Today, under the protection of Tobiichi Origami, Itsuka Shido's school life was, in a certain sense, incredibly thrilling.
First, right as he entered the school, Origami pulled out an array of complex instrunts—infrared scanners, thermal detectors, mana sensors, and more—and ticulously inspected his shoe locker without a word. Only after confirming there were no bombs or dangerous items hidden inside did she allow Shido to use it.
Honestly, feeling the strange "what the hell are they doing" stares from the surrounding students, Shido was so embarrassed he wanted to die.
However, that was only the beginning.
Once class started, Origami used the excuse of "forgetting her textbook" to seamlessly push her desk against his. Under the murderous glares of Tonomachi and the rest of the boys in class—who looked ready to slice him into a thousand pieces—she sat pressed tightly against Shido.
Then, during a break, when Shido tried to go to the restroom to relieve himself, Origami completely ignored the shocked stares of the male students and confidently strolled right into the n's room after him.
"I will guard the periter. Please feel free to release your [BEEP] in peace, Shido."
Origami said with an utterly straight face.
"How am I supposed to release anything like this?!"
Shido couldn't help but cry out in despair.
Even though it wasn't even halfway through the morning classes, Shido inexplicably felt completely exhausted, both physically and ntally. Thinking that since Kurumi wasn't at school anyway, he wanted to ask the teacher for permission to leave early.
"Huh? Leave early? You don't look sick to . A cold? Stomachache? Go to the infirmary and take your temperature. If it's over 38 degrees, I'll allow you to leave."
"Uh..."
However, unfortunately, Tama-chan-sensei didn't have any classes that morning. The teacher on duty in the faculty office was the Japanese literature teacher, infamous among students for his rigid stubbornness. And just like that, Shido's plan to escape early tragically miscarried.
When lunch break arrived, Origami volunteered to poison test his food.
Well, even though he didn't think there was any possibility of the bento Yoshino made being poisoned, he figured it wasn't an unreasonable request, so he agreed.
"But Origami, why did you use my chopsticks?!"
"...Mhm, it seems there is no poison. Please enjoy your al, Shido."
"Hah... Thanks for the food."
Staring at the faint strand of transparent saliva Origami left on the chopsticks, Shido hesitated for a mont before flipping the chopsticks around and eating with the other end.
"..."
Shido didn't know if it was just his imagination, but Origami seed incredibly disappointed.
Then in the afternoon, since class 2-4 had P.E., Shido temporarily bid farewell to Origami and headed to the boys's locker room to change into his gym clothes.
Honestly, although he felt a bit sorry for Origami, Shido genuinely breathed a massive sigh of relief.
—Click.
"—?!"
Just as he was about to take off his shirt, Shido flinched violently, snapping his head up to scan the room nervously.
"Hm? What's wrong, Itsuka?"
Tonomachi looked at Shido with a confused face.
"Um... did you just hear the sound of a cara shutter?"
"Huh? Are you trying to say there's a peeping tom? What kind of stupid joke is that, Itsuka? This is the boys' locker room. Who the hell would be interested in secretly taking pictures of a bunch of sweaty dudes stripping?"
"Well... that's true."
It's probably just my imagination, Shido told himself. Still, just to be safe, he closed the curtains of the locker room.
...
"—Tch."
Hiding in the bushes right outside the boys' locker room, holding a DSLR cara, Origami couldn't help but click her tongue.
"I didn't expect Shido to actually notice... Next ti, I need to figure out a way to silence the cara's shutter sound."
"—! —!!"
A faint, muffled noise ca from beside her. Origami looked down and saw a Nibelcole struggling frantically, trying to break free. It was currently completely immobilized, pinned down by a combination of Origami's Spirit power and Territory.
"This is the seventh one... counting the traps, that makes eleven. That was too close."
Origami muttered with lingering fear. If she hadn't seen Kurumi's clone and rushed over from the girls' locker room out of montary worry, she very likely would have missed this Nibelcole.
(That's why I said we should have just ambushed him here from the start.)
Hearing the voice of "herself" echoing in her mind, Origami's face flushed completely red as she retorted,
"Sh-Shut up! You just wanted to peep on Itsuka-kun changing! And why did you take a picture just now? If we get caught, we'll be treated as hopeless perverts."
