Chapter 2

Cyclone Girls

“School trip? Oh, I heard about that. Okinawa, right?” Kotori Itsuka responded to her subordinate’s report as she flicked the stick of the Chupa Chups in her mouth on the bridge of Fraxinus.

Her long hair was tied up in two black ribbons, and she had a red jacket on. Eyes round like walnuts. A face with a touch of childish innocence. She was a small girl who seemed out of place on the bridge of an airship.

“…No, there was a sudden change. They’re going to Arubi Island now,” said a woman in a military uniform—Reine Murasame. Her head was wobbling, and there were prominent bags under her eyes.

“A change? At this stage? Why?”

“…Mm. About a month ago, an agency called Cross Travel got in touch with Raizen High. They apparently selected the school at random for some kind of promotion. The agency offered to cover all the costs of the trip to the island on the condition that they can take photos for the pamphlet.”

“Hmm, that’s pretty generous. But would the school really change their destination at the last minute? I mean, they booked accommodations and everything, right?”

“…Apparently, the hotel they had planned on staying at suddenly collapsed. And then this offer came in, so the school jumped on it.”

“Collapsed?” Kotori furrowed her brow. This story was more violent than expected.

“…Yes. I don’t know the details yet, but it looks like the building’s old age was the primary cause.”

“Mm-hmm… Well, I do get the feeling that the timing here is a little too convenient. But…” Kotori shrugged. “I guess if the school’s fine with it, then that’s fine. And it’s a good opportunity for you to stretch out your legs, Reine.”

Reine Murasame was the analyst for the Ratatoskr organization, but she was also the assistant homeroom teacher for Raizen High School’s Grade 11, Class 4. She was supposed to go along on the class trip as a chaperone.

Reine dropped her head and groaned.

“What’s wrong?” Kotori asked.

“…Oh, I hope I’m just overthinking things. But when I ran a check on this company, Cross Travel, I learned it’s likely they’re affiliated with DEM Industries.”

“What?” Kotori screwed up her face.

Deus Ex Machina Industries. One of the world’s leading corporations, headquartered in the UK, and the sole company able to produce Realizers, outside of Asgard Electronics, one of Ratatoskr’s parent organizations. A group whose philosophy was the polar opposite of Ratatoskr and Kotori, who were trying to peacefully lock away the power of the Spirits. In other words, they were actively pursuing the complete annihilation of the Spirits.

“Something smells fishy.” Kotori flicked her Chupa Chups stick up, and the crease between her eyebrows grew more pronounced.

Among the people at Raizen High School going on the class trip were Shido and Tohka. They would do well to consider the worst-case scenario and prepare for it.

“It’s probably a coincidence, but let’s have Fraxinus go along just in case. We’ll want assets in place if things come to a head. Maybe it’ll end up being a vacation for us, too.”

“…Mm, right. That’s probably a good idea. If anything does happen, I’ll contact you from the ground. You can stay on standby until then.”

“How long’s the trip again?”

“…Two nights and three days from the seventeenth of July.”

“Gah. Seriously? I’m supposed to make an appearance at the head office that day. Not ideal.” Kotori frowned and put a hand to her chin, and a tall man appeared with a fwsh from behind her.

Fraxinus Vice Commander Kyouhei Kannazuki snapped his thumb up and smiled. His almost unpleasantly white teeth gleamed.

“Well, this is no good,” Kotori continued, without so much as a glance at him. “What are we going to do?”

“…Hmm. You can’t go another day?”

“Don’t think so,” Kotori said. “Rounds all coming together in person. That maybe happens once a year.”

Kannazuki took a step forward and struck a dramatic pose, like the flourish at the end of a gymnastics routine. For some reason, Kotori could practically see sound effects like ba-daaam or whd-whd-whd-whd-whd-whd-whd-whd behind him.

“…I suppose that makes sense. In that case…”

“Yes. I’ll have to leave someone else in charge of the ship. I’d prefer that to be you, Reine.”

“…But I’ll be accompanying them directly. And we can’t lose our contact on the ground.”

“That’s true. Who else is available?” Kotori murmured with a sigh.

Kannazuki spun in front of them and spread his arms out elegantly, like a balletic swan.

“Ugh.” Kotori glared at him.

“Particle beam eyes?!” He did a somersault and collapsed on the spot.

“What are you skulking around for?” she snarled. “Could you practice your dance routine someplace else?”

“No, no, no, no, what are you saying? From what I hear, you’re currently searching for someone to replace you and take care of Fraxinus during Shido’s school trip, Commander.” Kannazuki threw his hands out. “Is there another besides myself who could carry out this important mission?! No! That was obviously a rhetorical question!”

“In that case, I guess it’d be Mikimoto or Kawagoe,” Kotori said.

“…I’m not so sure,” Reine replied. “They’re excellent crew members, but when it comes to taking command…”

“Abandonment kink! Is that what this is?” Kannazuki began to pant.

He was being annoying, so Kotori turned her eyes back on him with a click of her tongue. “I heard you really made a mess of things the last time I was gone?”

