Chapter 3

A Twisted Show of Mercy

“Heeey, Tohkaaaaa…,” Shido cooed, a note of bewilderment in his voice, as he knocked on the door. He got no answer.

“Tohka…” He knocked again. “Please, just hear me out…”

Bam! The whole house shuddered, and he jumped in surprise. “…!”

“Hmph. Leave me alone.” He heard a muffled voice from the other side of the door. “Just go to her already, you big stupid head.” And then it was silence once more. She was in a total snit.

“What am I supposed to do…?” He put a hand to his forehead and sighed gloomily. He was standing at the end of the hallway of the second floor of the Itsuka house, in front of a door with a piece of paper on it that read Tohka in extremely bad handwriting.

It had been about five hours since Yoshinon was Lost to the parallel world. Fraxinus had picked up Shido and Tohka and brought them home, which was all fine and good, but as soon as they’d walked in the house, Tohka had locked herself up in her room and refused to come out.

“Shido, got a sec? There’s something I wanted to confirm with you.” He heard Kotori’s voice over the earpiece still sitting in his right ear.

“Uh…? What? Now’s really not a good—”

“Shido, you kissed Yoshinon, right?”

“…Huh? Where’d that come from?” His voice rose an octave.

“Whatever. Just answer me. Your lips touched Yoshinon’s. No mistake there, right?”

“…N-no…”

“Hmm…”

“S-so what about it? I’ll tell you right now, that was a complete accide—”

“I know. I’d actually give you a pat on the back if you’d done it on purpose.”

“…So then, what?” Shido asked.

“Well,” Kotori replied. “It looks like the Spirit’s power wasn’t sealed at all, even though you kissed her.”

His eyes grew wide. She was right. Yoshinon had definitely wielded her Spirit power after they kissed.

“Your likability wasn’t as high as it was with Tohka, so maybe it makes sense that you couldn’t seal all of her power. But it does bug me a little that you couldn’t seal any of it. Number-wise, I figured you’d have gotten twenty or thirty percent locked away there,” she said and fell into thoughtful silence. “…Maybe Yoshinon has some kind of unique ability. Or—”

“H-hey, Kotori, I know the whole thing with Yoshinon is a big deal, too, but, um,” he interrupted, turning his eyes to the door of Tohka’s room.

“Ohhh, you’re talking about Tohka,” Kotori replied without much of a pause, perhaps intuiting what he was thinking. “How’s it looking?”

“Not great,” he told her honestly. “I’ve been trying to talk to her for a while, but I’m getting nowhere.”

“I see. From the numbers, it looks like the power she actualized momentarily there has gone through the Path and been sealed again. But it’d be best to get her mood back up as soon as possible, hmm?”

“Her mood? …How?” he asked.

“…Shin. If you don’t mind, maybe you could leave that to me?” He heard a curiously sleepy voice in his earpiece—Reine.

“Huh…?”

“…She’s obviously very worked up right now. And tomorrow’s Saturday, right? Could you let me have her during the day? Make some excuse like I’ll take her shopping for some necessities.”

“That’s fine with me, but why?” he said.

Reine was silent for a moment before letting out a sigh. “…It’s better if the problem person isn’t there. A woman’s heart is an intricate organ. Remember that.”

“O-okay…” He scratched his cheek in confusion.

“…So that’s the story, Tohka. I wanted to go shopping, and I was hoping you’d come, too?”

The following day, Saturday, May 13. Ten AM.

Reine arrived at the Itsuka house as promised and stood in front of Tohka’s door. She was wearing neither her lab coat nor a military uniform but rather a knit shirt with a battered stuffed bear peeking out from its pocket and dark trousers, with a bag hanging from her shoulder to complete her shopping look.

But just as she had the day before, Tohka cried out wildly from the other side of the door. “Shut up! Leave me alone…!”

Shido let out a sigh. “She’s been like this ever since yesterday.”

“…Hmm.” Reine put a thoughtful hand to her chin. And then she pulled what looked like a small computer out of her bag and began to poke at it with one hand. She stared at the screen for a moment, then put the terminal away and took a step toward the door. “…Tohka.”

“I told you to stop bothering me! I—”

“…How about we stop somewhere for a bite to eat while we’re shopping?” Reine said, and Tohka abruptly fell silent.

And then a minute or two later, the door opened with a creaking sound, and Tohka’s grumpy face popped out. She hadn’t changed since the day before, and her school uniform was still damp. It looked like she hadn’t slept much, either; dark circles hung below her eyes. Anyone who saw her walking alongside Reine would probably think they were sisters.

“Wha—?” Shido opened his eyes wide, stunned. “R-Reine…? What exactly did you do…?”

“…Nothing.” She shrugged. “Tohka’s hunger metric is rising, is all. I figured she was probably about at her limit.”

“Makes sense. She didn’t come out when I called her for supper last night, though…”

“…Well, she likely didn’t want to see your face.”

