"A... airships, three. 'Bandersnatch', ninety units. Absolutely... zero damage to the Spirit. Moreover, she retaliated with a frenzied attack on the ground..."
"Oh—this is truly wonderful!"
Unlike the reporter whose voice was trembling, Westcott couldn't help but cheer in excitent upon hearing this report.
"Although I didn't expect the vanguard to defeat the Spirit, possessing power of this magnitude is truly beyond my expectations. Fufu~ I'm really looking forward to what cos next."
Glancing at the highly spirited Westcott, Ellen fell into deep thought.
Indeed, in the first wave in satellite orbit, the Adept Numbers, including herself, were not deployed. Their mission wasn't to defeat the Spirit, but to investigate the power of the slumbering Spirit in space, and then force her to flee to Earth.
However, let alone the plan succeeding, the other party even hurled the destroyed debris down all over the world like teorites. To Ellen, there was no more displeasing provocation than this. Had she known it would be like this, perhaps she should have taken the field herself from the very beginning.
(No... calm down.)
Ellen silently warned herself in her heart.
Becoming inflated and careless due to overconfidence is the greatest taboo. The almost humiliating wounds she suffered in the previous world were bloody lessons, one after another.
"Ah. Although it's just a scratch, continuing to let her punch holes in DEM's facilities like this isn't good either. Ellen, my apologies. Next, I'll have to trouble you to lead your subordinates to deal with that Spirit. —I'm looking forward to the results."
"Understood, Ike."
After giving a brief reply, Ellen saluted Westcott, turned around, and left the office.
Not long after Ellen left, the automatic doors of the office opened again. A tall, black haired office lady in her twenties walked in.
She was a newcor Westcott had recruited from abroad not long ago... no, strictly speaking, she was a Magus who applied and joined DEM Industries, and was now Adept 3 of the Second Executive Departnt—Ai Mulian.
"What is it, Boss? I just received Ellen-san's sortie order. If I delay too long and miss the assembly, I'll get scolded."
With a tone lacking any sense of formality, Ai Mulian looked at Westcott with a helpless expression, signaling him to keep it short.
"Don't worry, it won't delay you much."
Regarding Ai Mulian's attitude, Westcott wasn't angry. Sitting in his office chair with his legs crossed, he looked at Mulian with a smile and asked.
"What do you think of the current Ellen?"
"...Very strong." After pondering for a mont, Mulian answered truthfully with her opinion, "Ellen-san was very strong before too. But after... that is, after your Demon King awakened the wounds from the previous worldline, her entire aura changed a lot. Although she isn't as overbearing as before, she is much sharper."
"Hoh..."
Westcott didn't rush to express his stance on Mulian's words. Instead, he gave her a aningful look and continued asking,
"Then, if Ellen and Ryougi Yutsuki were to fight again right now, who do you think would win?"
"Yutsuki-san, of course!"
With a radiant and moving smile, Mulian said without hesitation.
"And the reason?"
"Because she is the person I love the most, that is the best reason."
"I see~"
Regarding Ai Mulian's answer, which could hardly be called an explanation, Westcott nodded as if he had been convinced.
"Since that's the case, then during the upcoming battle, please make sure to support Ellen well. Don't let the person you love the most win."
"Any thod is fine?"
Raising her eyebrows slightly, Mulian confird with Westcott.
"Of course, any thod is fine."
Westcott nodded readily.
"When the ti cos, if anyone objects to your proposals, you can just say I permitted it. Of course, even if you directly achieve your own goals there, it's also fine."
"Understood. Thank you, Boss."
Hearing this, Mulian smiled gladly, gave a military salute, turned around, and walked out of the office.
"Ah, right, Boss." Suddenly, seemingly thinking of sothing, Ai Mulian stopped, turned back, and asked Westcott, "The other operation, have you told Ellen-san about it?"
"No. If I told her, she'd definitely co and stop looking furious." Shrugging with a bit of helplessness, Westcott revealed a wicked smile. "Are you going to stop ?"
"How is that possible~ How could I interfere with my superior's decision? You're going to catch up with an old friend, right? Have a pleasant chat, Boss."