“I’ll be fine! That was just the big bang of my agape for you, Commander! But have no fear! There shall be no problems this time! I will carefully watch over this chapter of Shido’s youth!”

“…Reine.”

“…Well, I’ll be on the ground, too. It’ll probably be okay.”

Kotori sighed as if to clear away the anxiety swirling in her heart.

Monday, July 17. After about three hours on the airplane, Shido and the eleventh graders from Raizen High School landed on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

“Wh-whoa…!” Stepping out of the airport, Tohka’s eyes grew wide, and her hands trembled.

This was perfectly understandable. The view that greeted them was so vast that it was impossible to take in unless she physically turned her head from side to side.

The ocean spread out on the other side of the road, past the sandy beach, and the horizon in the distance divided heaven and earth. The sky was a clear blue. The sun shone brilliantly, and a beautiful gradation colored the ocean water.

“Th-this is…the sea?!” Tohka shouted and threw her arms out as if to try and measure its size.

Of course, the Pacific was not small enough to be completely contained by her wingspan. Seeming even more excited, she whirled around, her small frame trembling.

“Ha-ha… You’re pretty excited, huh?” Shido grinned at her somewhat over-the-top gestures. On further thought, he realized that it was possible she had never seen the ocean in person before.

They had just set foot on Arubi Island. A total area of seventy square kilometers nestled in between Izu and Ogasawara Islands. The northern part had been gouged out during the series of spacequakes thirty years ago and redeveloped in recent years as a new tourist destination. It was a place with a history very similar to where Shido and his friends lived, Tengu City.

The northern district, arranged into perfect grids, was equipped with the full array of disaster countermeasures, in line with other redeveloped areas. Additionally, the shore that had been cleanly cut away by the spacequake was so unusual and strangely beautiful that it had become a popular travel destination for tourists from Japan and many other countries as well.

Of course, considering the victims who had lost their lives in the spacequakes, this was perhaps a little tasteless. But it was no exaggeration to say that this island and its declining population had managed to revitalize itself as a major tourist attraction because of the tragedy.

“Hmm.” Although he couldn’t quite match Tohka’s excitement, Shido wasn’t so emotionally detached that he felt nothing when taking in the magnificent view. He looked around and stretched as he took deep breaths. And then yawned abruptly. “Aaaah. Oops.”

His eyelids were strangely heavy—perhaps owing to their early departure. On the plane, too, he had very nearly fallen asleep. Well, that said, though…

He sighed as he glanced at Tohka still waving her hands in excitement and Origami coming out of the airport.

Fortunately—or maybe not—the plane seats were in groups of three, so they’d managed to reach an accord with Shido in the middle and the girls on either side of him, but…

“Shido, look. It’s so pretty.”

“Shido! This side’s pretty, too! Wait! The window’s far away! You did this on purpose, didn’t you, Origami Tobiichi?!”

“It’s your fault for not asking for the window seat.”

“Hnnnngh…”

“Shido. Look. You can see the horizon.”

“Ngh! Sh-Shido! Over here, I mean, you know! It’s amazing! The aisle is super cool! This is something you’re not gonna get from a horiz-a-whatever!”

“Look. You can see the mountains in the distance. Come closer.”

“Ngah! Th-this way, I mean…! Shido, look! Huge mountains on Reine’s chest!”

“We broke through the clouds. Look. A sea of white. Like a carpet.”

“Th-this way, there’s… Uh-ungaaaah!”

With this constant chatter being played in stereo surround sound, he couldn’t have slept even if he’d tried.

“Mm?” Tohka made a strange sound and whirled her head around.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“…Oh, I just felt like something or someone was watching us.”

“Huh?” Shido cocked his head to the side. He heard a snap, and then they were suddenly bathed in the light of a flash.

He unconsciously covered his face with his hand. “Whoa!” He narrowed his dazzled eyes and looked in the direction of the light to find a girl standing there with a large camera.

Pale blond hair fluttering in the wind. He recalled the phrase Nordic blond, though he wasn’t sure if that was accurate. Her white skin stood out in this crowd, and her sharp features were definitely not Asian.

“Um. What was that?” Shido asked, bewildered.

“Apologies.” The girl lowered her camera and turned her gaze on him. “I’m Ellen Mathers, the photographer sent from Cross Travel to accompany you. I’ll be keeping a record of your trip for the next three days. I’m sorry for the candid shot. If that was rude, I do apologize.”

“Uh, no, it’s fine.”

Now that she mentioned it, he vaguely remembered that someone had mentioned a photographer would be on the trip with them. He never dreamed it would be a foreigner—and a girl not much different in age from Shido and his classmates. Shido and Tohka stared at her.

“Well, if you’ll excuse me.” Ellen bowed once more and walked toward the other students.

“What’s her deal?” Tohka crossed her arms.

“Dunno,” he said. “But that explains why you felt like someone was watching you.”

“Mm. Mm-hmm.” Tohka looked to both sides before peering upward. “I still feel like there’s eyes on me, though.”

