Chapter 9

Final Rendezvous

June 11, 9:55 AM.

Shido was standing in front of Pachiko at the east exit of Tengu Station, with a bag stuffed with the swimsuit and beach towel he had bought the day before over his shoulder.

The statue was of a sitting dog. It was fairly well-known as a meeting spot at Tengu Station, but because of a certain loyal dog that was even more famous, it was rarely called by its actual name. The fact was, Shido didn’t even really remember what it was.

“…Ah.” He groaned quietly, pressing a hand to his forehead. After he’d passed out the day before, he’d fallen asleep and woken up in the Fraxinus medical office.

Apparently, they’d checked over his vitals just in case and given him an IV, but he could still feel the slight throbbing in his head.

“Are you all right, Shido?”

He heard Kannazuki’s voice over his earpiece. Naturally, since Kotori couldn’t exactly guide him on his date that day, this man was stepping in on her behalf.

“Yeah…for the most part,” Shido remarked and slapped his cheeks.

He was concerned about what had happened yesterday, but he couldn’t be thinking about that now. Whatever else was going on, he had to go on a date with Kotori and get her to fall for him today. This was an extremely difficult mission, but if he didn’t complete it, Kotori’s mind would be swallowed up by the Spirit power. There wasn’t room for even a single misstep.

“You have the plan in your head, yes? We’ll support you from here. It’s all right, you are an extraordinary savior-slash-playboy who has made several Spirits weak in the knees. Please have faith in yourself.”

“…Right.” He smiled slightly at Kannazuki’s encouraging (?) words. That description of himself was honestly not his favorite.

“…Kotori’s been sent down to the ground.” Now Reine’s inflectionless voice came to him through the earpiece. “She should be there soon. We’re counting on you, Shin.”

“…! O-okay.” He took a deep breath to calm himself.

Before long, a small figure walked toward him. Wearing a cute, frilly, short-sleeved blouse and dark brown overall shorts, she held a bag in her hand, which he assumed contained a swimsuit. Familiar black ribbons tied her long hair up in two bunches.

Even though it had only been two days since he saw her face, he felt strangely moved for some reason. Maybe he was relieved that she was still the Kotori that he knew.

“H-hey, Kotori.” He raised a hand in greeting.

“Mm. Sorry to make you wait,” Kotori replied.

And then there was a moment of silence.

Chatting with his little sister was pretty much a daily thing for him, and yet he felt a little nervous. He couldn’t think of a thing to say.

“…Shin, why aren’t you saying something? First—,” Reine instructed, while Kotori let out an exasperated sigh.

“You’ve got nothing to say when a girl meets you all dressed up? I thought I taught you this—the basic of all basics?”

“…! O-oh.”

She was exactly right. She had told him this when Tohka appeared, so why had he forgotten now?

He was about to speak as instructed when he suddenly realized something. “You got…all dressed up,” he commented.

“…!” Kotori twitched. “Hmph. Well, you know. The format for this day is technically a date, after all. I have to give you some chances to take action, Shido… And I wouldn’t hate getting complimented by you.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing. Anyway, isn’t it about time to catch the train?” Kotori turned toward the station and then whirled around to face Shido again, a bold smile crossing her face. “Now. How about we start our ‘war’—a date?”

“Y-yeah.” Shido gulped loudly. He knew what that phrase meant.

“Mm!”

“O-okay…!”

“Ooh, this’ll be fun.”

Three extra voices chimed in after Shido, and he frowned.

Suspicious, he looked back and froze in place. Standing there were Tohka and Yoshino, all dressed up for an outing.

“Tohka, Yoshino… And Yoshinon?! Wh-what are you doing here?!”

“Mm?” Tohka eyed him curiously. “What are you talking about? Aren’t we going to Ocean Park or whatever?”

“H-how do you know that?!”

“What do you mean, how?” Tohka frowned as if to say that Shido’s reaction was entirely unexpected.

“It’s…” Yoshino spoke up in a faltering voice as if to fill in the blanks for him. “Reine told us…to come. But…is that a problem…?”

“…?!” He gasped. And then, before he could ask, he heard a voice over the earpiece.

“…Oh, right, right. I guess I didn’t tell you. They’re coming on your date today, too.”

“Wh-why would…?” Shido asked, starting to perspire. True, there was such a thing as a group date, but as a general rule, dates usually involved just two people.

“…Well, I thought that might be best for today.”

“Uh. Uh-huh…”

This was Reine. He knew she would have thought this through and that she wouldn’t do anything to mess this all up, but he still couldn’t help worrying. He lowered his voice and asked, “But is this okay? What about Kotori’s mood and stuff…?”

“…Mm. You don’t need to worry about that.”

“R-really…?” He looked back at his sister.

The expression on her face was unchanged even at the sudden appearance of Tohka and Yoshino.

“…” Shido’s cheeks twitched. He was about to let out a sigh of relief, but he was quickly made to understand that he was very much mistaken.

“…Huh. Very bold of you, Shido. This should be fun,” Kotori said with a grin. Not much else about her expression had changed, but the aura rising up behind her was obviously different. It was so intense that if this were a manga, there would have been flames roaring behind her.

“Uh. I—I mean…” Shido’s voice cracked, and he put a finger to his earpiece, raising a small voice in protest. “This is bad, though! Very bad! She’s emanating a very dangerous vibe!”

“…You think? I don’t think it’s all that bad…”

“Wh-what is Kotori’s mood meter and likability like right now…?!”

When he went on a date with a Spirit, Reine always used a special Realizer to monitor the mental state of the subject.

“…”

She was silent for a while.

“…Mm. Well. That’s… Right… Good luck,” she said, sounding more irresponsible than ever before… The numbers had to have been pretty bad.

“H-hey, Reine…!” Shido shouted, despair in his heart.

Kotori walked briskly over to Tohka and Yoshino and gently patted their shoulders. “Wohkay. How about we get going then? Did you make sure to bring your swimsuits?”

Faces that had clouded over at Shido’s reaction cleared up right away.

“Yeah! Of course!”

“Shido bought us…swimsuits yesterday…”

“Wow, that’s great then. Someone’s a nice guy, huh, Shido?” Kotori said, turning her eyes toward him. Her tone and expression were both gentle, but for some reason, they were ghastly in a way that made his stomach turn inside out.

“Eep…!” He shuddered.

“Okay, let’s go. Let’s head out!” Kotori led Tohka and Yoshino toward the ticket gates.

“Shido, please go after them!” Kannazuki said. “We can still recover from this. We’ll provide backup once you reach your destination!”

“R-roger…” He managed to move his frozen feet somehow.

…This date was already shaping up to be a rough one.

Ocean Park was a theme park close to Eibu Station, five stops away from Tengu Station. It had a water area with all kinds of pools, a large bathing area, and indoor attractions, as well as an amusement area, which mainly consisted of an outdoor amusement park. During summer vacation, the park was a popular destination for families and couples from all around town.

