Today was the second day since Yumetsuki had triggered her 'Silent Manifestation.'
By some unknown miracle, a full 24 hours had passed since she materialized in the physical world, yet she still hadn't felt the disappearance signal from her body. This duration had already smashed her previous record of 18 hours, which she had set back when she first met the Yamai sisters.
Normally, Yumetsuki would have immediately rushed into a human city, taking advantage of the fact that no one could detect her to play and have a blast.
Right now, however, she was sitting in a forest about two kilometers outside Tengu City. While munching on some fruit she had bought in the city earlier, she stared intently at her tablet, which was currently connected to her Angel, Ratziel.
After thinking it over for an entire night, Yumetsuki realized there were several glaringly suspicious points regarding her initial encounter with Itsuka Shido.
At first, Yumetsuki had assumed Shido was just an ordinary citizen who hadn't managed to evacuate in time. But after cross-referencing the timing of the spatial quake broadcast with the exact moment of her manifestation, she found that the department store had actually completed its evacuation protocol a full two minutes before she arrived.
There was absolutely no way he "didn't have time" to evacuate. The only logical explanation for Itsuka Shido remaining at the scene was that he was actively searching for the Spirit manifesting there—which meant he was looking for her.
Furthermore, after hacking into the city's surveillance cameras, she found that Itsuka Shido had been inside his own house right up until the spacequake alarm sounded. While he did leave the house when the sirens blared, Yumetsuki couldn't find a single trace of him on any of the routes leading to that department store.
Space Teleportation Technology. There were extremely few organizations in this world capable of mastering such a thing. As far as she knew, there were only two organizations in the world that possessed this cutting-edge branch of Realizer technology.
DEM Industries and Ratatoskr. That boy's actions were undeniably supported by one of these two factions.
However, recalling the completely rigged game she had stolen from Ratatoskr earlier—Fall in Love, MY☆LITTLE☆SHIDO—Yumetsuki was about eighty to ninety percent sure Itsuka Shido was affiliated with them.
The last time Yumetsuki hacked into Ratatoskr, she hadn't wanted to cause unnecessary trouble, so she only skimmed through the data related to Phantom and downloaded a few things she found interesting before leaving.
But this time, Yumetsuki intended to dig up every single skeleton in this organization's closet.
"Hmm... The AI's security is much tighter than last time. They probably noticed my previous intrusion."
Staring at the massive red letters flashing on her screen—[INSUFFICIENT PRIVILEGES. ACCESS DENIED.]—Yumetsuki didn't look surprised in the slightest. Instead, a malicious, scheming smirk crept onto her lips.
"Whatever. I wasn't planning on hiding my tracks this time anyway, so there's no need to hold back. Ratziel, frontal assault!"
[Understood. Commencing task execution!]
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BEEP—! BEEP—!
Piercing alarm sirens began blaring throughout the entirety of the Fraxinus airborne battleship.
"Report! The Fraxinus mainframe is currently under hacker attack!"
"The first, second, and third firewalls have already been breached! The enemy is tearing through our defenses at an incredible speed! Estimated time until total system compromise is five minutes!"
"Attempting to rebuild the firewalls now!"
The bridge of the airborne battleship was thrown into chaos. Every crew member was frantically typing away at their consoles.
"To think she'd pull something like this... Hacker really doesn't pull her punches."
Biting down on her Chupa Chups lollipop, Kotori let out a bitter smile and scratched her head in frustration. After pondering the situation for a brief moment, she issued an order to her crew.
"All personnel, attention. Cease all operations immediately."
"EH?!!!!!" Aside from Reine and Kannazuki, who was standing beside Kotori, the rest of the crew was absolutely stunned by the unexpected order.
"But Commander, if we do that, we'll be completely exposing all of the battleship's data to the enemy!" Nakatsugawa, the "Dimension Breaker," said frantically.
"Given the current situation, putting up a defense isn't going to do much good anyway. We might as well just drop our guard and let her do as she pleases. Who knows, maybe she'll show us some mercy."
"But if Headquarters looks into this..." Minowa-Deep Love(Probationary Observation Status), asked uneasily.
"Hacker even managed to breach DEM's defenses, didn't she? It's not strange that we failed to stop her either." Shrugging helplessly, Kotori adopted an unprecedentedly serious expression. "I will bear full responsibility for whatever consequences arise. Follow my orders. Stop what you're doing."
"..." After a moment of brief silence, the crew members all nodded in agreement.
"Orders received, Commander!"
"Well, since the Commander says so, I guess I'll take a rare break!"
"Of course! I've already decided to follow the Commander for the rest of my life!"
"Our fate is tied to the Commander's!"
Despite being the youngest person on this battleship, Itsuka Kotori's title of "Commander" was no mere figurehead position. She had earned the genuine respect of every single crew member through her actual skills and leadership.
"Thank you!"
Muttering softly under her breath, Kotori sat back down in her seat and let out a deep sigh.
"That was quite a risky gamble," Reine said, walking up to the commander's platform since operations had halted.
"I know!" Kotori didn't deny it, speaking with absolute calmness. "But Ryougi Yumetsuki isn't an ordinary Spirit. She's probably already noticed the discrepancies surrounding Shido's appearance. Since that's the case, it's better if we just let her understand our true motives."