“Huh?” He frowned and turned his eyes in the direction she was looking, but there was nothing there except the clear blue sky, looking as if it were celebrating the arrival of Shido and his classmates.

“Incoming from Adeptus One. The target has landed on the island.”

“Camera six, north sector, Akaru Airport. Target confirmed.”

“Confirmed here as well. It’s Princess.”

As the voices rose from the lower deck of the bridge, a girl was shown on the monitor. A girl who looked exactly the same as the AAA-rank Spirit—code name Princess.

“Hmm…”

The middle-aged man sitting in the captain’s chair on the Arbatel, a DEM-made 500-meter-class airship, murmured and stroked his beard.

James A. Paddington. With a rank equivalent to colonel in DEM Industries’ second enforcement division, he had been assigned by Westcott to captain the ship.

“Surprisingly anticlimactic,” he remarked. “Is that really a Spirit?”

“Please make sure to stay on guard,” came the voice of a young girl through the speakers on the bridge. The voice of call sign Adeptus One and head of the second DEM enforcement division, Ellen. “She may be a Spirit. That is reason enough to be on high alert.”

He shrugged. “I shall take that to heart then.”

Ellen frowned ever so slightly, seeming unhappy with Paddington’s response.

“…Tch.” He clicked his tongue too quietly for her to hear.

He didn’t care if she was the strongest wizard or whatever; he didn’t particularly enjoy being ordered around by someone young enough to be his daughter. All the more so when the woman giving him orders was rumored to be Westcott’s mistress.

Paddington, however, wasn’t so incompetent that he didn’t understand his position here and role in this mission, and he was also not so childish as to pointlessly share his personal distaste for her. He cleared his throat and addressed the girl on the screen. “So what do we do? She might be a Spirit, but we should be able to capture a lone girl quite easily if we bring in the Bandersnatch.”

“It’s not that simple. We proceed with caution. Please interrupt electronic communications.”

“Roger. Parallel activation of Ashcroft-β twenty-five through forty, deployment of Permanent Territory. Target: Arubi Island.”

The crew quickly began to tap at their consoles.

A thin CG dome was rendered over the image of Arubi Island on-screen—an invisible wall, undetectable by the naked eye, untouchable in the physical space. A Territory.

Arbatel was floating twenty thousand meters above Arubi. From where it hung in the sky, it used its Ashcroft-β Realizers to deploy a Territory large enough to cover the entire island; AST member Territories paled in comparison. With this dome in place, transmissions between the island and the outside world were possible only via the special devices used by Ellen and her comrades. Meaning that whatever happened on the island, the AST could not interfere.

“Speaking of, what should we do about that wizard?” Paddington asked, stroking his chin. He was sure there had been talk of an AST wizard who attended the same school as the target. He’d heard, however, that she was suspended at present and thus prohibited from using a Realizer, so he couldn’t imagine she would have much impact on their mission. The issue was the fact that this wizard had met Ellen before.

“There shouldn’t be a problem. We only met for a few minutes at best, and I was wearing sunglasses at the time. It doesn’t seem like she’s notic—”

Ellen was abruptly cut off in the middle of the transmission.

Paddington glanced at the monitor and saw that she had thrown her hands up over her face because of a sudden wind. “Are you all right, Chief?”

“Yes. But…this is strange,” Ellen said, looking up at the sky.

At the same time, Paddington saw a change in the video displayed on the bridge’s large monitor. He frowned.

The reason was simple. The clouds were swirling at a speed that would normally be unthinkable, as though whipped up by an invisible hand.

“Aah, seriously? They left us behind! Hurry up, Tohka!” Shido quickened his pace as he looked back at Tohka, who was still craning her neck.

Tohka had insisted on finding out who was watching them, so they’d gone to take a look around, and at some point, everyone from their school had moved on without them.

“Mm. Sorry. But I really did feel like we were being watched,” she apologized, trotting after him.

Shido let out a sigh. “Well, yeah, when you make that much of a fuss, people are gonna stare.”

“Mmm, was that what was going on…?” She half groaned and fell silent.

“Umm. I’m pretty sure it was this way, right?” Shido took a left where the road split, trying to visualize the map he’d looked at before they left. He remembered the museum they were supposed to visit being this way.

He touched his right ear and checked that the small earpiece was there. He’d been told to wear it in case Tohka’s mood destabilized while they were on the trip.

Kotori was apparently not in Japan at the moment, having gone to some headquarters or other, but Fraxinus was hovering above the island. In the worst-case scenario, he could contact them before they got hopelessly lost.

“Mm?”

He heard a doubtful sound from Tohka behind and stopped. When he looked back, he saw her staring up at the sky again. “Hey, give it a rest already. No matter how hard you look—”

“No, that’s not it,” she interrupted him. “Don’t you think that looks weird?”

“Huh…?” He turned his own eyes to the sky and was suddenly at a loss for words. “Wh-what…is that?”

The sky had been perfectly clear until a moment ago, but now a vortex of gray clouds swirled above their heads. And the area around them was changing shockingly fast. The blue sky turned gray. The breeze, a gale. The peaceful water, crashing waves.

