Chapter 6

Flames to Pierce Time

The roof of Raizen High School was blanketed in shadow. And not metaphorically.

At five PM, the sun was still shining, although it had started to angle downward. And there was not a cloud in the sky between that distant star and the earth’s surface to obstruct its light. Yet a gloomy darkness curled around behind Shido Itsuka, as if this area alone had been cut out of the actual landscape.

He knew what this pseudo-night meant. Shido and everyone else on the roof were standing on the mouth of a catastrophe that would destroy their world.

Perhaps it was a whim on the part of the owner of the shadow. Or a change of heart. Or perhaps even an accidental blunder. Regardless of the cause, the danger this darkness posed threatened to eat them alive in the span of a heartbeat.

“…!” Shido gasped, his eyes round as saucers, in a space cut off from that world. He couldn’t so much as twitch a finger, much less move from the spot. He found it nearly impossible to even speak a word.

The reason was extremely simple. Countless girls clutched different parts of him—hands, feet, body—and pinned him tightly to the ground. Slender fingers from somewhere forced their way into his mouth to hold even his tongue and jaw firmly in place.

This was obviously unusual.

The girls in black who encased the roof all looked identical to one another. Black hair tied back asymmetrically; skin so pale they almost looked sick. A left eye like a clockface with hour and minute hands. They were all perfect copies of Kurumi Tokisaki.

Shido could see Tohka and Origami nearby. They were both being held down by several Kurumis like he was, their faces scrunched in pain. And although he couldn’t see her from where he was now, judging from how Mana had been shot down earlier, she had to have been on the other side of the wall of clones.

Things did not look good for them. Their fighters had all been taken out of the battle, and the force that bore down on them was overwhelmingly larger than their small group.

However…

“Ah…” With the fingers holding his tongue, Shido somehow managed to produce a sound that didn’t quite make it to a word. Something else entirely had captured his attention.

When Kurumi had raised a hand up high to initiate a spacequake, it had appeared over their heads.

At first, it looked like the sun: A dense ball of flames materialized in the sky, as if to illuminate this shadowed region the real sun couldn’t reach.

That was more than enough to hold his gaze fixed to that spot.

The moment he realized the true nature of this fire, he felt a shock like an electrical current to his brain stem. Sparks burst in his field of view, and a sharp pain stabbed the depths of his head, like his brain was trying to reject some fatal information his eyes were trying to communicate to him.

It was a girl. A small one, standing in the sky, her body cloaked in fire. The sleeves of her white kimono melted away into shimmering flames, her blazing obi belted around her body like the raiment of an angel. Two inorganic horns stretched out from either side of her head.

The way she looked. The power she wielded. All of it clearly indicated this girl was no ordinary human being.

She was a Spirit. A world-killing catastrophe. Shido knew of no other word to describe her.

Well, to be fair, he did know exactly one other word. He knew a name that would describe her.

“Ho-o…ri…,” he uttered, unable to move his tongue.

Kotori. Kotori Itsuka. He had lived with her for many years, and there was no way he would fail to recognize her face. This Spirit was his little sister, Kotori.

“Why…?” He frowned, unable to understand what this meant. Kotori was his little sister—a human being. She couldn’t be a Spirit.

But the scene before his eyes put lie to that idea. And it wasn’t only the scene before him.

Even as he tried desperately to reject this possibility, he felt like he had seen Kotori in this form somewhere before. His memory was hazy and unclear, but he’d felt like something had burst open in his mind as soon as he saw Kotori appear cloaked in flames in the sky. He was pretty sure—

“And who might youuuu be?” a voice suddenly called out, interrupting his thoughts.

Massive clock behind her, rifle in her right hand, pistol in her left, Kurumi frowned unhappily as she glared at Kotori in the sky above. “Would you mind not butting in? I was just getting to the good part.”

“Sorry, but I can’t let you do whatever you want. You took things a little too far. Kneel. The time for love’s punishment has come.” Kotori snorted, resting the massive battle-ax in her right hand on her shoulder.

Kurumi opened her eyes wide, briefly stunned at this unexpected speech, but then loud laughter spilled out of her uncontrollably. “Ngh. Keh-hee-hee-hee! Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee! You are an interesting one, hmm? Punishment, is it? You? Punishing me?”

“Yes,” Kotori said. “If you don’t want a spanking, then you should be a good girl and put away all your little copies and your Angel.”

Kurumi giggled even harder. The countless clones surrounding her joined in, their bodies writhing with laughter.

“Hee-hee-hee! Hee-hee! It seems you’re quite confident of your abilities. But that arrogance will be your downfall, hmm? My Zafkiel—”

“Enough talk.” Kotori sighed, annoyed. “Come at me already, you black pig.”

Kurumi’s expression stiffened, and her countless clones on the roof collectively glared up at Kotori in the sky.

Pained cries echoed through the air. A few of the Kurumis had taken aim at Tohka’s and Origami’s brain stems to knock them unconscious.

“Excellent work. Go! Dig in and devour her!” Kurumi called out.

The avatars bent their knees in perfect synchronization and launched themselves up after Kotori, a flock of black shadows shooting into the sky. This was less an assault or coordinated charge and more a merciless machine gun fired at lightning speed, a tyranny of demons flying to crush their opponent with sheer physical numbers.

The human bullets closed in on Kotori.

“Hmph.” Kotori snorted in irritation and slowly lifted her battle-ax.

The inky-black handle was easily taller than she was, and at the top of it, an inferno coiled up into the shape of a blade. The flames seemed to burn brighter as Kotori hefted the weapon, leaving behind a trail of red.

“—Camael—Infernal Demon,” Kotori said and swung the flaming battle-ax when the swarm of Kurumis was nearly upon her. Even on the ground where Shido lay helpless, he could hear the roar of it ripping through the air.

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! It’s nooo uuuuuse!” Kurumi cried, between peals of laughter.

