Shido had seen Tohka in this state before.
Inversion.
A phenonon where a Spirit's attribute changes due to despair, causing their Spirit energy value to change into a different kind of power.
The Tohka right now looked exactly like the inverted form she took when she fell into despair, mistakenly thinking Shido had been killed.
Why did Tohka invert?
For a mont, this question filled Shido's mind.
"Oh... are you the man from that ti? Hmph, I did not expect that chasing that woman here would save a lot of trouble."
Glancing coldly at Shido, a cold smile curled on Tohka's lips. She raised the Demon King Nahemah in her hand.
"Perfect. Turn to dust together."
As soon as she finished speaking, the giant pitch-black sword swung fiercely. The Spirit energy spilling from the blade turned into a black crescent moon that could cut through gold and iron, flying straight toward Shido.
"Michael - Lataib."
However, the first slash was dodged narrowly thanks to Yutsuki's warning. For the second slash, Mukuro was clearly ready to fight back. She inserted Michael into the space, turned it to the left, and opened a door that swallowed Tohka's slash.
"—Lataib."
The staff turned again. The exit of the door opened right in front of Tohka, returning the slash back to her exactly as it was.
"A petty trick."
A look of disdain appeared on Tohka's face. She swung Nahemah upward, and the black crescent moon was shattered into light dust.
At the sa ti, the clouds above Tohka were split in two. The clean cut looked like a sliced cake, creating a grand and strange sight.
"A Spirit? Blocking my attack like that, it looks like you are ready to die."
Her gaze stopping on Mukuro, Tohka asked coldly.
"Those are Muku's words. What are you doing here? Your mories should have been sealed by Michael. If you still wish to disturb Muku and Nushi-sama, Mukuro will not forgive you anymore."
Not afraid of Tohka's intense glare at all, Mukuro threatened in a deep voice.
"...Just what I wanted. I will make you regret not dying from that attack just now."
Seeming to take Mukuro's words as an insult, a fierce light flashed in Tohka's eyes. She jumped down from the streetlamp to the ground, gripping Nahemah and slowly walking toward Mukuro.
"Michael - Spear."
Seeming to realize that Tohka was an opponent she could not take lightly, Mukuro got serious for once. She stepped forward a bit to put so distance between herself and Shido, then bent down to get into a fighting stance. The staff in her hand also changed into the shape of a spear.
"Shido, stop them! It is fine to use Spirit energy if you have to!" Yutsuki yelled over the comms.
"I know!"
Because neither Mukuro nor Tohka were Spirits descending from the neighboring world, the spacequake alarm did not go off, and the people in the city had not evacuated yet. If he let a full-powered Spirit and an Inverted Spirit fight right now, Tengu City would definitely be destroyed.
"Wait! Itsuka-kun?!"
Under Origami's surprised gaze, Shido braved the pressure coming from Mukuro and Tohka, and bravely stepped right between them.
"Nushi-sama?!"
Mukuro widened her eyes in surprise.
Seeing Itsuka Shido's reckless action, Tohka frowned unhappily and asked.
"Coming before without any weapons just like last ti... what exactly are you thinking? Are you trying to get yourself killed on purpose?"
"Um... if possible, I would really like to stay alive..."
Looking at Tohka, who was angry for so reason, cold sweat broke out on Shido's forehead. Even though the tense atmosphere between the two girls had eased up a bit, in a way, it was now Shido's turn to be in danger.
"Yu-Yutsuki... what should I do now?"
Shido asked nervously. When he rushed in, his mind was only focused on stopping the fight. But as for what to do after that, Shido had not thought about it at all.
"You are asking ..." Yutsuki's voice sounded troubled for once. After all, with her usual personality, she would have wanted to run away from trouble like this as fast as possible. Not to ntion that Mukuro and the inverted Tohka were clearly the type who would not listen to reason.
"Anyway, just repeat what I say. Stop it, do not fight anymore."
"Stop it, do not fight anymore."
Without thinking twice, Shido just repeated Yutsuki's words like a parrot.
[I do not want to see any of you get hurt.]
"I do not want to see any of you get hurt."
[Because—]
"Because—"
[You are both my wings!]
"You are both my wings!"
"..."
"..."
It was as if ti had stopped. The scene fell into a very awkward silence.
"Yutsuki... what did... that an just now?"
Looking fearfully at Tohka and Mukuro, Shido asked nervously.
"Sorry... because your positioning just now was just too classic. I accidentally got too into character and said 'wings' instead of 'family'." Yutsuki replied awkwardly over the earpiece.
(Co on, Yutsuki, do not drop the ball at a critical mont like this!)
"...Wings? What do those words an, Nushi-sama?"
Mukuro tilted her head and asked in confusion.
"Ah—n-nothing. What I ant is, if there is a conflict, we should talk it out and solve it properly. There is no need to be so aggressive and wave weapons around. I do not want to see anyone get hurt."
