Chapter 7
Raizen High had better days. The spacequake that had hit the day prior was nothing compared to how it looked now. Honestly, it was surprising that it still somehow resembled a school. Rubble was scattered everywhere, and the school's clock had broken off the building and crashed to the ground.
Professionals claimed that all of the damages had been caused by the spacequake. Once, Ean might have believed the same. That was before he'd been shot helping out Tohka.
"Why the hell are we here? School sent out an email saying it was essentially vacation time."
The redhead hadn't wanted to wake up when school was currently on holiday, early or no, not after the battle the day prior. Hell, he might not have woken up even for a spacequake. Shido apparently hadn't thought the same, pulling the wounded boy from their shared home and pulling him the distance to the broken concrete that had once been his school.
When Ean asked his friend "Why are we here after hell broke loose?" Shido's response was short and distracted, and likely a little maddened.
"I'm looking for something."
"Can you tell me what this 'something' is?"
"The blackboard from our classroom," was his final statement as he scavenged through the rubble, looking for something that was likely completely shattered. Ean would've helped, but didn't for two reasons.
One, he was still wounded. Extensive physical labor, as Reine had made sure to tell him as Shido pulled him to school via his replaced earpiece, could open his wound again, and would likely end with him covered in blood once more. Ean had agreed wholeheartedly, having many experiences in the past where the scars on his chest would pop open if he even twitched, and had no desire to emulate such a situation.
Two, because the first slab of concrete he'd laid his eyes on was stained with what was likely his own blood, which somehow made him not want to touch it even more.
"It wasn't a dream. Tohka was actually here."
Ean glanced to the bluenette awkwardly, wondering just what the hell he was mumbling about. Of course Tohka was there - he'd gotten shot for her.
"Did you seriously think that me with a spray of bullets in my side was a dream?"
Shido didn't seem to hear him, running his hands over the pile of rubble with a careful eye. When he found what he was looking for, he retrieved it and held it up for the foreigner to see.
"She was here," he said, a chunk of broken blackboard that Tohka had written on sandwiched between his fingers.
Ean just rolled his eyes exasperatedly, scanning over the rest of the rubble as Shido remained attentive to the scrap of blackboard. His eyes fell on the dress-clad figure tearing at him through the air like a cannonball. Tohka slammed into him at the speed of a car on a highway, happily shouting "You're not dead!"
To say he crashed into the ground was an understatement - it was more of a sensation where he want from 'upright' to 'uuuuuhhhhhhgggggg.'
"I'm so glad you're alright! When I saw you get hurt, I didn't know what to do! Are humans really so durable that you're capable of battle already?"
Ean resisted the urge to cough his guts out or scream because of the ache in the bullet wound he'd gotten, only looking to Tohka with a meek grin.
"I… don't really know about battle," he grumbled, remembering the shitshow that was his attempt at helping Tohka the day prior and his complete inability to knock even one Wizard out of the battle, "but I don't feel like someone's putting a burning piece of metal into my side right now, so technically, I am better."
Tohka nodded happily and pulled him from the ground with her inhuman strength, failing to notice his pained wince as she turned to the bluenette, the makings of a blush on her face.
"Shido! Hey, Shido!"
Shido didn't hear her - no matter how the redhead tried to spin it, that just didn't make sense - so Ean tried snapping in front of the boy's face. He jumped and glared at the redhead, who jabbed his finger at Tohka, who was smiling happily at the teen.
"You're alive too!"
She lunged like a lion after its prey and began to suffocate him with all the strength of an anaconda. Shido turned about as blue as his hair until Tohka finally released him, the boy coughing up a storm. Ean snickered in return, immediately deciding to return to business.
"How'd you get back? The Spacequake alarm didn't go off."
"Shido promised me something called a date! Well I'm here, so let's go, let's go, LET'S GO, LET'S GO!"
Tohka walked at Shido, prodding a finger into his chest as she did, and managed to leave Ean to see the implications of Spirits appearing willy-nilly whenever they were promised something. That seemed dangerous and hard to predict… hell, he could walk down the street and pass Spirits without even realizing it. He could stumble into a few weirdly dressed people and be confused whether to treat them as cosplayers, Spirits, or entu…
Enthusiasts…
"Battles… victories… ties and losses…"
"Oh you've gotta be kidding me," he mumbled under his breath, remembering the twins in the arcade almost two weeks ago. Somehow, it all seemed to make sense. He didn't even know about Spirits and he thought they were weird.
Was Shido going to have to date two sexual deviants to save the world from spacequakes?!
"Let's go, Shido!" Tohka's shout was enough to snap him from his stupor to see her practically carrying Shido away.
"W-wait, hold on! Can you change out of that," Shido requested, looking up and down Tohka's Astral Dress and no doubt associating it with cosplayers. Ean would've agreed, but he slightly snickered at Shido's obliviousness. Tohka seemed to notice it as well, because she looked at the blue haired boy awkwardly.
"You want me to strip down in broad daylight?"