However, it was still only the middle of June. Although the indoor facilities and outdoor amusement park were open year-round, the main attraction, the outdoor pool, didn’t open until next month, so there were far fewer visitors than at peak times. Given that the mood would have been shot with the large crowds he sometimes saw bumping and jostling on the summer news, this might have actually been the perfect time for a date.

Shido finished changing, left the locker room, and stepped out into the indoor pool area.

He couldn’t see the girls yet, so he figured they were still changing. He leaned back and stretched as he looked around. “Whoa… This is pretty impressive.”

The space was covered by a domed roof, and a large pool patterned after a sandy beach spread out underneath it, a waterslide in the form of a rocky mountain on the other side of this fake ocean. The design seemed expressly intended to tickle a boy’s adventurous spirit.

“It’s fine to have fun, but please don’t forget about the commander, all right?” Kannazuki chided him.

“I—I know… And like, can I wear this earpiece under water?”

“…Yes. It’s completely waterproof. Just be careful that it doesn’t pop out of your ear,” Reine warned.

“Shido! Sorry to make you wait!” a cheerful voice called out from behind him.

He looked back to find Tohka, Yoshino, and Kotori standing there. Tohka’s and Yoshino’s outfits were the swimsuits they’d bought the previous day, just as he’d expected.

Tohka’s was a light purple bikini, while Yoshino’s was a pale pink one-piece with a frilly bit like a skirt around the waist. Yoshino still wasn’t great at changing, but he assumed Tohka or Kotori had helped her into her suit. Neither of them seemed embarrassed the way they had been at the shop, perhaps because that trip had gotten them used to the concept of this attire. Or perhaps because everyone there was dressed the same way they were.

“H-hey,” Shido replied, waving, and let out a sigh of relief.

Tohka and Yoshino were both beautiful in an entirely otherworldly way, like sirens of the deep. In fact, if he had just happened upon them, without actually knowing them, he might have indeed ignored Kotori to stare at them.

“…It’s a good thing we did that training,” Reine observed, as if reading Shido’s mind.

“…Were you planning to have Tohka and Yoshino come along even then? And that’s why you went and made me go buy them swimsuits…”

“…Hmm, who can say?” Reine replied, and Shido sighed.

“Yaaaah!” Tohka shouted. “This is amazing! There’s a lake and a mountain inside a building!”

Yoshino was also breathing heavily with delight, which was unusual for her, and she opened her mouth, her cheeks flushing. “Th-there’s so much water…!”

“Ah! This really ratchets up the excitement!” Yoshinon also flapped its hands.

“Shido, can we go in the lake?!”

“Yeah, of course. I mean, that’s basically the point of being here,” he replied.

Tohka’s eyes shone even brighter. “All right! Here we go, Yoshino!”

“Y-yeah…!”

They raced toward the pool.

“Those two seem pretty excited, huh?”

He heard a voice from behind him and jumped.

“H-hey, Kotori,” he said, slowly looking back.

Just as he’d expected, Kotori was there in a swimsuit, arms crossed, a Chupa Chups in her mouth. Her suit was a white two-piece. The top was a halter-neck tube top and was strangely sexy.

“…” Now that he was thinking about it, he felt like he hadn’t seen Kotori in a swimsuit in years.

Because their parents were never really home, Itsuka family leisure time was seriously limited. Of course, they had classes in the pool in summer, so he had washed and folded Kotori’s school swimsuit, but he’d never actually seen her wearing a normal one.

Kotori raised doubtful eyebrows. “What are you staring at? You’re a failure of a person if you’re getting the hots for your sister, even if it’s not biologically incest, you know?”

“…! A-as if I would!” Shido gasped.

“Oh yeah?” Kotori shrugged with extreme chill.

“…What are you doing, Shin?” He heard Reine’s voice in his right ear.

“Huh?”

“…I told you before, didn’t I? She’s all dressed up. You’re not going to say anything?”

“Oh.”

Reine was right. Shido cleared his throat before turning back toward his sister.

“K-Kotori.”

“What?” she responded, her eyes narrowed.

For a moment, Shido was lost for words. He never dreamed it could be this embarrassing to pay his sister a compliment. Maybe it was just that he was too close to her.

“…You’ve got it.” Reine gave him a push, and Shido averted his eyes slightly as he parted trembling lips.

“Uh. Um… That, uh, it looks good on you. That swimsuit. I—I think it’s…cute.” He was practically Yoshino level of shy, but he somehow managed to get the whole sentence out.

“…!” Kotori’s eyes snapped open, and her cheeks reddened ever so slightly. But she quickly shook her head and flicked the stick of her Chupa Chups up, a bold smile crossing her face. “Oh, why, thank you. I suppose Reine or Kannazuki instructed you to compliment me?”

“Ngh…!” He groaned. She had seen right through him. Saying nothing, however, was basically the same as admitting she was right. Shido followed up with as short of a pause as possible. “N-no, they didn’t. It’s what I really think.”

He did think Kotori looked cute in her swimsuit. Although he was a little hesitant about putting that thought into words, he wasn’t lying to her.

“Wow, I’m honored.” Kotori snorted, and her lips spread out into a malicious grin. “So what did you think was cute in specific?”

“Wha…?! Uh. Um.”

“…Mm. Guess this is where we come in,” Reine said in his right ear.

On the bridge of the airship Fraxinus floating in the sky directly above Ocean Park, a little ways from its usual airspace, Vice Commander Kyouhei Kannazuki called out from where he stood next to the captain’s chair. “Now, everyone, it’s time to show what we’re made of!”

Kannazuki was temporarily in command of the ship. Normally, the leader of the ship would sit down in the captain’s chair, but he did not do that.

This chair belonged to Kotori. He had faith in her return. He couldn’t possibly sully this seat by sitting in it… And he preferred to be sat on by the captain rather than sit in the captain’s chair anyway.

A window with three options was displayed on the monitor that showed the scene at the pool.

“Crew, please make your choices!” Kannazuki shouted, and the aggregate results were immediately displayed on his terminal.

The majority was with (1). Next was (2). There wasn’t a single vote for (3).

“Hmm. You chose one, then? Well, that’s reasonable, I guess.” He put a hand to his chin and pondered this.

A crew member’s voice came up from the lower deck. “Er, it might be a bit overused, but no one would be unhappy to hear that.”

“Two isn’t bad, either, but I’m concerned that it would be the swimsuit that has caught his eye,” said another.

“Three… Well, that’s out of the question.”

“I suppose so.” Kannazuki nodded and brought his mouth close to the mic. “Shido, three. ‘I love how your chest is just starting to fill it out.’”

A heartbeat later.

““Whaaat?!””

The voices of the Fraxinus crew and Shido at the pool blended together in perfect harmony.

“V-Vice Commander, have you lost your mind?! This is Commander Kotori we’re talking about!”

“Didn’t I just say that three was out of the question?!”