However massive the battle-ax might have been, there was no way it could strike down the constellation of Kurumis charging from all sides. Once Kotori butchered the ones in the front, the rest would obviously sink their teeth into her a second later.

However…

“Kee-hee-hee! Hee…?” Kurumi’s laughter ended abruptly.

When Kotori swung Camael, the blade of flames flickered, and the heads—or arms or entire torsos—of many clones spun through the air.

“Uh. Oh?” The Kurumis sounded stunned, staring at the body parts severed from the copies. A second later, these fleshy segments burst up in flame and burned to ash before they even touched the ground.

“…” Kotori silently dropped her gaze down to Shido and swung Camael once more. The fire coiled like a snake to slice through the Kurumis clustered around him.

He heard shrieks of agony, and then the weight holding him down vanished.

“…!” He spit out the fingers in his mouth and hacked several times as he watched the bodies of these Kurumis also go up in flames.

“O-ow! That’s hot…!” He hurriedly sat up and beat out the sparks that fell onto his uniform.

Kotori floated down to stand between Shido and the real Kurumi, brandishing Camael at the other Spirit. As if to protect Shido.

“K-Kotori,” he stammered. “What on earth is—?”

“Quiet, Shido. Watch for your chance to escape and get out of here as fast as you can. You can die pretty easily the way you are now.”

“Huh? What’s that mean…?”

But his question was drowned out by Kurumi’s renewed laughter.

“Hee-hee! Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee! My goodness, you do get things done!” Kurumi raised her eyebrows and twisted up the corners of her mouth as she held her guns in front of the massive clock. “Buuut I know you don’t actually believe that’s the end of this, hmm?”

Shido gasped. Kurumi still had Zafkiel, her time-controlling Angel.

“Kotori, be careful. She’s—!”

“Heh-heh!” Kurumi laughed as she loaded her pistol with the shadow that poured from Zafkiel’s I and placed the barrel against her own forehead. “Shido, please don’t act so boorishly!”

She pulled the trigger and vanished like mist.

At the same time, Kotori yanked Camael up above her head. He heard a loud squeal, and the battle-ax convulsed.

He’d seen this before when Kurumi and Mana were fighting. Zafkiel’s First Bullet Aleph sped up the time of its target. Not even her shadow could keep up with her as Kurumi launched herself at Kotori.

But the flaming blade of Kotori’s Camael shimmered and twisted to nimbly defend against attacks invisible to the naked eye.

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Simply marvelous! Absolutely wonderful! I’d expect nothing less from a Spirit with her Angel materialized! My heart is pounding—racing in my chest!”

“Hmph! How annoying. A lady should have a little more composure than that.” Kotori swung her ax as if to scorch the earth itself. Shido finally caught sight of Kurumi as the blade knocked her back.

She cackled as she sailed through the air awkwardly and then readied her guns, shouting, “Thank you for the advice. I shall acquiesce to your request and do you the courtesy of killing you in a ladylike manner. Zafkiel. Seventh Bullet Zayin!”

A shadow flew out of the VII on the massive clockface and was sucked into the barrel of Kurumi’s gun. As she pulled the trigger, an inky-black bullet shot from the barrel and plunged toward Kotori.

From where Kotori was positioned, given the speed of the projectile and the distance between them, it seemed impossible for her to dodge this blow, but she managed to slap the bullet out of the air with the flaming blade of her battle-ax.

“Kotori!” Shido cried out, but it was no use.

Zayin. The most evil bullet, the one Kurumi had used to take Mana down.

Kotori could defend against it or knock it down, and it still wouldn’t do any good. The instant she touched the bullet…

“Heh-heh. Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” Kurumi laughed as Kotori was immobilized.

And not just her body. The magically swaying sleeves of her Astral Dress, the flickering flames of Camael, even the ends of her hair moving in the breeze—they all froze in place.

“Heh-heh-heh! Whatever power you might have, you can’t really use it if you’re stopped now, can you?” Kurumi said, while the myriad of avatars remaining raised their guns, turned them on Kotori, and pulled their triggers.

“Stop—”

But of course, Shido’s cry came far too late. The Kurumis’ bullets homed in on Kotori and dug painful holes into her soft skin.

“Now, then. It’s been a pleasure.” The Kurumi that fired Zayin stood in front of Kotori, pressed the barrel of her gun to her forehead, and pulled the trigger without the slightest hesitation.

In the next instant, movement returned to Kotori’s body.

“…!”

Blood gushed from every part of her. But she didn’t even have the time to react to this. The final bullet, fired at lethal range, reached her brow, and she fell forward lifelessly.

“Kotori!” Shido half shrieked as he raced over to the spot to take his fallen sister in his arms.

He couldn’t, however. Ripped apart by Kurumis’ bullets, sinking into what amounted to an ocean of blood, her body was so battered, he feared it would simply fall to pieces if he so much as touched it.

“Ah. Ah.” He groaned. Beaten to the point where she was nearly unrecognizable, she couldn’t possibly live through this, he figured. He placed his hands on the ground, stunned.

“Heh-heh-heh. Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh! Aah, aah, it’s all over. And I thought I had found a suitably strong enemy at last. How cruel. How transient.” Kurumi twirled around theatrically and laughed. “It’s finally Shido’s turn! I—”

Kurumi stopped and frowned. She stared at Kotori facedown on the ground.

Drawn by her gaze, Shido looked at Kotori as well, and he too opened his eyes wide. “Wh-what…?”

Flames jetted from the bullet holes and spread over her, lapping at her body. He’d seen this before. Actually, more accurately, he’d experienced this before.

“You love put on a big show, hmm?” Kotori yanked herself upright on the balls of her feet, back straight, in an extremely unnatural way.

When the flames died down, all sign of injury and blood had vanished, and Kotori’s Astral Dress was no longer in tatters. It was impossible to believe that she had been mortally wounded. She coolly shook her head, so calm it made Shido wonder if he had hallucinated the whole attack.

