Ignoring the countless Kurumis fighting Bandersnatch and Wizards in the sky, Shido, Tohka, and Miku crossed the battlefield, where stray shots flew everywhere, and charged toward the First Office Building.
Boom!
Just as they reached the front of the building, a violent explosion rang out. A woman wearing an enormous red CR-Unit appeared before them.
"That's…"
Shido widened his eyes.
He rembered that unit.
It was the Anti-Spirit weapon once used by AST in the amusent park during the battle against Kurumi. A weapon with ridiculously excessive firepower.
In truth, this CR-Unit was the sister unit of White Licorice: Scarlet Licorice.
Shido did not know the nas or differences between those two weapons, but he knew very clearly that this one possessed terrifying firepower.
"Careful, Tohka!"
He shouted, warning Tohka.
But even faster than his voice was a laser from the sky, which struck the red unit with perfect aim.
[Nii-sama, leave this place to !]
Mana's voice ca through the earpiece. It seed the shot just now had been hers.
"Mana… Mana—Mana—!"
The woman equipped with Scarlet Licorice looked like a starving wolf that had caught the scent of flesh. She leaped toward the sky.
"Will you be okay, Mana?"
[Thank you for worrying about , nii-sama, but I'll be fine. More importantly, nii-sama, once you enter the office building, Fraxinus won't be able to support you anymore because of the special shielding. Please be careful.]
"Yeah, I know!"
After that short exchange, Shido rushed into the office building.
On the other side, Mana had to face a woman whose ntal state looked clearly unstable—Jessica.
It seed that, in order to respond to the sudden attack, DEM had perford magic processing on Jessica in an extrely short amount of ti, far beyond what the human body could endure.
Having gained the ability to operate Scarlet Licorice, Jessica had beco ntally unhinged. Like a mad dog, she clung to Mana and kept firing missiles and cannon shots.
Even so, with her own abilities and the excellent CR-Unit provided by Fraxinus, the situation before her was not enough to truly threaten Mana.
Yes—until DEM's strongest Wizard, Ellen Mira Mathers, arrived.
"Two against one is not exactly honorable, but this is Ike's will. Let us finish you quickly."
The Wizard dressed in white-gold armor raised her head proudly and looked down at Mana from above.
The strongest Wizard.
The maddest Wizard.
Faced with this situation, even Mana was pushed into a desperate crisis.
Soon, caught between the magic cannon Blastalk and the high-output laser blade Caledfwlch, Mana had no choice but to deploy a defensive Territory and take the attack head-on.
[!!!]
At that mont, a shot flashed from the distance, forcing Ellen, who was about to cut Mana down, to retreat.
"T-Tobiichi-san?"
Mana widened her eyes.
The one who appeared beside her was Origami. She wore a blue wiring suit that was boldly open from the chest to the abdon. Her equipnt looked mismatched, as if she had grabbed and attached whatever she could find.
Several months ago, a terrorist squad made up of forr SSS mbers—the British Anti-Spirit Team—had attacked AST.
Afterward, AST had seized most of the equipnt they had brought with them.
However, apparently, Mikie knew about so hidden masterless equipnt that had not been confiscated.
This equipnt had no ID managent and beca Origami's only weapon.
Using this patchwork equipnt, Origami bravely arrived on the battlefield and helped Mana fight Jessica and Ellen.
However, facing Ellen Mathers, the strongest Wizard on Earth, while using a CR-Unit she was not familiar with was far too reckless.
Soon, while Mana was being held down by Jessica, Ellen subdued Origami. She grabbed the girl by the throat, lifted her into the air, and raised Caledfwlch.
"Although Ike has taken an interest in you, under the current circumstances, I must dispose of you quickly."
Faced with what was almost a death sentence, Origami struggled weakly.
"Mystletainn, fire!"
In the sky, Fraxinus's main cannon shone like a brilliant star.
While Origami had been fighting Ellen, the airship under Kotori's command had already begun moving. Under Kannazuki's precise control, the powerful main cannon struck Ellen alone with perfect accuracy.
"Guh!"
As Ellen resisted the warship's cannon fire, the pressure she had placed on Origami with her Territory weakened.
Origami did not miss that chance.
She gathered power at the tip of her foot. A blade about ten centiters long appeared there.
[This is bad!]
Ellen widened her eyes.
But faster than that was a beam of light.
"Mana—!"
In the sky, Scarlet Licorice fired a lethal cannon shot.
The Blastalk shot from above failed to hit Mana, who dodged in ti.
Instead, it struck Origami with perfect accuracy just as she was being held by the throat by Ellen and preparing to counterattack.
Thud!
With a heavy sound, the girl drew an arc through the air and crashed into a building below.
Origami lay on the floor of the building, looking up at the moon in the sky as she raised her hand.
There was a large hole where the ceiling should have been.
It had been created by the impact of her fall.
Even though she had desperately raised a defensive Territory at the final instant, she had still taken enough damage that she could no longer stand.
In the end, Tobiichi Origami's battle had lasted less than five minutes from the mont she joined the battlefield to the mont she was defeated.
Mana was still struggling under the combined threat of Ellen and Jessica.
Origami's own contribution could basically be called zero.
A long, long ti ago, she had joined AST with the goal of preventing anyone else from being hurt by Spirits like the boy who saved her parents five years ago.
She trained hard.
She studied every bit of knowledge that might be useful.
She experienced real battles where life and death were always close.
And yet…
[I still can't do anything.]
In the night sky, Kurumi was in the middle of a chaotic battle with Wizards and Bandersnatch.
Mana was being forced left and right by Ellen and Jessica.
Only Origami lay silently in the ruins, unable to do anything except watch.
She let out a breath filled with her own weakness, slowly lowered her raised hand, and allowed despair to grow in her heart.
[—Tell , do you want power?]
For an instant, Origami heard a voice whose gender she could not even tell.
"Huh?"
She widened her eyes.
What she saw was an existence that looked as though it had been covered by a mosaic, sothing impossible to properly recognize.
"What… are you?"
She struggled to sit up and asked.
[What I am does not matter. What matters is whether you want power. Great power that will not lose to anyone. Power strong enough to change the world.] (TL:Huhhhh?ayo what is going on???)
The voice did not answer Origami's question.
Instead, it asked her again.
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