(What exactly is going on?)
During the break between classes, Shido pretended to chat with Tonomachi while secretly observing Origami, who was chatting with the trio of Mai, Mii, and Ai.
Unlike the Tobiichi Origami in Shido's mory, the Origami before him had beautiful long hair, a richer range of expressions, and could smile naturally when talking with others.
If the previous Origami was an uncommunicable ice beauty, the current one gave off the feeling of a gentle and friendly honor student.
Honestly, this was the Origami Shido had always hoped to see.
(Could it be... that the Devil in this world and Tobiichi Origami are not the sa person?)
Shido couldn't help but wonder. Now that the factor of her parents' murder was gone, there was no way Origami would accept Phantom's power to beco a Spirit, let alone invert. It wasn't impossible that Phantom gave the Spirit power to another human afterwards.
(No... it's too early to draw conclusions.)
Tapping his head lightly, Shido constantly reminded himself of this.
Jumping to conclusions without sufficient information could easily lead him astray.
"Itsuka! Itsuka!"
"Hm? What is it, Tonomachi?"
Seeing his bad friend staring at him suspiciously, Shido asked sowhat uncomfortably.
"You've been stealing glances at the transfer student since earlier. You playboy, you already have the affection of Tohka-chan, Kaguya-chan, Yuzuru-chan, and your sister, and you still want to expand the territory of the Itsuka harem?"
"How could there be such a ridiculous thing?"
Shido looked at Tonomachi speechlessly.
"Hmph—let be clear, Origami-chan is my type. You're not allowed to interfere. Otherwise—"
"I'm telling you..."
Looking at Tonomachi trying to scare him with a terrifying, serious expression, Shido sighed, caught between laughing and crying, and turned his head to look in Origami's direction.
"—!"
To Shido's surprise, Origami happened to be looking at him right then. After their eyes t, Origami imdiately turned her head away, a faint blush appearing on her pretty cheeks.
(Uh—if it were the old Origami, she probably would have undisguisedly continued staring right back at .)
Making eye contact with a girl his age and having such bizarre thoughts pop into his mind... realizing this, black lines appeared on Shido's forehead.
(But this reaction... does the Origami of this world know ?)
"Hey, hey—Itsuka, Itsuka! Just now, Origami-chan made eye contact with and then shyly looked away, right? Does this an I have a good chance of winning!"
"Ah—sorry Tonomachi, I need to go make a phone call."
"Hey, don't ignore , Itsuka!"
Ignoring Tonomachi's dissatisfaction, Shido took his phone, walked out of the classroom, and called Kotori.
[Yes, yes, what is it? Onii-chan?]
"Kotori, Devil transferred to our class?"
[...Explain to properly what exactly is going on, Shido.]
On the other end of the line was Kotori, who had quickly switched to her black ribbons and Commander Mode.
Shido told Kotori everything he had seen.
An inverted Spirit transferring to Shido's school. At first, Kotori didn't believe it. After all, a Spirit who specialized in hunting Spirits, only knew destruction, and whose very sanity was questionable suddenly coming to school... Even if Kotori told this to Shido, Shido himself probably wouldn't believe it.
However, seeing Shido's insistence, Kotori on the phone eventually compromised and chose to trust him, agreeing to send reconnaissance drones to assist Shido's investigation.
[Let be clear. If you plan to use Ratatoskr's authority to investigate a girl you like, I don't need to tell you what the consequences will be, Shido.]
"I wouldn't do such a thing."
[Hmph~ Who knows.]
Kotori snorted lightly, then continued asking,
[Then I'll take charge of the investigation. What is that female student's na?]
"Tobiichi Origami."
Hearing this na, Kotori raised an eyebrow slightly.
[Tobiichi Origami... you don't an the AST's Tobiichi Origami, do you?]
"Eh? Did you recover your mory, Kotori?"
Shido asked in surprise.
"What are you talking about? How could I forget the Wizard who fought Tohka and the others several tis?"
"I see..."
Shido nodded in realization. After all, given the precedent of Kotori and the others knowing Yutsuki, who called herself Hacker, it wasn't impossible for Tobiichi Origami to know Kotori and the others in a different way in this world.
(It's just that... did the Tobiichi Origami of this world also join the AST?)
From Kotori's words, Shido learned that, just like in the previous world, Tobiichi Origami also fought Tohka and the others as an ace Wizard of the AST. However, not long ago, this Wizard suddenly resigned.
And the ti of this resignation coincided closely with the ti Devil appeared.
Kotori, during the conversation, seed to realize this as well, and her originally half-believing attitude turned serious.
[Anyway, leave the investigation to us. Rember, Shido, Devil is an extrely dangerous inverted entity. If she really is Tobiichi Origami, absolutely do not make contact with her lightly.]
"Ah, ah, I know... thank you, Kotori."
[Honestly, you'd better explain everything properly when you get back.]
Kotori sighed helplessly. For so reason, since yesterday, she felt Shido had beco sowhat inexplicable.
"Well then..."
Putting his phone in his pocket, he leaned against the wall and pondered for a mont. When the bell for class rang, unable to figure anything out, Shido took a deep breath and returned to the classroom of Class 2-4.
The teacher's voice began to echo in the classroom. Although he had just decided yesterday to listen attentively in class, unfortunately, today's Shido couldn't take in a single word the teacher was saying.
(As expected... I still should talk to Origami.)
Although he gained new information, other questions popped up one after another—Why did Origami join the AST? If Origami is Devil, why can she maintain her ego and revert to human form after inverting?