"I'm not sure how you were taught, but you shouldn't be asking Tohka to go nude in front of us. That's more of a Tonomachi move."
Shido's blush ignited into a forest fire on his face at Ean's quickly thought out comment, but a huge problem popped into his head that needed to be asked.
"How are we going to explain that two boys are buying clothes for a girl together?"
The terrifying prospect of being mistakenly thought as a gay couple when they were essentially family was worrying to Ean. It would put images into his head that didn't need to exist and Christ almighty don't you dare thinkAAAAAAAAAAAA-
Don't think! Brain, off! Stop looking at Shido! Stop looking him up and down! Dude, you're not even-
"Hold up."
Ean snagged the paper from the boy's pocket, glaring at the image that greeted him in return. His bedraggled sigh rocked through his entire body as he looked disappointedly at the bluenette.
"Why the actual hell are you still carrying that around?"
He waved the picture of Origami at his fellow male for less than a second until Tohka snagged it herself and looked at it herself. The way her eyes narrowed was terrifying
"Do you wish for me to wear this? It's your preference," Tohka questioned, undeterred by Ean stifling a laugh and Shido desperately beating down his fellow male with his school blazer, angrily stating "Don't you dare!"
Tohka sighed and tore the picture in half, and Ean saw the look on her face that made it seem like some small part of her taking enjoyment in hurting the white haired girl in any way. She rose a hand, and in a flash of purple light, was suddenly in a Raizen High uniform.
"Is this better," she asked, eyes strangely innocent for someone who casually maimed people attacking her. They agreed, and Tohka was just about ready to grab Shido once more and row him away. Ean snapped into action first, his brown eyes drilling holes into the bluenette.
"Dude. Don't do anything dumb today. Not because you'll kill yourself, but you'll kill me."
Shido's eyes flickered to where Ean's wound was. The redhead felt a bit bad about using guilt to manipulate the boy into staying safe, but it was much better than attempting to constantly be ready in case something happened on their date.
"Come on, Shido! We'll see you later, Ean!"
"Have a nice time, lovebirds!"
Tohka shouted back a couple of gratitudes and waved, all while dragging Shido like a letter in the wind. The sound of his earpiece activating caught his attention, and Kotori's voice came through the device, a bit of a shake to it that the foreigner couldn't quite find a reason for.
"Think he'll be okay?"
A knowing smile cracked across Ean's face as he continued to wave to the two.
"Oh, he is so fucked."
Kurumi watched Tohka dash off, Shido's arm in her relentless hold. She heard the familiarity of Ean's awkward laughing as he followed the bluenette's descent into a full harem with his eyes, where Kurumi let out a small grin. If only he knew, then he wouldn't be smiling. He'd be running.
"Think they'll be okay?"
The Nightmare Spirit heard Sakura's words and instinctively gagged. Not even the Raisen school rooftop, no matter how obliterated it was, seemed to be safe from the girl and her awkward prying and babying. The heels of blonde Goddess clicked up to her from behind, and Kurumi whirled around with a distasteful look on her face, avoiding looking at those stupid pink eyes.
Ean had a dream about this ditz?
Kurumi didn't like her for a few reasons. She was a prissy, spoiled brat, unwilling to get her hands dirty with anything, and believed herself to be the best of their little group of time travelers, Goddesses, and Spirit. Her only focus alongside them was to watch over Ean and whoever he asked her to, then protect them if need be.
"Which she failed miserably at," Kurumi thought, remembering seeing those scars adorning his body in every life when she stopped in to check on the others. She was supposed to protect him, guardian deity her ass.
Although, it did make sense why Ean always pulled through in the other lives. He had his own Goddess watching over him and that brand on his body.
Images of the boy screaming out in pain, being maimed and attacked to keep his family safe, blinked into her head. He fought to save lives, even after the torture he'd endured. How he hadn't gone insane was still a mystery for Nightmare.
"Kurumi?"
The Spirit turned to Homura, who was looking uneasily at her. A quick rub of her face told Kurumi that she wasn't coated in blood again, and it gave her the time to think up a joke that the blonde bombshell of another time would love.
"I dunno. Only time will tell."
Homura groaned at the joke, but Kurumi smiled. She couldn't wait to introduce Homura to the girl that she respected in all but killing intent, even though her partner had that covered.
Alas, that'd have to wait. There were more important things to do than putting two people together and expecting some type of relationship to miraculously bloom. That only happened in Sakura's… questionable taste in literature.
Fledgling Goddess of Light, meet smut.
"At least they have us looking out for them," Sakura stated, pink eyes still focused on the redhead below, who seemed to remember that he had a job to do and sprinted after the Spirit and Shido as quickly as his aching side would let him.
Homura and Sakura watched over them. Yu had his own agenda that he refused to disclose, and Kurumi prepared. Lived up to the mantle of Nightmare well enough to make people have actual nightmares.
"I wish we could've stopped the chaos before it even started. Darling shouldn't be suffering through this."