In terms of time, not even a minute had passed, but in that fleeting instant, the world around them had changed completely. The wind roared like an earthquake, and the trees whipped about wildly. The gale was so strong, it was practically typhoon-level already. It seemed that at least one nearby garbage can had overturned, given that empty cans and newspapers now whipped across his field of view.

Shido grabbed Tohka’s shoulders and pulled her down low. They might have been knocked over by the wind otherwise.

“What…the hell…?!” He furrowed his brow as he covered his face with his arm.

The weather forecast had said that all three days of their school trip would be sunny. Of course, Shido didn’t think that would be 100 percent accurate, but this was just strange.

“Tohka, you okay?! We have to hurry to the—”

“Shido! Watch out!” Tohka shoved him away midsentence.

“Wha…?”

An instant later, a metal garbage can slammed into Tohka’s head.

“Hng-a-oof?!” Crying out somewhat comically, she collapsed on the spot.

“H-hey, Tohka! Tohka!” Shido shouted in a panic, shaking her shoulders, but she was out cold. “Ngh… We need to get moving.”

He managed to somehow hoist her onto his back and started walking in the direction of the museum. Slowly but steadily, he moved forward one step at a time.

“It’s just a little farther, Tohka!”

How long had they been walking in this state…?

“Ah…?” Shido frowned.

In the center of the raging sky, he saw what looked to be two silhouettes.

“That’s…” He gasped.

Floating people meant only two things to Shido: Spirits or AST wizards.

“No way…” A bad feeling tickled his brain.

A violent storm coming on so suddenly was a near impossibility. If it was because of a Spirit…

“No, but…the spacequake alarm didn’t go off. What exactly…?” Shido racked his brain for a few seconds before setting out again on his predetermined route.

If those silhouettes really were Spirits, he couldn’t just walk away. But he didn’t have any proof that they were, and his first priority was getting Tohka to safety. He adjusted the way his unconscious passenger rested on his back and kept trudging toward the museum.

However…

“…!” He gasped.

The two shadows clashing in the sky above slammed into each other so hard that they generated an even greater shock wave, and the wind grew impossibly strong, making everything up to that point feel like a gentle breeze.

“Wh-whoa!” He braced his feet to keep from getting blown away and curled into himself.

The shadows wreaking havoc with the air itself knocked each other out of the sky and crashed into the ground. Exactly to the right and left of Shido.

“Wha…?” Sweat beaded on his forehead. Panic squeezed his heart, and his throat was suddenly dry as a bone.

The storm raging around him abruptly weakened.

“Huh…?” He furrowed his brow unconsciously and looked around.

The storm had…not yet ended. Wind still blew on Arubi Island. But around Shido and Tohka—or to be more precise, around the two shadows that had fallen to earth—the air was calm, like the eye of a typhoon.

“Keh. Keh-keh-keh-keh-keh…”

From his right, a girl marched over, a bold smile on her face. She was around the same age as Shido. Long orange hair tied back on her head. Mercury-colored eyes. Her perfectly symmetrical face was twisted up into a sneer.

Most distinctive of all was her outfit. Wrapped in a dark cloak, her body was covered in belts with buckles fastened seemingly at random. And she had manacles around her right wrist and ankle, complete with trailing broken chains, like a criminal who had committed an unspeakably awful crime. Or some kind of thrill-seeking masochist.

“—Bravo, Yuzuru! As expected from my other half. Only you could manage to score twenty-five wins, twenty-five losses, and forty-nine draws. But that ends this very day.”

She had a slightly strange way of speaking, exaggerated or perhaps theatrical.

“Objection. Kaguya does not get to decide this hundredth battle; Yuzuru does.”

This came from a girl with her long hair tied in a braid. Although her face was the spitting image of Kaguya’s, her expression was languid, her eyes half-closed. She also wore bondage gear similar to Kaguya’s, although the design was slightly different. And the manacles were on the opposite side, hanging from her left wrist and ankle.

“Ha, you do prattle on. Perhaps it’s time for you to accept that I am the Spirit befitting the title of Yamai?”

“Disagree. Yuzuru will be the survivor. You are not worthy of the Yamai name.”

“Keh… Your struggle is in vain. I foresaw the outcome long ago with the future sight of my witch’s eye: You pierced by the next blow of my Sturm Lanze!”

“Argument. There have been no instances of your witch’s eye being correct,” Yuzuru said.

“Sh-shut up!” Kaguya stammered, her dramatic style of speech completely vanishing. “It totally has been right before! Don’t make fun of me!”

“Demand. Yuzuru requests that Kaguya provide a specific list of examples.”

“Nnngh! Look, come on. You know… I’ve predicted the weather right.”

“Sneer. I cannot contain my laughter at this paltry result of your witch’s eye—asterisk laugh asterisk. It’s no different from flipping a coin.” Yuzuru put a hand to her mouth and breathed strangely. Apparently, this was her laughing.

From Kaguya’s perspective, this was humiliating. “Sh-shut it! Mocking my magical sight is worthy of death! You will pay in flesh for angering me!” she shouted as she dropped into a fighting stance. But she emphasized the wrong words, so her declaration didn’t really have the desired effect.