Even just to be safe, Shido had to make contact with the current Origami to properly understand what happened to her in this world.
Thinking of this, Shido took advantage of the teacher looking away, tore a piece of paper from his notebook, and wrote a line of small text.
[Please co to the school building roof during lunch break.]
—Sorry, Kotori. Silently apologizing to his sister in his heart, Shido crumpled the paper into a small ball and, while no one was looking, flicked it onto Origami's desk.
Then, when lunch break arrived. As expected, after Shido went to the school building roof, he saw Tobiichi Origami waiting for him.
"U-Um... Itsuka-kun, do you need sothing?"
Origami looked at Shido sowhat warily. Being called to the roof by a male classmate right after transferring schools, feeling uneasy and nervous was unavoidable.
However, for Shido, who had desperately defended his chastity under the crazy advances of the Origami from the other world, this felt subtly uncomfortable.
(No! No! Even though it's the sa Origami, having such thoughts is too rude.)
Shaking his head vigorously, Shido adjusted his emotions and began talking with Origami.
At first, Origami seed a bit reserved towards this unfamiliar male classmate. However, when Shido asked about the fire five years ago, Origami's attitude suddenly changed.
It turned out that the reason Origami had been inexplicably paying attention to Shido earlier was because she had witnessed the Shido who was pierced through to save her parents, and was intrigued by their extrely similar appearances.
She was only an elentary school student five years ago. Even if he said he traveled back in ti to save her parents, Origami probably wouldn't believe it. So Shido told a small lie, saying the one who "passed away" five years ago was his older brother.
"Your brother saved my father and mother. If it weren't for him, my parents would definitely have died. The current simply cannot express my gratitude in any words, but I still must say, truly—thank you very much...!"
"I-It's fine..."
Seeing Origami bow her head to express her deep gratitude, Shido nodded with a lack of reality, responding vaguely.
Then, Shido learned from Origami everything she had experienced in this world.
Origami's parents, who were saved by Shido five years ago, died in a traffic accident a year later.
Because Origami didn't want others to suffer the sa fate as Shido's "brother," she resolved to protect humanity and joined the AST;
And she was completely unaware that she had beco a Spirit, let alone inverted.
(Is this the corrective force of history...)
A sense of powerlessness spread in Shido's heart, making him grit his teeth in frustration.
In the previous world, Yutsuki had ntioned a hypothesis: to prevent the effects of ti travel from causing ti paradoxes, the world might possess a special power that corrects the process to arrive at the sa outco.
And at that ti, Kurumi also maintained a wait and see attitude towards this theory, neither denying nor admitting it.
"Itsuka-kun?"
Origami looked at Shido sowhat worriedly.
"Ah, it's nothing. I stayed up a bit late last night, so I'm just a little short on sleep."
"Honestly, not getting enough rest is bad for your body."
Origami sighed, a helpless smile appearing on her face. After treating Shido as the "younger brother" of the boy who saved her parents back then, she unconsciously felt much closer to him.
Just then, the bell signaling the end of lunch break rang.
"Lunch break is over, I should be heading back. Thank you, Itsuka-kun. It was really great to be able to talk to you."
Saying that, Origami bowed slightly to Shido and turned to head back to the classroom.
"W-Wait a minute."
Shido called out hurriedly. There were still many unresolved doubts, and moreover, he felt like he couldn't just let Origami leave like this.
"Yes, is there sothing else?"
"Um—if possible, I'd like to continue talking with you. It doesn't have to be today. When you're free—can we et again?"
"Eh?"
Hearing Shido's words, Origami froze for a mont, and then her cheeks turned bright red.
Seeing Origami's reaction, Shido finally realized that his words sounded exactly like asking her out on a date.
"I-I'll think about it—"
After answering with a slight stutter, Origami hurriedly turned her head away and trotted down the stairs in a rush.
Subsequently, during the afternoon class, Shido received a note from Origami.
She was free this Saturday. Along with Origami's email address.
"Phew..."
After school, lying on his back on the roof, Shido looked at the note in his hand. While secretly sighing in relief, the tense string in his heart instantly loosened, and he imdiately felt his eyelids beco heavy.
(Well... I did stay up all night last night without sleeping, after all.)
...
And so, Shido unknowingly drifted off to sleep. By the ti he woke up again, the sky had been dyed red by the setting sun.
"This is bad, I still have to go back and prepare dinner for everyone... Hm?"
He mumbled groggily to himself while rubbing his eyes. Suddenly, Shido felt a trace of incongruity. Unlike the hard feeling of the rooftop floor before he fell asleep, right now there was a subtly soft sensation under Shido's head.
"Ara ara, what a cute sleeping face, Shido-san."
A black haired woman with strange eyes and asymtrical twin tails appeared in Shido's groggy vision.
"...Kurumi?"
"Mhm, it's ."
Kurumi nodded with a smile. She gently stroked Shido's hair and said,
"You look very tired. You worked hard changing the world, Shido-san."
Hearing Kurumi's words, Shido couldn't help but widen his eyes. Aside from telling Kotori once jokingly, he hadn't ntioned changing the world to anyone else.
"—Kurumi, you?"
"That's right, I rember everything. Whether it's the things from the original world, Origami's matters, or—"
Nodding gently, Kurumi looked at Shido, showing a aningful smile.
"—matters concerning Ryougi Yutsuki."
"—!?"
In that instant, Shido felt completely awake.
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