“Wha—?” Kurumi frowned and took a step back. This, apparently, was a surprise to her, too.

Kotori readied Camael once more and glared at Kurumi. “Personally, the best outcome would be if you started shaking with fear and lost the desire to fight.”

“Hmph, please leave the joking…aside!” Kurumi threw her head back and turned the barrels of her guns behind her. The clock in her left eye whirred around while shadow after shadow poured out of Zafkiel’s I and into her guns.

“Aleph!” she shouted and pulled the triggers on both guns. The Alephs slammed into the Kurumi copies on the roof.

After firing several dozen bullets, she pressed one gun to her own head and pulled the trigger.

“Tch!” Kotori clicked her tongue in annoyance, swung one foot behind her, and kicked Shido in the side.

“Hngah?!” he cried pathetically as he was knocked backward. He slid along the ground on his spine, head scraping the concrete roof, until he came to a stop somehow. He sat up and rubbed his head. “Wh-what are you—?”

Before he could finish yelling his complaint, several superfast Kurumis sprang up to surround Kotori and shower her in punches, kicks, and bullets.

Which meant that Kotori had used her precious last action to send Shido to a safe zone right before Kurumis swarmed her violently, accelerated by the power of Aleph.

“Sever, Camael!” Kotori howled, and the blade of the Angel stretched several times over to cover an even broader swath of the roof.

One after the other, the flaming blade cut down the Kurumis, ripping through them, piercing them, turning them to ash.

“Hngh!” With a pained grunt, Kurumi pulled away from Kotori.

It seemed that Camael’s attack had hit home. She had a strange and painful-looking wound from shoulder to stomach: half-burned, half-cut.

“What are you doing?!” she shouted, brandishing her pistol. “Zafkiel. Fourth Bullet Dalet!”

A shadow slid out from Zafkiel’s IV toward the gun in Kurumi’s hand. She put the barrel to her forehead and pulled the trigger, and her wound disappeared like time itself was rewinding. Meanwhile, the avatars racing around Kotori burned to ash and disappeared on the wind.

“What? You’re done already? That’s a bit of a surprise. You can go a little harder on me, you know?” Kotori snorted with disdain as she shouldered her battle-ax.

Kurumi twisted her face into a lurid grin and gritted her teeth.

“I shall make you regret those words! Zaaaaaaaaaaaafkieeeeeeeeeel…!!”

Her left eye began to spin even faster.

“Tsk! None of that!” Kotori held Camael up at the ready and then dropped to her knees, a tiny, tiny moan slipping from her lips. “Ah.”

Using Camael like a staff, she managed to get on her feet as she pressed one hand to her head, a pained look on her face. “Ngh… Th-this…”

“K-Kotori?!” Shido cried out. He didn’t know what exactly was happening, but he could see she was in trouble.

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! So that’s the end of my bad luck!” Kurumi squealed with laughter and turned the rifle and its Zafkiel bullet toward Kotori.

“Ngh.” Shido was running before his thoughts had even caught up with him. He didn’t know what kind of power lay in the bullet in Kurumi’s gun. But it was no stretch of the imagination to assume that it was a mortal blow of some kind that would kill Kotori if it hit her.

When Kurumi pulled the trigger, he would grab Kotori and yank her out of the bullet’s path. And if he couldn’t manage that, in the worst case, he would be her shield!

However…

“…” Kotori stood up just when Kurumi had her in her sights.

“Kotori! Are you okay?!” he cried, but Kotori didn’t respond. She simply stared hard at Kurumi with eyes that shone quietly with a fiery red light. The face he was so familiar with suddenly looked like it belonged to a totally unknown girl. “Ko…tori…?”

Kotori brandished Camael high and released it. The battle-ax blade melted into the air, leaving only the handle floating in space.

“Camael. Megiddo,” Kotori commanded, and in response, the handle of the Angel began to move, folding in on itself before wrapping around Kotori’s raised right hand.

With her arm wrapped in this huge cudgel from elbow to fingertips, Kotori turned the end of it toward Kurumi, like the big gun on a battleship. Camael opened up and emitted a red glow as the flames curling around Kotori were sucked into this opening.

“…?!” Kurumi frowned, the barrel of her gun turned toward Kotori. It was an expression Shido hadn’t seen on her face before. He might have said it was close to fear or dread if he were forced to describe it based on his own knowledge and vocabulary.

“WE—!!” Kurumi shouted, while her other selves crawled up to put themselves between her and Kotori.

“Become destruction, Camael,” Kotori whispered. Her voice was cold and flat in a way that Shido had never heard before despite having lived with her for years.

A heartbeat later, Camael unleashed a conflagration. The overwhelming heat, the eruption of an enormous volcano compressed into an area of dozens of centimeters, drew a line from the roof of the high school into the distant sky above. For an instant, the area was colored bright red, as if the evening sun had arrived slightly early.

“Ngh.” Shido unconsciously covered his face with his arm. When he sucked in a tiny bit of this air, the heat coming in through his nose and mouth burned his mucous membranes and made it hard to breathe. Even though he was behind Kotori, his skin prickled like it was on fire, and it was almost impossible to keep his eyes open.

After a few seconds, the beam of incandescent light scorching the air steadily shrank, and the large cylinder on Kotori’s right hand sputtered white smoke like a machine that had finished a difficult job.

Coughing, he lifted his eyes as the smoke blanketing his field of view cleared. Shido shuddered.

The tremendous heat had melted the surface of the roof and its fence, and nothing remained in the blast’s wake—yet Kurumi and Zafkiel still stood in place.

All the other Kurumis that had crawled up to protect her had been burned away in the flames, and Kurumi herself had lost her left arm. The intense heat that had blown it away had charred the cross section, however, and not a drop of blood flowed.

