This place was an extrely empty room. Inside the pure white room, there was nothing but a restraint chair covered in all sorts of wires—which clearly wasn't ant for guests—and super strengthened glass that looked like a quarantine barrier. It felt just like an interrogation room in a movie.
The Spirit quarantine area. That was where Tohka was right now.
"So, do you know anything about the word Ratatoskr?"
On the other side of the glass wall, Ellen, sitting across from Tohka, asked casually while flipping through the docunts in her hand. But Tohka just hmphed and turned her head away.
"Then, next question. Do you know why Itsuka Shido can use the powers of Spirits?"
"Hmph!"
"...Then the next question."
However, Ellen wasn't moved by Tohka's attitude at all. Like a machine, she kept throwing out the next question.
"Answer . What is your relationship with Hacker, and what is her intel?"
"Idiot! Who would tell you! Idiot! Idiot! An idiot who lost to Yutsuki twice!"
—Snap!
Squeezing the pen in her hand into two pieces like a chopstick with scary strength, Ellen's calm aura showed a rare, violent wave.
"Oh my, this won't do. What should we do if the person asking the questions gets shaken up? Right? My dear Ellen."
"...Just like you said, Ike."
The wave of emotion ca fast and left fast. Ellen turned around and spoke plainly to Westcott.
"You are...?"
Tohka stared at the man who suddenly appeared. From the outside, he looked tall and thin. His plain silver hair and the sharp eyes on his face that looked like they were cut in with a knife were his key features. Just one look gave off an extrely dangerous vibe.
"..."
This man was dangerous. Tohka's instincts kept warning her.
Unlike the sense of danger from Ellen's strength, the mont she saw this man, Tohka felt a chill down her spine. It was as if the air temperature dropped several degrees in that instant.
"Who... who are you...!"
Tohka asked in a shaking voice, staring straight at him.
As if seeing right through Tohka, Westcott gave a light gentleman's bow, and a dangerous smile appeared on his face.
"It is my great honor to et you, Princess. No... maybe calling you Miss Yatogami Tohka would be better here. I am Isaac Westcott from DEM Industries. Please take care of ."
This man—Westcott—even though he spoke in a tone like he was talking to a friend, Tohka still kept a hostile glare at him.
"...Am I hated?"
"If you want to be liked, I suggest you think of a more fitting thod. Ike."
"Well... that's true."
Tohka held back the sick feeling turning in her stomach and asked Westcott.
"Are you the mastermind?! What exactly is your goal—"
Westcott paused a little because of Tohka's question. He seed to be thinking about how to answer, and then spoke slowly.
"Goal, huh... let's see. Put simply, I just want to make you despair."
"What?"
Tohka held her breath without realizing it. But Westcott didn't seem to care at all, and spoke with a joyful tone that made people a little cold.
"That's right. To be exact, I want to pull out the Spirit power inside you through despair. After all, you have to know, the waves of Spirit power have a lot to do with emotions. However, right now, your existence in this world is too stable. To make you reach, or even go past, the goal we are chasing again... I feel like no emotion can trigger your feelings better than despair."
Hating this world, hating humans. A wound that even the strongest Angel and the toughest Astral Dress couldn't fill, making her rely on a power other than her Angel.
—That power that could flip the rules of the world.
"So, Ellen. How do you think we can see Princess's look of despair?"
Westcott stared at Tohka without looking away and spoke thoughtfully.
"Ike, your words just now could already be judged as sexual harassnt."
"Oh my, my dear Ellen. You should learn to have a sense of humor. You need to learn how to understand jokes... Well, even though I say that, you can't really call it a joke either."
Waving her hand, Ellen rubbed her chin and thought.
"In my opinion, physical pain is still the fastest way! Let's try electricity first. Then lower the oxygen level and see how she reacts. Or maybe try changing the air pressure. If that doesn't work, let's peel off her nails one by one, and then her fingers... Oh right! Let's try grinding off a layer of her teeth too. Pain in the nervous system seems to work pretty well. But a Spirit's body is much tougher than a human's. Poisoning is also sothing we can think about..."
Even the simple-minded Tohka couldn't help but feel a chill down her back.
Even though the torture thods Westcott listed were scary, the other party's plain attitude, like ordering food from a nu, gave Tohka an unexplainable fear.
"Mhm... this won't work either."
Westcott watched Tohka's reaction to his words and thought to himself quietly.
Although driving a person to despair through physical torture was possible in theory, looking at Tohka's reaction, Westcott knew this thod would have a very low effect on Yatogami Tohka. It would have to be a long fight. If possible, Westcott wanted a thod that would work in one shot.
