Date a Live:This is not the date I wanted! Chapter 487 487: Ignore

Returning Inversed Spirits to normal.

It sounded simple when said out loud, but actually making it happen was hundreds or thousands of tis harder than imagined.

Now that Itsuka Shido was no longer alive, they could not deal with Spirits by sealing their spirit power through a kiss.

Enough manpower and resources.

Preparing and fulfilling the needed conditions.

Preventing unexpected factors that might appear.

Repeatedly confirming whether the plan was possible and complete.

If any one of these steps went wrong, the plan might fail.

Because of that, what Yutsuki, Nia, the Arusu sisters, and Ratatoskr had to do first was not to "capture" the Inversed Spirits.

It was to design a Realizer device that could predict the ti and place where the Inversed Spirits would manifest.

Only then could they prepare in advance and turn passive defense into active action.

And to achieve that function, the Angels of two Spirits were absolutely necessary.

The miracle that possessed powerful calculation and analysis functions, and could predict the near future——Ratziel.

The miracle that held all knowledge of all things in the past and present, representing omniscience——Rasiel.

Yutsuki's first idea was to let Rasiel provide the needed information, then have Ratziel analyze that data and predict the ti and place where Spirits would manifest.

However, the idea was beautiful, but reality was harsh.

Ratziel's future calculation could only predict a few seconds into the future.

Of course, a few seconds of calculated in battle was enough to change the flow of a fight.

But because Rasiel provided an enormous amount of information on a global scale, whether the predicted ti could even go beyond 0.1 seconds was already doubtful.

According to Yutsuki's idea, the prediction range would only count as passing if it could be extended to at least one month.

Clearly, that was not enough to detect the ti when Spirits would manifest.

As for Ratziel's other ability——Future Glimpse.

Although it had no ti-span limit, its controllability was too low. On top of that, the future it peeked at could not be changed, so Yutsuki directly ruled it out.

That was why Yutsuki asked Ratatoskr for help to overco this problem.

Designing Realizer devices that could amplify Angel functions.

Researching the factors that had to be prepared for prediction.

Filtering out information in Rasiel that had nothing to do with the prediction.

Reducing the unimportant information Ratziel had to process when predicting the future.

Through many different optimizations, they would extend the range of future prediction as much as possible toward the target value.

Although the plan was vague and difficult, fortunately, Kotori's crew were more excellent than Yutsuki had imagined.

After several discussions and tests, they basically settled on a concrete direction.

Taking into account the frequency of Spirit manifestations, the physical condition of the staff, and the range Yutsuki herself could bear, Yutsuki set the goal at completing it within half a month.

However, plans could never keep up with changes.

On the ninth day of the project, a spacequake descended upon a certain town.

[——On-site disaster report received. Spirit wave reaction confird——Codena: Berserk——Spacequake scale: AA——Confird death count... 30,151——Missing——320,756.]

Maria slowly reported the local disaster situation from the screen.

Although most people were listed as missing, looking at the hellish scene on the screen, it was probably only a matter of ti before they were confird dead.

Three hundred and fifty thousand people were dead.

That number pressed down on everyone present like a thousand-ton boulder, making it hard for them to breathe.

Regret. Guilt.

Those feelings began to spread through their hearts.

Even when Yoshino had frozen a city of over a million people, they had not felt guilt like this.

If they had completed the function to predict Spirit appearances just a little earlier, they could have moved the residents and evacuated them before the spacequake happened.

They did not want to see more innocent people die.

Holding on to that belief, everyone on Fraxinus worked as if they were racing the god of death. They gave up even the little sleep ti they had left and rushed the project forward at full speed.

Then, on the thirteenth day after the plan began—March 29th.

"Ratziel. Rasiel."

Following Yutsuki's call, a dark blue chanical bow and a black leather book engraved with a cross appeared before her.

She placed the Angels into matching grooves.

Soon, stimulated by magical power, Ratziel and Rasiel began flickering with light, bright and dim, as if breathing.

