Chapter 25 25: Urban Legend
Even though they confirmed that Yoshino and Yoshinon were split personalities, Shido's goal remained the same.
[Listen, Shido. Since she hasn't found her puppet, Yoshino can't close off her heart right now. You need to use this time to raise her affection as much as possible.]
Kotori's voice came through the earpiece.
But even so, the puppet Yoshinon was still needed. Without Yoshinon, Yoshino's emotions were highly unstable. Even if they managed to seal her, her Spirit energy could easily flow backward.
"Found her, Commander!"
At that moment, Nakatsugawa, who was in charge of tracking down the puppet, spoke up.
The screen showed a young girl with long white hair, looking almost like a doll. The puppet she was holding was exactly Yoshinon.
"What an annoying turn of events," Kotori frowned.
The girl on the screen was wearing an AST combat suit. In other words, Yoshinon had been picked up by the AST during yesterday's battle.
"Can you confirm the puppet's current location?" Kotori asked.
"Yes. Right now, Yoshinon is being kept at the AST Tengu City Base."
"..."
Hearing this expected but terrible news, Kotori bit her lollipop and stayed silent for a while.
"It can't be helped. Let's send in our agents to try and sneak in first."
If the puppet had been taken home by a random AST member, it would be easy. But the target was a military base. If they messed up, Ratatoskr's existence might be exposed. However, to save Yoshino, the puppet was absolutely necessary. Kotori sighed. Even with the risks, they had to try.
In the end, even though Shido successfully raised Yoshino's affection, he couldn't get the important puppet back in time. Shido's date with the Spirit ended with Yoshino getting "Lost" once again.
______________________
One day later...
"No good, it failed after all."
Kotori, Mikoto, and the others sat on the airship, watching the screen. On it, Ratatoskr's agents were busy running away.
It was a military base, after all. Sneaking in to steal Yoshinon—which the AST considered a Spirit artifact—was not easy.
[What should we do? Send Kannazuki to negotiate?] Kotori thought while biting her candy.
Before coming to Ratatoskr, Vice Commander Kannazuki was the ace of the AST. His spot at the Tengu City Base was still kept open for him.
[No. If a missing ace suddenly comes back and demands a Spirit item, the AST will get suspicious right away.]
Kotori sighed. She couldn't think of a better plan. For now, they could only rely on the agents trying to sneak in bit by bit.
"Come to think of it, most of the AST troops are young girls, right?" Mikoto suddenly said.
Although anyone could equip a Realizer, for some reason, most AST members were teenage girls. Tengu City was no exception.
"Do you have a good idea, Mikoto?" Kotori asked.
"Well... it might sound a bit silly..."
"Let's hear it. Right now, we'll take any help we can get."
Kotori smiled weakly. Even a silly idea was better than no idea at all.
"Well, since we can't find a weakness from a military standpoint, why don't we try attacking the weaknesses of young girls?"
Mikoto held up a finger and blinked playfully.
"Hey, hey, did you hear?"
"Are you serious? You ran into it too?"
"It's not just that, there's also..."
For some reason,Kusakabe Ryouko felt an uneasy atmosphere spreading through the base today.
"What happened?" She walked up to a group of whispering team members and asked.
"Captain, did you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"The urban legend! They say that if a doll is used for a long time and then leaves its owner, it turns into a Tsukumogami."
Tsukumogami are tool spirits from myths. It is said that if old items are left alone, they turn into monsters. But at the end of the day, these were just ghost stories.
"I wondered what you were talking about. As Wizards, I can't believe you guys believe in such silly rumors."
Ryouko sighed. She didn't expect the tense mood to come from an urban legend with no scientific proof.
"That's not true, Captain!" a girl yelled with a panicked face.
"I really saw it! Last night, while I was sleeping, my mind suddenly woke up but my body couldn't move at all. When I finally forced my eyes open... I saw the rabbit puppet... It was right in front of my face, smiling at me!"
The girl's words caused a wave of screams.
"Me too! Me too! When I took the train to the base this morning, something grabbed my hand as I was getting off. I looked back, and it was that rabbit puppet! It's just a toy, but it was scary strong. It got caught in the train doors and I was dragged along!"
Because she couldn't shake the puppet off, the girl's hand got caught by the moving train. She was covered in scrapes and had a dislocated wrist. If the base didn't have healing Realizers, she would have been in the hospital for a long time. She was mentally traumatized and looked ready to cry.
"Tch..."
Ryouko scratched her head. She didn't believe this nonsense, but her team was mostly made up of middle and high school girls. They were at the perfect age to be scared by urban legends. Scolding them wouldn't do any good.
"Hey, Captain. Let's take that puppet to a shrine and offer it to the gods."
"Yeah, yeah! They say a Tsukumogami will stop causing trouble if it's properly enshrined."
"Please, Captain!"
The team members crowded around, begging her.
[What should I do...] Ryouko felt troubled.
If she ignored this, the team's morale would drop. If a Spirit showed up, it could cause them to lose the battle. But that rabbit puppet was a Spirit item...
"...Ahhh!!! Fine! We will take the puppet to a shrine!"
Ryouko thought it over. Even though it belonged to a Spirit, their tests over the past two days showed it wasn't special. The higher-ups didn't care much about it either, telling her to handle it herself. Keeping the team ready for battle was much more important.
"Yay!!!" Hearing Ryouko's words, the girls cheered.
"So... who is going to take it to the shrine?"
"..."
Instantly, everyone fell silent. No one wanted to touch a cursed rabbit puppet that had turned into a monster.
"I will go," a calm voice spoke up.
"Origami, I'll leave it to you then." Ryouko nodded. "Also, I have another mission for you while you're there."
"It's about the shrine maiden, right?"
"Yeah, exactly." Ryoko nodded. After Tamako Obaa-san left for England, the new shrine maiden living there looked exactly like the Spirit, Miko.