“…” He flinched. Reine said such cruel things so naturally.

But she wasn’t wrong. When Tohka finally came out of her room, she jerked her face away as soon as she saw Shido and marched down the hallway. “Let’s go then!”

“…Mm, let’s,” Reine said, giving Shido a signal with her eyes, as if to let him know she had things under control. “It’s been raining all morning. Don’t forget to bring an umbrella.”

“…Th-thanks for your help!” Shido could only watch as the two women walked off. He stood there blankly for a few minutes. “Umm…”

He quickly realized this was a waste of time. Puffing his cheeks out, he got himself together and went downstairs.

“No school today. Maybe I’ll go shopping, too.”

He’d been planning to stop by the grocery store on his way home from school the day before, but with everything that happened, he hadn’t actually gotten the chance. He quickly changed clothes and stepped out of the house, umbrella in hand.

“I guess I should lock the door? Kotori’s sleeping and all.” He turned his key in the lock before splashing out onto the rainy road.

He hadn’t been walking for too long when he caught sight of a familiar figure and his feet stopped.

“…?!”

He knew that green hood with rabbit ears.

“Y-Yoshinon?” he asked himself, furrowing his brow.

Yes. There, in the rubble of the previous day’s spacequake, an area that was currently off-limits, he could see the Spirit Yoshinon. He hid himself behind the wall and stared at her.

“The alarm…isn’t going off… Is this the same situation as Tohka?”

Now that he was thinking about it, the alarm hadn’t gone off the first time he’d run into Yoshinon, either. Maybe she was a Spirit who frequently went back and forth between their two worlds.

“…But what should I do then…?” Now that he’d found her, he couldn’t just let her be, but he didn’t know what to do, either. He thought about it for a minute or two and finally pressed a button on his phone.

It rang for a while until finally a sleepy voice reached his ear.

“…Haaaaallo… What is it…?” It was clear she had just woken up. It was Shido’s little sister.

“Hey. Morning, Kotori.”

“Mm… Mornin’… What’s wrong?”

“…Emergency,” he said. “I found Yoshinon.”

“…” He heard something like a cheek being slapped hard on the other end of the line. It was followed by a crisp voice completely different from the sleepy tone of a second ago. “Give me a detailed overview of the situation.”

“R-right.” He was a little surprised by this change, but he still managed to briefly explain what had happened.

“…I see,” she said. “Another quiet appearance? How frustrating. Okay. The Spirit hasn’t noticed you yet, right?”

“Right… At least, I don’t think so. What should I do?”

“You got your earpiece?”

“Huh? Oh yeah.” He patted his pocket to check that the small device was in there. Ever since the thing with Tohka, he’d been told to carry it around with him just in case.

“Good. Put it in and stand by. Make sure you don’t lose sight of the Spirit.”

“Huh? He—”

Click. Beep-beep. She’d hung up on him.

“St-stand by…?” He frowned at the vague order. There was nothing else he could do. He obediently put in his earpiece and kept an eye on Yoshinon.

Before five minutes had passed, his sister’s voice was echoing in his earpiece. She had apparently taken that short interval to get herself dressed and moved to Fraxinus. “Can you hear me, Shido?”

“…Yeah, loud and clear.”

“We can’t just leave her to run around. Let’s try making contact.”

“…Roger.” He took a deep breath before he started to walk toward Yoshinon.

She didn’t seem to have noticed him yet; her gaze was firmly fixed on the ground.

“Okay, I’m going to talk to her.”

“Okay—Actually, hang on a sec.”

Just as Shido was about to make contact with the Spirit, a window popped up on the large monitor on the bridge, displaying three different ways to keep from inciting the Spirit.

“Tch!” Kotori clicked her tongue and glanced down at the empty seat in the lower part of the bridge. “This is hard without Reine, but we’ll just have to power through.”

Reine would have been shopping with Tohka at that moment. They couldn’t toss Tohka aside and put her in an even worse mood.

“Make your choices!”

The order went out, and the crew’s selections appeared on the screen beside Kotori. (1), (2), (3). They all had the same number of votes.

“Ugh! Really split on this one, hmm?” she muttered, frowning.

“It’s one!” a voice rang out from the lower deck. “Revealing your stomach is a submissive pose in animals! It should put the Spirit at ease!”

“Don’t make me laugh!” came another voice. “It’s obviously the second choice! Rabbits can die of loneliness, you know!”

“She’s just wearing a rabbit hood; she’s not an actual rabbit! Anyway, Commander, it’s definitely three! Total nudity to show we have no weapons! The only choice is nudity!”

“Shut up, you old maid! You just want to see a teenage boy naked!”

“H-how rude…! Don’t you know that becoming nude was effective in winning over a primitive person brought back to life in our modern era?!”

“What are you talking about?! Anyway, it’s two! Two!”

“No, I’m telling you it’s one!”

