"Kotori, we're leaving, call if you need me."

"Okay, we'll be here."

Shido just departed from Fraxinus with the girls minus Kotori to continue their visit in the city. Kotori stayed back to continue to assist Ayato's next date with a girl named Kirin Toudou. Kotori just got the que from Ayato so now she has to start preparations.

Ayato was suppose to meet Kirin at the park closest to Seidoukan after school. So as soon as school ended he rushed back to his dorm to put down his stuff and headed out.

Meanwhile, Kotori was trying to pinpoint the ship's camera on the park in question, seeing if she can find out who Kirin is from Ayato's description. And she believed to have found her since she found a girl sitting on a bench that looked around her length, and had light purple hair. "That's probably our girl, she even looks like the timid type."

Kannazuki put his hand under his chin, smiling, "For a girl of her age, her rack is quite developed if I do say so myself."

After throwing an empty can to Kannazuki's head, Kotori turned back to the display.

Ayato managed to reach the park in time and approached Kirin who was just as Kotori predicted.

Kirin turned around and noticed him, "O-oh! Ayato, you came."

Ayato smiled, "Of course I did".

Kirin smiled at that reply, "I just wanted to stroll around the park, if you don't mind."

"Not at all"

Walking around the park, which was rather big compared to a normal sized park, there was a lack of silence for a little bit, until Kirin decided to speak up herself.

"Um... Ayato?"

"Yeah?"

"During winter break, w-w-will y-you uh.."Kirin was beginning to mutter what she wanted to say but in the end, she couldn't manage to bring out the words,"N-nevermind."

Kotori on the other hand was confused, "What was she going to say? Winter break… Was she going to ask him out on a Christmas date this early or-?" Kotori then realized what Kirin was probably trying to say, "Wait a minute, they reside at the schools right? And she said winter break, residing students normally go home when that time comes, so she must've been trying to invite him."

Kotori reached for the mike to inform him but the voice of Reine intervened. "Wait, I don't think we should tell him of it."

"Huh? Why?"

Reine turned her head back to the screen showing Kirin, "Not for Ayato's sake, but for Kirin's. We can't let Ayato assume what Kirin wants to say. We don't want her to feel that Ayato comes off as someone not interested and impatient around her. She probably wants to say it herself."

Frustrated that she didn't realized that, she facepalmed, "Ugh, I'm so stupid… I should've know this already.

"There's no reason to be rash with yourself," Kotori turned to Reine and then Reine smiled at her. "The girls we've seen so far all have strong feelings for Ayato as is. We aren't trying to make these girls have affections for him, we're just strengthening them."

"Yeah... what she said, you're just strengthening them. Like with my love rival." An familiar voice called out.

Kotori nodded at the response, "Yeah I guess, just like your lov-huh?" Kotori froze in shock for a moment. That voice she heard was familiar but it wasn't from anyone on the crew. Turning her head slowly, she saw quite an unexpected visitor standing unfazed as always at the entrance.

The girl from yesterday…

Saya Sasamiya

"WHAT THE HELL?! HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?!" Kotori's yell had the whole crew looking towards her and were just as shocked as she was. Still calm and collective unlike the others, Reine still found that quite unexpected as well.

"Well…" Saya tried recalling what happened. "Some time after I got back home yesterday, I got kinda hungry and I wanted to go and find the cafeteria. However I ended up by the water because I struggle with sense of direction. Then I gazed out upon the open view because I simply liked it. Then I noticed a weird looking ship not too far away, I could make the jump because I am a genestella. So I jumped and found a door to get in. And then I checked out the place and ended up in what looked like a hospital room. So I layed down in the bed and the bed trapped me with how comfy it was, so I ended up falling asleep in there."

Kotori could not understand how that story could be possible, "Wow, this girl needs to be with someone at all times." She said with sarcasm. "How she knew where she wanted to go yesterday is beyond me."

Saya turned her head to Kotori, "So you were responsible for Ayato's "unusual" responses yesterday."

Kotori began feeling scared that Saya might get mad at them, "Uh… yes, but we didn't mean to make him say those things, our computer was acting weird. We were trying to make him say things you'd like, okay?"

Saya turned her head back to the screen, "I'll just think that you are giving him dating advice for now."

Kotori sighed with relief, but still, she could not believe what she was seeing. Saya Sasamiya, the girl Ayato saw yesterday, was somehow on the main deck in Fraxinus which should not had been possible because Fraxinus was well hidden and impossible to get on while it's in the air. Unless something happen while she was off the ship last night having dinner with Shido and the others.

Kotori turned to the crew members in front of her looking annoyed, "Alright, which one of you blew our cover and let her on board while I was gone?"

