And so, on the night of April 5th, Ratatoskr followed Yutsuki's instructions and sent a ssage to Wizard units all over the world.
They announced that they would buy back the defective CR-Units and Realizers produced by DEM.
At the sa ti, they declared that they would eliminate all Spirits in the near future and resolve the spacequake disaster.
To prevent the crew of Fraxinus from misunderstanding her, Yutsuki returned to the ship the next day and explained her plan to everyone. After that, she persuaded them to continue helping her recover the remaining Inverted Spirits.
And then...
[Report. All vital signs of Izayoi Miku have reached safe levels.]
[The operation was a success, Acting Commander Yutsuki.]
"Whew..."
Yutsuki floated quietly above the ruins. After watching the healed Miku being sent back to the airship, she let out a soft breath and looked down at the deep purple gemstone in her hand.
"Ratziel."
[Received——Foreign spirit power reaction detected——Spirit power absorption——filtration starting——task complete!]
The plan was going smoothly.
Unlike the case with Inverted Kotori, Yutsuki now possessed the healing flas. She no longer had to carefully weaken Miku like before, and she no longer had to worry about treating her after extracting the Inverse Crystal.
Because of that, she easily subdued the Inverted Miku and took her crystal into herself.
After that, Yutsuki advanced without pause and captured several more Inverted Spirits.
——Natsumi.
——Yoshino.
——The Yamai sisters.
——Mukuro.
——Origami.
There was no suspense in the results.
Every Spirit Yutsuki faced had lost all reason after Inversion. They only destroyed things by instinct. Naturally, opponents like that could not defeat Yutsuki, who had prepared everything in advance.
More than that, each ti she defeated a Spirit, the Sephira Crystal she obtained greatly increased her own strength.
Even without those advantages, if judged purely by raw data, Yutsuki could completely overpower any Inverted Spirit.
At first, Yutsuki still needed support from Fraxinus EX when facing a Spirit.
But by the ti she faced Origami, she was able to complete the suppression and Sephira Crystal extraction all by herself.
The whole process took less than ten seconds.
"Biri-chan. Are you okay? Does anything feel wrong? Anywhere uncomfortable?"
When Yutsuki returned to the airship, Nia, who had been waiting on the deck for a long ti, imdiately rushed over and asked with an anxious face.
"Nia, I've heard that line so many tis my ears are getting calluses."
Yutsuki sighed helplessly, spread her hands, and replied.
"As you can see, I'm completely unhard. I used Michael to avoid Origami's barrage, circled behind her, and directly subdued her. I don't even have a scratch. I really don't understand what you're so worried about."
"Ugh..."
For a mont, Nia had no answer.
Just as Yutsuki had promised her, aside from Kotori's case, which had been a little dangerous, the extraction of the other Spirits's crystals had gone very smoothly.
At first, Nia had worried that after obtaining Kotori's healing flas, Yutsuki would start relying on that healing ability and recklessly charge at the Inverted Spirits.
But in reality, her worry had been unnecessary.
Yutsuki fought every battle with extre caution. Most of them ended without her taking any damage.
And yet, every ti Nia saw the ominous black mist spilling out around Yutsuki when she absorbed a Sephira Crystal, her heart refused to settle down.
"Hey... Biri-chan. Do you really have to absorb the Sephira Crystals every ti? If it's only to heal everyone after extracting their crystals, then absorbing Imouto-chan's crystal should be enough, right? Seriously, please don't lie to . Are you hearing so evil-sounding voice tempting you from ti to ti? Because if this were a manga, the protagonist would either lose herself in a powerful force, or a negative personality born from the hidden emotions inside the Inverse Crystals would take over her body."
"Yeah, yeah. Following manga rules, the mont you said that, the flag basically got broken. Thanks for helping."
Yutsuki seed amused by Nia's words. The corners of her lips rose slightly.
"Hey! I'm seriously worried about you!"
Nia said in dissatisfaction.
"Mm. I know."
Yutsuki nodded and answered seriously.
"To answer your question, so far, the things you're worried about haven't happened. I haven't heard anything like a second personality's voice, and I haven't beco drunk on power either. Rather, if it weren't absolutely necessary, I'd throw these powers away right now."
