"To think you want to bind , you really don't know your place."
The Inversed Tohka let out a disdainful snort at Miku. 'Nahemah' swung a deadly blade at Miku.
"..."
Watching the dark energy blade continuously flying towards her, Izayoi Miku seed to see herself dying in the next instant.
Although her Astral Dress hadn't disappeared yet, Miku's Astral Dress definitely couldn't take a hit from that Angel.
They say that at the mont of death, a person's life flashes before their eyes like a lantern. In that brief mont, Miku recalled her encounters with Yutsuki and Shido over the past few days very clearly.
Honestly, it was very interesting.
Although during this ti, not only was she completely rejected, she even lost in the singing contest she was most confident in. She even suffered a lot of terrible treatnt.
But this period of ti was much more precious than the years she had spent being treated like a star surrounded by the moon.
After all, unlike the people controlled by her "voice," these two faced Miku with their truest desires.
Why am I here today?
Miku started to ask herself this question for the second ti. Then, she let out a self-deprecating, bitter smile.
Because—I was envious.
That's right. Izayoi Miku was envious of the bonds between people—the bonds she had clearly already thrown away. She was envious of the bonds called "family" that Yutsuki and Shido described, helping and relying on each other.
To be honest, even if it was just once, Miku wanted to see it.
Because she was full of disappointnt towards humans, she wanted to see that bond that would never give up on the other person, even in the face of despair—a bond that lasts until death.
Yutsuki was willing to give everything for soone important; Shido was willing to risk his life for soone important.
—I really want to be one of them.
The more she witnessed their actions, the more she couldn't suppress this longing welling up in her heart.
However, this was an impossible wish after all.
[If you sang not with this voice carrying impurities, but with your true singing voice. Becoming your fan, listening to you until the very end from beneath the stage no matter what happens... I wouldn't really hate that.]
[In that mont, I decided to beco your fan. Not the you with that 'voice'! But the you with your true singing voice.]
She no longer had the right to hold the hands they reached out to her.
Her voice wouldn't co out anymore. It was probably because she overused her Spirit power. Just today alone, she had used her "voice" and her Angel continuously in an unprecedented way. Not only that, but with a Spirit of a much higher level than herself—Tohka—as her opponent, she forcefully tried to bind her with a defensive wall of sound. Running out of Spirit power temporarily and being unable to make a sound was to be expected.
Let alone singing with her true singing voice, the current her, in her final monts, was just a worthless person who couldn't even make a simple syllable.
Is it really too late? Miku thought sowhat bitterly.
If.
If only I could have t them a little earlier. If I could have had a place in those bonds.
—Maybe, I would have walked a different path—
Miku made this pathetic sound and slowly closed her eyes.
However, the mont of death didn't arrive as Miku expected. Instead, a "—Clang!" sound of a collision rang out, and then there was no movent.
...!?
Shido stood between Tohka and Miku, blocking the strike from Nahemah.
—In front of his raised left hand, a barrier that could be called a wall of cold air opened up.
The surrounding temperature suddenly dropped, and sothing resembling a white mist floated around. Or perhaps because of the aftereffects of the Spirit power, the moisture in the air condensed into tiny crystals dancing around, lting and disappearing upon touching Miku's skin.
Miku had seen this scene sowhere before.
That's right—that was very similar to the power of Yoshino's Angel Zadkiel.
"Yo... Miku, are you okay?"
Saying so, Shido glanced at Miku.
"What, are you—"
She couldn't speak well yet. Then, Shido, having endured the strike from Nahemah, let the wall of cold air dissipate and opened his mouth to say.
"We—made a promise!"
"Eh...?"
Miku frowned because of Shido's words—then her shoulders trembled.
She rembered the conversation in the building earlier.
[—Then, if I fall into danger just like Tohka, will you risk your life to help !?]
[Of course I will!]
Indeed, Shido had answered like that.
Miku covered her mouth with her hands, her whole body trembling slightly.
Her eyes opened wide, and tears stread down heavily.
"Ah, ah..."
He protected . This person, Shido.
He protected Miku. Miku who had no "voice". Miku who had beco worthless.
He protected it. That tiny little promise—
A paralyzing sensation ca from deep within her throat. Miku whimpered softly, unconsciously reaching her hand out to Shido... Her fingers touched Shido's hand. For so reason, even though she had a condition where she would throw up if her fingertips even touched a man's body, she didn't feel any unpleasantness when touching Shido.
At this mont, Miku noticed sothing unusual.
Tohka, who had just unleashed the slash, was pressing her left hand against her forehead, groaning in pain.
"Ugh, ugh... Shido... Shido..."
"...?"
Hearing Tohka's groaning voice, Miku frowned.