All the crew members in the front were shaking their heads at each other, none of them knew exactly what happened. "Weird, who could've-" hearing innocent whistling on her side, she turned her head towards the vice commander, Kannazuki. She'd believe Kannazuki over the other crew members to do something stupid while she was gone.

"Kannazuki, what happened while I was off the ship last night?" she growled slowly, startling him.

Looking away from her, he started sweating nervously, "Before you left, you told me to find an area to dock the ship on the water's surface without causing a scene to the public right? For the overnight maintenance we needed to perform. Well... I found an area in the sea not to far off between Seidoukan and Queenvail so we could get off and on more effectively for carrying cargo. I managed to land it."

Sweating like a waterfall, Kannazuki was struggling to muster out what happened next, "Then… then…"

"Then what?!"

"Then a little photo of something special I was holding for later fell out of my pocket, and when I picked it up, I ogled and jumped up and down at it, but then I accidentally tripped and fell on the control panel and well… I sorta messed up the controls. The invisible setting malfunctioned and the ship turned visible, and I had to ask Reine to fix it and keep it a secret from you."

Kotori facepalmed herself and remained silent for a moment until taking her hand off and... "DAMN IT KANNAZUKI! Of course it was your weird fetishes that made you screw this up!"

Bowing, Kannazuki rapidly apologized, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Kotori sighed with frustration, "Ugh, how long was the ship visible for?"

Still in in bowing position, Kannazuki looked up to her, "Uh… maybe 30 minutes, it was fully fixed around 10 minutes before you all came back."

Kotori's wrath still hasn't vanished, "One more thing, the photo… give it to me, I want to see what's on it"

Taking out the photo, Kannazuki reluctantly reached it out to her, which she snatch out of his hand.

Looking at it, her face instantly turned red.

"OH COME ON! THIS AGAIN?!" What was shown in the photo Kotori was looking at turned out to be a picture of her in the hot spring that Kannazuki dug up. Kannazuki doing something like this is exactly why she made him go out into the mountain, digging nonstop in the first place.

Snapping her finger to get the same two security guards to grab Kannazuki's arms like when he was carried to the mountain, Kotori got up and headed over to the nearest trash can while Kannazuki was being held back pleading her to not throw it out. "No! Please! No! I didn't make any copies of that!"

Crumpling up the photo, she then took out a lighter and lit it on fire and threw it in the trash can in front of her. Saya watched the whole thing play out, although still unfazed.

His arms free from the security guards, Kannazuki landed on his knees and hands in defeat. Kotori gave her thanks to them before they left.

"Ugh, what am I going to do with you, Kannazuki?" she said to herself, sitting back down in her chair.

"If he's a pervert, why haven't you fired him yet?"

Kotori turned her head to where that question came from, which happened to be Saya herself, and knew exactly how to respond.

"He may be a pervert, or yet a masochist who I have to keep knocking sense into. And may not look like someone who can be of help." She turned her head back to the still glooming Kannazuki and smiled. "But there's a reason he's vice commander. He's someone you can rely on and knows exactly what to do if the ship and crew is ever in trouble. My crew actually experienced it for the first time not too long ago when they were being attacked by an enemy airship. He got the ship out of harm's way."

"Ooh…" Saya replied, not really in a shocked manner. But she still got the point.

"Listen Saya, we don't have time to explain because we're busy right now, so you'll have to wait."

Saya nodded in response, "Okay..."

"Ayato let's stop here!"

Everyone on Fraxinus turned to the big screen. Pointing at an ice cream stand, Kirin ran up to it to check out what kinds of flavors they had.

Kotori lost track of what's going on with them since she got distracted with somehow Saya getting on Fraxinus. "Sorry Ayato, we had an issue over here so we lost track for a little bit, can you catch us up?"

"Oh, it's fine. Kirin ended up feeling hungry so we decided to get something. She knew of a good ice cream stand in this park so I decided to get some for us."

Kotori smirked, "Nice, generosity like treating someone is always nice for the man to do when with a girl."

Ayato caught up to the stand and saw Kirin taking a glimpse at the flavors. "Do you know what you want?"

Kirin turned back with a smile, "Mm hm, I want strawberry, that's my favorite. What about you?"

"Let me look," Ayato went up to the stand to see what flavor he wants, but then a voice from his speaker halted him.

"Hold it, we want to look at the flavors first and suggest which one would be most appealing for you."

Ayato was a tad confused at what Kotori was talking about, "Uh… how is picking a flavor of ice cream suppose to be appealing?"

"Just go with it, alright team, vote now!"

Rich Chocolate 60%

Cool Blue Berry 30%

Spicy Cinnamon 10%

"That's how you've been picking answers for him to say?" Saya asked skeptically.

Kotori began getting flustered, "We told you already, our computer was acting weird!"