"Then why absorb those Sephira Crystals?"
Nia asked, unable to understand.
"That's why I said it's necessary."
Yutsuki smiled bitterly and explained.
"There are many reasons... The main one is to raise the success rate of future operations. Another is that these Inverse Crystals are far too dangerous. If they are not filtered and purified, and soone steals one, a new Inverted Spirit could appear. Instead of that, it's safer for to absorb and keep them."
"Mm... That's true."
It was an extrely reasonable answer. Nia had no choice but to nod.
If those Inverse Crystals were handed to Nia, she would not feel at ease no matter where they were stored.
And if such terrifying power had to be entrusted to soone, then other than Yutsuki, Nia could not think of anyone else she could trust.
"Well, anyway, thanks for worrying about , Nia."
After thanking her with gratitude, Yutsuki entered the airship.
"Oh..."
Nia sighed helplessly and followed Yutsuki back inside.
"Acting Commander Yutsuki."
"How is Tohka's situation?"
After entering the command room, Yutsuki withdrew the relaxed expression she had shown while chatting with Nia and asked with a serious face.
"Sa as before. She has remained in the Sahara Desert without showing any signs of movent."
"Good. Continue monitoring her like that. Tell the on site personnel to keep their distance and avoid provoking her. At the sa ti, keep watching for any outside units approaching the area. If any are found, issue an evacuation warning imdiately."
"Understood!"
Listening to Yutsuki communicate with the other crew mbers, Nia sat down at her own seat and began looking through the reports from the past few days.
June 10th, 8:00 AM.
Inverted Spirit Princess——Yatogami Tohka manifested in the Sahara Desert.
Since the location was a desert, there were no settlents and no valuable resources nearby. After judging that this spacequake would not cause casualties, Yutsuki did not imdiately go after Tohka like before. Instead, she chose to target Origami, who was predicted to manifest again in North Arica a week later.
However, an unexpected incident occurred.
Unlike the other Inverted Spirits, after appearing, Tohka neither destroyed her surroundings nor disappeared back to the Neighboring World after so ti.
She simply stayed where she was in silence.
Late last night, a Wizard unit of around one hundred people infiltrated the desert and launched an attack on Tohka.
The result was not surprising.
By the ti Yutsuki and Nia received the report, that Wizard unit had already been wiped out by Tohka.
(Are those people idiots...?)
Nia could not help thinking that.
Of course, from an objective point of view, Nia could more or less guess what they had been thinking.
Although Ratatoskr was a large company on the sa scale as DEM, and had once eliminated Efreet, it was still a private organization outside direct governnt control. Leaving everything to such an organization was probably hard for so proud military people to accept.
That was why they had secretly hidden so Realizers from Ratatoskr.
Then, after seeing Ratatoskr eliminate several Inverted Spirits with unstoppable montum, they likely started unconsciously looking down on Spirits.
On top of that, since Tohka had shown no clear aggressive movent, they probably thought she was an easy target and launched a night attack to take credit.
Honestly, Nia felt less pity for them and more that they had it coming.
(Classic cannon fodder thinking... Well, there are over seven billion people in the world. With that many people, it's not strange for a few idiots to show up. With this lesson, the others should behave and stop interfering...)
Thinking that, Nia could not help looking up at Yutsuki, who was sitting in the commander's seat.
"All right! Tomorrow we head to the Sahara Desert to capture Tohka. The decisive battle is tomorrow! Everyone, rest well and adjust your condition. Dismissed!"
(No way...)
————————————
"Hey... Imouto-chan, what should I do?"
After leaving the command room, Nia did not return to her room to rest like everyone else.
Instead, she went to the life-support chamber where everyone was being kept and began complaining to the sleeping Kotori.
"..."
"I know, okay! The boy is gone, and none of you have woken up yet. Right now, the only one who can support Biri-chan is ——but Biri-chan is way too capable! She thinks everything through, she can communicate patiently with others, she can lead people, and she's ridiculously strong. She has no openings at all. There's nothing for to help with!"
"..."
"Ah! I know! Biri-chan is definitely hiding sothing from . But she hides it too well. I can't see where the problem is at all. What am I supposed to do?"
"..."
