After a little over a week in the Neighboring World, Ryouko and her team, along with Shido and Mildred, finally returned to Earth.

"Everyone, good job. We'll be enjoying a long break after this."

Ryouko told them that as soon as they returned to the base and finished taking off their CR-Units. Of course, such a long-lasting mission was tiring not just for the combat personnel, who had to use their CR-Units a lot more than they were used to, but also for the mechanics, who don't usually go to the Neighboring World.

Everyone was obviously tired, so a long break was just what they deserved. Shido could only make a wry smile though, since he suspected he wouldn't be so lucky.

"You two also did very good. I wouldn't be against more team ups like this."

"Ahaha, I learned a lot."

"It was also my first time going on a mission like this, but I got to see the CR-Units working firsthand so it was a good time."

Mildred naturally already had a pretty close relationship with the others from the team, so what she enjoyed the most out of this mission was seeing the CR-Units in action with her own eyes. Shido could already imagine how excited she'd get once she got to see the Spirit CR-Units in action.

As for Shido, he learned a lot about being a leader from Ryouko, and he also felt like he made some new friends and even got closer to Mildred, although Mikie and Ryouko seemed to be the only normal people in the team.

That said, it was still troubling when Ryouko hugged them as she's doing now. She seems to be someone who enjoys close contact with the people she likes. Due to the plugsuit's nature, Ryouko might have a little surprise waiting for her if she were to retake her compatibility test now, though Shido obviously wouldn't tell her that.

After everyone got changed, they went their separate ways. Ryouko and her team would finish their report and then enjoy a few days off, meanwhile, Shido and Mildred had to go report directly to Mio.

"Welcome back. So, how did it go?"

Mildred was the first to make her report, mainly covering the details of the mission, though she did get a little excited at some point and began talking about her observations of the CR-Units, which accounted for the majority of her report.

Eventually, Mio, with a bit of sweat running down her forehead, said that Mildred's report was already good enough and allowed her to go home and rest. Then came Shido's turn to report.

That said, he really didn't know what to report that wouldn't just be a repeat of what Mildred just said. He tried to focus on some details she left out, and about what he had learned with Ryouko.

However, Mio didn't seem interested in that.

"I was hoping Shin would tell me that some girl caught your eye or that you had some lucky pervert accidents."

"Ah, no. Nothing like that happened."

"Shame. I guess we have to continue to look for the last missing member of the Spirit Team."

Somehow, even though Shido thought he had done so well and learned so much, he felt like he had disappointed Mio.

Well, if Shido was being honest, while he obviously loved all the lucky pervert incidents with the Spirit Team, which weren't really incidents, he also enjoyed just having a normal friendly relationship.

But it didn't seem like Mio shared his opinion, so he decided to keep his mouth shut for now.

"Oh well, nothing to be done about it now. You might as well go see your girlfriends, Shin."

"... Oh, I'd almost forgotten. How about the test to see if there are any kind of side effects from my power? Did anything come up?"

Although it was a really serious subject, Shido couldn't bring himself to take it seriously after the way Mio joked around before he left. Thinking about it now, maybe that was her way of being considerate?

Still, now that he remembered it, he figured he might as well ask.

"Other than how much they missed you, nothing. We did figure out a few things though, like how the Spirit CR-Units become completely unusable once the effects of your ability wears off. I'll work on some safety protocols to try and avoid any dangerous situations. You can ask Maria and Marina for more details."

Apparently, after the effects of Shido's ability wears off completely, the Spirit CR-Units go back to their ring form and no longer return to their CR-Unit form, which is obviously a big problem.

It would be inconvenient during a mission, or maybe even outright dangerous depending on what would be currently happening, for example if they were in combat or flying. There's also the fact that, during their battle with Tenka, Origami nearly reached her limit. If that had lasted even just a few minutes more, things could have turned really dangerous.

That is to say, Mio establishing some kind of safety protocol only made sense. Likely an order to retreat once the compatibility reached some dangerous level, or maybe an order to avoid missions unless there's at least a certain amount of time left on Shido's ability or something along those lines.

"Of course, I'll also need Shin's help to ensure everyone's safety."

"Yeah, I'll make sure to keep an eye on everyone."

"I was thinking more like you should make sure to always keep them filled up, but I suppose that also works."

Not knowing how to react to what Mio said, Shido decided to just ignore it.

Since that was basically the end of it, Shido left the room. He decided he'd use his tablet to check out the results of the tests with Maria and Marina later.

But, before he went home, he wanted to see the girls after so long. He didn't think it would be the case, but he really missed them even though it was such a short time. At this time, they should still be training, so he moved to the training room.

"Hey, everyone. I'm back."

Once he saw that everyone was there, Shido announced his presence. Once they heard his voice, everyone turned in his direction to look.

"Onii-chan!"

The first welcome Shido received was a tackle-like hug from Kotori. Luckily, he managed to prepare himself in time and caught her in his arms.

"So you have returned from your travels to the demons' territory. Kukuku, good job making it back unscathed."

"Translation. Yuruzu and the others are glad you're back safe, Shido."

Next, Kaguya and Yuzuru welcomed Shido back. Since they seemed to be in the middle of training, they didn't go up to Shido.

"Welcome back."

That simple greeting and a light handwave was all Shido got from Maya. Still, he could tell she was glad he was back safe.

"W-welcome back, Shido-san."

"Good job, though maybe you don't want to hear that from me."

Next came Yoshino and Natsumi, though it seems that they approached Shido to pull Kotori off of him. Somehow, Shido got the impression they had gotten even closer while he was away.

"Hmph."

That was within expectations for Miku, so Shido decided to pretend she had welcomed him back with a big smile and move on. Strangely, he missed even that, though only a little bit.

"Shido!"

Not long after he was freed from Kotori's hug, Tohka came in to take her spot. From how tightly she held him, he could tell he really had been missed. He decided to hug her back.

Before Shido noticed, Origami had appeared next to him. For a second, Shido wondered if he should let go of Tohka to give Origami some attention.

But Origami seemed to have different plans. She grabbed Shido's head and quickly kissed him.

"Welcome back."

Shido was stunned by the unexpected kiss. So much so that he didn't even notice the other girls blushing as they watched him.

He also didn't notice Kurumi approaching him.

"Ara, I can't let myself be outdone this easily."

After saying that, Kurumi also kissed Shido for everyone to see. As she said, she wasn't planning to let herself be outdone.

Everyone was blushing and didn't know what to do, Tohka was the first to recover, and she also didn't seem to want to be left behind.

"Me too-!"

"Now now, this is enough, girls."

"I get you were lonely, but please be mindful of everyone else."

Ellen and Karen were the ones to put a stop to that. Shido wasn't sure if he should be thankful or not.

After that, they also welcomed Shido back. Then everyone started bombarding Shido with questions.

It was quite noisy and Shido was feeling a bit tired. But still, he couldn't help but smile. They had only gathered together a short while ago, but it seems Shido also missed these girls more than he thought.