Just now, Tohka definitely said "Shido". Could it be that her mory had returned...?
But.
"Ugh, ah, ahhhhhhhhh!"
Tohka shouted, plunging Nahemah, which she held in her right hand, into the ground, and swung her left hand towards the blade.
"Gah...!"
A deep wound was cut into her left hand, which had its Astral Dress stripped away by Ellen's attack, and blood spurted out. With this, Tohka finally cald down again.
No, the word calm is incorrect. Tohka glared fiercely at Shido with bloodshot eyes and pulled out Nahemah, which was stained with her own blood.
"Using such weird tricks...! Are you trying to confuse , human!"
Saying so, Tohka kicked off the ground and flew into the air again, pointing the giant sword straight to the heavens.
"Very well—then I will smash you so completely with one strike that not even dust remains!"
Then incredible ripples appeared in the sky, followed by a throne more than twice Tohka's height appearing in the air.
Then that throne shattered into pieces in the air, gradually wrapping around the sword Tohka held high.
Every ti it assimilated a piece of the throne, black particles scattered away. Finally, the giant sword changed into an even taller, even more ominous form.
Then, when the final piece also assimilated with the sword.
—The sword tip pointed towards the sky, as if to cleave the bright moon.
"—With my Sword of Demise Paverschlev...!!"
When Tohka declared this like a roar.
Nahemah revealed its true form.
"That is...!"
Seeing that, Shido's eyes widened.
Tohka gripped the sword hilt even tighter. Then, the giant blade began to gather particles shining with black light from the surrounding space.
"...!"
Miku held her breath, wanting to open a sound barrier. However, she still hadn't recovered enough Spirit power to use her Angel—even if she succeeded, it would be impossible to block that strike.
"..."
She couldn't do nothing and let Shido die here. As if to protect Shido, Miku hugged him tightly, turning her own back towards Tohka.
"Miku...!?"
"—, —!"
Even if Shido shouted, Miku didn't move from there.
Even she herself couldn't understand her own actions.
Just, vaguely. She didn't want this man to break his promise.
She wanted to save Tohka—that's what she thought.
Even so, it was obvious at a glance just how terrifying the Spirit power absorbed into that sword was. What she was about to unleash next was probably an incredibly powerful, destructive strike that would cut everything in its line of sight in two. It was impossible to block with Miku's small body alone. In an instant, Miku's body would probably be completely vaporized along with Shido's.
"Disappear, human...!"
Shouting, Tohka swung the sword shining with black light down towards Shido. Just this action alone made it sound as if the surrounding space was echoing with the sound of being crushed.
However, in this split second, within this seemingly torn space, a figure like lightning appeared from the dark shadows with movents as swift as thunder. Before even Tohka could react. Grabbing Shido and Miku, she dodged the slash by an incredibly close margin.
The next mont, on the extended line of Tohka's sword swing, everything touched was turned into a straight line.
The building with a portion sliced off. The vast earth beneath it. The streets further ahead. And the mountains at the very edge of sight.
Then the wave of Spirit power passed through that straight line, and everything within it was completely crushed to powder.
It was neither a joke nor a taphor. Everything touched by that black Spirit power torrent was crushed into particles and scattered with the wind.
"Phew... if that really hit us, we'd be done for."
Yutsuki wiped her sowhat sweaty forehead and said with lingering fear.
"Yutsuki!"
Hearing the happy voice from the humanoid object in her hand, Yutsuki rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Geez, you could've just slipped away when things looked bad! Why did I trust you guys to go save Tohka! What are you going to do if you lose your own lives! This kind of suicidal behavior... Are you idiots?!"
She had clearly instructed them to prioritize their own lives first. Feeling the resentnt coming from the other person made Shido feel a bit awkward.
"Haha... are you okay, Miku?"
Shido avoided Yutsuki's accusing gaze with a guilty conscience and asked Miku with concern.
"Mhm... I'm fine..."
After a soft reply, Miku looked at Yutsuki with complicated eyes.
"...Let make it clear first, I didn't co running over because I beca a certain soone's fan."
"...I guess so..."
Looking at Miku's eyes, Yutsuki slowly let out a breath, and said with an expression of disappointnt like wishing iron would turn into steel.
"I just... ca to pick up you idiot family mbers whose brains don't know how to calm down."
...mbers?
Noticing the word Yutsuki used, Miku widened her eyes in surprise.
"Yuzuru, Kaguya! Catch!"
"Eh, eh, eh!?"
Perhaps to cover up so sort of embarrassnt in her heart, before Miku could react, Yutsuki threw Miku towards Kaguya and Yuzuru, who were hiding in the dark.
"Wah! Yutsuki, don't just throw her over all at once! I've been waiting for the perfect mont to co out and save the day!"