"Thank you for the good wishes."
Watching this clever subordinate leave, Westcott leaned back, putting all his weight on the back of the chair. Looking up at the black book floating in the air, a faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
"There are many things I wanted Ellen to bring, but seeing each other after such a long ti, being covered in blood is inevitable, isn't it? Woodman."
——————————
"What is Yutsuki-nee's situation right now?"
"Report. Heart rate and affection level values are both at normal levels. Emotion value is at seventy-six percent of normal. The Spirit power pathway circulation with Shido shows no abnormalities. Currently, no phenonon of Spirit power reverse flow has been observed."
"That's good..."
Hearing the crew mber's report, Kotori, sitting in the Commander's seat, breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Honestly, judging by the intensity of their argunt just now, even if Yutsuki directly experienced a Spirit power reverse flow and caused a huge scene after leaving, Kotori wouldn't be surprised.
It was all thanks to Yutsuki's stable and mature temperant. If it were any other Spirit who had an argunt like that with Shido, Kotori would definitely have had to put Mukuro's problem aside to focus on resolving the Spirit's loss of control.
(No, if it were Tohka and the others, that argunt wouldn't have happened at all, right?)
Thinking of this, Kotori couldn't help but smile bitterly.
[From now on, I will not only stop supporting Shido's conquests of Spirits, but depending on the situation, I will even step in to stop them.]
That was back in September last year, after the Miku incident ended, when Yutsuki privately sought out Kotori and made that declaration. Because that was several months ago, Kotori had unconsciously stopped keeping it in mind.
Looking back now, Kotori realized that Yutsuki had never once gone against what she said.
That ti with Natsumi, because the other party actively sought trouble with Shido and wanted to destroy him socially, Yutsuki stepped in to help them.
That ti with Origami, it was also the other party who first kidnapped Shido and harbored clear murderous intent towards Tohka and the others, so Yutsuki took the initiative to fight Origami.
Even that ti with Nia, it was because the other party clearly cried out for help that Yutsuki agreed to cooperate in conquering Nia.
The original intention behind Ryougi Yutsuki's actions was completely different from Ratatoskr's core philosophy from the very beginning.
The forr is to protect family, the latter is to save Spirits. The reason no problems had arisen was simply because their directions of progress had not contradicted each other.
Perhaps Yutsuki had long guessed that a situation like this would occur, which was why she issued that ultimatum to her back then.
"Where is Yutsuki-nee right now?"
Kotori continued to confirm with the crew mbers.
"Just now, we confird footage of Yutsuki returning to her own room in the Spirit apartnt. Judging from the external caras, she has no intention of going out."
"Holed up in her room, huh... Never mind, this is fine too. Dispatch guards to patrol the periter of the apartnt. If any problems arise, notify imdiately."
"Understood."
With Yutsuki's issue temporarily settled, Kotori let out a long breath and turned her gaze to Shido, who had remained silent since earlier.
"How is it, Shido? Does the slap Yutsuki gave you still hurt?"
"Haha... It's fine, not to the point of swelling up."
Touching his cheek, Shido couldn't help but smile bitterly. It seed his emotions were much more stable than before.
Of course, whether Shido's heart was as calm as he looked on the outside, Kotori had no way of knowing.
"Shido..."
"What's wrong, Kotori? Usually at a ti like this, shouldn't you be scolding harshly, saying things like, 'Why did you do sothing as stupid as arguing with Yutsuki-nee? What if her Spirit power reverses? You stupid pig!'?"
Hearing Shido's words, Kotori froze for a mont, then sighed helplessly.
"If you're willing to admit that you're a hopeless masochist, Shido, I'd be happy to scold you harshly."
"Ah—Let's pass on that."
"! I am a hopeless pervert, so Commander, please thoroughly hurl abuse at , Kannazuki. The harsher the better! It's best if you degrade until I don't even have human dignity left..."
Kotori snapped her fingers, and several burly n appeared, dragging the noisy Kannazuki out of the command room.
"Well, since you still have the energy to joke around, there's probably no need to worry. Next, please focus your energy on conquering Mukuro."
"...Understood."
