"Sandalphon!"
"Sandalphon!"
"Sandalphon!"
Tohka stood at the edge of the barrier, stamping her foot against the ground again and again as she tried to summon her Angel. But with her sealed power, she failed every time.
"Tohka!!!"
At that moment, Shido left the airship and was transferred down beside Tohka.
"Shido!!!"
When she saw Shido appear, the worry on Tohka's face turned into joy.
"What are you doing here?"
Shido asked.
"Because I was worried about you, Shido. The urgent thing you mentioned must have something to do with the spacequake, right?"
Tohka asked back.
"This..."
When the alarm had sounded earlier, Kotori had called him, so he had not gone to the shelter with Tohka. Instead, he had gone alone to the airship.
A Spirit's power could flow backward if her emotions became unstable. To keep Tohka in a stable state, they had not let her take part in this. But now, it seemed that had the opposite effect. After hearing from the teachers and classmates how dangerous a spacequake was, Tohka had left the shelter and rushed here. Her only goal was to protect Shido.
"Anyway, this is dangerous. Come back with me first..."
Shido took Tohka's hand and tried to return to the airship with her. But then, he noticed the barrier right in front of them, and the Spirit standing inside it.
"!!!"
Even though there was some distance between them, and even though the inside of the barrier was covered in night, Shido faintly caught sight of the Spirit standing at the very center of the barrier, in front of the shrine hall.
For some reason, he felt like he could sense the despair and fear in her heart, as well as her deep sadness toward this world.
"Tohka..."
And so, he stopped.
"Mm?"
"You go back first."
"What about you, Shido?"
"I... have to save that girl!"
After saying that, he ran toward the dark barrier.
Bang!
But the dark barrier was like a wall, stopping him from moving forward.
"What is that idiot doing?"
Kotori, who was on the airship, watched Shido kick and hit the barrier through the screen. A headache immediately rose in her head.
"Reine, retrieve that idiot and Tohka together. That place is too...
Dangerous!!!"
Before she could finish speaking, Kotori saw several missiles flying toward the place where Shido and Tohka were.
[I'm sorry.]
Mikoto stood in front of the shrine hall, her hands pressed together as if she were praying, maintaining Tsukuyomi.
As long as this barrier existed, those mecha girls could not hurt her.
Even so, she had to apologize. Because Mikoto knew that these girls only wanted to protect this world.
[But I have to live.]
Her life was something Tsukuyomi had wanted to protect, even at the cost of sacrificing herself.
Even if this life would bring disaster to this world, Mikoto had decided to carry all of it and keep living.
"Come on. Pour all your power onto me. If that can reduce your hatred toward me, even a little..."
She looked at the girls in the sky who were slashing with blades, firing machine guns, and launching missiles, and spoke quietly.
"Hm?"
From the corner of her eye, she noticed something different from usual.
At one corner of the barrier, a boy was desperately striking the domain she had created. Behind him, there was also a girl with a panicked expression.
[Danger!]
She saw several missiles flying toward the boy from behind.
So Mikoto reached out and removed the barrier in that area. Because of his momentum, the boy who had been hitting the wall fell headfirst into Tsukuyomi. The girl also hurriedly followed him and ran inside.
Mikoto raised the barrier again and blocked the missiles that came one after another from outside.
[Ordinary people who didn't make it to shelter? And they're wearing school uniforms.]
At this distance, she could not clearly see what the two looked like, but she could at least confirm that both of them were wearing school uniforms.
[Huh?]
Mikoto noticed that the boy had stood up and was running in her direction.
[Stop.]
There was no need for him to come near her.
She was a Spirit. A being that brought disaster to this world.
For that boy, maybe never meeting her in his whole life would be the greatest happiness.
So she lightly clapped her hands and used the power of Tsukuyomi to bind him in place.
"Ow, ow, ow."
The barrier that had been like an iron wall suddenly vanished. Shido, who had been preparing to punch the Angel with all his strength, swung at empty air and fell into the barrier.
"Shido, are you all right?"
Tohka ran in after him.
And the moment both of them entered—
Boom, boom, boom——!!!
Huge explosions rang out. Several missiles smashed against the Spirit's Angel and bloomed into deadly fire.
"Don't tell me... she protected us?"
Shido looked toward the Spirit at the center of the barrier.
If not for her, those missiles would probably have struck him and Tohka directly.
"As I thought, I have to save her!"
The annoying barrier was no longer an obstacle. That only made Shido's resolve even stronger.
"Wait here, Tohka!"
He said to the girl behind him, then broke into a run.
"!!!"
But before he could run far, a powerful force locked his feet in place. It made Shido unable to take even one more step forward.
He used all the strength in his body, but it had no effect at all.
[Move! Move, damn it!]
He struggled so hard it felt like every bone in his body might break.
Shido understood. If he missed this chance, he might never be able to speak with that Spirit again.
"Uwaa!"
But suddenly, the force binding his whole body disappeared. Shido fell face first to the ground.
When he raised his head, the night had vanished. The torii gates and shrine hall from before were gone like a dream. He was lying in the giant crater created by the spacequake.
The Spirit Miko—
Lost.
"Damn it! Damn it!"
Shido slammed his hand hard against the ground.
His heart was full of frustration and helplessness.
Floating, drifting, swaying.
Yakumo Mikoto slept in the space on the other side known as the Neighboring World.
After losing Tsukuyomi's company, life in the Neighboring World became like a deep sleep.
But to Mikoto, this sleeping state was actually a kind of relief.
Because even if she were awake, all she could feel was loneliness, and the bad memories that came after spacequake after spacequake.
"Hm?"
At some point, Mikoto opened her eyes and found that she had arrived in the real world.
It was different from the feeling of being forced awake and dragged to the other side like before. This time, the area around her had not been destroyed.
She looked around and found that she was in a small alley. There were no pedestrians, and none of those mecha girls full of killing intent.
[What should I do?]
She thought for a bit, then decided to leave this place first, to avoid being found by those girls in strange mechanical armor.
"Oh, right. Clothes."
She lowered her head and found that she was still wearing her Astral Dress.
No matter what, she had to avoid walking out onto the street dressed like this.
Surrounded by light, Mikoto's clothes turned into particles and rebuilt themselves.
Maybe because she had been alone for too long, she could not imagine what clothes other than her Astral Dress should look like at all.
At that moment, she remembered the school uniform that female student had worn during her last manifestation.
"All right, let's go with this!"
Looking at the uniform on her body, which belonged to some unknown school, she nodded in satisfaction.