Critical voices—shrieks, really—flew up at him from the lower deck. But Kannazuki slowly spread his hands to quell this uproar.

“It’s precisely because this is Commander Kotori.”

“Huh…?”

His calm tone quieted the crew temporarily. Kannazuki smiled gently and turned a hand toward the Kotori in a swimsuit on the big screen.

“After all, take a look for yourself. That slender figure, her beautiful, unformed body. The fleeting glimmer of a thirteen-year-old, an eighth grader. Impossible to resist. There can be no other choice.”

“That’s your personal preference, Vice Commander! If he says that, the commander will kick him!”

Kannazuki gasped. “He will even receive a reward! It’s perfect, isn’t it?!”

“I’m telling you, this just…!”

The crew scratched their heads, at a total loss for words at this point.

All the while, time was passing. Shido’s panicked voice came through over the speakers. “Sh-should I really say that…?”

“Yes, of course. You may also substitute ‘boobs’ for ‘chest,’ if you wish.”

“…I’ll go with the original.”

The crew hit the mic switch desperately to try and stop Shido, but the captain’s chair had the highest priority for that circuit.

Shido turned back to Kotori, determined.

“Uh. Umm. Okay.”

Cheeks spasming, Shido looked at Kotori’s chest. It was a clearly unhinged choice, but it was also the choice of the crew based on the output of Fraxinus’s AI. He had to trust them.

“Um. I love how your chest is just starting to fill it out.”

“Wha—?!” Kotori’s cheeks turned red, and she slapped her hands over her chest to hide it. “Wh-what are you talking about…?! That’s what you’re thinking?!”

“Uh. I—I mean, it’s…!” Shido waved his hands in a panic, and a shrill siren rang in his right ear. An ominous sound he’d heard before. It was the emergency alarm to inform him that a Spirit’s mood or likability had dropped dramatically or that her mental state had become unstable.

“C-calm down, Kotori! That was just a…!”

“…Shin. This is an emergency.” Reine’s voice drowned out his own excuses.

“I know! How can I get her to calm—?”

“…No, not her.”

“Huh…?”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah?!” An earsplitting shriek echoed throughout the pool area.

“Wh-what was that?!”

“Shido! There!” Kotori pointed toward the open sea of the pool.

Half of which was now a skating rink with Yoshino on top of it, wailing.

“…So Yoshinon got swept away in the wave pool, and you panicked.”

It had been about thirty minutes since the mysterious ice appeared in the pool. Shido sighed as he used Kotori’s portable hair dryer to blow-dry Yoshinon on Yoshino’s left hand.

Fortunately, there hadn’t been a huge commotion, and the pool was already back to normal, but Yoshino’s shoulders were still slumped dejectedly. And Tohka remained curled into herself.

“I. I’m…sorry…”

“Mm. I’m ashamed. It was while I was there with her…”

“Well, like I said, don’t worry about it too much. It didn’t turn into something bigger or anything,” Shido told them.

“That’s right,” assured Kotori from where she stood next to him. “It’s Shido’s fault for neglecting to envision all the possibilities. You’ve got nothing to be sorry about.”

“…Hey.” Shido tousled Yoshinon’s head as he hit it with hot air. “Okay! I think you’re about dry. You okay, Yoshinon?”

Yoshinon shook its entire body like a dog before placing a hand to its chest and panting, “A-ah… I went on a grand adventure. I thought I was a goner.”

“I’m sorry…Yoshinon.”

“Nah, it’s fine. No worries. I got to see you again, safe and sound. Everything’s A-okay, Yoshino.”

“Mm-hmm…” Yoshino nodded as she patted Yoshinon’s head.

Kotori shrugged. “Well, it’s no surprise you don’t know how this place works. I’m pretty sure there was a pool float rental counter over there. How about we go borrow a couple?”

“Pool float?” Tohka cocked her head to one side.

“Oh.” Kotori twirled her index finger around. “You know what they say: Seeing is believing. It’d be faster to just show you. Let’s go.”

Kotori started walking, and Tohka and Yoshino stood up to follow her.

“Hey! Wait up!” Shido folded up the hair dryer and chased after the three girls.

When he caught up, Kotori slid in close to him. Almost as if she wanted to make sure Tohka and Yoshino couldn’t overhear their conversation.

“Wh-what? What’s going on?”

“…Mm. About before.”

“Before?”

“…The whole what-part-is-cute thing.”

“…!” Shido felt a hand reach into his chest and squeeze his heart. He thought he’d managed to dodge that bullet with the whole Yoshino incident, but of course, he was not that lucky. This was, after all, commander mode “evil” Kotori. The embodiment of super sadism, digging deep for the tears if her target showed any weakness. “O-oh. That. Right…”

“That… C’mon, that was actually an instruction from Fraxinus, right? Or…was that, um, really how you feel?”

“Uh! N-no, that was—”

“…How you really feel, yes?” Reine’s voice asked in his right ear, almost like the whisper of a demon lurking inside of Shido. If he reacted to her question with Kotori right beside him, Kotori would definitely catch on. He managed somehow to keep himself from saying what was on his mind.

“…Kotori might have guessed what’s happening, but if you say ‘Ratatoskr told me to’ on a date, you’re definitely going to kill the mood. Even if she knows all this in her mind, you admitting it will seriously change things. Reason and emotion can’t coexist.”

Shido gritted his teeth before turning his eyes back to Kotori. “Um… That was how I…really feel.”

“…” Kotori was silent for a moment.

Aah. He had admitted it. He had no other choice, though. Still, he had just told her flat out how he really felt. Shido turned his head to the heavens in despair.

She was definitely going to snort at him. She was going to think he was the very personification of sexual desire, a boy who seriously felt animal lust for his little sister. On top of that, she was going to think he had a Lolita complex and was in love with developing bodies. He was absolutely going to get an earful. She was going to look down on him like she was looking at garbage, make him grovel, kick him, and jeer that he must love this kind of thing, that he was a perverted, piece-of-shit pedophile, ohhh, but maybe that wouldn’t be so different from how things already were.

But even after a few seconds, neither sharp punches nor abusive words came flying toward him. He glanced over at her, curiously, to find that Kotori’s head was hanging and that she was blushing.

“…Huh… It was, huh?” She touched a hand to the modest breasts covered by her swimsuit.

“Kotori?”

“…!”

Kotori jumped and launched a backhand blow into his solar plexus.

“Quo…?!”

“…Hmph! ‘Quo,’ he says. I’m no sorcerous stabber here.” She turned her face away and walked briskly ahead, pulling Tohka and Yoshino along behind her.

“Mm? What’s wrong with Shido?”

“He looks…like he’s…in pain…”

“Hmph. Don’t bother about him. Probably just a flare-up of his chronic condition, Solar Plexus Throbbing Syndrome. You can’t go near him. You’ll catch it.” She placed hands on the shoulders of a worried Tohka and Yoshino and urged them forward.

“Th-that jerk…” He stood up, pressing a hand to his stomach and ignoring the pain as he moved to go after them.

