Jagged boulders continuously enlarged in her vision. The rising heat seed about to swallow Yutsuki whole as it rapidly approached.
"A teorite!?"
The instant her consciousness cleared, the sight before her made Yutsuki's pupils shrink.
Yutsuki instinctively tried to dodge, only for her foot to step on empty air. Her body slowly turned half a circle in midair.
[Report. Host is currently in a zero gravity state.]
At the sa ti, Ratziel's voice echoed in Yutsuki's mind.
Zero gravity?
A trace of confusion flashed through Ryougi Yutsuki's eyes. However, the earlier mistake had already wasted quite a bit of precious ti, and the teorite right before her eyes clearly would not leave her any leisure to adapt to the environnt.
In a hurry, Yutsuki used electromagnetic force to control a coin from her pocket and loaded it into Ratziel's cannon.
"Railgun!"
An orange beam shot out from the cannon. Yutsuki did not expect a railgun with a range of only fifty ters to pierce through the teorite. Instead, she used the recoil from the shot to escape the teorite's area of impact.
Having dodged the teorite with more danger than harm, Yutsuki continued retreating by inertia. Very soon, a soft and elastic sensation wrapped around her whole body. Yutsuki felt as if she were lying on a trampoline in a children's playground, bouncing twice involuntarily.
Gravity had returned at so point. Yutsuki lowered her head and saw an outrageously large five pointed star beneath her feet. Its surface looked like a cotton filled doll, and its style was simple and casual like a crayon drawing. At the tail of the star, there was even a translucent, colorful fla trail.
Yutsuki could not help feeling stunned, and she raised her head to observe her surroundings.
teorites burning through friction. Cartoon stars full of childish fantasy.
Realism and fantasy. Two completely different kinds of shooting stars were connected together, cutting countless streaks of light through the void like a teor shower.
Looking at this wildly imaginative wonder, Yutsuki fell into thought.
This was not space. At the very least, it was not space in the real world. Although Yutsuki's first reaction had been that she was teleported into space, setting aside those clearly mismatched, stylistically strange stars, there was not a single celestial body in this space that Yutsuki recognized. Moreover, according to the laws of physics, ordinary teorites could not burn from friction in space, where there was no air.
She recalled what had happened.
If she rembered correctly, she had just been fighting DEM in Tengu City. That Wizard nad Ai Mulian had absorbed the inverted Crystal, then summoned the Demon King Beelzebub and launched so kind of attack against her.
Listing Beelzebub's known authorities in her mind, Yutsuki quickly found a matching ability.
The Phantom Library (Ashufiriya). A small world temporarily opened by Beelzebub in the gap between reality and the Neighboring World, constructed using stories known by people as its foundation.
"In other words… I've been trapped inside the Phantom Library?"
After realizing this, Yutsuki could not help feeling a headache.
Depending on the circumstances, the basic rules forming a Phantom Library were often completely different from the real world. Even a Spirit at full strength could accidentally lose inside the Phantom Library.
Last ti, if the fantasy version of Itsuka Shido had not appeared in ti, Yutsuki and the others would have nearly been wiped out inside the Phantom Library.
Thinking of this, Yutsuki's mouth twitched slightly.
Honestly, she really did feel just a tiny bit of regret in her heart. If she had not handed the inverted Crystal over to DEM back then in order to save Nia, there definitely would not be this much nonsense now.
(Am I the only one pulled into the Phantom Library right now? Or were the others brought in too? I don't see Ai Mulian anywhere in this area. Don't tell … No, no, no! Yutsuki, calm down!)
"In any case, I'll deal with things as they co. First, I need to find a way out of here."
After taking a deep breath, Yutsuki cald down and carefully observed her surroundings.
Aside from those visibly discordant elents, there were still quite a few abnormalities in this space. The celestial bodies in this space did not have so called rotation or revolution. They were rely falling downward at different speeds, and even the star beneath Yutsuki's feet was no exception.
However, no matter how much ti passed, Yutsuki did not observe any celestial body truly falling to the bottom. It was as if the space below had no end, and the number of celestial bodies falling from above seed endless.
"Either the upper limit exceeds my imagination, or…"
Yutsuki had a flash of inspiration. She took out a coin and embedded it into a passing teorite as a marker. Very soon, in less than ten seconds, the teorite carrying the coin passed before her eyes once more.
"As expected, the upper and lower boundaries of this area are connected. Because the environnt resembles space, it gives people the illusion that there is no boundary. However…"
Yutsuki fell into thought again.
The rules of the Phantom Library had a certain real world reference point. But within the range of her knowledge, there was no story from any book that matched the environnt before her.
Simple yet mixed. Disorderly and monotonous. That was Yutsuki's impression of this world.
"After entering the Phantom Library last ti, everyone was assigned the identity of a certain character in the story. This ti, nothing about changed, and I can use my Spirit power normally. Furthermore, aside from , there don't seem to be any other characters in this entire world. Rather than a story, it feels more like…"
As she spoke, Yutsuki spread her hands into a square fra before her eyes and observed this world as if through a cara lens.
"A photograph?… No. A picture book? Is the the shooting stars?"
After reaching this conclusion, Yutsuki felt as if she vaguely understood sothing. She slowly exhaled. Leaving the star beneath her feet, she began carefully searching this area.