At the rear of the airship, branches and leaves quietly stretched out, flashing in sync with the Angels.

[Angels detected. Beginning scan——Scan successful——Beginning mission execution.]

—Gulp.

The crew of Fraxinus EX swallowed unconsciously. They did not even dare to blink. With heavy dark circles under their eyes, they stared tightly at the progress bar on the large screen.

[Mission complete——]

About ten minutes later, the screen switched to a large world map. Dozens of red dots were scattered across the map, and beside each red dot were notes describing the corresponding Spirit information.

—Codena: Princess. Manifestation ti: June 10th, 7:58. Coordinates: 10.5N, 10.8E.

—Codena: Diva. Manifestation ti: April 19th, 17:36. Coordinates: 55N, 36E.

—Codena: Witch. Manifestation ti: May 9th, 23:57. Coordinates...

—Codena: Efreet. Manifestation ti: April 4th...

...

What was displayed on the map was the ti and coordinate information of Spirit manifestations over the next three months.

"...Did... did we succeed?"

"...We succeeded!!"

The crew widened their eyes in disbelief.

Only after a long while did they react, and cheers imdiately filled the room.

"Don't be so quick to celebrate. The mission has only just begun."

Pouring cold water over the excited crew, Yutsuki looked at the information on the screen and calmly gave orders.

"Re-investigate ten tis and run comparison tests. Analyze and correct any data with errors. After that, contact the governnts of the countries that own the coordinate locations, and tell them to prepare to relocate their citizens."

"Understood!!"

Everyone nodded seriously and imdiately lowered their heads again to carry out the orders.

"Ah——finally. Biri-chan, with this, we can avoid innocent citizens dying from spacequakes, right?"

Nia stretched hard and asked in a relaxed tone.

"Mm."

Yutsuki nodded lightly. Her serious expression also softened slightly.

Although this was not her main goal, if she could reduce the casualties everyone caused after Inversing and prevent them from being stained with unnecessary blood, that was sothing Yutsuki wanted more than anything.

However——

"Bad news, Yutsuki-san! The screen! The upper left corner of the screen!"

At that mont, "Deep Love" Minowa pointed to one corner of the screen and shouted in panic.

The upper left corner?

Everyone followed the direction Minowa pointed at, and each of them showed a shocked expression.

—Codena: Angel. Manifestation ti: March 29th, 12:00. Coordinates: 51.30N, 0.1E.

"Origami..."

"Wait! Isn't March 29th today?!"

Nia suddenly straightened up from the back of her chair and shouted in panic.

"And that's not all. It's 10:05 right now. There are less than two hours until the spacequake happens."

"What do we do? What do we do?!"

"What else can we do? We have to go rescue them! Yutsuki! Please give the order!"

"..."

Facing the crew's request, Yutsuki did not respond. She only silently looked at the information on the screen.

"Yutsuki-san?"

"Marina, contact the Wizard unit closest to the coordinate location. Notify them and have them evacuate the citizens."

[Understood.]

Marina's voice ca from the speakers.

"All right. The mission is temporarily over. Everyone has barely slept these past few days, right? Take this chance to rest properly."

After saying that, Yutsuki stood up from the commander's seat and stepped down.

"Wait! Please wait, Yutsuki-san!"

At that mont, "President" Mikimoto ran in front of her and blocked her path.

"Is there a problem, Mikimoto-san?"

"...Forgive for being blunt, Yutsuki-san. That order just now was far too careless for you."

Mikimoto swallowed and gathered his courage as he spoke.

"...How so?"

Yutsuki asked calmly.

"People outside us don't understand the danger of Inversed Spirits and spacequakes well enough. Even if the local Wizard unit is notified, they probably won't choose to move the residents. They'll likely tell people to hide in shelters, then directly begin a mission to subjugate the Spirit. Doing that is no different from sending them to their deaths."

Mikimoto gave his opinion.

In response, "Dinsion Breaker" Nakatsugawa nodded in agreent.

"I think Mikimoto is right. We have to go ourselves, or else we can't stop the citizens from being killed by Origami-san."