A message from Fraxinus reached his ear.

“…Shin, stop. A number of Ratatoskr personnel are mixed in the crowd there. How about we try a little something?”

“A little something? Like what?”

“…Maybe we could go with the gold standard: The hero shows up just in the nick of time when the girl is surrounded by a group of pickup artists.”

“Are you sure about that? I feel like she’ll send them packing before I get the chance to show up,” Shido said, anxious.

This time, Kannazuki’s voice came to him, full of confidence. “It’s all right. No matter how tough a girl acts, she’s waiting somewhere in her heart for a knight in shining armor to arrive. I know this only too well.”

“But aren’t you a man, Kannazuki?”

“I occasionally dress as a woman.”

“…” Shido felt like he had just been treated to a strange reveal, but he decided to pretend he hadn’t heard it and turned back toward the girls.

They were already standing in front of the counter lined with pool floats and beach boards, talking to the staff member there.

“…Now, we’re sending in our people in disguise. You chase them off and make yourself look good, Shin.”

“Oh. Uh.”

Reine had no sooner finished speaking than three men approached Kotori, Tohka, and Yoshino. Bleached hair and tanned skin. From the look of them, they were used to playing around.

They called out to the girls, grinning and waving.

“Hello! Hey, girls, where you from?”

“Is it just the three of you? Awfully lonely, huh?”

“How about hanging out with us for a bit?”

They offered up time-tested pickup lines that could have been plucked from ancient texts.

“Mm. What’s with you guys?”

“…! Uh. Mm…”

Tohka frowned suspiciously, and Yoshino hid behind Tohka.

Well, he supposed that kind of reaction was normal when a stranger suddenly started talking to you. The abnormal reaction was the cold glare Kotori was giving the men.

“…Okay, Shin. You’re up.”

“Uh. Uh-huh…”

One of the men grabbed Kotori’s wrist, smirking. “Come on! Just for a little while. We’ll have a lot of fun, I promise.”

Another one of the men turned a hand in Shido’s direction and made a gesture beckoning him. Shido supposed that meant he should go and stop them now.

“Okay, fine. I guess I’ll go.” He rubbed his solar plexus one last time before stepping forward. “Hey! Sorry, but these girls are—”

“Third Mate Fumio Awashima,” Kotori growled, staring at the face of the man clasping her wrist.

“What?!” The man jumped.

Kotori didn’t stop to pat herself on the back. Instead, she let her eyes roam over the faces of the other men in turn.

“Third Mate Yoshiharu Teshirogi. Third Mate Takashi Kawanishi. Mm. Your disguises aren’t bad. I’d give you passing marks. But the dialogue is just… Who wrote the script?” Kotori asked, rolling her eyes.

The men took a step back, looking confused.

“H-how did you recognize nobodies like us—?”

“Nobodies? What? As long as you’re a member of Ratatoskr and on my team, you’re family. Is there a parent alive who would forget the face of their child?”

“““…!!”””

The men dropped to their knees and began to weep hot tears.

“““C-Commander…!”””

“It’s sweltering out. Take your leave.”

“““Yes!”””

Kotori waved them off, and the men bowed neatly, the polar opposite of the characters they’d been playing, and returned from whence they had come.

Tohka and Yoshino look at each other quizzically.

“Mm. What was that all about?”

“Kotori… You’re…amazing.”

Kotori shook her head as if to say it was nothing.

“…Uh. Um.” Now Shido was the one in trouble. He picked at his skin.

They’d had the tables turned on them. Now that he thought about it, that made sense. The other Spirits were one thing, but there was no way using Ratatoskr personnel as instigators would work on Kotori.

He tapped his earpiece and spoke to Fraxinus, a bit of annoyance bleeding into his voice. “…That didn’t work at all.”

“…We made sure it was personnel she’d never met with before. We did special makeup for them, and still.” Reine sounded impressed.

“Th-that is amazing, true. But what am I supposed to do now? We’re not going to get results with your personnel, right?”

“…Maybe not. We might have underestimated Kotori.”

“S-so then what—?”

“You can’t be so blatant about your communication, Shido,” came Kotori’s voice abruptly, and he jumped. At some point, she had come to stand in front of him with her hands on her hips.

“Oh. Uh…,” he stammered. Apparently, he had been very obvious about talking to Reine.

“Geez… I mean, it’s not a big deal with me. But what are you going to do if other Spirits pick up on this?”

“Ngh…”

Kotori shrugged, exasperated. He hated it, but he couldn’t argue with her.

But staying quiet wasn’t good, either. Shido shook his head to try and change the subject somehow.

“A-anyway… Where are Tohka and Yoshino?”

“Mm.” Kotori jerked her chin, and he looked that way to see Tohka and Yoshino bobbing in the pool wearing the floats they had rented.

“Whoa, wow! Look, Shido! I’m not sinking!” Tohka cried out happily.

“…! …!” Yoshino also nodded her head in excitement.

Whatever else was happening, they were having the time of their lives at the pool for the first time. They were not his objective that day. His target listlessly flicked the stick of her Chupa Chups around, looking bored. He was pretty sure she hadn’t even gotten in the pool yet. And it wouldn’t have been because she couldn’t swim.

“…Shin, what are you doing there? Ask Kotori to go in,” Reine instructed.

On the monitor featuring a torso shot of Kotori on the bridge of Fraxinus, a window was displayed once more.

“Hmm. Well, everyone, choose!” Kannazuki called shrilly.

The crew members pushed buttons on their consoles.

The results were immediately thrown up on-screen. The most votes went to (1). Next was (2). There was not a single vote for (3).

The crew’s faces clouded over. They had seen these results before.

Kannazuki nodded to himself. “I see. The waterslide.”

“Yes… Well, it’s a compromise. They went all the way to Ocean Park. They have to at least take on the star attraction.”

“The hot spring area is also a treasure, but it’s not a place young people tend to go at the park.”

“Vice Commander, three is a no-go. No three.”

The crew glared at Kannazuki as if to push the point home.

Kannazuki laughed out loud. “Oh, you! I may have been given discretionary power, but it’s not as though I would exercise that recklessly to make my own decisions, would I?”

He brought his mouth closer to the mic.

“Shido, three. Go to the wave pool, and you be the commander’s boat—”

“Hey!” Two crew members jumped up from the lower deck and yanked him away from the mic.

“Wh-what are you doing?!” Kannazuki cried.

“Analyst Murasame! Now!” one crew member shouted, holding the vice commander back.

“…Mm? Oh.” Reine flipped the switch for the mic. “…Can you hear me? It’s one. Go down the waterslide with Kotori.”

“Understood… And, like, did something happen? I thought I heard a weird noise…”

“Shido! Boat! Be the commander’s boat! Lie back!” Kannazuki continued to shout from the upper deck where the captain’s chair was.

But Reine ignored him. “…Don’t worry about it. The waterslide. You have to go down it together, okay?”

