Field Mission Omega.

Ayumi probably named this outing in the spur of the moment as she tends to do. And yet, those three words kept rolling around in my mind.

Omega, the last letter in the Greek alphabet.

Other than sounding cool, it had a clear meaning—this was the last field mission she would do.

She was serious.

In addition, she promised she would tell me whatever secret she was keeping when this was all over. I kept those two facts in my mind during the several hours we sat in a family restaurant right across Shiina’s apartment building.

We went there on the pretense that we were studying. In actuality, we were staking out the street for any suspicious movement from our target. Anyone who looked at us could tell we weren’t studying seriously at all. That included the waitress who served us multiple times throughout the day. Her brow furrowed lower and lower, to the point it hurt to look at her. Ayumi didn’t seem to notice though.

Speaking of Ayumi, she did have some books and notepads scattered around, but it was all for show. Meanwhile, I didn’t try to fake it and alternated between my tablet and my gaming console after I finished all the homework. Studying was out of the question—my concentration would wane every time a random passerby happened to leave the apartment complex.

Morning passed, then the lunch hour. The afternoon made its way through with the sky darkening as the hours ticked by. Despite all the distractions, I got bored and ended up spending most of the time gazing outside.

It was in one of those moments that I spotted our target.

There she is. Shiina.

I won’t lie. After so long, I felt a genuine rush of dopamine working its magic on my brain.

“Ayumi,” I called out to her while shaking her arm.

“Hmm? What is it?” she mumbled without raising her head.

Ayumi had actually been doing her homework after hours of fooling around, despite it being her turn to watch the street.

“It’s Shiina. She just left the apartment.”

Hearing this, Ayumi jolted back to life like Frankenstein’s monster. She jerked her head to look outside, just in time to spot the woman leaving the apartment in a noticeable hurry.

“Ah! You’re right! Takkun, it’s time for phase two. Go pay for the food while I get our stuff ready.”

In less than a minute we were out of the restaurant and on our way to… well, wherever Shiina was heading herself. She definitely knew where she was going, and she was fast. So fast, in fact, that we almost lost her on multiple occasions and had to run to catch up to her.

“Something’s off about this,” Ayumi commented at some point. “She can fly and-slash-or teleport, but she’s going on foot. She’s not even looking at a map. I wonder how she’s doing it.”

“Maybe she can’t fly around as she pleases? Or perhaps it’s to avoid incurring unwanted attention from people like you. We don’t even know if she’s doing something supernatural or not.”

“Hmm… That’s right. I really hope this entire day doesn’t go to waste after getting a lead like this.”

The answer to that wish didn’t take long to reveal itself. Our frantic chase led us out of the city center and into the outskirts, not too far from our houses. The area was a sequence of carbon-copied streets of unremarkable, middle-class housing. It was precisely here where Shiina took a turn into one of those streets and we did the same.

Well, almost.

As we turned the corner, we were confronted with a sight that made us freeze in our tracks.

What… is that?

The street in front of us, which was supposed to be like any other, was strange.

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No, that was an understatement.

It was bordering on the unbelievable.

At first glance, it looked like some sort of modern art project gone wrong. It was difficult to describe, but it was as if the textures of everything in the area had been jumbled around. The texture of the asphalt was on the walls of the houses. The texture of the walls was on the ground in some sort of freakish patchwork. I could even see the texture of a nearby lamppost spread around in several places. As if that wasn’t disorienting enough, all the textures were twitching and flashing around erratically.

This effect struck me as remarkably familiar. I had played hundreds of games and there was no mistaking it—I had seen this before.

It’s similar to… No, that’s a stupid thought.

As those thoughts were forcefully ejected, I focused on trying to locate our target. It took a moment to spot Shiina in that sensorial turmoil, but she had been standing right in front of the area all along, not moving.

All this happened in less than five seconds. Without warning, Ayumi pulled me back to the street we came from.

“Hey, what gives?” I asked.

Oddly enough, Ayumi took a few moments to answer. When she did speak, she looked up at me with a complex expression I couldn’t decipher.

What’s up with her?

“We can’t afford to be seen now. She might activate her powers at any point and then it’s game over.”

Sigh. “Yeah, I get it. So? What do you make of that?”

Yet again, Ayumi didn’t respond. It was almost like she didn’t hear me.

“Is this really…” she mumbled under her breath.

“Hey, Ayumi? What’s wrong?” I said as I shook her.

That appeared to bring her back to reality, but she still had something on her mind. Her voice sounded airy and noncommittal. “Ahh, nothing’s wrong. What do I think about this? It’s some sort of supernatural incident.”

No shit, Sherlock.

“Shiina must have detected it and came here to get rid of the problem!” she exclaimed, returning to her usual tone.

However, I couldn’t just wave away Ayumi’s strange reaction. Something about this incident perturbed her more than the lights coming down from the sky.

Did it remind her of something too?

I was about to bring it up with her, but before I could, she regained control of the conversation.

“Now’s when the real work starts. Since electronics malfunction during these events, I had to invest in yet another analog technology to record proof.” She quietly rummaged in her gym bag and produced an item that I had never seen in person.

“Is that… an instant camera?”

“Bingo,” she said with a fierce smile. “Instant cameras won’t be knocked out like our phones. Hopefully, the photo will show her in the act.”

Without any reservation, Ayumi positioned the camera lens right next to the wall and snapped a picture.

“Okay, now we have to wait for the picture to develop. Thankfully, I brought the Angel Observation Apparatus Mark I so we can take a look at what’s happening in the meanwhile.”

Ayumi reassembled the device and gave it to me.

“Takkun, you can keep watch this time.”

I welcomed the suggestion and mounted the device on my head while Ayumi hunkered down next to me.

And then we continued the waiting game.

Not much happened at first. Shiina simply stood there, as if evaluating her choices.

Then, the angel began moving about in the affected area. She touched the walls, floor, and other objects caught in the texture jumbling. When she did, the areas she had touched returned to normal. Slowly but surely, everything returned to how it was supposed to be.

Having completed her job, Shiina began walking along the now normalized street.

“So now what do we do?” I asked.

“Well, that’s easy!” Ayumi lifted her gaze from the camera and flashed a smile so bright it made me flinch. “Now’s time for Phase 3.”

“Phase 3?” I parroted back at her.

What were Phase 1 and 2 though?

“Yes. Direct confrontation,” she said while flapping around a small piece of paper. It was the photo she had snapped with her camera. Despite the awkward angle, it clearly showed Shiina standing in front of the jumbled street.

The instant camera idea had worked.

Before I could stop her, Ayumi leapt out of our hiding place and started running at full speed towards Shiina.

I didn’t even have time to hesitate.

This is Ayumi’s decision, and no matter what, I have to support her. That’s my decision, after all.

Likely hearing the ruckus in the otherwise quiet street, Shiina reacted in a split second, dodging Ayumi’s flying, full body leap.

The moment she recognized Ayumi, the woman was taken aback—her eyes opened wide and her head moved back a bit—but she still kept her composure. When I walked over and she saw me, I swear I could feel her body tense up.

Did I really leave such a bad impression?

Shiina seemed to be readying herself to speak, but Ayumi cut her off by showing her the photo.

“I know we just met and this is crazy, but are you an angel?!”

Intimidated, Shiina took one, then two steps back; it looked like she was one step away from falling.

I thought that there was still a chance that this was one big misunderstanding. That somehow, this entire saga was all going to be hand-waved away. But Shiina’s words, coming out after a deep breath, were direct and unmistakable.

“Yes, I am.”