"..."

Yutsuki did not rush to defend herself against their opinions.

Instead, she turned to Maria on the screen and asked.

"Maria, if this airship flies to the coordinate location now, how long will it take?"

[Eh...]

Seeing that she was being asked, Maria answered with so difficulty.

[Taking fuel, machine load, and other factors into account, if this ship travels to the coordinate location at maximum speed, the required ti is 1 hour and 21 minutes.]

"What is the maximum passenger capacity of this airship?"

[Using a 70-kilogram adult male as the standard, the carrying limit is 1,426.5 people.]

"What is the total population at the coordinate location?"

[According to last year's population statistics, about 8.9 million.]

"The probability that citizens will choose relocation instead of going to shelters?"

[76.9%.]

"The possibility that citizens will start fighting over escape opportunities?"

[100%.]

"The possibility that the airship will be damaged by citizens when we depart?"

[99%, but the expected damage level is less than 0.1%.]

"The possibility that we will be attacked by Origami during that ti?"

[87%.]

"Considering all of the above factors, what are the best and worst possible results of this operation? And what are their probabilities?"

[...The best result: if we do not encounter Tobiichi Origami, we can safely move around 1,400 to 1,700 citizens. The probability of success is about 25%. The worst result: we encounter Origami's attack, the airship is shot down, and everyone is wiped out. Probability: 60%.]

"This..."

After hearing Yutsuki and Maria's exchange, Mikimoto and Nakatsugawa looked at each other.

The reckless spark that had just risen in their hearts disappeared, and they did not know what to say.

They understood.

This conversation between Ryougi Yutsuki and Maria was indirectly telling them that even if they went, what they could do would only be a drop in the bucket. Instead, the chance of everyone being wiped out was even greater.

"But... I feel like if it were the Commander, she wouldn't give up so easily. If it were Shido-san... even if he could only save one thousand people, he would choose to go support them."

"Nail Knocker" Shiizaki raised her hand and spoke quietly.

"...Kotori-chan and Shido, huh."

"Well, everyone, calm down first."

Seeing that Yutsuki and the others did not agree, Nia hurried out to smooth things over.

"Biri-chan, is there no other way to save them?"

"...There is one way. A way that can guarantee the safe rescue of all 8.9 million people."

Hearing Nia's question, Yutsuki closed her eyes and slowly spoke.

"I just need to kill Origami the mont she manifests."

In an instant, the command room, which had still been restless, fell into complete silence.

Kill Origami.

No one present doubted that Yutsuki had the ability to do it.

But at the sa ti, not a single person wanted to persuade the girl to sacrifice her family in order to save millions of lives.

Besides, killing a Spirit itself went against their organization's ideals.

"Um... Biri-chan, didn't you say you already found a way to return Inversed Spirits to normal? Can't you bring Origami back from Inversion?"

Nia asked with a bitter expression.

In response, Yutsuki silently shook her head.

"Not right now. The required conditions are not all in place yet. If I really confront Origami now, the only option is to kill her."

Letting out a soft breath, Yutsuki looked around at the crew of Fraxinus and lowered her head in sha.

"I'm sorry, everyone. I am not Kotori or Shido. I am a very selfish Spirit. I will do my best to save the people I can save. But when I truly have to choose, I will not gamble the lives of my subordinates on a possibility that is only one in four. I also will not sacrifice a family mber for justice in order to save millions of lives. Therefore, I will not go to rescue them. That is an order."

After saying that, Yutsuki turned around and left the command room without looking back.

"...Yes. Your order is received, Acting Commander Yutsuki."

Kannazuki slowly stepped forward and bowed deeply in the direction Yutsuki had left.

That night, the report Fraxinus received was about the manifestation of the Inversed Spirit Tobiichi Origami.

And because of her appearance, 8.9 million people died, including the Wizards sent to rescue them.

Original Author's PS: The numbers involved in this chapter are purely fictional. Please do not take them too seriously.

TL:Ah yes..this heavy atmosphere