"Darliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing—!"
Accompanied by the rapidly approaching sound of running in the corridor, Miku, wearing a concert stage dress, burst through the door, sprinting into the conference room and pulling Kotori tightly into her embrace.
"M-Miku!?"
"Are you okay, Darling? After Honey told you were sick, I couldn't sit still! Your Miku specifically rented a helicopter and has returned!"
Seemingly not hearing Kotori's shouts, Miku just hugged Kotori's delicate body and started rubbing her cheek against hers.
"I say... calm down, Miku..."
"Ah, what happened to Darling! Why did you beco so petite...! Your arms and thighs beca so bouncy—! Co to think of it, you feel just like Kotori-san—"
"I am Kotori herself!!"
Kotori retorted loudly.
"Oh my? Kotori-san? What are you doing? To slip into my embrace without noticing, what a spoiled child~."
"You absolutely did that on purpose! And where are your hands roaming!"
Struggling free from Miku's embrace, Kotori ignored Miku's reluctant expression, coughed dryly, and said seriously.
"Honestly. With this, everyone should be here."
"Kotori-chan, where's Honey?"
Looking around and not seeing Yutsuki, Miku asked in confusion.
"Yutsuki-nee is currently in the infirmary looking after Shido."
"What!? In that case, I'm going to go help take care of Darling too—"
Miku's eyes instantly sparkled.
"I'll naturally ask for your help later, but for now, please take a seat!"
Seemingly anticipating Miku's intentions, Kotori glared at Miku with a slightly resentful look and pointed to the chair in front of her, gesturing for her to sit down.
"Okay~"
Miku replied cheerfully and sat down obediently. Natsumi, however, shuddered instinctively and quietly moved to a seat out of Miku's line of sight.
"Then, I can begin the explanation now. Reine, if you please."
"Understood..."
Reine nodded. After fiddling with the terminal in her hand for a mont, an image appeared on the large screen in the room.
"This is... Shido?"
Tohka muttered softly, looking at the screen.
Displayed on the screen was a full-body image of Shido, alongside numbers and charts that Tohka couldn't understand.
"This is an analysis chart of Shido's current condition. Because the Fraxinus was sent back to headquarters for remodeling, we just barely managed to rush this out. This here is the operational record data of Shido's bodily functions, this is the emotional fluctuation chart including stress and affection levels, and this over here is the Spirit power fluctuation chart..."
Kotori explained while pointing at the data on the chart. However, she quickly noticed that everyone was basically clueless about what she was saying, so she decided to explain the situation simply.
Normally, a Spirit power path is maintained between Shido and the sealed Spirits. The majority of the Spirit's Spirit power is stored within Shido's body, but a small portion of the Spirit power circulates between the two. Therefore, when a Spirit's emotions are in an unstable state, the Spirit power in Shido's body will flow back into the Spirit's body to varying degrees. This is also the reason why Spirits can deploy partial Astral Dresses after being sealed.
However, this ti, the paths between Shido and the Spirits suddenly narrowed, causing the flow rate between them to beco extrely slow.
To give an analogy, imagine the Spirit power paths as roads, and Spirit power as vehicles. Shido's situation is like a traffic jam caused by road construction.
"As a result, the Spirit power that was originally circulating is all trapped inside Shin's body, creating a situation similar to overheating from overload. The abnormal physical abilities Shin displayed at school are also the result of Spirit power having nowhere to vent."
Reine slowly manipulated the keyboard while adding to the explanation.
"How could this be... Isn't this a very dangerous situation?"
Slamming her hands on the table and standing up, Tohka asked with a pale face.
"Yes. It's indeed not optimistic. Although it's not too serious yet because we discovered it early. But if left unchecked, the Spirit power inside Shido is highly likely to go berserk. An eruption of nine people's worth of Spirit power... just imagining it makes one shudder."
Kotori answered with a lollipop in her mouth.
"Th-Then how can we save Shido?"
"There is a way, of course. That's exactly why I called you all here."
Walking up to Tohka, Kotori patted her head to calm her down.
"Since the cause of the problem is the narrowing of the Spirit power paths, we just need to restore them to their original state. That way, the Spirit power circulation can resu, and Shido's condition will improve."