At the sound of Ean's faux nickname that he'd been unknowingly slapped with, Kurumi once again gagged - "PURGE IT," she screamed in her mind.
"Can't really call if suffering if all they're doing is saving Tohka."
"He took a bullet!"
"One that you pulled out his side while he slept," Homura countered, despite the morose look on her face. "You should've left the wound, Sakura."
Those words seemed to affect Sakura as if she'd been slapped. She whirled around, a look on her face that seemed to scream about how much she wanted to hit the redhead. Homura saw it too - her eyes widened and her face paled as Sakura stomped towards her.
"What?! He was in pain! You saw that, Homura," she shouted at the Flamebringer. Kurumi felt the trigger of her flintlock with a tight finger. It shouldn't be too hard to shoot up a Goddess.
How much time would a Goddess give her? She's been alive, what, since the dawn of time?
Furthermore, how did the dumbass not realize that he was bulletless?
Before Nightmare could formulate a specific reason as to how Ean forgot about the foreign object lodged in his side, a crack split open the air beside the trio of girls. It was inhuman and unholy, as was the boy that stepped through, something thrown over his shoulders. Kurumi saw it and grinned, licking her lips hungrily.
"My, my, looks like my kitty caught a bird."
Yu looked at her with those emotionless, dead fish eyes and dumped the unconscious Wizard onto the floor. Kurumi poked at the girl's face with her gun and cringed when the muzzle was caked with spray-on tan. She wiped it against Yu's leg and grinned as he shot her an agitated look.
"This is my only pair of clothes."
"So?"
"I hate you."
"My my, that's such an uncouth thing to say to a lady. You're not going to find your true love like that! Show some spine! Lie! Do something that doesn't make you seem as bland as a pamphlet you carry around because you forgot to toss it!"
Yu just stared. Kurumi poked him with her pistol.
"N-Narukami," Homura stuttered out, looking at the state that the Wizard was in with wide eyes. "What's going on?"
"Can't you tell, Homu?" Kurumi giggled as she turned to her Goddess friend, instantly realizing that her adorable little gender-confused runt hadn't realized what was happening. "It's an offering," she stated, digging the sole of her boot into the unconscious girl's spine, trying to find any part of her that looked tasty without the fake tan. How was she supposed to get time from this? It was like some of that god awful food that Raizen's cafeteria served. Oh, how she could go for Shido's cooking right about now. It wouldn't give her time, but it damn sure felt like it did.
Yu's grey eyes watched her, she could tell even as she played with her food.
"I'll do my part in keeping Shido and Ean alive. I expect you to pick up the slack as well, Kurumi."
Did this bitch just-?!The Spirits weren't slack. They were just as innocent as everyone else dragged into their hell.
She needed his help. That was the only reason she was letting him live. But if he called those she cared about slack again, she'd wipe him from the face of the Earth, just like everyone else she fueled Zafkiel with.
Speaking of fuel...
"Is it AST or DEM?" Kurumi idly regarded the to-be corpse at her boots, bringing the boy's eyes back down to the Wizard. "I've been trying to cut down."
"It's evil. That's all that matters."
Evil? How could someone who lived so many lives still be so naïve?
"Oh, Narukami, so subjective. To her, we're the evil ones. She's probably just a normal Wizard, trying to protect her innocent, naïve city for the big, bad, Spirits!"
"She joined the DEM because she gets pleasure from killing. I came across her recalling all the things she'd want to do to kill Hermit."
Kurumi heard Homura choke from where she stood, but it sounded like it came from the end of a tunnel. Kurumi was a psychopath, sure. She often messed around before eating her meals; spicing and seasoning the meat a bit. It helped keep the violence from getting stale.
But a psychopath that wanted to kill sweet little Yoshino? Not even the Worst Spirit could let that one slide. Hermit had helped her in another time, and Kurumi honestly owed the girl her life.
Zafkiel appeared behind her, and Kurumi hefted her guns up with a crooked smile on her face. Homura whimpered behind her, and Sakura turned away to watch Ean off in the distance.
"What are some of the things she said, Narukami? I want some ideas."
Yu's grin came out, about as rare as a lunar eclipse. For as long as she'd known this incarnation of the boy, he was filled with malice for anything that'd mess up the future.
"Wait."
"Come ON! Can't you give me a minute of time without hearing your voice?!"
Sakura glared from her position, finally deciding on something the didn't have to do with the one person she thought needed protecting. Kurumi still really wanted to shoot her.
"We're changing things this time because too many people died. Do we really need to be killing someone else?"
Kurumi groaned. She was shooting to get Homura on her side, and Kurumi would not be able to say no to the redhead. It actually looked as if Homura was going to back up her fellow Deity, but seven words stopped all signs of impending rebellion.
"This is the Wizard that shot Ean."
Yu's words pacified the guardian Goddess. For a very small window of time, light began to leak from Sakura, a clear sign of her agitation. Thankfully, she seemed to reign her emotions in before the entire city exploded into a supernova, but it didn't stop Homura from cowering behind Kurumi.