Naturally, Kotori inside the life-support chamber could not answer Nia's question.
"What do you think, Nattsun?"
Nia turned her gaze toward Natsumi.
"..."
"Yosshi, what do you think?"
Nia shifted her eyes toward Yoshino.
"..."
"Kaguyan, Yuzurun. As Biri-chan's classmates, do you two have any wise advice?"
"..."
"..."
"Mukku-chin?"
"..."
"Mikki?"
"..."
"Oririn, please guide this humble one out of confusion?"
"..."
Only silence answered Nia in the room.
Of course, that was only natural.
After all, everyone was still unconscious.
"What am I even doing..."
After a long while, Nia's shoulders dropped weakly, and she muttered with a tired face.
(Could it be that the one with the problem isn't Biri-chan... but ? Like that trope where a friend is too talented, and the people close to them get their pride hurt?)
For an instant, that thought appeared in Nia's mind.
"No, no, no——that's impossible."
Wiping the cold sweat from her forehead, Nia gave a dry laugh and denied it.
"Seriously, everyone, please wake up soon."
Setting her distracting thoughts aside for now, Nia looked back at the life-support chambers and said bitterly.
Ever since Yutsuki brought them back, every one of them had been in this deep sleep, almost like a vegetative state.
Although Yutsuki said it was a normal symptom after losing a Sephira Crystal, and that they would naturally wake up after so ti, almost two months had passed since Kotori was first saved, and she still showed no signs of waking up.
That made Nia sowhat anxious.
Maybe they were instinctively refusing to accept the reality that Shido had died, and that was why they had not woken up.
"Well, the fact that I woke up after my Sephira Crystal was taken was almost a miracle anyway. For now, I can only wait patiently."
After sighing helplessly, Nia turned around and prepared to go back to her room to rest.
But just then, Nia suddenly felt her foot slip, and her body tilted backward on its own.
"Huh? Gah——"
Before Nia could understand what had happened, she felt the back of her head hit sothing hard. Her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.
——Click.
[Onee-chan... Nia-san... fainted...]
[Huh? What a useless person... Well, fine... I hope she notices it...]
...
"Haa~"
So unknown amount of ti later, Nia climbed up from the floor and gave a lazy yawn.
"This doesn't look like my room... Wait, don't tell I slept here on the floor?!"
She stared blankly at her surroundings. After a long while, Nia finally realized what had happened.
"No wonder the bed felt so hard today. But why did I fall asleep on the floor?"
She patted the dust off her body and stood up, looking around in confusion.
"Huh... What's this?"
Nia was surprised to discover that, unlike in her mory, a hidden door had appeared at the back of the room at so point.
"Did I accidentally press so switch last night?"
Nia could not quite understand the situation.
After hesitating for a mont, she gathered her courage and walked into the hidden door.
"This is..."
The space behind the hidden door was not large. It was about the size of an ordinary bedroom.
Inside was a life-support chamber of roughly the sa model and size as the ones outside.
And inside that chamber was an unfamiliar girl.
The girl had a rather petite fra and looked about the sa age as Kotori. Her shoulder-length blue hair floated gently in the nutrient fluid, and the beauty mark under her left eye was quite noticeable.
"Strange... Do I know this person?"
Nia rubbed her chin in confusion.
Although this was her first ti seeing the girl, for so reason, she felt strangely familiar.
(Hm? Looking closely, her face is sowhat similar to the boy's...)
Suddenly, Nia seed to rember sothing and clapped her hands.
"Ah! Now that I think about it, besides Imouto-chan, the boy had a real younger sister too! Her na was... Mana... right! Takamiya Mana!"
Although this was her first actual eting with Mana, back when Nia still possessed Rasiel, she had once investigated Itsuka Shido's background. Naturally, she knew about his family mbers.
"But... If I rember right, Real Imouto-chan should be outside chasing Kurumin. Why is she here?"
Nia could not help feeling puzzled.
With a little curiosity, she tapped open the information notes beside the life-support chamber.
"Excessive magical processing... shortened lifespan... treated using Angel power... What's going on?"
Nia frowned in surprise.
However, before she could understand the aning of this hidden room or the reason Takamiya Mana was here, the airship's assembly bell rang, urging her to head to the command room.
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