“O-okay…,” Shido agreed, sounding not entirely convinced.

Reine cut the mic switch, and the crew holding Kannazuki finally loosened their grip.

“Honestly… Why would you do that?!” Kannazuki cried. “Our precious chance! And acting in violence against a superior to interrupt a mission is a serious violation of rules!”

One of the crew members rolled her eyes. “…Remember: In the event that Medical Officer Rindo determines there to be a medical issue, or in the event that more than two-thirds of personnel including Analyst Murasame determine there to be a lack of leadership, that discretionary power may be stripped away.”

“Unh…!” Kannazuki’s eyebrows jumped up, and he looked around the bridge. Everyone was staring hard at him.

He cleared his throat, sweat beading on his cheeks.

“…Okay. Let us not ask about the actions of a moment ago. Now we shall continue our mission.”

“All those who think the vice commander lacks the ability to lead, press—”

“I just said we wouldn’t ask about it, didn’t I?!” Kannazuki shrieked, and the vote was deferred for the time being.

After getting instructions from a strangely noisy Fraxinus, Shido glanced over at Kotori.

“H-hey, Kotori?”

“What?” she replied curtly.

He was almost shut down by this, but he managed to continue without losing heart. “Hey… We’re here and all. How about we get in the water?”

Kotori looked at him finally, unimpressed, as if appraising him. “Mm-hmm. Which one?”

“Mm, how about the waterslide?” He pointed at the massive mountain. A long slide stretched out from the top, and people in swimsuits slid down it into the pool, accompanied by shrieks and splashes.

Kotori stared at it, and then sighed. “Pretty cliché… But well, I guess it’s a compromise. Sure. Let’s go.” She started to walk toward the slide. She looked very much the part of a commander keeping track of an operation, rather than a girl having a good time on a date.

Bobbing up and down in the pool, Tohka and Yoshino looked over at them.

“Shido! Kotori! Are you going somewhere?”

“Huh? Ohhh… We were just going to go on the waterslide.”

“Wah-turr-slah-eed?” Tohka cocked her head to one side, her eyes wide.

“Yeah.” Shido grinned and pointed once more toward the rocky mountain. “That thing.”

“Oh…! The people are being carried away!” Tohka’s eyes shone, and she climbed out of the pool with the float still around her waist. “Me too. I want to go, too!”

“H-huh?!” Shido cried out. And rightly so. He was trying to hang out with Kotori to get his likability up somehow. If Tohka got involved, the whole thing would get complicated once again.

“Mm… I’m not allowed?” Tohka’s shoulders slumped in dejection. If she’d had ears on her head and a tail on her backside, they would have been drooping.

Of course, this pained him. But if he didn’t shut her down here…

“…Shin, it’s fine. Take Tohka along, too,” Reine said abruptly in his right ear.

“Reine? Are you sure?”

“…Mm-hmm. This might actually be helpful. Maybe.”

“Uh…?”

“…Oh. Well, anyway, it’s not good to say no to Tohka when she wants to have fun.”

“U-understood.”

What was Reine thinking? Shido turned back to Tohka.

“Mm, okay. Let’s all go, okay, Tohka?”

“Ooh! Really?!” Tohka’s face was immediately full of sunshine.

He felt like Kotori was clicking her tongue quietly behind him, but he decided to believe it was in his mind. “Y-yeah. But you’ll have to leave the float behind.”

“Shido. Is it…okay if I…wait here…?” Yoshino called from the pool.

“Huh? You sure?” Shido asked, surprise bleeding into his voice. He had assumed that Yoshino would also want to go on the waterslide.

Yoshino shook her head, her face paling. “It’s…scary. Yoshinon…might drift away. Again…”

“Ohhh. Is that it?” Shido grinned. Apparently, she was slightly traumatized by the incident earlier.

“So…I will…wait…with Yoshinon.”

“Yeah? Then could you hang on to Tohka’s float, too?”

“Yes…I can do that.”

Tohka grabbed on to the pool float around her waist and yanked it up. The float got caught on her large chest, and she couldn’t get it off.

“Mm. What is going on? It won’t let me go,” she grumbled and pulled even harder.

The float pulled up her chest rather magnificently and also yanked up the top of the swimsuit she was wearing. A tiny bit of soft breasts peeked out from beneath it.

Shido hurried to stop her. “Whoa, Tohka! Stop! Stop! You need to pull it down!”

“Mm?” Tohka pulled the pool float down, and it dropped smoothly to her feet. “Oh! Wow, Shido! How’d you know that?!”

“Oh… Well. You know,” Shido managed to say, scratching his cheek.

Tohka passed the float to Yoshino. “Okay, I’m counting on you, Yoshino.”

“Okay.” Yoshino nodded and took the float.

Shido turned toward the waterslide and at last noticed that Kotori had crossed her arms in annoyance and was tapping her foot impatiently. “K-Kotori…”

“It’s a big no at any time to make your date wait. If this was training, we’d be going straight to punishment.”

Shido shrank into himself, and Kotori sighed as she marched off toward the waterslide.

“Tohka! Come on!” he shouted as he hurried after Kotori.

“Mm!”

Soon, they had climbed the stairs to reach the peak of the mountain. A staff member at the opening of the waterslide was letting the visitors into the flowing water in order of arrival. Fortunately, there were only a few people ahead of them, and soon it was their turn.

Shido obeyed the instructions of the staff member and sat down at the top of the waterslide, holding on to the edge with his hands.

“…Shin. I told you before. There’s no point in this unless you slide together,” Reine warned.

Shido tapped the earpiece to indicate that he understood and splashed the water in front of him. “C’mon, Kotori! Let’s slide together!”

“What?!” Kotori’s eyes flew open at Shido’s suggestion, but she quickly cleared her throat and averted her eyes. “I-I’m good. I’m not a little kid.”

“Don’t say that. Come on. This kind of thing’s fun sometimes. Okay?”

“Ngh… I told you I’m good!” She crossed her arms once more and turned her face away with a hmph.

Maybe this was bad. When Kotori started sulking, there was no talking her out of it.

“You’re not gonna go, Kotori? Then I’m gonna slide with Shido!”

He heard Tohka’s voice from behind him, and something soft pressed up against his back.

“T-Tohka?!”

“Mm. Okay, let’s go!” Tohka laughed innocently while she squeezed him. She was no doubt just trying to be more stable on the water, but…her chest was equipped with two weapons of mass destruction, and so, this more or less caused some problems for Shido.

“What, Shido? We’re not going?”

“O-oh… It’s just, well.” He could feel his face getting hotter.

Tohka leaned around to try and get a look at his face, carrying out a major air raid on his back.

“…Mm.” Kotori lowered her eyes. The deepest of lines was carved out between her eyebrows. Pursed lips turned down at the corners. He knew almost instinctively that she was getting mad at him for being bewildered by this.

But then she did something unexpected.

“Huh?”

Kotori took a step forward and sat down between Shido’s legs.