Kurumi grinned at the look that crossed Sakura's face. Seeing her turn away defeated was almost better than getting time for free.
Almost.
Reine watched Shin's attempts at courting Tohka go… horribly right, in a sense. He just needed to keep her entertained and fed, and things would go smoothly. In a way, it reminded her of the far past, when she and her honey had gone on the very same dates and just enjoyed one another's presence.
She missed those bygone days where she ended up sucking the money directly out of someone's wallet. If she were young again… it would be glorious.
That'd have to wait. She could reflect later. Shin needed a voice in his head telling him what to say.
"Tell her 'I'll only tell you what a date is if you have a good time today,' alright?"
Shido relayed the message, and his wallet was once again beaten in the dark alleyway by the mugger that was Tohka's stomach. How she inhaled all of that food was an unknown, but she'd need to test it once she was sealed.
They needed a stockpile of food at the Itsuka household yesterday.
"H-hey, E-Ean…?"
Reine's attention on Shin and Tohka, the two of them currently in the midst of absorbing the boy's wallet and changing it into food, was yanked mercilessly away. Her blue eyes shot to Kotori, her Commander looking and sounding miserable. The girl was almost curled into a ball, pale and looking as if she was close to vomiting.
Ean had been watching the date carefully, sequentured off into the corner seat and furiously typing down what Reine had asked of him: personalized options for Shido to use to effectively manage the date at a better rate.
What did Kotori suddenly need of him that Reine couldn't take care of easier…?
"Yeah," the redhead spoke, finishing part of his task and turning to the Commander with a pure smile. "What's up?"
"I… n-need…"
The second Reine heard the weakness in Kotori's voice, she turned and opened a small drawer she always had in case of emergency. She'd gotten plenty of Angel Suppressors for her Commander's use, normally specially made into lollipops for ease and secrecy. It had been working for years now, but it seemed like they needed bigger doses.
Damn… they needed a better solution...
"Kotori? You alright? You look exhausted..."
Reine's jaw locked. If Ean had noticed, Shido wouldn't be far behind. That wasn't good whatsoever.
"I-u-um… could y-you step out momentarily?"
Ean blinked, and Reine watched firsthand as hurt spread across his face. The analyst could tell that the consequence of that demand could be catastrophic, especially it's how fickle the boy's emotions could be.
That meant it was time for damage control.
"You should check out your wound. The Commander has been having a few bad days. Just give her a minute if she needs it."
Ean nodded, but looked worriedly to the girl. Reine began to lead him away, but the boy had somehow slipped from her grasp and broke away from her gait, attacking the stairs with a light jog and moving to stand right beside Kotori. The foreigner pulled the younger girl into a hug that made Reine's eyebrows shoot up, then moved away quickly and left the room.
Reine watched Kotori pull closer to herself with a whimper more befitting of her white ribboned persona. Ean had given her a hug that looked like he'd channeled his inner Shido, a hug that probably would've made Reine feel better if she was in a rut, and Kotori looks even worse?
"It's Camael," she'd said the day prior. Voices, chanting, belief that her thoughts were being influenced by her Angel. The analyst was worried that Kotori's control was slipping, but the redhead had claimed that she hadn't been tapping into her abilities for anything.
Without a desire to alert everyone else, despite how the Fraxinus crew had all noticed Kotori's current predicament, Reine silently opened up the Spirit Data they'd collected. She shifted from Tohka's opened document, passed Hermit, and glared at the Efreet folder.
Hang tight, Kotori. Reine will get you the help you need.
That was… interesting.
Ean wondered just what was up with Kotori today. She was completely fine yesterday, joking with him as they tortured Shido, and sucking on a lollipop like everything was completely fine. Twenty-four hours had passed, and now she looked like she was miserable in her own skin. Just what had happened to her?
Reine seemed to know, and no matter how good she thought she was at lying, Ean saw straight through her. She seemed to know what was going on with Kotori and could probably give him answers if he pried hard enough. He'd need to know what to pry about, and that was a completely different story.
Ean caught sight of himself in the mirror of the changing area, looking more disheveled than usual. He merely sighed and pried off his shirt, keeping his eyes from the scars that bothered him so much. Strangely enough, whenever he was by Tohka, he seemed to never have phantom pains...
Speaking of pain, it was time to get down to business and take care of what he promised to. He removed Shido's tight bandaging slowly, waiting for the searing of pain to tear into him again and leave him a bleeding pile on the floor.
He expected the blood to be clotted by now, and it thankfully was. It just left a deep red smear on his side; one he'd rather to be gone. He wetted his fingers with the sink and gently began to rub the blood away.
Strange… normally, he'd feel pressure on it, mainly because the light scabbing would be hard against his soft skin. Curiously, he scrubbed harder, looking at the wound on his side with something akin to tension growing in his brain.
The boy was absolutely astounded to see a complete lack of gunshot wounds.
"Wha…? H-how did….? WHAT?!"
That didn't make any sense! No way, no matter what anyone tried to convince him with, could he completely heal a bullet wound overnight, and without scarring! That was utter bullshit! Yet, here he was!
