"Uwah!"
"Wha… what?"
"An Angel?"
White mist rose from the floor. In an instant, everyone felt a biting cold sink into their skin.
Inside the fog, a huge rabbit puppet appeared.
The girl jumped onto the puppet's back and inserted both hands into it.
"Wuaaaaaaaaaaaaah——!!!"
The rabbit puppet roared. A shockwave of Spirit power shattered the windows. Cold rain poured into the room, then froze under the low temperature, turning into sharp ice spikes.
"Shido——!!!"
If this kept going, Shido and Tohka would be pierced through. Watching the ice spikes draw closer and closer, Mikoto's heart began pounding hard.
In that instant, sothing warm seed to spread through her body.
It was a feeling she knew very well.
She grabbed Shido by the arm and pulled him behind her. Mikoto raised one hand, and Spirit power ford into a barrier, blocking the deadly ice.
"Yakumo-senpai…"
"It looks like so of my power flowed back. That was close."
Was it because she had realized Shido was in danger?
Mikoto noticed that she had temporarily regained part of her power.
The giant rabbit puppet did not continue attacking. Instead, it jumped out through the broken window of the departnt store.
"Um… Tohka…"
Although Shido was worried about Yoshinon, who had suddenly summoned an Angel and left, Tohka's condition was also sothing he could not ignore.
"Shut up! Don't talk to !"
"Wha… what are you saying?"
"Th-that little girl is more important to you than , right?"
Angry, Tohka ran away without even looking back.
"Tohka!"
"Shido, you go after that Spirit. Leave Tohka to ."
Mikoto thought for a mont, then said that.
"But…"
"Listen. If you show up in front of Tohka right now, it will only make things worse. Besides, that Spirit cannot be saved by anyone except you, right?"
Kotori's voice ca through the earpiece.
[Shido, do as Mikoto says.]
"…I understand. Then I'll leave Tohka to you, Yakumo-senpai."
"Mm. In return, don't push yourself too hard, Shido. A Spirit who has manifested her Angel is very dangerous."
"Yeah, I know."
After parting with Mikoto, Shido began running in the direction where Yoshinon had gone.
"Thanks to Yakumo-senpai, we were saved…"
As he ran, Shido let out a long breath.
Honestly, back then, he truly had not known what to do. For Shido, that had been an absolutely terrible battlefield of romance.
[What are you saying? When you kissed Yoshinon, Mikoto's emotional value also dropped a little, you know.]
Thud!
However, Kotori's words made Shido slip and fall flat onto the ground.
[I told you, didn't I? A girl's heart is very delicate.]
"Tohka, open the door."
Mikoto followed Tohka after she ran away, and in the end, she ca to the Itsuka house.
Tohka had locked herself in her room and said nothing. No matter how Mikoto called from outside, there was no reply.
"If you don't want to let in, that's fine. I'll talk from out here. First, Shido did not kiss that girl. Everything you saw was only an accident. Fraxinus has the video record. If you don't believe , you can go check it."
First, she had to clear up the misunderstanding.
Tohka's anger ca from seeing Shido and that Spirit kiss, and from thinking that "to Shido, that Spirit mattered more than her."
"As for why Shido went to et that child, the reason is simple. That child is a Spirit, just like you and .
You know what it ans to be an unsealed Spirit, right, Tohka?
Pain, loneliness, despair, being denied by the world, and being hunted endlessly the mont you appear.
Hey, try to rember, Tohka. Who was it that saved us from that kind of life?
That is why Shido cannot just ignore that child either."
Originally, in order to avoid putting more pressure on Tohka, she should not have told her these things.
However, Mikoto felt that if she did not tell Tohka the truth now, then even if she could persuade her this ti, similar incidents would keep happening again in the future.
So perhaps doing the opposite here was actually better.
Click.
The door opened.
Tohka ca out from inside, her eyes red.
"Is it true? Mikoto, is everything you said true?"
"Mm. It's true."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Really really?"
"Really really."
As if trying to confirm that Mikoto was telling the truth, Tohka asked again and again.
"Thank goodness. So… Shido really doesn't hate , right?"
"Mm. Shido would never hate Tohka. I promise."
Mikoto raised her hand and gently stroked Tohka's head.
Maybe it was because Tohka's personality was so pure. When she was angry, she would be very angry, but once her heart cleared up, the clouds would quickly pass and the sky would brighten again.
"Ehehe."
As if enjoying that feeling, Tohka narrowed her eyes.
Grrrrrr.
Then her stomach growled.
"Are you hungry?"
"Mm."
"That's true. We didn't even get to eat lunch before the spacequake alarm. What would you like to eat, Tohka?"
"Oh! I want hamburg steak!"
_________________________
"I… might have done sothing really awful to Shido."
Tohka sat on the living room sofa, hugging her knees with both arms, and spoke to Mikoto, who was in the kitchen preparing minced at.
"Eh?"
"Just like you said, Mikoto, Shido once saved . Why did I forget that…? Shido… he is exactly that kind of man."
"That isn't Tohka's fault. No one told Tohka that the child was a Spirit, right?"
Although she should have realized it the mont she saw the Angel, at that ti Tohka had been furious. She probably had not paid attention to such things at all.
"Even so, I still…"
Noticing that Tohka's mood was starting to sink again, Mikoto sighed softly.
"Then… go on a date."
"Eh?"
"If you go on a date with Shido, he will be happy too, right? If that happens, won't everything be fine?"
"Gumu! That is a great idea!
Thank you, Mikoto! If we eat lots of delicious food, Shido will forgive , right?"
"Mm. Exactly."
Although equating a date with food seed a little off, as long as the person herself was happy, it should be fine.
___________________________
"Shido! Let's go on a date! A date!"
"Eh?"
The attempt to save Yoshinon ended because the Spirit went Lost.
When Shido returned ho, he saw Tohka, who had cleared up like the sky after rain, and Mikoto, who was cooking delicious hamburg steak in the kitchen.
"Shido, are you still angry at ? Do you not want to go on a date with ?"
"Eh?"
Shido had no idea why Tohka, who had been so angry that her Reiryoku flowed backward earlier, had recovered so quickly.
[What kind of magic did Yakumo-senpai use… uwaah!!!]
While he was still standing there in a daze, he was kicked hard in the backside.
"What are you spacing out for? Even a sea louse would know how to answer here. Or has Shido fallen so far that he is worse than a sea louse now?"
Kotori stood behind him, biting a lollipop, looking at him with an unhappy face.
"Mm, then… then let's go on a date, Tohka."
"Oh! A date with Shido! A date!"
Mikoto smiled in satisfaction as she watched the happy Tohka and Shido, who still had no idea what had happened but had at least escaped the battlefield of romance.
On the other side, Kotori did not make a sound, but Mikoto could clearly read the words she mouthed.
[Thank you.]
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