"That's true... It looks like we should think about ntal pain instead. What are your thoughts on chastity? How much pain would you feel when a woman's dignity is stained? Having lived in this world for so long, you should have one or two close friends or a lover, right? If soone close to you died right in front of you, what would you think?"
"..."
Hearing Westcott's words, Tohka instinctively rembered the scene where Shido was shot by Origami's sniper rifle. Her pupils shrank sharply.
Seeing Tohka's reaction, Westcott nodded calmly.
"Ellen—"
"Here. Her closest relationship should be with Itsuka Shido. Just now, when I asked about this na, her reaction was totally different from the others."
"Oh, so your reaction when you heard 'Hacker' was also totally different from the others, huh."
"Please stop the jokes right there. Ike..."
"Ah—so scary~"
Seeing his subordinate getting close to exploding, Westcott knew when to stop and changed the topic.
"Then, since the other side will definitely rush over here themselves to save Princess anyway, let's just wait here for them."
"...Yes, understood."
Waving his hand lightly, Westcott slowly walked out of the room.
"Wait! You jerk, what are you going to do to Shido?!"
Tohka shouted at his back, struggling and putting strength into her hands, trying to break free from the handcuffs holding her.
However, very quickly, a huge, unseen pressure pushed down on Tohka, pinning her firmly.
"Behave yourself."
Ellen said with an icy face.
"Shido... don't co..."
Right before she lost consciousness, Tohka used all her strength to say this.
"You really don't hold back, taking out your anger towards Hacker entirely on Princess. I almost feel sorry for her."
"You are overthinking it." Just as Ellen answered plainly, a thoughtful look suddenly appeared in her eyes.
"What is it?"
"No, for a split second just now, I felt so strange radio waves mixed in with the jamming waves. They hacked into the cara here. It has already been cleared out now."
"Oh, hacking into here! From the outside?"
A sowhat surprised look appeared on Westcott's face. You have to know, this building was covered in jamming radio waves so strong that even Westcott found them hard to deal with. Clearing the interference from the outside could definitely be called as hard as climbing to heaven. Probably even their biggest enemy, Ratatoskr, couldn't do it.
"Humans can't do it... so that ans it wasn't a human."
Westcott thought for a mont, and he had a good idea of who it was.
In the whole world, there was only one hacker Westcott knew who could hack into DEM's computers without anyone knowing.
"Hahaha! This is good, this is good! Two important guests coming one after another. If we don't give them a warm welco, it would be a lack of sincerity."
In that mont, a joyful smile appeared on Westcott's face.
—Wooooooooooooooooo——————————————
Very suddenly, the loud sound of an alarm siren rang through the quiet night. It made Yutsuki and the others frown.
"A spacequake alarm?! Why now? Could there be a new Spirit?"
Hearing the familiar alarm go off at a weird ti, a surprised look appeared on Shido's face.
"No! It shouldn't be. I didn't feel the special Spirit wave of a spacequake. They're probably just trying to avoid extra trouble. After all, both Spirits and Realizers are clearly still kept secret from normal people. If they were found out, it would be a big problem. Looking at it this way, a spacequake is clearly a good cover-up."
Watching the office workers on night shifts and convenience store workers run into the shelters, Yutsuki said like she didn't care.
Honestly, even if the other side didn't do this, she would have hacked in and set off the alarm herself to stop normal people from getting dragged in.
But, the other side clearly wasn't as nice as Yutsuki. They just wanted to use their maximum fighting power against Yutsuki's side. After all, even if there was damage, they could just bla it on the spacequake to the public.
"Surprise. This is really sothing..."
"Hoho, as a warm-up, this is actually a bit tricky..."
The Yamai sisters looked a bit shocked. It wasn't hard to understand how they felt. After all, right now, on DEM's side, combat drones as thick as a swarm of locusts were covering the outside of the whole building.
Bandersnatch. A type of combat drone made by DEM.
Even though they could make Realizer fields like wizards, their movents were still chanical and predictable, so they weren't hard to deal with. But having a lot of them was still a problem.
As for the exact number. Yutsuki could only say, although it wasn't quite at the level of "Look! The people look like trash!" seen from the high stage at Comic Market, it honestly wasn't far off. If you really tried to count them one by one, it would only prove you didn't have enough brain cells.
She originally wanted to think about a detailed plan of action, but looking at it now, they didn't have the free ti for that.
Clenching and unclenching her fists a little, Yutsuki took a deep breath and said with a serious tone.
"Shido, I will take Kurumi, Yoshino, and the Yamais to hold those guys off and cause a distraction. You take that chance to break in with Miku and Mana."