A quarter of Zafkiel’s massive face, floating behind Kurumi, had been blown away. The I, II, and III were all gone.

“Nngh. Aah…” Kurumi exhaled, pained, and dropped to her knees. Anyone could see that she was in no condition to continue fighting. However…

“Pick up your guns,” Kotori growled, her voice low, as she turned the gun that Camael now was on Kurumi once more. “The battle’s not over yet. The war is not over yet. Let’s keep killing each other, Kurumi. It’s the fight you wanted. This is the fight you wanted. If you’re not going to point that gun at me anymore, you will die.”

“Kotori? Wh-what are you saying?” Shido raced over to his little sister and grabbed her shoulders. “If you keep going, she’ll die for real! Isn’t Ratatoskr supposed to solve these problems without killing Spirits?!”

But Kotori had no time for Shido. Flames rose up once again in Camael’s muzzle.

“…! H-hey! Kotori!” Shido went around in front of her and gasped, “Wha…?”

Cold ruby eyes shining with a bizarre light. On her mouth, an expression somewhere close to joy, ecstasy.

No way. A shiver ran up his spine. This was not the usual Kotori.

Shido started running toward Kurumi where she kneeled helplessly. “Kurumi!”

“Shi…do…?”

He had no time to try and run with her. Instead, he stood in front of her, blocking her to try and at least reduce the damage she took.

Camael let forth a crimson howl to burn up all of creation.

“Ngh!” Kotori’s eyes flew open wide. “Shido! Out of the way!” She turned Camael toward the sky, but she couldn’t completely change the trajectory of the flames already shooting forth.

“…” A red curtain dropped across the world before him, and Shido passed out.

Burning. Burning. The houses were burning.

Burning. Burning. The towns were burning.

Burning. Burning. The world was burning.

Flames leaped in the center of his vision. Crackling. Flickering. Roaring.

But Shido didn’t stop moving.

“Kotori! Kotori!”

Shouting his little sister’s name, he raced through streets transformed into a hellscape. He couldn’t comprehend what was going on as he ran.

That was no wonder. Because when he came home, his familiar neighborhood was engulfed in flames.

It was Kotori’s ninth birthday. He’d gone all the way toward the station to buy her a present in that area. He was grateful to Kotori, since he’d been able to escape the flames, but she was still at home. Despite the fact that it was their daughter’s birthday, their busy parents were away—as always—for work. Kotori was alone at the house at this moment.

Kotori the crybaby. He was sure she was crying all by herself, unable to run away.

When that image flashed into his mind, Shido started running. Kotori. His adorable baby sister. The gentle girl who became his family when he had nothing.

A long time ago, back when he was abandoned by his biological mother and lost in despair, Shido had been saved by his mom and dad…and by Kotori. So he had to save her now. Shido wouldn’t hesitate to give up even his own life if it was for her sake.

“Kotori!!” He ran toward the house, shouting her name over and over and over.

But then his feet stopped. The street before him was charred in spots, the aftermath of flames burning through, and most everything was gone as though the fire had licked it all away.

And in the middle of the street, a single small girl was sobbing helplessly, crumpled to the ground.

That’s…

The girl was wearing a strange outfit—traditional Japanese garb with a billowing hem and sleeves. Horns on her head…and white ribbons tied around them. Flames flickered around her.

Shido immediately knew this was his beloved little sister.

Kotori was crying. His body needed no other reason to move.

“Kotori!” He tossed aside the bag in his hand and ran toward her, shouting her name.

“Unh, ah, ah, Shido…! Shido. Shiiidoooo…!” Kotori sobbed as she rubbed her face with both hands.

When he tried to get near her, however, the flames twisting around her surged. Her eyes flew open with a gasp, and she trembled.

“Shido! You have to stay baaaaack!!” she shouted so loudly that her teary voice threatened to give out.

“Huh?” he said, stunned.

But that was only natural. Before he knew it, the torrent of flames swelling out from Kotori slammed into him and sent him flying.

“Ah…”

Thud. He landed on his back on the ground. A searing pain raced up his spine, and the scorched skin all over his body shrieked in pain. But he couldn’t even writhe in agony or cry out. All he could manage was a quiet moan as he stared up at the sky, his mind and vision blurred.

It might have been better if he had passed out. Unable to move so much as a finger, he simply watched coolly from afar as pain ripped through his body to torture him, and this disconnection scared him.

“Shido!” Kotori crawled over to him.

He had just wished to fade into unconsciousness, but his brain quickly shook off that delusion. At that moment, Shido wouldn’t have traded a chance to see Kotori’s face for anything in the world.

Large tears spilled from her eyes. When they dropped onto his hideously charred skin, they felt like little zaps of pain. He clenched his teeth to keep himself from groaning out loud. If he made Kotori cry any harder, he would have no right to call himself a good brother.

Vision hazy. Kotori’s blurry face. The fading color of the sky. All of it was gradually losing reality.

“So do you want to save him?” came an abrupt voice from above.

“Ngh…!”

An intense pain cut through the slumber enveloping Shido. He pressed a hand to his forehead. As far as he could tell by touching it, his head wasn’t cut open—no lumps or bumps. The sensation was more like a dull ache gradually pushing upward from the depths of his brain.

He groaned for a minute before opening his eyes to a ceiling adorned with an assortment of pipes of various sizes. He finally realized he was lying in a bed.

“Where am I…?” He blinked several times and took in his surroundings. Beds were lined up at regular intervals, and around each of them was a curtain partition.

He knew this space. He had woken up here once before. This was the medical office of Ratatoskr’s airship Fraxinus.

He slapped the side of his head lightly to wake his dazed brain as he sat up. “Ow-ow…” He grimaced. It wasn’t just his head; every joint in his body hurt.

For some reason, he felt something weird with his lips. Had something touched them before he passed out?

But that concern quickly became secondary for a simple reason: A familiar girl was leaning up against his bed, fast asleep.