"I-I see!"
Tohka nodded, half-understanding.
"But how exactly do we 'expand the Spirit power paths'?"
Miku placed her index finger under her chin, tilting her head with a questioning look.
"About that..."
For so reason, Kotori's expression suddenly beca very awkward, and even her voice faltered.
"...Eh? Could it be, you're asking us to do it without even knowing the thod?"
Natsumi asked in surprise.
"N-No. I know the thod..."
"Ugh... Is the thod very difficult to implent?"
"No... it's not that either..."
"Then tell us quickly—how exactly can we save Darling?"
"A-About that..."
Seeing everyone casting sowhat anxious and urging glances at her, Kotori's cheeks inexplicably turned bright red. She lowered her head in embarrassnt, and after a while, she answered in a voice as faint as a mosquito.
"K...s..."
"?"
"Kiss, which ans kissing."
Seeing that Kotori's voice clearly didn't reach everyone's ears, left with no choice, Reine stood up to explain in Kotori's place.
"Eh? What did you just say..."
As if answering everyone's doubts, Reine nodded affirmatively.
"...Shin sealed the Spirits' Spirit power through kissing. The Spirit power paths were also established at that ti. Therefore, conversely, to expand the narrowed paths again, all of you need to kiss Shin one more ti."
"I see..."
Hearing this, Tohka couldn't help but reach out and touch her own lips. Then, she seed to realize sothing and looked at Reine with so confusion.
"Wait a minute, Reine... Does that an Shido kissed everyone here?"
"...? Yes, that's correct."
Hearing Reine's answer, Tohka's eyes widened in shock.
"Wh... Is that true?!"
"Um... my familiar, how else did you think Spirit power was sealed?"
"Ugh..."
Kaguya's counter-question left Tohka speechless for a mont. All this ti, she had never equated kissing with sealing Spirit power in her mind.
I see... So that's how it is.
In the past, Tohka once told Shido she hoped he could save other Spirits, but at the sa ti, she didn't want him to kiss anyone other than her. Now, she could understand why Shido had such a troubled expression back then.
"...!?"
For so reason, the image of Yutsuki and Shido holding hands earlier suddenly surfaced in Tohka's mind.
(Kissed everyone... That ans... Shido and everyone... and Yutsuki...)
Just imagining Shido kissing other people, Tohka felt another pang of pain in her chest.
It wasn't that she was dissatisfied with Shido hiding this from her. After all, this was a necessary step to save Spirits. If anything, Tohka regretted her own selfishness in presenting Shido with an impossible dilemma.
However, even so, in a corner deep within her heart, she still didn't want Shido to kiss anyone other than her, even if it was her closest friends.
"Um—Tohka-chan?"
"Ah?"
Miku's voice suddenly snapped Tohka back to reality.
(N-No! What am I thinking? If we don't do this, Shido won't be saved, right?!)
Feeling disgusted with herself for having such thoughts, under everyone's surprised gazes, Tohka slapped her own cheeks hard.
"Ah... that hurts..."
"Tohka-san... are you okay...?"
Looking at Tohka's bright red cheeks, Yoshino asked sowhat worriedly.
"Ugh... I'm fine!"
Holding back the crystalline tears in her eyes, Tohka took a deep breath and shouted with full motivation.
"Alright! I will do my best! Shido saved , this ti it's my turn to save Shido!"
"I... will do my best too!"
"Hmph... What a troubleso brother."
"Kuku—Awakening through a kiss, just like a fairy tale."
"Affirmation. Sleeping Beauty, Princess Shiori."
"So that ans giving Darling a good morning wake up kiss, right? Leave it to !"
"Not only saving Shido but also getting to kiss Shido, killing two birds with one stone, no objections."
"Well, if Shido won't be disgusted by ... I'll try my best."
After Tohka finished speaking, the surrounding Spirits all nodded in agreent.
After the discussion, Tohka and the others debated the order of kissing while walking back to Shido's hospital room.
However—
"Eh? Where are Yutsuki-nee and Shido..."
When they returned to the room, it was already empty.
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