Shido nodded with a sweatdrop.
(Well, actually we should be the ones apologizing.)
Kotori felt sowhat ashad in her heart.
Initially, she had imagined what thod Yutsuki would use to stop Shido's conquest when encountering a Spirit like Mukuro, who was neither troubled by spacequakes nor dissatisfied with life.
Kotori originally thought Yutsuki's words ant she would trip Shido up during the conquest process, preventing the Spirit from developing affection for him. But in reality, her thoughts were too naive.
What she did was shaking the convictions of all Fraxinus mbers, herself included.
Although Kotori really didn't want to admit it, at the ti, she was indeed moved by Yutsuki's proposal to "not save Mukuro, but join forces with her to eliminate DEM."
Even though, just as Shido said, Hoshimiya Mukuro definitely used an Angel to put a lock on her emotions because she had an incredibly painful past. But everyone present at the ti, under Yutsuki's suggestion, still developed the thought: "Since there's a way to stop Mukuro from attacking Earth, and she really has no dissatisfaction with her life, then leaving her alone is fine too."
Only Shido, even when thoroughly refuted by Yutsuki's sound argunts, even when no one supported him, persisted in wanting to save Mukuro, not hesitating to fall out with Yutsuki, with an attitude that could even be called unreasonable.
If it weren't for this, what this command room would be executing right now would be a completely different mission.
This was also the reason why, after Shido and Yutsuki argued, no one present blad Shido.
rely because an easier, opportunistic path was placed before them, the Fraxinus crew realized that what they held fast to was shaken so simply.
(How unsightly.)
Kotori thought sowhat self-deprecatingly.
Just then, Kotori suddenly noticed a commotion outside the command room doors.
"What's that sound?"
Kotori opened the main doors with confusion. In the next second, the Spirits who should have stayed in the standby room all tumbled in.
"Ugya!"
"Iya..."
"Oppression. Very heavy. Kaguya, Yuzuru thinks you should lose weight."
"This is clearly not just my weight alone, okay?!"
"Why are you guys here?"
Looking at the Spirits picking themselves up from the floor one by one, Kotori asked speechlessly.
"Umu... Sorry, Shido. I didn't an to eavesdrop."
Tohka lowered her head apologetically. But Miku put an arm around her shoulder and said very righteously.
"Tohka-san did nothing wrong~! Besides, in this situation, it's Darling's fault for making us worry."
"Eh?"
"Right before we ca over, we happened to see Yutsuki-chan walk out without saying a word. Don't tell , Shido-kun, did you and Yutsuki-chan have a fight?"
"Uh? That's..."
Having the truth pointed out by Yoshinon, Shido was montarily speechless, not knowing how to explain it to everyone.
"Although I don't know what happened... it's better to go apologize early... Shido-san..."
Yoshino advised with a worried face.
"You guys misunderstood. Shido and Yutsuki-nee didn't fight. It's just that because DEM might make a move on the Spirit next, I asked her to execute a mission."
Looking at Shido's troubled expression, Kotori sighed and smoothed things over for him.
"What... So that's how it is. You had worried for nothing, I thought sothing stomach-ache-inducing had happened."
Natsumi clearly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ugh—That damn Maiden of Lightning, actually trying to secretly steal the spotlight behind my back, the Child of the Typhoon. Does that girl have any respect for our blood pact?"
"Dissatisfaction. Assigning a mission only to Yutsuki. That's too unfair."
Looking at the highly resentful Yamai sisters, Kotori hesitated for a mont, then sighed.
Judging from their looks, if she kept Mukuro's matter hidden, the consequences would probably be several tis worse than Yutsuki and Shido's argunt.
"Well... it just so happens, I also have sothing I want to ask of you. If you don't mind after hearing it, please do this favor."
"Umu, leave it to !"
Tohka nodded, full of motivation.
"What exactly should we do?"
Origami raised the most basic question.
"That's right. Since the target is in space, before we depart, there's another thing we have to do first."
"What is it?"
Shido asked curiously. To this, a smile curled on Kotori's lips.
"Since we're going to space, we have to go get our airship back first."
User Comments
0 comments from readers