“Kotori?”

“Wh-what? You got a problem?”

“No… I don’t, but…,” Shido said, his bewilderment shining through.

“…Good. Nice work, Tohka,” Reine whispered in his right ear.

“Huh?”

“…Oh, it’s just, even if it is a date, I didn’t think Kotori would be able to let her guard down and have fun.”

“R-Reine, is this why you—?” he started and then stopped himself.

The reason was simple. Excited that Kotori was joining the fight, Tohka had glued herself even more tightly to him.

“Ooh! Kotori’s coming, too! All right! Three of us going!”

Every time Tohka spoke, her sweet breath blew on his neck and robbed Shido’s body of its strength. It wasn’t only her chest. Her stomach, her arms, her legs, all of her was squishy and soft, and just touching her threatened to make his brain run out of his ears.

“H-hey, Tohka… Maybe don’t hold on so…”

“Mmm…” Kotori saw this and gritted her teeth, somehow vexed, before whirling around to change her position.

“H-hey, Kotori…?”

Ignoring Shido, Kotori faced him and grabbed on tightly. Exactly like a koala clinging to a tree. Even though they used to bathe together all the time and hugging her was a part of his everyday life, his heart started beating faster for some reason.

Tohka was excited about this switch up. “Kotori! You for real?! Okay! Then I’m gonna go all in, too!” She grabbed on to the edge of the waterslide and launched the three of them into the flowing water.

“Whoa?!”

“Eeaaah…!”

Shido and Kotori cried out at the unexpected shock.

The attendant was clearly about to yell at them, when Tohka catapulted them down the slide. Despite the fact that the majority of her powers were locked away, her physical prowess was far greater than that of the average human. Their start was forceful and abrupt. Shido was almost dizzy from the speed.

“Ah! Waaaaaaah!”

“…! …!”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Whipping along the slide, very nearly sliding out of it, the scream, soundless cry, and laughter of the mass of three people trailed behind them as they raced downward.

Just when they were coming up on the sharpest twist of the many twists and turns, they slipped up out of the slide from the sheer force of their descent and were tossed up into the air.

“Eee…?!”

“…!”

“Ooh! We’re flying!”

He heard Tohka cry out excitedly as he felt the buoyancy of his body disappear. Then he plunged into the pool directly below. Water shot up into the air, and waves rippled outward.

“Pwah! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Shido! This is really fun!” Tohka laughed, the first to push her face up above the water’s surface.

But Shido was far from reaching air. For some reason, his body was heavier than it should have been, and he couldn’t get himself to the surface.

“Mm…!” He pushed as hard as he could to stand up, and then he realized what was going on.

“Eh…! Eh…!” Kotori was still clinging to Shido, quietly sobbing, her shoulders shaking. When he looked at her, he saw that the ribbons tying up her hair had come undone.

“Kotori… Are you okay?”

“B-Big Bro…,” Kotori said, sniffling, and looked up at him.

Shido’s eyes grew wide in surprise. “Are you actually cry—?”

“…!” Kotori yanked her hands away and turned her back to him. “My ribbons… Get my ribbons…”

“Ribbons?” He whirled his head around and found two black ribbons floating on the water’s surface. He picked them up and handed them to Kotori. She snatched them from his hand and sank down into the water.

Bubbles burbled to the surface. A few seconds later.

“…Ugh. You’re so reckless.” When Kotori reappeared, she was the impeccable commander once more. Her nose and eyes were just a little red, though.

“…”

“…What?” Kotori narrowed her eyes at him.

Shido looked at the black ribbons. He’d been curious about them for a while now. April 10. Once Shido learned of the existence of the Spirits, commander-mode Kotori had started showing her face. But which one was the real Kotori? And how exactly had she developed two personalities that were such polar opposites?

White ribbons meant innocent Kotori. Black ribbons were the strong and arrogant commander. It seemed to be more a matter of perfect control over her mindset rather than multiple personalities.

“Hey, Kotori? Why’re you wearing black ribbons today?” Shido asked out of the blue.

“What? You don’t like ’em?”

“Oh… I didn’t mean it like that,” he stammered as he looked anywhere but at her. Well, he did mean it a bit like that, but he couldn’t go telling her the truth.

Kotori jerked her chin up. “…I have to. White me is weak me. Right now, I have to be black me, strong me.”

“Huh?” He frowned, not understanding what she meant. “What’s that about? Weak, strong?”

“Nothing. If you don’t get it, that’s fine.”

“D-don’t be that way…,” Shido half muttered, but Kotori looked away.

“…She was going in the right direction there, but she just can’t let herself be vulnerable, hmm?”

He heard a voice in his earpiece.

“…Let’s try shaking her up one more time.”

“Shaking her up…? I can’t handle the waterslide again…”

“…Mm. Don’t worry about it. You just stand there and be quiet.”

“? What does that…?” Shido frowned again.

Tohka leaped at him and Kotori. “Shido! Kotori! You want to go again?” she asked, the picture of innocence. She really liked the slide, apparently.

“Uh… I-I’m gonna sit this one out.”

“…Me too.”

When Shido and Kotori both shook their heads, Tohka pursed her lips. “Why? It was so much fun…”

Two small girls wearing pool floats swam by them, kicking their legs. The second they passed behind Tohka…

“Huh?”

One of the girls got caught on the strings of Tohka’s swimsuit. Her bikini top fell away and landed on the water. Shido’s eyes almost fell out of his skull.

“…?”

A beat later, Tohka also noticed what had happened. She slowly lowered her gaze.

“…?!” She shrieked silently and covered her chest with her hands before sinking into the water up to her neck. “Sh-Shido! D-d-d-d-d-d-did you see them?!”

“I—I didn’t! I didn’t see anything!”

“R-really?!”

“Really!” Shido desperately proclaimed his innocence, and Tohka sank further into the water, up to her nose, her cheeks reddening as she blew bubbles before she finally recovered the top floating on the water and put it back on.

He heaved a sigh of relief. The truth was he had seen a bit—a tiny bit—but he was not fool enough to actually tell her that.

But that was not the real threat he faced.

“…Shido.”

He heard a voice filled with quiet anger and jumped.

“K-Ko…tori?”

“…You said you preferred a chest just starting to fill out.”

“Huh?” He had not been expecting her to say that.

A right jab ripped through the air and slammed into Shido’s solar plexus.

“Ograh!”

“Hmph! ‘Ogre,’ he says. Strongest in the land.” Kotori flicked her hand like she was shaking off blood and stomped away.

Shido writhed in agony at the pain in his stomach.

“…Mm. That just now was not quite it?” Reine said.

“…Those girls…that went behind Tohka… They weren’t actually…Ratatoskr?”

“…No, she would’ve caught on if they were. We bought them off with free candy.”

Shido had visions of candy wrappers dancing before his eyes as he let himself fall onto the water’s surface and float.