Was it a Realizer? He hadn't used a medical Realizer in his life, but would that have done it?
That would mean someone had been in the Itsuka house, gotten into his room while he slept, pulled his bandages off without waking him, applied the Realizer which probably let out some obnoxious light or noise judging by everything on the Fraxinus, and kept it there long enough to heal his wound. None of that even counted the likely extremely painful operation of pulling a bullet from his insides.
So he called full-on bullshit. Hell would freeze over before he accepted it as the truth!
That was, up until he caught sight of something blood red, resting just above the indent of scar tissue on his right pectoral, which completely drove his thoughts from the lack of a wound or scarring.
He knew for a fact that he didn't have any scars on his collarbone. If he did, he would have drowned himself in turtleneck sweaters and willingly lived out the rest of his life in sweaty woolen agony. It was only a miracle that let him wear collarless shirts and v-necks, so he did the very thing he wanted so desperately and looked normal. He knew with all of his being that there were no markings on him below his collar.
So when he saw a blood red mark, slightly off to the right shoulder, he wondered when in the hell he'd gotten it.
It didn't seem like any of his other scars. No scar tissue compromised it; it was set on unblemished skin. The blood red was practically a flashing neon sign that said it wasn't just another healed wound from the car accident he was in.
And the shape. Unnerving as all hell. At first he would've said that it looked like some rune or something, trying to find an image that wasn't there. The mark looked like someone had painstakingly drawn it on his chest with the world's steadiest hand.
It was… archaic. It was like doodle you'd see on someone's homework when they got bored.
The last thing he saw, glowing a bright red in the darkness of unconsciousness, was an eye. It stared him down, and for some reason…
He could tell it was smiling.
Ean flinched away as if he'd been burned. The dream from his first time on the Fraxinus came to mind. The burning Tengu City, the Fraxinus crashed into the center of the city, the figure that attacked him, the girl that saved him. Saved was used very loosely, considering everything.
The very end, he saw the exact same image while on the verge of waking up. Now it was branded into his skin. He knew enough to at least feel like whatever the mark was had been responsible for whatever healed his wound.
It just begged the question: What the hell was happening to him?!
She'd followed Shido all day. She could accept that without issue.
What she couldn't was that Princess had been with him the entire time. Wasting Shido's time and money that he could rightfully be using on the girl that mattered.
Her.
Origami.
His girlfriend.
When that wench had almost coaxed him into a love hotel, Origami almost snapped then and there. She had wanted a hit then and there, just to bring down the entire force of the AST on the Spirit's head for disrespecting the one who'd been there for her, even if his memories had faded. In fact, Ryouko was the only reason Origami kept off from obliterating the entire sudden district of date areas, by promising her this.
A sniping point, illuminated under the sunset that Princess was using to confuse Shido. She'd gladly kill her for manipulating him.
When Origami was given the order to fire, she was more than happy to go ahead and pull the trigger. Princess would be gone, and Shido would be safe. Origami wouldn't even care if he hated her for it - as long as he was safe, nothing else mattered. She'd continue to hunt Spirits uninhibited until none were left. Life would be normal then.
She'd had Princess in her sights before the order on her life was even given.
That was, until the feeling set in.
She realized something was immediately wrong when the hair on the back of her neck stood tall. The white haired girl threw herself away from her sniping point and narrowly avoided the katana that had bit into the ground her spine had just been.
He was her age. Short grey hair, cold grey eyes, and a school uniform she didn't recognize. The blade in his grasp was painfully average, as was he in general. It made her that much more wary.
Something was wrong with the situation. No one should've been able to get to where she'd chosen without a CR-Unit. Furthermore, no civilian should've been carrying a katana anyways.
"Move or you get shot," was her terse statement to him, pointing the Cry-Cry-Cry at him. She only found about half a gun in her hand, cleaved in half so quickly that she didn't even register movement.
"I'm not letting you get in the way," was all that he replied with, face expressionless. Origami's eyes narrowed. Another person like Shido and his friend?
Her No Pain engaged. His charge was fast. Not Spirit fast, but fast. It was just a normal sprint.
When he weaved past three consecutive slashes that were managed in the span of a second, she knew that her opponent was no normal human.
She danced away from a slash that could've bisected her at the torso and parried a thrust at her thigh, rewarding her opponent a gash in his arm an-
"No blood," was the quickest thing she realized. Origami had been positive that she struck him; the cut tore through the sleeve on his shirt in a way that would've been impossible otherwise. That wasn't good.
Her thrust at his throat missed by mere inches. The swing angled for his chest cut a single strand of hair from her enemy's bangs. The stomp at his knee missed, leaving her wide open.
His fist came from nowhere. For a moment, all the white haired girl saw were flashes of color and motion. Desperate enough for anything, she brought up her No Pain in a defensive stance and swung at the quickest sign of movement.
The first noise he made was one of surprise. The second was one of annoyance.