Beautiful hair the color of night, smooth porcelain skin. With impossibly perfect features, she looked like a sleeping princess out of some fairy tale. If you ignored the string of drool hanging from one corner of her mouth, that is.

“Tohka…?” Shido asked.

The girl—Tohka Yatogami—showed no sign of having heard him call her name. Her shoulders rose and fell regularly as she inhaled and exhaled the soft breath of sleep.

“What is Tohka doing here—? No, wait. What am I—?” he muttered, but was cut off by the door opening. Two pairs of feet stepped inside.

“…Mm? Oh, so you’re awake, Shin?” asked a twentyish woman in a chestnut military uniform. Ratatoskr analyst Reine Murasame with distinctive dark bags under her eyes and pale skin that hinted at a life spent indoors.

“Reine? And—” Shido glanced behind her.

A girl on the edge of adolescence was standing there, almost hiding behind the older woman. Her unnatural blue hair and beautiful sapphire eyes were veiled beneath a wide-brimmed straw hat. Her left hand was covered by a comical-looking rabbit puppet, and she flapped this hand from time to time.

“Oh, Shido,” the puppet crooned. “You’re fine, after all? Can’t believe I wasted my time worrying about you.”

“I’m glad…you’re okay,” the girl said, no louder than a mosquito buzzing.

“Yoshino, you’re here. What on earth is going on…?”

“Ahem.”

“O-oh, sorry. Hey, Yoshinon. You came, too, huh?” Shido flashed a smile at the disgruntled puppet before turning his gaze back on Reine. “What am I doing here?”

“…Mm. We brought you when you passed out after the battle with Kurumi Tokisaki.”

“…!”

Kurumi Tokisaki, the girl who had suddenly transferred to Shido’s school—a Spirit. The moment her name came out of Reine’s mouth, the faint throbbing in Shido’s head became a stabbing pain.

“R-right!” The events of the previous day were suddenly vivid in his mind. “Wh-what happened after that?! Tohka’s just sleeping, right? She’s not hurt or anything? And what about Kotori?! She showed up all of a sudden—and like, what was that?! What about Origami?! She was really beat up!”

“…Calm down, Shin.”

“Ngh. Oh yeah. And what happened to Mana?! I lost sight of her halfway through the fight! She’s okay, right?! And Kurumi! She’s alive, right?! And everyone at school—”

Shido stopped there. To be more accurate, he was stopped there. Because Reine was hugging his head tightly.

“Mm! Mm?!” he cried through closed lips.

“…There, there.” Reine gently stroked his hair. Shido’s focus was more on the warm chest his face was shoved up against. He tapped her arm to signal his surrender. A few seconds later, she finally released him. “…Have you calmed down?”

“H-haah…” He sighed before raising questioning eyes. Reine nodded. Behind her, Yoshino was covering a red face with one hand, staring at him between her fingers.

“…You can relax. Everyone’s fine. To my knowledge, there were no deaths. Although the local hospital was overwhelmed. AST members came to recover Origami Tobiichi and Mana Takamiya and likely transported them to the SDF Tengu Hospital. They’ve got medical Realizers there. Kurumi took advantage of the chaos and fled. Tohka is as you can see. She was also injured, but she insisted on staying here and taking care of you. She just fell asleep because she’s tired.”

“…!” Shido clenched his teeth and his fists.

He hadn’t been able to settle anything. He’d talked about how he was going to save Kurumi and how he’d save Mana, but he hadn’t managed to do anything at all. Mana had been seriously injured by Kurumi; Tohka, Origami, and students at school had been dragged into the fight; and he still hadn’t been able to lock away Kurumi’s power.

“Dammit!” He punched the bed in frustration.

“…You did good,” Reine assured. “Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

“B-but…!”

“…No one expected Kurumi to have that kind of power. In fact, you should be glad no one died this time. And this isn’t the end. If you still want to rescue her, then save that hand for slapping her cheek when you yell at her.”

“…Okay,” Shido whispered, and then his eyes flew open. One person—one very important person—was missing from that update. “Reine! What about Kotori? Where is she?”

Reine nodded, as if she had been waiting for him to ask that question. “…I’ll take you to her. Can you stand up?”

“Y-yes.” He folded the blanket down to his feet, put on the shoes laid out next to the bed, and stood up. Perhaps because he’d been on his back for so long, he felt a little dizzy and lost his balance.

“…!” Yoshino raced out from Reine’s side to hold him up.

“O-oh, sorry. Thanks, Yoshino.” He smiled at her in appreciation.

“N-no problem.” Yoshino turned her face away, looking embarrassed somehow. Yoshinon on her left hand whistled.

“…Are you okay? Maybe it would be better to rest a—”

“No, I’m okay. Take me to Kotori.”

Reine narrowed her eyes, as if assessing him, but soon let out a small sigh and nodded. “…Follow me.”

She turned around slowly, and Shido tucked Tohka into the bed before starting to go after Reine. Yoshino moved with him, still holding his waist.

“Yoshino? I’m okay now.”

“…! Oh. Okay… But…it’s…dangerous.”

Did he look that feeble to her? Regardless, he had no reason to make a show of pushing her away.

“Okay then, thanks,” he said with another smile, and they started walking together. For some reason, the rabbit puppet was grinning in a knowing kind of way, but that was nothing out of the ordinary, so he didn’t touch on that.

His feet echoed down the narrow hallway of Fraxinus. After they’d gone some distance, he frowned. He had assumed they were headed for the bridge like always, but Reine had chosen a different, unfamiliar route.

“…Here we are.” Reine stopped in front of a door.

Shido looked at it and gasped.

It wasn’t as though he was particularly knowledgeable about the internal configuration of Fraxinus. He had been aboard the ship a number of times, but he’d never been given an actual tour, and about the only places he went were the lower part where the transport device was, the bridge, the medical office, the washroom, and the cafeteria.