"Dissatisfaction. Yutsuki stole Yuzuru's screen ti."
Kaguya and Yuzuru hurriedly popped out. After gently catching Miku with a breeze, they complained to Yutsuki.
It seed that Miku's voice control over them had also completely worn off by now.
"Hmph... more small fries?"
Tohka raised her head and looked at the new faces in the sky, a disdainful look appearing on her face.
"So this is the so called Inverse... leaving aside everything else, it looks like she completely doesn't recognize us."
Yutsuki said to herself while looking at Tohka.
The shining, pitch-black armor on her shoulders and waist. And the dark, immaterial veil extending to cover her chest and lower body. Unlike the complete Astral Dress of that gorgeous princess battle dress she saw in the video, if anything, it felt like the negative of a photograph.
Looking at that Tohka, whose dominance was leaking everywhere and who looked at everything in the world like they were mongrels. Yutsuki honestly felt that the original big-eating, adorkable Tohka was much better.
"Yo! Tohka, how are you doing?"
"This na again... damn it... my head is starting to get weird... So noisy!"
Tohka frowned slightly. Holding her sowhat aching head with one hand, she pointed the Sword of Demise in her other hand straight at Yutsuki and Shido.
"This is bad, Yutsuki, quickly dodge!"
Shido said sowhat panicked.
"It's fine. Such a huge move definitely has a cooldown ti. Besides, it's not like I'm completely unprepared here..."
A confident smile appeared on Yutsuki's face.
"Zadkiel..."
"Alright, okay! Let's go!"
Then, with the familiar voice, a torrent of cold air suddenly appeared from the sky above, rushing down directly onto Tohka's head.
"Kuh...?"
Tohka twisted her face, opening a wall of Spirit power around her to cancel out the attack.
Looking closely, they saw Yoshino, clinging tightly to the back of the giant rabbit puppet, floating in the air.
"Tohka-onee-chan...! What's wrong...!? Please stop...!"
"Kuh... don't look down on with this level of power!"
Tohka roared, pushing forward against Yoshino's cold air.
Yutsuki wasn't surprised by this. Even if it was Yoshino, in her limited release state, it was very hard to completely suppress Tohka.
—Then let a Spirit in full Astral Dress suppress her!
"Zafkiel— 'Zayin' (Seventh Bullet)."
Without any warning, a ghostly voice quietly sounded from the dark. Hidden by the night, a pitch-black bullet shot towards Tohka, silent and swift.
"...!"
But even so, Tohka still instinctively felt the danger. She instantly increased her Spirit power output, forcefully pushing away Yoshino's cold air. Relying on the montum of the Sword of Demise to move her body, she dodged the vital spots, letting the bullet only hit her armor.
However, for a ti-stopping bullet, as long as it hit, no matter which part it was, the result was the sa.
Tohka was completely still, like a stone statue. anwhile, from the dark shadow, with a strange laugh, Tokisaki Kurumi slowly appeared.
"Thanks. I owe you one."
Yutsuki said to Kurumi.
"No need. Treat this bullet as an extra gift from to Shido-san and Yutsuki-san, thanking you for your help." After a light chuckle, Kurumi lifted her skirt and bowed to Yutsuki and Shido. "Then, the matter is considered finished. This little lady will take her leave now."
Watching Kurumi disappear into the dark night, Yutsuki slowly breathed out and asked Shido.
"Shido, do you have a way to resolve this?"
"Yeah. Although her affection level isn't high enough, Kotori said the only way right now is for to go seal her Spirit power."
aning the target is her lips, huh... Recalling her own experience back then, Yutsuki unconsciously squinted her eyes.
"Then, Kurumi's bullet has a ti limit. Take this chance and go for it, Shido! Ready—"
"Wait—that posture of yours couldn't be... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh Tohkaaaaaaaaaa!"
Just like a baseball in a pitcher's hand, Shido was thrown violently by Yutsuki. With a wail, he fell rapidly towards the top of Tohka's head.
And then, everything was over.
Yutsuki slowly landed on the ground. Looking at Tohka in the air, who had returned to her original form after being kissed by Shido, a look of relief appeared on her face.
Ah... my head is spinning... so sleepy...
"Speaking of which, my comrade, what exactly happened? My mories after the award ceremony at Tengu Square are a bit... Wah wah! Yutsuki, why are you falling down!"
"Panic. Wake up quickly, Yutsuki!"
"Eh? Honey, don't die! Darling, co quick! Honey, Honey she—!"
—Who's dying? And what the heck is Honey!
After this last thought flashed through her mind, Yutsuki couldn't fight the imnse exhaustion and fell into a deep sleep.
As the dark night ended, along with a ray of dawn light, a new day arrived.
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