Yuzuru, however, paid this no mind. “Demand. Yuzuru asks that you explain Sturm Lanze.”

“Keh,” the other girl snorted. “There is not a vessel bound by reason that could comprehend my Sturm Lanze. Solid and yet formless. Visible but invisible. A conceptual power specialized in piercing.”

“Summary. In other words, it is meaningless?”

“Tch! No! It does have meaning! You’re just an idiot who can’t understand it, Yuzuru!”

“Petition. Then explain so that Yuzuru can also understand. Given how smart you are, you should be able to.”

“I… N-naturally. But sadly, my jet-black brain cells have ascended to a higher dimension than you could even hope to comprehend. Yes. I am like a lion talking to an ant.”

“Understood. So in other words, you can’t.”

“Keh-keh, you… You’d do best not to anger—”

“Sneer. Sturm Lanze. Ha. Ha.”

“D-don’t laaaaaugh!” Kaguya shouted, her face beet red as she threw her hands out. The chain attached to her right wrist rattled, and the raging storm in the area increased in intensity.

As if to match her, Yuzuru dropped into a fighting stance as well.

The two girls glared at each other on high alert.

“Sink into the black! Hyaaah!”

“Charge. Hiyah.”

With the shriek of a battle cry and a tired sigh, they launched themselves forward at exactly the same moment.

“Ngh…!” Shido gasped. If he was dragged into a clash between two Spirits at this close range, he would be helpless. He might have been able to keep himself alive with Kotori’s Spirit power, but it wasn’t hard to imagine what would happen to the unconscious girl on his back.

Even as he considered this, the Spirits were closing in on each other at incredible speed.

He had no time left for thinking. Shido took a deep breath.

“Stooooooooooooppppppp!”

““…?!””

The girls stopped in their tracks.

“What was that voice…? Er, yes, it sounded like the lamentations of the dead echoing from the bottom of the Cocytus.”

“Report. Kaguya, please look at that.” Yuzuru pointed at Shido, and Kaguya frowned. It appeared that they really had only just noticed Shido and Tohka.

“Humans? Impossible. Who could set foot in our battle arena?”

“Admiration. I am overcome by surprise.”

They turned doubtful eyes on him.

“Oh, uh…,” Shido stammered and took a step back. He’d managed to stop their charge, but in exchange, he’d drawn their attention. Pierced by two pairs of sharp eyes, he swallowed hard.

Although there was nothing else he could have done, shouting at them had been rather stupid of him. He had deliberately drawn the attention of (not one but two!) Spirits with unknown personalities and temperaments. If they were belligerent, this situation was quickly going to go from bad to worse.

Static crackled in the eardrum of his right ear, and then he heard a sleepy voice.

“…Shin. Can you hear me, Shin?”

“Reine!”

“…Aah, I finally got through. Where on earth are you?”

“I—” Shido lowered his voice and briefly explained what had transpired and the fact that two Spirits currently stood before him.

“…What did you say? In the wind, two—impossible.”

“D-do you know anything about them?”

“What exactly do you wish to gain by intruding upon our sacred final battle?” Kaguya demanded to know, as if to interrupt the conversation between Shido and Reine, her gaze sharp. “Depending on your response, you may end up pierced by my, um, Schatten Lanze.”

“Argument. The name is different from before,” Yuzuru said with a cool look on her face.

“Wh-whatever!” Kaguya snarled like a carnivorous beast. “Quiet, Yuzuru!”

“Doubt. I do not understand why Yuzuru must be silent.”

A number of things tugged at his curiosity, but Shido went with the most ominous of the words spoken. “Your f-final battle…?”

“Exactly.” Kaguya narrowed her eyes. “You appeared in this field and forced this extended break from our sacred final battle to determine our fate. How do you plan to atone?”

“Restraint. Kaguya, that is a threat.”

“Shut up! And just when I was finally getting into the groove…”

“Confirmation. Did you say something?”

“I-it was nothing!” Kaguya snorted in indignation and turned her face away from Yuzuru. “Anyway, I still have fight in me. So—” But then her eyes flew open as if she had just remembered something. “Oh, I know! In that case…”

She turned toward Yuzuru once more and looked her up and down carefully from head to toe, as if appraising a piece of merchandise.

“Question. What is it, Kaguya?”

“Keh-keh… I have been struck by a flash of inspiration, Yuzuru. You and I have battled in many different ways. To the point where we have exhausted all paths,” Kaguya continued, gesturing dramatically as though she were acting in a play. “But…perhaps there is one score we have yet to settle?”

“Doubt. What do you mean, one score we have yet to settle?” Yuzuru looked at her quizzically, and Kaguya chuckled as she glanced at Shido.

“Huh…?” Shido saw something a little cold in her expression.

While the eleventh-grade students of Raizen High School were heading to their first scheduled destination, the wind started gusting violently in the blink of an eye, and before they knew it, they were in the middle of a violent storm. Unable to continue at a leisurely pace, they ran into the museum at the instruction of their teachers, a place not far from the airport.