“Nudity! Nudity!” someone chanted.

“…Quiet! All of you!” Kotori slammed her hand down on her console and glared at her overwrought crew.

The bridge fell silent instantly, and she slowly picked up her mic.

“Shido, before you talk to her, take off your clothes.”

On the lower deck, several female crew members and for some reason one man struck victory poses.

“Not a chance!” came Shido’s anguished cry through the speakers.

“…?!” And the on-screen Yoshinon jumped in terror.

“…! Crap!” Shido cried as Yoshinon turned around with a gasp.

Her face was pale, her teeth were chattering, and her whole body was shaking. “…Eek! Eeeek…!” Looking like she would burst into tears at any second, she thrust her right hand up into the air.

Shido’s heart half stopped. He’d seen this move before—when Yoshinon made that huge puppet appear.

“H-hang on! Calm down!”

There was no way he was going to get through to her like this.

“Shido!” Kotori cried out, also noticing Yoshinon’s hand shooting into the air. “We can still make it in time! One! Roll over and show her your belly!”

“H-huh?!”

“Hurry!”

He had no other choice. He tossed his umbrella aside and rolled over onto his back on the rain-soaked road. “You got me! I give up!”

“…?!” Yoshinon looked utterly baffled at this, her hand hanging in the air. And then very timidly, she brought her right hand back down and peered at Shido.

“…D-did it work?” he whispered.

“Probably. Try talking to her without provoking her.”

Still on his back, he slowly lifted his head. “H-hey.”

“…” Yoshinon only glared at him warily.

“Wh-what’s going on today…?”

“…”

“Th-this rain really is something…”

“…” Still silence.

“…Wonder what’s going on here, you know?” He tipped his head to one side. Maybe he was having visions or something, but he was pretty sure he could see Yoshinon’s left hand. She wasn’t wearing the puppet. He frowned.

“Hold up,” he heard Kotori say.

A selection of options was displayed once more on the Fraxinus bridge monitor.

“Hmm.” Kotori stared at the aggregated results from her crew on her small display and groaned. Most had voted for the third option. Everyone was apparently curious about what had happened to the puppet. Kotori wanted to know, too.

“Shido, go with three. She might have lost the puppet and could be looking for it. At any rate, I want a reaction here. Ask about the puppet.”

“…Roger,” he whispered and looked at the Spirit. “Hey? Are you maybe…looking for your puppet?”

“…!” Yoshinon’s eyes flew open. She immediately trotted over to him, grabbed his head, and shook it like she was interrogating him. “…! …?!”

“Ah! Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow! Cut it out!” he cried, and Yoshinon released him with a gasp. He sat up, a wary eye on her, and asked again, “Does that mean you’re looking for it?”

She nodded vigorously several times and turned anxious eyes on him, almost like she was asking after the whereabouts of the puppet.

“S-sorry. I don’t know where it is, either,” he told her.

She made a face like she had just been informed the world was ending and slumped down to the ground. She hung her head and began to sob. “Unaaah… Aaaah…”

“Uh. Um…” He didn’t want her to whip out her giant puppet monster, but this was also not great. He looked around frantically.

“Calm yourself, Shido,” Kotori said in his ear.

After taking in Yoshinon’s reaction, a third window appeared on the main monitor.

“Choices!” she commanded.

The aggregate results were shown on her personal display. Most of the crew had chosen (2). Followed by (1). There was only a single vote for (3).

“Well, two’s the safe choice, I guess.” She nodded. “But who picked three?”

“…Was I wrong?” She heard the vice commander’s dejected voice from behind.

“…” Kotori ignored him and pulled the mic close. “Shido, help her look for the puppet.”

“Aah! The way you neglect me…!”

She ignored this interjection from behind, too.

“Uh, um, Yoshinon.”

“…!” She jumped once again. She swung a hand, and a lump of water swelled up, turned into a bullet, and shot past the place where Shido was sitting.

“G-gah?!” He shrank back instinctively. “S-sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!”

Staring guardedly at her (and trying to avert his eyes whenever they met hers), he straightened up and bowed. He spread his hands to show he wasn’t resisting. “So. I-if you’d like…I could help look for your puppet?”

“…!” Her eyes widened in surprise. And then a few seconds later, her face brightened for the first time, and she bobbed her head up and down vigorously.

“Okay.” He let out his breath and finally lifted his butt from the wet ground. He’d gotten pretty soaked, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that. “Umm. So. When and where did you lose the puppet?”

Her eyes wandered like she was hesitating before her light-pink lips parted. “…Yes…terday…” She hung her head, clutching her rabbit-eared hood, and tried to hide her eyes as she spoke falteringly. “Scary…people. Attack…me… And then… G-gone, g…”

“Um? So you were attacked by the AST yesterday?” Shido said, and Yoshinon nodded. “I see. So after that then…”

He looked around, taking in the scene. Crumbled buildings and cracked roads. This was going to be a lot of work.

