Late at night, Haniel appeared before Shido as promised.
At the tip of the broom shaped Angel, Natsumi's face was reflected in the small mirror.
"Ah, my. Everyone's here."
Through her Angel, Natsumi swept her gaze across the room and found not only Shido and Kotori, but also Tohka, Mikoto, Kaguya, and Miku.
The reason they had gathered all the Spirits together was mainly because they were worried that, if they exposed Natsumi's true identity, she might fly into a rage and turn Shido into Shiori.
If necessary, they also had to consider the possibility of capturing Natsumi on the spot. Ratatoskr's principle was to negotiate peacefully with Spirits, but judging from the current situation, they could not simply allow Natsumi to keep causing trouble.
"You look rather confident. Then I'll ask—who are you going to na today, Shido-kun?"
Natsumi's voice was filled with confidence, as though she had never once doubted that she could be found.
But Shido understood that Natsumi had every right to be confident. If he had not had Mikoto's help, he probably never would have imagined, even after several more days, that Natsumi had actually disguised herself as that "person".
"Gulp…"
He swallowed, his throat growing dry from nervousness. If his and Mikoto's guess was wrong, then he really had no confidence that he could find where Natsumi was hiding.
Turning around, Shido saw Mikoto smiling at him. The girl's smile was filled with confidence, as if telling him—don't worry, our idea is definitely correct.
[Yeah… that's right.]
Shido's heart cald down. No matter how doubtful he was, if this was the conclusion he and Mikoto had reached together, then all he needed to do was believe in it.
With that thought, he stretched out his hand, pointed at Haniel, and said:
"Natsumi, the one you disguised yourself as—is Yoshinon!"
Shido's voice was strong and clear, carrying the style of a certain elentary school detective. (TL:play that saxophone)
"Yoshinon… you an the puppet Yoshino wears on her hand?"
Natsumi asked slowly.
"Yeah… you've been disguised as Yoshinon these past few days."
Shido nodded.
"Can you tell why?"
Natsumi placed a finger against her chin and asked.
"That's…"
Looking back now, there were two things that had felt strange to Shido and Mikoto.
The first was when Yoshino, dressed up in a Halloween costu, ca to the Itsuka house. Even though the door had only opened by a crack, Yoshinon, who leaned in through that gap, had easily dodged the falling phone. One had to rember that even if Yoshinon was a second personality, all of Yoshinon's senses were still tied to Yoshino. At that mont, Yoshino was still outside the door, so she should not have been able to see the phone falling.
The other was that Natsumi, while pretending to be Yoshinon, had said that she had stayed at the AST before. Yoshinon, separated from Yoshino, was nothing more than a stuffed puppet. There was no way it would have mories of staying at the AST. But Natsumi was different. If she disguised herself as an AST mber and infiltrated the Tengu City garrison to search for information on the Spirits, it would not be difficult for her to learn that.
Crack… crack… crack…
As Shido pointed out Natsumi's true identity, Haniel gave off a dazzling light, and tiny cracks appeared across the small mirror.
When the light faded, Shido saw the people whom Natsumi had abducted—lying sideways on the floor.
Aside from them, there was also a witch curled up on the other side, wearing a hat.
"I won. You should give up already!"
Everyone surrounded Natsumi. The witch's shoulders trembled slightly, and she slowly lifted her head.
"Eh…"
Shido froze.
What appeared before him was a small, thin body completely different from the one he had seen before. Her slightly hunched posture made her seem even shorter. Her skin was pale in an unhealthy way. Her eyebrows and eyes were full of insecurity. Her hair was dry and uncared for. She was nothing like the sexy older sister figure from before. She was a very definition of a loli.
"I see. Mikoto's guess was right after all."
Kotori muttered while biting her Chupa Chups.
"Ah… aah… aaah…"
Noticing everyone's reaction, Natsumi touched her own body. Realizing that her transformation had co undone, she let out a despairing moan.
"Haniel!!!…"
In response to Natsumi's voice, the Angel floating in the air returned to her hand. Light flashed, and Natsumi changed back into her older-sister form.
"You saw it, didn't you! You saw it! You saw it! You saw it! You saw it! You saw it! You saw it! You saw it! You saw it! You saw it! You saw it! You saw it! You saw it! You saw it! AAAAAAAAAAH—!"
With an expression of wild rage, Natsumi raised the Angel in her hand.
"You actually saw my secret again. I'll never forgive you! Haniel—!"
The Angel gave off a blinding light. The Spirits, still shocked by Natsumi's true appearance and unable to react in ti, were imdiately bathed in that impossible-to-look-at light.