To be honest, he didn’t exactly know where in the ship he was at that moment or what the purpose of this room was. But he could guess at what this door was for, given that it looked like a large bank vault.

“Where are we?” He sent Reine a questioning look but got no reply.

Instead, Reine stood in front of the electronic panel to one side of the door, entered some numbers, and then held up the palm of her hand. “…Analyst Reine Murasame.”

The panel made a small beep, and the large door split in two and opened.

“…All right. Come.” Reine stepped inside. Shido gulped audibly and followed her.

He frowned. It was a strange room. The front and back were separated by a glass wall, and the space beyond the wall was entirely different from the space on this side.

The front area where they stood was something along the lines of a dim laboratory with all kinds of equipment crammed into every available space, while the back area was set up like a normal apartment. It was almost like a cage to confine and monitor a ferocious beast.

And inside this strange room, Kotori was sitting on a stylish chair on the other side of the glass partition, gracefully drinking black tea. No longer clad in her Astral Dress, she was wearing her usual street clothes.

Shido let out an unconscious sigh of relief at his little sister looking entirely normal again. “Kotori!” he called, but she gave no sign of having heard him.

“…Sounds from this side won’t reach her. Shin. You go alone from here,” Reine said and walked over to what looked like a door at one edge of the glass wall.

Yoshino pulled away from Shido. He thanked her again and then stepped toward Reine.

She did the same palmprint and voice authentication as before, and the door opened. Shido dipped his head in thanks before stepping inside. When he did, he saw out of the corner of his eye how strangely thick the glass dividing the room was, and the tension that had started to ease felt palpable once more.

“Hmm? Oh, why if it isn’t Shido. So you’re awake.” Kotori lifted her gaze after noticing his intrusion.

“Y-yeah,” he replied awkwardly. For some reason, he felt a little uncomfortable.

“Why don’t you sit instead of just standing there? Although if you’re gunning to be a scarecrow, I’ll root for you as you chase your dream.”

“Oh. No… Hmm. Right.” He did as he was told and sat down in the chair across from her. He glanced in the direction of Reine and Yoshino, but he couldn’t see any sign of them. The partition that looked like glass from the other side was a white wall on this side.

“…”

“…”

They faced each other silently, a table between them.

Despite the fact that he had so many things he wanted to ask her, when he actually had her there in front of him, he didn’t know what to say. Kotori didn’t look the least bit nervous as she stirred her milk tea with a cinnamon stick and then popped the stick into her mouth.

“…Wait. Is that a Chupa Chups?!” Shido cried out. Soaking in the tea was not a cinnamon stick or spoon but the candy with the small paper stick—Kotori’s favorite treat.

“What? You got a problem with that?” She arched an eyebrow at him.

“No, not particularly!” he shouted before letting out a sigh. He felt like the tension had unexpectedly drained out of his shoulders. Silently giving the smallest thanks to the Chupa Chups, he spoke again. “Kotori. Who exactly are you?”

“Shido’s adorable little sister.”

“…Most people don’t call themselves adorable.”

“But aren’t I adorable?”

“…Well, I won’t deny that.” Shido tousled her hair before placing his hands on his knees and lowering his head. “Kotori… Are you a Spirit?”

Straight to the point. Plain and simple. He asked about the thing that concerned him the most.

“Hmph.” Kotori snorted and shrugged. “If I said no, would you believe me?”

So this was what he was up against. Shido bobbed his head up and down. “Yeah. If you said no, I’d believe you.”

“…Have you lost it? I seriously doubt that an intelligent person would believe someone else’s words over their own eyes.”

“If I stopped believing what my adorable little sister told me, I might be first-class in terms of brain power, but that’d be the end for me as a brother.”

“…” Kotori set her cup down on its saucer and stared back at him wordlessly. After a few seconds, she let out a sigh. “I’m human. At least, I think I am. But I don’t get to decide that, apparently. The measurement devices currently register me as a Spirit.”

“How did that…?” He furrowed his brow, unable to really grasp what she was saying.

Normally, she would shoot him a sharp insult, but now she continued speaking, as though his question were only natural. “I am a human being born to the Itsukas. There’s no doubt about that. But five years ago…I became a Spirit.”

“Huh…?” Shido’s jaw dropped, and he stared at her, stunned.

A Spirit was a uniquely catastrophic creature existing in a parallel world. At least, that’s what Kotori and Reine had told him.

“What does that mean?” he asked. “Aren’t humans and Spirits different species?”

“Well… Right.” Kotori nodded. “Maybe it would be more appropriate to say I’m a human with the powers of a Spirit.”

“How is that…?” He frowned and cut himself off. An image from his memory popped up in his mind. “Oh.”

A dream. The dream he’d had before waking up earlier. In the middle of a street on fire, Kotori had been sitting alone, crying, wearing an Astral Dress. A dream.

“What’s wrong, Shido?” she asked.

“Oh. Uh… I… I…knew that…?”

“What do you mean?” The look on her face was suddenly serious.

Shido unconsciously shrank back. “Wh-what do you mean, what do I mean…?”

“It’s just you used to not remember anything about the fire five years ago. Or that I became a Spirit.”

“Ah, yeah… But, like… Umm. Don’t laugh, okay?”

“I won’t laugh.” She crossed her arms, indignant.

“So…” Shido scratched the back of his head. “I just had…this dream.”

“A dream? What kind of dream?”

“H-hmm…” When he explained the details, Kotori’s cheeks colored faintly, and she turned her face away.

“…Well, I would like to object to the part where I was crying and calling your name…but that’s more or less what I remember.” She placed a thoughtful hand on her chin and flicked the stick of her Chupa Chups up. “Maybe as a side effect of me drawing the Spirit power out of you, that memory flowed into you through the same Path. Or maybe this caused your own memories to rise to the surface? Hmm. Either way, it’s very interesting.” She nodded to herself.

