July 17, Monday.
One month had passed since the decisive battle between Yutsuki and Takamiya Mio.
The spacequake problem had been resolved, and all Spirits were officially confird to have been eliminated. People freed from that nightmare were gradually returning to peaceful lives.
No one knew what had happened during that short half year. The only thing known to the world was that an organization nad Ratatoskr had saved it.
For ordinary citizens who knew nothing, it simply ant that an irresistible natural disaster had finally been solved. For Wizards who had fought Spirits for many years, it ant that the battle lasting over thirty years had ended in humanity's victory.
Of course, for Honjou Nia, her troubles were far from over.
The Spirits whose crystals had been removed were still asleep.
Yutsuki had suddenly fallen into an Inverted state before.
And despite not being a Spirit, Shido's real younger sister, Takamiya Mana, had been hidden in a recovery pod.
Every ti Nia thought about these things, an inexplicable unease rose in her chest.
Yutsuki was hiding sothing. Nia was certain of that. But if asked what exactly Yutsuki was hiding, she could not give a proper answer.
There were too few clues. Nia felt like she had been handed three solid-color puzzle pieces in different colors and told to restore the entire puzzle.
Even when she tried to investigate, Yutsuki seed to have noticed her intentions. Under the pretext of treatnt, she sealed off the recovery pods where the Spirits and Mana were kept, refusing to let anyone approach them.
As a result, having gained nothing, Nia could only give up in frustration and throw herself completely into Fraxinus EX's pos -operation work to numb herself.
Then today, a piece of long awaited good news made Nia, who normally suffered from morning grumpiness, leap out of bed.
"Yo! Good morning, everyone!"
Arriving at the bridge command room of Fraxinus EX, Nia greeted the crew with great energy.
"Yo, Honjou-sensei. You're in a pretty good mood today."
Seeing Nia's spirits so high, Nakatsugawa, the "Dinsion Breaker", looked a little surprised.
"Hmph, well, I guess."
Nia scratched her head and answered with a smile.
"Because Imouto-chan and the others finally woke up. Of course I'm happy."
"I see. That really is good news."
Hearing Nia's words, Minowa "Deep Love" smiled with relief.
"Nia-san, you've seed down lately. Looks like we can finally relax."
"Eh? Is that how I looked to other people?"
Hearing that, Nia froze and pointed at herself worriedly.
"Mm. It felt like you had sothing on your mind and were forcing yourself to smile."
Beside them, Mikimoto "President," chid in.
"Eh? Ehh!?"
Nia cried out in surprise.
(Not good. I thought I was handling it pretty well. Don't tell Yutsuki also...)
"Well, I understand how you feel. A lot happened, after all. How about we hold a girls's night tonight since we have the chance? Let's have a drink. Shiizaki, you too?"
"Mm, sure."
Shiizaki, the "Nail Knocker" slowly nodded.
"Uh... I'll think about it first."
Nia scratched her cheek and answered sowhat hesitantly.
"How should I put it... I'm a little surprised. I thought you all would be even more excited than now that Imouto-chan woke up, like you'd want to charge straight into the hospital."
"Mm. We do want to visit her."
"But we heard she only just woke up, and her ntal state isn't very stable yet. We'll go once she settles down a bit."
Shiizaki and Minowa exchanged a glance, then answered that way.
"Mm... I see."
Nia found their casual reaction extrely unexpected.
(Weird... I thought Imouto-chan was sothing like a spiritual idol to this crew.)
"Excuse , Honjou-san. Let pass."
Just then, Kawagoe "Bad Marriage" walked behind Nia carrying a large cardboard box.
"Kawagoe, what are you doing with such a big box?"
Nia asked in confusion.
"What am I doing... packing up. Since Fraxinus is disbanding, we can't leave personal belongings inside the ship."
Kawagoe answered as if it were obvious.
"I see... Eh? Wait! This airship is being disbanded?!"
Nia first nodded in understanding, then, half a beat later, shouted in shock.
Only then did Nia notice that it was not just Kawagoe. Everyone else was also packing their things.
Seeing Nia's exaggerated reaction, the crew exchanged glances.
"Could it be that Nia-san didn't receive the notice?"
"No way. Kannazuki really is too careless."
"We received the notice before. Once the work is wrapped up, Fraxinus will officially be disbanded."
"After all, there are no more Spirits who can cause spacequakes. So Fraxinus no longer has any reason to continue existing."
Hearing everyone's answers, Nia clearly could not accept it. She asked in disbelief.
"N-no! Isn't this way too sudden? Are all of you really okay with this?"
"There's no helping it. It's an order from headquarters. We can't disobey it."
Nakatsugawa leaned back in his chair, shrugged, and answered helplessly.
"And besides, if the commander is no longer that Kannazuki, then in a way, disbanding might be a good thing."
"...Eh?"
Because she had heard sothing far too absurd, Nia froze in shock.
What was going on? Even as an April Fools' joke, this was way too much.
"Still, if you ask whether I'll miss it, I guess I will. After all, I worked here for quite so ti. And everyone is being assigned to completely different departnts."
The crew naturally continued chatting.
"Thinking back on it now, it's a miracle we managed to get Spirits to open their hearts under Kannazuki's command."
"Right? He always did perverted stuff."
"Thanks to him, every ti we communicated with Spirits, we had to go through a lot of trouble."
"When Yoshino-san froze back then, I really thought I was going to die."
"No, no! What the hell are you talking about?!"
Hearing such ridiculous words, Nia could no longer suppress the anger rising inside her. She slamd the table and roared.
"You've been saying weird things since just now! Shido risked his life going on dates to save everyone! Now that Shido isn't here, are you trying to steal all the credit for yourselves?!"
"Wh-what's wrong, Honjou-sensei? Why are you suddenly so angry?"
"Saving Spirits through dates? What does that an?"
"And who is this Shido you're talking about?"
"...Eh?"
Seeing that everyone's confusion did not seem fake at all, Nia was shaken.
"You don't rember him? The boy. Itsuka Shido."
"Itsuka Shido?"
"Never heard of him."
There was not the slightest guilt or unease, nor any malice. Everyone's reaction to Nia's question was pure confusion.
"——!"
A chill crawled from Nia's feet through her entire body, making her hair stand on end.
From the mont she walked into this command room, the crew's reactions, conversations, and attitudes had all filled her with an indescribable sense of wrongness. Those layers of wrongness stacked on top of one another and finally twisted into an abnormality before Nia's eyes.
And now, the scattered clues that had seed random and disconnected were pierced through by a cold thread, linking together into a certain possibility in Nia's mind.
Thinking of that, Nia's body trembled slightly, and cold sweat covered her forehead.
"...Hey. Let ask you all one question."
Nervously swallowing, Nia asked the crew in a dry voice.
"Do you know anyone nad Ryougi Yutsuki...? Or have you heard of a Spirit with the codena Hacker?"
"Ryougi Yutsuki? Mikimoto, do you know her?"
"No... probably not a hostess's stage na."
"There's no data on a Spirit like that in the database either."
"Yutsuki... The na kind of sounds like my ex-wife's."
"Kawagoe-san, wasn't your ex-wife's na Misako?"
Regret.
Ever since Shido died, Nia had regretted her own powerlessness countless tis.
And now, she still regretted her own stupidity.
(Why... Why did I only realize sothing this simple now?!)
Seeing everyone still looking confused, Nia clenched her teeth in frustration.
Her worst possible guess had co true.
(TL:AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)
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