The Wizard regained her bearings and was met with the sight of a weapon meant to tear through the Astral Dress of a Spirit sparking across the edge of a bland and normal katana.
Origami was given no time to contemplate that and was rewarded for her seconds of hesitation with another fist to her face. The fairly simple attack left Master Sergeant Tobiichi staggering to a boy who looked as bland as a sheet of paper.
That pissed her off. She needed to finish him quickly and completely the operation. An overhead chop, the very same used against Princess in their battle the day prior. This boy didn't have Shido's friend to get in the way, and he was too close to deflect with his heavier metal weapon.
He seized her by the neck in an instant and crushed her defenseless body against what felt like a tree. She didn't even have time to get up her Territory. All she knew was pain and blood dripping down her chin.
The katana came a moment later, biting at her head like a wild dog. The first stab came in a moment of cluelessness, and Origami paid for it with a long and painful cut across her left cheek. His weapon being pulled back gave her the concentration she needed. She brought up her No Pain and deflected the next stab, bringing a foot up and slamming it as hard as she could into his gut.
He wasn't even fazed. She tried again, hitting groin this time. Even less of a reaction. In fact, he seemed to be standing taller. He was toying with her.
She flexed her Territory, the energy shield forcing him back, no matter how strong he was. Origami could feel his hand still trying to constrict her throat and forced it away, catching her breath.
He was monstrous and serious about killing her. She should've realized sooner that he wasn't exactly normal.
She pulled her pistol on him, hoping to have the edge quickly enough to call for backup. She unloaded the entire clip, half expecting him to deflect them with his katana. Instead, a wall of flame exploded from the floor before him and melted the bullets to slag before they came close to him.
When the flames died, he was smiling. Origami gnashed her teeth and prepared for another rush. That rush never came, and she was met with a strangely mesmerizing sight.
His fist opened, palm to the sky, and a single card appeared to hover before it. The Wizard didn't know what to make of it, but it confirmed his powers in a way that she would've disregarded if it was just fire.
He smashed the card, and the last thing on Origami's mind was fighting the boy. A figure appeared behind the boy, who was smirking mercilessly. The girl's blue eyes regarded the creature he'd brought into the world: its curves, colors, shapes, and felt confusion for the first time since she was a kid.
Why was it flaccid?
It turned to face her, a grin on its head. The wheels that held it up began to spin, and the beast began to move towards her. Origami moved back, preferring to keep at least five meters, but would prefer fifty. Then it roared, and tentacles that were unseen before extruded from its back and attacked her. She took to the sky, shuddering when the thing turned to keep facing her and continue its attack.
She needed an out. Princess could wait.
"This is Origami! We need backup, STAT!"
She ducked as a tentacle came lunging at her head, wondering just how she was going to get away from this new Spirit - Summoner, she presumed she'd write on her report. This Spirit could be the one to live. Someone else could deal with it.
"COME TO MOTHER MARA, LITTLE GIRL!"
Was a Spirit summoning a giant penis on a chariot even close to normal?
Origami's distress call was received well. A group of fifteen Wizards leapt into action, taking to the skies from the treeline. Not even five seconds after they were called, Wizards started dropping like flies, much to her ecstatic joy.
Kurumi grinned as bullet after bullet flew, a light chuckle making it through her teeth. It was just so much fun! Like a carnival game!
"Homu! You should light the forest on fire!"
"Kurumi, what the actual hell?!"
Shido probably should vow to never take a girl out on another date as long as he lived.
He'd just been talking with Tohka, finally getting out what he desperately wanted to say, and all hell had broken loose. Wizards were going back and forth, dropping like flies to the… thing chasing them in its magical flying chariot and wrapping its feelers around them. It was a giant - was that even a fetish? Tentacle Chariot Domination?
He didn't know how it had happened, but he just assumed that the creature had lit the forest on fire too, and that the never ending giggling was coming from it.
And just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, Tohka had leaned over with a question that would've been perfect for any other occasion: "Is this normal for Earth?"
He turned to the purple haired Spirit, who regarded him with wide innocent eyes, and assumed the fetal position.
"No, Tohka. This is not normal."
"Oh. Okay!"
He shuddered at the flopping of the thing's tongue, grimacing in disgust. Honestly, it looked like a cat playing with a bunch of toys.
A Wizard that seemed a modicum more composed than the rest caught sight of the boy and girl and sprinted over. Tohka's Astral Dress and Sandalphon appeared, but the woman didn't even give her a second look and spun past Tohka's thrusters attempt on her life and stomped right to Shido. She grabbed him by the shoulders and jostled him with a small terrified squeak sneaking out of the boy.
"Did you do this?! Did you do this?! Was this you?!"
He looked at her in dismay, to the creature, back to her, to Tohka's waving figure behind him, to the woman, to the creature, then back to the woman.
"I wouldn't ask that thing for help even if I was at gunpoint!"
The woman just looked at him dumbfoundedly and sighed. She pulled him a few meters from where he stood just in time to avoid the charioteer that had rolled past, its tongue flopping about in an even more disgusting way than before.