“Shido…,” Origami murmured into the powerful wind making the thick glass of the windows creak, and she clenched her fists.

There was no sign of Shido (and one dung beetle) among the students taking refuge in the museum. He must have gotten separated from the group along the way and been left alone outside. Origami had obviously tried to race outside to go look for him, but she was stopped by a teacher when she was almost out the door. Even if she had gotten past them, she wouldn’t have made much headway in this typhoon.

“Ngh…” All she could do now was pray for Shido’s safety. She was overcome by an intense helplessness and frustration that had no outlet.

“Hey, is the sky kinda clearing up?” asked a boy near the window. The rest of the students clustered around the windows to look outside.

Origami yanked her head up as if compelled by that voice and wove her way between the other students as she headed straight for the door of the museum.

“Ah! T-Tobiichi! It’s still too dangerous out there!” Tamae tried to stop her, but Origami ran right past her and yanked the door open.

“…?” She stopped in place. The person she sought was standing before her in front of the museum.

“H-hey…Origami,” Shido said. Maybe because of the wind, his hair and clothes were a mess, but fortunately, he didn’t appear to have been injured.

Even so, she felt no relief. Instead, she frowned and sharpened her gaze. Something was off with Shido… Or rather, he had some strange new accessories.

First, there was Tohka on his back. She had apparently passed out.

That was fine. Well, technically, it wasn’t, but it wasn’t totally unexpected.

The issue was…

“Well, Shido? I’m more appealing than Yuzuru, right? Choose me, and I’ll let you plant a kiss wherever you wish to conclude our contract!”

“Temptation. Please choose Yuzuru. I will do good things to you. I’m amazing. Kaguya is nothing.”

Clad in school uniforms, two girls with identical faces stood on either side of Shido, touching him in an excessively familiar fashion as they tried to seduce him.

In visible despair, Shido recalled the events of ten minutes prior as his classmates all turned their eyes on him.

In the center of the pseudo-typhoon, Kaguya had spoken, a bold smile on her face.

“The score we have yet to settle… In other words, our charm!” she declared, striking a cool pose. “Don’t you think that the true Spirit, the child of the hurricane, Yamai needs not only power and intelligence, but also a beauty and allure great enough to make all of creation jealous?”

“Consideration…” Yuzuru fell silent for a few seconds as she took her turn to look Kaguya up and down—slowly, from head to toe, as if estimating her value. And then she nodded. “Answer. ‘I see’ is my response. We have not competed on that before.”

“Keh-keh… Right? But that’s only natural. No one has ever dared to interrupt our battle, and thus we were unable to have a third party provide impartial judgment. Until now.” Kaguya chuckled and snapped a finger out at Shido. “You there. What are you called?”

“Huh? Sh-Shido Itsuka.”

“Shido. Hmm. An appropriately frail name for a sacrifice. Excellent. We will leave the decision to you.”

“Uh…? Um, oh…” Shido’s eyes went wide. He didn’t have the first clue as to what she was talking about.

But Kaguya clearly could not have cared less about what he thought. She lifted her chin jeeringly and continued in a challenging tone, “How about it, Yuzuru? Are you brave enough to answer this call to battle? Keh-keh. Of course, given that my charisma is powerful enough to bring the world to its knees, it’s clear how this contest will end. Should you turn tail and run, I would not call you coward.”

“Negative. That is not possible. There is no path to victory for Kaguya. Yuzuru is far more appealing. Men fall like dominoes before me.”

“Keh-keh. Your arrogance is the only fully developed trait about you.”

“Declaration. Yuzuru is cuter. Frankly, Kaguya is below average.”

“Wh-what did you saaaaaaaay?!” Kaguya shouted, hurling her theatrical protests into the depths of oblivion.

As far as Shido was concerned, he thought Kaguya looked beautiful. If she was below average, then the rest of the women in the world didn’t have a hope of ever reaching the high bar set by Yuzuru.

“We have the same face!” Kaguya cried. “The difference between us can’t be that different!”

“Pity. Appeal and charm are not decided solely on the construction of the face. Even if the raw materials are the same, the impressions they create are different. But please don’t worry. In the world of uggos, you’re in a relatively high standing.”

“In the world of uggos?! Doesn’t the fact that you can say that so casually mean that your personality is ugly?!”

“Remorse. I forgot that it is not always to the benefit of the person at hand to tell the truth.”

“It’s not the truuuuuuth!” Kaguya clutched her head and then seemed to remember Shido’s existence. She straightened up and cleared her throat.

“A-anyway! If you would speak so, then you do not object, yes?” She snapped a finger out at Yuzuru. “The final battle! The winner will incorporate the loser and become the true Yamai! The method of contest is simple and clear! Whoever wins over this man—Shido—is the victor!”

“Agreement. I accept the terms of this contest.”

“H-hang on a second!”

And now here they were.

After a discussion with Reine, it was decided that bluntly refusing this demand/request was far too dangerous. So he’d brought the girls along. The eyes of his classmates boring into him now were painful.

