I'm currently at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Today was the last day of my week of destruction, and the view from up here at night is beautiful... though the holes scattered across the city below do spoil it a bit. But nothing's perfect, right?
Looking up at the sky, I’m reminded that there's a Spirit up there, flying through space. Not that it matters much—she's not coming down here unless someone goes after her.
"..." I think I’ll stay in Paris until the 19th and then head back to school for Shido’s birthday.
During this week, I’ve acquired several things. My analysis of Kurumi’s eye was successful, and with that, I managed to create something similar. Now my Reiryoku flows through my heart and brain. When I need to use it, it channels into my Astral Dress and Angel.
This helps me stay hidden more easily, and I no longer waste any energy. On top of that, I’ve noticed my power has increased—I have more Reiryoku than before, and the range of my Reversal has extended from 100 meters to 150. That’s a pretty significant improvement.
Coming down from the Eiffel Tower, I’m going to rent a hotel room for the night.
Change of POV:
"So, what do you think, Ellen?"
"The Shinigami is really something incredible," Isaac Westcott says to Ellen.
"...Yes, aside from the Original Spirit, he’s shown the highest level of mass destruction in the last 30 years," Ellen responds.
"Do you think you could beat him?" Isaac asks, a hint of curiosity in his voice.
"Even though he’s a Reverse Spirit and demonstrated great power, I’d still win," Ellen says confidently.
"After all, I’m the strongest Witch in the world," she says, with absolute confidence in her victory over her enemy, whom she’s very eager to duel.
"Sure… if you say so, I believe you. But if you beat him, don’t kill him. He’s unique, and he’s turned everything we knew about Spirits upside down. It’d be amazing if we could capture him."
"Understood."
"By the way, don’t you think Japan is quite interesting right now?"
"...? Yes, I agree."
"Do you plan on going to Tengu City?" Ellen asks, puzzled.
"Yes, I had other plans, but with everything going on, I think I want to see the city for myself now."
"I’ll make the preparations to leave as soon as we finish things here in Paris," he says, standing up to leave the hotel room.
"Are you planning to meet the Shinigami in person?" Ellen asks, slightly surprised.
"Yes, he’s caught a lot of attention in the last few days, even attacking here in Paris. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see him since he attacked the east side of the city and didn’t stay for long." Isaac Westcott, someone who enjoys suffering, can’t stop thinking about the Shinigami, the Spirit responsible for the second-largest death toll in history.
Though the media only reported multiple SpaceQuakes, those who know the truth were left shocked by the reality.
"I agree. By the time I arrived, he was already gone, so I couldn’t confront him," Ellen says, a hint of disappointment in her voice for missing the chance to see the Shinigami.
As they walk down the hallway, Isaac suddenly stops, surprised.
"Is that…?" He sees a young man with black hair and golden eyes walking down the corridor. The man is wearing a regular suit and looking at his phone.
"Ellen, do you see that boy?" Isaac asks, perplexed.
"Yes? What about him... Shinigami???"
"Hahaha… yes, doesn’t he look identical to the image? Except for the Astral Dress, which isn’t active, physically, he’s an exact match. Tell me, what are the chances that a boy who looks exactly like the Spirit that attacked this city just hours ago isn’t the Spirit?"
"Wait a minute," Ellen reaches into her pockets to pull out a device—the new Reiryoku meter that DEM is developing, though it’s still in the testing phase.
"The levels are low, but it’s definitely a Spirit," Ellen says with slight excitement in her voice. After all, the only male Spirit in the world is the Shinigami, and to her, after what he did, he’s a worthy opponent.
While they talk, the boy walks away and enters one of the rooms.
"Ellen, find out who that boy is, where he lives, his name, why he’s here—get any information you can. Meanwhile, I’ll head back to the room. Go to the hotel reception and tell them I’ll be staying here a little longer." Isaac gives the orders, excited about meeting the Spirit he’s so interested in.
"Understood," Ellen says as she heads to the reception.
"It must be fate, meeting the Shinigami just as I was about to leave," Isaac, like a child who has found their idol, returns to his room, thrilled with this discovery.
End of POV:
Today is the 20th. I went home, grabbed the necklace, and now I'm at school. I’ve missed quite a bit, so I’m sure I’m in trouble.
“Shido-san, sorry for not answering the phone. I’ve already said that I’m fine... a few things happened, so I ended up missing a bit more,” I’m now trying to convince Shido that I’m okay.
He called a lot, but I didn’t use my phone while I was destroying cities, so I didn’t see anything until the evening of the 19th.
“Are you really okay, Aurélio-kun?” he asks again, concerned.
“Yes, I’m absolutely sure.”
