Tale of Discovery

Chapter 243: Second Spirit ; Slight Anger

"Well then," I while setting down the lunch box I had prepared for myself on my desk.

To my right, Tohka has brought her desk closer as she places her own lunch box, which I had prepared as well, on her desk.

I would've much rather not bothered with this, but Tohka's piercing expectant gaze early in the morning was too intense.

Suddenly, I feel a small slam as Origami pushes her desk close to mine too.

Right, as my girlfriend, she will be doing this too.

Still, it's kind of annoying to be gawked at for most of the day. There are now quite a few rumors going around at school.

Not that I care, anyway.

Opening the lid of my lunch box, I feel an odd sensation as I gaze at the food within.

Letting out a small sigh, I grab my chopsticks and plan to start eating, however, before I can do so, Origami says, "What's the meaning of this?"

Hearing her query, I look at her, only to find her shifting her sight from my lunch box to Tohka's.

Oh, is she asking why we have similar lunch boxes?

"Tohka is living with me now, hence why I cooked for her?"

"What?"

"You heard me. Due to various reasons, she is going to be living with me and my sister from now on."

Origami just gawks at my face without uttering a word with her face being as impassive as ever, albeit with a barely noticeable frown.

All of a sudden, an emergency alarm resounds as the voice of a mature woman resounds all over the place, "Warning. Signature of a space quake has been detected in the area.

"This is not a drill

"Please evacuate immediately."

The moment the voice fades, our young-looking teacher, Tamae, rushes into the room and hurriedly says, "Everyone, please remain calm and line up properly!"

As a response to all this, a small commotion arises among the students as they get up from their seats and leave the class.

Just as I'm about to get up as well, Origami does so first with a solemn look on her face.

Right, she has to go fight against the spirit that's about to appear.

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According to Kotori, there is a special unit that specializes in taking down spirits. The name of the aforementioned special unit is AST standing for the 'Anti-Spirit Team'.

Focusing back on reality, I watch Origami as she hastily leaves the classroom.

"Shido, what's happening?" Tohka asks a little anxiously.

"Nothing much," I say as I get up from my seat, "It's just that a spirit like you is about to appear."

"Huh?"

"Don't think about it much," I say while reaching out my arm to grab her hand, "You focus on getting to a shelter."

"What about you," Tohka asks as I pull her along with myself out of the class.

"Me?" I say as I halt come to halt and turn my head to look her in the eyes, "I will go save the spirit as I did with you."

---

"We're here," Reine, who is walking in front of me, says once we arrive in the command room.

"Perfect timing," Kotori responds before grasping the lollipop in her mouth and pointing it in front of her, "Take a look at that."

Doing as she instructed, I am pleasantly surprised by the sight of a giant screen showing a young girl dressed in green clothes with a white rabbit puppet on her left hand.

"Is that little girl the spirit?" I ask.

"Yes," Kotori responds, "The space quake happened moments ago, and it was a relatively small one. Well, the Hermit is like that."

"Hermit? Is that her name?"

"A codename, to be precise. For instance, Tohka's codename is Princess," Reine explains.

Ugh. Whoever is the one giving these codenames sucks at it. At least, Tohka's codename is still appropriate in a sense, however, I'm not sure I can say the same about Hermit...

"So, what's going to happen now," I say while inspecting the screen.

"Soon, the AST will appear and try to kill her," Kotori responds.

"Even though she is just a child?" I ask with furrowed brows.

"The AST doesn't care about the appearance of the spirits they're ordered to hunt. Besides, that spirit should be much older than what she looks like."

I wonder how old. From what I can see, her mental age isn't high.

Suddenly, the land near the girl bursts as several golden glints strike the surrounding ground.

As a response to the abrupt attack, the little girl swiftly dodges to the side before dashing into the air.

The screen pans out, revealing a dozen or so girls flying in the air, one of which is Origami.

They're all aiming their peculiar weapons at the little girl and are shooting without mercy.

The little girl, on the other hand, is just dodging their attacks and is clearly not planning to fight back. Heck, she even looks scared.

Suddenly, a beam strikes the little girls left hand, resulting in an aggrieved look to appear on her face as the white puppet falls to the ground.

"Screw this," I say in a stiff tone, "I'm going there."

"Huh? What do-"

Kotori's words get cut off as I get sucked into a dark hole before I find myself standing in an empty void.

"You've finally arrived," a gentle yet firm voice resounds within my ears.

Before I can react to the situation in any way, I find myself floating in the air close to the little girl.

Due to my usage of the new method of teleportation, the world's time seems to be frozen.

I take this chance to observe the girl, only for my frown to get worse upon seeing the tears welling up in the corner of her eyes.

Her left hand is a little injured but doesn't seem to be anything fatal.

Looking behind her, I see a barrage of beams coming toward her from multiple directions.

Now then, will I save this little girl? Doing so would give away the fact that something is wrong with 'me'.

Kotori and everyone else on Ratatoskr would know, as well as Origami, who is pointing her weapon in my direction.

But then again, that doesn't matter to me. If my actions mean that I will be making an enemy out of the humans here, then so be it.

I can only hope that the fellows at Ratatoskr would be willing to stay allied with me and provide information when necessary.

Well then, time to get to work.

Settling on teleporting right in front of the little girl, I do so, resulting in her tiny frame to rush toward me.

Before she can crash into my body, I use Vector Manipulation to cancel all of her vectors and wrap my hand around her waist.

Then, as a response to the upcoming beams, I simply create a barrier that would reflect every single one of them.

"Eh?" a surprised low voice escapes from the little girl's lips as she looks up at me.

As a response to that, I adopt a warm smile before looking back at her and saying, "Hi. My name is Shido. What's your name?"

"Yo-Yoshino," she meekly responds somewhat subconsciously.

"Alright, Yoshino. Let me protect you a little, alright?"

Hearing my words, Yoshino's small mouth opens slightly before she nods her head.

"Good girl," I say before shifting my sight to the AST members who have stopped attacking.

Upon closer inspection, I notice that some of them have gotten injured, albeit minor ones.

A stalemate forms for about a minute before a girl with long black hair flies toward us with Origami closely following behind.

"Shido?" Origami says with furrowed brows once they're close enough.

"Who are you?" the black-haired woman asks, ignoring Origami.

"Shido Itsuka," I respond, "You?"

"Don't mock me!" the woman exclaims, "Who are you, really? Why are you defending Hermit."

Yoshino's body flinches as she grasps onto my clothes and mutters, "Yoshinon where?"

Not understanding her words, I resort to calming her down by patting her back.

"Don't ignore me!" the black-haired woman impatiently yells.

"You don't need to know who I am," I respond calmly, "All you need to know is that your small team is going to be wiped out if you don't leave soon."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm saying that I will obliterate every single one of you," I say in an irritated tone.

"Huh? Who-"

Having had enough of this, I interrupt the woman by using telekinesis to forcefully twirl her tongue, rendering her literally speechless.

"Listen," I say, "Order the rest to fall back. I'm not going to give you another chance."

The black-haired woman, who has placed her palm on her mouth glares at me for a few seconds before nodding her head.

"Wait a minute," Origami says while lifting her weapon and pointing it at me, "Are you really Shido Itsuka?"

Beaming a smile, I casually respond, "Of course, I'm still your beloved boyfriend. You wouldn't shoot me, now, would you, Origami?"

Silence ensues before Origami points her weapon down with a complicated look on her face.

The next moment, they both fly back to the other girls before all of them fly off into the distance.

Seeing them disappear, I loosen my arm around Yoshino before looking into her teary eyes and asking, "Is something wrong?

"Yoshinon is missing."

What?