Shido quickly added to explain.
"I see. As expected of Nushi-sama."
Mukuro nodded in realization.
"Hmph—boring."
However, unlike Mukuro who had a lot of affection for Shido, the inverted Tohka was clearly not as easy to talk to.
"Although I do not know what kind of trick you are playing, as long as I kill all of you, there will naturally be no need to worry."
"Foolish person. Wasting Nushi-sama's good intentions. Let Muku teach you a lesson."
Seeing that Tohka refused to back down, Mukuro naturally had no reason to lower her weapon either.
Just as the atmosphere between the two was about to get tense again, right at that mont—
"—Please wait."
Origami, who had been watching from the side, suddenly spoke up.
"What is it?"
"Are you going to get in the way too?"
"Ugh...!"
Being glared at by the two of them, Origami could not help but let out a weak cry. Right now, she clearly did not have the confidence of her power state. Facing Mukuro and the inverted Tohka, she trembled like a herbivore being stared down by a tiger and a lion.
But soon, she gathered her courage, raised her head to look straight into their eyes, and said softly but calmly.
"...Um, please calm down and listen to , Mukuro-chan."
"...Ufu?"
Mukuro raised an eyebrow in surprise, waiting confusedly for Origami to continue.
"Mukuro-chan, you like Itsuka-kun, right? So you cannot forgive Tohka-san for coming to steal Shido away."
"Simply put, yes. Furthermore, you are included in that as well."
"But Itsuka-kun hates fighting. S-So... there are other ways... to win Itsuka Shido's love."
"?"
Mukuro looked at Origami with curiosity. But on the other side, Tohka, who had been waiting for a long ti, clearly lost her patience and took a step forward holding Nahema.
"Tohka…, Tohka-san, please calm down too! In the end, what is Tohka-san's goal...?"
"Tohka—are you talking to ?..."
Tohka first gave Origami a surprised look. But soon after, she lost interest. She pointed at Shido and said with a murderous aura,
"Goals do not matter at all. This man actually dared to put through such humiliation. If I do not slice him into a thousand pieces, I will not be able to swallow this anger. I can ignore you and the key Spirit, but if you get in my way, I will kill you!"
"Because Itsuka-kun humiliated you. Um... although I only heard about it, at the DEM base, you were defea—ahem, because of unavoidable accidental factors, you were left with so unpleasant mories."
Seeing Tohka's Nahema pointing at her, Origami hurriedly coughed twice and swallowed the word "defeated" that she was about to say.
"...Hmph, although I cannot rember the exact details, that is pretty much it."
Tohka snorted unhappily, but she did not attack Origami. Seeing that she survived the danger, Origami could not help but let out a long sigh of relief.
"Then did Itsuka-kun swing his sword at you back then? Did you surrender to his power?"
"Are you joking! How could sothing like that happen?"
Tohka widened her eyes in anger. To this, Origami nodded quickly in agreent.
"Right, I think so too. If you just compare raw power, Tohka-san would definitely win. But the result was not like that. So if you defeat Itsuka-kun now, does that really count as winning? In fact, if you kill him, you will never have the chance to clear your na."
"..."
Origami's words made Tohka fall into deep thought.
"It is true, killing a man who can run to his death under my sword without hesitation really has no aning. Then tell , how can I clear my na against this man?"
"Use his heart! Not using force, but making his heart completely surrender to you is the true victory."
Hearing Origami's words, Mukuro and Tohka asked curiously.
"Therefore, how do I defeat this arrogant woman and win Nushi-sama's love?"
"Answer . How do I make this man's heart surrender?"
"Yes. There is a way to achieve your goals."
Seeing that the two of them finally shifted their attention to her, Origami took a deep breath and said firmly,
"The one who steals Shido's lips first is the winner."
"Eh?"
Hearing Origami's statent, Shido was instantly stunned.
...
"Phew..."
Looking at Shido and the others up ahead, Yutsuki let out an exhausted sigh.
Although this idea was very absurd, under Origami's smooth talking, Mukuro and Tohka finally agreed and temporarily stopped their plans to fight with force.
"Thanks, Origami. I am amazed you managed to convince those two."
"Well, it is also thanks to you texting to explain the situation, Yutsuki. That is how I ca up with this idea."
Origami replied with a bitter smile on the other end of the phone.
Just now, while keeping the comms open with Shido, Yutsuki was also multitasking by sending texts to Origami's phone, telling her the information she had gathered.
Although she could have gone in herself, Yutsuki felt that if she appeared in front of Mukuro at this critical mont, it would only add fuel to the fire and make things worse.
"Anyway, the situation has stabilized for now... Yeah right."
Watching Tohka and Mukuro getting ready to forcefully kiss Shido using physical strength again, Yutsuki slumped her shoulders in defeat.
(One problem solved, another one begins... What should we do next?)
Yutsuki thought, feeling very troubled.
User Comments
0 comments from readers