“Shido, is this the friend you mentioned?” Tohka asks Shido.
“Yes, this is Aurélio-san. I didn’t get a chance to introduce you.”
“Nice to meet you, my name is Kuroiwa Aurélio, but you can just call me Aurélio. And what’s your name?” I ask, even though I already know.
“My name is Tohka, Yatogami Tohka,” she says with a huge smile, puffing out her chest as if proud of her name.
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“I see you... have some bandages. Shouldn’t you be resting at home instead of being at school?” She seems better than I expected.
“Yeah? I’m fine, it’s nothing serious.”
“Well, if you say so, then it’s fine.” Tamae comes into the classroom and starts the lesson. I just pretend to pay attention while ignoring everything she says.
Lunchtime arrives.
“Shido-san, could you go to the usual place? I’ll go buy lunch.”
“Tohka, do you want to come with me?” I don’t want her causing trouble, so I’ll take her with me and try to lose her.
“Yes? No, I’ll go with Shido.”
“I’ll buy lunch, and then we’ll meet Shido... I want you to come with me because I don’t know what you like, and it would be difficult for me to carry lunch for three people alone,” I explain to avoid seeming like I just want to take her with me.
“Lunch? I’ll go with you... Shido, we’ll meet later,” she follows me as we head to the cafeteria. I pick something for myself and for Shido while Tohka grabs various types of stuffed bread.
I ignore the fact that she’s taking a bunch of them and pay.
“Tohka-san, can I call you Tohka-san?”
“...? Didn’t you already call me that?”
“Then I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Do I know you? I feel like I’ve seen you before,” she asks with curiosity.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before, Tohka-san.” This could be a problem; Tohka doesn’t know many people, so it’s easier for her to connect me to the Spirit.
“Tohka, can you go to the classroom first? I forgot something. I think Shido-san will be in the classroom... you can start lunch first.”
I say this as I move away and escape to the roof.
“Aurélio-kun... weren’t you supposed to bring Tohka?”
“She... decided to stay in the classroom,” I lie, but it doesn’t matter.
“More importantly, happy birthday! I have a gift for you,” I say with a smile.
I take a box from my uniform and hand it to Shido.
“This is a gift for you; I hope you like it.”
“Thank you, Aurélio-kun, you didn’t have to,” he says with a smile as he takes the box.
“Can you open it now? I think you’ll like it.”
He starts to open the box. Inside is a necklace with a golden chain and a black stone with golden engravings, with the core of the stone being dark blue.
“Oh, it’s very beautiful,” says Shido, which I agree with. I didn’t expect Lars to pay much attention to the beauty of what is essentially a barrier.
“Put it on... I would really appreciate it if you wore it all the time,” it’s a barrier, but it’s useless if you’re not wearing it.
“I’m sure it could save you someday,” I say confidently.
“Well, if you say so...” He puts it on with a somewhat excited expression.
“It looks good on you,” The necklace has a nice design that ended up matching Shido.
Shido seems momentarily distracted and whispers something.
“Shido?” I ask, but I think I know what happened.
I was careless; it must be Kotori with that communicator. "I forgot about that... I need to start setting up a barrier to block the communicator’s transmission,” I feel a slight level of Reiryoku in the school.
“Sorry, Aurélio-kun, something happened, I need to leave for a moment... I loved the gift,” he says as he runs off.
“It must be Tohka who got slightly out of control from being tricked.”
“Ara Ara Aurélio-san, it seems Shido-san left you alone,” says a voice with a teasing tone.
“Kurumi... want to have lunch?”
“Yes???” she looks surprised by the unexpected invitation.
“I don’t hate you, if you didn’t know,” that’s true, I just find her troublesome.
Plus, thanks to her, I no longer have a problem with Reiryoku wastage.
“I understand, in that case, I’ll accept, Aurélio-san.”
“Sorry, but I didn’t know you were coming, so I didn’t buy any more. You can ask one of your clones to bring some, or would you like to share mine? I’m not very hungry anyway.”
“I’ll share yours, Aurélio-san,” she says provocatively.
“Sure, here it is,” I hand it to her so she can do whatever she wants.
“Huhuhu Aurélio-san is so bold,” I wouldn’t say that, but I decide to ignore it.
“Sure, think what you want.”
“So... what are you curious about?” She obviously didn’t come to talk to me for no reason.
“Well, Aurélio-san, can I know why you destroyed those cities... and more importantly, why did your Reiryoku increase to more than half of what it was before?” she asks with curiosity.
I understand, Kurumi has a problem similar to mine; her power usage is very high, and she has to steal time from others to avoid using her own.