“I-Itsuka? Who are these girls with you? I’ve never seen them before…”

“Huh? You already picked up some local girls and are forcing them to cosplay? You always carry girls’ uniforms around with you, Itsuka?”

“I just thought of a great job for you, Itsuka. You wear a signboard around school that says: HUMAN PUNCHING BAG, 1,000 YEN PER MINUTE. I’m sure you’ll be able to buy a house in no time.”

The students all started to talk at once. But that was only natural, given that Shido had supposedly gotten lost in the storm and somehow returned with two strange girls in tow.

Per Reine’s instructions, the pair had dematerialized their Astral Dresses and clothed themselves in the Raizen High School summer uniform. Just like he had with Tohka, Shido had helped them produce the outfits with the information they could glean from looking at the uniform.

The entire situation might have been weird already, but if they had still been wearing that bondage gear, his classmates would have misunderstood and taken that to mean that Shido had particular fetishes.

Origami gave Kaguya and Yuzuru the once-over before quietly opening her mouth. “Shido. Who are these people?”

“Uh. Umm…,” he stammered, averting his eyes. Beads of sweat popped up on his face, but then a sleepy voice came from the back of the crowd, as if to put a stop to the growing commotion.

“…Aah, there you are. Transfer students Kaguya Yamai and Yuzuru Yamai…right?” The assistant homeroom teacher Reine Murasame was standing there, her head wobbling from side to side.

“Transfer students?” Origami asked.

Reine nodded. “…Normally, they’d transfer after summer break, but they wanted to come on the school trip no matter what. So we decided they would meet us here. I got a message earlier that their flight had landed, so I sent Shido to meet them.”

“What? Tr-transfer students?” Tamae’s eyes grew round as saucers. “Ms. Murasame, I haven’t heard anything.”

“…It happened pretty suddenly. I’m sure you just missed the e-mail.”

“Uh. Uh-huh…” Tamae retreated, a look of bewilderment on her face. Well, that was the look a person would make if the person who was notified of transfer students was not you, the homeroom teacher, but Reine.

Origami looked at Reine with doubtful eyes before returning her gaze to Shido. “Really?”

“R-really…,” he replied, his voice strained.

Kaguya and Yuzuru nodded from where they were glued to either side of him. As a condition for helping judge their final battle or whatever it was, Shido had told them to go along with his story.

“Keh-keh… That’s exactly right. Consider it an honor that you are able to welcome the children of the hurricane, human.”

“Affirmative. There is no mistake in what he says.”

“…” Origami still didn’t seem entirely convinced, but she had apparently determined that it was pointless for her to say anything when both of the girls and teachers were corroborating this strange story. She let out a sigh. “Oh.”

But then her gaze sharpened. “That still doesn’t explain why you are glued to Shido?”

“Aah, well, you see—”

“Response. Because—”

“Y-you know! The wind was so strong, they were just trying to keep from being blown away!” Shido yelled loudly enough to drown out both Kaguya and Yuzuru. If they said the wrong thing now, all the lies would have been for nothing. He continued to ramble, hoping to fill the silence with enough chatter so they wouldn’t have a chance to say anything. “A-anyway, Tohka got hit in the head with a piece of garbage, and it knocked her out. Is there someplace she could lie down?”

“…Oh, really? That’s awful. Come this way. Transfer students, I’ll explain some key things to you. You come along, too,” Reine said in a monotone and beckoned Shido and his entourage with a hand.

All eyes on him, Shido followed Reine deeper into the museum.

After Reine had showed them to the office, Shido set Tohka down on the sofa and bowed to the woman. “Thanks. You really saved me there.”

“…Oh, don’t mention it. More importantly…” Reine looked at Shido or, more precisely, at the two girls who had twined themselves around his arms. They had stepped away when he put Tohka down and grabbed on to him again the second he was done.

And then they started whispering at him, like the change of place didn’t change the contest between them.

“Now, Shido. All you have to do is choose me. Simply swear your loyalty to Kaguya Yamai and devote your mind, body, and soul to me.”

“Negative. Nothing good will come of choosing Kaguya. Vote Yuzuru with a clear conscience.”

The girls whispered in Shido’s ears as if Reine and Tohka were not in the room. Shido squirmed, sweating.

“…This has turned into a real bit of trouble, hmm?” Reine scratched her cheek.

“…Yes,” Shido agreed, sounding like he was suffering.

“Keh-keh… This is a treat, isn’t it? You, a mere human, may receive our favor and attention for a brief moment. Weep tears of joy at your good fortune. There is no need to gripe.”

“Skepticism. While Yuzuru is clearly desirable, is there a man who would delight at being approached by Kaguya?”

“H-hmph… Challenge me in this manner if you wish, but it will be to no avail. Once we see the results of the final battle, all will become clear. Now, Shido, go ahead and speak the truth. Who is more appealing as a woman, me or Yuzuru?”

“Question. Yuzuru or this rag? Who is cuter?”

“Wait. Stop that subtle slander!”

“Disregard. Who: This rag or Yuzuru?”

“Are you doubling down?!”