"Ugh…"
When the light faded, Shido slowly opened his eyes.
"Shi… Shido… my body… feels strange…"
What entered his eyes was Mikoto, wearing a loose dress and now looking like a third grade elentary schooler. (TL:loli mikoto let's gooooo)
Not only that. When he looked around, all the Spirits had turned into tiny little children.
"Heh… hehehehehe… serves you right! Stay as children forever!"
Just as Shido was still stunned, Natsumi had already flown out of the Itsuka house on her broom and vanished into the night.
—This is the dividing line.—
—This is the dividing line marking the end of the main story.—
—This is the dividing line before breaking character and entering the afterword.—
"CUT—!"
A shout ca from who knew where. And so, in the sky, Natsumi flew back on her broom, landed at the Itsuka house, and changed back into her loli form.
Shido: "Good work, Natsumi. Here, have a drink."
Natsumi: "Th-thank you."
Mikoto: "I know it's been hard, but before you rest, we still need Natsumi and Shido to host this volu's 'Letters from Fraxinus' corner."
Natsumi: "Eh? ? Is… is that really okay? Soone like , even if I were put into a cody show, would only make people disgusted. Shouldn't I be thrown backstage and made to use Haniel to make little props for everyone, then have my na appear in the ending credits only to be blocked by the sponsor logo, so when readers talk about it, they all say, 'Eh? Was there soone like that?' 'Shh, why are you bringing her up? So gross,' or sothing like that?"
Shido: "That won't happen! Natsumi is very cute and super popular. If you appear in the afterword, the readers will definitely flood the comnts with things like 'Natsumi is the cutest' and 'Natsumi is my wife'!"
Natsumi: "R-really?"
Shido: "Of course. So let's look at the first keyword!"
—A lot of original plot—
Natsumi: "Hehehehehehehe… what's this? So it really is like that after all."
Mikoto: "Um… Natsumi… are you okay?"
Natsumi: "Mm, I'm perfectly fine. Since this is my dedicated volu, I suppose it can't be helped. After all, I'm not cute and my personality is awful. Even if the author saw , they'd think, 'Wow! How could I possibly write original plot for a character like this? I'll just copy the original text and muddle through. She's not cute at all anyway,' hehehehehehehe."
Mikoto: "Th-that's not it! The reason this volu has more original-canon content is to take care of readers who haven't read the original novel. There are quite a few readers who have only watched the ani and haven't read the books." (TL:hmmm, quick fact check, this chapter was around 2016, way before ss3 in 2019).
Natsumi: "Mm, sure. Even the ani studio probably felt that a character like couldn't possibly guarantee ratings, so I might not even appear or get cut out of season three."
Mikoto: "That's not what I ant!"
Shido: "Then… the… the next keyword…"
—No sugar—
Shido: "We're being complained at for not having enough sugar again."
Mikoto: "The readers are just too addicted to sweetness. Hurry up and play so poison-level gas like Overwtch or Pokemon G to cure poison with poison." (TL:yes, both overwatch and pokemon go release all around 2016)
Natsumi: "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It's all because a character like appeared and ruined the readers' sense of taste! Like when a bug suddenly crawls out of the candy they were eating—'Eek! Why is sothing like this inside? So gross! It's not sweet anymore!' That kind of feeling!"
Mikoto: "This is no good. Natsumi has completely fallen into self hate mode. No choice then. Shido, I permit you to break free from the limits of the plot and use Haniel's power ahead of ti!"
Shido: "Eh? What should I do?"
Mikoto: "What else? Turn Natsumi into her older sister mode, of course!"
Shido: "Got it!"
Natsumi: "Eh? Wait… eek!"
Natsumi (older sister mode): "What's the problem? It's just that there isn't enough sugar. In that case, we only need to make even the afterword sweet."
Mikoto and Shido: "Eh?"
Natsumi (older sister mode): "Co now, Shido-kun, Mikoto-chan. Let's get nice and intimate together and offer the readers the sweetest Halloween candy."
Mikoto and Shido: "Wait, Natsumi, what are you doing?"
Natsumi (older sister mode): "Do you even need to ask? Haniel!"
Shido: "Why did you turn the living room into a love hotel room?"
Mikoto: "Why did you turn into a bunny girl? And yourself too?"
Natsumi (older sister mode): "Do you even need to ask? Of course it's to use the most sensual setting to help Shido-kun climb the staircase to adulthood."
Shido and Mikoto: "Stop it—!"
In the end, with the Spirits frantically helping, Shido finally managed to protect his virginity in the afterword.
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