“Curious... about that? If I said I destroyed those cities just because I was angry, would you believe it?” Part of it is true, but it was also to try to get stronger.
“No, I wouldn’t believe it,” she says confidently.
“Where does this confidence in me come from?”
“If nothing had changed, it could be true, but you’ve become stronger,” she says with conviction, which is indeed the case.
“I see, so you’re just being logical.”
“Why should I tell you the reason... what can you give me in exchange for knowing it?” I might try to get something from her with this kind of information.
“Of course, I could provide you with information in exchange. Don’t you think it would be a fair trade?” It depends on what kind of information.
“Maybe... how can I know if you’re not lying?”
“Ara ara Aurélio-san, don’t you trust my word?”
“Not very much, actually.” You’re someone scheming. Trusting you blindly is difficult.
“Well, then how about I tell you something right now to increase your trust?”
“...go ahead,” now I’m curious.
“Isaac Westcott, the director of DEM, already knows that you’re a student here... and he’s coming to Tengu soon.”
Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.
“How did he find out?” I ask, surprised.
“Well, who knows...” She knows but won’t say more.
“Okay, if what you said is true, then it’s acceptable for us to make a deal.”
“But not now. I need time... I have my own plans, so I can tell you more in the future.”
“Sure, Aurélio-san, I can wait. After all, I have plenty of time, hihihi,” she says with a giggle as she leaves.
She turns around for a moment and says.
“But my time is limited, Aurélio-san, so try to be quick.”
“Sure, I’ll keep that in mind.”
“She ate half of the lunch and left, I didn’t even notice,” I whisper.
I take the lunch to finish while I wait; the slight wave of energy has dissipated.
“Tohka must have calmed down.”
Change of POV:
The necklace Aurélio gave me is very beautiful, and it’s a gift I really liked. Although I don’t know how it would save me, he has always been right about what he said, so it doesn’t hurt to trust him.
The strange part is that he lied to Tohka about lunch... but I didn’t mind, it actually seemed better that way. I think it would have been strange if Tohka got involved.
It’s something a bit personal between us.
“Shido, why do you think your friend lied?” Kotori asks through the communicator, sounding suspicious.
“Well, I’m not sure...” I really don’t know.
“Maybe he just wanted to give the gift privately,” I say, defending his reason for lying even though I don’t know why.
“...Shido, I know he’s your friend, but he gives me a strange feeling.”
“Since the first day I saw him, I felt like I knew him from somewhere, although I can’t remember exactly. Also, his aura is strange.”
“It’s just chilling, even his eyes... although he seems calm and kind, underneath he’s extremely indifferent and even dangerous.”
“I don’t know what you mean, but could you not insult Aurélio-kun? He’s a good guy and there’s no problem with him.”
“Ahr,” Kotori sighs.
“Shido, you’re like a door... how can you not notice this kind of thing? That’s why you don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Shin, Kotori is right,” Reine says, appearing out of nowhere behind.
“Ahhh,” Shido lets out a slight scream of surprise.
“You should stop appearing like that...” Shido has given up trying to correct Reine, who always calls him by the wrong name.
“...Aurélio really does have a strange presence,” Shido looks at him with disbelief, thinking, “He? You have a much stranger presence.”
“I think you’re just exaggerating, just because of one lie.”
“...maybe,” Reine and Kotori reply at the same time.
“For now, let’s put that aside. More importantly, Shin, you can’t let Tohka have these emotional fluctuations or her powers might return for a moment,” Reine says in a monotone voice.
“Yeah... I’ll try to prevent that from happening.”
“Idiot brother, you don’t have to try, you have to do it,” Kotori says through the communicator.
“Sure, sure.”
“I’m going to the roof.”
When Reine and Kotori hear this, they feel that strange sensation again.
“Shido... don’t you think you’re too... focused on Aurélio?” Kotori says, focusing on not saying obsessed.
“What do you mean?”
“Honestly, Shido, you spent the whole week talking about Aurélio after he didn’t contact you.”
“Now, besides defending him like this, the first thing you want to do after this conversation is to go meet him again.”
“Have you noticed that you don’t have any other friends besides him? You don’t even talk to Tonomachi, who was your friend last year.”
“In this past week, while we’ve been communicating through the communicator, I noticed that you barely talk to anyone... and then Aurélio arrives, and you start chatting normally.”
“Kotori, there’s nothing wrong... Aurélio-kun is just my best friend, so my time with him is different. Besides, he had been missing, I was just worried.”
“Now I’m going, lunch break is almost over, and I don’t want to keep Aurélio waiting.”
“Okay... Shido,” Kotori says dejectedly, ending the call while Reine returns to the Physics class.