“…Don’t get all scholar on me. Focus, Kotori.”

“Hmm? What?” She lifted her face to look at him.

“You said you…became a Spirit,” he said. “What exactly happened five years ago?”

Spirits and humans were different species. What did it mean for a human to turn into a Spirit or gain the powers of one?

Kotori shook her head. “I don’t really remember.”

“Huh? You don’t remember?”

“Mm. I have this vague feeling that something happened, but I can’t remember what. I mean, I do remember becoming a Spirit, but I have no idea what caused that.”

“People usually remember getting turned into a superpowerful being, y’know!”

“Says the brother who forgot this very fact about his own sister. I don’t think you have much of a leg to stand on here.”

“Hngh.” She had him there. This brought up another question for him. “For all that, you seemed pretty comfortable with the whole fighting thing,” he remarked, recalling the scene on the roof. Kurumi might have gotten away, but Kotori had clearly overpowered her.

“It’s weird. I mean, I’ve trained on a simulator, but that was my first time in actual battle… But, well, my memory of becoming a Spirit’s pretty hazy, so maybe something happened then. I was honestly surprised. My body just moved like it knew exactly what to do.”

“Wha…? S-so then canceling out the spacequake…?” he asked.

“Yeah, that was off the cuff. Reine’s calculations said it was possible, but I definitely do not want to do that again. If I’d failed, the damage would’ve probably doubled.”

Her casual attitude was making him break out into a cold sweat.

She sighed before continuing. “But… Well, you’re right, Shido.”

“I am?”

“I shouldn’t have forgotten something so important. I agree. If I were you, I could see that happening, but there’s no way I would forget something that turned my own life upside down.”

“Wait. What do you mean, if you were me?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

Kotori ignored him and kept talking. “We both lost our memories of whatever it was that happened five years ago. You don’t think that’s weird?”

“…! That’s…”

“Say, like, someone erased our memories.”

“Wha—?” Someone erased their memories? Shido scowled at the creepy idea.

It was possible using a Realizer—or a Spirit in possession of some power—to affect the human mind. But who would do that? And to what end?

Kotori shrugged. “At best, it’s a possibility.”

This did not reassure him. His back remained damp with sweat.

When he thought about it, this did actually make some sense. But given that neither of them could remember any details, there was no use considering it now. Shido decided to ask about the other thing that was bothering him.

“But… You went back to regular life afterward, right? How did you do that?” He remembered that Kotori Itsuka had spent her life with him since the fire five years earlier.

“You don’t remember?” she asked. “It’s because you sealed my power away, obviously.”

“Huh?” he said, stunned. “I—I did…?”

“Yep.” She nodded firmly. “Remember how I told you yesterday that I was taking the power back for a bit?”

Now that she mentioned it, he felt like she had said something to that effect when she appeared the day before.

“I did…” He placed a hand on his forehead and groaned. The throbbing pain that had jumped to life when he saw Kotori in her Astral Dress had returned.

He couldn’t remember. He could call up other things that had happened in his life, more or less hazily, but for some reason, he came up blank in regard to this incident five years ago.

“Yeah. And after you sealed my power, Ratatoskr found me. And then…I learned about everything happening behind the scenes, about the existence of the Spirits…and I wanted to help them.”

“…” He had wondered why Kotori would be the commander of a secret organization like Ratatoskr when she wasn’t even fourteen, and now it finally fell into place.

“That’s the reason you were chosen to talk to the Spirits, Shido,” she continued. “I don’t know why, but you’ve got the ability to lock away Spirit power.”

“Oh.” His eyes grew wide. That was indeed a question he’d had. Even if he did have such an ability, how had Ratatoskr discovered it?

The answer turned out to be trivial: They had an actual example of its use with Kotori five years earlier.

This triggered another question for him. Every time Kurumi shot Kotori, flames had licked across the wounds gouged out of her skin and healed them. He was certain that had been the regeneration ability he’d manifested himself.

“So then—”

“Yes.” Kotori nodded, as if guessing his thoughts from the look on his face. “Your ability to regenerate was originally my power. So now you’re going to have to stand up, Shido.”

“Huh? Wh-why?”

“Just do it.”

He did as instructed.

Kotori launched a sharp fist into his solar plexus, and Shido bent in half, moaning. “Hngah?!”

“I told you. I told you, didn’t I?” she snapped. “That you had to be careful. I said you could die the way you were. And then what? You go leaping out in front of me. You go jumping in front of Camael, trying to protect Kurumi! It’s all fine and good that I came back to my senses just in time to divert my attack, but if I’d been half a second slower, you’d be ash right now! And Kurumi got away because of this! Hey! Are you listening to me?!”

“I—I am… I’m listening, so quit shaking me…,” he managed to say. After a while, when he could finally breathe again, he sat back down with a sigh. “Ow-ow. Where did that come from?”

“Hmph. It’s necessary to discipline a dog that won’t listen.”

Shido was about to retort but then set that argument on the back burner. There was something that concerned him more. “Kotori. Just now, you said you came back to your senses?”

“…!” Her back stiffened.

Shido recalled what had happened on the roof. Kotori pointing Camael, transformed into a gun of sorts, at Kurumi. That had not been his usual sister.

She sighed in resignation. “I did say that.”

“But you were talking like you were with us, attacking Kurumi and everything. What was that about then?”

“…I don’t know. Since I took my Spirit power back from you…there’ll be times when I want to destroy something or kill someone so much I can hardly stand it. And my body stops doing what I tell it to. We’re managing it somewhat with medication right now, but… I was definitely trying to kill Kurumi then.”

“Wha…?” He gaped.

“Maybe I was able to come back to myself then because you stepped out in front of her. So I’m grateful to you for that, just a teensy bit.” Kotori smiled ruefully as she shrugged self-deprecatingly.