Putting aside the illusion of having no boundaries, this world's true size did not seem even as large as Tengu City's residential district. While carefully avoiding the teorite trajectories, Yutsuki searched for sothing in this space.
This space was not ford from only one painting, but by overlapping two or more drawings. Fairy tale style five pointed stars, sowhat realistic teorites—the types of shooting stars were roughly divided into two kinds. Although the scene looked extrely abnormal, within this world, these were the two most common types of shooting stars.
In that case, what she needed to do now was find the third drawing that represented sothing special.
"There it is."
Very quickly, Yutsuki found her target.
It was a cyan shooting star made from more than ten shining fragnts. On the surface of the fragnts were both lines and colors resembling crayon marks, as well as paper like tears that looked as if they had been ripped apart.
"…Ratziel, restore it."
[Received. Mission complete.]
As if expressing how simple this request was, Ratziel had barely finished speaking before a restored colored pattern appeared in Yutsuki's mind.
Unlike the other drawings, the shooting stars falling in this picture were a group of witches riding flying brooms.
At the sa ti, the torn shooting star fragnts before her eyes also began automatically combining and joining together, restoring themselves into the exact sa flying witches Yutsuki had seen in her mind.
Yutsuki instinctively widened the distance. She saw a smile appear on the witch's face, which was covered in cracks.
In the next mont, light swallowed Yutsuki's vision.
"…!?"
The stimulation from the strong light gradually faded, and Yutsuki slowly opened her eyes.
The sky full of shooting stars had vanished. She was now standing inside an office at so school. Through the window, she could faintly see so students going ho.
"Am I now… back in the real world?"
Yutsuki examined her surroundings as she spoke. Then she very quickly rejected that guess. On the desk in front of her were sheets of crayon drawings depicting shooting stars.
Among them, the torn paper showing flying witches was especially conspicuous. The drawings on it were exactly the sa as the witches Yutsuki had seen earlier.
(Was I just inside these drawings?)
"Why did you do sothing like that?"
A voice suddenly ca from behind. Hearing it, Yutsuki turned around. On the chair behind her, at so point, there was now a teacher and a girl.
The teacher looked to be in her twenties, with a sowhat stern face. The girl looked about seven years old, at most just old enough to have started elentary school.
Ignoring the surroundings, the teacher adjusted her glasses and asked the girl in a slightly reproachful tone.
"I heard from the students in class that you were the one who tore up the other girl's drawing first? Then the other girl hit you?"
Hearing that, Yutsuki followed the teacher's gaze and looked toward the girl's arm. Sure enough, she could see so bruises from being hit.
Faced with the teacher's question, the girl lowered her head without speaking.
Seeing this, the teacher could only sigh helplessly, and her tone softened slightly.
"Don't be nervous. I'm not trying to bully you. I just want to know what happened. If they bullied you first, teacher will bring them here to apologize to you."
"No. What they said is true."
At that mont, the little girl suddenly spoke.
"I was the one who tore up her drawing first and made her angry. It wasn't wrong for her to get mad at . There's a cara in the classroom. Teacher, you can watch it later and you'll understand."
The teacher seed not to expect the girl to take the initiative to admit her mistake and could not help feeling a little awkward.
"Then… did they say sothing an to you?"
"No."
"Did sothing unpleasant happen between you before?"
"No."
Seeing the girl admit her mistake so frankly without any explanation, the teacher instead felt sowhat uncomfortable. She could not help asking the original question again.
"Why did you do sothing like that?"
Hearing that, the girl raised her head. Looking at the teacher with bright, large eyes, she answered,
"Because her drawing was really beautiful."
Looking at the girl's happy expression, the teacher did not know what to do for a mont.
Ai Mulian.
After recognizing the girl's face, Yutsuki held her breath for a mont.
At the sa ti, the voices of several parents discussing things ca from outside the office.
"I heard Doctor Ai's daughter got into a fight with soone."
"It seems she was jealous that her classmate drew so well, so she tore up the drawing right in front of her."
"Sigh, Doctor Ai is such a good person. How did she end up not knowing how to teach her child?"
"I heard Doctor Ai's daughter was in a car accident when she was little and injured her head. After that, she beca moody and unpredictable."
"All right, all right, don't say that. If Doctor 's husband hears you…"
"Xiao Lian!"
At that mont, a beautiful woman wearing a white coat entered the office. Seeing Ai Mulian being lectured by the teacher, she hurriedly stepped forward to apologize.
"I'm sorry. Our child has caused trouble for you again. Xiao Lian, let's go ho."
"Mm. Goodbye, teacher~"
The woman took the girl's hand and left from beside Yutsuki. Young Ai Mulian showed no dejection at all. She waved her small hand happily and said goodbye to the teacher.
(Could this be Ai Mulian's mory?)
Watching this scene, Yutsuki frowned and thought to herself.
Just like that, Ai Mulian and her mother gradually disappeared beneath the evening sunset. The office door slowly closed with a soft creak.
Thump!
Suddenly, the scene changed. The classroom abruptly turned into an empty gymnasium. Weapon racks were placed around the area, displaying weapons such as swords, spears, staffs, and clubs.
"…A dojo?"
Before Yutsuki could react, a strong body's fist suddenly enlarged before her eyes.
"Pay attention!"
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