realizer, most injuries could be healed right away. So the fact that she was still this heavily bandaged three days later meant that she had been seriously injured.

With the eyes of the entire classroom on her, Origami walked over to Shido on unsteady feet.

“H-hey, Tobiichi. I’m glad you’re ok—,” he started awkwardly, and then Origami abruptly disappeared from sight. A heartbeat later, he realized she was bowing. “T-Tobiichi?!”

The classroom erupted in whispers, and everyone was focused on Shido and Origami.

Origami didn’t appear to mind in the least. “I’m sorry. Although I know this isn’t something an apology can fix.”

When he was on Fraxinus, he’d been told Origami had fired the shot at Tohka. That’s what she was apologizing for now.

“Hey, Itsuka?” Tonomachi looked at him dubiously. “You do something to Tobiichi…?”

“As if!” Shido cried. “And if I did, I’d be the one apologizing!”

That said, there was no way he could explain what was actually going on here. He turned back to Origami.

“I-it’s fine. Just stop bowing, okay?” he told her.

Origami was surprisingly obedient, snapping back to her original posture. “But,” she said, yanking him forward by his necktie.

“Ngh?!”

Her cool expression utterly unchanged, Origami brought her face in close. “No cheating.”

“Huh?” Shido’s eyes bugged out of his head, along with the eyes of everyone else in the class watching the scene.

With perfect timing, the bell announcing the start of homeroom rang. Still staring at Origami and Shido with deep interest, the other students moved to their own desks. Origami stayed in front of him, staring hard at his face until the goddess of salvation appeared.

“Okaaaay! Homeroom’s staaaarting.” The teacher, Tama, opened the door, entered the classroom, and then frowned. “Tobiichi? What are you doing?”

“…”

Origami glanced silently at Tamae before releasing Shido’s tie and returning to her desk. Given that this was right beside him, he couldn’t exactly breathe a sigh of relief.

“O-okay, is everyone at their desks?” Tamae’s voice was excessively bright, as if to calm the unsettled air in the classroom. Then, as if she’d just remembered something, she clapped her hands and nodded to herself. “Right, right. I have a surprise for you before we take attendance today! Come on in!” she called back to the door through which she had just entered.

“Mm.” He heard a certain voice in response.

“Wha…?” He gasped.

“—” Next to him, Origami was just as surprised.

“This is Tohka Yatogami. She’ll be joining us as of today. I hope you’ll all make her feel welcome.”

Tohka entered the classroom wearing a high school uniform and an incredibly cheery smile.

A clamor rose up immediately at her blinding beauty, but not paying any mind to the eyes on her, Tohka picked up a piece of chalk and wrote Tohka on the board in clumsy characters. Then she nodded with satisfaction. “Mm.”

“Wh-why are you…?” Shido stammered.

“Hmm?” Tohka turned her gaze toward him. Those eyes housed a fantastical brilliance and shone so strangely.

“Oh, Shido! I missed you!”

She bounced over to stand immediately next to his desk, in the exact same place Origami had been standing until a moment earlier.

Once more, Shido was the subject of everyone’s rapt attention. He could hear voices all around him speculating unfairly on the nature of their relationship and others wondering at his involvement with Origami.

“T-Tohka?” he said quietly, so that the other students wouldn’t hear him, starting to sweat. “What are you doing here?”

“Mm, they finished their tests and everything.” Copying him, Tohka also spoke in a quiet voice. “I guess over ninety percent of my power is gone. This is a welcome development, though. The world won’t cry anymore just because I’m here. So your little sister pulled some strings for me.”

“A-and the surname?” Shido pressed.

“What was her name again? That sleepy-looking lady gave it to me.”

“Damn them!” Shido ran his fingers through his hair and flopped down on his desk. He was glad they’d freed Tohka, but there were other ways of doing it.

The girl in question, however, looked entirely unperturbed. “What, Shido? You seem down. Aah, were you perhaps sad because I wasn’t around?” she asked, entirely serious—and loud enough for everyone around them to hear.

The commotion in the classroom reached peak levels.

Feeling more uncomfortable than should have even been possible, Shido managed to speak somehow. “Hey…! Don’t say stuff like that.”

“Huh, so cold. Even though you wanted me so desperately back then.” She clapped her hands to her cheeks, an embarrassed look on her face. “Oooh.”

He felt the air around them change. People were typing out messages on their phones under their desks. His name was going to spread through the school at light speed.

“Th-that’s not what happened, Tohka!” Shido raised his voice, too. “I-if you say it like that, everyone’ll get the wrong idea!”

“Mm? So you’re insisting it was the wrong idea?” She looked away sadly. “But it was my first time.”

“—! …Ngh!”

The fatal blow. Most likely, Kotori and Reine had whispered that unnecessarily into her ear.

The class erupted into chaos, heedless of the teacher’s call for restraint.

“Huh…?” Tohka turned her head to the side.

A pen whooshed in front of Shido’s face.

“Whoa?!” Surprised, he looked for the source and found Origami turning cold eyes on him, arm still raised after launching the pen.

“…Mm?” Tohka looked at the other girl.

“…” Origami looked back.

Their eyes met.

“Mm. Why are you here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Origami replied frostily.

A bomb was about to go off.

Thankfully, neither of them seemed interested in going to battle at that moment.

That was only natural. One had lost the majority of her power; the other was injured and without her equipment.

“O-okay! Game’s over! That’s enough! Okay?! Friends?!” Ms. Okamine hurriedly inserted herself between the two girls and somehow managed to pull them apart.

“Okay, Yatogami, your desk—” The teacher looked around for a seat for Tohka.

“No need.” Tohka turned sharp eyes on the student sitting on the other side of Shido. “Go.”

“E-eeeek!” Overwhelmed by the pressure, the girl sitting there fell out of her chair.

“Mm. Thanks,” Tohka said, and sat elegantly before turning her gaze in Shido’s direction. However, it wasn’t his eyes she met but rather Origami’s.

“…”

“…”

The two young women glared at each other silently.

Shido was happy that Tohka would be able to stay in this world. He was grateful to Kotori and the others who had done the things necessary to make it happen. He was also relieved that Origami was alive. But this was what might be called the final, decisive battle.

“Aaah…”

Glinting eyes bearing down on him from both sides, Shido cradled his head in his hands.