“We’ll send as many cameras as we’ve got,” came Kotori’s voice from Fraxinus. “Try to talk with her as much as possible while you’re looking.”

He tapped the earpiece to indicate his agreement and turned his eyes back to the Spirit. “Okay! How about we start looking, Yoshinon?”

“…!” She nodded, and after she moved her mouth for a minute, her voice came out. “I…am…”

“Huh?”

“I…am…not…Yoshinon… My name…is…Yoshino. Yoshinon…is. My…friend…”

“Yoshino…?” Shido spoke her name questioningly, and the girl—Yoshino—started to run. “Oh…! Hey!”

Perhaps surprised by his voice, the girl jumped once again. The rain around her instantly turned into needles that came whirring toward him.

“Aaaah?!” He instantly ducked and managed to dodge them. He was just lucky there weren’t that many of them. If she’d launched more rain needles over a wider range, Shido would have been a human cactus right about now. “C-calm down! It’s me! It’s me!”

Yoshino looked back, trembling, and let out a little sigh when she saw his face.

“H-here.” He stood up slowly. “I know you’re already wet, but it’s better than nothing, right?” He picked up the umbrella he had tossed to the side of the road and offered it to her.

She cocked her head to one side curiously, a puzzled look on her face. “…???”

“Ohhh. You hold it like this.” He put the umbrella in her hand and opened it for her.

Her eyes grew wide as saucers as she looked up, perhaps surprised the rain was no longer touching her. The droplets hit the clear plastic umbrella and bounced off, glittering as they fell aside.

“…! …!” Yoshino flapped the hand that wasn’t holding the umbrella excitedly.

“O-oh, you like it, huh? Go ahead, use it!”

She turned questioning eyes on him.

“Huh…? Me?”

She bobbed her head up and down.

“Oh, I’m fine. It’s okay. You can use it.”

Yoshino looked back and forth between the umbrella and Shido for a while, as though hesitating. Finally, she bowed neatly. “Th…ank…s…”

“Look at you, all white knight.” He heard Kotori’s teasing voice in his right ear.

“Sh-shut up.”

“Well, if the Spirit felt like it, she could probably dry those wet clothes pretty quick. Or better yet, it’d be nothing for her to set up an invisible film and repel the rain.”

“R-really?”

Well, either way, he couldn’t stand to see a little girl getting drenched in the rain. He wiped his wet face and joined Yoshino in the puppet hunt.

“So?” Kotori asked. “You find the puppet?”

“No, not yet. There’s no sign of it,” came the response from one of the crew on the lower deck.

The time was 12:30. Approximately two hours had passed since Shido began the search with Yoshino. Working in the rain, he was probably freezing, which only added to his exhaustion.

She could have sent members of Ratatoskr out on the search, but they’d get nowhere if they scared Yoshino by tossing her into a group of grown-ups. And even if they didn’t frighten the Spirit, there was a chance that her gratitude and warm feelings would be scattered among a group instead of tightly focused on Shido.

“What about the video?” She turned her eyes to her right.

“The resolution’s bad,” the crew member at the console said without lifting their eyes. “But here’s something.”

“Put it up on-screen.”

The video from the encounter between Yoshino and the AST on the previous day popped up on the bridge monitor. The camera had been keeping its distance to avoid getting caught up in the battle, so the image quality was worse than usual.

“At the moment the Spirit was Lost, she didn’t have the puppet,” the crew member informed her. They zoomed in to show a close-up of the falling Yoshino. “However, the puppet can be seen at the mouth of the Angel immediately before the AST bullets landed. It seems reasonable to assume it was lost in the attack.”

“So where’s the all-important puppet then?” Kotori asked.

“The smoke is quite thick, so I can’t be sure. But I did see a shadow dropping down, which leads me to believe we are not looking at the worst-case scenario, which would be if the puppet was burned up in the attack.”

“…Hmm.” She put a hand to her chin. “Is there any video of that area from after Yoshino was Lost?”

“I-I’ll check!”

“Grrrrrrr!” A sad grumbling came through over the speakers.

“Yoshino?”

“…!”

Pushing back his rain-soaked hair, Shido turned to Yoshino, looking for the puppet next to him. It had been around two hours since the search began.

She flinched in fear once more, but she didn’t launch any water bullets or needles, so he took that as a sign that she’d gotten used to his voice a little, at least.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

She flushed a deep red as she shook her head from side to side, but her stomach grumbled again at the same time.

“…!” She crouched down on the spot and yanked on her hood to completely hide her face.

It seemed Spirits also got hungry, although he’d been told it was possible for Spirits to subsist solely through their special powers. Now that he was thinking about it, however, Tohka had been quite the glutton even before he sealed her powers.

“…What should we do?” He didn’t know how long Yoshino had been looking for the puppet before he arrived, but it was already past noon, so it was no wonder that she was hungry. He was getting a bit peckish himself, so he tapped the earpiece for instructions.