Kotori turned her head towards the screen and noticed "Spicy Cinnamon" on the board. "Spicy Cinnamon?" Kotori's eyes widened when she noticed one of the stand trays had ice cream that was an extremely bright red, almost as if a red aura was flowing around it. "T-that looks painful!"

"Uh… Spicy Cinnamon?"

Kotori realized that voice was Ayato. She frozen after realizing she left the mic on. "Oh crap…"

After sitting down at a nearby bench, Ayato and Kirin were both staring nervously at the cone. The color of the scoop and aura surrounding it made it look like a fireball.

"Uh, are you sure you're okay with that flavor, I heard that flavor gets incredibly spicy." Kirin asked

Ayato smiles back, "Don't worry, I actually like spicy food."

After taking a lick of the scoop, Ayato stood up coughing and sweating.

"Ayato, are you okay?" Coming up to him, Kirin began to rub his back.

"Don't worry, it's fine."

Kirin wasn't buying it, so she decided to take it into her own hands to help. She raised up her cone to his mouth.

"Here, take a lick of mine, it'll cool your mouth off.

"A-are you sure?"

Kirin nodded, so Ayato took a lick of her ice cream, and his mouth cooled down. He breathed out a sense of relief.

"Better?" she asked.

"Yeah… I thought it would be spicy but I didn't knew it would be that spicy."

So he continued to eat it and managed to sustain the heat more better then when he first tasted it. Kirin however, just realized what she just did and started to blush. She let Ayato basically put a part of his mouth on her ice cream. That means eating at the spot would mean an indirect kiss. So she decided to do just that. Taking a bite out of the area Ayato had his mouth on, she was blushing even harder to the point where Ayato noticed.

"Are you alright?"

"O-oh, it's alright! Really!"

Kotori felt relieved that the accident didn't go haywire, plus she turned it in Kirin's favor for her. "Hmph, an indirect kiss, a nice little trope seen a lot in school romances. That oughta be a nice pleasure for her."

Refine nodded, "Kirin's happiness meter went up a little from that. She may look embarrassed on screen but deep down, she's truly happy."

Saya on the other hand was looking a little down. Kirin may be a really good friend of her who she worked really well with during the Phoenix Festa. But regardless, Kirin was still a tough love rival to her in terms of trying to win Ayato, like with the other girls she knows.

Ayato and Kirin sat at the bench for a little while longer. Watching other people walk by them.

"Ayato?"

"Yes?"

"Are you planning on joining the Lindwurm Festa next year?"

Ayato shook his head, "Not really, what about you?"

Kirin shook her head as well, "I might not, I am only allowed to do one more festa and I want to continue improving my skills even more so I'll truly feel ready when I do enter."

Ayato realized something, "Oh yeah, what about your sword? It broke during the Gryps Festa. Your uncle will be mad, won't he?"

Kirin frowned, "I'll will seeing him again when I go back home during winter break. That sword was actually one of my family's strongest swords so it might not go well with him hearing it got destroyed."

Ayato did remember that time when he first met Kirin. He didn't like how her uncle, Kouichiro was abusing her so he had to fight her to free her instead. He lost in the end because he was holding back not realizing she was ranked #1 at the time. It also took some time together to get her to understand to not let Kouichiro use her like that. And now she trains with Ayato and his friends instead.

"Oh, also..." Kirin had one more thing to say. "Thank you"

Ayato was startled, he felt confused, "What for?"

Kirin smiled at him, "For being there for me since we met… I felt way more happy since I stopped training under my uncle. T-that's all…"

Ayato smiled, because of that move he made to help her, not just more than a relief that he freed her from abuse, it also made a big impact on her in the long run.

After a little while, they decided to head back to the dorms and Ayato stood at the entrance to Kirin's dorm apartment, bidding farewell.

She bowed as the door automatically opened for her. "Thank you for today, Ayato, it was fun."

Ayato smiles back, "So did I." With that said, Kirin walked quickly inside the building with the door closing behind her.

"Good work, she was really happy. You seem to know her real well," Kotori spoke up.

"Thanks, though what was up with making me order that spicy ice cream?"

Kotori felt embarrassed about telling him the truth, but she just went with it. "Oh… that was me, sorry about that. I accidentally slipped my tongue with the mic turned on."

Ayato chuckled.

"What's so funny?!"

"You made some funny mistakes today and yesterday, it's pretty amusing to me"

Feeling ridiculed, Kotori began to turn red unknown to Ayato, "W-what's that supposed to mean? You think we're just a bunch of useless stooges who just like to screw around here?"

Ayato's chuckles turned to laughs, "No, not at all, you've been really helpful actually."

Looking confused, she turned to her fellow peers to make gestures asking what he was walking about. None of them knew.

"I may not look like it, but I do get quite nervous at times when I do these kinds of things. So your humor on standby has been able to help me feel more relaxed."