"I see." Reine nodded in understanding, then asked, "What about Headquarters?"
"Ugh... I guess I'm going to have to listen to those annoying geezers spout nonsense." Kotori rubbed her temples, looking thoroughly annoyed.
Watching the computer systems gradually return to normal, Kotori knew that Ryougi Yumetsuki had already stopped her intrusion.
"It's all up to you guys now. Yuzuru, Kaguya."
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"Hmm... They just gave up halfway?" Looking at the situation on her screen, a look of confusion crossed Yumetsuki's face.
Completely opposite to the fierce resistance she had anticipated, Yumetsuki breached Ratatoskr's systems with almost laughable ease. This bizarre development actually made her feel a bit uneasy.
Is it a trap? Or did they just yield? Though slightly worried, Yumetsuki wasted no time and began searching for the data she wanted.
Ratatoskr. An organization focused on Realizer development, established almost simultaneously with DEM Industries thirty years ago, right after the first spacequakes occurred.
Unlike DEM, whose goal was to "hunt and kill Spirits," Ratatoskr consistently operated under the principle that "Spirits and humans can coexist peacefully."
However, according to the internal files, aside from the faction centered around Woodman—who genuinely championed this ideal—the other three factions within the organization were heavily driven by profit and self-interest.
And the airborne battleship Fraxinus, currently hovering 15,000 meters above Tengu City, was one of Woodman's most important branches.
Its crew consisted of:
A master of romance with the rich experience of five marriages — "Bad Marriage", Kawagoe. "In other words, he's been divorced five times, huh."
A legendary, highly popular figure in Filipino host clubs — "President", Mikimoto. "That's just the pure charm of money, isn't it?"
A woman whose love rivals inexplicably suffer a series of misfortunes; the woman of 2:00 AM — "Nail Knocker", Shiizaki. "Were they murdered? Or cursed?"
A man who possesses one hundred 2D wives — "Dimensional Breaker", Nakatsugawa. "So he's literally just a hardcore otaku!" (The Author: "Aren't you one too?")
A woman legally prohibited by a restraining order from coming within 500 meters of the person she deeply loves due to her overwhelming affection — "Deep Love" (Probationary Observation Status), Minowa. "Just what exactly did you do in the name of love...? Wait, what am I even doing?"
Yumetsuki found herself roasting the personnel files as she read them, feeling completely speechless.
She had gone into these files expecting a serious read, only to end up with a deadpan, 'What the hell is this?' expression.
Slapping her cheeks to refocus, Yumetsuki continued browsing.
"Kannazuki... Why is the word 'Pervert' written before his title as a former AST Ace...? Murasame Reine... Her eye bags are so heavy, how long has it been since she slept...?"
Just as Yumetsuki, with a giant sweatdrop on her head, began to wonder if she had accidentally hacked into the roster of a comedy troupe, one particular name caught her eye.
Itsuka Kotori. Itsuka Shido's adopted younger sister, and the Supreme Commander of the Fraxinus.
However, in the corner of her profile, someone had sneakily added the note: "She is a massive bro-con." Yumetsuki could sense a deep, profound malice radiating from that note...
Yumetsuki remembered her. Back at Shido's house, among all those girls wearing various cosplay outfits, she was the one wearing the fiery red qipao.
"Next is the most important person..."
Itsuka Shido. Unlike his sister, up until a few months ago, this boy was a completely ordinary high school student. It wasn't until he was recently discovered to possess the ability to seal a Spirit's power that he began receiving assistance from Fraxinus.
The ability to seal a Spirit's power? Yumetsuki raised an eyebrow at that. But as she read the following explanation, a cold sneer formed on her lips.
"The seal requires the Spirit's affection level to reach a certain threshold... In other words, you have to join his harem for it to work. Tch, if that's the case, I'd rather just stay the way I am now..."
Remembering that Shido was a harem protagonist—and the scummy kind who apparently demanded beautiful girls wear cosplay just to please him—any tiny sliver of romantic interest Yumetsuki might have harbored vanished completely.
Doing that is just trading one prison for another.
—Drip!
Suddenly, while Yumetsuki was entirely focused on her computer, a single raindrop fell onto the screen. Yumetsuki hurriedly tucked the tablet back into her trench coat.
"What's going on? Didn't the weather forecast say it was going to be sunny all day?"
Just as Yumetsuki was feeling bewildered, the previously clear sky was rapidly swallowed by dark, rolling clouds. Violent, roaring hurricane winds began to howl, forcing the surrounding trees to bend deeply.
Not too far away, two swirling vortexes of dark clouds were slowly drifting in the air.
"This is...!"
Despite being drenched by the sudden downpour, Yumetsuki's eyes widened in pleasant surprise. Blue and white electricity began to crackle around her body, and a low, rumbling thunder echoed from the sky directly above.
A bolt of lightning crashed down from the heavens. As if taking that as a signal, the two swirling vortexes began to converge toward Yumetsuki's location.
Seeing the two familiar figures emerge, Yumetsuki waved her hand happily and shouted:
"Yuzuru! Kaguya! Long time no see!"