(Because the timing and angle were absolutely perfect. Besides, you didn't reject the idea either.)
"Wh-What do you an I didn't reject it?! You acted on your own—"
"—!"
"Oops... it seems we should put this conversation aside for now."
Applying more pressure to suppress the struggling Nibelcole, Origami's red face instantly regained its icy calm. Pointing her fingertip at the Nibelcole, a sliver of white light began to flash.
"—?!"
"Sorry, but this is my premium seat."
Leaving behind that cold sentence, the bushes outside the boys' locker room returned to total silence.
———————————
"Hah— I'm so exhausted."
Having finally made it to the end of the school day, walking on the way ho, Shido couldn't help but let out a long sigh of complete physical and ntal exhaustion.
In the afternoon, Origami had stuck to him like glue just as before, under the guise of protection. For so reason, the stares and whispers from the surrounding students were even more terrifying than usual. The feeling of constantly sitting on pins and needles made the whole experience pure torture for him.
"Shido, did I cause trouble for you?"
Seeing Shido looking so exhausted, Origami seed to realize that her actions might have been slightly inappropriate, and she asked with concern.
"No, no, not at all."
Seeing Origami's guilty expression, Shido shook his head with a wry smile.
No matter how you looked at it, Origami's original intention was to protect him from being hard by DEM. Although it caused quite a bit of trouble, he naturally had no right to complain about soone protecting him so earnestly.
"I know everything you did, Origami, was to protect . I can't even thank you enough."
"Is that so... You are welco. I am also very happy to be of help to Shido."
Hearing Shido's answer, Origami breathed a sigh of relief, feeling both relieved and slightly ashad.
"Since that is the case, how about I continue to be your bodyguard from now on?"
"Uh... about that..."
Hearing the proposal, a drop of cold sweat trailed down Shido's forehead. Being closely guarded by Origami twenty-four hours a day—one day of that life was fine, but if it continued, he felt he would physically and ntally collapse.
"O-Oh right. Speaking of which, it looks like we're almost out of groceries at ho. I need to stop by the shopping district to restock."
Feeling Origami's intense, burning gaze, Shido decisively chose to change the subject.
Hearing Shido's words, Origami subconsciously furrowed her brows.
"Shido, we are currently in a state of ergency. DEM could launch an attack at any mont. It would be safer to head straight ho today."
"Well, it's just a slight detour. It won't take that much ti. Besides, didn't today go by without anything happening?"
"That..."
Origami was montarily at a loss for words.
"I'm just going to buy a bit of at. Plus, I didn't say I was going alone. If you spot any danger, Origami, we'll retreat and run away imdiately. How does that sound?"
"...I understand. Then let us take a slight detour to the shopping district."
After thinking for a mont, Origami finally nodded and agreed to his request.
Arriving at the shopping district, Shido headed straight to the butcher shop and splurged on a massive portion of pork tenderloin.
Shido knew. Because he was targeted by DEM and Kurumi, everyone had been in a constant state of high tension these past few days. Mana and the Yamai sisters had also sustained quite a few injuries in their battle against Ellen and the others.
Moreover, Shido was probably the only one who didn't know that, in places he couldn't see, everyone was working tirelessly to protect his safety.
If a person wants to be energetic, they should eat at—this was what his father, Itsuka Tatsuo, had told him when he was a kid. Tomorrow was the decisive battle against Kurumi. Although it was a small gesture, he wanted to use this opportunity to treat everyone to a good al, and treat himself as well.
"And next are the vegetables..."
"ow~"
Just as Shido was about to move, a sound by his feet caught his attention. He looked down and saw a small calico cat with a red collar rubbing against his leg.
"A cat?! Get away quickly, Shido!"
"Wait! Calm down, don't get so worked up, Origami."
Seeing Origami about to draw her gun, Shido hurriedly stopped her.
"No matter how you look at it, DEM wouldn't send a cat to assassinate . Besides, looking at its collar, it clearly has an owner."
"That is hard to say. That collar might exactly be a bomb."