Kotori had no clue what to say, she was having mixed emotions of happiness, embarrassment, anger, and confusion at the same time. She was struggling to think straight until she eventually calmed down and decided what she wanted to say.

"Hey Ayato?"

"Yes?"

"You totally remind me of my big brother. I can see how all these girls like you. He has a bunch of girls he's close with as well. Hell, if you were to switch places with him, you'd both still be able to make all these girls really happy."

Ayato struggled to respond as well, just like Kotori, so he just tried to make something up simple. "Well, glad to hear that. Tomorrow I'll be meeting Claudia at her dorm room in the evening, so it will start later than usually."

Kotori smiled understanding what the plan was, "No problem, I'll hear back from you tomorrow." With that, Kotori hanged up. She turned around and noticed a certain someone was missing. "Wait, where's Saya?"

"She told me she wanted to leave, so I helped escort her off the ship. I'm assuming Kirin was a love rival to her, and we were essentially helping make it against her favor."

"Guess these girls are competing for Ayato while we have Shido keeping everybody happy right now, two different objectives…"

There was something else Reine wanted to point out, "That isn't like you, openly saying someone's qualities reminds you of Shin. You aren't even open about expressing those qualities to Shin either."

Becoming flushed, Kotori pointed her finger to her, "Don't make me try to get you to buy those cream puffs again! Hell I don't even know if they sell those in Asterisk! I'll just make you buy something else sweet and expensive!"

Reine monotonously obliges, "Very well."

"Anyway, I'm going to go catch up with Shido and the others, you know what to do while I'm gone."

Reine nodded in agreement at Kotori's reply and then she got out of her chair and took off.

After catching up to Shido and the others on one of the streets, Kotori's mouth dropped when she saw that Shido and the other girls were all covered in scratches and bruises. Their clothes were a little torned as well. Kotori knew this wasn't going to be good, "What happened this time?"

All of them sat down at the nearby by fountain with food in hands from a nearby stand. Then Shido started to explain what happened this time.

"We went to Queenvail Academy upon Miku's request. We were checking around the main grounds. But then Yuzuru accidentally tripped a little and spilled some of her water on one of the students. I think her name was Violet. She was yelling and bashing at Yuzuru over it which ended up pissing off Kaguya, so she ended up arguing with the girl. Then the girl randomly challenged Kaguya to a duel of some sort. She quickly accepted and then just ran up and kicked her flying into the sky. Of course other students around us were shocked at that, but seemed impressed as well. Then Kaguya wanted to leave so she dragged me on my feet. But then she tripped again and I fell on her and grabbed her chest by accident. So all the students perceived me as a pervert and and for some reason, started chasing after us around the school yard. We ended up barely escaping."

"You see that sis? It's your fault this happened." Yuzuru told her Kaguya

Kaguya got furious, "Hey! It isn't my fault that school is filled with a bunch of idiots!"

Shido decided to step in and calm them down, "Now hang on, this is no ones fault. We just need to be more careful next time. Kaguya was just trying to stand up for Yuzuru."

Both the twins sighed and decided to just forget about it. Yuzuru though did feel grateful that her sister stood up to that girl for her. Though she doesn't intend to express it. Neither Kaguya or Yuzuru are good at expressing their sisterly bond to each other.

Kotori put a hand to her face, "Of course, dummies who believe in the"perceived pervert" trope. Sooner or later you guys will be famous for being the city's biggest idiots."

"Yeah," Shido agreed.

Something jolted in Kotori's mind, "Wait, how did you get in there anyway? Queenvail is an all girls school, you'd have to cross dress as Shiori to get in and you left the ship today wearing normal clothes."

"They allowed males to be on the outside school grounds, I just couldn't enter any of the buildings. Although some students were hitting on me, probably because some of them don't interact with males that much. And Miku was encouraging them."

Kotori sighed in annoyance, "Listen, you guys need to be more low key, especially after Miku was disturbing citizens. The cops got involved with that situation. We are from a different world, so we technically have no personal records here. That means we're aliens. If authorities catch wind of this, we may be held captive here. Ratatoskr won't even be able to help us out of it."

"We'll try to," Shido replied. He did feel intimidated about what would happen if authorities were to try to get legal information from them. Organizations are already having their eyes on the spirits back at home, even after becoming citizens of Tengu City.

Trying to shake off that feeling by changing the subject, he wanted to know about Kotori's day. "So Kotori, how was your day today?"

First thing Kotori thought of is that somehow Saya got in the ship over one of Kannazuki's moments, but she decided to just keep that a secret for now since Shido has his own problems to deal with. "It went fine, just fine."

Shido raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!"

Meanwhile, after getting off Fraxinus, Saya headed back to her dorm room and laid down on her bed.

"I won't lose, I won't…"