Kaguya and Yuzuru pressed close to Shido as they sparred verbally.

Shido waved his hands. “H-hang on a minute. You keep going on about battle this, battle that… Why are you even fighting?”

“…Hmm? Ohhh.” Kaguya jerked her chin up, all haughty. “Didn’t we mention it? We were originally one Spirit called Yamai.”

“Affirmative. But after a number of appearances in this world, Yamai was split into two.”

“Split into two…? Is that even…?” Shido frowned as he looked back and forth between them. Although their hairstyles and facial expressions were different, their faces strongly resembled each other. More than twins. If someone told him they were clones, he would have believed it. “H-how did that happen?”

“Only the goddess of fate on her throne in the heavens knows the truth. Hmph, perhaps boredom and world-weariness torture her. From time to time, she enjoys a random toss of the dice with no rhyme or reason.”

“Huh…?”

“Summary. Kaguya is saying we don’t really know.”

“Ohhh… Okay.” Shido nodded, finally understanding thanks to Yuzuru’s explanation.

“That’s not very poetic,” Kaguya snapped. “And now that we have been rent asunder, each time we gaze upon the other’s face, we are reminded of this—the destiny, the mission etched into this body, infused in this blood. Yes. We remember there is only one true Spirit Yamai in this world!”

“Explanation. Yuzuru and Kaguya have been split into two, but we realized how to return to being one.”

“You ‘realized’…?”

“Addendum. It might be more correct to say we ‘knew.’ From the instant we were split apart, we have understood what will happen to our bodies.” Yuzuru pointed to her head and continued. “Explanation. However, the personality of the original Yamai has been lost. In other words, when the time comes, only one of us can be the true personality of Yamai.”

“S-so then…about the final battle…”

The girls nodded as one. Shido continued, cheeks hot.

“That storm was caused by you two fighting?”

“It was.” Kaguya crossed her arms, looking smug. “Our battle spans a great stretch of time. Yes. At the current stage, we have fought ninety-nine contests.”

“Ninety-nine… You’ve fought for that long?!”

“Correction. Although we say ‘fighting,’ it is not the case that we have simply been battering each other. Our contest methods cover a great deal of ground, such as races, cup-and-ball games, and speed eating.”

“…”

Those were pretty peaceful contests. Although if these two were to race, he felt like they would do some serious damage to the area.

“The results are twenty-five wins, twenty-five losses, forty-nine draws. The winner of what was our hundredth battle should have been the true Yamai. And yet…” Kaguya glared at Shido, and he caught his breath.

He understood now. He had apparently interrupted this all-important fight. But it’s not like he’d had any choice in the matter. If he hadn’t stopped them, who knew what would have happened to Tohka?

When Shido stayed silent, Kaguya and Yuzuru grabbed a hold of his arms again.

“Keh… But that is trivial now. In fact, I feel gratitude. Thanks to you, we have a new way to compete with each other.”

“Affirmative. Given that our physical challenges have ended in draws so many times already, I did wonder if another slugging match was appropriate for our final battle. I have no objections to this contest.”

Both of them leaned enticingly into him.

“Uh, oh, that’s good to hear, but…” Shido felt his face grow red and turned pleading eyes toward Reine.

Reine—ever dependable—was sitting in a chair, fiddling with a small terminal, and nodding to herself with a serious look on her face. “…It really is out.”

“Wh-what’s out?” he asked, and Reine turned toward him.

“…Oh, communications with Fraxinus are cut off.”

“Huh? Wh-why would they…?”

“…It’s unclear. I’m going to look into it a bit.” She closed her terminal and stood up. After staring hard at Kaguya and Yuzuru snuggled up against Shido, she said, “…Kaguya and Yuzuru, right? You’re competing over Shin in order to become the true Spirit Yamai. Can you confirm?”

Kaguya and Yuzuru looked at her for the first time.

“Yes, that is the case. Watch if you wish, but I’ll show no mercy should you attempt to interfere, hmm?”

“Question. Who are you?”

“…One of the schoolteachers,” Reine said deceptively before turning on her heel. “Shin, you watch Tohka. Kaguya. Yuzuru. I need to talk to you. Come with me.”

“R-Reine!” Shido sent her a look to try and say that it was too dangerous. These girls were Spirits, after all.

But Reine raised a hand as if to say not to worry.

“Hngh… This is what you propose to us? Why should we obey the words of a mere human?”

“Request denied. Yuzuru will stay with Shido.”

They both refused to budge. Reine shrugged, as if this was within the realm of her expectations.

“…Shin’s a harder nut to crack than he looks,” she said. “I think it couldn’t hurt to hear what I have to say.”

“What…?”

“…It’s obvious from how he’s reacting, isn’t it? Even I can tell that you are extremely cute and appealing girls. And yet he still hasn’t chosen either of you.”

““…”” Kaguya and Yuzuru exchanged a glance, eyes wide.

“…So what’s it going to be? Personally, I don’t care if it’s just one or the other of you.” Reine opened the office door.

The two girls glanced at each other once more and then regretfully let go of Shido to follow Reine.