Shido had no idea what to say. The information she’d shared with him hammered at his brain relentlessly.

“It’s scary,” she continued. “I don’t know what I’ll end up doing. I can’t control myself. And maybe I did something five years ago, and I just don’t have any memory of it. Given that I don’t remember, it’s totally possible that I killed someone. And in that case, I—”

“Kotori…”

She stopped there and shook her head as if to shake away her fear. “Forget I said that. It’s not like me to talk like this.”

“Y-yeah,” he stuttered. “But…is your Spirit power still in you?”

“Uh-huh. Otherwise, there’d be no reason to lock me up in isolation, would there?” She swiveled her head to look around the room.

To the eye, it was only a room, nicely decorated, but having walked down the hallways that led here, Shido didn’t feel like it was a comfortable space at all.

“B-but when Tohka’s power flowed back, it naturally returned to me, right? Why—?”

“Because the absolute amount of Tohka’s power that flowed back was small,” she interrupted. “So long as Tohka’s mentally calm, it naturally goes through that Path back to you. But it’s different for me. I pulled pretty much one hundred percent of my power out of you. At that level, it’s not going to go back naturally.”

“S-so then how are we going to—?” he managed to choke out.

Perhaps the way he looked was particularly funny—Kotori opened her mouth with a grin. “Well, I guess the only thing is to seal it away again.”

“S-seal it again?” he parroted. “How?”

“It’s simple,” she said, pulled the Chupa Chups out of her mouth, and thrust it at him.

“Make me all weak in the knees.”

“Wh-what?!” he cried out, stunned. “M-make you weak in the knees…? What do you…?”

Kotori popped her lollipop back into her mouth and raised her cup as she shrugged. “Just like you did with Tohka and Yoshino. That’s the only way to seal a Spirit’s power.”

“So—so you mean…” Shido recalled his encounters with Tohka and Yoshino. He’d been required to date them and raise his likability.

“…”

His eyes unconsciously turned toward Kotori’s lips. After all, the same method as with Tohka and Yoshino meant…

“…!” He heard a crash and jumped in his seat.

Kotori had dropped the cup in her hand. The white porcelain vessel broke, and the milk tea inside splashed against the floor.

“K-Kotori? Are you okay? Are you hurt?” he asked, furrowing his brow.

Kotori lowered her eyes as she took a deep breath and shook her head from side to side. “I’m okay. Don’t worry about it.” She held the hand that had dropped the cup with her other hand and brought it beneath the table as if to avoid his eyes.

“Don’t worry…?” he repeated.

“I said I’m fine. Anyway, I’m a bit tired. Could you leave now?”

“No, I can’t do that. C’mon. You might have gotten a cut; show me your hand—”

“…Shin.”

Just as Shido reached a hand out to Kotori, he heard this voice and the door opening behind him.

Reine walked into the space, carrying a black bag.

“Reine?” he asked. “Is something wrong?”

“…Mm-hmm,” she hummed noncommittally. “Sorry, but that’ll have to be all for today. Could you go on ahead of me?”

“Huh? B-but…,” he protested.

“…I’ll manage with Kotori somehow. Go. Now.”

Kotori also lowered her face and nodded.

“O-okay…” It seemed that he had no say in the matter. He obediently followed orders and went through the door to the room where Yoshino was still waiting.

Here, he noticed something different. When he turned his eyes to the space where Kotori was, the wall that had previously been glass was now colored white, and he couldn’t see through to the other side anymore.

“What the…?”

A few minutes later, Reine came through the door and back into the space where Shido and Yoshino were.

“Reine, how’s Kotori…?” Shido asked.

“…Mm, she’s fine,” Reine told him. “No worries. For now anyway.”

“F-for now?”

“…” Reine silently sat down and lowered her eyes. “…Two days from now.”

“Huh?”

“…Two days. June eleventh. You’re going on a date with Kotori.”

“Huh?” He frowned. “That’s… Well, I’ll ask anyway. Why in two days?”

“…That’s the only possible day. Kotori can probably only withstand her own Spirit power for another two days.”

“…?!” He stiffened at this. “Wh-what do you mean…?!”

“…The interval between episodes is getting shorter. Right now, we’re controlling it with tranquilizers and mood stabilizers… But another two days is probably the limit. Beyond that point, it’s possible that Kotori will stop being the Kotori that you know.”

“…”

He couldn’t speak. His throat was dry as the desert, and his fingers trembled slightly.

With no prior warning, he had been thrust into the worst possible situation. In just two days, Kotori would stop being Kotori. Unless he could lock her power away.

“S-so we should go right now!” he cried.

“…” Reine put her hand to her chin thoughtfully before letting out a defeated sigh. “…That really would be best.”

“Huh?”

“…No. We can’t do that. I told you, didn’t I?” she said. “Right now, we’re controlling her symptoms with medication. We have to wait until she stabilizes.”

“B-but in two days—”

“…That’s the only day when the two conditions line up. If we miss the day after tomorrow, assume we won’t have another chance.”

“Ngh.” Shido gritted his teeth, and Reine sighed quietly as she turned toward the console.

“…At any rate, leave this to me. You go check in on Mana, Shin. You should still be able to make visiting hours at the hospital.” She indicated the door as if to chase Shido and Yoshino out.

“B-but—,” he protested again.

“…Please. Just do it.”

“…Fine.” Sensing something out of the ordinary in Reine’s attitude, he obediently left the room with Yoshino, bowing. “Please take care of Kotori.”

Then he started walking toward the lower part of the ship, the place where the transport gate to the ground was.

“…Make Kotori weak in the knees…,” he muttered, quietly enough so that Yoshino next to him couldn’t hear.

If he didn’t, Kotori would stop being Kotori.

Kotori. His little sister. That stern, strong-willed Commander Kotori Itsuka. Make her weak in the knees?

It seemed like an impossibly difficult mission.