“Okay,” Kotori replied, having gotten the gist of things. “How about you take a break and get something to eat?”

“Mm… I guess so.” He stood up straight and stretched before turning to Yoshino. “How about we take a little break?”

She shook her head, but then her stomach growled again, and she jolted. “…!”

“Come on,” he urged. “Don’t overdo it. You won’t be able to look for Yoshinon if you pass out.”

She appeared to think for a moment before reluctantly nodding.

“Great. So then…,” Shido started before suddenly remembering. “Ah!” He did have his wallet with him, but they’d have a hard time going into a restaurant with him looking like a drowned rat. He set his hand to his chin briefly before tapping the earpiece.

“…Hey, Kotori. So would our house be an okay place to take a break?”

“Whoa. I take my eyes off you for one second and you get all bold. If you’re planning to get your way with her, be careful.”

“…Hey.”

“I know. Well, I guess there’s nowhere else. I’ll allow it this once.”

“Wohkay,” Shido replied and said to Yoshino, “Then… Let’s go.”

She nodded silently.

“…Mm.”

Rubbing her grumbling stomach, Tohka walked behind Reine through the rainy town. She was not feeling particularly great given that she hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before and she’d barely been able to sleep. She had a feeling that this not-great feeling was not only from hunger and lack of sleep.

“…” She gritted her teeth and kicked at the wet pavement. However, this obviously couldn’t clear away the irritation in the pit of her stomach.

Reine stopped abruptly ahead of her, and Tohka managed to pull herself to a stop on the verge of slamming into the other woman.

“…How about we eat first?” Reine suggested. “Is this place okay?”

They were standing in front of a building with a colorful sign. Tohka was pretty sure this was what they called a family restaurant, a place that served food.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “It would be great if we could do that. I’m about to die of hunger.”

“…Then let’s go in.”

They folded up their umbrellas and went inside, where the server led them to a seat in the back of the nonsmoking section. They looked over the menu and ordered food right away. While they were waiting for their order to come, Tohka drained the glass of water the server had set on the table before her in one gulp to try and stave off her hunger.

“…Tohka.” Reine looked at the other girl with sleepy eyes adorned with deep, dark bags.

“What?”

“…I wanted to talk a little while we’re waiting for our food. You mind?”

“Mm… Well, I guess not,” Tohka said but pulled back slightly as if to show that she was on guard. “What exactly did you want to talk about?” She never knew what this woman Reine Murasame was thinking. And yet she felt like Reine could see everything in Tohka’s own mind, which was a little disturbing.

Whether or not she picked up on what Tohka was thinking now, Reine pulled a device out of her bag absently and opened it on the table.

“What’s that?”

“…Oh, don’t worry about it,” Reine said as she nimbly tapped the device with one hand.

Tohka was bursting with curiosity, but she tried her best to ignore the machine and turned her gaze back to Reine’s face.

“…Well, it’s not like I’m particularly good at talking, so I’ll get right to it.” Reine looked up at Tohka. “Could you tell me the reason for and the cause of the annoyance you were—no, that you’re feeling even now?”

“—” Tohka inhaled sharply. “I’m not—”

“…I’m guessing you’re upset with Shin for meeting another girl?”

Shin. That was Reine’s name for Shido.

“Wh-why would you bring Shido up…?!” she demanded.

“…Oh dear. So he’s got nothing to do with this?” Reine arched an eyebrow.

“…” Tohka set her elbows on the table and shook her head in her hands. She then let out a deep breath before speaking with a heavy heart. “…I don’t know.”

“…You don’t know?” Reine asked in return, looking at her quizzically.

“Mm. I don’t know why I’m in such a mood, either.” Tohka hung her head even further. “Yesterday…Shido left me at school…and went and kissed that girl or whatever.”

Kiss. Just the word made her chest hurt for some reason.

“…Mm-hmm, looks that way.”

“It’s not like…there’s something wrong with that. I can’t blame Shido for who he sees or who he kisses… But the second I saw them, I was just, I dunno, very—Right, I really hated it.”

“…Mm-hmm.” Reine nodded in understanding.

“When I realized it…I started yelling. And then…that rabbit told me Shido cared for her more than me… And I just, I couldn’t even stand it. I was so sad and scared, and I didn’t know what was what… I don’t even understand it myself. This is the first time this has happened to me.” Tohka exhaled heavily once more. “I guess…there’s something wrong with me, huh?”

“…No, nothing wrong with you. Those are very healthy emotions.”

“Th-they are?”

“…Mm-hmm. Nothing to worry about. But it’s probably a good idea to clear something up here.”

“Clear something up…?” Tohka frowned.

“…Mm-hmm. That kiss was a total accident,” Reine said, glancing at her device. “Shin definitely doesn’t care more about that little girl than you.”

Tohka yanked her face up. “R-really…?”