Shido followed its path with his eyes, wincing as a Wizard got trampled by the wheels on the creature. The woman beside him groaned in sympathetic pain.
"You should get out of here. This is the danger that follows Spirits."
She tried to pull Shido away from Tohka, get them to break the hold they had on the other's hand. Frankly, it was insulting that she even tried to pry him away from her.
"I'm not abandoning Tohka. The spacequakes aren't her fault!"
She glared at the boy that made it positive that she thought him a fool and looked prepared to give him a tongue lashing, but her attention was caught by Tohka, who had pointed Sandalphon at her with a look of murder on her face.
Shido shot the Spirit a silent beg to stand down and looked back to the Wizard, who just looked surprised at the boy's conviction.
"I'm part of a group that's trying to deal with the Spirits in a peaceful manner. Please," he said, looking the woman down with hope in his eyes.
For a moment, she looked at him like he was crazy. Then her eyes shot to Tohka, who had let Sandalphon fall to the side by Shido's pleading look. The woman looked at the Spirit for a few seconds, seemingly attempting to form an opinion on the girl.
She looked back to the bluenette, and despite the firefight that was currently ongoing and failing to put down the creature of nightmares, he remained stalwart.
"When this is all taken care of, go to the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force headquarters and ask for Ryouko Kusakabe. I want to talk about the Spirits with you."
Shido's heart soared. Ryouko grinned at the teen and put a hand to the communicator on her ear, her eyes sharp once more. The order she barked into the device just made Shido feel all that much better.
"Forget about Princess! Just get away from whatever that thing is!"
Shido turned to Tohka, a smile wide on his face. She didn't seem to understand the implications of the situation, but it might make everything much easier for Ratatoskr and the Spirits. She wouldn't be hunted! She wouldn't need to worry about him disappearing, nor about having to be forced to become Lost again.
She could live.
"Get to somewhere safe, you two. Some of the Wizards under my command have a tendency to ignore orders."
The two teenagers shared a concerned look as the woman sped off to collect her underlings. Almost immediately after she left, a Wizard ended up sprawled on the ground at their feet and followed by a couple of angered individuals who likely believed them to be the cause of terror.
Tohka had no trouble getting the bluenette back and taking them on herself, dispatching the frazzled and incoherent enemies mercifully. She even beaned a Wizard on the head with Sandalphon, but was cut away from the bluenette by narrowly avoiding the phallic nightmare that was skirting around. Shido quickly noticed that it seemed to not worry about the plum haired girl and thanked whatever messed up gods out there that he wouldn't need to explain anything about an interaction with it to her.
She darted out of view with the sound of something exploding with dangerous intensity. Shido could feel that sweat on his face sliding down his cheek as a ray of energy shot into the sky, accompanied by even more screaming.
"Tohka," he sighed exasperatedly, "she told us to leave. Not join the fight."
The girl that had been bowled over at his feet seized him by the tie with panic in her eyes, holding a No Pain to his neck and eyeing the monster that was tearing apart the AST with ease.
"Make it stop! Call it off!"
Shido swallowed and felt the weapon cut against his Adam's apple. He could see the insanity clouding her eyes and was all the more worried about what might happen to him.
She slumped dead against his shoulder. The hole that appeared in her forehead told him as much.
Someone seized the corpse and tossed it away like it hadn't just been a living, breathing person. It left Shido to see the one who'd done such a terrible deed, and forced him to hear the terrifying giggle that she let out.
She was a gothic lolita, like a girl Tonomachi had once leered over. That was where her innocence ended.
She was soaked in blood, skin and clothes drenched in the crimson ichor. In her hands rested a flintlock pistol and rifle, both weapons smoking. She smiled at him, and it wasn't a smile he ever would've wanted to see.
She was close enough to his face that he could see his own reflection in her eyes and notice what she seemed so interested in. A splat of blood from the corpse had gotten onto his cheek.
The girl's fingers ran softly on his face as she leaned closer and closer.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, sounding very unconcerned with his expression. "I just have fun playing with my food."
Shido whimpered in return. She didn't just wipe the blood off of his face: she licked it off.
Confusion, terror, and maybe a bit of embarrassment came to him in a cyclone. She grabbed him by the chin and bent his head to the side to get at the ichor, giggling as he tried to get away. She eventually let go, and he just looked at her in terror.
Her eyes were mismatched. One was a dark red, like the color of the blood that was splattered across her skin and clothes. The eye regarded him like he was prey for a wild animal, keeping his mouth locked shut.
The other was a gold clock in place of an iris. The hands of the device ticked slowly and mechanically.
He feared those eyes.
"Get up, Shido~ playtime isn't over yet."
His breath hitched in his chest as she licked her lips hungrily at him. He wanted to scurry away, get distance between him and this… nightmare. The hands wrapping around his neck kept him pinned.
"Get away from Shido!"
Sandalphon threatened to tear the lolita's head off of her shoulders, but the girl gave a small chuckle and evaded with complete ease. It hadn't mattered either way, Tohka used the chance to place herself between Shido and the girl. She quickly looked him up and down for injuries, worry all over her face.