"Got it."
"No problem. I will protect Nii-sama!"
"Hah! Why do I have to go with a man?!"
Izayoi Miku was clearly very unhappy with this order.
"Then, Yoshino or one of the Yamais can switch. You group up with ."
Yutsuki said with a plain face.
"Ugh... I was going to collect Tohka-san for my collection anyway. I don't plan on wasting my precious ti outside with a bunch of weird machines that aren't even cute, let alone gross."
Hearing Yutsuki's words, Miku's face clearly changed. Even though her mouth was still full of stubborn words, she chose to give in.
"Nii-sama, that person is very rude. Do you want Mana to teach her a lesson?"
"Please don't cause more trouble in a situation like this."
Calming down the unhappy Mana with a feeling of not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Shido also felt sothing weird at the sa ti. Based on Miku's normal personality, between Yutsuki and Shido, Miku should have picked Yutsuki without thinking twice. But right now, she chose to go with Shido.
Rather than saying she accepted Shido, it was more like... she was hiding from Yutsuki.
"Shido. Don't space out."
Yutsuki's call woke Shido up from his thoughts.
"Ah, sorry!"
"Geez..." Probably thinking Shido was still a little nervous, Yutsuki let out a helpless sigh. After a short thought, she held Shido's cheek with her hand and slowly moved her face closer.
"Oh my, my. Yutsuki-san is surprisingly bold. I have to see you in a new light."
"Yo-yo, is this what they call the encouragent of love between lovers? Yutsuki-chan really knows what she's doing~"
"So... bold... they say..." "Ugh... doing this forbidden contract in front of everyone, you really have a strong heart, my... my... my comrade..."
"Point out. Kaguya, you're stuttering."
"Shut up! I-I am not shaken at all!"
"Oh ho, you really know what you're doing! Yutsuki-nee."
"...Hmph! So impure."
The slightly embarrassed comnts coming from around them couldn't help but make Shido feel super awkward. But Yutsuki acted like she didn't care at all and kept getting closer.
By the way, can you guys stop just watching and co stop Yutsuki already?
"Eh? Wait... Yutsuki! No matter what, doing this right now is..."
"Shut up, don't move!"
The huge strength of a Spirit ignored Shido's struggling. With a vibe of "talking is useless," Yutsuki's pretty face kept getting bigger in Shido's eyes. He felt a warm breath brush past his cheek, and his heart beat out of control. In the end, Shido panicked and closed his eyes.
Then, there was a zap of electricity on his forehead, a tingling feeling like a small shock.
"Mhm, just like I thought... they're connected. Ratziel, turn on that part of the Spirit power, then give it so permissions..."
Hearing talking to herself by his ear, he opened his eyes. Yutsuki had let go of him and stood to the side.
"Question. Just touching foreheads?"
"Well, it's sothing like a lucky charm." Shrugging, Yutsuki said it like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Eh? Just that?"
Kaguya said with so disappointnt.
"What else did you guys think it was?"
"Uh..."
Seeing Yutsuki's confused look, Kaguya looked away feeling a bit guilty.
"Well... I thought Yutsuki-chan was going to give Shido-kun a passionate k- mmmmph!"
Before Yoshinon could finish talking, a blushing Yoshino covered his mouth... even though his vocal cords weren't there.
Although Yutsuki was a bit confused, this clearly wasn't the ti to get hung up on it. Since her guess from earlier had worked, Yutsuki was now completely ready on her end.
"Alright, Kurumi."
"Hehe, got it~ Co on out! 'Us'~"
With a laugh from Kurumi, in the dark night, an uncountable, massive amount of Kurumi slowly appeared.
"Ah... there are so many enemies~"
"Well, whatever."
"Co on! Co on! We're going to make a huge ss today!"
With scary smiles, the Kurumi crashed head-on into the DEM drones.
And in this mont, this place truly beca a battlefield.
"Then let's get ready to go, Nii-sama."
Seeing the enemies on the other side getting ssed up because of Kurumi's distraction, Mana confird the entrance, held Shido and Miku's hands, and nodded at Kurumi and Yutsuki.
"Then, let give you one last push, Shido-san~ 'Zafkiel'— 'Aleph' (First Bullet)."
Right after, Kurumi herself shot a ti-speeding bullet at Mana.
"Shido..."
Right before they dashed forward, Shido saw Yutsuki's lips move slightly, like she said sothing.
—I'm counting on you.
"Yeah, got it..."
Feeling Yutsuki's wish, Shido nodded heavily.
Whether it's Miku or Tohka, I will definitely save them!
Then let's begin—this war (date) of mine.
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