“…Really.”

“But Shido…”

“…If he didn’t care about you, he wouldn’t have risked his own life to save you,” Reine pointed out.

“Oh…” Tohka couldn’t think of anything to say to that. Her attention had been so taken up with the mysterious emotions sinking in her gut that she’d completely forgotten. Hadn’t Shido protected her the day before just like he had last month? And it was all despite the fact that he might have been pelted by those assassin’s bullets.

“…I…” Pressing a hand to her chest, she swallowed hard. How stupid. She half groaned and tousled her hair. And then she leaped to her feet.

“…Tohka?”

“Sorry. Can we go shopping another day?” Tohka bit her lip. “I have to apologize to Shido.”

Reine pressed a hand to her chin and nodded slightly. “…Go.”

“Thanks,” she said and then slipped out of the family restaurant, picked up her umbrella, and ran down the rainy street.

“…Hmm. Well, that’s one issue solved…I guess?” Reine muttered to no one in particular. She was alone at the table, looking over the graphs and numbers displayed on the screen of her small terminal.

She’d guessed at the factor distorting Tohka’s mental state. Although she’d pouted like a child throwing a tantrum, Tohka didn’t think badly of Shido, and she didn’t hate this girl Shido had met with. She’d simply been faced with an unfamiliar fear and uneasiness, and she hadn’t been able to get past the irritation she felt about this situation. Or something close to that.

So even if Reine hadn’t managed to improve Tohka’s mood entirely, it hadn’t been so hard to change her awareness of her situation. She just had to make her realize that Shido kept her safe. And what that meant. And how she felt when she understood that.

“…Well, jealousy’s a part of love, too,” Reine muttered and closed her terminal. “Be careful, though. Love is definitely an emotion that will kill the world.”

“And here we are!” The server appeared out of nowhere to fill the table with the high-calorie dishes Tohka had ordered. “Double cheeseburger set with extra rice, fried chicken, fried oyster set, the grilled meat plate, a margherita pizza, and spaghetti Bolognese. The iron dish is hot, so please be careful with it.”

“…Hmm?” Reine looked up in surprise.

“Enjoy!” With practiced ease, the server bowed at a forty-five-degree angle before moving quickly away.

“…Hmm.” Faced with this much food, the lone Reine scratched her cheek. “This is…a problem.”

“Let’s see. We’ve got eggs and… Oh! There’s chicken, too. And there’s still rice left in the rice cooker. We can do chicken and egg bowls.” Shido quickly decided what to make for lunch after taking rough stock of the fridge, and he pulled out the necessary ingredients as he glanced over at the living room.

Yoshino was sitting on the sofa, looking around curiously. He’d changed right after they got to the house, but Yoshino was still in the same rabbit coat. Just as Kotori had said, she wasn’t the least bit wet, even though she’d been out in the rain all that time. He wondered if this was that Astral Dress thing, like Tohka’s dress of light.

“Just hang on a sec. I’ll whip something up,” he said as he chopped up an onion. “Oh! If you’re bored, you can watch TV.”

“…?” Yoshino looked blankly at him.

“Mm, the remote there.” He pointed at the table. “Right, that. Push the top button on the left.”

She followed his instructions and pressed the button. Instantly, the TV up against the wall lit up, and laughter blared out of it.

“—!” Yoshino gasped and shrank back, and before he knew it, the water in the sink had bubbled up and flown bullet-like into the TV screen.

“Wha—?”

“Idiot. I told you not to scare her.” He heard Kotori’s critical voice in his ear.

Yoshino, meanwhile, had opened her eyes again, hurriedly bowing her head at him.

“N-no. Don’t worry about it. I’m sorry I scared you.” A dry smile spread across his face, and then he returned to cooking.

He heated some stock diluted with water and tossed in chopped onion and chicken. Once these were cooked through, he dumped in the beaten egg. He poured this mixture onto rice piled in bowls and scattered some microgreens on top as garnish. He was used to the work. In less than ten minutes, he was done cooking.

“Okay, lunch is served. Let’s fill our stomachs and then get out there and find Yoshinon.” He went into the living room, bowls in hand. He set one in front of Yoshino and the other down for himself across from her before heading back into the kitchen to get some chopsticks and a spoon just in case.

“Okay then. Let’s dig in,” he said, clapping his hands together and bowing, and Yoshino dipped her head as if imitating this gesture.

“…!” She picked up the spoon and brought a mouthful of Shido’s top-notch dish up to her mouth. Immediately, her eyes flew open, and she slapped the table.

“Hmm?” But when he turned his gaze toward her, she averted her eyes.

The look on her face said that she wanted to say something but was too embarrassed to speak. Finally, she popped a thumbs-up at him. Apparently, she liked it.

“G-great…” He smiled and held up his own thumb in reply.

She had clearly been pretty hungry. She shoveled spoonfuls into her mouth and polished the bowl off in no time.