The time was 2:10 PM. Shido and his party were taking a late lunch in the food court at Ocean Park. On the white plastic table before them were paper cups with drinks and a large plate full of clubhouse sandwiches. He felt like it was a little too much, but, well, with Tohka, there probably wouldn’t be any leftovers.

“Mm, this is good, Shido!” Tohka cheerfully chomped down on the sandwiches, a broad smile on her face. This was her usual style; she managed to make everything she ate look delicious.

In contrast, Yoshino was nibbling at a sandwich across from her as she nodded. “It’s…good.”

“Y-yeah? Glad to hear it.” A smile crossed Shido’s own face as he watched them. It wasn’t that either of them was doing anything particular. He was actually just glad to see them eating so happily.

He had an unresolved issue, however, that instantly made the peace in his heart at watching those two turn to worry. And that was Kotori directly across from him, arms and legs crossed, looking bored.

Maybe she didn’t like what he had ordered; either way, she hadn’t touched the sandwiches. She put her mouth to the straw of her drink every so often like she had just remembered it was there, without saying a word. He could tell by looking that she was in a bad mood.

“…Ngh.” Shido groaned too quietly for the others to hear.

It had been more than three hours since they’d arrived at Ocean Park. Although he’d tried a number of approaches with the help of Ratatoskr, he had basically nothing to show for it. It was true that they had the chance to plan more thoroughly with Kotori, but for all that, was she easier to manage than the other Spirits?

Shido shook his head. What exactly about this was easy to manage? Given that she knew why he was doing this, she might have been more stable than the other Spirits. But that also made it almost impossible to catch her off guard. Kotori Itsuka was without a doubt his most powerful enemy.

“…Reine. What are the numbers for Kotori’s mood and likability?” he asked the analyst on Fraxinus in a low voice, as he nonchalantly hid his mouth.

A few seconds later, a sleepy voice echoed in his right ear. “…Mm. There hasn’t been a significant drop… But no increase, either. It’s very obvious when you graph the numbers. It’s been flat this whole time.”

He groaned. He’d expected the lack of increase, but no decrease was strange. That meant Kotori had cooled off completely. Maybe because she could see right through Ratatoskr’s instructions, or maybe because her date was actually her brother.

“…”

For a few seconds, a somewhat unpleasant silence reigned.

“Shido. It’s not good to remain silent. You must speak; anything is fine,” Kannazuki told him.

“Uh. Um. Right.” Shido arched an eyebrow. Kannazuki was right. Having time and nothing to do with it was the worst. Looking for something to talk about, he sent his gaze racing around the area.

Kotori brought her lips to her drink again and then coughed several times. “Koff! Koff!”

“Y-you okay, Kotori?”

“…Yes. It just went down the wrong pipe.” She uncrossed her legs, stood up, and started to walk away without another word.

“Kotori…? Where are you going?”

“Asking a lady where she’s going when she stands up? If it was anyone but me, you’d be dead.”

“…I’ll remember that.” Shido watched Kotori from behind as she walked toward the washrooms before letting out a long sigh and dropping his head onto the table.

“Shido?” Tohka asked.

“Oh. Sorry. You’re in the middle of eating.” He lifted his face, and as if on cue, his stomach rumbled. Apparently, his own worries had disappeared with Kotori. He reached for a sandwich and scarfed it down. The girls were right. It really was good. He got why Tohka and Yoshino liked them.

“…Hmm?” Shido blinked. Tohka, Yoshino, and even Yoshinon were staring hard at him. “Wh-what? What’s wrong?”

“Oh…I was just thinking you were back to your usual self.”

“Huh?” Shido’s eyes grew round.

Yoshino and Yoshinon spoke up, too.

“Did you…have a fight…with. Kotori…?”

“You relaxed the second Kotori was gone. You’re too obvious, Shido.”

“Huh… I-is it that obvious?” Shido asked, and the two girls (and one puppet) nodded enthusiastically.

“…”

He scratched his head. He hadn’t really been aware of it, but it seemed that he had been pretty tense.

Going on a date with his little sister, making her fall for him…and sealing her power. Not only was this outrageously embarrassing right from the get-go, but he was up against the invincible commander of Ratatoskr. The pressure was getting to Shido.

“No, that’s not exactly…,” he started.

“…”

“Unh…”

Dubious eyes of two girls (and one puppet) boring a hole into him, Shido leaped to his feet.

“I—I have to use the washroom, too…”

“Oh, Shido!” Tohka called, as he fled.

Once he had moved away from them, he let out a sigh of relief. “…Huh. So I was that nervous?” This was kind of pathetic.

“Reine… You’re monitoring my mental state, too, right? If you are, I’d like you to tell me the numbers there,” he said to his earpiece, but for some reason, he got no response.

Soon, however, he heard a different voice from the one he’d been expecting.

“Aah, Shido. I’m terribly sorry, but Analyst Murasame has momentarily stepped away from her seat.”

“Oh, she has?” Shido was about to ask where she went, but of course, he had only just been warned by Kotori about chatting into the earpiece. “Oh…”

It would be weird if he went straight back when he said he was going to the washroom. He didn’t particularly have to go, but he could at least splash some cold water on his face. He started toward the men’s room.

And then he stopped abruptly.

“Hmm…?”

He heard something coming from behind the vending machines in front of the washrooms. When he listened closely, it sounded like voices whispering. And while it wasn’t his business if people wanted to whisper, he felt like these voices were familiar.

“What the…?” He turned in that direction.

And then as if to stop him, Kannazuki called out, “Shido, that’s—”

But it was too late. Before Kannazuki could put the brakes on, Shido was peeking behind the machines.

“…” He was dumbfounded.

There was a little pocket of space back there. Although it wasn’t actually that far from the busy pool area, it was a sad place that felt almost entirely cut off from that hustle and bustle. And two people were in it.

One was on her knees with a lab coat over a bikini for a look that wasn’t quite poolside and carrying a black bag. Reine. And the other was Kotori, sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall, holding her head, pained.

Shido unconsciously took a step back and hid himself.

He had accidentally glimpsed his sister in great anguish. The thing to do in a situation like this was hurry to her side, but for some reason, he felt like he shouldn’t here.

“…You okay, Kotori?” Reine asked.

“Yeah… Basically. But I’m on the edge. Help.” Kotori held an arm out at the analyst.

Reine bit her lip. “…I already gave you fifty times the normal dose this morning. Any more, and your life could be in danger.”

“Ha-ha… Now that I’m a Spirit, a little medicine’s not gonna kill me.”

Reine made a sour face, but Kotori pieced together words in between ragged breaths.

“…Please. It’s my date with Shido, with my big bro.”

“…!” Shido gasped, and his heart picked up the pace like an alarm bell. His earlier anxiety was nothing at all in comparison. Thmp. Thmp. Thmp. Thmp. His heart pounded. Painfully.

He swallowed the saliva that had pooled in his mouth, and suddenly, his throat was dry, shrieking with thirst. His fingers trembled. His legs shook. His whole body shivered like he was cold, even though the temperature in this building was fixed well above freezing.