Origami didn't lower her guard. She first scanned it with a device to confirm there was no detonation sequence engraved on the collar, then grabbed the cat and felt its body to check if a bomb had been surgically implanted in its stomach.
"Mhm... No such items found. It is just an ordinary dostic cat."
Origami concluded her judgnt.
"ow~"
Fortunately, the cat wasn't very afraid of people. It seed to treat Origami's search as petting and let out a very comfortable, spoiled ow.
"See, I told you it was fine. But since it's a pet, where's the owner?"
Seeing Origami holding the cat, Shido chuckled lightly, then looked around in confusion.
"Mary!"
Just then, a little girl suddenly cried out and trotted over toward Shido's direction.
"ow~"
Hearing the girl's voice, the cat squird out of Origami's arms and ran to the little girl's side.
"Honestly, where did you run off to? You worried to death."
"It seems the owner is here."
Breathing a sigh of relief, Shido bent down and said to the little girl.
"Little miss, be more careful next ti, don't lose your pet."
"Mhm, thank you, Onii-san—"
Hearing Shido's words, the little girl nodded excitedly and thanked him. However, upon seeing Shido's face, she froze for a mont, then pointed at him and scread.
"Ah— It's the cheating onii-san ! You're flirting with a new woman again!"
"Eh? Eh?!"
Shido widened his eyes in shock. Looking closely, he finally realized that this little girl was the exact sa one he had helped find her cat during sumr vacation and in September last year.
Except, the people accompanying him those two tis were Tohka and Yutsuki, respectively.
"No! This is a misunderstanding! Listen to , little miss—"
"Ah— I'm not listening! You three-timing playboy! Scumbag! If you get close to him, you'll be eaten! Mary, let's run!"
"ow!"
"Wait!"
Watching the little girl and the cat frantically running away from him, Shido's hand was left hanging awkwardly in mid-air.
"Shido, soone you know?"
Origami asked curiously.
"No... just soone I've bumped into on the street a few tis."
Shido answered weakly. Honestly, scaring off a little kid was surprisingly a huge blow to him.
"Whatever, let's just buy the vegetables and hurry ho."
However, right at that mont—
—BOOM! —BOOM! —BOOM! —BOOM! —BOOM—!
A series of violent explosions echoed from the distance.
"Uwaah?! Wh-What happened?"
Feeling the ground tremble slightly, Shido asked in shock.
"Explosions... But they are very far from here."
Origami answered with a grave expression.
"Explosions?" Hearing Origami's words, Shido seed to realize sothing, his face suddenly paling. "Could it be that sothing happened to Tohka and the others?"
"No! Judging from the sound, the explosions did not co from the direction of your house."
Origami shook her head. Looking at the plus of black smoke rising from various spots in the distance, her eyes were filled with confusion.
There was no doubt that these explosions were DEM's doing. But they weren't attacking Shido, nor were they attacking the Spirits. Origami completely failed to understand what DEM's objective was.
"...Anyway, let us retreat and regroup with everyone first."
Origami suggested.
"Yeah, you're right."
Shido nodded, preparing to leave the shopping district with Origami.
[Warning! Warning! Precursors to a spacequake detected. Informing all residents: please evacuate to the nearest shelter imdiately—]
Suddenly, the standard spatialquake alarm began broadcasting over the shopping district's PA system.
However, the content of this alarm was slightly different from usual.
[Ergency Warning! Due to unidentified explosions paralyzing multiple shelters within Tengu City, rendering them unusable, we are currently locating available shelters. Citizens, please use your mobile phone navigation to proceed to an active shelter for evacuation. Repeating once more—]
(The places that exploded just now were the underground bomb shelters?)
Hearing the broadcast, a terrible premonition instantly surged in Shido's heart.
Soon after the broadcast ended, Shido saw citizens all over the streets preparing to evacuate.
It was a hurried, congested tide of humanity, more chaotic than any previous evacuation.
Shido's instincts told him that the hundreds of thousands of people in Tengu City were all converging in this direction.
"Origami, this is the ene—"
"Shido?!"
In an instant, Shido and Origami were swept away by the unstoppable tide of people, disappearing from each other's sight.
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