“You’re going to take a bit more of a break, right?” Kotori started, as if she’d been waiting for Yoshino to finish eating. “I want as much info as you can get on the Spirit, and this is the perfect opportunity. Can you try asking her some questions?”

“What questions?” he asked in reply, his voice low, and Kotori told him exactly what he should ask about. “Ohhh, that?”

He looked at Yoshino, who was sighing with satisfaction after emptying her bowl. “Hey, Yoshino? I wanted to ask you something. You mind a few questions?”

She tilted her head to the side curiously.

“Um. You really love that puppet—Yoshinon. Just what exactly is it to you?” he asked.

Yoshino opened her mouth hesitantly, clearly very nervous. “Yoshinon…is my…friend. And…hero.”

“Hero?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yoshinon…is my…ideal…self. Who I…want to be… Not weak…and indecisive like me…but strong and cool…”

“Your ideal self, huh?” He picked at his face and recalled when he met Yoshinon in the department store. The Yoshino who spoke through the puppet had indeed been a totally different person, in everything from tone to attitude. “I—I like the Yoshino here now.”

He smiled, remembering the barrage of jokes from the puppet when Tohka had appeared. That Yoshino had been cheerful and easy to talk to, but he wished she wouldn’t force herself. Although it was a little hard to hear what she was saying, he was much fonder of this Yoshino, the one who tried to answer him sincerely, if tentatively.

Blush spread from her neck to cover her face, and she curled into herself, hiding in her hood.

“Y-Yoshino? What’s wrong?” he asked, trying to peer in at her face.

She let go of the hood and timidly raised her face. “…No. One’s ever…said that…to me…before…”

“O-oh yeah?”

She nodded.

Well, that just might have been the case. She was a Spirit, after all, meaning she didn’t have too many chances to talk to people in the first place.

“Shido, was that…calculated?” Kotori asked.

“Huh? Was what calculated…?”

“…Oh, if it’s not, that’s fine.”

“H-huh…?” He frowned. His sister wasn’t making a lot of sense to him.

“Forget it. There’s no problem at the moment. You’re surprisingly relaxed. I guess your training living with Tohka is helping?”

“…Hmm, who knows?” he replied in a vague way. He was indeed sort of relaxed, but he couldn’t tell if it was because of the training or not.

He didn’t have time to think about that now. He turned back to Yoshino and asked his next question. “So, um, you basically never fight when you’re attacked by the AST. Is there any reason for that?”

Yoshino hung her head again. She grabbed at the hem of her dress underneath the coat, made of the same film of light as Tohka’s Astral Dress, before speaking in a whisper. “…I…hate…painful things. I hate…scary things. I thought…those people…they must…hate painful…and scary things, too. So. I…”

Her voice was hoarse and so quiet that if he wasn’t careful, he would miss what she was saying.

And what she was saying made him feel like his heart was being gouged out.

“Yoshino… So that’s why you—”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence.

“But…I.” Shaking all over, Yoshino continued. “I…am…weak and afraid… I’m…no good…by myself. I’m so…hurt…and scared. I can’t…do anything…and my head…gets all confused… I just know I’d…do…something terrible. To everyone.” She said the latter with tears in her voice and sniffled before speaking again. “That’s…why…Yoshinon is…my…hero. Yoshinon…tells me it’s…okay…when I get scared… And. Then…it really is…okay. So… S-so…”

“…” Shido had unconsciously bitten his lip. He was clenching his hands so tightly that he thought they might start bleeding. He wouldn’t have been able to stand it otherwise.

Yoshino…this little girl…was too kind—and so sad. Because she hated painful and scary things, she was intentionally kind to people who had come at her any number of times with animosity, malice, and hostility. She had tried not to hurt them. How difficult and distressing that must have been.

Yoshino thought of herself as weak? He shook his head at her self-assessment. She wasn’t weak. Aah, but what a twisted show of mercy.

“—” Unthinkingly, Shido stood up. He went around the table and sat down next to Yoshino and stroked her head gently.

“…! Ah…! Um!”

“I…,” he started as the girl gasped. “I am going to save you.”

Her eyes grew wide.

“I will find Yoshinon,” he continued, while stroking her head through her hood. “And I’ll give it back to you. Not only that—I’ll make it so you don’t need Yoshinon to protect you anymore. None of those bad things are going to come near you. I…will be your hero.”

The speech was very much out of character for him, but he couldn’t stop. After all, there was one thing seriously missing from Yoshino’s kindness. Her saintlike mercy wasn’t turned toward herself at all. In which case, someone had to show her some compassion from the outside. This wasn’t about her being a Spirit or any of that anymore. He simply could not let the idea stand that there was no hope for Yoshino, for a girl so unbelievably caring.

“…? …?” She darted her eyes in surprise for a moment, but after a minute or two, she parted her small lips. “Th…ank…you…”

“…Uh-huh.” He was happy that she’d said it, but when she spoke, his eyes went to her sweet lips, and he had to look away awkwardly.