"Don't worry, Tohka. Little Shido will be safe for now."
The eyes of Shido and Tohka both flashed back to the girl, who had started walking backward leisurely, a wide grin on her face. Tohka had thankfully kept Sandalphon ready for use even when their enemy had let her guard down.
"Don't be a stranger, Shido-san~"
She vanished into the shadows of the treeline, and Tohka held him close. He held desperately onto her.
Images of the dead girl and those eyes were stained into his brain. He didn't even realize he was shaking until Tohka had pressed herself against him.
She knew his name…
"Shido, we need to get away from here! It's too dangerous for you!"
The bluenette felt himself nod, more focused on trying to purge the images from his mind. Tohka helped him back to his feet, the girl flinching into his side when a line of bullets tore into the ground beside them. It only served as a reminder to what had just happened.
Shido choked when something seized him by the collar and launched into the air, but every fiber of his body was hoping that Tohka had grabbed him and flew away from the Wizards that had attacked.
That belief was disproved when he realized Tohka was supporting his torso, a look of concentration as they weaved through the field of gunfire to avoid the penis chariot.
On a whim, he glanced up, seeing the head of copper hair flopping about as he tore through the air, his teeth bared as his concentration blocked everything else out. His brown eyes flickered down for half a second, taking note of the boy's slack amazement.
"Head down! It's hard enough flying while holding you as is, you damn sack of bricks!"
Shido closed his mouth and just looked forwards, feeling like he was sitting on a rollercoaster. Ean and Tohka flew fast and hard - Ean likely aided by Kannazuki - tearing past confusion and chaos. The three were almost clotheslined by another long tentacle, which led to Shido witnessing Ean's eyes bulge out of his head at the creature.
"Can either of you explain just what the fuck is happening?! Is the dick chariot a Spirit?! Do you turn into that thing, Tohka?!"
No. Just… no.
"What the hell is that?!"
Shido barely managed to react to Ean's sudden shout. The Spirit and Wizard veered off to the left with barely enough time to spare, screaming as a giant blast of light tore past them and to the battlefield. Shido didn't know light could smell, but the stench of… hell, he didn't know, clouds? It was choking him.
Or maybe that was Tohka's strong grip on his neck when something exploded and horrid screaming belted out in its wake.
"Was that an arrow?! THAT LOOKED LIKE A GIANT ARROW!"
The bluenette didn't worry about what had happened behind them, but was focused on the single figure illuminated by the sunset high above them. She was beautiful, with long and flowing blonde hair. In her hands sat a large golden bow, one she'd pulled back to release more beams of light.
He worried that she was a Spirit for merely a second. The force that sat on his shoulders was unlike anything else. It didn't feel like Tohka had the first day they'd met. It felt like something larger, stronger.
"That's-!"
The redhead's eyes were stuck on the girl, and Shido could tell that his concentration had completely vanished. Shido gripped onto Ean's arm, and the bluenette could see the confusion and indecisiveness in the boy's eyes.
"We have to leave alive, don't we?"
Conviction spread onto the redhead's face and tore his eyes away from the blonde girl, more intent on the city and a safe place to land.
Shido was silent as the sounds of the battle faded away, trying his best to not remember the lolita girl whatsoever. He was only snapped from his stupor when his feet hit concrete and his two flying friends touched down next to his sides, Ean complaining about how this arms had fallen asleep and that Shido was fat. Tohka giggled and flashed a wide smile to the bluenette.
They knew that he was mulling over what just happened, Ean likely without the specifics. They just wanted to make him feel better.
He pulled the two into a group hug, biting his lip to keep the images away from his head.
"Shin."
The voice of Reine, who'd been mostly quiet while the chaos had happened, popped into his ear. Ean picked up for him, answering in place of the obviously disheveled bluenette.
"Reine? What's up?"
"Kotori wanted me to tell you that it's time for the 'you-know-what'."
Ean frowned and looked to Shido with a mask of confusion on his face. Shido prayed his face hadn't become the tomato red that- never mind, his face and hair just became opposites.
"Tohka, we need to kiss."
"Buh- EXCUSE ME?"
"What's a kiss?"
The bluenette sighed and rattled off a quick explanation of what a kiss was until Ean had gotten exasperated and shoved the two into one another.
The kiss was quick and Shido was completely unprepared. He didn't get a chance to enjoy it, but he was there for the fallout. Shido was red, Tohka was red, and they were awkwardly close.
"U-um… guys?"
Shido wanted to whirl around and punch Ean in the face for jumping him when he wasn't prepared, but the look of mortification on his face was one that dragged Shido's eyes to what the redhead was so focused on.
Tohka's rapidly dissolving clothes was the only thing he registered.
His kiss had just...
Melted...
C-clothes...
Shido was dumbfounded. Tohka was confused. Ean was shocked.
"Well… that's certainly unexpected."
Truer words had never been spoken.