He knew. He had been told. He should have been ready.

Now that Kotori had gotten all her Spirit powers back, she was fighting the destructive urges that swelled up in her. He knew why she was locked away by herself in a strictly controlled area of the ship when she was the commander. He knew that tonight was as long as she could hold out against these urges.

Shido had been told about all of this.

“Ah…,” he vocalized, unthinkingly. His voice wasn’t loud enough to tell Kotori and Reine that he was there, but it was plenty loud enough to knock his own brain from the inside.

He knew. He’d been told. He’d been ready. And yet. He had been careless.

Calm as ever, arrogant as ever, bold as ever. Somewhere in his heart, Shido had been relieved at this little sister in the black ribbons who made sport of him.

“I…”

He’d thought there was no way this strong Kotori could be swallowed up by Spirit powers. That it would all work out somehow, even if he couldn’t get her to fall for him. That Ratatoskr had some card up their sleeve, and they just hadn’t told Shido. He had simply assumed all this without any proof whatsoever!

Regret and shame ate into Shido’s heart.

What interrupted his thoughts was an anguished groan from Kotori. She was holding her head in both hands and gritting her teeth to withstand the pain, her entire body trembling.

A few seconds later, she slowly opened her eyes and looked at Reine. “C’mon. Please. This might be the end. If this fails, I’ll stop being myself today. Before that happens, I need to see the end of this date.”

“…” Reine hesitated briefly but then sighed and opened up the bag next to her. She pulled out a needle.

“Thanks. I owe you.”

“…You don’t. But this is the last one,” Reine said, taking Kotori’s left arm and pushing the needle in.

After a second or two, Kotori exhaled at length. Her breathing gradually steadied, and the color came back to her face. “Sorry… I appreciate it, though.” She started to stand up and fell right back down on her backside.

“…You can’t push yourself so hard. You need to rest a minute.”

“I’m okay. If I don’t hurry back, that tactless Shido will come poking around where he doesn’t belong.”

“…No. Hang on a second. I’ll go get some water.”

“Fine, fine. I get it.”

Reine stood up and walked in Shido’s direction. Panicked, he started to move away, and then met Reine’s eyes.

“…Ah.” Her eyebrows twitched, and then she grabbed Shido’s shoulders in a totally natural move and dragged him out in front of the vending machines.

She brought her face in close. “…How much did you hear?” she asked, her voice hushed.

“Uh… All of it, I think.”

Reine fell silent. Shido swallowed hard.

“Reine. What are you doing here? And that outfit…,” he said, glancing at the bizarre combination of a swimsuit with a lab coat.

“…My military uniform would stand out here, obviously,” Reine replied as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

“…” He thought this stood out plenty, too, but he decided not to pursue the issue. There was something that concerned him more at the moment. “Reine. Kotori… How long has she been in that state?”

Reine hesitated for a few seconds. “…From the moment she got her Spirit power back.”

Shido bit his lower lip. It wasn’t that he hadn’t expected this answer. But to have it so clearly laid out did actually make his heart pound even harder.

“So then why?”

“…It’s what Kotori wants. She said not to tell you, Shin.”

“…!” Shido gasped and pinched his lips together.

“…The truth is, she told me she didn’t want me to tell you that today is the limit,” Reine continued.

“Why…would she…?” Shido asked, his voice trembling.

Reine sighed. “…She didn’t want you to go on a date out of pity or mercy.”

“…” He clenched his jaw. His gums must have started to bleed; he tasted a faint hint of blood.

“…So please. Pretend you never saw this. For Kotori’s sake.”

“…”

“…Shin.”

“…Fine.” Shido took a deep breath, turned around, and went back to the food court where Tohka and Yoshino were waiting.

“Oh! Shido! That took a while.” Tohka was sucking on her straw, having apparently finished all her sandwiches.

Shido sat down without a word and stared at the two girls.

“Shido?”

“Is something…the matter?”

“…Mm.” He nodded. “The truth is, there’s a jungle cruise tour starting now in the wave pool.”

“Wh-what’s that?!” Tohka’s eyes began to shine.

“An adventure cruise where you get in a big boat and do a lap around the whole wave pool. How about you go with Yoshino?”

“Ooh… Yeah! Let’s go!” Tohka waved her hands excitedly before cocking her head to one side. “Mm…? You’re not coming, Shido?”

“Nah… I need to talk to Kotori for a minute.”

“You do? Then I should—”

“Tohka…” Yoshino took Tohka’s hand. “I want…to…go on the cruise. Will you…come with me?”

“Mm?”

“Please… It has to be you,” Yoshino said.

“Mm, well, if you say so.” Tohka scratched her scalp, looking not entirely unpleased. “Okay, Shido—me and Yoshino are gonna go on this jungle whatever.”

“Okay. Be careful.” Shido waved, and Tohka and Yoshino waved back before walking off.

Yoshino suddenly looked back and said, “Good…luck.”

“…Whoops. Took a little too much time there, hmm?” Kotori picked up her pace as she returned to the food court. She headed straight for the table where she’d left Shido, Tohka, and Yoshino.

Then she frowned, visibly confused.

Shido was the only one sitting at the round white table.

“Shido?” Kotori said, and he slowly looked back.

What the…? He seems different. Before Kotori left, he had been restless and acting suspiciously, but now he looked more like how he usually was with white ribbon Kotori.

“Where’d they…?”

“Kotori. Get changed now and meet me in the amusement park area.”

“…Huh?” For a second, she didn’t understand what he was talking about. But she sighed a beat later. “Ohhh… You got new instructions from Fraxinus? Doesn’t look like it’s going so well here, so change to the theme park? Hmph, well, I don’t car—”

“Nope.” Shido cut Kotori off once more and stood up. He put a hand to his right ear, took out the earpiece, and dropped it on the table.

“…! Shido?” She frowned at the entirely unexpected act.

“The truth is, I like the amusement park better than the pool,” he said. His voice was extremely calm, but she could hear he was serious.

“Huh…?” The crease between Kotori’s brows grew even deeper, and she pursed her lips. “What on earth are you talking about? And, like, where are Tohka and Yoshino? I might be the current mission target, but if you let their mental states get unstable, the Spirit power’ll flow back, and you’ll have a real mess on your hands, you know? Did you already forget about what happened with Yoshino earlier?”

“Of course I haven’t forgotten. They’re on the jungle cruise right now. I contacted Kannazuki to make sure they keep an eye on them. Nothing to worry about.”

“…What are you up to?” Kotori made a sour face, unable to grasp any part of Shido’s intention.

Shido took her hand, and the corners of his mouth slid up. “I’m having fun. I haven’t been to an amusement park in forever. I’m so excited, I can hardly stand it. We’re gonna go on rides until we pass out with exhaustion. Get ready, Kotori.”

“H-huh…?” Baffled, Kotori could only let Shido drag her away by the hand.