“…? Shido…?” Her head leaned to the side as she looked at him.

“Oh, uh, huh. Sorry about before.”

“Huh…?”

“Oh. Like, um…I kissed you,” he said, confessional style. A kiss was serious business for a girl, although to be honest, it wasn’t that it didn’t matter one way or the other to him, either.

But Yoshino opened her eyes wide, baffled. “…What’s a ‘kiss’?”

“Huh? Ohhh, it’s…when you touch lips,” he explained, and the look on her face said she still didn’t really understand.

She pushed her face up in front of his. “Like. This…?”

“…!” His heart leaped up in his chest. She was close enough that if he moved his face just a little, his lips would touch hers. But his training came back to him like muscle memory, and he managed to keep a veneer of cool somehow. “A-ah. Right, like that.”

Yoshino nodded slightly. “…I don’t…really…remember.”

“…Huh?” Shido frowned at this response.

The door suddenly flew open.

“Shido…! I’m sorry, I—” Tohka barged into the living room, her shoulders heaving. And then she froze in place as soon as she saw Shido and Yoshino, facing each other like they were about to kiss at any moment.

“Huh…?” He gaped for a second. Sweat exploded from every pore on his face. “T-T—! T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-Tohka…?!”

“…Eep…!” Yoshino looked back and let out a tiny cry.

Maybe that was only to be expected. To Yoshino, Tohka was the scary person who’d taken her puppet. And more than anything else, Tohka was radiating murder from where she stood silently in the living room doorway.

On top of that, a shrill buzzer had been sounding in his right ear for a minute now to inform him of the emergency.

“…” Without a word, Tohka put on a calm smile and came slowly into the living room.

He felt a twitching under his hand. Yoshino had apparently flinched.

“T-Tohka, so this, okay…” He waved his hands back and forth, feeling like a man who’d been caught in flagrante delicto.

But she passed right by them, slipping through the living room and heading into the kitchen, where she took all the food and drinks out of the fridge and went out into the hallway. From the other side of the door, he could hear brisk feet stomping, and just when he figured she’d reached the second floor, he heard the loud slamming of a door.

She was apparently going to lock herself up in her room again. And this time with plenty of provisions, a castle under siege.

“Uh. Umm,” he stammered.

“…This got messy.” He heard Kotori sigh.

“Wh-what am I supposed to do here?” he asked her.

“All you can do right now is let her be. Anything you say to her now will likely have the opposite effect.”

“Y-yeah…?” He glanced over at Yoshino. But at some point, she had vanished from the sofa. “Huh…? Yoshino?”

“I’m guessing she was Lost to the other world when Tohka came in. Looks like she was really traumatized by having her puppet taken from her.”

“Makes sense…” He let out his breath and then frowned at a discrepancy.

Yoshino remembered that Tohka had taken her puppet…but she had said she didn’t remember the kiss with Shido. In fact, she hadn’t seemed particularly bothered by it the day before, either. Maybe she didn’t attach any particular emotion to the act of kissing itself. Each Spirit was an individual, with their own ideas and values, and so that was a possibility. Even so, he felt there was something a little off about Yoshino’s reaction.

A question—or rather a concern popped up in the back of his mind. He pressed a hand to his mouth as he spoke. “Hey, Kotori. Something’s bugging me… Could you check into it for me?”

“What is it?”

Shido told her about the question that had occurred to him.

“…Hmm. Sure. I’ll have Reine look into it once she gets back.”

“Great. Thanks,” he said.

“…Ohhh, right, right,” Kotori continued. “I forgot to tell you with Tohka barging in, but I have some good news.”

“Oh?”

“After going through the video, we found out what happened to the puppet.”

“Really?! So where is it?”

“Well, the thing there is…”

The words Kotori spoke made his cheeks spasm.

“Unh. Hngah!” Having raced into her room on the second floor, Tohka dug into the food she’d brought up with her, scarfing down whatever she laid her hands on. Stress eating.

“What was that…? I mean, what was that?! Hngh! Mmmphrrgg!”

Shido had invited the girl from the other day over while Tohka was out. That was the extent of the matter. There wasn’t a single thing for Tohka to be angry about. Shido was Tohka’s good friend. And that friend had brought home a new friend.

The correct reaction for Tohka would definitely have been to apologize to Shido and make up with him before reaching a hand out to the girl and saying, “Welcome. I’m sorry about the other day.”

But she couldn’t do it. The instant she’d seen Shido and that girl together, that same yucky feeling raced through her body, and she couldn’t stand to be in the same room as them.

“Unnnnnnnnnh…!” she moaned as she ate random snacks. “…Shido.”

I want to apologize to Shido. I want to make up with Shido.

But…that gross feeling swirled in her chest, and she just couldn’t do it. She wrapped her arms around her knees and groaned in agony.