It was a clear and sunny day. In an underground facility sowhere in Tengu City, Shido was walking alone.
Shrrk.
With a chanical sound, the tightly locked door opened automatically.
"Ah… Shido."
Mikoto, who had been sitting in the room busily working, turned around and smiled at Shido.
"What are you doing, Yakumo-senpai?"
Shido asked. He had originally planned to go to the supermarket with Mikoto to buy ingredients, but from Reine, he had learned that Mikoto was busy in Ratatoskr's underground facility.
"Kotori asked to sort these recordings."
Mikoto pointed at the screen as she spoke. A few days ago, because of inverse Origami and Ellen, Fraxinus had been shot full of holes. Countless precious files had to be transferred to this underground facility.
Even so, many files had still suffered various degrees of damage. Mikoto's job was to find the usable parts from among those files and classify them.
"What? There's no need to ask senpai to do sothing like that."
Shido said in puzzlent. Although it was not difficult work, it did not seem like Kotori's style. After all, Ratatoskr always placed the happiness of Spirits first. It was hard to imagine Kotori taking the initiative to assign Mikoto work like this.
"It's fine. Actually, I was the one who went to Kotori first."
"Huh?"
Hearing Mikoto's words, Shido beca even more puzzled, since this was not exactly an interesting job.
"The recordings on Fraxinus aren't all related to Spirits. For example, here. Look…"
Mikoto called Shido over to sit beside her, then opened a file. A mont later, the screen displayed a woman with short hair, sharp upturned eyebrows that made her look strong-willed, and red eyes, as well as a slightly hunched man wearing a gentle smile.
"Ah…"
Of course Shido recognized those two.
Itsuka Haruko and Itsuka Tatsuo. Those two were Shido's parents.
"How nostalgic. It feels like it's been a long ti since I saw them."
Although in truth it had only been a few months, so many things had happened during that ti that it made him feel as if much more ti had passed.
"Shido rarely ntions his parents. Are they doing well?"
Mikoto asked.
"Yeah. They should still be in Arica right now. They won't be coming back anyti soon."
Shido nodded.
"Oh? Is that so?"
Hearing Shido's words, Mikoto showed a mischievous smile.
"Wh-what is it?"
"You see, the plot where parents go abroad and leave only the children behind at ho often appears in novels, doesn't it? In that case, Shido really is like the protagonist of a novel. And a harem novel at that."
Mikoto answered with a smile.
"Ugh… They're only away for a while. And there's no harem."
"Yes, yes. Then, Shido, who is not the protagonist of a harem novel, how are you going to explain the current situation to your parents?"
Mikoto tilted her head.
"Ugh…"
And so Shido was left speechless. After all, the current Itsuka household had gathered far too many girls.
"Why don't you take a family photo and send it to them the next ti you contact them?"
"I'm not taking a photo. Anyway, they won't be coming back that soon…"
Shido sighed helplessly. Just thinking about having to introduce the Spirits to his parents made him feel slightly troubled.
"I didn't expect senpai to be interested in these recordings."
"Mm, because Shido rarely talks about his parents. Also, there are other interesting recordings too. Look."
Mikoto cheerfully clicked on another video.
Then, on the screen appeared a boy wearing a black trench coat.
"My na is the Black Fighter Rievan. Now, this city has decayed, and all adults are filthy…"
Although the boy called himself Rievan, there was no mistaking it. That was Shido himself from middle school.
Because the scene was far too unbearable to look at, Shido instantly turned to stone.
Why had he not thought of this earlier?
Fraxinus's database did not only contain records of the Spirits. It also contained countless pieces of Shido's dark history collected by Kotori to use as blackmail.
"Co! This is my secret technique… Roaring—Flash—"
Smack!
Shido abruptly stood up and pressed the button on the control panel with all his strength, shutting off the video file.
"Oh my, what a sha…"
"Please. I beg you, forget that ever existed."
Shido said in a small voice, his face bright red.
"But Shido in black clothes looked cool too. And that childish side was cute."
Mikoto cheerfully attacked Shido's fragile heart with words. Although she did not an any harm, for Shido, having soone evaluate his dark history was torture after all.
Shrrk.
At that mont, the door opened once again.
"Mikoto, how is the video sorting going? Let's go eat together later."
"Oh, Shin is here too."
Kotori and Reine walked in.
"Huh? What happened to Shido?"
Kotori asked in confusion as she looked at Shido, who had turned gray white while lying face down on the control panel.
"It seems Shido doesn't really like having videos from his middle school days seen by others…"
Mikoto said with a wry smile.
"Well, I see. Speaking of which, there are also poems Shido wrote in middle school here. Mikoto, do you want to take a look?"
Kotori said with a wicked smile.
"Mm, I want to see them."
And Mikoto obediently nodded.
"Stop it! Are you a demon?!"
He absolutely could not let Mikoto see himself from that period any further.
That was the only thought in Shido's mind.
"Well, anyway, hurry up and finish sorting them. Then we'll go eat."
Kotori sighed and ultimately chose not to keep bullying Shido.
"Mm, there's only one last file left."
Mikoto opened that video file, wanting to confirm its contents.
Then, the screen showed Itsuka Tatsuo, who looked much younger than before.
"Kotori, co over to Daddy!"
The Tatsuo in the image called out to Kotori, who looked to be about elentary school age. The tiny commander, still in little girl form, was holding the hand of a boy with short blue hair.
There was no doubt that it was Shido when he was young.
"No! I want to stay with Onii-chan!"
The little girl made a face at her father, then continued sticking close to Shido.
"Ahh, Kotori doesn't want Daddy anymore."
Judging by the voice, Haruko seed to be the one holding the cara and filming the family playing together.
"How could this be? Didn't you say you loved Daddy the most?"
On the screen, Tatsuo was visibly shaken, and in extre dejection, he assud the famous "orz" posture.
"No way…"
However, little Kotori simply threw herself onto Shido.
"I'm going to beco Onii-chan's bride when I grow up…"
Snap!
The screen suddenly went black.
Everyone turned their heads, their gazes all falling on Kotori.
At that mont, the normally dignified commander was frozen in place, her finger still in the motion of turning off the player.
She trembled lightly, hiding her expression beneath her bangs. Her whole face was so red it looked as if blood might drip from it.
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